May 2014 - The New York City Jazz Record

Transcription

MAY 2014 - ISSUE 145
NYCJAZZRECORD.COM
YOUR FREE GUIDE TO THE NYC JAZZ SCENE
THE THING
WHAT IS THIS LOVE
CALLED THING
AHMED •
ABDULLAH
GREG
WARD
•
LENNIE
NIEHAUS
•
HEP
JAZZ
•
EVENT
CALENDAR
“BEST JAZZ CLUBS OF THE YEAR 2012”
SMOKE JAZZ & SUPPER CLUB • HARLEM, NEW YORK CITY
FEATURED ARTISTS / 7:00, 9:00 & 10:30pm
ONE NIGHT ONLY / 7:00, 9:00 & 10:30pm
Fri & Sat, May 2 & 3
Wed, May 7
JIMMY GREENE QUARTET
Jimmy Greene, tenor saxophone I Xavier Davis, piano
Gerald Cannon, bass I Jeff “Tain” Watts, drums
ERIC REED QUARTET
Seamus Blake, tenor saxophone I Orrin Evans, piano
Reuben Rogers, bass I Rodney Green, drums
Record Release Weekend
LOUIS HAYES
& THE JAZZ COMMUNICATORS
Steve Nelson, vibraphone I Abraham Burton, tenor saxophone
David Bryant, piano I Dezron Douglas, bass I Louis Hayes, drums
Miles Davis Celebration
& Record Release Weekend
JIMMY COBB & FRIENDS
STEVE TURRE QUINTET
Bruce Williams, alto saxophone I Steve Turre, trombone
Xavier Davis, piano I Gerald Cannon, bass I Willie Jones III, drums
TOMMY CAMPBELL & VOCAL-EYES
Miles Griffith, vocals I Carolyn Leonhart, vocals I Helio Alves, piano
Ben Sher, guitar I Harvey S, bass I Tommy Campbell, drums
Wed, May 14
NEW RELEASES FOR 2014!
AVAILABLE ON COMPACT DISC & DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
NAT ADDERLEY, JR. QUINTET
Donald Braden, saxophone & flute I Nat Adderley, Jr., piano
Trifon Dimitrov, bass I Rocky Bryant, drums
Wed, May 21
JERRY WELDON QUARTET
Jerry Weldon, tenor saxophone I Jeb Patton, piano
Mike Karn, bass I Jason Brown, drums
Wed, May 28
JOANNA PASCAL
WITH
THE ORRIN
EVANS
TRIO
SPECIAL
/ 7:00,
9:00
& 10:30pm
Joanna
Pascal,EVENT
vocals
Orrin Evans, piano I Vicente Archer, bass I Obed Calvaire, drums
Sun & Mon, Feb 9 & 10
BRAD MEHLDAU & PETER BERNSTEIN
Brad Mehldau (piano) • Peter Bernstein (guitar)
Music 7 Nights a Week & Sunday Brunch
No Music Charge (Sunday to Thursday)
For Complete Music Schedule Visit
www.smokejazz.com
WWW.SMOKESESSIONSRECORDS.COM
212-864-6662 • 2751 Broadway NYC (Between 105th & 106th streets) • www.smokejazz.com
SMOKE
4
6
7
9
10
New York@Night
Interview: Ahmed Abdullah
by Clifford Allen
Artist Feature: Greg Ward
by Ken Waxman
On The Cover: The Thing
by Kurt Gottschalk
Encore: Lennie Niehaus
by Marcia Hillman
11
12
by Ken Dryden
MegaphoneVOXNews
by Todd Stoll
by Katie Bull
Label Spotlight:
Hep Jazz
Listen Up!:
by Donald Elfman
14
38
45
47
Lest We Forget:
Mary Lou Williams
Yvonnick Prene
& Eyal Vilner
CD Reviews: Ideal Bread, Allen Lowe, Rich Perry, Vijay Iyer, Sun Ra,
Arturo O’Farrill, Ted Rosenthal, Lena Horne, Tony Malaby and more
Event Calendar
“N o man is an island,” wrote English poet John Donne in the 17th century. Jazz
was a few hundred years off but his message is easily applied to the mentorship,
historical awareness and respectful homage inherent in the genre. To paraphrase,
“No musician comes out of nowhere” and some are especially grateful to their
forbears, whether they be stylistic antecedents or direct teachers.
The Thing (On The Cover), Scandinavia’s beloved power trio, was initially
convened to record a tribute album to trumpeter Don Cherry. All are avid students
of musical history and their brutal performances may feature anything from Albert
Ayler to Lightning Bolt, all delivered with the delicacy of a 2x4 to the face. They
perform this month as part of the Red Bull Music Academy Festival. Trumpeter
Ahmed Abdullah (Interview) learned his trade under the wise tutelage of figures
like Sam Rivers and, most notably, Sun Ra, and then honed it alongside peers like
Arthur Blythe, Frank Lowe and Billy Bang. Abdullah turns 67 this month and
celebrates with his Diaspora band at Sistas’ Place, where he doubles as Music
Director, as well as leading the New School Sun Ra Ensemble twice in celebration
of the pianist/bandleader’s centennial. Alto saxophonist Greg Ward (Artist Feature)
is the youngster of the group but no less aware of history, having been forged in the
smithy that was legendary Chicago saxophonist Fred Anderson’s Velvet Lounge.
Since then, he has worked with many of his peers in both Chicago and his adopted
home of New York and presents a piece in homage to one of his mentors
commissioned by The Jazz Gallery.
Without belaboring the theme, the impact of figures like saxophonist/
composer/arranger Lennie Niehaus (Encore) and pianist Mary Lou Williams (Lest
We Forget) is still being felt in music made today, like the many albums you can
find in our CD Reviews sections, linked to many release celebrations listed in our
always-bursting Event Calendar.
We’ll see you out there...
Laurence Donohue-Greene, Managing Editor
Club Directory
Andrey Henkin, Editorial Director
On The Cover: The Thing (Peter Gannushkin/DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET)
Miscellany: In Memoriam • Birthdays • On This Day
In Correction: In last month’s CD Reviews, pianist Michael Jefry Stevens lives in
Black Mountain, NC, not Memphis, TN.
Submit Letters to the Editor by emailing [email protected]
US Subscription rates: 12 issues, $35 (International: 12 issues, $45)
For subscription assistance, send check, cash or money order to the
address below or email [email protected].
The New York City Jazz Record
www.nycjazzrecord.com - twitter: @nycjazzrecord - facebook.com/nycjazzrecord
Managing Editor: Laurence Donohue-Greene
Editorial Director & Production Manager: Andrey Henkin
Staff Writers
David R. Adler, Clifford Allen, Fred Bouchard, Stuart Broomer,
Katie Bull, Tom Conrad, Ken Dryden, Donald Elfman, Brad Farberman,
Sean Fitzell, Kurt Gottschalk, Tom Greenland, Alex Henderson,
Marcia Hillman, Terrell Holmes, Robert Iannapollo, Suzanne Lorge, Wilbur MacKenzie,
Marc Medwin, Robert Milburn, Russ Musto, Sean J. O’Connell, Joel Roberts,
John Sharpe, Elliott Simon, Jeff Stockton, Andrew Vélez, Ken Waxman
Contributing Writers
Duck Baker, Brad Cohan, George Kanzler, Ken Micallef, Michael Steinan, Todd Stoll
Contributing Photographers
Jim Anness, Peter Gannushkin, Don Getsug, Alan Nahigian, John Rogers, Jack Vartoogian
To Contact:
The New York City Jazz Record
116 Pinehurst Avenue, Ste. J41
New York, NY 10033
United States
Laurence Donohue-Greene: [email protected]
Andrey Henkin: [email protected]
General Inquiries: [email protected]
Advertising: [email protected]
Editorial: [email protected]
Calendar: [email protected]
VOXNews: [email protected]
All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission strictly prohibited. All material copyrights property of the authors.
THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | MAY 2014
3
N EW YOR K @ N I G HT
R oy Nathanson stood on the dimly lit stage at Joe’s Celebrating
SPRING 2014
the 20th anniversary of South Africa’s
independence from Apartheid Rule and favorite son/
trumpeter
Hugh
Masekela’s
75th
birthday,
Johannesburg all-star group Uhadi graced Dizzy’s Club
for four consecutive nights. From the opening notes of
the opening set (Apr. 3rd), which featured vocalist
Sibongile Khumalo’s resonant scatting and flugelhornist
Feya Faku’s burnished sound, it was immediately
apparent that here was a sweeter, gentler side of jazz,
though not without its righteous fire. “Paddy’s Place”
gave hints of Cape Town carnival rhythms in pianist
Paul Hanmer’s delicate chording, bassist Herbie
Tsoaeli’s booming tone and drummer Justin
Badenhorst’s buoyant stick-work. Winston Ngozi’s
“Yalchal’ Inkomo”, performed with a similarly
restrained but infectious lilt, showcased Khumale’s
subtle play with pitch and rhythm and saxophonist
McCoy Mrubata’s masterful control of dynamics. But
the music’s true power began to emerge on Hanmer’s
tune “Same Old”, which set South African author Don
Mattera’s poem entreating us to “heal the Earth”, and
Khumale and Faku’s “Hymn for All”, a paean to the
spirits of bygone musicians, remembering them with
an improvised prayer poignantly embodied in Faku’s
fluid lip smears and Khumale’s distinctive yodeled
vocalese. “Grace and Mercy”, uncoiled in a snaky 6/8
meter, wrapped up the musical offering, leaving
listeners with something to feel and remember as they
headed home. - Tom Greenland
Pub (Apr. 2nd), cradling his big baritone sax and
listening to his band - a singing group as much as
anything - play the title song from their new CD,
Complicated Day (Enja/Yellowbird). His longtime
collaborator, trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, sang the lead
and Nathanson, eyes closed, head bowed, smiled
faintly. Over six years, his band has relaxed into itself.
Beatboxer Napoleon Maddox is better integrated now,
less a crossbred presence and more a percussionist.
The addition of Jerome Harris on electric guitar and
backing vocals has smoothed the edges, helping them
pull off the stacked harmonies Nathanson writes for
the group, and his guitar filled out their cover of Isaac
Hayes’ “Do Your Thing”, the third song they played
that night, sung by Maddox. The ranks were further
expanded with a take on Johnny Nash’s “I Can See
Clearly Now the Rain Has Gone”, with the leader ’s son
Gabriel on vocals and trumpet. Nathanson himself
sang “Slow Boat to China” and even while surrounded
by stronger voices his love for the song shined through
just as his love for songs is the real driving force of the
band. On record and especially on stage, they were a
very different band than they had been as a quintet.
What started out as a jazz band with spoken word and
allusions to R’n’B has become, well, not that anymore.
It’s still a band fronted by a jazz saxophonist who
writes poetry, but it’s grown into its own skin.
- Kurt Gottschalk
SPECIAL SELECTIONS
FROM
NAXOS OF AMERICA
JAZZ
&
NEW MUSIC PARTNERS
HELEN CARR | DOWN IN THE DEPTHS OF THE 90TH FLOOR
“You take the records to your pad (home, apartment) still mumbling
Helen-Helen-Carr-Carr-Carr, you put a black grooved disc on your
phonograph and it starts to spin. Suddenly the sound of “I Don’t Want
To Cry Anymore” makes you realize in an atom-flash that here is no
stranger, but a friend you have yet to meet…”
–SID GARRIS, KBLA
BETHLEHEM RECORDS
cd: BCP1027 • 689466687057 lp: BCP1027LP • 689466687309
chet baker | Early Chet (Standard Edition)
© 2014 Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos
The idea of recording singer Caterina Valente in duet with Chet Baker
was also ahead of its time: “I’ll Remember April” and “Every Time
We Say Goodbye.” “Just Caterina and Chet – no one else. A meeting
of ultimate refinement and ultimate simplicity,” wrote Joachim-Ernst
Berendt. In these intimate duets, Chet Baker plays trumpet as only he
knows how: delicate, melodic, supple.
FROM 2013 NYC JAZZ
RECORD LABEL OF THE YEAR,
Early Chet sets out his personal agenda to
communicate real depth using few notes.”
JAZZHAUS
lp: 101740 • 807280174090
Collecting all of Peterson’s recordings over the years, Litton realized
that his admiration was shared by many of the classical musicians that
he met during his ‘day job’ as a conductor. As he kept learning new
improvisations, a dream took shape – to record his own performances
of some of these transcriptions as a tribute to his hero.
BIS
BIS-SACD-2034 • 7318599920344
MEREDITH MONK • ERIC SALZMAN | WESTERN WIND 45TH ANNIVERSARY COMMISSIONS
While noted for its performances of early music, The Western Wind
Vocal Ensemble, is also a leader in the performance of new works. This
recording of Meredith Monk’s ‘Basket Rondo’ and Eric Salzman’s ‘Jukebox In The Tavern Of Love’ celebrates the ensemble’s 45th anniversary
with two commissioned works that address contemporary issues in
fascinatingly original musical styles.
RELEASE PARTY AT ROUGH TRADE, NYC MAY 10, 1 PM
LAB 7094 • 790987709422
LABOR RECORDS
TIMO LASSY BAND | Live with Lassy
“If you would ask me how to tell a great band apart from all the quite
good ones, my answer would be to just listen to any given group live for
three nights in a row. See if you still think they sound fresh for your ears
during the encore of the third show. Timo Lassy Band does.”
- Matti Nives
SCHEMA RECORDS
SCLP465 • 8018344114651 LIMITED 2LP + CD SPECIAL EDITION!
YVES LÉVILLÉ | essences des bois
Difficult to resist are the flood of imagery and the muffled waves of the
woodwinds set in motion by the latest album from the composer/pianist
Yves Léveillé. Shifting from the pursuit of ideal phrasing to the complex
and the lyrical, Léveillé persistently strives for jazz-like beauty.
EFFENDI
FND131 • 690579013121
bud powell | birdland 1953
“Having spent more than sixteen months in various mental institutions,
where he was subjected to electroshock therapy, the great pianist
was released in early 1953. Subsequently, the regularity of work that
Powell had during that period facilitated his regaining a great deal
of the virtuoso technique that had often eluded him in the wake of
repeated nervous breakdowns. Despite the previous availability of the
material, this set is a valuable addition to the jazz discography because
of its vastly improved sound quality- the fruits of producer Michael
Anderson’s hard work and keen ear.”
- Russ Musto, The New York City Jazz Record
ESP4073 • 825481407328
ESP-DISK, LTD.
available at : fasdlfkjdaflshalsdkhfldaksnvl
Photo by Alan Nahigian
ANDREW LITTON | A TRIBUTE TO OSCAR PETERSON
Roy Nathanson’s Sotto Voce @ Joe’s Pub
It’s nice when promoters from foreign soils come
around to raise our own bar. Such was the case when
the Poland-based Unsounds returned to New York for
five days in April with a program of local and visiting
artists (presented in conjunction with Issue Project
Room) and especially so on the night when Phill
Niblock played to a packed house in the First Unitarian
Church in Brooklyn Heights (Apr. 4th). Under the
banner “The Long Tone”, Niblock shared a bill with the
Polish guitarist Stara Rzeka, who played a solo set of
grinding, ambient black metal, and the British duo
Demdike Stare, who added strings for a set of pop
instrumental scores to short films. Nothing about
Niblock’s work, his music or his films is often short and
for this occasion he presented two sound pieces
alongside his film T H I R (completed in 1972). Images
of water surfaces, plants and insects were a visual
analog to the music: seemingly still but full of activity.
Niblock worked with recorded sounds of Jim O’Rourke
playing hurdy-gurdy (from his 1999 piece “Hurdy
Hurry”) and violinists Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim
Harris with the two joining in the darkened aisles for
the 2013 composition “Unipolar Dance”. Midrange
warbles and complementary tones shifted and phased,
pulses passed by and bass notes resonated deeply
enough to be felt in the large chapel. Niblock’s music
needs volume and for Unsounds it was not ear-splitting
but loud enough for the ebbs and flows of the tones to
come through beautifully.
(KG)
4 MAY 2014 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD
Uhadi - All-Stars of Johannesburg Jazz @ Dizzy’s Club
Harlem’s
historic Abyssinian Baptist Church, a
longtime supporter of the local jazz community, hosts a
Jazz Vespers program most Sunday afternoons of the
year. There was a tinge of sadness as the Black Arts
Jazz Collective stepped to the stage (Apr. 6th) because
of founding bassist Dwayne Burno’s tragic passing this
last December due to kidney disease at the age of 43.
Carrying on in his name were trumpeter Jeremy Pelt,
tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, trombonist James
Burton III, pianist Xavier Davis, new bassist Dezron
Douglas and substitute drummer Darrell Green.
Invoking the spirit with an unadorned hymn, “Guide
Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”, the sextet followed with
Burno’s “Devil Eyes”, filling the hall with plunging
serpentine lines as early spring sunlight streamed
through the beautifully colored stained glass windows
of the high-ceilinged sanctuary. The mixed crowd of
well-dressed locals and appreciative tourists was then
treated to a rendition of Escoffery’s “Awaiting Change”,
followed by its logical musical riposte, “No Small
Change”, a Davis original inspired by Barack Obama,
the first set concluding with Burton’s “Going
Somewhere”. One small flaw, the poorly amplified
acoustic piano, hindered the otherwise heavenly
sounds: Pelt’s stark pointed peals soaring to the joists
like Gabriel’s trumpet; Escoffery’s initially pensive
intervallic ideas escalating to a sanctified burn; and
Green’s inspired soloing layered over repeated kicks
from the band. (TG)
C hick Corea’s solo piano concert at Town Hall (Apr. Leading the latest edition of his longstanding quintet
- trumpeter Mike Rodriguez, saxophonist Dayna
Stephens, bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer
Johnathan Blake - pianist Kenny Barron kicked off his
sold-out Saturday night (Apr. 12th) second set at the
Village Vanguard with a piece penned by one of the
group’s many distinguished alumni, the late
saxophonist John Stubblefield. Setting up the song,
“Dialogues In Blue”, with a slow two-handed piano
vamp, the leader was quickly joined by his two rhythm
section mates, the sound swelling as the groove shifted
gears into a soulful shuffle on top of which Stephens’
airy tenor saxophone blew the earthy melody, first
alone, then joined by Rodriguez in a buoyant
conversation that set the tone for the evening. Pushed
and prodded by the polyrhythms of the trio, the
frontline soloed with measured abandon, navigating
through the dynamic waves of shifting cadences. The
rhythm section bounded energetically into Kitagawa’s
“Sagittarius”, a Messenger-ish bounce featuring a
compelling solo from the composer following a Latininflected piano outing and fiery statements from
Rodriguez and Stephens. Barron’s beautifully lyrical
“In The Slow Lane” calmed the mood for a short spell
before Rodriguez’ “Night Spring” had the band back
charging straightahead, this time with Stephens
wielding his baritone. The set closed with a tour de
force rendition of Monk’s “Well You Needn’t”, featuring
Blake and Barron. - Russ Musto
Photo by Jim Anness
WHAT’S NEWS
A two-day festival, Freedom of Sound: Eric Dolphy,
dedicated to the late saxophonist, will take place May
30th-31st at Memorial Auditorium at Montclair State
University in New Jersey. Performers will include
Richard Davis, Grachan Moncur III, Henry Threadgill,
Andrew Cyrille, Billy Hart, Howard Johnson, James
Newton, Oliver Lake, Ted Daniel, Don Byron, Marty
Ehrlich, Jerome Harris, Pheeroan akLaff, Vernon Reid,
Orrin Evans, Nasheet Waits, Jay Hoggard, Diane
Moser, Ken Filiano, David Virelles, Oscar Noriega,
Anton Denner, Michael Sarin, Russ Johnson, Myra
Melford, Roy Nathanson, Brad Jones, George Schuller,
James Brandon Lewis, Tomeka Reid and Veronica
Nunn. Of particular interest, compositions written by
Dolphy, but never recorded or performed, will be given
premieres during the festival. For more information,
visit seedartists.org/event-category/freedom-of-sound.
The New York City premiere of The Breath Courses
Through Us, a documentary film about the New York
Art Quartet directed by Alan Roth, will take place at
Anthology Film Archives May 18th at 7:30 pm. The
1964 film New York Eye and Ear Control, with music
and images of Albert Ayler, Roswell Rudd, John Tchicai,
Don Cherry, Sunny Murray and Gary Peacock will be
shown preceding the main feature. For more
information, visit thebreathcoursesthroughus.com.
The 2014 Essentially Ellington High School Jazz
Band Competition and Festival will take place at Rose
Hall May 8th-10th. Among the 15 finalists is “local” band
Jazz House Kids of Montclair, NJ. The finale will take
place May 10th with performances by the top three
bands and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. For
more information, visit academy.jalc.org/ee.
As part of an ambitious reissue program, ECM Records
has released the first of what hopes to be many of its
seminal earlier albums in three remastered formats:
180-gram vinyl, compact disc and high-definition digital
files. The initial slate of releases include albums by
Gary Burton, Ralph Towner/John Abercrombie, Keith
Jarrett, Sam Rivers, Miroslav Vitous and Abdullah
Ibrahim. For more information, visit ecmrecords.com.
©John Rogers/Johnrogersnyc.com
10th) was, in fact, more like three shows stitched
together. Originally planning an intermission, Corea
said he just felt like playing - in his favorite city and on
his favorite piano - and did so for over two hours,
doing his best Victor Borge impression in between
pieces and bringing a jazz club intimacy to an august
concert hall. The first third of the evening was given
over to standards: Irving Berlin’s “How Deep is the
Ocean”; Jobim’s “Desafinado”; Bill Evans’ “Turn Out
the Stars”; a Monk medley of “Ask Me Now” and
“Work”. These songs have long histories and strong
personalities but were Corea-fied, floridly embellished
with the airy virtuosity that differentiates Corea from
peers Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett. The middle
segment was the most interesting, both for the material
and Corea’s performances. Stevie Wonder ’s “Pastime
Paradise” is a good fit for Corea and he stayed pretty
close to the original. Two classical pieces - a Chopin
mazurka and Scriabin prelude - were lovely and the
liberties taken more fitting than on the jazz pieces. And
in homage to the recently passed Paco de Lucía, Corea
played “The Yellow Nimbus” from his 1982 album
Touchstone, which featured the guitarist. To close,
Corea spent 15 minutes bringing up audience members
and improvising portraits, then played a number of his
Children’s Songs before inviting wife Gayle Moran
and NBA Star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar onstage for some
anti-climactic encores. - Andrey Henkin
Famed harmonica player and NEA Jazz Master Toots
Thielemans, age 91, has announced his retirement
from performing.
Chick Corea @ Town Hall
Kenny Barron @ Village Vanguard
The name Jagged Spheres implies some bleak postwar cityscape ravaged by mechanized overlords (or do
I need to get out more?). But this Austrian-CanadianAmerican piano trio, headquartered unofficially in
Brooklyn and celebrating their eponymous debut at
the Austrian Cultural Forum (Apr. 2nd), is actually a
highly organic unit fit for sun-dappled forests. Proving
Benetton right, three disparate realms of modern avant
garde jazz came together harmoniously in a number of
shortish (7-10 minutes) pieces written by the group’s
members. Pianist Elias Stemeseder, saxophonist/flutist
Anna Webber and drummer (and melodica player)
Devin Gray are dense without sacrificing clarity and
work within through-composed pieces that never get
too hairy or too cerebral. Stemeseder ’s pieces were
elfin in quality with declamatory melodies and his
shifts between spaciousness and opacity made the
compositions seem longer then they were. Webber ’s
contributions were a tad more frenetic, particularly a
dedication to a spurning ex-boyfriend, and gave more
opportunities for intentionally plodding grooves from
Gray. The drummer ’s numbers were as full of constant
shifts as his partners’, one an oddly insistent ballad
driven by Webber ’s flute, the other a piece that had
both the longest title and broke the mold of pithiness
established earlier, going on and on for over 20 minutes
until it seemed formless. Only three tunes played were
from the album so Jagged Spheres will continue to
fight for a dwindling human race. (AH)
Bounding onto the Rose Hall stage with a youthful
energy belying his septuagenarian status to begin the
show Hugh Masekela: Celebrating 75 Years (Apr. 5th),
the world music superstar received a well-deserved
hero’s welcome. Two weeks earlier Masekela played
intimate acoustic flugelhorn/piano duets culled from
the Great American Songbook with longtime colleague
Larry Willis across the hall at Dizzy’s Club. But this
night the music would be electrified with the sound of
his
South
African
band
performing
songs
predominantly from their homeland. The group of
Cameron John Ward (guitar), Randal Skippers
(keyboards), Abednigo “Fana” Zulu (bass guitar), LeeRoy Sauls (drums) and Francis Fuster (percussion) laid
down a pulsing ambient sound over sprawling rhythms
as their leader jauntily strode to center stage, picked
up his trademark flugelhorn and blew a long fluid line
with a sound as personal as any in jazz, then echoed
the notes in his equally distinctive vocal style. The
song, “Languta”, was one of many South African
melodies (“Chileshe”, “Ha Le Se” and “Stimela” were
others) that had the capacity crowd singing and
clapping time with the band, along with a gritty
reading of Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”.
The energy rose progressively with the telling narrative
of “The Coal Train”, ending with a minutes-long
extended standing ovation, after which the audience
stood up dancing for the obligatory “Grazing in the
Grass” and the moving encore “Mandela”.
(RM)
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts has
received the collection of George Avakian for its
archives, which includes recordings, radio broadcasts,
unreleased studio takes, interviews, photographs,
sheet music, correspondence and other materials by
and about artists such as Cannonball Adderley, Dave
Brubeck, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Coleman
Hawkins, Earl Hines, Sonny Rollins, Fats Waller and
Mary Lou Williams. Eventually the materials will be
made available to researchers.
Some more details have been announced regarding
Michigan Congressman John Conyers’ Jazz
Preservation Bill, mentioned in this column several
months ago. The bill, an update to legislation passed in
1987, seeks to create programs that will address
preservation, education and promulgation of jazz within
the United States and around the world, done in
coordination with the Smithsonian Institution, US State
Department and National Endowment for the Arts. For
more information, visit conyers.house.gov/index.cfm.
Two young and already acclaimed jazz musicians
recently received honors. Saxophonist Melissa Aldana
was named a winner of the 2014 Martin E. Segal Award,
given by Lincoln Center. Trumpeter Ambrose
Akinmusire was given the Paul Acket Award for Artist
Deserving Wider Recognition 2014 as chosen by the
North Sea Jazz Festival.
After the premiere of Keep On Keepin’ On, directed by
Al Hicks and produced by Quincy Jones, at the Tribeca
Film Festival last month, Jones organized a concert at
the Borough of Manhattan Community College honoring
93-year-old trumpeter Clark Terry, who stars in the film.
Participating in the concert were Herbie Hancock,
Esperanza Spalding, Dianne Reeves, Roy Hargrove
and Justin Kauflin, the film’s other star.
Submit news to [email protected]
5
INT ER V I EW
Photo by Alan Nahigian
Ahmed
Abdullah
floating and I was ready.
TNYCJR: How did Sun Ra view the lofts? Did he
observe what musicians were doing in New York, or
was he separate from it? And if it was separate, did
you find it difficult to navigate those two areas?
AA: He certainly was aware of it and he always kept his
antennae up and I kept him informed about what was
happening in the lofts. He didn’t like the fact that I went
to Europe with Sam Rivers. I got fired because of that.
TNYCJR: You came back a few years later.
by Clifford Allen
Trumpeter
Ahmed Abdullah is a localizing force in the
broad swath of improvised music that we call jazz in New
York. Born in Harlem on May 10th, 1947, Abdullah emerged
as a formidable leader and collaborator during the ‘70s loft
movement, playing with saxophonist Charles Brackeen,
bassist William Parker, violinist Billy Bang and vibraphonist
Jay Hoggard, as well as working frequently with the Sun Ra
Arkestra from 1975 until the composer-arranger’s death.
An educator in the New York public schools, Abdullah also
teaches at The New School, programs music at Sistas’ Place
and leads the ensemble Diaspora.
The New York City Jazz Record: Could you talk a bit
about the educational aspect of your work?
Ahmed Abdullah: That is something that I kind of just
slipped into from 1980 on. I started working with
Mickey Davidson, a dancer, and actually I replaced
Oliver Lake in a program that she does in the schools
called Young Audiences New York. It is a partial
history of the music and dance; we would do lecture
demonstrations and we’d go from the early Swing,
James Reese Europe and ragtime up to the ‘50s. We
would do residencies, go in the schools and I went
from that to working with a number of different
organizations - Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall - and it
was the Carnegie Hall Link Up program that really got
me over to PS 3 in Brooklyn. I was doing a residency in
1999 for three years here in Bed-Stuy and then Carnegie
Hall phased out the program and I wound up becoming
independent. I went back to school to get my education
degree and the people at the school knew me and they
had a whole caseload of instruments that they couldn’t
find a music teacher to teach. So here I am.
TNYCJR: As far as the education element of your work,
how does it fit in with the community development and
work you encountered in the ‘70s in the loft scene?
AA: I think that it is more direct. In the ‘70s, we were
like fish out of water in a sense because we were doing
work on the Lower East Side. We weren’t necessarily
interested in the community; we were artists who
performed in that area mainly because it was
somewhere we could perform. It had the most
reasonable rents but I don’t know if besides performing
there was the kind of community development that I’m
involved with now at PS 3. I’m working around the
corner at Sistas’ Place and I feel much more intrinsic
here in this environment. I’ve been working with the
Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium from its inception,
so there are a number of venues around Brooklyn
where I know people who are involved at a high level.
It’s very different - this is much more like the ideal,
more what the goal probably was without us
articulating it in the ‘70s. We came together with the
loft movement more in a reactionary manner than as a
proactive thing. We were reacting to George Wein’s
coming to New York and we created the New York
Musicians’ Festival and the lofts sprung out of that. I
don’t know that there was a thought as to creating a
model of community control and involvement. This is
a lot different.
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 46)
smalls
jazz club
TNYCJR: With your own work in the past year or so it
seems like you’re reinvestigating a lot of your earlier
music, at least through fielding releases like the
Melodic Art-Tet and The Group. Are you in a reflective
place, or is it just happenstance?
AA: I’ve had The Group’s recording in a shoebox for 25
years and it probably is a reflective thing because I was
thinking how all these guys were leaving us. [Bassist]
Fred Hopkins first, then [bassist] Sirone and [violinist]
Billy Bang, [alto saxophonist] Marion Brown and it
was kind of odd that only [drummer] Andrew Cyrille
and I are left here. I happened to be listening to the
music when Danas [Mikailionis, of NoBusiness
Records] contacted me about the Melodic Art-Tet,
because he had the recording and he offhandedly
asked whether I had anything else. He picked up on
The Group and loved it.
TNYCJR: I know loosely how the Melodic Art-Tet
came together, but how did you get into the fold?
AA: I met Charles Brackeen at a rehearsal for the
Collective Black Artists and we bonded immediately.
He came to the meeting and was on a mission to find
someone to play his music and he got [bassist] Hakim
Jami and I into a group to perform it. Charles and I
lived very close to one another in the Bronx, so our
relationship was solid and he was close with
[percussionist] Roger Blank and Roger was close with
[bassist] Ronnie Boykins from Sun Ra’s Arkestra, so
that became the unit.
TNYCJR: What was your role in the lofts? Did you
book concerts at any of the venues?
AA: I was a self-producing artist and the information
that I garnered from that has served me well since
then, especially booking at Sistas’ Place. At a place like
[Charles Tyler ’s] The Brook, for instance, they didn’t
have any grants, unlike Studio Rivbea. Even [Rashied]
Ali’s Alley, it wasn’t a guaranteed salary - you had to
work and develop an audience and you had to produce
your own concerts. You had to know something about
marketing and the business of music in order to get
your product out there. And it was Ali’s Alley that got
the attention of About Time Records, because I played
there and Robert Palmer wrote a wonderful review in
the New York Times and that’s what got the label
salivating about the possibility of recording me. I’d
just come back from playing with [saxophonist] Sam
Rivers at Nancy Jazz Pulsations in France and that
came about through the loft recordings. That was my
first European concert on my own. I was...my head was
183 west 10th street
greenwich village,
new york city 10014
www.smallsjazzclub.com
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AR TIST F EA T U RE
Photo by Don Getsug
Greg
Ward
For more information, visit gregward.com. Ward is at The
Jazz Gallery May 16th-17th. See Calendar.
Recommended Listening:
• Karl E.H. Seigfried - Portrait of Jack Johnson
(Imaginary Chicago, c. 2006)
• Mike Reed’s Loose Assembly - The Speed of Change
(482 Music, 2007)
• Greg Ward - South Side Story (19/8, 2008)
• Greg Ward’s Phonic Juggernaut - Eponymous
(Thirsty Ear, 2011)
• Mike Reed’s People, Places & Things Second Cities: Volume 1 (482 Music, 2012)
• Jason Roebke Octet - High Red Center (Delmark, 2013)
by Ken Waxman
Back in the heyday of Vaudeville, answering yes to the
question “Will it play in Peoria?” meant that if an act
could impress the audience in that small Illinois town,
it was good enough to work nationwide. Ironically
enough, alto saxophonist Greg Ward embodies that
maxim. Before maturing in Chicago and moving to
New York, Ward, 31, spent his teenage years playing
every gig he could in his hometown of Peoria.
This month at The Jazz Gallery, Ward’s septet will
premiere his series of compositions honoring the 70th
birthday of Preston Jackson, one of his longtime
mentors. Jackson, who is Professor Emeritus of
sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as a
semi-professional guitarist, first played with Ward
when the latter was 14. That was three years after Ward
had made up his mind to become a musician, despite
family pressure to become a doctor. That too was
ironic, since both his father and uncle were professional
gospel musicians and Ward had been singing gospel
music as a three-year-old and studying violin from the
age of nine. By the fifth grade he began playing alto
saxophone using his father ’s old Conn.
The deciding factor was when he saw the film Bird
and first heard Charlie Parker play. “That was it,” he
recalls. “I knew what I was going to do for the rest of
my life and by the time I was 16 I could play every
night in blues, rock or jazz groups.” Despite their
earlier opposition, his parents were supportive, even
letting him regularly take the bus to nearby Chicago
(“$15 each way,” he remembers) for jam sessions led by
two legendary tenor saxophonists: The New Apartment
Lounge overseen by Von Freeman and Fred Anderson’s
Velvet Lounge. By the time Ward was 20, Anderson,
with whom he had developed a friendship over a
shared love of Charlie Parker, asked him to lead the
Velvet’s weekly jam sessions. Not only was Ward
studying music full time at Northern Illinois University
(NIU) in DeKalb - he graduated in 2004 - but he was
also traveling the 60 miles to Chicago many times a
week. “That’s something I miss about Chicago,” he
states, “the opportunity to play 10 gigs a week and all
kinds: jazz, African, Latin, R&B, rock.”
At NIU students wanted original music to play
and Ward was encouraged by music professor and
trombonist Joey Sellers to write for various sized
ensembles. Ward says that the most challenging project
he ever was involved in was composing a 40-minute
score for the Peoria Ballet, which premiered in 2008.
Jackson was involved there as well as set designer.
When Jackson sat in with Ward’s band many years
ago, almost the first thing he said admiringly was:
“Damn, boy! You been studying with Jesus!” Ward
recalls. “He encouraged me to make up music with
him on the spot simply by demanding that I play with
him as he played. Before that I was only accustomed to
playing tunes and improvising over forms.” That
freedom expanded later during many Chicago jobs
with drummer Vincent Davis, a longtime associate of
multi-instrumentalist Roscoe Mitchell. “I had never
heard of Roscoe Mitchell but Vincent gave me videos
of their sets and taught me how this approach to
improvisation could be learned and applied to the
music that we were making. At first I had no idea what
Mitchell was doing. I said, ‘What was that’? But after a
while I learned that there’s no right way to play. That’s
often the hardest lesson a young person has to face
because initially you’re most concerned with mastering
your craft.”
In Chicago Ward regularly worked in drummer
Hamid Drake’s Bindu, multi-reed player Ernest
Dawkins’ larger bands and, after meeting Mike Reed at
the Velvet Lounge, as a member of the drummer’s many
projects for more than a decade. Ward even recorded
with Mitchell on CDs by Reed, flutist Nicole Mitchell
and trumpeter Rob Mazurek. Ward’s move east came in
2009. He was all ready to buy a Chicago apartment
when the financing fell through. “I took that as a sign,”
he says. Not that NYC was that welcoming, he reveals.
“When I first got here I was so nervous. But it was the
best decision I ever made. The only way to be involved
in New York music is to be here.”
He hasn’t cut his ties with Chicago, however. He’s
still a member of three of Reed’s projects: Living by
Lanterns, Loose Assembly and People, Places & Things.
“Mike’s bands aren’t local Chicago bands,” he explains.
“So we’ll get together in Chicago to rehearse, maybe
play one gig and then go on tour.” Besides that, Ward
plays in the Illinois city with other bands, including
the funky Deep Blue Organ Trio. “I love to play in
groups like that,” he confesses. “It’s good to be
connected with blues and swing.”
Being a New York musician is “a balancing act”, he
admits. Although he has recorded two CDs as leader,
Ward only plays local clubs a couple of times a year.
Besides playing, he also produces pop, classical, R&B
and electronica sessions and composes soundtracks.
Another affiliation with cinema is his marriage to
filmmaker Diana Quiñones Rivera; a documentary on
Jackson she made will be shown as part of this month’s
concerts at The Jazz Gallery.
The soundtrack plus other pieces honoring Jackson
will be played by a band consisting of tenor saxophonist
Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, pianist John Escreet, guitarist
Dave Miller, bassist Zack Lober, drummer Kenneth
Salters and vocalist Brianna Thomas, who Ward
proudly points out is also from Peoria. “Words for
some of the pieces come from a combination of
Preston’s own writings, the film’s interview material
and lyrics that Brianna and I came up with,” Ward
explains. Meanwhile, Ward leads two working groups,
a trio with bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Damion
Reid, which recorded his debut, Phonic Juggernaut, and
a quartet with Miller, Lober and drummer Tomas
Fujiwara.
One assertion he’s certainly proven though is that
what played in Peoria is certainly of high enough
quality to play in The Windy City and The Big Apple,
or any other major metropolis for that matter. v
JSnycjr0514
4/16/14
4:38 PM
Page 1
“Best Jazz Venue of the Year” NYC JAZZ RECORD“Best Jazz Club” NY MAGAZINE+CITYSEARCH
THU-SUN MAY 1-4
CLAYTON BROTHERS QUINTET
TERELL STAFFORD - JEFF CLAYTON - GERALD CLAYTON - JOHN CLAYTON - OBED CALVAIRE
TUE-SUN MAY 6-11
FRED HERSCH DUO
HINVITATION SERIESH
FRED HERSCH WITH
TUE MAY 6
THU MAY 8
RALPH ALESSI KATE McGARRY
WED MAY 7
FRI-SAT MAY 9-10
KURT ELLING
ANAT COHEN
SUN MAY 11
JOHN ABERCROMBIE
TUE-SUN MAY 13-18
THE GIL EVANS PROJECT
DIRECTED BY RYAN
TRUESDELL
TUE-THU MAY 13-15
CLAUDE THORNHILL
MUSIC FROM NEW BOTTLE OLD WINE
& THE INDIVIDUALISM OF GIL EVANS
MUSIC FOR
FRI-SUN MAY 16-18
TUE MAY 20
STEVEN KROON SEXTET
CRAIG RIVERS - IGOR ATALITA - BRYAN CARROTT - RUBEN RODRIGUEZ - DIEGO LOPEZ
WED MAY 21
DAYNA STEPHENS QUINTET
CHARLES ALTURA - AARON PARKS - JOE SANDERS - JUSTIN BROWN
THU-SUN MAY 22-25
AFRICAN
RANDY WESTON’S RHYTHMS
BILLY HARPER - ALEX BLAKE - NEIL CLARK - LEWIS NASH QUINTET
MON MAY 26 CLOSED FOR MEMORIAL DAY
TUE-WED MAY 27-28
DEE DEE
THEOIRWINCROKER’S
DVRK FUNK BRIDGEWATER
HALL - SETH JOHNSON - SULLIVAN FORTNER
FEATURING
ERIC WHEELER - KASSA OVERALL - JEROME JENNINGS
THU-SUN MAY 29-JUNE 1
JACKYBURNISS
TERRASSON
TRIO
TRAVIS - JUSTIN FAULKNER
HHHMINGUS MONDAYSHMINGUS MONDAYSHHH
MON MAY 5, 12 & 19
MINGUS BIG BAND
JAZZ FOR KIDS WITH THE JAZZ STANDARD YOUTH ORCHESTRA SEASON FINALE MAY 18 [RETURNING IN OCTOBER] - DIRECTED BY DAVID O’ROURKE
7
Fimav_NYCJR_Print.pdf
1
2014-03-30
15:55
15 to 18 May 2014
MEREDITH MONK
with KATIE GEISSINGER
THE RATCHET ORCHESTRA
with MARSHALL ALLEN
« Sun Ra @ 100 »
AVA MENDOZA
« Unnatural Ways »
SARAH NEUFELD
COLIN STETSON
GGRIL
GROS MENÉ / RENÉ LUSSIER
JERUSALEM IN MY HEART
A HISTORICAL EDITION!
Join us for 4 days of concerts
sound art installations and visual arts
Full program at www.fimav.qc.ca
RICHARD PINHAS / KEIJI HAINO
MERZBOW / TATSUYA YOSHIDA
UFOMAMMUT
FRANÇOIS CARRIER
MICHEL LAMBERT
FRED FRITH / EVAN PARKER
PIERRE LABBÉ / MICHEL FAUBERT
« parlures et parjures »
GORDON GRDINA
« Haram »
ASTMA
KEN VANDERMARK
« Audio One »
KEIJI HAINO / OREN AMBARCHI
STEPHEN O'MALLEY « Nazoranai »
EVAN PARKER
« ElectroAcoustic Septet »
MEREDITH MONK
FRED FRITH / EVAN PARKER
MAJA RATKJE SOLO
DUCHESS SAYS
FRED FRITH
« The Gravity Band »
KEIJI HAINO
MAJA RATKJE
O N T HE CO VER
Peter Gannushkin/DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET
THE
THING
WHAT IS THIS LOVE
CALLED THING
by Kurt Gottschalk
W hat
is this Thing from Scandinavia? It’s a fair
question. It seems like some kind of unstoppable thing,
something ready for anything. It seems to refuse lines
between out and groove. It took its name from a
composition
by
legendary
trumpeter
and
multikulturalist Don Cherry and with his stepdaughter made a record of abstractly funky covers of
songs by protopunk bands The Stooges and Suicide
and abstract hip-hoppers MF Doom and Tricky as well
as daddy Don and his old boss Ornette Coleman. But
the trio has also worked with such jazz and improv
giants as Barry Guy, Toshinori Kondo, Joe McPhee and
Ken Vandermark and restless experimenters Thurston
Moore, Jim O’Rourke and Otomo Yoshihide. Over the
last 14 years, saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, bassist
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and drummer Paal NilssenLove have also crafted an identity for their trio in its
own right and have released a half-dozen albums on
their own, forging an exciting group aesthetic.
More than exciting, in fact. Exhilarating.
Exhilarating enough to lead us to want to ask, what
makes that Thing so good? What is The Thing? Is it the
greatest sax trio since Sonny Rollins started strolling?
Or is it the hottest backup band this side of the M.G.’s?
What is this love called “Thing”? In hopes of
uncovering an answer, a set of questions was separately
put to each member of the group, in an effort to come
up with objective data and, we hope, a conclusive and
unbiased answer.
Addressing the question of whether the band is
best classified as a backing band or a stand-alone
project, Gustafsson said, “Having guests is a necessity
for The Thing...in order to change what we do with The
Thing. A creative way to do this is to invite guests. But
it needs to be guests that kick our minds and asses. It
needs to be a challenge.” Håker Flaten further
suggested, “The trio has worked out its own sound
and approach to improvisation after many years of
working together. We read each other very well but
still manage to surprise each other. We’ve definitely
become a strong unit as a trio and we like to play as
often as we can as the trio. The Thing with guests
pushes both us and, hopefully, the guests into new
territories and gives us inspiration we can draw from
within the trio as well. Depending on which guests we
get to work with, we get to explore quite different
modes of operation and I think it shows how dynamic
we can be. Working with Ken Vandermark obviously
brings out something quite different than when we’re
working with Neneh Cherry or Toshinori Kondo. Both
sides are important to us and feed from each other.”
