I don’t know whether “Love Thy Neighbor” is the most unlikely song John Coltrane ever recorded, but his 1958 version is one of the most delightful. Mack Gordon and Harry Revel wrote it for the 1934 movie We’re Not Dressing, a classic of the shipwreck survivor genre. Bing Crosby sang it beautifully in a contrived sequence that also involved Carole Lombard, Ethel Merman and Leon Errol. Listen to Crosby’s bluesy phrasing and inflection in the verse. He was, after all, a friend of Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong.

When Coltrane and pianist Red Garland grew up, the Great American Songbook was not a museum collection. It was woven into the popular culture. They heard wonderful songs like “Love Thy Neighbor” on the radio and on jukeboxes. It was natural for Coltrane to bring them into his repertoire even as he was developing what Ira Gitler indelibly labeled Trane’s “sheets of sound” approach. The trumpeter is the nearly forgotten melodist Wilbur Harden. Paul Chambers is the bassist, Jimmy Cobb the drummer in this 1958 recording.

Happy Sunday

Wayne Shorter, Without A Net (Blue Note)

About seven minutes into Shorter’s first soprano saxophone solo on the monumental “Pegasus,” someone in the band says, “Oh, my God!” The interjection stands as reaction not only to that track by Shorter’s quartet and the Imani Winds but also to his quartet throughout the album. “Pegasus,” commissioned by the Imani Winds, is the piece de resistance of this collection of performances recorded in concert on a 2011 tour. Weaving together the quartet improvising and the wind ensemble reading his demanding score, Shorter achieves intense energy and a successful synthesis of two genres that is rare enough to be noteworthy. It is the centerpiece of the album, but he and the rhythm section are stunning in the eight tracks without the Imani.

The abiding impression is that the Shorter quartet has found a degree of consistent unity few working bands achieve even occasionally. In their decade or so together, Shorter, pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade have reached the blessed state reflected in the title of one of the CD’s tunes, “S.S. Golden Mean.” However, they depart from the classic description of the golden mean as a happy medium, a state of balance. They allow extremes, surprises, explosions of the unexpected. The four seem wide open to anything, eager to capitalize on the next chance one of them takes. The ability to land on their feet is better insurance than a net. “Zero Gravity to the 10th Power” and “(The Notes) Unidentified Flying Objects” find Shorter on tenor sax reacting to and developing ideas generated by the rhythm section. In “Orbits,” “Plaza Real,” the old movie song “Flying Down to Rio,” indeed throughout, the collective improvisation frequently creates edge-of-the-seat anticipation that Shorter, Perez, Patitucci and Blade satisfy even after repeated hearings.

On the eve of his 80th birthday, August 25, Shorter has made his mark many times over. This album is not about making a new one, except in the sense that it finds him and his remarkable quartet at a level of togetherness verging on ESP.

Two days following Cedar Walton’s passing, we have lost another splendid pianist, one of the world’s best known and best loved jazz artists. Marian McPartland died in her sleep just before midnight Tuesday in her home on Long Island, New York. A message from family members reports that she passed away, “smiling, knowing that she was surrounded by family and friends.” Ms. McPartland was 95.

She developed from a shy English schoolgirl into a major influence in the music. It is the story of talent, determination and unforced charm overcoming prejudices in jazz against women and, in some quarters in the 1940s, against foreigners having the presumption to play “our” music. For a comprehensive survey of her life and importance, see Peter Keepnews’s McPartland obituary in today’s New York Times. Paul de Barros’s recent McPartland biography is highly recommended. For thoughts about her growth into a substantial jazz player, here is a portion of my notes for her 1982 trio album Personal Choice.

A pleasing and popular jazz artist since her earliest exposure on the New York and Chicago club scenes, year by year she has increased her command of the piano and looked more deeply into her art. McPartland’s piano playing has always been beautiful. Now, it is also lean, tough and full of surprises.

It is no coincidence that during the past decade, her period of most intense artistic development, she has been heavily involved with extracurricular activities. Her National Public Radio program “Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz” is into its third season as one of the most successful live jazz series ever presented. It has brought her into close contact with many of her fellow pianists, ranging in style from Eubie Blake to Chick Corea. Her cable TV series, “Women in Jazz,” has been shown all over the country. She has also remained extremely active in music education on the primary, secondary and college levels, conducting workshops and seminars. Despite all these commitments…possibly in part because of them…Marian continues to grow as a player, moving closer and closer to the essence of jazz. It is inconceivable that anyone today could write of her “woman’s touch, as a Down Beat reviewer did, disparagingly, in the early 1970s. The concept does not apply. She has the technique, the forthright inventiveness, the expressiveness of a first-rank jazz pianist. Gender is irrelevant.

