The Jazz Clinic

The Jazz Clinic Moves to a New Home

2009-06-20T11:01:00.003-04:00

As of today, I (with the help of web guru and talented bassist, Professor Hummingflower of The Waitiki 7) have ported all of this blog's old content to a new Wordpress format. For those of you who read The Jazz Clinic in a RSS aggregator, please update your RSS subscriptions to http://jazzclinic.net/?feed=rss2.

2009-05-24T12:37:00.001-04:00

Waiting for the festivities at Gojjo to begin at 2 pm. Its the 1 year anniversary of SciFi Philly! Congratulations Dan, Jon and Stephen. DIY creative music in Philly presented by musicians is thriving thanks to these guys. Especially looking forward to out-of-towners Russell Baker (from my alma mater B-CC) and Pete Robbins.

2009-05-09T12:59:00.001-04:00

RIP Calvin Dominique Wilkerson, son of Philadelphia drummer and former Ornette Coleman sideman, G. Calvin Weston. Dominique, as he was known was the victim of a deadly hit-and-run in Northeast Philadelphia on Thursday night. For more info: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=6803840.

2009-05-08T21:24:00.001-04:00

Sitting around trying to decide whether to stay up and go to Burnt Sugar at the North Star Bar or go to sleep and catch up on the week's lost zzz's. Had a really productive day at work. Listened to some killer punk band called Gun Club as well as the brilliant new Akron/Family release on Dead Oceans called "Set 'em Wild, Set 'em Free" - a great mixture of soft folk and dancy krautrock.

vacation photos and other thoughts

2009-05-08T00:19:00.008-04:00

Since I've last blogged, I've been to DC for Passover, Seattle and San Francisco (for a professional and personal vacation). And of course, I've been in and out of New York a whole bunch of times (3X since I came back April 26). And I'm going back yet again tomorrow for a recording session, then down to DC on Saturday night and back up to Philly on Monday. Whew!

Maybe at some point I'll get around to blogging something about my excellent trip to the Left Coast, but for now I'll just leave you with a few pictures and let the pictures do the talking.

A specialty record store called Zion's Gate Records on E. Pike St. in Seattle. My first day there before the EMP Pop Conference began. Strangely enough, in Zion's Gate, I found a copy of Quartet Music's Window on The Lake on Nine Winds (yes, that's Nels and Alex Cline, Jeff Gauthier and the late Eric Von Essen, for whom Cryptogramophone records was founded). Nels and Jeff look like they are straight out of Ridgemont High. Alex looks like the wolf man. I kid you not. Of all places - a reggae specialty shop in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle!?!? Who knew?

a rad skateboard and urban chic clothing/hat/shoe shop also on E. Pike St.

me on Pike St. with my first vinyl purchase of the trip.

A human-sized bunny in a store window. Naturally.

Pike Place Market - with blue skies.

flowers at Pike Place Market

belt buckles at Pike Place Market

more to come soon...

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On another note, I've been wondering if there is a way to get my Twitter feed syndicated on my blog (but do I want you all to see what I'm tweeting?). I don't know the answer to that question. And I also would like to set up mobile blogging once again which I had set up on my old iPhone but never set up for my new one.

I'm strongly considering migrating this blog to a WordPress format as I am beginning to get used to that system on my new business website. Let me tell you, its way better than anything Google has come up with yet (but you do have to pay for the hosting).

this music is torture!

2009-05-07T23:09:00.005-04:00

I have been tempted to blog on many different subjects in the last few weeks/months. Everytime I start to put a post together, I abort and delete. But I just had to repost this one at the very least.

(Ending) Music as Torture

Enjoy!

FINALLY!!!

2009-02-11T00:00:00.003-05:00

I've been waiting since for a new Gary Bartz album since seeing him live in 1999 or so at the Smithsonian's Baird Auditorium. Bartz's last proper release was 1999's stellar "Live at the Jazz Standard Vol. 1: Solstice" with the fabulous Australian pianist Barney McAll, bassist Kenny Davis and drummer Greg Bandy.

So Bret Primack, aka jazzvideoguy has posted an excellent video on Bartz in anticipation of a new record dedicated to Coltrane. Obviously, I'd wished for something original, but after almost a decade keeping a very low profile with extremely scant updates to his website, it's good to see Bartz back in the mix - especially on video. Thanks Bret!

If you're in any of these locales, go check out Gary with McCoy Tyner, his old buddy from the Milestone years.

FEBRUARY 2009
19 guest W/ McCoy Tyner Trio - Penn State / University Park, PA
21 guest W/ McCoy Tyner Trio - SUNY Purchase / Purchase, NY
24-25 guest W/ McCoy Tyner Trio - Blue Note / New York, NY
27-28 guest W/ McCoy Tyner Trio - Regatta Bar / Boston, MA

MARCH 2009
26-28 masterclass, clinic & perf. - UNC-Wilmington / Wilmington, NC

APRIL 2009
4 guest W/ McCoy Tyner Trio - Berks Jazz Fest / Reading, PA
5 guest W/ McCoy Tyner Trio - Music Center at Strathmore / Bethesda, MD
30 guest W/ McCoy Tyner Trio - Orchestra Hall / Minneapolis, MN

MAY 2009
2 guest W/ McCoy Tyner Trio - Longwood Gardens / Kennett Square, PA

Christian McBride = MAN OF STEEL

2009-01-28T04:46:00.002-05:00

Even though he needs to hook up a RSS feed already so all of us RSS nuts can subscribe in our readers, Christian McBride is a bad man.

I never knew a musician could work so much and still find time months later to put it all together so coherently. In particular, what he says about his friends Freddie Hubbard and Tony Reedus is just priceless. We need more musicians blogging! But for our generation, there is no better connector between today and yesteryear than Christian McBride.

Some YouTube video is indispensable for such a remarkable year in a musician's career:

Five Peace Band in The Hague, Netherlands (featuring bowed bass solo):

Five Peace Band in Ankara, Turkey:

Now bring back the podcast and we're golden!

GO SEE CHRISTIAN LIVE:

All-Star Salute to Ray Brown:
JANUARY
28 Los Angeles, CA Walt Disney Concert Hall

Christian with "Five Peace Band":
JANUARY
31 Seoul, Korea Welch-Ryang Auditorium
FEBRUARY
02 Tokyo, Japan (THRU 2/8) Blue Note Tokyo (THRU 2/8)
10-11 Kowloon, Hong Kong Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
13 Manila, Phillipines Harbour Garden/Sofitel Phillipine Plaza
17 Adelaide, Australia Her Majesty's Theater
18 Melbourne, Australia Hamer Hall
20-21 Sydney, Australia Sydney Opera House
22 Auckland, New Zealand Aotea Centre - ASB

CHRISTIAN McBRIDE BAND:
FEBRUARY
27 Parkersburg, WV West Virginia University - Parkersburg (CAC)
MARCH
03 Gainesville, FL University of Florida/Phillips Center
04 Jacksonville, FL Florida Theater

A CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE SITUATION w/ Ron Blake, DJ Logic & David Gilmore:
MARCH
06 South Orange, NJ SOPAC (South Orange Performing Arts Center)

Christian with "Five Peace Band":
MARCH
19 Los Angeles, CA Royce Hall - UCLA
20 Santa Barbara, CA Campbell Hall - UCSB
21 Berkeley, CA Zellerbach Auditorium - UC Berkeley
24 Modesto, CA Gallo Center for the Arts - Mary Stuart Rogers Theater
25 Denver, CO Paramount Theater
27 Miami, FL Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
28 Savannah, GA Savannah Music Festival - Trustees Theater
APRIL
01 Houston, TX Verizon Wireless Theater
02 Austin, TX University of Texas Performing Arts Center - Bass Concert Hall
03 Chicago, Ill Chicago Theater
04 Ann Arbor, MI Hill Auditorium/University of Michigan
06 Nashville, TN Schermerhorn Symphony Center
07 Urbana, IL Krannert Center/Tryon Festival Theater
23-25 New York, NY Frederick P. Rose Hall/Lincoln Center
26 Glenside, PA Keswick Theater
28 Montreal, QUE Place des Arts
29 Bethesda, MD Music Center at Strathmore
30 Boston, MA Berklee Performance Center
MAY
01 Burlington, VT Flynn Center for the Performing Arts

some grossly overlooked records of 2008

2009-01-16T05:15:00.003-05:00

Shame on me for not including the fantastic albums by:

Randy Newman - Harps & Angels (Nonesuch) - pointed commentary on the state of our country (the US) we've come to expect from America's favorite piano satirist and Pixar composer.

Ry Cooder - I, Flathead Limited Deluxe Edition (Nonesuch) - Classic guttural Cooder sound with steel guitars and mandolins and stacked fifths of vocal harmony. I, Flathead is much more even-headed than the previous installment in this trilogy about life for migrants in Southern California (which was called My Name is Buddy). The new disc, in my opinion, was one of the most thoughfully put-together packages of recorded sounds I have had the pleasure of owning. The CD comes in a hard cover-bound book with all lyrics and a short novel which is a fictional account of what it might have been like for working class immigrants and migrants arriving in Southern California in the early to mid-20th century and their trials and tribulations. Also it's about the hobby of drag racing on wide open salt flats (about which there was a stunning article with remarkable panoramic photography in the Travel section of the Sunday New York Times the Sunday before Thanksgiving).

Moss - Moss (Sunnyside) - I really began listening to this record in earnest in late 2008 when preparing my final list. I could try to elaborate on the sound of this remarkable ensemble but I think Jeff Simon of The Buffalo News said it best in his review of this disc:

"This jazz vocal supergroup has just created the greatest vocal fusion of jazz, rock and folk music since the first record by Bobby McFerrin 26 years ago. And Moss' version of Neil Young's "Old Man" in Kate McGarry's and Peter Eldridge's arrangement is the most extraoridinary jazz version of a great folk rock song since McFerrin's version of Lennon and McCartney's "Blackbird." You've never before encountered anything that even remotely resembles their blend of close harmony, folk song, classical composition and jazz rhythms. The singers involved are Brazilian jazz singer Luciana Souza, jazz/folk singer Kate McGarry, jazz singer Peter Eldridge, downtown genre buster Theo Bleckmann and Lauren Kinhan of, yes, New York Voices. It's as if they invented an entirely new blend of urban madrigalism for the 21st century, composed of coffee shop, jazz club, off-Broadway theater and church basement. It's not all on the same incredible level, but what's great here is amazing." - Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News

More may come to mind but these three were the most glaring omissions from my Best Recordings lists which I took a lot of time in considering this year.

Hopefully coming soon will be a rundown of my recent concert-going activities during APAP including last weekend's Winter Jazz Fest put on by Brice Rosenbloom, founder of boomBOOM Presents (one of the true champions of live music presentation in New York City) at three new venues for this now five-year-old ritual which used to take place at the now-shuttered (though quickly reopened) SoHo club (now in Williamsburg), The Knitting Factory. The new venues which worked remarkably well given the snowy, icy circumstances were Sullivan Hall, (Le) Poisson Rouge and Kenny's Castaways) and globalFEST arranged by veteran concert producer/curator Bill Bragin of Lincoln Center (formerly of Joe's Pub) and Shanta Thake, currently of Joe's Pub and other world music mavens such as Fabian Alsultany. Both were amazing musical nights and terrific hangs. Hopefully I will get around to posting details and impressions, thought it's all still really a blur...

Until next time, keep a light in the window...

Best Recordings of 2008

2008-12-24T13:59:00.001-05:00

THIS IS THE UPDATED LIST. I MADE A FEW LAST-MINUTE CHANGES, REALIZING SOME EDITS WERE NOT MADE. PLEASE ENJOY AND PLEASE BUY SOME OF THIS MUSIC. I HOPE MY RECOMMENDATIONS CARRY SOME WEIGHT...

I worked with and listened to A LOT of music this year - probably more than ever before in my life. I finally started making enough bread that I could begin buying music once again (which I have to say is a joy and an addiction). I feel very strongly about buying music and encourage others who work in the music industry to do so more often (not only to support the artists, but the labels and almost more importantly, the record stores that allow us a place to go and shop). There are too many hands out these days (especially among industry, "press" and "radio"). It seems like everyone who loves this music wants a free copy. For the actual amount of music being sold today, that's a travesty.

Lemme tell you, I don't do publicity for the money. I do it because I genuinely care about getting the word out on musicians and bands whose music I really believe in. People have so many options of what to buy today, and so much of the media is exclusively focused on mainstream pop, indie rock (on popular labels), electronic/dance music and hip-hop. Much of this music has a lot of merit and is immensely enjoyable, but I strongly believe that music that can loosely be defined by the word "jazz," has just as much merit and can bring just as much joy and thought to the listening public.

I've also decided that it's OK to have some clients in my Top 10 this year because many of them formed a significant portion of my personal soundtrack to 2008 (by far my top 2 were Todd Sickafoose's Tiny Resistors and Aaron Parks' Invisible Cinema, two albums which show that this music is very much alive and going places beyond what we previously conceived as jazz). There has been a lot of talk about how 2008 was an unremarkable year for music, and I really have to strongly disagree. I think the number of albums being produced and publicized is ever-increasing and media consolidation, layoffs and shrinking column inches for the arts in general are quickly driving more and more music criticism out of the public eye, and onto the internet (which often makes it harder to find for those only casually looking). Much of music criticism is disappearing as qualified professional writers with years of experience rightly refuse to work for free. Others blog as a means of putting their names out there in the mix, hoping more work will come with that online visibility.

With regard to the topic of 10 albums, this year more than ever, I felt that just 10 was way too few for the amount of music I heard and the amount of music produced. One of my favorite critics, Peter Margasak of The Chicago Reader and Down Beat, who is easily one of the best music critics in the country, chose 40 top records for his list at his Chicago Reader blog, Post No Bills (http://blogs.chicagoreader.com/post-no-bills/). Pitchfork chose 50. Rolling Stone chose 50. JazzTimes chose 50. All these recordings I've chosen show a a strong vision for present and future of jazz - including the 25 Honorable Mentions.

I have created a separate non-jazz list because I made a concerted effort this year to listen to/buy a lot of music beyond "jazz" that was getting either immense critical acclaim or appealed to me melodically, harmonically or rhythmically. Also, Fleet Foxes and Juana Molina don't need another vote from me, someone who has dedicated his life to advancing improvised music.

"Jazz"
1. Todd Sickafoose - Tiny Resistors (Cryptogramophone)
2. Aaron Parks - Invisible Cinema (Blue Note)
3. Rudresh Mahanthappa feat. Kadri Gopalnath - Kinsmen (Pi)
4. Charles Lloyd - Rabo de Nube (ECM)
5. Adam Rudolph's Moving Pictures - Dream Garden (Justin Time)
6. Uri Caine - The Othello Syndrome (Winter & Winter)
7. John Ellis - Dance Like There's No Tomorrow (Hyena)
8. Guillermo Klein - Filtros (Sunnyside)
9. Anthony Braxton/William Parker/Milford Graves - Beyond Quantum (Tzadik)
10. Esbjorn Svensson Trio - Leucocyte (Decca)

Honorable Mention "Jazz":
11. William Parker Quartet - Petit Oiseau (AUM Fidelity)
12. Will Vinson - Promises (Nineteen-Eight) - debut
13. Carla Bley Big Band - Appearing Nightly (ECM/WATT)
14. Donny McCaslin - Recommended Tools (Greenleaf Music)
15. Adam Kolker - Flag Day (Sunnyside)
16. Kurt Rosenwinkel - The Remedy (self-released via ArtistShare)
17. Bennie Maupin - Early Reflections (Cryptogramophone)
18. Fieldwork - Door (Pi)
19. Mike Reed's Loose Assembly - The Speed of Change (482 Music)
20. Bad Touch - Like a Magical Kiss (self-released) - debut
21. Steven Bernstein's Millenial Territory Orchestra - We Are MTO (Mowo)
22. Bill Frisell - History, Mystery (Nonesuch)
23. Dafnis Prieto - Taking the Soul for a Walk (Dafnison Music)
24. Bebo Valdes & Javier Colina - Live at the Village Vanguard (Calle 54)
25. Jeff Gauthier Goatette - House of Return (Cryptogramophone)

Non-Jazz:
1. Fleet Foxes - s/t (Sub Pop)
2. Shearwater - Rook (Matador)
3. Dungen - 4 (Kemado)
4. Juana Molina - Un Dia (Domino)
5. Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog - Party Intellectuals (Pi)
6. Shugo Tokumaru - Exit (Sony)
7. Aterciopelados - Rio (Nacional)
8. David Byrne & Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (Todomundo)
9. Blitzen Trapper - Furr (Sub Pop)
10. Marnie Stern - This Is It And I Am It And You Are It And So Is That And He Is It And She Is It And It Is It And That Is That (Kill Rock Stars)

Happy Holidays and BUY SOME OF THIS MUSIC! If you're going to download, I highly recommend eMusic both for the higher quality files and DRM-free downloads (the only drawback is that several majors and certain indies are not on there). Otherwise, iTunes has pretty much everything.

almost strictly links - Fall 2008 Vol. 1

2008-11-22T04:12:00.005-05:00

Of interest, but not blogged during Fall 2008:

Howard Mandel on jazz festivals.

Vocalist and Shirley Jordan acolyte Theo Bleckmann on Fresh Air.

Damon Albarn's Honest Jons label and record shopping (a bad habit I share).

Nate Chinen on DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist in concert.

Alexander Gelfand writes in The Forward on the extremely talented clarinetist and neo-Klezmer musician Michael Winograd.

The new breed of New York music clubs.

Despite a poorly thought-out title and cover image, George Duke pumps out the jams on Dukey Treats.

Egon (of Stones Throw fame) compiles some excellent Ethiopian funk, Mexican funk and some incredibly fast flow.

This was one of my best music purchases of 2008. Thanks Joe T!

Steve Smith takes over the music editorship at Time Out New York with a bang.

An obsessive Louis Armstrong collector donates his massive collection of Satchmo memorabilia to Queens College.

Jazz goes mambo by NPR cultural reporter Felix Contreras, a talented percussionist himself.

The best music book I bought this year.

Another William Parker album. Another Kevin Whitehead Fresh Air review.

NPR correspondent Reese Erlich on Cuban musicians who have remained.

A typically great Sunday NY Times playlist by Nate Chinen.

William Claxton, a jazz photography iconoclast, passes on.

I disagree with Pitchfork on this one. A much-debated album for sure.

Jon Pareles' overture to CMJ 2008. Nate Chinen on Deerhoof's much-anticipated CMJ show w/ Experimental Dental School.

My boss' old boss passes - an old school music PR legend and author.

Philly's phavorite underground female artist finally gets the City Paper cover treatment, seven years late.

These four NY players get my vote for best new jazz group of 2008 besides Aaron Parks, Bad Touch. Ben Ratliff raves over them days after I saw them in Philadelphia. (Another auspicious debut as a leader came from Swedish trumpeter Matthias Eick, who along with Parks, Marcus Strickland, Anat Cohen, Esperanza Spalding and Robert Glasper, JazzTimes called a "new visionary"). Full disclosure: Aaron Parks is a client of mine - but he's just so bad ass. Seriously.

A remarkable week for Philadelphia live music. Still kicking myself for missing Dungen.

NY-based pianist Henry Hey creates quite the YouTube stir with his now famous Palin's Song(s).

Pittsburgh gets a rare visit from the excellent Dutch Willem Breuker Kollektief.

Keith Jarrett never misses a chance to make beautiful music and an ass of himself - all in a night's work.

R&B/funk god Leon Ware visits The Blue Note in NY promoting his new album on Stax.

This reminds me I really need to check out this new Bobby Previte record. I haven't seen NY critics go gaga like this over a gig by Previte in a long time.

New York-based music critic Steve Dollar has a newish blog with excellent articles called "House of Skronk." I've added it to the Compatriots section to the left.

An interesting piece on female MCs on Slate.

A great Sunday playlist by the Detroit Free Press classical and jazz critic Mark Stryker.

On Election Night, jazz journalist and ListenGood blogger Larry Blumenfeld goes out to see political music, rather than watching the television.

Ben Ratliff reviews critic and historian Ted Gioia's new book on delta blues. Gioia is the editor of Jazz.com.

NPR's Weekend Edition explores the impact of new technology on the art and business of making music today.

Mama Africa passes.

The Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, NJ gets a facelift thanks, in part, to The Boss.

The new recording by the Matthew Herbert Big Band gets a few very different reviews.

This is just plain awesome. Thanks Wired Listening Post. Note the addition in Compatriots to the left.

RIP Tony Reedus.

More to come soon.

Christian Scott at Newport

2008-10-29T17:59:00.003-04:00

Concord Music Group is at it again - pushing its young lion trumpeter Christian Scott, the New Orleans-born nephew of altoist Donald Harrison who has been tooting his own horn from a very young age - and with a very fine tone to boot (lately reminiscent of another Crescent City native, Terence Blanchard). This is Scott's third release for the Beverly Hills-based mega-label and his first live release. It drops Nov. 4th and is a CD + DVD. The concert footage was recorded live at the Newport Jazz Festival this past August, where I happened to be in attendance and saw part of this set (there was a rather large crowd gathered around the Waterfront Stage). (Full disclosure: the band features a current publicity client, pianist Aaron Parks, whom I've tried to keep out of my discourse on the blog for conflict-of-interest reasons).

Despite the label pumping him up as the next big thing, the trumpeter is really part of a much larger scene of Berklee and Manhattan School-educated players in New York who often playing lush anthemic melodies with sophisticated harmonies (sometimes hinting at jazzy neo-soul). The players on the record demonstrate this scene through their various associations with other key players - Parks (who has played with virtually everyone in these circles including drummer Kendrick Scott, vocalist Gretchen Parlato, guitarist Mike Moreno, drummer Eric Harland, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and guitar hero Kurt Rosenwinkel), Walter Smith III on tenor sax (who plays frequently with Scott, Parlato, Akinmusire and fellow saxophonist Mark Small), Joe Sanders on bass (who also plays with Akinmusire), Jamire Williams on drums (who has played and recorded with Kenny Garrett) and guitarist Matt Stevens (whose only tie to this scene that I know of, is through the trumpeter - but he has been with Scott since his debut for Concord, Rewind That and is a very integral part of the Scott's sound).

Enjoy a track from the new release entitled "Died in Love":

Uri Caine - The Othello Syndrome

2008-10-17T16:11:00.002-04:00

BUY THIS ALBUM!!!!! It's just beyond words - for now. Uri Caine has once again completely outdone himself. I'll have a review later when I absorb more of this brilliant record. I wish MuxTape was still around. I'd totally fit the best songs from this into a mix and post it. I just got the new Down Beat and they gave it 5 STARS - a very rare occurrence (however, right next to it on the same page, there happened to be a 5 STAR review of a new Gunther Schuller record).

I think in 2007 there were only two 5 STAR records in Down Beat - Maria Schneider's Sky Blue and Dino Saluzzi/Anja Lechner's Ojos Negros.

GO NOW AND BUY IT!!!

some inspiration for a new America

2008-10-07T18:01:00.002-04:00

DISCLAIMER: I HATE TO BRING POLITICS INTO THIS MOSTLY MUSIC BLOG BUT I CANNOT HOLD BACK ANY LONGER.

I don't think any politician has said it better and more succinctly than Bruce did here.

Something very basic I noticed while watching this video today (something that never really dawned on me today) is that the Democrats preach a platform of hope and compassion and integrity for the most basic tenets of the constitution (our civil liberties). But the Democrats also have clear, well thought-out plans for our country - domestically and abroad. On the other hand, when it really comes down to it, most of what I hear John McCain and the Republicans talking about in the debates are negatives - how our spending is out of control in Washington, how government is inherently flawed, how Democrats' values are flawed. The only truly inspiring speeches they give are about war - when we should never have been in Vietnam or Iraq in the first place. They talk about heroism and honor. How can you have heroism and honor when you deny your own citizens their own civil rights under the guise of liberty?

Do we want to elect a leader who is running on compassion for the American people or one who is running on economics with an inherent distaste for government and no sense of what life is like for the everyday American? I'll let you answer that for yourself.

the out-of-towner

2008-09-08T02:06:00.013-04:00

Ever since I moved again in Philly to a much nicer and cheaper spot with my friend Gabe, I've been spending a lot of time out of town in New York and elsewhere on business and pleasure.

