Monterey's Golf 'n' Jazz Tournament Hits Pebble Beach Sept. 17

By Evan Haga
Insert golf-related “swing” pun here: On Thursday, Sept. 17, the Links at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach Golf Resort will host the 11th-annual Golf ’n’ Jazz Tournament. Produced by the Monterey Jazz Festival, which begins the following day and runs through Sept. 20, the event benefits students in Monterey’s jazz education programs. (Those programs include the MJF Summer Jazz Camp, Next Generation Festival, MJF Instrument Bank and more.)
Golf ’n’ Jazz is co-chaired by MJF board members Michael Fields and Clint Eastwood and registration begins at 7 a.m. The tournament entry fee is $395 per person and includes a round of golf with cart, golf awards ceremony, a gift bag, a silent auction, a lunch buffet and a live set by pianist Marshall Otwell and his trio, featuring heavies Bobby Hutcherson, Conrad Herwig and Joe Lovano.

I know, I know: The Links at Spanish Bay isn’t quite Pebble Beach Golf Links, but for jazz lovers with a little scratch, this sounds like a fun way to show support. Info and links are below:

MJF Golf ’n’ Jazz Tournament
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Morning Shotgun registration starts at 7 a.m.
The Links at Spanish Bay Golf Resort
1700 17-Mile Drive, Pebble Beach, CA 93953
montereyjazzfestival.org/golf
pebblebeach.com
http://jazztimes.com/sections/news/articles/24961-monterey-s-golf-n-jazz-tournament-hits-pebble-beach-sept-17

Steven Santoro - I'll be here

Vocalist Steven Santoro & Ahmet Ertegun

Vocalist Steven Santoro has an impressive biography that includes a rich background in music education and performance. A native of Massachusetts, Santoro graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in African-American music and jazz. His early interests in big band charts and swing provided a solid footing in jazz, but he also enjoyed sitting down at the piano and composing and he eventually merged into the world of pop.
His exceptional vocalizing and composing caught the ears of legendary founder of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun and Santoro found himself at the forefront of jazz radio and on the international pop/jazz charts in the mid ‘90’s. His record Moods and Grooves hit #1 on the UK jazz radio charts.
We caught up with Santoro after the completion of the academic year at Berklee College of Music where he is on the faculty.

Q. You have an impressive history as a jazz vocalist including a recording with Ahmet Ertegun and Atlantic Records and a hit record. What was that experience like?
A. Sometimes it was surreal, especially since at the time of the signing, I had no major music business experience. I had done my small gigs singing originals and standards and toured a little with Columbia Artists Management. But I had never dealt with the kind of “machine” that Atlantic was. I hadn’t worked with a producer before and suddenly I was working with the most famous of them all. It was intimidating at times working on my record “Moods and Grooves,” but I was grounded in my songwriting. It was an experience that taught me a lot.

Q. You are still on the faculty at Berklee College of Music?
A. Yes. Teaching has always been a part of my life, and teaching at Berklee has been like a second education for me. Anyone who teaches will tell you that they continue to learn in many different ways through their work with students. Whether you learn or re-learn from having to prepare and disseminate material that you teach or whether you discover something new from someone who makes music from the standpoint of another culture, it is all very inspiring. It is a truly international environment at Berklee—really beautiful.

Q. What is your latest CD and can you tell us about it?
A. My latest CD is called Whisper My Name. After my Atlantic record, I had gotten away from recording acoustic swing/ballad/jazz oriented music. I recorded a couple more projects that were slanted toward pop/R & B. I wanted to come back around and write for the acoustic jazz rhythm section again, so I wrote a collection of songs that were, for the most part, based on the form of the standards. They have a retro element to them but at the same time they’re definitely modern songs. I put together a great group of players and went into the studio. The personnal are: James Genus, bass; Clarence Penn, drums; Jon Cowherd, piano; Mark Ciprut, guitar; Nathan Childers, sax. All of these guys are at the top of their game. I’m really happy with these songs and the recording.

Q. Give us an update on your activities and what’s coming up for you.
A. I have been working on a project for years that is finally coming to fruition. I have co-written a musical called “Ivory Joe Cole.” It is a piece set in the early 1950’s that revolves around two brothers who are big band/jazz musicians from Harlem who find themselves following a record deal to Miami. We have a production company working with us as well as a Tony-winning director. We were scheduled to open this summer at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, but we decided to take the story in a different direction which led to a major re-write. I’m really excited to get this work in front of a real live audience as it has only been viewed so far by industry audiences. It will happen soon.

Q. Have you ever been to Tanglewood?
A. Though I’ve lived in LA and New York for many years, I’m originally from Massachusetts and even went to UMass. I also talk and talk about relocating to Western Mass because I consider it a magical place, so I can’t believe I have never been to Tanglewood! I’m really looking forward to finally getting there.

The Steven Santoro Quartet will perform at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival on Sunday, September 6, at 12:30 pm. For more information on Steven Santoro, visit stevensantoro.com. For a complete line-up of the Tanglewood Jazz Festival September 4-6 and ticket information, visit tanglewoodjazzfestival.org.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=40179

Grace Kelly Quintet to Perform at Scullers on August 27 in Support of "Mood Changes"

PAZZ Productions is proud to announce that saxophonist Grace Kelly and her Quintet will perform at Boston's Scullers Jazz Club on August 27 in support of their most recent release, Mood Changes. Additionally, Kelly was recently voted “Best Jazz Act in Boston" in The Boston Phoenix's 2009 Best Music Poll (a title that she holds for the second consecutive year).
Kelly's career is growing at an ever excelling pace. Trumpeter and Jazz at Lincoln Center Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis was so impressed with Kelly's three-night stand as guest of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in November that he invited her to join the ensemble at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater in Washington, D.C. for an Martin Luther King, Jr. Day/Inauguration Eve concert on January 19th. Harry Connick, Jr. heard Kelly in a master class on a December afternoon and brought her on stage to sit in with his band that night. This capped an already exceptional end of 2008 in which Kelly's appearance on NPR's Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland was syndicated nationally.

Kelly, who enjoyed critically acclaimed success on her previous GRACEFULEE album, has dominated the DownBeat Student Awards over the past four years. From 2006-2009, the saxophonist has garnered 12 student awards, including her latest three for “Jazz Soloist," “Outstanding Jazz Vocalist," and “Pop-Rock Blues Soloist."
“I'm just trying to listen to as much music as possible, which makes it hard for me to put together a CD about just one thing," Kelly says in explaining her inspiration for Mood Changes. “A year before the session, I wrote 'Tender Madness,' which is slow and sad, and around the same time, when I was in a good mood, I wrote 'Happy Theme Song.' At that point, I realized that a concept for my next album was taking shape. Two more originals, '101' and 'But Life Goes On,' extended the idea, as did the six standards."

Kelly is particularly excited about the strides that Mood Changes reveals in her bandleading skills. “There's nothing like playing my own music with my own band," she acknowledges. “Everyone is so comfortable, yet I feel as if I'm getting pushed in every performance. At the same time, I realize more of what I want over the years, and more direction goes into the music. Every time we play is a complete adventure."
Without hesitation, Grace Kelly will tell you that her goal is “to stay in jazz but also do different things, bigger arrangements, like Stevie Wonder and George Benson." Her ambition has yet to outstrip her talent, and Mood Changes suggests that such a turn of events is unlikely in the foreseeable future.

Grace Kelly Quintet at Scullers Jazz Club
Thursday, August 27, 8 PM

Grace Kelly, saxophones and vocals
Jason Palmer, trumpet
Doug Johnson, piano
Evan Gregor, bass
Jordan Perlson, drums

Scullers Jazz Club at the Doubletree Guest Suites-Boston
400 Soldiers Field Road
Boston, MA 02134
Tel: 617-562-4111
Email: info@ScullersJazz.com
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=40194

At Ronnie Scott's....

Monday 3rd

Gareth Lockrane Big Band
From pop sessions with Paul Weller, Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse and Beyonce, these young musicians join renowned flautist in his exciting big band. The “next big thing... the most exciting and inventive instrumentalist in the country.” Jack Massarik, Evening Standard
Ross Stanley Organ Trio
Young keyboard maestro with a burnin’ organ combo akin to Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff.

Mariza....

If we were to ask each and every one of Mariza’s fans to describe in a single word what they feel when they listen to her singing, we would surely get more than enough pages to compile – repetitions apart – a rich and voluminous dictionary. But besides confirming the richness of the Portuguese language vocabulary, this survey would also show the number of Mariza’s fans growing throughout the world, fans of all ages and walks of life.
With her talent and after seven years of hard work and discipline, Mariza acquired for herself the status of a great global singer – rubbing shoulders with the likes of Amália, Piaf, Elis, Ella, Garland, women singers who became household names. This is why we have to learn to share her with the world. Of course we love when she sings the Fado, our national song. But we cannot clip her wings. She will fly back home. Back to us. But for now let us gow on journey with her. Let us discover “Terra” (“Earth”), her latest álbum, the first master piece of a new breathing cycle.

