DECEMBER 2020—ISSUE 224

YOUR FREE GUIDE TO THE NYC JAZZ SCENENYCJAZZRECORD.COM

DIGITALONLYEDITIONCHARLESMcPHERSONNO EXPIRATION DATEHOLIDAYGIFT
GUIDEGRAHAM
HAYNESALEXATARANTINO

KAREN
BORCA

BILL
HARDMANManaging Editor:
Laurence Donohue-Greene
Editorial Director &Production Manager:
Andrey Henkin
To Contact:
The New York City Jazz Record
66 Mt. Airy Road East
Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520
United States
Phone/Fax: 212-568-9628

DECEMBER 2020—ISSUE 224
NEW YORK@NIGHT

Laurence Donohue-Greene:ldgreene@nycjazzrecord.com

INTERVIEW : GRAHAM HAYNES

Andrey Henkin:ahenkin@nycjazzrecord.com

ARTIST FEATURE : ALEXA TARANTINO

General Inquiries:
info@nycjazzrecord.com
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Calendar:calendar@nycjazzrecord.com
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ON THE COVER : CHARLES McPHERSONENCORE : KAREN BORCALEST WE FORGET : BILL HARDMANLABEL SPOTLIGHT : FRÉMEAUX & ASSOCIÉSVOXNEWS

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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, Jordannah Elizabeth,
Pierre Giroux, Anders Griffen,
George Kanzler, Steven Loewy,
Monique Ngozi Nri, Kyle Oleksiuk
Contributing Photographers
Adriano Bellucci, Peter Gannushkin
Tom Greenland, Olympiad Ioffe
Tariq Johnson, Antonio Porcar
Anna Yatskevich
Fact-checker
Nate Dorward

nycjazzrecord.com

OBITUARIESALBUM REVIEWSMISCELLANY
SPECIAL FEATURE : HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

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by anders griffen
by russ musto
by robert bushby alex henderson
by george kanzler
by marilyn lester
by suzanne lorge
by andrey henkinby andrey henkin2020 cannot be over fast enough. What started out as a promising year lurched to a
bizarre, tragic and disgusting stop with the pandemic, police violence and the presidential
election. Musicians found themselves gigless and tourless, forced to navigate the new
reality of music through a screen or on a street corner. Even here at the gazette wetransitioned to digital editions (who would have thought we could miss newsprintstained fingers) in an uphill battle for survival. And even though the calendar may
change, the problems and fear will remain in 2021. But, with the hopefulness of a
New Year’s Resolution or shiny new gym membership, there is cause for some optimism,
as long as the painful lessons of the past year are not forgotten and those who believe inthe beauty of art, the sanctity of citizenship and the need for community continue to act
as agents of change.
We present this final edition of 2020 with our usual eclectic range of coverage: legendary
alto saxophonist Charles McPherson (On The Cover); longtime cornet explorer Graham
Haynes (Interview); up-and-coming alto saxophonist Alexa Tarantino (Artist Feature);
two sides of the jazz coin in bassoonist Karen Borca (Encore) and trumpeter Bill
Hardman (Lest We Forget); and historically-minded French imprint Frémeaux &Associés. And even if you cannot (or, rather, should not) gather with your loved ones
this holiday season, you can still show you care by sending them something from ourHoliday Gift Guide (mail it early as we all know what the post office is like these days).
We close by thanking musicians for persevering, clubs for reinventing, listeners forsupporting and you, dear readers, for sticking with us. Best Wishes for 2021.

On The Cover: Charles McPherson (photo by Tariq Johnson / courtesy of the artist)
All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission strictly prohibited. All material copyrights property of the authors.

2 DECEMBER 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

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NEW YORK @ NIGHTRHI
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OIt had been months—too many—since your intrepid
correspondent had braved his life in the close cavernsof jazz concertizing but he finally broke the long fastby trekking out to Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning
to see, hear and actually be in the same room withtenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana’s trio with guitarist
Charles Altura and bassist Pablo Menares (Nov. 12th).
In fact, he was the only one there (not counting asoundman in the booth and a live-stream videographer
in the rear), so there were only two hands to clap foreach solo or song. Nevertheless, an emotional feedback
loop was established, as close listening always createsroom for the music to bloom. Sans a drummer, thetrio’s sound was spartan and chamber-like, a wideopen vista to stretch out in, so Aldana took theopportunity to explore some of her newest material,
including “Elsewhere” (from Visions, her recent tributeto Frida Kahlo), “The Bluest Eye”, “Emilia”, “The Eyesof Chile”, “The Hermit” and two standards: Thelonious
Monk’s “Ask Me Now” and Jerome Kern’s “Nobody
Else But Me”. It took a tune to limber up, but midway
through “The Bluest Eye” the musicians had reacheda liminal zone to which they would return again andagain throughout the set: on “Emilia”, when Aldana
ripped through some fast, fluttery arpeggios; on the
Monk cover during Altura’s long, peregrine solo;on “Hermit”, when all three pushed and pulled against
the pulse; and on the Kern cover, when Menaresdelivered an insightful soliloquy.
—Tom Greenland

R

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OON

BILLI
HOLI
E
D AY
AN EX

AND

PLOR
C E L E B AT I O N
R AT I ONONLINE EVENTS

It was hard to say what was more surreal: sitting
in Mezzrow (Nov. 14th), sipping a cocktail and eating
olives like it was 2019, or watching two ultramodernists like pianist Ethan Iverson (late of The Bad
Plus) and bassist Thomas Morgan (a house bassist forECM) work out on a set of music by Duke Ellington
and Count Basie. Iverson himself said that the project
was born out of the pandemic yet also emphasized that
he picked the repertoire specifically for Morgan. It was
an inspired choice as the bassist is, ultimately, a
melodicist and, as such, well suited both to the music
and format. In an hour, the pair played eight pieces,yielding an average length of seven-and-a-half minutes
per tune, maybe not 10” shellac duration but
refreshingly brisk compared to some of today’s overly
expansive workouts. If the material was more thanfamiliar—Ellington’s ”In a Mellow Tone”, “Satin Doll”
or “Mood Indigo”, Basie’s “Swingin’ The Blues”,“One O’Clock Jump” or “Moten Swing” (the latter
written by Bennie Moten for his Kansas City Orchestra
with a young Basie at the piano)—the interpretations
were both reverent and probing, Morgan as laconic as
ever, Iverson displaying the restraint and command of
a player deeply steeped in the history of his instrument,
the tempos relaxed and intimate. One was necessarily
reminded of the Ellington/Jimmie Blanton duetsrecorded 80 years, 11 months and 24 days earlier,groundbreaking at the time and made during anotherdifficult period in world history.
—Andrey Henkin

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Ethan Iverson & Thomas Morgan @ Mezzrow

Despite a pernicious second wave of COVID-19, clubs
like Smalls have opened their doors to limited crowds,
affording fans the immediacy of live jazz. When Hélio
Alves brought his quartet there (Nov. 11th), theconnection between the pianist, saxophonist/flutist
Steve Wilson, bassist Peter Washington and drummer
Duduka Da Fonseca was instant and kinetic, even overthe internet, whence your prophylactic correspondentwatched. Sure, it’s disconcerting to see the drummer
strike the crash cymbal and hear it a few microseconds
later—like close thunder after lightning—but if you
allow your eyes to defocus and concentrate solely onsound, the immediacy of the music-making can stilltransport you. Over the course of two delightful sets
Alves & Co. consistently transported listeners througha cycle of Brazilian soundscapes, culling songs fromhis new album At Play—João Bosco’s “Bala com Bala”,
Caetano Veloso’s “Trilhos Urbanos”, Dori Caymmi’s“Amazon River”, plus two originals, “Bebe” and “It’s
Clear”—as well as favorite numbers like Rique
Pantoja’s “Melancia”, Dom Salvador ’s “Gafeira”, Raul
Mascarenhas’ “Sabor Carioca”, Egberto Gismonti’s“Loro”, Tom Jobim’s “O Grande Amor” and Milton
Nascimento’s “Vera Cruz”. Da Fonseca, in spite of his
impassive mien, played as animatedly as Alves did,a stream of rhythmic variations in constant circulation
between them, with notable highpoints during “Balacom Bala”, “Gafeira” and “Amazon River” in the first
set and during “Vera Cruz” in the second.
(TG)

The cavernous industrial space-turned-performancevenue that is Brooklyn’s ShapeShifter lab is ideal forconcerts in the era of social distancing. A band can give
one another plenty of space and audience members
have plenty of options for safe viewing (live-streamingfrom the comfort of your home is, of course, alsoavailable and recommended as the club management
are old hands at it—with excellent audio and crisp
multi-camera action—since long before pandemic
times). As part of an ongoing partnership between
ShapeShifter Lab and MoonJune Records, guitarist
Tim Motzer, drummer Gintas Janusonis and Friends
played two sets (Nov. 21st), likely extemporaneous but
not lacking in form and compelling narrative. It
certainly helps when you have “friends” like guitarist
Vernon Reid, ‘keyboard’ player Leon Gruenbaum andbassist Josh Werner on hand. This was an unusual
thing: free fusion, a genre not often heard because it
seems to be an oxymoron; yet, firm rhythms and bass
grooves provided nice foundation for Reid’s jazz-rockvirtuosity and the spacy sounds emanating from
Gruenbaum’s MIDI controller, the Samchillian Tip Tip
Tip Cheeepeeeee (say that five times fast), which its
inventor has played on Reid albums since the ‘90s. In
fact, the improvised nature of the evening tempered
what is often the bane of fusion, overt emphasis on thetechnical over the musical, soloist over ensemble. And,frankly, Reid could play the phone book and it would
be something worth hearing.
		(AH)

4 DECEMBER 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORDIn jazz lore perhaps only the Village Vanguard holds C omposers Concordance has existed some 36 years, a
as esteemed a rank as the legendary Englewood Cliffs
recording studio of Rudy Van Gelder, so the first everLive From Van Gelder Studio live-stream concert (Nov.
14th) was an historic event. The Soul Station Quartet—bassist Ron Carter, tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano,pianist Isaiah J. Thompson and drummer Kenny
Washington—paid tribute to the legacy of Hank
Mobley and got off to an upbeat start with “This I Dig
Of You”, one of the most popular pieces out of the latetenor saxophonist’s songbook. Lovano, whose smoothairy tone at times recalled the sound of Mobley—which
once earned him the title of “the middleweight champof the tenor sax”—stretched out on the classic melody
over vamping piano and pulsing bass, after which thepair each had their own turns followed by a crackling
drum solo leading back home. The trio opened upminor blues “Dig This”, before Lovano dug in on thelaidback melody, soloing with harmonic dexterity,
followed by spirited Carter and Thompson outings.
The band sounded soulful on ”Split Feelin’s“ and was
downright funky on “Soul Station”. Trumpeter Don
Sickler (now co-running the studio with wife/Van
Gelder protegée Maureen) joined for a rousing “RollCall”, hearkening to the classic hardbop of the Jazz
Messengers, and stayed for “Bossa For Baby”, on
which Carter displayed his hipness, quoting “Yes Sir
That’s My Baby”. The quartet ended with “Workout”,
a fiery Washington feature.
—Russ Musto

veritable New York new music institution of concerts,
album production and multiple ensembles under asweeping, tenacious brand, thriving on the emulsionof contemporary classical, free improv, jazz and rock,overt humor and fearless political statements, all verymuch in evidence during “We, the Whole People”(Nov. 14th). The show, live to a few at Michiko Studios
but widely via the internet, opened with Jay Elfenbein’s“We the People”, which featured his electric viola dagamba and mezzo-soprano Jessica Bowers. Making
grand use of a Susan B. Anthony speech opposing her
arrest for voting, this gripping chamber work included
improvisation astride the seeming influence of Hanns
Eisler and Charles Mingus. The ensemble of Bowers,
Elfenbein, Wayne du Maine (trumpet), Gene Pritsker(electric guitar charged with Robert Fripp-ian burn),
Geoffrey Burleson (piano), Damien Bassman (drums,
cajón), conductor Charles Coleman and later pianist
Seth Boustead and alto flutist Dan Cooper, wasmasterful throughout. Highlights included Pritsker ’s“We”, which danced over odd-time signatures andcalled on memories of Blood, Sweat & Tears; Burleson’ssolo work fusing Charles Ives and “We Shall Overcome”
with free improv; Cooper ’s “Ballade and Vocalese”
where Joe Zawinul’s “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” taunted
happily; and David Rozenblatt’s “America, Too”,
which roamed from Weimar-esque cabaret throughlively, whooping solo segments.
—John Pietaro

W H AT ’ S N E W S
Winners of the 2020 Latin Grammy Awards have been announced. In therelevant categories were Best Latin Jazz/Jazz Album: Puertos: Music From
International Waters—Emilio Solla Tango Jazz Orchestra (Avantango);
Best Arrangement: “La Flor De La Canela”, Lorenzo Ferrero, Tradiciones(MVM Music); and Best Samba/Pagode Album: Samba Jazz de Raiz,
Cláudio Jorge 70—Cláudio Jorge (Mills Records). For more information,
visit latingrammy.com.
Nominees for the 2020 Grammy Awards have been announced. In therelevant categories are Best Contemporary Instrumental Album: ChristianScott Atunde Adjuah, Jon Batiste, Black Violin, Grégoire Maret/Romain
Collin/Bill Frisell, Snarky Puppy; Best Traditional R&B Performance: The
Baylor Project Featuring Jean Baylor & Marcus Baylor; Best Improvised
Jazz Solo: Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah, Regina Carter, Gerald Clayton,
Chick Corea, Joshua Redman; Best Jazz Vocal Album: Thana Alexa, Kurt
Elling, Carmen Lundy, Somi, Kenny Washington; Best Jazz Instrumental
Album: Ambrose Akinmusire, Terri Lyne Carrington, Gerald Clayton, Chick
Corea/Christian McBride/Brian Blade, Joshua Redman/Brad Mehldau/
Christian McBride/Brian Blade; Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album: Gregg
August, John Beasley, John Hollenbeck, Maria Schneider; Best Latin Jazz
Album: Afro-Peruvian Jazz Orchestra, Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz
Orchestra, Chico Pinheiro, Gonzalo Rubalcaba & Aymée Nuviola, Poncho
Sanchez; Best Instrumental Composition: Arturo O’Farrill, Jr., Christian
Sands, Alexandre Desplat, Maria Schneider, Remy Le Boeuf; Best
Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella: John Beasley, Remy Le Boeuf,
Jeremy Levy; Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals: John Beasley &Maria Mendes, Alan Broadbent & Pat Metheny, Jacob Collier; BestHistorical Album: Nat King Cole—Hittin’ The Ramp: The Early Years (1936- 1943) (Resonance). For more information, visit grammy.com.
Billie, the James Erskine-directed documentary on Billie Holiday drawn
from interviews taped but never used by Linda Lipnak Kuehl, premieres atselect theaters and TVOD Nationwide on Dec. 4th. For more information,
visit billieholidaymovie.com.
The Jazz Foundation of America will present a live-streaming fundraiser
to benefit its COVID-19 Musicians’ Emergency Fund, “Bird Calls”,
celebrating the centennial of Charlie Parker with Alex Al, Kenny Barron,
Gary Bartz, George Cables, Kim Clarke, Chris Colangelo, The Dirty Dozen
Brass Band, James Genus, Keyon Harrold, Antonio Hart, Billy Hart,
Vincent Herring, Sheila Jordan, Steve Jordan, Dave Kikoski, Kiyoshi
Kitagawa, Russell Malone, Roy McCurdy, Gary Novak, Bill O’Connell,
Jimmy Owens, Patrice Rushen, Tom Ranier, Tom Scott, Jaleel Shaw,
Erena Terakubo, Nasheet Waits, Buster Williams, David Wong and Nioka
Workman’s Firey String Sistas. For more information, visit fans.live/
livestream/20201210-bird-calls.
The 92nd Street Y will have the following virtual programs in December:
Artemis (Renee Rosnes, Anat Cohen, Melissa Aldana, Ingrid Jensen,
Noriko Ueda, Allison Miller and Cécile McLorin Salvant) in conversation
with WBGO’s Nate Chinen (Dec. 1st at 7 pm); Billie Holiday Listening Party
hosted by Rhonda Hamilton of WBGO (Dec. 5th at 2 pm); and “Billie
Holiday—Reaching for the Moon”, a live-streamed concert with Catherine
Russell, Veronica Swift, Emmet Cohen Trio and guest Tivon Pennicott(Dec. 6th at 3 pm). For more information, visit 92y.org.
Marcus Roberts and The Modern Jazz Generation and American SymphonyOrchestra will premiere the short film United We Play Dec. 9th. For more
information, visit americansymphony.org/online.

Soul Station Quartet & Don Sickler @ Van Gelder StudioComposers Corcordance @ Michiko Studios

The Jazz Gallery’s series of Thursday night live- During an evening of sound art via Ohio’s Fusestreamed concerts forged on, for the first time with alimited capacity, socially-distanced audience on hand,
who witnessed a potent (Nov. 5th) set by the Yosvany
Terry Quintet with pianist Manuel Valera, bassist Matt
Brewer, drummer Obed Calvaire and percussionist
Mauricio Herrera. The Cuban-born saxophonist kicked
things off with his “Looking In Retrospect”, an episodic
excursion beginning with an extended solo alto
introduction before the rhythm section joined in,
Calvaire
andHerreraprovidingadrivingpolyrhythmic underpinning to bright melodic pianophrasing over dark bass ostinato. This propelled
Terry’s kaleidoscopic dialogue with Valera, whichreached climactic heights with Calvaire’s bell- andshells-augmented drumkit solo over the pair ’sdeliberate vamp. After introducing the players, notingthat they had hoped to be celebrating the as yet
undecided presidential election, Terry spoke of themusic being a much-needed healing force, before theband launched into his “New Throned King”, a work
hearkening to the AfroCuban Santéria folk music
tradition and with the leader also playing chekeré andAfrican bell and chanting over McCoy Tyner-ish
pianisms. Herrera laid out on “The Idea Of Harlem”,
which opened with solo drums, before the band
jumped in for an incendiary bebopping race. The set
closed with the ominously Eastern-tinged “Another
Vision Of Oji”. (RM)

Factory (Nov. 6th), Sarah Bernstein shattered theremote space to celebrate her new solo album, Exolinger,completed during what was then the height of East
Coast COVID life. Standing amid the dramatic glow of
purple lighting, the violinist established an atmosphereboth spacious and raucous with veritable body-blowsof free improvisation. Her instrument, fed throughdigital delay and effects, bled a wealth of sound,painting multi-hued streams across the internet’s
divide, augmented by droning vocals and expansive
techniques. But just as the intensity reached climax’edge, Bernstein ceased movement in a deafening tacit
before recapturing our ears with a haunting acoustic
cadenza. The effect was breathtaking. Bernstein has theability to play anything; still, her penchant for timbres
elongated, thickened beyond the realm of standard
bowing, places her within a unique category. As thissegment of the performance developed, her poetry andpizzicato wrapped in a subtle b-modal, led into rapidfire strumming torn by distortion. Clearly, one’s loveof punk rock can’t be drowned out by mere formal
education. Over darkly enhanced reverb and mournful
voice, she bowed a series of caustic accents of…wait;
yes: classic power chords erupting into runs, careening
sound and determined, repetitive vocals, equally
ecstasy and lamentation. While the election outcome
was then still unclear, Bernstein presciently sangvisions of a glorious new day. 		
(JP)International Contemporary Ensemble and Civic Orchestra of Chicago
Present will live-stream the world premiere of Nicole Mitchell’s Inescapable
Spiral Remote on Dec. 15th. For more information, visit eventbrite.com/e/
inescapable-spiral-remote-tickets-129775539131.
Louis Armstrong House will present the following programs in December:
the Armstrong Now! film series with “Between His House and His Home”(Dec. 3rd), “Welcome Home Louis” (Dec. 5th); “Inside the Laughing Barrell”(Dec. 10th) and “Letters” (Dec. 17th) and the Louis Armstrong Holiday
Experience with Champian Fulton, Ethan Iverson and Catherine Russell(Dec. 18th). For more information, visit louisarmstronghouse.org.
The One Brooklyn Jazz Festival, organized by the Central Brooklyn Jazz
Consortium, will take place Dec. 4th-13th in a blend of in-person, live-stream,and pre-recorded performance at venues in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Clinton Hill,
Crown Heights, East New York, Gowanus and Lefferts Gardens. For more
information, visit cbjcjazz.org.
Manhattan School of Music (MSM), ELMA Music Foundation and Hugh
Masekela Heritage Foundation have announced the 2020–21 Recipients ofthe Hugh Masekela Heritage Scholarship, which provides South African
students with full scholarships to pursue Bachelor of Music degrees at
MSM: Zoe Molelekwa (piano) and Kabelo Mokhatla (drums). In relatednews, MSM has announced its inaugural roster of Artist Scholars, who willtake part in forums, including panels, seminars, discussion groups, special
performances, musical collaborations and mentorship. Among theparticipants are Gary Bartz, Terri Lyne Carrington, Anthony Davis and Tia
Fuller. For more information, visit msmnyc.edu.
The 12th Annual Jazz Education Network Conference in Louisville, KY
will be available online Jan. 6th-9th, 2021, including various master classes,
clinics and panel discussions, as well as performances by Christian
McBride, 2021 Sisters in Jazz directed by Ingrid Jensen, Jeff Coffin, Dave
Liebman Big Band, Berklee Global Jazz & Gender Justice InstituteEnsemble with Terri Lyne Carrington & John Patitucci, Chuck Owen &Resurgence, Rodger Fox Big Band, Shawn Purcell Group Tribute to David
Baker: Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Jazz Ensemble, Jamey
Aebersold Quartet and others. For more information and to register, visit
members.jazzednet.org/jen-conference.
Submit news to info@nycjazzrecord.com

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | DECEMBER 2020 5

ADRIANO BELLUCCI / COURTESY OF THE ARTISTINTERVIEWGRAHAM
HAYNES
by anders griffen

Graham Haynes is a cornet player and composer who, forover 40 years, has been exploring and fusing together
disparate musical influences including classical andelectronic music, African, Arabian and South Asian music,
drum ‘n’ bass, hip-hop and jazz. His father, Roy Haynes, is
one of the greatest jazz drummers of all time. As a performer
Haynes has worked with Jaki Byard, Ed Blackwell, Butch
Morris, David Murray, Vernon Reid, Bill Laswell, Steve
Coleman, Cassandra Wilson, Meshell Ndegeocello and The
Roots, among many others. He has nearly 200 album credits
as a leader and sideman. While also working as an educatorand lecturer, since 2000 his work has focused on chambergroup composition and multimedia projects. He left his
study of classical composition at Queens College in the late
‘70s to become a player and now he has come full circle as
his lifelong study has led him to compose for the orchestra.
The New York City Jazz Record: I read that you are from
Brooklyn, but when did you move to Hollis, Queens?
Graham Haynes: My parents were living in Queens. It
just so happened that my mother, who was from
Brooklyn, had to go there to deliver. I was born,
technically, in Brooklyn, but I’m from Hollis. You
know, if I say I’m from Hollis, Queens, most people
don’t know where that is.
TNYCJR: I understand that among your neighbors
were Roy Eldridge, Jaki Byard and Milt Jackson, but
my first association with Hollis, Queens is Run-DMC.
GH: Right, all the hip-hop people know, but what
people don’t know is that between Hollis and othersurrounding neighborhoods—Hollis, St. Albans,
Jamaica, South Jamaica—I think probably 90% of the
jazz musicians, particularly the Black jazz musicians
lived there. At one point we had Roy Eldridge, likeI said, my house was right in back of Roy Eldridge’s
house. If I went into my yard and Roy came into his
yard, then I’d see him and we’d talk, you know. Jaki
Byard lived up the street. Coltrane lived [in St. Albans]for a minute in the ‘60s. That area also had Ella
Fitzgerald, Count Basie and guys from Duke Ellington’sband. Fats Waller had lived there in the ‘40s. He wentout there because James P. Johnson went out there. All
these jazz musicians started coming out there because
there were not that many places that would sellproperty to Black people. They sold James P. Johnson
a house and then they sold Fats Waller a house andthen Count Basie. James Brown lived around the cornerfrom Count Basie [nods and smiles]. Back in those days
there were a lot of clubs. The reason that the hip-hop
and the bands were there—they had dance bands, funkbands—was because people had houses and you could
rehearse your band in the basement or in the garage
and people wouldn’t really mess with you.
TNYCJR: So, when did you start, when did you pick up
a horn, when did you start playing…trumpet, I guess?

