The musicianship on display in this video by Dave Holland on bass, Billy Kilson on drums, Steve Nelson on vibes, Robin Eubanks on trombone and Chris Potter, making a rare appearance on alto saxophone, his original instrument, is awesome to behold. Program music based around tonal points, chromaticism, motifs and riffs and rhythms. It's the way a lot of young guys hear the music these days. Stick around for Chris' solo beginning at 9:14 minutes. Charles Mingus must be smiling. The tune is Prime Detective.
Focused Profiles on Jazz and its Creators while also Featuring the Work of Guest Writers and Critics on the Subject of Jazz.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
Bobby, Roger and The Animals
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all
rights reserved.
Ahmet Ertegun, one
of the co-founders of Atlantic Records, was a big supporter of Rhythm and Blues
music as well as a devotee of Rock ‘n Roll in its fledgling years.
His brother,
Nesuhi, produced Jazz recordings for the Atlantic label including the Modern
Jazz Quartet’s No Sun in Venice and Pyramid, John Coltrane’s Giant
Steps and Coltrane Plays the Blues, and a host of other Jazz albums by
Milt Jackson, Mose Allison, Jimmy Giuffre and Shorty Roger s, among others.
Ahmet always
maintained that his involvement with the commercially lucrative Rock and R
& B music enabled him to subsidize his brother Nesuhi’s
less-than-profitable ventures into Jazz.
One of his most
successful forays into Rock was Ahmet’s decision to record Bobby Darin’s Splish, Splash. It was a record that
would sell a million copies for the then, virtually unknown Darin.
Ironically, almost
10-years later, Darin, now and internationally recognized celebrity, would
leave Atlantic and establish his own label [Direction Records] over a dispute
with Ahmet and Arif Mardin [who had become Bobby’s producer at the label in
1963] involving Bobby’s fervent wish to record the music from Leslie Bricusse
and Anthony Newley’s Doctor Dolittle.
As recounted by
Fred Dellar in his notes to Bobby Darin Sings Doctor Dolittle:
“Bobby Darin
constantly re-invented himself. Initially, he'd been a teen idol, littering the
charts with the likes of Splish, Splash
and Queen Of The Hop. Then he opted
to become the new Sinatra, fashioning songs such as Beyond The Sea and Lazy River
for a whole new set of swingin' lovers. Once, Bobby even moved into R&B to
cut an album of Ray Charles songs, using Ray's own back-up singers, while in
1966 he moved on yet again, linking with the contemporary folk field, and
emulating the likes of Tim Hardin. After two critically hailed albums (If I
Were A Carpenter and Inside Out) filled with material
mainly penned by Hardin and John Sebastian, Darin decided that it was time for
a change yet again. No-one was going to classify him, place him in some 'file
under' category. It was time for a return to show-biz, a time to dust down the
tux, head in a Hollywood direction. But, being Darin, it would not
be a mere return to former glories. Nothing as easy as that. Instead, Bobby
decided to create a whole album based around his interpretations of a film
score. His choice for the project was Doctor
Dolittle, a musical penned by Leslie Bricusse, who'd previously
collaborated with Anthony Newley on The
Roar Of The Greasepaint - The Smell
Of The Crowd and Stop The World -I
Want To Get Off, the latter a Broadway hit that ran for 555 performances.
Doctor Dolittle, a movie that co-starred Rex Harrison,
Anthony Newley, Samantha Eggar and Richard Attenborough, featured a score that
had taken Leslie Bricusse 18 months to write. During that period he'd discarded
10 songs and constantly reshaped others. Darin, who'd earlier recorded Bricusse
and Newley's Once In A Lifetime,
heard the score and loved it. His decision to record it as a complete album
pleased Arthur C. Jacobs, the film's producer who claimed: "When Bobby
came to us and said he wanted to do his musical impression of Doctor
Dolittle, we were flattered but felt that the musical content of our
production was out of Bobby's usual style. I mean, in one scene Rex sings a
tender ballad When I Look In Your Eyes to a seal! How would that sit with a
chap who whirred and whirled with Mack
The Knife? Bobby's reply: 'Lead me to it'."
Others were even
more incredulous that Darin should want to record the score, his album
producer, Arif Mardin, advising him not to go ahead with the project. But,
after working on a fine set of arrangements with Roger Kellaway, Bobby made that trip to Western
Recorders and shaped an album that has stood the test of time. …”
Pianist-composer-arranger
Roger Kellaway summed it up best when he
observed: “Bobby was a sensation to work with. He had the knack of knowing
exactly what was right for him.”
See what you think
as Bobby sings Roger ’s arrangement of Talk to the Animals in the following video made with the assistance
of the ace graphics team at CerraJazz LTD and the production facility at
StudioCerra.
Our latest montage
is set in HD images, a format we’ve returned after a long absence.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
"Striking Up The Band" with the Kenny Clarke - Lucky Thompson Quintet
The Blue Note in Paris, 1960. Lucky Thompson on tenor saxophone, Jimmy Gourley on guitar, Alice McLeod Coltrane on piano, Pierre Michelot on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Having "Cheese Cake" with Dexter, Sonny, Butch and Billy
Bring a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy a slice of Cheese Cake with Dexter Gordon and Company. If you are a Jazz fan, it truly doesn't get any better than Dexter Gordon on tenor saxophone, Sonny Clark on piano, Butch Warren on bass and Billy Higgins on drums. Dexter's Cheese Cake is based on the changes to tenor sax legend Lester Young's tune, Tickle Toe.
Brian and Barbara
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all
rights reserved.
I have no idea if
trumpeter Brian Lynch and vocalist Barbara Casini know each other or have
worked together.
