Newport rolls on thankfully

George Wein is a huge fan of Esparanza Spalding. The singer-bassist (pictured) has been a Newport regular for the past few years - and with her unexpected Grammy win - will be a featured artist at the 2011 edition of the Newport Jazz Festival. This year’s event runs August 5 to 7.

Wein’s production company didn’t waste time in getting out the lineup this year. Tickets go on sale this Saturday through TicketMaster and www.newportjazzfest.net.

Relatively young artists and veterans make up the bill, as Wein & Co. work in various ways to build an extended audience base that also spans generations and jazz genres - and reaches out to young fans and potential fans.

Besides Spalding, the younger players in the lineup include Ambrose Akinmusire, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Miguel Zenón, Avishai and Anat Cohen, Hiromi, Trombone Shorty and John Hollenbeck. The veterans include Wynton Marsalis, Michael Feinstein, Al Di Meola, Charles Lloyd, Eddie Palmieri, Randy Weston and Michel Camilo among others.

Wein told the Providence Journal’s Rick Massimo that Spalding will perform both Saturday and Sunday at Fort Adams State Park. Each day, she will draw from the talent on the bill to put together a different band.

It’s a way to put a bit of improvisational programming/jamming into a performance format that doesn’t see much jamming anymore.

Here's the lineup:

FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 2011 / 8 p.m.

International Tennis Hall of Fame

Michael Feinstein w Special Guest Joe Negri

Wynton Marsalis

SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 2011 / 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Fort Adams State Park

Wynton Marsalis

Esperanza Spalding & Friends I

Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Band

Al Di Meola World Sinfonia

Michel Camilo "Mano a Mano" with Giovanni Hidalgo and Charles Flores

Hiromi

Mujeres De Agua by Javier Limón featuring Buika

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

Regina Carter's Reverse Thread

Steve Coleman and Five Elements

Joey DeFrancesco Trio

Grace Kelly with Special Guest Phil Woods

Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet

Mostly Other People Do the Killing

New Black Eagle Jazz Band

SUNDAY, AUGUST 7, 2011 / 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Fort Adams State Park

Esperanza Spalding & Friends II

Angélique Kidjo

James Farm with Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman and Eric Harland

Hiromi: The Trio Project featuring Anthony Jackson and Simon Phillips

Charles Lloyd with Special Guest Zakir Hussain

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

Mingus Big Band

Ravi Coltrane Quartet

Randy Weston's African Rhythms Trio

Miguel Zenón Presents the Puerto Rican Songbook

John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble with Special Guest Uri Caine

Avishai Cohen's Triveni with Special Guests Joshua Redman and Anat Cohen

Apex: Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green

Brubeck Brothers

Berklee College of Music All Stars

A stamp of approval for jazz

We're a society of pack rats, of collectors. Or so it seems. Some of us collect a few things we find meaningful, others have made it into a warehouse-style art form.

In general, jazz fans collect live music memories and savor the special moments. Many collect them in hard copy as well - CDs, LPs, 78s, images. You name it. Well, probably not eight-tracks. At least not without suffering some level of derision.

But collect we do.

When I was a kid, I was into stamp collecting, and kept up with specialty categories for a couple of decades. The philately bug in me waned after a while. But once in a while, there is a linkage with current interests that brings things full circle.

Next Saturday the U.S. Postal Service will issue a commemorative stamp saluting jazz. The first day of issue will take place in New Orleans. That's most fitting in its history as one of the music's most influential cities, and, many argue, its birthplace.

The Postal Service says it is paying tribute to America's musical gift to the world and to the musicians who make it (along the veins of the 1995 stamps, first issued at the Monterey Jazz Festival, that honored Louis Armstrong, Eubie Blake, John Coltrane, Erroll Garner, Coleman Hawkins, James P. Johnson, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Jelly Roll Morton and Charlie Parker). The latter were part of a Legends of American Music series.

The new stamp, which will be sold initially at 44 cents, is part of USPS's popular "Forever" series. It means that these pressure-sensitive adhesive stamps can be used into the future regardless of any further rises in the cost of a first-class stamp. The first such stamp, still in widespread use today, was issued in April 2007 and features the Liberty Bell. Since that time, more than 28 billion Forever stamps have been sold, USPS says.

Howard Paine designed the new jazz stamp to showcase the work of California artist Paul Rogers. In creating the art on which the stamp is based, Rogers was inspired by the cover art of vintage albums - art that captured the sense of improvisation that was contained inside.

The jazz stamp in the Forever series follows by one week the release in Austin, Texas of Forever stamps commemorating five musicians and performers of Latin music. They include two from the Latin jazz world - Tito Puente and Celia Cruz. The others are Selena, Carmen Miranda, and Carlos Gardel.

