Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

Labor Day 2012

In the United States this is Labor Day, since 1894 a national holiday that celebrates working peoples’ contributions to the nation. Although the calendar says that summer doesn’t end until September 21 this year, many Americans consider that Labor Day marks the close of the season. This three-day weekend, they pile into their automobiles despite four-dollars-a-gallon gasoline. They range through the land to camp out, have picnics, visit lakes and ocean beaches, and watch fireworks. This being an election year, some seek out rallies and listen to candidates. It is also a day when many working people go to work because the stores that employ them have huge Labor Day sales. The irony.

There is no official song for this holiday, although Pete Seeger’s “Solidarity Forever,” Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Sixteen Tons” and Dolly Parton’s “9 To 5” always get Labor Day airplay. From 1962—when the average price of a gallon of regular gas was 31 cents—here is the unofficial Rifftides Labor Day song for 2012. Cannonball Adderley introduces it. His sextet has Nat Adderley, Joe Zawinul, Yusef Lateef, Louis Hayes and Sam Jones.

Happy Labor Day.

Other Places: Desmond And The Canadians

No sooner had I added Thomas Cunniffe’s website Jazz History Online to the Rifftides blogroll (bottom of the right column) than Tom posted an essay about the last period of Paul Desmond’s musical life. That was the era, all too brief, of Desmond’s Canadian quartet. The piece did not come as a complete surprise to me. As he was in the final stage of preparing it, Tom asked me to help him get permission to use a fine Ron Hudson photo of the quartet. The picture appears in my biography of Desmond. On the left here, you see a reduced section of it.

The essay is a fine summary of the Canadian quartet’s history and its concert, club and recording activity. Mr. Cunniffe discusses the music and the players with insight and humor, and Paul’s final days with sensitivity. The layout and graphics are tasteful. He includes helpful links to sources and references. What’s not to like? I would not go so far as to suggest that you read it instead of my book, but I heartily recommend it. For “Paul Desmond and the Canadians,” click here and the digital magic carpet will take you to Jazz History Online.

After you have read Cunniffe on Desmond, come back and listen to Desmond with the Canadians at Bourbon Street in Toronto. Whoever uploaded the track to YouTube identifies himself as “paganmaestro.” Paul would have liked that, I think.

Comments

Ted O’Reilly says:
September 1, 2012 1:17 pm

Excellent item, and website. Interestingly, the ‘original’ Canadian quartet of Ed Bickert, Don Thompson and Terry Clarke were all in the same room two weeks ago, and Rob McConnell was there in spirit. Ed was a special guest (in the audience) at a concert by a reunited Boss Brass at the Prince Edward County Jazz Festival in small-town Picton, Ontario, about 2 hours east of Toronto. I took pictures at the concert.


The fest’s creative director Brian Barlow was the band’s long-time percussionist, and with star soloist Guido Basso (a County resident) got the alumni band together for a single concert to remember Rob, and the great fun the guys had playing his music. Rick Wilkins rehearsed and conducted, appropriately, as he was a long-serving reedman in the band, and had carte blanche from McConnell to write anything he wanted for the band.


Don Thompson played piano (he first played with the Boss Brass as its percussionist, then as the bassist, finally at the piano), Terry Clarke was on drums, as he was for most of the band’s life, and in Ed Bickert’s guitar chair, his “musical son” Reg Schwager. Steve Wallace was on bass, creating a powerful engine room for a great orchestra. ‘Twas a memorable night of music!

Hall Overton, Thelonious Monk, Jack Reilly

Most jazz listeners know Hall Overton (1920-1972) for his orchestrations of Thelonious Monk piano solos. Those arrangements are a major factor in the success of Monk’s concert with a 10-piece band at New York’s Town Hall in 1959, preserved in this essential album. Musicians familiar with Overton’s other accomplishments and broad scope respect him for his knowledge of music and his effectiveness in sharing it. During Overton’s time at Juilliard, he learned from great teachers, including the legendary educator of composers
Vincent Persichetti. Following his graduation from Juilliard in 1951, Overton taught at his alma mater as well as at Yale University and The New School, and became part of New York’s community of composers. We see him here with Aaron Copland.

In addition to writing classical works, including string quartets, a symphony and the opera Huckleberry Finn, Overton worked as a pianist with Stan Getz, Jimmy Raney, Teddy Charles and other jazz artists. But his biggest impact on jazz came in an informal setting. At his New York loft on weekends and evenings, he and the photographer W. Eugene Smith, who lived next door, hosted jam sessions. Some of them were surreptitiously recorded and released years later. At his and Smith’s lofts, Overton provided instruction to musicians who sought him out for his skill at unveiling the mysteries of counterpoint, theory and polytonality as applied to composition and the act of jazz improvisation. Monk (pictured with Overton) frequently hung out at the loft. It was where the two worked out the arrangements for the Town Hall concert. Raney and Charles spent time there, as did Zoot Sims, Vic Dickenson, Bob Brookmeyer, Bill Crow, Gerry Mulligan, and dozens of other musicians during what many think of as the last golden age of jazz in New York.

