A special day for jazz - globally

Naysayers who claim jazz is dead or dying will find a lot of contrarians today at Congo Square in New Orleans and the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

This is the first International Jazz Day, an official designation that was made last November by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for each April 30.

How do you measure a nonprofit's impact on its community?

In the case of the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, you do it one class at a time, one student helped at a time, one workshop or master class at a time. For more than 40 years, MCG has been a multi-disciplined arts and learning center that fosters a sense of belonging, interconnections and hope within the urban community. Its state-of-the-art facility on Pittsburgh’s North Shore contains visual arts, design, ceramics and photography classrooms, a dining hall, auditorium/concert hall, and gallery to showcase creativity and craftsmanship in learning.

The MCG Jazz program, now in its 25th year, is preserving, presenting and promoting jazz music to increase its intercultural understanding and appreciation in western Pennsylvania and around the globe.

MCG President and CEO Bill Strickland recalls giving Dizzy Gillespie a tour of the school when he visited and performed in 1989. Gillespie told him: “You know... you are a great jazz musician yourself. This place is our instrument, man, and everything that happens here is your song.”

The MCG Jazz concert series, drawing thousands of visitors to MCG each year and resulted in a steady stream of quality live performance recordings, has tangible numbers are quite staggering.

• 515,970 attendees
• 1,638 concerts
• 40 albums
• 4 Grammy Awards

Kudos go out to MCG Jazz Executive Producer Marty Ashby and his dedicated team as they ready for the 25th anniversary season, which includes 16 concerts between late September and mid-May 2012. It opens with the Bob Mintzer Big Band and concludes with Kurt Elling Swings Sinatra.

Others on the bill include Pat Metheny with bassist Larry Grenadier; Pancho Sanchez; Take Six; Jon Faddis; the Count Basie Orchestra with the New York Voices; Chick Corea performing solo; and Toots Thielemans with Kenny Werner.

Pittsburgh is blessed to have such a vibrant arts force in its midst.

It's always nice to be appreciated

Jazz Notes Central just found out that this little blog, now in its third year, has been listed by Accredited Online Colleges.com as one of the 30 Best Blogs for Jazz Students. The 30 are not ranked but it is fascinating to read a bit about why they like each of these blogs in particular.

I know many more are just as deserving, but it is nice to see a labor of love get some kudos. I'm flattered to be in such great company. And I now have a few more bloggers who I'm anxious to follow. Check out the list as time permits. And be sure to check out the other bloggers with whom you may not be familiar.

Seeking fresh talent – and honoring Dr. Fast Hands

This is the 16th consecutive year that faculty members from Boston’s Berklee College of Music will jet to San Juan for one of its (now global) outreach programs. Berklee in Puerto Rico will provide classes and award $300,000 in scholarships for young musicians to attend Berklee. Saxophonist Miguel Zenon, a participant in Berklee in Puerto Rico’s first year, is one of more than 100 such scholarship recipients from Puerto Rico.

This year, more than 200 young musicians will take part in the program June 1 to 6 at Escuela de Bellas Artes de Carolina. And on the final day of the jazz education program, a group of top students will perform as the opener at the Puerto Rico Heineken JazzFest’s final evening at the Tito Puente Amphitheater in San Juan. (This year’s festival runs June 3 to 6.)

Berklee will also honor Puerto Rico’s strong musical roots that evening by awarding an honorary doctor of music to percussionist, composer and bandleader Giovanni Hidalgo (pictured).

The Puerto Rico native is considered one of the best conga players of his generation - and possibly the fastest. Hidalgo, a member of late trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie’s adventurous United Nation Orchestra, taught in Berklee’s percussion department from 1992 to 1996.

Hidalgo will receive his honorary degree in a terrific festival spotlight: between sets of the festival’s finale. It is a big band extravaganza featuring 10 special guests: Eddie Gomez, Dave Valentín, Paquito D’Rivera, Michel Camilo, Alex Acuña, Eddie Palmieri, Chick Corea, Andy González, Gato Barbieri - and conguero Hidalgo.

