Archives for April 2013

This is International Jazz Day. It was celebrated in a massive concert streamed live from Istanbul. Herbie Hancock gave the keynote speech and hosted the webcast. To watch and listen to it replayed, click here.

Here it is the night of Duke Ellington’s 114th birthday and Rifftides has left you bereft of a flowery tribute to his genius, immortality, indispensability and __________ (fill in the blank). Instead, let’s see all of that in action in a clip from the 1930 RKO film Check and Double Check.

Trumpets: Freddie Jenkins, Cootie Williams & Arthur Whetsol.
Trombones: Joe (Tricky Sam) Nanton & Juan Tizol (valve trombone).
Reeds: Harry Carney, Johnny Hodges, Barney Bigard.
Rhythm: Ellington (p), Sonny Greer (dr), Fred Guy (gtr), Wellman Braud (b).
Solos: trumpet, Jenkins; baritone saxophone, Carney; soprano saxophone, Hodges.

Did RKO brass order the makeup staff to blacken Juan Tizol’s face? Could be. In those days, movie executives were a bit nervous about mingling the races on screen. Bill Robinson and Shirley Temple in The Little Colonel were five years off.

That was not Ellington’s first film appearance. His Hollywood debut seems to have been five years earlier, a discovery announced today by The Library of Congress. The library’s blog posted details on this anniversary of Ellington’s birth. To see the explanation by their moving image maven Mike Mashon and a brief (extremely brief) clip, click on this link. After watching it several times, I concluded that the blink-of-an-eye scene runs from 37 seconds to 41 seconds of the sequence. I lifted a still from the movie and blew it up, but unless the sharp focus of your vision is better than mine, we’ll have to take Mr. Mashon’s word for what we’re seeing.

All that aside, to paraphrase what Ellington often said to audiences following a Johnny Hodges solo, as if addressing the deity:

Thank you for Duke Ellington.

This spring, the lilacs seem to have blossomed a bit earlier than usual. They are everywhere in this big valley, in shades from snow white to purple so deep it’s almost black. We have three banks of lilac bushes In our south 40. The one at the bottom end is the biggest and most glorious. Here are a couple of glimpses. Unfortunately, I can’t offer you the aroma.

What does this have to with jazz? It needn’t have anything to do with it; the subtitle of the blog is, “…on jazz and other matters.” But if you insist, we can work out a connection. We don’t have much rain around here now, which is fine with fruit growers worried about blossom damage. We have high winds sweeping down off the Cascade Mountains, which is not fine with cyclists and runners.

So, here’s the somewhat strained connection to the title of this post, which has some of the same words as the name of the song. “Lilacs in the Rain is a splendid popular song from the late 1930s. It was written by Peter DeRose as a piano piece. Mitchell Parish, the lyricist of “Stardust,” added words. The song became a hit, giving DeRose three hits in 1939. The other two were “Deep Purple” and “The Lamp is Low.” Several people recorded “Lilacs in the Rain” that year, including the bands of Charlie Barnet and Bob Crosby, the latter with Crosby’s vocal. As far as I know, Bob’s brother did not make a commercial recording of the piece but, trust me, Bing sang it better. Here he is in a recently discovered air check from his Kraft Music Hall radio program.

The arranger (John Scott Trotter?) deserves mention for those hip little interludes he placed in the 16 instrumental bars between Crosby’s first and final choruses.

Over the next 25 or 30 years, many people recorded the song, among them artists as diverse as CarmenMcRae, the doowop vocal group The Ravens, Junior Mance and Carl Perkins—not the “Blue Suede Shoes” Carl Perkins, but the pianist who was an important part of jazz on the west coast in the 1950s. Perkins played with Chet Baker, Harold Land, Dexter Gordon, Buddy DeFranco and the Max Roach-Clifford Brown group, among others. We see him here at a club date in Vancouver, BC, with the Curtis Counce quintet, between bassist Counce and tenor saxophonist Land. Frank Butler is on drums, Jack Sheldon on Trumpet.

Perkins’s “Lilacs in the Rain” is on the one album he made as a leader. The bassist is Leroy Vinnegar, the drummer Larance Marable.

Perkins died in 1958 at the age of 29.

