Distance is Relative

Transcription

The Sound of Autumn Leaves: Rustling and Burning
Distance is Relative
Tales of a musical journey to Havana
as told by Christian Scott, Stefon Harris
and David Sánchez
FALL 2011 Display until December
www.jazziz.com
“Michael Franks has mesmerized an international legion of fans with his one
of a kind artistry ... top shelf shadings of jazz, soul, pop, chamber and music
from around the globe.”
–AllAboutJazz.com
Legendary Musical Icon Michael Franks
Delivers His First New CD In 5 Years With
“Time Together,” A Brilliant Blend Of Warm,
Serene Vocals And Heartfelt Melodies
With special guests Mark Egan, Mike
Manieri, Chuck Loeb, Gil Goldstein, Will
Lee, Eric Marienthal, Dave Mann and
Rumero Lubambo
Available Now Wherever Music Is Sold
Available at
Fall 2011
4 fall 2 011 jazzizPhoto by Jimmy Katz
on the cover
The Cuban
Connection
In Havana, Stefon Harris,
David Sánchez and Christian
Scott find common ground.
By Larry Blumenfeld
52
jazziz fall 2 011 5
Fall 2011
Leaves
autumn
On Disc Autumn Leaves
Disc One, “Rustling,” offers fresh
tracks by Bill Frisell, Jessica Williams,
Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Julian Shore
(pictured), Michael Franks and others.
Disc Two, “Burning,” is full of hot cuts
from the likes of Gary Burton, George
Benson, Larry Coryell and Chris Byars.
58 The Chicago Way
A new generation continues the city’s tradition of exploration and collaboration.
By John Frederick Moore
66 The Ongoing Evolution of Madeleine Peyroux
The eclectic singer savors a surge of personal and artistic growth. By Shaun Brady
72 Keystone Shots
Photographer Kathy Sloane’s forthcoming book recalls her work at San Francisco’s
Keystone Korner.
80 Ties That Bind
Young and talented Gerald Clayton reckons with bonds, old and new. By Shaun Brady
86 Faith and Passion
Cuban exile Gonzalo Rubalcaba forges ahead with a new album and label. By Bob Weinberg
92 In a Town Called Gladwell
On his latest release, guitarist Julian Lage steps off the train and into his own private
Willoughby. By Bill Milkowski
98 Piece By Piece
With his latest release, AACM co-founder Muhal Richard Abrams continues with his life’s
work. By Ted Panken
6 fall 2011 jazziz
CJA-33016-02
HUI-33089-02
CJA-33095-02
For more than two decades, drummer, producer and vocalist
Terri Lyne Carrington has crafted an eclectic brand of jazz that
incorporates elements of bebop, soul, funk and much more.
Carrington brings this same diverse sensibility to her new
recording The Mosaic Project, an album that once again
gathers a myriad of voices and crystallizes them into a multifaceted whole that far outweighs the sum of its parts. Included
on that list of friends are some of the most prominent female
jazz artists of the last few decades: Esperanza Spalding,
Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Sheila E., Nona
Hendryx, Cassandra Wilson, Geri Allen and several others.
Jessy J spotlights her collaborations with some of today’s most
prominent contemporary jazz musicians, including guitarists
Paul Brown and Ray Parker Jr, keyboardists Joe Sample and
Gregg Karukas, and drummer Harvey Mason.
Hot Sauce showcases eight hot originals along with cool
new arrangements of Francis Anthony ‘Eg’ White’s pop hit
“Leave Right Now” and Duke Ellington’s jazz classic “In a
Sentimental Mood.”
The collaboration of Poncho Sanchez and Terence
Blanchard = Chano y Dizzy pays tribute to the
legendary and genre transforming relationship between Cuban
percussionist Chano Pozo and Dizzy Gillespie. The album also
marks more than one milestone for GRAMMY award winning
percussionist/bandleader Poncho Sanchez. It celebrates his
60th birthday and 25th recording as a bandleader with the
Concord Music Group.
CJA-33099-02
HUI-33247-02
CJA-33236-02
Guitar Man is a return to George Benson’s early
guitar-playing days of CTI & Prestige. It features both
solo instrumentals and quartet performances, with
Joe Sample, Harvey Mason, and Ben Williams, and
includes some of the great standards like “Since I Fell
For You”, “Tequila”, “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, “My
Cherie Amour”, My One and Only Love”, “Don’t Know
Why” and more.
While retaining the Acoustic Alchemy “signature
guitar sound,” Roseland pushes the group’s musical
boundary by incorporating rock, reggae, folk, and jazz
influences. Aside from the core touring band, special
guests include Ricky Peterson (Bonnie Raitt), Snake
Davis, and Fayyaz Virji (Art Blakey/Basia/Incognito).
Italian/Austrian
international
phenom, Patrizio
Buanne, features his own contemporary and timeless
interpretations of Italian and American standards,
alongside some stunning original compositions on
his eponymously titled new release, Patrizio.
Available at
Amazon, Amazon.com and the Amazon.com logo are
registered trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
Fall 2011
12 Publisher’s Letter
Autumn Air. By Michael Fagien
16 Prelude
Bill Frisell imagines John Lennon; Gerald Wilson
salutes the Windy City; Diane Schuur strolls country
roads; Monty Alexander talks reggae; Dida debuts;
requisite Donald Harrison and more.
Departments
46 Traditions
Giacomo Gates pays respects to the late Gil ScottHeron. By Bob Weinberg
48 Contempo
Michael Franks returns with a typically witty and
charming album. By Jonathan Widran
50 Blu Notes
Has the end come for Latin jazz at the Grammys?
By Larry Blumenfeld
16
106 Auditions
Karrin Allyson mines a collection of ballads.
108 Reviewed: Sonny Rollins, Roy Haynes, Pat Metheny,
Hiromi, Nicole Mitchell, James Carter, David S.
Ware/Cooper-Moore/William Parker/Muhammad
Ali, Alphonse Mouzon, Ari Hoenig, Jeff “Tain” Watts,
Vicious World, Dave King Trucking Company, Cindy
Bradley, Frank Carlberg, Jeff Lederer, Starlicker, Mark
Rapp’s Melting Pot, Steve Khan, Jane Bunnett & Hilario
Duran, Stefon Harris/David Sánchez/Christian Scott,
Sara Serpa, Bruce Barth Trio, Konitz/Mehldau/Haden/
Motian, Kenny Werner, Chris Byars, Bobby Sanabria
Conducting the Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban
Orchestra, Craig Taborn, Nilson Matta & Roni BenHur, Corea/Clarke/White, Jessica Williams, Branford
Marsalis & Joey Calderazzo, The New Gary Burton
Quartet, James Farm, Ed Reed, and Tommy Smith.
106
Roundups
111 Bowing before giants. By Scott Yanow
114 In the blues tradition. By Bob Weinberg
128 Travels
Big fun on the bayou. By Bob Weinberg
130 Coda
Good bye, my friend. By Mark Holston
8 fall 2011 jazziz
114
MILES DAVIS QUINTET
T
LIVE In Europe 1967
he recordings from the monumental 1967 European tour are some of the
only existing documentation of the band performing compositions from
the extraordinary series of studio albums they did between 1965-1967 —
E.S.P., Miles Smiles, Sorcerer and Nefertiti. PLUS, Miles revisits some of the
earlier classics he had been performing for years -- “Round Midnight,” “On Green
Dolphin Street,”I Fall In Love Too Easily” and “No Blues” -- all in strikingly different
interpretations from the original studio versions
Includes
FIVE FULL-LENGTH
CONCERTS, three in
their first authorized
or first ever release,
plus TWO filmed
concert performances
28-page booklet
including new lines
notes and rare photos
Stunning audio quality
using masters sourced
directly from original
broadcast recordings
3 CDS + 1 DVD COLLECTION
© 2011 sony music entertainment
Amplitudes
“John Basileʼs playing has
the essence of great
jazz guitar: beautiful
tone, marvelous swing,
terriﬁc technique, and
excellent phrasing.
You canʼt ask for more!”
—Jim Hall
Editor and Publisher Michael Fagien
Publisher Zakiya Fagien
Managing Editor
Associate Editor
Editor-at-Large
Copy Editor
David Pulizzi
Robert Weinberg
Larry Blumenfeld
Candace G. Nelson
Art Director Benjamin Rennells
Assistant to Publishers Gabrielle Dias
Webmaster Cesar Rengifo
Accountant Lisa Gainsborg
Certified
Public
Accountant Melamed & Karp
Integrated Marketing Jennifer Lima
advertising: 561-910-7730
contributors: Hrayr Attarian, Louisa Bertman, Ross
Boissoneau, Philip Booth, Shaun Brady, Mars Breslow,
Stuart Brinin, Julia Cocuzza, John Diliberto, Ted
Drozdowski, Enid Farber, Sascha Feinstein, Ken
Franckling, Phil Freeman, Steve Futterman, Cary
Gillaspie, Elizabeth Goodwin, Ed Hazell, Mark Holston,
Jeff Jackson, Ilana Khon, Ed Kopp, Kara Manning,
Bill Meredith, Bill Milkowski, John Frederick Moore,
Alan Nahigian, Daniel Nevins, Ted Panken, Michael J.
Renner, Michael Roberts, James Rozzi, Kirk Silsbee,
Eric Waggoner, Jonathan Widran, Josef Woodard,
Scott Yanow, Linda Zacks.
JAZZIZ USPS# 015486 ISSN 074-5885 is published (in print
and delivered by mail) quarterly by JAZZIZ Publishing, LLC.
7223 Panache Way Boca Raton, FL 33433
Editorial phone number 561-893-6868.
Subscription rate is $59.95 per year for 1 year. Each
subscription includes monthly Digital Editions (via
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Available on:
Amazon.com
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iTunes
Amplitudes is a fascinating, daring and
very revealing window into Basileʼs
creative process combined with 21st
century pop-culture technology.
10 fall 2011 jazziz
All contents copyright 2011 by JAZZIZ Publishing, LLC.
All rights reserved. JAZZIZ is a registered trademark
of JAZZIZ Publishing, LLC. Direct non-subscription
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Permissions: Nothing can be reproduced in any manner
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WITH A LANDMARK COMBINATION OF STAR JAZZMEN, LATIN JAZZ LEGENDS, AND FLAMENCO
MASTERS, MILES ESPANOL REDRAWS THE MUSICAL MAP AROUND JAZZ INNOVATION AND
THE DRAMATIC, ROMANTIC SOUL OF SPANISH, LATIN AND MOORISH MUSIC.
CLASSIC COMPOSITIONS (“CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ,” “SOLEA,” “FLAMENCO SKETCHES”)
ARE BLENDED WITH NEW PIECES BY CHICK COREA, JACK DEJOHNETTE, JOHN SCOFIELD,
GONZALO RUBALCABA, CHANO DOMINGUEZ AND OTHERS TO FORM A DOUBLE ALBUM
THAT’S UNPRECEDENTED IN SCOPE, DEPTH, AND SHEER DELIGHT.
THE ITUNES LP VERSION INCLUDES A FULL-LENGTH VIDEO
DOCUMENTARY, ON-CAMERA INTERVIEWS, AND A DIGITAL
BOOKLET WITH ESSAYS BY BOB BELDEN AND DOUG RAMSEY.
CONCEIVED AND PRODUCED BY BOB BELDEN.
EOM-CD-2104
Few young vocalists have entered the jazz scene in this new century with the
kind of acclaim received by the supremely talented Sophie Milman. This warm,
witty, and altogether wonderful collection marks the first time Sophie has
recorded in New York with a stunning supporting cast of world-class arrangers
and great players.
“Clearly a star in the making… the sky’s
the limit for this exceptional young artist.”
– Los Angeles Times
EOM-CD-2157
EOM-CD-2125
The four-handed meeting of pianists Bob James and Keiko Matsui has brought forth the
unexpected: a seamless, lyrical blend of jazz and classical elements that is all about
rhapsodic melodies, inspiring performances, and the unqualified joy of two music masters
in full flight. File under: Music For All Seasons---one of the true surprises of jazz year 2011.
As a bonus, this package also contains a full concert DVD of a brilliant live performance that
Bob and Keiko gave at the famed Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild Hall in February of 2010.
Rising trumpet star Dominick Farinacci
returns with a set of tunes that reveals new
dimensions and nuances in his emerging,
individual blend of fire and ice. Dom and his
always-swinging, ever-agile touring band
“Mr. Farinacci’s second album presents his
gift in deep focus… (He) plays beautifully,
EOM-CD-2113
navigate standards and originals with equal
with expressive control.”
finesse. If you’re looking for a fresh take on
– The New York Times
the jazz mainstream, find it here.
www.eonemusic.com
Publisher's Letter
Autumn Air
Pat Metheny’s new album, What’s It All About, distills most
of what’s been known and said about the eminent guitarist
down to a single word: solid.
The word might seem a bit trite or simplistic to describe
the work of a venerated artist who once told me that he really
only categorizes his own music in terms of its varying degrees
of density. It’s hard to know exactly how Metheny defines
“density,” but in musical terms it’s probably fair to say that no
one packs more weight into a small space than the 57-year-old
Missouri-born guitarist. Even when his music’s quiet — as it is
on his new record — it’s vociferous.
Perhaps it’s my age, but for whatever reason, I’ve been staying home more lately, gravitating toward quieter, solid music.
Experience has taught me that there is power in quietude,
and that points of view are often conveyed more effectively
when people lower, rather than raise, their voices. You may
have noticed that general principle applied to the CDs included
with our Fall issues over the past few years. But the quiet on
those discs should not be confused with light or smooth jazz
or anything New Age (though the tunes do make for grand
background music). The mixes are, in a word, solid.
We’ve titled this issue’s CD collection Autumn Leaves: Rustling
and Burning. Disc One contains the rustling leaves, the quieter
fare, and features, among others, the inimitable Randy Brecker,
Michael Franks, Mike Metheny (with brother Pat soloing), Rick
Braun and Bill Frisell. Partly in response to a reader who recently
told me that he “loves quiet, but not too much quiet,” I made sure
that Disc Two is considerably more upbeat and louder, this time
with tracks from the likes of Acoustic Alchemy, Stanley Jordan,
Gary Burton and George Benson. It’s burning, not screaming.
I hope you enjoy the season, the solid music coverage in this
issue and our latest JAZZIZ CDs. It’s my hope that you’ll open
your windows, put on Autumn Leaves, turn up the volume, and
listen carefully, particularly to the spaces between the notes.
There’s a lot to be heard in those spaces.
—Michael Fagien
“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded
to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the
earth seeking the successive autumns.”
—George Eliot
12 fall 2011 jazziz
OctOber 13-16, 2011 cOachman Park, clearwater, FlOrida
FOUR DAYS &
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For More Information Go To
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In partnership with
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In cooperation with
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Graphic Solutions
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This project was sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Clearwater is a wonderful place to live, work and play.
We invite you to come visit and see for yourself all that we
have to offer. As a thriving tourism destination and with a
dynamic business community expect a warm welcome.
Clearwater and its island beaches
are recognized as a great
family destination as well as
a hot singles’ destination. The
powdery white sand beaches
and breathtaking sunsets provide
the ultimate backdrop for a wide
variety of activities and events. Stroll along Beach Walk,
a pedestrian promenade surrounded by resorts, beaches,
entertainment and artwork. Attend the nightly Sunsets
at Pier 60 festival starting 2 hours before sunset and
lasting until 2 hours after sunset.
Relax in the park and watch an
outdoor movie. For water sports
go kayaking, fishing, parasailing,
scuba diving, jet or water
skiing; ride the pirate ship or a
catamaran; partake in a dinner cruise; or just swim in
the Gulf of Mexico. Leap at the chance to meet Winter,
the star of Dolphin Tale, who resides at the Clearwater
Marine Aquarium.
If relaxing in a spa appeals to you, your choices are many.
Bird watching, hiking and biking are readily available. Take
in a performance at the renown Ruth Eckerd Hall or cozy
Capitol Theatre. Comedy and
dance clubs abound.
A game of golf or tennis or even
disc golf awaits you. Dining
selections appeal to all palates.
Shopping options range from
malls to boutiques and upscale and contemporary to
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Visitors are happy here for
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business. Clearwater is a perfect
get away year round.
The premiere voice of business
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Call 888-425-3279 or visit
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Prelude
Israeli
Accent
16 fall 2011 jazziz
It’s likely that 23 year-old singer Dida Pelled
turned a few heads by opening her Red Records
debut, Plays and Sings, with a sultry cover
of a rather dowdy ballad — George and Ira
Gershwin’s “Our Love Is Here to Stay.” Maybe
she provoked a little concern, too. To Pelled,
who grew up in Israel but learned the American
Songbook at a young age, the tune seemed apropos. “I didn’t know that it would start the album,
of course, but I think we had good energy on this
one,” Pelled says, adding that it was the first song
she ever recorded with trumpeter Roy Hargrove,
which was cause for excitement. “His energy
combined with our enthusiasm to play with him
made it something special.”
Pelled moved to New York after serving in the
Israeli army. Like most young jazz musicians, she
saw New York as the ideal setting to jump-start
her career. At that time, Pelled’s primary instrument was actually guitar, not voice. She had
studied at Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts
in Israel, listened to classic jazz recordings and
spent summers visiting the Big Apple. In 2008,
Pelled secured a scholarship to study at The New
School, which clinched the deal.
In New York, not only did Pelled hone her
vocal chops, she also rubbed elbows with the
right people. She met trumpeter Fabio Morgera
outside of Smalls Jazz Club, and he wound
up producing her album. He also brought in
Hargrove (who guests on three tracks) and
drummer Gregory Hutchinson.
Plays and Sings is a strong first effort, with an
emphasis on standards and vintage pop (including Wes Montgomery’s “Fried Pies” and the
Franki Valli hit “Can’t Take My Eyes off of You”).
She plays guitar throughout and sings several
songs in a warm, pliant voice. The lyrics might
be sung in her second language, but the Israeli
accent adds charm and flair. —Rachel Swan
Country Roads
At the exact time that Diane Schuur decided to shift gears and “go country” after 10 years on the Concord Jazz imprint, Vanguard Records — the
legendary 60-year-old label best-known for its extensive catalog of folk, rock,
pop and blues — contacted her manager
about the possibility of signing her. They
knew her extensive jazz history, but that’s
not what convinced them to put their
resources behind The Gathering, a jazzinflected set of 10 classic country heartbreakers, mostly written in the 1960s by
writers like Willie Nelson (“Healing Hands
of Time”), Roger Miller (“When Two Worlds
Collide”), Merle Haggard (“Today I Started
Loving You Again”), Hank Cochran (“Why
Can’t He Be You”) and Tammy Wynette (“Til
I Can Make It On My Own”). “They got excited when I sent them an MP3 of a
country single I did when I was 17,” says Schuur, referring to “Dear Mommy
and Daddy,” her first recording, produced by country crooner Jimmy Wakely.
“Recording The Gathering in Nashville is the fulfillment of a long-delayed
dream that brings me full circle in my career. I felt like I had taken a time capsule
even further back, when I would sing torch songs when I was 10 or 11. I sang with
lots of gusto back then that belied my years. All these years later, I figured it was
time to challenge myself in the tradition of Ray Charles, doing a country album
with touches of blues and jazz.”
Produced by four-time Grammy winner Steve Buckingham, The Gathering
features Schuur surrounded by some of Nashville’s best session musicians along
with renowned guest artists Alison Krauss, Vince Gill Mark Knopfler, Larry
Carlton and Kirk Whalum.
“I’ve done the Great American Songbook many times,” Schurr says, “so this
is an exciting new direction for me that may introduce young people to jazz in
a unique way. I don’t know if anyone’s ever scatted to a country tune before, so
hopefully my version of ‘Today I Started Loving You Again’ will inspire others to
similarly blend their influences.” —Jonathan Widran
jazziz fall 2011 17
Common Ground
Pianist Monty Alexander’s formative musical experiences were
spent in the legendary studios of Kingston, Jamaica, playing with
the pioneers of reggae music.
But he largely left that world
behind when he moved to the
States to play jazz in the early ’60s.
His roots gradually crept back in,
however, and over the years he’s
forged a style that fuses jazz and
reggae. His success is underscored
by a lengthy list of collaborations
with greats of both genres, from
Milt Jackson to Ernest Ranglin,
Sonny Rollins to Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare. Alexander’s
latest release, marking five decades in music, is the joyous recording
Harlem-Kingston Express, Live! (Motéma Music). —Shaun Brady
What is the significance of the title Harlem-Kingston Express?
It’s my own personal journey. I grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, in a real
hotbed of sound, playing what later became reggae. The next thing I
knew, I was playing in New York City, on the bandstand with Dizzy
Gillespie and Milt Jackson. So I feel very comfortable marrying these
two worlds that I loved when I grew up. I feel like I’m on a train going
from place to place according to the spirit that moves me.
What do you see as the common ground between jazz and reggae?
It’s me. I’m the common ground. It’s my life and what I love. Whether
it’s Duke Ellington, Ahmad Jamal, Charlie Parker or Burning Spear,
Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff — to me it’s just one happy, wonderful
gumbo. Sometimes the emphasis is on the uptown, swinging groove
and other times it’s on downtown Trench Town, but I know both of
those worlds intimately. That’s what comes out when I play.
You perform three Bob Marley songs on your new CD. What is his
importance to you?
Bob Marley represents a culmination of so many things about
Jamaica, both beautiful and positive as well as the challenge inside.
He was a musician but he also tried to inspire people out of negativity. Bob Marley is not a Jamaican great, he’s a universal great, so it’s a
privilege to tap into any one of those songs he wrote.
This disc marks your 50th year in music. Looking back, what are
some of the highlights?
I would say the enduring relationships I had with both Milt Jackson
and Ray Brown. They accepted me, the younger guy from another
country, and we had some “burn up the place” musical experiences.
I’d also include the opportunity to accompany Frank Sinatra at Jilly’s,
where I used to play.
What do you still have left to accomplish?
It’s an ongoing thrill and challenge to see people being moved to a
place of joy. When you have that opportunity, it never gets old. s
18 fall 2011 jazziz
THE COOL REVOLUTION
The 40th Anniversary of CTI Records
“Beautifully packaged and with a sonic upgrade that presents music that was clearly
well-recorded at the time in the richest, most three-dimensional landscape ever…”
– All About Jazz
CLASSIC CTI & KUDU ALBUMS NOW AVAILABLE ON CD,
MANY FOR THE FIRST TIME
Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Chet Baker, Antonio Carlos Jobim,
Hubert Laws, Kenny Burrell, George Benson, Deodato, Milt Jackson,
Paul Desmond, Jim Hall, Don Sebesky, Ron Carter, Esther Phillips,
Hank Crawford, Johnny Hammond, Lonnie Smith, Airto,
Jackie Cain & Roy Cral, Joe Farrell and Randy Weston
CTI RECORDS:
THE COOL REVOLUTION
New 4-CD box set with over 5 hours of
music and 20-page oversized booklet
THE CALIFORNIA CONCERT
New 2-CD set of the legendary 1971 concert
with 5 additional tracks – 3 previously unreleased
180-GRAM VINYL REISSUES
OF 4 CLASSIC CTI TITLES
Freddie Hubbard “Red Clay”, Stanley Turrentine “Sugar”,
George Benson “White Rabbit”, Deodato “Prelude”
ALL MUSIC REMASTERED USING THE ORIGINAL TWO-TRACK ANALOG
TAPES TO CAPTURE THE CLASSIC SOUND OF THE ORIGINAL LPS
Available at
ctimasterworks.com
Lennon Songs
Bill Frisell was 12 years old when The Beatles first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show
in February 1964. And, like many kids his age, the experience proved indelible. “I hadn’t
anything to compare it with, really,” says the soft-spoken guitarist, who had just completed
sessions for All We Are Saying (Savoy), a John Lennon tribute album, when he spoke with
JAZZIZ in July. “It was just the sound of the whole group. But it was absolutely shocking,
devastating. It was so strong, that sound. When I first heard ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand,’ the
harmony and the power of all of them together was just … I’d never heard anything like it.”
Assembling an album of songs by the “smart Beatle” was a labor of love for Frisell,
a keenly idiosyncratic instrumentalist. His approach to songbook material, whether
old-timey Americana or a pop hit from the ’60s, also marks him as a highly individual
interpreter. However, unlike many of his sonic explorations of familiar songs, Frisell says
he stayed close to the source on All We Are Saying.
And while Savoy is champing at the bit to release the album — which is due in late
September and includes material from The Beatles’ catalog and Lennon’s solo records — Frisell’s
connection to the material runs deeper than commercial concerns. “It’s majorly emotional,” he
affirms. “I don’t even know all the lyrics, but it’s the stuff that made me want to play music.”
The project’s genesis can be traced to Frisell’s 2005 concert tour of Europe. The first stop
on the tour, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, was hosting an exhibit honoring Lennon upon
the 25th anniversary of his death. Exhibit organizers asked Frisell if he and his bandmates
— pedal-steel player Greg Leisz and violinist Jenny Scheinman — could perform a program
of Lennon’s music. So, on the fly, they cobbled together a concert’s worth of tunes. It went
over so well, they decided to play the selections for the rest of the tour.
Last year, Frisell revisited the material during a four-night residency at Yoshi’s in Oakland,
California, this time adding bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen. Shortly after,
Savoy brought the concept of an all-Lennon record to Frisell. It proved irresistible.
Apparently, Frisell’s bandmates shared his emotional connection to the music. The musicians, all of whom are younger than Frisell (who turned 60 in March), brought their own
associations with Lennon and The Beatles to the sessions. “There was something going on
with the way that music brought everyone in the band together that was extraordinary,”
he says. “A lot more than just playing the music was happening.”
Frisell says he experienced a similar frisson while reacquainting himself with the
music. Yes, he admits, you can break the songs down to melodies and chords, but something else was going on that defies simple deconstruction. “Every song that I was refamiliarizing myself with, I couldn’t shake it off,” he says. “And that doesn’t have anything
to do with corporate marketing shoving it down our throats. ... Maybe I wouldn’t have
thought of [doing a Lennon tribute] myself, but then, it’s so obvious. It’s such a gigantic
part of why I’m playing music in the first place.” —Bob Weinberg
Gerald’s Kind of Town
Gerald Wilson has had an enduring love affair with the Windy City. The 92-year-old
maestro expresses his affection for the town that long ago captured his imagination on
“Yes, Chicago Is ...” a seven-movement suite that’s prominently featured on Legacy, his
latest big-band recording for Mack Avenue.
Commissioned by the Chicago Jazz Festival, the piece details Wilson’s impressions of
the vital urban hub that first enamored him as an impressionable teen. Residing in the
city for nearly a year — just before enrolling at Cass Tech High in Detroit — Wilson had the
opportunity to experience the dazzling Chicago World’s Fair of 1933-34. A few years later, he
used Chicago as his base when he replaced Sy Oliver
in the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra. Then, while stationed at the Great Lakes Naval facility during his
service in World War II, Wilson was able to take full
advantage of the city’s jumping jazz scene. After
the war, he’d return to Chicago and perform with
his own band in the city’s theaters and nightclubs.
Wilson pours his affectionate impressions of
the city into his suite. It starts, appropriately, with
the moody “A Jazz Mecca,” a sketch the composer
says mirrors the beauty of a stroll down Michigan
Avenue. The tune seamlessly segues into “A Night
at El Grotto,” picking up intensity and commemorating the room where Wilson’s band held a 10-week stand in 1946. He honors another
famed venue with “Riffin’ at the Regal,” the tune’s tempo echoing the frenzy of jitney
cabs that crowded the parkway outside The Regal Theater.
Wilson tips a cap to the city’s storied sports franchises with “Cubs, Bears, Bulls and
White Sox,” salutes a stretch of famed blues clubs with the bumptious “47th St. Blues,” and
expresses his excitement over the jazz scene of the 1940s with “Blowin’ in the Windy City.”
He concludes the suite with “A Great Place to Be,” a love letter to the cherished metropolis.
Of course, the album title Legacy doesn’t just refer to Wilson’s time in the Chicago.
It also alludes to his colleagues on the recording, namely, his son Anthony Wilson and
grandson Eric Otis. A superb jazz guitarist, composer and bandleader, Anthony is featured
in the rhythm section and as a soloist. He also contributes the composition “Virgo,” a
sublime piece he wrote in honor of his pop’s 90th birthday. Wilson’s grandson Eric — also
the grandson of R&B great Johnny Otis and the son of guitarist Shuggie Otis — worked as
Wilson’s copyist and contributes the outstanding composition “September Sky.”
The album also features Wilson’s jazz interpretations of pieces by Stravinsky and
Puccini and employs top talents such as pianist Renee Rosnes; reed players Antonio Hart,
Ron Blake and Gary Smulyan; trumpeters Frank Greene, Sean Jones and Jeremy Pelt; trombonists Luis Bonilla and Dennis Wilson; bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis
Nash. Safe to say, the album continues Wilson’s legacy in grand fashion. —Bob Weinberg
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Apple, the Apple logo, and iTunes are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and
other countries. iTunes is for legal or rightholder-authorized copying only. Don’t steal music.
Requisite
Donald Harrison Indian Blues (Candid, 1992) — A subplot of
the HBO series Treme involves a
young jazz artist’s attempts to
record with his dad, a Mardi Gras
Indian chief. Fans of New Orleans
music may recognize the story’s
real-life analog in saxophonist
Donald Harrison. On Indian Blues,
Harrison and his dad, Donald
Harrison Sr., combined straightahead jazz and homegrown R&B
with the traditional Mardi Gras chants and parade-ground
music that were second nature to both men. After all, the elder
Harrison, who died in 1998, was Big Chief of four tribes. Jr. is
now Big Chief of the Congo Nation tribe. With shimmering
tambourines and complex polyrhythms, “Hu-Ta-Nay” and
“Shallow Water” conjure images of the colorfully feathered,
intricately outfitted Indians (really African-Americans), who
have been parading Crescent City streets for more than a
century. And numbers such as “Ja-Ki-Mo-Fi-Na-Hay” and “Big
Chief,” sung by the one and only Dr. John, are jukebox classics.
All this is tied together by Harrison Jr.’s silky alto sax and
a versatile rhythm section. Fans of Treme might recognize
Harrison, Dr. John and the session’s drummer, Carl Allen, all of
whom have appeared on the show. —Bob Weinberg
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Cornetist Kirk Knuffke, bassist Matt Pavolka and
saxophonist Tony Malaby at the Cornelia Street Café
JAZZ TIMES
“Produced to an attention-grabbing level of brash
and pop, KARMA is exciting, and the veteran Scottish
saxophonist never lacks for inspiration.”
Down on Cornelia Street
ALL ABOUT JAZZ
“Were Smith still living in the US, there’s every chance
he’d be the star there that he clearly is at home”
JAZZ SOCIETY OF OREGON
“Scottish saxophonist Smith is one of the most
accomplished players and composers you may never
have heard of.”
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE ★★★★★
“His tone is tungsten-tough or tender and nostalgic,
his improvisations stimulating and affecting.”
SCOTSMAN ★★★★★
“His toughest and most creative quartet yet.”
IRISH TIMES ★★★★★
AVAILABLE NOW ON SPARTACUS RECORDS
An exciting new direction for leading Scottish
saxophonist Tommy Smith’s brand new band,
KARMA combines virtuosic musicianship and
powerhouse, grooving rhythms with atmospheric
textures evoking Irish, Scottish, Japanese, Indian
and Arabic folk influences. A major statement
from an internationally renowned master.
www.spartacusrecords.com / www.tommysmith.co.uk
26 fall 2011 jazziz
photo: Colin Robertson / design: John Haxby
“Smith’s tenor is now the uniquely personal voice of a
great player”
With its pungent mix of bohemian artiness and finessed sophistication, the
Cornelia Street Café is the kind of establishment that dreamy out-of-towners must
envision New York City’s Greenwich Village is chock full off. Which, sad to say, it isn’t.
The Cornelia Street Café, founded in 1977 by British expat Robin Hirsch, remains distinctive due to Hirsch’s carefully balanced vision of culinary and cultural concerns. (As
writer Calvin Trillin stated, “It took a bloody Englishman to remind us what the Village
was supposed to be about.”) An award-winning eatery whose laid-back bonhomie
perfectly reflects the picturesque side street on which it resides, the CSC also houses a
downstairs performance space that ecumenically presents poetry readings, theatrical
presentations, cabaret, comedy and, to the delight of venturesome listeners, some of
the most creatively conceived jazz bookings in the city. As opposed to more austere
performance venues, the CSC affords its patrons the opportunity to simultaneously
enjoy challenging music and a great plate of pasta.
Just a few blocks from the venerated, more tradition-bound Village Vanguard, the
CSC regularly enlists jazz ensembles manned by players who may have never stepped
foot — or even desired to step foot — on the Vanguard’s stage. Adventurous musicians,
both veterans and younger visionaries, including Shane Endsley, Mark Dresser, Sara
Serpa, Mario Pavone and Mary Halvorson are given free reign.
For Hirsch, jazz takes its place alongside the cornucopia of performance styles
featured in his establishment. “As for cutting-edge jazz, well, of course we do that, too.
I see it as one vibrant color in a rather large palette which includes every conceivable
genre — and quite a few inconceivable ones.”
If Hirsch is the mastermind behind the whole eclectic mélange, Tom Chang, who
books most of the jazz acts, is the key to the club’s current standing as a prime scene
for exploratory listening. A guitarist who has played with a range of artists, from Greg
Osby and Luther Vandross to Indian percussionist Subash Chandra, Chang wants jazz
at the CSC to mirror the “vast assimilation of influences and incredibly varied musical vocabulary that today’s players have at their disposal.” Since coming onboard in
September 2010, Chang has given the club an identity that precious few jazz venues
can boast. “Where other jazz clubs are more straightahead,” he says, “we speak more to
the diversity of the current scene.” —Steve Futterman
s John Martyn Heaven and Earth (Hole in the Rain Music) — This is the last work from the
innovative, influential, legendary and, unfortunately, late British
musician John Martyn (who died at the age of 60 in 2009). Actually,
the album wasn’t yet finished when Martyn passed. That job was left
to producers Jim Tullio and Garry Pollitt, who brought shape and polish
to the complex guitar work and roughhewn vocal tracks that Martyn
left behind. They also added the contributions of a long list of Martyn’s
close friends and musical collaborators to the mix. The result is this
singularly soulful, gutsy and often moving CD, which finds Martyn
drawing with familiar ease from jazz, blues, rock, pop and other styles. Martyn released more
than 20 studio albums during his 40-year career. Strangely, he never gained much popular
traction in the United States, but plainly his relative obscurity was unrelated to a corresponding lack of talent — as this fitting final testament so ably demonstrates.
s John Escreet The Age We Live In (Mythology Records) — It wasn’t long ago that 27-year-old John
Escreet was being lauded in the press as an exciting newcomer with a
fresh, compelling voice and a ton of potential. By now, it’s been more than
five years since the keyboardist/composer moved from England to New
York City, and this is the third album he’s released as a leader since he’s
been in the States. So certainly he’s a newcomer no more — not in New
York and not in the jazz world. As for his potential, well, it’s likely there’s
much he hasn’t yet tapped, but surely he’s realized a good portion of it in
convincing fashion with this ambitious outing. Backed by his talented
and simpatico regular quartet — saxophonist and frequent collaborator David Binney, guitarist
Wayne Krantz and drummer Marcus Gilmour — along with strings, horns and Tim Lefebvre on
bass for a couple of tracks, Escreet leads the way through a dozen original tracks that sizzle and
move with intensity and rich invention. Funk, rock and other musical elements are present, but
this is first and foremost a lively and noteworthy modern-jazz outing. —DP
John Martyn
What We Like
Playboy
Jazz
Over two days in early
June, some 35,000
people gathered at
the Hollywood Bowl
in Los Angeles to
check out the 33rd
annual Playboy Jazz
Festival. According
to various reports,
Hugh Hefner’s crowning achievement (by
his own admission)
was once again a
rousing success
with sets turned in
by Dianne Reeves,
Ambrose Akinmusire,
Anat Cohen, Terence
Blanchard, Buddy
Guy, Fourplay, John
Scofield and Robben
Ford, Geri Allen,
Donald Harrison,
Kermit Ruffins, the
Rebirth Brass Band
and others. As usual,
Bill Cosby was the
event’s MC. He also
played drums with his
own ensemble — yet
another must-see
performance at a fine
festival always filled
with many.
28 fall 2011 jazziz
The Roots
Bill Cosby
Dianne Reeves
SMC 5
23
The biggest hit of the year in sophisticated adult contemporary music
belongs to Eumir Deodato and his renowned colleague Al Jarreau with their
collaboration “Double Face.”
