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Listen to Kurt Vonnegut.
Akiyoshi-Tabackin, Frishberg-Dorough
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Midway through Lew Tabackin’s tenor saxophone solo on “Long Yellow Road,†Toshiko Akiyoshi smiled at a particularly vigorous passage in his improvisation. The two have put a lot of miles on that Akiyoshi composition since it was the title tune of a classic 1975 album. It has worked for Akiyoshi 
as a big band vehicle and as a solo piano piece, and at the Portland Jazz Festival it worked for their quartet. Bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer Mark Taylor joined Akiyoshi and Tabackin in a 90-minute recital of Akiyoshi’s pieces and others by Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and her initial piano inspiration, Bud Powell. After talking about Powell’s “hard, sad life,†she tore into his “Tempus Fugit†in the kind of uncompromising bebop piano playing she learned by studying his recordings when she was a girl in Japan. She smiled again, this time at a felicitous phrase in her own solo. Tabackin sat listening intently to the trio number, which he must have heard her play hundreds of times. Kozlov and Taylor soloed to great effect on “Tempus Fugit†and other pieces. Throughout the set, they were strong in support.
Other Highlights:
Akiyoshi began “Sophisticated Lady†with a mesmerizing out-of-tempo introduction and garnished her solo with Thelonious Monk touches. In his “Studio F,†Tabackin played what he described as “free bop,†performed with only Taylor and Kozlov. Now it was Akiyoshi’s turn to sit listening on the side. Using a wireless microphone attached his horn’s bell, Tabackin was often in a half-crouch as he moved forward and back across the stage. The free bop in his solo developed along the lines of a tribute to one of his early models, Sonny Rollins. His flute playing in Ellington’s “Sunset and the
Mocking Bird” from The Queen’s Suite bore traces of nothing but Tabackin’s individuality. There were overtones of anguish in his tenor in the introduction to “Farewell to Mingus,†followed by his duet with Kozlov’s bowed bass and heartfelt solos by Tabackin and Akiyoshi. Following a wildly expressive “Chasing After Love,†the quartet played “Hope,†a piece from Akiyoshi’s long work “Hiroshima.†Since the 9/11 attack, she and Tabackin have played the poignant ballad to close their performances.
Dave Frishberg And Bob Dorough
Seated facing each other at twin grand pianos, the celebrated writers set out to perform songs they created singly and together. They began with an instrumental, Ellington’s “Rockin’ in Rhythm†and proceded to “Who’s on First?†the title tune of their 2000 Blue Note CD (“Which of us is the frim-fram sauce, and which is the
shafaffa on the side?â€). As they moved into Frishberg’s solo segment, he forgot the words of the first of his songs, then of several others. He apologized to the audience: “I’m drawing a blank on everything.†Dorough came gracefully to the rescue, singing and playing “Nothing Like You†and some of his other songs. They played another Ellington piano duet, “The Mooche.†Frishberg had no problem at the keyboard. He rallied to sing, with Dorough, “I’m Hip,†their best known joint effort. The audience gave them a standing ovation. Frishberg apologized again for his lapses. Several people in the crowd gave assurance to their fellow Portlander, shouting “We love you.â€
The word the next day was that Frishberg had an anxiety attack, a phenomenon familiar to many performers. He was at home, doing fine.
Buster Williams, Cécile McLorin Salvant
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The Portland Jazz Festival booked Cécile McLorin Salvant to open for bassist Buster Williams’s “Something More†quintet, but she and her trio headed by pianist Aaron Diehl came close to stealing the show. The 24-year-old singer captivated an audience most of whose members were hearing her for the first time. As noted last summer in the Rifftides recommendation of her only album, she emerged, virtually unknown, as a fully developed artist. Salvant’s contralto, impeccably in tune from sub-basement low notes to thrilling high ones, is comparable to Sarah Vaughan’s. In Portland, those deep tones in the Gershwins’ “It Aint Necessarily So†got the set off to a thrilling start. Her interpretations of some songs 
carried slyness and irony reminiscent of Carmen McRae. She is partial to little known material, and gave an actor’s timing to pauses in “Nobody,†a specialty of the early 20th century black vaudevillian Bert Williams.
