JUNE 2020—ISSUE 218

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those
gone
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Staff Writers
Duck Baker, Stuart Broomer,
Robert Bush, Kevin Canfield,
Marco Cangiano, Thomas Conrad,
Pierre Crépon, Ken Dryden,
Donald Elfman, Phil Freeman,
Kurt Gottschalk, Tom Greenland,
George Grella, Tyran Grillo,Alex Henderson, Robert Iannapollo,
Mark Keresman, Marilyn Lester,
Suzanne Lorge, Marc Medwin,
Jim Motavalli, Russ Musto,
John Pietaro, Joel Roberts,
John Sharpe, Elliott Simon,
Anna Steegmann, Scott Yanow
Contributing Writers
Dan Bilawsky, George Kanzler,
Steven Loewy, Kyle Oleksiuk
Contributing Photographers
Jonathan Chimene, Scott Friedlander,Peter Gannushkin, Alan Nahigian,Robert I. Sutherland-Cohen,
Adrien H. Tillmann, Jack Vartoogian,Ken Weiss

JUNE 2020—ISSUE 218
special feature:
the shape of jazz to come3

New York@Night4

in memoriam:those gone silent

6

obituaries

12

album Reviews

14

Miscellany

32

by kurt gottschalkby andrey henkinby andrey henkin

There is a laudable tradition in the Jewish faith. The deceased are each buried in the same plain
wooden box, no metal or ornamentation to delay their return to the earth or to distinguishthem in the eyes of their maker according to wealth or position. It is that which inspires thisissue, which we have called Those Gone Silent (pgs. 6-11). 18 jazz musicians from around theworld were victims of COVID-19, a microscopic entity with a terrifyingly macroscopic
impact. Some of these musicians were legends while others may have existed on the fringes.
There were those that were prolific and those whose careers were truncated by the vagaries
often accompanying a life in the arts. There were banjo, bass, guitar, keyboards, piano,
production, saxophone, trombone and trumpet across as many sub-genres of jazz. What they
all have in common is this tragic ending. So we memorialize them fully and equally, each
written about by a friend, collaborator or even family member. The black cover of this issue isreflective of our grief for these losses.
With no concerts being presented in New York for the foreseeable future, many musicians
have gone online to stream solo performances or, if they are lucky enough to live with a fellow
musician, duets. To celebrate this adaptation in the time of crisis, we devote a section of CD
Reviews (pgs. 16-19) to solo and duo recordings.
And we present a special feature, “The Shape of Jazz to Come” (pg. 3), named for the Ornette
Coleman album, wherein we spoke with club owners from across the city and across the
spectrum about their efforts, concerns and hopes for their individual reopenings and audienceengagement when the time comes that the city and its artistic communities come out of isolation.

Fact-checker
Nate Dorward

nycjazzrecord.com
Corrections: In last month’s CD Reviews, Joel Harrison’s band was 19-pieces and is not his firstlarge ensemble recording. The Woody Herman boxed set did not contain airchecks and the songs
not included that the writer mentioned came from labels not covered in this set.
All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission strictly prohibited. All material copyrights property of the authors.

2 JUNE 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

SPE CIAL FE ATU RE

the shape ofjazz to comeby kurt gottschalkN obody knows quite what the city will look like once

the New York PAUSE order is lifted and nobody knows
what the months and years following will bring. One
thing that seems all but certain, however, is that New
Yorkers are in for a period of sad discoveries. Alongwith the losses of life and livelihood, favorite
restaurants, cafés and bars, clubs and venues,
bookstores and record stores are sure to be gone,
having disappeared with neither fanfare nor farewell.
And even in establishments that remain established,
it’ll be a long time before New Yorkers gather shoulderto-shoulder in microcosms of the crowded city. No timesoon will we be pressed together at small tables at Panna
II or the Hungarian Pastry Shop or in the celebrated
cellar known for more than 80 years as the Village
Vanguard. And maybe no one is missing those crowds
more than the Vanguard’s owner, Deborah Gordon.
“It was always part of my life, from the time I wasborn,” she said. “I’d go there, I’d see my dad, I’dborrow $5, I’d see Keith Jarrett and I’d leave. Not bad.”In 2018, Gordon inherited the club from her
mother, Lorraine Gordon, who had been managing it
since her husband Max Gordon died in 1989. With theclub closed, Gordon is spending these unprecedented
days working on a book about the history of the famed
club while trying to figure out how to keep it afloat
and plan for an uncertain future. And, of course, she’s
not alone in her worries. Venues across the city—fromsuch larger presenting organizations as Issue ProjectRoom and Roulette to intimate rooms like Barbès,
The Jazz Gallery and Sistas’ Place—are doing their best
to figure out how to continue presenting performanceswith little or no money coming in the locked doors.
The Vanguard is launching weekend live streams
this month, with sets by drummer Billy Hart andpianist Vijay Iyer kicking it off in an effort to keepsome activity happening under the esteemed name.
“That’s all we’ve got if we want to breathe somelife into the club—which we do—and say we’re still
here,” Gordon said. “I fear what’s going to happen to
the whole landscape of jazz clubs. It’s hard to imagine
it’s going to resuscitate. When do you think anyone’s
going to want to go down into a little basement?”
The city and the world have seen a lot of calamity
and catastrophe since the Vanguard opened in 1934,
but with the loss of income that comes with stay-athome orders, Gordon’s quite reasonably concerned
about the future. “You think back on all the things theVanguard has been through since it opened,” she said.
“It’s been through a lot: Prohibition, then the
Depression, war, blackouts, floods, 9/11, a lot of
history buffeting it around. Of course, this stands out.
We just have to take it as it comes and do our best.”
About a mile to the north lies the locked door of
The Jazz Gallery. Thanks to Artistic Director Rio
Sakairi’s long-held interest in online programming andmarketing, the Gallery was quick to move to the web.
Since the end of March, the Gallery has presented morethan 50 streamed events, including musicalpresentations as well as happy hour hangs and dance
parties. Sakairi keeps the events exclusive—the ceilingis set as low as 15 paying attendees for some events sothere’s an opportunity to interact. And ticket prices arenear what door charges were back when people
gathered behind doors. But that’s still a small
percentage of the usual take at the door and that’s a
problem. The venue has had to cancel its 25th
Anniversary Gala in August and while membershiphas actually increased with people outside the city
joining for the video benefits, overall revenue is down.
“We do need nightly income,” she said. “Government
grants are about 40% of our budget. Grants don’t pay
for rent, grants don’t pay for staff, grants are normallyfor a specific project.”
Sakairi acknowledges a degree of learning on the
job as a web producer and says she hopes to improve
the audio and video quality and to encourage musiciansto think about camerawork and even set design. “Even
if I do things that aren’t 100% polished, nobody
complains and I get to experiment,” she said. “I’mstarting to understand how to use the medium.”Few venues were as ready for online programmingas Roulette when the statewide shelter-in-place ordercame down. With six video cameras and full recording
studio capacities, the 400-seat theater is primed forwebstream production. On top of that, the organization
was already in the process of editing, mixing andmastering archival recordings, which have been madeavailable on its website. “We have about 10 years ofvideotape from the ’90s into the early 2000s that hasn’t
been put up, very basic, single camera,” according toco-founder and artistic director Jim Staley.
The venue is also moving forward with artist
commissions and is planning for a fall season, whether
it’s online or with a limited or full audience, withsponsors making livestreams available without a ticket
charge. “The idea is you want people viewing thoseartists’ work,” he said. “The more people the better.”
While facing an uncertain future, Staley speaks interms of what it will look like, not if it will happen.
There’s still 20 years on the venue’s 30-year lease in
downtown Brooklyn and its budget was secured before
the lockdown came down. “Roulette’s not going toclose,” he said. “We’re in a fairly strong position. We’redoing alright now.”
Nearby in downtown Brooklyn, Issue ProjectRoom had the ironic good fortune of having alreadyplanned to close its physical space. With renovations
underway to the room at 22 Boerum Place, theorganization was already in the process of moving toa virtual office and producing events in other venues
when the lockdown struck. Without a summer season,
they’ve had time to plan for virtual programming andhave begun posting new, commissioned works. And
like Roulette, they’re looking toward the possibility of
hosting events with audiences in the fall.
Executive Director and Chief Curator Zev
Greenfield has also been active in daily “culture calls”
with arts organizations and institutions andrepresentatives from the Department of Cultural
Affairs, in which such topics as capital projects,
curating online programming and hosting special
fundraisers are discussed. “It allows you to haveengagement with your peers so you can think throughshort-term or longer-term issues,” he said. “It helps
you to realize you’re not on an island on your own.

Issue’s much better off if all of these other arts
organizations are flourishing as well.”
But what flourishing will mean even in the near
future, he said, remains an open question. “Of course
we’re in the darkness with a lot of this,” Greenfieldsaid. “People can’t plan because we just don’t know.”
The Jazz Gallery, Issue Project Room and Roulette
all benefit, at least for the time being, from having anannual budget in place. But smaller Brooklyn spaces
like Sistas’ Place in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Barbès inPark Slope that were already just scraping by are facing
bigger challenges.
It’s hard to imagine a room more devoted to thehistory of African American music and politicalmovements than Sistas’ Place. Since March, the roomhas sat stagnant, with no structure for streaming andno money coming in the door. Still, music director
Ahmed Abdullah remains hopeful. Sistas’ operates outof a building owned by the Bridge Street AME Church
and, so far, has been able to keep its lease.
“I think we will [survive] because we’re acommunity organization,” Abdullah said. “We’ll figure
it out. There’s a number of different irons in the fire but
there’s nothing that we can do concretely until things
open up. We can talk about it, we can think about it,
but until then it’s just theoretical. The silver lining inall of this is I can practice on a regular basis,” he added.
“I now have far more time than I ever have.”
In addition to working on his trumpet technique,Abdullah has been reading his old diaries, revisiting
the early days of the space. “We’ve really gone fromnothing in 25 years to being a historic landmark
institution,” he said. ”How we’ve built it up is how
we’re going to build it up.”
For a notoriously small space like the back room atBarbès, however, it’s hard to hold out hope.
“To quote a famous band, we’re at the ‘no future’stage,” said owner Olivier Conan. “We have no idea.
Nobody does. It makes it hard to make any plans. There’s
no network of solidarity or help for businesses like mine,or for musicians either.” A crowdsourcing campaign
exceeded its $25,000 goal, but that money only kept
Barbès afloat through the end of May. Since then, hesaid, he’s been relying on the good graces of a friendly
landlord. “It allowed us to stay closed,” Conan said. “We
may be able to limp along for a few months but I can’t
imagine being able to host concerts in that back roomanytime soon. We’re the opposite of social distancing.”
Barbès has been posting short, artist-made videos
that Conan calls “postcards” and is hoping to introduce
more streaming, but isn’t happy with the usual qualityof living room video. “Your standard Facebook Livewith someone’s apartment, there’s no sense of staging,”
he said. “I find it hard to watch. It’s sort of killing me,”he added. “It’s the longest I’ve gone without seeing ashow in 30 years.”
Like Sakairi, Conan imagines a time when live
performance streams are produced with care given toboth the audio and visual aspects, when musiciansmight become their own documentarians. “We have tolearn some things,” he said. “It’s not being done rightnow, but we’re in emergency mode, we’re in panic
mode. It’s a new art form. v

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | JUNE 2020 3

NEW YORK @ NIGHT
As jazz continues to grapple with the ramifications of
COVID-19, a new arena of improvisation is emerging:
the from-home livestream concert. A sterling exemplar
was clarinetist David Krakauer and pianist Kathleen
Tagg’s album release ‘party’ for Breath & Hammer,
performed in their Manhattan home (May 10th). There
were technical glitches, the sound barely audible atfirst, soon resolved thanks to feedback from the
80-some logged-on listeners. The first piece was Kinan
Azmeh’s “November 22”, Tagg trailing a silver chain
across her strings for a plonky sound, reaching in thebox to pluck or strum them like a harpist. Abraham
Ellstein’s “Hasidic Dance” was next, a mash of
Broadway and Yiddish theater. By now a slight delay
between the visual and sonic signals was apparent,
subtle but potent, as if we were astronauts on radio
to mission control. Tagg’s arrangement of John Zorn’s“Parzial” contained more extended piano techniques,
which complemented Krakauer ’s soulful inflections,so soulful, in fact, that he was able to invoke a momentof transcendence despite the disconcerting delay. We
weren’t in the same room, of course, but it felt as if
everyone grew quiet. On “Birimbau” Tagg ran a gloved
left hand along a bass string, setting up a 7/8 vamp.
Krakauer capped his frantic “Body and Soul” witha sweet searing high note, displaying formidable
klezmer chops on “Moldavian Journey” and two
traditional pieces. The “self-proclaimed encore” wasa tender take on “Nigun Offering”.
—Tom Greenland

If there is one positive to be taken from the era of
COVID-19, it is that bassists have finally been able toreject their ivory and metal overlords; 52 years after
Barre Phillips played unaccompanied in an English
church, his heirs are filling social media platforms with
their own solo statements. Jorge Roeder wasn’t justplaying solo because he was sheltering in place (May8th); he was also virtually celebrating/previewing his
new solo album, El Suelo Mío, due in July. After a brief
hiccup where he accidently cut off the feed before
starting, Roeder played 11 songs, most from the album,
across a pithy 51 minutes, framing himself nicely
against a geometrical space and an abstract painting,an electric bass watching, but not participating, in theleft-hand corner. The well-balanced audio was crucial
as solo bass, perhaps more so than other instruments,
requires a deep range and responsiveness to capture
all the textures, materials and reverberations. Unlike
some bass expositions focusing on extended technique,
Roeder concentrated on narrative and melody, theinfluence of Charlie Haden hovering over him like thepainting at his back. He explored deep funk andPeruvian rhythms, plus a healthy dose of standards,
and the music succeeded both on its own and with theadded band of the mind, moving from pastoral tovigorous. This reviewer decided to go all in and turnoff the light in his viewing space; for several precious
moments he forgot that he was trapped in a closet in anapartment in a city under lockdown. —Andrey Henkin

Kathleen Tagg & David Krakauer

Jorge Roeder

F or his portion of Connection Works’ “Me, Myself andEye” series (May 9th) flutist Michel Gentile playedsolo improvisations inspired by Ellen Chuse’s
paintings. Seated before a blank grey wall in his music
room, positioned on the right side of the screen, heposted, one by one, digital images of Chuse’s work on
the left. The first painting, titled “Hover Blue”,
composed of two stark black ovals dominating a lightly
spackled blue background, served as a springboard
for a short, circularly breathed bass flute solo. For“Tangled”, an image of overlapping black strips
against a sharp red field, Gentile switched to soprano,closing his eyes. In fact, most of the time his eyes wereclosed. So what was inspiring him? It turns out thathe’d so immersed himself in the paintings recently that
he didn’t need to look at them: “It’s all in here,” heexplained, pointing to his head. A third number, playedon fife, accompanied “Little Jewels”, a quartet of red
blobs circled by greens and whites. A fourth piece,
played on alto flute, was set to “All That Remains”,
showing abstract white figures resembling a paper
gingerbread man chain against a split field of dark andlight blues. Gentile’s response to all of these images
was invariably measured and meditative, changing
character with each switch of instrument. On “Dark
Matter: Red Field”, totally obscured by the image, heevinced unseen chimes and whirrings; on “Burst” hislines unspooled in perpetual motion; and on “FloatingGold”, he squeezed out pinched long tones.
(TG)

The good folks at Arts For Art (AFA) may have solved
the problem with livestreaming concerts: they focusedon brevity and humanity, managing to recreate thehomespun quality of the Vision Festival (sadly
postponed due to COVID-19) in an online forum. To
watch with all the other watchers (56 participants at its
maximum) was to be part of a Brady Bunch/Hollywood
Squares grid of Vision veterans, adding to the closeness.
May 1st was a family affair, with former spouses/
longtime collaborators Angelica Sanchez (piano) andTony Malaby (tenor/soprano saxophone) meeting up
in the former ’s NJ house, where the latter is a regular
visitor from his own home two blocks away. The entire
performance, two Sanchez originals, lasted only 19
minutes, yet featured two guests, son Jack on electricbass and then dog Duke in some Norman Granz typeof role. There was a bit of murkiness to the audio,
which added to the mysteriousness of the first melody
and if the full richness of each player ’s tone was not
fully coming through their sensitivity to dynamics
was. The addition of electric bass took the proceedings
from the forest glen to the basement jazz club while
Duke split the difference. AFA Den Mother Patricia
Nicholson-Parker followed with questions from theaudience, the most interesting of which centered onwhat the family was eating, a topic of universal appeal
these days, and Malaby most emotional when talking
about how lucky he was to have this environment inwhich to play music these days. 		
(AH)

4 JUNE 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

Traditionally the Mother ’s Day holiday would find
Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra on
stage at Birdland, performing for a packed house offamilies celebrating with their matriarchs. While thisyear the band was unable to take to the stage, that
didn’t prevent the majestic 18-piece ensemble fromdelivering a typically exciting set of AfroCuban musicthat night (May 10th) via its weekly Virtual Birdlandinternet stream. The group eased into things with
Cuban composer Abelardo Valdés’ classic “Almendra”.
Once a staple in the repertoire of the orchestra of the
bandleader ’s late great father Chico O’Farrill, the song,in a smoothly swinging arrangement, featured solos
from trumpeter Rachel Therrien, bass trombonist Earl
McIntyre and bassist Bam Bam Rodriguez. The music
continued with Emilio Solla’s classically-tinged“Llegará, Llegará, Llegará”, a beautiful episodic outingthat spotlit Ivan Renta’s tenor saxophone and Bryan
Davis’ flugelhorn. O’Farrill stretched out, along withtrumpeter Seneca Black, trombonist Rafi Malkiel andalto saxophonist Addison Evans, on Bebo Valdés’“Ecuación”. An archival clip from Symphony Space
showed the band performing Pablo Mayor ’s cumbiajazz “Mercado En Domingo”. Back to the present theorchestra threw down on trumpeter Adam O’Farrill’sarrangement of the Yucatán folk song “El Maquech”.
The show came to a rousing finish with sonero Keisel
Jiménez joining the band for the fiery mambo“Mandinga (Bilongo)”. 		
—Russ Musto

Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra

If it’s any indication of livestream acceptance, thisreviewer was unable to access this event (May 1st) due
to overly crowded “airwaves” until it was bounced toco-producer Roulette’s YouTube channel. Or perhaps,
the rush of viewers was all about Bang on a Can(BOAC). This annual festival, founded in 1987 bycomposers David Lang, Michael Gordon and Julia
Wolfe, was developed during residency at the R.A.P.P.
Arts Center until that East Village venue closed. BOAC,
never homeless, has only moved outward and upwardwith each transition. Not an organization to collapse in
the face of a pandemic, the founders hosted a powerfulcollection of remote performances from musicians’
homes, leaping the miles over hours. Lang, Gordon
and Wolfe, from their own remote locations, not only
functioned as programmers and MCs, but also added
discussion and interviews with the contributing
composers. Celebrated pianist Vijay Iyer intrigued
with an étude incorporating extended techniques.
Trombonist and noted composer-improviser George
Lewis performed a duet with pre-recorded piano
whole-tone runs as he shouted and lamented in
empathic collaboration. Baritone saxophonist Ken
Thomson adapted Shelley Washington’s work for
35 reeds, producing a rhythmic post-modern cross of“Four Brothers” and Birth of the Cool. Guitarist Mary
Halvorson played a compelling piece with digitaldelay that absolutely sobbed. Stay tuned for the next
edition, Jun. 14th. Bravo!
—John Pietaro

As part of the 2020 Centennial Celebration of Charlie Parker’s
birth, the seminal alto saxophonist will have part of his life turned
into a graphic novel: Chasin’ The Bird—Charlie Parker in California(Z2 Comics), centered on the period in December 1945 when
Parker was on the West Coast. The graphic novel, to be releasedin September, will include an exclusive flexi-disc of Parker’s musicfrom that trip. For more information on this and other parts of thecentennial celebration, visit charliebirdparker.com.
Pianist/composer Anthony Davis, known for his own albums
since the ‘70s and collaborations with James Newton, David
Murray and Wadada Leo Smith, was the recipient of the 2020
Pulitzer Prize in Music for his opera The Central Park Five. For
more information, visit pulitzer.org.
The 2020 Class of the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame have been
named: Freddie Green, the recently departed Lee Konitz, John
Lewis and Teddy Wilson. For more information, visit jazz.org/
blog/2020-ertegun-jazz-hall-of-fame-inductees.
Louis Armstrong House Museum has announced pianist Jason
Moran, who in 2019 had a multimedia exhibition at the
Whitney Museum, as guest curator of “Here To Stay”, a permanent
exhibition at the Armstrong Center, located across the street fromArmstrong’s historic house and set to open in 2021. For more
information, visit louisarmstronghouse.org/here-to-stay.
Recipients of the 2020 Instant Award in Improvised Music,
given by The Horse with No Name, have been named: RaymondBoni, Peter Brötzmann, John Edwards, Satoko Fujii, Mats
Gustafsson, Okkyung Lee, Arto Lindsay, Paul Lytton, Sam
Newsome, Alexander von Schlippenbach, LaDonna Smith andNate Wooley. For more information, visit corbettvsdempsey.com.
The first round of grantees of Jazz Coalition Commission
Fund, an initiative to promote creativity in the time of COVID19, have been named, each receiving $1,000 towards a newwork to be performed at a later date. The first group is Melissa
Aldana, Dayme Arocena, Lakecia Benjamin, Tim Berne,Johnathan Blake, Jaimie Branch, James Carter, Mino Cinélu,
Alfredo Colon, Jon Cowherd, Amir ElSaffar, Orrin Evans, Ben
Lamar Gay, Kate Gentile, Jon Hassell, Ashley Henry, Vincent
Herring, Bertha Hope, Jazzmeia Horn, Wayne Horvitz, Shabaka
Hutchings, Christine Jensen, Amirtha Kidambi, James Brandon
Lewis, DJ Logic, Nduduzo Makhathini, Tarus Mateen, Camila
Meza, Chris Morrissey, Aaron Myers, Roy Nathanson, Linda
May Han Oh, Aaron Parks, Herlin Riley, Wallace Roney, Jr.,
Brandon Ross, Joel Ross, Rio Sakairi, Christian Sands, John
Santos, Dred Scott, Sara Serpa, Monnette Sudler, Alexa
Tarantino, Camille Thurman, David Torkanowsky, Elio
Villafranca, Greg Ward, Ben Williams, Anthony Wilson and
Brandee Younger. For more information, visit jazzcoalition.org.

Mary Halvorson

Cinco de Mayo found Allan Harris devoting his Saxophonist/poet Elliott Levin, stalwart of the avant

regular Harlem After Dark livestream to a multilingual
program of songs from the Latin American songbook(May 5th). Seated in front of the fireplace of his uptown
living room, the versatile vocalist-guitarist began bypointing to the framed portrait of Benny Moré atop the
mantle before fluidly singing Ernesto Duarte’s Spanish
lyric to “Como Fue”, the romantic bolero the famed
Cuban sonero made popular all over the world.
Moving down to Brazil, he followed with “Corcovado”,
gently intoning Gene Lees’ “Quiet Nights of Quiet
Stars” English lyric to the Jobim classic. Remaining in
a Brazilian mode he continued with one from theSergio Mendes repertoire, Michel Legrand’s “Watch
What Happens”, following it with two more Jobim
pieces, “Eu Sei Vou Te Amar” and “Wave”, singing theformer in Portuguese and the latter in English. Finallyarriving in the country whose independence the day
celebrated, Harris sang “Besame Mucho”, by Mexico’s
Consuelo Velázquez, in both Spanish and English. He
then took a detour to Italy, singing “Non Dimenticar”.
Online requests had the singer rendering two more by
Jobim, “Desafinado” and “Dindi”, in between which
he inserted stirring readings of “So Many Stars”, “A
Day in the Life of a Fool (Manha de Carnaval)” and“How Insensitive”. The mood lightened with breezyversions of “The Girl From Ipanema” and “So Nice
(Summer Samba)” before Allan ended with his own
Tex-Mex flavored “Dark Spanish Lady”.
(RM)

W H AT ’ S N E W S

jazz scene both in NYC and particularly in his native
Philadelphia, produced a Cinco De Mayo event born of
the Mexican holiday’s revolutionary heart. In duo withmasked drummer Dave Louis, Levin emoted his radicalverse throughout the spirited performance while neversparing his tenor saxophone and flute. Levin’s pedigreeincludes performing and recording with Cecil Taylor
followed by collaborations with Jamaaladeen Tacuma
and other notables, hence Levin’s forays into the free
are deeply felt. His own projects as a leader have often
radically sought to unite instrumental sounds to the
spoken word. During this performance, classic tenordriven fire music with explosive drumming alternatedwith slower, more introspective works where flute
poured out an atmosphere of near comfort while
framing poetry of a decidedly anti-capitalist nature.
Overall, this was a satisfying event but, unfortunately,
the gremlins that too often plague such digital streams
were out and about that night, perhaps high on tequila
like many of us, causing audio difficulties (especiallyproblematic with meaningful, revolutionary poetry)and later, with the broadcast itself. Music and poetry
such as this requires clean audio if nothing else. As thecreative community here, in Philly and far beyond,may be living with this type of livestream gigging fora while, it’s hopeful that the technology catches up
quickly to offer we who are hungry for a return tonightclubs a viable option in the meantime.
(JP)

Given the impossibility of holding the annual event in person,
the annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band
Festival will go virtual this month from Jun. 8th-12th, with alocal band from Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music (Bronx,NY), directed by Penelope Smetters-Jacono, taking part. For
more information and to watch the festival, visit jazz.org/ee.
The Alternative Guitar Summit Camp is going online Jun.
18th-20th with masterclasses and performance by a faculty ofJulian Lage, Gilad Hekselman, Nir Felder, Scott Metzger, Tim
Miller and Joel Harrison. For more information, visit
alternativeguitarsummitcamp.com.
Saxophonist Kamasi Washington provided the score for
Becoming, director Nadia Hallgren and Higher Ground
Productions’ documentary profiling First Lady Michelle Obama,
streaming now on Netflix.
The recipients of the 2020 Jazz Journalists Awards havebeen named, with drummer Terri Lyne Carrington nettingMusician of the Year, alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin
Up-and-Coming Musician of the Year, Branford Marsalis
Quartet’s The Secret Between The Shadow And The Soul
(OKeh) Album of the year and ECM Label of the Year among
the highlights. For more information and the complete list, visit
jjajazzawards.org/p/2020-winners.html.
Guitarist Leonid Morozov was named the second John
Abercrombie Jazz Scholarship Fund Grant recipient.
Morozov, from Moscow, will begin his senior year in the fall at
SUNY- Purchase Conservatory of Music. For more information,
visit johnabercrombiejazzfund.org.
Submit news to info@nycjazzrecord.com

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | JUNE 2020 5

THOSE GONE SILENT

ken weissbootsie barnes
1937-2020

I was very fortunate to meet this master of Philadelphia’s jazz community when hewas 27 years old. I gave him his first major gig and from that coming together wewere like brothers. We exchanged musical ideas, concepts and practiced every day in
my parents’ home. Bootsie Barnes had memorized over 200 compositions. He wasforever reaching for information.
I’m so very grateful that I lived in his time. When Bootsie Barnes left the planet it
was a great loss not only for his family but also for the whole world. He would tellme every time I play my saxophone, it’s like the first time because there’s so much
more to learn.
Bootsie Barnes was like a walking university. He developed the theoreticalknowledge, technical expertise and improvisational technique that most musicians
will not accomplish in a life time. Jazz luminaries such as John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner,
the Heath Brothers, Benny Golson, Lee Morgan, Shirley Scott, Philly Joe Jones, Jymie
Merritt as well as obscure, short-lived geniuses like pianist Hasaan lbn Ali—young
musical explorers who lived near one another, practiced in each other’s living rooms,
shared the same schools and teachers and honed their chops and musical imaginationin the same music venues in densely populated black Philadelphia neighborhoods.
Bootsie and me were in the same Philadelphia neighborhoods and these incredible
luminaries would pass information on down to Bootsie Barnes and me.