Everything you loved about those classic Jarreau hits like “Mornin’,”
“We’re in This Love Together” and “Moonlighting” is all here in this
undeniable, new smash, plus, that distinguished Deodato command of
groove and keyboard finesse! “Double Face” is included on THE CROSSING,
a new collection of songs released by Eumir Deodato featuring additional
jazz and pop luminaries Londonbeat, Paco Sery, Airto Moreira, Billy
Cobham, John Tropea and Novecento!
ellence ”
c
x
e
l
a
e
c
the vo “Double Fac
g
in
r
u
on
feat
REAU ou More”
R
A
J
of AL
Want Y
and “I
THE CROSSING is a jazz lover’s Mecca for music… a funk fan’s
soundtrack for good times… and those who demand depth in their pop are
going to be in heaven with this highly anticipated project! The legendary
artist, producer and arranger has sold more than 25 million records over his
nearly five decades of recording… originally from Brazil, THE CROSSING
marks the return of the world’s Deodato!
3
SMC 55
Jazz That ROCKS™
Grammy® award winning musician Jim Peterik is joined by
smooth jazz's finest!
Featuring jazz heavy hitters like Mindi Abair, Nick Colionne,
Greg Carmichael & Miles Gilderdale (Acoustic Alchemy),
Steve Cole, Chieli Minucci, Jessy J, Alex Ligertwood (Santana),
and Lisa McClowry, the major label debut from
Jim Peterik’s LIFEFORCE is sure to rock the jazz world!
Rick Braun
OnDisc
Autumn Leaves
For more information regarding this and more than 100 other JAZZIZ discs available for purchase, go to
Trumpeter-flugelhornist Rick Braun has
a set of pipes —
and not the kind
that made Zamfir
a late-night UHF
fave. On Sings
With Strings
(Artistry Music/
Mack Avenue), the
contemporary jazz star gets a first-class
showcase for his warm, engaging vocals,
as he soars over full-orchestral backing.
Songs include romantic songbook staples
such as “I Didn’t Know What Time it
Was,” “I Thought About You” and “The
Things We Did Last Summer,” arranged
with great care by producer Phillippe
Saisse. The record opens with the lovely
Cahn-Styne standard “Time After Time,”
included here, firmly establishing Braun’s
connection to another trumpet-playing
vocalist, Chet Baker, who also recorded
with strings. Also like Baker, Braun has
plenty of room to display his mellow, burnished instrumental voice on space-filled
flugelhorn solos throughout.
www.jazziz.com
Moody and delicate, the music of the Colin Vallon
Trio glows with a deep inner radiance, as heard
on Rruga, their self-titled
debut for the ECM label.
Pianist Vallon, bassist Patrice Moret and
drummer Samuel Rohrer
display the synergy of
musicians who have
been working closely
together for half-a-dozen years. The Swiss-born
bandmates first realized their shared aesthetic
while playing in saxophonist Cyrille Bugnon’s
quartet in 2004, and have been distilling their
sound to its spare and beautiful essence ever
since. The Vallon-penned title track, included
here, was inspired by the tambourine groove
on a Turkish recording, the pianist reveals in the
liner notes. (The exotic origins are more obvious
on a reprise of the song, which occurs later on the
album.) Vallon’s grandmother was Turkish, and
he claims roots in the folk music of the Caucasus
region. Lush and dramatic, the song unfolds
gently, revealing new vistas as it progresses —
which is all the more apt given that rruga is the
Albanian word for “path” or “journey.”
JAZZIZ ON DISC is a 2-CD music compilation from the artists of yesterday, today and tomorrow, bundled in the subscriber
copies of the print editions of JAZZIZ Magazine. This month’s compilation is titled Autumn Leaves. Disc One, “Rustling,” is a
collection of quieter music while Disc Two, “Burning,” is a more upbeat assemblage of new releases.
30 fall 2011 jazziz
Interactive
DATA STORAGE
JAZZIZ OnDisc Fall 2011
CD
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With sly and sexy tunes such as “Popsicle
Toes” and
“Underneath the
Apple Tree,” Michael
Franks established
himself as a mellowjazz hipster boasting a cinematic,
linguistic flair. On
Time Together (Shanachie), Franks’ first
recording in five years, the distinctive songster shows that his gift is still intact. Franks’
whispery vocals sync up perfectly with the
Brazilian-inspired musical settings and a
set of breezy reflections that celebrate the
languid days of summer. But there’s more
on his mind than lazing in a hammock. The
charming “Mice” holds the furry rodents
up as paragons for mankind to emulate,
while the melancholy “Charlie Chan in
5
Egypt” describes the singer’s unease with
the current state of the world. And the
samba-syncopated “I’d Rather be Happy
Than Right” should be required listening
for all political bloviators. As the seasonal
song cycle comes to a close, Franks exits
gracefully with the metaphysical meditation “Feathers From an Angel’s Wing,”
included here.
During the past 30 years, multiinstrumentalist
Mike Metheny
has recorded in a
variety of moods
and styles. For Old
Wine/New Bossa
(3 Valve), the Lee’s
Summit, Missouri,
native cherrypicks some of his best
25
50
Disc 1 Rustling
75
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CO
IZ
.
IV
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Randy Brecker • Colin Vallon Trio • Michael Franks
Larry Goldings • Bill Frisell • Jessica Williams • Rick Braun
Rick Louie • Mike Metheny • Gonzalo Rubalcaba
Julian Shore • Kordis/Spiegelman/Thorvaldsson
Petros Klampanis • Thomas Bergeron Quintet
ZZ
US
CL
EX
The glittering lights of the Empire State
Building and the
Queensboro Bridge
grace the cover of
The Jazz Ballad Song
Book (High Note), a
Fall 2011
collaborative effort
Autumn Leaves
between Randy
Disc 1
RUSTLING
Brecker and the DR
Big Band. The nocturnal cityscape bespeaks
the elegance and sophistication of the
autumn
album, on which the trumpeter joins the
Leaves
Danish National Chamber Orchestra for
a set of well-loved ballads that meet and
exceed expectations. Under the direction
CMYK with full white flood
of Michael Bojesen, the big band provides
lush backdrops for Brecker’s dynamic yet
intimate trumpet on songbook faves such
TECH:
#:
DATE:
as “All or Nothing at All,” “Skylark” and SELECTION
LABEL:
FILE NAME:
ARTIST:
PO #:
TITLE:
JOB
#:
“’Round Midnight,” as well as on a coupleDATE REVISED:
SEPARATOR: AMT
CREATOR:
of Brecker originals. While hearing these CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
classics in a big-band setting provides
predictable thrills, inventive arrangements
01 Randy Brecker with DR Big Band
also keep the proceedings fresh. On the
“Someday My Prince Will Come”
oft-played “Someday My Prince Will Come,”
The Jazz Ballad Song Book (High Note)
arranged by Jesper Riis and included here,
02 Colin Vallon Trio “Rruga” Rruga (ECM)
Brecker and company dial down the wist03 Michael Franks “Feathers From an Angel’s
fulness and inject great joy and optimism
Wing” Time Together (Shanachie)
into the waltzing melody.
100
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Larry Goldings “Libre” In My Room (BFM)
05
Bill Frisell “#9 Dream”
06
Jessica Williams “Just Words”
07
Rick Braun “Time After Time”
08
Rick Louie “A Formal Imperative”
All We are Saying ... (Savoy)
Freedom Trane (Origin)
Sings With Strings (Artistry Music/Mack Avenue)
[demo] (Indaba)
Mike Metheny feat. Pat Metheny
“Ta-Ta for Now” Old Wine/New Bossa (3 Valve)
10
Gonzalo Rubalcaba “Oro”
11
Julian Shore “For Away Places”
12
13
14
Fé — Faith (5Passion)
For Away Places (self-released)
Kordis/Spiegelman/Thorvaldsson
“First Interlude” Bebop Trio (Creative Nation)
Petros Klampanis “The Necessary
Blonde” Contextual (Inner Circle)
Thomas Bergeron Quintet “Et Leur
Chanson Se Mêle Au Clair De Lune”
The First of All My Dreams Was of ... (Daywood Drive)
If you purchased this magazine without the CDs or would like additional copies, e-mail [email protected]
or log onto www.jazziz.com.
PMS #5
List PMS colors in the order they will be printed on the disc.
04
09
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TOTAL
NUMBER OF
COLORS
jazziz fall 2011 31
TEMPLATE REV.
06/20/2001
tracks from sessions dating back to the
early ’90s. Trading among flugelhorn,
cornet, electronic valve instrument
and keyboards, Metheny showcases
his fluency in Brazilian, straightahead,
classical and ambient jazz. The leader is
accompanied by A-list sidemen hailing from both Boston and Kansas City,
although none so famous as brother Pat,
who contributes the lovely composition “Farmer’s Trust” and who joins his
older sibling on Mark Hart’s wistful
“Ta-Ta for Now,” our selection. Mike’s
burnished flugelhorn is hushed and
subtle, setting a dreamy template for
the tune. Following big brother’s lead,
Pat is equally subdued on his gorgeous
solo. The brothers play unison lines to
close out the song, revealing an almost
genetic compatibility of tone.
As both sideman and band leader, keyboardist Larry Goldings continues to impress with
his distinctive sound, especially on the Hammond organ. In fact,
the Boston native took top honors in organ and electronic-keyboard categories in the 2011 Downbeat Critics Poll. However, his
most-recent recording, In My Room (BFM), shows another side of
Goldings, who remains unaccompanied throughout a set of often
exquisite solo piano. Although he does spike the proceedings with
B3 and accordion (and some charming prepared-piano interludes),
the focus remains on his emotionally resonant acoustic work
on three vintage pianos. Selections display a wide range of melodic interests, from the
moody Brian Wilson title track and Joni Mitchell’s buoyant “All I Want” to Stephen
Foster’s evergreen “Beautiful Dreamer” and Abdullah Ibrahim’s emotionally rich “The
Wedding.” In the liner notes, Goldings describes his introspective “Libre,” our selection,
as “an improvisation with some French impressionistic overtones.”
OnDisc
32 fall 2011 jazziz “John Coltrane has been my light
through the
darkness,” pianist
Jessica Williams
writes in the liner
notes to Freedom
Trane (Origin),
her heartfelt
trio salute to
the paragon of spirituality in jazz.
“When there are questions, I’ll ask,
‘What would Philly Joe Jones or Dexter
Gordon do; but when things get REALLY
weird, I can ask the Trane.” Things don’t
get weird on Freedom Trane, but they
certainly get soulful and expansive.
Joined by bassist Dave Captein and
drummer Mel Brown, Williams plays
the part of both Coltrane and pianist
McCoy Tyner on an eight-song set
that’s evenly split between Coltrane’s
music and her own, Coltrane-inspired
compositions. On “Lonnie’s Lament,”
“Naima” and “Welcome,” the pianist
explores the emotional resonances
of some of Trane’s loveliest melodies,
while original tunes such as “The
Seeker” and “Freedom Trane” evoke the
spiritual and earthly planes on which
the saxophonist’s music co-existed. Williams’ ballad “Just
Words,” included here, certainly bridges those worlds.
Tarrying in the blues, the pianist gets quite playful, but
she also hints at deeper hues by the song’s conclusion.
Brooklyn-based pianist Rick Louie won over judges this
summer in the Indaba/JAZZIZ
Keyboard Opportunities contest
with his chamber-jazz-like composition “A Formal Imperative.” The
track earned him an honorable
mention, and also a judge’s comment that he’s “probably the most
thoughtful player in the bunch.”
Displaying great technique, as well as depth of feeling,
Louie showcases skills he accrued while studying at the
Skidmore Jazz Institute with instructors such as Renee
Rosnes, Bill Cunliffe and Randy Brecker, and later at the
University of Miami. Besides being a featured member of
UM’s Salsa Orchestra, Louie has also shared stages with
Adonis Rose, Tierney Sutton and former alumnus Jon
Secada. Louie’s promise was further recognized by the
venerable Downbeat magazine, who presented him with
a prestigious student award. With influences from Carla
Bley and The Bad Plus’ Ethan Iverson to J Dilla and Panda
Bear, Louie is truly a product of his generation, and is
currently playing and teaching in New York City.
Born on the Greek island of Zakynthos, bass virtuoso
Petros Klampanis put aside engineering studies to pursue a music
degree at Athens University and
the Amsterdam Conservatory.
Advanced studies brought him to
New York City’s Aaron Copland
School of Music, where he earned his
master’s. The rich-toned bassist has
since distinguished himself as a standout sideman with
artists such as Paul Bollenback, Gretchen Parlato and David
Berkman, all of whom return the favor on Contextual (Inner
Circle), Klampanis’ debut recording under his own name.
The leader’s dexterous and supremely musical double bass
functions as both lead voice and rhythmic support throughout, whether he’s stating the melody on a gorgeous solo read
of “Skylark,” eloquently shading Parlato’s delicate whisper
on “Blackbird” or engaging Bollenback’s guitar in games
of shadow tag on a swinging duo read of “Countdown.”
Klampanis’ pizzicato contrastingly anchors and buoys the
lively string quartet assaying Gary Willis’ emotionally
complex “The Necessary Blonde,” included here.
OnDisc
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Pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba has worked in a variety of
settings, his individualistic voice
and technical virtuosity always
shining brightly. For his most
recent recording, Fé — Faith, the
Cuban-born, South Florida-based
Rubalcaba returns to the solo-piano
format, as he delivers extremely
personal meditations on spiritual
matters. His first release on his own 5Passion (pronounced cinco-passion) imprint, Fé features bravura performances of original compositions as well as nods to important influences such as John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie,
Miles Davis and Bill Evans. Of course, Rubalcaba’s Cuban
roots and classical training are ever-present, an integral
part of his aesthetic. On a set that leans toward quietude
and introspection, the dazzling “Oro,” our selection,
provides a radiant departure, glinting with the luster of
the precious metal (gold) for which it’s named. Whether
expressing joy, peacefulness or incertitude, Rubalcaba
invests plenty of complexity into his explorations.
Holding to the notion that jazz fans, whether they know
it or not, are inherently Claude
Debussy fans — and vice versa —
trumpeter/flugelhornist Thomas
Bergeron set out to marry his twin
obsessions on The First of All My
Dreams Was of ... (Daywood Drive).
The album title comes from no
less an artistic source, the poetry
of e.e. cummings: “The first of all my dreams was of/A
lover and his only love,/Strolling slowly (mind in mind)/
Through some green mysterious land.” While Bergeron’s
quintet is certainly rooted in chamber jazz, both genres
in that appellation are given serious attention. Although
everything here is rooted in the music of Debussy, tracks
such as “The City” and “And Where Were You When I was
Burning Alive, Nightingale” have the jazziest appeal,
featuring fractured and funky syncopations. Bergeron’s
read of Debussy’s best-loved work, “Et leur chanson se
mêle au clair de lune,” is interpreted quite faithfully,
with warmly expressive contributions from pianist Dan
Campolieta and guitarist David Veslocki, whose tonal
palettes are in accord with Bergeron’s moonlit trumpet.
The long-wed forms of chamber jazz and bebop renew their vows on the highly entertaining Kordis/
Spiegelman/Thorvaldsson recording Bebop Trio (Creative
Nation). Clarinetist Alec Spiegelman, pianist Lefeteris
OnDisc
jazziz fall 2011 35
also offer some very lovely playing.
Bridging the
mysterious and
multifaceted
Duke Ellington
gem “Zurzday”
and the rhythmic
Shearing dazzler
“Conception” is
the hushed and brief trio improv “First
Interlude,” our selection. Interaction
among the three musicians is heard to
great effect, each making eloquent statements at a very low volume.
Pianist Julian Shore wowed judges in the Indaba/JAZZIZ Keyboard Opportunities
contest with the breezy bossa title track to his self-released
debut album For Away Places, which earned him runner-up
status. “This is overall the most polished piece of work in
the batch,” commented a judge, who also labeled Shore “an
extremely precocious, serious jazz musician.” The gorgeous,
wordless vocals of Alexa Barchini float atop the rhythmic
palette laid down by Shore, bassist Aaron Darrell and drummer Devin Drobka, before ceding the spotlight to Shore’s lithe
and sparkling solo. Currently living in Brooklyn, the Providence, Rhode Island-born
pianist attended Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship. He’s since worked
with noted jazz artists including Gretchen Parlato, Myron Walden, Chris Cheek and
Marcus Strickland, among others. Club-goers in New York City might spot him at
venues such as Smalls, 55 Bar or the Blue Note.
Kordis and drummer Thor Thorvaldsson
examine the intricacies of tunes by pioneer bop pianists Bud Powell, Elmo Hope,
George Shearing and Lennie Tristano.
(Notably absent is Thelonious Monk,
OnDisc
36 fall 2011 jazziz whose music certainly hasn’t languished
in obscurity.) While the threesome evoke
the frenetic energy that drives the form
— check out their edgy explorations of
Powell’s “Celia” and Hope’s “Boa” — they
While touring Europe in 2005 with
violinist Jenny
Scheinman and
pedal-steel player
Greg Leisz, guitarist Bill Frisell
was asked to
perform a concert
of John Lennon’s
music at the Cité de la Musique in Paris.
The experience proved so rewarding
— for the musicians and the audience
— that the trio performed the songs for
the rest of the tour. Frisell and company
presented those tunes again at Yoshi’s in
Oakland, California, last year, and Savoy,
the guitarist’s label, sensed an album
in the offing. The results can be heard
on All We Are Saying ..., in which Frisell,
Scheinman and Leisz are joined by
bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny
Wollensen for faithful reads of selections from Lennon’s songbook, spanning
The Beatles and solo albums. The group
adheres to original structures and vocal
lines, although the tonal qualities of
violin, pedal steel and certainly Frisell’s
unique voicings lend new colors to
familiar tunes. The ensemble adds a
plaintive note to “#9 Dream,” a cut from
Lennon’s 1974 Walls and Bridges album,
and our selection. This lovely interpretation rings with the Americana textures
that Frisell and his cohorts have honed
to perfection over the years.
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JAZZIZ OnDisc FALL 2011
The glittering lights of the Empire State
Building and the
Queensboro Bridge
grace the cover of
The Jazz Ballad Song
Book (High Note), a
Fall 2011
collaborative effort
Autumn Leaves
between Randy
Disc 1
RUSTLING
Brecker and the DR
Big Band. The nocturnal cityscape bespeaks
the elegance and sophistication of the
autumn
album, on which the trumpeter joins the
Leaves
Danish National Chamber Orchestra for
a set of well-loved ballads that meet and
exceed expectations. Under the direction
of Michael Bojesen, the big band provides
lush backdrops for Brecker’s dynamic yet
intimate trumpet on songbook faves such
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classics in a big-band setting provides
predictable thrills, inventive arrangements
01 Randy Brecker with DR Big Band
also keep the proceedings fresh. On the
“Someday My Prince Will Come”
oft-played “Someday My Prince Will Come,”
The Jazz Ballad Song Book (High Note)
arranged by Jesper Riis and included here,
02 Colin Vallon Trio “Rruga” Rruga (ECM)
Brecker and company dial down the wist03 Michael Franks “Feathers From an Angel’s
fulness and inject great joy and optimism
Wing” Time Together (Shanachie)
into the waltzing melody.
OnDisc
On
Autumn Leaves
For more information regarding this and more than 100 other JAZZIZ discs available for purchase, go to
Trumpeter-flugelhornist Rick Braun has
a set of pipes —
and not the kind
that made Zamfir
a late-night UHF
fave. On Sings
With Strings
(Artistry Music/
Mack Avenue), the
contemporary jazz star gets a first-class
showcase for his warm, engaging vocals,
as he soars over full-orchestral backing.
Songs include romantic songbook staples
such as “I Didn’t Know What Time it
Was,” “I Thought About You” and “The
Things We Did Last Summer,” arranged
with great care by producer Phillippe
Saisse. The record opens with the lovely
Cahn-Styne standard “Time After Time,”
included here, firmly establishing Braun’s
connection to another trumpet-playing
vocalist, Chet Baker, who also recorded
with strings. Also like Baker, Braun has
plenty of room to display his mellow, burnished instrumental voice on space-filled
flugelhorn solos throughout.
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Moody and delicate, the music of the Colin Vallon
Trio glows with a deep inner radiance, as heard
on Rruga, their self-titled
debut for the ECM label.
Pianist Vallon, bassist Patrice Moret and
drummer Samuel Rohrer
display the synergy of
musicians who have
been working closely
together for half-a-dozen years. The Swiss-born
bandmates first realized their shared aesthetic
while playing in saxophonist Cyrille Bugnon’s
quartet in 2004, and have been distilling their
sound to its spare and beautiful essence ever
since. The Vallon-penned title track, included
here, was inspired by the tambourine groove
on a Turkish recording, the pianist reveals in the
liner notes. (The exotic origins are more obvious
on a reprise of the song, which occurs later on the
album.) Vallon’s grandmother was Turkish, and
he claims roots in the folk music of the Caucasus
region. Lush and dramatic, the song unfolds
gently, revealing new vistas as it progresses —
which is all the more apt given that rruga is the
Albanian word for “path” or “journey.”
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With sly and sexy tunes such as “Popsicle
Toes” and
“Underneath the
Apple Tree,” Michael
Franks established
himself as a mellowjazz hipster boasting a cinematic,
linguistic flair. On
Time Together (Shanachie), Franks’ first
recording in five years, the distinctive songster shows that his gift is still intact. Franks’
whispery vocals sync up perfectly with the
Brazilian-inspired musical settings and a
set of breezy reflections that celebrate the
languid days of summer. But there’s more
on his mind than lazing in a hammock. The
charming “Mice” holds the furry rodents
up as paragons for mankind to emulate,
while the melancholy “Charlie Chan in
Egypt” describes the singer’s unease with
the current state of the world. And the
samba-syncopated “I’d Rather be Happy
Than Right” should be required listening
for all political bloviators. As the seasonal
song cycle comes to a close, Franks exits
gracefully with the metaphysical meditation “Feathers From an Angel’s Wing,”
included here.
During the past 30 years, multiinstrumentalist
Mike Metheny
has recorded in a
variety of moods
and styles. For Old
Wine/New Bossa
(3 Valve), the Lee’s
Summit, Missouri,
native cherrypicks some of his best
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Randy Brecker • Colin Vallon Trio • Michael Franks
Larry Goldings • Bill Frisell • Jessica Williams • Rick Braun
Rick Louie • Mike Metheny • Gonzalo Rubalcaba
Julian Shore • Kordis/Spiegelman/Thorvaldsson
Petros Klampanis • Thomas Bergeron Quintet
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Goldings “Libre” In My Room (BFM)
Frisell “#9 Dream”
All We are Saying ... (Savoy)
06 Jessica
Williams “Just Words”
Freedom Trane (Origin)
07 Rick
Braun “Time After Time”
08 Rick
Louie “A Formal Imperative”
Sings With Strings (Artistry Music/Mack Avenue)
[demo] (Indaba)
09 Mike
Metheny feat. Pat Metheny
“Ta-Ta for Now” Old Wine/New Bossa (3 Valve)
10 Gonzalo
Rubalcaba “Oro”
Fé — Faith (5Passion)
11 Julian
Shore “For Away Places”
For Away Places (self-released)
12 Kordis/Spiegelman/Thorvaldsson
“First Interlude” Bebop Trio (Creative Nation)
13 Petros
Klampanis “The Necessary
Blonde” Contextual (Inner Circle)
14 Thomas
Bergeron Quintet “Et Leur
Chanson Se Mêle Au Clair De Lune”
The First of All My Dreams Was of ... (Daywood Drive)
30 fall 2011 jazziz
jazziz fall 2011 31
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OnDisc
Autumn Leaves
Stanley Jordan
For more information regarding this and more than 100 other JAZZIZ discs
available for purchase, go to
www.jazziz.com
Guitar virtuoso Stanley Jordan has been
dropping jaws for
decades with his
one-of-a-kind reads
of familiar tunes
such as “Eleanor
Rigby” and
“Autumn Leaves.”
Jordan continues
to put his extraordinary techniques in the
service of pop and jazz material, as can be
heard on his most recent recording, Friends
(Mack Avenue). As its title indicates, the
album is a collection of collaborations with
guests including fellow guitarists Bucky
Pizzarelli, Mike Stern, Russell Malone and
Charlie Hunter, as well as violinist Regina
Carter, saxophonist Kenny Garrett and
trumpeter Nicholas Payton, among others.
Songs range from the Memphis blues
classic “Walkin’ the Dog” to jazz standards
such as “Lil’ Darlin’” and “Giant Steps.”
But Jordan also cherry-picked a current
pop hit, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl,” our
selection, which he plays simultaneously
on guitar and piano alongside seven-string
guitar wiz Hunter and a romping rhythm
section. The song takes on a gritty, bluesy
texture, but retains the playful nature of
the original.
Guitarists Greg Carmichael and Miles
Gilderdale are
the twin engines
driving Acoustic
Alchemy, a U.K.
band that can trace
its roots back to
the 1980s. Nylonstring guitarist
Carmichael served as the foil for original
steel-string player Nick Webb, who died in
1998, but not before the group had become
an enormous presence in the smooth-jazz
universe. Gilderdale replaced Webb — on
steel-string and electric guitars — in
1999. The current incarnation of the band
— Carmichael, Gilderdale, keyboardist
Anthony “Fred” White, bassist Julian
Crampton and drummer Greg Grainger
— can be heard on Roseland (Heads Up),
Acoustic Alchemy’s first release in four
years. Riding on a bed of hand-clapping
percussion, the bluesy groover “One for
Shorty,” our selection, showcases the
intertwining leads of Carmichael and
Gilderdale against a layered backdrop of
burbling organ and sunny horns.
Vibraphonist Gary Burton sounds as
exuberant as
ever on Common
Ground (Mack
Avenue), his new
recording with an
all-star quartet.
Despite differences
in ages and ethnic
backgrounds, the members do indeed
38 fall 2011 jazziz
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Like the bands Chicago and Kansas, Dotsero
tells you where
they hail from
with their chosen
moniker. There’s a
town in the Rocky
Mountains named
Dotsero, which
reportedly translates
to “Something Unique” in the Ute language.
Or the town’s name may be derived from
“Dot-Zero,” which is how it was referred to
on early railroad maps. Band members are so
ensconced in the region that they co-founded
a jazz club in Denver called Jazz@Jacks, where
they frequently play and where they recorded
live in 2006. On their most recent release,
Storyhouse (Cinderblock), Dotsero’s core
players — brothers Stephen and David Watts,
on saxophones and guitars, respectively —
are joined by producer Kip Kuepper on bass,
keyboards, guitar and vocals; Tom Capek on
organ and piano; and Brian McRae on drums.
While Dotsero covers U2’s “Still Haven’t Found
What I’m Looking For” and Chicago’s “25 or 6
to 4,” another familiar title, “That’s Just the
Way It Is,” is actually a Kuepper original. A
funky groover, the tune’s laced with acidtoned guitar and gritty, urban-influenced sax.
Included here, it’s far removed from Bruce
Hornsby’s song of the same name.
JAZZIZ OnDisc Fall 2011
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Acoustic Alchemy • Gary Burton • Dotsero
George Benson • Tatum Greenblatt • Larry Coryell
Brian Hughes • Toty Viola • Pietro Girardi • Euge Groove
Alphonse Mouzon • Player A • Stan Sabourin
Stanley Jordan • Chris Byars • Lalo Schifrin
M
When Wynton Marsalis deems you one
of his favorite
young trumpet
players, the pressure to live up to
such a blessing
Fall 2011
must be dauntAutumn Leaves
ing. But Seattle,
Disc 2
BURNING
Washington,
native Tatum Greenblatt seems to be
shouldering the burden quite well. Now
autumn
based in New York City, the Juilliard
Leaves
grad has worked with jazz elites including Joe Lovano, Maria Schneider, The
Mingus Legacy Band, Donny McCaslin
and Christian McBride, to name a few.
As a sideman, he’s been a standout on
recent recordings by Erica von Kleist,
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Big Band. As a leader, he’s poised to CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
release his third album, Imprints, in the
spring of 2012, of which we’re proud
01 Acoustic Alchemy “One for Shorty”
to offer a sampling. “Gotta Feel It” is
Roseland (Concord)
a laid-back, hard-bop groover straight
02 Gary Burton “Common Ground”
out of the vintage Blue Note era. Think
Common Ground (Mack Avenue)
Lee Morgan or Horace Silver with Blue
03 Dotsero “That’s Just the Way It Is”
Storyhouse (Cinderblock)
Mitchell, and you won’t be disappoint04
George
Benson “Danny Boy”
ed. In fact, Greenblatt reveals in his bio,
Guitar Man (Concord)
his favorite album growing up was Art
05 Tatum Greenblatt “Gotta Feel It”
Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’ Ugetsu,
Imprints (self-released)
with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet.
06 Larry Coryell With the Wide Hive Players
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share certain characteristics, not the least of
which is supreme virtuosity. Each musician
also possesses a great deal of assuredness
in his individual voice, which makes for a
relaxed-sounding session. Guitarist Julian
Lage, who came to prominence as a teenager
through Burton’s Generations band, continues to provide a deft and compatible foil for
the vibist. The rhythm section of bassist Scott
Colley and Antonio Sanchez alternately anchor and propel the proceedings, with each
player adding his own colors. And Burton is
a wonder, his mallets dancing fluidly and
precisely as he exudes warmth and throws
sparks on the brisk title track, included here.
Penned by Sanchez, the tune provides plenty
of space for the drummer to interact with his
bandmates on the tune’s exciting outro.
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“Terco” Larry Coryell with the Wide Hive Players
During the course of his career, the
truly malleable
Larry Coryell
has displayed a
mastery of fusion,
blues, straightahead jazz, acoustic
and Indian music,
all of which still
comes out sounding like Coryell. Such is
the case with his latest release, a funky,
jammy throwback recording titled Larry
Coryell With the Wide Hive Players (Wide
Hive). The fusion-pioneering guitarist
teams up with the San Francisco-based
session men — basically, the Wide Hive
label’s house band — on a frisky set of
(Wide Hive)
07
Brian Hughes “Fast Train”
08
Toty Viola “To Mr. Tiggs”
09
Pietro Girardi “Seven Days”
10
Euge Groove “Ten 2 Two”
11
Alphonse Mouzon “Angel Face”
12
Player A “Sleekness”
13
Fast Train to a Quiet Place (Sylvan House)
Jazzissimo! (self-released)
Morning (self-released)
S7ven Large (Shanachie)
Angel Face (Tenacious)
Our Own Devices (Creative Soul Jazz)
Stan Sabourin With the Washington State
University Jazz Big Band “Ozone” Zoot Suit (WSU)
14
Stanley Jordan “I Kissed a Girl”
15
Chris Byars “Could I Meet You Later?”
16
Lalo Schifrin “Summer Dance”
Friends (Mack Avenue)
Lucky Strikes (SteepleChase)
Invocations: Jazz Meets the Symphony #7 (Aleph)
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Place (Sylvan House), Hughes showcases
his fluid, melodic lines and engaging
compositions alongside musicians
who’ve played with everyone from Prince
to Al Di Meola. The brisk, space-filled
opener, “Fast Train,” features Hughes’
limber electric leads flowing over a
layered backdrop of keyboards, bass and
percussion, as well as a steady acoustic
strum, also supplied by the leader. The
result mirrors a contemplative but everforward-moving journey by rail.
You might not know the name, but the bluesy tenor and alto sax of Steve Grove is a
staple of contemporary pop and R&B. As a sideman, he’s worked
with Joe Cocker, Tina Turner, Tower of Power and Huey Lewis and
the News. But, as the solo artist Euge Groove, he’s far from anonymous. The University of Miami Music School grad’s recordings
of the past decade have dominated contemporary jazz radio and
regularly set up residence on the smooth-jazz charts. His latest
release, S7ven Large (Shanachie), seems poised for similar success.
So named because it’s the saxophonist’s seventh release since his
self-titled 2000 breakthrough, the album features guest spots from contemporary-jazz
stars Paul Brown, Rick Braun, Peter White and Jeff Golub. Golub’s burning guitar licks are
heard to good effect on the closing track “Ten 2 Two,” which also features subtle backing
from the Gregg Karukas Orchestra. Euge certainly evokes the song title, as his sax wends
like cigarette smoke over the last-call crowd.
soul-jazz instrumentals, the best of which
sound like lost 45s from the ‘60s or ‘70s.
Coryell’s bluesy, molten leads dodge and
weave among the horns and percussion
on the slinky “Terco,” our selection. Cowritten by label chief Gregory Howe and
saxophonist Doug Rowan, and layered
with congas and Fender Rhodes, the tune
would have sounded just right blasting
from a transistor radio perched on a beach
blanket in the summer of 1976.
For the past 20 years, guitarist Brian
Hughes has been fine-tuning his craft on
OnDisc
40 fall 2011 jazziz successive recordings. Now residing in
Los Angeles, the
Canadian-born
Hughes won over
listeners around
the world with
his supple, lyrical
guitar style. In
addition to finishing first in the JAZZIZ Guitars on Fire
competition, he’s earned seven SOCAN/
BMI Jazz & Instrumental Composer of the
Year awards between 1997 and 2011. On
his latest recording, Fast Train to a Quiet
A native of Palermo, Italy, guitarist Toty
Viola played
music because
he loved to do
so, even while
working at an
unemployment
office during the
day. Inspired after
meeting George Benson, Viola relocated
to the United States, eventually settling
in central Florida. His career flourished.
Then, one day, Benson asked Viola if he
could record one of his tunes, a dream
come true for the Italian guitarist.
Unfortunately, the album’s producer cut
the track, and Viola fell into a deep funk.
Ten years later, Viola received an infusion
of positivity — and cash — from fellow
musician Al Rinaldi, who persuaded him
to enter the studio. The results can be
heard on the self-released CD Jazzissimo!.
The guitarist blends deeply embedded
jazz sensibilities with European roots
on both Italian and American tunes. His
warm, Wes Montgomery-influenced
style — played with the thumb, rather
than a pick — can be heard to great effect on his buoyant composition “To Mr.
Tiggs,” included here. And apparently,
Viola’s patched things up with Benson,
who contributes a liner recommendation
and whose song “El Mar” he covers.
How could a musician not be inspired
by the richly romantic environs of
Venice, Italy? Headquartered in the
Jazz aficionados may be hip to the playing of saxophonist Lucky Thompson, whose
contributions spanned from the bands of Erskine Hawkins and
Lionel Hampton to Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus. But his
work as a composer and arranger have gone largely unheralded.
Saxophonist Chris Byars and his octet aim to fix that injustice
with Lucky Strikes (SteepleChase), an album that showcases
the charm and sophistication of Thompson’s compositions for
small ensembles. Byars had become fascinated with Thompson’s
playing and writing on 1950s recordings with Oscar Pettiford’s
trio and orchestra. But he was blown away when he heard a recording of a German radio
broadcast of Thompson’s arrangements for octet from a 1961 NDR Jazz Workshop. With
no existing text to draw from, Byars set to transcribing the music, which provided the
impetus for Lucky Strikes. One of the tunes Byars heard on the scratchy broadcast was the
jaunty “Could I Meet You Later?” The selection, included here, features solos from Byars
on tenor and Sacha Perry on piano, but truly demonstrates Thompson’s skills in utilizing the tonal palette of the full octet in a smooth and mellifluous blend. With luck, the
album will bring a new appreciation for Thompson, who died in 2005.
historic center of the city of canals,
Italian pianist
Pietro Girardi
marries the lush
acoustic sounds
of his instrument
with up-to-themoment recording techniques.
On Morning, his self-released fourth
solo recording, the pianist utilizes
OnDisc
42 fall 2011 jazziz computer programming to accompany
himself on drums and bass. In fact,
for the sprightly “Seven Days,” our
selection, Girardi improvised the tune’s
harmonic structure over a midi drum
track, then added the double-bass
track later. But certainly the piano is
the star attraction, as Girardi grooves
and flows along the backbeat like a
gondolier expertly navigating the
city’s ancient waterways.
“A Labor of Love” is more than just a song
on drummer-composer Alphonse
Mouzon’s recording Angel Face
(Tenacious), it’s a
mission statement. Surrounded
by confederates
such as Cedar Walton, Kenny Barron,
Christian McBride, Wallace Roney and
Ernie Watts on a set of hard-charging
straightahead jazz, Mouzon sounds
like he’s in the cat bird seat. Liner notes
reveal it took him 11 years to finish the
project, surely indicating its closeness to
his heart. While he’s played everything
from fusion to pop to smooth jazz,
the versatile veteran sounds right at
home, driving alternating quintets on
14 original cuts. Included here, the title
track is a case in point. Mouzon lays
down playful patterns as the song skips
along at a merry pace. Roney expertly
evokes Miles with his moody lead, before
handing the proceedings over to Watts’
gorgeous tenor. Walton provides elegant
comps throughout. The inspiration for
this charmer can be seen on the album’s
cover: Mouzon’s striking daughter, Emma
Alexandra Mouzon.
What kind of album would a group of
A-list session players create if left to
their own devices?
