Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2019 i JazzTimes

Exclusive Content Lee Mergner interviews drummer Johnathan Blake, Shaun Brady reviews the 40th Detroit Jazz Festival, and John Murph selects the finest Blue Note albums of the 1970s in our biweekly JazzTimes 10 list. Plus album reviews, photo galleries, and much more. JT Blog Miles Davis fans have a chance to bid on a trumpet that the legend designed and played when the instrument goes up for auction at Christie’s in New York on Oct. 29. Davis commissioned the trumpet, which features a decorative pattern of crescent moons and stars, in 1980 from the Martin Company; at press time it’s valued between $70,000 and $100,000. Audio & Video Videos from Roberto Fonseca, Petros Klampanis, the Yes! Trio, and Stephane Wrembel; tracks by Ted Nash and Elizabeth Tomboulian…

From this vantage point it may be hard to remember just how influential Dizzy Gillespie was in 1960. Not only did he help connect the dots to Afro-Cuban and world music, but the nightly repertoire of Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Oscar Peterson, and many others borrowed from the book of his big band. From 1954 to 1958 his main drummer in that band was Charli Persip, and the two would keep working together until about 1962. Every jazz fan has heard some small-group Gillespie/Persip, at the very least “The Eternal Triangle” with Sonnys Stitt and Rollins. The Verve big-band LPs might be less familiar today, but they were studied carefully by an interested community, and thanks to the State Department, Dizzy’s big band played all over the world.…

EVERYBODY DOES THE VOICE. Not just for his characteristic sayings, but for the mundanities. “He’d say, ‘Thank you,’” recalls trombonist Robin Eubanks, putting “Thank you” into the deep, gruff croak that represents Art Blakey—the legendary drummer and bandleader who would have been 100 years old in October. (He died in 1990.) When everyone from Eubanks to Wayne Shorter to Wynton Marsalis does their Blakey impression, it’s with the deepest respect and affection. Across four decades, Blakey—also known as Buhaina or “Bu” for his Islamic name, Abdullah ibn Buhaina—acted as a teacher, mentor, and father figure for the musicians who passed through his band the Jazz Messengers (jazz’s most famous and sought-after finishing school). To have been a Messenger is a calling card that musicians carry proudly for life. Blakey was…

When your résumé includes recording and touring with the likes of the Pat Metheny Group, John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, the Manhattan Transfer, and many others, it’s a given that you’ll be equipped to nail the sound for each setting. But over a career spanning five decades, percussionist and author Danny Gottlieb can cite thousands of times where he’s had to travel light—which means carrying only his most important tools. “Almost every gig [outside the big names]—which is probably somewhere in the 5,000 range—has been on a rented or provided drum set,” he said during a break from some Nashville session work. So if you’re going to sit behind a kit someone else has chosen, what do you need to make it your own? “It’s really two things,” says Gottlieb, who…

This is a banner year for 50th anniversaries: Woodstock, the Apollo 11 moon landing—and the founding of New England Conservatory’s jazz studies program. Although degree programs in jazz at colleges and universities are practically a given nowadays, NEC’s department—the first fully accredited jazz program at a classical conservatory in the United States—was radical and new at its founding. Back in 1969, it was possible to learn about jazz at schools such as Towson, Indiana, and Berklee, but full-fledged jazz departments were few and far between; for 20 years, the University of North Texas had been the only U.S. institution of higher learning to offer a degree in jazz studies. In America at this time, jazz was still largely seen as unteachable in academia—an artform that could be picked up only…

UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS SCHOOL OF MUSIC GRADUATE ENSEMBLE Lyric Motion UArts There is much to savor in this third recording in recent years showcasing original compositions and performance by musicians in the graduate jazz studies program at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts. In this case, the music comes from three distinct groupings: trio, quartet, and a quintet that is supplemented by vocals on one of its three tunes. There’s an ECM feel in the trio explorations of guitarist Dave Allen’s varied originals: the rollicking “Slipping Glimpser,” the beautifully shaped title track “Lyric Motion,” and the twists and turns of the more mysterious “Untold Story.” Allen is joined in this intimate setting by Shane Aaserud on bass and faculty member Matt Scarano on drums. The quintet also tackles three varied…

