CDs of Note...

George Colligan, Come Together (Sunnyside)
Pianist Colligan long has been in demand as a sideman for a wide range of jazz greats, from Cassandra Wilson to Buster Williams and Christian McBride. While far from a newcomer as a leader (this is his 19th CD as a leader since 1996), Come Together may make more listeners take notice of his powerful skills as a player, composer and bandleader. It’s a session in which most of the tunes have either heart-felt inspirations or interpretations. The take-no-prisoners capabilities of bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer Donald Edwards are a perfect fit here. My favorites: Colligan’s cover of the Lennon/McCartney title track and two originals: “Have No Fear” and the wistful ballad “Open Your Heart.”

Lili Añel, Every Second in Between (Wall-I Records)
This one has been exercising in my CD player for a week - and doesn’t want to leave the musical gym. New York born and raised and now calling Philadelphia home, singer-songwriter-guitarist Lili Añel has been plying and perfecting her jazz- and folk-tinged craft for some 30 years. Her wisdom and experience are the foundation for her music, which revolve a lot around the concepts of independence, empowerment and roots - and her percussive approach to the guitar that she credits to her Black and Cuban heritage. The only tunes she didn’t write in full are the ballad “So Far Away,” co-written with her identical twin sister, Barbara Añel, and her cover of the Nina Simone-associated “That’s All I want From You.” Grammy-winning producer and engineer winner Glenn Barratt produced this gem. My favorites: all 11 tracks.

Ron Jackson, FlubbyDubby (Roni Music)
This is principally a guitar-organ-drums trio session, which guitarist Ron Jackson recorded live at Cecil’s Jazz Club in New Jersey. It’s a terrific spotlight for the leader’s versatile playing, and perhaps even more for B-3 player Kyle Koehler. There’s something mighty special when guitar and organ get into a groove, and they do here throughout. Drummer Otis Brown III completes the trio’s soulful, funky sound. Saxophonists Don Braden and Bruce Williams stop by to blow riffs on two tracks. My favorites: “One for Melvin,” which Jackson wrote for session producer Melvin Sparks, the title track “FlubbyDubby” and their thoughtful take on the ballad “Stars Fell on Alabama.”

A must read: Wynton Marsalis's Enduring Opus

The Thursday, September 24 edition of the Wall Street Journal contains a terrific piece by Larry Blumenfeld taking a close look on the positive impact that Jazz at Lincoln Center has had on the New York and national jazz scene since its founding in 1986 and principally since moving into its own three-venue performance space five years ago. The range of its impact, with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis as its highly visible, deeply engaged and perceptive artistic director, is considerable. Check it out.

Tanglewood Jazz Fest in-depth

My complete review of Tanglewood two weekends ago has now been published on the JazzTimes Web site, jazztimes.com, along with several photos.

CDs of Note…

James Moody, Moody 4A (IPO Recordings)
At 84 he might be entitled to coast a bit musically, but James Moody never does. This gem was recorded on the first of two days of recordings with a sublime quartet that teamed the saxophonist with pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Todd Coolman and drummer Lewis Nash. Day two's results will be released at a later date as Moody 4B. There is much here to enjoy. My clear favorite: his stunning duet wit Barron on “East of the Sun.” The quartet’s version of Benny Golson’s “Stablemates” captures Moody at his uptempo best. This tasty project swings. Oh, does it ever.

The Michael Thomas Quintet, Live at Twins Jazz, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (JazHead Entertainment)
Hard bop lives. You’ll find disciples in geographically diverse pockets across the United States and around the world, including metropolitan Washington, D.C., which trumpeter Michael Thomas and his long-standing band call home. Thomas released these two separate CDs simultaneously, not as a two-CD package. Together, they capture his band in full force on two consecutive nights at Twins Jazz, a club in the nation’s capital. Volume 2 includes a special guest, tenor saxophonist Andrew White. There is only one duplicate tune on the two discs, dramatically different version of Thomas’s heated “Mike’s Blues.” Volume 1 also features two staples from his repertoire: his original “Blues #9” and his take on the pop tune ”Candy,” which Lee Morgan transformed into a classic bebop cover, as well as Thomas’s poignant version of Benny Golson’s classic “I Remember Clifford.” Volume Two’s highlights include a toe-to-toe tenor battle between White and Zach Graddy on “Mike’s Blues” and White’s solo on Thomas’s “The Little Individual.” Live is the way to go when you want to absorb hard bop energy. A live recording is just right for a band that burns, and swings mightily, in the solid Jazz Messengers tradition.

Mike Mainieri/Marnix Busstra Quartet, Twelve Pieces (NYC Records)
Marnix Busstra, a guitarist from The Netherlands, was the catalyst for this project, which teams vibes player Mike Mainieri with Busstra’s band, fleshed out by bassist Eric van der Westen and drummer Pieter Bast. It is a stunning session in which the vibes and guitar blend and offset each other to create a wonderful sonic energy. It swings, and the melody rules on 10 Busstra compositions, one track (“All in a Row”) from Mainieri and “Kannada,” an adaptation of an Indian children’s song. Busstra also brings an electronic sitar into the mix on to add an exotic touch to “Lost in Little Spain” and “Kannada.” There is much here to savor. Favorites: “Lost in Little Spain,” “Don’t Break Step” and “Old Fashion.”

Good business to take care of

(see contact update at the bottom)
The jazz community has learned how to take care of its makers - past, present - and way in the past. The greatest examples come out of the the Jazz Foundation of America’s Jazz Musicians Emergency Fund, which is run out of New York by a jazz angel named Wendy Oxenhorn. She and the JMEF step in when they hear about a musician, or retired musician who can’t make a rent or mortgage payment, is threatened with eviction, needs medical help or had an instrument stolen - his or her livelihood - and no funds to replace it. The work they do is nothing short of amazing.

Two events are coming up in early October that will either help JMEF continue its critical business or fulfill an unaffiliated, long-overdue need that has the very same spirit.

On Tuesday evening, October 6, Joe Lovano and John Scofield will host and lead an all-star jazz benefit (two sets) at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, which is located at Jazz at Lincoln Center. The program will remember late colleague Dennis Irwin, a bassist who died of cancer last year. The event will also raise money for Jazz Musicians Emergency Fund. Lovano and Scofield’s “Playing Our Parts” concert also will include players Joey DeFrancesco, Jim Hall, Bobby Hutcherson, Lee Konitz, Matt Penman, Cedar Walton and Matt Wilson.