The members of
Player A answer
that question on
their aptly titled
recording Our Own
Devices (Creative Soul Jazz). Based in the
thriving music metropolis of Nashville,
these cats stay busy playing on other
people’s sessions, from demos to majorlabel recordings to cruise ship gigs. Given
the opportunity to play what they want,
they opt for funky, contemporary jazz,
penned for the most part by keyboardist Eric Copeland. Rather than running
The span of Lalo Schifrin’s career provides an
indication of his vast
abilities and interests.
The Buenos Aires native
served as Dizzy Gillespie’s
musical director, recorded
his own Brazilian and
Latin jazz sessions and
composed the memorable
scores to hit TV shows (Mission: Impossible,
Mannix) and movies (Bullitt, Dirty Harry). But
he’s also long harbored a passion for third-stream
music, merging jazz and classical sensibilities on
a series of recordings over the past two decades.
On his most recent, Invocations: Jazz Meets the
Symphony #7 (Aleph), the pianist, composer
and arranger teams up with the Czech National
Symphony Orchestra for a set that encompasses both Debussy and Diz. The impassioned
“Summer Dance,” our selection, has a puckish,
pastoral quality, as it lopes briskly along to a
jazzy rhythm section. Schifrin’s brief piano solo
provides a roguish twinkle midway through.
from their commercial instincts, they
embrace them, as is evident in the title of
the opening track, “Sleekness,” which is
included here. Powered by the relentless,
neck-snapping rhythms of Copeland,
guitarist Mark Baldwin, bassist Gary Lunn
and drummer John Hammond, the tune is
a stone-cold dance-floor-filler. Saxophonist
Marcus Anderson blows fire, and Baldwin
adds some acid licks to the mix.
To premiere his composition “Ozone,” former Washington
State University
grad student and
alto saxophonist
Stan Sabourin
called out the
big guns. Miamibased saxophone
star Ed Calle joined the WSU Jazz Big
Band at the Pullman campus’ Bryan Hall
Theatre in April and lent his tenor voice to
Sabourin’s bright and colorful ensemble
work. The piece is prominently featured
on the WSU Big Band’s recording Zoot Suit,
OnDisc
44 fall 2011 jazziz which takes its title from band director
and faculty member Greg Yasinitsky’s
composition. Sabourin’s “Ozone,” unlike
the substance for which it’s named,
permits plenty of light to permeate, as
the horns generate a good deal of solar energy. Charles Wicklander’s piano further
enhances the sunny atmosphere. Based
in British Columbia, Sabourin recently
received his masters in music from WSU.
He was recognized with a Certificate of
Excellence in Research from the school’s
graduate and professional student
association for a presentation about his
composition “Mondo Burrito.” This fall,
Sabourin faces his greatest challenge,
teaching music to middle schoolers in the
Okanagan/Skaha school district.
The brilliance of George Benson as a jazz
guitarist is often obscured by his success
in the pop realm. Blessed with a soulful
voice, Benson became widely known
outside the jazz world thanks to radio hits
such as “On Broadway” and “Give Me the
Night.” But jazz cognoscenti knew his early
funk-soul-jazz sides with Lou Donaldson
and Dr. Lonnie
Smith, his earthy
but sophisticated
work on CTI or
maybe his polished
albums alongside
the Count Basie
Orchestra. Along
the way, Benson scooped up armfuls of
Grammys and has been named a National
Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master. But
the title of his new recording, Guitar Man
(Concord), places the emphasis where it
belongs. The leader sounds at home in
a variety of settings, interpreting jazz
and pop standards from “Tenderly” to
“Tequila.” While he’s accompanied by a
quintet and various instrumentalists
throughout, Benson goes it alone on a
couple of tracks, including a very moving rendition of “Danny Boy,” included
here. Amazingly, he not only echoes
touchstones such as Charlie Christian and
Wes Montgomery, but he also manages to
evoke the sound of bagpipes.
traditions
Songs of the
Street
By Bob Weinberg
“A rat done bit my sister Nell, with
Whitey on the moon,” Gil Scott-Heron
intoned on a scathing spoken-word
performance from his 1970 breakthrough album Small Talk at 125th and
Lenox. “Her face and arms began to swell,
and Whitey’s on the moon/I can’t pay no
doctor bill, but Whitey’s on the moon/Ten
years from now I’ll be payin’ still, while
Whitey’s on the moon.”
Scabrous humor and social outrage
went pick-in-’fro with Heron’s poetry and
music. A tremendously gifted artist who
spent formative years in the Bronx, the
Chicago native predated hip-hop by about
a decade. While his influence on the genre
is undeniable, Heron staked no claim, instead considering himself well within the
continuum of jazz and blues. “Could you
call on Lady Day,” he sang on a tune about
the redemptive powers of jazz. “Could you
call on John Coltrane/They’ll wash your
troubles, your troubles away.”
Heron wrote angrily, sometimes
tenderly, about the effects of drugs on
the black community. But ultimately he
followed the junkie’s path, the crack pipe
ruling his career and life in later years.
Sadly, both came to a not-entirely unanticipated halt when Heron died on May 27
at the age of 62.
The news was particularly saddening
for vocalist Giacomo Gates, who was just
a couple months away from releasing The
Revolution Will Be Jazz: The Songs of Gil
Scott-Heron (Savant), which places Heron’s
music in a straightahead-jazz context.
Word of Heron’s passing was even more
devastating for the record’s producer, Mark
Ruffin, who writes in the album’s liners
about Heron’s effect on him as an AfricanAmerican teen growing up in Chicago.
46 fall 2011 jazziz
“It’s valid today. It’s about 2011. If some of the things
that are going on now were going on in the ’70s, there
would have been a bigger revolution.” —Giacomo Gates
Ruffin had always intended to place a
copy of the finished recording in his hero’s
hands, to let him know how profoundly his
music had touched him. That dream was
never realized. On the other hand, posthumous interest in Heron has been piqued.
“What I hope happens,” Gates says from
his home in Bridgeport, Connecticut, “is
that some of the people who were Gil’s
fans say, ‘Oh, who’s Giacomo Gates?’ And
maybe some of the people who dig me
might not be hip to Gil. ... I don’t know
how many people are aware of him. Gil
is more of a cult, underground inside cat
than I thought he was.”
In fact, Gates reveals, the excellent
ensemble on Revolution — pianist John
Di Martino, guitarist Tony Lombardozzi,
bassist Lonnie Plaxico and drummer
Vincent Ector — were unfamiliar with
Heron’s music before they embarked
on the project. That may have actually
worked in the album’s favor, though.
“I didn’t want to have a mirror image
of what Gil did,” Gates says. “I wanted it
just to sound like jazz musicians playing
Gil’s music. Tony Lombardozzi was playing
James Brown licks, but he’s not playing a
Stratocaster; he’s playing a hollow-body
jazz guitar. So it’s got that funky-monkey
sound, but it’s jazz. And that’s what we
were shooting for.”
As an artsy young white dude living in
gritty, blue-collar Bridgeport in the ’60s
Photo by John Abbott
Personal Taste
Bob Weinberg
s Rich Halley Quartet Requiem for a
Pit Viper (Pine Eagle) — “Subterranean
Strut” is the title of a track from
tenor-sax vet Halley’s latest, but it’s
also an apt description of the raucous,
knife-edged proceedings. Halley’s son,
Carson Halley, lays down brick-solid
syncopation alongside standout bassist
Clyde Reed. Pops Halley trades textured
leads and plays unison lines with
trombonist Michael Vlatkovich, his
fanged, fiery tone curling like smoke
and biting like the critter mentioned in
the album title.
New and Noteworthy
s Louie Belogenis Trio Tiresias (Porter)
s Daniel Levin Quartet Organic
Modernism (Clean Feed)
s Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord
Quavers! Quavers! Quavers! Quavers!
(Hot Cup)
s We3 Amazing (Kind of Blue)
s Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey The Race
Riot Suite (Kinnara Records/Royal
Potato Family)
and ’70s, Gates was a Heron fan from the
drop. He had already been turned on to
the biting, Afro-centric rants of The Last
Poets — in fact, he says he startled his
acting-school instructors by performing a
Last Poets piece as a monologue. So he was
prepared for Heron.
“[Heron] was much more accessible,
because The Last Poets were very serious,”
he explains. “They were revolutionaries.
They were angry, and they had something
to be angry about. Gil was like that, but he
took some of the edges off and softened
it up a bit. The music had a groove to it, it
was funky. It wasn’t funk, but it wasn’t
pop either.”
But was it jazz? Heron himself asked
the question on his song “Is That Jazz,”
debating the validity of the term. “We
overanalyze, we let others define/A
thousand precious feelings from our past,”
he sang. “What it has will surely last, but
is that jazz?” And yet, jazz heavies such as
Photo by Mischa Richter
bassist Ron Carter and flutist Hubert Laws
played on sessions such as the magnificent 1971 recording Pieces of a Man,
with its emotionally stunning title track
and Heron’s most infamous work, “The
Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” And,
from Billy Eckstine to Johnny Hartman to
Leon Thomas, there certainly was precedent for Heron’s not-quite-as-polished,
yet commanding baritone.
Still, presenting Heron’s music as
straightahead jazz promised some challenges for Gates, who set the tempos, and
pianist Di Martino, who arranged the
material. Ruffin had brought 42 tunes to
the singer, some of which he was familiar
with, some of which he was not. Gates
chose to interpret the songs to which he
could best relate.
“My selections were based on honesty,”
he says. “I picked what I could connect
to, what I liked musically and what I felt
100 per cent able to sing. I don’t mean
notewise, I mean lyrically. I really loved
‘Whitey on the Moon,’ but I know I can’t
be singing it. I mean, hell, I can’t sing ‘I
Feel Pretty,’ either.”
However, much of Heron’s subject matter was right in Gates’ wheelhouse. From
the jaundiced view of the fame-game as
expressed in “Show Bizness” to the cynical
eye focused on corporate advertising in
“Madison Avenue,” Gates offers a hearty
amen, even as he lends muscular swing
to the former and a cool jazz lope to the
latter. And certainly he could identify
characters such as the one described in
“Legend in His Own Mind” — a too-slick
lady’s man who believes he’s “God’s gift to
women” — from his own experience.
“Oh, man, that’s every cat in the world,”
the singer says with a laugh.
The attitude of the protagonist in “Gun”
is yet another that Gates knows all too
well. While recognizing the growing problem of firearms in the inner city, the character claims, “When other folks give up
theirs, I’ll give up mine.” Equally relevant
to the current national Zeitgeist, “Winter
in America” is an emotionally rendered
ballad featuring Claire Daly’s atmospheric
flute. “It’s winter in America,” goes the
refrain, “and ain’t nobody fighting/’Cause
nobody knows what to save.”
“A lot of that stuff was very valid in
Gil Scott-Heron
1969, 1971 and 1977,” Gates relates. “But it’s
valid today. It’s about 2011. If some of the
things that are going on now were going
on in the ’70s, there would have been a
bigger revolution.”
Gates’ interpretations clearly communicate the compassion and concern in
Heron’s words and music. While caustic
humor was indeed a part of the street
poet’s arsenal, there’s no mistaking the
tenderness and overarching optimism
in songs such as “This is a Prayer for
Everybody to Be Free” and “It’s Your
World.” Heron’s voice may not have contained the liquid velvet of a Joe Williams
or the flexibility of a Jon Hendricks, but
his street-inflected instrument only
enhanced his message.
“Gil had a great baritone sound,” says
Gates, who never met Heron, but saw him
perform a few times. “But to me, that’s not
what it was about. Gil’s voice was urgent.
Even though he was laid-back, his voice
was urgent. So what he was singing fit. It
all worked.” s
jazziz fall 2011 47
contempo
On the Quirky
Side
By Jonathan Widran
The world and the music industry have
changed significantly since the day in the
mid-’70s when Michael Franks sat down
with the top brass at Warner Bros. Records
and launched a 24-year relationship with
the label by whipping out his guitar and
notebook and playing “Popsicle Toes” — the
quirky hit from his label debut which was
later covered by John Pizzarelli, Diana Krall
and The Manhattan Transfer.
Yet a few things in the singer-songwriter’s romantic, multi-faceted world
haven’t been tarnished at all by the 36
years between his major-label debut (The
Art of Tea) and Time Together, his 22nd
recording and first on Shanachie. He
retains his lifelong love of poetry and a
deep admiration for the composers of the
Great American Songbook, and he still
writes exceptionally clever lyrics to make
sense of the world around him.
“My question every time out is: ‘How
do I come up with something fresh?’” says
Franks, who composes his music before
writing the lyrics. “What am I going to
write about that I haven’t written before?
And the answer, of course, is to reach inside
and respond to how I’m feeling at the moment and talk about my life experiences.”
Franks traces his passion for rhymed
narrative back to his adolescent days in
La Jolla, California. On family camping
trips to a nearby national forest, his uncle
would always recite Robert W. Service’s
popular satirical poem “The Cremation of
Sam McGee,” first published in Service’s
1907 book Songs of a Sourdough. Later,
as an English major at UCLA, Franks
gravitated to the works of 20th-century
American poets Robert Lowell (considered
the founder of the confessional poetry
movement) and Theodore Roethke, known
48 fall 2011 jazziz
“When I started out, I thought being hard to peg would
be a liability, but over the years I found that working to
my advantage.” —Michael Franks
for his way with natural imagery.
“With that background, it wasn’t
surprising that when I started writing
songs, I gravitated to the Songbook writers
who had a little more sense of prosody in
their writing,” the singer says. “Cole Porter,
Ira Gershwin and Johnny Mercer had a
great gift for linguistics and turning a
phrase. When I was 18, I started listening to
Jobim’s songs, which totally radicalized my
idea of the musical parts of songwriting.
They didn’t follow the linear patterns of
most American songwriting to that time. I
was also a big fan of Mose Allison, a blues
legend who worked with so many great
jazz artists and who had an impeccable
sense of language. I’m lucky that some of
these influences rubbed off on me.”
On Time Together, Franks applies his
light, dreamy voice to a musical travelogue that includes stops in the Big Apple
(“Summer in New York”), France (“One
Day in St. Tropez,” “Samba Blue”) and the
Middle East (“Charlie Chan in Egypt”). He
begins from the comfort of his Adirondack
chair, where he rests without care in the
tone-setting opening track “Now That
the Summer’s Here.” While pop fans this
year are chilling to Bruno Mars’ “The
Lazy Song,” Franks takes a more literate
approach to slothfulness: “With my chores
I only flirt/Hung in my hammock reading
Kurt/Struggling to remain inert/Now that
the summer’s here.”
While it’s tempting to focus solely on
Franks’ poetic and witty lyrics, there’s
much to admire in the accompanying
music, which features a wealth of cool,
lightly swinging jazz played and produced
by a cadre of talented cohorts. “Now That
the Summer’s Here” is one of four tracks
on Time Together produced and arranged
by Chuck Loeb, whose crisp electricguitar solo on that tune follows solos by
trumpeter Till Brönner and saxophonist
Eric Marienthal. Other notables appearing on the new disc include pianists Gil
Goldstein (who produced and arranged
three tracks) and Charles Blenzig (who
produced and arranged two), bassist
Personal Taste
Jonathan Widran
s New Foundation Goin’ Places (New
Foundation Productions) — An offshoot
of the a urban-jazz ensemble Pieces of
a Dream, the duo of founding Pieces
member and drummer Curtis Harmon
and bassist Bennie Sims (who first
played with Pieces in 1992) creates the
driving rhythmic foundation on a set
that incorporates in-the-pocket R&B,
jazz fusion, dance and gospel music.
s Steve Cropper Dedicated: A Salute to
the 5 Royales (429)
s Jonathan Fritzen Diamonds (Nordic
Night)
s Mark Winkler Sweet Spot (Café Pacific)
s Paul Taylor Prime Time (Peak)
Will Lee, vibraphonist Mike Mainieri,
drummer Billy Kilson, and Mark Egan,
whose languid bass drives the reflective,
eight-minute closing track “Feathers From
An Angel’s Wing,” a song that Franks says
“summarizes the things I feel I’ve learned,
without becoming dogmatic.”
Franks now lives in Saugerties, New
York, not far from the site of the historic
Woodstock Festival. Leading a relatively
quiet life, he says, has led to more writing,
especially now that he’s touring much less
than he used to. “It was odd because in
the past I didn’t sit around writing all the
time,” he says, “but I had a lot of interesting ideas, thoughts about the future and
past, and decided to take my time with
them. I wrote most of the album in the fall
and winter of last year. We had a heavy
winter with a lot of snow, which was
great because I do a lot of snowshoeing.
But it went on forever, so naturally I also
thought ahead a lot to spring and summer.
The cheerful tunes were easier to write,
but I also loved the challenge of the more
textured, jazzier ones. Harmonically, I
don’t think I’ve ever written a song like
‘Charlie Chan in Egypt.’ I write nearly all
of my songs on guitar, but the harmonics
of that one demanded that I chord them
out on the piano.”
Franks was no doubt contemplating
Vonnegut’s A Man Without A Country
— the late author’s final collection of
essays — when he came up with the lyrics
to “Charlie Chan In Egypt.” The song,
which is dedicated to Vonnegut, is the
first overtly socio-political tune Franks
has released since the anti-apartheid “The
Camera Never Lies” in 1987.
“Kurt had been a POW in Dresden
but was writing about his shock at our
country’s pre-emptive war in Iraq,” Franks
says. “It was a surprise to me as well,
coming from the peace generation as I
did. A good subtitle for the song would
be ‘Stranger in a Strange Land.’ To say the
least, being involved in unprovoked aggression seemed like a strange thing for us
to be doing. I watched the 1935 film Charlie
Chan In Egypt on Turner Classic Movies
and immediately thought of the analogy.
Charlie would have trouble solving cases
anywhere, but when he goes to Cairo to
solve the disappearance of an archaeologist, his confusion is even greater. I really
connected to that image, which became
the foundation for the song.”
Over the years, while building an
enthusiastic following at sold-out shows
around the world, Franks’ playfully literate lyrics and cool delivery became staples
of a style that even their inventor is hard
pressed to explain. “People like to say I’m
the man without a category, and that’s
fine with me as long as they enjoy what I
do,” says Franks, whose songs have been
covered by Mark Murphy, Carmen McRae,
Kenny Barron and Ron Carter, among
others. “When I started out, I thought
being hard to peg would be a liability, but
over the years I found that working to my
advantage. I think it’s a testament to my
self-honesty that I’ve survived the rise
and fall of numerous popular formats.” s
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blu notes
Latin Jazz vs. the
Grammys
By Larry Blumenfeld
The stage of the Nuyorican Poets Café in
Manhattan’s East Village was packed one
Sunday in May. Drummer Bobby Sanabria
sat center stage, flanked by pianists Arturo
O’Farrill and Larry Harlow. Trumpeter
Brian Lynch was next to trombonist Chris
Washburne. It might have made for one hell
of a jam session. A couple of Grammy Award
winners and several former nominees in
the Latin Jazz category were up there. But
they had no instruments. This was a press
conference, broadcast live on New York’s
WBAI-FM, with the Grammys as its focus.
The disappearing Grammys, that is. In
April, the National Academy of Recording
Arts and Sciences announced a reduction in
the number of Grammy prizes to 78, from
109. The changes, which will take effect
next year, were being made to ensure “that
the Grammy remains a rare and distinct
honor, and continues to be music’s most
prestigious and only peer-recognized award,”
said NARAS president Neil Portnow during
a news conference. The value of a Grammy
was in danger of dilution, he explained. The
first Grammy ceremony in 1959 honored
nominees in 28 categories, and over the years
that number has swelled. “It has become a
collage,” Portnow said. The Latin jazz category will be among those absent from the
54th annual Grammy Awards in February.
It’s worth noting that most of the eliminated categories represent what is often
called ethnic or regional music, including
Hawaiian, Native American and Cajun.
There are other troubling aspects to this
consolidation of categories. For instance,
the “Contemporary Jazz” category was
eliminated, which will create an uncomfortable apples-against-oranges competition in the sole remaining “Best Jazz
Instrumental Album” category. Certainly
50 fall 2011 jazziz
“This hurts so much. I can feel it in my heart. It’s like
a Grammy scar. It’s the denial of years of hard work to
get this recognition.” —Eddie Palmieri
there’s cause for widespread concern due to
the elimination of 31 categories.
So far the loudest, most impassioned
outcry has come from the Latin-jazz
ranks, and it has led to an ongoing and
worthy fight. In Los Angeles, a week after
the Nuyorican Café conference, some of
Southern California’s most prominent
Latin jazz musicians were among the
protesters lining Santa Monica Boulevard
outside the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where
NARAS board members were meeting.
They were carrying signs with slogans like
“NARAS Does Not Believe in Diversity” and
“Neil Must Go” (in reference to Portnow).
In San Francisco, musicians gathered at
Yoshi’s nightclub to speak up.
The scene at a “Grammy 101” meeting
organized by New York’s NARAS chapter,
with Portnow and other executives in attendance, was especially poignant. Pianist
Eddie Palmieri, who has won nine Grammy
Awards, including the very first one
honoring Latin music, described his work
within the organization as a past governor.
“This hurts so much,” he said. “I can feel
it in my heart. It’s like a Grammy scar. It’s
the denial of years of hard work to get this
recognition.” His daughter, Ileana Palmieri,
an artist manager and music promoter, said
of the Latin jazz designation: “A name is
important. When it’s tied to an ethnic identity and a cultural tradition, it’s a source of
pride.” Sanabria, who has been nominated
in the Latin-jazz category twice, called the
change “a slap in the face to cultural and
musical diversity.”
The Grammy has been a powerful
symbol of honor and acceptance for the
Latin jazz community within the larger
mainstream American music industry. But
let’s not ignore its value in the marketplace.
Especially for niche genres, a Grammy
nomination can be the difference between
marginal and meaningful sales. A win
can create the sort of crossover appeal that
makes careers. Blue Note Records president
Bruce Lundvall, who signed the great
Cuban band Irakere to Columbia Records,
leading to a 1979 Grammy, said, “It is a
terrible mistake to eliminate this very valid
category. It should be reinstated immediately. Grammy recognition was absolutely
the key ingredient in building an American
market for one of the most exciting avenues
of new music, and I don’t know how we
would have done it otherwise.”
“We don’t have a chance in hell now,”
said Sanabria, an outspoken critic of the
move to eliminate the Grammy categories.
The drummer has helped establish a
website, www.grammywatch.org, and an
online petition to reinstate the eliminated
awards. Among the nearly 5,000 supporters are high-profile Grammy winners such
as Paul Simon, Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana
and Herbie Hancock. Sanabria is incensed
not just at the cultural and practical implications, but also the suspect way in which
it all came down.
“Who were the 15 members of the secret
NARAS subcommittee who made this
decision?” he asked at yet another press
conference in June, at the office of his attorney. Sanabria plans to file a class-action suit
on behalf of Latin jazz musicians in New
York, which will claim that the academy’s
trustees “abdicated their fiduciary duty
to safeguard the interests of all members
of the academy” and inflicted damage on
the livelihoods of musicians through their
action. Sanabria has called for a national
boycott against CBS, which has a decadelong deal to broadcast the Grammy Awards
show each February.
A lawsuit may not the most productive avenue to pursue. And yet Sanabria’s
requests thus far for meeting notes and
details relating to the category changes —
nearly all NARAS members found out about
this after the deal was already done — have
been met with silence. More than a little
is wrong with not just the decision to cut
categories but also with the machinations
behind those cuts — and that’s not to mention the tone-deaf condescension of NARAS
executives at “Grammy 101” meetings.
Portnow and others have explained that
in the discontinued categories, the number
of entries did not constitute a meaningful
number. “These awards have to be competitive,” he told me. Yet Chris Washburne,
whose has had previous recordings with
his Syotos band nominated for Latin jazz
Grammys, had his most recent recording
refused for entry on the grounds that it
wasn’t Latin jazz. “It had the same instrumentation and song types, the same
genre identifiers as my other CDs,” said
Washburne, who is also a professor in
Columbia University’s music department.
“NARAS would not explain the basis for
this decision or reveal who had made it.”
A year later, the Latin-jazz category was
eliminated, in part, according to NARAS,
for lack of sufficient entries. Something
doesn’t smell right about that. But even
if the judgments were not questionable,
even if NARAS was transparent about its
decision-making process, the elimination
of these categories just plain stinks.
Portnow has defended his organization’s
decisions, adding that the changes needn’t
be permanent. He drew an unfortunate
comparison to Congress: “If you don’t like
what they decided,” he said, “throw the
bums out of office.” That’s what the protesters in L.A. were asking for. That, and the
reinstatement of Latin jazz and the 30 other
categories that were eliminated from the
Grammy Awards.
At least Portnow’s right about one
thing: The Grammys have become a collage. And that, as Portnow doesn’t seem
to quite understand, reflects what’s best
about American music. s
SINGER /SONGWRITER
RONDI
CHARLESTON
with her ALL STAR BAND
Dave Stryker (Guitar), Lynne Arriale (Piano),
Ed Howard (Bass), Anthony Pinciotti (Drums)
ON TOUR
10/10 - MINNEAPOLIS, MN, Dakota Jazz Club
10/13 - CHICAGO, IL, Mayne Stage
10/20 - NEW ORLEANS, LA, Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro
10/25 - WALESKA, GA, Reinhardt University
10/28 - WINNSBORO, LA, Princess Theater
10/29 - LAFAYETTE, LA, Acadiana Center For The Arts
“Some of the most memorable
new songs from a jazz singer
since Abbey Lincoln…vocal
artistry at the highest level.”
-Hot House
“A rare artist for
whom a song’s
meaning is as
important as its
melody.”
-Downbeat
“Utterly delightful…
a joy to hear!”
-The New York Times
“Sparkling, seasoned
vocals, impeccable
taste and elegant
interpretations.”
-JAZZIZ
RONDI CHARLESTON
Who Knows Where the Time Goes
motema music
CD AVAILABLE @
amazon.com & motema.com
www.rondicharleston.com
The Cuban In Havana, Stefon Harris, Christian Scott and
David Sánchez find common ground.
Connection
By Larry Blumenfeld
Photo by Jimmy Katz
jazziz fall 2011 53
Late one June night at the Manhattan nightclub SOBs,
vibraphonist Stefon Harris moved from tender to fiery
while soloing on “E’cha,” a tune composed by Cuban pianist Harold López-Nussa. Soon after, trumpeter Christian
Scott and tenor saxophonist David Sánchez played hardhitting lines in pungent harmony during “Brown Belle
Blues,” which Harris wrote a year ago, just days before
stepping on a plane for his first trip to Havana.
Harris, Sánchez and Scott, each a bandleader in his
own right, established their newfound close rapport in
Cuba. And Cuba is where each of them — Harris, who is
38, and grew up in Albany, New York; Sánchez, 42, raised
in Puerto Rico; and Scott, 28, from New Orleans —
considered anew the relationship between Afro-Cuban
traditions and their own music.
The idea behind the new CD Ninety Miles came from
two Concord Records executives, John Burk and Chris
Dunn. It sounded simple enough: Gather these three
musicians, fly to Havana for a week in May 2010, and work
in collaboration with two Cuban quartets led by two upand-coming pianists, López-Nussa and Rember Duharte.
Yet nothing is simple when it comes to Cuba. Despite a
recent easing of Department of Treasury travel restrictions related to the ongoing U.S. embargo, the government paperwork for Ninety Miles took more than a year to
clear. Just before the trip’s crowning moment, a concert
at Havana’s Amadeo Roldán Theater, the air conditioner
shut down. (The live-concert DVD footage included in the
Ninety Miles package reveals not just intense concentration, but also a lot of perspiration; there are also interview
snippets from a forthcoming documentary.)
Sánchez is no stranger to Cuba or to cross-cultural
collaboration. He first visited Havana in the late-’90s
to play in trumpeter Roy Hargrove’s band Crisol, which
included Cuban masters such as pianist Chucho Valdés,
and recalled the landmark Latin-jazz pairing of Dizzy
Gillespie and Chano Pozo. Ninety Miles seems a subtler
blend of influences, perhaps not even something that
should be termed “Latin jazz.” Though the album’s title
refers to the distance between the Southeastern tip of
the United States and the island of Cuba, the project
is more reflective of the closeness three musicians
achieved while on an adventure, in the company of new
and foreign friends, mining shared roots and striving
toward common ambitions.
When I gathered Harris, Sánchez and Scott in a
Manhattan hotel suite, the three seemed like roommates
in a dorm. Their week in Cuba had seeded new musical
ideas for each of them, sparked in part by the contrasting talents of Lopez-Nussa and Duharte. And it has led
them all to think more deeply about their own identities.
54 fall 2011 jazziz
Blumenfeld: How did this project come up?
Scott: The guys at Concord called me about making
a record, and it was mostly about working with David
and Stefon. They just told me I’d have the opportunity to
work with them as three co-leaders. Then they added the
idea of going to Cuba. Who doesn’t want to go to Cuba?
Harris: It was pretty much the same for me. But in
my case, I hadn’t been to Cuba before. My first time going, coupled with the fact that I’d be able to make music
with these brothers? It was a no-brainer.
Sánchez: I’d always been excited about Stefon’s music
and Christian’s music, but we’d never worked together.
So to me, it was a great chance to play together and to
have an adventure.
Really, none of you had crossed musical paths?
Sánchez: Stefon and I have known each other for a
long time. We did a workshop for students in Washington,
D.C. more than a decade ago. Aside from that, none of us
had ever played together, not even a jam session.
Christian and David, you’ve been to Cuba before, right?
Scott: I’ve been to Cuba four or five times — three
times with Donald [his uncle, saxophonist Donald
Harrison]. The first time, I was 13, at Chucho Valdés’
festival. And the last time, also at the festival, I actually
ran into David. So we met in Havana.
Sánchez: I’ve been to Cuba several times. The first
time was with Crisol, with Roy Hargrove. After that,
Chucho invited me to do some quartet stuff. And he
invited me for the festival the following year with my
band, and that’s when Christian and I met.
What were your first impressions of Cuba?
Sánchez: When I saw Havana for myself, my impression was that this looks so much like a neighborhood in
Puerto Rico — but in 1960, in a time warp. It reminded
me of the barrio at home, but with older cars. Not only
that, but the idiosyncrasies of the people were unbelievably close, too.
Scott: Havana reminded me of New Orleans, just
with folks speaking Spanish. The architecture looked
like New Orleans. The girls looked like New Orleans. The
dudes looked like my cousins. When I was growing up, if
my friends could trace their family back past America, it
almost always stopped in Hispaniola and Cuba. Literally,
that’s where the buck stopped for so many of us. My
great-grandmother was Cuban. She would tell us about
growing up in Havana and sing us songs in Spanish.
Harris: Arriving in Havana for the first time affected
me in a variety of ways. There’s the element of music,
but also the idea that you’re in an environment that has
a different political structure. One thing that was most
striking was seeing that the economic range wasn’t as
broad as it is everywhere else. And it was interesting
Photo by Jimmy Katz
“When I saw Havana for “Havana reminded me of “This was a cultural
myself, my impression was New Orleans, just with exchange. We weren’t in Cuba
that this looks so much folks speaking Spanish. The to present American music.
like a neighborhood in architecture looked like New And we weren’t there to learn
Puerto Rico — but in 1960,
in a time warp. It reminded Orleans. The girls looked Cuban music. We went to get
me of the barrio at home, like New Orleans. The dudes in a room together and see
but with older cars.” looked like my cousins.” what happens, organically.”
—David Sanchez
—Christian Scott
—Stefon Harris
to be around a culture where music is an integral part of what’s
going on every day in people’s lives. That’s not really the case in the
United States for the most part, but it reminds me of time I spent
in Brazil or South Africa. And of my upbringing. My mother’s a
minister. I grew up in the black church, so music was a critical part
of our culture growing up. My early experience was that music was
supposed to be about something — not music for the sake of music.
Someone was testifying, and they would happen to sing their
testimony. The music was there to support the story being told.
So it was always functional. Did you get that sense in Havana?
Harris: I get the sense that their music is about their history.
I also got the energy from playing with these musicians that it’s
an opportunity for them to really let go. I felt as if when we would
hang out and talk, people were holding back a little. They couldn’t
necessarily say whatever it is that they wanted to say. But when
you got on the bandstand, they let go.
How did Ninety Miles work? What was the plan?
Sánchez: The plan was loose. We needed to do one gig, no matter what. And we wanted to get a CD out of this.
Harris: This was a cultural exchange. We weren’t in Cuba to
present American music. And we weren’t there to learn Cuban
music. We went to get in a room together and see what happens,
organically. It might be a record and it might not. But it did work.
Scott: At first, we sat around a table. We had a little iPod and a
speaker, and we played our tunes to each other. We passed out the
music. “OK, check it out. See you at rehearsal. We’ll see what happens.”
Sánchez: Part of the challenge was that we needed to come
empty, but at the same time firm. Empty meaning no expecta56 fall 2011 jazziz
tions, but at the same time we needed some musical structure.
Sometimes it requires people to lose their egos.
Scott: Anytime you’re going to play with new musicians you’re
hoping to yourself that they can play. I don’t like wasting my time.
But after we started playing, I saw that the guys were playing from
their hearts. They could have said, “You guys are Americans. We
don’t know y’all. You can’t play our music the way we play it.” And
they might have been right about that. But they were vulnerable
enough to share music, and that’s what you need to create magic.
Harris: I can walk into almost any situation, and I’m just grateful to be playing music. I’m not thinking about “Is a guy killing?”
It’s more about spirit, about where they are mentally. If I had any
reservation it was about making a CD.
Sánchez: You do what it takes to make it work. You make this
little move. He makes that one. I relate to you. You relate to me.
We’re all in the same boat. We take pride. Nobody wanted to put out
some gimmicky record.
Scott: For me, I just can’t put out an average record. I’m younger
than you guys, so at this stage of my career, this shit better be cool.
Sánchez: But really, I’m in the same place as you. In terms of the
masses, I am completely unknown. And when you think about the
record business these days, I’m in the same situation.
What were the biggest challenges posed by this project?
Sánchez: The whole thing was a challenge, and not just musically. We weren’t sure if all the official paperwork would come
through. And if it didn’t, all the time in the recording studio would
be for nothing.
Scott: There were a lot of “special” moments. I remember when
they first brought out those little-ass vibes — that was a special
Photo by Devin DeHaven
moment. I couldn’t stop laughing. The “nanovibes,” we called it.
Harris: The instrument that I had there wasn’t mine. It was
very small, almost like a student-sized instrument. I had to borrow
some small mallets. The tone is actually higher, and it has a slightly
brighter character. I found that it didn’t conflict with piano as much,
which was actually liberating. Also, seeing all these amazing Cuban
musicians playing second-rate instruments reminded me it’s not the
instrument, it’s the musician. There isn’t a strong history of vibes in
Cuba, so people responded enthusiastically to what I was doing.
When did you sense that it was going to work out?
Scott: When we started doing Rember’s tune, the one that opens
the album [“Ñengueleru”]. He kept singing the horn part, but he
did it differently each time around.
Harris: (laughing) Yeah, he kept changing it around.
Scott: That shit was so funny. But you could feel us beginning to
gel. We were all sharing this communal feeling of “What the hell is
going on? But we gotta make it work.” Yet that’s when I realized this
is going to be OK. No one took himself too seriously. We could laugh.
Harris: I knew something special was happening with that
tune “E’cha.” When I hear the hit, the breakdown, the change of key
and color, I’m not counting rhythm — I’m floating, I’m singing.
Scott: The real moment was the concert, after we’d finished
recording. It was hot. The crowd was big. It was about 100 degrees
in there, and no one left for two hours.
Harris: Look at the video. [Ninety Miles includes DVD footage.]
Our shirts were drenched after one tune.
Sánchez: At some point, I was struggling with the heat, feeling
dehydrated. All of a sudden I came to a realization. These people
have not moved. It’s incredible, the connection that’s happening
here. They were so grateful and attentive and loving.
Harris: The feeling of acceptance was overwhelming for me. We
felt that from the musicians beginning with the first note. But you
never know what’s going to happen with an audience. I started the
concert with that little pattern from “Brown Belle Blues,” and I could
feel the people exhale. I thought, “We’re all on the same page here.”
Can you tell me a little about your Cuban collaborators? The two
quartets sound distinct, don’t they?
Sánchez: I knew Harold. I did a project with Maraca [flutist Orlando “Maraca” Valle] two years ago in Cuba, and he was
involved. I learned he’s the nephew of Ernán López-Nussa, a great
composer. I had checked out Harold’s recordings, and this guy plays
both jazz and classical repertoire.
Harris: The two quartets had different characters. Harold’s
group was more jazz-influenced. They really understood the interplay of jazz interaction, whereas Rember’s group was more raw,
more groove-oriented. With Rember, there’s this vibe about him. He
has a certain type of self-confidence.
Scott: Yeah, he has a swagger. He reminds me of guys from my
neighborhood. He made me feel like I was in the 7th Ward in New
Orleans. I felt him.
