Search Results for: target

MULLIGAN AND “YARDBIRD SUITE”
Part 2
By Jeff Sultanof

When Jazz Lines began operation, Rob DuBoff had a meeting with Franca Mulligan and made an agreement. I contacted him about what Mulligan had said to me, and became his editor. Obviously the CJB library was a priority, but Jazz Lines also issued new editions I prepared of Mulligan’s contributions to the Miles Davis Nonet, which originally appeared in book form from Hal Leonard as scores only. (Photo by Hank O’Neal)

In 1995, Gerry told me he wanted to include “Rocker” (“Rock Salt”) in the play-along, and I asked him which version he wanted to use as a basis for the new lead sheet. He had a lead sheet already written, but made changes to it. He did not have the nonet version (Miles had that in storage, as I later found out), and he did not have his version for Charlie Parker with Strings (which was also in private hands and later donated to the Institute of Jazz Studies). Quite casually, I asked him about his arrangements for Parker and he said, “You know, I wrote something else for Bird, but didn’t finish it. I was going to California.”

When the Bird with Strings book of original scores and parts was acquired by IJS, it quickly became a collection examined by hundreds of scholars and fans. Rob published many titles recorded and unrecorded, which included a Mulligan composition named “Gold Rush” which was recorded privately. Of course I was thrilled to work on it, and figured that this was the mystery arrangement Mulligan had spoken about.

I was wrong!

Some months ago, Rob and I met with Franca to get more Mulligan music for eventual publication, including his Octet for Sea Cliff, and some CJB material. Rob was flipping through the master list of Mulligan’s collection and found the title “Yardbird Suite.” Surprised to see this listing, he located it in a folder with a photocopy of a sketch score inside. It was indeed “Yardbird Suite,” the arranger was listed as ‘Jeru’ (Mulligan’s nickname) and had the following note at the top right hand corner: “Bird, you’ll hafta (sic) do something with the last chorus – I couldn’t finish it.” Mystery solved!

Rob made a copy and sent it to me to evaluate. Could this be published? I figured that I would start working on it and see where the music took me.

Mulligan sketched this arrangement as two staves for two trumpets and a trombone, one stave for English Horn, two staves for five saxophones (including Parker), a stave with chord names, two staves for strings, and one for bass. He certainly would have written this out with each instrument on its own stave as a finished score that would be copied and played, but he had not gotten to that point and never would. He went to California during the Spring of 1952, so dating the music was not an issue.

Bird was touring with an ensemble of oboe/English Horn, strings and rhythm during this period, an instrumentation different in “Yardbird Suite.” Why the saxes and brass? I believe that this was written for a proposed recording date with a small ensemble and strings. The names Walter and Roy appear at one point on the score, indicating drummer Roy Haynes and pianist Walter Bishop, Jr., who were playing with Parker at the time. Solos in addition to Parker are for baritone sax (Mulligan) and trombone (at a guess, Kai Winding, but maybe J.J. Johnson or Bill Harris). Perhaps Bird wanted to make an album that was commercial (hence the strings) but would also be more jazz oriented; it is tempting to think of what such an album would have sounded like.

The second question: could this setting be finished? As it turned out, Mulligan sketched out only half of the last chorus. I examined every page of the sketch, and soon noticed that Gerry wrote two different versions of the last eight bars of the first chorus, and one of them could certainly be used to complete the arrangement. Except for filling in string harmonies in two spots (the chord changes were indicated, so this was simple based on how he wrote the rest of the arrangement), a final chord to end the piece, and a few other details, this is 97% Mulligan. It is now published and for sale.

“Gold Rush” showed how far Mulligan had come in writing string parts vs. his first experience with “Rocker.” “Yardbird Suite” takes this a bit further. Mulligan told me that by 1948 or so, he was thinking more horizontally than vertically when writing ensemble music, and he was no longer boxed in by standard chord structures, part of the legacy of his discussions with Gil Evans. There are subtle dissonances in “Yardbird” that fly by which lend a bit of spice to a beautiful swinging setting.