Two days earlier - Sunday, October 4, Small Jazz Club will host a symposium and series of solo piano tributes to James P. Johnson, the father of Stride piano, who died in November 1955. If nothing else, you likely know him for composing “Carolina Shout.” It’s being billed as “James P. Johnson’s Last Rent Party” - referring to a rather prevalent tradition many decades ago in which musicians held jam session-style apartment concerts - charging admission to literally pay the rent that week. And Johnson no doubt played at many of them.

This event one returns the favor. Johnson is buried in an unmarked grave in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens NY. The all-day rent party is designed to help raise money so the James P. Johnson Foundation can buy a monument that will bring this historic jazz great a bit more posthumous recognition. Pianists scheduled to play at Smalls that afternoon and evening include Ehud Asherie, John Bunch, Aaron Diehl, Conal Fowkes, Dick Hyman, Ethan Iverson, Mike Lipskin, Ted Rosenthal, Terry Waldo, Spike Wilner and others not yet announced.

These are great events. If you can’t get there in person, support them in spirit - or more.

Playing Our Parts: If you are unable to attend the concert but wish to make a tax-deductible contribution, make checks payable to: The Jazz Foundation of America
MAIL TO: The Jazz Foundation of America, 322 West 48th Street, 6th floor New York, NY 10036
ONLINE: Donate online at jazzfoundation.org

James P. Johnson’s Last Rent Party: Send a check, payable to The James P. Johnson Foundation, and mail it c/o Smalls, 183 West 10th street, NYC 10014

CDs of Note...

Joel Frahm and Bruce Katz, Project A, (Anzic Records)
Many efforts to cover non-jazz material as a concept don’t cut it. This instrumental tribute to Aretha Franklin is strong right from the opening bars and never lets up. Hammond B3 player Bruce Katz brings out the soulful side of tenor ace Joel Frahm like most of us have never heard him. This was their first project, but I doubt it will be their last.

They tackled nine tunes associated with the Queen of Soul, including the self-penned “Spirit in the Dark” and “Rock Steady.” There is strong support here from guitarist Chris Vitarello, bassists Marty Ballou and Jerry Jemmott, and drummers Lorne Entress and Ralph Rosen, as well as appearances on three tracks by Jay Collins on baritone saxophone and Kenny Rampton on trumpet.

Frahm and Katz passed over the best-known tunes “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” Freeway of Love” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” in favor of other equally soulful gems. Favorites: “The House That Jack Built,” “Rock Steady” and “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” which features Vitarello on slide guitar.

Ted Kooshian’s Standard Orbit Quartet, Underdog, and other Stories…, Summit Records
Don’t tell Ted Kooshian that jazz can’t have a sense of humor. He knows how to have good fun with his Standard Orbit Quartet. Seriously. Underdog, and other Stories… primarily consists of songs that are very familiar, just not in a jazz context. This is a second edition of the pianist’s project of recording jazz versions of cartoon, TV and movie theme music -with interesting and unusual rearrangements - featuring his spirited quartet.

A zany take on the “Sanford and Son” theme song (written by Quincy Jones) is here, complete with slide whistle added to saxophonist Jeff Lederer’s arsenal. Quite fittingly, cartoon music king Raymond Scott is represented, as are the themes from “Underdog,” “Popeye,” “Baretta,” “The Odd Couple,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and a soulful, gospel take on “Wild Wild West.” The theme from the “Little Lulu” cartoon show is even embellished with drummer Warren Odze’s use of an inverted plastic bucket like those employed by so many street drummers. A fresh take on Duke Ellington’s “Purple Gazelle” is a great choice just for its name. Ellington described the exuberant tune, also recorded as "Angelica" in his small group session with John Coltrane, as a "ragtime cha-cha." Enjoy the creative levity here, and the wonderful playing.

Tanglewood Jazz Festival - many great musical moments

I’ve submitted my take on this year’s Tanglewood Jazz Festival to JazzTimes. I’ll advise here when it is published. In the meantime, suffice it to say that overall it was another interesting and exceptional festival with only a couple of disappointments. Fortunately, the great musical moments more than compensated for them.

Paquito d’Rivera opened the weekend on the highest note, and the bar he set may have been matched here and there, but was not exceeded. He truly understood – and responded to the festival’s move to blend jazz and classical influences in more of its programming.

Paquito d’Rivera... >

John Pizzarelli and his wife, singer Jessica Molaskey, taped their program “Radio Deluxe” at Tanglewood, much like Marian McPartland taped “Piano Jazz” here in the Berkshires for the past seven years.

Daughter Madeleine catches up on "Harry Potter" during the Pizzarellis' taping of "Radio Deluxe"...

The Saturday night “Dreaming The Duke” concert had some nightmarish qualities, that were more related to arrangements and music choices. The singers and most musicians were not the flaw here. It felt like an early stage of a work in progress.

Kenny Barron, Mulgrew Miller...

Kenny Barron and Mulgrew Miller provided an afternoon of dual piano interplay that was exquisite in all respects.

Jon Faddis’s “Majesty of the Trumpet” set with Sean Jones and Wallace Roney, and Dave Holland’s octet were strong closers.

Wallace Roney, Jon Faddis, Sean Jones...

Young singer Kat Edmonson was a highlight at the Jazz Café, a tented pre-concert venue just up the hill from Ozawa Hall. This singer from Austin, Texas takes jazz chestnuts and even more recent pop songs and embraces them in a way that they sound like originals. Keep an eye on her – and both ears, too.

Kat Edmonson... >

Newport festival names back where they belong

It sounds like the Newport Jazz Festival and Newport Folk Festival names are back in use by producer George Wein, starting with the 2010 editions.

When Festival Network LLC bought Wein's longstanding company, Festival Productions Inc., less than three years ago, it acquired the rights to use the two names, as well. After Festival Network closed its doors this year due to financial problems, Wein produced his own Newport events under different festival names - George Wein's CareFusion Jazz Festival 55 and George Wein's Folk Festival 50.

Going forward, we can expect to see Wein using Newport Jazz Festival and Newport Folk Festival once again.

