Music Review: Gilson Schachnik and Mauricio Zottarelli - Mozik

For whatever reason, I don’t tend to dig jazz flute. There’s something altogether corny about it in my mind, something that is perhaps more involved with Will Ferrell’s performance in Anchorman than any actual experience or dislike for jazz flute. But all the same, it hasn’t exactly been my listening weapon of choice.

With their new record Mozik, pianist Gilson Schachnik and drummer Mauricio Zottarelli offer a take on Brazilian jazz that happens to include, yep, a jazz flute. In this case, the flutist is Russia's Yulia Musayelyan.

Here, the flute doesn’t sound the least bit corny or out of place in the context of Brazilian jazz and bossa nova. On the contrary, Musayelyan’s playing easily sinks into the arrangements and helps to accentuate the rhythms. Musayelyan’s playing isn’t all flourishes and flavours; it highlights, brightly assisting Zottarelli’s varying beats while dancing with Gustavo Assis-Brasil’s guitar and Schachnik’s keys.

Now you can’t have an album of Brazilian jazz without including some standards from Antonio Carlos Jobim. Mozik has three such arrangements, each one lovingly tinkered with by Schachnik. The theme from Black Orpheus, “A Felicidade,” is a standout with its slow-burning gait that doesn’t ignore the melancholy of the original while building to inevitable bliss.

There’s also some traditional jazz, with Herbie Hancock’s “Eye of the Hurricane.” The piece, a beautiful standard of modal jazz with its slow-moving harmonies, is lovingly kissed by Brazilian jazz rhythms and Assis-Brasil’s velvety strings.

This combination of players may never have come to fruition had it not been for Schachnik’s influence on Zottarelli. “I didn’t want anything to do with Brazilian music when I was there,” Zottarelli says. “I was very much into heavy metal, blues, rock, and a little fusion. But when I got to Berklee, people assumed I know Jobim’s music, that I could play samba, and I couldn’t. When Gilson presented me some of those Dom Salvador records, it gave me a chance to get to know the music…and that’s how it all started.”

Schachnik was born and raised in Sao Paulo and started playing organ at age 11, learning through his love of Deep Purple. He broke into the club scene early on and accompanied Patricia Marx and Rosa Maria on the road. By 1990, he had won a scholarship to Berklee and graduated with a degree in jazz composition.

The history of these two musicians shines through with every note of Mozik, an enticing album of Brazilian jazz that is bathed with a wealth of influences from various genres. And then there’s that damned jazz flute, hot as hell and causing me to rethink my whole hardline stance on the thing.

Read more: http://blogcritics.org/music/article/music-review-gilson-schachnik-and-mauricio/#ixzz1cNgqBDXj

Take Five With Graham Lin

By GRAHAM LING,

Meet Graham Ling:
Classically trained from an early age, I wondered through the '80s not knowing what to listen to or play. Grunge happened to me in a big way, and I rocked throughout my twenties, but come my thirties I was looking for something as challenging as classical but with the raw emotion of rock music. It was then I discovered jazz, or rather, when a stranger approached me after a gig in Stonehaven and said that he would love to play saxophone on some of the blues numbers I played and lent me his Real Book.

From then on I was hooked. Ken and I became the KG Influence, which compliments my solo performances; more recently, I've been in-demand as a singer for established jazz bands such as Cindy Douglas Quartet, Lewis Benzies Group and Jazz Attic.

Instrument(s):
Voice, guitar.

Teachers and/or influences?
Chet Baker, Wes Montgomery, Herb Ellis and Ella Fitzgerald.

I knew I wanted to be a musician when...
I saw Meat Loaf on the TV; no, really!

Your sound and approach to music:
Less is more—play from the heart

Your teaching approach:
Practice, practice, practice. You wouldn't believe how many people ask me for the short cuts.

Your dream band:
Everyone has something different to contribute. I often learn really good ideas and lessons from people who aren't considered good musicians.

Favorite venue:
The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen has a good crowd who are there for the jazz. Borsalino Restaurant. Peterculter—diners are often surprised that they like jazz.