Salvant resuscitated the little known verse of “If This Isn’t Love,†then initiated irresistible swing as she moved into the chorus, inspiring Diehl to one of several memorable solos during the set. Her bright red dress, red pumps and white-rimmed glasses matched the drama Salvant imparted to a slow version of “So in Love.†At one point she made the word “so†seem to last forever and at another dressed the lyric with a kittenish rasp. She employed those risky techniques and a judicious bit of melismatic vowel manipulation in “He’s Gone Again†not as gimmicks but in the service of the music. Diehl, bassist Paul Sikivie and drummer Peter Van Nostrand have developed empathy with Salvant that make the four not merely a singer with a rhythm section, but a band. Following a stunning version of Bernstein’s “Something’s Coming,†Salvant answered the crowd’s demand for an encore by reaching into her bag of old songs for “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate†(1922) and bringing it up to date.
Buster Williams led trombonist Julian Priester, saxophonist Benny Maupin, pianist George Colligan and drummer Cindy Blackman-Santana in a set called “Something More,†after the title of a 1989 Williams album. The sound and thrust of the band, however, was more reminiscent of pianist Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi, which featured Williams, Priester and Maupin. A revamped rendition of
Thelonious Monk’s “Epistrophy†was a highlight of the set. Blackman-Santana was spectacular not only to hear, but also to see in her bright gold blouse (photo of Blackman-Santana by Mark Sherman). She connected with Williams in mutually supportive and interactive rhythm throughout the set, as did Williams and Colligan, particularly in “All Of You.†Priester sounded a bit tentative, but in a moving solo on the ballad “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was,†found himself.
Jack Berry RIP
Today as the Portland Jazz Festival was at its midpoint came the call I’ve been dreading. Jack Berry is dead. Since we were in the early stages of our careers during my Portland years in the 1960s, Jack and I have been friends whose closeness was never affected by distance. As I batted around the country from news job to news job, our friendship was not allowed to dim. He was a perceptive writer on jazz and any other subject he chose to approach, and over the years he has been quoted many times in Rifftides. He was a historian, a producer, a guitarist, a champion raconteur. He knew with
amazing thoroughness about literature, film and music. He was the world’s leading expert on Jim Pepper and leaves his biography of the saxophonist uncompleted, a regrettable loss. The emphysema that had dogged Jack for years finally completed its terrible work. For an appreciation of a rare human being, see Tom D’Antoni’s piece in Oregon Music News. To find Jack in Rifftides, enter his name in the search bar at the top of the right column.
Darrell Grant And The Territory
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According to the Oregon Encyclopedia, Darrell Grant moved to the state in 1997, “in search of a place where his music could have a greater impact.†Not that the pianist had been ignored. He had worked for Roy Haynes, Tony Williams and Betty Carter, among others, and recorded successful albums as a leader. The encyclopedia article quotes him, “I was looking for a sense of community, a place where I could make a contribution and serve.â€
Grant became a professor of music at Portland State University and began absorbing the history and culture of the city, the state and the region. His concert at the 2014 Portland Jazz Festival was a performance of his composition The Territory, a suite that he premiered last summer and performed recently in New York. In the course of its nine movements, Grant reflects on the region’s geologic, cultural and human history, including the the ice age Missoula Floods, Chief Joseph’s surrender, the homeland exile of Japanese-Americans in World War Two, good times in Portland’s black community, and the rivers that sustain the Pacific Northwest.
