The great (term used advisedly) arranger and bandleader Bill Holman celebrated his 85th birthday this week. Steve Cerra posted on his Jazz Profiles blog a repeat of the Holman profile he put together on another occasion. It includes a brilliant assessment of Holman’s work by André Previn, photographs, and a selection of liner notes I have contributed to Holman albums over the years. To see Steve’s post, go here and scroll down the left column until you come to the classic John Reeves photograph of Willis, chin in hand, smiling.

For more on Holman and his music, see this post from the Rifftides archive.

Miles Davis’s birthplace, Alton, Illinois, has announced that it will honor its famous son by erecting a statue. Here are excerpts from the story by Kathie Bassett in Alton’s newspaper, The Telegraph.

Alton Mayor Tom Hoechst unveiled the plan to put a life-sized statue in the heart of Downtown’s entertainment district on Third Street.

This is awesome,” said Brett Stawar, president of Alton’s CVB. “We believe in Miles Davis’ legacy, and I’m excited to see the plan evolve to include a statue that will add another layer to Alton’s visitor experience.”

The initial concept for the statue is that it most likely will mirror the renowned trumpeter’s sinuous pose featured on the commemorative stamp set to be issued on June 12 in New York City, said Charlene Gill, founder and president emeritus of the Alton museum.

To read the whole story and Telegraph readers’ comments, go here.

Miles would no doubt be pleased, but he might very well say, “So What.”

Steve Provizer (pictured, left) posted on his Brilliant Corners blog a treatise on vibrato. He was inspired to do so by Sidney Bechet (1897-1959), the cantankerous genius who made the soprano saxophone a jazz instrument and was the king of vibrato. Steve includes links to performances by celebrated vibratoists, including Bechet, and one by Wild Bill Davison that borders on parody. He also sends us to antivibratoists like Miles Davis, Bix Beiderbecke and Lester Young. You could easily spend an hour just listening to Steve’s links. To see his post, click here.

As sometimes happens in the blogosphere, Provizer’s post inspired Bruno Leicht (pictured,right), halfway across the world in Cologne, to follow up with thoughts about Harry James. James is perhaps not the first trumpeter you would think of if you were in search of vibrato-free playing. Nonetheless, Bruno provides a lovely example of him playing a ballad with a big, fat, nearly vibratoless tone. To hear it, go to BrewLite’s Jazz Tales here.

As for Bechet, here he is in the late 1950s with musicians in France, where he made his home from 1951 until his death. He uses vibrato throughout and with a vengeance toward the end of his long sustained high G or A-flat (or, in this film, somewhere in between).

Judi Silvano, Indigo Moods (Jazzed Media)

As anyone knows who has heard her in duet with her saxophonist husband Joe Lovano, Judi Silvano is capable of dramatic, even eccentric, uses of pitch, harmonic intervals and time. She calls upon those abilities in this collection of cherished standard songs, but her main point in the album is—to borrow Ruby Braff’s phrase—adoration of the melody. In “If You Could See Me Now,” she honors Tadd Dameron’s tune by altering it only with little touches of phrasing and a few vocalise fills. She gives Irving Berlin’s “It Only Happens When I Dance With You” and Billy Strayhorn’s “A Flower is a Lovesome Thing” straight readings, changing nary a note (well, one in the Strayhorn), yet manages to infuse those songs with the piquancy of her style.

For all of her concentration here on melodies, Ms. Silvano is not reluctant to depart from them. Trading fours with trumpeter Fred Jacobs for 16 bars of “If I Had You,” she improvises as skillfully as any instrumentalist. Her wordless vocal chorus in Jobim’s “If You Never Come to Me” (“Initul Paisagem”) captures the song’s Brazilian nature. She brings bluesy variations to “Mood Indigo.” She plays with time and syllables in a Latinized introduction to “Embraceable You.” Still, the album gets its character—her character—through “Skylark,” “I’ll Be Seeing You,” “Let’s Fall in Love,” “But Beautiful,” “Still We Dream” (Monk’s “Ugly Beauty” with words) and the Dameron and Strayhorn songs adorned only with Ms. Silvano’s compelling personality. Trumpeter Jacobs and pianist Fred Tomlinson are her only companions in the album’s 14 songs. They provide support, sensitive accompaniment, tasteful solos and the opportunity for Ms. Silvano to be her very musical self.

Kenny Dorham, Una Mas (Blue Note)

This is a reissue only in the sense that in 1999 engineer Rudy Van Gelder remastered the album he recorded in 1963. There are no newly discovered pieces, no bonus tracks, no alternate takes. There is just Kenny Dorham playing trumpet at the top of his game with his ideal foil, tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, and a rhythm section of Herbie Hancock, Butch Warren and Tony Williams. Dorham did not get his due in his lifetime (1924-1972). A few perceptive young 21st century jazz players have been inspired by the example of his melodic gift and his ingenious use of harmonies, it would be a shame if this essential musician’s life and work were forgotten. KD still has a lot to offer. If you haven’t discovered Dorham, this album is a good way to get acquainted.

For more on Dorham, including rare video of him playing, see this Rifftides archive post.