Your favorite recording in your discography and why?
The best is yet to be recorded. Most of my recordings are live but I will attempt some studio recordings next year.

The first Jazz album I bought was:
Miles Davis, Kind of Blue.

What do you think is the most important thing you are contributing musically?
Bringing jazz to people who didn't realize they like jazz.

Did you know...
I'm also an amateur actor.

CDs you are listening to now:
Pat Martino, Remember (Blue Note);
Chet Baker, Chet Sings and Plays the Great Ballads.

Desert Island picks:
Alvin Atkinson and the Sound Merchants, HarlemRa;
Miles Davis, Kind of Blue;
Wes Montgomery, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery.

How would you describe the state of jazz today?
Ready for a comeback.

What are some of the essential requirements to keep jazz alive and growing?
Supporting your local jazz scene<.p>

What is in the near future?
Getting better gigs and playing with more jazz musicians.

Stonehaven Beer Festival: November 3 and 5, 2011;
Borsalino Restaurant: every Saturday;
The Lemon Tree: November 27, 2011 (with Jazz Attic).

By Day:
Project Manager.

If I weren't a jazz musician, I would be a:
If I weren't a jazz musician, I would be another style of musician.

Photo Credit
Courtesy of Graham Ling

Steve Dalachinsky: Weaving Poetry with Jazz

By FLORENCE WETZEL

Poet Steve Dalachinsky occupies a unique place in the jazz firmament. Actually, he occupies several places: he writes poetry inspired by jazz, he performs and records with jazz musicians and he has supplied liner notes for numerous artists including multi-intrumentalist Anthony Braxton, drummer Rashied Ali and pianist Matthew Shipp. Dalachinsky is an avid supporter of the music, one of those people who needs jazz like they need air. In fact, if you go hear avant-garde music in New York City and see someone writing intently in a corner, it's probably Dalachinsky.

The past decade has been very good to Dalachinsky. He published almost 20 books of poetry and collage, and he won the 2007 PEN Oakland National Book Award for his bookThe Final Nite & Other Poems: Complete Notes from a Charles Gayle Notebook 1987-2006 (Ugly Duckling Press, 2006).

A prolific artist whose work has only strengthened over the decades, Dalachinsky's newest offerings—two excellent books of poetry and an innovative music/poetry CD— are reviewed here.

Steve Dalachinsky
The Mantis
Softcover; 55 pages
ISBN: 1-877968-46-3
Iniquity Press & Vendetta Books
2011

The poems in The Mantis—subtitled For Cecil Taylor: The Collected Poems 1966-2009—were inspired by pianistCecil Taylor, both the man and the music. Most were written while Dalachinsky was listening to Taylor in different New York City venues between 1966 and 2009. He adds the disclaimer that the poems "do not necessarily reflect the music." Which is what makes this collection so interesting: the poems are a gorgeous blending of literal descriptions and flights of language, offering a true depiction of the listener's internal dialogue. In short, this is what listening sounds like.

The poems contain vivid descriptions of Taylor in action—"i stretch limbs / to watch those wild hands, / fingers, elbows, fists / whisper, punch & push the keys"—as well as insights about Taylor's music: "there are a lot of guys / who play the piano great / but there are very few great piano players / mt. climbers white water rafters." Sometimes Dalachinsky comments on the jazz venues themselves, often displaying his trademark humor: "boy / this place has everything / music dancing breath mints." He's also honest about the fact that although club patrons may seem to be following the music, quite possibly their thoughts are elsewhere: "interesting / to catch myself looking down her blouse / seeking out a little patch in the hot crowded room / the space between her buttons."

Dalachinsky also offers clues on the art of listening: "though listening is good, listening too good is not so good." He even shares his experience of writing to music: "it's crazy to write to this music it thunders the brain a bomblike strapped to my I-lids romancing the ending so sudden not abruptly." Yet writing to this music is exactly what Dalachinsky loves to do; he is entranced by the mixing and mingling of language and sound: "if i were a writer & you were a bird / i'd write what you spoke."

The book ends with a prose piece that describes an encounter Dalachinsky had with the man himself at the Blue Note in November 2001, after one of Taylor's legendary duets with drummer Elvin Jones: "Later in the smoke filled dressing room I ask Cecil how he's feeling. He answers with the simple but perplexing sentence, 'Too soon to tell.'"

