There may be a longshot chance that you are unfamiliar with the mrudangam. It is a South Indian percussion instrument that Rajna Swaminathan has introduced into American music since she became a part of the New York City jazz community in 2011. She is a protégé of the renowned mrudangam maestro, Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman and tours with him and other Indian musicians. She also collaborates with prominent jazz artists based in New York, including the influential pianist Vijay Iyer, himself of Indian heritage, and saxophonist Yosvany Terry, a Cuban who has been based in New York since 1999. Here they are in concert in Harvard University’s Holden Chapel. Listening closely while letting this music generate its own atmosphere, the <em>Rifftides</em> staff found it curiously relaxing. Perhaps you will, too.

Again, the mrudangam player’s name is Rajna Swaminathan.

Life is a lot like jazz. It’s best when you improvise. – George Gershwin.

Do not fear mistakes. There are none. – Miles Davis

Alun Morgan, 1928-2019

The influential and prolific British critic Alun Morgan has died. Morgan’s critiques, reviews and album notes were among the most widely read of those by any contemporary jazz critic.  His longtime admirers included fellow critic Mark Gardner, whose own reputation in British jazz circles and elsewhere grew substantially after he fell under Morgan’s influence and entered the critical field. Gardner wrote an appreciation for the January 14 issue of Jazz Journal. To see it, go here.

               

               Alun Morgan, RIP.

A welcome surprise: I had no idea that veteran pianist Fred Hersch and the relatively new piano star Sullivan Fortner had worked together. As it turns out, they made a joint appearance at Jazz At Lincoln Center in 2016. Here they are on that occasion in a duet on Ornette Coleman’s 1959 composition “Turnaround,” first heard that year on Coleman’s album Tomorrow Is The Question. In the photos and the video, Hersch is on your left, Fortner on your right

                                  

Thanks to a resourceful YouTube contributor, Scott Morgan, for posting that video.

You’ll find the Ornette Coleman quintet’s original recording of “Turnaround” here.

The extracurricular, non-Rifftides assignment that I mentioned in the February 2nd post is done, barring revisions. As mentioned, it involves notes for a CD box set of everything that trumpeter and singer Chet Baker recorded for Riverside Records in the late 1950s. Baker’s Riverside association was packed with problems for him and for producer Orrin Keepnews, but it brought him together with a dozen or so of the finest jazz musicians of the era. Among them are Bill Evans, Philly Joe Jones, Al Haig, Paul Chambers, Kenny Drew and Zoot Sims. The box will include several alternate takes and outtakes.

If the artists’ names above pique your interest, allow me to pique it further with a couple of samples that have shown up on the web.

Michel Legrand, the pianist, arranger and prolific composer of film scores, died today at his home in France. He was 86. Dozens of Legrand’s melodies became popular hits, among them “The Windmills Of Your Mind,” “What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?” and “Watch What Happens.” The wide range of performers who collaborated with him includes such diverse stars as Miles Davis, Barbara Streisand and Kiri Te Kanawa. Early on, Legrand was the piano accompanist for Sarah Vaughan and Lena Horne, among others.

Legrand’s ability as an arranger was on full display in his 1958 album Legrand Jazz. In it he created extensive settings for jazz artists who were at their peaks in the 1950s. Among them were Davis, Bill Evans and John Coltrane when they were all in Davis’s sextet. Art Farmer, Phil Woods, Jimmy Cleveland and Donald Byrd are also featured in the album. For Earl Hines’s “Rosetta,” Legrand made an arrangement that featured trombonists Frank Rehak, Billy Byers, Jimmy Cleveland and Eddie Bert. Tenor saxophonist Ben Webster follows the trombone fiesta with a solo that amounts to a two-chorus reduction of his powerful, incomparable style. Unfortunately, Columbia Records, or someone with a claim to control of the video, has made it unavailable. To see the album and hear “Rosetta,” go here and enjoy Big Ben and a marvelous Legrand arrangement.

For an article tracing Legrand’s career, see John Anderson’s thorough obituary in today’s New York Times.

Michel Legrand, RIP

Helen Sung: Sung With Words (Stricker Street Records)

In this poetry and jazz collection Helen Sung further validates her position as one of the most accomplished pianists In the New York jazz community, which has an abundance of fine pianists. The quintet supporting Sung thrives on her arrangements and accompaniments as she improvises on themes suggested by seven poems of poet Dana Gioia, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and—not so coincidentally—the brother of jazz writer and influential blogger Ted Gioia. Sung’s improvisation on “Too Bad,” is one instance of her solo excellence. Another is her instrumental “Lament For Kalief Browder.“ inspired by the case of a young black man from the Bronx who was charged with theft, spent three years in oppressive custody on Rikers Island, then committed suicide. Despite the sadness and injustice of Browder’s story, Sung’s arrangement, the harmonic purity she gives the female vocal backing, John Ellis’s bass clarinet interlude and the energy of drummer Kendrick Scott’s interjections create a kind of stark beauty. Ellis is equally impressive in his tenor and soprano saxophone appearances.

The high quality of the instrumentalists and singers who support Sung makes this what might fairly be called an all-star album. Trumpeter Ingrid Jensen is at the top of her game, soloing with fluidity and daring into the highest register of the horn. Drummer Scott, bassist Reuben Rogers and percussionist Samuel Torres are solid and supportive throughout. Christie Sashiell has the vocal on Sung’s mysterious “Touch.” She, Jean Baylor, Carolyn Leonhart and Charnee Wade—sometimes singly, sometimes combined—are guest vocalists. Their work gives the album atmospheres that help to account for its variety and spirit. Sashiell and Wade collaborate on the amusing “Mean What You Say,” Gioa’s and Sung’s wry social commentary closing a challenging and rewarding album.

Way North: Fearless And Kind (M A P L)

Way North’s three Canadians and a New Yorker are reminiscent of the kind of ensemble you might find playing on a corner in the French Quarter of New Orleans. For all of their sophisticated musicianship, that’s the kind of jovial feeling the quartet summons in tenor saxophonist Petr Cancura’s “Boll Weevil,” trumpeter Rebecca Hennessy’s “Fearless And Kind” and several other rollicking pieces in this carefree collection. The title track maintains the feel-good atmosphere while at the same time giving the proceeding an almost (but not quite) somber cast. That is also true of Way North’s approach to a brief exposition of Jelly Roll Morton’s “Buddy Bolden’s Blues,” which includes growls by Hennessy that seem to be inherited more or less directly from Bolden’s trumpet successor King Oliver. Solemnity dissolves when they move into their second Morton tune, “King Porter Stomp.” Bassist Michael Herring and drummer Richie Barshay—the American member—generate enthusiastic swing as they collaborate behind Cancura’s and Hennessy’s solos on “Porter.” Herring’s solos on that piece and on Hennessy’s “Inchworm” are highlights of those tracks. Hennessy’s trumpet work throughout further illuminates why she is enjoying growing regard in Canadian jazz circles. She is one to keep an ear on.

For Rifftides reviews of other recent recordings from Canada, go here.