Archives for September 2006

The Paul Gonsalves stories keep rolling in. We had them from Germany and the US. Here’s one from Canada.

The friendship of Clark Terry and Paul continued long after CT’s Ellington-time. It was Clark who introduced me to Paul when both were in Toronto, CT as a soloist at the old Colonial Tavern, and Paul with Duke, who was at the Royal York’s Imperial Room, I think it was. Probably ’68 or ’69. I was on the air live until midnight, and would run to the Colonial (or the Town Tavern) to catch a last set. One night after CT’s gig, he said “Let’s go see Paul”, and off we went to the now-gone Lord Simcoe Hotel (the band members never stayed at the Royal York– too expensive). We found one of the other band members in the lobby, who directed us to Paul’s room.
I’ve rarely seen such an open display of true affection between friends. From somewhere, a bottle of scotch appeared, but there was only one glass around, so Clark came up with a brilliant solution: you know how ice machines will make the cubes with a big ‘dimple’ in them? That’s what became our ‘glasses’ — a new twist (for me, anyway) on Scotch/ice. They held a tidy half-ounce or so, so the bottle was passed quite often during the next hour or so.
I visited Duke the next night, and seeing that I knew Clark, Paul took my word for it that we had met. He might not have remembered me, but I sure remembered him…
I believe Paul was one of the under-recognized great tenormen in jazz.
Ted O’Reilly

Mr. O’Reilly has been a jazz broadcaster in Toronto for forty-one years.

The Rifftides staff is hard at work on that survey of recent recordings. There are so blasted many of them, and things keep intervening. But part 4 is in the works. See the archive (right column) for parts 1, 2 and 3.

The Video of Paul Gonsalves caught napping attracted the following comments.

The Gonsalves clip brings to mind an incident that happened when I was editing Down Beat.
Ellington was making one of his regular two-week appearances at Chicago’s Blue Note, and on opening niight, in front of a full house that included local press and celebrities, Gonsalves nodded out in then same manner we see on the video.
But to compound it all, he also fell out of his chair, got to his seat again, then promptly nodded out once more.
I went back the next night and had a chance to talk to Duke privately,and I said something to him like, “I know it is none of my business, Duke, but isn’t it of great personal embarrassment to you when something like that happens?”
Ellington simply smiled urbanely and told me that one must be able to overlook such indidents when they involve a man who served his country so well in India (as a soldier in WWII) and who, while in that service, contracted a rare tropical disease that “occasionally makes him fall asleep.”
I could only smile in rueful appreciation of his answer–I had been satisfactorily squelched and told to mind my magazine and he would mind his band.
I had been ducally euchred.
Jack Tracy

Mr. Tracy was editor of Down Beat in the mid 1950s.

There is a famous story about Paul, not quite as asleep as he is in the video, but well in his cups when Hamilton nudged him to let him know it was his solo next. Paul roused himself and stepped to the microphone. Hearing the continuing applause for the previous soloist, he thought he must have already played, so he bowed and returned to his seat.
Bill Crow

Mr. Crow is a distinguished bassist and author.

Paul Gonsalves was great, on the countless Ellington sessions as well as outside that band. Check out the “Sittin’ In” session, recently reissued by Verve, where he’s playing together with Stan Getz and Coleman Hawkins.
The whole Copenhagen 1965 concert, from which the “Perdido” clip is taken, is available on DVD.
Paul’s sleeping causes a couple more interesting scenes during the evening, like Cootie Williams coming down for his solo and saying “WAKE up Paul, WAKE up!” when passing him. At one point Ellington tells Jimmy Hamilton to wake Paul up, and Hamilton just extends his arm to hold Paul’s shoulder, with this incredibly bored look on his face. He doesn’t shake him or anything, just puts his hand on Paul’s shoulder.
Also, not Paul-related, Duke does this little juggler’s trick with the head of a mike that keeps falling off. That takes the bored look off many of the musicians’ faces for a moment: they are really surprised.
Somewhere I’ve read this Clark Terry story that Clark would always write postcards to Paul’s mother, pretending it was Paul. Like “Hi Mom, we’re in such-and-such place, love you, Paul.” And then whenever Paul would come home, the first thing his mother would ask, “how’s my boy Clarka Terry?”
Hans Doerrscheidt
(Writing from Germany)

The story about Mrs. Gonsalves is from the liner notes I wrote for the Clark Terry CD Daylight Express–DR

If you’re attending the opening night of the Monterey Jazz Festival, you’re not reading this. If, like me, you wish you were there, you will enjoy this feature by Paul Conley of KXJZ radio in Sacramento, California. The closing is priceless. Follow the link and click on “Listen.”
A year ago I was at Monterey, where I shared a signing table with John Scofield (on the left). He sold more CDs than I sold books. We had a nice chat about many things, including his days with Gerry Mullligan early in Sco’s career.