Mariza sums it all up in one word: “truth”. And she adds: “During seven years of international tours, I had the chance of discovering other peoples and cultures. I watched and I listened. I learned. This is my moment. This is my truth. I’ve always been true to myself, and I’ve always been true to my fans. And I wanted this album to show them my progress as a singer and a human being. My two previous albums, ‘Transparente’ and ‘Concerto Em Lisboa’ were like the end of a cycle to me. This new album, I’ve decided to call it ‘Terra’. Why? Maybe because I always have my feet firmly planted on the ground, and also because recording it was like going on a musical journey. Inevitably...”
Lets be honest, shall we? Mariza is a Fado singer. But she keeps experimenting with new ways of singing it, and her fans just love it! All of her previous albums – “Fado em Mim” (2001), “Fado Curvo” (2003), “Transparente” (2005) and “Concerto Em Lisboa” (2006), plus the DVD “Live In London” (2004) – were Platinum winners. With Amália gone, we felt like orphans, so we looked for a new voice to express our national soul... We looked for Mariza.

Maybe we forgot that before Lisbon there was Mozambique, and after Lisbon it had to be the world. In other words, Fado, yes, always; but why not something else? Fado is definitely World Music, and Mariza won her first World Music awards singing Fado. “I want to sing for the world”, she says, “but I know I’ll always be coming back”.
“Terra”. The Portuguese Fado guitar is joined by British guitarist Dominic Miller (one of Sting’s supporting musician for the last twenty years, by three piano players, Brazilian Ivan Lins and Cubans Chucho Valdês and Ivan “Melon” Lewis, by Spanish flamenco guitarist Javier Limón, and by Spanish percussionist Piraña (Paco De Lucia’s favourite percussionist). Mariza’s voice blends perfectly with Cape-verdian Tito Paris’ and Afro-hispanic Concha Buika’s. After Jorge Fernando, Carlos Maria Trindade and Jacques Morelenbaum, Mariza has chosen Spanish Javier Limón as the producer for “Terra” – what a challenge! But in this cosmopolitan mixture of flamenco and morna, jazz and folk music, we hear a constant Portuguese sound; let’s call it Fado or simply Mariza.

Mariza wins her first music award in 2001, in Quebec – the First Award – Most Outstanding Performance. In 2003, she receives the Gold Medal from the Portuguese Tourist Office; she is elected Artist of the Year by the Portuguese Marketing Executives Association; she wins the German Press “Deutscheschalplatten Kritik” Award for best Ethnic, Folk and World Music album with “Fado Curvo” (she had won this same award in 2001, for “Fado em Mim”), and she is elected Best European Artist by BBC Radio 3 (she would win this award again in 2005 and 2006). In 2004, Mariza wins the “European Border Breakers Award” (an award sponsored by the European Union) for bestselling album “Fado em Mim”; she is voted Person of the Year by the Foreign Press Association of Portugal, and she is nominated ambassador for Fado’s candidature to UNESCO’S Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity programme.
In 2005, Mariza is nominated ambassor for the Hans Christian Andersen bicentennial celebrations, and she is elected UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador. She also wins the Amália Rodrigues Foundation “International Award” for “making Portuguese music known worldwide”. In 2006, President Jorge Sampaio from Portugal awards Mariza the Order of Henry the Navigator.

Mariza wins Portugal’s Golden Globe for Best Individual Performer, and she is nominated for the Australian Helpmann Awards in the category of “Best International Contemporary Concert”, for her performances at the Sydney Opera House. “Ó gente da minha terra” (from the “Fado Em Mim” album) is the title song for Pang Ho-cheung’s film “Isabella”, winner of the Silver Bear for best soundtrack at the 56th Berlin Film Festival
In 2007, Mariza is nominated for the Finnish “Emma Gaala” Awards for “Best International Artist”, together with Robbie Williams, Andrea Bocelli, Basshunter, Iron Maiden and Red Hot Chili Peppers. She is invited by famous German photographer Bettina Flitner to participate in the “100 most important women in Europe” project, sponsored by the German Government and presented in the European Parliament. Mariza is nominated ambassador for the Portuguese Tourism Institut, in appreciation for her worldwide efforts on behalf of the Portuguese culture. She becomes the first Portuguese artist to be nominated for the Grammy Awards: the “Concerto em Lisboa” is nominated by the Latin Academy of Recording & Sciences for best folk album.

n 2008 the Paris Academy of Arts, Sciences and Letters awarded Mariza the prestigious Medaille de Vermeil, for “her relevant services to the arts and culture”. All these demonstrations of recognition and appreciation honour Mariza’s career, and they honour us. After all, she sings the Portuguese soul. And “Terra” is a Portuguese album, recorded for the World. Once again nominated for the Latin Grammy Awards for “Best Folk Album” and “Best Producer” (Javier Limón) .The seeds were sown, says Mariza, “and the fruits will be plentiful and diverse”.
http://www.mariza.com/

Mariza - Smile @ Holland 2008

Photo impression Amsterdam & Eindhoven 2008.
This one is special 4U and thanks for the contribution of Smile.
See also www.flickr.com/groups/mariza

Elis Regina - Me Deixas Louca

Late diva Elis Regina in her last performance on TV, singing Me Deixas Louca.

RECORDINGS by ELIS REGINA

by Don Caine
First-time listeners to Elis Regina are to be envied. Many may wish to start with one of the excellent compilations that are available. The recordings, in their manner of production, fall chronologically into two groups: those recorded up through 1971 feature primarily acoustic instrumentation, while those produced later (in partnership with Mariano, for the most part) turn on the juice. A Arte de Elis Regina (Verve/Polygram) is an excellent representation of early (1965-1973) material recorded by the label that documented most of the singer's career. Fascinação, also widely available, presents many highlights from the middle-to-late portion of her career. Among the many fine Brazilian compilations, one of the most comprehensive is Sem Limite, a particularly well-chosen two-disc collection. Most recently there has appeared a double set, 20 Anos de Saudade, which collects rarities: singles, contributions to festival anthologies, a live recording from Paris, even a duet with soccer star Pelé. There is no reason why such a collection should work well as a listening experience, but this one is simply wonderful. The Warner Bros. material (1979-1980), while also available in many compilations, is probably best enjoyed in its original album format (see below).

On the earliest recordings, done in her teens for the Continental and Columbia labels, while Elis acquits herself with aplomb and even bravado, the tunes are preponderantly directed at a young market, and many suffer beneath doggy arrangements. However, the remaining 30-odd Elis Regina recordings are nearly all in print and all a premier pleasure to hear. Following her aforesaid recording apprenticeship, she recorded prolifically for Polygram Brazil and its affiliated labels, which have reissued her albums many times. Unless otherwise indicated, these recommended albums all appear under that imprint.

Dois Na Bossa (1965-67), actually three separate recordings issued a year apart, features Elis at the first rush of her celebrity, along with singing partner Jair Rodrigues in stage performances before live audiences and backed by lively bossa-jazz groups. The first volume features Elis Regina's first huge hit, Edu Lobo's politically-charged "Arrastão"; all three discs feature extended medleys and a cross-section of the emergent MPB of the '60s.

Elis (1966) is a landmark collage of the incipient tropicalistas. Included are early masterpieces written by the likes of Gil ("Roda"), Lobo (the perennial "Pra Dizer Adeus"), Chico Buarque ("Tem Mais Samba"), Veloso ("Boa Palavra"), along with newcomer Nascimento's "Canção do Sal" and a nostalgic, choro rendition of the legendary Pixinguinha's "Carinhoso."

One of her jazziest sets, Como & Porque (1969) finds Elis ever the seeker after new modes of expression: on Lobo's wordless "Casa Forte" she accompanies her own overdubbed lead to stunning effect, while she scat-duets with flute and trumpet on Antonio Randolfo's "Giro." Here can be found probably the definitive performance of Baden Powell's "Canta de Ossanha." Also included are her first rendition of Ary Barroso's "Aquarela do Brasil," the most famous Brazilian anthem before the dawn of bossa nova, and, of course, the valedictory "Samba da Pergunta."

All right, so Polygram wasn't very creative when it came to titling her albums; Elis, the title of three straight releases, in 1972, 1973 and 1974, nevertheless collectively represents the first flowering of her musical partnership with husband Cesar Mariano. Together, they offer some of Elis Regina's most treasured recordings, many of them written by stalwarts Gil ("Oriente," "Meio de Campo") and Nascimento (the incredible "Cais" and still more incredible "Ponta de Areia"). They also introduce Elis to a songwriting team that would be among her favorites for the decade to come, Joao Bosco and Aldir Blanc ("Dois Pra Lá, Dois Pra Cá," and the anthemic "O Mestre-Sala dos Mares"). Mariano's musical settings, from intimate jazz trios to large orchestras, are ingenious without being intrusive and serve the star performer well.
A chance vacation given Elis by her record company resulted in a Los Angeles studio encounter with icon Antonio Carlos ("Tom") Jobim; Elis & Tom (1974) remains one of the finest recordings made by either artist. As befit the bossa nova style, Elis gave a relatively restrained performance, while Jobim allowed a modicum of electricity in many of the arrangements. An album of great sensitivity, this unique collaboration offers a wonderful range of styles and textures. Highlights include bold reworkings of "Retrato em Branco e Preto" and "Fotografia," the joyful "Chovendo na Roseira" (better known here as "Double Rainbow"), and the two singers' blithe interplay through "Àguas de Março," one of Jobim's last great hits.

