Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Kurt Elling at Diesel Playhouse
Concert Dates: 12/04/08
Event Description: Kurt Elling is the preeminent male jazz singer today. The New York Times describes him as hugely talented. With a four-octave range and a rich baritone voice, Elling displays astonishing technical facility and emotional depth. Often regarded by many as the natural heir to jazz pioneer Jon Hendricks, Elling is the contemporary voice in vocalese the art of putting words to improvised solos of jazz artists. Most recently, Elling was the recipient of Male Vocalist of the Year in the DownBeat Critics Poll for the ninth straight year in a row.
Diesel Playhouse Address: 56 Blue Jays Way Toronto ON M5V 2G3 Canada
Kurt Elling Jazz and Orchestra - Nature Boy
Thursday April 17th 2008, Opera House, Sydney, Australia.
Imani Winds
Imani Winds:
Valerie Coleman, flutes
Toyin Spellman-Diaz, oboe
Mariam Adam, clarinet
Jeff Scott, french horn
Monica Ellis, bassoon
Imani Winds has established itself as more than a wind quintet. Since 1997, the Grammy nominated ensemble has taken a unique path, carving out a distinct presence in the classical music world with its dynamic playing, culturally poignant programming, genre-blurring collaborations, and inspirational outreach programs. With two member composers and a deep commitment to commissioning new work, the group is enriching the traditional wind quintet repertoire while meaningfully bridging European, American, African and Latin American traditions.
The group is in the midst of its Legacy Commissioning Project, an ambitious five-year endeavor launching Imani Winds into its second decade of music making. The ensemble is commissioning, premiering and touring ten new works for woodwind quintet written by established and emerging composers of various musical backgrounds. The select composers originate from different points of the globe bringing experience not only in classical music, but jazz, Middle Eastern, Latin, and harder to define sounds. The Legacy Project kicked off in 2008 with world premieres by Alvin Singleton and Roberto Sierra. In 2008-09, Jason Moran's Cane will premiere at the Kimmel Center for the Arts in Philadelphia, followed by a performance at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall.
In 2007-08, Imani Winds performed extensively with jazz icon Wayne Shorter, culminating in a summer European tour of jazz festivals in Vienne (France), Lubeck (Germany), Kongsberg (Norway), Copenhagen (Denmark), Limerick (Ireland), and the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands. In 2008-09, the group will play several engagements with the Shorter Quartet, including dates at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and Is Sanat Art and Culture Centre in Istanbul.
The wide range of programs offered by Imani Winds demonstrates their mission to expand the wind quintet repertoire and diversify sources of new music. From Mendelssohn, Jean Françaix, György Ligeti, and Luciano Berio, to Astor Piazzolla, Elliott Carter and John Harbison; to the unexpected ranks of Paquito D'Rivera and Wayne Shorter, Imani Winds actively seek to engage new music and new voices into the modern classical idiom. Imani members Valerie Coleman and Jeff Scott both regularly contribute compositions and arrangements to the ensemble's expanding repertoire, bringing new sounds and textures to the traditional instrumentation. Website: http://www.imaniwinds.com/
Curtis Fuller: Motor City Messenger
The most recorded jazz trombonist of his lifetime, Curtis Fuller's illustrious career spans six decades and includes tenures with many of the greatest names in this music. Born Dec. 15th, 1934 in Detroit, Fuller was orphaned at an early age, but found family in the close-knit jazz community of the musically fertile Motor City. He first picked up the trombone in the school band at Cass Tech High School, where his fellow students included Donald Byrd and Paul Chambers and the list of graduates reads like a Who's Who of jazz.
Fuller downplays his early musical abilities evidenced at Cass: "I was trying to play. I wasn't in the band, the A band, I was in like the D band." Nevertheless it was there that he developed his love for his instrument. "There was a young guy that came up with Donald Byrd, his name was Claude Black," he recalls. "He came to the high school and played with some gentlemen, Roland Hanna... Gene Taylor was the bassist. That's the very first time, first guy I fell in love with. He didn't play anything like JJ. He played like himself."
But it was JJ Johnson who eventually became Fuller's greatest influence, providing the blueprint for him to develop his playing. "I heard JJ on the recording with Charlie Parker, 'Quasimodo' [hums the melody] and then I saw him later... I was in the orphanage—I saw him coming out there playing with Illinois Jacquet," he says. Fuller became an earlier progenitor of the Johnson-based bebop trombone style, but quickly developed his own unique voice. "I was told coming up by Miles and everybody, 'Get off of JJ. Don't play his shit. Play your own shit.'" Fuller's influences go well beyond Johnson. In addition to hearing Frank Rosolino and Kiane Zawadi, the two most prominent trombonists on the Detroit scene during his youth, he checked out the instrument's history.
