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."

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.

CDs of Note...

Frank Glover, Politico (Owl Studios)
Indianapolis-based clarinetist Frank Glover released Politico locally in 2005 and it is for our benefit that Owl Studios is providing national distribution of this splendid work. It showcases both Glover’s intriguing, modern approach to the clarinet, as well as his skillful writing for small bands, and on several tracks, string orchestra or jazz orchestra. Pianist Steve Allee, bassist Jack Helsley and drummer Bryson Kern join Glover as the core of the project. I’m particularly fond of “The Last Blue Tang” and Glover’s three-part “Concierto Para Quarteto” though there is much more here to enjoy.

John Patitucci, Remembrance (Concord Jazz)
Bassist Patitucci (who has spent much of the past nine years touring in Wayne Shorter’s latest quartet), saxophonist Joe Lovano and drummer Brian Blade make this project sing instrumentally. Their combined empathy, intimacy and individual prowess sparkles - particularly on “Meditations,” “Mali,” ”Safari” and “Joe Hen.” The title track is an overdubbed solo electric bass coda that reverentially pays tribute to Michael Brecker as it winds down a project celebrating the impact of jazz greats who have impacted his music (including Monk, Trane, Joe Henderson, Sonny Rollins and Freddie Hubbard). There are also guest performances by the leader's wife Sachi Patitucci on cello and percussionist Rogerio Boccato. This is an August 4 release.

Spencer Day, Vagabond (Concord Jazz)
Singer-pianist Spencer Day’s genre-busting talents may serve him well, particularly his artful compositions and clever lyrics, which are at the core of his recordings and performances. This young West Coaster emerged last year on the jazz scene, and plays spirited piano when he lets his band stretch out a bit. Unfortunately, we don’t get to hear much of that on this project. We do get to savor the writing and composition skills and his appealing vocals. My favorites here among the 14 tracks are “Vagabond,” “Little Soldier” and “Til You Come to Me.” This young balladeer appears quite comfortable straddling the nearly invisible line between cabaret and musical theater. Might we have a viable young successor to Billy Joel? This is a September 8 release.

Roberta Gambarini, So in Love (Groovin’ High/Emarcy)
It’s been three long years since singer Roberta Gambarini wowed the jazz world with her Grammy-nominated debut recording Easy to Love. That time span between recordings as a leader makes this new project most welcome, as I always felt she was performing too much “same material” over the past seven years, no matter how artful and beautiful. So in Love adds a lot of fresh covers of jazz and American Songbook material. Personal favorites: “Get Out of Town,” “Estate” in her native Italian, Willie Nelson’s “Crazy” (which she slows to savor the meaning in every syllable), a beautiful Lennon/McCartney medley (“Golden Slumbers” segueing into “Here, There and Everywhere”) and Cole Porter’s “From This Moment On.” She also adds her own lyrics to Johnny Griffin’s bluesy “You Ain’t Nothing But a JAMF.” The many project collaborators include trumpeter Roy Hargrove, saxophonist James Moody and pianist Tamir Hendelman, This is another winner from pianist Hank Jones’s frequent collaborator/favorite contemporary vocalist. This is an August 25 release.
(Full disclosure: I wrote the liner notes for Easy to Love.)

Great news about JazzTimes

There was something to cheer about for readers and contributors alike, as Ben Ratliff reported in today's New York Times that JazzTimes will resume publication in August under new ownership.

The magazine announced in early June that it had suspended publication due to financial difficulties. Boston-based Madavor Media LLC, which publishes specialty magazines primarily on collectibles and sports, bought the brand and assets from former publisher Glenn Sabin. As many of you will recall, Glenn's dad, Ira Sabin, started the magazine as a newsletter-turned-tabloid Radio Free Jazz in 1970. By 1990, it matured into a glossy.

Editor-in-chief Lee Mergner said he and managing editor Evan Haga will be retained as the magazine retools a bit and moves forward from what certainly has been a trying year for facets of the jazz industry on many economy-related fronts. He also said arrangements are being made to pay contributors money owed for recent work.

I'm pleased about JazzTimes' future both as a reader - and a contributor since the mid-1980s. I have nothing but best wishes and positive thoughts for everyone involved in keeping this vital spotlight for jazz (100,000+ circulation and a recently revamped Web site) on track.

Marvin Stamm profiled in HotHouse

Here's a promised link to my Marvin Stamm profile that was published this month in Hot House magazine.Marvin had a milestone birthday in late May, though he certainly doesn't look it. That's why I forgot to wish him a happy 70th during our interesting phone conversation. So belated wishes are sent here.