Here's the explanation from Wein's new firm, New Festival Productions:

"George Wein and his original service company, Festival Productions Inc., are - and have always been - the exclusive owners and licensors of the federal trademarks, Newport Folk Festival® and Newport Jazz Festival®.Although Festival Network acquired certain of Wein's company's assets in 2006, Wein retained his exclusive ownership of the registered marks, and instead gave the new promoters a conditional license. That license automatically expired when the new venture closed down earlier this year. "

Somehow the lyrics "Come lift us up where we belong" fit this legal tune. And "we" - in this case ''they" - have arrived back home.

A jazz piano plus

When some things in jazz have been in retrenchment mode this year - festivals, magazines - here's a positive note for the future.

Randy Weston will be featured in a solo piano concert October 12 at the Somerville Theater in Somerville MA, kicking off a series of annual concerts celebrating the legacy of Thelonious Monk (who would have been 92 on October 10).

Pennsylvania-based World Piano Summit (worldpianosummit.com) is sponsoring the metropolitan Boston jazz series, which it says will continue until the centennial of Monk’s birth on October 10, 2017.

Jazz travelers

To what lengths will fans go to hear great jazz?

Depending on where you live, sometimes it's right around the corner or across town. Sometimes you drive for hours as part of a vacation trip, or fly many miles.

This holiday weekend brings out all of those facets, as jazz festival goers are out in force in Chicago, Detroit and several other cities, and right here in western Massachusetts' Berkshires at Tanglewood. Wherever you are, be sure to enjoy it live, on CD or on a simulcast.

It soothes, it inspires, it brings out the best in us.

CDs of Note...

Randy Brecker, Nostalgic Journey: Tykocin Jazz Suite (Summit Records)
Three words come to mind after a listen to trumpeter Randy Brecker’s latest project: stunning, poignant, breathtaking. This is a homecoming project of great importance. Last summer, Brecker made an emotional journey to Tykocin, the area in Poland where his grandfather lived before emigrating to the United States. It was pinpointed when Randy and other family members were looking for eastern European bone marrow donors who might be a match for his brother Michael, two years before the saxophonist lost his battle with a very rare form of leukemia.

Polish composer and pianist Wlodek Pawlik wrote this homecoming suite, and performed it with Brecker and the Symphony Orchestra of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic in Bialystok, Poland. The blend of classical orchestra and jazz quartet is seamless and feels natural. Highlights: Brecker’s intense soloing on “Nostalgic Journey,” “Let’s All Go to Heaven,” “Magic Seven “and “Blue Rain” - and his strong musical empathy with Pawlik’s excellent trio. This one may go down as one of the finest and most important works in Brecker’s extensive discography.

Edward Simon Trio, Poesia (CAM Jazz)
This is the second recording by the Venezuelan pianist, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade (the latter pair being members of the Wayne Shorter quartet since 2000). Like the 2006 predecessor Unicity, this is very strong. The trio’s energy and improvisation is at full throttle on Simon’s “One for J.P.,” written for Patitucci and a canvas for his electric bass, the title track “Poesia” and their artful exploration of Trane’s “Giant Steps,” which merely implies the original melody as the tune becomes a launching point for further means of transportation. Simon, an artful pianist who uses space creatively, shines on solo versions of his “My Love for You” as the disc opens with the ballad and closes with an alternate take.

Gerald Clayton, Two-Shade (ArtistShare)
The musical fruit didn’t fall far from the tree for this pianist, the son of bassist John Clayton and nephew of saxophonist Jeff Clayton. He is one of the more interesting pianists on the newest generation to emerge on the New York scene. This wide-ranging session teams Clayton with bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Justin Brown. Highlights: the funky energy and interplay on “Boogablues,” the solo ballad segue into trio and back on the blended elements of “Peace for the Moment,” the vibrant “Love All Around,” the classical underpinning of the adventuresome “Sunny Day Go,” and his beautiful solo reinvestigation of Dizzy Gillespie’s classic ballad “Con Alma.”

September spirit

There is a lot of programming diversity going on near and far for jazz and jazz venues in September. These caught my interest. I know I will catch at least one of them in person. And it is a great time to confirm that jazzlives#

September 2 - Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles - The original members of Return to Forever reunite for a concert that will open Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White’s first worldwide trio tour. For this one show, they will be joined by RTF’s original guitarist Bill Connors, as well as special guests Chaka Khan and Jean-Luc Ponty. Connor's appearance will mark the first performance of Return to Forever's original electric lineup since 1974.

Labor Day Weekend

September 4, 5 and 6 - Tanglewood Jazz Festival, Lenox MA - This year, in addition to several straight-ahead performances, is blending some classical works into some of its sets at Ozawa Hall. See this earlier post for details.

September 4, 5 and 6 - Chicago Jazz Festival - This annual free event takes place on three stages in Grant Park. The Dave Holland Big Band is Saturday night’s headliner at the Petrillo Bandshell.

September 4, 5, 6 and 7 - Detroit International Jazz Festival. This huge free, outdoor event is marking its 30th year with events on five downtown stages. It opens with a concert by Hank Jones as the festival honors one of the great families in jazz. the Clayton Brothers, Dave Brubeck and the Brubeck brothers, John and Bucky Pizzarelli, Larry and Julian Coryell, The Heath Brothers, Pete and Juan Escovedo, Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express, and T.S. Monk in “Monk on Monk” - a performance honoring the musical legacy of his father, Thelonious Monk.

September 18 to 26 - Boston’s Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival will showcase more than 20 bands at various clubs and venues. The free, six-block-long outdoor extravaganza along Columbus Avenue on Saturday the 26th will include Donald Harrison, Joe Louis Walker, Jane Bunnett, and the Defenders of Groove with Melvin Sparks, Ernie Andrews and Plas Johnson.

September 26 - Singer Barbra Streisand performs at New York’s historic Village Vanguard - the world’s most famous jazz basement - for a performance three days before the release of her new jazz/cabaret album Love Is the Answer, which features the singer with the Diana Krall quartet and Johnny Mandel. According to her Web site, this will be Streisand’s first club appearance since 1961, when she opened at the Vanguard for Miles Davis. There is a catch. This is a free show for winners of a contest for those who pre-ordered the CD from her site.

Jazz is vibrant? - help prove it, Twitter style

You say you don't buy the tired old saw "jazz is dead"? It's time to show it's not so, and today's social networking craze is the way to help. Yes folks, it's Twitter time. #jazzlives

Thre's a movement afoot to dispel the impression, which received substantial mileage through Terry Teachout's recent Wall Street Journal piece, that the jazz audience is fading. It was published in early August - the same weekend, in fact as George Wein's CareFusion Jazz Festival 55 in Newport where there were lots of enthusiastic, young people packing all three stages.

