Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Influences: Bass players Charlie Haden


Alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman’s revolutionary quartet stood the jazz world on its head at the end of 1959. His vigorous and intense music was in continual motion: melodically, harmonically and rhythmically. With no piano providing a chordal roadmap, Charlie Haden’s bass was the freewheeling bottom rooted in low, earthly tones.
Haden, 74, comes from a background quite unlikely for his role as musical insurgent. He debuted at 22 months in the Haden Family Band on its radio show in Springfield, Mo. The Carter Family and the Delmore Brothers were contemporaries; Mother Maybelle Carter used to hold the toddler Charlie on her lap.
The stringent textures and rhythmic complexity of Coleman's music alienated quite a few listeners and musicians. But Coleman was a Texan with a deep blues background. His melodies always had a folksy quality, which made Haden a perfect fit for the music. “Ornette always loved the fact that my background was in country music,” Haden points out.
An abiding love of well-written standard songs has always been an important ingredient in Haden's music. He’s had mutually beneficial collaborations with pianists Hampton Hawes and Keith Jarrett, trumpeter Chet Baker, and composer-arranger Carla Bley, among others. Haden began the jazz program at Cal Arts 27 years ago and a love of what he calls “deep” songs is something he tries to impart to students.
Haden’s Quartet West, celebrating its 25th year, is another format where good songs from many sources have been integral. Whether explored as four-way musical interactions on the bandstand, or recorded with orchestrations by founding pianist Alan Broadbent, the song takes center stage. Tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts, Broadbent, Haden and drummer Rodney Green occupy an almost singular place in contemporary jazz for their celebration of great, though sometimes obscure, material.
Before Quartet West’s four-night gig at Catalina Jazz Club, Haden spoke about some of his influences.
Singers: On our new album, “Sophisticated Ladies” [on Emarcy], we get to play with some of my favorite singers: Cassandra Wilson, Diana Krall, Melody Gardot, Norah Jones, Renée Fleming, and my wife, Ruth Cameron. I started as a singer and when I picked up the bass — I carried on that singing through the instrument. Working with Chet showed me how an instrumentalist sings through his instrument. And my favorite singers have always been the deep ones, like Billie Holiday and Jeri Southern.
Carla Bley: We’re very, very close, and there's nobody like her. We found out early on that we shared the same philosophy and worldview. We saw life through the same vision and we hear the same juxtaposition of intervals. She introduced me to the music of Erik Satie. We’re working on a new “Liberation” album and she’s written three new arrangements that just bring tears to your eyes. We’ll be playing a couple of those new things at Catalina’s.
Songs: I’ve always loved great composers. Ornette wrote many beautiful melodies, but I also love the great songs from the Broadway shows. Hampton Hawes knew all of the great songs; he was very inspiring. I love Chopin’s slow etudes, and Bill Evans used one of them in his introduction to “Young and Foolish.” I loved that what we were both hearing comes from the same place.
Past and future: I’ve tried to bring out the human voice in each young musician at Cal Arts. I want them to be able to see the similarities of different kinds of great music, above the categories. I’m thankful my parents provided music around me where I could hear the beautiful harmonies and melodies. Most people aren’t brought up with really deep music, so I was very fortunate.

NJJazzList Calendar

09/01 Thu Bob DeVos Organ Quartet at Fat Cat details...


