Search Results for: Dave Brubeck

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The winter of 2013-2014 was relatively mild in the Pacific Northwest. Still, there was plenty of snow in the Cascades. It is melting and filling the rivers, not to overflowing, but with water high and fast enough to pull trees out of the banks.

Here, you see the Yakima River at noon today carrying one of those trees southeast toward the Columbia. The National Weather Service reports that the Yakima is near flood stage in the river canyon between the towns of Yakima and Ellensburg, but no evacuations have been ordered for the few people who live there. So why even mention it? Because it’s a pretense for presenting Jimmy Rushing’s classic one-sided converation with a swollen river

Rushing’s accompanists were Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Eugene Wright and Joe Morello. The track is from this album. For another recent Rifftides encounter with Rushing, go here.

Unrelatedly: happy Mothers Day to Rifftides readers and all you mothers.

Today is the 115th anniversary of the birth of Duke Ellington, whose standing among the world’s great figures in music grows with each passing year. Miles Davis long ago summed up Ellington’s importance when he said, “At least one day out of the year all musicians should just put their instruments down, and give thanks to Duke Ellington.”

We see Ellington on the left at a 70th birthday gala in Paris in November of 1969. Seven months after the anniversary he was still being feted at celebrations around the world. The most notable of the parties was on April 29 at the White House. Leonard Garment and Charles McWhorter of the White House Staff and Willis Conover of the Voice of America persuaded President Richard Nixon to honor Ellington by throwing a party and awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The United States Information Agency, disbanded in the 1990s by the Clinton administration, made a short documentary about the affair. Evidently, only a snippet of the film is available. It is invaluable as a reminder of the occasion and of the bond between Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.

Conover put together the band for the tribute concert. Below you see its members rehearsing in the East Room the afternoon of the party, April 29, 1969. From left to right: Hank Jones, Jim Hall, Milt Hinton, Gerry Mulligan, Paul Desmond, Louie Bellson, Clark Terry, J.J. Johnson, Bill Berry, Urbie Green. Guest artists included Dave Brubeck, Billy Taylor, Earl Hines and the singers Joe Williams and Mary Mayo.

Excerpts from my notes for the album of the evening’s music that finally came out in 2002:

Sitting behind Ellington, I heard him remark to Cab Calloway as Hinton appeared, ‘Look, there’s your bass player.’ Hinton hadn’t been in Calloway’s band for twenty years. When Desmond did a perfect Johnny Hodges impression during ‘Things Ain’t What They Used To Be,’ Ellington sat bolt upright and looked astonished, a reaction that pleased Desmond when I decribed it.

Urged onto the platform, Ellington improvised an instant composition inspired, he said, by ‘a name, something very gentle and graceful—something like ‘Pat.’ The piece was full of serenity and the wizardry of Ellington’s harmonies. Mrs. Nixon, who looked distracted through much of the evening, paid close attention. The host and his wife turned in, but he invited us to stay for dancing and a jam session…The party lasted until 2:45 a.m.

As he left, Ellington said, ‘It was lovely.’ At 8:00 a.m. he and his band were off to an engagement in Oklahoma City. For Duke, it was back to business as usual but, as Whitney Balliet wrote in The New Yorker, the maestro ‘was finally given his due by his country.’

Addendum: Ellington’s motion picture career started early. Here’s the band in the 1930 film Check and Double Check.

Duke Ellington & his Orch.: Arthur Whetsol, Freddie Jenkins, Cootie Williams (t) Joe Nanton, Juan Tizol (tb) Barney Bigard, Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney (reeds) Duke Ellington (p) Fred Guy (bj) Wellman Braud (b) Sonny Greer (d) & The Rhythm Boys—Bing Crosby, Al Rinker, Harry Barris.

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New York City’s Library for the Performing Arts announces that it has received the archives of George Avakian, who supervised some of the most influential jazz recordings of the past 70 years. At first as a student working part time for Columbia Records and then as an executive at Columbia and, later, RCA, Avakian was responsible for recordings by Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck, among dozens of other artists. The library will catalog his personal papers as well as unissued recordings. It will also have the archives of Mrs. Avakian, the prominent classical violinist Anahid Ajemian. Avakian celebrated his 95th birthday on March 15. For details, see this story in The New York Times.