Mulligan had a real flair for string writing, and it is a pity he had few opportunities to feature strings in his music until much later, when he composed such symphonic orchestra pieces as “Entente for Baritone Saxophone and Symphony Orchestra” and “Momo’s Clock.” How wonderful it is to have a bit more of his writing for strings, just as it was incredible to discover that George Russell had written a Bird with Strings version of “Ezzthetic” that Bird didn’t play.

Obviously I consider this version of “Yardbird Suite” a very important find, and am very humbled by the opportunity to help bring it to light.

©2012, Jeff Sultanof

Rifftides is grateful to Mr. Sultanof for the opportunity to publish his story. We look forward to someone recording this Mulligan-Parker collaboration that never was. For more information about the score, and to hear a computerized indication of how it might sound by an orchestra, go here. If you’re a musician, you may be tempted to play along in the sections meant for Charlie Parker’s solos.

Old Pal Mike Yates mentioned in an e-mail note that he’s going to see his old pal George Amabile for the first time in 40 years. J. Michael Yates (pictured left) is one of Canada’s pre-eminent poets, radio dramatists and prison memoirists. We met in New Orleans in the 1960s and have stayed in touch. The story is too long to go into here, but without Mike my novel Poodie James (right column, scroll down) would still be in a digital desk drawer.

The Winnipeg Review says that Amabile (pictured right) is, “the éminence gris of Manitoba poetry and indeed is an eminent figure in North American poetry.” When Amabile shows up in Vancouver next month to collect the F.G. Bressani Literary Prize in two categories, poetry and short fiction, he and Yates will get together. That’s bound to be a momentous reunion.

But, wait. There’s more about Amabile

Curious, I did a search and found that Amabile, a transplanted American, has a deep connection to jazz. Victor Enns, yet another Canadian poet, interviewed Amabile for the Winnipeg Review and asked him how much jazz had influenced his writing. Amabile’s answer contains a lovely assessment of the unexplainable magic and evanescent nature of spontaneous creativity in jazz and other art forms.

I’ve never been able to discover or invent a methodology for accurately measuring the influence of anything, including other poems and poets, on my writing, or anyone’s writing. What I can say is that I began listening to jazz while I was still attending Princeton High School. Even after I left for college, gangs of us would go up to New York during the summer or spring break, and hit the clubs, the Five Spot, Birdland, the Blue Note, the Metronome, and half a dozen dives where jazz players would come in very late, after their paid gigs, to drink and jam.

This was in the fifties, Kai and Jay, Parker, Coltrane, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Cozy Cole, Mingus, Rollins, the MJQ, Brubeck and Stan Getz, Gillespie, Adderley and one night in some dive or other, we saw Thelonious Monk sit down and hammer out his Quadratics. We got very pumped about this. Then in comes Coltrane and sits in. It went on and on, like they had tapped into some inexhaustible resource deep in the earth or the sea or the night sky – breathtaking, and one of the things it taught me was the way maybe the best of jazz or poetry, or anything else, precipitates like that, so perfectly, out of the flux, out of unpredictable energies that come together and vibrate with such colour and clarity it seems their intensities are accessible anywhere, anytime, and just as you think that, the music fades, as if whatever brought such magic together also burned it away.

To read all of the Enns interview with George Amabile, go here.

To get at least a glimmer of what he may have heard from Monk and Coltrane that night, let’s listen. This is “Nutty” from their 1957 Carnegie Hall concert with Ahmed Abdul-Malik, bass, and Shadow Wilson, drums.

Here’s a poem from J. Michael Yates’s 1969 collection, Hunt In An Unmapped Interior. It reflects the spirit of what Amabile told Enns, and of what Monk and Coltrane did together. I reproduce it with Mr. Yates’s permission.

Poem
It must speak of things
Which go quickly
Through shadows of consciousness

Like small animals in the thicket
You cannot quite
Be sure you’ve seen.

©J. Michael Yates

The Rifftides staff is making its way through a few of the CDs that have accumulated while we paid attention to some of the other matters alluded to in the subtitle of this enterprise. You will find a previous installment two posts below, where October 23, 2012, will live forever in the archive, or as long as there’s an archive. At this juncture it is unclear when you will find the next in this series, but please keep coming back; there’s almost always something or other.

