Archives for August 2006

George Ziskind writes from New York:

Good to have Kuhn in the air of late. And it reminds me of this:
Steve has always been an adventurous player. Yet nothing I had previously heard him do prepared me for the time, around seven or eight years ago, when I was listening to his Dedication CD (Reservoir). I was in the first chorus of Like Someone in Love, specifically at bar 7, and no matter how many times I replayed that bar I got the same result: damn if the tempo wasn’t slowing down there, almost imperceptibly yet definitely noticeably! I chalked it up to being some kind of other-worldly recording anomaly.
A few weeks thereafter I went to catch a set by Steve at the Knickerbocker – a terribly noisy club that uses good piano players. And by gosh, what did he play? “Like Someone In Love,” of course. And what happened at bar 7? The tempo slowed down again, a tiny smidge, just as on the CD.
After the set I buttonholed him, asking if there was some mystical meaning to this, or perhaps at least a personal explanation? Why did he slow down the tempo there?
He replied, “Why not?”

Many Rifftides readers are themselves bloggers. Richard Carlson, the proprietor of JazzoLOG, called my attention to a fine piece about his memories of Maynard Ferguson. Here’s a taste of it.

Maynard stood out in front of that band like a cheerleader/drill sergeant somehow combined. He was constantly on the move to the rhythm. He must have been in a marching band around his home of Montreal when he was a kid, because he liked to tuck his horn under his arm and just march up there while the ensemble played away. A huge smile on his face and eyes closed, marching, marching, a bit hunched over…until time for that closing climax, when he’d face us and let loose with such a screaming, molten sound, our jaws would drop and stay that way. He loved to talk to us during breaks and gave us all the time we wanted.

One night, the young Carlson and his friends asked Ferguson how he reached so high on the trumpet. To read the answer and the rest of a lovely memoir, go here.

What do the Angel Orensanz Center on New York’s Lower East Side; The Old Church in Portland, Oregon; the Yale Repertory Theater in New Haven and The Seasons in Yakima, Washington, have in common? They are former places of worship born again as performance halls. My story in the Leisure & Arts pages of today’s Wall Street Journal tells about a few of the dozens of such places.

The acoustical properties and central locations of old sanctuaries often make them ideal concert halls, but converted churches and synagogues find other performance uses as well. Across the Cascade Mountains from Yakima, Seattle’s Town Hall, another decommissioned Christian Science church, functions as a cultural kaleidoscope.
“When you take on the responsibility to preserve and extend the life of an old building,” says executive director Wier Harman, “it’s a process of discovering what kinds of works find their best expression here.”

Sorry, no link. If you’re not a print or online WSJ subscriber, you can probably find a copy at your nearest news stand, supermarket or airport.

Regarding the Steve Kuhn CD that will be issued next year on the Blue Note label, the Rifftides reader who calls himself drjazzphd writes:

This is only supposed to be a one-off deal for the live date but I’m very pleased to see Blue Note taking an interest in such a fine pianist, who has lurked in the shadows for many years now. Also Blue Note will be releasing an album recorded two weeks ago at Iridium of the Charles Tolliver Big Band on the heels of the article in DownBeat a couple months back. This is also positive because it shows that this major label is putting its money where its mouth is to support great art. Just wish they did it more often. Also on the horizon for 2007 along with the Kuhn and the Tolliver, there will be a new record by Jackie Terrason, which I believe will be a solo record.

Not that I would ever doubt a man with a Ph.D., but I checked his information (those old reporter genes keep kicking in) with Cem Kurosman at Blue Note, who replied:

All true. And you can also tell your “source” that we will be recording a supergroup under the leadership of Kenny Werner next week (Werner, Dave Douglas, Chris Potter, Scott Colley, Brian Blade), another release that will come out in the Winter/Spring 2007!

The exclamation point is Kurosman’s.
That’s that. This blog will not become a middleman for record company previews, but it is good to see solid, uncompromising musicians getting a break.