In another important bequest, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane has presented his father’s tenor saxophone to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American National History. It is the instrument that the senior Coltrane most likely used when his quartet recorded A Love Supreme in 1965. The album not only became one of Coltrane’s biggest sellers but also one of the most potent musical statements of the post bebop era, influencing countless musicians to take new directions. In another gift to the museum, photographer Chuck Stewart donated more than two dozen images he made of Coltrane, some at the A Love Supreme session, others never published. You will find a story about Coltrane’s saxophone here, and one about the Stewart pictures here, both on the Smithsonian website. Here are the “Acknowledgement” section of A Love Supreme and Stewart’s cover photograph for the album.

The poignant muted trumpet on “Flamingo” in Charles Mingus’s 1957 album Tijuana Moods was by Clarence Shaw, a Detroiter whose career derailed for a time, in part because of Mingus. More about Shaw in a moment, but first let’s listen to his most famous solo.

By the time RCA finally released that music in 1962, Shaw had rebuilt his career, altered his first name, moved to Chicago and began recording again. There remains a good deal of mystery surrounding his story, which is nicely told by Thomas Cuniffe on his Jazz History Online website. To read it, go here.

The survivors across the mountains from us in the little community of Oso are hurting, in every conceivable way. The physical and emotional devastation caused by that gigantic mudslide last week has them reeling. They are in need of just about everything. Washington state’s governor, Jay Inslee, is making a plea for help. He says that the best way to provide it is through the American Red Cross. Go here to see the governor’s message—and how you can pitch in. Thank you.

Every November 25th since Rifftides debuted in 2005, we observe Paul Desmond’s birthday. He was born in San Francisco on this date in 1924, which, that year, was Thanksgiving. To the left, we see Desmond six months before he died in May of 1977. He’s watching Jim Hall carve the turkey that Jim’s daughter Devra prepared when she hosted her parents and Paul for a 1976 Thanksgiving dinner at her New York apartment. Longtime recording partners, Desmond and Hall were close friends. One of their rare experiences playing together outside a studio came in 1969 when President Richard Nixon celebrated Duke Ellington’s 70th birthday with a lavish tribute at the White House.

The Voice Of America’s Willis Conover put together the band for the tribute. Below you see its members rehearsing in the East Room the afternoon of the party, April 29, 1969. From left to right: Hank Jones, Jim Hall, Milt Hinton, Gerry Mulligan, Paul Desmond, Louie Bellson, Clark Terry, J.J. Johnson, Bill Berry, Urbie Green. Guest artists included Dave Brubeck, Billy Taylor, Earl Hines and the singers Joe Williams and Mary Mayo.

Mulligan and Desmond rehearsed Mulligan’s intricate arrangement of “Prelude to a Kiss.” The performance is included in a recording of that night’s music, finally released in 2002. From the Desmond biography, here is some of the description of that evening’s concert and aftermath:

It lasted an hour and a half and consisted of twenty-seven Ellington or Strayhorn pieces, several of them worked into medleys. Solos were distributed so that all of the musicians were featured. I was in the audience directly behind Cab Calloway, who was sitting next to Ellington. Duke had been lounging comfortably as he listened. He sat bolt upright when, on “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be,” with Brubeck at the piano, Desmond played a stunningly accurate impression of Johnny Hodges, Ellington’s star alto player of forty-one years. “Hey,” Duke said, and turned to Calloway with a grin, a reaction that pleased Desmond enormously when I described it.

Desmond was not happy about a medley that featured him on Strayhorn’s “Chelsea Bridge.” When they came to the song’s middle section, the bassist, Milt Hinton, forgot the complicated harmonic changes and went into an unrelated pattern. Desmond managed to keep his composure and preserve the melody line. It is unlikely that non-musicians in the audience knew anything had gone wrong, but Paul was convinced that it had been a disaster. After the concert, he headed for the open bar and stayed near it the rest of the night, which turned out to be long. The Nixons headed for bed, but the President urged everyone to stay and have a good time. White House staffers sprang into action and cleared the East Room for dancing, and a jam session ensued. Desmond’s mood lightened eventually, though he rejected all entreaties to play. I hung out at the bar with him and Urbie Green, but went on to other conversations after the Dewars competition moved out of my league. When the party broke up between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m., I wished Paul and Urbie a good night as they helped one another, unsteadily, through the entrance hall, down the White House steps and into a taxi. Later, Desmond was able to see humor in the “Chelsea Bridge” incident, but that night he worked at forgetting it.

