Jimmy Heath: The Endless Search

4 Beloved by his bop-era colleagues as well as generations of disciples, veteran saxophonist-composer-arranger Jimmy Heath is an active octogenarian on the scene, still swinging after all these years. At age 83, the NEA Jazz Master (Class of ’03) is blowing potent lines on both tenor and soprano saxophones, as evidenced by two recordings from 2009: the Heath Brothers’ Endurance (JLP) with Albert “Tootie” Heath on drums, David Wong on bass and Jeb Patton on piano; and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band’s live outing, I’m BeBoppin’ Too (Half Note). Endurance was the first Heath Brothers project since the passing of brother and bassist Percy in May 2005. (As the saxophonist says, using humor to offset hard reality, “Two out of three ain’t bad!”) The album finds Jimmy in top form, bearing down with fluent tenor lines on his buoyant opener “Changes” and on his urgent shuffle-swing number “Wall to Wall,” flaunting robust tenor tones on the poignant “Ballad From Leadership Suite,” and switching to soprano sax on Patton’s engaging “Dusk in the City.” He navigates the tricky head of “Two Tees” with ease before delivering a smoky, burnished sound on “Autumn in New York.” The diminutive (5-feet-3-inches) jazz giant concludes the set with a strong tenor performance on “The Rio Dawn,” his musical impression of his first visit to Brazil in 1982. While clearly in full command of his instrument, Heath has also been showcasing his considerable writing-arranging and conducting skills with his celebrated big band—most recently documented on 2006’s Turn Up the Heath on Planet Arts. In this regard, he’s come full circle from his first leader experience in 1946, the Jimmy Heath Orchestra, which featured a very young John Coltrane on alto sax. “I still love big band,” he beams. “I was raised up with that sound. After Duke Ellington and people like that, how can you give that up? The only problem is transporting a big band because it’s so expensive. But there are still nuts out here like me, Maria Schneider, Slide Hampton, Jon Faddis, Frank Foster, the Vanguard Orchestra and some others who believe in the big band. This is our symphony orchestra. And from an arranger’s point of view, it’s so satisfying because we can get so many musical textures and sounds out of a big band with the pairing of instruments. It’s endless.” Heath, in fact, wrote an extended piece for the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra called “The Endless Search,” which premiered in 2006 (an excerpt can be heard at www.srjo.org). “That’s what my life is about … the endless search,” he says. “As long as I’m here I’m gonna be trying something.” One intriguing project on Heath’s horizon is a hip-hop-big-band experiment featuring his son Mtume and grandson. “We had a proposal that involved three generations of the Heath family,” he explains. “My grandson is going to come in with some beats and all that. You know, I don’t have blinders on, I’m still open to new sounds and ideas. My problem with a lot of today’s contemporary music is that in my day we were looking for artistic excellence and now they seem to be into narcissistic decadence. … But we just want to show that this blending of hip-hop and jazz can be done with taste. Heath reveals the details of his life and illustrious career in his recently published memoir, I Walked With Giants (Temple University Press). Co-written by Joseph McLaren, a former flute student of Heath’s at the Jazzmobile during the early ’70s who is currently an author and professor of English at Hofstra University, this compelling 336-page book captures the essence of the bebop era from an insider’s view while retaining the saxophonist’s colorful storytelling style. From his first touring experiences with the Calvin Todd and Nat Towles orchestras to early gigs with the Howard McGhee Sextet and Gil Fuller’s band in the late ’40s, we see the young musician develop his own sound while dealing with dispiriting acts of segregation and racism on the road. We read about his stint with mentor Dizzy Gillespie in 1949-50, followed by a gala tour in 1952 with the Symphony Sid All-Stars. We follow Jimmy’s progress from his brief tenure with Miles Davis in 1959 (as a replacement for Coltrane) to his marriage to Mona Brown (they recently celebrated their 50th anniversary) and the eventual formation of the Grammy-nominated Heath Brothers band. Through it all, the middle Heath brother—Percy was the elder sibling—spares no detail. Most gripping is Heath’s account of his heroin addiction and arrest for possession and sales, leading to his incarceration in 1955 at the Lewisburg Penitentiary in Pennsylvania. As he writes: “They charged me as a second-time drug offender for drug sale. When I went before Judge Lord, I was told that each sale had two counts—selling, facilitating, and resale, so I had six counts. I got six years on each count, but the first five counts ran concurrently, so I had a six-year sentence.” He chronicles his kicking the heroin habit and organizing a prison big band while in jail, and explains how brother Tootie smuggled his new compositions out of prison and delivered them to Chet Baker, who included a few on his 1956 album Playboys. In an interview at his home in Corona, Queens, where he and Mona have been living since 1964, Heath commented on those tumultuous times: “Yeah, Dizzy fired me and then he hired me back after I straightened my life out. Because I was a sick man, you know? That’s what it is. It’s a sickness that’s very difficult. But in retrospect, I think it was a blessing that I went away to get straight. I just thought four and a half years was too long, man. It definitely stifled my career, but it also saved my life. My career I could get back. My life … I got to have my life. And when I look back, a lot of my peers didn’t make it. Charlie Parker was only 34, man, and he was outta here! He left the world with a wealth of music, but he doesn’t get his life back. Coltrane died at 40. We were boys together in Philly, man! And so many others died young. So being in Lewisburg was a blessing in disguise. I learned from that never to do that again, and I didn’t.” Upon being released from prison on May 21, 1959, Heath almost immediately began working regularly around Philadelphia with trumpet great Kenny Dorham. He also picked up a high-profile gig in June of that year at the Apollo Theater with the Gil Evans big band. Cannonball Adderley, who had championed Jimmy’s cause during his period of incarceration, recommended Heath to Orrin Keepnews, who quickly signed the saxophonist to Riverside after his release and presided over 1959’s The Thumper and 1960’s Really Big! But even though he was out of prison, Heath was not entirely a free man. When he couldn’t make a gig in Chicago, a condition of Heath’s probation requiring him to remain within a 50-mile radius of Philadelphia ultimately foiled his chance to work with Miles Davis. As he writes, “I told my probation officer, ‘I got the best job I ever had in my life. I’m making a lot of money, five or six hundred dollars a week. You’re cutting me off from making my livelihood.’ And he said, ‘I can’t do anything about it.’ He had just given me permission without checking—he blamed it on higher-ups in Washington, D.C.—and now he found out that he shouldn’t have. Miles was very disappointed, but he had friends in Philly. He tried everybody he knew with authority in Philadelphia, but no luck. … Now I had a job, an opportunity to be with one off the best bands in the land and in the world, and I couldn’t go. I was being penalized for my past.” Fifty years later, Heath’s many awards, trophies, citations, medals and plaques are piling up in his computer room, where he works on his big-band arrangements and extended compositions (using Finale software on his Mac). “Plaques? I got more plaques than people got on their teeth,” he jokes. On prominent display in this cluttered workroom is a large framed picture of Charlie Parker sitting as a guest soloist with Heath’s big band, circa 1946 (with a youthful John Coltrane in the horn section on alto). As far as the state of jazz in the year 2010 and in the future, Heath remains hopeful. “There are some artists out here that are leading young players into something that doesn’t swing,” he says. “They think it’s hip to change up, but all changes are not good. You have to be careful about throwing away everything to get to something new. But I also know, from going around to schools like Queens College and Loyola in New Orleans and judging the Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition, that there are some very good young players out there who are steeped in the tradition and ready to take the music forward.” As for his own accomplishments over his lengthy career, Heath has never thought of himself as a star, a term he actually disdains. “I’ve always been one of the guys, and I like that,” he says. “To be respected by your peers, you can’t ask for anything better than that.” Recommended Listening: The Heath Brothers Endurance (JLP, 2009) The Jimmy Heath Big Band Turn Up the Heath (Planet Arts, 2006) The Jimmy Heath Orchestra Really Big! (Riverside, 1960) true

2010-01-22T14:40:36-05:00

false

25655

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2010-03-01T00:00:00-05:00

Beloved by his bop-era colleagues as well as generations of disciples, veteran saxophonist-composer-arranger Jimmy Heath is an active octogenarian on the scene, still swinging after all these years. At age 83, the NEA Jazz Master (Class of ’03) is blowing potent lines on both tenor and soprano saxophones, as evidenced by two recordings from 2009: the Heath Brothers’ Endurance (JLP) with Albert “Tootie” Heath on drums, David Wong on bass and Jeb Patton on piano; and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band’s live outing, I’m BeBoppin’ Too (Half Note). Endurance was the first Heath Brothers project since the passing of brother and bassist Percy in May 2005. (As the saxophonist says, using humor to offset hard reality, “Two out of three ain’t bad!”) The album finds Jimmy in top form, bearing down with fluent tenor lines on his buoyant opener “Changes” and on his urgent shuffle-swing number “Wall to Wall,” flaunting robust tenor tones on the poignant “Ballad From Leadership Suite,” and switching to soprano sax on Patton’s engaging “Dusk in the City.” He navigates the tricky head of “Two Tees” with ease before delivering a smoky, burnished sound on “Autumn in New York.” The diminutive (5-feet-3-inches) jazz giant concludes the set with a strong tenor performance on “The Rio Dawn,” his musical impression of his first visit to Brazil in 1982. While clearly in full command of his instrument, Heath has also been showcasing his considerable writing-arranging and conducting skills with his celebrated big band—most recently documented on 2006’s Turn Up the Heath on Planet...

Jimmy Heath: The Endless Search

2010-02-01T13:36:59-05:00

4 It was the sound. It was always the sound. The sound of heartbreak and loneliness … the cry. Ray had it, Billie had it and Hank definitely had it. A voice that was at once seductive and commanding, inviting you in and telling you to sit down, shut up and listen. All it took was one note and you knew. For me the album was From the Heart and the tune was “Don’t Cry Baby.” It stopped me in my tracks. The tempo was incredibly slow. The arrangement was stark: bass, drums, four horns, a guitar playing a Freddie Green rhythm and Hank on alto. He played the melody simply, leaving big space. I was 11 or 12 years old, and that was it for me. Hank Crawford was a huge influence on me, not just musically but personally too. He always appeared so cool with that skinny look in classy tailored suits. He showed such refined taste and elegance. It was that combination of simplicity and sophistication that got to me. What he did with the music still resonates with me today. He could leave these spaces in the music and the tune wouldn’t die. He taught me the value of space and how the notes you leave out are as important as the ones you play. It’s a philosophical approach that Miles Davis became famous for. It’s a lot harder than it sounds. And he could play a song slow and make it work: I remember hearing Hank do Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me” really, really slow and it was killing. I first met him when I came to a recording date as a section player—one of a bunch of horn players. I had done a lot of sessions by that time, but when I got there and saw that he was going to be in the section with me, I was petrified. He was my hero and suddenly I’m standing next to him running through some charts. It was an amazing experience for me just to stand there with him and hear that sound, up close. I also remember that Hank wanted to know the words to the song. You can learn the chart for a tune, but when you learn the words, you really learn the melody, because the two are inextricably tied together. The lyrics enable you to learn to phrase the melody. I think that was one reason that Hank really knew how to sing the song through his horn. I think that Hank and David “Fathead” Newman provided perfect counterpoints to what Ray Charles was doing. The music they did together was everything to me, and to a lot of people. It really got to the heart of the matter. There is something about that Southern region that produced Hank and Fathead. The jazz is mixed with R&B, blues and gospel and it comes out as something very special—an emotionally direct music. Later, in 1989, I brought Hank onto the television show I was hosting, Night Music. I wanted the world to hear this man’s special gift. I asked him to play “The Peeper” and “Don’t Cry Baby,” and, of course, he nailed it. Bringing him on national television was a little thing I could do to repay him for his influence. On my last record, Here & Gone, I played three arrangements by Hank, and my latest album opens with “The Peeper.” The simple and straightforward sound of the new album is very much modeled on what Hank did with Jimmy McGriff. I wish Hank could hear it. I always felt he sounded best with minimal accompaniment and arrangement: a backing so stark that it showed his unique gift and allowed him to tell the story. It’s hard to sum up a man’s influence and legacy in a few words, particularly someone as talented and innovative as Hank was. But it’s pretty simple. He had such humanity in his playing. He knew how to sing with his horn. He had a sound that you could never forget. I will always think of him as a soulful singer who just happened to play the alto saxophone. So go find a copy of “Don’t Cry Baby” and get stopped in your tracks. [As told to Lee Mergner] true

21399

2010-01-22T16:34:09-05:00

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2010-03-01T00:00:00-05:00

David Sanborn remembers one of his idols, saxophonist Hank Crawford, in a very personal Farewell piece

Hank Crawford (12.21.34 – 1.29.09)

2010-02-04T08:45:43-05:00

4 On Dec. 25, 2008, Gabriel blew his horn for the arrival of heaven’s “purrfect angel,” Eartha Kitt. I can’t imagine the fanfare she received from clamoring angels and human spirits—males, of course. In my mind’s eye I can picture God smiling at all the ruckus, but mostly at the fact that his child, Eartha Mae Keith, had arrived on Christmas Day. What a glorious present for Heaven! On Earth we mourned her passing, as she would no longer be here to seduce us with her siren ways. She “purred” her way into my consciousness in 1967 when she took over the role of Catwoman in the TV series Batman. I sat mesmerized before the television with each pisode Eartha appeared in. What a woman! What sex appeal! Great Scott! Shazam! Of course I knew the legendary “Santa Baby,” “C’est Si Bon,” “Love for Sale” and “Uska Dara,” but I never knew until researching her life that Orson Welles had proclaimed her “the most exciting woman in the world.” Eartha, for me, coined the term “triple threat” and gave true meaning to the definition of “multifarious.” Life was her stage, and she commanded every aspect of it until her untimely death at her home in Weston, Conn. Just Google her to read her vast discography, theater and film credits, three autobiographies and countless awards. Kitt was the master of re-invention. Eartha (which means “strong faith”) Mae Keith was born Jan. 17, 1927, just three weeks before my own mother, Marion Hale Holliday (Hudspeth). It comes as no surprise to me that this woman—conceived from the rape of her African-American/Cherokee mother, Mamie, by John Kitt, the white son of a plantation owner in South Carolina—managed to transform her dismal beginnings into a sort of fairytale. She was traded off from her birth mother to Anna Mae Riley, then to another family, finally winding up with her birth mother in New York City. Dance afforded Eartha her first taste of creative freedom under the tutelage of the Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe. Films, recordings, television, cabaret followed … with powerful, wealthy, smitten men in tow. She traveled the world, picking up the French language along the way. C’est magnifique! A second language merely added to her building mystique. I had the great fortune of seeing and meeting Eartha in Los Angeles at the famous “backlot” cabaret room of the renowned Studio One in 1978. I was accompanied by a close friend, the choreographer Michael Peters. After a breathtaking show, Michael and I met Eartha backstage, with her daughter, Kitt, handling her personal affairs. (My oldest daughter, Tulani Bridgewater-Kowalski, handles mine.) A second encounter with Eartha took place on April 25, 1999, as we were both part of a star-studded evening honoring Max Roach at Aaron Davis Hall. I remember walking into a backstage room to find her doing dance warm-ups. I was so surprised by her suppleness and concentration it rendered me speechless and I quietly left the room. I don’t think she even realized a door had been opened, or that I stood there gaping at her amazing body and her flexibility! Eartha was unique, fearless, proud and unyielding. (Remember, she was ostracized after her infamous anti-war statements on Vietnam in 1968.) One can develop such attributes from world travels, being treated with dignity outside of our (un) United States. I was similarly asked to tone down my personal “anti-war” opinions at the outset of the illegal war on Iraq while in Southeast Asia. In her autobiography Thursday’s Child, she said of her early life in South Carolina, “My first scene in life was a long, dark, dusty road. I could not see the end of it, for it just went down, down, down—to end in what seemed like hell.” She summed up her life in six words: rejected, ejected, dejected, used, accused and abused. Although I’m sure there was an underlying rage, Eartha Kitt was an amazing actress, as she epitomized for me another set of six words: class, beauty, integrity, sensuality, youthfulness and intelligence. For those of us whose lives she touched, she left the indelible imprint of an ethereal angel. true

