Five key records I listened to in 2012

by Minim Pro @ 2012-12-31 – 17:43:49

As we approach the end of the year, it's traditional for bloggers to start writing articles entitled 'The Best Albums of 2012'. Personally, I've never been keen to write one of those myself for two reasons: Firstly because you tend to subconsciously give weight to albums released in the second half of the year that you've heard more recently, but perhaps more importantly, because I really don't see the calendar year as being a particularly useful way to group and evaluate albums.

However, I came across a great idea suggested by Will Rodway, author of the 'Sure Nuff' blog who has similar reservations about these kind of articles. Will's idea was to write a post about the albums that he'd eitherdiscovered in 2012 or that had the greatest impact on him this year. I thought it was a great idea - reflections on a personal year of listening to music struck me as a much more interesting way to sign off these last 12 months. Chatting on twitter, we decided to do a joint post where we would each choose five albums that have been significant to us and post them. It doesn't matter when the albums where released, only that they had some personal significance to us in 2012.

Narrowing it down to five wasn't easy, but here are the choices I whittled it down to after much thoughtful beard-stroking:

- Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band - Season of Changes;

- Jerry Bergonzi - Napoli Connection;

- Snarky Puppy - Ground Up;

- Bill Evans - Portrait in Jazz;

- Dave Brubeck - Take Five, The Jazz Masters Series

Read complete and more: http://playjazz.blog.co.uk/2012/12/31/five-key-records-i-listened-to-in-15373525/

Carmen Lundy - In Conversation

• Written by  Asha Brodie

Singer Carmen Lundy has returned to the scene with an album that can easily be categorized as one of her best yet. With music that is both consistent and a pleasure to listen to, this nine-track collection is entitled ‘Changes’ and features eight original compositions. It is a CD that will charm you, encourage you to dance, sing along and quite simply will brighten your mood. The tracks speak about love from all angles and include themes ranging from love for neighbors and friends, new love and breakups. With a CD launch planned for March 8 – 11 at the Jazz Standard in New York, and another in LA on March 29 and 30, Carmen took time out to speak to JazzReview about the new CD and her upcoming work.

JazzReview: Carmen, thanks so much for taking time to speak to us. In my book, this recording is indeed one of a high caliber. How did the ideas come together for it? What was the inspiration?

Carmen Lundy: Inspiration, well as you can tell, the songs come from a lot of different points of view and I think what happens to me is that I'm always in the discipline of working at my craft in between my performances and travel. I make sure everything stays oiled. It’s a musical experience that never leaves you alone. It is always hovering somewhere, asking you to do something else. I think in this case I had to narrow it down to a few songs, some that I have been performing, you know I like to try out songs on the audience before recording them. That way I can get that instant ‘you-can't-even-pretend’ kind of feedback. It is what it is. So there were a few songs like that, which I had written prior to recording but with the intention that they would be recorded. Certainly the audience helped to determine whether or not it was time to take them into the studio. I had started to record ‘The Night Is Young’ as the first song on the album because I had done a demo back in the late 80s on a cassette tape that my manager at the time had shared with a friend of his who is a disc jockey in London. The disc jockey played the cassette on the air and I guess people heard it! After that I kept getting emails about the song, which they referred to as ‘The Ni Ya’ song (since these are the vowels I sing in the song), from listeners in London. About three weeks before I actually started recording I got another email about the song and that prompted me to include it. I reworked it from the original way I had done it because it didn't feel right. It just felt heavy so I wanted to give it a lighter flavor. I started fooling around with the song on the guitar and it turned out to be what it is now. It's funny how that is, that songs happen when they're supposed to. So yeah, I've been teaching myself to play guitar, and there are a few songs that were born on the guitar such as ‘So Beautiful’, ‘Sleeping Alone’, ‘When Love Surrounds Us’ and ‘Dance the Dance’. Those songs were all written on the guitar and this is a whole new discovery for me. Wow! The whole feeling of how the melodies evolve and kind of jump out is quite different from the way I've experienced writing music from the piano for all these years. So yeah, everything was kind of being in the moment. Then there is the whole idea of taking the songs and adding musicians to them and then asking the musicians to be themselves with the music, not telling them too much of what to do but allowing them to play and to be themselves. That's why we got these really organic and strong performances, because everyone was totally approaching things from both an individualistic and collective way of playing.