"I listened to everything walking with a trombone, from Tommy Dorsey on," he says proudly. "I know guys you never heard of—Fred Mergy, Tommy Turk, Trummy Young—I listened to the instrument. Everybody that played it, I listened to."
Miles was just one of the many jazz greats that Fuller worked with when he began his professional career in Detroit, which he admits did not really start until he returned home after a stint in the Army (where he played with Cannonball Adderley's dance band) and entered Wayne State University (where his roommate was saxophonist Joe Henderson). "Before that I mean, it wasn't what you would call working... I mean it was sittin' in. Most of that came as a little guy trying to sit in with Thad [Jones] and Billy Mitchell...just trying to sit in, sittin' in with people. I wasn't really working with anybody... I worked with lesser-known guys. Most of the guys would be more identified with Motown." When the trombonist did begin working, things took off rapidly. "The first was Kenny Burrell, he gave me my first job...at Klein's Showbox in 1955...he had Pepper Adams in the band, Tommy Flanagan," Fuller remembers.
"After Kenny left... to go with Oscar Peterson... Pepper Adams and I started the Bone and Bari band," Fuller says. The band gained some notoriety playing on Soupy Sales' television show. "He was very good to jazz—that brought the Bone and Bari to prominence. We used to play all Thad Jones shit. Pepper Adams...he literally made me play all that old hard shit."
Yusef Lateef was Fuller's next employer. While working with Lateef the trombonist left Detroit, headed to Boston to make his first recording, Jazz In Transition, with Adams and John Coltrane and then came to New York to record with Lateef for Prestige. While there he made it down to Birdland to sit in with Miles. After the gig Davis went across the street to the Alvin Hotel where Fuller was staying with Lateef and told him, "Look, I want you to join the band." Fuller said, "Well I have to ask Yusef because I'm working with him," to which Miles replied, "Well there he is, ask him." Lateef agreed, asking for two weeks notice, but unfortunately health problems forced Davis to disband a couple of weeks later.
“I listened to everything walking with a trombone, from Tommy Dorsey on ... I listened to the instrument. Everybody that played it”
While Davis was in the hospital, Fuller worked with fellow bandmember John Coltrane at Birdland and then in Philadelphia with Lee Morgan, later recording the legendary Blue Train album with the two. Upon returning to New York he was offered the job of filling in for Monk at the Five Spot while the pianist waited for his cabaret card. The trombonist put together a group with tenor saxophonist Benny Golson. "It was supposed be for two months for Monk to get his police card and we stayed two years, damn near," he laughs. Working opposite the group was the Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Art Farmer. Fuller recorded prolifically throughout the rest of the decade with Golson and as a leader and sideman on his own. Farmer and Golson would later join forces to form the Jazztet and Fuller would be an important component of the band (which also featured a young McCoy Tyner), but would leave because of the lack of opportunities to perform his own music with the group.
There were also stints with Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Young, James Moody and Quincy Jones, but it was with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers that Fuller would reach the pinnacle of his career. "I ran into him all the time. He was always there checking, because Lee Morgan had put the bug in his ear," he recalls with obvious pride. "Miles, everybody had told him, JJ, everybody ...He just came to me one night, 'I want you in the band...You got any music? Tell me you write. Write a song, we're going into the studio next week." Fuller joined the group in June of 1961 and appeared on the Impulse Art Blakey!!!!! Jazz Messengers!!!!! record with Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt, contributing the first of several classic compositions, "A la Mode," to the band's book. "Art gave me the chance; that was Art."
Fuller left the next day for a State Department tour. Blakey, in a rare example of leadership latitude, gave Fuller a short leave of absence, but when the trombonist tried to make the Russian leg of the excursion the drummer told him, "Well if you go, goddammit, don't come back here. You want to play with them motherfuckers, go!" Fuller wisely chose to rejoin the group, which would soon feature Freddie Hubbard, Cedar Walton and Reggie Workman, going on to become one of the greatest, most celebrated bands in jazz history. The trombonist would be the last man to leave in 1965 and would frequently rejoin the group in the '70s for European tours and allstar reunions.
