Georgie Auld in the late '40s

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Georgie Auld should be better known today, but he isn't. In his prime, he was a furiously swinging tenor saxophonist and leader of some pretty hip bop bands of the '40s. Today, the late reedman is probably best known for appearing in Martin Scorsese'sNew York, New York (1977) as bandleader Frankie Harte, working as a consultant to help Robert De Niro with his sax fingering and dubbing all the sax solos. That is, if you remember this marginal film. [Pictured: Georgie Auld, circa August 1947]

Auld (born John Altwerger) started out on alto sax in his home town of Toronto, Canada—but when he heard Coleman Hawkins, he switched to the tenor. Auld traveled to New York in the '30s and was playing in Manhattan in 1936 when Bunny Berigan hired him for his band. As a result, Auld is on Berigan's famed recording of I Can't Get Started in August 1937.

In late 1938, Auld joined Artie Shaw's big band and was featured on hot solos. When Shaw abruptly quit his own band in November 1939 for a sabbatical in Mexico, Auld took over the leadership slot. But Auld lacked sufficient charisma to hold the band together and it folded within three months.

In Tom Nolan's Three Chords for Beauty's Sake, his biography of Artie Shaw, Nolan quotes Shaw on Auld:

"At Buddy [Rich's] funeral [in 1987], I'm talking to Mel Brooks,outside the funeral home. And Georgie Auld—he turned out to be a fucking gangster, horrible guy—he comes up: 'You're fulla shit. You're fulla shit.' 'Wadya mean, George? Wadya talkin' about?' I said, 'Is that your considered opinion? Is there anything you want to add to that?'

"George was disappointed he wasn't called on to speak [at Buddy's funeral] and was very angry. 'You're fulla shit.' That's all he could say! Chagrin! What—I dunno, he identified himself with me, and he never could quite make it, as a star, you know, whatever it was. Angered him. Infuriated him. When I quit the music, man [in 1939], I gave him the band; I gave him my book. He could not make it work. He didn't have the quality that it took. Certain people don't."

After Shaw, Auld went on to play with Jan Savitt, Benny Goodman and a revived Shaw band before he entered the Army in 1941. After being discharged in 1944, Auld led his own orchestra—a band that included trumpeter Sonny Berman and saxophonist Al Cohn.

In fact, Auld's bands throughout the '40s were rather spectacular, always featuring sterling talent and solid bop arrangements. Despite Shaw's assessment, Auld could attract and hold onto major players. For example, a 1946 band featured Al Porcino, Manny Fox, Al Aarons, Art House (tp), Rudy DeLuca, Tracy Allen, Mike Datz (tb), Louis Prisby and Gene Zanoni (as), Al Cohn (ts,arr), Irv Roth (ts), Serge Chaloff (bar), Harry Biss (p), Barry Galbraith (b-g), Ed Cunningham (b), Art Mardigan (d)and Lynn Stevens (vcl)—with additional arrangements by Tadd Dameron, Budd Johnson, Hugo Winterhalter and Al Killian. [Photo of Georgie Auld with Serge Chaloff (bs), Red Rodney (tp) and Tiny Kahn (d) in 1947 by William P. Gottlieb]

In 1949, Auld led another great band. This one included Neal Hefti (tp,arr), Billy Byers (tb,arr), Clint Neagley (as), Pete Terry (ts), Gerry Mulligan (bar,arr), Jimmy Rowles (p), Joe Mondragon (b), Alvin Stoller (d), Karl Kiffe (bgo) and Viginia Maxey (vcl), with additional charts by Hal Vernon.

In 1951 Auld put together a terrific quintet with Frank Rosolino (tb), Lou Levy (p), Max Bennett (b) and Tiny Kahn (d), who  wrote the arrangements.

Auld was featured on a range of excellent albums in the '50s, mostly for EmArcy, but he also spent too much time recording dreadful albums for Coral that included a miserable choir. Auld was always a solid player, but some of his best moments came between bebop's emergence and its triumph in the late '40s.