Read more: http://www.jazzreview.com/index.php/reviews/jazz-artist-interviews/item/29008-carmen-lundy-in-conversation

Television's Peter Gunn Turns 50

It's the stuff of Hollywood legend. One day in 1958, staff composer Henry Mancini dropped by the Universal-International Studios barbershop when who should be in the next chair but producer/director Blake Edwards. "Hey," said the latter, "would you be interested in doing a TV show for me?" Interested! The 34-year-old Mancini, on notice that his services were no longer required, thought the most he could hope for at Universal was one last haircut. You bet he was interested. Edwards confided that, for his new private-eye series, he envisioned jazz as "an integral part of the dramatic action, fusing storyline and score." Jazz, he enthused, would be the "distinctive element to invest this series with something extra, something superlative."

Big-screen movies had long since conditioned us to the big bang of Crime Jazz much as Pavlov tutored his dogs. TV, however, would now cement the connection as immutably as some wiseguy in concrete wing tips with a reservation at the Riverbed Inn. The new wave of primetime crime dramas, pitched at adults who swilled cocktails and puffed Chesterfields in air-conditioned split-level suburbia, would pass off murder and mayhem as sophisticated entertainment. And for this, natch, they required music you could tap your toe to.

Accordingly, when NBC premiered Peter Gunn on September 22, 1958, it was a breath of smoky air, as suave leading man Craig Stevens breezed through the title role of a hip PI with a sexy, jazz-singer girlfriend. Rising to this challenge with an unfettered flair for mimicry, the resourceful Mancini gussied up the series' catchy theme with French horns filched from Claude Thornhill and twangy guitar glommed from rock 'n' roller Duane Eddy. And before you could say, "You're under arrest," trumpeter Ray Anthony scored a Top 10 hit with his quickie big-band cover of "The Peter Gunn Theme."

When an even grittier cover by Duane Eddy & the Rebels later twanged among the Top 100 for 11 weeks, it seemed like payback for Mancini's twang-theft in the first place. But by then, Mancini had bastardized Eddy's "Stalkin'" for Peter Gunn's "Spook!"  Some shoplifters work so fast, even video surveillance cameras can't catch them in the act. In any case, Duane Eddy got off light with only two swipes from Mancini, whose primary marks were jazzmen George Shearing and Count Basie.

Read more: http://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2008/9/10/peter-gunn-at-50

Marius Neset: Norwegian Woods

By IAN PATTERSON, Published: December 17, 2012

Marius Neset has become one of today's most talked-about saxophonists since the release ofGolden Xplosion (Edition Records, 2011). The album, which also features pianist/keyboardistDjango Bates, bassist Jasper Hoiby and drummer Anton Eger, has received widespread five-star reviews, and countless superlatives have been used to heap praise on the 26-year-old from Bergen. Neset has been described as the most important Norwegian saxophonist since Jan Garbarek and has been compared to tenor great Michael Brecker, which may be high praise or millstone. What's sure is that in a very short time, Neset has emerged as one of Europe's most exciting young jazz talents and a major draw.

Neset got his wings at Copenhagen's Rhythmic Music Conservatory, and he couldn't have enrolled at a better time. In 2005, the RMC appointed English pianist/keyboard player and composer Django Bates as its first Professor of Rhythmic Music, to raise the Conservatory's international profile and, naturally enough, to cultivate excellence. Bates soon recognized Neset's talent and recruited him for his StoRMChaser big band, which went on to record Spring is Here (Shall We Dance?) (Lost Marble, 2008). Bates—who has described Neset as "an astonishing saxophonist"—also invited Neset to join his small ensemble Human Chain. Now that's praise.