09/01 Thu Colt's Neck Swing Band at Downtown Mini Park, 45 West Front St., Keyport NJ details...
09/01 Thu Deftet Trio at The Wine Loft details...
09/01 Thu Jane Stuart Quartet at Shanghai Jazz details...
09/01 Thu LAUREN HOOKER TRIO at THE CRAB HOUSE details...
09/01 Thu The Tia Fuller Quartet at Makeda Ethiopian, 338 George St., New Brunswick details...
09/01 Thu West Hills Trio & friends at Harvest Bistro details...
09/02 Fri 3 to Clave Afro Latin Jazz Quartet at MOONSTRUCK details...
09/02 Fri Dorothy Leigh at Metropolitan Room details...
09/02 Fri Dorothy Leigh at Metropolitan Room details...
09/03 Sat B.D. Lenz trio at Small World Coffee details...
09/03 Sat Barbara Rose, Pianist & Vocalist . at Oyster Point Hotel, Red Bankdetails...
09/03 Sat Carrie Jackson at The Mill at Spring Lake Heights details...
09/03 Sat Sarah Partridge Quartet at Trumpets Jazz Club. 6 Depot Square. Montclair, NJ details...
09/03 Sat West Hills Project at The Rail House 1449 details...
09/08 Thu Barbara Rose, Pianist & Vocalist . at Molly Pitcher Inn, Red Bankdetails...
09/08 Thu Bossa Brasil® at Garage Jazz Club details...
09/08 Thu LAUREN HOOKER TRIO at THE CRAB HOUSE details...
09/08 Thu Pam Purvis and The Blue Skies Band at Salt Creek Grill, Princeton, NJdetails...
09/08 Thu Pete Levin Trio with Dave Stryker & Adam Nussbaum at The Falcon Marlboro, NY details...
09/08 Thu Rolando Alvarado Quartet at The Wine Loft details...
09/08 Thu Swingadelic at Englewood Street Fair details...
09/09 Fri Laura Hull Jazz Trio at Casa Dante Restaurant, Jersey City, NJ details...
09/09 Fri Nobuki Takamen, Low End Initiative and New Tricks! at Moore's Lounge details...

New Tricks puts a new spin on traditional jazz at Millennium Stage


Don't look for a piano or keyboards of any kind in the music of New Tricks, a jazz quartet performing on the Millennium Stage Wednesday. Instead, prepare for two horns, a drum and a bass whose players are firmly rooted in post-bop jazz traditions.

"The reason we don't use a piano is a little bit coincidental," said band member and trumpet player, Ted Chubb. "This band was formed around four people; not around the music. The sound of the group was formatted to us as individual players. It wasn't a conscious choice to [exclude] a pianist or guitarist."

Five years ago, four members of the celebrated Cecil's Big Band at Cecil's Jazz Club in West Orange, New Jersey began to jam regularly at Wednesday afternoon sessions. Mike Lee played his tenor saxophone and Ted Chubb played the trumpet.

They were accompanied by bassist Kellen Harrison and drummer Shawn Baltazor. Lee and Chubb brought their original compositions to the table. It wasn't long before they discovered a special affinity for one another. "We didn't get together with the idea of being a band," Lee explained. "We just realized after a few weeks that we were a band."

Today with their original compositions and musical configuration, they bring new twists to acoustic, straight ahead jazz conventions by way of challenging rhythmic and harmonic devises without the benefit of a chordal instrument such as piano or keys.
"We feel like we bring a fresh, useful and energetic approach to the music, but [we] keep with the traditions of be-bop and the greats of the musical [genre,"] Chubb continued.

At Millennium, New Tricks will perform the new compositions from their self-titled debut album released in 2009 and their brilliant new CD, "Alternate Side."

Chubb, as well as the other members, feel as strongly about sharing the compositional input as they do about performing the songs. As a group, New Tricks feels that the band is at its best when all four members are playing at the same time, complementing each other to reinforce the tune.
"It takes all four of us to make the music." Chubb said.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: 
http://washingtonexaminer.com/entertainment/music/2011/08/new-tricks-puts-new-spin-traditional-jazz-millennium-stage#ixzz1We6mBnuv

