Search Results for: target=

Rudy Van Gelder, who recorded thousands of albums by musicians including some of the most important in jazz, died today at 91. As a young man, Van Gelder began recording in a room in his parents’ house in Hackensack, New Jersey. Among his recordings were early albums by Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. He was a practicing optometrist, but he said in recent years that when he first found himself in a recording studio, he had a feeling that “this is what I should be doing.” He went on to acquire the most sophisticated equipment and learned to use it to create what was sometimes labeled the Van Gelder sound. There was widespread speculation about how he achieved that sound, but he never disclosed his recording secrets. He ultimately left optometry and established his own studio in nearby Englewood Cliffs. Over the years he engineered classic sessions by Gil Mellé, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver and dozens of others. Van Gelder’s work made up substantial portions of the output of the record companies Savoy, Prestige and—especially—Blue Note.

As an example of the Van Gelder sound, from pianist, composer and arranger Duke Pearson’s 1966 album Sweet Honeybee here is a nifty blues in F. The soloists are Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Joe Henderson, tenor sax; James Spaulding, alto sax; Duke Pearson, piano; and Ron Carter, bass. The drummer is Mickey Roker. Pearson named the piece, “Ready Rudy?”

Steven Lugerner, Jacknife: The Music Of Jackie McLean (Primary Records)

After his studies at The New School in New York ended a couple of years ago, alto saxophonist Steven Lugerner returned home to the San Francisco Bay area and took Jackie McLean with him. Not in person, of course; McLean died in 2006, and Lugerner never met him, but the young man became immersed in McLean’s music. The audacity of McLean’s attack is apparent in everything that Lugerner plays. The aggressiveness, rough edges and incisiveness of McLean’s conception are apparent from his successor’s first solo, in “On the Nile.” If Lugerner’s pugnacity goes a bit over the top in the piece, trumpeter JJ Kirkpatrick brings the emotional heat down in the transition to his solo, and there is an interlude of relative calm before Kirkpatrick cranks the energy back up. McLean composed three of the six tunes on Jacknife. His frequent trumpet companion Charles Tolliver wrote two. Another is by drummer Jack DeJohnette.

McLean had affinity for the innovations of Ornette Coleman, and while there is no free-jazz abandonment of conventional rules in the album, Lugerner applies Coleman phrasing and harmonic leaps in “Cancellation.” The dramatic “Melody for Melonae,” introduced by McLean on his 1962 Blue Note album Let Freedom Ring, incorporates simultaneous improvisation by Lugerner and Kirkpatrick. Pianist Richard Sears, bassist Garret Lang and drummer Michael Mitchell, already making an impression on the California jazz scene, are likely to receive further attention through their work with Lugerner and Kirkpatrick in this stimulating collection.

Toots Thielemans, the man who made the harmonica a well-known jazz instrument died today in Brussels, Belgium, his hometown. He was 94. Thielemans was recently hospitalized after a fall that resulted in a broken arm, but neither his family nor management representatives specified the cause of his death.

On an instrument often dismissed as a novelty, Thielemans’ advanced musicianship and individuality made him a respected colleague of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman and George Shearing, with all of whom he played. In Shearing’s quintet, he played both harmonica and guitar. Thielemans inspired a number of younger musicians to concentrate on the harmonica. In the 1950s, saxophonist Eddie Shu added the harmonica to his performances, as did Howard Levy later. Contemporary players include Grégoire Maret, William Galison, the young Swedish musician Filip Jers and the German virtuoso Hendrik Muerkens. None of them has achieved Thielemans’ popularity or the level of familiarity he attained through exposure on movie soundtracks, guest shots on albums by Billy Eckstine, Billy Joel and Julian Lennon, and appearances on television’s Sesame Street. For a thorough review of Thielemans’ career, see the obituary by Peter Keepnews in today’s New York Times.