In conclusion, I quote, not for the first time, what Brubeck told me years after Desmond’s death: “Boy, I sure miss Paul Desmond.”

Most of the sniping about Diana Krall follows the pattern of fire that successful jazz artists have long drawn when they achieve even moderate success in the commerce of show business. The list of those charged with selling out when they became solvent includes Nat Cole, Dave Brubeck, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Wes Montgomery, Cannonball Adderley and, in his final crossover phase, Miles Davis. In recent years, market demand for jazz has not been high enough to develop many targets for critics who lie in wait to cry sell-out. Diana Krall is an exception. Not an innovator as a pianist or as a singer, she is talented in both areas, personally attractive, and has strong—if understated—leadership ability. She does not sell records or attract crowds in numbers approaching those of even low-level pop and rock stars, but as jazz audiences go in the new century, hers is sizeable.

Ms. Krall hires first-rate accompanists. She molds them into bands whose pleasure in working with her and in working together is evident. When inspired, she is capable of splendid solos. She knows to avoid set pieces when the music is finding its way. Audiences react to those qualities. All of that came to mind after someone sent me a link to a performance by Ms. Krall and her quartet at the 2010 Montreux Jazz Festival. Her band for the occasion was Anthony Wilson, guitar; Robert Hurst, bass; and Karriem Riggins, drums. As the concert proceeded, the band got tighter rhythmically and by the time they reached “Cheek To Cheek” about three-quarters of the way through, they achieved a riveting degree of cohesion.

Fair warning: If you decide to watch directly on You Tube rather than here on the Rifftides screen, the video of the concert features commercial breaks randomly inserted with no regard for what’s happening in the music. The viewer has the option of bailing out of each commercial after a few seconds. The production technique is irritating, but it’s the price for seeing an otherwise free performance. Either way, there is an opening airplane montage that must have something to do with something.

Have a good weekend.

Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond is moving along briskly in its new digital life as an ebook. The hardcover edition has sold out. Used copies are going for as much as $335 on book and auction sites, but new clothbound copies are history. The electronic transformation is good news on several counts:

The book will continue to be available. For now, it is on Kindle. Publisher Malcolm Harris of Parkside Publications tells me that he expects to have it up on Apple and Barnes & Noble soon.

The ebook edition has all of the features of the hardbound, including the nearly 200 photographs, the chapter notes, the solo transcriptions, the discography, the extensive index and Dave and Iola Brubeck’s foreword.

The ebook edition is easily portable. The most frequent complaint about the five-pound, 10-and-a-half-by-11-inch original was, “How am I supposed to read this thing on an airplane?” Now you can, after the pilot says it’s okay to fire up your Kindle, iPad, Nook or Sony Reader.

 The ebook sells for less than a third of the list price of the original hardcover edition.

Among other honors, Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond won an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award and the Jazz Journalists Association Book of the Year Award. Here are a few of its plaudits:

Scrupulously researched and written with an attractive combination of affection and candor, it casts a bright light on Desmond’s troubled psyche without devaluing his considerable achievements as an artist. “Any of the great composers of melodies—Mozart, Schubert, Gershwin—would have been gratified to have written what Desmond created spontaneously,” Mr. Ramsey says. Strong words, but Take Five makes them stick. —Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal

The telling is lyrical, funny, nostalgic, provocative, and allusive — just like a Paul Desmond solo.”
 —Gary Giddins, author of Weather Bird: Jazz at the Dawn of its Second Century

Doug Ramsey, the saxophonist’s friend for 20 years before Desmond’s death in 1977, constructs the full person as well as digging out much more of his writing than was known. A major piece of jazz scholarship, the book cuts no corners. —Ben Ratliff, The New York Times

Desmond was fascinated by electronic technology. We can only imagine his delight if he knew that his life story had been digitized.