—odean pope, saxophone

Photograph © Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos

alan nahigian

eddy davis
1940-2020

6 JUNE 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

I’ve just lost one of the dearest friends I’ve ever had in music. Eddy Davis was a highly
significant and influential presence in my life. He was a fiercely individualistic
performer, a veteran of the old Chicago days when music was hot, joyful, exuberant
and unselfconscious. A character and a curmudgeon, who could hold court for hours
after the gig. And a loving mentor who helped younger musicians like myself learn
and grow in this music.
Eddy was generous with his strong opinions, with his knowledge and experienceand with his encouragement. But he was a generous soul in other ways as well.
When he heard that I was building a studio (my “Laboratory”), he had me come by hisapartment and started giving me things out of his closets: a Roland 24-track recorder,
three vintage microphones, instruments…things that I treasure, and use, every single
day of my life. When my father turned 75, Eddy came out to the Lab in New Jersey andplayed for him and wouldn’t take a dime for it.
When I got the call that Eddy had passed—another victim of this horrible virusthat is ruining so many lives, and our musical life as well—I hung up the phone andjust cried. Later I went out to my Laboratory and kissed every single thing therethat he had given to me. How cruel to lose such an irreplaceable person…killed by anenemy, as my brother David commented, that is neither visible nor sentient.

—scott robinson, reeds/miscellaneous instruments

manu dibango
1933-2020

Manu Dibango was a Cameroonian saxophonist, vocalist and songwriter who
developed a musical style fusing jazz, funk and traditional Cameroonian music.
He was best known for his 1972 hit single “Soul Makossa”, which was much sampled
and copied: Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin”, Rihanna’s “Don’t Stop
The Music”, for example. Manu, not known so much as a jazz player, but withhis warm tone on the tenor saxophone, produced simple catchy, infectious riffs andthemes (commercial music).
I worked with him on his record Electric Africa in Paris and “Big Blow”, anextended version of “Soul Makossa” that featured Herbie Hancock, Bootsy Collins,
Sly & Robbie, Bernie Worrell, Wally Badarou and many others. Also, Sly & Robbie’s
Language Barrier and Deadline’s Down By Law. He was always fun and open-minded,willing to experiment and try many different things.
In recording sessions, he contributed to a relaxed atmosphere that made people
very comfortable and without pressure. What I will remember the most is his hugesmile and booming laughter. Emmanuel N’Djoké “Manu” Dibango is gone now but
he leaves so much to appreciate. He will be missed.

—bill laswell, bass/production

Henry Grimes
1935-2020—marc ribot, guitar© SCOTT FRIEDLANDER

Over 17 years, Henry and I did two recordings and many tours, during which I got toknow him as a friend. Henry was the most human of beings—the very opposite of thetechnocratic chops “monster” that haunts the bad dreams of Conservatory students.
His wife Margaret shepherded Henry’s beautiful and extraordinarily gentle soulthrough a world of increasing brutality with great love and dedication, for as longas was humanly possible.
Although Henry spoke less than anyone I ever met, his presence transformed any
space—train compartment, stage, recording studio or even, finally, a nursing homedormitory. That quiet power was the spirit of the instrument Henry loved—transforming the music from below, building the structures from which others
swing—the contrabass language was the speech of his heart.
Together, in the trio with Chad Taylor and the quartet with Roy Campbell, we
played the most beautiful music I’ve ever experienced. I’ll miss Henry and always
feel incredibly lucky to have had the chance to hang out with him and make music
while we could.
I thank Joe Petrucelli and Wendy Oxenhorn of the Jazz Foundation of America,
who helped Margaret and Henry through the difficulties of Henry’s last two years,
and look forward to the day when human beings of all ages, incomes, and abilities
have a right to dignified and compassionate care.

Olle Holmqvist
1936-2020—Per-Åke Holmlander, tuba

courtesy of kulturnavet.se

Olle Holmquist, one of Sweden’s most respected musicians, left us at 83, in the throesof Alzheimer ’s disease and COVID-19.
Already in the ‘40s Olle started playing tuba in the Salvation Army wind orchestra
in Skelleftehamn. He also played the trombone, which became more and more his
main instrument. After his military service in Umeå, Olle moved to Stockholm. Olle
had an incredible musical breadth and an exceptionally long and rich career. From the‘50s onwards Olle played with everyone—and I mean “everyone”—in Swedish jazzand popular music from Putte Wickman to ABBA and onwards. Internationally heplayed with names such as Quincy Jones and James Last Orchestra. He was alsoa member of the Radio Bands in Stockholm, Zurich, West Berlin, and Hamburg. All
these names just mentioned give you a clue about Olle’s extensive and branchedmusician life.
Olle and I did not know each other so well but we worked together every now
and then over the years. We had a common geographical background, both from
Skellefteå in very north of Sweden. Our mutual friends from there and “tuba talk”
joined us. For me personally—and probably for others—Olle was one of the mostpositive and “forever young” people I have ever met. A great musician and humanbeing has gone out of time. It´s sad and boring...

David Horowitz
1942-2020—Herb Bushler, bass

courtesy of herb bushler

David Horowitz was a successful composer and arranger when he recently passed
away at 77. I was his contractor, bass player and close friend for 52 years and waswith him for just about all of his music career. We spent many years in the recording
studios of NY putting his music on countless commercials, at times using celebrity
voices like Lou Rawls, Gladys Knight, Bill Withers, to name a few.
But our association started back in the late ‘60s before any of the glamour andnotoriety of either of our later lives. We were both jazz instrumentalists, making ourway through the jazz scene in New York, sitting in at clubs, playing for peanuts andliving the precarious lives of young struggling jazz musicians. In 1968 we werebrought together by a producer putting a band together for a folk singer named Tom
Paxton. We came together again when we joined Tony Williams’ Lifetime. We toured
with him and put out an ill-fated recording for Polydor called The Old Bum’s Rush.
David later worked with Joe Henderson and Randy Weston as a synth player for
their albums. He also joined me in Gil Evans’ band and we worked with him for someyears and recorded a couple of albums.
David always had a razor sharp wit and understood the demands of recording
better than anyone I’ve ever known. My favorite line of his (knowing that the first or
second take is usually the one that’s going to be chosen) was, ”OK, let’s rehearse thisthing till we beat all the life out of it.” I’ll miss him. I already do.

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | JUNE 2020 7

THOSE GONE SILENT

Adrien H. Tillmann - www.aht1985.com

lee konitz
1927-2020

The first thing I think of when I think of Lee is truth. It’s what he exemplified at every
moment, be it in his music or in his life. He was a straight-shooter both in his words—he could be biting and acerbic—and in the notes he chose to play, which weresomehow always just right, like spot-on observations made by a keen-eyed wise-man.
He was real, exceptionally so. Neither his music nor his character ever felt put on,
which made his kindness and generosity towards the people he loved even more
special, because you knew he meant it. And it made the moments when his playing
turned from reserve to effusion powerful, because you knew he wasn’t going for aneffect; you knew an inner need had arisen in him in that moment, from the heart, andthat he had let himself express it. Lee, not a believer in the afterlife, once said: “Heaven
is right here, right there, anywhere we can communicate. Communication is heaven.”
And meaningful communication requires truth. Otherwise, what is there to say?
It also requires listening, and he listened with tremendous sensitivity, a master at
avoiding misunderstandings both musical and personal. “Listen,” he would remindyou, is “silent” with the letters rearranged. If communication is heaven, Lee, a fearlesscommunicator, must have lived in heaven for much of his long life. And he leaves
us with an important responsibility: in his absence, to find within ourselves theuncompromising truth that he stood for every day.

—dan tepfer, pianoalan nahigianAlex Layne
1939-2020

Alex Layne was a distinguished music major at Queens College. He studied withbassists Alvin Rhem and Ron Carter. He joined the Harlem Blues & Jazz Band around2000, which included a tour of Russia and participation in a documentary on theband, The Last of The First. The Russian tour commenced at Tchaikovsky Hall in
Moscow celebrating the centennial of Louis Armstrong. An additional performance,
also honoring Armstrong, was made to a sold-out crowd at Shostakovich Hall in SaintPetersburg. The band was also featured at Spaso House, the impressive former palaceof a Russian nobleman, now the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Ambassador John Collins
gave a speech complimenting the musicians representing a unique American artform.
Alex was one of the younger musicians in the band and was always ready toassist and help make the tour go forward as smoothly as possible. He brought
formidable background to the group of older, stellar musicians. His credentials
included performing with Coleman Hawkins as well as with Max Roach. He had also
played with Freddie Hubbard, Cedar Walton and backed such influential vocalists as
Billy Eckstine, Carmen McRae, Gloria Lynne and Miriam Makeba.
He made studio recordings with the Harlem Blues & Jazz Band, some of whichappear in the documentary film, and all available on the CD From Past To Present(AAH Records). His music, friendship and support on all levels are sorely missed.

—albert vollmer, founder Harlem Blues & Jazz Band

R.I. Sutherland-Cohen / jazzexpressions.org

GIUseppi Logan
1935-2020

8 JUNE 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

Giuseppi Logan was the ultimate definition of the original in jazz. He knew exactly
what he was doing musically. His music was different from anyone else in jazz history.
He was in NYC right at the center of what was branded The New Thing back then. He
did not produce a huge amount of work in his lifetime, but his music touched many
people around the world on a personal level, largely from his ESP-Disk’ classics.
At the core of his music were his story and the humanity within. Giuseppi’s music
is for me, the ultimate example of humanity in music. At this level, music and theperson are truly one and the same and it defies technical analysis. Roswell Rudd told
me Giuseppi was a genius. Darius Jones said it best for me in describing a solo
Giuseppi took with Steve Swell’s Nation of We as the sound of a vulnerable madgenius. Both Giuseppi and Buddy Bolden died in a mental home, though Giuseppi
saved himself from becoming a legend.
The jazz tradition of mentorship on the bandstand was still intact when I knew
Giuseppi. We were allies but every second around him was also a learning momentfor me. Playing with him helped me figure out the thesis of my own life. There’s avideo on YouTube of us playing “My Favorite Things”. Nobody would ever, ever playit that way other than Giuseppi Logan.
Giuseppi’s music lives on for those who are ready to hear it.

—matt lavelle, trumpet/bass clarinet

Mike Longo
1939-2020—jimmy owens, trumpet

Alan Nahigian

Mike Longo and I met in 1968. I had put together a big band for Dizzy Gillespie’s
three-week tour of Europe. Mike was playing in Dizzy’s quintet at the time.
Listening to him each night made me aware he was a master of the piano,arranging for big band and really understanding jazz harmony. As time went on webecame friends and he asked me to perform as soloist with his big band, New YorkState of The Art Jazz Ensemble, in his yearly tribute to Dizzy at the Bahá’í Center in
New York. Mike had arranged a number of Dizzy’s compositions. As time went on heasked me to arrange some music for the band.
Mike was a wonderful educator and had written many books about jazz harmony.
He also was a record producer releasing numerous CDs on his label Consolidated
Artists Productions, Inc.
Most importantly, he was a wonderful human being, businessman and pianist.
He is greatly missed by MANY.

Pat Longo
1929-2020—kim richmond, woodwinds

courtesy of patlongomusic.com

For the many years that Pat lived in Los Angeles, I considered him a good friend.
He hired me for his band regularly and often asked me about other musicians hecould work with. I believe he came to Los Angeles soon after he had done a substantial
stint with the Harry James Band. Pat’s book had many of the charts from that band.
I was sorry when I heard that Pat moved east to New Jersey. He always had alightness about him but with the East Coast showing through somehow, partly in his
speech and also in his attitude and perspective. I enjoyed knowing him and had
wished that we could have worked together more than we did.

Ellis Marsalis
1934-2020—jason marsalis, drums/vibraphone

Jeff Strout

Ellis Marsalis was born in New Orleans, LA. In the late ‘50s, he was driving from Los
Angeles, CA originally to go to New York. However, he changed his mind and went
back to New Orleans where he would marry Dolores Ferdinand and raise six boys.
I truly believe that had he gone to New York instead, music history after 1980 would’vechanged. He had impacted so many musicians over the course of many years. That’s
why his death felt like a huge blow to the jazz world.
My father was aware of all music in American culture from the 1900s to today.
When he attended a gig that my older brothers were performing with a funk band inthe ‘70’s, Dad was in the audience laughing because it reminded him of the R&B bandhe was in during the ‘50s. This understanding of how music evolves informed his
perspective on life, music and teaching. He believed that music should be passed on
to future generations and that it was important to understand how music wasconnected to world events.
I was very fortunate to grow up as a son and bandmember of Ellis Marsalis.
Whether it was playing music with him or having various conversations about
moments in life that inform us as a people, we will miss him very much. It is also up
to us to pass on the knowledge that he imparted to us to the next generation.

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | JUNE 2020 9

THOSE GONE SILENT

courtesy of Marcello Pellitteri

Jacques Pellen
1957-2020

I met Jacques in 1996 through our common friend and bassist Gildas Boclè. We played
as a trio at the Montpellier Jazz Festival, broadcast by Radio France. I immediately
became aware of Jacques’ personal sound and tone, balancing profound melancholic
melodies with an exhilarating rhythmic complexity of arpeggios. A master in layeringrich harmonic textures on his 12-string Takamine, he blended elements of jazz, rock,blues and Celtic traditional music of which he was a fantastic interpreter.
Since then we collaborated in many other different projects, culminating in his
recording Lament For The Children (Naïve, 2007) with the same trio we had in
Montpellier a decade earlier. Along the way we shared the amazing experience ofrecording in Brooklyn with Michael Brecker for the Celtic Tales album Pas An Dour(Naïve, 2000), a Celtic/jazz project Brecker wanted to be a part of. Jacques stayed at
my place in Manhattan for a few days and, although he was an introverted person,
we talked a lot about life over a few whiskeys. That’s when I discovered how much
his personality and his music were permeated by his native land. His guitar was his
canvas where he depicted the nuances of Britany’s landscapes: its countryside‘sbreeze, the earthiness of grassy dunes and sandy beaches, the forceful wind crashingwaves over rugged and jagged cliffs, rarefied echoing atmospheres followed bysudden rumbles and downpours, just like the unpredictable Breton skies.
So long, brother Jacques.

—Marcello Pellitteri, drums

Photograph © Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos

courtesy of Guillermo Bazzola

Marcelo Peralta
1961-2020

10 JUNE 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

I met Marcelo for the first time back in 1982. From then until his untimely, sad death,
we were very good friends. During all these years we shared so many hours together,either rehearsing and playing or just hanging and laughing. He was definitely one of
my favorite people.
Marcelo was an accomplished player and a very serious teacher. Thanks to this,he gained great respect among both professional musicians and music students. He
was a real artist and sound was his specialty. His vigorous tone, no matter which
saxophone he was playing, was his trademark.
He had a deep knowledge of jazz history, especially about the free and post-freestyles from the ‘60s and ‘70s. Listening to those Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane orArchie Shepp records with him was crucial for my musical education. Collaboratingwith him on different projects (his Argentine groups during the ‘80s and ‘90s and our
Gnu Trio here in Madrid, some 10 years ago) was always an enriching experience inboth artistic and human aspects. Seeing Marcelo was synonymous with superb music,
great talk, usually good food and many laughs.
For all those reasons and, above all, for being a wonderful and decent humanbeing, devoted to his lovely family and his friends, he will be always in my thoughts
and my heart.

—Guillermo Bazzola, guitar

Bucky Pizzarelli
1926-2020

Here’s the Bucky I knew...He always wore a crisp Brooks Brothers suit, complete withmatching tie and handkerchief, whether it was breakfast on the road, a recording dateor any of the hundreds of gigs he did per year. He always showed up early,
a consummate professional, always smiling, never complaining, including those lessthan salubrious events we all sometimes played. He seemed to truly know everyone,and everyone seemed to know him and I never, in over 30 years, heard anyone sayanything negative about him—one of the most well-loved people I ever met.
Then there was his playing—one of the greatest rhythm guitarists/accompanistsof all time—this is a fact that’s not disputed. He was an inventive soloist who mastered
the seven-string guitar and put his personal stamp on the songs he really loved,among them “Honeysuckle Rose”, “This Nearly Was Mine” and anything Benny
Goodman ever recorded. He was on thousands of recordings and could levitate any
rhythm section by his unerring swing and sense of unbridled joy.
And, finally, he was a big mentor and friend to me, championing my cause to
whoever would listen way before I deserved it, and giving me lots of encouragement
and great advice throughout our many years playing together. And my Bucky was
everyone’s Bucky—he was open, generous, and kind to all, and will be sorely missed.

—Ken Peplowski, tenor saxophone/clarinet

Freddy Rodriguez, Sr.
1931-2020—andrew hudson, bass

courtesty of andrew hudson

Up until his death in March at 89, tenor saxophonist Freddy Rodriguez led the bandat Denver ’s famed El Chapultepec jazz club, a gig he held for 40 years. At every gig
Freddy would announce it was his birthday, which, at 89 years old, every day you’dwant to celebrate as such! He’d also let everyone know he was playing the ‘safe sax’...
really a description of his mellow tone inspired by his heroes such as Dexter Gordon
and Coleman Hawkins.
Musicians would regularly pop in and Freddy enthusiastically welcomed them tosit in. It might be one of the Marsalis brothers one night or Bono from U2 anothernight. In the early ‘80s, Jaco Pastorius sat in for a legendary set. But it was also always
a delight to hear a young high school or college musician cutting his teeth and thensee Freddy spending his break encouraging them.
Freddy grew up in Denver but, like many other hometown jazz musicians acrossAmerica, did move away to ‘the big city’ early in his career to pursue more opportunity.
In his case, he moved to Los Angeles and for a while had some success with the West
Coast jazz scene. Denver was lucky to have him back in town. Freddy was a jazz iconin Denver. No, he was never featured in DownBeat and he didn’t play the big jazzfestivals, but his legacy will be just as important: one of the many hometown jazzmusicians who perform throughout America, jazz evangelists keeping this great art
form alive and accessible to Americans everywhere.

Wallace Roney
1960-2020—don sickler, trumpet/production

Jonathan Chimene

I always felt Wallace and I had a special relationship. It started when I was playing
with Philly Joe Jones (in Dameronia). We played a concert at Howard University,where Wallace was studying. Years later, Wallace reminded me that we first played
together then, rehearsing some Tadd Dameron big band charts. We later played andrecorded together in my second Superblue band and on the Monk On Monk CD project.
Wallace also honored me by having me produce quite a few of his albums as a leader.
The last times we were together were during his 2019 sessions at the Van Gelder
Studio with my wife Maureen engineering. Wallace loved to record at Rudy’s studio;
he always said it was his favorite. It saddens me deeply that he won’t be able to finish
the last project he started at Rudy’s.
We had so many other wonderful times together: him rehearsing at my NYC
rehearsal studio with Tony Williams; us together at Mt. Fuji festivals in Japan. Of
course, Miles was important to him, and he put Miles in a new perspective in my life.
I remember Mr. Namekata (producer and creator of the Somethin’ Else label in Japan)
wanted me to record both “‘Round Midnight” and “Autumn Leaves”, as a tribute tothe original Blue Note Somethin’ Else album that originally featured Miles. Naturally,
I featured Wallace. His tribute to Miles in those two tracks is absolutely thrilling. But
Wallace had his own compelling voice; he was all about music.

Hal Willner
1956-2020—Steven Bernstein, trumpet

Peter Gannushkin/DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET

I was lucky enough to be around Hal for 30 years, often in the middle of the musicalstorm. Hal loved improvisation and things happening in the moment: a producer
who wanted to embrace the unknown. He thrived on the chaos of creation. “What’s
the point if it’s not dangerous?” So many incredible memories. Here are three classic“Hal moments”.
1) Hal wanted me to write a big band arrangement on “Perfect Day” for Lou Reedto sing with the Kansas City band for a Jazz Foundation of America benefit, but also
explained that this was not something Lou would necessarily want to hear (you dig).
Lou was ill and running late. Hal said, “Bernstein wrote an arrangement of ‘PerfectDay’...Lou says, “alright let me hear it”...had just enough to time play it once…and,
yes, we played it with Lou that night. 2) On a concert celebrating the 30th anniversaryof the Solidarność movement, Hal had me arrange Sun Ra’s “Watusa” to be played bya full orchestra as Lech Wałęsa walked onstage...talk about a meeting of the stars. 3)
Hal bringing down the house with his hilarious monologue before performing Fear ’s”New York’s Alright if You Like Saxophones” at Town Hall. He became an incredible
performer in the last few years of his life.
Hal loved musicians, Hal loved music more than anyone I knew. But that was justpart of him. He loved comedy, film, poetry…and puppets. He was a sponge foreverything and was always ready to listen and help in any artistic situation.

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | JUNE 2020 11

obituariesê

died from complications of COVID-19

TONY ALLEN (Aug. 12th, 1940 - Apr.
30th, 2020) The Nigerian-born, Francebased drummer pioneered the AfroBeat
rhythm as the engine of Fela Kuti’s bands
in the ‘70s, appearing on dozens ofalbums made for His Master’s Voice,
AfricanSongs,
Signpost,
Regal
Zonophone, EMI, Jofabro, Afro Beat, Soundworkshop,
Coconut, Afrodisia, Kalakuta, Polydor and other labels,
as well as his own voluminous catalogue as a leader
from the mid ‘70s onwards on Soundworkshop, Coconut,
Polydor, Grandstar, Mercury, Cobalt, Comet, Honest
Jon’s, Strut, Jazz Village and World Circuit, among whichwere a 2010 co-led session with Hugh Masekela and 2017
tribute to Art Blakey, all this to go with guest credits
with Manu Dibango, Brooklyn Funk Essentials, Ernest
Ranglin, New Cool Collective, Sofi Hellborg, Angélique
Kidjo and others. Allen died Apr. 30th at 79.
BOOTSIE BARNES (Nov. 27th, 1937 Apr. 22nd, 2020) The Philadelphia
stalwart saxophonist was a member ofOdean Pope’s Saxophone Choir for
many years, recorded under Don
Patterson, John Swana and Uri Caineand had his own handful of albums
since the late ‘90s, the most recent a 2018 co-led datewith Larry McKenna, The More I See You (Cellar Live).
Barnes died Apr. 22nd at 82.
ê

LEE BOSWELL-MAY (Sep. 24th, 1945 Apr. 18th, 2020) The jazz advocate (andwidow of bassist Earl May) was curatorof Jazz in the Loft at South Orange
Performing Arts Center as well as stage
manager of its Giants of Jazz series.
Boswell-May died Apr. 18th at 74.
PHIL BROADHURST (Jun. 26th, 1949 Apr. 24th, 2020) The New Zealander
pianist recorded for Kiwi Kiwi and Ode(usually with his Sustenance quartet)
and Rattle Jazz, plus work with George
Chisholm and Auckland Jazz Ensemble.
Broadhurst died Apr. 24th at 70.
JOHN BUCHER (1930 - Apr. 5th, 2020)
The cornet player led the Original Delta
Five in the ‘50s, was part of the Red
Onion Jazz Band in the ‘60s and then,decades later after a career on WallStreet, headed the NYC-based Speakeasy
Jazz Babies. Bucher died Apr. 5th at 89.
MICHAEL COGSWELL (Sep. 30th, 1953
- Apr. 20th, 2020) The historian/archivist
was crucial in making trumpeter Louis
Armstrong’s
house
anhistorical,
educational and tourist destination as
the founding Executive Director of theLouis Armstrong House Museum as well
as authoring Louis Armstrong: The Offstage Story ofSatchmo, published in conjunction with the museum’s
2003 opening. Cogswell died Apr. 20th at 66.
EDDY DAVIS (Sep. 26th, 1940 - Apr.
7th, 2020) The banjo player’s most visible
work was in Woody Allen’s various trad
ensembles, documented on Wild Man
Blues (RCA, 1998), but he was active
since the mid ‘60s in the trad scene,leading dates for Blackbird, Electric
Lemon, Pa Da, his own New York Jazz, Revelation,
Jazzology and MusicMasters and with credits under
Terry Waldo, The New York Banjo Ensemble, Cynthia
Sayer, Peter Ecklund, Benkó Dixieland Band, Uri Caine,George Gruntz and others. Davis died Apr. 7th at 79.
ê

PETER ECKLUND (Sep. 27th, 1945 Apr. 8th, 2020) The trumpeter had
albums on Stomp Off, Arbors andJazzology to go along with sidemancredits under Marty Grosz, Terry Waldo,
Cynthia Sayer, Eddy Davis, Vince
Giordano, The Hot Club Of Cowtown
and pop and rock groups. Ecklund died Apr. 8th at 74.