It was my intention to spend most of yesterday auditioning a few of the CDs that lately have been pouring in here like Lake Pontchartrain emptying into New Orleans. But first, I thought, how about a nice morning mountain bike ride in Cowiche Canyon.
At the bottom of that canyon northwest of Yakima is a three-mile trail on the bed of a railroad that was abandoned in 1984. It’s a great place to see wildflowers and an assortment of birds and small animals, mostly cottontails and an occasional reptile. For demented mountain bikers, the attraction is less the gravelly path along Cowiche Creek than the narrow dirt trail that snakes along the south canyon wall. From the rim of the high desert uplands to the canyon floor, the elevation drop (term used advisedly) is 450 feet. The trail is narrow, uneven, studded with large rocks and full of hairpin switchbacks, many of which edge out into space. If you are going to test your balance, strength and reflexes by riding this rollercoaster, it is a splendid idea to be sure that your machine’s brakes are functioning properly.
Somewhere in the dim (term used advisedly) recesses of my mind, I knew that the front brake on the bicycle I acquired for next to nothing at a yard sale was a bit weak. The fact came back to me powerfully as I began making my way down the first segment of the descent. In this photograph, the trail on the canyon floor is that thin ribbon way down there.
In the lower left, you see a portion of the trail I was on. The picture does not do justice to its pitch. Suddenly, gravity was moving me along much faster than one would think warranted by the negligible combined weight of me and the cycle. I jammed the front brake lever nearly into the handlebar, but it barely slowed me. The slightest pressure on the rear brake lever locked the rear tire into a skid that threatened to fishtail the bike and its occupant over the edge and dash us down among the sagebursh and fragments of basalt on the steep slope.
Experimenting gingerly with various combinations of pressures on the rear brake and what was left of the front, I was able to keep my speed down enough not to zoom off the lip of a 180-degree switchback. Somehow, I managed to stop the cycle and walk around the turnback, then remount and inch along to the next hazard. In that way, slowly, turn after turn, I made it to the bottom. When I got on level ground, I found myself looking around to see whether anyone had been watching. Absurdly, I was proud to have survived my stupidity and hoping for witnesses, but I was the canyon’s sole occupant. My only injury was a deer-fly bite.
Emerging from the bottom of the canyon onto a paved road and back into civilization, I rode immediately a mile or so to Revolution Cycles, where the always agreeable Mike readjusted the front brake. He asked if I’d had a good ride and where I had gone. Yes, I said, a good ride. Cowiche Canyon.
“We’re lucky to have that, aren’t we?” he said.
“Well,” I told him, “I feel lucky.”
Maybe I’ll get to those recordings today.
(Photo, Eric Noel, B.L.M.)

I just discovered by way of Nick Catalano that Steve Kuhn has signed a contract with Blue Note Records, putting him once again with a major jazz label, where he has always belonged. Among important pianists, Kuhn has received nowhere near the share of recognition he has earned. Catalano writes.

To celebrate the event Kuhn was reunited with bandmates Ron Carter and Al Foster at Birdland earlier this month. The Steve Kuhn trio carved out an important slice of immortality when it was first formed 20 years ago. If the group’s efforts at Birdland are any indication, it is shortly about to add to its legend .

To read Nick’s account of Kuhn’s Birdland engagement, go here. I’ll have more about Kuhn anon. In the meantime, see if you can find a copy of this album, one of his career triumphs.

Thanks for your wonderful appreciation of Maynard Ferguson. In many ways, Ferguson transcended jazz and big bands. His high-octane enthusiasm and optimism captured the spirit of an entire generation of post-war Americans who believed anything and everything was possible and that the only way to go was flat out. Despite Maynard’s massive musical ego, he never made anyone feel badly and encouraged everyone he encountered to be better–as a person and as a musician.
One of my favorite Maynard appearances wasn’t an appearance at all. That’s Ferguson (and Sal Salvador) playing on Kenton’s “Invention for Guitar and Trumpet” in the film Blackboard Jungle (1955), which is heard just before the high school thugs smash their teacher’s prized jazz platters. The clash between the generations in this camp film was somewhat prescient given that the rock culture ultimately would wind up “smashing” the entire jazz scene some 10 years later. What’s especially fascinating is that Maynard’s energy level and prowess in “Invention” and Bill Haley’s intensity in “Rock Around the Clock” (the film’s opening theme) aren’t that different. Both are generational clarion calls. Here, in this film, you can actually hear the continental divide where jazz and rock/r&b met, and Maynard was there. There, before your eyes, the adult appreciation of virtuosity gives way to the teenage demand for a big beat. I often wondered what Maynard thought of Blackboard Jungle.
Regarding the “hen’s teeth” Maynard Ferguson Mosaic box and the entire Roulette catalogue, it almost seems as if some entity is sitting on the re-release of the catalogue to keep eBay auction prices high. Perhaps Michael Cuscuna at Mosaic can shed light on why Maynard’s Roulette catalogue is not in print and when that might be changed. Those babies could use a CD remastering.
Marc Myers