Stamp collecting isn't part of my psyche - or interests - any more. But I will make an exception for this one. And I recommend it as a stamp to stock up on for mailings to others in the jazz world (as infrequent as snail mail seems in this e-mail world).

Respect your bridges. Appreciate where they've led you. Don't burn them.

CDs of Note – Short Takes

Nordic Connect, Spirals (artistShare)
Canada’s mega-talented Jensen sisters, Christine on sax and Ingrid on trumpet, co-lead this quintet, whose members all share Scandinavian ancestry. Their band mates are Maggi Olin on piano and Fender Rhodes, Mattias Welin on acoustic bass and Jon Wikan (Ingrid’s husband) on drums and percussion. The Viking connection seems to have reinforced their musical bond, as evidenced by the performances on this, the group’s second recording.

Spirals is an intriguing CD, built around the band’s cohesion and the quality of the original material that comprise its nine tracks. The tunes I savor most included Olin’s “Song for Inga” and Ingrid Jensen’s “Earth Sighs” (both containing artful dollops of electronic effects) and the quintet version of Christine’s “Yew,” which premiered on her Juno Award-nominated orchestral album treelines (JustinTime). It’s a beauty in both formats. The small group treatment does nothing to diminish its pensive poignancy.

Lisa Lindsley, Everytime We Say Goodbye (self-produced, BlondSongstress Productions)
This is a most pleasant debut CD from a Bay Area singer who we need to keep an eye on – and ears wide open for years to come. Lisa Lindsley has considerable experience under her belt as an actor and voiceover artist. She’s a relative neophyte as a singer, but her lifelong appreciation for jazz artistry is a considerable asset. She was no casual listener. Lindsley’s charming and expressive voice catches your ear because of her natural sense of phrasing, timing and expression.

On this trio project, she was fortunate to call on pianist George Mesterhazy, who is a premier accompanist for singers (Shirley Horn, Paula West, Rebecca Parris, Karrin Allyson, among others), and rock-solid bassist Fred Randolph. She makes each standard her own. The title track, “Alice in Wonderland” and their take on Jobim’s “The Girl from Ipanema” are prime examples. Mesterhazy reveals another facet of his imaginative talent with every CD he makes and every singer with whom he works. On this one, he uses melodica to add a poignant Toots Thielemans-like tinge to Lindsley’s take on Blossom Dearie’s “Inside a Silent Tear.”

Sonny’s still on a Roll

The high honors, perhaps long overdue, keep on rolling in for saxophonist Sonny Rollins. His historic 80th birthday concert in New York’s Town Hall three nights after his September 7 birthday was one of the top jazz events of 2010

Then you add in Edward MacDowell Medal, a lifetime achievement award from the Montreal International Jazz Festival, being the subject of an artful and insightful book (John Abbott and Blumenthal's Saxophone Colossus: A Portrait of Sonny Rollins) and induction into to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary society.

Now, Rollins is on the eve of visiting the nation’s most famous address: 1600 Pennnsylvania Avenue.

Tomorrow, Wednesday March 2, Rollins will be one of 10 recipients of the 2010 National Medal of Arts for outstanding achievements and support of the arts. President Barack Obama will do the honors in an East Room ceremony at the White House. The medal is the nation's highest honor for artistic excellence.

The National Endowment for the Arts, which has announced its intention to eliminate the NEA Jazz Masters awards program going forward, organizes this one as well. And it is good to see jazz have a prominent place.

The other 2010 National Medal of Arts Recipients are theatrical critic, producer and playwright Robert Brustein, pianist Van Cliburn, sculptor Mark di Suvero, poet Donald Hall, musician and producer Quincy Jones (who has firm jazz roots), author Harper Lee, actress Meryl Streep, singer-songwriter James Taylor, and the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.

What splendid company.

And it is great to see Rollins and Jones help keep the jazz momentum going on this stage. Past jazz honorees include Ella Fitzgerald (1987), Billy Taylor (1992), Cab Calloway (1993), Dave Brubeck (1994), Lionel Hampton (1996), Betty Carter (1997), Benny Carter (2000), Paquito D'Rivera (2005), Wynton Marsalis (2005) and Hank Jones (2008).

Time permitting, you can tune in via the Web to watch tomorrow’s event at 1:45 pm Eastern Time at http://www.whitehouse.gov/live.

What would you call it?

Bizarre.

That’s the only word that seems to fit this year’s primetime Sunday night glitz that was the 53rd annual Grammy Awards.

If you saw it, you know what I mean. If you missed it, you didn’t miss much, trust me.

Sure, there were scattered poignant moments – beginning with the opening tribute to the ailing Aretha Franklin.

But they were outweighed by the sheer spectacle of the night and artists who felt they had to make spectacles of themselves, starting with Lady Gaga’s eggular entrance. What? And then her blatant performance ripoff of Madonna’s “Express Yourself” in the guise of “Born This Way.” And how about the bicycles zooming around the stage near night's end? And the heavy use of the bleep button by the network censors all night long.