JazzWax tracks: Auld's 1946, 1949 and 1951 bands are all onGeorgie Auld 1946-1951(Classics France), which ishere but out of print. There's also an offering at iTunes that features Auld's 1949 band. The hidden album is called By George! Georgie Auld & His Orchestra. There are 10 tracks: So What's New? Sweet Thing, Nashooma, Lullaby in Rhythm, They Didn't Believe Me, Blues for Me, Flying Home, So What Can Be New, You Got Me Jumpin' and Mo-Mo. As best I can tell, it's an Armed Forces Radio Service date recorded live at Hollywood's Empire Room in February 1949.

JazzWax clip: Here's Mo-Mofrom June 1946 written by Auld and Neal Hefti with an arrangement by Hefti. The band: Al Porcino, Sonny Rich, George Schwartz (tp) Neal Hefti (tp,arr) Johnny Mandel, Gus Dixon, Mike Datz (tb) Georgie Auld (sop,as,ts,vcl) Sam Zittman, Gene Zanoni (as) Al Cohn (ts,arr) Irv Roth (ts) or Joe Megro (ts) Serge Chaloff (bar) Harvey Leonard (p) Joe Pellicane (b) and Art Mardigan (d)...

Used with permission by Marc Myers

Music too cool to be bothered by the heat of a summer Sunday

By Mary Kunz Goldman

At Sunday’s Jazz at the Albright-Knox, singer Barbara Jean kept mentioning the heat.

“Good thing we’ve got a breeze,” she said, once.

Turning to the band — the Bobby Jones Trio — she said, “How about a hand for these guys? I’ve taken a break here and there. They haven’t!”

Once, finishing a song, she said simply: “The heat!”

Actually, it wasn’t that bad.

Over the decades this long-running festival has been rolling, we have enjoyed afternoons far hotter than this one. Kicked back on Shakespeare Hill — the home of the festival this summer — listening to Bobby Jones’ robust piano solos, I found myself thinking the day was downright pleasant.

Barbara Jean has a simple, appealing style that I like. We’ve all heard singers who overengineer things, scatting excessively, making annoying speeches or wigging out. She was not guilty of any of this.

Her no-muss, no-fuss approach gave grace to a delightful series of standards, or close-to- standards: “East of the Sun,” “Midnight Sun,” “One Note Samba,” “Almost Like Being in Love,” the beautiful “Blue Moon,” a straightforward and lovely “Our Love Is Here to Stay.”

Jones filled in with energetic and creative solos. Sometimes his right hand traced single-note runs, sometimes he basked in big chords. I never heard him sound better.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying himself. Cameron Kane, on bass, threw his heart into his solos, and the audience responded with big applause. Danny Hull, on drums, was alert and involved as he always is. (Hull, playing with his shirt open, set new standards for Jazz at the Albright-Knox informality.)

Bruce Johnstone, on sax, was a special treat. His strong, expressive, laid-back style shone in “Three and One” — a sax man’s number, and Johnstone made the most of it. A melodic player, Johnstone gave a great swing to “September in the Rain,” a song associated with Lester Young.

Read more on: http://www.buffalonews.com/entertainment/gusto/music/concert-reviews/article499986.ece

Ryan Truesdell: The Gil Evans Centennial Project

Imagine the commotion when previously unknown manuscripts of Beethoven or Bach were discovered. In the jazz world, the equivalent of such an event might occur with regard to the music of innovators like Duke Ellington or Gil Evans. Indeed, that is exactly what composer-arranger-conductor-producer Ryan Truesdell has uncovered with Evans' music.

He researched and found a treasure trove of sketches, arrangements and compositions by the great Gil Evans in several collections, and many of them have never been heard before, other than perhaps in live performances many years ago. Truesdell is preparing a CD with today's musicians playing a selection of these vintage charts that shed new light on Evans' work.

Gil Evans is especially known for his landmark Columbia recordings with Miles Davis: Miles Ahead(1957), Porgy and Bess (1958) and Sketches of Spain (1960) as well as his contributions to the breakthrough Birth of the Cool (Capitol, 1956), album that changed the face of jazz. His legacy, however, was much broader than that, spanning five decades, beginning with his work with theClaude Thornhill Orchestra, with Evans subsequently adapting his unique sound to various formats, groups, vocalists, and instrumentalists.

