Archives for September 2013

Now that we have added pianist George Colligan’s stimulating Jazztruth to the Rifftides blogroll (the blogroll is ‘way down in the right column), the staff found a way to introduce Colligan’s playing to readers who may not be familiar with his vigor and inventiveness. He and alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw performed a tribute to Wayne Shorter a couple of years ago at the Tel Aviv Jazz Festival. It was a prescient booking by the Tel Avivians—two steadily rising younger artists playing music by one of the idiom’s most honored veteran composers. Colligan (pictured left), a former New Yorker, has established himself as a major presence in Portland, Oregon’s thriving music community. Shaw (pictured right) grew up in Philadelphia and makes his headquarters in New York.

With Boris Kozlov on bass and Donald Edwards on drums, we hear and see a quartet of musicians attracting increasing recognition. One of the tunes they thoroughly explored in Tel Aviv was Shorter’s 1965 composition “Speak No Evil.”

Tony Bennett/Dave Brubeck,The White House Sessions Live 1962 (Columbia/RPM/Legacy)

Riding on the success of hit records, in August of ’62 Brubeck and Bennett had a good night in the shadow of the Washington Monument. They played in the Sylvan Theater for college students who had interned in the nation’s capitol that summer. That morning at the White House, President John F. Kennedy thanked the youngsters. The concert constituted an additional bonus for their work. In the last flowering of an era when recordings of the quality of “Take Five” and “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” could be best sellers, the audience was attuned to the Brubeck Quartet and to Bennett and his trio. At the end, they got an extra treat, an unplanned and successful collaboration

In the previously unissued recording, Brubeck’s full-bodied keyboard style and expansive harmonic chops are up, but he also solos with single-note lines in a personal style that helped to set him apart from bebop pianists. He, Paul Desmond, Eugene Wright and Joe Morello perform four pieces that find the quartet at the top of their game in a period when the band had become one of the music’s great successes. Desmond is notably expansive in “Nomad,” and “Thank You” (“Djiekuje”). In “Castilian Blues” Morello’s solo is restrained, almost lyrical, before he builds it to a crescendo.

With his regular accompanists, the Ralph Sharon Trio, Bennett features “San Francisco” and other songs that were doing well for him, among them “Just in Time,” “Make Someone Happy” and the inevitable “Rags to Riches.” The highlight of his own set, however, is Julie Styne and Stephen Sondheim’s “Small World.” Bennett delivers it with a poetic sensitivity that, when he chooses to use it, puts him in a class with Frank Sinatra as a ballad singer.

Then, Bennett sits in with Brubeck, Wright and Morello. They all rise to the spontaneous and unrehearsed challenge. In four songs, Bennett sings with a collaborative jazz spirit that he had only occasionally found on record in the past and that would not reach full flower until years later in his albums with Bill Evans. On this night, he and Brubeck surprise each other, literally in the case of “Lullaby of Broadway,” when Bennett suddenly says “Dave Brubeck” by way of informing the pianist that he should solo. “Chicago,” gets a shuffle beat. Bennett is almost operatic in the final chorus of “That Old Black Magic,” but that doesn’t keep him from swinging. Following a stately first chorus by Bennett on “There Will Never Be Another You,” the time doubles and Brubeck plays a fleet solo that ranks with his best on record. Hidden in a vault for nearly fifty years, this music is as fresh as the night it was made.

Karolina Strassmayer & Drori Mondlak—Klaro, Small Moments (Lilypad)

In their third album together, their second as co-leaders, the spaciousness and delicacy of Karolina Strassmayer’s alto saxophone meld with the understated power of her husband Drori Mondlak’s drumming. The results are creative tension and whirling currents of surprise beneath the often-placid surface of music made by the spare combination of saxophone, drums, guitar and bass. Strassmayer is Austrian. Mondlak is an American of Polish parentage, born in Mexico City. In Strassmayer’s soloing, without quoting or making direct reference to John Coltrane, she nonetheless makes clear that the example of his boldness and lyricism helped to shape her concept. Her Coltrane tinge is apparent throughout, dramatically so in harmonic intervals and the shape of her phrasing in “Call of the Forefathers.” Nowhere in the album does Strassmayer’s own personality shine more radiantly than in her unaccompanied cadenza near the end of “Seven Minutes in Heaven;” a full minute of melodic invention and subtle dynamics.