Steve Dalachinsky
Long Play E.P.
Softcover; 40 pages
ISBN: 979-10-90394-07-0
Corrupt Press
2011

Most of the poems in Long Play E.P.—subtitled The Complete Evan Parker Poems—were written in October 2009 during saxophonist Evan Parker's residency at The Stone, a New York City performance space with the distinction of having saxophonist John Zorn as artistic director. The title refers to Parker's renowned circular-breathing techniques, a skill Dalachinsky captures in the lines: "the breath / again the breath / then somewhere inside / the skillside of the skull." - http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40644

Jazz Trombonist Curtis Fuller Lectures at Harvard on Monday, October 31

Blue Note jazz trombonist and composer Curtis Fuller has been invited as a Visiting Artist at at Harvard University's Office of the Arts on Monday, October 31, 2011, 7:30 p.m, .at the New College Theatre Studio, 10-12 Holoyke Street in Cambridge.

Fuller will discuss his work in a conversation with Tom Everett, Director of the Harvard Bands, and later will perform in an open rehearsal with the Harvard Jazz Band. The event is free and open to the public and is part of the Learning from Performers series.

Born in Detroit, Fuller has been one of the most influential trombonists in the history of jazz over the past six decades. He is a featured artist on the series “Blue Note Records, Then and Now," a year-long celebration of the premiere jazz label.

On November 12, Fuller is performing in concert with the Harvard Jazz Band at the Lowell Lecture Hall, 17 Kirkland Street in Cambridge. For information click here.

View the original article...

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=88966

Bruno Chevillon and Tim Berne, "Old and Unwise"

Freedom. Free-dom. What is it? And how do you get it? In music the word denotes something specific. At least in jazz. It means in part starting out a musical performance with the idea that what is going to happen will happen because the players spontaneously put their improvised parts together without a great deal of overt deliberation.

They also, to whatever extent. play what they please, without someone dictating to them in some concrete sense. So it could be anything. And when the ensemble has a small number of people, then constraints on the improvisers are even less, at least in some purely “free" situation. So freedom in jazz relies on the maximum of creative input on the part of the players.

Such freedom is a part of all jazz to some extent. But so-called free jazz accentuates that. Now of course each player has ways of playing that have something to do with his or her originality and way of musical thinking-feeling. And each responds to the other players. So of course it is not some cosmic random freedom, but a human one that involves intention and will on the part of each musician.

And now we turn to an excellent example of this kind of freedom. Bassist Bruno Chevillon, a name not overly familiar to me, and alto saxophologist Tim Berne, well-known and well-liked for his originality, join forces for the hour-plus session Old and Unwise (Clean Feed 221). It's a series of 11 free duets. It shows Mr. Chevillon a very game player, a very good improvising artist and able partner of the lucid and singular Tim Berne.

Each improvisation is distinguished by a way to go about things. One for example consists of trading short phrases, one more staccato, one legato, one with longer tones, one with rapid exchanges, etc. It is a mark of their rapport as a duo and their individual free imagination that the mood and sound of each duet varies. It also makes what could get tedious just the opposite.

This is high-level music making. It is a testament to Bruno's bass playing prowess and fertile inventive skills that he is a full partner in the exchange with Tim, who has well established his credentials in this arena. Berne is in top form throughout, spurred onward by some very capable bass wielding. The music is more about the notes than about sound color. Improvised jazz line melody is the top priority and they come through the hoop of fire flying freely and gracefully, so to speak.

This one will appeal to all fans of Tim Berne, free contrabass and the creative improvised music scene. Most definitely recommended!

View the original article...

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=88977

Legendary Bill Smith to perform at TOSH

By Brenda Gough - Parksville Qualicum Beach News

One of the all-time greats will be performing at The Old School House Arts Centre for Music on Sunday, October 30. Jazz clarinetist Bill Smith will be performing with Ron Hadley on piano, Rick Kilburn on bass and Dan Brubeck on drums. Smith is unquestionably one of the greatest clarinetists of all time. He has successfully bridged the gap between the classical and the jazz worlds.