In notes for the 1998 issue of Kenny Dorham: Blues in Bebop, I wrote:

More than a quarter-century after his death, Kenny Dorham is a beacon of encouragement shining across the landscape populated by young jazz musicians. In a generation of imitators, a few perceptive players have discovered Dorham’s lyricism, his magic with harmony, the wistfulness of his tone, and his articulation, which is like intimate speech. Dorham’s compositions increasingly make their way into repertoires and his “Blue Bossa” has deservedly become a standard.

KD’s hometown has honored its famous son with the plaque pictured above and a festival named after him. The main event takes place tomorrow night in Fairfield, Texas, a town of 3,000 about halfway between Dallas and Houston. For details and to read about the tribute, see this article in the Freestone County Times.

For a taste of Dorham’s lyricism and ability to construct a cogent melody “right through a chord structure,” as Charlie Shoemake put it after the last time we posted this video, here is a snippet that seems to be the only known film of Dorham performing. His rhythm section at the Golden Circle in Stockholm in 1963 was Goran Lindberg, piano; Goran Peterson, bass; and Leif Wennerstron, drums.

If you’re in the market for a more extensive KD fix, this YouTube page may meet your need.

When buried in deadlines and unable to create sparkling new material, give ‘em some Charlie Parker, that’s my motto.

Here is Parker on September 15, 1944, at the WOR studios in New York City. The leader on the record date was guitarist Lloyd “Tiny” Grimes. The other musicians are Clyde Hart, an important pianist in the transition from swing to bebop; Jimmy Butts, bass; and Harold “Doc” West, drums. “Red Cross,” is one of 3,427 (or so) jazz compositions based on the form and harmonies of George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm.” Have you ever wondered what swing and bop musicians would have done for material if Gershwin hadn’t written “I Got Rhythm” and “Lady, Be Good?” This tune was named not in honor of the American Red Cross, but for Bob Redcross, Billy Eckstine’s valet, who was a sometime drummer.

When buried in deadlines and unable to create sparkling new material, give ‘em some Charlie Parker, that’s my motto.

This box set (that’s a link) has all of the tracks from Parker’s Tiny Grimes session and dozens of other recordings of early Bird.

Oh, all right. One more.

<div align=”center”><iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/uR1sM8xqH50″ frameborder=”0″ allow=”autoplay; encrypted-media” allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

The Stan Getz video posted here over the weekend drew an array of comments from Rifftides readers. One of them was from his daugher Bev, who took impassioned exception to praise for the late Don Maggin’s Getz biography. In response, I sent Ms. Getz a private message about the last time I spoke with her father. She asked if I would post the story.

I think it was in 1988 or ’89 that your dad played at one of Ken Poston’s West Coast Jazz celebrations. The concert was at a theater in Hermosa Beach. We got there early, and I wandered around for a while. In the parking lot behind the theater, I saw Stan sitting alone on a low cement barrier and went over to say hello.

“Who is it?” he said.

I told him. He focused those incredible blue eyes on me for several seconds, then said, “I think I owe you an apology.” He did, for something that happened more than two decades earlier. I accepted, we shook hands, and I continued my stroll.

The next time I saw Lou Levy, which was often in those days, without resurrecting what the apology was for I told him of the encounter. Lou said, “Yeah, he’s been doing that a lot lately.” I know that toward the end Lou visited Stan regularly in Malibu. He cherished the friendship that began in their days with Woody Herman. He often mentioned it. I miss them both.

In return, Ms. Getz sent this, printed with her permission:

He really wasn’t a monster. Yes, he was a haunted soul, but the drugs and alcohol made him ugly. That ugliness wasn’t the ‘real’ Stan, revealed. His heart was truly good. I’ve seen chemicals change people in the most shocking ways. So sad.

Two days before he passed, Lou, Shorty Rogers and Johnny Mandel came to the house to see him. The three of them stood in front of him with tears streaming down their faces. Dad looked like an Auschwitz victim at that point (the way that cancer can ravage a body) and he had basically lost his voice. I’ll never forget the way he looked at his three friends. If I can put it into words, it would be something like…”What the hell are you guys crying about?? I’m not dead yet! Tell me some jokes! Talk about good times past! Cry at my funeral, but I don’t want to see your effin’ tears now”! I had to take them aside and ask them to please try and put on a brave face, for their friend’s sake, which they absolutely did!