Falso Brilhante (1976) features studio versions from Elis's great international touring extravaganza of the mid-'70s, alas much abbreviated. Video clips of her stage performances show her singing more than credibly in French and Italian and doing an impression of Carmen Miranda in that diva's famous habitude, none of which appears on this disc. What remains is an odd, though truly brilliant, assemblage of stark protest ballads (in Spanish), experimental pop, and flat-out rock'n'roll. The album's centerpiece, a Portuguese version of the omnipresent "Fascination," absolutely belongs to Elis.

Elis Regina's two studio albums for Warner Bros. are both essential. Essa Mulher (1979) contains "O Bêbado e A Equilibrista," still one of the songs most widely associated with her, and there is a remarkable duet with one of her earliest stylistic models, Cauby Peixoto, on the sultry "Bolero de Satã." Saudades Do Brasil (1980) a complete studio version on two discs of Elis's show of the same name, is perhaps the apotheosis of Cesar Mariano's production art. The sequence of the show, following a thrilling fanfare and "Terra de Ninguém," Elis's old television theme, suggests the story of Brazil, past, present and future. Highlights include no fewer than five new anthems by Milton Nascimento, a radical reinterpretation of "Aquarela do Brasil" with Native chants and African drums, and a remarkable performance of Jobim's "Sabiá" sung to Mariano's intimate piano accompaniment.

The "live" albums deserve special consideration for Elis's daring to explore, even beyond the perfection of her studio work. In the three volumes of No Fino Da Bossa (Velas, 1965-67; issued 1994) one is struck by the on-stage poise she displays, even at the age of 20, among such luminaries as Ciro Monteiro, Baden Powell, and Adoniran Barbosa. Elis ão Vivo (Velas, 1977; issued 1995) shows her, though seven months pregnant, in full command of an extraordinary repertoire amid star guest musicians Ivan Lins, Renato Teixeira, and others. Transversal do Tempo (1978) presents tasty excerpts from the tour that succeeded Falso Brillhante, including memorable versions of Barbosa's "Saudosa Maloca," a medley of two of Chico Buarque's compositions, and an amusing take on bossa nova, "Querelas do Brasil." Elis Vive (Warner, 1979; issued 1998) and Elis Live in Montreux (Warner, 1979; issued 1982) feature Elis with Mariano's small band; the latter also includes a set-closing duet with Hermeto Pascoal, which incorporates an hilarious send-up of "The Girl from Ipanema." Trem Azul (Som Livre/Gala, 1981; issued 1982) documents one of Elis's last public performances. Though the sound quality is not up to that of some of the others, this disc demonstrates best, perhaps, the mesmerizing effect Elis Regina in person could have upon an audience.
http://www.mrlucky.com/html/music/rev53d.htm

Louis Armstrong and the Copenhagen Jazz Festival

The forthcoming Copenhagen Jazz Festival serves as a reminder of a visit from one of the world’s late jazz greats
When Louis Armstrong first visited Copenhagen in 1933, the huge crowds were so eager to catch a glimpse of the world-famous jazz musician that his first thought was that they were going to lynch him.
The US jazz musician was legendary all over the world, and his fan-base was no less devoted in Scandinavia, which he was to visit many times during his long and illustrious career.
He recorded live sessions and concerts in Denmark; and who could forget the song named after the city itself, the much played ‘Copenhagen’ from 1924?
Armstrong also became a close acquaintance of some of Denmark’s most respected jazz musicians of the time, such as Svend Asmussen and Bent Fabricius-Bjerre.

Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, in the US state of Louisiana, on 4 August 1901. He grew up in abject poverty and spent his much of his youth getting into trouble with the authorities. During this delinquent period, he was sent to the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs where he nurtured his talent playing cornet in the band and was given some musical training.
His mentor, Joe ‘King’ Oliver, took him under his wing and in 1922, invited him to Chicago to join his creole jazz band, at that time the best and most influential in town. After this, followed stints in New York, LA and New Orleans, where Armstrong’s reputation grew, firstly as a musician playing the cornet and trumpet, and then as a vocalist, with his trademark deep, gravelly, scat singing style.

Although Armstrong’s decision to tour Europe was in part because he was escaping from the Mob, by the time he embarked on his first European tour in 1933, he was already a household name across most of the globe, after success with hits such as “Ain’t Misbehavin’“ and Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust”.
Nicknamed ‘Satchmo’, an abbreviation of ‘Satchelmouth’, due to the comical way his cheeks would puff up like a satchel when he played the trumpet, he arrived at Copenhagen’s main train station in July 1933 to complete pandemonium – and the 3000 fans who were there hoping to meet their idol came as quite a surprise to him.

According to music journalist Henrik W. Iversen, an Armstrong enthusiast, the musician’s origins in the sharply segregated and racially prejudiced US Deep South seemed to come back to him as he saw the waiting mob.
‘He had no idea that he was so popular in Europe, and when he saw so many people his first thought was that they’d come to lynch him, he later admitted,’ said Iversen.
The fans were apparently so frenzied that they began to grab and pull at Satchmo’s clothing, leaving the star half-dressed and in need of a whole new outfit.

This first impression did not deter Armstrong, who was without a doubt the biggest jazz name in Denmark up until the 1950s. By this time, Armstrong had embarked on a successful film career and had even appeared on the cover of Time magazine. When he visited Copenhagen he filled the spacious K.B. Hallen music venue 13 times over in a period of six days, with two concerts a night and three on Saturdays.
Armstrong said that he liked visiting Scandinavia because the public understood how to listen to his music, something which the 1933 jazz film ‘Copenhagen – Kalundborg,’ in which Armstrong makes an appearance with many other jazz greats, testifies.

As the city’s annual jazz festival rapidly approaches, stories of ‘Satchmo’ and other jazz greats who have graced the city in the past are once again relived, as older jazz lovers retell the experience of witnessing some of music history’s most famous names, including Armstrong himself.
Louis Armstrong died of a heart attack on 6 July 1971, aged 69. Shortly before his death, he said, "I think I had a beautiful life. I didn’t wish for anything that I couldn’t get and I got pretty near everything I wanted because I worked for it."

The legacy he left – a deep-rooted love of jazz – lives on in many musicians and fans, both home-grown and those who have chosen to make Denmark their base.
http://www.cphpost.dk/culture/denmark-through-the-looking-glass/171-denmark-through-the-looking-glass/46175-louis-armstrong-and-the-copenhagen-jazz-festival.html

Johanna Iivanainen - Kun Joulupukki Suukon Sai

Johanna Iivanainen & Eero Koivistoisen yhtye - Lennosta kii!

Lennosta kii! is a joint venture between singer Johanna Iivanainen and saxophonist Eero Koivistoinen (and his band), that makes jazz versions of Finnish pop and rock classics.
A daring concept, since many of these songs are classics of Finnish popular music and making jazz versions of them could easily mean watering them down, but this album is made with certain confidence. No wonder: the same team made a record, called Suomalainen and having a similar concept, couple of years ago.

From a technical point of view, this is a fantastic record. Iivanainen is certainly a talented and versatile singer, and the musicians handle their jobs very well. It sounds like these people don’t just perform the music, they are living it.
In its own genre Lennosta kii! truly must be a triumphant success: this is evident from the carefully constructed arrangements and soulful performances. However, I found myself – not being much of a jazz freak – thinking this is too clean, too perfect, too devoid of mistakes, to really genuinely touch me. Of course, not every kind of music must sound like it was made a amateur punk rock band, but at times this sounds too much like music aimed at coffee tables to have a serious impact.

Anyhow, for jazz enthusiastic and all open-minded music lovers in general, Lennosta kii! is certainly worth checking out.
http://www.freemagazine.fi/content/view/604/152/

Janita....

A bit of blues, jazz and soul in this new cocktail served by the Finnish female singer.
Maarit offers here a collection of good tracks for the lovers of Iskelmä music. Unfortunately I am not especially fond of the style, but surely this album will find some followers, especially for the Finnish native speakers, because the album is entirely song in Finnish.

A relaxing atmosphere and the omnipresent feeling of loneliness and melancholy “made in Finland” are features present all over the 12 tracks of the album: songs easy to listen to like in Yö Saapui Pariisiin or Tikkurilan Asemalla. Maybe we could say that this is a record better aimed at a mature audience in their thirties or forties. For younger ones, this can turn to be a bit boring if you are looking for new musical experiences.
Personally, if you enjoy a nice female Finnish voice, and you prefer to understand the lyrics in English, I still go for other singers like the lovely and skilled Janita. Kun Yö Saapuu is a good album if you want to fall in the arms of Morpheus and enjoy a well deserved siesta after lunch. Otherwise, you do not miss much here.
http://www.freemagazine.fi/content/view/802/152/

JANITA - That's How Life Goes

Anna Maria Jopek....

