Thursday, December 31, 2009

The Women Who Made Thelonious Monk, Barbara Monk

by Walter Ray Watson
My story about Thelonious Monk biographer Robin D.G. Kelley ran on All Things Considered yesterday. But wait! There's much more to say: Kelley's new book, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of An American Original, takes considerable pains to acknowledge the support of women in the life of the musician.


The photo ID of Barbara Monk, Thelonious Monk's mother, shows that she was employed by the City of New York to clean public offices. (courtesy of the Thelonious Monk Estate)

First, there's his mother, Barbara Monk, who moved to New York City with Thelonious Monk Sr., and their three children: Thomas, the eldest; his sister Marion, and Thelonious Jr., the youngest child. The family moved to New York City to escape the farm life they had known in North Carolina. Thelonious Sr. eventually returned to Carolina, and Monk's mother and sister raised the family. Barbara Monk cleaned city offices to support her kids. When the youngest Monk began skipping classes during his senior year at Stuyvesant High School -- and eventually left altogether -- it was Barbara Monk who encouraged him to take that leap of faith.

A few years earlier, she had also supported Thelonious Jr.'s decision to follow a Christian evangelist, a woman whose name was never known to the family (and whose precise religious affiliation was just as hard to pin down), on a barnstorming tour of Midwestern towns for nearly two years. As Kelley recounts in his book, Monk's travels through Kansas and other states is the most mysterious and undocumented time in Monk's life. But they were also perhaps his most fruitful years as an itinerant artist, learning how to call tunes on the spot, and how to respond to both musicians and audiences in the moment.

There was also a piano teacher early in Monk's development named Alberta Simmons. Kelley learned about Simmons' life from her daughter, Alberta Webb; Simmons, born in 1892, died long ago. Alberta Simmons was a performer, and assimilated the stride styles of Fats Waller, James P. Johnson and Eubie Blake. She played the Clef Club, speakeasies in New York City, and even went out to Flushing, Queens for gigs. But as Webb told Kelley, "Being a woman, [Simmons] got sort of sidetracked trying to raise her children. Unfortunately things did not work out in later years."

Kelley's detective work found New York census records of Alberta Simmons at five year intervals. As time progressed, Simmons reported her career as piano teacher, and, in later years, "domestic worker." But before her earnings as a teacher dried up, Thelonious Monk learned stride piano from the woman. Monk was known to visit the home of James P. Johnson, and attend "cutting sessions" by other famed stride practitioners. But early on, Alberta Simmons showed him the way.

Kelley told me that Alberta Simmons never got the chance to make a recording, so there's no sample artifact of her playing style. Her daughter, Alberta Webb, told Kelley that she unfortunately had no photographs of her mother to share either -- and Webb died before the publication of Kelley's book. It's one of Kelley's regrets, he says. (Then again, you develop a mountain of regrets when you interview 300 people, read countless lost articles and spend 14 years on a mission that no one quite believes you would complete.) On the bright side, Kelley says that it's not much of a leap to think of Monk's 1956 solo recording of "Memories of You," the Andy Razaf/Eubie Blake song, as his tribute to Alberta Simmons. According to Kelley's research, she played this tune often, as if it were her own. Here's an excerpt (from The Unique Thelonious Monk, originally issued on Riverside Records)

Then, of course, there's his wife, Nellie Monk. She can't be underestimated for her role as partner, protector, career manager and supporter of Thelonious Monk. She gave her husband the space and time to develop his musical sense of space and time. She also cleaned private homes and worked as a seamstress in the lean years: The period when his music was dismissed or ignored by critics, thus making him a hard sell to the public, to club managers and to anyone considering him for studio recordings.
 
Last but not least, there's the great pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams, who defended, promoted and befriended Monk. Reportedly, she first heard him as a young man in Kansas City while he was touring with that mysterious traveling evangelist. She later helped him get gigs in New York, and introduced him to a great deal of music. Kelley writes that despite Monk's Baptist roots and travels with evangelical revivals, he attended Catholic churches with Williams. Among the home recordings Kelley was exposed to by the Monk Estate were these pieces that Williams arranged and wrote out for Monk to try. Hear Monk practice "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm."

After ending his home recording of "Body and Soul" abruptly, Mr. Monk then shuffles some papers on the piano and announces, with the enthusiasm of a kid in a toy store, "Now let me see how we make out with this now. Mmmmm!" He then proceeds to tentatively work through an arrangement of "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" -- a Gus Kahn and Bronislau Kaper composition Mr. Monk never recorded nor included in his repertoire. The initial choruses sound a lot like Mary Lou Williams' 1946 trio recording (Classics Records 1050) of the song, which I confirmed when archivist Ann Kuebler helped me locate the arrangement (titled simply "Chillun") in Ms. Williams' papers at the Institute for Jazz Studies. It is likely that Mr. Monk had a copy of her arrangement from the 1940s since they exchanged quite a bit of music during the early days of bebop. In particular, Mr. Monk takes from the arrangement Ms. Williams' rephrasing of the melody, the ascending arpeggios in the third and fourth bar of the song's A section, and the key signature: A-flat ... By the second take, he begins to incorporate more of his own unique phrases and improvised lines, including a striding left hand and dissonant clusters in the piano's upper register.
 
Perhaps as a tribute to Mary Lou Williams, his final six bar cadence incorporates the kind of "boogie woogie" left hand figures Ms. Williams often used. By the third take, "Chillun" is entirely his own. Opening rubato, almost ballad-like, Mr. Monk throws in an unusual bass line in bars 9-12 and shifts into stride piano, over which he plays several high register phrases over and over to see what they sound like. By the time he returns to the melody, Mrs. Nellie Monk adds her singing voice and Mr. Monk closes with a tag similar to what he plays at the end of Gershwin's "Nice Work if You Can Get It."
 
Also, Mary Lou recorded this [arrangement] on October 7, 1946 (three days before Monk's 29th birthday). Unique are her phrasing of the melody and, most importantly, the bass line, in bars 3 and 4 of the A section; those ascending arpeggios. Notice how he echoes her phrasing throughout, especially in early takes of the song. As long as Monk's legacy still rings in our ears, the women who contributed to Monk's development as a child, student, artist and man are to be honored. (And then there's the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, but that's another story in itself.) Thanks to Robin Kelley for keeping their gifts to the music alive, if not unearthing them altogether.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2009/12/the_women_who_made_thelonious_monk.html

David 'Fathead' Newman


David 'Fathead' Newman was born in Corsicana, Texas on February 24, 1933. His family soon moved to Dallas, where they settled and David stayed through graduating Lincoln High School. After school, David found gigs in local bands. He received a scholarship to Jarvis Christian College where he studied theology and music. After two years of college, David decided to go on the road full time with Buster Smith (Charlie Parker's mentor). The band played lots of one-nighters and dance halls, touring Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and sometimes California. On one of those tours, David met Ray Charles.

Ray was working as a sideman with another group on the night's roster. They immediately bonded, both musically and as friends. When Ray started his own band, he called on David to be part of his group. In 1954, David began a twelve year association with the Ray Charles Band. David began as the baritone player and soon became the star tenor soloist. In 1959, David recorded his first album as a leader titled, "Fathead: Ray Charles Presents 'Fathead'" on Atlantic records. It included Newman's dramatic and now famous rendition of Hard Times.

He returned to Dallas for a short time and led his own bands. Then he moved to New York City where his career took off in many directions. Newman recorded many albums for Atlantic records, as well as Warner Brothers and Prestige. During this time in NYC, David gigged with Lee Morgan, Kenny Drew Sr., Billy Higgins, Kenny Dorham and so many other of the great jazz musicians hanging out on the New York scene. He gigged around the East Coast with his own quartet and soon began touring Europe and Japan as a leader.

As a studio musician he was very busy working on lots of recording projects with the likes of Herbie Mann, Aretha Franklin, Hank Crawford, Aaron Neville, to name a few. After meeting at a studio session, David joined forces with Herbie Mann during "The Family of Mann" era. Cal Tjader (later Roy Ayres) were part of this outstanding group. It was now time for David Newman to focus on his personal choices and let the public know more about the music that he chose to play. In 1980, Newman, determined to pursue his own musical identity, recorded several mainstream jazz albums for the Muse label. Artists such as Cedar Walton, Jimmy Cobb, Buster Williams, Louis Hayes, and other fine NY musicians, helped round out the rhythm sections.

David returned to Atlantic Records in the late eighties to record several albums. One of he recordings was done live at the Village Vanguard in NYC, featuring Stanley Turrentine and Hank Crawford. Newman's next recordings were on the Kokopelli label. This was a new label owned by Herbie Mann. David recorded a beautiful CD in tribute to Duke Ellington, titled Mr. Gentle, Mr. Cool. David produced the next one on Kokopelli, titled Under A Woodstock Moon. The late nineties brought David to the High Note label where he has recorded six successful CDs. The most recent, I Remember Brother Ray, was released in January 2005 and became the #1 Most Played Jazz Album nationwide.

David Newman has appeared on many television shows including Saturday Night Live, David Sanborn's Night Music, David Letterman, and various featured news segments. David appeared in Robert Altman's film Kansas City and did a national tour with the Kansas City Orchestra, for Verve Records.

