Musical impacts linger in jazz and beyond

If you’ve ever experienced a musical epiphany, you know of what I write.

It’s about those special encounters with music – not necessarily jazz – where you walk away with goose bumps from the experience. The memories linger for a long time. Perhaps it was the band’s chemistry and musical conversation, perhaps some other intangibles, something that leaves you almost speechless, beyond saying “wow.”

I was reminded of that impact of music last weekend in western Massachusetts at Mass MoCA, the sprawling contemporary art museum in North Adams, housed in a 250,000 square-foot former mill complex.

Mass MoCA’s many exhibits include Dawn DeDeaux and Lonnie Holley’s collaborative installation, Thumbs Up For The Mothership. 

Their multi-faceted installation consists primarily of found objects that were recrafted and are exhibited in ways designed to provoke serious thinking about the issues facing our planet.

The Strength of Music.....

Holley’s portion of the exhibit space included the folk artist and musician’s installation called Vox Humana III: The Strength of Music Lives After the Instruments Are Destroyed.

Detail

This Alabama-born artist, now based in Atlanta, combined a wide range of junked/destroyed musical instruments into a visual commentary. To me, it said, the best musical experience lingers long after the notes ebb into the night.

Other viewers may have different takeaways. That's just fine. That's art's purpose. Right?

2010 JJA Awards kudos

Congratulations to all of this year's winners at the 14th annual Jazz Journalists Association's Jazz Awards, which many consider the jazz industry's version of the Grammys, Oscars and Tonys.

It is a wonderful jazz hang as well as a tribute. Sadly, this is one of those years when the day job kept me from attending this splendid event (Monday, June 14) in the Big Apple.

I want to spotlight the many associates - fellow scribes, photographers and publications (with whom I have had the privilege of working or contributing over the past 25+ years).

You'll find the full list of winners, starting with musicians and event producers, here.

Below are those from the journalism categories:

Periodical of the Year
JazzTimes

Web site of the Year
AllAboutJazz.com

Blog of the Year
Rifftides, Doug Ramsey

Best Book about Jazz
"Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original," Robin D.G. Kelley, Free Press

Best Liner Notes
The Complete Louis Armstrong Decca Sessions (1935-1946), by Dan Morgenstern

Photo of the Year
Tom Harrell at the Moscow International Performance Arts Center by Lena Adasheva

The Helen Dance-Robert Palmer Award for Review and Feature Writing
Nate Chinen: The New York Times; JazzTimes

The Willis Conover-Marian McPartland Award for Broadcasting
Josh Jackson, Host of “The Checkout," “Live at the Village Vanguard," WBGO.org, Newark

The Lona Foote-Bob Parent Award for Photography
Mitchell Seidel: Hot House, JazzTimes, Down Beat, Jazz Journal International, Swing Journal, Musica Jazz; album covers.

Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism
Don Heckman: The International Review of Music, Notes from the Left Coast; the Los Angeles Times, JazzTimes; The New York Times, Village Voice, Down Beat, Metronome, the Jazz Review, liner notes.

Geaux Saints, with a trumpeter’s fanfare

Once in a while, jazz and popular culture conveniently cross paths. And how fitting that it was on the sporting world’s biggest stage last weekend with the NFL’s Super Bowl XLIV festivities.

CBS’s pre-game broadcast leading up to the New Orleans Saints' gritty, stunning - and most welcome - win over the Colts included Wynton Marsalis’s music-and-spoken word tribute to The Big Easy, and the Saints organization's perseverence through 43 years of suffering before this season.

He did a masterful job of putting the spirit of his beloved city in perspective. And today… it was live-streamed out to the jazz world and other Marsalis followers after an online conversation with the trumpeter/bandleader/Jazz at Lincoln Center Artistic Director on Ustream.

“Down on the Bayou where the mighty Mississippi kisses Lake Pontchartrain and spills into the Gulf of Mexico. There sits that jewel of the Southland. What the French lost to the British who gave it to the Spanish who lost it back to the French who sold it to America for…. Well, some folks say Jefferson conned Napoleon in a card game and won it for some jambalaya and a chicory coffee….” Read more about the ‘haints and the Saints’

here on Wynton's Web site.