The precision, speed and reserved strength of Mondlak’s drumming are reminiscent of Joe Morello in his early years with Dave Brubeck. Although his uses of brushes and cymbals to color the music are major strengths in this quartet, he leaves no doubt that he is a full-service sticks drummer. In “Last One Standing” his technique is apparent in the tempo changes, breaks, and interplay with the veteran German bassist Ingmar Heller. With Heller, Mondlak’s longtime American guitar colleague Cary DeNigris provides not only harmonic support but also imaginative soloing that ranges from delicate single-line improvisations to the energy and slightly acerbic distortions of his tone on “Last One Standing.” This international quartet’s blend of consistent quality and adventurousness gives it staying power. It is one of the most interesting small groups at work today.

Anders Bergcrantz Plays The Painter by Anna-Lena Laurin (Vanguard Music Boulevard)

Except for the universality of the music, there is nothing international about the collaboration among trumpeter Anders Bergcrantz, his wife composer Ann-Lena Laurin, and the Norlands Opera Symphony Orchestra. They are all thoroughly Swedish. Laurin, one of Sweden’s brightest composers, is trained in the classics, experienced in jazz and not limited to classical forms and traditions. She found inspiration for her five-movement work The Painter in the art and troubled life of Vincent Van Gogh, as the titles of the suite suggest: “Cypresses,” “Absinth Minded,” “Sunflower,” “Touches” and “Twilight.” The music incorporates a jazz rhythm section of pianist Robert Tjäderkvist, bassist Patrik Grundstrom and drummer Ulrik Ording. When jazz time-feeling is required, the orchestra under conductor Mats Rondin achieves that attribute so rare in symphony players, particularly in string sections. There are passages of grand symphonic sweep, as well as ensembles that Laurin endows with textures found in jazz orchestration. A brief section of the introduction to “Twilight” may be a reference to the sound tapestries of Gil Evans.

In this report from the 2012 Ystad Jazz Festival, I commented on “Bergcrantz’s spacious tone throughout, regardless of speed or range…” Perfectly placed and engineered in the audio landscape of this recording, he is impressive on all of those counts. The passion and technical control of his playing in the “Sunflowers” movement justify pianist Richie Bierach’s assessment that Bergcrantz “…is one of the top trumpet players in the world today.” He manages to squeeze out notes in “Touches” that incorporate humor without distracting from the sober intent of the movement. He personifies the tragic implications of “Twilight,” opening with breath-only notes and what sounds like the mouthpiece alone. Then, his performance blooms into a full-throated threnody. His horn is supported by Laurin’s orchestration heavy on percussion and layers of repetition akin spiritually, if not harmonically, to riffs in a mournful blues.

In the days of the Third Stream movement, attempts to marry classical and jazz forms often had awkward results. Without self-consciousness, Laurin’s and Bergrantz’s The Painter finds a credible and moving synthesis of the two genres.

One’s not half of two; two are halves of one. ― E.E. Cummings

Couples are wholes and not wholes, what agrees disagrees, the concordant is discordant. From all things one and from one all things. —Heraclitus

What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life–to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting? ― George Eliot, Adam Bede

The video below is about the horn played by the great Duke Ellington alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges (1906-1970). The voice in the commentary is that of Frank Wess, a major saxophonist of the generation following Hodges who is an active player at the age of 91. Mr. Wess explains that he owns the Vito saxophone, number 5000, and used it when he played lead alto for the Toshiko Akiyoshi orchestra. You needn’t be a saxophonist to appreciate the intricacy and beauty of the instrument. Tomoji Hirikata, a senior technical specialist in New York for the Yamaha instrument company, created something approaching a minor work of art when he crafted this video and placed it on YouTube. You will hear Hodges playing “Wabash Blues” with Ellington, piano; Harry Edison trumpet; Les Spann, guitar; Al Hall, bass; and Jo Jones, drums. The second piece is “Day Dream” with the Ellington orchestra.