Núa - Núria Martorell has gone through a long list of bands and orchestras

Núa (Núria Martorell) born 1973 in Mataró, Barcelona province. Without musical education of any kind or vocal techniques learned in school, Nua, taught herself to sing and educates his listening ear pieces by artists such as Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson from the early age of 6 years. Those interpreters owes much of its influence on the color of her voice. Interested in soul and funk groups of the Motown era, Núa, draws on all those items that come to blows. Never part of any gospel choir, but would have liked.

For circumstances not shown interest to become a musician until he realizes that music is what makes her happy and part of her first singing group, Angelus, 1993, where version issues Ottis Redding or Sam & Dave with unreleased songs also. It highlighted the guitar later recognized Pepo Lopez. Finish your college career in Graphic Design which works for many years while serving at night, but soon realizes she is not made for it, but to sing.

From then until now, Núa has gone through a long list of bands and orchestras. Since 1995, offers concerts as a duo, trio, quartet .... and acts in several Spanish provinces presenting a multitude of projects. It acts on television Catalan autonomy, TV3, in imitation of Aretha Franklin and then passes through dance bands like the Band Bucker where he meets his friend Javier Herrera. They worked with musicians such as Toni Moreno, Joselin Vercher, Quim Nicuesa .... numerous concerts offering much of the Spanish territory and also integrated in both groups of the 70s legendary as The Cheyenne.

After some time Witch Doctor enters later named Mr. Nilsson, focusing on international pop-rock with soul-funk medleys. He knows the guitar Pol Sanchez, who will work with later in electric jazz quartet in 2009 and with it, begins in 2003 Akord's draft, funk-jazz groove! musicians of the new situation with Catalan as the piano Carles Sanz, Jordi Porcar on bass, Xavier Lopez on alto sax, tenor sax Dani Margalef, Ramon Casanovas on trombone, among others.

In 2005, the group participates in TusTouns Annual Progressive Rock Festival de Catalunya in Barcelona, where he plays tracks symphonic progressive rock alongside the bassist or violinist Dick Them Ewa Pyrek among others. Also in 2006, enters the vocalist for the band Group66, where he collaborates with bassist Marcelo Granja Karl Jacobi, performing many concerts in renowned venues in Barcelona that year. Núa begins to feed and to focus their interest in Brazilian music and jazz, while performing rhythm & blues acoustic concerts with the renowned Danilo Pinheiro on guitar or Jaume Rivera on bass.

Fresh from a five-month tour has taken her to many European countries in 2008, singing as a jazz vocalist with the formation WARNING Electric Quartet, composed at the piano Svizzeri Stefano, Fabio Tropea on drums and the bass Francesco Leone, Núa live gravel of the pieces that can be heard on its website. His interpretations of jazz standards pieces are characterized by their strong influence of rhythm & blues and soul, and free use of scat. When you arrive to Barcelona, so Núa Núa Jazz where he collaborates with musicians from the likes of Pol Sanchez on guitar, bass or Paco Perera the Eloi Lopez on drums.

In turn, in 2008, operates in the Broadway musical Av, led by the company La Nouvelle Epoque, with Georgina Nieto and Assumpta Pasqual, and begins at the end of that year, the Beat Club project, a formation of 10 musicians including Raul is Túrnez, Joselin Vercher, Freddy Cabestany or Quadreny Lluis, presented at Luz de Gas, Barcelona, in November 2009. Núa currently collaborates with different formations, like the second disc Kilmara or bands like Grand Palace next to Juan Mena and start working on their first project as an artist. An album of unclassifiable mix of style where it counts with the collaboration of a variety of musicians and production of the renowned musician Danilo Pinheiro.

Mike Reed Celebrates Lost Chicago Jazz

by Peter Margasak
December 18, 2009 - It's a wonder Mike Reed has time to get behind his drum kit at all, let alone lead two of Chicago's best bands. When he's not booking indie-rock groups, dealing with agents, organizing travel or handling logistics for the city's world-famous Pitchfork Festival, Reed turns to his primary love, jazz.

While his quintet Loose Assembly plays heavily improvised contemporary music, his quartet People, Places & Things has always embraced a strong historical current.

When Reed started People, Places & Things, he was determined to pay homage to forgotten or overlooked Chicago music from six decades ago. And, indeed, the group's first album focused on tunes associated with the likes of bassist Wilbur Ware, saxophonist John Jenkins and drummer Wilbur Campbell — quintessential Chicago artists who played on classic recordings, yet never made it big. Their music was at once progressive and classic, embracing the hard-charging energy and complexity of bebop while retaining the city's trademark blues sound. Reed continues to honor that spirit with his new release, About Us.

"Big and Fine" features the big, brawny tenor sound of David Boykin, one of Chicago's most fiercely independent and sonically ferocious players. Yet, as intense and free as his music can get, he remains deeply connected to jazz's taproot. It's one of several pieces on the new album made with leading lights of Chicago's contemporary scene. After visiting the city's musical past on his debut, Reed uses the new album to focus on pieces written by group members and their guests. Another of those is written by guitarist Jeff Parker, a member of the instrumental rock band Tortoise.

From the start, Reed never wanted a repertoire band. He created dynamic new arrangements for the old nuggets that drew upon a contemporary vocabulary and emphasized intense group interplay among band members.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120890996

Tierra Negra & Muriel Anderson - New World Flamenco



NY Concert & CD Release in Highline Ballroom (Tue., Jan. 5th 8pm)
They met in a castle in Germany. Before long they were jamming together and realized there was something special happening. They wrote with new inspiration for the CD they would make together, NEW WORLD FLAMENCO. Germany's famed duo Tierra Negra and America's award-winning guitarist and harp-guitarist Muriel Anderson have found an historic combination. The joyous passion of Raughi's flamenco guitar, Leo's pulsating rhythms and Muriel's beautiful melodies merge to create music unlike any other. Joined by drummer Danny Gottlieb, bassist Mark Egan both of the original Pat Metheney Group, and powerhouse bassist Victor Wooten, flamenco nuevo has found a new world.
Tierra Negra http://www.tierranegra.de/main_en.html Bio: In the world of modern Flamenco, few artists have attained the heights of Tierra Negra. In fact, so influential are these two German guitarists that they're often cited as the protagonists of Flamenco Nuevo, the new wave. Tierra Negra may infuse their sound with elements of folklore, jazz and even pop, but the theme never strays far from the infectious rhythm and melody of Rumba-Flamenco. Leo Henrichs and Raughi Ebert, Tierra Negra's founding duo, have been performing together for over a decade, They have recorded eight albums, are featured on countless international guitar compilations and films. They have undertaken tours that have seen them alight festivals and concerts throughout Europe and North America. There is persuasiveness in the melody - an infectious groove and genuine passion in Tierra Negra's music. A TIERRA NEGRA live concert is a joyous, passionate and transforming experience for the audience - truly not to be missed.


Muriel Anderson http://www.murielanderson.com/ Bio: Widely respected as one of the world’s foremost fingerstyle guitarists and harp-guitarists, Muriel Anderson is the first woman to have won the National Fingerpicking Guitar Championship. She is host of the renowned "Muriel Anderson's ALL STAR GUITAR NIGHT®" and founder of the Music for Life Alliance charity. Muriel Anderson has released eight CD's, four DVD’s and guitar books published by Hal Leonard, Mel Bay, and Zen-On Japan. Her music can be heard in Woody Allen’s film “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” and her “Heartstrings” recording accompanied the astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery. Touring in the USA and internationally year round, Muriel’s obvious joy of music and facility across musical genres is revered by guitarists and audiences worldwide.

USA TOUR
Tue Jan 5 New York, NY Highline Ballroom
Fri Jan 8 San Fran CA Great American Music Hall
Sat Jan 9 Vallejo, CA Empress Theatre
Mon Jan 11 El Dorado CA U. Mine Theatre -Sold Out
Tue Jan 12 Exeter, CA Orange Blossom Junction
Sat Jan 16 Anaheim CA All Star Guitar Night
Thu Jan 21 Seattle WA The Triple door
Fri Jan 22 International Webcast Kulak’s Woodshed
Sun Jan 24 Whittier CA Shannon Cr for the Perf. Arts
Wed Jan 27 Peoria IL Civic Center Theatre
Thu Jan 28 Downers Grove Ministry of Hope benefit
Fri Apr 9 Lake Wales FL Bok Sanctuary
Sat Apr 10 Cincinnati OH McAuley Hall, with Phil Keaggy
Sun Apr 11 Knoxville TN Museum of Art
Mon Apr 12 Blountville TN NE State Comm College

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Emilio Solla, started studying piano at 8 in Buenos Aires....


Started studying piano at 8 in Buenos Aires, but nobody told me you never really stop studying! Otherwise, I'd have been a dentist and make lots of money with the suffering of other people. Too late now. So, where was I? Oh, yes, I went to the conservatory, classical training, then jazz, composition, moved to Spain, toured Europe, more teachers, went to Japan with Jorge Cumbo, played, and played and played, recorded with singers, wrote arrangements, taught some smart students, more teachers, wrote for a short movie and theatre pieces, coreographers took my music and put some people to dance to it, that was nice.