To order the Kindle edition, please go here. To listen to Paul sounding the way he looks above, play this video.

Summertime, CTI, 1968. Paul Desmond, alto saxophone; Herbie Hancock, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Airto Moreira, drums; Joe Beck, guitar; Wayne Andre, Paul Faulise, Bill Watrous, Kai Winding, trombone; John Eckert, Joe Shepley, Marvin Stamm, trumpet; Ray Alonge, Tony Miranda, French horn; Don Sebesky, arranger.

Vacate for a short time, and the postman brings more music than anyone could begin to listen to without abandoning sleep or risking madness. The stack of packages on the left is the accumulation of three days away. In addition, three times that number has piled up since the whaling expedition to Canada. Each package contains at least one CD hoping for a review or a mention. I hate to break it to those who contribute to the flood of mostly unsolicited albums, but it is impossible to sample, much less write about, more than a tiny percentage of them. I wonder if I’m missing the next Charlie Parker. One has no option but to be selective. Here is the latest selection.

Billy Mintz, Mintz Quartet (Thirteenth Note)

Mintz’s range as drummer, composer and setter of moods is on full display in this recording. The variety in his 12 compositions runs from ballads with stately, mysterious, melodies (“Beautiful You,” “Retribution”) through a sort of Detroit boogaloo (“Cannonball”) to what might be called free jazz (“Shmear”) but for its perfectly conceived and executed piano-saxophone melody leading into and out of the fun and games. The multiplicity of rhythms and tonal colors Mintz achieves in “Ugly Beautiful,” would alone make this a candidate for drum record of the year, but every track reflects virtuosity with the instrument and mastery of time. He deserves mention with such percussion painters as Paul Motian and Shelly Manne, and with contemporaries like Joey Baron, Jack DeJohnette, Joe LaBarbera and Matt Wilson.

Mintz’s colleagues are tenor saxophonist John Gross, bassist Putter Smith and pianist Roberta Piket, who also plays organ, and sings on one track. Whether giving body to the long dark tones of “Retribution” or jabbing and darting, as he does in “Dit,” Gross’s daring conception and huge tenor sound command attention throughout. “Flight” is an exercise in quietness, Mintz opening at length with a drummer’s equivalent of sketching before Gross and Smith join him in a brief sotto voce colloquy. Mintz’s resumé includes work with Lee Konitz, Charles Lloyd, Eddie Daniels and Alan Broadbent. Gross was a mainstay in one of Shelly Manne’s most adventurous bands, recorded a memorable trio album with Dave Frishberg and Charlie Doggett and has a track record with musicians as diverse as Ornette Coleman, Lionel Hampton and Toshiko Akiyoshi. Smith is a veteran of work with Broadbent, Thelonious Monk and Bill Perkins, among many others. He resounds in his double-stop support on “Retribution.” Piket, whose own discography has nine albums, plays beautifully on that piece, as she does in her recent solo album.

Despite their substantial backgrounds and high standing with jazz insiders—especially musicians—the members of the Mintz Quart are below the radar of many listeners. This stimulating and accessible album could change that.

…And Briefer

Kenny Burrell, Special Requests (And Other Favorites) Live At Catalina’s, High Note

“Age is an issue of mind over matter,” Mark Twain wrote. “If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” It didn’t seem to matter to Burrell when he recorded last November at Catalina’s jazz club in Los Angeles. Just past his 82nd birthday, the guitarist combined the wisdom of his years with the swing and taste that have guided him since he was one of the contingent of young musicians from Detroit who energized jazz in the early 1950s. With tenor saxophonist and flutist Justo Almario, pianist Tom Ranier, bassist Tony Dumas and drummer Clayton Cameron, Burrell’s program includes “Killer Joe,” “In A Sentimental Mood,” ”Little Sunflower” and his charming vocal on Duke Ellington’s and Bobby Troup’s “The Feeling of Jazz.” He moves the audience to quietness with Ellington’s “Sunset and the Mockingbird” and moves them in quite another way, with a swinging stop-time unaccompanied solo, on his classic blues “Chitlins Con Carne.”

Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, Imagery Manifesto (Lefkowitz-Brown)

It is doubtful whether age matters much to Lefkowitz-Brown; at 24, the passage of years is probably not a preoccupation. A tenor sax prodigy who was winning national awards by the time he was 15, the upstate New Yorker is a 2010 graduate of the Brubeck Institute, now working in New York City. His sextet is made up of some of New York’s leading-edge young musicians, here playing 10 of his compositions. Since I first heard him in Rochester when he was 17, I’ve known that Lefkowitz-Brown was one to keep an ear on. With his early promise in full bloom, it is reassuring that he has nurtured his individuality and not succumbed to the post-Coltrane sameness that has made automatons of many in his generation. His conception, tone and control are impressive. He writes interesting tunes that do not function merely as frameworks for blowing; they leave melodic statements. He has surrounded himself with gifted peers: trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, guitarist Travis Reuter, pianist Sam Harris, bassist Linda Oh and drummer Kenneth Salters. Lefkowitz-Brown dovetails beautifully into the end of O’Farrill’s solo on “With Bated Breath.” The two achieve a remarkable blend in their unison playing on the piece. Ms. Oh’s bass provides both power and lyricism. This recording comes as encouraging news about where jazz may be headed.

Bill Anschell, Impulses (Blow Hard Music)

If Raymond Scott (1908-1994) had survived into the full flowering of digital music, he might have produced something resembling Impulses. Like Denny Zeitlin, Anschell is a superb jazz pianist with a fascination for the possibilities of electronic music championed by pioneers like Scott, Robert Moog, Herbert Deutsch and Jean-Jacques Perry. No one familiar with Anschell’s alter-ego Mr. P.C. will be surprised that there are elements of whimsy—even a belly laugh or two—in this electronic project fashioned on his computer. Scott might have recognized himself in the headlong felicities of “Shifting Gears,” but humor is only a surface feature of what Anschell creates in Impulses. Rhythms, notably those from South India on “Shifting Gears” and “For Ranga” and those from rock and roll (and possibly the Black Lagoon) on “Mustang Sally” are essential to its success. So, too, are a marshaling of sounds that can resemble a symphony orchestra one moment and mice scurrying behind walls the next. Everywhere is evidence of Anschell’s thorough grasp of modern harmony. His ethereal treatment of John Coltrane’s “Naima” is a lovely case in point.

Randy Weston, Blue Moses (CTI)

This love child from Weston’s romance with African music and culture was reissued in a remastered CD version a couple of years ago. Somehow, I managed to lose track of it in the stacks. I have made up for that absence by playing the CD repeatedly. It is addictive. My phonograph needle wore the 1972 LP nearly white. Fortunately, laser beams don’t erode CDs. The album features Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and Grover Washington, Jr. on tenor saxophone. Drummer Billy Cobham and bassist Ron Carter are in the rhythm section with Weston on acoustic and electric piano. The percussionists include Airto Moreira. Hubbard and Washington are at the peaks of their careers here, brimming with confidence and power. The big band arrangements, packed with pzazz and canny voicings, are by Don Sebesky. Rudy Van Gelder’s engineering caught the music’s excitement and full range, from the massive bottom tones of the trombones to the delicacy of Hubert Laws’ flute. It’s the kind of all-star sonic fiesta that CTI’s Creed Taylor cherished, and it’s good to have it back. The 37-minute playing length of the album is a refreshing reminder that simply because a CD can hold 80 minutes of music doesn’t mean that it must. Sometimes, less really is more. Pete Turner’s astonishing cover photograph is not as spectacular in digipak size as it was on the jacket of a 12-inch LP, but it is startling nonetheless.

Further Rifftides listening reports will appear in good time. For additional recommendations, see Doug’s Picks in the right column.