Since 2005, Neset's main concern has been JazzKamikaze, one of the most original-sounding quintets on the contemporary jazz scene. The Return of JazzKamikaze (Stunt/Sundance, 2012), the band's fourth recording, could well be its most adventurous to date, and it signals a return to a sound that resembles the band's first two albums, following the pop-rock vocal experiment ofSupersonic Revolutions (Seven Seas Music, 2010).

Neset's latest project is Neck of the Woods (Edition Records, 2012), a captivating duo recording with tuba player Daniel Herskedal that explores a region somewhere between Norwegian folkloric music and the ambience of sacred music. It's perhaps Neset's most significant musical statement to date and provides further confirmation, as if any more were needed, that a major new voice in jazz/contemporary music has entered stage center.

Read more: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=43350#.UODQlqXhEhQ

'A Highly Personal Music'

Jazz personalities have provided material for some of the best biographies and autobiographies written in modern times, and some histories of jazz qualify as significant contributions to the cultural history of the United States during the twentieth century. In Why Jazz Happened, Marc Myers of JazzWax.com has given us another important contribution, but this is a contribution with a difference.

Myers opens and ends his book with discussions of the Original Dixieland "Jass" Band, a quintet that, on February 26, 1917, played the two songs that constitute the first jazz recordever released. The band, though commercially successful, was far from the best ensemble of its type. Its members never improvised, and their tunes incorporated corny barnyard effects. But they were partially responsible, Myers writes, for "the dramatic moment in time when jazz was first documented on record. As I listened to the music, I couldn't help thinking about the irony—that jazz may have been born in New Orleans, but the music's documentation began at RCA Victor's studio on West 38th Street, in the heart of New York's Garment District."

Few jazz enthusiasts would see anything "dramatic" in the first recorded jazz tunes, except perhaps that they were performed by an all-white New Orleans ensemble instead of by superior black and Creole musicians who (for the most part) were the true pioneers. Myers' comments typify the unusual nature of his book. Most histories of jazz focus on what might called its internal history: the biographies of notable jazz musicians, composers, and arrangers; the various stylistic developments of particular musicians (such as the early and later styles of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, or Bud Shank); and the nature of jazz music itself. Myers focuses on the external history of jazz—on those "nonjazz events" that significantly influenced the genre's development. Among these influences were the invention of long-playing records (which permitted long solos to be recorded), the postwar G.I. Bill (which enabled many jazz musicians and composers to study classical music), unions (especially the two-year ban on recording, beginning in 1942, by the American Federation of Musicians, which led to the emergence of many small record companies), DJs, promoters, and much more.

Why Jazz Happened, by Marc Myers, University of California Press, 267 pages.

Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2012/12/30/a-highly-personal-music

Jazz Musician of the Day: Danilo Perez

All About Jazz is celebrating Danilo Perez's birthday today!

Grammy award winner Danilo Pérez is among the most influential and dynamic musicians of our time. In just over a decade, his distinctive blend of Pan-American jazz (covering the music of the Americas, folkloric and world music) has attracted critical acclaim and loyal audiences. Danilo’s abundant talents and joyous enthusiasm make his concerts both memorable and inspiring... Read more.

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

Visit Website

Read more: http://news.allaboutjazz.com/news.php?id=101888#.UOBbQKXhEhQ

DSO bassist brings classical music to the masses

DETROIT (AP) - On a typical night at the Cadieux Café on Detroit's east side, people come for the Belgian-style mussels, feather bowling and live rock or jazz.

But recently there's been a new addition to the menu: classical music.

The Classical Revolution Detroit jam session for classical musicians is led by Detroit Symphony Orchestra bassist Rick Robinson.

The 49-year-old Robinson tells The Detroit News (http://bit.ly/T4uQoD ), It's a party and everyone's invited."

Robinson thinks classical musicians should reach out to younger, more urban, diverse audiences.

