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CD: Alan Broadbent

Alan Broadbent Trio Live At Giannelli Square, Volume 2 (Chilly Bin)

Recorded in Los Angeles shortly before Broadbent transplanted himself to New York, Giannelli 2 is the equal of Volume 1. That is high praise. The pianist’s harmonic acuity, melodic invention, touch and rapport with bassist Putter Smith and drummer Kendall Kay made this one of the finest trios in jazz. They find freshness in “Yesterdays,” “You Don’t Know What Love Is” and a romp based on “Just Friends.” Broadbent’s compositions include a blues and a pure original called “Wandering Road,” but the album’s piece de resistance is his “Sing a Song of Dameron,” which does not imitate Tadd Dameron, but conjures the composer’s essence.

DVD: John Coltrane

John Coltrane, Live In France, 1965 (Jazz Icons)

Television cameras captured Coltrane with his classic quartet months before it disbanded and he began the space-bound journey he was on when he died two years later. At the Juan-le Pins Jazz Festival in Antibes, Coltrane, pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones accomplished a concentration of passion even greater than that in their studio recordings of “Naima,” “Ascension,” “Impressions” and “A Love Supreme.” Much of the Antibes “A Love Supreme” video is lost, but the DVD’s nearly 13 minutes of the performance capture a level of intensity no other group of musicians is likely to equal. David Liebman’s liner notes are invaluable.

Book: Derrick Bang/Vince Guaraldi

Derrick Bang, Vince Guaraldi at the Piano (McFarland)

There was much more to Vince Guaraldi (1928-1976) than “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” and his “Peanuts” television sound tracks. Bang’s substantial biography covers the pianist and composer’s life from his pre-Cal Tjader days through success with the vibraphonist’s jazz and Latin groups, his own trio, his collaborations with Bola Sete and the Charlie Brown connection that made him famous. He captures the balance between Guaraldi’s serious and humorous sides. Thorough research and interviews with dozens of persons who knew and worked with Guaraldi make this an engaging read. The book includes an extensive and detailed discography.

Looking For A Listening Post?

An outfit called Find The Best has established an online guide to jazz clubs. It could be useful to Rifftides readers planning to travel or, for that matter, who are looking for places to listen in their hometowns. The site lists location, meal policy and cover charges, which range from second-mortgage territory to zero—$85 cover for The Fox in Tampa, Florida; nothing for Vibrato in L.A.’s exclusive Bel Air section—go figure. At any rate (heh, heh), they include clubs as far-flung as Brattleboro, Vermont; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Tirana, Albania. For now, at least, we’ll add the site’s url to the blogroll in the right column as “Jazz Clubs.” Let the staff know if you find it useful. To do so, click on “Contact” on the blue strip at the top of the page or use the “Speak Your Mind” box below.

Other Matters: Monarchs

Monarch butterflies are passing through on their migration south. This morning, one rested on a maple leaf outside our window.


His or her majesty was no object of pity, but it seemed to call for a performance of that most famous of all butterfly tunes (are there others?). Here’s the late Dave McKenna.

Alternate version for two pianos, Count Basie and Oscar Peterson.

Frishberg And Friends Channel Al And Zoot

If you live in or near Portland, Oregon, this is your lucky week. I am not at all reluctant to plug Ivories Jazz Lounge or this group of elite Portland players. Here’s the announcement from Ivories.

Thursday July 12
The Two Tenors & Dave Frishberg play the music of Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, with David Evans, Lee Wuthenow, tenor saxophones; Dave Frishberg, piano; Tom Wakeling, bass; Charlie Doggett, drums.
Ivories Jazz Lounge
1435 NW Flanders, Portland, OR 97219
http://www.ivoriesjazz.com
Reservations: 503-241-6514
8PM – 11PM
$10 Cover

Al and Zoot in Utica NY – Autumn 1967: Afternoon concert at a college auditorium. L to R: Dave Frishberg, Al Cohn, Victor Sproles, Zoot Sims, Steve Schaeffer. Later we dined lavishly at Grimaldi’s Restaurant. (Photo and caption stolen from Frishberg’s website. Rifftides defense lawyers are standing by)

During his New York period, Frishberg worked extensively with Cohn and Sims, often at the old Half Note. The three were together on The You And Me That Used To Be (1971), the finest recording of Jimmy Rushing’s last years, with arrangements by Frishberg. In addition to Cohn, Sims and Frishberg, the players are Budd Johnson, soprano sax; Ray Nance, cornet and violin; Milt Hinton, bass; and Mel Lewis, drums. Do not ask me to explain the relevance of the video added to this track from the album. Let’s just be glad that the YouTube contributor uploaded the music.