Karolina Strassmayer & Drori Mondlak—Klaro, Small Moments (Lilypad)

In their third album together, their second as co-leaders, the spaciousness and delicacy of Karolina Strassmayer’s alto saxophone meld with the understated power of her husband Drori Mondlak’s drumming. The results are creative tension and whirling currents of surprise beneath the often-placid surface of music made by the spare combination of saxophone, drums, guitar and bass. Strassmayer is Austrian. Mondlak is an American of Polish parentage, born in Mexico City. In Strassmayer’s soloing, without quoting or making direct reference to John Coltrane, she nonetheless makes clear that the example of his boldness and lyricism helped to shape her concept. Her Coltrane tinge is apparent throughout, dramatically so in harmonic intervals and the shape of her phrasing in “Call of the Forefathers.” Nowhere in the album does Strassmayer’s own personality shine more radiantly than in her unaccompanied cadenza near the end of “Seven Minutes in Heaven;” a full minute of melodic invention and subtle dynamics.

The precision, speed and reserved strength of Mondlak’s drumming are reminiscent of Joe Morello in his early years with Dave Brubeck. Although his uses of brushes and cymbals to color the music are major strengths in this quartet, he leaves no doubt that he is a full-service sticks drummer. In “Last One Standing” his technique is apparent in the tempo changes, breaks, and interplay with the veteran German bassist Ingmar Heller. With Heller, Mondlak’s longtime American guitar colleague Cary DeNigris provides not only harmonic support but also imaginative soloing that ranges from delicate single-line improvisations to the energy and slightly acerbic distortions of his tone on “Last One Standing.” This international quartet’s blend of consistent quality and adventurousness gives it staying power. It is one of the most interesting small groups at work today.

Anders Bergcrantz Plays The Painter by Anna-Lena Laurin (Vanguard Music Boulevard)

Except for the universality of the music, there is nothing international about the collaboration among trumpeter Anders Bergcrantz, his wife composer Ann-Lena Laurin, and the Norlands Opera Symphony Orchestra. They are all thoroughly Swedish. Laurin, one of Sweden’s brightest composers, is trained in the classics, experienced in jazz and not limited to classical forms and traditions. She found inspiration for her five-movement work The Painter in the art and troubled life of Vincent Van Gogh, as the titles of the suite suggest: “Cypresses,” “Absinth Minded,” “Sunflower,” “Touches” and “Twilight.” The music incorporates a jazz rhythm section of pianist Robert Tjäderkvist, bassist Patrik Grundstrom and drummer Ulrik Ording. When jazz time-feeling is required, the orchestra under conductor Mats Rondin achieves that attribute so rare in symphony players, particularly in string sections. There are passages of grand symphonic sweep, as well as ensembles that Laurin endows with textures found in jazz orchestration. A brief section of the introduction to “Twilight” may be a reference to the sound tapestries of Gil Evans.

In this report from the 2012 Ystad Jazz Festival, I commented on “Bergcrantz’s spacious tone throughout, regardless of speed or range…” Perfectly placed and engineered in the audio landscape of this recording, he is impressive on all of those counts. The passion and technical control of his playing in the “Sunflowers” movement justify pianist Richie Bierach’s assessment that Bergcrantz “…is one of the top trumpet players in the world today.” He manages to squeeze out notes in “Touches” that incorporate humor without distracting from the sober intent of the movement. He personifies the tragic implications of “Twilight,” opening with breath-only notes and what sounds like the mouthpiece alone. Then, his performance blooms into a full-throated threnody. His horn is supported by Laurin’s orchestration heavy on percussion and layers of repetition akin spiritually, if not harmonically, to riffs in a mournful blues.

In the days of the Third Stream movement, attempts to marry classical and jazz forms often had awkward results. Without self-consciousness, Laurin’s and Bergrantz’s The Painter finds a credible and moving synthesis of the two genres.

Most of the obituaries of Leonard Garment mention his background as a jazz musician but not the key role he played in arranging White House honors for Duke Ellington. The former White House adviser died July 13 at the age of 89. Garment’s clarinet and tenor saxophone skills helped pay his way through college and law school. His gigs included a stint in Woody Herman’s saxophone section, but he opted for a career in law and public service. For a full review of Garment’s career, see his New York Times obituary.

Before Richard Nixon ran for president in 1968, he and Garment were partners in a Washington, DC, law firm. After Nixon’s election, Garment served in the White House as a special consultant on, among other matters, civil rights and the arts. His most visible role was defending Nixon in the Watergate scandal that erupted in 1972 and in the impeachment process that led to the president’s resignation. Noted for his integrity, Garment convinced Nixon not to destroy the oval office tapes that proved damning in the Senate Watergate hearings and investigation. Ultimately, he played a key role in persuading the president that he must resign.