21401

2010-01-22T16:44:25-05:00

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2010-03-01T00:00:00-05:00

1.17.27 – 12.25.08

On Dec. 25, 2008, Gabriel blew his horn for the arrival of heaven’s “purrfect angel,” Eartha Kitt. I can’t imagine the fanfare she received from clamoring angels and human spirits—males, of course. In my mind’s eye I can picture God smiling at all the ruckus, but mostly at the fact that his child, Eartha Mae Keith, had arrived on Christmas Day. What a glorious present for Heaven! On Earth we mourned her passing, as she would no longer be here to seduce us with her siren ways. She “purred” her way into my consciousness in 1967 when she took over the role of Catwoman in the TV series Batman . I sat mesmerized before the television with each pisode Eartha appeared in. What a woman! What sex appeal! Great Scott! Shazam! Of course I knew the legendary “Santa Baby,” “C’est Si Bon,” “Love for Sale” and “Uska Dara,” but I never knew until researching her life that Orson Welles had proclaimed her “the most exciting woman in the world.” Eartha, for me, coined the term “triple threat” and gave true meaning to the definition of “multifarious.” Life was her stage, and she commanded every aspect of it until her untimely death at her home in Weston, Conn. Just Google her to read her vast discography, theater and film credits, three autobiographies and countless awards. Kitt was the master of re-invention. Eartha (which means “strong faith”) Mae Keith was born Jan. 17, 1927, just three weeks before my own mother, Marion Hale Holliday (Hudspeth). It comes as...

Eartha Kitt

2010-02-01T13:33:08-05:00

4 Louie would recall the first time he met you, the name of your family members and follow this by asking how they were doing. He cared about everyone he came in touch with. He was also quick, but he was gentle while pointing out things he thought you might need to think about. Ed Shaughnessy recalls first meeting Louie and being the recipient of tips on technique when he was 16. Later, Louie suggested double bass drums to Ed “because he’d be a natural at it.” I can think of so many examples of Louie’s generosity and spirit. What follows are just a few, and I am sure that other people had similar experiences with Louie. In the late ’90s, Louie and his wife, Francine, were invited guests of her alma mater, Earlham College in Richmond, Ind. Louie asked if he could perform with the jazz ensemble. He then went further, recalling that Richmond was my hometown, and asked the promoter to include my trio in the performance. I had played there several times, but Louie negotiated more money for me than I had previously received … in my hometown! During that concert, he wanted to perform our version of “Salt Peanuts” with two snare drums and brushes. He would usually take the first solo and I would follow with mine and set up the final head. After our quick rehearsal at sound check, he suggested I solo first. He had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and I wanted him to be as comfortable as possible. That evening, I led off and didn’t pull out all the stops. Louie then began his solo by doing a left-hand trill and brushed his coat sleeve off with his right brush—as if to say, “Little man, you’ve had a busy day!” On a Japanese tour that featured Grady Tate, Lewis Nash, Louie and I, the arrangements were designed to have Louie solo first. The rest of us immediately changed the solo order so that Louie would solo last. There was just no following a Louie Bellson solo. We all understood why Duke Ellington called him the best musician. At his last lunch with fellow drummers Ed Shaughnessy, Jake Hanna, Frank Capp and Joe La Barbera, Louie instructed us to tell stories he wanted to share, as he was not in top speaking voice. There were tales about Ed subbing for Louie with Duke Ellington, Louie with Tommy Dorsey’s band at the Paramount in the ’40s. He shared his stories about Gene Krupa and what a gentleman he was. Knowing that I collect vintage timepieces (mostly Hamiltons) he invited me into his home when I dropped him off after our final lunch. Perhaps sensing that this would be the last time we saw each other, he gave me his gold pocket watch from the ’40s. He joked, “You don’t really need this, but I’d like you to have it.” One of the things he said about Gene was that he always took time for everyone who was interested in talking about music. Louie was the same way. He was known as the nicest guy in the business, a sweetheart of a person. When I heard of his passing on Valentine’s Day, my first thought was … how appropriate. true

21406

2010-01-22T17:29:40-05:00

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2010-03-01T00:00:00-05:00

7.6.24 – 2.14.09

Louie would recall the first time he met you, the name of your family members and follow this by asking how they were doing. He cared about everyone he came in touch with. He was also quick, but he was gentle while pointing out things he thought you might need to think about. Ed Shaughnessy recalls first meeting Louie and being the recipient of tips on technique when he was 16. Later, Louie suggested double bass drums to Ed “because he’d be a natural at it.” I can think of so many examples of Louie’s generosity and spirit. What follows are just a few, and I am sure that other people had similar experiences with Louie. In the late ’90s, Louie and his wife, Francine, were invited guests of her alma mater, Earlham College in Richmond, Ind. Louie asked if he could perform with the jazz ensemble. He then went further, recalling that Richmond was my hometown, and asked the promoter to include my trio in the performance. I had played there several times, but Louie negotiated more money for me than I had previously received … in my hometown! During that concert, he wanted to perform our version of “Salt Peanuts” with two snare drums and brushes. He would usually take the first solo and I would follow with mine and set up the final head. After our quick rehearsal at sound check, he suggested I solo first. He had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and I wanted him to be as comfortable as...

Louie Bellson

2010-02-01T13:32:30-05:00

4 I was privileged to have known Bud Shank since the early ’70s. He was a real Renaissance man. I first met him in the Hollywood studios where we both spent a lot of time. He was a first-call flutist and saxophonist and worked constantly. When he left the studios he gave up the flute, choosing to concentrate solely on alto sax. I was disappointed. His flute sound and approach were totally unique and he had a real voice on the instrument. In the late ’70s, Claude Bolling was writing many “jazz suites”; Bud wasn’t a big fan of Bolling’s and said, “Let’s do one of our own.” So he commissioned my Suite for Flute & Piano and played the hell out of it! Bud was also one of those rare studio musicians who, while doing much commercial work, kept the jazz side of his musical personality alive and active. He was a charter member of the L.A. Four, a member of the Lighthouse All-Stars, one of the early proponents of Brazilian music and led many fine ensembles. He wrote and recorded many lovely compositions and also scored two surfing movies! A dedicated educator, Bud was the artistic director for many years of the jazz camp that bore his name in Port Townsend, Wash. He was also one of the only people (along with Shelly Manne) who understood and encouraged my decision to leave a lucrative career in the studios and move to New York to pursue more creative musical endeavors. We shared many great times on and off the bandstand. We both loved sailing, and I remember being on his Morgan 42-footer in the Pacific during a raging storm. I jumped at the chance when he smiled and said, “Want to take the tiller?” He once sailed the ocean from L.A. to Hawaii! Bud also loved fast cars. He once took me in one of his racing Porsches up curvy Mount Lemon, outside of Tucson, Ariz., for the ride of my life! He was a gentle, fun-loving guy who was easy to travel and be with. Memorable musical moments include Heritage (my first recording with him), a flute and two-piano LP (Crystal Comments, with Alan Broadbent), the “two-altos band” with Phil Woods and our 2005 duo, Beyond the Red Door. Our last work together, and his last recording sessions as a leader, was in January 2009: four nights at L.A.’s Jazz Bakery with drummer Joe La Barbera and bassist Bob Magnusson. Though suffering from advanced emphysema, in a wheel chair and on oxygen (!), Bud played some searching and very memorable solos that week, and the project was recently released as Fascinating Rhythms. Bud was always willing to let the music “go where it wants” and set minimum controls on the players. His enthusiasm, optimism, laugh and sense of humor were a delight. (After moving to Arizona he bought a truck and installed his no-more-used clarinet in the rifle rack!) I miss the man very much. true

21402

2010-01-22T17:39:17-05:00

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138

2010-03-01T00:00:00-05:00

5.27.26 – 4.2.09

I was privileged to have known Bud Shank since the early ’70s. He was a real Renaissance man. I first met him in the Hollywood studios where we both spent a lot of time. He was a first-call flutist and saxophonist and worked constantly. When he left the studios he gave up the flute, choosing to concentrate solely on alto sax. I was disappointed. His flute sound and approach were totally unique and he had a real voice on the instrument. In the late ’70s, Claude Bolling was writing many “jazz suites”; Bud wasn’t a big fan of Bolling’s and said, “Let’s do one of our own.” So he commissioned my Suite for Flute & Piano and played the hell out of it! Bud was also one of those rare studio musicians who, while doing much commercial work, kept the jazz side of his musical personality alive and active. He was a charter member of the L.A. Four, a member of the Lighthouse All-Stars, one of the early proponents of Brazilian music and led many fine ensembles. He wrote and recorded many lovely compositions and also scored two surfing movies! A dedicated educator, Bud was the artistic director for many years of the jazz camp that bore his name in Port Townsend, Wash. He was also one of the only people (along with Shelly Manne) who understood and encouraged my decision to leave a lucrative career in the studios and move to New York to pursue more creative musical endeavors. We shared many great times on...

Bud Shank

2010-02-01T13:32:05-05:00

4 Singer-guitarist Kenny Rankin died in 2009, but his music and legacy is being kept alive by his family, who have organized a reissue schedule for nearly half of his back catalog. The releases were made possible by the generosity of the late, legendary comic George Carlin. (More on that later.) The label imprint Sly Dog Records, marketed and distributed by jazz label Mack Avenue Records, will release six of Rankin’s earlier albums in the coming months, including classic Rankin material like Family (that’s the one with a cover of a naked Rankin holding his two young daughters, also naked—it was the ’70s, OK?) and Like a Seed. The albums will be officially released on Feb. 16. Interestingly, they’re labeled as “jazz/pop,” a tag that doesn’t really do justice to the genre-crossing yet singular Rankin. Son Chris Rankin said that it was important to him and his two sisters, Gena Rankin-Ray and Dr. Chanda Rankin, to see that his legacy was kept alive, but the impetus for these reissues actually came from their father, who had already made headway with getting back the masters before his death. “My dad was pretty well along on re-acquiring his work,” explained Chris. “It made it so much easier for us to do what had to be done.” However, the reacquisition is a story that seems unbelievable, at least without knowing about the distant past. At the beginning of his career in the late ’60s, Rankin recorded two albums for Mercury, before being signed to a label called Little David, which was run by Monte Kay, perhaps best known to jazz aficionados as the manager and impresario for the Modern Jazz Quartet. Kay also managed and booked Rankin, as well as a young comic named George Carlin. (Like Rankin, Carlin came from a tough NYC neighborhood.) Naturally, Kay sent both of his nascent acts out on the road together in the ’70s, and although the two performers didn’t know each other from their childhood, they quickly bonded, pounding out a living on the road at clubs and colleges across the country. Over time, Rankin released several fairly successful albums on that Little David label, which was distributed by WEA. And, of course, that label also released albums from the aforementioned young comic, who subsequently became one of the most influential comedians of his generation. Cut to 30 years later. Eventually, the catalog of Little David ended up under the control of Carlin. A few years ago, Rankin contacted his old tour buddy about getting back the master tapes and rights to those old recordings. Sadly, many label owners relish such an opportunity to cash in on old inventory, demanding a king’s ransom for tapes gathering dust in a vault. Carlin, however, took a different approach. He sold the rights to the masters—all of them—back to Rankin for the princely sum of $1. No typo. “He was a man of heart and generosity,” said son Chris of Carlin. “And Little David had also gotten rights to the first two records as well, so Dad was able to get much of his earlier work back, thanks to George’s kind act.” Chris said he hopes these reissues will introduce some of his father’s more recent fans to his work as a composer. “As he got older, he tended to downplay his own compositions,” said Chris. “He saw himself as an interpreter of other people’s music.” Indeed, Rankin covered the Beatles, just like nearly every singer of the ’70s and ’80s, but it was Rankin who was called by McCartney to perform Lennon-McCartney songs at the induction of the pair into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. “That meant so much to my Dad,” recalled Chris. “To get that sort of acknowledgment from the person who created the music in the first place. Just as all musicians seek approval from their peers.” Chris, a veteran of the music business himself, credits his father with introducing him to the power of music in creation. “I remember going to recording sessions with him in New York City in the ’60s. I must have been about 7. Of course, I was always ready to tag along. What an education.” The young Rankin grew up to become a live music engineer, working at high-profile venues or on the road with top-notch acts like Crosby, Stills & Nash. Those skills came in handy when the time came to turn the two-track masters into remastered CDs. “We wanted to make sure that people would hear the same intimacy and dynamics that were on the original recordings. Too often digital remastering means changing the sound for the wrong reasons.” Finally, about “that ’70s cover.” Chris, who appears on the back cover with the rest of the family, has a different take on that photo session. It seems that the photographer just happened to be one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century. “Actually, Richard Avedon took those photos,” Chris laughed. “We still have the contact sheets. We felt very fortunate that Dad had relationships with so many talented and interesting people.” It helps to be talented and interesting yourself. The younger Rankin sees his father’s legacy as someone who saw music beyond genres. “He had a very broad musical palette, because of where he grew up in a neighborhood where he heard everything. And he exposed us as kids to everything from MJQ to CSN. He was open to all genres.” Chris thinks that audiences past and present will reconnect with his father’s work for different reasons. “We think that fans of his later work will see a different side of Dad. And fans of his earlier work have always asked about those albums, which have not been available for some time.” true

129

2010-01-22T12:13:29-05:00

false

25652

true

135

2010-01-29T09:00:00-05:00

Sly Dog label to release late singer-guitarist’s music through Mack Avenue Records