Nick Travis: The Panic Is On

reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

You could say that trumpeter Nick Travis was the East Coast  Screen shot 2011-08-29 at 8.41.16 PMDon Fagerquist. Blowing with a warm tone and lyrical style, Travis could swing. And like Fagerquist, Travis was always busy in the studios. Though he died at age 38 in 1964, he was on 350 jazz recording sessions, which is quite a significant number over roughly 20 years. Fagerquist, who started at about the same time as Travis in the early '40s and played until the late '60s, was on 362 jazz dates. Yet Travis recorded just one album as a leader—The Panic Is On—for RCA in March 1954. [Photo of Nick Travis in 1947 by William P. Gottlieb]
I spoke with saxophonist Hal McKusick about Travis yesterday. More with Hal in a minute.
The Panic Is On was a quintet date that featured Al Cohn on 4707309077_712d835aa8-1tenor sax, John Williams on piano, Teddy Kotick on bass and Art Mardigan on drums. One senses that the arrangements were largely by Cohn to showcase Travis' story-telling solo style.
Travis could gently but insistently climb improvisational ladders and joyously roll down the chord changes. This is certainly the case on Travisimo andJazzbo's Jaunt, which beautifully showcase Travis' soloing grace. Of course, having Cohn along on the date gave the tracks smoky heft and mobility.
Travis and Cohn often played together throughout the DSC029821950s. Collaborative albums include Al Cohn Quintet (1953), The Jazz Workshop: Four Brass, One Tenor(1955), Billy Byers: Lullaby of Birdland(1955), Manny Albam: The Jazz Workshop(1955), Elliot Lawrence: Plays Tiny Kahn and Johnny Mandel (1956),Joe Newman: Salute to Satch (1956), Maynard Ferguson: Birdland Dreamband (1956),Terry Gibbs: Swingin' (1956), John Benson Brooks: Folk Jazz USA(1956), Manny Albam: Jazz Greats of Our Time (1957), and on and on.
The swinging stuff is great kicks, but dig Travis on the ballad, 6a00e008dca1f088340120a5b32613970b-250wiYou Don't Know What Love Is, a song that always separates the passionate poets from the high poppers. Travis' lines here are sultry and sublime, rendering Cohn's presence on the track almost unnecessary, if that's even possible. [Photo, from left, of Don Goldie, Nick Travis and Al Stewart in 1962 courtesy of Al Stewart]
Hal played on 30 dates with Travis:
"Nick was a great player and a great HalMcKusick1guy. He was so busy in the 1950s. He'd get done with work at 2 a.m., head off to his home in New Jersey and be back the next day in a New York studio at 8 a.m. Zoot told me a funny story. Nick was so tired one day that he slept in. His phone rang early that morning. Nick sleepily answered: "Hello?" "Hi Nick, it's Zoot." Nick paused and said, groggily, "Zoot who?" [laughs] [Pictured: Hal McKusick]

"I remember Nick as being quiet and intelligent. He spent a lot of time with his instrument. When you’re working the way we did, you didn't have a lot of time to practice, so work was practice. He was a great lead horn player and quite a soloist. Nick was always there on a date in every way. Efficient, on time and he never hit a bad note.

"Ultimately, Nick probably had too much work. We all did. 40374885Nick was in such great demand by so many different orchestrators and contractors at the time that he probably had a hard time handling the stress internally. He kept a lot of it bottled up, I guess. I didn't realize he had passed from ulcer troubles.
"As sounds go, Nick's was down the middleNick+Travis-72.1. You'd hear his horn and if you didn't know who was playing you'd say, 'Wow, who is that? That sure sounds good.' He caught your attention. Nick also was a wonderful reader, which was why he was in such demand. Nick played caringly."
JazzWax tracks: Like most of the RCA jazz catalog from this4707309077_712d835aa8-1period, The Panic Is On is out of print. Fresh Sound issued it in 2004, and CD copies are available here and probably at some download retail sites.
JazzWax clip: How good was Nick Travis? Dig him here with Zoot Sims on Fools Rush In. Tasty and strong but never overbearing or imposing. And dig Zoot's Glad to Be Unhappy tag!... Used with permission by Marc Myers

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Prom 59: Hooray for Hollywood/John Wilson orchestra – review

by John L. Walters
For those of us who know our musicals from DVDs and Christmas TV,John Wilson's Hollywood Prom delivered a pleasurable shock. His orchestra, with its nine-piece percussion section and full-blown jazz big band, blasted out a surround-sound version of music that is usually squeezed through the tiny speakers of a telly.


Without the tap dances, chorus girls and (often flimsy) plots, the music had to stand up for itself. Wilson, who has brought a passion for authentic performance to movie soundtracks, shone a glittering spotlight on arrangers such as Ray HeindorfConrad Salinger and Lloyd "Skip" Martin. They were Hollywood's invisible men, who toiled behind the tinsel to stretch three-minute ditties into extended suites (This Heart of Mine) or craft subtle tone poems that became huge hits (Secret Love, sung beautifully by Clare Teal).