But, of course, that is only half of what they do. As
far as the history of the sax trio goes, as well as their
place within it, Nilssen-Love commented that, “It’s
played an important role for jazz music, that’s for sure,
being the first chord-less lineup in jazz. For me
personally, it gives a certain kind of freedom. You don’t
have a chord instrument that wraps together the music.
The way piano players play when they’re not soloing,
they wouldn’t be playing most of the time. But for me
the actual trio lineup is the most interesting thing.
Whatever trio line up it is, be it piano/sax/drums,
sax/bass/drums or piano/bass/drums, the three
complement each other as if there’s no need of a fourth
instrument. Also, the effect of not playing is quite
significant and one easily forgets the effect of that,
laying out. If you haven’t got anything to say, you’re
contributing in a greater way than just ‘comping’.”
Håker Flaten stated, “The sax trio format is
important and it would be ignorant to reject the
influences of all the great trios and incredible players
that’s been part of it and shaping this format. But this
said, the sax trio is not necessarily important for The
Thing as a group. We didn’t form The Thing because
we wanted to start another sax trio! Both Mats and
Paal are total masters of stretching the traditional ideas
and uses of their instruments and I believe we formed
based on a common idea that we’re not interested in
trying to recreate what’s already been done while
gladly referring to it with use of different cover
material and styles of improvisations as a springboard
for our music. In my definition that’s free music. It’s
extremely liberating to play for people who don’t
know shit about the jazz history and just listen to
music. For them the importance of the sax trio format
is likely as important as the Swedish king!” Gustafsson,
on the other hand, said simply “I never consider us as
a sax trio. We are a trio. End of story. The Thing is The
Thing. It will never become a sax trio.”
The desire expressed by Håker Flaten to play to
people for whom the sax trio and the King of Sweden
are unimportant was likely met with the 2011 recording
The Cherry Thing, alluded to above and created in
collaboration with a Swedish-born singing star of the
‘80s. “Playing with Neneh was a trip!” he said. “I
believe we broke new musical ground. The recording
of the album was a total split-effort between all of us in
the studio and the music was incredibly intense when
performed live. Working with a singer like that was
something we as a trio never have done before and I
would love to do it again!
“The Thing started out at a recording session of
Don Cherry’s music, so obviously his music has been
very important for the group,” he added. “His music
also has been a key inspiration for me - as well I’m sure
for all of us - since we started dealing with jazz and
improvised music many years ago and all the way to
where we are today.” Regarding that first project, which
came about in 2000 at an invitation from Gustafsson to
do a concert and recording of Cherry’s music, NilssenLove said the influence was felt at the beginning and
remains. “It kind of shaped the trio. Still, I think we
managed to give his pieces our own sound. Don Cherry
was very important for the Swedish scene I think and
vice versa. When recording with Neneh Cherry we kind
of ended a circle and it was a natural thing to do.”
Maybe a working definition of the components of
The Thing could be arrived at by trying to separate the
elements from one another. Each of the members of the
trio was asked if there was anything that could be
eliminated from the group. “If there was, I hope we
managed to eliminate it,” Nilssen-Love said. “I think
the trio’s been good at understanding what works and
doesn’t and moving on to new territories, continuously
pushing boundaries, leaving things behind. But all you
do, all you have done, will always leave traces through
the experience, so one can’t tell if it’s gone or not.”
Håker Flaten concurred. “Yes, always!” he said. “A
three-person democracy can be intense at times but
mostly we’re just trying to figure out how to make as
good music as possible together! And we still enjoy
each other ’s company after all these years, which is
pretty remarkable. There is definitely a brotherhood.”
Gustafsson, on the other hand, responded, “No, it is a
perfect beast.”
Perhaps, then, the question that should be asked is
what could be added, or what is left undone for them?
Nilssen-Love points out that they’ve yet to cover The
Troggs’ classic “Wild Thing”, something that doesn’t
seem too far removed from their covers of wide-ranging
acts such as The Ex, PJ Harvey, Lightning Bolt, The
Sonics, The White Stripes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs as well
as jazz icons Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington
and James Blood Ulmer. Nilssen-Love further added,
“We definitely have to make a trip to Ethiopia with the
trio. People will be quite shocked if they saw Ingebrigt
and what he does to the double bass. I think the trio
would learn quite a bit too.” Gustafsson stated that The
Thing is the future and if he knew what the future held
he “would start a newspaper.”
Asking a more basic question might help arrive at
the nature of the group. Like, for example, is The Thing
a jazz band? Håker Flaten points out that they also
play “Scandinavian creative power-hit parades”.
Nilssen-Love mused “World music? Garage jazz?
Bizarro Jazz? It could be called anything,” but that
ultimately “The Thing plays The Thing music!” For his
part, Gustafsson stated, “I [we] play music.”
So what, then, is this love called “Thing”?
Gustafsson says, “It is all clear. Crystal clear. Who can
‘understand’? Is it necessary to ‘understand’? Do I
‘understand’? Music, literature and art are mysteries.
Let’s keep it like that. Everyone makes up their own
truths about things and thangs. With music and art
you can show the doors, but the doors need to be
opened by the individual.”
Such is love, whatever that Thing is. v
For more information, visit thethingjazz.com. The Thing is
at Knockdown Center May 16th as part of the Red Bull
Music Academy Festival. See Calendar.
• The Thing - Now and Forever (Crazy WisdomSmalltown Superjazzz, 2000-01, 2005)
• The Thing - Garage (Smalltown Superjazzz, 2004)
• The Thing (with Ken Vandermark) Immediate Sound (Smalltown Superjazzz, 2007)
• The Thing - Bag It! (Smalltown Superjazzz, 2008)
• The Thing (with Barry Guy)- Metal!
(NoBusiness, 2011)
• Neneh Cherry & The Thing - The Cherry Thing
(Smalltown Supersound, 2011)
9
E NC OR E
Lennie Niehaus
by Marcia Hillman
Lennie Niehaus knew
his musical calling at an
early age. Born in St.
Louis, Missouri on Jun.
1st, 1929 into a musical
family, he started violin
at age seven. It was
about then that talkies were in, so his father (a violinist
and concertmaster with an orchestra that played
accompaniment for silent movies) moved the family to
Los Angeles where there were lots of opportunities in
studio orchestras. In high school, Niehaus went on to
learn bassoon and oboe before finally settling on alto
saxophone and clarinet at 13. His interest in jazz came
from listening to the big bands and at first he wanted
to play tenor sax. When he had saved enough money,
Niehaus went to a music store to buy a tenor. When he
asked the price, he recalls, “The man said it was $125.
So I asked the price of the alto saxophone that was
there too and it was $75. So I bought it and became an
alto player.” In high school, Niehaus had a band and
was already writing charts when bandleader Phil
Carreon heard him play and asked him to be in his
band. “So, in my spare time, I became a lead alto player
in his band and was also writing charts.”
Niehaus went on to study music at Los Angeles
City College. “My goal was to take every music course
in college,” he states. After graduation, the opportunity
to join the Stan Kenton band came his way. “Kenton
was looking for someone to replace Art Pepper. A
trumpet player friend of mine referred me to Kenton’s
manager and I went to the Florentine Gardens to
audition. Kenton asked me to play the lead alto part in
‘Deep Purple’ and that was it. When I went with the
band, I shared the alto parts with Charlie Mariano.” In
1952, graduated from college and touring with Kenton,
Niehaus became eligible for the draft, so after five or
six months with the band, he was drafted into the
Army where he wound up playing oboe in the military
band. Finishing his Army service in 1954, he joined up
with Kenton again. “This time, Kenton was looking to
replace Lee Konitz,” Niehaus quips. He stayed for five
years before he decided to get off of the grinding
routine of being on the road. Besides, the call to write
was getting stronger than the need to play.
Back in Los Angeles, with his wife and young
child, Niehaus was able to get arranging jobs and still
perform in the growing West Coast jazz scene. Even
though he was well established as a jazz alto player
and jazz writer, he began to downplay that aspect and
little by little gained recognition as a writer for film
and television. His association with composer Jerry
Fielding was a major breakthrough, which led to
credits on TV projects such as Amazing Stories, the TV
version of Titanic and his score for the Showtime TV
film Lush Life, which won him an Emmy in 1993.
And then there is the long string of Clint Eastwoodproduced or directed films with which Niehaus was
involved. Niehaus first met Eastwood while they were
both serving in the Army. “Clint was tending bar in the
NCO club and we got to talking to each other - mostly
about jazz,” he recalls. Their first professional
collaboration was when Niehaus did the score for the
1984 film City Heat, which starred Eastwood. He
continued his scoring and/or musical directing work
with Eastwood through 2002’s Blood Work, including
such movies as Pale Rider, Unforgiven, The Bridges of
Madison County and Midnight In The Garden of Good and
Evil, among others. His jazz background shows up in
the scores that call for it but he is able to write in other
styles as well. “I have tried to blend my classical
training with my bebop playing,” he explains. The one
film that he worked on, though, which was purely
jazz-oriented was Bird. Acting as Musical Director, he
teamed up with a group of engineers to accomplish
what was, at that time, a technological marvel. Going
back to the original monaural tracks recorded by
Charlie Parker, they managed to isolate a group of
Parker solos by filtering out all of the other instruments
and then insert them into tracks with musicians such
as Monty Alexander and Jon Faddis. “This was a labor
of love for me,” Niehaus asserts. “The first time I heard
Bird on the radio, I said ‘Wow!’ I always wanted to be
a combination of Bird and Lee Konitz.”
Nearing his 85th birthday, Niehaus is still writing
and arranging for big bands, concert bands and high
school bands, published by several firms. He wrote a
series of books called Jazz Conceptions in the ‘60s, which
he says are “still selling after 50 years.” Although he
does not actively perform, he still keeps the instrument
out on his saxophone stand. “I’ll pick it up and play a
couple of tunes every now and then. I have to keep my
fingers and my lips in condition,” he chuckles. v
Pittsburgh, where she played with former Kirk
trumpeter Harold “Shorty” Baker, to whom she was
briefly married. They relocated to New York City,
where Williams led a trio and a group with Baker at
Café Society Downtown.
After Baker joined Duke Ellington, Williams was
commissioned to write arrangements for the
bandleader, including “Trumpet No End”, her
reworking of Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies”. Her interest
in the growing bop movement of the ‘40s led to jam
sessions in her Harlem home, where young artists like
Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Tadd Dameron and
Dizzy Gillespie would jam after their club dates. In
1945, Williams composed her ambitious Zodiac Suite,
which she recorded with her trio and performed with
an orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
In 1952, Williams left for Europe, where she would
work and record for the next two years before quitting
jazz and returning to New York City. She became
Roman Catholic and opened up a charitable thrift
shop. She revived her career when Gillespie convinced
her to play with him at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival.
Williams gained prominence in her later years
with a flurry of recordings for Pablo and the launch of
her own Mary Records. She played her striking
“History of Jazz” medley at the 1978 White House Jazz
Festival, took part in Benny Goodman’s Carnegie Hall
40th anniversary concert and was the first guest
featured on the new NPR series Marian McPartland’s
Piano Jazz, the latter two issued commercially. Her duo
piano concert with avant garde pianist Cecil Taylor
(Embraced) was a misfire due to Taylor ’s insistence on
playing avant garde throughout her envisioned twopiano history of jazz.
Her triumphant solo concert at Montreux in 1978
has been issued as an LP, CD and DVD while a number
of unissued recordings (Mary Lou Williams at Rick’s
Café Américain, Live at the Keystone Korner and A Grand
Night For Swinging) and reissues have appeared as
well. For the last few years of her life Williams was
artist-in-residence
at
Duke
University,
until
succumbing to cancer in 1981. v
• Lennie Niehaus - Vol. 1: The Quintets (OJC)
(Contemporary, 1954)
• Lennie Niehaus - Vol. 2/3: The Octet - Zounds!/#2
(OJC) (Contemporary, 1954-55)
• Lennie Niehaus - Vol. 4: The Quintets & Strings (OJC)
• Lennie Niehaus - Vol. 5: The Sextet (OJC)
• Stan Kenton - Back To Balboa (Capitol-EMI, 1958)
• Lennie Niehaus - Patterns (Fresh Sound, 1989)
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 8 PM
Kettle Collective Presents
JAY CLAYTON “DIFFERENT VOICES”
Amanda Bloom
Maryanne de Prophetis
Carol Flamm
Alexis Parsons
Cheryl Richards
Kendra Shank
Judi Silvano
Andrea Wolper
An A Cappella Vocal Improvisation
Ensemble which performs
Jay’s compositions as well as
works by other new jazz/
new music composers.
Janis Wilkins
IBEAM BROOKLYN
168 7th Street, Brooklyn, NY / 917-428-4575
ibeambrooklyn.com / kettlecollective.org
LE ST WE F OR GE T
Mary Lou Williams (1910-81)
by Ken Dryden
Mary Lou Williams made immense contributions as a
pianist, composer, arranger and teacher. The Atlanta
native was born in 1910 as Mary Scruggs and raised in
Pittsburgh. A self-taught pianist, she was playing
organ by ear at age three in her mother ’s lap and made
her professional debut at 11. Before the age of 20, she
had sat in with Duke Ellington’s Washingtonians and
McKinney’s Cotton Pickers.
Williams married saxophonist John Williams in
1927, then followed him to Memphis, where they
formed a group. He left her to join Andy Kirk’s Twelve
Clouds of Joy in Oklahoma City; she followed after
finishing their remaining bookings. When Kirk’s group
began a long engagement in Kansas City, Williams was
guesting with them and contributing originals and
arrangements, including “Froggy Bottom” and “Mary’s
Idea”. Williams blossomed in the lively Kansas City
jazz scene of the ‘30s and developed into a formidable
pianist and in-demand composer/arranger. She also
began recording some solo sides and wrote music for
other bandleaders, including “Roll ‘Em” for Benny
Goodman and “What’s Your Story, Morning Glory” for
Jimmie Lunceford.
She divorced her husband in 1942 and returned to
A Mary Lou Williams tribute is at Dizzy’s Club May 13th.
See Calendar.
• Andy Kirk & Mary Lou Williams Mary’s Idea (Decca-GRP, 1936-41)
• Mary Lou Williams - 1944-1945 (Classics, 1944-45)
• Mary Lou Williams - Signs of the Zodiac (Zodiac Suite)
(Asch-Smithsonian Folkways, 1945)
• Mary Lou Williams - Live at the Cookery
(Chiaroscuro, 1975)
• Mary Lou Williams - Live at the Keystone Korner
(HighNote, 1977)
• Mary Lou Williams - Solo Recital: Montreux Jazz
Festival 1978 (OJC) (Pablo, 1978)
MEG A P H O N E
Education, Enrichment,
and Ellington
by Todd Stoll
F or more than two decades, Jazz at Lincoln Center,
through its Essentially Ellington program, has
distributed more than 150,000 Duke Ellington scores to
thousands of schools. These scores have been played
by more than 500,000 high school students across all 50
United States, Canada and American schools abroad.
Why would an institution get in the business of
publishing little-known artifacts of a by-gone era and
for almost zero financial gain?
A little history. I was a child of the ‘70s, played
trumpet in the school band and was attracted to any
type of music that featured horns: rock, R&B, funk and
jazz and orchestral music. I started playing in my
junior high jazz band and played through high school
and into college. My major was in music and I attended
a major conservatory as a graduate student. At 23 years
old, I had played in jazz bands for half of my life literally 12 years - but had not played a single note of
Duke Ellington’s music? Really? Arguably one of our
country’s greatest composers and certainly one of our
most prolific, Duke Ellington toured and composed for
the better part of 50 years, producing one of the richest
(and largest) bodies of work seen in the totality of
Western culture. How did ‘we’ miss this? How was it
possible? Imagine young violinists, serious students of
European classical music, without contact with
Mozart? Or Haydn? Or Beethoven?
In American instrumental music education, little
effort, many times, is given to teach beyond the strict
confines of a given year ’s performances. Contests,
festivals, concerts are public displays of the quality of
a school’s band program. There are standards for
performance, ratings with concise rubrics and events
in which these ideas move from the theoretical to
actual. (If you have never sat with a group of teenagers
awaiting their band’s rating at an adjudicated event, it
is a rare glimpse into the seriousness of our nation’s
young people - this is serious business!) However,
these events, while motivating and part of our national
mindset, may also be limiting the scope and depth of
their educational value. In jazz education, it may have
been even more so.
In the late ‘80s, as a young music teacher, I read in
my IAJE (International Association for Jazz Education
- RIP) Journal a list of the top ten most influential big
band compositions and arrangements. Wow, I thought,
I’ll go out and buy these and have my kids play them...
they’re the ‘best’ and we should do this.
I headed down to the local music store (which just
happened to be one of the largest brick and mortar
sheet music stores in the US), plunked down my school
purchase order and said, “Hey, I’d like to buy these.”
Now, if memory serves me right, on this list were five
Ellington compositions (I distinctly remember “KoKo”
and “Cottontail”), some Benny Carter tunes and a few
others that escape me now. The salesperson started
typing into his computer, looked at me and said, “Well,
you know none of those are available.” What?! I was
completely taken aback. Come on, check again, you
must be kidding me...? But, I was turned away. At that
time my school band was playing a fairly typical
mixture of different pieces. I distinctly remember the
programming. It was a bit random, consisting of two
or three original swing tunes, a Latin/rock tune, a rock
ballad and two funk tunes. Not a single composition
was a work by a prominent jazz composer and it was
‘fun’. By ‘fun’ I mean, fun for the kids. They seemed to
enjoy coming to rehearsal/class, playing the music and
appeared to be engaged in what I was teaching.
Now that word ‘fun’ is interesting and popped up
in discussions with my colleagues, my friends at the
music store and with the kids themselves. Jazz band
was something ‘fun’. Not serious like our concert band
or, in many cases, marching band (which was geared
towards competitions). I started thinking about what I
was actually teaching, what lessons the music was
teaching, who created it, how the literature itself
perhaps carried the cultural DNA of our country.
Interestingly enough, a close friend, who taught
English, was also a jazz aficionado. In one of our many
late-night debates about this exact topic, he gave me an
analogy that I still use to this day. Imagine, if you will,
a high school American Literature teacher, prepping
the literature for the year. This teacher, well-intentioned
and trained by a university, looks at the great writers
of our country - Faulkner, Hemingway, Ellison - and
says “Wow, these books seem nice, but I don’t know
much about these writers and, honestly, I really want
the kids to have fun.” Said teacher then assigns comic
books to his class - Spiderman, Batman, Superman - all
with good intentions. After all, kids are reading, having
a good time, engaged with words on a page. How long
does one imagine that teacher might keep their job?
I understand that my analogy may be a bit extreme,
but that is the situation many times in our nation’s jazz
bands. With no disrespect to the hard-working music
teachers in schools all over our country, we need, we
have to do a better job. We should ‘teach like our
students’ lives depend on it’ - their cultural lives at
least. We should understand that the content of our
literature is just as important as the technique. Our
classes and rehearsals need to reflect the best of
American intent. It needs to carry the weight of the
culture that created it and challenge young people to
rise up to it, not us reaching down to them.
That is why. v
relatively unsung great in the voice/horn lineage,
preserved in priceless archival film clips and several
recordings. Of course jazz fans know trumpet player
Chet Baker’s voice well, a mirror of the smooth clean
lines he played on his horn. Spring ahead to today and
hear how these artists were springboards.
Pete McGuinness, who credits Baker as his main
influence, is a quadruple threat: he leads, arranges,
plays trombone and sings with his Jazz Orchestra on
the new album Strength In Numbers (Summit). Though
only three of ten tracks are vocals, McGuinness ‘sings’
non-stop on this powerful celebration of big bands. Go
to brunch at the Blue Note for the release show of this
contemporary great (May 25th).
Anyone who loves horns and singers should know
about young Canadian-born, New York-based trumpet
sensation Bria Skonberg, a DownBeat “Rising Star”.
Skonberg’s new CD, Into Your Own (Random Act), goes
in what she calls a “modern” direction of pop-edged
jazz originals and covers. The album boasts electronic
trumpet effects and vocals are overdubbed in hip
harmonics on some tracks. Live, Skonberg will more
than hold her own (horn) at The Iridium (May 13th)
and the New York Hot Jazz Festival at The Players
Club (May 18th). Jennifer Hartswick is another current
trumpet-playing vocalist, composer and bandleader
not to be missed. She will bring her deeply resonant
and superbly funky blues to Perez Jazz (May 18th).
Though not literally trumpet players, two cutting
edge vocalists are related to brass. Swiss-born
experimental jazz vocalist and beat boxer Andreas
Schaerer also calls himself a “human trumpet”. On the
latest release of his band Hildegard Lernt Fliegen, The
Fundamental Rhythm of Unpolished Brains (Enja/
Yellowbird), Schaerer takes listeners on a playfully
fantastical sonic trip into subterranean mutterings of
the collective mind. (Let’s hope for an American tour
soon!). Likewise, Portuguese-born, Brooklyn-based
vocalist Sara Serpa’s voice is often compared to a
trumpet. Serpa unites with her husband, guitarist
André Matos and guests Greg Osby, Leo Genovese and
Pete Rende, for Primavera (Inner Circle), their gentle
ode to spring. A refreshing song cycle of minimalistic
motifs in syncopation, Latin roots and experimental
sensibilities permeate the album; the release concert is
at Greenwich House Music School (May 22nd).
It must be noted that although her voice is not
compared to horns, nor does she play one (she plays
guitar), Kendra Shank shapes lines like a horn player,
breaking apart lyrics in entrained exchanges with
guitarist John Stowell, her musical soulmate, on their
new duo album, New York Conversations (TCB), weaving
acoustic voice and nuanced electronic overlays with
bluesy plucking and chordal responses. The release
event at Roulette (May 4th) will feature guest
percussionist Rogério Boccato.
Owing a debt to the first jazz horn players who
sang, May’s vox highlights are sure bets. v
For more information, visit academy.jalc.org/ee. The 2014
Essentially Ellington Competition is at Rose Hall May
8th-10th. See Calendar.
Todd Stoll has been a leading advocate in jazz education for
more than 25 years. He has taught music at the elementary,
secondary and collegiate levels and most recently served as
Music Curriculum Supervisor for Westerville City Schools,
Westerville, Ohio. Stoll is a past President of the Ohio
International Association of Jazz Educators, served as the
Ohio Music Education Association Jazz Events Coordinator
and founder and leader of the nationally recognized
Columbus Youth Jazz Orchestra. On the business side he
has worked as the orchestra contractor for Broadway Across
America, booking agent for various jazz festivals and
promoter for a series of independent jazz concerts. Stoll
currently serves as the Vice President of Education at Jazz
at Lincoln Center.
VO X N E W S
You Bet Your Brass
by Katie Bull
Louis Armstrong set the bar for all horn players who
sing. The 1961 musical The Real Ambassadors, by Dave
Brubeck, Iola Brubeck and Armstrong, featured as part
of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Brubeck Festival last
month, was rendered with precision, heart and soul. In
a particularly poignant moment, the live ensemble
went silent. A recording of Satchmo’s rich, rough and
earthy voice rose up. Hearing his recorded voice echo
inside the cavernous Appel Room was a moving
reminder of other great horn-playing singers in history,
including one of Armstrong’s favorites, trombone
player Jack Teagarden. In archival footage from a 1956
televised duet, the two trade vocal phrases as if
completing each other ’s thoughts. Another trombone
playing singer was the brightly buzzy sounding Frank
Rosolino, also an Armstrong contemporary, known for
his unique lightning scat. Then there’s the trumpet
playing singer and dancer Valaida Snow, dubbed by
Armstrong as the “second best trumpet player in the
world” (naming her “little Louis”). Vivacious and
daring, she was born in 1905 and in the ‘20s-30s was a
blues innovator alongside the likes of Ethel Waters and
Josephine Baker. Snow performed in the USA and
Europe, a sensation in London and Paris. Snow is a
11
LA BE L SPO T LIG HT
Hep Jazz
by Donald Elfman
Though it may seem that hep is a curiously dated
word, Merriam-Webster defines it as “having or showing
knowledge about the newest things in music, fashion,
etc.” Hep Records documents much music made many
decades ago, but listening to these recordings, one
senses timelessness in their artistic qualities. The label
was founded in 1974 by Scottish jazz aficionado
Alastair Robertson, who has made it his life’s work to
document great music from the ‘30s to the present.
“As a schoolboy in the ‘50s,” says Robertson, “I
listened to music on the Armed Forces Network and
the Voice of America. I just liked the big bands of Artie
Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman and, latterly,
Boyd Raeburn. I also later realized the importance of
the great black creators, such as Don Redman, Duke
Ellington and Fletcher Henderson. My formative
musicians were the West Coast Americans - Shorty
Rogers, Stan Kenton, Art Pepper and then the arrangers
like Gil Evans and Gary McFarland. I became quite a
collector and eventually connected with the very
specialized guys who traded 16” transcriptions, AFRS
and V Discs, which became Hep Records in 1974 with
the first issues of Boyd Raeburn broadcasts and the
Sam Donahue Navy Band. We diversified into actual
live recordings in 1978.”
Hep is like aural witness to Robertson’s experiences
as a young listener. The Metronome Series reflects his
You’ve Changed
Michael Garrick Trio with Don Weller
earliest listening but also includes some truly unusual
and wonderfully esoteric choices - players both much
and little recorded but deserving of further hearings. A
true gem of the Hep Metronome series is the two-disc
collection of Octets by Alec Wilder. Wilder was
something of a pioneer in attempts to fuse jazz and
classical music. He wrote a few tunes that became
standards - “I’ll Be Around” and “While We’re Young”
- but has remained relatively obscure. The Octets are
brilliant, often lovely pieces that are melodically and
harmonically memorable and often quirky. “I was
always aware of his compositions and had a couple of
his 78s in my youthful collection,” notes Robertson. “I
have always been a sucker for slightly left-field
endeavor and empathize with semi-losers in the
game.” Frank Sinatra himself was a fan of Wilder ’s
music and he’s here conducting six of these pieces.
Then there’s Slim Gaillard. If anyone ever deserved
the word ‘hep’ - or ‘hip,’ or ‘original’ or ‘the grooviest’
- it’s certainly this phenomenally entertaining guitarist,
singer and all-around cat. Robertson knows the pure
musical value of Gaillard and has managed to unearth
five terrific broadcast performances. And in the label’s
video series, there’s a performance of the late Gaillard
from 1982. That last one came about through, indirectly,
Dizzy Gillespie. Says Robertson, “I had long regarded
Slim as one of jazz’ originals, After I’d released The
Legendary McVouty in the ‘70s, I suggested he think
about a UK tour and even set him up with an agent. …
What I didn’t know until later was that Dizzy had also
persuaded him to think about the UK and Europe, so
in 1982 all the pieces came together. I met him in
Swingin’ & Jumpin’ (Broadcasts 1937-39)
Bunny Berigan
Up jumped you with love
Dill Jones
London and managed to get him into a studio with
Buddy Tate and Jay McShann [who just happened to be
in town]. It was completely unrehearsed and mildly
chaotic but that was Slim.”
The 1000 Series features rare live and/or broadcast
recordings by Shaw and Dorsey and Goodman but a
number of others by Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Ivie
Anderson with Duke Ellington, Chick Webb, Bennie
Moten, Cab Calloway Claude Hopkins, Django
Reinhardt and more, over 70 in all. In addition to the
names that most fans know, there are some lesserknown artists - except to serious listeners and collectors
- such as Teddy Powell, Isham Jones, Bob Zurke and
Jack Jenney. Some special treats include a two-part
“Sounds of Harlem” Series from the ‘30s-early ‘40s
with such rare artists as Freddy Jenkins, Taft Jordan,
Eddie Durham, Nora Lee King and Pete Brown;
collections of Benny Goodman playing music of
Fletcher Henderson, Jimmy Mundy, Eddie Sauter and
Mel Powell; and a beautiful pairing of Coleman
Hawkins with Henry ‘Red’ Allen.
The 2000 series of Hep Records brings us a little
further into the present but the accent is still on the
underappreciated and brilliantly individual. There are
fine recordings by saxophonists Don Lanphere and
Spike Robinson; pianists Jessica Williams and Gene
DiNovi; and saxophonist, arranger and composer Herb
Geller who did five recordings, including one pairing
him with Charlie Mariano.
One artist that Robertson feels strongly about is
the late pianist Eddie Thompson, who attended the
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 46)
Wher You At? - ‘41-’64
David Allyn
Music for Lost Souls and Wounded Birds
Alec Wilder The Octets
LISTEN UP!
H armonica player YVONNICK PRENE was born in
Paris, France in 1984. He moved to New York in 2007
after earning a MA from Sorbonne University and
continued his studies on scholarships at The New
School, The City College of New York and Columbia
University. He has performed at the Iridium, Fat Cat,
Cornelia Street Café and Sleep No More and has two
albums as a leader: Jour de Fête (SteepleChase Lookout)
and Wonderful World (s/r).
Teachers: Since I have been in New York I had the
chance to study with Lee Konitz, Peter Bernstein,
Aaron Goldberg, John Patitucci, Charles Tolliver, Kevin
Hays, Charli Persip, Ben Street, Dave Glasser, Jerome
Sabbagh and other greats.
Dream Band: Herbie Hancock, Branford Marsalis and
Kurt Rosenwinkel‘s bands. I also dream of performing
with a string orchestra.
Teachers: Barry Harris, Kirk Nurock, Erez Barnoy,
Arnie Lawrence, Amit Golan, Yuval Cohen, Jimmy
Owens, Dave Glasser and David Berger.
Did you know? I have opened the first harmonica
school in New York for beginners as well as advanced
players.
For
more
information,
visit
nyharmonicaschool.com.
Influences: Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Don Byas,
Coleman Hawkins, Gigi Gryce, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke
Ellington, Count Basie, Tadd Dameron, Abu Hassan
and Roni Henig.
For more information, visit yvonnickprene.com. Prene is at
Tomi Jazz May 2nd, The Garage May 7th, Alor Café May
11th and The Flatiron Room May 20th. See Calendar.
Current Projects: I’ve recently extended my big band
to an Ellington-sized band and started writing for a
vocal trio in the Lambert, Hendricks & Ross fashion.
We’re getting ready to record our next album in a few
weeks and our Kickstarter campaign is up and running.
By Day: Compose/arrange, practice, teach, organize
the band, eat tahini and dates and drink black coffee.
Influences: Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins,
John Coltrane, Kenny Dorham, Freddie Hubbard,
Herbie Hancock, Toots Thielemans and also Kenny
Garrett, Branford Marsalis, Michael Brecker, Joshua
Redman and Tom Harrell, among others.
Current Projects: The Yvonnick Prene Quartet. I also
lead a gypsy jazz band called Padam Swing.
By Day: I teach diatonic and chromatic harmonica,
write music, practice and go to concerts.
I knew I wanted to be a musician when... It happened
naturally. My curiosity and love for music has grown
constantly since I was a child.
I knew I wanted to be a musician when... I switched from
violin to sax at 15. Music became the center of my life.
Yvonnick Prene
Eyal Vilner
Born and raised in Tel-Aviv, Israel, saxophonist EYAL
VILNER moved to New York in 2007 to study at the
New School. He started his big band the following year
and has collaborated with jazz legends such as Frank
Wess, Jimmy Heath, Jimmy Owens and Junior Mance.
The band has performed regularly at Smalls, Fat Cat
and The Garage, as well as Iridium and Dizzy’s Club.
Dream Band: I love my band and feel so lucky to collaborate
with such musicians. It would have been nice to sit in with
Duke, Basie and the Minton’s hang of the ‘40s.
Did you know? It’s not very unlikely to find me
cooking stuffed cabbage at 3 am.
For more information, visit eyalvilner.com. Vilner is at The
Garage May 26th and Dizzy’s Club May 27th-31st. See
Calendar.
New from
ARBORS RECORDS
Great Jazz Lives On
Contemporary jazz masters, Rossano
Sportiello, Eddie Metz and Nicki Parrott,
offer joyously improvised music with a
highly refined sense of melody and rhythm.
A special treat for all jazz lovers.
Popular vocalist Kat Gang performs
favorite classic tunes with jazz masters
Warren Vache, Harry Allen, John Allred,
Mike Renzi and Bucky Pizzarelli.
A super-jazzy CD!
Rossano Sportiello’s “music was
unabashedly beautiful.”
Stephen Holden, The New York Times
Dream Your Troubles Away
ARCD 19404
It’s A Good Day ARCD 19431
2189 Cleveland Street, Suite 225, Clearwater, FL 33765
Phone: (727) 252-0123
Fax: (727) 466-0432
Toll Free: (800) 299-1930
E-mail: [email protected]
www.arborsrecords.com
U.S. and Canada distribution by Allegro
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CD R EVI EW S
Play the Music of
Steve Lacy, Vol. 2
The Whammies (Driff)
Beating The Teens
Ideal Bread
(Cuneiform)
by Stuart Broomer
F rom the early years of his career, setting out in the
mid ‘50s, Steve Lacy was an original, from his adoption
of the soprano saxophone to his position at the stylistic
limits of jazz, working with both Dixieland bands and
Cecil Taylor. He was also an advocate of focused
repertoire, investigating the more obscure aspects of
the Ellington canon and concentrating on the works of
Thelonious Monk. He was the first, after Monk himself,
to record an LP entirely devoted to the pianist’s
compositions (Reflections, 1958) and later led a band
devoted largely to his repertoire (School Days, 1963).
It’s fitting, then, that Lacy has inspired several bands
to define themselves by their exploration of his own
compositions. Two such groups, The Whammies and
Ideal Bread, do it in very different ways.
The Whammies is a sextet of musicians drawn
from Boston, Amsterdam and Chicago, with the Dutchborn, Boston-based alto saxophonist Jorrit Dijkstra, a
former Lacy student, and Boston pianist Pandelis
Karayorgis evidently assuming leadership roles. The
ensemble resembles the configuration of some of
Lacy’s own groups, with a sound characterized by
trombonist Jeb Bishop and violinist/violist Mary
Oliver. Its spirit, too, is close to a Lacy ideal: the music
is bounced, jostled, cajoled, pushed and pulled along
by the superb rhythm section of bassist Nate McBride
and drummer Han Bennink.
The Whammies play together with a rare kind of
rambunctious precision perfect for Lacy’s sense of
perpetual transition, evident in the rapid changes of
time and mood in works like “Skirls” and “HankyPanky” and the highly developed level of collective
improvisation, worthy of the Instant Composers Pool
(of which Bennink and Oliver are part). At times it
feels like party music for the dedicatees of Lacy’s
pieces heard here (Monk, Willem de Kooning, Ivie
Anderson, Albert Einstein, Samuel Beckett, Marilyn
Monroe and Bobby Timmons), nowhere more so than
on the final riotous version of Monk’s “Shuffle Boil”,
the only non-Lacy tune heard here.
Another Lacy student, baritone saxophonist Josh
Sinton, has been at it longer, first organizing Ideal
Bread in 2006. Since then, cornet player Kirk Knuffke
and drummer Tomas Fujiwara have remained while
bassist Adam Hopkins replaces Reuben Radding on
their third release, the two-CD Beating The Teens.
Sinton’s focus and methodology have become more
intense here, as he concentrates on a very specific body
of Lacy’s work - the music for his midsized groups
recorded on Saravah from 1971-77. There’s already an
interesting contrast in instrumentation. Ideal Bread is
both minimalist and weighty, a piano-less quartet with
the ballast of baritone saxophone, yet playing music
associated with a group of great levity and variety:
Lacy’s bands with violin, voice and the sparkling piano
of Bobby Few (the very model that The Whammies
adopt so handily).
In addition to that concentration, Sinton has taken
a much more active role as arranger here than before,
limiting the frequency with which he would use a
compositional device, thus requiring constant
restructuring of material. There’s a continuous process
of deconstruction and recomposition at work here, a
fragmentation of materials in which Sinton begins to
construct strikingly different works on Lacy’s patterns,
with the composer ’s own pointillist approach to
melody and rhythm taking on new dimension. The
results are often sparse and moody, sometimes reduced
to reed squeaks and brush strokes, with a sense of
meaning and form as looming and not entirely welcome
presences. Further, Sinton adds elements from all kinds
of other music: “The Wish” is driven along by a
minimalist bass riff blasted on baritone with the
concentrated force of the band Morphine; the adjoining
“Lesson” has bowed bass and cornet in baroque
costume; “Scraps” seems to insist on sources in
European ambulance and police horns. When Ideal
Bread decides to develop a groove, however, it has,
given the heft of the baritone, a kind of power that
seems un-Lacy like: “Paris Rip-Off” is solid, collectively
improvised freebop of the first order and “The Wane”
develops a kind of free R&B worthy of the Art Ensemble
of Chicago or Charles Tyler.
While The Whammies embellish and enhance
what was already clearly there in Lacy’s music, Ideal
Bread seems to be interrogating its interstices, looking
for inferences for which its creator might have been
unprepared. Lacy’s musical spirit was sufficiently
broad that these very different approaches both seem
true to it.
For more information, visit driffrecords.com and
cuneiformrecords.com. Ideal Bread is at Douglass Street
Music Collective May 1st. See Calendar.
Ray Brown, and Gerald’s playing shows advancement
beyond his chronological age. The pianist contributed
“Sunny Day Go”, a lyrical ballad blending elements of
Baroque and Bossa Nova with jazz. To close, the duo
incorporates Dizzy Gillespie’s famous B-flat intro
vamp created for his arrangement of Kern’s “All The
Things You Are”, though Gerald’s tantalizing,
stripped-down solo takes many liberties. John makes a
delayed entrance, then takes center stage for an equally
inspired unaccompanied solo, Gerald returning for the
delicate finale, where the theme is finally revealed.
For more information, visit artistshare.com. The Claytons are
at Jazz Standard May 1st-4th. See Calendar.
SHERYL BAILEY
New from Cellar Live:
Upcoming dates:
Saturday, May 3
The Deer Head Inn
deerheadinn.com
Friday, May 9
Puffin Cultural Forum
puffinfoundation.org
Tuesday, May 27
The 55 Bar
55bar.com
Guitarist Sheryl Bailey
with Ron Oswanski (organ), Ian Froman (drums)
“The ultimate contemporary organ trio”
- JazzInside
www.sherylbailey.com
Parlor Series (with Gerald Clayton)
John Clayton (ArtistShare)
by Ken Dryden
Bassist John Clayton’s lengthy musical resumé
includes co-leading bands with his saxophonist brother
Jeff Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton, stints in the
Monty Alexander Trio and Count Basie Orchestra, as
well as appearing on numerous recordings as a
sideman. He is presumably delighted that his son
Gerald also chose a career in jazz, becoming one of the
most acclaimed pianists of his generation.
The bassist envisions the Parlor Series as an
ongoing set of recordings, simulating an informal
performance at home for a few friends, with minimal
rehearsing of the material; forthcoming sessions
scheduled for release feature the late pianists Hank
Jones and Mulgrew Miller. Besides the familial
connection, Gerald is the pianist in the Clayton
Brothers Band and father and son have an intuitive
sense as a duo, making a superb debut in this hopefully
long-running series for ArtistShare.
Most of the session is devoted to familiar
standards, though approached in new ways. “Alone
Together” is not simply bass accompanying piano, but
a lively musical conversation. “If I Should Lose You”
opens with a glistening improvised introduction,
giving way to the Claytons alternating the lead in a
robust, driving performance. A moving setting of
Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Zingaro” captures its
bittersweet air, there is creative use of space and
inventive thematic variations for Jerome Kern’s
“Yesterdays” and a gorgeous treatment of Billy Joel’s
“And So It Goes” has a hymn-like flavor, accented by
lush chords and warm arco bass. The beautiful
Ellington/Strayhorn ballad “Isfahan” features a
masterful solo by the elder Clayton, demonstrating
why he should be considered alongside the late great
RECOMMENDED
NEW RELEASES
• The Bad Plus - The Rite of Spring
(Sony Masterworks)
• Amy Cervini - Jazz Country (Anzic)
• Brian Charette - Square One (Posi-Tone)
• Kris Davis Trio - Waiting for You to Grow
(Clean Feed)
• Rufus Reid - Quiet Pride (Motéma)
• Matt Slocum - Black Elk’s Dream (Chandra)
David Adler, New York@Night Columnist
• Raoul Björkenheim - eCsTaSy (Cuneiform)
• John Carter/Bobby Bradford Quartet Flight for Four (Flying Dutchman International Phonograph)
• John Escreet - Sound, Space and Structures
(Sunnyside)
• Jimmy Giuffre 3 & 4 - New York Concerts
(Elemental Music)
• Natura Morta - Decay (Cuneiform)
• Alex Riel/Stefan Pasborg - Drum Faces
(Stunt)
Laurence Donohue-Greene
Managing Editor, The New York City Jazz Record
• Jeff Denson & Claudio Puntin Two (pfMentum)
• Ensemble 5 - The Summary of 4 (Leo)
• Jimmy Giuffre 3 & 4 - New York Concerts
(Elemental Music)
• Alex Riel/Stefan Pasborg - Drum Faces
(Stunt)
• Ted Rosenthal Trio - Rhapsody in Gershwin
(Playscape)
• Elias Stemeseder/Devin Gray/Anna Webber
- Jagged Spheres (s/r)
Andrey Henkin
Editorial Director, The New York City Jazz Record
Macroscope
Nels Cline Singers (MACK Avenue)
by Ken Micallef
A widely acknowledged guitar innovator, who crosses
genres like most of us change lanes, Nels Cline is both a
macro- and micro-musician, performing in Radioheadready rock palettes and intimate jazz situations with
equal ease. Kind of an expert mechanic in the science of
guitar possibilities, Cline’s resume is confoundingly
diverse, from Sonic Youth and Deerhoof to Charlie
Haden, Mike Watt and Wilco. Macroscope finds Cline,
bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Scott Amendola
pursuing their music alongside a few guests:
keyboardist Yuka C. Honda, percussionists Cyro
Baptista and Josh Jones and harpist Zeena Parkins.
Cline even adds his voice on two tracks, turning the
band’s name into reality for their fifth album.
Cline glories in his polyglot sensibilities: twisted
acoustic psychedelia mashes against alt-rock noise;
steel guitar soars over Country-and-Western
landscapes; odd sci-fi sounds push and pull John
Bonham-styled beats. The threesome allude to many
styles, knowing you’ll get the reference without hitting
it too hard. Like ‘70s studio musicians, these are
masters of the implied gesture, stylizing authentic
sounds into readily digestible musical nuggets.
“Seven Zed Heaven” imagines Mahavishnu
Orchestra lunching with ‘80s King Crimson, dancing
drum figures and swollen bass membranes scurrying
while acidic wah-wah guitar goes all Jimi Hendrix.
“Hair Mother” combines what sounds like a screaming
wicked witch of the west with bubbling radar blips,
disturbing voices and freaky synth sounds. Baptista’s
genius makes “The Wedding Band” an acoustic-meetselectronic thrill, the veteran percussionist making his
arsenal of bells, shakers and hand drums resonate with
life as Cline maneuvers guitar pedals up and down for
spooky sound effects.
Macroscope resurrects the guitar hero as musical
tour guide, touching down in styles we’ve all heard
before but newly gussied up in Cline’s peculiarly
aromatic craftsmanship.
For more information, visit mackavenue.com. This band is
at Le Poisson Rouge May 1st. See Calendar.
A Lorca Soundscape
Alexis Cuadrado (Sunnyside)
by Russ Musto
Barcelona-born, New York-based bassist Alexis
Cuadrado draws inspiration from both his native and
adopted homelands on A Lorca Soundscape, music
composed to accompany poems from Spanish poet
Frederico Garcia Lorca’s Poeta en Nueva York, written
during his yearlong sojourn to the city during The
Great Depression and telling tales of isolation and
exhilaration, compassion and anguish. Done in free
verse, Cuadrado composed linearly with rhythmic
abandon, blending Latin Iberian, South American and
AfroCuban cadences in a narrative manner.