GH: Yeah, I started with trumpet when I was about 13.
In junior high school they had an orchestra, they had
a band, so, that’s where I started playing.

learning about nature and about the world, about
science and mysticism. All of that, whether it’sdeliberate or not, goes into the music.
TNYCJR: Why did you move to Paris?
GH: There was a point in the late ‘80s when I was anusher at Symphony Space Theater in New York andthey had something called the World Music Institute[WMI] that did a series there. I met Adam Rudolph; hewas working with Yusef Lateef doing a show forchildren, if you can imagine that! [laughs] Then I met
Don Cherry, Hassan Hakmoun, Hamza El Din and				
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 12)
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WIG 27TNYCJR: How did you switch to cornet?
GH: Everybody told me, “you gotta play trumpet.”
It was actually Olu Dara who said, “fuck that, if you
wanna play cornet, play cornet.” Then I got a cornetthat was the same make that his was. He told me which
one to buy. And I bought that model.
TNYCJR: What is that?
GH: It’s an Olds Ambassador. It’s an Olds A3. I stillplay it. I switched to cornet because I got tired ofplaying in sections and in big bands. In those days
there were a lot of bands. There were a lot of large
groups, there were a lot of dance bands. I was playing
in calypso bands and salsa bands and doing all that
stuff. I did a tour with Toots & the Maytals—you know
Toots just died a month ago—I was on the road withhim for three months. I loved playing with him, it was
great playing with him, but I just got tired of playing
the same thing night after night, you know? After thatis when I switched to cornet. I wanted to be a soloist.
TNYCJR: So, on those Steve Coleman records were
you playing the trumpet?
GH: I was playing trumpet. I switched to cornet shortly
after.
TNYCJR: When I first heard those records, I waslistening with some friends and we were just grooving
until somebody said, “what meter is this in?” It reallyblew my mind because you don’t think about meter
when you’re grooving like that.
GH: Right, you don’t notice. That’s the space we want
the listener to be in. It’s not until you start analyzingthat you notice the time signature. That’s one of thedifferences between Steve and [folks] now who are
doing a lot of time signature stuff. They make it
obvious [laughs]. The feel is more important than thetime signature. At the same time, for folks who want toanalyze it, there’s enough meat in there.
TNYCJR: Is Coleman’s M-Base concept an ongoing
aspect of your approach?
GH: Since the time it was conceived up until now,
people have always asked, “What is M-Base? What
does it mean?” and I always say, “ask Steve, he cameup with the name.” [laughs] But, for me, it’s a means oflearning and gathering all the elements of, not only
music, but also science, physics and nature, to makemusic. That’s pretty much what Steve has always done
and I’m always interested in new experiences and6 DECEMBER 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORDWIG 30

RPR 1094 / WIG 29

ANNA YATSKEVICH / COURTESY OF THE ARTISTARTIST FEATU RE

ALEXAFor more information, visit alexatarantino.com. Tarantino
live-streams Sundays at alexatarantino.com/projects/
quarantine-concerts-with-steven-feifke.

TARANTINO
by russ musto
Few decide what their life work will be before theirtenth birthday. Even fewer are fortunate enough tohave that youthful dream flourish into adulthood.
Alexa Tarantino, one of those rare individuals, born on
May 30th, 1992 in West Hartford, Connecticut,
remembers, “I must have been probably a third grader
and my parents took me to the local high school jazzconcert and that’s where I got the bug.” The show was
at what would be her future alma mater, Hall HighSchool. She says, “Every March or so they put on a big
show called Pops ’n Jazz and I saw Erica von Kleist
play there and told my parents ‘That’s what I want todo.’” The following year she got her first alto. “My first
lessons I started on saxophone and piano. My paternal
grandmother was a pianist and she provided for her
family by playing piano on the radio during the Great
Depression. That story always stuck with me, so
I wanted to learn the piano, as well.” She confesses that
she was soon obsessed with the idea of becoming a jazzsaxophonist and moved precipitously in that direction.
By the time she began at Hall she was well on her way,noting “I was in the second jazz band in my freshman
year and then I was in the top jazz band my sophomore,junior and senior years. During those years I worked
my way up to playing lead alto. That’s where I reallyfell in love with playing lead alto and that’s also where
I fell in love with woodwind doubling.”
These skills served her well during her years at theEastman School of Music. Her doubling abilities
garnered her a place with Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans
Project there and at the Umbria Jazz Festival. It wasalso at Eastman that she came to the attention of DIVA
Orchestra bandleader, drummer Sherrie Maricle: “Shecalled me and said that they needed a lead alto player
for a gig at the Deer Head Inn. It was kind of a big
moment for me to drive all that way by myself from
Rochester to Pennsylvania. I really felt like maybe I
was starting my career. The gig went over well and so
Sherrie invited me to be the lead alto in the orchestra.
At the time a nine-piece version of DIVA was thebacking band for the Maurice Hines show Tapping
Through Life and Sherrie offered me the alto position.
The show spent six weeks at a theater in Delaware andthen moved Off Broadway to New York. That was
December 2015 and I figured that if there was ever atime to move to New York that was it.”Tarantino was about to start her first year at
Juilliard when she saw an ad for open auditions for
Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. She says,“Of course I knew all about the band. I didn’t expect toget the position. I just figured it was the end of thesummer and I had the time to commit to the process
and I would try my best.” The saxophonist got the gig
and spent two years with the band. “We went to Mexicoand made an incredible documentary [Fandango At The
Wall] and to Abu Dhabi, which is something that I will
never forget, and a lot of other places in between, plus
Birdland every Sunday night. That was a really special
time.” O’Farrill lauds the saxophonist proclaiming,“Alexa is that rare combination of exceptional musician,truly soulful improviser and a deeply chill humanbeing. You add that to her professionalism and ability
to get along with folks on the bandstand and you really
begin to see what musical greatness is all about.”
Tarantino moved on from the band when she began
touring with Cécile McLorin Salvant. She describes her
work with the vocalist as a high point in her career. “We
worked together on the small group run at the Vanguard
and after that we took the 13-piece group with Darcy
James Argue and the Ogresse ensemble on the road.
We’ve become really, really close friends. When you’re
working with Cécile you just feel like you are there
because she wants YOU there. She wants your input,
she wants your opinion; she expects everyone to be on
the top of their game, but she also has a great sense ofhumor and can laugh at herself. She’s just incredible towork with and incredibly inspiring because she is sohumble yet so knowledgeable.” The admiration ismutual. Salvant notes, “Alexa is one of the most versatile
musicians I know, it’s been a joy working with her indifferent settings. She is always in service of the music,
extremely creative, fun, tasteful, fluid.”
Despite her well-earned reputation Tarantino took
her time to step out front as a bandleader: “For a while
I just wanted to play with other people because
I wanted to gain that experience and I didn’t know if
I had quite enough repertoire to have my own band or
if I had a band sound. Her debut album Winds Of
Change, with Nick Finzer, Christian Sands, Joe Martin
and Rudy Royston, proved that she not only had an
appealing personal sound, but also an originalcompositional voice, having penned eight of the date’s
ten songs. Last year ’s Clarity, a quartet outing with
Steven Feifke taking over the piano chair, further
confirmed her abilities as a writer, with four new tunes,
and as an interpreter of classics by Horace Silver andKurt Weill. “I was lucky to have an organization like
Jazz at Lincoln Center [JALC] behind me. When I firstgot involved with them they would offer me gigs in the
Atrium or opening for someone. That gave me theencouragement to take it to the next level. I guess mynext goal is to do more of that because after making acouple of records for Posi-Tone and playing some ofthose gigs and getting very positive reactions I justwant to do more and play for people and write moremusic and access more of my creative sound as abandleader, composer and a saxophonist.”
Tarantino was on stage at the Paramount Theaterfor SFJAZZ with Salvant when the pandemic hit hard.
“We were getting ready to do our final run throughwhen the producer came out and said the governor justshut everything down and we have to send you all
home.” Back in New York she has stayed busy with a
JALC-sponsored videocast “The Well RoundedMusician” and other online projects. And she recorded
a new album for Posi-Tone, the centerpiece of which isher new suite “A Moment In Time”, which notsurprising is based on the COVID experience. v

Recommended Listening:• DIVA Jazz Orchestra—25th Anniversary Project(ArtistShare, 2017)• Lauren Sevian—Bliss (Posi-Tone, 2017)• Lioness—Pride & Joy (Posi-Tone, 2018)• Chris Teal Trio—Analog Dreams(Outside In Music, 2018)• Alexa Tarantino—Winds of Change(Posi-Tone, 2018)• Alexa Tarantino—Clarity (Posi-Tone, 2019)“His natural swing andtaste allow him to revisit
well-throttled standards withgusto and originality...
A welcome debut by an artist
who definitely deserves
wider exposure and appreciation.”—The New York City Jazz Record

watjazz.com

MARK WADEMARK WADE’S SOLO DEBUTSONGS FROM ISOLATIONNOW AVAILABLE ON
AMP MUSIC & RECORDSWATCH THE MARK WADE TRIOPERFORM ONLINE AT
FLUSHING TOWN HALLDECEMBER 20—5:30PM
FLUSHINGTOWNHALL.ORG

MARKWADEMUSICNY.COM

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | DECEMBER 2020 7

ANTONIO PORCAR / COURTESY OF THE ARTISTON THE COVER

CHARLES McPHERSONNO EXPIRATION DATE
by robert bush2020 looked to be the year of alto saxophone icon

Charles McPherson. The music world at large had
finally seemed to be leaning toward a greaterappreciation for the 81-year-old master. McPherson
broke into the national/international scene in 1960,
when the Detroit bopper (by way of Joplin, Missouri)
joined the group of legendary bassist Charles Mingus,
replacing Eric Dolphy. He would spend the better partof the next 12 years with the mercurial bandleader.
Fast-forward to 2019 and McPherson is celebratinghis 80th birthday alongside pianist McCoy Tyner with
the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Last December heassembled a stellar band to cut his 30th album as aleader, Jazz Dance Suites, at the Van Gelder Studio. It was
the completion of a circle, in a way, since McPherson’s
first date under his own name Bebop Revisited! (Prestige)
was cut in the same studio back in 1964.
The new album illustrates McPherson’s history as
resident composer for the San Diego Ballet, where hisdaughter Camille is a featured soloist. McPherson had
the whole year planned out, with high-profile gigs andtours in support of the new album, which he put out on
his own label, Chazz Mack Music. Then the coronavirus
exploded and it all fell apart. An April debut with the
San Diego Ballet was an early casualty; a European
summer tour was next; an album release tour startingat Dizzy’s Club in September was scrapped as well as a
week-long artist residency at the Berklee College ofMusic. Not to mention a “Charles McPherson Day” inhis hometown of Joplin. “It’s been devastating, frankly,”says wife Lynn, who also manages his career. “It wasgoing to be a great year and instead [like so many
artists] one of the worst ever.” But McPherson has beena whirlwind of activity, doing interviews, podcasts andteaching Zoom lessons. His new album is a marvel andhe sounds better than ever. He’s staying in shape withregular bike rides and daily walks and there are virtual
concerts in the works. He even performed a live “drivein” concert last month for the Mainly Mozart Festival.
We conducted this interview outdoors with masks andsocial distancing at his San Diego residence.
This is McPherson’s fifth collaboration with Javier
Velasco, Artistic Director for the San Diego Ballet. “Mydaughter Camille has been with them for nine years andI’ve been the resident composer for five years,” says
McPherson. “When you are writing for dance, there’s
usually a storyline and it tends to be episodic. You’re
writing for people who are dancing to your music andthe dancers are not improvising. I think I’ve learned
how to do this. For one thing, the tempos have to be
totally comfortable for the dancers. You can’t be too fastor too slow, I’ve learned to be very consistent. Also theforms are longer, with a wider variety of emotionality.”
Jazz Dance Suites is a top-shelf production, withsterling photography and an uber informative liner
booklet written by McPherson scholar Dr. Donnie
Norton. It could be a major-label production, so it was
surprising McPherson chose to self-release. According
to the musician, there were several reasons behind thatdecision. “We did the record and then the pandemic
hit. A lot of companies weren’t necessarily amenable toputting something like this out when the country was
shutting down. Even before the pandemic, we werethinking about putting it out ourselves, because it’s alegacy-type project to leave to Camille. But I couldn’t
have done it without my wife, Lynn. All I had to do
was concentrate on the music. She worked tirelessly on
all of the practical issues. She knows about marketingand she’s a wonderful musician in her own right. Someof the tunes she co-composed and she had a bunch ofgreat ideas and incredible energy.”
One of the most salient aspects of the new record is
the gorgeous sound that McPherson coaxes out of his
instrument. It’s captured in exquisite detail at the Van
Gelder Studio. “I probably did a Mingus record there
in the early ‘60s and a Barry Harris record before I did
my own album in 1965,” says McPherson. “The studioitself is just beautiful and the live sound of the main
room is just gorgeous. The composition of the roomand the way things are arranged, it’s like being insidea great speaker. The natural sound of the room isstunning. Rudy was a genius with what he was doing.
And the person who was his apprentice was Maureen
Sickler. He passed on all that information to her.”Every detail of McPherson’s alto is captured.
Surprisingly, he didn’t use headphones. “I didn’t use
them because I could hear myself way better withoutthem. That is one of the best, if not the best sound I’ve
ever gotten. They pretty much captured the way I
sound. We had Randy Porter, who plays piano on two
tracks, do the mastering and some A&R work.”
Jazz Dance Suites has Terell Stafford (trumpet), Jeb
Patton and Porter (piano), Lorraine Theresa (vocals),
Yotam Silberstein (guitar), David Wong (bass) andBilly Drummond (drums). Most had worked with themaster before and are well known but, outside of San
Diego, the vocalist is less of a household name. “The‘Song of Songs’ suite is about a young woman in lovewith King Solomon. I needed a female voice and I
actually heard Lorraine in my head while I was writing
it. She’s got a lovely voice and great timbre and what
she lends to the record is wonderful.”Charlie Parker has always been a source ofinspiration for McPherson. Director Clint Eastwood
understood this when he tapped him to provide a sonicportrait of the icon for his 1988 film Bird. Parker diedsome 65 years ago and several centennial celebrations
were due this year pre-pandemic, so his influence
remains pervasive. “His contribution was timeless.
Whenever a person reaches that level of excellence, they
become beyond time—just like Bach is. Bach doesn’t
become less great because he died almost 300 years ago.
It was great then and it’s great now. There’s no expiration
date on excellence. Bird was the perfect total musician,all of the elements of music were satisfied. He was themaster improviser, a harmonic genius, a melodic genius,a rhythmic genius, a total virtuoso. He was comfortablein all musical settings. He had a beautiful sound, he wasclean as a whistle. His technique was pristine yet he washuman and soulful. He had intellect, spirit and heart.
Most people don’t have all of that—they might have one
or two things but having it all is really rare. Three

8 DECEMBER 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

hundred years from now, people will celebrate Bird theway they celebrate Mozart.”
One of the most profound instrumental andcompositional geniuses of the 20th Century is
McPherson’s old boss Mingus. He is another cat without
an expiration date and it wouldn’t be much of a
discussion without inquiring what McPherson took
away from the experience of his long association. “Heinfluenced my writing for sure. Especially writing
ballads. All of his compositions were interesting to me,
but his ballads really stood out. I think I was probably
influenced to a large degree by that. I can hear his
influence in certain tunes I write, it’s there for sure... I
mean, I was with him for 12 years. If you’re with someonethat long, it’s going to rub off and Mingus was a very
talented man. He was a prolific writer and a real thinker.”
When McPherson lived in New York, he had thegood fortune to have Naima Coltrane babysit hischildren while he worked a day job temporarily. Thatgave him access to the mind of John Coltrane. “He wasan extremely serious musician, very, very serious. I
didn’t live far from him and I would pick up my kids
every day at around 3:30. He would be there everyday
practicing and I would talk to him for 15 or 20 minutes
before I went home. He was soft-spoken and gentle,
very laid back. Very studious. He worked for everything
he got musically. He had scruples and he seemed to be
conscientious and spiritual too.”
The other day on social media, a photograph of the
Mingus group surfaced that showed McPherson and
Eric Dolphy in the same frame. Was this some sort ofphotoshop trickery? “No, that was real. I took Eric’s
place in the group. When I got there, Eric was still in
the group for two weeks, because in those days, that’s
what you did, you gave two weeks notice. So Eric andI were in the band. Ted Curson was leaving and myfriend Lonnie Hillyer was also joining the band. So I
learned the music from Eric Dolphy.”At this stage of his career, McPherson has few peers.
It is particularly satisfying to see him thriving and ona creative high point while maintaining good health andintellectual acuity. Anyone lucky enough to witness him
caress a melody like “But Beautiful” then work it up toa hair-rising crescendo during a performance knows
there is no expiration date on his artistry either. v
For more information, visit charlesmcpherson.com.
McPherson live-streams Dec. 19th at gmfjazzsummit.com/
concerts-online-special-charles-mcpherson.
Recommended Listening:• Barry Harris—Newer Than New (Introducing Charles
McPherson and Lonnie Hillyer) (Prestige, 1961)• Charles McPherson—Bebop Revisited! (Prestige, 1964)• Charles Mingus—In Paris: The Complete America
Session (America-Sunnyside, 1970)• Charles McPherson—Free Bop! (Xanadu, 1978)• Charles McPherson—Come Play With Me(Arabesque, 1995)• Charles McPherson Quartet (featuring
Steve Kuhn)—But Beautiful (Venus, 2003)

ENCORE

KAREN
BORCA
by alex henderson
The bassoon has never been a common instrument injazz and most of the players who drew praise played it
as a secondary instrument (Illinois Jacquet, Garvin
Bushell, Frank Tiberi). Karen Borca has been making
the bassoon her primary instrument for well over halfa century, building an impressive resumé in avant
garde through associations with pianist Cecil Taylor,alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, bassist Alan Silva,
percussionist Paul Murphy and others.
“It’s an instrument that hasn’t gotten much
exposure EVER,” observes Borca, who turned 76 in
September. “I don’t have a lot of competition on thebassoon, that’s for sure. But there are a few otherpeople who have been around. And of course, Illinois
Jacquet played the bassoon.”
Although Borca has been a part of New York City’s
avant garde jazz scene for 47 years, she isn’t a native
New Yorker. Borca’s hometown is Green Bay, Wisconsin
and she was a student at the University of Wisconsin
when she met Taylor in the late ‘60s. She became one ofhis students during his years in the Midwest, playing
in the Cecil Taylor Unit and various ensembles and big
bands the influential pianist led during that period.
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin in
1971, Borca joined Taylor in Ohio when he was leadinga free jazz outfit at Antioch College in Yellow Springs.
Some of Taylor ’s admirers have incorrectly
described his Antioch band as a “student band”, but
Borca stresses that the outfit was by no means limited
to students. “People came from all over the country to
be in that band,” Borca recalls. “It wasn’t just students.
In fact, students were the minority in that band. They
were serious musicians. People came from the West
Coast to be in that band; people came from Boston to

be in that band. [Trumpeter] Arthur Brooks came fromthe East Coast to be in that band; I think he was there
for one or two semesters. People came from all over toplay in that band. And Cecil didn’t stop people fromjoining. If you could play, you could be in the band.”One of the musicians Borca played with in the
Cecil Taylor Unit during the ‘70s was Lyons, who shemarried. And apart from Taylor ’s outfit, Borca played
in a ‘70s ensemble Lyons had with Murphy.
Borca moved to NYC in 1973, living in the Bronx
with her husband until his death from lung cancer in1986 during which time she played on his records for
hatHUT, Black Saint and, posthumously, Ayler. During
her 47 years in NYC, Borca has often played withbassist William Parker, guitarist/bassist and sometime
drummer Joe Morris, alto saxophonist Marco Eneidi,
trumpeter Bill Dixon, large ensemble Earth People andother exemplars of free jazz. Along the way, Borca
played the soprano and alto saxophones as secondary
instruments. But these days, she is concentrating on
the bassoon exclusively. “I’m not a multiinstrumentalist,” Borca explains. “I sold my sopranosaxophone and way back when, I sold my alto to buy
this bassoon I’m playing right now. And that was way
back in antiquity when I did that. I don’t even have asaxophone right now. I haven’t doubled for a longtime. And when I doubled, it was usually in larger
groups—or if somebody asked me to do it in theirgroups. I didn’t usually double in my own groups.”
In recent years, Borca has led a quartet with
Hilliard Greene (bass), Warren Smith (vibraphone) andJackson Krall (drums). This month Borca will perform
a live-streamed concert leading a trio with Greene anddrummer Newman Taylor Baker. The concert is being
presented as part of Vision Festival’s Art for Art (AFA)
series of events. Borca points out that AFA founder/
dancer/choreographer Patricia Nicholson Parker has
been one of her major allies, as well as an ally of manyother avant garde jazz improvisers in New York City,
and was the one who encouraged her to use a trio forthe upcoming performance, “Patricia said, ‘Do a trio,
do a trio.’ And with a trio, I can pay everybody a niceamount. So, I’m going to do a trio.”
Looking back on some of the avant garde greats

she has played with over the years, Borca emphasizes
that as experimental as Taylor and Lyons were, both ofthem had a deep reverence for the musicians who came
before them. “Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk were
Cecil’s heroes, especially Monk,” Borca remembers.
“Cecil went in a whole other direction in the ‘60s, but
he had feelings about the history of this music going all
the way back to Africa. These things were very
important to him. And as you probably know, he loved
to go and hang out and hear these musicians play—theones who came up before him. That’s why he’d gohang out at the Village Vanguard and Bradley’s; thatwas just part of his existence. Part of being a jazzmusician was that he loved the music that came before
him. And he always went and checked these guys
out—all the time. That was just part of Cecil’s routine,
part of his modus operandi.”
In the months ahead, Borca says, one of her goals is
to release some of the recordings that have so far
remained in her private collection. “I have a lot ofrecordings on tape,” Borca explains. “And William
Parker has been telling me I should either put them out
myself or find somebody else to put them on theirlabel. There are quite a few tapes, including things
I did at the Vision Festivals and things with William
Parker and [late drummer] Denis Charles. And they
were recorded well, too.” vtime, with tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, who later
was in Monk’s Quartet, Hardman and bassist Spanky
DeBrest, paired Monk with a hard-swinging, working
hardbop band, unlike his ad hoc Riverside sessions.
Hardman was only 24 when the album wasrecorded in the spring of 1957 but his playing is one of
the stellar highlights of the sessions. When he follows
Monk solos, as he does on five of the six tracks, heseems to have listened to the pianist so that he isreflecting back in his solos. On the two versions of“Evidence”, where Hardman solos first, we are treated
not just to alternate tracks, but alternate solo
approaches. The released version is all bouncing,darting bebop phrasing at lip-splitting speed. On thealternate, Hardman enters almost hesitantly, like slowstepping Miles Davis of the period, and even manages
to quote “It Could Happen To You”. Comparing theother two alternates, “Blue Monk” and “I Mean You”,
with the original LP tracks also reveal Hardman’sconstantly creative approach.
Hardman was first featured on record as the titularsubject of alto saxophonist Jackie McLean’s Jackie’s Pal(Prestige, 1956). His first album as a leader was 1961’s
Saying Something (Savoy), a quintet date withsaxophonist Sonny Red, pianist Ronnie Mathews,
drummer Jimmy Cobb and either Doug Watkins or Bob
Cunningham on bass and featuring three of his
compositions. By the time he recorded as a leader
again, in 1978, his tone had grown fuller and he had

added mutes and flugelhorn to his arsenal. His threealbums for Muse (1978, 1980, 1981) featured the quintet
he co-led with tenor saxophonist Junior Cook,augmented to a sextet on two by trombonist Slide
Hampton. Beside his recordings with Blakey, Hardman
can be heard with a score of other leaders, ranging
from organists Jimmy McGriff and Charles Earland tosaxophonists Benny Golson and Houston Person.
Trombonist Steve Turre remembers working with
Hardman in the ‘70s. “I was with Art Blakey when
Woody [Shaw] was in the band [around 1972-73] andwhen we came back from the West Coast Bill replaced
Woody in New York and we were Messengers together
for a while. First of all, Bill was a sweetheart, a beautiful
cat, warm and encouraging and helpful about phrasing
and how to play tunes. He was coming out of the
Clifford Brown style. He didn’t have as big a sound as
Clifford, few people do, but he could swing like amutha***. And his phrasing was so hip, it was classic
bebop. He was a master craftsman.”
Turre also played with Hardman, the two of them
driving over from Brooklyn, in a Tuesday night band,a nonet/tentet led by saxophonist-flutist Joe Thomas
at the Four Leaf Deli in Newark around 1975-76. That’s
where this writer first heard Hardman in person
regularly.
Leo Johnson, who played tenor saxophone in thatband, remembers Hardman as “a good musician,					(CONTINUED ON PAGE 13)

