The 16th European Jazz Festival will be held in the western province of İzmir from March 2 to 13.
Accompanied by the İstanbul Superband, two-time Grammy award-winner Dee Dee Bridgewater will give the opening concert at the Ahmed Adnan Saygun Concert Hall on March 2.
Some of the distinguished musicians joining this year's festival are Eleftheria Arvanitaki of Greece, Siena Jazz Quartet, Manu Vodjia Trio, Matthias Schriefl and Ulrich Drechsler Trio.
Meanwhile, a seminar "the Legendary of Charles Mingus" will take place with leading jazz historian and journalist Francesco Martinelli as speaker.
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=168068
Friday, February 27, 2009
16th European Jazz Festival to begin in İzmir....
Bruce Barth Quintet, Sometime then and Again, and More....
After a couple of very busy weeks, it looks like there's a bit of a post-Mardi Gras lull with regard to jazz and creative music in St. Louis, at least in terms of the number of shows this weekend.
Still, in addition to the various ongoing weekly gigs by local musicians (which you can find listed on the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar), there are a few other noteworthy events happening over the next few days, starting with three nights of performances by the Bruce Barth Quintet.
Barth (pictured) and his group, which also features the well-regarded trumpeter Terell Stafford, have been in town since Monday for an educational residency under the auspices of Jazz St. Louis. Tonight, they'll play at The Gramophone as part of a Young Friends of Jazz St. Louis benefit for JSL's educational programs, an event that also will include an opening set from the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars student ensemble. Then on Friday and Saturday, Barth and band will be at Jazz at the Bistro, where they'll play the customary two shows each night. For more on this versatile pianist and some video samples of his playing, see this post from last Saturday.
Also this evening, the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University will present a free concert by Sometime Then and Again, a quartet featuring a couple of well-known local musicians, guitarist William Lenihan and saxophonist Dave Stone. Though Lenihan and Stone are both known quantities, this particular configuration seems to be a comparatively recent development, and Wash U. hasn't provided a lot of information about what sort of music they'll be playing. Given Stone and Lenihan's respective ranges of experience, it could be anything from completely composed music to totally free improv, but, considering the known level of talent there, the gig seems worth checking out regardless.
On Friday, you can catch some Latin jazz at Brandt's courtesy of Clave De Sol, featuring Farshid Etniko on guitar plus the pianist Phil Gomez, an interesting and accomplished player I've always liked for his ability to consistently do the unexpected. And on Sunday night, the crowd-pleasing soul/jazz/funk band Good 4 the Soul plays the early shift at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups.
UPDATE, 2:30 p.m. 2/26/09 - Two more events worth mentioning, gleaned from late night/early morning emails: My esteemed colleague Terry Perkins dropped a note to say that trumpeter and East St. Louis expat Russell Gunn will be in the backup band for pop/R&B singer Ne-Yo's concert at the Fox Theatre on Sunday. I don't know how much solo space there is for Gunn in the show - probably not that much, I'd suspect - but he's doing the entire tour with Ne-Yo and presumably making some nice money in the process.
Also, the SIU-Edwardsville jazz program will present its annual concert Tuesday night at The Sheldon, featuring the University's big band and vocal jazz ensembles as well as appearances from faculty members and alumni including Rick Haydon, Reggie Thomas, Jason Swagler, Miles Vandiver, Andy Tichenor, Brett and Kim Stamps, Bennett Wood and Zeb Briskovich. The program will include two compositions from Brett Stamps, “Cajun Cookin'" and “Let's Samba," as well as Thomas' arrangements for the vocal jazz ensemble on “Revelation" (done in the style of Take 6), Lambert, Hendricks and Ross' “Centerpiece" and “Smilin' Faces."
Of course, as mentioned above, these are just a few select highlights of the weekend's musical offerings. For more jazz-related events this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar. As usually happens at the beginning of a month, there will be a series of updates to the Calendar over the next several days as band and club information trickles and/or straggles in, so stay tuned.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=30892
Terrell Stafford Quintet
Terrell Stafford on Trumpet, Tim Warfield on sax, Bruce Barth on bass, Phil Palombi on bass, and Dana Hall on drums 2/28/08 at the Dakota in Minneapolis/ See part two here www.youtube.com/watch?v=A...
Diana Krall Included as Special Guest to Stevie Wonder's White House Event
Diana Krall was recently included in Stevie Wonder's White House event as a special guest. President Barack Obama was present yesterday at the event to award Stevie Wonder with the Second Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Diana's participation at the ceremony will be broadcast on the new PBS Live at the White House series.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=30890
Playboy Jazz Fest Announces Lineup....
Quincy Jones had a twofold purpose in taking the podium at Wednesday's announcement of the 31st annual Playboy Jazz Festival.
First he continued his advocacy for a secretary of the arts Cabinet position; second he introduced 23-year-old Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez, whom he has taken under his wing over the past few years.
Rodriguez, who performed two tunes at the Playboy Mansion Wednesday, will make his highest profile appearance since defecting to the U.S. last year on the festival's second day, June 14. Jones first heard Rodriguez, a composer for Cuban TV programs, in 2006 at the Montreux Jazz Festival.
Rodriguez is on a bill headlined by the Wayne Shorter Quartet and featuring Kenny G, Patti Austin, King Sunny Ade from Nigeria, the Dave Holland Big Band, Monty Alexander's reggae project Jazz and Roots, Oscar Hernandez and the Conga Room All- Stars and the Anat Cohen Quartet.
Cohen also will perform Saturday in the band hand-picked by emcee Bill Cosby, which this year features Dwayne Burno, Ndugu Chancler, Luis Conte, Tanya Darby and Geoff Keezer. The Neville Brothers will headline the June 13 show, which includes a “Kind of Blue @ 50" band led by drummer Jimmy Cobb, the Jon Faddis Quartet, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, bassist-singer Esperanza Spalding and the New Birth Brass Band. Longtime Southern California bandleader and trumpeter Jack Sheldon will make his festival debut with his orchestra; the Pete Escovedo Orchestra is also on the bill.
The concerts are held at the Hollywood Bowl.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118000598.html?categoryid=16&cs=1
Basin Street Blues
Lino Patruno Jazz Show
Alberto Collatina (trombone), Lino Patruno (guitar and leader), Adriano Urso Michael Supnick (cornet), Lino Patruno (guitar and leader), Adriano Urso (piano), Guido Giacomini (bass), Gianluca Perasole (drums).
Phil Aaron at AQ Jazz Piano Showcase
Phil Aaron at the 3rd Annual Bobby Peterson Memorial Jazz Piano Showcase at the Artists Quarter with Adam Linz on Bass and Kenny Horst on Drums.
Blue Note's Magnificent 7....
Blue Note Records' 70th Anniversary was the catalyst for the Blue Note 7, a septet featuring some of our best musicians (Nicholas Payton, Steve Wilson, Ravi Coltrane, Bill Charlap, Peter Washington and Lewis Nash) playing new workings of the classic repertoire. The band recorded an album, Mosaic, and then started touring.
I caught up with them in Tucson, where they ended the first leg of a nearly six month schedule that will bring their music all over the US. Like any working group, the musical interplay gathers momentum the longer they stay together. Sadly, working bands on extended tours are something of a rarity these days. Group chemistry doesn't happen in an instant, its an organic process that must be nurtured.
Before their Tucson concert, the group allowed me to film them performing Steve Wilson's arrangement of Thelonious Monk's Criss Cross. I've shot other groups playing music, but this is really the first time I was able to get right up on the stage, in their faces, and feel like I was part of the music.
In addition to my moving camera, I used a stationary camera for a wide shot. Each musician took one chorus, and like the true professionals they are, each was able to infuse that one chorus with some serious musical intensity. This is my best performance video to date, and I look forward to working with other musicians in this intimate, exciting way. Many thanks to the Blue Note 7 for their remarkable performance, and cooperation and to their Road Manager and Ace Soundman Richard Battaglia.
The Jazz Video Guy Newsletter
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Claudio Roditi....
Born: May 28, 1946
This Brazilian composer/arranger and trumpet artist has fourteen critically acclaimed albums, a Grammy nomination, and a busy international touring schedule that includes the most prestigious jazz festivals in the world.
Claudio Roditi was born May 28th, 1946 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He began his musical studies when he was just five years old. His native Brazilian music upbringing almost took a back seat as he became enamoured with jazz and heard recordings of Louis Armstrong, Harry James and other American trumpeters. By the time he was 13, thanks to an American uncle's record collection; he became familiar with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. At the age of twenty, he was named a finalist in the International Jazz Competition in Vienna, and the following year, moved to Mexico City where he was active on the contemporary music scene. He relocated to Boston in 1970 and studied at the Berklee School of Music in 1970 and 71. Later he joined the faculty of the School of Contemporary Music and rounded out his schedule with club and concert performances.