êDAVID HOROWITZ (Jul. 29th, 1942
- Apr. 6th, 2020) The keyboard player ’s
early work was supporting folk
musicians but he had ‘70s jazz credits
under Joe Henderson, Tony Williams
Lifetime, Randy Weston, Alan Silva, Gil
Evans Orchestra and Enrico Rava.
Horowitz died Apr. 6th at 77.

RON GILL (1935 - Apr. 16th, 2020) The
Boston-based singer toured with Duke
Ellington in the ‘70s, made an 1998 LP,
Ron Gill Sings the Songs of Billy Strayhorn,fêting Ellington’s songwriting partner,
and was beloved in Beantown for his
20-year WGBH radio show The Jazz
Gallery. Gill died Apr. 16th at 85.

RONNIE HUGHES (Jun. 27th, 1925 Apr. 1st, 2020) The British trumpeter
was active from the ‘50s onwards,
working across a wide range of English
big bands with Ted Heath, Mike
Westbrook, Ray Davies, The New Big
Band, The London Brass Conference,
Tony Evans and others. Hughes died Apr. 1st at 94.

ANDY GONZALEZ (Jan. 1st, 1951 Apr. 9th, 2020) The bassist and brotherto late trumpeter Jerry was a
co-founding member of the latter ’s Fort
Apache Band, active since the early ‘80s
with almost a dozen albums on Enja,
Sunnyside, Milestone and Random
Chance, and had hundreds of credits since the late ‘60s
with Ray Barretto, Eddie Palmieri, Dizzy Gillespie,
Harlem River Drive, Clifford Thornton, Charlie
Palmieri, Cachao, Willie Colón, Kip Hanrahan, Steve
Turre, Hilton Ruiz, Pete Rodriguez, Kenny Kirkland,
Papo Vazquez, Charlie Sepulveda, David Sanchez, Don
Byron, Conrad Herwig, Tom Harrell, Jimmy Bosch,
Arturo O’Farrill, Chico O’Farrill, Luis Perdomo andmany others. Gonzalez died Apr. 9th at 69.

RYŌ KAWASAKI (Feb. 25th, 1947 Apr. 13th, 2020) The Japanese fusion
guitarist had albums on Union, Elec,
RCA, East Wind, Chiaroscuro, Timeless,
Openskye, Philips, MPS, Continental,
Ryka, VideoArts Music, DIW, Satellites,
Studio Songs and Vivid Sound alongsidesideman work under Takeshi Inomata, Jiro Inagaki, Gil
Evans, Cedar Walton, Elvin Jones, Clint Houston,
Masahiko Satoh, Shigeharu Mukai, Ted Curson, Gato
Barbieri, Teo Macero, John Clark and others. Kawasaki
died Apr. 13th at 73.

êHENRY GRIMES (Nov. 3rd, 1935 Apr. 15th, 2020) The bassist reversed
the typical tragic jazz story, recordingwith a Who’s Who from 1957-66,
including Shafi Hadi, Lee Konitz, Gerry
Mulligan, Sonny Rollins, Tony Scott,Rolf Kühn, Billy Taylor, Mose Allison,
Carmen Leggio, Steve Lacy, Perry Robinson, RoyHaynes, Gil Evans, Jerome Richardson, Shirley Scott,
McCoy Tyner, Walt Dickerson, Albert Ayler, Sunny
Murray, Archie Shepp, Charles Tyler, Don Cherry, Cecil
Taylor, Frank Wright, Burton Greene, Karl Berger,
Pharoah Sanders, Marzette Watts and Bill Barron, as
well as a single album as a leader, The Call, for ESPDisk in 1965, then disappearing for decades andpresumed deceased only to be rediscovered in dramatic
fashion working as a janitor in Los Angeles andrejoining the jazz world at the 2003 Vision Festival andbeginning a nearly-two decade second act as a leader
and collaborator with Marc Ribot, Dennis Gonzalez,
William Parker, David Murray, Luis Perdomo, Fred
Anderson, Oluyemi Thomas, Evan Parker, Rashied Ali,
Dave Douglas, Roswell Rudd, Paul Dunmall andothers. Grimes died Apr. 15th at 84.

ONAJE ALLAN GUMBS (Sep. 3rd,1949 - Apr. 6th, 2020) The pianist was
active as a leader since the late ‘70s withdates for Zebra, SteepleChase, Half
Note and 18th & Vine to go with over
100 sideman credits since the early ‘70s
with Norman Connors, Carlos Garnett,
Charles Sullivan, Cecil McBee, Birthright, Larry Ridley,
Lenny White, Roy Ayers, Woody Shaw, Buster Williams,
Betty Carter, Nat Adderley, Teruo Nakamura, Bennie
Maupin, Art Webb, John Stubblefield, Clint Houston,Shunzo Ohno, Steve Grossman, Al Foster, T.S. Monk,
Earl Klugh, Sathima Bea Benjamin, Ronald ShannonJackson, Stanley Jordan, John Blake, Jay Hoggard,
Sadao Watanabe, Billy Cobham, Kevin Eubanks, James
Moody, Michael Carvin, Terumasa Hino, Carmen
Lundy, Avery Sharpe, Bill Ware, Joseph Daley andothers. Gumbs died Apr. 6th at 70.

12 JUNE 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORDêLEE KONITZ (Oct. 13th, 1927 - Apr.
15th, 2020) The saxophonist, 2009 NEA
Jazz Master, 1992 Jazzpar Prize Winner,
2013 German Jazz Prize winner for
Lifetime Achievement and top recipientof numerous jazz polls was among themost significant, prolific and enduring
musicians in jazz history, starting from his first dates in1947 with Claude Thornhill; work with Lennie Tristanofrom 1948-55; appearance on Miles Davis’ Birth of theCool sessions in 1948; debut as a leader for New Jazz in
1949; participation in several iterations of the Metronome
All Stars in the ‘50s; membership in the 1952-54 Stan
Kenton band; long partnership with Warne Marsh; wellover 150 albums made for Prestige, Vogue, Storyville,
Atlantic, Verve, MPS, Milestone, Campi, Music Minus
One, Philips, SteepleChase, Groove Merchant, Horo,
Wave, Fantasy, Choice, IAI, Epic, Dragon, India
Navigation, G.F.M., Label Bleu, MusicMasters, Enja,
Jazz House, Philology, Musicdisc, West Wind, Soul
Note, Paddle Wheel, Insights, Sunnyside, hatART, Odin,
Venus, Edition, ECM, Blue Note, Columbia, Summit,
P.S.F., Challenge, BMG-France, Palmetto, DIW, Chesky,
Artesuono, Milestone, OmniTone, Pirouet, OutNote,
Half Note, Whirlwind, Double Moon, Impulse, QFTF
and other labels; collaborative dates with Jimmy Giuffre,
Albert Mangelsdorff, Attila Zoller, Phil Woods, Martial
Solal, Gary Bartz, Jackie McLean, Charlie Mariano, Red
Mitchell, Hal Galper, Paul Bley, Karl Berger, Michel
Petrucciani, Chet Baker, Enrico Pieranunzi, Bill Evans,
Harold Danko, Gil Evans, Peggy Stern, Frank Wunsch,
Stefano Battaglia, Franco D’Andrea, Don Friedman,
Franz Koglmann, Rudi Mahall, Jerry Granelli, Marian
McPartland, Kenny Wheeler, Dave Holland, Bill Frisell,
Brad Mehldau, Charlie Haden, Paul Bley, Enrico Rava,
Rich Perry, Renato Sellani, Steve Swallow, Paul Motian,
Ted Brown, Matt Wilson, Alan Broadbent, Stefano
Bollani, Ohad Talmor, Gary Versace, Grace Kelly, Dan
Tepfer, Alexandra Grimal, Dave Liebman, Richie
Beirach, Ethan Iverson and many more; and sidemancredits from the ‘50s onwards with Charles Mingus,
Gerry Mulligan, Lars Gullin, Ralph Burns, Dave Pike,
Gil Evans, Andrew Hill, Dave Brubeck, Mangelsdorff,
Bill Evans, Shelly Manne, Teo Macero, Berger, Chick
Corea, Solal, George Gruntz, Motian, Max Roach, Zoller,
Fred Hersch, Matt Wilson, Rolf Kühn, Jakob Bro andmany many others. Konitz died Apr. 15th at 92.

êGIUSEPPI LOGAN (May 22nd, 1935 Apr. 17th, 2020) The saxophonist was apart of The New Thing in mid ‘60s NYC,
releasing two albums on ESP-Disk(quartet dates with Don Pullen, Eddie
Gomez or Reggie Johnson and Milford
Graves) and recording with Roswell
Rudd and Patty Waters, then disappearing from music
for decades, homeless and suffering from drug
addiction, before suddenly rejoining the jazz scene in2009, through the support of Matt Lavelle, and releasinga handful of albums for Tompkins Square, Mad King
Edmund and Improvising Beings before falling out ofmusic once more in 2012. Logan died Apr. 17th at 84.
ê ELLIS MARSALIS (Nov. 24th, 1934 Apr. 1st, 2020) The pianist and patriarchof one of jazz’ first families (he and sonsBranford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason
were collectively named NEA Jazz
Masters in 2011) was a champion of themusic from his hometown of New
Orleans via decades of mentorship and his own albums
since the early ‘60s on AFO, Elm, Columbia, Spindletop,
Somethin’ Else, CBS and Verve and peppered his careerwith the occasional sideman date/guest spots with the
likes of Nat Adderley (1962), Snooks Eaglin (1977),
American Jazz Quintet (1987) Courtney Pine (1989),
Harry Connick, Jr. (1992), Kermit Ruffins (1996) and, ofcourse, his children. Marsalis died Apr. 1st at 85.

JYMIE MERRITT (May 3rd, 1926 - Apr.
11th, 2020) The bassist (possibly first to
use the electric bass in jazz) started his
career auspiciously with Art Blakey’s
Jazz Messengers in 1958, staying withthe classic iterations of the band through1962 and also recording with Sonny
Clark, Bobby Jaspar, fellow Messengers Wayne Shorter,
Curtis Fuller and Benny Golson, Chet Baker, Max
Roach, Jimmy Witherspoon, Jimmy Smith, Wild Bill
Davis and Lee Morgan and leading his Forerunners in
his native Philadelphia from the early ‘60s into themodern day. Merritt died Apr. 11th at 93.

17th at 94.

BOB MIELKE (1926 - Apr. 17th, 2020)
The Dixieland-style trombonist led his
own band, The Bearcats, in the ‘50s, andin the late ‘40s-mid ‘60s worked with
Bob Wilber, Sidney Bechet, Bob Scobey,
Gene Mayl, George Lewis, Barbara
Dane and Lu Watters. Mielke died Apr.

ê BUCKY PIZZARELLI (Jan. 9th, 1926 Apr. 1st, 2020) The guitarist, whopioneered the use of the seven-stringed
version in jazz (and father to fellow
guitarist John and bassist Martin),amassed hundreds of credits since the‘50s with Pee Wee Hunt, Rex Stewart,
Bobby Donaldson, Al Caiola, Mat Mathews, Don Costa,
Bobby Hackett, Sir Charles Thompson, Tony Mottola,
Lionel Hampton, Carol Sloane, Gene Ammons, Etta
Jones, Willis Jackson, Doc Severinson, Kai Winding,Wes
Montgomery,
Stanley
Turrentine,
Toots
Thielemans, Gene Bertoncini, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny
Stitt, Oscar Peterson, Benny Goodman, Joe Venuti,
Carmen McRae, Stéphane Grappelli, Warren Vaché,
Zoot Sims, Bob Wilber, John Bunch, son John, Red
Norvo, Cynthia Sayer, Peter Appleyard, Paul Desmond,
Ken Peplowski, Ruby Braff, Scott Robinson, Scott
Hamilton, Flip Phillips, Dick Hyman, Howard Alden,
Frank Vignola and dozens of others to go along withhis own numerous sessions since the ‘60s for Savoy,
A&R, Choice, Monmouth Evergreen, Flying Dutchman,
Stash, Groove James, Chesky, Concord, Arbors andmany other labels. Pizzarelli died Apr. 1st at 94.

ê JACQUES PELLEN (Apr. 9th, 1957 Apr. 21st, 2020) The French guitarist
started out in folk music, particularly
Celtic, then branched out into jazz inthe ‘90s with Didier Squiban’s various
projects, Bruno Nevez, Peter Gritz,
Jean-Marie Machado and others as wellas his own albums for Caravan, Gwerz Pladenn, Silex(the latter a collaboration with Paolo Fresu and Erik
Marchand) and Naïve. Pellen died Apr. 21st at 63.

DIETER REITH (Feb. 25th, 1938 - Apr.
1st, 2020) The German keyboard player
had mid ‘60s associations with Svend
Asmussen (albums for Victoria andMurbo) and Charly Antolini (thedrummer ’s SABA album Drum Beat),his own albums across a range of genresfor SABA, Center, Mondial, MPS, BASF, Intercord andMons, library records made for Intersound andSonoton and sideman dates with Maynard Ferguson,
Knut Kiesewetter, Peter Herbolzheimer, Horst
Jankowski and others. Reith died Apr. 1st at 82.
HAROLD RUBIN (May 13th, 1932 Apr. 1st, 2020) The South African-born
artist and clarinetist flouted Apartheidera race restrictions by playing
alongside black musicians in the ‘50s
concurrent with artwork decrying thebrutality of the government (the latter
causing him to be arrested and charged withblasphemy), then emigrated to Israel, where hecontinued his political artwork and returned to jazz,co-founding the Zaviot quartet, being part of The
Tel-Aviv Connection, releasing his own albums on
Jazzis, OutNow and Hopscotch and mentoring younger
generations of Israeli avant garde jazz players. Rubin
died Apr. 1st at 87.
RON RUBIN (Jul. 8th, 1933 - Apr. 14th,2020) The British pianist/bassist was
active since the mid ‘60s with recording
credits under Sandy Brown, Bill
Coleman, Mike Taylor, Tony Coe, “Snub”
Mosley and George Melly and regular
live performance with his countrymen
and visiting Americans. Rubin died Apr. 14th at 86.
RICHARD TEITELBAUM (May 19th,
1939 - Apr. 9th, 2020) The keyboard
player and composer began his career
as part of the ex-pat American
improvisingcollective
MusicaElettronica Viva (alongside longtime
members Alvin Curran and Frederic
Rzewski), which released albums on Polydor, BYG,
Mainstream, Horo, IRML, Matchless and Victo, andhad partnerships with Anthony Braxton (in groups
ranging from duets to participation in Braxton’s large
ensembles), George Lewis (late ‘70s-early ‘80s albums
on Black Saint and Lovely Music) and Andrew Cyrille(a 1997 duet on Silkheart and a 2014 Cyrille ECM date)and collaborations with/credits under Leroy Jenkins,
Carlos Zingaro, Joëlle Léandre, Steve Lacy, Sven-Åke
Johansson, Marilyn Crispell, Tanya Kalmanovitch andothers to go with his own albums for Denon, Lumina,
hatART, Moers Music, Tzadik, New World and otherlabels. Teitelbaum died Apr. 9th at 80.
LES TOMKINS (Oct. 31st, 1930 - Apr.
26th, 2020) The British jazz journalist
was a fixture on BBC Radio 2, wrote for
Melody Maker and Jazz News, edited
Crescendo International, wrote liner
notes for numerous albums and, in thewinter of his life, took up amateur jazzsinging. Tomkins died Apr. 26th at 89.

JOE TORRES (Nov. 29th, 1943 - Apr.
13th, 2020) The Puerto Rican-American
pianist (nicknamed Professor) had
credits under Bobby Valentin, The Latin
Dimension, Rubén Blades, Hector
Lavoe, Celia Cruz, Milton Cardona and,most notably, Willie Colón from the mid‘60s into the ‘90s (especially albums La Gran Fugu from1970, El Jucio from 1972 and The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
from 1975) on Fania, Columbia and Vaya. Torres died
Apr. 13th at 76.
LOUIS VAN DIJK (Nov. 27th, 1941 Apr. 12th, 2020) The Dutch pianist/keyboard player had dozens of releases
since the early ‘60s on Philips (an EP
made when he was 19 and had won the
Loosdrecht Jazz Concours in 1961),
Artone, CBS, Polydor, Keytone, Blue
Mouse, Organon, RCA, Columbia, Quintessence,
Challenge and other labels, either as a leader or incollaboration with countrymen like Chris Hinze, Rita
Reys, Thijs Van Leer and Pim Jacobs, as well as aperiodic partnership with Belgian Toots Thielemans.
Van Dijk died Apr. 12th at 78.
SANNE VAN HEK (Nov. 4th, 1978 Apr. 7th, 2020) The Dutch trumpeter
had a 2004 album as a leader (the selfreleased Ask mE latEr), membership in
the Magic Malik Orchestra, The Black
Napkins, Network of Stoppages andSpermChurch and credits underKleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra and Guus Janssen. Van
Hek died Apr. 7th at 41.
IAN WHITCOMB (Jul. 10th, 1941 - Apr.
19th,
2020)
The
Britishmultiinstrumentalist had a charting pop hit,
“You Turn Me On!” in his early 20s but
then moved away from then-modernmusic to concentrate on ragtime andmusic hall styles, recording through thelast millennium for Tower, United
Artists, Argo, Warner Bros., First American, Sierre
Briar, Stomp Off, Audiophile, Premier and Rhino.
Whitcomb died Apr. 19th at 78.
JOAN WILDMAN (Jan. 1st, 1938 - Apr.
8th, 2020) The pianist/keyboard player,
composer and respected educator at
UniversityofWisconsin-Madison
helped build the school’s jazz program,founded the non-profit arts presenting
group Madison Music Collective,
wrote articles on music theory and history, released ahandful of albums (including the 2015 duo effort
Conversations with Joe Fonda) and collaborated
with fellow UW-Madison professor Roscoe Mitchell,playing on his Four Compositions (Lovely Music, 1987)
and Numbers (RogueArt, 2002-10). Wildman died Apr.
8th at 82.
êHAL WILLNER (Apr. 6th, 1956 - Apr.
7th, 2020) The producer had hundredsof credits since the late ‘70s across awide array of genres including jazzwith albums by Beaver Harris, Gary
Windo, David Sanborn, Spanish Fly,
Gary Lucas, Bill Frisell, The Jazz
Passengers, Jun Miyake and others and was also famedfor his work on the soundtrack to the 1996 Robert
Altman film Kansas City and the tributes he organizedto Nino Rota (Hannibal, 1981), Thelonious Monk
(A&M, 1984), Kurt Weill (A&M, 1985), Carl Stalling(Warner Bros., 1990), Charles Mingus (Columbia,
1992), Raymond Scott (Basta, 1998) and Howard Arlen(Sony Classical, 2003). Willner died Apr. 7th at 64.

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | JUNE 2020 13

album REVIEWS

Old Songs New
Lee Konitz Nonet (Sunnyside)by George GrellaThis is an album that is easy to like but difficult toadmire and Lee Konitz’ death at the age of 92 fromCOVID-19 intensifies that ambivalence.
Veneration of elders has been a cornerstone of jazz
culture for decades, a lumpen by-product of the record
business mining and promoting their back catalogues
and looking for surefire money-makers and theinstitutionalization of jazz as canonical hierarchy. In
theory, this is a way for musicians to learn from pastinnovators while using that knowledge to express theirown musical personality—as Lin Chi supposedly said,“If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.”
In practice, though, there’s little irreverence andKonitz is the Buddha here, his fellow musicians (flutist
Caroline Davis, clarinetist Christof Knoche, bass
clarinetist Denis Lee, violist Judith Insell, cellists
Mariel Roberts and Dimos Goudaroulis, bassist Chris
Tordini and drummer George Schuller) and session
arranger and leader Ohad Talmor the devoted acolyte.
Talmor arranges this set of romantic standards—
including “Goodbye”, “In The Wee Small Hours” and“I Cover The Waterfront”—with the colors and filigreesof the Third Stream era, an old-school approach belying

the “New” of the title.
Konitz spent decades trying to sidestep musicalclichés and undermining the idea of virtuosity—
especially his own—because it made it too easy to playsomething skillful, acceptable and meaningless. To put
him in a setting that would have worked for Sinatra is
misguided and the blandishments of the arrangementssmooth out the creative tension and surprise thatshould be inherent in any Konitz recording.
That the playing of the band is so fine and goodnatured, everyone loving Lee and wanting to do rightby him, makes this one pleasant to hear anddisappointing at the end. As seems to be a trend on
recent recordings, the final track, “Trio Blues”, is thebest because it’s idiosyncratic in this context. More like
Konitz, it’s what one remembers most vividly.
For more information, visit sunnysiderecords.com

Blue Dawn - Blue Nights
Wallace Roney (HighNote)by Ken Dryden

Wallace Roney’s passing at 59 from COVID-19 wasa major loss to jazz. The trumpeter left a formidable
legacy with his discography as a leader and work with
Art Blakey, Tony Williams and others. These 201814 JUNE 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

studio sessions may very well represent Roney’s final
release under his own name.
The trumpeter assembled a band of promising
young musicians, saxophonist Emilio Modeste, pianist
Oscar Williams II, bassist Paul Cuffari and Roney’s
nephew, drummer Kojo Odu Roney, with seasoned
veteran drummer Lenny White spelling the young
percussionist when he was unable to make one session,plus guitarist Quintin Zito on three tracks.
While Roney was an accomplished soloist andcomposer in any setting, the focus of this CD is mostly
made up of songs penned by others. Vibrant opener“Bookendz” (the only Roney original) features theleader ’s articulate horn while teenager Modeste (onsaxophone) and the young drummer (only 15 at thetime of recording) sound well beyond their years.
Ballads are always the acid test for jazz musicians,
as no matter how well one can play challenging
lines at a rapid fire tempo, it can be harder for atechnical wizard to make every note count, whether
soloing or comping. Roney’s exquisite introductorysolo in Kaye Dunham-Bryce Rohde’s “Why Should
There Be Stars” is buoyed by the creative backdrop of
Williams and Cuffari.
The leader also encouraged his bandmembers tocontribute original music, much like Blakey did topush his young sidemen. While Roney madesuggestions, it is clear that he let them find their own
way for the most part and the results speak forthemselves. Williams’ hypnotic “In A Dark Room” andModeste’s furious “Venus Rising” are highlights, both
men are talented composers. If this CD proves to be
Wallace Roney’s swan song, he ended his career on ahigh note.
For more information, visit jazzdepot.com

Some Aspects of Water
Geri Allen (Storyville)by George Kanzler

The Jazzpar Prize, awarded annually in Denmark from1990-2004, included by far the largest cash prize(sometimes in the millions of U.S. dollars depending on
the exchange rate of the Danish kroner that year) injazz. The hope was to make its prestige on par with
Norway’s Nobel Prizes, but for jazz. Unfortunately the
Jazzpar neither achieved the cachet of the Nobel, norother international awards, partly because of the lack ofinterest from parochial American jazz media. This CD
preserves music from the Jazzpar concerts by pianist
Geri Allen (who died three years ago this month) when
she won in 1996. It includes trio tracks with Danish
bassist Palle Danielsson and drummer Lenny White, as
well as pieces by the trio augmented by the horns ofJohnny Coles (flugelhorn), Henrik Bolberg Pedersen(trumpet, flugelhorn), Kjeld Ipsen (trombone), Axel
Windfeld (tuba), Michael Hove (alto saxophone, flute,
clarinet) and Uffe Markussen (tenor and sopranosaxophones, bass clarinet, flute) as the Jazzpar Nonet.
Allen, 38 at the time, was already one of the mostoriginal pianists in jazz (her recordings with Ornette
Coleman also came out in 1996) and she is in top form
as both a pianist and a composer, most impressively as

both on the 19-minute centerpiece of the album andconcerts, tone poem “Some Aspects of Water”,
composed for the Jazzpar Nonet. The piece moves froma piano-drums duo opening to shifting ensemble
movements sprouting solos from Coles, Ipsen andAllen, before a dropout to Markussen (bass clarinet) ina semi-rubato colloquy with bass and cymbals
resembling the trio interlude of Duke Ellington’s “A
Tone Parallel to Harlem”. The ensemble returns with aswelling waltz before moving into 9/4 for Allen’smuscular solo, rife with prodding clusters, soaring over
and around the impactful horn lines to a rousing climax.
With the trio, Allen displays her ability to playinside/outside, even on the same tune, as she does on
her own “Skin”, a section pitting left against righthand followed by one full of knuckled clusters redolentof the avant garde. But her utter inventiveness anduniqueness is exemplified on her creative appropriationof the Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn standard “A Beautiful
Friendship”, first playing it as if by Red Garland, thentaking it through myriad changes in a completely
original—harmonicallyandmelodically—solo
improvisation fully worthy of the Jazzpar Prize.
For more information, visit storyvillerecords.com