I spent Labor Day Weekend in Detroit for the Detroit International Jazz Festival, which is billing itself as the largest free jazz festival in North America (i.e. most acts and 'free' meaning free-of-charge as opposed to so-called avant garde 'free jazz'). It was remarkable how many acts they had and the variety of said acts.

Here's a Detroit-based website's overview:

Matt Wilson's kitschy, but totally killing Arts & Crafts band with Terell Stafford on trumpet, Gary Versace on organ and Martin Wind on bass (having recently replaced the late Dennis Irwin) blew my mind - I think it was my first time seeing that band live, though I've listened to the records many times.

Here's a taste (with the late Dennis Irwin):

Cyro Baptista's Beat the Donkey, a zany (Brazilian-based) percussion/keyboard/electric guitar/dance band that's part Captain Kangaroo, part Blue Man Group, part avant-jazz bonanza and filled with players of variegated ethnicity who aim to please with highly choreographed schema - a few times in their set they all came to a complete standstill mid-song and held the pose for what seemed like an eternity, but was really only about 20 seconds in complete silence. There are at least two excellent recordings by Beat the Donkey on John Zorn's Tzadik label, Beat the Donkey and Love The Donkey. Apparently Baptista has a new album which I've not yet checked out called Banquet of the Spirits.

Here's a taste of Beat the Donkey:

I also loved seeing the Dutch ICP Orchestra, a group that I brought to Pittsburgh and wrote about here back in Spring of 2006. I got to hang with Michael Moore (the talented woodwind player and longtime expatriate) pre-show and congratulate him on making some really excellent recordings for his own Ramboy label, which I have to thank Bruce Lee Gallanter at Downtown Music Gallery for turning me onto when I was in his store in late April.

Here's a taste of ICP:

There was a theme to the festival - The Detroit-Philly Connection: A Love Supreme which was a somewhat tenuous pairing in my opinion since there is no direct connection between the two cities except for the fact that many Detroit and Philly jazz and soul musicians played with each other over the years and that both cities were tour stops for all kinds of musicians who were on the road. So they had Christian McBride as the artist-in-residence and he put on a convincing opening night tribute to Marvin Gaye along with emcee, former Detroit Lions play and Football Hall-of-Famer Lem Barney and soul singers Lalah Hathaway, Rahsaan Patterson and new crooning phenom José James. On Saturday there was a Philly-Detroit Summit with Christian McBride, Detroit-born drummer and jazz drummer-turned hip-hop mogul Karriem Riggins, Detroit guitarist Perry Hughes, Philly saxophone veteran Bootsie Barnes, Geri Allen and Randy Brecker. For more complete reviews including very in-depth coverage by Mark Stryker of the Detroit Free Press, go here.

I was in New York on Sept. 8th for Soundcheck on WNYC with my client the pianist Aaron Parks (there I got to meet and chat with Starbucks' Hear Music superstar Sonya Kitchell and her charming mother - both of whom already knew Aaron through his younger sister). Later, I had a meetings with some interesting French dudes about a week of performances around NYC they are going to film in mid-November for a French music television channel, Mezzo. And I am going to publicize it. It's being billed as "Autumn In New York" which is somewhat ironic since they aim to catch the most cutting edge jazz on the scene and that moniker denotes a very retro classic jazz/pop ethos. Anyways, they aim to shoot acts such as math-jazz trio Fieldwork, electronic musician Val-Inc w/ either guitarist Marvin Sewell (a frequent Jason Moran and Cassandra Wilson cohort) or trumpeter Graham Haynes (who has made some very fine experimental electronic recordings of his own - notably 2006's Full Circle), Jaleel Shaw's band, the trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire's band (recent winner of the Thelonious Monk Competition) and a night of hip-hop meets jazz w/ trumpeter Raydar Ellis, drummer Chris Dave, pianist Robert Glasper, saxophonist/keytar player Casey Benjamin, bassist Derrick Hodge and others presented by Revive da Live.

Here's a taste of Revive da Live:

I was back in the city from Sept. 11-13th. Could not believe it has been only seven years since the attacks of that September morning which I awoke to from a phone call in my college dorm room as a freshman at Carnegie Mellon (somehow it seems like more time has passed). It didn't feel particularly poignant being in New York City on Sept. 11 until I spotted the two luminous beams shining up into the night sky commemorating the towers and the lives lost. Speaking of which I was back in the city to see the 2nd night of Aaron Parks' CD release run at The Jazz Standard. On the way back downtown after a interview with Ted Panken on WKCR's Out to Lunch, Aaron told us that he was just a few blocks away from the towers on Sept. 11, 2001 and watched people jumping out of the Towers which scarred him for quite a while. So that was pretty heavy... But Thursday night's set was brilliant - really loved their rendition of "Riddle Me This" and "Nemesis," my two favorite tracks on the new record.

Here is Aaron Parks playing Nemesis at J&R Music's JazzFest in late August.

On Friday night I did a double header starting at Sweet Rhythm to see my client, the percussionist Steven Kroon and then I joined writer Siddhartha Mitter for the midnight set at The Blue Note by an immensely talented pianist from Baltimore named Lafayette Gilchrist whom I've written about previously here. Gilchrist has really matured as a writer and soloist. This was one of the tightest bands I've seen in some time (alto sax, trumpet, tenor sax, bass, drums) - and they were all Baltimore cats! Total unknowns. So kudos to The Blue Note Club for presenting this music. Lafayette's new release, his 4th record for Hyena is called Soul Progressin'.

Here's some video of Lafayette who's got a modern day Monk look goin' on:

Then Saturday I journeyed from Bedford Stuyvestant to Downtown Brooklyn, walked down Court Street and had lunch with my new buddy Stanley Crouch. We mostly discussed Obama, McCain and Palin and a little bit of music. Obama and this year's campaign are the subject of his next book. Were were inadvertently joined by Bill Frisell who has known Stanley for some time. Bill just happened to be in the same pizza place in Carroll Gardens, Francesco's, which I cannot really wholeheartedly recommend, though realize I can't eat tomato sauce anymore, so take my words with a grain of salt (or parmesan, as it were).

Here's Stanley in the context of hip-hop in the black community (skip to 2:15):

That night I went to the Vanguard to catch the Paul Motian Trio w/ Joe Lovano and Frisell, where I met up with another guitar player I know. This is a show I will never forget (unless, perhaps, I see them again). Two Monk tunes, "Misterioso" and "Crepuscule With Nellie" and two Motian tunes, plus a closing rendition of George and Ira Gershwin's warhorse of a standard, "Our Love is Here To Stay." No recent footage of this band is available since god knows Lorraine Gordon won't let cameras into the Village Vanguard - the only place this band plays nowadays since Paul does not travel outside New York. Thus, this band REALLY needs to record a live DVD.

Due to my poor planning that night, with no place to sleep in New York, I had to wait for a train at 3 AM which I borded and immediately fell fast asleep on, missed my stop in Philly and landed in Wilmington, DE, where I got a hotel room for the remainder of the weekend.

////

Back in NYC now (it's taken me at least 5 solid hours to write this post) and I'm here through this coming Wednesday for the CLEAN FEED FESTIVAL NY III AT THE LIVING THEATRE (21 CLINTON ST BTW HOUSTON & STANTON), which is a showcase for several bands on the Lisbon, Portugal-based label, Clean Feed Records that records some of New York's finest improvisers as well as people in such far-flung locales as California, Texas and....wait for it...Portugal!

Some highlights coming up include Tony Malaby's Tamarindo with William Parker & Nasheet Waits on Monday night at 9:30 and Wednesday night at 9:30 Michael Blake's Hellbent (this video is from Italy and is hilarious - why can't I live in a country like that?) with Marcus Rojas on tuba, Charlie Burnham on violin (from James 'Blood' Ulmer's Odyssey) and G. Calvin Weston on drums (formerly of Ornette Coleman's Prime Time). Come one, come all! Even though I'm being paid to tell you that, come anyways. It's good music. And it's all on Clean Feed!

ummmm.....

2008-08-15T11:46:00.002-04:00

Thank you AllMusic.com blog!

TONIGHT in Philly: Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar @ The Kimmel Center GO SEE THIS SHOW!

2008-07-24T16:07:00.003-04:00

So if you have a computer and read outlets for cultural criticism as frequently as I do, you've probably heard the buzz about Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar over the past few weeks.

They are a Balkan revivalist group to put it very bluntly but it seems they mix it up with jazz, Latin rhythms and even Jewish music (which usually sounds pretty Balkan and vice versa). Montreal blogger and friend of The JazzClinic, David Ryshpan noted in his review of their Montreal show earlier this week that "once the Orkestar hit the stage, 12 strong (two drummers and ten brass), it was clear that it was party time, even on a Tuesday night."

Thus its very exciting news to me that this group is playing Philadelphia especially since so many people I know and respect have been raving about this group. On the heels of very successful shows at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York, the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago last weekend and again last night at DROM (again in NY), the Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar will perform what the Kimmel Center is calling a "Global Grooves World Music Dance Party."

Chicago's GapersBlock website wrote of their Pitchfork appearance "Led by father/son team Boban and Marko, the band burst into one quick ‘n dirty song after another, even inciting the crowd to dance to a rousing 'Hava Nagila'." And the Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot blogged "The eight-piece brass section romps over a rhythm section with ebullient, strutting flair." YOW!

So GO! I am!

Here are details:

Global Grooves World Music Dance Party
Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar
Thursday, July 24, 2008 | 7:30pm
Perelman Theater
Price: $20

on deck

2008-07-24T11:58:00.003-04:00

Even though it's summertime and things have slowed down a bit, thanks to my trusty RSS reader, NetNewsWire (which I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone using a Mac) I've got lots more tasty globules of both useful and useless information on deck including some great words in a post-IAJE world from composer/philosopher Darcy James Argue and saxophonist/yoga guru/philosopher Pat Donaher + some music biz ramblings from Hypebot and Coolfer.

Look for a post either tonight or tomorrow.

things that have caught my attention of late

2008-07-14T00:38:00.002-04:00

Ok. So blogging has really suffered in the last few months as work has completely occupied my life and when not working I opt to do NOTHING. Also I've been comtemplating life, death and the unknown quite a bit. but here is a list of completely beautiful and interesting things that I've come across in the last few weeks and months:

a stunning video of the great and truly underappreciated pianist Larry Willis by Bret Primack (aka jazzvideoguy). http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

a truly nerdy (though enthralling) blog post on ear training by Dave Douglas on the Greanleaf Music Blog. (photo credit: Jimmy Katz)

a live concert review of one of the world's greatest yet virtually unknown bassists, (a true pioneer of the solo upright bass). One of the records I'm working right now is by one of Rabbath's best pupils, Renaud Garcia-Fons. The CD/DVD Arcoluz will be out in the states on Sept. 23.

another classic Ben Ratliff review of the NY show by Japanese psych-rockers, Boris. I could have seen this band in DC or Philly last week and I missed both opportunities. Silly me.

a great and somewhat unexpected piece on composer Claude Thornhill by Tom Nolan in the Wall Street Journal.

a great Seattle-based folk rock band called Fleet Foxes have been making the rounds on the blogosphere lately and into my computer (I recently bought the self-titled full-length debut on iTunes) and this excellent concert review by Amanda Petrusich, the NY Times latest addition to their critical music writing staff.

the NY Times Popcast is one of my favorite weekly treats. It used to just be the critics reading all four weekly CD reviews in their own voices with musical interludes, but these days they pick two out of four (not sure how they decide) and they also add an artist of the week; usually an interview conducted by utility man Ben Sisario or pop editor Sia Michel).

several weeks ago, Howard Mandel made a post on his thoughtful ArtsJournal blog, JazzBeyondJazz which is an idea I've thought about for a long while, "Where's Tivo for live performance?"

a very controversial subject - how the black community treats jazz today. this is a BET.com blog post I forwarded around to a lot of people. Chances are if you're in the jazz world in some way and I know you, you probably already saw this. I feel pretty strongly about this topic as does the post's author, John Murph (a frequent critic for JazzTimes, DownBeat and other music magazines), since jazz (in my opinion) is truly a music borne of the African diaspora in North America and the Caribbean (though many would argue with me on this). The title is somewhat contentious but I think it makes a good point. In the end, he recommends some worthy young artists to check out.

two years after our office helped launch her career with her debut recording Junjo, bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding has made the rounds not only in newspapers and magazine covers, but on national late night television for her Heads Up release, Esperanza (a record I do not care much for since I know what she's capable of. The label is trying very consciously to cross her over into pop stardom, which in all honesty, she was bound for given her good looks and prodigious talents as a musician and storyteller). Here, NPR covers her. She deserves all the success she has had - she is a remarkable human being. And the SF Chronicle ran a nice feature by Lee Hildebrand.

the NY Times Magazine reported back in May on the prodigiously talented Arcade Fire contributor/one-man-band, Owen Pallett (aka Final Fantasy).

a gig review by blogger Kellen Yamanaka of an LA gig I wish I could have made - by my main man and client Jeff Gauthier (pronounced GOAT-ee-yay). His new disc on Cryptogramophone, the label he founded, is brilliant and is called House of Return. Buy it - it's got Nels Cline!

I wish I could have made this hit by drummer Al Foster at the Village Vanguard. Al has the biggest smile I've ever seen when playing. And the way he tilts his cymbals is completely unmistakable. If you saw the kit set up, you'd know it was Al's kit. He also seems to have taken to leading his own small groups showcasing young talent over the last 20 years (though very under the radar). Here he brought out the impressive Israeli saxophonist Eli Degibri, bassist Doug Weiss and ubiquitous NY pianist Gary Versace (pronounced ver-sayce, unlike the Italian designer).

a nice feature on Monk Competition winner, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire (pronounced ah-kin-moo-sir-ee) by one of my favorite Bay Area writers, Rachel Swan. Ambrose grew up in Oakland, CA, the son of a single mother who worked for the Oakland Police Department!

a thoughtful feature on current jazz records by Marcus Crowder in the SF Bay Guardian.

a nice radio piece by WNYC cultural critic Siddhartha Mitter on the music of the Mississippi Delta.

NY Times obit for legendary organist Jimmy McGriff. And for Sauter-Finnegan co-leader Bill Finnegan. Rest in peace fellas.

Pitchfork's Joe Tangari reviewed the latest from my favorite current jazz pianist, Vijay Iyer (who has a newly redesigned website and a week of performances coming up July 31 - August 3 at Jazz Standard in NYC).

Ok that's enough for one night. There was more but it can wait.

Interview with Pianist/Composer Helen Sung

2008-06-02T02:53:00.006-04:00

Pianist Helen Sung was kind enough to do an email interview with me several months ago. It has certainly taken me long enough to post this. Since conducting it, fellow blogger Willard Jenkins (a voice on jazz I respect very much) posted an interview with Ms. Sung on his blog, The Independent Ear. I was particularly struck with Helen's latest release as a leader, Sungbird (after Albéniz) was released last summer on Sunnyside Records. A more complete bio can be found here.

I've heard that you were well on your way to becoming a classical player when you began discovering and playing jazz. Having attended High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston you must have been exposed to jazz? How is it that it wasn't until college that you became serious about playing jazz? Do you feel that you had any advantages or disadvantages from starting to play jazz at the time you did?

Helen Sung: Believe it or not, I wasn't exposed to the terrific jazz program at [High School for the Performing and Visual Arts] when I was a student there. I was trained by a strict Russian classical pianist (i.e. classical music is the only music you should listen to) so I was pretty firmly entrenched. Also, I probably unconsciously avoided checking it out - I was intimidated by jazz music, by the fact that jazzers could improvise...something I had no idea about and couldn't do at all. Thinking back, probably the only jazz I heard growing up was on Sesame Street, Charlie Brown and Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood.

My junior year at University of Texas, a friend asked me to go to a Harry Connick, Jr. concert. I had no idea who he was. I enjoyed the big band, but in the middle of the concert he played a couple of solo piano pieces. I was floored - I didn't know a piano could be played like that - and sound like so much fun. Not that classical music wasn't fun, but it's totally different - the vibe, the feel, the way it made me feel. The next semester, a group of us classical pianists decided to take an intro to jazz class for fun. After I heard Tommy Flanagan's solo on "Confirmation," I was hooked!

Of course I wish I'd started playing jazz earlier. It was a huge paradigm shift in every way, not to mention trying to learn how to improvise, and I sometimes feel like I'm still playing "catch-up." But I guess the important thing is that I started!

Do you still live partially in both the jazz and classical worlds? Do you see a blurry line between the two or are they two completely discrete disciplines?

HS: I don't really do much classical music right now, although if given the opportunity, I'd be happy to do so. Classical and jazz music are definitely different, but after a certain point, it's all about sound and a personal voice...and that's where I'd like to live.

You are an original member of the inaugural class of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance's program at New England Conservatory, the 2007 winner of the Mary Lou Williams Piano Competition and have toured and recorded with some of the biggest names in jazz. Have these distinctions opened doors that might have not been open to you otherwise? Does it take just as much work now as it does the next guy to get gigs? Do you feel you have experienced discrimination for being a woman playing jazz despite these impressive credits?

HS: In this business one needs every break one can get! If I hadn't had the experience at the Monk Institute, I'd be a very different player today...so I'm very grateful for that opportunity. There is no substitute for contact with the old jazz masters, and I've been fortunate to even get to work with some of them. Even with those blessings, yes, it "takes just as much work as the next guy" to get work. It's an eternal hustle! In terms of being a woman in the jazz world, of course there are disadvantages - but as Jimmy Heath once told me, every disadvantage can be turned into an advantage! And that's what I try to stay focused on.

Obviously you are interested in the work of Isaac Albéniz (a little-known late 19th and early 20th century Spanish composer), but some may not know that you have a substantial influence in your playing and arranging from contemporary non-jazz forms. Any favorites besides Me'shell Ndegeocello, whom you covered in your recent shows in Philly and DC in support of Sungbird? Are there any artists or bands whose work you'd like to cover or scrutinize in greater depth in order to cover in a jazz setting?

HS: There's so much great music, not enough time! I love a lot of the great R&B groups, hiphop, soul, pop, etc. Folks like Earth Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder, Parliament, Prince, Tribe, Common. I also love Brazilian music, Cuban, etc. etc.! Right now I don't have any plans to specifically cover any particular artist or band. I usually let the musical need(s) of whatever phase I'm in inspire my choices (for example, it wasn't that I was specifically interested in Albeniz's work - in fact, I'm not that familiar with the rest of his compositions - it just happened those pieces fit what I was looking for in a particular situation). I also hope to keep working on my composition skills, especially in writing for larger ensembles.

What do you like most about playing with musicians like Matt Parrish, Reuben Rogers, Kendrick Scott, Nasheet Waits, John Ellis and Marcus Strickland? What draws you to their styles as soloists and as members of your band? What do you think might have drawn Steve Wilson, Lonnie Plaxico or Clark Terry to your playing to include you in their respective bands?

HS: I like musicians who are grounded in the jazz tradition but also musically adventurous, not afraid to try new things, take risks, etc. I think that describes all the folks you mentioned. I think the fact that I'm willing to work hard on other people's music opened up doors with various musicians. Clark Terry is simply an incredibly generous human being who has given so many musicians that all-important chance to play! He has a huge legacy of musicians that he has taught, encouraged, and inspired.

Is there an instrument you'd really like to play or record on besides piano? If you could go back in time and play with or witness five artists live, whom might you choose (not just jazz...)

HS: I also play the violin, and would like to record on that one day, although I'll have to put in some serious practice time beforehand(!). I would've loved to seen Louis Armstrong, Bud Powell, and J.S.Bach, the concert where Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" was premiered, and Miles (all of Miles bands!)

awakening from a long slumber

2008-05-07T21:23:00.004-04:00

It's been almost two months since I last made confession (I mean, blogged). What did it?

It was hearing Marco Benevento's Invisible Baby if you must know. I had asked my music biz buddy, Kevin for this record some time ago when I noticed all the attention it was garnering from David Fricke's "Fricke's Picks" to NPR and PopMatters. And I had it sitting in my iPod unlistened-to until today when I set the device on Shuffle and went about cleaning up my apartment.

Benevento, a pianist whose name I was only vaguely familiar with through his Benevento/Russo collaboration on Ropeadope, has made a truly stunning album of grand melodic content and hooky forms steeped both in jazz harmony and rock songwriting with strong doses of electronic noise and reverb. This music reminds me both of the cheery pop of Ben Folds as well as the more contemplative piano playing of Bruce Hornsby and Elton John with hints of Coldplay and Radiohead, sans vocals.

But Invisible Baby completely takes on its own identity especially through extensive use of distortion and tempo-shifting. From the opening balls-to-the-wall blow-man-blow rocker "Bus Ride" to the boogie woogie-like shuffling anthem, "The Real Morning Party," to the hippy-trippy "If You Keep On Asking Me," this album is sure to have a track to make you stop and think.

"Ruby," "Record Book," and "You Must Be A Lion," reminded me of movie music. Take note creative directors!

If you're a fan of the above-mentioned dudes or The Bad Plus, Brad Mehldau (who coincidentally was one of Benevento's teachers) or just good instrumental songwriting, you have to pick this album up!

Readers of this blog should please stay tuned for:
1. a list of shows I've seen this calendar year ranked in order of memorability.
2. a long-promised interview with pianist Helen Sung.
3. a review of photographer Jimmy Katz's new collection of his photography, Jazz Katz. When you see this book, you will realize Jimmy is heir apparent to the legacies of Francis Wolff, William Claxton and William Gottlieb. Unbelievable stuff.

RIP Dennis Irwin

2008-03-11T10:57:00.002-04:00

I have very sad news to report. Seems like no one in our small world of this jazz blogosphere has posted it yet, but I learned last night that Dennis Irwin passed on to the other side yesterday; ironically, the day of the enormously unprecedented benefit at Jazz at Lincoln Center on his behalf.

My recollections of Dennis are most vivid as a member of Joe Lovano's bands in the 90s. I was first introduced to him through the Lovano's nonet record 52nd Street Themes. I also have fond memories of seeing him with Matt Wilson's Arts & Crafts.

Check out this loving video by Bret Primack (aka jazzvideoguy) done at Lovano's Streams of Expression sessions in 2005: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fmlu_u-dxtk.

We're thinking of you Dennis. RIP.

Links - I forget which volume

2008-02-14T22:22:00.002-05:00

Let me first say that ESP-Disk sent me some KILLER stuff in the last year and I've neglected to write about any of it...until now.

I have say that I really dug the Don Cherry: Live At Cafe Montmartre 1966 session with Gato Barbieri, Karl Berger (vibes), Bo Stief (bass) and Aldo Romano (drums). You don't really hear records like that (at least I didn't in my jazz listening) and it made me finally go out and buy some Don Cherry records I've been meaning to check out forever: Brown Rice, which both my boss and my buddy Mitchell Feldman rave about all the time.

Why is it the drum solo always comes at the end

2008-02-10T21:19:00.000-05:00

?????

Yannick Rieu Trio

2008-02-06T23:38:00.000-05:00

I took this photo during the recent IAJE conference (which I've yet to blog about - mainly because it's a complete blur in my mind) at The Rex Jazz Club in Toronto. It was a Justin Time Records showcase. Yannick is an excellent Montréal-based tenor player whom I might end up working with a little bit down the line.

He sounds like a mixture of Tony Malaby or Chris Potter's muscularity with a hint of mid-60s Sonny Rollins lyricism and he's not afraid of playing standards.

Apparently he's in his early 40s which is remarkable since he's such a killing player who is completely unknown here in the States. Add him to the list...

I'd venture a guess that the number of editors and contibutors to the major jazz magazines here in the US who have ever heard this guy's name, number less than 10. That's sad.

Check him out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bET_PtX77k

other lists

2007-12-25T19:32:00.000-05:00

I will say that a ton of really good records just didn't make the cut this year for one reason or another (mostly because I didn't have enough time to listen to them thoroughly and come to appreciate their nuances and/or highlights).