This memory has never left me. As clear today as it was then, June 4, 1991. A Tuesday.

On her YouTube page, Ms. Getz presents a variety of videos featuring her father, including this 1969 appearance on French television by his quartet with Flora Purim.

Please see the previous post for the first installment.

BENNY CARTER, PART 2
By Jeff Sultanof

In 1999, I went to Los Angeles to celebrate New Year’s Eve with Jerry Graff, my mentor and second father, as well as to visit with Gene Lees and Roger Kellaway. I got a call from Ed Berger to see Benny; he was sorting out his catalog and needed some guidance. I went to his beautiful home in Beverly Hills. Carter immediately took me aback when he said, “I understand you are a very fine arranger.” He introduced me to his wife Hilma and we sat down in his living room, surrounded by gorgeous African art.

Carter had an interesting problem. During the late 1950s through to 1960s, Benny was working at Revue Studios, which was the television arm of Universal Pictures. He wrote many hours of music for various television shows, most notably “M-Squad” (now available on DVD). His boss was a man named Stanley Wilson, who supervised the music for the company. Wilson gave many composers their starts in writing for film and television; Carter, Elmer Bernstein, Dave Grusin, Quincy Jones, Juan Garcia Esquivel, Oliver Nelson, Lalo Schifrin and John Williams (when he was still known as Johnny Williams). Wilson kept them very busy.

What was the problem Berger wanted me to help Benny with? Carter was putting together a master list of all of his compositions, and was trying to sort out his work for Revue. When a composer wrote a score for television, in some cases the cues (individual pieces of music written as underscoring) would go into a library to be re-used in other shows to save time and money. CBS did the same thing: there were compositions by Bernard Herrmann, Nathan Van Cleave, Fred Steiner and Jerry Goldsmith in their collection. This was perfectly legal, since the composers wrote this music as work-for-hire. As long as they were paid royalties, it was a true win-win situation because a TV show generated composer monies when it was seen anywhere in the world, and the music continued to be used in new TV series. I suggested to Benny that some of his cues may have been cut or altered and given new names, creating new compositions which were unknown to him since he didn’t own the music. “As long as they are paying me,” he said. Obviously, these old shows were still in reruns. He told me that his royalty checks were healthy. “They help me continue the lifestyle to which Hilma and I are accustomed,” he grinned. He never did finish the list, but the encounter was a great opportunity to sit and visit with him.

At lunch, I told him of my dream that his music be properly published and available. He was enthusiastic about the idea; he was pleased with the book Hal Leonard had already published and fully expected to continue his association with them. His pianist, Chris Neville, was assembling a book of his lead sheets, and Benny wanted me to work on it with him. Neither project happened. I offered to work on the lead sheet book gratis, but Benny found that unacceptable.

Earlier, I said that Benny has finally found an appreciative audience that loves his music and loves to play it. This phase of his career began when he started teaching at Princeton University in 1969. He revised his earlier scores and continued to write new music, initially for students and then later for concerts with all-star bands. I’ve spoken to one or two students who studied with him while he was at Princeton, and they described a warm, gracious, highly skilled musician who was open to any kind of music. It is clear that he changed their lives.

Sierra Music published his Kansas City Suite for Count Basie. Many middle and high schools in the U.S. now have at least one of the sections in their books. Here was true educational music: written for professionals, playable by amateurs and students. The writing is perfect for training an ensemble to become an even better one, and the chord structures are interesting but basic enough for young improvisers. Now, a lot of young players know who Benny is. Jazz Lines Publications now has an agreement with the Carter estate; 29 Carter compositions and arrangements have been released so far (many for big band, but some for saxophone ensemble), and they are among the company’s biggest sellers, to the surprise and delight of Ed Berger and Hilma Carter. There is more to come: more compositions (some quite modern) and even arrangements that he prepared for vocalists. Quite a few of the works are at Brigham Young University, repository of a collection of scores recorded for Capitol Records.

The beauty of great art is that it lives on to entertain, enlighten and inspire people many years after it was created. Benny Carter’s music has finally come into its own with those who will keep the tradition of big bands and combos alive for many years to come.

Jeff’s previous Rifftides piece concerned Gerry Mulligan’s unperformed arrangement of “Yardbird Suite” for Charlie Parker and strings. It came in two parts, here and here, and it contains a link to a synthesized performance of the arrangement.