The Revolution started in San Francisco six years ago and has spread to more than 30 cities in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Robinson also started two classical groups to take the music out of Orchestra Hall and into the community.
Information from: The Detroit News, http://detnews.com/

from: http://www.wlns.com/story/20437969/dso-bassist-brings-classical-music-to-the-masses

Michael Baisden, Nationally Syndicated Radio Personality

Michael Baisden, Nationally Syndicated Radio Personality, Signs on as Host of the 8th Annual Jazz in the Gardens Music Festival

Miami Gardens’ 8th annual two-day Jazz in the Gardens music festival at Sun Life Stadium is proud to announce as the festival host, nationally syndicated radio personality, Michael Baisden.

Michael Baisden is undeniably one of the most influential and engaging personalities in radio history. His meteoric rise to No. 1 is redefining radio with the numbers to back it up. The show is nationally syndicated and is heard in over 78 markets nationwide with over eight million loyal listeners daily. His career began when he took a leap of faith to leave his job driving trains in Chicago to self-publish his book and began touring the country selling books out of the trunk of his car. Baisden, who now has four best-selling books to his credit, has hosted two national television shows, and has recently produced three feature films.

“I’m excited to be hosting the 8th Annual Jazz in the Gardens music Festival. I had the pleasure of hosting the 2011 festival and it was an awesome experience. Each year the event gets bigger and better,” stated Michael Baisden. “I’m looking forward to inviting my listeners from around the country and the world to join me for two days of food, fun, and incredible music. My goal is to make this the most successful Jazz in the Gardens festival ever!”

read more: http://www.communitynewspapers.com/miami-gardens/michael-baisden-nationally-syndicated-radio-personality-signs-on-as-host-of-the-8th-annual-jazz-in-the-gardens-music-festival/

Mitch Winehouse Keeps Amy Winehouse's Unreleased Collection of Music

AMY Winehouse’s father Mitch has revealed he has a personal collection of unreleased material by his late daughter. The tragic singer, who died last year at the age of 27, sang jazz before making her acclaimed album Back To Black.

“I’ve got a little bit of stuff that Amy recorded with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra but really there isn’t a lot,” he reveals. “I don’t know if it will come out. But her musical legacy will look after itself whatever happens.’’

Mitch admits he is still finding it hard to come to terms with Amy’s untimely death and is only just realising what an important artist she was.


‘’I was so busy running after Amy and telling her off and doing dad things that I didn’t realise how good she was until now,” he says.

“I’ve really started to listen to the music and listen to the words and I realise how brilliant she was. And I know I’m her dad but I don’t really think that a lot of people can compare to Amy.”

Read more: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/367610/Mitch-Winehouse-keeps-Amy-Winehouse-s-unrelased-collection-of-music/

Lee Konitz: Four Classic Albums

By DAVID RICKERT, Published: December 29, 2012

Besides being one of the few altoists that emerged in the 1950s that doesn't sound like Charlie Parker, Lee Konitz was a true musical adventurer whose explorations in free jazz, electronic instruments, and just all around anything goes sessions resulted in some of the most exciting music that came out of the fifties and beyond. His playing, which is marked by a detachment and intellectualism that can sound rehearsed, isn't for everyone, but there's no doubt that Konitz has, and continues to be, an inspiration to many.Four Classic Albums collects some of Konitz's lesser-known work from the 1950s—not his best, but still exciting dates that show an artistic vision that few could match.

An Image from 1958 is a daring third stream work that pairs Konitz with a string section led by Bill Russo, an arranger from the Stan Kenton days. No-one should expect a standard sax 'n' strings record from Konitz, and the fairly tame opener "'Round Midnight" does not adequately set up the unusual compositions that follow. An Image is dominated by two longer pieces: "Music for Alto and Strings" and "An Image of Man" titles which point to the lofty aspirations of all involved; we're a far cry from "Body and Soul" here. Russo's original compositions are filled with dissonant, jarring chords that never seem to resolve, yet somehow Konitz is able to find an improvisational footing among the dissonance. Much of what transpires indicates what a blending of jazz and classical could become, but the album is at times a challenging listen, one made with equal shares of moxie and pretention.