Much of Kenny Rankin Catalog to be Reissued

2010-02-03T10:08:42-05:00

4 The story of ESP-Disk’ is well-known among avant-garde jazz aficionados. Forty-five years ago when nothing but gut instinct drove him, Bernard Stollman dove into the community of musicians to which Albert Ayler introduced him and documented the music that began its history. Over a period of nine years, from 1964-1973, Stollman released one hundred-nineteen albums with no backing. One of the first two recording sessions occurred with saxophone player Ayler’s group, resulting in the landmark Spiritual Unity (ESP 1002). Stollman proceeded to release records from a pantheon of stellar musicians, including altoists Ornette Coleman, Marion Brown and Sonny Simmons; pianists Burton Greene and Paul Bley; drummers Milford Graves and Sunny Murray; tenor players Giuseppi Logan and Pharoah Sanders; bassist Henry Grimes; and Arkestra leader, Sun Ra. Stollman’s motivation was simple: to chronicle the musical life of New York City. Stollman did not keep to the jazz realm; he paid attention to intriguing genres that included folk and rock as well. In fact, the recordings of Pearls Before Swine, like Uncle John, and those by the group, The Fugs, provided the revenue to fund the sporadic production of the vanguard records that did not have a huge market. It is important to remember that Stollman created his label without corporate connections. He relied on the artists to lead him to the next step. With his adoption of the credo, “the artists alone decide what you hear on their ESP-Disk’,” he gave the artists total freedom and changed nothing. In 1974, entrepreneur Stollman was out of business. In the 1990’s, in order to keep the market for the music alive and garner wider recognition for the catalog, he involved one German company, ZYX, and subsequently an Italian company, Abraxis/Get Back, in re-releasing the entire catalog - the 1000, 2000, and 3000 series- both on CD and vinyl. When those deals ended in 2005, Stollman again took the reins and has been releasing records to a worldwide audience ever since. In 2008, when Tom Abbs, a musician himself, came to work for Stollman as the General Manager of ESP Disk', the wheels of the record company grabbed the road more deeply. A renewed administrative team at ESP continued to write the story of the label, as “the keepers of Bernard’s legacy.” Comprised of Abbs, Chief Financial Officer Douglas McGregor, Director of Promotions Adam Downey and Publishing Administrator Robert Keefe, that team has charged itself with the mission of finding innovative musicians within the thriving music community in the city. “We know exactly what an ESP record should be. Cutting edge, revolutionary, provocative and ground-breaking. Music for a new generation.” Abbs continues, “We know the original catalog backwards and forwards. We eat and breathe it. It’s our blueprint. We listen to hundreds of demos and when we find something with that ESP edge, we take it to Bernard." Since the beginning of 2008, ESP has released twelve new recordings. Some of the new artists include Joe Morris, Bruce Eisenbeil, Arrington de Dionyso, and the bands Yuganaut, Tsigoti and Talibam!. These new recordings, along with dozens of CD and vinyl re-issues put out since 2005, constitute the 4000 series. Selected re-releases have come out on high-quality, 180-gram virgin vinyl, which is thicker, more durable and offers better studio imaging, less noise and wider bandwidth.“A trend in the industry,” says Abbs, “vinyl sells out before the CDs will,” especially to the collectors of the label. He acknowledges the existence of “a small devoted fan base,” purchasing everything that ESP releases. That not being a very large market, he goes on to say, “Promotion to a larger audience is a challenge.” But the challenge does not thwart the company’s efforts. Downloads are a small part of their sales and, to provide an “incentive for the buyer,” as is common practice in the industry, downloads automatically come with the sale of either CD or vinyl. This download package includes archival material about the artist in the form of extra liner notes or videos. Abbs believes this practice allows the customer to have a better experience: “The more information the listener has, the more extensive the notes and documentation are, the more it enriches the experience.” From a marketing standpoint, modes of distribution may change or the value of the actual material substance of a recording may fluctuate. But, from an historical standpoint, no matter how it reaches the listener, the value of the content of the recordings is carved in stone. ESP has begun to reach out beyond the core record label functions. Bed-Stuy neighbor Steven Walcott, who has done some mastering work for ESP, has his own record company called Engine Studios, which has issued small runs of avant-garde jazz since 2000. ESP now distributes Walcott’s label. "We want to empower other independent labels to get their music out there. Music from the fringe needs all the help it can get in finding an audience and we are all in it together," declares Abbs. ESP also sponsors two shows a month, one at The Bowery Poetry Club in Manhattan and another in Brooklyn at The Jazz Lounge (Sucre Café). At both venues, an evening’s performance incorporates one band ESP has already recorded and another band the label likes or is interested in recording. Abbs says that “the clubs become a testing ground for the development of new artists. Musicians are all too happy to get a call for an ESP gig because they know that they will be free to experiment.” ESP archives the live performances for posterity, in keeping with Stollman’s documentary style. Never wavering from Stollman’s original “blueprint,” ESP adamantly works for the artist. With a record store in the front of their Brooklyn office which carries other small, independent and artist-run labels as well as new and used vinyl and CDs, ESP-Disk’ has “opened its doors to the community…ESP is becoming more than a label.” It is becoming a multi-faceted institution. true

17952

2010-01-22T11:36:37-05:00

false

25651

true

135

2010-01-22T09:00:00-05:00

Seminal jazz label that recorded Albert Ayler and other mainstays of the avant garde resurfaces with new and old material

ESP-Disk Back in Business

2010-02-01T13:44:07-05:00

4 We lost a giant of jazz guitar with the passing of Jimmy Wyble last Saturday. Jimmy was an important fixture on the global jazz scene from the late 40's through the 60's. Starting with his landmark work with Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys in the early 40's he went on to do equally groundbreaking work with both the Benny Goodman sextet and the Red Norvo Trio in the 50's. He went on to write what some consider his greatest work in the 70's with a book of etudes that characterize his swinging, contrapuntal style. There are classical guitarists all around the world that include his works in their repertoire. After the recent passing of his wife a few years ago Jimmy began to play live for the first time in almost 20 years at the age of 85. Guitar aficionados who witnessed his playing firsthand were always left completely dumfounded. His mastery of counterpoint in an improvisatory context was unmatched on the instrument and always balanced with the most surprising yet beautiful musical choices. Jimmy has always occupied a special place in my heart both for his music and his humanity. In my opinion he is one of the great American masters and has a completely original voice in improvisation and composition. My parents had the good sense to send me to Jimmy for guitar lessons when I was fifteen and for three years I had my musical world transformed by Jimmy’s unique vision of harmony and melody. I was witness on a weekly basis to Jimmy’s spontaneous contrapuntal improvisations which spilled out of his hands with no effort. There is no excess in Jimmy’s music ..... melodies trail off into silence .... harmonies are expressed with two well chosen notes ..... silence is just as important as sound ..... and it all comes off sounding like what Bartok might have written if he was born of Cajun parents and schooled with Texas swing. All that being said it is his sweet presence that will be missed the most. Jimmy was the most humble, grounded, and kind human being I have ever known. true

21265

2010-01-19T10:06:11-05:00

false

25633

true

138

2010-01-19T09:00:00-05:00

(1.25.22 – 1.17.10)

Guitarist and educator Larry Koonse fondly remembers Jimmy Wyble, former sideman with Bob Wills, Benny Goodman and Red Norvo

Jimmy Wyble

2010-02-03T10:12:59-05:00

4 Edward Steichen once said that Roy DeCarava was one of the ten greatest living photographers in the world. He also sponsored him to be the first African-American photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1952. When speaking of Roy DeCarava's body of work, one cannot extricate him from race, time, and the community that produced him. DeCarava grew up in Harlem in the 1930's and 40's, post-Depression and the war years. It was not the segregated South, but it was the tacitly segregated North. He learned at an early age that he would have to be twice as good at his craft to be recognized. His talent enabled him to enroll in the prestigious art school, The Cooper Union. However, it was the Harlem Art Center that provided his most passionate training and where his talents took flight. He studied painting, drawing, and printmaking. He began taking photos to use as a reference, to copy from in his drawings and paintings, but he found he had a penchant for photography, and it soon took over. DeCarava believed that the Black person has an affinity with photography, just as he has with jazz. The Black man finds jazz and photography suited to his instincts. Jazz, in its most exciting form, is an act of musical improvisation, an immediate creation, as is photography. But the ultimate element linking jazz, photography, and the Black creator is the element of reality. Jazz music emanates from the reality of the musicians' life experiences. In photography, there is the undeniable reality of the thing from which the lens and film take their image. Those realities eagerly welcome the embrace of the unguided reality of the Black man's experience in a hostile racist environment. The style DeCarava had evolved was a response to the rhythms and textures or urban life, and in particular to the Black experience in the cities of the East coast. "I don't think of musicians as musicians, but as people and as workers." Both music and photography are tonal art forms. "It's those things about people that are subtle but characteristic, which most people wouldn't photograph. But how do you make those work in a picture?" When you find it at the right moment, it is not only particular, it is universal. The only way to do this is to be in tune, to have the same sense of time that the subject has. This means you have to give yourself to the subject, to accept their sense of time. "You should be able to look at me and see my work. You should be able to look at my work and see me." – Roy DeCarava I was first introduced to Roy DeCarava vicariously through his book The Sweet Flypaper of Life which he created with Langston Hughes. I grew up on the South Side of Chicago, and at age seventeen a fellow photographer, Robert Senstacke, showed me the work. I had never seen a book where black people were depicted in such a positive light. The caring and the feeling DeCarava had for people came through in these photographs. Prior to this, photographs in publications of the time came across as pure journalism – a matter-of-fact depiction of black people without any compassion. After that, my quest was clear: I would go to New York and one day seek out this man and study with him. Question was, how exactly would I do that? Within a year, circumstances led me to New York. I began studying and taking pictures while staying with family. At a house party one day, a chance encounter with a family friend, record producer and photographer Esmond Edwards, led to a conversation about Roy. I asked him if he knew Roy’s work, and to my amazement, he knew the man. They were friends. I asked him if he would write me a letter of recommendation, imagining that was protocol for someone of that stature. He looked at me in a peculiar way, and said no. “Just call him. He’s in the book. Mention my name.” Sure enough, his number was in the book. I called, and as instructed, mentioned Esmond’s name. I explained I was a young photographer from Chicago and asked to show him my photographs. He invited me down to see him. I began preparing my portfolio. I didn’t have the means to dry mount the photos, so instead, I used a clothes iron to iron the photographs onto pieces of cardboard. I had 20 pieces of which I was proud. The day arrived, and I was nervous. He lived in a loft on 6th Avenue, and I summoned up enough nerve to see him as scheduled. He liked the work I brought. I asked if I was on the right track. He replied, “Not only are you on the right track, you’re in the track.” I asked if I could come back from time to time and show him my work. He agreed and said that when I produce a larger body of photographs that I should come back. Before I had the chance, he called me a few weeks later. He asked if I was interested in attending The Cooper Union. I didn’t know what that meant, but if he was teaching there, I wanted to go. I spent a year studying with him there before he left to join the faculty at Hunter College. The art world mourns the passing of a great artist. In particular, the Kamoinge workshop, of which Roy was the first president. Excerpts taken from 17 Black Artists, Elton C. Fax and The Sound I Saw, forward by A.D. Coleman. Frank Stewart is the Senior Staff Photographer for Jazz at Lincoln Center. true

166

2010-01-19T10:12:22-05:00

false

25634

true

138

2010-01-18T09:00:00-05:00

(12.9.19 - 10.27.09)

Frank Stewart on the legacy of photographer Roy DeCarava

Roy DeCarava

2010-01-19T10:58:03-05:00

4 Drummer Ed Shaughnessy celebrated his 80th birthday early in 2009 by having knee-replacement surgery. “And now,” he says, “I tell everyone I have a Tony Williams hi-hat … ch-ch-ch-ch-ch.” The drum great is upbeat, outgoing, quick with a story, and comfortable in every imaginable musical setting, but his performance schedule has been diminished lately by the need to care for his wife of 46 years, Jacquelyn, who has Alzheimer’s. “I’ve been staying close to home,” he adds. “But I’m the kind of guy who is always playing. I play every day at home. And I do a lot of local diddly doos, but I had to cut back on my road work. I’m fit as a fiddle, my general health is great, I exercise all the time and I’m very lucky, I think, at my age to be feeling good [and] playing good. But I have this responsibility and that has to come first.” “Always playing” may be the best capsule description of a player whose more than six-decade-long career has been a virtually continuous montage of musical images—each one featuring Shaughnessy sitting confidently behind his double-bass-drum setup. Yet, although Leonard Feather once called Shaughnessy and Buddy Rich the “two best-known drummers in America,” his visibility has largely been associated with his 30-year stint with the NBC Orchestra on the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. “When you’re around that much,” he notes, “you tend to get taken for granted.” Surprisingly, he initially turned the job down. “It was the early ’60s in New York City,” says Shaughnessy. “I was happy being a freelance guy, and I was working a lot of jazz clubs at night. But then, in a few months, about four jazz clubs closed down, just when I was doing a sub or two on the show. Plus, my daytime studio gigs were getting slower, too, because it was the advent of the electronic drum machine. So I saw the handwriting on the wall. And when I went in to sub for two weeks on the show with the band, there I was sitting next to one of my oldest friends, Clark Terry, with Snooky Young next to him. And the band sounded good. So I took the job. And it was always a great band to play with, but, frankly, I originally took it for security. I didn’t take it because I was hot to get on television. I took it because I wanted to make a good living for my family. And it enabled me to do that.” By the time he began his long run on the Tonight Show, Shaughnessy had enjoyed an impressive career, playing with everyone from Benny Goodman and Jimmy Dorsey to Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus. Born in Jersey City in 1929, he was already taking the subway into Manhattan to go to jam sessions when he was 16. It was the mid-’40s, a great time to be a young musician, when jazz of various styles and manners was available for the hearing. And Shaughnessy’s ears were wide open to all of it. “I listened to the radio a lot,” he recalls. “Woody Herman’s band, and Basie and Duke, of course, and occasionally someone like Boyd Raeburn. When I started going into the city, I heard Bird and Diz and a lot of the beboppers play, mixed with swing players. I got very much into bebop, but I never gave up my interest in the mainstreamers—Ben Webster was my favorite tenor player. Then, when I was lucky enough to become friends with Sid Catlett, he used to let me sit in with Ben and Erroll Garner and his little group. I loved those guys; they were so good to me. But I also was learning the bebop style by listening to Max and Klook [Kenny Clarke] and Blakey. And that’s how I got the job with Charlie Ventura and his Bop for the People band when I was 18.” Shaughnessy’s omnivorous musical taste, combined with the full banquet of music available to him and his impressive natural skill, produced what he describes as a “conglomerate of styles.” And yet most drummers find his playing on a recording to be immediately recognizable, whether he’s playing bebop or mainstream, big band or small group. “I don’t have a strong, completely original Ed Shaughnessy style that’s as individual as a Max Roach or Elvin or Blakey or Buddy Rich or Louie Bellson,” he says. “But I’ve never copied. I’ve always considered that low. I guess it all traces to the fact that when I was young I liked Dixieland music, even though I liked bebop the best. And I listened to older drummers a lot, like Kansas Fields and Zutty Singleton and even Baby Dodds, even though I never got to hear him live. But when I went into Eddie Condon’s to play Dixieland, I didn’t try to play like those guys, I tried to play the style. If I ever compare myself to anyone, it’s Sid Catlett. I’m not quite as good as he was, but I think he was the best generalist we ever had, and yet he had an individual style.” “Generalist” is an intriguing tag for a style that so comfortably embraced the gamut of jazz drumming. But whatever the label, it was well regarded no matter what band Shaughnessy was playing in. Five recordings with Count Basie prove what great respect the pianist and bandleader had for his drummer. But there was also at least one occasion when Basie was a little more outspoken about why Shaughnessy was sitting in the middle of the rhythm section. “When I made the first album with Basie,” says Shaughnessy, “we ran the first tune down, sort of a medium-hard swinger. I’m playing what I think I should play for the Basie band, because with that band, if you don’t play with heart and soul, it’s not going to happen. But when we stop, the guy who was in the control room says, ‘Well, that was very good, but we think maybe we could take a lot less drums.’ And Basie, who’s sitting at the piano, wearing his yachting cap, takes his fist and hits it on the piano and roars like a lion. Like this: Rrroarrroow! And everybody just froze. I asked [Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis] later, ‘Does he do that often?’ And he says, ‘No, maybe once a year.’ Anyhow, Basie picks up a mic and says, very quietly, ‘I have Mr. Shaughnessy here to play with my band because he knows how to play with my band. Your job is to get it. Do you get it?’ And the answer was, ‘Yes, sir.’” Shaughnessy’s quick sense of humor and endless curiosity also served him well in avoiding thorny situations. He may be the only musician to ever have worked with both Benny Goodman and Charles Mingus—two of the most famously crotchety bandleaders. “Guys call me a weird son of a bitch because I got along with both of them,” recalls Shaughnessy. “But it took different techniques. With Mingus it paid to be just straight frank with him, without getting heavy. With Benny, Lionel Hampton told me, ‘If he gets out there, you go further out and he’ll leave you alone.’ And that’s what I did. When I was late for a rehearsal in Paris because I couldn’t catch a cab, I came in, and he’s looking at me over his glasses like he’s going to kill me. So I said, ‘What the fuck are we going to do, Benny, sit around? Or are we going to play?’ He looked up, obviously thinking, ‘I’ve got a crazy drummer on my hands,’ and said to the guys, ‘The kid is right, let’s play.’ And he never bothered me after that. I think he really thought I was out of my brains. And when I asked Lionel about it, he said, ‘Benny always thought I was out of my brains, but he left me alone.’” Shaughnessy’s own attempts at big-band leading have focused on his Energy Force orchestra. And it was at the 1976 Monterey Jazz Festival that he introduced Diane Schuur, then in her early 20s, to the jazz world. Since that time he has led various ensembles, played in far-ranging settings and continued to follow an eclectic musical muse that has led him to Indian classical music and the tabla, the tympani and various mallet instruments (although he insists his vibraphone skills are limited). It’s only been in the past few years, when his family responsibilities have increased, that he has had to place a narrower focus on his goals. But drumming and music remain front and center. “Look,” concludes Shaughnessy, “the first thing that goes for a drummer—and for a bass player, too—are the fast tempos. But I tell myself that’ll never happen to me, because I practice those tempos every day with those play-along recordings—‘Cherokee’ at high speed, things like that. You know, I can do things this year I couldn’t do last year. And I’m gonna keep doing what I’m doing until I get it right. And, of course, there’s always one more thing to get right.” true

