My Jazz Times review of the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival is published in full on the magazine’s web site. It includes most of what I reported in Rifftides and some festival background added for JT.

When I listen to the two-track analog stereo tape recordings Roy DuNann (pictured) made for the Contemporary label shortly after the perfection of stereo in the 1950s, I curse the boneheads who, because they could, introduced multi-track, multi-microphone recording. Digital capability then came along with 587-channel mixing boards and made post production a sci-fi adventure that compounded all of the engineering wizards’ sins. Red Mitchell was right; simple isn’t easy. That applies to everything in life, especially audio engineering. Rudy Van Gelder, nominated by acclamation as the god of jazz recording, was better in early stereo than after he got all the toys. For one thing, in the fifties his pianos sounded more like pianos.

Roy DuNann is most likely a genius. Listen to his recording of Double Play! with Andre Previn and Russ Freeman at two pianos and Shelly Manne playing drums. DuNann recorded it in Contemporary’s studio in Los Angeles in 1957. The little company’s studio was the shipping room.

If you want another example of what DuNann could do with minimal high-quality equipment in a tiny space, try Sonny Rollins’ Way Out West. Rollins, Ray Brown and Manne played side by side, not in isolation booths, captured cleanly with just enough separation, plenty of depth and no cute tricks. There are dozens of other DuNann recordings in the OJC catalogue, still available. If it was recorded for Contemporary in the 1950s or ’60s, chances are DuNann was the engineer.

It is worth the frustration of navigating the confusing Concord Records web site in search of DuNann gems by Previn, Manne, Art Pepper, Art Farmer, Hampton Hawes, Lennie Niehaus, Shorty Rogers, Benny Carter, Benny Golson, Duane Tatro and Red Mitchell, among others. Click on the pull-down menu titled Original Jazz Classics Artists. Be aware that Concord has the strange practice of listing artists alphabetically by first name.

Last I heard, Roy DuNann was still with us, living in Seattle.

It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.
-Dizzy Gillespie-
It’s not the mistakes that count, it’s what you do after them that counts.
-Thelonious Monk-

I know, I know. I promised a survey of recent CDs. But a couple of writing assignments materialized, the kind that bring more than the psychic rewards associated with blogging, and I must meet the deadlines. In the meantime, here’s a link to an informal performance of “Sweet Lorraine” by Zoot Sims, Red Mitchell and Rune Gustafsson. It’s a good way to start your week: relaxed, swinging and happy. It will help you understand what Paul Desmond meant when he said that going to the Half Note and listening to Zoot was like getting your back scratched. Mitchell’s eight-bar introduction is a gem.

There has been interesting response to the Rifftides musing a few postings ago about jazz audiences decreasing at the same time that jazz education programs are burgeoning. Here is an excerpt from one comment:

A lot of talented high school and college band directors never program anything more adventurous than Thad Jones — or worse, third-rate Thad Jones knock-offs. [This is not to knock Thad, of course — I love Thad.] Many of them are completely unaware of any developments in jazz since, say, 1967, and aren’t even aware of what’s going on locally. They never take their students to jazz clubs or bring in local musicians to do workshops and sit in with the students.

For the original item and all of the readers’ comments, go here.

Reports from New York are that the benefit for pianist Larry Willis last week at St. Peter’s Church raised more than $5,000. That won’t build Willis a new house, but it will help him replace some of what he lost in a January fire. More than two dozen pianists, including some of the most prominent in jazz, played for Willis. One of them, Deanna Witkowski, sent her impression of the event:

I thought that the evening was beautiful, and there really was a lot of love in the room! The concert lasted for about three and a half hours.

Another of the pianists, Lenore Raphael, wrote:

It was warm and thrilling to be part of such a benefit and tribute. We played on a 9 foot Fazioli dream of a piano and everyone got as much out of it as one could get from such a great instrument. I wish you could have been there.

Willis himself played at the benefit, a duet with trumpeter Jimmy Owens. Total attendance through the evening was about 250. For a recommended CD by Larry Willis, see Doug’s Picks in the right-hand column.

Please note that in the right-hand column under Doug’s Picks are five new recommendations. At the end of the Picks selections, you have the option of going to the Picks archive for previous CDs, DVDs and books.
Have a good weekend.

The classic Dave Brubeck Quartet (Brubeck, Desmond, Morello and Wright) frequently opened their concerts with Billy Strayhorn’s “Take The ‘A’ Train.” At a 1966 concert, German television caught back-to-back performances of “‘A’ Train” and Brubeck’s “Forty Days.” They have surfaced on the Daily Motion web site. Audio quality is good, black and white video quality acceptable. Camera work and direction are excellent. The lengthy clip–nearly sixteen minutes–provides a reminder of the Brubeck rhythm section’s finely attuned empathy, of Paul Desmond’s melodic ingenuity and of his imperative to make each solo a fresh statement. To see and hear the video, go here.