In 1976 Roditi moved to New York from Boston and began the arduous process of establishing himself in the highly competitive atmosphere of the world's jazz capital. He quickly broke into the local circuit, performing and recording with Joe Henderson, Charlie Rouse, Herbie Mann, Tito Puente, McCoy Tyner, and Paquito D'Rivera.
Subsequent albums under his own name have been in the Jazz idiom but his Brazilian musical roots often emerge. A selection of favorite albums by Claudio must include: Gemini Man, (1988) Slow Fire, (1989) Two Of Swords, (1991) Milestones, (1992) On The Run, (1993) Free Wheelin’, Samba-Manhattan Style, (1995) Claudio Roditi with the Metropole Orchestra, Jazz Turns Samba, (1996), Double Standards, Mind Games Live, Claudio, Rio & Friends. (1997) His solo work Symphonic Bossa Nova, with Ettore Stratta and the Royal Philharmonic earned Roditi a Grammy nomination in 1995.
He has recorded exclusively for the German Nagel Heyer label since 2004 and has produced some very fine albums as; Light in the Dark, (2004) Three for One, (2004) Reflections, (2005) and Smile, in 2006.
A strikingly proficient technician, Roditi brings enormous zest and fire to his playing. Claudio integrates post-bop elements and Brazilian rhythmic concepts with ease and plays with power and lyricism. This versatility keeps him in demand as a leader, a studio musician and a sideman. His eclecticism was put to good use during his work with the United Nations Orchestra, a band originating through Dizzy Gillespie. He has also worked with Slide Hampton’s Jazz Masters. Roditi will continue to blend the two musical forms he loves. As he describes himself; “I am a Gemini. I was born in one country and live in another but I love them both - and both kinds of music, too.”
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=3876
PJ Parker’s....
PJ Parker’s third release, Dreams Are Meant For Two, is an emotional collection of original and classic standards, including her own title track, plus “Black Coffee,” “Moonglow,” “Angel Eyes,” her own “So What Do You Say?” and “Love’s A Logistical Thing,” plus nine others.
Jazz fans across the United States and in far-flung places such as South Africa are enjoying “Dreams” on their local jazz stations, and the collection has earned early praise.
Andrea Canter of JazzPolice.com called the title track, which was penned by PJ to music written by her late father, “stunning.”
“With Dreams Are Meant for Two, PJ Parker has issued a definitive statement of intent: to challenge the heart, to unlock memories, to reinvent the familiar, to entertain. And to do so on her own terms, with her own voice,” Canter writes.
Canter says PJ's original songs “suggest PJ Parker has the potential to be a significant songwriter.”
“Dreams Are Meant For Two” Track Listing:
1. Moonglow
2. Angel Eyes
3. Long Ago (And Far Away)
4. Then I'll Be Tired Of You
5. Black Coffee
6. Old Devil Moon
7. So What Do You Say?
8. Let's Fall In Love
9. Until It's Time For You To Go/If You Go Away
10. Love Me Or Leave Me
11. The Song Is You
12. In Passing Years
13. In The Wee Small Hours
14. Love's A Logistical Thing
15. Dreams Are Meant For Two
Dreams Are Meant For Two, as a melody, remained virtually undiscovered for over 50 years until two weeks prior to this recording.
According to PJ, “I was somehow drawn to a lone manuscript, nestled amongst my Dad’s beloved sheet music, carefully stored in his piano bench. He had signed it, labeled it ‘PIANO’ and composed it entirely in pencil. There were no lyrics.” She brought it to her pianist, Vinnie Ruggieri. After an emotional rendering of this lovely melody, they both agreed that if PJ could write lyrics, the song should be included in this recording. She did so, somehow sensing that her father had written the melody for her mother, before they were married, which indeed turned out to be true.
“The lyrics seemed to write themselves; a simple love song written by a man who had finally found the love of his life.” And when PJ and Vinnie recorded it, just piano and voice, the last song of the session, it was in the wee small hour of June 17, the anniversary of the wedding of Thomas and Gloria Parker. In their honor and celebration the collection is entitled, Dreams Are Meant For Two.
Parts of the original manuscript page have been reproduced on the actual compact disc and background tray.
Featured with PJ on Dreams Are Meant For Two are the stellar musicians Vinnie Ruggieri on piano; Earl Sauls on bass, Tim Horner on drums, Coleman Mellett on guitar and Joel Frahm on tenor and soprano saxophone.
A native New Yorker, PJ Parker has been performing live since she was five years old. After graduating from New York University, PJ toured with various show bands throughout the US and Caribbean.
She has performed in concerts, dinner theater, summer stock, regional theater and musical revues, and has also been the featured vocalist with orchestras and bands from Atlantic City to New York City. As a jazz vocalist, PJ has performed with such artists as Jerry Bruno, Roy Cumming, Steve Gilmore, Harry Leahy, Keith MacDonald, Gary Mazzaroppi, Geary Moore, Rich Reiter and Radam Schwartz. She has also been the featured vocalist for opening act bands for John Pizzarelli and Harry Connick Jr., and appeared in the annual Philadelphia Variety Club Telethon with Ben Vereen and Maureen McGovern.
PJ’s first CD, Intimate, features her unique renditions of selections from the Great American Songbook and her It’s Christmas CD debuted her own “Not Beneath the Tree” amid a mix of traditional and contemporary Christmas songs.
Both CDs received airplay on radio stations across the country.
Reviewers throughout the U.S. and Europe have embraced PJ. Scott Yanow of L.A. Jazz Scene writes, “PJ has a very musical voice and her singing is full of honest emotions and subtle improvising.”
Larry Taylor of JazzReview.com writes, “...[Parker] is in command, slowly drawing the listener in with an attitude of majestic surrender.”
Andrea Canter of JazzPolice.com said PJ Parker “rises above the sea of promising vocalists as a true jazz singer who warrants serious attention … PJ makes every note and phrase a personal experiment.”
Michel Bedin of Jazz Hot, Paris, France, writes, “Intimate is a beautiful example of real jazz in the United States.”
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=14214
Wynton Marsalis to Release New Album
On March 24, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, trumpeter and bandleader Wynton Marsalis will release his fifth Blue Note recording, He and She – an ambitious new album of 22 tracks that combines spoken word and Wynton’s signature Jazz style.
The album is tempered with flashes of humor and plenty of swing centered around the compelling and most elemental of subjects, the relationship between a man and a woman.
Before heading into the studio, the Wynton Marsalis Quintet traveled to the Iron Horse in North Hampton, MA to perform the new material in front of a live audience. The quintet subsequently cut the tracks live over a two-day period. The minimally edited result became He and She.
Marsalis ended his last Blue Note studio album, From the Plantation to the Penitentiary, with a stunning spoken word piece, though on He and She, Marsalis’s voice is more prominent throughout, prefacing just about every track with his poetic words.
He And She is due out March 24th on Blue Note Records.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=30886
Pylon Guitarist Randy Bewley Dies After Heart Attack
Bewley was driving on Monday (Feb. 23) when his van drifted off the road and tipped over, according to an email circulated by bandmate Vanessa Hay.
Pylon was formed in 1979 by University of Georgia art students Bewley, bassist Michael Lachowski, drummer Curtis Crowe and Hay - then Vanessa Briscoe - on vocals. The group was part of Athens' art oriented dance party scene that also included groups like the B-52's and R.E.M., each of which have often cited Pylon as a favorite and influence.
Pylon released four albums and toured with Gang of Four, Mission of Burma, the Talking Heads and U2 before disbanding in 1983. The group reunited in 1989 to tour with R.E.M. on the “Green" tour, released a new album the following year, and have played sporadic gigs ever since.
Obamas honor Stevie Wonder at White House....
President Barack Obama on Wednesday thanked musician Stevie Wonder for creating “a style that’s uniquely American” as he presented the singer-songwriter the nation’s highest award for pop music.
Obama, who called Wonder the soundtrack of his youth, gave the star the Library of Congress’ Gershwin Prize for Popular Song during an East Room tribute that featured Tony Bennett, Martina McBride and Wonder himself. The president joked that the group was “the most accomplished Stevie Wonder cover band in history.”
Wonder was emotional at times, thanking Obama for the award and reflecting on what his election as the first black president means to the United States.
“What is truly exciting for me today is that we truly have lived to see a time and a space where America has a chance to again live up to the greatness that it deserves to be seen and known as, through the love and caring and the commitment of a president — as in our president, Barack Obama,” he said.
Wonder cited Martin Luther King Jr., his faith and his mother during an acceptance speech that flowed into a set of Obama’s favorite songs. The Grammy-winning musician — he has 25 of the awards — joked that he looked forward to writing more love songs — perhaps a soundtrack for “you know, maybe I’ll be a part of creating some more of those babies.”
Obama praised Wonder’s decades-long career and a style that has blended pop and funk, R&B and gospel.
“Stevie has always drawn on the incredible range of traditions in his music and, from that, he’s created a style that’s at once uniquely American, uniquely his own, and yet somehow universal,” Obama said. “Indeed, this could be called the American tradition — artists demonstrating the courage, the talent to find new harmonies in the rich and dissonant sounds of the American experience.”
