Mozart is the archetype of the child musical genius. Over the centuries, many successors have been proclaimed.
In the long run, few have qualified. The current child-genius nominee is Joey Alexander, a pianist from the Indian Ocean Island of Bali. Whether it is accurate—indeed whether it is fair to a 12-year-old—to declare him a genius, is now beside the point. The publicity machinery is in full, inexorable, motion. Last night, CBS Television’s 60 Minutes featured young Mr. Alexander. Coverage by that venerable news program is the 21st century counterpart of being on the cover of TIME Magazine. The campaign is underway.
Videos of Joey Alexander have attracted tens of thousands of YouTube viewers. In one of them he plays John Coltrane’s harmonic obstacle course “Giant Steps.” Larry Grenadier is the bassist, Ulysses Owens, Jr. the drummer, in this take from a date for Motéma Records.
Joey Alexander can play; there’s no question about that. Does his precocious talent, as Wynton Marsalis asserted at Town Hall in the 60 Minutes piece, constitute genius? Will it ultimately bear the fruits of genius? Some day we’ll know. To see the 60 Minutes story reported by Anderson Cooper, go here. Fair warning: commercials are part of the package, but so are the interesting sidebars.
Frankfurt, West Germany, March, 1956: The stars of the “Jazz at the Philharmonic” tour pose for a photo backstage at the Frankfurt Zoo Theater. In front are Herb Ellis and Ella Fitzgerald; in back, from left to right, are Oscar Peterson, Roy Eldridge, Ray Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, Illinois Jacquette, Gene Krupa and Flip Phillips.
Again this year, I swore off voting in what has become an epidemic of jazz popularity contests, also known as critics polls, with one exception. I don’t seem to be able to say no to the persuasive Francis Davis, who conducts the National Public Radio Jazz Critics Poll. How I voted on the day I succumbed doesn’t necessarily reflect how I might have voted a day—or a week—sooner or later. Here’s my ballot:
sent a report that may bring summer memories to those of us in the grip of the northern hemisphere winter. She writes:
1999. The cruise lasts six hours, with the club members and other passengers enjoying the music and the sights of Moscow from one end of the city to the other—and back. Groups of prominent musicians rotate between the lower and upper decks of the vessel, the Port Arthur. Every July on the day of the cruise it seems to be raining in the morning. Then the sun comes out and the sky clears. We speculate that there are jazz fans up there, and they want to see who is making the music.
The mystery, melancholy and minimalist magic of Mette Henriette Martedatter Rølvåg’s music stems in part from her family origins in the Sámi, the indigenous people of northern Scandinavia. The young Norwegian tenor saxophonist and composer shares qualities of Nordic cool and daring that have brought attention to such established ECM artists as Jan Garbarek and Ketil Bjørnstad. The first CD of her debut album for the label presents her with cellist Katrine Schiott and pianist Johan Lindvall in pieces approaching pure impressionism. At first, she keeps her saxophone in a minor role. When it emerges, her quiet authority on the instrument commands attention. The second disc finds Ms. Rølvåg with a 13-piece ensemble in which she establishes a significant composition and arranging talent. In a piece like “Wind on Rocks,†her playing and the entwined subtlety of her writing make her doubly impressive.
At Christmas time he brightened the season for our family with music he taped at the grand piano in the living room of his house in Seattle. Just once, when we were living in New Orleans, he made his Christmas recording using the Fender-Rhodes electric piano. Something about that instrument invested his Christmas songs with unusual sprightliness at 
up-tempos and a contemplative quality at slow ones; all with his special harmonic gift.
The heart of Mr. Cerra’s feature is the essay that I wrote for the 1996 release of an eight-CD box compiled from the Harris tapes. His post also includes producer Orrin Keepnews’s recollections of his long association with the pianist. Among the sidemen who appear on the album are drummers Philly Joe Jones, Marty Morell and Arnie Wise. The bassists are Teddy Kotick and Eddie Gomez. To see the Jazz Profiles post about Evans, 
Today’s exception is “England’s Carol,†John Lewis’s orchestral variations on the traditional English Carol “God Bless Ye Merry, Gentlemen.†Lewis (pictured) and the Modern Jazz Quartet included the piece in their repertoire, and he expanded on it in his 1958 European Windows album with members of the Stuttgart Symphony. Percy Health and Connie Kay, the MJQ’s bassist and drummer, played on the date. As soloists for the piece, Lewis chose the English baritone saxophonist Ronnie Ross and the Czech flutist Gerald Weinkopf. Your responses to this in previous Christmas seasons made us think that perhaps you would enjoy hearing it again.
could sell him a record. Gerry told Bock that the group hadn’t recorded yet, and Bock said, “Well, how much does it cost to make a record?†When he found out that it could be done for just a few hundred dollars, he got the quartet into a recording studio, and the Pacific Jazz label was born. It went on to successfully record many West Coast jazz groups.
With a subdued manner and undercurrents of strong feeling, the Oregon singer ranges across a dozen songs of varying genres. Among them are standards by the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, Charles Trenet and Harry Warren; a Horace Silver classic; and three impressive compositions of her own. She unifies the pieces with a rhythmic pulse, musicianly phrasing and the subtlety of a slight terminal vibrato on note endings. Her “Danger in Loving You†and a gospel treatment of Sarah Masen’s “Carry Us Through†have qualities that could send them onto soul charts. Accompanied by piano, bass and baritone saxophone, she scats half a chorus of “Our Love Is Here To Stay,†exhibiting an understanding of the chords, a trait not rampant among scat singers. With conviction, Ms. Loren delivers the message of Silver’s “Peace,†whose unidentified lyricist deserves credit.
(pictured), recorded it as “Moonlight On Kinkakuji” with bassist Jay Leonhart and drummer Joe Ascione in his 2009 Venus album 
became “Almost Christmas.†Sickler made videos of three versions of the song featuring Washington, DC, vocalist Lena Seikaly (pictured). Here, Ms. Seikaly sings it accompanied by the veteran pianist-bandleader Cecilia Coleman and bassist Kanoa Mendenhall, whom Sickler describes as “an 18-year-old rising star.â€
However, I am filled with the spirit of celebrating Sinatra’s 100th, so I want to point out the time and place of my special: Sunday evening Dec 13, 7PM -11PM Eastern Time. If you are near your radio or have access via your computer or mobile device I hope that you will join me. 91.3FM or 
Coltrane legacy, A Love Supreme’s effect on succeeding jazz by instrumentalists and vocalists has continued to grow. The titles of the piece’s sections are indications of the depth of the saxophonist’s metaphysical transformation in 1957 from post-bebop striver with drug and alcohol problems into a seeker of peace and enlightenment through creative expression, religion and mysticism. The titles are “Acknowledgement,†“Resolution,†“Pursuance†and “Psalm.â€