“Solar” (Davis) Or “Sonny” (Wayne)?

A long-running discussion (or argument) about the authorship of a major jazz tune may have been resolved once and for all. The tune is “Solar,” copyrighted in 1963 with the name of Miles Davis as composer, nearly a decade after he recorded it. It is a 12-bar minor blues based, with certain departures, on aspects of the harmonic structure of “How High The Moon.” Here, from the compilation album Walkin’, is the trumpeter’s 1954 recording with Davey Schildkraudt, alto saxophone; Horace Silver, piano; Percy Heath, bass; and Kenny Clarke, drums.

Keep that melody and its harmonies in mind. Among musicians and jazz insiders it has long been alleged that “Solar” is in fact a piece called “Sonny” written in the mid-1940s by guitarist Chuck Wayne (1923-1997) and later lifted by or credited to Davis. What has been missing until now is aural evidence of Wayne’s claim that he wrote the tune. Larry Appelbaum, the Library of Congress jazz maven, and Wayne’s widow have posted on the Library’s website a recording of Wayne, trumpeter Sonny Berman and unidentified others playing Sonny. At the time of the recording Wayne (pictured) and Berman were members of Woody Herman’s First Herd. The MP3 is only one chorus of melody and a few bars of Wayne improvising, but it leaves no doubt of a similarity to “Solar” that it is all but impossible to credit to coincidence.

To see Appelbaum’s story of the discovery, pictures of him, Mrs. Wayne, the acetate recording, the Davis copyright claim and—most important— to hear the 1946 “Sonny,” go to this Library of Congress page.

It will be disappointing if Appelbaum does not release the complete performance of “Sonny.” This discovery has stirred up anew claims and counter-claims about other compositions that Davis allegedly appropriated from others, among them “Four,” “Tune Up,” and “Blue in Green.”

As for Chuck Wayne the guitarist’s guitarist, here he is with George Shearing in the late 1940s in one of the pianist’s most successful quintets. The other players are Don Elliott, vibes; John Levy, bass; and Denzil Best, drums.

Today’s Listening Tip

Late notice—apologies—but this will be worth hearing:

Monday, July 2nd On the Noontime Jamboree

Record collector/musician/record producer Tony Baldwin visits the show.

Tony is bringing in a mixed sample from his extensive collection of 78s.

Join me, host Retta Christie, from Noon until 2 pm PDT

On KBOO-FM, Portland 90.7 fm

Baldwin specializes in vintage recordings restored to remarkable fidelity.

Finding Donelian

One thing leads to another, if you’re lucky. Bear with me; we’re backing into this. I was reading Thomas Vinciguerra’s Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition feature about the 50th anniversary of “The Girl From Ipanema.” When I saw a reference to “…the 1962 album Jazz Samba by Stan Getz and Charlie Parker,” I nearly lost my mouthful of coffee.

Parker was nicknamed “Bird,” but the great alto saxophonist died in 1955. The Jazz Samba album seven years later was by the guitarist Charlie Byrd. It featured Getz. “Bird” for “Byrd” and the assumption that Charlie Byrd was Charlie Parker may not be a common error, but there was a time when the WSJ’s fact checkers would have caught it. Fact-checking standards, like so much in journalism, seem to have slipped. But that’s not the point.

I was about to send a corrective comment to the Journal, but discovered on the paper’s website that several other readers had beat me to it. That’s a sign that the paper’s subscribers are hipper than their conservative aura might suggest, but it’s not the point, either. I looked up Thomas Vinciguerra, the author of the “Ipanema” piece, and discovered that, among other accomplishments, he is the editor of Columbia College Today, the magazine of a distinguished New York institution of higher learning. I went to Columbia College Today’s website hoping to learn more about Mr. Vinciguerra. I did not, but I noticed on the contents page under Alumni Profiles was “Armen Donelian, ’72.” That’s the point—serendipity. Track down one piece of information and you might google yourself into something even more interesting.