Live
Bo Lindenstrand (PB7)
by Kyle Oleksiuk

Posthumous albums are often either embarrassingly

bad, or worse, just boring. Many are slapped together
and sold in order to extract a final profit, grave robberstyle, from the deceased artist, at the price of releasing
albums that were never meant to see the light of day—like the 12 Jimi Hendrix records released after his death.
This is definitely not the case for Bo Lindenstrand’s
Live, which is an illuminating example of just how
good a posthumous release can be. It is exceptional
both as a celebration of Lindenstrand (who tragicallydrowned three years ago this month) and also as a live
album. It consists of Lindenstrand’s best performances
between 2008-13, as he led quartets with a rotatinggroup of Swedish musicians in a handful of Stockholm
clubs. Lindenstrand was an accomplished entertainer
and the performances are overflowing with passion,
zest, spunk, pep. Most of them “sound the same”, inthe sense that they work well as background music,
but are never boring.
Erik Centerwall, in his liner notes, writes that “thetraditions of Jazz in Sweden do not follow a straightline of evolution, but rather like a tree, reveal a richarray of branches.” Most traditions of jazz outside of
Sweden could also be described this way, but
Centerwall’s metaphor touches on something very
important to Live: it documents not only the single“branch” of Swedish jazz that Lindenstrand represents,
but the whole “tree” of live performers and musicaltraditions that made up the scene of which he was apart. Lindenstrand plays with 6 bands and 14 musicians,
covering standards that were central to the club scene
in Sweden and to his own style: songs by bebop players
like Charlie Parker and musical theater lyricists like
Cole Porter. For anyone interested in getting a concise
picture of Stockholm’s traditional jazz scene, or just of
one talented musician who had a prominent place in it,
there are few better albums than this.
For more information, visit plugged.se

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | JUNE 2020 15

solos&duos

Kasumi
Ingrid Laubrock/Aki Takase (Intakt)
by Stuart Broomer

Saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and pianist Aki Takase

first played together in “Brooklyn-Berlin Dialogues” at
the 2016 JazzFest Berlin, a series of duets in which
Laubrock chose Takase as her partner. Further
performances in London and Zürich led to this 2018
recording to which each musician contributed fivecompositions along with four improvised duets. It’s ameeting between adventurous, inventive musicians
who mark each piece with a shared sense of form.
It’s music of surprise, each of the 14 pieces clearly
defined. Takase’s “Harlekin” is one of the stronger
themes, with an insistent rhythmic pattern somehow
suggesting both ancient military music and village
dance; an ironic, Kurt Weill-like ambiance gives way
to spirited improvising, fractured percussive piano
clusters feeding leaping soprano. Takase’s “DarkClouds” takes a similarly surprising turn, moving fromdizzying duck-toned soprano and raging piano toa slow, delicately somber duet; “Poe” is surprisingly
piquant, moving from playful to melancholy.
When Laubrock turns to tenor, the duet foregrounds
just how beautiful her sound is, a warmly liquid tone,
its perfectly smooth character serving to highlightoccasionally expressive deviations, precise to an almost
academic degree, as if she’s somehow found a quality
equivalent but distinct from the metallic sheen of John
Coltrane and the gauze of Stan Getz. It’s particularly
notable on her “Sunken Forest”, the longest track here,
and marked by the balladic empathy the two possess,piano framing the saxophone lines perfectly. On her“Win Some, Lose Track”, Laubrock’s sound isevanescent, a dance with silence in which the
instruments fuse.
While lyric strengths come to the fore, there’s often
an insistent energy, as in the tumbling power of pianoon Takase’s “Andalusia” and rapid free-improv“Scurry”, just under a minute and a half long, whichappears as an invigorating jolt in the middle of the set.
It’s a program in which brilliant musicians explore
much of the expressive range.
For more information, visit intaktrec.ch

In The GardenAnaïs Maviel (Gold Bolus)
by Elliott Simon

I n The Garden from vocalist/multi-instrumentalistAnaïs Maviel begins with “Bells”, a simple ringing
increasing in volume as the track progresses. Its
unspoiled honesty announces this live solo performancerecorded in 2018 at the OBEY Convention Festival in
Halifax, Nova Scotia. Maviel’s voice communicatesboth lyrically and instrumentally and with lyra (Greek
bowed lyre), kamele n’goni (West African string
instrument), surdo (Brazilian drum), singing bowl andpiano she provides an intense listening experience.
Following the initial jingling invocation, the firsthalf of the set highlights Maviel’s lyrical and more
traditional singing abilities on an emotive “I am You”
and self-reflective title piece. Simple stringed
accompaniments underscore her powerful lyrics andmelismatic presentation. Maviel spotlights her poetry
and delivery on these cuts, movingly describing herviews on commitment, “I am not afraid I am you andyou are me” and self-reflection, “I ate the sacred apple
in the garden”. They come across as primeval narrative
ballads, laying bare her feelings and private thoughts
in an intimate folkloric setting.
“Listening” and “Bells from Afar {métadire}”complete the concert and are profoundly different
from the prior candid lyrical statements in both form
and function: ambient harmonic experiences utilizing
the tonal properties of various instruments in close
connection with Maviel’s voice. The former is anincredible sonic encounter between voice, lyra andsurdo while the latter is a more sedate meeting of voice
and piano. Maviel creatively employs her voice in theway that a reedplayer uses overblowing, microtones
and multiphonics to enhance improvisation.
Available as a digital download with accompanying
original two-sided collage, In The Garden speaks
through waning notes, silence, dynamic variation andharmonics. But it is Maviel’s harmonious and dissonant
extended vocal techniques that are the most striking
aspects of the session.
For more information, visit goldbolus.com

Solo
Bobby Naughton (OTIC)
by Jim Motavalli

The Creative Musicians Improvisers Forum (CMIF),
Connecticut’s answer to the Association for the
Advancement of Creative Musicians, was formed in
New Haven in 1977, with trumpeter Leo Smith (not yet
Wadada) as a key creative force alongside vibraphonist
Bobby Naughton, saxophonist Dwight Andrews,
bassist Wes Brown and percussionist Gerry
Hemingway. Among other ensembles, Smith formed
New Dalta (also rendered as “Delta”) Ahkri, including
Naughton. This reviewer heard the CMIF musicians
play in various configurations a number of times.
Naughton played keyboards in rock bands until
about 1966, when he took up vibraphone and began toplay free jazz with clarinetist Perry Robinson andothers. Perhaps Karl Berger—one of the few otheravant garde vibraphone players then active andnearby—was an influence.
Naughton was a fixture on the Connecticut jazzscene, such as it was, in the early ‘70s and recordedwith Smith, Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell andMario Pavone. This solo record was recorded at
Real Art Ways in Hartford in 1978 and it’s quite lovely
and decidedly more accessible than a lot of the music
CMIF played.
Naughton doesn’t seem to have recorded much inrecent years, but he founded OTIC Records early on(1969, releasing five LPs) and this record is on thatlabel, revived in 2002 and now based in Vermont. There
are two tunes by Smith, two by Carla Bley (“Jesus
Maria” and “Ictus”), Charles Mingus’ “Goodbye
Porkpie Hat” and a couple of standards. Versions of
Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust” and Jimmy Van

16 JUNE 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

Heusen’s “But Beautiful” are particularly appealing,with these melodies for the ages treated with great
delicacy. It’s very nicely recorded (on a Revox) by Joe
Celli, who co-founded Real Art Ways in 1975. Gary
Burton would approve.
The playing here is fascinating. It’s got the jaggededge that Ornette Coleman brought to jazz, but at thesame time the music isn’t difficult or challenging. The
recording captures Naughton playing in a mature
style, which was truly all his own and a melding of free
and mainstream influences. The vibraphonist Jay
Hoggard was around Connecticut at this time andperhaps his more accessible style rubbed off on
Naughton. However this evening in Hartford came
together, its appearance on disc after all these years is
welcome.
For more information, visit bobbynaughton.com

Matsch und Schnee
Silke Eberhard/Maike Hilbig (Trouble in the East)
by Kurt GottschalkO ne of the highpoints in saxophonist Silke Eberhard’s
discography is a set of duets with pianist Aki Takase
titled Ornette Coleman Anthology. It’s also one of theearliest releases under her name, but this is nobackhanded compliment. There are other high points,of course, this is just a useful one. In 32 Coleman
compositions (across two compact discs), Eberhard
and Takase find something that’s often missed out by
his interpreters, that being the sheer joy often present
in his music. True, his tunes can be like sharp-edged
jigsaw puzzles, but more often than not there’s also alightness, an ebullience uncommon in the avant garde.
Whether Eberhard learned that from the master or
it’s just in her blood, Matsch und Schnee offers a similarsort of effervescence. There’s no Coleman in the
program—the compositions come from Eberhard andher duet partner, bassist Maike Hilbig—but there’s abounce, a teasing of unison lines and a flexibility oftime and, most importantly, a songfulness that brings
Coleman readily and repeatedly to mind.
Hilbig’s discography is about as spare as was
Eberhard was when she made that first record withTakase 11 years ago, but on the strength of hercompositions here (and she provided six of the 10)
there’ll be plenty to listen for in her future. (Herreleases with the trio Vorwärts/Rückwärts can bestreamed in full on the Trouble in the East Bandcamp
page, as can Matsch und Schnee.) Her “Cremant” stands
out, moving with ease between a Burt-Bacharach-oncodeine theme, concise extrapolations and extended
tones and overtones, with generous solo space given to
her partner, in under six minutes.
Among Eberhard’s contributions is the spritely
opener “25618”, which could be a count for the twistinglines or a coded composition date (the album wasrecorded in August of 2018) but whatever it means,
it tickles the mind and makes promises the album
delivers. Eberhard (who in August will receive the2020 Berlin Jazz Prize) is really too smart a player tobe overlooked. Her past projects have also included
ventures into the Eric Dolphy and Charles Mingus
catalogues, but she is by no means a traditionalist orrevisionist. She is a knowledgeable musician, informed
enough to make listening a joy.
For more information, visit troubleintheeast-records.com

solos&duos

The Piano Equation
Matthew Shipp (TAO Forms)
Solo@70
Denman Maroney (s/r)
More Listening, More Hearing
Howard Riley (SLAM)
by John Sharpe

Although unaccompanied music-making is certainly
having a moment right now, these three solo piano
outings were recorded well before COVID-19 hit thestreets. It’s a venerable format, offering the mostversatile range of expression of any single instrument
and all the more so when in the hands of masters of the
trade. Each of the adventurous protagonists qualifies
as veterans, although that may be a tad harsh on
Matthew Shipp, who hasn’t quite breached the sixdecade marker, while it recedes in the rearview mirror
for Denman Maroney at 70 and Howard Riley at 77.
That wealth of experience guarantees that each brings
a mature style to the table.
The Piano Equation may be Shipp’s umpteenthsession alone at the keyboard, but he still uncovers
new things to say through the flow of 11 what soundlike off-the-cuff cuts. What he takes from the jazz andclassical traditions has been so thoroughly personalized
as to render attempts at attribution irrelevant, suchthat by this juncture the main reference is himself.
As ever he shoehorns restlessly changing fragments of
melody and rhythm into cohesive shapes, which
resemble nothing else. The opening title cut is by turns
limpid, impulsive and romantic, full of unexpecteddigressions, excursions to the extremes and glittering
syntax. Those building blocks recur in differing
proportions and flavors throughout the program,alongside individual elements, which together fashion
memorable episodes. One is the heavy sustain bathing
the cramped gestures and dark scuttling of “Vortex
Factor” in chiming overtones, helping convey asanctified embrace to the stately progression towards
thunder at the close of the final “Cosmic Juice”.
Likewise, attention-grabbing reiterated ringing cells in
sharp relief to the uneasy lurch elsewhere spice “Radio
Signals Equation” and “Tone Pocket” while “Clown
Pulse” is another of those numbers at which Shippexcels, where a catchy blues-tinged motif regularly
reappears amid the sideways diversions, but is over all
too soon. Suffice it to say, the disc constitutes yet
another fine addition to Shipp’s copious discography.
Maroney may be best known for his under-thebonnet “hyperpiano” technique, but on Solo@70 he
exclusively explores what he calls temporal harmony,in which pulse fields arise from the juxtaposition ofdifferent meters in each hand other than those whichmost listeners would recognize. A sequence ofoverlapping single-note cadences midway through“Air Condition” provides perhaps the starkest exampleof the resultant slightly disorienting effect of rhythmic
dislocation. The digital album presents a retrospectiveof sorts as the 21 compositions, clocking in at over 130
minutes, span a half-century of Maroney’s career,
including a mix of unrecorded charts and ones
previously issued in ensemble form. All are tunefuland stay in tempo(s) throughout. He creates his own
musical world and shows it to be independent of genre
as the program variously evokes ragtime, Baroquecounterpoint, Americana, pealing bells, Minimalism,waltz time and the miniatures of Erik Satie. Among thehighlights are the glinting ripples spreading acrossa dark undertow of “A Thought Revolved”, slightly
mournful simultaneous Morse-coded messages of“Iterato” and dazzling interlocking patterns of thecanonical “Fowler ’s Better Blues”. Though Maroney

succeeds in giving each track a distinctive character,the overall consistency of approach makes this farebest consumed in small servings.
Englishman Riley is another specialist in solitary
recital, even surpassing Shipp, with more than 16 solo
dates waxed over a 45-year period. On More Listening,More Hearing, all the pieces are improvised in the order
they were played, with the exception of two passes by
a standard and another look at a composition that hefirst waxed back in 1967. Riley in his own way is noless recognizable than Shipp. “Line Play” could act
as a summation of his style: a subdued, pared-backlyricism speckled with sparkling phrases; a flutteringleft hand carving out stuttering tremolos; andpenchant for expanding and contracting time. Hisaustere melodic sensibility can be heard on “Elusivity”
where he unhurriedly conjures a churchy feel, on thesonglike refrain that rings out on “Feelings Allowed”
and the emphatic nagging passage that surfaces
towards the end of “Momentum”. He remains withina similar emotional tenor for the whole disc, teasingout variations within his signature sound, with its
echoes of Monk and Ellington. Both takes of Jerome
Kern’s “Long Ago And Far Away” merge seamlessly
with what the liners term Riley’s familiar diction, withthe dark embroidering of the concise, prettily abstract
second take the pick of the two. Probably the highpoint is a lovely meditative ballad reading of his own“Sunflower”, in a program that gains in cohesion andimpact as the session progresses.

Bass saxophone returns for the closing “Morgagni”,
six minutes of pops, growls and foghorn blasts thatsomehow manage to maintain a narrative arc.
Gustafsson is player of many flavors—here you get tolick them all.
Heavenly Guide is not only Mai’s first solo outing,it is also his first album as a “leader”. Like Gustafsson,
he plays baritone saxophone and electronics but,unlike Padova Solo, Heavenly Guide mixes free
improvisations with tunes, such as the digital swirls of“Intro” blasting into a version of “Epistrophy” that
could disinter Thelonious Monk from his Ferncliff
Cemetery resting place. The title track uses loops tocreate an aptly churchlike choir. Bombastic “Manum
Ad Ferrum” screams to be ZU-ified but is instead cut
off in favor of the echoey wails of “The Sound of His
Horn”. Eric Dolphy’s “Gazzeloni” is a companion
piece to the aforementioned “Epistrophy” in vintage
and approach. “Bahr Attla” and “Celestial Nile” closethe date with washes of processed saxophones, thekind of thing the SETI Project was trying to hear for
decades. The 25-minute album revels in juxtapositions
and what Mai is able to do in the studio that he(probably) couldn’t do onstage.
For more information, visit catalyticsound.com and trost.at

For more information, visit taoforms.bandcamp.com,
denmanmaroney.com and slamproductions.net

Beaming
Tony Oxley (Confront Core)
by Mark Keresman

Padova SoloMats Gustafsson (Catalytic Sound)
Heavenly Guide
Luca T. Mai (Trost)by Andrey Henkin

Between them, saxophonists Mats Gustafsson of
Sweden and Luca T. Mai of Italy have produced someof the most radioactive material to be found outsideof the 18-mile exclusion zone surrounding Chernobyl.
The latter has plied most of his trade of the last 20
years with the trio ZU while the former has been
prolifically and internationally active since the late‘80s. Gustafsson guested on a ZU record; ZU and nowdefunct Gustafsson project The Thing have performed
together; and the pair even recorded a four-minutebaritone saxophone duet, “While The Wind Mixes The
Playing Cards Of Polite Faces”, in 2004. Each one has
the power of a landmine, leaving a blast crater behindthem whenever they play. This is even the case when
they are on their own.
Padova Solo is not Gustafsson’s first solo outing;he has made a handful, including one exclusively on
slide saxophone. This 2016 live date from Italy finds
Gustafsson on various saxophones, plus electronics.
It begins subtly, all breath and flutter across the sevenminutes of “Giotto”, before “Ibrahimovic” announces
itself like a bull blowing up a china shop, bass
saxophone rumbling the speakers, punctuated by
Gustafsson’s inimitable yelps through the instrument.
In stark contrast and needed respite, “Nordström” isa nearly eight-minute digital drone, segueing into thebaritone peals of the almost 10-minute “Hult”,
heartbreaking and oddly bagpipe-like before moving
into a lovely melodic exposition. “Asino” sounds like it
is being played solely through a saxophone mouthpiece;
the poor Padovians must have had to plug their ears.

It’s safe to say that drummer Tony Oxley (who turns 82
this month) occupies the same lofty strata in the U.K. as
Milford Graves and the late Sunny Murray do on theseshores. He has played with Cecil Taylor and the many
participants of the U.K. free/avant jazz scenes andthrives in all manner of improvised settings. And Oxley,in fact, was one of the founders of Incus Records, theiconic British label devoted to free improv. Apart fromthat zone he has played with Gordon Beck, Sonny
Rollins, John Surman and Lee Konitz, among others.
Beaming is a duo set, Oxley providing the concept(that’s what the credits read) and performing
electronics and Stefan Hölker the acoustic percussion.
If one seeks pure drumming, one could be a touch
nonplussed here. Here it’s the interplay of these twothat produces the array of sound(s) herein. Several
types of percussion are channeled, joyfully warped
and transformed by this pair. Opener “I” is akin toa hall of funhouse mirrors, except sound, not images,
are reflected/refracted. The mood is furtive, restless,the volume swells and then subsides; the tones surrealand (seemingly) random. It is difficult to know where
acoustic tones leave off and the electronically produced
ones begin (the point perhaps).
“III” has ringing, percussive tones and a quick
tempo; at times it sizzles in a surreal manner. It rattles,
full of ringing tones, brisk racket and echoing passages.
Considering this is but two players the music has
a rich, nearly orchestral sonority. “VI” is a cheerily
fractured mélange of metallic noise-mongering. Whatmakes it invigorating is the easy, unhurried enthusiasm
Oxley and Hölker bring to the table.
Beaming is unlikely to make many—heck, any—
converts to the art of rough-hewn sonic alchemy. But
for those valuing (or, simply, used to) this kind of din,it’s a shot of bracing beverage.
For more information, visit confrontrecordings.com

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | JUNE 2020 17

solos&duos

G LO B E U N I T Y

OceansLisen Rylander Löve (Hoob)
Solo
Felice Clemente (Crocevia Di Suoni)
Solo
Nicole Johänntgen (Selmabird)by Tom Greenland

J azz saxophonists have been making solo albums
for almost a half-century, yet far fewer recordings
exist than you would imagine, likely because of theinherent difficulty of sustaining an accessible
narrative structure in this most Spartan of formats.
Below we consider saxophonists from Sweden, Italy
and Switzerland (via Germany) who have not only
risen to, but also ably overcome, the challenge.
Gothenburg-based Lisen Rylander Löve’s
Oceans draws on her skills as a tenor saxophonist,
vocalist and electronic soundscaper. The ‘hit single’
would have to be “Follow”, a hooky, Peter Gabrielesque world-pop number, but most of the album ismore ambient, suffused with thick layers of pulsing
samples: churchy organs; compressed vocals;echoed decays; ‘backward’ effects à la The Beatles’“Tomorrow Never Knows”; and robotic winds,
waves and vanishing trains. An apt analogy is thedeep focus cinematography of Gregg Toland, inwhich separate stories simultaneously unfold in thefore-, mid- and background of a composite image.
Löve’s dense layerings create a similarly complex
gestalt through the accumulation and association ofsonic imagery. Her distinctive horn work, sharply infocus on “Nothingness”, is not the star here, more
often playing a smaller role in the bigger picture.
The next two albums under review take a morepuritan approach: one person, one saxophone, nooverdubs. Both were recorded in churches, where
the shape of the room, and thus the quality of its
reverberation, becomes a factor.
Felice Clemente, active around Milan, packed
his tenor and soprano south to a small hilltop church
in the municipality of Montecalvo Versiggia to record
Solo. His playing holds hints of swing, blues and Bach(the latter especially on “A Secret Place”, “Sarabande”
from Bach’s fifth cello suite and “Notturno No. 2”),
revealing a more adventurous proclivity on“La Nani”, accompanying himself with foot taps andvalve clicks. A song-serving soloist, he keeps hisstatements brief and on task, implying underlying
harmonies with vertical structures à la Coleman
Hawkins, all intoned in a rich bel canto resonance that
seems to rise and undulate, as if to embrace eachcrack and curve of the 18th Century architecture.
Nicole Johänntgen’s project, also titled Solo, is anapropos companion piece to Clemente’s. The Zürichbased alto saxophonist chose a larger, newer, boxier
venue for her project, with an even longer reverberation
time, but is similarly invested in exploring the room’s
dimensions, sonic and otherwise, curious to hear how
it will hold her beautiful tone. Like Clemente she’s
thematic, but her improvisations stem more frommotivic gestures and the loop forms of minimalist
composers. Her tonal range is broader, employing
squeezes, clicks, flutters, breathy attacks, gruff or
falsetto vocalisms and she is not afraid to pause,leaving gaping silences, as if waiting for the room’s
response, a musical bat navigating by echolocation.
For
more
information,
visit
hoobrecords.com,
croceviadisuonirecords.com and nicolejohaenntgen.com

What If?
Matthew Shipp/Nate Wooley (RogueArt)
by Steven Loewy

F or years, pianist Matthew Shipp has traversed theroad not taken (not to be confused with the meaning of
the seminal poem by Robert Frost), often to stunningeffect in a series of duo recordings with Brazilian
saxophonist Ivo Perelman. For What If?, Shipp is joinedby trumpeter Nate Wooley, who has performed with heand Perelman on a couple of extraordinary albums.
The liner notes from late poet Steve Dalachinsky
embed his beautiful and characteristically cryptic
musings and veiled commentary.
Each of the relatively short tracks (generally within
the three- to six-minute range) take full advantage ofShipp’s unique style and Wooley’s sensitivity anddiversity of sound to create abstract yet fully accessible
improvised pieces. There is no grandstanding here, butrather an exquisite exercise in the art of listening, as
the performers offer a mélange of fabulous sounds andexplore a wide variety of moods.
Almost every piece is a mini-lesson in the art of
improvisation, yet are highlights. As with several of
the tracks, “New Light”, for example, opens slowly
and softly with dense chords from Shipp, Wooley
inserting delicate, lovely phrases that curve and twist
gently, piercing the silence and tempting Shipp toincrease the intensity, which he does at his own pace.
The trumpeter and pianist sometimes anticipate
each other ’s moves while other times veer off incuriously compelling directions that seem obvious in
retrospect. Shipp is a master of illusion, his strikingly
gorgeous and deceptively simple lines exploding andreverting on a whim while Wooley fades, growls andswooshes his way to ecstasy. In contrast, “Ktu” opens
hard and fast with Wooley squeezing notes and Shipp’srolling thunderous undergirding a fine foil. The pianist
lets loose with unmitigated power, the trumpeter takes
the bait and the two dance comfortably to new heights.
It is startling how much music can be packed into sucha short piece with just two players. Contrast that with
“Circular Juice”, in which speedy pointillistic trumpet
bounces off rapid-fire clusters to imbue the track withthunderous force.
For more information, visit roguart.com

Peregrinations
Elliott Sharp/Frances-Marie Uitti (zOaR)
by Tyran Grillo

F ree improvisation can be many things: challenging,abrasive and meandering among them. This
spontaneous act of creation between Frances-Marie
Uitti (cello) and Elliott Sharp (Dell’Arte Anoumanacoustic guitar and soprano saxophone) is none ofthose things. Rather, it’s welcoming, cartographic andfocused. Sharp has always had a tactile approach to theguitar, one that emphasizes skin and organs alike and