The nine-member ensemble that performed the work consisted of Portlanders with guest vibraphonist Joe Locke, who flew in from New York to again be featured in the suite (pictured: Grant, left; Locke, right). The emotion of Locke’s improvising balanced his precision in executing Grant’s demand material. His work in tandem with cellist Hamilton Cheifetz in the movement that pays tribute to native Americans, “Hymn to the Four Winds,†was rich in harmony and feeling. In “Chief Joseph’s 
Lament,†Locke was moving, as were bassist Eric Gruber, drummer Tyson Stubelek and the remarkable alto saxophonist John Nastos, whose solo demonstrated visceral understanding of Eric Dolphy without mimicking or parodying the late saxophonist. For “The Missoula Floods†Grant may have written for the ensemble what sounded like simultaneous improvisation or it may have been truly improvised. In either case, the closing passages evoked order out of chaos, stunningly appropriate to the subject.
Introducing the seventh movement, “Sundays at the Golden West,†Grant said,
“This is a jazz song.†Was it ever. Grant designed the piece to recall weekend hilarity at the first Portland hotel owned by African-Americans. It may not have been a blues per se, but Grant,
Nastos, tenor saxophonist Kirt Peterson, trumpeter Thom Barber and vocalist Marilyn Keller all produced solos marinated in blues feeling. Barber played his only solo of the suite with a plunger mute in the spirit of Bubber Miley. In this piece, the simultaneous emoting by the horns was unquestionably improvised. Ms. Keller capped the movement by quoting Fats Waller—“One never knows, do one?†Following a sobering movement that commemorated the unprosecuted massacre of 34 Chinese gold miners in Oregon in 1887, Grant’s suite concluded with “New Land,†a confirmation of the promise that continues to draw 21st Century setters to the Pacific Northwest. They join Grant, whose choice of place worked out nicely for him and for his listeners.
After the standing ovation that seems to be mandatory in Portland (the piece deserved it), Grant announced the encore as “a song that, when I get to Heaven, it’ll be playing there all the time.†It was John Lennon’s “Imagine,†with a vocal by Ms. Keller and another of Nastos’s magnetic alto sax solos.
Next time, more from the Portland festival.
Ahmad Jamal At The Newmark
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Ahmad Jamal’s Portland Jazz Festival concert focused primarily on pieces from his recent Saturday Morning CD. Since early in his career, Jamal has been a master at making rhythm work for him. That hasn’t changed, although in his current quartet he and rhythm have plenty of help from drummer Herlin Riley, the ingenious percussionist Manolo Badrena and bassist Reginald Veal. In “Saturday Morning,†“Back to the Future,†and the standards “Blue Moon†and “The Gypsy,†Jamal’s exchanges with his sidemen were laced with explosive full-bodied chords, frequent pauses for dramatic effect and sly harmonic punctuations.
Stimulated by the enthusiasm of the audience packing the Newmark Theater, Jamal (pictured with Riley and Veal) proceeded from tune to tune with pauses so brief that it was sometimes nearly impossible to tell when one stopped and the next began. He accompanied his playing with smiles— at his colleagues, at the audience, into the wings and into the keyboard. At one point during “The Gypsy,†he pointed at Veal, everyone else in the band went quiet and the bassist gave a three-and-a-half-minute demonstration of his instrument’s range, tonal qualities and capacity for amplifier-assisted volume. In a later solo, Veal showed that the bass, vigorously struck on the fingerboard, can be a drum. Riley’s playing throughout the concert, can fairly be called a highlight. In “I’ll Always Be With You,†he soloed expressively and at length using sticks on only the hi-hat cymbal, a tour de force technique that Max Roach credited to Jo Jones and Riley may have learned from Roach.
Badrena, with his amazing rack of percussion, was a study in sonic variety and nonstop motion as he selected instruments from his array and used them to interpose offbeats and the sounds of whistles and bells. He also used his voice as a percussion instrument, once shouting, mystifyingly, “Ya gotta give me some heat.†Bandera, Riley, Veal and Jamal seemed to be giving plenty of heat.
These days, rather than slowing in his eighties, Jamal is playing with keyboard virtuosity that early in his career he held in reserve. He has substituted power and surprise for the harmonic subtlety and continuity of melodic line that led Miles Davis to remark in the 1950s that all of his inspiration came from Jamal. He appears to be having a marvelous time doing it. The audience gave him a standing ovation. Portland audiences tend to show massive, long, appreciation. Before he left the stage, Jamal stopped, lifted his hands, hunched his shoulders as if to say, “I couldn’t help it,†and smiled.