Howard Mandel, president of the Jazz Journalists Association, and others are encouraging the use of Twitter to show that lots of people are listening to live jazz - in person at events or live on the radio.

The instructions are simple, says Mandel. Here's what he is suggesting - and why.

Is the audience for jazz aging and diminishing, as Terry Teachout wrote in the Wall Street Journal recently? I don't believe it and don't think you buy it completely either, despite the NEA's 2008 survey data. I think that survey overlooked a significant segment of the vital audience for live jazz today, and propose a small social networking experiment, asking tech savvy listeners to tweet #jazzlives, who & where, in 140 characters.

Over the next couple weeks there are myriad big jazz events, starting in NYC the Charlie Parker Jazz Fest this Saturday and Sunday), continuing to the Labor Day weekend fests at Tanglewood, Chicago, Detroit, Aspen, Los Angeles, Vail, Philly, Chapel Hill, etc., then on through Monterey and the Beantown (Boston) fests (we'll keep the campaign going, as long as it works).

The music needn't be heard at a fest, of course -- it can be at a stand-along concert, a gig, live-jazz-broadcast on radio or online, in the subway or street, at a party, whatever.

If you Tweet, use hashtag #jazzlives. If you have a Twitter account, please help kick things off TODAY with a tweet that includes #jazzlives, who you heard most recently and where (venue and/or locale). That way, you (or anyone) will be able to track these tweets with a Twitter search and on TweetDeck and similar services.

We have created a special "widget" for blogs and websites that will show all #jazzlives tweets in real tim e- which is sort of the fun of it for those who like these things, and will collate all the tweets so we can count them, hopefully to prove how many of us there are.

MOST BRIEFLY, here's all anyone has to do to participate:
1) Write in a Tweet WHO you heard and WHERE (venue, locale, whatever fits)
2) MOST IMPORTANT: include hashmark #jazzlives.
EXAMPLE: I heard Vanguard Orch at Tanglewood, super! #jazzlives
EXAMPLE: I heard Hank Jones, solo at Detroit Int JF, mighty fine #jazzlives

Include links to your blog or website in your Tweet if you like, like this -
EXAMPLE: I heard Eubanks 5 be great at Blue Note NYC, full revu at www.HowardMandel.com #jazzlives

That's it. These initial tweets will seed the project by getting the #jazzlives out there and giving us some initial content for our widget. We hope this will build to a noticeable surge. Could we get as many tweets and postings as there were people at Woodstock?

Please note: Tweets with #jazzlives are NOT intended to publicize upcoming events or for comments on recordings you're listening to, but rather for reports on LIVE jazz you've actually heard recently. If you heard it live over the radio, that counts!

Our initiative's main aim is just to see how we can use new features of social networking to give all styles of jazz -- defined however you want -- a higher profile by showing how many of us listeners to live jazz there are.

Berklee honoring Brubeck at Monterey

On September 20, jazz great Dave Brubeck will have something in common with Bonnie Raitt, Sting, Loretta Lynn and Gloria and Emilio Estefan - an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee for their contributions to music and humanity.

The Boston-based Berklee College of Music will present the pianist and composer with an honorary doctorate just before his performance that evening at the 52nd annual Monterey Jazz Festival.

“It feels fitting to make this presentation to Dave for his many contributions to jazz, orchestral and sacred music, and to education, with the Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific, and at the Monterey Jazz Festival, where he has so many strong connections and associations,” said Berklee President Roger Brown. “The 50-year anniversary of the release of Time Out also seems like a perfect moment to thank Dave for all he’s done for the world, and the world of music.”

Berklee began bestowing its Honorary Doctorate of Music, for contributions to music and humanity, in 1971. Duke Ellington was the first recipient. Other jazz recipients have included Dizzy Gillespie, Nancy Wilson, Tito Puente, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Chick Corea, Quincy Jones, and Elvin and Hank Jones. Actor and producer Clint Eastwood is scheduled to take part in honoring Brubeck. In 2007, Eastwood received a Berklee honorary doctor of music at Monterey, for his efforts to popularize jazz through his films and film music.

CDs of Note…

Chuck Owen & The Jazz Surge, The Comet’s Tail (MAMA Records)
Tampa-based Chuck Owen is directs the University of South Florida’s Center for Jazz Composition. He also runs his own mighty fine, high-flying pro big band, The Jazz Surge. This project features his band performing new robust arrangements of a wide range of compositions by late saxophonist Michael Brecker (from his Steps Ahead days in the 1980s through his final recording, Pilgrimage). It’s an outgrowth from, and features the winning entry in, the Center’s International Jazz Arranging Competition in Honor of Michael Brecker (more than 80 arrangements were entered), along with other arrangements by Owen, CJC colleague Dave Stamps, and guest contributors Vince Mendoza and Gil Goldstein.

Guest musicians for the recording and a series of related concerts include Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, Adam Nussbaum, violinist Rob Thomas, saxophonists Dave Liebman and Joe Lovano and vibes player Mike Mainieri. Highlights: “Peep,” the competition-winning arrangement by Fred Stride of Vancouver, British Columbia; “How Long ‘Til The Sun” featuring Randy Brecker and Rob Thomas; the frenetic “Itsbynne Reel,” the Mendoza-arranged “Slings and Arrows” and the poignant “Everything Happens When You’re Gone,” which features Lovano. Other standout soloists include pianist Per Danielsson, guitarist LaRue Nickelson and tenor saxophonist Jack Wilkins.

Ralph Bowen, Dedicated (Posi-Tone)
Tenor saxophonist Ralph Bowen recorded this forceful CD of original material as a musical thank you to six mentors who played key roles in his musical and career development. The Canadian first emerged on the New York scene in the 1980s as co-leader of Blue Note Records’ sextet Out of the Blue. This new CD teams him with guitarist Adam Rogers, bassist John Patitucci, drummer Antonio Sanchez and trumpeter Sean Jones, who guests on one track.

Everything here is a gem, showcasing Bowen’s muscular tenor and strong credentials as a composer and improviser. Favorites: Rogers’ soloing and comping on the opener “Canary Drums,” the spirited Bowen-Jones interplay and unison on “Mr. Bebop” and the beautiful ensemble work on “Prof.” (The six tracks are dedicated to the late Keith Blackley, Pat LaBarbera, Jim Blackley, David Baker, William Fielder and Eugene Rousseau.)