First lady Michelle Obama spoke in more personal terms, calling Wonder “one of the world’s greatest artists.” She recalled how she and her grandfather would listen to Wonder’s albums together.
“He’d blast music throughout the house and that’s where he and I would sit and listen to Stevie’s music together — songs about life, love, romance, heartache, despair. He would let me listen to these songs over and over and over and over again,” she said.
The first album she bought was Wonder’s “Talking Book,” and she and Barack Obama used “You and I” as their wedding song.
President Obama said he was lucky to have already loved Wonder’s music when he first met his mate.
“I think it’s fair to say that had I not been a Stevie Wonder fan, Michelle might not have dated me, we might not have married,” Obama said, with his wife sitting in the front row. “The fact that we agreed on Stevie was part of the essence of our courtship.”
Although the president is a well-known fan — Wonder performed at his nominating convention in Denver last summer and at a Lincoln Memorial concert before his January inauguration — the Library of Congress had decided to honor Wonder before Obama won the election.
The Gershwin Prize honors George and Ira Gershwin and is given for lifetime achievement in popular music. Paul Simon claimed the nation’s first prize in 2007.
Wonder’s performance will be broadcast Thursday on PBS stations as part of a White House series on the arts.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Clint Eastwood gets lifetime Palme d’Or
‘I’m very, very flattered that you’ve chosen me for this,’ said Eastwood
By Rebecca Leffler
Hollywood Reporter
updated 9:02 p.m. ET Feb. 25, 2009
PARIS - Clint Eastwood on Wednesday became only the second person to receive a lifetime achievement honor from the organizers of the Cannes Film Festival.
The actor/director received the honorary Palme d’Or during an intimate news conference and cocktail party at a restaurant.
“I’m very, very flattered that you’ve chosen me for this,” Eastwood said. “French cineastes have always been very supportive of me along the way. When I directed my first movie, French cineastes and critics encouraged me, while in my own country, everyone was much more reticent. France is the first country to approach and appreciate cinema as an art form.”
Cannes organizers have given only one other lifetime achievement Palme d’Or, to Ingmar Bergman, during the event’s 50th edition in 1997.
Eastwood won’t be able to attend the 2009 festival in May because he will be shooting in South Africa, so organizers took advantage of the director’s Paris trip to promote “Gran Torino,” which hit French theaters Wednesday.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29397277/
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Gerry Wiggins Trio feat. Hassan Shakur
Wig, R.I.P. Gerry Wiggins, his son, Hassan Shakur and Paul Humphrey perform Jeanine, 2002 at The Jazz Bakery in L.A.
Gerald Wiggins On Piano Jazz
Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, February 20, 2009 - Pianist Gerald Wiggins, known best as an accompanist and trio leader for many years in the Los Angeles area, died in July 2008. In this rebroadcast from 1992, Piano Jazz remembers the jazz piano master.
Born in 1922 in Harlem, N.Y., Wiggins began learning classical piano at a young age. He was a student at New York City's High School of Music and Art when he began to fall in love with the music of Teddy Wilson and, later, Art Tatum. Wiggins talked about some of his early professional gigs with the big bands of Benny Carter and Les Hite, as well as his "first big job" playing for comedian Stepin Fetchit. He also conjures up two tunes from the early days of his career: Sammy Cahn's "If It's the Last Thing I Do" and a Wiggins original with the curious title "Edie Is a Sweetie."
Wiggins eventually settled in L.A., where host Marian McPartland caught up with him in 1992. A versatile pianist and arranger, Wiggins was a natural in his various jobs at Hollywood movie studios. As he tells McPartland, working at the studios often meant ghostwriting without being credited. However, the job had perks that other gigs did not –- like working as a rehearsal pianist and vocal coach for Marilyn Monroe. In fact, Wiggins gained a positive reputation among singers as a skillful accompanist, and he worked with vocal luminaries such as Lena Horne, Kay Starr, Eartha Kitt and Pearl Bailey.
Coincidentally, Wiggins and McPartland share the distinction of being volumes 8 and 9, respectively, in Concord Records' series of piano solo recitals at Maybeck Hall. Wiggins performs a swinging blues from that recording: Ahmad Jamal's "Night Mist." McPartland follows with a solo of her own, "Please Be Kind." The two wind up the hour with a duet on "Now's the Time."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100923934&ft=1&f=24
Home Life With Mikes: A Jazz History
THE cardboard boxes are everywhere, stacked almost to the ceiling, in the Manhattan loft where W. Eugene Smith, the renowned American photojournalist, once shared living space with Hall Overton, an obscure composer and pianist. Inside the boxes are wigs, maybe thousands, the inventory of a Chinese business that now holds the lease. Nothing about this nondescript building in the flower district betrays its decade-long history as a bustling clubhouse for the jazz scene, beginning in the mid-1950s.
So it takes some effort to picture Thelonious Monk, one of jazz’s great composers, pacing these floorboards early in 1959 as he prepares for his momentous large-group debut at Town Hall, which would help lay the groundwork for a career beyond clubs. It takes imagination to place him and Overton at a pair of upright pianos, hashing out chord voicings for one after another of his songs. But these things did happen; that much we know from an extraordinary cache of tape recordings made by Smith, who had wired most of the building with microphones.
The Monk-and-Overton tapes account for just a fragment of some 3,000 hours of material amassed by Smith from 1957 to ’65. Because of the light they shed on both musicians, their value is inestimable. Monk, famous for his cryptic silence and cavalier methods, comes across as exacting, lucid, even voluble — an eccentric genius, yes, but also a diligent one. Overton, enlisted to orchestrate Monk’s knotty compositions, is revealed as a patient amanuensis and a brilliant foil.
“What’s obvious is their mutual respect, and the extent of their precision,” said the pianist Jason Moran, 34. “It’s crazy to hear how specific everything was.”
Mr. Moran is among a handful of people to have listened to the loft recordings at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, which is in the process of cataloging all of Smith’s tapes. On Friday, as part of a 50th anniversary celebration of the Town Hall concert, Mr. Moran will perform a postmodern tribute, complete with excerpts from the tapes. Together with a concert on Thursday — a more literal re-enactment led by the trumpeter Charles Tolliver, which will be broadcast live on WNYC-FM in New York — it’s among the more anticipated jazz events of this year.
The larger story of the loft has been an immersive project for researchers at Duke, who have interviewed 300 people in 19 states. Sam Stephenson, who directs the effort and whose book on the subject, “Rhythm of a Corner: W. Eugene Smith and a New York Jazz Loft 1957-1965,” will be published by Knopf this fall, described a convergence of forces, saved for posterity by the will of one man’s obsession.
Smith moved to 821 Avenue of the Americas, near West 28th Street, in 1957, leaving behind a family in Westchester and a job with Life magazine, where he had perfected the photo-essay form. He fixated on the loft and the street outside, shooting 20,000 photographs while peering out of a fourth-floor window, as if it were the aperture to another camera. “Robert Frank, the photographer, was a friend of Smith’s,” Mr. Stephenson said at that window one recent morning (beside a tower of boxes marked “Jumbo Afro”). “He told me that Smith went from a public journalist to a private artist with this body of work.”
The tapes came out of the same impulse. Smith recorded hours of random noise, broadcasts, the comings and goings of the place. But because his fellow residents included Overton, the pianist Dick Cary and the painter David X. Young, he also got a cross section of jazz culture at a dynamic time. (He and Overton shared an open floor plan divided by a temporary wall; Cary was downstairs, Young upstairs.) The tapes include jam sessions and off-the-cuff interactions among dozens of musicians, famous and unknown. One night in 1961, Mr. Stephenson said, Smith’s microphones caught the drama of a drug overdose by the pianist Sonny Clark, who was squatting in the stairwell at the time.
Monk and Overton turn up together during the weeks leading up to the Town Hall concert, which took place on Feb. 28, 1959. Months earlier Monk had been stripped of his cabaret card, a license to work in New York nightclubs. So the concert idea may have been born partly out of desperation: it was another way to earn money. A friend in the business, Jules Colomby, organized the event, and Orrin Keepnews produced a live recording for his label Riverside.
“I don’t know anybody alive today who can tell me how Hall Overton came into that picture,” Mr. Keepnews has said. The loft tapes don’t answer that question exactly, but a journal kept by Cary bears relevance, according to Mr. Stephenson’s research. One entry reads: “Thelonious Monk and gang upstairs at Hall’s.” The date is April 21, 1955, about four years before Town Hall.
If the loft materials reveal fascinating new glimpses of Monk, they throw the door wide open on Overton, about as overlooked a figure as they come. He had a master’s degree from Juilliard, where he would join the faculty in the 1960s. He composed classical music and taught a diverse array of students, including Doris Duke and Steve Reich. “He was a wonderful teacher,” said Mr. Reich, the pioneering Minimalist composer, describing his lessons at the loft in 1957 and ’58. “Hall made things clear to me that have served me well for the rest of my life.”