Paul Gonsalves, the tenor saxophone star of Duke Ellington’s band for nearly a quarter of a century, was a wonderfully warm man who had, as the jazz magazines used to euphemistically write, “personal problems.” His most obvious personal problem was alcohol. When he had overindulged, it was often Ellington’s practice to good naturedly punish him by requiring him to play extra solo choruses, sometimes dozens. In clubs, Ellington sometimes attempted to elevate Paul’s metabolism and hasten the sobering-up process by sending him into the audience like a strolling violinist to serenade the patrons at their tables.
Julius LaRosa (yes, that Julius LaRosa) just brought to my attention a 1965 video of an Ellington performance of “Perdido” in which it is clear that Paul would be playing no solo, let alone extra choruses. And there was going to be no strolling this night. So, Duke and the band worked around the problem. In the eight-minute clip, you will hear an introductory solo in which Ellington interpolates “C-Jam Blues,” then solos by Jimmy Hamilton on clarinet, Ray Nance on trumpet, Hamilton subbing on tenor sax for the indisposed Gonsalves, and a marvelously melodic drum solo by Sam Woodyard. You may observe subtle reactions to Paul’s situation from some of the band members, including Johnny Hodges. To see the performance, go here. This band was nothing if not cool.
Far from letting incidents like this sour him on Gonsalves, Ellington remained fond of him personally and musically. He once surprised Gonsalves by scheduling a recording session and informing him that he would be the only soloist on every tune. The result was the marvelous Duke Ellington and His Orchestra featuring Paul Gonsalves. Gonsalves remained with the Ellington band until the end of his career. He, of course, is the one who played the galvanizing marathon tenor solo on the interval in “Diminuendo in Blue” and “Crescendo in Blue” at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival. Paul Gonsalves died in 1974.

Not me. Ornette.
Brian Wise of WNYC in New York sent an alert that Ornette Coleman will be the guest on Soundcheck tomorrow to talk “about his life and career, touching on some of his classic albums as well as his most recent one, Sound Grammar.” Soundcheck airs from 2:00 to 3:00 pm EDT at 93.9 FM and streams online here. It is also broadcast at 3 pm ET on XM Satellite Radio. This will be a rare opportunity to hear the perpetually iconoclastic alto saxophonist speak.

Thanks for gathering and posting the remarks on the Sudhalter “celebration”, for that’s what it was, as Dan Levinson and I agreed in L.A. over Labor Day. The timing of your posting is right since the AFJS is having its Washington Conference this coming weekend. I ask your permission to copy and distribute it there and to post it, with full attribution, to our website.
Jim Jones President
American Federation of Jazz Societies

Permission is happily granted. Have a good meeting. Maybe we’ll get a few new Rifftiders as a result. Follow the website link above for information about AFJS and the conference.

The concert for Sudhalter went very well. Good attendance, and the musicians limited themselves to one or two numbers, so the evening moved along just right. Frishberg’s “Dear Bix” brought a tear to my eye, and to his, I believe, as well. Marian McPartland, Joe Wilder, Jackie Cain and Steve Kuhn were especially good, and the backstage hanging out was wonderful. Loren Schoenberg’s big band topped off the evening just right. Sud was touched and happy, and though he couldn’t speak his thanks, he stood there and beamed while a friend read a lovely thank-you statement that Dick had written. His speech and his legs aren’t working right yet, but his mind is still there, working elegantly. The room was full of love, and our hopes for his improvement are high.
Bill Crow

Mr. Crow played bass at the concert with The Biagi Band.

What a great event and congratulations and thanks to all the participants. I’ve been deeply sorry to hear of Dick’s condition. Not only was he a cornetist who greatly inspired my own efforts early on, but his writings belong in the select pantheon of Otis Ferguson, George Frazier, Whitney Balliett and a very few others. Indeed I would regularly buy an album for the pleasure of his liner-notes alone. We one mutually lamented the plight of the jazz polymath who both writes and plays but if one artist alone can restore the title to its proper honourable estate it must be Richard M. Sudhalter…as great in the cornet chair as he was – and is – at his typewriter.
Good wishes,
Digby Fairweather

Mr. Fairweather is a distinguished British trumpeter and long-model cornetist.

It was a remarkable evening, one in which I was proud to participate and will always remember. Such an outpouring of affection for Dick by so many great players! And I learned so much! Thanks to all the great musicians who performed selflessly and exquisitely.
Armen Donelian

Mr. Donelian played piano at the concert with the Bill Kirchner Trio.

As I watched the show unfold, I imagined a headlline for a news article: “LOVE AND LOYALTY” Every musician present had been touched in some way by Richard’s simply caring about them and the music we all play. Dick credits me with giving him his 1st gig (Cape Cod 1960). He more than reciprocated by getting me playing again when he came back from Europe in the mid-1970s. Appearances at Carnegie Hall (the Whiteman band) and the Smithsonian (Hoagy Carmichael show); a chance to play with legends like Al Galladoro and Eddie Barefield; a shot at being a founding member of Vince Giordano’s band in ’75, and some wonderful recording trips. I and many of our mates owe him for keeping us out there. Dick Katz got it right when he said it was a love-in. And Bill Kirchner’s set was about the loveliest music-making I’ve heard in this century. What I came away with was the enormous sense of community among us lunatics that play this music. I mean – a group of veteran stock analysts wouldn’t do it that way.
Sam Parkins

Mr. Parkins is a record producer and clarinetist. He played in The Biagi Band.