Pianist and composer Jack Reilly studied with Overton in 1957, during the loft’s heyday. He got an intensive education not only in technical specifics but also the mystique of jazz improvisation. Here is a short passage from Reilly’s account of the experience.

The biggest surprise after a few weeks of lessons was graduating to playing with bass and drums at the lessons. People like Joe Hunt, Chuck Israels, Steve Little, Chuck Andrus, Teddy Kotick and other top players on the New York jazz scene were invited by Hall to play at my lesson and accompany me on my repertoire assignments. Hall knew that learning to play jazz piano meant more than practicing alone; it meant interacting, playing/jamming with others, but above all learning to listen to what’s going on around you!

To read all of Reilly’s “Hall Overton: Ashes to Ashes” memoir, go here.

To hear “Friday The 13th,” one of Overton’s charts for the Monk Town Hall concert, click on the arrow in the frame below. The photo, like those above of Overton and of Monk with Overton, is by W. Eugene Smith, complete with his proof sheet crop marking.

Thelonious Monk (composer, piano); Jay McAllister (tuba); Bob Northern (french horn); Eddie Bert (trombone); Donald Byrd (trumpet); Pepper Adams (baritone sax); Charlie Rouse (tenor sax); Phil Woods (alto sax); Sam Jones (bass); Art Taylor (drums); Hal Overton (arranger). W Eugene Smith (photography). Town Hall, New York City, February 28, 1959.

A few years ago, jazz scholar Sam Stephenson created a website and a book about the Jazz Loft. To tour the site, which includes a thorough biography of Overton, and to find out about the book, go here.

Weekend Listening Tip: Green And Smulyan

The tip comes from Jim Wilke in Seattle, a suburb of Port Townsend.

Sunday, September 2nd on Jazz Northwest from 88.5 KPLU, the Benny Green Trio with special guest Gary Smulyan on baritone saxophone is heard in concert at Centrum’s Jazz Port Townsend. The concert was recorded in McCurdy Pavilion at Fort Worden on July 28, and consists of original music by Benny Green.

Benny Green has been a favorite at Jazz Port Townsend for years. He has been an active professional pianist since the 80s when he began his career with Betty Carter, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Freddie Hubbard. He has since made 15 albums as a leader himself. He previews some new music in this concert including several pieces titled with the names of Bop masters Jackie McLean, Harold Land and Sonny Clark, reflecting his interest and study of the originators of this music. Joining him in this trio are Ben Wolfe on bass and Rodney Green on drums.

Also joining the Benny Green Trio on three selections is the multi-award winning baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan, a leader in his own right and a first call baritone saxophonist on the New York scene. Gary Smulyan has played with Woody Herman, the Mel Lewis Orchestra under Bob Brookmeyer, The Mingus Epitaph band, and Smithsonian Masterworks Orchestra among others. Both Benny Green and Gary Smulyan were on the faculty of the week-long jazz workshop that precedes the Jazz Port Townsend Festival each year.

Jazz Northwest is recorded and produced by Jim Wilke, exclusively for 88.5 KPLU. The program airs Sundays at 1 PM PDT. It streams simultaneously to the internet on KPLU and is also available as a podcast at kplu.org following the airdate.

(Photos by Jim Levitt)

Jim Wilke tells me that his next broadcast concerts recorded at Port Townsend will be by pianists Dena DeRose on September 16 and Tamir Hendelman on September 30, both with bassist Martin Wind and drummer Matt Wilson. Heavy duty piano roster at PT this year.

For a Rifftides review of a Benny Green Trio concert a few days later and thousands of miles away, click here.

Charlie Parker, 1920-1955

This is Charlie Parker’s birthday. If he had lived, he would be 92. I wish that he had taken better care of himself.

Here’s a segment from Ken Burns’ film Jazz.

“Summer Sequence” Revisited

With less than a month of summer to go (in the northern hemisphere), this is timely.

If it has been a while since you have heard “Summer Sequence,” the brilliant suite composed by Ralph Burns for Woody Herman—or if you have never heard it—this is your lucky day. Rifftides reader Roger Hunter’s comment on our recent Hi-Los post triggered a search for a recording of that timeless piece by Herman’s First Herd. To read Mr. Hunter’s comment and hear the music, go here and scroll down to the end of the comment section.

