Bert Wilson was an inspiration, mentor, and brilliant saxophonist who passed on June 6 in Olympia at age 73. Some of his large output of music will be featured on Jazz Northwest on Sunday June 16 at 2 PM PDT on 88.5 KPLU and kplu.org. Although not widely known to the jazz public, he was sought out by saxophonists who regarded him as a guru of improvisation, extended techniques and the history of the instrument.

Bert Wilson (1939-2013)

He lived and worked in New York, LA and Berkeley before he settled in Olympia (Washington) in 1979 where his home with flutist Nancy Curtis became the center of the jazz community. It was the site of private lessons, informal jams and public concerts. Struck by polio at the age of 4, Bert Wilson spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair (he became known as “Dr.Wheelz”) but he said discovering Charlie Parker had a larger impact on his life. He also said playing the saxophone was a necessary exercise in strengthening his lungs. There will be a musical celebration of his life at the Olympia Ballroom on June 30.

Also on this week’s program, music by Randy Halberstadt, Steve Treseler, Larry Goldings, Cory Weeds and Pearl Django, and updates on best bets for live jazz in the coming week. Next week’s program will feature a concert recorded at the Seattle Art Museum by the Eric Verlinde Quartet featuring Thomas Marriott.

Jazz Northwest is recorded and produced exclusively for 88.5 KPLU by Jim Wilke. It is also available as a podcast at kplu.org following the broadcast.

Fellow saxophonist Jeff Coffin posted this video of Wilson playing his tenor saxophone:

There has been a civic outpouring of affection for bassist Ben Tucker, who died on June 4 in his adopted hometown, Savannah, Georgia. Tucker was killed when a car smashed into his golf cart. He was 82. He moved to Georgia four decades ago after establishing himself as a valuable sideman in Los Angeles, then New York. Tucker worked with pianists Carl Perkins, Billy Taylor and Marian McPartland, among many other leading jazz artists. He is on record with Bob Dorough, Herbie Mann, Grant Green, Lou Donaldson, Gil Evans, Art Pepper and Kenny Dorham, to name a few of his colleagues. This article in the online edition of the Athens, Georgia, Banner-Herald recalls his involvement in the life of Savannah and includes a video of the public viewing that preceded his funeral.

In the aftermath of their father’s memorial service, Dave Brubeck’s sons are maintaining the family tradition of extensive travel and performance. Darius, Chris, Dan (pictured, l to r) and guest saxophonist Dan O’Higgins are touring the British Isles, headed toward several nights at Ronnie Scott’s club in London, with many stops along the way. So far, they’ve been in Devon, Kent, Suffolk, Pembrokeshire and the jazz hotbed of Chipping Norton. For the full schedule, see Darius’s website.

Blogging at Rifftides is slightly in arrears while I work on a Zoot Sims project whose nature will be disclosed in due time. Meanwhile, in anticipation of the official change of season in the northern hemisphere—less than a week away—here are Zoot and four of his closest friends.

This was in 2010, when Geller was only 81.

According to the only evidence we have been able to uncover that it exists— pictured on the right—the Darmstädters and Geller made a record of the Kenton project. Although the website of the band’s leader, Peter Linhart, lists such an album in its CD section, there is no information about how to acquire it. Perhaps one of our Rifftides readers in Germany will know and let us in on the secret.

We wish Mr. Geller a speedy recovery.

There were a lot of times where there was a great deal of fodder recorded and played, because there was a market for it – just as there is today. And there were more bad bands than there were good bands – I think that should always be remembered.

They’re asking for ludicrous, ridiculous kinds of tunes. It could be “Johnson Rag” or, “Don’t you have any Russ Morgan pieces?” or they’re always getting your tunes mixed up with someone else’s, so you get requests for “Green Eyes” or “Frenesi” or “In The Mood.” And they get very terse replies like “No,” or “He quit the business,” or “I’ll play that when I get to the big band in the sky.” It becomes a kind of standup routine.

…and, naturally, I remembered a recording.

That song with words and music by Joe Greene was a big hit in 1947 not only for Woody Herman but also for the Mills Brothers and for June Christy with Stan Kenton. According to the label on the Columbia 78 rpm record, “The Four Chips” accompanying Woody were Dick Kane, piano; Gene Sargent, guitar; Andy Lambert, bass; and Don Lamond, drums.

Even in tracks orchestrated with layers of electronic mysteries, a fine sense of chance-taking permeates Blanchard’s return to the Blue Note label. “Don’t Run,” the piece with the least contrivance, is to a considerable degree the album’s most daring. Built on a stuttering unison melodic line, it is just short of a free-for-all for the trumpeter, soprano saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and bassist Ron Carter, with drummer Kendrick Scott’s strategically placed interjections urging them along. The track has a sense of street-beat abandon evocative of parade music in Blanchard’s native New Orleans. Carter is magisterial on this piece and “Magnetic.” The gifted 19-year-old bassist Joshua Crumbly is on eight of the album’s 10 tracks. He has yet to attain Carter’s incisiveness, but he more than holds his own.

“Pet Step Sitter’s Theme Song,” by the young Cuban pianist Fabian Almazan, also captures some of the same wild feeling as “Don’t Run.” Blanchard, Almazan, and Coltrane—on tenor sax—solo passionately. Ethereal tones paint the background of the piece. They sound like a guitar but may be Blanchard’s horn routed through a synthesizer. As the piece fades away, someone adds touches of vocalise. Almazan is the only soloist in a dazzling performance of his feature piece, “Comet.” Studio techniques expand the dramatic title track by Blanchard’s quintet to Wagnerian proportions, particularly in his solo, but the manipulations fall away for tenor saxophonist Brice Winston’s and Almazan’s sharply etched choruses.

“Hallucinations” (not the Bud Powell tune, but a Blanchard composition) goes to lengths to live up to its title, with more of those eerie guitar-like slips and slides permeating the atmosphere. Scott’s “No Borders, Just Horizons” gets underway with the drummer’s tight press rolls initiating a solo impressive for its concision. Blanchard’s virtuosic improvisation in this piece, indeed throughout the album, is tightly controlled, with few of the glissandos, slurs and half-valve effects that in some of his previous work became clichés to the point of distraction. Saxophonist Winston (pictured) appears on five tracks. The purity of his tone and the fleetness of his soloing are notable throughout and dominate the recording of his composition “Time to Spare.” Through the magic of electronic manipulation, Blanchard becomes a raucous trumpet trio on the relentlessly intense “Another Step,” which ends in a round of sardonic laughter.

An observation on the packaging, possibly of concern only to grumpy critics: the CD booklet lists the names of the musicians in miniscule white type on a red background, making it a challenge to decipher who plays on which tracks without the aid of a powerful light or a magnifying glass, or both. The three pages inside the booklet are largely devoted to a widescreen photo of Blanchard surrounded by spectral out-of-focus images. The one panel of notes is devoted to Blanchard’s thanking everyone involved in the making of the CD, including the president of the record company and members of the production staff. Some of that space might have been used for facts about this fascinating, often complex music. The lack of meaningful information is by no means unusual to this album. It follows a trend that jazz and classical companies have adopted from the pop and rock branches of the record industry. That may satisfy requirements for trendiness, but it is of no help to listeners who want to know about what they’re hearing.

That cavil aside, this is a recommended album.