I’m utterly speechless!! You did a major major mitzvah..and just in time for the High Holidays.
muchimas gracias,
Daryl Sherman

Sie sind willkommen
Ms. Sherman played piano and sang at the concert.

How’s this for an eclectic playlist?
“Fancy” Julia Murney, I’m Not Waiting
“Unexpressed” Gavin Creel, John Bucchino, It’s Only Life
“Travellin’Thru” Dolly Parton, Transamerica
“Chasing Cars” Snow Patrol, Eyes Open
“Sweet and Lovely” One for All, The Lineup
“Butterfly” Corrine Bailey Rae
“Die Vampire! Die!” Original Cast, [Title of Show]
“Harvest Moon” Neil Young, Heart of Gold soundtrack and DVD
“Lonely Girl” Sandi Thom, Smile, It Confuses People
“Postcards from Richard Nixon” Elton John, The Captain and the Kid
“I Know I’m Not Alone” Michael Franti and Spearhead, Yell Fire!
Those are the pieces Ashley Foot is playing on his new Radio Allegro podcast, Sounds of Summer, most of them picked by his guests on the new show. I thought that the classical critic Greg Sandow and I might be fish out of water, but Foot’s production savvy and effervescent hosting bring it all together. Go here and click on “Listen.”

I was unable to attend Sunday night’s benefit concert for Dick Sudhalter because St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in New York is 3000 miles from Rifftides world headquarters. Friends who went, some of whom performed, sent reports. By their accounts, the event was a success on all fronts.

Richard M. Sudhalter, as many of you know, is an invaluable jazz historian and a respected cornetist and trumpeter. His biography of Bix Beiderbecke is the benchmark work about that genius of early jazz. His biography of Hoagy Carmichael is a modern classic. Sudhalter’s monumental book Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contributions to Jazz 1915-1945 is balanced, objective, and brilliant. Many of its detractors, once they saw its subtitle, read no further or read through lenses of bias and launched vicious attacks accusing Sudhalter of racism. To anyone who knows him, that would be laughable if it wasn’t so untrue and unfair.
For a couple of years, Dick has been in the long aftermath of a major stroke. He is also battling the effects of a rare condition called multiple system atrophy (MSA). His current debts and prospective medical costs are huge. Allthough his speech and movement are limited, his brilliant mind and ability to write are not. The trumpeter Randy Sandke and the clarinetist Dan Levinson organized the concert to help with expenses. Dick’s companion Dorothy Kellog executed the planning. Judy Kahn, Bill Kirchner’s wife, was the stage manager. The Jazz Ministry of St. Peter’s cooperated in the presentation. The friends honoring and supporting Dick played to a full house. The review that follows is an amalgam of reports from Jill McManus, Dan Morgenstern, Daryl Sherman, Randy Sandke and Bill Kirchner.
This is not a short posting. I hope that it gives you a sense of the evening.
Sandke sets the scene and provides the lineup:

I thought it was a warm and very touching tribute. More than 70 musicians offered to participate. Because of some airline snafus, a few couldn’t get in on time, but below is a list of the musicians and groups who did in fact play at St. Peters last night:
OPENING REMARKS BY DAN MORGENSTERN – Director of the Institute of Jazz Studies
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
DAVE FRISHBERG (piano solo: “Dear Bix”)
DAN LEVINSON’S LOST CHORD SEEKERS Jon-Erik Kellso – 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
DARYL SHERMAN (piano solo/vocal); one tune with Joe Wilder, trumpet
CAROL SUDHALTER BAND Carol Sudhalter – sax, Dick Katz – piano, Jim Ferguson – bass, Jackie Williams – drums, Keisha St. Joan, vocal
STEVE KUHN – piano
DAVID OSTWALD’S GULLY LOW JAZZ BAND Jon-Erik Kellso – trumpet, Tom Artin – trombone, Joe Muranyi – clarinet , James Chirillo – banjo, David Ostwald – tuba, Kevin Dorn – drums
JACKIE CAIN with Steve Kuhn – piano
HEALY’S HAPPY HARMONISTS Brad Kay – cornet/piano, Dan Levinson – clarinet, Jeff Healy – guitar/trumpet/vocal Scott Robinson – bass sax, Kevin Dorn – drums
MARIAN McPARTLAND with Frank Tate – bass
THE BIAGI BAND Jordan Sandke – trumpet, Carol Sudhalter – sax, Sam Parkins – clarinet, Andy Stein – violin , Chuck Folds – piano, Bill Crow – bass, Giampaolo Biagi – drums, Francesca Biagi – vocal
SY JOHNSON vocall and piano
BILL KIRCHNER TRIO Bill Kirchner – soprano sax, Armen Donelian – piano, Jim Ferguson – bass/vocal
RANDY SANDKE’S BIXOPHILES Randy Sandke – trumpet, Dan Levinson – clarinet, Scott Robinson – C-melody and bass sax, Mark Shane – piano, Marty Grosz – guitar, Nicki Parrott – bass, Rob Garcia – drums
LOREN SCHOENBERG BIG BAND

Daryl Sherman:

Dr. Bob Litwak (a semi-pro drummer greatly supportive of the jazz community), chief of thoracic medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital for many years, got up and spoke about Dick’s condition. There were some handouts along with the printed programs that also explained a bit about MSA. Most touching, though, were Litwak’s words of encouragment to Dick…for instance that despite being sidelined on the horn, he’s vital still with his writing ability. He mentioned Dick’s working on the Red Nichols reissue package for Mosaic–that he’s available for more writing gigs but should still keep his lip ready. And most moving, at least for me, was Litwak’s eloquent way of lauding Sudhalter as one of the great thinkers.