Chilean vocalist Claudia Acuña’s passionate
rendering of the poet’s words, fueled with empathy for
the plight of the displaced artist in an energetic
environment rife with social injustice, is very much in
tune with her own work. Puerto Rican alto saxophonist
Miguel Zenón, too, is a good choice to give voice to the
composer ’s serpentine melodies and improvise
perceptively in response to Lorca’s stories. Joining
Cuadrado in the rhythm section, and returning from
his previous album, flamenco-infused Noneto Iberico,
pianist Dan Tepfer and drummer Mark Ferber navigate
the leader ’s twisting lines with consummate ease.
Following a coherent storyline, the music moves
from “Vuelta de paseo” (The walk back) and “Norma y
paraiso - El rey de Harlem” (The norm and paradise The king of Harlem) to “Asesinato (Dos voces de
madrugada en Riverside Drive)” (Murder - Two voices
of the morning on Riverside Drive) and “Danza de
muertela ” (Dance of Death), the dramatic impetus of
the latter two pieces intensified by the addition of
Brazilian percussionist Gilmar Gomes. The compelling
program ends peacefully with “Vals en las ramas”
(Waltz In The Branches).
For more information, visit sunnysiderecords.com.
Cuadrado is at SEEDS May 1st-3rd. See Calendar.
Leave the Door Open
Joel Harrison/Anupam Shobhakar’s Multiplicity
(Whirlwind)
by Ken Waxman
G uitarist Joel Harrison delves into Indo-Jazz fusion
plus some nods to so-called Americana with this CD,
co-led with sarod (Indian lute) player Anupam
Shobhakar. Unlike earlier experimenters, who usually
exhibited both genres side by side, Harrison’s take is
more sophisticated and profound, blending original
textures into a unique mix. On the jazz side are
keyboardist Gary Versace, saxophonist David Binney,
bassist Hans Glawischnig and percussionist Todd Isler
while Shobhakar has a background in both classical
Hindustani music and indie rock and the versatile Dan
Weiss is equally proficient on drums and tablas. The
addition of Mumbai-based vocalists on a couple of
tracks doesn’t shift the balance.
The admixture is present from track one, aptly
titled “The Translator”, scene-setting piano chording
giving way to some fierce double-tonguing from
Binney, the background quivering with Bollywood
soundtrack-like asides. Another highpoint is reached
on “Madhuvanti”, with sprays of sharp licks from
guitar and sarod at various levels of pitch, timbre and
intensity and Versace and Weiss switching to different
instruments according to atmosphere; the drummer ’s
stop-time tabla responses to Shobhakar ’s multi-string
narratives are as effective as his kit work backing
saxophone reed bites.
The session’s climax comes with the decisive title
track. Virtuosic traditional yodeling and throat singing
from one of the vocalists initially permeates the ragalike theme, created by timbral mash-ups from tremolo
organ, stop-time percussion and tabla clunks. Finally
pressurized energy bursts into thrilling animation as
processed guitar distortions and staccato sarod quivers
cross and challenge each other.
As high quality as the elevated Indo-Jazz fusion is,
the band is much less impressive when it attempts to
pile yet another sound - traditional music - on top of
those two. With the slowed-down folksy tempos of
tracks such as “Spoonful”, “Devil Mountain Blues”
and “Deep River” , the stacking of strings and
percussion overwhelm the purposely simple melodies
when not overly prettifying them. And when the
co-leaders exchange bottleneck-like steel-string guitar
and sarod flanges on “Spoonful”, the effect is curiously
lacking. Mike Bloomfield, Buddy Guy or Hubert
Sumlin wouldn’t be challenged.
For more information, visit sunnysiderecords.com. This
project is at Cornelia Street Café May 2nd. See Calendar.
UNEARTHED GEM
Bigbands Live (feat. Mary Lou Williams
and Caterina Valente)
Orchester Kurt Edelhagen (Jazzhaus)
by Ken Dryden
F ollowing the defeat of Nazi Germany in World
War II, part of the rebuilding included a vibrant
interest in jazz. Big band leader Kurt Edelhagen
may be unfamiliar to some American jazz fans but
he molded his unit on Stan Kenton’s orchestra,
focusing on American standards and jazz works,
sprinkling in some originals by Austrian jazz pianist
Roland Kovac. This collection mixes concert and
studio recordings made for broadcast by Radio
Baden-Baden in 1954, all of which are well recorded.
The Kenton influence is most apparent on
Edelhagen’s studio recordings from July 1954. The
chugging
“Tuxedo
Junction”
features
alto
saxophonist Helmut Reinhardt. The arranger ’s
somewhat heavy-handed scoring of “You Go to My
Head” is saved by alto saxophonist Franz von
Klenck’s excellent solo.
The mood changes dramatically when Mary
Lou Williams takes over on piano, accompanied by
the rhythm section. She delivers a romping, modern
bop setting of “St. Louis Blues” and equally inspired
“The Man I Love”. Her inventive approach to
“Yesterdays” is harmonically rich, showcasing
masterful technique. Williams’ whimsical “Blues On
the Bongo Beat” (better known as “Cool Bongo”)
also features hand percussion by Bobby Schmidt.
The full band joins the pianist for her swinging blues
“Nancy and the Colonel”, featuring unidentified
tenor sax and trombone solos before Williams takes
center stage and swings the piece home.
The raucous rendition of “Lester Leaps In” is
big and brassy, with drummer Bobby Schmidt
fueling the fire. It’s unclear which of the alto
saxophonists solos in the brisk bop of “The Man I
Love”, though the Charlie Parker influence is
obvious. The band does a fine job with trumpeter Al
Killian’s swinging “On the Upbeat”, which was
recorded by Count Basie and deserves to be better
known. And while band vocalist Caterina Valente’s
vocal in “Pennies From Heaven” is rather heavily
accented, it is saved by a fine scat chorus.
For more information, visit jazzhaus-label.com. A Mary
Lou Williams tribute is at Dizzy’s Club May 13th. See
Calendar.
15
GLOBE UNITY: CUBA
Mulatto Radio: Field Recordings 1-4
Allen Lowe (Constant Sorrow)
by Clifford Allen
Real Live (Live in Japan)
Omar Sosa/The New AfroCubano Quartet (Otá)
Border-Free
Chucho Valdés & The Afro-Cuban Messengers
(Jazz Village-Harmonia Mundi)
Eponymous Volcán (5 Passion)
by Tom Greenland
Cuban music, particularly the rumba, mambo, chacha and various Cu-bop and Latin jazz fusions, has
had a seismic influence on North American jazz
while it in turn has been popular on the island since
World War II. Three recent releases attest to the
continuing compatibility of Cuba and jazz.
Drawing on classical, rap, AfroCuban batá
drumming and Afropop, among other musics,
pianist Omar Sosa’s style is as distinctive as it is
hard to pin down. Real Live captures Sosa and
compadres saxophonist/flutist Leandro Saint-Hill,
bassist Childo Tomas and drummer Ernesto Simpson
in an inspired mood at Yokohama Motion Blue. A
seamless unit (all but Tomas hail from Camagüey),
the quartet handles the complex rhythmic interplay
of Sosa’s compositions with passion and finesse. In
less inspired hands, these pieces might suggest
radio-friendly contemporary jazz and, indeed,
much of this music may appeal to casual jazz fans,
but the sheer inventiveness and harmonic audacity
of Sosa’s improvisations and the ferocity of the
percussive onslaught ensures that the record will
appeal to a wide range of listeners.
Pianist Chucho Valdés, a maestro-mind behind
the Cu-bop sound, is a living legend on both sides of
the gulf. Border-Free, with a slightly revamped
version of his AfroCuban Messengers, includes
guest Branford Marsalis on tenor and soprano
saxophones. Nodding to Art Blakey’s hardbop
quintet sound, the album also references flamenco
(“Santa Cruz”), Moroccan music (“Abdel”), even a
bit of Rachmaninoff (“Caridad Amaro”). Valdés’
dazzling technical facility, apparent on cuts like
“Congadanza” and “Pilar”, never overshadows his
aesthetic sensitivity and rhythmic flexibility. Ángel
Gastón Joya Perellada deserves special mention for
his precocious bass work, as does Marsalis for his
solo turn on “Abdel”.
Pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba is only a short step
behind Valdés in terms of impact and, on Volcán, a
collective debut with bassist Armando Gala,
drummer Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez and
percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo, he updates the jazz
fusion of Return to Forever and Irakere. Switching
between synthesizers and acoustic piano, Rubalcaba
draws on a wide sonic palette on an impressive
setlist of his own compositions and covers by João
Bosco, Dizzy Gillespie, Chucho Valdés and Chico
Buarque. More cerebral than Valdés, Rubalcaba is
equally proficient and restlessly eclectic while
Gala’s nuanced electric fretless bass lends an earthy,
almost vocal counterpoint to the proceedings.
For
more
information,
visit
melodia.com,
jazzvillagemusic.com and 5passion.com. Sosa is at Blue
Note May 1st-4th. See Calendar.
N ew
York is still the center of the jazz universe;
otherwise, why would we have a homegrown jazz
gazette or scores of already well-established musicians
relocating to the boroughs to test their mettle? Sure,
the music happens on a high level elsewhere, but it’s
often hard to visualize a non-urban setting as a hotbed
of creative music. Saxophonist/guitarist/composer/
musicologist/author Allen Lowe has been a vibrant
figure on an equally vibrant geographic periphery
since the ‘80s, first in New Haven and now based in
Portland, Maine. His collaborators have included
multi-reed players Julius Hemphill and David Murray,
trumpeter Doc Cheatham and trombonist Roswell
Rudd and he has curated vast explorations of American
music that would make Harry Smith blush. Lowe visits
New York occasionally and has presented his work at
such venues as Roulette and the Knitting Factory, yet
he’s not well known. Perhaps that could change with
the latest four-disc offering (like Anthony Braxton,
Lowe is known for boxed sets), released on his own
Constant Sorrow label.
An alto saxophonist with a dry, squirrelly and
loquacious approach (certainly out of the Hemphill
school), Lowe’s compositions are witty, delicate and, in
this case, where the traditions of ragtime, funereal
marches, Lennie Tristano-schooled modernism and
free improvisation blend, incomparable. Across 62
unique pieces, Lowe has convened a diverse who’swho of contemporary music, including pianists
Matthew Shipp and Ursula Oppens, saxophonists
Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, Ras Moshe, JD Allen
and Noah Preminger, drummer Lou Grassi and
clarinetist Ken Peplowski. Lowe’s most frequent
collaborators are also present throughout - pianist
Lewis Porter, trumpeter Randy Sandke and guitarist
Ray Suhy - and theirs are names that, like Lowe, should
probably be discussed in heavy company.
There are many highlights and a persistent vibe
across four rather full discs of music, far more than can
be discussed here. “My Little Voudon Babe”, which
closes out the third disc, is one of several pieces paying
tribute to or referencing author Zora Neale Hurston
and sets brash tone rows against Grassi’s soft tom
pummels. Porter is first out of the gate with elbowed
lyricism and a staunch left hand while trumpeter JonErik Kellso declaims in wide-barreled, dramatic and
compelling swagger with copious use of a plunger
mute. Lowe closes the run of solos hanging behind the
rhythm and proselytizing with a considered, jubilant
rasp. Two tracks earlier, Lowe duets with Suhy’s banjo
on “Poor Billy in the Lowground”, where the latter ’s
grungy and discursive slide commentary is reminiscent
of Eugene Chadbourne and the former ’s gutsy trills
are an appropriate paean to a fallen comrade.
As with compositional forebears like Charles
Mingus, Lowe’s music doesn’t require that he perform
on every piece; thus the set includes a number of solo
piano works performed by Porter. While much of the
music was recorded in Maine and uses an electric
keyboard (you wouldn’t know it from hearing Shipp or
Oppens on the instrument), the solo pieces were
recorded in a Brooklyn studio and granted attendant
classical flesh - witness the rolling pointillism of “Blind
Parade”, written for Blind Boone, or the roiling and
shifty surface of “Descent into the Mailroom”, a play
on Tristano. Lowe is rarely the featured soloist even
when he’s directing an ensemble; “Blues From One
Room To The Next” hinges on Suhy’s frantic, scrambled
blues and Kalaparusha’s pathos-laden muscularity
(these are the last recordings made by the tenor
saxophonist before his passing in November 2013),
with a finely grumbling passage for tuba player
Christopher Meeder and bassist Kevin Ray.
This is a sizable and minimally edited set of music
with an accompanying book of notes to match and
engaging the world of Allen Lowe’s music and thought
is a commitment. Full of self-critical humor and
dangerous puns, Lowe’s approach to the American
sonic landscape is deeper and graced with more heart
than he’s given credit.
For more information, visit allenlowe.bandcamp.com. This
project is at Spectrum May 3rd. See Calendar.
Callicoon Sessions
Kazzrie Jaxen Quartet (Cadence Jazz)
by Marc Medwin
The composer Dieter Schnebel’s innovative
transcription of Schubert’s G-Major piano sonata
includes a layer of harmonies, which, though not heard
in the sonata, are present by implication. Pianist
Kazzrie Jaxen’s treatment of standards on her new
quartet disc employs similar complexities. The tunes
are there, but Jaxen’s harmonies veil them in mystery
while simultaneously illuminating them afresh via
some of the most vital interpretations they have
received in some time.
Jaxen, tenor saxophonist Charley Krachy, bassist
Don Messina and drummer Bill Chattin made these
recordings over several years, straight to DAT and
never intending to make an album from them; but as
the group-penned liners make plain, they were aware
of something special as the recordings were assembled.
There is something ethereal and yet down-to-earth as
old tunes are made new, as when, to delve into only
one representative example, Jaxen, Krachy and Messina
swing into “All the Things You Are”, Krachy and
Messina in relaxed and flowing counterpoint during
the head. Chattin’s entrance kicks the swing up to the
next level, glittering cymbals and perfectly-timed
snare punctuations serving to place rock-solid bass
drum and hi-hat in stark relief.
Yet, none of this explains how the music lifts off
and floats amidst Krachy’s altered tones and over
Messina’s pizzicato double stops, amazing in and of
themselves. Much of the freedom must come down to
Jaxen’s voicings. Despite her prodigious harmonic
language, her allegiance to what the others are doing is
always evident and she’s not so much pushing beyond
rhythmic boundaries as using them as points of
departure and return. It is a joy to hear how she weaves
fragments of “What Is This Thing Called Love”’s
melody into a solo of huge dynamic and harmonic
contrast, almost forming a language of varying
densities as Messina and Chattin lay the groundwork.
These recordings give new meaning to the words
freedom and tradition, juxtaposing them in ways that
render them useless. The recording is a no-nonsense
audio portrait, leaving room for the playing to breathe
and bloom. A great disc from an innovative ensemble.
For more information, visit cadencejazzrecords.com. Jaxen
is at The Drawing Room May 4th. See Calendar.
...But Not Heard
Scenes
(Origin)
New York Conversations
Kendra Shank/
John Stowell (TCB)
by Donald Elfman
G uitarist John Stowell is an original in sound and
approach. He can wail with the best of them but his
sense of space, harmony, color and texture makes
listeners take note. Here we find him in varied settings:
in a traditional quartet of longstanding and an intimate
duo with an old friend, vocalist Kendra Shank.
The group Scenes emerged in Seattle in 1990 from
an immediate connection between Stowell, bassist Jeff
Johnson and drummer John Bishop. The group also
had a history with Hans Teuber and felt his saxophones
and flute would be a fine addition. The pun of the
album’s title ...But Not Heard either suggests the notion
that audiences might see a group and not really hear
what’s being played or maybe is simply an invitation
to come and hear the group live. In either case, this
group has a strong aural identity.
Opener “C minor Waltz” may seem just as simple
as its title. The waltz certainly is subtle and beautiful
but the four players bring individuality to create
something not at all predictable. Stowell’s compositions
reveal themselves slowly and thus demand full
attention. The best example of this is “Old Fellow”, a
hymn to the gentleman of the title. But an intimate bass
solo, delicate flute and the composer ’s guitar paint a
detailed portrait, equal to and then going beyond the
sum of its parts. It’s that approach that defines all of
the music on ...But Not Heard.
Stowell’s work with Kendra Shank also has its
roots in Seattle - both lived there around 1990 - but
took a turn as Shank moved East. It’s clear from the
first note of New York Conversations that the two have
stayed in touch, personally and musically. It often feels
as if there is one musician with two distinct voices.
On the opening “Blue Skies”, there is the beautiful
mixture of wide openness and closest of atmospheres
that comes from deep friendship. That juxtaposition
informs the pair ’s take on the other songbook
chestnuts. Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart’s “My
Romance” appears suddenly out of some smart,
wordless improvising by Shank, Stowell instrumentally
urging her on. In less than two minutes, Stowell and
Shank reveal Sammy Fain-Irving Kahal’s “I’ll Be Seeing
You” as the heartbreakingly sad farewell it is, but still
suggest hope and real love. The folk music world is
also revivified in a dark and gorgeous medley of
Woody Guthrie’s “Hard Travelin’” and the spiritual
ballad “Motherless Child”. Singer and guitarist pay
tribute to another powerful duo in “Songs and
Lullabies”, by vocalist Norma Winstone and pianist
Fred Hersch.
Shank and Stowell display another side of their
partnership on tunes they’ve improvised and created
together - four in all, two apiece - mostly short in
duration and wordless. Shank uses an electronic looper
to create special in-the-moment effects that broaden
the sound picture. She also wrote words to two of
Stowell’s compositions: the haunting “Ghosts”, where
the lyrics talk intimately to a lost friend, and the title
track, which simply, yet rhythmically, lists areas of the
great urban metropolis.
For more information, visit origin-records.com and tcb.ch.
Stowell is at Bar Next Door May 2nd and Shank and Stowell
are at Roulette May 4th. See Calendar.
Paquito D’Rivera
presents
Latin Jazz Traditions
Featuring young artists coached by Paquito D’Rivera, Oscar
Stagnaro, and other members of the Paquito D’Rivera Ensemble
Friday, May 16 at 7:30 PM
Program to include works by Paquito D’Rivera, Lecuona, Juan Andrés Ospina,
Piazzolla, Salvador, and Oscar Stagnaro
Workshops and master classes are made possible, in part, by Mr. and Mrs. Nicola Bulgari and The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.
Tickets: $15
carnegiehall.org | 212-247-7800 | Box Office at 57th and Seventh
Photo by Lane Pederson. Artists, programs, dates, and ticket prices subject to change. © 2014 CHC.
Proud Season Sponsor
17
Nocturne
Rich Perry (SteepleChase)
by Tom Conrad
Rich Perry is not exactly a cult figure. He has made 21
records for SteepleChase and has been a featured tenor
saxophonist in the Maria Schneider and Village
Vanguard orchestras. Yet his fiercely dedicated
following is small. Probably Perry’s most passionate
fans are other tenor saxophone players. Those who
have spent their lives studying the instrument
understand that the purity of Perry’s minimalism is a
rare quality to which they themselves aspire.
Nocturne is a quartet session with guitarist Nate
Radley, bassist John Hébert and drummer Jeff
Hirshfield. It is not entirely a ballad album, but even
the medium tempo pieces have a spellbound, pensive
atmosphere. The tunes are eight standards from the
Great American Songbook and the jazz repertoire, all
approached from non-standard perspectives. Nocturne
is Perry’s first album with a guitar instead of a piano.
The format creates space. Radley is an ideal
collaborator; like Perry, he is a sensitive romantic poet
whose subjective designs have firm edges.
Radley solos first on “Never Let Me Go” and
refuses to be drawn into the double-time of Hébert and
Hirshfield, pursuing slow motivic variations. Perry
opens “Cherokee”, floating over the changes with
sequential constellations of fresh ideas before, at 5:59,
he finally plays (no, breathes) the melody. It is a
uniquely free “Cherokee”, perhaps the most languid on
record, but Perry’s cadenza at the end is quietly intense.
Nocturne is hauntingly lyrical, intellectually
substantive. It is hard to choose the best track. “Old
Folks” is the longest. Perry enters like a soft wind
containing snatches and suggestions of the song.
Hébert and Hirshfield pull against Perry’s dreaminess
with nervous rhythmic figures. Radley spills
counterlines in long cascades. Perry’s solo is a rapt,
intimate flowing. He does not sound like he is
inventing but like he is reliving deep private memories.
For more information, visit steeplechase.dk. Perry is at Blue
Note May 5th with NYU Jazz Orchestra, Birdland May
8th-10th with Maria Schneider, Cornelia Street Café May 13th,
Smalls May 23rd-24th with Mark Soskin and 31st with Matt
Panayides and Village Vanguard Mondays with the Vanguard
Jazz Orchestra. See Calendar and Regular Engagements.
Say Hello to Anyone I Know
Devin Brahja Waldman (Fast Speaking Music)
Past & Present Futures
Jeff Platz/Daniel Carter/François Grillot/
Federico Ughi (Glitch)
Featuring Daniel Carter
The Imaginary Quartet (Nacht)
by John Sharpe
V eteran multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter is one of
NYC’s best-kept secrets. His visibility has not been
helped by his steadfast refusal to front his own bands
and preference to remain part of a collective in keeping
with his anarchist credo. He has always been open to
collaboration, however, often with colleagues several
generations younger, like the three at hand.
On Say Hello to Anyone I Know, Carter appears
alongside newcomer alto saxophonist Devin Brahja
Waldman and two seasoned improvisers, cellist Daniel
Levin and drummer Satoshi Takeishi, on five
cooperative pieces. It’s a strong session marked by
generous use of space and unforced conversational
interplay. In spite of his avant garde associations,
Carter has never been a screamer. He understands well
the beauty of restrained passion and his lyrical
abstractions establish the tone. Waldman takes his lead
from Carter, working out of reiterated phrases with
sparing use of tonal twists to generate nuance and
interest. The virtuosic Levin, as much as a frontline
instrument as the horns, sticks largely to the lower
registers. Only on the slow burning free jazz of “Jayne
Cortez” and towards the end of the lengthy “Butch” do
proceedings become in any way heated.
By way of contrast, Past & Present Futures finds
Carter in a quartet as busy as the previous outfit is
restrained. Even here Carter is often a man apart,
pitching his oblique stories against faster-paced
accompaniment. Central to the group sound is guitarist
Jeff Platz, who augments his jazzy single-note runs
with electronic effects and fuzzed distortion. Federico
Ughi maintains a garrulous commentary on drums
throughout while bassist François Grillot regularly
creates a freebop feel, even though all seven pieces are
completely improvised. This was the first time the four
participants had combined and the excerpts chosen
stem from several hours of recording. Perhaps the only
downside of this approach is that many of the tracks
either fade out or start in mid-flow, depriving the
listener of a sense of a complete journey. “Begin” forms
one of the highlights. A dialogue-filled opening for
Carter ’s soprano saxophone, bass and drums, with
some lovely slurs from Grillot, gives way to a funky
motif and a blues-infused guitar solo. That only serves
to launch Carter upon a simmering tenor outing, which
ends the number. Elsewhere, “Distance” works out of
dreamy ambience into animated but understated
interaction while urgent piping soprano on “Evolve”
ignites swirling guitar washes and clattering drums.
On The Imaginary Quartet’s disc Featuring Daniel
Carter, post-production manipulation is the fourth
member of the ensemble supplementing Carter,
drummer David Freeman and bassist Mike Noordzy
(responsible for the mixing and collaging). Thus on
“Modern Museum” Carter’s pastoral flute proceeds
with his trumpet drifting in chorus through it. In other
cases the processing can be so heavy that it’s impossible
even to name which instrument Carter is playing and
he becomes a ghostly visitant to the feast. At times the
core trio sounds right on the money, but those episodes
tend to be truncated or peter out before your ears, as
happens when Carter begins to dig in on alto saxophone
at the end of “Boating with John”, only to be replaced
by another stream of musical thought. Noordzy tackles
both electric and acoustic basses, adding a contrapuntal
element to Freeman’s expansive percussion. When the
processing is kept to a minimum, the disc is at its most
potent, allowing Carter to hold forth unimpeded.
For more information, visit fastspeakingmusic.com,
jeffplatz.com and nachtrecords.com. Daniel Carter is at
Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center May 5th and
Downtown Music Gallery May 11th. See Calendar.
Upcoming JAzz performances at NJPAC!
Coming this Fall
My Favorite Things:
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Bill Charlap, Sandy Stewart,
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Friday, May 9 at 7:30pm
Be a part of this exciting jazz
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unforgettable performances!
Schedule will be announced
May 16!
Terrell Stafford
Pat Metheny Bruce Hornsby
Unity Group
Enter Now!
Deadline for entries is
September 2, 2014
with Sonny Emory
“Last Train Home,”
“The Way It Is” and more!
Friday, Aug 8 at 8pm
New Jersey PerformiNg Arts CeNter
oNe CeNter street, NewArk, NJ
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For tickets and full schedule
visit njpac.org or call 1-888-GO-NJPAC
4/18/14 2:32 PM
“Undecided” to Johnny Green’s “Body and Soul” and
“I’m Confessin’ That I Love You”. A highlight is
pianist/bandleader Claude Thornhill’s lovely 1941 hit
“Snowfall”, one of the definitive hits of the Swing Era.
Often performed by big bands, it works well with
nothing but three guitars.
So many of the great musicians who emerged
during the Swing Era are long gone, but Pizzarelli,
thankfully, is still keeping that spirit alive.
Three For All
Bucky Pizzarelli (Chesky)
by Alex Henderson
Much has changed in jazz guitar since WWII, when a
teenaged Bucky Pizzarelli began to play professionally.
But Pizzarelli has stuck with swing all these years,
continuing to show the influence of Django Reinhardt,
George Van Eps, Eddie Lang and other guitarists who
emerged during jazz’ prebop era. Pizzarelli, now 88,
adds to his sizeable catalogue with Three For All.
This album finds Pizzarelli leading an all-guitar
trio with his son John and Ed Laub. Pizzarelli still
excels when it comes to both technique and feeling and
his son (now 53) is a talented swing guitarist in his
own right. A variety of moods can be found: Pizzarelli
is exuberant and passionate on Al Jolson’s “Avalon”,
Edgar Sampson’s “Stompin’ at the Savoy” and George
Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm”, but his more introspective
side prevails on lyrical performances of Jimmy
Campbell’s “If I Had You”, Jerome Kern’s “All the
Things You Are”, Bix Beiderbecke’s “In the Dark” and
a medley of Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn’s “It’s Been a
Long, Long Time” and Henry Nemo’s “Don’t Take
Your Love from Me”. Pizzarelli doesn’t offer a lot of
surprises in his choice of material. Most of the songs
are well-known standards, from Charlie Shavers’
Rich Perry
For more information, visit chesky.com. Pizzarelli is at The
Cutting Room May 2nd, Saint Peter’s May 7th and
Symphony Space Peter Jay Sharp Theatre May 19th as part
of an Arbors Records tribute. See Calendar.
Hope
Gregory Tardy (SteepleChase)
by Joel Roberts
Tenor saxophonist Gregory Tardy emerged as one of
the most exciting young postbop players on the New
York scene in the ‘90s, leading his own groups and
performing alongside a diverse assortment of artists.
A man of deep religious conviction, Tardy took a
three-year sabbatical from performing a few years back
to concentrate on Christian ministry, before returning
to jazz and relocating to Tennessee for a teaching gig.
As on his previous albums, Tardy’s devotion is evident
in his religious-themed originals and the hymns,
spirituals and modern gospel tunes he covers, along
with a few purely secular numbers, like Joe Henderson’s
“Jinrikisha”. But for all his focus on the otherworldly,
Tardy’s music resonates in the here and now; it’s
accessible to all listeners, believers and non-believers,
like his most obvious and profound influence, the
A Love Supreme-era (and later) Coltrane. Beyond a
shared interest in spiritual matters, Tardy has a
sweeping, swirling, forceful tenor sound, which recalls
but does not mimic the late saxophone master.
Tardy is joined here by a hard-charging, inventive
quartet featuring Helen Sung (piano) and Jaimeo
Brown (drums), both of whom have made a major
impact as leaders lately, along with the fine bassist
Sean Conly. It’s the same group Tardy recorded his first
SteepleChase album with eight years ago and their
sense of familiarity and empathy is apparent.
The quartet covers a wide swath of stylistic
ground. The original “A Tree and Its Fruits” is a
darting, rollicking avant-bop workout with Tardy and
Sung trading ferocious solos and Brown pushing the
tempo aggressively. Tardy explores freer, more wideopen territory on sections of “The Cost of Discipleship”
and “Every Life is Precious” while the powerful “Be
Thou My Vision”, a duo with Conly, is pure gospel and
down-home blues. And when it comes to old-school
ballad playing, Tardy shows his chops on a soulful,
Ben Webster-ish reading of the standard “That’s All”.
Mixing the sacred and the profane, traditional and
cutting-edge, Tardy proves himself an artist of vision
and depth, with a sound and purpose all his own.
For more information, visit steeplechase.dk. Tardy is at
Smalls May 7th. See Calendar.
SteepleChase recording artist
IX-STRING
UMMIT AT
INGLECUT
Recent Releases
SCCD 31726
SCCD 31748
“Rich Perry
is that rarest of tenor
saxophonists
—a complete musician
with an understanding
of space and timing,
a palpable sense of color
and humor
and absolutely no need
to showboat
or compromise.”
SCCD 31776
AllAboutJazz
SCCD 31697
SCCD 31670
US distribution:
Stateside Distributors
[email protected]
FRIDAY, MAY 16TH:
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Mutations
Vijay Iyer (ECM)
by Tom Greenland
V ijay
Iyer, one of jazz’ most conspicuous artists,
highly decorated by the critical press, well respected in
academia, is a chameleonic presence adaptable to a
variety of musical contexts. Mutations, his debut for
ECM, reveals yet another side of his oeuvre: a tenmovement suite for piano and string quartet.
Like much of his work, Iyer here builds complex,
spontaneously morphing structures around relatively
simple building blocks, often by looping and
intertwining melodic cells of contrasting phrase
lengths. Inspired by the dynamics of biological
mutation, where one small unit spontaneously inserted
or deleted from a chain of genetic information can
create anything from a mild disorder to a drastic
upheaval, Iyer similarly empowers his players to make
small but potentially massive alterations to his
compositional raw materials. On “Mutation III:
Canon”, for example, the strings are paired in gently
anarchistic counterlines, which finally coalesce on
cued hits of closely rubbing clusters. “Mutation IV:
Chain” is the aural equivalent of one of those infinitely
rising MC Escher staircases, never quite reaching the
next floor. One of the most effective moments comes at
the end of “Mutation V: Automata”, when Iyer layers
jazz-inflected lines over minimalist string textures.
Many of the movements are electronically embellished,
but the effects are subtle and sublimated, the line
between acoustic and electronic not always obvious.
Framing the suite are solo piano numbers.
“Spellbound and Sacrosanct, Cowrie Shells and the
Shimmering Sea”, an early composition of Iyer ’s,
opens the album with a relentlessly reappearing sevennote motif, constantly reharmonized by ramping
chords of ambiguous tonality, followed by the recently
composed “Vuln, Part 2”, a pastiche of noodling
arpeggios over whirring electronics. Another recent
composition, “When We’re Gone”, concludes the
album in a ruminative mood, its low bass pedal
sustaining unusual chord structures, closing quietly, as
if an afterthought.
For more information, visit ecmrecords.com. Iyer is at The
Stone May 7th and 13th and Aaron Davis Hall May 9th as
part of Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival. See Calendar.
People’s Emergency Center
The Singing Gobi Desert
PRISM Quartet (Innova)
by Kurt Gottschalk
The
diversity of music in the eight compositions
spread across the two discs of the PRISM Quartet’s
People’s Emergency Center shouldn’t come as a surprise.
The group’s founder, Matthew Levy, has ensured
eclecticism for the quartet for close to 30 years,
recording works by living composers as diverse as the
American Martin Bresnick, Ireland’s Donnacha
Dennehy, Tan Dun from China and Briton Steve Mackey
as well as the Dutch composer Jacob TV’s head-spinning
Pitch Black, which samples Billie Holiday, Chet Baker,
death row inmates and Times Square preachers. What
is surprising is how little of the Philadelphia-based
bandleader’s own work they’ve recorded.
That omission is rectified in the sprawling People’s
Emergency Center. The album takes its evocative name
from the first movement of Been There and from an
actual facility in Philly. It’s an upbeat and slightly
anxious score with Ben Monder ’s electric guitar
spinning in and out of the unison sax lines pushed
along by a rhythm section of bassist Jay Anderson and
drummer Bill Stewart. The music was written for a
documentary on the community service center and it’s
not the sound of things going wrong so much as
working to ensure that things keep going right. The
13-minute first section is followed, nicely and oddly,
with a nod to Satie. “Gymnopedie” is a gentle
180-second ballad and a bit of a march for the composer
on tenor backed by guitar, drums and the rest of the
saxophone quartet (Timothy McAllister, Zachary
Shemon and Taimur Sullivan) all on baritones.
The set opens with the strongest of the three
compositions, the four-movement Under the Sun for the
quartet with pianist Jason Moran and percussionist
François Zayas. Levy sets a striking counterpoint for
quick piano trills and saxophone flutters and slowly
allows Moran to break into soloing as the horns grow
prominent. Moran plays almost painfully slowly,
breaking into chordal runs and falling back into the
buried tempo.
If those are all a bit measured, the second CD is a
surer sell to the saxophone enthusiast. Serial Mood
brings back the rhythm section and adds a fifth in the
form of Rudresh Mahanthappa for a Third Streamworthy 20 minutes of choreographed jamming. “Brown
Eyes” casts Monder into what could pass for a Wes
Montgomery ballad while the rich arrangement of “Mr.
Bobs and Lori Ann” brings to mind some of those other
sax quartets, both retaining the guitar and drums and
adding Tim Ries on soprano sax. The set also includes
three pieces for the quartet alone, highlighting Levy’s
ear for arranging for the four horns.
The Singing Gobi Desert finds PRISM on foreign
assignment again, this time working with four Chinese
composers and expanding to a nonet with the addition
of the ensemble Music for China for a small,
surprisingly cohesive orchestra. The title piece,
composed by Bright Sheng, is upbeat and enticing, the
saxophones providing harmonic groundcover for the
piercing strings and the reedy sheng, not to mention an
unexpected marimba. It’s a strong contrast to the
textural fantasia of Lei Liang’s “Messages of White”
that follows it. The bowed erhu sets the tone for Fang
Man’s elegant and dramatic “Dream of a Hundred
Flowers”, with strings and reeds scored to emulate the
pitched speaking of the Pekingese opera. Huang Ruo’s
“The Three Tenses” for pipa and four saxophones,
closes the disc, building tension by accentuating the
differences in the instruments; sustained saxophone
lines and short pipa trills seem to collide while
mirroring one another.
What makes PRISM’s work so successful is that
they work as a choir, not forcing the saxophone sound
from top to bottom. And from Philadelphia to China
they’ve created a remarkable mix in these discs.
For more information, visit innova.mu. This group is at
Symphony Space Leonard Nimoy Thalia May 9th with
guests Tim Ries and Miguel Zenón. See Calendar.
When Jayne Cortez died on December 28, 2012 it put a
hole in my life and in my heart. We were artistic
associates for 40 years but most of all we were friends.
There were other poets who read their poetry to music
but none as consistently with great quality and power as
Jayne. Jayne was the ultimate professional artist. I loved
being around her energy, and receiving her incites and
knowledge about Africa. For me Jayne is still here.
- Bill Cole
NEW ALBUM WITH
Bill Cole - Australian Didgeridoo,
Indian Nagaswarm, Chinese Sona
Warren Smith - Drums, percussion
Joseph Daley - Euphonium
Shayna Dulberger - Bass
Ras Moshe - Saxophone, Flute
Althea SullyCole - Kora, voice (spoken)
Lisette Santiago - Bata, Cajon, percussion,
voice (singing)
WWW.BILLCOLE.ORG
21
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SOLO TUESDAYS IN MAY
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YOUNG PIANO SHOWCASE
MAY 6, 13, 20 & 27 - CAILI O'DOHERTY
THURS. MAY 1
WHITNEY JAMES QUINTET
WHITNEY JAMES, JON DAVIS
ED HOWARD, JON WIKAN
JONATHAN POWELL .
$15 COVER + $15 MINIMUM
FRI. MAY 2
DENNY ZEITLIN - SOLO PIANO
SAT. MAY 3
DENNY ZEITLIN TRIO
DENNY ZEILTIN, BUSTER WILLIAMS
MATT WILSON
WED. MAY 7
LIBBY YORK QUARTET
LIBBY YORK, JOHN DI MARTINO
WARREN VACHÉ, MARTIN WIND
THURS. MAY 8
DAISUKE ABE TRIO
DAISUKE ABE, KURIKO TSUGAWA, ANTHONY LEE
FRI. MAY 9
JANE IRA BLOOM QUARTET/
ALL BALLADS
JANE IRA BLOOM, DOMINIC FALLACARO
CAMERON BROWN, MATT WILSON
S AT. M AY 10
K E N P E P LOWS K I Q U A RT E T
K E N P E P LOWS K I , E H U D AS H E R I E
JOEL FORBES, AARON KIMMEL
$ 3 0 C OV E R + $ 15 M I N I M U M
WED. MAY 14
JON DI FIORE TRIO
CD RELEASE EVENT “YELLOW PETALS”
JON DI FIORE, BILLY TEST, ADRIAN MORING
THURS. MAY 15
CLOVIS NICOLAS QUINTET
CD RELEASE EVENT “NINE STORIES”
CLOVIS NICOLAS, RILEY MULHERKAR
LUCA STOLL, TADATAKA UNNO
JIMMY MACBRIDE
FRI. & SAT. MAY 16 & 17
DON FRIEDMAN TRIO
DON FRIEDMAN, GEORGE MRAZ, MATT WILSON
WED. MAY 21
MICHELLE WALKER QUARTET
MICHELLE WALKER, SEAN FITZPATRICK
MICHAEL O'BRIEN, WILLARD DYSON
The Adventurous Monk
Eric Reed (Savant)
by George Kanzler
The title here can mischievously hint at another
iteration: The Institutional Monk. For more than any
other figure from the modern jazz that emerged at the
mid-point of the 20th Century as a composer-performer,
with the possible exception of Charles Mingus,
Thelonious Monk has become an institution. There is
the Monk Institute and its Monk Prize and countless
repertory ensembles and homage recordings devoted
to his oeuvre. They have ranged from solo pianists to
big bands, from quartets mirroring Monk’s favorite
performing configuration to drummer Ben Riley’s
Monk Legacy Septet, a piano-less group.
Eric Reed’s The Adventurous Monk is a multifaceted exploration of ten Monk tunes by the pianist’s
trio, augmented on three tracks by Seamus Blake’s
tenor sax and one other by singer Charenee Wade. The
tracks with Blake recall not only Monk’s quartets but
also the first prominent, posthumous Monk tribute
band, Sphere, which featured longtime Monk sideman
Charlie Rouse on tenor sax. Rouse is a touchstone for
Blake, especially on “Work”, the number that most
closely conjures the later (‘60s) Monk quartets as well
as Sphere. Even more than Kenny Barron, Sphere’s
pianist, Reed can evoke Monk’s spiky dissonances and
quirky, off-kilter timing, also a feature of another
quartet track, “Gallop’s Gallop”. But album and
quartet opener “Thelonious” steps out of the template:
delivered at a faster-than-Monk tempo, with explosive
drumming from Gregory Hutchinson and quicksilver
time from bassist Ben Williams, Reed and Blake’s takeoff-running solos only glance at the original melody.
The trio tracks find Reed applying different styles,
from Erroll Garner-ish melodicism (over exotic tomtom-dominated drums) on “Pannonica” to ruminative
lyricism on “’Round Midnight” and from a calypso
take on “Nutty” to a refracted, abstract trio colloquy of
“Evidence”. But he also displays his impressive Monk
technique on “Reflections” and “Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are”.
Wade suggests a young, hip Billie Holiday in an
evocative reading of Sally Swisher ’s lyrics to “Ruby,
My Dear”, offering new avenues for the song.
For more information, visit jazzdepot.com. Reed is at Smoke
May 9th-10th. See Calendar.
THURS. MAY 22
HANKY PANKY TRIO
ALEX MINASIAN, BRANDI DISTERHEFT, STEVE WILLIAMS
FRI. & SAT. MAY 23 & 24
STEVE GROSSMAN, GEORGE CABLES
JOSEPH LEPORE, JASON BROWN
WED. MAY 28
LARRY GELB TRIO
THURS. MAY 29
THE OKB TRIO
OSCAR PEREZ, KURIKO TSUGAWA, BRIAN WOODRUFF
FRI. & SAT. MAY 30 & 31
MARTIN WIND QUARTET
CD RELEASE EVENT “TURN OUT THE STARS”
MUSIC WRITTEN OR INSPIRED BY BILL EVANS
MARTIN WIND, SCOTT ROBINSON
BILL MAYS, JOE LA BARBERA
RESERVATIONS - 212-885-7119
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www.kitano.com • email: [email protected] ò 66 Park Avenue @ 38th St.
For more information, visit roaratorio.com. Sun Ra tributes
are at New School Arnhold Hall May 1st, Sistas’ Place May
10th and ShapeShifter Lab May 11th. See Calendar.
May 6th
Lou Caputo
Not So Big Band
May 13th
Gene Perla Group
May 20th
Ray Blue Ensemble
STEVE GROSSMAN QUARTET
LARRY GELB, CAMERON BROWN, MICHAEL STEPHANS
and Ali Hasaan and again much of the music is
performed on instruments not primary to the players.
These include a lot of small percussion instruments,
which all five players use. The leader is listed as
playing “strings”, presumably from the same nearrandom collection of instruments heard on Strange
Strings. Jenkins does do a little vocalizing and Hasaan
a little tromboning, but Gilmore never leaves the
percussion section and the only reed Allen plays is the
oboe. This at least is what the liners tell us, though on
the last two tracks we hear another double reed
involved in engaging exchanges with the oboe and at
the very end of “Journey Among the Stars” something
that sounds very much like Allen on alto joins in.
Perhaps overdubbing was used. The leader is also
heard at some length on celeste and kalimba.
Of course the use of ‘small instruments’ would
soon be taken to much further lengths; the Art Ensemble
of Chicago, we are told, used over 500 instruments
during their concert appearances in Europe in 1969. But
the music here sounds different, with the various
timbral episodes tending to go on for much longer. The
absence of real soloing is unimportant, as is often the
case with free improvised music, the group feel being
paramount. Are the many interesting moments enough
to recommend this record to fans? It depends on the
fan, but listeners who have all the really great Arkestra
records may well want to check out Other Strange
Worlds, especially if they like free improvisation. While
not as wild and woolly, it is more successful than
Strange Strings. What’s really strange is that this music
has never seen the light of day until now.
Other Strange Worlds
Sun Ra & His Astro-Infinity Arkestra (Roaratorio)
by Duck Baker
H ere’s
an interesting addition to the Sun Ra
discography: a previously unreleased 1965 session that
is a sort of conceptual companion piece to the notorious
Strange Strings date on which members of the Arkestra
played instruments for much of the proceedings with
which they had no real familiarity. The group here is a
quintet with John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, Art Jenkins
New York Baha’i Center
53 E. 11th Street
(between University Place and Broadway)
Shows: 8:00 & 9:30 PM
Gen Adm: $15 Students $10
212-222-5159
bahainyc.org/nyc-bahai-center/jazz-night
THE HANG
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JUN
28 & 29
The Offense of the Drum
Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
(Motéma Music)
by Marcia Hillman
This CD is all about the drum - one of the most
important elements of and connection between all of
various rhythms in the rich musicality simplified by
the term “Latin Jazz”. Pianist Arturo O’Farrill and the
Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO) salute the drum with
original material by various composers, representing
the countries of Puerto Rico, Cuba, Colombia and
others, and a bevy of drums (28 in all) and percussion
instruments from Africa, Japan, Puerto Rico, Cuba and even the DJ turntable! The 18-piece ALJO is
supplemented by a total of 17 guests: harpist Edmar
Castañeda, pianist Vijay Iyer, DJ Logic, spoken word
artist Christopher “Chilo” Cajigas, vocalists Donald
Harrison and Antonio Lizana, accordion player Uri
Sharlin and other guest conductors and percussionists.
