Brubeck Institute hires jazz advocate Simon Rowe

By: John Lamb, INFORUM

MOORHEAD – Simon Rowe, a Minnesota State University Moorhead music teacher and area jazz advocate, has been tapped to head the Dave Brubeck Institute in California.

Rowe finalized the deal this week after meeting with Brubeck at the influential jazz composer and pianist’s Connecticut home last weekend.

“It is exciting news. I’m still pinching myself,” Rowe said laughing Wednesday morning.

Rowe, also a pianist, will start in mid-September at the Brubeck Institute, located at the University of Pacific in Stockton, Calif.

He’ll oversee two programs for high school jazz musicians across the country, one a touring troupe, the Brubeck Fellows, and the other a summer jazz colony. Rowe will also curate the Brubeck collection of music, contracts and artifacts the 90-year-old icon has created and acquired over the years.

Brubeck is best known for the songs “Take Five,” “In Your Own Sweet Way” and “The Duke.” He has been awarded a National Medal of Arts, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2009 a Kennedy Center Honor.

“I’m just unbelievably thrilled to have a shot here and do some good with arts, arts education and advocacy,” Rowe said. “We’re at a point in our culture where we really need to value the arts in our culture and the teaching of it and the passing on of it. To be able to do it at this level is an absolute dream.”

He’ll also be involved in the annual Brubeck Festival, which celebrates “the musical, philosophical and intellectual ideas” of the composer, according to its website.

A highlight of this year’s festival was the premiere of a Brubeck documentary, “In His Own Sweet Way,” by Clint Eastwood. Eastwood is the chair of the institute’s honorary board, which also includes musicians Herb Alpert, Quincy Jones, Winton Marsalis, Yo-Yo Ma, and filmmakers George Lucas and Ken Burns.

Rowe, a native Australian, started teaching music at MSUM in 2004. Since then he’s been a promoter of local jazz musicians, starting regular gigs at the Hotel Donaldson and more recently at Studio 222, both in downtown Fargo.

Nick Fryer, a guitarist and colleague in the MSUM music department said Rowe was “a catalyst for bringing musicians together” and credited the pianist with starting the Tri-College Jazz Combo.

The pair also worked to bring in national artists for MSUM workshops and public concerts.

Fryer said the Studio 222 gigs will continue and he’s already booked Latin Grammy-winning bassist Eddie Gomez and his trio to play the room Sept. 9.

Fryer said he’d likely bring Rowe back in his new capacity with the Brubeck Institute.

Rowe said “without a doubt” he would return to the area as a Brubeck representative.

“All of those that I’ve had as associations and partners in crime along the way and collaborators, I’ll have a chance to tie their talents in to the greater mission,” Rowe said. “Without a doubt I’ll be mobilizing some of my contacts and forces here.”

And while he’s planning a farewell gig, he leaves knowing he left a mark on the local jazz scene.

“The amount of music and quality of music and engagement of artists and students at all levels has increased,” he said. “I’m thrilled to have played a part of that.”

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/331649/

Jazz organist Pete Levin answers questions before Erie gig

ERIE TIMES-NEWS

Q Your first high-profile gig was in the jazz orchestra of Gil Evans, who wrote arrangements for Miles Davis. Yet your website says you worked with Dr. Ruth. She's a pistol. It was an infomercial of some kind, and I wrote the music. I like doing different things. It's a big leap from playing with Gil, but I've done a lot of things like that being a hired gun in New York.

Q But when you first came to New York, you were a French horn player, right? I went to Boston University and Julliard, earning a master's as a French horn player. I was playing jazz piano for fun. As a jazz player, I wasn't very good, but in the late '60s I started playing gigs on a Hammond B-3 (organ), my first electric keyboard. It was so soulful.

Q That instrument was everywhere at one time, in rock, R&B and jazz. Why do you think it went away? It was a sound that filled in all the holes, and during the disco-era producers wanted to name the sounds that filled those holes -- and I made a good living doing that -- but nobody wanted the organ anymore. I put my Hammond in storage, but in the '90s I wondered why did I stop? And I started playing gigs again.