Tommy Cecil and Bill Mays, Side By Side: Sondheim Duos (CD Baby)

Stephen Sondheim’s theater songs are replete with terrific melodies. They are also loaded with harmonic surprises that lend themselves to improvisation—if the players have the intellect and chops to take advantage of them. Bassist Cecil and pianist Mays know how to capitalize on unusual turns in chord structures. Their keen ears and quick thinking serve them well in this chamber music encounter. Sondheim’s melody lines and chord changes in pieces like “Broadway Baby” and “Comedy Tonight” inspire Mays to now and then summon up Thelonious Monk; great fun, but it is Mays’ originality that wins the day. Cecil solos with imagination and a fat bass sound that is comfortable and consistent from the bottom of his range to the top. Highlights: Cecil’s stewardship of the enchanting melody of “Not While I’m Around,” Mays’ expressiveness in his solo on “Every Day a Little Death,” their refractive interaction on “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd.”

Terell Stafford, This Side of Strayhorn (MaxJazz)

The “side” of the title is the extensive cache of Billy Strayhorn compositions that did not achieve the prominence of “Take the ‘A’ Train” or “Lush Life.” Happily, the latter is included in the trumpeter and flugelhornist’s superb quintet album, but many listeners may not be acquainted with the Strayhorn gems “Multicolored Blue,” “U.M.M.G,” “Smada” and “Lana Turner.” Stafford’s playing in those pieces and others by Duke Ellington’s protégé and writing partner will be a stimulating introduction. On “Lana Turner,” without imitating Louis Armstrong he conjures up Amstrong’s spirit. Although in his solos there are also traces of trumpeters from Cootie Williams to Harry Edison to Freddie Hubbard, Stafford confirms that at 45 he is an independent voice, one of the most important trumpeters of his generation. Tim Warfield is on soprano and tenor saxophones in the front line with Stafford. They have fine support from pianist Bruce Barth, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Dana Hall.

Brad Mehldau, Highway Rider (Nonesuch).

I have been trying to catch up with Brad Mehldau recordings. Maybe someday I will. This one has been out for a couple of years. It has the pianist with saxophonist Joshua Redman, drummers Jeff Ballard and Matt Chamberlain, bassist Larry Grenadier, and on several tracks an orchestra of strings and woodwinds. The playing is splendid throughout. The orchestral pieces have moments of disturbing beauty.

Anne Sofie Von Otter, Brad Mehldau, Love Songs (Naïve)

The first disc contains a song cycle for which Mehldau wrote music to poems by Sara Teasdale, Philip Larkin, e.e. cummings and other poets. He accompanies Von Otter, a glorious Swedish mezzo-soprano. The second disc allows Mehldau to project his personality, which is a match for Von Otter’s, in songs by a range of writers. Among them are Léo Ferré, Richard Rodgers, Leonard Bernstein, Joni Mitchell and John Lennon.

Anne Sofie Von Otter, Speak Low: Songs By Kurt Weill (Deutsche Grammophon)

With an orchestra conducted by John Eliot Gardiner and piano accompaniment by Bengt Forsberg on some pieces, Von Otter sings nine songs from Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins and others from Lady in the Dark, Happy End and One Touch of Venus. She runs the gamut from formidable in “Zorn” (“Anger”) to pleadingly seductive in “Speak Low.” This is how you would hear Weill in the theater—if you were lucky.

Rifftides readers in the UK or planning to be there next month, or those with internet capability, may be interested in this communiqué from John Gill, partner of the late composer, arranger and bandleader Graham Collier.

The London Jazz Festival in conjunction with the BBC Radio Big Band has confirmed the memorial concert for Graham at the BBC Maida Vale Studios in London on Wednesday 14 November at 8pm.

The concert will feature the British premiere of Graham’s penultimate work, The Blue Suite, as well as a selection of his and the musicians’ personal favourites from the Collier canon. The BBC Radio Big Band will be conducted by flautist-saxophonist Geoff Warren, a key Collier player for more than thirty years, and will also feature Collier stalwarts such as Roger Dean, John Marshall, Ed Speight, Art Themen and Steve Waterman, as well as former Collier collaborators including Roy Babbington, Graeme Blevins and Andy Grappy, and guest Jonathan Williams (French horn). The BBC band will also feature trumpeters Martin Shaw and Mike Lovatt, trombonist Gordon Campbell and saxophonists Jay Craig and Andy Panayi.