Have a good weekend.

Rifftides has been more or less dormant the past few days, for good reason. You can’t blog and herd whales at the same time. Well, truth be told, we weren’t herding, just watching. Several Ramseys and other folks from various parts of the world watched orcas, also known as killer whales, off the coast of British Columbia and Washington State. Choppy waters south of Vancouver had the prow of the boat airborne and returning to the surface in a series of hull-shuddering slaps before the waters calmed just as we encountered two family groups of orcas. They were transient whales, our guide told us, passing through the Strait of Georgia where it meets Puget Sound. Not part of either family but tagging along was a magnificient young male with a six-foot dorsal fin. He swam apart from the families, tolerated but not welcomed by them.

This mother and her calf were part of one of the families.

We spent several minutes watching a group of sea lions. Part of the diet of 0rcas, they showed no interest in moving off the spit where they had sought rest and refuge.

The orcas surfaced singly or in groups to take in air.

They submerged for minutes at a time to feed or, perhaps, to evade the attention of pesky whale-watching boats full of humans. As we saw the speed and power of those beautiful animals, we understood why the sea lions elected to stay on their little stretch of sand and rock.

None of our transient killer whales breached and gave us a show like this. They seemed intent on their journey. Being so near our two whale families and their big male follower was satisfaction enough, thanks to the skillful seamanship of Captain Bryan and the knowledge of our naturalist, Joan. There are several whale watch outfits sailing out of the Vancouver area, but Vancouver Whale Watch was ours and they gave us a splendid day among the orcas.

A few jazz musicians who sang on the side became so popular as vocalists that their instrumental careers all but disappeared. The brilliant and influential pianist Nat Cole (pictured left) is the most prominent example. Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae began their professional lives as pianists. Diana Krall’s (pictured right) success as a singer dominates her career to the point that her ability as a pianist is often overlooked. In the cases of Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Fats Waller, Chet Baker, Shirley Horn and John Pizzarelli, their singing and playing have more or less equal standing, but I have long been fascinated and often moved by jazz artists whose singing was occasional. Jimmy Rowles is at the top of that list. Benny Goodman rarely sang, but he was an appealing vocalist. The same is true of Zoot Sims, Eddie Condon, Lester Young and James Moody, even truer of Red Allen, Dizzy Gillespie, Jack Sheldon, Clark Terry, Grady Tate and Red Mitchell. Most experienced listeners could come up with their own lists.

Whether or not they have pipes that would send a Carnegie Hall vocal coach into ecstacy, seasoned jazz players usually bring phrasing, timing and rhythmic feeling shaped by their instrumental work, as well as an understanding and appreciation of lyrics. All of that came to mind after I was sent a link that led to a YouTube video of Mike Greensill. He is best known as the husband and accompanist of the wonderful singer Wesla Whitfeld. Here is the video, with an introduction by Mr. Greensill.

While we’re at it, let’s go back to 1936 and listen to an instrumentalist who managed to keep his playing in the foreground even after his singing—and his clowning—made him a popular phenomenon.

Whether Fats Waller, like Nat Cole, would have pushed the piano aside to concentrate on his success as an entertainer, we will never know. He died in 1943 at the age of 39.

The new batch of Rifftides recommendations for listening, viewing and reading will appear immediately below until newer posts send them further down the queue. You will also find them under Doug’s Picks in the right column. They cover CDs by two vibraphonists—one of whom has also published his life story—a gifted bassist in an intimate and moving chamber recital, and Lester Young in previously unissued radio broadcasts. The DVD choice is by a singer whose work is timeless.