Q You mentioned making a good living in the studios. I came to New York in the late '60s, and I was doing a couple of sessions a day -- a jingle in the morning, playing on someone's record in the afternoon and then I'd play a jazz gig at night. It started to change in the '80s as the technology changed ... by the end of the '90s, the studio scene completely disintegrated.

Q Yet there's something like a studio scene in Woodstock where you live. I had family and friends here and eventually I moved. Now, I play on somebody's album every week. I played on Genya Ravan's album last week. I had never met her, and she lives down the road from me. -- John Chacona

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110825/ENTERTAINMENT0301/308259952

Music: Voice of the Wetlands All-Stars at the Birchmere

What better way to ease earthquake jitters than with a bayou-flavored swamp romp? That’s one reason a near-capacity crowd turned up at the Birchmere on Tuesday night to hear the Voice of the Wetlands All-Stars conjure something akin to an abbreviated edition of the New Orleans Jazz Festival — “all in one economical package,” as blues guitarist and band co-leader Tab Benoit put it.

Benoit spoke about the group’s mission to help preserve and protect coastal wetlands, but only briefly, as if aware that the concert’s pacing was tricky enough given the talent assembled. Besides Benoit, the show generously showcased a Louisiana-seasoned front line featuring guitarist Anders Osborne, percussionist Cyril Neville, fiddler Waylon Thibodeaux and accordionist/harmonicist Johnny Sansone. Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, who wore a Mardi Gras Indian costume crowned by a towering and brightly plumed headdress, joined the band’s vocal ranks late in the show.

At first it looked as if Neville’s soulful croon would be eclipsed by a thundering guitar squall, to say nothing of the fierce attack forged by bassist Corey Duplechin and drummer Johnny Vidocovich. But halfway through “Louisiana Sunshine,” Neville’s voice and personality began to peek through the resonating mix, evoking the golden age of Crescent City R&B. The lineup boasted several strong singers, though none more powerful than Sansone — who has the kind of steel-belted vocal cords that bring Howlin’ Wolf to mind — or more engaging than Thibodeaux, a charismatic showman.

The tunes were drawn from several places — the band’s recordings, solo CDs and traditional sources — but what the All-Stars played wasn’t nearly as entertaining as how they played it. The rhythm section was unflagging, with blues shuffles giving way to slippery grooves and sharply syncopated ­second-line struts.


Benoit mostly played fluid, single-note lines, while Osborne emphasized jarring slide guitar riffs. Now and then, though, the two musicians fell into elegant sync, matching bent note for bent note and producing streaming harmonies. Switching back and forth from harps to squeezebox, Sansone bridged southern roadhouse shouts with zydeco dance-hall thrust, while Thibodeaux’s electric fiddle vibrantly amplified early string band and Cajun sounds.

With the crowd singing along, the festively attired Boudreaux saluted Professor Longhair (via a chanting “Go to Mardi Gras”) and helped cap the concert with “Li’l Liza Jane,” colorfully punctuated by Benoit’s chicken-pickin’ licks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/music-voice-of-the-wetlands-all-stars-at-the-birchmere/2011/08/24/gIQAE7jNcJ_story.html?wprss=rss_style

Festival to jazz up the Streets of Brentwood with art, music

By Judith Prieve, Contra Costa Times

With an expanded children's area, more headliner music and fine art, the Brentwood Arts Society is hoping to attract record numbers to this weekend's free two-day Art, Wine & Jazz Festival.

The 10th annual event, now in its second year at the Streets of Brentwood, will bring together local vintners and Bay Area artists as well as some well-known singers, top-flight bands, local food vendors and microbreweries.

"We're expecting we'll have more than last year because we have more to offer," the society's past president and festival liaison Jack Gaughan said, noting the group hopes to exceed last year's 15,000 attendance mark.