For more information, visit karenborca.com. Borca livestreams Dec. 1st at artsforart.org/onlinesalon.html.
Recommended Listening:• Jimmy Lyons (featuring Karen Borca)—
Riffs (hatHUT, 1980)• Paul Murphy—Red Snapper: Paul Murphy at CBS(Cadence Jazz, 1982)• Cecil Taylor Segments II—Orchestra of Two
Continents: Winged Serpent (Sliding Quadrants)(Soul Note, 1984)• Jimmy Lyons Quintet—Give It Up (Black Saint, 1985)• Marco Eneidi Quintet—Final Disconnect Notice(Botticelli, 1993)• Bill Dixon—17 Musicians In Search Of A Sound:
Darfur (AUM Fidelity, 2007)

LEST WE FORGETBILL
HARDMANby george kanzler
Many trumpet players who rose to fame from the mid‘50s to the end of the 20th Century attended the famous
finishing school known as Art Blakey’s Jazz
Messengers. But only one was a Jazz Messenger inthree different decades, with tenures in the ‘50s, ‘60s
and ‘70s, all documented on Blakey recordings. That
was Bill Hardman, who is somehow overlooked inmost rosters of the great hardbop trumpeters of the last
half of the 20th Century. He shouldn’t be.
If Hardman could only be heard on one album,
1958’s Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk
(Atlantic), his stature as a top jazz trumpeter would beassured. Unfortunately, the album remains under theradar because it came out in the midst of Monk’s highly
productive residence at Riverside, recorded the samehalf-decade as the pianist released studio albums withJohn Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Max Roach and Thad
Jones. Yet Blakey was probably more attuned to Monk
than any other drummer and his Messengers of the

10 DECEMBER 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

L ABEL SPOTLIGHTFRÉMEAUX & ASSOCIÉS
by marilyn lester

Anyone who’s ever experienced the vastness of alarge department store such as Harrod’s in London or
Macy’s New York will instantly recognize the metaphor
when applied to French independent record label
Frémeaux & Associés. The catalog offers a stunningly
vast collection of reissued sound recordings, from soup
to proverbial nuts. The company was founded in 1991
by historian and musical theoretician Patrick Frémeauxand Claude Colombini, based in the Parisian exurb ofVincennes. From the beginning, the company has
worked fiercely to preserve as much musical, historical,
political, literary and radio heritage as it can, with
Frémeaux leading the way. “Part of their market ismuseums and libraries, not just music but also spoken
word:
politics,
philosophy,
literature,
radio
documentary—the kind of stuff the French areadmirably so interested in,” says Walter van de Leur,internationally known scholar, author and Professor of
Jazz and Improvised Music at the University of
Amsterdam. Van de Leur knows the company’s
product well, although his interest falls, of course, tothe jazz sector of the catalog. And from Jean-François
Pitet, historian, collector, owner of The Hi de Ho Blog
and co-author of the TV documentary, Cab Calloway:
Sketches, “Fremeaux is an incredible company
dedicated to be a ‘sound library’ and producer of somany great anthologies, saving so many forgotten
artists from oblivion. I’ve got dozens of CD sets

The Complete Django Reinhardt 20
Django Reinhardt

The Complete Charlie Parker 13
Charlie Parker

they’ve released.”
But while Frémeaux & Associés is fairly well knownin Europe among educators and collectors, here in theUSA, not so much. For example, such towering figuresin jazz such as musician, educator and scholar David
Berger; historian and radio host Phil Schaap; andhistorian and musician-bandleader Vince Giordano,
who specializes in jazz from the ‘20s-30s, have neverheard of the label. The venerable Dan Morgenstern, jazzwriter, editor, archivist and producer notes the company
as “a reissue label, to the best of my recollection, mainlyof vintage stuff, mostly not done by other labels andfocused on European material.” As you would expect,
by contrast, the label is familiar to Loren Schoenberg,
who is an internationally oriented and recognizedscholar, educator and musician as well as cofounder of
the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. In Vancouver,jazz historian and radio host Nou Dadoun is semi-awareof Frémeaux & Associés, receiving occasional releases
through Naxos distribution. “They’ve been quite
eclectic,” he says, “like the triple CD sets of Paris
Musette, a collection of artists doing Kurt Weillcompositions and Ray Charles live at Juan de Pins!”
Dadoun adds that uniformly the booklets are informative
and the sound quality excellent.
From the viewpoint of Frémeaux himself, hisinterest is on cultivating an audience that’s “intellectual,
open, cross-disciplinary and would understand thiscross-cultural aspect. Such an audience typically
represents 10 to 20% of the whole public.” Frémeaux
has further determined that America is not, “a countryof history, especially in relatively recent history,”
concluding that aside from entities such as The
Smithsonian Institution, there aren’t resources within

The Complete Louis Armstrong 15
Louis Armstrong

the U.S. comparable to his catalog, whether by lack ofmotivation, economic constraints or a different cultural
viewpoint. In its operations, Frémeaux & Associés islocated in around 32 countries, represented bypermanent on-site distributors; its range further covers
more than 90 countries through direct distribution
from the headquarters in Vincennes, which, Frémeauxsays makes the company one of the few publishers tohave alternative and independent distribution.
Frémeaux & Associés products are distributed in over
2,000 libraries, including 150 abroad, plus 200 or somuseums and that many more historical sites. They
may also be found in literally thousands upon
thousands of schools and universities.
Frémeaux & Associés’ jazz catalog includes Duke
Ellington, Count Basie, Lester Young, Ben Webster,John Coltrane, Nat King Cole, Quincy Jones and a hostmore. French jazz historian and collector Jean-Marie
Juif enthusiastically says, “This label is really amazing!
Their jazz catalog is a work of art. Each CD or CD set
has a very documented booklet, written by the very
best authors and lots of very rare pictures. Theircomplete editions—Django, Armstrong, Bird—are
really fantastic.” Dutch historian and collector Remco
Plas is also fervent about the label. “They have issued
the complete Django Reinhardt on 15 double CDs. The
sound is very good and the booklets are very
informative and both in French and English. Their
Complete Charlie Parker [12 3-CD sets and a 4-CD set]
and the complete Louis Armstrong [15 3-CD sets so far]are equally impressive.” Fellow historian and collector
Swede Ulf Lundin adds, “The Complete Armstrong
and the Complete Charlie Parker are not completely
			(CONTINUED ON PAGE 13)

Swing de Paris (1922-1951)
Various Artists

Drum Thing
Daniel Humair

VOXNEWS

JAZZ
RETROFITTINGS
by suzanne lorge
V ince Guaraldi’s scores for the animated Peanuts

holiday specials could be responsible for introducing
multiple generations of children to jazz. Jazz andcartoons have always had a symbiotic relationship—culturally they grew up together. The first animatedshort with sound, Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie (1928),
is synced to a ragtime melody and the vocal mannerismsof Max Fleischer ’s cartoon character Betty Boop,popular a decade later, derive from the work of Harlem
jazz singer Baby Esther Jones. This relationshipcontinues today with the newly released animation to
Ella Fitzgerald’s beloved rendition of “Frosty the
Snowman” from her 1960 Verve album, Ella Wishes You
a Swinging Christmas. Digitally created, the animatedshort recalls the mid-century cartoon designs popularwhen Fitzgerald recorded the song; her retro cartoon
character is an absolute delight. Two weeks before Ella
& Frosty hit YouTube, Verve released The Lost Berlin
Tapes. Recorded at Berlin’s Sportpalast in March 1962,
these tracks recall Fitzgerald’s triumph in the samecity two years earlier, her best-selling live album, Mack
the Knife: Ella in Berlin. The repertoire on the later
album contains some tunes heard less often, however:a flirty “He’s My Kind of Boy” and a spontaneous,wailing “Wee Baby Blues”. The album covers some ofher regular repertoire of the time, a burning “Clap
Hands, Here Comes Charlie” from her 1961 album bythat name (and during which she ad libs a reference to
Betty Boop) and the tongue-in-cheek, crowd-pleasing“Mr. Paganini”. Fitzgerald’s scatting on the newly
found recording is as shiver-inducing as ever.
In the ‘70s, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl was
researching the life of Billie Holiday for a biography ofthe historic singer. She taped more than 200 hours ofinterviews: Charles Mingus, Tony Bennett, Sylvia Syms,
Count Basie and the FBI agents who harassed, uh,followed her around. Kuehl committed suicide in 1978,
before completing the book and without ever using thetapes. Director James Erskine remedies this omission withhis documentary Billie (Greenwich Entertainment), whichhits theaters and on-demand video on Dec. 4th. The
release, an artful assemblage of colorized archival images,
has a companion recording, Billie: The Original Soundtrack(Verve), which came out in November. On it you can hear
Holiday sing her most memorable titles, like “I Loves
You, Porgy”, “God Bless the Child” and “Don’t Explain”.
But the digitally enhanced film is more exciting; themodern format helps us to imagine what Holiday was
like in real life. Be forewarned that this same realism
makes “Strange Fruit” an even tougher listen. 92nd Street
Y has Holiday-related live-streams Dec. 5th-6th.
On his latest, All Rise (Blue Note), Gregory Portersings so intimately that one would be forgiven for not
noticing that he’s backed by the London SymphonyOrchestra. And a choir and horn section. Or that he’s
singing with full-throated fervor. Riding on an R&B
groove, he introduces the album’s theme of transcendence
and redemption on the opener, “Concorde”. He goes on
to challenge injustice on funky, blues-driven “Long Listof Troubles” and soothe the weary ear with the affecting“If Love Is Overrated”. Closer, “Thank You”, an
inspirational tune crossing over from swing to gospel,sums up Porter’s message to the world and the world’s
reflective response to this rare talent.
Singer/guitarist George Benson, one of the few
jazz artists to turn out pop hits that feature scat solos,
also recorded across the Pond; he taped his new live
album, Weekend In London (Provogue), at Ronnie
Scott’s, the city’s premier jazz club. The recording
reprises several tunes that earned Benson 10 Grammy
Awards (“Give Me the Night”, “Turn Your Love
Around”) but also offers up one standard, “Moody’s
Mood”—a lesson in how to bop over a ballad and a
nod to his mentor, vocalese innovator Eddie Jefferson.
Gigs in the time of coronavirus: Cyrille Aimée willsing at Blue Note (Dec. 3rd), one of the few in-personshows on offer this month. Svetlana and the Delancey
Five follow with the Blue Note Holiday Brunch (Dec.
20th). If you prefer live-streams, you can catch singers
Klea Blackhurst and Jim Caruso in “A Swinging
Birdland Christmas” at Birdland (Dec. 18th). v

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | DECEMBER 2020 11

IN MEMORIAM

PETER GANNUSHKIN/DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET

TOSHINORI
KONDO
by andrey henkin

OVERTON BERRY (Apr. 13th, 1936 –Oct. 19th, 2020) The longtime Seattlebased pianist was Music Director for
Peggy Lee and other performers for the
1962 World’s Fair and had albums for
Jaro and C E, featuring such sidemen as
Chuck Metcalf and Bill Kotick, as well
as several self-released CDs in the new millennium.
Berry died Oct. 19th at 84.
HAROLD BETTERS (Mar. 21st, 1928 –Oct. 11th, 2020) The trombonist wrote
tunes recorded by Woody Herman,
Gerald Wilson and Ambros Seelos andhad leader dates in the ‘60s for Gateway(including one co-led with fellow
trombonist Slide Hampton), Repriseand his own Bettersound and H.B. Better died Oct.
11th at 92.

J apanese trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, active in his

country’s and the international avant garde jazz scenes
with numerous collaborators and dozens of his own
records since the ‘70s, died suddenly on Oct. 17th at 71.
Kondo was born in Ehime Prefecture on Dec. 15th,
1948 and attended Kyoto University. His earliest
recorded work came in 1976 in the bands of pianist
Yosuke Yamashita (he had first played with him whilestill a student in 1970) and Evolution Ensemble Unity,
a collaboration with reedplayer Mototeru Takagi. The
following year Kondo would make the first of myriadinternational connections, appearing on drummer
Milford Graves’ Meditation Among Us (Kitty). This
would be followed over the next decade—after a move
to New York—with a United Nations’ worth of workwith Andrea Centazzo, Derek Bailey, Peter Kowald,
Eugene Chadbourne, Peter Kuhn, John Russell, Roger
Turner, William Parker, Paul Lovens, Tristan Honsinger,
Steve Beresford, the ICP and Globe Unity Orchestras
and many others.
The period also had three significant career
happenings: his first work with German reedplayerPeter Brötzmann (Alarm, FMP, 1981), with whom
Kondo would continue to work in the latter ’s Chicago
Tentet and cooperative Die Like a Dog and Hairy Bones
quartets well into the new millennium; an appearance
on keyboard player Herbie Hancock’s 1984 Columbia
album Sound-System, co-produced by Kondo’s longtime
collaborator, bassist Bill Laswell; and the founding of
his IMA band, which made nearly a dozen albums
through 2018 for Polydor, Epic/Sony, Alfa, JARO
Medien and Kondo’s own TK Recordings.
Over the next 30 years, Kondo made morecollaborative albums with John Zorn, Daunik Lazro,
Borbetomagus, Han Bennink, Fred Anderson, Jim
O’Rourke, Zeena Parkins, Henry Kaiser, Laswell,
Honsinger, Kowald, Chadbourne and others. Over thelast six years of his life, Kondo released live albums
prolifically on his TK Recordings: outdoor documents
under the moniker Blow The Earth, sometimes withperformance artist Hiroyuki Aoki and folk musician
Shobun Hoshino; solo recordings; and archival concert
dates. His most recent project was the monthly Beyond
Corona series.
In a 2015 interview with the Polish music website
Polyphonia, Kondo strongly defined his current andfuture music: “What I wanna do in music is very
simple. Let’s make the 21st Century’s music! The 21stCentury must be different from the 20th Century. We
forgot how to live together with Nature in last century.
Nature is the source and origin of all lives. But ourhuman-centric society lost it. Human beings must
communicate more with Nature, Earth and Space. The
21st Century’s music will appear with the trinity of
Nature-Spirit-Technology.”

MARC FOSSET (May 17th, 1949 – Oct.
31st, 2020) The French guitarist was
active since the late ‘70s, working withcountrymen René Urtreger, Patrice
Caratini, Michel de Villers, Stéphane
Grappelli and others as well as expatriate
Kenny Clarke. Fosset died Oct. 31st at 71.
ALESSANDRO GIACHERO (1971 –Oct. 20th, 2020) The Italian pianist had
newmillennium
albumsforMusicomania and Abeat and sidemancredits with Silvia Bolognesi, Tiziana
Ghiglioni, Marco Zanoli and William
Parker and was a member of T.R.E. andSonoria. Giachero died Oct. 20th at 49.
NADI QAMAR (Jul. 6th, 1917 – Oct.
21st,
2020)
The
noted
pianistmusicologist, composer, poet, educator
and instrument builder (né Spaulding
Givens) released two albums on
Folkways, featuring his kalimba variant
the Mama-Likembi, and recorded asa sideman with Andrew Hill, Nina Simone, Rufus
Harley and Jo Grinage in the ‘60s-70s. Qamar died Oct.
21st at 103 of complications from COVID-19.
JOE RICO (Jul. 9th, 1924 – Oct. 10th,2020) The legendary Buffalo-based
radio DJ and concert promoter wasnamed DownBeat’s Top Jazz Disc Jockeyof the Year and Billboard’s Top Jazz
Personality in the United States andwas honored by having jazz musicians
write tunes for him: Stan Kenton’s “Jump for Joe”,
Count Basie’s “Port of Rico”, Don Elliott’s “Rico JicoJoe”, Mike Vax’ “Joe’s Inn” and Louie Bellson’s“Buffalo Joe”. Rico died Oct. 10th at 96.
VIOLA SMITH (Nov. 29th, 1912 – Oct.
21st, 2020) The drummer was one of thepioneering female musicians during thebrief period in the ‘40s when all-women
big bands were popular, founding
The Coquettes and playing in Phil
Spitalny’s girl band (which appeared ina couple of Hollywood movies), later being a part of
the Kit Kat Band, which was part of the ‘60s Broadway
production of Cabaret. Smith died Oct. 21st at 107.
ACE TESONE (Jun. 5th, 1930 – Oct. 9th,2020) The longtime tailor also madepeople look good onstage as a bassist in
the ‘50s-early ‘60s, working withCharlie Ventura, Jimmy Wisner, Norma
Mendoza, Mel Tormé and Clifford
Brown. Tesone died Oct. 9th at 90. v

12 DECEMBER 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD(INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6)
musicians that came from all over that would playthese WMI concerts. A lot of these people had lived in
Paris, which was kind of like a hub for world music inthe ‘80s, particularly for West African music too, which
was a direct link to what we were trying to do with
M-Base with all these polyrhythms and layering. I had
to look towards Africa, and I had to look towards theEast and Arabia too, to find another perspective on how
to deal with what I wanted to deal with. So, in 1990 I
moved and I stayed for three years. I did move aroundquite a bit in Europe and I went to Africa and cameback to New York several times in that three-year
period. I was working with Ralph Peterson, Geri Allenand Ed Blackwell. So, I was coming to New York, but I
was based in Paris because [of the influence of] theWorld Music Institute… One day they would havemusic from Rajasthan and the next day there’d be musicfrom Morocco with Don Cherry and then there’d be
Master musicians of South Asian music. I saw Zakir
Hussain play with his father Ustad Allarakha Qureshi
several times. It just opened my ears up.
TNYCJR: And drove you right out of the country.
GH: [laughs] Drove me right out of the country, yup.
But, you know, growing up in Queens, I was exposed
to world music as a kid anyway. Queens is one of themost multicultural places in the country. There areover a hundred languages spoken in Queens. So, youknow, I was exposed to a lot of stuff before then, butthat experience helped even more.
TNYCJR: Have electronics always been an interest?
GH: Yeah, I was always interested in processing. Twohuge influences on me when I was [a teenager] were
Miles and Sun Ra. I got to see both of them live several
times in the ‘70s. I was always into processing, throughthem. Also, WKCR had some shows that playedelectronic music. Then also Bob Moog was at Queens
College. But, you know, in high school, in grade school,
I had friends that were messing around withsynthesizers and stuff. I had a friend who was into
computer synthesis and then he was also like anaudiophile. He was kind of into digital before there
was digital. [laughs] All I knew was that I liked thesound. Sly & the Family Stone also blew my mind.
Whether it was pedals or overdriving the amp, they
were processing sound and I was into that. That would
have been 1969, something like that. So, that’s pretty
early. I was just purely drawn to the sound. I always
loved films and science fiction films so I probably
related that sound with some films I had seen. By thetime I started getting to Sun Ra…for him, it was allabout interplanetary travel and, so, it’s all related.
TNYCJR: It seems like there has been an increasing
number of practitioners of the Conduction® method
over the years. What was your introduction?
GH: The first conductions that I did and I’m trying toremember if it was before those David Murray
recordings or after, but David or Butch Morris called
me and said Butch is gonna do his conduction thing fora TV series and we’re gonna record the pilot. It was a
TV series called A Man Called Hawk, starring Avery
Brooks, who was tight with Butch. It was the first Blackaction hero that had a series on TV, kind of like afuturistic action hero guy. So, Butch did a conduction
for the pilot and did the music for a while. Then I
moved out of the country, so I don’t know exactly how
long it went before they cut it.
TNYCJR: How have you incorporated conduction into
what you do?
				(CONTINUED ON PAGE 13)

(INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12)
GH: I’ve always been interested in orchestralcomposition and everything but playing with Butch
I got further and further into the orchestra. This wasanother thing that took me in a whole other zone,
a whole other direction and I became quite close with
Butch. I’ve been working with conduction andconducting kind of large-ish groups. I’m looking
forward to doing more. I’ve done a couple of residencies
at universities and I did Banff with Tyshawn Sorey,
where [we each] conducted and played. Tyshawn has
taken the conduction to another place. Yes, there are
more and more people that are working with
conduction. So, Butch was working on the book, The
Art of Conduction, and then Daniela Veronesi, an Italian
woman who’s a friend of mine, helped him compile thenotes to make the book, which was published after hedied. When the book came out, Daniella came to Brazil
to do a short tour of the book and she befriended
Guilherme Peluci in São Paulo. He did something
really interesting: several months ago, he did an online
series with about 50 or 60 different people, in different
parts of the world, who are doing conductedimprovisation. It’s really interesting. I watched thewhole series. We’re talking about trying to put together
some conduction orchestra in São Paulo. Actually,
I worked with Butch in São Paulo once through Nublu.
Butch conducted the Nublu Orchestra every Monday
night for years. We recorded and toured and we dida one-week residency in Brazil.
TNYCJR: What are you doing in Brazil now?
GH: For the moment, I’m living here in Salvador,
Bahia. I was commissioned to write some music fora dance piece, so I recorded some stuff here with somefolks. I gotta come to New York and mix the stuff, butthen I’m coming back here. I’m really into studying theorchestra right now. I’m working on a requiem. I don’t
tend to make political statements with my music,
however, to some degree, I have.
Musicians, composers, performers, we’re always
dealing with what’s happening. This piece is directly
related to one of the most important issues that we’redealing with now. It’s a requiem for Black men thathave been killed by police. I started working on this ayear ago, before George Floyd was killed. Over thecourse of many, many years… you can go back as far as
you want, in this country… I’m aware of this problem
and I decided to write this piece. It’s going to be a
dedication to the slain, but I also have in mind the
loved ones and families. It is a requiem for them, witha full orchestra and the chorus will be singing text in
Latin and in English and there’ll be some soloists. Overthe years, I’ve gotten further into composing for
multimedia and that gives me the opportunity to write
music for a functional purpose. It gives me achallenge that I like. It allows me to do research, it
allows me to collaborate with other artists and I reallylike doing that.
TNYCJR: I’ve been having this conversation withmusicians, especially ones who remember the ‘60s and‘70s, because these murders are so much more visible
since everybody’s got a video camera on them.
GH: But they’ve always been going on.
TNYCJR: Right, but it’s making a new impression onsociety that a lot more people are aware of it because of
these cell phones. Is the window for opportunity forchange open like it seemed to be 50 years ago?
GH: I would say, yes, it is. It depends on how you lookat it. In one sense, nothing has changed. In anothersense, things have changed. Technology has [made]problems that have been occurring over hundreds ofyears more visible now, but the cause of it has notchanged. I mean, the technology is just exposing
something that’s always been happening. So, I mean,in terms of the window of change… There are times
when we’re a little bit more ready to deal with certain
issues. Everything, cosmically, has its time and place.
TNYCJR: How can the arts address the moment?
GH: I think the arts can do many things, but I think
one of the most profound things that the arts do is they
expose people to ideas. And these ideas go across racial
lines, they go across gender lines, they go across any
kind of boundaries or any kind of categories oranything. Ideas are one of the most powerful things
that people make or have. And music or the arts cancut across political lines. So that’s a broad way ofsaying that the arts are important in these times.
TNYCJR: This article will be published in December
and you’ll be streaming a performance from Roulette?
GH: I’m only going to be in New York for 10 days andthe Roulette concert is the day before I come back here.
It’s mostly going to be an improvised concert. I haven’t
written anything for it, I’m not sure if I will. I’m gonna
use my electronics and then I’m working with apercussionist. Shakoor Hakeem is a percussionist who
worked with Wallace Roney quite a bit and that’s how
I first heard about him. I used to play with Adam
Rudolph and he had the GO: Organic Orchestra andShakoor Hakeem played in that group. He’s a reallygreat percussionist. He’s very grounded. He comes outof the whole Santería experience and is very high up inthat. He also was trained as a classical percussionist in
Philadelphia when he was younger. I was [also] going
to work with Lucie Vítková. I met her a year and a half
ago in New York. She’s an incredible musician,composer and inventor of instruments. She’s from theCzech Republic and we’re having problems getting her
to New York. It may be that she plays virtually, or she
might not even be on the gig. We’re still trying to workthat out. But she’s very interesting. v
Haynes live-streams Dec. 4th at roulette.org.
Recommended Listening:• Steve Coleman And Five Elements—
On The Edge of Tomorrow(JMT-Winter & Winter, 1986)• Ed Blackwell Project—Vol. I: What It Is?/
Vol. II: What It Be Like (Enja, 1992)• Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures—Dream Garden (Justin Time, 2006)• Graham Haynes—Full Circle (RKM Music, 2006)• Oliver Lake/Graham Haynes/Joe Fonda/
Barry Altschul—OGJB: Bamako (TUM, 2016)• Vijay Iyer Sextet—Far From Over (ECM, 2017)(LEST WE FORGET CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10)
a great trumpeter who was very helpful if you asked
him anything about improvisation or chord changes
and stuff, he was very free with that.”
At about the same time Hardman was commuting
to Newark, he also formed, along with bassist Bill Lee
and drummer Billy Higgins, Brass Company, a 12-piece(saxophone, five trumpets, trombone, euphonium,
tuba, piano, bass, drums) band with complex
arrangements akin to Gil Evans that recorded one
album, Colors (Strata-East).
He wasn’t as active in the ‘80s. According toJohnson, “He felt like he was underrated and started
drinking heavy and all of that.” But in 1989 he made an
excellent sextet album, What’s Up (SteepleChase),reuniting with Cook and adding Robin Eubanks’trombone. At about the same time he moved to Paris,
where he died Dec. 5th, 1990 of a cerebral stroke at 57. v
Recommended Listening:• Jackie McLean Quintet—Jackie’s Pal (Introducing
Bill Hardman) (Prestige, 1956)• Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers—
Hard Drive (Bethlehem, 1957)• Lou Donaldson—Sunny Side Up (Blue Note, 1960)• Bill Hardman Quintet—Saying Something (Savoy, 1961)• Bill Hardman—Politely (Muse, 1981)• Bill Hardman Sextet—What’s Up(SteepleChase, 1989)(LABEL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11)
complete but are still very worthwhile to have. The
sound is very good! On the first Armstrong volume
there is one of the three best reissues of the King Oliver
Creole Jazz Band recordings.” Additional to the workof dedicated artists, the company issues thematiccompilations. These sets include ‘’Swing de Paris”,“Cotton Club” and the “Savoy ballroom house bands”.
According to Augustin Bondoux, label manager,
editorial director and A&R executive at Frémeaux &Associés, the newest release is an album by veteranSwiss jazz drummer, Daniel Humair, with French
bassist Stéphane Kerecki and French composersaxophonist Vincent Lê Quang. Coming in 2021 is alive CD of Cannonball Adderley, a boxed set on singing
pianists in the history of jazz and an anthology of thework of French vibraphonist Dany Doriz. Bondoux
notes that current booklets are written by French
specialists Alain Gerber, Alain Tercinet, Daniel Nevers
and Jean Buzelin. “Our policy, he says, “also aims to
make the entire phonographic career of artists still
living available to the public, such as Romane,
Rodolphe Raffalli, Claude Bolling, Francis Lockwood,
Raphaël Faÿs, Les Oignons and Didier Levallet. Eachbody of work has merit and therefore the right to exist
in the long term, without being forgotten.”
Lastly, how has Frémeaux & Associés managed topull all of this off and do it successfully for nearly 30
years? The answer is in the economic model originally
set up by Frémeaux and Colombini, which has served
the company admirably well. It allows a longamortization period, spread over several years, withmodest sales volumes: “Our productions sell on
average 1,000 copies in one year, to generally reach
2,000 sales over five years,” reports Frémeaux. It also
helps to have an attitude in which the Euro is not thefocus of activity. Frémeaux has been emphatic that, forhim, the cultural importance of his work outshines
economic considerations, although he is by no means
foolish about this statement. The financials of thecompany have been carefully curated to be sound.
Admirably, Frémeaux’ commitment is to educate as
many young people as he can and “permanently andsustainably maintain the availability of our collective
memory for the benefit of future generations.” It’s also
no small piece of the economic pie that the operationsof the company have benefitted from the changing
music business; the profit-making landscape of today,with the advent of MP3s and streaming services, is far
removed from the non-digital world of 1991, especiallyfor major record companies. “Which,” Frémeaux says,“can no longer allow themselves the distribution ofcultural products whose sales do not fit into theireconomy of scale.”
When all is said and done, Frémeaux & Associés
clearly occupies an important place in the preservationof the world of sound, albeit with a very French twist.
For jazz enthusiasts, the careful work of restoration
and research has proven invaluable. v
For more information, visit fremeaux.com

