Archives for June 30, 2008

Last week, jazz lost two journeyman artists valued for their dependability, versatility and
swing. On the west coast, bassist Dave Carpenter died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of forty-eight. Most recently, Carpenter had been in drummer Peter Erskine’s trio, which also included pianist Alan Pasqua. A veteran of the Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson and Bill Holman big bands, he also worked with Bill Perkins, Jack Nimitz, Al Jarreau, Herb Geller, Bill Cunliffe, Jan Lundgren, Terry Gibbs, Buddy DeFranco and Richard Stoltzman, to name a few. In as great demand in Los Angeles studios as he was in clubs, Carpenter has a list of recording credits as long as both of your arms. To see the list and hear brief samples, go here.

On Saturday, pianist Ronnie Mathews died in New York of pancreatic cancer. He was seventy-two. Mathews toured and recorded extensively with Max Roach, Freddie Hubbard, Roy Haynes, Dexter Gordon, Louis Hayes, and Woody Shaw. He had long associations with tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, drummer T. S. Monk, and trumpeter Roy Hargrove. See and hear him in this video clip of Griffin’s quartet. Ignore the superfluous list of personnel from YouTube; the rhythm section is Mathews, drummer Kenny Washington and bassist Ray Drummond. The locale is the Village Vanguard in New York, not somewhere in Europe. Otherwise, YouTube got it right. Due to the site’s ten-minute limit, the performance fades away before it ends, but it provides a generous idea of Mathews’ skill as an accompanist and a soloist.

It sometimes takes Rifftides posts a while to catch up with their subjects. On August 22, 2006, I reported the results of research into the matter of a high school teacher who received a lot of attention in 1993 for using Frank Sinatra to punish miscreant students. Sinatra did not come to class to administer the discipline. Bruce Janu, the teacher, made the wayward kids listen to Sinatra recordings. Over the weekend, Mr. Janu, who teaches at John Hershey High School northwest of Chicago, e-mailed a message to bring us up to date.

Someone recently sent me your blog post about the teacher who used Frank Sinatra as punishment. Well, I am that teacher. I still teach and I still use Sinatra in the classroom. Not so much for punishment anymore…more for enlightenment. I put extra-credit Frank
Sinatra questions on every test and often play Sinatra. In my Contemporary American Text class, I teach the history of jazz and, of course, include some Sinatra there as well. During the whole hoopla surrounding the “detention club,” (it was a slow news day) some reporters attempted to get Sinatra’s comment. Through his press person, it was relayed to the media that Sinatra had “no comment” other than to say that there are plenty of young people who like his music. I hope that in the years that I have been doing this, some kids have grown to appreciate a great singer.

In his teaching of sociology, Mr. Janu incorporates film study. He has developed a parallel career as a documentarian. His first full-scale film, about the genocide in Sudan, last year won awards for best documentary at two film festivals. Facing Sudan has screened at a dozen other festivals across the United States, from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Port Townsend, Washington. For more about Bruce Janu and Facing Sudan, go here.