Great Day in Harlem photo by Art Kane

“I feel I have more freedom at the keyboard now to experiment with new ideas,” Marian says. “I think I’m getting better, and I want to keep on getting better. It’s rewarding to know there has been some improvement. It’s nice to be in this business because chances to be creative are never-ending. There’s always more than you can do. You can’t say, “well, I’ve done everything; now I’m going to retire, give myself a gold watch, and go to Florida to play Shuffleboard.”

She kept getting better—and bolder. On her show, she once got into a free jazz give-and-take with the iconoclastic pianist Cecil Taylor. “I’ve become a bit more — reckless, maybe,” she said when she was 80. “I’m getting to the point where I can smash down a chord and not know what it’s going to be, and make it work.”

Given her importance, there is surprisingly little on film or videotape of Marian performing. Here, she plays her composition “Afterglow” at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1974.

For a more robust aspect of McP’s playing—in a jam session with Jimmy McPartland, Joe Venuti and others—watch this video from 1975.

In New York, I occasionally encountered Marian on the street or the Times Square shuttle. Once on the train, she sat down next to me with a serious expression and said, “I saw what you wrote.” In Down Beat, I had reviewed one of her albums and complimented her liner notes, with something like, “I wish she’d mind her own business. Do I run around playing the piano?” She stared at me as the subway rattled along. “Oh, oh,” I thought, ‘here it comes.’” She said, “I laughed at that for a good five minutes.”

One night at the Algonquin Hotel, where Alec Wilder lived for years, Marian, Willis Conover, Paul Desmond, my wife and I ringed our chairs around Alec for one of his evenings holding court in the lobby that served as his living room. Marian and Alec adored one another. As always on those occasions, their good feeling set the tone with his good-natured grumpiness and her laughter. I wish that we could do it again.

 

In late summer each year, the Rifftides staff photographer puts a camera in the bike bag and heads out to orchard country to see how the apples are coming along.

It seems there will be a crop.

 

 

 

Some apples are taking on color sooner than others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In six weeks or so, that gorgeous fruit will begin showing up in your neighborhood grocery store.

Do I miss New York (and all those other places)? Well, yes, but there are compensations.

 

Speaking of apples, here’s your bonus:

 

Charlie Parker, alto saxophone
Charlie Byrd, guitar;
Bill Shanahan, piano
Merton Oliver, bass
Don Lamond, drums
Unknown, bongos

Howard Theater, Washington, DC, October 18, 1952

Cedar Walton died this morning at his home in Brooklyn at the age of 79. Family members confirmed his passing but have not announced the cause of death. A pianist admired for his adaptability and thorough musicianship, Walton wrote tunes that became jazz standards, among them “Firm Roots,” “Bolivia,” “Ugetsu,” “Midnight Waltz” and “Something in Common.” My notes for his 2009 CD Voices Deep Within summarize Walton’s career from the time he was a high school music student in Dallas, Texas.

It must have been a remarkable school; his band mates included the budding tenor saxophonists David “Fathead” Newman and James Clay, and trumpeter Bobby Bradford. Bradford told Kirk Silsbee (in the notes for Cedar’s Seasoned Wood, High Note HCD 7185) “—Cedar was way ahead of us—he could already play the bop changes that we were learning. He’d correct us when we weren’t sure of what we were doing.” By the time he got out of Army in 1958, Cedar was ready for advanced work in New York. Before the decade ended, he had played with J.J. Johnson, Gigi Gryce and the Art Farmer-Benny Golson Jazztet. In the early sixties he became a regular on the recording scene and a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the edition that included Wayne Shorter and Freddie Hubbard. His work with Blakey established him as a pianist and composer of dependability, inventiveness and versatility. He has occupied the top ranks of both categories ever since.

From my notes for Breakthrough, one of his major mid-career albums by a group that he led with tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley:

His playing matured with Blakey, and his composing skills found a ready outlet. The Messengers recorded several of Cedar’s tunes. Walton’s style is rooted squarely in the bop tradition but, as is eloquently evident on this record, he has grown dramatically since the early days when he was essentially a Bud Powell disciple. The Powell base is an inseparable foundation; but at 37, Cedar has built on it one of the most logical and original personal styles of the major pianists influenced by Powell.

