Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2021 i JazzTimes

Before his passing in September 2015, saxophonist/composer Phil Woods collaborated with regular JT contributor Ted Panken on a memoir, which was recently published by Cymbal Press as Life in E Flat: The Autobiography of Phil Woods. The following exclusive excerpt takes us to the spring of 1968, when Woods, his wife Chan (Charlie Parker’s widow), and their family decided to make an escape from America—but found that America had, in a sense, followed them across the Atlantic. The jazz scene was drying up for me. I started thinking seriously about a major move to Europe. I’d had enough of life in E-flat in the United States. Chan was ready to leave too—she hated America with a vitriolic passion. With the assistance of Bobby Colomby, who had managed Monk’s 1967 big-band…

Jeff Clayton, an alto saxophonist and multi-reedist who was co-bandleader (and co-namesake) of both the Clayton Brothers quintet and the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, died Dec. 16 at his home in Los Angeles, Calif. For the past two years, he had been suffering from kidney cancer. He was 65. See our In Memoriam feature for more. Stanley Cowell, a pianist and composer who co-founded the seminal jazz label Strata-East Records with trumpeter Charles Tolliver in the early 1970s, died of hypovolemic shock on Dec. 17 at his home in Camden, Del. He was 79. See our In Memoriam feature for more. Diane Moser, a pianist, composer, educator, leader of the Composers Big Band, and linchpin of the jazz scene in Montclair, N.J., died Dec. 17 after years of battling with two…

Surfboard Justin Time It’s probably no coincidence that Brandi Disterheft’s prowess as a bassist, on her fifth album as a leader, shines particularly bright on “The Pendulum at Falcon’s Lair” and “Del Sasser,” as both were penned by bass players: the former, with its tricky, sprinting bebop line, by Oscar Pettiford and the latter, with its stops, call-and-response figures and speedy runs, by Sam Jones. As with all 14 tunes here, both swingers are fueled by the powerful musical connection between the Canadian-born, NYC-based Disterheft and her frequent collaborator, renowned Brazilian drummer Portinho, a fount of irresistible propulsion and ever-surprising rhythmic colors and contours. Disterheft’s inspired playing, distinguished by a beautifully woody tone and a knack for placing notes in the perfect center of any groove at hand—both characteristics doubtless…

At a press conference five hours after the World Trade Center’s twin towers fell on September 11, 2001, Rudy Giuliani, then the mayor of New York City, said something that no one who was listening will ever forget: “The number of casualties will be more than any of us can bear, ultimately.” In January 2021, as I write this column, more Americans are dying every day than perished at the southern tip of Manhattan on that horrible morning nearly two decades ago. Every day is more than any of us can bear. In the spring of 2020, the jazz community suffered blow after devastating blow in the COVID-19 pandemic. The March 31 passing of Wallace Roney, who is beautifully memorialized in this issue by Ashley Kahn, now strikes me as…

In March 2020, McCoy Tyner passed at age 81, leaving behind a vast legacy of powerful piano on record. Naturally, many of the obituaries focused on his 1960-65 time with John Coltrane, a relationship that revolutionized jazz and brought forth some of its very greatest LPs, including Crescent and A Love Supreme. From Tyner’s long list of albums as a leader, 1967’s The Real McCoy with Joe Henderson, Ron Carter, and Elvin Jones generally gets the nod, although each period has its glories, from the tidy early-’60s trios through the epic live-’70s ensembles to the later solo recitals and all-star collaborations. Another prism through which one can observe Tyner’s artistry is his work as a sideman with leaders other than Coltrane. There are about 40 of these sessions, a sequence…

Best of All ARTIST OF THE YEAR Charles McPherson Wynton Marsalis Diana Krall Kurt Elling NEW ARTIST Artemis Daniel Hersog Jazz Orchestra Immanuel Wilkins Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project NEW RELEASE Charles McPherson Jazz Dance Suites (Chazz Mack) Daniel Hersog Jazz Orchestra Night Devoid of Stars (Cellar) Jeff Cosgrove/John Medeski/Jeff Lederer History Gets Ahead of the Story (Grizzley) Anja Lechner/Francois Couturier Lontano (ECM) VOCAL RELEASE Diana Krall This Dream of You (Verve) The Royal Bopsters Party of Four (Motéma) Gregory Porter All Rise (Blue Note) Norah Jones Pick Me Up Off the Floor (Blue Note) HISTORICA VAULT/REISSUE RELEASE Thelonious Monk Palo Alto (Impulse!/Sony) Bill Evans Live at Ronnie Scott’s (Resonance) Ella Fitzgerald Ella: The Lost Berlin Tapes (Verve) Charles Mingus @ Bremen 1964 & 1975 (Sunnyside) Best Groups ACOUSTIC SMALL GROUP/ARTIST Brad…