I doubt it because
Brian is based in New York and Barbara in Italy , but given the international and
cosmopolitan flavor of Jazz in the 21st century, it’s certainly is
possible.
Where there is a
relationship between the two, and what prompted this posting is that both have
recorded terrific versions of the tune – You’ve
Changed - Brian on his Bolero Nights, Venus Jazz CD [VHCD
1029] and Barbara along with the Jazz Orchestra of Sardinia, Paolo Silvestri
conducting on Agora Ta, ViaVenetoJazz [CD VVJ 076].
Okay, I’ll admit
it; I’ve got a thing for Bill Carey and Carl Fischer’s tune having featured two
versions on a previous blog piece with interpretations by alto saxophonist Andy
Fusco and the sublime, “Sassy Sarah Vaughan.
And early this
month [July 7th], I spotlighted [bloglighted?] the version that
Hammond B-3 organist Eddy Louiss recorded along with Belgian Guitarist Rene
Thomas and drummer Kenny Clarke for Dreyfus Jazz [Dreyfus Disques FDM-36501-2].
The song’s
poignant lyrics assume autobiographical, heart-breaking proportions when one
reflects on their long association with vocalist Billie Holiday. The themes of
lost love, seeking love and unrequited love were a constant in Billie’s brief
and turbulent life [she died in 1959 at the age of forty-four].
What intrigued us
about Brian Lynch’s rendition of You’ve Changed
is that it is done in the bolero style of Latin Jazz and has a corker of a
solo by alto saxophonist Phil Woods. Brian also takes a fine solo as does
pianist Zaccai Curtis.
And did you know
that the island of Sardinia off the western coast of Italy has a fine Jazz orchestra? As you will
hear on the following video, it does, indeed, and for Barbara Casini’s vocal
version of You’ve Changed, the
orchestra is under the direction of Paolo Silvestri who also wrote the
arrangement. Be sure and checkout the
fine trumpet solo by Giovanni Sanna Passino beginning at 2:42 minutes.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Joris Roelofs: “The Kids Are Fine”
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all
rights reserved.
“All
around they see not rivals but mentors. Gravitating to living masters and young
gurus, they talk not of themselves but of the greatness of others. As a result,
their sound is pure, their language is concise. Although perpetually young-looking,
they are the opposite of naïve. Their groove is light and precise and the smile
in their eyes maintains a near-constant
sparkle.”
- pianist
Aaron Goldberg commenting on Joris Roelofs
It’s hard to
imagine that someone who is only twenty-eight years old could already be so proficient
in today’s Jazz world.
Such is truly the
case with Joris Roelofs who was born 1984 in Aix-en-Provence (France ), raised in Amsterdam (Netherlands ), and plays saxophones, clarinet, bass
clarinet and flute. He began to play classical clarinet at the age of six, and the
alto saxophone at the age of twelve.
For one so young,
Joris has a considerable list of accomplishments and associations.
He was a member of
the Vienna Art Orchestra from 2005-2010. Joris also plays lead alto in
the Jazz Orchestra Of The Concertgebouw in the Netherlands . He graduated
in 2007 as a Master of Music at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. In 2001 Joris
won the Pim Jacobs Price. In
2003 he received, as a first non-American, the Stan Getz/Clifford Brown
Fellowship Award in the US , organized by the International
Association Of Jazz Education (IAJE). The IAJE also honored him with a “First Level”
price. In 2004 Joris received
the first prize of the prestigious Deloitte Jazz Award in the Netherlands , a Dutch Award for young musicians who are
just about to start their international carrier. In 2008 he was selected for
the Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition.
Among others,
Joris played with Brad Mehldau, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Christina Branco, Lionel
Loueke, Joshua Redman, Chris Potter, Chris Cheek, Eric Harland, Lewis Nash,
Aaron Goldberg, Greg Tardy, Ralph Peterson, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Pete King,
Sonny Fortune, Greg Hutchinson, WDR Big Band, Ari Hoenig, Matt Penman, Alegre Correa.
He was recently
asked by Brad Mehldau to perform with him at the Carnegie Hall in New York and Sanders Theatre in Boston . At age 16 Joris performed the famous
clarinet introduction of Gershwin’s Rhapsody
in Blue for a TV show with the Orkest van het Oosten, and in that same show
was also featured as a soloist with the Jazz Orchestra Of The Concertgebouw. He
also recorded as a special clarinet soloist with the Metropole Orchestra with Laura Fygi (2004). As a leader
he performed several times at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam , Smalls Jazz Club in NYC, among other
places.
In October 2008 he
did a European release tour with Ari Hoenig, Aaron Goldberg and Johannes
Weidenmueller to promote his debut album Introducing Joris Roelofs. In 2009 and
2010 he did his second and third tour with Aaron Goldberg, Greg Hutchinson,
Reginald Veal, Joe Sanders. Joris also plays in a trio with Jesse van Ruller
and Clemens van der Feen, they
released their album Chamber Tones and toured in Japan . Joris’ new
CD Live
At The Bimhuis will come out the end of August/2011. As a sideman Joris
has been playing at a large number of international jazz festivals and jazz
clubs, all over the world. He
moved to New
York City in March 2008.
Pianist Aaron
Goldberg wrote these thoughts about Joris and Jazz in New York City for Introducing Joris Roelofs:
“New York remains an
artist-magnet. The intrepid flow in from everywhere, their paint brushes or
their saxophones on their back, often still searching for a place to sleep.
Some show up with a point to prove, and they are usually the first to attract
notice. On occasion others arrive with a different kind of special mission.