This is getting complicated—but encouraging. Rifftides reader Mike Kaiser sent a comment regarding the Stan Getz/Eddie Sauter Focus video discussed in the previous item:

A little Google-sleuthing turned up this residual copy of the now-missing YouTube video. Watch and listen here before it, too, disappears. http://stangetz.ning.com/video/1969-stan-getz-focus

Let us hope that the mysterious unidentified remover doesn’t strike again.

Almost two years ago I disclosed with some excitement that videotape existed of portions of a television performance of Focus, the classic collaboration between Stan Getz and the brilliant composer and arranger Eddie Sauter. The Rifftides staff tracked down the clip and posted it. I hope that you got a chance to see it because whoever put the video on YouTube seems to have been in violation. The copyright holder took offense. New Zealand Reader Tom King forwarded this report from his friend John Goodchild:

At the time I did look at the video and thought the sound was quite good (although the image was about what you would expect from a 1963 tele-recording). I went back to Rifftides to have another look at it. However, unfortunately all you get when you try to view it is a note saying that the clip has been removed because of “multiple copyright issues”! So you now know the recording exists but you can’t watch it. Sorry about that.

Let us hope that the copyright roadblock can be removed and the video restored. As discussed in that October, 2011 post, Focus is one of the great albums of the second half of the last century, regardless of genre. Here is a sample, “I’m Late, I’m Late.” The drummer, dancing with wire brushes, is Roy Haynes. There is no video. Close your eyes and make your own pictures. You might just see the Mad Hatter.

Revision, as of September 11 at 9:40:33 AM PDT. Tom King sent the bad news yesterday. Now another Rifftides reader, Mike Kaiser, sends the good news. See the link he provided in the third comment below.

. . .this is my dilemma. I’m a guy who makes things up as I go along, so nothing is ever finished; there are so many layers. So when you solo, yeah, you might get into one thing, but then, hey, everything has implications! You can hear the next level. And that’s how I feel about improvising—there’s always another level.

No one is original. Everyone is derivative.

I’ll know when I find the ultimate sound.

I wanted to be able to write for the symphony orchestra. I wanted to write for the movies. I wanted to write for television. I wanted to be able to do it with great speed, great accuracy, and that’s what I did.

Jazz, to me, has to be loose. You can’t be tight. When you get too tight in jazz, it isn’t making it. Same thing with Duke Ellington. He let his band be relaxed, be loose, take it easy. Nobody gets excited here. You’re late. Okay, so you’re late. Let’s play.

Response to the recent Rifftides post about courtesy titles in news stories made it clear that readers care about ethical practices affecting the news reports they read, hear and watch. A post from 2006, in the Pleistocene era of this blog, dealt with journalism ethics at large. Here it is again, revised a bit because of changes: For one, FACS (the Foundation for American Communications) no longer exists. For another, the book Journalism Ethics: Why Change? is out of print, available only from used book outlets or in public libraries.

Originally posted on April 24, 2006

After my daily journalism days ended, I spent several years educating professional journalists about issues they cover in economics, science, the environment, foreign affairs and other fields. One of our key areas at the nonprofit Foundation For American Communications was ethics. That resulted in a book edited by me and my assistant Dale Shaps that is still read by reporters, editors, producers and others in journalism who know how difficult it is, day in and day out, to be balanced, accurate and fair.