Dubbed a "family-friendly festival," the event has expanded its children's area this year, adding a Bricks 4 Kidz area where children can play with LEGOs to their heart's content, along with areas for children's dance, sculpture and painting projects.

To encourage budding artists, the organizers will set up some 20 easels and provide paper and paints, as well as offer art instructors and clay for children to sculpt their own creations and paint their own tiles. Several local schools will get into the act by hosting a Make a Tambourine event, while a local dance studio will teach kids how to move to the music, and Brentwood artist Al Lopez will draw caricatures of attendees.

"It's a big thing for us to make sure young people have a place in what we do," Gaughan said, noting the group supports school art docent programs, gives scholarships for art students and hosts annual districtwide art shows.

Part of that effort can be seen in the Walls of Art exhibit, where local schoolchildren will display some 1,000 art projects.

"It gets them recognition in a public view," Gaughan said of the art wall. "Families come to see what they've done. A lot of families come back the second day because they want to participate in the kids area."

In addition to the 44 juried artists exhibiting original works in all kinds of media, a group of Liberty High School artists will be on site chalk painting the streets throughout the day.

"My long-term goal is to someday have a street-painting festival in Brentwood," Gaughan said.

There'll be plenty for music aficionados to enjoy as well with nine acts playing on two stages throughout the weekend.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/oakley/ci_18748857

Richard Lyle Daniel, music teacher, dies

By Frederick N. Rasmussen, The Baltimore Sun

Richard Lyle Daniel, a retired Baltimore County public school music instructor who played with and led several jazz bands, died Monday of heart failure at Holy Spirit Hospital in Camp Hill, Pa.

The longtime Finksburg resident was 79.

The son of a paper mill worker and a homemaker, Mr. Daniel was born and raised in West Point, Va., and graduated in 1950 from West Point High School.

He served in the Air Force until 1951, when he was given an honorable medical discharge.

Mr. Daniel, who began music lessons when he was 12 and played with big bands in high school, entered Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Va., where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1956 in music education and majored in the saxophone.

He later earned a master's degree in 1964 in music from the University of Maryland, College Park, and took additional classes at Loyola College.

An instrumental music teacher, Mr. Daniel began teaching at the old Pikesville Elementary School and later joined the faculty of Franklin High School, where he taught for more than 20 years.

Called "Mr. D." by his students, Mr. Daniel spent a decade teaching music at Owings Mills High School before retiring in 1986.

Larry Leeds, who now owns and operates Leeds' Band Instrument Repair in Finksburg, studied music with Mr. Daniel at Pikesville Elementary School.

"That was around 1956, and I was studying clarinet," recalled Mr. Leeds. "As a teacher, he was wonderful and one heck of a guy. I never saw him get mad or frustrated, and he always had positive suggestions for his students."

He added: "Dick Daniel was one of those guys back in the day who were super people when it came to teaching music. They were dedicated and made the experience both fun and fine."

In 1968, he took the Franklin High School Band to Mexico City, where it performed at the Olympics.

His professional memberships included the Music Teachers Association and Band Directors of Maryland.

In addition to his teaching, during the 1970s, Mr. Daniel taught music at what is now McDaniel College, and for years played in numerous jazz bands.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bs-md-ob-richard-daniel-20110824,0,1962688.story?track=rss

The Revolution Will Be Jazz: Giacomo Gates Celebrates The Music Of Gil Scott-Heron

The musician/poet/troubadour Gil Scott-Heron, who in the early 70's was influential to scores of people who heard his cool brand of hip music and absorbed the pithy observational wit of his lyrics, was being rediscovered recently when he released a new album I'm New Here in February of 2010.  His rediscovery was crushingly cut short when Mr. Scott-Heron unexpectedly died in May of this year at the age of 62.

I was strongly influenced by the messages that Mr. Scott-Heron offered in his raspy, baritone voice that spoke with an inner wisdom that was somehow lost to many around him. His music shared a jazz and blues sensibility that I was prone to like to be sure, but it was his lyrics that were poignant and unforgettable.