2009-12-14T00:04:29-05:00

false

25456

179

true

2010-01-01T00:00:00-05:00

Despite a shift in priorities, drummer Ed Shaughnessy keeps his chops sharp

Ed Shaughnessy: One More Thing to Get Right

2009-12-16T15:01:30-05:00

4 Jamaican-born pianist and bandleader Monty Alexander is an old-school road warrior who still loves to rock the house with hard swing and deep island grooves. Though he has good ears and strong opinions, Alexander avoids theoretical analysis when listening to music, concentrating instead on feelings, emotions and experiences. While setting up, we talked about his growing up with mento music and American popular song in Kingston; his love for Louis Armstrong, Lord Kitchener and New Orleans R&B; and his big break in Miami, where he was discovered by Frank Sinatra and Jilly Rizzo. In recent years, Alexander has led his well-traveled jazz trio, as well as a reggae band. His latest release is Calypso Blues: The Songs of Nat King Cole (Chesky). 1. Nat “King” Cole “Calypso Blues” (from The Nat King Cole Story, Capitol). Cole, vocal; Jack Costanzo, conga. Recorded in 1949. BEFORE: [chuckles] Nat. I’ve heard this so many times, and I knew Jack Costanzo very well. The timing of that recording came close to the time that Harry Belafonte did his calypso album. [Ed. note: Belafonte’s Calypso was released in 1956.] Nat was not a stranger to seeking popularity. He was somebody who could do anything he wanted. He was a natural. He loved music and he loved rhythms from the island. Who on earth would record a song with just a man beating on a conga, especially someone like Nat who was such a swinging musician? And he played so much piano, so that tells you about Nat’s daring as well as his talent. I knew all these songs, what we called mento songs, and he was a beloved voice in our home. When I was 10 years old I walked down the street and imitated him because of the girl I had a crush on [sings “Too Young”]. Louis Armstrong also recorded a calypso [several years later] called “High Society.” So they were my ultimate heroes, Louis Armstrong and Nat Cole. I saw them in Kingston when I was about 11 years old. Incredible. They were artists as well as entertainers. They had that thing, that show-biz thing. So you just played a man who’s everything to me. He went for the brass ring, and he got it because everybody loved him. 2. Eldar “Daily Living” (from Virtue, Sony Masterworks Jazz). Eldar Djangirov, piano, keyboards; Armando Gola, bass; Ludwig Afonso, drums. Recorded in 2008. BEFORE: I’m speechless. Those are amazing musicians playing amazing music. And they’re operating on a system I don’t really know much about. There’s sophisticated, phenomenal technique, but also the skill and creative talent for playing in different time signatures. It’s astounding to hear and I appreciate it very much, but I don’t live in that world. I just shook my head and said, “Wow, what was that?” It might not be something I know how to play or want to play, but it’s very beautiful. AFTER: I knew Eldar when he was 14 years old. He’s playing on another level now, like the man from another planet. He could have gone down the Art Tatum road or the Bud Powell road. He’s a multitalented young man. I met his mom and I saw that old-school family dynamic and I knew he would go great places. I haven’t seen him in a long time but I keep hearing little bits and pieces of him and about him. And whenever I hear him I’m astounded. But this is a different Eldar to the Eldar of five years ago. So who knows where he’ll be in 10 years—another planet? [laughs] Some guys sound like they play once in a while, but this guy plays all day. He’s brilliant. Thanks for playing that. 3. Fred Hersch “Insensatez” (from Fred Hersch Plays Jobim, Sunnyside). Hersch, piano. Released in 2009. BEFORE: Really, really good. I enjoyed that. It’s somebody who loves harmony and paints a beautiful picture. I feel this beautiful painting unfolding with a beautiful touch. Jobim would love it. I don’t think in terms of chords or keys or analyzing it. So when I hear that, it’s just flying and floating in the air. That person don’t need a bass or a drum. The touch, it’s oozing like caramel dripping. AFTER: Fred Hersch is all right with me. I met him once and I always hear about him doing this and doing that. He’s a mighty talented guy. This is beautiful. Mr. Fred, my hat is off to you. I have to pick this up. Complicated and slick is fine, but I love beauty. The rest of this column appears in the print and digital editions of the January/February issue of JazzTimes. true

2009-12-15T10:47:52-05:00

false

25460

179

true

2010-01-01T00:00:00-05:00

Larry Appelbaum spins Nat King Cole and other pianistic gems for the noted Jamaican-born keyboardist

Monty Alexander: Listening for Life

2009-12-17T17:54:56-05:00

4 We compiled our top 50 new releases and top 10 historical/reissue recordings of 2009 from year-end lists by our critics. To see each voter’s ballot, go to <a href= http://jazztimes.com/articles/25464-critics-picks-2009-individual-ballots/>this page</a>. Only CDs and box sets released between Nov. 1, 2008, and Oct. 31, 2009 were eligible. Some releases may have slipped through the cracks, however, as release dates shifted or weren’t available. Original blurbs by Evan Haga and Jeff Tamarkin. Review excerpts by Thomas Conrad, Steve Greenlee, Christopher Loudon, Bill Milkowski, Mike Shanley, George Varga, Michael J. West and Josef Woodard. Top 50 New Releases 1. Joe Lovano Us Five Folk Art (Blue Note) In his 57th year, the saxophonist, composer and bandleader Joe Lovano is something of a jazz absolute: consistent in quality but traversing schools, styles and formats in a way that argues the music has somewhere to go without accommodating pop. His 2009 Blue Note release, Folk Art, recorded with a new group he calls Us Five, only reinforces his reputation as the consummate jazzman, an explorer and historian in equal doses. Folk Art is centered in postbop but plays in and around the avant-garde, and it features elements that, on paper, might seem gimmicky, but in Lovano’s hands foster thrilling music. A cross-generational quintet, Us Five features two drummers, Otis Brown II and Francisco Mela, and Lovano uses them to ramp up the intensity as well as multiply the options for exchange. (“It’s as if there are 20 different bands,” he told JT’s Geoffrey Himes.) Then there’s Lovano’s arsenal of texturally brazen woodwind oddities, including the taragato and aulochrome, and the fact that Folk Art is his first album featuring his original compositions exclusively. Those tunes, alternately burning (“Powerhouse”), loping (“Folk Art”), tender (“Song for Judi”) and askew (the Ornette homage “Ettenro”), brilliantly underscore the group’s sensibility—one of dynamic interaction and aesthetic versatility. E.H. 2. Vijay Iyer Historicity (ACT) The evolution of one of contemporary jazz piano’s most inventive artists continues on a set that meshes intellect with humor, syncopation with solace, and smart originals with wild covers ranging from Leonard Bernstein to M.I.A. J.T. 3. Miguel Zenón Esta Plena (Marsalis) Zenón has constructed a compelling merger of his jazz persona and the folkloric plena music of his native Puerto Rico, both in composition and performance, via the blending of bands from each tradition. J.W. 4. Henry Threadgill Zooid This Brings Us To, Vol. 1 (Pi) Demanding yet strangely accessible, Threadgill’s latest collection of prickly groove music and algebraic improvisation receives crucial input from guitarist Liberty Ellman. E.H. 5. Allen Toussaint The Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch) The concept itself is audacious: Take one of New Orleans’ most prolific hit-making songwriters and have him do an instrumental album of early jazz offerings, surrounded by players like Marc Ribot, Don Byron and Nicholas Payton. B.M. 6. Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam) With their haunting compositions and imaginative experiments, Argue’s Secret Society might do for jazz what Radiohead did for rock—and poach some of its audience, too. M.W. 7. Gary Burton/Pat Metheny/Steve Swallow/Antonio Sanchez Quartet Live! (Concord) The unusually empathetic playing and listening by each player yields impeccably nuanced musicianship, as the group mixes fetching originals by Burton, Metheny and Swallow with classics by Ellington, Carla Bley and Chick Corea. G.V. 8. Gretchen Parlato In a Dream (ObliqSound) Following in the delicate footsteps of her 2005 eponymous debut EP, Parlato’s In a Dream seems wholly crafted of sweet reveries. She has found an ideal mate for this spirited journey in guitarist and supporting vocalist Lionel Loueke. C.L. 9. Branford Marsalis Quartet Metamorphosen (Marsalis) There may be no better introduction on record to what makes this group one of the finest in jazz at the moment. The sense of ensemble interchange, especially between Marsalis and Watts, has been polished and continually re-fired over many years together. J.W. 10. Jeff “Tain” Watts Watts (Dark Key) It’s been 18 years since Watts’ recording debut as a leader, and his growth and confidence, both as a drummer and a composer, are palpable. His propulsive playing, much like his writing, strikes a fine balance between being brawny and brainy, playful and poignant. G.V. 11. Steve Lehman Travail, Transformation, and Flow (Pi) Lehman wrote his new album by utilizing spectral harmony, but this isn’t just music for academics. The sometimes taut quality of the writing inspires exciting solos from Lehman, tenor saxophonist Mark Shim and trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson. M.S. 12. Keith Jarrett Paris/London—Testament (ECM) To compare the fearless searches and naked commitments of Jarrett’s solo piano concerts to most standard piano jazz is like comparing the full turbulence of actual life to a selective memory of it. T.C. 13. Bill Frisell Disfarmer (Nonesuch ) This highly personal response to the work of an “outsider artist” is one of Frisell’s most accessible albums, perhaps because the haunting sonorities of rural America are universal in their longing and loneliness. T.C. 14. Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette Yesterdays (ECM) The creative consistency and scale of Jarrett’s discography with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette is unprecedented among piano trios in the history of jazz. Yesterdays is characterized by extremes of dynamic and emotional range. T.C. 15. The Monterey Quartet Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival (MJF) Built around bassist Dave Holland, two recent collaborators (drummer Eric Harland and saxophonist Chris Potter) and the Cuban-born pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, the quartet’s rare gig coheres like of a band that’s been road-tested. J.T. 16. Dave Douglas Spirit Moves (Green Leaf) 17. Chris Potter Underground Ultrahang (ArtistShare) 18. James Moody 4A (IPO) 19. James Carter/John Medeski/Christian McBride/Adam Rogers/Joey Baron Heaven on Earth (Half Note) 20. Charles Tolliver Big Band Emperor March (Half Note) 21. Steve Kuhn Mostly Coltrane (ECM) 22. Fly Sky & Country (ECM) 23. Joshua Redman Compass (Nonesuch) 24. Ravi Coltrane Blending Times (Savoy) 25. Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition Apti (Innova) 26. Robert Glasper Double Booked (Blue Note) 27. Dee Alexander Wild Is the Wind (Blujazz ) 28. Arve Henriksen Cartography (ECM) 29. Roy Hargrove Big Band Emergence (Emarcy) 30. Jim Hall & Bill Frisell Hemispheres (ArtistShare) 31. Matt Wilson Quartet That’s Gonna Leave a Mark (Palmetto) 32. Melody Gardot My One and Only Thrill (Verve) 33. John Patitucci Trio Remembrance (Concord) 34. SFJAZZ Collective Live 2009: The Works of McCoy Tyner (SFJAZZ ) 35. Martial Solal Live at the Village Vanguard (Cam Jazz) 36. Darius Jones Trio Man’ish Boy (AUM Fidelity) 37. Enrico Rava New York Days (ECM) 38. Jan Garbarek Group Dresden: In Concert (ECM) 39. Jackie Ryan Doozy (Open Art) 40. Linda Oh Trio Entry (Linda Oh) 41. Kurt Elling Dedicated to You (Concord) 42. Stefon Harris and Blackout Urbanus (Concord) 43. John Scofield Piety Street (Emarcy) 44. Seamus Blake Live in Italy (Jazz Eyes) 45. Gerald Wilson Orchestra Detroit (Mack Avenue) 46. Joe Locke-David Hazeltine Quartet Mutual Admiration Society 2 (Sharp Nine) 47. The Manhattan Transfer The Chick Corea Songbook (Four Quarters) 48. Stanley Clarke Trio with Lenny White & Hiromi Jazz in the Garden (Heads Up) 49. J.D. Allen Trio Shine! (Sunnyside) 50. Chick Corea/John McLaughlin Five Peace Band Live (Concord) Top 10 Historical/Reissues 1. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song (Live in Europe, 1969) (Blue Note) On these nights in England and Germany in 1969, Hubbard blew higher and faster and louder than anyone had heard since Louis Armstrong toured those countries in his prime. B.M. 2. John Coltrane Side Steps (Prestige) During the mid-’50s, Trane often served as a sideman, adding licks to recordings by Red Garland, Gene Ammons, Mal Waldron and even Sonny Rollins. His distinctive style is already in place on the five discs comprising this box set. J.T. 3. Lucky Thompson New York City, 1964-65 (Uptown ) Hot on the heels of his celebrated Lucky Strikes album, the underrated tenor/soprano saxophonist tore it up at two NYC gigs a year apart, in both octet and quartet configurations. J.T. 4. Tony Bennett/Bill Evans The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings (Fantasy/Concord) Considered by many the perfect jazz-pop amalgam, this mid-’70s collaboration retains all of its sparkle today. A second disc of alternate takes illustrates the creative process at work and offers new perspectives on the session. J.T. 5. Codona The Codona Trilogy (ECM) Roughly three decades later, listening to the collected music of Codona gives a strong impression that the group was much less a novel footnote in the annals of world-inspired jazz than it was an important creative statement. J.W. 6. Scott LaFaro, Pieces of Jade (Resonance) 7. Ella Fitzgerald Twelve Nights In Hollywood (Verve Select) 8. Art Pepper The Art History Project: Unreleased Art IV (Widow's Taste) 9. Duke Ellington The Great Concerts (London & New York 1963-1964)(Musicmasters/Nimbus) 10. Miles Davis Sketches of Spain (50th Anniversary Enhanced Edition) (Sony Legacy) true