Too fast? ok, ok...believe me it is boring to write about yourself. why are you reading anyway? Just go to the music! If I ever had anything to say, it is all there. So, I had classical training, but what really got me was the folk music from north west of Argentina. My parents were friends with Jaime Torres, Hugo Diaz...Of course, jazz music and tango have been there since I was a teen, so there they are in what I write as well. I have been playing, arranging, recording with all styles of singers from rock to tango, from folklore to jazz since 1983.

The list is long and includes Jorge Sobral, Miguel Cantilo, Cecilia Rossetto, Marcelo San juan...After moving to Barcelona in 1996, I have travelled quite a lot playing my own music through Europe and the US in clubs, theaters and festivals...I guess my different interests and approaches to music has allowed me to live quiet a diverse life , from being guest pianist with Edimburgh Chamber Orchestra to conducting my own Tango Big Band arrangements with the Arturo O'Farrill's Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra at Lincoln Center ; to recording with Paquito D'Rivera in NY.

I have 6 CDs on my name for Fresh Sound Records. I am so thankful to whoever gave me this skill to put sounds together in a way that sometimes can touch people souls. I am thrilled now that I moved to NYC, being able to play with all these great musicians and learn more and more. If you want to book me, go to my site at emiliosolla.com for info on my two agents, depending on the group. And there are some complete bios there as well. Thanks for taking a moment to listen to what I do. The two videos here are parts of piano solos with the Tango Jazz Conspiracy at Smalls, NYC, April 2007, with Jeff Ballard, Chris Cheek, Pablo Aslan, Donny McCaslin and Victor Prieto. Below, and on the left side of the page, my European band, Afines, in a 2005 Barcelona concert.

Influences:
ariel ramírez, eduardo lagos, keith jarret, egberto gismonti, fellini, kurosawa, borges, castaneda (the writer), buenos aires, mendoza, barcelona, new york, hermeto pascoal, hernan lugano, mi mama, stravinsky, debussy, Bach (the greatest Master ever), chopin, ravel, bartok, piazzolla, rachmaninov, bill evans, brad meldhau, horacio salgán, julio cortazar, beatles, satie, kusturica, duke ellington, miles davis, john coltrane, paz sintes, manolo juárez, el grupo vocal argentino, lalo zanelli, fernando otero, luca solla, los huancahuá, susana kasakoff, paul bley, chango farías gomez, jorge cafrune, atahualpa yupanqui, kenny wheeler, dino saluzzi.

Band Members Emilio Solla & the Tango Jazz Conspiracy:
Solla, piano & compositions; Chris Cheek, saxophones; Victor Prieto, accordeon; Jorge Roeder, double bass; Richie Barshay, drums. Emilio Solla y Afines: Solla, piano & compositions; Gorka Benitez, sax and flute; Carlos Morera, bandoneon; David Gonzalez, double bass; David Xirgu, drums
http://www.myspace.com/emiliosolla

Heineken Commercial - verry funny

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Brian McCree - Changes in the Wind


CD Title: Changes in the Wind
Year: 2009
Record Label: Accurate
Style: Various Jazz Styles

Musicians:
Brian McCree (bass),
Bill Lowe (bass trombone),
Pete Moutis (drums),
Joel LaRue Smith (piano),
Salim Washington (tenor sax, flute and oboe),
Ron Murphy (vocals)


Review: Changes in the Wind is the first album as a leader for Boston Jazz veteran Brian McCree. This is an album full of swinging and soulful music. The musicians on Changes in the Wind are, Bill Lowe on bass trombone, Pete Moutis on drums, Joel LaRue Smith on piano, Salim Washington on tenor sax, flute and oboe, Ron Murphy on vocals and of course Brian McCree on bass.

The album starts with a very nice version of Nature Boy. The beautiful oboe solos played by Salim Washington gives this tune an exotic, Arabic feeling and the bass trombone match perfectly with Ron Murphy deep, bass voice. LaRue piano playing is subtle and classy, all this supported by the fantastic bass of Brian McCree. Almost everyone in the band have an original composition on this album. Soliloquy is a Brian McCree original and the melodies and piano playing reminds me at times of pianist Bob James.

On You can Fly, the melodies, chord progressions and even Washington tone on sax are reminiscent of John Coltrane. Excellent solos by Washington and LaRue. Time Out for Love is a wonderful ballad and like the title suggest, a perfect tune for a romantic evening. Everyone swings on the next tune, Lecuona’s The Breeze and I. Instinctive and courageous solos on tenor sax by Salim Washington. Smith and McCree keeps up energy with some amazing playing of their own. The Coltrane influence can be heard on this tune in the melodies and sax solos.

Blessings from Oshun starts with a classical intro and then breaks into another swinging tune with Coltrane touches. Wake up Dreamer, a Bill Lowe composition, brings a Brasil feel to the CD with nice Bossa Nova rhythms. Suggestive, funny lyrics and a wonderful interpretation by Ron Murphy on his own composition, Cookie ends up the album. A diverse, deep and interesting first Album for these talented musicians.

Tracks:
Nature Boy,
Soliloquy,
You Can Fly,
Time Out for Love,
The Breeze and I,
Blessings from Oshun,
Wake up Dreamer,
Cookie
http://jazznbossa.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2112018%3ABlogPost%3A47229&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_post

At Trumpets Jazz Club....



One of the important and original new jazz singers of the decade” - Don Heckman http://irom.wordpress.com


"Combining social consciousness and sex appeal is tough to pull off, but Charmaine Clamor manages it on her terrific recordings. She is a beautiful artist." - Barry Bassis, TOWN & COUNTRY

+ 2009 FAMAS (Filipino Oscars) Award of Merit
+ 2009 Filipinas Magazine Achievement Award in Entertainment
+ 2009 Asian Heritage Award in Performing Arts
+ Signed multi-year, multi-record deal with VIVA Records, legendary Manila pop label; Charmaine is their first and only jazz artist. Debut album, "Jazzipino," released in September to national acclaim.
+ Inked to close the 2010 Philippines International JazzFest.
+ Slated in 2010 to release two albums: Her 4th US solo project, "Something Good," and a collaboration with Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member and former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne for his highly anticipated collaboration with Fatboy Slim and 22 female guest vocalists. "Here Lies Love" about the life of Imelda Marcos, former first lady of the Philippines. Guest artists include Cyndi Lauper, Tori Amos, Nathalie Merchant, Martha Wainwright, Sharon Jones, Kate Pierson (of the B-52s) and Charmaine Clamor, who appears on Track #9, "Walk Like a Woman." Charmaine is the only Filipina -- and the only jazz singer -- on the project.

Charmaine Clamor is America’s leading Filipina jazz and world vocalist.
With two consecutive albums in the JazzWeek World Music Top-10, including the rare feat of simultaneously making Top-5 on both the World (#2 ranking) and Traditional Jazz (#4) radio charts, Charmaine has earned unprecedented praise for introducing American audiences to Filipino languages, melodies, and instruments – and for sharing a once-in-a- generation, astonishingly expressive voice.

Recognized today as “one of the important and original jazz singers of the decade” {Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times}, a “dynamic new compass point in World Music” {Christopher Loudon, Jazz Times} and “one of the finest singers to come around in a long time” {Jerry D’Souza, All About Jazz}, Charmaine Clamor began her musical journey at age 3, entertaining passengers -- whether they liked it or not! -- in the back of buses traveling to Manila. Originally from the provincial town of Subic-Zambales, Philippines, young Charmaine provided piano accompaniment while her mother sang kundiman (Filipino torch songs) and English-language classics. These childhood memories inspired Charmaine’s enduring love of American music.
For more information about Charmaine Clamor and a selection of downloadable high-resolution photos: http://www.charmaineclamor.com/

Monday, December 28, 2009

Octojazzarian Bob Dorough....

By Arnold Jay Smith
When was the first time you heard Bob Dorough? Adding new insinuations to Hoagy Carmichael’s “Baltimore Oriole”? In a rare Miles Davis vocal? Writing lyrics to Charlie Parker tunes? Doing a cameo on an all-star jazz recording of Porgy and Bess? Probably none of the above. Most likely it was the syndicated television cartoon shows Schoolhouse Rock and Multiplication Rock, which found their way into our homes, hearts, and psyches when we were a bit younger. “You could actually learn stuff from TV back then,” Dorough remarked when we finally got this thing together. We had been dodging each other in New York and the Delaware Water Gap, Pa, where he lives, since this column first breathed life. “I am so busy when I come there (NYC) that I really only have time to do my business and split,” the ultra-hip Dorough said. That business included an extended brunch series at Iridium from which a recording emanated. He also comes into town as a guest pianist or second vocalist with friends--either live, on recordings, or to just offer support. A live Birdland (the most recent incarnation) appearance and recording with fellow hipster Dave Frishberg asks the show biz question, Who’s On First? (Answer: Of course.)

After a friendship now in its 30th year [“At least,” he interjected], we tend to anticipate each other’s Q's & A's. Therein lay the problem--what do you leave out, or worse, what did you leave out?