Other Matters: The 2012 Crop Forecast With Music

East of the mountains, we live in apple country ——and pear, peach, cherry and hop country. Those dark green areas in the picture above are orchards typical of those that cover the hills and valleys. The orchards were quiet on Sunday during our photo expedition, but before long they will be alive with pickers and the warehouses full of packers preparing fruit for shipping all over the world. The Washington Apple Commission is predicting the second biggest harvest ever, nearly 109 million bushels. These are Red Delicious, no longer the dominant variety but still hugely popular.
Many growers have torn out acreages of Red Delicious and replaced them with Gala, Pink Lady or Fuji, some of the newer varieties with crisper textures or sweeter taste, or both.
I wonder what Wayne Shorter’s favorite is.

They also grow pears around here, not quite in the profusion of apples, but they are an abundant cash crop.Music referring to pears is rare. There might be none if Eric Satie hadn’t responded to critics who accused him of writing music that had no form. He called this Trois Morceaux en Forme de Poire (Three pieces in the Form of a Pear). Here are Robert and Gaby Casadesus.

Correspondence: Speaking Of The Hi-Los…

Regarding the Singers Unlimited item in the following exhibit, Rifftides reader David Perrine writes:

The Singers Unlimited was an updated and expanded (via technology) version of Puerling’s previous group the Hi-Lo’s (which in a later edition also included Don Shelton as one of the four voices.) While Fischer probably wasn’t involved with “In Tune”, he did write instrumental arrangements for both groups and one of the Hi-Lo’s finest tracks is a Fischer piece called “Summer Sketch” from the “and all that jazz” album.

The Hi-Los And All That Jazz (1959) is an indispensable album, but Columbia Records dispensed with it. It has been out of the catalogue for more than 20 years, last reissued on CD—nearly in secret—in 1991 by the label’s Sony Music Special Products division. Amazon offers a few used copies for less than twenty bucks, but the album is rapidly disappearing. Marty Paich’s Dek-Tette accompanied the Hi-Los. The horn soloists were among the west coast’s major players; Jack Sheldon, Bud Shank, Herb Geller, Bill Perkins, Bob Enevoldsen and Vince DeRosa. Gene Puerling’s liner notes mention that he, Fischer and Marty Paich each wrote vocal arrangements for the date, although he doesn’t identify the arrangers track by track. “Summer Sketch” is almost certainly Fischer’s arrangement for the voices, and I have a hunch that “Then I’ll Be Tired of You” is, too. It seems to have his harmonic earmarks. This may be the definitive version of that great Arthur Schwartz song (lyrics by Yip Harburg). Sheldon demonstrates with his trumpet work on the bridge section of the final chorus that “just” playing the melody can be the most creative option for a soloist——if he has tone, phrasing and taste like Sheldon’s.

Weekend Listening Tip: Singers Unlimited

Bill Kirchner sent a description of his next program in the Institute of Jazz Studies “Jazz From The Archives.” He will feature a vocal group with close ties to jazz, that for more than a decade reached a wide audience with its rich series of recordings and continues to amass new fans. Here’s Bill’s announcement.

Between 1971 and 1982, The Singers Unlimited (pictured left to right, Bonnie Herman, Len Dresslar Gene Puerling, Don Shelton) recorded fifteen albums, mostly with varied instrumental backups. The innovative vocal writing by Puerling featured extensive studio overdubbing using as many as 27 voices; for this reason, the group never appeared live. They performed rich, difficult harmonies flawlessly and were a major inspiration for the popular vocal group Take 6.

We’ll hear several of The Singers Unlimited’s albums: one a cappella, and others with instrumental arrangements by Robert Farnon, Clare Fischer, and Rob McConnell.

The show will air this Sunday, August 26, from 11 p.m. to midnight, Eastern Daylight Time.

NOTE: If you live outside the New York City metropolitan area, WBGO (88.3 FM) also broadcasts on the Internet at www.wbgo.org.

To further whet your interest, here’s a sample, with orchestral accompaniment by Farnon and a video biographical sketch of the composer, a certain Velvet Gentleman. If Mr. Kirchner includes it in his program, perhaps you won’t mind hearing it again.

How To Sleuth Rifftides: A Periodic Reminder

Every once in a while, a reader asks how to find items in the Rifftides archive. Rummaging through the blog’s seven-year history, you may discover interesting things you missed. Here’s a way to get started. Scroll down to the “Older Posts” function at the bottom of the main page. Click on that command and it will take you to the previous 20 posts. Click on it again, you will see another 20, and so on back through the mists of time to the primitive beginnings of this blog in June of 2005.

There are two other ways to search Rifftides:

1. Scroll down to “Archives” in the right-hand column. Select the month and year you want to see.

2. Enter a name or term in the box under the artsjournalblog logo at the top of the right column and click on “Search.” I tried it with Count Basie and came up with 83 Rifftides items about Basie or mentioning him. Happy exploring.

Here’s a reward for paying attention to our little tutorial. Among web videos featuring two-piano performances by Basie and Oscar Peterson, this one is a rarity. It comes from a 1974 Peterson concert in Prague. The bassist is Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. The drummer is most likely Ed Thigpen. The video is grainy and unclear. The music is not.