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | DECEMBER 2020 13

ALBUM REVIEWSFor Jimmy, Wes and Oliver
Christian McBride Big Band (Mack Avenue)
by Dan Bilawsky

This third album from the Christian McBride Big Bandis both a tip of the hat to the leading bassist’s history
with organ player Joey DeFrancesco and a tribute totwo beloved records and three legendary artists.
Growing up in Philadelphia and playing together fromthe time they were middle schoolers, McBride and
DeFrancesco formed a musical brotherhood. Anothercoupling—organ player Jimmy Smith and guitarist
Wes Montgomery on a pair of celebrated Verveofferings with the intelligently earthy arrangements ofOliver Nelson—loomed large in their listening,providing early inspiration. Now, decades later,
McBride, with DeFrancesco at his side, pays homage tothose influential figures and recordings.
While For Jimmy, Wes and Oliver carries obvious
allegiances and a few of Nelson’s first-ratearrangements from this album’s models—1966’s Jimmy& Wes: The Dynamic Duo and 1968’s Further Adventuresof Jimmy and Wes—appear on the playlist, this isn’t arehash. McBride knows better than simply to follow
suit. Instead, he just focuses on capturing and bottlinga similar form of euphoria endemic to those sets. And
by putting guitar ace Mark Whitfield out front, leaning
on a tight and talented ensemble, choosing a repertoirewith broad appeal and mixing quartet tracks in withthe big band fare, he accomplishes his mission.
The reprised Nelson gems, a swaggering-andshuffling “Night Train”, bright “Milestones” andsoaring-and-swinging “Down by the Riverside”, joinwith McBride’s arrangement of Montgomery’s bossabuoyed “Road Song” to serve as links between powerfulpartnerships of past and present. The quartet hits, firstrate takes on Freddie Hubbard’s waltzing “Up Jumped
Spring”, Ray Noble’s romantic “The Very Thought ofYou”, Billy Eckstine’s dreamy “I Want to Talk AboutYou” and DeFrancesco’s jaunty Don Was tribute “DonIs”, embody spirit, elegance and soul. And a departing
diptych in the form of Whitfield’s “Medgar Evers’
Blues” and the McBride-DeFrancesco high school
throwback “Pie Blues” nestles right up against theother material. Cut from the same cloth as theaforementioned classics, this album truly hits the mark.
For more information, visit mackavenue.com. McBride judges
Count Basie’s The Great American Swing Contest, whose
winners are announced Dec. 31st at countbasie.com.

Ella at 100: Live at the Apollo
Count Basie Orchestra (Concord)by Pierre Giroux

It made sense to host the centenary of the birth of Ella

Fitzgerald—quite possibly the most outstanding
vocalist in the history of the genre, due in no small partto her mellow, clear voice and creative ad-libbing—at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, the place where her

storied career began in 1934.
It was in many way an impossible task to request
performers to reprise many of the songs closely
associated with her without avoiding comparisons. So,bearing in mind the Judy Garland/Mickey Rooneytrope “we’ve gotta have a great show”, the performers
seized the moment. The album opens with co-hostDavid Allen Grier recreating the night in 1934 when
17-year-old Ella Fitzgerald made her debut on amateurnight. In this case it was 17-year-old singer Ayodele
Owolabi delivering “Judy”, the song Fitzgerald used.
The linchpin holding the music together is theCount Basie Band directed by Scotty Barnhart. They
swing hard when given the chance and provide
sympathetic accompaniment to the vocalists througha wide range of Fitzgerald-related material. Grammy
Award winner and co-host Patti Austin is featured on
five songs, especially effective on “A-Tisket, A-Tasket”,“When I Get Low, I Get High” and wow-worthy on“How High The Moon” accompanied by the Howard
University vocal group Afro Blue. The latter shines in its
own right on “Oh, Lady Be Good”. The Ella 100 All Star
Quartet of pianist Shelly Berg, guitarist Brian Nova,
bassist Nathan East and drummer Greg Field offers
stellar support to Lizz Wright as she delivers the goods
on “Love You Madly” and “The Nearness Of You”.
There is also a terrific version of “Cry Me A River”
performed by the superbly talented Cassandra Wilson.
The final track is “People” recorded by Fitzgerald
in Budapest, Hungary on May 20th, 1970. Greatness
has frequently been defined as a natural ability to bebetter than all others. She embodied this definition.
For more information, visit concordmusicgroup.com. Count
Basie’s The Great American Swing Contest winners areannounced Dec. 31st at countbasie.com.

whisper ’s breath, demands authoritative precision anddiscipline as it gently merges soft sounds from Baars
on shakuhachi flute, interspersed with light airysnippets from Buis, melding into a sleepy sentience.
The two let loose for a bit on a couple of pieces,including “Cool and Gentle (Mr. Gentle Mr. Cool)”,a glimpse at a somewhat more aggressive side.
Tales From is an unusual quartet of Norwegian
Frode Gjerstad on alto saxophone and clarinet, Fred
Lonberg-Holm on cello and electronics, William Parker
on a combination of bass, tuba, cornet and flutes andSteve Swell, who turns 66 this month, on trombone.
It offers busy and intense sound, exciting without
losing itself, with a nod to the free-wheeling free jazzof the ‘60s. The recording had been planned as a trio
with Gjerstad, Lonberg-Holm and pianist Matthew
Shipp, but Swell and Parker were added when thelatter could not make the recording. The results area fascinating set of fully improvised pieces. Parker andLonberg-Holm are stunning on the strings, as
exemplified on “Bold”, but the former is a special joy,as he shows off a rough-edged acumen on cornet(reminiscent of the late British drummer John Stevens),
plus tuba and flutes. Gjerstad, too, performs as well as
ever and his contributions on clarinet are bold anddaring on “The Belly” while more sensitive on“The Immolation”. Swell complements with one of hisbest performances. But, ultimately, it is the deep, dense
and dark collective sound that wins the day,
unmitigated, wild improvisation from experienced
performers. The music throughout is deliciously busy
and full of life. When it ends, you might sigh, exhausted
though fulfilled.
For more information, visit stichtingwig.com and fsrecords.net.
Swell live-streams Dec. 3rd at artsforart.org/onlinesalon.html.

Stephen Riley)—
R (featuring
Bluu Afroo (SteepleChase)e • Jon-Erik
Kellso—Sweet Fruits Salty Roots(Jazzology)c • Andrea Keller—Journey Home (s/r)
Maviel/Michael Bisio—o • Anaïs
Abstractions of the Human Kind (s/r)
Monk—Palo Alto (Impulse!)m •• Thelonious
Evan Parker/Zlatko Kaučič—
Arkosberg (Klopotec)
m • Mara
Rosenbloom Trio—Respiration(Fresh Sound-New Talent)e • Natsuki
Tamura/Satoko Fujii/
Rámon López—Mantle (Not Two)n • Cosmic(feat. Dwight Trible)—d PathwaysVibrations& Passages (Spiritmuse)
Victor SoundNoiseFUNK—e • Fay
We’ve Had Enough! (ESP-Disk’)d Laurence Donohue-Greene, Managing Editor• Pierre Dørge & New Jungle Orchestra

Moods for Roswell
Duo Baars-Buis (Wig)
Tales From
Frode Gjerstad/Fred Lonberg-Holm/
William Parker/Steve Swell (Fundacja Słuchaj!)by Steven Loewy

Saxophone/clarinet and trombone are a deadly

combination, particularly in the right hands. These
two recordings explore different strategies in whichthese horns interconnect, one in the context of a duo,
the other a different take with an unusual collection of
instruments. The results in each case are very distinct
and largely successful.
Moods for Roswell, dedicated to the late trombonist
Roswell Rudd, who died three years ago this month,displays the interaction of two giants of the Dutch
scene, reedplayer Ab Baars and trombonist Joost Buis,
whose years playing together in different settings lay
the groundwork for compelling performances. Duke
Ellington and Billy Strayhorn also loom large, as manyof the tracks are loose reworkings of their pieces, or
portions thereof, Baars and Buis explored on otheralbums. The abstract machinations of the duo make themelodies often unrecognizable, as they do a marvelous
job of bouncing ideas off each other, often at a snail’s
pace and at low volume. It is tribute to their experienceand technique that they accomplish the task so well.
Highlights abound but things are particularly effective
when infused with subtle humor, such as thecompelling “Little March/ Klop”, with its cute, martial
melody gently dispersing into a mishmash of
scintillating free-flying clarinet and trombone. “Moods
for Roswell (In a Sentimental Mood)”, airy as a

14 DECEMBER 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

n
e
w
r
e
l
e
a
s
e
s

• Benjamin Boone—
The Poets Are Gathering (Origin)• Lucia Cadotsch—Speak Low II (We Jazz)• Allan Chase/Bruno Råberg/
Austin McMahon—The Prospector(Orbis Music)• The End—Allt Är Intet (RareNoise)• Ingebrigt Håker Flaten—Til Anna:
Confirmations and Abstractions (Solo Bass)(Sonic Transmissions)• Kaleidoscope Quintet—
Dancing On The Edge (Dot Time)• Yves Rousseau—Fragments (YOLK Music)• Raymond Scott Big Band—
Hemi Demi Semi Quaver (Real Gone Music)• Natsuki Tamura/Satoko Fujii/
Ramón López—Mantle (Not Two)
• Papo Vázquez Mighty Pirates
Troubadours—Chapter 10: Breaking Cover(Picaro)Andrey Henkin, Editorial Director

Apples & Oranges
Doug Webb (Posi-Tone)
Rippin’ & Runnin’
Farnell Newton (Posi-Tone)
Like The Sun
Brian Charette (s/r)
by George Grella

Brian Charette makes every record on which heappears better. He’s in a category by himself amongcontemporary jazz organ players, bound neither bytradition nor the avant garde, though adept at working
with and responding to ideas pioneered by the likes ofJimmy Smith and Larry Young (the latter an important
influence). He brings superior chops to the keyboard
and has a hip, swinging, funky attitude to his craft.
He’s something of the de facto house organ player
for Posi-Tone. Charette’s 2016 album, Once & Future, isan outstanding example of his own musicianship andwhat a label like Posi-Tone can achieve by approachinga classic style with a balance of reverence and a touchof cheek. On Apples & Oranges and Rippin’ & Runnin’,
Charette is a dream accompanist, playing a rolesomething like the captain of a cruise ship, making
sure everything runs smoothly so the soloists can leave
their cares behind and blow.
On saxophonist Doug Webb’s Apples & Oranges,
Charette is paired with drummer Andy Sanesi. They area relaxed presence behind Webb, who plays likableideas without ever getting too worked up or wandering
too far and with a hint of dryness to his mellow tone (asensitive listener may feel that Webb has some subtle
ideas about both Paul Desmond and Albert Ayler, aninteresting combination). There’s a lightness to his
approach, even on “In a Sentimental Mood”, which
Charette and Sanesi honor, making for a pleasant listen.
Trumpeter Farnell Newton’s Rippin’ & Runnin’,with Rudy Royston at the kit and tenor saxophonist
Brandon Wright, is idiosyncratic in comparison. The
touches of compound harmonies and modulations anda slightly shifting pulse on opener “The Roots”
proclaim a more modern, yet soulful, sensibility. The
drummer makes a difference too; Royston plays with atough-minded swing and he and Charette bounce a lotof energy and ideas off each other without evergrowing obtrusive. Charette’s solos explore a morevaried harmonic palette and the album has some
intriguing tension—the rhythm section sounds happy
to be working with the horns, but when they’re on
their own, Charette and Royston seem near to making
their own duo record. Solid through and through.
Like The Sun is Charette solo. He plays organ andsynthesizers over preprogrammed drum and bass
patterns. It’s self-released and he describes it specificallyas music he made working through the frustrations andanxieties of the COVID-19 pandemic, watching gigs
and sessions and income disappear. Surprisingly
perhaps, the music reflects the bright attitude of thetitle. Not surprisingly, there’s more non-jazz than thereis jazz, including plenty of funk, touches of Kraftwerk
and world music via Joe Zawinul’s legacy. On thesurface, the ambition may be less than that of the PosiTone albums, but Charette’s wide range goes farther
and his personal joy in making music comes through.
For more information, visit posi-tone.com and briancharette.com.
Charette live-streams Dec. 5th at soapboxgallery.org/live-stream.

Swing States: Harmony In The Battleground
Regina Carter Freedom Band (Tiger Turn/eOne)
by Monique Ngozi Nri

Regina Carter opens her first studio recording in three

years with a monologue about the importance of voting.
Her own, probably Ray Charles-inspired version of“America, The Beautiful” is playing in the backgroundas she speaks. Carter enjoins us all to vote, remembering
the activism of multiple generations of her family—andthe various cultures she grew up around—to securethese rights. Each track is devoted to a proverbial swing
state, several being the homestates of the member ofher Freedom Band. The project’s impetus came from a
conversation with producer Kabir Sehgal, who also
plays percussion and bass.
In what is now a prescient choice for the first track,
The Freedom Band pumps out the swingingest version
of “Georgia On My Mind”, replete with brilliant solos
by trumpeter/arranger John Daversa and Carter. The
latter’s love of her home state, Michigan and inparticular Detroit, has been explored in other parts ofher music. For this project, she chose to represent itwith “Dancing In the Street” by Martha Reeves and The
Vandellas, a song associated with the Civil Rights
movement in the ‘60s. In a surprising turn, the song
becomes Carter’s tonal lament for the constant grind
and resolve of trying to achieve change. Drummer
Harvey Mason has a fantastic interaction with her solo.
At time the project feels like an enticing travel
brochure. Pianist’s Jon Batiste’s “You Are My Sunshine”
for Louisiana is a joyful rendition, full of the vibrancyof living in New Orleans, as is Mason’s “Home on the
Range”, a tribute to Kansas City, home of jazz musicians
everywhere. Batiste’s resounding laughter echoed byCarter ’s violin on “Wisconsin” and Daversa’s gorgeous
flugelhorn solo on the Florida state “Swanee River”
track are also moments among many worthy of note.
It remains to be seen whether this projectsucceeded in its mission of getting people who would
otherwise not do so out to vote. What is true is that it
got a conversation going on social media and thecaliber of the music will remain a call to take action.
For more information, visit reginacarter.com. Carter livestreams Dec. 6th at livingjazz.org/online-events/?eid=47289.

UNEARTHED GEM

Palo Alto
Thelonious Monk (Impulse!)by George Kanzler

This is a great story. A teenager at Palo Alto HighSchool, who will go on to be one of the West Coast’s
preeminent music promoters, books Thelonious
Monk’s quartet for a Sunday afternoon concert in
October of the politically tumultuous year of 1968.
A janitor, in exchange for paying to have the piano
tuned, is permitted to tape record the concert. Danny
Scher, the promoter, now acquires the tapes andwith the cooperation and blessing of the Monk
Foundation releases them, including on a 33⅓ rpm
LP. It would be a much greater story if it had been a
discovery of a tape(s) made a decade before, when
Monk was leading his quartet at The Five Spot withthe likes of Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane or Johnny
Griffin. However, this is the quartet with Charlie
Rouse on tenor saxophone, who had been with
Monk throughout the ‘60s, and completed by two
four-year veterans: bassist Larry Gales and drummer
Ben Riley. It is already Monk’s most welldocumented quartet on records, both studio andlive, so this LP adds little new or novel to Monk’s
discography.
In the best Monk quartets of the late ‘50s you
could hear a palpable tension as well as cohesion
among the members, that “sound of surprise” onecritic identified as jazz. Nobody knew what Monk
was going to do next. But this quartet is a well-oiled
machine, going seamlessly through all the gears likea high-tech transmission. It’s classic Monk, a little
too classic. The surprises are less from him than his
sidemen. Gales has a great arco feature (a technique
Monk disapproved of) on “Well, You Needn’t”;
Riley’s brushwork on “Ruby, My Dear” is a buoyant
highlight. Those tunes, plus “Blue Monk” and“Epistrophy”, are the bulk of the album. All can befound in better recorded versions by Monk, mosteven by this quartet.
I do not have perfect pitch. But the solo version
of “Don’t Blame Me” makes me wince. The tapespeed is slightly off, as confirmed by a thread on theinternet group jazz-research. Those without perfect
pitch won’t have much trouble with the quartet
tracks, but the piano solos (there’s another very
short one) make the tape error obvious.
For more information, visit impulserecords.com

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | DECEMBER 2020 15

1962
Ricardo Grilli (Tone Rogue)
by Marco Cangiano

Brazil-born, New York-based guitarist Ricardo Grilli

is a Berklee and NYU graduate who has performed
with quite a range of top-shelf musicians including
Chris Potter and E.J. Strickland. This CD is a companion
to 1954 (his father ’s year of birth), the title referencing
his mother ’s birth year. Bassist Joe Martin anddrummer Eric Harland return while the morerhythmically inclined pianist Kevin Hays takes overfrom the more eclectic Aaron Parks. The addition oftenor saxophonist Mark Turner gives 1962 a more
postbop flavor than the earlier date.
Grilli’s knack for very musical, yet not always
memorable, compositions seems to inspire Turner,
whose performance is relaxed and assertive. His
phrasing blends particularly well with Grilli’s style,which is characterized by warm fluidity, in spite of anelectric edge, rendering accessible even the mostcomplex composition.
The music and the titles are quite evocative anddense with personal references. “Coyote” and“Lunático” carry a Brazilian flavor—with the latteralso a nod to the Brooklyn venue that hosted many of
Grilli’s performances. “1954-1962” constitutes an

ethereal bridge to the previous CD. “183 W 10th St.” isan homage to Smalls whereas bop-infused “E.R.P.”,
bluesy “Signs” and more delicate “Virgo” arededications to Bud Powell, Peter Bernstein and Grilli’s
cousin’s first son, respectively. There is a consistencyof moods across all the pieces despite their different
inspiration, tempos and structure, with dreamy
passages here and there, such as in “1954-1962” and“Virgo” and more uptempos in “183 W 10th St.”.
“Voyager” and “Mars” continues Grilli’s fascination
with astronomy found on 1954, the former also areference to the group led by Harland. “Mars” and“Signs” are the pieces best defining this group: evocative
themes, splendid solos and infectious interactions inrhythm section. This is a thoroughly enjoyable recordingthat bodes well for Grilli’s further explorations.
For more information, visit toneroguerecords.com. Grilli
live-streams Dec. 8th at smallslive.com.

Candlelight: Love in The Time of Cholera
Juliet Kurtzman/Pete Malinverni (Saranac)by Ken Dryden

J azz players have regularly performed and recordedwith classical musicians for decades with mixed
results, the former usually having a built-in advantage

with some classical training in their formative years.
Pianist Pete Malinverni’s meeting with classicalviolinist Juliet Kurtzman is one of the rare crossovers
that stands up to repeated hearings.
The secret to a successful session is a meeting ofminds between the artists, picking repertoire as well as
arrangements and originals that work for bothmusicians. The theme here is “Music from theAmericas” (both North and South), including all fourof cornet player Bix Beiderbecke’s works for piano
including his “Candlelights”, in addition to ragtime,
new tango and a pair of Malinverni originals.
Although it is unlikely Kurtzman had many
opportunities to perform most of these compositions
prior to taking part in this project, she meshes wellwith Malinverni in their interpretations. Argentinianbandoneon master Astor Piazzolla used violin in his
small ensembles and Kurtzman’s emotional playing on
his “Oblivion”, with precise pitch and plenty ofemotion, make it feel like it has been in her concert
repertoire. The loping interpretation of Beiderbecke’s“Davenport Blues” has its share of humor, including
Malinverni’s wry detour into “Things Ain’t What They
Used To Be”.
In a lively interpretation of Scott Joplin’s “Solace”
Kurtzman’s singing tone in tandem with Malinverni
sounds like old friends who have long played together.
Malinverni sets up the Johnny Green-Edward Heyman
ballad standard “Body And Soul” with a roundabout
solo leading to Kurtzman’s brilliant reworking of
Coleman Hawkins’ landmark tenor saxophone solo.
Malinverni’s whimsical tango “Love In The Time Of
Cholera” adds to the diversity of this inspired session.
For more information, visit petemalinverni.com. This
project live-streams Dec. 10th at youtu.be/5SFkpbXw-Rg.

After two albums of mainly original
music, I felt ready to take on thisadventure and make an artistic
statement revealing my own voicethrough some of the most well known
pieces in jazz, some of which I know
since I’m about 10 years old, whilebringing them into 2020 with a new light.