Anna Maria Jopek is as Polish as one can be - not only with her gentle beauty, but first of all with her music, coming straight from the heart. Yet her latest project features a bunch of true giants from around the world. The Brazilian bossa nova genius Oscar Castro Neves meets serene ECM recording pianist from Norway Tord Gustavsen. An exotic voice of Tunesian oud virtuoso and vocalist Dhafer Youssef blends with brave and adventurous notes of Branford Marsalis' soprano saxophone. Richard Bona's trademak Douala vocals and bass lines coexist with sensual French singing by percussion wizard Mino Cinelu. Manu Katche and Christian Mc Bride provide powerful grooves… yet then there is this amazing, sophisticated vocal (in fact - about a zillion of them so carefully layered!) by Anna Maria that makes it all work. That makes this dialogue of such different cultures not only possible, but fascinating to observe. That makes this music unique, one of the kind. Personal.
'All these people have been my inspiration for the last decade - Anna Maria says humbly. It's an amazing experience to have finally met them, to exchange energies and ideas, to learn from them and - hopefully - to create some original music with them in mind. I am Polish. I come from the vast meadows of central Poland, I've been brought up with its musical traditions, but it does not make my ID complete. Especially now, with the world getting so much smaller every single day. I truly believe that the new music might emerge from coexistance of so many so different voices, influences, traditions, religions. By far - this is the most important work I've ever done.'
In Poland ID went Platinum in just two weeks. The triumphant tour, featuring Dhafer Youssef, Mino Cinelu and Richard Bona followed with sold out venues and standing ovations. Parts of these events eventually turned into an adventurous live album in the fall of 2008, entitled Jo & Co. It went Gold on the spot. It was not, however, her first experience with the world-class masters and musical heroes. She's been known for probably the most influential and groundbreaking project in Polish popular music.
'Just thirty seconds of Anna's tune belong to the most beautiful music I've heard in months' - Pat Metheny said at the press conference when their album went Gold on the day of its first release back in 2002. The international release of Pat Metheny & Anna Maria Jopek: Upojenie with three great bonus tracks became available worldwide in October 2008 on Nonesuch label.
'I couldn't think of anything more inspiring, motivating and ear opening than working with Pat. He's been my first and most important mentor for years, but to actually make music with him was the most thrilling experience in my life...' - Anna Maria Jopek commented on their project. The unique tribute to the master composer, guitarist and 18-time Grammy Award Winner became an instant classic.
Anna Maria is a classically trained pianist and graduated from Chopin's Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland. After briefly studying in Manhattan School of Music's Jazz Department Anna decided not to play Mozart concertos anymore and trade her beloved Ravel for Keith Jarrett. Philharmonic Hall for small, smoky clubs and theatres.
'Please do not file my music under jazz', Anna Maria Jopek says though. Nor under pop, folk... whatever. I embrace a lot of influences. Jazz is by far the most important in its freedom, its harmony and its sense of time but I was brought up with the old Polish folk songs. So I'm kind of rooted here in all these Slavic landscapes and sounds. With 14 albums of her own Anna Maria Jopek performed and recorded with all the important artists in Poland including numerous concerts and recordings with an ECM-based trumpeter Tomasz Stanko. During the Jazz Jamboree International Festival 40th Anniversary Gala she performed with one of the greatest jazz saxophonists of our times: Joe Lovano. In 2008 she performed with yet another all time hero of hers, Bobby Mc Ferrin. Cameo appearances live with Chris Botti soon followed.
In 2003 at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, invited by the First Family, Anna gave a small recital broadcasted live and dueted with the pop icon, former King Crimson frontman, Gordon Haskell. Although she plays open air gigs for thousands of fans, Anna prefers an intimate setting to a huge concert hall and performs about 100 concerts each year, from Toronto to Vienna, London to Berlin. Yet her Carnegie Hall appearance and "Bossa Nova at 50" event at the Hollywood Bowl in September 2008 remain one of the most cherished and memorable thrills of her professional life. Yes, she has been given awards, including Michel Legrand's Personal Award in Witebsk in 1994, not to mention literally all of the Polish prestigious awards and Gold and Platinum records. Nevertheless Anna Maria Jopek is known for saying: 'Music itself is the highest award for me. And the greatest challenge. With so many questions remaining to be answered'.
Let's leave the last word to Pat Metheny: 'Anna is original, unique, different. She's brave, she's modest, she's open. She's a great musician. What she's been doing all her life is just trying to choose the best notes.
http://anna-maria-jopek.com/en/bio.html

Pat Metheny & Anna Maria Jopek - Cyraneczka

Brazilian Jazz

Today we can certainly speak of a Brazilian jazz, with initial capital letters. Note its existence is no problem. Now define it is something much more difficult.
One possible way of defining what is meant by "Brazilian jazz" would say he is simply the North American jazz, from New Orleans and Dixieland to Hardbop, practiced by Brazilian musicians. Brazil because it would be played with "accent" Brazilian. This definition would not be as wrong, however, leaves a lot out.

Another way would be to say that the Brazilian jazz equivalent to 'Brazilian contemporary instrumental music', practiced mainly by instrumental groups concentrated on the axis São Paulo - Rio de Janeiro - Minas Gerais from the 70s. Another way would be to define the Brazilian jazz as an improvised music using a syntax jazzística but with Brazilian rhythms and inflection, which would, in practice, a fusion between jazz and contemporary Brazilian instrumental music.
But at this point one could observe, with justice, that should be taking into account also the chorinho insofar as this is the musical genre that plays within the Brazilian musical culture the role similar to jazz in the North American culture.

And so on: each attempt to define it is not false but incomplete, too restrictive. One thing is certain: what we perceive as Brazilian jazz can not be reduced to just one of those aesthetic lines. It seems unlikely that it can be defined as some type of "combination" of these genres in certain relative proportions.
So when we talk about jazz Brazilian, we are not talking about a style defined and closed, but plural and mutable. Probably one reason for the difficulty in defining it is the extraordinary richness of rhythmic Brazilian matrix.The Brazilian territory pulsates from north to south in a myriad of different rhythms.

To mention only some, not necessarily in order of importance: the frevo the maracatu, the gherkin, the xote the Baiao, the coconut, the hammer, the piston, the fashion, the samba, the bossa nova, the Seresta the ranchers, the Wonder Dog. In other words, we could say that we have only one swing, we have many.
Since the Brazilian jazz is at the crossroads of multiple influences, it follows that we can seek its origins also in various directions. We seek these origins dating back to the old and Pixinguinha chorões. Or you can return to the orchestras of balls at the time of the Second War. Or we can confine ourselves to retreat to a more recent times, the emergence of the bossa nova, which, although not exclusively instrumental, put a new harmonic language that would be absorbed by many musicians. We can also, finally, in the report and innovative groups with a more modern language, as the Quartet New.

Perhaps the solution is not a defining stylistic closed, but the existence of a certain factor, a "Brazilian", for whose characterization be necessary to have the services, not a musicologist, but an anthropologist or sociologist. Finally, with regard to the characterization of a Brazilian jazz, as you can see that this is a difficult task, more difficult than any of the styles characterized "canonical" of North American jazz.
80's of the twentieth century here, witnessed a considerable recovery of Brazilian jazz, but the emphasis by the media to those artists are still short of that would be desirable. But has grown in the public and the press the perception that the Brazilian musicians were and are able to create a song out, coherent, technically well done, which certainly can match the best of what the North American jazz has produced.
by Bezerra VA
http://www.ejazz.com.br/

Polly Gibbons - Almost There

soundclip from CD album "The Music of BB Cooper featuring the Best of British Vocal Jazz" www.itunes.com/bbcooper.

At Ronnie Scott's....

Saturday, 1st

Julian Joseph Trio
From jazz to classical, rock & pop, this acclaimed pianist, bandleader and broadcaster never fails to inspire.
Polly Gibbons Quartet
A stunning vocalist in the style of Ray Charles, Dinah Washington and Aretha Franklin.

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation....

Delivering a complete cycle of 25 years and this year, under the concept of icons and innovators, the Jazz in August continues to offer - the environment that characterizes fairy in the gardens of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation - musicians mentioned in the history of jazz, holders of creative music projects, innovative and visionary, presented for the first time in Portugal.
The Jazz in August 2009 will begin on Saturday, 1 to 21.30 (Outdoor Amphitheater) with George Lewis and his electro acoustic Sequel project. Trombone in more than 80 albums which grows on parity, the electronic side of music, George Lewis returns to the Jazz in August supported experimental project that premiered in Baden-Baden New Jazz Meeting in 2004, is the second time that the displays in public. Member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), George Lewis is also the author of the book The Power Stanger than Itself - The AACM and American Experimental Music (Ed. The University of Chicago Press, 2008), work that will present at the conference the next day, Sunday, 2 to 16:30 (Auditorium 3).

The Jazz in August 2009 continues on Sunday, 2 to 18:30 (Auditorium 2) with the duo formed by American Rough Italian Giulia Loli of Egyptian descent, aka Dj Mutamassik and experimental American guitarist Morgan Craft. American smooths rough boundaries of music through a provocative and revealing sampladélia is assertive in politics through contemporary sounds that migrate between popular music genres.
Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris concludes the 1st weekend in August at the Jazz hosted the Outdoor Amphitheater leading the Nublu Orchestra, a mixture of irreverence and leading and bringing together musicians from varied backgrounds with point of meeting regularly in club Nublu in New York, a multicultural area underground. With a different composition in each exhibition, the Nublu Orchestra is to complete the process of conducting Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris, a set of signals processed in a vocabulary that the musician has to lead the musicians of the orchestra joining their differences designing and unpredictable directions.

The Jazz returned in August 2009 on Thursday, August 6, with a concert revelation ...

Credits for images:
- George Lewis Sequel: Claudio Casanova / AAJItaly
- Nublu Orchestra: Nublu Orchestra

Top Jazz Artists to Perform Free Concerts....