Jamie Katz’s profile of Donelian includes facts about the pianist’s formative undergraduate years that had escaped my attention, including the one that another prominent jazz pianist was at Columbia with him. Here’s an excerpt:

Donelian also played in a talented lab band in the basement of Dodge Hall, led by the brilliant alto saxophonist and pianist Marc Copland ’70. Sam Morrison ’73 also played in the group; a few years later he was with Miles Davis. Meanwhile, Donelian worked evenings at The King’s Table, a restaurant nestled within John Jay Hall, playing solo piano while the young gentlemen of the College dined in style. Unlike the student cafeteria just steps away, The King’s Table even had tablecloths.

“Armen is a great player and he’s a sweetheart — absolutely one of the good guys in the business,” Copland says today. As students, he remembers, they would improvise sophisticated duets in a two-piano practice room in Dodge. “Once we monkeyed around and played a mock classical duet in the style of Beethoven. We went on for five or 10 minutes and then fell off the piano benches, laughing.”

After graduation, Donelian played with a country rock band and, on Copland’s recommendation, began studying privately with renowned pianist Richie Beirach. “He opened the door to me, combining the harmony of contemporary music — Schoenberg, Bartók, Stravinsky and Berg — with jazz,” Donelian says. In 1975, legendary Latin jazz percussionist and bandleader Mongo Santamaria auditioned Donelian to fill the piano chair once occupied by such world-class players as Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea. Though he did not have experience playing Afro-Cuban jazz, Donelian got the gig and was on his way.

To read the entire piece about Donelian, go here. To hear him play, don’t go anywhere. Listen to this from an album of his compositions for solo piano:

Donelian’s website has sound clips and further information about a musician whose acclaim is not in proportion to his talent. The same may be said about his pal Copland.

Other Places: A Tom Talbert Profile

Steve Cerra’s Jazz Profiles remembers Tom Talbert, the under-recognized composer and bandleader who died nearly eight years ago in his early eighties. Steve incorporates a passage in which Talbert wrote about his postwar debut.

Worked with several bands and met arranger-bandleader Johnny Richards in Boston. Moved to Los Angeles the winter of 1946 and was soon living at the Harvey Hotel…a musician’s hangout fondly referred to as the Hot Harvey.

Before long Richards appeared and, in his generous manner, started looking for things I could do. He soon encouraged me to start a band and that seemed a logical move for an out-of-work twenty-one year old arranger. We started with a group of guys who wanted to play and as we rehearsed some were changed and others just left for a real job.

Some of those guys who wanted to play were Dodo Marmarosa, Art Pepper, Lucky Thompson and Warne Marsh. Not bad for a young bandleader just out of the Army.

Cerra dresses up the piece with his customary resourceful graphics and an imaginative recording from later in Talbert’s career. Click here to see and hear it.

For a Rifftides post on Talbert’s career shortly after he passed on, go here.

AND

The Vancouver Sun’s Marke Andrews caught up with Wayne Shorter, whom the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra has commissioned to compose a new piece. “When you write for us, make it hard,” Shorter said they told him. “Show us no mercy.” Go here to read Andrews’ article.

It’s Public Radio, If You Can Keep It

Carol Sloane sent an alert to yet another step in the abandonment of jazz by public broadcasting in The United States. Here is the headline of a column on the website of The Boston Globe:

The column is by Mark Leccese, an independent ombudsman who keeps an eye on print and broadcast outlets. He laments one veteran jazz host, Eric Jackson, being downgraded and another longtime presence on New England airwaves, Steve Schwartz, being canceled. Then, he asks,

“Is there no air time left for music on public radio?”

That is a question in dozens of broadcast markets across the country. To read Leccese’s column about the situation in Boston, click here.