First are the records that I that almost made the top 10:

Scott Colley - Architect of the Silent Moment (CamJazz)
Amir Elsaffar - Two Rivers (Pi Recordings) (which I publicized)
Big Four (Nagl/Bernstein/Jones/Akchote) - Big Four Live (Hatology)
Chris Potter 10 - Song for Anyone (Sunnyside/Universal Music France)
Fred Hersh Trio - Night and the Music (Palmetto)
Jason Lindner Big Band - Live at the Jazz Gallery (Anzic)
Jerome Sabbagh - Pogo (Sunnyside/Bee Jazz)
Joachim Kuhn w/ Majid Bekkas & Ramon Lopez - Kalimba (ACT Music) (which I publicized)
Joe Lovano & Hank Jones: Kids: Live at Dizzy's Club Cola-Cola (Blue Note) (which I publicized)
Julie Hardy - The Wish (World Culture Music)
Kenny Werner - Lawn Chair Society (Blue Note) (which I publicized)
Kurt Elling - Night Moves (Concord)
Lars Danielsson/Leszek Mozdzer - Pasodoble (ACT Music) (which I publicized)
Luciana Souza - The New Bossa Nova (Verve)
Metheny/Mehldau - Quartet (Nonesuch)
Michael Brecker - Pilgrimage (Heads Up)
Scott Colley - Architect of the Silent Moment (CAM Jazz)
Terence Blanchard - A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina) (Blue Note)
The Bad Plus - Prog (Heads Up/Do The Math)
The Claudia Quintet - For (Cuneiform)

And the records I heard great things about from critics and/or bloggers whom I respect, and thus probably would have enjoyed, but never got around to buying or listening to before the end of the year (though several of these I bought since originally conceiving this post):

Alan Ferber Nonet - The Compass (Fresh Sound)
Bill McHenry - Roses (Sunnyside) (even though the label sent me a copy!)
David Binney/Edward Simon - Oceanos (Criss Cross)
His Name Is Alive - Sweet Earth Flower: A Tribute to Marion Brown (High Two)
Maria Schneider - Sky Blue (ArtistShare)
McCoy Tyner - Quartet (McCoy Tyner Music/Half Note)
Mike Moreno - Between the Lines (World Culture Music)

The record that seems to be on everyone's lists except mine. For some reason or another, however much I listened to the new Joshua Redman recording, Back East (Nonesuch), I couldn't get into it. While it is a welcome return to his envelope-pushing modern straight-ahead bag, from which he strayed with his last two records as a leader, the proto-jam band/funk release Elastic Band(Warner Bros.) and the also funky completely mishmashed release, Momentum (Nonesuch), with a very varied cast of players (as on Back East), I did not hear terribly inspired playing. I should, however, mention his excellent output as founder and now former leader of the SF Jazz Collective (which he has recently been replaced by Joe Lovano so that Redman can more actively pursue his solo career). This group - which in my mind now rivals the Dave Holland Quintet, Wayne Shorter Quartet, Dave Douglas Quintet & Keystone, The Claudia Quintet and a few others as far as having virtually all charismatic soloists and great group cohesion - have widely released two recordings on Nonesuch (both dedicated to a veritable icon of jazz past, one for Ornette Coleman and one for tribute John Coltrane) as well as two other limited edition double albums on the independent SF Jazz imprint (the latest of which is dedicated to Thelonious Monk and original compositions). Maybe I need to revisit Back East once again with the press release in hand, but I think Redman he has made far better records.

Now the records I heard and loved that fall outside of jazz.

Pop/World/Non-Jazz Top 10 of 2007:

1. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge)
2. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver (DFA)
3. The National - Boxer (Beggars Banquet)
4. Tcheka - Nu Monda (Times Square)
5. Radiohead - In Rainbows (self-released)
6. The D.R.E.A.M. - Love/Hate (Def Jam)
7. Tinariwen - Aman Iman: Water is Life (Global Village)
8. Caribou - Andorra (Merge)
9. KT Tunstall - Drastic Fantastic (Interscope)
10. PJ Harvey - White Chalk (Island)

And the records I didn't get a chance to hear closely or at all but was very intrigued by from monitoring various media outlets for my job like NPR, Pitchfork and the blogosphere in non-jazz genres were new/recent records by the now late Andy Palacio, Mariza, Battles, Simian Mobile Disco, Klaxons, Robert Wyatt, Animal Collective, Panda Bear, Arcade Fire, Robert Plant/Alison Krauss, Sunset Rubdown, Dirty Projectors: Rise Above, Deerhunter, Feist, Justice, Of Montreal, Okkervil River, Beirut, UGK, Wilco and Jens Lekman.

catching up...Top 10s (new stuff & reissues/box sets)

2007-12-25T17:14:00.001-05:00

"How did you get this number?"

I love it when people utter these words which I heard today from an acquaintance I just wanted to catch up with (it being the holidays and whatnot) on the telephone. His number is clearly listed in the white pages (which for those technologically inclined or visually impaired, can be accessed effortlessly online, from any computer, with a simple Google search including the person's last name and the state in which they reside or their first and last name and the town and state, etc.).

It's as if the white pages were a big secret? If you're so concerned about it, don't list yourself.

Enough of that.

I'm not really in a bad mood. However with most of my home friends out of town or occupied, I've been left to spend a day with myself reading, eating and trying to find amusement in Web 2.0 - namely the now immensely popular social network, Facebook.

I ate a wonderful Malaysian lunch alone at a very spacious suburban restaurant called Penang, in Bethesda, MD (unofficial restaurant capital of the state). I enjoyed roti canai (described as "the all-time favorite Malaysian crispy Indian-style pancake, served with curry chicken as dipping sauce") which I recommend to anyone trying Malaysian for the first time. So greasy, but so good. And for my main course, I enjoyed kari ayam, spicy dish of coconut red curried chicken and potatoes over a bed of sticky rice. All the while, reading a new book by James Lipton of Inside the Actors' Studio.

Back at home, this leaves me to ponder various lists that I have been devising and refining over the last few weeks regarding recordings and musical functions I attended during 2007. However, I can't post about this right now as I am away from my collection for the time being and will likely have to wait until the New Year to fully elaborate upon.

Suffice to say, the very elite "Top 10" list I am having published in various outlets including the JJA wiki (once I renew my membership), goes like this in order:

1. Niño Josele - Paz (Callé 54/Song BMG)
2. Chris Potter Underground - Follow The Red Line: Live at the Village Vanguard (Sunnyside/Universal Music France)
3. Alan Pasqua - The Antisocial Club (Cryptogramophone)
4. Bobby Sanabria - Big Bang Urban Folktales (Jazzheads)
5. Nels Cline Singers - Draw Breath (Cryptogramophone)
6. Tain & The Ebonix - Folks' Songs (Dark Key Music)
7. Manuel Valera - Vientos (Anzic)
8. Kendrick Scott Oracle - The Source (World Culture Music)
9. Herbie Hancock - River: The Joni Letters (Verve)
10. Helen Sung - Sungbird (after Albeniz) (Sunnyside)

(Note: I made an error originally putting Rudresh Mahanthappa's Codebook in my 2007 Top 10 which is supposed to appear in All About Jazz's printed edition in LA, Chicago and Seattle and possibly SF as well. In reality, it was released in October 2006 and thus does not qualify for 2007 consideration, so I have substituted another ).

And my Top 10 Jazz Reissues/Box Sets:

1. Miles Davis - The Complete On The Corner Sessions (Sony Legacy)
2. McCoy Tyner - Horizon [Keepnews Collection] (Milestone)
3. Stanley Turrentine - The Spoiler (Blue Note)
4. George Benson - The Shape of Things to Come (A&M)
5. Joe Henderson - Power to the People [Keepnews Collection] (Riverside)
6. Bobby Hutcherson - Mosaic Select (Mosaic)
7. Frank Sinatra -- A Voice in Time: 1939-1952 (Sony Legacy)
8. Thad Jones - Detroit/New York Junction (Blue Note)
9. Flora Purim - Butterfly Dreams [Keepnews Collection] (Milestone)
10. Frank Foster - Manhattan Fever (Blue Note)

In the interest of full disclosure: Some of these artists are or have been clients in various capacities in the past year either directly or through another employer (a PR firm I work for) including most titles on the ACT Music label, many of Blue Note Records' new releases including: Charles Tolliver Big Band, Kenny Werner, Bill Charlap Trio, Joe Lovano & Hank Jones, Ron Carter, Kenny Burrell, Charles Mingus Sextet w/ Eric Dolphy, Jacky Terrasson, Nigel Kennedy and Stacey Kent (any others like Wynton Marsalis, Robert Glasper, Terence Blanchard, etc. were worked internally by Blue Note's publicity staff or by other independent PR firms), the Cryptogramophone label and all affiliated artists, most catalog on Concord Music Group and its family of labels which were part of the Fantasy acquisition - namely all titles in the Keepnews Collection and pretty much all catalog except Stax releases, Kendrick Scott and Rudresh Mahanthappa). While some might see this as a conflict of interest, I justify it for the fact that I have the distinct honor and good fortune to work with some artists who are indeed some of my favorite musicians.

Please support the artists and the independent labels (who are often the forgotten link in the food chain and also the bigger financial losers in today's marketplace) by buying this music legitimately in hard form or digitally if you don't have it already.

Coming soon: an interview with up-and-coming pianist Helen Sung and other lists of honorable mentions, non-jazz genre Top 10s (because, I listen to more than jazz) + records I heard about from other bloggers, Pitchfork, All Music Guide or journalists whose opinions I respect, but never got copies of or never got a chance to listen to...

Links, Vol. 3

2007-11-27T19:12:00.000-05:00

David Adler keeps busy with his JazzTimes/PW/ Inquirer freelancing with three show reviews (all of which I couldn't attend for various reasons): Charles Lloyd, Fred Hersch and Tiger Okoshi + a PW preview of Columbian harpist Edmar Castaneda + a new JazzTimes lead review of the two new Chris Potter CDs on Sunnyside/Universal Music France/Emarcy. (This multiple label licensing thing is clearly getting confusing. I am trying to figure out what it all means through a contact at Universal. Stay tuned on that if interested. For all intents and purposes, just look for it on Sunnyside Records if you're in the US. I will soon blog about these releases. I think it's needless to say that I like them. "Pop Tune #1" and "Togo" are close favorites.)

Larry Blumenfeld riffs on the Coltrane Home in Dix Hills, NY which was just placed on the National Historic Register

Sam Adams' Citypaper review of the new Bob Dylan fantasy biopic starring Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Adrien Brody and Julianne Moore among others + Shaun Brady's review from the same paper of the much-heralded new Noah Baumbach film, Margot at the Wedding (both of which I still need to see).

Also on the movie front, the one new flick I saw over the Thanksgiving break was No Country for Old Men, which was a very well-shot and choreographed saga - not the Coen Brothers best work - I still prefer Miller's Crossing as far as drama and The Big Lebowski as far as dark satirical comedy. If No Country lacked for an ending, it made up for it in the beautiful panoramic shots of Western Texas with long silences punctuated by thunderous gunshots. I found out afterwards that they shot on the same location where the Coens' first picture Blood Simple was filmed.

Howard Mandel on the AACM in New York.

Slate's Dana Stevens on the plentiful archives of The Daily Show available now online.

Peter Margasak on buying specialty world music from your computer.

The music critics of the NY Times on this weeks recorded nuggets (no, not part of the psych rock/garage series of box sets). Note Nate Chinen's review of Loren Stillman - a very underrated altoist.

Bob Karlovits of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review on mp3 devices versus the old school - and how the market for said devices has changed.

Various holiday box set and musical gift guides from: USA Today, New York Times, Nashville City Paper, Oakland Tribune/Contra Costa Times/East Bay Express, San Jose Mercury News.

And finally AP on Marian McPartland's latest chapter.

Back in the Saddle

2007-10-10T04:39:00.000-04:00

For those interested, Monterey was amazing. It was a mistake to even think I'd have time to blog while enjoying sunny California for the first time in 6 years.

I thought I'd reestablish my blogging presence back on the East Coast with a couple links to things that have lately been occupying my time and thoughts:

-Pitchfork's excellent review of Erik Friedlander's Block Ice & Propane

-FX's new legal flash-forward/flashback-ridden thriller/murder mystery Damages

-The D.R.E.A.M aka The-Dream aka Terius Nash, an Atlanta-based hip-hop/R&B songwriter whose current radio smash hit "Shawty is da Sh*t" (radio-friendly version known as "Shawty Is a Ten") is currently getting about as much play in my iTunes as Horace Tapscott's The Dark Tree, which is saying a lot. And of course, being the hipster that I am, I owe it all to the taste makers at The Fader, whose podcast turned me on to this cat. I even launched a Pandora station to find music like this track that might light my fire as much as this song does, despite semi-vulgar lyrics. No luck yet.

-and there's nothing quite like three white British dudes from the current indie buzz band, Klaxons remaking a song that is arguably the definitive R&B hit of the 90s - Blackstreet's No Diggity (complete with music video). I rocked out to this song almost non-stop in the 7th and 8th grades as it was drilled into my head on the bus to and from middle school.

That's where I'm at.

meet me in Monterey / Sonny Rollins tidbit

2007-09-19T14:54:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow I leave for my first Monterey Jazz Festival and some much-needed vacation, which should at least partially explain the lack of blogging since August. I plan to blog while I'm out there about my daily activities in the South Bay (around Palo Alto and Mountain View - Google and Apple country), San Fran and the East Bay (to meet some writers I talk to all the time but have never met).

I will attempt to take notes on the shows I see in Monterey and any I might see in the Bay Area following the festival (though the chances of that actually happening are fairly low). It should be a lot of fun anyways.

I also moved again since my last post. Pictures soon once they finish painting it and fixing the space up (that happens while I'm gone). I finally have a place and a year lease and can finally stay for an extended period of time, which is better than moving every two-three months, as I have been forced to do recently for various reasons.

On an entirely different note, David Adler, one of my favorite writers and a new Philly friend, wrote an in-depth account of last night's historic concert by Sonny Rollins, Roy Haynes and Christian McBride at Carnegie Hall. The first paragraph grabbed my attention immediately:

Last night's historic Sonny Rollins show at Carnegie Hall was, among other things, a terrific and much-needed jolt of New York energy for this writer. Drummer Rashied Ali marched into the Pick-a-Bagel as I was finishing my sandwich. You just don't experience this sort of thing in Philly. With a cursory glance around the lobby and inside the hall, one could spot saxophonists Joe Lovano, Paquito D'Rivera, Antonio Hart, Kenny Garrett, Loren Schoenberg, Bill McHenry, John Zorn (in black leather and red camouflage); New Yorker editor David Remnick; pianist David Berkman; organist Dr. Lonnie Smith; drummer Lewis Nash; guitarists Russell Malone and Pat Metheny. And a good many journalists and critics.

Very inspiring, even though I wasn't there. It really got me in the mood for what I think I'm about to experience out in Monterey.

Ok, off to pack some more. More updates soon.

Week in Review; Sunday links, Vol. 2

2007-08-11T18:34:00.000-04:00

I meant to do this last Sunday too, so I've saved up some older things. I was very encouraged this weeks to see Darcy's repost (as reported in the New York Post) on The NY Times' TimesSelect pay disservice soon becoming a thing of the past.

This past week I saw some excellent live shows and had a few new cultural experiences which I thought I would relate through links. I saw Aretha Franklin on Monday night. Dan DeLuca of the Philadelphia Inquirer has that review. I had a crappy seat (I was standing) but I can attest to the almost completely African American crowd. It was awe-inspiring that so many people would come out to a concert on a Tuesday night. I have to say that the way she ended her performance was very anti-climactic with umpteen reappearances on stage for bows as the emcee indefatigably pronounced "the queen of soul...the empress of music...Miss Aretha Franklin," over and over and over. I should note that my buddy Jason Marshall, who I played in different saxophone sections with in high school was called in for the gig (I don't believe it was his first with Aretha; he operates in those circles). The "impressively tight band" which DeLuca references played a fitting musical interlude when Ms. Franklin took her unexpected 10-minute mid-show break with Philly native Benny Golson's "Killer Joe." The tenor and alto saxophone solos on the big band interlude were very impressive. No names were mentioned, of course.

And on Tuesday night I saw violinist Jenny Scheinman with Jim Black, Todd Sickafoose and David Tronzo (who was sitting in for a sick and thus sidelined Nels Cline who had to cancel last minute). They played to a packed International House filled with all ages and musical impetuses. You had your guitar headz expecting Cline (who was given top billing along side Scheinman in all the marketing outreach (mostly email-based). You had your drum headz to see Jim Black, a legend of the now (sort of) defunct "downtown" scene (much of that music has moved to Brooklyn these days, including Scheinman's weekly Tuesday night gigs at Barbès). You even had a few folkie chicks and fellas in birkenstocks who knew that Sickafoose (and Scheinman herself) have been known to play with that righteous babe named Ani (though they may have been true Scheinman fans, I suppose). David Adler has the scoop on this show. It was very enjoyable.

Maria Schneider has another new large ensemble recording through artistShare (note how I didn't say "on artistShare." It's not a label, people. It's a business model), which is generating some nice attention. ArtistShare has been a major boon to Ms. Schneider's career. I am deciding which participant offer I want to enroll in or if I just want to buy the CD with the deluxe booklet (that is, if any are still available).

Also, I've been reading some magazines that I've always wondered about but never seriously read before. The current issue of Harper's has a brilliant memoir about the shared cultural experience among middle and upper class boys and girls - sleep-away camp in America. The article was written by New York-based author Rich Cohen as a well as a fascinating essay about a contemporary Turkish literary icon named Orham Pamuk.

NY Times scribe Nate Chinen journeyed down to the Crescent City to speakwith trumpeter Terence Blanchard in his native environment about rebuilding, his new album on Blue Note and the relocation of the Monk Institute from The University of Southern California to Loyola University in New Orleans.

The first full day of the Newport Jazz Festival under new management goes off without a hitch. George Wein is on hand to approve and make the new beer and wine lines run smoother.

This week in the Voice, Francis Davis has a virtual discography of trombonist, musical omnivore Roswell Rudd as well as a round-about review of his newest CD El Espirito Jibaro (which I have on my stack and have been meaning to get to for a review).

Though I never read him when I lived and went to school in Pittsburgh, Tribune Review jazz and cultural reporter Bob Karlovits does a hell of a lot of writing about jazz on an almost daily basis for the paper. This feature is about a good deed he had a hand in, in the name of Art Blakey.

Mwanji has an interesting exploration of his perceived associations between content of an album and its packaging.

Everybody in the jazz world has been talking about Keith Jarrett's latest episode stepping over the line with his mouth. Though JazzTimes reported that the Festival and the city of Perugia, Italy had officially banned Jarrett from ever performing again, industry sources close to the festival are saying that Jarrett and his manager have kissed and made up with the mayor of Perugia and all is well again. I personally wish it weren't. Keith is a brilliant musician, but he needs to take a lesson in reality and have some accountability for his outlandish actions. I think we all "reserve the right" to think he's an imbecile. A musician told me this week he remembers Keith once refusing to start his performance at Umbria or another outdoor festival because it was 68˚F and he will only play outdoors if it is 70˚F or warmer. Who brings a thermometer on stage? However, the Guardian and Idolator disagree.

Finally, I have recently been taken recently by how ubiquitous Beyoncé Knowles is these days in almost every medium I can think of. Even though she's on a major concert tour around the US right now, it is amazing how many different products she can be seen endorsing from make-up to soft drinks to her own line of clothing. It is also amazing how many column inches she is occupying in both dailies and alt weeklies, let alone the blogosphere. There was a very interesting piece in last Sunday's Boston Globe about this phenomenon as it relates to Ms. Knowles. I do like some of her music and I have to say that she is very attractive. She, her PR people and her personal trainer have done a very good job transforming her into a mainstream sex symbol. And she just keeps on truckin. She doesn't seem to tire from the road or the endless stream of live engagements, awards ceremonies or society functions. And all this without any major scandals that I know of. But I don't really pay much attention to gossip of that nature.

Enjoy these links and maybe comment with some of your own.

RIP Mario Rivera

2007-08-11T17:51:00.000-04:00

I am not an expert of contemporary Latin music or Latin jazz, even. But I do know enough to recognize that Mario Rivera was a ubiquitous and integral presence on both those scenes.

You may have missed it, but Rivera appeared in all white playing some killin' tenor sax with Tito Puente's little big band with Giovanni Hidalgo, Dave Valentin and others in one of the musical vignettes in the ground-breaking documentary film on Latin jazz, by Spanish director Fernando Trueba, Calle 54.

I could try to eulogize Rivera myself, (whom I had the privilege of seeing live on more than one occasion with bands led by Carlos 'Patato' Valdez, the Tito Puente Orchestra and other bands), but I won't try since drummer/percussionist, composer, big band leader and noted educator Bobby Sanabria has already done so in a much more eloquent and expert fashion than I could ever have.

I received this note via the Jazz Programmers List (a jazz radio listserv for radio programmers, promoters and musicians available for subscription at www.jazzweek.com).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today is indeed a day of sadness. El Comandante, Mario Rivera, passed away this morning at St. Vincents Hospital in NYC ending his long battle with cancer.

One can not begin to speak of Mario in terms of his career in just a posting. A virtual series of volumes has to be written. Like so many musicians who are Latino and have been an integral part of the jazz world and the world of their own native culture, their contributions have been long overlooked by those who write the history of both genres.

If you looked up the term multi-instrumentalist in a dictionary, Mario's face would immediately come to mind. Forever the inquisitive practicer, he could playover 20 instruments at a very high level. His"tertulias" at his apartment as Ben Lapidus can attestwere virtual centers of activity for his lengthy practice sessions and if there were other players around there would certainly be a jam session in progress.

He could play all of the family of saxophones on a virtuosic level as a soloist and section player and was one of the very few saxophonists who was also a master of the flute in the Cuban charanga style. But he was most known for his mastery of the tenor saxophone.

According to Scott Yanow's book, Afro-Cuban Jazz, he was born July 22, 1939 in Santo Domingo, The Dominican Republic. After he arrived in NYC in 1961, he worked with Puerto Rican vocalist Joe Valle. His most significant musical associations through the years include Tito Rodriguez (1963-65), The Machito Orchestra, Sonny Stitt, Charlie Palmieri, Eddie Palmieri, Tipica 73, The George Coleman Octet, Dizzy Gillespie's United Nation Orchestra, Slide Hampton's Jazz Masters, the Afro Blue Band, Giovanni Hidalgo, Chico O'Farll's Orchestra and especially Tito Puente's Orchestra and Latin Jazz Ensemble with whom he worked for on and off for decades. In addition Mario occasionally lead the Salsa Refugees, a respite from his work in the Latin field, where he could explore his voice as a jazz soloist.

He was a true musical soldier. By that I mean he was the ultimate sideman. He was there to facilitate and enhance whatever musical situation he was called upon to do. Whether it was a movie soundtrack, jingle date, small combo to big band date or just a guataca jam session, Mario's versatility and most of all, presence, were always welcomed.

Although having appeared on virtually hundreds of recording, perhaps, thousands, Mario to my knowledge recorded only one disc as a leader named after his sobriquet, El Comandante. It has fine examples of combinations of the native rhythm of his homeland, merengue from the Dominican Republic and jazz improvisation. Indeed it can be considered not only a tribute to his homeland and his mastery of jazz harmony but
an homage also to one of his inspirations and yet another unsung hero, fellow Dominican saxophone master, Tavito Vasquez.

I got to know Mario well when I was part of the United Nations Big Band. Like his inventive playing, Mario had a uniquely creative sense of humor, which many here who had the pleasure of working with him can attest to. Nadie se escapaba (no one escaped) and one looked forward to Mario's zingers, because like his playing, they were the epitome of timing and creativity.

Because there are several members of this list serve who had an even more personal and musical relationship with him, I look forward to reading their recollections of Don Mario. He will be missed, but of course never, ever forgotten. Especially when I hear a tambora and guira, a good saxophone mambo, or Giant Steps being played in all the keys. :)

Rest In Peace nuestro Comandante.

Mucho ibiano y aché,
Bobby Sanabria

You can learn more and discuss Mario's life and contributions to the music at JazzCorner's Speakeasy.

Dan Blacksberg Trio @ Tritone Tonight

2007-07-23T05:02:00.001-04:00

Be there if you are in Philly. Seriously. Dan is probably the most killingest trombone player living in Philadelphia. Tritone is on South Street. Show starts at 9:30.

also this video is hilarious. and the song is good.

great new Stereophile "blog"

2007-07-16T16:41:00.000-04:00

Writer and scholar Fred Kaplan has a great new blog called "The Jazz Messenger" on Stereophile's website (there are also blogs by the magazine's music editor, Robert Baird and Wes Phillips (another music contributor to the magazine).

