APRIL 2020—ISSUE 216

YOUR FREE GUIDE TO THE NYC JAZZ SCENENYCJAZZRECORD.COM

kris
davis
it was a very
good year

digitalonly
edition
MAKOTO
OZONE

MAX
RAABE

HORACEE
ARNOLDHAMIET
BLUIETTManaging Editor:
Laurence Donohue-Greene
Editorial Director &Production Manager:
Andrey Henkin
To Contact:
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Phone/Fax: 212-568-9628

APRIL 2020—ISSUE 216
New York@Night

Laurence Donohue-Greene:ldgreene@nycjazzrecord.com

Interview : MAKOTO OZONEAndrey Henkin:ahenkin@nycjazzrecord.com

Artist Feature : MAX RAABE
On The Cover : KRIS DAVISGeneral Inquiries:
info@nycjazzrecord.com

Encore : HORACEE ARNOLD

Advertising:advertising@nycjazzrecord.com

Lest We Forget : HAMIET BLUIETT

Calendar:calendar@nycjazzrecord.com

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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, Pierre Giroux,
Anders Griffen, George Kanzler,
Steven Loewy, Kyle Oleksiuk
Contributing Photographers
Enid Farber, Peter Gannushkin,
Kentaro Hisadomi, Roberto Masotti,
Sherry Rubel, Robert I. Sutherland-Cohen
Fact-checker
Nate Dorward

nycjazzrecord.com

obituaries
album Reviews
Miscellany

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by ken dryden
by anna steegmann
by kurt gottschalkby jim motavalli
by elliott simon
by george grellaby suzanne lorge
by andrey henkinby andrey henkin

Legendary Swiss drummer Daniel Humair once said during an interview that jazz was onlya small part of music, that music was only a small part of art and that art was only a smallpart of life. All these years later his words are heavy with significance.
As you can see from the sticker on our cover, for the first time in our history we are publishingan edition solely in digital form. This was a simple calculus; if there is nowhere to deliver(for those somehow unaware, all concert venues in New York City—indeed all unnecessary
gatherings—are closed until further notice), there is little point in printing thousands ofissues. And, as you leaf through the pages, the effects of COVID-19—or, at least, the initial
ones as its scope and longevity are unclear—are apparent in the scheduled shows cancelled
and the lack of an Event Calendar, one normally having in excess of 750 concerts.
There is an old joke that jazz is always in a recession. But, as with most of the world’s
population and industries, it has never been in a pandemic. While events like the 1994 blizzard,
9/11, 2003 blackout and Hurricane Sandy tested the resolve of New Yorkers, those events were
finite and we could quickly address the consequences and fall back on the strength ofcommunity, even if each, in their own way, left permanent scars. Now we are rightly having
isolation advocated. For those familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, we are now squarelyat the bottom, focused on physiological and safety concerns. Things like art—part of selfactualization at the top of the pyramid—are luxuries right now.
But a society without community and the opportunity for higher pursuits is not worth thename. We can only hope that normalcy, which won’t, unfortunately, resemble any past versionof that concept, will return. Until then, do what you can to retain your humanity: physical,
mental, spiritual and universal.
On The Cover: Kris Davis (Peter Gannushkin/DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET)
Corrections: In last month’s Jimmy Heath In Memoriam, Wendy Oxenhorn is Founding Director of
The Jazz Foundation of America. And in the CD Reviews, Ricky Alexander’s album was released
by Outside In MusicAll rights reserved. Reproduction without permission strictly prohibited. All material copyrights property of the authors.

2 APRIL 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORDYour Gift To The
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For Basic Needs
To Our Beloved
Community of
Jazz and Blues
Musicians.

Please Donate Now:
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Fred Staton
Photo by Richard Corman

NEW YORK @ NIGHT
If folks were worried about catching the novel
coronavirus (at that point, only 62 New Yorkers had
tested positive) it didn’t stop them from packing Le
Poisson Rouge (Mar. 12th) to see Jeff Parker & The
New Breed. After a lively warm-up set by a drummerless piano trio (tap dancer Michela Marino Lerman
amply filled that function with syncopated footwork),
the L.A.-based guitarist, alto saxophonist/keyboard
player Josh Johnson, bassist Paul Bryan and drummer
Makaya McCraven debuted songs from Parker ’s latest
album, Suite for Max Brown (International Anthem).
Opening with “Executive Life”, the quartet didn’t takelong to enter an altered time zone, Johnson’s
psychedelic pentatonic minor lines lagging way behind
McCraven’s titanic back-beats, an effect repeated on“Here Comes Ezra”, an avant-Motown workout withan infectious melody and Jimi Hendrix vibe à la “Third
Stone from the Sun”. Bobby Hutcherson’s “Visions”
spotlighted Parker ’s pretty-meets-ugly tone andMcCraven’s agility within deep grooves. “Go Away!”,
an injunction to our president, and “Gnarciss” drew onfunk and hip-hop mixology, with triggers, sampledloops and Moog-ish synth patches. Parker began John
Coltrane’s “After the Rain” alone with tangy chords
and on “Max Brown” he and Johnson traded ideas overan extended drone until the hyper-funky 6/8 vamp.
The crowd demanded (and got) its encore: “Get
Dressed” and “Cliché”, a 2-fer trance-funk jam that set—Tom Greenland
all heads in the house a-bobbing.

ANDY MILNE &UNISONreMISSION

SSC 1576 - AVAILABLE 4/10/20

For over a decade, musician friends have urged me tomake a trio recording. Early in my career, I dabbled
with trios, but I focused mainly on duos, quartets andquintets as I began to develop my voice as a composerand collaborator. In 2017, I faced a life changing healthchallenge, and I began to reflect on how this might influence a musical course change. The jazz pianist’s venerable formation stared me squarely in the eyes and I realized now was the time. (Andy Milne)
Andy Milne (p), John Hébert (b), Clarence Penn (d)RAY SUHY-LEWIS PORTERQUARTET
TRANSCENDENT

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here is music that seemingly possesses mysticalqualities, transcending the temporal; qualities thatmusicians seek. Jazz history is rife with examples ofmusical seekers. Saxophonist John Coltrane and pianist
McCoy Tyner come to mind immediately. Guitarist Ray
Suhy and pianist Lewis Porter come together on their
new recording, Transcendent, under the influence of
these wayfaring heroes to create music that reaches
magical heights of musical interaction.
Ray Suhy (g), Lewis Porter (p)Brad Jones (b), Rudy Royston (d)JOEL HARRISON + 18
AMERICA AT WAR

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converged unexpectedly towards this result but it has
become deeply symbolic. Your correspondent’s first
choices for NY@Night reviews both came at the
beginning of March but, due to musician illness, wereboth cancelled. Thus, a second set of selections werenecessary and a date was chosen, Mar. 12th, wherein
two shows in close proximity could be reviewed:
Lakecia Benjamin’s Pursuance at Dizzy’s Club andSteve Wilson and The Analog Band at Birdland Theater.
But, to quote a Hebrew proverb: Man plans and God
laughs. On Mar. 1st New York City reported its firstcase of COVID-19; as of this writing there have beenover 22,000. What had begun a blip on international
news reports in December 2019 was declared apandemic on Mar. 11th. In response, some NYC venues,
lacking at the time any formal guidelines from national,
state or city officials, took it upon themselves to close
their doors, a gesture that recalled similar responses
during such earlier city crises as 9/11, the 2003 Blackoutand Hurricane Sandy in 2012. So it was that yourreviewer arrived at the Time Warner Center inColumbus Circle to find that the elevators to themultiple venues of Jazz at Lincoln Center had been
shut off and a notice posted that all programming—
Dizzy’s Club, Rose Theater, The Appel Room—wascancelled through April 15th. This, in conjunction withthe travel ban announced that day as well as earlier				(continued below)

R.I. Sutherland-Cohen / jazzexpressions.org

T

Yes, the photo is just a black square. Circumstances

Jeff Parker @ Le Poisson RougeGuitarist and composer Joel Harrison’s new large
ensemble recording, America At War, is a musicalmeditation on a lifetime of ruinous armed conflicts conducted by the United States. The ensemble includes 18
musicians game to the task of presenting this demanding and emotionally charged music.

MARTIAL SOLAL& DAVE LIEBMANMASTERS IN PARIS
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T

he great pianist and the saxophonist had never played
together until 2016, when they came together under
the impetus of Liebman’s former student Jean-Charles
Richard to perform at the Sunside Jazz Club in Paris,
France. Their rapport was so obvious that they werequickly booked for a few more shows. Their new recording, Masters In Paris, was one of these special events,
recorded live at Radio France Studio 104.

www.sunnysiderecords.com

International Women’s Day (Mar. 8th) at National
Sawdust proved the ideal time and place for a Women’s
Raga Massive double bill: a poetry reading by Sham-eAli Nayeem followed by a tribute to Hindustani singer
Lakshmi Shankar. Drawing from her debut book City of
Pearls, Nayeem read probing verses about her
childhood hometown of Hyderbad—her father ’s
advice, the river, Muslim genocide, a woman’s dual
identity as goddess/doormat—finishing with a newpoem about the current anti-Muslim pogrom in Delhi.
As she read, cellist Amali Premawardhana and tabla
player Roshni Samlal improvised sensitive ragaaccompaniment anchored by the cello’s droning open
strings. Immediately after, Kavita Das narrated from
Poignant Song, her study of Shankar ’s life and music.
As she described the singer ’s debut in Calcutta, herlove of dance, her illness, her work as a Bollywood
playback singer, her deep immersion in Hindustanimusic, her seminal collaborations with Ravi Shankar
and George Harrison, Das would periodically pause
for the band to animate these events with appropriate
musical examples. Premawardhana and Samlal, now
joined by Carnatic vocalist Roopa Mahadevan, violinist
Trina Basu and bassist Perry Wortman, played a
Bhajan, a Carnatic song, a medley of Bollywood
themes, a Hindustani tarana and an Indo-pop hybrid
piece. The best came last with a mash-up of threeThillanas that resolutely concluded this homage to the(TG)iconic Indian musical matriarch. 		

4 APRIL 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

cancellations of such events as SXSW, Coachella, Big
Ears and a number of European festivals, plus theNCAA Basketball Tournament and many sporting
events, had officially ushered the world into a new era.
Feeling the weight of these new developments, yourcorrespondent walked through Times Square towards
Birdland. There were a scattering of surgical masks but
nothing like one sees today. The crowds were there but
thinned (there was no wait at Shake Shack) and eerily
subdued. The first person carrying a box of plants was
spotted; later, on the way back to Queens, seeing many
more, these were understood to be office workers
preparing for an indefinite period of telecommuting
and no way to water their office foliage. Birdland wasstill open but Wilson, normally assured of a full if not
packed house, had less than two dozen. His band was
solid and the applause effusive but there was a chill tothe proceedings. Was this resilience or denial? In the
weeks since, Mayor De Blasio has made all unnecessary
gatherings verboten and all places of public worship—from jazz clubs to hockey rinks to pizza parlors—haveclosed down. Email inboxes have been flooded with
notices of concert cancellations and uncertainty about
when musicians would be able to work again, a tiny
sliver in the economic pandemic happening concurrent
with the actual one. The aforementioned city crises
now seem quite different; those quickly reinforced aneed for community and togetherness. Not so now.
					—Andrey HenkinAn AfroFuturism themed program billed Sounds Of
Justice paired William Parker’s Inside Songs Of
Curtis Mayfield and Sun Ra Arkestra under the
direction of Marshall Allen at The Town Hall (Mar.
4th). The show opened with vocalist Leena Conquest’spiercing acappella reading of Mayfield’s “The Makings
Of You” as projections of ‘60s Black Panther rallies
filled the screen overhead. An interlude with pianist
Dave Burrell and organ player Cooper Moore had
Thomas Sayers Ellis orating, mixing his rebellious
spoken word themes with those of Amiri Baraka. The
Parker nonet kicked into full gear, propelled by Hamid
Drake’s rollicking rhythms, for “People Get Ready”,
with the voices of Leila Adu-Gilmore, Raina Sokolov
and Ronald Peet joining Conquest’s lead vocal, avantfunk interludes by alto saxophonist Rob Brown andtrombonist Steve Swell in between. Parker ’s decidedly
Arkestral processional “Inside Song #1” preceded the
band’s rendering of Mayfield’s “I’m So Proud“, whichfeatured James Brandon Lewis’ growling tenor.
Parker ’s “Inside Song #2” had Burrell spinning out
percussive swirling chords while Sayer shouted hisand Baraka’s poetry. Parker ’s soulful orchestration of“My Country” had the voices in full gospel mode as
the audience joined in clapping time with the band.
Parker ’s “Inside Song #3” and “The Tone World
Theme” closed out the first half of the show,
appropriately leading in to Allen and Sun Ra Arkestra’s
typically energized performance.
—Russ Musto

K icking off Women in Jazz Month, Dizzy’s Club (Mar.

1st) presented pianist Helen Sung and her quite
timeless quintet. With a frontline of trumpeter Terell
Stafford and tenor saxophonist Roxy Coss, the band
cast a certain perfection in postbop. Sung, a pianist of
remarkable skill and unfettered imagination, poredover each work with determined ferocity guided bya central sense of melody. Stafford’s celebrated belllike tone, reminiscent of Clifford Brown, was driven
further by dynamic drummer Kendrick Scott andSung’s democratic sense of space. But this ensemble
too was built on a special sort of empathy, at one point
juxtaposing unexpected double-time in the midst of a
piano solo, causing Scott to break out in laughter as heand bassist David Wong locked into the soaring pulse.
By the time Coss took flight, one could almost hearechoes of the ‘60s Jazz Messengers rounding Columbus
Circle. The quintet maintained that intensity, filling thecrowded room with the very urgency warranted by
Women’s History Month in the #metoo era. Of
particular note was their take on Marian McPartland’s“Kaleidoscope”, the iconic Piano Jazz theme. Racing
through the familiar melody, the band traversed
gorgeously impressionistic sections, which found eachmember at slightly different tempi, before uniting
again at various points. As they began to cook,
improvisations artfully melted the arrangement andSung commanded the space with a solo cadenza that
could only be described as magical.
—John Pietaro

W H AT ’ S N E W S
On Mar. 1st, New York State confirmed its first case of COVID19. In the weeks since, tens of thousands of cases have been
diagnosed and New York City has been named an epicenterof the virus, with over half of the country’s known cases andfive percent of the world’s. Events have moved quickly since
the beginning of the month, with travel bans, cancellation ofmajor events such as the NCAA Basketball Tournament andthe 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Locally, after performance venues
were initially left to make their own decisions, city and state
officials at first banned gathering of over 500 people,
eventually closing all public venues completely until further
notice. Of specific relevance to readers of this gazette has
been the cancellation of hundreds of concerts throughout thecity, from such major venues as Jazz at Lincoln Center andCarnegie Hall down to the smallest coffeehouse. It is unclear
as to when any programming will resume. This comes on theheels of numerous festivals, from Coachella to SXSW to Big
Ears in the U.S. to various European festivals, also being
cancelled out of an abundance of caution. As a result, thecity’s live music industry—not just jazz—has ground to a halt,leaving musicians, club owners, soundpersons, waitstaff andassociated tradespersons faced with grim economic
uncertainty. Some measures to mitigate that have beenenacted. In these times, it is highly encouraged to support
musicians by buying albums, currently one of the few revenue
streams remaining to them. Many are also offering online
lessons and concerts to earn money as well. In addition,
venues throughout the city are filling in the concert gap bystreaming performances from their archives. Please checkthe websites of your favorite venues and support them as well
as all the musicians as best you can during this difficult period.
While thinking about music may seem bourgeois right now,
we are reminded of the composers who bravely plied theircraft while being held at Nazi concentration camps and how
art as an emotional balm is unmatched.

Photo by Sherry Rubel© 2020 Enid Farber Fotography

As an addendum to the above, Record Store Day(Apr. 1st) and International Jazz Day 2020 (Apr. 30th) havebeen postponed.
Litchfield Jazz Camp scholarship applications are being
accepted through Apr. 15th for those individuals wishing toattend this year’s camp (Jun. 28th-Jul. 3rd; Jul. 5th-10th; July
12th-17th; Jul 19th-25th) who are not able to pay tuition due
to economic hardship. For more information, to apply for ascholarship and also for those wishing to contribute towards
the scholarship fund, visit litchfieldjazzfest.com.

William Parker’s Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield @ Town Hall

Helen Sung @ Dizzy’s ClubTaking the stage (Mar. 1st) for the final set of a weekof sold-out shows at Village Vanguard, Cécile McLorin
Salvant took a seat, flanked on either side by her oddly
configured band of pianist Sullivan Fortner, banjo
player James Chirillo, flutist Alexa Tarantino andpercussionist Keita Ogawa. Singing selections from her
extensive, eclectic repertoire Salvant opened with
Sting’s “Until”, accompanied sparely by piano for the
first chorus before the band joined in the classicallytinged arrangement. Standing she then dove deep into
the blues for a duet with Chirillo on Margaret Johnson’s“Changeable Daddy Of Mine”. Ogawa’s cajon andpercussion introduced Gretchen Parlato’s “Circling”,
a feature for Tarantino, which had Salvant vocalizing
with measured rhythmic drive. Her dramatic renditionof Kurt Weill’s “Pirate Jenny” exuded thespian flair,
which followed by a joyously soaring flying version of“Optimistic Voices” from The Wizard Of Oz, confirming
an emotional range that continued on her readings ofGregory Porter ’s “No Love Dying” and Weill’s “TheWorld Is Mean”. The mood lightened as she engaged
the audience with her introduction of Shania Twain’s“Still The One” and then by taking a request for “Wild
Is Love”. She dedicated her performance of Fred
Hersch-Norma Winstone’s “Stars” to her late drummer
Lawrence Leathers, then followed with her own “GhostSong” and “Moon Song”. She closed out with Djavan’ssamba “Upside Down”, which Fortner tagged with the(RM)
I Dream Of Jeannie theme.

The tandem Nublu performance spaces boldly

program improvisational new music with disparate
strains of jazz and rock from the underground. With
“Jazz From Hell” (March 10th), Nublu 151 reached still
deeper. Organizer Laurent David affirmed that the title
was an homage to the Frank Zappa album, but much of
the music seemed inspired by…other forces. Opening
was Titan to Tachyons led by guitarist Sally Gates
with drummer Kenny Grohowski (John Zorn, Brand X)
and Matt Hollenberg all over a baritone electric guitar.
The desired effects—surreal and sci-fi heavy—were
evident over rhythmic accents and rapid shifts of meterand dynamics led from within by Grohowski. Next
was ir: 12-string banjo player Mick Barr and cajon
player Erik Malave. Rolling melodic patterns against
the rumbling cajon were wonderfully subject tophasing, sashaying downbeats in this direction or that,to great effect. The final set belonged to Kilter:
Grohowski, Ed Rosenberg III, whose bass saxophone
was electronically armed, and bassist Laurent David.
The trio erupted in thickets of sound with bass andbass saxophone unisons shredding the house.
Rosenberg ignited visions of Adrian Rollini (Anthony
Braxton too) as his horn painted the venue black,
Grohowski drove mercilessly and by the time vocalist
Andromeda Anarchia joined in, the sheer volume
became an entity. Her howl recalled Diamanda Galas,dipping into death metal lows and ghostly highs, atonce conjuring the evening’s necessary brimstone. (JP)Apollo Theater announced a massive commissioning
initiative, Apollo New Works, “dedicated to the creation of adiverse, 21st century American performing arts canon”, madepossible with the support of a $2 million grant from the Ford
Foundation. Among the participants will be vibraphonist
Stefon Harris. For more information, visit apollotheater.org.
The National Recording Registry has announced its 2020
Entries, which include “Whispering” by Paul Whiteman
Orchestra (1920) and Concert in the Garden by Maria
Schneider Orchestra (2004). For more information, visit loc.
gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/
recording-registry
The Tobias Hoffmann Nonet of Austria has won First Prize of
the Made in New York Jazz Competition. For more
information, visit madeinnyjazz.com.
As part of its Inspiring Woman line of dolls commemoratingtransformative women in history, Barbie (yes, that Barbie) has
released a doll of legendary singer Ella Fitzgerald, which will
include earrings, gown with brooch, microphone, shoes anddoll stand. To purchase, visit barbie.mattel.com/shop/en-us/
ba/inspiring-women-series.
Vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater has been named the Detroit
Jazz Festival’s 2020 Artist-in-Residence and will performthroughout the festival Sep. 4th-7th. For more information,
visit detroitjazzfest.org.
The Stone series at Happylucky no.1 has ended due to theclosure of the gallery.
Submit news to info@nycjazzrecord.com

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | APRIL 2020 5

Kentaro Hisadomi / photo courtesy of the artist

I NTERVIEW

MAKOTOOZONE
by ken dryden

Makoto Ozone is one of many outstanding Berklee alumni
from the ‘80s. The Kobe, Japan native was encouraged by hismusician father and his teacher to play jazz. He was alreadya pianist with phenomenal technique and inventive
improvising skill when he made his first appearance on acommercial release, a duo concert with Berklee professor andtrombonist Phil Wilson in 1982, while the pianist was
attending Berklee. After he graduated in 1984, Ozone waspromptly hired by another Berklee professor, Gary Burton,for his quartet. Ozone spent several years touring andrecording with the vibraphonist, in addition to touring
to promote the Eddie Daniels-Gary Burton CD BennyRides Again, taking Mulgrew Miller’s place. After striking
out on his own, Ozone regularly reunited with Burton forrecording projects. In the ‘80s, he made three albums as aleader for Columbia and then signed with Verve, thoughmost of his music in the new millennium has been recorded
for Japanese labels. For a long time, he maintained homes inboth the U.S. and Japan but in recent years has resided fulltime in his native land. A prolific composer interested inmany styles of jazz, Ozone currently records and plays withhis own trio and his big band No Name Horses while also
performing and recording classical music.X

Rich Big Band for the first time. Also, I loved the musicof Henry Mancini. I met Henry about six months before
he passed away. He loved the tango that Burton andI played as a duet.

The New York City Jazz Record: Were you exposed toa lot of music as a child?

TNYCJR: Were there many opportunities for you toplay jazz in Japan before coming to the U.S.?

Makoto Ozone: I was born in a family with music. My
father was a jazz musician, who played Hammondorgan and piano. So, it was natural for me to pick up
jazz music.

MO: When I was 15 years old, my teacher Tadao mademe play the piano with his big band at a major jazzfestival in Kobe. He arranged “Body And Soul” with acomplete piano solo featured for a whole chorus before
the band came in. How lucky a boy can get? That led
me to play his monthly gig with his big band at a jazzclub. Not to mention, I couldn’t read a note of music!