For more on Cedar’s career, see a story by Robert Wilonsky in today’s Dallas Morning News. A YouTube search turns up dozens of videos involving Walton, none with better audio and video fidelity—or spirit—than this one. Bob Cranshaw is on bass and Grady Tate on drums with Walton in Japan in 1995.

Detroit is gearing up (they’re good at that in Detroit) for the 2013 edition of its massive free jazz festival over the Labor Day weekend. A central performer at the festival and a major figure in the city’s jazz community is the 45-year-old bassist Rodney Whitaker, internationally known as a player and as an educator of new generations of musicians. He is the head of jazz studies at Michigan State University. In today’s Detroit Free Press, its music editor, Mark Stryker, writes:

Whitaker has imported the Detroit model of tradition, mentorship and community into the university. “Each one, teach one,” Whitaker said, repeating a favorite saying by the late pianist Kenny Cox, one of the many Detroit veterans who guided Whitaker’s jazz education. Like another key mentor, the legendary Detroit trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, Whitaker has older MSU students coaching less experienced peers.

“What we’re really doing is teaching leadership through jazz,” Whitaker said. “Our goal is to raise 1,000 people, who are gonna raise 1,000 people, who are gonna raise 1,000 people who are all going to go out there and change the world. In order to make them better performers, we have to educate the whole person.”

To read all of Stryker’s profile of Whitaker as musician, teacher and family man—and to see a video of the bassist in action, go here. A sidebar linked to the column lists Whitaker’s appearances at the festival. For a look at the festival lineup go here.

Then start packing.

On opposite coasts of the US, Jim Wilke (Washington State) and Bill Kirchner (New Jersey) will present stimulating jazz listening this Sunday. Here’s Wilke’s announcement:

Anat Cohen has been winning both critics and readers national jazz polls for several years and she tours continually, playing major jazz festivals and clubs around the world. The last week of July found her in Port Townsend, WA where she was teaching and performing at Centrum’s annual jazz workshop and festival at Fort Worden State Park. Her performance with Dawn Clement, piano, Chuck Deardorf, bass and Jeff Hamilton, drums was recorded for Jazz Northwest and will air on Sunday, August 18 at 2 PM (PDT) on 88.5 KPLU and simultaneously stream at kplu.org.

Anat Cohen was born in Tel Aviv and received her early musical education and experience playing jazz there. While attending Berklee College of Music in Boston she encountered students from Latin and South American cultures which she absorbed into her own music. That experience was further enhanced by a move to New York after graduation which expanded her musical horizons in a variety of settings.

She started her own record label, Anzic Records and has recorded seven CDs as a leader, the most recent is titled Claroscuro. She also plays soprano and tenor saxophones with authority, but her clarinet playing has drawn the most favorable attention and she choose to concentrate on clarinet in this concert. Included are the Artie Shaw theme song Nightmare, Fats Waller’s Jitterbug Waltz, Jimmy Rowles’ ballad,The Peacocks and a Brazilian choro by Pixinguinha, Um a Zero.

Jazz Northwest is recorded and produced by Jim Wilke exclusively for 88.5, KPLU. The program airs Sundays at 2 PM (Pacific) and is available after the broadcast as a streaming podcast at kplu.org

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Here’s Kirchner’s description of the second show in his newly revived participation in Jazz From The Archives:

Recently, I taped my next one-hour show for the “Jazz From The Archives” series. Presented by the Institute of Jazz Studies, the series runs every Sunday on WBGO-FM (88.3).

In the fall of 1967, the Miles Davis Quintet (with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams) participated in an all-star tour as part of the Newport Jazz Festival in Europe. Several of the concerts were recorded and/or filmed, but for years they were available only as bootlegs. A couple of years ago, they finally were released legitimately by Sony Records.

We’ll hear performances from several concerts by this Quintet–one of the greatest jazz groups ever–at its peak.

The show will air this Sunday, August 18, from 11 p.m. to midnight, Eastern Daylight Time.

NOTE: If you live outside the New York City metropolitan area, WBGO also broadcasts on the Internet at http://www.wbgo.org/

It is Bill Evans’ birthday. He was born on August 16, 1929 and died on September 15,1980. Evans influenced pianists in all genres of music. With bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, he changed the concept of the jazz piano trio. From their 1959 album Portrait In Jazz, here is a performance that played an important part in bringing about that change.