18 JUNE 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

which embraces natural resonance as a portal tounderstanding the mathematical certainty of decay.
The same could be said of Uitti, who digs into her celloas if it were a plot of land and pulls up every root
around which she can curl her fingers.
In “Avior”, the relationship between these two
signatures is so complementary that one almost feels
a new strand of archaeology at play. Not in the sense oftearing up sacred land for the bastion of science, butof letting the past speak for itself. Thus, when Sharp
sheds the guitar for a soprano saxophone in “Ainitak”
and “Algieba”, he invites an earthen language to riseto the surface. In tandem, Uitti renders her instrument
a giant ear to capture those utterances before they fade.
Given that in the past Uitti has been mislabeleda mere provider of drones, this reviewer challenges
any listener to discover anything but complex shadesof meaning in her sound. In that respect, both musicians
are translators of energies that could otherwise go
unacknowledged. Sometimes, as in “Mizar”, Uitti
brightens the foreground while at other times, as in“Mintaka” and “Arcturus”, Sharp wraps us in thegarland of a minstrel’s weathered muse. And while itis tempting to label their music as cathartic, in thesetimes of distance one can’t help but read it as a form of
proximity. As organic as it gets.
For more information, visit elliottsharp.com

Solo Sessions, Volume 1
Brenda Earle Stokes (s/r)
by Alex Henderson

Singer-pianists have a long history in jazz, ranging
from Fats Waller and Nat King Cole to Shirley Horn and
Patricia Barber. Brenda Earle Stokes is among the young
performers making her mark as a piano-playing vocalist
and does it without any accompaniment on Solo Sessions,
Volume 1, just piano and her expressive vocals.
Stokes performs a few Great American Songbook
gems, including Jack Elliott-Victor Young’s “Weaver ofDreams” and Brooks Bowman’s ‘30s classic “East of
the Sun (and West of the Moon)”, favoring a relaxed
midtempo on the latter, but also turns her attention to
everything from Brazilian music (Antonio Carlos
Jobim’s “Inútil Paisagem”, a.k.a. “If You Never Cometo Me”), southern pre-War blues (Leroy Carr ’s “HowLong Has That Evening Train Been Gone?”) and poprock material from Michael McDonald, k.d. lang (“TheConsequences of Falling”) and Huey Lewis.
McDonald included “I Can Let Go Now” on his
first solo album. In Stokes’ hands, it is still a ballad, but
her torch song interpretation is a welcome departurefrom McDonald’s adult contemporary approach.
Featured in the movie Back to the Future, “The Power ofLove” was a major hit for Lewis in 1985; Stokes turns it
into slow and bluesy post-bop.
Bassist Steve Swallow’s “Ladies in Mercedes” wasfirst heard as an instrumental in the mid ‘80s but
entered the vocal realm when British singer Norma
Winstone added text in the ‘90s. Stokes embraces her
lyrics in a pensive, understated version, taking ahumorous look at the lifestyles of affluent women.
The title implies that Stokes will be releasing
another volume in the future. If so, one hopes that she
will be as far-reaching in her choice of material as she
is on this memorable outing.
For more information, visit brendaearle.com

solos&duos

Hopetown
Claudia Solal/Benoît Delbecq (RogueArt)
It’s Alright To Be Everywhere
Sascha Ley/Laurent Payfert (Jazzhaus Musik-Yela)
Alone Together
Jay Clayton/ Jerry Granelli (Sunnyside)
by Scott Yanow

Electric Organic Symphony
Mike Nock/Ra Kalam Bob Moses (Ra-kalam)
Waves
Julie Sassoon/Willi Kellers (Jazzwerkstatt)
Dub Narcotic Session
Thollem McDonas/Brian Chase (New Atlantis)
by Jim Motavalli

Remembering Cecil
Dom Minasi (Unseen Rain)
Woodwork
Fred Frith (Klang Galerie)
Freedom in Jazz
Orhan Demir (Hittite)
by Kurt Gottschalk

Duets are often the most difficult musical setting forsingers in which to succeed. There is nowhere to hide
and every sound and moment of silence is heard. Thesevery different CDs each team an improvising vocalist
with a single member of the rhythm section.
Vocal-piano duets are the most common setting in
the duo format. The meeting between Claudia Solal(daughter of Martial) and Benoît Delbecq is different
than one would expect. The latter plays “prepared
piano”, often spending as much time inside the piano
as on its keys. While his instrument functions as a typeof tuned drums, Solal is a poet who also sings when
she is not reciting her stanzas. The relatively brief (38minutes) Hopetown consists of nine originals with
Solal’s words being accompanied by Delbecq’s sounds
and patterns. The subject matter includes the many
contradictory parts that form a human being (“Inner
Otherness”), destruction of nature (“Euphoria”) and
uncertainty about an affair (“Ultimate Embrace”). It
would be interesting to hear Solal (who has a lovely
voice) singing a full set of music but that was not the
point of this abstract project, which will be of moreinterest to lovers of poetry than to music listeners.
Vocal-bass duets were first pioneered and have long
been championed by Sheila Jordan who began recording
in that format in the ‘70s. Luxembourger singer Sascha
Ley and French bassist Laurent Payfert perform 17
improvisations based loosely on their compositions on
It’s Alright To Be Everywhere. Jean Pascal Boffo joins thegroup on guitar and electronics for three of the numbers,
one of which also includes pianist Murat Ozturk. Ley’s
mostly wordless vocals are sometimes emotional andpercussive; at other times (as on the closing “Departure”)
she almost sounds like a conventional singer. She
effectively explores a variety of emotions without
resorting to set lyrics. Payfert has excellent techniqueand sometimes swings the music even though he canplay as freely as Ley sings. Their explorative duets are all
fairly brief, none clocking in above 3:58 although thepieces with Boffo are a little longer.
Singer Jay Clayton and drummer Jerry Granelli
first met in 1979 when, without rehearsal, they
performed a trio concert of free improvisations withthe late Oregon percussionist Collin Walcott. They
have been friends and occasional associates in the 40
years since, recording a set of duets in 1986 for the JMTlabel called Sound Songs. Reunion Alone Together ismostly filled with adventurous free improvisations
although it does include loose versions of two
standards: Dimitri Tiomkin-Ned Washington’s “Wild
Is The Wind” (which displays the beauty and power ofClayton’s voice) and Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely
Woman”. Clayton has always been a very versatile
improviser and utilizes words well on the occasionally
witty “Fast Speaking Woman”, which contrasts withthe otherworldly sounds that open up “Birds And
Artists”. Listeners have to be a little patient on some ofthe performances, where it takes time before inspiration
strikes, but the interplay between Clayton and Granelli
works particularly well on “New Morning Blues”.
How many other singers have the bravery to record inthis potentially forbidding setting?

Sometime in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s, drummer Bob Attempting to play guitar like Cecil Taylor played
Moses got together with New Zealander pianist Mike
Nock, possibly in a Lower East Side loft and most
likely during the latter ’s tenure in the pioneering San
Francisco-based electric band The Fourth Way. Nock
had recently acquired a pair of synthesizers, and thepair “went crazy,” says Moses (who recorded the twolong improvisations on a cassette). Recently thatcassette was discovered in a drawer somewhere andMoses decided not only to release it as Electronic
Organic Symphony, but add to it with new overdubs
made between 2016-18. The results sound pretty
cohesive, not unlike the loft jazz being recorded in
New York then. Except for the fairly rudimentary
synthesizer work, it could be a lost Art Ensemble ofChicago recording. “Moon” is moody, enhanced by
new bass clarinet work from Stan Strickland and tenor
saxophone from Daniel Bitran. “Sun” begins with somecollective improvisation, via saxophonists Jorrit
Dijkstra (alto) and Edmar Colon (tenor), and builds
gradually. Two bass players are credited, Damon Smith
and Yaka Don Pate, and Keiichi Hashimoto is on
a bunch of instruments. Throughout, Moses’ creative
drumming and application of “little instruments”
really stands out and enhances the music. Nock is
better on piano or Fender Rhodes, but his early synthwork is historically interesting.
Julie Sassoon is a classically trained British pianist
who lives in Berlin and recorded Waves, duets withdrummer Willi Kellers live in Munich in 2017, and theprevious year in the studio on the last day of a quartet
recording session. Again, spontaneous composition is
the order of the day. On, for instance, “Soulplay,” Keith
Jarrett-esquepiano
improvisationbuildsoff
increasingly impassioned drumming and thenrecedes—just like waves. Playing this way requires
intense listening and the players are up to the task.
Sassoon has a very delicate touch—all that classicaltraining—and Kellers is all over the kit; dig his
exquisite mallet work on “If You Ever Change YourMind”. Not light listening, but rewarding. “TheCormorant”, dense sound waves with Mal Waldron
overtones recorded at Kulturradio Studios, deserves
special mention for top-flight recording quality.
Thollem McDonas (piano) and Brian Chase(drums) follow the same spontaneous format as
Sassoon/Kellers on Dub Narcotic Session but theirimprovisation is spikier and shifts gears as often as a
Ferrari at Le Mans. McDonas (who undoubtedly holds
Cecil Taylor in high regard) is a wanderer who gives
frequent solo recitals across North America andEurope, but his music definitely benefits from theaddition of Chase, who plays only when it enhances
the work. “Where We Come From” is a highlight.
The opus is the 19-minute “Awed By All,” which
launches with gathering clouds. After three minutes ofpounding, the skies clear somewhat; we still get jagged
flurries of notes, but they subside as drums briefly
come to the fore. The piece is full of dramaticallycontrasting sections; at one point, it gets so slow it
almost stops dead. It’s a challenging work, an exercise
in dynamics that is definitely not easy listening.

piano would be about as foolhardy an endeavor as
attempting to play piano like Cecil Taylor played
piano. He was a singular talent, like Eartha Kitt orErik Satie or Sean Connery’s James Bond; imitators
will pale. Guitarist Dom Minasi doesn’t attempt theimpossible on his Remembering Cecil, but he achieves
it nevertheless. Over the course of three-quarters of anhour, he manages to call up the master ’s clusters,
percussive persistence and quick multi-linearity inways that come off as more than homage but stopping
short of mimicry.
The guitar, of course, is a different instrument
than the piano. One can’t quite cover as much terrain
in a given moment on a guitar neck as on a piano
keyboard and the concept here limits the endeavor.
The circles seem smaller, the angles more obtuse. Not
as good a record as a Cecil Taylor recital, nor as goodas some of Minasi’s own best releases but for theaficionado ever thirsty for improvised variations on
amorphous themes, it’s an enjoyable listen.
Minasi plays the four tracks straight, without
effects, alteration or extended technique. The same
ought not be said about Woodwork, Fred Frith’s firstunaccompanied, single-take album since 1982’s Live inJapan. Recorded in Brussels in 2018, this is a wonderfully
knotty affair, dense and difficult. His tools are different
than Minasi’s—Frith was one of the first to lay theguitar on its back and subject it to varieties of
implements and appliances, loops and distortion—but
there’s an overarching sensibility that can be relatedback to Cecil Taylor, or to other of the finest free
improvisers: the trajectories can’t be predicted but thelogic can be followed. There’s a wonderful cohesivenessto the one long (42-minute) track and a lovely respitein the strangely serene short (5-minute) one. At times it
may sound more like a horse and carriage ona cobblestone street than it does a guitar, or even music
for that matter. It’s an often noisy album and surprisingthat it’s been so long since Frith has released such acommotion, accompanied only by the layers of his
imagination.
If something cleaner is what one’s after, one could
do worse than Orhan Demir ’s new solo recording. The
Turkish-born Canadian guitarist hasn’t released analbum in more than 20 years, so Freedom in Jazz is likely
to fall on fresh ears. And those ears have pleasuresawaiting. It’s a full CD of music, 20 originalcompositions that fall readily into the tradition of easygoing abstraction. If Minasi is casting Cecil Taylor onto
the guitar, Demir calls to mind something closer to Bill
Evans, with occasional flairs or his own musical
heritage. It’s a bit boppish, rushing without frenzy,with subtle melodies lying just below the surface. 		
The poor guitar has been subjected to moredecoration and celebration, endless innovation and,perhaps, greater degradation than about any othermusical instrument. Yet somehow it keeps comingback for more. It’s nice to hear a musician like Demirreminding us of the beauty of jazz guitar and to bereminded again—by Minasi and Frith—of all the places
it’s been.

For more information, visit rogueart.com, jazzhausmusik.deand sunnysiderecords.com

For more information, visit nativepulse.com/ra-kalam-bob-mosesrecords, jazzwerkstatt.eu and newatlantisrecords.bandcamp.com

For more information, visit unseenrainrecords.bandcamp.com,
klanggalerie.com and orhandemir.ca

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | JUNE 2020 19

Blue Cat
Bobby Bradford/Frode Gjerstad/
Kent Carter/John Stevens (NoBusiness)by Stuart BroomerThis June 1991 recording from a London club combines
California-based cornet player Bobby Bradford with
Norwegian saxophonist Frode Gjerstad, expatriate
American bassist Kent Carter and late English
drummer John Stevens (who would have turned 80
this month). It’s a quartet of long associations, reachingback 20 years to Bradford’s 1971 appearances with
Stevens’ Spontaneous Music Ensemble and ten years to
the formation of the trio Detail, which began withGjerstad, Stevens and bassist Johnny Dyani in 1982 andwhich had consisted of Gjerstad, Stevens and Carter
since 1987. Most notably, there’s a 1986 recording, In
Time Was, from the Bracknell Jazz Festival of a Detailquartet with Bradford and Dyani, released on
Gjerstad’s Circulasione label and currently available
on Bandcamp. One can stretch associations well past
the date of this recording as well: Bradford wasappearing with Gjerstad’s improvising orchestra
Circulasione Totale at least as recently as 2011.
Clearly there are special musical relationships
here, with Stevens the linchpin, an energetic, explosive
drummer possessed of a raw, engaged creativity. He’s
able to spur the band into a different direction witha sudden flurry. Bradford and Gjerstad are both lyricalplayers, but sharply contrasting ones. Bradford
practices a defined melodic clarity, to the extent thateven his solos here can resemble theme statements;
Gjerstad lines, in contrast, are dense multi-directional
events, filled with mutating, speech-like tones. There
are strong ties for each to the music of Ornette Coleman,
Bradford’s through long association and Gjerstad’s
through early influence, though here his phrases havea lively convolution all their own. Carter, a fluid,
responsive bassist, suffers in the mix here, but is still a
key element, knitting parts together.
The LP presents three pieces. The first, 23-minute“Blue Cat 1”, is the most developed, beginning at adirge-like tempo with Bradford’s strongly melodic
playing matched by Gjerstad’s weaving clarinet-likecounterpoint. As the extended collective dialogue
develops, Bradford’s relatively laconic voice dovetails
with Gjerstad’s burbling, bending lines. The two

relatively brief pieces on Side 2 emphasize Bradford’sliteral tunefulness, a reminder that many of his key
partnerships have been with composers: Coleman,
John Carter and Hafez Modirzadeh. “Blue Cat 2” sets
elements of a hardbop blues in the language ofcollective improvisation while the concluding “BlueCat 3” moves between collective improvisation and adefined but fragmented tune carried by Bradford. It’s
fascinating, simultaneously developing contrasting
perspectives.
For more information, visit nobusinessrecords.com

Sounds of 3 (Edition 2)
Per Mathisen (Losen)
Tor & ValeMark Wingfield/Gary Husband (MoonJune)
Music Of Our Times
Gary Husband & Markus Reuter (MoonJune)by Tyran Grillo

Three albums released within a year of one anotherexhibit the depth of English drummer/pianist/composer Gary Husband (who turns 60 this month) in
those very capacities. More than that, each taps into his
evolution as a creative soul, drawing an increasingly
wider circle around his ability to craft landscapes withminimal gestures.
As a drummer, he enriches Sounds of 3 (Edition 2),
the second iteration of Norwegian bassist Per
Mathisen’s trio, with strong punctuation. Just as
Husband replaces Giraldo Piloto, so does guitarist Ulf
Wakenius replace Frode Alnæs.
The funky “The Blues Boy” kicks off a set of mostly
in-group originals. Mathisen’s writing is sharp,
propulsive and kinetic, bounding off guitar with
aplomb in “16 Knödeln” and “Invasion” while also
allowing for late-night moods to creep in. Wakenius
contributes two tunes: the James Bond-esque intrigueof “One Of A Kind” and upbeat swing of “Lines For
Oscar”. Mathisen’s “Invasion” is a bass-heavy romp
while Husband’s “Alphabet Soup” plies a darker trade.
The set also includes a bubbling take on Sting’s“Wrapped Around Your Finger”, conveyed withunabashed joy.
One could hardly imagine a more faraway spacefor Husband to inhabit than Tor & Vale, one of two
exquisite MoonJune releases to examine his pianism inthe context of electronic landscapes. For this he joins
Mark Wingfield (guitar, soundscapes).
From the first blush of “Kittiwake”, it’s clear that

Wingfield’s right angles and Husband’s parabolas
share an unusually simpatico coexistence. Wingfield isa robustly melodic player in the Terje Rypdal
tradition, singing through “The Golden Thread” as if
the vapors of the air were his energy drink. He also
leaves plenty of room for Husband to emote at the
keyboard. Neither musician is afraid to extend his
ideas as far as they will go, as in the fully improvised
16 ½-minute title track, in which the digital effects ofguitar fly out like ghosts, at one point leaving the pianoon land below to explore the stratosphere before
coming back down for a songful landing in “Shape ofLight”. Not every boat is made to float, however, as“Tryfan” and “Vaquita” plant themselves firmly. Such
moments keep even high-flung reveries like “SilverSky” from venturing into New Age, holding us justenough in regard to feel like home.
Music Of Our Times places Husband at a Fazioli
F212 grand piano alongside Markus Reuter on live
electronics and eight-string Touch Guitar. The
atmosphere is one of suspension, each track flowing
into the next as if by chain of spirit. Time slows to a
crawl in a space where dreams become the norm andlanguage ceases to exist in favor of movement. Names
are obscured by the fog of memory, so that we shed allframes of reference in favor of making our own paths
as we go.
Thus, the beauty of “Across The Azure Blue”
cannot be overstated. It seems to reach for us fromanother realm, of which we catch only glimpses in an
echoing stream of consciousness. All of which makes
the relative grounding of “Illuminated Heart” sosatisfying: a feeling of safety in unsafe times.
For more information,
moonjune.com

visit

losenrecords.no

andR 	David Murray) (Spiritmuse)
Evans—Into the Silencee • Peter(More is More-Old Heaven)
Goldberg—Plague Diaryc • Ben(BAG Productions)Krakauer/Kathleen Tagg—o • David
Breath & Hammer (Table Pounding)m • Rudresh Mahanthappa—
Hero Trio (Whirlwind)m • Hank
Mobley—The Complete Blue Note
1963-1970 (Mosaic)e 	Sessions• Jorge Roeder—El Suelo Mío (s/r)
n • Archie Shepp, Raw Poetic, Damu theFudgemunk—Ocean Bridges (Redefinition)d • Sonar(with David Torn)—
Tranceportation (Volume 2) (RareNoise)e • Patty
Evening in Houston
d (CleanWaters—An
Feed)• Kahil El’Zabar—Spirit Groove (featuring

Laurence Donohue-Greene, Managing Editorn • Alan Braufman—The Fire Still Burnse (Valley of Search)
Carney Sextet—Pure Heartw • James(Sunnyside)
r
e
l
e
a
s
e
s
20 JUNE 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD• Avishai Cohen—Big Vicious (ECM)• Joe Fiedler’s Big Sackbut—Live in Graz
(Multiphonics Music)• Georg Graewe Quartet—Amsterdam,
	October 1998 (Random Acoustics)• GRID—Decomposing Force (NNA Tapes)• Mats Gustafsson—Padova Solo
(Catalytic Sound)• Antti Lötjönen—Quintet East (We Jazz)• MacroQuarktet—The Complete Night:
	Live at The Stone NYC (Out Of Your Head)• Stephen Riley—Friday The 13th
(SteepleChase)
Andrey Henkin, Editorial Director

American Swing—is both to be prized and subverted,
the results of this not unusual instrumental setup are,in fact, quite unusual. While Mengelberg and Bennink
were partners of longstanding, Pukwana doesn’t soundcowed for a second; playing jazz in Apartheid-era
South Africa will do that to you.
Tetterettet
ICP Ten Tet (ICP-Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Yi YoleDudu Pukwana (ICP-Corbett vs. Dempsey)by Andrey Henkin

J ohn Corbett is a friend to anyone who has been sniped
on eBay when bidding on an impossibly rare jazzrecord. First with Atavistic’ Unheard Music Series from
2000-09 and since 2012 on his co-led imprint Corbett
vs. Dempsey, the jazz historian has reissued dozens ofimportant, mostly European avant garde and free jazzalbums, previously available in quantities ranging
from hard-to-find to don’t-bother-looking. Of late,
Corbett has turned his attention to the output of
Holland’s Instant Composers Pool (ICP) Records, oneof the key artist-run labels documenting continental
weirdness of the late ‘60s into the new millennium.
1977’s Tetterettet by the ICP Ten Tet is a precursor to
the still-active ICP Orchestra, setting the template forthat ensemble’s manic and pithy mix of improvisationand composition, the latter mostly from the twisted pen
of pianist/ICP co-founder Misha Mengelberg (whowould have turned 85 this month). 4 days of sessions
produced these 11 tracks, which defy description in thesame way the elephant did to the six blind men of
Buddhist myth. Is this music for the circus and, if so, isthere a circus extant that could keep up? It also continues
the tradition set up by LPs like Machine Gun, European
Echoes and The Living Music from several years earlier,mixing players from different countries: Mengelberg,
drummer/ICP co-founder Han Bennink, saxophonists
John Tchicai (DK), Gilius Van Bergeyk (NL, who also
contributes two pieces), Peter Bennink (NL) and Peter
Brötzmann (DE), trombonist Bert Koppelaar (NL, whowrote one piece), cellist Tristan Honsinger (US, ICP
Orchestra stalwart), cracklebox operator Michel
Waisvisz (NL) and bassist Alan Silva (US).
1978’s Yi Yole is a fascinating date, even by ICP
standards. Mengelberg is here, as is Bennink but onclarinet, viola and trombone in addition to drums. The
third player is South African alto saxophonist Dudu
Pukwana (who died 30 years ago this month)—much
more closely associated with Britain’s avant jazzscene—in his only recorded appearance with either
Dutchman. All three bring a piece to this Netherlands
concert, none appearing elsewhere. Given that all areiconoclasts on their respective instruments and that tothem tradition—whether South African folk music or

For more information, visit corbettvsdempsey.com

Live Constructions, Volume Two
Daniel Carter/Julian Priester/Adam Lane/Reggie
Sylvester/David Haney (SLAM)
Birth of a CityDavid Haney (Big Round)by Tyran Grillo

While the two albums profiled here share the talentsof pianist David Haney and trombone virtuoso Julian
Priester (who turns 85 this month), in terms of soundthey are worlds apart, each in its own engaging way.
Live Constructions, Volume Two surrounds those
two musicians in fine company at Columbia
University’s WKCR. Consisting of seven improvised“Constructions”, the performance inhabits a space allits own. On the topic of space, given the intimate
confines of the radio studio, there’s a photorealistic
quality to the recording. Much of the music is grooveoriented and finds the rhythm section of Adam Lane(bass) and Reggie Sylvester (drums) locking step as if
each tune were predetermined. The caravan ride of“Construction Number 7” stands out in this regard.
Even the more abstract “Construction Number 8”,
however, carries a pulse. Daniel Carter ’s sopranosaxophone is an attractive voice and like his tenor
enlivens the proceedings with a searching, descriptive
quality. Haney himself maps a terrain of his own foreveryone to walk along. As for Priester, 83 years old at
the time, he guests on three tracks, including“Construction Number 9”, an album highlight. He has
the vibe of a relaxed and unforced storyteller, threading
his notes through the spaces between molecules.
Birth of a City is a compelling project for which
Haney takes on the role of composer and conductor. He
combines
through-composedmaterialforanunconventional string quartet (Jason Kao Hwang on
violin, Melanie Dyer on viola, Lane on double bass, andTomas Ulrich on cello) with an improvising quartet of
two trombonists (Priester and Steve Swell) and two
percussionists (Dave Storrs and Bernard Purdie). Overthe course of two multifaceted pieces, both of whichstarted on the piano before Haney developed them into
their current forms, we encounter the outside and theinside of that very urban environment. The title suite
spans eight parts and is crafted with a strangely
haunting precision. Under Haney’s direction, theprogram moves with a sense of purpose and cohesionthat keeps it from being a jumble. The most intriguing
portions are those in which explicitly written passages
find ways to interlock with adlibbed ones, and viceversa, as the ensemble explores the tension between
two streams of consciousness. “Variations on a Theme”
concludes with five parts of its own. Though more
abstract and microscopically attuned to postmodern
angst, it is also more compact and filled with catharsis.
Drawing on a warped brand of Americana, it works
its way through folk textures and historical traumas
alike. The final duet between Priester and Swell is amemorable farewell, turning ashes into song.
For more information, visit slamproductions.net andbigroundrecords.com

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THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | JUNE 2020 21

