Archives for July 2010

In New Orleans, street musicians in the French Quarter are a tourist attraction. According to city law, they are also a nuisance. The contradiction has roots in jazz history and city tradition. It puts police and the administration of the new mayor, Mitch Landrieu, between residents of the Quarter who want to get some sleep and musicians like these outside Jackson Square who want to make a living or, at least, pick up a few bucks.On the web site truthdig, Artsjournal.com blogger Larry Blumenfeld posted an exhaustive report about the controversy. He connects it to situations portrayed in the hot new cable television series Treme. Here is an excerpt that grew out of his conversation with a civil rights lawyer named Mary Howell.

Section 66-205 could be construed to prohibit a lone guitarist strumming on a corner or someone playing harmonica to no one in particular in the street. Same for Section 30-1456, which, curiously, pertains to a stretch of Bourbon Street filled mostly with bars that blast recorded music well into the night. Add to this, Howell explains, that in 1974 the city passed a zoning ordinance that actually prohibits live entertainment in New Orleans, save for spots that are either grandfathered in or specially designated as exceptions. Those interior shots in “Treme” faithfully depicting the vibe at Donna’s Bar & Grill and Bullet’s Sports Bar? Grandfathered in, or they’d be technically illegal. Current zoning restrictions could, without much of a stretch, be construed to prohibit band rehearsals, parties with musical entertainment, even poetry readings. “It’s a draconian ordinance,” says Howell, “and a blanket over the city.” The very idea is mind-boggling to those who live outside New Orleans: a city whose image is largely derived from its live musical entertainment essentially outlawing public performance through noise, quality-of-life, and zoning ordinances.

To read Blumenfeld’s entire piece, go here.

Vincent Herring & Earth Jazz, Morning Star (Challenge). The rhythm section known as Earth Jazz is electrified, funkified and synthesized. Collaborating with them, Herring looks back to the heyday of ’60s and ’70s soul, with stylistic references to Herbie Hancock, early Weather Report and tinges of Azymuth and The Crusaders. His customary power and tonal perfection on alto and soprano saxophones are intact, even as he adheres to the limitations of the setting. The title tune eases up on the back beat, allowing Herring the balladry at which he excels. It’s a welcome break from the funk formula, as are his echoes of Hank Crawford, and Anthony Wonsey’s acoustic piano work in the concluding “You Got Soul.”

In its entirety, this is an item from “The Reliable Source” blog in The Washington Post this week:

Medvedev goes for the record: Jazz and rock music, that is

While Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was in Washington with President Obama on official business, his staff went on a more personal quest: music for his vinyl collection.
Two Russian women who said they worked for Medvedev walked into Som Records on 14th Street Thursday looking for Duke Ellington, B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix recordings — Medvedev, 44, is a big jazz and rock fan and collects rare records. Owner Neal Becton told us he was out of Ellington discs, but sold the women three Hendrix records, two by King, plus music by Gil Evans, Blossom Dearie and Mark Murphy. The women, who got instructions from someone via cellphone, paid the $150 tab in cash — two $100 bills.

Geri Allen & Timeline, Live (Motéma). Allen’s considerable strengths are on display in the pianist’s recording with her trio and a percussive guest. She integrates dancer Maurice Chestnut’s steely tapping with the time-keeping and soloing of her gifted young sidemen, drummer Kassa Overall and bassist Kenny Davis. Chestnut expands on the tradition established by Savion Glover and—long before—dancers like Baby Laurence who accommodated themselves to bebop. The crowds at the Oberlin Conservatory and Reed College concerts go wild at the exhilaration worked up by Chestnut and Overall. There is no denying the excitement of what they witnessed. It comes across even when one merely hears Chestnut in action. Near the end of Allen’s “Philly Joe,” the drummer and the dancer neatly encapsulate some of the licks the great drummer Philly Joe Jones inherited from his hero Sidney Catlett. It is impressive and somehow amusing to hear Chestnut dance the melody of Charlie Parker’s “Ah-Leu-Cha.”
It can be argued that the tapping, for all its bracing novelty, eventually becomes too much of a good thing. Allen’s playing more than compensates. It is a reminder of her high rank among the pianists of her generation who succeeded Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock. Aside from her inspirational role in the rhythmic energy of the album, with Chestnut sitting out she has supremely lyrical moments in Mal Waldron’s “Soul Eyes” and an unaccompanied impressionistic treatment of Gershwin’s “Embraceable You.” She is firm in her own style but nonetheless manages to suggest Tyner’s power in his signature composition “Four by Five.”
At the summit of recorded collaborations between a tap dancer and a jazz band, this album may not supplant the 1952 sessions of Fred Astaire with Oscar Peterson, but it rewards repeated hearings. I recommend it for the substance of Allen’s playing and the quality of her trio. Chestnut’s tap dancing is a bonus.

The man who may well be the world’s oldest performing jazz musician is approaching his 99th birthday. Befitting a man nearly the age of the music itself, he’s from New Orleans. Lionel Ferbos was born July 17, 1911. He played trumpet in the 1920s with bands led by Walter “Fats” Pichon and Sidney Desvigne and in the 1930s with Harold Dejan and the quintessential New Orleans alto saxophonist Captain John Handy. In demand for his reading ability and lead playing, Ferbos is the trumpeter in the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra, a band founded by guitarist and clarinetist Lars Edegran in 1967. He plays regularly at the Palm Court Café on Decatur Street. The Palm Court is planning a bash for him on his birthday.

This video produced last year by the New Orleans Times-Picayune‘s John McCusker traces Ferbos’s career. I am going to make every effort to adapt Ferbos’s concluding advice about how to insure a long life and a long marriage.