Overton, who had no gift for self-promotion, was also a capable jazz pianist with a manner that endeared him to musicians. “He always had a cigarette in his mouth, and the ash was always three-quarters of an inch long,” Mr. Reich said. “He was very relaxed and had a dry sense of humor, and he got along with jazz musicians because he accepted them as they were.”
Which partly explains the trust Overton earned with Monk. On the tapes they spend hours discussing the mechanics of harmony and rhythm. After an especially grueling dissection of a tune called “Thelonious,” Monk can be heard walking away from the piano, losing interest or steam. “What you have there is fine,” he says.
“Well, the point is, I’ll do it,” Overton says after a pause, sounding resolute. “But I want to do it with you. I want to check every sound with you. And also what instruments you want to hear in certain places, you know?”
During a later session Overton puts on a recording of Monk’s “Locomotive.” “I don’t know how that goes,” Monk says, fumbling at the piano; it’s no surprise the tune didn’t make it onto the bill.
Hearing the original recording of “Little Rootie Tootie,” by contrast, provoked at least one important decision. “Let the band play that,” Monk says during his piano solo, meaning he wants it arranged for the horns. The resulting stretch of orchestration, a corkscrew-and-pinball plunge, is the most elaborate flourish of the concert.
Had Monk been meeting with Overton someplace other than the loft, it’s doubtful he would have opened up as readily. And the casual vibe carried over to the band when it finally convened.
“Rehearsals always started at the bar,” the alto saxophonist Phil Woods said. “Monk would say, ‘O.K., let’s get a taste.’ Then we’d go to work. It was thrilling. It was also hard as hell.”
The effort paid off: the concert was a musical success.
“It was the first time that Monk was truly recognized in a setting other than a nightclub,” said the jazz historian Dan Morgenstern, who was there. (During his prior appearances at both Town Hall and Carnegie Hall, Monk had been part of a larger bill.)
Mr. Reich, who was also in the audience, said: “The arrangements could have been a real pretentious flop, and they weren’t at all. They were another way of looking at Monk’s music. I got a feeling that it was all Monk in terms of the notes and rhythms and all Hall in terms of the timbres.”
One of the only sour notes was a review in The New York Times by John S. Wilson, who wrote that the arrangements offered “a pipe-and-slippers version of music that is naturally querulous.” Mr. Woods and others, including the baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams, recalled that a scheduled tour for the tentet was canceled as a result.
Monk was vindicated in time; the concert recording is now regarded as a classic. And that first headlining appearance in a major concert hall only helped his stature. His cabaret card was restored; within a few years, he was on Columbia Records. In 1964, five years to the day after Town Hall, he made the cover of Time.
That year the scene at the loft fizzled, as Overton, Cary and Young all moved out. Smith took over the building and kept shooting and developing film there, until he was evicted in 1971. (He died in 1978.) Mr. Stephenson’s work will fulfill part of Smith’s ambitions to publish a book about the building. So will a 10-part series due for broadcast next year on WNYC-FM.
Both of this week’s tributes had their premieres in 2007 at Duke, which is also presenting the New York performances. Recordings of the Duke shows confirm that Mr. Tolliver, who attended the original Town Hall concert as a teenager, is aiming for a true reflection of it, while Mr. Moran has designs conceptual and personal.
The touches of reinvention in both concerts are in keeping with the spirit of the music, as the tapes illustrate. “We don’t have to do it like the record,” Overton says, as he puts on “Little Rootie Tootie.”
Monk shoots back: “Oh, no, of course not. We might hear something else that sounds better.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/arts/music/22chin.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
BIG BAND SCENE 10th Anniversary Swing Dance
Big Band Scene, a radio show on KBEM / Jazz 88 hosted by Jerry Swanberg, featuring “Big Bands of today from across the world”, is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary by presenting the “Battle of the Big Bands” Swing Dance on March 28th.
The Battle will feature the Bend in the River Big Band and the Minnesota Jazz Orchestra. The Dance takes place on Saturday, March 28 at 8 PM, at the Bloomington KC Hall, 1114 American Blvd., Bloomington. Tickets are $10 (TCJS & KBEM Members $8) and are purchased at the door. The Twin Cities Jazz Society and Jazz 88 are co-sponsoring this event.
The two Big Bands will alternate hour long sets from 8 - 12 PM, providing four straight hours of Big Band Swing for your dancing or listening pleasure. Kicking off the dance will be the Bend in the River Big Band, directed by Bob Hallquist, and featuring vocalist Lee Engele (also President of the Twin Cities Jazz Society). Their BB repertoire includes works by Sammy Nestico, Dave Wolpe, and Richard Maltby. Some of their key soloists are Paul Rippe – as, Chuck Linderkamp- ts, John Egnell – lead trp, John Zschunke, ld trb, and Ben Anderson – dr. Their second CD, released last year, is titled “Bad Habits, Good Intentions”. The Bend in the River Big Band was formed in 1987 from alumni of Gustavus Adolphus College. They have performed at the MN State Fair, Bloomington Jazz Festival, Jazz on the Prairie, Edinborough, Winter Jazz Fest, Hot Summer Jazz Festival, and they toured Sweden in 1998.. They are very active in the summer at the parks, performing at Lake Harriet, Como Lakeside, Excelsior Commons, Wayzata Depot, and Centennial Lakes. Check out www.brbb.org.
The Minnesota Jazz Orchestra is directed by lead trumpeter Craig Thrane, and their vocalists are Debbie O’Keefe & Gregg Marquardt (President of the Jazz Vocalists of Minnesota). Soloists include Scott Johnson on tenor sax, Todd Mathison on trumpet, Larry McCabe and Dave Budimir on Trombone, and Bruce Pedalty on piano. Several of their regular musicians are deploying to Iraq with the 34th Infantry Division Nat. Guard Band. The MN Jazz Orchestra have recorded two CDs titled “Let’s Dance” and “Live at the Artists’ Quarter”. They play for Swing Dances the second Thursday of the month at the Wabasha Street Caves in St. Paul. Their motto is “Classic Swing from the Big Band Era”, featuring music from the libraries of Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, and others. They perform for many wedding dances (their specialty) around the state. See www.minnesotajazzorchestra.com.
The grand finale on March 28th will be a roaring swing tune performed by the combined bands, totaling 34 musicians, and we’ll have a soloist from each band’s section (trumpet, trombone, saxes) battling it out. So stick around till midnight.
http://www.tcjs.org/content/view/64/2/
An Intimate Evening with the Dave Brubeck Quartet
Due to the extremely high demand for tickets to the February 26th concert by the Dave Brubeck Quartet with UNT ensembles, we have added an additional concert. On Friday February 27th, the Dave Brubeck Quartet will present a concert at Winspear Hall at 8 p.m.
Tickets:
$20 adults
$15 seniors, UNT fac/staff
$10 non-UNT students, children, groups of 10+
Free to UNT students
http://www.jazz.unt.edu/?q=node%2F852
Miles Okazaki, NYC guitarist/composer, visits North Texas
Miles Okazaki, NYC guitarist/composer
March 4 at 5 p.m.
Clinic in room 262. Free for UNT guitar club members, $5 for non-members
March 4 at 9 p.m. at Scat Lounge in Ft. Worth wtih Evan Weiss, Brian Donohoe, Steve Pruitt, Ryan Hagler. Cover $7. Opening set: Nobody's Business (band).
March 5 at 9:30 p.m. Dan's Silverleaf with UNT jazz faculty. $7. Opening bands: Nobody's Business, Moosehound.
Miles is giving lessons while he is here. Sign up on Fred Hamilton's office door.
http://www.jazz.unt.edu/?q=node%2F853
When The Saints Go Marching In - Lino Patruno Jazz Show
Lino Patruno Jazz Show
Photos by Giuseppe Di Castro
Teatro Olimpico
Mauro Carpi (violin)
Michael Supnick (cornet)
Gianni Sanjust (clarinet)
Emmanuele Urso (clarinet)
Alberto Collatina (trombone)
Lino Patruno (guitar and leader)
Clive Riche (vocals)
Adriano Urso (piano)
Giancarlo Colangelo (bass saxophone)
Guido Giacomini (bass)
Gianluca Perasole (drums).
Lino Patruno....
Lino Patruno has been in show-biz for many years. His experience ranges from concert jazz performances, studio recordings, TV and cabaret actor, theatre and cinema, to bandleader, film music composer,jazz festival organizer and television presenter.
Lino Patruno began his career in the first of the jazz bands active in Milan in the 50’s.
Among the bands he led,are the notable “Riverside Jazz Band” in the 50’s and 60’s and the “Milan College Jazz Society” in the 70’s.
In 1964 together with Nanni Svampa, Roberto Brivio and Gianni Magni, he founded “I Gufi” (The Owls), the first exemple of Italian Cabaret inspired by that of the French.
From the Milan Cabaret scene the four actors moved to theatre, taking their show around Italy until 1969, the year in which the group broke up.