A tag team of vocalists interpreted familiar songs from movies made between 1935 and 1969 – from Top Hat to Hello Dolly. The charmingMatthew Ford charmingly channelled both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. Annalene Beechey did a pitch-perfect Julie Andrews (as Mary Poppins) on Jolly Holiday, in which Irwin Kostal's dense, relentlessly complex score tipped a hat to composer Carl Stalling (of Warner Bros cartoon fame).

A suite of Heindorf arrangements from the Judy Garland vehicle A Star Is Born let singer Caroline O'Connor shine on the sultry, subtle The Man That Got Away. Tenor Charles Castronovo interpreted two of the more classical tunes: Serenade (The Student Prince) and One Hand One Heart (West Side Story) with soprano Sarah Fox.

The Maida Vale Singers sang lustily on showstoppers such as Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat and Put On Your Sunday Clothes. But the stars of the evening were the (until now) unsung arrangers, whose work was reinvigorated by Wilson's scholarship – and the musicians, who performed the demanding scores with affection and exuberance.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/aug/30/prom-59-hooray-for-hollywood

Serge Gainsbourg Tribute at Hollywood Bowl


Dear good people of France: Give singer Mike Patton a permanent residency at the most disreputable lounge in Paris, posthaste. Dressed like one of the lowliest hit men of the “Sopranos” crew, the former Faith No More and Mr. Bungle shredder brought a louche elegance to Serge Gainsbourg’s “Requiem pour un Con” at the Hollywood Bowl.

There was no shortage of singers pleased to slip into Gainsbourg’s white Repetto shoes at Sunday night’s Beck-produced Gainsbourg tribute, including his progeny, Lulu — but Patton, possessed of a slithery outlaw charm, was the evening’s breakaway lead. As the bass slinked around beatnik conga drums, he half spit and half savagely whispered in French his regards to life lived as a jerk. Occasionally he wriggled his eyebrows or widened his eyes, as if he’d just spotted a cold-blooded femme across the room.

With the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra conducted by Scott Dunn and Gainsbourg collaborator Jean-Claude Vannier and a crack live band reunited from Beck’s 2002 album, “Sea Change,” the true star of the evening was Gainsbourg’s towering songbook, a four-decade flirtation with every style of music that caught his eye — from chanson to ye-ye pop to Afro-Cuban jazz, American folk and reggae. A re-creation of the “Lolita”-like concept album written by Vannier and Gainsbourg, 1971’s “Histoire de Melody Nelson” was performed in its entirety for the evening’s sweeping finale.

When dealing with material that demands so much personality, perhaps more than it does technical skill, the singers who brought their own style to Gainsbourg fared the best. The diminutive goth singer Zola Jesus brought a throaty swagger to her version of “Harley Davidson,” but she also knew when to downplay her Joplin-at-the-opera tones, as evidenced by her gentle backup vocals on the breezy meringue, “Sea, Sex and Sun.”

Beach House chanteuse Victoria Legrand, one of the few onstage with proper Gallic blood (her uncle is French composer Michel Legrand), lent her wisp of a voice to various compositions throughout the night, including a gorgeously subtle duet with Patton on “La Decadanse.”

Wearing a red silky blouse with a sparkly bow tie, Legrand often sang with her hands in her trouser pockets, a shy smile occasionally breaking out. Her demureness worked best when paired with Patton’s dangerous charisma but when she sang a duet with Grizzly Bear’s equally polite Ed Droste, both seemed like they might fade in the foam of Gainsbourg’s chanson, until drummer Joey Waronker’s solo came along and provided spine.

Sean Lennon, outfitted in a cape and introducing himself as “Captain Lawnmower,” supplied a fitting sense of camp for the night. Charlotte Kemp Muhl, his model accomplice, gamely fulfilled the role of outré sex symbol. Somebody had to do it, and Kemp Muhl has the pretty yet petulantly coy vocal chops, not to mention a criminally lascivious scarlet pout, to revive the orgasmic “Je T’aime … Moi Non Plus.”
Read more on: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2011/08/review-serge-gainsbourg-tribute-at-hollywood-bowl.html

Monday, August 29, 2011

Portraits: R. Tracy Myers


by Carrie Snyder
R. Tracy Myers can play a tune. The retired contractor volunteers his time playing Dixieland, jazz and blues music at area assisted-living centers under the name “An Old Guy With a Clarinet.” “I’m 79; that’s where the old guy comes in,” Myers said. Myers learned the clarinet in grade school and continued to play through his years in the Navy.


