Jazz Beyond Jazz

Comin' right up -- Matt Miller foresees jazz beyond jazz

Thu, 15 May 2008 22:53:53 -0500

Recommendations by an emerging music journalist/tenor sax player for convention-shattering musical events in New York City over the next week (May 16 - 22) . . .

Modest proposal, and recommendations

Thu, 15 May 2008 22:07:28 -0500

Saxophonist and Love of Life Orchestra leader Peter Gordon gave one of the most lucid presentations at the recent Experience Music Project's Pop Conference -- being the only person over three days to perform a note of music within their allotted 20 minutes. Of course, his reasonable, arguably achievable suggestions may seem outrageous, given the outrages of our time -- but I offer them here with hopes presumptive nominees for president of all parties in the U.S. (and why not abroad?) give serious consideration to their support, in exchange for the gratitude and perhaps the votes of the music-lovin' public.

Also, see Matt Miller's newest recommendations for NYC performances -- Comin' Right Up.

Freddie Hubbard, the AACM and me in Down Beat

Sun, 11 May 2008 17:05:17 -0500

The June issue of Down Beat magazine (subtitled "Jazz, Blues & Beyond") features my cover story about trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, who has enjoyed a blazing and extended artistic youth, but at age 70 is now somewhat chastened, struggling with challenges to his chops while eager to reaffirm the legitimacy of his reputation.

The issue also contains my review of musician and educator George E. Lewis's epic history of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians -- here represented by his friend Douglas Ewart's quintet). I've posted my writer's edition of that report, as it was trimmed just a little for length,

Also -- introducing Matt Miller's recommendations for music in New York City -- comin' right up.

Comin' right up -- introducing Matt Miller

Sun, 11 May 2008 16:36:57 -0500

In a renewed effort to keep readers abreast of good listning, J-B-J introduces Matt Miller, who has some recommendations for places to go, comin' right up. Matt is a 23-year-old tenor saxophonist, graduate of the New School Jazz and Contemporary Music program, who writes for AllAboutJazz-New York and Jazz.com, besides contributing here.

Franz Jackson, seven-decade jazz master

Thu, 08 May 2008 11:23:52 -0500

Talk about a legendary career: Chicago saxophonist and clarintest Franz Jackson, who died at age 95 on May 6, spanned American vernacular music from the Roaring '20s to the postmodern present. He began as a 16-year-old professional with stride and boogie woogie pianist Albert Ammons, starred as a featured soloist in the the hottest Depression Era big bands, entertained WWII troops under USO auspices, popularized Midwestern neo-traditional "jass" in the '50s and '60s and kept playin' in essentially uncategorical situations up until a couple of weeks of his demise.

Among Jackson's recent high visibility gigs were his turn at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival of 2007, and also last year's "Tribute to Fletcher Henderson" commissioned by the Jazz Institute of Chicago for the Great Black Music Ensemble, performed at the Frank Gehry bandshell in Millenium Park, where he sat amid creative musicians less than half his age, not revisiting the past but rather carrying it forward.

Where's TiVo for live performance?

Mon, 05 May 2008 11:55:52 -0500

This week highlights a happily frequent dilemma for the avid listener in New York: too many good choices of exciting, exploratory, street-smart and unbounded American music -- "the real blues, the new blues," as Albert Ayler called jazz-beyond-jazz back in 1964. All on Friday, May 9:

The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) celebrates favorite son George E. Lewis's epic new book with high class talk and promising improv;
Miles Davis alumni meet Southeast Asian virtuosos at Town Hall to attempt Bob Belden's arrangements from the fascinating cd Miles From India,and
urban-ethno percussionist Adam Rudolph and nu-jazz electronica trumpeter Graham Haynes will balance a similarly ancient/future sound.
There's much more. Jazz-beyond-jazz bustin' out all over; it must be spring.

