A trombonist in Miles Davis’ Birth of the Cool band, memoirist whose The Parisian Jazz Chronicles set a standard for wit and candor in self-examination, and writer for the International Herald Tribune and Bloomberg News, Mike Zwerin died April 2 in Paris, where he’d lived since 1969. Recipient in 2009 of the Jazz Journalists Association’s Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism Award, Mike was an inspiration ever since I read his reports from the jazz scene in the Village Voice in the 1960s, and I’m glad to say I got to know him as a friend.
Smooth jazz vs. hard jazz in Times Square
Spyro Gyra, Al Jarreau, Tuck and Patti (pleasant entertainment for nice people) at Nokia Theatre — or New England Conservatory’s jazz gala (serious improv from jam band keybrdist John Medeski, singer Dominique Eade, et at.) at B.B. King’s? My new City Arts column explores jazz polarities in NYC this weekend. Something for everybody, waddya want?
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George Avakian, jazz records hero, at 91 speaks of Miles
George Avakian is a jazz hero who’s done more than anyone else in the record business ever to ensure America’s greatest music endures. Inventor of the reissue, the jazz album, the liner note, producer of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, among others, on his 91st birthday March 15, Avakian gave a fascinating interview to Marc Myers, posted at JazzWax.com, Much of it’s about re-launching Miles’ career. Also, here’s Doug Ramsey’s report on Avakian from last year.
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David Honeyboy Edwards: the blues at 95
David Honeyboy Edwards — at age 94 and 3/4s one of very few survivors of the original Delta blues generation — gigged at B.B. King’s Blues Club on NYC’s 42nd St. last week. He held the stage with little help from his two sidemen for nearly an hour, after receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Guitar Museum. His voice a warm burr reaching for a high, tight little cry, his acoustic guitar playing quirky but deliberate, Edwards was completely at ease delivering songs he’s performed most of his long life. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
She plays like a girl? That’s hot — and cool!
Women are making future jazz history — despite seldom showing up in top high school band competitions. My new column in City Arts – New York’s Review of Culture, has local names and immediate dates; jazz gender parity is a slow movement but my bet is it’s irreversible.
Happy Birthday Ornette Coleman, roots avant-gardist
Composer, conceptualist and multi-instrumentalist Ornette Coleman, b. March 9 1930, is widely known for “free jazz” — which is routinely depicted as the most abstract and daunting music to emerge from the U.S. But this overlooks Ornette’s deep roots in blues from the Southwest and his fealty to the freedom of expression, mobility and individuality that has made the U.S. great.
Anti-jazz, the still-new thing
International House Philadelphia hosts a series way beyond old jazz conventions, with roots in the wild stuff fav’ son John Coltrane blew in 1961. I delve into the 50-year controversy for PMP online magazine of the Philadelphia Music Project here, before the Art Ensemble of Chicago plays what it’s come to on Saturday, March 6.
Breadth-of-jazz radio WKCR fetes Ornette, Bix
Next week WKCR-FM 89.9 www.wkcr.org, promises all-day music of Ornette Coleman and Bix Beiderbecke, linking the “free jazz” iconoclast (turning 80 Mar 9) to the Roaring ’20s jazz-mad kid cornetist/pianist (who would be 107 on March 10, if he hadn’t drunk himself to death at age 28 in 1931). Mark your calendars now!
Piano love, NYC edition
Under-sung, mid-career jazz pianists of innovative distinction in New York City — the topic of my new column in City Arts – New York’s Review of Culture — considerations prompted by David Hajdu‘s NYT magazine feature on Fred Hersch. Who’d I leave out?
Threadgill talks, Zooid photo’d
Composer-saxophonist Henry Threadgill performed his quicksilver music with quintet Zooid at the Jazz Gallery a few days back: here are the photos. He talked at Jazz at Lincoln Center, also: a brief synopsis.
What if B.B. King and Buddy Guy played NYC and nobody came?
B.B. King, 84 yr old #1 living blues icon of the world, and Buddy Guy, 73 yr old 1st runner-up, concertized in New York City last weekend, but there’s been a near-total news blackout. Here’s a review from the Financial Times of London. Meanwhile, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, British blues pretenders (as in pretenders to the throne) rated a three-column photo and full front page New York Times arts section review,
NYC blues extra: Grammy winner Honeyboy Edwards @ BB King’s
City Arts, for space reasons, left off the last graph I’d submitted: True blue fans will flock to hear David “Honeyboy” Edwards, running buddy of legendary Robert Johnson and recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, at B.B. King’s March 11. Edwards is 95, a lifetime achievement for any blues musician, and according to this report from two years ago, he can still play. Continuing with the strength that it has for more than 100 years is an achievement for the blues itself, and American culture, too.
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The blues in NYC
My column http://tinyurl.com/NYCblues in City Arts – New York’s Review of Culture, focuses on America’s deep, dark musical strain as it is today in a blues-challenged city. It doesn’t mention that Wynton Marsalis is the world’s greatest blues trumpeter, as he proved last night playing “bread and butter” from the Count Basie songbook with the Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra, a show repeated tonight (2/12) and Saturday.