Jazz Beyond Jazz

Far downtown weekend adventures

2009-11-20T13:44:46Z

Far out improv, high concept contemporary composition, new jazz scholarship and "cut loose" music from Guadeloupe flood Lowest Manhattan (all the way to Staten Island) this weekend. The folks who bring us the Vision Festival stage 28 hours of multidisciplinary improvisation starting tonight (Friday) at 6 p.m. at Clemente Soso Velez Cultural Center; Mode Records throws itself a benefit marathon concert featuring Philip Glass, John Zorn and Robert Ashley, among many others on Saturday at Abrons Art Center; jazz scholars convene for The Louis Armstrong Symposium at College of Staten Island also Saturday starting at 9 a.m., keynote by Dan Morgenstern) and the Destination Guadeloupe Festival climaxes with Gwo-ka drumming, "gwanda jazz" and zouk at S.O.B.'s on Sunday (bands from Guadeloupe are also there and at Zinc Bar tonight and tomorrow).The possibilities show again the breadth and depth of music made and presented in NYC.]]>

The Mode program (in support of an esteemed new music label) is no less impressive -- starting at 6 p.m. with Glass playing his solo piano works and Zorn's game piece Cobra with Z-man himself conducting, then a second show at 7:30 featuring John Cage's "Concert for Piano and Orchestra" and "Aria." Isabelle Ganz will sing, and the orchestra will comprise artists performing throughout the night, including pianist Margaret Leng Tan, violinist Tom Chiu, Joe (two-places-at-once) McPhee, percussionist-sculptor John Heward, and maybe composers David Behrman and Roger Reynolds, quite an impressive cast, probably never again in one place at one time.

What can be new about Louis Armstrong? I'm game to hear John Szwed talk about Pops' involvement in Orson Welles' uncompleted 1941 film The Story of Jazz. Michael Cogswell of the Armstrong House Museum and Archives in Queens will present, along with scholars James Leach, William R. Bauer and Jeffrey Taylor -- focusing respectively on "Stardust," Armstrong's early vocal techniques and the impact of pianists (including no doubt Lil Hardin Armstrong) on Louis' music in Chicago in the 1920s. These are not arcane issues to those who fascinated with the enduring American art form and its original favorite son.

French Caribbean culture is a different thing entirely -- or is it? Guadeloupe's Gwo-Kwa drummers have collaborated closely with American ex-pat saxophonist David Murray (check out their just-released The Devil Tried to Kill Me, but I don't think he'll be at this Destination Guadeloupe Festival, though) and the island seems eager to embrace jazz (as well as welcome tourists) in very indigenous ways. At S.O.B.'s Luc Leandry, "the King of Zouk" headlines with the Divas of Zouk, Joëlle Ursull, Jocylene Labylle -- names new to me, but I'm curious and it's cheaper to hear this gang by subwaying to Varick Street than flying to Gustavia (though wouldn't that be nice?).

There's more than this of everything jazzy, bluesy, new and unusual this weekend -- for instance, Enrico Granafei is performing a solo concert of his simultaneous "hands-free chromatic harmonica and guitar" tonight (Friday) at the Italian Cultural Institute (call 212 879 4242 for details), altoist Tim Berne got a new ensemble at Roulette (Saturday), the East Village club Nublu is promoting its "first annual jazz festival" tonight through Sunday with bands led by Avram Fefer, Kenny Wollesen and Teodross Avery; Pharoah Sandders and Ravi Coltrane are together at Iridium, and saxophonist Myron Walden is making a move behind the release of three albums at Smalls tonight and Saturday. As always, too much to do, too many decisions, it's easier to stay home, watch tv, play video games, snuggle -- but what is one here for if not music all night long?

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Trouble -- or transition -- at Jazz.com?

2009-11-19T19:03:33Z

Stepping down from presiding over Jazz.com two years after its launch, editor, author and pianist Ted Gioia isn't saying much about what's up with the site that has become a major web resource and destination. Naturally, this leads to wondering what has become of the promise and potential of jazz on the web.]]> AllAboutJazz.com and JazzCorner.com, which serve the informational and promotional needs of the greater jazz community each in their unique ways. But under Gioia, Jazz.com has succeeded in laying a foundation for a living online center concerning the music, through commissioned blog posts and articles, track reviews and the inclusion of Lewis Porter's Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians.