Essence
Michel Camilo (Resilience)by Brian CharetteMichel Camilo has had a storied career. The virtuoso
Dominican pianist has won a Grammy, Latin Grammyand even an Emmy! Essence, his 25th album, celebrates
some of the his best known compositions arranged
for big band by trumpeter Michael Philip Mossman.
Camilo is fluent in all Latin styles, which he shifts
between in provocative and uncommon combinations.
“Mongo’s Blues” follows a haunting piano vocal
duet with percussionist Eliel Lazo. The ascent ofchromatic chords in deceptive cross-rhythms ispunctuated by a triplet figure, morphing into churning
AfroCuban choruses from baritone saxophonist Frank
Basile. Many of the rhythmic devices used on the tune,
known as metric modulations, place three beats overthe same space as two in the original meter. As the tune
progresses, more manipulation of the triplet builds thetension to yet another feel: hard swing.
All styles are handled expertly by the group andclearly marked by the spot-on charts. “Mano a Mano”’s
samba gets its sizzle from drummer Cliff Almond,
fluid trombonist Michael Dease and the brutal bebopof Mossman, who shows he can burn as well as write.
Charlie Parker gets a nod in “Yes”, a great unison headover “Donna Lee” changes with a tight supersaxophone soli and piano fireworks. The rhythm
section even gets its chance on the slick kicks. Dig thatsurprise, unresolved, diminished chord at the end.
It’s hard to stay still while listening to “Piece ofCake” with its steady montunos and güiro. Camilo
classic “On Fire” gets a wonderful rendering with
airtight horns and inventive piano tricks. Art Blakey
tribute “Repercussions” has an angular melody stacked
in fourths; solos from alto saxophonist Antonio Hart
and trombonist Steve Davis cement the stompy swing
while Camilo works a riff on a stuck blue note wrappedin shades of the exotic Insen scale. We finally get tohear a bass solo from Ricky Rodriguez, who deals at
the same level as everyone on this side... pro!
For more information, visit michelcamilo.com

The Ambiguity Manifesto
Taylor Ho Bynum 9-tette (Firehouse 12)
by Dan Bilawsky

Taylor Ho Bynum is a nonconformist through andthrough, so it should come as no shock that even his
previous and prevailing ideas hold little sway over thisproject. Despite serving as the conclusion of what thecornet player refers to as an “accidental trilogy”, whichbegan with 2013’s sextet-centric Navigation andcontinued with 2017’s Enter the PlusTet, The Ambiguity
Manifesto doesn’t owe debt(s) to past statements. Bynum
may still be intent on leveraging musical relationships
and erasing or, at least, obscuring lines separating
written directions and free play, but this band proves
to be dynamically dissociated from expectations. With
saxophonists Ingrid Laubrock and Jim Hobbs, bass
trombonist/tuba player Bill Lowe, Ken Filiano (bassand electronics), Stomu Takeishi (electric bass guitar),cellist Tomeka Reid, guitarist Mary Halvorson anddrummer Tomas Fujiwara on this inventive,
experimental journey, everybody is all ears and all in.
Riding over a James Gadson-worthy drum grooveon opener “Neither When Nor Where”, the cool careenof strings and the strength of micro riffs for horns
merge and almost serve as genuflection to precepts.
But this crew is too shrewd to box things in really.
A skewed sensibility informs these firm moves. That
most accessible entrance is countered by what follows:a mixture of murmur and squawk on “Enter Ally”; anembrace of weight, weightlessness and nouveau
pastorale during “Real/Unreal (for Ursula K. Le
Guin)”; and a long gaze across uncharted spaces on thelengthy “(G)host(aa/ab)”.
The second half plays on interchangeable
construction, as Bynum adopts the roles of modular
architect and DNA redesigner. This organizational
gambit speaks to structure while also exhibiting
playfulness in the combinatorial process. In two
instances—“Ally Enter” and “Unreal/Real (for Old
Music)”—Bynum primarily shifts parts within single
housings, but with “Enter (G) Neither” he looks tovaried notions pulled from multiple domains.
For more information, visit firehouse12records.com

bo lindenstrand
BO LINDENSTRAND—LIVE”For many years Bo Lindestrand (1944 -2017) was oneof the figures in Sweden, who saw to the survival of Jazzat the art form. He, possibly too, was the most discrete.
These two CDs, spanning the years from 2008 until 2013
and which were recorded at various places round about
Stockholm, reveal an unique artistry, with striking
renditionsand moments: a standard reportoire in which
all the details create a dancing lightness, a ballad's
melodic line is bent, seemingly to speak with itself,
resembling a form of dialogue.”
Eric Centerwall, author and music critic
Recorded by Christer Ädelqvist on a ZOOM H2 and on a Olympus ls 10
Produced by Viveca Lindenstrand and Patrik Boman 2019

BO LINDENSTRAND—NEW QUARTET
Bo Lindenstrand, alto saxophone ; Bo Skuba, piano;
Per Nilsson, bass; Anders Nyberg, drums”Bo Lindenstrand, here with the New Quartet from2001 displayed a richness of ideas, a world of his own.
He is fun to rediscover, either with knowledge of aParker idiom and its iconic phrases, or when looking
at his very uniqueness – also, the supporting musicians.
They all carried out their artistry in maybe
unsympathetic times in regards to a Jazz era, they
only had their brilliance to rely upon.””
Eric Centerwall, author and music critic
Recorded in SAMI studio, Stockholm, 2001
Produced by Jonas Koch och Viveca Lindenstrand Edit by Viveca Lindensrtand

ContaCt: viveCalindenstrand@gmail.Com
22 JUNE 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

John Scofield
Swallow TalesJohn Scofield guitar
Steve Swallow bass
Bill Stewart drums

Guitarist John Scofield celebrates the musicof his friend and mentor Steve Swallow in an
outgoing and spirited recording, exploring
compositions by Steve Swallow: a broad range
including classics as well as lesser-known works.

Carla Bley / Andy Sheppard /Steve Swallow
Life Goes On
Carla Bley piano
Andy Sheppard tenor & soprano saxophones
Steve Swallow bass

“Each instrument in Carla Bley’s longstanding
trio is both spare and versatile. Every playerputs a premium on plain-stated melody, andgently evocative touch. There´s a quietness,a loneliness together, that gives this group its
special intimacy.“ - Giovanni Russonello, NewYork Times

Available on CD/Vinyl

Marcin Wasilewski Trio
w/ Joe Lovano
Arctic Riff
Joe Lovano tenor saxophone
Marcin Wasilewski piano
Slawomir Kurkiewicz double bass
Michal Miskiewicz drums

Avishai Cohen
Big Vicious
Avishai Cohen trumpet, effects, synthesizer
Uzi Ramirez guitar
Yonatan Albalak guitar, bass
Aviv Cohen drums
Ziv Ravitz drums, live sampling

The first-time teaming of Poland’s Marcin
Wasilewski Trio and tenorist Joe Lovano brings
forth special music of concentrated, deep
feeling, in which lyricism and strength seem
ideally balanced.

“If some tracks are fed by a raw energy
coming from punk, new wave or electro, weare especially struck by the richness of thenuances, the sense of dramaturgy and the loveof detail - all of which testifies to an exemplary
production, bringing together acoustic, electricand electronic sounds.” - Pascal Rozat,
Jazzmagazine (France)

Wolfgang Muthspiel
Angular Blues

Oded Tzur
Here Be Dragons

Wolfgang Muthspiel guitar
Scott Colley double bass
Brian Blade drums

Oded Tzur tenor saxophone
Nitai Hershkovits piano
Petros Klampanis double bass
Johnathan Blake drums“A unique collection of personal statements by avery classy contemporary trio.” - John Fordham,
Jazzwise (UK)ecmrecords.com”Individual tenor saxophone notes are consumed
into one long sonorous flowing. Tzur’s progress
feels unbroken yet undergoes myriad subtle
modulations, like undulations in a rolling river.
The quietude contains undercurrents of intense
energy.“ - Thomas Conrad, Jazz Times

Old New
Tomeka Reid Quartet (Cuneiform)by George GrellaThis is a fun band and a fun, satisfying record. And it
is cellist Tomeka Reid’s second album leading thisgroup (its eponymous 2015 debut was on Thirsty Ear)and second album as a leader period (she was justnamed “Jazz Strings Player of the Year” by the Jazz
Journalists Association) and from the start the quartet
has had the sound of a band that just clicks. They are
all young veterans as musicians and this band has both
freshness and the calm and light-feeling maturity ofolder players.
Part of the freshness is the pure sound, which
is right out of the instrumentation; strings swinging
together and Mary Halvorson’s heavy-picking pairedwith Reid’s sweet, grainy lines—the two are doubled
on much of the material, all originals from Reid—is thekind of smart, aesthetically wise orchestration that is
woefully underappreciated in small-group jazz.
Drummer Tomas Fujiwara, who plays with
Halvorson in Thumbscrew and many other ensembles,
is superb. He has a subtle style, controlled quiet force,
precise but projecting a loose, shambling affect and hissound fills in all the blanks. There’s already a dry
timbre to the group and he adds a touch of roughness
with his snare and some balm with cymbal splashes.
Listeners may pay less attention to the individual
tracks—though ones like “Aug. 6” and “Sadie” have
one taking a look at the album information—than tothe overall attitude and, again, that sheer sound. Reidand Halvorson play like a two-horn front line in thatthey take turns with most of the soloing, but they also
accompany each other when the other is in the lead,
guitar playing chords and cello arco and the latter
adding pizzicato counterpoint in between the guitar
and Jason Roebke’s bass. This is a band that plays
together while they’re playing together and it’s a realpleasure to hear.
For more information, visit cuneiformrecords.com

New Shoes: Kind of Blue at 60
Schapiro17 (Summit)
by Donald Elfman

This celebration of the 60th anniversary of Miles
Davis’ Kind of Blue not only keeps alive its spirit andquiet power but completely reworks and reimagines itwith new harmonic colors, textures, rhythms and evenmelodic organization. Going even further, leader Jon
Schapiro has surrounded the original tunes by fivenew compositions, each entitled “Boiled Funk”(anagram for Kind of Blue) plus another play on that
title, “Foiled Bunk”, performed and written by pianist
Roberta Piket. These smart and inventive compositions
extend the tradition of both big band writing and theoriginality of Davis through the years.
The album opens with “Boiled Funk”, replete withtempo changes and bold solos from tenor saxophonist
Paul Carlon, bassist Evan Gregor and trombonist
Deborah Weisz. “Foiled Bunk” finds Piket combining
openness and thoughtfulness. Her playing leads to “SoWhat”, about which more later.
To flesh out the other “Boiled Funks”: number 2
is sinewy, with a dark solo from soprano saxophonist
Rob Wilkerson and ominous sounds from the ensemble;
3 is basically a fiery feature for trumpeter Andy
Gravish; 4 returns to number 1 with Charles Minguslike funk and a hot alto solo by Candace DeBartolo;
and 5 is a slow quirky thing that again features Piket.
To the masterwork itself, starting with “So What”.
We hear the suggestion of the simple, almost minimalist
theme, but Schapiro creates a whole new construction
with very complex orchestra writing buoyed by pulsing
bass and drums (Jon Wikan) and the powerful way thesoloists—particularly trombonist Alex Jeun, Wilkerson
and Gravish – soar off and away. “Blue in Green” is also
mysterious and dark but suddenly alto saxophonist
Ben Kono enters with what feels like a spontaneous
cadenza. That comes to fruition as the whole orchestra
enters the fray to a more easy-swinging section.
“All Blues” finds its meter broken up and thenresectioned among brass and reeds; soloists Carlon,
Jeun and Gravish work with the assemblage to makethis the quirkiest arrangement of all. An almost breathy“Flamenco Sketches” slowly and quietly develops witha lovely protracted guitar solo by Sebastian Noelle.
Finally, “Freddie Freeloader”, while measured, is lessominous and there’s a solo from Gravish that finds him
closer to but never imitative of Davis, a thrumming
bass solo, an earthy section from Walter Harris on bass
trombone and a faster and fluent solo from Carlon. This
beautifully realized recording finds stunninginspiration to create a new original.
For more information, visit summitrecords.com

Black, Brown & Beige
Sherman Irby’s Inferno
The Music of Wayne Shorter
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
with Wynton Marsalis (Blue Engine)by George Kanzler

Since Wynton Marsalis became Musical Director of the

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra 29 years ago, theJLCO has become closest to America’s own resident
jazz orchestra. It is the only fully functioning, annuallysalaried jazz ensemble comparable to the country’s
many symphony orchestras. When it began the JLCO
was largely dedicated to preserving and presentingclassic jazz repertoire, especially the music of Duke
Ellington. It was then and remains the finest Ellington
Ghost Band we have, effortlessly eclipsing the woeful,“official” Duke Ellington Orchestra(s) run as revenue
mills by the Ellington estate.
In the last decade of the 20th Century the JLCO
also served another primary purpose, as a conduit for
Marsalis’ composing, unveiling a series of major works
including the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Music composition
Blood On The Fields. In the last decade, Marsalis has
written less and encouraged members of the orchestra
to write more, as well as featuring the music of otherthan Ellington jazz artists in concert, often with guest
soloists, sometimes the actual honoree.
These three albums, recorded at regular season
concerts by the JLCO, represent three aspects of theorchestra’s output and interests. Black, Brown & Beige(BB&B), recorded in 2018, is a return to Ellingtonia andthe first complete recording of Ellington’s first major
concert work since the archival recordings of the

24 JUNE 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

premiere at Carnegie Hall in 1943. Inferno, recorded in2012, is a suite by JLCO alto saxophonist Sherman Irby,
demonstrably indebted to Ellington and featuring the
JLCO’s link to the Ellington Orchestra, the late baritone
saxophonist Joe Temperley. The Music of Wayne Shorter,
recorded in 2015 with Shorter guesting on tenor andsoprano saxophones, features big band arrangementsof ten Shorter pieces.
Ellington recorded a reformatted, abridged version
of BB&B as a six-part suite in 1958, featuring Mahalia
Jackson singing “Come Sunday”, which was an
instrumental in the 1943 Carnegie Hall premiere. The
JLCO’s recording returns to the original nine-partformat—dividing each color in the title into three
sections or parts—to present it as close to the originalas possible. But in Ellington’s oeuvre, BB&B wasan early experiment, an initial stepping-stone in his
creation of longer works. It planted seeds for his
expansive later creations, from the tone poem “A Tone
Parallel to Harlem”, through-composed including
solos like large parts of BB&B, to his many suites andhis Sacred Concerts, which incorporated the melody of“Come Sunday”. That Ellington never performed
BB&B live while often performing “A Tone Parallel toHarlem”, excerpts from his many suites and numerous
Sacred Concerts suggests that he felt he had outgrown/transcended the earlier concert work. Still, the JLCO’s
album is invaluable in preserving it in all its
voluminous, omnivorous multiplicity. It is a reminderof how kaleidoscopic Ellington’s command andappreciation of African-American music was, evenwhen he had yet to marshal that command fully.
Inferno is ostensibly inspired by Dante but obviously
modeled on Ellington’s suites. Irby even features the
baritone saxophone sound Ellington brought toprominence through Harry Carney by highlighting
Carney disciple Temperley in lead parts throughout andwith solos in the opening and closing movements. The
suite as a whole is a good example of why Marsalis calls
the orchestra’s home “the house of swing”. Most of the
movements ride on vibrant swing rhythms, withbandmembers showcased in rousing solos, notably thefebrile exchanges between Ted Nash (alto saxophone)and Victor Goines (tenor) on “Movement V: The ThreeHeaded Serpent” and the contributions of Marsalis, Irby
and trombonist Elliot Mason on the flag-waver“Movement III: Beware the Wolf and Serpent”.
The Music of Wayne Shorter is both a wide showcase
for the JLCO, with nine of its members (including
Marsalis) contributing arrangements, as well as theartistry of Shorter, who plays on nine of the ten tracks.
Seven of the tracks are from Shorter’s first decade-plus,
although his most familiar ones (“Footprints”, “SpeakNo Evil”, “Lester Left Town”) are avoided. Shorter isin top form throughout, eliciting spontaneous applauseafter some solos that seems to emanate from bothaudience and orchestra. His tenor is especially ardentand playfully frisky on “Hammer Head”, a piece hewrote while with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in theearly ‘60s, arranged by Irby, and on “Armageddon”,
from his 1964 album Night Dreamer, arranged bytrumpeter Marcus Printup, where his tenor solo overa mid-swing tempo has a freewheeling swagger spicedby quirky high notes. A long version of “Mama ‘G’”,from his debut 1959 album Introducing Wayne Shorter isa swinging barn-burner arranged by Chris Crenshaw,
which kicks off with a Shorter tenor solo that inspires
a string of further solos from bandmembers. The
Weather Report tune “Diana” as well as two pieces
from the 1985 album Atlantis all featuring Shorter onsoprano have the arrangers (Nash, Vincent Gardner
and Carlos Henriquez respectively) finding creative
ways to emulate the electronic aspects of the originals
with reeds and especially muted brass. The album is animpressive tribute to Shorter as well as a celebration of
the many virtues of the JLCO.
For more information, visit blueenginerecords.org

Can You Imagine?
John Bailey (Freedom Road)
by Jim Motavalli

In 1964, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie ran for President
against Lyndon B. Johnson and his Republican
challenger Barry Goldwater, his tongue even more
firmly in his cheek than it normally was. Here’s an
excerpt from his campaign song: “Your politics ought
to be a groovier thing / Vote Dizzy! Vote Dizzy! / So
get a good President who’s willing to swing.”
That campaign is the basis of fellow trumpeter
John Bailey’s new album (only his second as a leader)and informs his three-part “President Gillespie Suite”.
Although it has parts like “The Humanitarian
Candidate” and “President Gillespie’s Birthday Song”,
it’s not program music. It does sound like something
its dedicatee could have put together (“Salt Peanuts” ismomentarily evoked), though sometimes theoverlapping horns recall Charles Mingus.
The album opens with a bang. Bailey’s “Pebbles in
the Pocket” is a very straightahead burner, showcasingstrong solos by the leader, trombonist Stafford Hunterand tenor saxophonist Stacy Dillard. Drummer Victor
Lewis’ “The Touch of Her Vibe” has a tricky line andincludes cool call-and-response between Bailey andEarl McIntyre (tuba), followed by a high-note solofrom Bailey buoyed by Edsel Gomez (piano) and Mike
Karn (bass). Things get wiggy (in a good way) when
Dillard and Hunter enter for some collective improv.
Another Lewis tune, “From the Heart”, is here too.
All the horn players get plenty of out-front timeand bass and alto flute player Janet Axelrod is featured
on Chico Buarque-Francis Hime’s meditative “Valsa
Rancho”. The latter doesn’t solo per se, but certainly
sets a mood. The tempo picks up midway withsparkling soprano saxophone from Dillard, whose own
lightly luminous and tender “Elite State of Mind” hasoverlapping horn parts that work well. Jule Styne-Bob
Merrill’s “People” from Funny Girl (sung by Barbra
Streisand) is a nice framework for a ballad led by
Bailey, who honed his talents in bands led by Buddy
Rich, Ray Charles, Ray Barretto and others. He’s on 70
albums, playing all kinds of music.
Gillespie, by the way, stood for enforcing Civil
Rights, ending the Vietnam War and recognizing
communist China—all of which happened. He also
wanted Miles Davis as head of the CIA.
For more information, visit johnbailey.com

Decomposing ForceGRID (NNA Tapes)
by John Pietaro

The trio GRID touches the listener as would acontinuation of the fire music of another lifetime, but
includes a hardcore element, also quite vintage at thispoint, which somehow allows it all to feel contemporary.
This ensemble never spares the listener and, as such,

indicates the stress of this very moment, mid-lockdown
U.S.A. The outcome is harsh, snarling and biting, but
within this mélange of distortion and odd Latin-esquedance drive, there is something familiar, something we
kept in long ago distant dreams. In this respect, GRID
is utterly timeless.
“Brutal Kings”, the opening cut, can be called
onomatopoeia, throwing exemplary sounds into theairspace, taking no prisoners, but then “Nythyne” offers
much of the same. Saxophonist Matt Nelson(a student of Gary Bartz and one-quarter of Travis
Laplante’s Battle Trance saxophone quartet) blends withbassist Tim Dahl (a regular of Lydia Lunch’s Retrovirus
as well as a mainstay in ensembles led by Marc Ribot,
Mary Halvorson, Elliott Sharp, Ava Mendoza and manymore), straining, twisting and carving out new sounds,
perhaps a nether-world consciousness reminiscent ofGreg Ginn’s Gone of decades wasted.
With a bit of bourbon in your reviewer, this album
releases the secrets of generations lost and in thisrespect, it is dizzying. Side Two (this release makes one
miss LPs one hell of a lot) brings us “The Weight of
Literacy”, which offers no quotes from James Joyce,
Bertolt Brecht, Edna St. Vincent Millay or James
Baldwin, but paints a thicket of sound that seems tobring all of these together. It’s a strange story, this,which follows drummer Nick Podgurski (leader, Feastof the Epiphany) into the looking glass of timelessness.
By the time of closing track “Cold Sleep”, built
on feedback and a torturous kind of searching, theensemble tosses the listener into the place omnipresent
since this epoch began, one of distorted wake-sleep
realities and unhealthy portions of drink thrown into
the nightmare of the new reality. Shit. Allow this album
to slice into your moments.
For more information, visit nnatapes.com

Anatomy of Angels (Live at the Village Vanguard)
Jon Batiste (Verve)
by Joel Roberts

If you know pianist Jon Batiste mostly from his gig as
the bandleader and Musical Director for The Late Show
with Stephen Colbert, this live recording, culled from aweeklong 2018 stand at the Village Vanguard, is areminder that the 33-year-old New Orleans native andJuilliard grad has some serious jazz chops.
Most of Anatomy of Angels features Batiste in a trio
setting, joined by bassist Phil Kuehn and drummer Joe
Saylor of Stay Human, Batiste’s genre-crossing bandfrom The Late Show. Opener “Creative” is an originalthat feels like a blend of Thelonious Monk and classic
New Orleans jazz, which is a pretty good descriptionof the pianist’s overall style. That’s followed by thecrowd-pleasing blues-meets-gospel of “Dusk Train to
Doha”, another Batiste original.
He later pays direct homage to Monk, whom hecalls his “musical idol”, with a stellar cover of “’Round
Midnight” recalling the classic Miles Davis version,
starting slowly with the trio before a fiery horn section(trumpeters Giveton Gelin and Jon Lampley,saxophonists Patrick Bartley and Tivon Pennicott)joins in to create one of the more raucous versions of
the familiar tune in recent memory.
Rachael Price from the pop-soul-jazz group Lake
Shore Drive lends her sultry vocals to an engaging
cover of the Ray Noble standard “The Very Thought ofYou”,
exquisite
piano
providingthesoleaccompaniment. The horns return for the 13-minutetitle cut, a sprawling John Coltrane-inspired whirlwindthat closes the session on a high note and makes thecase for Batiste as a composer of serious intent.
The album, while highly satisfying, is on the briefside at 35 minutes, which feels like a bit of a tease given
the fact that Verve has issued a second (also brief)volume from the same Vanguard residency. Thatalbum, Chronology of a Dream, explores the leader ’s
funk side as opposed to the more exploratory jazzfound here, but the two could easily have beencombined as a single, full-length release showcasing
his entire arsenal.
For more information, visit vervelabelgroup.com

The No-Nosed Puppet
Illegal Crowns (RogueArt)
by John Sharpe

Under the perhaps unfamiliar banner Illegal Crowns,
guitarist Mary Halvorson, drummer Tomas Fujiwara
and cornet player Taylor Ho Bynum combine with
French pianist Benoît Delbecq for their second album
The No-Nosed Puppet. Like its predecessor, the LP(or digital release) is a collective effort where eachmember brings charts to the table. Although all areaccomplished leaders in their own right, they adopt anensemble approach to exploring the diverse material inwhich the individuals stand out no more than theinteractions among them.
Artful arrangements, such as Fujiwara’s brightjerky title cut, demonstrate that not only is this a bandin the sense of a fully cohesive unit, but also constructnovel settings to show off the high-spec components.
Once the tune opens out, Delbecq and Halvorson spitout simultaneous streams of invective, until the lattergoes it alone, using effects to overlay multiple echoes,
in ever-increasing density, over churning drums. Then
all change to a menacing ostinato over which Bynum
splutters and squeals, before finally slowing for a codaof tumbling piano to take the piece out. Blowing
vehicles these are not.
Delbecq’s two compositions are less direct, withneither unveiling an explicit theme. Both reveal how
well he has integrated piano preparations into his
playing. On the conversational and discursive“Brushes”, that translates into piano first chewing thecud with tappy cymbals and later musing guitar while
cornet periodically joins in a series of eruptive gusts
and wheezes. “Two Blue Circles” similarly mines
timbral depths, this time in percussive exchanges ofstaccato sounds, while Bynum once again displays his
talent for avoiding the obvious, with an expressive
litany of groans, exclamations and bleats.
Bynum’s “Extemporize An Untidy Conclusion”
features switches from jittery interplay to huskily
voiced refrain to martial rhythms, incorporatinga choppy cornet/drum duet along the way. The title
itself gives an intimation of how intention can trump
expectation.
Halvorson’s twin contributions could sit easily
among her output elsewhere. “Blood And Sand”
adopts a lilting gait with careworn cornet carrying thetune while the closing “Louise Knows”, a beautiful
ballad of twilight valediction, provides a quietly
stunning finale to an absorbing and thoughtful disc.
For more information, visit roguart.com