Brian Blade Fellowship
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For the 2014 Portland Jazz Festival’s second concert, drummer Brian Blade reassembled his band called the Brian Blade Fellowship. Some of the music was from the past of the group that he founded in 1997. Other pieces previewed their next album, Landmark, to be released in April. Blade, pianist John Cowherd, bassist Chris Thomas and saxophonists Myron Walden and Melvin Butler have played their ruminative, stately music together for so long that it often seems to unfold independent of their effort. The 
apparent ease comes from a remarkable degree of empathy and considerable compositional work that fashions performances with the appearance of spontaneity. Earlier in the day in one of the jazz conversations that illuminate the festival’s performances, Blade likened his method of composing to the progress of a river that must be monitored. “If the river is rising,†he said, “I feel that I should be ready.â€
The evening moved from tune to tune without announcements. Near the end, Blade identified only the title tune of Landmark. Each piece incorporated Butler on tenor or soprano saxophone and Walden on alto sax or bass clarinet. They played together in textured unison or harmony, then one moved into the wings as the other soloed. Their statements tended to begin in contemplation, then accumulate passion. It was not unusual for one or the other to incorporate a riff that might have come out of a 1940s jump band. All the while, Blade booted, urged, cajoled and guided the soloists from behind his drums. The polyrhythmic variety he has personalized since his early
studies with the master New Orleans drummer Johnny Vidacovich make him one of the music’s most expressive drummers. That has been evident not only in his own band, but in Wayne Shorter’s quartet. He and Cowherd have been playing together since they were music majors at Loyola University. They long ago melded into an understanding based in shared rhythmic values and belief in the importance of compositional logic. In one piece (I wish that I could tell you its name) they played what amounted to a mutual solo, Blade supporting and contrasting Cowherd’s full harmonies and melodic inventions with the counterpoint of mallets struck, and sometimes rubbed, on the drum heads.
Last night, even at its most ethereal, the Blade band’s music had a blues sensibility that seemed to reach out and grab the predominantly white audience whose average age was considerably beyond middle. It was a night for standing ovations. After theirs, as an encore Blade and company played one chorus of the traditional melody “Shenandoah,†Walden’s belly-deep bass clarinet undergirding the ensemble.
(Photo of Blade from the Portland performance by Mark Sheldon ©)
Elias Gives Festival A Joyous Launch
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Last evening’s opening concert of the 2014 Portland Jazz Festival found the pianist and singer Eliane Elias in joyous spirits that led her to, but never quite over, the edge of giddiness. With 
bassist Marc Johnson, guitarist Graham Dechter and drummer Mauricio Zottarelli, Elias concentrated on music from her and Zottarelli’s native Brazil, with side trips into pieces from her Chet Baker and Bill Evans tribute albums. Throughout, pianism inspired by Bud Powell and Evans was characterized by rhythmic excitement and by harmonies that she seems to deepen year by year.
Elias opened with a Gilberto Gil song whose title my inadequate ear for Portuguese forced me to miss. Dechter helped set up the powerful swing in Jobim’s “Chega de Saudade,†which had the first of several Johnson bass solos. Over-amplification of the bass’s low frequencies took a bit of the edge off Johnson’s sound but could not mask the brilliance of his improvisation. Introducing “I Thought About You,†the first of three songs inspired by Baker, Elias explained the trumpeter’s influence in Brazil as bossa nova was developing in the 1950s. Her vocal phrasing, particularly in “Embraceable You,†reflected the way Baker’s singing and playing glided across bar lines. She and Dechter added a nicely worked-out alternate melody to “This Can’t Be Love,†in which the intensity of her piano solo had the audience leaning forward in their seats.