That evening figures to be a dandy - and a great way to put a wrap on the festival's 20th annual edition.

CDs of Note…

Aldo Romano, Origine (Dreyfus Jazz)
If triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13, the best descriptive for Italy-born, French-reared Aldo Romano’s newest project might be triskaidekamoré. The drummer’s fourth Dreyfus project, Origine, recorded with a 13-piece European band, is a dandy. My favorites: his 10/4 rhythm exploration on “Gamelan,” as well as the gorgeous ballads “Touch of a Woman” and “Starless Night.” Brothers Stephane (trumpet) and Lionel (saxes, flute and arrangements) Belmondo shine here. Pianist Eric Legnini is spotlighted on “Touch of a Woman.” The leader changes gears a bit on the closer, switching to guitar and vocals for “Jazz Messengers” a tribute of sorts with lyrics (in French) by Yves Simon.

Ellen Rowe Quartet, Wishing Well (PKO Records)
Pianist Ellen Rowe explores nine originals (plus the standard “Alone Together”) with her quartet and two special guests: trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and tenor player Andy Haefner. Rowe’s originals are vivid sound paintings that happen to swing mightily. Jensen is a wonderful addition on two tracks: the Rachel Carson-inspired “That Which Was Living, Lost” and the Kenny Wheeler-influenced “Longing.” Other favorites: “Night Sounds” and the title track, “Wishing Well.” The pensive “For Donald,” written in memory of late saxophonist Donald Walden, features two of his students, Haefner and Andrew Bishop. The quartet members featured throughout are Rowe, Bishop, bassist Kurt Krahnke and drummer Pete Siers. This is a gem in every respect, revealing much to savor on every track - and a well-above-average sound quality. Rowe is a University of Michigan School of Music faculty member. Go Blue.

Ken Peplowski, Noir Blue (Capri)
This latest from clarinetist and tenor saxophonist Ken Peplowski finds the Swingman in great company - and stretching the stylistic range beyond what his fans may be used to. His quartet mates include pianist Shelly Berg, bassist Jay Leonhart and drummer Joe La Barbera. My favorites: their take on Berg’s “Home With You,” Duke Ellington’s little-heard “Bourbon Street Jingling Jollies,” Strayhorn’s title track and Peplowski’s own “Little Dogs” - an off-kilter blues. This is a tasty session.

Alper Yilmaz, Over the Clouds (Kayique Records)
Turkish-born electric bassist Alper Yilmaz, now based in New York, has produced his second CD as a leader and the followup to 2007’s Clashes is quite intriguing. He’s got a great feel for sound – and composes a range of creative works. Alto saxophonist David Binney is aboard for this project and I particularly like the way “Misir with Grandma” showcase his melodic side. Yilmaz’s extended piece “Straight Up” opens rather pensively but gradually builds in momentum to close with great ferocity. “Cagdas’ Tune” (based on a theme by Cagdas Arpac) and “Over the Clouds” are fine ballad treatments. Guitarist Nir Felder, drummers Bodek Janke and Volkan Oktem, with a couple of guest artists joining on the sonically-enhanced title track. This is a May 18 release.

Sarah Partridge, Perspective (Peartree Productions)
The duo can be challenging, particularly with two instrumentalists. But this CD shows how wonderful the format can work for a singer and a pianist who understands the interplay required - as a musical partner, not merely an accompanist. Singer (and actress in the `1980s and ‘90s) Sarah Partridge teamed with pianist Daniel May to explore a dozen tunes they both enjoy from some of the Great American Songbook writers. Partridge also added two heart-felt originals - “Perspective” and “I Just Won’t Let You Go.” Perspective is tasty and dreamy from an artist who knows how to communicate - and not over-sing. May’s support is just that: strong backing filled with subtleties, some great solos - and never intrusive. My favorites: “I’ll String Along With You,” “’Tis Better to Have Loved and Lost,” and “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But the Blues.” This is a May 18 release.

England swings – JALC style…

Just as New York City’s attention will be focused on a bubbling array of jazz choices in late June with return of a George Wein-produced jazz festival in the Big Apple (the CareFusion Jazz Festival, running June 17 to 26), the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has teamed up for an interesting out-of-town residency. Out-of-country, off-continent even. Across the pond.