Mintus’ shining, charismatic
personality is addictive andhis fine trio liberates listeners
with a majestic take on
freedom conjured throughcareful connections.
—DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE

arkivjazz.com
facebook.com/guymintusmusic

16 DECEMBER 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

Who Are You?
Joel Ross (Blue Note)by Tom Greenland

J oel Ross “has that THANG”, writes trumpeter andfellow Chicagoan Marquis Hill in his liner notes to Who
Are You?, Ross’ sophomore release on Blue Note.
The “THANG” in question is local musician slang fora special quality, or charisma, recognized by an ability
to sound deeply rooted in the jazz tradition yet still be
strikingly original, and certainly the 25-year-old
vibraphonist embodies both of these qualities. Backwith the Good Vibes quintet of his debut recording—alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, pianist Jeremy
Corren, a new bassist in Kanoa Mendenhall, drummer
Jeremy Dutton and guest harpist Brandee Younger—
this time around Ross sounds even more composedand confident. His group, a cohesive unit from thestart, has matured, its individual personalities distinct
yet amalgamated, like a reheated stew or lasagna thattastes even better the second day.
Stylistically, the ethos of Chicago collectivism ispalpable, as are lingering influences of Bach and bop,the former in the leader ’s elegant through-composed
melodies rendered with hymn-like sobriety, the latterin his propulsive serpentine improvisations, which
derive as much from the vocabulary of drummers as
they do from melodic instruments. His ear for melody
sounds similar, for this reviewer at least, to Pat
Metheny’s
progressive
yetaccessible‘avantAmericana’ style, especially the songs “Gato’s Gift”
and “Such Is Life”. Wilkins plays with a kindred
musical spirit: fast, light, intelligent, like wisps ofspray blowing off a wave-front, often leading the surgeon themes, Ross doubling, ghosting or drafting in his
wake. Corren melds rock, soul and church music intoa pliable hybrid. Mendenhall’s beautifully recorded,
unvarnished tone is anywhere and everywhere,
Dutton’s voluble drum chatter equally so.
Younger ’s iridescent strings are especiallyredolent on “King’s Loop”, a duet with the leader.
Commendable for its team spirit and compatibility, thealbum, nevertheless, has instances of individual
bravura: Ross’ solos on “Marsheland” and “TheNurturer”; Wilkins’ on “When My Head Is Cold”; bothmen’s on “Vartha”.
For more information, visit bluenote.com. Ross live-streams
Dec. 9th at barbayeux.com and Dec. 10th and 17th atjazzgallery.org/tjgonline.

Prism
Conference Call (Not Two)
Intersecting Lives
Guillermo Gregorio/Joe Fonda/Ramon López(Fundacja Słuchaj!)
Step In: Voilà la tendresse
Carlo Morena/Joe Fonda/Felix Lecaros Herrera(Not Two)by Robert Iannapollo

O ne never knows quite where bassist Joe Fonda willshow up next. There are the usual suspects, groups heco-leads: Nu Band, the Fonda-Stevens Group,
Conference Call. But he frequently turns up in

unexpected places, various international groups thatinterestingly round out his discography. Normally,
he’s on three or four releases a year. Fortunately,
during 2020, a year fraught with a lack of normalcy, atthe end of the year we have three releases, bringing us(almost) up to date with his recent work.
Prism is the eighth album since 2002 by the co-op
quartet Conference Call. It was recorded in 2016. The
personnel has been surprisingly stable with Fonda,
reedplayer Gebhard Ullmann and pianist Michael Jefry
Stevens. Only the drummer ’s chair has changed,
previously being occupied by Matt Wilson, Han
Bennink, Gerry Hemingway, mostly by George
Schuller. For Prism, we’re introduced to the newest
occupant, Dieter Ulrich. Like his predecessors hedrives the group ahead perfectly, knowing when topush, when to free more space for the soloists. He also
knows when to lay out. Notable is the way he controls
the group stasis on Stevens’ title track. The other threeeach provide the program. “F.J.D.” is also to be foundon Ullmann’s microtone project of last year,
MikroPULS (Intuition). This recording pre-dates that
one and he’s already searching for the microtonal
properties within this variation on Eddie Harris’ jazzstandard “Freedom Jazz Dance”. Fonda’s “Listen To
Dr. Cornel West” (also previously recorded with otherbands) is, at 13 minutes, one of the high points of thedisc. The theme is initially stated over a free base until
Fonda’s solo after which he locks into an ostinato
pattern and the band takes off with it. Everything
played here is at a high level and Conference Callrenews itself with a new drummer.
The most unique group situation for Fonda in thisroundup is Intersecting Lives, a tri-continental trio with
Argentinian clarinetist Guillermo Gregorio andSpanish percussionist Ramón López. All three have
had lengthy careers and distinctive discographies(Gregorio since the ‘60s, Fonda the ‘70s and Lopez the‘80s) within the avant garde yet none had recorded
together before. It’s almost inevitable that these threemusicians’ paths would cross. The program consists offour originals by Gregorio and four free improvs.
There’s a clarity of line and purpose to the compositions.
“Cosa Bara” contrasts lighter-than-air clarinet withdeep, growling contrapuntal lines from the bass as
percussion subtly colors and shades their dialogue.
“Tres” finds Gregorio and Fonda stating the theme
together before exploring the lines with gracefulinteraction. The improvisations have more activity but
there’s still circumspect listening with each player
responding to the other. The best example of this is on“Drawing In The Margins”, where López drives theother two with forward momentum for a satisfying
conclusion to a remarkable disc.
Yet another tri-continental aggregation is featured
on Voilà La Tendresse, Fonda with Italian pianist Carlo
Morena and Chilean drummer Felix Lecaros Herrera.
This is the fifth album Fonda has recorded with
Morena. Of the three albums featured here, this is
closest to the mainstream but just by a matter ofdegrees. The themes are melodic but once they’redoled out, the three players open up and dig in forenergetic trio interplay. The title track (translated as“Here Is The Tenderness”) is a perfect case in point. It
opens with a pleasant theme, vaguely reminiscent assomething from later-period Bill Evans. But once theystate it, the music opens into a swirling three-way
chord-based improvisation. Herrera and Fonda build
up the power as Morena takes off on a lengthy solo
going in different directions with him trailing therhythm section and vice versa. “Dog With No Name”
follows a similar procedure and opens into a lengthy
section of free interplay. Most of the album has avigorous, lively cast and one has to wait until the end
for a ballad but “Chorale” is a perfect conclusion.
For more information, visit nottwo.com and fsrecords.net.
Fonda live-streams Dec. 8th at jazzhalo.be/home.

G LO B E U N I T Y

I’ll Be Home For Christmas
Gabriel Latchin (Alys Jazz)
Around the Christmas Tree
Randy Greer/Ignasi Terraza (Swit)
Christmas With My Friends VII
Nils Landgren (ACT Music)
by Tom Greenland

Christmas music and jazz are natural partners.

Why? Because people know the songs, a prerequisite
for appreciating how skillfully an improviser
changes something old into something new.
British pianist Gabriel Latchin’s third album,
I’ll Be Home For Christmas, a trio date with bassist
Dario Di Lecce and drummer Josh Morrison, is an
homage to the songs of Christmas past (from “GodRest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” to “Rudolph the RedNosed Reindeer”) and the great straightahead jazzpianists of the ‘50s and onward. One of this record’s
strengths resides in Latchin’s novel settings,
makeovers, which, while steeped in the familiarmusical mannerisms of, say, Bill Evans, Ahmad
Jamal and/or Barry Harris, manage to add elements
of interest and originality. “Winter Wonderland”,“The Christmas Song”, “White Christmas”, “HaveYourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “Silent
Night” are all notable for choice chords and lithe
phrases. A second strength lies in Latchin’s refined,almost classical approach, each solo becoming an
extension of the arrangement, each note carefully
polished and placed.
Around the Christmas Tree is a date led by
Spanish pianist Ignasi Terraza featuring vocalist
Randy Greer interpreting a less obvious roster ofseasonal songs (Sammy Cahn-Jimmy Van Heusen’s“The Secret of Christmas”, Frank Loesser ’s “What
Are You Doing New Year ’s Eve?”, Charles Brown’s“Let’s Make Every Day a Christmas Day”, Babs
Gonzalez-James Pierpont’s “Be-bop Santa Claus”);
along with originals that deftly mimic the Great
American Songbook (“Christmas Time in Barcelona”,“No More Lockdown”, “Waltzing Around theChristmas Tree”, “[Nat King] Cole for Christmas”);
or classic blues (“All the Blues You Brought Me”,
“Freshly Squeezed”). The album features second
vocalist Andrea Motis (often in tandem with Greer),
conguero/bongosero Yonder de Jesús and guitarist
Josep Traver, whose melodic solos jibe well with theleader ’s laidback swing feel.
Swedish trombonist/vocalist Nils Landgren’s
Christmas With My Friends VII, the latest installment
in a 14-year series, has become a tradition of its own,bringing the sound of sweet Swedish ‘soul jazz’ tochurches and concert halls. Landgren, better known
for his funk style, is also a sensitive crooner who
sounds like a cross between Mose Allison and Phil
Collins. Joined by four female vocalists, each witha distinctively expressive sound, the album boasts
a variety of solo and choral tracks. Jeanette Köhn’spristine soprano graces Schubert’s “Ave Maria”,
Britten’s “Hodie Christus” and “Sweet Was theSong”, a British folk tune. The other vocalists,
Sharon Dyall, Jessica Pilnäs and Ida Sandlund (whodoubles on piano), blend jazz, pop, country andgospel influences to give their songs (each from adifferent country) an au courant feel. Landgren andsaxophonist Jonas Knutsson add tactful solos.
For more information, visit
switrecords.com and actmusic.com

gabriellatchin.com,

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | DECEMBER 2020 17

Unfiltered.
Tyshawn Sorey (s/r)
by Phil Freeman

Drummer and composer Tyshawn Sorey has kept

busy during the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s composed
and premiered numerous pieces with a broad range of
ensembles, the performances streaming online andonly sometimes archived. This release would be a twoCD set if it existed in physical form, but it’s only
available as a Bandcamp download.
The ensemble has alto saxophonist Nathan
Reising, tenor saxophonist Morgan Guerin, pianist Lex
Korten, vibraphonist Sasha Berliner and bassist Nick
Dunston. Sorey composed all three of the tracks, whichrange in length from 30 to 55 minutes.
Surprisingly, despite the extraordinary durationof the pieces, this is some of Sorey’s most conventionally‘jazzy’ music in a while. The solos are often quite
unfettered, but there are also extended passages ofvery beautiful postbop ensemble writing. The talented
Guerin displays particular fluency in the David
Murray/David S. Ware language of the saxophone,traveling from meditative phrases to hoarse, fierce
cries and Korten is a lightning-fast, McCoy Tyneresque pianist. At the beginning of the second piece,
they perform a duet that’s simply lovely.
The music has a weight and density that marks it as
Sorey’s, but the amount of latitude he gives to the otherplayers makes it theirs, too. He’s very present behind
the kit, but mixed low enough never to be dominant.
He’s a teacher (the others are all much younger) andoccasionally needs to bring them into line with a cymbal
crash or a massive slam of the snare, but for the mostpart he’s swinging in the back, giving them parameters
within which they’re free to do whatever they feel like,even challenging his authority at times.
As with most Sorey music, the extended duration ismore than an indulgence. The point is to allow time todissolve and become meaningless. He wants people tocome into one of his performances without expectations
as to what they might hear and be open to whatever ispresented, riding with him and his collaborators for as
long as it takes to get where they’re going. Give
Unfiltered two hours of your life. You won’t be sorry.
For more information, visit tyshawn-sorey.bandcamp.com.
Sorey live-streams Dec. 11th at my.dacamera.com/3112.

Seven Storey Mountain VI
Nate Wooley (Pyroclastic)
by Franz Matzner

The sixth installment in Nate Wooley’s monumental

Seven Storey Mountain reflects its evolution while also
standing alone as a formidable musical and social
statement against domestic violence.
Originally begun as a trio, the Seven Storey
Mountain series has expanded toward larger ensembles
over time, with 14 musicians here. And while each

iteration is distinct, connective tissue does exist. Eachutilizes a combination of pre-recorded material, loops
and live performance. Further, as Wooley articulates in
his unusually extended and detailed notes, each SevenStorey Mountain begins by adapting the pre-recorded
elements of the previous release to the new project,thus establishing continuity. Next the blend of textures,
colors and performance are molded into the new album.
The first in the cycle to utilize live vocals (Yoon
Sun Choi, Melissa Hughes, Megan Schubert), SevenStorey Mountain VI revolves around lyrics by singer
Peggy Seeger, which pointedly confront rape, especiallywithin the context of marriage. Parabolic in structure,
the 45-minute composition opens somberly with awordless hum at a mournful pace. Slowly the vocals
fade to be replaced by austere instrumental lines,
which continue forward with minimalistic steps andquiet tone. However, beneath the surface a rumble of
suppressed tension begins to manifest. Additional
instruments enter and fall away. Sonic effects intersect
more frequently, dynamics shift and drum loops areadded and removed. The effect is a constantly spiraling
movement, the album’s overall arc traced by individual
vortices within the curve. As the composition peaks,
the amalgam of sound turns progressively dissonant
while the layers build into intense fury. The controlledchaos then subsides, journeying down the parabola toa bed of gentle ambience. Seeger ’s chilling lyrics
emerge last as a chorale, unadorned and striking to theheart. Finally, all sound other than vocals fade and thepiece concludes with a repeated refrain “You Can’t
Scare Me”.
For more information, visit pyroclasticrecords.com. Wooley
live-streams Dec. 11th at roulette.org.

The Intangible Between
Orrin Evans and The Captain Black Big Band
(Smoke Sessions)by Joel Roberts

There’s a spirited, celebratory feel to Orrin Evans’

Captain Black Big Band, reflecting the Philly-born
pianist’s devotion to the family-like collective ofmusicians he likes to call “the Village”. Together forover a decade, this rotating cast of older and younger
artists, fresh and familiar faces, has come to comprise
one of the most dynamic large ensembles around, aunit that resembles stellar groups like the Mingus Big
Band or Gil Evans Orchestra in its combination ofsoulfulness and sophistication. For the group’s fourth
recorded effort, Evans assembled about 20 members of
his cohort in a New York studio filled with food andfellowship to create a backyard barbecue vibe. Whilespontaneity was the goal, Evans brought along tightarrangements (his first for the group) and a welldefined plan for each individual musician, including
longtime associates like trumpeters Sean Jones andJosh Lawrence, saxophonists Todd Bashore and Troy
Roberts, trombonists Stafford Hunter and David
Gibson and bassist Eric Revis.
The set is an eclectic one, ranging from a rollicking,funky reading of gospel standard “This Little Light ofMine” to high-energy Evans originals like “That Too”.
The most ambitious tracks are compositions by a pairof legendary pianists: Thelonious Monk’s “Off Minor”
gets a rousing, frenetic treatment that somehow doesn’tsound overcrowded despite the presence of fourbassists and two drummers; “Tough Love”, meanwhile,

18 DECEMBER 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

seamlessly pairs an off-kilter Andrew Hill tune withpowerful spoken word by Evans and others based on
works by Philadelphia poet John “Doc” Holiday andEvans’ brother Todd, also known as Son of Black.
Two heartfelt tributes form the emotional backboneof the album. Trumpeter Roy Hargrove is rememberedwith a moving rendition of his “Into Dawn” while “I’m
So Glad I Got to Know You”, Evans’ poignant sendoff
to late drummer Lawrence Leathers, closes the session
with the entire ensemble chanting the title. A powerfulfinish to a deeply satisfying album.
For more information, visit smokesessionsrecords.com.
Evans live-streams Dec. 11th at smokejazz.com.

DROP THE NEEDLE

Farewell Tonic
Full Blast (Trost)by Phil Freeman

G erman saxophonist Peter Brötzmann can be aremarkably sensitive and thoughtful improviser,
listening closely to what a duo partner or a bandmate
is playing and responding in kind. Not so muchwith Full Blast, though. This long-running unit with
Swiss electric bassist Marino Pliakas and drummer
Michael Wertmüller, lives up to its name. Theirperformances take off like rockets and levelaudiences with overwhelming force and volume.
This LP documents the final concert at Tonic, thelegendary New York venue Brötzmann played many,
many times. They take the place out with a bang,delivering five untitled pieces in just under 40 minutes.
The first lasts nearly 17 minutes and runs throughseveral stages. It begins with an explosion; Brötzmann
is at full roar from the moment the horn’s mouthpiece
touches his lips and Wertmüller is playing literal death
metal blast beats. Pliakas is a distorted rumble in the
middle, filling the room with a soupy, mud-like sound.
Eventually the intensity becomes unsustainable
though and the “rhythm section” drops away, leaving
the saxophonist to take an extended and surprisingly
meditative solo. Then it’s Wertmüller’s turn, with
Pliakas creating metallic shimmers in the air behind
him as he batters his way across his kit and back likean unceasing wave of percussive thunder, as if Billy
Cobham had joined a Taiko troupe.
Three shorter pieces follow, running between
six and nine minutes and there are moments ofgentleness sprinkled here and there. Brötzmann
begins the third track with soft clarinet, as his band
rumbles suspensefully behind him, as thoughkeeping a balloon in the air with patient, well-timed
taps and gentle puffs of air. Eventually, though,Wertmüller begins to sound like an orchestral
tympani player gone berserk and Brötzmann isemitting high-pitched screeches and long squalling
tones like a baby dinosaur calling for its mother.
Brötzmann has performed and recorded in a
staggering range of contexts over his nearly 60-year
career, but his long-running bands allow him to
express himself most completely. Full Blast is one of
the best of these and this performance has much
more than historical value to recommend it.
For more information, visit trost.at

Dreamt Twice, Twice Dreamt(Music For Chamber Orchestra and Small Ensemble)
Ingrid Laubrock (Intakt)
by Jordannah Elizabeth

Saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock continues to compose

larger-scale pieces with this followup to her 2018
orchestral album Contemporary Chaos Practices. Anyone
who has followed Laubrock is familiar with the breadthof her experimental compositions, but it is still a bit
surprising that even with such a large ensemble,
Cologne’s EOS Chamber Orchestra plus guests, shechooses to open her new musical offering with veryminimal ornamentation.
This two-CD set is split into two uniqueinterpretations of the same five-piece suite: “Dreamt
Twice”, “Snorkel Cows”, “Drilling”, “I Never Liked
That Guy” and “Down the Mountain, Down the
Mountain”. This quintuplet is not only reimagined but
also reordered on the second disc with a New Yorkbased small group. This reorganization expands upon
the Shakespearean verbiage of the album’s song titles
by creating a subtle puzzle one would have to lookclosely to notice.
The first CD opens quietly and spaciously with
“Dreamt Twice”: haunting, whispering electronic
soundscapes; careful taps from Tom Rainey’s drumset;
fragmented piano from Cory Smythe; and the eerie
presence of horns. The nearly 10-minute piece begins
to swell as Laubrock enters with fluidity and allows
herself space to improvise and roam. Even though hercompositions are carefully plotted, the music exudes
a measure of freedom for her saxophone statements;
just because a composer has access to many musicians,
it doesn’t mean the music needs to be heavily dousedwith every instrument every moment.
As she writes, “While the small-group versions
were composed first, I did not just re-arrange thosecompositions for the orchestra but rather re-imagined
them. As I wrote the large-scale pieces, I often zoomed
in on a detail in a small-group version to generatea materially different large-group piece.” The first discis quiet and sensual more than cerebral, illustrating the
dream state that is subtle yet intensely enticing.
The second disc is fuller and opens with “Snorkel
Cows”, which features a romantic Smythe solo
reminiscent of a more involved dream state, as if theMusic
Masqueradesas Honeyin My Hands
by Freida Jones

Poems and
Theater
Monologuesof our Jazz
Legacyavailable at online bookstores

dreamer is willing the dream to happen instead of
passively allowing an unconscious fantasy to permeate
the mind. Even though the ensemble is much smaller—
Smythe on both piano and quarter-tone keyboard, Sam
Pluta on electronics and guests Adam Matlock(accordion), Josh Modney (violin), and Zeena Parkins(electric harp)—it sounds larger than the entire EOS
Chamber Orchestra. Piano flaunts accentuated trills
giving the music charisma and Laubrock theopportunity to play longer, sprawling lines.
This album is all about Laubrock’s compositional
style, not so much particularly about songs but aboutmusical decisions key to unlocking her imagination
and understanding what the dream world truly is toher. The album is dualistic, of two visions, and createsa vibrant landscape.

CHARLES MINGUS
AT BREMEN 1964 & 1975

SSC 1570 - 4 DISCS DIGIPAK & BOOKLET

For more information, visit intaktrec.ch. Laubrock livestreams Dec. 11th with Nate Wooley at roulette.org.

STREET DATE 11/13/20

T

he great bassist and composer Charles Mingus had his
diehard supporters and detractors. His explosive intermingling of devil may care attitude, imposing character
and aggressive music was sure to rub some listeners thewrong way and was just as likely to attract adventurous
fans. But his genius could not be denied; it just may havetaken some time to break down barriers.

A

Free Hoops
Sylvie Courvoisier Trio (Intakt)
by John Sharpe

Sylvie Courvoisier ’s name on the sleeve can signal

contemporary classical rigor, improv unpredictability
or free jazz verve. But with bassist Drew Gress anddrummer Kenny Wollesen on board, the Brooklynbased Swiss pianist drops anchor deep in the tradition
and, while ever ready to leap into the abyss, even that’s
imbued with a sense of time. Free Hoops constitutes thethird winning entry in the threesome’s tally after the
excellent Double Windsor (Tzadik, 2014) and D’Agala(Intakt, 2018).
One of her most potent settings, the trio allows
full rein to Courvoisier ’s rhythmic drive without
sacrificing the complexity and risk-taking that makes
her work so enthralling. Wollesen brings an insouciant
swing in which he always finds sufficient leeway tointerject off-kilter accents and unexpected sonorities
while Gress’ ability to be simultaneously melodic,
articulate and inventive shows why his diary space isin such demand. It’s actually quite difficult to say
when someone is soloing as the focus shifts
continuously around the group and fleeting features,
like Wollesen’s tumbling rhythms on “As We Are”, also
serve as integral threads in a larger fabric.
In common with many of the pieces, the title cut
comprises a series of contrasting sections, in this casea stealthily scuttling line alternated with a sunnylilt,
settingupopportunities
fordazzling
improvisation built off the component elements. On“Lulu Dance” those ingredients include a rolling vamp,suspenseful pauses, intricate interlocking parts andabrupt hairpins.
On “Requiem D’Un Songe”, a bass register motif
lifted from “Early Autumn” by dedicatee Claude
Thornhill (a stalwart of her father ’s record collection)
emerges from delicate pointillism, before being
subverted as sprinkles of notes become a blizzard.
Whether on the spiky textural exchanges of“Birdies of Paradise”, darkly brooding drama of“Highway 1”, explosive chase of “Just Twisted” ormartial cadences of “Galore”, what the trio achieves
within the contours of Courvoisier ’s slyly crafted
charts remains nothing short of alchemy.
For more information, visit intaktrec.ch. Courvoisier livestreams Dec. 11th with Nate Wooley at roulette.org.

good way to examine this change in listener attitudes
is to investigate the differences in critical appraisals
from two performances in the port city of Bremen,
Germany, a decade apart. The initial performance in 1964
introduced Mingus’s firebrand ways to an unsuspecting
audience while his 1975 appearance was met with the
expectancy of jazz royalty. The performances appear in
their first official release remastered from the original
source tapes on Charles Mingus @ Bremen 1964 &1975.

JOE CASTROPASSION FLOWER -FOR DORIS DUKE
SSC 1393 - 6 ALBUMS & BOOKLET BOXED SET
STREET DATE 11/20/20

T

he initial Joe Castro boxed set, Lush Life – A MusicalJourney (Sunnyside, 2015), provided an insight into theworld of the pianist’s early meetings with the greats of jazzat home recorded sessions. These recordings included
Buddy Collette, Chico Hamilton, Teddy Wilson, Stan Getz,
Zoot Sims and Lucky Thompson, a Castro Big Band and the
Teddy Edwards Tentet.

T

he second boxed set of recordings from Joe Castro’s collection, Passion Flower – For Doris Duke, highlights his
collaborations with a vast array of great musicians (PaulBley, Paul Motian, Leroy Vinnegar, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe
Jones, Cannonball Adderley). There are fine home recordingsof jam sessions, studio recordings of Castro’s Atlantic
Records releases, recordings of projects of friends and productions that were done under the aegis of Clover Records,
the label that Duke and Castro founded and briefly ran.

www.sunnysiderecords.com

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | DECEMBER 2020 19

in the closing track. In that case, one might not be entirely
far off the mark. Nothing about Circulate Susanna and,now, Accelerate Every Voice, is ever clear, however. The
starting point is stated but soon becomes all ribbons andtentacles. Smythe’s national portraits don’t come off as
indictment or celebration but as a sort of abstractobservation, almost academic, but with heart.