TNYCJR: Did you study classical piano first?
MO: Nope! I started out playing Dixieland jazz, as myfather was a pianist for a traditional Dixieland band.
Louis Armstrong actually heard this band live in the‘50s when he came to Japan and called the lead trumpet
player “my boy”. It was a great band. My dad took me
to the rehearsal almost every weekend. This was soimportant in my life, as I got to know Branford andEllis Marsalis. They told me that we speak the samelanguage, “authentic”, as my brother Branford told
me. I took a piano lesson at the age of five as my mothersuggested it. It was a classical lesson with the textbook,
but I completely got turned off by it. I stayed awayfrom playing the piano, reading music. Just sticking toplaying the Hammond organ, which was my very first
instrument.
TNYCJR: Which artists inspired your interest in jazz?
MO: Playing organ, my hero was Jimmy Smith,naturally. Then I went to a solo piano concert by Oscar
Peterson, only because my uncle gave me his ticket. He
couldn’t go and didn’t want to waste his ticket. Well,that concert changed my life. I immediately started toplay piano from that point on. My father was always
playing jazz in his car. That’s when I heard the Buddy

TNYCJR: Who were some of your mentors in Japanand how did they inspire you?
MO: My most important mentor was Tadao Kitano. He
was my teacher since I was in the seventh grade. He
had a big band called Arrow Jazz Orchestra. He passed
away a few years ago, but the band is still going strong
in the Osaka [Western Japan] area. He was one of themost advanced arrangers and composers. He neverstopped studying and checking out some new music
until the time he couldn’t play any more.
The lessons were so cool. We were supposed to do
our lesson at Yamaha studios, but we always met at
Yamaha and he would take me to jazz clubs and ask
the band to let me sit in. Nobody could say“No” to him. I forced myself to learn one standard per
week, so that I had a new song to play each week. Coollesson, huh?

TNYCJR: What led to your coming to the U.S. to study
at Berklee?
MO: The Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Bandcame to Japan. She and her music blew me away. I told
Tadao that I wanted to learn how to write for a big
band. He said, “Go to Berklee.” And I discovered thatToshiko [Akiyoshi] was the first Japanese student at
Berklee. So I had no choice but to go to Berklee,
especially to study with Herb Pomeroy.
TNYCJR: You met a cross-section of talented faculty
and fellow students there. Tell me about your time andwho left a lasting impression on you.
MO: I can’t thank Berklee enough to let me study withsuch incredible teachers and great musicians. Startingwith Herb Pomeroy, Greg Hopkins, Michael Gibbs forwriting, Phil Wilson [trombone], Ray Santisi [piano],
Maggie Scott [vocals], who taught me and helped meout entirely throughout my young days in Boston.
1980 was the year that I got into Berklee. That was
the golden year for jazz at Berklee and I will tell you
why. One day while I was practicing in the piano room,

6 APRIL 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

someone knocked on the door and asked me tocome play piano in the ensemble room. When I got
down there, there were about 10 black kids getting
ready to play. I was the only non-black. I got so excited
to play with real black musicians for the first time.
When I started to play—we played “I’ll Remember
April”—I was almost in tears as this band was swinging
so hard and sounding so powerful. My whole body got
filled with joy in two bars. It was Marvin “Smitty”
Smith on drums, Donald Harrison on alto, Branford
Marsalis on tenor and Wallace Roney on trumpet.
There also was Terri Lyne Carrington, Jeff “Tain” Watts,
Walter Beasley and more. That’s when I first got the				(CONTINUED ON PAGE 13)

photo courtesy of the artist

ARTIST FEATURE

MAX
RAABE

For more information, visit palast-orchester.de. This band
was scheduled to be at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall.
Recommended Listening:• Max Raabe & Palast Orchester—Folge 2: Kleines
Fräulein, Einen Augenblick (Monopol, 1989)• Max Raabe & Palast Orchester (with Max Raabe)—
Ich Wollt’ Ich Wär Ein Huhn (RCA/BMG, 2002)• Max Raabe—...Singt (Monopol-Palast Musik, 2004)• Max Raabe & Palast Orchester—Heute Nacht Oder
Nie (Live in New York) (SPV, 2007)• Max Raabe—Übers Meer (Decca, 2010)• Max Raabe—Der Perfekte Moment… Wird Heut
Verpennt (We Love Music, 2017)

by anna steegmann
The 1920s were an artistically rich period in German
history. Much of the music of the time was later
declared degenerate art by the Nazis and musicians
and singers were no longer allowed to perform. There
are many talented German singers in love with themusic of the Weimar Republic. Some have achieved
international acclaim but no one has reached the levelof stardom of Max Raabe. He has written original
songs and music, including film music, and acted infilms and done live theater. In 2010 his Israel tour
attracted so much attention that it was documented on
film as Max Raabe in Israel.
To date, Raabe has released 33 recordings. Several
have sold more than 100,000 copies. The latest, Max
Raabe & Palast Orchester MTV Unplugged, has been
Number 2 in Germany’s album charts for more than
two months. Raabe’s take on the album: “To be honest,
I would have never had the idea of recording an MTV
Unplugged with myself. I only considered it seriously
when I realized that we don’t have to be the cool MTV
artists but that we can ask cool MTV artists to participate
and join us in what we are doing. So we asked various
guest artists, among them the rapper Samy Deluxe,
German mega-star Herbert Grönemeyer, actor Lars
Eidinger, singers LEA and Namika and heavy metal
monster Mr. Lordi.” Raabe experienced the cooperation
as fun and inspiring. “All songs received a particular,very own twist; the resulting DVD/CD is exactly what
we were hoping for.” The project certainly worked out
well. To peek behind the scenes of this recording, forinterviews with Raabe and his guest artists, readers canvisit the Palast Orchester’s YouTube channel.
How did this wunderkind get his start? As ateenager living in a small town in West Germany helistened to big band music when his friends listened to
punk. He loved nightclub scenes featuring orchestras
in old black-and-white movies and was fond of his
parents’ collection of 78s. Raabe moved to Berlin to
become a baritone opera singer and financed his
studies with small performances. At the University of
the Arts, he found fellow students enthralled with old
tunes like him. They formed the Palast Orchester(palace orchestra) in 1986. Raabe hunted flea markets
for old records and libretti. The group had their debut
at the 1987 Berlin Theaterball. Performing in the lobby
as a secondary act they were so successful that theaudience left the ballroom to hear them in the lobby.
The rest is history.
Raabe had his first major hit with his 1992 original“Kein Schwein ruft mich an” (“Nobody ever calls me”.)
In 2010 the orchestra received the Echo Music Prize of
the Deutsche Phono-Akademie, an association ofGerman recording companies that recognized
outstanding achievement in the industry, for their CD
Charming Weill. They scored well in international
charts with two albums that interpreted modern pop
songs in the style of the 20s.
The 11 orchestra members play multiple
instruments and lend their singing voices whenrequired. Reeds (Sven Bährens, Johannes Ernst, Rainer
Fox, Bernd Frank), trumpet (Michael Enders, Thomas
Huder), trombone (Jörn Ranke), sousaphone/double
bass(BerndDieterich),guitar/banjo(UlrichHoffmeier), drums/percussion (Fabio Duwentester),violin (Cecilia Crisafulli) and piano (Ian Wekwerth)blend harmoniously transporting listeners to a Swing
Era dance hall. There has been change and continuity
but the orchestra’s musicianship has always been
second to none. Raabe comments, “From the very firstversion of the Palast Orchester there are only Ian, our
pianist, and I left. But most musicians have been withus since the late ‘80s/early to mid ‘90s. Our youngest
member is our charming violinist Cecilia Crisafulli—
the only woman in the orchestra. Even she has beenwith us for 13 years.”Raabe’s voice has been called “a mix of liquid gold
and velvet molded into a cut glass confection.”
The orchestra, in elegant evening attire, treats
audiences worldwide to an over-the-top show. Theirrepertoireofvintagemusic,
originals
andinterpretations of modern pop songs in the big-bandstyle of the 1920s including songs by Britney Spears
and Salt-N-Pepa, is unique and authentic. The lyrics oftheir German songs are often hilarious, though the
humor doesn’t always translate well.
Raabe acknowledges many different influences:
jazz, classical music, early film music, revues anddance music. He feels that the Palast Orchester ’s sound“is universal, familiar to people on both sides of theAtlantic. “ He points out that there was an exchange inboth directions. “In the 20s German musicians learned
from jazz records that were coming from the USA toEurope and mixed it with their own tradition inclassical music. What then evolved was transported
back to America and other countries, for instancethrough all those talented Jewish musicians who had
to flee Nazi Germany.” Listeners often are not aware ofwhere the songs originally came from: “‘Dream A Little
Dream’, made famous by The Mamas and the Papas in1968 is from 1931. ‘Just a Gigolo’ is from 1929, the same
year our arrangement of ‘Singing in The Rain’ waswritten—a song made famous by Gene Kelly in 1952.
Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s ‘Alabama Song’ waswritten in 1930 but became known to a wide audiencethrough The Doors and David Bowie.” Raabe doesn’t
think of his music as belonging to a certain genre. He
thinks of it as timeless classic entertainment.
His current international tour “Dream A Little
Dream” has won him high praises. The show according
to Raabe “reflects what the music was conceived forwhen it was written and what it still does today:
distract the audience for the time of the concert fromtheir every-day troubles.” Abroad Raabe includes
more English songs and announces German songs witha short description “and then the music speaks foritself.” Raabe feels lucky and grateful for his career.
“It is unbelievable that we still exist after over 30 years
and are now more popular than ever.” v

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | APRIL 2020 7

ON THE COVER
Peter Gannushkin/DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET

kris davis
it was a very good year

by kurt gottschalk

Pianist Kris Davis’ new year’s resolution for 2019 was,she says, “the same as everyone’s: go to the gym. But
I’ve kept at it.” It’s a modest resolution given the year
she had: a new record that could well prove to be worthyof the signifier “career defining”, if not “pivotal”; a newjob at Berklee College of Music aimed, in part, atredefining gender norms in jazz; and a new nonprofit to
support the record label she launched in 2016.
It was a stellar year for an artist who—at least
since her leader debut, the boldly titled Lifespan, issued
on Fresh Sound-New Talent in 2004—has provenherself to be a thoughtful composer and a performer
just as capable of simple sentiment as she is intellectual
musculature. It was also a year of making good on theserious statement of intent (of a sort) she made in 2016
with Duopoly, a CD/DVD set of duets with such major
players as Tim Berne, Don Byron, Bill Frisell, Julian
Lage and Angelica Sanchez and the first release on her
Pyroclastic imprint. She followed that with amemorable set of duets with fellow pianist Craig
Taborn in 2018 and then the remarkable Diatom Ribbons,
which topped last year ’s critic Best-Of lists. “I was
surprised people loved the record so much,” she saidof her most recent record, chatting in a West Village
café the afternoon of a tribute to pianist Geri Allen at
Bethany Baptist Church in Newark. “You never know
when you put something out. I’m just interested to see
where this will go, all the success around the album.”The modest pianist is careful, though, aboutcounting her chickens, even the ones that have hatchedalready. She learned that lesson in 2011, after being
named “one of four young pianists on the rise in the
jazz scene” by The New York Times. “I was like, oh wow,
stuff’s gonna happen now,” she laughed. “And then,nothing happened. But seeds are planted.”
Davis arrived in New York City in 2001, having
met some figures on the New York scene (Sanchez,
trumpeter Dave Ballou and saxophonist Tony Malaby)at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity’s
International Workshop in Jazz & Creative Music,
which she attended in 1997 and again in 2000. Born inCalgary, about an hour ’s drive from Banff, Davis
started piano at 6 and joined her school’s jazz band at
13. Her instructor saw something in her and introduced
her to some of the contemporary greats, notably Herbie
Hancock-era Miles Davis records. Those early lessonsof playing the repertoire while transcribing Hancock
solos may have been an early lesson in traversing
styles and communities. Early classical schooling later
led her to creating variations on a work by György
Ligeti and writing a piece for Luciano Berio, two major
figures of 20th Century European composition. An
upbringing in mainstream jazz gave her a focus andmusicality apparent in her improvisations.
Likewise, working with different communities ofmusicians in New York led to the cross-pollinatedhybrids of Diatom Ribbons. The album is built around atrio with drummer Terri Lyne Carrington (who hasbooked time in the bands of Hancock, Stan Getz andWayne Shorter, to name a few) and turntablist Val
Jeanty (Tracie Morris, Wallace Roney), both of whom

also played with the late Allen. Added to that core unit
are players from Davis’ downtown stream, including
Malaby, guitarists Nels Cline and Marc Ribot, bassist
Trevor Dunn and Ches Smith, heard exclusively on
vibraphone. Ensuring eclecticism, the album also
includes a dedication to Cecil Taylor and a poem by
Gwendolyn Brooks read by bassist/singer Esperanza
Spalding. Part of the experiment, she said, was to bringher more recent associates in the Allen stream and herolder, downtown improv partners into the same circle.
“I was becoming part of this community of musicians,
friends,” she said. “I wanted to bring these two groupsof people together and I felt like I had to write
something that brought those sensibilities together.”
Diatom Ribbons was a year in the making, between
assembling the musicians, researching, writing andlistening. Youssou N’Dour and Olivier Messiaen wereon heavy rotation while she was conceiving the album,
as was the free jazz funk of Ornette Coleman. Asked if
the unusual mix was a project or a new pursuit, Daviscalled it a “new direction” and is imagining
composing an album for the trio of Carrington, Jeanty
and herself next.
Carrington played another part in Davis’ big year.
The drummer holds the Zildjian Chair in Performanceat Berklee’s Global Jazz Institute in Boston. She wasalso, not incidentally, the first woman to win a Grammy
for Jazz Instrumental Album with her 2013 album
Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue, in which she reworked
the legendary Duke Ellington/Charles Mingus/Max
Roach session for octet. In 2018, Carrington founded
Berklee’s Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice with themission of raising awareness of gender disparities
within jazz performance and inspiring and developing
young musicians through education and mentorship.
In August 2019, Davis joined the Institute as an
instructor and Associate Program Director of Creative
Development. In her advocacy role with the institute,she travels to schools to perform and to speak about
the changing face of the jazz world and the newopportunities opening up, not just for women but foranyone who identifies along the LGBTQ+ spectrum.
“A lot of students come to the institute because they
feel like it’s a safe place to explore gender fluidity,” shesaid. “A lot of the students wrestling with genderissues are looking for a place to explore.”
The institute has also been responsible for a newedition of Berklee’s famed Real Book, a collection of lead
sheets for musicians, this one comprised of compositions
by such composers as Toshiko Akiyoshi, Tia Fuller andMary Lou Williams, which could and arguably should,
be jazz standards. The original, published by Berklee
students in the ‘70s included only one composition by awoman. Davis offers the new edition—available as a
PDF download—to schools she visits to use as a tool for
creating a more balanced program. “If you want tocreate a curriculum around women composers, here’s astarting point,” she explained.
Davis is also using the position as a platform tobring communities together. In addition to hercomposition courses, where she introduces students to

8 APRIL 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

such figures as Anthony Braxton and Karlheinz
Stockhausen, she has begun organizing workshops(which may be an academic way of saying jam sessions)for faculty and students from Berklee and the nearby
New England Conservatory of Music, bringing thelatter ’s penchant for improv into the Berklee fold. “It’sjust not something that happens too often at Berklee,”she said. “It’s not known for free improvisation.”
A commitment for seven months out of the yearwith Berklee leaves some time for running a label andbeing mother to a six-year-old, as well as her own
music. After releasing Duopoly and her duo with
Taborn, Octopus, along with a remarkable andunexpected album by pianist Cory Smythe (Circulate
Susanna) in the label’s first three years of existence,
Davis last year incorporated the label as a nonprofit
and secured funding from the Shifting Foundation to
help pay for future productions. The label allows her
to support other musicians—with a goal of signingyounger artists—while retaining rights to her own
work. “I was giving my records to smaller record labels
and they wanted to own some part of the publishing,”
she said. “It just didn’t make sense. I wanted to create
an umbrella where all my music can exist.”
The Pyroclastic plan is to split profits evenly withthe artist for seven years once production costs aremet, after which time all rights revert to the artist. Witha small, on-call staff of a half dozen, however, thesurplus is slim. “There’s basically no profit in this,”she said. “I don’t know how other small labels are
doing it.” The coming year will see a second pressingof Diatom Ribbons plus new releases from Smythe,
Taborn, Eric Revis and Sara Schoenbeck and a set of
piano duets by Marilyn Crispell and Sanchez. And
with touring curtailed under the current crisis, Davis is
still looking forward to the release of a duo record withsaxophonist Ingrid Laubrock on Intakt and is working
on new material for the Borderlands trio with bassist
Stephan Crump and drummer Eric McPherson.
As it happens, the pianist/composer/advocate/
instructor/entrepreneur didn’t make a resolution for2020. But she did have personal goals for where she’dbe by the time she hit 40, a marker she passed in
January. “I was hoping by the time I was 40 I would bea mom and have a stable teaching situation where
I could teach what I wanted to teach,” she said witha smile. “Both came true.” v
For more information, visit krisdavis.net. Davis is scheduled
to be at Village Vanguard Apr. 21st-26th.
Recommended Listening:• Kris Davis—Rye Eclipse (Fresh Sound-New Talent, 2007)• Kris Davis—Aeriol Piano (Clean Feed, 2009)• Ingrid Laubrock/Kris Davis/Tyshawn Sorey—
Paradoxical Frog: Union (Clean Feed, 2011)• Eric Revis—City Of Asylum (feat. Kris Davis andAndrew Cyrille) (Clean Feed, 2012)• Borderlands Trio (Stephan Crump/Kris Davis/
Eric McPherson)—Asteroidea (Intakt, 2016)• Kris Davis—Diatom Ribbons (Pyroclastic, 2018)

ENCORE

horaceearnoldby jim motavalli“It was a time when everybody knew everybody andhigh-quality people moved from one stylistic thing toanother.” Drummer Horacee Arnold was talking about
1973-74, when he recorded two memorable albums of
cutting-edge fusion for Columbia, Tribe and Tales of the
Exonerated Flea. The latter is a project Arnold would still
like to revisit. He has a “Part Two” he’d love to make.
Arnold, born in 1937, grew up in Louisville,
Kentucky, where he remembers banging out rhythms
on a cardboard box—and having people pay him tostop making such a racket. He didn’t hear a lot of jazz
down there, but joined the Coast Guard as a young man
and was lucky enough to be stationed circa 1959 inpeacetime Long Beach. There was free time to headover to nearby Los Angeles and hear the music on
Central Avenue. “I also got to learn from drummers like
Lawrence Marable and Frank Butler, who were high on
the totem pole,” Arnold says. Around this time Arnold
also started painting and that’s something he still does.
Tony Bennett is an inspiration. “I was shocked I could
do it,” he says of his abstracts and portraits. “I enjoy
both areas and hope to exhibit my art soon.”
Max Roach was a mentor to Arnold, helped him getwork and invited him to come to New York around1959-60. A trio with Cecil McBee and Kirk Lightsey was
short lived, but there were gigs with Rahsaan Roland
Kirk and Charles Mingus. A memorable one-nighter,once Arnold became New York-based, was with Bud
Powell at Birdland in 1964. “He had come back from
Europe and he was not a well man,” Arnold says of the
pianist. “But to play with him was something on adifferent level entirely.” Also memorable was a stintwith one of the lost legends of jazz, pianist Hasaan Ibn
Ali. Arnold took part in intense rehearsals with Hasaan(who was known by the one name) and bassist Henry
Grimes. Arnold describes his music as having an affinity
with Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols. They were
supposed to record, but Hasaan, though hugely talented,
was eccentric to say the least. “One night he said let’s godown to the Village Vanguard,” Arnold remembers.
“Bill Evans was playing with bassist Scott LaFaro anddrummer Paul Motian and Hasaan pushed Evans off the
piano stool and just started playing.” Evidently, Evansaccepted the usurpation and eventually Arnold took
over the drums from Motian and they played a few
numbers. But Hasaan was unknown and Atlantic
wanted a name so the album came out in 1965 as The
Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan. Hasaan
never recorded anything else and Henry Grimes
disappeared, too (though since resurfacing).
Arnold always had progressive leanings and theycame to the surface in 1967 when he founded the Hereand Now Company, which featured at various times
Sam Rivers, Joe Farrell, Reggie Workman, Karl Berger
and Robin Kenyatta. Guitarist Ralph Towner became afriend and collaborator and they’re still best friends
today. It’s not surprising, given his work with Farrell
and interest in fusion, that Arnold would hook up with
Chick Corea. He was in an early version of Return toForever with Farrell, Stanley Clarke, Airto Moreira andFlora Purim. “They wanted to conceptualize further
and became even more fusion-esque,” Arnold says.
“Lenny White was the best choice for them at thattime.” He also played with Stan Getz, around the timeof the Captain Marvel album with Clarke and Corea, but
didn’t stay for long.
And now we come to Arnold’s two great recordings
as a leader. The drummer knew producer John
Hammond, who heard some tapes he did with bassist
Juini Booth, saxophonist Bennie Maupin andvibraphonist David Friedman (another close friend).
Hammond approved and agreed to a record date. Tribe
was released in 1973 and is a wonderful record withreference to what Weather Report, Herbie Hancock andMiles Davis were doing at that time. Towner is also
aboard, as are fellow guitarist John Abercrombie,
Friedman and saxophonist Billy Harper.
Columbia executive Bruce Lundvall heard Tribeand dug it. Columbia was smiling, so Tales of the
Exonerated Flea was green-lit and released in 1974. If
anything, it’s even better than Tribe, with three bassists(Clint Houston, George Mraz, Rick Laird), Abercrombie
again, saxophonist Sonny Fortune, Friedman andTowner and great keyboard work from Arnold’s friend
Jan Hammer. Arnold blames bad management and thefact that Hammond became ill and disengaged for thefact that the albums didn’t get promoted.
The album’s concept is “man’s place as a homosapiens on the planet,” Arnold says. “It’s about what
has transpired since our arrival here.” The exonerated
fleas, that’s us. Part Two will complete the “duality ofthe project,” but it hasn’t been recorded yet. In the can,though, is an album with bassist Buster Williams,
recently departed guitarist Vic Juris, pianist George
Colligan and tenor saxophonist Antoine Roney. “It’s
primarily acoustic, but there’s an urgency to it,” Arnold
says. “I hope it comes out soon.”
Arnold, who lives in Manhattan, became a teacher
at William Paterson University in New Jersey and has
been there since 1981. “I’m still teaching there, but myschedule is much looser these days,” he says. “Thatgives me the freedom to do what I want to do, including
going out on tour and getting together with my bestfriend in the world, Ralph Towner.”
Arnold may have had setbacks in his career—Tribeand Tales of the Exonerated Flea didn’t make him ahousehold name, but he’s far from bitter. “I don’t have
any room for that,” he says. “Things may not be goingyour way, but who knows what life will offer you.” vGroup with trumpeter Lester Bowie and alto
saxophonists Julius Hemphill and Oliver Lake. In 1969
Bluiett moved to NYC and was nourished by both its
musical freedom and paying gigs. He joined theCharles Mingus Big Band where he had room todevelop his unique voice further with solos on Mingus
tunes like “Peggy’s Blue Skylight”. After leaving
Mingus, early releases for India Navigation,
particularly Birthright: A Solo Blues Concert (1978), weredaring live statements, nakedly exposing the baritone’s
powerful range and bluesy soul as never before.
Bluiett co-founded World Saxophone Quartet (WSQ)
with Hemphill, Lake and tenor saxophonist David
Murray in 1976. His “Hattie Wall”, with its infectious
funk that leads the listener to free encounters and safely
back again, captures their message. Bluiett, Lake andHemphill had partnered with Anthony Braxton for asaxophone quartet cut on Braxton’s New York, Fall 1974
(Arista, 1975). Soon after, the WSQ played a one-off gig
in New Orleans and everything clicked. Bluiett’s
pumping horn allowed them to eschew jazz’ customaryrhythm section and harmonize like a doo-wop group orcollectively improvise off irresistible hooks. Jacksonremembers attending their recording session for Selim
Sivad: A Tribute to Miles Davis (Justin Time, 1998), “It wasappropriately not merely a rehash of how Miles might
have played those tunes, but a reimagining of thosepieces similarly to how Miles might have tried touniquely approach things—a lesson already in itself.”