Jill McManus, the pianist and composer, was in the audience:

The concert was wonderful – such an affection for Dick from the 350 or so people there, educators, musicians, friends, most of them there until the end. Dick in a wheelchair, beautifully dressed, listening intently to all the various bands, from old style to swing, nodding. He got up front to say his own brief “thank you,” then called on his friend Terry Teachout to read something Dick had written, very touching, literate as ever. Dan, of course, set the warm tone of the evening with his opening comments.

Dan Morgenstern:

Great and unsusal chance to hear Frishberg on piano in the kickoff group, Ed Polcer’s Gang from 54th Street, doing “Sometimes I’m Happy.”

Jill McManus:

Then Dave did his wryly moving solo thing on “Dear Bix.”

Daryl Sherman:

My favorite group name, Lost Chord Seekers with Jeff Healey on guitar (he also had his own set and made a huge hit) and Brad Kay on piano, featured Molly Ryan singing “I Never Knew” (which included a lovely verse I never knew).

Dan Morgenstern:

Healy is a triple threat on guitar, trumpet and vocal. He’s blind. Came by
himself from Toronto, Canada.

Daryl Sherman:

It was perfect that I should follow that group since I am one of the original lost chord seekers. With a nod to Sudhalter’s little known or heralded vocalizings, I did one of his staples (stolen from Bing Crosby), Hoagy Carmichael’s “Moonburn.” (Hoagy Jr was in the audience!) I also got a chance to play for Joe Wilder on “When I Fall In Love”.

Jill McManus

Daryl and Joe played gorgeously together. Daryl reminisced briefly before her set – told a story of the night Dick’s horn was stolen from him.

Bill Kirchner relays the story:

About twenty years ago, Dick was playing a gig at the Red Blazer Too on Third Avenue and 89th. There was a front/side room where musicians would keep their horn cases, and he foolishly left his cornet in the case in that room. After the gig, he went out there to get it. It was gone. As you can imagine, he was crestfallen. The next day, he had to go out of town on a tour. So, he got in a cab and went over to the office he used to have in midtown. He had a spare horn there and wanted to try it, see if it was playable and take it on the tour.
He does that, leaves his office, goes down and hails a cab. About five cabs pass by, but he finally gets one. He gets in the cab, looks over on the back seat. There is his horn, sitting there in the case. He says to the cabbie, “This is my horn.” The cabbie immediately gets defensive: “No, no, no….” So, finally, Dick says, “Look, if I can describe the contents of this case, you can tell this is my horn.” He did, and the guy ‘fessed up that a couple of guys had hailed his cab up in the eighties and had this horn and sold it to him for fifty bucks. So, Dick says, “Okay, I’ll give you fifty bucks. I want my horn back.” Dick later went to somebody who was familiar with the art of odds-making. He determined that the odds of this happening were several trillion to one.

Jill McManus:

Dick Katz played intelligently and poignantly both in Carol Sudhalter’s band (Carol took a masterly laid-back solo, and Keisha St. Joan sang well, “Come Rain or Come Shine”) and with Loren Schoenberg’s smoothly melodic band at the end.

Dan Morgenstern:

Steve Kuhn, Dick’s oldest friend at the concert, played a ballad. They were high school classmates in Newton, Mass. (another was Roger Kellaway, who wasn’t there).

Daryl Sherman:

Steve played “Old Folks,” (which I’d never heard him do before.) Masterful and ruminative. It was clearly a nod to Dick, with his penchant for Willard Robison–and particularly that song. There’s a collector’s item photo Dick has of one of the many Newton jam sessions in his basement. Kuhn with brushcut sitting just as erect as he does now at the piano, Kellaway at the bass (also brushcut) and Sudhalter with those nerdy black glasses.

Jill McManus:

David Ostwald’s Gully Low Jazz Band had a delicately swampy New Orleans-ish feel, with James Chirillo on banjo, and Joe Muranyi’s haunting clarinet. Tom Artin subbed for Wycliffe Gordon on trombone.

Dan Morgenstern:

Chrillo was great on banjo with Ostwald. It’s nice to hear modern changes on that instrument.

Daryl Sherman:

Kuhn played for Jackie Cain. One of the vivid memories of the Hoagy Carmichael concert Dick produced for JVC around 1979 or ’80 was Jackie’s opening the evening. She came out alone and sang the verse to “Stardust” acapella. Sunday, she referred to that night, telling the audience how nervous she’d been. She chose not to do “Stardust” here and instead beautifully sang a touching song, “Music Reached Places,” by Fran Landesman and Simon Wallace (Fran’s recent collaborator.)

Dan Morgenstern:

Steve comped beautifully for Jackie C. and played a lovely solo.