The following piece from the Rifftides archive reports on a Thielemans club appearance that had all of the elements that made his performances endearing and musically rewarding

Toots And Friends
November 14, 2005

My heavily-traveled weekend with an assemblage of couples out for a good time included an evening at Jazz Alley in Seattle eating well and hearing Toots Thielemans, Kenny Werner and Oscar Castro-Neves. Thielemans is a member of that astonishing corps of world-class jazz octogenarians (Hank Jones, Marian McPartland, James Moody, Dave Brubeck, ClarkTerry, Buddy DeFranco) who seem uninterested in slowing their pace, let alone retiring. At eighty-three, his polish, harmonic daring and swing on the harmonica keep him the undisputed champion not only of that unlikely jazz instrument but of all instruments that show up in the jazz magazines’ “miscellaneous” poll categories.

When it comes to Thielemans’ level of musicianship, categories don’t matter. He would likely be as creative if he played comb and tissue paper.  Thielemans and Werner, long established as a formidable duo, became a virtual chamber orchestra with the addition of Castro-Neves’ guitar. There were moments at Jazz Alley when the piano, guitar and harmonica melded into chords so expansive and deep, it seemed impossible that they came from only three instruments. The authenticity of Castro-Neves’ Brazilian rhythms and bossa nova spirit were an essential part of the set’s air of happiness. An inveterate quoter, Thielemans now and then broke himself up with some of his allusions. He threw sly glances at Werner as he worked snatches of several other Frank Sinatra hits into his solo on “All The Way.”

On some pieces, Werner supplemented his piano with an electronic keyboard. His goal may have been to create atmospherics, but rather than enhance the sublime quality of the ensemble, his synthesizer “sweetening” diluted it. A pianist of his protean capabilities needs no digital reinforcement, as he demonstrated in brilliant solos on “The Dolphin,” “Chega de Saudade,” and an unlikely neo-samba treatment of “God Bless America.”

The trio’s treatment of the Irving Berlin classic inspired a standing ovation, then a short speech by Thielemans about how jazz and the American people drew him to move to the United States from Belgium in 1957 and to become a US citizen. He talked about his love of Louis Armstrong. Then, as an encore, Thielemans, Werner and Castro-Neves played “What a Wonderful World.” For the ninety minutes of their set, the world, the band, the audience, the club, were wonderful. Everything was wonderful.

Here are Thielemans and Werner seven years later, without Castro-Neves, at Théâtre Maisonneuve in Montreal, playing “The Days of Wine and Roses,” a song associated with Thielemans nearly from its birth.

The Rifftides wrapup report on the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival included a brief, enthusiastic comment about a performance by the Kathrine Windfeld Big Band of her piece “Aircraft.” This young Danish composer, arranger and pianist writes for 15 young musicians from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Poland. They negotiate her demanding charts with aplomb, intensity and obvious appreciation for one another’s talents. Following the video, I’m including their names for you to remember because we are undoubtedly going to be hearing further important work from Ms. Windfeld’s band. There is no video from the Ystad concert, but here is “Aircraft” from an earlier appearance in Copenhagen.

Bobby Hutcherson, whose vibraphone playing developed deep and complex harmonies, died on Monday at home in Montara, California. He was 75. When Hutcherson came to prominence in the early 1960s, he was in the forefront of young musicians already adept at bebop but seeking greater freedom. He expanded his instrument’s range of tonal colors, with particular attention to dramatic use of resonance, and he was open to ideas pioneered by free jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman. Along with saxophonists Eric Dolphy and Joe Henderson, pianist McCoy Tyner, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and other musicians in their twenties, Hutchinson flourished rhythmic and harmonic adventuring beyond bop conventions. In the title tune from his 1965 album Components, we hear a headlong sense of excitement and a bit of the time-play in which Hutcherson loved to indulge. Soloists are Hubbard; alto saxophonist James Spaulding; Hutcherson; and pianist Herbie Hancock. Ron Carter, the bassist, does not solo on this track.

It was impossible to hear all of the music at the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival. I came as close as allowed by festival scheduling and the need for a minimal amount of sleep. Here are brief notes wrapping up this series of Rifftides reports on Ystad 2016.

Swiss harmonica player Grégoire Maret reached peaks of excitement when he
and drummer John Davis faced off in rhythmic flurries that amounted to mutual solos. They were particularly gripping in Maret’s “The Angel Gabriel.” The British singer Zara McFarlane vocalized a clever unison line with Maret in one piece, but in another the banal lyric of a song called “Diary of a Fool” took the edge off her effectiveness.