As William O. Smith, he has established himself as one of the world’s finest contemporary composers. He has been a Professor of Music at the University of Washington since 1966. Throughout his academic career he has always found time to continue his jazz performances, with such luminaries as Shelley Manne, Branford Marsalis, Jim Hall, Mel Lewis, Buddy Collette, Buddy DeFranco, Paul Desmond, Red Norvo, Red Mitchell, Kenny Clarke and Barney Kessell.

Smith was an original member of the Dave Brubeck Octet that worked the Bay Area, beginning in 1947, and with which Brubeck began one of the most successful careers in West Coast jazz. Over the years he has maintained a close friendship with Brubeck and performed all over the world as a featured soloist with the famous Dave Brubeck Quartet.

Smith’s life in jazz began at age 10.

A traveling salesman came to his family’s door in Oakland.

That salesman said to his mother, “You can’t afford to pass up this opportunity. If your boy takes 24 lessons I’ll give him a free clarinet.” Young Bill Smith got his clarinet.

He said, “My hero through most of my youth was Benny Goodman.”

Of course, the King of Swing played both jazz and classical music. Hearing his jazz playing at age 13, he started a dance band and went pro. Sort of. For $8 to $12, his eight-piece combo played Elks clubs and the like. His dual, jazz-classics life began in earnest when, at 15, he joined the Oakland Symphony. But jazz took precedence over school. He began his dreamed-of life on the road with a dance band.

“I found out pretty quick that I didn’t like it,” he admitted.

So, heeding a colleague’s advice to get schooling, he saved $1,000, quit when the band reached the east coast, and entered the Juilliard School of Music. While studying composition there by day, he had a regular spot with a jazz trio on 52nd Street, the stronghold of bebop in the 1940s.

Smith said he found its faculty reactionary. So, when he heard some pieces by Darius Milhaud and discovered the French composer was teaching composition at Mills College, back in Oakland, he headed home. Playing and hanging out with another of Milhaud’s students, Brubeck, took care of Smith’s jazz inclinations.

Soon after graduating, Smith won the Prix de Paris, which took him to the Paris Conservatory for two years. He later would win the Prix de Rome (1957) and two Guggenheim Fellowships. Smith is now based in Seattle and continues to write, perform and record throughout the world.

Music lovers will get to hear the legend on Sun., Oct. 30 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at The Old School House Arts Centre, 122 Fern Road West, in Qualicum Beach. Admission is $16.

For details, phone 250-752-6133 or visit www.theoldschoolhouse.org. - http://www.pqbnews.com/entertainment/132662673.html

Etta James: Heart and Soul

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

When Etta James lashed out at Beyoncé in 2009 for singing At Lastat President Obama's inauguration party, most critics assumed James didn't like Beyoncé's interpretation of her 1961 hit. Or that she was envious of the invite. Truth is James probably didn't have a beef with Beyoncé's delivery at all. Case in point: James had recently publicly praised Beyoncé's depiction of her in the movieCadillac Records.

Instead, James' acidicwords more likely came from resentment—not of Beyoncé but of a system that has all but forgotten her enormous contribution to R&B, rock and roll and soul. Fortunately, we can now hear exactly what made the dynamic belter special and how she developed over the years on Etta James: Heart & Soul, a Retrospective (Hip-o Select).

Unlike many R&B singers of the early '50s who were born, raised and discovered in the South, James was from Los Angeles—a savvy hotbed of jump blues and R&B in the late '40s and early '50s. As jazz work dried up on the West Coast, many musicians who had relocated there began to switch to R&B to earn a steady living. For others, the music packed more raw, honest energy.

Many independent record labels like Apollo and Modern were quick to tap into the R&B talent pool. They maintained offices there and focused on blues artists who were cheaper to record, especially since many of the songs didn't require ASCAP royalty payments.

As this four-CD set reveals, James from the start was as dynamic and as high-voltage asLittle Richard. Her first recording was Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry) in 1954. The single vaulted to No. 1 hit on Billboard's R&B chart in early 1955, and James continued to record throughout the '50s, often specializing in songs with a double entendre. She continued to record in the '60s and '70s (for Chess) while managing a heroin addiction, and continued to record into the the late 2000s.