Daryl Sherman

Marian McPartland has been in Dick’s corner for many years and she really came through for him last night. She’s been in constant pain with arthritis and knee problems and it was a huge schlep for her to make this–but there she was looking and sounding splendid with Frank Tate on bass. Of course, she played Carmichael: “Heart And Soul” and “New Orleans,” weaving her spell and beautiful colors as only she can do. It was a special moment for me to dig all the piano players standing around in the back reverentially digging her.

Dan Morgenstern:

The Biagi Band, led by drummer Giampolo Biagi and vocal by Francesca Biagi (no relation), had Andy Stein on fiddle; Sam Parkins, clarinet; Chuck Folds, piano; Bill Crow, bass, who brought his wife and was the most consistent listener of all the musicians present. You know how it is with hanging out backstage.

Jill McManus:

Sy Johnson played a blues tune I never got the name of and also sang “Skylark.” His piano playing and harmonization on that one were particularly lovely.

The Bill Kirchner Trio with Armen Donelian on piano and Jim Ferguson singing and on bass gave a moment of such grace that the whole place fell silent and the musicians were at rapt attention.

Daryl Sherman:

Jim Ferguson played and sang Willard Robison’s “Deep Summer Music” accompanied so sensitively by Armen Donelian and with an especially evocative soprano solo from Bill Kirchner. Sudhalter taught it to me years ago, and beneath the elegiac simplicity is a tricky melody and harmony that makes you walk on eggshells when you play and, particulalry, try to sing it. The song could not have been better served than with Jim’s treatment – a real highlight for me. In fact of all the lovely vocals last night his was my favorite -although bassist Nicki Parrott did a great job singing as well as playing “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To” with Randy Sanke’s band. Gotta hand it to these bass players particularly since Jay Leonhart’s song laments that it’s impossible to sing while playing the bass.
Loren’s band was so terrific. Wish they had a steady spot somewhere. Barbara Lea sang the title song from her new CD (wonderfully recorded with the band and Loren also on piano), Ellington’s “Black Butterfly.” Loren had the advantage of being able to use many of the ‘veterans’ like Randy Sandke, Scott Robinson, Dick Katz, Eddie Bert, but he’s really done so well finding new younger musicians who really seem to take an interest in this music.

Bill Kirchner:

They did Mark Lopeman’s lovely chart on Dick’s tune “A Dream Deferred.” It was written especially for this occasion.

Dan Morgenstern:

Scott Robinson was heard on bass sax with Jeff Healy’s Happy Harmonists, on C melody sax with Randy Sandke’s Bixophiles, on tenor and clarinet with the Loren Schoenberg Big Band–great as usual on all his horns, but what a job to carry all that stuff! The big band, celebrating their new CD, also did “When Lights Are Low” (featuring Jon Gordon’s alto), Gerry Mulligan’s fine early Krupa chart on “If You Were the only Girl (announced as ‘Goy’) in the World”, with a splendid trumpet solo by the underrated John Eckert. Also heard from was amazing trombonist Eddie Bert, looking great now that he’s let his hair be its natural white. The band finished the night with a rousing “South Rampart Street Parade” (Scott R. on clarinet). Kevin Dorn did a nice job on drums–one of the youngest musicians on hand.

Jill McManus:

Afterwards, in the “parlor,” I was talking with Dick, he being quiet but gracious, and I mentioned that I was getting tired standing, yet I hurt from sitting through this magnificent concert. He got up out of the wheelchair and offered me his seat! Never missed a beat! I loved that. (I’m not ready for a wheelchair myself just yet!!) He said that he never felt that people had admired him, that he had a very small audience. Perhaps, I said, but what an audience of jazz history-knowers! In his writing, how arduously careful he had to be with the facts, and he was the most meticulous of almost anyone.

Daryl Sherman:

I was surprised to witness the huge turnout from both musicians and civilians. There was an outpouring of respect and admiration for Dick. After hearing from him for so long that he feels invisible and doesn’t even know himself anymore, believe me, this was the best medicine.He’s really overwhelmed by all this now and I sure hope it helps him to fight harder, cause he’s gonna need it.
Furthermore, it is a wonderful testament to the devotion to this music. Through acknowledging Sudhalter’s contribution as fervent champion in print as well as on horn, it unifies the collectors, musicians, writers, fans and believers all over the world who have dedicated their lives to this aesthetic. And interestingly enough, they all seem to know each other, if not personally, then by reputation. From Dave Frishberg to guitatist/collector Jeff Healey in Toronto to Enrico Borsetti, an ardent fan from Italy who helped initiate this benefit for Dick, it really seems like a special brotherhood (with a few sisters,too.) It may be a pinhead of the population at large, but the passion never dies.

Dan Morgenstern:

What made it special, I think, is that everybody who was there wanted to be there for Dick, not just to hear some music.

The concert is over, but Dick’s need is not. Contributions to the Sudhalter medical fund are being accepted at
Richard M. Sudhalter
Post Office Box 757
Southold, NY 11971

I had lost track of the trumpeter Tim Hagans, whose searching, edgy, extraharmonic improvisational style I admire. I did an internet search and ended up on his modishly designed and constructed website, whose style reflects his adventuresome, but centered, music. Roaming through the site, I found surprises equivalent to those a listener encounters in Hagans’ playing. Click on “Bio” and up comes a menu under the heading “Hagans Portrait.” Click on Chapter 7 and you will find a declaration of independence entitlted, “The Artist’s Role in Society.” Here is a section.