The week of the sponsorship

Just a day after George Wein announced that CareFusion will be the title sponsor for his jazz festivals in Newport starting this year and New York starting in 2010, The Montreal International Jazz Festival today announced that it has a new presenting sponsor.

TD Financial Group (Toronto-Dominion Bank and its subsidiaries) is stepping up to succeed longtime primary sponsor General Motors. GM Canada is bowing out this year, not surprising given the financial pain felt throughout the auto industry. The TD Canada Trust presenting sponsorship begins with next year's 31st annual Montreal event.

TD has been a Montreal International Jazz Festival sponsor since 2004, most visibly at the Club Jazz TD Canada Trust outdoor stage... >

Interestingly, TD has a branch office in the Maison du Festival Rio Tinto Alcan, the festival organization's own new building (the former Blumenthal Building) at the corner of Bleury and St. Catherine Street West, overlooking the festival site.

And how about the timing of these developments. George Wein and his Newport All-Stars will perform at Montreal tomorrow night in what is billed as a tribute to the father of all jazz festivals. Wein will be joined by Lew Tabackin, Randy Sandke, Howard Alden, Peter Washington and Lewis Nash for the Theatre Jean-Duceppe music event.

Health Care rescues Wein's revived operation

Yes, there is life for George Wein's New Festival Productions operation beyond his commitment to stage both jazz and folk festivals this August 7-9 in Newport, where it all began.

Wein and CEO David Schlotterbeck of CareFusion announced today that the health-care corporation will be the title sponsor for George Wein's Jazz Festival 55 in Newport next month and will also sponsor a festival that Wein will produce in New York City next June.

As Wein explains it: "The magic is still with us. Over the decades, sponsors have always found us....We were going forward in producing the jazz festival in Newport without a sponsor; but when we got the call from CareFusion, this guaranteed that our work of 55 years in Newport would continue. New Yorkers and jazz fans around the world will be pleased to know that CareFusion will make it possible for jazz to once again take over the city in June. We are looking forward to creating an exciting and innovative 2010 CareFusion New York Jazz Festival to add to the important New York cultural scene."

Wein and his team have done a masterful job in resurrecting their operation after the rather apparent financial demise of Festival Network LLC, the upstart firm that bought his original Festival Productions Inc. in January 2009, Over the past year , Festival Network ran itself into the ground with overambition and overspending at the worst possible time.

The new Wein sponsor, picking up at least part of where JVC left off this year, is involved in a worldwide program to associate itself with jazz festivals in Newport, Chicago, Monterey, Manly (Australia), Paris and New York As part of its new Festival Series, CareFusion will broadcast live to hospitals the performances of select festival artists.

San Diego-based CareFusion is a global provider of product and services to improve the productivity and safety of health care. The wholly owned subsidiary of Cardinal Health is expected to become a public company from the planned spinoff of Cardinal Health's clinical and medical products businesses.

The CareFusion Jazz Festival Series also includes:
CareFusion Chicago Jazz Festival, September 4 - 6, 2009
CareFusion Presents Dizzy's Den at the Monterey Jazz Festival, September 18 - 20, 2009
CareFusion Manly Jazz Festival (Australia), October 3 - 5, 2009
CareFusion Paris Jazz Festival, October 16 - 24, 2009
CareFusion New York Jazz Festival, June 2010 (exact dates TBD)

Freihofer's bakes another year of fine jazz

I've just filed my review of Freihofer's Jazz Festival in bucolic Saratoga Springs NY, held June 27-28, to allaboutjazz.com. I'll also provide a link when available for my profile of Marvin Stamm in this month's issue of HotHouse. Here's a visual appetizer from Saratoga. More images are included in the review.
Bettye Lavette tore down the house... ^

MIJF 2009 opens Wonder-fully

What a way to kick off the Montreal International Jazz Festival’s 30th edition, a 13-day programming marvel that opened June 30 and runs through July 12.

Montreal pianist Oliver Jones opened the festival’s newest venue, MIJF’s year-round cabaret-style jazz club L’Astral, located in the festival’s new multiple-purpose Maison du Festival Rio Tinto Alcan (House of the Festival). The six-floor building also contains a bistro, a gallery space that becomes the bustling media center during festivals, archives and staging offices. L’Astral is an ultra modern, high-tech venue that retains more than as hint of the spirit of the festival’s old Spectrum venue, now just a hole in the ground across the street awaiting downtown redevelopment.