WGBH is one of the pioneer public radio stations in the US, a developer of programming emulated by broadcasters in all regions of the country. It is disturbing to see this influential station dilute its commitment to jazz presented by knowledgeable professional broadcasters. But WGBH is not alone in that regard. Indeed, it is behind the trend.

The story where I live differs little from that in other regions. A few years ago, Northwest Public Radio had extensive original jazz programming of its own and an array of jazz shows from National Public Radio and Public Media International. After NWPR changed its primary format to classical music and news, the local jazz shows dropped away. Piano Jazz and Jazz Profiles from NPR disappeared, then NWPR deep-sixed Jim Wilke’s Jazz After Hours from PMI. The anemic replacement is syndicated Friday and Saturday night jazz programming with a host who seems to understand or care little about the music, rarely gives information about sidemen, labels or history and makes fundamental factual errors. Clearly, he is under instructions to keep his part short and breezy. There is none of the personal approach of WGBH’s Jackson and Schwarz or of PMI’s Wilke. Except for the host’s announcements—perfunctory, detached—those hours might be filled by a jukebox.

Why do we need hosts, anyway? Isn’t all the jazz you’d ever want to hear available on iTunes and downloads and websites and MP3s and CDs? If we want to know the history of the music, get the flavor of the times in which it was created, learn about the musicians, can’t we do web searches? Why bother with someone who can provide context and understanding, who tells stories, who can become a friend?

Public broadcasting has gone the way of commercial broadcasting, living by ratings. There is little need to point out that public stations rely on statistics to encourage the contributions of foundations, wealthy individuals and “listeners like you.” With their aggressive fund drives, they don’t let us forget, and in the fierce battle to stay alive in a staggering economy, they can’t. Should valuable cultural programming be forced to play by the rules of the competitive market system? If so, then we should not feel justified in wailing when that programming is dumbed down to a low common denominator. In a capitalist economy, there is such a thing as market failure. If the market fails a minority audience that wants quality programming, does the society have an obligation to find a way to provide it? Do we owe that to future generations, or should we hope that the next annoying fund drive raises enough to allow public radio and television to hang on by their fingernails and keep dumbing down?

Speaking Of Radio…

Oh, we weren’t? Well, we are now. First here’s something you can listen to immediately. Today on National Public Radio’s Weekend All Things Considered, the host, Guy Raz, closed with eight minutes and 45 seconds of conversation with drummer Matt Wilson (pictured, left). They talked about Wilson’s new album, Max Roach, Buddy Rich, Lucille Ball, Carl Sandburg, Felicia Wilson’s amazing recovery from a dangerous condition and Wilson’s revolutionary belief that not only is it permissible to make the audience happy, it’s an obligation. To hear the segment, click here.

Looking forward, jazz historian Bill Kirchner (seen here in his saxophonist disguise) sent an alert to tomorrow evening’s broadcast of his Jazz From The Archives. Presented by the Institute of Jazz Studies, the series runs in the New York-New Jersey area every Sunday on WBGO-FM (88.3) and on the internet. Here is Mr. Kirchner’s announcement

The late musician/author Mike Zwerin wrote that “Contemporary Italian jazz can be said to have begun with Enrico Rava.” A compellingly lyrical trumpeter, Rava (b. 1939) has been Italy’s best-known jazz musician since the mid-1970s.

We’ll hear Rava with a number of distinguished partners, including guitarist John Abercrombie, tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, trombonist Gianluca Petrella, pianist Stefano Bollani, drummer Paul Motian, and others.

The show will air this Sunday, June 24, from 11 p.m. to midnight, Eastern Daylight Time.

NOTE: If you live outside the New York City metropolitan area, WBGO also broadcasts on the Internet at www.wbgo.org.

The JJA Awards Winners

Horace Silver and Sonny Rollins top the winners of the Jazz Journalists Association’s 2012 awards announced yesterday in New York City.

Lifetime Achievement in Jazz: Horace Silver
Musician of the Year: Sonny Rollins
Composer-Arranger of the Year: Maria Schneider
Up and Coming Artist of the Year: Ben Williams
Record of the Year: Sonny Rollins, Road Shows, Vol. 2 (Doxy Records)
Best Historic Recording/Boxed Set: Miles Davis, Bootleg Sessions, Vol. 1, Quintet Live in Europe 1967 (Columbia Legacy)

For a list of the winners in all 40 categories of the JJA awards, go here.