Sánchez: One of my favorite compositions is the first one, by
Rember. As for Harold, I have my own opinions about piano players. Most of them play too much. Harold’s comping fits my taste. In
“Black Action Figure” he was right there, giving the right space. As a
result of this record, Harold wanted me to guest on his new record [El
País de las Maravillas (Harmonia Mundi)]. So I went to France to do it.
Scott: With Harold’s upbringing and his obvious refinement, his
music can occupy a broader space that lends itself to a larger scope.
When you listen to Rember, it’s so grounded in what Rember is. I know
20 bands that could play Harold’s music and do different things with
it. But I don’t know too many bands that could play Rember’s music. It
has a different personality, and it’s the man’s personality.
Harris: Harold is an example of someone who has an opportunity to move into the universal space of music. Jazz created a platform
for a variety of musicians to come together. Harold has had more
opportunity to move into that place through jazz, and that gives
him a chance to move into a space that’s more expansive.
Sánchez: And yet we needed both. You need this, and you need
that. Just like in life.
Those ideas of jazz as a platform and of a broader space lead
me to ask: Is Ninety Miles a Latin-jazz album? Or is it something
broader than that?
Sánchez: I’m really interested in what the term “Latin jazz”
means, the specifics of it. For instance, when I listen to Charlie
Parker playing with Machito, Charlie Parker sounds like he’s playing pretty much exactly the same way he was playing before, just
adjusting to some minor alteration. Is Charlie Parker playing Latin
jazz? Charlie Parker was playing Charlie Parker. You can name it
whatever you want.
I’m not comfortable calling Ninety Miles “Latin jazz.”
Sánchez: Me, neither.
Harris: It’s not. But what you do have here on this CD is some authentic blues, and you have a sound steeped in the black American
tradition mixing with something else, something Afro-Cuban. You
don’t have some universal mixing with another universal thing.
Scott: There’s a common ancestry.
Sánchez: There are some differences in phrasing, but there are
deep similarities.
Harris: I’m not saying everything is the same. Batá drums are
from Nigeria, but the Cubans made it their own. I hear blues in
Rember’s playing. I hear the traditional, formal Cuban thing, from
his dad and his uncle, in Harold’s playing. All these elements are on
this record, but how do you categorize?
Sánchez: I am proud of Puerto Rican musical tradition. And yet,
if you hold too tightly to your ideas about your own culture, that
can get in the way of being open, musically. And it can limit you. It
can prevent you from doing the kind of thing we did on this record.
I know who I come from. I used to play percussion. I used to play at
Carnival. But when I came to the U.S., I fell in love with jazz. And
I fell in love with R&B. And I began to have a problem. People told
me I was a Latin-jazz player. But I had a different idea. I’m just a
musician. I’m trying to find myself. I do recognize my roots. But I
also travel. And some of my best friends were African-American. I
married an African-American. That’s part of who I am as well, even
if I speak broken English. Someone else can worry about categories.
I worry about having experiences and growing. s
jazziz fall 2011 57
A new generation
continues the
city’s tradition of
exploration and
collaboration.
On a Sunday night at the Hungry Brain, a bar on a drab stretch
on the north side of Chicago, Jason Adasiewicz and his band
Rolldown are on stage. He’s sweating profusely while banging
away at the vibraphone. Josh Berman, another local star, is delivering crisp, unhurried solos on cornet. Early in the set, a man stops
by each table to collect donations in a hat (there’s no cover charge).
Only later do you realize that the guy is Mike Reed, a well-regarded
drummer who leads a few of his own bands and is the organizer, along with Berman, of the Hungry Brain’s weekly Sunday
Transmission Series of improvised music.
Essentially, this is the vibrant center of Chicago’s new generation of jazz stars.
Chicago has a long history of producing jazz musicians who build
loyal followings while exploring the outer reaches of the genre —
58 fall 2011 jazziz
Sun Ra, Fred Anderson, Muhal Richard Abrams and others — and
the city continues to produce internationally renowned stars, such
as Ken Vandermark, Brad Goode and Nicole Mitchell. Nonetheless,
today’s local scene is dominated by a group of under-40 musicians
who perform with each other in multiple projects, who embrace the
concept of working in bands, and who take a do-it-yourself approach
to building an audience. The dearth of traditional jazz clubs doesn’t
faze them, so they organize regular improvised-music series at small
neighborhood venues like the Hungry Brain, the Hideout and the
Elastic Arts Foundation.
The four musicians profiled here are leading the way. They’re
steeped in the tradition of Chicago jazz, which means they’re always
exploring new sounds. They’re also building reputations well outside
Chicago while holding firm to a commitment to stay in town.
Mike Reed, Josh Berman by Jim Newberry; Keefe Jackson by Jonathan Crawford
Josh Berman
Keefe Jackson
Mike Reed
Jason Adasiewicz
Jason
Adasiewicz
“Everybody
is leading
their own
project here,
and what
connects us
is that we all
want to give
as much time
to somebody
else’s project
as we do to
our own.”
60 fall 2011 jazziz
Seemingly out of nowhere, Sun Rooms (Delmark)
brought Jason Adasiewicz national attention.
The disc, made with Adasiewicz’s trio of the same
name, appeared on several critics’ “Best of 2010” lists,
including The New York Times, The Village Voice and
the Chicago Tribune. Then again, anyone who heard
Varmint (Cuneiform), his previous disc made with
Rolldown — a quintet also under his leadership —
wouldn’t have been surprised by the acclaim.
Adasiewicz is also a key member of Mike Reed’s
Loose Assembly and the propulsive trio Starlicker,
which includes drummer John Herndon (from
the seminal instrumental rock band Tortoise) and
innovative cornetist Rob Mazurek. For the 33-yearold vibraphonist, it’s all part of developing within a
tight-knit music community.
“There’s just so many fantastic players in this
city with so many fantastic visions that you want
to be a part of many as bands as you possibly can,”
Adasiewicz says. “These bands are all growing
because we’re all playing with each other in
different contexts. Maybe I’m growing by working
on something with Mike [Reed] in Sun Rooms, and
then that works its way over into Loose Assembly,
or even a band that isn’t with him.”
Born and raised in Crystal Lake, Illinois,
Adasiewicz started out playing drums. He first
came across the vibes at his drum instructor’s
studio and was immediately hooked. Although
Adasiewicz likens his approach on vibes to banging
on a drum kit — he still considers drummers such
as Elvin Jones to be his primary influence — the
sound he coaxes from the instrument is much more
nuanced. With a four-mallet technique and by
constantly working the sustain pedal, Adasiewicz
allows overtones of different chords to bleed
into one another, creating a shimmering, almost
otherworldly sound.
Adasiewicz’s compositions are equally distinctive.
Rolldown relies on off-kilter rhythms and contrapuntal melodies, but with a definite sense of swing. Sun
Rooms is more straightforward, with clear-eyed tunes
that sustain a consistent mood. (A new Sun Rooms
record is due in the fall from Delmark.)
Adasiewicz is grateful for the attention the
previous record gained, but he says that wouldn’t
have been possible if he hadn’t developed
alongside his fellow Chicagoans. “Everybody is
leading their own project here, and what connects
us is that we all want to give as much time to
somebody else’s project as we do to our own.,” he
says. “No one has this feeling of being a sideman.
Everybody feels that way, and that’s why so many
fantastic records get made and people have more
of an eye on Chicago now.”
Josh
Berman
“I went over
to his place
for a lesson
and I was
like, ‘What
do you think,
it’ll take
me a couple
of years to
figure the
whole thing
out, right?’ He
said, ‘Um, no.’”
Patience is Josh Berman’s key virtue. His 2009 debut recording
as a leader, Old Idea (Delmark), is loaded with Monkish angular
melodies, sly humor and a sense of cool spareness that suggests a
self-possessed composer and bandleader.
But that confidence didn’t develop overnight. The 39-yearold Chicago native didn’t start playing cornet until he was 18.
Being such a late bloomer explains Berman’s caution in taking
the plunge with his own band years after contributing stellar
work to other people’s projects, including Fast Citizens and Jason
Adasiewicz’s Rolldown.
“For a guy like me who started a little late, there was a long time
between starting, knowing how to read, starting to write your own
music,” he says. “It took a while to formulate all the stuff.”
Trumpeter Brad Goode had told him as much years earlier. Goode
gave Berman his “first really good horn” and a few lessons, some of
which were hard to swallow. “I was so arrogant at the time,” Berman
recalls. “I thought I really had it together. I went over to his place for
a lesson and I was like, ‘What do you think, it’ll take me a couple of
years to figure the whole thing out, right?’ He said, ‘Um, no.’ He said
it’s going to take 10 years. And he was pretty much right.”
Photo by Jim Newberry
Like the others in this circle, Berman is tapped into the city’s
jazz history. The septet Josh Berman and His Gang focuses on
Chicago jazz from the 1920s. (The name is a play on the Austin
High Gang, which included Jimmy McPartland and Bud Freeman.)
The group has mostly focused on rearranging tunes from that
era, but Berman is currently composing original material for the
Gang, which he says allows him to bridge his two main musical
interests: the melodicism of early swing stylists like Buck Clayton
and musicians who experiment with pure sound like Derek
Bailey. “The root of that music is listening to the earliest Chicago
jazz and then moving it forward to where it’s just completely
objective sound. No narrative, no story — it just is.”
Berman is also scheduled to record in the fall with a quartet
featuring drummer Frank Rosaly, bassist Jason Roebke and guitarist Matt Schneider, and he and Adasiewicz are beginning to play
as a duo — another example of how these musicians push each
other and stretch their boundaries. “Jason and I have been playing
together forever,” he says. “Between him and Frank and Keefe
[Jackson], I’ve just learned so much about playing and listening.
The collaboration goes on.”
jazziz fall 2011 61
“The nice
thing about
moving here
was that it
put me in a
situation
where I could
be influenced
more by the
community I
was working
in, not so
much by the
records I was
listening to.”
Keefe
Jackson
62 fall 2011 jazziz
Unlike Berman, Keefe Jackson
caught the jazz bug early on. The
Fayetteville, Arkansas, native remembers the first time he heard an
Art Porter, Jr. record. “I was 5 years
old when I heard him play and I said,
‘Yeah, that’s what I’m going to do.’”
Jackson had to wait until he was about
9 to begin playing, but that early
dedication helps explain the multireedist’s versatility and intensity. His
style, particularly on tenor saxophone,
can be gruff and abstract one minute,
deliberate and lyrical the next.
A similar contrast is at work in
his compositions. For the large group
Project Project, Jackson creates a strict
dichotomy between dense, intricate
ensemble passages and open space
for wildly free solos. For the collective
sextet Fast Citizens — which now has
a rotating leadership — he creates a
more seamless combination of conventional structures and expressionistic
individual turns. Jackson’s latest disc,
2010’s excellent Seeing You See (Clean
Feed), further blurs the lines between
composition and improvisation,
though with more emphasis on swing.
Jackson, 33, moved to Chicago in
2001 to be part of the burgeoning
improvised music scene. Humble and
soft-spoken when it comes to talking
about himself, he’s clear about why he
relishes the city’s improvised music
scene. “The nice thing about moving
here was that it put me in a situation
where I could be influenced more by
the community I was working in, not
so much by the records I was listening
to,” he says. “I was looking for that
kind of community of people you can
play with and be friends with and
grow together.”
Jackson’s currently working in bass
clarinetist Jason Stein’s new quartet. A
recording with Swiss pianist Hans-Peter
Pfammatter is due later this year, and he
was scheduled to go into the studio with
Fast Citizens during the summer.
“I think that’s what we need, to
keep exploring,” he says. “If I do get to
the point where I don’t want to explore
anymore, I won’t last very long.”
Photo by Jim Newberry
Apaulo Music Productions Presents
The 2nd Annual
Saturday October 29, 2011
Tickets Available at Tix.com
The Hawai’i Convention Center
1801 Kalakaua Ave, Honolulu, HI 96815
Benefiting the Kapolei Foundation “Providing Scholarships Promoting Higher Education”
Featuring World-Class Entertainment, Hawaii’s Top Chefs, Food and Wine!
Jeffrey Osborne
Michael Paulo
Boney James
Rene Paulo
Mindi Abair
David Benoit
pacificrimjazzfestival.com
Apaulo Music Productions LLC 951-696-0184
Special Festival Accomodations at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel
Gregg Karukas
and more...
Mike Reed is a busy man. He’s the drummer and leader of
two popular bands. He also performs regularly in duo settings
with guitarist Jeff Parker and saxophonist Mars Williams, as
well as with an acoustic-electric group called My Silence with
bass clarinetist Jason Stein and electronics whiz Nick Butcher.
On top of all that, he’s the co-curator of the Hungry Brain’s
Sunday Transmission series (celebrating its 10th anniversary
this year); the co-founder (with Josh Berman) of the Umbrella
Music Festival, which includes a program that brings together
European and Chicago musicians; and the principal organizer
of the indie-rock Pitchfork Music Festival. And he’s vice chairman of the AACM.
Little wonder the Jazz Journalists Association bestowed one
of its Heroes awards to Reed, 37, earlier this year. But it’s creating and playing music that’s first and foremost on Reed’s mind.
He’s a deceptively intricate drummer, subtly echoing melodic
ideas and creating varied textures while maintaining a sense of
swing. As a leader, his stamp is even more distinctive.
Reed, who grew up in Evanston, Illinois, just north of
Chicago, is well versed in the city’s jazz history. His group
People, Places & Things focuses on Chicago jazz circa 195460 with a modern twist. The group’s latest disc, Stories and
Negotiations (482 Music), made several “Best of 2010 lists,”
including NPR and The Village Voice. “There’s no chordal instrument — just two saxophones, bass, drums — so we can do a
bunch of different things with it, but with the underlying idea
of being more free swinging,” he explains.
The name of Reed’s other main group, the quintet Loose
Assembly, is an apt metaphor for his compositional approach
with the band — having a basic structure and the freedom to
upend it whenever necessary. “If there was a part written for the
cello, maybe the vibraphone would start playing the cello part,”
Reed explains. “Maybe the cello could take the alto part, and
everybody would have to reconfigure when we actually get into
the composition. It’s a lot of intuitive stuff, a lot of chemistry.”
And Reed continues to push boundaries. His next project
is Mike Reed’s Myth/Science Assembly. Essentially, it’s Loose
Assembly plus a contingent of New York-based improvisers,
including guitarist Mary Halvorson, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum
and tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock. Reed was preparing the
group for a performance at the Chicago Jazz Festival in early
September, where it was scheduled to premiere a work based on
a recently discovered trove of unfinished Sun Ra compositions.
A recording session was set for the following day. “It’s really
unfinished music, so we’re trying to finish writing it,” Reed
says. “I’m also trying to use the actual tapes in the electronic
passages or as source material for improvising..”
With all of these concepts swirling through his mind, Reed
says he’s gotten better at compartmentalizing his ideas, but he
wouldn’t want to narrow his focus. “I used to want to cram all
of these ideas into one project,” he explains. “It doesn’t work.
You need to have different projects for different things. It’s like
having different groups of friends, or different meals. You need
to have different things you can go to with a different experience and vibe and attitude and what you bring to it.”
64 fall 2011 jazziz
Mike
“I used to
want to cram
all of these
ideas into
one project.
It doesn’t
work. You
need to have
different
projects for
different
things.”
Reed
Miek Reed by Jim Newberry; Bobby Broom by Mark Sheldon
The Establishment
While the current generation of musicians is developing
a loyal and growing fan base, Chicago remains the home base
for top-notch established talent. For instance, until the New
Apartment Lounge closed without warning in January, 87-yearold tenor saxophonist Von Freeman performed there every
Tuesday night. The street on which the club is located is still called
Von Freeman Way. Fortunately, he’s still playing around town.
When she’s not touring the globe, singer/pianist/songwriter
Patricia Barber makes the legendary Green Mill Cocktail Lounge
her home on Monday nights, mixing her sophisticated originals
with creative interpretations of jazz and pop classics. Guitarist
Bobby Broom (left), who has long been associated with Sonny
Rollins, also performs at the Green Mill every Tuesday as part of
the Deep Blue Organ Trio.
Tenor saxophonist (and MacArthur “genius” grant recipient)
Ken Vandermark moved to Chicago in 1989. Despite a grueling
schedule that takes him across the globe, he still returns home
to play at local clubs like the Hungry Brain and the Green Mill.
Earlier this year, he organized the Resonance Festival, a series of
shows in Chicago and Milwaukee that featured the international
cast of musicians from Vandermark’s Resonance Ensemble.
With veterans like these leading by example, it’s no wonder the
new vanguard is so committed to staying in town. —JFM
madeleine
peyroux
The Ongoing
Evolution of
The eclectic singer savors a surge of
personal and artistic growth.
By Shaun Brady
jazziz fall 2011 67
How can you listen to Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowing in the Wind’
and say you didn’t get it? Just because it’s popular
doesn’t necessarily make it good or bad. It just means
you want people to hear it, to react to it and to enjoy it.
At 37, Madeleine Peyroux is all grown up. That’s not to say that
her eclectic tastes and mannered style have mellowed or become
more predictable. Nor does it mean that she won’t pull another of
her famous disappearing acts, shrugging off the responsibilities
of a working, professional musician to sing on the streets of Paris,
as she’s done in the past.
If anything, her new CD, Standing On the Rooftop (Emarcy/Decca),
finds Peyroux’s eccentric sensibilities not only intact but cohering
into a very personal, extremely offbeat view of the world. This she
sees as indicative of her newfound maturity. “Personally, I’ve been
looking forward to being an adult for a long time,” the singer laughs
over the phone from her Brooklyn home. “I think the female voice
matures around this age and I can feel that in my singing. And I
think that being mature in other aspects of my life is driving me
right now. So I’m trying catch that moment in this record.”
Both the concept and sound of the album sprang from its title
track, which, over a hypnotic, time-distending pulse, explores
the notion of seeing the world from a different angle. “The idea of
perspective on life is always very important to me,” Peyroux says.
“I wanted to keep a sort of wide-angle perspective on the record, to
have it feel like looking at a horizon. I was looking to express how
much time and our attitude towards time can be linked to music and
to our experience with music, how it can call back memories.”
The tune’s strange, dizzying throb was supplied by songwriting
partner David Batteau, whose entrancing treatment of Peyroux’s
lyrics forced her to extend each phrase into a dreamlike state of
suspension. It became the key to selecting and approaching the repertoire for the new CD. “It gave me all this freedom in terms of space
to explore harmony and to explore mood,” Peyroux says. “It became
an impressionistic attitude that felt like a new thing for me. It drove
me throughout the record from that moment on. I wanted to be able
to explore, to open things up, abstractify, but still be able to say I’m
presenting to you a song, a story, a cohesive linear thought.”
The ability to communicate to an audience is key to Peyroux’s
artistry. It’s a talent that guitarist Marc Ribot, who worked with
the singer on her 1996 debut, Dreamland, and who reunited with
her for this session, recognizes. “She has a lot of emotional immediacy,” Ribot says. “When you hear her voice, there’s something
timeless about it, but it’s also very emotionally direct. She’s not a
cold singer at all. She can communicate a certain kind of wisdom or
experience beyond her years.”
Violinist Jenny Scheinman, who co-wrote two of Standing On the
Rooftop’s dozen songs with Peyroux and has been a friend for almost
a decade, echoes Ribot’s sentiments. “Madi brings out the meaning
in the words. She’s like Etta James. You hear the words as if someone’s saying them to you, not singing them at you, and she’s able to
express complex emotions. She can do poignant like no one else.”
“I think I’m reaching in the most general sense into what pop music can give us,” Peyroux says. “I pay attention to pop music in terms
of a really wide scope. Fats Waller was pop music, Billie Holiday was
pop music, Bessie Smith was pop music. It’s something that’s meant
for a general audience, a popular audience, but how deep can it go? The
idea is to produce quality work that’s popular at the same time.”
One need look only at the songwriting credits of her new CD for
further examples of what she’s talking about. While two-thirds of
the repertoire consists of Peyroux’s own originals, it also features
songs penned by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan and
Robert Johnson. “It takes a whole lot of work to listen to Schoenberg’s
‘Gurre-Lieder’ and actually get the message,” she says. “And even
if you do that work, sometimes it doesn’t pay off. But how can you
listen to Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowing in the Wind’ and say you didn’t get it?
Just because it’s popular doesn’t necessarily make it good or bad. It
just means you want people to hear it, to react to it and to enjoy it.”
Someone else who knows a thing or two about making quality music for a popular audience is Bill Wyman, longtime bassist
with the Rolling Stones. After meeting Peyroux backstage at a jazz
festival in Nice, the two got together at Wyman’s London home
and co-wrote “The Kind You Can’t Afford,” an upbeat blues shuffle
about finding wealth in non-material forms.
“It was sort of a fluke, really, because I would never have expected
somebody like Bill Wyman to come up to me and tell me that he has
my records,” Peyroux says. “But he’s very personable and extremely
generous. The first night that we were introduced, I told him I was
nervous and he told me this story about the first time he was in the
United States, showing up for the Ed Sullivan show and meeting
James Brown and Marvin Gaye backstage. It was very poetic and
sweet. It’s meaningful to see a person like that who is genuinely a
human being as well as a rock star and a legend.”
Most of the suggestions for cover tunes came from producer Craig
Street, best known for his work with Norah Jones, Cassandra Wilson
and k.d. lang. Peyroux has been working steadily in recent years
with longtime Joni Mitchell producer (and Mitchell’s ex-husband)
Larry Klein, so the switch to Street marks a definite break with
her established sound. (The singer says her relationship with Klein
isn’t over, and that she hopes to collaborate with the producer on
an orchestral album in the near future.) Peyroux illustrates Street’s
influence by describing how he helped shape her interpretation of
Robert Johnson’s “Love in Vain,” a take that wholly discards blues clichés in favor of a sound that ripples with distorted, train-to-nowhere
menace. “I’ve always wanted to do that song,” Peyroux says, “but
there’s a real disconnect with musicians when you start bringing
up old blues songs because the tendency is to default into a more
modern blues world. A song is a song and blues is not a song. It’s a
whole body of work, and I was frustrated by that. So Craig suggested
this very spooky and beautiful approach that would echo the way
that Robert Johnson’s guitar playing is like hearing an orchestra.”
The result, Peyroux says, is a perfect example of why she brought
Street onto the project. “I knew that Craig would be able to try something new, to try something weird. That’s kind of his signature.”
“Weird” is a word that Peyroux uses often to describe the
musicians she assembled to perform and co-write with her on the
album. Marc Ribot is well-known as a guitarist of many colors,
from the frenzied freedom of his avant-garde excursions to the
Latin vivacity of his band Los Cubanos Postizos. Bassist Meshell
Ndegeocello is a singer-songwriter present at the birth of the
modern neo-soul movement. Pianist Allen Toussaint, who played
on a song cut from the U.S. album but that will show up on international releases, is a New Orleans legend. And Jenny Scheinman
jazziz fall 2011 69
Poetic License
On Standing On the Rooftop, tunes by Bob Dylan and Lennon
and McCartney sit alongside a song from a more atypical
source. “Lay Your Sleeping Head, My Love” springs from a
poem of the same name by W. H. Auden. Marc Ribot composed
the music after first hearing the lyric set to gospel music.
“Originally I set it for myself,” Ribot says, “but more than one
person has commented on the fact that although my intentions
are always the very best, my voice is basically like an old tin can
— and I’m not saying that in a good way.”
So when he got the call from Peyroux to play on her new
album, he brought the poem to her attention. “Ribot wrote
something absolutely stunning,” Peyroux says. “He has an openmindedness about what’s important in music, so he manages to
be precious and nonchalant at the same time.”
Auden’s poem celebrates a night of love, fully aware of the
costs that will have to be paid later. “In my particular reading,”
Ribot says, “I feel it’s one of the few secular or atheist poems
that has the power of gospel. I don’t think it’s a coincidence
dwells in both the New York downtown jazz scene and the world of
roots-rock singer-songwriters. A strange bunch indeed.
“What was most important for me was to follow this concept
through from beginning to end,” Peyroux says, “to write the songs
that were really driving me and to take them into the studio with
people that I would like to see with this material for the first time.
What will Marc Ribot do? What will Meshell do when she hears
‘Standing on the Rooftop’? The whole thing was about getting to the
point where we could go into the studio and then letting go.”
Of course, no one has ever accused Peyroux of being totally
straight-arrow herself. The strange turns of her phrasing and its resemblance to the linger-behind-the-beat style of Billie Holiday has divided critical reception of her work since her debut. The rumors that
dogged her six-year absence following that first album — a mixture
of fact, fiction, hype and mythologizing — didn’t help endear her to
her detractors. But five albums into her career, the wild speculations
regarding her mental health seem, at the least, overblown.
She admits that Standing On the Rooftop is a happier record than
her previous releases, from the tropical touches on “Meet Me in
Rio” to the whimsical advice of “Don’t Pick a Fight With a Poet.” But
anyone who suspects that Peyroux has lost her caustic edge would
do well to bear in mind the cynical moral of the latter song’s story,
namely “A poet knows you can’t win.”
While she has yet to completely shake the Billie Holiday
comparisons, Peyroux rose above them by tackling her first
album of original tunes with 2009’s Bare Bones. That project
gave her the confidence to continue writing. She contributes eight
new songs to Standing On the Rooftop, written collaboratively with
Batteau, Wyman, Scheinman and Andy Scott Rosen. Still, though,
70 fall 2011 jazziz
that Auden uses a one-night stand to illustrate what it is that
he wants to celebrate about people, not about gods. Maybe the
reason it’s so powerful is because that’s what people are to the
deity. Maybe humanity was a one-night stand.” —SB
she considers songwriting to be a learning process, something far
more difficult than singing
“I’ve always struggled with writing songs that are too verbose,”
she says. “I tend to try to pack too many ideas into one story and
become overwhelmed with all of the connections that I make. As
an interpreter, it’s a good talent to be able to listen to something,
see all the connections that are there, and choose some of them to
interpret. The fact that you believe they’re all there anyway makes
the experience of redoing the same song every night for years and
years more exciting. But if I’m just writing the stuff down, I’ve
found it really difficult to let go, to commit and say this is the final
form. I guess it’s just a question of honing this very special craft.”
Describing Peyroux’s songwriting process, Scheinman says,
“She loves to talk, to tease things out, to explore new approaches,
to follow ideas to their end. She never seems attached to any one
moment in a song’s development. We’ll write a certain narrative
together and overnight she’ll take a new approach and rewrite the
whole thing. Then we’ll have a new starting point together. It’s
very fluid. I always feel safe about expressing what may seem like
the most ridiculous idea with her. That’s a very important part of
co-writing — to trust the other writer.”
As a songwriter, collaborator, musical thinker and singer,
Peyroux is maturing. It’s a process she hopes will continue for
many years to come. Unsurprisingly for someone who’s tilted at a
few windmills in her time, she cites the author of Don Quixote as
someone who created a masterpiece at an advanced age.
“I would like to be Cervantes and do something amazing when
I’m 70 years old,” she says. “I look forward to doing some more of my
best work, but if that doesn’t happen then I have to be able to grasp
the moment that I’m in. I’d just like to be able to celebrate more
often, in the right context and for the right reasons.” s
Keystone
Shots
A new book celebrates photographer Kathy Sloane’s work at
San Francisco’s Keystone Korner.
Kathy Sloane was a fledgling photographer when she walked into Keystone Korner for the first
time in 1976. Situated next to a police station in San Francisco’s North Beach area, Keystone
Korner, which had opened four years earlier, was a West Coast oasis for musicians and patrons
alike. Owned by Todd Barkan, it would become one of the most important jazz clubs in the
country. Certainly it was beloved, so much so that McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter
and Elvin Jones once played a benefit concert just so the club could buy a liquor license.
For seven years — from 1976 until the club’s closing in 1983 — Sloane, a New York native
and self-taught photographer spellbound by the sights and sounds of jazz, regularly photographed the musicians gracing the Keystone bandstand. In October, more than 100 of those
black-and-white shots will be published in Keystone Korner: Portrait of a Jazz Club (Indiana
University Press). The 264-page book will also include a collage of oral histories — drawn
from recent interviews that Sloane conducted with musicians, writers, waitresses and others
— as well a CD of jazz recorded live at the club.
With the author’s kind permission, we offer here a sampling of the book’s many resonant
and evocative photographs in addition to an excerpt from an essay penned by Sloane, which is
titled “My Years at Keystone” and appears as an afterword in the book.
For more information on Kathy Sloane, go to www.kathysloanephotographer.com. To order
Keystone Korner: Portrait of a Jazz Club, go to www.iupress.indiana.edu or call 1-800-842-6796. —DP
Dexter Gordon
72 fall 2011 jazziz
jazziz fall 2011 73
Wynton Marsalis and Art Blakey
My Years at Keystone
I began to photograph seriously in 1975, documenting the life of my
daughter and the extended family I was forming in Berkeley. I had
lost my job at UC Berkeley, was living on welfare, and desperately
needed a roommate. My neighbors had photographic darkroom
equipment but no place for it, so instead of a roommate I set up the
equipment in my extra bedroom and taught myself how to print. I fell
completely in love with photography. At 35, in a moment of vision or
foolishness or both, I decided that after 10 years of teaching literature
and writing, photography would be my life. Friends counseled otherwise, admonishing that I was being reckless and that photographers
were a dime a dozen. How was I going to switch careers, especially
with no formal training or resources? But I was hardheaded and
persistent, making photos during the day and spending entire nights
in the darkroom, printing photos over and over and over again.
The following year, a jazz drummer friend, Bob, invited me to
hear some music in San Francisco. I opened the door to Keystone
Korner and walked into what felt like Manhattan. The jazz club was
74 fall 2011 jazziz
Carla Bley
By Kathy Sloane
small and dark, and the sounds coming from the bandstand — the
honks, the cries, the sirens of the streets, the confinement and
freedom of New York — rushed at me with such force that I stood
in the doorway as though rooted to the floor. Home. I didn’t even
realize how homesick I had been.
When we went back the next week to hear Elvin Jones, Bob
introduced me to Keystone’s owner, Todd Barkan. In his inimitable
and insistent way, Bob told Todd that I should be allowed to photograph in the club, and Todd agreed. The arrangement was that
I could come in whenever I wanted, without paying, as long as I
gave Todd a print of whomever I photographed. It was an incredible
offer — a gift, really. Elvin Jones was the first musician I photographed, and for the next seven years, I spent two or three nights
a week at the club. I wouldn’t have been able to do that if Keystone
Korner hadn’t been, as the musicians described it, “a family kind of
place.” I often brought my daughter with me and she was always
welcomed. When she wasn’t helping collect tickets with the door
jazziz fall 2011 75
76 fall 2011 jazziz
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Craig Harris and Donald Rafael Garrett
people, who adored her, she was hanging out with the musicians or
sleeping in the backroom.
The light was atrocious in Keystone Korner. Overhead spots
made hot light on the protruding planes of the musicians’ faces
and cut deep shadows in their eyes. I learned my craft by looking
at highlights and dark places. Sometimes, a musician would sit or
stand in the center hot spot, and then I would search his or her face,
although for the most part those opportunities were rare.
The overall lighting was flat and dim. I can still remember
setting my camera to f/1.4 (wide open, no depth of field) and
one-thirtieth of a second (a very slow shutter speed), which meant
that my focus would be off if my hand shook the slightest bit.
Photographing more than one player and keeping them in sharp
focus meant that they had to be on the same plane, which rarely
happened. It was a photographer’s nightmare, but I was too inexperienced to sweat it. I just worked with what I had, and I learned
more about the effects of light and the limits of film than I ever
would have in a classroom.
Early on, I began a series of jazz photographs where the face of
the musician ceased to be central. By doing so, the musician’s body
language and his relationship to his instrument intensified the
feeling of passion and energy that I was experiencing and trying
to translate onto film. I wanted to capture both the rush of being in
the moment and the power of the people creating music onstage,
those great artists who were telling us all about freedom.
Quite frequently, I’d run into another photographer, Tom Copi
(I think he went every night), but we had such different shooting
styles that we never got in each other’s way. I sat up front and used
wide-angle and normal lenses; I was in the music. And I’d move
around, shooting from the side and back of the stage, as well as
from a few other spots in the club’s very limited area. Tom, on the
other hand, shot from the back with a long lens. Personally, he was
much closer to Todd than I was and sometimes was allowed to
come in early and move around the lights. Keystone was very much
a man’s world and I felt that I needed to be fairly invisible if I was to
succeed with my work. Sometimes, Todd would stop and speak, but
mostly he ignored me. Years later, when I was making photographs
of women giving birth, this ability to be invisible was invaluable.
The mural on the back wall of Keystone’s stage provided another
photographic problem: visually noisy and psychedelic, the painting
made it impossible to get a clean, uncluttered shot of anyone at
the back of the stage. The musicians, especially the bass players,
merged with the mural to the point where it seemed to become
a part of their music, and that became part of the design of the
photographs. The mirror to the right of the stage posed another set
of problems. I loved shooting musicians in the mirror and on the
stage at the same time, but I could rarely get both images in focus
because there wasn’t enough light. Occasionally, if the players were
jazziz fall 2011 77
78 fall 2011 jazziz
Anthony Braxton
Lester Bowie
positioned in just the right way, it worked. In fact, for all the lighting problems, the Keystone’s tiny stage allowed me to catch the
interactions between the musicians. In no other club was I able to
photograph the horn player listening to the piano player (with both
of them in the image) or the bass player smiling at a drum solo.
I wanted to be taken seriously as a photographer and not
be considered merely a groupie in Keystone Korner, and to that
end I established a routine that kept me in good stead with the
musicians. I knew the ways in which black musicians had been
disrespected — terribly used and abused — and I didn’t want to
contribute to that. So I would go to the club on Tuesday night, when
the band opened its week-long stay, listen to the music, introduce
myself, and ask the band’s permission to make photographs. The
musicians seemed genuinely pleased that I sought their consent,
and nobody ever refused me.
On Thursday, I would return to Keystone to photograph, and on
Sunday, the last night of each engagement, I’d bring prints for each
of the musicians, as well as one for Todd Barkan. I developed fine,
long-lasting friendships with many of the artists, and I had a few
wonderfully intense love affairs along the way (despite promising
myself that I would not get involved with these magical musicians).
My one regret is that I didn’t tape the stories I was privy to
as I sat in the backroom between and after sets, listening to the
musicians talk with each other. It took me a while to understand
the import of what I was hearing, but even then I knew I couldn’t
manage a tape recorder and a camera.
What I learned was that to make this music of improvisation
demands a highly imaginative and creative mind, not only to blow,
but also to live a life that enables one to make the music. The backroom was where the elders taught the youngsters the things they’d
need to know in addition to mouthpieces and harmony. How they’d
need to step around disharmony or become their own mouthpieces
when a club owner refused to pay them or when their bus was
stuck in an Iowa snowstorm and they couldn’t call AAA. Embedded
in the musicians’ tales that evoked knowing laughter were the tools
for hammering together an improvised life. You couldn’t make
the music and survive without this knowledge, and those lessons
didn’t come in school or in books — they came from the stories
shared in clubs’ backrooms and on the back seats of buses during
the long nights the itinerant musicians traveled in order to make a
living. Keystone was, for all the musicians, a home and a haven.
During my years at Keystone Korner, I made the music my
own. Those years between 1976 and 1983, when Keystone Korner
closed, were certainly challenging. I was developing my craft and
struggling to make a living, just as so many of the musicians were
struggling. But the nights at Keystone Korner nourished us all. I
hope and trust that this music that feeds our souls will continue to
swing in dark corners with low lights. s
jazziz fall 2011 79
This story originally ran in the July 2011 online
edition of JAZZIZ magazine at www.jazziz.com.
Ties That Bind
Young and talented Gerald Clayton reckons with bonds, old and new.
By Shaun Brady
“In third grade I played a talent
show, and my dad had written
this boogie-woogie piece for me
to play. … It wasn’t some eureka
moment, but it felt right. From
then on out it was like, I think
this is what I’ll be doing for
the rest of my life.”
jazziz fall 2011 81
Gerald has called his father,
bassist John Clayton, his most
important musical influence.
82 fall 2011 jazziz
The familiar chime that introduces “If I Were a Bell” is intact
at the outset of Gerald Clayton’s new CD, Bond: The Paris
Sessions. The young pianist’s take almost immediately dispels
any sense of old-fashioned predictability, however, taking an
unexpected turn towards the pensive and airy. The sly groove that
his triomates — bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Justin Brown
— insinuate underneath then provides the incentive to build the
piece over its eight minutes into something approaching its usual
ebullience, anchored by that meditative heft. For some young
musicians, tackling such a well-worn standard could come off as a
contrivance, a pose struck to align oneself with the music’s history,
or as a deconstructionist sneer at the past. But Clayton comes by
the tradition honestly, having been born into it. The son of bassist/
composer John Clayton and nephew of saxophonist Jeff Clayton
(and in recent years the pianist of their Clayton Brothers quintet),
27-year-old Gerald has the legacy of jazz in his blood, at the same
time possessing the fresh perspective inherent in his youth.