Tickets are free and are available from the BBC ticket unit here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows/shows/jazz_line_up_nov12

while directions for the BBC Maida Vale Studios can be found here:

http://www.londonjazzfestival.org.uk/venues

The concert will be recorded for BBC broadcast at 11pm GMT on 25 November, and will be broadcast live on the internet at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/, where it will also be available for seven days on the BBC iPlayer net broadcast system.

I hope that one way or another you can hear the concert.

For a Rifftides piece on Collier’s passing in 2011, click here. The post contains a 15-minute video of Collier rehearsing a band and talking about his work.

Stacks and boxes of CD review copies surround me, an indication that the music is alive and well or—at any rate—an indication that lots of jazz artists are recording. That’s good. The bad news is that unless someone discovers a way of listening that is other than sequential, it is impossible to hear and evaluate more than a smattering of those albums.

Let’s attempt to catch up with a few recent releases. I thought of adopting the Twitter maximum of 140 characters, but that’s probably carrying brevity too far. Some recordings may deserve as many as 200 characters.

Clare Fischer Orchestra: Extension (International Phonograph, Inc.)

Until recently, the only reissue of this vital 1963 album was an inadequately remastered vinyl disc released in 1984. Following Fischer’s death early this year, Johnathan Horwich’s International Phonograph company has restored the music to the luminous sound of the Pacific Jazz original, even improved on it. Fischer specialized in tonal shadings and harmonic subtleties, but also in rhythmic vitality. He melded those qualities in pieces like “Ornithardy,” “Extension” and “Canto Africano.” In “Quiet Dawn” he created a masterpiece of reflective impressionism. The improvising soloists are Fischer, brilliant on piano and organ, and tenor saxophonist Jerry Coker.

The classy CD package is a miniature of the original double-gatefold LP sleeve, with the extensive liner notes reproduced in readable type size on a removable sheet tucked into the CD pocket. The music is a reminder that with this album, at age 35 Fischer confirmed his place in the ranks of major jazz arrangers and composers. This is a most welcome release.

Tia Fuller: Angelic Warrior (Mack Avenue)

Fuller’s alto saxophone solo on “Body Soul” and her obbligato in the piece behind guest singer Dianne Reeves typify her growth as an improviser. Her band with pianist sister Shamie Royston, drummer brother-in-law Rudy Royston and lifelong friend Mimi Jones on bass provides the setting for Fuller’s increasingly forthright soloing on alto and soprano——and an outlet for her imaginative writing. Appearances by bassist John Patitucci and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington add sonic and rhythmic interest to the album. The two duet with delight and density on Fuller’s arrangement combining Cole Porter’s “So in Love” and “All of You.” Elsewhere, Patitucci plays electric piccolo bass, soloing on it like a guitarist. Despite the presence of heavyweight guests, the imagination and aggressiveness of Fuller’s playing dominate the CD. She, Rudy Royston and Carrington are formidable in an alto-percussion conversation on “Cherokee.”

Joe La Barbera: Silver Streams (Jazz Compass)

Long after the east-vs-west nonsense of the 1950s and ‘60s, much of the jazz establishment still looks the other way, listens the other way, when it comes to music played and recorded on the left coast. Such close-minded listeners—they don’t include you, of course—would be well advised to make an exception for this album by a powerful and subtle drummer. It is yet another sleeper by La Barbera, who with trumpeter Clay Jenkins, bassist Tom Warrington and guitarist Larry Koonse founded the Jazz Compass label a few years ago. Jenkins, Warrington, saxophonist Bob Sheppard and pianist Bill Cunliffe join La Barbera in a collection that contains a stunning version of Scott LaFaro’s “Jade Visions.” In it, the leader displays the lacy cymbal work that has been one of the joys of his music from his days with Bill Evans. Cunliffe’s title tune, structured like a suite, opens for mutual improvisation as well as solos by all hands. Further highlights: the quintet’s takes on Steve Swallow’s quirky “Bite Your Grandmother” and Elvin Jones’s “E.J.’s Blues.”