O’Farrill’s two-movement title composition is a
highlight, which spotlights the high energy and
virtuosity of the orchestra, and (according to the liner
notes) portrays his view of the drum as both “an
oppressor and a liberator.” As the former, the drum can
be rigid and controlling and as the latter, a means of
communication and continuance of the oral tradition
Saxophone Summit
Heritage/Evolution
MAY 9, 7:30
PRISM Quartet
Tim Ries
Miguel Zenón
JUNE 12, 7:30
PRISM Quartet
Dave Liebman
Greg Osby
symphonyspace.org
of a culture. Other notable tracks include Castañeda’s
performance on his own “Cuarto de Colores”, where
he demonstrates an amazing ability to capture both the
melodic and percussive qualities of his instrument;
Antonio Lizano’s haunting vocal on Eric Satie’s
“Gnossienne 3”; O’Farrill’s own “On the Corner of
Malecon and Bourbon”, in which a ragtime song turns
into a Cuban montuno to make a perfect connection
between Latin and jazz; the classic tune “Iko Iko”, with
the second line picking up some Latino participants on
its march through the streets of New Orleans; and
“Alma Vacia”, composed and conducted by Spanishborn Miguel Blanco, a track recalling the hot New York
City salsa of the legendary night club The Palladium.
O’Farrill succeeds in covering a lot of territory
with this CD, both a history and geography of music.
For more information, visit motema.com. O’Farrill is at Apollo
Theater May 10th as part of Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival,
Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts May 15th and
Birdland Sundays. See Calendar and Regular Engagements.
Sonic Mandala
Adam Rudolph/GO: Organic Orchestra (Meta)
Voice Prints
Yusef Lateef/Roscoe Mitchell/Adam Rudolph/
Douglas R. Ewart (Aarawak/Meta/YAL/AEC)
Live at Roulette Yusef Lateef (YAL)
by Fred Bouchard
Adam Rudolph, percussionist, was an acolyte of and
collaborator with Yusef Lateef in improvisatory,
intuitive music for 30 years. Rudolph appears here on
three recent recordings that salute Lateef’s memory: he
loosely conducts a large ensemble in a quasi-improvised
suite; plays in an improvisational quartet with Lateef
and two Chicago reed stalwarts; and introduces the
Roulette date of Lateef compositions and duos with
him on one (seemingly improvised) track.
Renaissance man Lateef died at 93 last fall, leaving
a rich, variegated legacy of music, poetry, painting,
writing and philosophy, which spans seven decades
and a world-wealth of cultures. A robust compelling
voice on tenor sax in Detroit bands with Curtis Fuller,
Kenny Burrell and later Cannonball Adderley’s Sextet,
he pioneered and mastered jazz flute and was virtually
jazz’ lone convincing practitioner on the demanding
double reeds (oboe, bassoon, shenai, argul). Regarding
himself as an eternal scholar, Lateef studied Fulani
flute in Africa and was an ‘evolutionist’, embracing
world music beyond the strictures of the jazz moniker.
Rudolph treads softly in Lateef’s footsteps and
subtle pathways on Sonic Mandala, his dot-to-dot
‘conduction’ of his GO: Organic Orchestra. The large
cast (33 players) appear mostly in desultory walk-on
roles. “Invitation”, the opening (and longest) of 12
parts, lays a sultry groove, clopping clavé under airy
flute sections, but few follow-throughs. 11 reed players
(nary a saxophone!) gather forces only twice: in “Part
Four”, over relentless Cuban-style percussion, gritty
multi-improv brass, piano and swirling flutes rising to
a full-bore fortissimo, and on “Part Seven”, with
sporadic ‘big-band’ shouts in three tempi, driven by
spirited oud and hand-drums, featuring solos by a
vocal flutist (Zé Oliveira?), Graham Haynes’ snarly
trumpet and Kenny Wessel’s languidly searing guitar.
The ten string players are only sporadically evident in
the wispy final movements. Pleasant enough, it
underutilizes a large and talented assemblage.
Voice Prints, three reed wizards pitted against
Rudolph’s percussion, exhibit more fire, collegiality
and focus. Viewed another way, it’s Lateef achieving
spiritual detente with three Chicago veterans, congenial
elder statesmen in this 2008 arc at Minneapolis’ Walker
Art Center. Roscoe Mitchell’s ney, in almost-string-like
whining, over traps and gongs on “Sound Search”,
reaches a highpoint topped when joined by Douglas R.
Ewart’s police-horn and siren and fading to Lateef’s
moody, eerie flute alone with Rudolph’s delicate piano
echoes. “Harpers Ferry” and “Morning Moves” are
gentler, brief and spacious valedictions.
Lateef’s compositions, presented on Live at
Roulette, exhibit endless curiosity and erudition and
sometimes, taut inquisitive writing. “String Quartet
#2”, interpreted by the Momenta Quartet, consists of
warm, impulsive fragments, with rich melodic kernels.
“Trio In December” for saxophonists (here JD Parran,
Marty Ehrlich, Allen Won), at times querulous and
peckish as cantankerous ducks, expands into the
sprightly and conversational. “Autophysiopsychic
Variations for Piano” (a Lateef-ism coined to describe
jazz more broadly ), played by Taka Kigawa, are mainly
hesitant, pedal-down arpeggios in Mingus-like
meanderings. Rudolph appears only on “When”, a
poem recited in Lateef’s sandpapery, nuanced voice,
featuring his reverbed flute and Rudolph’s dry
woodblocks and feathery electronica; it’s a piece that
evolves - unlike the others but unsurprisingly - as
spacy, spiritual improvisation.
For more information, visit metarecords.com and
yuseflateef.com. Rudolph is at ShapeShifter Lab May 12
with GO: Organic Orchestra.
DISSIDENT ARTS
presents
A TRIBUTE TO ‘NEW YORK
EYE & EAR CONTROL’
50th Anniversary of the Free Jazz Classic!
The VETERANS of FREE
Daniel Carter, Karl Berger, Warren
Smith, Will Connell & Ingrid Sertso!
STEVE DALACHINSKY
RAS MOSHE UNIT
with Dave Ross, John Pietaro
& Andrew Drury
12 HOUSES ORCHESTRA
directed by Matt Lavelle
SUNDAY JUNE 1, 3PM
The Firehouse Space
246 Frost Street, Bklyn NY
DissidentArts.com
In 1968, bassist Barre Phillips revolutionized the
sound orb with Journal Violone, an improvised set of
solo acoustic bass. Over the subsequent decades, a
cornucopia of solo bass records followed, manifesting
Journal Violone’s vision. The spirit of Phillips continues
to hover above an excellent trifecta of solo excursions,
which finds each artist not just pushing the envelope
of the bass’ cosmos but deconstructing it and launching
it into the otherworld. Not for the squeamish, these
three records are entirely worth seeking out.
The Shortening of the Way by New York’s own Tom
Blancarte - known for his furious presence in Seabrook
Power Plant, The Home of Easy Credit and Sweet
Banditry - is executed with a similar violent aesthetic
as tuba player ’s Dan Peck’s Solo and is the second
release on Peck’s Tubapede label. The disc’s two
17-minute crusades, with titles taken from Frank
Herbert’s Dune, portend a man on a mission, equipped
with an amplified upright bass designed to bulldoze
any obstacles in its path. From the brutal get-go of
“Secher Nbiw” (The Golden Path), Blancarte is in
interstellar overdrive, abusing the strings with bow in
hand, his bass bleeding a deafening soundworld of
shrieks and caterwauls, conjuring terrifying images of
John Cale’s viola in The Velvet Underground.
“Kralizec” mirrors its translation of impending doom
(Typhoon Struggle at the End of the Universe), a
relentless spelunking into a sonically mangled abyss.
The polar opposite can be found in Nils Davidsen’s
foundation of spatial elegance and bold expression on
Noget at Glæde Sig Til (translation: Something to Look
Forward To). An inventive Danish player who has
worked alongside Tim Berne, Marc Ducret and the late
John Tchicai, Davidsen - who calls his beefy
improvisations “solo outbursts” - traverses a more
lucid path but his ethos is also one of fearlessness.
Recorded in Oslo and Copenhagen, the 11 vignettes
have the adventurous Dane attacking and massaging
his instrument both arco and pizzicato to striking
results. Davidsen demonstrates that chilling effect on
featuring
EVAN PARKER
JOHN HÉBERT
TYSHAWN SOREY
For more information, visit tubapederecords.com, ilkmusic.com
and barefoot-records.com. Blancarte plays solo at Spectrum
May 13th. See Calendar.
Inspire Me!
Tim Warfield (HHM)
by Sean O’Connell
H erb Harris wrote and arranged every tune on this
album. He also produced it. And contributed a few
vocals. And a saxophone solo. Nonetheless, he is not
the leader. His face does not grace the cover. Instead,
tenor saxophonist Tim Warfield is there, gripping his
saxophone with the awe of a pinstriped Indiana Jones.
Warfield shares the frontline with trumpeter
Antoine Drye, who blends for a Jazztet vibe on opener
“Monkee See Monkee Doo”. The band puts on a
swinging swagger, all making individual introductions
with the exception of drummer Rodney Green, who is
a dependable watchman regardless of the tempos
called on the rest of the disc. “NY Daze NY Knights” is
a ten-minute riot of robust phrasing and pounding
momentum and the lone feature for Harris’ saxophone.
He joins Warfield and Co. with a flurry of confident
ideas, each soloist pushing the energy further. The
band is loose and energized, responding to the highenergy visions unfolding. Why didn’t Harris join this
band for more tunes on his saxophone? He provides a
noticeable spark to an already swinging band. Warfield
leaves no doubt that he wields a heavy sound and
pianist Kevin Hays keeps the proceedings soulful. An
hour of that lineup would have been welcome.
Instead, Harris makes a pair of vocal appearances,
which cause the album to sag. His Billy Strayhornesque, self-penned melodies are loaded with farleaping phrases requiring a far more nimble vocalist
than his strained hush can provide. The maudlin
“What Ifs” is buoyed by Warfield’s selective solo lines
while “A Tinge of Melancholy” is more upbeat but a bit
of a hokey dip into Tin Pan Alley. Both vocal features
are a far cry from the rocketing energy of Harris’
saxophone appearance, leaving this listener with
“what ifs” of his own.
For more information, visit cdbaby.com/cd/timwarfield1.
Warfield is at Village Vanguard May 13th-18th with Terell
Stafford. See Calendar.
SSC 1386 / in stores May 13
JOHN ESCREET
The Shortening of the Way Tom Blancarte (Tubapede)
Noget at Glæde Sig Til Nils Davidsen (ILK Music)
Gullet Adam Pultz Melbye (Barefoot)
by Brad Cohan
the bass/gong, classical music-imbued opener “Now is
a time!” and the creepy bow squealing of “M/S
Kissavik” and “Extraterrestrial breakfast” before the
full-throttle plucking assault of “Antsisters”. Not only
does Davidsen brandish both an immense tone and
mellifluous voice, he layers multiple basses and gongs,
stunningly within the same composition.
Another imposing presence from the Danish
improv scene is the Berlin-based Adam Pultz Melbye,
whose impressive resumé includes collaborations with
Herculean saxophonists such as Ken Vandermark and
Peter Brötzmann and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm. That
experimental lineage is evident on Gullet, released on
Melbye’s own Barefoot Records, a dark journey into
the exploration of alien sounds. Melbye utilizes his
bass as a means to navigate the sonic unknown through
sound manipulation. Over the gamut of Gullet’s nine
unsettling, minimalist sketches, he digs into his bass
with abrasive yanking, bow scraping, finger stabbing
and sticks to gouge out a splattered collage of clang
and clatter.
The impressive collaboration
between John Escreet’s Trio and
the luminary saxophonist Evan
Parker on Sound, Space and
Structures is truly revelatory. It
provides a wonderful example of
an innovator without boundaries
working with equally passionate
musicians of the next generation
who plan to keep rattling expectations.
iTunes.com/JohnEscreet
sunnysiderecords.com
25
elio villafranca
photo by whit lane
and marylene mey
new jazz standards
may 16 • 7pm | may 17 • 9:30pm
With Carla Kihlstedt, Guillermo Klein, Bill McHenry,
Reid Anderson, and Eric Harland
nuevo jazz latino
may 16 • 9:30pm | may 17 • 7pm
With Carlos Henriquez, Elio Villafranca, Yosvany Terry,
Dafnis Prieto, and Pedrito Martinez
jlCo Hosts: CHristian MCBride
& Kurt rosenwinKel
may 23–24 • 8pm
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton
Marsalis and special guests Christian McBride
and Kurt Rosenwinkel
Modern ellington
Rhapsody in Gershwin
Ted Rosenthal (Playscape)
by Elliott Simon
Beginning with a version of the iconic “Rhapsody in
Blue”, Ted Rosenthal’s piano trio offers spacious takes
on seven other George Gershwin classics for the aptly
titled Rhapsody in Gershwin. Rosenthal has used
Gershwin and other composers from the Great
American Songbook as settings for his jazz stylings
before. The results can be what he calls “derangements”
- reharmonizing a tune while keeping its soul intact.
These unique arrangements date back to at least
Rosenthology (Concord, 1994). Rosenthal is such a great
pianist, both technically and creatively, that he
comforts the listener with these au fait melodies as he
nimbly challenges them.
With bassist Martin Wind and drummer Tim
Horner, Rosenthal has the freedom of an entire CD to
arrange and rearrange Gershwin in ways that he has
never and always been heard. The inherent contrasts of
“Rhapsody in Blue” make it the perfect centerpiece for
this release. Rosenthal’s phrasing is crisp through all
the shifting moods and his unmatched ability to swing
symphonically, rag and play the blues combine with
Horner and Wind’s coloration. It makes this orchestral
piece a triumph in the trio format.
“Fascinatin’ Rhythm” is introduced with a Monkish tinge, which effortlessly devolves into a somewhat
‘out’ arco bass-led section before the trio takes off. The
inherent waggishness of “Let’s Call the Whole Thing
Off” is maintained through cleverly placed rhythmical
stops and starts while “Someone to Watch Over Me” is
presented in a fresh unhurried arrangement with an
emotive bass solo adding a tender touch. Rosenthal
has redefined the touching beauty of “I Loves You
Porgy” à la Bill Evans before on The 3 B’s (Playscape,
2007) but here the piece receives a more mature vocal
treatment. “Strike Up the Band” and Love Walked In”,
both of which were previously de-ranged on
Rosenthology, are yet again revitalized. Complex
rhythms,
lightning-quick
runs,
distinctive
harmonization, melodic fluency and inventive
improvisations make Rhapsody in Gershwin a refreshing
approach to classically familiar material.
For more information, visit playscape-recordings.com. This
project is at Dizzy’s Club May 14th. See Calendar.
jun 5–7 • 8pm
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with
Wynton Marsalis
Bill Frisell: tHe eleCtriC guitar
in aMeriCa
jun 6–7 • 7pm & 9:30pm
With Bill Frisell, Greg Leisz, Tony Scherr,
and Kenny Wollesen
jalc.org
jazz at lincoln center
Venue Frederick P. Rose Hall
Box Office Broadway at 60th, Ground Fl.
CenterCharge 212-721-6500
A CorporAte SponSor of JLCO HOsts: CHristian
MCBride & Kurt rOsenwinKeL And MOdern eLLingtOn
Trombone
For Lovers
Roswell Rudd
(Sunnyside)
Tjak Tjaka Tchicai
Pierre Dørge & New
Jungle Orchestra
(SteepleChase)
by Robert Iannapollo
Aficionados of ‘60s avant garde jazz point to the New
York Art Quartet (NYAQ) as one of the premier groups
of the era. Founders trombonist Roswell Rudd and
saxophonist John Tchicai were thoughtful, intelligent,
probing musicians who worked well together. Rudd
was the extroverted trombonist whose wide-as-the-sky
sound enveloped the listener with the history of the
instrument, from Dixieland to modernity, while
Tchicai’s style was enigmatic, embracing a free jazz
sensibility and molding it into a wholly unique sound.
After the NYAQ, they went their separate ways
(occasionally meeting up), each developing their styles
into totally personal approaches to music.
Followers of Rudd have been aware of his panstylistic approach since 1973’s Flexible Flyer. His albums
from the last decade, recorded with African and Latin
musicians, were unlike anything else, but distinctly
Rudd. Trombone For Lovers is an unusual take on the
Great Popular Songbook, with tunes that stem from
pop, country, labor songs, Broadway and soul music.
This time around Rudd is working with John Medeski,
whose Hammond B3 is all over this record, and slide
trumpeter Steven Bernstein. Both clearly understand
Rudd’s approach and they operate as excellent foils,
meshing perfectly with the trombone master. There are
vocal cameos by Bob Dorough (The Beatles’ “Here,
There And Everywhere”) and the magnificent Fay
Victor (“Trouble In Mind”). BeauSoleil’s violinist
Michael Doucet makes two appearances (“Tennessee
Waltz” and “September Song”). It’s a diffuse and
sprawling set unified by Rudd’s trombone - singing,
growling, playing harmony lines. Those familiar with
Rudd’s music probably know what to expect. Those
who don’t are in for a treat.
The relationship between Tchicai and guitarist
Pierre Dørge was close. Dørge’s recording debut was
on Tchicai’s epochal 1969 big band record Afrodisiaca.
In turn, it was playing with Tchicai that eventually
spurred Dørge to form his New Jungle Orchestra,
mixing West African music with Ellington/Mingusstyle jazz. Tchicai was with the band for its first ten
years and would occasionally return as a guest soloist.
So, when he passed in 2012, it was inevitable that the
band would record a tribute to their mentor and
colleague. Tjak Tjaka Tchicai consists of material that
was either performed during the era Tchicai was in the
band (“A Rose For Laurent”), inspired by/dedicated to
him or composed by him (“Largo Lapidarius”). But
rather than sounding funereal, Tchicai is celebrated
with rousing performances. When playing “Largo
Lapidarius”, the band emphasizes the rapturous
beauty inherent in the composition. And when the
energy level is elevated, the enthusiasm and dynamism
really comes to the fore (“Mozimbo”, “Ker Dorong”
and the title track). And in thanking Tchicai on this
disc, his memory is given a spirited send-off.
For more information, visit sunnysiderecords.com and
steeplechase.dk. The New York City premiere of The Breath
Courses Through Us, a documentary film about the New
York Art Quartet, is at Anthology Film Archives May 18th.
On The Blue Side
Lena Horne (RCA Victor-Sepia)
by Andrew Vélez
W hen Lena Horne passed four years ago this month
at 92, a unique chapter in the history of American
music, film and theater was closed. Once known as
“The Bronze Venus”, her unique blend of glamour and
talent took her from dancing in the chorus of the Cotton
Club in Harlem to Hollywood film musicals, Broadway
and elegant nightclubs. Because of then-prevailing
limitations on racial mixing in movies, her appearances
in musical films were usually brief and non-essential.
When the movies were shown in the still racially
segregated South, her scenes were removed.
Under the tutelage of her second husband, MGM
orchestrator and conductor Lennie Hayton, Horne
refocused her career on nightclubs, records and the
stage. Her 1957 release, Lena Horne at the Waldorf
Astoria, became RCA’s biggest seller of the year and
was followed by a series of popular albums, including
the newly reissued On The Blue Side. Arranged and
conducted by Marty Gold, this 1962 set features the
vibrant RCA stereo sound for which he and the label
became well known in the ‘50s-60s and ear-opening
new takes on classics, with an erotic tone, which
became a hallmark of Horne’s singing style. In opener
“Paradise”, backed by a shimmering wall of strings as
she moans softly when she sings “he dims the light”,
the effect is totally fresh. “Someone To Watch Over
Me” has an edge of predatory confidence, implying
that “this little lamb” will definitely find her man.
Throughout she smoothly enunciates each word,
each syllable, all caramel and honey, as elegant as it is
sensual. Ten singles (including a very simmering “Take
It Slow, Joe” from her 1958 Tony Award-nominated
turn in Jamaica) have been added to the original
recording. Sides with Marty Paich and Neil Hefti
further highlight what a uniquely nuanced stylist
Horne had become at her peak.
For more information, visit sepiarecords.com
Politics: Tribute to Jayne Cortez
Bill Cole Untempered Ensemble (s/r)
by Jeff Stockton
J ayne Cortez, who would have turned 80 this month
but died in December 2012, was a jazz poet. By
association (she married Ornette Coleman in 1954 and
the couple had Denardo Coleman in 1956); by
inclination (she was captivated early on by the music
of Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie,
Sarah Vaughan and especially Dinah Washington);
Get the
Truth!
The debut recording of
Joel Forrester and The Truth
Joel Forrester: piano
Claire Daly: baritone saxophone
Vito Dieterle: tenor saxophone
David Hofstra: bass
Matt Garrity: drums
11 new Forrester originals!
May
Sundays May 4, 11, 18, 25
Joel Forrester plays service
Grace Gospel Church
589 E.164th St.
11 am – 1 pm
Wednesdays May 7, 14, 21, 28
Joel Forester, solo piano
Manhattan Inn
632 Manhattan Ave.
7 to 10. No cover.
Sundays May 4, 11, 18, 25
Joel Forrester, solo piano
Manhattan Inn
632 Manhattan Ave.
Solo piano 7 – 10 pm
8:30 set: duo with vocalist
Christina Clare.
No cover.
Tuesday-Thursday May 27, 28, 29, 30
Bryant Park
behind the 5th Avenue Library
12:30-2:30 pm.
Free to the public.
Mondays May 5, 12, 19, 26
Brandy Library
25 N.Moore St.
8 – midnight. No cover.
Wednesday May 14 and May 28
Joel Forrester
accompanies silent films
Manhattan Inn
632 Manhattan Ave.
8pm. No cover
Saturday May 3
Joel Forrester duo
with vocalist Christina Clare
Indian Road Cafe
600 W.218th St.
8 – 11 pm. No cover.
Thursday May 15
Joel Forrester quartet
Cleopatra’s Needle
2485 Broadway at W.93rd St.
7 – 11 pm
No cover. $10. minimum
Tuesday May 20
Joel Forrester quartet
Spectrum
121 Ludlow St.
9 – 10:30. Donation.
www.joelforrester.com
and by virtue of sheer determination. Her work was
unflinchingly honest, courageous and confrontational,
with a focus on Civil, Women’s and ultimately, Human
Rights. Her words were backed on recordings that
featured Richard Davis, Ron Carter, Bobby Bradford
and most often, the Firespitters, a band whose members
overlapped with Ornette’s Prime Time.
Cortez found a kindred spirit in multiinstrumentalist/composer Bill Cole. They shared the
same creative goals and traveled in the same circles
and in the liner notes to Politics: Tribute to Jayne Cortez,
Cole calls her “an artistic associate of 40 years.” This
concert, recorded at New York City’s Brecht Forum in
2013, comes from the heart and that spirited sense of
dedication pours from the players, with Cole on his
Australian didgeridoo and usual assortment of ethnic
double-reeds: Indian nagaswarm, Chinese suona and
Korean piri. Cortez and Cole may have been thought of
first as African-American artists but, by virtue of Cole’s
playing, that association is expanded outward to the
world. He is supported by the tasteful polyrhythms of
drummer Warren Smith and percussionist Lisette
Santiago, Joseph Daley’s authoritative euphonium,
Althea SullyCole’s gently strummed kora and Shayna
Dulberger ’s rock-solid bass.
There are some lovely sounds on this immediateand clear-sounding CD. The Untempered Ensemble is
comprised of skillful musicians who improvise around
well thought-out themes and carefully constructed
melodic compositions. For his part, saxophonist Ras
Moshe shakes things up with some free-jazz blowing
to cut through the pastoral soundscapes. And lastly,
there is Cortez’ poetry: bracing, defiant, expressive
and enduring.
For more information, visit billcole.org
The Early Years at RKO
Fred Astaire (TCM-Sony Masterworks)
by Michael Steinman
F red Astaire, who was born 115 years ago this month,
hardly appears in jazz discographies. Some might
wonder why a two-disc compilation of songs featured
in his 1935-38 film musicals deserves attention here.
Because we do not see the familiar image of the
immaculately attired elegant dancer, listeners can
concentrate on Astaire the peerless singer. He found
the rhythmic heart of every song, sincere and
nonchalant at once. His limited vocal range was an
immense benefit, forcing him to present the song itself
rather than impressing with vocal drama. These
qualities would have made him a fine popular singer
but not necessarily an influential one in terms of jazz,
but Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Mildred Bailey,
Ella Fitzgerald, Maxine Sullivan and two dozen of
Astaire’s contemporaries knew these now-classic songs
first through his performances. The finest composers
and lyricists of the period wrote songs for him - George
and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and
Dorothy Fields, Vincent Youmans and Cole Porter.
Listened to in the right spirit (not a rote immersion
in nostalgia), these recordings are sweetly compelling
and almost every song is in itself a marvel. The two
vocals by his partner Ginger Rogers are pleasant
enough but it’s clear why she didn’t record often on
her own. True, the performances might be best served
by selective listening. Much of the material is
predictably about romantic yearning - exceptions
being the tart “A Fine Romance”, tribute to Bill
Robinson “Bojangles of Harlem”, self-explanatory “I’d
Rather Lead a Band” and “Slap That Bass” - and
although the orchestral accompaniments are beautifully
executed, they offer a certain sameness as well. But
Astaire is remarkable and inimitable, a model the most
subtle singers of this century have understood,
something Michael Feinstein points out in his notes.
Artie Shaw said that Bing Crosby was the first hip
white man in the US; the music on this set makes a
subtle but compelling case for Astaire being the second.
For more information, visit sonymasterworks.com
Furtive Sex
Joel Forrester and The Truth (Ride Symbol)
by Ken Dryden
P ianist Joel Forrester is known for his work co-leading
the Microscopic Septet and heading various small
groups of his own. One of his best known originals is
the theme to the NPR show Fresh Air, typical of his
prolific output of quirky, infectious compositions
drawing from stride, swing, boogie-woogie and other
styles. Baritone saxophonist Claire Daly, a longtime
collaborator, along with bassist Dave Hofstra,
suggested a name change for Forrester ’s group after
the addition of drummer Matt Garrity and tenor
saxophonist Vito Dieterle. Thus The Truth.
Part of the fun of listening to Forrester ’s pieces is
trying to anticipate the direction they will take, as the
pianist always incorporates surprising twists. Daly’s
hard-blowing baritone dominates the rollicking
“Donald E” (honoring jazz journalist Donald Elfman),
a piece that sounds like a mad scientist’s reworking of
“All the Things You Are” with a dash of Monk’s piano
for seasoning. Dieterle shines in the bittersweet ballad
“Now is the Time to be Careful”, delivering a lush solo
with Daly providing a soft harmony underneath him.
“Get Serious” builds upon the theme of a famous
Frédéric Chopin piano composition and transforms it
into a lively bossa nova featuring Forrester with his
rhythm section. “The End” begins as a playful,
somewhat dark tango, then takes on a different path as
a melding of Monk and Herbie Nichols with creative
use of dissonance, accented by big-toned, swinging
baritone. Forrester ’s lyrical “Il Pleut” represents a
rainy day in Paris and has a semi-classical air, well
supported by subtle bass and adept cymbal work. Fans
of Forrester ’s earlier small groups will be delighted
with the latest edition of his band.
For more information, visit ridesymbol.com. Forrester is at
Indian Road Café May 3, Cleopatra’s Needle May 15th,
Spectrum May 20th, Bryant Park May 27th-30th, Grace
Gospel Church Sundays, Manhattan Inn Sundays and
Wednesdays and Brandy Library Mondays. See Calendar
and Regular Engagements.
Gregory Tardy SteepleChase recording artist
Recent Releases
SCCD 31775
SCCD 31754
SCCD 31698
SCCD 31647
SCCD 31610
SCCD 31725
“... one
of the most important
saxophonists of his
generation ...”
AllAboutJazz
SCCD 31583
US distribution:
Stateside Distributors
[email protected]
29
2014
Sound, Space and Structures
John Escreet (Sunnyside)
by Ken Micallef
Swirling saxophone and piano notes recalling a throng
8pm
12am
G
IN
UR
AT
FE
Vocals & Soprano Sax
HARLEM AWAKENING 2.0
SATCHMO MANNAN BAND
of singing ducks at sunup; chattering drums and
cymbals intertwined with childlike piano figures;
quartet skirmishes that morph into laidback swing
pulses. All this and more finds its joyous way on
pianist John Escreet’s latest release.
Accompanied by his fluid and often cathartic trio
of bassist John Hébert and drummer Tyshawn Sorey
plus fellow Englishman Evan Parker on saxophones,
Escreet continues to cement his place among New
York’s elite jazz pianists and composers. Though much
of Sounds, Space and Structures was improvised in the
studio, the musicians are of such accord that this ninepiece suite (“Part I” through “Part IX”) often sounds
composed. And no matter how boisterous or serene, a
sense of calm permeates the music, the musicians
finding peace through a shared sense of group ecstasy.
This level of freedom, control and ultimate release
derives from a place of mastery. Veteran Parker is the
perfect foil for Escreet’s constantly dazzling trio.
Escreet begins “Part V” with lone, solemn piano
notes, Parker augmenting the spectral mood with
splayed circular breathing suggesting anguish. The
piece grows in intensity, Escreet rolling the piano’s
upper register as Parker raises his cries, the music
almost turning in on itself. A shimmer of jointly
cascading duo notes suggests free-falling, then a final
high pitched twinkle signals the abrupt end. Much of
the album follows a similar pattern: engrossing
conversations quickly climaxing, dissipating, then
disappearing - swoosh! But the core of this immensely
satisfying album is the exciting shared improvisations
and ceaseless flow of appealing melodies.
For more information, visit sunnysiderecords.com. Escreet is
at The Jazz Gallery May 3rd with Adam Larson, 9th as a
leader, 15th with Zack Lober and 16th-17th with Greg Ward.
See Calendar.
Yurie Fukayawa & Terri Davis
Vocalists
$
ADM
Schl8hof
DKV Trio + Gustafsson/Pupillo/Nilssen-Love (Trost)
by Clifford Allen
Suggested
Donation
$10
Schl8hof (or Schlachthof) is a community arts center
,
located in Wels, Austria, which has been presenting a
variety of contemporary art and music performances
since 1985. In the realm of free improvisation, Schl8hof
has hosted the Music Unlimited Festival since 1987. A
double-trio was convened in 2011 at the 25th Music
Unlimited, comprised of DKV - drummer Hamid
Drake, bassist Kent Kessler and saxophonist Ken
Vandermark - and a trio of saxophonist Mats Gustafsson
(Swedish, resident in Austria), electric bassist Massimo
Pupillo and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, the results
issued on both vinyl and CD by Austrian imprint Trost.
The CD issue of Schl8hof begins with a 20-minute
take of “The Building Is On Fire” by an unaccompanied
DKV, Vandermark gruffly tearing in with jovial burrs
and blistered runs, the latter recalling prime late ‘60s
Archie Shepp, against the shifting, thrummed funk of
Drake and Kessler. There are occasional breakdowns
where Kessler brings forth a shady pizzicato or Drake
isolates a few elements from his panoply of rhythms,
but mostly this tune is a limber patch of fiery blowing.
Adding Gustafsson and company on the shorter
“All In” (which opens the LP version), the heat is
significantly turned up with the Swede’s panning
baritone squall, Pupillo’s loose fuzz and the clattering
spray of Nilssen-Love’s kit. The bulk of the disc is
made up of “All Out”, a 30-minute improvisation that
begins with rousing arco/electric bass volleys and, as
much as the rhythm section tends toward a stewed
battle between Drake and Nilssen-Love, the
saxophonists and bassists are different enough in their
approaches to keep things interesting. The main issue
is the recording quality, which is surprisingly murky
and compressed and could do with a bit of space - even
the most brutal fracas should have some.
For more information, visit trost.at. Mats Gustafsson and
Paal Nilssen-Love are at Knockdown Center May 16th with
The Thing as part of the Red Bull Music Academy Festival.
See Calendar.
Birch Hall Concerts Live
The Bechet Legacy (Classic Jazz)
by Donald Elfman
These performances exist because of a time in 1946
when saxophonist/clarinetist Bob Wilber studied with
Sidney Bechet. The joy and spirit of these concerts made by collector Stan Bowmen in England in 1981-82
and previously unreleased - comes directly from the
lessons Bechet imparted to the then-18-year-old. The
album celebrates what Wilber calls, “all of the beautiful
music that he wrote and recorded through the years”
and is chock full - 23 tunes in all - reflecting Swing and
traditional music from nearly a century.
Things open up with the Gershwin standard, “Oh,
Lady Be Good”. Wilber and trumpeter Glenn Zottola
swing the lead, propelled by the knockout, steady
pulse of pianist Mark Shane, bassist Len Skeat and
drummer Butch Miles. The two play hot and lovely
solos and complement Shane’s own short but perfectly
smart solo. Guitarist Mike Peters is a little hard to hear
but he’s right in the spirit of things.
In addition to a handful of Ellington gems and
standards from the Great American Songbook, the
group performs its magic on six tunes composed by
Bechet. “Egyptian Fantasy” is a sinuous, slow beauty
featuring Wilber on clarinet, who takes the line first
and then offers appropriate accompaniment to Zottola.
It sounds like a Middle East-meets-New Orleans blues
as both horn players sail in and out of the melody.
Three tunes are reminders that Bechet’s legacy is
due in great part to France. The sentimentally gorgeous
ballad “Si Tu Vois Ma Mere (If You See My Mother)”
features soprano and trumpet buoyed by a rhythm
figure from Peters on banjo while “Promenade Aux
Champs-Elysees” is a jaunty walk and “Dans Le Rue
D’Antibes” a stirring march.
For more information, visit innercityjazz.com. Bob Wilber
is at Symphony Space May 19th as part of an Arbors
Records Tribute. See Calendar.
ENJOY JAZZ LEGENDS, NIGHTLY 8-11 PM, MEASURE LOUNGE
May 1-3, 12-17, 26-31
ANTONIO CIACCA
Antonio Ciacca has served as artistic
director for the Italian cultural agency,
C-Jam, Calagonone Jazz Festival,
and as Director of Programming for
Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.
May 5-10
FABRIZIO SOTTI
Fabrizio Sotti is an Italian-American
jazz guitarist, composer, songwriter
and producer. He will be
accompanied by James Genus on
bass and Francisco Mela on drums.
May 19-20
STEVE ASH
May 21-24
ALBERTO PIBIRI
Steve Ash received his formal
musical training at Indiana
University, receiving his B.A in Jazz
Piano. He has been performing in
the New York City area as well as
internationally for over 30 years.
Alberto Pibiri is an Italian Jazz
musician, well-respected by jazz
enthusiasts everywhere, this jazz trio
is sure to impress audiences with
their energy and creative stylings.
PIANO SOLO SUNDAYS:
MAY 4:
ALBERTO PIBIRI
MAY 11:
MARCO DI GENNARO
STEVE ASH
MAY 18:
MAY 25:
ALBERTO PIBIRI
MEASURE | 400 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018 | 212.695.4005
Somos Agua
Tony Malaby Tamarindo (Clean Feed)
by John Sharpe
W hile
Tony Malaby has many outlets for his burly
tenor saxophone, few of them pack the visceral heft of
Tamarindo, the outfit crewed by bassist William Parker
and drummer Nasheet Waits. Malaby hit paydirt with
the trio’s eponymous 2007 debut, built on that success
by adding trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith for a somewhat
murky live recording in 2010, but has now reverted to
the original lineup for the band’s third album, Somos
Agua. It’s every bit the match for its illustrious
forebears. Heads tend to be sketchy affairs, which only
serve to get the real business underway - a series of
cohesive collective outbursts.
Malaby is a monster, restlessly creative through all
the registers of his horn, from earthy honks to fluent
overblowing. But what makes him so fascinating is
that the undoubted power is leavened by a willingness
to enlist any resource, whether muffled snorts, hoarse
whistles, multiphonic shrieks or querulous wavering
cries. Whatever works. Parker has the savvy to follow
wherever Malaby roams, able to turn on a dime from
gargantuan propulsion to bravura swipes of the bow
while Waits blends crisp articulation at high tempos
with a playbook of ever-changing rhythmic patterns.
At first blush each of the seven cuts sounds part of
an unfettered blowing session, but after repeated
listens barely discernible melodic themes become
apparent, which briefly surface from the organic ebb
and flow (not always at the outset) and fuel further
group exploration. Neither tone nor time pass as
absolutes
in
Tamarindo’s
universe,
shifting
unpredictably and stretching or compressing
elastically. Malaby forges a particularly strong
connection to Parker, manifest most notably on the
lengthy discursive conversation between the pair on
“Bitter Dream”. But bass and drums don’t always
shadow the saxophone, creating a quicksilver threepart counterpoint emerging from more conventional
trio transactions. Malaby clearly understands the
paradox that it takes a really tight unit to play this
loose yet still keep focus.
For more information, visit cleanfeed-records.com. This
group is at Cornelia Street Café May 9th-10th. See Calendar.
Memoir
Libby York (s/r)
by Alex Henderson
Libby York is not a huge name in the jazz world, but
those who are familiar with her singing know her to be
an appealing representative of the Cool School.
Influenced by Anita O’Day, Chris Connor and June
Christy, York does not shout to get your attention.
Restraint and understatement prevail throughout
Memoir, a pleasing effort that finds the Chicago native
joined by pianist John di Martino, bassist Martin Wind
and drummer Greg Sergo. Guitarist Russell Malone
joins on Ralph Ranger-Leon Robin’s “Thanks for the
Memory”, Cy Coleman’s “When in Rome” and Roberto
Menescal’s bossa nova standard “Little Boat” while
cornet player Warren Vaché is featured on Jimmy Van
Heusen-Johnny Burke’s “Put It There, Pal” and George
Gershwin’s “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”.
For all her subtlety, York brings plenty of feeling
to Memoir, whether interpreting Cole Porter ’s “Take
Me Back to Manhattan”, Frank Loesser ’s “On a Slow
Boat to China”, Rube Bloom-Harry Ruby’s “Give Me
the Simple Life” or “Walk Between the Raindrops” by
Donald Fagen. York’s sense of humor is evident with
some fun male/female banter with Vaché on “Put It
There, Pal” and “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”.
Some jazz instrumentalists don’t care to work
with singers, but thankfully, the musicians York chose
are known for their work with vocalists: Malone spent
years backing Diana Krall; Vaché played with
Rosemary Clooney extensively; and Wind and di
Martino have both backed numerous singers in their
careers. The overarching melodicism of the band
certainly doesn’t hurt. In a perfect world, York (who
didn’t start singing professionally until 35) would
have a larger catalogue. But the albums she has
recorded have been solid and Memoir is no exception.
For more information, visit libbyyork.com. This project is at
Jazz at Kitano May 7th. See Calendar.
songs, like Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints” and chestnut
“I Fall in Love Too Easily” (given a radically new
treatment), are tossed in, along with some material, like
“Willie Nelson”, which wouldn’t appear until Davis’
even more rock-oriented album Jack Johnson a year later.
As usual, Davis had an astute eye for young talent,
surrounding himself with future stars like Chick Corea
and Keith Jarrett, a whirlwind tandem on electronic
keyboards, and the powerhouse duo of bassist Dave
Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette, who drive the
proceedings with relentless force and creativity. While
Davis frequently lets his young charges run wild, he
remains the focal point, playing far more trumpet far
more robustly than he would as the ‘70s progressed and
his soloing became more sporadic.
For a sense of how far Davis had come in just a
few years, it’s worth comparing the Fillmore concerts
with Newport 1967, from his second classic quintet with
Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Tony
Williams. This brief but indispensable set captures
another of Davis’ revolutionary ensembles at its apex.
The scorching quintet pushes the boundaries of
hardbop and modal jazz while mixing in aspects of free
jazz, which was never really Davis’ bag, but which he
had the foresight to let his band’s younger members
explore. The group covers familiar tunes, “Footprints”,
“So What” and “‘Round Midnight”, reworking each of
them into something fresh, bold and mesmerizing. It’s
an exceptional achievement by a remarkable band, but
one that Davis would soon feel he had taken as far as
he could and would jettison for his next adventure.
For more information, visit legacyrecordings.com and
concertvault.com. Davis tributes are at Iridium May
21st-24th, Smoke May 23rd-24th and ShapeShifter Lab
May 23rd. See Calendar.
Miles at the Fillmore
Miles Davis
(Columbia-Legacy)
Newport 1967
Miles Davis Quintet
(Concert Vault)
by Joel Roberts
The original Columbia release of Miles at the Fillmore
was an incomplete representation of Davis’ four-night
1970 stand at Bill Graham’s legendary Fillmore East.
Producer Teo Macero, by necessity, had to chop up the
hour-long nightly performances to fit them onto the
four sides of the two-LP collection. The names of the
individual tunes weren’t even included, with each side
simply referred to by the night the show took place.
The resulting album gave listeners a taste of the new
trail Davis’ electric septet was blazing, but failed to
capture its volcanic power and excitement.
Columbia has finally gotten it right, issuing the
full Fillmore concerts on 4 CDs, with over 100 minutes
of previously unheard material, plus three songs
recorded at the Fillmore West a few months earlier. It’s
an invaluable documentation of Bitches Brew-era Davis,
when he was creating a new language melding rock’s
sonic power with the improvisational freedom of jazz.
It’s worth remembering that Davis was charged in
some jazz circles with “selling out” by tailoring his
music to rock audiences. While he was no doubt
influenced by - and in some ways jealous of - James
Brown, Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix, the one thing he
cannot fairly be accused of is making watered-down
music easy for youthful rock fans to digest. If Davis
adopts some of the psychedelic trappings of the time,
above all by adding electronics and playing as loud as
the rock bands, his music remains challenging,
forward-thinking and resolutely uncompromising.
The setlists are nearly the same on each of the four
nights, but the performances are different enough to
make listening to repeat versions of classic tunes like
“Directions”, “Bitches Brew” and “It’s About That
Time” worthwhile. For variety’s sake, a few older
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Dizzy’s Big 4 (OJC)
Dizzy Gillespie/Joe Pass/Ray Brown/Mickey Roker
(Pablo-Concord)
Skol (OJC)
Oscar Peterson/Stephane Grappelli (Pablo-Concord)
For Joe
Frank Potenza (Capri)
by Tom Greenland
G uitarist Joe Pass is one of a select group of jazz’
greatest artists known more for their craftsmanship
than their innovations, though certainly Virtuoso, his
breakout 1973 album on Pablo, permanently raised the
bar for solo guitar performances. In memory of his
passing 20 years ago this month and in conjunction
with Pablo Records’ 40th anniversary, two reissues and
a new tribute album pay homage to his legacy.
Dizzy’s Big 4 was one of producer Norman Granz’
many successful assemblages of super-groups, an A+
team consisting of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, Pass,
bassist Ray Brown and drummer Mickey Roker,
recorded in Los Angeles in 1973 when Gillespie, then
in his late 50s, was still at the height of his chops. The
setlist includes three Gillespie originals - “Frelimo”,
“Be Bop (Dizzy’s Fingers)” and “Birks’ Works” standards “September Song” and Fats Waller ’s
“Jitterbug Waltz”, as well as the less heard “Russian
Lullaby” (by Irving Berlin) and “Hurry Home” (by
Meyer-Emmerich-Bernier), with alternate takes of the
Berlin and Waller tunes added for the reissue. At this
point Gillespie hadn’t lost any of his younger lion’s
roar and the tempos on “Russian Lullaby” and “Be
Bop” would prove daunting to lesser technicians, but
Pass & Co. prove more than equal to the task, burning
up these tracks with fluid phrasing and rock-solid
swing. Gillespie delivers most of the melodies and
ensuing solos with his mute in, exploiting its full range
of timbres and textures, yet often returns for a second,
even more dramatic solo with an open horn. On “Birks’
Works” and elsewhere Pass proves both a sensitive
accompanist and adroit soloist while Brown and Roker
are impeccable throughout, even dipping into the funk
bag on both takes of “Jitterbug Waltz”.