Instead of a moral to teach or an agenda to push, these brave selves search for
a lesson to learn. Tey are driven by the love of their art.
All around they see not rivals but mentors. Gravitating to living
masters and young gurus, they talk not of themselves but of the greatness of
others. As a result, their sound is pure, their language is concise. Although
perpetually long-looking, they are the opposite of naïve. Their groove is light
and precise and the smile in their eyes maintains a near-constant sparkle.
Perhaps they have some metaphysical guardian, a Vajravarahi
[Tibetan Buddhist diety that helps free one from suffering and gain
enlightenment through meditations] to help uproot the ego?
Or maybe their meditations just focus on the truly important: line
and melody, mouthpiece and embouchure, narrative and harmony, and the rest
follows inevitably. These are the true faithful. From the inside they may see
only detours, but their paths are straight and their bearing upright. From the
outside they glow like the enlightened. More importantly, they are a joy to
listen to. Joris Roelofs is one of the rare arrivals.”
With all of this by way of background, “The Kids” such as Joris,
Aaron, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Ari Hoenig “are doing just fine” as you
can hear for yourself on the sound track to the following video montage.
The tune is pianist Aaron Goldberg’s The Rules which is an excellent example of the kind of tension-and-release, repetitive phrases and sustained tones can create in Jazz. Aaron takes the first solo, followed
by Ari on drums with Joris’s solo closing it out before the piece’s “surprise”
ending.
[BTW, if the music of Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, and Lennie Tristano comes to mind while listening to Joris' quartet, your memory is a credit to modern Jazz history].
Joris Roelofs recordings
are available as audio CD’s and Mp3 downloads from a number of online
retailers.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Jessica Williams – A Pianist with Taste, Touch and Temerity
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all
rights reserved.
The editorial
staff at JazzProfiles was prompted to put this piece together by the
arrival of the correspondence that closes it.
I first “met”
Jessica around 1980. This was back in the days when one could kill a few
minutes waiting for a business appointment or a luncheon while perusing the
local record store.
Usually
privately-owned and operated, every community in southern California seem to have one and some of these
Mom-and-Pop stores even had a Jazz section.
It was during one
such diversions that I noticed an LP in the cut-out bin by Jessica Jennifer
Williams entitled Orgonomic Music [Clean Cuts CC703]. On the back of the album
sleeve was the following quotation by Wilhelm Reich:
"Love, work and knowledge are the
well-springs of our life. They should also govern it.”
I didn’t know who
Reich was, nor did I know anything about “Jessica Jennifer Williams” and the
only musician in the sextet featured on the album that I was [barely] familiar
with was trumpet player Eddie Henderson.
But what the heck,
Philip Elwood of The San Francisco
Examiner said of Jessica that she was a devotee of Reich’s whose sentiments
I agreed with, the LP was only a buck, so I gave it a shot.
Boy, am I glad I
did. I’ve been listening to everything I can get my hands on by Jessica ever
since.
However, it wasn’t
until 1992, thanks to a fortuitous business trip to San Francisco , that I had the opportunity to hear
Jessica in person as a part of pianist Dick Whittington’s on-going Maybeck
Recital Hall series.
I “stayed close”
to Jessica’s music in the 1990’s thanks to my association with Philip Barker,
the owner of Jazz Focus Records for whom Jessica made a number of recordings
including her Arrival CD which has the distinction of being the very first
disc issued by Philip’s label [JFCD001].
Thanks to a tip
from Gene Lees in one of his JazzLetters, I was also
able to score one of the limited edition [1,000] Joyful Sorrow compact
discs that Blackhawk Records issued as her solo piano tribute to the late, Bill
Evans.
It was recorded at
The Jazz Station, Carmel ,
CA on September 15, 1996 on the 16th anniversary of
Bill’s death.
Sadly, too, The
Jazz Station in Carmel is no more, but Joyful Sorrow endures as just about
my all-time favorite Jessica recording.
Thankfully,
Jessica has subsequently released quite a number of solo piano and trio Jazz
recordings, many of which are available as audio CD’s and Mp3 downloads.
Jessica is a
powerful and pulsating pianist. He music
literally “pops” out at the listener it’s so full of energy and enthusiasm.
She records many
solo piano albums, a format which can sometimes be a recipe for self-indulgence
and excessive displays of technique. But
Jessica’s music is always tasteful and informed. You can hear the influences
from the Jazz tradition in her playing, but you also hear innovative probing
and forays into her unique conception of what she is trying to say about herself
and how she hears the music.
Her touch on the
instrument is such that she makes the piano SOUND! It rings clear and resonates
as it only can in the hands of a masterful pianist.
As Grover Sales,
the distinguish author and lecturer on Jazz has commented:
“Jessica Williams
belongs to that exclusive group Count Basie dubbed "the poets of the
piano" that includes Roger Kellaway, Sir Roland Hanna, Ellis Larkins, Jaki Byard, Bill Mays, Alan Broadbent, Cedar Walton, the late Jimmy
Rowles and of course, Bill Evans. All share in common a thorough working
knowledge of classic piano literature from pre-Bach to contemporary avant garde
as well as the classic jazz tradition from Scott Joplin to the present.
All developed an
astonishing and seemingly effortless technique that enabled them to venture
anywhere their fertile imaginations wished to take them. All take to heart the
dictum of Jelly Roll Morton in his epic 1938 interview for the Library of
Congress: ‘No pianist can play jazz unless they try to give the imitation of a
band.’
And for all of their varied influences from
Earl Hines to Bill Evans and beyond, all are instantly identifiable—unique in
the literal sense of this often misused word.”