You and Lee from 1958 is a fine post big band era record with charts by veteran West Coaster Jimmy Giuffre. It's by and large a fairly straightforward, cool swinging session with two surprises: one, that two oddballs like Giuffre and Konitz turned out a record that was so conventional; and two, that "Konitz" and "swing" could conceivably be used in the same sentence. But swing it does, in a traditional West Coast fashion—light, breezy swing expertly arranged by Giuffre and deftly approached by Konitz, who navigates the charts with detached precision. While the charts are Californian in nature, the bandstand is comprised of a bunch of East Coasters like Bill Evans on piano, Jim Hall on guitar, Bob Brookmeyer and Billy Byers on trombones—that make this something special.

Record Label: Avid Records UK | Style: Straight-ahead/Mainstream

Read more: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=43629#.UN8jjKXhEhS

How 1948 Changed Everything

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

In today's Wall Street Journal (go here), I write about the American Federation of Musicians' little-known second recording ban of 1948 and how the 12-month job action unintentionally and dramatically altered jazz and other music styles for the next 50 years.

The first AFM recording ban from 1942 to 1944 was an attempt by the union to halt technology's impact on its membership. While radio, the phonograph, records, talkies and the jukebox entertained the country on a national scale in the '20s and '30s—making a relatively small percentage of highly talented musicians wealthy—the technology also tossed thousands of average musicians out of work. Thanks to playback technology, the need for live musicians declined precipitously at radio stations, in movie theaters and local bars and restaurants.

The result of the first ban was the establishment of a union fund to hire unemployed musicians and an agreement by the recording industry to make fund payments based on sales. But Congress wasn't pleased that the union had managed to tax an industry to support workers who no longer could cut it in an evolving business.

But there was little Congress could do legally since the agreement was binding. So it passed a law prohibiting unions from managing their own funds. Congress's motive was to prevent corruption and misuse of funds. Once the new law passed, the recording industry told the union it had no intention of renewing their agreement at the end of '47. So the AFM prepared for a second ban, to begin when the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve.

Badly burned by the last ban, Columbia Records decided to fast-track a new format. Clearly the union's main target was radio—since the spinning of records reaped a fortune in ad dollars but zero revenue for the union or its members. By contrast, the union had no problem with the home market, since a couple who purchased 78 rpm records by Louis Armstrong or the Boston Symphony wasn't earning ad revenue or charging others to hear it.

In June '48—midway through the second ban—Columbia unveiled a longer-playing vinyl record that turned at 33 1/3 rpm. The 12-inch LP lasted 22 1/2 minutes per side while the 10-inch version for pop and big bands lasted about 15 minutes per side. The improved convenience and duration of the LP didn't catch on immediately, largely because RCA didn't adapt it right away and consumers were hesitant to invest in what they perceived to be a temporary format.

When Roosevelt won a fourth term in November 1944, the recording industry decided to settle. In December, the union agreed to hand over management of its fund to an independent trustee, satisfying Congress's new law, and the recording industry's payments continued.

Not to be outdone by Columbia, RCA introduced its own format in 1949—the 45 rpm. The smaller record with the large hole at first went head-to-head with the LP. But when RCA's lucrative classical artists began defecting to Columbia in the early '50s, RCA also embraced the 33 1/3 speed, as did the rest of the industry. As for the 45 rpm, it quickly was used by radio and jukeboxes as a much better-sounding and more cost-effective alternative to the bulky and brittle 78 rpm.

The results? Once jazz labels began recording on 10-inch LPs in the early '50s and then the 12-inch LP in 1954, they needed more artists, more original material and longer solos to reduce the number of tracks per side and hold down royalty costs. During the mid-to-late '50s, the best jazz artists became superstars—Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Dave Brubeck and others. [Photo above of Miles Davis by Francis Wolff]

As for the 45 rpm, R&B blossomed in the early '50s thanks to the format, particularly with the rise of portable phonographs, local radio stations and stronger signals—all of which inspired the teen market. By mid-decade, R&B would branch-out into rock and roll as a mainstream, crossover form.