Over the years Fred has been a jazz contributor to print and online outlets such as The Absolute Sound, Slate (where he is currently their national security correspondent), Stereophile Magazine and other spots. He is a national security expert and just finished a book on the subject, but as you'll be able to tell, he has great ears and likes great jazz - from new and emerging talents to established masters.

For some reason, the Stereophile "blogs" don't have RSS feeds so they are not really fully "blogs" as much as "dynamic web pages." Thus, if you want to know about new entries, you have to bookmark the page and check it for updates but hopefully this will change soon. His latest post, on Jason Moran's recent residency at Jazz Standard in New York City (which ended last night) is especially good. Also dig the video revealing White House press secretary Tony Snow is a decent flutist.

Sunday afternoon reading Vol. 1

2007-07-15T17:47:00.000-04:00

Karen Kilimnik thoughtfully mixes old and new.

new CDs reviewed in The Inquirer.

Battles feature in the Globe.

Greg Kot talks about the economics of the Pitchfork Festival

Will Friedwald reminds me of one of my alto heroes (Note: I grew up playing alto sax)

Mark Stryker turns the spotlight on still-living/playing hometown hero, Kenny Cox

more to come next Sunday!

new apartment; recent listening

2007-07-07T01:42:00.000-04:00

I moved into a new place on July 1. Still settling in. It's only for 2 months as I figure out my next move. Maybe staying in Philly. Maybe making the virtually inevitable move to New York. For now, watching lots of movies and listening to lots of new music. I will have to do a movie post at some point. Probably on Robert Altman or Steven Soderbergh, though I have to say my latest favorite director is Steven Shainberg (who directed the vastly underappreciate indie, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus with Nicole Kidman and a rather furry Robert Downey, Jr., as well as a slightly older cult classic from 2002, Secretary, starring a younger, lesser-known Maggie Gyllenhaal).

Recent Listening:

Various Tortoise albums (esp. Millions Now Living Will Never Die and Standards)

Ben Monder/Theo Bleckmann - At Night (Songlines). A logical continuation on past efforts such as Origami, No Boat, At Night is a dreamy mix of Bleckmann's wordless vocalisations and Monder's densely brewing improvisations - with no recognizable harmonic center. It's music for your head, not so much for feet. Unless you're into interpretive dance, I suppose. (Note: I seriously regret not seeing Monder with Guillermo Klein during a recent run at the Vanguard.

Niño Josele - Paz (Calle 54/Sony BMG). Josele, heard previously on Jerry González y Los Piratas del Flamenco and Diego El Cigala's smash hit with Bebo Valdès Lágrimas Negras, Paz is hands-down one of the best recordings of 2007 (to be released in the US, at least). A seamless project combining spectacular flamenco guitar with the music of Bill Evans or tunes Evans recorded at one time or another. "Peace Piece" and "Waltz for Debby" are my favorites. Close second is the "My Foolish Heart" collaboration with Tom Harrell. There is a surprisingly good track with Freddie Cole singing "I Do it For Your Love," a tune written and performed originally by Paul Simon, later recorded by Evans in 1975.

Apparently, El Niño is taking this music on tour with Horácio 'El Negro' Hernández (drums) and Esperanza Spalding (bass/vocals). Following Ben Ratliff's live review of this band with the above cast, I made a point of going up to New York to see it. The performance did not live up to the disc however it was magnificent to see Josele play solo - not so much for the Evans material but for Josele's remarkable fusion of flamenco technique and inflections with harmonies that one associates most with jazz.

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - my new roommate Ross of Love, played me their entire discography yesterday. I was all spooned out last night but find myself wanting more this afternoon. The new album is quite good - worth the hype - echoes of Motown, a-ha, Brian Eno, MC Hammer, Ry Cooder, Richard Johnston, The Beatles, Wilco.

Bobby Sanabria - Big Band Urban Folktales (Jazzheads). This record is booty-shaking goodness. The most authentic Nuyorican big band that I know of. Soloists are top-rate. The trombone section is particularly tight. The one trite number is a poor vocal version of Besame Mucho. Sanabria waxes eloquent about the project on this excellent episode of The Jazz Session with Jason Crane. Subscribe to Jason's podcast in iTunes by clicking here.

quote of the day

2007-06-08T08:20:00.000-04:00

A peculiarly written commentary on New Orleans trumpeter Kermit Ruffins' latest album for Basin Street Records elicits this candid comment from Ruffins:

It feels like it was totally unrehearsed because of the big reefer party and the beer-drinking bar-hopping in the limousine before the show.

You gotta give it up.

poem

2007-06-05T17:37:00.000-04:00

I wrote this about a month and a half ago on a receipt while watching Kurt Rosenwinkel and Mark Turner in Philly (w/ Aaron Parks - piano; Joe Martin - bass; Rodney Green - drums).

chops
choppy
hoppy
grunt
grunt
no wasting time
loose time
subdivided time
these are striking times
time to shred or shed? on this...
cascading pillowcases filled with red
beans uncooked
so they are hard
being cooked with fingers
across the board

Undefined passion
instrumentalized
burning passion over ivories
but blown through with billows of air

beeeing
zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba
take firm hold and bende with your knees
up, down, up, down, up

Beautiful Verbosity!
Every time you change octaves, I have to retune.
trying to find the center

Current Listening/Reviews to Come

2007-05-19T06:54:00.000-04:00

In Rotation; soon to be reviewed:
Seamus Blake - Way Out Willy (Criss Cross)
Avishai Cohen - As Is...Live at the Blue Note (Razdaz/Half Note)
Michael Brecker - Pilgrimage (Heads Up/Do The Math Records)
Vijay Iyer & Mike Ladd - Still Life With Commentator (Savoy Jazz)
Exploding Star Orchestra - We are all from somewhere else (Thrill Jockey)
Metheny/Mehldau - Quartet (Nonesuch)
Wayne Escoffery - Veneration: Live at Smoke (High Note)
Joel Harrison feat. Nguyen Lê and David Binney - Harbor (High Note)
Biréli Lagrène - WDR Big Band - Solo (2 CD set) (Dreyfus Jazz)
Rosario Giuliani - Anything Goes (Dreyfus Jazz)
Terell Stafford - Taking Chances: Live at the Dakota (MaxJazz)
Fred Hersch - The Night & The Music (Palmetto)

Stuff I want to get and eventually blog about:

Andy Milne - Dreams and False Alarms (Songlines)
Theo Bleckmann & Ben Monder - At Night (Songlines)
Ben Monder/Chris Gestrin/Dylan van der Schyff - The Distance (Songlines)
Mike Moreno - Between the Lines (World Culture Music)
Jimmy Greene - True Life Stories (Criss Cross)

Geez, that's an ambitious list.

The Bad Plus - Prog

2007-05-19T06:10:00.000-04:00

I am completely thrilled by this new record by Ethan Iverson, Reid Anderson and Dave King - collectively The Bad Plus. Lately I do admit to being especially taken by Ethan as a blogger and general thinker/sharer of thoughts. But this music is intense. It's vital and emotional. Yes, they cover Tears for Fears and Rush. But the originals are where it's at for me.

I feel like the Twin Cities-raised threesome could make just as valid a statement if they recorded all originals at the level of Anderson's "Physical Cities" (which I saw TBP perform both at the Lorraine Gordon tribute at Carnegie Hall last June during JVC Jazz Fest and at The Blue Note in September on the double bill with Jason Moran & The Bandwagon). For me, Anderson is the Bad Plus' ace in the hole. He is the secret weapon who is sort of aloof yet always there anchoring the ship (the analogy can be extended by the fact that Reid eschews the New York lifestyle, instead residing far from his trio mates in Barcelona, Spain and is almost entirely absent from Do The Math).

King, whom I originally had a distaste for when Give first came out, has really stepped up his game with his composition "Thriftstore Jewelry," an almost hummable though highly chromatic melody (at least I can whistle it - almost) which I seem to really dig for its odd-time yet overall simpleness. And having recently caught Dave with Ethan, Tim Berne and Mat Maneri as Buffalo Collision, the drummer has really captured me with his chops and his charm. He brings Elvin, Paul Motian, Han Bennink and Mitch Mitchell (obviously I don't know any rock drummers) to the table and mixes these influences to create a unique sound - which brings even greater poignancy to the covers. It's really fun to hear how he employs his so-called "jazz" sensibilities on rock songs - especially when he's very restrained and sparing with his use of the toms. His reprise of Suspicious Activity rocker "1980 World Champion" is equally enthralling.

I do have to say that The Burt Bacharach cover of "This Guy's In Love With You" really sweetens the deal on a record that will most certainly be a lot of hipsters' Top 10s this year - most certainly this hipster.

Rock on dudes!

Buy it on Amazon or

Lafayette Gilchrist - Three

2007-04-28T06:07:00.000-04:00

In a nod to Zepellin and other rock outfits, Baltimore-based pianist Lafayette Gilchrist has titled his third record Three (it is also a trio record, for what it's worth).

Gilchrist has recently been making subtle waves on the DC-Baltimore circuit as an in-demand sideman. He has also been branching out as a result of his growing association with the saxophonist David Murray, the drummer Steve Williams (who spent the 1980s and 1990s in the trio of the late Shirley Horn) and with

On Three, Mr. Gilchrist investigates deep pockets of groove while maintaining rolling tremolos not unlike those of pianists Cecil Taylor. There is a certain restlessness in Mr. Gilchrist's message and while this heightened sense of activity on a piece like "Visitors" keep's your attention, it fails to do anything terribly surprising. Conversely, using a similar formula on "Spheres of Influence" the pianist roils out a densely rhythmic melody.

I have mixed feelings and will revisit this in a month. Comments are welcome.

RIP Andrew Hill; the bloggers speak out...

2007-04-20T17:48:00.000-04:00

Repost from Do The Math

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jerome sabbagh - saxophonist/would-be pop artist (under certain circumstances)

2007-04-17T02:18:00.000-04:00

I have been listening a a bunch to Jerome Sabbagh in the past few days and I just wanted to say a couple of things about it before I hit the sack tonight.

Jerome Sabbagh - a French-born, NY-based tenor saxophonist and composer has an absolutely killin' band that plays a melodic grab bag of moods. Sabbagh has spent a good amount of time playing in the bands of Argentinean pianists Pablo Ablanedo and Guillermo Klein (who doesn't seem to have a website of his own at this moment).

Sabbagh originally came to my attention as a member of fellow Frenchman Laurent Coq's band on Coq's 2003 Sunnyside release, Like a Tree in the City.*

Sabbagh and his quartet have recently put out a 2nd album (available April 24 in the US) called "Pogo" following 2004's North (Fresh Sound New Talent). Pogo is available direct from the artist here and through a warehouse here). Pogo is on French indie Bee Jazz Records (distributed in the US by...you guessed it: Sunnyside).

Guitarist Ben Monder's sometimes sparse, sometimes dense, but mostly dark accompaniment and solos are a fitting foil to Sabbagh's bright tone and bouncy lines. Underappreciated bassist Joe Martin (seen very often at 55 Bar and on tour with Kurt Rosenwinkel among others) takes a very nice solo on the opening cut "Middle Earth" (a rarity these days - tunes with bass solos are usually buried deep within the album - I wonder why that is?). And rounding out the quartet is the young phenom out of the Eastman School, Ted Poor on drums (Poor also in the bands of Cuong Vu, Monder and somewhat surprisingly David Berkman - though not if you hear it) who keeps things consistently crisp throughout the recording.

Jerome's melodies on Pogo sometimes reach into poppy and jammy territory when it's almost as if you'd swear the saxophone is a human voice singing a melody or a guitar carving out a simple idea but with a great sense of confidence. This music, though mostly quietly subtle and subdued, begs a question which I frequently find myself thinking.

Can modern jazz appeal to general audiences outside the jazz-obsessed solely based on the merits of catchy melodies without words? Or are words a general prerequisite to get people to pay attention?" Especially when made by musicians who are privy to the last 30 or so years of music-making outside the jazz idiom?

The Bad Plus have arguably done this successfully, though their formula has also included hooking these rather elusive "other audiences" with covers of familiar tunes by dare I say "mainstream" acts (i.e. Nirvana, Rush, Blondie, Aphex Twin, Queen, etc.). Can a band achieve some kind of pop-like acceptance solely on the merits of their compositions without voice or lyrics? I would say in a different time under different circumstances, yes. But not in the current climate where commercial radio and even the indie movement (i.e. what they write about on Pitchfork and Stylus) is almost entirely driven by music with lyrics.

What are your thoughts?

Meanwhile, you can check out streaming samples of the utterly funky "Rooftops" and the medatative but catchy "Pogo" from Sabbagh's new album of the same name due April 24 here in the US.

* I should mention I met Laurent Coq for the first time in person at the Jazz Standard during IAJE and he handed me his newest CD (currently only available in France) called "Laurent Coq Blowing Trio." The band includes Coq on piano, Olivier Zanot on alto sax and David El-Malek on tenor sax and occasional vocals by Laurence Allison. I had it in my car for weeks and I should mention that it's absolutely KILLIN' and that you should go buy it now if you like good music - well worth the shipping costs. Or email Laurent for another less expensive solution at contact@laurentcoq.com.

putting the internet radio thing in perspective

2007-03-21T00:04:00.000-04:00

I just read this article on Salon.com about the apparent impending demise of streaming radio stations in their many formats on the internet and my socks were scared off.

Here is the paragraph that really got to me:

Even at the new rate of $.0008 per performance, applied retroactively to 2006, Pandora is on the hook for "millions and millions" of dollars in royalty payments to SoundExchange, Westergren told Salon -- far more than the company took in as revenue.

If they took away Pandora (an operation I thought was doing everything legit - a service I personally pay for to enjoy!), that means Last.fm would also go away... and most of the not-so-profitable Launch channels, radioio and my ability to hear my alma mater's signal from Pittsburgh to Philly, where I live now or to anywhere I might live in the future.

This all really made me what to scream.

Thanks to Pat for tipping me off to the gravity of this situation. If you care about music discovery and you've ever bought an album because of what you heard online, this is the time to speak out people!

If you haven't already, you can sign the various petitions to keep things reasonable.

Write your congressman/congresswoman about this serious matter. Yes, that means you too.

NOW LISTENING TO DAVID HAZELTINE ON PANDORA

i found it on the internets!

2007-02-26T21:53:00.000-05:00

Ornett Coleman's Grammy Remarks

2007-02-22T17:29:00.000-05:00

Most people out there world don't know that Ornette Coleman actually received a lifetime achievement award at the pre-telecast ceremony during Grammy weekend.

But even fewer people know that Ornette Coleman gave one of the most "out" speeches ever that had most of the crowd muttering, "Who the hell is this guy? What rock did they pull him out from under?"

Anyways, I received this transcription from a person who attended the ceremony which was not televised and only open to industry insiders and award recipients. It starts with an introduction by Charlie Haden, Ornette's longtime musical collaborator.

Ornette Coleman's Lifetime Achievement Acceptance Speech (starting with Charlie Haden’s comments)

CH: Tonight NARAS is presenting an award that goes to the deepest and most beautiful part of music--deep and beautiful like Bach, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, and Ornette Coleman.

Ornette opened up a whole new world of musical discovery and exploration. That journey of music being born for the first time, continues today in his compositions and improvisation.

Over the years we’ve played many concerts and many, many recordings together and even now, when I play music with him it’s the most exciting and rewarding musical experience of my life. I am honored to present this Lifetime A A to the great Ornette Coleman.

OC: It is really very, very real to be here tonight, in relationship to life and death and I’m sure they both love each other.

I really don’t have any present thoughts about why I’m standing here other than trying to figure out something to say that could be useful to someone that believes.

One of the things I am experiencing is very important and that is: You don’t have to die to kill and you don’t have to kill to die. And above all, nothing exists that is not in the form of life because life is eternal with or without people so we are grateful for life to be here at this very moment.

For myself, I’d rather be human than to be dead. And I would also die to be human. So you can’t die, you can’t die to be neither one, regardless of what you say or think so that’s why I believe that music itself is eternal in relationship to sound, meaning, intelligence…all the things that have to have something to do with being alive because you were born and because someone else made it possible for you to be here, which we call our parents etc. etc.

For me, the most eternal thing is that I would like to live until I learn what it is and what it isn’t…that is, how do we kill death since it kills everything?

And it’s hard to realize that being in the human form is not as easy as wondering what is going to happen to you even if you do know what it is and it doesn’t depend on if you know what is going to happen to you.

No one can know anything that life creates since no one is life itself. And it’s obvious, at least I believe, it’s obvious the one reason why we as human beings get there and do things that seem to be valuable to us in relationship to intelligence… uh, what is it called…creativity and love and all the things that have to do with waking up every morning believing it’s going to be a better day today or tomorrow and yet at the same time death, life, sadness, anger, fear, all of those things are present at the same time as we are living and breathing.

It is really, really eternal, this that we are constantly being created as human beings to know that exists and it’s really, really unbelievable to know that nothing that’s alive can die unless it’s been killed. So what we should try to realize is to remove that part of what it is so that whatever we are, life is all there is and I thank you very much.

------------------------

Well, I think that's as real as it gets. I welcome comments.

Michael Brecker Tribute Video

2007-01-23T19:45:00.000-05:00

A truly touching Michael Brecker tribute video which I found on his fan page on MySpace: WATCH IT HERE!

the days turn into weeks, the months into years - as I fall behind on blogging...

2007-01-22T23:58:00.000-05:00

I know. I've been very inconsistent in my blogging habits of late - mainly due to the fact that I have an unprecendented amount of work for my "on the side" gig, doing online and "new media" publicity for independent artists in multiple genres.

I currently have some projects with unlikely artists given my personal taste. But I'm trying right now to seek out music that moves me and makes me want to dance... or at least think about dancing. While I try to keep the artists I work for out of this blog, sometimes its impossible since they are often on my mind a lot - and what else is a blog for if not to unload some of the topics on one's mind?

This week one of these artists is Karl Denson's Tiny Universe whose newish online-only EP entitled Once You're There is a current priority for me. Originally I took it on as a means to make some extra bread, but this funky/electro hook-based music has become a guilty pleasure. It makes me want to dance. And I guess that's a good thing because it probably makes others want to do the same.

So that's that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news:

Pianist Frank Kimbrough playing at Dewey Redman's Memorial Service Sunday Jan. 7, 2007
- I attended Dewey Redman's Memorial three Sundays ago - my first visit to St. Peter's Church in Manhattan (aka the jazz church) - I know I blogged about it in advance of the show on my MOG and Last.fm pages but I don't believe I mentioned it here. Charlie Haden, Pat Metheny, Geri Allen and Jack DeJohnette gave the most touching performances of the evening. Violinist Leroy Jenkins played a bouncing pentatonic blues, Joe Lovano with his wife Judi Silvano (who was surprisingly good) did a operatic ballad that was amazing and the vociferous/jocular emcee Matt Wilson (who played with Dewey from 1994 on) played in a trio with Cameron Brown and Frank Kimbrough at one point. And I learned a lot about Dewey from the legions of folks who got up to speak about him and a short excerpt of a film about him. Ethan Iverson and Reid Anderson played a tune with Wilson and Dewey's son (Joshua Redman) played too - one short solo piece and then again on the last number with Haden, Metheny and Roy Haynes on the Ornette Coleman blues "Turnaround," which happens to be on the recent Sound Grammar.

- I attended the IAJE Conference in a work capacity from Jan. 10-13 in NYC. I mostly worked afternoons in the press room credentialing journalists, photographers, radio people and others who claimed to be there to write or communicate to different audiences about IAJE.

It was a bit of a drag since most of the good industry track sessions I had taken a roll in planning, I had to miss (i.e. Down Beat 1:1 with Greg Osby interviewing Ornette Coleman, JazzTimes Presents: Producing Miles Davis with producer heavyweights such as George Avakian, George Duke, Bob Belden and Marcus Miller, Latin Jazz: The Perfect Combination, The Marketing Nightmare)

Shows in NY that week were insane as was to be expected. Memorable performances include:

- saxophonist/woodwind doubler Steve Wilson with his long-standing quartet of Bruce Barth on keys, Ed Howard on bass (Ed doesn't seem to have a website or I would link to it) and Adam Cruz on drums at Jazz Standard Thursday night

- drummer/composer John Hollenbeck's Large Ensemble late night Thursday at the Sheraton Metropolitan Ballroom

- an 11:30 set at Joe's Pub by wunderkind trumpeter Christian Scott (introduced to the world on recording at 16 by his uncle Donald "Duck" Harrison. this cat is the real deal, folks. though extremely haughty, well-dressed and a tad immature.

Mulgrew Miller w/ Bob Hurst @ Smalls - 1:30 AM set
-a late night Friday set at Smalls by Mulgrew Miller and Bob Hurst III with surprise guest Eric Harland (who arrived after this cell phone shot was taken)

Charlie Haden and The Liberation Music Orchestra, Saturday Jan. 13 - Final Performance of Evening Concerts in Hilton Grand Ballroom
-the French Elite All-Stars with Michel Legrand, violinist Didier Lockwood, guitarist Sylvain Luc, accordionist Richard Galliano and others; followed by Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra paying tribute to Michael Brecker and Alice Coltrane

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Darcy James Argue's Secret Society at Bowery Poetry Club
-I stayed an extra day and night and finally got to see DJA's Secret Society large band in its native environment - the Bowery Poetry Club. it was tight. Saxophonist Mark Small (also of the Michael Bublé Orchestra - yes, that Michael Bublé!), trumpeter Shane Endsley (of Kneebody) and saxophonist Erica von Kleist (of JALC's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra) impressed thoroughly in their respective solos.
the writing was of a very high quality. i could hear the brookmeyer influence. also very relevant song titles that fit the tunes - especially Drift and Habeas Corpus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
More recently:

- I began looking in earnest this weekend for a new apartment in Northern Liberties and different places across the Schuykill River (Manayunk, Roxborough or East Falls)

- I saw Greg Osby 4 this weekend in a surprising packed-house at Philly's Zanzibar Blue, an unlikely spot for Greg's music - this coming weekend is Dave Douglas' quintet! Another unlikely booking for ZB. What's going on over there?

And finally... this January is heavy with sadness over the passing of Michael and Alice. and its cold outside.
-

What Michael Brecker's Death Means to Me...

2007-01-14T12:22:00.000-05:00

It seems like eons ago that I was marveling at Michael Brecker's solo playing Two Blocks From the Edge, Don't Try This At Home, his killing 1980 collaboration with Chick Corea, Three Quartets, and finally his 2004 large-ensemble masterpiece Wide Angles, which I think represented a shift in where he was headed musically - since his previous 10 albums had been small-group focused.

So many players I love today, I discovered through Michael Brecker recordings - the late Don Alias, Jeff 'Tain' Watts, Joey Calderazzo, James Genus and John Patitucci among others.

I guess I just want to say that Michael had a huge influence on me. He made me want to keep playing saxophone when practicing just seemed too hard or futile. Hearing Brecker's flawless technical mastery, angular yet hard-swinging lines, and soulful interpretation of standards inspired more than two generations of saxophone players and hopefully his recorded legacy will continue to inspire musicians to reach new heights through both thorough mastery of their instruments and devotion to masters who came before us all.

I don't know what else to say? Thank you Michael for your music and your spirit.

Michael Brecker Lives!

Stop Making Fun of My Accent

2006-12-28T17:19:00.000-05:00

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The Midland
The South
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

In reality, I was born in Washington, DC and have lived all my life here except the last 6 years of my life, when I've been living in Pittsburgh and now Philadelphia since June.

Dr. Jazz Ph.D. weighs in on DTM's Questionnaire

2006-12-22T18:55:00.000-05:00

Recently, The Bad Plus started asking their fellow musicians the following set of questions. Following TBP's drummer (Dave King) and pianist's (Ethan Iverson) answers, TBP's bassist Reid Anderson and composer/pianist Guillermo Klein responded, enigmatic pianists Brad Mehldau and Jason Moran replied, Rosenwinkelian sidemen Jeff Ballard (drums) and Ben Street (bass) gave their two cents, followed by pianists Fred Hersch and Christopher O'Riley, fellow Brooklyn residents bassist Joe Martin and reedist Ted Reichman, Halloween Alaska bandmates James Diers and Ev Olcott and downtown squonkers Django Bates (piano & E-flat horn) and Tim Berne (alto sax and various other reeds),

All the while as is their wont, jazz and "new music" bloggers started listing and emailing their own lists to Ethan @ Do the Math. The lists became so voluminous that Ethan have to compile all the answers into Volume 1 and Volume 2.