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the Detroit Jazz Festival put together what it called a “reunion” lineup to perform over Labor Day weekend. Five Artists-in-Residence from previous years—Pat Metheny, Danilo Pérez, Ron Carter, Terence Blanchard, and Joshua Redman—were invited back to the festival for separate sets, and one additional AIR, Regina Carter, took part in pianist Xavier Davis’ slot. This year’s Artist-in-Residence, Stanley Clarke, played three very different sets: one electric, one acoustic, and one featuring his score from the 1991 John Singleton film Boyz n the Hood, complete with string orchestra. And that was just the start; among the other artists who performed during the three-day festival were Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kenny Garrett, Luciana Souza, Chucho Valdés, and the Joe Lovano Nonet. Photographer STEVEN HAUPTMAN caught all the action.…

If you look inside the CD package of Ragmala, the Go: Organic Orchestra’s collaboration with Brooklyn Raga Massive, you’ll find a Carnatic music proverb: “Shruthir mata, Laya pitaha,” which is translated as “Melody is the Mother, Rhythm is the Father.” That’s a concept that orchestra leader Adam Rudolph, in his role as a composer, takes to heart just as much as when he’s simply acting as a percussionist. It’s one thing to work out parts for an ensemble that includes five flutes of varying types, plus four reed players, four brass, and seven string players, but Rudolph puts as much or more effort into similarly orchestrating his battery of percussionists. “I try to be an evolutionist in this music, to push the boundaries, to reach for new things,” he says,…

Leon Parker has been keeping busy since he returned to the United States a few years ago, having previously spent about two decades abroad in France—during which time he rarely performed or recorded. Now the 54-year-old drummer, who came to prominence in mid-’90s New York for his pared-down style, is active in a number of groups, particularly with Brad Mehldau, Peter Bernstein, and Aaron Goldberg. Parker himself hasn’t released an album under his own name since 2001, but he is currently at work on a new release that he plans to put out at the beginning of next year, featuring contributions, he says, from Joshua Redman, Mark Turner, and Cécile McLorin Salvant. Though he is now stateside, Parker still lives a monastic existence. He doesn’t own a cellphone, and he…

“The complexity of playing simple” is what Billy Cobham calls that thing that happens when he sits down behind the drums. “How can I play simply in the most complex situations?” Some who’ve watched him perform over the past five decades might be raising an eyebrow or two right now. If Billy Cobham’s drumming isn’t complex, whose is? At full throttle, he is ferocious; the noise he creates is thunderous, his limbs are a blur. Even in a quieter, more contemplative setting, he seems to be everywhere at once. His timing is off the charts, his ability to stay a step ahead and anticipate a coming change unmatched. If what he’s doing is simpler than it appears, it’s not because Cobham has been tricking the listener with sleight of hand(s);…

Winner of the 2012 Thelonious Monk Competition for Drums, Floridian Jamison Ross has recorded two albums of soulfully swinging jazz that feature both his in-the-pocket drumming and sweet, R&B-crooning vocals. A recent appearance at New York’s Jazz Standard found him directing the rhythm from his kit while singing over his fiery quartet like a contemporary Jackie Wilson. “I’m not a trained singer, it just came upon me,” the 32-year-old Ross said after the gig, acknowledging that as a youth he sang in church and with his family, “but drums were always my first interest. I also played piano in my grandfather’s church, then in college I played bass gigs. I toured with Jon Batiste playing all of that.” At Jazz Standard, Ross delivered vocals that were as velvety as ice…

