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Phelan Burgoyne Trio, Quiet Unquiet (Pumpkin Records)

Drummer Burgoyne’s trio may seem now and then to be floating toward somnolence, but the tidal urgencies and complexities of his drumming are unlikely to encourage napping. The ingenuity and intellectual rigor of guitarist Rob Luft and alto saxophonist Martin Speake are equally responsible for keeping the listener’s attention. Burgoyne and Luft were Speake’s students at London’s Royal Academy of Music. Now the professor is a sideman in his former student’s little band, which is increasingly prominent in British music. Moderate sonic manipulation occasionally enhances the music, as in “Midnight Train to Malmö.” If you are not aware of the digital molding, it seems natural—and isn’t that the idea? Luft and Speake achieve keening intensity on “Purple Z.” Burgoyne fashions a cymbal-fest before the piece slowly subsides into a thoughtful echo. The first third of “Green T” is an exercise in reflection for Luft’s guitar and Burgoyne’s cymbals before Speake soars, then darts, in a solo whose passion takes his alto well into the altissimo range. The eight pieces in the album, all composed by Burgoyne, include two short tracks titled “Quiet Unquiet I” and Quiet Unquiet II” that demonstrate the melodic quality of his solo technique. The musicality and appeal of this little band seem likely to keep bringing them attention.

In a demonstration of their stylistic flexibility, here is the Burgoyne trio at the Royal Academy in 2015 with the 20th century Vienesse composer Alban Berg’s “Schliesse Mir Die Augen Beide.”

Cuong Vu 4TET, Ballet (Rare Noise)

Trumpeter Vu and three fellow Seattle adventurers explore pieces by Michael Gibbs. It was guitarist Bill Frisell’s idea to bring the British composer to the University of Washington last year for concerts of his orchestral music as well as sets by Vu’s quartet with Frisell, bassist Luke Bergman and drummer Ted Poor. In a news release, Vu is quoted as saying that their aim was, “…our individual aesthetics coming together and trying to find a common goal/language.” The language is post-bebop bordering on free jazz. Recorded at the concerts, the 4TET—with exhilaration and a sense of risk—apply their unique idiom to five Gibbs compositions. “Ballet” begins as a series of collective abstractions and soon assumes a waltz feeling. Vu’s dazzling state-of-the-trumpet-art solo leads to him and Frisell ending with Gibbs’s eccentric melody appearing in the piece for the first time.

“Feelings And Things,” an abstract ballad, is primarily an occasion for Vu to bring his lyricism to the fore and let one of Gibbs’s most attractive melodies speak for itself. Ted Poor introduces “Blue Comedy” in a short, incisive solo charged with hi-hat licks and Roy Haynes pops. As Vu and Frisell introduce the tricky melody, the trumpet’s first few notes  echo. Whether that is intentional is impossible to know, but it’s an intriguing effect. Frisell invests his solo with quirky asides and what sound like country licks. Rhythmic intensity builds under the impetus of Vu’s gnarly solo. Far from getting in the way, Poor ‘s drum chatter under Bergman’s bass solo enhances it.

“And On The Third Day” is an exercise in drama and emotional density. Vu rasps, growls and echoes before settling into what could be taken, briefly, for a resonant Esbjörn Svensson excursion in Nordic placidity. Soon enough, however, he is fluttering, swooping, playing extended growls and, in general, giving a lesson in 21st Century jazz trumpet fluency. In his solo, Frisell uses amplifier distortion and alternates power chords with decisive downward strokes. As the track eases toward its close after 12 minutes of heat, the lower register of Frisell’s guitar guides us to a peaceful conclusion. This track has remarkable power. To absorb it, the listener may want to take the trip at least twice.

“Sweet Rain,” probably Gibbs’s best-known piece, opens with Vu’s trumpet as mellifluous as a cello—in distinct contrast with the raucousness of his work in “And On The Third Day.” The lyricism of Frisell’s solo has soft, but hardly timid, support from Poor’s brushes. This is Vu’s and Frisell’s first album together since 2005’s It’s Mostly Residual. Twelve years is too long between collaborations by musicians who are so stimulating together.