Jazz in the Ural tradition

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:40:35 -0500

Oleg Kireyev, born in Bashkiria (aka Bashkortostan, more on which follows), is a dynamite soprano and tenor saxophonist who smiles broadly when he asks audiences to chime in with Mongolian throat-singing and quick-tonguing techniques. In New York City, a small group of listeners at Symphony Space complied, giving Kireyev's Feng Shui Theatre quartet, making its Stateside debut, a sweet welcome.

Wynton's Abyssinian Mass by guest blogger

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:51:32 -0500

It's jazz-beyond-jazz, alright, when Wynton Marsalis composes a work for gospel choir and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. But I must admit that I am neither drawn to hear such work nor qualified to comment on it. Having experienced Marsalis' previous large-scale religiously oriented works All Rise and In This House, On This Morning, I have developed some unshakable expectations and prejudices about such endeavors -- it's just not my cuppa tea. So I sought someone with fresh ears, more affinity for the material and less bias to report on the grand event. Meet Monica Hope seen here singing Duke Ellington's "Come Sunday" at a memorial service for the bassist Walter Booker, Jr.

Jazz educators go south

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:42:21 -0500

Another victim of global economics? Or of flawed leadership? The 40-year-old International Association for Jazz Education has announced its bankruptcy, following an ill-attended conference in Toronto and unexpected departures by its executive director and president. "Industry of jazz" players are shocked, shocked!

Seattle radio play

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:22:22 -0500

Way out northwest last weekend for the Experience Music Project's 7th Annual Pop Conference, I also visited Earshot Jazz fest and concert producer John Gilbreath doing his weekly late night show "Jazz Theater" on KEXP.org.

Listen to Ornette Coleman's "Law Years" and a track from his concerto grosso "Skies of America," as well as Miles Davis's "Freedom Jazz Dance" remixed by Nas and "Black Satin" from On The Corner, interspersed with our conversation, for two weeks, as archived. Gilbreath interviewed author, Black Rock Coalition co-founder and Burnt Sugar guitarist-conspirator Greg Tate (who wrote the preface to my book) right after me.

Serious about pop

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 12:25:36 -0500

Who presents and supports the articulation of ambitious thinking about American vernacular music? The Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum (Seattle's answer to NYC's American Museum of Natural History?) holds its seventh annual Pop Conference April 10 - 13, with dozens of scholars, journalists and musicians giving 20-minute run-throughs of their specialities on panels regarding the overall theme "Shake, Rattle: Music, Conflict and Change." I'm among the presenters, offering "Jazz Beyond Jazz: Breakthroughs and Coalitions" in a discussion moderated by Nate Chinen, music reviewer for the New York Times, columnist for Jazz Times. The panel is unfortunately (in my view) titled "Freedom Then." What about now?

jazz clubs in transit

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:22:26 -0500

It's a sad day when an established stage for national and local jazz closes, as JazzWest.com's Wayne Saroyan reports will happen to Jazz at Pearl's in San Francisco's North Beach (right across the street from City Lights Books ) at the end of April. One such closing does not signal a trend; small independent venues come and go. San Francisco does have its newly opened Yoshi's in the historically fascinating Fillmore district.

Ornette at Town Hall and in Japan

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:33:37 -0500

Further Ornette sightings: the prophet of life-beyond-conventions returns on Friday to New York's Town Hall, where he's suffered and triumphed throughout his career.

Out To Lunch in the zone

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 11:01:18 -0500

A one-time-only revisitation of the late Eric Dolphy's masterpiece at Merkin Concert Hall in NYC fulfilled the promise and hope of jazz repertory concerts, and proved the enduring, enriching quality of jazz-beyond-jazz compositions.

Political poetry in Bed-Stuy

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:30:22 -0500

"They want the oil/but they don't want the people," Jayne Cortez declaimed over and over again, her inflections expressing frank assessment, sheer disbelief, scathing cynicism and many nuances in between, without ever stipulating who "they" or "the people" are. She didn't have to, we all knew. It was Saturday night at Sistas' Place, a storefront coffeehouse in the black Brooklyn neighborhood Bedford-Stuyvesant, where poetry reflects the inseparability of the personal and the political.