Following this in the early 70’s, Lino Patruno with Nanni Svampa continued his theatrical activity with Franca Mazzola, appearing in some TV Shows of notable success: “La Mia Morosa Cara”, “Addio Tabarin”, Un Giorno Dopo l’Altro”, “Una Bella Domenica Di Settembre…”.
Patruno in the meantime returned to his jazz activities which he had laid aside due to his many activities with the “Gufi”, and he made a series of records and TV programs with some of the great Jazz performers of the day (Albert Nicholas, Joe Venuti, Bill Coleman, Wingy Manone, Bud Freeman, Jimmy McPartland, Dick Cary, Teddy Wilson, Eddie Miller, Billy Butterfield, Bob Wilber, Peanuts Hucko, Bob Haggart, Spiegle Willcox, Pee Wee Erwin, Barney Bigard, Ralph Sutton, Dick Wellstood, Earle Warren, Jimmy Woode, Tony Scott, Kenny Davern, Wild Bill Davison, Bucky Pizzarelli…).
His greatest success came about, however, in his participation in the TV show “Portobello”.
With Pupi Avati, he wrote the screenplay of the film “Bix” which represented Italy in the 1991 Cannes Festival, producing the soundtrack arranged by Bob Wilber.
In the 1990/91 season he conducted the TV show “A Tutto Jazz” for the “Cinquestelle” Network, in 1993 “L’Occhio sulla Musica” for RAI 3.
Among the International Festivals in which he has taken part, we remember that of Sanremo (Italy) in 1963, that of Nice (France) in 1976 and 1977, Breda (Holland) in 1978, in Switzerland (Lugano, Lucern, Bern), in Italy (Pompei, Palermo), Dusseldorf (Germany), all in the 80’s, and in USA (Davenport-Iowa and Libertyville-Illinois) in the 90’s.
Lino Patruno lives in Rome, where he is also involved in cinema. Among the films in which he has taken part, we remember “Amarcord” directed by Fellini, and “ The Last Days of Mussolini” directed by Carlo Lizzani with Rod Steiger and Henry Fonda, and among the sound-tracks he has composed: “Guerra di Spie” directed by Duccio Tessari with Jean Rochefort and Marisa Berenson, “Crimson Dawn” directed by Marcello Aliprandi with Franco Nero, of which he was also Producer.
Among the most recent theatre sound-tracks, we like to point out “Ti amo Maria” with Carlo Delle Piane (now also a film), “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” by Neil Simon with Maurizio Micheli, “Crimes of the Heart” directed by Nanni Loy. We remember him moreover as theatre actor in “Pellegrin che vai a Roma” by Michele L. Straniero, “Capitan Fracassa” by Thèophile Gautier with Giancarlo Zanetti and “La signora in Blues” directed by Bruno Maccallini.
And not least, he is known for his work with the RAI Television, having composed the music for all silent short films by Charlie Chaplin (60 shorts).
We also note that Lino Patruno has been a member of the jury of David di Donatello (the Italian Movie Oscar), of the European Film Academy and for the Italian nomination of the Oscar in USA.
Also for many years he has occupied himself as Art Director for Jazz Festival in Italy (San Marino, Mosciano Sant’Angelo, Crotone, Etna Jazz with Romano Mussolini).
From 1985 he has directed his “European Jazz Stars”, which has included amongs others Oscar Klein, Roy Williams, Roy Crimmins, Isla Eckinger, Gregor Beck and the unforgettable Henry Chaix and Peter Schilperoort (The “Dutch Swing College” leader).
In 2000 Lino Patruno wrote his autobiography: “Lino Patruno, una vita in jazz e non solo…” (Pantheon Publ.) and recorded his late Cd’s in Ascona during the Jazz Festival with Ed Polcer, Bob Havens. Allan Vachè, Jim Galloway, Tom Baker, Dan Barrett, Evan Christopher, Rebecca Kilgore, Bucky Pizzarelli, Howard Alden, Frank Vignola, Marty Grosz, Al Viola, Andy Stein, Bob Wilber, Kenny Davern, Randy Sandke…
His last 3 CD’s was printed in USA on Jazzology label.
In 2005 he took part in the film "Forever Blues", directed and interpreted by Franco Nero, both as a musician and actor, and as writer and performer of the soundtrack and the theme song of the film won the following awards: Nomination for the "David of Donatello", "Foreign Press Golden Globe", "Fregene for Fellini".
http://www.linopatruno.it/
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Gary Berg - "Beatrice"
Grry's 70th birthday. Gary Berg on sax with Mikkel Romstead on piano, Pooch Heine on bass & Kenny Horst on drums. The Artists' Quarter in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Neal Hefti/Bobby Troup - Girl Talk
Marilyn Older, vocals; Carl Banner, piano; Charlie Barnett, guitar; Mark Carson, drums; John Jensen, trombone; Ben Redwine, saxophone; Greg Watkins, double bass.
Interview Toots Thielemans....
It touched with Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis. Enthusiastic of Brazilian music, also with Elis Regina, Chico Buarque, Ivan Lins, Cesar Camargo Mariano. To the 86 years, the Belgian Toots Thielemans comes to the Ceará for the tenth edition of the Festival Jazz & Blues, with shows in Guaramiranga and $fortaleza. Before, he talked, he saw email, with Notebook 3
Already its in the Festival of Guaramiranga has some years had an expectation on a participation. What it took the one that its presence alone if confirmed now? Which its expectation?
In my age (86, almost 87), still I am in good form and very am requested. Therefore the offers for show have that to incase themselves in the agenda, that to the times is very concurred. We are happy that this year let us have conditions to accept offers. Brazil has a special place in my heart. When my entrepreneur said that he offers was viable joust and, I to me accepted immediately.
The fact of being able to bring its proper musicians (he was decisive)?
To travel of the Europe to Brazil demand much energy. When you burrow with local musicians, need assays extra, to know the musicians, to adapt the repertoire. Therefore I prefer to come with my musicians, to keep energy for shows. Obviously, it would not go to say ´Não´ if Ivan Lins could appear…
How it is to be in palco with these musicians (the baterista Bruno Castelucci, the stock exchange operator Bart de Noolf and the pianista Karel Boehlee)?
We touch together frequently in the Europe, Japan and, in the last time in 2006, São Paulo and Rio De Janeiro. They know the repertoire, are versatile and they give the necessary support to me. Moreover, we are very next friends.
You would point some prominences in the show? The public can wait releituras of Brazilian musics?
He is difficult to say. Each auditorium reacts of a different form. We touch with sincerity, of the heart, and wait a good dialogue with the public. The reaction of the auditorium is always very important. E I find that the majority of the people knows of my affinity with the Brazilian Brazil, music and musicians, for which I have a great respect.
It could say a little on the composition of ´Bluesette´? Many great names of the jazz count that, when composing musics that would come to make great success, they did not have the minimum idea, or pretension, of that this came to happen. Was this the case with this music?
I was in a show in Brussels, dividing the dressing-room with (the French violinista) Stephane Grappelli. It was touching my guitar, Stephane heard and said: ´Mon to cher Toots, c´est joli´. (expensive Toots ´Meu, this is bom´). I answered: ´Stephane, you me inspira´. First, I gave to music the name of ´Bluette´, in reference to the small blue flower of the fields. Later, producer said a Swedish me: ´Toots, is one blues, why you does not put ´s´ in the name? ´. It never was a success, but it was a good card of presentation.
Being reference as gaitista, the fact calls attention you to have started its career as guitarist. Which are the souvenirs to touch the guitar, in the start?
Up to two years behind, I continued touching guitar. E before passer for a spill (he has 20 years more than), I touched very well. I eventually started my career as guitarist, having the possibility to touch the gaita, for example, with Benny Goodman, George Shearing. I started to be a little known when I started to assoviar and to touch the guitar in unison. I learned very on harmony, through the guitar.
Having touched with the biggest names of the jazz, which you would say that they had had a particular influence, stronger, on its way to think music and to touch?
Django Reinhardt, Louis Armstrong, Bill Evans, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Jaco Pastorius and many, many others. I still continue hearing what he happens today. Mine he very helps iPhone me in this. In the Youtube also costumo to hear what he is happening currently. E I learn what to touch and what not to touch.
You agree to the ones point that it as one of last ´lendas vivas´ of the jazz? How you feel yourself with this?
In the last month of October I became Master Jazz in the United States. It is the distinction higher than if he can obtain as a musician of jazz in U.S.A., mainly because I am the first European. Clearly that I do not touch better because of this heading, but I admit that I am proud of it. He has some years I became Comendador of the Order of the Rio Branco. The Brazilian ambassador delivered this homage to me and one year later the minister of the Culture, Gilbert Gil, delivered the honor diploma to me. I have much pride in being recognized for the Brazilians.
Which the secret to remain itself all throughout this time, without losing the route?