One of the features we enjoyed most has been Jazz.com's aggregation of "news and views," in which provocative postings from across the jazz-specific blogosphere could be quickly and easily scanned in one place, viewed as screenshots. Not to be modest, Jazz Beyond Jazz bits often have turned up there, and I've been glad to have them rubbing shoulders with news from Peter Hum, Patrick Jarwarttananon of A Blog Supreme, James Hale, Doug Ramsey, Don Heckman, JazzWax, and many of the other colleagues I try to keep up with. Jazz.com provided an easy way to do it.

I've asked Ted directly what's up with Jazz.com, and he is observing a diplomatic silence. The site, without advertising OR subscriptions to generate revenue, has from the start been financed by a silent partner, rumored to be a Las Vegas-based media entrepreneur. The url "jazz.com" is reputed to be a highly valuable property, though jazz online mavens have never explained why; without great content, no url can really be worth much. Not to be too worried about Ted -- he's been stalwart, judicious and productive: The Birth (and Death) of the Cool is his just-out-now book, after volumes on Delta Blues, Healing Songs, Work Songs, The History of Jazz and West Coast Jazz. And jazz readers will hope that whatever transition is occurring at Jazz.com is one of those things, a bump not a breakdown. Stay tuned, keep reading. . .

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Wynton le Chevalier Marsalis

2009-11-19T18:15:38Z

A survey in my latest City Arts column of the music of trumpeter-composer Wynton Marsalis, in the jazz spotlight for 25 years. Founder and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, educator, activist, humanitarian, winner of a Pulitzer and multiple Grammies, Wynton stands tallest in my book when he just plays jazz.]]> Pierre Vimont and pianist-father Ellis Marsalis heard the Man with the Horn throw down with his quintet at the Fifth Avenue center for cultural services of the French Embassy earlier this month, pressing to get near as possible to his excitement. Wynton Marsalis will not be denied, and his current releases -- a dvd of a performance with Willie Nelson, playing Ray Charles' hits, and a Christmas Jazz Jam -- seem like stopgaps in his quest towards a monumental (and as yet uncompleted) "Blues Symphony." See and hear for yourself what he's got in mind . . .

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The critics play

2009-11-18T01:11:26Z

Writer-guitarist Greg Tate was shy about conducting Burnt Sugar at the Blue Note last night, not stepping out front of his troupe to guide them (kinda like President O waiting for Congress to decide what to do), but the late Robert Palmer's spirit hovered quite tangibly over the tribute his daughter Augusta Palmer ran at Le Poisson a couple blocks away, celebrating the screening of her film The Hand of Fatima which tells the story of her disengaged dad and his musical fascinations. The struggle for respect of music journalists who believe black music is the heart-and-soul of America goes on. . . ]]> Flyboy in the Buttermilk, editor of Everything But The Burden: What White People Are Taking From Black Culture, longtime contributor to the Village Voice, Vibe and writer of the forward to my Miles Ornette Cecil: Jazz Beyond Jazz, is daring just by virtue of putting himself at the center of the tribe of improvisers who accept his hand signals as a way to shape their jams. Playing vamps based on Jimi Hendrix's "Axis Bold as Love" and Miles' "Funky Tonk" or "What I Say" from Live/Evil), the band included several hot soloists: bari saxist Pamela Harrison, tenor man Avram Fefer, altoist Micah Gauge (who pulled off the most complicated and satisfying Butch Morris-inspired "conduction" of the first set), trumpeter Flip Barnes, guitarist André Lassalle, three unidentified women vocalists, an electric wind instrumentalist/male singer, cellist, bassist, traps drummer, pianist, all together working up a functional form of social music, that at its best engages both players and audiences in multikulti festivity.

Palmer, who played clarinet -- violinist David Soldier of The Kropotkins told me he was an exciting soloist, but could have never been a section man -- made an album in the '60s titled Insect Trust, most famous for a tune in which it used words by Thomas Pynchon. But he put the best of himself to put into his cogent writings for Down Beat, Rolling Stone, Penthouse, the New York Times and annotations for various albums from the late '60s 'til his death in 1997. As Anthony DeCurtis, who edited Blues and Chaos, a newly released collection of Palmer's writings, related, Bob claimed to have singlehandedly integrated black music shows in Little Rock Arkansas as a 15-year-old in 1960, and ever after heard music "through an African-American perspective." Which means he didn't countenance white musicians being more celebrated and better rewarded that black musicians while being less accomplished, meaningful and/or transcendent. That was not in the '60s nor is it today a position that is typically rewarded with respect, position, wealth or fame even within the entertainment press.