But around 1950, life took over, and the clarinet was put away. After 55 years, he stumbled upon his clarinet in his house. “I found it in the closet and found I like to practice,” Myers said. “In retirement, it’s been just a godsend.” Myers’ program is designed to have the audience interact and joke around. “I can see the people in the audience forget about where they are
at for an hour, and that’s kind of neat,” Myers said
From: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/332115/

Jazz Musician of the Day: Larry Goldings


All About Jazz is celebrating Larry Goldings' birthday today!
With his signature Hammond organ style and versatility on many keyboards, Boston native Larry Goldings has traversed not only the wide spectrum of jazz where he is perhaps best known, but also the worlds of funk, pop, and electronic/alternative music.  High in demand as a sideman, Goldings\' sound can be heard on scores of albums by artists in virtually every musical genre...With his signature Hammond organ style and versatility on many keyboards, Boston native Larry Goldings has traversed not only the wide spectrum of jazz where he is perhaps best known, but also the worlds of funk, pop, and electronic/alternative music.  High in demand as a sideman, Goldings\' sound can be heard on scores of albums by artists in virtually every musical genre... more

Miriam Makeba's story as political activist and legendary performer.

'Porgy & Bess' a first for BSO

By Jeremy D. Goodwin




Laquita Mitchell, who appears as Bess with Gregg Baker in a previous production of ‘Porgy and Bess,’ will reprise her title role tonight with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. Gregg is also in tonight’s cast. (Courtesy Boston Symphony Orchestra)

LENOX -- First performed in 1935, "Porgy and Bess" remains in some respects a musical piece at a crossroads. Composed by white writers about the Southern black experience, taking the form of an opera, but incorporating elements of jazz and spiritual music, a boon for African-American theater artists, but oft-criticized for perpetuating unhelpful stereotypes, "Porgy and Bess" is nonetheless considered by many to be the great American opera. And tonight, the Boston Symphony Orchestra plays it for the first time.

Under the baton of Bramwell Tovey, the BSO will be joined by 14 principal singers as well as the Tanglewood Festival Chorus for this concert recital. Porgy is sung by Alfred Walker, with soprano Laquita Williams taking on Bess. Though selections from the opera have been performed in the past by the BSO in mixed programs, this is the orchestra's first time tackling the whole work.

"In terms of tapping into some deeply American theme, it's hard to think of another piece of quite this power and quite this range of expression," says BSO artistic associate Anthony Fogg over the phone. "We've been thinking about this for a number of years, and we finally thought this was the right summer to do it.

"known for a wealth of memorable songs like "Summertime," "Oh I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'," "It Ain't Necessarily So" and "There's a Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York."

With music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward and lyrics by Heyward and Ira Gershwin, "Porgy and Bess" is based on a novel by Heyward and the stage adaptation he co-wrote with wife Dorothy. It's best Telling the story of the residents of fictional South Carolina neighborhood Catfish Row, "Porgy and Bess" depicts a community struggling with violence, drug abuse and poverty.

Though it has been adapted several times through the decades, frequently with an eye toward shaping it into something more like a traditional Broadway musical, George Gershwin declared it a "folk opera," and it has joined the standard operatic repertoire. (By coincidence, the Tanglewood concert falls two days after the press opening for "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess," a revamped adaptation by Cambridge's American Repertory Theatre that is going to Broadway.)

The Gershwin Estate requires any production of the opera to feature an all-African-American cast of principal singers. (Some wiggle room was left for the chorus members in a concert performance like tonight's.) But it fell out of favor in the 1960s and ‘70s, with critics objecting to the appropriation of African-American dialect and its portrayal of seedy elements in a small black community circa the 1930s. In recent decades it's been embraced more fully as a piece of Americana, and indeed the folk opera that Gershwin intended to create.

