Mark Stryker, music critic of the Detroit Free Press, sent this note:

Thought you might be interested in this— a couple months ago I recall a comment on your Mitch Miller/Bird post including a reference to the Australian Jazz Quartet/Quintet. The vibraphonist from the group, Jack Brokensha, a longtime Detroiter, died this week at 84. This is a link to the Free Press obituary.
Couldn’t find any YouTube clips with Jack, save a few Motown hits where he’s playing various percussion instruments and/or vibes. There must be film of the band somewhere; I can’t imagine they weren’t on television at some point, particularly when they went back to Australia to play. Interestingly, Jack once showed me a fascinating reel of home movies that he had taken back in the middle ’50s when the AJQ was traveling widely as part of package tours with Miles Davis’s band, Brubeck, Carmen McRae and others. The films were super 8 and they were silent. What stays with me 14 years later is that you saw all the cats relaxed on tour, waiting for the bus, hanging on the street, smiling for the camera (Miles too), plus film of the marquees and clubs in various cities. My memory is hazy but I think he also had film of the various groups performing though the reason this doesn’t stick out is that, as I said, it was all silent footage.
Brokensha was a sweet guy with a firecracker personality. He was a real fixture here.

A year ago almost to the day, a Rifftides post called “The Art Of Art Farmer” featured three videos from Farmer’s 1982 concert at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. It also had some of my musings on the great trumpeter and flugelhornist. Two of the videos were later disabled by those mysterious internet forces always patrolling in search of clips to take down for real or imagined violations. Recently, other forces—equally mysterious—restored the clips to YouTube, and now they are back in that piece in the archive. Further along, I’ll give you the link to it.
BUT FIRST: In the course of reconstructing the post, I came across a little something extra or, as they say in South Louisiana, lagniappe. It is still another performance from the Smithsonian by Farmer, pianist Fred Hersch, bassist Dennis Irwin and drummer Billy Hart. Introducing it, Farmer refers to the last number in that 2009 post.

Now, go here for the reconstituted entry from October 27, 2009 and more music by a remarkable quartet.

Gail Pettis is an orthodontist turned singer (you may supply your own puns) who has commanded considerable notice in her brief new career. She has won awards, toured in Europe and Japan and recorded two albums praised by critics, including this one.
Pettis’s warmth and intelligence translate into performances that put the song first. She employs her jazz time and phrasing as interpretive tools, not means of calling attention to herself. When she scats, she does it judiciously, with musical values. Here’s a fine example from a television performance of Artie Shaw’s “Moonray.” The pianist is her frequent accompanist Randy Halberstadt, whose left hand finds intriguing harmonies.The introducer is Nancy Guppy of the Seattle Channel’s In Studio series.

For Rifftides reviews of Pettis’s CDs, go here and here. For more about her, go to her web site.

By any assessment, jazz in the 21st century is a minority music. Depending on whose statistics are accurate, it accounts for somewhere between 1% and 3% of record sales, right in there with string quartets and Gregorian chants. Some of the music’s best American players find that they are in greater demand in Europe and Japan than in the United States, although I hear from musicians that gigs are harder to find everywhere as the world economy struggles for equilibrium and recovery.
Once in a while, a young jazz artist manages to break through to audiences who ordinarily prefer music that requires less attention. One attracting considerable notice without dumbing down is the bassist, composer and singer Esperanza Spalding, recently the subject of this Rifftides recommendation. On The News Hour on PBS last night, Jeffrey Brown reported on Spalding.

Last night, millions of Americans watched the San Francisco Giants submerge the Texas Rangers in game one of the World Series. They also saw Tony Bennett sing—of course—”I Left My Heart in San Francisco” and at the 7th inning stretch, “God Bless America.” If you missed it or if you are in a part of the world mystified by the United States’ baseball craziness at Series time, you may nonetheless enjoy Mr. Bennett’s performance of the Irving Berlin song that many musicians and many more ordinary citizens have suggested should be the US national anthem. If you have doubts about how his 84-year-old chops are holding up, listen to Bennett leap up an interval of a seventh to the concluding A.

Note added November 1: Major League Baseball has blocked the Bennett clip. To see a fan’s video from the stadium, go here. It’s the best we can do until MLB unblocks the quality version.—DR
Jazz maven and senior news producer Paul Conley at Capitol Public Radio in Sacramento sent the link to that clip. The Rifftides staff thanks Mr. Conley.
As a former San Franciscan, all I can add is, Go Giants!