He spoke of things that others would only think and he did so in a beguiling manner that transcended time. I was not alone in my admiration. Producer Mark Ruffin, who is the program director of the Sirius/Xm Satellite channel Real Jazz, as well as a jazz journalist himself, was similarly struck by the music and lyrics of Mr. Scott-Heron. Ruffin envisioned an album of the poet's music, The Revolution WIll Be Jazz , as an homage to the man whose later years were filled with drug related hardships and conflicts.

Mr. Ruffin controversially chose the jazz baritone Giacomo Gates for the project and was anxiously waiting to present the finalized version to Scott -Heron when the singer suddenly died. If anyone had trepidations about Ruffin's choice for this project, Mr.Gates grasp of the music and his performance here has certainly put all doubts to rest.

Giacomo Gates is an authentic jazz vocalist and student of the jazz tradition. He has studied the works of vocalists like Jon Hendricks and Eddie Jefferson and has absorbed and broadened some of their techniques including scatting, vocalese and mimicking instruments with his voice.

Gates has a smoky, slightly gravelly baritone voice with an unerring sense of swing. He is a master storyteller, often choosing music that offers some comic relief. It is precisely Mr. Gates' storytelling ability that makes him so well suited to the music of Mr. Scott-Heron. Gates wisely chose from Mr. Scott-Heron's repertoire those songs that tell a story, songs that spoke to him.

The opening number is a swinging case in point. "Show Business" certainly speaks to Mr. Gates. He has been plying his trade for some time and knows the sentiments of the song that Scott-Heron sardonically wrote about... "show business... got you hanging out in places you got no business." The song cooks, with pianist John Di Martino tinkling his keys in deft accompaniment and guitarist Tony Lombardozzi offering a tasty solo.

Gil Scott- Heron's hopeful "This is a Prayer for Everybody to be Free" is sung by Gates in a sauntering, heartfelt and earnest way. Claire Daly's baritone sax solo is deep and raspy and compliments Mr. Gates scatting brilliantly.

Mr. Gates vocal interpretation of "Lady Day and John Coltrane" steals the show. Lonnie Plaxico's plangent bass lines carry the tune beautifully, as drummer Vincent Ector holds the rhythm down. Mr. Gates is in top form here, as he seems to be in his element with the inherent flow of this song. Pianist Di Martino intersperses Latin influenced rhythms in his fluid solo.The coda finds Mr. Gates quietly whispering the last of the lyrics.

Another inspired performance is "Legend In His Own Mind." Gates is superlative when he has a story to tell and what better lyrics to work than lines like "...he has more romances than Beverly has Hills." Gates loves to embellish on the story line as he does on this one, and the group simply gets off on grooving behind him. This group of veteran players offers top notch accompaniment throughout as Mr. Gates ends the song in a beautifully expressive rising coda.

Seemingly plucked from the scripts of the series Mad Men, "Madison Avenue" is one of those stealthy Scott-Heron songs that laments about the way American business manipulates people to consume through clever advertisements. With lines like they can "...they can sell tuna to the Chicken of the Sea." its not hard to see why Gates chose this one. His soulful baritone takes this bluesy rendition to the limit with his hip insider take on the sentiment as the band pushes the song nicely.

Gates relishes the lyrics of Scott-Heron's "Gun," with Tony Lombardozzi starting the song with a funky guitar line that could have been a lead in for James Brown. He paces the song beautifully letting the funk seep into the pours of the song while still maintaining his cool delivery of the potent lyrics. You can feel the band having fun with the infectious funky groove.

One of my favorite Gil Scott-Heron song's is his great "Winter in America." Perhaps because the original is so close to my heart I can't bear to hear it played anyway but the way its seared into my consciousness. Gates chooses to slow the song to a crawl which I find a little unsettling. Claire Daly adds some nice flute to the mix.