Artists are scary. They celebrate individualism. They portray the nuances and emotions of life in abstract terms. Music is the most abstract art form and improvised music creates the intangible in the moment. An artist’s mission is not to entertain although entertainment can be a desired by-product. Their mission is to give the receiver of the artistic statement emotions and impressions to reflect upon. Whether the receiver likes or dislikes the statement is secondary.

Visitors to the Hagans site get biographical, discographical and events information, cleverly produced, plus a generous audio helping of complete performances. They also get a six-part movie called Boogaloo Road. It contains many of those surprises I mentioned, not the least of which is footage of the trumpeter practicing while driving. To find the film, move your cursor down the audio player at the bottom right of the screen. The Tim Hagans website is here.

Thanks to Terry Teachout for alerting me to the existence on YouTube of video performances by the great early 1960s Sonny Rollins Quartet with Jim Hall. As I lamented in the previous exhibit, that band is absent from Rollins’s own web site. The clips are from Ralph Gleason’s Jazz Casual series on Public Broadcasting. You will see four of them, totalling more than twenty minutes of the group playing “God Bless The Child,” “The Bridge,” and “If Ever I Should Leave You,” the latter in two installments.
In his artsjournal.com About Last Nigtht blog, Terry has built a list of links to videos of music in a variety of genres, a fine public service. Scroll down his right-hand column until you come to the Videos heading. Bravo, TT.

Yesterday was Sonny Rollins’s 76th birthday. He celebrated it, in part, by installing on his website nine video clips of performances over forty-nine years, beginning in 1957. They comprise a fascinating tour of his career. They will be accessible for six more days. Among the sidemen are Henry Grimes, Joe Harris, Don Cherry, Billy Higgins, Niels Henning Orsted-Pedersen, Al Foster, Kenny Drew, George Duke, Stanley Clarke and Jack DeJohnette. Unfortunately, there is nothing of his early 1960s quartet with Jim Hall, but it would be churlish to complain in the face of such riches. You will see and hear a “Moritat” (aka “Mack The Knife”) from Tokyo in 1981 that swings about as hard as anything can swing. To witness the performances, go to the Sonny Rollins website.

Let’s wrap up the survey of a few of the recent CDs from High Note.
Billy Hart, Quartet (High Note). Hart is a 65-year-old drummer prized by Stan Getz, Wes Montgomery, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Dena DeRose, Pharaoh Sanders, Frank Morgan and virtually anyone else who has ever played with or heard him. Here, he leads an eclectic group with pianist Ethan Iverson of The Bad Plus; the quiet, strong, tenor saxophonist Mark Turner; and Ben Street, a bassist who operates in the present with the past and the future in mind. Hart’s compositions are as hip as his playing. I see no reason why his ballads “Charvez” (with allusions to Rachmaninoff) and “Lullaby For Imke” should not become jazz standards. Taken together, his four tunes, those by Iverson, Turner, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker, and resourceful playing by all hands, add up to one of the freshest albums I’ve heard this year. How does a band play the melody of “Confirmation” four times in a row at the beginning of the piece without seeming repetitious? It has to do with the drumming. They compensate by not playing the melody at all at the end. Clever.
Cedar Walton, One Flight Down (High Note). Walton, among the finest jazz pianists for more than forty years, grows at once more expressive and more economical. Not that he has lost power or facility. Rather, he is increasingly judicious in his choices and placements of notes. Space is often an important ingredient in his solos, but he still marshals all ten fingers to build harmonic sequences of majestic density. Walton connects “Lush Life,” “Daydream” and “Raincheck” in a medley of Billy Strayhorn compositions, keeping the tempo bright even on “Lush Life,” so often played at the pace of a slow crawl. He does the same for another ballad, “Time After Time,” infecting it with a cordial, loping quality and a Red Garland tag ending. Walton’s longtime bassist David Williams, solid as ever, has an engagingly witty solo on Sam Jones’s “Seven Minds. Twice in “Raincheck,” drummer Joe Farnsworth plays two chorus-long solos using brushes. In both, he demonstrates that “melodic drum solo” is not an oxymoron. High Note’s ubiquitous Vincent Herring plays tenor saxophone rather than his customary alto on two Walton pieces, “One Flight Down” and “The Rubber Man.” If Cannonball Adderley is his model on alto, Herring’s primary inspiration on tenor seems to be middle-period John Coltrane, with a substantial Hank Mobley component. Of Walton’s scores of albums, this seems to me one of his best.
Briefly noted:
Ernie Andrews, How About Me (High Note). At seventy-nine, Andrews rolls on, as moving when he sings the blues as he is with superior standards. In addition to well-known popular songs (“The More I See You,” “This is Always”) and plenty of blues-inflected material, he includes rarities: Berlin’s “How About Me,” Ellington’s “It Shouldn’t Happen to a Dream” and Sammy Fain’s “The Wildest Gal in Town.” Tenor saxophonist Houston Person and a good rhythm section assist.
Frank Morgan, Reflections (High Note). The story of Morgan’s kicking his bad habit and rehabilitating his career is two decades old. The important news is that, approaching his mid-seventies, he is playing the alto saxophone with great beauty. Morgan’s work here is centered in calmness and consideration that justify the album title. Alec Wilder frequently railed against musicians who failed to observe his melodies at least on the first chorus. He would love Morgan’s first chorus on “I’ll Be Around.” I have a feeling that Wilder would like the improvisation, too. Thelonious Monk might even smile a little at what Morgan and pianist Ronnie Mathews do with “Monk’s Mood.” Full disclosure: I wrote the liner notes, during the course of which I listened to the album repeatedly and became captivated by it.
Coming soon: reviews of CDs from a variety of labels, including the intriguing and intriguingly-named Cryptogramophone.