We got right down to basics: his surname. “I pronounce it both ways, ‘Door’oh’ and ‘Dooroh’,” he began. His Arkansas family pronounces it Durrah. “There was a DJ in San Francisco who fell in love with Devil May Care [the premiere Dorough recording on Bethlehem Records]. People began telling me that they heard me on the radio calling me ‘Door oh’. Better they should know who I am and pronounce it wrong than not know me at all.” Sounds better than, “Huh?” or “Who?”

The Dorough style, while creatively standard today, was a bit, shall we say, different, 60 years ago. While he was living in Los Angeles, Dorough was championed by “the hippest DJ” there, Tommy Bee. When he moved to New York in the 1950s “the late, great” Mort Fega was the prime advocate of the Dorough style.
[Fega, who was on the air late at night and into the early brights when my radio was supposed to be off, replaced Symphony Sid Turin on WEVD. Others whom Fega consistently played were Horace Silver (“Senor Blues” with then new voice Bill Henderson), and the Miles Davis rhythm section rhythm section playing “Billy Boy.” Fega’s under-theme was “Mort’s Report,” written for him and played by Miles Davis’ pianist, Red Garland, from the Manteca LP. It was the first time I was to hear the name Ray Barretto, as he was featured on congas. Fega also produced singer Bobbi Rogers (whose initial offering was an LP of the music of poet Fran Landesman) and composer Tommy Wolf, who hipped the jazz-listening world to the cool phrase “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most.” So to get played by Mort Fega regularly was high praise indeed.]

The Dorough style does not lend itself readily to labeling. He explained. “If I’m asked by a club owner what I do, I say that I sort of sing bebop vocals. I hastily add ‘standards’ as that’s what most like to hear. If pressed I say that I’m basically a piano player who sings.”
"Cabaret" is a catchall phrase with a dedicated and devoted following. Some jazz singer-pianists have joined that milieu, as it can be lucrative, unobtrusive and harmless. However, cabaret is not often challenging. (The late Bobby Short set the standard; others who come immediately to mind include Daryl Sherman, Ronny Whyte and Barbara Carroll.) “Some jazz players did and do cabaret. I’ve been asked to join some cabaret functions,” Dorough elucidated. “And I guess it would behoove me to identify myself as cabaret, but I wouldn’t want to damage my true jazz image.” I haven’t been able to figure out if he was talking with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Actually, in the second five years of his New York sojourn, he decided he wanted to try his hand at the east side clubs. “So I bought a tux. We didn’t call it cabaret back then; we called the ‘eastside work.’” I call them the "too precious” crowd. “The trouble is, I don’t fit anywhere there.”

Case in point, a Dorough hit, “I’m Hip,” tells the tale of someone who so wants to be, so he/she offers up all the clichés of what hipness is supposed to be: dark glasses indoors, popping thumbs. My favorite line goes, “I’m so hip I call my girlfriend ‘man.’” I still do, except she’s now my wife. And she is.
"I’m a songwriter, a hip songwriter. I became a singer basically to sing my songs. They were so hip who else was going to sing them? Back in 1953-54 I wasn’t very good at promoting myself so I thought I would work on my singing. I wrote for myself [and he was lucky enough to be able play his songs]. They were written for a swinging piano player,” he said.

After three years armed forces band (see below), from 1946-49 Dorough studied at North Texas University as a composition major. The famous Lab Band had not yet been formed. “As far I know, that was the beginning of jazz education,” he noted. “We were jamming all the time. When the Lab Band became official, I wrote charts for them. Sometimes if a student was late I would sit in. You had to have practical playing experience to be in the band.” Having given up clarinet and saxophone as his primary instruments, Dorough found work in the school’s grand chorus giving him valuable vocal training. “I wasn’t a band or an orchestra player. You had to play something to be in the One O’Clock Lab Band, as it was called then.
Dorough (b. 1923, Cherry Hill, AR) began his musical life playing reed instruments. “In Texarkana [Texas] Junior High School I became the clarinetist in the band. The leader was a talented gentleman who didn’t like jazz. He gave lessons to serve his purpose, which was to have a better band. Half the year it was football music; the other half concert music.” Thanks to transcribed sheet music, Dorough got to play some “high class music.” A much hipper member of the band, the drummer, suggested they start a jazz band. It didn’t work out. “I didn’t own a saxophone,” Dorough said. “And I didn’t want the chief –that’s what we called him—to know that I was playing saxophone or jazz. [In all honesty] he was developing me into a serious clarinetist.”

Jazz just wasn’t serious enough to be taught in the late 1930s early 1940s. “I was conducting the Jr. High band when he was too busy, and writing marches for the concert band.” The first piece of sheet music the drummer ordered was “In The Mood,” very popular at the time. Dorough was high on Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. “I never did make up my mind who I liked better. I looked over the chart [of ‘In The Mood’] and saw the second tenor man got all the solos. We played it without a sax at all, just me on clarinet. It’s in the same key. It was a pretty miserable affair.”

After Texarkana came the Plainview High School Band, and then Dorough moved to Lubbock [Texas Tech], where there was in a Jack Teagarden-type combo. “Those cats could play,” he enthused. “I remember the clarinetist was Aubry Smith. The trombonist played like Teagarden and sang, too. I was majoring in band music. The band director was very good and he led me along so I learned by doing it.” Dorough eventually bought an alto and played in the dance band.
[Back-story: While at Plainview Dorough took a test, on which he scored high in music. “The teacher came to my home and told my parents that I should be in the band,” he remembered. “They were impressed. I went to the orchestra where all the clarinetists played the melody but I heard other instruments playing other things. I came home and told them I wanted to be a musician. And they said OK. I had great parents.”]

Then came the draft. “I was stationed at Camp Hulen, between Galveston and Corpus Christie. We called it the asshole of Texas. I was in an artillery unit.” A perfect place for a musician, you’d agree. His band director at Texas Tech, to whom he was still sending arrangements, happened to know the warrant officer at Camp Hulen. “The C. O. heard that I was a pretty good clarinetist. The next thing I knew I was called to bring my gear and I was out of artillery and into a band.” There was also a childhood punctured eardrum situation exacerbated by the artillery. He never saw action. Instead he was shipped to a base in California and into a special services band. “That was quite an eye-opener for me.” In the three-plus years Dorough played in that band, it was in a professional capacity. And a bonus, which was to serve him well in later years: “I got to mingle more with black musicians.”

Dorough remembered: “I always carried my clarinet in my duffle bag, but I never opened it; I was afraid all the other cats would laugh at me. Sure, you had to practice every morning at 0800. Heck, you were still in the army. There were some fine cats from the north who could write well, so I played quite a bit of tenor, alto and sometime baritone.” As there were a limited number of piano players he began to play more of it. They played some jazz work and one player introduced him to Black’s Chord Book. “You’d open it up and there were no notes just letters and slashes. I got a tenor player to teach me the melodies to go with the chords as I played them. I didn’t know much music; just what I heard on the radio, 'Body and Soul, 'Heart and Soul,' stuff like that."

Many non-piano playing musicians learn piano in order to write and arrange. They appear to be informed by the harmonic instrument and translate it to their own. Dorough pondered and hedged. “I’d like to say the piano informs the clarinet, but not in all cases. Diz[zy Gillespie] told Miles to play the piano, but he didn’t do it until he was well-established.” In a short video called A Night In Tunisia, Gillespie demonstrates how he wrote the tune, and he never puts trumpet to lips, sitting instead at his congas, and the piano.
“While the understanding of the clarinet is not enhanced by the piano, improvising on the instrument is,” Dorough explained. “You tend to ‘see’ the chords.” That coming from someone who had a half dozen lessons as a teenager. “I minored in piano at North Texas and played some Bach, a little Beethoven and Mozart. My first lessons were from a grocery store owner who had a piano in the back. She owed by father money. At that time he drove a panel truck from which he delivered bread, so she paid him back by teaching his son, me, at least for six lessons.

“Sometimes we had a piano, sometimes an organ on which my father could play a hymn or two.” As we all learn with our ears, Dorough was no different. “I was soaking it up and didn’t know it. Very primitive compared with what kids learn today. Bless Mrs. Keane’s five finger exercises and the sheet music she sent me home with from her grocery store studio.”

One of those sheets was something called ”Underneath the Harlem Moon” which contains the now racist line which reads, “that’s where darkies were born.” “Speaking of [the influence of] black people, we would go to the movies and one night there was this short starring Cab Calloway on a train doing the ‘Hi-Dee-Hi-Dee-Ho’ routine [from] ‘Minnie The Moocher.’ I just flipped out. I was about 10 and Mrs. Keane had once told me that if I can’t play the melody try to figure out the harmony. So there I was making my own pop songs.”
With some time left on the G.I. Bill and some theory and harmony from North Texas, the Arkansas-born, Texas-taught Robert Lrod Dorough - accent still intact - entered the big time: the Apple, New York City. He applied to Juilliard. “I didn’t do well on the exam, and I think I was too old for my level of achievement.” He took some private lessons from a composer whom he had met at Juilliard. Eventually he enrolled at Columbia and studied with composers Otto Luening and Jack Beeson. The problem there was that while he had a Bachelor’s in Music, “I was so intent on catching up with the music [at North Texas] that my academics suffered. I didn’t take up much besides music, with a little [music] German. [As a result at Columbia] I had to take two semesters of undergraduate work.”