At Le Poisson Rouge, Augusta showed the opening minutes of her film, folky Eric Andersen read a Palmer liner note for an album by bluesman Junior Kimbrough, and Chicago-born guitarist Ladell McLin revved up very Hendrix-y lines in a hard-rockin' quartet (pity the tenor player -- how can any blower compete or collaborate with a cranked up, distortion-heavy Strat?). I slapped hands with author-singer-songwriter Ned Sublette, didn't even see my friend author mandolinist-flutist John Kruth, waved at Arthur Levy (authoritative former-publicist of Columbia Records), greeted Bob Marley biographer Vivien Goldman, schmoozed briefly with concert and fest producer Alexa Birdsong, then had to get home to work on an article about Henry Threadgill before the rest of the music came on. Sad to miss Bachir Attar of the Master Musicians of Jajouka, I took comfort in the thought that the job comes first, as Robert Palmer would have understood.

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Performance night of beyond-jazz critics

2009-11-15T20:52:47Z

Monday 11/16, NYC: writer-guitarist-conductor Greg Tate's Burnt Sugar plays the Blue Note, and the late journalist-reedsplayer Robert Palmer is celebrated by biographer-world musician John Kruth, historian-memoirist-social commentator-radio producer-singer-songwriter Ned Sublette, and the Master Musicians of Jajouka with at Le Poisson Rouge. Are the inmates running the asylum?

]]> Steve Coleman and Ethan Iverson). We just want to get in on the performance fun. Burnt Sugar as I last saw/heard it is a party band not too reverently indebted to Butch Morris' significant work on conduction, George Clinton's P-Funk revues, Sun Ra, Miles, James Brown and whatever other grooves it digs. It''ll be good to catch up with what they're doing now, as it is always bracing to read Brother Tate's incisive, original thoughts on race, music and the whole damn thing.

Robert Palmer was at the height of his career when I met him a couple of times briefly in the 1980s, but I'd read him whenever I could find his byline for a decade before, our interests and tastes coinciding: Delta and Chicago blues, Ornette, electric Miles, post-Coltrane jazz, music of strange places, truly edgy rock 'n' roll, 20th century music of the globe, pop and contemporary composition included. His articles were always clear, respectful and illuminating of what drove the musicians he admired -- passion, depth, fire. His book Deep Blues is a compelling read as is his Unruly History of Rock and Roll -- both are out of print, but a new collection of his work Blues and Chaos has just been published and a film about his obsessions, The Hand of Fatima by his daughter Augusta who was not one of them, is currently being shown at Anthology Film Archives. It also features the Master Musicians of Jajouka directed by Bachir Attar, of whom I wrote enthusiastically last February.

Sublette, author of The Year Before The Flood, one of the finest books I've read this year and two fine ones from years just previous, and Kruth, awarded the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for To Live's To Fly, about Towns Van Zandt, earlier biographer of Rahsaan Roland Kirk, superb songwriter-mandolinist-flutist and Tribecistan/Eva Destruction auteur --are serious double-threat writer-musicians (which Palmer, despite his credits as clarinetist with Insect Trust, never seemed to be). At Le Poisson Rouge they are featured along with singer-songwriter-guitarist Eric Anderson, guitarist with Patti Smith and occasional poet Lenny Kaye and music journo Anthony DeCurtis, editor of Blues and Chaos.

That lineup should result in quite a tribute to Bob Palmer, and might encourage more music journalists, rightly or not, to look at public performance as another potential outlet for our energies. I'm going to check it out very carefully, with fantasies about about an evening of reading aloud interspersed with my flute playing, though I can't imagine who'd sit for that. Maybe other inmates. . . .

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Winners and their blues

2009-11-13T18:51:01Z

Winners of this blog's first Blues Lyric Contest are suitably troubled -- and all get Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson Play the Music of Ray Charles DVDS to ease their weary minds. All have expressed regrets they can't get to Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts of Wynton and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra celebrating for Mary Lou Williams' centennial or alto saxist Maceo Parker, so sadly those tix go wanting. But that's the blues for ya. . . ]]>

First prize to Vikram Devasthali, LA-based trombonist who blogs at twentydollars.wordpress.com -- he wrote:

Death in the morning, lying next to me in bed
her eyes are stormy, and her lips an angry red
she says she loves me, and my heart forgets my head.

Death in the daytime, up and leaves me by myself
heard through the grapevine, she belongs to someone else
she's a deceiver, but she does it awful well.