Jackson describes how his upcoming tribute toBluiett came about: “I had approached [Sistas’ PlaceMusic Director] Ahmed Abdullah about doing something
there…I was also working with James Brandon Lewis. I
first met him in a group Bluiett organized for one of theannual AACM concerts. So I thought it would be fantastic
to do a Bluiett tribute featuring one of his most successful‘protégés’—James Carter playing bari—paired with ayounger player also influenced by him on tenor. It
should be a very fun evening and hopefully a fitting
tribute to Bluiett’s spirit.” A spirit that dragged
traditional jazz and creative music kicking and screaming
into each other’s arms for dazzling flashes of creation. v

For more information, visit horaceearnold.com
Recommended Listening:• Robin Kenyatta—Until (Vortex, 1966)• Chick Corea—The Complete Is Sessions(Solid State-Blue Note, 1969)• Horacee Arnold—Tribe (Columbia, 1973)• Horacee Arnold—Tales of the Exonerated Flea
(Columbia, 1974)• Billy Harper Quintet—In Europe (Soul Note, 1979)• Gust William Tsilis & Alithea (with Arthur Blythe)—Pale Fire (Enja, 1987)

LEST WE FORGET

hamietbluiett
by elliott simon
Baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, who died Oct. 4th,2018 at 78, influenced musicians not only with his horn
but his style. Pianist D.D. Jackson is especially grateful:“He had an incredible impact on my approach to musicmaking just by setting an example of how to be
spontaneous and fearless in one’s playing, how to listen
and interact and to harness the moment.” Bluiett’s
association with Jackson blossomed in the late ‘90s andco-led sessions on the Justin Time label (Same Space, 1997;
Join Us, 1998; The Calling, 2000) showcase that specialbond. The latter session most specifically stands out forJackson: “He was always harnessing the moment, trying
things out fearlessly and not afraid to change course
abruptly as needed. A definite life lesson every time.”
Born in St. Louis in 1940, Bluiett studied clarinet,
piano and trumpet and at the age of ten became
fascinated with the baritone. He was captivated with
Harry Carney’s big sound, an integral part of theEllington Orchestra, and soon joined the Black Artists

10 APRIL 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

A Bluiett tribute was scheduled to be at Sistas’ Place.
Recommended Listening:• Hamiet Bluiett—Birthright: A Solo Blues Concert(India Navigation, 1978)• Hamiet Bluiett—The Clarinet Family: Live in Berlin(Black Saint, 1984)• World Saxophone Quartet—Plays Duke Ellington(Elektra/Nonesuch, 1986)• Hamiet Bluiett/Larry Willis—If Trees Could Talk
(Mapleshade, 1993)• Hamiet Bluiett/DD Jackson/Kahil El’Zabar—
The Calling (Justin Time, 2000)• World Saxophone Quartet—Yes We Can(Jazzwerkstatt, 2009)

L ABEL SPOTLIGHT

CONSTELLATION
by george grella
Any listener who has encountered saxophonist
Matana Roberts’ magnificent COIN COIN series has,at least indirectly, discovered Constellation Records.
The Montréal label has released four of Roberts’
albums so far, the most recent, COIN COIN Chapter
Four: Memphis, coming out last year.
But there is much more to the Constellation
catalogue and very little of it is jazz in even an extended
sense of the term. The label has put out records by theavant garde roots artist Carla Bozulich (including
2014’s Boy), electronic musician Jerusalem in my Heart,
outsider singer/songwriter Vic Chesnutt, globeencompassing pop artist Sandro Perri and seminal artrock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
As Don Wilkie, who co-founded the label with Ian
Ilavsky, told the story in a recent phone conversation,it all began with Godspeed and it all began in Montréal:“We started loft shows and met early Godspeed.
“Montréal [in the late ‘90s] had such a dearth ofmusic resources of any kind, we thought a venue
would be the place to start and then have a small labelgrow out of it on the old Knitting Factory model. There
were no record labels that made sense to us locally andthere was so much happening musically that we
believed should be heard.“
Easier said than done, though. As Wilkie describes
it, the city “is zoned down to the square inch,” and heand Ilavsky didn’t have the money to manage theLuciferian Towers
Godspeed You! Black Emperor

process it would take to open a new venue.
“We said ‘fuck it’ and got off the ground with what
we were doing” out of the loft shows. “We put out a 7”
and then Godspeed’s first record [F♯ A♯ ∞, 1997] andthe rest is history.”
That history means accumulating the 154 releases
in the Constellation catalogue as of March 2020. Wilkie
attributes the breadth of the label’s aesthetic to the cityin which it is based. “What was happening andcontinues to happen,” he explains, “is it’s a city thatlikes to experiment with music. Montréal was a very
cheap place to live [when Constellation got off theground]. Jobs were hard to come by, but at the sametime didn’t take a lot to live here. That brought thosekinds of people to the city”: musicians who could holddown a part-time day job and spend a substantial
amount of their time and energy on making theirmusic.
Still, the range of music on Constellation musthave more to do than with simple geography andproximity—how do Wilkie and Ilavsky decide what
belongs under their imprint?
“What’s right for Constellation?” he wonders
aloud, but can’t quite pin it down. “There’s anunspoken sense [between us] of what’s right. We preferlisteners to decide whether there is a coherent body ofwork. We care about what our artists feel about theother music they’re lumped with.”
Roberts came aboard through the proximity ofconnections. Wilkie and Ilavsky have friends in
Chicago, Roberts’ original home, and through bassist
Joshua Abrams , the two met Roberts. “And Godspeed
met her,” Wilkie adds, “and she played on their thirdalbum [Yanqui U.X.O., 2002].”

COIN COIN Chapter Three: river run thee
Matana Roberts

Therapy With Colour
T. Gowdy

Roberts’ concept, which mixes personal andcultural history, documentation and an approach toform that is social and congregational, stands out fromthe mainstream of jazz. Does it stand out from thelabel? In terms of those elusive qualities that mark thestyles or aesthetic values that Constellation wants topromote, Wilkie says “We cared about her process,what she cared about politically. It was easy to fit her
into what we were already doing. She’s one of theartists we’re most proud of.”
Putting out new music, and music new to thefounders, remains a personal, intuitive process. The
primary focus remains on Montréal although Wilkie
says, “It’s changing all the time. I’m not a young man
anymore; I’m finding it a little harder to spend mynights in dilapidated lofts.
“I get dozens of things that come into my inbox.
We try and focus on local artists, people we trust bringus things, the international ones are exceptional [forConstellation’s outlook]. Local focus means we can get
to know our artists, build a sense of trust. We try andbe as involved as possible [with the recording andproduction of each new record]”. They currently put
out about 10 a year on average —and manage releases
with a personal, even familial, touch with each artist.
For 2020, they are “in the middle of releasing three
things much more electronic, there are clusters of things
that [listeners may] lump into ‘jazz’ as far as a [genre].”But expect the new records to continue the ethos andaesthetic Constellation has found within their own
process—local roots branching out into extended
growth that covers a vast range of musical ideas. v
For more information, visit cstrecords.com

COIN COIN Chapter Four: Memphis
Matana Roberts

The Infected MassThose Who Walk Away

VOXNEWS

TUNES
HELP
by suzanne lorge
25 years ago, vocalist Kurt Elling released a debut

album that immediately begged comparisons between
the newcomer and jazz luminary Mark Murphy. CloseYour Eyes (Blue Note) earned Elling his first of 14
Grammy nominations to date. Through the intervening
decades he went on to release more than a dozen
albums, for the most part on major jazz labels: besides
Blue Note, Concord, Decca and Sony’s Okeh. For his
latest album, though—Secrets Are The Best Stories, his
first collaboration with pianist Danilo Pérez—Ellingturned to the independent label Edition, based in the
U.K. Why? For the freedom of it, he says. After aquarter of a century in the spotlight, Elling wants moreroom to craft his image as he sees fit—plus a greatercut of the proceeds. Thus, “Edition is the perfect home
for this album,” he asserted in a press release.
“Edition’s fresh ideas and energy bring a vital boost ata pivotal career juncture.” On the new album themusicians offer sobering social commentary—not only
through the somber imagery of Elling’s lyrics but
through Pérez’ artfully disarticulated accompaniment(hear “Song of the Rio Grande”, available as a prerelease on YouTube.) Elling’s performance, however, is

as warm and kindly as ever. Not all things change. The
album drops on Apr. 3rd.
Back in 1934, a 17-year-old Ella Fitzgerald steppedout on the Apollo Theater stage for the first time,
thinking that she’d dance as a contestant in the newly
birthed Amateur Night contest. The problem was that
the Edwards Sisters, a high-energy dance act, werestarring at the Apollo that night. Intimidated,
Fitzgerald decided to sing instead. At first the audiencebooed her. But then she collected her wits, launched
into Hoagy Carmichael’s “Judy” and changed jazzhistory forever. Eagle Rock Entertainment’s new
documentary, Ella Fitzgerald: Just One Of Those Things,
contains lots of known anecdotes like this, some in
Fitzgerald’s own words. It also contains many lesserknown stories about this jazz deity, including several
that expose the racist and sexist forces that threatened
to undermine her enormous talent. (History can attest
that she won.) Interspersed with clips of Fitzgerald
performing and speaking are interviews with informed
subjects like dancer Norma Miller, who knew her, andjazz journalist Will Friedwald, who knows all about
her. Check the Eagle Rock website for New York
screenings. (April dates have been rescheduled.)
One of the casualties of COVID-19 was the release
concert of singer Aubrey Johnson’s debut Unraveled(Outside In Music), originally booked for Mar. 20th atRockwood Music Hall. A pity—this is a splendid, surefooted release that deserves lots of attention. Johnson,

who wrote four of the tracks and arranged all 10 ofthem, has been traveling in good company for many
years, so the virtue of her first solo effort comes as no
surprise. She’s sung with ensembles as varied andnotable as Fred Hersch’s Pocket Orchestra, John Zorn’s
Mycale and Sara Serpa’s City Fragments and her uncle
is Pat Metheny’s longtime pianist, the recently
departed Lyle Mays (1953-2020). As with the projectsof her previous collaborators, the new album featuressolid writing, sophisticated harmonic abstractions andthe effervescence of Johnson’s wide-ranging voice.
One of Johnson’s more high-profile projects was
Bobby
McFerrin’s
2010
Grammy-nominated
VOCAbuLaries (EmArcy). This year, McFerrin is a
National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master. At 69,
McFerrin is one of the youngest recipients. McFerrin isalso the only member ever to have had a No. 1 hit on the
Billboard Hot 100—his 1988 pop-reggae single “Don’t
Worry, Be Happy”. But he’s best known for his
preternatural ability to improvise on almost any tune,
pulling wildly divergent musical ideas seemingly out of
the walls. The celebratory concert for this year’s Jazz
Masters, slated for Apr. 2nd at the SFJAZZ Center in San
Francisco, Calif., has been postponed and is yet to berescheduled.
VOXNews PSA: Hundreds of singers lost their New
York gigs this month with the darkening of concert halls,
theaters and clubs. They’ll be back. In the meantime,
consider buying a disc or download. Tunes help. v

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | APRIL 2020 11

i n me moria m

roberto masotti / courtesy of ecm records

jonchristensen
by andrey henkin

J on Christensen, the Norwegian drummer who helped
bring his country’s jazz musicians to international
attention via hundreds of recording credits (a huge
portion for ECM, earning a reputation as the label’shouse drummer) with a remarkable cross-section ofinternational artists, died Feb. 18th at 76.
Christensen was born Mar. 20th, 1943 in Oslo.
Some of his earliest credits were with vocalist Karin
Krog and pianist Einar Iversen in the early to mid ‘60s.
In 1967, he played on saxophonist Jan Garbarek’s debut
album (Til Vigdis, Norsk Jazzforbund), appearing
alongside bassist Arild Andersen, and then with
Garbarek on guitarist Terje Rypdal’s debut Bleak House(Polydor, 1968). Christensen would finish out the ‘60s
working with countrymen like Egil Kapstad and Erik
Vold, Swede Rune Gustafsson and American pianist
Steve Kuhn. During this period, Christensen also
worked with American composer George Russell,
appearing (along with Garbarek) on 1967-68’s Othello
Ballet Suite/Electronic Organ Sonata No. 1 (Sonet). This
would lead to a crucial endorsement, George Russell
Presents The Esoteric Circle (Flying Dutchman, 1969),
Christensen as one-quarter of the titular band alongside
Garbarek, Rypdal and Andersen, as well as
participation in Russell’s Electronic Sonata For Souls
Loved By Nature (Flying Dutchman, 1969).
Soon the members of The Esoteric Circle wererecording for Manfred Eicher ’s then-fledgling ECM
label. Its seventh release was Garbarek’s AfricPepperbird, with all four in tow. Christensen would
continue to record for the imprint well into the newmillennium, most recently with Danish guitarist Jakob
Bro, working with such label stalwarts as John
Abercrombie, Ketil Bjørnstad, Iro Haarla, Keith Jarrett,Charles Lloyd, Enrico Rava, Dino Saluzzi, Tomasz
Stankó, Bobo Stenson, Ralph Towner, Miroslav Vitous,
Eberhard Weber, Bugge Wesseltoft and others. In
addition, he had credits on other labels with Carsten
Dahl, Lars Danielsson, Stu Goldberg, Yelena Eckemoff,Håkon Kornstad, Adam Makowicz and many more.
In a profile for Modern Drummer Magazine,
Christensen described his career with a reservecharacteristic of his playing: “I’ve always been hired toplay like I play. I’ve been playing ‘Jon Christensen’ all
the way. Journalists began writing that I was thisinnovative drummer and that people from Japan andEurope had begun trying to play like me. Only thendid I figure out, Hmmm, maybe I’ve done something
different after all.”

LYLE MAYS (Nov. 27th, 1953-Feb. 10th,2020) The keyboard player got his earlyarranging experience in the famed
North Texas State University Jazz Lab
Band, put to good use a couple of years
later in 1977 upon joining Pat Metheny,staying in the guitarist’s bands wellinto the new millennium and contributing materialand charts to dozens of albums, to go along withcredits under Woody Herman, Joni Mitchell, Steve
Swallow, Eberhard Weber, Bob Moses, Paul McCandlessand others and a handful of albums as a leader for
Geffen and Warner Bros. Mays died Feb. 10th at 66.
LAURIE MORGAN (Sep. 4th-1926-Feb.
5th, 2020) The British drummer was partof his country’s nascent bebop scene,most notably as part of the short-lived
New Departures Quartet (one 1964
Transatlantic album) alongside morewell-known members Bobby Wellins,
Stan Tracey and Jeff Clyne, plus even earlier work withJohn Dankworth, and among the first Brits to workwith the recently arrived Blue Notes from South Africa
in the late ‘60s. Morgan died Feb. 5th at 93.
ED STOUTE (Jul. 13th, 1935-Feb. 23rd,2020) The pianist had only a few
recording credits (Ken McIntyre andIllinois Jacquet in the ‘60s, rejoining thelatter in the late ‘90s; Larry Ridley inthe ‘90s), membership in the Harlem
Renaissance Orchestra, decades of
performing in his native New York concurrent with his
job at Con Edison and one album as a leader, 2011’s
The Ed Stoute Experience. Stoute died Feb. 23rd at 84. v

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(INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6)
gig with Branford. We still play together. Then I met
Gary Burton as I was graduating.
TNYCJR: Gary Burton obviously found a special
chemistry with you, not only adding you to his band
shortly after you graduated, but continuing tocollaborate with you on occasion over many years.
What did you enjoy about playing with him?
MO: For me, it was the sound he produced. He doesn’t
play that instrument. He makes those metal bars singout as if you could almost see the sound steam, if there
is such thing, as it is coming out of the bars. Also, his
harmonic approach on the instrument was the closest
to how we piano players approach it. Only he only getsto use four notes at a time as opposed to ten fingers.
TNYCJR: Were there jazz veterans who helped you
along the way after you graduated from Berklee?
MO: Gary Burton taught me almost everything youneed to know to become a mature musician. The mainthing was about comping. There are so many elements
you must listen to. I was listening to so much detail on
the surface when I started to play with him. He gaveme such precise instructions and concept aboutcomping. It took me about a year to find out what itwas. But I am so grateful that he used all of his energy
to teach me how to become a great accompanist.
TNYCJR: It is a bit frustrating trying to find yourrecordings issued in Japan, due to their limited
distribution in the U.S. Are any of them likely to belicensed by U.S. labels or do you have plans for any
U.S. releases in the near future?
MO: Yeah, tell me about it. I think part of it is my fault
because I stopped living in the States. I am now basedin Tokyo. Because I play classical concerts around theworld and it was getting less and less necessary for me
to be based in the States as I travel so much. Then myfamily was getting older. But I am now planning to
make my annual appearance in the USA as I used tobecause I have a wonderful new management in
London who can book me worldwide. I hope to findsomeone to release my new CD in the US.
TNYCJR: You have been working in classical settings
in recent years. I remember how thrilling was yourpreview concert with Gary Burton of music from
Virtuosi that you did at the IAJE Conference in 2002 at
Long Beach, prior to the CD’s release.
MO: To make a long story short, I will say I sort ofstumbled into the world of classical music by accident.
In 2003, I had an offer to play with Sapporo SymphonyOrchestra and I took it because I assumed they wanted
me to play Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”. I didn’t
ask, as we jazz musicians almost never talk about the
program when we sign the contract.
A few months later, I discovered that they wanted
me to play a Mozart piano concerto. And I had to pickone I like, not to mention I didn’t know any of those 27
concertos he’d written. Anyway, I don’t remember how
I played it, as I was too nervous for the entire length of
this concerto—I played No. 9 in Eb Major—but the
conductor loved it and he sent the word out that
I played such a fresh interpretation of Mozart to thewhole world.
The next thing I knew, I was getting offers fromother orchestras from all over the world. Now I play
Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Ravel. It’s
crazy, but I am loving it so much. Because I can’t playthem the way I hear them. Yes, I practice so much to
get the notes right. But my technique is never enoughfor playing those written notes the way I want it. This

keeps giving me an incredible frustration and joy at thesame time. It keeps on challenging me. And thosecomposers have incredible ideas and chops of writing
such beautiful harmony in the most perfect way ofconstruction.
TNYCJR: Tell me about your trio and your big band
No Name Horses. What qualities do you look for in amusician? Has the big band toured with you outside
Japan or are the logistics and costs too much of achallenge?
MO: I met [drummer] Clarence Penn through my dearfriend and wonderful bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa.
He hooked us up in 1996 for the Caribbean Jazz Cruise.
It was supposed to be for that one-week cruise, but weknew the chemistry was too good to let go after weplayed a few bars. Kiyoshi left the trio in 2000 andJames Genus came in. By adding James on the bass, thetrio was able to explore over more different genres ofmusic. Now James is so active in his career, doing
Saturday Night Live and playing with Herbie Hancock,so we asked Yasushi Nakamura, a very talented andexperienced bassist, to play with us.
My big band No Name Horses was put together
for a recording session for a Japanese jazz singer
named Kimiko Itoh. I arranged all the songs. Half ofthe members are alumni of Berklee. The lead trumpet,
Eric Miyashiro, is so well known among jazz lovers
and brass players. He played the lead for Buddy Rich
until his last concert, for Maynard Ferguson, Woody
Herman and other major bands. Again, the first voicing
I heard, I knew it was too good to let go after thisrecording. And the members felt the same way.
We have traveled around the world as well as
doing a major tour in Japan. I played at IAJE convention
in 2006 in New York City, we played at La RoqueD’antheron piano festival in South France, Edinburgh
Jazz Festival, Porgy & Bess Jazz Club in Vienna. We areplanning another world tour in 2022 and we are hoping
to make a stop in New York City, whether it’s a jazzfestival or club dates.

Competition and just recorded an album.
TNYCJR: You enjoy free improvisation. What factors
help you create superior results?
MO: Just don’t play the notes that you don’t hear!!
I get turned off if I hear the notes that are played only
by my fingers. I did a duet concert tour with Chick
Corea a couple of years ago. We opened all the concertsby playing completely free improvisation. Each one we
did was a knockout!!
TNYCJR: What recording projects do you have planned
for the future?
MO: My latest recording is with the big band. It’s a
combination of jazz and progressive rock. Ryūnosuke
Yamagishi, the guitarist on the CD, has just turned 20
years old. No musical background whatsoever. He
can’t read music but has had a great year. I hopesomeone in the States will distribute it. v
For more information, visit makotoozone.com. Ozone wasscheduled to be at Dizzy’s Club.
Recommended Listening:• Phil Wilson/Makoto Ozone—Live!! At the Berklee
Performance Center (Shiah-Capri, 1982)• Makoto Ozone—Breakout (Verve-Universal, 1994)• Makoto Ozone—The Trio (featuring John Scofield)(Verve, 1997)• Gary Burton/Makoto Ozone—Virtuosi (Concord Jazz, 2001)• Makoto Ozone featuring No Name Horses—
Jungle (Verve, 2009)• Makoto Ozone/Christian McBride/
Jeff “Tain” Watts—My Witch’s Blue (Verve, 2012)

TNYCJR: You’ve done some recording on electric
keyboards. What draws you to them in place of a grandpiano?
MO: I play Hammond and Fender Rhodes sometimes.
I almost never play synthesizer. Incidentally, the newalbum of my big band No Name Horses, I wrote a
progressive rock suite and play the organ like crazy!!
Lots of fun!
TNYCJR: What is your process for composing a song?
Do you work at the piano, computer or manuscript or
a combination of them?
MO: I need a good month to compose songs for analbum. The first week and a half is always painful. I
keep telling myself, “Ok, that’s it. Quit!” Then, fromthe third week on, something starts to happen. Yet myfavorite original compositions always come so easy.
What’s up with that? I use pencil and manuscript
paper for writing down memos and ideas. But I write
the actual score and parts on my computer now, using
the Sibelius program.
TNYCJR: Do you do workshops?
MO: I love teaching and sharing my ideas with younger
people. I love watching them react and I always
discover something new from them. I have been thehead of Jazz Department at Kunitachi College of Musicfor the past ten years.
We have about 45 students. It is a very small jazz
department in the conservatory, like the Juilliard jazz
department. My very first student, Rina Yamazaki,
won the second prize at Ellis Marsalis Jazz PianoFALKNER EVANS
MARBLESThe new release by Pianist Falkner Evans
with Michael Blake, Ted Nash,
Ron Horton, Belden Bullock,
Matt Wilson and Steve Nelson

