Ornette Coleman's birthday is today, and his son Denardo has invited everyone to a walk with him from noon to three in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, where his father, the prophet of Harmolodics, is interred near Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Max Roach, Celia Cruz -- a very good neighborhood. In Ornette's honor here are excerpts of his talk from my book Miles Ornette Cecil -- Jazz Beyond Jazz. Also, how I came to love his music, and two videos: a choice "free" solo performance with a rare piano episode (from Berlin, 1972) and a prime … [Read more...]
Mavis Staples’ HBO doc hits relevant Civil Rights notes
"I'm not as frisky as I used to be but I feel like I am," Mavis Staples speaks the truth with a grin and a twinkle in Mavis!, an endearingly upbeat bio doc premiering on HBO tonight (Monday, February 29). Appearing early in the month for a sneak preview at Chicago's Du Sable Museum, the 76-year-old Chicago fireball with a deep gritty voice had the vitality to fool anyone -- it also overflows from her new album Livin' On A High Note. She mixed merrily with the crowd, watched the show from a seat in the theater, then sang two songs backed … [Read more...]
Chicagoans’ albums reviewed, author’s edition
My reviews of recordings by Chicago pianists Larry Novak, Laurence Hobgood and Robert Irving III, percussionist Art "Turk" Burton, and saxophonists Caroline Davis and Roy McGrath appeared in DownBeat's January issue, but the print edition limited their length. DB's rating system ranges from one to five stars (*s), poor to masterpiece. Here's my text as submitted: In Chicago jazz, veteran modernists pave the way for innovators to expand on a fabled legacy. Experimentalists and mainstreamers alike convene supportive communities, yet … [Read more...]
Why’s nobody mourning Paul Kantner? Jefferson Airplane flies forever
Jefferson Airplane founding member Paul Kantner's death at age 74 on Jan. 28 has been met by a mainstream culture shrug compared to the celebratory attention paid rock stars dead in the past month including David Bowie, the Eagles' Glenn Frey and Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots. Why? In one hour since posting this, I've been besieged with Facebook comments that mourning is indeed being done and cultural note taken, like this New York Times obituary. A credible editor tells me there's been more coverage of Kantner "by a pretty far margin" … [Read more...]
Immodest me, in Steve Cerra’s Jazz Profiles
Thanks to Steve Cerra of Jazz Profiles for asking me a few questions by email, and letting me go on and on. Of course my answers are far from comprehensive, opinions are only my own, and I cited only a few of dozens of my favorites of record albums (no non-jazz music noted, for instance) and musicians from everywhere I've been inspired by one way or another. It seems immodest not to post this, especially since it's been published today, my … [Read more...]
Solstice beyond jazz, unruly mashup to meditative rhythm
Saxophonist Mars Williams and band ecstatically wed holiday songs and Albert Ayler anthems at the Hungry Brain in Chicago past 12 pm December 20 -- the deepest, darkest, longest night of the year -- then at 6 am December 21 percussionists Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang performed a flowing, meditative duet to get the sun up, for a crowd that felt like a congregation at Constellation. (Better than Chicago's 606 hiking/biking trail did, cancelling its first time "Solstice Viewing" from an astronomically aligned endpoint due to "inclement … [Read more...]
Branford Marsalis and Kurt Elling in New Orleans, ready for recording
Saxophonist Branford Marsalis's quartet and singer Kurt Elling prepared for their upcoming recording in a rare four-night stand at Snug Harbor in New Orleans last week, and photo-journalist extraordinaire Marc PoKempner went each night, enthralled. "It was sort of an open rehearsal for the recording, so the set list was the same every night," PoKempner reported by phone, "but it changed a lot, too. The first night Kurt asked the crowd, 'Does anyone here speak Portuguese? If so, you're going to want to leave now,' because he sang a lyric in … [Read more...]
NEA doubles down on beyond-jazz with 2016 Jazz Masters
The National Endowment of the Arts has doubled down on celebrating jazz beyond "jazz" -- music that has exploded historic parameters or preconceptions of "jazz" conventions -- by naming as 2016 Jazz Masters the saxophonists Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp -- both protégés of the late, great John Coltrane -- and Gary Burton, an innovator of technique and content who's embraced pop, country, folk and rock influences, studio experiments and classical finesse in creation of his own original sound, taken up with pleasure by musicians and listeners … [Read more...]
Bouchercon 2015 Raleigh (writing not jazz)
A crime writing conference attracting 1400-some authors and readers, flush for four days with panels and book talk -- that was the 45th annual Bouchercon "world mystery convention," held in Raleigh NC Oct. 8 through 11 at downtown Sheraton and Marriott hotels. Taking a break from music immersion, I attended as a fan with a draft of a novel of my own, hoping to get an overview of the scene, pick up tips and inspiration, discover promising new books. All plans accomplished. One of the rare areas in publishing that seems to continue thriving … [Read more...]
The Stone Residency: Harris Eisenstadt’s rhythm/melody feast
Harris Eisenstadt, the subtle and substantive drummer/percussionist/composer, celebrates two decades of investigations and his recent projects at The Stone in NYC Sept. 1 through 6 with a circle of collaborators whose excellence seems to preclude their commerciality. That ain't right, as Eisenstadt and the distinctly creative musicians in his ensembles (including Canada Day and Golden State, both on the Stone residency schedule) make music that's intriguing and melodious. Why originality, a broad and deep musical vocabulary plus ease with form … [Read more...]
Jazz images Made in Chicago: PoKempner sees Steve Coleman, Greg Ward & Onye Ozuzu, Gary Bartz and more
Marc PoKempner may be best known for his photos of pre-presidential Barack Obama, Chicago's reform mayor Harold Washington and the blues -- but his jazz photography illuminates what we hear by refreshing how we see it. Here are some of his complex compositions in bracing color from the Pritzker Pavilion stage in Millennium Park, incorporating "The Screen" that blows up live video of the events, such as performances in the city's current free-admission Made In Chicago: World Class Jazz series (programmed for the past 11 years by the Jazz … [Read more...]
China, Dave Koz learns, is hot for sax
Where will a new jazz audience arise? How about China? Not only have plans been announced to open a Blue Note Jazz Club in Beijing -- since 2012, Hong Kong-based entrepreneur Jason Lee has helped pave the way by booking big name and somewhat lesser-known instrumentalists for tours reaching into "second tier cities" (populations between three and seven million) across the vast country. Lee's most recent import was Billboard chart-topping, oft-Grammy nominated, 25th-year-of-career-celebrating contemporary jazz saxophonist Dave Koz. "I don't … [Read more...]
Ten albums introducing Ornette Coleman’s musical evolution
An outpouring of media tributes has followed my hero Ornette Coleman's death at age 85 on June 11. But many commentators writing of his music -- including good ones like Marc Myers in Jazz Wax and Ben Ratliff of the New York Times -- have focused mostly on Coleman's breakthrough recordings from 1958 and '59, overshadowing music from the last 45 years of his life. This is unfortunate, considering Ornette was an artist of ever-evolving and expanding creativity. So here are ten albums -- not in chronological order -- offering ready entry to … [Read more...]