Truesdell has been presenting this big picture on the ArtistShare- based website www.GilEvansProject.com, and at concert halls and clubs in New York and elsewhere.

The Gil Evans Project will be featured on a CD to be released in 2012 as part of the 100th anniversary of Evans' birth. It will include performances of Evans' charts never heard before on record.

Truesdell—who also works with the world-famous Maria Schneider Orchestra, in addition to pursuing his own composing, arranging, and conducting—hails from Madison, Wisconsin, and currently resides in New York City.



A medley of Gil Evans music performed at PrezFest 2011 Celebrating Gil Evans by The Eastman School of Music Chamber Jazz Ensemble, with guests Phil Woods (alto saxophone), Andy Bey (vocal), Frank Kimbrough (piano) and guest conductor, Ryan Truesdell on March 13, 2011 at St Peter's Church in New York City.

This concert was a "kick-off" concert for the launch of the Gil Evans Centennial Project, which will record recently discovered, never-before-heard music of Gil Evans and released on Gil's 100th birthday, May 13, 2012.

Check out www.gilevansproject.com for more information and to participate and help bring this music to life.

Hornsby, Fleck prove the power of music, even without words

By TIMOTHY FINN, The Kansas City Star

Anyone who doubts there’s an appetite for instrumental music and songwriting infused with jazz should have been at Crossroads KC on Friday night, where nearly 1,500 fans showed up to watch and hear Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers and Bela Fleck and the original version of his Flecktones.

Each band performed a set that slightly exceeded 90 minutes. Each band leader sat in on the other’s set. And the show ended with a free-wheeling jam by both bands.

During his set, Hornsby showcased his many facets: his voice, his considerable skills on the piano and his developing skills on the accordion and dulcimer. He opened with one from his days with the Range, “Another Day,” then “Spider Fingers,” which included several measures of Donavan’s “There is a Mountain.”

The Noisemakers are a high-class rootsy bunch, an ensemble that can evoke music that shifts seamlessly from jug band to jazzy blues to traditional Celtic.

Even during a predusk swelter, Hornsby is a smooth and fluid frontman, as at ease on stage talking to his crowd and band mates as he is at the piano, where his talents are boundless.

Fleck joined him for two tunes, including “Shadow Hand,” one highlight from a set list that included “Space is the Place,” “White-Wheeled Limousine,” “Defenders of the Flag” and his closer, “The Valley Road.” That one, his last Top 10 hit, goes way back to his days with the Range. Nearly 25 years later, he plays it with the Noisemakers with vigor and groove, like it was recorded last month, as if it were one of their own.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/07/24/3034229/bruce-hornsby-bela-fleck-prove.html#ixzz1TFXPF8z6

Ben Williams + Pedro Giraudo: Live From 92Y Tribeca

It's the bassist's role in jazz to know the time and place; to anchor a band rhythmically and guide it through a song. The young bassists Pedro Giraudo and Ben Williams are quite adept at all that, but when they lead their own bands, they have an even broader sense of time and place.

The new album from the Pedro Giraudo Jazz Orchestra, 13 or 14 pieces strong, is called Córdoba. It takes its name from Giraudo's hometown in Argentina, and borrows architecture from Argentine tango and folk rhythms in service of color-rich modern jazz ends. Ben Williams has a new record, too, his first. State of Art is a jazz record which alludes heavily to the street sounds of his native Washington, D.C., where go-go still abuts R&B, hip-hop and organic soul. And, like Giraudo, Williams' band also brings together some of New York's hottest under-40 (and often under-30) talent.

Read more on: http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2011/07/19/138165682/ben-williams-pedro-giraudo-live-from-92y-tribeca?ft=1&f=1109

Earshot Jazz announces festival headliner Keith Jarrett

Paul de Barros, Seattle Times jazz critic

Seattle's nonprofit Earshot Jazz has announced the dates and preliminary headliners for its fall festival. The initial lineup is strong on pianists — Keith Jarrett (with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnnette), Brad Mehldau and the jazz/rock piano trio The Bad Plus.