Death in the evening, when my senses come undone
she don't believe me, when I tell her she's the one
she makes me swear it, at each dying of the sun.

Death in my nightmares, wraps her left hand round my neck
and with the right one, thrusts a knife into my chest
my life's a card game, and my woman stacked the deck.

Second prize to singer-songwriter Andrea Wolper for this ditty:

Mandel don't love me
He treats me awful mean
Mandel don't love me
He treats me awful mean
Asks me to write 'bout

Chi-town and New Orleans

Says he want songs 'bout
Gath'rings in Congo Square
Asks us for songs 'bout
Gath'rings in Congo Square
Problem for me is,
Baby, I wasn't there

Wants to see songs 'bout
Ragtime 'n blues 'n swing
Wants to see verses 'bout
Bolden, Bechet, 'n "King"
Scratchin' my head 'cause
Can't think of anything

Mandel said, "post about
'merican roots of jazz:
Villanelles, haikus, 'n blues
'bout the roots of jazz"
Must be too hard, though
'Cause look here:
Nobody has.

(Ms. Wolper has also written and sings "Grey, Not Blue" which begins:

Storm clouds over head
Tears upon my pillow
No one home to tell my troubles to
Lyin' on my bed,
Cryin' like a willow,
Tryin' to hold on to all the things that I once thought I knew
Shadows creep and steal my sleep
And that is why I'm Gray, Not Blue . . .

. . . and continues through a bluesy chorus of duetting guitarist Ron Affif & bassist Ken Filiano; nice, al, thanks, it's a treat.

3rd prize to Jennifer Lemming -- I think she discovered the contest via Twitter who writes:

I found about it because I subscribe to The Arts Journal . . .My influences are - my mother who sang in the community w/her 2 sisters. My family is from the south, so music was very, very important. PBS which introduced me to a very wide variety of music. I also lived in Elkhart, In - Selmer and Conn band instrument companies, Baldwin piano. I studied the violin all through high school. Our orchestra teacher actually arranged Chuck Mangone's "El Gato Triste" for full orchestra for us to play. * I've got a list of poems published, won an award and actually have a song on an independent CD. So this contest was a great outlet for me.

-- for "I Can't Sleep Baby Blues," in which the povs of both parties may be thought to come alive --

Story time is over, we've come to the end of the book.
Story time is over and we've come to the end of the book.
My mommy's hoping that's all it took.

I'm lying on my cot and it is time for nap
the light are low and it's time for nap.
mommy's beside me, giving my back a pat.

I got the I can't sleep Baby Blues.

The stuffing is coming out of my bear,
she leans done to whisper "hush, hush"
while I play with a strand of her hair.

I got the I can't sleep Baby Blues.

My legs are achin', they are achin' from running that playground
My leg are achin' from runnin that play ground
My eyes are closed but I'm still chasin' that ball around.

Shadows dance on the wall,
shadows dance over on that wall.
There's one in the corner about ten feet tall.

I'm so sick of hearing about those stars a-twinkling in the sky.
I just rub my eyes, kick my feet and cry.

I got the I can't sleep baby blues
You know I got the I can't sleep baby blues

First runner-up is Mike Borowski, a guitarist in the jazz performance program at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh who has a tango group which he says "plays a lot of Astor Piazzolla and John Zorn" -- check out their website. His lyric was inspired by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s God Bless You Mr. Rosewater.

I've gone and sold my riches baby, things will never be the same
I've gone and sold my riches baby, things will never be the same
I moved on down country, no more will I live in shame

Gone on down to Rosewater, gonna help the sick and lame
Gone on down to Rosewater, gonna help the sick and lame
Gonna tell em to keep on livin', while I drink my life away

God bless that Mr. Rosewater, hes the only one that knows
God bless that Mr. Rosewater, hes the only one that knows
There flows a money river, but only a few know where it goes

The next Jazz Beyond Jazz Blues Lyric Contest will specifically include Blues Rap. Stay tuned . . .

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Midnight (EST) deadline, blues contest entries

2009-11-11T16:50:34Z

Prizes of Jazz at Lincoln Center tix for this weekend and dvds of Wynton Marsalis with Willie Nelson for the best blues lyrics or prose poem will be determined at 12:01 tonight (11/11/09). Several stunning (!?!) efforts have been received -- via the comments box below -- but I'm not publishing any of them until all the tries are in and the winners have been chosen. Is it hard to write a blues lyric? See my examples from yesterday, or search the web for classics, which are plentiful. Three to five choruses fitting a standard 12-bar blues form, or a bluesy prose poem of 100 to 150 words are what I want to see -- alto sax soulman Maceo Parker playing in the elegant Allen Room, and Wynton leading the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in music by Mary Lou Williams, with featured soloists Geri Allen and Geoff Keezer are first prizes; second and third are dvds of Wynton and Willie (with guest Norah Jones), autographed by Mr. Jazz at Lincoln Center himself.