The obvious answer. I had a few out on Roulette Jazz through EMI Blue Note and they didn’t sell and got deleted. That’s what drove me to do the Mosaic set. Oddly enough, before this week’s shocking news I was thinking about trying the Ferguson and Basie Birdland albums at some point next year.
MC

Mr. Cuscuna is the head of Mosaic Records. He also employs his reissue expertise at Blue Note.

Nice piece Doug. I’ve linked it on The MF Trbute Page Forum, which is getting ten thousand times its usual traffic.
I’ve been listening to MF since I was 15 (I’m only 47 now) and this is a big loss. What a complete musician, and what a gentleman.
John Salmon

Rifftides reader Chris Harriott writes concerning the Sonny Rollins CD in the new set of Doug’s Picks (right-hand column):

Coincidentally, I’ve had Work Time in non stop rotation on my IPOD for the last 2 weeks or so. Can’t get enough.

A blog by the anonymous Dr. Jazz Ph.D. is worth perusing, if only for a couple of Michael Brecker video clips. One, from 1983, has the tenor saxophonist and a rhythm section that includes Niels Henning Orsted-Pedersen playing the fastest “Oleo” you’re likely to hear this side of Johnny Griffin. The other was made at an outdoor festival in Switzerland in 1998 with his Brecker’s own quartet, Joey Calderazzo on piano, James Genus on bass, and drummer Ralph Peterson. In it, Brecker manages to incorporate tricks that would have put a 1920s saxophone vaudevillian to shame while also negotiating a complex harmonic scheme and, ultimately, going into straight time and swinging the house down. Well, he would have swung it down if he hadn’t been on an outdoor stage.
The young blog is The Jazz Clinic. I have cruised through its archives and found it valuable for the fresh perspective of a young enthusiast with big ears. To visit it, and to see those Brecker clips, go here.

CBS Radio News called this morning and asked me to talk about Maynard Ferguson. That’s how I learned that Ferguson died last night in Ventura, California, just down the road from his home in Ojai. He was seventy-eight. He had an abdominal infection that shut down his liver and kidneys. The phenomonal trumpeter had been performing on tour with his band, Big Bop Nouveau, when he became ill and went to the hospital. Before him lay a full schedule of performances–an indicator of the almost superhuman energy and enthusiasm that drove Ferguson from the beginning of his career at the age of fifteen, to the end. In his early twenties, he left his native Canada and played with Charlie Barnet, then became a spotlighted soloist with Stan Kenton.
Answering a series of questions from CBS’s Scott Saloways, I said that Ferguson made his biggest general impact with his 1977 hit record of “Gonna Fly Now,” the theme from the motion picture Rocky, and that he will probably be primarily remembered by the public as a man who could generate excitement by playing double high Cs in the super-stratsophere of the trumpet. Saloways asked if that was his greatest contribution.
No. He was a fine improviser who could build lovely long-lined solos in the middle register when he had a mind to and the circumstances were right. The circumstances were perfect in the sextet that he operated for a time in the late 1960s when the economics of low demand forced him to abandon the big band format he loved as a showcase for his trumpet acrobatics. It was one of his most musical periods. This album is evidence of that, and there is more in this 1954 Dinah Washington jam session, in which Ferguson goes head to head with fellow trumpeters Clifford Brown and Clark Terry. But musicians and serious listeners are most likely to venerate Ferguson for the big band he led in the late 1950s and early 60s. He brought together some of the brightest young players and arrangers in jazz and gave them their heads while providing leadership and just enough discipline to make the band coalesce. It had all of the power and none of the schmaltz that characterized his 1970s hits on “McArthur Park” and the “Rocky” theme. In this review for Jazz Times in 1995, I attempted to describe why the band was important.