Oliver Jones at L'Astral... >
Jones paid tribute to mentor Oscar Peterson before shifting into an extended Gershwin medley that opened with a bit of “Rhapsody in Blue” and coursed through six other tunes, many from “Porgy and Bess,” before a rollicking finish with “I’ve Got Rhythm.” Ranee Lee joined him to sing Miles Davis’s “Four,” “Beautiful Love” and a bilingual version of “Stormy Weather,” as well as “Lady Be Good.”

Hundreds of thousands crowded into, or in some cases, within earshot of the festival site, and waited patiently, sometimes under a sea of umbrellas, for the festival’s first outdoor spectacle of the year, a free Stevie Wonder concert billed as ”A Wonder’s Summer Night 2009.” The huge main stage area couldn’t accommodate anything close to the throng, so many more stood transfixed wherever they could see one of the 10 video screens set up on other stages in and around the Place des Arts. The crowd was later estimated at more than 200,000.


If you couldn't jam into the main stage area, you had to settle for the great sound, and perhaps a glimpse of Wonder on one of 10 video screens, like this one near the Place des Arts Metro station... ^
While he hit the stage a half-hour behind the scheduled start, Wonder was generous with his time, playing for more than two hours. He paid tribute top the late Michael Jackson - interspersing some MJ tunes with his own classics. “The Way You Make Me Feel” opened with a Michael Jackson recording, with Wonder joining on the first refrain before taking over the tune. After his own “Higher Ground,” Wonder also channeled a lot of jazz material, exploring Miles Davis’s “All Blues” on harmonica, John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” on piano and an extended version of Chick Corea’s “Spain” featuring all of his horn players before delving into many of his own Grammy-winning hits.


Donny McCaslin, Julie Lamontagne... >
I like this festival because it presents a chance to see and hear so many artists who rarely get to convenient venues in the U.S. Other favorite shows in my brief Montreal stay included saxophonist Donny McCaslin with Canadian pianist Julie Lamontagne, Montreal pianist Vic Vogel’s robust big band performing an homage to the jazz masters on the General Motors main stage, singer Hilary Kole who opened for the energetic Brit Jamie Cullum, and Japanese saxophonist Sadao Watanabe, who made his Montreal debut with a Japanese sextet that blended the best elements of bop, fusion, Afrojazz rhythms and the folk traditions of his homeland.Singer Melody Gardot played for nearly full houses two nights at the double-balconied Theatre Maisonneuve, weaving a vocal spell


Hilary Kole... >

with her sense of dark mystery and vocal intimacy.With a huge range of principally jazz artists featured indoors and an eclectic mix of jazz, blues, world music and other genres outdoors, the festival managed to create a superb anniversary celebration that figures to top prior years in attendance and the sheer numbers of concerts - giving a 30th edition gift back to attendees.
C’est magnifique.



Jamie Cullum... >

Montreal International Jazz Festival by the numbers

6 - major award winners in 2009. (Bruce Lundvall, Stevie Wonder, John Pizzarelli, Ornette Coleman, Susie Arioli, Toots & The Maytalls)

13 - The number of days of the festival this year not counting several preview concert events.

30 - When this 30th annual festival began in 1980, a ticket to see opening headliner Ray Charles cost $9.50. This year’s top ticket is $129.50 for guitarist Jeff Beck. In contrast, 2009 opening outdoor headliner Stevie Wonder’s show was free.

30 / 3,000 - The festival features 3,000 musicians from 30 countries.

681 -There are 224 ticketed indoor concerts this year and 457 free outdoor concerts, a noticeable increase from past years when there was about a 150/350 split.

60,000 - The festival recovers 30 tons of recyclable material annually. Additionally festival co-presenting sponsor Rio Tinto Alcan bought the carbon offsets to make the event carbon neutral.

36 million - The number of festival attendees from 1980 to 2008, with nearly 25 percent estimated being tourists from outside Quebec, the U.S. and around the world. Yes, this is a destination festival for some, but for many more, it is a huge hometown event.

CDs of Note...

Here’s a dose of CDs of interest, as I head out for a week of travels to Freihofer’s Jazz Festival in Saratoga NY and the Montreal International Jazz Festival. Yes, the sun is out today and my summer festival season is getting under way. Hope to see you here and/or there.