Bond: The Paris Sessions (Decca/Emarcy), Clayton’s sophomore release, tracks the pianist’s progress as he moves beyond his wunderkind status to a newfound maturity. In particular, it showcases the
growth of his trio with Sanders and Brown, which has developed
into a remarkably intuitive, cohesive unit since its debut release,
Two-Shade, in 2009. The title of the new album, Bond, reflects the
strength of that relationship.
“Most of the two years since the first record was spent traveling
around the world and gigging with Justin and Joe, bonding on and
off of the bandstand,” Clayton says. “But I also hoped to extend that
to the bond between all the musicians that I’m inspired by, that I
play with and learn from, and even further to all the relationships
in my life, from family to friends to new people that we meet all
over the world. The idea is that we’re all connected.”
Clayton presents that idea through the three-part “Bond” suite,
each piece subtitled to represent one aspect of those relationships:
“The Cast,” representing the musical figures directly and indirectly
making an impact on the record; “Fresh Squeeze,” indicating newly
formed ties; and “The Release,” dedicated to the deepest of bonds,
that of family.
“I’m striving for my music to be an expression or reflection of my
life,” Clayton says. “The things that have inspired me the most over the
past two years have definitely been the relationships that I have in my
life. So each song for me carries a different story, a different memory.”
As an example, Clayton cites “Bond: The Release,” inspired by
a vacation with his sister. “It was just the two of us in Spain for
a week,” he recalls. “And we had some really deep conversations
about life that helped us open up to each other in a way that we
hadn’t before. That was a moment of clarity, one of the more inspiring moments of my life in the past few years. That’s what I think
about when I hear that tune.”
Aside from the nod toward new beginnings on “Bond: Fresh
Squeeze,” most of the relationships celebrated on the album have been
forged over the course of years. Despite their tender ages, the trio has
a long history together. Clayton met bassist Sanders and drummer
Brown while all three were a part of the Grammy Band, an ensemble
culled from the top high-school performers in the country. “I knew
immediately this was special,” Clayton says of the experience.
The three continued to cross paths over the ensuing years.
Sanders and Brown were both part of the Brubeck Institute at
California’s University of the Pacific, after which Clayton and
Sanders reconnected under the aegis of the Thelonious Monk
Institute, where both took second place in their respective competition categories. Following their West Coast studies, all three wound
up in New York, where they cemented their trio sound.
Of Sanders, Clayton says, “Joe is one of the most creative bass
players I know without sacrificing what we need, that foundation.
I grew up loving bass players like Ray Brown and my dad who have
that really thick pulse, where all they have to do is walk and that’s an
entire tune. And that’s Joe to me. He’s an inspiring guy to be around.”
Continuing on to his drummer, Clayton says that Brown “dedicates his life to seeking out more music and soaking in sounds and
rhythms. He’s really focused on this path of improving and getting
better. He has so much facility on the drums; he can play a million
things yet he’s more concerned with playing music. I feel really
fortunate to be friends and get to play with these guys.”
Inevitably, however, Clayton’s deepest and most lasting bond is
the one he shares with his legendary bassist father. He has referred
to John Clayton as his most important musical influence, indicating
the way in which music and life have been closely entwined from
his earliest memory.
“I think my dad is an amazing person,” Clayton says. “One of
the main lessons he always instilled in me was just to do it for the
music and let the rest take care of itself. The primary thing that
influences me about him is how he conducts his life, spreading this
positive vibe and loving energy. He does that musically as well, and
I learned from him that this music is about people and community
and love. I’d go to his sound checks and see grown men giving each
other hugs and telling jokes and laughing.”
An inevitable part of that environment was (and remains)
Gerald’s uncle, saxophonist Jeff Clayton. “He was usually the one
there telling the jokes,” Clayton says with a chuckle. “It wasn’t
until I started getting a little older that our relationship developed
to a place where we would actually talk about music and throw
back ideas. He can be an abstract thinker, and I’ve had some really
inspiring, interesting conversations with my uncle.
While there was never any doubt in his mind that he would follow in his father’s and uncle’s footsteps, he gravitated immediately
to the piano rather than to either of their instruments. At a young
age, he and his sister were asked by their parents whether they’d
be interested in lessons. “We said yes, not really thinking anything
of it,” Clayton recalls. “But they told us this was something that we
had to take seriously, just like the rest of our chores. We had to take
out the trash, wash the dishes, and also dedicate a certain amount
of time to practicing the piano. So they instilled the right kind of
attitude without pushing us to the point of going crazy. It just felt
natural — like everybody says, the piano found me.”
It wasn’t long before Clayton graduated from love of the instrument
to love of the stage. “In third grade I played a talent show, and my dad
had written this boogie-woogie piece for me to play. It was the first
time that I remember feeling good to see people smile and clap and all
that. It wasn’t some eureka moment, but it felt right. From then on out
it was like, I think this is what I’ll be doing for the rest of my life.”
jazziz fall 2011 83
A Life Aquatic
As a transplanted Californian,
Gerald Clayton has adapted relatively quickly to life on the East Coast.
One thing he does miss, however, is
the year-round opportunity to head
out to the ocean and catch some
waves. While he insists that he is by
no means an expert surfer he says, “If
you give me a boogie board and some
fins, I’ll be out there.”
Clayton discovered his passion
for surfing as a child, on a trip to the
ocean while attending summer camp.
“I remember it so clearly,” he says of
that first trip, “realizing that the ocean
is a playground, an amusement park
that you don’t have to pay for. Since
then it’s been a process of getting
humbled by the ocean, realizing its
power, getting beat up every now and
then, and then going back out there
and trying to charge it again.”
One particularly memorable — and
humbling — experience occurred
while Clayton was on tour with Roy
Hargrove in Brazil and rented a body
board. “I took one of the heaviest
wipeouts I’ve ever had at a spot I later
found out was called El Diablo,” he
says. “I learned the lesson that it’s
important to research an area before
jumping into the ocean.” —SB
84 fall 2011 jazziz
Starting at age 6, Clayton undertook
11 years of classical study with Linda
Buck before entering the jazz studies
program at USC. He took his first sojourn
east to spend a year at the Manhattan
School of Music, where he studied
composition with Billy Childs and piano
with Kenny Barron.
“My early impression was that he
was an amazing young man and player,”
Barron says. “He has loads of technique,
but what differentiates him from a lot of
other people who have loads of technique
is that he knows how to use it. He doesn’t
just play a lot of notes; he knows that
space and silence are also part of music.
He tells stories when he plays. That’s a
level of maturity that I think is rare in
somebody of that age.”
“We would just play duo every week,”
Clayton recalls. “He would say, ‘Do you
know this tune?’ And if I said no he would
just say, ‘OK, I’ll play it, and the next
chorus you’re in.’ Every time I asked him
a question about my technique he would
just wave his hands and say, ‘Come on,
man, you got it. Just play.’ His thought
process is that you just have to get out
there and do it.”
“I couldn’t teach him how to play the
piano,” Barron continues. “He came to
the table with all of that. So basically, we
just played together a lot and worked on
refinement. I usually would accompany
him, and sometimes I would just stop
and let him play by himself. Sometimes
people fall apart when you do that, but
he never did.”
Upon making a more permanent move
to New York, Clayton in 2006 began his
three-year tenure as a member of trumpeter Roy Hargrove’s quintet. “Gerald is
a great player, extremely intelligent,”
Hargrove says. “A lot of times we don’t get
a chance to rehearse, so I would just show
songs to the band on the fly at sound
checks, and Gerald was very adaptable
to that. He has great ears and extremely
good technique.”
More recently, Clayton has taken on
the piano chair in the Clayton Brothers
band, which he describes as “a really
valuable experience to get to know my
dad and my uncle in a different way.
There’s not a lot of bands that do what
the Clayton Brothers do. It’s sort of an
old-school mentality where there’s a clear
vision of what they want the music to
sound like, but at the same time there’s a
lot of freedom for each musician to bring
their own ideas to the table. But it just
feels like being at home to me. It’s the
music that I grew up listening to, so it’s
exciting for me to be a part of it now.”
Trumpeter/educator Terell Stafford
first encountered Clayton as a student
at the Vail Jazz Workshop, where John
Clayton serves as director. Now playing
alongside him in the quintet, Stafford
says, “In the Clayton Brothers, Gerald
plays totally differently than he plays in
his trio. He plays to the style of that group
— hard swinging, high energy. He fits
right into that mold. John is a great father
and has let Gerald find his own direction.
You see respect pouring from his dad and
his uncle and you feel that same respect
coming back from Gerald.”
Even with such strong influences
surrounding him his entire life, Clayton
has managed to find his own voice,
something he describes as wholly intuitive. “I think the thing for me was just to
not think about it so much,” he shrugs.
“Really, the process is the same for every
musician. We’re just trying to figure out
what notes to play. The musical identity
takes care of itself.”
Lately, Clayton has been collaborating
more with musicians of his own generation, young innovators like Ambrose
Akinmusire, Gretchen Parlato and Dayna
Stephens. While the music they create is
markedly different from that he makes
with his family, he insists that the
methods they use are as old as jazz itself.
“We use the same tools. We’re just trying
to express ourselves with honesty and to
keep our ears open in reacting to what
the music presents. It helps with anybody that you’re trying to play with to
try to get into their mindset. So getting
to know these guys personally is helpful
because you see where they’re coming
from and can tap into their attitudes
and emotions.”
In other words, regardless of generation or genre, style or approach, music
comes down to communication. In other
words, it’s all a matter of bonds. s
EvERY IssUE ... a fresh look at jazz
in colorful words and opulent photos and art.
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that includes a 2-CD collection of new, classic and exclusive music.
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CALL 561-910-7730 emAiL [email protected]
Faith
&
Passion
Cuban exile Gonzalo Rubalcaba forges ahead
with a new album and label.
86 fall 2011 jazziz
By Bob Weinberg
This story originally ran in the July 2011 online
Several years ago, Gonzalo Rubalcaba was touring Europe with
his Cuban quintet. After a concert at the New Morning jazz club in
Paris, the pianist and some of his bandmates repaired to a nearby
restaurant for dinner. At some point, Rubalcaba became aware
that a diner at another table was watching him. Finally, the man
approached Rubalcaba and, in no uncertain terms, told him what
he thought of his performance that evening.
“You should play more of the music that represents you,” the
would-be critic, also Latin American, admonished. “You’re trying
to be an intellectual, like Keith Jarrett or McCoy Tyner, and
you’re totally wrong.”
“He made a huge statement about that,” says Rubalcaba,
relating the event in May — just a few days before his 48th
birthday — over dinner at YOLO, a trendy bar-restaurant on Las
Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. “Then I understood. The problem is that sometimes we, as Latin people, believe that [people
from] other countries see us as minimal. It’s not the whole truth.
The truth is splintered between how other countries see us and
how we see ourselves.”
Certainly, Rubalcaba’s most-recent recording — a gorgeous,
heartfelt solo-piano meditation titled Fé (Faith) — won’t quiet critics who believe Latin jazz artists should play only danceable party
music. After a long, successful run on Blue Note, and its Japanese
affiliates EMI-Toshiba/Somethin’ Else, the pianist has newfound
freedom to play what he chooses — he’s now releasing his recordings on his own 5Passion imprint. Pronounced “cinco pasión,” the
label puns on the word syncopation.
Rubalcaba’s business partner — and Fé’s executive producer
— Gary Galimidi, is also on hand this night at YOLO. A Cuban
who grew up in Miami, Galimidi translates into English some of
Rubalcaba’s more complex thoughts, which the pianist feels more
comfortable relating in Spanish. After some 15 years living in South
Florida, Rubalcaba has a decent command of English, but he wants
to be sure he’s completely understood, something that’s never an
issue when he speaks through his music.
Unshackled from the constraints of corporate bean counters,
Rubalcaba has released a 79-minute recording of unaccompanied
piano music. He improvises on selections from Coltrane to Caturla
and composes his own highly personal musical expressions about
faith and spirituality. Rich and complex, the music evokes AfroCuban roots as well as the modern-jazz idiom, even as it bespeaks
Rubalcaba’s rigorous classical training. While he’s recorded without
backup musicians before — notably, 2006’s Latin Grammywinning Solo on Blue Note — the pianist seems to be making a
statement: He won’t remain confined by anyone’s claims on his
identity, be they label execs, audience members or those who
would use him to further their own political or cultural agendas.
Rubalcaba has wrestled with perceptions throughout his
remarkable career. When the Cuban native first performed at
Miami’s Gusman Center for the Performing Arts in 1996, members of the exile community vehemently protested, spitting at
concertgoers, pelting them with bottles and literally beating
them over the head with a Cuban flag. Expatriate Cuban jazz stars
88 fall 2011 jazziz
such as Paquito d’Rivera publicly scolded the pianist for not being
a more vocal critic of the Cuban government. While Rubalcaba
had since moved to the Dominican Republic — before relocating
to South Florida — his mother and father still lived on the island
under the watchful eyes of the Castro regime. Understandably, he
feared for their safety.
A resident of the sprawling suburban community of Coral
Springs, where he’s raised three kids a county away from the madness of Miami-Dade’s exile inferno, Rubalcaba says the controversy
has long since subsided. He performs infrequently in South Florida,
and when he has appeared, protesters have not.
“I haven’t seen any manifestations of that since that [first
performance],” he says, mentioning trouble-free concerts at the
now-defunct Hollywood Jazz Festival, the newly minted Arsht
Center in downtown Miami and a CD-release/label-launch party
this spring in Homestead.
As one who’s felt the boot of the Castro regime on his neck,
Rubalcaba fully understands the anger of the exiles, many of whom
lost everything, not the least of which was their homeland. And yet,
while he detests the oppression of the Cuban government, Rubalcaba
points out that he truly developed as an artist on the island. “One of
my best periods of creativity and energy was living inside Cuba,” he
says. “Nothing is black and white. There’s always been this effort to
paint everything very dark ... but things have nuance.”
Understandably, Rubalcaba was shy about approaching the
piano as a very young child. His father, the multi-instrumentalist
Guilhermos Rubalcaba, was something of a legend, having held the
piano chair in Enrique Torrin’s Orchestra. Jam sessions featuring
his father’s superstar friends — Frank Emilio, Barbarito Diez, Tata
Güines, and a pre-Los Van Van Juan Formell, among numerous others — took place regularly at the house. Then, there was his brother
Jesus, eight years Gonzalo’s senior and a dazzling talent, whose
daily practice routine included pieces by Liszt, Beethoven and
Rachmaninoff. Rubalcaba decided maybe he’d rather play drums.
“The piano, for me, was for people with really amazing control of
the two sides of their brain,” he says. “When I was a little kid, I asked
my brother, ‘How can you read two thoughts at the same time?’ So,
for me, drums, Afro-Cuban percussion, was really my pursuit.”
As fate would have it, Rubalcaba’s dreams of becoming the next
Chano Pozo were dashed when he was told by his instructors at the
Amadeo Roldan Conservatory that, at age 8, he was still too young
to study percussion. They suggested he choose piano or violin. His
mother swayed him toward the former, and after about two years,
the 10-year-old Rubalcaba was hopelessly smitten — with the piano
and with his teacher.
“She was an amazing woman,” he rhapsodizes over the
memory of Teresa Valiente. “A beautiful woman. She had that
ability to make people fall in love with the instrument. She had
the tools to seduce you.”
Many of the advisors at the conservatory at that time hailed
from Eastern bloc countries such as Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and
East Germany. Rubalcaba estimates about 60 percent came from
the Soviet Union, whose technically and intellectually demanding
methodology dominated the curriculum. Counterpoint, harmony,
theory and solfeggio training were all part of the regimen.
“One of my best periods
of creativity and
energy was living
inside Cuba. Nothing
is black and white.
There’s always been
this effort to paint
everything very dark
... but things have
nuance.”
jazziz fall 2011 89
The Shortest Concert I Ever Did
Searching for nonstandard material to record, Charlie Haden turned to his good
friend Gonzalo Rubalcaba. At Haden’s request,
Rubalcaba compiled boleros by Cuban singer Pablo
Milanés and sent a recording to the bassist. A few days
later, Rubalcaba remembers, Haden called him and said,
“We gotta record that.”
The results can be heard on Haden’s 2001 Grammywinning album, Nocturne. A selection of Cuban and
Mexican boleros are delicately interpreted by the bassist and pianist along with saxophonists Joe Lovano
and David Sanchez, guitarist Pat Metheny, violinist
Federico Britos and drummer Ignacio Berroa.
Naturally, playing this hushed, often-sublime music live would require careful
vetting of venues and audiences. So, someone screwed up big-time when the group
was booked to perform at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami during an outdoor music
festival in the fall of 2001. Haden, Rubalcaba, Sanchez, Britos and Berroa went on as
scheduled, but the blare from a salsa band on a competing stage drowned out their
quiet, meditative music. Midway through the first song, a disgusted Haden walked off.
“It was the shortest concert I ever did,” Rubalcaba says, laughing at the memory.
“Ignacio started cracking up. It was about three minutes on stage. Three minutes! I
know Charlie and I knew that wasn’t the accurate place to do that kind of concert or
that kind of music. The band got paid anyway.”
Fortunately, the group had another opportunity to present this sophisticated
music to South Florida audiences when they played to a full house at the Coconut
Grove Playhouse in 2002. This time, Haden made sure the sound was pristine, “the
best I’ve heard at a South Florida jazz concert,” raved Sun-Sentinel arts writer Matt
Schudel. By all accounts, the show was a huge hit with the audience, who rewarded
the musicians with a thundering ovation.
“I was really happy to see that,” Rubalcaba says. “It was a moment to show people
how flexible [Latin] music is.” —BW
Another part of his training, no
doubt, would have infuriated the Soviets.
Officially, rock-and-roll was deemed “the
music of the enemy” and impossible to
hear on sanctioned airwaves. But, like
many Cuban youths, Rubalcaba and his
buddies would secretly tune in to “la
voz de las Americas” — American radio.
He remembers “American Woman” by
The Guess Who as a particularly popular
selection. Jazzy, horn-fueled bands such as
Blood, Sweat and Tears, Chicago, The Ohio
Players and especially Earth, Wind and
Fire also caught his ear.
All these influences, plus his plundering
of Dad’s collection of 78s — including sides
by everyone from Charlie Parker and Dizzy
Gillespie to Erroll Garner and Art Tatum —
combined to form a distinctive aesthetic,
90 fall 2011 jazziz
a sophisticated mix of indigenous Cuban
and Latin styles with bebop, modern-jazz
and fusion elements. Rubalcaba became
exposed to more modern players, such
as Keith Jarrett, through a Cuban radio
program hosted by the father of percussion
great Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez. This
expanded his horizons even further, as
did a regular Sunday concert series held
at the National Amphitheater in Havana.
The series provided a showcase for complex
new music by composers from Cuba, South
America and Europe.
By the early ’80s, while continuing his
studies at the Instituto Superior de Arte,
Rubalcaba was starting to gain attention
as an artist outside the borders of the
island nation. He had toured Africa and
Europe with Orquesta Aragon, a Cuban
musical institution that goes back to the
1930s. While they were greeted warmly
— particularly in Congo and Zaire, where
the pianist says audiences sang along with
tunes from the group’s archival recordings
— Rubalcaba would gain greater acclaim
for playing his own music.
In 1986, Götz Wörner, head of the
German-based Messidor label, heard
Rubalcaba perform with his seven-piece
Grupo Proyecto at a festival held in the
Museo de Bellas Artes in Havana, the results
of which were recorded by the Cuban Egrem
label. Wörner bought the rights to the recording, which he subsequently mixed and
released on two LPs (Regreso Feliz, vols. 1 and
2, later released on CD as Live in Havana).
The album created a buzz in Germany, and
Rubalcaba was invited to tour the country.
Another album for Messidor followed, Mí
Gran Pasion, which highlighted the popular
Cuban danzón, a musical style with which
not many Europeans were acquainted.
Wörner was undaunted.
“He was really open-minded,” Rubalcaba
says of the label chief. “He decided to
run that risk to do that recording. When I
proposed the album, he said, ‘Let’s go.’”
Rubalcaba’s fortunes truly soared
thanks to a couple of jazz legends who
recognized his brilliance right away.
While staying at the Hotel Nacional in
Havana, Dizzy Gillespie wandered into the
bar and heard Rubalcaba performing with
his band. After the set, Gillespie invited the
young pianist to join him and his big band
the next day during their set at the 1985
Jazz Plaza Festival. He even proposed the
pair perform a duet.
When Diz asked Rubalcaba what they
should play together, the young pianist
answered immediately: “Con Alma.” Just
the week before, he had discovered the song
in a borrowed fake book, a precious commodity in Cuba. Following the performance,
Gillespie declared Rubalcaba the best
pianist he’d heard in 10 years.
“I fell in love with the tune,” Rubalcaba
says of “Con Alma,” which he’s recorded
several times, including on Fé. “The name
was in Spanish, and I saw the composer was
Dizzy Gillespie. A week later, I met him.”
Gillespie made arrangements to bring
Rubalcaba to New York and present him
at a Latin jazz festival in Central Park, but
politics reared its ugly head. Rubalcaba’s
request for a visa was rejected by the U.S.
government.
“Diz was really upset,” Rubalcaba
remembers. “He wrote a letter that was
published in The New York Times talking
about how at this point, in this century,
we still have these problems. We’re talking
about a guy who’s 20-something years old,
who loves American music.”
Fortunately, Rubalcaba was able to
capitalize on another fateful meeting
with a jazz heavyweight. Thunderstruck
by Rubalcaba’s talent, Charlie Haden,
like Gillespie, immediately proffered an
invitation to the pianist after hearing him
play at the Jazz Plaza Fest in 1986. In the
liners to Live in Havana, the bassist enthuses
about Rubalcaba’s “unbelievable touch and
command of the lower register. ... The way
he uses the bass of the piano reminds one of
the way Rachmaninoff uses basses in an orchestra.” The very next day, Haden brought
Rubalcaba to the famed Egrem studios, also
in Havana, to record.
The results must have been impressive.
A few years later, Haden brought a cassette
of the session to Blue Note Records chief
Bruce Lundvall, who was inspired enough
to travel to Cuba to sign Rubalcaba in 1990.
Once again, politics intervened, as U.S. policy
wouldn’t allow an American company to do
business with a Cuban artist. Their solution? Have Rubalcaba sign with Blue Note’s
partner in Japan, EMI, and allow them to
introduce his music in the United States.
A concert with Haden and drummer Paul
Motian was arranged for the Montreux Jazz
Festival in 1990, as a way for EMI execs to
evaluate Rubalcaba. Needless to say, they
liked what they heard. An album of the
Montreux concert, Discovery, was released.
Rubalcaba had played with this dream
rhythm team before, in Canada, which is
far friendlier to Cuban artists than is the
United States. So, when he was given the
chance to select his bandmates for the
concert in Montreux, Rubalcaba requested
Haden and Motian.
“At that moment, I felt a lot of pressure,”
admits the pianist, who has since performed
with Jack DeJohnette, Ron Carter, Chick Corea
and Herbie Hancock, among many other jazz
greats. “You feel like you have to be at the level
of expectations. You have to comply with the
ideas they have about you, and you feel it
when they look at you. But it’s part of the respect. You feel that because you are respected
by those people, and the history behind those
people, and the history they represent. It’s a
blessing. It’s a major compliment.”
Eventually, when the political rhetoric
had cooled and Rubalcaba was no longer
living in Cuba, he officially joined the
storied ranks of Blue Note. A string of critically and commercially successful albums
ensued, starting auspiciously with 1991’s
The Blessing, a trio recording with Haden
and DeJohnette. His first U.S. concert took
place at Lincoln Center in 1993, which opened
the way to more Stateside bookings and
international stardom.
Along the way, he also participated on
a couple of Haden’s high-profile projects:
2001’s Grammy-winning Nocturne (Best
Latin Jazz Performance) and 2004’s Land of
the Sun, both for Verve. Rubalcaba played an
essential role on both recordings. He helped
Haden assemble the multicultural ensemble
for Nocturne — including his good friend,
Cuban drummer Ignacio Berroa, Puerto
Rican saxophonist David Sanchez and
South Florida-based Uruguayan violinist
Federico Britos — and introduced the bassist
to Mexican and Cuban boleros sung by
Pablo Milanes. Rubalcaba reprised his role
as arranger on Land of the Sun, and scored
another Grammy.
On albums such as 1999’s Inner Voyage
and 2001’s Latin Grammy-winning
Supernova, Rubalcaba was given sparkling
showcases for his extremely personal, genredefying style. On the former, he included
a track titled “Blues Lundvall,” a tribute to
the Blue Note mogul who had played such
an important role in his career. While he
truly appreciates the enormous boost the
venerable label provided, the pianist says he
started to chafe at what he perceived to be
commercial constraints, particularly as they
related to expressing his Latin identity.
“When I joined EMI, the Japanese loved
what I was doing before,” he explains. “So
they asked me to keep doing what I was
doing. When I jumped from EMI to Blue Note,
things changed a little. Bruce and the people
around Blue Note believed that I should do
an American repertoire and I started to play
American music.”
This was reflected on 2008’s Avatar,
Rubalcaba’s last record for Blue Note.
Utilizing a sextet including the Cuban
saxophonist Yosvany Terry and New York
drummer Marcus Gilmore, Rubalcaba dived
into straightahead waters, with nods to hard
bop and funky, neo-trad New York-style jazz,
which alternated with his quieter, more
thoughtful ruminations. The album went to
No. 11 on the Billboard charts, but Rubalcaba
says he felt somewhat compromised.
Now recording for his own 5Passion
imprint, the pianist can present himself the
way he feels is right. That includes his own
way of exploring his Latin roots, affording
them the respect and dignity he believes
they deserve. “It’s basically festive, happy
music,” he allows. “But there’s another side.”
Rubalcaba plans to follow Fé with a
trio recording that will include Beninese
guitarist Lionel Loueke and Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martinez. Rubalcaba had
introduced Loueke to Haden, when the
bassist was seeking a distinctive guitar
sound for Land of the Sun. He’s been looking
for an excuse to work with Loueke ever
since. He’s also been badgering Berroa for
years to put together a group and material for a recording session under his own
name. The drummer finally consented, and
will also release an album for 5Passion.
Agreeing that there have been some
fairly remarkable developments in Cuba as of
late — Castro-critical blogger Yoani Sanchez
and the demonstrators Las Damas en Blanca
would have been unthinkable a decade
ago, as would certain economic reforms —
Rubalcaba is cautiously optimistic about real
change on the island. It’s ongoing, he says,
but slow. Progress will always be impeded
by the old men who don’t want to relinquish
power. But freedom, as a citizen or as an
artist, is the only way for people to advance,
he says, even if there’s a price to be paid for
swimming against the mainstream.
“I think it’s very important to do
everything possible to keep developing
yourself,” Rubalcaba states. “When you
do that, sometimes you have to renounce
what the majority of the people want
from you, in order to go where you think
you need to go.” s
jazziz fall 2011 91
This story originally ran in the August 2011 online
In a
Town
Called
Gladwell
On his latest release,
guitarist Julian Lage steps
off the train and into his
own private Willoughby.
By Bill Milkowski Photos by Jimmy Katz
jazziz fall 2011 93
W
“
illoughby? Maybe it’s wishful
thinking nestled in a hidden
part of a man’s mind, or
maybe it’s the last stop in the vast
design of things — or perhaps, for a
man like Gart Williams, who climbed
on a world that went by too fast, it’s a
place around the bend where he could
jump off. Whatever it is, it comes with
sunlight and serenity, and is a part of
the twilight zone.” —Rod Serling
In that famous episode of The Twilight
Zone entitled “A Stop at Willoughby,”
which originally aired in 1960, Rod
Serling’s main character, Gart Williams,
is a stressed-out Wall Streeter buckling
under the day-to-day pressures of the
Rat Race. On his nightly rail commute back
home to suburbia, he invariably falls asleep
and in a lucid dream hears the conductor
call out, “Next stop, Willoughby,” which is
As a way of jumpstarting his second
recording as a leader, guitarist-composer
Julian Lage fashioned his own private
Willoughby, a fictional place that exists
only in his imagination, which he calls
Gladwell. As the 23-year-old explains, “It
started as a vision of my own that was
really peripheral. I remember being in
Boston, walking home from school. I was
going to Berklee at the time, and every
this, where each song was designed for a
different geographic location?’ And the
more I considered it, the more I began
thinking, ‘What if it’s a town? And what
if your job was to walk someone through
this place and explain to them, ‘Over
there is the church, over there is where
the people live, over there is the town
square, and that’s the tavern where you
can hear music.’”
Lage’s active daydreaming has finally
manifested in Gladwell, his second album
for the Emarcy imprint. Using the same
unconventional instrumentation that
he employed on his 2009 Grammynominated debut, Sounding Point, Lage
and his genre-bending crew conjure up a
distinct sense of place on this evocative
outing. And like Gart Williams visiting
Willoughby in The Twilight Zone or the
stage manager in Thornton Wilder’s
play Our Town detailing the events of a
fictional Grover’s Corners, Lage acts as a
tour guide through the imaginary town of
Gladwell, using musical vignettes as his
mode of storytelling. As he writes in the
CD’s liner notes: “With its small population and slight size, Gladwell is marked
by a handful of unique characteristics. At
the entrance to the town, you would be
met by the genial Gatekeeper. Once inside,
you would encounter a diverse mixture of
people and influences. You would witness
the way people lived, as well as how they
spent their time. You might venture into
an area of town filled with small markets
and bazaars, or take a walk past the
town’s sacred meeting place, located in
the heart of the town square.”
“There’s so much going on, and there are so many influences in
today’s jazz and today’s music. Doing a project like Gladwell is
a way for me to make sense of all this kind of chaos.”
not a scheduled stop on the route home. One
night Gart follows his curiosity and steps
off the train, entering into the charming
1870s-era town of Willoughby, where brass
bands eternally play in the gazebo while
gentlemen ride by on high-wheeled bikes,
kids wander around barefoot and all the
townsfolk smile and bid pleasantries to one
another as they pass by.
94 fall 2011 jazziz
day I would walk through this beautiful
park called the Emerald Necklace that
was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted,
who also did Central Park. And I remember having these really distinct ideas at
the time, thinking, ‘This is a beautiful
environment. What if you wrote a whole
record of music that was essentially
trying to capture a sense of a place like
Lage and his current band — Aristides
Rivas on cello, Jorge Roeder on acoustic
bass, Tupac Mantilla on drums and
percussion, Dan Blake on tenor sax and
melodica — began working on this
project last October, shortly after the
Bay Area native had moved to New York
City. And while he landed in a nice spot
on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, just
In Pursuit of Pure Tone
Julian Lage has three guitars that he’s used on his recent recordings. For his
work on Gary Burton’s latest, Common Ground, he exclusively used an electric guitar made by Montreal luthier Linda Manzer, known for her work on Pat Metheny’s
42-string, four-neck Pikasso guitar. The warm-toned Manzer hollow-body guitar
also has a prominent place on his own Gladwell, but he also plays a 1932 Gibson L5
(no pickup, just into a microphone) on the closing track of that album, “Telegram,”
as well as on the bonus download track, “What’s Mine is Yours.” For the improvised and overdubbed guitar interludes “Point the Way,” “Cathedral” and “Listen
Darkly,” he uses a 1926 Martin 00-28, a small-bodied acoustic with a short scale
length and a special resonance in D major.
Citing Pat Martino and Russell Malone as important guitar influences for their
purity of tone, clarity of ideas and impeccable articulation, Lage says, “I’ve always
had a kind of allegiance to this pure sound. To play an acoustic guitar, for me, is the
most honest way of playing guitar because you can’t hide behind anything. If you
don’t have that kind of clarity of intention, you get a little sloppy, you miss notes
— it’s not pretty. So if I play a note, I like to hear just the note in its entirety with no
effects. That way I can tell if I’m picking appropriately, I can tell if I’m holding my
breath, I can tell if I’m tightening my wrist because it’s just really a straight signal.
So it’s as much a feedback mechanism as it is an aesthetic choice.” —BM
96 fall 2011 jazziz
steps away from Frederick Law Olmsted’s
Central Park, itself a kind of retreat
for stressed New Yorkers, he sees how
the creation of his Gladwell might be
construed as an antidote to big city life.
Indeed, while New York City has been
portrayed in musical terms by the sounds
of hustle and bustle and grandiosity
(think Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”) or
represented by the aggressively swinging
sounds of bebop, the sound of Gladwell
is quaint and bucolic by comparison,
particularly on pieces like the elegant
“Margaret,” which is gently underscored
by Mantilla’s fingers on the drumheads
and cymbals, and the melancholy heartland number “Cocoon.” And the closing
number, “Telegram,” fueled by Mantilla’s
brisk playing on a cajón — a box-shaped
percussion instrument generally associated with flamenco music — is more
bluegrass breakdown than bebop burner.
“This idea of taking the audience on a
tour is simple and has been done before,”
says Lage. “But it’s probably not been
done as much in a musical realm, and
particularly in the jazz realm, as much
as it’s been done in plays and dance. And
for me, Gladwell is simply that, nothing
more, nothing less. And what I thought
was so appealing about the idea from
an imagination point of view is that you
only have music as a means of expressing
this, so you have to focus your attention
through song forms. Because even though
I could write in the liner notes all about it,
anyone who is going to hear this music on
the radio wasn’t going to know that story
of Gladwell. So it was kind of a test: Can I
convey these feelings I’ve been having over
a period of a couple of years about music
capturing a sense of place? And it soon became a very collaborative process because
when I brought it to the band, they were
like, ‘Oh, well, what if this guy had this?’
and ‘What if there’s a villain?’ and this and
that. It was kind of fodder for my band and
the way we work, which is very much kind
of like a laboratory — throw it up against
the wall and see what sticks.”
Aside from standing as a metaphor for
a fictional place, Gladwell also reflects
new growth for Lage on a couple of levels.
“In addition to finding a musical path,
I’m finding a personal path after moving
“And the thing
about music
is, you can
have your
head in the
clouds,
you’re
allowed to.
If anything,
it’s your job.”
to New York,” he says.
“I’m traveling a lot
more than ever before,
and I see music in a lot
of ways as therapy for
me. There’s so much
going on, and there are
so many influences in
today’s jazz and today’s
music. Doing a project
like Gladwell is a way
for me to make sense of
all this kind of chaos.
I can put 18 elements
into one song, and
then all of a sudden
it doesn’t seem so
chaotic. It sounds like
music. And I can be in
18 places at once, but if
I think about Gladwell
as a project, it becomes
very simple. It’s one
town. That’s all I have
to worry about.”
Incredibly, Gladwell
was recorded in the
same week that Lage recorded Gary
Burton’s latest album, Common Ground,
which has the guitar phenom taking on
a more prominent role in the band. He
contributed the compositions “Etude” and
“Banksy” while blending beautifully on
the front line with the vibist’s cascading
sound in his New Gary Burton Quartet
(which also features bassist Scott Colley
and drummer Antonio Sanchez). Lage’s
working relationship with his mentor
Burton goes back more than 10 years.
“When I was 12, I played on the
Grammy Awards show. They did a piece
that featured young jazz musicians. It was
myself, Eldar on piano, Tony Royster Jr.
on drums and Matt Brewer on bass. Matt
was the oldest in the group at 17. And we
played this segment that didn’t last more
than a minute or two on TV, which is
actually a lot of time on a live telecast. We
did Monk’s ‘Straight, No Chaser’ and I took
a solo — one chorus, two choruses, maybe.
And in that little window, Gary, who
was there in the audience, saw me. He
wrote me a letter shortly afterwards that
said, ‘From what little I saw, I enjoyed. I
have this show coming up in your area
and I need to play a
30-minute set. Can
you do it?’ That was
our first gig, and it
went great. Then a
few months later
he asked me to do a
jazz cruise from New
York to London on the
Queen Elizabeth II,
and that went great
as well. After that,
another opportunity to play together
would come up every
few months. So we
cultivated these gigs
here and there until
he decided to have
me join his band.”
Lage subsequently played on
Burton’s 2004 album
Generations (with
pianist Makoto
Ozone, bassist
James Genus and
drummer Clarence Penn) and on 2005’s
Next Generation (with pianist Vadim
Neselovskyi, bassist Luques Curtis and
drummer James Williams). He followed
with appearances on two albums by his
friend and fellow Bay Area native, pianist
Taylor Eigsti: 2006’s Lucky To Be Me and
2008’s Let It Come To You. Then came his
acclaimed 2009 debut, Sounding Point.
Lage, who is touring this summer in
The New Gary Burton Quartet in support
of Common Ground, heaps praise upon his
mentor. “A lot of how I approach music I
learned from him. Because I started playing with him at such a transitional period
of my life — when I was still figuring out
what it means to be a jazz musician — a
lot of my vocabulary came from him. So
I’ve sort of grown up learning from him
and now I get to play with him in a different context 10 years later.”