Accelerate Every Voice
Cory Smythe (Pyroclastic)by Kurt Gottschalk

For more information, visit pyroclasticrecords.com. Smythe
live-streams Dec. 11th with Nate Wooley at roulette.org.

Cory Smythe’s 2018 Pyroclastic CD Circulate Susanna

was as satisfying a record as it was mystifying. With afantastically flexible trio of Swedish singer Sofia
Jernberg, guitarist Dan Lippel and himself on piano
and autoharp (with electronic augmentations to the
instruments), Smythe executed an obscure examination
and reconstruction of “Oh Susanna”, of the antebellum
South and of the moods the music and the history
conjure, all as hazily as the divisions between
improvisation and composition (which were also inplay and under scrutiny on that remarkable record).
Smythe has followed that up with another esoterictake on Americana as enjoyable and inscrutable. The
instrumentation is reduced to piano and percussion(plus electronics) but there are five voices this time out(Kari Francis, Steven Hrycelak, Kyoko Kitamura,
Raquel Acevedo Klein and Michael Mayo) working invarious arrangements of cyclic psychedelics.
As with the previous album, there’s a lot at playhere. There’s the history of the song at the root of the
project, a 1905 setting by J. Rosamond Johnson of a text
by his brother, noted writer/activist James Weldon
Johnson. The spiritual “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is ofno small import: it has come to be referred to as “theBlack National Anthem”. But Smythe folds
a lot of variables into that history. The many musicalreference points include Luciano Berio, Bobby
McFerrin, scat and vocalese and the a cappella revivalof the last decade. Smythe doesn’t shy away from theschmaltz and the sing-song, he just uses it, framing
what’s come to be seen as corny within a new setting.
That’s, briefly, about half the story. After eightquick (two to five minute) tracks, the album concludes
with the 19-minute “Piano and Ocean Waves for Deep
Relaxation”. The New Age trapping of the title may be
a bit facetious but not entirely off the mark, the track ismore or less what it suggests, but darker and noisierthan many can find relaxing. It’s not clear fromlistening, in fact, if there was a player involved or if the
instrument was set in the tide and allowed to resonate.
Either way, it’s a strangely anxious sound piece.
If forced, one could suppose something about thesuggestion of a dark undercurrent in American history

COLIN HINTON: SIMULACRAANNA WEBBER: TENOR SAXOPHONE, FLUTE, BASS FLUTE
YUMA UESAKA: TENOR SAXOPHONE, CLARINET,BASS CLARINET, CONTRALTO CLARINETEDWARD GAVITT: ELECTRIC AND ACOUSTIC GUITARSSHAWN LOVATO: BASSCOLIN HINTON: DRUMS, PERCUSSION, GLOCKENSPIELCOLINHINTON.BANDCAMP.COM

Out Of The Hole
Noah Kaplan Quartet (Ezz-thetics)
by Jim Motavalli

Noah Kaplan Quartet’s third album, recorded at New

Time OutTakes
Dave Brubeck Quartet (Brubeck Editions)
Lullabies
Dave Brubeck (Verve)by George Kanzler

There were two momentously important quartets led

by jazz pianists in the late ‘50s-60s, Thelonious Monk
and Dave Brubeck’s. Both—like such contemporaries
as Erroll Garner, Herbie Nichols and Randy Weston—
did not fall into the jazz mainstream piano tradition,
having their own highly idiosyncratic styles. The
height of Brubeck’s famous Quartet with Paul Desmond(alto saxophone), Eugene Wright (bass) and Joe Morello(drums) was the immensely popular album Time Out(Columbia, 1959). Time OutTakes consists of unreleased
outtakes: five alternate takes and two stand-alone
tracks from the original recording sessions, plus a trackof some “Band Banter” lacking much context.
Brubeck’s “Blue Rondo à la Turk” and Desmond’s“Take Five”, the two tracks on Time Out that becamea jukebox 45, are both heard in alternates. The former
has the 9/8 theme sliding into 4/4 blues, with Brubeck
stretching out his solo to over ten choruses. Morello’s
5/4 pattern is slightly different on this alternate “TakeFive”, his solo more AfroLatin than on the released track.
Of the other alternates, “Strange Meadowlark” is evenmore lyrical than the original; “Three to Get Ready (Fourto Go)” swings the alternating 3/4 to 4/4 frame moreand “Cathy’s Waltz” offers little new. The new highlightis “I’m In A Dancing Mood”, a 1936 British pop song by
Al Hoffman, Al Goodhart and Maurice Sigler. In a little
over three minutes, it moves through a variety of tempos,
rhythms, time signatures and moods. Brubeck explainedthat it was designed for TV appearances where the band
was expected to display its versatility. There’s also
“Watusi Jam”, a number minus Desmond that may havebeen, but for “Take Five”, developed into Morello’s
feature on the original LP. It all makes for an album
much more original and interesting than most outtake
sessions of historical recordings.
Lullabies is a solo piano recording Brubeck made in2010, when he was 90. His playing is lyrical, romantic
yet emotionally understated, never falling into pathos
or grandeur. Half of the material is familiar tunes,
fondly recalled, from classical and traditional pieces
like “Brahms Lullaby” to “Danny Boy” to Great
American Songbook standards such as “Over the
Rainbow” to “Summertime” and, if you needsomething for the holiday season, “There’s No Place
Like Home” and “All Through the Night”. There arealso lovely, resonant originals like “Going to Sleep”
and “Lullaby for Iola” (his late wife). There’s even
“Koto Song”, a marvelous pianistic evocation of theJapanese stringed instrument’s sound.
For more information, visit davebrubeck.com/news/brubeckeditions-time-outtakes and vervelabelgroup.com. A Brubeck
centennial celebration live-streams Dec. 15th at
facebook.com/NJPAC.

20 DECEMBER 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

Haven, CT’s Firehouse 12 in 2012, is not an easy listen,
but was never meant to be. Kaplan, on tenor and sopranosaxophone, is joined in the frontline by guitarist Joe
Morris, with whom he has considerable affinity. Kaplan,
reminiscent of Albert Ayler but without his huge tone,
dominates the proceedings. There do not appear to betunes as such, though the liner notes deny that “for all
its edgy fluency” this music is actually free.
“Ed Sullivan” is essentially the saxophonist
exploring his instrument for half its length, at which
point some electronics intrude. That’s followed by alengthy solo by drummer Jason Nazary, who doubles
on the aforementioned electronics. It’s as uninhibited
as recess at a Montessori school. “Tunnel Mouth”,
Kaplan on tenor, puts a deep dive into microtonality on
display. Morris is a full partner here, undergirding withspiky lines. Kaplan returns, volcanically, with angrycries and shrieks. Electric bassist Giacomo Merega is
upfront for “Unwelt” until Kaplan enters surreptitiously
and builds into a frenzy on tenor with, again, very
sympathetic support from Morris, who unleashes his
own epic solo. Kaplan calls his approach “spidering”
and he definitely wants to take his instruments places
they haven’t been before. Soprano comes out for“Aprosexia”, which skitters around, chased by Morris,
before heading fully out. Morris takes the idiosyncratic
helm, with ghostlike whispers from Kaplan. Soon, it’s afree-for-all—or just sounds like one. The title piecestarts out with Kaplan slightly subdued, but as the
track wears on it’s like they’re being forced back into
the hole, rather than climbing out of it. Halfway
through it slows to a crawl, with the saxophonist’s
found sounds becoming a coloring agent to the close.
Victor Young’s “Stella by Starlight” is the odd man
out here, with Kaplan on tenor to explore the wellknown lines. There are faint echoes of the romanticism
contained therein and the desired atmosphere isachieved. Morris plays it—almost—straight. The
D.A.R. dance probably wouldn’t invite him back.
For more information, visit hathut.com. This project livestreams Dec. 12th at facebook.com/UnderwolfRecords.

Trickster’s Dream
Miles Okazaki (Pi)by Kyle Oleksiuk

W ith Trickster ’s Dream, available only digitally,

guitarist Miles Okazaki joins the ranks of hundreds ofmusicians releasing non-traditional material in order
to compensate for the complete annihilation of live
performances by COVID-19. But Okazaki has found anew, better way to compensate. Where other artists
have been broadcasting live performances—anunderstandable but unsatisfying way of adapting toour new, degrading paradigm—Okazaki has released
an “imaginary live concert”.
In the liner notes, Okazaki explains the “imaginary
live album” concept thusly: “[my] band Trickster was
supposed to tour the United States and Europe for six
weeks in May-June of 2020 and after the pandemic
shutdown I was looking for some ways to keep the band
‘working’... I decided to make an album of what thegroup might sound like after a couple of weeks on theroad playing material from our last album, tempos
pushed, forms stretched, risks taken.” To do so, Okazaki,
pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist Anthony Tidd anddrummer Sean Rickman individually recorded anumber of songs from their previous albums The Sky
Below and Trickster, incorporated “improvisedinterludes” to simulate a gig and had Tidd piece together
the result. (There’s also a few video recordings available
to simulate the visual aspect of a live performance.)
The tracks themselves sound like looser, more
rambling adaptations of the tracks on Trickster ’s
previous two albums; where their ‘official’ studioalbums sound crisp, straightforward and orchestrated,
Trickster’s Dream is hazy, flighty and improvisational.
Electronic effects (particularly on guitar) stand in forthe overtones and blurrier sound of live music, while
the musicians—not attempting to present a definitive
version of these compositions, which they’ve alreadyrecorded—freely add moments of hesitation andwaterfall-like runs up and down the scales.
Trickster’s Dream is essentially a studio album
with live characteristics and, as a format, is extremely
successful, because you don’t need to know that you’relistening to an “imaginary live album” to enjoy it. It’s
just a few of the aspects of live music grafted onto
a studio album. Unlike live performance broadcasts,

you’re not reminded of what you’re missing. It’s nota watered-down version of anything.
The album sounds, alternately, sped up andslowed down, and in this sense, the title is fully
justified, because it has the time-distorting quality ofdreams in which moments can stretch into hours andvice versa. While Okazaki may not have fully succeededin his stated goal of emulating a live performance, thechanges he made to the usual studio formula haveunintentionally resulted in the band’s best album yet.
It’s just a plain old enjoyable recording, designed totingle your brain’s live music lobe. And tingle it does!
For more information, visit milesokazaki.bandcamp.com.
Okazaki live-streams Dec. 13th with Ohad Talmor at
viewcy.com/promote/seedsbrooklyn/ohad_talmor_trio_invi.

Songs From Isolation
Mark Wade (AMP Music)
by Scott Yanow

Mark Wade was self-taught on the electric bass,

studied the acoustic bass at New York University with
Mike Richmond and has been part of the New York
jazz scene for the past 25 years. Along the way he has
worked with Jimmy Heath, James Spaulding, Eddie
Palmieri, Conrad Herwig, Don Byron and Stacey Kent
among others and had previously led two albums of
his own: Event Horizon and Moving Day.
During the pandemic, Wade spent his time wisely,
coming up with the Songs From Isolation project, whichfeatures him via overdubbing on two or three acoustic
basses and an electric bass. An EP with five selections(four originals plus Bob Dorough’s “Nothing LikeYou”), Songs From Isolation also includes a music video
for each of the songs.
The opening “Hours Till Dawn” has Wade playing
the medium-tempo jazz waltz on a soloing acoustic
bass, a rhythmic electric bass and also a second acoustic
bass played arco. The video alternates between
showing him on each of the basses.
“Intents And Purposes” starts with electric bass
ringing out harmonics and, in an atmospheric section,interacting with bowed bass. The piece becomes aswinging strut that gets cooking with Wade trading off
between his basses. The film was made in purposely
dark rooms and puts the focus on his various basses.
“A Conspiracy Of Lemurs” is catchy and witty.
This has the most adventurous video with Wade at firstlooking at his phone and seeing himself playing bass.
Using trick photography, one sees him walking aroundhis neighborhood while watching the performance andoften there are two or three of him, both as a spectatorand as a player. “Blues In Isolation” has more basic
video and is a groove with three acoustic basses (onebowed) jamming over a pattern.
The final piece, “Nothing Like You”, finds Wadejoined by his wife Teri Leggio Wade, who does a finejob of singing the dissonant melody and Dorough’s
lyrics. In the film, there are an impressive number ofcostume changes (at least six) that take place quickly;
the editing is excellent while the music is continuous.
Wade’s three basses include one hit percussively.
This is a fun project with Wade’s versatile bass
playing always holding one’s interest.
For more information, visit markwademusicny.com.
Wade live-streams Dec. 20th at youtube.com/user/
FlushingTownHall/live.

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | DECEMBER 2020 21

Remembering Jaco
Multiquarium Big Band (feat. Biréli Lagrene)(Naïve/Believe)
by Elliott Simon

W hen Jaco Pastorius, who would have been 69 thismonth, removed the frets from his electric bass andexpanded a player ’s left-hand options he gave theinstrument its sensuous melodic voice. However, his
first love was big band music and Remembering Jaco,from drummer André Charlier and pianist Benoît
Sourisse’s Multiquarium Big Band featuring Biréli
Lagrène on fretless bass, pays tribute to that aspect ofhis persona. Lagrène, who played with Pastorius andis a world class guitarist in the Romani tradition, is astrong elegant presence on these cuts drawn from
Pastorius’ body of work.
The Multiquarium Big Band is exceptionally
together and pumping opener “Used to be a Cha-Cha”
is laser-focused fretless funk while “Barbary Coast”
has never sounded better with Charlier ’s seamless
fills, Sourisse’s light touch and a clear and confident
alto saxophone solo from Lucas St-Cricq. “Liberty City
(Intro)/Invitation” conjures up James Bond excitement
using textural bass and drum solos and Denis Leloup’s
superbly articulated trombone.
“Continuum” is a breath of fresh air with its quiet
cool and interplay between bass and horns whereas“Kuru/Speak Like A Child” and “Teen Town” benefit
from relentless drumming, tight licks and smoothtransitions with the latter showcasing Stéphane
Chausse’s bass clarinet in perfect sync with Lagrène’s
bass. “Three Views of a Secret” is more loosely
arranged, adding to its mystery, before the band dancesat the “Palladium” and vocalist Yannick Boudruche
sings a jazzed-up version of “Fannie Mae”.
A delightfully soulful funky “The Chicken” isavailable to vinyl purchasers on a second LP as are three
improvisations with a decidedly freer feel. Drummer
and Pastorius rhythm partner Peter Erskine presents
four spoken word segments and his reminiscences flesh
out both the musician and person on this extraordinary
updating of Pastorius’ big band vision.
For more information, visit naiverecords.com

his classical schooling to interest in Eastern rhythms.
This latter is stunningly rendered in “I Loves You
Porgy” with prayer-chant interwoven with a fairly
straightahead piano approach.
A partial litany of the takes on the Gershwins goes
like this: a fusion of blues, jazz, Latin and rock into
“Summertime”; key changes and tempo shifts galore in“Someone to Watch Over Me”; bebop applied to an
innovative medley of “I Got Rhythm/Fascinating
Rhythm”; and a bluesy, slow narrative style for“It Ain’t Necessarily So”. On vocals, Mintus has apleasant, if unassured, tenor but knows how to use his
instrument well enough technically and his scat is
impeccable. On an instrumental version of “They Can’t
Take That Away from Me”, Hadani gets to do the
melodic heavy lifting.
Of course, the test of a pianist is “Rhapsody inBlue” and Mintus passes with flying colors. His
15-minute rendition is both straightahead, showcasing
his considerable skills, as well as dotted, mostly near
the end, with creative improvisational ideas, including
a riff on Russian folk/dance music. Team Mintus hascreated a heck of a playground.
The newly remastered Erroll Garner Plays Gershwin& Kern (originally released in 1976 from recordings
made between 1964-67) offers four tracks not included
on the original: Garner’s own, pleasant “Maybe You’re
The Only One”; Kern’s “Why Do I Love You”; and theGershwins’ “Nice Work If You Can Get It”, including
a few bars of an alternate take. The CD is prime Garner,
a master taking ownership of the Great American
Songbook, characteristically infused with the happinessquotient for which Garner was known. Even his “Old
Man River” (Kern), one of the most improvisational
pieces of the 15 tracks, has uplift to its gravitas.
Garner amounts to an orchestra of one, with hisright hand playing behind the beat and the left
supplying rhythm and musical punctuation. He plays
fairly close to the melody, using cross rhythm and chord
changes for variation and musical embroidery,especially on “I Got Rhythm” (Gershwins). The opener,
the Gershwins’ “Strike Up the Band”, is not only
tremendous energetic fun but also illustrates Garner’s
talent for telling a story, using dynamics to build anumber to its conclusion.
The Kern material shows off Garner’s abilities
with a ballad. Kern, born in pre-jazz age 1885, wrote ina European-influenced style yet Garner handles Kern’s
niceties well, giving the tunes an injection of jazz that isrenewing and invigorating. His swingy “A Fine
Romance”, a number written for Fred Astaire, conjures
images of superlative dancing. In the background,subtly supporting the main attraction, are bassists
Eddie Calhoun or Ike Isaacs, drummers Kelly Martin or
Jimmie Smith and Jose Mangual on bongos.

Gil Evans than anything recorded by the Mills Brothers
or Frank Sinatra. Though Wilder is recalled as acomposer of standards like “I’ll Be Around”, he alsoscored films and musicals, wrote both traditional andmodern classical music, lieder, chamber pieces, opera
and songs made notable by Stan Getz, Bob Brookmeyer,
Sir Roland Hanna, Chet Baker, Zoot Sims, Dave
Liebman, Mundell Lowe, Marian McPartland, Keith
Jarrett, Ben Sidran, Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett and more
over a long career. Still, Wilder has been something ofan anomaly by virtue of this expansive palette: hisclassical works were influenced by jazz while his jazzcompositions carried a certain proto-Third Stream
fascination. It seems about right that cabaret singers
were most fond of his moving, complex and sometimes
acerbic songbook.
The largely informally taught composer was
immediately attracted to the improvisational core ofjazz, causing him to begin work in 1938 on a lengthy
series of octet pieces. So prescient were these that 10 to
20 years hence, such a fusing of jazz and classical forms
became commonplace and nothing short of hip. That’s
where the Mark Masters Ensemble and baritone
saxophone soloist Gary Smulyan come in. Masters
arranged the selections, clearly with an ear pointed in
Wilder ’s direction, and this collection swings and bopsin the best Birth of the Cool tradition. Right from the top
with “You’re Free”, the rich, ringing ensemble
harmonies and baritone saxophone conjure imagery ofDavis, Evans and Gerry Mulligan in that iconic
Manhattan basement beneath a Chinese laundry,plotting a whole other view of modern jazz. Smokysounds and the crisp, snappy breaks of drummer
Kendall Kay only solidify the black-and-white visions.
Alto saxophonist Don Shelton shines on “Don’t
Deny” and while his tone is thicker than the West Coast
standard, the interplay with tenor saxophonist Jerry
Pinter can’t help but make one knowingly smile at thatlater Konitz-Marsh pairing. But Night Talk is far from aseries of covers; this music is as listenable as it isimmediate and urgent. The titular piece, darkly carriedthrough baritone, alluring alto flute (Shelton) and thebrass thicket of trombone (Dave Woodley), paints abackdrop of grays and blacks lit by a distant moon.
The darkness is maintained with the bopping “Lovers
and Losers”, which includes solos by each horn(including the Woody Shaw-like trumpet of Bob
Summers, heard strongly throughout) before settling
into a unique, gripping baritone/drums duo as freshas tomorrow while reminiscent of times far gone.
Wilder ’s modernisms, both apparent and obscuredby shadow, are essential to the moment, even if of an
entirely different breed than that to which we’ve
become accustomed.
For more information, visit caprirecords.com

For more information, visit jazzrecords.com/enja andmackavenue.com

A Gershwin Playground
Guy Mintus (Enja)
Plays Gershwin & Kern
Erroll Garner (Mack Avenue-Octave Music)
by Marilyn Lester

W hen Israeli singer-pianist Guy Mintus named his

new CD A Gershwin Playground he wasn’t kidding. He,
bassist Omri Hadani and drummer Yonatan Rosen arelike the proverbial kids in a musical candy store,
constructing, deconstructing, pulling apart andexploring nine tracks of timeless Ira (who was born 124
years ago this month) and George Gershwin. The result
is a superbly creative and thrilling ride through thepair ’s canon. The sophisticated work of the Gershwins
pairs well with Mintus’ background and training, fromNight Talk: The Alec Wilder Songbook
featuring Gary Smulyan
Mark Masters Ensemble (Capri)
by John Pietaro

With Night Talk, the storied music of Alec Wilder,
who died 40 years ago this month, graduates from therealm of standards to a particularly modern strain of
the cool. In fact, these arrangements have far more incommon with the early conceptions of Miles Davis and

22 DECEMBER 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD“. . .Easygoing but
stunning, this is adelightful take on
Christmases that haveeverything but snow.
Who needs snow? A
most welcome newaddition to the holiday
music shelf. “-Chris Spector,
The Midwest Record“The appealing voice ofAmber Weekes
is perfectly suited
to The Gathering. . .
This album iswonderfully suited tojoin your Christmas
music library.”-Joe Lang,
Jersey Jazz

Let Amber Weekes be “The Gathering”
for your holidays this year!
Available through AppleMusic, Amazon, Spotify,
CDBaby, or your favorite platform

Woodland
Carmen Staaf (Newvelle)by Dan Bilawsky

N ow here’s a beautifully forested set. Pianist Carmen

Staaf’s first outing for the Newvelle imprint—one of
the six records comprising the vinyl-only, subscriptionbased label’s fifth season—leans on the notion ofstrengththroughdirectness
andopen-eared
engagement. Working with two veteran pillars ofartistic permanence and flexibility in bassist Michael
Formanek and drummer Jeff Williams, Staaf explores
the art of the trio with tremendous heart and focus.
Pruning as they go, these three never waste
a moment or a gesture. And it’s that attention toconcision and good taste, coupled with mirth, which
carries the day. The freely-improvised “Caterpillars”—
a 66-second vignette reflecting the flowing movementof prolegs—is the first example of how these three tie
things together without waste. Then, in working
through the rest of Side A, the trio fans out while still
holding the line on brevity. “Strindberg”, possibly
pointing to the noted Swedish author, offers motivic
draws and a notable stand from Formanek. “The Hunt”
swings with style and delivers the obligatory tradingof solos without the wonted language so often
weighing it down. “Waltz for Julian” proves to beelegant and intriguing in its gliding form. And a solo
piano performance of Thelonious Monk’s “Pannonica”
does the composer (and the composition’s “JazzBaroness” inspiration) proud.
Following suit, the flipside only possesses one
track that sneaks past the five-minute mark. But
nothing is lacking in shape or dimension(s). Staaf’s
haunting “Canons”, foreboding and disorienting“Multiple Ultimate”, morphing “Snap Out of It” andBrazilian-inflected “Evergreen” are all fully formed
statements, as is Williams’ chipper “Borderline” closer.
Newvelle prizes quality in every aspect of theirrecords—from the packaging, which, in this case,showcases the photographs of Tim Barber and thewords of poet Lee Upton, to the recording, mixing andmastering of the music—and an important part of thatcommitment surrounds the selection of artists for theroster. Staaf, showing serious smarts in channeling herenergy into compact spaces ripe for expansive interior
designs, is, quite simply, a perfect fit.
For more information, visit newvelle-records.com. Staaflive-streams Dec. 16th at barbayeux.com.