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | JUNE 2020 25

Friday The 13th
Stephen Riley (SteepleChase)by Ken Dryden

Tenor saxophonist Stephen Riley and cornet player
Kirk Knuffke have both recorded frequently as leaders
for SteepleChase and worked as sidemen on otherreleases for the label. Given the frequency with which
SteepleChase artists join forces, it was only a matter oftime before they made a CD together. Two moreveterans with many appearances on the label, bassist
Jay Anderson and drummer Billy Drummond, roundout this top-shelf quartet.
The lack of piano gives both soloists added
freedom for their explorations and amplifies thecontributions of the rhythm section, which provides
stimulating accompaniment. While many leaders focus
on their own compositions, Riley has preferred to find
new approaches to standards and favorite jazz works
by a wide range of artists, also with a penchant toinsert amusing song quotes where least expected.
Knuffke is the perfect foil in this setting, as they inspire
each other with their improvised lines. The sole Great
American Songbook standard is Cole Porter ’s “LoveFor Sale”, which alternates between AfroCuban andbop rhythms, Knuffke and Riley melding into a
conversational frontline.
Riley’s unaccompanied intro into Eddie Vinson’s“Four” sets up an extended workout as intricate as any
previous recording. They revel in Thelonious Monk’s
whimsical “Friday The 13th”, capturing the spirit of
the late pianist, while their masterful unaccompanied
duo introduction to “‘Round Midnight” gradually
unveils the famous theme in a novel way, later joined
by inventive bass and discrete brushes. Oliver Nelson’s“Hoe Down” has long been overshadowed by his
better known anthem “Stolen Moments” (which
preceded it on his landmark 1961 album Blues and the
Abstract Truth), but Riley’s striking arrangement of thisforgotten gem may provoke others to include it in theirsetlists. The recently departed Jimmy Heath’s“Gingerbread Boy” concludes the session witha flourish, the work of the rhythm section making
it stand out as unique. Riley continues to surpriselisteners with his creative settings of familiar jazz andthis CD is representative of his best work.
For more information, visit steeplechase.dk

Et hån mot overklassen
Bushman’s Revenge (Hubro)
by Kurt Gottschalk

F or a decade and a year, Oslo-based label Hubro has
been building a remarkably reliable catalogue ofconsistently fresh and eminently listenable recordings
hovering in the nebula of composition andimprovisation. The strength of the label’s output
certainly suggests something about the fertile jazzscene in Norway but says just as much about the

curatorial ear of founder Andreas Risanger Meland.
As a former employee of both Rune Grammofon and
ECM, Meland clearly learned the values of brandidentity and high-level production from some ofEurope’s standard bearers.
Like Meland, the trio Bushman’s Revenge (theirname coming from a particularly potent brand of South
African hot sauce) has a history with Rune Grammofon,
having released seven albums in as many years on thatlabel before issuing Et hån mot overklassen (“a mockeryof the upper class”) on the Hubro imprint. With theswitch came a regrouping of sorts, a solidification andexpansion. Gone are the guest players of many of theirrecent albums but added to the solid guitar trio
formation are drummer Gard Nilssen’s vibraphone
and Wurlitzer organ, bassist Rune Nergaard’s organ
and toy piano and multiple guitar voicings (including
baritone and soprano) from Even Helte Hermansen
and electronic implements across the board.
The result is music you can get lost in, languid
jams that turn atmospheric when your ears aren’t
looking. Hermansen favors long, slowing lines thatrecall Carlos Santana at his unfussy best. Nergaard andNilssen can recede and surprise, suggesting bits of
exotica, ‘70s fusion or spaced-out psych. There’s less ofan edge here than in some of their past outings(certainly less than when they cover Black Sabbath at
any rate) and more group exploration.
All members contribute compositions, with 3 ofthe 10 written by the trio. The standouts come from
Hermansen: his “A Bottle A Day Keeps The Wolves At
Bay” sets a slow surf vibe over an Indian drone likea pot of mock tanpura stew, where “Toten” features
spaghetti western lines pushed along by softly
persistent and very tidy tom rolls.
But “standouts” aren’t the point here. The record isavailable as a limited-edition double-LP and digital
download, but the CD version is the only way to ensurethat its hazy 66 minutes float past uninterrupted. It’sa groove greater than the sum of its parts.
For more information, visit hubromusic.com

Girl Gone Wilder!: Susannah B Sings Alec Wilder
Susannah B (s/r)
by Marilyn Lester

Composerand sometime lyricist Alec Wilder,
contemporary of American Songbook writers such as
Hoagy Carmichael, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Duke
Ellington and the like, is little remembered today,
despite a prolific career in a wide assortment of genres,
which included classical music as well as jazz and pop.
Susannah B’s (the B is for Blinkoff) tribute to Wilder,Girl Gone Wilder! covers the Wilder ground well, fromearly to later work, with 14 varied tracks, including
many not usually found on Wilder collections.
She’s backed by a strong band arranged to give
maximum support to the singer, with enough time foreach player to be showcased in crisp solo turns:
Michael Farrell (keyboards), David Sutton (bass), Scott
Breadman (percussion), Ray McNamara (drums andhang drum) and Sal Lozano (saxophone/flute/
clarinet). Farrell also contributes a few velvety,laidback vocals, notably on “Don’t Stop” (lyric by
William Engvick) and “Lullaby Land”.
Wilder marched to his own drum, caring little
about accolades or commercial success. He waschampioned early on in his career by Mitch Miller and

26 JUNE 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

Frank Sinatra, who largely set him before the public.
As a writer of often unique and sophisticated material
he left a rich but underappreciated legacy. Yet, thoselike Blinkoff, treasure(d) his work, including Marlene
VerPlanck, Roland Hanna, Bill Charlap and Marian
McPartland. Wilder wrote for his friends mainly,
among them the doyenne of the story song, Mabel
Mercer. “Is It Always Like This” was written for her
in 1955, perfect for her unique style, a parlando witha deep and intense focus on lyric. Blinkoff’s version
shifts the emphasis of the song back to the melody,with a swingy, Latin-style beat and support frombackup singers.
Blinkoff’s vocal tone is smooth, but also slightly
girlish—a light head voice, yet supple and versatile.
She’s also blessed with a fine sense of phrasing andvocal dynamics. Additionally, Blinkoff has a strong
acting background and so her inclusion of several story
songs suits her, primarily “It’s So Peaceful in theCountry”, melancholy “Blackberry Winter” (lyric byLoonis McGlohon) and jazz-ballad arrangement of“S’Gonna Be a Cold Day”, with McGlohon’s lyrics still
exerting supremacy over the melody.
Blinkhoff produced and arranged Girl Gone Wilder!
with longtime collaborator John Ballinger, who also
plays guitar on some of the tracks. In some cases, thetwo replicated the style and feel of originals, such as
the 1967 pop version of “Mimosa and Me” (lyric by
William Engvick) introduced by Jackie and Roy, as well
as a Latin-infused “Moon and Sand” (lyric by Morty
Blitz), introduced in 1941 by Xavier Cugat and his
Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra. The tempo matches theoriginal’s conjuring of sultry swinging nights underswaying palms. In other instances, deliberate
departures were made from the originals, including
a swinging “Crazy in the Heart” (Engvick), miles awayfrom the lush romantic ballad sung in 1956 by Peggy
Lee. Likewise, Wilder ’s best-known tune “I’ll Be
Around” is sung with a chirpy up-beat, infusing an
optimistic ‘50s-style hopefulness into an otherwise
desperate sentiment.
Wilder ’s sometimes eccentric composing offereda melodic and harmonic syntax favored by jazzmusicians, as presented in a lilting “Be a Child” (withMarshall Barer and lyric by Loonis McGlohon). Blinkoff
and Farrell swing their way through the number,pausing to offer light scat on their progress through it.
Wilder the lyricist is showcased in his later addition ofwords to the music of trumpeter Thad Jones’ 1969
composition “A Child Is Born”. One can almost picture
him listening to the extended piano intro opening up
Jones’ penetrating melodic lines and harmonics(backed by the Mel Lewis Orchestra), knowing thisbeautiful tune demanded a lyric to make it whole.
For more information, visit susannahb.com

Travellin’ Light
Alvin Schwaar/Banz Oester/Noé Franklé (Leo)by Marco CangianoThis is a somewhat surprising release from Leo Records,

as it features a program of well-known jazz standards.
It also marks the debut of pianist Alvin Schwaar anddrummer Noé Franklé (veteran bassist Bänz Oester has
been active since the ‘80s). It is a love affair between aninteractive trio and a handful of compositions bylegendary figures such as John Coltrane (“Big Nick”),
Bill Evans (“Very Early”) and Herbie Hancock (“I Havea Dream”). The fact that two out of eight pieces were
penned by Duke Ellington is quite revealing of the loveand respect for the jazz tradition.
The approach is one of deconstructing andreconstructing each piece, almost hiding the main
themes and melodies while maintaining the utmost
respect for their very essence. Ellington’s “Prelude toa Kiss” receives the most recognizable and perhaps
respectful treatment whereas Jerome Kern-Oscar
Hammerstein’s “All The Things You Are” gets an
initially atonal and multilayered handling, alluding to
the theme halfway through yet disclosing it only at thevery end. Each piece is built as a sort of condensed
suite, with soft intros, often by warm bass as in “I Havea Dream”, followed by tonal improvisations touching
upon the main themes, leading to proper codas.
The interplay is remarkable and announced at theoutset of the CD with a delicate reading of theGershwins’ “Someone To Watch Over Me”. The
deliberate pace allows the trio to cherry pick and savor
each note while listening to one another, Ellington’s“Heaven” from his First Sacred Concert being a case inpoint. Leo Robin-Richard A. Whiting-Newell Chase’s“My Ideal” comes across as less structured and leaning
toward atonality and open improvisation more in tune
with Leo’s catalogue. “Very Early” and “Big Nick”
play with the respective themes but also try to capture
Evans and Coltrane’s unique sounds, thanks inparticular to eclectic drumming.
The wonderful recording quality catches subtle
nuances, which continue to be disclosed after eachlisten. These are virtuoso players so confident with
their approach to the music that they have no need toshow off their technical prowess. As emphasized inGerry Hemingway’s thoughtful liner notes, “musicality
is a sense that grows and matures over time.” This ismusic that keeps evolving inside your ears.
For more information, visit leorecords.com

Psychedelic Backfire I & II
Elephant9 (Rune Grammofon)by Phil Freeman

Elephant9 is a Norwegian trio of Ståle Storløkken
behind the keys (he plays Hammond organ, Fender
Rhodes, Minimoog and Mellotron), Nikolai Hængsle
Eilertsen on bass and Torstein Lofthus on drums. This
matched set of live albums was recorded during a fournight residency at the Kampen Bistro in Oslo; on thesecond disc, they’re joined by guitarist Reine Fiske ofthe psychedelic rock band Dungen. (He also appearedon the band’s third and fourth studio albums, 2012’s
Atlantis and 2015’s Silver Mountain.)
Psychedelic Backfire I is a six-track, 71-minute set ofpieces from several Elephant9 albums. It begins andends with tracks from their debut, 2007’s Dodovoodoo,each radically extended; “I Cover the Mountain Top”
swells from 9 minutes to 12 while the title track morethan doubles in length from 5 minutes to over 11. In
between, “Habanera Rocket” from 2009’s Walk The Nileand “Farmer ’s Secret” and “Actionpack1” from 2017’s
Greatest Show On Earth, are performed as well, always
at slightly greater length than the studio versions.
There’s also a 13-minute medley of “Skink” from
Dodovoodoo and “Fugl Fønix” from Walk The Nile.
On Psychedelic Backfire II, the jamming becomeseven more extreme; two of its four tracks are medleys,
combining tracks from Dodovoodoo and Atlantis withones from Walk The Nile and the shortest piece is 14:05,
the longest 18:46. The difference between the two
albums is the difference between the initial Larry
Young/Jack Bruce lineup of Tony Williams Lifetimeand the Mark II version of Deep Purple, with RitchieBlackmore, Jon Lord, Roger Glover and Ian Paice. The
level of power and fury is always intense, but the duels
between guitar and keyboards give it a little extra kick.
This is music meant to be heard at top volume.
Storløkken is pushing his battery of keyboards deep
into the red, bass is a massive throbbing rumble andLofthus is not just nonstop but positively manic, likea cross between Ginger Baker and John Bonham. When
Fiske joins the band, he has to struggle to carve out
a space for himself at times; on “Skink/Fugl Fønix”,
his approach is noisy and yet still somehow overly
restrained. By the album-closing “Freedom’s Children/
John Tinnick”, though, he’s in sync with his bandmatesas they launch skyward in full “Highway Star” mode.
For more information, visit runegrammofon.com

Inside Rhythmic Falls
Aruán Ortiz (Intakt)
by Robert Bush

F rom the very opening strains of the hypnotic “Lucero
Mundo” from pianist Aruán Ortiz’ newest album one
is drawn into a different world. It features a poem
written by Ortiz and narrated by the voices of Emilene
Michel, Marlene Ramirez-Cancio and the composer
paying tribute to the African diaspora from the Congoto his native island of Cuba. The piano often seems lessdominant than in traditional settings. On the opener,
the poetry is dramatically offset by the almost magicaldrums of the masterful Andrew Cyrille, who shareswisdom and insight befitting his long tenure as one of
the world’s finest percussionists.
“Conversations With The Oaks” is a livewire
discussion between the leader of the session and
Cyrille and literally explodes into the air with nervous,
jangling energy. Ortiz evokes the spirit of Thelonious
Monk and, especially, Cecil Taylor, whom Cyrille
drummed for in the ‘60s-70s.
Percussionist Mauricio Herrera joins the ensemble
for the mysterious “Marimbula’s Mood” and it isamazing to experience the sense of patient unity eachman brings to this music. Over the sparkling upper
register of piano, Cyrille taps a complex series ofrhythmic data into “Golden Voice”, transforming thatdata into one of the highlight moments on this session.
The funereal chords of “De Cantos y Naningos”
and the glacial tempo bring out the tasteful brushstrokesof Cyrille, creating a delicious tension that never reallyresolves. The group becomes a trio again on the firstpart of the title track; there are seemingly infinite
layers of cowbells, hand-drums and trap set converging
to transmit an intricate message. Another highlightcomes on “Argelier ’s Disciple”. Returning to thebracing duet format, Cyrille and Ortiz explore theepisodic piece with full commitment. It flashes fromviolent combativeness on one extreme (definitely
recalling the drummer ’s exchanges with Taylor) to abeautiful and delicate choreography on the other.
Ortiz has definitely come a long way in the creative
music world since he arrived in the U.S. more than 15
years ago. Adding Cyrille to the equation yields
exponential benefits.
For more information, visit intaktrec.ch

mikroPULS
Gebhard Ullmann, Hans Lüdemann, Oliver Potratz,
Eric Schaefer (Intuition)
by Robert Iannapollo

Saxophonist/clarinetist Gebhard Ullmann is an

explorer, willing to jump in at the deep end to see what
happens. He has always been instrumentally at the topof his game with a rich tone and willingness to extend
the range of his instrument(s) as much as he can. He
assembles excellent groups (Basement Research,
Conference Call, Clarinet Trio, BassX3) and works induet formats with pianist Achim Kaufmann, drummer
Tyshawn Sorey, singer Almut Kuhne and others.
Which brings us to his latest release. It grew out of
his trio Das Kondensat with bassist Oliver Potratz anddrummer Eric Schaefer, a group that altered its texture
and tonality through electronics. In the ‘90s, Ullmannheard saxophonist Joe Maneri and was fascinated byhis use of microtonality. That approach began seeping
its way into his playing, another tool in his instrumental
arsenal. Coincidentally, an old musical cohort, pianist
Hans Ludemann, had also been dealing withmicrotonality. Ullmann asked him to join the group he
was forming to compose, explore and improvise withmicrotonality. Hence, mikroPULS (the capitalized
portion formed from each member ’s last name).
Initially, the approach can be a bit disorienting,as opener “Flutist With Hat And Shoe” demonstrates;
a brooding ballad from Ullmann’s book (first recorded
in 1999), everything initially sounds off-kilter,
especially with its composer playing “virtual piano”,
a computer-programmed keyboard tuned to quartertones used in conjunction with acoustic piano. But
once the ears adjust, the sound becomes quite effective.
The intro to Schaefer ’s “Head Quarter”, with its
carefully placed tones, sounds like everyone is playing
in the space between the notes. But it works. Perhaps
the most arresting moment occurs on Potratz’ “Human
Body Upgrade”, swirling interludes of Ullmann andLudemann duetting over the rhythm section’s sporadic
driving beat. “F.J.D.”, a wry rewriting of Eddie Harris’“Freedom Jazz Dance”, proves that even with quartertones, this group can sound funky. Ullmann has put
out more than his share of great albums but the more
one hears mikroPULS, it sounds like one of his best.
For more information, visit challengerecords.com

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | JUNE 2020 27

in p rint

Land of the Black Squirrels: A Bronx Boheme Novel
Mwalim (Thirty-Three Enterprises)
by John Pietaro

With its roots in the African American storytellingtradition, Land of the Black Squirrels builds originalurban folk tales of Bronx and Harlem creatives into thebasic structure of a novel. Mwalim, a playwright,
musician and poet as well as Dartmouth professor,
threads together intriguing stories spanning decades.
Using the social awakening of the late ‘60s, with its
political unrest and ethnic enlightenment as hub andanchor, he spins tales reaching into both chronologicaldirections, dipping into 1955, the ‘70s, ‘80, ‘90s andbeyond. The generations of artists within center aroundthe character of Calvin “Oba” Bey, a drummer, painterand leader of a cultural center. The reader experiences
the musical maturity of Bey, his touring, marriage andfatherhood as well as his necessary day job and thegrowth of his New World Arts Academy. Although themodel is not immediately apparent, culturaleducational programs of the AACM, Black Panther
Party, BAG, Horace Tapscott’s UGMAA, the Young
Lords, Black Arts Movement and The East surely standas inspiration. But Land of the Black Squirrels presentsa view into the place(s) and time(s) while reaching wellbeyond the arts. Customs of African American,
Caribbean and Latinx people, from meals and family
life to prayer and dress, are movingly explored.
Overall, the strains of historic fact, fiction andlegend sit comfortably together, painting a tapestry
most prideful. Mention of Miles Davis, John
Coltrane, Max Roach and Amiri Baraka are expected,
but passages that directly tie such jazz giants tohistoric figures (Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Kwame
Ture) and Mwalim’s own creations often elevate thisaccount to the educational. His description of the
return to New York City of “B Man” Berris, abandleader of Mwalim’s character universe, after 21
years abroad during “…the midst of madness thatwas the so-called Civil Rights Movement…” is atour through Black Liberation, racial struggle andgentrification. His life in jazz brings him throughvital points in the music’s history, from Café Society
to hardbop while other characters carry the story
into the purview of hip-hop, dance music and funk.
The inclusion of wide-ranging and numerous
historic details, however, places this book a little too
closely into the breadth of maximalism. Unfortunately,
for an inviting people’s history, this can be hard todigest, particularly in the company of lengthy,
detailed accounts better suited to live storytelling.
The inclusion of lists of dinner items, furnishings,
scents and sights, which, left to conjecture or in small
numbers important to the reading experience, canbecome obstructive when displayed in a written
outpouring. One can easily imagine such intricacies
igniting emotion and tension within Mwalim’s
presentations at the Nuyorican Poets Café (I’mlooking forward to catching his next appearance). But
throughout the tradition, such forays into
breathlessness of narrative best grasps an audienceby way of its bond with the storyteller.
For more information, visit thirty-threepages.com

28 JUNE 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

Last Desert
Liberty Ellman (Pi)by Thomas Conrad

Liberty Ellman is a premier guitar sideman. He has

worked for major bandleaders like Henry Threadgill
and Vijay Iyer and has been important to leading-edge
projects like Myra Melford’s Snowy Egret and Stephan
Crump’s Rosetta Trio. In 23 years he has recorded only
five albums under his own name. Last Desert hasexactly the same personnel as its 2015 predecessor,
Radiate: Steve Lehman (alto saxophone), Jonathan
Finlayson (trumpet), Jose Davila (tuba), Crump (bass)
and Damion Reid (drums).
Ellman and Davila have played in Threadgill’s
Zooid and Last Desert sounds somewhat like a
Threadgill project. It proceeds from similar aesthetic
attitudes: quirky polyphony; episodic development;
jerky, nervous rhythmic energy (with big off-kilter
bumping beats from tuba). Also like Threadgill’smusic, Last Desert is easier to admire than to love.
Admiration starts with the proficiency of theseplayers, who execute Ellman’s challenging concepts
with precision and who, when given their moments,
contribute fierce individual creativity. The point ofEllman’s music is ensemble form. Instead of solos there
are quick, abrupt forays and many are striking. Lehman

is given to passionate jagged outbursts (e.g., the second
part of the title track). Ellman offers one strangely
lyrical guitar vignette after another. Finlayson’s
improvisations are tight, complete set pieces, made up
on the spot.
But Last Desert is for listeners who prioritize
intellectual rigor over emotional exposure. Pieces like
“Rubber Flowers” and “Doppler” are like puzzles. The
listener’s job is to figure out how the juxtaposed parts
fit together. Tunes lurch and double back, generating
separate but related intermittent lines of thought fromsix advanced thinkers. Arcane counterpoint and austere
harmonies emerge. There are many starts and few
conclusions. On the other hand, a piece like “The Sip”
feels like a five-minute intro that perversely refuses tobegin. To enjoy this music you must be stimulated,rather than frustrated, by unresolved paradoxes.
One subject on whom all listeners should agree isDavila. If his deadpan tuba ironies do not make you
smile, you’re a grouch.
For more information, visit pirecordings.com

Cosmicomics
Lisa Mezzacappa Six (Queen Bee)by Jim Motavalli

San Francisco bassist Lisa Mezzacappa was inspired towrite the music on Cosmicomics by the imaginative ‘60s
Italo Calvino short story collection of the same name,which explores the boundaries of science, including
how we came to exist. It’s what happened when she
allowed his work “to fully inhabit my mind for a year.”
The music could be the soundtrack to a Cosmicomics
film. It’s stunning, dense, brilliantly through-composed
and up to the minute. Three “Signs” pieces (from“A Sign in Space”) consider the notion of a slowly
revolving galaxy and a creature trying—although theeffort is futile, as post-modern thought tells us—to
leave some clear sign of its existence therein. The
composer describes these entries as “conductedimprovisations” and that’s what they sound like.
John Zorn is a reference point, but although thepieces are shifty, they make their moves less abruptly;
listen to how in “All at One Point” the music chugs
along organically and then, halfway through, a theme
emerges and we’re sent spiraling upward. It’s completely
consistent with the theme of the story (and science),
which is about the Big Bang and the expansion of theuniverse. “The Form of Space” also has a big, swaggering
head and one can imagine the Sun Ra Arkestra marching
the perimeter of the old Five Spot but if you expect it to
break into a series of solos or a consistent, swinging
beat, you’re not listening to the plan.
Aaron Bennett (tenor saxophone), John Finkbeiner(guitar), Mark Clifford (vibraphone), Tim Perkis(electronics) and Jordan Glenn (drums) serve the musicand express themselves through what’s on the pageand it’s hard to imagine a more sympathetic group.
Nobody grandstands, everybody listens and it works
as one enthralling entity.
This a major work. It deserves to be recognized in
the pantheon, which is much harder to do these days
with so many independent releases and COVID-19
distracting everybody. Then throw in sexism. But if
only one record makes it through the static of 2020 toyour ears, let it be this one.

on screen

Up From the Streets
New Orleans: The City of Music
Written and Directed by Michael Murphy(Eagle Rock Entertainment)by Tom Greenland

Up From the Streets is Michael Murphy’s loving
tribute to the Crescent City, cradle of early jazz
civilization. Like Ken Burns’ Jazz or David Simonand Eric Overmyer ’s HBO series Treme, music,
especially jazz, is the central focus, though throughthat lens we discover a cultural gumbo—that
utterly unique motley of French, Spanish, African,
Cuban and Native American influences—that is
New Orleans.
Host Terence Blanchard (who is also an
Exucutive Producer alongside Geoff Kempin andTerry Shand and is served as the film’s MusicalDirector sets the tone, walking us through theneighborhoods and historic sites, archival photos,
film clips and a long line of local interviewees, often
playing his trumpet.
The narrative begins during the slave trade, inPlace des Negrès (aka Congo Square), where Sunday
drumming sessions led to the music(s) now known
as jazz. Along the way, the film reflects on: Cuban
syncopation; second-line parades and drummingstyles; early female musicians (Irma Thomas isheard in a few notable performances); Mardi Gras
Indians; gospel, blues, rumba, mambo, rhythm andblues, rock and roll, traditional jazz, funk, brassband and bounce music; semi-mythical figures like
Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton and Louis
Armstrong; Storyville; racism, segregation (bothhistorical and current), Plessy vs. Ferguson and theerasure of Creole status; legendary pianists like
Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint, Dr. John andJames Booker; clubs like Dew Drop Inn (aka “TheGroove Room”) and Tipitina’s; famous hit factories
like Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Recording Studio andToussaint’s Sea-Saint Studios; and the impact ofHurricane Katrina.
We hear eloquent testimony from Wynton
Marsalis, Blanchard and music journalist/former
editor of Vibe and Spin Magazines Alan Light(among others) about the lingering presence ofArmstrong. We learn from Branford Marsalis of
Armstrong’s sly contumacy in changing the wordsof Clarence Muse-Leon René-Otis René’s “When It’s
Sleepytime Down South” to “When it’s slavery time
down south” on a 1932 recording. We learn from
Blanchard that The Beatles’ solo guitar ballad“Blackbird” was inspired by the American Civil
Rights Movement. We realize, hearing him play his“Yes We Can Can” on solo acoustic piano, that
Toussaint was even funkier than The Pointer Sisters.
Though locals are justifiably proud of its past,
the film makes it clear that New Orleans music is,foremost, a living tradition, looking futurewards forthe next “jazz”.
For more information, visit eagle-rock.com. This film isbeing screened virtually through Jun. 15th at cinemas
across the country. For more information and to purchasetickets, visit watch.eventive.org/upfromthestreets.