Now that I finally have a moment to breathe and truly procrastinate (to the point where composing and formatting this entry have taken me over an hour), Dr. Jazz Ph.D. will add his remarks to the fray:

GIVE US AN EXAMPLE OR TWO OF AN ESPECIALLY GOOD OR INTERESTING:

1. Movie score. "Laura" (David Raskin); "Inside Man" (Terence Blanchard)
2. TV theme. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (Dennis Brown & Chuck Lorre)
3. Melody. "Lotus Blossom" (Billy Strayhorn); "East of the Sun" (Brooks Bowman)
4. Harmonic language. Coltrane on Atlantic and Impulse!; Bill Evans on Conversations With Myself; Paul Gonsalves
5. Rhythmic feel. Chris Potter; Max Roach
6. Hip-hop track. "All for U" (Aceyalone & RJD2); "I've Been Thinking" (Handsome Boy Modeling School feat. Cat Power)
7. Classical piece. Clarinet Concerto in A Major K.622 - Adagio (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart); Quartet for the End of Time (Olivier Messiaen)
8. Smash hit. "We Are the Champions" (Queen); "Gonna Make U Sweat" (aka Everybody Dance Now) (C&C Music Factory)
9. Jazz album. Stan Getz - The Dolphin; Charles Mingus - Mingus Plays Piano
10. Non-American folkloric group. Sexteto Electronico Moderno; Amadou et Mariam; Boubacar Traore; Ana Moura
11. Book on music. "Raise Up Off Me: The Autobiography of Hampton Hawes"

BONUS QUESTIONS:

A) Name a surprising album (or albums) you loved when you were developing as a musician: something that really informs your sound but that we would never guess in a million years: Woody Herman - Woody & Friends: Live at the 1979 Monterey Jazz Festival; Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Returns to Berlin; Duke Ellington with Count Basie's Orchestra - First Time: The Count Meets the Duke

B) Name a practitioner (or a few) who play your instrument that you think is underrated: Rich Perry, Billy Pierce, Eric Kloss, Sonny Red

C) Name a rock or pop album that you wish had been a smash commercial hit (but wasn’t, not really): (no answer)

D) Name a favorite drummer, and an album to hear why you love that drummer: Billy Hart on This is Buck Hill; Lewis Nash on Renee Rosnes' debut album, Renee Rosnes

DJA makes the NYTimes. Dr. Jazz Ph.D makes new friends.

2006-12-02T23:25:00.000-05:00

Ratliff finally smells the coffee. Wish I coulda been there. I heard KADS was drumming.

I wish I could have made the Secret Society gig, but I was at the Mingus Orchestra @ Merkin Hall show. Some nice tunes. Michael Rabinowitz, Seamus Blake and Freddie Bryant stole the show. However Mingus' music is continually refreshing. Check out my more detailed entry here.

After the show, NY Times scribe Nate Chinen (who was there reviewing) introduced me to Simon Rentner, a musical genius with impeccable taste who is partially responsible for booking the 2006-2007 season at Merkin (the other cat is Brice Rosenbloom who used to run MAKOR when it was still around). Nate was escorting his good buddy GW who is looking pretty darn good for his age.

If I ever get around to figuring out how to use GarageBand, I may even start a Jazz Clinic podcast. Simon would make an excellent subject for an episode.

giving thanks

2006-11-23T12:22:00.000-05:00

I don't exactly know what "Thanksgiving Echoes" would be like, but hey - it looked pretty funny and wasn't terribly trite as far as the Google image search I conducted to find an image for today's Turkey Day post (note: no turkeys have been harmed in the production of this entry).

Today is the day of giving thanks. So here's an abbreviated list of things that popped into my head:

- I give thanks for being able to sleep two hours on the Chinatown bus to DC this morning.

- I give thanks for all the listeners who called in last night into the wee hours of this morning for my foolishly long midnight to 6 AM shift on WRTI.

- I give thanks that my MacBook's trackpad is working again thanks to a super friendly helper named Dan at the 24-hour Apple store in NYC (more on that at another time).

- I give thanks to DL, BR, SB, DN and EL for putting up with me at work and teaching me a heck of a lot about the PR biz and about life over the last 6 months.

- I give thanks to all my new friends in the blogosphere who have given me props or blogrolled me including Mwanji, Darcy, Doug, Tim, Jon, Jeff Siegel; and to Mark Stryker of the Detroit Free Press for secretly reading this point of pontification.

- I give thanks to my clients - the artists, without whom I'd be working a shitty desk job at some nameless company eager clock out at 5 every day.

You know it's Thanksgiving day, when you have no work email and 1-2 bloggers are online. Time to nap a little more and then eat some turkey and yes, watch football. Here we go with the decline of the American mind.

Out,
drjazzphd

Now Listening to: World Saxophone Quartet - Bluogracy (Part 1) from Political Blues (Justin Time 2006).

carpe diem

2006-11-17T03:55:00.000-05:00

Wednesday November 15

7:48 AM

Wake up. Brush teeth (no shower). Put on shoes (no socks), sweatshirt (w/ hood on). Hop in car. Drive towards Center City. Stop for the regular:

1 large decaf tea (cream and sugar)
1 toasted onion bagel with butter
2 French crullers

Sip tea. Eat crullers. Save bagel.

I'm finally driving downtown, using my morning productively to get my wallet which has been out of my possession for over 11 days. Surprising that I could exist that long without a wallet. Yes, I drove the 1.9 miles to work and back those 11 days without being hassled. Yes, I ate entirely at home and borrowed from fellow employees for little snacks during the work day. Yes, I tried to get it before (but not in the morning).

This was a painfully long commute into the city. I now know there are a world of people who get up every morning and deal with that shit. And I feel for them. I do. But even though most of them have health benefits, and better salaries, I don't envy them in the slightest. I still like my life right now, doing what I love -however unsustainable it may be. But I digress.

I got the wallet right where the guy whose wife found it, told me he dropped it off a week earlier. Want proof? Here!

insirpations

2006-11-11T14:52:00.000-05:00

Well America... We did it! We finally beat the Republicans. No more do we have to hang signs like this one:

In other news, for the first time in my life I witnessed Cecil Taylor live last Saturday (Nov. 4). In all honesty, I haven't studied Taylor's music by immersing myself in his body of work. Nor have I ever purchased a Cecil Taylor album.

So what made me go see Cecil Taylor live? I'm not sure. I felt somewhat of an obligation to myself to see what all the hype has been about. But I also wanted to discover what he and his music were about and more importantly how his playing affected me.

Coming away from last Saturday night's show, it seems as if buying a recording would only do injustice to the Cecil Taylor live experience. Just watching the guy curl and stretch and bang hurriedly across the keyboard in a swath of tempi and dynamics is a visceral experience for the eyes. I felt like my ears were trying to play catch up with what I was seeing. This melodramatic body language was central to the experience. It bespoke his internal struggle to express his personal voice without repeating himself (though he did, many times over).

I would probably prefer to hear his poetry on recording only, as I could barely hear any of his 5 minute monologue which preceeded the music. 95 minute show on the full Bosendorfer grand piano specially ordered for this gig, his first in Philadelphia in over 20 years.

Eyvind Kang's Dying Groud & Other Options

2006-10-23T06:56:00.000-04:00

This weekend I didn't really go out except for Friday night when I went to see the violinist/guitarist Eyvind Kang at the Community Education Center in West Philly (Lancaster Ave. @ N 34th St.)

Unfortunately the turnout for the avant-garde show by this former Tzadik DIY artist was less than satisfactory. Including myself there were about 10 people. I'm not entirely sure why this was as I'd heard there was a HUGE turnout to the Dave Burell show the previous weekend (which I believe I noted that I slept through). Some of it had to do with lack of name recognition. (Sorry not sure whom to give credit for this photo. If it's yours please let me know).

But before I harp on why people didn't show up, lemme try to approximate the reason I showed up and stayed. The sounds I heard from Kang (whose bio is here) and his band, Dying Ground were entirely heavy and righteous but lacked something to keep me interested the whole time. A surprisingly impressive drummer, G. Calvin Weston (apparently a local stringer), smashed away while (electric) bassist Kato Hideki both violently and calmly strummed away and bowed his thick bass strings.

Weston and Kato sensitively freaked out in response to Kang's insanely loud amplified guitar with numerous effects applied to it. Kang also played amplified violin, the instrument for which he is more known (especially as a member of John Zorn's Cobra). On drums, while maintaining the music's essence, (one of rather simple melodic loudness with immense rhythmic variation), Weston played with a checked intensity. He had the ears of a Chad Taylor or Hamid Drake with the insanely clean yet powerful execution of a Bennink or Blackwell. Something he repeated a couple times through the performance which totally blew my mind was this move where he would be thrashing away at the toms and then all of a sudden whack the sh-t out of the snare and then instantaneously hit both crash cymbals, creating a shocking effect on the ears and the soul. You had to see it to understand what the hell I'm talking about. Perhaps we can get some video up from my new buddy Mark, who took video footage of this show as well as the DeJohnette show I disliked below.

As far as Kang and Kato are concerned, I seem to have lost my notes on their playing but what I recall in the melodies that Kang wrote was a very deliberate chromaticism coupled with strange rhythms that existed independent of the drummer's beat - a deliberate effort to cast off expectability. I felt that we heard too little in the hour and a half Dying Ground played to learn if we were hearing the group at its best but I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed on the whole. Perhaps I'm not into noise and kitsh as much as I used to be. Despite their unique build-up and release of tension and thorough musicality, I just wasn't totally feeling it.

Perhaps Friday's poor turnout had something to do with a slew of other shows competing for my and other people's money the same night or weekend (especially young professionals and students who don't have much cash to spend in the first place.) That night there was also a rather rare performance by Vijay Iyer's quartet at Princeton University (only a 45 minute drive from Center City Philadelphia).

This was the same exciting quartet which the pianist had assembled for his stellar 2005 release Reimagining, (which you can buy CD Universe).(I am going to recommend CD Universe from now on as they consistently seem to have lower prices than Amazon and offer a wider selection of jazz - especially obscure imports).

On the other hand, there had been another Ars Nova show the night before by what I understand was a terrific group called Tone Collector (w/ Eivind Opsvik and Tony Malaby). So if 40 or so people came out to that, perhaps they felt they were doing their part for the week to support creative music or couldn't bring themselves to come out again the following night.

Perhaps it had something to do with the Polish trumpeter and ECM recording artist Tomasz Stanko who was making a very rare US appearance as part of his current East Coast tour in support of Lontano, his latest album on ECM Records. The following night (Saturday 10/21), Stanko would still be at Chris' and Willie Rodriguez and the Bronx All Stars would be playing at the Painted Bride Arts Center in Old City which would be attracting any residual XPN listeners who might otherwise check out some "trippy" music rather than drinking box wine and dancing with their bland partners to salsa music. I shouldn't hate on the Bronx All Stars because the players are cats I respect, but I really feel no remorse in hating on the XPN crowd.

The fragmentation the music community is a lamentable thing but you can't really blame people for differences in aesthetic taste. It's just difficult to program anything when you've got competition on the same night.

Oh well. Comments? I want to see them. I know you're looking at this blog.

attempt to make posts more coherent

2006-10-22T11:25:00.000-04:00

I have noticed that I've posted a lot of entries with grammatical errors, run-on sentences and other stupid ramblings. I guess I'd like my loyal readership to know that I am sorry.

From now on, I will be trying to post more coherent entries so that your ready.

DeJohnette/Frisell/Harris

2006-10-15T00:55:00.000-04:00

I never thought I'd see Jack DeJohnette at the World Cafe Live in Philadelphia but when you unleash the powers of Bill Frisell's booking agent, The Rosebud Agency (possibly one of the oldest websites I've ever seen), anything is possible.

It was sort of an abbreviated set for me, as I awoke from a nap which prevented me from going to the Ars Nova concert I had really wanted to go to at I-House (Dave Burrell, Reggie Workman, Rashied Ali, Muhammad Ali).

Anyways, Frisell was bluesy and generally OK, DeJohnette sounded disturbingly uninspired on the drums (or perhaps simplistic) except when he sang the blues on the encore , Harris the quiet but powerful melodist (is that a word?). An unlikely highlight, seeing Jerome Harris for the first time was the best part for me. Sure it's Harris entered my consciousness fairly recently as the bassist of a recent Paul Motian record called Garden of Eden. His McFerrin-like vocalizations over DeJohnette's emotive Korg piano on which he played endless alterations on two basic arpeggios.

Really underwhelming on the whole. Wish I'd gone to see Burrell/Workman/Ali/Ali. Maybe once I hear the bootleg I'll change my mind.

troubled by Branford & things to come

2006-10-09T11:46:00.000-04:00

As many of you probably saw, the New York Times' Ben Ratliff published what I've heard may very well be the last of his "Listening With..." series. This time around the focus was less on listening to records and more about spreading the pedantic generalizations the outspoken saxophonist Branford Marsalis rattled off to Ratliff at an intimate interview at the saxophonist's North Caroline home.
From the caption: Branford Marsalis has enjoyed great productivity as an alto saxophonist and bandleader since moving to Durham, N.C., five years ago. “I just want to play,” he said. “I don’t want to be in magazines.”

Marsalis said some very harsh things and only chose to listen to recordings pre-1955 and no real bebop or post-bop at that, let alone the Coltrane he is clearly trying to approximate on his latest album, Braggtown. Unfortunately, I tended to agree with most of the "damaging" comments Marsalis uttered.

Soon to come, a multi-show review of this week's shows put on by local Philly avant-garde concert presenter Ars Nova Workshop. Last night was Brotzmann-Bennink playing duo. Tonight George Lewis & Matana Roberts play Houston Hall, which I believe is the Student Union at UPenn. The week continues with a performance by a band being billed as The Philadelphia Four: Dave Burrell, Reggie Workman, Rashied Ali, and Muhammad Ali (yes, the drummer with the same Arabic name as Cassius Clay is apparently still alive).

Look forward to some great shots courtesy of Cadence/Jazz Improv Magazine freelancer Ken Weiss, along with my reviews.

Now listening to Donald Harrison - The Survivor (Nagel Heyer 2068). Buy this album at iTunes by clicking the iTunes link below.

current reading

2006-10-05T08:24:00.000-04:00

Check out the Bag's tribute to Bill Dixon on his birthday. Very timely Marc and Derek. For some killer photographs that seem to be copy-protected, check out DMG.
Also, see Mwanji's concert review of Soweto Kinch playing in Belgique as well as his slightly more recent rebuttal of Darius Brubeck's scathing appraisal of Ornette Coleman.

Finally, from the land of 10,000 lakes, a hilarious
situation from the boys at Do The Math.

Two Trios

2006-09-17T09:22:00.000-04:00

Last night I saw Jason Moran and the Bandwagon and The Bad Plus at the Blue Note. They say the Blue Note is a tourist club. Boy are they right! There were so many people standing in line who had literally no idea who they were going to see. All they knew was that their tour books had directed them there - many Americans but also many Japanese as the Blue Note is a much more recognizable brand in that country (multiple locations exist throughout the country - in Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, and of course Tokyo.

It was my first time seeing a show at the famed "Blue Note" since in the past their line-ups have seemed slightly less than impressive. Some call it pandering to the masses. Others call it staying in business. But I have to commend their programming for the month of September - all actual jazz acts. Wish I'd been up last weekend to see Scofield's trio with Steve Swallow and Bill Stewart. I'm still waiting for another album from them. Given Sco's new freedom from an exclusive label contract, maybe they'll do it on Swallow's XtraWatt label (a subdivision of ECM which he, Carla Bley, Michael and Karen Mantler and a couple others record on). It would probably have to be a Swallow date comparable to the situation where Swallow took a trio through Europe in 2002 and documented his work with Chris Potter and Adam Nussbaum on Damaged in Transit (2004).

Anyways, both bands played their asses off. Moran is an intense cat and The Bandwagon (which consists of Tarus Mateen on electric bass and Nasheet Waits on drums) is equally focused. There were definite highs and lows - dynamically, rhythmically, and stylistically. Moran is perpetually in the moment; reacting to everything including the noises of shaken martinis and clanging dishes. But particularly impressive are his bursts of furious right hand flights which not only boast technique but point to the beat subdivisions going on in his head.

The program began with Moran Tonk Circa 1936" from the 2001 album Modernistic. I believe that was followed by "Arizona Landscape" or "He puts on his coat and leaves..." from the new album, Artist in Residence (which came out Sept. 12).

Mateen is sort of an enigma. He is a guy I don't really get despite having llstened to this group for some time. It's not that I don't like his playing, which I do. It's just a bit too unstructured and incongruent for me to understand. Very infrequently does he play a groove except maybe on Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" which they played followed by a seamless segue into "Moon River" ("Planet Rock" was also recorded on Moran's solo album Modernistic).

For the rest, which I take it was essentially the same every night, see Darcy's appraisal which is far better than anything I could write now (not having taken notes).

So yeah. That's all I feel like writing about this event. However, that night that I was there I finally got to meet my fellow blogger, Ethan, who told me he'd be taking JaMo back to his dressing room to talk music for his blog. And that they did.

Globe Trotters: Rob Mazurek & Sao Paolo Underground

2006-09-15T11:47:00.000-04:00

I had meant to make this post the night of the show, but I got home and forgot all about it.

I don't know if I've blogged about an Ars Nova show yet, but this past Wednesday night myself and a group of about 30 other people gathered in an unassuming black box-like theater. We sat in bleacher-like seating in dingy chairs and watched magic occur between a group of musicians that have come together as a result of one man's journey to find a new musical voice (perhaps a new life) in the Brazilian jungle.

Of course I'm speaking of the now-esteemed Chicago-born quasi-avant-straight-ahead trumpeter Rob Mazurek. His current project moves the spirit, moves the torso, taps the foot, and generally fucks you up.

Despite arriving about 10 minutes late, the set hadn't started. The band was aligned in a very specific manner: drum set up front on the far left (from the audience's vantage point). To his left was a cat playing various samples and distortion/feedback boxes. To his left and slightly forward was a seated Mazurek with an array of mutes and feedback/effects pedals at his feet. And finally to Mazurek's left was another drum set who also had an Apple iBook laptop directly next to his hi-hat so he could program beats (it was my impression). It appeared it was this 2nd drummer's job to keep the flow of the set going as his computer housed the basis of their set.

The concert was ultimately an experimental yet funky and generally moving affair. Mazurek has a strange yet refreshing tendency to hint at the avant-garde while momentarily dipping in and out of straight-ahead playing a la Freddie Hubbard. However while he's playing his trumpet, the rest of the band has the listener fully enrapt in a trance as they rock out over dub and hip-hop grrrroooves punctuated by the occasional solo cadenza by the bearded (and on this night red-shirted) Mazurek.

It was the most fun shooting the shit with the band members and Mazurek after the show. I made my best attempt to impress everybody with my musical knowledge, like the show-off I tend to be. Rob was a really chilled out dude; very casual. When I walked up to him, I introduced myself as the guy who tried to book him in Pittburgh and he remembered me. So I mentioned the Invisible Jukebox which ran in the June 2006 issue of The Wire. We talked about how he correctly identified Lee Morgan from The Last Session (Blue Note 1973) and about how a couple days earlier after the Guelph Jazz Festival the band went back to Dixon's home in Bennington, VT and Rob had asked the elder trumpeter if he had any copies of the renowned 6-CD collection of
of solo works, also known as Odyssey.

Dixon answered, "We only have one copy of Odyssey here....I guess the Odyssey goes to Rob." Dixon charged Mazurek zero dollars.

Speaking of Merch, the band had sold out of all copies of its latest CD, Sauna: Um, Dois, Tres.

Anyways, I think that about sums it up....Oh, I also met a middle-aged hippie woman named Linda who asked me for info on ProTools and I ended up driving home. Random, I know.

Rob called me the next day at work hoping to hook up and see my boss' record collection, but the reception was shitty and we got cut off. Sorry Rob. Until we meet again, it was a pleasure. Your music rocks.

Also, Guilherme, you owe me a CD! Don't worry. I am going to purchase the album

SEE SPU LIVE:
Go see the Sao Paolo Underground in Mazurek's native Chicago at the World Music Festival on September 20.

Sao Paulo Underground features:
Mauricio Takara, drums/percussion/electronics (the guy on the right)
Richard Ribeiro, drums/percussion (the guy on the left)
Gulherme Granado, samplers/percuscion/voice (the dude in the middle to Rob's left)
Rob Mazurek, cornet/electronics (well, its not hard to pick out Rob).

Rob Mazurek's annoyingly cubist website.
If you get discouraged with the navigation, try this.
Strangely, Rob Mazurek is strangely on MySpace. Go figure.

Now listening to: RJD2 - F.H.H. from Deadringer. Buy it at

Six Degrees of Separation

2006-09-11T07:17:00.000-04:00

I first got turned on to drummer Ted Poor when my boy BK brought guitarist Ben Monder's group to the Underground at CMU. I was charged with taking care of the band and overseeing things at the show since BK ended up having to miss the show as he was in the pit orchestra for a local musical theater production. So that Thursday in April 2005, I picked up Monder, Theo Bleckmann, Kermit Driscoll, and Ted at their hotel; brought them to the CMU campus; down to the radio station where I taped an interview that never actually aired to my knowledge (props to Matt Toups for producing it). So that night the band was to perform at the Underground and like I said I was in charge of things.

Anyways the gig was very poorly attended due to it being booked on a Thursday and the fact that BK did very little advance publicity. Only a handful of guitar freaks showed up (mostly non-CMU affiliated cats either in high school or local musicians). It was a terrific show - as if I were sitting hearing this great band in Brooklyn or the Village - but in Pittsburgh at the most awkward venue on campus and possibly in all of Pittsburgh...

Anyways, since then I've seen Ted in a variety of different settings - with Ben Monder and singer/songwriter Rebecca Martin (who is married to bassist Larry Grenadier - they play together in the latest incarnation of Paul Motian's Trio 2000 + One), and with the extremely underrated pianist David Berkman on a live recording session at Smoke back in August of this summer.

At one point this summer, late one night at home in Philly while on my computer, I read about this group (The Respect Sextet) in a review on AllAboutJazz.com. The Respect Sextet had its start in Rochester where its members were students at the Eastman School of Music. It was a review of their performance this June at the Rochester International Jazz Festival - a festival that has grown immensely in stature in the last 3 years. Now, all but one of them are in NYC toughing it out on the jazz scene. Who knows if NY with wear them down or whether they will weather the storm finding jobs as they come along. It's always a gamble with that city...

Anyways, when I saw Ted in August we discussed the band and now (roughly 3 weeks later) my new buddy DJA is posting about them on his blog. And now that I think of it, I met Darcy that night before I went uptown to see Ted with Dave Berkman. Crazy!

My conclusion: This jazz world we live in is very small. There are at most three degrees of separation between myself and every young musician in NY under the age of 30. Everybody knows everybody and I guess MySpace and Facebook "help" these random events to occur. I find myself fortunate to know about musicians like Ted Poor, who despite his name is a fantastic musician, composer, and guy.

My inspiration for this post. Respect.

Now listening to: The Joe Lovano Ensemble - Fire Prophet - Part IV from Streams of Consciousness (Blue Note 2006)

Chris Potter 2006 Online Lessons Project

2006-09-11T01:50:00.000-04:00

So I hate to post another thing about CP so soon after mentioning him in my Sunday post, but I have to comment on his latest update to his website.

Not so revolutionary now that we've become familiarized with the ArtistShare model, Potter is now offering downloads and streaming content discussing the process of composing, improvising over, and recording Traveling Mercies (2002), Lift (2004), as well as his approach to playing the Jerome Kern standard All the Things You Are.

I think it's terrific if somewhat overdue (i.e. the only change in the website since it launched in late 2004 besides tour dates). You can't really fault the guy. I mean, he's constantly on tour, composing, rehearsing his band, or just relazing between all the above.

Lucky for saxophonists and musicians worldwide, Potter had some time this summer to sit down with ArtistShare creator/technological facilitator Brian Camelio and talk about the inspiring music on these previous albums.

No word yet on whether these sections will actually be updated biweekly as the participant offers claim, but all we can do is hope for the best.