Congratulations to Marc Myers, whose superb JazzWax won in the jazz blog category, and to all of the winners.

Other Matters: Two Things About Language

First thing:

Have you noticed that half of the answers to questions and half of reports (statistic not scientifically confirmed) on radio and television news and interview programs begin with, “So…”

News Anchor: For the latest on White House reaction to those discouraging employment figures, here’s correspondent Ralph Glutz.

Glutz: So, Robert, the President chooses to see the glass half full…

Interviewer: Coach, did you ever dream that the outcome of a contest against your old rival would be determined by a weird shoestring catch in the bottom of the ninth?

Coach: So, that’s what makes baseball such a great game, y’know?

Are these superfluous uses of the word a way, in uncertain times, of appearing to avoid commitment? Or are they, indeed, superfluous? Why have they suddenly proliferated? What part of speech is “so” when it precedes an answer or a statement— adjective, adverb, pronoun, conjunction?

I suppose it’s preferable to, “Uh,” and it goes nicely with another omnipresent advancement in articulate English usage, witness the waiter who asked my table full of beer drinkers the other day, “So, ‘sup?”

Second thing:

From time to time, the Rifftides staff likes to tap the wisdom of Mr. P.C., the dispenser of advice to jazz musicians who find themselves out of touch with fine points of behavior on and off the bandstand. In his current column, Mr. P.C. addresses a matter of language that relates to economic resourcefulness and well-being.

Dear Mr. P.C.:

When people use big words to describe their music, is that supposed to make it better? Like I know a bassist who says he’s “contextualizing” his music. Why does he do that?

— Bassist Uses Lofty Language

Dear BULL:

He’s practicing Grantspeak, of course. Here’s the story: A few decades ago, granting agencies grudgingly started funding jazz projects. But how can their panelists judge the applications when they know nothing about jazz music?

Well, what they ARE comfortable judging is intellect, so they depend on jazz artists to put it on full display. That’s why savvy applicants like your bassist friend keep their eye on the prize and practice at every opportunity. In fact, if you’d stuck around a little longer you might have even seen him go from contextualizing to “re-contextualizing.” Extra credit!

Although grantors were the original targets of Grantspeak, its use has become more widespread. Other people in positions of power in the jazz world — especially presenters and journalists — have proven equally susceptible to its charms. And it’s even starting to influence artists, not only in their music, but also in their interactions:

Andrew: “Hey, Bob, what’s happening?”
Bob: “You know, just shedding, trying to keep my chops up. How about you?”
Andrew: Actually, in my new multidisciplinary song cycle, based on a contemporary reading of recovered scripts from the earliest matriarchal societies, I’m re-examining the relationship between soloist and ensemble, looking for ways to evoke a more egalitarian, communal paradigm.”
Bob (embarrassed): “Cool. Um, guess I’ll go practice Stablemates.”
Andrew (silently): “Heh, heh, heh.”

People ask where jazz is heading, BULL, and I can answer definitively: Grantspeak is the future! Not only as a descriptive language, but as a quasi-paradigmatic, non-idiomatic re-contextualization of jazz itself. Buy your thesaurus now, before you and your music are left behind!

To see all of Mr. P.C.’s June column, visit his Facebook page.

Correspondence: American Saxes In Moscow

Rifftides reader Svletlana Ilicheva writes from Moscow about a concert earlier this week at the Tzaritzino National Park. Called “Classics And Jazz,” the program included four prominent American saxophonists of the same generation who have banded together as the Axis Saxophone Quartet.

Ms. Ilicheva reports:

The quartet consists of Joshua Redman, Chris Cheek, Mark Turner and Chris Potter. They played their own compositions. Especially I like those by Joshua Redman, they sounded like poems. Instead of sitting comfortably at some distance on the grass I had been standing for an hour and a half in the front row close to the stage and couldn’t tear my eyes away from these amazing musicians. At some moments I was on the verge of tears – they were so good! (Chris Potter’s solos were just superb).