Classic Savoy BeBop Sessions 1945-49

Just a quick run-through of the names involved in this ten- CD set might be enough to whet the curiosity of the uninitiated and the appetites of devotees of the music that changed jazz in the 1940s. A few of them: Bud Powell, Allen Eager, Milt Jackson, Fats Navarro, James Moody, Tadd Dameron, George Wallington. Not to mention Art Blakey, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Stitt, J.J. Johnson and Brew Moore. Mosaic Records has assembled and remastered dozens of performances from the period when Savoy Records was at the top of the bebop heap. The tracks include master takes and alternates brought up to high sonic standards. This is a major box-set event, even in the light of Mosaic’s enviable track record.

Coleman Hawkins made the tenor saxophone a jazz instrument. Bud Freeman (1906-1991), two years younger than Hawkins, followed as another of the horn’s early masters. Freeman (pictured) started on C-melody saxophone and was a member of Chicago’s Austin High Gang, which also included Frank Teschemacher, Dave Tough and Jimmy McPartland. After he switched to tenor sax in the mid-1920s he went on to play with Ben Pollack, Red Nichols, Ray Noble, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Eddie Condon, among many others. He called his own band The Summa Cum Laude Orchestra. His tone was light compared with most other tenor saxophonists of his era, and almost without vibrato. Freeman was one of the rare early jazz pioneers who became interested in new forms; in the 1950s he studied with Lennie Tristano.

In the mid-1960s, Freeman was a guest on Jazz Alley, a television program hosted by his Chicago pianist contemporary Art Hodes. In this segment, Hodes begins by introducing the young soprano saxophohnist Bob Wilber, who does not play, and then Freeman, who does. The bassist is R.L. Wilson, the drummer Bob Cousins. Not all of the introductions are distinct, so here is the tune list: “You Took Advantage of Me,” “Dinah” and “Three Little Words.”

Rifftides reader Arthur Hill writes from somewhere in Oregon:

Yes, Virginia—there is a jazz club in Salem, Oregon, called Christo’s, a restaurant and lounge. They recently announced that with the closure of Jimmy Mak’s in Portland, “We have been asked to host, for a continual run of second Saturdays, the Mel Brown Septet.”

The next engagement in the run will be on May 13th at 8:30 pm. Unless they have knocked down some walls, it is a small space (maybe about 44 can be shoe-horned in), so reservations are a must (503-371-2892, but don’t call until after 5 pm, as they are all in the kitchen.) Musicians listed are Brown, drums; Gordon Lee, piano; Tim Gilson, bass; Renato Caranto, tenor sax; John Nastos, alto sax; Derek Sims, trumpet; and Stan Goetz. On Thursday, May 4th, the club will have trumpeter Dmitri Matheny’s group and further into the month a trad jazz group on the 13th; Chris Brown Quartet on the 20th. These all start at 7 pm, two sets that are usually over around 9:30. I have no idea how they have been are able to do this for the past several years. Most shows sell out.

Thanks to Mr. Hill for his alert.

Mel Brown’s groups of various sizes were mainstays at Jimmy Mak’s for years. It’s good to know that he’ll be in action in Salem, an hour south of Portland on Interstate 5. From one of Brown’s gigs at Mak’s in 2009, here is his septet with Gordon Lee, piano; Derek Sims, trumpet; Renato Caranto, tenor saxophone; Warren Rand, alto sax; Andre St. James, bass; Stan Bock, trombone; and guest trumpeter Farnell Newton, who has the first solo on a blues that may or may not have a title.

At the invitation of the Rifftides staff, reader Michael Phillips sent a report about the NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert last night at the Kennedy Center. Mr. Philips (pictured left) lives near Washington, DC. He  is a clean-energy consultant who “used to play guitar in swing and jump blues bands” and now co-hosts a jazz radio show.