Live at SMALLS

Wednesday, April 22ndShows at 7:30 and 9:00 pm
Cover: $20
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THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | APRIL 2020 13

album REVIEWS

Love Stories
Eliane Elias (Concord)by Marilyn Lester

Traditional bossa nova is the mood of vocalist/
pianist/arranger/composer Eliane Elias’ Love Stories,
nine tracks, four of them originals, seamlessly
connected in style and theme. Elias has never strayed
far from the solid ethos of the bossa style, which she
grew up with in her native São Paulo, Brazil. She excels
at that mellow, laid-back sound with sunshine in every
beat—it’s her oeuvre after all. Even her vocal tone isreminiscent of classic bossa singers such as Gal Costa,
Elis Regina and Astrud Gilberto. Elias sings entirely inEnglish, except for one tune in Portuguese, “Little
Boat”, composed by guitarist Roberto Menescal.
Love Stories, arranged by Rob Mathes, is lushly
orchestral especially on two of the singer ’s songs,“Simplest Things” and “Silence”, ballads that arehighly evocative expressions of their respective
themes. One of the most successful integrations of the
sumptuous orchestral mood with the bossa nova styleis found in the pop hit, “Baby, Come to Me”, withoriginal and creative harmonic modulations and tempochanges devised by Mathes and Elias. Mellow bossa
beats open up to a more dynamic Latin-pop hybrid
during each refrain. The introduction of backup vocals
by Mark Kibble about halfway through the number
also adds texture to the whole.
But for all the wonder and romance of strings andother traditional orchestral elements, it’s Elias’ smallgroup arranging that still reigns supreme. The wellchosen Brazilian rhythm section of Menescal andMarcus Texiera on guitar and Edu Ribeiro, Rafael
Barata and Celso Almeida on drums, plus co-producer
Marc Johnson on bass, is the backbone of the album,
supporting piano voicings with intuitive understanding.
As a recognized interpreter of Jobim’s work, Elias
uses particularly praiseworthy nuanced vocal phrasing
on “Bonita”, one of Jobim’s collaborations with Frank
Sinatra in the late ‘60s, and mood-setting album opener,a softly swinging bossa arrangement of “A Man and a
Woman” from the Oscar-winning 1966 French film of
the same name. Her rendition of another Sinatra
evocation, “Come Fly With Me”, turns that tune intoa slow, mellow and pointed invitation. Her piano
interlude proves her statement that “the piano is anextension of my body and the deepest expression of
my soul.” Blessed to be an artist of equal talents, Elias
is superior as both a vocalist and pianist.

distant as it would seem. His association with the “NewYork School” of Earle Brown, Morton Feldman, Christian
Wolff and John Cage began with his producing thelatter’s first concert in his native Prague, continued
through his tenure at the State University of New York at
Buffalo alongside Feldman and into his ongoingprogramming of those composers through the 50 years of
his SEM Ensemble. At least as important as his efforts tokeep the performance history of those composers aliveand vital, however, has been his dedication to the
Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians(AACM)—notably Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis
and Roscoe Mitchell—commonly associated with the jazz
tradition and rarely given the time of day by standing
orchestras. The connections between the New York
School and AACM—open-form composition, sound-assound, etc.—are fairly apparent. The differences thatmight lead the latter rarely to be presented in the concert
hall are left to the reader to deduce.
Mitchell, a founding member of the Art Ensembleof Chicago (AEC), is the focus of a wonderful collection
from Kotik and his Ostravska Banda, an orchestra withoverlapping membership to SEM that was establishedat Kotik’s Ostrava Days contemporary music festival
in Czechia. The disc includes recordings of four of
Mitchell’s compositions for solo Disklavier, trio,
quintet and orchestra. The 20-minute title track,
performed by the nearly three-dozen-strong Banda
with Mitchell on soprano saxophone (the only track onwhich he plays) is surprisingly airy for an ensemble
that big, James Fei’s electronics giving the track its
thumbprint. The piece continues in the series of scoredimprovisations Mitchell has explored in other recent
recordings. The instantly recognizable vehicle“Nonaah” is realized here by a trio of piano, flute andoboe and another often-visited framework, “Cutouts”,
is performed by a quintet of winds and brass; both areheard on this recording in fully notated versions. The
standout track , however, has no human performers,
per se. “8.8.88” was played by pianist Stephen Rush on
Mitchell’s 2011 album Numbers, but here is tackled by a
Disklavier programmed by Seth Horvitz. It’s a thrillingnine minutes, reminiscent of Conlon Nancarrow’s
player piano music with a decidedly digital glitch.
Kotik’s deep understanding of Mitchell’s music
lends the album authority; he has also served as
conductor for the expanded, 18-member version of the
AEC. His SEM Ensemble’s spring concert, featuring
works by himself, Wolff, Robert Ashley, Miya Masaoka
and Julius Eastman, has been canceled due to thecurrent health crisis. In its place, a video program
featuring past performances of the same pieces
performed by Ostravska Banda and SEM Ensemble will
be streamed at 1 pm on Apr. 1st at semensemble.org.
For more information, visit widehive.com. Petr Kotik wasscheduled to be at Bohemian National Hall.

Studio Sessions Vol. 4
Ava Mendoza/Vijay Anderson/Stephen Gauci(Gaucimusic)
by George Grella

Conductor/composer Petr Kotik is a living link to an
important part of New York’s musical history not so

For more information, visit gaucimusic.com. Mendoza wasscheduled to be at Union Pool.

R The Coltranes (Ropeadope)
Bingert—Berit in Space (Moserobie)e •• Daniel
Yoon Sun Choi/Jacob Sacks—
I Should Care (Yeah Yeah)c • Collocutor—Continuationo • Liberty Ellman—Last Desert(On(Pi)The Corner)
Orchestra—Actions (Rune Grammofon)m •• Fire!
Pandelis Karayorgis Double Trio—
CliffPools (Driff)m • Charles
Lloyd—8: Kindred Spirits (Live Frome the Lobero)(Blue Note)• Matthew Shipp—The Piano Equationn (TAO Forms)
Solal/Dave Liebman—d • Martial
Masters in Paris (Sunnyside)e Laurence Donohue-Greene, Managing Editord• Lakecia Benjamin—Pursuance:new

For more information, visit concordjazz.com. Elias wasscheduled to be at Birdland.

Distant Radio Transmission
Roscoe Mitchell with Ostravska Band (Wide Hive)by Kurt Gottschalka scream. It’s not the technique, which is formidable,
but the thinking.
This album is 12 tracks, all improvised andcredited to the trio of Gauci, guitarist Ava Mendoza
and drummer Vijay Anderson. The style is familiar toanyone who listens often to free music, but that doesn’t
make this album mundane. Just the opposite, the discis full of details that grab the attention; without any
song-form structure, one anticipates what idea is goingto get tossed out next and what will happen to it.
The saxophonist is the ostensible leader—it’s hislabel and he’s an impresario, running the Bushwick
Improvised Music Series. Whether through his
guidance, or simply working with simpatico partners,
the music has an excellent directness, focus and punch,signified by the relative brevity of the tracks. All but
one are under five minutes, many three or less.
Within these compressed durations, the music
sounds fresh. Anderson responds to the saxophonist
directly, imitating or commenting on what’s just been
played while the great Mendoza whips back and forth
between the nervous energy of single note lines andcrackling
chords.
“gauci/mendoza/anderson,
improvisation #4” is the magnum opus here, eightminutes of invention. Mendoza keeps up a rather
ominous undercurrent, like some possibly malevolent
entity driving Gauci and Anderson before her with themere hint of her presence.
Anderson has a light touch on the drumkit, a lot ofcymbals and snare; when he takes the time to slow
down a bit it adds an exciting feeling of weight to themusic. Everyone is thinking quickly, not just Gauci,and both serious and good humored.

Stephen Gauci is a hard playing, high-energy

improvising tenor saxophonist, with a delivery thatowes something to Albert Ayler and Archie Shepp.
What impresses about his playing is how it flows, likefast-moving water, from a swirling phrase to a falsefingered passage to a slap-tongue flurry to a honk and

14 APRIL 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

r
e
l
e
a
s
e
s

• Mats Äleklint/Per-Åke Holmlander/
Paal Nilssen-Love—Fish & Steel (PNL)• Kenny Barron/Dave Holland Trio(featuring Johnathan Blake)—
Without Deception (Dare2)• Duchess—Live at Jazz Standard (Anzic)• Jazz Sabbath—Eponymous (Blacklake)• Tobias Klein/Gonçalo Almeida/
Martin Van Duynhoven—Live at the Bimhuis (Clean Feed)• Charles Lloyd—8: Kindred Spirits (Live From
the Lobero) (Blue Note)• Thollem McDonas/Brian Chase—
Dub Narcotic Session (New Atlantis)• Jon Maksimowicz/Dmitrij Golovanov—Beyond (s/r)• Max Nagl Trio—Moped (Jazzwerkstatt)• Bobby Previte/Jamie Saft/Nels Cline—
Music from the Early 21st Century (RareNoise)
Andrey Henkin, Editorial DirectorMussorgsky Pictures Revisited
Kristjan Randalu/Dave Liebman (BMC Records)
by Tyran Grillo

Although Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky(1839-81) is best remembered for Night on Bald Mountainand Pictures at an Exhibition, the latter has had the moreinteresting afterlife, inspiring arrangements from suchwide-ranging artists as prog-rockers Emerson, Lake
& Palmer, German metal band Mekong Delta andJapanese electronic pioneer Tomita. Yet this duo ofsoprano saxophonist Dave Liebman and pianist
Kristjan Randalu presents more than a recasting of the
Mussorgsky mold, instead a fresh landscape irrigatedby channeling water from the source material. Case inpoint is the jaunting “Promenade”, which opens instraightforward territory but which in subsequent
iterations (five in all) draws out hidden messages.
Liebman understands how to turn even the mostfamiliar melodies inside out without losing their skinin the process. His tone is as flexible and colorful as
ever, navigating every twist of “Les Tuileries” and“The Market” with characteristic attention to detail.
The physicality of his artistry is most obvious in “Balletof the Unhatched Chickens”, as also in his bluesy
handling of “Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle”, thelatter a veiled stand-alone among extroverted peers.
Randalu, for his part, is as comfortable laying
foundations as he is building on top of them. Whether
orienting his compass to the lodestar of “Bydło” or
jazzing up “Baba Yaga” with exuberance, he makes
sure that every wisp of proverbial smoke fulfills its
promise of fire. As a unit, he and Liebman findprofoundest coherence in “Il Vecchio Castello”, ofwhich they make an understated dirge.
And so, by the time we reach the farewell of“The Heroic Gate”, we are confident in having beensomewhere. This is, of course, the whole point ofMussorgsky’s greatest hit: to place us in that gallery sothat we may feel the colors of every scene as if they
were our own.
For more information, visit bmcrecords.hu. Randalu wasscheduled to be at Soapbox Gallery.

The Art of Intimacy, Vol. 1
Jeremy Pelt (HighNote)by Mark Keresman

Many tradition-minded jazz performers will
eventually record an all-ballad album, a concept album
of sorts in which the program consists of slow, quiet
songs to evoke (or enhance, for the proactive amongus) a less-than-ecstatic romantic mood or sentimental
mindset. The Art of Intimacy, Vol. 1 is trumpeter Jeremy
Pelt’s entrance into this sub-genre and, yes, he takes it
seriously. The context is subdued, all-acoustic anddrummer-free, accompanied only by pianist George
Cables, who knows balladry as a salamander knows
moist morning leaves, and bassist Peter Washington,

unobtrusive and rock-solid.
Anyone that’s heard Pelt knows he’s an excellent
hardbop trumpeter in the tradition(s) of forebears
Freddie Hubbard and Kenny Dorham. This time out
however Pelt’s approach is somewhat closer to thelatter in particular—crisp, clean intonation, eloquentdelivery and soft tone around the edges and center.
The one semi-exception of the session is thetrumpet/bass duo “Ab-o-lutely”, in which Pelt
generates some fierce, crackling fire that belies theostensibly languorous tempo, Washington anchoring
the proceedings with a deep, slightly sinuous tone (thetune is credited to the pair).
Cables gets his duo-spotlight as well, sublime on
Nicholas Brodzsky-Sammy Cahn’s “I’ll Never Stop
Loving You”; he’s always very lyrical and melodious
but he’s outdone himself here. Pelt distills years ofbittersweet, lovelorn regret into just under four
minutes yet comes off as virtually exalted (as opposed
to haunted).
Lucky Thompson’s “While You Are Gone”
suggests the buttery, breathy class of Art Farmer(who knew a thing or two about playing wistfully).
Here, piano chords are stark but never harsh, almost
achieving the solemnity of church bells. Cables’ own“Ebony Moonbeams” is driven by an insistent ostinato
figure, springboarding to Pelt’s most high-flying,dynamic and carefree playing of this album, classy but
never brassy (pun indeed intended).
Without any artifice or corniness, Pelt has fashioneda platter that can proudly stand with any of the “…Playsfor Lovelorn Types” albums that preceded it.

One” (another original), where he uncoils each idea insnaky curlicues. Bernstein’s sound, a warmer, lessghostly revision of Grant Green, is always interesting,occasionally excellent, as for example his expressive,
elegantly constructed solos on “Frame” and“Polkadots”. LeDonne finds his deepest pocket (withCobb) on “Slidin’”, his highest flights on “Frame”.
Cobb, meantime, continues to do so well what he didwith Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley and Wes
Montgomery: diggin’ and jammin’ his hands (and feet)
into those deep rhythmic pockets.

For more information, visit jazzdepot.com. Pelt wasscheduled to be at Smoke.

by the Dutch Jazz Archive is important not only as a
gem for fans of Gerry Mulligan, but also forreasserting the baritone saxophonist’s first love ofthe large ensemble. His self-styled Concert Jazz Bandwas indeed a return to form. Recorded on Nov. 5th,1960
at Amsterdam’s
Concertgebouw,
thisperformance finds Mulligan commanding his
instrument in such a way that only the vessel of a bigband would have been large enough to contain it.
Mulligan and friends chew on a wide-ranging
repertoire, but especially seem to savor the iconic
Johnny Mandel, represented in three tunes from hissoundtrack to the 1958 Susan Hayward vehicle
I Want to Live! (the theme, “Black Nightgown” and“Barbara’s Theme”).
Alongside these cinematic turns, each a noir-ish
sashay through smoke-filled rooms and even smokier
intentions, we find a smattering of standards andshowtunes, including the swinging Richard RodgersLorenz Hart’s “You Took Advantage Of Me” andslower drawl of Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer’s“Come Rain Or Come Shine”.
Though Mulligan never treated this band as ashowcase for his own writing, his are some of thehighest points in the set. Of those, “Apple Core”
provides a towering stage for guest soloist tenor
saxophonist Zoot Sims who, despite being in lessthan-stellar condition, brings a lithe kinesis to thefore. The title track is another standout swing. In thelatter vein, the rhythm section of bassist Buddy
Clark and drummer Mel Lewis is on point
throughout, but especially in “As Catch Can”, inwhich they anticipate every turn of the wheel.
Fiery solos abound, including alto saxophonist
Gene Quill’s in “18 Carrots For Rabbit” andtrumpeter Conte Candoli’s in the title track. Mulligan
himself goes for quality over quantity, adding gritwherever he treads, especially in a spotlight renditionof Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart’s “My Funny
Valentine” and with that characteristic dark edge
only he could hone.

Cobb’s Pocket
Hendrik Meurkens (In+Out)
by Tom Greenland

Dutch-German Hendrik Meurkens is probably themost prominent of a wave of chromatic harmonica
jazz players of the ‘90s following in the seminal
footsteps of Belgian “Toots” Thielemans. Sounding
a bit like an organ, melodica, saxophone and/or
accordion, the chromatic harmonica, with its sliding
key, doesn’t bend pitches as expressively as its bluesy
diatonic counterpart, but nevertheless fits in admirably(replacing the tenor saxophone) in a traditional
hardbop organ quartet. No surprise then that Cobb’s
Pocket, Meurkens’ recent project (his first with anorgan) named for and with drummer Jimmy Cobb,
plus guitarist Peter Bernstein and organ player Mike
LeDonne, works seamlessly in that genre.
Bernstein and Cobb have been playing in the
pocket together for years in Cobb’s Mob while LeDonne
and Bernstein have long been co-fixtures at Smoke—sogroove was a given. What Meurkens brings is a new
flavor to the old recipe: a prodigious technical facility
on par with Thielemans, an old world lyricism anda touch of Brazilian saudade, all spun out in driving
eighth-note bebop phrases often tumbling atop one
another in sweeping glissandos, light ornaments, bent
attacks and fall-offs.
He especially shines on slower numbers like Slide
Hampton’s ballad “Frame for the Blues”; slow shuffling“Slidin’” (an original); Jimmy Van Heusen-Johnny
Burke’s “Polkadots and Moonbeams”, where heconfines himself to melodic paraphrase; and “A Slow

For more information, visit inandout-records.com.
Meurkens was scheduled to be at Smalls.

UNEARTHED GEM

Young Blood (Jazz at the Concertgebouw)
Gerry Mulligan and The Concert Jazz Band
(Dutch Jazz Archive)
by Tyran Grillo

The document presented here for our consideration

For more information, visit jazzarchief.nl. A tribute to
Mulligan was scheduled to be at Blue Note.

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | APRIL 2020 15

G LO B E U N I T Y

Yūgen
Glafkos Kontemeniotis (s/r)
Sun Stone (featuring Ira Sullivan)
Roberto Magris Sextet (JMood)
Adriana
Francesca Prihasti (s/r)
by Tom Greenland

Pianists and horn players make natural bedfellows,

the former’s percussive polyphony an ideal frameworkand foil for the latter’s singing tones. Here are three
pianists—Glafkos Kontemeniotis (from Cyprus),
Roberto Magris (of Italy) and Francesca Prihasti (fromIndonesia)—heard in small-group settings in dialogue
with American wind-blowing cohorts.
For Yūgen, only his second release since arriving
in New York in 1988, Kontemeniotis corralled
saxophonist Joel Frahm, vibraphonist Alexander
Gagatsis (on several tracks), bassist Marcus
McLaurine and drummer Dave Meade for an alloriginal set. The title, a Japanese term for inarticulate
beauty arising amid human suffering, alludes to hischildhood in Turkish-occupied Cyprus andsubsequent repatriation to another island:
Manhattan. The irenic music—a distinctive blend ofclassical, folk and jazz—suggests Kontemeniotis has
made peace with his wars. His writing, angular yet
accessible, favors 6/8 patterns stippled with odd
syncopations; his playing style seamlessly integrates
left and right hands, bass chords resounding against
treble trills. Frahm, the consummate sideman, tells
engaging short stories laced with logic and warmth.
For Sun Stone, recorded in Miami, Trieste-based
Roberto Magris enlisted trumpeter Shareef Clayton,saxophonists Ira Sullivan (alto) and Mark Colby(tenor), plus a rhythm team of bassist Jamie Ousley
and drummer Rodolfo Zuniga, who add Latin
sensibilities to the straightahead swing. The session
follows the standard head-solos-head format withtraded fours and outro blowing. Clayton uses
growled and muted timbres to good effect, Colbyplays with consistent power and invention while
Sullivan brings a lighter touch, alternating alto withsoprano and low-pitched flute. Magris, a decidedly
theatrical player, often punctuates his runs with
Jerry Lee Lewis-style glissandos and high hammered
chords, creating excitement partly throughexaggeration but more through childlike spontaneity,
the anticipation he could do something unexpected
at any moment.
The soft, bright Chagall-esque colors in the
cover illustration for Prihasti’s Adriana presage theswirling tranquility of her music. Of the threealbums, hers most embodies the empathy possible
between piano and horns, perhaps because sheplays as if not in a hurry, taking time to wait andlisten to the surrounding activity. The three horns—
trumpeter Mike Rodriguez, saxophonist Dave Pietro
and trombonist Alan Ferber—along with guitarist
Nic Vardanega, who often sounds like he’s part ofthe section, are arranged in varying contrapuntal
combinations. Even the sustained chords contain
restless inner voices and bassist Drew Gress provides
buoyancy at the bottom end. Prihasti’s cliché-freesolos avoid predictable climactic arcs, instead
tracing more impressionistic trajectories, inspiring
similarly relaxed reactions from the others.
For more information, visit glafkoskontemeniotis.com,
jmoodrecords.com and francescaprihasti.com.au

Live from Newport Jazz
James Carter Organ Trio (Blue Note)
by Joel Roberts

Saxophonist James Carter was one of the most dynamic

and explosive jazz artists to emerge in the ‘90s, but he’s
been quiet lately, at least on the recording front. His
new release, a live date from the 2018 Newport Jazz
Festival, is his first in nearly a decade and his debut
album for Blue Note. It’s also the first time he’s
unleashing his soul jazz-drenched organ trio (withHammond B-3 specialist Gerard Gibbs and fiery
drummer Alex White) on the music of legendary swing
guitarist Django Reinhardt, a frequent touchstone for
Carter, dating back to the 2000 tribute Chasin’ the Gypsy.
Carter has always moved easily between the more
traditional side of jazz and its freer edge, as exemplified
by his tenure with the World Saxophone Quartet. The
new release highlights that versatility and tension,using Reinhardt’s Gypsy jazz compositions as a
jumping-off point for excursions into uncharted,
genre-bending territory while staying true to the organ
trio’s roots in Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff and Richard“Groove” Holmes.
Opener “Le Manoir De Mes Reves” (all the titles are
printed in French), for example, starts off
straightforwardly enough, but midway through Carter
turns things up a notch, ripping into bluesy squawks
and growls teetering on the edge of chaos. The nexttune, “Melodie au Crepuscule”, pushes things evenfurther, with Gibbs and White laying down ano-nonsense funk playing field for Carter to run all
over. The ballad “Anouman” gives Gibbs a chance to
dip into his Dr. Lonnie Smith bag while White, as tirelessa drummer as you’re likely to hear, delivers an extended
whirlwind solo on “La Valse Des Niglos”, before giving
way to more dazzling saxophone departures.
The album closes on a high note with the hardcore funk of “Fleche d’Or”, as Carter and Company
again push one of Reinhardt’s Swing Era tunes into
joyously unexpected terrain.
For more information, visit bluenote.com. Carter wasscheduled to be at Sistas’ Place.

Both Are True
Anna Webber/Angela Morris Big Band (Greenleaf Music)
by Phil Freeman

Saxophonists Angela Morris and Anna Webber haveteamed up to create a record that will please fans ofMaria Schneider, Darcy James Argue and other mastersof adventurous large ensemble music. This iscomplicated, rigorously arranged work, closer tomodern classical music than Duke Ellington or even
the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. The nearly
11-minute opening number, “Climbing On Glass”, has
the drama and propulsive energy of a Lalo Schifrin
movie score, building to a fierce solo by alto saxophonist
Charlotte Greve but winding down with a curiously

16 APRIL 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

soothing, wordless vocal melody from the ensemble.
That’s followed by the first of two short tenor
saxophone duos from the leaders.
The ensemble is 19 members strong (sixsaxophones,
four
trumpets,four
trombones,
vibraphone, guitar, piano, bass and drums) and mostof the horn players double on flute, clarinet or
flugelhorn. They’re more than capable of mustering
a wall of sound, but that’s not how Webber and Morrischoose to deploy them. Instead, many of the album’s
seven compositions employ extended instrumental
techniques captured via ultra-detailed recording; thetitle piece, for example, allows the horns to spend
much of their time emitting hisses, pops and small
bubbling sounds and on the short “Rebonds” they pull
the same trick as Dustin Carlson’s guitar rises up
slowly, erupting into a skronky solo like something
Marc Ribot could have played on a mid ’80s Tom Waits
album. But the pulsing horn chart that concludes thepiece could have come from J.G. Thirlwell’s score to
The Venture Bros.
“Coral” is so amorphous it’s more like a naturally
occurring atmospheric phenomenon than a piece ofmusic until its final moments, when all the longhumming tones and gentle tickling of Marc Hannaford’s
piano comes together in a glorious swell, like seeinga rainbow at sunrise. The album concludes with thenearly 12-minute “Reverses”, another big, orchestralpiece, which includes a fierce solo from trumpeter
Kenny Warren and, in its final minute, layered voices
repeating a line from Maya Angelou like a mantra. Any
fan of creative, forward-thinking jazz, from any size
ensemble, should find this album essential listening.
For more information, visit greenleafmusic.com. This
project was scheduled to be at The Jazz Gallery.

