“Today’s Young Writer”
Posted on | June 17, 2011 | 2 Comments
Shelly Manne
Yesterday I picked up a 10-inch record on Contemporary from 1953 simply entitled “Shelly Manne and his Men” with 8 great, highly arranged tracks with a septet led by Manne and featuring a bunch of West Coast guys, composed and arranged by four West Coast arrangers of the time: Bill Russo (who apparently worked with the Kenton band), Shorty Rogers, Marty Paich (a young pianist), and Jimmy Giuffre. I started to read the liner notes and was immediately struck by a sort of weird deja-vu with a lot of stuff I have been both reading/hearing and thinking about in the past year or so, though this text is indeed a bit old-school in several ways, and as my wife pointed out, makes it sound like a bunch of privileged white guys being somewhat racist and/or snobby. However, filtering that tone out, the point of it is quite interesting and I thought it would be interesting to post an excerpt of it, so here goes:
Today’s young writer is thoroughly familiar with classical music, especially when it’s contemporary. He has had academic training, and is probably pursuing advanced studies in composition, either in a conservatory or with a well-known teacher. He wants to find ways of uniting elements of classical music with jazz. He is extremely articulate harmonically; he feels jazz needs a form and a discipline it cannot achieve without composition, and that a jam-session type of totally improvised music is no longer satisfactory. He wanys a proper balance between the arranged and improvised parts, the improvisation always being closely related to his composition and springing directly from it; in this fashion he feels jazz will have a structure that was missing before.
From the jazz tradition he accepts much and rejects much. He isn’t interested in forms of music he considers harmonically too elementary, but he is always attracted by rhythmic vitality and inventiveness, and his main objective is to incorporate the infinitely varied rhythms and timbres of jazz with the harmonic richness of modern classical music. His masters, then, are as much Bartok or Schoenberg as Count Basie or Charlie Parker.
He is a new kind of composer, who doesn’t accept arbitrary separations between jazz and classical music, who strongly feels he is writing modern music, open to all musical currents, whatever their source. He doesn’t want his music to be categorized, because his interests and training aren’t; he wants to stand or fall as a composer.
I have recently been feeling that perhaps my complete ignorance of the West Coast jazz scene of the 50′s and 60′s has ben perhaps in error, despite the various biases of the “jazz establishment” or maybe “jazz education establishment” about the problems with the perceived whiteness or blandness of the scene. Admittedly there is plenty of bland music that came out of that particular time and place, but as I check it out little by little, I have also started to discover how tight and swinging a lot of that material is, despite its inherent “lightness”, which was certainly a turn off to me when I was a few years younger. There was also a lot of experimentation in the improvisation / composition dichotomy, one of my main points of interest these days, as obviously evidenced by the little essay above.
In case you were wondering, the Shelly Manne album is quite good, a strange but somehow effective mix of strange atonal Jimmy Giuffre fugal material and very harmonically “in” swingers. Anyhow, what do y’all think about all this?
Tunnel Six!
Posted on | May 5, 2011 | No Comments
I’m happy to be back on the road again with Tunnel Six, a great Canadian-American collaboration that began by a chance meeting at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada in 2009. We did a relatively extensive Canadian tour last year that dipped down into the US last spring ending in Portland, where we recorded an album for which we’re in the midst of another album release tour right now in Western Canada. The music is very melodic and accessible and it’s a fascinating project and great to be playing with these guys again after a year. There’s blog postings and photos at the Tunnel Six site, so stay tuned!
Traditional Jazz
Posted on | April 26, 2011 | 4 Comments
I’m very excited to be returning to Jimmy Mak’s this Friday with the Bridgetown Sextet + Midnight Serenaders double bill – we had a fantastic time last time we presented this exciting collaboration and are very happy to do it again.
Recent conversations with Scott Kennedy (stride pianist extraordinaire from Bridgetown) and Doug Sammons (Bridgetown’s guitarist and the Serenaders’ bandleader) have centered around how extremely hip, rebellious, innovative, and energetic this music was in the 1920′s and 30′s and how unfortunate it is that almost a whole generation of both musicians and non-musicians see it as some sort of historical relic only played by dogmatic preservationists and old fuddy-duddies. So both of these bands are more or less out to change that perception by attempting to imbue “traditional jazz” or “old-time jazz” or whatever you want to call it with its original spirit and energy.
As much as I am a modernist in some sense, I can’t help but feel that it is also an important facet of my musical life to be a steadfast proponent of the value of traditional jazz without being overly dogmatic – so often in the course of my musical education the music of the 1920′s and 30′s was presented as though it was just some bland history (with notable exceptions of course). There seems to be a perception among both musicians and non-musicians, promulgated by a certain type of commonly performed “Dixieland”, that all music from that era is indeed bland and uninspired. Nothing could be further from the truth, in my opinion. The musicians of that era were charting unknown territory far more than almost any jazz musicians have since, and they were as far ahead of the other popular music of their day as Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” was ahead of its contemporaries.