Skol is another all-star outing masterminded by
Granz, this one recorded live in July 1979 in the Tivoli
Gardens Concert Hall in Copenhagen with pianist
Oscar Peterson, violinist Stephane Grappelli, bassist
Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Pass and Roker. It
was five world-class chefs all in the same kitchen but
the resultant cuisine is remarkably cohesive, the strong
individual flavors highly compatible. Grappelli, for
one, was at this point an elder statesman in his late 60s
and his leadership is natural, unquestioned. Peterson
is dazzling, rattling off scintillating runs, one after
another, as if effortlessly, though their complexity
belies the illusion of ease. Like Pass he is more of a
consummate craftsman than an innovator, but his
sheer musicianship on “Makin’ Whoopee”, “Skol
Blues” and “Honeysuckle Rose” is worth the price of
admission. Running with such fast company, Pass once
again shows his taste and pluck, providing just the
right accompaniment to complement the collective
musical ‘sauce’ and ample fire and brio on cuts like
“How About You?” and “That’s All”. Ørsted Pedersen
locks in with Roker, laying unshakable bedrock at any
and all tempos, prompting high-powered playing and
inspired performances.
Guitarist Frank Potenza, a student of Pass, teamed
up with the late guitarist’s frequent workmates guitarist John Pisano, bassist Jim Hughart and drummer
Colin Bailey - on For Joe. The latter three are all veterans
of Pass’ landmark For Django album, from which three
tunes (the title track, “Fleur d’Ennui” and “Rosetta”)
are revisited here, along with Pisano’s “Blues for Joe”
and several of Pass’ favorite songs to play. A far more
relaxed session than the previous two recordings
(unlike Pass, Potenza isn’t trying to mix it up with jazz’
fastest and most furious), the rhythm section provides a
laid-back ambiance for Potenza’s melody statements
and soloing, often supplemented by Pisano’s tastefully
concise solos. While Potenza’s style clearly owes a debt
to Pass, on tracks like “Catch Me” and “Do Nothin’ ‘Til
You Hear From Me”, where he stretches out, taking
more risks, his own voice begins to emerge.
For more information, visit concordmusicgroup.com and
caprirecords.com
Wish the Children Would Come on Home
The Westerlies (Songlines)
by Kurt Gottschalk
The change in Wayne Horvitz’ temperament, if judged
by the evolution in his music, wasn’t immediate in the
wake of the relocation from his native New York to
Seattle in 1988. There were some funky bands that
followed in the rowdy style of the East Coast groups.
But somewhere along the line things started getting
more sublime. His Gravitas Quartet played a sort of
chamber jazz for piano, trumpet, bassoon and cello
and his 2006 album Whispers, Hymns and a Murmur was
the first release of his compositions for string quartet.
The brass quartet The Westerlies complements
those efforts with a collection of new arrangements of
Horvitz tunes for the unlikely lineup of two trumpets
(Zubin Hensler and Riley Mulherkar) and two
trombones (Andy Clausen and Willem de Koch). Wish
the Children Would Come on Home is a lot of things, but
first and foremost it should be noted that it is just a
lovely listen. It is that rare combination of approachable
and unusual that can challenge listeners who want to
be challenged and entertain those who don’t.
But beyond that, it’s a deserved nod to Horvitz.
The bandmembers selected the pieces and did most of
the arrangements. Horvitz appears on 4 of the 16 tracks
(playing keyboards and electronics) but three of those
are minute-long “interludes”. So the project is an
appreciation, done by a band 75% of which studied
under the composer. And it’s a record by a band that
knows how to rise above itself. The paired trumpets
and trombones might not be easy to arrange for
(Horvitz acknowledges as much in his liner notes), but
the tunes sound full, big without being bombastic. And
it’s a nicely varied set. Much of it is slow and a bit
somber; other times, as in “Home”, it strikes more
squarely of the New Orleans tradition. “9/8” is
reminiscent of Julius Hemphill’s joyful complexities
and “Parade” is upbeat and slightly off-kilter like a
Nino Rota theme. Such parallels suggest aspects of
moodiness, playfulness, jazziness, but none of them
arrive at the same mix as Wish the Children Would Come
on Home. The Westerlies - musicians from Seattle who
have reversed Horvitz’ path and relocated to New
York - have done their teacher proud.
For more information, visit songlines.com. This project is at
Cornelia Street Café May 25th. See Calendar.
Live at 800 East
Michael Feinberg’s Humblebrag (Behip)
by George Kanzler
Bassist Michael Feinberg’s last recording was The
Elvin Jones Project; here he showcases six of his own
often knotty and complex originals. What carries over
from the earlier project is an intense kinetic energy,
amplified here by the explosive, smack and crackle
drumming of Terreon Gully, the senior member of this
young quintet. Feinberg follows in the tradition of
bassist-leaders like Charles Mingus and Dave Holland,
creating demanding challenges for his sidemen.
Humblebrag features a frontline of Godwin Louis (alto
sax), Billy Buss (trumpet) and Julian Shore (piano),
Feinberg dividing his time equally between acoustic
bass and electric bass guitar. The music is definitely
postbop, boasting influences of hip-hop and jazz fusion
as well as more than a dollop of Mingus strategies.
This live-in-studio recording begins with
“Tutuola”, a reference not to the late Nigerian fabulist
Amos Tutuola, but to the rapper Ice-T, who plays
detective Fin Tutuola on TV’s Law and Order: SVU, the
theme alluding to Ice-T’s early rap career in the
rhythms. The stuttering theme gives way to a splashy
solo from Buss, whose brash playing throughout
pushes the instrument’s limits with daredevil abandon.
He and Louis engage in a heated exchange, encroaching
excitingly on each other ’s space, on “Puncher ’s
Chance”, a piece with a hip-hop ostinato electric
bassline and the shifting times and burgeoning
intensity of a Mingus piece.
Electric bass also propels a funky backbeat shuffle
on “Duckface”, an update of New Orleans blues, and
the title tune, a nod to early electric Miles Davis with a
fast fusion line over a jazz-rock beat, gritty staccato
bounce from Louis and slithery perfervid wails from
Buss, plus an eye-of-the-storm piano turn from Shore.
Spooky sounds clash with bop lines and changing
rhythms, suspended time and extreme dynamics on
the overly ambitious suite “But the Sound…”. Jacob
Deaton’s guitar is added on the largely throughcomposed and engagingly developed, contrapuntal
ballad “Untitled 2”.
For more information, visit behiprecords.com. This project
is at Blue Note May 11th. See Calendar.
FAST SPEAKING MUSIC
announces
Sir Real Live at Resonance
a new album by Brahja Waldman’s Quintet
available online and at Downtown Music Gallery and Other Music
www.brahjawaldman.com
33
Act Necessary
Andy Biskin’s Ibid (Strudelmedia)
by Brad Cohan
O f the innumerable merits New York City’s avant
garde jazz scene brings to the musical table, it’s the
stylistic arc draping its terrain that lends an aweinspiring vibe. But for the influx of fire-breathing
energy music that seemingly engulfs the sphere, there’s
composers like the melodiously rich, spry and crafty
clarinetist Andy Biskin who make this city’s palette
even deeper by balancing out the fray with an equally
intrepid, yet contrasting, vision.
Like fellow clarinet master Chris Speed’s own
Skirl Records, Biskin documents a bulk of his recorded
fabric via Strudelmedia, the label he owns and operates.
From the collaborative wind trio The Spokes’ breezy
harmonics conveyed on Not So Fast to the chamber-jazz
delight of Trio Tragico and on to the revelatory and
quirky sprawl of his Quartet’s Early American: The
Melodies of Stephen Foster, Biskin’s oeuvre has been
quite the musicological tour de force.
Now, Biskin has assembled a powerhouse unit
with cornetist Kirk Knuffke, trombonist Brian Drye
and drummer Jeff Davis dubbed Ibid for Act Necessary,
a colorful platter of chipper tunes ostensibly serving as
the soundtrack for ‘20s-era Chaplin-esque theater,
when live music accompanied films and pathos and
hijinks ruled the day. The impeccable horn trifecta of
Biskin, Knuffke and Drye were seemingly born for
these cinematic histrionics, interlocking, weaving in
and about, taking turns and trading light jabs with a
wielding of bubbly phraseology as Davis guides the
rumpus with a swaggering backbeat. The organic
confluence that Biskin’s troupe effortlessly creates
fulfills his underlying premise of Ibid, which is an
abbreviation of the Latin ibidium, meaning “in the
same place” and the spirited playing on Act Necessary
mirrors that aesthetic.
In apropos fashion, the recording begins its upbeat
jaunt with the strutting title track, a deliciously funky
number that immediately showcases the juxtaposing
chemistry between the quartet while setting the
record’s jovial, slapstick-style outlook. One can just
picture the tomfoolery of Chaplin miming, prankstering
and ledge-walking while the playful and introspective
tempos of “Companion Piece”, “Page 17” and
“Balderdash” provides a raucous backdrop. While
Biskin receives top billing as Ibid’s brain trust, Act
Necessary presents a group of equals brimming with
flawless interaction.
For more information, visit strudelmedia.com. This project
is at Cornelia Street Café May 30th. See Calendar.
Nighthawks
Erik Friedlander’s Bonebridge (Skipstone)
by Elliott Simon
The sophomore release from cellist Erik Friedlander ’s
uniquely constructed Bonebridge Band establishes that
their eponymous 2011 debut was not a one-off novelty
project. Featuring the same slide guitar, pizzicato cello,
bass and drums format, Nighthawks is intentionally
shadier than the down-home-comes-downtown feel of
their first effort. The repartee between Doug Wamble’s
slide guitar and Friedlander ’s plucked cello still forms
the band’s center, but here they explore dark musical
alleys, pool halls and bus stations.
Friedlander wrote many of these tunes in the
literal and figurative darkness that descended on NYC
in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, a time that, for
Friedlander, evoked the essence of painter Edward
Hopper ’s stark and identically titled angular view of a
Greenwich Village diner. This is mainly accomplished
by bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Michael Sarin as
they set the tone for songs that induce the monotony of
“26 Gasoline Stations”, loneliness of “One Red Candle”
and vengeance of a “Poolhall Payback”.
Opener “Sneaky Pete” has an uptempo swagger,
funky melody and bluesy rock guitar, which makes it
an exception to the predominate ambiance. The title
cut begins with that ambient approach, which creates a
shadowy, free-floating vibe. It then coalesces into an
easy-going, slightly resigned progression evoking a
sleepy, unlit island. Friedlander does pick up his bow
on occasion and when he does, the juxtaposition is
attention-grabbing. These are welcomed flashes and
although he amazes with his ability to blend the
pizzicato cello with Wamble’s guitar, the genre does
have its limits. Nighthawks serves to validate further
Friedlander ’s concept and makes one very curious
about which direction the band will head next.
For more information, visit skipstonerecords.com. This
project is at SubCulture May 22nd. See Calendar.
White Cable Black Wires
John Edwards/Okkyung Lee (Fataka)
by Ken Waxman
Like the spools of sharp wires pictured on the inner
sleeve of White Cable Black Wires, the sounds that make
up this CD are industrial, utilitarian and rugged.
During five improvised tracks, British bassist John
Edwards and Korean-American cellist Okkyung Lee
vie with one another to expand a mini-suite made up
of scrubs, scuffs, jangles and pumps to its furthest
limits. The result may be anything but melodious. But
it’s never less than captivating in its power.
Edwards, whose activity on the London free music
scene is analogous to that of William Parker in New
York - working with everyone from saxophonist John
Butcher to The Remote Viewers group - has similar
noise-band experience as the cellist. He manages to
hold down the thematic bottom while simultaneously
ripping descriptive whimpers from his punished string
set when needed. Meanwhile, knowledgeable about
extended techniques from classical and ethnic music
studies, Lee kinetically stabs her strings to produce
near-human cries even as she uses bow percussion to
join with the bassist to propel the narrative forward.
The constant listening means that a track such as
“WCBW II” remains tightly connected, no matter how
much triple stopping unrolls at speedy velocity. Highpitched rasps and knife-sharp string slices share space
with low-pitched scrubs as vibrations from string and
wood snap and shudder back onto themselves. Col
legno thumps bring in suggestions of drumbeats while
resonating string twangs could come from guitars.
Lengthened or split-second silences succinctly impart
a sense of dynamics to the ardent improvisations.
In her work with Evan Parker and others, Lee has
shown herself capable of the highest level of
improvisational smarts. Operating alongside another
string player, the interface is unquestionably more
intense and satisfying. Describing this as dissonant
chamber music wouldn’t be too far from the mark.
For more information, visit fataka.net. Lee curates a week at
The Stone this month and is there May 6th-11th and at
Knockdown Center May 16th as part of the Red Bull Music
Academy Festival. See Calendar.
IN PRINT
Kansas City Lightning:
The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker
Stanley Crouch (Harper Collins)
by Russ Musto
Stanley Crouch’s tome on the life of Charlie Parker
comes to readers after three decades of research, not
as a full-course meal, but a satisfying appetizer in
preparation for a sumptuous dinner that is to follow.
This is not the full life story of the celebrated
saxophonist but, as the title implies, simply the start
of the tale, the first of a promised two-volume
biography. Beginning midway with a recounting of
the circumstances leading up to Bird’s legendary
Apollo Theater solo on “Cherokee” with Jay
McShann’s Band, which heralded a new architecture
for jazz improvisation that would become known as
bebop, the book looks back on the early formative
years of the great alto saxophonist.
The book is not a minutia-seeking chronicle
laden with dry dates and facts. The writing is
cadenced with the rhythms of a jazz soloist, informed
by an insider’s familiarity with the hidden details of
the musician’s life. Reading more like a novel, the
book paints a vivid picture of the Kansas City music
scene of the ‘30s, fostered by an atmosphere of
corruption that gave birth to the rhythmic Southwest
swing sound that McShann’s group epitomized. A
master of the metaphor, Crouch describes the music
as “the unruly holler from the territories (that) hits
like ice water on a hot stove, sending steam up to the
ceiling.” Crouch’s account of Parker’s early years is
insightful, probing into the conditions that made
him the man he was to become. Informed by
interviews with family and friends (including his
first wife), readers are given an intimate view into a
complex individual who was a product of his time
and place in black America.
Like a jazz improvisation, Crouch’s narrative is
full of surprises as he regularly pauses from the
central theme to put his story in context. Cowboys
and Indians, cops and robbers, hoboes and harlots
all enter into the narrative, along with fellow
musicians, as Parker embarks on the journey that
would eventually lead him to New York and the
center of the jazz universe.
For more information, visit harpercollins.com. A book
discussion with the author is at Minton’s Playhouse May
5th. Visit harlemjazzshrines.org.
George Gershwin tune discovered and outfitted with
lyrics by Ira Gershwin in 1946: “For You, For Me,
Forevermore”. Two tunes that Flanagan favored,
Quincy Jones’ “Quintessence” and “Don’t Love Me”
(recorded by Coleman Hawkins with Flanagan), are
lyrical highlights. And the pianist’s “Invention”
displays the trio’s, as they collectively improvise the
first section before breaking into swing.
The Inquiring Mind
Chico Hamilton Euphoria (Joyous Shout)
by Alex Henderson
W hen
drummer/composer/bandleader
Chico
Hamilton passed away last November at 92, jazz lost
one of its few remaining members of the World War II
generation. Hamilton, born in 1921, played behind
Fred Astaire for a dance sequence in the 1941 movie
You’ll Never Get Rich, recorded his first album as a
leader in 1955 and kept busy up until the end. The
Inquiring Mind, in fact, was recorded only a month
before his death.
This posthumous release finds Hamilton
overseeing his group Euphoria: Evan Schwam (tenor,
alto, soprano and baritone saxophones and flute), Paul
Ramsey (electric bass), Jeremy Carlstedt (drums and
percussion), Nick Demopoulos (guitar) and Mayu
Saeki (flutes). Guests George Bohanon (trombone) and
Jimmy Owens (trumpet, flugelhorn) appear on some of
the tracks. And with Hamilton producing, Euphoria
spends most of the album performing new material by
him. Over the years, Hamilton embraced everything
from hardbop and avant garde to fusion but, despite
some funk/soul touches on his “Nice Lick” and
Ramsey’s “534 Play”, this is a postbop album first and
foremost, including the good-natured “Joy of Spring”,
Charles Mingus-like “Who Knows?” and moody “Out
of Sight, Out of Mind”. Members of Euphoria also
contribute some material: Demopoulos penned the
melancholy “Nate Sure”; Saeki the contemplative
“Hope”; and Carlstedt the vibrant “Up to You”. One of
the most interesting surprises is an unlikely
arrangement of Juan Tizol’s “Perdido”. That standard,
which Tizol wrote in 1941 during his association with
Duke Ellington’s orchestra, has been recorded by
countless artists over the years - and in many cases, it
has been fast and exuberant. Hamilton and Euphoria,
however, slow “Perdido” down to a crawl and do so in
a funky, bluesy way.
Hamilton left behind a huge catalogue. While The
Inquiring Mind isn’t as essential as some of the great
albums he recorded in the ‘60s, it is an enjoyable
farewell from the eclectic jazzman.
For more information, visit joyousshout.com. Euphoria is at
Drom May 18th. See Calendar.
Kerry Politzer’s Sixth CD, on PJCE Records
“A thoughtful young postbop pianist”
- The New York Times
“An exciting, and often dazzling young jazz pianist
who plays with precision, spirit and freedom.”
- Keyboard Magazine
www.kerrypolitzer.com
The Bluebird of
Happiness
Bryan Shaw and
the Hot Shots (Arbors)
It’s A Good Day
Rossano Sportiello/
Eddie Metz/Nicki Parrott
(Arbors)
by George Kanzler
This year is the 25th anniversary of Arbors Records, a
label that has been showcasing and documenting
practitioners, many of them white, of the mostly prebebop era styles of jazz known as mainstream, Swing
and Dixieland. The label is just as important in
exposing and encouraging these musicians as the
European labels Criss Cross and ECM are in presenting
more modern jazz stylists, many of them also white.
Arbors doesn’t have the cutting-edge reputation of
those other labels, but it has consistently produced
some of the best mainstream jazz of the last decades, in
the process developing the talents of many emerging
musicians who have been overlooked by other labels.
Good examples are these two albums, the first
produced before the death of Arbors co-founder Mat
Domber in 2012 at the age of 84 and It’s A Good Day the
first after his passing.
Among the many pleasures of an Arbors CD is the
repertoire. Mainstream jazz is focused more on the
song, often the standard or previously popularized
song, than is contemporary jazz. Hot Shots bandleader
Bryan Shaw, a professor at Louisiana State University,
is an expert on early jazz and trumpeters like Louis
Armstrong and among the pleasures of The Bluebird of
Happiness is a rousing, New Orleans two-beat,
polyphonal version of “Papa De Da Da”, a 1924
Clarence Williams tune recorded by Armstrong in that
decade. Shaw, with the aid of Brad Roth’s banjo,
resurrects the two-beat Dixieland feel of a couple of
songs that became Swing standards - “Love Me or
Leave Me” and “Blue Room” - as well as reviving such
pre-Swing rarities as “Wang Wang Blues” and “I Lost
My Gal from Memphis”. There’s also a wonderful
evocation of Duke Ellington’s recording of “Chloe”,
replete with plunger mutes, clarinet and Jimmie
Blanton-like breaks, courtesy of bassist John
Dominguez. Ellington’s “Just a Lucky So and So”
recalls the Duke-Satchmo recording, but with Shaw
displaying his plunger technique. When not in a
Dixieland/Nola mode, the band purveys enticing
mainstream jazz, Shaw’s keen melodicism and easy
swing matched by trombonist Dan Barrett, saxophonist/
clarinetist Evan Arntzen and pianist Ehud Asherie.
Propelling it all are the drums of Jeff Hamilton, best
known as co-leader of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz
Orchestra. Roth contributes four originals to the mix,
including “The Bloomin’ Blues”, a relaxed piece that
invokes a Verve session with Herb Ellis.
It’s a Good Day showcases a trio that has worked
together enough to display an easy camaraderie and
musical rapport and a pianist, in Rossano Sportiello,
who is just as accomplished in the tradition exemplified
by the late Tommy Flanagan and Hank Jones as the
better known Bill Charlap. Nicki Parrott is not only a
supple bassist with a constant rhythmic lilt, but also a
comely singer with a wry wit, as she proves on three
tunes here: “Pick Yourself Up”, “It’s A Good Day” and
“Too Late Now”. Drummer Ed Metz is a subtle
accompanist, especially adept on brushes. Sportiello is
as encyclopedic in his knowledge of tunes as Flanagan
and the repertoire here ranges from swinging
adaptations of familiar themes by Bach and Beethoven
to the end title theme from Grumpy Old Men and the
For more information, visit arborsrecords.com. A tribute to
Mat Domber of Arbors is at Symphony Space May 19th
with Sportiello as well as Anat Cohen, Wycliffe Gordon,
Dick Hyman, Bucky Pizzarelli, Warren Vache, Harry Allen,
Bob Wilber and others. See Calendar.
ON SCREEN
The Breath Courses Through Us
Alan Roth (Assymetric Pictures)
by Duck Baker
This excellent documentary tells the story of the
short-lived but extremely important New York Art
Quartet (NYAQ), using as a focus the equally shortlived reunion of the band 35 years after its original
incarnation. The NYAQ was among the foremost
groups of what has been called the second wave of
the ‘60s “New Thing” in jazz. They occupied a niche
of particular importance, owing to the ability of alto
saxophonist John Tchicai and trombonist Roswell
Rudd to improvise contrapuntal horn lines, the
breathtaking new way in which drummer Milford
Graves continually fragmented and transfigured
time and the overall approach to group playing that
involved equal participation by all four members
(the bass chair was a musical one in every sense,
having been filled by several outstanding players, of
whom Reggie Workman is the best known). Poet
Amiri Baraka often recited with the group in
performance and on record (as LeRoi Jones for the
group’s 1965 eponymous ESP-Disk debut) and he
was also involved in the reunion.
The Breath Courses Through Us shows the poet
and musicians getting together to discuss the
performances they would do after reuniting in 1999
and also features short interview sections with each
member in which they discuss both the things that
were going on for them in the ‘60s and those that
have happened in their lives thereafter, as well as
how they hope to bring it all together again in a new
way. Best of all is footage from several concerts
showing that, indeed, the group retained its magic,
even as the individual members brought all kinds of
new things to the table. Especially noteworthy is the
interplay between Tchicai and Rudd, who sound as
if they had worked together every day of those 35
years!
By the end of the film, the viewer feels as if he
has gotten to know all the participants personally.
The departure of two of the five (Tchicai in 2012 and
Baraka this past January) since the film was made
underlines the timeliness and timelessness of this
document.
For more information, visit thebreathcoursesthroughus.com.
The New York City premiere of The Breath Courses
Through Us is at Anthology Film Archives May 18th.
35
BOXED SET
Nation Time - The Complete Recordings
Joe McPhee (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
by Ken Waxman
H ard to imagine with Joe McPhee’s present day
mastery as a cerebral improviser, but there was a
time when the trumpeter/saxophonist was a jazzfunk proponent as well. Consisting of sessions from
1969-70, this four-CD boxed set not only includes the
originally issued Nation Time and Black Magic Man
LPs in their entirety, but also 17 tracks previously
unreleased on CD. Here is the earliest recorded
McPhee, in a nightclub setting playing trumpet on
standards like “Milestones”. Even more astounding
are tracks taped at the same concerts that produced
Nation Time, an eight-piece ensemble, including two
electric keyboards and two percussionists, working
out on James Brown’s “Cold Sweat”.
Like other boxed sets devoted to the initial
works of game-changers such as Miles Davis or
Charlie Parker, in truth most of the unissued tracks
here are of more historical than musical interest. For
example, while the melodic trumpeting on the
earliest tracks can’t be compared to the assured bop
runs from tenor saxophonist Otis Greene, McPhee is
obviously coming from a different place than the
saxophonist and vibraphonist Ernest Bostic, whose
workout on “Bags’ Groove” is neither helped nor
hindered by McPhee’s tremolo blasts. But in the final
section the leader composed for the first run-though
of “Nation Time” - titled after the fact - the anthemic
theme that will be elaborated into a more-than-19minute showpiece is germinating.
Recorded the next year, The Vassar Sessions find a
rough and ragged band trying its hand at all sorts of
jazz-oriented sounds, including the foot-stomping
Brown piece, mostly an R&B showcase for extended
drum solos from Bostic and Bruce Thompson, plus
note-stuffed comping from electric pianist Mike Kull.
With McPhee doing his best Coltrane-like undulations
on tenor, Kull switches to badly recorded acoustic
piano for McCoy Tyner’s “Contemplation”, with
more attention to detail than depth, Kull almost
drowned out by the drummers and Tyrone Crabb’s
electric bass. Despite jittery smears from Herbie
Leaman’s B3 and Crabb’s dreary unison hummingand-plucking on acoustic bass, the arrangement on
McPhee’s “Sunshower” presages a two-sax
improvising strategy he would later perfect. With one
honking and the other shrilling, a common ground is
created and Greene pushes past his comfort zone.
The three tracks originally released as Nation
Time confirm this evolution, although it was still a
mercurial work in progress. “Shakey Jake”, for
instance, is a straightforward funk riff, which sounds
like War fronted by David “Fathead” Newman and
Hank Crawford, especially when guitarist Davey
Jones trots out predictable blues licks. The title track,
based on a revolutionary poem by LeRoi Jones, with
that slogan chanted at the top, is the stunner here,
McPhee attaining the funk-futuristic music blend he
was seeking. Mixing harsh Ayler-ian screeches and
majestic, Trane-like meditations, McPhee sidles up
against thumping electric piano and the thickened
percussion rumble without the narrative faltering.
After that, it was just a short step to Black Magic
Man. Although the band still retained some of its
funk-jazz origin - the Kull-McPhee duet at the end of
“Hymn of the Dragon King” could be from Eddie
Harris-Les McCann’s Swiss Movement LP - the
selections are fully in the free-jazz orbit. Three
versions (two previously unreleased) of “Song for
Lauren” demonstrate how stuttering reed bites
mixed with gentle piano allow the group to play a
ballad, but add enough distance so it never becomes
flowery. More remarkable are the title tune and
“Hymn of the Dragon King”. On the former, McPhee
fabricates a searching, avant garde performance with
enough leeway for more traditional sliding electric
piano breaks, brawny drum beats and brassy trumpet
runs. On the latter, Greene gets into the mood,
propelling a ney-like obbligato to McPhee’s multifaceted growls and whinnies, as the six-man rhythm
section vamps as robustly if it was playing R&B.
A singular achievement, Nation Time - The
Complete Recordings should interest those who follow
McPhee’s incredibly productive career and want to
check out his origins, as well as folks whose
preference is for vibrant funk-jazz from the ‘60s-70s.
For more information, visit corbettvsdempsey.com.
McPhee is at Knockdown Center May 16th as part of The
Red Bull Music Academy Festival. See Calendar.
Cobi Narita Presents
M AY 2 – 4
M AY 1 5 –1 8
fairview baptist church brass
band with shannon powell
renÉ marie’s i wanna be evil:
with love to eartha kitt
M AY 5
M AY 1 9
temple university jazz band
juilliard school ensemble
featuring jon faddis and jimmy heath
M AY 2 0
M AY 6
donald harrison’s berklee
quintet
cincinnati college
conservatory of music
jazz ensemble
M AY 2 1
terell stafford and the jazz
orchestra of philadelphia
M AY 7–1 1
juilliard jazz orchestra
M AY 2 2 –2 5
M AY 1 2 monday nights with wbgo
ben wolfe quintet featuring
nicholas payton
oran etkin cd release:
gathering light
M AY 2 6 –2 7
M AY 1 3
mary lou williams’ zodiac suite:
chris pattishall quintet
ryan kisor quintet
with peter zak, willie jones iii, john webber,
and peter bernstein
M AY 1 4 ( 9 : 3 0 P M )
M AY 2 8 – J U N 1
ted rosenthal trio cd release:
rhapsody in gershwin
juilliard jazz quartet
swing by tonight
set times
7:30pm & 9:30pm
with ron carter, ron blake, and
frank kimbrough
jalc.org / dizzys
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall Broadway at 60th Street, 5th Floor, nyc
EVERY FRIDAY
7:30 TO 10:30 PM
OPEN MIC/JAM SESSION
Open Mic/Jam Session for Singers, Tap Dancers,
Instrumentalists, Poets - hosted by Frank Owens,
one of the most gifted pianists you will ever hear!
Our Open Mic is one of the best of the Open Mics
happening in New York & elsewhere, with the
incomparable Frank Owens playing for you.
An unmatchable moment in your life!
As a participant, or as an audience member,
you will always have an amazing time,
one you will never forget!
Don’t miss! Admission: $10
Pearl Studios, 519 8th Ave, 12th Floor, Studio A
cobinarita.com
JUNE 1 - 30, 2014
NEW YORK • WWW.BLUENOTEJAZZFEST.COM
30 DAYS ▪ 15 + VENUES ▪ 150 + PERFORMANCES
ARETHA FRANKLIN ▪ BOBBY MCFERRIN & QUESTLOVE
ANDRÉ PREVIN & CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE
DANILO PÉREZ/JOHN PATITUCCI/BRIAN BLADE TRIO
RAMSEY LEWIS W/PHILIP BAILEY
JON BATISTE & STAY HUMAN ▪ MICHAEL MCDONALD
HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE ▪ BUIKA
MARQUES TOLIVER ▪ JOSÉ JAMES ▪ REGGIE WATTS
CHRISETTE MICHELE ▪ LALAH HATHAWAY
MARCUS MILLER ▪ SÉRGIO MENDES ▪ MICHAEL BOLTON
DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER ▪ MONTY ALEXANDER
“CELEBRATING ORNETTE: THE MUSIC OF ORNETTE COLEMAN”
WITH DENARDO COLEMAN VIBE & FEAT. AFRIKA BAMBAATAA
BILL LASWELL, BRUCE HORNSBY, FLEA, GERI ALLEN,
HENRY THREADGILL, JAMES BLOOD ULMER, PATTI SMITH,
AND MANY MORE.
JOE LOVANO ▪ GATO BARBIERI ▪ AVISHAI COHEN TRIO ▪ BEKA & DJ LOGIC
DIZZY GILLESPIE™ AFRO CUBAN EXPERIENCE ▪ GINGER BAKER ▪ JEFF LORBER,
LOU DONALDSON W/DR. LONNIE SMITH ▪ MICHEL CAMILO ▪ ANDY BEY
HIROMI ▪ FABRIZIO SOTTI ▪ CURTIS STIGERS ▪ DIANE SCHUUR ▪ JAZZ FORUM @ 35!
SADAO WATANABE AND MANY MORE
WWW.BLUENOTEJAZZFEST.COM
CALENDAR
Thursday, May 1
êNels Cline Singers with Trevor Dunn, Scott Amendola; Mary Halvorson solo
Le Poisson Rouge 6:45 pm $18
êIdeal Bread: Josh Sinton, Kirk Knuffke, Adam Hopkins, Tomas Fujiwara
Douglass Street Music Collective 8 pm $15
• TK Blue’s A Warm Embrace with James Weidman, Essiet Essiet, Sylvia Cuenca,
Ron Jackson, Roland Guerrero Birdland 6 pm $30
êSteve Kuhn Trio with Steve Swallow, Joey Baron
Birdland 8:30, 11 pm $30-40
êEnrico Pieranunzi Trio with Scott Colley, Joe La Barbera
Village Vanguard 8:30, 10:30 pm $25
êClayton Brothers Quintet: Terell Stafford, Jeff, Gerald and John Clayton, Obed Calvaire
Jazz Standard 7:30, 9:30 pm $25
• Omar Sosa Quarteto AfroCubano with Ernesto Simpson, Childo Tomas,
Leandro Saint-Hill; Melissa Aldana Quartet with Glenn Zaleski, Pablo Menares,
Jochen Rueckert
Blue Note 8, 10:30 pm $35
• Whitney James Quintet with Jon Davis, Ed Howard, Jon Wikan, Jonathan Powell
Jazz at Kitano 8, 10 pm $15
êMusic Of Ornette Coleman Ensemble directed by Jane Ira Bloom;
Music of Sun Ra Ensemble directed by Ahmed Abdullah
New School Arnhold Hall 7, 9 pm
êKarl Berger Improvisers OrchestraShapeShifter Lab 7, 8:15 pm $15
• Zaid Nasser with Pasquale Grasso, Ari Roland, Keith Balla; Joe Martin Quartet with
Steve Wilson, Kevin Hays, Jeff Ballard; Emmet Cohen Trio with Russell Hall,
Evan Sherman
Smalls 6, 9:30 pm 12:30 am $20
• Marcus and Jean Baylor Project Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm
• Samir Zarif Trio with Fima Ephron, Henry Cole
Bar Next Door 8:30, 10:30 pm $12
• Gregorio Uribe Big Band
Zinc Bar 9, 10:30 pm
• Jorge Roeder solo; Cabin Trio: James Carson, Dan Blake, Richie Barshay
The Firehouse Space 8 pm $10
• String Noise: Pauline Kim Harris/Conrad Harris; Ikue Mori/Annie Gosfield
The Stone 8, 10 pm $15
• Yale Strom and Hot Pstromi with David Licht, Norbert Stachel, Peter Stan, Sprocket,
Elizabeth Schwartz
Dweck Center at Brooklyn Public Library 7 pm
• Alexis Cuadrado Poetica with Melcion Mateu, Rowan Ricardo Philips, Miles Okazaki,
Andy Milne, Tyshawn Sorey
SEEDS 9 pm
• Dan Rufolo Quintet with Pat Carroll, Adam Larson, Adrian Moring, Jimmy MacBride
Cornelia Street Café 8:30 pm $10
• Victor Gould Trio with Corcoran Holt, Ralph Peterson The Jazz Gallery 9, 11 pm $15
• Amy Cervini/Janis Siegel Duets with Michael Cabe, Matt Aronoff, Matt Wilson
55Bar 7 pm
• UMOJA: Yunie Mojica/Raynel Frazier; Saul Rubin Zebtet; Josh Evans
Fat Cat 7, 10 pm 1:30 am
• Osso String Quartet: Edwin Huizinga, Andie Springer, Anne Lanzilotti, Maria Jeffers;
Weather Vest Quartet: Jay Rattman, Aaron Irwin, Michael Lormand, Max Seigel
Ibeam Brooklyn 8:30 pm $15
• Bomb X: Nicolas Letman-Burtinovic, Loren Stillman, Bobby Avey, Nick Anderson;
Anna Webber 4tet with Jonathan Goldberger, Michael Bates, Jeff Davis
Spectrum 7:30, 9:30 pm
• Alex Brown Quartet
Terraza 7 9 pm $7
• Antonio Ciacca
Measure 8 pm
• Ian O’Beirne with Dave Bozenhard, Kurt Kotheimer, Dean Schweiger;
Ross Kratter Quintet with Randy Johnston, Enrique Sanchez, Xavier Del Castillo,
Jerrold Kavanagh
Somethin’ Jazz Club 7, 9 pm $10
• Takeshi Iwasaki
Tomi Jazz 9 pm $10
• Burt Eckoff Trio Cleopatra’s Needle 7 pm
• Carl Bartlett Jr. Quartet; Gabe Valle Quartet
The Garage 6, 10:30 pm
• Seneca Black
Silvana 6 pm
Friday, May 2
êBucky Pizzarelli’s Swing Xing! with Frank Vignola, Vinny Raniolo
The Cutting Room 8 pm $30
êDenny Zeitlin solo
êCharlie Hunter
Rockwood Music Hall 3 9 pm $15
êJimmy Greene Quartet with Xavier Davis, Gerald Cannon, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts
Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm $38
• Joel Harrison/Anupam Shobhakar’s Multiplicity with Jacob Sacks, Hans Glawischnig,
Dan Weiss, Samarth Nagarkar and guest Anindo Chatterjee
Cornelia Street Café 9, 10:30 pm $15
êEast West Guitar Trio: John Stowell, Gene Bertoncini, Paul Meyers
Bar Next Door 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $12
• Al MacDowell’s Just Ornette Quartet with Tony Falanga, Ron Thompson, Tony Lewis
and guest Jay Rodriguez
BAMCafé 10 pm
êTad Shull Quartet; Harry Allen Quartet
Smalls 7:30, 10:30 pm $20
• Craig Wuepper EarSight Quartet; Jared Gold with Dave Gibson, Josh Evans,
Kush Abadey
Fat Cat 6, 10:30 pm
• Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band with Kevin Louis, David Harris, Darryl Adams,
Jeffrey Hills, Terrence Andrews and guest Shannon Powell
Dizzy’s Club 7:30, 9:30 pm $40
• Annie Gosfield, Roger Kleier, Ches Smith; Stephen Gosling/James Ilgenfritz
êGabriel Alegría Afro-Peruvian Sextet
Zinc Bar 8 pm
êLuis Bonilla, Bruce Barth, Andy McKee
Knickerbocker Bar and Grill 9:45 pm $5
• Charles Downs’ Centipede with Billy Stein, Larry Roland, Michael Moss, Ras Moshe
Westbeth Music Works 8 pm $10
êExposed Blues Duo: Anders Nilsson/Fay Victor
Barbès 8 pm $10
• Imani Uzuri’s Praise House
The Jazz Gallery 9, 11 pm $22
• Damon Banks’ Travelguides with Sylvester “Sly” Scott, Manu Koch, Bruce Cox,
Brahim Fribgane and guests
ShapeShifter Lab 8 pm $10
• Alex García’s AfroMantra with Ole Mathisen, Mike Eckroth, Ariel de la Portilla
The New York City Business Club 7 pm
• The Messiaen Project: Jesse Stacken solo
Bloomingdale School of Music 7 pm
• PROJECT Trio: Greg Pattillo, Eric Stephenson, Peter Seymour
SubCulture 7:30 pm $15-20
• Dee Lucas Smooth Factor
Metropolitan Room 9:30 pm $20
• Asher Ben-Or Trio
Indian Road Café 8 pm
• Terry Vakirtzoglou
Somethin’ Jazz Club 9 pm $10
• Yvonnick Prene
Tomi Jazz 9 pm $10
• Masami Ishikawa Organ Trio
Cleopatra’s Needle 8 pm
• Guy Mintus Trio; Peter Valera Jump Blues Band
The Garage 6:15, 10:45 pm
Birdland 8:30, 11 pm $30-40
Jazz Standard 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $30
Jochen Rueckert
• Elsa Nilsson Quintet with Jessica Lurie, Jeff McLaughlin, Alex Minier, Cody Rahn;
Davy Mooney Quartet with Jon Cowherd, Matt Clohesy, Mark Ferber
Blue Note 12:30 am $10
SEEDS 9 pm
• Weather Vest Quartet: Jay Rattman, Aaron Irwin, Michael Lormand, Max Seigel;
Frank Basile Collective
• Antonio Ciacca
• Randy Johnston Ensemble
Measure 8 pm
Silvana 6 pm
Saturday, May 3
êAllen Lowe Field Recordings Orchestra with Hayes Greenfield, Bobby Zankel,
Lewis Porter, Matthew Shipp, Kevin Ray, Paul Austerlitz, Lou Grassi, Brian Simontacchi,
Christopher Meeder, Randy Sandke
Spectrum 10 pm
êDenny Zeitlin Trio with Buster Williams, Matt Wilson
• Made In New York Jazz Competition Gala Concert: Ricardo Baldacci; Pablo Elorza;
Vladimir Maras; Rozina Patkai; Nick Vintskevich; NGA Big Band; Lenny White;
Randy Brecker, Yaacov Mayman Tribeca Performing Arts Center 8 pm $40-55
• Billy Martin, Roger Kleier, Annie Gosfield and guests
êKris Davis Trio with Tony Malaby, Gerald Cleaver
• Tom Dempsey Trio with Ron Oswanski, Alvin Atkinson
Bar Next Door 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $12
• Kahlil Kwame Bell
Sistas’ Place 9, 10:30 pm $20
• Juancho Herrera
BAMCafé 10 pm
• Mike Karn Quintet; Raphael D’lugoff Quintet; Steve Hall Quartet
• Adam Larson Quintet with Matthew Stevens, John Escreet, Matt Penman,
Jimmy Macbride
• Emy Tseng with Q Morrow, David Jernigan, Vanderlei Pereira, Lyle Link
Metropolitan Room 9:30 pm $20
• Sebastian Cruz and The Cheap Landscape Trio with Ruben Samana, Franco Pinna
Terraza 7 8 pm $7
• Joel Forrester/Christina Clare Indian Road Café 8 pm
• Hiromi Kasuga Trio; Brett Sandler Trio with Peter Longofono, Adam Pin
• Chieko Honda; Airi Mwochizuki Tomi Jazz 8, 11 pm $10
• Richard Benetar Quartet
êJimmy Greene Quartet with Xavier Davis, Gerald Cannon, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts
Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm $38
• Dmitry Baevsky Quartet; Harry Allen Quartet; Stacy Dillard, Diallo House, Ismail Lawal
Smalls 7:30, 10:30 pm 1 am $20
êLuis Bonilla, Bruce Barth, Andy McKee
Birdland 8:30, 11 pm $30-40
Jazz Standard 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $30
Jochen Rueckert
SEEDS 9 pm
êBrian Drye/Kirk Knuffke; Weather Vest Quartet: Jay Rattman, Aaron Irwin,
Michael Lormand, Max Seigel
• Antonio Ciacca
Measure 8 pm
• Ruby Choi
Silvana 6 pm
• Pericopes
Shrine 6 pm
• Eddie Allen and PUSH
St. Albans Congregational Church 5 pm
êPapo Vázquez Mighty Pirates Troubadours with Mario Castro, Richard Germanson,
Ruben Rodriguez, Victor Jones, Gabriel Lugo, Carlos Maldonado
Snug Harbor Cultural Center 2 pm
• Larry Newcomb Quartet; Evgeny Sivtsov; Akiko Tsuruga Trio
The Garage 12, 6:15, 10:45 pm
Sunday, May 4
êBladerunner: John Zorn, Bill Laswell, Dave Lombardo
Le Poisson Rouge 8 pm $40
• Annie Gosfield, Max Mandel, Eric Huebner; George Kentros, Max Mandel, Eric Huebner
• Kendra Shank/John Stowell with guest Rogério Boccato
Roulette 7 pm $20
êRobert Dick solo
61 Local 7 pm $10
• Kazzrie Jaxen/Gary Levy
The Drawing Room 7 pm $20
êJames Brandon Lewis Trio with Max Johnson, Dominic Fragman;
Catherine Sikora/Brian Chase
WhyNot Jazz Room 7:30, 9 pm $10
• Falkner Evans Group with Marc Mommaas, Ron Horton, Belden Bullock, Matt Wilson;
Barbara Rosene Duo; Johnny O’Neal with Paul Sikivie, Charles Goold; Marc Devine
with Paul Sikivie, Fukushi Tainaka Smalls 4:30, 7:30, 10 pm 12 am $20
• Terry Waldo’s Gotham City Band; Fat Cat Big Band; Brandon Lewis/Renee Cruz Jam
Fat Cat 6, 8:30 pm 12:30 am
• Nadav Remez Quintet with Greg Tardy, Victor Gould, Haggai Cohen Milo,
Ferenc Nemeth; Greasers: Ian Gittler, Avi Bortick, Andy Hess, Aaron Johnston,
Eric Hoegemeyer with The Beautiful Brass and Aleksandar Petrov
WhyNot Jazz Room 8, 10 pm
• The Cleaning Lady; Jackson Krall Trio
ABC No-Rio 7 pm $5
• Peter Leitch/Jed Levy
Walker’s 8 pm
• Alberto Pibiri
Measure 8 pm
• Larry Bluth Trio with Dylan LaGamma, Bill Chattim and guest Dana Holness;
Suzanne Pittson with Jeff Pittson, Harvie S, Dave Meade
• Periscope + 1: Emiliano Vernizzi, Alessandro Sgobbio, Nick Wight Caffe Vivaldi 8 pm
• Marike van Dijk
Blue Note 6:30 pm
Jochen Rueckert
• Kyle Moffatt Sextet
Silvana 6 pm
• Ike Sturm’s Evergreen with Melissa Stylianou, Chanda Rule, Loren Stillman,
Jesse Lewis, Chris Dingman
Saint Peter’s 5 pm
• BJ Jansen with Marcus Persiani, Amanda Ruzza, Chris Beck, Angel Rodgers
InFuse 51 5 pm $10
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Brianna Thomas
Abyssinian Baptist Church 4 pm $20
• NYU Jazz Brunch - Combo Nuvo: Dave Schroeder, Billy Drewes, Brad Shepik,
Rich Shemaria, Mike Richmond, John Hadfield
Blue Note 11:30 am 1:30 pm $29.50
• Roz Corral Trio with Nir Felder, Ed Howard
North Square Lounge 12:30, 2 pm
• Mayu Saeki Trio; David Coss Quartet; Mauricio de Souza with Alan Chauber,
Joonsam Lee The Garage 11:30 am 6:30, 11 pm
Monday, May 5
• Temple University Jazz Band with guests Jon Faddis, Jimmy Heath
êMingus Big Band
• The Three Flats: Dave Sewelson, Daniel Carter, Will Connell; Smooth Freejazz:
Dave Sewelson, Mike Neer, Jesse Krakow, Doug Wygal; Orchestra Dave:
Jake Sokolov-Gonzalez, Yoni Kretzmer, Leila Bordreuil, Michael Foster, Yaniv Kot,
Tristan Shepherd, Lou Grassi
Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center 7:30 pm $11-22
• NYU Jazz Orchestra conducted by Rich Shemaria with Alan Ferber, Michael Rodriguez,
Billy Drewes, Rich Perry, Dave Pietro and guest Emily Bear
• Music of John Coltrane Ensemble directed by Reggie Workman
New School Arnhold Hall 7 pm
• Avi Rothbard solo; Ari Hoenig Trio; Spencer Murphy
Smalls 7:30, 10 pm 12:30 am $20
• Mark Whitfield Jr. Trio; Billy Kaye Jam
Fat Cat 9 pm 12:30 am
• Donna Lewis; Viktoria and Go Trio; Victor Jones Trio with Dylan Meek, Alex Blake
Zinc Bar 8, 9, 11 pm
• David Amram and Co. with Kevin Twigg, Rene Hart, Elliot Peper, Robbie Winterhawk
êJason Marshall Big Band
Smoke 7, 9 pm
• Jon Madof’s Zion80 plays John Zorn’s Book of Angels with Matt Darriau, Greg Wall,
Frank London, Jessica Lurie, Zach Mayer, Yoshie Fruchter, Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz,
Brian Marsella, Marlon Sobol, Yuval Lion
• Sean Wayland, Des White, Ben Eunson, Nate Wood 55Bar 7 pm
• Todd Clouser’s One Vicious Disco with Dred Scott, Hernan Hecht; Dave Miller Group
ShapeShifter Lab 8:15, 9:30 pm $8
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Late Night Jam with Antonio Hart
Minton’s Playhouse 10 pm $10
• Sonia Szajnberg Trio with Matt Davis, Leon Boykins
• Hyeseon Hong Jazz Orchestra Tea Lounge 9, 10:30 pm
• Anthony Cekay Organ Trio with Ben Paterson, Christian Coleman and guest Billy Ryan
LIC Bar 7:30 pm
• Fabrizio Sotti with James Genus, Francisco Mela
Measure 8 pm
• Shoko Amano
• Marla Sampson
Tomi Jazz 8 pm
• Danny Bacher
Le Cirque Café 7:30 pm
• The Moonglowers; Nick Wright Trio
• Jose Andres Cid de Leon MarquezSilvana 6 pm
Tuesday, May 6
êEddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Band with Anthony Carrillo, Luques Curtis, Camilo Molina,
Vicente “Little Johnny” Rivero and guests Alfredo de la Fé, Donald Harrison, Joe Locke,
Ronnie Cuber
• Sheila Jordan
Birdland 8:30, 11 pm $40
êBrad Mehldau Trio with Larry Grenadier, Jeff Ballard
êFred Hersch/Ralph Alessi
• Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music Jazz Ensemble with guest Fareed Haque
• Steve Tyrell
Café Carlyle 8:45 pm $65-155
• Lou Caputo Not So Big Band NYC Baha’i Center 8, 9:30 pm $15
êOkkyung Lee solo; Corvus: Ches Smith/Okkyung Lee
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Nathan Lucas
Showman’s Jazz Club 8:30 pm
êHarlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Christian Sands Trio with Noah Jackson, Rodney Green
Ginny’s Supper Club 10 pm
• Jack Jeffers and the New York Classics with Kathryn Farmer
Zinc Bar 8, 10 pm
êKris Davis/ Flin van Hemmen Duo; How to Make a Mountain: Jesse Stacken,
Adam Hopkins, Martin Urbach, Josh Sinton, Patrick Breiner
Spectrum 9:30, 10:30 pm $10
• Spike Wilner Trio with Yotam Silberstein, Paul; Smalls Legacy Band: Josh Evans,
Stacy Dillard, Frank Lacy, Theo Hill, Rashaan Carter, Kush Abadey;
Kyle Poole and Friends
Smalls 7:30, 10:30 pm 1 am $20
• Saul Rubin; CocoMama; Greg Glassman Jam
• Gabriel Zucker and The Delegation with Adam O’Farrill, Jacob Teichroew, Eric Trudel,
Bryan Qu, Mark Chung, Ron Lawrence, Eric Allen, Artemisz Polonyi, Tiffany Ortiz,
Bam Bam Rodriguez, Gabriel Globus-Hoenich, Chris Connors
The Jazz Gallery 9 pm $15
• University of Michigan Jazz Ensemble
• Henrik Meurkens Trio with Misha Tsiganov, Oleg Osenkov Bar Next Door 8:30, 10:30 pm $12
• Caili O’Doherty
Jazz at Kitano 8 pm
• Dave Damiani and Lyman Medeiros Trio with Andy Langham, Aaron McLendon;
Forest Band: Itamar Shatz, Yoav Shlomov, Eitan Kenner, Max Oleartchik, Itay Morchi;
Paul Tafoya Project with Matt Chalk, Alex “Blade” Silver, Quincy Chimich,
Devon Gillingham, Connor Parks Somethin’ Jazz Club 7, 9, 11 pm $10-15
• Dawoud Kringle
Tomi Jazz 8 pm
• Recessionals Jazz Band; Joe Pino Trio
Measure 8 pm
• Joe Pino Quintet
Silvana 6 pm
• The New York Bakery ConnectionShrine 6 pm
Billy Lester
is accepting new jazz piano students,
offering an original approach to jazz
creativity, technique, theory and ear
training to students of all levels.