The roster also includes an all-star group, We Four, playing the music of John Coltrane, with saxophonist Javon Jackson, pianist Mulgrew Miller, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Jimmy Cobb; alto saxophone tyro Grace Kelly; and an educational collaboration with Cornish College featuring pianist Myra Melford, drummer Allison Miller, pianist Julian Waterfall Pollack, composer Jim Knapp, vocalist Jay Clayton, drummer Jerry Granelli and the Mongolian jazz ensemble Arga Belig.

Read more on: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/musicnightlife/2015732787_earshot27.html?syndication=rss

London-born Katerina Polemi delivers beautiful balance of Brazilian and Gypsy jazz on new CD

Greatness can exist from beneath the most humble of appearances.

The goal of jazz artist Katerina Polemi may be to Spread the Music, Not the Name with her latest album, but she'll likely end up doing both whether she intends to or not. Polemi's record is a spicy amalgamation of Brazilian and Gypsy jazz with sweetly brewed Greek and world-music ingredients tossed in as well. Together they culminate in an unidentifiable genre all of Polemi's own. Welcome to the accessible side of postmillennial jazz, wherein a jumble of stylistic influences can produce the most compelling of artistic hybrids.

It's not just the songs that unveil Polemi's wildly engaging versatility; it's her voice. On the opening track, “Hats Relate to the Wind," Polemi's playful vocals groove effortlessly with the sultry sax and giddy rhythms of the track's Dixieland jazz flavors. Her self-confident strut on “My Dear Heart" is in synch with the song's shuffling beat while on “To: Inspiration," Polemi's loving croon rests comfortably atop the intimate acoustic setting.

Born in London, England but raised in Brazil and Greece, Polemi echoes the finest aspects of Spanish and European jazz. Her singing embodies the exotic beauty and rambunctious energy of the former with the open-minded creativity and classy tastefulness of the latter. A graduate of the Berklee College of Music, Polemi is also a guitarist and pianist. With inspirations that range fromAntonio Carlos Jobim to Ella Fitzgerald to Amy Winehouse, Polemi is one of those artists who obviously sees no boundaries in music, letting the flow take her wherever it wants to.

From: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=84726

Steely Dan | Santa Barbara | Review

By L. Paul Mann

July 6th was an unusually crisp and warm evening in Santa Barbara with light Santa Ana winds buffeting the hillsides above the city. It was a perfect summer evening for a concert by the veteran jazz rock fusion band Steely Dan. As the sunset faded to twilight, the 11-piece Miles High Big Band and the Embassy Brats began an impressive jam introduction of an old big band tune, “Dizzy's Bidness."

The group, hand-picked by the notoriously perfectionist pair of Steely Dan founders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, was composed of impeccably credentialed musicians and back-up singers. These included veteran musicians Jon Herington (guitar), Freddie Washington (bass), Keith Carlock (drums), Michael Leonhart, Walt Weiskopf, Roger Rosenberg and Jim Pugh (horns) and Jim Beard (keys), plus singers Tawatha Agee, Carolyn Leonhart and Catherine Russell.

Fagen and Becker, the genius musical duo, sauntered onto the stage about ten minutes later, looking cooler than the Pink Panther in a Saturday afternoon cartoon. The duo settled down in front of the army of musicians and launched straight into three of their biggest hits representing decades of work, including, “Your Gold Teeth," “Aja" and “Hey Nineteen.

Steely Dan had the sold out crowd on their feet almost instantly and kept their riveted attention for more than two and a half hours. As is their usual custom, most all of the classic hits they played were reworked into live jazz gems, including these extended classic openers.

Becker and Fagen bantered playfully with the crowd between songs, telling intelligent anecdotes about their long, brilliant career together. Steely Dan had played the Bowl before in recent years and also the nearby Chumash Casino Resort. In fact, the band has probably toured more in the last decade than in the three preceding decades since they first toured together.

Steely Dan first burst on the music scene way back in 1971. I saw their first tour opening for Chicago (then The Chicago Transit Authority) in 1972 at the massive Tampa Stadium. They came across as a long haired contemporary rock band with just a hint of jazz in their songs like their first hit “Reelin In The Years."