If the union had simply shuttered its fund at the end of '47 and not initiated a second ban, Columbia might not have released the LP when it did and RCA wouldn't have developed the 45 to trump its rival. Without those two formats, long-form jazz might only have been heard in clubs while rock may never have developed at all.

At any rate, take a read in today's Wall Street Journal. I devote an entire chapter of my book Why Jazz Happenedto the second AFM ban and the "speed wars." You can buy my book here.
Used with permission by Marc Myers

The Man I love - Kenny Davern and Sott Hamilton 1990

Rat Pack jazz group with Mannheim connections to perform

By Tim Johnson, tjohnson@nonpareilonline.com

"They call it 'music from the Golden Era.'"

It's Rat Pack jazz - hits of the 1940s and 1950s sung by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett and Nat King Cole - and it's coming to First Night.

Vocalist/guitarist Johnny Adams and featured guitarist Ron Cooley will perform Rat Pack hits Monday from 4:30 to 6:15 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 611 First Ave. They will be backed up by Dennis Strawn on saxophone, Dan Cerveny on keyboards, Andy Hall on bass and Carlos Figueroa on drums.

"Ron and I have been playing together for a lotta lotta years," Adams said. "We have done music from a number of different genres, but Ron has always been a really big jazz fan."

The duo started focusing on Rat Pack jazz a few years ago and found it struck a chord with different generations of listeners, he said.

"It's really caught on - and it's really interesting: You'll find a lot of older folks like it because they're very familiar with it, and then, at a couple of clubs where we play, the younger people like it, too. So it's hitting its stride," he said.

Adams keeps an active schedule performing and recording and operates a Nashville-based publishing company, according to his biographical information. He also works as a production staff director for Chip Davis and Mannheim Steamroller.

Cooley also performs as a soloist and has six solo recordings. He has been a fretted instrument specialist for Chip Davis and Mannheim Steamroller for many years.

The sixth annual First Night will be celebrated Monday from 4:30 to 10 p.m. in downtown Council Bluffs. The grand finale, including fireworks, will be at 10 p.m. in Bayliss Park.

Read more: http://www.southwestiowanews.com/council_bluffs/news/rat-pack-jazz-group-with-mannheim-connections-to-perform/article_c22ed892-067f-5f29-8ef3-9dd64b6f7c29.html

Pianist Luke Carlos O'Reilly In Media PA On Wed. Jan. 16th!

Jazz Bridge in Media! presents pianist Luke Carlos O’Reilly at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County — 145 West Rose Tree Road in Media, PA — on Wednesday January 16th. Tickets are $10, $5 for students, and are available only at the door. Show time is 7:30.

Columbian native O'Reilly, a graduate of Temple University's Esther Boyer College of Music, is a much sought-after pianist, at home in straight ahead Jazz, Latin, soul and R & B. In the straight-ahead area, O'Reilly has spent considerable road time with artists like Curtis Fuller, Bobby Watson, Slide Hampton andRed Holloway among others. Making him especially unique is his fluency with Jazz classics, compositions from the great American songbook and contemporary forms. On his well received CD of last year Living in the Now, O'Reilly effectively and inventively combined elements of Jazz, Latin, soul and spoken word poetry.

For more information, call 610-745-3011 or log on to Jazz Bridge.

Jazz Bridge is a Philadelphia-based non-profit organization dedicated to assisting area jazz and blues musicians in need. Their Jazz Bridge in Media program is one in a series at this venue, in addition to four other area locales.

Visit Website

read more: http://news.allaboutjazz.com/news.php?id=101846#.UNztZqXhEhQ

Mardi Gras at the Bowen is Feb. 9

By Staff
DAWSONVILLE - The Bowen Center for the Arts in downtown Dawsonville will transform into a Mardi Gras Masquerade on Saturday, Feb. 9.

Masks/costumes are required for this fun evening of music and dancing with the Jazz Combo. Guests also will enjoy a buffet and a surprise in the king cake.

The party begins at 7:00 and tickets are $25 for arts council members and $35 for non-members. Reservations are required by calling 706-216-2787. Reservations also can be made online at dawsonarts.org.