This video from the concert, uploaded by eugenejazz, gives a generous sample of the Axis Saxophone Quartet’s music, with rear screen projection of the band and scenes of Muscovites enjoying the concert.

The Russian website jazz.ru has a report about the concert. The text is in Russian. The two performance videos are in the universal language of music. There is also one brief news conference statement by Redman. To go to the jazz.ru page, click here.

Thanks to Ms. Ilicheva for letting us know about this impressive instance of jazz diplomacy.

Weekend Listening Tip: Human Spirit

In a meeting of east and west, April’s Ballard Jazz Festival in Seattle brought together New York pianist Orrin Evans with Human Spirit. Led by trumpeter Thomas Marriott, alto saxophonist Mark Taylor and drummer Matt Jorgensen, the Seattle quintet is attracting international attention, in part because of this album featuring Evans as a guest.

(l to r) Orrin Evans, Thomas Marriott, Matt Jorgensen, Phil Sparks, Mark Taylor

Jim Wilke, who doubles as recording engineer and radio host, captured Human Spirit’s Ballard performance and will feature it on KPLU’s Jazz Northwest on Sunday. The program airs at 1 PM PDT on 88.5 FM in the Seattle-Tacoma area. Listeners elsewhere in the world will find it streamed at kplu.org. As usual, after the broadcast KPLU’s website will make a podcast available.

Ballard is a section of Seattle with a seafaring history and a fishing economy. Parts of it are yuppified without serious damage—so far—to its quaintness and historical character.

Wilke provided a description of the Jazz Walk:

The Ballard Jazz Walk is part of the annual Ballard Jazz Festival and includes a dozen or more venues featuring live jazz, all within walking distance of each other in old Ballard. Over 70 musicians played during the jazz walk and the music and people spilling out of the small clubs along the street provided a very festive atmosphere. The festival is produced by Matt Jorgensen and John Bishop with production coordination by Chad McCullough and supported by the Ballard business community.

Herbert L. Clarke On Jazz

In 1921, 16-year-old trumpet student Elden E. Benge of Winterset, Iowa, wrote a letter to Herbert L. Clarke (pictured, right), asking advice. Clarke (1867-1945) was the most celebrated cornet soloist of his day, a veteran of John Phillip Sousa’s band and leader of his own concert bands. His recordings of marches and adaptations of classical pieces rang out in living rooms in the days when Victrolas were the iPods of the early twentieth century. Clarke’s method books of technical and characteristic studies are staples in the libraries of cornetists and trumpeters to this day.

Thanks to classical violinist Brian Lewis for sending a photocopy of Clarke’s reply to young Benge. It was on the letterhead of the Anglo Canadian Leather Co. Band of Huntsville, Ontario, Canada. I retain Clarke’s punctuation and spelling.

Jan. 13th,
1921

My dear Mr. Benge: –

Replying to yours of the 19th just received, would not advise you to change from Cornet to Trumpet, as the latter instrument is only a foreign fad for the time present, and is only used properly in large orchestras of 60 or more, for dynamic effects, and was never intended as a solo instrument.

I never heard of a real soloist playing before the public on a Trumpet. One cannot play a decent song ever, properly, on it, and it has sprung up in the last few years like “jaz” music, which is the nearest Hell, or the Devil, in music. It pollutes the art of Music.

Am pleased that you are making improvements in your playing. Keep it up, and become a great Cornet Player. You have an equal chance with all the rest, but you must work for it yourself.

Wishing you all the best of success, I remain.

Sincerely yours,

Herbert L. Clarke

I don’t know whether Elden Benge (pictured, left) took to heart Clarke’s warning about jazz, but he ignored the great man’s contempt for the trumpet. From 1928 to 1933, he was principal trumpet of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, then accepted the same position with the Chicago Symphony. In Chicago, he began designing a new trumpet and by the end of 1935 had made one for his own use. By 1937, he was making trumpets at home and selling them. Two years later he formed the Benge company and continued to make and sell trumpets after he moved to California in 1953. He did little advertising; his trumpets sold through word of mouth among professionals about the quality of Benge horns made in Burbank. According to trumpet expert Jim Donaldson, “a new Benge trumpet arrived by REA Railway Express and came in a cardboard box, protected by wadded up newspaper padding. No case and no mouthpiece were included.” After Benge died in 1960, the company changed hands more than once. Benge trumpets were made for a time by the Conn-Selmer company, but production of most models dwindled, then ceased in 2005. Today, most trumpets with Benge characteristics are made by other companies.