But let’s look at the important stuff, to me anyway, the jazz side of the night – two pros and a con.

- Drummer Roy Haynes – the oldest teenager in jazz – was honored with a richly deserved Lifetime Achievement Award.

- Esparanza Spalding’s first win by a jazz performer of the Grammy for Best New Artist was most welcome – and came out of left field. Particularly since the singer and bassist didn’t even have an album in the running this time. (Her third CD is just out on Head’s Up International). And today, that upset had the legions of fans of the $100 million teenypopper Justin Bieber atwitter with their outrage. I say, quality music prevailed. And to quote Ozzy Osborne at the end of the new Best Buy commercial “What’s a Bieber?”

Here’s the affront to jazz that took place moments later.

- Do you get outraged when your given a serious listen in a jazz club to a great band – and two or three people at the next table won’t shut up, oblivious to the music?

That happened last night when Spalding was performing with the Grammy student jazz ensemble. Two folks on stage – one of them a high-ranking exec from The Recording Academy – blathered on about their programs. Wouldn’t it have been nice if they’d shut up and given the millions who’d never heard of the 26-year-old Ms. Spalding a chance to hear the music she’s made of?

But, hey, we are talking Grammys. Why should I be optimistic something like that will ever happen.

And isn’t it curious that they can only find time to bestow 10 of the 109 awards during the 31/2-hour prime time event.

Despite those failings, jazz did show itself well in the pre-telecast portion.

Kudos to the winners:

Best Pop Instrumental Album

Take Your Pick, Larry Carlton & Tak Matsumoto (335 Records, Inc.)

Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals

”Imagine,” Herbie Hancock, Pink, India.Arie, Seal, Konono No 1, Jeff Beck and Oumou Sangare, from The Imagine Project (Hancock Records)

Best Contemporary Jazz Album
The Stanley Clarke Band, The Stanley Clarke Band (Heads Up International)

Best Jazz Vocal Album

Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee, Dee Dee Bridgewater (Emarcy)

Best Improvised Jazz Solo

“A Change Is Gonna Come,” Herbie Hancock, soloist. Track from: The Imagine Project, (Hancock Records)

Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group

Moody 4B, James Moody (IPO Recordings)

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album
Mingus Big Band Live At Jazz Standard, Mingus Big Band (Jazz Workshop, Inc./Jazz Standard)

Best Latin Jazz Album
Chucho's Steps, Chucho Valdés And The Afro-Cuban Messengers (Four Quarters Entertainment)

Best Contemporary World Music Album
Throw Down Your Heart, Africa Sessions Part 2: Unreleased Tracks, Béla Fleck, (Acoustic Planet Records)

Best Instrumental Composition
“The Path Among The Trees,” Billy Childs, composer (Billy Childs Ensemble), Track from: Autumn: In Moving Pictures Jazz - Chamber Music Vol. 2, (ArtistShare)

Best Instrumental Arrangement
“Carlos,” Vince Mendoza, arranger (John Scofield, Vince Mendoza & Metropole Orkest)
Track from: 54 (Emarcy/Universal)

The creativity never ceases

The Montreal International Jazz Festival’s innovative programming is one of the creative charms that keeps jazz fans coming back for more. Every year, there’s a new twist or musical pairing that makes its presentations stand apart from other venues.

It’s a staggering jazz festival just in the quantity of its 600 or so performances. But the quality puts it over the top as what I consider the world’s finest jazz festival. It runs like clockwork, draws most of its audience from greater Montreal but also reaches out to media and jazz fans from across North America and around the globe.

Tickets went on sale yesterday for one of the treats at this year’s 32^nd annual festival, scheduled June 25 through July 4 in downtown Montreal’s Place des Festivals (the larger venue surround to the Place des Arts).

Singer-pianist Diana Krall,made her Montreal debut in 1995 with a 10-night club residency celebrating the music of Nat King Cole. Canada's native daughter, from British Columbia, returned in 1998, 1999 and 2004 for major venue concerts. The last one was a gala celebrating the festival’s silver anniversary. (Husband Elvis Costello was an unbilled but not surprising guest.)

This time, Krall is flying solo. Just her and her piano, for a three-night solo run in Théâtre Maisonneuve, on June 26, 27 and 28. It is part of the festival’s En voix series celebrating the masters and rising stars of the vocal art. It’s a major twist from past Montreal performances, particularly her 1999 appearance, which had 30 other musicians taking part.

Another coup for Montreal – the three-night residency. Now that she’s among the jazz elite, Krall rarely plays multiple nights in the venue.

Three powerhouse June 25 opening night concerts in Montreal will feature:

• Sing the Truth! (Angélique Kidjo, Dianne Reeves and Lizz Wright honoring and carrying forward the outspoken civil rights legacies of Miriam Makeba, Abbey Lincoln and Odetta).


• Flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia.


• Brazilian singer-guitarist Milton Nascimento, making his first Montreal appearance in more than 15 years.

Just from that first night array, this figures to be another memorable year for the festival.

A Grammy twist that’s good for jazz

Bassist and singer Esparanza Spalding has taken the jazz world by storm with her talent and youthful enthusiasm. That’s not a bad thing. A smattering of White House jazz gigs and performing at President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize concert were a help.

So, too, will be her high profile at the 53rd annual GRAMMY Awards in L.A. on February 13.

Spalding will perform on the show, and will co-host the Pre-Telecast Ceremony with singer Bobby McFerrin.

Spalding also is one of five nominees for Best New Artist. The other nominees in that category are Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence & the Machine, and Mumford and Sons. Spalding is the first jazz artist to receive a GRAMMY nomination for the Best New Artist mainstream category in 35 years. Whether or not she wins, the attention may take some of the edge off the current Bieber Fever sweeping America. That would be terrific.

It seems ironic that Spalding is up for Best New Artist, but was not nominated for any of her recordings. But hey, we’re talking the GRAMMYS. There’s always something unfathomable there when it involves jazz.

In GRAMMY-speak, Best New Artist refers when an artist first came to widespread attention. No matter than Spalding’s 2008 debut CD, Esperanza, spent more than 70 weeks on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Albums chart and was the most successful internationally selling debut that year. Last month, her current release Chamber Music Society hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Albums chart.

Newport goes nonprofit, not for nothing

Last summer, founding producer George Wein said he wanted to find a way to keep his two legacy music festivals going well into perpetuity. This week, Wein, 85, in his sixth decade as a festival producer, made good on it.

The Newport Jazz Festival, which began in 1954, and the Newport Folk Festival, which started five years later, are returning to their roots as nonprofit events. Both will be produced by Wein and his staff under the auspices of Newport Festivals Foundation, Inx. a new 501(c)(3) organization with an 11-member board of directors.

"The foundation will perpetuate the history of jazz and folk music in Newport and will allow these festivals, which have been my passion and life's work, to live on," Wein said in a news release issued Tuesday by his firm, New Festival Productions. Wein told the New York Times' Ben Ratliff that he will continue to seek new corporate sponsors for both events.

This year's Newport Folk Festival is scheduled July 29-31, followed by the Newport Jazz Festival August 5-7.

The San Diego-based health care firm CareFusion stepped in at Newport as a jazz festival sponsor for the past two years, and for 2010 in New York, but has since refocused its outside interests.

The CareFusion alliance was a significant factor two years ago, enabling Wein to step back in and take back control of the two festivals, after Festival Network ran into financial troubles in late 2008, less than two years after buying Wein's original production firm. The original Festival Productions, which had a deep legacy of producing music events around the globe.

Now Wein is back in business on a much smaller scale, content to produce his two household name festivals in Newport and select other concerts and events.

The nonprofit status will enable the foundation to seek and receive tax-deductible contributions and build an endowment to keep itself going into the future. A gala fundraiser for the foundation is scheduled August 4 at Rosecliff, one of the fabled mansions along Newport's historic Bellevue Avenue. Jazz fan and occasional drummer Bill Cosby will host it.

I'm guessing Cosby will stick around for an appearance with one of his Cos' of Good Music all-star bands over the weekend.

CDs of Note – Short Takes

Lynne Arriale, Convergence (Motema)

After more than a dozen years, deeply entrenched in the jazz piano trio format, Lynne Arriale has proven that 2009’s well-regarded CD Nuance was not a one-off. She has followed that quartet session (featuring several all-star guests) with a dynamic new CD by her own new quartet. The superb project Convergence teams Arriale with saxophonist Bill McHenry, bassist Omer Avital and drummer Anthony Pinciotti. There is a refreshed sense of purpose on this CD that blends well with Arriale’s consistent excellence through the years as a pianist and composer. This, her 11^th recording project, features six varied Arriale originals and five reinventions of contemporary rock tunes.

My favorites: their teasing, twisting takes on the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” and the Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black,” the Middle Eastern/flamenco energy and beauty of her own “Dance of the Rain” (featuring Ovital on oud) and McHenry’s tenor work on Arriale’s ballad “For Peace” (reminiscent of the finest Quartet West noir balladry). Longtime Arriale fans have a new facet of her work to savor, including the understated, wistful beauty of “The Simple Things.” This is a February 8 release.

Grace Kelly/Phil Woods, Man With the Hat (Pazz)

Head-to-head alto battles are unusual but not unheard of in the annals of jazz recordings. Perhaps few and far between is the right descriptive. Now comes 18-year-old saxophonist Grace Kelly with her second such recording in three years. First was GRACEfulLEE with mentor Lee Konitz. She’s back with another mentor, Phil Woods, on this session. Kelly and Woods blend well, with his slightly more acerbic tone offsetting her sound on this mix of material – two songs written or co-written by Kelly plus one from Woods and a range of jazz standards – performed with Monty Alexander on piano, Woods’ longtime drummer Bill Goodwin and Kelly’s bassist, Evan Gregor.