MAYNARD FERGUSON
The Complete Roulette Recordings of the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra
Mosaic MD 10-156 (53:39) (46:18) (43:43) (49:28) (53:30) (54:58) (55:09) (64:39) (60:46) (69:49)
After immersing myself in nine hours of the Ferguson orchestra of the late 1950s and early sixties, I’m certain of two things:
* Double high Cs will be ringing in my brain for months.
* Ferguson gave the orchestra a signature sound and much of its drive, but this was an arrangers’ band.
The high-note trumpeter had charts from established writers like Marty Paich, Bill Holman, Ernie Wilkins and Benny Golson. He also encouraged arrangements from band members, and launched the arranging careers of Slide Hampton, Don Menza, Mike Abene and Don Sebesky. Willie Maiden had been a journeyman arranger for Ferguson since 1952. The uniqueness and command of the idiom in Jaki Byard’s few arrangements for the band emphasize the mystery of why his writing skills didn’t put him in wide demand. It was a remarkable stable of arrangers, many of them writing for a group of musicians with whom they played every night.
The resourcefulness of the arrangers made Ferguson’s ensemble sound bigger than its 13 pieces. Some of the charts experimented with keys and voicings in ways quite daring for the period, or any other. The 141 tracks of this 10-CD set include many standards in addition to the original compositions generated by the arrangers. For the most part, the arrangers fashioned standards for the dance jobs Ferguson frequently played, but they produced some of the most interesting writing in the album, much of it by Hampton, Sebesky and Maiden. Hampton’s version of “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” and Sebesky’s “I’m Beginning To See The Light” are two examples of innovation applied to familiar material.
As for the straight-ahead jazz charts, the “Fox” series, “Three Little Foxes,” “Three More Foxes” and “Fox Hunt” contains exciting workouts for the trumpets. “Oleo” and “The Mark Of Jazz” have some of Hampton’s best early writing. The ingenuity of Byard’s section-against-section scoring and stretched blues harmonies in “X Stream” (aka “Ode To Bird’s Mother”) underscores lost opportunities when Ferguson failed to make greater use of the pianist’s talent for orchestration.
To emphasize the importance of the arranging staff is not to downplay the importance of the band’s soloists. Maiden’s tenor saxophone was central to the excitement, as were Menza’s and Joe Farrell’s during their time with Ferguson. Also important were the young Slide Hampton’s trombone work, the alto solos of Jimmy Ford, Lanny Morgan and Carmen Leggio, the idiosyncratic range of Byard’s piano and the drive of Joe Zawinul’s. Drummers Frankie Dunlop, Rufus Jones and Jake Hanna swung the band while meeting the book’s complex challenges.
The enthusiasm Ferguson transmitted to his young musicians made it one of the most exhilarating bands of the period. The force and range of his horn dominated the trumpet section, especially when he doubled the lead an octave or two higher. Still, these recordings have important ensemble and occasional solo contributions by Bill Chase, Clyde Reasinger, Chet Ferretti, Don Ellis and Jerry Tyree.
The freshness and joy of playing that marked the Ferguson band come across with impact in this collection. As usual in Mosaic sets, the accompanying documentation is part of the pleasure. The helpful essay and play-by-play description by Bret Primack includes the reconstruction of a night at Birdland that will stimulate amusement and recognition in anyone who ever endured Pee Wee Marquette and sat in an audience walloped by the power of the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra.

Now the bad news. The box, like all Mosaic sets a limited edition because of a licensing agreement, sold out long ago. As of this writing, Amazon has one for sale at the going collector’s price, $750.00. Hurry. Worse, none of the Roulette recordings seems to be available in CD form. Here is a website that claims to have some of the original Roulette LPs at reasonable prices. Good luck.
Finally, this message from the pianist Christian Jacob, one of the many fine musicians of several generations whom Ferguson discovered and encouraged. Jacob became a member of the Ferguson family.

I have the deep regret of letting all of you know that last night at 8PM, one of the greatest jazz legends passed away from liver and kidney failure. This legend happened to be my beloved father in law: Maynard Ferguson.
He passed very quickly and with minimum pain. He will be sorely missed, by his 4 daughters his 2 son in laws, his 2 grandchildren, and of course all the friends and fans who have loved him throughout the years.