Addendum (June 14):

If you have never heard Herbert Clarke or have never heard a Victrola, Rifftides to the rescue. This is Clarke’s 1909 recording of “The Carnival of Venice,” uploaded to YouTube by 1926 Victor Credenza. More than 100 years later, his technique can still make grown trumpeters—er, cornetists—cry.

Lagniappe*: Akinmusire, Portal And Others

Wondering how trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire is doing in the wake of the (justified) fuss over his 2010 album When The Heart Emerges Glistening, I did a bit of web surfing and discovered that he’s doing fine. Among the evidence was video of an intergenerational concert led by the 77-year-old French film composer and saxophone and clarinet adventurer Michel Portal. The occasion was the 2011 Monte Carlo Jazz Festival in Monaco. Portal’s fellow arsonists in this performance of his “Citrus Juice” are Akinmusire, pianist Bojan Z, guitarist Lionel Loueke, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Nasheet Waits.

*la·gniappe (lan-yap), noun

Chiefly Southern Louisiana and Southeast Texas . 1.a small gift to a customer by way of compliment or for good measure; bonus. 2.a gratuity or tip. 3.an unexpected or indirect benefit.

Bobby Shew Quartet At Tula’s

Bobby Shew played a one-nighter Saturday evening in his brief tour of the Pacific Northwest. The gig at Tula’s in Seattle launched in slight confusion over the introduction the rhythm section played to the first tune, Victor Young’s “Beautiful Love.” It did not match what Shew had in mind. He halted the proceedings and offered the packed house a wry explanation, “This is jazz. You don’t have to know what you’re doing.”

There was a brief conference that consisted mainly of head nods. Pianist Bill Anschell, bassist Phil Sparks and drummer Matt Jorgensen started over. Nationally known members of Seattle’s jazz community, they and Shew set about belying his claim about the unimportance of expertise. Playing flugelhorn, Shew and his accompanists locked up in a close relationship that continued through three sets. When “Beautiful Love”ended, Shew said, “Nice rhythm section, huh?” In support and in solo, all three were in splendid form all night long.

Among the highlights:

• Shew’s dancing trumpet solo on “Fungi Mamma,” a sunny Caribbean piece by his late friend and frequent big band section mate Blue Mitchell.

• His interval leaps and depth of tone in a passionate treatment of Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life.” Shew spoke about his love for ballads. “People think it must be easy to play them because they’re slower,” he said. “No, you just get in deeper trouble.” If there was trouble, it wasn’t audible.

• Intriguing playing by all hands on Randy Aldcroft’s multifarious “Breakfast Wine,” a piece Shew told the audience he has played hundreds of times. “I keep finding surprises in it.” It was the title tune of a 1985 Shew album that is in serious need of reissuing.

• “Darn That Dream” as a medium-fast bossa nova nudged along by the subtleties of Jorgensen’s canny Brazilianisms.

• Trumpeter Thomas Marriott sitting in for three tunes. On “Just Friends” Shew’s exchanges of four-bar phrases with his former student morphed into a chorus of simultaneous improvisation so logical that it sounded like written counterpoint.

Around midnight, most of the audience had drifted away. A handful of Seattle musicians lingered at the bar. Shew took “Body and Soul” at a medium clip and the flugel far, far above the staff with lyricism and no sense of strain or sacrifice of tone. Finally he brought Marriott back to the stand to end the evening transacting serious blues business; several choruses of “Walkin’” with passionate solos by all hands. When it ended, the band stood grinning at one another as if they had achieved something.

They had.

No video or audio is available from Shew’s evening at Tula’s, so we’ll settle—gladly— for “Breakfast Wine” from that 28-year-old out-of-print LP.

(Photos of the rhythm section and Marriott from eyeshotjazz.com)