To jazz fans, Annie Ross will always be a third of the nonpareil singing group Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. But she left L-H-R in 1962. Ever since, she has been up to her ears in a variety of music and entertainment ventures. Will Friedwald caught up with the indefatigable Ms. Ross in New York and talked with her about her kaleidoscopic show business life and current singing career. She told Will about Bob Weinstock of Prestige Records asking her in 1952 if she could write lyrics to a group of instrumental solos.

I took the records home to my little one-room flat and the one that caught my ear was Wardell Gray’s “Twisted” — that suggested a whole mess of things to me.

Ross’s recording of “Twisted” became a jazz hit and led to her teaming with Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks. To read more about Annie Ross In Friedwald’s New York Sun column, go here.

Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival
Moscow Idaho
2/25/07
After presentation of student winners, Saturday evening’s final concert began with one piece by pianist Benny Green, bassist Christian McBride, guitarist Russell Malone and drummer Jeff Hamilton–the festival house band–who then accompanied James Morrison. Morrison began “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” on trombone with a long, exhibitionistic acapella cadenza that subsided into a melodic first chorus. As he built intensity in his improvisation, the rhythm section urged him on. Green’s comping led the charge. The others dug into the developing groove. The swing that Hamilton generated during Green’s, Malone’s and McBride’s solos was irresistible. Morrision reentered on trumpet, taking the horn boldly where no man but Maynard Ferguson had gone before. After making several orbits, Morrison landed in the low register with an expansive tone and a few quiet phrases. His welcome dip into lyricism raised a question: if he can play that tastefully, why doesn’t he allow his more thoughtful self out in public more often?
Before intermission came two quintets with identical instrumentation, the same pianist and different personalities. Trumpeter Roy Hargrove kicked his group into a fast modal piece that sizzled with excitement and a sense of risk-taking that characterized most of the set. In an unnamed Latin tune (Hargrove made no announcements), alto saxophonist Justin Robinson played an impressive, if busy and slightly repetitious, solo. Hargrove followed with a lesson in the use of space to make a solo breathe without losing anything of intensity or rhythm. Gerald Clayton inflected his piano choruses with bebop figures that melded into the Latin groove. Bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Montez Coleman had a rhythm fiesta, Coleman’s explosive accents kicking the time along.
Hargrove played “Fools Rush In” on flugelhorn, creating a highlight of the festival. If I had entertained doubts that he finds his truest expression on the larger horn, this performance would have erased them. His chorus of pure melody led into a lovely solo by Clayton. Then, with his cashmere sound, Hargrove improvised a chorus in long tones and a few fluid runs, caressed the final eight bars of Rube Bloom’s melody, added a held note and ended with a sweet afterthought of a tag. Simply beautiful.
Clayton stayed on stage to play in the Clayton Brothers Quintet led by his bassist father John and his uncle Jeff, one of the few alto saxophonists who takes Cannonball Adderley as his primary model. His Cannonball leanings predominated, but in the ballad “That Night,” Jeff Clayton introduced a bit of Johnny Hodges sensualilty. Trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos and drummer Obed Calvaire completed the group. Castellanos, one of the bright lights of Southern California’s jazz scene, played brilliantly in the front line with Jeff Clayton and helped to remind the audience that the post-bop tradition of Art Blakey and Horace Silver is alive. In a piece called “Gina’s Groove,” Gerald Clayton summoned up Silver’s infectious style. His father, a protégé of Ray Brown, continues the Brown institution of solid time and a fat sound. An exemplar of the bow, in the course of the festival he played several masterly arco solos. In “Last Stop,” the senior Clayton’s arrangement emphasized ensemble dynamics, not a lost art in jazz, merely a rare one.
The concert and the festival wrapped up with the Lionel Hampton New York Big Band backing three guest vocalists. Roberta Gambarini gave a commanding performance of Benny Carter’s “When Lights Are Low.” Dee Daniels, who applies gospel soul to everything she sings, did “Our Love Is Here To Stay,”complete with a just-us-girls suggestive monologue. John Pizzarrelli, guitar in hand, sang and played three songs from the Frank Sinatra tribute album he made with the Clayton-Hamilton big band. For Pizzarelli’s set, the Jeff Hamilton Trio served as the rhythm section with the Hampton Band. Pizzarelli sang with his usual boyish charm and verve. On “You Make Me Feel So Young,” he played an intricate solo and negotiated a tricky guitar part with the ensemble. He achieved serious swing in his guitar/voice unison improvisation on “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby.”
For the penultimate number, the Hampton band played–what else?–“Flyin’ Home,” with solos all ’round. Doug Lawrence tore it up with a tenor saxophone solo that would have had Hampton grinning ear to ear. Finally, things quieted and the live band accompanied the recorded Hampton singing “What A Wonderful World” as a digital slide show on huge screens illustrated the history of the Lionel Hampton festival from 1984 to that very evening. It was an emotional remembrance of Hamp and a retirement sendoff for Dr. Lynn Skinner, the founder and director of the festival from its beginning. The new festival regime will be headed by John Clayton.