To the times you lose the route, but music brings to it in return to the way. I always say: ´Siga what it emociona´.Se you had that to indicate a moment or decisive event for its musical career - a point from which the things had started to happen -, which it would be? I already was interested in music the three years of age, but really I was contaminated by the virus of the jazz when I heard for the first time Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers.
It could in saying a little to them on its meeting with John Lennon? It remembers some related curious situation to the gaitista of the Beatles?
The first time that the Beatles had come the New York, I was sent by the company of guitars to show to my Rickenbacker the John Lennon. It had seen the guitar in the layer of one of records of George Shearing. E said me to it, in its sotaque of Liverpool: ´Se this guitar is good the sufficient pra George Shearing, then with certainty pra is good mim´.
Which are its souvenirs of the chances to touch with Brazilian musicians? Elis Regina, Astrud Gilbert, Cesar Camargo Mariano, who also comes to the festival…
The record with Elis Regina moves still me. E when I hear records ´Toots Thielemans Brazil Project´ 1 and 2, I feel myself proud very. This production was made by Miles Goodman and Oscar Castrate-Snow, whom the telephone of all had these great musicians, Eliane Elias, Gilbert Gil, Ivan Lins, Milton Nasciamento, Caetano Veloso, Bonfá Luis, Chico Buarque, Dori Caymmi, Djavan… Really I was blessed by the contribution of all they.
Passed year, Ivan Lins made two shows full in Guaramiranga. You costuma to touch musics of it. How it would define the influence of it on its music?
We already touch together very and until we journey in the United States and the Europe, with the ´Brasil Project´. Turnê with the Orchestra of the Radio of the Denmark has some years made one. It is one of the greaters musicians of the present time. In all mine shows I touch a music of it, and with much pleasure.
Some new Brazilian gaitista flame its attention? You have plans to use to advantage the trip to enter in contact with local musicians?
By good friend Maurício keeps me to Einhonrn informed on what he is happening in terms of gaita in Brazil. It always me of a possibility to hear young musicians, very interesting. Many of them come to mine shows, and always are very thanked by this interest. I have in mine iPhone many records of these musicians.
Having attended as many changes throughout the history of music and the fonográfica industry, you it deals well with resources as ´mp3-players´ and the exchange of music for the Internet? Which its palpite on as this form of relationship of the people with music goes to configure itself in the future?
I try to follow the market and hear much music using iPhone. My entrepreneur low (legally) some musics, my order. How much to the businesses, I find that the market always goes to find a way to make the thing to happen. In my field of ´jazz´, most of what profit comes of shows.
To finish, a question flautista it and pertaining to the state of Ceará professor Heriberto Port, that liveed in Belgium per 12 years and touched with the baterista Ian de Hass. Question if you intend to touch some song of Jacques Brel here, as ´Ne me quitte pas´.
Jan de Haas is an excellent baterista, and I work frequently with it in the Europe. It deferred payment close to me. E, if the auditorium to want to hear ´Ne me quitte pas´, goes to be happy in touching.
Interview by DALWTON MOURA
Eldar Djangirov....
Hard bop/post-bop pianist Eldar Djangirov has accomplished something that the vast majority of jazz artists -- pianists or otherwise -- will never accomplish: he landed a contract with a major label and received a Grammy nomination before he could have a drink. Eldar has recorded 5 albums including 3 with Sony Classical including the most recent Grammy nominated album, “Re-Imagination”.
Eldar came to the US from Kyrgyzstan in the former Soviet Union when he was nine. His first performance appearance in the US was at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. He quickly then moved up the ranks and was featured on Marian McPartland’s NPR Piano Jazz radio show at the age of 11. He then released two albums independently, Eldar [D&D] in 2001, which was followed by the release of his sophomore disc, Handprints, in 2003. In 2004, Djangirov signed with Sony Classical and recorded his third album, which is also titled Eldar [Sony] featuring the great bassist, John Patitucci, and Michael Brecker on tenor sax. He then followed up with the critically acclaimed “Live at the Blue Note” featuring Roy Hargrove and Chris Botti. Downbeat’s 4 star review states, “Few musicians on any axe swing like Eldar...his groove is intense and overwhelming. It’s not the flash and fire that should stir interest in Eldar. It’s what he does when the razzle-dazzle dies down and we sense substance within and beyond his pyrotechnics.” The NY Times noted a “formidable technique wedded to a mature grasp of musical structure.”
Eldar has appeared at many festivals including IAJE, Lionel Hampton, Jakarta, SXSW, and CMJ, and has toured throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He has performed at venues ranging from the Hollywood Bowl to Carnegie Hall and has played at the most notable jazz venues in the world including Blue Note (NY, Japan, Italy), the Vanguard, Dizzy’s, Yoshi’s, Jazz Alley, etc.. Eldar has been seen on national TV including the 2000 and 2008 Grammy’s, Conan O’Brien, The CBS Saturday Early Show, and Jimmy Kimmel Live.
2008 is a banner year for Eldar including a 2008 Grammy Nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. Eldar currently lives in New York City.
http://www.eldarjazz.com/
Eldar Djangirov Live at the Cutting Room
New Oscar Peterson?
April 10, 2007 at a free concert in New York City, playing an Oscar Peterson original.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
An Institution Closes....
by James Hale
Jazz Journal billed itself as "The World's Greatest Jazz Magazine." It was certainly among the longest lived, publishing continuously since 1948.
Like DownBeat, Jazz Journal was also a family business, and like DownBeat before it, Jazz Journal is now facing closure due to a death in the family. The death of Janet Cook, associate publisher and wife of publisher and editor-in-chief Eddie Cook, has led Eddie to decide to close the doors.
In his announcement, Cook left open the hope that someone would rescue the magazine – as happened with both DownBeat and, following the retirement of Bill Smith, Coda – but no white knights have stepped forward yet.
http://www.jazzchronicles.blogspot.com/
Northeast of Brazil in Climate of Good Music in The Carnival
In the wave it are of the circuits of samba and blocks, the Northeast in offers music to them as it has detached in the way of the folia of carnival in plus an edition them festivals Jazz & Blues de Guaramiranga, Ceará, per the tenth followed year; e of the festival of Garanhuns, Recife.
Without a doubt, the formula of the certainty!
The Jazz&Blues happens of 21 the 24 of February in the city of Guaramiranga and 26 the 28 of February in $fortaleza. They are workshops, workshops and much music!
The programming in Guaramiranga:
in the Theater Raquel de Queiroz
21 of February, Saturday
- 14h30, Open Assay - Dominguinhos
- 20h - Luciano Franco (CE); Trio + 1 (SP) - Benjamin Taubkim, Zeca Assumpção, Sergio Reze and Joatan Birth
- 22h30, Dominguinhos (FOOT)
22 of February, sunday
- 14h30, Open Assay - Cesar Camargo Mariano 20h - Nélio Costa (CE); Lanny Gordin (SP) 22h30 - César Camargo Mariano (SP)
23 of February, monday
- 14h30, Open Assay - In the Ozzetti 20h - Ricardo Bezerra (CE); Mayan Arthur (RIO DE JANEIRO) - 22h30, In Ozzettti (SP)
24 of February, tuesday
- 14h30, Open Assay - Toots Thielemans
- 20h, Lúcio Ricardo (CE); Pablo Meyer (SP)
- 22h30, Toots Thielemans (Belgium)
in Municipal Quadra
21 of February, Saturday
- 17h, Pablo Fagundes (DF)
22 of February, sunday
- 17h, Project House of the Blues - Artur Menezes (CE)
23 of February, monday
- 17h, Timbral Project (CE)
24 of February, tuesday
- 17h, Dixie Square Band Jazz (SP); Project Marries of the Blues - Blues Label (CE)
JAM every day of 0h to 3h with Beale Street (RIO DE JANEIRO)
The programming in Fortaleza:
in the Theater Jose de Alencar
26 of February, thursday
- 21h, Toots Thielemans
27 of February, friday
- 21h, Cesar Camargo Mariano
in the Yacht Club, day 28 of February, Saturday to 21h party with Dixie Square Band Jazz
More on the festival, it has access www.jazzeblues.com.br
The Festival of Garanhuns has its second edition and happens between 21 and 23 of February. The proposal is to repeat the success of the last year when the city received crazy public for goodmusic and people come from Recife, João Person, Christmas, Aracajú, Maceió and interior, what it shows to the force of the festival and the interest for the quality music. E shows is gratuitous.
Really a great conquest!