A 1952 divorce and some constabulary entanglement caused Dorough to, in his words, drop out. His G.I. Bill funds had also run out at about this time. “Thanks to Dr. Luening I had gotten into the graduate division with a teaching fellowship.” But now Dorough’s patience ran out as well, and his academic career came to a crashing halt. “That’s when I became a pro,” he proudly announced. “I did a lot of things with the piano from then on. [Singer, choreographer] Geoffrey Holder brought 'Mack the Knife' to my house and asked me to arrange it for him to sing at rehearsals.” Composer Kurt Weil’s widow, Lotte Lenya, was then starring in an off-Broadway production of her late husband’s Die Drei Droschen Oper (The Three Penny Opera) and “Mack” had become a hit. “I had never even heard of it,” Dorough said. “I played it, liked it, and thought, ‘hey, I’m going to sing it too.’” The tune in its original German was called “Moritat.” Dick Hyman initially recorded it as an instrumental. The dam broke after Bobby Darin’s vocal. Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra all used it in their performances. Ernie Kovacs used the German version, called “Mackie Messer,” on his irreverent television show. (Messer = knife.)
Dorough also accompanied at Henry LeTang’s School. Dancer, choreographer LeTang ran a studio in Midtown Manhattan. Among his clients was Middleweight boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson, who learned his legendary footwork at LeTang’s. Eventually Dorough and Robinson took it on the road. “The LeTang gig was playing mostly stop time for the dancers.” He demonstrated vocally. “It paid me three-dollars-an-hour, and that covered the rent.” Bear in mind that minimum wage in the 1950s was fifty-cents-an-hour.

In the meantime –we might say mealtime – Dorough visited the Union Hall (AFM local 802) regularly and answered calls such as “need a piano who can sing, and vice versa. The usual dates followed: bars, clubs where I would play and sing stuff like ‘Up A Lazy River,’ ‘Hong Kong Blues,’ and, yes, ‘Mack the Knife,’ and no one was paying attention.”

There was the occasional Birdland off-night date, “Like everybody else who played there I had to deal with emcee Pee Wee Marquette.” Marquette was a midget who would purposely mispronounce your name unless you greased him. “But there were others who encouraged me to come up [to NYC] and stay. One was Chuck Lilly. Lilly, who was at North Texas, was the drummer at the Keyhole Club in San Antonio with Hoyt Hughes, a territory band. He told me to go to New York where he thought I would be more appreciated.

“In New York I had an upright [piano] in my apartment so we would jam at my place, but only till 10 pm. You didn’t want the police involved. We had all the Detroiters except Hank Jones come through. Max Gordon, the proprietor of the Village Vanguard [which was not yet exclusively a jazz room] asked me to come in and accompany Broadway singers prior to the jazz sets. I did that for a while, but then Max asked me for my cabaret card. [A license issued by the Police Department to play where there was liquor sold. If you had a record, no card.] That canceled that gig. I still didn’t have [the card] when I worked with Sugar Ray and a comic hoofer named Gil Scott. Scott was part of a vaudevillian troupe called Burnham, Harris & Scott who did USO shows. He was [Sugar] Ray’s tap partner and straight man. Ray got me through a gig at the French Quarter without the card, but after that [1952-54] we worked out of town.” They traveled throughout the U.S. creating headlines during an extended run in Las Vegas. “The Count Basie Band opened for Sugar so I was lucky enough to ride their band bus.” And better: “When they announced ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Sugar Ray Robinson,’ Basie got up and I sat down. It was a hot seat, man. We had some Jimmy Mundy charts and the band just swung right through ‘em.”

Other times there would be pick up bands in which Dorough would either play, or if the pianist was good enough, conduct. Sometimes they were part of Variety Shows working opposite Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines, Louis Armstrong, Basie, Eydie Gorme, the Platters, and other rock ‘n’ roll groups. “I was ready to quit when Ray announced, ‘We’re going to Paris.’ Ray wanted to bring some of us but they told him they had great musicians in Paris. Drummer-photographer Dave Pochinet got us our first gig and we died, musically. Sugar was on the stage shouting ‘faster Bob, slower Bob.’ He knew something was wrong just couldn’t figure out what. [Harmonica virtuoso] Larry Adler was on that bill; he stole the show. The rest of the tour was fine.” Dorough stayed on in Paris at the Mars Club where Blossom Dearie and Annie Ross had also headlined. “One time I played opposite pianist Art Simmons, another expatriate, who had a bass in the back. So he would take his break and come back playing bass with me.” As the Mars Club was primarily solo pianos, that gig was the first opportunity that Dorough had to do what he most wanted to do: play the piano and sing.

Dorough remembered another Parisian bon mot. “There was a Porgy and Bess tour which settled in Paris for three months,” he began. “Maya Angelou was in the dance chorus and vocal choir. Truman Capote was along. [As their chronicler; I guess he would be called a blogger today.] She came in [to the Mars Club] and I accompanied her. She sang calypso songs, which didn’t thrill me. But she said later that I had ‘ears like crystal.’ I guess she meant that my sense of harmony was good, as all I did was comp chords.” At first Maya was taken aback by Dorough’s accent. Having bad memories of her southern heritage she probably thought he was “one of those.” [A cracker?] She looked rather frightened. “But we became pals. She would roam the streets of Paris [at all hours]; I couldn’t keep up with her. She would see and stop black people asking where they came from. ‘Africa? What tribe?’ She was probably Watusi as she was so tall.” Now Dr. Angelou—and an inveterate baseball fan—Maya Angelou was Poet Laureate of the United States under Pres. Bill Clinton.

He returned home in January 1955. Charlie Parker shed his mortal coil that summer, but not his soul, which still inhabits a few of us, including Dorough. He immediately wrote lyrics to “Yardbird Suite” as a paean to the man. “We all went up to Abyssinian [Baptist Church] to view the body and attend the funeral. It was a packed house.” But not Bird’s last.

“I came back [to NYC] thinking I was hot stuff, and couldn’t get arrested (sic). [That cabaret card bullshit, again.] I did some short shots where I didn’t need the card. Someone from the Billy Shaw [Booking Agency] Office heard me and took me up to Bethlehem. And I got the record date [Devil May Care reissued as Yardbird Suite].” There was also the now-legendary Porgy that was nearing completion, but each role Dorough asked for he was confronted with, 'Oh, so-and-so’s got that."
It came down to the Crab Street Vendor. “I said that I’d take it.” A wise decision considering the heavyweights on the LP. The producer was Red Clyde, who also produced Devil May Care. “The guys became my buddies: drummer Jerry Segal and bassist Bill Takas. Bill and I became a duo which lasted until I had to move to Los Angeles due to that cabaret card business.”

As it turned out, Dorough loved the left coast. “It was 1958 and there was quite the scene there: Paul & Carla Bley, Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy. I was playing both cabaret and bebop gigs. Bill Takas came out and I got the boss [of Twelfth Knight, a club where he was playing solo] to kick in an extra $50 for him for the week. That’s where I met Tommy Wolf and [later] Miles [Davis].”

Miles asked him to sit-in with him, singing “Baltimore Oriole” from Devil May Care. That song is not one that lends itself readily to just any singer. It has a sad ironic dramatic message. It emanated from a Humphrey Bogart-Lauren Bacall movie, To Have and Have Not, which also featured the composer, Hoagy Carmichael singing his tune. If sung as written, it is a-tempo and contains a lyric you have to follow carefully; in other words, right in Dorough’s wheelhouse. It has become a signature for him. “I don’t know why; I just bonded with the song. I’d seen the movie, but that’s not the reason.” Perhaps because it’s got a southern feeling (?). “I’ve watched the movie carefully,” he noted. “And it’s never sung, only as a melody in the background. When I was in the army I had a V-Disc of Hoagy singing that and 'Hong Kong Blues,' which he did sing in the same movie. I recorded both but with my own arrangements.”

[Back story: It was Brooklyn’s own 19-year-old Bacall’s first movie - her mother was on the set - and contains one of the sexiest scenes ever. Long dirty blond hair drooping over half her face says Bacall to Bogie leaving his hotel room: “If you need me just whistle. You know how to whistle; you put your lips together and blow.” They were married not long thereafter.]

By the way, that river mentioned in the lyrics of “Baltimore,” the Tangipaho, is still un-locatable by me. Neither Hoagy, nor his son, Hoagy Bix, could tell me where it is. “It’s probably in Indiana,” Dorough said. “That’s where Hoagy was from and he just wanted it in there. And it fit, phonetically and syllable-wise." The Miles Davis meeting happened because Dorough had heard that Davis had listened to Devil several times, “so I knew I had to meet him. Why Miles singled out that song I will never know. Maybe it brought up some memory.” I don’t remember hearing a Miles Davis recording of it. Their meeting was propitious. Read on.
Back from L.A., Dorough still couldn’t get a job in the Apple, so he took one at the Mount Airy Lodge in the Poconos. “It was a hotel gig, but I couldn’t get any real jazz work,” he said. It was rock ’n’ roll time and the only jazz people working were the marquee stars. His friend Bill Takas was working at Bradley’s. “He asked me if I wanted to work there and I told him that I didn’t think they had singers in there. ‘They don’t but you can sing,’ he said. I believe I was the first singer in Bradley’s. I worked there many times, two or three weeks at time. [During that same period] I worked at the Matador in San Francisco with Bill. We had become a traveling duo: we worked cheap, traveled cheap, ate and slept cheap.”