Some of the best new work of prominent American jazz artists is not on US labels, and not all of it is easy to find. Stars is a case in point. The pianist in the band known as the December 2nd Quartet is Dena DeRose, who sings on several tracks of this charming album. Bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Akira Tana, complete the rhythm section. The rising young trumpeter Dominick Farinacci is the fourth member. Benny Green is guest pianist on four of the 11 tracks. Recorded in California by the Vega label for the Japanese market, the album is available in the US as a pricey import unlikely to reach a wide audience. Still, connoisseurs have created a buzz about it.
The “stars” theme is hardly new, but it has rarely been pursued with more lyricism. DeRose’s piano solos, pure delivery of lyrics and unison piano-vocalise improvisations are among the pleasures in jazz these days. Her work here is on the high level she has established with her recent CDs for MaxJazz, her earlier ones for Sharp Nine, a stunning one-off duo collaboration with trumpeter Marvin Stamm and her hard-to-get first album with the December 2nd Quartet. DeRose’s treatment of “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” could revive that barely-remembered song from the old Disney cartoon feature “Cinderella.” The veterans Drummond and Tana meld smoothly with DeRose and with Farrinacci, whose intriguing freshness of conception is set on a foundation that indicates close study of Blue Mitchell, Clifford Brown and Miles Davis. His duet with Benny Green on “Stardust” consists of Hoagy Carmichael’s melody with slight—but most effective—variations, a cadenza inspired by Brown and, throughout, a magic carpet of chords from Green. Green is on piano as DeRose sings and Farinacci solos on Fred Hersch and Norma Winstone’s “Stars,” a song that, despite its challenging intervals, could become a new standard.
Tana’s brushes accenting Bill Evans’ “Turn Out the Stars” set off Farinacci’s beautifully intoned delivery of the melody. DeRose’s solo maintains the grave, stately spirit of the piece. When Farinacci reenters, she is as much a duet partner with the trumpeter as an accompanist. The British singer Corinne Bailey Rae’s “Like a Star” lightens the atmosphere, DeRose giving the lyrics the dignity of straightforward interpretation. In solo and obbligato, Farinacci blows into a Harmon mute and DeRose executes a passage of her parallel piano-voice inventiveness. Her vocal on “Stars Fell on Alabama” is a highlight, matched by a Farinacci solo paying humorous tribute to Clark Terry and Sweets Edison. DeRose singing and Green accompanying her perform a classic version of “When You Wish Upon a Star.”
Through “Stairway to the Stars,” “Star Eyes,” and a couple of songs outside the stars theme—”I Wished on the Moon” and “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?”—the December 2nd Quartet offers a relaxed program packed with musical substance. Too bad it has limited distribution outside Japan, but the CD is worth seeking out for superior performances by everyone involved.

My biography of Paul Desmond includes Desmond solos that Bill Mays, Bud Shank, Brent Jensen, Gary Foster and Paul Cohen transcribed for the book. They analyze or comment on the solos and John Handy analyzes Cohen’s transcription of “Take Five.” In the text I suggest that playing the recordings and following along with Desmond would help readers appreciate his creative process in improvising. Even if their music-reading skills were slight or nonexistent, a general impression of the flow of notes could be enlightening.
A few readers let me know that they tried, but the transcriptions were Greek to them. Many more who accepted the challenge reported that they enjoyed the exercise and learned from it. In the unlikely event that Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond ever becomes an e-book, maybe digital technology will have advanced enough that we can find a way to marry the recordings with the transcriptions.
How might that work? Let’s watch and listen to a video of the Los Angeles trombonist Bob McChesney. He is noted for his playing in film, television and recording studios with everyone from Kenny G to Ray Charles, and for his jazz solos with Bill Holman, Woody Herman, Frank Capp and Jack Sheldon, among dozens of others. McChesney is a splendid soloist and a fearsome technician. Here, he harmonizes and overdubs four trombone parts in his arrangement of Cole Porter’s “I Love You.” Kevin Axt and Dick Weller, the only other musicians involved, accompany him on bass and drums. The transcription unfolds in synchronization with the music. Whether you can read the notes or are merely going with the flow, keep your eyes on the screen because this goes by fast. It’s easier if you watch in the full screen mode.

Have a nice weekend.

Trombone players are generally the nicest brass players. However, they do tend to drink quite heavily and perhaps don’t shine the brightest headlights on the highway, but they wouldn’t hurt you and are the folks to call with all your
pharmaceutical questions…It’s a little-known fact that trombone players are unusually good bowlers.—Toby Appel’s Guide to the Orchestra

My greatest teacher was not a vocal coach, not the work of other singers, but the way Tommy Dorsey breathed and phrased on the trombone.—Frank Sinatra

Many a sinner has played himself into heaven on the trombone, thanks to the army.—George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara

(Jack Teagarden) was certainly an astoundingly gifted trombonist who single-handedly created a whole new way of playing the trombone.—Gunther Schuller, The Swing Era.

J.J. Johnson found a way of adapting the instrument to bebop that was to influence every jazz trombonist that followed.—Steve Voce

Frank Rosolino was a towering genius and a trombone virtuoso of the jazz genre. His style was unique and instantly recognizable.—J.J. Johnson

Never look at the trombones. You’ll only encourage them.—Richard Strauss