By 1974 the band had stopped touring and just worked in the studio, much like The Beatles had done the decade before. The masterful duo was one of the first rock bands to meld different genres of music into their own distinct sound. Combined with witty, intelligent and socially relevant lyrics, they were able to produce a string of hit songs for nearly a decade.

The pair broke up Steely Dan in 1981 and mostly stayed out of the music scene for the next decade. With great fanfare they resurrected Steely Dan in 1993 and became one of the hottest and most expensive live shows to see. As the 21st century dawned, the dynamic duo continued to tour and released two more albums, including one that garnered them four Grammy awards.
Read more on: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=84737

Winehouse autopsy inconclusive; parents thank fans

By JILL LAWLESS - Associated Press

AP Photo/Sean Dempsey-pa

An autopsy on singer Amy Winehouse Monday failed to determine what killed the 27-year-old star, leaving fans and family with a weeks-long wait for the results of toxicology tests.

Winehouse's devastated parents visited mourners outside her north London home to thank them for their support, ahead of a private family funeral that could be held as early as Tuesday.

The singer, who had struggled with drug and alcohol abuse for years, was found dead Saturday at home by a member of her security team, who called an ambulance. It arrived too late to save her.

The Metropolitan Police said Monday that a forensic post mortem "did not establish a formal cause of death and we await the results of further toxicology tests." Those are expected to take two to four weeks.

An inquest into the singer's death was opened and adjourned at London's St. Pancras Coroner's Court. During the two-minute hearing, an official read out the name, birth date and address of Winehouse, described as "a divorced lady living at Camden Square NW1."

"She was a singer songwriter at the time of her death and was identified by her family here at St. Pancras this morning," said coroner's officer Sharon Duff.

Duff said the scene of Winehouse's death "was investigated by police and determined non-suspicious."

In Britain, inquests are held to establish the facts whenever someone dies violently or in unexplained circumstances. Assistant Deputy Coroner Suzanne Greenaway said Winehouse's inquest would resume on Oct. 26.

The singer's father, mother and brother visited her home on Monday, stopping to inspect the mounds of bouquets, candles and handwritten notes across the road from the Victorian house.

Her father, Mitch Winehouse, thanked mourners for their tributes.

"I can't tell you what this means to us — it really is making this a lot easier for us," he said.

"We're devastated and I'm speechless but thanks for coming."

The singer's mother, Janis, was in tears as she examined the flowers, candles, vodka bottles, flags, drawings and handwritten cards left by neighbors, fans and well-wishers. Many of the offerings expressed the same sentiment: "What a waste."

"I'll remember her as a troubled soul," said fan Ethna Rouse, who brought her 4-year-old son to leave a bouquet. "Like many artists in the world — they are tortured souls, and that's where the talent comes from."

The singer had battled her demons in public, too often making headlines for erratic behavior, destructive relationships and abortive performances.

But she was remembered fondly by her neighbors in Camden, the creative but gritty neighborhood where she lived on and off for years.

"She was too young to die and too talented, and too beautiful," said Peggy Conlon, landlady of the Dublin Castle pub, where Winehouse occasionally stopped for a drink. "She's sorely missed by everyone, not one person had a bad word to say about that kid."

Last month, Winehouse canceled her European comeback tour after she swayed and slurred her way through barely recognizable songs in her first show in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. Booed and jeered off stage, she flew home and her management said she would take time off to recover.

Her last public appearance came three days before her death, when she briefly joined her goddaughter, singer Dionne Bromfield, on stage at The Roundhouse in Camden, near her home.

Actor Russell Brand, a former drug addict, wrote a lengthy tribute in which he urged the media and public to change the way addiction is perceived — "not as a crime or a romantic affectation but as a disease that will kill."

"Winehouse and I shared an affliction, the disease of addiction," he wrote. "Addiction is a serious disease; it will end with jail, mental institutions or death."

Read more on: http://news.yahoo.com/winehouse-autopsy-inconclusive-parents-thank-fans-172041063.html