The programming of Garanhuns:
in the Park Ruber Van Der Linden (Wood Pigeon) day 21/02, Saturday
- 15h, Our Jazz (FOOT)
- 16h, I cry, Baião and Jazz (FOOT)
day 22/02, sunday
- 15h, Orlito (FOOT)
- 16h, Kleber Blues Band (FOOT)
day 23/02, monday
- 15h local Band
in the Guadalajara Square (Palco Mayan Ronildo Milk)
day 21/02, Saturday
- 20h, Carlos Malta (RIO DE JANEIRO) & Pifano Green Folklore (Garanhuns - FOOT)
- 21h, Kate Bentley & Clay Ross Band (the USA)
- 22:30 h, Nuno Mindelis (Angola/SP)
day 22/02, sunday
- 20h, Nuages Jazz (Equator)
- 21h, Igor the Prado Band (SP)
- 22h, Lancaster (SP) & The Bluz
- 23h, James Wheeler (U.S.A.)
day 23/02, monday
- 20h, Marcelo Martins (RIO DE JANEIRO) & Street Band (FOOT)
- 21h, Robson Fernandes (SP) & Uptown Band (FOOT)
- 22h, Blue Jeans (SP)
- 23h, Izzy Gordon (SP)
The Dixie Square Band Jazz (SP) makes presentations during the day in the streets of the city and night in the Guadalarrara Square during the intervals of shows.
More on the festival, it has access www.garanhunsjazz.com.br
www.charutojazz.blogspot.com
Coluna do Luiz Orlando Carneiro (15/02/2009)
Hypnotist Sounds
In the festival everything is Jazz, of Ouro Preto, in 2005, an auditorium of more than 500 people - formed for demanding jazzófilos, neophytes and adepts of prog rock - vibrated with the hypnotist inventions musical (and sonic), between in and out, of the trio Jacob Fred Odyssey Jazz.
In the occasion, the group born in Tulsa (Oklahoma), in 1994, was a newness, and finishes to launch, for the stamp indie Kufala, the COMPACT DISC Slow breath, silent mind. Reed Mathis (low acoustic with pedal, capable to raise in two eighth above-normal a noise of the instrument), Brian Haas (acoustic piano) and Jason Smart (battery) were then the integrant ones of the trio, almost so hiperativo as the Bad Plus, “even so more composicional”, over all in the recriações of classics of the modern jazz, as Fables of Faubus (Charles Mingus), Naima (John Coltrane) and minor Off (Thelonious Monk).
The JFJO turned quartet, in middle of the passed year, with Josh Raymer in the place of Smart, Matt Hayes in the one of Mathis and the addition of the guitarist Chris Combs. But, before this, in March, it recorded in studio the virtual album Winterwood, that can be downloaded, of favour, in the site of the group (www.jfjo.com), that it makes question to keep the surrealist name of Jacob Fred - nickname invented for Haas for proper itself when it was adolescent. One is about a gift of the pianista-leader, commemorative of the 15 years of the JFJO. E also marks the farewell of the bonanza Reed Mathis, that signs six of the 13 bands of the “record” and arranges Song of the vipers (Louis Armstrong), beyond touching its basses developed, banjo and guitars (also lap steel, that hawaiian guitar-board, generally of six ropes).
The initial band, Dove's army of love (6m15), of Mathis, indicates the predominant climate of the session, with the subject kept in ostinato for the acoustic piano of Haas, while the stock exchange operator-guitarist and the drummer-percussionist raise, to the few, the rhythmic-sonic temperature of the environment, brightened up here and there for interludes of the pianist. It is difficult to need, accurately, where and when the improvisation prevails on the arranged parts.
Song of vipers (5m40) is one of the most attractive moments of the album, over all for the contrast second enters the rhythm line of brass bands of New Orleans and backbeat insolente (with shining exclamações of plates and címbalos) created by Josh Raymer. It and Haas are also the prominences in the metamorphosis of the part of Ellington (6m40), in which he seems to have parts in overdub. Old love, new love (5m58) and bird (6m13), both of the pianista-composer-arranjador, are melodicamente insinuantes, with delicate bachianas variations of Haas in this last one, developing in way the discrete electronic punctuations and interventions of the guitar of Mathis. This, in turn, is the star of The slip (7m15), also of its cultivates. Crazy fingers (4m48), from Jerry Garci'a, receives from the JFJO a beautiful treatment, good bluesy, and brings long and delicate a ground of Haas in the acoustic piano.
The JFJO produces a type of emotional acoustic-electronic jazz at the same time and intellectual, to the times until camerístico, without rejecting the roots of they mainstream, mainly most popular, as if it can hear in Earl Hines (4m15), of Mathis. The group is not considered to compete with the hiperenergético trio The Bad Plus (Ethan Iverson, piano; David King, battery; Reid Anderson, low). Transformed into quarteto, the JFJO left in long turnê (sold out) for the United States, leaving in the Internet, to the disposal of its fans, the last register of the happy Haas-Mathis association.
Tony Desare
Tony Desare from NYC singing his original tune at "Mundy On Tuesdays!" open mic night in Hollywood.
Radio Show - Tony Desare
This is an amazing recording. Amazing because it offers listeners a rare combination of spoken introductions to the songs by actual announcers, but most of all it has fresh new takes of some of your favorite songs by one of today's most debonair vocalists, Tony DeSare. While many of today’s radio stations don’t address the needs of inquisitive audiences, i.e. giving the name of the song played, who the performers are, etc., RADIO SHOW gives the listener a chance to hear how Tony DeSare created his own modern-day radio show on a record! DeSare sings 12 great songs preceded by 10 announcements (including several by Joe Piscopo) that will delight, entertain and make your heart soar. The songs are a collection of Great American Songbook standards as well as rock and pop standards that DeSare makes his own in a vocal range that stretches across several musical genres. A special guest duet with vocalist Jane Monheit adds lots of romantic spice to “Bizarre Love Triangle” while DeSare’s accompanists (which includes the great guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli), help to bring this exemplary recording to audiophiles who are missing the true essence of radio.
http://www.soundsoftimelessjazz.com/
Great live music, one story at a time
I love live music! It is invigorating to watch the musicians interact with one another as they play. It is as much fun to observe the audience get into the music as it is to listen myself. That is one the exciting parts about broadcasting live from J&R Music World. For the past six years we have showcased numerous musicians debut their new CDs. I have produced the whole series and this has given me the opportunity to get to know the regulars. That is one of the unique privileges of working at a radio station being in the community. You get to interact with the listeners. They tell you what they like and don’t like. The listeners also get to know the artists and each other.
The very first concert we presented 6 years ago featured Grammy nominated pianist and composer Arturo O’Farrill. From the beginning, a young and eager 10 year-old named Travis Wolcott was one of two boys who would sit cross-legged on the floor in front of the stage. When the series first started, we held drawings for door prizes and Travis would help pull the winner’s names out of the box. His participation became a part of the show.
Travis and his brother Thomas, along with his dad Tom continued to attend the broadcasts and we became friends. My birthday or a holiday never came without a card from the Wolcotts. But the one constant reminder of how much a part of our lives this family has become was the sight of Travis each month in the front row as we presented artists at J&R.
Travis sat and watched and listened to every note and that he depended upon us made this all especially significant. Travis and Tom were on site early January 17 this year for our last scheduled broadcast from J&R, not coincidentally featuring Arturo’s sextet. Travis picked his familiar place on the floor and Tom and I reminisced about the drawing days.
People say you never think of the good time you are having as “the good old days”. But the Saturdays (and a few Tuesdays) we spent at J&R gave us wonderful memories, and a more great live music.
But then, the music ended. The series ended.
Our friends at J&R made it possible to bring the new music to our listeners and to special fans like Travis.
We won’t let him down. That’s why we ask for your support. Jazz88 is about giving our listeners music!
http://www.wbgo.org/blog/
The Lovers, the Dreamers and Me
Jane Monheit
Rather than having to choose between being a jazz singer or a pop stylist, Jane Monheit offers a simple solution - why not be both? And so The Lovers, the Dreamers and Me shines regardless of whether the songs demand singer-songwriter honesty or swing sophistication. Amazingly, Monheit meets the music's demands without having to seesaw between styles. Thanks to the honeyed ease of her phrasing, Monheit moves easily between the dramatic immediacy of cabaret singing and the rhythmic fluidity of jazz, an approach that fits Fiona Apple as neatly as Cole Porter. The lush, chamber-style arrangements - love the flute choir! - are icing on the cake
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090217.CDMINIS17-2/TPStory/TPEntertainment/?page=rss&id=GAM.20090217.CDMINIS17-2
Monday, February 16, 2009
David Sanchez....
David Sanchez arrives with his eigth album as leader at a point of new artistic authority in this inspirational album. Part of that authority lies in the enhanced soundscape of his tenor sax (aided by reeds from Francois Louis and superb recording by Don Murray at Sear Sound NY). This is a revelation compared with earlier albums and places him firmly in the same rarified territory as Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter and Joe Henderson. But part of that authority also lies in the ease with which he can allow space to his co-musicians.
Here the partnership with Lage Lund on guitar is central. With the album based mainly around the lineup of a piano-less quartet (David Sanchez (tenor sax), Lage Lund (guitar), Ben Street (bass), Henry Cole or Adam Cruz (drums)), space is made very often in the form of sax/bass/drums or guitar/bass/drums trio sections; it takes real authority to stand back (as Miles Davis so often did) and let your musicians play.