Over several years, FACS did a series of educational conferences on ethics for journalists. The programs attracted some of the leading figures in American news organizations as students, teachers, speakers and panelists. A few of them were Richard Harwood of The Washington Post; former National News Council President Norman Isaacs; Jeff Greefield, then of ABC News; William Henry III of TIME: Bud Benjamin of CBS News: and David Lawrence, president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Jesse Mann, an ethicist and philosophy professor at Georgetown University, often led the participants through thinking about moral reasoning and newsgathering. At one of our sessions, Dave Lawrence, when he was publisher of The Detroit Free Press, confessed that he hadn’t fully connected the obligation to be accurate with ethics until he was the subject of a front page profile in a national newspaper. Lawrence said that the reporter made mistakes of fact that got past the copy desk and the editors. By being on the receiving end of the news process, he said, he acquired a greater understanding of why so many readers, listeners and viewers question the reliability of what they read, see and hear in the news.

All of that came to mind when I read DevraDoWrite‘s latest installment. It had to do with her hometown newspaper’s short profile of her husband, John Levy. Devra had a David Lawrence experience. Here’s some of what she wrote:

What could have been a lovely feature story in Friday’s Pasadena Star News was, sadly, full of factual errors, and worse, it was woefully short on substance. Errors included my age — I am 50 years old, 44 years younger than John, not 55 years younger than John which would make me 39 (and no, I don’t wish it were so); and we won’t even mention that there is no jazz musician I know of named Jim Hail. Okay those are two errors that are personal to me and I’m feeling snarky, but there are many other errors and a few misquotes as well. Whether due to shoddy/sloppy journalism practices or lack of experience I can’t say for a fact, but I do have an opinion.

Even though the reporter did request (and receive) a free copy of Men, Women and Girl Singers, John’s life story written entirely by yours truly (as John himself told her), I guess she didn’t have time to read it or any of the materials on the web site. However, she did interview John for two hours, consulted twice at length with his publicist, even called me with questions, and there is so much she could have written about.

To read all of Devra’s piece, go here.

It is almost instinctual among news consumers to conclude that when errors are made in print, radio and television news, they stem from political or ideological bias. I have found in working for decades in all three media—and now in this strange new digital one—that a large majority of working journalists want to get it right and want to be fair. (The question of ethical instincts among bloggers, most of whom are not journalists, is a subject for another occasion. Maybe, someday.) An overwhelming fact of life in the daily journalism business is that in a tighter, faster, news cycle with newsroom budgets being slashed by corporate ownerships that no longer regard news as a responsibility and a privilege but as a budgetary burden, with fewer reporters and editors cranking out more news, there will be more mistakes. That excuses nothing. The professional obligation to be informed, fair and accurate is a constant. In the preface to Journalism Ethics: Why Change? I wrote:

Consciously or not, journalists practice ethics every day of their working lives. How much time to devote to a story, whether to include a name, whether to disclose a source, what to show on the screen: these are value judgments and involve ethical decisions as surely as massive arguments over fairness, balance and maintenance of the watchdog function of the press made possible by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

To many journalists, talking about matters of fairness and ethics is akin to inviting censorshop. But unless they make conscious efforts to view those decisions in an ethical framework, journalists will not fully understand their professional obligations and opportunities.

Twenty years later, I would add that the new owners of news organizations, many of them from industries with no connection to journalism traditions, must somehow come to understand that their new corporate assets carry an obligation to more than their stockholders. They have become gatekeepers of the free flow of information upon which the democracy depends. We will all be affected by how—and whether—they accommodate the pressures of the market to that responsbility.

David Lawrence retired at 56 as publisher of The Miami Herald. He is a leading national advocate for children, especially in the area of early childhood development.

John Levy died in January, 2012, at the age of 99.

Yes, yes, I know. Sonny Rollins is 83 today, and Rifftides is joining the celebration late. There is a reason but no excuse. We jump on the birthday bandwagon by bringing you Rollins playing an extended version of a tune his mother remembered from her girlhood in the Virgin Islands. “St. Thomas” has been an essential and beloved part of his repertoire for more than 50 years. The rhythm section Is Kenny Drew, piano; Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, bass; Albert “Tootie” Heath, drums. The video is from Denmark in 1968. Happy birthday to a great musician and a great American.