Also don't be fooled by the dates on the main page (namely the "upcoming dates" section) which Chris regularly updates. If looking on the top navigation bar, click on "Events" for the same information. Someone really should show him how to update the main page to reflect that he has made changes to the tour dates so its more obvious to people who look at the site.

Now listening to Gnarls Barkley - Who Cares from the album St. Elsewhere (Atlantic 2006). Buy it.

....I missed the Dewey Redman train.....

2006-09-08T20:57:00.000-04:00

This past week I deleted everything in my MacBook's iTunes library with the genre "Jazz."

Why would Dr. Jazz Ph.D do such a thing? Well, I could say it was a cleansing of sorts but I'd be lying. The reality was that my MacBook kept coming up with error messages saying "Startup Disk Almost Full" and it was freezing up programs left and right.

Here I was, back where I'd been all the past year and a half since living with only 40GB of space on my one broken iBook G4. This time around though, I'd transferred everything I had on the old iBook to this MacBook as well as the iMac I bought along with this new MacBook to celebrate my graduation from college (thanks Mom & Dad). The iMac and the MacBook were holding everything I had ripped and/or downloaded from the Pittsburgh years plus everything I'd ripped since I got into Philadelphia town.

Thus I had a redundant system. A couple albums that were on the MacBook weren't on the iMac and vice versa but I had a problem and it needed fixing, so I deleted the bulk of the drive (i.e. all my music tagged as jazz), and tried to start anew with the bootlegged stuff that I hadn't bothered tagging with a genre and the random assortment of other types of music I listen to.

I was left with a mess (my recent rotation).

Some Sufjan Stevens tracks I'd just legally downloaded from iTunes, a bunch of Aceyalone (with various projects), Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, an Ahmad Jamael track, a bit of Ella Fitzgerald I hadn't tagged "jazz" or was tagged something ridiculous like "alternative/punk," several albums and singles produced by RJD2, a shit ton of music by the avant-rock group The Residents and a smorgasboard of other stuff.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You're probably wondering at this point what the fuck this post has to do with Dewey Redman. Right?

Well, a couple days after I deleted all my music - Dewey Redman died. This week I must have read 15 tributes to Dewey Redman in addition to all the threads going on at AAJ, Organissimo, JazzCorner. I found out before many as I happened to be chatting with Margaret Davis (who is Henry Grimes' partner and manager). "We lost Dewey last night," was the way she broke it to me Sunday morning in the midst of bemoaning the dwindling number of original jazz masters alive today. Note: We were strategizing about bookings this November for Henry, Roy Campbell Jr. and Chad Taylor (three quarters of the Spiritual Unity band - apparently leader Marc Ribot will only be on the Philly and NY dates).

It was only when I went to my CD and LP collection that I realized not only did I not have anything with Dewey Redman as a leader, but I couldn't find a thing with him as a sideman either. I must have heard him or played him sometime on the radio in the jazz journey of my life, but I'll be darned if I could describe what he sounded like or pick out any of his tunes... Thus, somehow, some way i missed the Dewey Redman train. I was on his son's proverbial "train" from his debut on Warner Brothers. But I always knew Josh was his dad's foil - a much straighter player.

It really goes to show you how players and listeners of my generation can know so little about the music of the elders because of all of the media attention goes to the young kid (in this case Josh) whose technique in all registers wove circles around his dad Dewey. But do these acrobatics necessarily make him the better player?

Well certainly more exciting for a young sax player to listen to. I wouldn't have "gotten" Dewey based on Ethan's description as a young player.

My past insistence that Chris Potter is the funkiest mainstream sax player of all time is proof positive of the limitations in my listening experience. The fact is that while Potter may be one of the most exciting players with music readily available for me to listen to, he is one player within a very small time compartment jazz history.

I recently learned that Eddie Harris (an woefully unsung cat) did a lot of the same stuff that Potter has been doing, but I just hadn't gotten around to listening to Harris' stuff both because my peers weren't talking to me about it, and because I just hadn't been willing to sample some of the greater earlier post-Coltrane tenor playing.

There are tons of other cats out there. Old and young. Obscure and famous....that are playing music just as vibrant and relevant as Chris'. I really think that the lesson learned here is that it can't hurt to take a step back from what the magazines and our close friends tell us to dig on, and look back to earlier periods as well as the current scene for what it really is: a diverse mix of concepts and musical sensibilities.

Maybe by erasing all my "new modern jazz" from the computer, I am getting a fresh start and will be able to focus more on the predecessors to Chris Potter, Josh Redman, Mark Turner, and Seamus Blake, etc. This will make some critics of my listening tendencies very happy and I do actually think I'll benefit from a change in my listening regimen.

But the following bloggers straightened things out for me on Dewey. And there were so many recordings referenced that I've got my collecting work ahead of me for years to come.

Do The Math has a very lucid appreciation of the man, his music and his essence. Also, Marc Medwin (Bagatellen), Pat (visionsong), Aldon Lynn Nielsen (HeatStrings), David Ryshpan (Settled In Shipping), Mac (Portastic), Destination Out, DJ Matt Durutti (Los Amigos De Durutti), etnobofin, the NYT (Ratliff), the UPI, Washington Post and the
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Now listening to: Brad Mehldau - Wave/Mother Nature's Son (Largo - Warner Bros 2005)

David Weiss @ FatCat Tonight & Every Wednesday Night

2006-08-30T16:10:00.000-04:00

Fat Cat
presents
David Weiss and the Point of Departure Quintet

David Weiss- Trumpet
J.D. Allen- Tenor Sax
Nir Felder- Guitar
Luques Curtis- Bass
Jamire Williams- Drums
Kendrick Scott- Drums (August 30)

Fat Cat
75 Christopher Street
(between 7th Avenue and Bleecker Street)
(212) 343-0612
www.Fatcatjazz.com
Wednesday August 30
Shows at 10 pm and 12 midnight
$10 Cover with this invite
http://www.davidweissmusic.com/
http://www.myspace.com/davidweisssextet

Go see this killin' band tonight (Wednesday August 30) in Greenwich Village (subway: 1/2 to Christopher Street) if you are in NY. I will post more info in a bit. Gotta run....

Fat Possum Records documentary on IFC

2006-08-28T00:58:00.000-04:00

Fat Possum is a blues and indie rock label that was started by some white dudes who loved the music of the Mississippi Delta and wanted to record some of the last remaining original players who had never left Mississippi to pursue any kind of careers in the music industry. Now their roster includes such lame indie rock acts as The Fiery Furnaces and The Black Keys (whose latest album is covers of Junior Kimbrough's music, one of the original Delta blues artists on the label - now deceased).

Now these musicians are old uneducated black men, many of whom can't read or write so having them sign a record contract is a bit dubious to say the least. But the documentary I saw on IFC, You See Me Laughin': The Last of the Hill Country Bluesmen (2003) (produced and directed by Mandy Stein), gives you the impression that the guys who started the company are not in it for the money. They want to expose new audiences to the music of these guys by pairing them up with remix producers and punk bands like Blues Explosion to make the music more accessible and palatable to young people. I think its a noble mission.

Anyways, check out Fat Possum Records' website. And check your local listings for IFC on the right side of the page in the second search box from the top here.

Esperanza Spalding; Doug Ramsey - Rifftides mentions The Jazz Clinic!!!

2006-08-27T23:03:00.000-04:00

So tonight by phone, I introduced the amazing Esperanza Spalding (Full Discloser: a client of mine) to the world of Last.fm, which readers of this blog know I'm crazy about. But I'm also crazy about Esperanza's music. The title of this entry links to her Last.fm artist page and if you all could go and vote on the picture of her I posted so that it can go up, I would appreciate it. Of course, you'll have to sign up for an account but it's totally free for the basic service. For the price though that I've paid, I've been turned on to so many new artists to me as well as music by artists I already knew, just hadn't heard the specific albums.

Check out Esperanza's music on the Esperanza Spalding Myspace Page that I created for her. She melds bass and vocals fluidly to produce a uniquely indentifiable sound which draws heavily on spontaneous creativity and soulfulness. I mean, I don't want to take this space to rant about my clients but I do want you all to hear her music.

And if anyone has a 2-month sublet available in New York, I might know someone looking for a place for September and October.

Thanks to Doug Ramsey for linking to my blog. This probably means more people are reading now and I'll have to professionalize my blog a little bit and post about my personal life elsewhere...get a livejournal account....and really focus on jazz for this blog.

Anyways, to continue with a tradition I have, I will leave you with the music I'm currently listening to right now.

Currently listening to: Maria Schneider Orchestra - Começar de Novo (featuring a stunning soprano sax solo by Tim Ries) off of the recently released Days of Wine and Roses: Live at the Jazz Standard.

George Garzone - The Fringe in New York

2006-08-23T00:38:00.000-04:00

This album is absolutely sick! Garzone is basically Joe Lovano without press. He's the cat who everyone at Barklee has shedded off but cats don't talk about when listing their influences. To give you an idea, here is a track from this album. Let the music do the convincing.

I can't figure out the hosting stuff right now. So just listen at the outlets below.

The Fringe In New York

George Garzone
NYC Records

Buy at iTunes Music Store

Buy at Napster

Buy at eMusic

Download "Slip + Slide" (MP3, 192kbps)

Jimmy Greene Quartet @ Smoke Aug. 18-19, 2006

2006-08-16T20:18:00.000-04:00

Here is my pick for THIS COMING WEEKEND:

August 18-19, 2006
Jimmy Greene Quartet appearing at Smoke
3 sets per night at 8 PM, 10 PM, & 11:30 PM

(From left to right): drummer Eric Harland, Jimmy Greene, bassist Reuben Rogers, and pianist Xavier Davis) Note: On the far left of this picture is drummer Eric Harland who appears on Jimmy's latest recording True Life Stories (Criss Cross Records). Eric will be replaced by Greg Hutchinson on this gig as he is on the road with saxophonist Charles Lloyd. Everyone else in the picture is on this weekend's gigs.

Jimmy Greene - saxophones
Xavier Davis - piano
Reuben Rogers - bass
Greg Hutchinson- drums

Jimmy, who grew up being mentored in his native Hartford by Jackie McLean should be most well-known as the 2nd Place winner of the 1996 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition for saxophone, but is actually better known as a member of the Tom Harrell Quintet, the Harry Connick Jr. Big Band, Claudia Acuna's quintet, and drummer Lewis Nash's band.

For more info, visit Smoke's website.

Visit Jimmy online here.

Smoke is located at 2751 Broadway (between 105th and 106th streets) New York, NY 10025.

The phone number is (212) 864-6662.

Michael Brecker

2006-07-26T02:44:00.000-04:00

Brecker is feeling better these days after a partial marrow transplant from his daughter. You can read more about that here. (on his MySpace page of all places!).

I was so happy to hear about his surprise appearance onstage at Carnegie Hall during the JVC Jazz Festival with Herbie! The last time I saw him live was on the 2nd Directions in Music tour with Herbie, Roy Hargrove, Terri Lynne, Scott Colley in Pittsburgh.

Brecker, thought his vibrato can drive me up walls, was a major source of inspiration to me as a saxophone player. Growing up and hearing the overtones he does on "Two Blocks From the Edge" totally changed how I looked at the possibilities on the saxophone. he man definitely got me through some rough shit in high school. Granted, there are like 3 or 4 people on Earth can touch Brecker technique-wise and those who read this blog know who at least one of those people is. I shouldn't have to say it.

But, man, only Brecker can do Brecker. He is so ridiculous and when he is in the groove with an adventurous rhythm section he can swing like a crazy M-F. JESUS! Listen to him play Oleo here way back in 1983 (the year I was born!):

For those of you wanting to see some newer rare Michael Brecker ish from before he got sick, here you go (I have no clue who that pianist is that they show on camera) but this is one of the definitive songs that changed my life:

If you didn't see it go pick up the June issue of JazzTimes at a library or music store or just purchase a pdf online (I have done so before) which ran a cover story of anecdotes from the jazz community on Michael Brecker and what he means to so many cats.

Ok. Going to bed thinking about how amazing Michael Brecker is. Thank God for Michael Brecker and we all continue to pray for his speedy recovery. Jews out there: Say a Mishebeirach for Michael Brecker if you are at a shul in the next few days or weeks! I wonder what Michael's Hebrew name is? Maybe someone can find that out and post it as a comment.

Apple commercials

2006-07-26T01:24:00.000-04:00

Disclaimer: this post has nothing to do with jazz.

So after having seen the original Mac vs PC commercials, I got hipped somewhere in the blogosphere to go check out the spoofs of these witty Apple commercials. By the way, I wonder whose job it is to dream up these commercials. I know Google hires these "creative" people whose job it is to simply dream up this shit. Perhaps Apple does the same? Probably. They can afford it.

Here are some of the originals:

Despite some horribly bad-looking actors and screw-ups in dialogue, some of these things are insanely funny and had me ROTFLMAOing (or should that read RingOTFLMAO?). Anways, here are some YouTube vids of my favorite spoofs:

Anyways....got some more posts in the works right now (something about supermarkets, something about Michael Brecker, and something coming up about Robin Eubanks). And a PODCAST from me will be coming very soon as I gather good audio content with not just my own voice!

Chris Potter on YouTube!

2006-07-19T00:08:00.000-04:00

Finally. A video of saxophonist Chris Potter with his own band to satiate my unending urge for new bootlegged Chris Potter. Can't wait to see this band again. I was looking IMN World's site and apparently they are coming to Philadelphia (Chris' Jazz Cafe) in February of 2007. But I'll have to go up to NY before then. Meanwhile I think I'll enjoy his albums and these two videos which another fan seems to have clandestinely taped with the camera under his table in the front row of the Jazz Standard in NY.

doofus

2006-07-15T15:35:00.000-04:00

woke up around 1:30 PM, started with the computer, talked to my dogg about JAMO and his blind date through Match.com, did my duty, got in the shower (with my glasses on), glasses fell off while shampooing, didn't worry about it, finished shower refreshed ready for a new day, crouched down to pick up glasses, found one lens and frames, other lens must've gone down the drain, SOL, looking at screen with left eye shut, guess I have to hobble to the closest pharmacy....(thanks google maps)

As Mindy of Animaniacs might have said, "Lens go down the hohhhl."

now listening to: Tim Hagans - "Are You Threatening Me (Kingsize Remix) off of Phonography (on newly updated Last.fm "recommendations radio" player).

fragments of a day

2006-07-15T04:27:00.000-04:00

did the jazz clinic, trained to NYC, had meeting at blue note, shopped for expensive menswear, realized I left my MacBook at Blue Note, met agata, bought a TimeOutNY, chatted on a park bench, checked email on a park bench, agata left me, went to catch pianist michael weiss at the kitano hotel, a japanese destination in midtown, came to to the conclusion that steve wilson, the saxophonist, is an insane man. the guy is incredible, talked to kendrick scott of terence blanchard's band who was reading for michael's drummer chair and was masterfully sublime, chatted for a while about the biz, headed downtown to see if I could catch some of monder w/ rebecca martin at FatCat (who I keep wanting to call Kate McGarry because in my mind they sound similar, but in reality don't at all). what a bizarre place. pool tables, checkers, Mac minis, ping-pong courts, and live jazz behind mystery door #1? ok..... lost my wallet, found it, checked email, charged my MacBook, cabbed across to East Village, waited for Siffert to call me back, drank framboise in a bar called Burp Castle (which by the way had a stellar selection of imported bottles) with WRCT friends Anthony, Matt, and Matt's girlfriend Jen, took a cab to the Bronx for $35, found nothing to eat in Anthony's fridge, dranks some OJ, plugged in the laptop, entered the WEP key, tried to send email, failed, fell asleep writing this post....

now listening to: John Fahey's "The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death" as inspired by the feature appreciation in the June issue of The Wire

2006-07-15T04:09:00.001-04:00

white noise maker

2006-07-15T04:09:00.000-04:00

white noise maker

This is my friend Sarah's blog. She is funny and smart. Read it.

Do You Feel Alive?

2006-07-13T12:11:00.000-04:00

View from the Third Tier

Last night, the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center was transformed into an international dance fest as the king and queen of world music, Amadou & Mariam (a blind married couple from Bamako - the capital of Mali) energized a mixed-age audience into a really energetic set of fun.

The band definitely started out slow. But song-by-song for the roughly 75 minute set, the band built up the energy to a fever pitch by the end. Amadou was definitely the leader, as his wife and partner Mariam only came on-stage to join him for about 3 or 4 songs. Her visage was totally blank though except for a couple smiles when she rubbed Amadou's head while saying in English, "I love you, baby."

The other really funny part and the reason for this post's title is Amadou kept repeating the phrase, "Dohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif you feel alive?" in his strong Malian accent. Obviously, he doesn't know much English and this was a genuine phrase that both fueled and captured the energy the band was generating for the enthusiastic crowd.

Highlights for me were from their latest album, Dimanche A Bamako. Some of the songs played included the title track, M'Bife (which I think has something to do with love), Liberte, and an engaging audience participation piece where the audience would repeat these words after Amadou uttered them in succession in the song's verse: "fatigué," "malheureux," and "misérable," which in French mean tired, unhappy, and miserable respectively (go 8 years of French!).

View from Stage Right

Anyways it was hot. This was all part of World Music Wednesdays that the Kimmel Center is hosting throughout July. Next week is a group called Daara J from Senegal, the week after a group from India called Musafir, and they are ending the miniseries with Tiempo Libre from Havana via Miami.

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show: Podcast 48 : Andrew Hill

2006-07-11T22:27:00.000-04:00

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show: Podcast 48 : Andrew Hill

This is a great podcast on Andrew Hill. Check it out!!!

no Jazz Clinic today

2006-07-07T10:36:00.000-04:00

I woke up at 10:15 today and called a friend to sub for me since I had to work anyways this afternoon. Rushing up there with 40 minutes to get there and prepare and then drive right back did not seem like a worthy prospect.

So please await the return of the Jazz Clinic to WPRB airwaves next Friday promptly at 11 AM.

Now listening to Grachan Moncur - Evolution (Blue Note)

prognotfrog.blogspot.com - amazing!!!

2006-07-01T02:05:00.000-04:00

prognotfrog.blogspot.com is an amazing blog featuring full album downloads of rare jazz, avant-garde, psych-rock, and noize bands from the 60s through today.

I was hipped to this blog at 1:30 in the morning by a drunken member of the Dreadnots (the one who usually spits the rhymes and plays with various manipulation boxes), a Pittsburgh nerdcore experimental hip-hop band. They are three white dudes who have so much musical knowledge between them that it boggles my mind as why & how the hell they're still in Pittsburgh!

He dialed me arouund 1 AM with his number blocked and told me first he was Jonathan Winters, whom I googled and found was the famous the character actor. Then he started dropping knowledge on me at alarming rates about the Sun City Girls, the Sublime Frequencies series, The Residents, and various other psych bands whose names I had heard but whose music I had/have not really checked out. The discussion ranged from Frank Wright to Jean Claude Vannier to Soft Machine.

During the span of the call he told me about this excellent blog, but also about how he was recording an album with Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls and that the recently split-up Sleater-Kinney girls were coming over to get high.

When I finally figured out who the guy was, I was congratulated by the Underwater Culprit and told that DJ Negative One had also beek punk'd earlier.

Thanks guys! Mighty entertaining!

JVC Jazz Fest Honors Lorraine Gordon; Car Troubles Come to an End

2006-06-28T22:21:00.000-04:00

Well, the last time I blogged for you I had come back from NY and I was reeling from seeing some amazing music. Well...the fun continued on the following Monday (June 19) with a trip up to New York again to A) volunteer for the Jazz Journalists Association Awards (JJA Awards) & B) to see another free show at Carnegie Hall - this one a celebration of the continued work of Lorraine Gordon, the proprietor and manager of the legendary Village Vanguard which her late husband Max Gordon, a German Jewish immigrant started in the 1930s as a haven for artists of all kinds (it was originally conceived as a meeting ground for poets and other literary figures but the jazz is the thing that eventually stuck).

JJA Awards

The Jazz Awards were fun but rather tiring and made me pretty nervous about not having enough energy or stamina to see the show that night and also get back to Philly. However, by volunteering I got free admission. I also got to meet Jason Moran and his Bandwagon (referred to in my last entry), Gerald Wilson, Joe Lovano, a lot of label people from Blue Note and Mack Avenue Records, journalists I've grown up reading in Downbeat and JazzTimes, as well as legendary festival producer George Wein, and record producer George Avakian. I also saw a whole bunch of people I already knew from the radio world like Linda Yohn from WEMU, Tatsuya K from Dreyfus Records, Terry Coen from Palmetto, and Tom Mallison from South Carolina Public Radio.

The Concert: Sweet Lorraine

To a much more enthusiastic audience than Ornette had (I think a lot of people went to that show just to be able to say they had gone to see Ornette Coleman), Carnegie Hall and the JVC Jazz Festival transformed the Vanguard into a much larger Uptown space for one night (with horrible sound). How did the transform Carnegie Hall into a bigger Village Vanguard? The festival producers had the good sense to book five distinct acts that Lorraine & Max Gordon nurtured over the years with consistent bookings. Many of these bands developed their sound and some of their mystique from their gigs at the Vanguard. After all, as the evening's emcee rightly put it, the Vanguard is a connundrum. It is hallowed ground. Yet every 20-30 minutes the 7th Ave express rumbles loudly beneath the clubs flimsy wooden plank floor. The club has not been renovated or altered once throughout its history. The only thing that has changed over the years have been the number jazz icons hanging on the club's walls often with signatures.

On to the music: the lineup was stellar. Dr. Michael White and His Original Liberty Jazz Band playing "trad jazz" - i.e. the music of N'awlinz. Dr. White's band were one of two all-black acts that evening, the other being the Roy Hargrove Quintet feat. Bobby Hutcherson on vibes. Second came Paul Motian's Trio 2000 + One w/ guest vocalist Rebecca Martin (who knocked my socks off) and the bands regular: Larry Grenadier on bass, and Chris Potter on tenor sax. They played a mix of rarer standards and slithering, free Motian tunes. Potter played in a totally interesting free yet lyrical, even singable manner.

Then came Hargrove's band who breezed through a varies set of straight hard-bop a la Cannonball Adderley Quintet. His sidemen were his regular touring band of Justin Robinson on alto, Ronnie Matthews on piano, bassist James Genus, and drummer Willie Jones III. The special guest, whom no one in the hall could hear, was legendary vibist Bobby Hutcherson. There was one Latin flavored tune from their new record Nothing Serious that really got to my heart as well as a ballad whose melody modulated upwards by step four times each time they played the head, giving the listener a feeling of being on different planes.

A 15 minute intermission followed.

Then came The Bad Plus, who played a sublime set of new compositions and one cover. Refer to Ben Ratliff's review for the way they played. It pretty much captured anything I could say here.
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Last, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra performed w/ guest soloist and band alumnus tenor saxist Joe Lovano. I left the hall before they started to secure a position to hand out flyers of the winners from the JJA awards from earlier in the evening, but I heard parts of their set from the lobby and they sounded in top shape as usual. Rich Perry killed on tenor as always and I heard a bit of a Terell Stafford trumpet solo which was swingin as hell.

....fast forward to today.....many poker games later (yes the cards bug has bitten me once again; helped by my new roommates passion for the game - but I'M UP folks!!!)

As many of my readers know, recently my car has been giving me some trouble. In May when helping a friend make I movie, I managed to basically disable the driver's side door. Long story short, I now drive an otherwise champagne-colored '96 Ford Crown Victoria with a BLUE door. Yeah, I know. No one is going to steal this car.... At least I can be sure of that much. So today, it went in for another $300 of work. But the point of this story is that I got a new reliable guy in Philly. His name is Larry and he works here at the Shell station. He is a real pro and a gentleman. If you're in the Philly area, I highly recommend him - not quite as highly as Tony's Garage which is here back in Pittsburgh on Mellon St.

Aight....more to come...

In the meantime, check out REGINA SPEKTOR, the singer.

Friday Night 06/16/06 in NY

2006-06-18T10:53:00.000-04:00

So, I told you I'd update after the Ornette Coleman show:

Ornette at Carnegie Hall was actually not that impressive to me. Sure, I got to see him in his blue suit, pink shirt, yellow cravate and pork pie hat playing his wailing yet absolutely squeak-free altissimo and other high notes on his white alto (occaisonally switching to trumpet), but the music lacked enough pep to keep me interested all the time. All the tunes sounded like Ornette Tunes - all outside, but ending in Copeland-like "American" consonance. In the end, hearing Ornette live with a typically strange instrumentation (Greg Cohen on upright - plucking, Tony Falanga on upright - arco, and Al McDowell on electric bass, Denardo Coleman on drum set) is better than recording. But I felt that the sound was not very good and you lost a lot of what they were doing to the size of the hall. And it's freakin' hard to hear what three bassists are doing when playing on top of each other.