Eponymous
85bears (ears&eyes)
Silver Dollar
Threadbare (NoBusiness)
Synaptic Atlas
Jason Stein/Adam Shead (ears&eyes)by George Grella

Jason Stein, who turns 44 this month, has become aprominent bass clarinetist in jazz, which, in one way canbe seen as a niche via an auxiliary instrument, even in
the hands of Eric Dolphy and David Murray. But Stein’splace in the music is defined by his musicianship, whichis damn good. He has fleet fingers, agile articulation,a Bassett-hound like tone and, most of all, his playing
expresses intelligence and down-to-earth emotion.
In jazz, the color of the bass clarinet hits the ears
first, but Stein is a tremendously strong rhythmic
player. Working on the free side of the music, he’s
usually anchored by a gritty, satisfying way of biting
into the beat. That’s what’s missing on the eponymous
debut from 85bears. This is an oddball record and hard
to know whether to take seriously or not. The talent on
it, including alto saxophonist Greg Ward and Chad
Taylor, who added drums to a couple of tracks in postproduction, is indeed serious. But a free jazz tribute to
the 1985 Super Bowl-winning Chicago Bears...? Jokey
titles and serious music can work together but what’son the record seems haphazard. There’s plenty of freeplaying, but most of it presents a kind of homogenous
mélange of runs standing in for saying something,mundane, at best, and things like “Lament for
Sweetness”, with Ward flying around a digital drum
pattern, just don’t make any sense. The band does get
into a few pockets and that little bit of foundation goesa long way, but as a whole this band doesn’t appear toknow what it wants to be or do.
The bass clarinet-guitar-drums trio Threadbare ismuch more in Stein’s wheelhouse. There are grooves
on Silver Dollar, edged with plenty of metal and evenpunk rock ideas and a heavy feel that’s a nice change ofpace to the majority of modern jazz. Having the groove
there, even the sludge of the title track, makes anenormous difference, bringing out the best in Stein;
he may be one of many quality musical thinkers who
excel when responding to the stimulus of the world
around them. This band is bedrock for Stein’s
musicality. The strong beats and pulses bring out asubtle change in his articulation that makes fora dramatic separation between this album and theother two—stand-alone notes, or ones that initiate
phrases, have a clear, measured attack, not emphasis
but the energy of a band playing within structure.
“Threadbare” is a critical microcosm of his qualities,
with a long, free opening that moves toward and away
the attention, then a crushing, complex groove thatlaunches Stein, guitarist Ben Cruz and drummer
Emerson Hunton onto a higher level. There’s a sense ofvariety among the tracks, which make this a substantial
statement from what sounds like a working band.
Synaptic Atlas is a duo album with drummer Adam
Shead somewhere between the hot of Threadbare andthe cold of 85bears. The three-quarters of an hour waxes
and wanes between a lithe communication and flow
between the two and periods where they play past eachother. Threadbare has a lot of low-register, gutbucket
playing while Synaptic Atlas often finds Stein playing in
the upper register, spinning out light-toned, fleet runs.
This is a relatively quiet album, interior music (meant for
inside the skull?). There’s refreshingly few gestures
toward signifiers of free improvisation, but that means
depending on invention, and from moment to moment
there’s plenty to hear, especially on tracks like “Intuition”
and “Humility.” But there’s a lot of falling back on
patterns and the album is almost entirely fast 16th-notesfrom Stein and skittering sticks on the edge of the snare
and the cymbals from Shead; “Economy” is the only
track with any meaningful exploration of timbre, or evena slower pulse, and it’s one of the shortest on the album.
Stein and Shead are skillful and there’s interest in thetechnique of improvisation, but the two don’t connect
at any consistent depth. Listening to this, one recalleda frustrating duo album with Steve Lacy and Steve
Argüelles, Image, in which the saxophonist tossed out
idea after idea, only to get subdued responses from thedrummer. Perhaps the concept of exploring the mind’s
workings pushed the two into their own personalterritory, mutually disconnected. Not a failure, by anymeans, but not a success either.
For more information, visit earsandeyesrecords.com andnobusinessrecords.com

IN PRINT

Heart Full of Rhythm: The Big Band Years of Louis Armstrong
Ricky Riccardi (Oxford University Press)
by Scott Yanow

Louis Armstrong had three main periods in his

career: innovative work in the ‘20s; big band years(1929-47); and decades he spent touring the world
with his All-Stars. His biographer Ricky Riccardi
did a superb job of covering and defending theoften-maligned latter period in his book What A
Wonderful World. Now, in Heart Full Of Rhythm, hebrings back to life and fully covers Armstrong’s
generally neglected middle period.
From the opening pages in which he describes
Armstrong’s triumphant return to New York in 1929
for a two-night stint with the Luis Russell Orchestra,
Riccardi reveals himself to be a masterful storyteller.
Working at the Louis Armstrong House Museum, heis privy to a great deal of fresh information. Riccardi
knows what to include and what to skip over, avaluable skill that makes this work quite memorable.
Along the way one learns about the differences
between the various bands that Armstrong led during
1929-33; relationships with his managers Tommy
Rockwell, Johnny Collins (who blew his chance after
revealing himself to be a racist) and Joe Glaser; Satch’s
period in Europe; problems with his trumpet chops;
and many projects during the Swing Era. Quite
fascinating is reading about the constant tug of war
and diverse opinions expressed by the mainstream
press
(who
most
appreciatedArmstrong’s
showmanship), African-American press (considering
him to be a credit to the race despite some misgivings)
and jazz press. Many in the latter wrote surprisingly
bitter and dismissive reviews of Armstrong’s crowdpleasing performances and recordings, some of which
are now considered classics. Leonard Feather isportrayed as a bit of a villain, one who seeks
Armstrong’s friendship while at the same time writingsome very negative reviews, sometimes under apseudonym. He wanted Satch to play as he had on his
1928 recordings with Earl Hines while at the sametime criticizing him for not being modern enough.
This reviewer only came across one minor
inaccuracy in this well-researched book: Teddy Hill
played tenor not alto with Luis Russell. Some of
Riccardi’s opinions are questionable (Lu Watters’
influential revival band of the early ‘40s was not a“novelty”), he misses discussing a handful of gemsof the ‘30s (most notably “Hustlin’ and Bustlin’ forBaby” and “I Double Dare You”) and does not write
about the connection between the 1944 Esquire AllAmerican Jazz Concert (Armstrong playing next tofuture bandmembers Jack Teagarden, Barney Bigard
and Sid Catlett) and the formation three years laterof the Louis Armstrong All-Stars. One also wishes
he gave more details on why Armstrong broke up
with his second wife Lil and that he spent much
more space on his third wife Alpha Smith Armstrong.
But that is just nit-picking. Heart Full of Rhythm
does full justice to Armstrong (personally andmusically) and makes the case that Satch’s big band
years were significant. It is a consistent delight.
For more information, visit oup.com

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | DECEMBER 2020 23

ON SCREEN

The Copenhagen Concert
Enrico Pieranunzi (Storyville)by Marco Cangiano
Through His Own Eyes
Count Basie (Eagle Eye Media)
by Alex Henderson

Bandleader/pianist Count Basie, who was 79 when

he died of pancreatic cancer in 1984, has been gonefor 36 years but continues to have a major impact,
greatly influencing the more bluesy and R&B-ish
styles of jazz. Basie’s life is the focus of Through His
Own Eyes, so named because it often quotes memoirsthat he wrote in 1975. The film, however, goes way
beyond Basie’s musical contributions and examines
everything from politics to his family life.
Through His Own Eyes features black-and-whitefootage of Basie in the ‘40s and interviews withjournalists Gary Giddins and Will Friedwald as wellas musicians who worked with him, including
producer/arranger Quincy Jones, singer Annie Ross
and saxophonist John Williams, among others. The
documentary covers a lot of ground and discusses
his associations with jazz and traditional pop greats
like singers Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra, tenor
saxophonist Lester Young, pianist/bandleader
Bennie Moten and singer Jimmy Rushing.
Racism is a recurring theme and Jones, now 87,
has a lot to say on that subject, recalling his
experiences touring Texas and the Deep South with
Basie during the ‘50s, when Jim Crow laws were an
ugly reality. Jones remembers that he “could smell
the white nationalist attitude” in the southern states
and recalls seeing an effigy of a Black man with anoose around his neck hanging from the steeple ofwhat was the largest church in Dallas at the time.
Jones stresses, however, that Basie’s experienceswith racism were by no means limited to the South,
noting how segregated the casinos were in Las Vegas
during the ‘50s but praises Sinatra for taking an
aggressive stand against racism. According to Jones,
Sinatra told his associates that if “‘anybody evenlooked at Basie’s band members funny, break bothof their fucking legs’. And he was serious.”
Noting how big a hit Basie’s exuberant 1955
recording of Vernon Duke’s “April in Paris” was,Through His Own Eyes discusses his influence on pop
culture. It’s important to remember that when
Basie’s orchestra emerged in the mid ‘30s, Swing
had mass appeal—a fact not lost on Adolf Hitler
who, according to Friedwald, was furious over how
wildly popular Basie and other African-American
Swing stars had become in Germany. But as much as
Through His Own Eyes focuses on racism, whether in
the U.S. or Nazi Germany, Basie is portrayed as avery determined musician who refused to let it getin the way of what he wanted to accomplish.
The documentary also has a lot to say about Basie’s
family life, describing his marriage to dancer Catherine
Morgan and disability from which their only daughter,
Diane, suffered. Morgan died in 1983 while Diane is
now 76 and lives in an assisted care facility in Florida.
Through His Own Eyes digs deep, painting a fascinating
picture of Basie both on and off stage.
For more information, visit eagle-rock.com. Count Basie’s
The Great American Swing Contest winners areannounced Dec. 31st at countbasie.com.

Enrico Pieranunzi turns 71 this month and this first-

time release of a 24-year old concert by his trio withbassist Marc Johnson and late drummer Paul Motian
could not be a better birthday present. Pieranunzi’s
association with Bill Evans’ former partners is one of
the most fruitful collaborations among the many hehas had over a long and still expanding career.
Pieranunzi, however, should not be considered amere Evans’ follower or scholar—his book is one of themost insightful readings of Evans’ complexity—since
his style is quite different: a more aggressive andon-the-beat approach where Bud Powell’s influence isprominent and merged with Pieranunzi’s classicalbackground, Debussy in particular but baroque as
well. That said, Evans’ presence is felt in this date mostnotably through the empathy among the musicians.
Despite his many solo and larger-group recordings, thetrio remains Pieranunzi’s most congenial format. Hislong association with Johnson and Joey Baron first and
Joe LaBarbera and Motian later are testimony to hisworld-wide reputation; to date, he is one of the very
few non-U.S. musicians to record at the Village
Vanguard, and with the same trio featured on thisalbum. A comparison between the two reveals a morestraightforward and perhaps even exuberant approachvis-à-vis the more pensive one of the later recording.
The Copenhagen concert features well-known
standards and two compositions by Motian (“Avacus”)
and Pieranunzi (“The Night Gone By”). The former isthe perfect vehicle to highlight the trio’s interplay,
Johnson reminiscent of Charlie Haden. The latter starts
as a ballad but then shifts into an uptempo progression
to return at the end to the lovely theme. Among thestandards, Bronisław Kaper’s “Invitation” gets a brisk
treatment after a delightful piano intro while the medley
of “Body & Soul” (Johnny Green-Edward HeymanRobert Sour-Frank Eyton)/”If I Should Lose You”
(Ralph Rainger-Leo Robin) stands out for its capacity to
re-create imaginatively well-known material.
The close affinity among the musicians and theshared connection—indirect in the case of Pieranunzi—
to Evans are evident throughout and have beendeveloped under various permutations over more than
30 years. Johnson’s solos are particularly incisive while
Motian is always a pleasure. A playful take on Thelonious
Monk’s “Pannonica” wraps up a wonderful concert. But,
to paraphrase the old song, the best was yet to come.
For more information, visit storyvillerecords.com

One For 25
Posi-Tone Swingtet (Posi-Tone)
Balance PointArt Hirahara (Posi-Tone)
Golden Year
Tony Davis (Posi-Tone)by Ken Dryden

Long-term relationships with jazz record labels are all

too rare in the 21st Century, even before the arrival of
the COVID-19 epidemic. It is also less common than it

24 DECEMBER 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

was decades ago for record companies to have thesame pool of instrumentalists taking part on one
another ’s recordings. But given so many players’
loyalty to one another and their frequency in recording
together for Posi-Tone, which celebrates its 25th
anniversary, the chemistry must be formidable.
The Posi-Tone Swingtet was formed by producer
Marc Free from the label’s expansive roster of musicians,
both leaders and sidemen, many of whom haveappeared on each other’s Posi-Tone CDs and together
on gigs. The collective is trombonist Michael Dease,trumpeter Farnell Newton, alto saxophonist Patrick
Cornelius, tenor saxophonist Diego Rivera, baritone
saxophonist Lauren Sevian, bassist Boris Kozlov anddrummer Rudy Royston, with Art Hirahara or Theo
Hill on piano. The spirit of collaboration is evident,with a variety of originals by the participants andseveral songs penned by Posi-Tone leaders not part of
the recording. Dease’s intricate “You Dig” is a perfectopener, fueling a string of stimulating solos following
his lead. Kozlov’s potent “Avalanche Suspended”
showcases Hill and Sevian to good effect. Cornelius’majestic ballad “For Morgan” is a spacious affair withlush ensembles backing the composer. Amanda
Monaco, a superb guitarist who records for Posi-Tone,
penned the blistering “Dry Clean Only”, yet anotherinventive reworking of the oft-used chord changes to “I
Got Rhythm”. Rivera, Newton and Cornelius battle forsolo honors, though Dease’s fluid trombone wins top
prize. Buoyed by the rich horn ensemble introduction,
Hirahara’s pastoral ballad “Where With All” segues
into a gospel air with his entrance.
Once Hirahara arrived in New York City, artists
began to take notice and recruited him for gigs andrecord dates. Balance Point, his fifth Posi-Tone CD as aleader, focuses on his compositions in settings ranging
from solo piano to a trio with bassist Joe Martin anddrummer Rudy Royston to a quartet with tenor
saxophonist Melissa Aldana. The joys of listening to
Hirahara include his wealth of musical ideas andinteraction with his band, who sound like collaborators
rather than just accompanists. There are a number ofoutstanding originals, starting with the lyrical ballad“Mother ’s Song”, a solo piano arrangement almost
glistening with joy; it deserves a lyric. Aldana is added
for the turbulent title track, in which the full quartet
gives their all to support one another. Angular blues“G-Yokoso” has hints of Thelonious Monk, with
Hirahara even throwing in a bit of humorous stride
piano, as the band navigates the work’s many shifts indirection. The leader ’s solo take on Duke Ellington’s“Prelude To A Kiss” adds a wealth of embellishmentsthat enhance the beauty of this jazz standard.
Guitarist Tony Davis makes his debut as a leader
on the label with Golden Year, a solid outing, featuring
a number of impressive compositions, with pianist
David Bryant (who deserves wider recognition),veterans Dezron Douglas on bass and Eric McPherson
on drums, plus several guests. This well-paced set
begins with the title track, a breezy blues, Davisdisplaying his formidable chops with intricate boplines. “Braeburn” has a vibrant yet soulful air, adding
the considerable gifts of trombonist Steve Davis andalto saxophonist Steve Wilson. A nice twist is Davis’
lyrical treatment of Jimi Hendrix’ “May This Be Love”,
in which he trades solos with Bryant, Douglas and
McPherson providing a tasty background. Anotherhidden gem is the Brazilian work “Sinhá”, featuring
Wilson’s spirited flute in dialogue with the leader.
Davis returns for the sauntering pianolessinterpretation of Dizzy Gillespie’s timeless “ConAlma” and he is generously featured before theguitarist takes the spotlight. The two vocal tracks areless memorable, as Davis’ lyrics are not as strong as his
melodies, though vocalist Alina Engibaryan has apotent voice and gives them her best effort.
For more information, visit posi-tone.com

Return Trip
Matt Moran Trio (Diskonife)
by Franz Matzner

Evocative rather than provocative, Matt Moran’s Return

Trip reverberates with subtle blends and structural
nuance. One notable aspect is the unusual combinationof vibraphone, organ and drums. Another is the acuityof the members. Inviting without simplifying, Return
Trip echoes with warmth, fluidity and balance.
Moran utilizes the vibraphone’s melodic
sophistication to express an expansive emotional range,from joy to contemplation. In lesser hands the Hammond
B3 can be dominant, diverting attention from thecontributions of other instruments; Gary Versace takes acontrolled, integrative approach that fully participatesin sculpting the album’s redolent sound without
overwhelming. And drummer Tom Rainey’s restrained,
impressionistic percussion unites with the rest of thetrio, going far beyond providing rhythm.
The result is a beautifully detailed soundscaperaising verdant images and inspiring meditation. The
tune “Lush”, for instance, proceeds at a patient pace,
opening with measured reverberating notes like bells.
Subsequently each voice joins, Moran and Versace’slines entwining like vines, the tune rising before folding
inward to a gentle conclusion. Similarly, slow-burning“Sometimes That’s OK” begins with single notes from
Moran before the others enter, the tune then evolving
slowly from spacious abstraction to denser textures ascrackling drums grow in speed and volume and organ
lays down increasingly rapid figures.
“Elfish” presents more traditional jazz forms, but in
unusual ways. Absent a bass, the swing-like rhythm is set
by the trio as a whole, the tune bouncing forward lithely.
Another prominent aspect of Return Trip is the subtle
way the tunes unfold, the peaks and valleys neither
extreme nor predictable. Return Trip is defined by lucidity,
confirming not only Moran’s place as an innovator, butalso the trio as a force of deft creative energy.
For more information, visit diskonife.com. Moran livestreams Dec. 11th with Nate Wooley at roulette.org.

Studio Sessions, Vol. 11
Hans Tammen/Jeremy Carlstedt/Stephen Gauci(Gaucimusic)
by John Sharpe

Tenor saxophonist Stephen Gauci’s running of the

Monday night Bushwick Series has given him theopportunity to work with a range of other improvisers.
This studio session, the product of alliances forged onstage in the basement of the Bushwick Public House,reunites him with drummer Jeremy Carlstedt and theelectronics of Hans Tammen on a 46-minute digital
download comprising six improvisations.
Gauci’s style is based on an idiosyncratic repertoireof overtone manipulation and multiphonics, mixed inwith the occasional fragmentary jazzy phrase, which

betrays his foundation in bop. He announces his intent
right from the git-go with an unaccompanied foghorn
blast, pure-toned squeals and reverberant overblowing
to launch “Improvisation #1”. But his mates draw him
into unfamiliar territories. Tammen plays the buchla
synthesizer, trading in a litany of noise, beeps anddrones, but also more steady repeated patterns, whichmesh well with Carlstedt, whose predilection for a pulse
supplies one of the dominant characteristics of this date,grounding Gauci’s flights and Tammen’s coloration.
As well as instigating some grooves—he andTammen even fashion a backbeat during an extended
duet on “Improvisation #2”—Carlstedt can serve as
mediator, uniting the sometimes-contrasting approaches.
That’s most obvious on “Improvisation #3”, when he
first injects rhythmic figures into Tammen’s mesmericrippling electric piano-like sonorities. Then as Gauci’s
scuffled murmurs cut across the meter, the emphasis
suddenly changes to a choppy tenor/drum tandem,
before Carlstedt eases everyone back towards meter.
Gauci reaches for some of his most intense
vocabulary on “Improvisation #5”, braying flurries
separated by gutbucket honks, Carlstedt roiling andTammen unleashing a fuzzy bass undercurrent, while
volcanic “Improvisation #6” erupts in a final blowout.
Though the setting might be new, the result is typicallyunconventional and uncompromising.

set. The pair are supported by singer Dominique Eade,saxophonist/clarinetist John Gunther, bassist Simón
Willson and drummer Dayeon Seok in interpretationsof ancient haiku and modern poetry. And they do itwith the utmost delicacy. The concept comes together
spectacularly on the title composition, based on thework of Japanese poet Taneda Santōka. He died in
1940, so he’s unlikely to have heard the Scottish rocker
Donovan but “If there are mountains/I look at themountains” recalls the latter ’s “There is a Mountain”.
Santōka’s very simple words adapt well to Douglas’swinging composition, sung beautifully by Eade.
The rest of this record is relentlessly pretty andmostly very subdued. The compositional strength of
the title piece isn’t always evident. Gunther plays very
lyrically while Mehler, who admits to having trouble
getting grounded, finds his footing with the lovely
piano introduction to “Here on the Plains”. It all comes
together on “With Your Singing”, via the 17th century
poet Matsuo Bashō. His haiku text reads simply, “With
your singing makes me lonelier than ever / Yousolitary bird / Cuckoo of the forest”. Every member ofthe ensemble (with Willson a standout) makes
something enduring of that sad thought.
For more information, visit greenleafmusic.com andnewvelle-records.com. Douglas live-streams Dec. 18th atkerrytownconcerthouse.com.

For more information, visit gaucimusic.com. Tammen livestreams Dec. 16th at experimentalintermedia.org.

Marching Music
Dave Douglas (Greenleaf Music)
If There Are Mountains
Dave Douglas/Elan Mehler (Newvelle)by Jim Motavalli

Marching Music deserves its title; it definitely has amartial air. Trumpeter Dave Douglas is nearly as prolificas guitarist Bill Frisell, with whom he shares a penchantfor bedrock Americana. On this collection, “PersistentHats” brings Stephen Foster’s “Oh Susannah” to mind
and “Forlorn” recalls “Amazing Grace”.
The all-Douglas program, with a quartet of Rafiq
Bhatia (guitar), Melvin Gibbs (bass) and Sim Cain(drums) shades into rock without ever quite getting
there. Just when things get heavy, they’re lightened
and lifted aloft by Douglas’ airy sense of musicalinvention. “Ten to Midnight”, for instance, would seemto be invoking the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’countdown to nuclear annihilation, so no wonder it’s a
bit somber. But then Douglas starts playing and, like
Leonard Cohen, lets a little light through the cracks.
Bhatia is a shape shifter. His playing ranges fromdoomy (“Lenape”) to delicate (“Safe Space”), often
called on to shade the atmosphere but, when thrust
into the solo spot, as on “Fair Fight” and “Climate
Strike”, he covers a lot of stylistic ground.
Douglas’ compositions are particularly strong.
Listen to the way solo trumpet opens “Climate Strike”,
swirling as backbeat drums come in. Douglas builds toan emotional crescendo, then Bhatia enters, spewing
notes but careful where they land. “Fair Fight” has analmost child-like earworm of a melody. “Parables” isalmost scary: air full of portent, two ancient armies facing
each other on a dark plain. The music gets quieter andfreer at the end, with found sounds recalling twittering
birds in the trees, surveying the aftermath. Dave Douglas
is one of our more cinematic jazz musicians.
If There Are Mountains, a co-led LP with pianist
Elan Mehler, is part of Newvelle’s season five boxed

Faces
Steve Cohn/Perry Robinson (Tube Room)by George Kanzler

Perry Robinson, who died at 80 two years ago thismonth, was a clarinetist who recorded, mostly as asideman, with all manner of jazz bands, from trad toavant garde, duo to the Liberation Music Orchestra andleaders from Archie Shepp to Dave Brubeck. He also
worked in klezmer bands, jug bands and with South
Asian musicians such as tabla player Badal Roy. He wasgame to play with anyone, in any style. Like Robinson,
Steve Cohn is an eclectic musician who’s worked withmodern mainstream and avant garde jazz and classicalmusicians as well as East Asian ones. Besides piano andkeyboards, he is also a master of the Japanese
shakuhachi flute. Here he also plays the double-reed
Japanese hichiriki, as well as trombone and drums.
This unearthed session from 2013 is afreewheeling, spontaneous free improvisation meetingof the pair, their first. The two are both listeners, who
pay heed to and pick up licks from each other along theway. The first track, “Portrait”, begins with clarinet
and shakuhachi weaving and sparring, testing phrases
and runs in scintillating duologue. Then Cohn moves
to piano and the track concludes like a song abstracted.
Ghosts of familiar melodies shadow the clarinet-piano
opening of “Silhouette”, followed by a crooning
clarinet over bluesy piano that descends into squawks
and clusters. “Profile”, the last and longest track,is also the most diverse. It begins with swirling clarinet
and drum kit, a short, barely audible conversation anda train whistle. The duet moves to clarinet and robust
trombone before Cohn changes to the haunting
hichiriki, finally settling on Fender Rhodes to drive theduet to an electric climax. Robinson and Cohn may beworking without a net here, but they are also firmly
grounded in the essence of jazz and improvised music.
For more information, visit carlbaugher.bandcamp.com

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | DECEMBER 2020 25

B OXED SE T

Complete Recordings
Modern Jazz Quintet Karlsruhe/Four Men Only
(NoBusiness)by Stuart Broomer