By Michael Philips

In person, the music was electrifying. In a tribute to Dick Hyman, his long-time friend, semi-protégé and distant cousin Bill Charlap joined with Aaron Diehl for a medley on twin grand pianos. They started playfully with a few measures of Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer,” then went through a series of increasingly complex Hyman tunes. The pianists played overlapping harmonies and rhythms, and when the baton was passed each sat silently while the other soloed.

Another highlight was the ensemble playing in tribute to Dave Holland. For a few minutes, the rest of the band stopped as trombonist Robin Eubanks and saxophonist Chris Potter went off on an extended mutual solo. Partly because of his work with Pat Metheny and his many Down Beat awards, Potter is already well known among jazz fans. Eubanks showed that he deserves as much attention as his guitarist brother Kevin and his late uncle, pianist Ray Bryant.

A poignant moment came in the tribute to Dr. Lonnie Smith when the blind 16-year-old organist Matthew Whitaker, playing the Hammond B-3, led a quartet through Jimmy Smith’s “Mellow Mood .“ The piece also featured a superb solo by guitarist Mike Moreno.

The pit band was the talented all-female 15-piece Diva Jazz Orchestra led by Sherrie Maracle. They did a yeoman’s job backing alto saxophonist Lee Konitz and pianist Dan Tepfer during their tribute to jazz writer Ira Gitler, and in accompanying singer Dianne Reeves and clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera as they honored brand new Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater.

During a listening session at NPR headquarters the day before the NEA concert, bassist Dave Holland recounted a time in 1968 when he was playing at Ronnie Scott’s Club in London. During a break, his friend Philly Joe Jones told him that Miles Davis was in the audience and wanted him to join Miles’ band. Holland said he thought Jones was pulling his leg, but Jones insisted that he should talk to Miles during the next break. At the break, Holland looked for Davis but was told he had gone back to his hotel. The next morning, he waited until a respectable hour, then called the hotel, only to be told that Miles had checked out and gone to the airport. Holland called Philly Joe and asked him what he should do. Jones said to hang tight, that he’d hear from Miles.

A week went by, then another week. Three weeks later on a Tuesday at three o’clock in the morning Holland got a call. It was from Miles’ manager asking if he can make a gig with Davis in New York on Friday. Of course Holland said yes, then raced around London getting a visa and a plane ticket and was on the first flight he could arrange. All the while, he was listening to Miles’ music, but didn’t really know what to expect at the gig. He arrived in New York the afternoon before the date and went to Herbie Hankcock’s house. Herbie went over the changes of some tunes with him, but Holland showed up for the gig with minimal preparation. Miles appeared at the last minute, counted off the first tune and they were off and running.

Holland stayed with the Davis band for two years.

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(Michael Phillips’ radio program In the Jazz Kitchen airs Thursdays from 9 to 11pm Eastern time on the non-profit, community-based station WOWD-FM 94.3. It streams live at takomaradio.org.)

You must have been wondering—haven’t we all?—what happened to Mr. P.C.’s Guide To Jazz Etiquette And Bandstand Decorum. The jazz world’s indispensible source of advice has become harder to find, but not impossible. His latest installment has to do with CDs, their ubiquity or the lack of it, and how to properly dispose of one if it should happen to inadvertently make its way into your horn case or backpack. To read the column, go here, and make note of the web address for future reference.

Cuneiform is an independent label recording music that is out of the mainstream. The Claudia Quartet, Wadada Leo Smith and Thinking Plague are on the Cuneiform roster, and it has groups with even wider orbits—Bent Knee from Boston, for instance, the Norwegian quintet I.P.A., the British jazz-punk rock group called Led Bib, and Naima, a trio from Spain. That list constitutes a thin sampling of Cuneiform talent. The history of the label’s name goes back 5,500 years or more. Curious about how it was chosen, I dropped a line to Joyce, the label’s director of publicity and information, and asked, “Are you archeologists?” Here is some of her answer.

I’m actually an art historian by academic training, BA + MA (not an archeologist, a modernist). I’m not the one who came up with the name. Cuneiform’s owner and founder, Steve Feigenbaum, did. He wanted a different, distinctive name. We both admired ancient Middle Eastern art. Cuneiform is one of the earliest systems of writing, of recording information. The Sumerians developed it in Mesopotamia around 3500 BC. It was a radical innovation in the ancient world. Unlike pictorial languages, it was phonetic and semantic and thus capable of expressing abstract concepts. Music is recorded information, and we wanted our label to record radically innovative music. So, naming the label after cuneiform seemed fitting.