For more information, visit queenbeerecords.bandcamp.com

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | JUNE 2020 29

The Storytellers
Paolo Bacchetta Yerkir (Auand)by John Pietaro

As part of a moving homage to the late Paul Motian,
Italian guitarist Paolo Bacchetta devised The Storytellers,
an album featuring works inspired or composed by thelate, celebrated drummer-composer. His trio Yerkir,(Armenian for earth) completed by organ player Giulio
Stermieri and drummer Zeno De Rossi, well illustrates
the multiple faces of Motian’s career.
Right from the top, “White Magic”, a churning blastof instrumental rock from 1982, takes the message andgrit further than Motian envisioned, adding organ blasts
to tear holes in the audio terrain. It’s fair to say that
downtown’s post-punk confluence is here resurrected
to its obvious conclusion. Throughout, guitar sings,
slashes, whispers and lures. Stermieri and De Rossi not
only complement his sizzling lines, but also cast a
network of empathic sound, at once agitating and terse.
Spacious cuts like the pensive “Abacus” (Motian)and sleepily restless “Chinese Café” (Stermieri) paintmuch of the atmosphere one associates with Bill Evans,
Motian’s best loved and remembered employer. While
the organ is a wholly different animal than the acoustic
piano (particularly Evans’), Stermieri’s touch, executedwith the delicacy of a surgeon, lends itself well to thiseffort. And while the drummer ’s role here could bedaunting—Motian’s purposeful tacits, sensitive driveand visceral awareness put him into a unique category
among modern drum artists—De Rossi displays
considerable fluidity and chops with masterful
dynamics and undying patience, paying tribute but
never copying. Makes sense that in The Storytellers,
he offers gripping commentary (listen for this in his
own “Sournoise” and “Jean”). Bacchetta’s “La Danza
Macabra” is the standout, an uptempo waltz, whichbrings to mind Motian’s brilliant trio with Joe Lovano
and Bill Frisell. The guitarist’s overdrive and burneasily share space with Frisell-like arabesques as
Stermieri’s swells inspire De Rossi to climb over andabove. Yes, you want this album.
For more information, visit auand.com

Storyteller
W. Allen Taylor (s/r)
by Marco CangianoThis is W. Allen Taylor ’s much-awaited debut CD. His
activity has been centered on Bay and DC area venues,
thus preventing wider audiences from appreciating his
singing. He has been labeled as “a jazz singer fromthe old school...combining originality with a stylereminiscent of the golden age of jazz singing.” The listof his vocal influences includes Jon Hendricks andEddie Jefferson, among others, but traces of Mark
Murphy can also be found. This makes Taylor one of
the regrettably dwindling number of vocalesepractitioners. His natural swing and taste allow him torevisit well-throttled standards with gusto andoriginality. Much of the credit though is due to his
partners. Saxophonist Lionel Lyles delivers a numberof very compelling solos and Chris Grasso’s piano
provides tasteful comping that aptly complements
Taylor ’s singing. Bassist James King and drummer
Mark Prince come across as true royalty in driving andsupporting the proceedings with firm hands.
The material could not be more challenging but
Taylor and his partners surf through it with confidence
and concision—the average length is slightly above
four minutes. From the opener, Miles Davis’ “SoWhat”, through Andy Razaf-Don Redman’s “Gee,Baby, Ain’t I Good to You” and Sonny Rollins’ “Doxy”
there is an underlying blues feeling shared among thegroup. But Taylor ’s mastery of ballads such as Bobby
Troup’s “You’re Looking at Me” and Billy Strayhorn’s“Day Dream” is equally impressive thanks to his
capacity to interpret the text (he had a long career intheater prior to rediscovering music as his passion).
The highlight is a heartfelt version of Charles
Mingus’ “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”. Introduced by Lyles’
short statement on tenor, the immortal melody rolls
slowly over the gently bouncing rhythm section until
tenor reemerges with a very inspired solo, reminiscentof Booker Ervin’s underrated balladry, prior to Taylor ’s
coda. The CD is wrapped up by an uptempo version of
Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia” with Hendricks’
lyrics in which Taylor ’s scat-singing is featured once
again. A welcome debut by an artist who definitely
deserves wider exposure and appreciation.
For more information, visit watjazz.com

The Pearls
Ellery Eskelin/Christian Weber/Michael Griener(Intakt)
by Steven Loewy

With a substantial history of subverting the way inwhich we hear music, saxophonist Ellery Eskelin has
made a career of stretching and twisting melodic lines
in a wholly individualistic style that substantiates aninnovative vision. His immediately recognizablesingular tone, approach and fluid lines are in evidenceon The Pearls, a sort of sequel to this trio’s earlier Intakt
album Sensations of Tone. In contradistinction, The
Pearls focuses on time: with the self-deprecating
qualification that Eskelin is a musician and not aphilosopher, he asks, “…[D]oes time exist? Is
timekeeping itself time? Are we time?” In this he ismore astute than he realizes, mimicking the famous
proposition put forth by British thinker J.M.E.
McTaggert that time is an illusion.
Eskelin’s questions are addressed with a mix offree pieces mixed among upbeat older tunes, such as
the title track by Jelly Roll Morton, a couple of eccentricrags, including one by Scott Joplin, and “Jive by Five”,
a popular swing melody penned by Harry “Sweets”
Edison and performed with verve and panache.
Eskelin’s performances are characterized by afloating quality, where he produces cascading flurries
of notes at low volume, often at remarkable speed andbelying any preset time signatures. This is evident on
several tracks, including the opening “ABC”, in which
his playing is tight, swift, soft and fluid, and the closing“Black Drop”, where a delicate opening slowly
advances to just above a whisper. Strong contributions
from bassist Christian Weber and drummer Michael

30 JUNE 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

Griener undergird the saxophonist’s escapades, ananchor over which he buzzes timelessly.
With a tip of the hat to Henry Threadgill, Eskelin
navigates the two rags without eviscerating theiressence, retaining their toe-tapping qualities while
expanding them just enough. “Eccentric Rag”, inparticular, is played at an eccentrically fast pace:short, fun and exhausting. To sense how Eskelin totally
modernizes the original, listen to the seminal 1914
version performed by Russell Robinson, its composer.
Primarily by manipulating time, Eskelin takes thepiece to a new dimension, making it his own.
For more information, visit intaktrec.ch

UNEARTHED GEM

MonksBorah Bergman/Wilber Morris/Sunny Murray(Somerealmusic)
by Pierre Crépon

Pianist Borah Bergman began his career solitarily inthe ‘70s-80s, before moving to duets and trios. It wasthen that he organized this 1996 New York studiodate with bassist Wilber Morris and drummer Sunny
Murray. Once the session had been completed, theDAT masters were found to be overloaded beyond
repair. Recently discovered safety tapes, salvaged
through extensive engineering work, made it possible
to hear the music for the first time in excellent quality,
though none of the principals are with us any longer.
The bop pioneer’s influence is such in many
corners—brilliant and not so brilliant—that the “Monkalbum” is almost a mandatory stop in a discography.
But although entirely dedicated to Monk material, thissession has nothing to do with formulaic exercise.
“A Free Association Peregrination in the Fecund andFunky Fields of Monkdom”, the title of the sole nonMonk piece, indicates the general direction.
Bergman is constantly “exploding the tunes intofragments, re-assembling, expanding and abstracting,”
writes producer Joseph Chonto. It holds true for thecollective work of the trio, which often happens atextreme pace, for stretches of time of a median 20
minutes, Bergman’s crossed-hands ambidexterity
redoubling the relentlessness. Yet the pianist does noteschew short motives to reroute the music’s flow tostunning effect while the drums and bass thrust
forward. Murray is far too infrequently credited forthe diversity of his playing; he is here in full
deployment mode, bordering on the combative, but
the two opening takes of “Well, You Needn’t” show
clearly his capacity for nuance, his cymbal magic
happening in full effect only the second time around.
Morris manages the arduous task of finding theappropriate sonic space to make his bass sing while
holding a constantly strong bottom. Cooler numbers
provide welcome opportunities to focus on his playing.
The session is presented in a fashion usuallyreserved to the masters of Monk’s era: in its entirety,
incomplete takes and studio chatter included. Monks
contains a lost album, but what would have made thecut is left up in the air. It only enriches this significant
addition to all three players’ discographies.
For more information, contact somerealmusic@earthlink.net

B OXED SE T

Momentum 4 (Consequent Duos: 2015>2019)Ken Vandermark (Audiographic)by Steven Loewy

Chicago-based reedplayer Ken Vandermark is an
original, adventurous and prolific performer with apersonalized approach to free improvisation. This
limited edition five-CD boxed set is his first recorded
duos with all but British percussionist Paul Lytton.
Momentum 4 is a masterful achievement that provides
several hours of fascinating and critical listening.
The first disc is a 2015 studio recording with
Lytton. It is a tour de force, familiarity permitting
them to stretch, anticipate and explore as Lytton
pushes and colors Vandermark’s remarkable flow ofideas. While each track rewards and along the way
features a variety of clarinets and saxophones,
colored by substantial diversity in rhythm, volume
and technique, closer “ESS 1F” is particularly
effective, opening with a quiet drone-like dirge on
tenor, which builds slowly, by way of a drum roll,slap tonguing and myriad other strategies, to an
intense crescendo, ending suddenly.

The two lengthy live duo tracks with Ikue Mori
were part of Vandermark’s second residency at
The Stone in 2018. Her fascinating swirls andelectronics are a wonderful canvas for Vandermark
and he accepts Mori’s challenges head-on.
Vandermark sometimes sits out to let Mori work her
magic, as she swerves, veers and flutters; when theyinteract, Vandermark transforms his horn into an
oscillating machine, tempered by the deep, woody
tone of the clarinet. Each listen reveals something
new overlooked earlier. The end of the second track
highlights Vandermark’s altissimo lurches, whichintertwine with Mori’s scintillating tones like theperipatetic leaves of an ivy bush.
The third CD features three pieces with pianist
Kris Davis also from The Stone in 2018. The duo was
supposed to be a trio with drummer Paal NilssenLove, who missed the performance when his plane
was rerouted due to poor weather. On “Stone 2A”,
Vandermark sports an aggressive clarinet, Davis
focusing on extended technique, rapidly repeating
notes and occasionally intervallic jumps as well as
the inside plucking of strings. Vandermark is on fire,
focusing on the upper registers, his sinewy presence
wrestling with Davis. “Stone 2B” opens softly andlanguidly, as Vandermark emphasizes his brawny
appeal on tenor, Davis eschews syncopation and
Vandermark weaves lovely, full lines on the edge of
explosion as the volume increases, the piece
eventually ending as softly as it began. Over thecourse of more than 20 minutes, closer “Stone 3”
summarizes their close confluence, Vandermark
pummeling his instruments and Davis pounding thekeys, leading to exhilarating results. Along the way
and especially toward the end, there are varieties oftone, volume, emotion and sound.
William Parker and Vandermark go back a longway, having performed together for the first time in1999 as part of the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet.
As a duo at The Stone in 2018, the bassist works his
usual enchantments with an accessible full-bodied
tone and a swinging style, which supports
Vandermark’s saxophone and clarinet in what areprobably the jazziest solos in the collection. Thereis plenty of time for both to strut their stuff, withsnippets of melody, some trills and falsetto notesfrom Vandermark and brilliant work from Parker.
The third piece, the superb “Eventual”, written for
Sunny Murray who died a month before theperformance, is the only one among the five discs
springing from written composition, bass andsaxophone offering a warm and lovely walk,embracing the past and anticipating the future.
Drummer Hamid Drake and Vandermark havebeen playing together for more than two decades,
even once as a duo in 2017 when bassist Kent
Kessler ’s plane was delayed. For this 2019 studio
performance, the two come together for seven pieces
of varied colors. Drake is a powerful performer,
sporting a muscular kit that lights a fire under
Vandermark, whether on clarinet or saxophones. The
latter switches among his reeds and gives Drakeplenty of richly deserved solo space, the masterpercussionist entrancing with his wide palette. Eachof the focused, comparatively short tracks is a minor
gem. Drake shows himself a worthy partner whose
strong listening skills make this last collaborationa fitting ending to a gorgeous collection.
For more information, visit audiographicrecords.com

New from Freedom Road Records

John Bailey –Can You Imagine?

Featuring Stacy Dillard,
Stafford Hunter, Edsel Gomez,
Mike Karn and Victor Lewis,
plus special guests Janet Axelrodand Earl McIntyre
On this album, trumpeter/
composer Bailey imagines that
Dizzy Gillespie’s 1964 candidacy
for President of the United States
turned into reality.

êêêê “…bristling with energy and the kind of joie de vivre
that the trumpeter embodied…scintillating.” – DownBeat“Simply the best post-bop album since the days of king Dizzy.” – Bebop Spoken Here
“This is an album of fine music, with a deep political consciousness and a prayer that music
can inspire positive growth and change in a troubled world….If music were a magic wand,I would wave this album generously over the entire universe.” – Musical Memoirs

johnbailey.com
THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | JUNE 2020 31

M ISCELLANY
ONbyTHISDAYAndrey Henkin

Paris Concert
Gerry Mulligan (Pacific Jazz)
June 1st, 1954

Space Flight
Sam Lazar (Argo)
June 1st, 1960

Unity
Frank Wright (ESP-Disk’)June 1st, 1974

Salutes Fats Waller
Brooks Kerr (Blue Wail)
June 1st, 1981

Proverbs and SongsJohn Surman (ECM)
June 1st, 1996

Trombonist Bob Brookmeyer started
working with baritone saxophonist
Gerry Mulligan in February 1954 in
New York City. A quartet completed
by bassist Bill Anthony and drummer
Frank Isola was in Boston in April.
Then Red Mitchell took over on bass
and this was the band that went on ashort European tour in June (actuallya Parisian residency at Salle Pleyelwith a Swiss date in the middle), of
which this is first night. Of the tentunes played, Mulligan wrote three(“Utter Chaos”, his closing theme,
played twice), the rest jazz standards.

The liner notes, written by E. Rodney
Jones of KXLW-St. Louis, are effusive
about the talents and potential oforgan player Sam Lazar, whose debut
album this is. Yet Lazar would makeonly two more albums, both for Argo,through 1962, then disappear. The
title track of this date first came out in
1959 as a single on Cawthron; there
are seven other Lazar tunes, one
standard and a tune by Willie Dixon
who, interestingly, plays bass here.
Jones also devotes two lines to theLP’s guitarist: a 24-year-old Grant
Green in one of his earliest sessions.

Released some 32 years after the fact,
this CD documents an appearance by
the Frank Wright Quartet at the Moers
Festival in North Rhine-Westphalia,
Germany. The band, completed bypianist Bobby Few, bassist Alan Silva
and drummer Muhammad Ali(Rashied’s brother, whose photos of
the leader are used herein), had been
in existence for a little over two years
at this point, yet seemingly disbanding
shortly thereafter until a 1978 reunion
concert in Detmold, Germany. The
CD is the title track in two parts, 27:28
and 29 minutes, respectively.

While blind pianist Brooks Kerr wasThis album, British reedplayer John
Surman’s 14th of 24 albums for ECM
since 1979, is one of his mostambitious. Surman sets texts from the
Old Testament for himself on baritone
and soprano saxophones and bass
clarinet, longtime collaborator John
Taylor on organ, solo speaker John
Curry and the festival chorus(conducted by Howard Moody, withwhom Surman would collaborate on
2006’s Rain on the Window) of Salisbury
Cathedral in southern England, where
this album was recorded. A uniquely
British take on spiritual jazz.

most closely associated with his idol/
mentor Duke Ellington, touring withthe band as a teen, forming a trio withDuke sidemen Russell Procope andSonny Greer and generally considered
the world authority on Ellingtonia,
here he fêtes a very different pianist,
Fats Waller (whose contemporary,
Willie “The Lion” Smith was Kerr’schildhood teacher). This trio datewith bassist George Duvivier andGreer is 11 tunes, including Wallerclassics like “Honeysuckle Rose” and“Ain’t Misbehavin’”.

BIRTHDAYS
June 1†Nelson Riddle 1921-85†Herbie Lovelle 1924-2009†Hal McKusick 1924-2012
Lennie Niehaus b.1929
Rossano Sportiello b.1974
June 2†Ernie Hood 1923-91†Gildo Mahones 1929-2018
John Pisano b.1931
Pierre Favre b.1937
Irène Schweizer b.1941
Matthew Garrison b.1970
Noah Preminger b.1986
June 3†Carl Pruitt 1918-1977†Al Harewood 1923-2014
Phil Nimmons b.1923†Dakota Staton 1932-2007†Bob Wallis 1934-91†Ted Curson 1935-2012
Grachan Moncur III b.1937
Corey Wilkes b.1979
June 4†Teddy Kotick 1928-86†Oliver Nelson 1932-75†Alan Branscombe 1936-86
Mark Whitecage b.1937
Ted Daniel b.1943
Anthony Braxton b.1945
Paquito D’Rivera b.1948
Winard Harper b.1962
June 5†Kurt Edelhagen 1920-82†Specs Powell 1922-2007†Pete Jolly 1932-2004†Misha Mengelberg 1935-2017†Jerry Gonzalez 1949-2018

June 6†Jimmie Lunceford 1902-47†Raymond Burke 1904-86†Gil Cuppini 1924-96†Grant Green 1931-79
Monty Alexander b.1944†Zbigniew Seifert 1946-79
Paul Lovens b.1949
G. Calvin Weston b.1959

June 11†Clarence “Pine Top” Smith
1904-29†Shelly Manne 1920-84†Hazel Scott 1920-81†Bob Gordon 1928-55
Nils Lindberg b.1933
Bernard “Pretty” Purdie b.1939
Jamaaladeen Tacuma b.1956
Alex Sipiagin b.1967
Assif Tsahar b.1969

June 7†Gene Porter 1910-1993†Tal Farlow 1921-98†Tina Brooks 1932-74
Norberto Tamburrino b.1964
Devin Gray b.1983

June 12†Marcus Belgrave 1936-2015
Kent Carter b.1939
Chick Corea b.1941
Jesper Lundgaard b.1954†Geri Allen 1957-2017
Oscar Feldman b.1961
Christian Munthe b.1962
Peter Beets b.1971

June 8†Billie Pierce 1907-74†Erwin Lehn 1919-2010†Kenny Clare 1929-85†Bill Watrous 1939-2018
Julie Tippetts b.1947
Uri Caine b.1956

June 13†Charlie Elgar 1885-1973†Doc Cheatham 1905-97†Eddie Beal 1910-84†Phil Bodner 1919-2008†Attila Zoller 1927-98†Buddy Catlett 1933-2014
Frank Strozier b.1937
Harold Danko b.1947
Mike Khoury b.1969

June 9†Les Paul 1915-2009†Jimmy Gourley 1926-2008†Eje Thelin 1938-90
Kenny Barron b.1943
Mick Goodrick b.1945
June 10†Chink Martin 1886-1981†Willie Lewis 1905-71†Dicky Wells 1907-85†Guy Pedersen 1930-2005†John Stevens 1940-94
Gary Thomas b.1961
Charnett Moffett b.1967
Jonathan Kreisberg b.1972
Ben Holmes b.1979

June 14†John Simmons 1918-79
Burton Greene b.1937
Pete Lemer b.1942
Marcus Miller b.1959
Gary Husband b.1960
Diallo House b.1977
Loren Stillman b.1980
Ben Syversen b.1983

June 15†Allan Reuss 1915-1988†Erroll Garner 1921-77†Jaki Byard 1922-99†Mel Moore 1923-89
Tony Oxley b.1938
June 16†”Lucky” Thompson 1924-2005†Clarence Shaw 1926-73†Joe Thomas 1933-2017
Tom Harrell b.1946
Fredy Studer b.1948
Mike Baggetta b.1979
Ryan Keberle b.1980

June 21†Dewey Jackson 1900-94†Jamil Nasser 1932-2010
Lalo Schifrin b.1932†Jon Hiseman 1944-2018
Chuck Anderson b.1947
Eric Reed b.1970
June 22†Ray Mantilla 1934-2020
Hermeto Pascoal b.1936
Heikki Sarmanto b.1939
Eddie Prevost b.1942
Ed “Milko” Wilson b.1944

June 26†Teddy Grace 1905-92†Don Lanphere 1928-2003†Jimmy Deuchar 1930-93
Dave Grusin b.1934
Reggie Workman b.1937
Joey Baron b.1955
Bill Cunliffe b.1956
Mathias Eick b.1979
June 27†Elmo Hope 1923-67
George Braith b.1939
Todd Herbert b.1970

reggie workman

June 26th, 1937

June 23
June 17†Eli Robinson 1908-72†Lorenzo Holden 1924-87†Milt Hinton 1910-2000†Frank E. Jackson, Sr. 1924-2013 †Eddie Miller 1911-91
Chuck Rainey b.1940†Helen Humes 1913-81
Tom Varner b.1957†Lance Harrison 1920-2000†George Russell 1923-2009
June 18†Sahib Shihab 1925-89†Sammy Cahn 1913-93†Hank Shaw 1926-2006
William Hooker b.1946
Donald Harrison b.1960

June 28†Jimmy Mundy 1907-83†Arnold Shaw 1909-89†Gene Traxler 1913-91†Pete Candoli 1923-2008
Bobby White b.1926
John Lee b.1952
Tierney Sutton b.1963
Aaron Alexander b.1966
Jesse Stacken b.1978

June 19†Joe Thomas 1909-86†Jerry Jerome 1912-2001†Al Kiger 1932-2013
Chuck Berghofer b.1937
Paul Nieman b.1950
Billy Drummond b.1959
John Hollenbeck b.1968

June 24†Charlie Margulis 1903-67†Manny Albam 1922-2001†George Gruntz 1932-2013†Frank Lowe 1943-2003†Clint Houston 1946-2000
Greg Burk b.1969†Bernardo Sassetti 1970-2012

June 29†Mousey Alexander 1922-88†Ralph Burns 1922-2001†Ove Lind 1926-1991
Julian Priester b.1935
Ike Sturm b.1978

June 20†Doc Evans 1907-77†Lamar Wright 1907-73†Thomas Jefferson 1920-86†Eric Dolphy 1928-64†Joe Venuto 1929-2019
Anders Nilsson b.1974

June 25†Johnny Smith 1922-2013†Bill Russo 1928-2003
Joe Chambers b.1942
Bobby Naughton b.1944
Marian Petrescu b.1970
John Yao b.1977

June 30†Harry Shields 1899-1971†Grady Watts 1908-86†Lena Horne 1917-2010†Andrew Hill 1937-2007
Chris Hinze b.1938
Jasper Van’t Hof b.1947
Stanley Clarke b.1951
Ken Fowser b.1982

Reggie Workman has been
the model for consistency
since his earliest dates in1960 with Gigi Gryce, Duke
Jordan and Donald Byrd,
appearing on albums inalmost every year since. He
is notable for his tenureswith John Coltrane, Art
Blakey, Freddie Hubbard,
Lee Morgan, Archie Shepp,
Mal Waldron and far too
many others to list here. He
is one-third of Trio 3alongside Oliver Lake andAndrew Cyrille, which has
released almost a dozen
albums since 1997. Then
there are his albums as aleader or co-leader sincethe ‘70s for Tomato, Denon,
Leo, Music & Arts, StrataEast,
Postcards,
Enja,
Evidence, TUM and otherimprints. And finally hehas had a long career as arespected educator.
-AH

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By Andrey Henkin 			38

visit nycjazzrecord.com for answers

32 JUNE 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

1. Peter Brötzmann label
4. ‘70s Japanese saxophonist Kaoru and ‘50s Canadiansaxophonist Aaron
8. Mr. Carter to you
9. Not staccato
12. ____ Exit
13. Spooky Albert Ayler album
14. Charles Tolliver’s Music ____
15. Austrian label releasing albums by Archie Shepp,
Jim Pepper and others
16. 1988 Fred Hersch/Steve La Spina/Jeff Hirshfield
Red Records album...and so on
17. This guitarist collaborated with Medeski Martin & Wood
beginning in 1998
20. With The, Miles Davis show closer
21. John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter have this in common
25. Mwandishi trombonist
27. Erstwhile Wayne Shorter keyboard player Rachel, if she
was from England?
30. This rock band was signed to Fantasy Records (abbr.)
31. 1972 Barry Guy Incus double-album
32. Jazz often does this in terms of strong emotions
34. Trumpeter Bob or bassist Dave
35. Bassist Bill Wood took this Hindu honorific
36. Early Megadeth drummer Samuelson who started hismusical career in jazz fusion

37. Repeated endings
38. Oslo jazz club
DOWN
1. Trumpeter Jaimie
2. Art Ensemble of Chicago’s Mitchell
3. Jane Bunnett home prov.
4. Spyro Gyra was named for a type of this
5. 1971 Lol Coxhill Dandelion album Ear Of ____
6. Third Tony Williams Lifetime album
7. Use this if you want to get your demo tape back (abbr.)
10. Trio of A.R. Penck, Frank Wollny and Heinz Wollny
11. Pianist Peterson to his friends?
12. Where guests and press can be found
15. Like many a soprano saxophone solo
18. This label reissued the first two releases by 1 Across
19. Lonnie and John
22. Like some free jazz
23. A pork-pie hat is not one of these
24. Type of Cuban guitar
26. Andrea Centazzo label
27. Resonance Records producer Feldman
28. He had a Chosen Six
29. A label is only as good as this (abbr.)
33. Repeated, a Cuban dance
34. Non-root notes of a Cmaj7 chord