"The music is fantastic," says Williams in a telephone interview, drawing out the first syllable of the last word. "The music is still relevant. Yes, some of the things are passé, we understand that, but the music is relevant."

The songs of "Porgy and Bess" have proven remarkably friendly to adaptation outside the operatic idiom, with key album-length interpretations by jazz greats Miles Davis and the duo of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, and the song "Summertime" proving an irresistible lure to great vocalists from Billie Holliday to Sam Cooke and Janis Joplin. In fact, the opening lyrics to the opera -- "Summertime, and the livin' is easy" -- have permeated the popular culture to the point that many seasonal enthusiasts have doubtless quoted them with no idea of their origin.

The story itself is anything but typical, with a troubled protagonist (Porgy) whose disability compels him to use a goat-drawn cart for transportation, but who wins the affections of the sometime drug addict Bess, living with a different man at the start of the action. The opera's famously bittersweet ending fails to wrap things up in either the happy ending one might expect from a Broadway love story or the type of bloody calamity sometimes seen in grand opera.


http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_18760774?source=rss_viewed

Mark di Suvero: Jazz Sculptor

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

In today's Wall Street Journal (go here), I interview Mark di Mark-di-suverosmSuvero, one of America's most significant sculptors. What makes Mark so special, in addition to his boldness, is that he works in steel. Big steel. As in steel girders. Steel plates. And stainless steel. He welds it. He torches it. And he hoists it from a crane to bend it. What's most remarkable about his massive pieces is how intimate Mark is with gravity. It's one thing to have a Montana-sized vision for what you want to do. It's another to Di_Suvero_Clock_Knot_0create such works that actually stand and spin without tumbling over. As Mark told me, "I'm always conscious of balance and gravity's center point. Like a dancer or an acrobat—I'm feeling for that invisible point. For me, gravity is about space, the way water is to a surfer. Gravity isn't an adversary or an obstacle but an enabling force."
Not bad for a guy who gets around on aluminum forearm  Disuverocrutches. Mark had a horrible accident in an elevator shaft in 1960. But being paralyzed didn't stop him from sculpting from his wheelchair or from using his arms later in the '60s to hoist himself up beams to weld and bolt them into place. Mark is a pure '50s artist. He's as tough as nails, he's a poet at heart, and he never gives up or quits.
Actually, you're probably already familiar with Mark's work. As you look at the images in this post, you probably recognize that his multi-ton pieces stand in cities, in parks and on college campuses all over the U.S. and the world.
I knew Mark was fond of jazz before I went over to his studio in Queens, N.Y. How could he not be? Mark came of age as an AlbumcoverMonksMusicartist in the 1950s, when abstract expressionism ruled and artists could be found on every corner of New York's East Village. So when I arrived at his studio in Long Island City, I brought along a bunch of CDs as a gift. "Monk!," he shouted when he shuffled through the batch. "Rahsaan Roland Kirk! Jim Hall! And Sonny Rollins! Thank you so much."
Mark was awarded the National Medal of Arts in March along with Sonny Rollins and others by President Obama. Mark and Sonny talked at length. Mark said he was in awe of Sonny. I'm sure Sonny is in awe of Mark. As I told Mark, a dream would be to listen to Sonny compose in front of one of his pieces.
Mark showed me around his studio complex—which has DSC_097420-foot high ceilings and massive factory doors. We spoke for an hour up in his office, a foreman's perch high above what used to be a brickyard sitting on the banks of the swirling East River, with Manhattan across the way.
When we were finished, I saw a set of vibes in the corner. When I asked Mark to play, he declined. When I pushed, he insisted I first lie on my back on a free-floating mattress attached to the ceiling by four cables. In addition to his massive sculptures and desktop pieces, Mark also designs the most amazing furniture.
So while I was on my back swaying slightly, Mark played the vibes—a free jazz 100-8155S7BF_RT8 Kopiestyle that has much in common with his abstract expressionist vision. He was particularly delighted by the swirling sound of the electrified notes filling the air. If geometry has a sound, Mark has discovered the music. When he finished playing, he smiled and remarked that steel, in addition to being a malleable alloy, also had a majestic, sensitive sound.
I hope you'll have a chance to read my Wall Aurora_Mark_di_SuveroStreet Journal piece. Sculpture is another one of my passions, and Mark has much in common with jazz and jazz artists. He comes from the era when jazz and art were only this far apart. Today, artists and musicians seem to have lost touch with each other. What a shame. Both could benefit from a re-introduction.
JazzWax note: For more on Mark di Suvero, go here. For GIshowLOGOmore on Mark's works at the Storm King Art Center in New York, go here. And for more on Mark's current exhibit on New York's Governors Island (a free ferry ride from lower Manhattan and Brooklyn), go here.
JazzWax clip: Here's a wonderful clip that will give you a fine sense of Mark's works—their massive size, their grace and their playfulness...