There may have been times—no, there were times—when Stan Getz worked overtime to be unpleasant. Zoot Sims had his reasons for describing Getz as “an interesting bunch of guys.” It is not likely that Sims had in mind moments like those in this video. Rifftides reader Jeff Chang sent a tip about a film Getz made in 1969 in France. It turns out that his quartet was engaged to play background music for a fashion show. If you think that was an unusual gig for a major musician still riding the wave of popularity generated by his bossa nova hits, watch Getz and see how you think he felt about it. Be patient, please; a printed announcement in French precedes the fun and games.

Getz’s quartet with pianist Stanley Cowell, bassist Miroslav Vitous and drummer Jack DeJohnette was a short-lived group. In 1969 they recorded one superb album for the discount label Laserlight. Thirty years later, Verve reissued it.

Have a good weekend.

You can help assure that you do if you take this hint from Jim Wilke about a broadcast featuring an all-star group (term used advisedly) of west coast musicians:

Chuck Deardorf – Dave Peterson Group next on Jazz Northwest from 88.5, KPLU

A Seattle all-star group played this month’s Art of Jazz concert at The Seattle Art Museum. Co-led by Chuck Deardorf on bass and Dave Peterson on guitar, the group also includes Rich Cole on tenor sax, Bill Anschell, piano, and John Bishop on drums. Highlights from the concert will air on Jazz Northwest, 88.5 KPLU on Sunday, April 21 at 2 PM PDT and stream at kplu.org.

Sometimes I get buried in deadline work and through neglect or “a kind of monumental inefficiency” (to borrow a favorite Paul Desmondism), I let a day or two go by without putting something new on Rifftides. Then, it gets to be ‘round midnight and it occurs to me that I have committed what my blog guru long ago said was the ultimate weblog goof—dead air, white space, or whatever it’s called on the internet. So, not having the foresight to stockpile shelf pieces, I flail about looking for inspiration in hopes of finding something that will preserve the integrity of the operation or, at least, be entertaining.

“Whoa!” as Burma Jones (speaking of monumental inefficiency) often said, look who came to the rescue this time: Lester Perkins, the proprietor of Jazz on the Tube. His latest video borrowed from YouTube features Erroll Garner in the BBC studios in London in 1964. So, I’m borrowing from Lester’s borrowing.

Launching into a song and taking his sweet time about it, Erroll indulges in one of his favorite pastimes, keeping his sidemen guessing. Notice the bassist, Eddie Calhoun, as he and drummer Kelly Martin remain at the ready while the boss goes exploring. Eventually, Garner lets them in on the plan and, ultimately, finds his inner Fats Waller.

Whoa!

Rifftides readers in the New York metropolitan area, or planning to visit it, may care to make note of an unusual performance coming up this week. Soprano saxophonist Bill Kirchner, pianist Marc Copland and vocalist Carol Fredette will make a rare collaborative appearance on Wednesday evening, April 17, at The Players. Ordinarily, the private club on Gramercy Park South is open only to members, but membership is not required for this occasion. The National Jazz Museum in Harlem, co-sponsor of the event, posted comments about the musicians:

Jazz at the Players

“Bill Kirchner is one of those rare musicians who is able to synthesize an awareness of the past with his own voice, taking jazz in new directions that are firmly based on tradition.”—Benny Carter

“Carol Fredette is everything you need in a jazz singer. She thinks, swings and phrases like a creative instrumentalist, yet her way with words captures the essence of a lyric.”—Dan Morgenstern, author, jazz historian, critic

On Marc Copland “A quiet giant of his instrument…the stuff of legend.”—All About Jazz.com

To my knowledge, no recording exists of Kirchner, Fredette and Copland together. Perhaps one will materialize from the Players gig. In the meantime, here’s Copland with a solo version of Don Sebesky’s “You Can’t Go Home Again” from the pianist’s album Time Within Time.

This is Herbie Hancock’s 73rd birthday. According to YouTube, the version of his “Canteloupe Island” below has been watched by 6,770,455 viewers. If you’re seeing it for the first time, congratulations. If you’re seeing it for the 6,770,456th time, hearty congratulations. Whoever posted the video doesn’t know how to spell canteloupe, but that seems of little concern to Mr. Hancock, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette and Pat Metheny.