Swings Disney
Professor Cunningham and His Old School (Arbors)by Ken Dryden

O ver the past 80 years, Disney feature films have been

filled with memorable songs, one of the key reasons
why they appeal to several generations, not just young
children. Dave Brubeck was among the first to dedicate
an entire album to songs from Disney films and at least
two, “Some Day My Prince Will Come” and “Alice In
Wonderland”, have become standards in jazz. But
since Brubeck’s LP in 1957, similar jazz recordings ofDisney music have been few and far between.
Adrian Cunningham selected tunes from films
throughout Disney’s filmography, but took novel
approaches to many of them and sometimes adding
raucous vocals to ham things up a bit. Cunningham’s
arrangements are focused and to the point; only one of
the 15 tracks runs over 4 minutes, so no soloist canpossibly wear out his welcome. The ballad “When You
Wish Upon A Star” is a subtle opener, played withmore emphasis on the ensemble than soloists.
Cunningham doesn’t overly camp up his vocal toa swinging Dixieland treatment of “Be Our Guest”,
adding some New Orleans-flavored clarinet as well.
That changes in the fun-filled romp through “ I Wanna
Be Like You” (from The Jungle Book), which blends
Dixieland and swing in an upbeat setting. The leader
doesn’t ignore music from more recent Disney releases,transforming Elton John’s “I Can’t Wait To Be King”
into a Dr. John bluesy instrumental, highlighted byAlberto Pibiri’s authentic blues piano and his own
greasy tenor saxophone. The lively instrumental of“A Spoonful Of Sugar” (from Mary Poppins) brings
a New Orleans street parade to mind, complete with
the Second Line dancing along the sidewalks. Perhaps
the biggest surprise is the brief medley of “You Never
Had A Friend Like Me” (from Aladdin) and Louis
Prima’s “Sing Sing Sing”, which interweaves the songs
in an effective manner.
For more information, visit arborsrecords.com. Cunningham
was scheduled to be at The Django at The Roxy Hotel.

Masters Legacy Series Volume 3(featuring Benny Golson & Albert “Tootie” Heath)
Masters Legacy Series Volume 4(featuring George Coleman)
Emmet Cohen (s/r)
by Pierre Giroux

Emmet Cohen is a dashing pianist with dazzlingtechnique and oodles of improvisational skills, which
led to his receiving the American Pianist Award in
2019. While Cohen is an “of the moment” pianist, his
playing is also informed by his reverence for the giantsof the hardbop genre, as these two volumes of music
demonstrate. They follow earlier collaborations withdrummer Jimmy Cobb and bassist Ron Carter.
Volume 3 features the irrepressible 91-year-old
tenor saxophonist and composer Benny Golson
alongside the 84-year-old drummer Albert “Tootie”

Heath, the surviving brother of tenor saxophonist
Jimmy and bassist Percy, and either Russell Hall orCorcoran Holt on bass.
None of the well-known Golson compositions areoffered in this session, although Heath’s “For Heaven’s
Sake” is given a funky reading by Cohen in a trio
format sparked by crafty drumming.
Right from the opening bars of Duke Ellington’s“It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)”
the band locks into a swinging groove that works
both collectively and individually. As the remaining
tracks spool out, Cohen’s irrepressible pianism,
Golson’s sparse phrasing and Heath’s subtle attack
deliver a wonderfully satisfying musical experience.
Volume 4 brings Cohen’s trio of Hall and drummer
Bryan Carter together with the hardbop, blues-literatetenor saxophonist George Coleman, best known for his
two years in the Miles Davis Quintet when the band
recorded Seven Steps To Heaven and My Funny Valentine.
The setlist is mostly well-known standards alongwith two Thelonious Monk classics, “Trinkle Tinkle”
and “ Ugly Beauty”. Almost as an after-thought isa Cohen original “For Big G” and “Db Blues”, which is
uncredited. Coleman’s tenor work is full of creativity
and surprises, through which he scatters a variety ofharmonic
patterns.
Cohen’s
improvisations
demonstrate an extensive farrago of grooves, both
playful and full of swing.
These two releases might best be summed up by
the following quotation from Emmet Cohen: “I’m evergrateful to have had the opportunity to learn from
Benny Golson, ‘Tootie’ Heath and George Coleman.
The jazz masters are each so unique and generous in
their own way and I will forever hold their teachings
close to my heart.”
For more information, visit emmetcohen.com. Cohen wasscheduled to be at Dizzy’s Club and The Appel Room.

Screen Play
Tierney Sutton (BFM Jazz)
by Alex Henderson

J azz artists have been performing songs associatedwith Hollywood movies ever since talkies first emergedat the end of the ‘20s. Los Angeles-based Tierney
Sutton takes the concept closer to the modern day on
Screen Play with material from the ‘60s and beyond.
Sutton delves into Tin Pan Alley with Leigh
Harline-Ned Washington’s “I’ve Got No Strings”(1940’s Pinocchio) and a surprisingly funkyinterpretation of Harold Arlen’s “If I Only Had a Brain”(1939’s The Wizard of Oz) and acknowledges the ‘50s
with her playful version of Jule Styne’s “Diamonds Are
a Girl’s Best Friend” (1953’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes),all done in a post-bop style, which she also applies to
Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” (used in
1967’s The Graduate), Michel Legrand’s “The Windmillsof Your Mind” (1968’s The Thomas Crown Affair) to Dave
Grusin’s “It Might Be You” (1982’s Tootsie). Sutton also
includes two John Farrar songs from 1978’s Grease:“You’re the One That I Want” and “Hopelessly Devoted
to You”, both unlikely vehicles for jazz exploration butthat work perfectly well, Sutton in particular toning
down the sugariness of the latter.
Instead of lavish orchestral arrangements, Sutton
sticks to her regular group of Christian Jacob (piano),
Kevin Axt and Trey Henry (bass) and Ray Brinker(drums), with guitarist Serge Merlaud added on“Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend”, Legrand’s “What
Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” (1969’s The
Happy Ending) and Grusin’s “Ev’ry Now and Then”(in 1996’s Mulholland Falls). Alan Bergman performs a
vocal duet with Sutton on the melancholy Legrandballad “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?” from1982’s Best Friends, in a version more cabaret than thehit version by Patti Austin and James Ingram.
Sutton takes her share of chances on Screen Play,making it a fairly unpredictable exploration of
Hollywood-associated songs from different eras.
For more information, visit bfmjazz.com. Sutton wasscheduled to be at Birdland.

LESLIE PINTCHIK TRIO
Thursday, April 23rd

Sets at 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM

Jazz at Kitano

66 Park Avenue @ 38th Street, NYC (212) 885-7119“...a composer of emotional depth and effortless
lyricism...” DownBeat

Leslie Pintchik - piano
Scott Hardy - bass
Michael Sarin - drums
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Leslie Pintchik Trio Live**** —DownBeat
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THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | APRIL 2020 17

Dark Blue
Alex Harding/Lucian Ban (Sunnyside)by Marco Cangiano

A baritone saxophonist from Detroit and classicallytrained pianist from Transylvania sounds like an odd
pairing but is just more proof jazz is a universal
language. Alex Harding and Lucian Ban have beencollaborating for over two decades. Their empathy isevident across a wide range of moods, although, as per
the title, a bluesy feeling runs throughout. 		
Harding’s mastery over the challenging baritone
has few peers; his sound, from harsh and edgy tobreathy and subtle, allows the listener, thanks tosuperb recording engineering, the pleasure of following
his fingers as they work along the keys. Ban
demonstrates the connection between Romanian folk
tradition and the blues, with a round and firm touch
either in close dialogue with his partner or in solo
outings. Some tunes have been part of their repertoire
for a while, such as Ban’s title track and “Chakra”,
while others are new co-credited originals, some, suchas “Monkey See” and “The Invisible Man”, the latter
inspired by Ralph Ellison’s novel, coming across as
free improvisations. There are also two solo
contributions, Harding’s “H.B.”, a heartfelt dedication
to early mentor Hamiet Bluiett, and Ban’s “LowCountry Blue”, inspired by the Romanian countryside.
The CD starts with the title track, a mysterious
piece featuring an intense dialogue for repeated piano
figures and baritone runs. The mood is lighter for“Tough Love”, a bouncy and angular walk. “Black Sea”
is based on Balkan folk dances and finds Harding on
bass clarinet. “Not That Kind of Blues” best captures
the duo’s empathy in a dramatic reading of the blues
canon, reminiscent of Charles Mingus’ orgiastic late
‘50s masterpieces. Ban’s “Hymn” concludes the CDwith a delicate piano intro, leading to a lament-like
melody carried by baritone, then veering toward a
gospel cadenza sustained by Ban’s arpeggios andHarding’s supple runs. The subtlety of these artists’sounds has been captured in a most intimate recording.
For more information, visit sunnysiderecords.com. Ban wasscheduled to be at Bar Lunatico, Harding at Sistas’ Place.

Without Deception
Kenny Barron/Dave Holland Trio(featuring Johnathan Blake) (Dare2)
by George Kanzler

K enny Barron is often taken for granted, for he isa pianist who makes everything seem easy. His isa deceptive virtuosity, his lines flow with grace andlogic, every solo concise yet complete. When Dave
Holland plays bass with him—often in the duo context
that Barron has delved into more than most of his
peers—he eschews the convolutions of his own band
material and sticks to the bass-ics. The two have a
comfortable rapport, but here it is sparked to something
more by the catalyst of drummer Johnathan Blake’s
variety of rhythmic infusions.
For an album co-led by a pianist and bassist, this isa wide bouquet of tempos and rhythms, eachdistinguished and personalized by Blake. Barron’s two
Brazilian influenced originals are given distinctly
different beats: “Porto Alegre” is a high-stepping samba
right out of carnival in Rio, Blake’s solo dancing over
Barron’s montuño, while “Until Then” glides along on a
seductive bossa beat. Blake also brings an AfroLatin beatto Thelonious Monk’s “Worry Later”, a track that not
only displays Barron’s affinity for Monk but also features
scintillating exchanges between piano and drums. One
of Holland’s two contributions, “Pass It On”, is dedicatedto the late drummer Ed Blackwell, remembering his New
Orleans rather than Ornette Coleman background with ajaunty second-line beat from Blake. And Mulgrew
Miller’s “Second Thoughts” recalls Art Blakey as thetune was a Jazz Messengers favorite.
The trio is at its interactive best on Barron’s
beboppy “Speed Trap”, from the leader ’s pointillist
lines to Holland’s slyly slurred pizzicato solo andBlake’s slap sticks. Sumi Tonooka’s “Secret Places”
brings in a waltz meter and is highly suggestive of
Herbie Nichols oeuvre. A subdued trio—Blake withbrushes—showcases Barron’s sumptuous rendition ofDuke Ellington’s “Warm Valley”.
For more information, visit daveholland.com/dare2. This
project was scheduled to be at Blue Note.

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The New Immigrant Experience(Music Inspired by Conversations with Dreamers)
Felipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble(Tapestry)by Donald Elfman

F elipe Salles’ new venture, a bold musical response to
the notion of immigration, deftly illustrates therelationship between the political and the personal.
The music is inspired by the Deferred Action forChildhood Arrivals (DACA) and emerged from Salles’
friendship with Tereza Lee, the first “Dreamer”, andsubsequent interviews he conducted with nine others.
The nine-part suite plus an introduction and coda
spans almost 90 minutes over two discs and included
is a DVD of a performance with video images projected
before a live audience.
This music seems inspired by emotion, by regional
color and even by speech. “Introduction” presents thedual notions of innocence and invitation, with theorchestra in its parts and individual voices graduallyentering and coming to the first section, “Did You
Eat?”, in which the massed orchestra poses that mostimportant question. The mood is slow and insistent,
leading to a sensuous and spirited bit of improvisation
by pianist Nando Michelin.
All of the sections reflect in-the-moment sensations
and reactions to the immigrant experience. “Their
Stories Have Never Been Told” suggests the movementsof children, quietly buoyed by a piccolo solo from
Jonathan Ball. “An Education to Begin With” begins
with a quiet section for piano and becomes a yearningorchestral prayer with a cantorial solo from Angelo
Subero on bass trombone. “A Part and Not the Other”
is funky rock and roll with brash orchestral splashes
and the electric guitar of Kevin Grudecki. “A Survivor ’s
Guilt” opens with the tones of Ryan Fedak’s vibraphone
darkly expressing the title phrase.
Disc 2 begins darkly with the mysterious “It’s Just
Lines on the Ground”, sinuous colors from flutes andpiccolos as well as more ominous tones from low brass
and reeds. “Built on Thin Air” quietly emerges lighter
than air with Fedak’s glockenspiel and the rich tenor
saxophone solo of Rich DiMuzio, mostly understatedbut insistent, the tune revealing a world of textures.
“Crossing Barriers” appears delicate and thoughtful
yet deals with that most potent of images, slowly

evolving into a dense and complicated series of lines.
The tempo picks up as the music becomes more frenetic
with a tenor solo from Tyler Burchfield and a soaring		solo from Doug Olsen on trumpet.
The suite as such closes with a quirky “TheseThings That are Taken for Granted”, skewed roads
traversed by the band highlighted by an electronicsassisted trumpet solo from Eric Smith and rocky
grooves from Grudecki. The “Underture” that closes
the recording sums up the powerful sentiments evokedthroughout project and underlines the brilliance that
Salles has brought to this most timely undertaking.
For more information, visit sallesjazz.com. This project wasscheduled to be at National Sawdust.

7 Poets Trio
Tomas Fujiwara (RogueArt)
by John Sharpe

Drummer Tomas Fujiwara’s ubiquity on the New
York scene bears eloquent testimony to his fit witha wide range of forward-looking outfits. He can drive
without dominating, harnesses power to grace andshows remarkable sensitivity to whatever is going onaround him. Those qualities are upfront and center on
7 Poets Trio, which unites Fujiwara with acclaimed
cellist Tomeka Reid and up-and-coming vibraphonist
Patricia Brennan.
Fujiwara wrote all but one of the six originals withthis unusual instrumentation in mind. He promotes
an airy soundscape, redolent of quiet passion, on what
is one of his most accessible albums, featuring lightly
swinging lyricism, moments of reflective calm anda restrained aesthetic, which nonetheless permits
adventurous forays. Reid’s peerless artistry is by now
well known, but she further displays how seamlessly
she can switch from propulsive lilt to soaring melody
and timbral invention. Brennan supplements her
dazzling technique with two-handed independence
and unexpected tonal shifts courtesy of judicious useof electronics.
Fujiwara allows everyone ample space. The gently
swelling “Blend” evokes a still lake in early morning,
until Reid’s honeyed bowing takes flight, before
segueing into the upbeat “KP”. Like many of the cuts,
the expressive opportunities are so artfully integrated
that the percussive staccato duet for the leader andBrennan can almost pass unnoticed. An infectious
jaunty bounce launches “A Realm Distorted”, which
offers another of those integral highlights, this time amercurial careening between Reid and Brennan, before
the latter sketches out “Questions” as a coolly blue
ballad, later singing along with her rapturous lines.
Fujiwara’s only turn in the spotlight is acharacteristically elegant polyrhythmic introduction to
the bright “Cruisin’ With Spencer”, whose achingrefrain suggests a good-natured excursion while thetextural extremes launching “Gentle Soul” imply
there’s a lot going on beneath the surface of the titular
personage, something affirmed by Reid’s funky sawing
and Brennan’s swerves into pitch-bending sinuosity.
With this configuration, Fujiwara continues tothwart expectations and does so in a supple andcharming manner, which might just be the antidote weneed for these troubled times.
For more information, visit roguart.com. This project wasscheduled to be at Ibeam Brooklyn.

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | APRIL 2020 19

BounceMichael Wolff (Sunnyside)
by Scott Yanow

P ianist Michael Wolff has worked with such notables

as Cal Tjader, Cannonball Adderley and Sonny Rollins,
was Musical Director for Arsenio Hall’s talk show
during 1989-94 and led 16 albums of his own during
1983-2015. However, it all came very close to the end in2015 when he almost died from cancer after a four-year
battle. Since then, and against all odds, Wolff has madea full comeback. In 2019 he celebrated his return byrecording Swirl with a trio of bassist Ben Allison anddrummer Allan Mednard. The same group is featured
on its followup Bounce.
Wolff displays a personal style, which, while
touched by Bill Evans and to a lesser extent McCoy
Tyner, is adventurous in its own way. Wolff contributed
six of the ten songs, which range from the title track(a funky piece one could imagine Les McCannperforming) and the laidback “Chill” to touchingballad “Long Lost” and catchy “Picasso”. His“Resuscitate” is of particular importance: upon hearing
his wife being asked in the hospital if he had a Do Not
Resuscitate agreement, Wolff woke up from his coma
and said “Resuscitate me!”Allison, who contributed “Milton”, has many
short solos and his familiarity with Wolff’s spontaneous
flights is obvious as he follows him closely. Mednard
provides stimulating support and an occasional drumbreak. Wolff’s son Nat sings his own “Cool Kids” quite
well, giving the set a bit of variety. Of the other pieces,the trio gets a chance to cook on a modernized take of
Arthur Schwartz-Howard Dietz’ “You and the Nightand the Music” and puts plenty of quiet emotion into
the beautiful “Omar Sharif”, which is taken from therecent play The Band’s Visit.
Bounce consolidates Wolff’s comeback andprovides listeners with a strong overview of hisaccessible yet creative playing.
For more information, visit sunnysiderecords.com. Wolff
was scheduled to be at Knickerbocker Bar & Grill andBlue Note.

The Melodic Line
Reverso (Outhere)
by Dan Bilawsky

Reverso, a chamber jazz unit co-led by American

trombonist Ryan Keberle and French pianist Frank
Woeste, is driven by cultural exchange and built on thebidirectional relationship between classical music andjazz. On the group’s debut, Suite Ravel (Phonoart/
Alternate Side, 2018) a quartet, with cellist Vincent
Courtois and drummer Jeff Ballard, delivered a
program of classically-inspired pieces drawing on thework of jazz-influenced composer Maurice Ravel. On
this followup the same band sans Ballard takes cues
from Les Six: the group of French composers Darius

Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Arthur Honegger, Georges
Auric, Louis Durey and Germaine Tailleferre.
Woeste, taking a particular interest in the emotional
and technical aspects behind Milhaud’s Saudades do
Brasil, Op. 67 (1920), captures and emphasizes a state oflonging in his five compositional contributions. “Blue
Feather”, with its playful syncopation and handclaps,
piano grounding, attractive trombone lines and rich arco
cello work and “Montparnasse”, presenting somewhat
stark suggestions and shapes, each highlight that angle
while playing as opposite sides of the same coin. Keberle,delivering four numbers of his own, was taken by themusic of Tailleferre, the lone female. Often overlooked in
the mists of history, her work over the course of 70 years
showed tremendous breadth and depth of feeling.
Keberle-crafted originals like “Exemplar”, marrying
dawning sentiments and an air of uncertainty, “UpNorth”, both hopeful and inviting, and “Major Jack”,
tapping into the oddly sympathetic pairing of promise
and anxiety, all underscore that point.
While Ballard’s absence removes an instrument ofthrust and specific elements of color, the focus on a trio
shows gains in space and subtlety. This is essentially aslightly different context housing a similar subject and it
works like a charm. Complementing what came before
it, The Melodic Line extends on unique relationships,
both stylistic and personal, in remarkable ways.
For more information, visit outhere-music.com. Keberle wasscheduled to be at Langston Hughes Public Library.

The practical results of those two ideas are immediately
evident in the music. The major episode is the
40-minute “Mound”, in which there’s an almost
uncanny resemblance between Morris’ frequently
cyclical patterns and the way they interconnect with
Parker ’s tenor lines, the two exploring converging anddiverging phrases and patterns, some elongated andothers clustering into batches of phrases, in acontinuous shadow play that embraces a range of
melodic, scalar and rhythmic patterns. The result isanother strikingly individualistic Parker performance,but one in which his distinctive methodologies shapethe dialogue as it rises to a stunning passage of circularbreathing around the 27-minute mark. The highly
detailed kinship is even more apparent on “Groove”
with Parker on soprano, Morris’ dense percussive
polyphony embracing the saxophone’s spiralling
liquid lines. 		
The third of these recordings demonstrates
another side of Morris’ empathetic approach. Joining
tenor saxophonist Stephen Gauci and bassist Adam
Lane, Morris reveals a different side of himself, playing
drumkit on Studio Sessions, Vol. 3, much as he’s madean avocation of playing bass in the past; in doing so, hesacrifices the virtuoso skills apparent in the previous
recordings. His drumming is loose, dense and steady,underlying ruggedly precise basslines while effectively
framing and propelling the music. Center stage belongs
to Gauci. His solos are compelling incantations thatmove with his strong, varied lines and mutating
sound—from hoarse lower register to muffled cry—todevelop a welling emotional power.
For
more
information,
visit
catalyticsound.com,
sluchaj.bandcamp.com and gaucimusic.com. Morris wasscheduled to be at The Stone at The New School.

Live in Zurich
Joe Morris/Christian Weber (Catalytic Sound)
The Village
Joe Morris/Evan Parker (Fundacja Słuchaj!)Studio Sessions, Vol. 3
Joe Morris/Stephen Gauci/Adam Lane (Gaucimusic)
by Stuart Broomer

G uitarist Joe Morris has literally written the book on
improvised music, or at least one of them, Perpetual
Frontier: The Properties of Free Music, a thoughtful
exposition of diverse methodologies. That’s just one
side, however, of Morris’ on-going practice: he has
played guitar—lightly, heavily or not amplified at all—in numerous contexts, from the infernal power of
Spanish Donkey with Jamie Saft and Mike Pride to thesubtle dynamics of the English “school” with Simon
H. Fell and Alex Ward. In these three recordings heappears in duos with two distinguished European
partners and debuts as a drummer in a New York trio.
Swiss bassist Christian Weber has similar
experience in free contexts and on Live in Zurich, there’s
something particularly fine, a concord between similar
instruments as well as musical personalities. Morris
ranges from barely amplified to lightly so while Weber
explores multiple bowed and pizzicato techniques.
The guitar ’s range readily extends that of the bass
while the variety of attacks assures a certain breadth oftimbre. There are also near-fusions of identity, as in thestunning last few moments of the first of two sets,
Morris’ rapid, fluttering chromatic lines an overlay on
Weber ’s darker, underlying patterns. The abstractions
develop further in the second set, the lines, rhythms,
percussive and muffled timbres and extended
techniques becoming further interwoven, as the two
stretch to the limits of string duo interactivity.
The same dedication to complex interactive
improvisation determines the quality of The Village
with
Britishsaxophonist
Evan
Parker.
It’s
illuminated by Morris’ liner essay, which focuses on
the paired themes of his own interest in African kora
music and Parker ’s highly developed use of cycles.

20 APRIL 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

AMANDA MONACO
THE PIRKEI AVOT PROJECTVOLUME 2
THE FOLLOWUP RELEASE TO THE
CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED FIRST VOLUMEAVAILABLE ON LIMITED EDITION 180-GRAM VINYLAND DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
AMANDA MONACO, GUITAR; TAMMY SCHEFFER, VOICE;DAPHNA MOR, RECORDERS; SEAN CONLY, BASS;DANIEL FREEDMAN, PERCUSSION
THE PIRKEI AVOT IS A COLLECTION OF RABBINIC WISDOMCOMPILED IN THE 3RD CENTURY. ITS TIMELESS MESSAGES SPEAK
TO EVERYONE AND ARE THOUGHT-PROVOKING AS WELL AS
RELEVANT TO THESE TURBULENT TIMES IN WHICH WE ARE LIVING.

AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD OR PURCHASE AT
AMANDAMONACO.BANDCAMP.COM

Brightness: Live in Amsterdam
Kirk Knuffke (Royal Potato Family)
by Kyle Oleksiuk

Modes of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds
Nduduzo Makhathini (Blue Note)by Robert Bush

Reincarnation
Warren Wolf (Mack Avenue)
by Russ Musto

There are relatively few world-class musicians playing
the cornet, for the same reason that there are relatively
few world-class jockeys riding the zebra. The
alternative has cornered the market. But, in a world
beset by trumpets, 40-year-old modern master Kirk
Knuffke promotes the humble cornet.
Brightness, a trio set with 69-year-old bassist Mark
Helias and 78-year-old drummer Bill Goodwin, isKnuffke’s first live album as a bandleader, and apersuasive case for his instrument, Knuffke leaning
into its warmer, mellower timbre.
Brightness is also full of cornet propaganda in theform of bent notes, which are easier to play on cornet
than on trumpet. Knuffke uses them to complicate therepetitive but very beautiful melodies he plays. Like
Albert Ayler, many of Knuffke’s lines resemble
children’s songs, marches, hymns, and sea shanties(Knuffke has a demonstrated affection for sea shanties,
like “Haul On the Bowline” and “Santy Anno,” which
he recorded in 2016 on Jeff Lederer ’s near perfectalbum Brooklyn Blowhards). The bent notes allow
Knuffke room to explore the subtleties of these simple
melodies and vary them seemingly to no end.
In Knuffke’s lyrics, the first he has ever contributed
to an album, something similar is going on. At least
two of his lines imitate the variation-within-repetition
structure of his cornet melodies. On one of the best
songs, “The Mob, The Crowd, The Mass,” Knuffkechants synonyms: “I am the people, the mob, thecrowd, the mass,” varying his language while repeating
his meaning, reminiscent of Van Morrison.
There is something uniquely hypnotic about
Knuffke’s cornet-centered approach to music. Much
like Lionel Hampton caused a generation of
percussionists to start taking the vibraphone seriously,
it might be that Knuffke is sowing the seeds of a newcornet revolution in the years to come. Maybe that is
too much to hope. But even if that cornet revolution
never comes, we’ll at least have Knuffke and Brightness:
Live in Amsterdam.

There is something special about music that emanates W arren Wolf has established himself as the leadingfrom South Africa, from Solomon Linda to Abdullah
Ibrahim to Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Add 38-year-old
pianist Nduduzo Makhathini to that list. His debut
album is a marvel and while it may draw upon elementsof McCoy Tyner’s modal groups from the ‘70s,
Makhathini has emerged with a voice of his own.
The core band is Logan Richardson (altosaxophone), Linda Sikhakhane (tenor saxophone),
Ndabo Zulu (trumpet), Ayanda Sikade (drums) andZwelakhe-Duma Bell Le Pere (bass). Several vocalists
add significantly to this rich session, including theleader’s wife Omagugu Makhathini and Asanda Msaki.
Much of the album reflects a deep sense of
spirituality. “Saziwa Nguwe” opens with very gospelish piano chords soon abetted by a unison repeatinghorn line kept in an agitated state by vituperative
drums. An early highlight comes on “Beneath The
Earth”, when Msaki joins the band. She has a beautiful,
unfettered voice and splits the vocals with Makhathini
himself, who shines throughout. Richardson squeezes
in a delightful solo towards the end. This is a piece thatwould not sound out-of-place on a ‘70s ECM date.
Makhathini’s connection to Tyner is especiallypronounced on “Unyazi”, a modal burner featuring
illuminative work from the leader and frontline horns.
Sikhakhane erupts with primal, screaming energy,
followed by Zulu, who combines the speed of Freddie
Hubbard with the smearing elasticity of Don Cherry.
Richardson wraps it up beautifully and this tune is asterling representation of what seems to be missing ina lot of modern jazz these days. Omagugu Makhathinijoins the band on “On The Other Side” with appropriate
drama and solid pitch and excellent throughout is thework of Le Pere, whose whole notes breathe naturally
and frame everything on top especially well.
Apparently Makhathini’s grandmother was a healer
and the pianist believes his music is a continuation ofthat tradition. Perhaps that is what makes Modes ofCommunication such an engaging session.

modern jazz vibraphonist of his generation on excellent
albums as a leader and myriad sideman outings. On
Reincarnation he further demonstrates the breadth of
his multifaceted talent, gently stepping outside of themainstream to delve into his R&B roots with original
songs proving him capable of crossing over without
mitigating his considerable abilities.
Wolf has framed the album in a manner recallingan ‘80s Quiet Storm radio program with a “Smooth
Intro” and “Smooth Outro” by Baltimore broadcasterMarcellus“Bassman”
Shepard
toutingthevibraphonist’s ability both to swing and groove “in the
pocket” bookending eight tracks. The opening “ForMa” is Wolf’s soulful dedication to his late mother onwhich the core band of pianist Brett Williams, electricbassist Richie Goods and drummer Carroll “CV”
Dashiell III lay down an insistent gospel-tinged rhythm
over which the vibraphonist solos with dynamic
intensity. The beat is even stronger on “Vahybing”, thequartet swinging vigorously before the song ends with
Dashiell letting loose over a bluesy vamp.
“In The Heat Of The Night” is a romantic R&B
ballad, adding Mark Whitfield’s wah-wahing guitar tounderpin the achingly slow throbbing rhythm on top ofwhich Imani Grace-Cooper sings Wolf’s lyrics,
complemented by Shepard’s Barry White-likecommentary. The quartet charges straightahead withmelancholic buoyancy on “The Struggle”, before
Whitfield and Grace-Cooper return for an engaging
cover of The Isley Brothers’ “For The Love Of You”,
sure to appeal to fans of Anita Baker and Sade. The
singer is out front vocalizing with childlike innocencerecalling Minnie Ripperton on Wolf’s declaration ofparental love “Sebastian and Zoë” and soaring
optimism on “Livin’ The Good Life”, which blends jazzand funk. The program ends with Wolf and Williams
dueting melodiously on “Come Dance With Me”, before
Shepard’s closing announcement declaring, “What’s
his name—Warren Wolf. Now go tell somebody.”

For more information, visit royalpotatofamily.com. Knuffke
was scheduled to be at Bushwick Public House.

For more information, visit bluenote.com. This project wasscheduled to be at Dizzy’s Club.

For more information, visit mackavenue.com. This project
was scheduled to be at Jazz Standard.

house presentsof improv
saturday, april 25, 2020
drew wesely, ralph alessi & tom rainey

friday, may 1, 2020

Blue reality Quartet
Joe mcphee, michael marcus,
warren smith, Jay rosen

saturday, may 2, 2020
reggie nicholson
Brass concept

Joseph daley, Jose davila,
James Zollar, steve swell244 rehearsal studios
244 w. 54th street, 10th floorc, e to 50th street / n, Q, r , w to 57th street
all performances start at 8 pm | admission $20

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | APRIL 2020 21

And She Speaks (A Collection of Ballads)
Ab Baars (Wig)by Steven Loewy

F or decades, classically trained Dutch reed player Ab
Baars has delighted with his iconoclastic style in the
Instant Composers Pool Orchestra and on wideranging recordings both as a leader and sideman withmembers of the local scene and international figures
such as Steve Lacy, Roswell Rudd, Ken Vandermark,John Carter and Anthony Braxton. This is his third solo
album. Baars says that he “…listened extensively toballads…” by the “great saxophonists” when he started
playing many years ago and that this recording is a“salute to that tradition”. Although each of these tracks
references and is inspired by the works of others, the
key word is “inspired”, as for the most part, theoriginal pieces are largely unrecognizable.
And She Speaks is often very slow, sometimes wispy,
spanning the range of clarinet, tenor saxophone andshakuhachi and occasionally enhanced by trills, allevidence of Baars’ cool, focused sound. Sometimes, as on“And She Speaks Purple” (inspired by John Carter), you
may wonder exactly where Baars is taking us and there
are moments when it almost sounds like difficult musicalexercises. But, then, out of nowhere, on the compelling“Solitude Cadmium Yellow” (inspired by Duke
Ellington), tenor bursts forth, the full force of the horn
dancing wondrously with pockets of altissimo notes,
gradually picking up pace and intensity. “Naima Blue
Saphir” (inspired by John Coltrane), focuses on slow
long tones, a bit spiritual and pretty, but mostly leisurely
and gentle, a phrase that defines the album. By the lastpiece, the partially recognizable “Blame it on My Youth”(inspired by Oscar Levant), Baars reworks the melody
beautifully, with a tip of the hat to its composer, Baars’
singing clarinet makes the piece its own, gorgeous
balladry and a fitting ending to an unusual album.
For more information, visit stichtingwig.com. Baars wasscheduled to be at Ibeam Brooklyn, 244 Rehearsal Studios
and Downtown Music Gallery.

Wild Wild East
Sunny Jain (Smithsonian Folkways)
by Jim Motavalli

Says Sunny Jain, leader/drummer/double-headeddhol player for the popular Brooklyn-based Red Baraat!,“I believe the immigrants are our current-day cowboys
and cowgirls.” Jain, whose last name reflects his heritage
in the gentle Jain faith, offers a project tracing his
parents’ journey from India to Rochester in 1970.
Eastern and Western sounds mix on Wild Wild
East. “Immigrant Warrior”, for instance, crosses
Bollywood and fusion somewhat incoherently, with
Grey McMurray’s guitar carrying the rock energy and
Pawan Benjamin’s saxophone nodding to jazz. The
standout track is the third one, “Osian”, the name of
Jain’s ancestral village in Rajasthan. The liner notes

reference Sonic Youth but the song channels both
Indian traditions and hypnotic improvising undertaken
by New York-based bands like 75 Dollar Bill. “Red,
Brown, Black” features Haseeb, a South Asian Muslim
rapper, born in New York but raised on the West Coast.
Is it surprising that questions of identity arise, both on
the track and on the album as a whole? “Embarrassed
by my culture from the get-go / Hip-hop raised mewith the best flows / Black culture taught me how to
say it with my chest though,” he intones.
Though the CD booklet is illustrated with picturesof white, black and Latino cowboys, as well as those of
Jain’s family, the connection doesn’t develop overtly,
alternating between fusion-y pieces and traditional
temple music, with Florida-raised vocalist Ganavya(known to translate jazz standards from English to
Tamil) prominent. “Hai Apna Dil to Aawara”, forinstance, features her and sounds like an Indian country
song, with just guitar and drums. “Tumse Lagi Lagan”
is a bhajan religious song from the Jain faith and uses
bansuri (an Indian flute played by Benjamin) to create ahaunting mood. “Maitri Bhavanu” is a Jain prayer witheffective chant-like vocals. These tracks sit alongsidewilder excursions such as “Brooklyn Dhamal” and thetitle track, which channel everything from spaghetti
westerns to surf guitar, all with ferocious drumming.
Some of it is overly busy, but infectious.
For more information, visit folkways.si.edu. This project isscheduled to be at Joe’s Pub Apr. 22nd.

“Dream Weaver”, which opens the concert, peaks at
almost 22. Yet no note is wasted. At this point, Lloyd’s
every musical utterance is profound. Listening to him
play is the equivalent of climbing a mountain to get a
few intensely deep aphorisms from a cave-dwellingguru. The band floats along with him, morphing into an
unlikely whole, virtuosity coalescing behind theshamanistic presence of the leader, much in the way that
Shorter corralled his famed new millennium quartet.
To call this a Greatest Hits or Career Retrospective
would be to reduce Lloyd’s thinking to the simply
linear. He is beyond time and to spend two hours in his
presence both goes by in a moment and is an endlessdescent to the bottom of the ocean of history.
Nearly 51 years before the Santa Barbara concert
Lloyd was in the beginning of his career but had alreadydifferentiated himself: interacting with the burgeoning
psychedelic rock scene both through its bands and its
venues; playing far-flung locales like Tallinn; andbringing a spirituality to his music that would lead toyears of musical isolation in the mid ‘70s. His ‘60s
quartet with Keith Jarrett (piano), Ron McClure (bass)
and Jack DeJohnette (drums) is unfairly relegated tosecond-tier status behind the Davises, Coltranes and
Minguses despite crossover success via a series ofAtlantic albums. TCB, as part of its Swiss Radio Days
Jazz Series, presents Lloyd’s set from the 1967 Montreux
Jazz Festival. He may be young at this point—and hisband even younger, far from the stars they are today—
but the vision and presence are already there, abeautifully ripe vineyard of grapes one can feel will
become a special libation. Musical oenophiles: compare
this 27-minute “Forest Flower” with the 2018 version.
For more information, visit bluenote.com and tcb.ch.
Lloyd is scheduled to be at Blue Note Apr. 23rd-26th.

8: Kindred Spirits (Live from The Lobero)
Charles Lloyd (Blue Note)
Montreux Festival 1967
(Swiss Radio Days Jazz Series 46)
Charles Lloyd Quartet (TCB)
by Andrey Henkin

It is a cliché among jazz critics to discuss older
musicians in terms of wine—that they get better withage. But, to be honest, some old wine is corked. How
many players sound better in their 80s than their 30s?
A rare few. Randy Weston, Wayne Shorter and Abdullah
Ibrahim all leveraged experience to imbue their later
work with startling depth simply not possible at an
earlier age. Saxophonist/flutist Charles Lloyd isanother alchemist of this sort.
On Mar. 15th, 2018, Lloyd turned 80 and observed
this milestone in the best possible fashion: a two-hourconcert at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara, Lloyd’s
adopted home since the ‘70s. Accompanying the newly
minted octogenarian were friends old and new: bassist
Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland, both partof several of Lloyd’s recent projects; young charges
Julian Lage (guitar) and Gerald Clayton (piano); and,during the second half, two guests in Blue Note headhoncho Don Was (bass on two tracks) and famed organ
player/proto-rock legend Booker T. (organ, including
a take on his iconic “Green Onions”, and piano andvocals for what sounds like an impromptu birthday
tribute). Two years later, Blue Note gives Lloyd alovely 82nd birthday present by releasing music fromthe evening: a CD or two-LP/DVD set of the concert’s
first half and a two-CD/three LP/DVD set of the entire
show, the latter a signed limited edition including a
96-page hardcover book and two photo prints.
The material spans some of Lloyd’s earliest pieces(“Dream Weaver”, “Island Blues”, “Sombrero Sam”,“Forest Flower”) to ones of far more recent vintage.
The band, like its intrepid leader, doesn’t hurry; theperformances easily swell past the 10-minute mark and

22 APRIL 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD“Simply the hippest journal about jazz in New York
that has ever been published” - Joe Lovano

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Inventions & Dimensions
Herbie Hancock (Blue Note)by Anders Griffen

H erbie Hancock, who turns 80 this month, recorded
seven albums for Blue Note between 1962-69. Each ofthem is a departure from the last and a unique work ofart. The success of these albums has led to theirperennial reissue. This stereo LP pressed on 180-gramvinyl sounds clean and dynamic.
In 1964, Inventions & Dimensions was consideredquite abstract and was deleted from the catalog soonafter its initial release. In the liner notes to the 1998 sixCD set of Herbie Hancock: The Complete Blue Note Sixties
Sessions, Bob Belden recalls, “Inventions & Dimensions(BN-4147) was a sought after item for years, until Blue
Note reissued it, newly titled Succotash (BN-LA 152)
and featuring a new cover, in 1972 to capitalize on
Herbie’s new-found fame.” Hancock was alreadyincredibly articulate both as a soloist and composer on
his debut a year earlier at 22 years old. This was his
third album and in the original liner notes Nat Hentoff
asserts that, “This session is one of the most
spontaneous jazz dates ever recorded.” It was
Hancock’s intention to free himself and his fellow
musicians from conventions of jazz, including 4/4
meter, pre-set harmonies and even melodies. None of
the tunes had a specific melody and “Mimosa” is the
only piece that had specific chord changes. Hancock
said, “I told the musicians not to assume anything
except for a few rules I set for each piece.” Thisapproach was the result of his first experiences playing‘free’ with Eric Dolphy in the winter of 1962-63.
“At the beginning, I thought I’d be afraid to play justanything felt,” the pianist said, “but as I got used to it,
the experience gassed me so much that I decided toplan for a record session in that vein.” By this time,
Hancock had begun working with the great arbiter ofchange, Miles Davis, who suggested using two Latin
percussionists as well as bassist Paul Chambers. Willie
Bobo on drums and Osvaldo “Chihuahau” Martinez
on percussion create a unique texture and feel. The
Latin influence is obvious, but Bobo in particularsounds equally at home in hardbop territory. An
unusual mix of musicians and the fact that there wereno written melodies gave the session a certain
unpredictability.
All the musicians are rhythmically oriented
throughout. Chambers tends to play basslines orvamps, but walks a bit on “Triangle” and “A Jump
Ahead”. Hancock gives each piece form by maintaining
a train of thought wherein improvised themes arerecapitulated. When the needle drops the listener is
met with Bobo’s brushes repeating a three-note figurethat sounds like “Succotash”. This piece is rich intexture and harmony and really sets the tone for thealbum. The original liner notes erroneously claim that
Martinez is playing a guiro, but listen and it’s almost
certainly a shekere. Hancock joins the rhythm to startand goes through a sequence of chords before delving
into myriad melodies. “Triangle” starts as a cool
4/4 swing. Chambers mainly walks before joining thedrums and percussion as they lay down a 12/8 Latintinged flow. Side B starts with “Jack Rabbit”, titled forits brisk pace. Chambers repeats a two-measure line
while Martinez accents two and four on the conga.
Reminiscent of Ahmad Jamal at times, Hancock freely
explores harmony and dissonance, virtuosity andspace over the groove. “Mimosa” is the most composed

piece. After a rubato intro, they lounge on a laid-back
3:2 son clave. “A Jump Ahead” refers to Chambers
choosing a new pedal tone between every 16 bars ofuptempo swing. Hancock’s left hand is sparse while
the right picks out single-note lines. Bobo is popping
hard on this one, accenting the breaks.
Compared to the audience in 1964, today’s listeners
find this album much more accessible. Nevertheless,a distinct space is conjured by these sounds. Inventions& Dimensions was an apt title indeed.
For more information, visit bluenote.com

this conveys what the music sounds like, know at leastthat it is unlike anything you have heard before andthat you will find it challenging, mesmerizing andendlessly rewarding.
Different ideas regarding packaging seems to havebeen one thing that delayed the original release of
Duets 1992, but we can be sure that the production
values Triple Point has brought to bear far exceed
anything that could have happened in the ‘90s. The
remastered Indent LP is beautiful as well, basically
reproducing the 1977 Arista packaging with superiorsound on a far superior pressing.
For more information, visit orgmusic.com and triplepointrecords.com

in print
IndentCecil Taylor (Unit Core/Freedom - ORG Music)
Duets 1992
Bill Dixon/Cecil Taylor (Triple Point)
by Duck Baker

W hen Indent first appeared in 1973 on Cecil Taylor ’s

own Unit Core label, it marked the pianist’s first U.S.
release since 1966 and seemed to open the floodgates;by the end of the decade another 10 Taylor records had
been released and the pace only quickened after that.
Indent was also the first of several solo outings to bereleased by Taylor, who died two years ago this month.
This coincided with a general upsurge of solo
recordings by such pianists as Randy Weston, Abdullah
Ibrahim, Mal Waldron and others. It is possible thatthose of us who remember the original release of Indent
cannot be objective, but many regard it as one of his
most significant solo records.
All the hallmarks of Taylor ’s fully mature style are
evident here from the first rumbling, multi-octave
figures. He builds the three sections of the piecethrough the insistent repetition of phrases that keepslowly transmuting into different patterns, which inturn continue to alter themselves. At any point he mayintersperse quieter sequences of arpeggiated chords,
or pile on a series of crashing clusters or lightning-fastruns. The listener must stay focused, because while therhythmic configurations Taylor utilizes tend towards
certain patterns, the harmonic references change as
things develop, often suddenly, in mid-flight as itwere. Some of these musical moments hit us liketransformative epiphanies.
Where the music on Indent is largely predetermined,
Duets 1992 consists entirely of free improvisations withtrumpeter Bill Dixon. Dixon had appeared on Taylor ’s
1966 masterpiece Conquistador, but the two had notworked together again until the short duo tour during
which they made these studio recordings. By thenDixon usually used electronic delay on his trumpet
and for these sessions was using a set-up that involved
delay, reverb and repeats, which he varied by aiming
the instrument at different microphones. Meanwhile
the principals seem intent on avoiding obvious ways ofdeveloping things and even relating to each other.
Taylor often sounds very different than we are used tohearing him, about as far from the single-minded
development of Indent as he ever went. He leaves
open spaces into which he drops abstract little flurries
or chordal sequences and when things do coalesce
along the lines we could expect from him, it is neverfor long. Sometimes he plays inside the piano and at
one point even evokes a march. Meanwhile
disembodied trumpet floats along on paths of its own.
At times Dixon’s lines are pensive and almost doggedly
deliberate, at others there are no lines at all but seriesof smears, bleats, blats and skittering runs that areenhanced and distorted by the electronics. If none of

Better Days Will Come Again: The Life of Arthur Briggs,
Jazz Genius of Harlem, Paris and a Nazi Prison Camp
Travis Atria (Chicago Review Press)by Kevin Canfield

Trumpeter Arthur Briggs, born 121 years ago thismonth, honed his talents on uptown bandstands
during the early years of the Harlem Renaissance. By
the ‘20s, he was a minor Jazz Age star in Paris andwould record with Coleman Hawkins, Django
Reinhardt and Marlene Dietrich. When WWII began,
the racism he’d encountered in the U.S. compelled him
to stay put in France, altering the course of his life.
Travis Atria has researched Briggs’ life on two
continents, presenting a vivid portrait of Briggs as
an industrious artist and “ambassador of jazz”.
Traveling alone, Briggs was 16 when he took a shipfrom Grenada to Ellis Island in 1917. The trumpet
techniques he’d practiced since childhood earned
him spots in bands that performed classical andragtime tunes at places like the lively Lenox Casino
on West 116th Street. Briggs played alongside Sidney
Bechet and other notables while touring the U.S. in
the 1910s-20s. In several states, he and fellow blackbandmates were harassed by racists, “giving Briggs
a lesson in American culture beyond Harlem,” Atria
writes. This informed Briggs’ decision to stick withbands that worked in Europe—he played all over,from Vienna cabarets to Buckingham Palace—andmake Paris his home. “On any given night,” Atria
says, “Briggs provided the soundtrack as the likes of
Alice B. Toklas, Jean Cocteau, Marcel Duchamp andEzra Pound got drunk” at Le Grand Duc, the famed
Montmartre club. The Chicago Defender, the prominent
African American newspaper, called Briggs “the one
musician in Paris who is never without work.”
In 1940, as German forces swept across Europe,
friends implored Briggs to return to America. He
opted to stay in Paris. That October, the Nazis tossed
him in a squalid prison camp near Paris. For four
years, Briggs endured filth, bigotry, threats andmaggot-infested food, staving off thoughts of oblivion
by playing in a camp jazz band and conducting a
makeshift orchestra. Briggs was 43 when he was freed
and during his time in the camp, “jazz had moved
past him,” Atria says. Briggs sensed this, but clearly
wasn’t one to give in. “Within weeks of his release,”
Atria adds, “Briggs put a new band together.”
For more information, go to chicagoreviewpress.com