Elias recalled not merely listening to Bill Evans when she was a child but, in an early adventure in ear training, transcribing his solos. After she became bassist Johnson’s wife, she said, he played for her a cassette tape of unpublished, unreleased music that Evans gave him shortly before the pianist died in 1980. She expressed the emotion of that experience by playing a moving unaccompanied version of Cy Coleman’s “I Love My Wife,†which Evans recorded in his 1978 New Conversations album. Evans recorded the piece overdubbing two piano tracks. “I have only one piano tonight,” she said, then employed her technique to come close to making it sound like two. Elias’s solo introduction to “So Danco Samba†coursed through snatches of Bud Powell’s “Hallucinations,†blues riffs, “Liza,†and a series of exchanges with Dechter before Johnson and Zottarelli joined in behind her vocal and a powerful final chorus. Dechter, a member of the band for the past few months, adds harmonic depth and rhythmic thrust. His solo moments were effective and too few.
For Dorival Caymmi’s classic “Rosa Morena,†Elias picked up a wireless microphone, left the piano and made her way to the front of the stage to dance as she sang the song. It was the visual highlight of evening. The festival banned photographs last night. The one above is from an appearance at another festival. It captures the mood. Following “Desafinado,†with its long, riveting solo by Zottarelli, there was a standing ovation. The crowd demanded two encores; first came “The Girl from Ipanema,†then Caymmi’s “Chiclete Com Banana†(“Chewing Gum With Banana”), which had another outing by Zottarelli that swung so hard it inspired Johnson to depart from his customary stolid posture and perform a brief dance of his own. Following “Chiclete” came standing ovation number two.
Gorge Update
The Columbia River Gorge looked like this today, only wetter. Motoring through the Gorge even in a driving rainstorm is one of the world’s great travel experiences.
Portland is only a bit rainy at the moment—par for the course at this time of year. The Rifftides staff is off to listen to a conversation with Brian Blade and John Cowherd, then to take in an early concert by Eliane Elias and her trio and and a late one by drummer Blade’s all-star band.
To Portland
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Tomorrow morning, I will have the thrill of driving through south central Washington State and along the Oregon side of the magnificent Columbia River Gorge (pictured) to the Portland Jazz Festival. My schedule permits attending only the first four days of the festival, which runs nearly two weeks. I’ll take in major concerts by Ahmad Jamahl, Eliane Elias, Brian Blade and The Fellowship Band, Dave Frishberg and Bob Dorough together, Toshiko Akiyoshi with Lew Tabackin and as much other music as I can absorb. To see the packed schedule, go here. I’ll report for Rifftides as often as time and endurance permit. Stay tuned.
Other Matters: Bernstein, Seriously
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Leonard Bernstein took a bit of a thrashing here recently in the Sid Caesar spoof and some of the 
comments that followed it. So, it is only fair to let Maestro Bernstein (1918-1990) redeem himself. The Rifftides recommendation of Rudy Royston’s new album mentions that he includes Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus.“ The opening seconds of the performance that you’re about to watch show the sort of Bernstein mannerism that was fodder for Caesar’s satire. Still, eight months 
before his death, Bernstein and the Bavarian Radio symphony orchestra and chorus gave a gorgeous performance of the piece that Mozart wrote in 1791. “Ave Verum Corpus†inspired Lizst, Tchaikovsky, no doubt countless other composers—and Rudy Royston. This was in the basilica of the parish church in Waldsassen, Bavaria.
Compatible Quotes: Sid Caesar
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The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, HE was a genius.
The remote control changed our lives, … The remote control took over the timing of the world. That’s why you have road rage. You have people who have no patience, because you got immediate gratification. You got click, click, click, click. If it doesn’t explode within three seconds, click click, click.
The trouble with telling a good story is that it invariably reminds the other fellow of a dull one.