Submit your blues now! Don't delay and cry like this --

]]> I didn't send my entry to see a weekend show

Didn't send my entry to hear ol' Maceo blow

Now it's Saturday, I'm lonely, and got no place to go.

I coulda been at Lincoln Center, listening with the jazz elite

The Allen Room or Rose Hall, as music halls they're sweet.

Could be watching Wynton 'n' Willie, even that would be a treat.

If I'd writ a blues or poem, I wouldn't be here now

If I'd write a blues or poem, I wouldn't be here now.

Awful glad I had a chance though, thanks to Mandel anyhow.

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Blues lyrics: write to win

2009-11-10T14:09:32Z

For tickets to Jazz at Lincoln Center this weekend or a dvd of Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson performing live, try writing a blues. How hard can it be?

"Minutes seem like hours, hours seem like days,

Seems my baby would stop her lowdown ways" -- Muddy Waters, "Country Blues"

"Woke up this morning, looked 'round for my shoes

You know I had those mean old walkin' blues" -- Robert Johnson, "Walkin' Blues"

.

"Whoa, oh tell me baby

Where did ya stay last night? An' why don't ya hear me cryin'?

Whoo hoo, whoo whoo,

Whoo who. . . " -- Howlin' Wolf, "Smokestack Lightning"

]]> Ok, I'm asking for more than a couplet from entrants in this contest to score a pair of tickets on Nov. 14 to hear either saxophonist Maceo Parker, soloist with James Brown, Ray Charles and P-Funk OR Wynton and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with pianists Geri Allen and Geoff Keezer celebrating the life of Mary Lou Williams, or the newly released Wynton 'n' Willie dvd. I want three to five choruses of an original blues lyric, or a blue prose poem 100 to 150 words in length.

But that's all. And the challenge might be a way for those who accept it to touch base with their basest hard feelings, get 'em out in the open and in the process move towards resolution. That's what the blues do: let the blues expressor objectify their sorrows or demons, hold them at a distance far enough to take a good look and figure out the next step.

"Bad luck and trouble been my only friend

Been on my own since I was ten

Born under a bad sign, I've been down since I began to crawl

If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all" -- Albert King, "Born Under A Bad Sign"

"When you get good lovin', don't you spread the news.

When you get good lovin', don't you spread the news.

'Cause those gals will double cross you,

And leave you with the empty bed blues." -- Bessie Smith, "Empty Bed Blues"

Entrees to the Maceo/Mary Lou/ Wynton & Willie blues contest will be judged for originality, moodiness, vivid imagery, compression and, of course, bluesiness. Entrees must be submitted in the comments box of this blog no later than midnight EST on Wednesday, Nov. 11. Get yr blues on, folks -- give it a try. Winners to be published this coming weekend; watch this space.

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Jazz at Lincoln Center ducats, Wynton-Willie dvd giveaways!

2009-11-07T15:41:50Z

Readers of this blog can win 2 tix for JALC's November 14 shows by Maceo Parker or the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra playing Mary Lou Williams, or autographed Wynton-Willie Nelson Play Ray Charles dvds. But in keeping with the inherent value of these prizes, I'm making the contest creative, not easy.]]> Online submissions only: If you want to attend either alto saxophonist Parker's soul-steeped performance in the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center next weekend, or the Mary Lou Williams Centennial performance of trumpeter Marsalis leading the LCJO and featuring excellent pianists Geri Allen and Geoff Keezer in Rose Hall at JALC, or vie for one of the two copies of the new Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson play Ray Charles (with guest Norah Jones), submit via the comments box below something interesting to read, which I'll post in this space next Saturday. What I have in mind is some sort of poem or very brief narrative concerning/referring to American roots of jazz and its extensions.

My first impulse was to ask for a villanelle, triolet, hiaku or some such rigidly ruled form, but instead let's go for the vernacular: lyrics for three to five choruses of a 12 bar blues, or a prose poem that works as a blues narrative, 100 to 150 words long.