Writing in the
insert booklet to Jessica’s Maybeck Hall CD [Concord CCD-4525],
Jeff Kaliss notes:
“It's all there in
the first track. Within a few choruses, Jessica Williams shows her hand, or
hands: the harmonies in seconds (hit way off to the side of the piano), the
punchy attack, the dust-devils in the upper octaves, the nutty quotes. It's
familiar Jessica, but she's got plenty up her sleeve for the rest of this
remarkable entry in the Maybeck menagerie. …
She came to my
awareness as a word-of-mouth legend, a Baltimore-bred genius whose history and
personality were said to be as mysterious and unpredictable as her keyboard
inventions. As soon as I got to hear her, I was into the reality of her
spontaneous magic and not much concerned with the legend. …
[She] has remained
a best-kept secret … commanding awe and quiet in the clubs she visited … [her
playing] filled with energy and imagination.”
One gets more
about her sense of “energy and imagination” when one reads the following notes
that Jessica wrote about herself and her music for her Intuition CD [Jazz Focus
JFCD 010]:
“I'm occasionally
asked where I studied to learn to do what I do; who taught me, what
"tricks" are involved, what secrets enable me, how does the process
occur... how does one "distill magic out of the air?" The truth is
that there are no practice techniques, no miracle drugs, no mantras, no
short-cuts to creativity. I tell them that I've played piano since I was four,
that I've played jazz since I was twelve, that I've never taken another job
doing anything except what I've always known I should be doing in this life:
playing music. And maybe that's a part of the answer, if indeed there is one.
It's about Castenada's PATH , Campbell 's BLISS; you follow it no matter where it leads, and over
many years you learn to control it, channel it, allow it to happen.
You become the
bow; the arrow is the gift. You never fully own it, just as you can never
explore all of its depths, because it springs from the infinite possibilities
within you. In this realm, your only ally, your only guide, is intuition. It is
seeing instead of looking, knowing instead of believing, being instead of
doing. It is Coltrane on the saxophone, Magic Johnson on the court, Alice
Walker on the printed page; it is the primary intuition of
"right-brained" activity, the birthing of idea into existence.
Perhaps it cannot
be taught, but it certainly can be shared...and it is in the sharing that we
all experience the best parts of ourselves. We instinctively intuit our organic
truth; when we learn to live it, our planet could be paradise.
Your dreams are
your sacred truth. …”
You can listen to
Jessica’s quite stunning pianism on the audio track of the following video
from the Joyful Sorrow Bill Evans tribute CD.
As to Jessica’s
temerity, let alone downright courage, it’s all here in the following notice
which she sent out recently to her fans.
I hope you’ll heed
and help Jessica in her time of need.
I CAN NO LONGER PLAY THE PIANO
Dear friends, critics,
fans, friends of fans, anyone who loves my music or at least has enjoyed it:
FEEL FREE TO SHARE THIS WITH
OTHERS, IN PUBLICATIONS, EMAIL CAMPAIGNS, PHONE CALLS, ETC . GO TO
================
DONATE TO JESSICA
WILLIAMS’ SPINAL SURGERY RECOVERY FUND VIA PAYPAL or any credit
cards:
================
SEND DONATIONS
You can opt to send
personal checks or money orders to
· Jessica Williams
· PO Box 2391
· Olympia , WA 98507
·
·
· Please make checks
payable to Jessica Williams
================
BUY CDS:
http://www.jessicawilliams.com/shop.html
Every dollar counts and is deeply appreciated.
http://www.jessicawilliams.com/shop.html
Every dollar counts and is deeply appreciated.
================
I CAN NO LONGER PLAY
THE PIANO. NOR CAN I WALK , SLEEP, EAT WELL , STAND OR SIT. MY
PAIN IS INTRACTABLE, AND 30mg daily of Vicodin
(NORCO) does very little to cut it. 35 YEARS AGO I had a disc surgery (a
Laminectomy, L5-S1) but many years of flying and playing music have taken their
toll. I am in DIRE NEED OF RADICAL SPINAL SURGERY. MY SURGEON IS DR RICHARD ROONEY
AT THE NEW MADISON ST POLYCLINIC.
This
is NOT a solicitation for help to pay for the surgery as I HAVE INSURANCE: This
request for donations is for the time AFTER surgery, the 6 months to perhaps a
year that I won't be able to play or perform. Instead, I'll be doing physical
therapy, pain management, and recuperation.
Without a spinal operation I face trunk and leg paralysis, the
possible loss of renal function, and constant intractable pain. If it
progresses up the spine and reaches the thoracic and cervical spine, I will
lose all movement or sensation in my arms and hands. I have moderate scoliosis
which increases the possibility of this happening.
Fortunately I have medical coverage. This request for donations
is for the time AFTER surgery. It may be a year or more before I can play
again, or it could be months - I won't know until it's done.
My surgeon - http://www.polyclinic.com/richard-rooney-md-facs - has decided to do a
lateral-entry cage-fusion of L5, L4 and S1. I have had other opinions but I've
chosen the premier neurosurgeon in this state (WA), and my age - 64 - rules out
fancy but still unperfected alternatives like Pro-Disc©. My surgery will be
scheduled soon, probably for some time in LATE JULY or EARLY AUGUST of 2012. (I
presently have an viral upper-bronchial infection, so we need to wait until
that clears.)
I'll be in the
hospital for about 10 days, and then recuperating for 6 months to a year. I
feel very lucky and very secure to have chosen the great surgeon who will do
the procedure, making it possible for me to get back to my life's work.
I am so happy I can
give back through my music. The music that awaits is why I am here.