Yes, the musical sage captured it perfectly… a unique city in America, a city of struggles, a team of struggles - and pride and perseverance.

Sunday’s improbable victory signaled more - and shined a spotlight back on a city that, with a new mayor-elect ready to take office, that does and will continue to persevere - and someday flourish again post-Katrina. Its spirit is undeniable and unstoppable.

The music hasn’t lost a beat… as it provides the essential rhythm. So how fitting that Mardi Gras began nine days early this year. How uplifting for New Orleans, its team, its residents and its longtime admirers and visitors.

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.

Savor those unexpected musical moments

You never know where or when the music is going to catch you off guard. The surprising moments stick with the psyche.

We had to bail out early on this year’s 30th annual Montreal International Jazz Festival, but the music followed us on the long trip home. Quite unexpectedly.

1) A precautionary stop at a hospital emergency room for my rather balky leg at the time. Who should walk in to take a look at it? A hospital resident who is a jazz guitarist and writes about jazz as time permits. He said he studied with Art Davis at the University of Wisconsin at one point. His faves – Bill Frisell, John Scofield and John McLaughlin. Even more crazy, it turns out he did a medical rotation with an old college friend of mine who has a local practice in the same city.

2) A few hours later, we pull into a fast-food joint for something quick. And we’re sitting at a table, a few feet away from a ceiling ventilator fan, whose motor is making a rather remarkable series of three distinct Afro-Cuban-like rhythms. Each a bit different. First one, then the next (a bit longer and more complex), then the third. Then it would repeat the same three patterns. We sat fascinated, and I was wishing I’d had a hand drum with me, not just a laminated tabletop. The night manager walked by as we listened. She looked up at the fan, clearly annoyed that the motor was making any noise at all, oblivious to the rhythms. Such is life.

Hope amid New Orleans’ slower-than-slow recovery

Another glimmer of hope and positivity among turtle-slow efforts to bring New Orleans back from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina occurred in grand style on Thursday night, January 8.

It was the reopening of the Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts in Armstrong Park. A $22 million renovation brought the theater back from the brink of ruin three years ago. The opening concert featured local musical fixtures (would anything else be appropriate?) including the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Rebirth Brass Band, Irma Thomas, Freddy Omar, Marva Wright, Philip Manuel, Michael Ward and Ingrid Lucia.

One other appropriate touch… tickets were free but were required since seating was limited.

For reopening details, check out Michelle Krupa’s reporting in The Times-Picayune, The curtain rises at Mahalia Jackson Theater.

Since President-elect Barack Obama has made it clear that an essential ingredient in America’s recovery from the current economic travail is rebuilding the country’s infrastructure as a way to put people back to work, he ought to make sure a lot of that effort is committed to rebuilding New Orleans. In that way, Obama can fulfill the promise that W. made but soon forgot as his presidency spiraled and sputtered out of control in so many ways.

Do you hear what I hear?

The easy answer is “not likely.” No two people hear things exactly the same. But what is it that draws we musicians and/or listeners to a particular instrument, grouping of instruments, or the specific sound of a player or singer over others? Why might our LP and/or CD collections be weighted more towards one instrument than another?

The subject came up last weekend at a regular brunch session with several friends. One is not keen on solo performance of any kind. He might tolerate a trio now and then, but prefers a quartet or quintet with horns. With certain exceptions like J. J. Johnson or Milt Jackson and Bobby Hutcherson, he doesn’t really care for trombone or vibes either. Yes, he’d buy in to some variation of the joke used for everything from lawyers to trombonists: “What do you call 1,000 (trombonists) (lawyers) at the bottom of the ocean?” Answer: “A good start.” BA DUM BUM.

But why do people choose, or like, particular instruments or instrumentalists or singers?

I listened later that afternoon to a new CD with a quartet whose leader plays bassoon (Daniel Smith, Blue Bassoon). To my ears, the low-pitched, double-reeded distant cousin to the clarinet sounds like a cross between bass clarinet and baritone sax – with the expressiveness of neither.