Strongest here are Woods’ “Love Song from Brazilian Suite,” and the title track, which Kelly wrote in tribute to Woods and his distinctive leather cap (one of which he bestowed on her in a Pittsfield MA concert where she sat in several years ago). Also, Billy Strayhorn’s wistful “Ballad for Very Tired and Very Sad Lotus Eaters” and the splendidly intimate Kelly-Gregor duo take on “Every Time We Say Goodbye.”

The musical maturity of this gifted young player is quite remarkable, no matter that she’s been recording since age 12.Singing is not Kelly’s strongest suit, but her voice has improved through the years and fits her style well. She’s best on her soulful original “Gone.” The other vocal feature here is a version of Benny Carter’s classic “People Time” with terrific lyrics contributed by Deborah Pearl. This is a January 25 release.

Helio Alves, Música (JLP)

Pianist Helio Alves’ fourth recording as a leader (and his JLP debut) is a dandy, with a small group slant primarily on Brazilian jazz plus a few jazz standards (“Black Nile” by Wayne Shorter, “Chan’s Song” by Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder) given a Brazilian tinge. Since arriving in the U.S. in 1986, Alves has been a first-call pianist for a wide variety of leaders, including trumpeter Claudio Roditi, a mentor of sorts who is a guest on this session. The trio’s other members are bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Antonio Sanchez. Roditi and guitarist Romero Lubambo join the fun for two tracks apiece..

The delicacy of Alves’ player shines brightly on Moacir Santos’ “Kathy,” Hermeto Pascoal’s “Musica das Nuvens e do Chão” and Roditi’s “Adeus Alf.” His fire is revealed “Black Nile” and Dom Salvador’s “Gafieira.” Originals include the reflective “Sombra” and “Tribute to Charlie 2,” an homage to late mentor Charlie Banacos. Alves has not received the degree of notoriety he deserves for his musical passion and skill. If he’s ever on a gig in your area, be sure to check him out.

Not only cats love jazz

Cats make jazz and love jazz. In the case of loving jazz, so do mice. Well, at least one mouse in particular.

Next month, a Walt Disney Records imprint, Disney Pearl Series, will release Disney Jazz Volume 1: Everybody Wants to Be a Cat. It’s a 13-track collection of popular songs from the soundtracks of Disney films.

OK, maybe the analogy to Mickey Mouse was a stretch. But there is nothing mickey mouse about the participants, who include a wide range of today’s jazz stars. By jazz, I’m referring to mainstream jazz. There are no instrumental posters in this mix.

The emergence of this project should not be a surprise, given Walt Disney’s fondness for jazz, and the fondness that jazz musicians over the years have had for songs from his films. Need we mention more than Miles Davis’s classic take on “Some Day My Prince Will Come" from 1937's animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or pianist Dave Brubeck, who recorded an album’s worth of album of Disney music on Dave Digs Disney in 1957. Louis Armstrong and Gil Goldstein also recorded Disney projects.

Jason Olaine produced this new collection, asking participating musicians to pick through some 600 songs and record one of those Disney tunes – from classic films to newer animated hits like Toy Story and The Lion King.

Brubeck was one of the first artists to sign on, recording two tracks, "Some Day My Prince Will Come" and "Alice in Wonderland," the latter done with trio plus singer Roberta Gambarini.

The CD title track, derives from "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat," from The Aristocats. It’s also the opening track, performed by trumpeter Roy Hargrove’s quintet. Other performers on this project include singer and bassist Esperanza Spalding, saxophonist, Joshua Redman, trumpeter Mark Rapp, pianist Alfredo Rodriguez, guitarists Kurt Rosenwinkel and Gilad Hekselman, the piano trio The Bad Plus, violinist Regina Carter, and singers Dianne Reeves and Nikki Yanofsky.

Talk about multi jazz generations. Brubeck turned 90 last month, and Canadian Yanofsky is still a teenager.

Here’s a rundown of the range of tracks. Redman selected "You've Got a Friend in Me," written by Randy Newman for Toy Story. Yanofsky opted for "It's a Small World." Rosenwinkel recorded "Free the Birds (Tuppence a Bag)" and Spalding recorded “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” both from Mary Poppins. Rodriguez re-arranged and recorded "The Bare Necessities" from The Jungle Book, with his mentor, Quincy Jones, producing. The Bad Plus selected “Gaston” and Hekselman choses “Belle,” both from Beauty and the Beast. Reeves sang “He’s a Tramp” from Lady and the Tramp, while Rapp opted to perform “Circle of Life” from The Lion King. Carter selected “Find Yourself” from Disney Pixar’s Cars.