Stockton, CA - Some of the best high school jazz musicians from throughout the country will gather at the Brubeck Institute on the campus of University of the Pacific from Aug. 9 through 15 for a one-week intensive jazz colony led by some of the top jazz artists and clinicians in the industry. The annual program will culminate in two free concerts by both the artists and colonists.

The Brubeck Institute Summer Jazz Colony concerts provide an opportunity for jazz lovers to hear the accomplishments of these outstanding musicians. The 2009 Artists Concert will be held on Friday, Aug. 14 at 7:30 p.m. in Faye Spanos Concert Hall. The 2009 Colonists Concert will be held on Saturday, Aug. 15 at 3 p.m., also in Faye Spanos Concert Hall. Both concerts are free and open to the public.
“The musicianship of the colonists never ceases to amaze me," said Steve Anderson, executive director of the Brubeck Institute. “Though they are still in high school, they demonstrate ability and talent that will impress even the most knowledgeable jazz fan. They are not only keeping the art of jazz thriving, they are advancing it in new, fresh, and exciting directions."


The nineteen colonists, chosen from scores of applications by a panel of judges, come from New York, California, Colorado, New Jersey, Oregon, Arizona, Florida, Texas, and Illinois. They will study with the artist faculty in rehearsals, lessons, seminars, master classes, and perform in jam sessions and concerts.
“One of the interesting features of this year's concerts will be the inclusion of all the tunes from Dave Brubeck's revolutionary album Time Out," said Anderson. “We thought it was most appropriate to honor the 50th anniversary of this great album with performances by these extraordinary musicians."

Artist faculty include Brian Lynch, trumpet, Andrew Speight, saxophone, Steve Davis, trombone, Ray Drummond, bass, Akira Tana, drums, Madeline Eastman, voice, Joe Gilman, piano, Steve Homan, guitar, and others.
The Summer Jazz Colony began in 2002 and is one of five programs offered by the Brubeck Institute, which was established in 2000 to honor Pacific's distinguished alumni, Dave and Iola Brubeck.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=40121

Brazillian Legend Leny Andrade Retuns to Birdland from Rio

After a very successful week last summer at the legendary club Birdland in NYC, where Leny Andrade received a rave review from The New York Times, she's been invited back to Birdland and will go on tour to important Festivals and clubs in and around NY: The Litchfield Festival Summer Concerts on the Hudson in NJ, Scullers in Boston, Belleayre Music Festival in Belleayre NY (in the Catskills), and “back to Birdland."

“To describe Ms. Andrade as both the Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald of bossa nova only goes so far in evoking a performer whose voice seem to contain the body and soul of Brazil."
-- Stephen Holden, The New York Times

Tour: The Litchfield Jazz Festival in Litchfield, Conn. - August 1st
http://www.litchfieldjazzfest.com/
“Summer Concerts on the Hudson" in Weehawken on the Waterfront, NJ - August 5th
http://www.hrpac.org/
Scullers Jazz Club in Boston - August 7th
http://www.scullersjazz.com/

Belleayre Music Festival in Belleayre, NY (in the Catskill Mountains)- August 8th (with Cesar Camargo Mariano and Romero Lubambo Duo)
For lodging and tourist info: 1-800 942 6409
http://www.belleayremusic.org/
Birdland in NYC - August 12,13,14,15........in NYC
http://www.birdlandjazz.com/ -- BIRDLAND: 212 581-3080
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=40125

Jazz Art Series

Arturo Doñate e Antônio Porcar

The Man Called Bish....

My dear friend Walter Bishop, Jr., aka Bish, was a pianist and composer who came of age during the Bebop era. Growing up on the streets of Harlem during the late 30s and early 40s, his friends were Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean and Arthur Taylor. A Bud Powell disciple, he played with Miles and Bird and later led his own Trios.
I met Bish in 1976 when he was playing with Clark Terry. We became instant friends and he was the subject of my first published article Jazz Warrior Marches On in Down Beat magazine back in February of 1977. In 1987 I produced Walter Bishop's VHS Master Class which detailed his Theory of Fourths and included some lovely solo piano, and his poetry.

I have taken several segments from that video, and posted on YouTube, creating a Walter Bishop, Jr. page which includes one of his last Trio performances, featuring bassist Paul Brown; his Theory of Fourths; Bish on Comping and Chord Voicings; Solo Piano versions of some of his later compositions, and two poems, Max The Invincible Roach, and, Thelonious and the Keyboard Bugs. Also included is an interview with Sonny Rollins where he talks about Bish.

Bish passed in 1998 at the age of 70. Hopefully the posting of these videos will keep his memory alive and introduce new generations to my friend who, as a young man, kept a picture of Bud Powell in his wallet.
The Jazz Video Guy Newsletter

Solo Piano: Walter Bishop, Jr.

Bebop piano legend Walter Bishop, Jr. performs solo piano versions of his own compositions in an excerpt from his 1987 VHS Master Class.

Ramsey Lewis Trio

"Songs from the Heart: Ramsey Plays Ramsey" on Concord Jazz - September 29

Ramsey Lewis to Release Concord Jazz Debut, Songs From the Heart: Ramsey Plays Ramsey, Available September 29
On September 29, Concord Jazz will release Songs From the Heart: Ramsey Plays Ramsey, the debut Concord Jazz CD from iconic pianist/bandleader Ramsey Lewis. At the age of 74, Ramsey Lewis has not only continued to be active in the jazz world, but he's also forging ahead with a newly inspired creative instinct as a composer. This re-envisioned artistic sensibility is showcased on his new album, which is a remarkable, refined collection of 12 new originals that he composed over a period of two years. The collection includes music from two commissioned world premiere performances at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois, just north of Chicago. Eight songs come from the score of 2007's ballet To Know Her...written for the Joffrey Ballet Company and four pieces come from 2008's Muses and Amusementssuite performed with the Turtle Island Quartet.

Songs From the Heart, Lewis' first trio recording in five years, features eight pieces with bassist Larry Gray and drummer Leon Joyce, and four piano solo performances. To Lewis, the CD marks a turning point in his storied career: he's found new life as a composer.

“Initially nothing was compelling me to go into the studio," says the three-time-Grammy-winner Lewis, who in addition to his 80-plus album career (seven went gold) is also a Chicago-based radio personality and host of the PBS TV series “Legends of Jazz." “But since I'd been composing so much and people were responding positively to the new songs, I decided to do an entire album of my own material instead of recording music by other artists."

In regards to his newfound love of composing, he adds, “I'm like a kid on Christmas morning all over again. For me, it's all about the music. It's what makes me sleep well and jump out of bed in the morning to work on new melodies. I can't wait."

Lewis says that his early hits-most prominently his mid-'60s international breakout tunes “The 'In' Crowd," “Hang on Sloopy" and “Wade in the Water"-in some ways spoiled him. “Darn those hits," he says jokingly. “In the early days with the trio I wrote more, but once you get so popular you tend to get a little lazy. It comes to a point where you compose three or four songs for a new album, then one or two seems to suffice."

In 2006, Welz Kauffman, the president/CEO of Ravinia, suggested that Lewis, the jazz artistic director there, compose a score for the Joffrey. The pianist met with the ballet company's then executive director, Jon Teeuwissen, and then set forth to work on an hour's worth of material. He was in for a rude awakening. “I sat down at the piano and all I could think of was Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev and music for classical ballet," he says. “As I sat at the piano with no ideas, my wife Jan told me, 'I'm hearing you and you're suffering. Why don't you just turn on a tape recorder and play?' I told her, 'But I'm trying to compose.'"

However, Lewis took her advice and began to discover melodies as he improvised. His breakthrough song is the CD's leadoff track, the lyrical “To Know Her Is to Love Her." More tunes quickly followed even without using the tape recorder ("It was almost like writing shorthand," says Lewis), and he presented the eight compositions to Joffrey choreographer Donald Byrd. “He liked my old hits, but he had nothing but superlatives for the new material," says Lewis, who notes that one tune, “Clouds in Reverie," was a version of a piece written for the previous year's Ravinia project, One Score, One Chicago: New Scenes From Childhood.

Joffrey choreography began in April 2007 for the June 2007 performance. A month before the premiere Lewis saw his first rehearsal. The troupe put his recorded demos on and began to dance. “The way they moved brought tears to my eyes," says Lewis. “When I started out in bands when I was 16, people danced to our music. This took me back 50 years, and here I was writing for dancing again."

At Ravinia, the performance garnered a rousing applause from the audience and critical plaudits from the press. Lewis says, “My son pointed out to me that this was the first concert of mine he had seen that got a standing ovation without me having to play the hits. That told me something about focusing more intently on composition."

Kauffman was so impressed that he immediately commissioned Lewis to write new works for Ravinia in 2008. He decided to compose for a string quartet to accompany his trio. On the recommendation of his good friend and fellow pianist Dr. Billy Taylor, Lewis enlisted the Turtle Island Quartet to perform a suite of eight new originals, including the relaxed-swinging “The Spark" and the bowed ballad “The Conversation." Of the former, Lewis says, “I like the energy in this song. I was thinking of a groove-not rock, but something that had an element of excitement and forward motion while at the same time was melodic."