JALC, with artistic director/trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and special guests, is off to the U.K. for a residency at London’s Barbican Centre, home of the London Symphony. In fact it is jazz jewel in the arts center’s first International Residency Series.

A series of three main JALC concerts (June 17, 18 and 20) will be augmented by a creative learning program, in local schools and at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with workshops, master classes and professional development, as well as performances in several East London partner venues. They also include a swing dance evening at Stoke Newington Town Hall, jam sessions at the Vortex in Dalston, and a special family concert at Hackney Empire.

The three main Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra concerts will tell the story the story of the American jazz orchestra, celebrating 80 years of great big band music, from Jelly Roll Morton to the present day, curated by Marsalis. There’s also a June 19 “Big Band Britannia: Inspirations and Collaborations” at Barbican Hall that will celebrate eight decades of British big band music through a specially assembled big band led by trumpeter Guy Barker. It will include a tribute to mighty British big band jazz figure, the late Sir John Dankworth. The next afternoon, Marsalis and the JALC will present an English version of their popular Jazz for Young People matinee concerts, and an “Essentially Ellington UK” workshop for youth big bands.

During the week, there will also be a Midsummer Night's Swing series at several venues plus nightly after-hours jam sessions blending British and JALC jazz talent at East London jazz venues including the Vortex Jazz Club, the Hackney Empire Review Bar and others.

Schedule details may be found at www.barbican.org.uk.

Reminders of the future of jazz

For those naysayers and/or moldy figs who say, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that jazz is dead, don’t buy it. The music isn’t even on life support, given the attention and interest it receives from music educators and their serious students at college, high school and lower levels.

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington” competition each May draws perhaps the most fanfare. But it certainly holds no monopoly.

Consider last weekend’s Charles Mingus High School Competition at the Manhattan School of Music, where schools from New England dominated the winner’s circle.

Among Mingus’s compositions performed were “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,” “Fables of Faubus,” “Better Get Hit in Your Soul,” “Jelly Roll” and “Ecclusiastics.”

Competition co-founder Sue Mingus, the bassist’s widow and musical champion, said: “For years, Mingus’s music was thought to be too difficult to perform, and today, the spirit and vitality that was heard by all of the young musicians playing Mingus’s music was really thrilling.”

The winning ensembles included:

• Best Big Band – Regular High School: The Rivers Big Band, The Rivers School; Weston, Massachusetts (Philippe Crettienne, director).
• Best Big Band – Specialized School: Academy Big Band, Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts; Hartford, Connecticut (Douglas Maher, director).
• Mingus Spirit Award: Rio Americano Combo, Rio Americano High School, Sacramento, California. (Maxwell Kiesner, director).
• Best Combo – Regular High School: Foxborough High School Jazz Quintet, Foxborough, Massachusetts (Stephen C. Massey, director).
• Best Combo – Specialized High School: Manasia Improv Ensemble, Manhattan School of Music Precollege (Jeremy Manasia, director).
  

Congratulations to these winners, as well as the winners of best arranger, and outstanding and section categories from this nationwide competition.

Berklee Festival is right around the corner
It is also good to note that in less than a month – March 13 – Boston’s Berklee College of Music will host its 42nd annual High School Jazz Festival, with 200 bands and 3,000 musicians expected to compete for $175,000 in partial scholarships to Berklee’s Five-Week Summer Performance Program.

The Hynes Convention Center event will also feature free clinics by trombonist and producer Delfeayo Marsalis, drummer Peter Erskine and trumpeter Eric Miyashiro, as well as performances by the Crescent Super Band, an internationally touring all-star high school ensemble from Utah, Berklee's Concert Jazz Orchestra, Global Jazz Institute, City Music, Salsa, and P-Funk ensembles. New this year is Band Slam, a non-competing category for students who play non-jazz styles, ranging from hip-hop to bluegrass.