And THAT, friends, is
why I'm asking for help. I know that the people who love my music are the
kindest, gentlest people in the world.
But a lot of us tend
not to be billionaires. I, for one.
I need your help.
================
I'm sure that the
results will be positive. My surgeon is the best there is, an artist of
neurosurgery. He loves my music. I have a lot of NEW MUSIC TO MAKE.
Please make a donation
of any size that you can afford. Each of you who makes a donation will get a
signed copy of my newest CD for OriginArts - my personal favorite - Songs of Earth. And
you'll get your name included in the drop-down "Life Savers Menu" on this donations page.
And if you ORDER MY CDs,
that'll help too, and you can do that HERE. Every order and every extra dollar
helps, as I can no longer play or pay the bills for a while.
Thank you from my
heart, with peace, sanity, love, and freedom, Jessica
DONATE PLEASE!!!
You can use paypal or any credit cards: go to
================
A message from good
friend and fellow pianist and composer Richard Rodseth:
Dear friends,
Some of you have attended or played at house concerts I have hosted in my home. Some of my happiest
and proudest moments.
I was introduced to the concept by pianist Jessica Williams, and since 2005 she has enthralled listeners in my living room once or twice a year, most recently on March 17, her birthday.
I'm sorry to report that Jessica needs our help, and is not well enough to play for us at this time. It would mean a great deal to me if you would read her heartfelt request at the following link and support her if you can: http://www.jessicawilliams.com/donations/
Whether you purchase one or more of her wonderful CDs (which make excellent gifts), or are able to make a donation, you will have supported a wonderful artist who has touched many with her beautiful music.
Thanks so much, Richard - P.S. I apologize if you receive this message more than once. Feel free to share it with others.
Dear friends,
Some of you have attended or played at house concerts I have hosted in my home. Some of my happiest
and proudest moments.
I was introduced to the concept by pianist Jessica Williams, and since 2005 she has enthralled listeners in my living room once or twice a year, most recently on March 17, her birthday.
I'm sorry to report that Jessica needs our help, and is not well enough to play for us at this time. It would mean a great deal to me if you would read her heartfelt request at the following link and support her if you can: http://www.jessicawilliams.com/donations/
Whether you purchase one or more of her wonderful CDs (which make excellent gifts), or are able to make a donation, you will have supported a wonderful artist who has touched many with her beautiful music.
Thanks so much, Richard - P.S. I apologize if you receive this message more than once. Feel free to share it with others.
==========
See MRI /DICOM scans of my
L5/L4 compression/degradation and my scoliosis and disc deterioration here:
==========
For removal from this
list, click here:
==========
I wish you happiness,
wisdom, peace, and above all, HEALTH. Stay well and love each other, Jessica
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra - "Bird Feathers"
I always wondered what a big band arrangement of Charles Mingus' Bird Feathers might sound like. Thanks to this performance by the Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra, I don't have to anymore. To my ears, there nothing more exciting in Jazz than a roaring, driving big band. This version of Bird Feathers was recorded in May, 2007 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and features Simon Rigter on tenor saxophone, Marco Kegel on alto and Hans Vromans on piano.
Friday, July 13, 2012
“The Rules” - Joris Roelofs Quartet and The Art of Clifton Karhu
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all
rights reserved.
There is so much
to say about both the music and the artwork on the following video montage, but
as it is a lengthy performance, the editorial staff at JazzProfiles thought it
would keep its comments to a minimum.
This piece is
another in an ongoing effort to combine looking at art while listening to Jazz.
As you view the slides of contemporary
Japanese woodblock prints by the artist Clifton Karhu [1927-2007], we hope that
you will not only recognize Karhu’s virtuosity, but also that of the young
musicians who comprise the Joris Roelofs quartet.
I will have more
to say about saxophonist-clarinetist Joris Roelofs in a future JazzProfiles
feature devoted to his music.
The audio track is
Aaron Goldberg’s The Rules which was
recorded in performance at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam , The Netherlands, on October
17, 2008 . Joining
with Joris on alto saxophone and Aaron on piano are bassist Johannes
Weidemuller and drummer Ari Hoenig.
This is a long
piece, but if you can sustain your interest in and involvement with it, I think
it will move your ears in a new direction, one, perhaps, that the late
composer-pianist Lennie Tristano might relish.
The interpretations
of pianist Goldberg and saxophonist Roelofs harkens back to the ultra cool and
intellectual style of Jazz favored by Tristano along with alto saxophonist Lee
Konitz and tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh.
What is markedly
different in the Roelofs quartet’s approach is the drumming of Ari Hoenig, who
plays stuff on drums that I’ve never heard before, and whose interactive
approach is a far cry from the keep-the-time-and-stay-out-of-the-way drumming of
Jeff Morton with Tristano’s quartet.
Clifton Karhu, was
born in Minnesota , but lived most of his adult life in Kyoto , the ancient capital of Japan , where he mastered all aspects of making
traditional Japanese woodblock prints or Ukiyo-e.
Karhu
self-designed, self-carved and self-printed his own wood block prints and his
use of mood, color, and geometric design has reserved for him a prominent place
in 20th century Sosaku Hanga [neo-ukiyo-e or creative prints done “in the
shadow of” ukiyo-e].
There is some
irony in using music entitled The Rules in
a video tribute to Clifton Karhu as some considered him to be an iconoclast for
the manner in which he used traditional Japanese woodblock techniques to
represent his art.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
The Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra and “The Sound of Surprise”
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all
rights reserved.
Whitney Balliett,
one of Jazz’s most eloquent chroniclers, once characterized Jazz as being “The
Sound of Surprise.”