But Lage’s amazing story doesn’t begin
with Burton. A musical prodigy from
age 5, he was the subject of an Academy
Award-nominated documentary, Jules
at Eight, which followed the precocious
and immensely talented young guitarist
around his favorite San Francisco haunts,
like the musical instrument store in
Haight-Ashbury where he jams with a
seasoned guitarist while expounding on
his love of Wes Montgomery and John
Coltrane. Shortly after that documentary
was released to wide acclaim, Lage would
perform with guitar great Carlos Santana,
then by age 11 make his recording debut
on David Grisman’a Dawg Duos.
Given his affinity for conjuring up a
sense of place in music, along with his
particular fondness for the soundtrack
work of Bernard Herrmann (Citizen Kane,
Psycho, Vertigo, Cape Fear, Taxi Driver,
as well as episodes of Rod Serling’s The
Twilight Zone), it’s not inconceivable that
Lage will eventually make the leap into
writing music for film.
“Oh, I would love it!” he says. “My
dream would be to do music for film. That,
to me, would make so much sense. I’ve
always been drawn to music that is multidimensional as far as the narrative goes.
The simplest example would be Petrushka
by Stravinsky, which goes with the play,
The Rite of Spring. It’s music for a play. And
what I’ve always liked is that these projects
can be taken as musical entities, which is
how I first heard it. But once I saw the play,
I sort of put the whole story together and
realized, ‘It’s got so much dimension if you
choose to go down that path.’
“And I realized more with this Gladwell
project than ever before that it’s really
comfortable for me to think about the
visual and the musical as one. And when I
say visual I mean not like just a picture, an
image, but a series of images, like a movie
or something that has a story line. It’s
funny, and it’s nothing I deliberately tried
to do, but I was actually storyboarding
Gladwell in my head before I recorded it.”
The budding soundtrack composer adds,
“In recent years I’ve been so fond of makebelieve. When you’re a kid, everything is
make-believe and imaginary, but then at
some point you get kind of serious and you
try to see things a little more structured.
But now I’m, in a way, coming a little bit
full-circle. And the thing about music
is, you can have your head in the clouds,
you’re allowed to. If anything, it’s your
job. You have a social obligation to kind of
dream up some random stuff. And how
lucky are we that we get to do that.” s
jazziz fall 2011 97
This story originally ran in the August 2011 online
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jazziz fall 2011 99
At noon on a warm June day, pianist and composer Muhal
Richard Abrams, who turns 81 in December, escorted me up
the stairwell of his midtown high-rise to a second-floor roof
garden for a chat about core principles. “The fact and idea of
individualism is important to talk about,” the 2010 NEA Jazz Master
said. “I also want to talk about life and sound.”
Having stated the ground rules, Abrams settled in under a
shady pergola. He preferred not to discuss his new recording,
SoundDance [Pi], a double-CD that documents an improvised
encounter from 2009 with the late Chicago tenorist Fred Anderson,
and one from 2010 with trombonist-electronicist George Lewis.
Instead, Abrams went straight to metaphysics.
“Individualism is a basic constant among humans — and
animals, too,” he said. “Each person approaches a situation quite
differently, which lets other individuals know it can be said or done
that way. I’m not talking about
a process of copying anyone.
It’s the fact that we learn from
each other because of our
individualism.”
He warmed to the topic. “To
seek one’s individualism seems
to be limitless. There’s so much
one can pursue.” He mentioned
Art Tatum, Duke Ellington,
Bud Powell, William Grant
Still, Beethoven, Chopin, John
Coltrane and Charlie Parker.
“Their pursuit of individualism
— not their ideas — inspired
me greatly to pursue my own.”
Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, his home until 1977,
Abrams, a sports-oriented youngster who knew a thing or two about
the street, was 16 when he decided to drop out of DuSable High School
and enroll in music classes at Roosevelt University. After a while, he
decided to study on his own. “I don’t know why, but I’ve always had
a natural ability to study and analyze things,” he told me a few years
ago. “I used that ability, not even knowing what it was — it was just
a feeling — and started to read books. From there, I acquired a small
spinet piano and started to teach myself to play the instrument and
read the notes — or, first of all, what key the music was in. It took time
and a lot of sweat. But I analyzed it, and before long I was playing
with the musicians on the scene. Later I got scores and studied more
extensive things that take place in classical composition, and started
to practice classical pieces on the piano, as I do now.”
As the ’50s progressed, Abrams trained himself to fluency with
Joseph Schillinger’s mathematically-based compositional formulas
and analyzed Rosicrucian arcana; some years later, he assimilated
several computer-programming languages. The fruits of his determination to follow his own muse are by now well-known. For one
thing, there’s his uncategorizable corpus, perhaps half of it publicly
documented on some 30 recordings. Ensembles ranging from
quartet to big band interpret elemental blues themes, hard-hitting
post-bop structures with winding melodies, textural soundscapes,
and collage pieces that address text, silence and space. Tabula rasa
100 fall 2011 jazziz
improvisations share pride of place with fully scored symphonic
works, string quartets, saxophone quartets, solo and duo piano
music, and electronica.
Of equal consequence is Abrams’ primary role in embedding his
principles within the bylaws and aesthetic guideposts of Chicago’s
Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a collective
that he co-founded in 1965. Within the AACM setup, he mentored,
among others, such singular composer-instrumentalist-improvisers
as Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo
Smith, Henry Threadgill, Leroy Jenkins and George Lewis during
their formative years. He focused his pedagogy on creating an
infrastructure that offered to each individual an opportunity to critically analyze ideas from a global array of sources and refract them
into original music, performed by ensembles comprised of AACM
personnel in AACM-promoted concerts.
“It’s the confrontation
with the puzzle which
[Abrams] encourages and
exemplifies in his work
— the puzzle of creativity,
the puzzle of creation.”
—George Lewis
“During the week, we’d all show up at Muhal’s place,” Mitchell
told me in a 1995 interview. “We studied music, art, poetry, whatever. It was a school. Muhal would be bothered with us for that
whole week, and still come to the rehearsal on Monday with a
composition for the big band.”
Abrams’ partners on SoundDance are more than passingly
familiar with his thinking. An AACM member from 1965 until his
death in 2010, Fred Anderson customarily recorded trios and quartets
in which he blew long, clarion lines over fast, rumbling grooves. In
the first moments of their interaction, Abrams is sensitive to the
outcat tenorist’s tentative, softly stated postulations as he attempts
to orient himself to the wide-open space. He presents ideas, listens
as Anderson utters his own, and negotiates common ground via
subtle sonic cues. Then, at a certain point, as if to offer a mnemonic
signifier, he plays a hammering rhythmic figure, eliciting Anderson’s
confident trademark roar, which remains operative for the duration.
The duo with George Lewis — which Abrams opens with
variations on a four-note figure that begins in high treble range and
concludes in the deep bass register, Lewis riposting with electronic
tones — is epigrammatic and staggeringly erudite. The Edwin Case
Professor of Music at Columbia University since 2004 and author of
A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental
Music, Lewis is himself a paradigm-shifter both in reshaping the
sonic possibilities of the trombone and in creating software that im-
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Five Good Ones
Muhal Richard Abrams’ discography is consistently strong, from his 1967 debut as a leader to the 2011 release of SoundDance.
Here are five touchstones.
s Sightsong (Black Saint, 1975) — In
the Black Saint dates Blues Forever,
duo with bassist Malachi Favors, of Art
Rejoicing With the Light, and Blu Blu Blu.
Ensemble of Chicago fame, Abrams ofParticularly impressive is the unitary,
fers idiomatic, swinging meditations on
narrative quality of this impeccably
’50s South Side associates Wilbur Ware
executed, seven-piece suite, which has a
and Johnny Griffin, before proceeding
21st-century Ellington feel.
to push the envelope every which way.
s One Line, Two Views (New World, 1995)
— On this masterwork, which opens
s Lifea Blinec (Arista, 1978) — This twowith a soundscape and concludes with
woodwind (Joseph Jarman and Douglas
a blues figure, Abrams fully exploits
Ewart), two-piano (Abrams and Amina
the tonal and rhythmic possibilities
Claudine Myers) and drums (Thurman
of a tentet that includes violin (Mark
Barker) AACM ensemble addresses
Feldman), accordion (Tony Cedras), harp
Abrams’ sound world with a cohesion
(Anne LeBaron) and an array of woodand precision that anticipates such ’80s
winds and percussion.
signposts as Colors In Thirty-Third and
View From Within.
s Vision Towards Essence (Pi, 2008) — On this transcendent
hour-long improvisation, Abrams evokes the inner self. He
s The Hearinga Suite (Black Saint, 1989)
traverses a 360-degree dynamic range, conjuring a stream of
— It’s hard to choose amongst Abrams’
big-band recordings, which also include thematic ideas that don’t repeat. —TP
provises in real time. He met Abrams in Chicago in 1971. Thirty-nine
years later, he and his mentor transition from one concept to the
next — the range spans stride piano to post-Stockhausen — without
a blink, as though two 18th-century philosophes were conducting a
45-minute colloquy on the sum total of human knowledge.
I asked whether Abrams’ shared background with Anderson and
Lewis in any way inflected the music on SoundDance.
“No,” he responded bluntly. “The sound of that document had
to do with what we did in that moment only. There is no shared
background that comes to the stage when you’re performing. It’s the
individual’s background. Each individual brings his or her path in to
collaborate with the other individual’s path, and makes the choice
as to how they contribute to the improvised space. That’s it. There’s
nothing to reach for in the past or any place else.
“I listen to all kinds of music all the time. I practice all kinds of
music, every day. I practice here” — he pointed to his head — “and
here” — he unfurled his long, tapered fingers, each permanently
imprinted with long, symmetrical grooves after 55 years of incessant practice. “I write all kinds of music. So when I go to improvise,
it’s just a continuum of how I feel in general through listening to
all these things. I’m endeavoring to be continuously musical in the
pursuit of organizing sound until I stop the improvisation.”
Lewis noted that Abrams’ ability to execute any idea he wants at
any time, and to react to anything that anybody can throw at him,
poses certain singular challenges. “In most cases, I feel that when
people make the sound, their inner lives become an open book,”
he said. “You read the mind through sound, or sonic gesture. I’ve
never been able to do that with Muhal. Somehow there’s a certain
opacity. I’m not a big believer in pure spontaneity, but maybe with
Muhal you have to think differently about that. With him, you really
shouldn’t rely on previous encounters or make assumptions about
what should happen or about style or method or technique or sound
— not least because I think that Muhal is very good at detecting
people who do that, and the banana peels will start coming thick
and fast. You have to find your way moment by moment through an
infinity of possibilities before a path suddenly appears that you have
to follow. If that path doesn’t happen to be the one you preferred, you
have to make do. A lot of what goes on in improvisation, musical or
otherwise, is a process of making-do, trying to work with and take
a stance to the conditions you find, which are whatever sounds the
other person is generating at that moment — pitch, timbre, a sense
of the rhythm, the rate of change. It’s very prosaic.”
However prosaic the process of creative gestation, these iterations
of Abrams’ musical imagination are never dry or wooden. For one
thing, even at 80, he accesses his immense database of sonic information with Pentium quickness in the heat of battle. There’s his mastery
of rhythm, which, as Jason Moran wrote in www.jazz.com two years
ago, “he hears and then allows his harmonic style to infiltrate.” He
pulls his voice from the piano with an arsenal of attacks that span
whisper to thunderstorm, infusing highbrow concepts with a blues
sensibility developed early in his career as a Chicago first-caller.
“Chicago was a blues town, so we all could play the blues real
well,” Abrams says. “Playing the blues and playing jazz used
to be one and the same. Later, people separated the music into
some that can sell and some that can’t. To say jazz is a deep part
of who I am is fine.” While Abrams is proud of the swinging jazz
he played in the ’50s and ’60s, he doesn’t want it to be factored
into the way his music is assessed today. “There are young people
doing all kinds of things, but don’t know anything about the mix
I’ve been playing,” he says. “They’d be confronted with something
that might obstruct their approach.”
Abrams probably wasn’t referring to present-day movers and
shakers like Moran, Vijay Iyer and Steve Coleman, who regard
him as a deeply influential figure on their respective paths. In
a long conversation about Abrams’ qualities, Coleman, himself
a Chicagoan, noted Abrams’ penchant for rotating between the
“inside” and “outside” factions of the South Side music community.
“Muhal played with cats like Johnny Griffin and Von Freeman, who
you couldn’t get up on stage with if you didn’t know a certain amount
of information from the tradition,” Coleman says. “It impressed me
that he had a wide-open concept that included cats from strong blues
and R&B backgrounds who didn’t go through that tradition, some
guys who initially couldn’t play anything. He didn’t impose those
strictures on anyone. Muhal was like, if you’re sincere and you have a
burning desire, then we’re open to your coming in and experimenting.
It wasn’t some shit like, ‘We want you to come in here and be a joke.’
But all these different backgrounds were able to come together and try
to develop a common thing on which they could communicate. That
involved a tolerance that I found interesting.
“Muhal has a Yoda quality, a sage kind of thing. You’re struck
right away that this is an incredibly wise cat, whose breadth of
knowledge goes way back. But he doesn’t lord it over you or come
on egotistical or try to sell you something. I think people’s respect
for him comes from that standpoint. Muhal can discourse with you
about anything you want to talk about — esoteric stuff, whatever.
Talk about walking down a street with somebody, and he can tell
you how this relates to music. He told me stories about being in
Washington Park when he was a little kid, listening to elders debate all this metaphysical stuff; they’d pass the stick, and whoever
had the stick would talk. Muhal grappled with these things early
in his career and thought deeply about them. He sees them all as
connected. I can see why the AACM concept came up with him,
because his playing has an unusually broad palette.”
Both Lewis and Coleman are clear that Abrams’ primary legacy
will be situated not so much in the specifics of his musical production
as the example he sets by it. “There are different kinds of ethos embedded in what people do,” Lewis says. “For some, it’s amazement at what
they’re doing, how intricate and virtuosic it is. I don’t come away
from a Muhal performance thinking about any of that. I come away
thinking, ‘Boy, this certainly gives me a lot of work to do.’ Just when
I thought I’d figured it out, there’s another facet of the puzzle which
Muhal has brought out without pretending to solve the puzzle. It’s the
confrontation with the puzzle which he encourages and exemplifies
in his work — the puzzle of creativity, the puzzle of creation.”
That Abrams himself anticipates his ninth decade with a similar
spirit can be inferred from his response to a hypothetical proposition
that he play a 10-day retrospective of his oeuvre. “I probably wouldn’t
do that,” he said. “I’m not interested in repetition. It’s not that I don’t
like it. I use repetition, but in different ways. I’m interested in creating
a new event that’s just right for the occasion that comes up. When I
say ‘right for the occasion,’ I mean designing something that’s special
for how I want to be musical at the time. That’s my focus.” s
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Auditions
Moonlight
Serenades
Karrin Allyson explores the melancholy heart of bittersweet ballads.
by Michael Roberts
Photo by Lessig & Taylor
In an era when more and more music lovers download individual songs, many artists are eschewing the concept of the album.
But not Karrin Allyson. The singer sees ’Round Midnight, her most
recent release for the Concord label, as a batch of meaningful tunes
that collectively make a statement.
“It’s a very late-night, heartbreak-kind of set,” she says. Her husband,
guitarist Rod Fleeman, echoed that sentiment, she relates, describing it
as “a meal that needs to be savored, instead of just snacks.”
Early in her recording career, Allyson took a different approach.
“The first, I’d say, four of my CDs were a variety — more like our
shows, which include a lot of different things,” she notes. “We’d do
everything you’ve heard us do on record — many versions of the
blues, Brazilian stuff, a little bit of bebop, Great American Songbook
stuff, pop stuff, French music. But when I do album projects now, I
like to put a common thread through them. That helps me focus on
some aspects of them, and it helps me learn, too.”
On ’Round Midnight, Allyson plays all keyboard parts. It’s the first
time she’s done so on an album since signing with Concord, prior
to the release of I Didn’t Know About You in 1992. She describes the
decision as an evolutionary process.
“When I was playing live gigs with other pianists, I’d always sit
down during the set and do two or three [numbers on piano], and it
seemed like I’d get a great response to those songs,” she points out.
“I’m not a bebop, chopsy piano player. I’m more of an accompanist for
myself, and I think it must have felt like a really personal statement
to the audience. And then my band got smaller; I’d have a guitarist,
bass, drums and myself. So I was playing more piano by necessity
and really digging it.”
When Allyson decided to explore this territory in the studio, she
chose numbers that she’s always adored and then wrote arrangements for most of them. “It’s stuff that comes right out of me,” she
says. “So it’s very personal in that regard, too.”
She put this method to the test by selecting some oft-covered
compositions – not just jazz standards such as the gorgeous Thelonious
Monk-penned title track and Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady,” but
also genre-crossers like Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” and
Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile.” On the former, she employed a Fleeman arrangement that she calls “beautifully understated,” in stark contrast to
the histrionic way it’s often performed. As for “Smile,” Allyson says, “I
used to do that tune all the time like everyone else has done it — kind
of bouncy. But when I wrote the arrangement, I remember coming at
it from the top of the keyboard, and from the very bottom, and coming
together with this very sad, very bittersweet feel.”
Allyson performs a similar act of transformation on Bill Evans’
“Turn Out the Stars,” using as a guide lyrics by Gene Lees with which
she was unfamiliar until fairly recently. “People usually do it ‘up,’
” she says. “But if you do it ‘down’ with those lyrics, which I love, it
really becomes pretty profound.”
And then there’s “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows,” which she sings
as a kind of tribute to everyone who’s facing tough times. That could
be a large burden to bear, especially these days, but she doesn’t let it
weigh her down. “When I sing that song, I think about how lucky I
am to be able to do what I do – doing what I love for a living. A lot of
folks don’t get to do that.” s
Karrin Allyson
‘Round Midnight
(Concord)
Throughout her rich and sizable discography, compiled over
nearly two decades, vocalist and pianist Karrin Allyson
has traversed many corners of the musical universe. From
standards to blues to Braziliana, the singer has displayed
remarkable skill and control of her instrument. On ’Round
Midnight, Allyson delves into lyrical jazz and pop ballads.
The result is her subtlest — and finest — record to date.
Under such subdued circumstances, Allyson feels no
need to strut her stuff. Instead, she allows her distinctive, slightly salty voice to breathe and gleam as she
relaxes into a body of great songs.
Allyson’s languid, twilit version of Bill Evans’ “Turn
Out the Stars,” with its endearing lyric by Gene Lees,
opens the album beautifully, setting the stage for what
will follow. Thematic currents connect the selections
either by topic or by musical affinities and linkages.
Allyson’s harmonically tangy and bittersweet piano
recasts Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile” in a fresh, waltz style,
while “The Shadow of Your Smile,” subsequently embodies brooding bossa-time gracefulness.
The singer delivers a radiant treatment of the Simon
and Garfunkel jewel “April Come She Will,” which was
memorably featured in the 1967 movie The Graduate. She
continues the seasonal poetics with Fran Landesman and
Tommy Wolf’s “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most,”
one of the album’s strongest interpretations.
Accompanying Allyson throughout, saxophonist and
flutist Bob Sheppard, guitarist Rod Fleeman, bassist Ed
Howard and drummer Matt Wilson supply the appropriate low-key sensitivity, crafting a strong but supple
framework upon which the singer weaves her midnight
mood. Allyson’s spare vocal reading of the Thelonious
Monk title track, accompanied solely by Howard’s bass,
caps off an all-around lovely, dusky enterprise.
— Josef Woodard
jazziz fall 2011 107
Cindy Bradley
Cindy Bradley
Unscripted
(Trippin N’ Rhythm)
Cindy Bradley dramatically expands her
stylistic palette on
Unscripted. This
funked-up, emotionally charged
follow-up to her
2009 release, Bloom,
reaches beyond the
dwindling smoothjazz market. The versatile trumpeter and
flugelhornist won an armful of smoothie
accolades for her previous effort, and has
earned 2011 Oasis Contemporary Jazz Awards
for Brass Player of the Year and New Artist
of the Year. But there’s nothing lightweight
about this fresh, improvisation-rich set of
jams and expansive power ballads.
Only two mid-tempo, in-the-pocket
flugelhorn numbers suggest smooth jazz:
“Lifted,” which features lush acoustic
guitar by Thano Sahnas; and the seductive,
ambient “A New Day.” But for the most part,
Bradley contemporizes the straightahead
model of heroes Freddie Hubbard, Lee
Morgan and Blue Mitchell.
Bradley frames the set as a club-hopping
night in New York City. She has to get around
somehow, which cues producer and co-writer
Michael Broening to blast us into the danceable funk-jazz fusion jam “Massive Transit.”
Along the way, Bradley pops into some jazz
clubs. She salutes Wayne Shorter with a
seven-minute romp through “Footprints,”
featuring delectable horn-solo tradeoffs with
saxman Tim Veeder. She also delves into the
Great American Songbook with a silky version
of “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” following
in the tradition of Billie, Chet and Trane.
The fact that these tracks are only
warm-ups for the disc’s most memorable
moments speaks volumes about Bradley
and Broening’s compositional acumen.
The pair celebrate the cityscape with brass
and fire aplenty on “Deja Blue,” while the
blues-smacked “Pink Slip” showcases the
trumpeter doubling on trombone.
Bradley coped with personal sorrow during the recording of Unscripted, namely the
end of a relationship and cancer diagnoses
for both her mother and her grandmother.
The trumpeter taps raw vulnerability on
Mindy Smith’s exquisite “One Moment
More,” a heartbreaking assessment of life’s
ups and downs that concludes the album on
a profound note. Bradley’s Unscripted project
might be more powerful than when she
already knows the lines.
— Jonathan Widran
Sonny Rollins
Road Shows, Vol. 2
(Doxy/Emarcy)
A live album is supposed to make listeners
feel as if they’re
at a concert, with
the artist or a band
expanding upon or
radically reshaping
well-known material.
Unfortunately, some
live albums send the
message: “You really had to be there.” And
while this isn’t entirely true of Sonny Rollins’
Road Shows, Vol. 2, it’s a close call at times.
All six tracks on Vol. 2 were recorded in
2010, unlike its predecessor, which harvested
material from decades of performances.
Four of the six cuts were taped at Rollins’
80th birthday celebration at New York City’s
Beacon Theatre. For that event, the Saxophone
Colossus and his road band (guitarist Russell
Malone, bassist Bob Cranshaw, drummer
Kobie Watkins and percussionist Sammy
Figueroa) were joined by a number of guests.
Among them: guitarist Jim Hall, trumpeter
Roy Hargrove, bassist Christian McBride and
drummer Roy Haynes.
An especially anticipated guest that
evening, Ornette Coleman, has been friends
with Rollins for decades. But the two had
never collaborated, onstage or on record.
Those who attended the concert (like this
writer) will recall that the pairing of Ornette
and Rollins on “Sonnymoon for Two” was
preceded by several minutes of vamping by
Rollins, McBride and Haynes. While this is
documented on the CD, it’s nowhere near as
suspenseful or interesting as it seemed at the
time. That said, when the iconic saxophonists
are sharing the stage — throwing the tune
back and forth, each working it over in his
inimitable, utterly recognizable style — they
truly deliver an electrifying performance.
The other guests also give it their all. Hall is
gentle and understated on “In a Sentimental
Mood.” Hargrove is a fierce hard-bopper on
“Rain Check.” And propelling the rhythm
alongside McBride on “Sonnymoon,” Haynes
— who passed the 80-year mark a few years
ago — is positively titanic.
— Phil Freeman
Roy Haynes
Roy-alty
(Dreyfus Jazz)
Longevity is now merely a given in the
brilliant career of
Roy Haynes. The
drummer’s professional path stretches
from ‘40s and ‘50s
work with Charlie
Parker, Bud Powell,
Sarah Vaughan and
Thelonious Monk to superb trio sessions with
Danilo Pérez and John Patitucci in the late
‘90s. He even scored a Grammy nomination
for the 2006 album Whereas, recorded when
he was 80.
Haynes has blue-chip instincts and abilities. As a bandleader and instrumentalist, he
has the personal resources to drive a group
with authority in a manner that amplifies
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URBAN VIGILANTE
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LARRY GRAY TRIO
THREE EQUALS ONE
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MATT NELSON TRIO
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Blues
Family Affair
The DNA of blues masters is unmistakable in their “offspring.”
On his 1969 album Fathers and Sons, a middle-aged Muddy
Waters fronted a band comprising young hotshots Michael
Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield and Buddy Miles, providing
musical heirs an opportunity to work with a revered elder.
A generation before, Muddy learned his craft from Son House.
Undoubtedly, the blues is a family affair, passed on from real
and figurative fathers and mothers to their offspring.
Recent recordings offer a glimpse of legacies writ large
in the genre’s genome.
Just a little girl when her father, Chicago blues stalwart
Eddie Taylor, died in 1985, Demetria Taylor was indelibly
imprinted by his music. On Bad Girl (Delmark), Taylor’s
debut CD, the vocalist displays a feral growl that instantly
recalls a young Koko Taylor (no relation), to whom she
pays tribute with the opening “I’m a Woman/Hoochie
Coochie Woman” and the concluding “Wang Dang
Doodle.” The singer honors her pop by gender-swapping
his best-known hit, “Bad Boy,” and laying down a bricktough “Big Boss Man,” one of the Jimmy Reed smashes on
which her old man played. Taylor’s accompanied throughout by Chicago blues masters: older brother Eddie Jr., who
shares guitar duties with Shun Kikuta; pianist/organist
Roosevelt Purifoy; saxophonist Eddie Shaw; harmonica
great Billy Branch; and a rhythm section that plays this stuff as
natural as speaking. Club fave Big Time Sarah also lends huge
personality to a couple of tracks.
On the two-disc Chicago Blues: A Living History — The
(R)evolution Continues (Raisin’ Music), the city’s blues royalty
salute their predecessors with new takes on classic sides. Billy
Boy Arnold, Billy Branch, John Primer, Magic Slim, Buddy Guy
and Lurrie Bell are among the artists reviving tunes by legends
from Lonnie Johnson and Muddy Waters to Otis Rush and Chuck
Berry. Standout tracks close out each disc: Branch’s combo plate
of “Mellow Down Easy” and “Bo Diddley” on Disc One, and the
Branch, Arnold, Primer and Bell romp through “The Blues Had
a Baby (and They Named it Rock and Roll)” on Disc Two. Yes, the
originals are better, but if these spirited retakes introduce them to
new audiences, then mission accomplished.
Oklahoma blues yowler JD McPherson also acknowledges musical
forebears on his debut recording Signs and Signifiers (Hi-Style) — Little
Richard, Clyde McPhatter, Willie Dixon and any number of rockabilly
brawlers. McPherson’s at his best when he sounds as if he were ducking bottles in a bar fight. Rippling with jukehouse piano, originals
such as “Fire Bug” and “Scandalous” sound like outtakes from the ’50’s
By Bob Weinberg
rock flick The Girl Can’t Help It. McPherson gets a shivery tone from
his reverb-laden guitar on the spooky title track and “Wolf Teeth,” the
latter evoking a nervous late-night ride through the backwoods. You
can’t help but grin and drum along on any available surface.
Born in rural Missouri, Lightnin’ Malcolm was deeply affected by the Mississippi Hill Country blues of R.L. Burnside and
JD McPherson
Junior Kimbrough — so much so, he moved to the region and
befriended their families. The guitarist and vocalist teams up with
Kimbrough’s grandson, drummer Cameron Kimbrough, for his
recording Renegade (Ruf). Rhythmic and sonic echoes of R.L. and
Junior remain central — Cameron probably breathes these cadences
— but the pair have no intention of strictly re-creating their elders’
sound. Instead, they offer a collection of tuneful updates that
reference soul, R&B and reggae. Sure, “Stop Fightin’ Over Me” and
“So Many Women” recall the trance-and-bash of their predecessors,
but Malcolm displays a knack for crafting earwigs such as “Precious
Jewel” and “Tell You Girl,” revealing the heart of a true romantic.
The veteran soulmen of The Bo-Keys haven’t lost a step on
Got to Get Back! (Electrophonic), which teams them with younger
Memphis session players. Instrumentals such as the horn-driven “Hi
Roller” and the organ-fueled “Jack and Ginger” sound like vintage
Stax/Volt tracks by Booker T. and the MG’s and The Bar-Kays, whose
trumpeter, Ben Cauley, blasts from the horn section. Guitarist Skip
Pitts (Isaac Hayes) and drummer Howard Grimes (Al Green, Ann
Peebles) drive the engine along with bassist-producer Scott Bomar.
Vocal contributions from soul kings Otis Clay, Percy Wiggins and
William Bell make this a must-hear for fans of the form. s
the creativity of any given project. Those
qualities abound on Haynes’ latest album,
Roy-alty, which features his Fountain of
Youth band and notable guests.
Trumpeter Roy Hargrove, part of Haynes’
group for the 2001 Charlie Parker-tribute
album Birds of a Feather, takes center stage
on several of the disc’s most appealing tunes.
Haynes’ laid-back percussive sizzle underscores Hargrove’s gorgeous long tones on a
lovely “These Foolish Things,” among other
tracks. Hargrove, muted, and alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw offer a unison reading of the
melody on Miles Davis’ “Milestones,” as well
as dazzling solo turns. Haynes and bassist
David Wong then trade creative ideas during
an unaccompanied rhythm-section passage.
Hargrove and Shaw also play key roles on
McCoy Tyner’s bustling “Passion Dance” and
on the Dizzy Gillespie favorite “Tin Tin Deo.”
On the latter, Haynes drives the sticky rumba
rhythms — behind the band, then alone —
and offers spoken-word remembrances of
1940s encounters with Gillespie and percussionist Chano Pozo, the tune’s co-writer.
Haynes has frequently crossed paths with
Chick Corea since playing on the pianist’s 1968
landmark album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs.
They join again here, displaying intuitive communication on a sprightly version of Monk’s
“Off Minor,” which offers open space for
Haynes, and “All the Bars are Open,” a meditative, free-spirited piece largely fueled by the
drummer’s tumbling mallets playing on toms.
The album’s title reveals all: Haynes remains a
master of his art, even at this late date.
— Philip Booth
Vicious World
Plays the Music of Rufus Wainwright
(Spinaround)
The term “composer” seems too highfalutin for most pop
musicians, but it fits
Rufus Wainwright
perfectly. The son of
gifted tunesmiths
Loudon Wainwright
III and the late Kate
McGarrigle, he
merges a strong understanding of classic
songcraft with a bracing sense of adventure.
No wonder the members of Vicious
World — led by saxophonist, clarinetist and
flutist Aaron Irwin and trombonist Matthew
McDonald — chose to devote an entire
recording to interpreting Wainwright’s work.
And even if their eclectic approach doesn’t
create a seamless listening experience, the
project sports plenty of highlights.
The album starts slowly. “Going to a
Town” spends too much time in the lounge,
with violinist Eliza Cho and cellist Maria
Jeffers ladling on the sweeteners. Cho and
Jeffers are far more interesting on the next
track, “Natasha,” a tender chamber-jazz piece
highlighted by McDonald’s beautiful solo.
But “This Love Affair” shatters the mood
with fuzz-toned riffs by guitarist Sebastian
Noelle and the slam-bang rhythms of drummer Danny Fischer and bassist Thomson
Kneeland. The cut would be quite enjoyable
in a different setting. But its placement here
is jarring, especially as the track that precedes
“Memphis Skyline,” a lovely, string-laden air
even more delicate than “Natasha.”
“Matinee Idol” provides a charmingly
effective change of pace. Its arrangement
is equal parts jaunty and swoony, qualities
that also exemplify the cheeky miniature
“Millbrook.” And if the assorted elements
that make up “The Art Teacher” aren’t quite
cohesive, the concluding “Dinner at Eight” is
a rich showcase for these diverse players, who
offer one sumptuous course after another.
At moments like these, Vicious World does
Wainwright proud.
— Michael Roberts
Pat Metheny
What’s it All About
(Nonesuch)
For his first-ever project of non-original
compositions, Pat
Metheny found a
title within the Burt
Bacharach classic
“Alfie,” which he
expansively explores
for nearly eight
minutes here. Yet,
the titular question may be answered in
various ways, depending upon which faction of Metheny’s vast audience is listening.
These graceful, unaccompanied and
often contemplative arrangements recall
Windham Hill New-Age guitarists like Will
Ackerman, Michael Hedges and Alex de
Grassi. Guitarheads will savor every sonic detail in their hero’s use of the specially tuned
baritone guitar, which he also played on his
Grammy-winning solo-acoustic set One Quiet
Night. For these folks, Metheny even includes
a paragraph in the liners explaining the
technicalities of the tunings.
The guitarist utilizes the baritone on
seven of the 10 tracks. Notable exceptions
include a moody, hypnotic and gently
percussive take on Paul Simon’s “The Sound
of Silence,” on which Metheny employs the
42-string, custom-made “Pikasso” guitar. He
strums a standard six-string for a raucous
roll through The Chantays’ surf-guitar classic
“Pipeline.” And for The Beatles ballad “And I
Love Her,” he switches to nylon strings.
Nonmusician fans may simply dream
about a more carefree time in life while
listening to the guitarist’s agile and imaginative takes on songs from his childhood and
early teen years. Jazzheads who probably
would have dismissed The Carpenters (“Rainy
Days and Mondays”), Carly Simon (“That’s
the Way I’ve Always Heard it Should Be”), The
Stylistics (“Betcha by Golly Wow”) and The
Association (“Cherish”) might gain appreciation for the simple genius of these hummable
melodies that once ruled the radio. Metheny
also tackles a few gems that have become
part of the jazz canon: Antonio Carlos Jobim’s
“Garota de Ipanema” and Henry Mancini’s
“Slow Hot Wind.”
Artistic ambitions aside, Metheny plays
what he likes. “Every one of these tunes has
something going on that is just hip on a
musical level,” he explained recently. “They
have all stuck with me over the years.” And
thanks to his inventive twists, they may
stick around even longer.
— Jonathan Widran
Steve Khan
Parting Shot
(Tone Center)
Steve Khan has long been a leading light
on the jazz-guitar
scene. His career has
encompassed everything from duets
with Larry Coryell
to membership in
the Caribbean Jazz
Project to recording
sessions with Miles Davis and Steely Dan. But
he shines brightest on his own projects, and
Jeff “Tain” Watts
Parting Shot — Khan’s first entire album of
Latin jazz — is no exception.
A dearth of inspiration and opportunity
had prompted Khan to question whether
he’d continue to record, hence the album title.
However, the injection of Latin sabor seemed
to restore his creative energy, at least for now.
The disc opens with Ornette Coleman’s
“Chronology.” The odd meter keeps the
percussion section — Dennis Chambers,
Manolo Badrena, Marc Quiñones and Bobby
Allende — on their toes. Khan adds fillips
to the melody and fluidly ranges between
single notes and chords. With the gentle beats
bouncing back and forth from left to right
speaker, Khan picks out his accented lines on
his own “Los Gaiteros.” The percussion section
switches roles on “Change Agent” — the guiro
and afuche keep the beat, while Chambers’
rolls and cymbal splashes provide color. Khan
swings gently on this standout tune, one of
the disc’s most enjoyable.
By contrast, Thelonious Monk’s “Bye-Ya”
provides room for Khan to stretch. Chambers
is more delicate than usual, and, as on most of
the recording, bassist Anthony Jackson seems
content to remain low in the mix. Another
Ornette tune, “Blues Connotation,” allows
Khan additional improv opportunities, as he
effortlessly picks out notes and comps against
himself. The following “Zancudoville” is
actually bluesier, and Khan’s electric guitar
sounds like it would feel right at home on a
Santana or a Steely Dan album.
Layered sound prevails. Timbales,
congas, pandeiro, voices and whistles meld
with Chambers’ drums and Jackson’s solid,
swinging bass. Khan effortlessly showcases
both chops and taste throughout. His stellar
playing never comes across as grandstanding, and it all sounds of a piece, from Monk
and Coleman to the originals by Khan and
company. With luck, this “parting shot” will
instead prove to be a shot in the arm.
— Ross Boissoneau
Jeff “Tain” Watts
Family
(Dark Key)
Jeff “Tain” Watts is among the most gifted
drummers of his generation, a timekeeper
who moderates
tremendous technical skills with a rare
understanding of
when to lay back and
when to let loose.
And while his efforts as a bandleader and
composer aren’t as celebrated as his work
with the Marsalis brothers and other jazz
stars, the recordings on which his name appears above the title — not just on back-cover
credits — provide consistently entertaining
forums for his music.
On Family, Watts teams with saxophonist
Steve Wilson, upright bassist James Genus
and pianist David Kikoski. All are formidable
talents, but none so famous — or inclined —
to force the drummer to fight for attention on
his own session. Watts remains the focus of
the album, even while sharing the spotlight.