The blues lyrics should follow the conventional format: the first line proposes the narrator's situation ("My girl don't love me, she treats me awful mean"), the second line repeats the first (or employs slight variation) for emphatic effect, the third line adds to, complicates, sums up and/or resolves the problem (She's the meanest girl I've ever seen"). The lyric ought to be in rhythm that works with 12-bars of 4/4 meter (try reciting what you've written to any basic blues recording to see it if fits). The three to five choruses ought to progress to tell a story.

The prose poem can be less strictly composed, but will be judged, like the lyrics (by my inhouse staff of experts) for originality, moodiness, vivid imagery, compression and, of course, bluesiness.

First prize:

Two tickets, to be messengered to the winner or picked up at Jazz at Lincoln Center's box office, to either of two November 14 concerts. Maceo Parker is best known for his saxophonics in bands led by James Brown, Ray Charles and George Clinton (he was part of the Horny Horns with tenor saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis and trombonist Fred Wesley; these three still perform together, though I don't know if they'll all be at JALC); Wynton, the LCJO, pianists Allen and Keezer will presumably concentrate on the infrequently reprised compositions of Mary Lou Williams, the modernist pianist-composer-arranger born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs, whose career ranged from jamming with McKinney's Cotton Pickers to concertizing with Cecil Taylor.

Two second prizes:

A DVD of Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson Play The Music of Ray Charles, autographed by Wynton, recorded live at JALC's Rose Hall on February 10, 2009 -- tunes lincluding "Hallelujah I Love Her So," "Hit the Road, Jack," and "Unchain My Heart." With singer Norah Jones and harmonica player Mickey Raphael, among others. I will mail the dvds to the winners.

DEADLINE (very important!): All submissions must be posted to the comments box below by midnight EST Wednesday, November 11. Get a hold of your blues, and get started!

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US remains jazz central

2009-11-06T12:33:36Z

Jazz is global, but its most ambitious players still flock to the US to soak in its roots and prove they're part of the scene. Tonight a Parisian septet called Fractale wraps up an eight-gig tour of the States at the Drom in the East Village, after stops in New Orleans, Cleveland and Chicago. From December 3 to 6 Spanish pianist Chano Domínguez & his Flamenco Quintet bring its commissioned "The Flamenco Side of Kind of Blue" to the Jazz Standard to assert that the Barcelona Jazz Festival (in which they premiere the work on November 12) has something to do with the Big Apple. Next February the Portland Jazz Festival explores the theme "Is Jazz Dead (Or Has It Moved To A New Address?)." But incontrovertible evidence suggests that however far the sound has spread, those who matter know where jazz calls home.]]> The Portland Fest's theme, meant to introduce a slew of Norweigan artists to a northwest audience, is taken from British author and academic Stuart Nicholson's dumb book purporting that our vernacular idiom-turned-art form, born some hundred years ago from America's urban cultural mix of blacks, whites, yellows, browns, oranges and zebras, has faded away due to the neo-conservative aesthetic of Wynton Marsalis dominating American jazz education. Nicholson's ridiculous premise was backed up by no visit to the U.S., no note of the many streams of jazz issuing from this country that have nothing to do with Marsalis, and the author's determination to ignore the continued sway of American jazz icons living or dead upon anyone seriously interested in making a mark on the evolving tradition. In fact, tonight Wynton Marsalis will become a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, accepting the prestigious recognition of civilian merit established by Napoleon in 1802. Say what you will about Marsalis's music, he has done his utmost to represent American jazz in every land on Earth.

While a glance at this week's New York Times jazz listings reveals a marvelous array of music derived from sources as disparate as Chilean singer-songwriters, Afro-Cuban rhythms, Brazilian samba and tropicalia, South Asian heritage, Belgian gypsy swing and Icelandic pop divas, there can be no doubt that the two dozen acts Nate Chinen has highlighted (a fraction of what's happening here this weekend) could only be found performing over the course of one non-festival week in New York City, New York State, USA, North America.

Why do jazz musicians look to the States for validation? Ask alto saxophonist-composer-bandleader Julian Julien, who spent six months planning the visit of Fractale, which lists among its main influences Frank Zappa, Moondog, Keith Jarrett and Tom Waits. I had a hard time catching up with him -- no one traveling with the band could understand my English over the phone -- so we resorted to email exchanges. He wrote:

US have been instinctively way more open to Fractale music and the idea of having us perform in their clubs, whereas in France, it is a little slower for them to go for it and book us...American people (professional, the audience, local bands...) are very kind, open and welcoming. We even jammed with some of the musicians that we met, it was delightful. There are a lot of interactions; we met a lot of new people. That's what we like about this country.