In the ensuing years he would lend his huge talents to many great groups, including tenures with Jimmy Heath and Count Basie. In the '80s he toured extensively with the Timeless All Stars (featuring old bandmate Cedar Walton, along with Harold Land, Bobby Hutcherson, Buster Williams and Billy Higgins) of which he says, "That was beautiful, that was my next best thing." At the same time he worked with the Paris Reunion Band and co-led a band, Giant Bones, with Kai Winding. After moving to Massachusetts in the late '80s he began teaching at Hartt College and the New England Conservatory. Serious health problems threatened his career in 1994, but through hard work he managed to regain his considerable abilities and continue his contributions to the music.
While he is still going strong, Fuller's legacy as one of the most influential trombonists in the history of jazz is already well established. "He's definitely one of the biggest influences on me," says Robin Eubanks, a fellow Jazz Messenger. "He has a lot of technique for sure; he plays fast... for trombone you're always wondering how cats can do that since it's usually seen as a limited instrument in terms of velocity and intensity... He was one of the people that proved you can get around the horn well and because he was on so many recordings he was one of the people that put the sound of the trombone in people's ears, in terms of people putting a band together what kind of instrumentation they're going to use."
Steve Turre, another former Messenger, remembers, "I met Curtis when I first came to New York with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Opening night he was there and he was very encouraging... We ended up becoming friends and he showed me a lot of little keys that opened the door in ways to flow on the horn. I don't know anyone who can swing the way that Curtis swings. His phrasing and rhythmic concept is the ultimate."
Steve Davis, the final trombonist in the Messenger lineage concurs. "From a trombonistic standpoint, just the sheer velocity with which he phrases is pretty much unparalleled by anybody. The way he combines technical acumen on the instrument with his natural feeling for the music and for improvisation is just incredible... when you hear Curtis play it's all heart and soul."
Selected Discography:
Curtis Fuller, Keep It Simple (Savant, 2005)
Curtis Fuller, Up Jumped Spring, (Delmark, 2004)
Curtis Fuller, Blues-ette, Pt. II, (Savoy Jazz, 1993)
Wayne Shorter, Schizophrenia, (Blue Note, 1967)
Joe Henderson, Mode for Joe (Blue Note, 1966)
Art Blakey, Indestructible, (Blue Note, 1964)
Curtis Fuller, The Magnificent Trombone of Curtis Fuller, (Epic, 1961)
Curtis Fuller, Soul Trombone (Impulse! Records, 1961)
Curtis Fuller, South American Cookin', (Epic, 1961)
Curtis Fuller, Images of Curtis Fuller, (Savoy, 1960)
Art Farmer and Benny Golson , Art Farmer and Benny Golson Meet the Jazztet, (Universal, 1960)
Curtis Fuller, Blues-ette (Savoy, 1959)
Curtis Fuller, Sliding Easy, (United Artists. , 1959)
Jimmy Smith, The Sermon, (Blue Note, 1958)
John Coltrane, Blue Train, (Blue Note, 1957)
Curtis Fuller, New Trombone, (Prestige, 1957)
Curtis Fuller, Curtis Fuller and Red Garland, (Prestige, 1957)
Curtis Fuller, The Opener, (Blue Note, 1957)
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=31033
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW - Roberto Muggiati
The journalist Roberto Cranfield Muggiati in recent years has been a true authority with regard to the dissemination of jazz among Brazilians. With several publications on gender, Muggiati can show the reader with a pleasant and elegant language, that jazz is not a man of seven heads and which is beyond a simple musical genre, and can be used as a source of inspiration for various situations and decisions throughout life.
This idea is reinforced in its latest release Improvisando Solutions: the Jazz as Example to succeed (Best Seller, 2008), where the writer cites several examples of jazzistas who overcame adversity the most varied to impose its art. Overrun and improvisation are part of history and aesthetics of jazz, where victorious players turned their experiences and feelings in a spontaneous art, which remains alive for more than a century.
Roberto Muggiati: With just over ten years of age, listening to those old wafers of 78-per-minute the sounds of Art Tatum, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, who realized that music was different from the others - was more alive, more intelligent, less predictable and programmed. Hence for the Bebop of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, for the inventions of pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, to cool the saxophone of Lester Young, was the discovery of modern jazz, supplemented later by the school's West Coast (Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, Shorty Rogers and his group, the Stan Kenton orchestra).
How to write little since the career gone into journalism (and then to the books) and write about jazz - the music that he loved most of all, was a natural step.
JM: Since 2005 we are taking an increasing wave of jazz festivals in the country. The Festivals of Black Gold and River Oysters are already recognized as some of the best in the world. Do you believe that municipalities, manufacturers and entrepreneurs are discovering the power of jazz?