From 1970-75 Dorough was pumping out Schoolhouse Rock, but it wasn’t until that Bradley’s gig in 1975 that the breakthrough finally happened. Bassist Ben Tucker heard him. “I owe a lot of [commercial] success to Ben Tucker," Dorough said. “I wrote lyrics to his ‘Comin’ Home Baby’ and a couple of other of his tunes. He wanted to get into advertising, so he and I started a little company. He would get the gigs and I would write the charts. We made a couple of scores, nothing big.” Tucker was also playing at the Hickory House with Marian McPartland and/or Billy Taylor, where George Newall, a major advertising executive who loved jazz, heard him. Unbeknownst to Dorough, Newall told Tucker that Newall’s boss was looking for someone to put the multiplication tables to music. They asked Dorough if he could do it. “I said, not very confidently, yeah. Evidently other composers had tried but didn’t get what Newell had in mind. Newell said that his kids could memorize the lyrics of Jimi Hendrix but not mathematics. Actually I was something of a mathematician having taken a course in [what was then referred to as] the new math at Columbia when I was doing that undergraduate work.”

Dorough spent some time on it, and came up with “Three Is A Magic Number” and a second tune, which was rejected. (My personal fav is “My Hero Zero.”) He was still doing commercials and worked with Chad Mitchell for a couple of years. “I bought my house here [in the Gap] thanks to that. I would spend my spare time in the studio working on Schoolhouse Rock and my own recordings.

Earlier Dorough was part of the first Music Minus One concept, where a rhythm section or larger ensemble would record leaving space for one instrument for students. “[MMO] was my first studio experience.” The producer was Irv Kratke (in a studio built by the same person who would later do the same for Cream drummer Ginger Baker in Lagos, Nigeria, my reedman brother Noel. That’s where Dorough and I met.) Kratke also produced one of the earliest jazz Broadway show concept albums, Oliver. The band was Dorough, Tyree Glenn, trombone, Clark Terry, trumpet, Bobby Thomas, drums and tympani, Al Schackman, guitar, and Paul Motian and Ed Shaughnessy, drums. Dorough also recorded a Gershwin collection, which introduced trombonist Bill Watrous to records.

We bounced around his moments with Miles Davis, about whom he seemed reluctant to expound. Davis had used other singers occasionally –Pancho Hagood, Brock Peters. Dorough would go to Birdland (the original) and catch Miles there. “It was the place we could almost afford,” he said. “You could nurse a beer after paying admission and sit in the Peanut Gallery. We’d see Sarah Vaughan or Duke Ellington sitting at the tables. You could get pretty close to the piano. One time I saw Duke try to speak to Bud [Powell] and Bud just stared back at him. Said nothing.”

Dorough has penned a thin tome about the experiences surrounding “Blue Xmas,” his signature recording with Davis. It’s available privately through him. “In 1962 Miles called me out of the blue and asked me to write a Christmas song for him.” (Say, what?) Dorough has recorded “Blue Xmas” no fewer than three times. Davis & Dorough also did “Nothing Like You.” “We became estranged because he was a heavy user [coke] and was constantly changing wives. He once offered to share a line in the men’s room at the Vanguard. I’m still friendly with Frances Taylor.” [Taylor’s is that beautiful face which adorns a couple of Davis’ album covers and for whom Miles wrote “Fran Dance,” based on the children’s nursery song “Put Your Little Foot Right In.”] “[During the electric period] people would come up to me and ask, ‘What the hell is he doing?’ I would reply, ‘Turn the other stuff off and just listen to him.’”

Speaking of Christmas, Dorough was working at the Iridium for three years worth of successful Sunday Brunches, even on his December birthday. He related how that world-respected gig came to a close. “One December one of the bosses called and told me to not come in till sometime in late January. I know that’s the slow period, but I gave it some thought and said that I wouldn’t be back even after that. It gave me some satisfaction. That’s no way to do business. That said, I don’t like being invisible in New York; it’s a hang up of mine. Maybe it’s the cabaret in my soul. A little singing, a little acting, a little Nat Cole, Joe Mooney, even Jack Teagarden sang, and Louis, of course. And let’s not forget Hoagy. You could see him playing at least in the movies.”
http://www.jazz.com/features-and-interviews/2009/12/27/octojazzarians-profile-bob-dorough

Anna Elizabeth Kendrick

Birthday: May 18

Anna Elizabeth Kendrick is a multi-talented artist. She acts, sings, writes & dances. Anna knew from a very young age that she wanted to be a performing artist and has pursued her goals ever since. She has studied acting, singing, and dancing as a child and beyond.

Anna Elizabeth Kendrick started taking voice lessons at 11. She began writing jazz music in her early teens, and chose to live out her dream when she moved to New York and started performing her own music and jazz standards in many various venues, such as “The Slipper Room,” “Don't Tell Mama,” “The Sidewalk Cafe,” and many more!

Anna Elizabeth Kendrick an independent jazz/blues singer/songwriter. She also has a dance song on Nikki Beach's: Summer In St. Tropez album called "Fantasy." She's performed jazz originals and standards at NYC lounges: "The Slipper Room," "Salon," "Don't Tell Mama," "The Parkside Lounge," "La Belle Epoque" and "The Sidewalk Cafe," and more. She's sung in showcases and as a guest singer with Ian Kane's "Boogie Stride players." Her first solo show 7/27/09 at the Parkside Lounge and she plans to do many more! You can hear her first published dance song "Fantasy" by viewing "anna" in friends!! She's also co-written a comedic musical with Mark Barkan called "Spandex." It's about a regular women who becomes an action-adventure super-heroine. Mark Barkan's credits include the "Banana Splits" song, "Pretty Flamingo" (which was covered by Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart) and 20 other musicals, some of which have been produced Off-Broadway. A demo of "Spandex" and script are available to those with genuine interest.

Influences
Cole Porter, Peggy Lee, Cy Coleman, Julie London, Marilyn Monroe, Billie Holiday, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Diana Ross, Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington, Mae West, Liza Minelli, Judy Garland, Elvis, Stacey Kent, Johnny Cash, Elvis.

Concert Celebrating Woody Shaw Being Re-Broadcast on NPR

By Lee Mergner
Last year, the Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT), curated by Dave Douglas, celebrated the legacy of Woody Shaw with a special concert of his music performed by Sean Jones, along with Ezana Edwards, Nick Roseboro also on trumpets, Mulgrew Miller (piano), Dwayne Burno (bass) and Musical Director Victor Lewis (drums). The event was organized by Shaw’s son, Woody Louis Armstrong Shaw III, and took place at the Jazz Standard in New York City on September 27, 2008. JazzSet/WBGO recorded the performance for broadcast on NPR. In recognition of Shaw’s recent birthday, the show will be aired again on WBGO on Sunday, Dec 27th at 6pm and Wednesday, December 30th at 6:30pm (EST). The performance will also be available by streaming at JazzSet’s page on the NPR site.
December 24, 2009 would have been Shaw’s 65th Birthday. He died on May 10, 1989 of injuries sustained in a tragic accident in the New York subway system. At the time of his death, he was one of the most acclaimed and influential trumpeters of his generation. FONT organizer Douglas said that Shaw "is now one of the most revered figures for trumpeters today." Shaw’s recordings in the late ‘70s for Columbia, including Rosewood and Stepping Stones, established his reputation as an important trumpeter, composer and bandleader. Both Miller and Lewis performed frequently with Shaw and the latter helped organize the music for this tribute performance.
 
Among Shaw’s compositions performed in the show are: “Joshua C,” “The Moontrane,” “Katrina Ballerina,” “Sweet Love of Mine” (with Woody Shaw III on drums), and “Stepping Stone.”
http://jazztimes.com/sections/news/articles/25553-concert-celebrating-woody-shaw-being-re-broadcast-on-npr

Walter Norris, born: December 27, 1931....

Classical piano studies with John H. Summers from age four and a half until eighteen. Working professionally (`44-`50) with Howard William’s 19 piece band in Little Rock; also in '49 with Bitsy Mullin's tentet. After graduating from High School, June `50, he joined Mose Allison’s Quartet but left in August `50 to serve with the U.S. Air Force in Japan and Korea.

Returning from Asia, summer of `52, he was engaged for six months with Jimmy Ford’s Quartet in Houston, Texas. In `53, he formed a trio for his nine month stay at the El Morocco in Las Vegas before moving on to Los Angeles where he worked in the quartets of Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Teddy Edwards, Zoot Sims, Howard McGhee, Buddy DeFranco, Herb Geller, Charlie Ventura; plus the quintets of Frank Rosolino-Charlie Mariano, Ornette Coleman-Don Cherry and Shorty Rodgers-Bill Holman... all during the period between '54 and '60.