Link: Dawson County Arts Council

From: http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=256511

Baltimore Singer's Big Voice Touches Siberia

by NPR STAFF

"My Mom said, 'life isn't either, or, it's and.' And I think that's why I do so much, maybe too much."

Lea Gilmore was pregnant and married at 18. She describes herself as a "statistic." But, she tells NPR's Celeste Headlee, lessons learned from a family of "very strong Southern women" meant that she did not allow that to dictate her circumstances.

Trained as a classical pianist, she has developed an international career as a gospel, blues and jazz singer. She returned to the more traditional genres of music that she grew up with in church and at home because she is "such an emotional person" and loves the freedom that they give. "Gospel means 'good news' and so we have the freedom to tell the story the way that we want to tell the story. And you'll never hear the same songs sung the same way the same time because we are singing it as we're feeling it at that moment," she explains.

Gilmore has played to packed audiences as far away as Siberia, but she says that they all respond to this emotion in her music. "It goes beyond race, ethnicity, where we're from. The music is soul-to-soul speaking. There is so much we can say to each other through music."

A devoted civil-rights activist, Gilmore realizes that she can use her voice to highlight issues that are important to her. For 13 years, she has performed concerts in Belgium to raise money for the Damien Foundation - a nongovernmental organization that specializes in leprosy and tuberculosis control in Africa, Asia and South America. "At one time, we had a choir of 2,000 Belgians singing African-American gospel music, me, and an audience of 5,000 people. We sold it out every night, and you haven't lived until you've heard 2,000 Belgians singing 'Oh Happy Day,' she laughs.

Photo: MJ Smets/Lea Gilmore
Read More: http://www.npr.org/2012/12/26/167981961/baltimore-singers-big-voice-touches-siberia?ft=1&f=1039

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Kenny Davern-Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams

What is jazz?

By Jonathan Batiste, Special to CNN - December 26, 2012

Editor's note: Jonathan Batiste founded the Stay Human Band and is the associate artistic director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. Batiste has been featured on the HBO series "Treme," BET and in Spike Lee's "Red Hook Summer." Follow @jonbatiste.

(CNN) -- What is jazz?

This is an impossible question, and one with many answers. Having spent more than a decade as a jazz artist, I've garnered some insights. As a youngster growing up in New Orleans, surrounded by the city's sounds and rhythms, I was influenced by a wide variety of music: brass bands, blues, ragtime, R&B, soul, rock 'n' roll, Dixieland and more.

I played the percussion in my family's band, switching to piano at age 11. Since then, music has been a part of my everyday life. I've had the good fortune to play with inspiring artists across many genres -- Wynton Marsalis, Prince, Busta Rhymes among them. What's given me the foundation to be able to join such varied musicians is my jazz training.

Jazz is subtle, emotional and accommodating. It is intellectual and sometimes even scientific. Most genres of music are not nearly as multidimensional, which in part is why the art form has such a small audience. In stark comparison to pop music, contemporary jazz seems too circuitous for most listeners to enjoy casually. The challenge for the contemporary jazz musician, as I see it, is making this subtle and complex art palatable to the greater public.

Jazz is complex.


Some of the greatest musical minds of all-time were jazz artists. They were able to master their instruments, redefine music theory and repeatedly innovate the already formidable body of work present before them. Many of them did so while navigating through the tumultuous social climate from which the music was birthed.

John Blake: Dave Brubeck, ambassador to a new America
As a performer, part of my job is to take the audience on a musical journey to somewhere they've never been. The Stay Human movement I've started is about experiencing music -- not about it being on a stage and untouchable, but something that you viscerally experience on the subways and streets.