RM: Absolutely. Have you heard of festivals in Manaus, from Guaramiranga (in Brazil), of Joinville (Santa Catarina) and dozens of other "pocket festivals" in the capitals of Brazil. The majority relies on public or private sponsors, an indication that marketers finally discovered the power of penetration of jazz and its mark of quality and sophistication.
JM: How do you evaluate the spread of jazz in Brazil?
RM: It is still small, despite the websites and blogs that exist. But specialist publications are rare, or seasonal. If you give an account of that magazine publisher on a large rock - the Bizz of April - left to move, the situation is even more difficult for the Jazz. But, thanks mainly to the Internet, the jazzófilo - as the jazzista - if you know your turn and find sources of information.
JM: In the book New Jazz: back to the future, you write about players who were known as the Young Lions, emerged in the 80 and 90 with the proposal to preserve a tradition jazzística. What are the differences between this generation and the more recent past, from the 60s and 70s, and that the contributions of the Young Lions for the future of jazz in the twenty-first century?
RM: The generation of brothers Marsalis & Cia had more access than the previous learning not only of jazz as the music in general. (Many, like his brother Wynton and saxophonist Branford, are also exímios performers from the register scholar). But this generation - while ringing admirably well - we have seen sentenced to a rereading of all schools of jazz that preceded it, without the ability to create something "new". (This problem of creating "new" applies equally to all other arts: painting, literature, theater, etc.. - Is a kind of characteristic of the time, a moment, perhaps, to grasp all that has happened before start something new, a time to hold).
JM: The English critic Stuart Nicholson, in his book Jazz Is Dead? (Or Has It Moved to a New Address), has generated controversy by saying that the European jazz holds the real innovators of contemporary jazz, because this generation of Wynton Marsalis in a crystallized the jazz music based on traditionalism and forgot the need for creativity and innovation. You agree with the words of Nicholson?
RM: Neither the jazz died, or moved to a new address (the community of euros). We can say that ever grew by a series of new addresses, and sign up there, beyond the European contribution, the contributions Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico), Asia (Japan, China, etc.), African and here goes.
JM: How do you evaluate the players who emerged from the early 2000? What is the objective of the new generation?
RM: It is a pulsed generation of talent, experiencing all kinds of music formats and exploring all possibilities in the field of instrumentation. In my view, an important fact is the rise of women, no longer stuck to the role of Crooner, but competing with men on instruments "viris" as the bass, the drums, the trombone and saxophone. Not to mention that the big-band leader and orchestrator of the decade is a woman, Maria Schneider.
JM: Tell us a little about the Improvisando Solutions, his latest book. How did the idea to write it?
RM: How do I report on the same book, the idea took body from a course I gave in Porto Alegre in February 2006 in Cultural Santander, on the Hundred Years of Jazz, three lectures of three hours that had the occupation of Full room, including men and women in the age group of 16 to 80 years. The receptivity of the audience of nearly one hundred people I awakened the idea of writing a book on experiences of jazz, "without elaborate too much on the technical or musical, but emphasizing the lessons of life masters of improvisation.
JM: Neste livro, você relata uma passagem em que o jazz o salvou de um suicídio. JM: In this book, you reported a passage in which the jazz saved from a suicide. Em algum outro momento o jazz o influenciou em outras decisões importantes? At some other time to the jazz influence on other important decisions?
RM: Not only in this critical time, but in situations of day-to-day, the Jazz always had a lot in my life - in an attempt to play saxophone, studying ten years with Mauro Senise, as the coverage of concerts and festivals in discovery of new albums of the great masters and also of musicians "minor" but highly significant. The jazz always acted in my mechanism of memory as the famous "Madeleine" proustiana, each season or time of my life tied to any particular song. Just listen to today, for example, Sarah Vaughan singing Over the Rainbow accompanied by the saxophonist Cannonball Adderley that I travel in the time machine until that magical years of 1958, half a century ago, and relive exactly what I was doing, what I felt at the time .
JM: You covered the Festival in Montreux (1985 to 1988) and most of the old editions of Free Jazz. Quais as lembranças mais marcantes destes festivais? What are the most significant memories of these festivals?
RM: There are punti brightness, as the presentations of Hermeto and the duet with Hermeto Elis (1979), of John Gilberto (1985), returns to the stage of Miles Davis (1985), all in Montreux, the big band of Gil Evans at the Hotel Nacional, the show free of Sonny Rollins in the Park's Catacombs, in Rio, the exclusive interview an hour with Chet Baker and his presentation in the first Free Jazz in 1985, the Mingus Band with Elvis Costello at MAM, right there , Knowledge of new talents of Terence Blanchard, Nicholas Payton, James Carter, John Pizzarelli, the moving presentation of Michel Petrucciani at the Hotel Nacional, and also there's the veteran violinist Stephane Grappelli, the mastery of veterans as Lee Konitz, Art Farmer and Johnny Griffin. Rever Griffin (in Rio) and Dexter Gordon (Sao Paulo in 1980 and Montreux 1986) was traveling back to London in 1962-63, when they each went a whole month in Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. Dizzy Gillespie e sua United Nation Orchestra no Free Jazz. Dizzy Gillespie and his United Nation Orchestra in Free Jazz. Finally, there are moments of music that we do not ever forget.