What surprised him most about the U.S.?

The fact that everything is so much bigger than in France and the warm welcome we had everywhere we went.

Does he want to come back?

YES!!!!

I have never encountered a musician playing jazz or anything like it from outside our borders who doesn't care about acceptance here. Every jazz festival the world over wants coverage in US periodicals, inviting writers and photographers from the States to enjoy gracious hospitality so that we will bring news of their musical activities back to the people in the place where it all began. That the 41st Voll-Damm Barcelona International Jazz Festival, which comprises essentially one concert a night in various venues from October 31 through November 27, sees fit to book Wayne Shorter, Jimmy Cobb, Cassandra Wilson, Joe Lovano, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Bela Fleck, Omar Sosa, Maria Schneider, Brad Mehldau, Marcus Miller, Allen Toussaint, Joel Harrison-Christian Howe, Tortoise, Chick Corea and Gary Burton as its headliners demonstrates the allure of American music and the depth that what's so loosely called "jazz" sustains on American soil. That the Barcelona fest believes it needs to schedule Chano Dominguez and his Flamenco Quintet into a Manhattan barbeque restaurant-bar-music room in order to make a splash shows that no, jazz isn't dead and its address is just like always.

Maybe some near-sighted pundits have misplaced the contact numbers, but musicians, fest organizers and aficionados all over know where to look for the heart and soul and DNA of the music. Jazz can be taken out of America -- it can go on international voyages, start foreign affairs, put down stakes, breed, establish communities abroad, evolve to match local conditions, root itself so that other countries have their own creative geniuses and prospering scenes. But you can't take America out of jazz.

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Henry Threadgill, seer beyond 'jazz'

2009-11-05T18:34:20Z

In my City Arts column: a new album and Roulette concert with commissioned work from a worldly-wise 65 yr-old NYC/East Village-based composer-bandleader who keeps looking at music -- Varese's and Wagner's, Scott Joplin's and Ornette Coleman's -- to find something new. I call Henry Threadgill a prophet in the wilderness, urgently trying to shake us from complacency. At De Roberti's classic Italian pastry shop for coffee yesterday, Threadgill claimed he's just helping American music born in the urban late 20th century to develop its full potential, and it's got a long ways to go.

]]> This Brings Us To, vol. 1, is Threadgill's first release in eight years, featuring slightly different collaborators playing tuba, electric guitar, bass and drums than the group he founded in the early 00s as Zooid (after a cell like a spermatozoon that moves independently through an organism). During an interview I held with him towards an upcoming Down Beat article, Henry talked specifics about the new language it had taken him a year to teach his ace musicians, and the imperative that what's called "jazz" not be confined to its baby steps, believing the art form has an long and open-ended future.

For details from that discussion you'll have to wait. My DB piece will come out early in 2010, around the same time the premiere performance of Threadgill's 45-minute "All The Way Light Touch" with featured cellist Christopher Hoffman joining Zooid will be aired on Roulette TV (every Thursday night on Manhattan Cable). This shouldn't keep you from hearing some of the best of Threadgill sooner than that -- I recommend the stripped down Air Time (by the brilliant trio from which he emerged, first released in 1978) and ultra-internationalist Carry The Day (with his two-gtr, two-tuba, french horn + drums Very Very Circus plus singers, violin, accordion, pipa. . .). Or go directly to the new one (cheap as a download). Do check out my column, too, for what it might mean when we can't figure out what we're hearing.

howardmandel.com
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JazzTimes' robust recovery

2009-10-27T17:51:51Z

The November issue of JazzTimes magazine is the first created (not just published) under the imprimatur of Madavor Media, LLC imprint, and the periodical looks very much the same as before its hiatus last spring. Editors Lee Mergener and Evan Haga remain, columnists Nat Hentoff and Nate Chinen are present, most if not all recent editorial contributors remain on the masthead and features -- drumming being the issue's loose theme -- are by regulars, though Fernando González, former editor of rival Jazziz, came onboard to write the story on Guggenheim Foundation and MacArthur fellow Miguel Zenón.]]> North Coast Brewing Company, who recently issued a cd by the Brother Thelonious Quintet with alumni of the Monk Institute's performance program -- 100% of the cd's sales proceeds going back to that program for international jazz education.