In the CD’s liner notes, jazz journalist Ashley Kahn credited the top-drawer prowess of the performers pulled together for this project. "It's exceedingly rare that one finds this range of talent on one jazz album,” Kahn wrote. “If one desired an accurate measure of today's scene in all its flavors and formats, here it is on one disc."

With 600 songs in Olaine’s available library (actually 587 now), it’s not a stretch to think more volumes are coming in the months and years ahead. The Vol. 1 in the CD title is not just a matter of making a wish on a star. Not by any means.

The Year in Jazz

My annual review of the year in jazz for 2010 has been published at allaboutjazz.com.

Each holiday season, I find the work on this project is a refreshing way to sift through and reflect on some of the significant ups, downs and other noteworthy occurrences that take place across the globe under the aegis of jazz.

The major minus - or true blue note - always turns out to be the rather large number of musicians and associates who pass on to their next spiritual plane.

It is impossible to note everything that happens - or every award received - during the course of the year. But there is still a lot to chew on.

And 2011 is under way. Here we go on another ride.

Happy holidays

Christmas Eve is a most wonderful time to wish all of you the happiest of holiday seasons.

Christmas and its related holidays are a great time each of us to reflect on our blessings - including our friends - and the ability to persevere through unexpected challenges that we or our friends face with determination and fortitude when they occur.

Have you had your fill yet of holiday music?

I'm close to the edge, but do want to share a clear non-jazz favorite.

Because of its wonderful animation, this one ranks right up there with Louis Armstrong's version of "Zat You, Santa Claus?" and Ella Fitzgerald's take on "Santa Claus Got Stuck in my Chimney. "

Here's a link to The Drifters' classic.

Enjoy and happy holidays...

Tops in Jazz - 2010

As the year winds down, I'll be preparing my Year-in-Jazz retrospective. In advance of that, here's a rundown of my favorites among 2010's new releases and historic recordings.

Always keep in mind that top 10 listings of this sort reflect what the reviewer gets a chance to hear during the year.. as well as 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.

If you haven't done so already, these are projects I recommend you check out.

The 10 best new jazz releases of 2010, listed alphabetically:
- Dave Bass Quartet, Gone (Dave Bass Music)
- Lisa Engelken, Caravan (Little Angel)
- Tamir Hendelman, Destinations (Resonance)
- Dave Holland Octet, Pathways (Dare2)
- Christine Jensen, treelines (Justin Time)
- Pat Metheny, Orchestrion (Nonesuch)
- Jean-Michel Pilc, True Story (Dreyfus)
- Ellen Rowe Quartet, Wishing Well (PKO Records)
- Omar Sosa & NDR Bigband, Ceremony (Otá)
- Jacky Terrasson, Push (Concord Jazz)

The 10 best new songs of the year, listed alphabetically:
- John Britton, “Anticipation” from The Britton Brothers Band, Uncertain Living (Record Craft)
- Gerald Cleaver, “From a Life of the Same Name” from Jeremy Pelt, Men of Honor (HighNote)
- Loren Daniels, “Point A to Point A,” title track, Reggie Pittman-Loren Daniels Quartet (self-produced)
- Tamir Hendelman, “Babushka” from Destinations (Resonance)
- Pat Metheny, “Spirit of the Air,” from Orchestrion (Nonesuch)
- Chris Potter, “Sea of Mamara” from Dave Holland Octet, Pathways (Dare2)
- Jean-Michel Pilc, “PBH Factor,” from True Story, (Dreyfus)
- Aldo Romano, “Gamelan” from Origine, Dreyfus Jazz)
- Ellen Rowe, “For That Which Was Living, Lost” from Wishing Well (PKO Records)
- Luciano Troja, “Earl and Bill” from At Home With Zindars (self-produced)

The five best historical/reissues of 2010, listed alphabetically:
- Miles Davis, Bitches Brew (Sony/Legacy)
- Stan Getz/Kenny Barron, People Time: The Complete Recordings (Sunnyside)
- Vince Guaraldi, Peanuts Portraits (Concord Music)
- Freddie Hubbard, Red Clay (CTI)
- Art Pepper, Unreleased Art, Vol. V: Stuttgart (Widow’s Taste)

The best jazz-related DVD of 2010:
- Sarah Vaughan -The Divine One, Masters of American Music Series (EuroArts)

CDs of Note - Short Takes

Ben Wolfe Quintet, Live at Smalls (Smalls Live)
This new CD from bassist Ben Wolfe is a terrific live recording from his quintet’s appearance last May at Smalls Jazz Club in Greenwich Village. The tight band includes tenor saxophonist Marcus Strickland, trumpeter Ryan Kisor, pianist Luis Perdomo and drummer Gregory Hutchinson.