Early in Nixon’s term, Willis Conover of the Voice of America suggested that the president throw Ellington a 70th birthday party at the White House. Garment and fellow Nixon adviser Charles McWhorter got the president’s approval. Conover assembled an all-star tribute band: Bill Berry and Clark Terry, trumpets; Urbie Green and J.J. Johnson, trombones; Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan, saxophones; Hank Jones, piano; Jim Hall, guitar; Milt Hinton, bass; and Louie Bellson, drums; Joe Williams and Mary Mayo, vocals. Dave Brubeck, Earl Hines, Willie the Lion Smith and Billy Taylor also played. Conover MCed the concert that followed Nixon’s presentation to Ellington of the National Medal of Freedom. The President then accompanied the birthday singalong. The US Information Agency, when there still was a USIA, filmed the event. This clip from an unnamed documentary is all that I have been able to turn up.

Following the concert, the East Room was cleared of chairs. Mr. and Mrs. Nixon retired but invited everyone to stay and enjoy themselves, which many did until 2:45 a.m. A jam session developed. Some of it is described in my notes for the CD of the music released 33 years later, including Garment’s part in it.

During the session, all of the pianists from the concert reappeared. Marian McPartland, Leonard Feather and George Wein also played the East Room Steinway. McPartland joined the Lion in a duet. Billy Eckstine, Joe Wiliams and Lou Rawls traded blues choruses. Leonard Garment, once a tenor saxophonist with Woody Herman, found himself jamming on clarinet with Mulligan, J.J. Johnson, Urbie Green and Dizzy Gillespie. In his book Crazy Rhythm, he wrote,

Years would pass before Benny Goodman would forgive me for not instructing him to bring his horn, but if he played, how could I?

Most of the all-stars sat in, and so did the Navy musicians. At one point, the rhythm section was made up of Marines, looking in their scarlet tunics like a contingent of Canadian Mounties.

There has been nothing like it at the White house—or anywhere else—since.

In his last two decades, Garment devoted much of his time and energy to establishment of the National Museum of Jazz in Harlem. He was its chairman until 2005.

There has been a civic outpouring of affection for bassist Ben Tucker, who died on June 4 in his adopted hometown, Savannah, Georgia. Tucker was killed when a car smashed into his golf cart. He was 82. He moved to Georgia four decades ago after establishing himself as a valuable sideman in Los Angeles, then New York. Tucker worked with pianists Carl Perkins, Billy Taylor and Marian McPartland, among many other leading jazz artists. He is on record with Bob Dorough, Herbie Mann, Grant Green, Lou Donaldson, Gil Evans, Art Pepper and Kenny Dorham, to name a few of his colleagues. This article in the online edition of the Athens, Georgia, Banner-Herald recalls his involvement in the life of Savannah and includes a video of the public viewing that preceded his funeral.

In the aftermath of their father’s memorial service, Dave Brubeck’s sons are maintaining the family tradition of extensive travel and performance. Darius, Chris, Dan (pictured, l to r) and guest saxophonist Dan O’Higgins are touring the British Isles, headed toward several nights at Ronnie Scott’s club in London, with many stops along the way. So far, they’ve been in Devon, Kent, Suffolk, Pembrokeshire and the jazz hotbed of Chipping Norton. For the full schedule, see Darius’s website.

Blogging at Rifftides is slightly in arrears while I work on a Zoot Sims project whose nature will be disclosed in due time. Meanwhile, in anticipation of the official change of season in the northern hemisphere—less than a week away—here are Zoot and four of his closest friends.

Responding to the Brubeck-Desmond item in the previous exhibit, David Evans writes:

Thanks for sharing that! Desmond always kills me.

It takes tremendous strength and control to play with such a beautiful sound and such balanced phrasing. It sounds easy, but believe me, it’s not. Classical dancers make it look easy, too, like they are effortlessly floating around, but it takes great strength and toughness to create that illusion.