Attendance was particularly good -- not too surprising considering Ornette basically created the genre we now know as "free jazz".

I'd estimate there were about 1500 people out of a possible 2800 in the hall.

Brad dug the hell out of it (he was rocking back and forth the whole time).

Some perks of being with Brad: I got to meet Ben Ratliff of the New York Times and Ashley Kahn, author of several jazz books profiling Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, Coltrane's A Love Supreme, and most recently a volume chronicling the story of the Impulse label entitled The House That Trane Built. The encore was Ornette's Lonely Woman - a personal highlight for me.

After we left the hall, while chatting with jazz writer David Adler (another stellar writer for All About Jazz-New York, Jazztimes, and The New Republic Online, Signal to Noise, etc) we found out that Chris Potter was at the 55 Bar. So we headed straight downtown by cab. Before getting in the cab, I stopped at an ATM to get cash for a night of spending. After searching through my wallet, I found I had lost one of my ATM check cards, so I used the other and while riding downtown called to cancel the card. It turned up in my backpack 10 minutes later while waiting in line on Christopher Street!

Also while waiting in the line (did I mention it was a long-ass line) to see Chris at the 55, we read in All About Jazz-New York that one of our clients, Jason Moran (and his band, The Bandwagon - bassist Tarus Mateen & drummer Nasheet Waits) were backing up baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett at Sweet Rhythm a couple blocks away. Since I'd been left wanting more after hearing Bluiett at The Five Spot a week earlier with David Murray, and we were taking a chance at the back of the line for the Potter show, we made an split-second decision to go over there hoping to enter for free through our connection to Jason.

It worked out and the band was stellar. They played originals and standards including Misty. It was great to hear the chemistry of The Bandwagon, a band that's been together for at least 4 years. With Bluiett, it was doubly sweet. For those not in the know, Bluiett is the king of wailing altissimo on bari. However, his low end packs an equal if not greater punch. Waits was killin'. He is totally one of my favorite drummers.

At Sweet Rhythm we met up with Ted Panken (writer for Downbeat, Jazziz, and radio host for WKCR FM at Columbia University). He told us he was going to see the late late show by Chris at the 55. So we left the Bluiett gig around 11:30 to see Potter.

After waiting in line again in front of the 55 for at least a half-hour, we were treated to an amazingly intimate set of music ranging from Joni Mitchell to a Middle-Eastern tune to Big Top (which is one Potter's latest disc, Underground)
and a song called Boots. The band was Potter on tenor and keyboard (no Taborn cuz of the Vision Festival), Nate Smith on drums, Adam Rogers on guitar, and Joe Martin on bass. I won't gush. It was fucking amazing. No words can describe what went on.

Now listening to: Robin Eubanks' podcast on iTunes.

New Digs; WPRB - First Show; Trip to NY

2006-06-16T18:18:00.000-04:00

Wow. It's been a while and a half since I blogged. Where shall I begin?

Well first off I am now living in Philadelphia just inside the city line about 2 miles from my main job at DL Media (www.jazzpublicity.com). I am having a blast at work. Probably too much. My first project has been tour publicity for this bassist who's been with Paul Simon since the Graceland days named Bakithi Kumalo. I've been pitching his CD to the cities where Paul Simon's Surprise tour is taking him this summer. This past two weeks was focused on the Ohio dates between June 28 - July 2. I also covered some of the national media as far as bass publications were concerned. Looks like we may get some coverage in Bassics magazine and even Bass Player too since the editors of both dig Bakithi. Also trying to convince my office to go on Skype to do conference calls and the like for free rather than paying long distance all the time.

Aside from work, which is still jazz-related and offered me mounds of free CDs and other stuff, I've seen a couple concerts in Philly:

1) David Murray & Hamiett Bluiett of the World Saxophone Quartet performed a very terrific show w/ electric bassist Jamaladeen Tacuma, drummer Lee Pearson (Erykah Badu, Lauren Hill, Snoop Dogg), and Murray's son Mingus. This show was very well attended despite being on a Thursday night and put together with very short notice for press, of which there was virtually none. I would call it avant blues funk w/ squeaking! And no one can squeak like Murray and Bluiett.

2) Ken Vandermark/Paul Lytton/Phillip Wachsmann & Trio BraamDeJoodeVatcher played the latest Ars Nova show (actually the first night of a 2-night European improvisers mini-festival at UPenn). It was my second time seeing Vandermark and this trio (called Cinc - no significance in the name....I asked) was sublime. Ken did a lot of circular breathing and as my co-worker and friend Brad said, "It's all about a transfer of energy." That was it. Everybody was intensely listening to each other so intensely yet gently and sensitively that when they hit the last note of a section, they all knew it was time to end. It was cool to see their level of aural communication as opposed to visual cues. The second group, also a trio, from Amsterdam was much more structured but still very free. The pianist and default leader Michael Braam was like a stride-playing avant-gardist. He had a definite penchant for sounding like he was playing a rag while entirely freely improvised. The bassist DeJoode was good - excellent plucking - INTENSE facial expressions, but the drummer who reminded me of the facial and bodily movements of Ari Hoenig was a bit annoying and didn't really fit with what Braam was doing much of the time.

Visit www.arsnovaworkshop.com for some other great improvised music coming up in the Philadelphia area including Henry Grimes & Oluyemi Thomas, Charles Gayle, Han Bennink/Peter Brotzmann, and many others!

Today, after working really late at the office last night (for no overtime pay) and talking at length with my boss' son about the best restaurants in Philly to hit up for cheesesteaks, sandwiches, and Japanese, I drove to Princeton, NJ for my first official radio show at WPRB Princeton. WRPB is Princeton University's student & community radio station where I have my new radio home. On my first show, I had guest bassist Reuben Rogers in the studio with me to discuss his new record. I played several albums by cats in his musical circle including saxophonist John Ellis, and pianist Aaron Goldberg, with whom he's going to Europe with for a couple weeks very soon with guest saxophonist Chris Potter. I wish I could see that band in the states. Reuben also played a couple of his favorite tracks (Wayne Shorter, The Poll Winners, and something else) that either inspired him early on or inspired cuts on his new album - Things That I Am, his first as a leader. I also played the latest Blue Note albums by Greg Osby (Channel Three), Terence Blanchard (Flow), and Joe Lovano (Streams of Expression - in stores August 1) as well as the new Liberty Ellman on Pi Recordings. I saw Liberty a couple months ago in Philly when I first came to meet with my current boss and talk about what I could do for his business. He was in Henry Threadgill's Zooid band.

After the radio show, I picked up Brad and we drove to NYC, where I am right now. After much confusion and several moving violations in NJ we got into the city, parked for a lot of money and went to a great little Brazilian place at 48th St and 8th Ave called Brazil Grill. We both had amazing seaford dishes. We are now vegetating in Starbucks at 51st and Broadway writing, checking email (well, at least I am) and waiting to do what we came here to do - SEE ORNETTE COLEMAN FOR FREE @ Carnegie Hall. This will be my first Ornette show and my first time at Carnegie Hall. Will post an update after Ornette!

Now digging: John Ellis - By a Thread as well as Brian Lynch's new ArtistShare project which I will be working on later this summer. Also look out for a new Monk/Coltrane "Complete 1957 Riverside Sessions" double-CD from Concord.

Jazz Journalist Awards are on Monday which I will be back to work and then see another Carnegie Hall show quadruple bill honoring Lorraine Gordon, proprietor of the Village Vanguard featuring The Bad Plus, Roy Hargrove's Quintet w/ Bobby Hutcherson, Paul Motian's Trio 2000 + One w/ Chris Potter, Larry Grenadier, and Rebecca Martin (vocals), Joe Lovano w/ The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Dr. Michael White's Original Liberty Jazz Band - for my job - for FREE! Living the jazz life....

Peace, bitches....

recent listening...

2006-05-08T01:01:00.000-04:00

Sunburned Hand of the Man dry-humps a skeleton

2006-05-05T03:25:00.000-04:00

Tonight I went to a great Edgar Um production featuring Seattle punk rockers Shoplifting, local quirksters Natura Nasa and punk-funkers Centipede E'est, and Sunburned Hand of the Man, a Boston hippie "freak folk" black metal jam band. The performances were held at a hole-in-the-wall venue without front windows called Paint & Body.

The space is supposedly also an art gallery but I'd never seen such a sketchtronic gallery. How can you entice people to come in and see your work if the windows have been replaced by wooden boards? Anyways, this space is in Wilkinsburg, PA - just beyond the Pittsburgh city line. The street had the all-too-familiar tension between drunk white hipsters catching a "deep" show and the black residents of the locale walking back and forth along the sidewalk wondering what these strangers to their neighborhood are doing - and what the hell they're "listening to."

Tonight's scene represents the utter disconnect between whites and blacks in America. But in this case it's an even greater divide - one group listens to WRCT; the other to the much more mainstream commercial WAMO. The blacks, whose neighborhood we were in, gawked in their inability to comprehend or relate to the goings-on. And the white kids and young adults there to see a freaky show to add to their hipster cred, all the while, awkwardly avoided uncomfortable confrontations on the sidewalks with the stereotypical black beggars, drunks, and plain-old confused teens.

How can these two demographic groups who operate with grossly disparate world views, coexist in neighborhoods where they share common spaces. Is it fair to say that we, the white kids, were in their neighborhood. Or do the white youth have as much a right to call this space their own by virtue of their own poverty. Today in America, this uncomfortable mix does not exist just in Pittsburgh, but all over our cities and suburbs, as whites and blacks sharing similar economic circumstances, for whatever reasons, must share these streets and corners.

Anyways, I'm just throwing that out there.

So I got there in the middle of Shoplifting's rawkus punk set. Eastridge was there when I walked in, but soon disappeared. Ess Boyle was lurking outside on the sidewalk. All the regular faces were present. Paul's CDs regulars. WRCT-type music heads and all the people who showed up to the avant-garde shows I put on at CMU this year. Pittsburgh is very much a small community when it comes to the avant-garde. Or maybe its just an East End thing. Who knows?

last.fm

2006-05-04T02:39:00.000-04:00

Last.fm is the shit.

Here is stuff that I like to listen to a lot.

Sign up. It's free.

Past few days + a good movie

2006-04-11T23:13:00.000-04:00

It's really weird. Some days I wake up at 7:30 after having gone to bed at 3 AM and its enough sleep. Others, I sleep til noon or after and it's just not enough. I will sleep for eight hours, wake up, check some emails, and then go back to sleep. I'm gonna have to snap out of this real soon with reality coming to hit me in the face in a couple months.

Anyways, yesterday was a 'sleep the whole day' day and it ended in me missing an important test and not being able to meet with my group members as planned to get together and complete the group assignment for shitty OID. Well its now Tuesday night, and not only haven't I studied for the test I missed, I am not done with the assignment - and it's due tomorrow at 5 pm.

In my perennial quest to do as much wrong as possible before actually knuckling down and getting some work done, I decided I would watch this movie I got from Netflix with Nicholas Cage and Michael Caine about a guy who is an unhappy weather man on TV. This is a really good movie. It is kind of a reflection on a lot of the things I think about often: where will I be when I'm 40? Who will I be? Will I be defined by my failures or by my successes? Will I have any successes? The cover is pictured to the right.

This movie really gets at life in general in an enlightening yet very dark way, much like American Psycho did. I think I like this move equally well. Perhaps more, because of the lack of brutal murdering - which I am not a fan of (but could tolerate because it was all so tongue-in-cheek.

Anyways, you should check it out. I was truly impressed by Caine's character, and tormented, which one should be, by Cage's.

Over and out....oh shit I'm cooking pasta......

Horse & Burro Adoption

2006-04-09T00:34:00.000-04:00

Well, it's 12:30 AM Sunday April 9, 2006. At the station. Cuz where else do I go after Underground shows than the ole station.

We just got finished with the post-gig hangout, which was decidedly short since everyone in the band was mad tired from last night.

What did we do last night, you ask? We practiced for tonight live on the air on WRCT.

But anyways, thanks to the massive email blasts which Horse/Knuckles, Hell, and H/K's friend Reuben Quintero sent out. Loads of people came. I really should have booked more student bands this year. Only now I realize it's the only way to get people out to a show (CMU students, at least).

After Reuben's band Vegemite Monster opened for us with some Blink 182-esque pop punk, East directed us to slowly go on stage one by one. We prefaced the entrance with a pow-wow style screaming session between East and myself in the back corner of the Underground.

On stage, Buckyballs started us with the laptop electronics, followed by Hell on clarinet, then Abacus Finch on clarinet, then me on my soprano sax (I entered the stage walking backwards. When I got up front I kept having these feelings of vertigo like the Earth was shifting and I was really dizzy, but when I stopped blowing so hard into my sop, and turned frontwards, the feeling went away.), and H/K followed me. I think I followed up the soprano playing by heading over to the extra snare drum (with the snare off), beating away while complementing H/K's drums. At times we were in tandem with each other. At times we were off, but that is the intention in free music.

That would make for not much fun. Insanity followed by restraint, followed by more insanity is the best way to go about making freely improvised music. We rocked out in that configuration for a couple minutes....and then we switched instruments....somehow that all went on for like and hour and forty-five minutes. If I were to try to tell you what happened between those first 5 minutes and the end.

Some highlights:

- yelling obscenities at the audience; completely uninhibited by the FCC

- Horse/Knuckles Knuckles/Horse on the floor with the electric guitar, sweating profusely, hair completely gone hay-wire

- Buckyball dropping the electric guitar on stage

- Denton breaking drum sticks for the hell of it

- me lying down on stage playing the soprano sax into the mic (also screaming "

- East aka Hell pouring water into one end of his sax and attempting to play it while tipping it the other way so that water ran into his mouth and out the open holes throughout the bore of the horn

- all of us yelling "HORSE......AND.......BURRO!!!!" at various times during the performance

- the Underground staff joining in.....

Wow. Good times were had by all....except the trapped freshmen.

ICP Orchestra a Hit in Pittsburgh

2006-03-29T23:52:00.000-05:00

Wow. Weer Is Een Daag Voorbij!

"Another Day Has Come and Gone," the translation of the exclamation above, is actually the name of the Instant Composers Pool Orchestra's latest self-released album on ICP Records, but also it's a pretty accurate description of today's activities - except that today has come and gone in Pittsburgh with an amazing and historic performance captured in our hearts and our minds.

Luckily my day started around 11 AM. I knew I had to (and could) sleep in today, in order to have the energy to do all the shopping, lifting, carrying, ordering of food, hosting, setting-up, tearing-down, and other general stuff associated with putting on a show of this size and nature.

What size and nature, you ask? Well let's just say that the ingredients in play were Manny Theiner, an ensemble of 10 rambunctious Dutch & American musicians (including Han Bennink - known for his stage antics - which tonight included hitting the drum set with metal poles, hitting certain metal poles on other metal poles, using his chair as a drum stick of sorts, and whooping up and down like a seagull who has just zeroed in on a good meal), a 300-person hall, and finally a motley audience of Pittsburgh intellectuals, students, punks, and bums - all of whom got in for free (no thanks to Amy Stabenow, Concert Manager for the school of music).

Big thanks go to Manny Theiner for telling me about ICP's availability, doing all publicity/postering as well as writing the excellent article for CP (also thanks to Aaron Jentzen for publishing said article), Dave Pellow for booking the room and providing the bass amp, Liz Vaughan for doing all the contracting and logistical work she is so grand at, the percussion department (Paul Evans, Mikey L, Mikey P, and the red-haired dude whose name I always screw up), DJ for his sweet bass, Harold Walls and Riccardo Schulz (and their man Eric) for the sound equipment and expert help in Kresge, Chris from AB Tech for sound-checking and setting up the stage, and Spencer and Dan from AB Coffeehouse for the extra flow to make this show happen.

It was a crazy day with all the running around, finding drums, bass, amps, and getting the musicians fed before the show, but a beautiful performance ensued nevertheless. And the people surely came out! The concert included both pre-composed and "instantly composed" music; a variety of timbres from cacophonous to mellow. I definately heard Ellington and Tizol's "Caravan," Ellington's "Solitude" (with a beautiful free Johnny Hodges-esque alto feature by Michael Moore), and Monk's "Criss Cross" in the program. They did almost all the possible combinations of players on different tunes, with various group members often wandering the stage and backstage aimlessly. But I was particularly taken with Walter Wierbos (the trombonist), who changed his shirt twice on stage and often walked around with camera in-hand taking pictures of other members of the band as well as the audience while the music was going on.

Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink, the ICP's two remaining co-founders (the other Willem Breuker departed the ensemble long ago), did two duos. The latter one happened to be the second encore which ended the concert. The two men, arm-in-arm sang a heart warming vocal duo (Misha humming and growling with his signature boll-weevol growl).

Misha, Mary, Tristan, Ernst, Thomas, Han, Walter, Toby, Ab, Michael, and Susanna (their tour manager and booking agent) are probably all in bed now, but my head is still spinning from tonight's performance. Over 200 people were there! That's a big deal for a friggin improvised music show in any city, let alone Pittsburgh.

P.S. I really still have that Henry Threadgill concert w/ Zooid in my mind (from when I was in Philly) and I look forward to working with Mark Christman and Ars Nova in the coming months when I move to Philly - I learned tonight from Susanna that they will be there during next year's US tour.

Ok, g'night.

Now listening to: ICP Orchestra - Kneushoorn (from BospaaDJe Konijnehol II)

Death

2006-03-12T22:03:00.000-05:00

Uncle Abrascha (Albert) Lotters died last Wednesday. He was born in the Ukraine in 1910, fled the Bolshevik Revolution at 7 with his parents, went to university at Ghent, later fleed the Nazis to Paris, then Spain, then the Dominican Republic. He was a civil engineer who worked on irrigation projects in the jungle of Hispaniola before a fortuitous eye injury allowed him to come live in the US. There he lived and worked in New York, working on projects including the Chrysler building, and the 1964 World's Fair grounds at Flushing Meadows. When his first wife passed in 1968 he was soon introduced to Joyce Stern and soon they were married. They were married 36 years. He died March 8, 2006 in Port Washington, NY. He was 95.

Burial is a strange thing - a very scary thing. It's hard not to picture the body inside the coffin pleading not to be covered with dirt. At Jewish burials it is customary for the bereaved to cover the coffin with the initial layer of dirt. Said layer must cover the coffin completely so that it is no longer visible. This is supposedly supposed to ensure that animals and other things don't get into it and for the family members' peace of mind.

Jews mourn for seven days. It's called "sitting shiva." Shiva means seven. It is sad but you get to eat a lot of food and pray quickly compared to most other services. I hope Aunt Joyce eventually lets the tears flow. It was very strange to see her not cry.

Also, Tony Soprano died tonight on the Sopranos. More on that later....

Now Listening to: Junior by Aceyalone w/ RJD2

Prefuse 73 is following me; Chris Potter on WRCT

2006-02-25T00:31:00.000-05:00

So last night I saw Prefuse 73 again - second time in two months. Truth be told, I knew he was coming and helped promote the show through wrct but it seems like all of a sudden I see this dude in DC and then he comes to Pittsburgh. it was good. my impressions are basically the same except this show, I had earplugs and I'm not sure if they enhanced or took away from the experience.

he is a sound artist and what he is doing is basically sonic collages out of any given order, w/ hip hop beats to root the crowd every once in a while. to call Prefuse 73 a hip-hop DJ is like calling Venetian Snares a jazz artist cuz he uses samples of Billie Holiday.

Anyways, some really cool news - tomorrow on The Return of the Jazz Clinic, you can tune in to hear me interview Chris Potter on the air at 5 PM. The show is from 2-6 PM. Listen online here.

Some sweet records I got into rotation this week:

Hank Mobley - Workout (Blue Note)
Maria Schneider - Days of Wine & Roses (artistshare)
Paul Shapiro - It's in the Twilight (Tzadik)
Alex Sipiagin - Equilibrium (Criss Cross)
Manuel Valera - Melancolia (self-released)

I will post my playlist here tomorrow after my show and I'll try to post a transcription of the Chris Potter interview as soon as possible.

Now listening to: Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin' (Blue Note)

2nd/3rd days of jazz madness

2006-02-02T02:39:00.000-05:00

I lost this document on my friend's computer back in NY and didn't retreive it from him til about 30 min ago. This was written on the 14th of January.

Well, today started for me at 12:47. After listening to my friend’s new album with him and giving him comments on what he might change before releasing it, we shared a cab to Manhattan. He got off Downtown. I was going to Midtown for more jazz hedonism. Cab cost $30 without tip!

Went straight into the Sheraton Hotel and realized I had forgotten my badge in Brooklyn. No problem, I walked into the Jason Moran Blindfold Test hosted by jazz journalist Dan Ouellette without being checked for it. I arrived late but the tunes I was there for included Abdullah Ibrahim from an album called African something (ENJA 2002), Keith Jarrett from Radiance (ECM 2005), Medeski Martin & Wood from It’s A Jungle In Here (Gramaphone 1992), Jaki Byard from Live at Maybeck Hall Vol 17 (Concord 1992), The Bad Plus from their latest – Suspicious Activity? (Columbia 2005), and Harry Connick ,Jr. w/ Branford Marsalis from Occaison (Marsalis Music 2005). Jason offered very deep, heartfelt commentary on each tune. He got Abdullah Ibrahim, Keith Jarrett, MMW (only by chance – before finding out for sure who it was he gave it 2 stars. He said that he knows John Medeski’s playing both on organ and piano have improved immensely since then – that he has had more life experiences now), Jaki Byard (he got very emotional answering this one since Byard was his teacher and mentor), and The Bad Plus, He didn’t get the Harry Connick Jr. w/ Branford.

Now I am listening to the WDR Big Band with Paquito D’Rivera play the Sheraton Ballroom. Getting a little restless.

I will try to blog about yesterday below thought I have almost forgotten the day since so much good shit happened to me. My day started around 8:30 when I woke up, quickly dressed and took the subway in to the conference. I caught the JJA panel “Who Asked You Anyways” where I was very pleased to sit down and talk with JazzTimes and DownBeat columnist (now author too) Nate Chinen who is a friend of my good friend Randy Wong (from their days growing up together in Hawaii). Nate gave me some tips on how to further my career as a journalist if I want to go that route. I think I need to start really trying to actively make deadlines and such so I can write for the City Paper and other alternative print media that might pay me something. This requires sitting on partially-fleshed-out articles/stores sometimes before you get a bite from an editor to publish it. This was very informative.

Then I happened to be sitting there in the same seat and who should walk right in but DON LUCOFF. I know he sounds like a Mafioso but he is not. He is the KING of jazz public relations and promotions. His clients include Marsalis Music, Blue Note Records, and many many others including all the major concerts at IAJE (controlling the press and arranging seating stuff). By sitting in on this informal session of jazz publicists including Jason Byrne, Jana La Sorte, some people from Jazz @ Lincoln Center’s public relations department, and the people from Don’s company DL Media, I impressed a lot of people with my savvy of blogs, myspace, facebook, and bulletin boards as grassroots means of publicity that are increasingly important for the changing generation of music listeners. I spent most of the day hanging with musicians whom I had written articles about including trumpeter Ray Vega.

I also attended an excellent session on big bands and how the successful ones are doing what they do. These included Maria Schneider, John Clayton, Charles Tolliver, Gordon Goodwin, and Arturo O’Farrill. The moderator was John Clayton’s manager and big band/vocalist specialist Gail Boyd, a very talented lawyer and jazz advocate. They discussed issues as far ranging as the semantics of ‘big band’ versus ‘jazz orchestra’, and government financing of big bands, to how to start your first big band and union rates for musicians and whether they are still appropriate and whether these band leaders use that kind of scale or one that is more realistic for their monetary limits and one that cats are still willing to work with.