While best known in classical circles, the bassoon has a rather obscure place in jazz, with its best-known occasional players including saxophonists Frankie Trumbauer, Garvin Bushell, Yusef Lateef, Illinois Jacquet and Frank Tiberi.

Dan Smith likely wants to take his place as a generational successor. His CD is brimming with terrific jazz material. There’s not a tired tune among the 13 pieces by 13 of the greatest writers and performers in jazz and the blues. But there is a bassoon in the mix. And for that reason, it doesn’t make me groove to the music, despite many fine performances by the other instrumentalists.

So I ask again: Why do people choose, or like, particular instruments or instrumentalists or singers?

Please weigh in with your own thoughts.

A sad sign of the times

It’s no secret that with the economy in the toilet, and circulation and ad revenue at troubling lows, the newspaper industry has been reeling for more than a year. One of the most troubling effects, learned this week, was the year-end layoff of three Village Voice employees – one of them being the exteemed Nat Hentoff, a Voice fixture for 50 years. That’s right, Nat Hentoff, whom many would argue was the village voice in 20th century America.

His columns about jazz and civil liberties always have been on point, enlightening and solidly developed. And he has been a passionate advocate of support for musicians in financial need with his writings about the Jazz Musicians’ Emergency Fund.

The end of Hentoff’s tenure with the Village Voice was reported this week in the New York Times (see Village Voice Lays Off Nat Hentoff and 2 Others).

Fortunately for the world at-large, Hentoff’s syndicated columns and jazz writings will continue in other venues. The owners of the Village Voice have no idea what a large void they have created in their weekly publication.

And what of the music festival scene, Newport and beyond?

Will there be jazz and folk festivals in Newport next summer, and JVC Jazz Festivals elsewhere in the world? If so, who will be producing them? Those are valid questions these days. Questions without firm answers as of this writing.

Dave Brubeck & George Wein, backstage 2006

Two years ago, festival impresario George Wein sold his very successful Festival Productions Inc. to a newcomer on the entertainment scene, Festival Network LLC, for a handsome sum. The new company, which hired Wein and some of his longtime staff as contract employees, had a greater mission beyond merely running the eight JVC-sponsored festivals across the U.S. and around the world and other FPI staples, including the Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles.

The new mission was to also create a series of “destination festivals” in exotic resort locations to lure large numbers of music fans to places like Martha’s Vineyard off Cape Cod or the mountain resort town of Whistler, British Columbia. The theory being – if we build it, they will come. Festival Network also invested in enhanced equipment and amenities for the existing festivals, including the place where Wein started it all in 1954 with the Newport Jazz Festival in coastal Rhode Island.

In the overall scheme of things, spending money willy-nilly on frills in venues new and old, and ignoring the sage advice of Wein’s lower-level staff may have backfired. The high overhead, higher expectations, ever-increasing talent costs and modest-at-best turnouts at its ”destination” events, proved costly in more ways than one.

At the end of 2008, word was out that Festival Network had closed its New York office, either furloughed or laid off employees, and had terminated the contracts of its “contract employees.” Some Newport vendors reported they still are awaiting payment for festival services provided last August. Word was also out that Festival Network’s executives were trying to raise more capital for the company by reaching out to new investors.

What a challenge, given that initial investors may not be thrilled the way their money seemed to go out the door the way water flows down the gutters in a rainstorm. If Festival Network can save itself, it needs to do soon despite the mess in the world economy. It likely will have to scale back on the newer festivals and stick with the tried-and-true festivals that enjoy corporate sponsorship, such as the JVC events in New York, Newport, Los Angeles and Concord, Calif., Chicago, Miami, Paris and The Netherlands (home of the North Sea Jazz Festival), as well as The Newport Folk Festival, which ran in extravagant fashion in 2008 without having a title sponsor.