For some time David Sanchez has been engaging with the issues surrounding the African diaspora; for example, how the uprooting of peoples to live under tyranny in the sugar fields of a country like Puerto Rica (his place of birth) and its long term consequences can be understood, brought into public awareness and valued. A poem by his sister Margarita points to the contradiction between the commonplace acceptance of molasses as an everyday commodity and the agony that went into its production. "Molasses, enriched by the blood of a people, harvested from a soil in agony, sprouts a tender shoot of hope".
And it is that hope that informs this music. For this, in the end, is the truth of the blues (and jazz) tradition; the triumph of hope over experience, the denial of bitterness, transcendence of the corrupting reality by a creativity that draws from those ancient roots and is so life affirming that it cannot be denied. The range, open mindedness and sheer musical inventiveness of "Cultural Survival" speaks eloquently to that transcendence. As David Sanchez says modestly of the album: "It's generally about the human condition."
Musically, the album is in clear post bop jazz territory. What might be regarded as latin influences lead not to Jobim or Cuban influenced jazz (as sometimes on earlier David Sanchez albums) but more to the introduction of those elements into mainstream jazz in a way similar to how this was achieved by Joe Henderson or Wayne Shorter.
This is apparent in the treatment of Thelonious Monk's "Monk's Mood", altered from the spiny piano blues plus John Coltrane of the original into a sensuous invocation that is wholly in the spirit of the innovators who had gathered at Minton's Playhouse. No surprise then, that Dizzie Gillespie was one of the far sighted who recognized David Sanchez's talents as a young musician and offered guidance and encouragement.
The other adaptation is Eddie Palmieri's "Adoracion", transformed from its salsa origins into high energy, shifting tempo post bop. David Sanchez appeared on the Eddie Palmieri album "Listen Here!" and acknowledges his admiration for his music in the liner notes to this album.
The remaining six tracks are all original compositions. "Coast To Coast", "Ay Bendito" and "The Forgotten Ones" make the most of the open piano-less quartet, presenting lithe music of spaciousness, intensity and beauty. David Sanchez's tenor sax forms the sure centre and Lage Lund's guitar playing is especially good, the interplay between the two instruments in the shared sections showing real rapport. Both featured quartets shine.
Danilo Perez (noted recently for his work in the Wayne Shorter Quartet) adds keyboards on "Manto Azul" and "Cultural Survival", filling out the sound with characteristic perceptiveness. Robert Rodriguez adds piano and Fender Rhodes to the final track, "La Leyenda del Canaveral".
"La Leyenda del Canaveral" is a twenty minute composition in itself. It is addressed specifically to the poem "Molasses" penned by David Sanchez's sister. The composition was commissioned by Chamber Music America's New Works: Creation and Presentation Programme and the Doris Duke Foundation and was first performed in Puerto Rico.on March 24, 2007 and then in New York on October 17, 2007. Musical influences include music from East Cameroon (particularly the Baca forest people), Tanzania, Ethiopia, Mali and the Caribbean. It is an ambitious piece that takes these sources as inspiration yet remains within the tradition of mainstream jazz.
http://100greatestjazzalbums.blogspot.com/2008/05/cultural-survival-david-sanchez-concord.html
Louis Bellson Dies.....
Louie Bellson, the drummer whose career started in years 1930 and continued until its hospitalization due to a breaking in the hip, occured after a fall in passed November, dies in 14 of February. In passed January, Bellson had been transferred to Los Angeles for recovery. Beyond its work as musician, Bellson was an untiring educator, keeping clinical of battery in schools and houses of music. The Bellson is credited the double creation of the low one in the battery. It had 84 years.
The man of who Duke Ellington, as says itself, affirmed to be “optimum drummer of the world… (but also) the greater musician of the world” not only acted with sets of ten of great musicians of century 20, beyond recording and acting as leader and co-leader. In accordance with its “Web site”, it can be heard in writings of Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, Woody Herman, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Peterson Oscar, Dizzy Gillespie, Louie Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, James Brown, Sammy Davis Jr, Tony Bennett, Honey Tormé, Joe Williams, Wayne Newton e of its wife, Pearl Bailey. Been born Luigi Paolino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoniin, in Falls Rock, Illinois, in 6 of July of 1924, Louie Bellson started touching battery to the three years. After winning Krupa Gene in a duel of battery to the 17 years, the career of Bellson firmly took off after to estrelar the film “The Power Girl” with Benny Goodman and the Peggy singer Lee.
It remained with Goodman up to 1946, followed for periods with Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and Duke Ellington. It, also, journeyed with the “Jazz at the Philharmonic” of Norman Granz. In 2007, the album “Louie was recorded & Clark Expedition, Vol. 2”, in contribution with the trompetista Clark Terry for the stamp “Percussion Power”. A powerful and melodic soilist, Bellson was also a talentoso and prolific composer, with more than 1,000 songs under its credit. Its parts “Skin Deep” and “The Hawk Talks” had been presented by the orchestra of Duke Ellington.
Bellson married the Bailey singer in 1952 and they had remained together until its death in 1990. It journeyed with it and acted as its musical director. Between its many accomplishments, Bellson d was indicated six times for the Grammy, received the prize “Alive Legend from the Jazz” for Kennedy Center and the heading of master of the American Jazz for the “National Endowment will be the Arts” in 1994. It got four headings of honorary doctor for the following institutions: Northern Illinois University, Denison University, Augustana College and DePaul University. It more than wrote a dozen of books on battery and percussion
http://www.sojazz.org.br/
Mr. Lucky (CBS TV series) - end title 5-28-60
End title for the CBS television series "Mr. Lucky," from the episode "Stacked Deck." Music by Henry Mancini.
John Vivyan starred as Joe Adams, a.k.a. Mr. Lucky, with Ross Martin as his faithful sidekick Andamo.
Yvette Mimieux guest starred in this episode.
All copyrights acknowledged. For educational purposes only. Disseminated under "fair use" guidelines.
Free Suite and Six Encores....
by Jill McManus
In his Carnegie Hall solo concert on Thursday, January 29, pianist Keith Jarrett freely improvised pieces that showed his mastery of jazz, classical, contemporary, gospel and other styles, keeping the sold-out house silent and engrossed. At the 10-foot unamplified Steinway, dressed in black with a gold vest, he sometimes slouched, sometimes stood in a crouch stamping the beat, and occasionally chanted. His rapport with the audience seemed built-in, and it deepened as the night progressed.
His opening piece was atonal, almost pointillist, with pools of sound stirred by counterpoint. He created glistening icicles of sound in the piano’s highest register above pedaled bass chords, followed with a romantic piece full of contemporary yet also classical harmonies, then a brisk, rockish jaunt zig-zagging like free jazz and a sostenuto mood set by restful trills, chords peacefully rising and falling, and consonant ripples. The crowd, perhaps more partial to that than jazz, cheered loudly. Jarrett continued with a funky, mid-tempo bluesy thing and a lively two-minutes-long folk dance, ending impressionistically with sweet ideas in the upper register.
Jarrett kicked off the second half with a masterful rampage of furioso playing, one of the highlights of the night for this listener. He hovered and swayed over the keyboard, bouncing from one foot to the other as he laid down fleet flurries of notes, a rainstorm becoming a tidal wave of arpeggios that gradually slowed to delicious out-of-tempo dissonances. Each note rang with such clarity it was hard to believe he was creating it on the spot. In a more serene piece with a gospel feel, he seemed to like the ending, so he repeated it, commenting to an amused audience, “This studio has more people in it than any I╒ve ever recorded in.” Another of the evening’s highlights was a ballad in the Bill Evans style with long glowing ribbons of melody and a rich pattern of chord changes. More cheers. Jarrett was at the mic again, saying, “Never be in this situation in your life. You╒ve been playing for 60 years and you don’t know anything about the instrument. Well … maybe a little.” Revealing a bit more of his storehouse of sounds, he set off on a rhythmic dance that suggested raga and Middle-Eastern chants.
The crowd’s stomping got him to return for six encores: a plaintive “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (aha, a melody we know!), “Miss Otis Regrets,” a dazzling “Carolina Shout” with a left hand pattern of his own devising, the ballad “Where Are You,” “Angel Eyes” (did we hear “Brother Can You Spare a Dime” in there?) and a bluesy march. Clearly delighted with the audience, Jarrett admitted between encores, “It’s possible to feel connected with a room full of people. When it happens, there’s nothing like it.” Someone in the departing crowd commented, “That was really the full ‘Keith Jarrett experience!’”
http://www.jazzhouse.org/diary/2009/02/jarrett-at-carnegie/
Irving Aaronson and his Commanders
Irving Aaronson and his Commanders are remembered primarily today for their wonderful version of Cole Porter's "Lets Misbehave". The Commanders were one of the most popular dance bands of the 1920s and early 1930s. Irving Aaronson employed several future jazz greats in his orchestra, most notably Gene Krupa, Claude Thornhill and Artie Shaw.
http://www.redhotjazz.com/aaronson.html
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