While the real photographer was setting up for the atmospheric shots used in Bud Shank’s 2001 sextet album On The Trail, I snagged this one of Conte Candoli as he entertained the band and bystanders with the theme from The Godfather.
In addition to Shank and Candoli, On The Trail features Jay Thomas on tenor saxophone and a favorite Shank rhythm section: Bill Mays, piano; Bob Magnusson, bass; and Joe LaBarbera, drums. I was enlisted to write liner notes. When the recording at Raw Records in Port Townsend, Washington, was done, Mays and LaBarbera invited Candoli and me to join them in a game of tennis. We explained that we weren’t tennis players. “That’s okay. We have extra rackets. It’ll be fun,” Mays said.

We found a high school tennis court; two real players in tennis whites and two guys in street clothes. I was wearing sneakers, but Count’s shoes had leather soles. Our mismatched doubles teams batted the ball back and forth to great hilarity as the rank amateurs played like rank amateurs, Candoli’s Guccis frequently slipping on the asphalt. Finally, he made a flying lunge at a ball headed out of bounds, slid out of control, fell and rolled. We all rushed over, determined that nothing was broken and helped him up. Concluding that discretion was advisable, Count and I retired to the sidelines and cheered the survivors.

Less than four months later, Count was dead of a cancer no one had suspected in August. At the center of my many fond memories of him is the day he played so well on the record date and his childlike pleasure in that ad hoc fooling around on the court. His longtime colleague Bud Shank left us in 2009.

Here’s a good way for all of us to remember Count—with LaBarbera, Pete Jolly at the piano and Chuck Berghofer on bass. The piece is Candoli’s “Secret Passion.”

Stan Getz with Eddy Louis, organ; Renè Thomas, guitar; Bernard Lubat, drums, from a 1971 French television program. The piece is “Dum Dum.” Getz’s tone led John Coltrane to say of him, “We’d all sound like that if we could.”

“Dum Dum” is included on Getz’s Dynasty, which Verve Records has dropped from its catalog. The album is on its way to becoming a collectors item.

*la·gniappe (lan-yap), noun

Chiefly Southern Louisiana and Southeast Texas . 1.a small gift to a customer by way of compliment or for good measure; bonus. 2.a gratuity or tip. 3.an unexpected or indirect benefit.

I met a grown man the other day who came right out and admitted that he had never heard Sonny Rollins play “Wagon Wheels.” We were in public and I didn’t want to embarrass him, so I took the only civilized option that sprang to mind. I promised him that if I could find it on the web, I would post the track for him and anyone else similarly deprived. Here it is, with Ray Brown on bass and Shelly Manne on drums, from Way Out West (1957), a basic repertoire item if ever there was one.

“Wagon Wheels” debuted in the Ziegield Follies in 1934. Among several successful recordings over the years were those by—strange though it may seem—Jimmy Lunceford, and Tommy Dorsey with strings. It was a hit for Spade Cooley and Paul Robeson, too, but the record permanently installed for a decade in the jukeboxes of my hometown was by The Sons of the Pioneers. You may find it a contrast to the Rollins version. Click here.

Gil Evans, who enriched the art and craft of jazz arranging, was born 100 years ago today. National Public Radio this morning ended one of its hours on Weekend Edition Sunday with a remembrance of Evans and his work. To listen to it, go here and click on “Listen Now.”

Here are three pieces arranged by Evans for an all star orchestra featuring Miles Davis on a 1959 Robert Herridge CBS-TV special. They are from the 1957 Davis album Miles Ahead. Herridge introduces them.

To see a one-hour documentary about Evans, go here.

Alto saxophonist and flutist Gary Foster writes from Los Angeles:

Just in case you haven’t seen this. We recreated music from the three Miles-Gil recordings at the Hollywood Bowl in 2010 and at Monterey last September. The edited recording from Monterey is being broadcast by NPR. With Vince Mendoza conducting and Terence Blanchard playing the solos, to experience the music from inside the orchestra has been extraordinary. There is a rumor that we may play it in Southern California again and make a commercial recording in 2013.

Ending as we began, with NPR, go here to listen to the JazzSet hour of Evans arrangements with Blanchard in the solo trumpet chair.

Orchestra Members

Wayne Bergeron, Chuck Berghofer, Annie Bosler, Gene Cipriano, Wade Culbreath, Marcia Dickstein, Peter Erskine, Miles Evans, Dan Fornero, Gary Foster, Gary Grant, Larry Hall, Greg Huckins, Alan Kaplan, Charlie Loper, Bob McChesney, Charlie Morillas, Mike O’Donovan, Bill Reichenbach, Bob Sheppard, Rick Todd, Brad Warnaar.

Under Doug’s Picks in the right column, and for a time in the main column, you will find the Rifftides staff’s newest recommendations for listening, viewing and reading. This time around: a big box of mainstream classics, two fine and rather different pianists, Monk alone, and the charm and humor of a great Dane who chronicled an unparalleled time of jazz abundance in New York.

We in the Western world suffer from too many categories and classes; we’ve forgotten that we all still have diapers on. We’ve separated music from life.—Ornette Coleman

If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.—Charlie Parker

What we play is life.—Louis Armstrong

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.—Emily Dickinson