 

The courtyard of the Hos Morten Café was crowded for The Other Woman, a new group headed by Swedish pianist Mathias Landaeus. Landaeus’s solos streamed along highly personal harmonic lines. He is a pianist to take note of. Landaeus had solid rapport with bassist Johnny Åman and the impressive young drummer Cornelia Nilsson. In “I’ll Be Around,” the idiosyncratic vocalist Ellekari Sander interpreted the song with fragility that suited it.

 

In the Ystad Theatre, Avishai Cohen unleashed his bass, his trio and his athleticism. His concert was an experience in unremitting energy. Nearly everything Cohen, pianist Omri Mor and drummer Daniel Dor played either directly reflected their Israeli heritage or had a broad Middle Eastern inclination. An exception was Thad Jones’s blues ballad “A Child Is Born.” In it, Cohen explored and expanded the harmonies to create a moving statement.

 

A concert by vocalist, composer and arranger Iris Bergcrantz drew on her recent album. As in the recording, her band included her trumpeter father, Anders Bergkrantz; her mother, pianist Anna Lena Laurin; and her sister Rebecca singing backup vocals. The music was experimental, imaginative and successful. A haunting approach to “Eleanor Rigby” found levels of meaning beyond The Beatles. Anders Bergcrantz’s trumpet solos matched the audacity of his daughter’s concept.

 

A young Dane, Kathrine Windfeld, has assembled a big band for which she writes and arranges with brilliance, humor and originality. In her piece called “Aircraft,” repetition of a six-note figure helped establish a Scandinavian ambience that was apparent throughout the band’s set. Her arrangement set up trombonist Göran Abelli for a riotous solo that brought him huge applause. Ms. Windfeld is bound to have an important future.

 

(Thanks to Markus Fägersten and his superb Ystand festival photo staff for supplying pictures.)

When bassist Avishai Cohen and his trio wrapped up their concert after midnight on Sunday, the 2016 edition of the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival became history. For this listener, the festival’s five days of music included opportunities to hear several artists in person for the first time. One of them was Marlene VerPlanck, a veteran singer whose repertoire overflows with material from the A-list of songwriters and lyricists—among them Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, Victor Young, Sammy Cahn, Arthur Schwartz, Peggy Lee, and Jimmy Van Heusen.

She was superb from her opener, Berlin’s “The Best Thing For You,” to “The Party Upstairs,” a new song whose lyric tells a subtle story of longing for love, with a clever use of the title as the punch line. The New York singer worked with a British trio headed by pianist John Pearce. Suited, necktied and dignified, they looked as if they might have just come from a meeting of a bank’s board of directors. They accompanied her beautifully. Not primarily a scat singer, Ms. VerPlanck nonetheless scatted her way into “Speak Low” paying canny attention to the song’s chords and generating irresistible swing. That swing characterized every up-tempo song she performed. She caressed two ballads, Billy Eckstine’s “I Want To Talk About You” and “The Lies Of Handsome Men.” The latter is in this 2013 album. Her encore was Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “It Might As Well Be Spring,” which had one of several tricky key changes in her concert. She executed them all seamlessly.

The Polish violinist Adam Baldych and his Norwegian rhythm section enraptured the audience in the recital hall of the Ystad Art Museum. At some points the band verged on free jazz, with a sense of time more implied than stated. Heads that nodded and feet that tapped testified that their rhythmic feeling ran strong through the hall. That compelling aspect of their music was occasionally in contrast with harmonies as old as Renaissance madigrals. Drummer Per Oddvar Johansen enhanced the atmosphere of freedom when he reacted to Baldych’s adventuring with mallets on tom-toms and sharp pops with sticks on snare drum rims. On a piece whose title was not announced, as Baldych’s pizzicato interaction with Helge Llien’s piano was underway, a cell phone with remarkably similar sound qualities gave its call. Running in a crouch, head down, the phone’s owner removed its surprising but not entirely objectionable contribution. The Baldych quartet listened to one another intently and brought an adventurous spirit to the festival.

Further impressions of the festival will be coming—later today if possible; or if not, when the staff returns to Rifftides world headquarters. Please check in from time to time.