If Festival Network cannot save itself, one has to believe that George Wein, now 83, will find a way to marshal his loyalists, regain key festival ownership rights, and do his darnedest to make sure the major festivals continue to operate. It is difficult to think otherwise. Music festivals have been in his blood since 1954. Besides, the Newport Folk Festival began in 1959… and there is a 50th anniversary that is ripe for celebration this coming August.

Trust the music, not the hype

When Something for You: Eliane Elias Sings & Plays Bill Evans came out early in 2008 on Blue Note, considerable attention was paid to two tracks that Evans was working on before his death in 1980, but were not believed to have recorded by him.

One of them, to which pianist Elias added lyrics and titled “Here is Something for You,” became the source for the CD title.

Listening to Bill Evans’ The Complete Fantasy Recordings this fall, a friend with substantial musical ears concluded quite quickly that Evans indeed had recorded what was reborn as “Here is Something for You.”

However, Evans called the tune “The Opener.” It can be found on the Fantasy anthology set. The recording first appeared in 1977 as track 7 on Evans’ final Fantasy trio album I Will Say Goodbye.

Elias’s disc ends with a 2:13 segment of Evans playing the opening of the tune on a rehearsal cassette tape that Evans had given to bassist Marc Johnson, who is Elias’s husband. Johnson worked in Evans’ last trio from 1978-1980, after "The Opener" was recorded.

The other “new” Evans revelation is more likely to withstand the litmus test. That instrumental was completed and arranged by Elias and titled “Evansesque.”

If any of you discover otherwise, do let me know.

The best in jazz recordings in 2008

Here are one writer's choices for the top jazz recordings and reissues of 2008. Always keep in mind that top 10 listings of this sort reflect the reviewer's musical taste at the moment he/she does the evaluations. They only carry significant weight when the same recordings show up on many such lists. That being said, here we go:

The 10 best new jazz releases, listed alphabetically:
- Brian Blade, “Season of Changes” (Verve)
- Randy Brecker, “Randy in Brazil” (MAMA Records)
- Avishai Cohen Trio, “Gently Disturbed” (RazDaz)
- Donal Fox, “The Scarlatti Jazz Suite Project” (Leonellis Music)
- Melody Gardot, “Worrisome Heart” (Verve)
- Generations, “Tough Guys” (ICA)
- The Roy Hargrove Quintet, “Earfood” (Groovin’ High/EmArcy)
- Danilo Perez, “Across the Crystal Sea” (EmArcy)
- John Santos Quintet, “Perspectiva Fragmentada” (Machete)
- The Stein Brothers Quintet, “Quixotic,” (Jazzed Media)

The 10 best new songs of 2008, listed alphabetically:
- Brian Blade, “Stoner Hill” from “Season of Changes” (Verve)
- Jon Cowherd, “Return of the Prodigal Son” from Brian Blade Fellowship’s “Season of Changes” (Verve)
- Taylor Eigsti, “Let It Come to You” (Concord Jazz)
- Tigran Hamasyan, “Leaving Paris” from “New Era” (Plus Loin)
- Virginia Mayhew, “Toe Tickler” from Duke Ellington Legacy’s “Thank You, Uncle Edward” (Renma)
- Pete Malinverni, “Istanbul” from “Invisible Cities” (Reservoir)
- Dafnis Prieto, “Until the Last Minute” from “Taking the Soul for a Walk” (Dafnison Music)
- Marty Sheller, “The Route 40 Flyer” from “Why Deny” (PVR Records)
- Brooke Sofferman, “Da Bull Stops Here” from “Fine Whines” (Summit)
- Bobby Watson, “For Milt” from “From the Heart (Palmetto)

The best jazz boxed set or historic recordings of 2008, listed alphabetically:
- Dave Brubeck, “Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival 1958-2007” (Concord Jazz)
- Dizzy Gillespie Big Band, “Showtime at the Spotlite, 52nd Street, New York City, June 1946” (Uptown)
- Sonny Rollins, "Road Shows, Vol. 1" (Doxy)
- Horace Silver, “Live at Newport ‘58” (Blue Note)
- Nina Simone, “To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story (Legacy Recordings)