If you haven’t discovered the website called The Jazz Knob, tomorrow at 
12:30 pm (PST) would be a good time to give it a try. In an unusual bit of web radio programming, the veteran Los Angeles jazz broadcaster Ken Borgers has announced that he will play the new Jan Lundgren trio album in its entirety. Together Again at the Jazz Bakery reunites the Swedish pianist with bassist Chuck Berghofer and drummer Joe La Barbera. Their 2008 concert came eleven years after their initial encounter, Cooking! At the Jazz Bakery, and as they were preparing their Ralph Rainger album. I’ll be writing about the new CD, but for now suffice it to say that it is quite likely the best Lundgren on record and that the trio’s empathy is not merely intact, it is intense. To listen to The Jazz Knob, go to www.jazzknob.org (that’s a link).
On the other side of North America, Bill Kirchner’s Jazz From the Archives will explore the music of Andy Gravish, a respected, little-known, trumpeter. From Kirchner’s program alert:
Gravish has been on the scene for almost three decades, but he has gotten
almost no attention from the jazz press. However, some of the most discriminating jazz trumpeters I know hold him in the highest esteem. In the last decade, Gravish has divided his attention between New York and Rome, so we’ll hear selections from several CDs that feature him with his collaborator, the Italian pianist Luca Mannutza, and other Italian and American musicians.
Jazz From The Archives airs Sunday at 11 p.m. (EST) in the Newark-New York area on 88.3 FM and on the internet, here (that’s a link).
The nonagenarian pianist presented de Barros with every biographer’s hope, unrestricted access to his subject’s personal papers and nearly unrestricted access to her private thoughts. He made the most of it, turning exhaustive research and hundreds of hours of interviews into a true story with the sweep of a novel. From the early discovery of McPartland’s musical gift through her wartime service, her ecstatic and stormy marriage to Jimmy McPartland, her growth as a pianist, her deep affair with Joe Morello, and the radio show that made her a national figure, she has had a fascinating life. It makes a splendid read.
Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band had three fewer musicians than most big jazz outfits. Its size permitted precision, flexibility and subtlety, yet the band had the power of sprung steel. In this concert from a half century ago, the CJB is as fresh as yesterday. Arrangements by Mulligan, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn and Johnny Mandel set standards to which big band writers still aspire. Bassist Buddy Clark and drummer Mel Lewis inspired Mulligan, Brookmeyer, Conte Candoli, Gene Quill and Zoot Sims to some of the best soloing of their careers. This beautifully produced issue of the complete concert is a basic repertoire item.
Hey Doug….have you found any websites that have audio clips from Together Again at the Jazz Bakery?
Yes, a site in Japan. Click on this link:
http://www.jazzyell.jp/item/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_model=FSR5050CD
Re Andy Gravish, those “discriminating jazz trumpeters” who admire his work include Jimmy Owens, Claudio Roditi, John McNeil, and Greg Gisbert.
Thanks! Those audio clips were great and they make me want to get the CD. Growing up in Pacific Palisades, California, I instantly recognized the cover art for “Together again…at the Jazz Bakery” as a photograph taken on the beach of Santa Monica looking north towards Malibu. Interesting that the same photograph was also used as the cover art on another Jan Lungren CD (“California Connection”) with Lungren’s image superimposed over the top of the same coastal image…available on that interesting looking Japanese website.
Re: Andy Gravish
I’ve never met anyone more passionate about music than Andy Gravish. He practices literally 24/7. His parents send him to the far reaches of his boyhood home because he’s forever playing the trumpet. Words cannot describe how “into it” Andy is.