Carol Vasquez: I Have Dreamed (Carol Vasquez Music)

Vasquez’s classical training and musical theater background are apparent in her phrasing, diction and clarity of intonation. She imparts cabaret intimacy to “Safe and Warm,” with its insinuating guitar accompaniment by Charlie Hunter, and to Bill Evans’s harmonically challenging “Remembering the Rain.” She swings nicely in “The Song is You,” expresses the heartbreak of “Blame it on My Youth” and captures the longing of Curtis Lewis’s “All Night Long.” The canny arrangements and piano accompaniment are by Jan Stevens, who in his internet life is the proprietor of The Bill Evans Webpages. The repertoire is eleven standard songs of generations from Cole Porter to Stevie Wonder plus “On My Way to Love” by Stevens and Vasquez, which has standard potential.

Duke Ellington’s My People:The Complete Show (Storyville)
Duke Ellington: The Treasury Shows, Vol. 16 (Storyville)

Ellington’s music is replete with African-American themes, but he made only one overtly angry statement about racial injustice, a powerful one. He composed “King Fit the Battle of Alabam” as a centerpiece of My People, the tribute to black Americans that he wrote, produced and directed in Chicago in 1963, at the height of the civil rights movement. Taped during the run of the show but never released in its entirety until now, the original cast recording features singers Jimmy Grissom, Joya Sherill and Lil Greenwood, a chorus, and an orchestra led by Jimmy Jones that includes members of Ellington’s band. Ray Nance, Bill Berry, Booty Wood, Bob Freedman, Harold Ashby, Louie Bellson and Russell Procope are among the soloists. “Come Sunday” and variations on it run through the production, there are strains of the blues and allusions to Black, Brown and Beige. But at the end, what lingers is the rage when the chorus sings “Martin—Luther—King—fit the battle of—bam—bam—bam!” and the band follows in a round of solos saturated with the energy of positive indignation.

Simultaneous with My People, Storyville released the most recent of the apparently endless series of Ellington’s 1945-46 radio broadcasts for the Treasury Department, inspiring Americans to buy war bonds, then victory bonds. The series amounts to an audio album capturing the Ellington band still populated by some of its biggest stars, including Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Lawrence Brown, Tricky Sam Nanton and Cat Anderson. The two-CD set has a few rarities; an early version of the Carney baritone sax feature “Frustration,” Carney’s composition “Jennie,” the incandescent vocalist Kay Davis singing “Dancing in the Dark,” the premier of Hodges’ “Crosstown,” Billy Strayhorn on piano backing Hodges in Strayhorn’s “Passion Flower.” In several solos, Al Sears acquits himself well in one of the toughest assignments in jazz, as Ben Webster’s successor on tenor saxophone. The set has a few bonus flashbacks to broadcasts of the 1943 edition of the band, when Webster, Shorty Baker and Taft Jordan were still aboard.

Just for fun, let’s go out with a bonus of our own. Here’s a piece from a later Ellington Treasury broadcast. He was still doing his patriotic duty in 1951. The introduction is by Willis Conover.

Anita O’Day was in Chicago born 93 years ago today. From my notes for the 2009 O’Day Jazz Icons DVD, this is a summary of her importance:

Anita O’Day was the last of the great female jazz vocalists who emerged in the swing era. She survived Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee and Carmen McRae. She had perfect time and pitch, a voice virtually without vibrato and the ability to swing as hard as the top horn players of her era, which was long. Her feistiness matched her musicianship and she had the respect of her instrumental colleagues, an honor not always accorded singers. O’Day knew with precision what she wanted from supporting musicians. An anecdote circulated after she died in 2006 at the age of 87. She was overheard correcting her drummer. He told her not to tell him how to play. “I’m not telling you how to play,” she said, “I’m telling you when to play.”

Here’s O’Day from a television appearance in Tokyo in l993, performing two of her favorite songs. Pianist Bob Corwin traveled to Japan with her. Drummer Takeshi Inomata, bassist Tatsuro Takimoto and sxophonist Tadayuki Harada were members of the big band that played behind her on the show.