From the ballet score, Lewis explains that the emotive tune “Touching, Feeling, Knowing" is based on a folk melody he heard when he visited Soweto, South Africa. “It's a simple melody that I used as the basis for this song. When we play it, it reminds me of South Africa." In regards to the appropriately titled “The Way She Smiles," Lewis says, “That's one of those songs that just happened. I woke up one morning and was thinking of a New Orleans groove."

One of the added bonuses of Lewis' prolific writing has been an enrichment of his pianistic talent. “The composing has informed my playing," says Lewis. “I'm looking at harmony and melody in a different way. I've noticed that my solos have become deeper and more contemplative." On Songs From the Heart, Lewis takes the solo spotlight four times, including the film noir-ish “Long Before She Knew" and reflective muse “The Glow of Her Charm."

The latter arrived when Lewis was working on an intro to the song “In the Still of the Night" that he was performing one evening in Washington, D.C. He was in his hotel room on a grand piano, determined to find a prelude. Once again, his wife offered her wisdom. “Jan was listening to me and said, 'What's that? That's a song, not an introduction. You've got a new song.' And, if course, she was right."

On Songs From the Heart, Lewis offers graceful music, played with a light, gentle, joyful touch, and focused on melody. Writing in the CD liner notes, Lewis pointed out that in the CD's initial planning stages, all artistic and record company parties agreed that Songs From the Heart should be characterized by “heartfelt, lyrical and inspirational" music “that my fans had come to expect."

In the liners, Lewis also noted, “Our desire was to convey a sense of beauty, joy, simplicity and lyricism...I am extremely proud of the results." He adds, “Looking back at all the music that I've written over the last few years, I think I'm coming up with something unique. I think I'm developing a style."
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=40021

Stratusphunk (George Russell) - The Subject Is Jazz

http://www.billytaylorjazz.net presents an excerpt from the 1958 tv program, "The Subject is Jazz," featuring George Russell's composition and arrangement, "Stratusphunk," with:
Bill Evans on piano,
Art Farmer, trumpet,
Jimmy Cleveland, trombone,
Gene Quill, alto,
Ed Thigpen, drums.

Jazz Composer George Russell Dies at 86

BOSTON--Jazz composer George Russell, a MacArthur fellow whose theories influenced the modal music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, has died.
His publicist says Russell, who taught at the New England Conservatory, died Monday in Boston at age 86 of complications from Alzheimer's.

Russell was born in Cincinnati in 1923 and attended Wilberforce University. He played drums in Benny Carter's band and later wrote “Cubano Be/Cubano Bop" for Dizzy Gillespie's orchestra. It premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1947 and was the first fusion of Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz.
Russell developed the Lydian concept in 1953. It's credited as the first theoretical contribution from jazz.
Russell is survived by his wife, his son and three grandchildren. A release says a memorial service will be planned.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=40045/

2009 Stanford Jazz Festival

STANFORD, CA: Artistic excellence, intimate venues and a welcoming atmosphere define the Stanford Jazz Festival experience, making it unique place where jazz listeners of every generation can gather and feel at home.
The 2009 season, which opens Friday June 26 on the Stanford campus in Palo Alto, offers a tantalizing array of talent and features familiar Festival crowd-pleasers such as hard bop maestros the Heath Brothers, up-and-coming talents pianist Taylor Eigsti and guitarist Julian Lage, vocalists Dena DeRose and Madeline Eastman and trombonist Wycliffe Gordon (sweetly reminiscent of jazz ages past with a contemporary twist).

Other past favorites making return appearances this year include saxophonists Eric Alexander and Donald Harrison, violinist Regina Carter and drummer Matt Wilson. Bebop saxophonist and NEA Jazzmaster James Moody launches the Festival on June 26, while pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba and drummer Dafnis Prieto--both from Cuba--perform on Saturday June 27 and Sunday June 28 respectively, giving Opening Weekend a cosmopolitan flavor and spice (trombonist/bandleader Wayne Wallace and Brazilian guitarist Paulo Bellinati headline subsequent Festival Latin shows).

The Festival's two retrospectives, “1959 Revisited" and “Stan@Stanford: Remembering Stan Getz," are of particular interest to those who wish to expand their knowledge of the origins of jazz while listening to a bevy of SJW's rising stars blaze a path to the future.


Stanford Jazz Festival offers an eclectic menu of jazz within its framework, including swing, bebop, cool, big band, modern, blues and Latin shows, as well as recitals by its Jazz Camp and Jazz Residency participants and a Jazz Mentors concert showcasing its teacher-training program. Two free “Early Bird" Saturday morning shows, designed for those 12 year of age and under, are a magnet for families and introduce younger listeners to the fundamentals of the genre. The annual “Everything You Wanted to Know About Jazz" concert--also a free event--takes a tour of different jazz styles and analyzes the arrangements of popular standards such as “Autumn Leaves" in a demonstration format accessible to non-musicians. To further augment its educational mission, many Stanford Jazz Festival events feature “Inside Jazz" free pre-concert talks by leading personalities from the jazz community.


Stanford Jazz Workshop's educational programs, Jazz Camp and Jazz Residency, bring together jazz lovers of all ages in an informal, performance-driven format and are widely recognized as a training ground for musicians of remarkable ability. The Workshop counts among its alumni nationally known jazz artists including Josh Redman, Larry Grenadier, Bill Stewart, Taylor Eigsti, Julian Lage, Dayna Stephens and Ambrose Akinmusire.

Tickets for the Festival go on sale May 11 at the Stanford Ticket Office (http://tickets.stanford.edu) or 650.725.ARTS (2787). For more information, visit StanfordJazz.org or call 650.736.0324. Tickets to SJF events range from $20-$40 general admission (depending on concert) with a half-price discount for students with valid ID and children under the age of 18. Presented by See's Candies, with generous in-kind support from KCSM radio, the Rosewood Sand Hill, Stanford Park and Sheraton Palo Alto hotels and the Palo Alto Weekly. Stanford Jazz Workshop is funded in part by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=39847

Lousadzak op.48 "The Coming of Light"

Alan Hovhaness 1911-2000
Maki Namekawa, piano
Das Karussell-Ensemble for Music from Vienna

Tim Garland looking forward to visiting Petworth

Published Date: 29 July 2009
For Tim Garland, the huge appeal of jazz is its ability to be totally inclusive while never losing its focus.
It's that fact which makes it so fresh and so vibrant – and so far removed from the myths which tell us it is impenetrable and for the aficiandos only.
Tim will prove his point when he brings his Lighthouse Trio to the Leconfield Hall for the Petworth Festival on Friday, July 31, at 8pm.
"The genesis of this project comes from a CD I did in 2005 called If The Sea Replied. I turned it into a working unit for going out live. It's just percussion, piano and me on saxophone and bass clarinet.
"It's a very active rhythmic force, a fairly sophisticated jazz trio. There are influences from many cultures, especially, I would say, Mediterranean culture and middle-eastern. Put all together, it's a very joyful sound."

The lighthouse link began when Tim became composer in residence at Whitley Bay, at the University of Newcastle, and lived very close to Whitley Bay lighthouse which is a hollow building with an amazing acoustic.
"I recorded some music in there, a very haunting sound, and composed a socare to go with it and used computer technology," he said.

"That was the kernel of the album, but I wanted some kindred spirits to join me to bring the music about."
Which is where Gwilym Simcock and Asaf Sirkis came in to complete the trio.
"If The Sea Replied was a concept album about lighthouses and about lighthouse keepers and the fact that there are no lighthouse keepers any more. All the lighthouses are automated. It's an image of a pre-industrial.

"I actually interviewed Britain's last lighthouse keeper
http://www.bognor.co.uk/entertainments/MUSIC-Tim-Garland-looking-forward.5483481.jp

2 Pianists in Supple, Flowing Dialogue

By ALLAN KOZINN
Published: July 26, 2009
Classical music has been treated as a poor relation at the Lincoln Center Festival in recent summers, but this year the tally was down to one: a program of contemporary works for two pianos performed by Dennis Russell Davies and Maki Namekawa at Alice Tully Hall on Saturday, the next-to-last night of the festival. Lincoln Center apparently considered even that much to be heavy lifting. The concert was presented as a collaboration with the Ruhr Piano Festival in Germany, which commissioned the works by Chen Yi and Philip Glass that made up the second half of the program.
Mr. Davies, though best known as a conductor, is also a fine pianist, and he has been playing duo recitals with Ms. Namekawa since 2003. A memorable concert at the Miller Theater in 2005 was also devoted to modern music, but their repertory includes Zemlinsky’s four-hand arrangements of Mozart’s “Magic Flute” and Beethoven’s “Fidelio.” They have recorded both, and a contemporary American program, for the Ruhr festival’s label, Edition Klavier-Festival Ruhr.

Mr. Davies and Ms. Namekawa began with a lively account of Stravinsky’s Concerto for Two Pianos (1935), a work Stravinsky composed for his own use in duo concerts with one of his sons, Soulima. He kept it eminently practical: by arguing that the orchestra parts that might normally be expected in a concerto were incorporated into the keyboard fabric, he guaranteed the work’s portability. And by couching it in Neo-Classical gestures and textures, he made it accessible and appealing, if not quite as sharp-edged as his most enduring work.
Its charms include a rhythmically vital opening movement and inventive variations, and Mr. Davies and Ms. Namekawa gave it a supple performance with a hint of modernist steeliness in its closing fugue. They ended the first half of their program with another, more recent oldie, Steve Reich’s “Piano Phase” (1967), an early experiment in applying to instrumental music the phasing techniques that Mr. Reich discovered in his seminal tape pieces, “Come Out” and “It’s Gonna Rain.”