The Hampton festival’s core purpose is the development of young jazz musicians. Students from several states converge here to play in big bands and combos, vying for group and individual honors. Nearly 400 youngsters competed in the final day’s events. Before the professionals played on Saturday evening, we heard student winners in several categories.
In competitions across the country it has become predictable that Seattle’s Roosevelt and Garfield High Schools will be among the top big bands. Indeed, they often place one-two. In Moscow, Garfield, under director Clarence Acox, edged Roosevelt, under Scott Brown, for first place and performed in the big hall. Then, fifteen winners in the Outstanding Student Instrumentalist category lined up across the stage in front of a rhythm section. Each played two choruses of “C-Jam Blues.” There was a tie in only one category, between alto saxophonists John Cheadle of Garfield and Logan Strosahl of Roosevelt. The two played together in middle school, but went to separate high schools, each developing impressively. Results in all categories of student competition are posted on the Hampton Festival web site.
Music students from middle schools, high schools and colleges all over the United States and abroad flock to the the Hampton festival and to the jazz education components of other institutions. Undoubtedly, a number who come here and to The Centrum Port Townsend Bud Shank workshop, Jamey Aebersold’s camps, programs of The Commission Project and at least a dozen other such ventures are simply enjoying pleasurable school activities. An appreciable percentage of them, however, plan careers in music. Many of them would like to be professional jazz musicians. Given the low receptivity of the public to jazz, and the resulting economic reality, it is certain that there will not be enough work to provide a living to more than a lucky few. Except during the big band era, that has always been as true in jazz as it is in, say, the classical chamber music business.
Still, here is a puzzle. Thousands of children go through jazz education programs in the schools and colleges. One presumes that they develop knowledge and appreciation, perhaps even love, of the music. These programs have been flourishing for a long time, twenty or thirty years. Why hasn’t that resulted in an expansion of the audience for jazz clubs, concerts and record sales? Let’s suppose that the widely publicized estimates of jazz CD sales as three percent of the total are low. Even if those sales were five percent, shouldn’t the jazz education movement of the past few decades have stimulated greater demand? Do the kids go home from these programs, revert to rock, hip-hop and rap, grow into adulthood and never pursue the higher interests to which they were exposed? I don’t have the answers to these disturbing questions. I don’t know that there are answers, but this is a fertile area for a PhD candidate in economics, business or music searching for a thesis topic or a reporter who can talk his editor into a long investigative project.
As always, comments are encouraged and welcome.

The Seasons Performance Hall has launched its own CD label with a Jessica Williams solo piano recital on the hall’s nine-foot Steinway. Go here to read about Jessica Williams Live At The Seasons and listen to one of the tracks. Full disclosure: I wrote the liner notes, which are reproduced on The Seasons page at the link above.

Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival
Moscow, Idaho
2/25/07
In the packed ballroom of the University of Idaho’s student union building, The members of the festival’s house rhythm section were answering questions. Jeff Hamilton, Benny Green, Christian McBride and Russell Malone now and then played to illustrate a point. A young woman asked what they do to prepare when a soloist is going to perform with them. Following a brief reply concerning repertoire and key signatures, Hamilton asked the questioner what her instrument is. She told him that she is a vocalist.
“And what would you sing with a band?” Hamilton asked.
“A standard, probably. Maybe “Autumn Leaves.”
“Come on up and sing it,” he said.
As the singer made her way to the stage, several hundred audience members took a deep breath. She huddled with the musicians for a moment, went through the find-a-key exercise with Green, agreed on C-minor and sang one chorus of “Autumn Leaves.” In French. In tune. With great poise. She got a big hand from the audience and the musicians.
In a brief conversation with her at the end of the workshop, I learned that her name is Kathryn Radakovich and that she is a student at the University of Idaho.

Later, I’ll have a report on the final concert of the Hampton festival, the changing of its artistic leadership, and a few thoughts on jazz education and the future of the jazz audience. At the moment, the hotel’s checkout deadline is looming. I’m packing up and hitting the road following an intense and interesting four days in Moscow.
As promised, I’ll also be catching up, by way of mini-reviews, with some of the CDs that have accumulated in the past few weeks.