Musicians at the Oregon Coast Jazz Party can count on a busy weekend. If this jewel of a little festival had a theme, it would be compatibility. Regardless of whether the musicians she assigns have previously played together, music director Holly Hofmann assembles the players and singers in combinations that yield results. For three days, she was on target, relying on her instincts as a musician and producer and on her faith in the common language of jazz.

Ms. Hofmann put Ken Peplowski at the helm of a quintet with trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, pianist Bill Mays, drummer Chuck Redd and bassist Dave Captein. Playing tenor saxophone, Peplowski kicked off the set with a fast “Blue ‘n Boogie,” delivering the Dizzy Gillespie line in unison with Gordon and giving all hands plenty of solo space. He followed it with a standup routine of wit that in its dryness and quickness was a match for his playing. Whenever he spoke during the party, he had musicians and the audience chuckling or, often, laughing out loud. Peplowski reserved his seriousness for the music. He introduced Rodgers and Hart’s “A Ship Without a Sail” (1929) as “a ballad that too few people know about.” He played it on clarinet with deep tones and phrasing that captured the song’s sense of longing. “Rhythm-a-ning” brought out the vaudevillian in Gordon, whose trombone choruses incorporated an update of the early New Orleans jazz practice of imitating body and animal sounds. He did it with astonishing virtuosity. Following Mays’ impressive choruses on the Monk tune, Gordon returned, equally startling playing his slide trumpet. Redd’s crackling drum solo was his first statement of a weekend that saw the Washington, DC, veteran also playing vibes in a variety of settings.

Peplowski and company wrapped up with another Monk piece, “Hackensack,” the leader on tenor and Gordon putting vaudeville tendencies aside. His solo on the “Lady Be Good” changes was serious, straight-ahead and stimulating, in keeping with the example Mays set in his choruses.

The Clayton Brothers Quintet opened with alto saxophonist Jeff Clayton’s “Cha Cha Charleston,” which achieved the neat trick of combining those disparate rhythms. The piece’s metric challenges underlined the crucial relationship among bassist John Clayton, his pianist son Gerald and drummer Obed Calvaire. In his solo Calvaire combined rhythmic looseness and total control as Jeff Clayton and Terell Stafford punctuated with unison horn stings. Other highlights of the Clayton segment:

          John Clayton’s impassioned bowing in Billie Holiday’s “Don’t Explain.”

          Stafford’s solo, lightning fast and full of complexities, on “Runway.”

Holly Hofmann and Jeff Clayton combining their flutes in “Touch the Fog” from the Clayton Brothers CD The Gathering, her solo exotic, his on bass flute colored with humming/playing gruffness.

The impressionism of Gerald Clayton’s solo on “Touch the Fog” and his soloing throughout; he has become one of the music’s major young players.

In one of two late-night jam sessions at the Shilo Inn, vocalist Kenny Washington, captivated listeners most of whom were hearing him for the first time. In a typically perceptive OCJP mix-and-match, Hofmann teamed Washington with Calvaire, Captein, Gordon and guitarist Graham Dechter. By the time Washington and singer Denise Donatelli shared leadership of a set the next night, Washington had accumulated new admirers of his swing, cheerfulness, vocal technique and a range that equals Bobby McFerrin’s. On another set, Donatelli headed a trio with Dechter and Portland bassist Tom Wakeling. Warmed up, minor intonation adjustments out of the way, she combined personal phrasing and time feeling with a smoky quality that melded into crystal clarity in the high register on “If You Never Come to Me” and “Darn That Dream.”

Bill Mays’ History of Jazz Piano concert for a morning audience covered pianists from James P. Johnson to Herbie Hancock. Teddy Wilson, Bill Evans and Bud Powell were among the 13 whose styles Mays summoned without surrendering his individuality. Tommy Flanagan and Sonny Clark had to be set aside when time ran short. I had the privilege of providing narration leading into each of Bill’s segments. That put me in the second best seat in the house in the curve of the nine-foot Steinway as Mays poured himself into interpreting some of the pianists who influenced his development. It was a great experience, with a responsive audience, and so much fun that we’re thinking of doing it again sometime, somewhere.