The idea is that two musicians playing brief, simple figures begin in unison and then move apart one beat at a time. Eventually they return to the positions from which they began, but along the way the displaced beats create an increasingly dense web of sound from which phantom themes emerge and interact. Or at least, they seem to: Mr. Reich’s real discovery here is the power of the overtone series and of psychoacoustic effects. In his phase pieces we hear rhythms and counterpoint that no one is actually playing.
Ms. Chen’s “China West Suite” (2007) is more straightforward. In a fanfarelike introduction and three longer movements, Ms. Chen elaborates on Meng, Zang and Miao traditional themes. A listener did not have to know the themes to be seduced by them, and Ms. Chen’s settings turn them into flowing dialogues between the pianists. Particularly striking were the stately opening of the “Meng Songs” movement and the rhythmic pointedness of the dance in the finale.

Mr. Glass employs an amusing trick in his Four Movements (2008). The first three begin in musical worlds that you would not readily identify as Mr. Glass’s, but after a few introductory moments, the Glassian hallmarks begin to pile up. The opening movement, for example, starts with a Lisztian rumble. The second sounds like middle-period Beethoven and the third is steeped in Bartok.
But arpeggiation, gracefully winding chromatic figures (particularly in the first movement), a syncopated chord figure that appears in many earlier works and even a few specific harmonic progressions all find their way into the music, making its authorship unquestionable.

In the finale Mr. Glass drops the allusions to other composers entirely and goes directly to his trademark figuration, which Mr. Davies and Ms. Namekawa, both expert in this music, play with clarity and energy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/arts/music/27davies.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Maxmus: Nu Jazz Project Brings Artists Together

Composer and collaborator Max Makin's music project 'Maxmus' brings together a wealth of musical talent from across the world. This accomplished guitarist and composer from Luzern, Switzerland has created a number of unique works.
With a diverse range of musical partnerships ranging from samplists, flautists, vocalists and bass players his music is a diverse mix of Nu Jazz and more traditional guitar pieces.
The music of Maxmus would fit perfectly in the world of film and television soundtracks. Something Max is keen to pursue.
Tara Isabella Burton, music reviewer for MyMusicSuccess.Com describes the Maxmus music project;

“The soundscapes created by Maxmus, the Luzern-based collective music group headed by guitarist Max Makin are extraordinary in the way they manage to combine ambient sound - the sort of chill-out music you might hear in a particularly trendy Parisian lounge bar - with a slightly eerie, even otherworldly vibe and even a bit of straightforward, accomplished jazz... Elements" is something of a Proustian mix: moments of sound that appear briefly, and vanish, and then are echoed again - memory “flashbacks" of sound."
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=40002

Innocence....

Wayne Krantz - Is Something I Don't Understand Yet

The Wayne Krantz Trio w/ Lincoln Goines on bass and Zach Danziger on drums-Live in Leverkusen 1993.

Wayne Krantz

Born: July 26, 1956
Ex-sideman with Steely Dan, Michael Brecker, Billy Cobham and others, has made six albums under his own name since 1991; three on the Enja label (”Signals”, “Long to Be Loose” and “2 Drink Minimum”), one on the Alchemy label (”Separate Cages”) and, most recently, the self-produced CDs “Greenwich Mean” and “Your Basic Live”.
Wayne's two recording bands during that time, a trio with Zach Danziger and Lincoln Goines from '92-'95 and a trio with Tim Lefebvre and Keith Carlock from '97-'03, have toured occasionally in Europe and the US, though they have always been most easily found at NYCs 55 Bar on Thursday nights.
Without the excess of promotional hype, the music has found a devoted, underground, international audience who, with their growing support, keep the music moving forward.

Besides running his website, waynekrantz.com, which offers all of his CDs, live Mp3 downloads of his current gigs and a sort of method book he has written called “An Improviser's OS”, Wayne is performing in New York (and recently in Japan and Europe) with his current band, featuring Anthony Jackson, Cliff Almond, Ari Hoenig and others.
Wayne is also featured as a sideman on Chris Potter's 2006 release, “Underground”, and on Donald Fagen's latest, “Morph The Cat”. A month of US dates in Fagen's band took place in March '06.

Wayne Krantz is in the process of creating a new project that will, no doubt, continue to undermine Establishment complacency at every turn. The shape, color and personality of that project is, at present, shrouded in secrecy.
Previous Employers (abridged): Steely Dan, Victor Bailey, Mike Brecker, Carla Bley, Tania Maria, Billy Cobham, D. Sharpe, Leni Stern, Bluth, David Binney, Chris Potter, Donald Fagen.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=8486

Friendship

At Ronnie Scott's....

Wednesday 29th & Thursday 30th July
ROY HARGROVE
We are delighted to welcome back US trumpeter Roy Hargrove. Roy was discovered by Wynton Marsalis while still at school, and having played with the likes of Mulgrew Miller, Herbie Hancock, Erykah Badu, Jimmy Smith and Sonny Rollins, he has carved out an enviable career in a relatively short period of time. For these shows he will be demonstrating his straight ahead be-bop stylings as well as his more groove based funk-jazz as showcased by his side-project The RH Unit.
His band features:
Justin Robinson (alto sax),
Jonathan Batiste (piano),
Ameen Saleem (bass),
Montez Coleman (drums).

Amy Winehouse Acquitted of Assault....

Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF
Published: July 24, 2009
Doubly good news for the singer Amy Winehouse: The Associated Press reported that on Friday in a London court she was acquitted of charges that she assaulted a fan who wanted to be in a photograph with her. Sherene Flash, a dancer, has said that Ms. Winehouse hit her in the eye at a charity ball in Berkeley Square on Sept. 26 when she asked to take a picture of Ms. Winehouse. But Timothy Workman, a district judge, ruled in favor of Ms. Winehouse, who testified Thursday that she had been startled when Ms. Flash stood next to her to pose for a picture that was being taken by a friend. Reuters also reported that Ms. Winehouse is among the artists whose music appears on the iPod of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. His playlist also includes the Beatles, U2, Bach and Beethoven.

Leading a Crew of Energetic Youngsters, and Keeping Up With Them

Music Review | Terence Blanchard
By BEN RATLIFF
Published: July 24, 2009
The trumpeter Terence Blanchard runs an informal but important academy. Since the beginning of the 1990s his bands have always been strong, if sometimes overcontrolled. But now that he’s a full generation older than most of the musicians working with him — and those musicians have musically evolved from education and influences different from the ones that formed him — his music is feeling energized in a new way.

His quintet plays through the weekend at the Jazz Standard, and it’s worth a look. Mr. Blanchard’s other career is in film soundtrack composition, and for the last two years he has been performing music from his recent album “A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina),” partly written for Spike Lee’s New Orleans documentary, “When the Levees Broke.” It did well by Mr. Blanchard: he won a Grammy for it. But he seems eager to move on. On Thursday night he acknowledged from the stage that most audiences still wanted to hear those slow, sad themes, but that he wouldn’t be playing them.

So he played pieces from a new record, “Choices,” which Concord will release on Aug. 18. Surprisingly, because it was so new, the band pushed hard against the music, warped it and expanded it.

Mr. Blanchard chose to add a few fiddly extras: at the beginning and end of some pieces he ran his trumpet through a chorus pedal and triggered samples of Cornel West, discoursing about individuality and the meaning of life. The extras didn’t feel particularly intrusive. Dr. West’s speech cadence is musical in itself, and the synthetic harmony connected to the plush, interior feeling of some of the music.

In the new ballad “Choices,” Mr. Blanchard showed off the prettiest part of his playing, evocative, meditative and sort of scene-setting: he calmly bends notes, muting his liquid sound without using an actual mute. But on another tune, “H.U.G.s. (Historically Underrepresented Groups),” he played harder, in quick, syncopated phrases, balancing cool long tones with hot bursts of ranting.

This is a band whose lineup changes have become significant — they swing attention toward young musicians — and as of this year its tenor saxophonist is Walter Smith III, who seized a couple of spots on Thursday to improvise with furious continuity. Mr. Smith’s own song “Him or Me,” with surprise rests, odd phrase lengths and opaque harmony, became the show’s peak: everyone in the band, including the pianist Fabian Almazan, the bassist Ben Street and the drummer Kendrick Scott, smoked through all that complexity. Mr. Smith’s solo ran through a few choruses with dam-breaking force and binding logic, using tension and release and working up to split tones. Mr. Almazan played a dense and imaginative solo, improvising with both hands around the center of the keyboard. The music already felt lived in, and open enough to keep changing.

The Terence Blanchard Quintet continues through Sunday at the Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, with the singer Bilal as a guest on Saturday; (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.com.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/arts/music/25terence.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

A Few Minutes with Johnny Hodges

http://www.jazzvideoguy.tv presents Johnny Hodges, in concert.

Johnny Hodges....