Next, he journeyed to New York spending '60-'62 at the Embers and Roundtable as intermission pianist. He also joined, in '61, bassist, Hal Gaylor and guitarist, Billy Bean to record 'The Trio' for Riverside Records before accepting employment as pianist and eventually Musical Director of the New York Playboy Club from '63 until '70. During this time, he attended Manhattan School Of Music where he studied, as piano major, five and a half years with Heida Hermanns and continued further studies, privately, with pianist, Linda Kessler-Ferri of New York City.

After four years of freelancing and teaching, he joined the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra which toured throughout the United States, three times in Europe, Scandinavia twice and once in Japan. He left the Jones-Lewis Orchestra in Munich, January `76, for seven months in Scandinavia playing solo, duo with Red Mitchell, in quartet with Dexter Gordon and quintet with Red Rodney-Zoot Sims before returning to New York City, September '76, to become a member of Charles Mingus` Quintet.

In January '77, he signed a five year contract with the Sender Freies Berlin Radio Orchestra establishing residence in Berlin, Germany. He joined the faculty of Hochschule der Künste as Guest-Professor for Piano Improvisation in April '84 and continued through February '94. Also throughout this period, he performed concerts each year in New York and California where in '90 he accepted a five- year recording contract with Concord Jazz, Inc. He toured Japan in '94 with the Fujitsu-Concord “Jazz Summit” Festival. In addition to becoming a Steinway Artist in '95, he was selected for Arkansas' Hall Of Fame by the Jazz Heritage Foundation. In August '98, he formed Sunburst Recordings, Inc. In 2003, he was inducted into Arkansas' Entertainer's Hall of Fame.

The Life and Work of Walter Norris, a filmed documentary produced by Chuck Dodson of Hot Springs, Arkansas and made in 2004. By 2005 an autobiography, “In Search of Musical Perfection” plus a method book, “Essentials for Pianist Improvisers” was completed.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=9910

Lorenzo Sanguedolce & Michael Bisio - Live At The Yippie

Live At The Yippie is part of a performance by tenor saxophonist Lorenzo Sanguedolce and bassist Michael Bisio, with two tracks clocking right under 20 minutes each, the regular time constraint of a vinyl LP. Sanguedolce is possibly best known, if at all, from his Sweetblood Quintet, a name which is the English translation of his Italian family name.

The first piece, "'Stract (part 1), brings a lyrical, free boppish improvisation with bluesy inclinations, quite accessible overall, all within the same idiom and style without too many digressions. The second part, "'Stract (part 2)", is more varied, a little more daring, with more space for Bisio to solo. Technically this is all very good, also the interplay between sax and bass. Musically, Sanguedolce is still looking for his unique position, that piece of creative fingerprint that will set him apart from many other saxophonists, and that will give us, listeners, new experiences. As of now, we can only congratulate NoBusiness for giving a chance to produce an album to this promising new voice.
http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com/2009/12/lorenzo-sanguedolce-michael-bisio-live.html

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Eumir Deodato - St.Luis Blues & Super Strut (performance in TV show "Punto e Basta" 1975)

The Fastest Piano Player In The World?

For Hip Hop Week I was asked to perform at Fordham University first this gig, with an excellent piano player, Benard Valentin invited me, and after this perfomance I was invited back for Hip Hop week, where I performed as well. That footge coming soon. I had a great time, this guy was phenonmonal.

Marian Petrescu On Piano Jazz

by Grant Jackson
December 25, 2009 - This week, Romanian pianist Marian Petrescu makes his Piano Jazz debut with guest host Renee Rosnes. The fleet-fingered Petrescu has been performing in Europe since he was a teenager. Petrescu makes a grand entrance with Oscar Peterson's "A Little Jazz Exercise." It's quite a workout, and there's nothing little about this tune as Petrescu flies through it. He continues the session with another challenging Peterson number, "Cakewalk."

Next, Petrescu and Rosnes switch gears for a duet on the Rodgers and Hart ballad "My Romance." The tune swings gently, and Petrescu's dynamic right hand keeps things lively. Rosnes follows with her solo version of Gordon Jenkins' famed tune, the melancholy "Goodbye." The two pianists perform another duet in "Yours Is My Heart Alone," by Franz Lehar. Petrescu and Rosnes maintain a quick tempo through the entire piece. At the end, Rosnes exclaims, "Well that was a lot of notes!" To which Petrescu replies, "Yes, but in the right places."

Then, Petrescu displays his wide command of harmonies in a touching rendition of "Body and Soul." He credits Bill Evans and Rachmaninoff as primary influences. "Bill Evans is the greatest jazz harmonist," he says. "And of course, Sergei Rachmaninoff –- the giant chords and the octaves, with those big hands. He is my favorite." Petrescu closes this Piano Jazz session in tribute to that other giant of swift, technically brilliant piano — Art Tatum — with a solo rendition of "(Back Home Again In) Indiana."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121880300&sc=nl&cc=jn-20091227

Anke Helfrich


Biography
sept. 2009 Concerts in Southafrika and Namibia with Anke Helfrich Trio (supported by Goetheinstitut and Federal Foreign Office)
july 2009 teaching at the Jazzworkshop in Meran/l; Anke Helfrich Trio plays at Aarhus Jazzfestival/DK
may 2009 Anke Helfrich Trio plays on Jazzcruise in Spain
march 2009 Anke Helfrich Trio invited to "BMW World Jazz Award" in Munich; Nils Landgren Projekt "Respect" Jazzfestival
jan./feb. 2009 JazzToDay -Tour: 14 Doublebillconcerts with Anke Helfrich Trio/Manu Katché Band (Kammermusiksaal/Philharmonie Berlin, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Theaterhaus Stuttgart a.m.m.) Anke Helfrich plays concerts in Mallorca/Spain
nov. 2008 Jazzfestival Cagliari/I; Mariann’s Jazzroom Bern/CH, Jazz in Ministergärten/Berlin
sept. 2008 Recording the CD “Stormproof“ for ENJA Records with Henning Sieverts (b), Dejan Terzic (dr) and specialguest Nils Wogram (pos); Anke Helfrich Trio Musikfest Bremen/Spiekeroog
july 2008 Jazzfestival Bingen, Jazzfestival Ettlingen and Flims-Klang-Festival/CH with Anke Helfrich Trio; Jahrhunderthalle Bochum “Paul Kuhn-Geburtstagskonzert“
april 2008 German Jazzmeeting Bremen: Anke Helfrich Trio represents (among 9 other bands) the German Jazzscene today
march 2008 Anke Helfrich Trio plays at Kurt-Weill-Festival, Dessau and Brestonias Jazzfestival/Lithuania (supported by Goetheinstitut)
dez. 2007 Penang Jazzfestival/Malaysia, Cagliari/Sardegna with Anke Helfrich Trio
sept. 2007 with Jens Winther Quartet in Peking/China supported by the danish Cultural Institut; Jazzfestival Viersen with Anke Helfrich Trio feat .J.Winther
juli 2007 Jazz im Park/Hamburg Anke Helfrich Trio (a.o. Madeleine Peyroux&Band, Reunion feat. Till Bröner, Wolfgang Haffner&Band)
june 2007 Solokoncerts NDR/Hamburg, Philharmonie/Luxemburg
may 2007 Anke Helfrich playing at the finals of the “M.L.Williams Competition“ in Washington DC/USA
march 2007 Jazzfestival Emsdetten, BR-liverecording Anke Helfrich Trio concerts with specialguests like Nils Wogram, Jens Winther and Claus Stötter
june 2006 on number 3 of the German Jazzcharts with the CD “Better times ahead“. proposed for "German recordaward"
may 2006 Release of the CD "Better times ahead" Anke Helfrich Trio feat. Roy Hargrove, CD Releasekoncerts in Germany and Switzerland, radiopresentations and reviews in all jazzmagazins.
nov. 2005 CD-recording "Better times ahead" with Anke Helfrich Trio: Martin Gjakonovski (bass), Dejan Terzic (drums) and Specialguest Roy Hargrove (trumpet & fluegelhorn)
sept. 2005 A.H.Trio in Cagliari/Italy
may 2005 Balticum Jazzcruise with Witchcraft, Paul Kuhn, Dave Glasser, Gianni Basso, Roman Schwaller, Ack van Rooyen a.o.
feb. 2005 concert with Jimmy Woode in Weinheim; music for the film “Föhr.Insel.Mosaik” from Michael Steuer with Martin Gjakonovski and Dejan Terzic.
july 2004 soloconcert at the Beethovenhouse in Bonn, A.Helfrich Trio at Jazzbaltica
april 2004 Mediterranean Sea-Jazzcruise with Witchcraft, D.Goykovich, Paul Kuhn, Charlie Antolini, Jiggs Wiggham a.o.
march 2004 CD recording with Witchcraft in Weinheim, and with Barbara Jungfer in Berlin
nov. 2003 Anke Helfrich receives “Jazzaward of the city of Worms”
march 2003 Anke Helfrich Trio opens the Jazzfestival in Sofia/Bulgaria
nov. 2002 part of the “Jazz Lexikon“ ( Martin Kunzler, rororo-Verlag)
march 2002 tour through Germany (Jazzfestival Mannheim, Jazzfestival Emsdetten..)
dec. 2001 Anke Helfrich receives 2. price “Jazzaward Baden-Württemberg“, radiorecording at the Theaterhaus Stuttgart.
nov. 2001 concert "Anke Helfrich Trio" in Cagliari/ Sardenia
march 2001 radioportrait in HR1; tv-liverecording at RNF, CD-presentationtour in Germany
feb. 2001 broadcast of a TV-special about Anke with interviews, rehearsals, concerts called SWR3 - "Kultur-Cafe"
sept. 2000 release of her debutalbum "You'll See"; CD-presentations in radiostations: BR, Radio Bremen, Deutschlandradio Berlin, HR, WDR, MDR, SWR für den proposed for the award of “german recordcritics“ (Vierteljahrspreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik").
feb. 2000 Anke Helfrich receives “Muddy's Club-Award 2000” in Weinheim.
1999 recordingsession for her first album as a leader "You`ll see" in New York: A. Helfrich (p), J. Weidenmueller (b), J, Rueckert (dr), feat. Mark Turner (sax)
1999-2004 member of Jürgen Seefelder Quartett
since 1999 member of the faculty at the “University of music and performing arts” in Mannheim. Teacher at jazzworkshops.
sept. 1998 Anke Helfrich Trio wins “Hennessy Jazz Search 1998” in Munich
1997-2002 Jazzpianoteacher musicschool Viernheim.
1997 touring Germany and Spain with her trio (Getxo Festival, Jamboree Barcelona, Subway Cologne, Hessen Jazz Festival)
1996 Anke Helfrich Trio wins "European Jazz Competition" in Leverkusen.
1996 6 month-stay in New York with a dutch scholarship, lessons with Kenny Barron, Larry Goldings, Dado Moroni a.o. Concerts in clubs and cafés.
1994-1996 concerts with C. Breuer-Fee Claasen Quintett and Saskia Laroo´s Color (North Sea Jazz Festival, Jamboree Barcelona, radio and tv-productions. ).
1994 4 week workshop in Banff/Canada (with Jim Hall, Kenny Wheeler, John Clayton, Robin Eubanks..)
1993 three week engagement “Anke Helfrich Trio“ in Istanbul/Turkey (feat. Carolyn Breuer and Özay)