Three Portlanders—bassist Captein, drummer Gary Hobbs and pianist Tony Pacini—teamed with Chuck Redd on vibes for a set that included a superb Captein solo on “Come Fly With Me.” Listening backstage, Hofmann said, “He is so solid.” In Duke Ellington’s “Main Stem,” Hobbs used brushes on cymbals and floated through a solo that incorporated air as an element. In the second jam session at the Shilo, the former Stan Kenton drummer showed another side of his talent as he propelled a sextet with Stafford, guitarist Dechter (pictured), Peplowski, Redd (vibes) and John Clayton. In a quintet session Saturday night, on Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing,” Stafford and Gordon explored different degrees of rambunctiousness. Old pals John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton followed, trading eight-bar phrases as they grinned at one another. Other high points of the set were Gordon’s trumpet and singing on “Black and Blue” in tribute to Louis Armstrong, and Gerald Clayton’s sensitive playing on the intriguing harmonies of his “Sunny Day Go By.”

The Sunday Morning wrap session began with Mays updating and expanding the repertoire of his CD Mays at the Movies. He, Wakeling (pictured) and Redd concentrated on music from films he admires, has written for, or on whose soundtracks he played. The admiration category included the classics “Laura,” “The Very Thought of You” and “Smile.” His own “Cool Pool” was a Miles Davis “All Blues” clone that he wrote for a producer who didn’t want to pay a heavy licensing fee to use the Davis original. He played on the sound track of the Coen Brothers’ Fargo, and gave the Newport audience a trio version of the film’s theme by Carter Burwell, which Mays described as “not a bad piece of music.” Mays’ composition “Judy” appeared in the appallingly violent Willem Dafoe psychological thriller Anamorph. Accordingly, he, Wakeling and Redd played it as what Mays called a “group grope,” free jazz with simultaneous improvisation that ended with the trio wreathed in smiles.

Atsuko Hashimoto reappeared as the head of a trio with Peplowski on tenor sax and Hamilton on drums. In “If I Had You,” she affirmed the B3’s capacity for dynamic subtlety as well as displays of power when she built to a crescendo, sustained it momentarily, then let the volume fall away without losing momentum as Peplowski reintroduced the melody. Hashimoto does not speak English but evidently understands it. Peplowski served as the trio’s spokesman. He reduced his leader and the audience to nearly helpless laughter after he promised that they would play Wagner’s Ring Cycle, then introduced “Shiny Stockings” by reminding Hamilton, “this is the tune we first danced to.”

The fun and games continued with the Clayton Brothers band augmented by Wycliffe Gordon. The trombonist, Terell Stafford and Jeff Clayton comprised a powerhouse front line in blues pianist Al Copley’s “Friday Night Strut,” with solos in kind by all hands. Stafford’s had a series of chromatic descending lines so logical, it sounded composed, as of course it was—on the spot. They followed with “This Ain’t Nothin’ But a Party” and spirited soloing on the 16-bar piece written by Jeff C., who led the audience and the band in a singalong. The crowd quickly picked up the lyrics, which consisted of the title sung repeatedly. It was nothin’ but a party all weekend, and it closed with the group jam on “Perdido” with which we began this series of Newport reports three days ago and three items below.

Hammond B3 organist Atsuko Hashimoto bookended the Oregon Coast Jazz Party. The diminutive bundle of energy from Osaka performed on opening night, again on Saturday and in the Sunday morning wrap session. Her set with drummer Jeff Hamilton and guitarist Graham Dechter began with the ballad “All or Nothing at All” from their most recent CD. She and Hamilton kicked it off at a blistering non-balladic tempo, as later they did “Yours is My Heart Alone,” another piece that began life as a tender expression of sentiment and takes on a different character at top speed.

In their decade of playing together, Hashimoto and Hamilton have developed an easy relationship into which Dechter fits as a full partner. The trio locked in tightly through Hank Mobley’s “Soul Station,” “Always Trust Your Heart” with Hamilton’s hand drumming introduction, and “I’ve Never Been in Love Before.” The closing blues had stop-time breaks for Dechter, Hamilton’s compelling shuffle beat and Hashimoto in flurries that swelled and receded in waves up and down the keyboard. The three smiled continually through the piece.