The beauty of this set is that it spans from 1954 to 2007. The choices perfectly illustrate what makes James special and how her vocal attack has shifted over the years. From the early years, sample Good Rockin' Daddy and My Heart Cries. Moving forward, sample Do I Make Myself Clear (1965).849-3089 (1966), Take It to the Limit (1977), Higher Ground (1987), Love Letters(2000) and Ashes By Now(2007).

What made James special back at the dawn of rock and roll were her powerful pipes and rollicking confidence. Unlike Dinah Washington, whose vocal snap and regal jukebox dominance came from a more staid jazz tradition, James was street and had nothing to lose by hammering out singles dripping with seduction and sex appeal. She also was less self-conscious and packed more sidewalk sass and rage.

This isn't Southern gospel, New York doo-wop or Chicago blues. It's R&B roots music, and James clearly is one of the first pure soul singers. But she also provides a look at why Los Angeles quickly became R&B's capital in the '50s—long before Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and Phil Spector leveraged the tough-girl sound.

JazzWax tracks: Etta James: Heart & Soul, a Retrospective (Hip-o Select) is a four-disc hardback set with bound-in book that features superb color photos and notes by Bill Dahl, who conducted an in-depth interview with James and others. You'll find this set at iTunes and here.

JazzWax clip: Here's Good Rockin' Daddy from 1955... Used with permission by Marc Myers

Marcelo Bratke talks about the power of music

exciting collaborations with jazz musicians, film makers and Brazilian popstars, Marcelo Bratke returns to Southbank Centre for his upcoming concert From Rio to New York, which explores musical parallels between the two cities. Here he talks about the concert and how it was influenced by his work in prisons and with street musicians from Brazil.


Your upcoming concert From Rio to New York ranges from Gershwin to Vila Lobos and spans two continents. Are there any ideas or themes that connects the pieces?
I like to create concerts in which music links things which are not close together. In this concert I take four composers from Brazil and four from America, who were working in the same period of time, and I hold them up as mirrors to each other. Despite their different cultural environments we see the same musical phenomenon, influenced by popular culture in Brazil and by jazz in America.


You have been involved in a lot of exciting projects such as working with young musicians from shanty towns in Brazil, and playing a series of performances in prisons. What have you learnt from these?
I was almost blind from birth, having 2% vision in one eye, and 7% in the other. A few years ago I had an operation which restored full sight to my left eye, and I was able to see the world in its full beauty for the first time. I also clearly saw the social differences in Brazil and I felt I wanted to give something back. I created the Camerate Vale Musica five years ago, an orchestra made up of young musicians from shanty towns in Brazil. By the end of our first tour kids who hadn’t even known what the Carnegie Hall was were performing there, and now many of them are at university studying music.


When I took a Vila Lobos concert and film About Brazilian nature on tour around twelve prisons, I wanted to create an imaginary window in the prison walls. To be honest I was expecting it to be a depressing experience but it was the opposite. I found wonderful stories. Six hundred women heard the melodies of Vila Lobos and began singing along. When I was playing at a maximum security prison one of the prisoners came onstage and played a beautiful rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. I found out later that he had murdered his girlfriend’s parents. That really showed me the subtle limit between normal and abnormal.


So do you think that music has a responsibility to society?
Music is a language of communication that can bring people together that weren’t linked in any way before. It is more than a form of art- it passes irresistible messages, more influential than a politician’s speech you could say. I think this is really what I am trying to communicate in my concert at Southbank Centre.


For full concert info and to book click here
http://www.mysouthbank.co.uk/news/marcelo-bratke-talks-about-the-power-of-music

Vagabond Opera

Vagabond Opera has reimagined the musical traditions of cabaret, classical, and even swing and klezmer.  They have proven to be very appealing to fans of jazz, steampunk, and musical theater.  In celebration of the release of their new album , they have set out from their hometown of Portland, OR to embark on a tour of the US.  High res images, audio streaming, full bio and more can be found by visiting their press kit here:

www.rockpaperscissors.biz/go/vagabond/
(if clicking doesn't work, try pasting it in)

Classically trained singer Eric Stern abandoned his pursuit of becoming a famous opera singer in favor of growing Vagabond Opera.  "I left the mainstream opera world was because I wasn't getting to drink from the deep well of my Eastern European Heritage," he explains.