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2009-12-15T11:40:38-05:00

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JazzTimes compiles the top new release and historical/reissue albums for the year, based on voting by its contributors

Critics Picks: Top 50 New Albums and Top 10 Historical Releases

2010-01-11T10:25:41-05:00

4 David R. Adler New Releases: 1. David S. Ware Shakti (Aum Fidelity) 2. Miguel Zenón Esta Plena (Marsalis Music) 3. Gerald Clayton Two-Shade (ArtistShare) 4. Vijay Iyer Trio Historicity (ACT) 5. Steve Lehman Octet Travail, Transformation, and Flow (Pi) 6. Herculaneum Herculaneum III (Clean Feed) 7. David Binney Third Occasion (Mythology) 8. Edward Simon Trio Poesía (Cam Jazz) 9. Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam) 10. SFJazz Collective Live 2009: The Works of McCoy Tyner (SFJazz) Historical/Reissues: 1. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song: Live in Europe, 1969 (Blue Note) 2. The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings (Fantasy/Concord) 3. Scott LaFaro Pieces of Jade (Resonance) 4. Ronnie Boykins The Will Come, Is Now (ESP-Disk) 5. Revolutionary Ensemble Vietnam (ESP-Disk) Scott Albin New Releases: 1. Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Collective Creativity (3 Sixteen) 2. Joe Locke/David Hazeltine Quartet Mutual Admiration Society 2 (Sharp Nine) 3. Martial Solal Live at the Village Vanguard (Cam Jazz) 4. Joe Morris Quartet Today on Earth (Aum Fidelity) 5. Alvin Queen Mighty Long Way (Resonance) 6. Jackie Ryan Doozy (Open Art) 7. Joe Cohn Shared Contemplations (Criss Cross) 8. Dee Alexander Wild Is the Wind (Blujazz) 9. Bill Easley Hearing Voices (18th & Vine) 10. Gary Burton/Pat Metheny/Steve Swallow/Antonio Sanchez Quartet Live! (Concord) Historical/Reissues: 1. Duke Ellington The Great Concerts (London & New York 1963-1964) (Musicmasters/Nimbus) 2. Lee Konitz/Martial Solal Star Eyes 1983 (Hatology) 3. Lucky Thompson New York City, 1964-65 (Uptown) 4. John Handy Mosaic Select (Mosaic) 5. Stan Getz Dynasty (Verve) A.D. Amorosi New Releases: 1. Joe Lovano Us Five Folk Art (Blue Note) 2. Jan Garbarek Group Dresden: In Concert (ECM) 3. Nellie McKay Normal as Blueberry Pie: A Tribute to Doris Day (Verve) 4. Digital Primitives Hum Crackle & Pop (Hopscotch) 5. Melody Gardot My One and Only Thrill (Verve) 6. Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette Yesterdays (ECM) 7. Branford Marsalis Metamorphosen (Marsalis) 8. Theo Bleckmann/John Hollenbeck/Gary Versace Refuge Trio (Winter & Winter) 9. Jackie Ryan Doozy (Open Art) 10. Henry Threadgill Zooid This Brings Us To Vol. 1 (Pi) Historical/Reissues: 1. John Coltrane: Side Steps (Prestige) 2. Ella Fitzgerald Twelve Nights in Hollywood (Verve Select) 3. Art Pepper The Art History Project: Unreleased Art IV (Widow's Taste) 4. Denny Zeitlin The Columbia Studio Trio Sessions (Mosaic) 5. Medeski Martin & Wood Radiolarians: The Evolutionary Set (Indirecto) Larry Appelbaum New Releases: 1. Miguel Zenón Esta Plena (Marsalis Music) 2. Fred Hersch Plays Jobim (Sunnyside) 3. Martial Solal Live at the Village Vanguard: I Can't Give You Anything But Love (Cam Jazz) 4. Darcy James Argue's Secret Society Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam) 5. Luciana Souza Tide (Verve) 6. Keith Jarrett Testament (ECM) 7. Jeff "Tain" Watts Watts (Dark Key) 8. Vijay Iyer Historicity (ACT) 9. John Patitucci Trio Remembrance (Concord) 10. Gretchen Parlato In a Dream (ObliqSound) Historical/Reissues: 1. Codona The Codona Trilogy (ECM) 2. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song: Live in Europe, 1969 (Blue Note) 3. Eddie Harris & Ellis Marsalis Homecoming (ELM) 4. Artie Shaw Classic Artie Shaw Bluebird and Victor Sessions (Mosaic) 5. Art Pepper The Art History Project: Unreleased Art IV (Widow's Taste) Shaun Brady New Releases: 1. Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam) 2. Vijay Iyer Historicity (ACT) 3. Steve Lehman Octet Travail, Transformation, and Flow (Pi) 4. Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition Apti (Innova) 5. FLY Sky & Country (ECM) 6. Henry Threadgill Zooid This Brings Us To, Vol. 1 (Pi) 7. Tarbaby Tarbaby (Imani) 8. Dave Douglas Spirit Moves (Green Leaf) 9. The Monterey Quartet Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival (MJF) 10. Darius Jones Trio Man'ish Boy (AUM Fidelity) Historical/Reissues: 1. The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings (Fantasy/Concord) 2. Duke Ellington The Great Concerts (London & New York 1963-1964) (Musicmasters/Nimbus) 3. Sun Ra The Complete Detroit Jazz Center Residency (Transparency) 4. John Coltrane Side Steps (Prestige) 5. Scott LaFaro Pieces of Jade (Resonance) Brent Burton New Releases: 1. Arve Henriksen Cartography (ECM) 2. Bill Frisell Disfarmer (Nonesuch) 3. Enrico Rava New York Days (ECM) 4. Vijay Iyer Trio Historicity (Act Music + Vision) 5. Dave Douglas Spirit Moves (Green Leaf) 6. Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition Apti (Innova) 7. Darcy James Argue's Secret Society Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam) 8. Steve Lehman Octet Travail, Transformation, and Flow (Pi) 9. John Abercrombie Wait Till You See Her (ECM) 10. Joshua Redman Compass (Nonesuch) Historical/Reissues: 1. Don Cherry/Latif Khan Music/Sangam (Heavenly Sweetness) 2. Codona The Codona Trilogy (ECM) 3. Et Cetera Et Cetera (Long Hair) 4. The Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble Congliptious (Nessa) 5. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song: Live in Europe, 1969 (Blue Note) Nate Chinen New Releases: 1. Henry Threadgill’s Zooid This Brings Us To, Volume 1 (Pi) 2.Vijay Iyer Trio Historicity (ACT) 3. Steve Lehman Octet Travail, Transformation, and Flow (Pi) 4. FLY Sky & Country (ECM) 5. Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam) 6. Tony Malaby Paloma Recio (New World) 7. Buika y Chucho El Último Trago (Casa Limon/Warner Music Latina) 8. Kurt Rosenwinkel Standards Trio Reflections (Wommusic) 9. J.D. Allen Trio Shine (Sunnyside) 10. Gretchen Parlato In a Dream (ObliqSound) Historical/Reissues: 1. Ella Fitzgerald Twelve Nights in Hollywood (Verve) 2. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song: Live in Europe, 1969 (Blue Note) 3. John Handy Mosaic Select: John Handy (Mosaic) 4. Lucky Thompson New York City, 1964-65 (Uptown) 5. John Coltrane Side Steps (Prestige/Concord) Thomas Conrad New Releases: 1. Keith Jarrett Testament (ECM) 2. Charles Tolliver Big Band Emperor March (Half Note) 3. Gary Burton/Pat Metheny/Steve Swallow/Antonio Sanchez Quartet Live! (Concord) 4. Arild Andersen/Paolo Vinaccia/Tommy Smith Live at Belleville (ECM) 5. Stefano Bollani Trio Stone in the Water (ECM) 6. Bill Frisell Disfarmer (Nonesuch) 7. Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette Yesterdays (ECM) 8. Mark Masters Ensemble Farewell Walter Dewey Redman (Capri) 9. Grant Stewart Plays the Music of Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn (Sharp Nine) 10. Kurt Rosenwinkel Standards Trio: Reflections (Wommusic) Historical/Reissues: 1. Art Pepper The Art History Project: Unreleased Art, Vol. IV (Widow’s Taste) 2. Dupree Bolton Fireball (Uptown) 3. Gary Burton/Chick Corea Crystal Silence: The ECM Recordings 1972-79 (ECM) 4. Lucky Thompson New York City, 1964-65 (Uptown) 5. Scott LaFaro Pieces Of Jade (Resonance) Owen Cordle New Releases: 1.Terry Vosbein and the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra Progressive Jazz 2009 (Max Frank Music) 2. Ed Palermo Big Band, Eddy Loves Frank (Cuneiform) 3. Seamus Blake Live in Italy (Jazzeyes) 4. Bud Shank Fascinating Rhythms (Jazzed Media) 5. Bobby Sanabria and the Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra Kenya Revisited Live (Jazzheads) 6. Jon Mayer Nightscape (Reservoir) 7. Ted Kooshian's Standard Orbit Quartet Underdog and Other Stories (Summit) 8. Nina Sheldon Harvest (Jazzed Media) 9. Freddy Cole The Dreamer in Me (HighNote) 10. Mike DiRubbo Repercussion (Posi-Tone) Historical/Reissues: 1. Art Pepper The Art History Project (Widow's Taste). Colin Fleming New Releases: 1. Dave Douglas Spirit Moves (Green Leaf) 2. Joe Lovano Us Five Folk Art (Blue Note) 3. Bill Frisell Disfarmer (Nonesuch) 4. Roy Hargrove Big Band Emergence (Emarcy) 5. Jan Garbarek Dresden: In Concert (ECM) 6. Steve Kuhn Trio Mostly Coltrane (ECM) 7. Jack DeJohnette Music We Are (Golden Beams/Kindred Rhythm) 8. Chick Corea/John McLaughlin Five Piece Band Live (Concord) 9. Monterey Quartet Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival (MJF) 10. Robert Glasper Double Booked (Blue Note) Historical/Reissues: 1. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie Complete Live at Birdland (RLR) 2. Louis Armstrong The Complete Louis Armstrong Decca Sessions (1935-46) (Mosaic) 3. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song: Live in Europe, 1969 (Blue Note) 4. John Coltrane Side Steps (Prestige) 5. Ornette Coleman The Lenox Jazz School Concert (FreeFactory) Susan Frances New Releases: 1. Meryl Romer So Sure (Lady Pearl Music) 2. Michael Bublé Crazy Love (Reprise Records) 3. Irene Atman New York Rendezvous (Self-Released) 4. Rob Mosher Storytime: The Tortoise (Self-Released) 5. Michel Gentile and Tony Romano Flesh And Steel (Deeptone Records) 6. Martha J No One But You (Music Center) 7. Claude Marc Bouget Second Time (Ruby Flower Records) 8. Judy Carmichael Come And Get It (C&D Productions) 9. Torcuato Mariano So Far From Home (NuGroove Records) 10. Zlatko Kaučič 30th Anniversary Concerts (Splasc(h) Records) Historical/Reissues: 1. Bing Crosby The Bing Crosby CBS Radio Recordings 1954-56 (Mosaic) 2. Peggy Lee Jump for Joy (DRG) 3. Ray Charles Genius: The Ultimate Ray Charles Collection (Concord) 4. Ella Fitzgerald Rediscovered With Twelve Nights in Hollywood (Verve) 5. Vince Guaraldi The Definitive Vince Guaraldi (Concord) Ken Franckling New Releases: 1. John Scofield Piety Street (EmArcy) 2. Joe Zawinul 75 (Heads Up International) 3. Bill Cunliffe Blues and the Abstract Truth, Take 2 (Resonance) 4. Mike Clark Blueprints of Jazz, Vol. 1 (Talking House) 5. Steve Kuhn Mostly Coltrane (ECM) 6. Seamus Blake Live in Italy (Jazz Eyes) 7. Big Band Ritmo Sinfonica Città Di Verona Restless Spirits (Velut Luna) 8. Lili Añel Every Second in Between (Wall-I) 9. LeBoeuf Brothers House Without a Door (LeBoeuf Brothers) 10. Kat Edmonson Take to the Sky (Convivium) Historical/Reissues: 1. Dupree Bolton Fireball (Uptown) 2. Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins The Classic Prestige Sessions, 1951-1956 (Prestige) 3. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song: Live in Europe, 1969 (Blue Note) 4. Scott LaFaro Pieces of Jade (Resonance) 5. Lucky Thompson New York City, 1965-65 (Uptown) Andrew Gilbert New Releases: 1. Darren Johnston The Edge of the Forest (Clean Feed) 2. Ben Goldberg Go Home (BAG Productions) 3. Donald Bailey Blueprints of Jazz, Vol. 3 (Talking House) 4. Dafnis Prieto Si o Si Quartet Live at the Jazz Standard NYC (Dafnison Music) 5. Mark Levine and the Latin Tinge Off & On (Left Coast Clave) 6. Linda Oh Trio Entry (Linda Oh) 7. James Moody 4A (IPO Music) 8. Charles Tolliver Big Band Emperor March (HalfNote) 9. The Monterey Quartet Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival (MJF) 10. Jackie Ryan Doozy (Open Art Productions) Historical/Reissues: 1. Denny Zeitlin The Columbia Studio Trio Sessions (Mosaic) 2. John Handy John Handy (Mosaic) 3. Jimmy Rushing The Scene: Live in New York (HighNote) 4. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song: Live in Europe, 1969 (Blue Note) 5. Lucky Thompson New York City 1964-65 (Uptown) Fernando Gonzalez New Releases: 1. Miguel Zenón Esta Plena (Marsalis Music) 2. Arve Henriksen Cartography (ECM) 3. Ivan Lins & the Metropole Orchestra conducted by Vince Mendoza (Biscoito Fino) 4. John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble Eternal Interlude (Sunnyside) 5. Allen Toussaint The Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch) 6. Pedro Giraudo El Viaje (PGM) 7. Vijay Iyer Historicity (ACT) 8. Nils Petter Molvaer Hamada (Sula) 9. Egberto Gismonti Saudaçoes (ECM/Carmo) 10. Joe Zawinul 75 (Heads Up International) Steve Greenlee New Releases: 1. James Carter/John Medeski Heaven on Earth (Half Note) 2. Jerry Bergonzi Simply Put (Savant) 3. J.D. Allen Trio Shine! (Sunnyside) 4. Wadada Leo Smith Spiritual Dimensions (Cuneiform) 5. Darius Jones Trio Man'ish Boy (AUM Fidelity) 6. Kat Edmonson Take to the Sky (Convivium) 7. Gretchen Parlato In a Dream (ObliqSound) 8. Vijay Iyer Historicity (ACT) 9. Chris Potter Underground Ultrahang (ArtistShare) 10. Rudder Matorning (Nineteen-Eight) Historical/Reissues: 1. Sun Ra The Complete Detroit Jazz Center Residency (Transparency) 2. John Coltrane Side Steps (Prestige) 3. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song: Live in Europe, 1969 (Blue Note) 4. Miles Davis & Sonny Rollins The Classic Prestige Sessions, 1951-1956 (Prestige) 5. Sun Ra and His Solar Arkestra On Jupiter (Art Yard) Evan Haga New Releases: 1. Gary Burton/Pat Metheny/Steve Swallow/Antonio Sanchez Quartet Live! (Concord) 2. Joe Lovano Us Five Folk Art (Blue Note) 3. Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition Apti (Innova) 4. Gretchen Parlato In a Dream (ObliqSound) 5. Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam) 6. FLY Sky & Country (ECM) 7. Jim Hall/Bill Frisell Hemispheres (ArtistShare) 8. Robert Glasper Doubled Booked (Blue Note) 9. Donald Bailey Blueprints of Jazz, Vol. 3 (Talking House) 10. Tarbaby Tarbaby (Imani) Historical/Reissues: 1. Codona The Codona Trilogy (ECM) 2. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song: Live in Europe, 1969 (Blue Note) 3. Scott LaFaro Pieces of Jade (Resonance) 4. Steve Kuhn Life’s Backward Glances: Solo and Quartet (ECM) 5. Tony Bennett/Bill Evans The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings (Fantasy/Concord) Don Heckman New Releases: 1. Ravi Coltrane Blending Times (Savoy) 2. Chris Potter Underground Ultrahang (ArtistShare) 3. SFJazz Collective Live 2009 (SFJAZZ) 4. Branford Marsalis Quartet Metamorphosen (Marsalis) 5. Steve Kuhn Mostly Coltrane (ECM) 6. Gretchen Parlato In a Dream (ObliqSound) 7. Jim Hall/Bill Frisell Hemispheres (ArtistShare) 8. Jackie Ryan Doozy (Open Art) 9. James Carter/John Medeski Heaven on Earth (Half Note) 10. Inga Swearingen First Rain (Rhythone) Historical/Reissues: 1. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie Complete Live at Birdland (RLR) 2. Denny Zeitlin The Columbia Studio Trio Sessions (Mosaic) 3. Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins The Classic Prestige Sessions, 1951-1956 (Prestige) 4. Billie Holiday The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters (Verve Select) 5. Charles Mingus Mingus Ah Um (Legacy Edition) (Columbia/Legacy) Chris Heim New Releases: 1. Anouar Brahem The Astounding Eyes of Rita (ECM) 2. Babatunde Lea Umbo Weti: A Tribute to Leon Thomas (Motema) 3. Dee Alexander Wild Is the Wind (Blujazz) 4. Oran Etkin Kelenia (Motema) 5. Etienne Charles Folklore (Etienne Charles) 6. Tiempo Libre Bach in Havana (Sony Classics) 7. Omar Sosa Across the Divide: A Tale of Rhythm and Ancestry (Half Note) 8. Bobby Sanabria and the Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra Kenya Revisited Live (Jazzheads) 9. Matt Darriau/Ismail Lumanovski/Patrick Novara Liquid Clarinets (Felmay) 10. Gary Burton/Pat Metheny/Steve Swallow/Antonio Sanchez Quartet Live! (Concord) Geoffrey Himes New Releases: 1. Bill Frisell Disfarmer (Nonesuch) 2. Joe Lovano Us Five Folk Art (Blue Note) 3. FLY Sky & Country (ECM) 4. Dave Douglas with Jim McNeely + Frankfurt Radio Bigband A Single Sky (Greenleaf) 5. Branford Marsalis Quartet Metamorphosen (Marsalis) 6. Vijay Iyer Historicity (ACT) 7. David Binney Third Occasion (Mythology) 8. Matt Wilson Quartet That's Gonna Leave a Mark (Palmetto) 9. Hal Galper Art-Work (Origin) 10. Roswell Rudd Trombone Tribe (Sunnyside) Historical/Reissues: 1. Billie Holiday: The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters (Verve/Hip-O Select/Geffen) 2. Bill Frisell The Best of Bill Frisell Vol. 1/Folk Songs (Nonesuch) 3. John Coltrane Side Steps (Prestige) 4. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song: Live in Europe, 1969 (Blue Note) 5. Miles Davis Kind of Blue: Legacy Edition (Columbia/Legacy) Willard Jenkins New Releases: 1. Marcus Roberts New Orleans to Harlem (J Master) 2. Jane Bunnett Embracing Voices (Sunnyside) 3. Branford Marsalis Quartet Metamorphosen (Marsalis Music) 4. Robert Glasper Double Booked (Blue Note) 5. Kurt Elling Dedicated to You (Concord) 6.Nicole Mitchell Black Earth Strings Renegades (Delmark) 7. Dee Alexander Wild Is the Wind (Blujazz) 8. Joe Locke/David Hazeltine Quartet Mutual Admiration (Sharp Nine) 9. Jackie Ryan Doozy (Open Art) 10. Oran Etkin Kelimia (Motema) Historical/Reissues: 1. Eddie Harris/Ellis Marsalis Homecoming (Elm) 2. Lucky Thompson New York City 1964-65 (Uptown) 3. Ronnie Boykins The Will Come (ESP) 4. Garvin Bushell One Steady Roll (Delmark) 5. Miles Davis Broadcast Sessions 1958-59 (Acrobat) Mike Joyce New Releases: 1. John Surman Brewster’s Rooster (ECM) 2. Gary Burton/Pat Metheny/Steve Swallow/Antonio Sanchez Quartet Live! (Concord) 3. Charles Tolliver Big Band Emperor March (Half Note)) 4. Miguel Zenón Esta Plena (Marsalis Music) 5. Henry Threadgill Zooid This Brings Us To, Vol. 1 (Pi Recording) 6. Tierney Sutton Desire (Telarc) 7. Stefon Harris & Blackout Urbanus (Concord) 8. Allen Toussaint The Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch) 9. Roswell Rudd Trombone Tribe (Sunnyside) 10. Matt Wilson Quartet That's Gonna Leave a Mark (Palmetto) Historical/Reissues: 1. Duke Ellington The Great Concerts (London & New York 1963-1964) (Musicmasters/Nimbus) 2. Tony Bennett/Bill Evans The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings (Fantasy/Concord) 3. John Coltrane Side Steps (Prestige) 4. Eddie Harris & Ellis Marsalis Homecoming (ELM) 5. Oscar Peterson The Songbooks (Verve) Ashley Kahn New Releases: 1. Joe Lovano Us Five Folk Art (Blue Note) 2. Roy Hargrove Big Band Emergence (Emarcy) 3. Gary Burton/Pat Metheny/Steve Swallow/Antonio Sanchez Quartet Live! (Concord) 4. Allen Toussaint The Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch) 5. James Carter/John Medeski Heaven on Earth (Half Note) 6. John Patitucci Trio Remembrance (Concord Jazz) 7. James Moody 4A (IPO Music) 8. Ravi Coltrane Blending Times (Savoy) 9. Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette Yesterdays (ECM) 10. Kat Edmonson Take to the Sky (Convivium) Historical/Reissues: 1. Louis Armstrong The Complete Louis Armstrong Decca Sessions (1935-46) (Mosaic) 2. Various Artists Hommage a Nesuhi (Rhino/Atlantic) 3. Codona The Codona Trilogy (ECM) 4. Lester Young The Lester Young/Count Basie Sessions 1936-1940 (Mosaic) 5. Tony Bennett/Bill Evans The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings (Fantasy/Concord) George Kanzler New Releases: 1. Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band I'm BeBoppin' Too (Half Note) 2. Phil Woods The Children's Suite (Jazzed Media) 3. Charles Tolliver Big Band Emperor March (Half Note) 4. James Moody 4A (IPO) 5. The Monterey Quartet Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival (MJF) 6. Kendra Shank Quartet Mosaic (Challenge) 7. John Zorn Stolas: Book of Angels, Vol. 12 (Tzadik) 8. Pedro Giraudo Jazz Orchestra El Viage (PGM) 9. Gerald Wilson Orchestra Detroit (Mack Avenue) 10. The Aggregation under the direction of Eddie Allen Groove's Mood (DBCD) Historical/Reissues: 1. Lester Young The Lester Young/Count Basie Sessions 1936-1940 (Mosaic) 2. Lucky Thompson New York City 1964-65 (Uptown) 3. John Coltrane Side Steps (Prestige) 4. Dinah Washington The Definitive Dinah Washington (Verve) 5. Dizzy Gillespie Big Band Showtime at the Spotlite: 52nd Street, New York City, June 1946 (Uptown) Dr. Bruce H. Klauber New Releases: 1. Wynton Marsalis He and She (Blue Note) 2. Jeff "Tain" Watts Watts (Dark King Music) 3. Ravi Coltrane Blending Times (Savoy) 4. Ernie Watts/Plas Johnson All Blues (Mojo Records) 5. Roswell Rudd Trombone Tribe (Sunnyside) 6. Papa John DeFrancesco Big Shot (Savant) 7. Stanley Clarke Jazz in the Garden (Heads Up) 8. Miroslav Vitous Remembering Weather Report (ECM) 9. Lonnie Smith Art of Organizing (Criss Cross) 10. Mike Vax Big Band Featuring the Alumni of Stan Kenton Sounds From the Road (Summit) Historical/Reissues 1. Dizzy Gillespie Dizzy Goes Hollywood (Verve) 2. Terry Gibbs Swing Is Here (Verve) 3. Lucky Thompson New York City 1964-1965 (Uptown) 4. Albert Ayler Holy Ghost (Revenant) 5. Chet Baker/Art Pepper October Session 1952 (Absord) Christopher Loudon New Releases: 1. Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette Yesterdays (ECM) 2. The Manhattan Transfer The Chick Corea Songbook (Four Quarters) 3. Dee Alexander Wild Is the Wind (Blujazz) 4. Kurt Elling Dedicated to You (Concord) 5. Melody Gardot My One and Only Thrill (Verve) 6. Roberta Gambarini So in Love (Emarcy) 7. Ben Sidran Dylan Different (Nardis) 8. Mon David Coming True (FreeHam) 9. Kat Edmonson Take to the Sky (Convivium) 10. Mark Winkler Till I Get It Right (FreeHam) Historical/Reissues: 1. Ella Fitzgerald Twelve Nights in Hollywood (Verve Select) 2. Bing Crosby The Bing Crosby CBS Radio Recordings 1954-56 (Mosaic) 3. Oscar Peterson The Songbooks (Verve) 4. Frank Sinatra Sinatra: New York (Rhino) 5. Oscar Peterson & Nelson Riddle Oscar Peterson & Nelson Riddle (Verve) Bill Meredith New Releases: 1. Eldar Virtue (Sony) 2. Allan Holdsworth/Alan Pasqua/Jimmy Haslip/Chad Wackerman Blues for Tony (MoonJune) 3. Gary Husband's Drive Hotwired (Abstract Logix) 4. Sam Yahel Hometown (Posi-Tone) 5. Jeff "Tain" Watts Watts (Dark Key) 6. Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain & Edgar Meyer The Melody of Rhythm (E1) 7. Jonathan Kreisberg Night Songs (Criss Cross) 8. Piano Circus Skin and Wire: pianocircus featuring Bill Bruford Play the Music of Colin Riley (Summerfold) 9. David Fiuczynski KiF Express (FuzeLicious Morsels) 10. Wayne Krantz Krantz Carlock Lefebvre (Abstract Logix) Historical/Reissues: 1. Miles Davis Sketches of Spain (Legacy) 2. Artie Shaw Complete Spotlight Band 1945 Broadcasts (Hep) 3. Dave Brubeck Quartet Time Out (Legacy) 4. Art Tatum Tatum Art (Storyville) 5. Steve Smith The Best of Steve Smith (Tone Center) Lee Mergner New Releases: 1. Vijay Iyer Historicity (ACT) 2. Miguel Zenón Esta Plena (Marsalis Music) 3. John Patitucci Trio Remembrance (Concord Jazz) 4. Jeff "Tain" Watts Watts (Dark King Music) 5. Ravi Coltrane Blending Times (Savoy) 6. Joe Lovano Us Five Folk Art (Blue Note) 7. Christian McBride & Inside Straight Kind of Brown (Mack Avenue) 8. Allen Toussaint The Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch) 9. Steve Kuhn Mostly Coltrane (ECM) 10. Branford Marsalis Quartet Metamorphosen (Marsalis) Historical/Reissues: 1. Miles Davis The Complete Miles Davis Columbia Album Collection (Sony/Legacy) 2. Codona The Codona Trilogy (ECM) 3. Billie Holiday The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters (Verve Select) 4. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song: Live in Europe, 1969 (Blue Note) 5. Various Artists The Very Best of Prestige Records: Prestige 60th Anniversary (Prestige) Bill Milkowski New Releases: 1. Henry Threadgill Zooid This Brings Us To, Vol. 1 (Pi Recording) 2. Miguel Zenón Esta Plena (Marsalis Music) 3. Jim Hall/Bill Frisell Hemispheres (ArtistShare) 4. Chick Corea/John McLaughlin Five Peace Band Live (Concord) 5. The Monterey Quartet Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival (MJF) 6. Jeff “Tain” Watts Watts (Dark Key) 7. Allen Toussaint The Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch) 8. Bobby Broom Plays for Monk (Origin) 9. Joe Lovano Us Five Folk Art (Blue Note) 10. Masada Quintet Featuring Joe Lovano Stolas: The Book of Angels, Vol. 22 (Tzadik) Historical/Reissues: 1. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song: Live in Europe, 1969 (Blue Note) 2. Dave Brubeck Time Out (Columbia/Legacy) 3. Miles Davis Kind of Blue (Columbia/Legacy) 4. Charles Mingus Mingus Ah Um (Columbia/Legacy) 5. Miles Davis Sketches of Spain (Columbia/Legacy) John Murph New Releases: 1. Robert Glasper Doubled Booked (Blue Note) 2. Stefon Harris Urbanus (Concord) 3. Joseph C. Phillips Jr. Vipassana (Innova) 4. Gretchen Parlato In a Dream (ObliqSound) 5. Theo Bleckmann/John Hollenbeck/Gary Versace Refuge Trio (Winter & Winter) 6. Vijay Iyer Historicity (ACT) 7. Steve Lehman Octet Travail, Transformation, and Flow (Pi) 8. Empirical Out ‘N’ In (Naim Jazz) 9. Miguel Zenón Esta Plena (Marsalis Music) 10. Stacy Dillard One (Smalls Records) Historical/Reissues: 1. Various Artists Hommage a Nesuhi (Rhino/Atlantic) 2. Billie Holiday The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters (Verve) 3. Ella Fitzgerald Twelve Nights in Hollywood (Verve) 4. Miles Davis Sketches of Spain (50th Anniversary Enhanced Edition) (Sony Legacy) 5. Various Artists The Very Best of Prestige Records: Prestige 60th Anniversary (Prestige) Mitch Myers New Releases: 1. Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette Yesterdays (ECM) 2. Keith Jarrett Testament (ECM) 3. Enrico Rava New York Days (ECM) 4. Joshua Redman Compass (Nonesuch) 5. Matt Wilson Quartet That's Gonna Leave a Mark (Palmetto) 6. Miguel Zenón Esta Plena (Marsalis Music) 7. Gary Burton/Pat Metheny/Steve Swallow/Antonio Sanchez Quartet Live! (Concord) 8. Dave Douglas Spirit Moves (Green Leaf) 9. Chris Potter Underground Ultrahang (ArtistShare) 10. Jim Hall/Bill Frisell Hemispheres (ArtistShare) Historical/Reissues: 1. Louis Armstrong The Complete Louis Armstrong Decca Sessions (1935-46) (Mosaic) 2. Miles Davis Sketches of Spain (50th Anniversary Enhanced Edition) (Sony Legacy) 3. Duke Ellington The Great Concerts (London & New York 1963-1964)(Musicmasters/Nimbus) 4. Charles Mingus Mingus Ah Um (Legacy Edition) (Columbia/Legacy) 5. Sun Ra The Complete Detroit Jazz Center Residency (Transparency) Britt Robson New Releases: 1. Matt Wilson Quartet That's Gonna Leave A Mark (Palmetto) 2. Darius Jones Trio Man'ish Boy (AUM Fidelity) 3. SFJAZZ Collective Live 2009 (SFJAZZ) 4. Chris Potter Underground Ultrahang (ArtistShare) 5. Marty Ehrlich Things Have Got to Change (Clean Feed) 6. Heath Brothers Endurance (Jazz Legacy) 7. Dafnis Prieto Si O Si Quartet Live at Jazz Standard NYC (Dafnison) 8. John Scofield Piety Street (Emarcy) 9. Henry Threadgill Zooid This Brings Us To, Vol. 1 (Pi) 10. Gary Burton/Pat Metheny/Steve Swallow/Antonio Sanchez Quartet Live! (Concord) William Ruhlmann New Releases: 1. Tom Harrell Prana Dance (HighNote) 2. Ruby Braff For the Last Time (Arbors) 3. Carol Welsman I Like Men: Reflections of Miss Peggy Lee (Welcar) 4. Steve Davis Eloquence (Jazz Legacy) 5. Preservation Hall Jazz Band New Orleans Preservation Vol. 1 (Preservation Hall) 6. Eddie Daniels & Roger Kellaway A Duet of One: Live at the Bakery (IPO) 7. Bob Florence Limited Edition Legendary (MAMA) 8. Clayton Brothers Brother to Brother (ArtistShare) 9. Resonance Big Band Introducing Marian Petrescu Resonance Big Band Plays Tribute to Oscar Peterson (Resonance) 10. Dark Chocolate Unwrapped (Megawave) Historical/Reissues: 1. Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus/Work Time (Essential Jazz Classics) 2. Art Tatum/Ben Webster The Album (Essential Jazz Classics) 3. Red Garland The 1956 Trio (Essential Jazz Classics) 4. Clifford Brown/Sonny Rollins/Max Roach Quintet Complete Studio Recordings (Essential Jazz Classics) 5. Various Artists The Very Best of Prestige Records: Prestige 60th Anniversary (Prestige) Mike Shanley New Releases: 1 Chris Potter Underground Ultrahang (ArtistShare) 2. Steve Lehman Octet Travail, Transformation, and Flow (Pi) 3. Josh Berman Old Idea (Delmark) 4. Ravi Coltrane Blending Times (Savoy) 5. The Monterey Quartet Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival (MJF) 6. Warren Smith Composers Workshop Ensemble Old News Borrowed Blues (Engine) 7. Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition Apti (Innova) 8. Flow Trio Rejuvenation (ESP) 9. John Patitucci Trio Remembrance (Concord) 10. Sean Jones The Search Within (Mack Avenue) Kirk Silsbee New Releases: 1. Gerald Wilson Orchestra Detroit (Mack Avenue) 2. Rashied Ali Quintet Live in Europe (Survival) 3. Dr. Lonnie Smith Rise Up! (Palmetto) 4. Nels Cline Coward (Cryptogramophone) 5. Lanny Morgan Sextet 6 (ACM) 6. Jack Cortner Big Band Sound Check (JazzedMedia) 7. Daryl Sherman Johnny Mercer: A Centennial Tribute (Arbors) 8. Bud Shank Quartet Fascinatin’ Rhythm (JazzedMedia) 9. The Manhattan Transfer The Chick Corea Songbook (Four Quarters) 10. Mike Holober and the Gotham Jazz Orchestra Quake (Sunnyside) Historical/Reissues: 1. Lucky Thompson New York City, 1964-65 (Uptown) 2. Art Pepper The Art History Project: Unreleased Art IV (Widow's Taste) 3. Scott LaFaro Pieces of Jade (Resonance) 4. John Coltrane Sidesteps (Prestige/Concord) 5. Jimmy Rushing The Scene (HighNote) Brian Soergel New Releases 1. The Beyman Bros Memories of Summer As a Child (Dharma Moon) 2. Chuck Loeb Between Two Worlds (Heads Up) 3. Four80East Roll On (Native Language) 4. Brian Bromberg It Is What It Is (Artistry) 5. Everette Harp First Love (Shanachie) 6. Philippe Saisse At World’s Edge (E1) 7. Ronny Smith Just Groovin (Pacific Coast Jazz) 8. Peter White Good Day (Peak) 9. Euge Groove Sunday Morning (Shanachie) 10. Rick Braun All It Takes (Artistry) Jeff Tamarkin New Releases: 1. Ravi Coltrane Blending Times (Savoy Jazz) 2. Joshua Redman Compass (Nonesuch) 3. Allen Toussaint The Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch) 4. Stanley Clarke Trio with Lenny White & Hiromi Jazz in the Garden (Heads Up) 5. Tierney Sutton Desire (Telarc) 6. James Carter/John Medeski Heaven on Earth (Half Note) 7. Branford Marsalis Quartet Metamorphosen (Marsalis) 8. Chick Corea/Hiromi Duet (Concord) 9. Jim Hall/Bill Frisell Hemispheres (ArtistShare) 10. Jeff “Tain” Watts Watts (Dark Key) Historical/Reissues: 1. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song: Live in Europe, 1969 (Blue Note) 2. Scott LaFaro Pieces of Jade (Resonance) 3. John Coltrane Side Steps (Prestige) 4. Charles Mingus Mingus Ah Um (Legacy Edition) (Columbia/Legacy) 5. Various Artists Hommage à Nesuhi (Rhino Handmade) Michael J. West New Releases: 1. Ramsey Lewis Songs From the Heart: Ramsey Plays Ramsey (Concord) 2. Darcy James Argue's Secret Society Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam) 3. Rakalam Bob Moses Father's Day B'hash (Sunnyside) 4. Gretchen Parlato In A Dream (ObliqSound) 5. Vijay Iyer Historicity (ACT Music + Vision) 6. Arve Henriksen Cartography (ECM) 7. Steve Lehman Octet Travail, Transformation, and Flow (Pi) 8. Joe Lovano Us Five Folk Art (Blue Note) 9. Jeff "Tain" Watts Watts (Dark Key Music) 10. Robert Glasper Double Booked (Blue Note) Historical/Reissues: 1. Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble Congliptious (Nessa) 2. Tony Bennett/Bill Evans The Complete Tony Bennett & Bill Evans Recordings on Fantasy (Fantasy/Concord) 3. Tony Williams Spring (Blue Note) 4. Wadada Leo Smith Spirit Catcher (Nessa) 5. Scott LaFaro Pieces of Jade (Resonance) George Varga New Releases: 1. Keith Jarrett Testament (ECM) 2. James Moody 4A (IPO) 3. Linda Oh Trio Entry (Linda Oh) 4. Allen Toussaint The Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch) 5. Branford Marsalis Quartet Metamorphosen (Marsalis Music) 6. Gretchen Parlato In a Dream (ObliqSound) 7. Joe Lovano Us Five Folk Art (Blue Note) 8. Miguel Zenón Esta Plena (Marsalis Music ) 9. George Colligan Runaway (Sunnyside) 10. Melody Gardot My One and Only Thrill (Verve) Historical/Reissues: 1. Miles Davis The Complete Miles Davis Columbia Album Collection (Sony/Legacy) 2. Charles Mingus Mingus Ah Um (Legacy Edition) (Columbia/Legacy) 3. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song: Live in Europe, 1969 (Blue Note) 4. Ella Fitzgerald Twelve Nights in Hollywood (Verve Select) 5. Tony Bennett/Bill Evans The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings (Fantasy/Concord) Josef Woodard New Releases: 1. Joe Lovano Us Five Folk Art (Blue Note) 2. Henry Threadgill's Zooid This Brings Us To, Vol. 1 (Pi) 3. Dave Douglas Spirit Moves (Green Mountain) 4. Jim Beard Revolutions (Sunnyside) 5. The Monterey Quartet Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival (MJF) 6. Melody Gardot My One and Only Thrill (Verve) 7. Joshua Redman Compass (Nonesuch) 8. Lee Konitz and Dan Tepfer Duos With Lee (Sunnyside) 9. Jeff "Tain" Watts Watts (Dark Key) 10. Vijay Iyer Historicity (ACT) Historical/Reissues: 1. Codona The Codona Trilogy (ECM) 2. Miles Davis Kind of Blue (Legacy Edition) (Columbia/Legacy) 3. Miles Davis Sketches of Spain (Legacy Edition) (Columbia/Legacy) 4. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song: Live in Europe, 1969 (Blue Note) 5. Lee Konitz/Martial Solal Star Eyes 1983 (Hatology) Ron Wynn New Releases: 1. Henry Threadgill Zooid This Brings Us To, Vol. 1 (Pi) 2. Allen Toussaint The Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch) 3. Joe Lovano Us Five Folk Art (Blue Note) 4. Steve Kuhn Mostly Coltrane (ECM) 5. Roy Hargrove Big Band Emergence (Emarcy) 6. James Moody 4A (IPO) 7. Joshua Redman Compass (Nonesuch) 8. Christian McBride & Inside Straight Kind of Brown (Mack Avenue) 9. Robert Glasper Double Booked (Blue Note) 10. Jim Hall/Bill Frisell Hemispheres (ArtistShare) Historical/Reissues: 1. Albert Ayler Holy Ghost (Revenant) 2. Tony Bennett/Bill Evans The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings (Fantasy/Concord) 3. Lucky Thompson New York City 1964-1965 (Uptown) 4. Scott LaFaro Pieces of Jade (Resonance) 5. Charles Mingus Mingus Ah Um (Legacy Edition) (Columbia/Legacy) true