If you are in the New York City area or can get to it by Sunday evening, please consider attending the concert to benefit Richard Sudhalter. If you don’t know about Dick’s medical predicament and the staggering bills he faces, you will find details here. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the quality and range of musicians who have volunteered to play for Sudhalter constitute a testimonial to the respect and affection he has earned.
Tickets are $40.00. Contributions above that amount are needed and encouraged.
RICHARD SUDHALTER BENEFIT CONCERT
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
Lexington Avenue & 54th Street
New York, New York
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Some of the performers:
Harry Allen, Dan Barrett, Eddie Bert, Bill Crow, Jim Ferguson, Dave Frishberg, Wycliffe Gordon, Marty Grosz, Becky Kilgore, Bill Kirchner, Steve Kuhn, Dan Levinson, Marian McPartland, Joe Muranyi, David Ostwald, Nicki Parrott, Bucky Pizzarelli, Scott Robinson, Randy Sandke, Daryl Sherman, and the Loren Schoenberg Big Band.

Coincidental with the Rifftides review of a new Louis Hayes CD, Mark Stryker of The Detroit Free Press devoted his column to a festival that featured Hayes and others who began their careers in the Motor City.

A remarkable chunk of Detroit-bred jazz history reunited on Monday evening at the Detroit International Jazz Festival, and it was hard to listen to the Detroit Jazz All Stars – pianist Barry Harris, trombonist Curtis Fuller, alto saxophonist Charles McPherson, drummer Louis Hayes, trumpeter Marcus Belgrave and bassist Rodney Whitaker – without shaking your head once again at this city’s historic role as an incubator of jazz talent.

To read the whole thing, go here.

I spent twenty-four years in television news, fourteen of them in front of the camera and reporting, then managing news operations, so I was compelled to watch the debut of The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric. If the dumbing-down cycle that began thirty years ago when WABC-TV hired Geraldo Rivera is not complete, let us shudder in anticipation.
We got exclusive pictures of Vanity Fair‘s exclusive pictures of the babyTom Cruise had with his latest woman, equating them with the importance of CBS’s coverage decades ago of the birth of Prince Charles. This sort of tabloid item, nestled among commercials for products designed to bolster failing body parts of the aging, is evidently the approach CBS hopes will attract younger viewers.
There was a free speech segment featuring a movie director analyzing political civility, tagged with a promise from Couric that Rush Limbaugh would be in that slot on Thursday. Lara Logan did a solid report on the Taliban in Afghanistan, Anthony Mason a good one on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The producers embellished President Bush’s speech comparing the war on terror with the runup to World War Two. They flew in rear screen photos of Hitler and Mussolini, Osama Bin Laden and other terrorist leaders, bolstering the President’s points rather than simply running clips and letting him speak for himself. It was a blatant abandonment of objectivity for the sake of production “values.” Of course, there was yet another story about the death of the Australian crocodile hunter. CBS News provided Tom Friedman of The New York Times a platform, in the guise of an interview by Couric, to give his thoughts on the administration’s policy for the Middle East, with no tough questions and no counterbalancing view from another quarter. I don’t know how much of the CBS News budget went to the eminent film composer James Horner for the ten-second opening theme, but I can’t remember one note of it. I was amused to read in The Wall Street Journal that when he was approached by CBS about the project, Horner told them he didn’t know who Katie Couric was and didn’t watch much television.
There were three plugs to go to CBS.com, tell them your opinions and suggest a closing line for Couric. For $15,00,000 a year you want a Marilyn Monroe impersonator AND a way to say goodnight? Of course, if she had a closer, there would be no reason to ask viewers yet again to go to the website and suggest one, and that would mean the loss of a marketing opportunity, the true purpose of a network news broadcast. I would have taken the gig for a million and used the other $14,000,000 to cover the news. Is it too late?
And how about Couric’s authoritative opening line: “Hi, everyone.”
The News Hour With Jim Lehrer on PBS had more news in the five-minute opening summary than CBS managed in the entire 22 minutes of news time in its half hour. Support PBS. Please.
Good night and good luck.