by Marc Myers

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Miles Davis, Expressed in Animated Sheet Music...

DIGITAL MUSIC NEWS
If you're a jazz aficionado, you could play this back blindfolded. But can you play it back like this? Created by Dan Cohen.



http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=86096

Homegrown flamenco group brings performers into a spicy musical salsa

ROSEMARY PONNEKANTI

Take a Cuban dancer with fierce black eyes. Add a ballet-trained blonde and brunette. Give them some music by a guitarist from Maple Valley, a deep-throated Indian classical singer and a jazz vocalist. What you get is Tacoma Flamenca, a flamenco group whose dancers have been teaching and performing with local studios for years, but who are now getting out into the cafe scene. Specifically, the Mandolin Café, in a show Saturday night the group hopes will become a regular event.

The performers’ diverse backgrounds create a spicy mix of original and traditional flamenco.
“Flamenco is still very traditional,” says Marisela Fleites, a Spanish literature professor from Cuba who has taught and performed flamenco with Washington Contemporary Ballet and MetroParks for years. “But every art form evolves – there’s a lot of fusion in Spain with flamenco and jazz, flamenco and Indian music ... ballet and modern dance enrich the slow, lyric parts. There’s a lot of debate in Spain as to what (exactly) is flamenco.”

Fleites and her colleagues are adding to the debate in their own way. Two singers from different musical backgrounds combine with two other ballet-trained dancers in choreography by Fleites that ranges from folk to athletic leaps.

As they rehearse in the WCB studio, Fleites joins fellow dancers Angela Brandenburg and Julie Rector in a trio pulsing in and out of a circle. It’s a fairground dance, set steps in a folk tradition, rather than the complex footwork of the solos. Fleites, with short black hair and black toreador-style pants and shirt, contrasts with the blonde Brandenburg and brunette Rector in their flouncy skirts and shawls.

They flow through the program: intimate vocal folk songs, duets as symmetrical and poised as tango, a highly foot-percussive duet with Fleites drumming on the box cajon, solos with balletic pirouettes and expressive, curling arms.

When they take it to the Mandolin Saturday in a by-donation, all-ages show, they’ll be moving the piano for more space, though it will still be far more intimate than a theater performance. The cafe will offer a special menu of Cuban and Spanish tapas, soups, sangria and more, while Fleites, inspired by an audience “asking question after question” at the group’s last WCB show, will be introducing each piece to explain the style.
“The performance is educational – we cover a broad sweep of all the different rhythms of Spain,” Fleites explains.

But Tacoma Flamenca goes way beyond Spain in musical influences. While Brandenburg (a former WCB ballet mistress) and Rector have both danced with Fleites for eight years and teach flamenco themselves, the two singers come from very different backgrounds. Seema Bahl was trained in Indian classical singing, and her sultry, powerful alto floats over the ornaments with both emotion and agility. She’s also studied flamenco dance and the traditions of Spanish gypsies.

“Some of the older songs call on the training I had in Indian music,” Bahl explains. “Flamenco was actually brought from India originally by the gypsies, and the two traditions share things like melismas and unusual tonalities.”

Next to Bahl is Marena Lear, Fleites’ daughter and an established jazz singer whose mother convinced her to come back, at least for this group, to flamenco. Her liquid mezzo-soprano has occasional traces of jazz inflections, especially on high notes. John Bussoletti is the final member – a flamenco veteran of 33 years, he lives in Maple Valley and plays with some of Seattle’s best groups.