On the opening title track, Watts lays
down a subtle but beguiling rhythm, which
Kikoski echoes. Then, Wilson enters astride
a melodic theme that offers him many
opportunities to stretch. The sax-drums
interplay on key solos brims with precision
and passion.
The next cut, “Of August Moon,” is
intermittently herky-jerky, keeping listeners
off-balance in an intriguing way. “Goldaze”
traffics in thrilling tension. Watts plays
between sonic explosions, his drums vibrating with the expectation of blasts to come.
But he proves just as comfortable bringing
the swing on “Jonesin’ (for Elvin),” gracefully
navigating “A Wreath for John T. Smith” and
jousting with the entire crew on the final
“Torch E-Ternal.”
All the tunes on Family may not be classic,
but the manner in which Watts surveys them
most certainly is.
— Michael Roberts
Hiromi
Voice
(Telarc)
Virtuoso keyboardist Hiromi doesn’t feature
vocals on her recording Voice. Rather, the
album title alludes to
the musical expression of her own true
voice. And that it is.
While Hiromi
draws from various influences, she’s primarily inspired by
Western musical traditions. The title track,
for example, starts as a Chopin sonata then
swells into a hard-driving, almost modal
tune. The pianist’s fuguelike improvisations
mesh well with the rocking rhythms laid
down by veteran drummer Simon Phillips
of Who fame and versatile electric bassist
Anthony Jackson. The romantic, almost
Tzigane-esque “Labyrinth” and the sym-
phonic “Delusion” also reveal influences of
classical training.
Unfortunately, Hiromi’s use of electronics
can be distracting. On the funky “Now or
Never” and the waltzing “Desire,” intrusions
of disco-era sounds detract from her piano
pyrotechnics.
Voice includes eight pieces penned by the
pianist and concludes with Beethoven’s Piano
Sonata No. 8, performed in a laid-back, bluesy
groove. Hiromi’s compositions aren’t particularly memorable and they often sound alike.
However, they do provide dazzling showcases
for her improvisational skills. The pianist’s
energetic and expansive flights of creativity
are so intricate that she often sounds like two
pianists, as on the jaw-dropping “Flashback.”
Here, she accompanies her right hand’s rapidfire series of notes with the deep vibrato
emanating from her left.
Phillips’ bombastic drumming and
Jackson’s boisterous basslines are a bit much
at times, but, for the most part, they respectfully stay out of the spotlight.
Surprisingly, amongst this array of
amazing pianistic skills and notes played at
physics-defying tempos, the most original
and touching piece is the quiet, understated
solo track “Haze.” The song’s flowing, Zenlike
lines suggest the calm of an early-morning
stroll and reveal the influence of her mentor,
Ahmad Jamal.
Despite its dearth of indelible melodies,
Voice presents a virtuosic pianist and superlative improviser whose creativity is matched
only by her physical prowess on the keys.
— Hrayr Attarian
Nicole Mitchell
Awakening
(Delmark)
Most of Nicole Mitchell’s recordings focus on
her intricate compositions. However,
Awakening showcases
the formerly Chicago-,
now California-based
jazz star’s skills as an
improviser and flutist
in an intimate quartet setting. Certainly, she hasn’t abandoned
composing. In fact, Mitchell penned most
of the music. But the construct of this music
allows ample room for improvisation.
Tributes
Tipping the Hat
A new crop of recordings salutes
genre giants.
By Scott Yanow
Tribute recordings have been common in jazz at least since
Fletcher Henderson’s 1931 version of “Singing the Blues,” which
had cornetist Rex Stewart paying homage to Bix Beiderbecke. One
can play note-for-note re-creations, be creative within the format of
the original recording (changing solos but keeping similar arrangements), play someone else’s repertoire in one’s own style or radically
deconstruct a work. Recent tributes exercise all but the first option.
The Blue Note recordings of Lee Morgan are revisited on the
Roberto Magris Quintet’s Morgan Rewind: A Tribute To Lee Morgan
Vol. 1 (J-Mood). Pianist Magris joins trumpeter Brandon Lee, altoist
Logan Richardson, bassist Elisa Pruett and drummer Albert “Tootie”
Heath to perform six Morgan originals. The group also essays Billy
Harper’s “Croquet Ballet” and two Magris originals that sound like
tracks from the Blue Note-era. Lee does an excellent job evoking
Morgan’s spirit. Richardson’s hesitant style belongs somewhere between Sonny Red’s and Jackie McLean’s. And Magris’ more-modern
approach fits into the setting quite well, even though the original
versions remain unrivaled. The final track is a 12-minute interview
with Heath that provides revealing insights into the late Morgan.
An 11-piece band that often performs in Hoboken, New Jersey,
Swingadelic pays tribute to another Blue Note touchstone, pianistcomposer Duke Pearson, on The Other Duke (Zoho). Offering a set
of catchy boogaloos, hard-bop romps and shuffles, they perform
seven Pearson originals, including his two main hits (“Jeannine”
and “Cristo Redentor”), plus three songs that he enjoyed playing.
These excellent musicians — none of whom are marquee names
— truly understand the music of that time period, and they do
justice to Pearson’s legacy.
The NY Jazz Initiative is a hard-bop octet led by tenor and
soprano-saxophonist Rob Derke that features trumpeter David
Smith; saxophonists Steve Wilson on alto and Ralph Lalama on
tenor; and Sam Burtis on trombone and tuba. Mad About Thad
(Jazzheads) resurrects a set of Thad Jones songs through the inventive arrangements of Derke, Jason Flynn and Toby Wine. Although
few revelations occur, the music swings and the musicians clearly
enjoyed digging into the material, much of which is fairly obscure.
Terell Stafford’s This Side of Strayhorn (MaxJazz) is a blowing
session that provides an opportunity for the trumpeter, lyrical
tenor and soprano saxophonist Tim Warfield, pianist Bruce Barth,
bassist Peter Washington and drummer Dana Hall to jam on nine
Billy Strayhorn compositions. Barth’s arrangements hold subtle
Roberto Magris
surprises and leave plenty of room for solos. Stafford is in spectacular form throughout, displaying a warm tone, a wide range and a
versatile style that extends from swing to hard bop. He explodes
on “Raincheck” and emulates Cootie Williams on “Multicolored
Blue.” The quintet offer definitive reads of Strayhorn gems such as
“Smada,” “My Little Brown Book” and “Lana Turner.”
On Tribute to Bird and Monk (Labor), a reissue from 1978, arrangerconductor Heiner Stadler chose three songs by Charlie Parker and
three by Thelonious Monk, kept the melodies, did away with the
chord changes and invented new pieces. He employed the talents of
cornetist Thad Jones (replaced by Cecil Bridgewater on one piece);
trombonist George Lewis; tenorist and flutist George Adams; pianist
Stanley Cowell; bassist Reggie Workman; and drummer Lenny
White, with Warren Smith playing timpani on two selections.
The intriguing results are not bebop, and traditionalists were
probably dismayed when the album was originally released.
Adams’ ferocious tenor and Lewis’ explorative flights could be
predicted, but Cowell’s acute playing and Jones’ flexibility are a
bit of a surprise. Some of the themes are played in several keys at
once. The ensembles are intense, the solos dramatic. Would Bird
and Monk have enjoyed these versions? Difficult to say. But listeners who have their ears open to freer sounds will find this colorful
and passionate set compelling. s
Awakening is also a very personal album.
Mitchell wrote the loosely swinging, uptempo opener, “Curly Top,” for her daughter,
and the flamenco-styled ballad “More Than I
Can Say” for her fiancé. The most traditional
piece from the session, “Curly Top” serves as
an introduction to the quartet. Relatively brief
solos by the individual members flesh out the
melody. Like a troubadour’s song, the yearning “More Than I Can Say” incorporates swirls
of sound and emotion. Guitarist Jeff Parker, a
mainstay of the Chicago jazz scene, restates
the mellifluous theme created by Mitchell’s
flute. And anchoring the mix throughout is
the profoundly spiritual percussion of another
local jazz great, drummer Avreeayl Ra.
Mitchell’s trademark growls and twitters, as displayed on the long but jaunty
“Momentum,” weave seamlessly into the
fabric of her wandering improvisations. As
adventurous and stimulating as they are
logical, her explorations are well balanced by
Parker’s creative fretwork.
Chicago stalwart Harrison Bankhead
holds the quartet together with his multifaceted and almost ubiquitous basslines.
Bankhead’s heavy, hypnotic grooves set the
mood for the surreal “Center of the Earth,” a
modernistic tone poem that allows Mitchell’s
imagination to soar. A welcome foil, Parker
punctuates her solo with an atonal, angular
series of notes.
The leader’s ethereal flute on the title track
concludes this intellectually stimulating disc.
Blending improvisation with composition,
Mitchell remains one of her generation’s most
exciting musical minds.
— Hrayr Attarian
Starlicker
Double Demon
(Delmark)
Starlicker’s Double Demon defies easy
categorization. At
once propulsive
and hypnotic, wild
yet logical, the
Chicago-based trio’s
music is undeniably
compelling. Fans
of adventurous
improvisation will find plenty to savor.
The lineup itself — cornet, vibraphone and
drums — is unusual. As founding members
of Isotope 217 and Tortoise, respectively,
cornetist Rob Mazurek and drummer John
Herndon are veterans of the post-rock scene.
Vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz is more firmly
centered in the jazz world, though his musical
interests are also far reaching. Their reference
points inform the sound. Not rock, not swing,
not fusion, it’s quite distinct.
Although melodic elements arise organically, the development of pure sound is a
guiding principle. Mazurek’s meandering
lines are bright and crisp, while Herndon
creates rumbling waves. Adasiewicz
matches the drummer’s percussive intensity, and his sustained overtones provide an
eerie underpinning.
Group improvisation dominates. Rhythm
and melody often become intertwined, as
on the title track and “Orange Blossom.” Each
musician responds to and builds on elements
created by the others. On “Andromeda,” for
example, Adasiewicz picks up on Mazurek’s
melodic line, then keeps the vamp rolling
beneath the cornetist’s free-ranging solo.
Comprising six songs composed by
Mazurek, Double Demon clocks in at a
concise 38 minutes. All the better for digesting this intense, densely layered and oddly
beautiful music.
—John Frederick Moore
James Carter
Caribbean Rhapsody: Concerto for Saxophones
and Orchestra
(Decca/Emarcy)
Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone in the
mid-1800s as a woodwind-brass hybrid for
use in military bands.
By the early 1900s,
the instrument had
made the transition
to the new music of
jazz, and was being
tested for its place in the symphony. The first
saxophone concertos were composed during
that period. But only a high-profile musician
like 42-year-old saxophonist James Carter
could bring the saxophone concerto to the fore
again, which he does on Caribbean Rhapsody.
Carter hails from Detroit. The practiced
player has a robust, meaty sound and fingers
galore. His numerous and diverse jazz albums
point to an aggressive approach to alto, tenor
and baritone saxes. Carter adds soprano to
his arsenal on Caribbean Rhapsody, alternat-
ing between sublime lyricism and reckless
abandon on both soprano and tenor.
The Caribbean connection comes from
classical composer Roberto Sierra of Puerto
Rico. His 13-minute “Caribbean Rhapsody” —
which also features violinist Regina Carter
and the Akua Dixon String Quintet — depicts
the festive mindset, bright colors, warm trade
winds and swaying palms of his island home.
Sierra’s contemporary orchestral writing is on
par with work from the finest living composers. However, Sierra’s symphonic portrayals
of jazz — as on the oddly accented blues of
“Playful-Fast (With Swing),” featuring the
Warsaw-based Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra
— seem regrettably trite by comparison. Not
even Carter’s soaring tenor improvisations
can save this piece.
Listeners accustomed to the smooth,
legato sound of the classical saxophone are
in for a shock. Carter remains his typical,
muscular self throughout most of these six
tracks, only attaining the smoothness of classical lyricism when he doesn’t blow as hard
— like his performance on the aptly titled
“Tender.” Other highlights include a pair of
loosely themed, six-minute solo excursions
by Carter: “Tenor Interlude” (shades of Sonny
Rollins) and “Soprano Interlude.” Perhaps
Carter’s next anticipated album should scale
back personnel from many to one.
— James Rozzi
David S. Ware/Cooper-Moore/William
Parker/Muhammad Ali
Planetary Unknown
(AUM Fidelity)
Planetary Unknown is the rare all-star session
that’s more than the
sum of its parts. This
collective quartet
creates music that’s
distinct from anything its individual
members have recorded separately. The
compositions are full of surprises — in their
shape-shifting structures, their insistence on
both melody and dissonance, and their power
to evoke unique musical moods that hover
between meditative and euphoric. Although they’ve never performed
together as a group, these musicians share
a deep history. Saxophonist David S. Ware,
bassist William Parker and pianist Cooperjazziz fall 2011 115
Moore are all longtime fixtures of New York
City’s Downtown jazz scene. Drummer
Muhammad Ali played with free-jazz
luminaries such as Albert Ayler, Frank Wright
and Cecil Taylor. The ensemble’s chemistry
is immediately apparent on the sprawling
opener, “Passage Wudang,” with its confident
mesh of headlong sax, surging rhythms and
lurching piano. Considering the members’
previous work, listeners might expect the
tune to explode into a blitzkrieg of skronk.
Instead, it drifts beautifully into a hushed
reverie, as spare beats and chiming piano
notes ring in open space.
“Divination Unfathomable” also defies
expectation, beginning with a plaintive
sopranino solo and softly lyrical piano accompaniment. “Crystal Palace” places stately
melodic piano and basslines in startling
counterpoint to frenetically swirling sax
lines and skittering drums. As the tune
progresses, the piano assumes an aggressive
role, underpinned by sighing bowed bass.
An emotive piece for tenor sax and drums,
“Duality is One” consciously evokes the
famed duets of John Coltrane and Rashied Ali,
the late brother of Muhammad.
Planetary Unknown welcomes and challenges listeners throughout. Even after years
of adventurous explorations, the musicians
continually surprise themselves while diving
into expansive musical moods and modes.
— Jeff Jackson
with Larry Coryell, and a restless artist
who’s dabbled in genres from rock to disco,
Mouzon has forged many musical relationships during his long career. The 14 players
on Angel Face include Arturo Sandoval,
Ernie Watts, Bob Mintzer, Cedar Walton,
Kenny Barron and Christian McBride.
Working in quintets, they connect beautifully inside Mouzon’s framework of catchy
bop heads and quick-swinging rhythms.
The result is a killer hard-bop session with
crisp, contemporary improvisations.
Miles Davis serves as inspiration for two
of the best cuts, “More Miles in the Sky”
and “A Labor of Love.” The former is a silky
“Milestones”-like track with Wallace Roney
on muted trumpet. The latter is an elegant
mid-tempo number showcasing Roney
and tenor saxophonist Mintzer. Pianist
Walton and trumpeter Sandoval stimulate
the fast-bopping “Harlem Blues,” while the
catchy “Stepping Stone” spotlights Mouzon’s
daughter Emma (whose cherubic face
adorns the CD cover) on three-part harmony
vocals recorded when she was 5, 12 and 13.
Exhibiting crack drum chops throughout,
the leader also plays first-rate trumpet on
one track and capable piano on two.
Mouzon’s plans include a smooth-jazz
release with popular players from that genre,
as well as another reunion album with
Coryell. But Angel Face will be tough to top.
— Ed Kopp
Alphonse Mouzon
Angel Face
(Tenacious)
A founding father of both fusion and smooth
jazz, drummer
Alphonse Mouzon
has gravitated
toward straightahead
jazz of late. Angel Face
is no mere dalliance.
Eleven years in the
making, it quashes
the outdated notion that drummers can’t
write or arrange. Mouzon’s original music
evokes the soul-bop of Cannonball Adderley
and the cool jazz of Miles Davis. Although
retro, his tunes are infectious creations teeming with soul, and an all-star lineup catalyzes
them with agile enhancements.
As an original member of Weather
Report, co-founder of the Eleventh House
Ari Hoenig
Lines of Oppression
(Naive)
Philadelphia native Ari Hoenig is among
the few drummers
who display melody
despite the absence
of exact notes on
their rhythmic
instrument. It’s a
skill he came by
naturally. With both
parents being classical musicians, Hoenig
began studying piano and violin at 6, not
gravitating toward drums until age 12. He
later honed compositional skills in trios
led by pianists Jean-Michel Pilc and Kenny
Werner while branching into a solo career
during the past decade. The 37-year-old
drummer’s latest CD, Lines of Oppression, is
his crowning achievement thus far.
Hoenig’s originals cut a wide stylistic
swath. The lengthy, languid title track
revolves around a repeating theme by the
disc’s co-stars, pianist Tigran Hamasyan
and guitarist Gilad Hekselman. But
Hoenig conducts a creative shell game
with the time signature during the
middle vamp, played by Hamasyan,
Hekselman and bassist Orlando Le
Fleming. “Arrows and Loops” features
frenetic, staccato lines that echo a
more-acoustic version of the Mahavishnu
Orchestra, and “Ephemeral Eyes” is a
playful, New Orleans-tinged romp that
alternately simmers and boils.
Most of Hoenig’s melodic nature lies
cloaked within song structures, but he
displays it overtly on Bobby Timmons’
“Moanin’.” Using mallets, he states the
melody on his muted drums, both before
and after stellar solos by Hekselman and
Hamasyan. An accelerated arrangement of
Thelonious Monk’s “Rhythm-a-Ning” is prefaced by “Rhythm,” a brief duo piece on which
Hoenig is accompanied solely by Hamasyan,
his melodic foil, on beat-box vocals.
Hoenig, Hekselman, Hamasyan and
bassist Chris Tordini take a highly improvised romp through Morgan Lewis’ “How
High the Moon.” The track meshes seamlessly with the pianist’s closing “Higher
to Hayastan.” Employing various swing,
classical and rock themes, and recalling
Tony Williams’ Lifetime, the tune provides a
dizzying coda.
— Bill Meredith
Dave King Trucking Company
Good Old Light
(Sunnyside)
Dave King is best known as the drummer
for the Bad Plus.
But as a pianist
and composer, as
well, he keeps busy
with a variety of
groups, the Trucking
Company being the
most recent. Led
by the two-saxophone frontline of Chris
Speed and Brandon Wozniak, the quintet
also includes guitarist Erik Fratzke and
bassist Adam Linz on their initial offering,
Good Old Light. The group’s transportationoriented moniker proves apt — they cover a
lot of territory in a relatively short time.
The opening “April in Gary” mixes gentle
piano with skronky bursts of guitar. Next
comes “You Can’t Say ‘Poem in Concrete,’ ”
an eight-minute journey through melodic
post-bop, with the saxophonists going at
each other before Wozniak takes a fierce
solo. Speed, a cleaner, more introspective player than his counterpart, solos
on the gospel-inflected “I Am Looking
for Strength,” with Linz creating a deep,
intimidating rumble behind him.
Good Old Light is not produced or mixed
like a jazz album. King’s drumming is
powerful and unsubtle. The upright bass is
huge — in fact, much louder than the guitar.
And the two horns are packed tightly into
one corner of the sonic field, rather than
battling each other from opposite speakers.
The rock-like mix proves intriguing, particularly when Fratzke launches into a distorted
country or rockabilly-influenced riff, as he
does on “Night Tram.” In moments like that,
the group resembles John Zorn’s Naked City.
Despite attempts at disguise, this is ultimately a jazz record, and a very good one.
— Phil Freeman
Frank Carlberg
Uncivilized Ruminations
(Red Piano)
Frank Carlberg has a passion for words. He
also obviously loves
jazz; his chosen
instrument, piano;
and the sound of
a saxophone- and
voice-driven
ensemble. But the
beating heart behind
most of his projects during the past decade
has been text, primarily poetry. Where previous albums have focused on luminaries such
as Robert Creeley and Wallace Stevens —
with Carlberg adapting their text to his own
melodies — Uncivilized Ruminations takes on
lesser-known poets including Kai Nieminen,
Jim Gustafson and Anselm Hollo.
The dual-saxophone, voice- and rhythmsection configuration of Carlberg’s group calls
to mind saxophonist and composer Steve Lacy,
whose collaborations with vocalist Irene Aebi
and saxophonist Steve Potts set an obvious example. The thorny, angular bent of Lacy’s work
is ever-present on Uncivilized Ruminations.
The pianist’s melodies, at least on the
more upbeat compositions, use words as
rhythmic bricks. Meaning becomes secondary to rhythmic accent and darting shifts of
melody. To that end, vocalist Christine Correa
performs with distinction, as do saxophonists Chris Cheek and John O’Gallagher, who
take the lion’s share of improvisations.
Although the leader, bassist John Hébert
and drummer Michael Sarin each display
extravagant abilities in featured spots, they
form a selfless support team for both the
compositions and soloists.
“Posthumous Success,” “Prairie Dogs” and
“Don’t Rush Me” are forceful ballads, each
matching vivid saxophone solos to Correa’s
comparatively straightforward interpretations. Their relative melodic ease is a balm
amongst edgier tunes like “Lunatics,” “Pygmy
Hut,” “Perfect” and “Misanthrope.” While the
featured poets often use apparent simplicity
to make their modernist statements, Carlberg
willingly leads listeners down darkened alleys. Uncivilized Ruminations may not always
meet you halfway, but, at its best, it rewards
the extra effort. — Steve Futterman
Google all those books to appreciate this
rich, satisfying CD or to feel their weighty
influence on the singer.
— Jon Garelick
Sara Serpa
Sara Serpa
Mobile
(Inner Circle Music)
Do you need to know that the nine, mostly
wordless pieces on
singer Sara Serpa’s
Mobile were inspired
by specific readings
in literature, from
Homer and Melville
to V.S. Naipaul and
graphic novelist
Hugo Pratt? Probably not. In fact, you might
be hard-pressed to make the connection between “Gold Digging Ants” and Herodotus’
Histories. But what will draw you in is the
twining of Serpa’s pure, vibratoless soprano
with guitarist André Matos’ dirty electric
chords and Kris Davis’ acoustic piano over
an off-kilter, rock-like thump-and-churn.
Improvisations often build from long,
asymmetrical lines “played” in unison by
Serpa’s voice and Matos’ guitar. The singer
has a propensity for contrasting textures
— acoustic guitar against Fender Rhodes,
electric guitar against concert grand.
Ensemble interplay, not vocal histrionics,
is the focus here. Serpa is as likely to vamp
rhythmically behind a solo as she is to take
the lead. And with Ben Street on bass and
Ted Poor on drums, this band knows how to
create unity out of ensemble freedom.
Not every listener will appreciate the inherent dissonance of Serpa’s writing or the
piping fragility of her voice — even the one
Portuguese fado is hardly traditional. But
the musicians uniformly perform at a high
level. When Serpa solos on “Gold Digging
Ants,” she creates music any trumpeter or
saxophonist would be proud of — varied in
texture and dynamics, elastic in rhythm,
but with a core motivic logic that seems
to emerge spontaneously from one phrase
to the next. So, no, listeners don’t need to
Jeff Lederer
Sunwatcher
(Jazzheads)
Tenor saxophonist Jeff Lederer evokes the voice
and soul of Albert
Ayler on Sunwatcher,
his debut recording as
a leader. Employing
a robust tone and
burning, high-octave
cries, Lederer touches
on the sanctified spirit
of the late avant-garde legend. Accompanists
include pianist/organist Jamie Saft, bassist
Buster Williams and drummer and longtime
bandmate Matt Wilson
A strong gospel current runs through
Sunwatcher, calling to mind the mix of
church music and screamin’ R&B at the
heart of free jazz. Members of Ayler’s bands
strove to attain an ecstatic state by means
of an unrestrained and unrelenting fire. In
contrast, the testifying here has more form
and more space to wipe one’s brow. Lederer
and company build moments of revelation
from soulful melodies and trancelike ideas.
“Albert’s Sun” reveals Ayler’s influence
through Lederer’s heavy, overblown lows and
teapot-whistle highs, while Saft contributes
his own frenetic, trance-inducing piano
statement. Breaking the spell, the quartet
reworks Duke Pearson’s lilting Blue Note
standard “Cristo Redentor” into a soul-jazz
number highlighted by Saft’s gritty organ.
“Snake in the Blackberry Patch” features
dynamic exchanges among bandmates, with
Lederer’s soprano sax moaning and squealing
a sermon. Saft and Wilson drive Lederer to
rapturous heights before Williams adds some
testimony of his own. The ensemble further
explores down-home gospel motifs on a
nearly 10-minute version of the traditional
“Break Bread Together.”
Sunwatcher concludes with a hypnotic
rumination on the sacred music of Alice
Coltrane, which features Wilson’s masterful
use of shakers and cymbals. Drawing from
rich musical traditions and personalities,
Lederer taps jazz’s deeply spiritual roots.
— Warren Allen
Photo by Carlos Ramos
Mark Rapp’s Melting Pot
Good Eats
(Dinemec)
Inspired by the expansive oeuvre of altosax heavyweight
Lou Donaldson,
trumpeter Mark
Rapp showcases a
soul-jazz kitchen
on the aptly titled
Good Eats. Featuring
gems from Sweet
Lou’s cookbook, Rapp and his Melting Pot
band whip up a diverse buffet of modernjazz treats expertly seasoned with exotic
embellishments.
Good Eats brims with color, like an
artfully executed meal. Rapp intuits which
numbers to tease out with exploratory
soundscapes and which ones call for a more
straightforward, yet updated, approach.
With a cast of like-minded musicians —
guest Don Braden on tenor sax and alto
flute, and band members Joe Kaplowitz
on Hammond B3 organ, Ahmad Mansour
on guitar and Klemens Marktl on drums
— Rapp meticulously melds his southern
sensibilities with the cool lines and sophisticated tones of New York City jazz.
On funky anthems such as “Alligator
Boogaloo” and “Everything I Do Gonna Be
Funky (From Now On),” Rapp stays true
to the spirit of the originals, while adding
a subtle personal spin. His experimental
nature emerges on “Brother Soul,” which
opens with his didgeridoo and trumpet, followed by Braden’s alto flute and Kaplowitz’s
seductive Hammond B3. They combine to
create an exquisitely hypnotic sonic amalgam, which connotes a Middle Eastern vibe.
Rapp’s off-kilter interpretation of
Donaldson’s “One Cylinder” sounds like an
aural trip into deep space, as his trumpet
echoes sharply across the universe in loose
dialogue with Mansour’s lithe guitar lines.
The leader’s sole original composition, the
title track, is a brisk, finger-snapping jazz
tune reminiscent of the Big Easy.
Good Eats concludes on an upbeat note
with a cheery read of William J. Hill’s classic
pop tune “The Glory of Love.” With this wellbalanced bill of fare, Rapp proves himself a
masterful chef, following Donaldson’s recipes
but adding spices to make them his own.
— Lissette Corsa
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Peace & stability Among Bears (self-released)
ELAn tROtMAn
Love and sax (self-released)
DAn ADLER
Back to the Bridge (self-released)
Critically acclaimed New York saxophonist Daniel
Bennett has recently
shared concert stages
with national artists
like Bill Frisell, Charlie
Hunter, James Carter,
Billy Martin (Medeski,
Martin & Wood), Jerry
Bergonzi and David
Fiuczynski. The Boston
Herald described Daniel
Bennett’s music as “exploratory folk-jazz.” while
the Boston Phoenix described Bennett’s style as,
“an unusual folk-minimalist approach,” and the
Boston Globe described Bennett’s music as “a mix
of jazz, folk, and trance.” Daniel Bennett’s quirky
music has found a broad fan base that is unusual
for a modern jazz outfit. Insite Magazine called
Daniel Bennett’s music, “refreshingly capricious
and trippy.” www.danielbennettgroup.com
Wielding a tenor or soprano sax or a flute, Elan
Trotman has blossomed
as a front man, soloist
and musician, following
in the iconic footsteps
of his role models,
Grover Washington
Jr. and Kirk Whalum.
Love and Sax covers an
array of influences and
originals from soulful
R&B, modern jazz, vibrant pop, exotic calypso
and Latin nuances. Special guest performances
by keyboardist Brian Simpson, flugelhorn player
Cindy Bradley and the sultry vocals of Tony Terry
(who performed with Trotman in Roberta Flack’s
band) round out the lovely romantic ballad set.
Dan Adler made a strong impression with his
debut recording as
a leader, All Things
Familiar, featuring
saxophonist Grant
Stewart. On his
second CD, Back To The
Bridge, the inventive
guitarist explores a
mixture of standards
and originals with
the top jazz organist of the past 20 years, Joey
DeFrancesco. “A perfect combination of guitar
and organ.” —Chuck Vecoli, www.jazzreview.com.
“A fine showcase for Adler’s writing, arranging
and guitar playing skills.” —Dan Bilawsky, www.
allaboutjazz.com. www.danadler.com
7tH KInD
sea Monster (self-released)
Drawing on a reservoir of influences — from
baroque to bebop — 7th
Kind, one of the leaders
of the brass-band
renaissance in Chicago,
has constructed a
body of original works
with a distinctive and
charismatic voice.
These 12 original tunes
showcase the melodic
and orchestrated sound of this nine-member
fusion ensemble. Progression magazine writes,
“On this second album, the group — which
includes three trumpets and two sax players —
shows impressive mastery of the capabilities
inherent in its construction, uniformly exciting and
exceptionally well performed.” www.7thkind.com
Pianist Hiroe Sekine is a strong writer putting her
stamp and sound on her
arrangements and compositions. On her debut
album A-mé, meaning
“rain” in Japanese,
producer Russell
Ferrante helped her
assemble star jazz players including drummer
Peter Erskine and saxist
Bob Sheppard, and as a leader, she chose a varied
program ranging from sextet to solo piano. By
seeking dramatic possibilities and breathing new
life into jazz standards, she creatively refreshes
“Minority,” “If I Were A Bell,” and “All The Things
You Are.” As tasty and rewarding as her arrangements are her colorful original compositions
“Little Monster” and “Euclidian Moon” and the title
track “A-mé.” www.sekaimusic.com
RItA EDMOnD
A glance at Destiny (self-released)
jULIE LAvEnDER
Interior Design (self-released)
The sweet sounds of modern jazz are abundant
in A Glance At Destiny
by Rita Edmond. Her
voice is without many
peers and her sound
will take you back to
the days of Ella and
Miles. Glance is a
virtual tour de force for
Edmond. “She takes
the standard and zips it
up for a modern audience while paying homage
to a classic.” —Christopher Llewellyn Adams,
Cashbox Magazine. www.ritaejazz.com
In her third CD, Interior Design, singer-songwriter,
guitarist and pianist,
Julie Lavender draws on
years of studio experience to produce a fresh
solo album featuring
cameot performances
from top jazz musicians. Interior Design
is spacious, intimate,
promising. The essence
of song speaking potently through the welcoming
vibrance of a voice that is buttery smooth, achingly
expressive, playful and soaring. A simple yet sophisticated blend of musical influences, colors, textures,
contrasts and moods. www.julielavender.com
www.elantrotman.com
HIROE sEKInE
A-mé (sekai Music)
E.j. AntOnIO
Rituals in the Marrow: Recipe for a jam
session (Bluezygo Records)
Dynamic original poetry complementing
improvisational jazz
music featuring
Christian McBride, by
Cave Canem, Hurston/
Wright and New York
Foundation for the Arts
fellowship recipient
E.J. Antonio. Midwest
Record writes, “Return
with us now to the
golden days of poetry and jazz as this poet sparks
some impromptu jazz by some real hitters that
makes you feel like some civil rights stuff is just
around the corner … another renaissance of Last
Poets.” www.ejantoniobluez.net
LOREttA McnAIR
Intimate Portrait (Myo-On Music)
Jazz and blues in the great tradition of the
American Songbook,
with a velvet and
powerful voice
reminiscent of
Rosemary Clooney and
Judy Garland. Loretta
blends her love of roots
music from several
genres in these original
compositions that are
partly taken from personal experiences, which
accounts for their universal truths and fresh
insights. Herbie Hancock said of Loretta’s music,
“The more I hear, the more I want to hear.” Read
more about Loretta at www.lorettamcnair.com. to buy
her CD, visit www.amazon.com or www.cdbaby.com.
Launch the Digital Edition of this issue at www.jazziz.com and click on the album covers to hear featured tracks.
Jane Bunnett & Hilario Durán
Cuban Rhapsody
(Alma)
For many listeners, this 10-track collection
of duets featuring
Canadian woodwind artist Jane
Bunnett and Cubanborn keyboardist
Hilario Durán will
be an entrancing
departure from the
more prevalent jazz- and tropical danceoriented offerings of today’s Latin-music
market. Some might be tempted to peg
Cuban Rhapsody as a classical session.
And indeed, a mood of serene, joyously
performed tropical salon music pervades.
The inclusion of five concise contradanzas
— a 19th-century Cuban form that evolved
from a similar French style — interpreted
to concert-hall perfection, adds weight to
that assertion. However, the recital’s distinctive Cuban origins, which percolate via
subtle rhythmic shadings, and the intricate
and airy mingling of Bunnett’s flute and
soprano sax with Durán’s grand piano
create something much more inclusive and
— more importantly — magical.
Several tracks do lend themselves to a
bit of spirited improvisation. Emilio Grenet
wrote the rhythmically jaunty “Quirino con
Su Tres” to utilize a text by Nicolás Guillén,
one of Cuba’s most important 20th-century
poets. Bunnett provides the session’s most
jazz-rooted performance during a spicy
soprano solo that’s loaded with sassy trills,
relaxed phrasing and passionate upperregister moans, while Durán sprinkles
a few bluesy chords into the mix. As its
title suggests, Miguel Matamoros’ classic
‘30s-era son “Lágrimas Negras (Black Tears)”
is a melancholy work. The tune inspires
free-ranging, reflective musings by Durán
and more than a hint of sorrow in Bunnett’s
tone and phrasing.
With works by Ernesto Lecuona, the
so-called “Chopin of the Tropics,” and other
like-minded composers, Cuban Rhapsody
captures the elegance, passion and idiosyncratic characteristics of a music created by
masters who effortlessly blended classical
and folk idioms. Bunnett and Durán are in
perfect harmony with that aesthetic.
— Mark Holston
Stefon Harris, David Sánchez,
Christian Scott
Ninety Miles
(Concord Picante)
Despite icy government-to-government
relations, travel restrictions and other
barriers — and,
ironically, perhaps
because of such
hindrances — the
occasional meetings of Cuban and
American musicians have often produced
unexpected and artistically stunning
results. Such is the case with Ninety Miles,
a recorded-in-Havana project that marries
the solo and ensemble talents of vibraphonist Stefon Harris, saxophonist David
Sánchez and up-and-coming trumpeter
Christian Scott with the rhythm sections
afforded by two Cuban piano-led quartets.
The hyperkinetic polyrhythms laid
down by pianist Rember Duharte’s group
on the opening track, “Ñengueleru,” clearly
distinguish this set from a conventional
Latin-jazz date. Each rhythm-section player
seems to be in his own world, yet their parts
mesh smoothly and propel the piece into a
bop-style unison section that spotlights the
three visitors. Sánchez’s tart tenor outbursts
play the cat to pianist Duharte’s mouse.
The arrangement ventures into unusual
constructions, particularly when Harris’
vibes mirror bassist Osmar Salazar’s funky
tumbao. Truly, it announces, something
special is taking place.
For Sánchez, a native of Puerto Rico, this
is fairly common ground. Scott, a product of
multicultural New Orleans, proves to be a
quick learner, and he plays with self-assured
élan. Harris’ rapid-fire and precise articulations bring to mind Bobby Hutcherson, who
has often experimented with Afro-Cuban
modes. The date benefits from its stylistic
breadth; each track stands on its own.
“E’Cha,” the session’s most conventional
offering, is crafted with a hint of souped-up
cha-cha, while Sánchez’s “The Forgotten
Ones” is an emotion-wrought ballad framed
by the ritualistic pulse of Edgar Martínez
Ochoa’s ceremonial batá drums.
One minor complaint: On most tracks,
the Cuban musicians are relegated to a
supporting role. A notable exception is
Harris’ “And This Too Shall Pass,” on which
Harold López-Nussa’s quartet make the
most of their brief time in the spotlight.
Nonetheless, come year’s end, Ninety Miles
will likely be near the top of many critics’
lists — and deservedly so.
— Mark Holston
Bruce Barth Trio
Live at Smalls
(Smalls Live)
Bruce Barth is a potent poet at the keys.
Looming on the
fringes of renown,
he certainly deserves
the attention of
discerning jazz-piano
fans. For his latest in
a scattered discography stretching back
nearly 20 years, Barth manifests a strong
identity, technical bravura tempered by
tasteful musicality, and a sense of adventure.
A long list of musicians – including Kurt
Rosenwinkel and Brad Mehldau – have
honed skills and launched careers at the
intimate Smalls. Captured live at the
Greenwich Village jazz club, Barth’s set of
mainly originals is a deceptively casual
affair, even as it confirms the mid-career
pianist’s deepening musical voice.