Re: Storytime - Billy’s solo piano CD:
“Connoisseur jazz...at an ever higher level
of daring and mastery.”
-Howard Mandel, President,
Jazz Journalists Association
“You won’t get any better than this.”
-Rotcod Zzaj, rotcodzzaj.com
“Solo jazz piano at its best”
- Scott Albin, Jazz Times
www.billylester.com
studio in Yonkers, NY
Wednesday, May 7
êJeff “Tain” Watts 3SUM with Lionel Loueke, James Genus
Minton’s Playhouse 7, 9:15 pm
• Igmar Thomas and Guests
êGreg Tardy Trio; Greg Glassman Quartet with Jeremy Manasia, Joseph Lepore,
Jason Brown
Smalls 9:30 pm 12:30 am $20
êTommy Campbell and Vocal-Eyes with Miles Griffith, Carolyn Leonhart, Helio Alves,
Ben Sher, Harvie S
Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm
• Juilliard Jazz Orchestra Celebrating Duke Ellington and Gerald Wilson
êIkue Mori, Vijay Iyer, Okkyung Lee; Kim Gordon/Okkyung Lee
êValery Ponomarev “Our Father Who Art Blakey” Big Band
Zinc Bar 8 pm
êLibby York Quartet with John di Martino, Warren Vaché, Martin Wind
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Manuel Valera with Sofia Rei; Aruán Ortiz with
Henry Grimes, Don Byron
Harlem Stage Gatehouse 7:30 pm $10
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Kimberly Thompson
Showman’s Jazz Club 8:30 pm
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Late Night Jam with TS Monk
• Flying Home - The Music of Benny Goodman: John Mettam, Mike McGinnis,
Brian Drye, Sean Moran, Tom Beckham, Jim Whitney
Barbès 8 pm $10
• Chick Corea Ensemble directed by Armen Donelian; M Base Ensemble directed by
Andy Milne
• Julian Shore Quintet with Gilad Hekselman, Dayna Stephens, Aidan Carroll,
Colin Stranahan
• Raphael D’lugoff; Groover Trio; Ned Goold Jam
• Becca Stevens Band
Rockwood Music Hall 2 8:30 pm
• Tyler Blanton Electric Project with Nate Wood, Sam Minaie
Rockwood Music Hall 1 12 am
• Joey Alexander; Jan Kus Quartet with Sean Fitzpatrick, Dan Martinez, Joel Mateo
ShapeShifter Lab 7, 8:15 pm $10
• Sergio Krakowski Trio with Vitor Gonçalves, Todd Neufeld; Marta Sanchez Group with
Roman Filiu, Jerome Sabbagh, Sam Anning, Jason Burger
SEEDS 8:30, 10 pm
• New Parallels: Loren Stillman, Nicolas Letman-Burtinovic, Travis Reuter, Nick Anderson
Bar Chord 9 pm
• Queens Jazz OverGround Jazz Jam
Flushing Town Hall 7 pm $10
• Guy Mintus
Spectrum 9 pm $15
• Juan Felipe Quartet
Terraza 7 9 pm $7
• Roger Davidson; Joe Alterman Caffe Vivaldi 7, 9:30 pm
• JC3: Jack Gulielmetti, Ethan Cohn, Julius Rodriguez; Greg Diamond Quartet with
Mike Eckroth, Edward Perez
Somethin’ Jazz Club 7, 9 pm $10-12
• Julio Botti Trio
Tomi Jazz 8 pm
• Yvonnick Prene Quartet; Rotem Sivan Trio
• Joe Pino Quintet; Julia Ehninger Silvana 6, 8 pm
Ronnie Cuber
• Sheila Jordan
• Fred Hersch/Kurt Elling
• Steve Tyrell
Measure 8 pm
êBucky Pizzarelli/Ed Laub
Saint Peter’s 1 pm $10
Thursday, May 8
êHighlights in Jazz - Brothers in Jazz: The Heath Brothers: Jimmy and
Albert “Tootie” Heath, Jeb Patton, David Wong; Peter and Will Anderson Band with
Wycliffe Gordon
Tribeca Performing Arts Center 8 pm $40-45
êEddie Henderson Quartet with George Cables, Doug Weiss, Carl Allen
Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm
• Maria Schneider Orchestra with Steve Wilson, Dave Pietro, Rich Perry, Donny McCaslin,
Scott Robinson, Tony Kadleck, Greg Gisbert, August Haas, Mike Rodriguez,
Keith O’Quinn, Ryan Keberle, Marshall Gilkes, George Flynn, Gary Versace, Lage Lund,
Frank Kimbrough, Jay Anderson, Clarence Penn
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Christian aTunde Adjuah Double Quartet
Harlem Stage Gatehouse 7:30 pm $10
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Jazmyn
Showman’s Jazz Club 8:30, 10, 11:30 pm
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Late Night Jam with TK Blue
• Theo Bleckmann/Okkyung Lee; Chris Corsano, Bill Nace, Okkyung Lee
• Ari Hoening Quartet with Tivon Pennicott , Eden Ladin, Noam Wiesenburg
Terraza 7 9 pm $7
• Ursula Scherrer/Brian Chase; diNMachine; Nir Naaman Quartet with George Cables,
Tamir Shmerling, Mark Whitfield Jr.
ShapeShifter Lab 7, 8:15, 9:30 pm $8
• Mat Maneri Quartet with Eliot Cardinaux, Will McEvoy, Randy Peterson
Sistas’ Place
456 Nostrand Avenue
corner of Jefferson Avenue
Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn NYC
(718) 398-1766 - sistasplace.org
Sat., May 3rd - Khalil Kwame Bell Group
Sat., May 10th - Ahmed Abdullah’s Diaspora
(Taurean Birthday Celebration) and
Sun Ra Centennial Celebration with
Alex Harding, D.D. Jackson, Radu, Reggie Nicholson,
Monique Ngozi Nri, TC III
Sat., May 17th- George Gray Quartet
Sat., May 24th Organ Monk Greg Lewis & Band
Sat., May 31st Kenny Gates Quartet
The New School Sun Ra Ensemble (with special guests) directed by
Ahmed Abdullah will celebrate Sun Ra’s Centennial Arrival Day at
Shapeshifter Lab, 18 Whitwell Place on Sunday May 11th with two
shows: 6:15 to 7pm & 7:20 until 8:05. For information (646) 820-9452.
• Daisuke Abe Trio with Kuriko Tsugawa, Anthony Lee
• Dwayne Clemons Quintet with Josh Benko, Sacha Perry, Murray Wall,
Jimmy Wormworth; Matt Brewer Group; Carlos Abadie Quintet with Joe Sucato,
Peter Zak, Clovis Nicolas, Luca Santaniello
Smalls 6, 9:30 pm 12:30 am $20
• Point of Departure; Greg Glassman Quintet; Spencer Murphy Quartet
• Joaquin Pozo
David Rubenstein Atrium 7:30 pm
• Colin Stranahan, Glenn Zaleski, Rick Rosato
êDave Chamberlain’s Band of Bones with Noah Bless, Charley Gordon, Nick Grinder,
Sara Jacovino, Nate Mayland, Chris Rinaman, Max Seigel, Dale Turk, Kenny Ascher,
Tim Ferguson, Chris Parker, Chembo Corniel, Kat Gang and guest Steve Turre
Christ & St. Stephen’s Church 8 pm $15
• Camila Meza
Ginny’s Supper Club 8:30 pm $15
• Tom Guarna Trio with Yasushi Nakamura, Rudy Royston
• Jazz Orchestra Ensemble directed by Charles Tolliver; Music of Art Blakey and
The Jazz Messengers Ensemble directed by Charles Tolliver
• Rozina Patkai
Zinc Bar 8 pm
• Albert Marques, Walter Stinson, Zack O’Farrill Caffe Vivaldi 9 pm
• Heavy Favorites: Jimmy Cozier, Bill Wurtzel, Lindsey Horner;
VIktorija Gecyte and Go Trio with Joe Magnarelli, Sean Gough, Gene Perla, Colby Inzer
• Scot Albertson/Lee Tomboulian Tomi Jazz 9 pm $10
• Ruslan Khain Trio
• Champian Fulton Quartet; Kyle Moffatt Sextet
• Alex Foster Jazz Band
Shrine 9 pm
Ronnie Cuber
êFred Hersch/Kate McGarry
• Steve Tyrell
Measure 8 pm
• 19th Annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition
Rose Hall 8 am $10
NEW CD OUT NOW
Friday, May 9
êThe String Trio of New York: James Emery, John Lindberg, Rob Thomas
Columbia University Prentis Hall 7:30 pm
êPRISM Quartet with Tim Ries, Miguel Zenón
Symphony Space Leonard Nimoy Thalia 7:30 pm $22
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Vijay Iyer Trio with Stephen Crump, Marcus Gilmore
Aaron Davis Hall 7:30 pm
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Fred McFarlane
Showman’s Jazz Club 9, 11 pm
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Late Night Jam with Charenee Wade
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Lakecia Benjamin and the Motéma All Stars
Apollo Music Café 10 pm $10
êTony Malaby’s Tamarindo with William Parker, Nasheet Waits
• Tardo Hammer Trio with Lee Hudson, Jimmy Wormworth; George Burton Group;
David Gibson Quintet
Smalls 7:30, 10:30 pm 1 am $20
• Scott Tixier Quartet
Fat Cat 10:30 pm
• Valerie Capers/John Robinson Knickerbocker Bar and Grill 9:45 pm $5
• Eric Reed Quartet with Seamus Blake, Reuben Rogers, Rodney Green
Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm $38
êJohn Escreet Quartet with Amir ElSaffar, François Moutin, Tyshawn Sorey
• Jane Ira Bloom Quartet with Dominic Fallacaro, Cameron Brown, Matt Wilson
êPerpetual Stranger: Liberty Ellman, Ches Smith, Okkyung Lee
• Mika Stoltzman with Steve Gadd, John Tropea
The Cutting Room 8 pm $25-45
Zinc Bar 8 pm
êMatt Darriau’s Paradox Trio with Rufus Cappadocia, Brad Shepik, Seido Salifoski
Barbès 8 pm $10
êSol(o)los: Darius Jones solo and duo with Giacomo Merega
Prospect Range 8:30 pm $10
• Bobby Katz Quartet with Don Friedman, Trevor Brown, Rodrigo Bonelli;
Grupo Los Santos; John Funkhouser Quintet with Aubrey Johnson
ShapeShifter Lab 7, 8:15, 9:30 pm $15
• Music of Wayne Shorter Ensemble directed by Doug Weiss;
Music of Herbie Hancock Ensemble directed by George Cables
• Danny Fox Trio with Chris van Voorst van Beest, Max Goldman
SubCulture 8 pm $15
• John Raymond Trio with Gilad Hekselman, Colin Stranahan
Bar Next Door 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $12
• Evan Mazunik’s ZAHA; NY Soundpainting Orchestra; Walter Thompson Orchestra
• Kenny Warren’s Laila and Smitty Littlefield 8:45 pm $10
• Hayes Greenfield/Dean Johnson Inkwell Café 7 pm
• Jake Hertzog/Trevor Gordon Hall Stage 72 7 pm $20
• Rob Silverman
• Noah Haidu Quartet
WhyNot Jazz Room 9:30 pm
• Naomi Okai with Noriko Tomikawa, Eric Lemon, Doug Richardson;
Laura Taglialatela with Scott Colberg, Francesco Ciniglio
• New York Choro
Tomi Jazz 9 pm $10
• Matt Baker Trio
• San Francisco High School Jazz All-Stars; Kevin Dorn and the BIG 72
Ronnie Cuber
êFred Hersch/Anat Cohen
Jazz Standard 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $30
Measure 8 pm
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band
Apollo Theater 11:30 am $7
Rose Hall 10 am $10
KENDRA SHANK &
JOHN STOWELL
NEW YORK
CONVERSATIONS
Sun. May 4 - Brooklyn, NY
Roulette: 7 PM
509 Atlantic Avenue
with guest percussionist
Rogerio Boccato
917-267-0363
roulette.org
Thurs. May 8 - Marlboro, NY
The Falcon: 7:30 PM
1348 Route 9W
845-236-7970
liveatthefalcon.com
Fri. May 9 - Albany, NY
Professor Java’s: 7:30 PM
217 Wolf Road. Library Room
Tix & Info:
[email protected],
415-385-7248
Distributed
in the USA by:
Allegro Media Group,
Portland OR
39
Saturday, May 10
Monday, May 12
êSun Ra Centennial: Ahmed Abdullah’s Diaspora and 67th Birthday Celebration with
Alex Harding, DD Jackson, Radu, Reggie Nicholson, Monique Ngozi Nri, TC III
êHarlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Arturo O’Farrill and The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra with
guests Randy Weston, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Freddy “Huevito” Lobaton, Café
Apollo Theater 8 pm $10-45
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Jazzmobile Vocal Competition
MIST Harlem 7 pm $10
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Hopping at the Savoy Dance Party Celebrating Frankie Manning’s 100th Birthday: Harlem Renaissance Band
MIST Harlem 10 pm $10
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Claudia Hayden
Showman’s Jazz Club 9, 11 pm
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Water Seed Ensemble
Apollo Music Café 10 pm $10
êLost Jazz Shrines - Mondays @ Minton’s: Eddie Allen, Rodney Jones, Helen Sung,
Yasushi Nakamura, Antonio Hart Tribeca Performing Arts Center 8:30 pm $25
• Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society; Take Off Collective: Ole Mathisen,
Matt Garrison, Marko Djordjevic ShapeShifter Lab 7, 8:15 pm $10-18
êKen Peplowski Quartet with Ehud Asherie, Joel Forbes, Aaron Kimmel
• Andrew Rathbun Octet with Aubrey Johnson, Michel Gentile, Matt Holman,
Chris Komer, Frank Carlberg, Aidan O’Donnell, Rob Garcia
Brooklyn Conservatory of Music 8 pm $10
• Kevin Hays/Bill Stewart Duo The Jazz Gallery 9, 11 pm $22
êEd Cherry Trio with Pat Bianchi, Steve Williams
Bar Next Door 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $12
• Michelle Boulé/Okkyung Lee; C Spencer Yeh/Okkyung Lee
• Michael Louis Smith Organ Trio; Carlos Abadie Quintet
Fat Cat 7, 10 pm
• Mike Bliss Quintet with Mark McIntyre, Joe Beerman;
Alex Rivas/Adam Ramsay Collective with Shawn Whitehorn, Jr., Lluis Capdevila,
Curtis Ostle; Jacob Melchior Trio with Kazu, Yoshi Waki and guest Frank Senior
Somethin’ Jazz Club 5, 7, 9 pm $10
• Emilio Teubal Trio; Michael GallantTomi Jazz 8, 11 pm $10
• Satchmo Mannan Band with Wink Flythe, Brian McKenzie, Yayoi Ikawa, Vinnie Ruggieri,
Ralph Hamperien, Kelly Downing, Darrell Smith, Dr. David Gilmore, Makiko
• The Highliners; Kate Chaston Silvana 6, 8 pm
êTony Malaby’s Tamarindo with William Parker, Nasheet Waits
• Hayes Greenfield Quartet; George Burton Group; Philip Harper
Smalls 7:30, 10:30 pm 1 am $20
• Valerie Capers/John Robinson Knickerbocker Bar and Grill 9:45 pm $5
• Eric Reed Quartet with Seamus Blake, Reuben Rogers, Rodney Green
Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm $38
• Brooklyn Soundpainting Company; Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble;
Walter Thompson Orchestra
Ronnie Cuber
êFred Hersch/Anat Cohen
Jazz Standard 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $30
• Steve Tyrell
Café Carlyle 8:45, 10:45 pm $75-165
Measure 8 pm
• The Highliners: Melissa Fogarty, Debra Kreisberg, Steve Newman, Adam Kahan,
Tommy Mattioli
Silvana 6 pm
• Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival: Bobby Sanabria and Ascension
Apollo Theater 1 pm $10
• Daniela Schaechter Trio; Brooks Hartell Trio; Virginia Mayhew Quartet
The Garage 12, 6:15, 10:45 pm
Rose Hall 10 am $10
• The Jazz Gallery Honors Gala: Roy Haynes; George Wein; Roy Hargrove;
Dale Fitzgerald; Lezlie Harrison The Jazz Gallery 7 pm $225-1,000
• Marc Ribot Trio with Henry Grimes, Chad Taylor
êAdam Rudolph’s GO: Organic Orchestra
êMingus Big Band
• Oran Etkin’s Gathering Light with Lionel Loueke, Ben Allison, Curtis Fowlkes
• Revive Big Band
• Matt Pavolka Trio; Joe Sanders’ Infinity with Ben Wendel, Ben van Gelder,
Justin Brown; Spencer Murphy Smalls 7:30, 10 pm 12:30 am $20
• Ned Goold Quartet; Billy Kaye Fat Cat 9 pm 12:30 am
êCaptain Black Big Band
Smoke 7, 9 pm
• Two Sisters Inc.: Clare Daly, Dave Sewelson, Dave Hofstra; Dave Sewelson Quartet
with Steve Swell, William Parker, Marvin Bugalu Smith; Orchestra Dave: Yoni Kretzmer,
Jake Sokolov-Gonzalez, Yoni Kretzmer, Leila Bordreuil, Michael Foster, Yaniv Kot,
Tristan Shepherd, Steve Moses Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center 7:30 pm $11-22
• Donna Lewis; Eddie Allen Aggregation Big Band
Zinc Bar 8, 9 pm
• Sarah Bernstein String Quartet with Scott Tixier, Mat Maneri, Rubin Kodheli
• The Ulysses Project: Kirsten Carey, Derek Worthington, Patrick Booth, Ben Willis,
Jonathan Taylor, Corey Smith and guest Nicolas Horner
Spectrum 9 pm $15
• Nora McCarthy Trio with Daniel Weiss, Donald Nicks
• Erica Seguine/Shannon Baker Jazz Orchestra
Tea Lounge 9, 10:30 pm
• Avalon Jazz Band
• Will You Learn Faculty Concert Metropolitan Room 9:30 pm $20
• Antonio Ciacca
Measure 8 pm
• The Modern Jazz Quintet: Brian Chahleytr, Lucas Pino, Glenn Zaleski, Rick Rosato,
Colin Stranahan; Greasers: Ian Gittler, Avi Bortick, Andy Hess, Aaron Johnston,
Eric Hoegemeyer with The Beautiful Brass and Aleksandar Petrov
• Anne Boccato’s Porque Sim! with Gianni Gagliardi, Quentin Angus,
Bam Bam Rodriguez, Mike Gordon; Alex Clough Trio with Lars Ekman, Jay Sawyer
• Takenori Nishiuchi
Tomi Jazz 8 pm
• New York Youth Symphony Jazz Band; Afro Mantra
• The Sons of Rest; Peter Lenz Quartet
Silvana 6, 8 pm
• Todd Robinson solo
Bryant Park 12:30 pm
Sunday, May 11
êThe New School Sun Ra Ensemble directed by Ahmed Abdullah
êAndy Bey/Paul Meyers
êMarc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog with Shahzad Ismaily, Ches Smith
Rough Trade NYC 8 pm $18
• Craig Taborn, Tyshawn Sorey, Okkyung Lee; Okkyung Lee
• Eri Yamamoto Trio with David Ambrosio, Ikuo Takeuchi
WhyNot Jazz Room 8, 10 pm $10
• Seamus Blake with Henry Hey, Matt Clohesy, Nate Smith
Rockwood Music Hall 2 7 pm
• Matt Savage Trio; Gene Bertoncini solo; Johnny O’Neal with Paul Sikivie,
Charles Goold; Clifford Barbaro Smalls 4:30, 7:30, 10 pm 12 am $20
• Gamelan Dharma Swara; Terry Waldo’s Gotham City Band;
Brandon Lewis/Renee Cruz Jam Fat Cat 7, 9:30 pm 12:30 am
• CACAW; Kris Keyser; Cookies; Killer Bob
The Grand Victory 7 pm $10
• Pretzel Club: Nic Handahl, Allen Fogelsanger, Tim O’Hara; Andrew Weather
ABC No-Rio 7 pm $5
• Peter Leitch/Sean Smith
Walker’s 8 pm
• Marco Di Gennaro
Measure 8 pm
• Gin Fizz: Bridget Crawford, Rebecca Steinberg, Mark Phillips, Rich Berta,
Ian Underwood, Anthony Rella; Kaz Araki Trio with Anthony Pocetti, Jarrett Walser;
Expedito Andrade Quartet with Andres Malagon, Tonny Lannen, Daniel Silva
Somethin’ Jazz Club 5, 7, 9 pm $10-12
• The Intergalactic Space All Stars Shrine 8 pm
• Brooklyn Soundpainting Company; Walter Thompson Orchestra
Ronnie Cuber
• Michael Feinberg’s Humblebrag with Godwin Louis, Jason Palmer, Julian Shore,
Dana Hawkins
Blue Note 12:30 am $10
êFred Hersch/John Abercrombie Jazz Standard 7:30, 9:30 pm $25
• Thomas Heberer, Yoni Kretzmer, Max Johnson; Daniel Carter, Wieland Moler,
Robert Boston, Nicolas Letman-Burtinovic
Downtown Music Gallery 6, 7 pm
• Tunk Trio
Silvana 6 pm
• Nadje Noordhuis Quintet
• Sara Gazarek
Blue Note 11:30 am 1:30 pm $29.50
• Melissa Stylianou Trio with Gene Bertoncini, Ike Sturm
• The Music of Louis Armstrong: “Hot Lips” Joey Morant and Catfish Stew
Lucille’s at BB King’s Blues Bar 1 pm $25
• Yvonnick Prene
Alor Café 12 pm
• Lou Caputo Quartet; David Coss Quartet; Abe Ovadia Trio
The Garage 11:30 am 6:30, 11 pm
Tuesday, May 13
êMarc Ribot plays Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid
Anthology Film Archives 8 pm $15
êJohn Scofield Trio with Larry Goldings, Greg Hutchinson
êTerell Stafford Quintet with Tim Warfield, Bruce Barth, Peter Washington, Dana Hall
• Joey DeFrancesco Trio
êMusic for Claude Thornhill: Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans Project with Wendy Gilles,
Augie Haas, Greg Gisbert, Jesse Han, Steve Kenyon, Steve Wilson, Dave Pietro,
Donny McCaslin, Scott Robinson, Brian Landrus, Adam Unsworth, David Peel,
Ryan Keberle, Marshall Gilkes, Marcus Rojas, James Chirillo, Frank Kimbrough,
Jay Anderson, Lewis Nash
• Chris Pattishall Quintet plays Mary Lou Williams’ Zodiac Suite
êBria Skonberg Group with Evan Arntzen, Dalton Ridenhour, Sean Cronin,
Darrian Douglas
Iridium 8:30, 10:30 pm $25-35
• Steve Tyrell
• Gene Perla Group
NYC Baha’i Center 8, 9:30 pm $15
• Vijay Iyer, Jeff Zeigler, Scott Colley, Satoshi Takeishi
êTom Blancarte solo
Spectrum 9:30 pm
• Brown House: Rich Perry, Vuyo Sotashe, Fima Chupakhin, Vince Dupont,
Theo Lebeaux
• Spike Wilner Trio with Yotam Silberstein, Paul Gill; Lucas Pino No Net Nonet with
Brian Chahley, Rick Rosato, Colin Stranahan, Glenn Zaleski, Alex LoRe, Rafal Sarnecki,
Nick Finzer, Andrew Gutauskas; Kyle Poole and Friends
Smalls 7:30, 10:30 pm 1 am $20
• Saul Rubin; Peter Brainin Latin Jazz Workshop; Greg Glassman Jam
• Stan Killian Quartet with Tom Guarna, Harvie S, Shareef Taher
55Bar 7 pm
• Austin Day Trio with Marty Kenny, Ben Waters
Jazz at Kitano 8 pm
• Ben Winkelman Trio with Sam Anning, Eric Doob
WhyNot Jazz Room 8 pm
• Peter Lenz’ Eclectic Vision with Matt Woroshyl, Kenji Herbert, Tom Berkman
• Candace DeBartolo Quartet; Chris Carroll Trio
• Michael Veal’s Armillary Sphere Silvana 7 pm
• Talking Strings
Shrine 7 pm
• Antonio Ciacca
Measure 8 pm
Wednesday, May 14
êRed Bull Music Academy and Undead Jazz Present Improvised Round Robin Duets:
Marc Ribot, Nels Cline, Allan Toussaint, Daedelus, Terri Lyne Carrington, James Carter,
Amp Fiddler, David Murray, Karsh Kale, Petra Haden, Shigeto
Town Hall 7:30 pm $30
êTed Rosenthal Trio with Martin Wind, Tim Horner Dizzy’s Club 7:30, 9:30 pm $30
• Let’s Do it - The Music of Cole Porter: Michael Feinstein, Marilyn Maye, Denzal Sinclair,
Kate Davis, Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks
The Appel Room 7, 9 pm $45-55
• Nat Adderley Jr. Quartet with Donald Braden, Trifon Dimitrov, Rocky Bryant Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm
• Kettle Collective presents: Jay Clayton’s Different Voices with Amanda Bloom,
Maryanne de Prophetis, Carol Flamm, Alexis Parsons, Cheryl Richards, Kendra Shank,
Judi Silvano, Andrea Wolper
Ibeam Brooklyn 8 pm $15
êChes Smith Quartet with Jonathan Finlayson, Mat Maneri, Stephan Crump
• Other Life Forms: Gordon Beeferman, Stephanie Griffin, Pascal Niggenkemper,
Andrew Drury
ShapeShifter Lab 7 pm $10
• Pedro Giraudo Sextet with Alejandro Aviles, Jonathan Powell, Mike Fahie,
Jess Jurkovic, Franco Pinna
Terraza 7 9 pm $7
• Steve Slagle; Tyler Mitchell
Smalls 9:30 pm 12:30 am $20
• Raphael D’lugoff; Harold Mabern Trio; Ned Goold Jam
• Brian Drye Trio with Matt Pavolka, Jeff Davis, Dave Ambrosio’s Gone with
Loren Stillman, Russ Meissner SEEDS 8:30, 10 pm
• Jon Di Fiore Trio with Billy Test, Adrian Moring
• Brian Marsella’s iMAGiNARiUM with Cyro Baptista, Dan Blankinship, Jason Fraticelli,
John Lee, Tim Keiper, Meg Okura Drom 7:15 pm $15
• Kevin Hays New Day Trio with Rob Jost, Greg Joseph
55Bar 7 pm
• Rale Micic/Brad Shepik
• Xiomara Laugart with Axel Tosca Laugart, Amaury Acosta, Alex Da Silva,
Max Cudworth, Michael Valeanu, Mauricio Herrera and guests
• Rich Medina’s Afro Jazz Cuts Minton’s Playhouse 11 pm $10
• Deborah Latz; Liam Sillery Quintet with Matt Blostein, Jesse Stacken, Peter Brendler,
Tony Moreno
• The Anderson Brothers; Nobuki Takamen Trio
• Steve Tyrell
• Antonio Ciacca
Measure 8 pm
• Laura Angyal
Silvana 6 pm
• Ben Sutin and Klazz-Ma-Tazz Shrine 6 pm
• Molly Ryan
Macy’s Herald Square 5 pm
• Joyce Breach/John di Martino Saint Peter’s 1 pm $10
Molly Ryan
Swing Era
Songbird
“...worldly wise beyond
her years, wonderfully
gentle and lyrical…”
- Will Friedwald,
The Wall Street Journal
NYC Schedule
May 14th - Macy’s Herald Square
May 17th - Empire City Swing
May 18th - NY Hot Jazz Festival
May 29th - The Rum House
for Performances, Bookings
& Recordings, visit mollyryan.com
Thursday, May 15
Saturday, May 17
• The Brooklyn College Big Band directed by Arturo O’Farrill with guests
Anat Cohen, Rafi Malkiel
Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts 7 pm $10
êRene Marie’s I Wanna Be Evil with Kevin Bales, Elias Bailey, Quentin Baxter,
Robert Stringer, Adrian Cunningham, Etienne Charles
êYard Byard - The Jaki Byard Project: Jamie Baum, Adam Kolker, Jerome Harris,
Ugonna Okegwo, George SchullerCornelia Street Café 8:30 pm $10
• Aaron Parks’ Little Big with Greg Touhey, Anders Christensen, Darren Beckett
• Misha Piatigorsky’s Sketchy Black Dog with Conor Szymanski, Danton Boller,
Frederika Krier, Nadya Meykson, Celia Hatton, Agnes Nagy
Zinc Bar 9, 10 pm
• Alex Hoffman Group; Wallace Roney Quintet; Nick Hempton Band
Smalls 6, 9:30 pm 12:30 am $20
• Clifford Barbaro Quartet; Stacy Dillard Quintet
Fat Cat 7, 10 pm
• Duchess: Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner, Melissa Stylianou with Michael Cabe,
Matt Aronoff, Matt Wilson
Swing 46 8:30 pm $12
êFay Victor’s Herbie Nichols Sung with Michaël Attias, Anthony Coleman, Ratzo Harris,
Rudy Royston
Greenwich House Music School 8 pm $20
• Victor Prieto Trio with Jorge Roeder, Eric Doob
Terraza 7 9 pm $7
• Clovis Nicolas Quintet with Riley Mulherkar, Luca Stoll, Tadataka Unno,
Jimmy MacBride
• Zack Lober’s The Ancestry Project with Dave Binney, Chet Doxas, John Escreet,
Dan Weiss
• Marcus and Jean Baylor Project Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm
• Howard Fishman Quartet
• Tom Tallitsch Trio with Jared Gold, Mark Ferber
• Joel Forrester/Christina Clare Quartet
• Scot Albertson/Daryl Kojak
Klavierhaus 8 pm
• Haruna Fukazawa/Yasuno Katsuki Group; Brothers of Contrapuntal Swing:
Jimmy Halperin, Larry Meyer, Dave Frank, Bill McCrossen, George Hooks
• Senri Oe
Tomi Jazz 9 pm $10
• Rick Stone Trio; Adam Rongo TrioThe Garage 6, 10:30 pm
• Let’s Do it - The Music of Cole Porter: Michael Feinstein, Marilyn Maye, Denzal Sinclair,
Kate Davis, Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks
The Appel Room 7, 9 pm $45-55
• Terell Stafford Quintet with Tim Warfield, Bruce Barth, Peter Washington, Dana Hall
• Lorin Cohen Quartet
Birdland 6 pm $25
• Steve Tyrell
• Antonio Ciacca
Measure 8 pm
• Irv Grossman Sextet
Silvana 6 pm
• William Paterson University Jazz Ensemble directed by Tim Newman
Citigroup Center Plaza 12:30 pm
• Oz Noy Trio with Oteil Burbridge, Keith Carlock
Iridium 8:30, 10:30 pm $35
êJeff Davis’ Dragon Father with Kirk Knuffke, Oscar Noriega, Russ Lossing,
Eivind Opsvik
• Misha Piatigorsky Trio with Danton Boller, Conor Szymanski
Zinc Bar 8 pm
• George Gray
• Ilya Lushtak Quintet; Steve Carrington
Fat Cat 7, 10 pm
• Brandon Bernstein Trio with Putter Smith, Jeff Hirschfeld Bar Next Door 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $12
• Molly Ryan
Dance With Me SoHo 9 pm
• Nico Soffiato’s Paradigm Refrain Goodbye Blue Monday 8 pm
• Jidam Kang Group; Jo-B Sebastian with Eran Sabo, Antonio Mazzei, Jon Toscano,
David Jimenez; Nick Brust/Adam Horowitz Quintet with Matthew Sheens,
James Quinlan, Dani Danor
• Daniel Bennett Group; Annie Chen Trio
Tomi Jazz 8, 11 pm $10
• Alan Rosenthal Trio
êTribute to Preston Jackson: Greg Ward Septet with Brianna Thomas,
Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, Dave Miller, John Escreet, Zack Lober, Kenneth Salters
êDon Friedman Trio with George Mraz, Matt Wilson
êNuevo Jazz Latino: Carlos Henriquez, Pedrito Martinez, Dafnis Prieto, Yosvany Terry,
Elio Villafranca; New Jazz Standards: Reid Anderson, Eric Harland, Carla Kihlstedt,
Guillermo Klein, Bill McHenry
The Appel Room 7, 9:30 pm $45-55
êLouis Hayes Jazz Communicators with Steve Nelson, Abraham Burton, David Bryant,
Dezron Douglas
Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm $38
êJoel Press Quartet; Billy Drummond’s Freedom of Ideas; Stacy Dillard, Diallo House,
Ismail Lawal
Smalls 7:30, 10:30 pm 1 am $20
• Tardo Hammer/Lee Hudson
êNew Bottle Old Wine and Individualism of Gil Evans: Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans Project
with Wendy Gilles, Augie Haas, Greg Gisbert, Steve Wilson, Dave Pietro,
Donny McCaslin, Tom Christensen, Alden Banta, Adam Unsworth, David Peel,
Ryan Keberle, Marshall Gilkes, George Flynn, Marcus Rojas, Lois Martin,
James Chirillo, Frank Kimbrough, Jay Anderson, Lewis Nash
Jazz Standard 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $30
• Steve Tyrell
Café Carlyle 8:45, 10:45 pm $75-165
• Antonio Ciacca
Measure 8 pm
• Lucy Blanco Afro-Garifuna Jazz Ensemble
Bronx Music Heritage Center 6 pm
• Larry Newcomb Quartet; Mark Marino Trio
Friday, May 16
êRed Bull Music Academy Presents Hardcore Activity in Progress: Tim Hecker;
Napalm Death; Gunplay; The Thing: Mats Gustafsson, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten,
Paal Nilssen-Love; Wolf Eyes; Regis; Bastard Noise; Lubomyr Melnyk; Skullflower;
Joe McPhee/Chris Corsano; Okkyung Lee; Clipping; Yoshiko Ohara; Reg Bloor; Gnaw Knockdown Center 8 pm $10
êLatin Jazz Traditions: Paquito D’Rivera Young Artists Ensemble
Zankel Hall 7:30 pm $15
êTo Bird & Dizzy With Love: Queens Jazz Orchestra led by Jimmy Heath
Flushing Town Hall 7:30 pm $20-40
êTribute to Preston Jackson: Greg Ward Septet with Brianna Thomas,
Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, Dave Miller, John Escreet, Zack Lober, Kenneth Salters
êDon Friedman Trio with George Mraz, Matt Wilson
êNew Jazz Standards: Reid Anderson, Eric Harland, Carla Kihlstedt, Guillermo Klein,
Bill McHenry; Nuevo Jazz Latino: Carlos Henriquez, Pedrito Martinez, Dafnis Prieto,
Yosvany Terry, Elio Villafranca The Appel Room 7, 9:30 pm $45-55
êLouis Hayes Jazz Communicators with Steve Nelson, Abraham Burton, David Bryant,
Dezron Douglas
Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm $38
êMarc Ribot’s Los Cubanos Postizos with Anthony Coleman, Brad Jones,
Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez, EJ Rodriguez
êDavid Tronzo Trio with Stomu Takeishi, Ben Perowsky; Amanda Monaco 3 with
Joe Fiedler, Sean Conly
SingleCut Beersmiths 8, 9:30 pm $10
• New York Trombone Consort with guests Jen Baker, Dave Taylor; Sarah Kervin Band
• Richie Vitale Quintet; Billy Drummond’s Freedom of Ideas
Smalls 7:30, 10:30 pm 1 am $20
• Josh Evans; Jared Gold
Fat Cat 10:30 pm 1:30 am
• Tommy Campbell’s Tea Tree with David Kikoski and guest Toku
• Tardo Hammer/Lee Hudson
Zinc Bar 8 pm
• Will Holshouser Trio with Ron Horton, Dave Phillips
Jazz Standard 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $30
• Petros Klampanis’ Contextual with Jean-Michel Pilc, Gilad Hekselman, Zach Brock,
Maria Manousaki, Lev Zhurbin, Yoed Nir, John Hadfield
• Adam Larson Trio with Raviv Markovitz, Jimmy MacBride
Bar Next Door 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $12
• Asher Ben-Or Trio
• Ms. Blu and Trio with Billy Test, Iris Ornig, Chris Benham; Laura Angyal with
Taulant Mehmeti, Billy Ruegger Somethin’ Jazz Club 7, 9 pm $10
• John Malino Duo
Tomi Jazz 9 pm $10
• Sacha Perry Trio
• Al Marino Quintet; Peter Valera Jump Blues Band
• Terell Stafford Quintet with Tim Warfield, Bruce Barth, Peter Washington, Dana Hall
• Steve Tyrell
Café Carlyle 8:45, 10:45 pm $75-165
• Antonio Ciacca
Measure 8 pm
• Alex Foster Band
Silvana 6 pm
Sunday, May 18
êNew York Hot Jazz Festival: Vince Giordano And The Nighthawks with guest
Catherine Russell; Ken Peplowski New Swing Quartet; Frank Vignola/Vinny Raniolo;
Bria Skonberg Brass Kicker Brass Band; The Hot Sardines; Kate Davis;
Adrien Chevalier With The Hot Club Of New York; Mike Davis And His New Wonders;
David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Eternity Band; Cynthia Sayer’s Sparks Fly with
Vincent Gardner; Dan Levinson’s Gotham Sophisticats with Molly Ryan,
Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton; Professor Cunningham And His Old School
The Players Club 1 pm $70
• Gregor Huebner/Brandon Ross Spectrum 8:30 pm $15
êGene Bertoncini solo
êGuy Klucevsek
Barbès 7 pm $10
• Billy Newman Quintet with Eric Schugren, Bruce Williamson, Leco Reis,
Vanderlei Pereira
• Johnny O’Neal with Paul Sikivie, Charles Goold; Jonathan Lefcoski Trio
Smalls 10 pm 12 am $20
• Terry Waldo’s Gotham City Band; Rick Germanson Trio;
• James Keepnews, Michael Bisio, Dave Berger; Clash of the Downtown Avengers:
Fung Chern Hwei/Vicky Chow WhyNot Jazz Room 7:30, 9 pm $10
• Chico Hamilton Tribute - Euphoria: Paul Ramsey, Evan Schwam, Jeremy Carlstedt,
Mayu Saeki, Nick Demopolous Drom 7:15 pm $20
• Lena Bloch Quartet with Boris Netsvetaev, Putter Smith, Billy Mintz
The Firehouse Space 8:30 pm $10
• M; Kate Mohanty
ABC No-Rio 7 pm $5
• Peter Leitch/Harvie S
Walker’s 8 pm
• Steve Ash
Measure 8 pm
• Yoshiki Miura Group with Olivier Rambeloson, Bruno Razafindrakoto, Alec Menge;
Leah Gough-Cooper; The Wolfhound Trio: Chris McCarthy, Isaac Levien,
Russell Holzman
• Isaiah Barr Quintet
Silvana 8 pm
• Oz Noy Trio with Oteil Burbridge, Keith Carlock
Iridium 8:30, 10:30 pm $35
• Jerry DeVore Trio
• Kate McGarry/Keith Ganz
• Kirpal Gordon/Steve Dalachinsky and Frank Perowsky Trio with Bruce Edwards,
Bill Ware
Bowery Poetry Club 3:30 pm
• Dances of the World Ensemble: Diana Wayburn, Barry Seroff, Josh Mizruchi,
Ken Silverman, Yonatan Avi Oleiski
St. Mark’s Church 3 pm
• Jennifer Hartswick
Perez Jazz 2 pm $20
• Juilliard Jazz Brunch: Lukas Gabric, Greg Duncan, Reuben Allen, Paolo Benedettini,
Jordan Young
Blue Note 11:30 am 1:30 pm $29.50
• Ed Laub Trio with Saul Rubin, Sara Caswell
• Michika Fukumori Trio; Rob Edwards Quartet; Adam Larson Trio
Monday, May 19
êSidney Bechet Society: Tribute to Mat Domber and Arbors Records with Anat Cohen,
Wycliffe Gordon, Dick Hyman, Bucky Pizzarelli, Warren Vache, Joel Forbes,
Rebecca Kilgore, Ed Metz, Rossano Sportiello, Harry Allen, John Allred,
Rajiv Jayaweera, Bob Wilber
Symphony Space Peter Jay Sharp Theatre 7:15 pm $35
êMingus Big Band
êThe Big Band Living Legacy Project directed by Ryan Keberle with Jerry Dodgion,
Joe Temperley, Bob Milikan, Earl Gardner, Clarence Banks, Rufus Reid, Alan Broadbent
Lang Recital Hall 8 pm
• Jay Rodriguez
êFlin van Hemmen Ensemble with Jonathan Moritz, Ben Gerstein, Sean Ali;
Chad Taylor Trio with Angelica Sanchez, Chris Lightcap; LEastSideQuartet:
William Parker, Andy Bemkey, Jason Kao Hwang, Jackson Krall
• Gene Ess and Fractal Attraction with Thana Alexa, David Berkman, Thomson Kneeland
and guest Clarence Penn; Sebastien Ammann Quartet with Ohad Talmor,
Dave Ambrosio, Eric McPherson ShapeShifter Lab 8:15, 9:30 pm $15
• Juilliard School Ensemble
êDan Tepfer Trio; Ari Hoenig Trio; Spencer Murphy
Smalls 7:30, 10 pm 12:30 am $20
• George Braith; Billy Kaye Jam Fat Cat 9 pm 12:30 am
êJason Marshall Big Band
Smoke 7, 9 pm
• Billy Mintz Quartet with Roberta Piket, John Gross, Putter Smith
Greenwich House Music School 8:30 pm $15
• Akvariettrio: Wieland Moller, Robert Boston, Nicolas Letman-Burtinovic
Spectrum 9 pm
• Elisabeth Lohninger Trio with Steve Cardenas, Alexis Cuadrado
• Deborah Weisz Jazz Orchestra Tea Lounge 9, 10:30 pm
• Donna Lewis; Dana Lauren
Zinc Bar 8, 9 pm
• Common Quartet: Nitzan Gavrieli, Pablo Menares, Alex Wyatt, Seth Trachy and guest
Peter Bernstein
Vodou Bar 8 pm
• Mariko/Nabuko Kiryu; Kenji Herbert Trio with Jared Henderson, Roberto Giaquinto
• Akemi Yamada
Tomi Jazz 8 pm
• Cole Rumbough
• Howard Willliams Jazz Orchestra; Adam Moezinia Trio
• Steve Ash
Measure 8 pm
• Tony DiGregorio Sextet
Silvana 6 pm
• Sue Maskaleris
Tuesday, May 20
êSteve Wilson’s Wilsonian’s Grain with Orrin Evans, Ugonna Okegwo, Bill Stewart
êMatana Roberts/Susie Ibarra
• Curtis Hasselbring; Carlo Costa’s Acustica with Kyungmi Lee, Joe Moffett,
Ben Gerstein, Dan Peck, Nathaniel Morgan, Jonathan Moritz, Jen-Brice Godet,
Miranda Sielaff, Todd Neufeld, Jesse Stacken, Pascal Niggenkemper, Sean Ali