JM: One last question to relax: the anthem of the Flemish there are verses that say: "I would have a profound grief / Where the Flemish missing in the world ...". If the Jazz were missing that, as it would be?
RM: I have a deep disgust that the missing jazz, but this will never happen. identally, there is a singing that rolls in stages between the Brazilian twisted it is pure jazz, the chorus of When the Saints Go Marchini 'In - tararará, tararará, tararará-ra-ra-ra-ra, tarará, Tara, tarára, tarará, ra-ra-ra-ra! I repeat to you the question that until now nobody answered me: how was that song is from New Orleans came up in the bleachers Maracanã? I have my own theory: it came through the fanfare, bandinhas of those fans, like the famous band of Charanga's Flamengo and Bangu, which raised When the Saints through disks, or through the presentations by radio and TV's incredible Booker Pitman. It is a mystery worthy of a thorough search.
JM Who is empowering?
Credit > For Leonardo Alcantara (Jazzman!)
Colaboration: Fernanda Melonio e Vagner Pitta Collaboration: Fernanda Melonio and Vagner Pitta
Front Cover Album Serie - 15
1959 - Bags & Trane - John Coltrane & Milt Jackson
Milton (Milt) Jackson (Detroit, Michigan, January 01, 1923 - Manhattan, 09 October 1999) was a jazz vibraphone of the U.S. and one of the first in the genus Bebop. Called "Bags" (bags), was the main vibraphone in jazz post-swing, and perhaps the greatest of all the jazz. Born in Detroit, began playing guitar and piano, before deciding the vibraphone in adolescence. Became a vibraphone respected, even surpassing importance in the names of two historical figure instrumentalist: Lionel Hampton and Red Norvir, which was maintained for fifty years at the top of popularity, even apart from stars such as Rufus Reid and Gary Burton (1943). His style was tremendously varied, encompassing bop, blues and more traditional ballads. Milt Jackson began playing guitar and piano at age seven to eleven. A few years later was changed to the vibraphone. Dizzy Gillespie o descobriu em Detroit e ofereceu-lhe um emprego no sexteto que havia formado e mais tarde uma orquestra em 1946. His professional debut was singing in a gospel group. Dizzy Gillespie discovered in the Detroit and offered him a job in the sextet that was formed and later an orchestra in 1946. After playing with Gillespie sextet for years 1950-1952, after forming what would be in the history of jazz quartet composed of: John Lewis, Percy Heath and Kenny Clarke (1952), called the Modern Jazz Quartet. At the heart of the album find was a clear intention of the two musicians in sicronized the instruments to each other. Coltrane attacks more aggressively, with its hard-edged revealing a sound perfect for a syncope without noting that Mr. Jackson's co strongly sweetened the tone vibrate. In "The night we called the day", one can hear as they listened carefully to each other, a mixture of ground to another without costing the tune of beating. Bags & Trane is the only album recorded on set with Coltrane. The title comes from the nicknames of two musicians: Bags - Milt Jackson and Trane - John Coltrane. Recorded in January 1959, ONLY released by Atlantic Records in December 1961. Relaunched on 25 October 1990 by the Rhino label Atlantic. One of the most remarkable aspects of Coltrane is the length of their land in order to eliminate any time limit for the notes and their spread to the discretion of the needs of the interpreter, (hence the many issues of over-Coltrane for example, our land of thirty minutes). Milt Jackson also thanks to Oscar Peterson Trio and Ray Brown - Very Tall Tall Band of 1998 production was in charge of Nesuhi Ertegun & Bob Porter, with photographs by Lee Friedlander.
Tracks:
01 - Stairway To The Stars
02 - The Late Late Blues
03 - Bags And Trane
04 - Three Little Words
05 - The Night We Called a Day
06 - Be-Bop
07 - Blues Legacy
08 - Centerpiece
Musicos: Music:
John Coltrane - sax.
Milt Jackson - Vibrafone
Hank Jones - Piano
Paul Chambers - Acustic Bass
Conny Kay - Drums
Credit > The JazzMan