And so it was for
me – a joyful surprise - with my first listening of The Duke Ellington Legacy
Orchestra’s Single Petal of a Rose which was released on June 5, 2012 on
Renma Recordings [6403 CD].
By way of
background, The Duke Ellington Legacy is a nine-piece group founded by Edward
Kennedy Ellington II, Duke’s grandson, and the band’s guitarist.
Edward chose
saxophonist Virginia Mayhew to lead and serve as musical director of the band
and Virginia staffed it, beginning with pianist Norman
Simmons who has a long and distinguished career performing with many Jazz
luminaries, most particularly serving as the accompanist for vocalists Carmen
McRae, Joe Williams and Betty Carter.
Virginia and
Norman share the arranging duties for The Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra and
their scoring talents help present Duke’s music in new, musical settings.
Duke once said
that music is beyond category and falls into two groups: good music and bad
music.
The music on Single
Petal of a Rose is good music as are the musicians who perform it.
Equally important
is that they have the ability to fashion their own musical personalities into a
coherent and cohesive group, a quality which Duke Ellington prized.
While he loved the
individual voices of some of his legendary band members such as trumpeters
Cootie Williams, Rex Stewart and Clark Terry, alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges,
tenor saxophonist Ben Webster and baritone saxophonist Harry Carney, the Duke
needed them to blend-as-one because the orchestra en toto was his instrument.
Credit for melding
the sound of The Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra into a consistent whole begins
with trumpeter [and flugelhornist] Jami Dauber, whose attack, phrasing and
dynamics forms the basis for the manner in which the band articulates the arrangements.
There was no
greater admirer of Duke’s music than bassist Charles Mingus who often anchored
his own group’s compositions with the playing of trombonist Jimmy Knepper.
Charles would have
loved The Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra’s trombonist Noah Bless who brings
not only Knepper’s spirit to mind while taking care of brass bass clef business
for the group, but also those of Ellington stalwart bone players such as
“Tricky Sam” Lofton, Lawrence Brown and Britt Woodman.
Speaking of Mingus,
the Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra’s other bass clef role is in the capable
hands of bassist Tom DiCarlo, whose playing is suggestive of the big sound and
expressiveness of two of today’s Young Lions on the instrument: John Patitucci
and Christian McBride.
If you ever
wondered with the Duke’s music might sound like complimented by the polyrhythms
of Elvin Jones and Tony Williams, all you need do is listen to Paul Wells whose
drumming with the Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra’s provides these elements
plus the sounds of a very contemporary drum kit.
Saxophonist
Virginia Mayhew has a big, throaty tone on tenor and when she combines it in
unison phrasing with trumpeter Dauber and trombonist Bless, it echoes the sound
of Wayner Shorter-Freddie Hubbard-Curtis Fuller version of Art Blakey and the
Jazz Messengers to Duke’s music [checkout the shout chorus that close-out the
Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra’s version of Upper Manhattan Medical Group].
It’s quite fitting
that Kenny Burrell loaned Edward Kennedy Ellington II his guitar for the date
because the latter’s note selection and placement are lean and propulsive in a
style similar to the one that Kenny has literally hand-crafted over six decades
of playing Jazz.
And then there is
Norman Simmons on piano: lyrical, beautiful and always tastefully swinging. He
reminds me so much of the late Tommy Flanagan and the late Hank Jones.
Many years ago
when I was working at a club on the tri-corner of Columbus, Broadway and Grant
in San Francisco, I and the pianist in the group would run down the street
during our breaks to catch vocalist Carmen McRae at Sugar Hill.
Thankfully, some
things only get better with the passing of the years and Norman ’s piano playing is one of them. In
addition to being so superb on piano, Norman has also written the majority of the
charts on the album.
Other “surprises”
on Single
Petal of a Rose include the sensitive percussion work of Shelia Earley,
Nancy Reed’s marvelous vocals on In A
Mellow Tone, Squeeze Me, and Love You
Madly, and tenor saxophonist Houston Person’s special guest appearance on Norman ’s composition, a blues entitled Home Grown and Duke’s In My Solitude.”
Shelia Elaine
Anderson writes of Houston in her insert notes to the CD: “Houston ’s big sound, improvisations and
playfulness make listeners feel happy and reminds them of what Jazz is.”
More details
including websites and order information about The Duke Ellington Legacy
Orchestra’s Single Petal of a Rose are contained in the following News
Release which was developed by Ann Braithwaite, Nancy Hudgins and the fine team
at Braithwaite & Katz, Communications.
If you are in the
mood for surprises, you’ll be delighted by the music on this disc.
"This band breathes new
life into Duke Ellington's treasured, voluminous canon."
— Joseph Blake, Times
Colonist
"...sounds as classic as
the day Duke Ellington gave his music birth, while still sounding like a
contemporary jazz band..."
- Susan Frances,
Jazzreview.com
Almost four
decades after Duke Ellington's passing, he looms larger than ever as a singular
giant of American music. With Single Petal of a Rose, slated for
release on June 5 on Renma Recordings, the talent-laden Duke Ellington Legacy offers an insightful, often-breathtaking tour
through a program of masterpieces by Ellington and his inimitable creative
partner, Billy Strayhorn.
A nine-piece
multi-generational ensemble founded by guitarist Edward Kennedy Ellington II,
Duke's grandson, the Duke Ellington Legacy doesn't attempt to replicate the
Ellington Orchestra's sound (because really, who could?). Rather, the band
explores sublime ballads, hard-charging flag wavers, lustrous tone poems, and
sultry vocals, channeling an essentially Ellingtonian spirit from a
contemporary perspective. With savvy music direction by saxophonist Virginia Mayhew and brilliant
arrangements by the great Norman Simmons,
who also handles piano duties with elegant authority, the band fully adheres to
Duke's prime directive, swinging as if their lives depended on it.