NoBusiness has been unusually creative in finding

hidden facets of early free jazz. This three-CD set
presents the Modern Jazz Quintet Karlsruhe (MJQK)
and its successive identities, Four Men Only and,
when it became a quintet, Four Men Only + 1. It’s anunusual and largely lost episode in the music’s history.
The band launched as the Jazz Prophets in 1964
with pianist Helmuth Zimmer, trumpeter Herbert
Joos and reedplayer Wilfried Eichhorn. In 1965 theyadded drummer Rudi Theilmann and bassist Klaus
Bühler, becoming MJQK. The band released four LPs
during their history: Trees (1968), Position 2000
(1970), then, as Four Men Only, Volume One (1972)
and added + 1 for Eight Science Fiction Stories (1973).
All that material is here, with two 1971 live tracks.
By 1968, free jazz and improvised music ranged
from American models (Ornette Coleman, Cecil
Taylor, Jimmy Giuffre, John Coltrane, Albert Ayler

and Sun Ra) to the emerging Europeans: from AMM
and Spontaneous Music Ensemble to Giorgio Gaslini,
Alexander von Schlippenbach and Peter Brötzmann.
MJQK sounds like none of these. With roots inhardbop, MJQK took another path. Trees includes
Eichhorn’s brief “Schnee Verbrennt” and its tropicalrain-forest vibe, with a piping flute central, tropicalbird brass and random drum rolls, while Zimmer ’s“Lonely Time” is marked by unaccompanied solos.
With Joos’ “The Devil Is Green, Blue, Yellow”
the band style begins to emerge. There are strings ofcomposed motifs, short and long, fast and slow, abrassy fanfare, then a short dirge. It’s rooted in akind of drama and the band is very good at it. A
likely influence is the Blue Note school of liberated
hardbop, when Freddie Hubbard in particular andmany more were stretching the label’s idiom, but
MJQK pushes that envelope further. “Change ofBeauty” intersperses slow, reflective solos (bass andsoprano) and rapid group improvisations in which
the power and invention come to the fore, with Joosand Eichhorn (on soprano) cascading over therhythm section’s tumult. The CD is filled out by alive performance at Funkhaus Hannover in 1971.
With a string of lengthy solos, from bass to trumpet,
again using some of the same internal tempo
contrasts, it demonstrates a band that’s lively,interactive and able to realize a collective vision.
The second CD, Position 2000, has Eichhorn
adding a dramatic bass clarinet to his arsenal andthe rest of the band all playing percussion at times,
including xylophone. There’s an emphasis on powerand drama, but it comes from the presence of fluteand bass clarinet and later unison brass parts, as theband adds multi-tracking to its effects. Ernst

Nebhuth notes in his liner essay that “this led toscathing reviews in the press about ‘leaving the trailof real/pure’ Jazz”, but he justifies it with the claimthat this lets the band “produce their own
backgrounds and horn sections”, though this often
occurs when the other musicians are silent.
The music’s identity changes dramatically. Joos,
later a member of the Vienna Art Orchestra, stretches
his trumpet range with other horns, flugelhorn andmellophone. One photo has him playing a piccolo
trumpet. Orchestral color will trump collective
expression. Only Side A of the first LP has music
composed by anyone else. Often the band seems toprefer unaccompanied or lightly accompanied solos.
Bühler, a creative bassist, departs and isn’t replaced.
Overdubbing becomes the music’s most distinctive
facet. Four Men Only’s first suite has a saxophone
duet with only one saxophonist; a multi-tracked,
largely composed brass “solo”; another backgroundprovided by multiple trumpets. Meanwhile, therecord concludes with some brilliant percussive
piano to end “Excess”.
The group’s final LP, Eight Science Fiction Stories,
adds trombonist Wolfgang Czelusta, apt support to
Joos’ mellophone on the LP’s second suite. It’s thefirst, though, that demonstrates the sheer range andoddity of the band’s directions. Much of it isdominated by an overdubbed trumpet riff repeatedfor some six minutes under a Joos solo, which,
together suggests a one-man Don Ellis Orchestra. At
the limits of its split personality, the next segment
has Eichhorn improvising himself into a modest but
thoughtful facsimile of Sun Ra’s saxophone section.
For more information, visit nobusinessrecords.com

CD
DownloaD
Streaming

Complete catalogs: www.steeplechase.dk

Brian
Charette
on

SCCD 31756

SCCD 31880

SCCD 31678

SCCD 31710

SCCD 31836

SCCD 31731

SCCD 31784

SCCD 31857

US distribution:www.statesidemusic.com email: info@statesidemusic.com

26 DECEMBER 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORDMISCELLANY
ONbyTHISDAYAndrey Henkin

Jackpot!
Woody Herman (Capitol)
December 1st, 1955

Three for Shepp
Marion Brown (Impulse)
December 1st, 1966

Questions/Answers
Stanley Cowell/Dave Burrell (Trio)
December 1st, 1973

The Birthday Concert
Jaco Pastorius (Warner Bros.)
December 1st, 1981

George Burns!
George Freeman (Southport)
December 1st, 1997

Woody Herman was the original jazz

On August 10th, 1964, Archie Shepp

Seven years to the day that pianists

By the time this album was released

Guitarist George Freeman, youngest

shepherd: four regular, Thundering,
Swinging’, Anglo-American, Big New
and here Las Vegas Herd, drawn fromhis recently disbanded 1955 big band
to work in that town’s Riviera Hotel.
With the clarinetist is trumpeters Dick
Collins, Johnny Coppola and Cy Touff(bass trumpet), tenor saxophonist
Richie Kamuca, pianist Norman
Pockrandt, bassist Monte Budwig anddrummer Chuck Flores on music by,among others, Milt Jackson, Count
Basie, Touff, Coppola (both co-writing
with Herman) and Budwig.

recorded Four For Trane for Impulse.
Then he and alto saxophonist Marion
Brown were both on Coltrane’s June
28th, 1965 Ascension for the samelabel. Fast-forward another 17 months
and things come full-circle with thisdate, Brown thanking Shepp, one of
his first employers, by recording threeof his pieces alongside three of his
own. Shepp does not appear but
Grachan Moncur III (trombone), DaveBurrell or Stanley Cowell (piano),
Norris Sirone Jones (bass) and Beaver
Harris or Bobby Kapp (drums) do.

Stanley Cowell and Dave Burrell split
duties in New York City on Marion
Brown’s Three for Shepp, the pair arefound on the opposite side of theworld at Tokyo’s Iino Hall as a duo.
The men were born in Ohio less thaneight months and 200 miles apart and,collectively, were part of a large shareof classic avant gardism from the mid‘60s onwards on both sides of theAtlantic but this is the only documentof them together, Cowell’s 20:24“Questions” the A-Side, Burrell’s
19:17 “Answers” the flip.

in 1995, electric bassist Jaco Pastorius
had been a cautionary tale for several
years, dying in 1987 at 35 specificallyfrom a fight with a bar manager but
more generally from mental illness
and drug abuse. But here he was
newly 30, not long after making what
would be his last album as a memberof Weather Report and leading a
22-piece brass- and percussion-heavy
big band (featuring Michael Brecker
and Bob Mintzer) in his adopted
home of Ft. Lauderdale on a nine-tune
program of mostly his originals.

scion of the noted Chicago clan withdrummer Buzz and saxophonist Von,
was nowhere near to George Burns
territory age-wise (as of this writing,
he is close at 93) but we’ll allow him
the punny title for this peppy 11-tune
set of his originals and a handful ofstandards. Von guests on one track,
the dedicatory “Vonski”, as do
Southport co-owners Bradley ParkerSparrow (piano) and Joanie Pallatto(vocals), the band behind them Lou
Gregory (piano), Eldee Young (bass)
and Phil Thomas (drums).

BIRTHDAYS
Jay Leonhart b.1940
Miroslav Vitous b.1947
Harvie S b.1948
Steve Swell b.1954
Jason Stein b.1976

December 1†Ike Isaacs 1919-96†Dick Johnson 1925-2010
Ted Brown b.1927†Hadley Caliman 1932-2010†Jimmy Lyons 1933-86
Carlos Garnett b.1938†Jaco Pastorius 1951-87†Bob Dorough 1923-2018†Dodo Marmarosa 1925-2002
Toshiko Akiyoshi b.1929
Juhani Aaltonen b.1935
Michael Carvin b.1944†Tony Williams 1945-97
Bruce Ditmas b.1946

December 7†Teddy Hill 1909-78
Sonny Phillips b.1936
Mads Vinding b.1948
Matthew Shipp b.1960

December 2†Charlie Ventura 1916-92†John Bunch 1921-2010†Wynton Kelly 1931-71†Ronnie Mathews 1935-2008
Jason Rigby b.1974
Tal Wilkenfeld b.1986

December 13†Sonny Greer 1895-1982†Ben Tucker 1930-2013†Borah Bergman 1933-2012†Reggie Johnson 1940-2020

December 8†Sol Yaged 1922-2019†Jimmy Smith 1928-2005
Tim Armacost b. 1962

December 3†Corky Cornelius 1914-43†Herbie Nichols 1919-63

December 14†Budd Johnson 1910-84†Spike Jones 1911-64†Clark Terry 1920-2015†Cecil Payne 1922-2007†Phineas Newborn 1931-89†Leo Wright 1933-91†Jerome Cooper 1946-2015

December 9†Matty Malneck 1903-81†Bob Scobey 1916-63†Donald Byrd 1932-2013
Jimmy Owens b.1943

December 4†Eddie Heywood 1915-89
Frank Tiberi b.1928†Jim Hall 1930-2013†Denis Charles 1933-98
Andy Laverne b.1947
Cassandra Wilson b.1955
Andrew Drury b.1964

December 10†Irving Fazola 1912-49†Ray Nance 1913-76†George Tucker 1927-65†Bob Cranshaw 1932-2016
Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky
b.1933

December 5†Art Davis 1934-2007
Enrico Pieranunzi b.1949
Anders Bergkrantz b.1961

December 15†Stan Kenton 1911-79†Jimmy Nottingham 1925-78†Gene Quill b.1927-89
Barry Harris b.1929
Curtis Fuller b.1934†Dannie Richmond 1935-88
Eddie Palmieri b.1936†Toshinori Kondo 1948-2020
Kris Tiner b.1977

December 11†Perez Prado 1916-89†McCoy Tyner 1938-2020
Mara Rosenbloom b.1984

December 6†Ira Gershwin 1896-1985†Dave Brubeck 1920-2012†Bob Cooper 1925-93†Frankie Dunlop 1928-2014

December 16†Andy Razaf 1905-73†Turk Murphy 1915-87†Steve Allen 1921-2000†Johnny “Hammond” Smith
1933-97

December 12†Eddie Barefield 1909-91†Frank Sinatra 1915-98†Joe Williams 1918-99†Joe Farrell 1937-86
Radu Malfatti b.1943†John Abercrombie 1944-2017
December 17†Ray Noble 1903-78†Sonny Red 1932-81†Walter Booker 1933-2006†John Ore 1933-2014
Vyacheslav Ganelin b.1944
Chris Welcome b.1980
December 18†Fletcher Henderson
1897-1952†Willis Conover 1920-96†Harold Land 1928-2001
Wadada Leo Smith b.1941
Maciej Obara b.1981
December 19†Erskine Tate 1895-1978†Bob Brookmeyer 1929-2011†Bobby Timmons 1935-74†Milcho Leviev 1937-2019
Lenny White b.1949
Kuni Mikami b.1954

Quinsin Nachoff b.1973
December 22†Ronnie Ball 1927-84†Joe Lee Wilson 1935-2011†Nick Ceroli 1939-85
John Patitucci b.1959
December 23†Chet Baker 1929-88†Frank Morgan 1933-2007
December 24†Baby Dodds 1898-1959†Jabbo Smith 1908-91†Henry Coker 1919-79†Ray Bryant 1931-2011†Chris McGregor 1936-90†Woody Shaw 1944-89
Ralph Moore b.1956
Paal Nilssen-Love b.1974

December 20†John Hardee 1918-84†Sam Falzone 1933-2013†Larry Willis 1940-2019
Ehud Asherie b.1979

December 25†Louis Cottrell 1878-1927†Kid Ory 1886-1973†Big Jim Robinson 1892-1976†Cab Calloway 1907-94†Oscar Moore 1912-81†Pete Rugolo 1915-2011†Eddie Safranski 1918-74†Don Alias 1939-2006†Don Pullen 1941-95
Ronnie Cuber b.1941

December 21†Marshall Brown 1920-83†Rita Reys 1924-2013†Hank Crawford 1934-2009†John Hicks 1941-2006
Cameron Brown b.1945

December 26†Butch Ballard 1917-2011†Monty Budwig 1929-92†Billy Bean 1933-2012†Brooks Kerr 1951-2018
John Scofield b.1951

December 27†Bunk Johnson 1889-1949†Booty Wood 1919-87
Bill Crow b.1927†Walter Norris 1931-2011
TS Monk b.1949
Pablo Held b.1986
December 28†Earl “Fatha” Hines 1903-83†Al Klink 1915-91†Moe Koffman 1928-2001†Ed Thigpen 1930-2010†Bob Cunningham 1934-2017†Dick Sudhalter 1938-2008
Ted Nash b.1960
December 29†Cutty Cutshall 1911-68†Irving Ashby 1920-87
Jan Konopasek b.1931
Joe Lovano b.1952
George Schuller b.1958
Danilo Pérez b.1960
Reuben Radding b.1966
George Colligan b.1969
December 30†Jimmy Jones 1918-82†Jack Montrose 1928-2006†Wolfgang Dauner 1935-2020
Jerry Granelli b.1940
Lewis Nash b.1958
Frank Vignola b.1965
December 31†John Kirby 1908-52†Jonah Jones 1909-2000†Peter Herbolzheimer
1935-2010

JUHANI AALTONEN

December 12th, 1935
The Finnish saxophonist
and flutist is arguably his
country’s most famed jazzexport, still active today(hear him on the recent
Moserobie
releaseThe
Father, The Sons & The
Junnu). His career began in
the straightahead realm inthe ‘60s, veering into more
avant garde territory withcountrymen like Heikki
Sarmanto, Edward Vesala,Eero Koivistoinen, UMO
Jazz Orchestra and manymore,neighbors
Arild
Andersen, Peter Brötzmann
and Graham Collier andeven those from across thepond such as Wadada Leo
Smith, Reggie Workman
and Andrew Cyrille. His
albums can be found on
Eclipse, Leo, Nova and,most prolifically over the
past 10+ years, Finland’s
own TUM Records.
(AH)

CROSSWORD
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26

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

27

28

29

30

32

31

33

34

By Andrey Henkin 			35

ACROSS

DOWN

1. Fresh Coast Jazz Festival to Big Ears Festival dir.
4. Label that celebrated its 50th anniversary in
November 2019
7. Amiri Baraka and Steve Dalachinsky
9. Kind of step
12. Like Alan to Wayne or Albert to Donald
13. Clam?
14. Norwegian guitarist Nils-____ Johansen
15. Brazilian pianist Weber
16. Canadian pianist, not a British luxury car?
20. Music rights org.
21. Vanguard jazz orchestra bassist, not direction toplay pianissimo?
27. Molten 2011 Liudas Mockūnas/Barry Guy
NoBusiness album?
28. Casiopea co-founding guitarist Issei
29. Berlin-based label releasing jazz in the ‘70s
31. Pianist/singer Johnny
32. “Screamin’ Jay” Hawkins song “I Put A ____ On You”
recorded by Nina Simone
33. Heartfelt 1971 Paul Van Gysegem Futura album?
34. Dutch drummer Cees
35. With One, rapper whose songs have sampled
Stanley Turrentine, Clifford Brown, Jimmy McGriffand others

1. Perfect vehicle for a duo tour
2. One time Lionel Hampton alto saxophonist, not a
Nazi soldier?
3. El Saturn Records catalogue prefix
4. Sheepish Japanese label releasing albums by Satoko
Fujii, Masahiko Satoh and others?
5. Noted ‘50s-60s female jazz singer, not anemail recipient?
6. Singer Gayle or pianist Jason
7. Drummer Ted who needs money?
8. Swedish trombonist Holmqvist who died from COVID-19
10. Expensive part of the balcony
11. Romantic 2016 Paolo Fresu/Omar Sosa Tǔk Music?
17. Artie Dann-Jerry Blaine tune “____, Ipe, Wanna Piece
Of Pie” recorded by Fats Waller
18. Rising Sun Records catalogue prefix
19. Sollentuna, Sweden recording studio
21. Pink Panther theme tenor saxophonist Johnson
22. Milt = Bags; Lionel = ?
23. Vijay Iyer and Wayne Escoffery teach at them
24. North Rhine-Westphalia jazz festival
25. Spoiled quintet of Eirik Hegdal, Kjetil Møster,Ole Morten Vågan and Ole Thomas Kolberg?
26. Dave Brubeck’s wife
30. Brother Thelonious is one
31. Wild Bill Davison and Pete Fountain both tied ayellow ribbon ‘round this ole type of tree

visit nycjazzrecord.com for answers

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | DECEMBER 2020 27

HOLIDAY GIFT GU IDE
THE ART OF JAZZA VISUAL HISTORY
Alyn Shipton, noted British jazz critic,
author and radio presenter, whose
A New History of Jazz is required
reading, presents a survey of jazz
through the lens of the visual rather
than the aural, focusing on album
covers, posters, photography,
ephemera and the music’s inspiration
on fine art. Shipton starts with the
pre-jazz era and goes all the way tothe modern day in this 256-page
tome with over 300 included images
and foreword by musicologist
John Edward Hasse.

PENGUINRANDOMHOUSE.COM/
BOOKS/639431—$35

NINA SIMONEVINYL CLOCK
Let legendary pianist,
vocalist and Civil Rights
activist Nina Simone tell you
what time it is with thiscustom, repurposed 12-inch
vinyl LP timepiece.
ETSY.COM/LISTING/863489636—$38.78

JAZZ FOUNDATIONOF AMERICA T-SHIRT
32 Bar Blues and the JFA partner forthis unique Jazz Foundation t-shirt(available in vintage gold or heather grayin sizes M-XXL). All proceeds go to JFA’s
COVID-19 Musicians’ Emergency Fund.

32BARBLUES.COM/JAZZFOUNDATION-OF-AMERICA/
PRODUCTS/32—$48

INTAKT RECORDSPOSTCARD SET
Who doesn’t love getting a postcard?
Make it even better by sending one fromthis limited-edition 14-card set featuring yourfavorite artists from the Intakt Records catalogue.

INTAKTREC.CH/POSTCARD.HTM—$19.50

SITTIN’ IN:
JAZZ CLUBS OF THE
1940s AND 1950s
Record executive and music historian
Jeff Gold’s 260-page coffee table book
documents jazz clubs in New York,
Atlantic City, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland,
Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City, Los Angeles
and San Francisco as agents for the
nascent Civil Rights Movement. Included
are over 200 photographs, reproductionsof ephemera and interviews with
Quincy Jones, Sonny Rollins and Jason Moranand critics Robin Givhan and Dan Morgenstern.

HARPERCOLLINS.COM/
PRODUCTS/SITTIN-IN-JEFFGOLD—$31.99

THE NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION
The music of New Orleans get the deluxe Newvelle treatment in this four-LP series by
Crescent City icons Little Freddie King, Irma Thomas, Jon Cleary and Ellis Marsalis, recordedby Misha Kachkachishvili in New Orleans, mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Marc Urselli
and pressed on clear vinyl with photography by New Orleans’ own Daymon Gardner.

NEWVELLE-RECORDS.COM—$200
28 DECEMBER 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

ENID FARBER
JAZZ FACE MASKS
Protect yourself and others while declaring your love forjazz with these washable face masks featuring images
from celebrated photographer Enid Farber. Options
include Miles Davis, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sun Ra,
Randy Weston and many more (custom orders available).

ENIDFARBER.COM/ENID-FARBER-FOTOGRAPHY/
BUY-IT-NOW-STORE/JAZZ-MUSICIAN-MASKS—$22

CHARLIE PARKER— A
THE MERCURY &CLEF 10-INCH LP
COLLECTION
Capping off Bird’s centennialcelebration is this boxed set ofthe five 10” LPs the legendary alto
saxophonist made for Mercury
and Clef in the early ‘50s,
remastered and pressed toblack vinyl with reproductionsof the original packaging, includingDavid Stone Martin’s sleeve art,four of the titles available on vinyl
for the first time in 60 years.
SHOP.UDISCOVERMUSIC.COM/
COLLECTIONS/CHARLIEPARKER—$69.99

ELLA
FITZGERALDBARBIE DOLL
Part of the Inspiring
Women Collection,
this 12” figurecommemorates“First Lady of Song”
Ella Fitzgerald andher nearly 60-year
career as a jazz
icon. It comescomplete withearrings, gown withbrooch, microphone,shoes, doll standand a Certificate
of Authenticity(you’ll have to build
your own Apollo
Theater playset).

BARBIE.MATTEL.
COM—$29.99

BETWEEN SOUND AND SPACE:
AN ECM RECORDS PRIMERIn November 2019, ECM celebrated its gold
anniversary and nearly 1,500 jazz, classical andnew music releases. This beautifully-written tome
by musicologist Tyran Grillo guides readers throughdozens of albums in the label’s storied history,
from early recordings up to the present day, from
iconic titles to those worthy of further discovery.

REYNARANJO.NET/SOUNDANDSPACE—$40

An Ayler Xmas, Vol. 4: Chicago vs. NYC
Mars Williams (Astral Spirits/Soulwhat)
Christmas Vibes
Warren Wolf (Mack Avenue)
Christmas in 3D
3D Jazz Trio (DIVA Jazz)
by Andrey Henkinssuming things go back to some semblance of normal
and Donald Trump doesn’t decree that Christmas iscanceled in any state he didn’t carry in the Electoral College,
we should have a holiday season. But instead of balls, trees
will be festooned with masks, fruitcakes will require two
weeks’ quarantine and holiday cards should arrive around
Easter. But, to pen a new title for the famous novelty Xmas
song, “All I Want For Christmas is the COVID Vaccine”.
Coming now with the regularity of gift socks from Aunt
Frances in Des Moines—but much more welcome—is theannual An Ayler Xmas from saxophonist Mars Williams, now
in its fourth iteration, subtitled Chicago vs. NYC. The formergroup is Josh Berman (cornet), Jim Baker (piano, viola,
ARP synthesizer), Kent Kessler (bass), Brian Sandstrom(bass, guitar, trumpet) and Steve Hunt (drums) plus guests
Keefe Jackson (baritone saxophone), Katinka Kleijn (cello)
and Peter Maunu (violin) while the latter is Steve Swell(trombone), Hilliard Greene (bass), Chris Corsano (drums),
Nels Cline (guitar) and Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello). For those
unfamiliar with the concept, Williams and Co. combine
holiday music with the equally celebratory compositionsof the late Albert Ayler in often-sprawling, ever-shifting
medleys, horns braying like Dominick the Donkey but withreflective moments as well. In addition to the appeal ofhearing spiritual fare sutured to spiritual jazz—yielding titles
such as “The Hanukkah-Xmas March Of Truth For 12 Days
Of Jingling Bells With Spirits” and “Noel Omega - Change
Has Come For The Three Kings Who Lit The Tiny Candles”—
is comparing versions from the Windy City to the Big Apple.
Warren Wolf, built like a linebacker, could probably
deliver Santa’s whole inventory by himself in one night—
without reindeer or sleigh—yet presents a gently shimmeringtake on holiday classics with Christmas Vibes. In addition
to vibraphone, Wolf plays piano and keyboards, percussion
and a host of Logic Pro X instruments like tubular bells
and cello, overdubbing himself throughout the 13 tracks,
supported by the acoustic and electric basses of Jeff Reedand drummer Carroll “CV” Dashiell III, plus guesting singers
Christie Dashiell, Allison Bordlemay and Micah Smith. The
program is an eclectic one, ranging from classics like
“O Christmas Tree” and classical such as Tchaikovsky’s“Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” to rock from John Lennon(“Happy Xmas”) and spirituals by Robert MacGimsey (“Sweet
Little Jesus Boy”). For all the layering the instrumental
tracks have a lovely organic feel, presciently muted for thisodd holiday season, but the vocals overwhelm the musicwith a Broadway-style brashness. The album highlight is theaforementioned “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”, wherein
Wolf translates the piece from the symphony to Soul Train.
Three of the elves from the DIVA workshop in pianist
Jackie Warren, bassist Amy Shook and drummer Sherrie
Maricle, aka the 3D Jazz Trio, offer up a rollicking set of
Christmas classics on Christmas in 3D that could havebeen found in the transformed bar Nick’s in It’s A Wonderful
Life, no surprise with the hard-hitting Maricle behind thekit. The band has fun with less-often-played material, suchas “Up on the Housetop”, with Buddy Rich-style drumming,or Shook over-doubling on fiddle for the lurching swing of“Please, Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas)”. Even the
more traditional material gets nice makeovers: Shook taking
the melody to open “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” or“O Christmas Tree” played through the lens of Horace Silver.
There is a refreshing irreverence to the reverence here.

For more information, visit marswilliams.bandcamp.
com, mackavenue.com and divajazz.com. Williams’
project live-streams Dec. 18th-19th at constellationchicago.com/watch-live.

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | DECEMBER 2020 29