261

2009-12-15T13:44:53-05:00

false

25464

179

true

140

2010-01-01T00:00:00-05:00

David R. Adler New Releases: 1. David S. Ware Shakti (Aum Fidelity) 2. Miguel Zenón Esta Plena (Marsalis Music) 3. Gerald Clayton Two-Shade (ArtistShare) 4. Vijay Iyer Trio Historicity (ACT) 5. Steve Lehman Octet Travail, Transformation, and Flow (Pi) 6. Herculaneum Herculaneum III (Clean Feed) 7. David Binney Third Occasion (Mythology) 8. Edward Simon Trio Poesía (Cam Jazz) 9. Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam) 10. SFJazz Collective Live 2009: The Works of McCoy Tyner (SFJazz) Historical/Reissues: 1. Freddie Hubbard Without a Song: Live in Europe, 1969 (Blue Note) 2. The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings (Fantasy/Concord) 3. Scott LaFaro Pieces of Jade (Resonance) 4. Ronnie Boykins The Will Come, Is Now (ESP-Disk) 5. Revolutionary Ensemble Vietnam (ESP-Disk) Scott Albin New Releases: 1. Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Collective Creativity (3 Sixteen) 2. Joe Locke/David Hazeltine Quartet Mutual Admiration Society 2 (Sharp Nine) 3. Martial Solal Live at the Village Vanguard (Cam Jazz) 4. Joe Morris Quartet Today on Earth (Aum Fidelity) 5. Alvin Queen Mighty Long Way (Resonance) 6. Jackie Ryan Doozy (Open Art) 7. Joe Cohn Shared Contemplations (Criss Cross) 8. Dee Alexander Wild Is the Wind (Blujazz) 9. Bill Easley Hearing Voices (18th & Vine) 10. Gary Burton/Pat Metheny/Steve Swallow/Antonio Sanchez Quartet Live! (Concord) Historical/Reissues: 1. Duke Ellington The Great Concerts (London & New York 1963-1964) (Musicmasters/Nimbus) 2. Lee Konitz/Martial Solal Star Eyes 1983 (Hatology) 3. Lucky Thompson New York City, 1964-65 (Uptown) 4. John Handy Mosaic Select (Mosaic) 5. Stan Getz Dynasty (Verve) A.D. Amorosi New Releases: 1. Joe Lovano Us...