U.S. Colleges & Universities ALABAMA Auburn University 320 W. Samford, Auburn, AL 36849 Primary contact: Dr. Mike Pendowski 334-844-3164, mjp0023@auburn.edu Jacksonville State University 700 Pelham Rd. North, Jacksonville, AL 36265 http://www.jsu.edu/music/jazzstudies/about.html Primary contact: Andy Nevala 256-782-5559, andy@andynevala.com University of Alabama School of Music 810 2nd Ave., Tuscaloosa, AL 35401 https://jazz.music.ua.edu/about/ Jazz contact: Chris Kozak 205-348-6333, ckozak@ua.edu Wallace State College 801 Main St., Hanceville, AL 35077 www.wallacestate.edu Primary contact: Ricky Burks 256-352-8287, ricky.burks@wallacestate.edu ARIZONA Arizona State University School of Music 50 E. Gammage Pkwy., Tempe, AZ 85287 www.music.asu.edu/jazz Jazz contact: Michael Kocour 480-965-5348, Michael.Kocour@asu.edu Chandler-Gilbert Community College 2626 E. Pecos Rd., Chandler, AZ 85225 www.cgc.maricopa.edu Jazz contact: Adam Roberts 480-732-7290, adam.roberts@cgc.edu Mesa Community College Music Dept. 1833 W. Southern Ave., Mesa, AZ 85202 www.mesacc.edu/departments/music Primary contact: Fred Forney 480-461-7576, fred.forney@mesacc.edu Northern…

The long-running Suncoast Jazz Festival, its 29th edition slated for this November on Clearwater Beach in Clearwater, Fla., might best be defined by the kind of festival that it isn’t. Unlike the area’s well-known big jazz festival, it’s not a single-venue outdoors affair dominated by non-jazz acts. Nor is it a fairgrounds-style event with multiple stages devoted to multiple genres. Instead, the Suncoast fest is more like an intimate party: 1,500 or so devoted listeners, largely skewing in the direction of 60 candles and older, hear new and old favorites on five indoor stages at a pair of comfortable hotels on the Gulf of Mexico. Festgoers listen to and mingle with jazz, swing, big-band, and blues players, and between performances break away to enjoy picture-perfect late-fall beach time. Free trolley…

As his 60th birthday approached in August, clarinetist/composer Ben Goldberg briefly considered mounting a retrospective series of his many past ensembles. With the wealth of projects he’s assembled and recorded since his debut with the New Klezmer Trio in 1991, Goldberg could have easily booked his weeklong stint at the Stone at the New School a few times over. A quick career survey spans the warped bebop of Junk Genius; the lush sextet Twelve Minor; the clarinet quartet Clarinet Thing; the genre-defying ensemble Tin Hat; and any number of collaborations with the likes of Nels Cline, Myra Melford, Kenny Wollesen, Trevor Dunn, and Marty Ehrlich. But in the end, as he so often does, Goldberg veered off in a different direction. His rationale? “I thought if I have to turn…

When Billy Cobham was scouting locations to record his new album, Crosswinds: Time Lapse Photos, it didn’t take him long to decide that Sweetwater Studios, in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, was going to be one of them. “It’s like a cathedral, an institution, with all that you could ever want,” the drummer says. “All you needed was an engineer that knew what it was all about.” With Mark Hornsby, Cobham got more than he’d hoped for: a seasoned technician with an appreciation for Cobham’s place in music history. “Billy is known as a jazz cat, but he’s far deeper than that,” Hornsby says. “He’s a very diverse musician and person. We hit it off from a personality point of view first and foremost, and that set the stage for—as it always…

For most music fans, the ability to stream practically any tune you want in seconds through the Internet is a dream come true. Audiophiles have been less enthusiastic, because most of the major music streaming services use data compression (such as MP3 or AAC) to reduce the Internet bandwidth and disk storage space needed to supply your music stream. This compression discards most of the data in a digital music file, keeping only what’s absolutely necessary. The results usually sound good; still, this is a compromise most audiophiles refuse to make. But thanks to streaming services that deliver sound in CD quality—or even better—no longer must anyone sacrifice audio fidelity for the convenience of streaming. Tidal, the company famously purchased by rapper Jay-Z, has largely had the market to itself…

JOHN COLTRANE Blue World Impulse! Our brave new digital world has laid waste to the market for physical music media, but a few niche categories are still viable. One is historical jazz packages. Consider, for example, four albums of previously unreleased John Coltrane material. Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (Blue Note, 2005), One Down, One Up (Impulse!, 2005), Offering (Impulse!/Resonance, 2015), and Both Directions at Once (Impulse!, 2018) were all huge sellers. They owned the “Historical” categories of the major jazz polls in their respective years. Now there is another, Blue World. The backstory: In 1964, Coltrane (surprisingly) agreed to provide music for a Canadian film by Gilles Groulx, Le Chat dans le Sac. On June 24 of that year, he went into Van Gelder Studios with…