Let’s consider “Maple Leaf Rag” performed in its original version by Joshua Rifkin, then in Jelly Roll Morton’s brilliant transformation, and finally in a completely off-the-wall performance by Sidney Bechet, whose instrument is nearly blown to pieces during his last chorus (click to listen):
Joshua Rifkin – Maple Leaf Rag
Jelly Roll Morton – Maple Leaf Rag
Sidney Bechet – Maple Leaf Rag
Or, from a slightly different perspective, the white cornetist Bix Beiderbecke with one of the premier dance bands (read: 20′s pop) of the day, the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, playing “Dardanella” (at least Bix brings in a tiny glimmer of hope to this one), versus Bix with his own small group playing “Riverboat Shuffle” (make sure to make it to the last chorus!):
Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra – Dardanella
Bix Beiderbecke – Riverboat Shuffle
Now I will acknowledge that it is difficult and indeed a bit strange to rail against dogma and preservationism while at the same time performing a style of music which has long since evolved into something else. However, what we are trying to accomplish with Bridgetown is perhaps slightly more multifaceted than simple preservationism or serving as our own amusingly anachronistic version of a “cover band.” The excitement, drive, and rebelliousness manifest in the recordings of the great musicians of the 20′s is undeniably compelling and to us exudes a timeless energy and good spirit. Of course we imbue it with our own sensibilities, techniques, and modern influences and indeed are more than willing to both acknowledge and experiment with those contemporary elements (thus we are manifestly not a “preservationist” band). At the same time, our focus remains on capturing the “rebellious, hip, high energy, hard-driving, untamed, unpredictable and unapologetically joyous” spirit of the music (in the words of Scott Kennedy).
This post also reminds me of my attempt to initiate a series of blog posts on Jazz Pioneers back in 2009, which unfortunately was short-lived. Maybe I ought to take it back up again! Meanwhile the Morton one contains some more thoughts on this very topic as well as some examples of his own evolution as a pianist: “Jazz Pioneers #1 – Jelly Roll Morton”
And of course the full details for the Jimmy Mak’s show this Friday (where this all started) are over at the “Events” page as well as at the Bridgetown Sextet Website!
“The Jazz Score” 4/26/11 – Duke Ellington
Posted on | April 26, 2011 | 1 Comment
Duke Ellington is the featured artist this week on KMHD’s “Artist Spotlight” so I couldn’t resist the temptation to feature him for the second time on “The Jazz Score.” I featured a bit of everything: early Ellington, the Blanton-Webster band, some of his larger-scale works, works of his performed by others, and a number of tracks featuring him on piano outside of his band. Hope you enjoyed the show! Here’s the playlist:
- Take The A Train / Clifford Brown (Study in Brown)
- Things Ain’t What They Used To Be / Young Men From Memphis (Down Home Reunion)
- It Don’t Mean A Thing / Dizzy Gillespie (Diz and Getz)
- Warm Valley / Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Max Roach (Money Jungle)
- Single Petal of a Rose / Duke Ellington (The Great London Concerts)
- Pitter Panther Patter / Duke Ellington and Ray Brown (This One’s For Blanton)
- Wig Wise / Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Max Roach (Money Jungle)
- East St. Louis Toodle-Oo / The Washingtonians (Unknown)
- Washington Wabble / Duke Ellington and his Orchestra (Early Ellington)
- Flaming Youth / Duke Ellington and his Orchestra (Early Ellington)
- Jack The Bear / Duke Ellington and his Orchestra (The Blanton-Webster Band)
- Main Stem / Duke Ellington and his Orchestra (The Blanton-Webster Band)
- I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good) / Ella Fitzgerald (Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook)
- Black, Brown, and Beige Part 1 / Duke Ellington and his Orchestra (Black, Brown, and Beige)
- Such Sweet Thunder {Cleo} / Duke Ellington and his Orchestra (Such Sweet Thunder)
- Day Dream / Steve Lacy (Soprano Sax)
- John Hardy’s Wife / Oscar Peterson (Oscar Peterson Plays the Duke Ellington Songbook)