Herbie Hancock, 1940-2013, and going strong.

Rifftides reader Svetlana Ilyicheva (pictured) now and then sends reports about concerts she attends in Moscow—Russia, not Idaho. Here is her account of a recent performance by visiting American musicians.

A few days ago (April 3) I was at the concert given by the Dave Liebman Quartet at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. It was organized with the aid of the US embassy. That vast hall is filled to the brim only on rare occasions, but there were quite a lot of people. I believe that goes to show that American jazz is quite popular here. The group produced a very pleasant impression on the public and was accepted warmly.

I liked the manner in which Vic Juris plays the guitar; classic, noble and delicate, not “pushing” but very clear. The drummer Marco Marcinko happened learned to play drums from Joe Morello, which won my favour immediately. An emotional solo by the bassist Tony Marino gained him a very hearty applause.

As to Dave Liebman himself, the sound of his saxes (soprano and tenor), pleasant to the ear, seemed to me distinctive and characteristic only of him. I enjoyed his solos and a very attractive specific gesture he made when the other members of the group played or performed solos to his satisfaction (see the black and white photo).

Quite interesting original pieces alternated with jazz classics. Most of all, I liked their performance of “Star Dust” with a long a capella introduction by Vic Juris (this piece of music is “an oldie but goodie”) and, especially, “Lonely Woman.” I at once recollected the unforgettable Modern Jazz Quartet performance of this piece. The Liebman group appeared to be perfectly coordinated, the members playing high quality music individually and collectively.

Vladimir Feiertag of St. Petersburg, a renowned expert on jazz, emceed the concert. Pavel Korbut was taking photos. With his permission, we see a couple of them here.

—Svetlana Ilyicheva

A few years ago Liebman, pianist Richie Beirach, bassist Ron McClure and drummer Billy Hart revived their group Quest, which thrived in the 1980s. In a new CD, Circular Dreaming, they concentrate on pieces played by the Wayne Shorter-Herbie Hancock-Ron Carter-Tony Williams edition of the Miles Davis Quintet, plus new compositions by Liebman and Beirach. —DR

Steve Coleman, Functional Arrhythmias (Pi)

For more than 30 years, Coleman has been a leader in music on the forward edge of jazz. This album synthesizes and focuses concepts that the alto saxophonist and composer developed through the M-Base movement he founded in the 1980s. The philosophical and metaphysical aspects of M-Base may never have been clearly explained, but there is nothing unclear about this music. Its crispness, directness and compelling movement are expressed in 14 concise miniatures. Coleman says that his inspiration for the music is the human body as it goes about its business of breathing, thinking, pumping blood and managing hormones and lymph functions. It is music that reflects life. The musicians are Coleman, trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson, bassist Anthony Tidd, drummer Sean Rickman and—on some tracks—guitarist Miles Okazaki. They manage to sound at once spontaneous and rigorously rehearsed. There are moments reminiscent of some of Igor Stravinsky’s chamber music (notably in “Medulla-Vagus), of early Ornette Coleman (no relation), and of pieces by Shelly Manne, Shorty Rogers and Jimmy Giuffre in their 1954 recording The Three. However interesting, those similarities are tangential. This Coleman album is packed with original, provocative and important music.

(For thoughts by Coleman and others about his music, see this recent article by Larry Blumenfeld.)

Duke Ellington, The Duke At Fargo 1940: Special 60th Anniversary Edition (Storyville)

The Vintage Jazz Classics 1990 release of this milestone recording is disappearing. Storyville’s 2000 reissue was a welcome effort to keep the occasion alive. Apparently, the two-CD set will remain available. Ellington’s 1940-’41 band was his best from several standpoints. Customarily called by critics and historians the Blanton-Webster band, it found Ellington at a peak of composing and orchestrating creativity for a band of young stars that included bassist Jimmy Blanton and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster. He also had Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Rex Stewart, the newly recruited Ray Nance, Barney Bigard, Ivie Anderson, Herb Jeffries and the whole remarkable crew that make hearing the band one of the most satisfying experiences in modern music. Ellington was touring in the Midwest. The one-nighters included a dance at the Crystal Ballroom in Fargo, North Dakota. Some of the music was broadcast live. To the benefit of posterity, young radio engineer Jack Towers recorded all of it with three microphones and a disc recorder. Towers captured the verve and cohesion of the band in sound whose quality is remarkable for the time and under the circumstances. Cootie Williams had recently left Ellington to join Benny Goodman, but Stewart, Nance and Wallace Jones had no trouble keeping the trumpet section fires burning. The soloists are at the top of their games, with Hodges and Stewart frequently brilliant. Nonetheless, the evening’s first place honors go to Webster for two choruses of “Star Dust” that have imprinted on the minds of generations of listeners. If for nothing more than that masterpiece, this set is a basic repertoire item. But, of course, there is much more.