Kites and Strings One Trick Dog Sometimes the vitality of an art form is demonstrated not by “big” records from major figures, but by unassuming projects from people you don’t know—yet. Press notes for Kites and Strings correctly point out that Ben Rosenblum is “the newest member of a small, extraordinary keyboard cadre … of players equally expressive on piano and accordion.” (Others include Gary Versace and Vitor Gonçalves.) The reedy strains of Rosenblum’s accordion differentiate his ensemble. But much more is going on here. Rosenblum thinks of his sextet (plus three rotating guests) as an orchestra. He writes tunes that feel light in touch but whose arrangements interweave lines—from trumpeter Wayne Tucker, reed player Jasper Dutz, and guitarist Rafael Rosa—into continuously evolving intricate designs. The capable guests (trombonist Sam…

Jimmy Heath (10/25/26 – 1/19/20) “Picture of Heath” Picture of Heath (Xanadu, 1975) Backed with one of the best rhythm sections of its era (or indeed any other), Heath gives unimpeachable evidence of his two greatest gifts: one for pithy, lyrical compositions, and another for refocusing the shapes of those compositions into aggressive, extended improvisations. Ray Mantilla (6/22/34 – 3/21/20) “A Ritual” Herbie Mann, Flute, Brass, Vibes and Percussion (Verve, 1960) The back half of “A Ritual” features a fiery interchange between Mantilla’s bongos, Ray Barretto’s congas, and Rudy Collins’ drums. Its true magic, though, is in the declarative comp line Mantilla maintains throughout the track. We hear his distinctive sound and uncanny rhythmic instincts. Jymie Merritt (5/23/26 – 4/10/20) “Nommo” Max Roach, Drums Unlimited (Atlantic, 1966) Merritt’s clear-voiced bass…

When Ellis Marsalis and his son Jason went into a New Orleans studio in mid-February 2020 to make a duo album for Newvelle Records, they had no inkling that it would be the elder man’s final recording. “In fact,” says the younger Marsalis, “we were talking about going back to record some more things, put some more tunes down, and we were looking forward to doing it.”” Alas, it was not to be. Ellis Marsalis Jr., the patriarch of jazz’s most famous family, passed away of complications from COVID-19 on April 1 at the age of 85. For All We Know, the session that the pianist and his vibraphonist son had made six weeks earlier, stands as his last musical testament. “I miss him a lot,” says Jason, 43, who…

LEE KONITZ 10/13/27 – 4/15/20 By Dan Tepfer As someone who likes to think of himself as rational, I can’t bring myself to believe in fate, yet Lee and I seemed destined to meet. Although piano’s been my instrument since I was a child, I had a sax in my teens, and I sound strangely like Lee on home recordings from the time even though I’d hardly listened to him. After I moved to New York in 2006, I put on my mentor Martial Solal’s duo record with Lee one day, Star Eyes, and, moved by a conviction I’ve seldom had before or since—that if I got to play with Lee, I would know what to do—I asked Martial if he would introduce us. Martial gave me his blessing, I…

BILL EVANS Live at Ronnie Scott’s Resonance Bill Evans’ Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby are undoubtedly two of the finest-crafted live recordings in jazz; the musicianship is legendary, the recording pristine. Yet listening to Live at Ronnie Scott’s, a “new” live album that captures Evans with his mythic 1968 trio—bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Jack DeJohnette—can make those two earlier albums sound a little sterile by comparison. The 20 tracks heard on Ronnie Scott’s are culled from a multitude of nights over a four-week engagement that the Evans-Gomez-DeJohnette trio had at the London club in 1968, recorded by DeJohnette with a four-track tape machine and a mic set up between the bass and piano. The audio, even after production work by DeJohnette and Zev Feldman, still…

Anniversary Greenleaf In Japanese folk music, it’s common to find women singing while accompanying themselves on the shamisen (a fretless, three-stringed lute). In jazz, not so much, which in itself is enough to make singer/songwriter/shamisen player Emi Makabe a singular talent. As a songwriter, Makabe combines the melodic directness of a pop tunesmith with the rhythmic and harmonic sophistication of a jazz musician. Out of Time, her 2015 debut EP, made excellent use of those strengths. “Shirayuri (Lily),” for instance, was sung entirely in Japanese and had only double bass (played by husband Thomas Morgan) as accompaniment, yet still had the cheery bounce of a pop song, while “On the Delta” sounded like J-Pop played by a jazz trio. With Anniversary, Makabe’s writing has only deepened, but without losing its…