Recently in music Category

Back in New Orleans. The humidity is so thick just now that you could cut right through it -- not just with a sharp knife but with the kind of blunt object La. Gov. Bobby Jindal must have taken the state's budget in attempt to prove himself to doubting Republicans. Whether his Draconian cuts, especially to social services and the arts, will restore Jindal's standing as a candidate-in-waiting for the GOP in 2012, they've had immediate effects in New Orleans: I've been here less than two days and already I've met two mental health professionals who've lost their jobs as a result, in a city that desperately needs such services, and a filmmaker whose funding never made it through. 

Among the many positive and necessary changes the Obama administration can make with your support is the reinstatement of cultural exchange between the US and Cuba --restoring a connection that shaped centuries of history and which invigorated the arts and humanized relations for a decade, until the Bush administration shut such positive activity down.

Not a single Cuban musician who intended to return to the island has performed in the U.S. since 2003.

(Here's a link to a Village Voice piece of mine about this situation that ran four years and a day ago; sadly, it is just as relevant today.)

And here's your chance to help change this situation, as part of a chorus of voices -- artists of all disciplines, scholars, journalists, critics, arts industry professionals, non profit arts presenters and supporters.

I've been too long away from my own page, and for that I repent. Maybe it's fatherhood: Being the dad of three-month-old Samuel Julian is everything they said it would be, exalted among life's occupations, but also limiting in terms of time to, say, blog. 

Speaking of life-affirming things, Wayne Shorter turned 75 in August and decided to celebrate with a Carnegie Hall concert last night. I'd help you blow out the candles, Wayne, but you left me breathless.

Morning in America it may not be, nor am I in some shining city on a hill. It's just another day at the crest of the hill that is Park Slope, Brooklyn. But buried in my coffeeshop's calm are remnants of a joy-filled night that has bled into early moments of hopeful anticipation, which is remarkably different from instinctive anxiety. Last night, Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra--the band bassist Haden first assembled in 1968 and has reconvened during each Republican administration--had just ended Carla Bley's "Blue Anthem" during a late set at Manhattan's Blue Note when Allen Broadbent (subbing for Bley) jumped up from the piano bench.

"Obama has won!"

Someone had whispered the news in Broadbent's ear, along with the Democratic electoral-vote total at 11:20 - 297.

"Are you sure?" Haden asked, clutching his bass.

Broadbent nodded.

"Man!" Haden sighed with force. He stood silent a few moments. "I guess it's time to play 'Amazing Grace.'"

And they did.

I wonder what all this will mean for my infant son, Sam, who I'd promised would have to endure a cynical, ill-meaning government for only the first few months of life. Or what it will mean for my friends in New Orleans, who might dare to think that public servants who long ago turned away might just look back with concern and compassion and the political will to act. Or even in Cuba where, for most of the Bush presidency, the musicians I know have been banned from the stages and concert halls in my or any other American city.

Not unrelated is this piece of mine in today's Wall Street Journal, about one of the many types of cultural experiences and human connections denied us during the Bush years. 

and here's why: Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés, who turned 90 on October 9th, is performing a series of duets with his son, Chucho, also a pianist, who turned 67 that same day. Since the two live half a world apart, it's a rare and special event. It's part of a wonderful, sprawling 40th-edition of the Voll-Damm Barcelona Jazz Festival, which runs through November 29th (the type of musical celebration American producers should take notes at).

Wed, Oct. 1st offers a way to hear swinging music and help boost Obama's chances. (see below)

But first, a brief history of the presidency since 1980, via music:

Reagan     pretend cowboy           country music

Bush 1      oilman                        country music

Clinton      pretend saxophonist     jazz

Bush 2      pretend cowboy/          sound of bombs dropping

                failed oilman

McCain?   pretend maverick         sounds of bombs dropping/drills drilling?

Obama?    real maverick              jazz?

(the following from my forthcoming Blu Notes column in Jazziz):

When I called up pianist Aaron Goldberg, he'd just returned from touring in Brazil. In between studio sessions with his trio, he was busy planning "A Concert of America's Future" -- a benefit for Barack Obama's campaign with an impressive lineup of musicians.

Goldberg remembers feeling similarly inspired in 2004. "I saw my progressive-leaning friends, especially the musicians, getting apathetic," he said. "They didn't realize that, despite everything that had gone on, despite the Iraq war, it was quite possible that George Bush might be re-elected." He felt like his community of musicians had to do something. He decided to organize a fundraiser for John Kerry's campaign, and began making calls.

It's almost time for the Deer Isle Jazz Festival in Stonington, Maine. For eight years, I've helped bring great jazz to this tiny Down East Maine island. In that time, both the fest and I have grown. This year's event is a New Orleans blowout (more on that in my next post). Here's a recent piece I wrote for Jazziz, about my experiences as volunteer producer.

MAINE ATTRACTION

by Larry Blumenfeld

"Condoms. Tampons. Excess hair. SMALL AN-I-MALS!"

So sang the dozen folks forming a circle within a tiny cabin last July, holding that last syllable until Arturo O'Farrill dropped his right hand with a conductor's authority. I'd just made the nine-hour drive from Brooklyn, New York, to Deer Isle, Maine, but my bleary eyes found strength to widen. I laughed.

I'd walked in on a rehearsal for Haystack, The Opera: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Odyssey -- and it was no joke. O'Farrill's wife, Alison, sat at a keyboard, his eldest son, Zack, before a set of conga drums. His youngest, Adam, held a trumpet, awaiting his cue. Soon various rhythm instruments -- hand drums, cowbells, guiros, clavés -- were handed out.

Before long, O'Farrill had these painters and potters and sculptors, all of whom had come to the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts for a summer session, creating four layers of rhythm and sounding pretty damn in-sync.

O'Farrill had come to Maine to headline at the annual Deer Isle Jazz Festival, for which I've been volunteer producer since its inception, in 2001. Each summer, one festival musician serves as artist-in-residence at the Haystack School. O'Farrill, a celebrated pianist and bandleader, the son of a legendary Cuban composer, met this challenge by bringing his whole family and creating an opera, with lyrics drawn from Haystack Director Stuart Kestenbaum's work -- not his celebrated poetry, but his school manual, the part about "what not to flush down the toilet."

Of all the recent recordings from musicians born-and-raised in New Orleans--and there are several notable ones--the one I've focused on lately is Dr. Michael White's Blue Crescent (Basin Street Records). It's an important marker in one man's spiritual and musical rebirth since Katrina. Here's my Blu Notes column in this month's Jazziz magazine on White:

Dr. John is pissed off -- about oil companies eating up the Wetlands, presidents and congressman and mayors turning their backs on New Orleans, and policemen trying to shut down second-line parades, among other things. His new CD, City That Care Forgot, channels his rage in powerful groove-laden fashion. Here's a link to my review.