It broke my heart that most people did not know what the word cuneiform was about—what it referred to—until Iraq was in the news following the US invasion in 2003.

In the course of our correspondence, I learned that Joyce has been Mrs. Steve Feigenbaum since 1985. She left her work with the federal government in 1993 to join Cuneiform and help her husband operate the label. Here we see the Feigenbaums on a visit to the painter Salvador Dali’s house in Portlligat / Cadaques, Spain. Their escort is unidentified.

Among Cuneiform’s recent releases is Wadada Leo Smith’s America’s National Parks. Smith is the trumpeter, with Anthony Davis, piano; John Lindberg, bass; Pheeroan akLaff, drums; and Ashley Walters, cello. This is Smith’s “Yellowstone.”

In the northern hemisphere, it is the first day of spring. In our corner of the Pacific Northwest, the season dawned grey, cloudy and looking as if any minute the sky might open up with rain rather than sunshine. We’re compensating with a photograph that expresses hope. Coming out of a relentlessly snowy winter around here, spring is in our hearts, if not in our weather forecast.

I awakened with the back of my mind repeating the melody of a classic 1943 Jimmy Van Heusen-Johnny Burke song. Let’s listen to two versions of “Suddenly It’s Spring.” The first is by Frank Sinatra from an album evidently made up of previously unissued recordings. Unfortunately, the sound remastering fails to match the quality of Sinatra’s singing, but he captures the song’s essence.

At the Jazz At Porquerolles Festival on the French Riviera in 2011, Charles Lloyd and his remarkable quartet of the period turned their attention to one of Brian Wilson’s songs. Wilson first recorded the piece as a single in 1966 and later used it in the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds.

Lloyd toured with the Beach Boys in the 1970s and heard the song as a beautiful melody harboring harmonic possibilities. For more than three minutes at the opening of the Porquelles version, he is absorbed in pianist Jason Moran’s introduction. Then he joins Moran, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland to create a series of abstractions. Following a Moran solo, Lloyd closes with one of his celebrated studies in peacefulness before Rogers bows his way toward a conclusion as the video fades.

Bob Porter, Soul Jazz: Jazz In The Black Community, 1945-1975, Xlibris

Sometimes it’s good to get back to the basics. Bob Porter’s new book guides you there. For decades, Porter has disseminated the jazz basics by way of records he has produced, liner notes he has written, and radio programs he has hosted. He is active today on WBGO, a leading jazz station. Among the many artists he has brought to public attention are Gene Ammons, Hank Crawford, Jimmy McGriff, Horace Silver, Harold Mabern, David “Fathead” Newman and Houston Person. An example from among the extensive list of Porter’s productions is the 1969 Person album Goodness, which included the soul hit, “Jamilah.” (You can listen to “Jamilah” here). Porter writes clearly and comprehensively, incorporating his vast knowledge of leading soul jazz musicians and personal experience with them.

Tad Hershorn of the Institute Of Jazz Studies notifies us that IJS will hold a two-day symposium March 24 and 25 to celebrate the life and 100th anniversary of the birth of Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996). Hershorn will be among those honoring Ms. Fitzgerald along with longtime IJS leader Dan Morgenstern and a contingent of other experts on her life and art.

Speakers will include historians and journalists Lewis Porter, Phil Schaap and Will Friedwald. Biographer Judith Tick will discuss her Fitzgerald book due for publication next year. Pianists Mike Wofford and Richard Wyands will remember their years accompanying Ms. Fitzgerald and incorporate demonstrations of their techniques. Vocalist Carrie Jackson will also perform. The event will be free, but registration is required. For full details, go here.

For Ella in performance, stay right where you are and click on the arrow. YouTube says this masterwork has had 2,992,718 viewers. Who knows, you may be number 3,000,000.