They were back the next morning, each playing an unaccompanied solo in a set that also included clarinetist Ken Peplowski, bassist John Clayton, pianist Gerald Clayton and vibraharpist Chuck Redd. In the Sunday wrap session, Hashimoto, Hamilton and Peplowski—this time on tenor saxophone— played an organ trio set that began with “Sunny,” leading Terell Stafford, listening backstage, to say of Peplowski, “Wow, he sounds like Stanley Turrentine.” They followed with “If I Had You,” Hashimoto applying dynamics reminiscent of Jimmy Smith, her early inspiration. Peplowski announced the final tune of the set as “Wagner’s Ring Cycle. We’re going to try to get through it in three-and-a-half hours.” He looked over at Hashimoto shuffling through lead sheets and said, “She’s looking for the music.” The piece turned out to be “Shiny Stockings.”

Tomorrow morning, I am off to Newport, Oregon to attend the 2012 Oregon Coast Jazz Party. The three-day event used to be called The Newport, Oregon, Jazz Festival, but I’m told that it became necessary to rename it because of concerns that it could be mistaken for another festival. Perhaps you can guess which one. This poster, perhaps commissioned by the chamber of commerce or the tourist commission, clearly shows that the Oregon Newport is on the left coast. If you look closely, you will see that it illustrates some of the things I could do if I weren’t going to be in windowless rooms listening to music.

If you follow Rifftides, you may have noticed that the festival has an advertisement in the right column. It popped up there one day through an arrangement by the festival management with artsjournal.com, the blog umbrella under which we appear.

Full disclosure— the Rifftides staff had nothing to do with the ad’s placement and has no financial interest in it. Further full disclosure—I am going to take part in a concert at the festival. Long ago, Bill Mays said that some day he would play a History of Jazz Piano concert in the US, as he had in Japan, and asked if I would narrate it. Sure, I said. Later, Bill was invited to play at the Newport festival, er, party, and suggested the program to Holly Hofmann, the music director, who approved. Bill has spent decades preparing. I believe that he intends to use a full-size piano. I have spent hours writing my ad libs. Even further full disclosure—the management asked me to introduce some of the concerts. Marcia Hocker of KMHD radio in Portland will introduce others. If you wish to know who is playing at the party, click on the ad. It’s quite a lineup. If you’re going to there, please say hello.

Well, with all of that full disclosing, here’s the ethical dilemma: Since I have agree to be an ad hoc part of the event, can I also report about it to Rifftides readers without destroying my journalistic integrity? I’ll think about that on the five-and-a-half-hour drive tomorrow.

Speaking of Newport, right-coast variety, I learned by chance that George Wein and I share the same birthday, which at this writing has another hour to run. He didn’t know it, either. George and I exchanged pleasantries about that today. It was pleasant. Happy birthday, George.

Sorry to hear of Eddie Bert’s passing last week. He was a trombonist who loved to play so much that if there were no paying gigs, he would find a band to sit in with. Bert was 90 years old and worked until shortly before he died. He was an asset in combos as well as big bands. His resume included work with Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Charles Mingus, The Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra and several repertory bands, including the American Jazz Orchestra.

In New York, I frequently encountered Eddie in clubs, after concerts, on the street, commuting on the train to or from Grand Central. He was always well dressed, interesting to chat with, looked at least twenty years younger than his age, and was unfailingly cheerful, as he is in this recording with a dream rhythm section of Duke Jordan, Ray Drummond and Mel Lewis. It’s from his album The Human Factor.

For more about Eddie Bert, see this piece from the Stamford Advocate near the town where he lived in Connecticut and this 2004 essay on Bill Crow’s web site.

If you’re keeping up with the adventures of the Brubeck Brothers Quartet in Russia, read Chris Brubeck’s latest blog post, an account of the BBQ’s good will mission to a country town. The band held a concert for the citizenry and, in return, heard some of the locals, including “extremely sturdy Russian women playing the melody of “In The Mood” with their balalaikas.”

You’ll find Rifftides posts about the Moscow leg of the BBQ tour here and here.

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.