Ibeam Brooklyn 8:30, 10 pm $15
• Karrin Allyson
êTuck & Patti
• Donald Harrison’s Berklee Quintet with Santiago Bosch, Osmar Okuma, Darryl Staves
• Steven Kroon Sextet with Craig Rivers, Igor Atalita, Bryan Carrott, Ruben Rodriguez,
Diego Lopez and guest Tim Ries Jazz Standard 7:30, 9:30 pm $20
• Ray Blue Ensemble
NYC Baha’i Center 8, 9:30 pm $15
• TAUOM: Satoshi Takeishi, Dan Blake, Ricardo Gallo
ShapeShifter Lab 8:15 pm $10
• Zach Brock
• Joel Forrester/Christina Clare Quartet
Spectrum 9 pm
• Carlo Costa’s Acoustica with Kyungmi Lee, Joe Moffett, Ben Gerstein, Dan Peck,
Jonathan Moritz, Nathaniel Morgan, Johnny B. Goode, Miranda Sielaff, Todd Neufeld,
Jesse Stacken, Sean Ali, Pascal Niggenkemper, Carlo Costa
• Spike Wilner Trio with Yotam Silberstein, Paul Gill; Smalls Legacy Band: Josh Evans,
Stacy Dillard, Frank Lacy, Theo Hill, Ameen Saleem, Kush Abadey
Kyle Poole and Friends
Smalls 7:30, 10:30 pm 1 am $20
• Saul Rubin; Greg Glassman Jam Fat Cat 7 pm 12:30 am
• Roz Corral Quartet with Paul Bollenback, Boris Kozlov, Steve Williams
55Bar 7 pm
• Allen Watsky’s Djangle Box Project with Marty Fogel, Brian Glassman, David Licht
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue 7:30 pm $15
• Yvonnick Prene
The Flatiron Room 8 pm
• Ben Eunson Trio with Matt Clohesy, Faron Tilson
Jazz at Kitano 8 pm
• Lisa DeSpain; Dorian Wallace and The Free Sound Ahn-somble
• Paul Corn Jazz Collective
Tomi Jazz 8 pm
• The Dazzelhawk Trio; Paul Francis Trio
• Steve Ash
Measure 8 pm
• Ian Buss
Silvana 6 pm
• Tyrone Birkett
Shrine 6 pm
• Sue Maskaleris
Wednesday, May 21
êElectric Miles: Randy Brecker, Jeremy Pelt, Paul Bollenback, Lonnie Plaxico,
Steve Smith
Iridium 8:30, 10:30 pm $35-45
• Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia led by Terell Stafford
êIkue Mori/Susie Ibarra; John King/Susie Ibarra
êHarold Mabern Trio; Willerm Delisfort Group
Smalls 9:30 pm 12:30 am $20
• Dayna Stephens Quintet with Aaron Parks, Joe Sanders, Justin Brown
• Jeremy Udden’s Hush Point with John McNeil, Aryeh Kobrinsky, Vinnie Sperrazza;
Canada Day: Nate Wooley, Matt Bauder, Chris Dingman, Pascal Niggenkemper,
Harris Eisenstadt
Douglas Street Music Collective 8, 9:30 pm $10
• Jerry Weldon Quartet with Jeb Patton, Mike Karn, Willie Jones III
Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm
• Aaron Burnett and the Big Machine with Peter Evans, Carlos Homs, Nick Jozwiak,
Tyshawn Sorey
• Sharel Cassity Minton’s Playhouse 11 pm $10
• Michelle Walker Quartet with Sean Fitzpatrick, Michael O’Brien, Willard Dyson
Barbès 8 pm $10
• Devin Gray’s Relative Resonance with Chris Speed, Kris Davis, Chris Tordini
• Iris Ornig Quartet with Brandon Wright, Billy Test, Nadav Snir
Zinc Bar 7 pm
• Raphael D’lugoff; Don Hahn; Ned Goold Jam
• Jon Weber
Metropolitan Room 7 pm $20
• Loren Stillman, Nicolas Letman-Burtinovic, Igal Foni
Bar Chord 9 pm
• Equilibrium: Brad Baker, Pam Belluck, Rich Russo, Elliot Honig, Terry Schwadron,
Dan Silverstone
Caffe Vivaldi 8:30 pm
• Alberto Pibiri
Measure 8 pm
• Luis Camacho and Sounds del Caribe with Roberto Agron, Victor Molina;
Ted Perry Trio with Gustavo Amarante, Vanderlei Pereira
• Kristen Lee Sergeant Trio
Tomi Jazz 8 pm
• Bobby Porcelli Quartet; Ken Simon Trio
• Karrin Allyson
êTuck & Patti
• Dave Hassell Quintet
Silvana 6 pm
• Cecilia Coleman Big Band
• Sue Maskaleris
41
Thursday, May 22
êRandy Weston African Rhythms Quintet with Billy Harper, Robert Trowers, Alex Blake,
Neil Clarke
• Ben Wolfe Quintet with Nicholas Payton, Stacy Dillard, Dave Kikoski, Donald Edwards
• Erik Friedlander’s Bonebridge with Doug Wamble, Trevor Dunn, Michael Sarin
• Folkloriko: Susie Ibarra solo; Mysteries of Nature: Susie Ibarra and guests
• Claudia Acuña
Rockwood Music Hall 3 8 pm
• Dwayne Clemons Quintet with Josh Benko, Sacha Perry, Murray Wall,
Jimmy Wormworth; Jon Cowherd Trio; Carlos Abadie Quintet with Joe Sucato,
Peter Zak, Clovis Nicolas, Luca Santaniello
Smalls 6, 9:30 pm 12:30 am $20
• Davis Whitfield Quintet; Point of Departure
• Noah Preminger
Ginny’s Supper Club 8:30 pm $15
• Adrian Frey Trio with Patrick Sommer, Tony Renold; Armen Donelian Trio with
David Clark, George Schuller
Zinc Bar 9 pm
• Billy Mintz Quartet with Roberta Piket, John Gross, Putter Smith; Jonas Tauber Quartet
with John Gross, Hans Tammen, Billy Mintz; The Lost Quartet: Benjamin Koppel,
Jean-Michel Pilc, Johannes Weidenmueller, John Hadfield
ShapeShifter Lab 7, 8:15, 9:30 pm $10-15
• Sara Serpa/André Matos; Emilie Weibel’s oMoO
Greenwich House Music School 7:30 pm $15
• Hanky Panky Trio: Alex Minasian, Brandi Disterheft, Steve Williams
• Jesse Elder’s The Elderchild Ensemble with Blanca Cecila Gonzalez, Jeremy Viner,
Ryan Ferreira, Steve Whipple, Tyshawn Sorey
• Victor Haskins
• Gregory Generet
Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm
• Nelson Riveras Trio with Thomson Kneeland, Pablo Bencid
• Josh Deutsch/Nico Soffiato
• Judi Marie
Indian Road Café 7:30 pm
• Dave Acker Quartet with Dale Kleps, Lecco Reis, Dan Pugach; Blue Heaven:
Mark McGowan, Tommy Morimoto, Alex Jeun, Alberto Pibiri, Ralph Hamperian,
Art Lillard
• Jonathan Powell
Tomi Jazz 9 pm $10
• Ben Paterson Trio
• Steve Picataggio Trio; Nathan Peck Trio
Steve Smith
Iridium 8:30, 10:30 pm $35-45
êMichaël Attias/Arúan Ortiz; Canada Day: Nate Wooley, Matt Bauder, Chris Dingman,
Pascal Niggenkemper, Harris Eisenstadt
• Alberto Pibiri
Measure 8 pm
• Nick Ziobro
Birdland 6 pm $20
• Karrin Allyson
êTuck & Patti
• Stan Killian Trio
Strand Bistro 6 pm
• Bill Mobley Band
Silvana 6 pm
• Joel Forrester Trio
Shrine 6 pm
• New School Jazz Ensemble
• Sue Maskaleris
Friday, May 23
• Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with guests Christian McBride, Kurt Rosenwinkel
Rose Theater 8 pm $30-120
êBenny Golson Quartet
êMiles Davis Celebration: Jimmy Cobb and Friends
Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm $40
êSteve Grossman Quartet with George Cables, Joseph Lepore, Jason Brown
• Electric Kulintang: Roberto Rodriguez, Susie Ibarra and guest Yusef Komunyakaa
êHelen Sung Trio
Flushing Town Hall 8 pm $15
• Ralph Lalama’s Bop-Juice; Mark Soskin Quartet with Rich Perry
Smalls 7:30, 10:30 pm 1 am $20
• Eden Ladin Quartet; Darryl Yokley Latin Project
Fat Cat 6, 10:30 pm
êLinda Oh Group with Greg Ward, Matt Mitchell, Ches Smith and Sirius Quartet:
Fung Chern Hwei, Earl Maneein, Ron Lawrence, Jeremy Harman
êJoe Sanders/Taylor Eigsti Duo
• Jeff Barone Trio with Ron Oswanski, Victor Jones
Bar Next Door 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $12
Zinc Bar 8 pm
• Ronny Whyte, Boots Maleson, David Silliman
• Off Lines Project: Guy Mintus/Yinon Muallem
Drom 9:30 pm $20
• Freeman Runs the Voodoo Down Miles Davis Celebration: David Freeman,
Ari Folman-Cohen, Oren Neiman, Tyler Sussman and guest James Zollar;
Florencia Gonzalez Candombe Project with Jonathan Powell, Shannon Barnett,
Leo Genovese, Luis Guzman, Franco Pinna ShapeShifter Lab 8:15, 9:30 pm $10
Goodbye Blue Monday 8 pm
• Rob Silverman
• Gary Levy Quartet with Jimmy Halperin, Aidan O’Donnell, Taro Okamoto;
Modern Life Trio: Tom Beckham, Rale Micic, Slavov and guest Aleksandar Petrov
• Marc Schwartz Quartet with Ben Bishop, Fumi Tomita, Mike Gordon and guest
Katie Ernst; Jeff Walton with Julian Shore, Danny Weller, Charles Burchell;
Will Mac Quintet with Ralph Bowen, John Petrucelli, John Morrison, Gusten Rudolph
• Marina Makarova Trio
• Masami Ishikawa Trio; Kevin Dorn and the BIG 72
Neil Clarke
Jazz Standard 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $30
Steve Smith
Iridium 8:30, 10:30 pm $35-45
• Chris Hoffman’s Magic Wells with Sara Schoenbeck, Stomu Takeishi, Brian Chase;
Canada Day: Nate Wooley, Matt Bauder, Chris Dingman, Pascal Niggenkemper,
Harris Eisenstadt
• Alberto Pibiri
Measure 8 pm
• Karrin Allyson
• Watson Jazz Combo
Silvana 6 pm
• The Highliners: Melissa Fogarty, Debra Kreisberg, Steve Newman, Adam Kahan,
Tommy Mattioli
Shrine 6 pm
• Sue Maskaleris
Saturday, May 24
• Spencer Murphy Quintet; Wayne Escoffery
Fat Cat 7, 10 pm
êMostly Other People Do the Killing; Charles Evans Quartet
• Clarence Penn Quartet with Dayna Stephens, Lage Lund, Matt Brewer
êGreg Lewis’ Organ Monk
• Mantra Percussion and Brian Chase
• Women Composers Concert: Carol Sudhalter’s Astoria Big Band
Sunnyside Reformed Church 7 pm
• Vanderlei Pereira and BlindFold Test
Zinc Bar 8 pm
• Alexis Cole
• Aleksi Glick Trio with Jeff Koch, Phillipe Lemme Bar Next Door 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $12
• Banda Magda
• Isaiah Barr with Keefe Martin, Zen Groom, Malik McLaurine, Austin Williamson;
Steve Kaiser Quartet with Kevin Golden, Lewis Porter, Jason Burger;
Cristian Mendoza Quartet with Alex Ayala, Joel Mateo
• Spencer Jones Trio
Tomi Jazz 11 pm $10
• Emanuele Tozzi Trio
• Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with guests Christian McBride, Kurt Rosenwinkel
Rose Theater 8 pm $30-120
êMiles Davis Celebration: Jimmy Cobb and Friends
Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm $40
êSteve Grossman Quartet with George Cables, Joseph Lepore, Jason Brown
• Billy Mintz Quartet with Roberta Piket, John Gross, Putter Smith; Mark Soskin Quartet
with Rich Perry; Philip Harper
Smalls 7:30, 10:30 pm 1 am $20
• Ronny Whyte, Boots Maleson, David Silliman
Neil Clarke
Jazz Standard 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $30
Steve Smith
Iridium 8:30, 10:30 pm $35-45
êJosh Sinton’s Musicianer with Jason Ajemian, Chad Taylor; Canada Day: Nate Wooley,
Matt Bauder, Chris Dingman, Pascal Niggenkemper, Harris Eisenstadt
• Alberto Pibiri
Measure 8 pm
• Karrin Allyson
• Alex Layne Trio; Hide Tanaka Trio; Virginia Mayhew Quartet
The Garage 12, 6:15, 10:45 pm
• Robert Mwamba Band
Silvana 6 pm
• Mike Yaw Quartet
Shrine 6 pm
joe sanders
taylor eigsti
duo
Friday, May 23 - 8:30pm
Cornelia Street Café
29 Cornelia Street, NYC
joesandersbass.com / tayjazz.com
• The Westerlies play Wayne Horvitz: Riley Mulherkar, Zubin Hensler, Andy Clausen,
Willem de Koch
• Susie Ibarra solo
The Stone 10 pm $15
• John Merrill Trio with Tyler Mitchell, Brian Floody; Johnny O’Neal with Paul Sikivie,
Charles Goold; Ken Fowser Quintet
Smalls 4:30, 7:30, 10 pm 12 am $20
• Terry Waldo’s Gotham City Band; Greg Murphy Quartet;
êLaFrae Sci’s 13th Amendment with Mazz Swift, Aaron Whitby; William Hooker solo
WhyNot Jazz Room 7:30, 9 pm $10
êPeter Leitch/Ray Drummond
Walker’s 8 pm
• Jan Pele Dal Motion Jazz Project by Jan Pele with Sam Minae, Jonathan Powell;
Annie Chen’s Pisces the Dreamer with Boris Acosta Jaramillo, Joseph Han,
Joochan Im, Rafal Sarnecki
ShapeShifter Lab 7, 8:15 pm $10-12
• Bossa Brasil: Maurício de Souza, Ben Winkelman, Joonsam Lee
Inwood Local 9 pm
• Alex Frondelli Quintet with Matt Martinez, Matt Malanowski, Cole Davis, Michael Vetter
• Vanunu Ethno Jazz Ensemble Silvana 8 pm
Neil Clarke
• Alberto Pibiri
Measure 8 pm
• Nu Duo: Cheryl Pyle/Bern Nix Downtown Music Gallery 6 pm
Caffe Vivaldi 6 pm
• Marianne Solivan Quartet
• Amy Cervini and Jazz Kids!
55Bar 2 pm $5
• William Patterson College Brunch: Pete McGuinness Orchestra with Steve Kenyon,
Mark Phaneuf, Tom Christensen, Dan Pratt, Dave Reikenberg, Jon Owens, Tony Kadlek,
Bill Mobley, Chris Rogers, Bruce Eidem, Mark Patterson, Matt Haviland, Tim Newman,
Michael Holober, Andy Eulau, Scott Neumann
Blue Note 11:30 am 1:30 pm $29.50
• Roz Corral Trio with Dave Stryker, Paul Gill
• Kyoko Oyobe Trio; David Coss Quartet; Tsutomu Naki Trio
Monday, May 26
êJimmy Cobb Quintet; Billy Kaye Jam
Fat Cat 9 pm 12:30 am
êAvram Fefer Trio with Michael Bisio, Michael Wimberly; Flin van Hemmen Ensemble
with Ben Gerstein, Jonathan Moritz, Sean Ali; Alex Harding Trio with Hill Greene,
Reggie Nicholson
• Ryan Kisor Quintet with Peter Zak, Peter Bernstein, John Webber, Willie Jones III
êCaptain Black Big Band
Smoke 7, 9 pm
• Matthew Finck/Jonathan Ball Project with Jay Anderson, Adam Nussbaum
• Ehud Asherie Trio with Paul Sikivie, Phil Stewart; Ari Hoenig Trio; Spencer Murphy
Smalls 7:30, 10 pm 12:30 am $20
• Caterina Zapponi
• Aaron Irwin Group with Danny Fox, Sebastian Noelle, Dan Foose
• Donna Lewis; The Vocal Summit: Beat Kaestli, Elisabeth Lohninger, Melissa Stylianou,
Dylan Pramuk, Jamie Reynolds, Gary Wang and guests Magos Herrera,
Gabriell Stravelli, Aria Hendricks, Navin Chettri
Zinc Bar 8, 9 pm
• Emily Wolf with Jason Yeager, Dorota Piotrovska, Lauren Falls, Leah Gough-Cooper,
Satish Robertson
• Laura Campisi Trio with Saul Rubin, Ameen Saleem
• New York Jazz 9 + 3 Spirit
Tea Lounge 9, 10:30 pm
• Antonio Ciacca
Measure 8 pm
• Dorian Devins Quartet with Richie Vitale, Lou Rainone, Ben Meigners;
Greasers: Ian Gittler, Avi Bortick, Andy Hess, Aaron Johnston, Eric Hoegemeyer with
The Beautiful Brass and Aleksandar Petrov
• Transitory: Jacob Spadaro, Bridget Supka, Yael Cederbaum, Mordy Weinstein,
Will Armstrong, Ross Kratter, Sam Gautier
• Eyal Vilner Big Band; Will Terrill Trio
• Ammo Cake Jazz Trio
Silvana 6 pm
Tuesday, May 27
êJoe Lovano’s Village Rhythms Band with Liberty Ellman, Matt Garrison, Otis Brown,
Abdou Mboup
êJeff “Tain” Watts Quartet with Troy Roberts, David Budway, Chris Smith
• BossaBrasil: Marcos Valle and Roberto Menescal with Patricia Alvi, Renato Massa,
Jesse Sadoc, Itaiguara Brandao, Jorge Continentino
• Ryan Kisor Quintet with Peter Zak, Peter Bernstein, John Webber, Willie Jones III
• Eyal Vilner Group
Dizzy’s Club 11:30 pm $10
• Theo Croker’s DVRK Funk with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Irwin Hall, Seth Johnson,
Sullivan Fortner, Eric Wheeler, Kassa Overall, Jerome Jennings
êJoe Fiedler Trio with Rob Jost, Michael Sarin
• Kyle Saulnier’s The Awakening Orchestra with Rob Mosher, David Dejesus,
Samuel Ryder, Andrew Gutauskas, Daniel Urness, Seneca Black, Nadje Noordhuis,
Jonathan Powell, Michael Boscarino, Matthew Musselman, Benjamin Griffin,
Max Seigel, Julie Hardy, Nathan Hetherington, James Shipp, Michael Macallister,
Aaron Kotler, Joshua Paris, Will Clark
• Kavita Shah with Lionel Loueke Joe’s Pub 7:30 pm $20
• Sheryl Bailey
55Bar 7 pm
• Spike Wilner Trio with Yotam Silberstein, Paul Gill; Josh Evans Big Band with
Ned Goold, Stafford Hunter, Stacy Dillard, Freddie Hendrix, David Gibson,
Bruce Williams, Theo Hill, Ameen Saleem, Chris Beck, Max Seigel, Vitaly Golovnev,
Frank Lacy, Yunie Mojica, Lauren Sevian Kyle Poole and Friends
Smalls 7:30, 10:30 pm 1 am $20
• Saul Rubin; Itai Kriss and Gato Gordo; Greg Glassman Jam
• Jacam Manricks Trio with Gianluca Renzi, Ross Pederson
• Tom Chiu solo; Tom Chiu/Conrad Harris
• Nick Virzi; Leslie Ross
Freddy’s Backroom 8:30, 10 pm $10
• Aubrey Johnson Sextet with Michael Thomas, Tomoko Omura, Chris Ziemba,
Hans Glawischnig, Jeremy Noller WhyNot Jazz Room 8 pm
• CTMD Tantshoyz with Steven Weintraub, Amy Zakar’s Fidl Kapelye
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue 7:30 pm $15
Jazz at Kitano 8 pm
• Benno Marmur Trio
Tomi Jazz 8 pm
• Ben Sutton Quartet; Benjamin Drazen Trio
• Antonio Ciacca
Measure 8 pm
• Sam Trapchak’s Orphan Planet Silvana 6 pm
• Julieta Eugenio Trio
Shrine 6 pm
• Joel Forrester solo
Wednesday, May 28
êJuilliard Jazz Quartet: Ron Carter, Ron Blake, Frank Kimbrough, Carl Allen
• Wallace Roney Quartet with Victor Gould, Daryl Johns, Kojo Roney
êJacob Sacks/Yoon Sun Choi Duo; Jacob Sacks Trio with Thomas Morgan, Dan Weiss
Weill Recital Hall 8 pm $35
• Dezron Douglas Black Lion Quartet
• Roman Filiu Group
SEEDS 8:30 pm
• Larry Gelb Trio with Cameron Brown, Michael Stephans
• Joanna Pascale and the Orrin Evans Trio with Vicente Archer, Obed Calvaire
Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm
• Conrad Harris solo; Max Mandel/Eric Huebner
• Misha Piatigorsky Quintet with Tatum Greenblatt, Tivon Pennicott, Danton Boller,
Rudy Royston
Zinc Bar 9, 11 pm
• Yotam Silberstein Quartet; Dorota Piotrowska Quartet
Smalls 9:30 pm 12:30 am $20
• Raphael D’lugoff; Sharp Radway Quintet; Ned Goold Jam
• Goonj Beyond Boundaries: Navin Chettri, Jamie Baum, Matt Moran, Manu Koch,
Fausto Sierakowski, Kenny Warren, Trifon Dimitrov; Manu Koch Band
ShapeShifter Lab 7:30, 9 pm $10
• Rale Micic/Jack Wilkins
• Bob Arthurs with Dave Frank, Jon Easton, Joe Solomon; Kike Perdomo with
George Dulin, Joseph Lepore, Greg Ritchie
• Yoshi Iwata Duo
Tomi Jazz 8 pm
• Sam Taylor Quartet; Isaiah Barr Trio
Abdou Mboup
• Theo Croker’s DVRK Funk with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Irwin Hall, Seth Johnson,
Sullivan Fortner, Eric Wheeler, Kassa Overall, Jerome Jennings
• Antonio Ciacca
Measure 8 pm
• John Suntken Quartet
Silvana 6 pm
• Laurel Masse/Tex Arnold
Strength In numberS
The PeTe M c Guinness Jazz OrchesTra
Critically acclaimed, past Grammy Finalist, Pete McGuinness
brings together his dynamic Jazz Orchestra - 16 incredible NYC
jazz musicians for a soaring large ensemble recording!
[SMT 627]
Sunday, May 25
Catch the Pete McGuinness Jazz Orchestra LIVE at an Incredible
Sunday “Strength in Numbers” Brunch New Release Event!
Blue Note • May 25 th • 11:30 am aNd 1:30 pm
AVAILABLE AT FINE RETAIL AND E-TAIL OR DIRECTLY FROM
summitrecords.com OR 1-800-543-5156
North American distribution by Allegro Media Group
r e c o r d s
43
Thursday, May 29
êJacky Terrasson Trio with Burniss Travis, Justin Faulkner
êTim Berne/Matt Mitchell Duo; David Torn solo
• HBC: Scott Henderson, Jeff Berlin, Dennis Chambers
Iridium 10:30 pm $50
êJon Irabagon, Jeremiah Cymerman, Moppa Elliott
êJonathan Finlayson’s Sicilian Defense with Miles Okazaki, David Virelles, Keith Witty,
Marcus Gilmore
Greenwich House Music School 8 pm $15
• Jo-Yu Chen Trio+1 with Gilad Hekselman, Chris Tordini, Tommy Crane
Steinway Hall 7:30 pm $30
• OKB Trio: Oscar Perez, Kuriko Tsugawa, Brian Woodruff
• Samarth Nagarkar/Dan Weiss SEEDS 9 pm
• Nick Sanders Trio
• Ricardo Grilli New Quartet with Julian Shore, Edward Perez, EJ Strickland and guest
• Sofia Rei and Aca Seca
Joe’s Pub 7 pm $20
• Will Bernard Trio with Steve Cardenas, Chris Lightcap
• Eric Kurimski Quartet with Edward Perez, Josh Deutsch, Arturo Stable
Terraza 7 9 pm $7
• Gregory Generet
Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm
êMelissa Aldana and The Crash Trio with Pablo Menares, Francisco Mela;
Yaala Ballin Group with Pasquale Grasso, Ari Roland, Keith Balla
Smalls 6, 10:30 pm $20
• Corin Stiggall Quintet; Avi Rothbard Quintet
• Felix Fan solo; FLUX Quartet: Tom Chiu, Conrad Harris, Max Mandel, Felix Fan and
guest Fast Forward
• Andrea Wolper Trio with Michael Howell, Ken Filiano
• Jon Weber
• Molly Ryan
The Rum House 9:30 pm
• Albert Marques, Walter Stinson, Zack O’Farrill Caffe Vivaldi 8 pm
• New Big One Octet: Muriel Vergnaud, Rhys Tivey, John Beaty, Jerome Sabbagh,
Joe Beaty, Jean-Michel Pilc, Or Bareket, Jerad Lippi; Alexis Parsons;
Biello/Suntken Quartet
• Yunko Yagami
Tomi Jazz 9 pm $10
• Art Lillard Trio
• Dre Barnes Project; Gabe Valle Quartet
• Juilliard Jazz Quartet: Ron Carter, Ron Blake, Frank Kimbrough, Carl Allen
• Eyal Vilner Big Band
Abdou Mboup
• Antonio Ciacca
Measure 8 pm
• David Kardas
Shrine 6 pm
• Fat Afro Latin Jazz Cats with Jim Seeley
• Kuba Wiecek Quartet
Shrine 6 pm
Saturday, May 31
• Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers
Brooklyn Bowl 8 pm $15
• Duane Eubanks Quintet
Fat Cat 10 pm
• Matt Brewer with Steve Lehman, Lage Lund
• FLUX Quartet: Tom Chiu, Conrad Harris, Max Mandel, Felix Fan and guests Oliver Lake,
Michael Shumacher
êHypnotic Brass Ensemble
Knitting Factory 12 am $10
• Kenny Gates Group
• Adriano Santos Trio with Richard Padron, Eduardo Belo Bar Next Door 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $12
• Akie Bermiss
Ginny’s Supper Club 7:30, 9:30 pm $15
• Scot Albertson/Dan Furman
Klavierhaus 8 pm
• Jack Gulielmetti Quintet with Ryan Park-Chan, Isaiah Barr, Ethan Cohn,
Julius Rodriguez; Rubens Salles Somethin’ Jazz Club 7, 9 pm $10-12
• Yuko Ito Trio; Yusuke Seki
Tomi Jazz 8, 11 pm $10
• Ray Parker Trio
• Steve Turre Quintet with Bruce Williams, Xavier Davis, Gerald Cannon, Willie Jones III
Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm $38
êMartin Wind Quartet with Scott Robinson, Bill Mays, Joe La Barbera
• Matt Panayides Group with Rich Perry; Jay Collins and The Kings County Band with
Scott Sharrard, George Lax, Jeff Hanley, Diego Voglino; Eric Wyatt
Smalls 7:30, 10:30 pm 1 am $20
• John Pizzarelli Quartet with guest Jane Monheit
• Matthew Fries/Phil Palombi
• Ayman Fanous
• John Ellis/Andy Bragen’s MOBRO with Becca Stevens, Miles Griffith,
Sachal Vasandani, Johnaye Kendrick, Shane Endsley, John Clark, Alan Ferber,
Josh Roseman, Mike Moreno, Ryan Scott, Joe Sanders, Rodney Green
Jazz Standard 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $30
Iridium 8:30, 10:30 pm $30
• Eyal Vilner Big Band
Abdou Mboup
• Antonio Ciacca
Measure 8 pm
• Eileen Howard with Daniel Bennett, Ron Jackson, Eddy Khaimovich, Darrell Smith
The West End Lounge 4 pm
• John Minnock
• Marsha Heydt Project of Love; Champian Fulton Quartet; Hot House
The Garage 12, 6:15, 10:45 pm
Friday, May 30
êJC Sanford Orchestra with Dan Willis, Ben Kono, Chris Bacas, Kenny Berger,
David Spier, Matt Holman, Nathan Koci, Mark Patterson, Jeff Nelson, Meg Okura,
Christopher Hoffman, Aidan O’Donnell, Jacob Garchik, Tom Beckham, Satoshi Takeishi Greenwich House Music School 8 pm $15
• Steve Turre Quintet with Bruce Williams, Xavier Davis, Gerald Cannon, Willie Jones III
Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm $38
êMartin Wind Quartet with Scott Robinson, Bill Mays, Joe La Barbera
• David Schnitter Quartet with Spike Wilner, Ugonna Okegwo, Anthony Pinciotti;
Jay Collins and The Kings County Band with Scott Sharrard, George Lax, Jeff Hanley,
Diego Voglino
Smalls 7:30, 10:30 pm 1 am $20
• Steve Hall Quartet; Ed Cherry Fat Cat 6, 10:30 pm
• John Pizzarelli Quartet with guest Jane Monheit
êAndy Biskin’s Ibid with Kirk Knuffke, Brian Drye, Jeff Davis
• Matthew Fries/Phil Palombi
• Ayman Fanous
• John Ellis/Andy Bragen’s MOBRO with Becca Stevens, Miles Griffith,
Sachal Vasandani, Johnaye Kendrick, Shane Endsley, John Clark, Alan Ferber,
Josh Roseman, Mike Moreno, Ryan Scott, Joe Sanders, Rodney Green
Zinc Bar 8 pm
• Paul Bollenback Trio with Joseph Lepore, Donald Edwards
Bar Next Door 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $12
• FLUX Quartet: Tom Chiu, Conrad Harris, Max Mandel, Felix Fan and guest David First
• Sean Noonan’s Pavees Dance with Malcolm Mooney, Jamaaladeen Tacuma,
Aram Bajakian
Bowery Electric 8:30 pm
• John Daversa Big Band; Justin Morell Dectet with Hashem Assadullahi, Matt Otto,
Phil O’Connor, John Daversa, Ryan Keberle, Max Seigel, Leonard Thompson,
Gary Wang, Mark Ferber
ShapeShifter Lab 8, 9:30 pm $8-10
• Household Tales: William Lea, David Redbranch, Elise Reynard, Sean Ali, Tim Shortle
Sidewalk Café 9 pm
• Jerry DeVore Trio
• Mika Samba Jazz Trio with Eduardo Belo, Rafael Barata; Sandy Taylor Band with
Benito Gonzalez; Spencer Jones Trio with Nick Westbass
• John Watts Trio
Tomi Jazz 9 pm $10
• Darrell Smith Trio
• Joel Perry Trio; Peter Valera Jump Blues Band
• Stefania Carati Quartet; Adam and The Argentinians
Silvana 6, 8 pm
Jazz Standard 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm $30
Iridium 8:30, 10:30 pm $30
Abdou Mboup
• Antonio Ciacca
Measure 8 pm
R E G U L A R
E N G A G E M E N T S
MONDAYS
• Ron Affif Trio
Zinc Bar 9, 11pm, 12:30, 2 am
• Woody Allen/Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band Café Carlyle 8:45 pm $145
• Big Band Night; John Farnsworth Quintet Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm
• Rick Bogart Trio
Broadway Thai 6:30 pm (ALSO SUN)
• Michael Brecker Tribute with Dan Barman The Counting Room 8 pm
• Sedric Choukroun and The Brasilieros Chez Lola 7:30 pm
• Pete Davenport/Ed Schuller Jam Session Frank’s Cocktail Lounge 9 pm
• Emerging Artists Series Bar Next Door 6:30 pm (ALSO TUE-THU)
Brandy Library 8 pm
• Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks Iguana 8 pm (ALSO TUE)
• Grove Street Stompers Arthur’s Tavern 7 pm
• Earl Rose solo; Earl Rose Trio Bemelmans Bar 5:30, 9 pm
• Stan Rubin All-Stars
Charley O’s 8:30 pm
• Swingadelic
Swing 46 8:30 pm
• Vanguard Jazz Orchestra Village Vanguard 8:30, 10:30 pm $25
• Diego Voglino Jam Session The Village Lantern 9:30 pm
• Jordan Young Group
Bflat 8 pm (ALSO WED 8:30 pm)
TUESDAYS
• Daisuke Abe Trio
Sprig 6 pm (ALSO WED-THU)
• Rick Bogart Trio
L’ybane 9:30 pm (ALSO FRI)
• Orrin Evans Evolution Series Jam Session Zinc Bar 11 pm
• Irving Fields
Nino’s Tuscany 7 pm (ALSO WED-SUN)
• George Gee Swing Orchestra Swing 46 8:30 pm $12
• Chris Gillespie; David Budway Bemelmans Bar 5:30, 9:30 pm (ALSO WED-SAT)
• Loston Harris
Café Carlyle 9:30 pm $20 (ALSO WED-SAT)
• Art Hirahara Trio
Arturo’s 8 pm
• Yuichi Hirakawa Trio
Arthur’s Tavern 7, 8:30 pm
• Mike LeDonne Quartet; Charles Turner III Smoke 7, 9, 10:30, 11:30 pm
• Ilya Lushtak Quartet
Shell’s Bistro 7:30 pm
• Mona’s Hot Four Jam Session Mona’s 11 pm
• Russ Nolan Jazz Organ Trio Cassa Hotel and Residences 6 pm
• Annie Ross
The Metropolitan Room 9:30 pm $25
• Saul Rubin; Greg Glassman Jam Fat Cat 7 pm 12:30 am
• Slavic Soul Party
Barbès 9 pm $10
• Diego Voglino Jam Session The Fifth Estate 10 pm
WEDNESDAYS
• Astoria Jazz Composers Workshop Waltz-Astoria 6 pm
• Sedric Choukroun and the Eccentrics Chez Oskar 7 pm
• Raphael D’lugoff; Ned Goold Jam Fat Cat 7 pm 12:30 am
• Rob Duguay’s Low Key Trio Turnmill NYC 11 pm
• Jeanne Gies with Howard Alden and Friends Joe G’s 6:30 pm
• Les Kurtz Trio; Joonsam Lee Trio Cleopatra’s Needle 7, 11:30 pm
• Jonathan Kreisberg Trio Bar Next Door 8:30, 10:30 pm $12
• Jed Levy and Friends
Vino di Vino Wine Bar 7:30 pm (ALSO FRI)
• Ron McClure solo piano McDonald’s 12 pm (ALSO SAT)
• David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Centennial Band Birdland 5:30 pm $20
• Saul Rubin Vocalist SeriesZeb’s 8 pm $10
• Stan Rubin Orchestra
Swing 46 8:30 pm
• Eve Silber
Arthur’s Tavern 7 pm
• Brianna Thomas Quartet Smoke 11:30 pm
• Reggie Woods with Greg Lewis Organ Monk Sapphire NYC 8 pm
• Bill Wurtzel/Mike Gari
American Folk Art Museum Lincoln Square 2 pm
THURSDAYS
• Michael Blake Bizarre Jazz and Blues Band Bizarre 9 pm
• Sedric Choukroun
Brasserie Jullien 7:30 pm (ALSO FRI, SAT)
• Lucy Galliher Singers Session Zinc Bar 6 pm $5
• Gregory Generet Smoke 7, 9, 10:30 pm
• Craig Harris and the Harlem Night Songs Big Band MIST 9, 10:30 pm $15
• Bertha Hope Band
Minton’s Playhouse 7 pm (THRU SAT)
• Jazz Jam Session
American Legion Post 7:30 pm
• Kazu Trio Cleopatra’s Needle 11:30 pm
• Lapis Luna Quintet
The Plaza Hotel Rose Club 8:30 pm
• Curtis Lundy Jam SessionShell’s Bistro 9 pm
• Metro Room Jazz Jam with guests Metropolitan Room 11 pm $10
• Eri Yamamoto Trio
Arthur’s Tavern 7 pm (ALSO FRI-SAT)
FRIDAYS
• Scot Albertson
Parnell’s 8 pm (ALSO SAT)
• The Crooked Trio: Oscar Noriega, Brian Drye, Ari Folman-Cohen Barbès 5 pm
• Day One Trio Prime and Beyond Restaurant 9 pm (ALSO SAT)
• Lisa DeSpain solo
Machiavelli’s 8 pm
• Gerry Eastman Quartet Williamsburg Music Center 10 pm
• Finkel/Kasuga/Tanaka/Solow San Martin Restaurant 12 pm $10
• Patience Higgins & The Sugar Hill Quartet Smoke 11:45 pm
• Tommy Igoe Birdland Big Band Birdland 5:15 pm $25
• Sandy Jordan and FriendsABC Chinese Restaurant 8 pm
• Frank Owens Open Mic Pearl Studios 7:30 pm $10
• Richard Russo Quartet Capital Grille 6:30 pm
• Bill Saxton and the Harlem Bebop Band Bill’s Place 9, 11 pm $15 (ALSO SAT)
• Joanna Sternberg Trio Cleopatra’s Needle 12:30 am
• UOTS Jam Session
University of the Streets 11:30 pm $5 (ALSO SAT)
SATURDAYS
• Avalon Jazz Quartet
Matisse 8 pm
• The Candy Shop Boys
Duane Park 8, 10:30 pm
• Barbara Carroll/Jay Leonhart Duo Birdland 6 pm $35
• Michika Fukumori Trio Cleopatra’s Needle 9 pm
• Joonsam Lee; Diego Voglino Jules Bistro 12, 8:30 pm
• Curtis Lundy Trio with guests Shell’s Bistro 9 pm
• Johnny O’Neal Smoke 11:45 pm
• Skye Jazz Trio
Jack 8:30 pm
SUNDAYS
• Avalon Jazz Quartet
The Lambs Club 11 am
• Birdland Jazz Party with Carolyn Leonhart Birdland 6 pm $25
• Satish Robertson; Renaud Penant Jules Bistro 12, 8:30 pm
• The Candy Shop Boys
The Rum House 9:30 pm
• Creole Cooking Jazz Band; Stew Cutler and Friends Arthur’s Tavern 7, 10 pm
• Isaac Darch Group
Basik Bar 7 pm
• Marc Devine Trio
TGIFriday’s 6 pm
• Ear Regulars with Jon-Erik Kellso The Ear Inn 8 pm
• Marjorie Eliot/Rudell Drears/Sedric Choukroun Parlor Entertainment 4 pm
• Ken Foley/Nick Hempton Quintet Smithfield 8:30 pm
Grace Gospel Church 11 am
• Joel Forrester
Manhattan Inn 8:30 pm
• Nancy Goudinaki Trio
Kellari Taverna 12 pm
• Broc Hempel/Sam Trapchak/Christian Coleman Trio Dominie’s Astoria 9 pm
• Bob Kindred Group; Junior Mance Trio Café Loup 12:30, 6:30 pm
• Ras Chemash Lamed Vocal Jam Session University of the Streets 6:45 pm $10
• Peter Leitch Duo
Walker’s 8 pm
• Peter Mazza Trio
Bar Next Door 8, 10 pm $12
• Arturo O’Farrill Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra Birdland 9, 11 pm $30
• Earl Rose solo; Eric Yves Garcia Trio Bemelmans Bar 5:30, 9 pm
• Lu Reid Jam Session
Shrine 4 pm
• Annette St. John; Roxy Coss Smoke 11:30 am 11:30 pm
• Ryo Sasaki Trio
Analogue 7 pm
• Sara Serpa/André Matos Pão Restaurant 2 pm
• Corin Stiggall and Associates Speedy Romeo 12 pm
• Milton Suggs
Cávo 7 pm
• Terry Waldo; Brandon Lewis/Renee Cruz Fat Cat 6 pm 12:30 am
• Brian Woodruff Jam
Blackbird’s 9 pm
CLUB DIRECTORY
• 55Bar 55 Christopher Street (212-929-9883)
Subway: 1 to Christopher Street www.55bar.com
• 61 Local 61 Bergen Street
(347-763-6624) Subway: F, G to Bergen Street www.61local.com
• ABC Chinese Restaurant 34 Pell Street
(212-346-9890) Subway: J to Chambers Street
• ABC No-Rio 156 Rivington Street (212-254-3697)
Subway: J,M,Z to Delancey Street www.abcnorio.org
• Abyssinian Baptist Church 132 Odell Clark Place/W. 138th Street
(212-862-5959) Subway: 2, 3 to 135th Street www.abyssinian.org
• Alor Café 2110 Richmond Road, Staten Island (718-351-1101)
www.alorcafe.com
• American Folk Art Museum 45 W 53rd Street (212-265-1040)
Subway: E to 53rd Street www.folkartmuseum.org
• American Legion Post 248 West 132nd Street
(212-283-9701) Subway: 2, 3 to 135th Street www.legion.org
• Analogue 19 West 8th Street (212-432-0200)
Subway: A, B, C, D, E, F, M to W. 4th Street www.analoguenyc.com
• Anthology Film Archives Second Avenue and Second Street
Subway: F, V to Second Avenue, J, M, Z to Delancey
• Apollo Theater & Music Café 253 W. 125th Street
(212-531-5305) Subway: A, B, C, D, 2, 3 to 125th Street
www.apollotheater.org
• The Appel Room Broadway at 60th Street, 5th floor (212-258-9800)
Subway: 1, 2, 3, 9, A, C, E, B, D, F to Columbus Circle www.jalc.org
• Arthur’s Tavern 57 Grove Street (212-675-6879)
Subway: 1 to Christopher Street www.arthurstavernnyc.com
• Arturo’s 106 W. Houston Street (at Thompson Street)
(212-677-3820) Subway: A, B, C, D, E, F, M to W. 4th Street
• BAMCafé 30 Lafayette Ave at Ashland Place
(718-636-4139) Subway: M, N, R, W to Pacific Street;
Q, 1, 2, 4, 5 to Atlantic Avenue www.bam.org
• BB King’s Blues Bar 237 W. 42nd Street (212-997-2144)
Subway: 1, 2, 3, 7 to 42nd Street/Times Square www.bbkingblues.com
• Bflat 277 Church Street (between Franklin and White Streets)
Subway: 1, 2 to Franklin Streets
• Bar Chord 1008 Cortelyou Road
(347-240-6033) Subway: Q to Cortelyou Road www.barchordnyc.com
• Bar Next Door 129 MacDougal Street (212-529-5945)
Subway: A, B, C, D, E, F, M to W. 4th Street www.lalanternacaffe.com
• Barbès 376 9th Street at 6th Avenue, Brooklyn (718-965-9177)
Subway: F to 7th Avenue www.barbesbrooklyn.com
• Bemelmans Bar 35 E. 76th Street (212-744-1600)
Subway: 6 to 77th Street www.thecarlyle.com
• Bill’s Place 148 W. 133rd Street (between Lenox and 7th Avenues)
(212-281-0777) Subway: 2, 3 to 125th Street
• Birdland 315 W. 44th Street (212-581-3080)
Subway: A, C, E, to 42nd Street www.birdlandjazz.com
• Bizarre 12 Jefferson Street Subway: J, M, Z to Myrtle Avenue
www.facebook.com/bizarrebushwick
• Blackbird’s 41-19 30th Avenue (718-943-6898)
Subway: R to Steinway Street www.blackbirdsbar.com
• Bloomingdale School of Music 323 West 108th Street
(212-663-6021) Subway: 1 to Cathedral Parkway www.bsmny.org
• Blue Note 131 W. 3rd Street at 6th Avenue (212-475-8592)
Subway: A, B, C, D, E, F, M to W. 4th Street www.bluenotejazz.com
• The Bowery Electric 327 Bowery
(212-228-0228) Subway: 6 to Bleecker Street www.theboweryelectric.com
• Bowery Poetry Club 308 Bowery (212-614-0505)
Subway: F to Second Avenue; 6 to Bleecker Street www.bowerypoetry.com
• Brandy Library 25 N. Moore Street
(212-226-5545) Subway: 1 to Franklin Street
• Brecht Forum 388 Atlantic Avenue (212-242-4201)
Subway: A, C, G to Hoyt/Schermerhorn Streets www.brechtforum.org
• Bronx Music Heritage Center 1303 Louis Nine Boulevard
Subway: 2, 5 to Freeman
• Brooklyn Bowl 61 Wythe Avenue
(718-963-3369) Subway: L to Bedford Avenue www.brooklynbowl.com
• Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts 2900 Campus Road
Subway: 5 to Flatbush Avenue - Brooklyn College www.brooklyncenter.org
• Brooklyn Conservatory of Music 58 Seventh Avenue
Subway: F to Seventh Avenue, N, R to Union Street www.bqcm.org
• Broadway Thai 241 West 51st Street
(212-226-4565) Subway: 1, C, E to 50th Street www.tomandtoon.com
• Bryant Park 5th and 6th Avenues between 40th and 42nd Streets
Subway: 4, 5, 6 to 42nd Street www.bryantpark.org