Claude Williamson, a piano mainstay of jazz in California for seven decades, died on July 16 in Los Angeles. He had been in decline since he fell in his home in 2015 and broke a hip.
After Williamson moved from Boston to L.A. in 1947, he played with Charlie Barnet’s band for two years and was the featured soloist on the widely popular recording “Claude Reigns.” Barnet named the piece after him. Williamson’s harmonic sophistication and responsive timing made him an ideal accompanist for instrumental soloists and singers. After serving for two years as June Christy’s accompanist, In 1953 Williamson joined The Lighthouse All Stars, a quintessential band in what came to be called West Coast Jazz. Later, he co-led a quartet with saxophonist and flutist Bud Shank and worked with Red Norvo, Frank Rosolino, Barney Kessel, Art Pepper and other central figures in Southern California jazz. In a New York visit, he also recorded with two hardcore east coasters, bassist Sam Jones and drummer Roy Haynes.

Initially inspired by Teddy Wilson, the young Williamson came under Bud Powell’s spell and absorbed the bop pioneer’s example into his own style. From his 1995 album Hallucinations, here is Williamson with bassist Dave Carpenter and drummer Paul Kreibich in Powell’s “Bud’s Blues.”

After posting (see the previous exhibit) last night’s piece about Bill Mays and our impending visit to Sweden, it occurred to me that I failed to include an example of Mr. Mays’ prowess as a solo pianist. His gift has been on display since he came to prominence in California in the early 1960s. Bill was one of the pianists featured in the lamented Concord Records Maybeck solo piano collection. Why Concord let so valuable a series go out of print is fodder for a congressional investigation. Fortunately, at least one example of Bill’s contribution survives on the internet.

Bill Mays and I are looking forward to being a part of the 2016 Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival. We have done our concert “A History of Jazz Piano” twice in The United States and are delighted that Jan Lundgren, the festival’s artistic director, invited us to Ystad to present it for the first time in Europe. Bill will play music composed by 27 jazz pianists in a stylistic range from Jelly Roll Morton to Cecil Taylor. My role is to talk a bit about each of the pianists. We will be at the venerable Ystad Theatre the afternoon of August 3. In the photograph, Bill and I pose with our instruments following a 2015 presentation.

In its seven years, the Ystad festival in the eleventh century town on the Baltic coast has become one of Europe’s best-known summer jazz events. Artists performing over its five days will include European and international stars, among them this year’s guest of honor, accordionist Richard Galliano. Host Lundgren (pictured) and bassist Mattias Svensson will give a concert with the Bonfiglioli Weber String Quartet. From the United States there will be saxophonists Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman, bassist Avishai Cohen, pianist Bob James and vocalist Marlene Ver Planck. Trumpeter Hugh Masakela will come from South Africa, guitarist Martin Taylor from Scotland, trumpeter Paolo Fresu from Italy. For full details of the schedule, see the festival’s website.

I have reported on four previous Ystad Jazz Festivals. Being there on stage will be a new experience for me, and it will be Bill’s Ystad debut. If you are going to be at the festival, please seek us out and say hello. Bill and I will enjoy meeting you.

Many thanks to artsjournal.com commander-in-chief Doug McLennan (pictured) for posting the previous item while Rifftides was in a digital shambles that rendered us incommunicado. The photo Doug used to accompany the announcement symbolized the chaos. As the problem got worse over a couple of weeks and we finally lost all contact, I spoke with countless Charter Communications technicians. Toward the end, we had visits from two—Jake, yesterday and Zach, today. Collaborating with an electronics wizard from Charter headquarters in St. Louis, Zach now has us back on the internet, and with one phone line in operation. There is more to be done, but we can post again, and those guys are the new heroes of the Rifftides staff.

But, post what? The annoyance of the breakdown was a preoccupation that consumed hour after hour, day after day. Nothing is ready. So I’m taking a logical way out and showing you a pretty picture from a recent pre-disaster bicycle expedition through the southern hills of the Yakima Valley. Let’s follow it with an appropriate piece of music.

From a 1960 Coleman Hawkins session, here is the man who adapted the tenor saxophone to jazz. Hawkins always encouraged adventurous musicians from younger generations, including Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie early in the bebop era. Here, he chose Thad Jones, trumpet; Eddie Costa, piano; George Duvivier, bass; and Osie Johnson, drums. The piece is “Cloudy.”