CD releases:
- Anke Helfrich: “Stormproof“ feat. Nils Wogram (2009)
- Anke Helfrich Trio feat. Roy Hargrove: “Better times ahead” (2006)
- Barbara Jungfer Quintett: “Berlin Spirits” (2004)
- Witchcraft: “Witchcraft live” (2004)
- Anke Helfrich Trio feat. Mark Turner: "You`ll see" (2000)
- Christian Eckert Quartet: "Up "(1998)
- Jens Bunge: "With all my heart "(1996)
- Christian Eckert Quartet: "Musing"(1995)

Played With:
Johnny Griffin, Jimmy Woode, Benny Bailey, Roy Hargrove, Tony Lakatos, Johannes Enders, Gianni Basso, Dave Glasser, Jens Winther, John Marshall, Thomas Stabenow, Thomas Heidepriem, Stacy Rowles, Jürgen Seefelder, Keith Copeland, Thomas Bramerie, Mark Turner, Johannes Weidenmueller, Jochen Rueckert, Wolfgang Haffner, Christian von Kaphengst, Martin Gjakonovski, Dejan Terzic u.a.

Live On Tour 2010
26. März 2010 Germering Stadthalle, (A.Helfrich Trio)
27. Februar 2010 t.b.a. (A.Helfrich Trio)
26. Februar 2010 Singen Gems, (A.Helfrich Trio)
22. Februar 2010 t.b.a. (A.Helfrich Trio)
21. Februar 2010 Luzern/CH Casino, (A.Helfrich Trio)
20. Februar 2010 Stuttgart Bix, (A.Helfrich Trio)
19. Februar 2010 Mannheim Matthäuskirche, (A.Helfrich Trio)
13. Februar 2010 Bad Salzhausen Parksaal, (A.Helfrich Trio)
12. Februar 2010 Ettlingen Birdland, (A.Helfrich Trio)

Esperanza Spalding

Watching some jazz musicians play live, you're made acutely aware of the intense effort that goes into their performance. Conveying a non-verbal message that roughly translates as “this shit is really hard, you know”, tell-tale signs include the pained rictus of deep concentration, the sotto voce grunts, groans and exhalations, and the self-communing, head-down-to-the-floor mode adopted for solos of five minutes or longer.

Observing Esperanza Spalding's sunny disposition in the hallowed confines of Ronnie Scott's, on the other hand, you get the impression that she's barely breaking a sweat. What she's actually doing is carving out bone-shakingly funky bass lines, singing some of the most circuitous melodic lines you're likely to hear, and quietly grooving along to the music. This is like patting your head, rubbing your stomach and Morris dancing all at the same time, only about a million times harder.

Encouraged by her mother, Spalding began playing violin at age five, switching to bass a decade later. In 2005, aged just 20, she began teaching at Boston's Berklee College of Music, making her one of its youngest ever faculty members. The time scale almost defies belief. The Portland-born, Texas-based 25-yearold has already worked with some of the greatest names in jazz, including pianist Michel Camilo, guitarist Pat Metheny and sax player Joe Lovano.

Backed by her regular pianist Leo Genovese and drummer Lynden Rochelle, Spalding's wide-ranging set referenced everything from funk and hip-hop to Brazilian and Afro-Cuban rhythms. Whether deconstructing a standard (“Autumn Leaves”), reinventing a pop song (Stevie Wonder's “I Can't Help It”) or performing her own material (“Precious”), Spalding's playful virtuosity and boldly individual arrangements were utterly compelling. Despite the trio format, the textural range was vast, due mainly to the bank of keyboards which surrounded Genovese.

Switching at will from glassy Fender Rhodes to organ stabs to cascading torrents of notes on the grand piano, his seductive palette of sound was at times reminiscent of the great Joe Zawinul. But it was Spalding that you were constantly drawn to, conjuring up contrapuntal feats between voice and bass of such incredible dexterity - and with such sweetness and strength – that if you closed your eyes for a second you'd swear you were listening to a quartet.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Guitarist for Janis Joplin's Big Brother band dies

By JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press – Thu Dec 24, 3:52 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – James Gurley, the innovative guitarist who helped shape psychedelic rock's multilayered, sometimes thundering sounds as a member of Big Brother and the Holding Company, the band that propelled Janis Joplin to fame, has died of a heart attack. He was 69. Gurley was pronounced dead Sunday at a Palm Springs hospital, two days before his 70th birthday, the band announced on its Web site.

One of many prominent guitarists to emerge from San Francisco's psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s — others included the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia, Jefferson Airplane's Jorma Kaukonen and Barry Melton of Country Joe and the Fish — Gurley was hailed by many as the original innovator of the sound. "I would say all of my guitar-playing contemporaries strived to have their own sound, but I think James was a huge influence on all of us because he wasn't afraid to break the boundaries of conventional music," Melton said Thursday. "What one thinks of that genre of music is that place that it takes you to where the beat is just assumed and the whole thing is transported to another place, and James is the guy who started that."

Doing things like using an electric vibrator as a slide on his guitar, and picking up amplifiers and shaking them during performances, Gurley created a loud, esoteric sound that was the driving force behind Joplin's voice on such classic songs as "Ball and Chain," "Piece of My Heart" and "Summertime." "Some of the innovations were the result of the fact he came from kind of a progressive bluegrass school of music where weirdness was encouraged," said Peter Albin, the group's bass player.

One of the few rock guitarists to use finger picks rather than a flat pick, Gurley had taught himself to play by listening to old Lightnin' Hopkins blues records as a teenager. He was playing acoustic guitar in a coffee house in San Francisco in 1965 when legendary counterculture figure Chet Helms, founder of the Family Dog commune, introduced him to the other band members. Although Joplin would become the public face of the band when she joined in 1966, Albin recalled Gurley as being the true force of nature who introduced the other members to alternative lifestyles, psychedelic drugs and musical innovation.

"He was very influential to the whole band early on, and even later, just by being a guy who had strange tastes and played guitar in a very bizarre manner," Albin told The Associated Press. When he first met Gurley, Albin said, the guitarist was living in a walk-in closet with his wife and young son and told him that before that he'd lived in a cardboard house along the California coast and with indigenous people in the mountains of Mexico, where he had taken part in hallucinogenic religious ceremonies. After Joplin left Big Brother in 1968, the group disbanded but has since reformed and continues to perform to this day. Gurley, however, left for good in the late 1990s after a falling out with the other members.

Born in Detroit in 1939, Gurley was the son of a stunt-car driver and, according to the band's Web site, would sometimes perform as a "human hood ornament" when his father drove a car through a flaming plywood wall. After leaving Big Brother, he lived quietly in Palm Desert, occasionally working on solo projects. He released the album "Pipe Dreams" in 2000. He is survived by his wife, Margaret, and sons Hongo and Django.
Band members plan to hold a memorial sometime next month in San Francisco.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091224/ap_en_ot/us_obit_james_gurley