Carol Bach-y-Rita, What Love Is (Arugula Records)
This is an intriguing mix of Brazilian and American jazz and pop standards - shifting between English and Portuguese - from Los Angeles-based singer, dancer, actress, voiceover artist Carol Bach-y-Rita. This debut CD has a lot going for it, including its most-musical, sensual and laid-back feel. Her interpretations of Jobim’s “Corcovado” and Johnny Mandel’s ”A Time for Love” are as cool and soothing as a pitcher of caipirinhas on a sweltering summer afternoon. Her backing quartet features bassist Trey Henry, pianist Jamieson Trotter, drummer Mike Shapiro and saxophonist/flutist Robert Kyle. The Bach-y-Rita-Henry duet version of “Don’t Explain” is exquisite. A beautiful version of “Lazy Afternoon” closes the session.

Newport 55 detail - AAJ

My full review of George Wein's CareFusion Jazz Festival 55 in Newport was published today on allaboutjazz.com. It continues to be an adventurous jazz summer. Next stop: the Tanglewood Jazz Festival over Labor Day Weekend.

Tanglewood twist

This Labor Day Weekend’s Tanglewood Jazz Festival in Lenox MA has tweaked its programming a bit to further bridge jazz and classical music forms in this most likely spot to do so - the idyllic summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The move began last year when Boston jazz pianist and composer Donal Fox presented a weekend-highlight-level performance of his Scarlatti Jazz Project.

This year’s programming includes the usual varied assortment of Latin, straight ahead jazz, vocals and emerging talent - with a few more classical twists.

• On Friday night, September 4, clarinetist Paquito d’Rivera performs pieces from his Latin jazz and classical repertoires.


• On Saturday night, September 5, jazz violinist Carter and her quartet will perform material from her Paganini project plus music from Mali, Senegal, and Uganda.


• After Carter’s set, jazz singer Nnenna Freelon and classical singer Harolyn Blackwell are featured in “Dreaming the Duke,” a program that celebrating the Ellington legacy with innovative solo pieces, duets with chamber and jazz quartets and intimate vocal-piano selections. The set will include selections from Ellington’s “Black, Brown and Beige Suite.”

Whether you prefer listening inside Ozawa Hall or on the lawn, you'll find the music at Tanglewood always draws a crowd...

Tanglewood has added one new guest artist for the weekend. Singer Kurt Elling will join the lineup for John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey’s Saturday afternoon taping of "Radio Deluxe” for later broadcast on more than 60 stations nationwide. Their other Tanglewood guests include guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, violinist Aaron Weinstein and saxophonist Harry Allen.

Sunday afternoon features a piano duet set of improvisations by Kenny Barron and Mulgrew Miller, followed by the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. The festival will close with a Sunday evening program that includes Jon Faddis with guest trumpeters Sean Jones and Wallace Roney in a celebration of the role of the trumpet in jazz throughout the past century; and end with Dave Holland’s all-star band.

The festival’s Jazz Café, just up the hill from Ozawa Hall, will showcase emerging talent before each main stage event. This year’s performers are saxophonist Benny Reid, singer-pianist Michael Kaeshammer, pianist Evgeny Lebedev, singer Steven Santoro and violinist Ben Powell. All Jazz Café events are free with a ticket to the main stage event.

CDs of Note...

Donny McCaslin, Declaration (Sunnyside)
When I first heard tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin in 1987, he was still a student at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. The thing that impressed most about his playing hasn’t changed. It’s his spirited intensity. And it is there throughout Declaration, often in tandem with another inside-outside player, guitarist Ben Monder. McCaslin’s sextet (also featuring pianist Edward Simon, bassist Scott Colley, drummer Antonio Sanchez and percussionist Pernell Saturnino) is augmented on roughly half of the eight tracks by a five-member brass section, which created new possibilities for McCaslin as a composer, arranger and improviser. Favorites: the shift between fervor and delicacy on “M” and “Fat Cat,” the plaintive feel of “Declaration,” the relative softness explored in his ballad “Jeanina” and the majestic scope of “Late Night Gospel.”

The Anthony Wilson Trio, Jack of Hearts (Groove Note)
There is something rhythmically intoxicating about the guitar-organ-drums trio combination, and this project contains the right elements - and players. Wilson, son of the great West Coast big band leader and composer Gerald Wilson, is a fluid, melodic player and longtime sideman to singer-pianist Diana Krall. Here he is joined by Larry Goldings on B-3 with Krall bandmate Jeff Hamilton and rock veteran Jim Keltner splitting drum duties. Highlights: the funky Wilson-Goldings collaborative opener “Mezcal,” their swaggering take on Coleman Hawkins’ “Hawk Eyes,” Wilson’s uptempo “Vida Perdida Acabou,” a poignant Wilson original called “Homecoming” and something that you won’t often hear covered in jazz circles, Jerry Goldsmith’s “Theme from Chinatown. The latter provided a chance to offset the CD’s swaggering moments with intricate delicacy. They also bring new life to two infrequently tackled Ellington tunes - “Carnegie Blues” and “Zweet Zursday.”

Earthsound, Movement (JD Jazz)
Boston-based Earthsound is doing its part in the new millennium to bring a healthier respect for the natural environment through music, much like the Paul Winter Consort pioneered in the late 1960s. Jazz improvisation is at the heart of this project, which bubbles with world music influences from several continents - and a little help from frogs, Antarctic seals, birds and a variety of inhabitants of a Costa Rican rainforest. There is a decided Latin American feel to most of the music created by Earthsound, a quartet led by bassist Jason Davis, whose members include pianist Nando Michelin, flute player Fernando Brandão and drummer/percussionist Jorge Perez Albela. On four tracks, they improvise over field recordings of inhabitants of lakes, woodlands, rainforest and the sea. It also allowed Davis a chance to artfully meld his twin interests in music and ecology/environmental research. Favorites: “Ariane,” Michelin’s solo piece “Monteverde Slow,” Brandao’s “Hermit Thrush” and the Brazilian choro “Os Cinco Campanheiros.”

A special weekend indeed

Once something goes away – or is threatened with going away – you find out how much it is appreciated. That was the case this past weekend for George Wein, whose jazz festival in Newport lived on, thanks to his efforts to ensure his Newport legacy survives.

He had help from longtime staff, an army of fellow musicians, some of whom have worked for him and/or with him for five decades or more, and a new sponsor, the San Diego-based health-care products and service company CareFusion.