For more information, visit: http://www.berklee.edu/events/hsjazzfest

Interesting developments at J@LC

Remember the halcyon days when to be considered a university, you had to have six or seven accredited colleges as well as graduate and professional divisions? In our society’s more recent cavalier and clever language-mashing, it seems anything goes.

It started with Hamburger University, then Dunkin’ Donuts University and probably thousands’ more corporate training initiatives that persist today with the university adjunct. And, of course, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s “Swing University.”

Grammar cop semantics barb aside as I jump back into blogging after two weeks in the sun, the JALC program is a great jazz education option for adults seeking a greater appreciation or understanding of the music we treasure so much. The program’s Winter 2010 session opens with a free January 5 open house at Irene Diamond Educational Center at Rose Hall in JALC’s Manhattan digs.

Available winter classes focus on Mary Lou Williams (taught by her spiritual guide and later manager, Father Peter O’Brien); drums and the workings of the jazz rhythm section (taught by Lewis Nash); bebop (taught by JALC trombonist Vincent Gardner); and Jazz 101 and Jazz 201 history courses (taught by the indefatigable broadcaster, archivist and jazz historian Phil Schaap).

Details are at JALC’s Web site, www.jalc.org/swingu. Courses from $125 to $200. Single class tickets, from $30-40, are available for cash purchase at the door on the evening of the class. To enroll, visit the site or call 212.258.9786,

Of great note this week is JALC’s announcement, covered in depth in Monday’s New York Times, that the institution is broadening its programming to underscore the close relationship between jazz and popular song. Singer-pianist Michael Feinstein has signed on as director of JALC’s new popular music series. He will create three programs and a family event for the spring of 2011. Stephen Holden has it covered in depth. Read on – about the importance and the many nuances.

CDs of Note...

Bobby Sanabria conducting the Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, Kenya Revisited Live!!! (Jazzheads)
The mouthful of a title and over-the-top use of triple exclamation points don’t detract from one of the finest Latin recordings to emerge so far this year. Drummer/percussionist Bobby Sanabria takes a fresh look at Kenya, a classic recording by Machito & The Afro-Cubans 50 years after its release. The project features MSM’s Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, which he directs, and several guest arrangers (mostly from his own big band).

This live concert recording featured conguero Candido Camero as guest solo on three tunes. The NEA Jazz Master performed on the original Kenya recording, whose notable soloists for that December 1957 session also included alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley and Count Basie Orchestra trumpeter Joe Newman. The incendiary performances throughout this update show the strength of MSM’s collegiate jazz program - and are the project’s strongest exclamation points. Sanabria plays timbales on “Congo Mulence” and drums on “Wild Jungle.” This music is near and dear to Sanabria’s heart, as a one-time member of Mariao Bauzá’s Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. Bauzá was musical director and co-founder of the Machito band.

This recording also signals a noble partnership with Randy Klein’s Jazzheads Records. It is the first in a series of four recordings planned with MSM bands. The others will feature saxophonist Dave Liebman with the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra interpreting three Miles Davis classic works: Miles Ahead, Porgy & Bess and Sketches of Spain. Proceeds from the sales of all four of these projects will be donated to the Manhattan School of Music Scholarship Fund-Jazz Arts Program. Kudos to Klein, Sanabria and MSM Jazz Arts Program chairman Justin DiCioccio, who also leads the school’s Jazz Orchestra that will be heard on the three Davis projects.

Scotty Barnhart, Say It Plain (Unity Music)
Scotty Barnhart, featured trumpet soloist with the Count Basie Orchestra for 17 years (during which time the band won two Grammys), finally has step forward with his own recording debut as a leader. And it is a dandy - enhanced by some stellar special guests. There is much to savor among the even split of original material and standards.

John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps," which opens the project, is masterfully rearranged with a funky New Orleans second-line swagger. Barnhart’s own “Haley’s Passage,” composed for writer Alex Haley and featuring the leader on flumpet (a flugelhorn/trumpet hybrid championed by the late Art Farmer) is stunning. Wynton Marsalis helps Barnhart turn Dizzy Gillespie’s beloved Latin ballad “Con Alma” (With Soul) into a seamless duet with dueling trumpets.