It was my intention to write mini-reviews of several more High Note CDs for this posting, but other matters intervened (see the previous item). One will have to suffice.
Vincent Herring, Ends And Means (High Note). We last encountered Herring ghosting Cannonball Adderley on a new Louis Hayes album. When he emerged in the 1980s, the young alto player was one of the few on his instrument to demonstrate a primary Adderley influence. That aspect of his playing has never diminished, but he has broadened his concept. I hadn’t heard him in a few years when this and the Hayes album arrived and was taken with the freshness of Herring’s playing within the Cannonball matrix. Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, Herring’s front-line partner in the Hayes group, is with him on four of the tracks, including “The Song Is Ended” decked out with altered harmonies in the bridge and a suspended ending that converts the standard song into a semi-modal piece.
“Ends and Means,” by the Slovenian pianist Renato Chicco, opens the album with an air of mystery resolving into thoughtful lyricism. On it, Herring roughens his tone, as Adderley often did, adding an edge to some of his more heartfelt passages. Benny Golson’s “Stablemates” is an established modern classic (note to the producer; the title is one word, not “Stable Mates”). Mulgrew Miller’s “Wingspan,” evoking Charlie Parker, is fast becoming another jazz standard. Both are ideal vehicles for Herring. On “Wingspan,” Pelt matches Herring’s bebop intensity, as does Danny Grissett, a pianist in his mid-twenties new to the New York jazz milieu but already established enough to be joining trumpeter Tom Harrell on tour in Europe this month. That honor and his recording with Herring would seem to announce that Grissett has arrived. The veteran bassist Essiet Essiet and the Swiss drummer Joris Dudli round out the rhythm section.
All hands execute an exercise in elation on Juan Tizol’s “Caravan.” The arrangement is built around a bass line in what a musicologist might identify as crippled cadence that works its way into exhilirating straight time. This album by a solid and satisfying alto man has a nice mix of familiar and new material.

The other day, Ashley Foot, the ebullient young host of the internet’s Radio Allegro, invited me to be on his program. In the recorded interview, I told him, “There’s an incredible outpouring of jazz CDs these days. You’d never know jazz was dying.”
“It’s dying!” he said in alarm, “What are you talking about?”
Having failed to transmit irony, I explained that someone or other is always saying that jazz is dead or dying or not very well, but that the stream of albums seems to be swelling, not shrinking. Now that any musician who can scrape up $1500 or so can be a recording artist, can even be his own record company, it’s a question whether many of those CDs will ever be more than digital calling cards. Still, success stories like Maria Schneider’s declaration of business independence with her artistShare venture prove that it is possible for musicians to control their own destinies if they have bases upon which to build.
Hundreds if not thousands of jazz CDs appear each year from individuals with vanity labels, from startup independents, from established companies. Facing this flood, all that a reviewer can do is be selective. Over the next few postings, I’ll give you brief accounts of a few of the CDs that lately have caught my attention.
It could be nearly a full-time job just keeping up with the output of The Jazz Depot, the umbrella company that produces the High Note, Savant and Fedora labels. I have chosen a few recent CDs from this prolific outfit.
Houston Person with Bill Charlap: You Taught My Heart to Sing (High Note). As leader of his respected trio, Charlap is a Blue Note artist, but materializes as a sideman on other labels. That is good news for listeners, who get to hear the pianist in fresh contexts, and it is good news for Person. The veteran tenor saxophonist’s duets with Charlap are triumphs of quiet authority and lyricism. Most of the pieces are slow ballads, but even when the tempo is that of a brisk walk, as in “S’Wonderful,” the two are relaxed and assured in their swing. This is a pair of tonemeisters. Person’s sound has both softness and strength. Charlap’s touch–the pianist’s equivalent of tone–allows him a combination of delicacy and firmness in a league with Hank Jones, Jimmy Rowles and Tommy Flanagan. It is a joy when he combines it with his exqusite harmonic sensibility in the accompaniment to Person’s speech-inflected solo in “Don’t Forget The Blues.” Their “Sweet Lorraine” is a modern classic version of that infectious song.
Louis Hayes and the Cannonball Legacy Band: Maxiumum Firepower (Savant). Hayes was the drummer in one of Cannonball Adderley’s most potent quintets with his cornetist brother Nat. Here, he recruits five of the brightest younger players to summon up the irrepressible spirit of that band. Vincent Herring, long established as the keenest inheritor of Adderley’s style, is on alto sax. Jeremy Pelt is the trumpeter. Richie Goods is the bassist. Rick Germanson and Anthony Wonsey split piano duties. All of the pieces but Pelt’s tribute “The Two of Them” are from Addlerley’s repertoire, the hits (“This Here,” “Sack O’ Woe”) and the favorites of musicians (“Unit 7,” “Sweet Georgia Bright”). If the playing doesn’t quite attain the volubility and fire of the Adderleys, it is nonetheless excellent and comes as close as any living musicians are likely to achieve.
Larry Willis: The Big Push (High Note). Willis is a far less well known pianist than his talent warrants. Jackie McLean, Stan Getz, Kai Winding, Cannonball Adderley, Branford Marsalis and Roy Hargrove are among the leaders who knew his value. This CD with bassist Buster Williams and drummer Al Foster has the potential to be the big push he needs to gain a wider audience. Willis is modeish in Wayne Shorter’s title tune. He devises bracing chords for “Surrey With the Fringe on Top.” In “Poppa Nat, ” he finds new things to do with “I Got Rhythm” changes, and invests “Everything I Have is Yours” with rare poignancy, from its rarely heard verse to a filagreed ending shared with Foster’s cymbals.
Reviews of more CDs in the next Rifftides posting.