“The warmth I’ve received this weekend is unbelievable,” Wein said. “I’ve never been hugged by so many musicians in my life. They’ve made this the most beautiful weekend in my life.”

I’ll write about it soon at greater length on allaboutjazz.com. Musically, there was something for everyone in a weekend whose total attendance was 12,800, with the largest crowds– 6,000 – on postcard-perfect Saturday. In the meantime, here are a few images from highlights of George Wein’s CareFusion Jazz Festival 55. The highlights included:

- Wein sitting in on the finale "All of Me" with the Anat Cohen-Howard Alden quartet, which opened the music Friday night at historic Newport Casino, the very first home of the Newport Jazz Festival back in 1954. Chaka Khan was the opening night headliner, but that's another story.

- Singer Claudia Acuña’s breezy bilingual set on the Waterside Stage. Even if you don’t know the words when she sings in her native Spanish, the Chilean beauty’s way with a song touches you with their heart-felt emotion.

- Joe Lovano sitting in with pianist Michel Camilo’s trio Sunday on a rousing reconstruction of Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia.”

- George Wein joining bassist Christian McBride for a live taping of his forthcoming satellite radio show “Conversations with Christian.” They talked - and they played for an hour.

- Dave Brubeck joining weekend closer Tony Bennett on “That Old Black Magic.”

Go Newport

Going into 2009, we wondered whether the Newport Jazz Festival as we’ve known it all these years, would ever be back - given the financial straits of the Festival Network LLC, the upstart company that in 2007 bought George Wein’s highly respected, well-oiled Festival Productions Inc. machine.

Well, it’s back, compliments of Wein’s refusal to see his Newport legacy muddied, calling together many members of his longtime production team - from Newport to New Orleans and elsewhere, reforming a new company - New Festival Productions, and having a new corporate sponsor sign on for both Newport and, starting in 2010, in New York.

So “George Wein’s CareFusion Jazz Festival 55 “ opens tomorrow night at historic Newport Casino (home of The International Tennis Hall of Fame), which was the site of the very first Newport Jazz Festival back in July 1954. The Anat Cohen-Howard Alden Quartet opens for singer Chaka Khan and the George Duke Trio.

The swirl of activity shifts Saturday and Sunday to Fort Adams State Park overlooking picturesque Newport harbor, where the music on three stages will be diverse and plentiful. Mainstream, bop, Latin jazz, and the avant-garde all are represented.

(Aside: Wein has also begun exploring ways to create a nonprofit foundation that can ensure the jazz and folk festivals continue in Newport in perpetuity, and is taking steps to bus inner-city youths from Providence RI and Bridgeport CT to the festival this weekend to expose them to jazz.)

Hiromi at Newport, 2006... >The weekend's Fort Adams lineup includes Dave Brubeck, Tony Bennett, Joshua Redman’s Double Trio, Joe Lovano, Branford Marsalis, Christian McBride, Hiromi, Claudia Acuna, Jane Monheit, Roy Haynes, Michel Camilo, The Bad Plus with alternative rock singer Wendy Lewis, The Brian Blade Fellowship, Ken Vandermark, James Carter, and many more.

With the scope of music and sometimes painful choices between groups to hear simultaneously or with a little overlap, you have to pick your spots. Any way you go, it is a win.

Just go.

CDs of Note…

Roy Hargrove Big Band, Emergence (Groovin’ High/Emarcy)
Trumpeter Hargrove has dipped his horn, and his creative prowess, into a lot of musical pies over the past 20 years, including his hard-bop quintet, his Afro-Cuban Chrisol collaboration with Chucho Valdes, his funk- and hip-hop-oriented RH Factor, and various big band projects including a stint as featured soloist with Slide Hampton’s Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Star Big Band. Now he’s out with his own dream contemporary big band project. There’s not a dud in this mightily swinging project that covers multiple styles with the robust support of the 19-piece group. Highlights - his delicate reading and reworking of “My Funny Valentine” on flugelhorn, the Afro-Cuban sizzler “Mambo For Roy” and “Tchpiso.” Hargrove adds a rare vocal on “September in the Rain” and labelmate Roberta Gambarini joins the project on two tracks, Everytime We Say Goodbye” and “La Puerta.” This an August 25 release.

Simon Fisk Trio, Unless (Plunge/Warner)
More often than not, the combination of piano, bass and drums is described as a piano trio. The piano generally feels like the principal instrument, no matter that the leader and musical architect on this project is the bassist. This is Simon Fisk’s fifth CD as a leader, and it is a gem from the Calgary-based western Canada native. It is filled with breathtaking beauty and introspective improvisation, the result being a contemporary “piano trio” recording containing a blend of soft and hard-edged, rock-influenced elements that draw from Keith Jarrett (Fisk has been mentored by longtime Jarrett bandmate Gary Peacock), E.S.T. and others. Pianist Chris Gestrin and drummer Jerry Granelli contribute mightily to the project as empathetic partners on this mix of originals, free-wheeling improvisations and two standards: Nat Adderley’s “Old Country” and the ballad “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.”

Edmar Castaneda, Entra Cuerdas (artistShare)
At a JVC Newport Jazz Festival appearance by Paquito D’Rivera’s PanAmerican big band a few years ago, the leader followed Edmar Castaneda’s spotlight solo by telling the crowd “I don’t know why I invite him. He always steals the show.” The diminutive, joyful musician is a blazing-speed master of the Colombian harp, a smaller-than-usual cousin of the concert harp. Personal favorites here: the title track “Entra Cuerdas “(Between the Strings), “Song of Hope,” “Colombian Dixie” and “Afro Seis.” At several points, the CD is also a marvel of melodic doubling and/or tripling and interplay with trombonist Marshall Gilkes and vibes player Joe Locke. It is also an excellent showcase for Gilkes, a Castaneda bandmate who is one of the more creative and daring young trombonists. Regardless of whether you’re a fan of obscure instruments, give Castaneda’s long-overdue project a listen. He likely will turn you into a fan of his spellbinding playing.

Folk with a touch of jazz

Jazz festival fans can rejoice with something tangible in Newport. The 50th anniversary edition of the folk festival – George Wein’s Folk Festival 50 – opened without a hitch today, under brilliant sunshine. It means Wein’s revived jazz festival is less than a week away.