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | APRIL 2020 23

Colors
Michel Petrucciani (Dreyfus)
by Thomas Conrad

F ew previously unreleased Michel Petruccianirecordings have come to light since the pianist’s deathat 36 in 1999. Colors is not one. 17 of these 18 tracks
appeared on Petrucciani’s Dreyfus albums between
1994-97.
There are some minor issues, like typos,
misidentified personnel and sudden fades. But thistwo-CD compilation gathers in one place a strong
representative selection of Petrucciani’s late music.
The liner notes by Pascal Anquetil contain passion andfresh insights. Petrucciani’s severe disability from thebone disease osteogenesis imperfecta is widely known.
But there is less awareness that he lived with constant
pain and that he sometimes fractured bones while
performing (a finger, his coccyx) and kept on playing.
Many may not know that “Love Letter”, a ballad likean outpouring of the heart, was composed for his lastpartner, Isabelle Mailé, who was with him when hedied and who now lies beside him in Père-Lachaise
Cemetery. The booklet also contains touching photos
and reminiscences.
There are live solo concerts and studio sessions
and also duos, trios and expanded ensembles. The
tunes, all Petrucciani, are often technically daunting
and require a pianist with extraordinarily gifted,
independent hands. But even with Petrucciani’s special
capacity to drown songs in lavish extravagance and tofind melodies within melodies, he was always a clear
communicator. What he primarily communicated was
joy: the joy of the invincible human spirit and of
sharing his own creativity. You hear it in the way hecould not wait to get to the next phrase. Often the
joy was tinged with melancholy, like on “Romantic but
not Blue”.
He got his own sound from his Steinway. His
hands were not impaired by his disability and his
touch was powerful and hard but not harsh. (Anquetil
believes that his “flexible bones” allowed his hands to“bounce back” from keys and create “mind-blowingintervals”.) His notes rang, celestially. Just two
examples: “Hidden Joy” starts pensively but is
eventually released into crescendos of exhilaration.
“Looking Up”, perhaps his most admired piece, openswith bright snatches of notes in quick ascending runs
like questions, which are answered in the affirmative
when the melody coalesces and, resoundingly, resolves.
For
more
information,
dreyfus-music

visit

bmg.com/de/artist/

connection too, as these are both fine examples of thekind of visceral, satisfying post-post-rock music thatjazz musicians in general, and some of these players inparticular, have been making early in the 21st century.
Exoterm’s Exits Into A Corridor sounds like theAlas No Axis album we’ve been waiting for since2013’s Antiheroes. And indeed, Jim Black is the
drummer. This is described as a “Norway/USsupergroup” and all the music is by bassist Rune
Nergaard but it’s impossible to imagine Exoterm
existing without the example of Alas No Axis. Also
impossible is imagining this band without memories ofpunk rock. Alas No Axis could generate an earthmoving momentum, but this band thrashes more andBlack himself frequently stretches free in a way henever did with his group, churning away and letting
the pulse of the music build and keep its own pocket.
The sound is often beautiful—the opening “FistLight”—often thrilling and always dark in an
impressionistic, cinematic way, which follows narrative
song titles like “Forest Mist-Night” and “Moves Away
From the Door”. Saxophonist Kristoffer Berre Alberts
has a full tone and a public-facing, extroverted stanceand his voice seems to dig hooks into Cline and theothers. There’s lots of great building tension andrelease, like in a suspense movie or a great rock set.
There are even more thrills on Music from the Early
21st Century. Though Bobby Previte is a more precise
drummer than Black, this album is looser, very muchthe feeling that the trio is jamming, though with thehigh level of organization that has a relaxed but certain
grip. Part of that is certainly that this is essentially an
improvised album, though the players are clearlyworking with some common material (this also marks
the first collaboration between Cline and organ player
Jamie Saft). Another is that this is a live album, acollation of performances captured at Nublu and atvenues in Pennsylvania and the Hudson River Valley.
That means this trio album is far more uneven thanthe compositionally directed Exoterm recording. But
the lows, like “Paywall”, are neither too deep nor bad,they’re more a question of the limits of inspiration andthe pleasures of hearing an excellent band vamp for awhile. “For a while” means that this is a long album—
77 minutes—and it can feel like it’s been spinning forquite a bit. That’s something of a necessary condition,
though, as the longest tracks, “Occession”, “The New
Weird” and “Flash Mob”, are the best stretches, strong
enough to carry the whole package into the top level.
Cline wails, but it’s Saft who really shines brightest
and his playing on “The New Weird” mixes the soulfulroots of the instrument with elegant and imaginative
harmonic motion. That’s all before the blues comes out
and wraps itself around the band. “Flash Mob” comesat the end, and, with crowd noise mixed in, sounds likethe kind of encore that gives the people what theywant and sends everyone, band included, home happy.
For more information, visit hubromusic.com andrarenoiserecords.com. Cline was scheduled to be at The
Sultan Room as part of Alternative Guitar Summit andVillage Vanguard with Kris Davis.

across a single night, via the mid-century Disneycatalog along with familiar standards and two of her
own works. Just the notion of Disney as a measure ofemotional states is a unique, innovative enterprise.
Edmonson crafts a song cycle whose story is basedon belief, starting (and ending) with Cinderella’s “ADream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” (Oliver WallacePaul J. Smith). It’s followed by “Go to Sleep” (Babes in
Toyland, Victor Herbert-George Bruns-Mel Leven), an
ethereal lullaby, complete with angelic backup chorus.
This number best captures Edmonson’s vocal tone andstyle: a light and airy, sprightly soprano inflected with
her Texas roots. “In a World of My Own” (Alice inWonderland, Oliver Wallace), further sets anotherworldly mood. The rhythm is lulling, yet jaunty,
with a rocking motion and highly evocative of thetwilight world of dreams or, possibly, morepointedly, the far away realms of daydreamers.
Atmospheric instrumental interludes further set
the tone. The flute-based “Night Walk” is followed by
the classic “When You Wish Upon a Star” (Pinocchio,
Leigh Harline-Ned Washington) but this isn’t yourgrandmother ’s version. Edmonson has reimagined thetune with creative phrasing and updated rhythmic
innovation. Another interlude, the mobilizing,
percussion based, pun-titled “A Little Night Music?”(Stephen Sondheim) is followed by its naturalconsequence in the heart-throbbing, happily yearning“All I Do Is Dream of You” (Nacio Herb Brown-Arthur
Freed). The arrangement features percussion and agently driving Latin beat, with male chorus and aninterlude of hopeful cheeriness.
Edmonson’s own “Someone’s in the House” is afun, bass-inflected tune ending with a wild flight ofsaxophone improvisation calling up the kind of wideeyed fear that proves ultimately harmless. Her “TooLate To Dream” is a beautiful, lush ballad, very Disneyesque in compositional style. Completing the story,
Edmonson underscores her overarching view ofpositivity with “What a Wonderful World” (Bob Thiele
as “George Douglas” and George David Weiss),delivering the tune as a balladic story song.
Edmonson has created an exploratory work ofmajor consequence. Superb backing vocals by the trio
Duchess are sprinkled like fairy dust throughout. The
roster of superb musicians includes drummer Aaron
Thurston, who co-produced the album and arranged
most of the songs, with fresh, contemporary updating.
Also featured are bassist Bob Hart, guitarist Matt
Munisteri, Rob Schwimmer on keyboards and Haken
Continuum synthesizer and pianist Matt Ray, plus
Yacouba Sissoko on kora, Deep Singh on tabla and Bill
Frisell on guitar.
For more information, visit katedmonson.com. Edmonson
was scheduled to be at Birdland Theater.

LIZZIETHOMAS
New Sounds From
The Jazz Age

Exits Into A Corridor
Exoterm (Hubro)Music from the Early 21st Century
Bobby Previte/Jamie Saft/Nels Cline (RareNoise)by George Grella

The immediate connection between these two albums
is guitarist Nels Cline but there’s a strong aesthetic

Dreamers Do
Kat Edmonson (Spinnerette)by Marilyn Lester

K at Edmonson’s Dreamers Do is a concept album

centering around an imagined dream journey realized

24 APRIL 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORDLIZZIETHOMAS.NET

Lizzie Thomas elevates the soulYou Scream A Rapid Language
James Ilgenfritz (Infrequent Seams)
by Tyran Grillo

Bassist/composer James Ilgenfritz is rare for runninglines of transfusion between jazz and classical bodies
while keeping them equally alive. In that spirit, hepresents this chamber program of formidable subtlety
and feeling that travels comfortably between (andbeyond) genres.
The combinations of instruments provide constantfascination, starting with the pairing of violin (Pauline
Kim Harris) and double-pedal bass drum (Alex Cohen)
in “Terminal Affirmative”. By turns primal andfuturistic, this music frays the edges of suchcontradictions to the point of unity. It’s worth notingthat this piece is based on observations of Ovid, whoemphasized the power of water droplets to erode stoneover time as an organic illustration of persistence. Thisphilosophy seeps into everything that follows, but
especially in “Apophenia III: The Index (2016)”.
This trio for piano (Kathleen Supové), guitar (James
Moore) and violin (Jennifer Choi), based on a shortstory by J.G. Ballard, asks the musicians to build agrander narrative out of through-composed fragments.
Thus, what first seem to be aphorisms take on acoherence all their own.
“Apophenia IV: A Bell In Every Finger” sets poetryby the late Steve Dalachinsky (on Muhal Richard
Abrams and Cecil Taylor, no less) for baritone (Thomas
Buckner), piano (Joseph Kubera), percussion (William
Winant) and Ilgenfritz himself. Buckner lends his
falsetto to this garden of delights and darkness,
contrasting hauntingly with the album’s masterstroke:“How To Talk To Your Children About Not Looking At
The Eclipse”. Here flutist Margaret Lancaster breaks
down breath to its most linguistically pure elements
and makes them sing.
Tempting as it is to call this album intermittently
assaultive, it is perhaps better described as possessedof a fierce intimacy. As in the concluding “Fanfares For
Modest Accomplishments” for two violins (Pauline
Kim Harris and Conrad Harris), it uses brevity to bringour attention to expanse. Such dichotomies are difficult
to maintain, but these musicians do just that withunwavering strength.
For more information, visit infrequentseams.com. This
project was scheduled to be at Issue Project Room.

NYC Stories
Andy Bianco (Next Level)by Tom Greenland

The front and back covers show a young man standing
on a mid-city rooftop in a purple jacket with rolled up
sleeves, back to the camera, shoulders jutted forward,
guitar gripped by his side, gazing out over the offices
and apartments as the Empire State Building bulges up
behind him like a looming challenge—or threat. These

photos of Andy Bianco on his debut recording, NYC
Stories, tell the tale of struggle. A refugee of postindustrial Pittsburgh, Bianco now stands in opposition
to the biggest Apple of all, where striving jazzmusicians come and go and you’re only as good as
your last few (often poor-paying) gigs.
Both the photos and the music on the disc show,
however, Bianco prepared for the challenge. This
quintet outing with tenor saxophonist Glenn White(Wayne Escoffery replacing him on two tracks), pianist
George Burton, bassist Nathan Peck and drummer
Paul Wells (Wayne Smith, Jr. or Allan Mednard
replacing him on three tracks), is framed by the leader ’s
resilient pieces: motif-driven melodies with contrastingbridge sections (often toggling between time
signatures); slow-moving, Wayne Shorter-esqueharmonies permitting the soloists more liberty; andlong-form melodic clavés used as connective tissue
between solos or as platforms for outro blowing. The
mix (by Peck) suffers from a predominance of bass
with a corresponding lack of treble, making it hard tohear the cymbal touches.
The mood verges from aggressive postbop to more
open-ended blowing, especially during the melodic
vamps. There are two short soliloquies, “Ballad for
Mallards” and “Wild Geese”, forefronting Bianco’s
skills as a chord soloist, though his penchant for longdecay echo effects here and elsewhere creates a certain
distancing, an attenuation of the more intimate soundof fingers on strings. Some of his best single-note work
occurs on “Drone Battery Slow”.
Judging by the jut of his shoulders, clench of his
jaw and verve of his writing and playing, Bianco willsoon be back with some more stories.
For more information, visit artistecard.com/andybianco.
Bianco is scheduled to be at Zinc Bar Apr. 27th.

The Humble Warrior
Wayne Escoffery (Smoke Sessions)by Phil Freeman

W ayne Escoffery gigs regularly (as a leader, a memberof the Black Arts Jazz Collective and Mingus Big Band,and as an in-demand sideman) and has a string ofalbums to his credit, but his name doesn’t pop up inconversation nearly as often as some of his peers.
Perhaps that’s because his music is hard to categorize.
On the surface, it seems like conventional postbop,‘just’ acoustic small group jazz played at as high a levelas anyone since Joe Henderson, but there’s often a lot
more going on, as one realizes after multiple listens.
This album is a typically strong and adventurous
effort, worthy of serious attention.
The core band is one Escoffery has been working
with for several years: pianist David Kikoski, bassist
Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Ralph Peterson.
They’re a hard-swinging, hard-hitting unit augmented
by a few guests.
Randy Brecker (trumpet), David Gilmore (guitar)and Escoffery’s son Vaughn (vocals), only 11, appear
on a radical arrangement of composer Benjamin
Britten’s Missa Brevis. The 22-minute, four-part suitetakes up a full third of the album and has the stately
feel of the classic John Coltrane quartet’s work,
especially when Escoffery switches to soprano on the
opening “Kyrie” section. On the second section,“Sanctus”, Brecker, Gilmore and Escoffery are
effectively performing three-part harmony on theirvarious instruments, making the music soar. Behind
them, the trio swings in a stately, regal manner,
Peterson keeping his usual apocalyptic approach justslightly in check. He makes sure we know the bombs
are there, should he choose to drop them, though.
The title track also features Brecker; he andEscoffery play off each other beautifully, dancing
confidently through the complicated but serene melody
before stepping out with graceful but fierce solos.
“A.K.A. Reggie”, a George Cables composition, isa slow, bluesy ballad on which Escoffery’s halfmurmured phrases slide smoothly across the perfectly
locked-in rhythm laid down by the trio.
Escoffery, as well known and highly regarded as
he is, has in some sense been in the shadows, waiting
his turn. Consider this album an invitation to recognize
what should have been obvious long ago.
For more information, visit smokesessionsrecords.com. This
project was scheduled to be at Smoke.

What Is That Isn’t?
Native Soul (Cellar Live)by Ken Dryden

J azz groups frequently last no longer than a CD ortwo, due to other bands that members are a part of andthe inevitable schedule conflicts. But it is refreshing tohear a group like Native Soul, a collective that has
maintained the same players during its decade-plus
existence: drummer Steve Johns (long in Dr. Billy
Taylor ’s trio but who has played with leaders ranging
from George Russell to Thomas Chapin); bassist
Marcus McLaurine (a regular with the late trumpet
master Clark Terry for years); plus veteran saxophonist
Peter Brainin; and the talented pianist Noah Haidu.
For their fourth CD, there is a special bonus on several
tracks, guest trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, one of themost in-demand players today.
Egos are not an issue in this allstar meeting, as all
four members contribute strong compositions and divehead first into each chart. Even though the music is
almost all originals, it sounds as if the material has
been road-tested on gigs, instead of played after a few
rehearsals.
Haidu’s lively postbop vehicle “Song Of Secrets”
serves as a powerful opener, surging tenor saxophone
and fiery trumpet buoyed by the intense rhythm
section. Brainin plays both soprano and tenor in his
inviting “What Is That Isn’t”, which blends a bossa
nova air with AfroCuban piano licks.
Johns previously recorded “Sleep Walk” on a solo
album, but this jaunty arrangement belies its title.
Haidu’s “The Chant” initially has a Middle Eastern
flavor with hypnotic soprano, though the composer ’s
extended solo takes the piece in a different direction
altogether. Hendrix returns for McLaurine’s “To C.T.
With Love”, a joyful salute to his longtime boss, whichfits the playfulness that Terry brought to every
performance. “Distant Circles” is a wistful balladshowcasing its composer ’s poignant tenor, which
communicates its message without words. The solecover is The Beatles’ “Nowhere Man”, variations inrhythm between sections and strong solos keeping it
fresh. This is another excellent addition to Native
Soul’s discography.
For more information, visit cellarlive.com. This project isscheduled to be at Birdland Apr. 23rd.

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | APRIL 2020 25

Sofijazz
Sofija Knezevic (s/r)
by Alex Henderson

Sofija Knezevic is not easy to pigeonhole. Sofijazz finds

the expressive Serbian vocalist (born in Belgrade but
living in New York City since 2011) incorporating
everything from Brazilian music and blues to
traditional Eastern European music. Eclectic as she is,Knezevic delivers an enjoyably consistent album.
Knezevic’s band is trombonist Elliot Mason, pianist
Dan Nimmer, bassist Carlos Henriquez and drummer
Obed Calvaire and she doesn’t use them as a mere
backdrop for her singing, wisely giving plenty of solo
space to skillful players like Mason and Nimmer.
Knezevic shows her more abstract side on originals“Serbian Superhero” and “Criticize”, both of whichfind her drawing on the influence of risk-taking
vocalists like Betty Carter and Sheila Jordan. But on
Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein’s “Happy Talk”,
she favors a bop-oriented exuberance along the lines ofElla Fitzgerald. Knezevic shows her appreciation ofBrazilian music on Durval Ferreira’s “Batida
Diferente”, Chick Corea’s “You’re Everything” (lyrics
by Neville Potter) and the Rio de Janeiro-based group
Fundo de Quintal’s “Te Gosto” (“I Like You”). Whileher interpretation of “You’re Everything” combines
Potter ’s English lyrics with a samba beat, Knezevic
sings in Portuguese on “Te Gosto” and “Batida
Diferente”. An accordion player, Mestrinho, is featured
on “Te Gosto”, giving it a forró type of feel more typicalof Northeastern Brazil.
Knezevic expresses herself like a Julie London-ish
torch singer on ballads, which include Francesca
Blumenthal’s “Lies of Handsome Men” and Tommy
Wolf-Fran Landesman standard “Spring Can Really
Hang You Up the Most”. She delves into a blend ofblues and jazz on her own “Bluez”, performed in aminor key, giving it a dusky quality, and uses her
Eastern European background to creative advantage
on interpretations of “Kisa Pada” (a traditionalchildren’s song) and standard “Sejdefu”. Both of thesegems originated in the former Yugoslavia but Knezevic
does not perform either in a strictly traditional way,
instead as vehicles for postbop improvisation.
Vocal jazz is a crowded field and too many singers
are content merely to emulate what Sarah Vaughan orBillie Holiday were doing 70 years ago. Knezevic,
however, takes her share of chances on Sofijazz anddoes so with unpredictable results.
For more information, visit sofijazz.com. This project isscheduled to be at Dizzy’s Club Apr. 30th.

A Music of the Spirit (Out of Sistas’ Place)
Diaspora Meets AfroHORN (s/r)
by George Kanzler

The spirit of Sun Ra reigns over this album, a projectof Ahmed Abdullah and Francisco Mora-Catlett, whoplayed trumpet and percussion respectively in the Sun
Ra Arkestra in the ‘70s. Mora-Catlett brings along two
members of his AfroHORN band, baritone saxophonist
Alex Harding and percussionist Roman Diaz, toAbdullah’s bandmates from Diaspora, Don Chapman(tenor saxophone), Bob Stewart (tuba), Donald Smith(piano), Radu Ben Judah (basses), Ronnie Burrage(drums/percussion) and singer-poet Monique Ngozi
Nri. Half of the eight tracks derive from the Sun Rarepertoire, the others ranging from avant swing totownship jive.
The opener, “Accent”, a ‘70s Earl Coleman
composition, veers from hardbop swing to free sections
in a see-sawing between ensemble and free polyphonicstrains, which also set up driving solo features for
Abdullah, Harding and Smith. The band’s muscularrhythmic churn suggests postbop Elvin Jonespolyrhythmic sweep on “Reminiscing”, by Sun Ra
bassist ShooBeeDoo, the two saxophonists in Trane-ishsolo mode. And they nail the effervescent lilt of South
African township jive on Miriam Makeba’s“Magwalandini”, prodded by electric bass and tuba,
flugelhorn, baritone and piano spearheading the flow
with spirited solos.
The other tracks feature vocals as well as themusicians, with Nri delivering an emotionallyharrowing incantation/recitation of Louis Reyes
Rivera’s poem “A Place I’ve Never Been” over
Abdullah’s “Eternal Spiraling Spirit” before the pieceturns to solos from muted trumpet, tenor and baritone.
The poem imagines being a bullet that killed Malcolm
X. More inspirational verses come from Nri along with
Abdullah on Sun Ra’s “Discipline 27 (In Some FarPlace)”, marked by chugging polyrhythms and abackbeat; “Love In Outer Space”, with muted trumpet
and an incantatory feel; and “Lights On A Satellite”,
a swaying, swirling chant-like piece with scintillating
free piano. For those who missed the Sun Ra Arkestraand Loft jazz of the 20th Century, this is a worthy trip
down memory lane.
For more information, visit store.cdbaby.com/cd/
ahmedabdullahfranciscomoracatl.
This
projectwasscheduled to be at Sistas’ Place.

The Complete Piano Duets
Ella Fitzgerald (Verve)
by Scott Yanow

Throughout her very productive career, Ella Fitzgerald
was usually heard either leading a trio, accompanied
by a big band or orchestra or with allstar combos.
Although she recorded a series of fine duet albums
later in life with guitarist Joe Pass, she was only heard
on very rare occasions accompanied solely by piano.
This two-CD set reissues all of her piano duet
recordings. Ella Sings Gershwin and the follow up from1954, Songs In A Mellow Mood have Fitzgerald joined bypianist Ellis Larkins who was considered one of jazz’
finest accompanists. His work clearly inspired thesinger whose voice sounds particularly beautiful
throughout the Gershwin set. The first disc concludes
with two selections from Fitzgerald’s later songbook
projects: “Miss Otis Regrets” from the Cole Porter
Songbook with Paul Smith and “Lush Life” from theDuke Ellington Songbook with Oscar Peterson.
In 1960 Fitzgerald had an acting and singing role in
the underrated film Let No Man Write My Epitaph. While
only three songs were used in the movie, she recorded

26 APRIL 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

13 numbers, mostly slow and moody ballads with Paul
Smith as accompanist. Listeners who think of Fitzgerald
as primarily being a joyful scat singer will be surprisedby her heartfelt renditions of such pieces as “AngelEyes”, “Then You’ve Never Been Blue” and even arather downbeat “My Melancholy Baby”.
After a version of “Somewhere In The Night” froma 1964 concert with Tommy Flanagan, the remainder ofthis reissue has the singer reteaming up in 1975 withPeterson for what was originally half an album of solos(bassist Ray Brown was on the other selections),
resulting in duets on five songs and two alternate
takes. Unlike on most of the ballads from the otherdates, Fitzgerald is somewhat playful during theselater recordings and even scats a bit.
The Complete Piano Duets features Fitzgerald at her
most intimate and makes the case that, in addition to
being unbeatable as a scatter and swinging swinger, she
was also at the top of her field as an interpreter of ballads.
For more information, visit vervelabelgroup.com. A
Fitzgerald tribute led by Brianna Thomas is scheduled to be
at Smoke Apr. 23rd-26th.