The musicality and the energy are very strong here. Favorite tracks among the nine Wolff originals: “Block 11,” “Telescope,” the playful “Double Czech” and the Monkish “Unjust.” Kisor turns in a mighty solo on “For the Great Sonny Clark.” Strickland tones down his fiery tenor on the beautiful ballad “I’ll Know You More.” Kudos to Wolfe as a player, composer and leader. All three of those roles come together here.

Bill O’Connell, Rhapsody in Blue (Challenge)
Pianist Bill O’Connell has spent most of his 30-year-plus career in the Latin jazz arena (Mongo Santa Maria, Dave Valentin, Gato Barbieri, the Fort Apache Band, Conrad Herwig’s “Latin Side” projects, etc.) and it has served him well. The Latin rhythms and vitality are a strong part of his music, including this fine CD. The core band, with Luques Curtis or David Finck on bass, Steve Berrios on drums and Steve Slagle on sax, is augmented by percussionist Richie Flores, vibes player Dave Samuels and trombonist Herwig on several tracks.

One of the most intriguing is the sometimes laid-back, sometimes fiery Latin lilt given to George Gershwin’s classic “Rhapsody in Blue.” There’s a lot to like here, including seven O’Connell originals. Check it out. Then repeat. I’m betting you will, because it’s that strong.

Kevin Eubanks, Zen Food (Mack Avenue)

This is guitarist Kevin Eubanks' firs release as a leader since departing "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" after 18 years as its musical director. The CD title is a standalone, not a pickup from a track on the CD. In Eubanks' mind, it means music is food for the soul.

He's joined on this jazz buffet by drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith, saxophonist Bill Pierce, keyboard player Gerry Etkins and bassist Rene Camacho. Favorite tracks include "The Dirty Monk," "Los Angeles," which is a very strong feature for Pierce, as well as a showcase for his sympatico with Philly native Eubanks, the leader's beautiful ballad "I Remember Loving You" and their take on Etkins' "G.G" (short for Gerry's Groove).

Clever barometer on musician costs

So how are today’s musicians doing economically compared to past years? Not bad if you take the word of the 2010 PNC Christmas Price Index.® The Wealth Management division of Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank is just out with its 27th annual analysis of the gifts contained in The Twelve Days of Christmas.

The survey shows this year’s total price tag rose$1,974 to $23,439, a gain of 9.3 percent. One of the biggest factors was the added cost of wages and benefits impacting some entertainers

The cost of hiring the 11 Pipers Piping ($2,356) and 12 Drummers Drumming ($2,552) each rose 3.1 percent after seeing no rise last year. That’s good news, but a far cry from 1999 and 2003. In those years, both the pipers and drummers had raises exceeding 20 percent. Those were the only double-digit raises for musicians since the PNC index was started in 1984.

For the birds, you say?

You may be right. The Two Turtle Doves increased 78.6 percent to $100 and the cost of Three French Hens surged 233 percent to $150 this year. And the Partridge (not factoring in the Pear Tree) was up 20 percent to $12.

A birthday twist

Dave Brubeck has given us a present for his 90th birthday on December 6. The pianist and prolific composer has released a two-disc compilation called Legacy of a Legend, it's releasing coming three days after Brubeck resumed touring. (He had a three-month layoff after doctors gave him a pacemaker.)

It’s a 21-track compilation on Columbia/Legacy that spans work from 1954 to 1970, documenting the evolution of his quartet into its classic makeup with Brubeck, alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello. Two of his later quartet members, bassist Jack Six and drummer Alan Dawson, are featured on tracks from a tour Brubeck made with Gerry Mulligan on baritone sax.

This hand-picked compilation also includes collaborations with singers Jimmy Rushing, Carmen McRae and Louis Armstrong. One of the highlights for Brubeck compleatists figures to be a previously unreleased live take of Brubeck’s tune “Three to Get Ready” that was recorded at his classic quartet’s final concert the day after Christmas 1967 in Pittsburgh.

There is more available for Brubeck fans this holiday season. Turner Classic Movies will dedicate the afternoon of December 6 to a pair of classic films featuring Brubeck. They are “All Night Long” (a jazz update of Shakespeare’s “Othello) and “Southern Crossing,” (which chronicles five-day jazz festival in Sydney, Australia). They will be followed at 5 p.m. by the premier of the Bruce Ricker-produced and directed documentary “Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way.” The executive producer of documentary is longtime Ricker collaborator Clint Eastwood.

Jazz in God’s living room

Jazz has been considered “the devil’s music” at times. More in distant decades and in some places more than others, and even among random people today. So it is ironic when we get to hear it performed in church. I’m not talking about St. Peter’s (the “jazz church” in midtown Manhattan) or other ministries that offer jazz vespers on a regular basis. But places we don’t expect it for one reason or another.  