For a story about one person’s reaction to the Ellington-Webster “Star Dust,” see this post from the dawn of Rifftides history.

Jovino Santos Neto, Piano Masters, Vol 4 (Adventure Music)

Santos Neto alternates between his home in Seattle and his Rio de Janeiro birthplace. In this solo album, he concentrates on his own compositions and pieces by other Brazilians but also plays standards of Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter and John Lennon. A protégé of the monumentally influential Hermeto Pascoal, Santos Neto excels in the music of his native country and in jazz, showing no evidence in his playing that he finds conceptual differences between them. He follows a reflective “My Funny Valentine” with his “Sempre” as a brief transition to Ary Barroso’s ”Na Batucada da Vida,” creating a luscious medley. “Hoping For the Day,” a ballad supported by rich harmonic transitions, seems ready for a gifted writer of lyrics. Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “One Note Samba” glides and swings on bossa nova rhythms that recall the sense of discovery the Brazilian music excited when it first traveled north. Santos Neto invests Pascoal’s famous baião “Bebê” with the drama that makes it one of the composer’s most beloved pieces. The recording captures the Fazioli concert grand piano with rich fidelity.

Mike Longo, A Celebration of Diz and Miles (CAP)

In concert, Longo and his trio in concert alternate pieces associated with the two of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century. Dizzy Gillespie’s musical director from l966 to 1974, the pianist performs five of the trumpeter’s best-known pieces, “Con Alma,” “Tour de Force,” the blues “Here ‘Tiz,” a sprightly take on the bop standard “Ow” and a sizzling “A Night in Tunisia” in which Longo steadily builds intensity and ends with a virtuoso unaccompanied coda. Three pieces from the Miles Davis repertoire were in the Kind Of Blue album, but Longo comes closest to Davis’s spirit in a gambol through “Milestones” and in his lyrical treatment of “You Don’t Know What Love Is.” Bassist Paul West and drummer Ray Mosca are strong in support and impressive in their solo features, notably so in their spots on “Here ‘Tiz.”

Kristin Korb, What’s Your Story? (Double K Music)

The bassist and singer Kristin Korb has married and moved from Los Angeles to Copenhagen. She returns to the US now and then, as she did to record this intimate collection. With only Bruce Forman’s guitar and Jeff Hamilton’s drums for accompaniment and no place to seek cover, Korb must “feel all the heat,” to paraphrase part of her ingenious lyric to Jerome Richardson’s “Groove Merchant.” If she feels the heat, it is not evident. What the listener feels is warmth, swing, good humor and compatibility with her colleagues. She and Forman flawlessly recreate the famous saxophone soli section of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis arrangement of the Richardson piece, a feat of unison singing, playing and lyric writing and a joy to hear. Korb’s singing, impressive from the time of her first recording with her mentor Ray Brown, has increased assurance, a knowing use of inflection and flawless intonation in the upper register. Her bass playing is in the Brown tradition; clean, tough, in tune and rhythmically irresistible. Her solo on “Green Dolphin Street” is a high point. In a varied set of songs by Matt Dennis, Mary Lou Williams, Dori Caymmi, Cole Porter and Frank Loesser, she is as convincing in Porter’s 1940s novelty “Don’t Fence Me In” as in Amber Navran’s contemporary “Always Searching For My Baby.” This could be a candidate for vocal album of the year. But, then, there’s that bass playing.

The next few Rifftides posts will be devoted to reviewing—or at least acknowledging—some of the hundreds of recent album arrivals that have given my mailman an aching back and made an obstacle course of the office and music room. My intention is to choose wisely among a bewildering profusion of mostly recent CDs by known, little known and unknown musicians and to keep the reviews reasonably short.