Read more on: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ralph-a-miriello/gil-scott-heron-covers_b_934451.html

Akira Tana & The Secret Agent Men, featuring vocalist Annie Sellick, Sunday at the Bach

Drummer Tana will play from new release, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, jazz interpretations of the favorite music from the films of James Bond. Two Secret Agent women will join in – vocalist Annie Sellick and the Hammond B3 sensation from Osaka, Japan, Akiko Tsruruga, bringing a serious B3 groove to James Bond.  Akira has been a mainstay drummer for Bach Society performers, including Art Farmer, Eric Alexander, The Heath Brothers, Mel Martin, Larry Vuckovich, Rhoda Scott, and a group he co-led in the 90’s with the bassist Rufus Reid, TanaReid that featured Mark Turner. 

  
Tickets, $35:  
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/179479 
Sunday, August 28, 2011, 4:30 
Douglas Beach House on Miramar Beach 
307 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 
650 726-4143, http://www.bachddsoc.org 
  
Contact:  Linda Goetz, 650 726-2020, goetz@coastside.net

Wagner Tiso Trio - Na cadencia do samba (Ataulfo Alves)

Composer, instrumentalist and arranger Wagner Tiso began his career alongsideMilton Nascimento, integrating all Moonlight Silver. In its 40-year career he played withduos, trios, quartets, and is one of the most sought after arrangers in the country. It hasrecorded 30 albums, almost all released abroad. Wagner Tiso and his guests, the cellist Marcio Malard and guitarist Victor Biglione present themes that refer to "Clube da Esquina".

Barry Harris: Luminescence!

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

In April 1967, pianist Barry Harris assembled a magical sextet   for what would turn out to be one of his most exciting record dates. The album for Prestige was calledLuminescence! and it featured trombonist Slide Hampton, tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Lennie McBrowne, with Harris on piano. The competitive spirit and drive for excellence is so uplifting on this date that it explodes with aggression and beauty.

Bebop recordings were quaint by the late '60s, all but pushed aside by more experimental acoustic jazz and early attempts at electronic jazz fusion. Interestingly, none of the artists on the date actually expected bebop to return to the singular position it once held in the late '40s and again in the mid-50s. Instead, these top-flight musicians were just happy to be together recording the music they loved and trading ideas in the language they knew best.

For this date, Harris contributed four originals—the title track (a play on How High the Moon), Like This, Nicaragua and Even Steven. The remaining tracks were Bud Powell's Dance of the Infidels and Webb City, and the standard My Ideal. Harris arranged them all. [Pictured: Pepper Adams]

According to Ira Gitler's fine liner notes, this was Harris' first Prestige date as a leader. As Ira points out, Slide Hampton, who was with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers at the time, was able to produce a French horn sound by hanging a felt beanie off the bell of his trombone.

What's most interesting about this date is how easy it all comestogether. There's none of the frantic feel that's typically evident on Blue Note sessions of the period. Pepper Adams is up and running but not spraying the studio with baritone graffiti. And Junior Cook is equally restrained but powerful and deliberate.

Much of the session's measured pace is a result of Harris' patient and distinct approach. In this regard, he's operating throughout as both a bop catalyst and a conductor. But instead of waving a baton, Harris holds the horses with his precise attack and swirling bop lines.

There are lots of surprises here. Dance of the Infidels is taken at mid-tempo, allowing all of the instruments to fall into line. By contrast, Webb City flies at breakneck speed, giving all of the horns a shot at showing their stuff. My Ideal is a ballad, but Harris takes an interesting approach by having the horns open in unison. Nicaragua is a Latin original but it also bears traces of Charlie Parker'sBongo Beep. And Even Steven, the closer, is a cousin of Parker's Ornithology.

To quote Ira in his notes:

"I'm one of those people who believes that if music can make you feel better, it is doing something very essential. I come away from listening to this album feeling good every time."

I second that emotion.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Barry Harris: Luminescence!(Prestige) with samples here. Unfortunately it's available only as a CD, though you may find it as a download at some music retail sites.

JazzWax clip: Here's a local NBC-TV news profile of Barry Harris in 1985, at his Jazz Cultural Theater on New York's Eighth Ave. between 28th and 29th streets...