• Café Carlyle 35 E. 76th Street (212-744-1600)
• Café Loup 105 W. 13th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues
(212-255-4746) Subway: F to 14th Street www.cafeloupnyc.com
• Caffe Vivaldi 32 Jones Street between Bleecker and W. 4th Streets
Subway: A, B, C, D, E, F, Q, V to W. 4th Street-Washington Square
www.caffevivaldi.com
• Capital Grille 120 Broadway
(212-374-1811) Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5 to Wall Street www.thecapitalgrille.com
• The Carlyle 35 E. 76th Street (212-744-1600)
• Cassa Hotel and Residences 70 W. 45th Street, 10th Floor Terrace
(212-302-87000 Subway: B, D, F, 7 to Fifth Avenue www.cassahotelny.com
• Cávo 42-18 31st Avenue, Astoria
(718-721-1001) Subway: M, R, to Steinway Street www.cavoastoria.com
• Charley O’s 1611 Broadway at 49th Street
(212-246-1960) Subway: N, R, W to 49th Street
• Chez Lola 387 Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn (718-858-1484)
Subway: C to Clinton-Washington Avenues www.bistrolola.com
• Chez Oskar 211 Dekalb Ave, Brooklyn (718-852-6250)
Subway: C to Lafayette Avenue www.chezoskar.com
• Christ & St. Stephen’s Church 120 W. 69th Street
Subway: 1, 2, 3 to 72nd Street
• Citigroup Center Plaza 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue
Subway: 6 to 51st Street
• Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center 107 Suffolk Street
Subway: F, J, M, Z to Delancey Street www.csvcenter.com
• Cleopatra’s Needle 2485 Broadway (212-769-6969)
Subway: 1, 2, 3 to 96th Street www.cleopatrasneedleny.com
• Cornelia Street Café 29 Cornelia Street
www.corneliastreetcafé.com
• The Counting Room 44 Berry Street (718-599-1860)
Subway: L to Bedford Avenue www.thecountingroombk.com
• The Cutting Room 44 E. 32nd Street
(212-691-1900) Subway: 6 to 33rd Street www.thecuttingroomnyc.com
• Dance With Me SoHo 466 Broome Street, Basement level
(212-840-3262) Subway: 6 to Spring Street www.dancewithmeusa.com
• David Rubenstein Atrium Broadway at 60th Street
(212-258-9800) Subway: 1, 2, 3, A, C, E, B, D, F to Columbus Circle
www.new.lincolncenter.org/live/index.php/atrium
• Dizzy’s Club Broadway at 60th Street, 5th Floor (212-258-9800)
Subway: 1, 2, 3, A, C, E, B, D, F to Columbus Circle www.jalc.org
• Dominie’s Astoria 34-07 30th Avenue Subway: N, Q to 30th Avenue
• Downtown Music Gallery 13 Monroe Street (212-473-0043)
Subway: F to East Broadway www.downtownmusicgallery.com
• The Drawing Room 56 Willoughby Street #3 (917-648-1847)
Subway: A, C, F to Jay Street/Metrotech www.drawingroommusic.com
• Drom 85 Avenue A (212-777-1157)
Subway: F to Second Avenue www.dromnyc.com
• Dweck Center at Brooklyn Public Library Central Branch
Subway: 2, 3 to Grand Army Plaza; Q to 7th Avenue
• The Ear Inn 326 Spring Street at Greenwich Street (212-246-5074)
Subway: C, E to Spring Street www.earinn.com
• Fat Cat 75 Christopher Street at 7th Avenue (212-675-6056)
Subway: 1 to Christopher Street/Sheridan Square www.fatcatmusic.org
• The Fifth Estate 506 5th Avenue, Brooklyn
(718-840-0089) Subway: F to 4th Avenue www.fifthestatebar.com
• The Firehouse Space 246 Frost Street
Subway: L to Graham Avenue www.thefirehousespace.org
• The Flatiron Room 37 West 26th Street
(212-725-3860) Subway: N, R to 28th Street www.theflatironroom.com
• Flushing Town Hall 137-35 Northern Boulevard, Flushing
(718-463-7700) Subway: 7 to Main Street www.flushingtownhall.org
• For My Sweet Restaurant 1103 Fulton Street at Claver Place
(718-857-1427) Subway: C to Franklin Avenue
• Frank’s Cocktail Lounge 660 Fulton St. at Lafayette, Brooklyn
(718-625-9339) Subway: G to Fulton Street
• Freddy’s Backroom 627 5th Avenue, Brooklyn (718-768-0131)
Subway: R to Prospect Avenue www.freddysbar.com/events
• The Garage 99 Seventh Avenue South (212-645-0600)
Subway: 1 to Christopher Street www.garagerest.com
• Ginny’s Supper Club at Red Rooster Harlem 310 Malcolm X Boulevard
(212-792-9001) Subway: 2, 3 to 125th Street www.ginnyssupperclub.com
• Goodbye Blue Monday 1087 Broadway, Brooklyn (718-453-6343)
Subway: J, M train to Myrtle Avenue www.goodbye-blue-monday.com
• The Grand Victory 245 Grand Street (347-529-6610)
Subway: G to Metropolitan Avenue www.thegrandvictory.com
• Grace Gospel Church 589 E. 164th Street
(718-328-0166) Subway: 2, 5 to Prospect Avenue
• Greenwich House Music School 46 Barrow Street
(212-242-4770) Subway: 1 to Christopher Street www.greenwichhouse.org
• Harlem Stage Gatehouse 150 Convent Avenue at West 135th Street
(212-650-7100) Subway: 1 to 137th Street www.harlemstage.org
• Ibeam Brooklyn 168 7th Street between Second and Third Avenues
Subway: F to 4th Avenue www.ibeambrooklyn.com
• Iguana 240 West 54th Street (212-765-5454)
Subway: B, D, E, N, Q, R to Seventh Avenue www.iguananyc.com
• Indian Road Café 600 West 218th Street @ Indian Road
(212-942-7451) Subway: 1 to 215th Street www.indianroadcafe.com
• InFuse 51 331 West 51st Street
(212-974-8030) Subway: C, E to 50th Street www.infuse51.com
• Inkwell Café 408 Rogers Avenue between Lefferts and Sterling
Subway: 5 to Sterling Street www.plgarts.org
• Inwood Local 4957 Broadway
(212-544-8900) Subway: 1 to 207th Street www.inwoodlocal.com
• Iridium 1650 Broadway at 51st Street (212-582-2121)
Subway: 1,2 to 50th Street www.theiridium.com
• Issue Project Room 22 Boerum Place (718-330-0313)
Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5 to Borough Hall www.issueprojectroom.org
• JACK 505 Waverly Avenue (718-388-2251)
Subway: C to Clinton-Washington Avenue www.jackny.org
• Jack 80 University Place Subway: 4, 5, 6, N, R to 14th Street
• Jazz 966 966 Fulton Street
(718-638-6910) Subway: C to Clinton Street www.jazz966.com
• Jazz at Kitano 66 Park Avenue at 38th Street (212-885-7000)
Subway: 4, 5, 6 to Grand Central www.kitano.com
• The Jazz Gallery 1160 Broadway, 5th floor (212-242-1063)
Subway: N, R to 28th Street www.jazzgallery.org
• Jazz Standard 116 E. 27th between Park and Lexington Avenue
(212-576-2232) Subway: 6 to 28th Street www.jazzstandard.net
• Joe G’s 244 W. 56th Street (212-765-3160)
Subway: 1, 2, 3, A, C, E, B, D, F to Columbus Circle
• Joe’s Pub 425 Lafayette Street (212-539-8770)
Subway: N, R to 8th Street-NYU; 6 to Astor Place www.joespub.com
• Jules Bistro 60 St Marks Place
(212-477-5560) Subway: 6 to Astor Place www.julesbistro.com
• Kellari Taverna 19 W. 44th Street (212-221-0144)
Subway: B, D, F, M, 7 to 42nd Street-Bryant Park www.kellari.us
• Klavierhaus 549 W. 52nd Street, 7th Floor (212-245-4535)
Subway: C, E to 50th Street www.klavierhaus.com
• Knickerbocker Bar and Grill 33 University Place (212-228-8490)
Subway: N, R to 8th Street-NYU www.knickerbockerbarandgrill.com
• Knitting Factory 361 Metropolitan Avenue
(347-529-6696) Subway: L to Lorimer Street www.knittingfactory.com
• Knockdown Center 52-19 Flushing Avenue, Queens
Subway: L to Canarsie - Rockaway Pkwy www.knockdowncenter.com
• LIC Bar 45-58 Vernon Boulevard
(718-786-5400) Subway: 7 to Vernon-Jackson Boulevard
• The Lambs Club 132 W. 44th Street
212-997-5262 Subway: A, C, E, to 42nd Street www.thelambsclub.com
• Le Cirque Café One Beacon Court, 151 East 58th Street (212-644-0202)
Subway: 1, 2, 3, A, C, E, B, D, F to Columbus Circle www.lecirque.com
• Le Poisson Rouge 158 Bleecker Street (212-228-4854)
Subway: A, B, C, D, E, F, V to W. 4th Street www.lepoissonrouge.com
• Local 802 322 W. 48th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues
(212-245-4802) Subway: C to 50th Street www.jazzfoundation.org
• L’ybane 709 8th Avenue (212-582-2012)
Subway: A, C, E to 42nd Street-Port Authority www.lybane.com
• McDonald’s 160 Broadway between Maiden Lane and Liberty Street
(212-385-2063) Subway: 4, 5 to Fulton Street www.mcdonalds.com
• Machiavelli’s 519 Columbus Avenue
(212-724-2658) Subway: B, C to 86th Street www.machiavellinyc.com
• Macy’s Herald Square 151 W. 34th Street
(212-695-4400) Subway: B, D, F, M to 34th Street www.l.macys.com
• Manhattan Inn 632 Manhattan Avenue (718-383-0885)
Subway: G to Nassau Avenue www.themanhattaninn.com
• Matisse 924 Second Avenue
(212-546-9300) Subway: 6 to 51st Street www.matissenyc.com
• Measure 400 Fifth Avenue (212-695-4005) Subway: B, D, F, M to 34th Street
www.langhamplacehotels.com
• Metropolitan Room 34 W. 22nd Street (212-206-0440)
Subway: N, R to 23rd Street www.metropolitanroom.com
• Minton’s Playhouse 206 West 118th Street (212-243-2222)
Subway: B, C to 116th Street www.mintonsharlem.com
• MIST Harlem 40 West 116th Street Subway: 2, 3 to 116th Street
• Mona’s 224 Avenue B Subway: L to First Avenue
• NYC Baha’i Center 53 E. 11th Street (212-222-5159)
Subway: 4, 5, 6, N, R to 14th Street-Union Square www.bahainyc.org
• New School Arnhold Hall 55 West 13th Street
(212-229-5600) Subway: F, V to 14th Street www.newschool.edu
• The New York City Business Club 4 W. 43rd Street
Subway: 7 to Fifth Avenue www.newyorkcitybusinessclub.com
• Nino’s Tuscany 117 W. 58th Street (212-757-8630)
Subway: 1, 2, 3, A, C, E, B, D, F to Columbus Circle www.ninostuscany.com
• North Square Lounge 103 Waverly Place (212-254-1200)
Subway: A, B, C, E, F to West 4th Street www.northsquareny.com
• Pão Restaurant 322 Spring Street
(212-334-5464) Subway: C, E to Spring Street www.paonewyork.com
• Parlor Entertainment 555 Edgecombe Ave. #3F (212-781-6595)
Subway: C to 155th Street www.parlorentertainment.com
• Parnell’s 350 East 53rd Street #1(212-753-1761)
Subway: E, M to Lexington Avenue/53 Street www.parnellsny.com
• Pearl Studios 500 8th Avenue
(212-904-1850) Subway: A, C, E to 34th Street www.pearlstudiosnyc.com
• Perez Jazz 71 Ocean Parkway Subway: F, G to Fort Hamilton Parkway
• The Players Club 16 Gramercy Park South
(212-475-6116) Subway: 6 to 23rd Street www.theplayersnyc.org
• The Plaza Hotel Rose Club Fifth Avenue at Central Park South
(212-759-3000) Subway: N, Q, R to Fifth Avenue www.fairmont.com
• Prentis Hall Columbia University 632 W. 125th Street
(212-854-9266) Subway: 1 to 125th Street www.music.columbia.edu
• Prime and Beyond Restaurant 90 East 10th Street
(212-505-0033) Subway: 6 to Astor Place www.primeandbeyond.com
• Prospect Range 1226 Prospect Avenue
Subway: F to Fort Hamilton Parkway www.prospectrange.com
• Rockwood Music Hall 196 Allen Street (212-477-4155)
Subway: F, V to Second Avenue www.rockwoodmusichall.com
• Rose Hall and Theater Broadway at 60th Street, 5th floor (212-258-9800)
Subway: 1, 2, 3, 9, A, C, E, B, D, F to Columbus Circle www.jalc.org
• Rough Trade NYC 64 N. 9th Street, Brooklyn
Subway: L to Bedford Avenue www.roughtradenyc.com
• Roulette 509 Atlantic Avenue
(212-219-8242) Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5 to Atlantic Avenue www.roulette.org
• Rubin Museum 150 W. 17th Street (212-620-5000)
Subway: A, C, E to 14th Street www.rmanyc.org
• The Rum House 228 W. 47th Street
(646-490-6924) Subway: N, Q, R to 49th Street www.edisonrumhouse.com
• St. Albans Congregational Church 172-17 Linden Boulevard
(718-657-8282) Subway: E to Jamaica Center - Parsons/Archer
www.stalbanscc.org
• St. Marks Church 2nd Avenue and 10th Street
(212- 674-6377) Subway: 6 to Astor Place
• Saint Peter’s Church 619 Lexington Avenue at 54th Street
(212-935-2200) Subway: 6 to 51st Street www.saintpeters.org
• San Martin Restaurant 143 E. 49 Street between Lexington and Park
Avenues (212-832-0888) Subway: 6 to 51st Street
• Sapphire NYC 333 E. 60th Street (212-421-3600)
Subway: 4, 5, 6, N, Q, R to 59th Street www.nysapphire.com
• SEEDS 617 Vanderbilt Avenue Subway: 2, 3, 4 to Grand Army Plaza www.seedsbrooklyn.org
• ShapeShifter Lab 18 Whitwell Place
(646-820-9452) Subway: R to Union Street www.shapeshifterlab.com
• Shell’s Bistro 2150 5th Avenue
(212) 234-5600 Subway: 2, 3 to 135th Street www.shellsbistro.com
• Showman’s 375 W. 125th Street at Morningside) (212-864-8941)
Subway: A, B, C, D to 125th Street www.showmansjazz.webs.com
• Shrine 2271 Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard (212-690-7807)
Subway: B, 2, 3 to 135th Street www.shrinenyc.com
• Silvana 300 West 116th Street
(646-692-4935) Subway: B, C, to 116th Street
• SingleCut Beersmiths 19-33 37th Street, Astoria (718-606-0788)
Subway: N, Q to Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard www.singlecutbeer.com
• Sistas’ Place 456 Nostrand Avenue at Jefferson Avenue, Brooklyn
(718-398-1766) Subway: A to Nostrand Avenue www.sistasplace.org
• Smalls 183 W 10th Street at Seventh Avenue (212-252-5091)
Subway: 1,2,3,9 to 14th Street www.smallsjazzclub.com
• Smithfield 215 West 28th Street
(212-564-2172) Subway: 1 to 28th Street www.smithfieldnyc.com
• Smoke 2751 Broadway between 105th and 106th Streets
(212-864-6662) Subway: 1 to 103rd Street www.smokejazz.com
• Snug Harbor Cultural Center 1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island
(718-448-2500)
• Somethin’ Jazz Club 212 E. 52nd Street, 3rd floor (212-371-7657)
Subway: E to Lexington Avenue-53rd Street www.somethinjazz.com/ny
• Spectrum 121 Ludlow Street, 2nd floor Subway: F to Delancey Street
www.spectrumnyc.com
• Speedy Romeo 376 Classon Ave (718-230-0061)
Subway: G to Bedford-Nostrand Avenues www.speedyromeo.com
• Stage 72 158 West 72nd Street, 2nd floor
(800-838-3006) Subway: B, C to 72nd Street www.stage72.com
• Steinway Hall 109 W. 57th Street (212-246-1100)
Subway: 1, 2, 3, A, C, E, B, D, F to Columbus Circle www.steinwayhall.com
• Stephen Wise Free Synagogue 30 W. 68th Street
(212-877-4050) Subway: 1 to 66th Street www.swfs.org
• The Stone Avenue C and 2nd Street
Subway: F to Second Avenue www.thestonenyc.com
• Strand Bistro 33 West 37th Street (212-584-4000)
Subway: 7, B, D, F, M to 42nd Street-Bryant Park www.thestrandbistro.com
• SubCulture 45 Bleecker Street (212-533-5470)
Subway: 6 to Bleecker Street www.subculturenewyork.com
• Sunnyside Reformed Church 48-03 Skillman Avenue
(718-426-5997) Subway: 7 to 52nd Street
www.sunnysidenyc.rcachurches.org
• Swing 46 349 W. 46th Street (646-322-4051)
Subway: A, C, E to 42nd Street www.swing46.com
• Symphony Space Leonard Nimoy Thalia and Peter Jay Sharp Theatre 2537 Broadway at 95th Street (212-864-5400)
Subway: 1, 2, 3, 9 to 96th Street www.symphonyspace.org
• Tea Lounge 837 Union Street, Brooklyn
(718-789-2762) Subway: M, R to Union Street
• Terraza 7 40-19 Gleane Street
(718-803-9602) Subway: 7 to 82nd Street/Jackson Heights
www.terrazacafe.com
• Tomi Jazz 239 E. 53rd Street
(646-497-1254) Subway: 6 to 51st Street www.tomijazz.com
• Town Hall 123 W. 43rd Street (212-997-1003)
Subway: 7, B, D, F, M to 42nd Street-Bryant Park www.the-townhall-nyc.org
• Tribeca Performing Arts Center 199 Chambers Street
(212-220-1460) Subway: A, 1, 2, 3, 9 to Chambers Street
www.tribecapac.org
• Turnmill NYC 119 East 27th Street
(646-524-6060) Subway: 6 to 27th Street www.turnmillnyc.com
• Two Steps Down Restaurant 240 Dekalb Avenue
Subway: G to Clinton-Washington Avenues
www.twostepsdownrestaurant.com
• University of the Streets 130 E. 7th Street
(212-254-9300) Subway: 6 to Astor Place www.universityofthestreets.org
• The Village Lantern 167 Bleecker Street
• Village Vanguard 178 Seventh Avenue South at 11th Street
(212-255-4037) Subway: 1, 2, 3 to 14th Street www.villagevanguard.com
• Vino di Vino Wine Bar 29-21 Ditmars Boulevard, Queens
(718-721-3010) Subway: N to Ditmars Blvd-Astoria
• Vodou Bar 95 Halsey Street
(347-405-7011) Subway: A, C to Nostrand Avenue www.vodoubar.com
• Walker’s 16 North Moore Street (212-941-0142)
Subway: A, C, E to Canal Street
• Waltz-Astoria 23-14 Ditmars Boulevard (718-95-MUSIC)
Subway: N, R to Ditmars Blvd-Astoria www.Waltz-Astoria.com
• Weill Recital Hall (at Carnegie Hall) 154 W. 57th Street at Seventh Avenue
(212-247-7800) Subway: N, R to 57th Street www.carnegiehall.org
• Westbeth Music Works 55 Bethune Street
(212-691-1500) Subway: 1, 2, 3 to 14th Street
• The West End Lounge 955 West End Avenue at West 107th Street
(212-531-4759) Subway: 1 to 110th Street www.thewestendlounge.com
• WhyNot Jazz Room 14 Christopher Street
(646-756-4145) Subway: 1 to Christopher Street
• Williamsburg Music Center 367 Bedford Avenue
(718-384-1654) Subway: L to Bedford Avenue
• York College (CUNY) 94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd., Queens
Subway: E to Jamaica Center www.york.cuny.edu
• Zankel Hall 881 Seventh Avenue at 57th Street (212-247-7800)
Subway: N, Q, R, W to 57th Street www.carnegiehall.org
• Zeb’s 223 W. 28th Street
212-695-8081 Subway: 1 to 28th Street www.zebulonsoundandlight.com
• Zinc Bar 82 W. 3rd Street (212-477-8337)
Subway: A, B, C, D, E, F, M to W. 4th Street www.zincbar.com
45
(INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6)
(LABEL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12)
AA: With Sun Ra you’re never really “fired”. I started
in ’75 and I always say I was with the band for 22 years
because I was in and out, but that gig he was not
appreciative of because he had a gig at Storyville
coming up in October 1977 and he couldn’t find me
because I was in Europe with Sam Rivers. When I came
back from Nancy, that was the first time I met
[trumpeter] Michael Ray and Mike was the person who
was going to be my replacement. So eventually he took
over and I left to do my own thing and that was actually
necessary. I don’t think I would be here today if I
hadn’t seen that opening and went for it.
same school for the blind as George Shearing and had
an accomplished career in the UK as both leader and
sideman. Thompson is, says Robertson, “the best allaround jazz pianist produced in the UK.”
Frank Griffith is an American-born tenor
saxophonist/clarinetist and composer who moved
to London in 1996. “I called Alastair out of the blue,”
he recalls, “and after we seemed to hit it off met up
when he was visiting London. He released my CD The
Suspect [with trumpeter Tom Harrell], a second album
with a nonet, a Jimmy Deuchar tribute album with my
nonet and a big band disc. I also arranged a Joe
Temperley-with-strings session and my work as
arranger, composer, producer and contact with many
musicians have helped Alastair and helped his
confidence in me.”
And so into the present and future for Hep Jazz.
There are still new old recordings including the current
Where You At? by the great, late singer David Allyn
(music from 1941-64) and Swingin’ & Jumpin’ by
trumpeter Bunny Berigan (broadcasts from 1937-39);
and Record Session 1939-42.
The most current of the new recordings is Divas by
British singer Tina May. Here are 12 tunes from various
eras, deftly brought to life by this unique singer. Eight
of the tunes are arranged by Frank Griffith (May sang
three arrangements on his big band album). Hep is also
planning more historical releases by the likes of Jan
Savitt, among others, and Robertson and his label are
still creatively working at dealing with all the
challenges the current record business has to offer why, they’ve even made some mp3s available! v
TNYCJR: When you first encountered Sun Ra’s music,
you must have been a teenager, right?
AA: Yes, I was a teenager. I was on the Lower East Side.
I’d moved into my own apartment, which was about a
half mile from Slug’s, so that was my laboratory and an
education for me. I would be there every night I could
and just soak it up and Sun Ra was there on Monday
nights and I was bound to be there. That’s what I tell
my students - Ra’s music changed the way I think
about life, because all of it, the philosophy he had
about eternal things, expanding your mind and never
limiting yourself, hit me hard as a young person and
I’ve lived that way all my life. I think it has helped me
protect myself and allowed me to do what I’ve done.
He was absolutely a prophet and in tune on a genius
level with the music. He had all of that together and I
thought he was brilliant.
TNYCJR: So with Sistas’, could you elaborate on your
work there?
AA: This is another karmic thing because this corridor
on Jefferson Avenue, where I teach, my first gig with
Sun Ra was down the street on Claver Place off of
Jefferson. Now I’m teaching at PS 3 on Jefferson and
booking at Sistas’ on Jefferson, which is a strange
coincidence. Sometimes my life baffles me. It’s crazy
trying to understand how these things happen.
...Sistas’ Place was conceived in reaction to the
greengrocers whom they believed were coming into
the community and not treating black people with
respect. The people at Sistas’ Place began boycotting
the greengrocers and then decided that instead of a
boycott, we should have our own place. ...On the day
they opened, [saxophonist] Carlos Garnett happened
to come by and he asked them about doing music and
it was around John Coltrane’s birthday. Every year we
open around Coltrane’s birthday and end in May
around African Liberation Day. The people at Sistas’
Place are very political and understand the politics of
the music. The mission of bringing the music back into
the community is a deliberate plan because nothing
can grow if it’s not rooted and the problem with this
music that we call jazz is that it’s never been rooted the
way it should have been. That’s one of the things about
the loft movement - it happened in the Lower East Side
even though we weren’t all rooted there, whereas here
in Bedford-Stuyvesant you can actually be rooted. v
For more information, visit ahmedian.com. Abdullah is at
New School Arnhold Hall May 1st, Sistas’ Place May 10th
and ShapeShifter Lab May 11th. See Calendar.
• Arthur Blythe - Metamorphosis/The Grip: In Concert
(India Navigation, 1977)
• The Group - Live (NoBusiness, 1986)
• Ahmed Abdullah - Liquid Magic (Silkheart, 1987)
• Sun Ra - Blue Delight (A&M, 1988)
• Ahmed Abdullah (with NAM) - Song of Time
(Live at the Vision Festival) (Clean Feed, 2001)
• Ahmed Abdullah - Tara’s Song (TUM, 2004)
For more information, visit hepjazz.com
IN MEMORIAM
by Andrey Henkin
GARY BENSON - The Canadian guitarist worked with Natalie Cole, Peggy Lee,
Peter Appleyard and Ed Bickert and was a founding member of the Canadian
Jazz Quartet, active since 1989. Benson died Mar. 11th at 75.
IOLA BRUBECK - The wife/manager/collaborator of legendary pianist Dave
Brubeck helped her husband make his name by organizing unprecedented college
tours for his quartet in the ‘50s and later worked with him as a lyricist for some of
his more ambitious long-form compositions. Brubeck died Mar. 12th at 90.
TEDDY EHRENREICH - The Austrian multi-reed player led his own big band
for decades in his home city of Vienna, worked for many years as part of the
Austrian Broadcasting Company Big Band and supported visiting American
players on local performances. Ehrenreich died Mar. 2nd at 77.
JOE MUDELE - The British bassist came up in the dawn of that country’s bebop
scene, worked alongside Ronnie Scott and John Dankworth starting in the late
‘40s and complemented his jazz career (notable for giving alto saxophonist Joe
Harriott his first regular gig in England) with regular session work. Mudele died
Mar. 7th at 93.
RALPH PENLAND - The Cincinnati drummer spent most of his career in Los
Angeles, amassing numerous recording credits, beginning with Freddie Hubbard
in 1973 (and returning to work with the trumpeter through the years) and
continuing into this decade with George Cables, Dianne Reeves, Marc Copland,
Eddie Daniels, Carmen Lundy, Etta James and Hubert Laws. Penland died Mar.
14th at 61.
MED FLORY - An actor with over 90 TV and film credits from 1961-90, the alto
saxophonist was in the big bands of Woody Herman and Claude Thornhill after
WWII, participated in the nascent West Coast Jazz movement of the ‘50s and
co-founded the Charlie Parker tribute band Supersax. Flory died Mar. 12th at 87.
SIMO SALMINEN - The Finnish trumpeter was a mainstay of his country’s big
band scene starting in the ‘70s in groups like Tapiola Big Band, Paradise and UMO
but also spent the late ‘70s-early ‘80s in the United States, where he worked with
Eddie Palmieri, Buddy Rich and others and recorded with the Mel Lewis Jazz
Orchestra. Salminen died Mar. 3rd at 57.
AL HAREWOOD - Despite never releasing an album under his own name, the
drummer participated on nearly a hundred sessions from the mid ‘50s to mid ‘80s
led by a Who’s Who of jazz like JJ Johnson, Curtis Fuller, Benny Golson, Horace
Parlan, Grant Green, Stanley Turrentine, Betty Carter, George Benson, Dexter
Gordon and Lee Konitz. Harewood died Mar. 13th at 90.
PATTI WICKS - The pianist’s early classical training gave way to jazz performance
(and a number of albums under her own name), whether solo, in duo with a
bassist or leading a trio (in which she also sang) as well as work as a sideperson
for a number of instrumentalists and vocalists in her adopted homes of Maine and
Florida. Wicks died Mar. 7th at 69.
BIRTHDAYS
May 2
†Pat Smyth 1923-83
†Richard “Groove” Holmes
1931-91
Eddy Louiss b.1941
Mickey Bass b.1943
Keith Ganz b.1972
May 3
†John Lewis 1920-2001
†Jimmy Cleveland 1926-2008
Jymie Merritt b.1926
Johnny Fischer b.1930
John Alexander b.1948
Larry Ochs b.1949
Guillermo E. Brown b.1974
Matt Bauder b.1976
Alexander Hawkins b.1981
May 4
†Sonny Payne 1926-79
†Maynard Ferguson 1928-2006
Warren Smith b.1932
Don Friedman b.1935
Ron Carter b.1937
Chuck Folds b.1938
Rudresh Mahanthappa b.1971
Jeremiah Cymerman b.1980
May 5
Kidd Jordan b.1935
Stanley Cowell b.1941
Jack Walrath b.1946
Pablo Aslan b.1962
May 6
†Freddy Randall 1921-99
†Denny Wright 1924-92
Isla Eckinger b.1939
Paul Dunmall b.1953
May 7
†Yank Porter 1895-1944
†Pete Jacobs 1899-1952
†Leon Abbey 1900-75
†Edward Inge 1906-88
†Herbie Steward 1926-2003
Arthur Blythe b.1940
Michael Formanek b.1958
May 8
†Red Nichols 1905-65
†Mary Lou Williams 1910-81
†Jerry Rusch 1943-2003
Keith Jarrett b.1945
Jon-Erik Kellso b.1964
Meinrad Kneer b.1970
May 9
†George Simon 1912-2001
†Dick Morrissey 1940-2000
Dennis Chambers b.1959
Ricardo Gallo b.1978
May 10
†Pee Wee Hunt 1907-79
†Al Hendrickson 1920-2007
†Mel Lewis 1929-90
George Golla b.1935
†Julius Wechter 1935-99
Mike Melvoin b.1937
Jimmy Ponder b.1946
Ahmed Abdullah b.1947
†Hans Reichel 1949-2011
Alex Foster b.1953
Philip Harper b.1965
Jasper Hoiby b.1977
May 11
†King Oliver 1885-1938
†JC Higginbotham 1906-73
†Oscar Valdambrini 1924-97
John Coppola b.1929
Dick Garcia b.1931
†Freddie Roach 1931-80
Carla Bley b.1938
Ralph Humphrey b.1944
Mikkel Ploug b.1978
May 12
†Marshall Royal 1912-95
†Don DeMichael 1928-82
Gary Peacock b.1935
Klaus Doldinger b.1936
Trevor Tompkins b.1941
May 13
†Maxine Sullivan 1911-87
†Gil Evans 1912-88
†Red Garland 1923-84
Creed Taylor b.1929
†Erick Moseholm 1930-2012
John Engels b.1935
Gregoire Maret b.1975
May 14
†Sidney Bechet 1897-1959
†Zutty Singleton 1898-1975
†Skip Martin 1916-76
Al Porcino b.1925
Jack Bruce b.1943
Virginia Mayhew b.1959
Frank Basile b.1978
May 15
†Ellis Larkins 1923-2002
Karin Krog b.1937
Oscar Castro-Neves b.1940
Omer Klein b.1982
Grace Kelly b.1992
May 16
†Woody Herman 1913-87
†Eddie Bert 1922-2012
†Betty Carter 1930-98
Billy Cobham b.1944
May 22
†Sun Ra 1914-93
†Elek Bacsik 1926-1993
Giuseppi Logan b.1935
†Dick Berk 1939-2014
May 17
†Paul Quinichette 1916-83
†Dewey Redman 1931-2006
†David Izenzon 1932-79
†Jackie McLean 1932-2006
Michiel Braam b.1964
May 23
†Artie Shaw 1910-2004
†Rosemary Clooney 1928-2002
†Les Spann 1932-89
Daniel Humair b.1938
Marvin Stamm b.1939
Don Moye b.1946
Richie Beirach b.1947
Ken Peplowski b.1959
Darcy James Argue b.1975
May 18
†Joe Turner 1911-85
†Kai Winding 1922-83
Jim McNeely b.1949
Weasel Walter b.1972
May 19
Cecil McBee b.1935
Sonny Fortune b.1939
Richard Teitelbaum b.1939
Henry Butler b.1949
Michael Blake b.1964
May 20
Tommy Gumina b.1931
Louis Smith b.1931
†Bob Florence 1932-2008
Charles Davis b.1933
†Rufus Harley 1936-2006
Victor Lewis b.1950
Ralph Peterson b.1962
Sheryl Bailey b.1966
Benjamin Duboc b.1969
May 21
†Fats Waller 1904-43
†Tommy Bryant 1930-82
Marc Ribot b.1954
Lewis “Flip” Barnes b.1955
May 24
†Frank Signorelli 1901-75
†Herbie Fields 1919-58
Max Bennett b.1928
†Gianni Basso 1931-2009
Michael White b.1933
Archie Shepp b.1937
†Charles Earland 1941-99
Francesco Cafiso b.1989
May 27
†Albert Nicholas 1900-73
†Jock Carruthers 1910-71
†Bud Shank 1926-2009
Ramsey Lewis b.1935
†Rufus Jones 1936-90
†Niels-Henning Ørsted
Pedersen 1946-2005
Gonzalo Rubalcaba b.1963
Luba Vorob’eva
May 1
Ira Sullivan b.1931
†Shirley Horn 1934-2005
Carlos Ward b.1940
James Newton b.1953
Kevin Hays b.1968
Ambrose Akinmusire b.1982
May 28
†Andy Kirk 1898-1992
†Al Tinney 1921-2002
†Russ Freeman 1926-2002
Alfred Patterson b.1937
Claudio Roditi b.1946
BILLY COBHAM
May 16th, 1944
May 29
Freddie Redd b.1927
†Hilton Ruiz 1952-2006
Jim Snidero b.1958
Lafayette Harris, Jr. b.1963
Wycliffe Gordon b.1967
Sean Jones b.1978
May 25
Marshall Allen b.1924
†Miles Davis 1926-91
†Piet Noordijk 1932-2011
Gary Foster b.1936
Christof Lauer b.1953
Wallace Roney b.1960
May 30
†Sidney DeParis 1905-67
†Benny Goodman 1909-86
†Pee Wee Erwin 1913-81
†Shake Keane 1927-97
†Harry Beckett 1935-2010
Ann Hampton Callaway b.1959
Juan Pablo Carletti b.1973
Frank Rosaly b.1974
May 26
†Ady Rosner 1910-76
†Shorty Baker 1914-66
†Ziggy Elman 1914-68
†Calvin Jackson 1919-85
†Neil Ardley 1937-2004
David Torn b.1953
May 31
†Red Holloway 1927-2012
Albert “Tootie ”Heath b.1935
Louis Hayes b.1937
Marty Ehrlich b.1955
Eric Revis b.1967
Christian McBride b.1972
While Panama-born, NYCraised
drummer
Billy
Cobham is most known for
his myriad contributions to
the fusion movement, he was
a compelling straightahead
drummer for folks like
Stanley Turrentine, George
Benson and Horace Silver
when first starting out in the
late ‘60s. But it was
participation in sessions for
Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew and
Jack Johnson that led to
meeting
guitarist
John
McLaughlin and the brief but
blinding incandescence of
the original Mahavishnu
Orchestra, which helped
define fusion. Cobham’s
own albums, from 1973’s
Spectrum to more recent live
discs, continue the lineage he
helped to establish decades
ago but he also has revisited
his beginnings in a current
trio with Ron Carter and
Donald Harrison.
-AH
ON THIS DAY
by Andrey Henkin
Eponymous
Milt Jackson Quartet (Prestige)
May 20th, 1955
Vibraphonist
Milt Jackson is best
known for his co-leading of the
Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) from 195174 and then again in the ‘80s. Kenny
Clarke was the group’s original
drummer alongside bassist Percy
Heath. But for this quartet session,
Heath is paired with Connie Kay, who
would join the MJQ immediately after.
And instead of John Lewis, Horace
Silver is in the piano chair (only the
second session they recorded together
at the time). The leader contributes the
original “Stonewall” to leaven the
otherwise all-standards program.
Prayer for Peace
Amalgam (Transatlantic-FMR)
May 20th, 1969
Saga of the Outlaws
Charles Tyler (Nessa)
May 20th, 1976
Live At Bubba’s
Ahmad Jamal (Kingdom Jazz)
May 20th, 1980
Piano Night
Kenny Drew (Meldac Jazz)
May 20th, 1990
Amalgam was the short-lived trio of
alto saxophonist Trevor Watts,
drummer John Stevens and a revolving
cast of bassists (mostly Jeff Clyne but
also Barry Guy and even Johnny
Dyani). While these musicians
recorded together often, this is the
group’s only official release, waxed
following an earlier session that only
survives as an acetate. Watts composed
the pieces for the album, “Tales of
Sadness”, the three parts of “Judy’s
Smile”, the title track and “Hope”.
Recently reissued, this is an important
document of early British avant jazz.
Charles Tyler was among the many
New Thing saxophonists working
around NYC in the ‘60s, though he was
unique for the at-the-time-unusual
doubling on alto and baritone. His first
albums were, unsurprisingly, for ESPDisk’ and he recorded solely as a
leader, albeit infrequently, in the ‘70s.
This is his only session for Nessa
Records, done with frequent partners
Ronnie Boykins (bass), Steve Reid
(drums) and Earl Cross (trumpet) plus
second bassist John Ore. The two-part
“polyphonic sonic tale” was recorded
live at Sam Rivers’ loft.
Ahmad Jamal is an unusual figure in
jazz history as a player who, in a career
approaching six decades, only worked
as a leader and usually in trios of long
standing. But this didn’t stop him from
being named an NEA Jazz Master in
1994. This live album from a club in
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida features the
pianist fronting the rhythm section of
Sabu Adeyola and Payton Crossley on
a varied program: standards like
“Waltz for Debby”, “Autumn in New
York” and “I’ve Never Been in Love
Before” alongside showtunes by
Hammerstein-Kern and Merrill-Styne.
Some might argue that pianist Kenny
Drew’s reputation suffered somewhat
for leaving the States to settle in Europe
in the ‘60s. His sideman credits may
have diminished but he was still a
prolific leader up until his death in
1993 at age 64. This album, waxed in
Baden, Switzerland, is the companion
to Expressions, recorded two weeks
earlier. Both feature Drew in a trio with
Danish bass stalwart Niels-Henning
Ørsted Pedersen and drummer Alvin
Queen, another American ex-pat, on a
set of standards like “It Might As Well
Be Spring” and “St. Thomas”.
47
Chucho Valdés invites you to visit Cuba for the
Havana International
Jazz Festival Tour
December 14-22, 2014. Legal Cuba travel.
JazzCuba.com + 1-888-965-5647 toll free

May 2014 - The New York City Jazz Record

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