Dawn Upshaw, Maria Schneider: Early Morning Walks (artistShare)

Maria Schneider’s orchestral settings are for nine poems by Ted Kooser and four by Carlos Drummond de Andrade. The glorious American soprano Dawn Upshaw is the singer. The composer-conductor, the soprano and the work of the poets combine in a collection that is neither jazz nor classical but has elements of both. There is no use wasting time attempting to categorize this music.

Kooser (born in 1939) was poet laureate of The United States from 2004 to 2006. Drummond, who died in 1987, is often described as the most influential Brazilian poet of the 20th century. Their poetry uses plain language to tell simple stories saturated with universal meaning. Melding their own disciplines, Schneider and Upshaw interpret the poems to create new art. Whether by design in Schneider’s scores or by spontaneous inspiration, Upshaw uses repetition and variations on phrasing to create the feeling of improvisation. For example, here is Kooser’s “Walking by Flashlight.”

Walking by flashlight
at six in the morning,

my circle of light on the gravel

swinging side to side,
coyote, raccoon, field mouse, sparrow,
each watching from darkness

this man with the moon on a leash.

Upshaw enhances the fourth line’s rhythmic feeling by singing:

…”my circle of light on the gravel
swinging, swinging, swinging, swinging, swinging
side to side…”

In her orchestration of the piece, Schneider opens the score for improvised soloing by pianist Frank Kimbrough and obbligatos by clarinetist Scott Robinson and bassist Jay Anderson, the only members of Schneider’s orchestra to appear on the album. The subtle magic they achieve is typical of the rewards the album gives close listeners. The Australian Chamber Orchestra plays on the Kooser pieces, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra on the Drummond.

Schneider prefaces the Drummond poems/songs with her composition “Prologue,” which Upshaw vocalizes wordlessly. Upshaw’s singing and Schneider’s writing for the orchestra create an effect not unlike that of Heitor Villa Lobos’s “Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5,” although Schneider does not borrow from Villa Lobos. Her penchant for Brazilian music is evident as an undercurrent in the Drummond pieces, which she fashions as a suite. Her Brazilianism brings dramatic enhancement to the mélange of emotions in “Don’t Kill Yourself.” The music underlines and intensifies the poet’s celebrated amalgam of elegance and satirical humor:

Don’t kill yourself. Don’t Kill Yourself.
Save all of yourself for the wedding
though nobody knows where or if
it will ever come.

The delicacy, strength, surprise and rhythmic punch of Schneider’s writing for that stanza is a high point of the album. Upshaw’s evocative ability with lyrics provides others. When she sings “moon,” you see the moon. The inflection and color she gives “earthy,” makes you understand something about the Carlos of “Don’t Kill Yourself.”

This is not music that you’re likely to play at your next party, unless you invite no one but quiet listeners. It is one with which to sit alone and have before you the Kooser and Drummond poems in the booklets that come with this beautifully packaged CD.

David Weiss & Point Of Departure, Venture Inward (Positone)
The Cookers, Believe (Motéma)

Trumpeter Weiss is a resourceful leader who forms groups that attract young musicians making a mark in jazz and older players long since established. His Point Of Departure quintet brings together the rising tenor saxophonist J.D. Allen, guitarist Nir Felder, bassist Luques Curtis and drummer Jamire Williams. The band builds on the tradition of Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard and other mainstream figures while edging into avant garde territory. Their repertoire here includes pieces by Herbie Hancock, Andrew Hill, Tony Williams and Charles Moore. Thirty-odd years ago, Moore wrote intriguing compositions for the nearly forgotten Contemporary Jazz Quartet. His “Number 4” stimulates a muscular, dancing solo by Allen and a reflective one by Weiss at his most Milesish. Curtis and Williams move everything along with surging power. Felder is a guitarist to keep your ear on.

Weiss’s septet The Cookers incorporates leading musicians over 50, although alto saxophonist Craig Handy only recently made it into that age group, and Weiss won’t until next year. Pianist George Cables, tenor saxophonist Billy Harper, drummer Billy Hart, trumpeter Eddie Henderson and bassist Cecil McBee are veterans seasoned by work with Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, Art Pepper, Joe Henderson and Max Roach, to name a few of the leaders who have employed these all-stars. Harper is formidable in solo on the opening “Believe.” Indeed, each of the soloists is consistently impressive. The ensemble is a wall of sound in Wayne Shorter’s “Free For All,” which is remarkable for Cables’ dancing solo. Weiss’s trumpet playing has developed impressively over the past decade. He more than holds his own with the formidable Henderson.