The cover story about upbeat and creative drummer Matt Wilson is by Chinen (who blogs at The Gig and reviews for the New York Times); Dr. Bruce H. Klauber examines the "30-year rivalry between Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich; there are short pieces on percussionists Andrewy Cyrille, Dan Weiss, Justin Faulkner and Tyshawn Sorey, bassist Linda Oh and singer Dee Alexander; a listening test for drummer Jimmy Cobb, columns on new gear and digital transferring of vinyl to mp3 files, and plentiful record reviews.

It's not a breakthrough -- JazzTimes is still JazzTimes -- but neither is it any sort of compromise. Madavor Media's one obvious new step is to introduce an online version, free to print subscribers and $20 per year all by itself. So welcome back to life, JT, and may the mag henceforth thrive. (Frequent readers of this blog may know I'm a senior contributor to Down Beat, but I've written for JazzTimes, too.)

howardmandel.com
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Sweet Rhythm quietly ends run as Village jazz stage

2009-10-25T15:14:50Z

The 7th Ave. home in the '80s and early '90s of Gil Evans' last orchestra, David Murray's octets, Abdullah Ibrahim's bands, Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy and other avant-gutsy acts closed last night (Oct. 24) without notice or fanfare. Sweet Rhythm nee Sweet Basil was one of the coolest spots to listen, drink and hang out in Greenwich Village, a wood-paneled room with fine sound, sightlines, bookings and bartender, but it never recovered from what its most recent owner described as a post-9/11 decline in street traffic, competition from nearby clubs offering lesser music at no cover charge, and disinterest among the young in jazz.

Situated in a stretch of Manhattan that includes the Village Vanguard, 55 Bar, Small's, Fat Cat, Arthur's Tavern and several other bars and restaurants offering music, Basil had been distinguished by the company it presented, which included Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, ensembles led by Art Farmer, Ron Carter, Regina Carter, Olu Dara, Don Pullen, Oliver Lake, Cecil Taylor and many others. Though Browne vowed to broaden the field, and his cross-genre concept has been successful for other downtown music clubs including City Winery and S.O.B.'s, somehow Sweet Rhythm didn't catch on.

I wandered into the joint last night, after hearing Canada Day, an excellent quintet led by percussionist Harris Eisenstadt at the Cornelia Street Cafe (only two blocks from Sweet Rhythm). In search of a little more music and one more drink, a friend and I looked into the windows at 55 Bar and saw it was too crowded, walked down the stairs at Fat Cat and thought we'd stand out as oldsters amid the crowd of 20-somethings, so turned the corner to check out Rhythm, which was a place both of us had frequented over the past 25 years.

A strand of small blue light bulbs strung across front windows was the only indication from a couple yards away that the place had anything happening -- approaching the door, we thought it would be locked (it was 11 p.m., early in a nightlife district full of revelers, though it had been raining hard). A half-dozen people sat at the bar, and we were informed we would be the last to be served. There was one glass of white wine left in what we were told was the only bottle still in the house, one glass of seltzer, but plenty of Makers Mark which I drank on the rocks. We commiserated with the couple of other folks there, all of whom looked vaguely familiar, drank up and left, surprised and sad.

I just called the club tonight -- Sunday -- to try to verify that my Saturday night experience wasn't a bad dream. The phone rings and rings, and then a voice comes on to say the number has been disconnected, no other information is available. Other jazz clubs remain in Greenwich Village, but one that had been one of the best is gone.

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Soupy Sales, 1926-2009, friend to jazz

2009-10-23T16:05:09Z

The silliest pie-in-the-face TV comic of the '50s had trumpeter Clifford Brown with drummer Max Roach on his kiddie show. Soupy Sales loved jazz -- how cool is that?

photo courtesy of Craig Marin, www.Flexitoon.com -- more pix there

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This featured performance was unusual, but of a piece with Soupy's musical taste. He appeared in a "Frankly Jazz" series episode featuring "The Martian Bossa Nova" by trumpeter Shorty Rogers with Pete Jolly and Mel Lewis, among others; he entertained at the 2002 Jazz Awards. His sons Hunt and Tony are musicians who have worked with David Bowie. Soupy will be missed but also remembered.

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Salsa dura and NYC jazz hot

2009-10-23T15:23:35Z

My new City Arts column cites Chris Washburne's SYOTOS band, Arturo O'Farrill and Bobby Sanabria as avatars of Latin American music's essential excitement, so well depicted by the 4-part PBS documentary "Latin Music USA" (viewable online). But let's not forget Eddie Palmieri is still in his prime (and coming to the Blue Note jazz club Dec. 9 - 13).

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