You’ve doubtless read elsewhere, or in postings below, of the financial saga that forced Wein to regain control of festival-producing in Newport and begin work on yet another phase of production in the city where the festival tradition began (jazz in 1954, folk in 1959).

George Wein and Pete Seeger arrive at Fort Adams State Park… >
A crowd of 9,200 turned out for day one, the largest for a folk event in Newport since Bob Dylan returned in 2002. The lineup was a careful blend of veterans, like Seeger and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Mavis Staples, and younger and emerging talent. The crowd was a blend of festival veteran attendees and what seemed a majority of much younger fans.

There was even a touch of jazz. When folk festival stalwart Pete Seeger, now 90, closed out the day with a traditional main-stage sing-along featuring about 30 festival artists, they were joined by Ben Jaffe the Preservation Hall Jazz Band leader and bassist, on tuba.

Seeger's message lives on his banjo… >

UPDATE: Jaffe also sat in Sunday with Del McCoury's bluegrass band and joined the evening sing-along finale with Seeger, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, McCoury and many, many others.

George Wein’s CareFusion Jazz Festival 55 begins Friday night August 7 at Newport’s International Tennis Hall of Fame and continues the following two days at Fort Adams State Park with a strong and diverse lineup.

CDs of Note...

Steve Kuhn, Mostly Coltrane (ECM)
Pianist Steve Kuhn has teamed up with saxophonist Joe Lovano for this exquisite recording, which captures the majestic scope of John Coltrane’s music – and imbues it with creative delicacy from Kuhn’s fertile imagination and playing. Both men have good reason to do this: A young Kuhn spent eight weeks in the winter of 1960 as the original pianist in Trane’s quartet; and Lovano has been a foremost Coltrane disciple throughout his own prolific career. They tackle 11 well-considered tunes written or recorded by Coltrane (including ‘Song of Praise,” “Crescent,” “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes,” and “Central Park West”) with the quartet, featuring Kuhn’s regular band mates David Finck on bass and Joey Baron on drums. The pianist also adds two lovely original solo pieces “With Gratitude” and “Trance.”

Laurence Hobgood, When the Heart Dances (Naim Jazz)
This disc, with Charlie Haden and Kurt Elling, is musically delicious in many ways. Its intimacy showcases what Hobgood calls the “imagination, empathy, harmony, pitch, rhythmic dimension, clarity, complexity of texture, simplicity of center – and nobility” of Haden’s bass playing. Similarly, it showcases Hobgood’s exquisite touch, imaginative and introspective piano work, and his talents as an arranger and composer (soloing on two originals, including the gospel-meets-new age work “Sanctuary”). He and Haden dance around the basic elements of “Que Sera Sera,” barely touching its distinctive melody. And then there’s Elling’s instrumental approach to singing, which is showcased on Haden’s elegiac “First Song,” “the chestnut “Stairway to the Stars” and the Ellington/Strayhorn classic “Daydream.” This is one to savor. This is an August 11 release.

George Benson, Songs and Stories (Concord Jazz/Monster Music)
Singer-guitarist George Benson’s latest recording adventure turned into a party with a lot of special guests as he blended balladry, R&B and funk into tunes from songwriters from many genres over the past 50 years. There is much to savor here, including his Brazilian take on James Taylor’s “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight,” a duet with Lalah Hathaway on "A Telephone Call Away,” which Bill Withers emerged from retirement to write for this project, and Smokey Robinson’s “One Like You.” One surprise is 10-time Grammy-winner Benson’s instrumental cover of Christopher Cross’s sometimes-maligned pop hit “Sailing.” Without vocals, other than a hint of scatting, this take reveals a new sense of beauty. This is an August 25 release.

Jazz and tourism can go hand-in-hand

In a year when more than a few jazz-related entities have been on the ropes, closed their doors or reinvented themselves, it is interesting to see that the aura of jazz remains alive and well.

The hipness, the essence of cool, the going against the grain, a music that doesn’t appeal to our least-common-denominator culture has always been a branding hook for advertisers.

Now, Massachusetts is hoping jazz can help promote tourism in the commonwealth.

A new marketing initiative that includes a 40-page MassJazz Travel Guide, as well as online listings, details hundreds of outdoor and indoor concerts, jazz festivals, nightclubs, radio programs, hotel brunches and jazz connections for out-of-town visitors and Massachusetts residents – from Provincetown to Pittsfield. The Massachusetts geography covered seems a bit fuzzy, as the online directory also includes the annual jazz festival in Newport, RHODE ISLAND.

“Our goal is to offer jazz as a new way of showcasing the many cultural and hospitality amenities Massachusetts has to offer,” says Executive Director Betsy Wall, of the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism. MassJazz founder Michael Quinlin developed the campaign with Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism, Berklee College of Music, Tanglewood Jazz Festival and other jazz advocates in the state.

Organizers hope to develop music education as a tourism product too, from the offerings at Berklee and other 21 schools, as well as summer jazz courses offered at local universities and cultural venues.

The MassJazz Travel Guide is available free of charge in tourism centers around the state, in local concert venues, jazz clubs, hotels and restaurants – and is being distributed to incoming conventions, tour operators and travel agencies throughout North America and to select international outlets.

If it helps the music - and the musicians – this is a good thing. That should be the bottom line.

(For up-to-date information about jazz activities year round, visit MassJazz.com.)

CDs of Note...

Art Pepper, The Art History Project (Widow’s Taste)
The alto saxophonist Art Pepper spent 15 years in and out of prison and/or rehab because of addiction and drug busts, yet made an indelible mark on jazz for the sometimes-frantic beauty of his playing. While his available earliest recordings remain some of his finest, this three-disc compilation of primarily other material, produced by widow Laurie Pepper, has much to offer for Pepper compleatists.

Disc One contains early West Coast material, dating to 1950 when he was a featured soloist with the Stan Kenton Innovations Orchestra. The highlight is the ballad “Patricia,” which Pepper wrote for his daughter.

All but one track (“Chelsea Bridge” from the Buddy Rich album Mercy, Mercy) on Disc Two are from 1964 - rehearsal tracks recorded a few weeks after his release from his first stint in San Quentin Prison. Stylistically, they are a bit ragged and free.

Disc Three held the most interest for me, because it captures Pepper in the last five years of his life. Four of the seven tracks are previously unreleased and the others had very limited release.