To compensate for lateness in posting a birthday tribute to Gerry Mulligan (1927-1996), the Rifftides staff is pleased to bring you videos of Mulligan from three stages of his career.

First, we find him at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958 with his quartet; Mulligan, baritone saxophone; Art Farmer, trumpet; Bill Crow, bass. This seems to be a clip from Bert Stern’s film Jazz on a Summer’s Day. The closing announcement is by Gerry’s friend Willis Conover of the Voice of America. The piece is “As Catch Can.”

In the early 1960s, bossa nova was becoming an important element in jazz and popular music in the United States. One of its founding fathers, Antonio Carlos Jobim, spent a fair amount of time in this country. He visited Mulligan in his apartment in New York and gave him a lesson in phrasing Brazilian rhythm

In 1992, Mulligan took an edition of his tentet to the Vienna Festival in France. Farmer was with him, along with Lee Konitz, Rob McConnell, Michael Phillip Mossman, Kenny Soderblum, Bob Routch, Bill Barber, Ted Rosenthal, Dean Johnson and Ron Vincent. Ignore the “Lee Konitz” super over a shot of Farmer soloing. A superimposed crawl at the end identifies everyone and his instrument. The composition is by one of Gerry’s heroes. Konitz copiously alludes to other Ellington pieces.

We’re missing Mulligan.

Have a good weekend.

Small town newspapers sometimes provide surprisingly interesting coverage of world-traveling jazz artists who pass through or live in their communities. For decades, Marvin Stamm and his wife Nancy have been residents of the Westchester County town of North Salem, an hour north of New York City. This week, the North Salem Daily Voice interviewed the trumpeter about why he lives there. This is some of what he said:

I tell people in my travels about our town, but they find it difficult to believe that I live in such a quiet space, affording reflection and renewal, while being so close to one of the largest cities in the world. . . I always look forward to coming home. I never tire of the reservoir, the hills and the woodlands. . .

To read all of the interview with Stamm, go here.

Pianist George Cables talked with the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, way out west where the Columbia River flows into the Pacific. He told about what he learned from Art Tatum, his favorite instrument other than the piano, and what it was like when he and alto saxophonist Frank Morgan played for prisoners.

We went to San Quentin and played. If you think being there locked-up is life-changing … being there a matter of hours is life-changing. You get to meet some of the people. Alto player Grace Kelly came with us and played “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and there were tears in the hardened prisoners, an audience full of teary-eyed big guys that were locked up.

You’ll find all of the Cables story here.

Here’s a followup to the Sarah Vaughan birthday post of March 27. In his Crown Propeller’s Blog, Armin Büttner published a picture of the great singer in interesting company at the Crown Propeller Lounge in Chicago. The club thrived as one of the city’s most vital nightspots from the late 1940s through the 1950s. It specialized in jazz and R&B and booked some of the leading lights in both fields. Here we see world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis with Sarah and trumpeter King Kolax. Crown Propeller owner Norman Schlossberg is behind Louis and Vaughan.

Armin has not yet identified the women on either end. If you know who they are, send a comment and I’ll pass it along to Mr. Büttner. Go here to visit his fascinating blog, see other photos from the Crown Propeller’s heyday and hear music of the period, including a track by Kolax’s excellent little band. Thanks to Armin and the Schlossberg family for permission to use the picture.

The next logical step is to listen to Sarah in a recording from the same era. We might as well wrap our spring theme into this exercise in nostalgia and musicality. The trumpet player who introduces the piece is Miles Davis, a week before his 24th birthday. The rhythm section is Jimmy Jones, piano; Billy Taylor, bass; and J.C. Heard, drums. The clarinetist who joins at the end is Tony Scott. This was May 19, 1950.

All eight of Sarah’s sides with the George Treadwell All-Stars are in this box set of four CDs. In addition to the musicians you heard on “It Might as Well be Spring,” the band included guitarist Mundell Lowe, trombonist Bennie Green and saxophonist Budd Johnson.