Riggs, Allen, Forbes, Sportiello

So what a pleasant surprise last night when saxophonist Harry Allen’s quartet performed in a quaint little church in Warwick RI. Allen’s appearance was the jazz segment of Warwick Central Baptist Church’s six-concert music series to mark its 175th anniversary. He was supported by his regular New York rhythm section: Rossano Sportiello on piano, Joel Forbes on bass and Chuck Riggs on drums. 

The setting was intimate and the sound was pure: acoustic jazz in a setting that felt like a living room, from the standpoint that people in the first few pews could have literally reached out and touched the musicians. 

Allen has absorbed his influences well in his development into one of today’s finest swing saxophonists. You hear a lot of Ben Webster and a tinge of Stan Getz on Brazilian bossa nova balladry, but he shapes the music into something fresh and memorable. 

 Highlights: Allen’s reading of Jobim’s “How Insensitive,” a blistering romp on Duke Ellington’s “Cottontail” and the ballad “Misty,” as well as Sportiello’s Stride piano segments on “The Lady’s In Love With You” and, later, his showcase on “Honeysuckle Rose.” 

The concert was a reminder that Riggs is one of today’s masters of the brushes, a skill polished by his years listening to and hanging out with the late Jo Jones. 

One doesn’t expect to hear Cole Porter’s “Love for Sale” in a church, but Allen presented it with some irony. He also offset it by including a couple of hymns into the program. Allen introduced Thomas A. Dorsey’s 1930s composition “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” as “Precious Lord Thou Art So Hip,” telling the audience members they could sing along to No. 678 in their hymnals if they wished. “But we’re gonna swing it,” he cautioned. 

And they did.

A memorable Cape May weekend

It’s amazing that the Cape May Jazz Festival has now completed 17 full seasons of its semi-annual jazz weekends. That’s 34 festivals drawing large off-season crowds to New Jersey’s southern tip.

It was a growing pains sort of weekend for the new blood/old blood running the festival after the summertime resignations of festival co-founders Carol Stone and Woody Woodland after a protracted series of skirmishes with the board of directors. This year, I made the trek to quaint and charming Cape May on a photo assignment for jazztimes.com. Images will be posted with Lee Mergner’s review.

The festival had some very strong acts – The Yellowjackets and trumpeter Terell Stafford’s band were Friday highlights, tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson’s quartet with soul jazz master Les McCann, as well as drummer Ralph Peterson’s band, on Saturday.

The Saturday afternoon jam sessions were packed – the sure sign of a good turnout. And it was great to see old friend Winston Byrd, a Delaware native whose trumpet artistry seemed ever-present at the festival for several years before he moved to Los Angeles. He knows how to tear it up. (That's Winston in the photo at a Carney's jam session with guitarist Geno White, saxophonist Tim Price and others.)

The only significant glitch was the challenging acoustics and some keyboard sound problems for the Jackson-McCann show at Star of the Sea Auditorium. There was no such problem on Friday because the Yellowjackets bring along their own sound wizard. A good engineer who works regularly with the audio needs of one band has an edge. He (or she) knows how to turn lemons into lemonade when confronted with – in this case – a tired old grammar school gymnasium.

For budget issues, the festival organizers decided not to shuttle fans to the Cape May Regional High School’s state-of-the-art theater/auditorium a few miles away. It had been the headline venue for several years - and became a critical venue after the beachfront Cape May Convention Hall was condemned two years ago.

This year, all of the consolidated events were within walking distance of the beachfront strip of bars, hotels and dozens of B&Bs. And so will be the new Convention Hall, which is expected to open sometime in 2012, in time for at least one of that year’s festivals. Maybe both of them.

It was nice that the 34th CMJF program book included a photo of the founders. But there was no other visibility given to Carol Woody, nor were they ever thanked publicly for 16.5 years of keeping the event alive, nor were they present. Curious. And sad in a way. Understandable perhaps given the ill will that transpired at times. But life – and festivals – go on.

Cool, hip and funny (updated)

I interviewed singer-guitarist John Pizzarelli for a profile that will be in the December issue of Hot House in conjunction with a mid-month (December 14 to 18) run with his quartet at Birdland in Manhattan. As is usually the case with these encounters, John had far more to say than space allows in the magazine. See the online edition, p. 31.

Here’s one such JP gem, part of his discussion about the fun he’s been having for five years on his syndicated broadcast show Radio Deluxe. He invited fellow vocalist Kurt Elling to be a guest – and he has become a multi-time guest, including a 2009 live taping at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival.

“I just really met him doing the show and we became friends right away,” Pizzarelli said. “We’re two very different singers with strong ideas about what we want to do about our music.”

He has tremendous admiration and respect for Elling’s work. “It is an intelligent act. It really is something smart and special,” Pizzarelli said. “It is enjoyable to watch because he demands your attention. It is not for the faint of heart.”