Critics Picks 2009: Individual Ballots

2009-12-18T18:15:49-05:00

4 Bassist Gerald Veasley has performed and recorded with Grover Washington, Jr., Joe Zawinul and Odean Pope, has built his own career through a series of recordings on the Heads Up label, and has a nightclub named after him, but the accomplishment he seems most proud of is his special program to teach bass to adults. It’s called <A HREF= http://www.geraldveasley.com/bassbootcamp/index.htm> Gerald Veasley’s Bass Boot Camp</a> and has been held at least once a year since 2002. The next session will be held on March 19-21, 2010 in Reading, Pa., as part of the Berks Jazz Fest. For the inspiration of the program, Veasley credits a fellow bassist as well as a teaching experience overseas. “I had gone to Europe and done a series of workshops and classes, working with a small group of musicians over an extended period of time. And I realized that I saw much more of an effect with that intensive experience and thought, ‘Well, this would be a cool thing to do.’ After I got back, I was speaking with a student of mine and he mentioned that he had just attended Victor Wooten’s Bass and Nature Camp. And it hit me that he was already doing what I wanted to do, but I thought that I could do something a little different. Not necessarily any better, but different.” Veasley added that he has enormous respect for Wooten, who has been very supportive as a friend and colleague. And the two have ended up teaching at each other’s camps. The partnership with the Berks Jazz Fest offers plenty of advantages, including access to some stellar clinicians. The workshops take place at the Crown Plaza Hotel there, where many of the festival performances also occur, so the students can take in shows during down time. The venue also allows the students to do a capstone performance and jam that is open to the public. Who “enlists” for this Boot Camp experience? “We get pilots, doctors, prosecutors, you name it. These are people who have real jobs and on the weekend, maybe they play with bands. Or maybe they want to just play with some friends. Some people call them weekend warriors, but they’re really playing for the fun of it. And for, say, a guy at 45 it’s a lot safer than going out on a basketball court once a week.” For Boot Campers, the measure of success is not necessarily becoming a bass player for a living. As Veasley proceeded to talk about some of his former or recurring students, he sounded like a proud father. “One lady, she was really afraid to play in public. But at our camp, you have to do that. After the camp, she went home and auditioned to play with a blues band and got the job.” But it’s not all about getting a cool gig. “One middle-aged woman had this dream about playing the bass, so she tells her daughter the next day that she’s going to buy a bass and learn how to play. She found out about the camp and came to last year’s session. She had such a spirit, I was curious as to what she did for a living and she told me that she was a grief counselor for those affected by 9/11. Now she’s trying to find a way to use the music to somehow help with her work.” And sometimes the gig they get may not be the one they originally imagined. “One 40-something guy really wanted to leave his day job and become a full-time musician. And he recently got his wish. He’s now the bassist for the Barnum and Bailey Circus. And you know that’s a real road gig and challenging music too. You have to be careful what you wish for, I guess.” For some, the entrepreneurial spirit runs deep and no lessons will change that. “This one camper had a day job in the family business of gourmet food. He wanted to get out and do something different, but he didn’t want to be a professional musician. He wanted to do some sort of business. So, he ended up creating a boutique bass store, providing real specialty basses. I’m always amazed by my students.” And clearly proud. Veasley also has done the boot camp on a smooth jazz cruise sponsored by Capital Jazz. He said that those participants were entirely different. “Most of those folks haven’t played at all and just want to learn how to play bass. You know, for me, teaching is all about those “Aha” moments, when a student does something they’ve never done before and something clicks. Well, with this group, it’s all “Aha” moments! We’ve had 35 students in one day.” The next cruise is October 23-30, 2010. Not all his campers are middle-aged types, but that seems to be the norm. “We’ve had kids as young as 12, but you know we really tend to teach different things than what you want to learn as a young person. Like how to balance working in a job with working with a band. How to manage your life.” The boot camp moniker makes it sound like a pretty rough few days. As someone who has known Veasley for about 30 years, I can attest that I’ve only heard him raise his voice once or twice and each time it was warranted. He hardly seems like the drill sergeant type. “Yes, I almost regret the title, because it conveys something very different than what we do. It’s catchy, but it doesn’t really tell the story. It doesn’t accurately reflect how nurturing the environment is.” Veasley pointed out that over 50% of the students return the next year, so that demonstrates a marked difference between his program and a boot camp. I know few soldiers who willingly returned to the latter. But the program is intense, at least in the time that the students (and teachers) put in. “We do about 30 hours over the course of a weekend. And what’s interesting is that all the surveys we get back from the students tell us that they want more. After sessions on Friday evening, we then start at 8 am on Saturday and Sunday. And when the sessions are done, they’re still hanging around wanting to play more. We do midnight classes and they’re well-attended. Incredible, really.” The list of teachers for the next Boot Camp is incredible as well, including South African legend Bakithi Kumalo, fretless virtuoso Michael Manring, jazz master Brian Bromberg and rock chopster Stu Hamm. And of course, Veasley himself. Though he said that he feels that he and his fellow teachers contribute less to the production than the students themselves. “We set up an environment for things to happen. It’s their energy and their participation that make it go. The clinicians are great, but it’s the students who have created a community.” The cost for the weekend is $499, with discounts available for reservations made before the end of the year. For more information about the program, go to <A HREF=http://www.geraldveasley.com/bassbootcamp/index.htm> Gerald Veasley’s web site</a>. true

129

2009-12-09T14:07:20-05:00

false

25410

true

141

2009-12-12T09:00:00-05:00

Bassist directs program geared to non-professional adults with help of all-star lineup of bass clinicians.

Gerald Veasley's Bass Boot Camp Not So Tough

2009-12-24T12:01:17-05:00

4 Howard Levy, the Chicago-based pianist and harmonica player, announced today that he is launching his own harmonica school, albeit of the virtual category. The Howard Levy Harmonica School will be open for business by Dec. 1, 2009. The former Flecktone is partnering with ArtistWorks, an online video exchange company who create video-based instructional subscription sites. Among their other music instruction sites are the Andreas Oberg Guitar Universe and the Jimmy Bruno Guitar Institute. School? Universe? Institute? Pretty highfalutin names for institutions with neither walls nor infrastructure, but rather with html code and interactive screens. What gives? JT reached Levy at his home in Chicago after he'd just gotten back from a three-month reunion tour with the Flecktones. He said that Patricia and David Butler, the owners of ArtistWorks, contacted him about the program. “They had already done one with [banjoist] Tony Trischka, who was Bela Fleck’s teacher,” said Levy. “They were looking for a harmonica player who could do it and my name came up.” Indeed, it’s hard to think of anyone more qualified to give instructions in the art of harmonica playing, even though Levy himself never studied the instrument in a school. In that regard, he’s perhaps the prototypical student for ArtistWorks. “They picked those instruments because they knew that you can’t go to any school to get certification. There’s no competition from institutes of higher learning.” Levy had done instructional videos before, but they tended to simply illustrate how he played rather than instruct other players of all different levels. In order to establish a comprehensive program, Levy and ArtistWorks had to record hundreds of “units” of instruction. “I filmed eight hours a day for five days to get the material” said Levy, sighing. “We needed to go from the most rudimentary to the most advanced so that it would be applicable to any harmonica player.” Users of the service can subscribe for three months and view the video units, ranging from three to seven minutes, as often as they like. The units are laid out progressively. But isn’t something lost in translation here? “We’re going to be allow students to upload a video to me and then I do a video in response, and those exchanges will constitute a sort of master class,” Levy explained. How do you compensate for not being there with the student? “Sure, it’s not the same as being there in the same room. But the price of three months' access to all of this material [approximately $60] is less than one hour of a private lesson with me. And it’s not realistic for people to travel to where I am.” How many students can he take on? More or less than in real life? “That’s a good question,” he said, laughing. “I don’t know if I’m going to be chained to my computer or just wondering if anyone will do it. But the potential is there for me to help so many more students.” He added sardonically that harmonica players are known for their frugality. “Hey, it’s an instrument that costs less than its instructional manual!” For Levy, the bigger issue is what he called the “invisibility of the instrument,” in that you can’t really see how it’s played, because the technique is completely internal within the mouth. “When you want to teach someone how to bend a note on a guitar, you can show them how the string moves. They can see that. To bend a note with a harmonica, it’s more abstract. They have to feel that for themselves.” Levy said that just doing all the lesson units he learned plenty about the harmonica and his own playing. “People would often ask me stuff like ‘How do you get that vibrato?’ and I realized that I didn’t know! So I tried to figure things like that out.” He also believes in learning from his students. “When I have a student who does something a different way, it makes me wonder if there’s a different approach there I need to learn,” added Levy. The school is said to be the first online portal for harmonica instruction, and who are we to argue with that claim? One thing for sure, Levy is widely accepted as one of the most gifted and accomplished harmonica players in the world, so whatever insight a novice can pick up is probably very useful. Levy is also a successful jazz pianist and his latest CD, Tonight and Tomorrow, is currently being released on the Chicago Sessions label. He also has two CDs on which he plays a lot of harmonica including Alone & Together and Time Capsules. The latter features his group Acoustic Express, whose instrumentation and approach is loosely based on the Hot Club style. Both CDs are available at <A HREF=http://levyland.com> Levy’s Web site</a>. For more information about the Howard Levy Harmonica School, you can go to the <A HREF=http://howardharmonica.com> school’s Web site</a>. Other instructional programs can be found at the <A HREF=http://artistworks.com> ArtistWorks Web site</a>. true

129

2009-11-30T19:17:23-05:00

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141

2009-12-03T12:00:00-05:00

Founding member of the Flecktones to offer instruction online for budding harmonica students at all levels

52952

Jazz Harmonicat Howard Levy Launches Online Harmonica School

2009-12-24T11:59:58-05:00

4 Since the release of her first CD in 2000, Bay Area singer Jackie Ryan has won an avid following with a series of increasingly confident albums showcasing her big, lustrous voice, deft sense of swing and polyglot repertoire. The daughter of a Mexican mother and Irish-American father, she was born and raised in San Rafael, Calif., and has long explored songs in Spanish, Portuguese and other languages. Increasingly visible on the East Coast, she’s gained more attention than ever with the double album Doozy, her fourth release on her OpenArt label. 1. Carol Sloane “Old Devil Moon” (from When I Look in Your Eyes, Concord Jazz). Sloane, vocals; Bill Charlap, piano; Steve Gilmore, bass; Ron Vincent, drums; Howard Alden, guitar. Recorded in 1994. BEFORE: That’s Carol Sloane. It took me a minute because I haven’t heard her for a while. She’s got that mature confidence. There’s no one who sounds like her. She’s someone who’s been singing a really long time, and the way she phrases is so comfortable. Is that Akira Tana on drums? It kind of sounds like him. [The correct drummer is Ron Vincent.] He swings nice. I think she liked Carmen McRae. I hear that in her voice, right there [scat verse]. I never noticed that before. But when you sit and listen and really analyze, you can hear all those influences. I hear Ella there too, and Sarah. It goes to show how we’re all so influenced by each other. That’s great. Who’s the pianist? Bill Charlap. I liked his bounce, his swing. He was right there with her, really swinging and very supportive. 2. Denise Jannah “Something to Live For” (from I Was Born in Love With You, Blue Note). Jannah, vocals; Bob Belden Orchestra. Recorded in 1995. BEFORE: I hear shades of Abbey Lincoln and Ernestine Anderson; I think she’s around that same time period. I love this tune. Billy Strayhorn. I should know who this is. AFTER: I know her, but I don’t have this recording of hers. She is a wonderful singer who’s underrated in this country. The arrangement is great: It reminds me of the older big-band arrangements, and I’ve just heard her do more contemporary stuff. That kind of threw me a bit. She really deserves to be recognized far more than she is in this country. She’s living in Holland now, and I recorded a song that she wrote the lyrics to, “Sari,” which means “sadness,” and is in Sranan Tongo, the language of her birthplace, Suriname. The melody was written by Amina Figarova. I really hope she gets more recognition in this country, though she’s well known in Europe. 3. Mary Stallings “I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You” (from Manhattan Moods, Concord Jazz). Stallings, vocals; Monty Alexander, piano; Ben Wolfe, bass; Clyde Lucas, drums. Recorded in 1996. BEFORE: It’s a beautiful song, “I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You.” I know her voice. Oh lord. It’s sort of Etta James/Ernestine Anderson, but I’m not sure. It’s a classic style, bluesy inflection—a seasoned singer who’s very familiar. AFTER: Oh yeah. There’s a good reason why she’s known as one of the best singers around. I’m sorry to say I don’t have any recordings by her, but I saw her when I first moved back to the Bay Area around 1990 at a club in San Francisco, and thought she was great. It’s that old-school sound, so polished and sure of herself. Oh, that was Monty Alexander. I was just fantasizing about doing a CD with him. I’m striking out here. 4. Sarah Vaughan “The Lamp Is Low” (from Live at the 1971 Monterey Jazz Festival, MJF). Vaughan, vocals; Bill Mays, piano; Bob Magnusson, bass; Jimmy Cobb, drums. Recorded in 1971. BEFORE: Sarah. That’s easy. Great band. It sounds live. Watch, she’s going to go high. Oh yeah! This is not early Sarah. It’s when she’s mature. I would say she was in her 40s or 50s when she did this. [Vaughan was 47.] She was so great. What I loved about Sarah is that she always surprised you. All the sudden she’d throw in these notes out of nowhere. She had such an incredible range. I like this arrangement, the way it goes from samba to swing. I’m wondering who the band is. [The pianist is] wonderful. Sarah started out with this sweet, high, girl voice, and later on I heard a lot of Billy Eckstine, with that low vibrato. She and Billy sang a lot together, and I know they were very close. The rest of this Before & After session with Jackie Ryan appears in the December 2009 issue of JazzTimes. true

290

2009-12-15T15:36:04-05:00

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2009-12-01T00:00:00-05:00

Language, For Music’s Sake

Since the release of her first CD in 2000, Bay Area singer Jackie Ryan has won an avid following with a series of increasingly confident albums showcasing her big, lustrous voice, deft sense of swing and polyglot repertoire. The daughter of a Mexican mother and Irish-American father, she was born and raised in San Rafael, Calif., and has long explored songs in Spanish, Portuguese and other languages. Increasingly visible on the East Coast, she’s gained more attention than ever with the double album Doozy , her fourth release on her OpenArt label. 1. Carol Sloane “Old Devil Moon” (from When I Look in Your Eyes , Concord Jazz). Sloane, vocals; Bill Charlap, piano; Steve Gilmore, bass; Ron Vincent, drums; Howard Alden, guitar. Recorded in 1994. BEFORE: That’s Carol Sloane. It took me a minute because I haven’t heard her for a while. She’s got that mature confidence. There’s no one who sounds like her. She’s someone who’s been singing a really long time, and the way she phrases is so comfortable. Is that Akira Tana on drums? It kind of sounds like him. [The correct drummer is Ron Vincent.] He swings nice. I think she liked Carmen McRae. I hear that in her voice, right there [scat verse]. I never noticed that before. But when you sit and listen and really analyze, you can hear all those influences. I hear Ella there too, and Sarah. It goes to show how we’re all so influenced by each other. That’s great. Who’s the pianist? Bill Charlap. I liked...

Before & After with Jackie Ryan

2009-12-15T15:36:54-05:00