It opens with a smoking version of “Caravan recorded live in Japan by his comeback band. Most others were recorded during performances in Paris, at the Bach Dynamite & Dancing Society in Half Moon Bay, Calif., and at Fat Tuesday’s in New York, and two were recorded with Jack Sheldon for Japanese release. Besides “Caravan,” the standouts are “Lost Life,” which Pepper wrote in prison, and “Landscape” and “Mambo Koyama.” The latter two were from the April 1982 Fat Tuesday’s gig with pianist Stanley Cowell, bassist George Mraz and drummer Ben Riley just two months before Pepper’s. death at 56.

What's wrong with this picture?

I got an e-mailed announcement today concerning the lineup for Jazz Apen Snowmass’s annual Labor Day Weekend festival. One hopes to see jazz from a sponsoring nonprofit that has jazz in its name, Here’s the complete listed lineup for the three days (September 4,5 and 6): Michael Franti and Spearhead, Citizen Cope, Black Eyed Peas, Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Umphrey's McGee, the Allman Brothers Band, The Doobie Brothers and the Drive By Truckers.

The fact that the organization puts on a separate jazz festival in Aspen in June eases the pain. Its multi-faceted jazz education programs and the JAS June festival undoubtedly benefit from the monies raised from the anything-goes festival held over the long holiday weekend.

Here’s a more dubious local example. A nearby city here in Rhode Island sponsored (until the economy soured this year) an annual evening concert called “Jazz on the Blackstone,” held in a park along the Blackstone River, birthplace of America’s Industrial Revolution. The only featured band for many years now has been a quartet called King’s Row. It’s a local golden oldies band. I’m sure it’s a great event for nostalgic rock and pop fans.

But it’s a musical crime in advertising/branding.

CDs of Note...

Daryl Sherman, Johnny Mercer – A Centennial Tribute (Arbors)
The great lyricist Johnny Mercer would have loved this tribute from charming singer-pianist Daryl Sherman to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth. New York-based Sherman and friends explore some of the chestnuts (“I Thought About You,” “Dream,” “At the Jazz Band Ball,” Twilight World,” “Jeepers Creepers” and “”Midnight Sun”) but they also reveal quite a few lesser-known but just as excellent “sleepers,” such as I’m Shadowing You” and “The Bathtub Ran Over Again,” which was Mercer’s first recording under his own name and hear features a vocal duet with trombonist Wycliffe Gordon. Treats: Jerry Dodgion’s alto sax accompaniment on “Little Ingenue,” Chuck Redd’s vibes support on “Midnight Sun” and Marian McPartland on piano on her classic “Twilight World” (She wrote the tune, Mercer added the lyrics).

Bill Anschell/Brent Jensen, We Couldn’t Agree More (Origin)
The duo is perhaps the most challenging format in jazz, particularly when it is just piano and sax. There’s no rhythm section for support - just a lot of seat-of-the-pants playing, intense listening and anticipating. Pianist Bill Anschell and soprano sax player Brent Jensen have the chops and intuition to pull it off. They explore new facets, usually skirting or barely implying the melody, as they reinvigorate 10 different standards (Miles Davis’s “Solar” has an alternate take). This is the jazz version of two people sharing a tightrope - beautifully in sync.

Mike Stern, Big Neighborhood (Heads Up International)
Odds are you never put subtlety in the same sentence with Mike Stern when describing his energetic brand of jazz fusion. This appropriately named project gathers a range of guest artists from all around the musical block to tackle 11 Stern originals. Personal highlights: Stern trading walls of sound with rock guitarist Steve Vai on the opening title track and the exotic-sounding “Moroccan Roll;” the simpatico in “Reach” with Richard Bona on bass and vocals, Dave Weckl on drums, Bob Franceschini on tenor sax and Jim Beard on keyboards; and the intense fire that Medeski, Martin and Wood lay under Stern on “Check One,” a track that also features Bob Malach on tenor sax. Believe it or not, there is some subtlety - when Stern teams up with and comps behind the bass and wordless vocals of Esparanza Spalding (with Beard and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington) on “Song for Pepper.” Other guests include Texas rock guitarist Eric Johnson, trumpeter Randy Brecker, drummers Cindy Blackman and Lionel Cordew, and bassists Chris Minh Doky and Lincoln Goines. This is an August 11 release.

David Berkman Quartet, Live at Smoke (Challenge Records)
There is nothing like the extra adrenalin a band receives from playing before a live audience. This is one of those occasions when that energy comes through in the live recording process. Pianist Berkman, saxophonist Jimmy Greene, bassist Ed Howard and drummer Ted Poor are at the top of their game in the cozy confines of the upper Manhattan club Smoke, where Berkman is far from a stranger. Highlights:- the slight melodic variations that he uses to power “Weird Knack” from start to finish, the strong interplay between Berkman and Greene on “Along Came Betty,” and the beauty mined from “Hidden Fondness,” an unsubtle variation on the standard “Secret Love.”

Add Detroit to a year of big numbers for jazz

50, 30, 55. The numbers have been all over the lot this year with significant anniversaries for historic recordings, jazz festival foundings or longevity. You name it, there’s been or will be a lot of hoopla.

Now you can add 30 and 91 with the Detroit International Jazz Festival to the mix this Labor Day Weekend.

Detroit, which bills itself as the largest free jazz festival in the U.S., is commemorating its 30th anniversary edition with a six-part suite that it commissioned from West Coast composer-bandleader Gerald Wilson. He and his big band will premiere the work on September 4, which just happens to be Wilson’s 91st birthday.

A recorded version, Detroit, will be released September 29 by Mack Avenue Records.
Wilson recorded the work with both his Los Angeles and New York orchestras.

The combined personnel include trumpeters Jon Faddis, Bobby Rodriguez and Jimmy Owens; trombonists Dennis Wilson, Luis Bonilla and Doug Purviance; saxophonists Steve Wilson, Kamasi Washington, Antonio Hart, Jackie Kelso and Ronnie Cuber; pianists Brian O'Rourke and Renee Rosnes; bassists Trey Henry, Peter Washington and Todd Coolman; and drummers Mel Lee and Lewis Nash. The guest soloists are flute player Hubert Laws, trumpeter Sean Jones and the bandleader's son, guitarist Anthony Wilson.

Gerald Wilson calls his work a musical sonnet to the city where he spent five key years in the late 1930s. He said Detroit's progressive social policies made a huge impression on him. "The city itself showed me so much," Wilson says. "All of the schools were integrated; so was the musician's union. I had only known segregation before."