For Fleites, dancing flamenco is all about cultural history: “The gypsies created flamenco out of rebellion. It’s very sad, expressing the hardships of life through rhythm. You have to get into that mindset.”

But for those outside Spanish culture, learning flamenco can be a challenge.
“I still find it difficult to grasp the rhythms of all the palos (measure counts),” says Brandenburg. “You have to really get to know that and see it in play with the singer and guitarist. It’s a language you have to learn.” Add to that the sheer strength and control of the footwork, expressing those rhythms in syncopation with the guitar, says Rector, and you have a dance form that you’re always learning.

For Bussoletti, though, flamenco can be summed up in one word: the Spanish ‘sentir,’ to feel.
“The whole aim of flamenco is to communicate a feeling,” he says.

Barefield Super String Quartet to play at fund-raiser for Corktown rehab project

 BARBARA BAREFIELD
Fresh off his showcase concert last spring at the inaugural Art X Detroit festival, 2010 Kresge artist fellow Spencer Barefield has convened a unique string quartet -- guitar, violin, viola, bass -- to perform music that lives in the gray zone between traditional and experimental jazz and classical music.

The stalwart Detroit composer and guitarist calls the group the Barefield Super String Quartet, and the occasion is a special Summer Soiree fund-raiser for the Imagination Station, a nonprofit that is transforming two blighted houses facing the Michigan Central Station in the Corktown neighborhood. The concert will be in the shell of one of the burned-out houses, dressed up with tables, chairs, tents, food and drink.

The group will tackle arrangements of Barefield's stylistically flexible compositions that mix written material and improvisation along with other music that could come from jazz and classical composers as diverse as John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Enrique Granados and Manuel de Falla.

The ensemble is largely a family affair with Barefield joined by his daughter, violinist Jannina (Barefield) Norpoth, along with her husband, bassist John-Paul Norpoth. The violist is John Madison.

The refreshments will include locally produced organic food and drink from the Pink Flamingo, Brother Nature Farms, McClure's Pickles and Valentine Vodka.
3 p.m. Sunday, 2230 Fourteenth, Detroit. $10-$50. facethestation.com.

The Detroit Jazz Festival is just around the corner on Labor Day weekend, but there are a couple of appetizers on deck Friday. The festival's 2011 artist-in-residence, drummer Jeff (Tain) Watts, is teaming up with another 2010 Kresge fellow, choreographer Haleem Ar-Rasheed.

The combination of Watts, a dynamic drummer who plays like a herd of thundering horses, and Ar-Rasheed, whose break dance collective, Hardcore Detroit, exudes charisma, promises to explore the links between jazz rhythm and contemporary dance.7 and 8:30 p.m. Friday, Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward, Detroit. 313-833-7900. dia.org. Free with museum admission: $4-$8.

Meanwhile, festival organizers are inaugurating a new partnership with the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House. The Johnny Trudell Orchestra, led by the veteran Detroit trumpeter with an A-to-Z résumé, will be performing outdoors on the grounds adjacent to Lake St. Clair. The band will dive into the sounds of the swing era, a fitting program given that the Fords once hosted parties in which celebrities of the day like Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra were the entertainment.

7:30 p.m. Friday (grounds open at 6 p.m. for picnicking), 1100 Lake Shore, Grosse Pointe Shores. 313-884-4222. jazzfordhouse.eventbrite.com. $12-$20 general admission (lawn); $25 reserved seating, parking and shuttle.

The late Sun Ra was one of a kind -- a pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader and mystic who took his Afro-centric and intergalactic space-traveler identity seriously. Beneath the outer-space vibe and regalia was an aesthetic that ran the gamut from Ellington to early hard bop to the far side of the avant-garde. Led by the intrepid drummer RJ Spangler, the Planet D Nonet presents its third annual Sun Ra Tribute with guest trombonist Vincent Chandler.

9 p.m. Saturday, 3rd Bar, 701 W. Forest, Detroit.
Contact Mark Stryker: 313-222-6459 or mstryker@freepress.com