Liberty
Dayna Stephens Trio (Contagious Music)
by Dan Bilawsky

The title of the ninth album from saxophonist Dayna
Stephens works on two different wavelengths. In one
respect the nature of liberty serves as direct commentaryon the format at hand—a pianoless trio offering escapefrom chorded shackles. But as a macro-level marker it
addresses something more significant: an unflinching
and absorbing look at the very meaning(s) of freedom,
community and life in the present moment.
Stephens, working with bassist Ben Street anddrummer Eric Harland, capitalizes on nearly 15 yearsof playing history and friendship with this project.
Taken together, these three make for a pliant entity,
which, nevertheless, delivers music with firmness andweight. On the intriguing “At Least 37th Cousins”,
a song reminding us that we’re all related if we lookback far enough in time, Street serves as a perfectpivot. With “Rhyming History”—which takes its namefrom a (supposed) Mark Twain one-liner claiming that
history doesn’t repeat itself, but, rather, rhymes—a swaying rhythm in five supports Stephens’ catchylines. And during “Tarifa”, named for a Spanish
municipality at the Southern end of the Iberian
Peninsula, the trio blends Andalusian allure andMiddle Eastern mystique while tackling the notions ofseparation laid out by the literal and figurative
divide(s) between Spain and Morocco, Europe andAfrica and various segments of the human race.
But Stephens and company aren’t moored toweighty points. Just as often, the trio simply cuts loose
in smart settings: Opener “Ran” uses mellow tidings tobookend a deep-rooted swing core; “Kwooked
Stweet”—a contrafact on John Coltrane’s “StraightStreet”—delivers weaving fun and shifting gears; and“Loosy Goosy”, built on “rhythm changes”, goes totown with its name while leaving some room for solo
trading with drums. Whether utilizing big-picture
expressionism or simply playing to the terrain, thestrengths of liberty remain at the forefront for this trio.
For more information, visit daynastephens.net. This projectis scheduled to be at The Jazz Gallery Apr. 29th.

Eponymous
Jazz Sabbath (Blacklake)
by Andrey Henkin

Angular Blues
Wolfgang Muthspiel/Scott Colley/Brian Blade (ECM)
by Tyran Grillo

Jazz in the modern era is almost entirely without On Angular Blues, Wolfgang Muthspiel revives thehumor; to wit, pseudo-intellectual band names; dour
musician photos that make mugshots look like holiday
card portraits; ridiculous hats; and, conversely, thealmost Spanish Inquisition-like response to the fairly
mundane post-modernist statement of Mostly Other
People Do the Killing’s note-for-note recreation of Miles
Davis’ Kind of Blue. So it is refreshing to have received
the email announcing the release of Jazz Sabbath and its
tale of righting a tragic, decades-old wrong. With abrazenness that puts noted song-stealer Miles Davis toshame, Black Sabbath—the Charlie Parker of heavy
metal—apparently was not sprung from the brillianceof riffmeister Tony Iommi. Instead, those boys from
Birmingham were nothing but rank rip-off artists. The
truth is that the music, even the name, came from British
jazz pianist Milton Keanes, whose Jazz Sabbath trio wasan underground sensation in late ‘60s London. Jazz
Sabbath even recorded an album, whose release wasunfortunately delayed when Keanes suffered a massive
heart attack. Upon recovering Keanes learned that not
only had all the copies of the album been destroyed in ahighly suspicious warehouse fire but the time he had
spent convalescing was just enough for Black Sabbath torerecord many of his songs and release two albums in
1970. Keanes disappeared into history while Black
Sabbath made a decades-long career on false pretenses.
Until the master tapes were suddenly found and theannals of musicology could be rewritten.
SPOILER ALERT. None of this, of course, is true
but this reviewer, a card-carrying metalhead, will
admit sheepishly to being fooled for an entire threeminutes. The 15-minute documentary, featuring
players from Whitesnake, Faith No More, The Ramonesand others, obscured rather than illuminated, as did
the fact the Milton Keanes of today was initially shown
from the back, face obscured by long gray hair. Who is
Milton Keanes? Adam Wakeman. In addition to his
own albums, he has been a touring member of Black
Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s bands and is thus
uniquely positioned to play the part of the disgruntled
Keanes, now trying to reestablish his significance.
All this is jolly good fun yet the joke could quickly
fall flat if the music doesn’t deliver. It does and thereason why is crucial to its success. Jazz bands havebeen covering rock music for as long as the latter has
existed, mostly badly. Rather than continue that trend,
Keanes/Wakeman presents the iconic music of Black
Sabbath as if it were, as per the story, actually conceivedof as jazz. It certainly helps that the songs are heavily
rooted in the blues and thus share a foundation withmuch of jazz. Some pieces work better than others:“Rat Salad” almost sounds like boogie-woogie; “Iron
Man”’s unaccompanied intro takes it almost into Hank
Jones territory before moving into crisp swing; and“Children of the Grave” could have been from a lost
Ahmad Jamal session. Sometimes guitar is added,
which can slightly break the spell—as can the modern
production standards. On the other hand, if you
handed this album to an informant for the jazz policewith no personnel or song credits, it would soon get its
own tedious PR one-sheet and the band its choice ofbasement jazz club gigs.
For more information, visit blacklake.eu/jazzsabbathformat of his 2016 ECM leader debut. Rejoined bydrummer Brian Blade yet inviting bassist Scott Colley inplace of Larry Grenadier, the Austrian guitarist serves afull course of originals with a couple of surprises added
to taste. The members of this trio share what Muthspiel
calls a “love of song” and perhaps no more succinct aterm could so accurately describe their rapport.
Longtime listeners won’t be surprised that Muthspiel
has brought together players who understand the valueof space: how to shape it, to be sure, but more importantly
how to let oneself be shaped by it in kind.
The narrative impulses of the opener, “Wondering”,
harness the flexibility of Muthspiel’s acoustic playing,
which in this context meshes with bass while kissed
cymbals draw the z-axis of a three-dimensional sound.
Moods cycle between gentility and insistence andshades between. The title track is aptly named forrevealing a delicately virtuosic side to the energies athand. “Hüttengriffe” follows with a soft-hewn anthem.
The remaining tunes find Muthspiel plugged-in,
jumping into the amorphous body of his electric guitar.
In “Camino” he is equally at home, his fingers free toengage in metaphysical play. As a thinly veiled tributeto the late John Abercrombie—not only in style but also
in the way Muthspiel drafts his solo—it’s a highlightthat deserves close listening. Others include “Kanon in
6/8”, which shows the trio at its deepest level ofsynergy (it’s also offset by the digitally enhanced solo
“Solo Kanon in 5/4”), and bebop-influenced “Ride”.
Two standards fill in the gaps. Where Cole Porter’s“Everything I Love” moves vertically, Gene de PaulPatricia Johnston-Don Raye’s “I’ll Remember April”
ends this worthy set on a horizontal plane.
For more information, visit ecmrecords.com. This project
was scheduled to be at Jazz Standard.

On The Shoulders Of Giants
Chris Byars (SteepleChase)by Ken Dryden

Saxophonist Chris Byars’ sextet is made up ofmusicians with whom he has worked on a fairly regularbasis over the past few years, some relationships goingback decades; this configuration has worked together
steadily since 2018. The last significant change was thedeparture of guitarist Pasquale Grasso, but Byars didn’t
opt to add another chordal instrument, though he had
used a pianist in the past. Instead, he switched to tenor
saxophone and enticed alto saxophonist Zaid Nasser toreturn, the band completed by seasoned trombonist
John Mosca, bassist Ari Roland, bass clarinetist Stefano
Doglioni and drummer Phil Stewart.
Byars’ writing keeps everyone busy, so as one
musician solos, the others are playing backgroundharmonies scored by the leader. Aside from Tommy
Turrentine’s cool “Big Red”, all of the songs are Byars’
originals, titled after cities or states as a play on a
bandmember ’s name. The music will invitecomparisons to the pianoless groups led by baritone
saxophone great Gerry Mulligan, even with thedifferent instrumentation, though the influence of anumber of masters from the swing and bop era are also
apparent in Byars’ writing. The music sounds like it
has been worked out in concert, sounding effortless.
One of the major strengths of the tenor
saxophonist’s charts is they are long enough to feature
all of the frontline in each selection while both Roland
and Stewart are also included in turn. Byars’ elegant,sauntering “Keeper” is one of two songs dedicated tohis new wife Ayna. Lively “Closer” showcases intricate
alto saxophone, understated, vocal-like bass clarinet
and fluid trombone. Roland’s occasional switch toplaying arco bass is a nice touch, too. The engaging
performances on this CD will stand the test of time.
For more information, visit steeplechase.dk. This project isscheduled to be at Smalls Apr. 26th.

Marbles
Falkner Evans (CAP)
by George Kanzler

Since he emerged around the turn of the century, pianist
Falkner Evans has released albums concerned morewith the presentation of his compositions than prowessat the keyboard. Here he has expanded his ensemble toa sextet/septet in order to create varied ensemble chartssuggestive of full band jazz. Yet he made sure that therehearsed music could be altered by the musicians inthe studio. Those musicians include a flexible horn
frontline of Michael Blake (tenor and sopranosaxophones), Ted Nash (alto saxophone, clarinet andflute), Ron Horton (trumpet and flugelhorn), plus
Belden Bullock (bass) and Matt Wilson (drums).
The music itself is developed in much moresophisticated fashion than a head-solos-head format.
Much of it is ensemble driven, some tracks featuring
only a couple of soloists. Evans also explores varied
time signatures and rhythms, taking full advantage ofWilson’s creativity. For instance, the title tune (one ofthree adding vibraphonist Steve Nelson) rides alongon a repeating piano ostinato pattern underpinned bytattooing tom toms, propelling tenor and piano solos
before coming to the fore themselves. Wilson also
creates an iconoclastic tropical rhythm for “HiddenGem”, doubling Bullock’s beat under a slinky melody
from the horns in an ensemble with bar breaks fromtrumpet, clarinet and tenor, vibraphone and piano
taking the central solos. Evans makes evocative use offlute, contrasting it, in the tune’s bridge, with tenor
lead on “Sing Alone” and also exposing it on the bridgeof the tango-like “Pina”, where the horn section is led
by soprano, but piano has the only featured solo.
Evans likes 3/4, 6/8 time and makes it swing much
like 4/4. “Civilization” begins in 3 and moves to 4;“Mbegu” mixes 3/4 and 6/8. There’s also moreconventional swing on the midtempo “Global News”,
with the most conventional solo order of trumpet, alto,
tenor; the tenor-led “This From That” and a fast,
boppish “Dear West Village” featuring alto and tenor.
For more information, visit jazzbeat.com. This project isscheduled to be at Smalls Apr. 22nd.

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | APRIL 2020 27

M ISCELLANY
ONbyTHISDAYAndrey Henkin

New Faces - New Sounds From Germany
Jutta Hipp (Blue Note)
April 24th, 1954

The Living Music
Alexander von Schlippenbach (Quasar)
April 24th, 1969

A European Proposal
Bennink/Mengelberg/Rutherford/Schiano(Horo)
April 24th, 1978

Raggruppamento
Eje Thelin (Phono Suecia)
April 24th, 1989

Live in Allentown USA
AMM (Matchless)April 4th, 1994

Leonard Feather’s sexist liner notes
aside, this album is highly noteworthy.
Part of Blue Note’s Modern Jazz
Series, it featured the sole woman andEuropean of the 71 10” LPs. That was
pianist Jutta Hipp, who was soon to
relocate from Germany to New York,
where she had an engagement at the
Hickory House. Here she is joined bycountrymen Joki Freund (tenor
saxophone), Emil Mangelsdorff (alto,elder brother to Albert), Hans Kresse(bass) and Karl Sanner (drums) fora piece each by her and Freund, jazzstandards and one improvisation.

After convening the Globe Unity

Eight years earlier, drummer Han
Bennink, pianist Misha Mengelberg
and trombonist Paul Rutherford
worked together on the septet LPGroupcomposing (ICP). Bennink andMengelberg’s history went back to theearly ‘60s and Bennink and Rutherford
worked together often in Globe Unity
Orchestra and other bands. The odd
man out is Italian saxophonist Mario
Schiano, who was plying free jazz
hundreds of miles south, though thislive album was recorded on his turf at
Cremona’s Teatro Ponchielli, a twoLP document of a one-time encounter.

Swedish trombonist Eje Thelin’s four-The
venerable
Britishfreeimprovising outfit AMM (establishedin 1966 and still active), here in its
longest-running form of co-founders
drummer Eddie Prévost and guitarist
Keith Rowe, plus pianist John Tilbury(who came to the group in 1980),
visits the Pennsylvania town madefamous by Billy Joel 12 years earlier.
The hour-long concert from the
Muhlenberg College Arts Center
Recital Hall, split into six untitledparts, was funded in part by thePennsylvania Council on the Arts andreleased on AMM’s in-house label.

Orchestra in 1966 and before starting
his long-running trio, German pianist
Alexander von Schlippenbach madethis record (later reissued on FMP).
It, Peter Brötzmann’s Machine Gun,
Manfred Schoof’s European Echoes andWillem Breuker/Han Bennink’s New
Acoustic Swing Duo were among thealbums that established the European
avant jazz movement. Brötzmann,
Schoof and Bennink appear here, as
do Paul Rutherford, Michel Pilz andBuschi Niebergall for six tunes by theleader, Schoof and Brötzmann.

decade career moved from Dixieland
to modern Scandinavian jazz to freer
European settings, finally settling into
something mixing the last two acrossover a dozen albums. This was among
his final recordings (he died a year
later at 51), a collaboration with theSwedish Radio Jazz Group (founded
in 1967 and here with a young
Per Åke Holmlander on tuba),
featuring fellow Swede pianist Bobo
Stenson among the soloists and with
Dane Palle Mikkelborg as conductor
for Thelin’s title suite.

BIRTHDAYS
April 1
†John LaPorta 1902-2004†Harry Carney 1910-74†Duke Jordan 1922-2006
Eric Ineke b.1947
Frank Tusa b.1947†Gil Scott-Heron 1949-2011
Antoine Roney b.1963
April 2
†Max Greger 1926-2015†Booker Little 1938-61†Sal Nistico 1940-91†Larry Coryell 1943-2017
Rahsaan and Roland Barberb.1980April 3
†Bill Potts 1928-2005†Scott LaFaro 1936-61†Jimmy McGriff 1936-2008†Harold Vick 1936-87
Linda Sharrock b.1947
Eric Kloss b.1949
Ali Jackson b.1976
April 4
†Gene Ramey 1913-84†Buster Cooper 1929-2016†Jake Hanna 1931-2010†Hugh Masekela 1939-2018
Ole Kock Hansen b.1945
Ray Russell b.1947
Michel Camilo b.1954
Gary Smulyan b.1956
April 5
†Stan Levey 1925-2005†Stanley Turrentine 1934-2000
Evan Parker b.1944
Jerome Harris b.1953
Håkon Kornstad b.1977

April 6†Charlie Rouse 1924-88†Randy Weston 1926-2018†Gerry Mulligan 1927-96†André Previn 1929-2019†Art Taylor 1929-95†Bill Hardman 1933-90†Horace Tapscott 1934-99
Manfred Schoof b.1936
Gene Bertoncini b.1937†Noah Howard 1943-2010
John Pizzarelli b.1960

April 11
†John Levy 1912-2012
Emil Mangelsdorff b.1925
Raymond A. King b.1929
Matt Lavelle b.1970
Jakob Bro b.1978

April 17
Chris Barber b.1930
Sam Noto b.1930
Warren Chiasson b.1934
Han Bennink b.1942
Buster Williams b.1942
Jan Hammer b.1948
Mark Sherman b.1957
Sam Sadigursky b.1979

April 7
†Billie Holiday 1915-59†Mongo Santamaria 1922-2003†Victor Feldman 1934-87†Freddie Hubbard 1938-2008†Pete La Roca Sims 1938-2012
Alex von Schlippenbach b.1938†Bob Berg 1951-2002
Fredrik Lundin b.1964

April 13
†Bud Freeman 1906-91†Teddy Charles 1928-2012†Rusty Jones 1932-2015†Eddie Marshall 1938-2011
Simon Spang-Hanssen b.1955
John Ellis b.1974

April 12†Johnny Dodds 1892-1940†Russ Garcia 1916-2011
Herbie Hancock b.1940
Ryan Kisor b.1973

April 8†George Dixon 1909-94†Carmen McRae 1922-94†Paul Jeffrey 1933-2015

April 14
†Shorty Rogers 1924-94†Gene Ammons 1925-74†Monty Waters 1938-2008
Steve Davis b.1967

April 22
†Buzzy Drootin 1910-2000
Candido Camero b.1921†Charles Mingus 1922-79†Tommy Turrentine 1928-97†Paul Chambers 1935-69
Barry Guy b.1947

April 18
†Tony Mottola 1918-2004†Leo Parker 1925-62†Ken Colyer 1928-88
Freddy Hill b.1932
Hal Galper b.1938
Susanna Lindeborg b.1952
April 19
†Tommy Benford 1905-94†Alex Hill 1906-37
Randy Ingram b.1978
April 20
†Lionel Hampton 1909-2002
Ran Blake b.1935“Sonny” Brown b.1936†Beaver Harris 1936-91†Billy James 1936-2009†Joe Bonner 1948-2014
Avishai Cohen b.1971
Matt Brewer b.1983

April 9†Teddy Roy 1905-66†Julian Dash 1916-74
Steve Gadd b.1945
Hugh Ragin b.1951
Dave Allen b.1970

April 15
†Bessie Smith 1894-1937†Charlie Smith 1927-66
Richard Davis b.1930
Sy Johnson b.1930†Herb Pomeroy 1930-2007†Gene Cherico 1935-94

April 10
†Fess Williams 1894-1975†Morty Corb 1917-96†Fraser MacPherson 1928-93
Claude Bolling b.1930†Barbara Lea 1929-2011
Omar Sosa b.1965

April 16
†Herbie Mann 1930-2003
Sabir Mateen b.1951
Jukka Tolonen b.1952†Esbjorn Svensson 1964-2008
Junko Onishi b.1967
Landon Knoblock b.1982

April 21
†Johnny Blowers 1911-2006†Joe Dixon 1917-98†Mundell Lowe 1922-2017
Slide Hampton b.1932†Ian Carr 1933-2009
Alan Skidmore b.1942†Peter Kowald 1944-2002
Mike Holober b.1957

April 26
†Dave Tough 1907-48†Jimmy Giuffre 1921-2008†Teddy Edwards 1924-2003†Herman Foster 1928-99†Bill Byrne 1942-2002
Axel Dörner b.1964

April 23
April 27
†Jimmie Noone 1895-1944†Connie Kay 1927-94†Little Benny Harris 1919-75†Sal Mosca 1927-2007†Tito Puente 1920-2000†Calvin Newborn 1933-2018†Bobby Rosengarden 1924-2007 Ruth Price b.1938
Bunky Green b.1935†Freddie Waits 1943-89
Pierre Courbois b.1940
Scott Robinson b.1959
Alan Broadbent b.1947
Martin Wind b.1968
Narada Michael Walden b.1952
Kendra Shank b.1958
April 28
Bryan Carrott b.1959†Russ Morgan 1904-69
Chris Lightcap b.1971†Blossom Dearie 1926-2009
Petr Cancura b.1977†Oliver Jackson 1933-94†John Tchicai 1936-2012
April 24Mickey Tucker b.1941†Rube Bloom 1902-76
Willie Colon b.1950†Aaron Bell 1922-2003†Fatty George 1927-82
April 29
†Johnny Griffin 1928-2008†Duke Ellington 1899-1974†Frank Strazzeri 1930-2014†Philippe Brun 1908-94†Spanky DeBrest 1937-73†Toots Thielemans 1922-2016†Joe Henderson 1937-2001†Big Jay McNeely 1927-2018†Colin Walcott 1945-84†Ray Barretto 1929-2006
Stafford James b.1946†Andy Simpkins 1932-99
Trudy Silver b.1953†George Adams 1940-92†Hugh Hopper 1945-2009
April 25
Julius Tolentino b.1975†Earl Bostic 1913-65†Ella Fitzgerald 1918-96
April 30
†Willis “Gator” Jackson 1932-87 †Sid Weiss 1914-94†Harry Miller 1941-83†Percy Heath 1923-2005†Michael Cosmic 1950-2001†Dick Twardzik 1931-55
Phill Musra 1950
Abdul Wadud b.1947
Carl Allen b.1961
Russ Nolan b.1968

hugh ragin

April 9th, 1951
Houston-born trumpeter
Hugh Ragin, active since
the mid ‘70s, has had acareer distinguished byparticipation in a widearray of large and largish
ensembles. In 1979 alone he
was a member of the Leo
Smith Creative Orchestra,
Mnemonist Orchestra andRoscoe Mitchell Creative
Orchestra. He continued towork with Mitchell (mostrecently as part of thecurrent iteration of The Art
Ensemble Of Chicago) as
well as Anthony Braxton,
John
Lindberg,David
Murray, Fred Wesley andothers. In addition he has
made discs for CECMA,
Jazzline,
JustinTime,
CIMP, Black Saint, Marge,
Hopscotch and Nine Winds
as a leader or co-leader,including with his largish
Trumpet Ensemble.
-AH

CROSSWORD
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3

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9

5

10

12

6

7

11

13

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15

16

17

21

18

19

20

31

32

33

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

34

ACROSS8

1. Saxophonist Osby
5. 1983 Sun Ra Saturn album A Fireside ____ With Lucifer
9. Opening track of John Coltrane’s Impressions
11. Northwest Belgian city hosting a jazz festival
every July
12. A specialty LP may use this kind of vinyl
14. Saxophonist Stephen responsible for the Monday
night jazz series at Bushwick Public House
15. 2000 Mike Mantler ECM album
21. 1969 Tony Williams Lifetime Polydor album
Turn It ____
22. Undectet minus octet
23. Vince Guaraldi and George Duke both have written
tunes for this famed Southern California resort
27. Drummer Itzik
28. 1981 Philly Joe Jones Marge album
34. 1997 Erik Friedlander SLAM album
35. Like a free jazz saxophone solo?
36. Pianist Danny who arranged for Ella Fitzgerald,
John Kirby and others
37. Sonny Rollins sobriquet

35

DOWN
36

By Andrey Henkin 			37

1. Mingus tune ““Better ____ Hit in Your Soul”
2. RareNoise Records catalogue prefixes

visit nycjazzrecord.com for answers

28 APRIL 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

3. 1969 Art Ensemble of Chicago live album ____ Wobu
4. Jimmy Heath’s favorite type of boy?
5. Recently departed Norwegian drummer Jon
6. 1987 Tribal Tech Passport Jazz album Dr. ____
7. Vocalist Phillips
8. A.R. Penck, Frank Wollny, Heinz Wollny
10. Org. administering high school jazz bands from
Juneau to Anchorage
11. Notes in D7sus4 chord
13. Like many a Lee Konitz album title
15. Lindy ____
16. Cole Porter standard “____ Got You Under My Skin”
17. Proprietor of the Village Vanguard to her friends?
18. The Swing ____
19. Single jazz musicians can apply for this tax break(abbr.)
20. 1999 Tetsu Saitoh/Michel Doneda Ohrai album____-Kan Live At 星誕音楽堂
24. German flutist Mark Alban
25. Coda or outro?
26. 2008 Reptet Monktail album Chicken Or ____?
28. Queens jazz venue (abbr.)
29. What you give your band after a low-paying gig?
30. West Village jazz venue once the Village Gate (abbr.)
31. Bassist John who worked with Sun Ra and
Thelonious Monk
32. Singular flutist Hubert?
33. 2001 Billy Martin Amulet album Black ____ Speaks