At night, the National Endowment for the Arts presented their annual Jazz Masters awards. The two featured big bands of the night were the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra and the Count Basie ghost band feat. Nnenna Freelon (who really got under my skin with her wit, personality, and spontaneity on stage). Walt Weiskopf took a killer solo with Faddis’ band on Coltrane’s Countdown arranged by Slide Hampton. Then after all the awards to Ray Barretto, Chick Corea, John Levy, Buddy DeFranco, Freddie Hubbard, and Bob Brookmeyer were handed out with a video montage for each chronicling their careers, the two bands played again. They invited old Jazz Masters in the room to come up on stage and jam on Count Basie’s “One O’Clock Jump.” As Slide Hampton, Paquito D’Rivera made their way on stage and Chick Corea followed, this tiny boy approached the stage with his trumpet in hand. Apparently he considered himself a jazz master and accordingly wanted to jam on the blues. The audience meanwhile was anxiously murmuring, wonderding whether this kid was for real or not. But when they let him play, he played HIS ASS OFF. The crowd roared for him. At the end, Jon Faddis announced “that was 10-year old Tyler Lindsay.” Wow. That was the highlight to close a great night and day of history, discussion of the present, and promise for the future.

After a day in the hotels, I headed into the “field” to see Mulgrew Miller w/ Vincent Herring on alto, Eddie Henderson & Maurice Brown on trumpets, guest saxophonist Wayne Escoffery (who had just come from blowing the crowds away with the Mingus Big Band/Dynasty/Orchestra (one of my top 10 picks of 2005), Ruben Rogers on bass, Lenny White on drums,

Back to today:

Now, it’s already 5:00 PM and I am gonna head over to a session called Major Indies – a discussion of indie jazz labels that are leading the crowd of people trying to present recorded jazz to the masses without corporate support.

Catch y’all later. Tonight is gonna be an insane night of shows.

lifeisjazzislifeisjazzislifeisjazzislife

2006-01-12T22:22:00.000-05:00

Here I am, paying $165.00 just to enter this conference in New York and all I can do all day is try to retrieve old phone numbers and attempt to see all the people who I've hosted at the Underground in Pittsburgh.

So far only Ari Hoenig has given me the time of day (not surprising since I let him sleep in my bed while I slept on my kitchen floor the night after his show at the Underground. His trio mates got the couch and my extra crappy IKEA bed in the guest room....did I mention I slept on the kitchen floor?). But I digress.

The two 9 AM sessions that I rushed up to NY last night to attend, I slept through. I did leave Anthony's house at 9:40 but it took a while for the bus to get me to the subway line and with my suit bag and backpack walking was not really an option. The 5 train to the 2 train to the Hilton was a LOOOOONG ride. But I did get to listen to some good Donald Harrison off of his latest CD on Nagel-Heyer Records Free Style with Vicente Archer on bass, John Lamkin on drums and Glen Patscha on piano on a couple tracks (two bonus cuts with Ron Carter and Billy Cobham from a forthcoming album (possibly an old one?). I played it a bunch last year on the station but really hadn't listened to it much at all since Ben Karp stole my personal copy and I rarely listen to anything on my iPod these days.

I'm always at the computer listening to iTunes or in the car listening to the radio. I sometimes wonder why I even keep my iPod. Although, I did just buy an equivalent to the iTrip which allows me to play my iPod through my car radio or any radio within a 10-ft radius of the iPod. I have to say I've been using this since I've been home in DC.

Anyways, back to the conference. The first session I attended was about rhythm, tempo, and time signatures. It was a clinic featuring Steve Wilson on saxes, Bruce Barth on piano, Adam Cruz on drums and Ed Howard on bass. I thought that Steve and Ed had the most useful insights. Some of the audience got too involved and tried to hijack the conversation at times. One such example was Steve Kirby (NOT THE GUITARIST - this Steve Kirby is apparently a former bassist with Elvin Jones which he noted; also according to his bio here he has played with Wynton M, Roy Hargrove, Cyrus Chestnut, Donald Harrison, and Brian Blade - now he's Director of Jazz Studies at University of Manitoba - go figure). Anyways this clinic was good but not great. I would have just preferred if they had played for an hour without any explaining. When jazz musicians try to explain what they are doing when they play, usually the conversation devolves into expressions comparing such concrete concepts ranging from 'one thing' to 'that right there' ('bag' is frequently used).

The next session I went to involved leaving the Hilton and journeying across 53rd St. to the Sheraton where the rest of the events are going on. I met up with a cat from a jazz station in Rochester (Derrick Lucas if you must know) and after briefly chatting, we decided to attend the talk by Larry Appelbaum (sound engineer at the Library of Congress) who recently uncovered Blue Note's smash hit of 2005, the Monk/Coltrane tapes from a 1957 performace at Carnegie Hall (its official title is Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane - Live at Carnegie Hall). It is on virtually every Top 10 list of this past year. Not mine strangely enough....This talk also featured Blue Note Records' legendary producer and writer, Michael Cuscuna, Bob Porter (John Coltrane biographer and music ubergeek), and of course T.S. Monk, the elder Monk's son (who only spoke once - but for about 20 minutes straight). I didn't learn much from this as I had heard this same spiel from the interview disc that was sent to radio and I played a few times when working needlessly late at WRCT. I would give the session only about a 6 out of 10 just for the fact that in the room, a few rows from Derrick and I, were Bernard Stollman (founder of ESP Records) who I exchanged business cards with, and Dr. Billy Taylor (who needs no introduction).

After that session it was 1:00 and I headed over to another uninformative though engaging session concerning JAI (Jazz Alliance international). They were so clueless, I had to tell them the URL of their own blog (which for your info is here) which I have read from time to time. They have an iniatiative going right now to survey as many people as possible (especially you non-loyal listeners of the jazz genre) and see how they can increase jazz' listenership. I think some of the most interesting discussion was focused on getting the NARAS Foundation to include at least some of the jazz-oriented Grammies on the Grammy telecast rather than just in the pre-TV show. I mean, last year or a couple years ago Dianne Reeves (whom I recently blogged about) won a Grammy and she wasn't even recognized on TV. Bruce Lundvall (CEO of Blue Note Records and EMI Classics and a founging member of JAI) made the good point that Chick Corea playing with the Foo Fighters at last year's Grammy award show did nothing positive for Chick Corea.....or the Foo Fighters. After the meeting I chatted with Tim Zak (who moderated and happens to be a CMU alum and adjunct professor in Tepper), and pianist Geri Allen whose album "The Life of a Song" did very well at WRCT last fall. I also got a chance to meet Father Peter F. O'Brien, SJ (don't ask me what SJ stands for), who managed jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams in the final years of her life (I seem to recall that she had a religious rebirth late in life and even wrote a jazz mass). Father O'Brien recently started an independent record label to preserve and honor the music of Mary Lou Williams. He was really sincere. He gave me their first release to play on the air in Pittsburgh, Mary Lou's home town. "But not before February 19!" It features Billy Hart, Andrew Cyrille and two others. I will blog about it later when I have listened to it.

After that session, I think I hung around for an hour while they prepared the room for a much bigger session and an historic one at that. It was billed "DownBeat Magazine Presents A First-Person Interview with Sonny Rollins by Ira Gitler." Gitler, probably the first or second most famous jazz writer of all time, said he was disappointed to report that he first heard of Sonny in 1949 (which apparently was late?). Anyways, Sonny was sick with a head-cold, the guy just lost his wife of over 50 years, Lucille, who handled all his business affairs in addition to TLC and he's over 80 years old, so he talked VERY SLOOOOWWWWLY and DELLLLIBERRRATELY. It would have sounded boring if one wasn't listening closely, but since no comprehensive biography of Sonny has been written, there was a lot of information I found out about that I had not previously known. For instance, he grew up in Sugar Hill with Art Taylor, Kenny Drew, Jackie McLean (who Gitler quoted saying Sonny used to play his alto with a tenor reed trying to sound like Coleman Hawkins). Though I left a little early to beat the rush, I enjoyed this talk immensely. However, my stomach beckoned.

Little did I know that filling a tray at the 53rd St. Deli would run me $12. That's Mid-Town Manhattan for ya! While eating my food, I gave a non-attentive and noticably distressed Paxton Baker my comments on what aspects of BET Jazz I do actually like about it (he is Executive VP for the BET Jazz Channel). Ahhh the beauty of IAJE. When I got up I ran into Aaron Cohen, the new associate editor of DownBeat whom I met in Chicago last winter when I was visiting my friend Raphael and I randomly struck up a conversation with him not knowing he was a jazz writer. Long story short, he said I should send him my stuff and he would give me comments and even try publishing some of my stuff if its good enough. (Now I have to work on word limits.)

At 5:00 I peeked into John Fedchock's NY Sextet which was a heaping dose of pretty tame white-boy jazz so I decided to saddle up back across 53rd St. to see Lionel Loueke at the Hilton. It was his group Gilfema, a trio featuring him on guitars and vocals, Massimo Biolcati on bass, and Ferenc Nemeth on drums. While at the performance I met up with Joe McCarthy, a terrific DC-Annapolis area drummer whom I did an interview with for All About Jazz during my year off. You can read it here. I got to chat with Lionel and his label people (who are from Germany) after their mesmerizing set and I got another bunch of promos from the label - Obliqsound.

Then it was over to the "cyber cafe" to check my 500 email accounts. Note: the cyber cafe was neither cyber nor a cafe.

Now I am in Brooklyn at Solomon's apartment blogging for you when I should be writing reviews of the 8 million things I have for review. Congratulate me! Console me! Feel my pain! Eat me.

Now Listening to: nothing.

chit-chat with dave

2006-01-09T02:38:00.000-05:00

A recent aim chat with my boy Dave:

me: yo

dave: hey man

me: I watched the Director's Label Michel Gondry documentary tonight (props to Beej for the recommendation)

dave: word
me: not all the videos, but the whole documentary part

dave: that's the best one

me: jesus christ

dave: i've only seen the videos

me: that dude is fuckin.....great

dave: hehe yeah!

me: insane, in an amazing way

me: the kylie minogue video is so incredible

dave: yeah dude i love his camera effects because they're invisible but the effect is so good

me: right

me: the white stripes video with all the drumsets is also very provocative/creative

dave: yeah that must have taken forever

dave: well im sure there was a trick for that too

me: oh and last night I saw Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic in the theater

dave: how is that?

me: you MUST see that. it was like surreally put together - very random and sloppy. the flow of the stand-up material is not at all smooth. it's kinda random and it has some definite high and some definite low points....things that are just not funny.

dave: word okay

dave: i didnt know if it was gonna be good or not so good

me: and also you must see Good Night and Good Luck. I am so thrilled to see a jazz musician in a mainstream movie (and not just on the soundtrack, but showing the full band. it's Dianne Reeves who released an album that is basically the soundtrack to the film. She appears in musical interludes in a separate studio within the CBS complex with this tenor player I never heard of named Matt Catingub, pianist Peter Martin, Jeff Hamilton on drums, and Robert Hurst on bass. Really nice band I thought - for a straight-ahead thing.).

dave: my friends and i watched all 3 lord of the rings extended dvds on friday in a row

me: and Munich is on my list; also the new Woody Allen movie Match Point.

dave: yeah i might see match point this week

me: my roommate got a 12 DVD box set of Lord of the Rings

me: scarlet the starlet

dave: yeah that's what i have

me: I mean.....I like the Bjork videos but I can't say I can totally get down with her music

dave: yeah i've stopped listening to her, especially this semester

dave: it's odd. i don't have any real reason for it

me: I found it to be a turnoff that gondry did a video for Foo Fighters

me: lame

dave: lol foo fighters...yeah im not into that

dave: im gonna go to bed. take it easy, talk to you later

dave signed off at 1:44:47 AM.

I am signing off at 3:14:55 AM.

Now listening to WRCT COMPUTER AUTOMATION!

ode to a chocolate babka

2006-01-06T21:09:00.001-05:00

Sorry for no good new stories from my life. Honestly its been pretty boring this week. Mostly working for Bob, a independent construction cost consultant who is old and stubborn and won't let me chat on AIM while I work because he read that it can give you viruses!

My tasks have consisted of nothing less than setting up a new Dell monitor with attached speakers, then documenting how to do it (in case he needs to do it himself in the future), doing an inventory of bags and bags of stuff he is giving away to Vietnam Veterans of America, getting pictures/logos/seals of jobs, companies, and governments his company has worked on or for, and finally today picking up two "plats" of "living" wheatgrass which he will later drink once he juices it. Bob's business was inherited from his father (it was started in 1920) and is so old that very often, the companies I am searching for have long been out of business, names of the companies have changed, and buildings are no longer there and so on. Most of this I find out on my own. His work lists are done from his memory which is good but obviously often quite dated. For all of this image searching my guiding light has been Google Image Search (gotta give props where props are due).

On a lighter note, I spent New Year's Eve reconnecting with some people from high school; people whom I thought I paid Carnegie Mellon plenty of money to never have to see again. But alas. Anyways the DJ there was spinning GOOD music: remixed Bobby Hutcherson, some Motown stuff, and strangely interesting poser afro-beat anthems.

On an "upbeat" note, I have been retained to do my first radio and print promotions job. Even got a check to listen to the CD and write up my ideas for the artist (who happens to be my old saxophone teacher Paul Carr). I will link to his new website, which I am helping to develop. Meanwhile, here is an INTERVIEW I did with him a little over a year ago to get his name out there beyond the MD-DC-VA area. Hopefully this album will get him some more credit which he very much deserves if only for the countless students whose lives he has changed by simply exposing them to the core vocabulary of jazz improvisation.

I think that's it for now.

Now Listening To: Sam Bevan - The Fine Line (contemplating a review of it for All About Jazz).

Now Hear This, Wu-Tang Tour in '06

2006-01-01T12:13:00.000-05:00

Wu-Tang is back on the menu people:

Confirmed to appear in DC on Monday February 13, 2006 at the 9:30 Club. Tickets are $50.00. BUY IN ADVANCE!!!

WU-TANG CLAN IS AVAILABLE FOR BOOKING featuring Rza, Method Man, U-God, Cappadonna, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon, Masta Killa, Mathematics, Streetlife and the rest of the Wu-Tang members.

Website: www.wutangcorp.com

Gonna be rockin. Hope I can make it.

Prefuse 73 Takes His Time

2005-12-31T09:47:00.000-05:00

Last night I attended the fabled Black Cat, quite possibly DC's best presenter of real and true indie music. Last night wasn't your average indie show. Sure the hipsters were out in full force; the bearded savants, the leather belt-clad punks, the trendy Asian woman, and a few brothas and sistas here and there.

The opener was a sort of noise-experimental electronic artist named Tyondai Braxton who I had never heard of. He played sitting down on a carpet with all sorts of pedals and gears. His voice and guitar were run through all these and he got a really echoey vibe on all 3 songs he played. This was not like noise exactly. It was more like Lungfish or Deerhoof but without intelligable lyrics. At one point I think he MC'd but overall his set was pretty mediocre. Check out his website for the projects he has worked on including a commission for Yale and some work with Elliott Sharp. It seems like he's toured with Prefuse quite a bit over the last two years.

But the real main event didn't hit until 11:30. I won't go into the long ridiculous wait (which was ridiculous.... and long). But when he finally went on, he really brought it. Prefuse 73 aka Scott Herren is an Atlanta-bred now world-famous hip-hop/electronic producer whose last few albums for Warp records have been extraordinary. He was maneuvering on some sort of synthesizer or a rack of synths that he seemed to be striking like he was hitting the bobbing heads of the hippopotami in Hungry Hungry Hippos. He spent most of the time bent over this contraption (except when he turned to the crowd during intervals, hands clasped and bowed, soaking in the enrichment of the crowd's cheers). Thus, most of the time it was hard to see exactly what he was doing or on which machine. I think he also had one of those KAOS pads which he constantly had his left hand running all over for the craziest zoomy, bangalicious, and whooping effects.

Behind Herren's back and in front of the audience was a skilled turntablist whose named I didn't catch, but you could tell this dude has been diggin in the crates for some time. However, I recognized several of the background vocals and some of the chords on some hooks from Prefuse's latest Prefuse 73 reads The Books. Probably the majority were produced or co-produced by Prefuse. But the spontaneity of the abrupt changes in key and time signature (usually demarcated with a screech or other loud cacophonous noise) was breathtaking. There was very little scratching if at all. Somehow they kept mixing it up with new stuff. I don't think they used the same trick or record twice or for more than 2 minutes.

Unfortunately, I was with some high school friends who weren't really into it. One of the four of them actually paid for a ticket and came upstairs, but none of them had heard his name or his producing credentials. Most of the night, these three were downstairs at the downstairs bar, drinking cheap $3.50 drafts. It really kills me how so many people are unwilling to go outside their sphere of familiarity. Even liberal-minded kids who are cultured and shit. It is depressing.
On the other hand, It was encouraging though the number of people at the show. There had to be at least 300 people there. It is a huge room so it is hard to gauge but it was more packed than any indie or "artistic" show I've been to in Pittsburgh. Thank god for people who book with good taste. I think when I get back, I am going to decree that we buy all the Prefuse we don't have.

Anyways, I left about 40 minutes into Prefuse' set since I had been waiting around for him since 9:45 and due to my one friends' pressure (the one who bought a ticket!). So you'll have to check another blog or the Post or next week's City Paper to see how it ended. I got several pics on my cell phone and once I get to a machine with Bluetooth I will put them up here - who knows how good or bad the visual quality will be. They were cell phone pics without a flash. It was truly an invigorating night. Made me want to go buy his shit...especially the album with Ghostface.

Soon Du Bu

2005-12-30T19:34:00.000-05:00

Today was a whirlwind of medical offices, forms, insurance numbers, and iPod troubles!

I started my day at 9 AM after almost 11 hours of straight sleep. I should really do that more often. Not going out and waking up in the morning is way underrated.

DOCTORS
First we went to DC to get my stitches removed and a flu shot. Of course my mom had an arsenal of questions lined up for her long-time doctor who was nice. 9,342 forms later, we were off to the gastroenterologist to investigate my indigestion and bloating after meals. Aside from leaving my new chic cell phone there after a lengthy discussion of routes I could take, that visit was rather uneventful. Finally we had to rush to do blood tests required by the gastroenterologist, which it turned out we couldn't do because the friggin blood people cannot do what the patient asks for, only what the form says. So if I have eaten anything in the last 8 hours, I can't get the blood test done for the six other things that don't require me to not have eaten. Basically I can't be selective with what I test for. So that was annoying.

FOOD
Then finally a circuitous quest to eat food. We saw tried to grab a bite at a Chipotle but NOOOO, I can't have dairy for the week says the gastro guy. And as we all know, you can't have a Chipotle burrito without sour cream! So we decided to try to kill two birds with one stone by going to try to sell the remainder of my CDs at Joe's Record Paradise. Earlier in the week I had been moderately unsuccessful in trying to unload these CDs for cash at CDepot in College Park. So we pull up at Joe's and the old terrific Chinese place I used to eat at after getting rekkids was gone. So much for the sustainability of the suburban strip mall (more on that at another time). But ephemerality (word?) does not apply to Joe's. Yes, it might be in the self-same strip mall, but it is a bulwark of the long-playing record as an institution. You can find SO much more at Joe's than at Jerry's. But you pay for it. I got $20 in trade for a bunch of crappy new shit that I probably bought trying to be up with the times. I am getting over that attitude in my collecting and listening. So today I picked up the following vinyl:

Oliver Nelson - The Blues and the Abstract Truth (Impulse!) (the original artwork with the right side of Oliver Nelson's lit by a blue light)
Freddie Hubbard & Woody Shaw - Double Take (Blue Note)
OTB - Out of the Blue (Blue Note) w/ Kenny Garrett, Ralph Peterson, Ralph Bowen, Harry Pickens, Michael Philip Mossman, and Bobby Hurst
Rahsaan Roland Kirk - The Return of the 5000lb. Man (Warner Bros.)
Phineas Newborn Jr. - The Great Piano of Phineas Newborn Jr. (Contemporary)

(Flashback to Monday)

Well, I met up with my friend Adam (who has developed a sweet tenor sound and concept up at McGill since I last saw him) and we took a trip as a group to CDepot, the BEST local store for new and used jazz CDs and frankly any other recorded sound or video in the DC metro area. Not very centrally located, CDepot houses millions of volumes at any given time. I was able to unload what amounted to $25. But thanks to Channukah money and some other cash I got:

Branford Marsalis - I Heard You Twice the First Time (Columbia)
Others will come in due time.

Peace

Can I help you with anything, sir? PART DOS

2005-12-24T08:34:00.000-05:00

Continued from last night's post:

When I popped in the Blindfold Test CD, I was struck by this one really dense piano piece. It starts off populated by thick openly-voiced block chords, very quiet, very syncopated. And then it goes into this much more happy-go-lucky swingin' solo section where the pianist shows signs of being free but it's all within the mindset of straight-ahead. I thought for some reason of Oscar Peterson mixed with hints of Jaki Byard and Cecil Taylor. Very interesting. Can't wait to find out what this actually was. I am waiting to listen to the whole test more thoroughly before I post my comments and then look at the answers (which are already up now).

The other piece that was really good was a clarinet feature backed by a really tight big band. It was truly virtuosic playing. It couldn't have been Don Byron. It was too "refined" in its articulations. This cat was really tearin' it up.

12:05

Arrived home. Ate home-cooked food for first time since Thanksgiving.

1:13

Attempted to sleep. All I could do was scat. Whenever I go to sleep, or try to go to sleep, I scat. Like as if I was playing my horn. I even do the approximate fingerings by muscle memory. I do this a lot when I am not trying to sleep as well. It is what jazz musicians do. I should do a study on how much people obsessed with jazz hum melodies/improvisations to tunes out loud or in their heads during their day.

1:30

Showered, shaved. Left to get haircut for social event.

2:30

Arrived at Cingular Wireless. "Can I help you with anything, sir?" No. Thanks I am trying to get in and get out. But oh wait, did I mention I am with my mom? And she has a preferred guy she likes to deal with. His name was Kyle. Now, I should have known that taking a trip to the mall with a woman was a bad idea. With my mother - a terrible idea.

However, lately I have been very unable to do stuff without a working cell phone. After about an hour of talking fascist equipment/plan upgrades (since AT&T Wireless is no more and Cingular is the big boiee now), and features (camera phones, bluetooth, keypads, flip vs. non-flip, bluetooth earpiece vs. regular earpiece, etc.) I had a phone picked out. Check it. Hotness. No hope for the tape deck, or the Creedence (and by tape deck and Creedence I mean essential phone numbers on the phone but not on the SIM card (CURSES!!!). When your screen has been violently disconnected from your phone, it's rather hard to extract any sort of data - thank God for the SIM card...) Then we had to wait for all the other 600,000 people buying cell phones today for Christmas to get their SIM cards recognized and initialized by the network. We wait, and wait, and wait.

3:30

I go acrosss the hallway to try on dress shoes (cuz I forgot my one brown pair and my mom says I need a black pair too, which is true) at another corporate chain (Rockport). They don't carry Double E widths for my size. More curses. Got a fruit smoothie. Made the horrible mistake of ordering Sour Apple with Passion Fruit. Way too sweet. I felt like a diabetic on insulin-overload. Up to Johnston and Murphy where aside from the clerks and their shitty British accents and terrible service, everything in the store is $149.99 or more. FUCK ME FOR VISITING A MALL WITH MY MOM!!! Finally settled on a pair of loafers - so now I can look like a real corporate toolkit...

5:30

Went back to Cingular to see if our phones were ready. They weren't. But Kyle let us take the stuff home as the cards registered to the network overnight. Ok I have a sweet phone now, but I can't use it.

5:45

Listened to the end of Friday Drivetime Jazz with Willard Jenkins (one of WPFW's only quality jazz shows where the host knows anything significant about the music). Tune in every Friday from 4:00PM-6:00PM on 89.3 FM on your radio if you are in the DC area and online at www.wpfw.org. They stream through Real Audio. The number in the air studio is (202) 588-0893. Willard's website is www.openskyjazz.com. He and his wife Susan are big movers and shakers in the jazz world.

6:10

Got home. Started shabbat with Ben and Jon. Went to Raphael's going away party. Check out his blog. He just got a job with AP in London. Sweet deal for him. That's where good genes kick in in your favor.

10:30

Went home - vegged out on couch watching TV - House Hunters followed by some we-invade-your-house-and-renovate-it-while-you-are-away reality show. I have to say it was good. Addictive might be the better word though. Listened to more of the Blindfold Test.

Sleep at 3:00 AM.