Stay Human has grown to be more than a band, and has become a local movement that is expanding and shifting the way people experience jazz. We're trying to harness all of the musical elements that I grew up absorbing in New Orleans, and couple them with contemporary mainstream sounds. I want people to feel and hear jazz as they never thought it could be played.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/26/opinion/batiste-what-is-jazz/index.html

NEA Announces Live Webcast of 2013 NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony & Concert

As a music form born and bred in the United States, jazz has committed fans throughout the world. On January 14, 2013 at 7:30 p.m., EST, the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center, will hold its annual NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony & Concert at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, located at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, in New York City. The NEA invites the nation's jazz fans to join in celebrating the recipients of the nation's top honor in jazz by watching the NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony & Concert via live webcast. The NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony & Concert will prominently feature NEA Jazz Masters, who will perform tributes to the 2013 honorees: Mose Allison, Lou Donaldson, Lorraine Gordon (A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy), and Eddie Palmieri.

Wynton Marsalis, NEA Jazz Master (2011) and Jazz at Lincoln Center Managing and Artistic Director, will emcee the concert. NEA Jazz Masters Kenny Barron (2010), Ron Carter (1998), and Jimmy Cobb (2009) will make up a featured trio in an evening of performances that will also include Paquito D'Rivera (2005), Sheila Jordan (2012), Dave Liebman (2011), and Randy Weston (2001), as well as 2013 NEA Jazz Masters Mose Allison, Lou Donaldson, and Eddie Palmieri. Other NEA Jazz Masters in attendance at the concert include Muhal Richard Abrams (2010), David Baker (2000),), Benny Golson (1996),Chico Hamilton (2004), Roy Haynes (1995), Dan Morgenstern (2007), Jimmy Owens(2012), McCoy Tyner (2002), Cedar Walton (2010), and Phil Woods (2007).*

In addition to the live webcast, the concert will be broadcast live on WBGO Jazz 88.3FM, NPR Music, and SiriusXM Satellite Radio's Real Jazz Channel XM67.

*Performers and attendees are subject to change.

Live Webcast Viewing Parties: The live webcast of the 2013 NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony & Concert on January 14, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. can be found both on the NEA's website. The NEA encourages households and schools to gather together to watch the webcast and use this opportunity to share our nation's best jazz musicians with families and students. Viewers can engage in conversation with the broader community by sharing comments and photos on Twitter using the hashtag #NEAJazz.

About NEA Jazz Masters: Each year since 1982, the Arts Endowment has conferred the NEA Jazz Masters Award to living legends in recognition of their outstanding contributions to jazz. With this new class, 128 awards have been given to great figures of jazz in America, including Count Basie, George Benson, Art Blakey, Dave Brubeck, Betty Carter, Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Roy Eldridge, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton,Herbie Hancock, Elvin Jones, John Levy, Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Cecil Taylor, Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson, and Teddy Wilson.

NEA Jazz Masters are selected from nominations submitted by the public and receive a one-time fellowship award of $25,000, are honored at an awards ceremony, and may participate in NEA-sponsored promotional, performance, and educational activities. One-hundred seventy-three nominations were considered for the 2013 NEA Jazz Masters. Only living musicians or jazz advocates (U.S. citizens or permanent residents) may be nominated for the NEA Jazz Masters honor.

Read more: http://news.allaboutjazz.com/news.php?id=101824#.UNsZ4qXhEhR

Dave Douglas: Jazz Hymns Honor A Dying Wish

Photo: Austin Nelson/Courtesy of the artist

by NPR STAFF
Dave Douglas has been an important player in the jazz world for more than two decades, producing a broad body of work as both a trumpet player and a composer. His newest album, Be Still, has a bittersweet backstory: It contains his arrangements of several hymns that his dying mother asked him to perform at her funeral service.


"She was towards the end of a long struggle against ovarian cancer, and we had the time to have those conversations that I feel so lucky to have had now that she's gone," Douglas says. "As anyone who's lost a parent recently knows, that's the best feeling — that you really had this communication, and you really shared what was there to share up until the end."

To make Be Still, Douglas enlisted a new quintet and, for the first time in his career, a vocalist. Here, he discusses the making of the record with NPR's Rachel Martin; click the audio link on this page to hear more.

http://www.npr.org/2012/12/16/167107868/dave-douglas-jazz-hymns-honor-a-dying-wish