Clark Terry and Barnhart tear things up with a humorous original called “Pay Me My Money” with Terry at his Mumbles best to end this CD, whose other guests include Marcus Roberts, Ellis Marsalis, Bruce Barth and singer Jamie Davis, who is featured on “Young at Heart.” Barnhart has skillfully and soulfully added his mark to the jazz trumpet tradition with a clear tone and clear vision.

Curt Ramm, Dan Moretti, Bill Cunliffe, Foundations (Foundations Jazz Records)
A soulful groove is the foundation of this project, which puts a forward-looking spin on a sound that has fascinated hard-core jazz lovers ever since Cannonball Adderley and Horace Silver put their indelible funky imprints on the music. The three co-leaders, backed by bassist Marty Ballou and drummer Marty Richards, split writing duties. Cunliffe and Ramm co-write six and Moretti wrote the other five. It is music that is made to be fun for players and listeners alike. “Goin Nowhere Fast” showcases Ramm’s excellent trumpet work. Cuniffe’s B-3 work deepens the funkiness on “K-Funk” and “MM&D,” both penned by Moretti. “Vine Street” and “Podunk” are among the most exhilarating tracks. “Totem Dance” and “Get In Line” dig deep into the Adderley-Silver vibe.

Oran Etkin, Kelenia (Motéma)
For proof that the world has indeed grown smaller musically, look no further than Kelenia. Oran Etkin was born in Israel and began serious study of jazz as a young teenager in Boston, honing his skills under the tutelage of George Garzone. He also developed an early love of the brass band street music from New Orleans. “Kelenia” means love between people who are different from each other in Bambara , also called Bamanankan (the first or second language for 80 percent of the residents of Mali). On this project, Etkin, who plays tenor sax, clarinet and his primary instrument, bass clarinet, seamlessly blends pulsing rhythms, tones and melodies from the Middle East and Africa with a hip sense of urban jazz.

His band includes several players from Mali (Balla Kouyate, Abdoulaye Diabate and Mohammed “Joh” Sid Camara), guitarist Lionel Loueke from Benin, and bassists John Benitez from Puerto Rico and Joe Sanders from the United States. From start to finish, this project is intriguing and fresh. I particularly like the traditional African tunes “Nama” and “Damonzon,” Etkin’s blues “Brink” and their world music update of Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing.” There is much to discover and savor here. This is a June 9 release.

Joel Harrison, Urban Myths (HighNote)
Don’t bother trying to pin down guitarist, composer arranger Joel Harrison. Before you can finish, he’ll be on to something else. Jazz, country, blues, spirituals, classical, strings, music from West Africa and Appalachia have all found their way into his evolving palette.

Urban Myths, his 11th CD, uses his own new compositions (and variations on Monk’s “Straight No Chaser”) to celebrate the electric jazz of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Weather Report, John McLaughlin and Frank Zappa that influenced him growing up in the 1970s. His ace band includes longtime collaborator David Binney on alto sax, Christian Howes on violin, Daniel Kelly on keyboards, Stephan Crump on bass and Jordan Perlson on drums, with several guest artists: Fima Ephron on electric bass, Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet, Corey King on trombone and Jerome Sabbag on tenor sax. Electric keyboards and strings enhance its sometimes spooky, sometimes gritty sonic textures. Howes’ melodic teases keep the Monk exploration on course. The strongest groove comes on “Between the Traveler and the Setting Sun” and the title track.

My favorite Harrison recording is 2003’s Free Country, which put a fresh twist on a series of traditional country and Appalachian tunes. Norah Jones cameos on “I Walk the Line” and “Tennessee Waltz.” If you’re not familiar with it, I highly recommend you check out Free Country. It’s on the ACT label and also available through HighNote.

No slowing down

June’s issue of Hot House includes my profile of tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts, who is on the road as special guest with the new tribute project Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings Coltrane/Hartman. (They’re at Birdland June 16 to 20, and the project's CD is due out June 23 on Concord Jazz.

Watts talked at great length from his West Coast home. And not everything could be squeezed into the lengthy article.