"Before a
concert I tell the band, let's make them want to dance," Simmons says.
"People these days are afraid to move their bodies, but they can't help it
when we get going."
Programmed with an
ebb and flow similar to an Ellington Orchestra concert, the album opens and
closes with ravishing solo piano renditions of "Single Petal" and
"Lotus Blossom," delivered by Simmons with all the requisite love and
tenderness. The session kicks into high gear with "Happy-Go-Lucky
Local" a piece that premiered at Ellington's 1946 Carnegie Hall concert as
the final movement of his "Deep South Suite." Houston Person's
locomotive tenor solo is perfectly gauged to the swaggering mood of Ellington's
most irrepressibly swinging train song.
"Houston has got his own sound and it's
beautiful," Ellington says. "Our last album featured the great
baritone saxophonist, Joe Temperley. Bringing in guests like that anchors the
ensemble. They come in with such deep knowledge of the music."
"In My
Solitude" offers Houston another ideal setting in which to shine as he provides empathic
support for vocalist Nancy Reed. The big-toned tenor saxophonist has spent much
of his career in intimate dialogue with jazz's greatest singers, most
significantly during his three-decade creative partnership with the inimitable
Etta Jones. Like the much-missed Jones, Reed is an underappreciated treasure
who has collaborated with jazz masters such as pianist David Leonhardt, David
"Fathead" Newman, Phil Woods, Dave Liebman, and Bob Dorough. Her lovely,
clear tone and understated delivery make her an ideal vocalist for the Duke
Ellington Legacy, whether she's bringing the mellow to "In A Mellow
Tone," flirting playfully with Houston on "Squeeze Me," or convincingly
delivering Duke's trademark catch phrase "Love You Madly" on a fine
arrangement by Mayhew.
With four numbers
to his direct credit, Strayhorn is well represented on Single Petal. Mayhew's
inspired arrangement of "Johnny Come Lately", an expansive chart that
features some particularly inspired tenor work by her, puts a Latin spin on the
piece. Trombonist Noah Bless follows with a beautifully crafted solo, which
builds to a percussion finale. Bless displays his expressive, singing tone on
the aching ballad "Blood Count," while bassist Tom di Carlo propels
the briskly swinging, typically ingenious "Upper Manhattan Medical Group"
(often rendered as "UMMG"), which features another incisive Mayhew
tenor solo.
"Ellington
always featured his men, and that's something I work on," says Simmons.
"Duke was
always very advanced with his harmonic structures, which provides the
framework, and then for orchestration you're drawing on the colors in the
band's palette, painting a picture."
The Duke Ellington
Legacy was born out of the friendship between Mayhew and Edward Kennedy
Ellington II, who met at the West Village jazz club Sweet Basil in the late 1980s.
When Ellington approached her about launching a band with the support of the
Duke Ellington Legacy, Virginia, having had studied and worked with Norman
Simmons, knew Simmons would be an ideal musician for the group. In fact,
Simmons has become the Legacy's heart and soul.
It's hard to
overstate the depth of experience Norman
Simmons brings to the Duke Ellington Legacy. A Chicago native, he was weaned on the Duke
Ellington Orchestra, which he heard as a child from a neighbor's radio. As a
teenager in the mid-1940s he caught the band at the Regal Theater when Sonny
Greer still presided from his giant drum kit. After graduating from the Chicago
School of Music, Simmons cut his teeth in the mid-1950s as the house pianist at
the Beehive, where he worked with jazz icons such as Charlie Parker, Lester
Young and Wardell Gray. Convinced by Ernestine Anderson to move to New York City in 1959, he quickly gained recognition as
an exceptional accompanist. Over the years he put in significant stints with
Dakota Staton, Carmen McRae, and Joe Williams. Working as an arranger for
Riverside Records, Simmons was responsible for classic sessions with Johnny
Griffin (including "The Big Soul-Band") and toured widely with the
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis/Johnny Griffin Quintet. At 81, he continues to
accompany and arrange for various artists and leads his own band.
Mayhew's affinity for veteran jazz masters has been apparent since
she established herself on the New York scene in the Iate1980s. A savvy
bandleader, commanding saxophonist and respected arranger, she has performed
with legends such as Earl "Fatha" Mines, Al Grey, Junior Mance, Doc
Cheatham, Joe Williams, Clark Terry, and Chico O'Farrill, and Toshiko Akiyoshi.
With six acclaimed CDs under her own name, Mayhew recently completed a
recording focusing on the music of Mary Lou Williams. She is also part of
another revelatory Ellington project, Dreamin' the Duke, featuring jazz
vocalist Nnenna Freelon and classical soprano Harolyn Blackwell.
Edward Ellington II got a very close look at the life of
touring musician as a child. Over the years he occasionally joined his
grandfather on the road with the orchestra, and after Duke's passing he joined
his father, Mercer Ellington, as guitarist and roadie in the new Ellington
orchestra. After five years, he gave up performing and didn't return to the
stage for two decades, when he and Mayhew launched the Duke Ellington Legacy in
2002. Since then the group has performed widely and recorded the critically
praised 2008 album Thank You Uncle Edward (Renma Recordings).
While Duke
Ellington's canon needs no defenders, Single Petal of a Rose makes an
incontrovertible case for the Duke Ellington Legacy as inspired torchbearers.
"The key
thing is we're not just playing Ellington arrangements," Ellington says.