Burgstaller Martignon 4, Mozart's Blue Dreams and Other Crossover Fantasies (Summit Records)
Joe Burgstaller, a member of the Canadian Brass since 2001, teamed up with pianist Hector Martignon on this stunning crossover project that does far more than put a jazz spin on the classics. In some cases, the spin goes in the other direction.

It opens with the title tune, is a five-part jazzy take on Mozart's "Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major" that is filled with energy, Burgstaller’s sparkling, pinpoint trumpet work and great support from bassist Hans Glawischnig. Notes stretch here and bend there in ways the composer surely would consider hip if he revisited the planet to jam with them.

They also marry Frederic Chopin’s "Prelude No. 4 in E Minor" with Jobim's "Insensatez," (How Insensitive). a tune that the Brazilian bossa king based on Chopin's composition. They also revisit Duke Ellington’s “Echoes of Harlem” in an arrangement that enables Burgstaller to take on a Cootie Williams vibe – complete with growls and groans from his plunger mute.

The simple and succinct melodies of Chick Corea's "Three Children's Songs" give percussionist percussionist Joe Ferrari a chance to shift to vibes. The project pays tribute in a way to mid-1970s crossover king Claude Bolling with a fresh take on his five-part "Toot Suite." It winds down with versions of two tunes by Argentinean new tango master Astor Piazzolla: “Ave Maria” and “Oblivion.”

One For All, Return Of The Lineup (Sharp Nine)
As composers, arrangers and particularly players, the members of One For All have combined their talents into a longstanding sextet that have matured as one helluva supergroup. The group, which tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander considers his musical laboratory, includes trumpeter Jim Rotondi, trombonist Steve Davis, pianist David Hazeltine, bassist John Webber and drummer Joe Farnsworth.

They’ve been playing together since at least 1998, producing about a dozen domestic and import-label recordings. This is a dandy. While there is much to savor here, my clear favorites are their take on the gorgeous Cedar Walton ballad “Dear Ruth,” arranged for this group by Rotondi, and Hazeltine’s original “Treatise for Reedus,” which he wrote in remembrance of drummer Tony Reedus, who died four days before the session and had been a friend to every member of the collective. If you love hard-swinging ensemble jazz, it doesn’t get much better than this.

LeBoeuf Brothers, House Without a Door (LeBoeuf Brothers Music)
Identical twins Pascal (piano and keyboards) and Remy (alto sax) LeBoeuf (the name is pronounced "le buff") have produced a gem with their latest recording project. It is fresh and forward-thinking, blending strong jazz roots with inescapable rock influences (particularly Radiohead) into an emotional and energetic sound that grabs the ears and won’t let go.

These young natives of Santa Cruz, Calif., still in their early 20s, are now making their mark in the Big Apple jazz scene. My favorites on this sometimes fiery quintet session include “Code Word,” the introspective and sometimes delicate “Wetaskiwin,” the title track and the uptempo “Chocolate Frenzy.”

The LeBoeufs are composers and players of great merit, as evidenced by the consistent quality of all 12 tracks. The quintet on most tracks includes tenor player Marcus Strickland or trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Clarence Penn. Tenor player Janelle Richman, drummer Greg Ritchie and bassist Billy Norris work into the shifting ensemble elsewhere. The appearance of two classical-influenced tracks, “Coffee Suite I: No Drink, No Think” and “Coffee Suite III: Exhaustion” begs the questions “Where’s ‘Coffee Suite II’ hiding and what’s it all about? Caffeine Jitters, perhaps?”

Mimi Jones, A New Day (Hot Tone Music)
A New Day encompasses a new name/alter ego and a debut CD all rolled into one for bassist Miriam Sullivan. This new project is built around the concepts of personal change and evolution – and Jones/Sullivan brought aboard some terrific talent to make it work quite well. Miki Hayama is superb throughout on piano, organ and keyboard. Marvin Sewell displays the same level of deep, empathetic support on acoustic and electric guitar that so nicely colored several of Cassandra Wilson’s Delta blues-tinged projects. He is particularly strong on “Watch Your Step,” “Silva” and “Sista.”

Sullivan sings her own heartfelt lyrics on eight of the CD’s 12 tracks, and finishes it with a version of the traditional “We Shall Overcome” that changes “overcome some day” to “overcome today.” Sullivan’s lyrics are somewhat simple and very brief, but certainly not simplistic. She gets right to the point. Her instrumental “Suite Mary” is a very nice nod to Mary Lou Williams. This is a September 15, 2009 release.