Weekend Extra: Another Dorough
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The new Rifftides recommendation of Bob Dorough’s CD Eulalia mentions that his daughter Aralee, who appears on the recording with him, is a symphony musician. Ms. Dorough has been the principal flutist of the Houston Symphony since 1991. Aside from a few chamber music 
ensemble performances, little of her work is accessible on the internet. The exception is video of a 2011 recital of Béla Bartok’s Romanian Folks Dances. Bartok’s effect on jazz musicians is not only direct but also through the works of Eddie Sauter, Bill Holman and other composers and arrangers influenced by the great Hungarian composer. In these delightful little dances, we hear some of their source materal. Ms. Dorough plays the pieces with joy and skill that make the shaky amateur camera work bearable. The audio quality is good. Her introduction and tuneup are interesting, but take a while. You can bypass them by advancing to 2:20. The piano accompanist is Charles Blood.
For information about Aralee Dorough, see her website.
Sid Caesar, 1922-2014
Remembering him, with gratitude.
New Recommendations
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The latest Rifftides recommendations include four CDs, three by established artists and one
by a young drummer who has captured the attention of major musicians and a wide audience. We also call your attention to a book about a pianist whose unanticipated hit trio record led to an association that made his music among the world’s best known. You’ll find the recommendations in the right column under Doug’s Picks and, for a day or so, immediately below.
CD: Bob Dorough
Bob Dorough, Eulalia (Merry Lane Records)
In addition to endearing vocal performances of several of his best songs, Dorough gives listeners what may come as a surprise to many; his ingenuity as an arranger. The deceptive simplicity of “Eulalia,†the album’s sole instrumental, is one of several instances of his melody lines and the tang of his voicings giving energy and richness to a mid-sized ensemble. Dorough plays piano. Other soloists include alto saxophonist Phil Woods, bassist Steve Gilmore and Dorough’s daughter Aralee, a symphony flutist. Woods is on fire in Dorough’s gospel anthem “A Few Days of Glory†and in the classic “I’ve Got Just About Everything.†When Dorough recorded Eulalia, he was 88. His musicianship and wit were ageless.
CD: Rudy Royston
Rudy Royston, 303 (Greenleaf Music)
In his debut as a leader the young drummer from Denver (area code 303) fronts a septet of his generation’s more adventurous players. The eclecticism of the music encompasses Radiohead’s “High and Dry,†the Mozart motet “Ave Verum Corpus,†a drum feature inspired by Elvin Jones, and homage to Denver trumpeter Ron Miles. Even in “Bownze,†the Jones tribute, Royston refrains from drum exhibitionism. Throughout, he melds his work with the septet, which includes two bassists—Yasushi Nakamura and Mimi Jones, the ingenious saxophonist Jon Irabagon, Australian trumpeter Nadja Noordhuis, pianist Sam Harris and guitarist Nir Felder. Royston’s impressive compositions and arrangements provide ensemble unity.
CD: Alan Broadbent
Alan Broadbent, Heart to Heart (Chilly Bin)
Broadbent’s first solo piano album, recorded in 1991, was a highlight of Concord’s Maybeck series. He has continued to perform with a trio and with Charlie Haden’s Quartet West, but to many he is known primarily as the arranger-conductor for Diana Krall, Natalie Cole, Michael Feinstein and Paul McCartney. Producer George Fendel thought it was time for Broadbent to again record alone on a superb piano before an appreciative audience, so he presented him in the solo series at Portland’s Classic Piano store. From Haden’s “Hello My Lovely†to a blazing conclusion with “Cherokee,†Broadbent reminds us of his formidable command of the instrument, his harmonic chops and the joy he takes and gives in making music.
CD: Frank Wess
Frank Wess, Magic 201 (IPO)
The final track of the great tenor saxophonist and flutist’s final album is a lovely performance of Sammy Cahn’s 1937 standard “If it’s the Last Thing I Do,†giving the CD added poignancy. Wess died in October, 2013, after decades as one of the most respected members of the jazz generation that came to prominence after World War Two. No tempo in the album is above a medium walk, but you don’t go to Frank Wess expecting speed. You expect profundity, and that’s what you get here. As in Magic 101, his colleagues are pianist Kenny Barron, guitarist Russell Malone, bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Winard Harper. Wess’s “Embraceable You†duet with Barron is perfection.