"These are
fresh arrangements reflecting new influences, and that's the point."
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Max and Dado – “Two for Duke”
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all
rights reserved.
“The Jazz duo is an
affirmative exercise in self-denial, a musical fast in which one gives up some
expected ingredient in the cause of the greater good; intimacy, freedom,
self-exploration, name your poison. Without the ballast of a beat, the
emptiness leaves the duo in the back alley of the experimental where
expectations are discouraged.”
- John McDonough, Down Beat
“Ellington and Strayhorn have
invented something that did not exist before, laying the foundations of a
harmonic and melodic language that anticipated the times of several decades.”
- Franco Fayenz, insert notes to Two
for Duke
If you stick
around Jazz in Italy long enough, you’ll soon discover that all
roads lead to Dado … Moroni , that is.
Sooner or later, just
about everyone on today’s Italian Jazz scene works with him.
Maybe it is
because the guy is so personable, engaging and really knows what he’s doing.
Or maybe it’s
because, whatever the setting, he swings like mad.
John McDonough is
correct when he underscores that in a duo setting, “without the ballast of the
beat … expectations are discouraged.”
But when you are
performing music in a duo setting with Dado Moroni on piano, there’s never an
absence of a beat. It is just not
possible to play the music with him without driving it forward in some
way. No meandering here; no rhythmic
vacuums; no limpid introspections. When you play Jazz with Dado, it swings.
Dado is from the
old school who believes that Jazz should always have what Marshall Stearns in The
Story of Jazz defines as a certain “metronomic sense” that is derived
from the march rhythm which is basic to Jazz.
Stearns explains
that the early New Orleans brass bands added something new to march rhythm – they made
it swing.
“Theorists tell us
that there is no limit to the complexities that can be superimposed upon march
rhythm—and that is what jazz is doing. The basis of jazz is a march rhythm but
the jazzman puts more complicated rhythms on top of it. He blows a variety of
accents between and around, above and below, the march beat. It's a much more
complicated process than syncopation, which is usually defined as stressing
the normally weak beat, for syncopation sounds unutterably old-fashioned to a
jazzman. A regular six-piece band playing in the New Orleans style can create rhythmic complexities
which no machine yet invented can fully diagram.” [pp.4-5]…
“Understanding and
enjoying this kind of rhythmic complexity is entirely a matter of training.
Contrary to the popular notion, nobody is born with a fine sense of rhythm
—people simply learn it, sometimes quite unconsciously. … If your metronome
sense is highly developed, you can feel a
foundation rhythm when all you hear is a shower of accents being superimposed
upon it.” [p. 6]
What’s the
connection between Stearns’ “metronomic sense” and Dado?
It’s an easy one
to make as some of Dado’s earliest exposure to Jazz was through listening to
recordings that his father brought home featuring pianists Earl “Fatha” Hines,
Thomas “Fats” Waller and Teddy Wilson.
All three of these
early paragons of Jazz piano developed rhythmic styles that were infused with a
heavy metronomic sense. Erroll Garner also became an influence on Dado with his
use of “a steady left hand [that] creates and fulfils the expectancy of a
continuous rhythm. Garner’s lag-along right hand … sets up a contrasting
tension which is released when, by means of more unexpected accents, he catches
up.” [Ibid.].
Because he is
resident in Genoa ,
Italy for most of the year, is it any wonder
that younger Jazz players in Italy seek him out?
He’s their
connection to the Jazz tradition because Dado brings many characteristics of the
whole history of Jazz to his playing - metronomic swing, blue tonality,
call-and-response techniques, not to mention a sophisticated understanding of
modern Jazz harmonies.
One minute Dado is
coloring his solos with ragtime notations, the next he’s playing flatted fifths
like Bud Powel or using the quartal and quintal harmonies that pianist McCoy
Tyner employed with John Coltrane ‘s quartet in the 1960s.
Another reason why
so many contemporary Italian Jazzmen associate with Dado is because of his fervent
love for, and immense understanding of, the music of Duke Ellington.
As he remarked
recently: “I never get tired of playing Duke's music...in many ways probably
the best repertoire in jazz.”
Jazz has always
been about setting new directions, but perhaps before seeking these, it might
not be bad idea to take a “compass” of Duke Ellington’s music along to guide
the way.
It would seem that
saxophonist Max Ionata had the presence of mind to check his bearings early in
his career by collaborating with Dado on a recording of Duke’s music.
Max is a monster
player who combines the harmonic qualities of John Coltrane on the tenor and
soprano saxophones with the melodicism and sonority of modern cool school tenor
saxophonists such as Al Cohn, Zoot Sims and Richie Kamuca.
He’s a forceful
player, but he gets a warm, rich sound, particularly on the tenor.
He doesn’t get
caught up in saxophone calisthenics while seemingly trying to wrestle the
instrument to the ground; Max’s is more interested in making beautiful music
that swings.
Max’s ideas flow
easily and on Two for Duke [ViaVenetoJazzVVJ o77] both he and Dado have
found a variety of ways to make Duke’s music their own whether it’s the
gospel-like intensity of their version of Come
Sunday, a soulful rendering of Day
Dream or the ¾ waltz interpretation of All
Too Soon which forms the audio track to the following video tribute to Max
and Dado.
On Two
for Duke, they add new and masterful interpretations to one of the
great cultural gifts of the 20th century – The Music of Duke
Ellington.
[Two
for Duke is available as both an audio CD and an Mp3 download from
Amazon, CD Baby and other on-line sellers. We would also like to recognize the creative and supportive contributions of Giandomenico Ciaramella of Jando Music for making
this recording possible].
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