And Desmond’s solo construction is always so compelling. The development of a motive engages the listener–we recognize a phrase as it emerges again in a new tonality farther down the line–it brings us along, in a friendly way, through the song form. There’s the creation of an expectation, the asking of a question, then there’s the satisfaction of an answer…or a little twist, and it’s satisfaction with a surprise…
Most of all, I love it when he addresses two or more contours simultaneously–a melodic line and its counterpoint–it takes some sleight of hand on a monophonic instrument, but there it is. There’s a lovely melodic utterance–it lingers shining in the air while he resolves some inner voices for a moment–then he’s back to the melodic voice and it feels like he never left it. I would love to hear Desmond playing unaccompanied, that compositional skill on clear display as he spins an entire orchestration singlehandedly.

To me, Jim Hall is the other towering, beautiful contrapuntalist–certainly that’s why I love the Desmond/Hall RCA box set so much.

Thanks for this post!

Mr. Evans teaches tenor saxophone at Lewis And Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and plays it with Dave Frishberg, Chuck Israels, Retta Christie and Phil Baker, among others. Here he is a couple of years ago with Mr. Baker in a guest shot on Lynn Darroch’s program Bright Moments on KMHD-FM.

Rifftides reader Svetlana Ilicheva (pictured) responded from Moscow to yesterday’s post with an account of a later Brubeck Brothers Quartet concert during the band’s visit to Russia.

In addition to what Chris Brubeck wrote about his first concert at the Igor Butman club in Moscow and his panegyric to the US ambassador in Russia, I would like to add a few words about their concert in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall on September 17.

I was invited to this concert at the last moment so was a little late and didn’t hear what the lady from the US Embassy said but was in time for the BBQ first number together with one of our best symphony orchestras, Russian National Orchestra (The chief conductor is one of our best musicians, Mikhail Pletnyev), conducted this time by Joel Revzen (US). It was “Blue Rondo a la Turk,” arranged by Darius Brubeck. The cheerful piece got the public worked up and was met by hearty clapping. The orchestra left the stage and the BBQ, joined by RNO member Maxim Roubtsov (flute), with a lot of pep played a piece by their pianist Chuck Lamb. Then the RNO brass quintet appeared on the stage and together they played “Dunes at Dawn” by Chris Brubeck. The combination was highly successful and Chris’s bass sounded quite interesting against the background of very good performance by the quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, basoon and French horn). It was so thrilling to watch how the classical musicians were playing the field playing jazz (Excuse my playing on the words. I am afraid it is just the lack of vocabulary). It looked as if they all were really having a good time. Chris called them “crazy” musicians. By the way, he began almost all the numbers with a few words, sometimes joking, fluently translated by a young girl interpreter.

The first part of the concert ended with Chris’s Concerto for trumpet, trombone and orchestra, “The Blues and Beyond” (Russian premiere), with quite an impressive solo by trombone (Chris Brubeck) and trumpet (Vladislav Lavrik, RNO). The orchestra was superb, as usual.

The second part was dedicated to Dave Brubeck, selected compositions arranged for the orchestra, jazz quartet and soloists, with Igor Butman as a special guest, and ended with famous “Take Five” with an extremely long solo by Dan Brubeck. It seems everybody here knows “Take Five”. It was met with loud clapping and whistles! I wish Paul Desmond had heard it.

I like Mike DeMicco (guitar) very much and the pianist, Chuck Lamb, was also quite good. The concert created a very positive and cheerful mood.

The only question left is why the BBQ planned to give a concert at the old Russian town of Efremov (aka Yefremov). Why exactly this town, I wonder.

After she submitted her report, Ms. Ilicheva sent a message asking, “Are you quite sure my account is worth posting now? It may not coincide with Mr. Brubeck’s impressions…”

Yes, I’m sure. For his insider’s perspective, see Chris’s latest blog entry.

Iola Brubeck, whom Paul Desmond described as “the incomparable, regal Iola,” sent a comment about the Rifftides 2012 Crop Forecast. She included the words of a choral piece by her husband, whose name is Dave. To see her comment, Mr. Brubeck’s lyric, photographs of ripening fruit, and to listen to Wayne Shorter and Eric Satie (not together) go here.