Born: July 25, 1907
Johnny Hodges - alto saxophone, (1907-1970)

“Never the world's most highly animated showman or greatest stage personality, but a tone so beautiful it sometimes brought tears to the eyes, this was Johnny Hodges. Because of this great loss, our band will never sound the same. Johnny Hodges sometimes sounded beautiful, sometimes romantic, and sometimes people spoke of his tone as being sensuous. With the exception of a year or so, almost his entire career was with us. So far as our wonderful listening audience was concerned, there was a great feeling of expectancy when they looked up and saw Johnny Hodges sitting in the middle of the saxophone section, in the front row. I am glad and thankful that I had the privilege of presenting Johnny Hodges for forty years, night after night. I imagine I have been much envied, but thanks to God....” Duke Ellington eulogy.

John Cornelius Hodges was born on the 25th July 1906 in Cambridge, Mass. He started his musical career playing drums and piano before taking up the saxophone at the age of 14, beginning on the soprano and later the alto. Originally self-taught he was given lessons by Sydney Bechet, whom he got to know through his sister. He followed Bechet into Willie 'The Lion' Smith's quartet at the Rhythm Club (around 1924), then played in the house band with Bechet's Club ‘Basha’ in Harlem. He continued to live in Boston and traveled to New York at weekends playing with such musicians as Bobby Sawyer (1925), Lloyd Scott (1926), then from late 1926 with the great Chick Webb at The Paddock Club and The Savoy Ballroom, etc. followed by a short stint with Luckey Roberts.

In May 1928 Johnny joined Duke Ellington's orchestra and he remained a mainstay of the group for the next 40 years. From his first recording in 1928 he revealed his authority and technical mastery of the saxophone, playing with a broad, sweeping tone and producing impressive, cascading runs. In the opinion of many people, he soon became Duke's most valuable soloist. He made hundreds of recordings with Duke and from 1937 led his own small studio group drawn from the orchestra which made many successful series of recordings for Victor and other labels. Titles included “Jeep's Blues,” “Hodge Podge,” “The Jeep is Jumpin” all of which were co-written with Duke. Also in this period of great creativity he played in many other small groups with musicians such as Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson, etc., producing classics of the period.

Johnny was one of the many stars of the Ellington band of the 40s producing solos of immense authority on songs such as “Things Ain't What They Used To Be,” “Don't Get Around Much Any More,” “Passion Flower,” etc. From the 40s he concentrated on the alto leaving the soprano alone completely and in this period he regularly won the popularity polls run by magazines such as Downbeat, Metronome, and Esquire.

In March 1951 Johnny left Duke to form his own small group taking with him Lawrence Brown and Sonny Greer and in their first recording session they produced a hit record of “Castle Rock.” Johnny disbanded the group in the spring of 1955 and after a brief spell of TV work on the Ted Steele Show, rejoined Duke in August of that year where, apart from a few brief periods, he remained for the rest of his life. In the spring of 1958 he worked with Billy Strayhorn and in 1961 went to Europe with some of the other band members in a group called The Ellington Giants.

He continued to record prolifically with musicians such as Wild Bill Davis, Earl Hines, and even one session with Lawrence Welk. Duke and Billy Strayhorn continued to write compositions and arrangements featuring Johnny's unique sound and talents leaving a wonderful legacy of recorded music for the enjoyment of successive generations of enthusiasts. He won the admiration of many saxophonists such as Ben Webster and even John Coltrane who played in one of the small groups in 1953-4 said that Johnny was always one of his favorite players.

In his later years Johnny used fewer and fewer notes, remaining close to the melody in ballads and improvising simple but telling riffs on the faster numbers, many of which were based on the blues . The power of his playing came from his sound and his soul, generating immense swing and building the dramatic tension from chorus to chorus. His last attempt at recording was the monumental “New Orleans Suite,” but he would not live to see the final product.

Johnny Hodges dies of a heart attack in New York City on the 11th May 1970.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7665

At Ronnie Scott's....

Sunday 26th July
CHRIS DIFFORD
Double Ivor Novello award-winning lyricist/guitarist, Chris Difford has been writing lyrics for over twenty five years, most notably with the group Squeeze. Together with Glenn Tilbrook, they created one of the most acclaimed and longest-lived bands to emerge from the new-wave era. Often regarded as the Lennon and McCartney of their generation, the duo’s smart, sophisticated brand of pop was critically acclaimed and their songs, such as ‘Pulling Mussels (from the shell)’ and ‘Black Coffee in Bed’, remain timeless cult classics.

Mark Feldman....

Violin: an instrument that stops some - the uninformed ones, let us believe - does not pass of a protagonist erudite, incapable to flirt with the music of clinks popular, with the jazz or improvised music. The spite of the preconceptions that devastate the jazz and of the amount of uninformed people, Stephanne Grappelli already proved, back in years 30 and 40, that the violin was capable to impose one swing and fraseado a so powerful how much one saxofone or one trompete (disrespecting there, clearly, the question of the timbres and intensities of these instruments, since in the cases of the violin and flute, for example, is needed good high microphones to be able to sound front to the timbres of the metal instruments).

But beyond Grappelli, still we have other examples as the eccentric person Stuff Smith, the great friend and sideman of Duke Ellington called Ray Nance, the Danish Svend Asmussen and old Joe Venuti (considered for many the father of the jazz violin). I only say these names to be in the pioneers who had been responsible for inserting this instrument in the sphere of the jazz improvisation, therefore has many other veterans who will be necessary to cite in an eventual and more including sampling: as, for example, the violinista of fusion Jean-Luc Ponty or Leroy Jenkins, important musician of free jazz. In those times, in the times of swing jazz, the violinist one was only one sideman - remembering that the great Stuff Smith is one of the first and only violinist to lead a band, one sextet that it passed if to present in the Onyx Club, NY, from 1935.

Today, however, the violin is, definitively, an instrument consolidated as leader and solist inside of the jazz, also with a space guaranteed in the lists of “Better of the Year” of the acclaimed one reviewed Downbeat, considered for a majority of the jazz lovers as the “Bible” of the sort. Between the few violinists that are always in the top of the related list of the magazine, Mark Feldman and Regina Carter already is names than more experienced. For comparison effect, it is enough to relate Regina Carter as being a species of “Wynton Marsalis of the violin” and Mark Feldman as being a species of “Dave Douglas”: Carter is a monster in the ancestry maisnstream, while Feldman does not leave to surprise in the ancestry of the jazz avant-garde. Mark Feldman with John Zorn' s Bar Kokhba Sextet. The trajectory of Mark Feldman, as well as the one of Regina Carter, is unusual and uncommon.

Feldman started its career in the decade of 70 with a foot in erudite music and the other in contributions to the musicians of rockabilly of Nashville, Tennessee, such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Jonny Cash, Loretta Lynn and Willie Nelson. In this height of 20 and few years, Feldman also had lessons of improvisation with the saxophonist Joe Daley (commented here for Rubens Akira), also starting to collaborate with great names of the jazz as the guitarist John Abercrombie. In ends of the decade of 80, after to have passed for Civic the Orchestra of Chicago, Mark Feldman was changed definitively for New Iorque, where “downtown” started to be part of the legion of vanguardists musicians of the scene such as John Zorn, Tim Berne, Hank Roberts, Joey Baron, Dave Douglas, Mark Dresser, Uri Caine, amongst others. Its contributions, at last, are registered in more than 150 records, considering its performances in bands of commercial singers as Sherry Crowl and Diana Ross, in bands of jazz and music improvised until its registers as leader or co-leader. Its first leader launching while was the fantastic Music will be Violin Alone, a record consisting of improvisations to the alone violin, without preset rhythms or accompaniment: one is about a register edited for the Tzadik (recorder of John Zorn), with 11 total and freely improvised bands, where the violinist puts to the test all its power to create sonorous phrases and textures pra there of unusual. Since then, Feldman launched 7 records as leader, considering records where it interprets the Jewish compositions of John Zorn that they integrate the series Book Of Angels (volume 3 called Malphas and the Masada Book II: The Book of Angels, Vol. 1, both of 2006). Between these, Feldman launched (also in 2006) a record for called stamp ECM Waht Exit, that is a true jewel of the jazz of matrix after-modernista: one is about a record with the minimalists textures of “conception ECM", where the violinist leads one quartet composed for the interesting drummer Tone Rainey (that it are non-separable partner of Tim Berne), for the pianist John Taylor and the Swedish contrastock exchange operator Anders Jormin, three of the most refined musicians who follow between avant-garde jazz, new music and improvised music.

People can be heard the powerful improvisations of the violin of Feldman in a shovel of interesting bands of the jazz contemporary: not to lose they are its contributions with John Zorn in records of the series Book Of Angels (amongst which the Malphas record is distinguished, in duo with its wife, the French pianist Sylvie Courvoisier), its performance with Tim Berne in the record Fractured Fairy Tales (JMT, 1989), with Dave Douglas in the Convergence records (Soul Note, 1998), the Thousand Evenings (BMG/RCA Victor, 2000) and Witness (Bluebird/BMG, 2001), beyond its participation in the Santuerio record (Leo, 1994) of the great pianista Marilyn Crispell and in the record volume 11 of the series 50th Birthday Celebration (Tzadik, 2006) with the Bar Kokhba Sextet. It is distinguished, over all, that the best formations of which Feldman participates are the Masada String Trio and the John Abercrombie Quartet (with the guitar John Abercrombie, the contrastock exchange operator Marc Johnson and Joey Baron on drums), with which it recorded the records Open Land (1999), Cat'n'Mouse (2002) and Class Trip (2004), all for the ECM.
www.farofamoderna.com.br