I have downloads of the album available to the press as well as physical copies.  Are you interested in reviewing the album?

jovially,
-Ryan

r y a n    d a w e s (rhymes with claws)
rock paper scissors, inc.
TEL +1-812-339-1195
ryan@rockpaperscissors.biz
www.rockpaperscissors.biz

Jazz Musician of the Day: Babs Gonzales

All About Jazz is celebrating Babs Gonzales' birthday today!

Jazz singers used the scat technique, that means using the voice to create notes that are not words so the voice works like a musical instrument - and they also used slang in their music. Vocalists such as Slim Gaillard, and Babs Gonzalez were larger than life characters who used strange, funny new words in rhythmically complex phrases. Born Lee Brown, 27 Oct. 1919, in Newark NJ; he and his brothers were all called Babs...Jazz singers used the scat technique, that means using the voice to create notes that are not words so the voice works like a musical instrument - and they also used slang in their music. Vocalists such as Slim Gaillard, and Babs Gonzalez were larger than life characters who used strange, funny new words in rhythmically complex phrases. Born Lee Brown, 27 Oct. 1919, in Newark NJ; he and his brothers were all called Babs... more

Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website or blog.

Visit Website

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=88857

Gerald Clayton in the spotlight at KU

Published by William Muller in Culture, Music Reviews on October 26th, 2011

He has been regarded as a young pianist with “pristine technique and having highly advanced compositional skills” from the review on his new album on All About Jazz’s website.

At 27 years old, Gerald Clayton has composed music for symphonies and has been nominated for two Grammy awards.

The Gerald Clayton Trio visited the Ursa Minor’s Cafe on Thursday, Oct. 20 where they gave an outstanding performance to their audience.

The three piece band – Alan Hampton on upright bass and Quincey Davis on drums – created a sound where all of their musical intuition was put to work.

Clayton said that this was the first time this trio performed together on stage.

Surprisingly they sounded better than one may expect for it being their first time performing together.

“I’ve been in mingle mode for the past year, trying to find the right fit for the trio. But, with like-minded people, this has been an undertaking very worthwhile,” Clayton said.

Their performance included a few unrecorded pieces, familiar compositions from artist such as Dizzy Gillespie, as well as numbers from his first recorded album Two-Shade as well as pieces from his newest album Bond: The Paris Sessions.

They play with high energy and impulsive qualities where they let the music take the reins of guiding where to go. Each of the three members had equal opportunity to show case their renowned talents.

With their constant change of intricate time signatures, it kept the audiences ears on high alert for the unpredictable beauty of jazz.

“We like to keep it loose but we like to keep it tight,” Clayton said after a number where each member had a lengthy solo.

Clayton’s newest album, Bond: The Paris Sessions was recorded with his formers members Joe Sanders, bass, and Justin Brown, drums, in France’s capital.

The “bond” refers to the coherence within the three while recording this album.

“This album engages to stick with the community of fellow musicians, similar artists, as well as students,” Gerald said in reference to his album.

Their dynamic sound on the record creates a labyrinth of melodies where it infuses each unique quality of the members, making it interesting to listen to as a whole rather than focusing on Clayton.

Clayton explores the deep currents of jazz, unwinding many of the musical unknowns hitting the powerful chords at the precise time in his compositions.

“I have listened to many different musical styles. I always absorb these influences and by this, I created my own voice,” Clayton said.

The evidence in his songs of infusing many styles is evident.

Elements of swing, traditional jazz, and staccato riffs all encompass his music.

Each song has their own path and set of sounds but Clayton knows how to interject with his delicate touch to make the song coexist with the entire composition.

For more information on Gerald Clayton’s Trio, visit www.geraldclayton.com.

http://keystoneonline.com/2011/10/gerald-clayton-in-the-spotlight-at-ku/