Choosing a new group of Doug’s Picks is always a challenge and a pleasant chore. You will find the latest recommendations in the right-hand column. As always, your comments are welcome and encouraged. The e-mail address is also to your right.

The program is mostly set for the concert Dan Levinson and Randy Sandke are organizing to benefit the author and cornetist Dick Sudhalter. For details about Dick’s medical predicament, the effort by many of his friends to help him, how you can get tickets and how you can lighten his overwhelming burden of medical costs, go here.
The quality and range of musicians who have volunteered their services constitute a testimonial to the respect and affection Richard M. Sudhalter has earned in the jazz community.

RICHARD SUDHALTER BENEFIT CONCERT

St. Peter’s Lutheran Church

Lexington Avenue & 54th Street

New York, New York

Sunday, September 10, 2006
Schedule
7:00-7:10 OPENING REMARKS BY DAN MORGENSTERN
7:10-7:20 ED POLCER’S GANG FROM 54th STREET
Ed Polcer -cornet
Tom Artin -trombone
Joe Muranyi -clarinet
Harry Allen -tenor sax
Dave Frishberg -piano
Bucky Pizzarelli -guitar
Frank Tate -bass
Jackie Williams -drums
7:20-7:30 DAVE FRISHBERG (piano solo: “Dear Bix”)
7:30-7:40 DAN LEVINSON’S LOST CHORD SEEKERS
Jon-Erik Kelso -trumpet
Orange Kellin -clarinet
Dan Levinson -C-melody sax
Brad Kay -piano
Jeff Healy -guitar/vocal
Brian Nalepka -bass
Kevin Dorn -drums
Molly Ryan -vocal
7:40-7:50 DARYL SHERMAN (piano solo/vocal)
7:50-8:00 CAROL SUDHALTER BAND
Carol Sudhalter -sax
Dick Katz or Chuck Folds -piano
Jim Ferguson -bass
Jackie Williams -drums
Keisha St. Joan – vocal
8:00-8:10 STEVE KUHN (piano solo or with rhythm section)
8:10-8:20 DAVID OSTWALD’S GULLY LOW JAZZ BAND
Jon-Erik Kellso -trumpet
Wycliffe Gordon -trombone
Joe Muranyi -clarinet
James Chirillo -banjo
David Ostwald -tuba
Kevin Dorn -drums
8:20-8:30 JACKIE CAIN (vocal with piano)
?Steve Kuhn -piano
8:30-8:40 HEALY’S HAPPY HARMONISTS
Brad Kay -cornet/piano
Dan Levinson -clarinet
Andy Stein -violin
Jeff Healy -guitar/trumpet/vocal
Scott Robinson -bass sax
Kevin Dorn -drums
8:40-8:50 MARIAN McPARTLAND (piano solo or with rhythm section)
?Frank Tate -bass
8:50-9:00 THE BIAGI BAND
Carol Sudhalter -sax
Sam Parkins -clarinet
Andy Stein -violin
Chuck Folds -piano
Bill Crow -bass
Giampaolo Biagi -drums
Francesca Biagi -vocal
9:00-9:10 SY JOHNSON (piano solo or with rhythm)
9:10-9:20 BILL KIRCHNER TRIO
Bill Kirchner -soprano sax
Armen Donelian -piano
Jim Ferguson -bass
9:20-9:30 RANDY SANDKE’S BIXOPHILES
Randy Sandke -trumpet
Dan Barrett -trombone
?Dan Levinson -clarinet/C-melody sax
Scott Robinson -C-melody sax/clarinet/whatever
Mark Shane -piano
Marty Grosz -guitar
Nicki Parrott -bass
Rob Garcia -drums
9:30-9:40 BED
Becky Kilgore -vocals/guitar
Eddie Erickson -guitar
Dan Barrett -trombone
Joel Forbes -bass
9:40-10:00 LOREN SCHOENBERG BIG BAND

If you are in or near New York, please plan on attending. If you are not and wish to help assure the best possible medical treatment for Dick, here again is the link for information.
Thank you.