Joined by sensitive allies Vicente Archer
on bass and Rudy Royston on drums, Barth
exerts all the right stuff, as both fluent
player and improviser and as composer of
solid, varied tunes. Affirmative energies
greet the ear with the opening “Oh Yes I
Will” then settle into the Bill Evans-like
waltz “Sunday.” Vestiges of slinky soul-jazz
creep into “Peaceful Place.” And “Afternoon
in Lleida” luxuriates in a relaxed blues
pulse, followed by the feisty cadences of
“Wilsonian Alto.” The trio cools down on the
album’s only non-original, a fresh look at
“Good Morning Heartache.”
The sequence ends on another positive
note with the aptly titled “Looking Up.”
More than nine-minutes long, it’s a lovely,
simple tune with an implied Brazilian feel.
It also has that rolling, vamping, infectious
gospel spirit that invites late-night lingering in close, magic rooms like Smalls, when
the musicians are in proper artistic alignment with the audience and the space.
— Josef Woodard
The following reviews originally ran in the July and August 2011
online editions of JAZZIZ magazine at www.jazziz.com.
Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz
Orchestra, Conducted by Bobby Sanabria
Tito Puente Masterworks Live
(Jazzheads)
It says something about one of the country’s
most esteemed conservatories when it
expands its ensemble
offerings beyond the
standard big-band/
jazz orchestra format
to include a separate
program focused
exclusively on Latin jazz. Although the genre
has been around since the late 1940s, it has
never quite ascended to the pinnacle of critical acceptance that has been afforded to the
classic big-band style as personified by the
likes of Duke Ellington, Stan Kenton, Count
Basie and their contemporary counterparts.
Thanks in large part to the work of such
educators as Bobby Sanabria, who directs
the MSM’s Afro-Cuban jazz program, the
academic world is beginning to recognize
the artistic merit of the giants of the Latin
big-band tradition. It’s about time.
For Tito Puente Masterworks Live, Sanabria
and his student orchestra focus on the expansive repertoire of the late Nuyorican maestro
who, for over half a century, led one of the
most sophisticated and influential Latin big
band ever assembled. As he did on Kenya
Revisited Live, a tribute to Machito’s AfroCubans released two years ago, Sanabria and
his wards tackle Puente’s legacy as the “King
of the Mambo” with unreserved zeal while
achieving a near perfect balance of reverence
and self-expression.
Sanabria digs deep into Puente’s recording archives to come up with a program
that focuses mostly on underexposed works
drawn primarily from the 1950s and ’60s.
Although two are certified hits, both have
been treated to new arrangements by noted
jazz trumpeters who know the idiom well —
“Picadillo” by Andrew Neesley and “Ran Kan
Kan” by Michael Philip Mossman. On other
tunes, such as the hard swinging “Bohemia
(Birdland) After Dark,” an Oscar Pettiford
standard that underscores Puente’s interest
in straightahead jazz, original scoring by “El
Rey” (The King) has been “reconstructed,”
meaning that some sensitively designed
tinkering has been done to give the charts
their own voice. Several others, including
such prototypical jazz mambos as “Cuban
Nightmare” and “Mambo Adonis,” feature
Puente’s original arrangements. With
virtuosic soloing and ensemble work, fiery
and stylistically pure percussion-section
contributions, and Sanabria himself sitting
in here and there on vibes, marimba, trap
drums, timbales and vocals, the session is a
sizzling reminder of the genius of Puente and
his timeless music.
—Mark Holston
Konitz-Mehldau-Haden-Motian
Live at Birdland
(ECM)
For those who treasure lyrical chamber jazz,
the albums Alone
Together and Another
Shade of Blue — discs
drawn from live
performances in 1996
that brought together
alto saxophonist Lee
Konitz, bassist Charlie
Haden and pianist Brad Mehldau — are
high-water marks of the past decade. In many
ways this live recording from 2009 revives
the chemistry generated by the belated
reunion of three superbly receptive players.
The two older veterans, Konitz and Haden,
and their younger compatriot are uniquely
attuned to one another; the threesome’s
undiminished, near-telepathic responsiveness remains a pleasure to behold.
Yet the addition of drummer Paul Motian
to the mix adds a fascinating element of
creative tension that wasn’t nearly as present
on the earlier recordings. Motian, a hearty 78
at the time of this recording, has only grown
more individual in his playing. Implying
rhythms, placing interaction before tempo
and diverting the pulse of a piece as per his
whims, Motian can be a wild card, but a wild
card of a sensitive and stimulating nature.
Although he’s on his best behavior on the exquisite ballad performances, “Lover Man” and
“I Fall In Love Too Easily,” on more up-tempo
pieces, including “Lullaby of Birdland” and
“Solar,” Motian’s unpredictable work prods
his fellow players to react with sharpened
reflexes. The heightened atmosphere elicits
exhilarating, yet consciously thoughtful
improvisations.
The octogenarian Konitz, it can never be
stated too often, continues to plant himself
consistently in the moment, never coasting,
always inventing, an inspiration to his band
mates. Haden, attractively understated during
ensemble play and characteristically painstaking during his minimally accompanied
solos, meshes well with Mehldau, who, while
contributing stirringly unfettered work on
an increasingly abstract “Oleo,” keeps his frequently extravagant nature mainly in check.
As Konitz and Motian are now in their 80s, we
can only hope that less time passes before this
invigorating ad hoc quartet records again.
—Steve Futterman
Craig Taborn
Avenging Angel
(ECM)
Most pianists stick to the tried and true for
their initial solo
recordings — putting
their personal stamp
on a few standards
while mixing in some
originals. Not Craig
Taborn. Known for his
versatile contributions
on piano, organ and synthesizers for such
heavyweights as James Carter, Dave Douglas
and Chris Potter, Taborn delivers 13 solo pieces
that are original in every sense of the word.
Taborn focuses on the sounds, textures
and atmosphere that the instrument delivers. Notes linger then dissipate. You can hear
the hammers striking on “Diamond Turning
Dream.” Silences are as crucial as the notes
themselves. The effect is often haunting,
spooky even. The results often sound closer
to modernist classical music than jazz.
But Taborn is creating on the spot, making
comparisons to Keith Jarrett’s solo improvisations inevitable. Whereas Jarrett’s ideas
are grounded in thematic development,
Taborn’s encompass all the visceral aspects
of the piano.
Not that Taborn doesn’t create compelling
music. He gradually develops a dramatic
narrative on “This Voice Says So,” the twohanded motifs shifting from a near whisper
to an angry shout and back again. And some
Jazz
at WSU
congratulates
Stan Sabourin
MA in Music with a Jazz Emphasis, 2011
on his original
composition, Ozone
showcased in this issue
libarts.wsu.edu/music • 509-335-3898 • [email protected]
pieces encroach more familiar jazz terrain.
The title track is rhythmically aggressive
with Taborn’s two-handed attack producing
something of a shuffle. “Gift Horse/Over
the Water” is a gliding, harmonically rich
piece, with Taborn’s repeating left-hand lines
producing a funky rhythm punctuated by
splashing right-hand chords. It would be
fascinating to hear this piece developed for
a trio.
Taborn’s approach is different enough
to be a bit jarring at first, but these pieces
quickly crawl under your skin and stay there.
The dark, somber final track is titled “This Is
How You Disappear.” It certainly is.
Kenny Werner
Balloons
(Half Note)
Pianist Kenny Werner is a master of any
musical configuration. His previous
disc, No Beginning,
No End, was a large
ensemble effort that
dealt with themes of
loss, grief and transition in the wake of
his 16-year-old daughter’s accidental death.
This time around he’s at work with a quintet
live at New York’s Blue Note, and if the scope
isn’t as deep or ambitious, the results are no
less effective.
The first thing that strikes you is the grace
of Werner’s compositions. Harmonically rich
with sweeping, cinematic melodies, it offers a
big canvas for the musicians to work with. All
four original songs capture the same lyrical
nature while being unique unto themselves.
The opener, “Sada,” is a meditative piece
with a gradually unfolding narrative.
Werner’s precise, elegant solo is matched by
David Sanchez’s warm, delicate turn on tenor
saxophone. “Siena” is a bit more uptempo
with a declarative theme stated by Sanchez
and trumpeter Randy Brecker, whose solo is a
clinic on rhythm, dynamics and pitch.
The title track features a nursery rhymelike theme — albeit a somewhat dark nursery
rhyme — that provides room for intense exploration in Sanchez and Brecker’s solos. “Class
Dismissed” is easily the most aggressive tune,
full of wild harmonic leaps and a stop-time,
bop-inspired rhythm propelled by drummer
Antonio Sanchez and bassist John Patitucci.
It’s a testament to Werner’s artistry — and
his A-list bandmates — that he can produce a
live date so precise and thematically unified
without sounding stilted or repetitive.
Chris Byars Octet
Lucky Strikes Again
(SteepleChase)
For the vast majority of today’s jazz fans,
it’s unlikely that
the name Lucky
Thompson springs
quickly to mind when
talk turns to great
sax players of the
past. Overshadowed
by the likes of Don
Byas, Dexter Gordon, Ben Webster and other
tenor titans whose careers started in the late
1930s and ’40s, the saxophonist and composer
— born Eli Thompson in 1924 — nonetheless
earned a solid reputation as a forwardlooking soloist who was equally at home in
either swing or bebop, as an arranger with a
fondness for octet voicings, and as a pioneer
who was among the first to bring the soprano
sax into the modern jazz fold.
Thompson’s legacy has been obscured
because his last recordings date back almost
four decades and he spent the final years
of his life in poor health and out of touch
with the jazz world. Thanks to saxophonist
and arranger Byars, whose octet tackles 10
Thompson works on this outing, the unforced
gait of the late musician’s melodically engaging, harmonically complex creations can be
appreciated once again.
Byars approached his mission with a
mixture of reverence and joyful curiosity.
Rather than look to Thompson’s limited but
still-available discography for material,
he dug deep enough to come up with an
all but forgotten gem, a recording of a 1961
radio broadcast the saxophonist did with
Hamburg, Germany’s NDR Jazz Workshop.
Byars carefully transcribed the set’s program, coming up with the bulk of the tracks
presented on Lucky Strikes Again.
It’s easy to see why Byars was entranced
by Thompson’s octet arrangements. In reality
a mini-big band, with three saxes, trumpet,
trombone and rhythm section, the format
can provide orchestral muscle when desired
or bob and weave as adroitly as the most
lithe combo. Often a phrase starts with just a
single note before blossoming into a fat chord.
Even with such ace soloists on board as the
leader, trumpeter Scott Wendholt and trombonist John Mosca, it’s Thompson’s inviting
compositions and imaginative arrangements
that command constant attention. From the
melancholy feel of the ballad “Passionately
Yours” and the flirtatious optimism of “Could
I Meet You Later?” to the bop-fused joyride
that’s “Munsoon,” it’s Lucky Thompson’s
under-appreciated genius that gets an opportunity to be appreciated once again.
—Mark Holston
Nilson Matta & Roni Ben-Hur
Mojave
(Motéma)
The partnership of seasoned Brazilian
bassist Nilson Matta
and the equally accomplished guitarist
Roni Ben-Hur proves
to be a particularly
effective one on this
12-track collection
of original compositions, vintage Brazilian fare, and a Burt
Bacharach standard. Matta is known for his
fat, resonant tone and his ability to step out
in commanding fashion as a soloist while
Ben-Hur’s sound is characterized by a warm
tone, slight vibrato, splashes of thick chords
and an occasional nod to Wes Montgomery’s
influence through use of octave lines.
What makes Mojave charmingly
different and much more than a typical
“jazz meets bossa” session, however, is the
choice of repertoire. The set consciously
avoids the conventional and in the process
delivers a program that’s refreshingly
engaging. Even the choice of the title tune,
a Jobim work from his classic 1967 Wave
album, signals that something different
is at hand. The song, despite an intricate
and evocative melody, rich harmonies
and jaunty waltz tempo, remains underrecorded and largely unknown.
The overall tone of the program is set
by the presence of three works by the late
Pixinguinha, the Brazilian composer and
saxophonist who in the 1930s championed
choro, a sonically airy yet technically
complex style that boasts elements akin to
GlobalNoize Ad_small.qx8_Ad 2 8/11/11 5:39 pm Page 1
both traditional jazz and chamber music.
The samba-tinged energy of the composer’s
“Lamentos” provides a useful insight into
the unforced interactions between the
bassist and guitarist and demonstrates the
natural affinity they have for one another’s
musicianship. They slip comfortably in and
out of lead and supporting roles throughout
the piece, occasionally meeting in tight
unison in a highly syncopated section.
They give Pixinguinha’s well-known ballad
“Carinhoso” a stylistically appropriate
chamber-esque reading and explore the
reflective beauty of his less familiar “Rosa”
via a duo reading that’s characterized by a
subtly bluesy mood.
Drummer Victor Lewis and percussionist
Café generally provide light rhythmic textures, but, on occasion, they cut loose with
the full furry of a samba school rhythm
section, as on Baden Powell’s “Samba do
Veloso.” With the exception of a few exuberant tracks, such as the samba-fied bop
flavor of the guitarist’s “Canal Street,” the
session’s mood is one of restrained virtuosity, and it serves this eclectic and largely
underexposed program very well.
—Mark Holston
James Farm
James Farm
(Nonesuch)
James Farm is an all-star acoustic jazz
quartet comprised
of saxophonist
Joshua Redman,
pianist Aaron Parks,
bassist Matt Penman
and drummer Eric
Harland. Each of the
members contribute
compositions to this, their self-titled debut.
They also share arrangement and production credits.
This is the first time the group’s four
members have recorded in this precise
configuration, but they display a remarkable chemistry that draws on the connections they’ve forged over the years. Redman,
Harland and Penman performed together
with the SFJAZZ Collective, and Parks used
the James Farm rhythm section for his 2008
album Invisible Cinema.
From the first notes of the moody opener,
“Coax,” the quartet confidently generates
“Fuses together the best of jazz, funk,
rock & hip hop”
— Bob Davis www.soul-patrol.com
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A Lightyear Entertainment release. All rights reserved. Distributed in the U.S. and Canada by
The Kathleen T. and Philip B. Phillips, M.D.
A PRESENTATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC
Open to currently enrolled undergraduate and graduate students, ages 17-35
Submission deadline: March 16, 2012
Competition Finals: April 13, 2012
Pensacola JazzFest Performance: April 14, 2012
First Prize $5,000 Second Prize $3,000 Third Prize $1,500
Two Finalist Prizes $250 each
All finalists will receive a $500 travel and housing stipend.
Application form and submission guidelines are available from your department or on the University of West Florida Department of Music website: uwf.edu/music/phillipsjazz
a subtle, off-kilter sense of mystery that
builds to a dramatic climax. The bustling
“I-10” deploys an exciting mix of skittering
rhythms, rumbling bass and frenetic sax
lines. “Star Crossed” elegantly shape-shifts
from a hypnotic ballad to a propulsive raveup to a contemplative tone poem.
Throughout, James Farm showcases a
pastoral sensibility that evokes elements of
folk and soul music. There are bits of celeste,
Fender Rhodes and Hammond organ in the
mix, plus an occasional sonic left turn like
the wash of ambient sound that opens “If
By Air” before it becomes a more traditional
groove-oriented track. These flourishes are
welcome, but it’s hard not to wish they were
more than mere embellishments.
The bigger problem is that the group
seems so intent on creating a pleasant
album that they occasionally sound overly
saccharine while favoring a brand of gentle
lyricism that becomes cloying over the
course of the album’s 79 minutes. They’ve
crafted a smart and intermittently compelling debut, but James Farm has the chops
and creativity to make something both
riskier and more rewarding.
—Jeff Jackson
Jessica Williams Trio
Freedom Trane
(Origin)
Is Jessica Williams capable of a false step?
The pianist continues to put out one
stellar recording after another, though
without the fanfare
that accompanies
some of her peers.
Her latest, a tribute
to John Coltrane, is as soulful as anything
she’s recorded and just as elegant.
The eight tracks are evenly split
between Williams originals and Coltrane
classics. The opener, Williams’ “The Seeker,”
plays like a Coltrane tune. Williams’ thick
block chords and gospel-like touches
suggest Coltrane’s favored pianist, McCoy
Tyner; drummer Mel Brown echoes Elvin
Jones’ thundering tom-tom rolls; while
the meditative melody brings to mind
Coltrane’s “Crescent.”
But it’s certainly not all pastiche. The
title track is a rollicking blues, while “Just
Words” is a graceful mid-tempo piece with
a logical forward momentum. Of the four
Coltrane songs, it’s the ballads “Naima”
and “Welcome” that shine brightest — the
former bittersweet, the latter contemplative
but with an underlying sense of uplift.
Williams is known for idiosyncratic
touches such as inside-the-piano tricks
and offbeat pedal effects. Here she plays it
straight, letting the tunes themselves shine.
That’s not to say her technique is any less
impressive. Her sense of dynamics is impeccable, she maintains clarity in her singlenote passes in the highest registers, and her
left hand goes beyond mere support, providing the contrast that puts the right-hand
melody in greater relief. And there’s the way
she seamlessly shifts the melody to her left
hand, as on her solo in “Paul’s Pal.”
In many ways, this is a typical Jessica
Williams record. And there’s absolutely
nothing wrong with that.
Tommy Smith
Karma
(Spartacus)
No question Scottish reed master Smith is
a significant talent
— a player and band
leader capable of
striking a balance
between commercial
savvy and satisfying
musicianship. But
while Karma, the
latest offering from his Spartacus imprint,
features plenty of entertaining moments, it’s
not always a cohesive listening experience.
“Cause and Effect” certainly kicks off the
album in inspired fashion. The central riff,
delivered by Smith on tenor sax and Steve
Hamilton on keyboards, is irresistibly catchy,
and drummer Alyn Cosker and electric bassist
Kevin Glasgow drive it home with plenty of
floorboard-mashing attitude. The structure
is tight and succinct, yet spacious enough to
make room for some tasty Smith filigree and a
few bars of Glasgow at full burble.
Unfortunately, “Land of Heroes,” the next
track, slows the momentum via an overly
laconic Smith intro and an arrangement
that tends to meander. And while “Good
Deed,” which follows, picks up the pace, the
tune still takes its sweet time moving from
typical mid-period Weather Report homage
to excitable blowing session.
Inconsistency marks several other tracks
as well. “Body and Soul,” which juxtaposes
wailing sax and retro synthesizer, falls
short of heavenly at times; “Star” has difficulty sustaining its beauty when Smith
steps from the spotlight; and “Sun” isn’t
always brightened by its Japanese travelogue touches. Yet “Tomorrow” and the title
track exhibit some notably brawny playing
from all parties, “Projection” offers a melody
whose instant accessibility is cut with just
enough quirkiness to keep listeners alert,
and “Who Are You?” closes the recording
with bracing concision.
In the end, the good Karma outweighs
the less-good. But with a little more focus,
the album could have been considerably
more blissful.
—Michael Roberts
Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo
Songs of Mirth and Melancholy
(Marsalis Music)
When duo recordings don’t work, the
instruments excised
from more typical
group settings seem
like missing limbs.
Because the listener
can still feel where
they should be, their
absence becomes
even more noticeable. But Songs of Mirth
and Melancholy evokes no sense of loss.
The sound created by sax master Marsalis
and pianist Calderazzo feels complete, not
diminished or undernourished.
The pair put mirth before melancholy
via the set-starting “One Way,” an upbeat
Calderazzo composition that barrels along
with such abandon that Marsalis, on tenor,
can’t help swinging along with the fun.
Yet the pair proves to be just as simpatico
on Marsalis’ “The Bard Lachrymose,” which
represents the sort of radical stylistic shift
that only the most confident artists attempt. Marsalis’ soprano playing is so delicate that Calderazzo must caress the keys
more than strike them or else risk breaking
the most fragile of moods. That they
somehow manage to sustain this spirit not
only through the remainder of this cut, but
also over the course of the almost-as-gentle
“La Valse Kendall,” a Calderazzo offering
that immediately follows, is testimony to a
sonic kinship honed during their 13 years as
collaborators.
Familiarity aside, Marsalis and
Calderazzo continue to favor exploration
over the tried and true. On tracks such
as the Marsalis-penned “Endymion” and
“Precious,” as well as Calderazzo’s “Hope”
and “Bri’s Dance,” their interplay finds them
waiting for cues from each other rather
than reeling out independently conceived
solos. This is especially true on a spacious
cover of Wayne Shorter’s “Face on the
Barroom Floor,” in which the pauses are less
about catching one’s breath than deciding
on the perfect thing to do next.
And more often than not, their choices
are inspired.
—Michael Roberts
Corea, Clarke & White
Forever
(Concord)
The operative word for this double-disc set is
“reunion.” Recorded
live at the Oakland
club Yoshi’s in 2009,
the initial disc finds
Corea reuniting
with bassist Stanley
Clarke and drummer
Lenny White, his
old compatriots from the archetypal fusion
band Return To Forever. Here, though, the
old friends unplug, delving into a mixed
repertoire that touches on jazz warhorses
(“On Green Dolphin Street,” “Waltz For
Debby,” Monk’s “Hackensack”) and sturdy
originals (Corea’s “Windows,” “No Mystery”
and “Señor Mouse”), reasserting through
energized performances that age hasn’t
dulled the edge — or technical mastery — of
any of these flamboyant players. Best of all,
a palpable sense of fun is captured; these
three men actually sound as if they still
enjoy making music together. Shared history binds them, but nostalgia has no part
in these proceedings.
The second disc, studio-recorded, will
warm the cockles of longtime RTF fans.
While Corea and Clarke intermittently go
electric, original band guitarist Bill Connors
(in fine musical shape, as well) returns to
the fold for a few numbers, including an
extended quartet version of “Señor Mouse.”
Two other past Corea associates, violinist
Jean Luc-Ponty and singer Chaka Khan, also
join the party; Ponty meshes well with all,
while Khan’s overripe emoting remains a
matter of taste. The general atmosphere of
Disc Two recalls ’70s-era fusion, complete
with funky keyboards and finger-busting
solos, but given the personnel, anything
else might be construed as false advertising.
(As for Corea touchstones, “Spain” makes no
appearance, but, fear not, “500 Miles High,”
recorded at the 2009 Monterey Jazz Festival,
closes things out on a high note.)
Forever clocks in at over two very full
hours. Corea might have considered releasing these discs separately for greater impact.
Proving that less can indeed be more, a
snippet of a duet between the pianist and
White on Coltrane’s “Crescent,” itself shy of
two minutes, may be the highlight of the
album.
—Steve Futterman
The New Gary Burton Quartet
Common Ground
(Mack Avenue)
As the name of the group indicates, this is a
new band for legendary vibraphonist
Gary Burton. It’s a
stellar lineup, and
the performances
are clean and crisp.
Unfortunately,
they’re also a bit cold.
There’s a lightness to most of these tunes
that’s evident from the beginning. “Late
Night Sunrise” opens with Burton and guitarist Julian Lage playing rapid, descending
lines in unison. From there the group settles
into a mid-tempo groove with a sprightly
melody. The same can be said for many of
Common Ground’s 10 selections, though
“Last Snow” and the ballad “Was It So Long
Ago?” add a little drama and darkness to the
mix, and drummer Antonio Sanchez’s “Did
You Get It?” adds a little fire.
Burton, of course, is in command of his instrument. His solos are tasteful, melodic and
rhythmically assured, while his accompaniment is clean and direct. Lage, a 23-year-old
prodigy, is the other main presence. Playing
acoustic throughout, Lage inherits the spot
previously occupied by Pat Metheny and
John Scofield. He’s certainly impressive, mak-
ing the most complex runs seem effortless,
as on his own composition “Etude.”
The problem is that everything comes off
as highly polished, and while it all demands
respect and admiration, there’s not much
passion in evidence. Broken down to its
components, the musicianship is impressive. As a whole, however, the results are
less than exhilarating.
Ed Reed
Born To Be Blue
(Blue Shorts)
It’s hard not to be won over by Ed Reed’s
story. His promising
singing career was
derailed more than a
half-century ago by
drug addiction. He
spent years in and
out of prison before
gradually getting his
life together, at which point he continued to
pursue his dream. Four years ago, at age 78,
he released his debut recording.
It’s even easier to be won over by his
voice, which is weathered and world weary,
but deeply soulful and engaging. Reed
breaks no new ground in his approach
— don’t look for creative interpretations
of Radiohead tunes here — but he’s proof
that there’s still vitality in the old-school
approach to jazz vocals.
Given Reed’s background, some of the
material he chooses carries even more
poignancy. He’s especially effective on Abbey
Lincoln’s redemptive “Throw It Away.” And
when he sings the Mel Tormé-penned title
track, you get the feeling he’s lived the lyrics.
Beyond conveying emotion, Reed exhibits
impressive command of his instrument.
Note, for example, the way he stretches
phrases on “End of a Love Affair” and his
impeccable vocalese on “Monk’s Dream.”
Reed is ably supported by his backing
quartet. Pianist Randy Porter in particular
stands out, altering harmonies and adding
fills that go beyond mere accompaniment.
Reed’s travails and recent success earned
him a Heroes award from the Jazz Journalists
Association earlier this year. This deeply
moving and satisfying record should earn
him a bunch of other awards, as well. —John Frederick Moore
Travels
Reborn On the Bayou
By Bob Weinberg
Acadiana boasts a globe-straddling music fest and a region brimming with
cultural and natural riches.
drummer and composer Sunny Jain. Reinvigorating centuries-old
Looking like a three-way collision of a college marching
Indian brass-band tradition, the group’s six horn players and three
band with a road show of Cabaret and an itinerant circus
drummers mixed bhangra beats with jazz, funk, Latin and go-go.
troupe, the members of the MarchFourth Marching Band
Jain brought the nighttime crowd to a frenzy as he exhorted them
presented an all-you-can-eat feast for the eyes and ears.
Commandeering the Popeye’s Stage of
the Festival International de Louisiane,
the Portland, Oregon-based group
jammed on a mix of funk, second-line
and other types of horns-and-drumsfueled party music. All the while, March
Fourth’s scantily clad, face-painted
stiltwalkers defied gravity and good
sense as they fired up the crowd with
slinky acrobatics.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary,
the much-anticipated world-music fest
(www.festivalinternational.com) once
again took over the streets of Lafayette,
Louisiana, from April 27 to May 1. Each
spring, the vibrant, picturesque college
town — home to the University of
Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns — rolls up its
sidewalks and welcomes a host of globespanning talent. Not that they ignore
the locals: The roster included plenty of
superb Cajun and zydeco performers, as
well as a couple of New Orleans-style
brass bands, who led second-line struts
MarchFourth Marching Band
along closed-to-traffic thoroughfares.
The event’s stated aim is “celebrating
to wave their arms, clap and shout, never missing a beat as he
Acadiana’s cultural connection with the Francophone world.”
whacked his shoulder-strapped dhol drum with a mallet.
And so, acts such as Haiti’s Boukman Eksperyans, WinnipegFestival International provides as good a reason as any to exbased roots band The Duhks and French singer-songwriter
plore the culture-rich region. It also coincides with another event
Donoré were among the musical offerings. But performers
that launches from Lafayette: Cycle Zydeco. More of an excuse to
also hailed from Belize (the captivating Umalali), Senegal and
party and enjoy the scenery than a competitive sporting event,
Guadeloupe, the commonality being each group’s dedication to
the ride takes some 400 cyclists on a four-day, multi-city tour
roots music, even as some blended tradition with innovation.
with plenty of stops. An event organizer described the particiSuch was the case with the dynamic Red Baraat, led by
128 spring 2011 jazziz
A Place to Discover the Bayou
pants as a “beer-drinkin’ crowd with a bikin’ problem.”
One of the first stops on the bike tour, St. Martinville sits 18 miles southeast
of Lafayette. Along the banks of the placid Bayou Teche stands the stately
Evangeline Oak, its lush, mossy branches supporting a leafy, sun-dappled
canopy. Immortalized by Longfellow’s “Evangeline” — an epic poem of lovers
separated by the exodus of French settlers from Nova Scotia to Louisiana in
the 1750s — the cherished oak plays a significant role in Acadian lore. The St.
Martinville Cultural Heritage Center relates the twin histories of the Acadian
(or “Cajun”) and African diasporas that contributed to the rich gumbo of life
on the bayou. A guide shared the fact that okra, a staple of so much Southern
cooking, was actually smuggled into the New World by African slaves, who
hid the seeds in their hair.
Besides its music, the region’s cuisine is perhaps its greatest claim to fame.
Foodies may enjoy touring the nearly century-old Conrad Rice Mill in New
Iberia, where the historic facility and machines remain in use. With its assortment of rices, spices, sauces and seasonings, the mill’s Konriko Company Store
is a good bet for the Top Chef crowd. Ditto the Tabasco Pepper Sauce Factory
on nearby Avery Island. Leave time to tour the factory’s Jungle Gardens, home
to a refuge of snowy egrets and a seemingly incongruent pagoda containing
a beatific Buddha, blessing the tranquil, marshy setting. From the sublime to
the commercial, the Tabasco Country Store hawks signature hot sauces and
just about anything that can be stamped with the company’s logo. Brave souls
might also sample Tabasco-flavored frozen custard.
Haul buns out of bed at sunrise to visit the Café des Amis in Breaux Bridge
for its regular Saturday Zydeco Breakfast. Lines form outside the restaurant
as early as 7, as locals wait for a table and a chance to show off their twosteppin’ skills. Crammed into a space by the window, Lil’ Pookie and the
Zydeco Sensations kept patrons twirling on a recent visit. Diners chowed on
powdered beignets, sweet-potato pancakes, couche-couche (a mix of cornmeal
with milk, syrup and sugar) and tasso ham, all washed down with the region’s
highly addictive Community Coffee. If you still want more, cross the street
to Fly’s Coffee House, where pickers, fiddlers, accordionists and rubboarders
congregate from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pickers of another sort can spend hours combing the town’s antique shops.
A Lafayette staple, the Blue Dog Café serves up a sumptuous Sunday brunch
in a mellower setting. The restaurant takes its name and logo from the iconic
Blue Dog paintings of New Iberia native George Rodrigue, whose whimsical
artwork graces the walls. Fiddler Al Berard and an accordionist played Cajun
waltzes and folk tunes as diners browsed sweet and savory brunch options,
including waffles topped with a bourbon-laced, banana-studded sauce, crab
cakes benedict and customized omelets.
Looking like the most fun frat house on campus, Lafayette’s Blue Moon
Saloon is housed in a historic hotel that dates back to the early 1900s. The
place still operates as a guest house, and is renowned for its weekly Cajun Jam
and a variety of roots music performances. Blue Moon overflows with revelers
during Festival International, and understandably so, as fest performers team
up on the patio stage and keep the party going. s
An airboat tour of the Achafalaya Basin
provides a privileged glimpse into the
region’s natural beauty and wildlife (e.g.,
gators, herons, egrets). Afterwards, head to
Pat’s Fisherman’s Wharf and sink your teeth
into a shrimp po-boy or seafood gumbo brimming with shrimp, crawfish and crabmeat,
and wash it down with a cold LA 31, a locally
brewed pale ale. Spice up your selection with
chow-chow, a green relish, or Pat’s own brand
of hot sauce. On weekends, the adjoining
Achafalaya Club’s dance floor fills with
revelers grooving to zydeco and swamp-pop
bands. Tours depart from the marina at
Henderson Lake. (www.basinlanding.com,
www.patsfishermanswharf.com)
A Place to Suck Dem Heads
Johnny and Wendy Hebert have been serving
steaming platters of crawfish at the aptly
named Crawfish Town USA in Breaux Bridge
for 25 years. You won’t get ’em any fresher:
The crawfish are harvested from ponds across
the street and processed on-site (www.crawfishtown.com). Or you could suck down some
“mudbugs” at Randol’s, a Lafayette institution. The eatery’s crawfish étoufée has taken
top honors at a world-championship cook-off,
and the kitchen brings that same expertise
to signature dishes such as Redfish Randol, in
which blackened fillets and seafood stuffing
are topped with a zingy remoulade. A selection of steaks is also available, as is a spacious
dance floor and stage hosting zydeco and
Cajun bands nightly. (www.randols.com)
A Place to Stay
A charming B&B in the heart of New Iberia,
Le Rosier Country Inn provides a convenient
locale from which to explore the town and
surrounding areas. David and Carolyn
Groner refurbished the elegant 1870 home
and added guest quarters off a picturesque
courtyard. Stroll around the corner for a
classic Southern dinner at Clementine’s or
breakfast at Victor’s Cafeteria — Le Rosier
will provide a voucher for two — a favorite
haunt of hometown author James Lee Burke’s
fictional lawman Dave Robicheaux. Return
to Le Rosier, settle into a rocker on the front
porch with a bourbon, enjoy the fellowship of
the Groners and their Weimaraner Dixie and
gaze into the lush greenery of Shadows-onthe-Teche, the antebellum mansion across
the street. (www.lerosier.com)
Coda
Good bye, my friend
Although his perpetually bloodshot eyes,
thinning hair and wiry frame suggested
that he was as mortal as the next guy on
the street, to me Marcos Szpilman seemed
more like a Brazilian Superman. A noted
plastic surgeon, by day he busied himself in
his Rio de Janeiro clinic making the rich and
famous more beautiful. Then he’d hustle off
in maddening traffic to lecture at the city’s
largest private university, where he was
director of plastic surgery for the school’s
medical faculty. He carved out time to attend
to the needs of the multi-generational children he’d fathered in two marriages. When
night fell, he adopted yet another persona as
he tucked his alto sax and sheaths of music
into his Mercedes and sped away to a gig,
either fronting his highly regarded Rio Jazz
Orchestra or a small jazz combo.
Despite his hectic lifestyle, Marcos
always had time for his inner circle, and for
two decades it was my fortune to be part of
it. “Hello, my friend,” he’d exclaim happily
when I arrived from the United States and
called to see what was up. Our get-togethers
were always the highlight of my frequent
trips, and they had become so routine it
seemed like they would go on forever.
They won’t. Earlier this year, word
arrived from Rogério Lopes, the orchestra’s
guitarist and arranger, that my Brazilian
Superman had passed away the night
before at the age of 79. For months, he had
successfully hidden the fact that he had
terminal lung cancer from his musicians
and friends. Ironically, he died just a week
before he was to have conducted the RJO
in an all-star concert featuring Milton
Nascimento and Ivan Lins to benefit the
city’s Fundação do Câncer.
Even in a country noted for musicians
whose life stories read like Hollywood
scripts, Marcos’ tale is unique. His father,
Waldemar, a violinist and woodwind
artist, and two uncles emigrated from
Poland to Brazil in 1925. A cousin they left
behind in Europe was the noted JewishPolish composer and musician Wladyslaw
Szpilman, whose autobiography, The
Pianist, was made into the film of the same
name by director Roman Polanski.
Marcos was part of the generation that
spawned the bossa nova movement in
Brazil. And although he spent countless
nights at jam sessions and clubs hanging
out with the likes of Sergio Mendes, Paulo
Moura and other emerging Brazilian jazz
stars, his first love was North American bigband jazz. In 1973, he founded the Rio Jazz
Orchestra and began a crusade to keep the
sound of the classic big band alive in Brazil.
The RJO provided a training ground for
some of the country’s best young jazz talent,
including trumpeter Marcio Montarroyos
and saxophonist Mauro Senise. Although
Marcos’ set lists would always feature an
occasional jazzy samba or smooth bossa
arrangement, swing was his thing.
The intricate texture of Marcos’ life is
best illustrated by his own recollections.
They were usually conveyed with a convulsion of belly laughs when I was seated next
By Mark Holston
to him on the band’s chartered bus as it
motored off to an engagement. For example,
he took great delight in recounting that as
a young army doctor just out of medical
school, he cut a deal with the base commander to have a gymnasium built for the
troops in exchange for treating the officer’s
mistress to a gratis plastic surgery session.
“Just imagine what I could have gotten for
the boys if I’d done it for his wife as well,”
he’d joke. The travails of leading the band
were many. One night, the drummer failed
to show up for a swanky private party.
“I know what the drums are supposed to
sound like on these tunes,” a trombonist
commented, adding, “Why not let me give
it a try?” So, the engagement was pulled
off with a diminished brass section and an
ad-hoc percussionist. Marcos later conceded
that “the guy really did a pretty good job.”
Today, Marcos Szpilman’s legacy lives
on via the half-dozen albums and DVDs the
RJO produced, and through the artistry of his
daughter Taryn, one of Brazil’s most versatile
young vocalists. In April, he was laid to rest
in Rio’s Cemitério Israelita de Vila Rosali. s
jazzizPhoto by Cadu Dias
®
Leaves
autumn
Featuring
George Benson
Michael Franks
Randy Brecker
Rick Braun
Larry Coryell
Gary Burton
Stanley Jordan
Gonzalo Rubalcaba
Bill Frisell
Acoustic Alchemy
and 20 more…
The New 2-CD Collection for FALL 2011 from

Distance is Relative

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