A few major record labels survive, but most jazz albums come from independent companies, many of them one-man or one-woman operations. Digital technology makes recording relatively simple and inexpensive for small independent labels. It also makes it easy for musicians to be their own record companies. Some record at home in living rooms or basements. Those with good gear and a modicum of engineering skill can achieve high quality sound. The business of making records has come a long way since the painstaking, labor-intensive process the film in this recent Rifftides piece illustrates. One of the results is that at a time when the audience for jazz is holding at about two percent of the record market, more jazz CDs than ever are being recorded.

Until fairly recently, the non-technological roadblocks to do-it-yourself record businesses were distribution, promotion, advertising and publicity. Internet uploading, the rise of social media and the expanding population of independent publicists have changed that. Indeed, some musicians are their own publicists and distributors by way of their websites, Facebook pages, email lists, the postal department, FedEx and UPS. Getting a record out and calling attention to it is relatively easy. That presents the listener with an embarrassment of riches (to be optimistic about musical quality). The reviewer must face the impossibility of giving thorough hearings to even a small percentage of the CDs that show up on his doorstep, sometimes as many as a half-dozen a day.

All the reviewer—this one, at least—can do is try to listen to as much as possible, write the occasional full-length review and otherwise share impressions of some of what he hears. Here are recommendations, some in brief, of recent and a few not-so-recent arrivals.

Mike Wofford, It’s Personal (Capri)

In this album with the apt title, Wofford’s harmonic and rhythmic approaches to Johnny Carisi’s “Springsville,” make the piece his own. A few seconds into the track, the listener abandons the idea of comparing Wofford’s version with the indelible 1957 Miles Davis-Gil Evans recording. At some points the pianist seems to be floating, as if the piece were a leisurely nocturne rich with underlying chords. And yet, the pulse that powers his performance continues throughout, however subliminally. The unfailing jazz feeling of his playing and his ingenuity with chord voicings are evident everywhere in the dozen tracks of this solo album, a highlight in Wofford’s extensive discography. He imparts his personal stamp to pieces by Jackie McLean, Dizzy Gillespie, Gigi Gryce, the guitarist Larry Koonse, among others.

Wofford gives Duke Ellington’s and Billy Strayhorn’s “The Eighth Veil” a reflective reading quite apart from the rhythmic insistence of Ellington’s 1962 big band recording. He includes a medley of two pieces with the same name, “Once in a Lifetime.” The first is the 1960s standard by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley. The other is by the new wave band Talking Heads. He makes the Talking Heads song a solid jazz vehicle while retaining the rock group’s whimsy. Among Wofford’s original compositions, “Cole Porter” captures something of the drama and elegance of its namesake and his songs. “It’s Personal” opens with melodic foreshadowing and harmonies that may have to do with John Coltrane’s “Moment’s Notice,” then it blossoms into a distinctive ballad. “Hines Catch-up” is a medium-tempo F blues dedicated to Earl Hines. It is a knowing appreciation of the father of modern jazz piano, with side trips through a couple of Art Tatum runs. It is also a self-portrait by a pianist capable of paying homage without lapsing into imitation or parody or being anyone but himself. In this track, the album’s good feeling, relaxation and solid values are at their zenith.

Rudresh Mahanthappa, Gamak (ACT)

An alto saxophonist, Mahanthappa melds his American jazz values and Indian cultural heritage—along with a number of other ingredients—into original music that cannot be categorized. The album is dedicated to the proposition that melody rules, and that melody and wild excitement can go hand in hand. To an extent, the music is built around Dave Fiuczynski, a guitarist who can reach instant intensity. But Mahanthappa is the guiding spirit, a powerful soloist and a leader with a vision that Fiuczynski, bassist Francois Moutin and drummer Dan Weiss help him achieve with unity, superb musicianship and riveting energy.

Jeremy Pelt, Water And Earth (High Note)

Pelt applies the warmth and brilliance of his trumpet playing to his original compositions and a piece by bassist Stanley Clarke. The rhythm section features Fender Rhodes piano and electric bass throughout and, occasionally, muffled singing. The album has a jazz fusion aspect that reaches back to the 1970s, with occasional use of heavy drum echo and other electronic sounds. Interesting soloing by Pelt and saxophonist Roxy Cross, who is notable on tenor, usually overcomes the lounge atmosphere. The credits list “Jeremy Pelt: trumpet, effects.” Sometimes, in “Boom Bishop” for instance, the effects win. When his trumpet is unadorned, he wins.

Next time: more brief reviews.