Sixty-three years ago—almost to the day—Shorty Rogers included “Infinity Promenade” in his classic Short Stops album. Let’s hear it again. The introductory cymbals magic is by Shelly Manne. Soloists are alto saxophonist Art Pepper, Rogers on trumpet, and pianist Marty Paich. However, what blows minds all this time later is the double trumpet lead near the end by Conrad Gozzo and Maynard Ferguson. I once wrote that together these two created for lead trumpeters a gold standard. It remains in effect today. In this Ray Avery photo from the following year, we see (L to R) John Best, Gozzo and Ferguson.

Complete personnel on “Infinity Promenade” was: Rogers (comp, arr, cond, flugel); Conrad Gozzo Maynard Ferguson, Pete Candoli, John Howell (tps); Milt Bernhart, John Haliburton, Harrt Betts (tbs); John Graas (fh), Gene Englund (tuba), Art Pepper Bud Shank (as); Jimmy Giuffre (ts),Bob Cooper (bs) Marty Paich (p), Curtis Counce (b), Shelly Manne (d).

The news of Robert Osborne’s passing was a bad way to start the day. We were friends from the day that our Delta Upsilon fraternity at the University of Washington assigned him to be my “big brother” and roommate. A fellow journalism major, Bob was confidant and adviser to this green freshman. Not long after his graduation, he took his love for the movies to Hollywood. For a time he pursued acting with Lucille Ball as his mentor (they are pictured together above). He became a columnist for The Hollywood Reporter, was an expert on the Academy Awards and literally wrote the book on the Oscars. Eventually, Turner Classic Movies hired him as their host. TCM exposure made him one of the most familiar television figures of his time. Here we see him with his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Oz and I stayed in touch by way of occasional telephone chats and email messages but saw one another far too seldom. Our mutual college friend and brother Ted Van Dyk wrote this morning,

Bob was a talented, honest and good human being. He also happened to become famous,which was last in importance. God bless him.

Amen.

Bob Osborne RIP.

In Ella Fitzgerald’s centennial year, the great singer is being honored around the world. The Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra began the celebration with a pair of tribute concerts ahead of The First Lady of Song’s April 25 birth date. The one that Jim Wilke recorded at the Kirkland Performance Center across Lake Washington from Seattle will air at 2PM PST today, March 5, on Jim’s Jazz Northwest program on KNKX, and be streamed on the web.

The SRJO invited vocalist Carmen Bradford to perform songs popularized by Ms. Fitzgerald, who recorded extensively, toured with the Count Basie and Duke Ellington orchestras and was featured on Jazz At The Philharmonic tours. Fitzgerald album sales top more than 40 million. If you’re in the Seattle-Tacoma area, tune in to KNKX, 88.5 FM. Elsewhere around the world, hear the stream on the internet at http://knkx.org.

In the windows of a Target store on a busy street corner in downtown Portland is a display of art inspired by jazz. Scattered among classic album covers, the paintings are by students who learn about the music in a program developed by Joe Maita, the president of the PDX Jazz board of directors. You may know Maita as the prominent blogger Jerry Jazz Musician. He and other instructors in the Jazz In The Schools program familiarize youngsters with jazz by way of short lectures, discussions and listening sessions. They stimulate the kids to create paintings, drawings and sculptures that reflect what they hear. Many of the works by elementary and middle school students are remarkably advanced in the ways that they touch the spirit of the music. The pieces below are by students at the Rosa Parks Elementary School.

Maita was inspired to reach neighborhoods with underprivileged children, but the program extends to students of all socio-economic categories in schools across the city. Some of the paintings and sculpture
by high school pupils approach professional quality. Now that the program is becoming solidly established in Portland, Maita (pictured left) and his colleagues—all of them volunteers—are working to encourage other cities to follow suit. Such efforts have the potential to revive interest in America’s principal contribution to the world’s arts and culture.

With his marketing group and his work on the PDX Jazz Festival, Joe Maita’s blog is updated less frequently these days, but for jazz listeners it is a valuable source of information—always a good read. To visit it, click here.