Here are some of his additional thoughts:

His bittersweet tone, a key ingredient in the film noire sound of Charlie Haden’s Quartet West – “It is a combination of all of those years of listening to everybody, then focusing on Coltrane. The physical aspect to the sound partly derives from body type. Some people are big strong people and approach the instrument differently. I think my sound developed from thinking of the saxophone as a singing tool. I do a lot of pop music and R&B, when you are playing that music, you have to play in a certain melodic style that keeps the music authentic. With the sax, I thought of it as being a voice. Everything you do is a melody. You focus on playing something that is beautiful and clear. I realized that I had this singing ability in my sound.”

Ernie Watts, Montreal, June 2008... >>>
Music reflects life – “Every day is a new beginning. You can play great one night and get up the next day and feel awful. Some days I get up and it is like I never saw a saxophone before in my life. I have a practice routine to keep everything in balance. That helps a lot. It is like training for the Olympics continually.”

The importance of passing on knowledge through college workshops or master classes (Watts says does about six a year) - “When you talk about what you do and you vocalize it, it gives you a different view of something that is hard-wired and you normally wouldn’t think about. Life is like that. Every experience is a teaching experience and a learning experience. I learn as much from them as they learn from me. It forces you to reflect on things we’ve been doing for 30 years without thinking about it. Little things like vibrato and tonguing. When you have to explain it, it gives you another view of it. The music is to share, and that is very important.”

I’ll provide a link to the Hot House profile as soon as it is posted online.

A-Team / Essentially Ellington overlap

Seattle’s Garfield High School and Roosevelt High School jazz bands have been perennial top finalists and/or winners at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition, finishing first and second again this year. Now their directors are getting well-deserved moments in the spotlight.

Garfield’s Clarence Acox and Roosevelt’s Scott Brown are among the 11 winners of the A-Team class of "activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz" who will be honored June 16 as part of the Jazz Journalists Association’s 2009 JJA Jazz Awards event at The Jazz Standard in Manhattan.

The other A-Team honorees are: trumpeter and producer Herb Alpert for his longstanding commitment to jazz and philanthropy supporting music education; Dr. Agnes Varis of the Jazz Foundation of America; Bruce Lundvall of Blue Note Records; Dr. David Baker for revolutionizing jazz education; cultural historian Timuel Black; Jazz Institute of Chicago former president Steve Saltzman, Jazz Bakery proprietor Ruth Price, and two posthumous honorees: journalist-author-musician Richard Sudhalter and author-publicist Peter Levinson.

See the JJA Web site for details on other nominees, as well as event information.

Big numbers in a January without IAJE

A jazz-related gathering in Boston next weekend will be a hang of sorts for thousands, but not on the wide range of levels as the gone-but-not-forgotten IAJE conferences.

Saturday, January 31 brings the Berklee College of Music's 41st annual High School Jazz Festival, with some 3,000 musicians in 200 bands competing for $175,000 in Berklee scholarships.

In addition to the student competitions, the Hynes Convention Center event will feature concerts and clinics (free and open to the public), featuring brothers Delfeayo (trombone) and Jason Marsalis (vibes), and drummers Gregg Bissonnette, John Blackwell and Terri Lyne Carrington.
Berklee says the festival, originally called the New England High School Stage Band Festival, is the oldest and largest competition of its kind in the United States. That longevity is remarkable - and laudable.

2008: the jazz year in review

It was a time of jazz tumult, controversy and achievements. The demise of one of the world's premier jazz advocacy organizations topped the jazz world's headlines during 2008, a year that also saw several jazz festivals impacted by the worsening economy. Yet the music itself—and its makers—continue to survive if not thrive in many ways. That was the common thread for my extensive look back at the year, posted at allaboutjazz.com. It also includes a rundown of musicians and jazz-related individuals who passed on during the year.

The full year in review can be found at: 2008: A Year of Jazz Tumult, Controversy and Achievements.

Happy holidays to everyone, with the anticipation - or at least the hope - that 2009 will be much an improvement over 2008. May the economic, political, national and international healing be substantial and long lasting. -kf