- Solitude / Sonny Rollins (Way Out West)
- Sophisticated Lady / Archie Shepp (The Way Ahead)
- Fleurette Africaine / Gary Burton (Lofty Fake Anagram)
- Come Sunday / Eric Dolphy (Iron Man)
“The Jazz Score” 4/18/11 – Bill Challis and Don Redman
Posted on | April 25, 2011 | 1 Comment
Last week on “The Jazz Score” I featured two somewhat obscure but very influential arrangers from the 1920′s – Don Redman and Bill Challis. I’m a bit late in posting the playlist but here it is:
- My Pretty Girl / Jean Goldkette and his Orchestra (RCA Victor 80th Anniversary, Volume 1)
- Sunday / Jean Goldkette and his Orchestra (Unknown)
- Dardanella / Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra (Unknown)
- San / Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra (Unknown)
- Singin’ The Blues / Bix Beiderbecke (Volume 1 – Singin’ The Blues)
- Ostrich Walk / Bix Beiderbecke (Volume 1 – Singin’ The Blues)
- In A Mist / Bix Beiderbecke (Volume 1 – Singin’ The Blues)
- With A Song In My Heart / Bobby Hackett with Bill Challis Orchestra (Unknown)
- Tiger Rag / Vince Giordano (Bill Challis Goldkette Project)
- Clarinet Marmalade / Fletcher Henderson and his Orchestra (Unknown)
- King Porter Stomp / Fletcher Henderson and his Orchestra (Unknown)
- Henderson Stomp / Fletcher Henderson and his Orchestra (Unknown)
- Miss Hannah / McKinney’s Cotton Pickers (The Complete Recorded Works)
- Gee Baby Ain’t I Good To You / McKinney’s Cotton Pickers (Unknown)
- Hot And Anxious / Don Redman and his Orchestra (Unknown)
- No One Else But You / Louis Armstrong (Hot Fives and Sevens Volume 3)
- Save It, Pretty Mama / Louis Armstrong (Hot Fives and Sevens Volume 3)
- The Stampede / Fletcher Henderson and his Orchestra (Unknown)
- Sugar Foot Stomp / Fletcher Henderson and his Orchestra (Unknown)
- Charleston Crazy / Fletcher Henderson and his Orchestra (Unknown)
- Four or Five Times / McKinney’s Cotton Pickers (RCA Victor 80th Anniversary, Volume 1)
- Where There’s A Will, Baby / McKinney’s Cotton Pickers (Unknown)
- Milenberg Joys / McKinney’s Cotton Pickers (Unknown)
- How’m I Doin? (Hey-Hey) / Don Redman and his Orchestra (Unknown)
- Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble / Don Redman and his Orchestra (Unknown)
- I Got Rhythm / Don Redman and his Orchestra (Unknown)
- Idolizing / Jean Goldkette and his Orchestra (Unknown)
- Washboard Blues / Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra (Unknown)
- Three Blind Mice / Bix Beiderbecke (Volume 1 – Singin’ The Blues)
- Sugar / Bix Beiderbecke (Volume 2 – At The Jazz Band Ball)
- Riverboat Shuffle / Bix Beiderbecke (Volume 1 – Singin’ The Blues)
“The Jazz Score” 4/11/11 – Contemporary Bassist-Composers
Posted on | April 12, 2011 | 2 Comments
Last night on “The Jazz Score” I featured 6 contemporary bassist-composers. I have been thinking of moving the show towards more broad themes instead of always focusing on one or two individuals, and I think last night’s theme generated a really nice playlist. Here it is:
- Chutzpan / Avishai Cohen (Gently Disturbed)
- Gershon’s Beat / Avishai Cohen (At Home)
- Abraham’s New Gift / Phronesis (Green Delay)
- Four Folk Songs / Ben Allison (Little Things Run The World)
- Mauritania / Ben Allison (Buzz)
- Kramer vs. Kramer vs. Godzilla / Ben Allison (Think Free)
- CJ / Fly (Sky & Country)
- JJ / Fly (Fly)
- Global Citizen / Dave Holland (Not for Nothin’)
- Jugglers’ Parade / Dave Holland (Prime Directive)
- Four Winds / Dave Holland (Conference of the Birds)
- Daoulagad (a GLQ) / Romano, Sclavis, Texier (Carnet de Routes)
- Dance Revolt / Henri Texier ((V)IVRE)
- Amazone Blues / Henri Texier (An Indian’s Week)
- Korokoro / Romano, Sclavis, Texier (Carnet de Routes)
It was great to revisit that Avishai Cohen album “Gently Disturbed” which, in addition to great musicianship, is really well recorded and produced, the piano and floor tom sound especially compelling on that one. Anyhow, it was also nice to have the opportunity to play some more Texier, I really enjoy his tunes a lot and he is a bit of an unknown here in the U.S. I think (though when I saw his sextet at the Paris Jazz Festival a few years ago, he was treated like a rock star!!). Anyhow, hope you enjoyed the show!