Bill Beuttler is a Publisher/Writer-in-Residence in the Writing, Literature, and Publishing department at Emerson College in Boston. He previously spent three years covering jazz for the Boston Globe and teaching journalism at Boston University. His writing has also appeared recently in Atlantic Online, Best Life, Boston Magazine, Chicago Magazine, and The Boston Globe Magazine.
Beuttler has been a senior editor for The Discovery Channel, Men's Journal, and Boston Magazine. He is also a former associate editor of Down Beat and American Way magazines, and a former reporter, rewriteman, and radio and weekend editor of the legendary City News Bureau of Chicago. He has written monthly book-review columns for American Way and Cooking Light magazines. He was for two years a visiting professor of magazine journalism at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, during which time he spent six weeks in Lebanon substituting for the former hostage (and OU colleague) Terry Anderson in overseeing a summer course Anderson had set up at the American University of Beirut.
This Web site was launched in autumn 2002 in part because much of the writing Beuttler has done to date is no longer available anywhere else. Archives aren't kept of in-flight magazines, and even some better magazines (Men's Journal, for example) aren't archived by services such as LexisNexis and InfoTrac. Other pieces included here have, until now, never been published.
So here is more than 20 years' worth of selected writing by Beuttler, for whatever amusement or edification potential employers, scholars, students, friends, and/or family might find in perusing it. New pieces will be added (and old ones deleted) as various book, magazine, and newspaper assignments now being pursued bear fruit. (Note: There are additional stories, linked directly to sites maintained by the publications in which they first appeared, at the bottom of the Quick Links column at left.)
Enjoy.
Choices
JAZZ 10/28
THE RALPH PETERSON SEXTET
Standout drummer (and Berklee professor) Ralph Peterson Jr. shares his late mentor Art Blakey's penchant for discovering young jazz talent. When he brings his sextet to Lansdowne Street on Saturday, he'll be aiming to help a young audience discover jazz. Certainly, Peterson's current crop of hard-boppers deserves the attention. Bassist Luques Curtis already holds steady sideman posts in the bands of Gary Burton and Christian Scott. His brother, Zaccai Curtis, is comparably gifted on keyboards. Trumpeter Igmar Thomas and tenor saxophonist Donald Lee kept Wally's Cafe hopping together weekly through their undergrad days at Berklee. Tia Fuller blows alto sax for Beyonce and T.S. Monk when she isn't doing so for Peterson. Together they're a group Blakey himself would've loved. The Modern, 36 Lansdowne St., Boston. 617-351-2581. 9:30 p.m. $5, $15 after 10 p.m.
BILL BEUTTLER
Calendar Jazz Picks
Thurs Oct 19
Tomasz Stanko Quartet
Regattabar, Charles Hotel, One Bennett St., Cambridge. 617-395-7757. 7:30 & 10 p.m. $18.
Tomasz Stanko was a 20-year-old graduate of the Cracow Music Academy when he formed his first jazz band in 1962, inspired by such progressive free-thinkers as Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and George Russell. Now 64, Stanko has gone on to become one of Europe's preeminent jazz artists. In recent years, he has been recording and touring with a trio of Polish associates: pianist Marcin Wasilewski, bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz, and drummer Michal Miskiewicz. Their new album for ECM, "Lontano," brings them to town tonight as part of a 20-stop coast-to-coast tour of North America. It's a fine effort, largely composed of stately, subdued balladry showcasing Stanko's lyrical trumpet work. But the new album has a ramped-up sense of freedom to it, too, enhanced no doubt by the intuitive interplay that arises when a band stays together and matures as a unit.
Fri 10-20 Rachelle Ferrell Ferrell has dabbled in singing pop, but she's got bona fide jazz chops dating at least as far back as her undergraduate days at Berklee. No less an authority than Dizzy Gillespie predicted she'd become a "major force" in the genre. You've got four shots this weekend to see if he was right. Scullers, Doubletree Guest Suites, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston. 617-562-4111. 8 & 10:30 p.m. $40, $80 with dinner. Repeats Sat.
Fri 10-20 Maria Muldaur Quintet Genre-jumper Muldaur is better known for singing blues, folk, and her 1970s mega-hit, "Midnight at the Oasis." But she showed solid jazz talent channeling Peggy Lee at the Real Deal Jazz Club & Cafe's opening concert a couple of years back. She returns touting an intriguing new album for Telarc: "Heart of Mine: Love Songs of Bob Dylan." The Real Deal Jazz Club & Cafe, Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second St., Cambridge. 617-876-7777. 7 & 9:30 p.m. $24.
BILL BEUTTLER
Calendar Jazz Picks
Wed 10-18
John Patitucci Trio
Regattabar, Charles Hotel, One Bennett St., Cambridge. 617-395-7757. 7:30 p.m. $24.
Bassist John Patitucci has been a standout sideman for a couple of decades now, beginning in the late ‘80s as a founding member of Chick Corea’s Elekric Band. More recently, he has spent the past several years in the Wayne Shorter Quartet, widely considered the best small combo in jazz. On Wednesday, though, Patitucci will be celebrating his own new trio album on Concord Records, “Line By Line.” Joining him will be the Shorter Quartet’s drummer, Brian Blade, who’s as virtuosic and in-demand on his instrument as Patitucci is on his. On guitar will be Adam Rogers, best known for his work with saxophonist Chris Potter (who also turns up on a few tracks on “Line By Line”). Don’t be surprised if a third Shorter Quartet member, pianist and NEC professor Danilo Perez, shows up in the audience for the celebration as well.
Fri 10-13 Wallace Roney Ryles has earned its reputation as a worthy local jazz spot primarily by showcasing comparative no-names, a mix of young rising talent and veterans less noted than they ought to be. Every so often, though, the club brings in someone who has made it to the cover of JazzTimes or Down Beat. Trumpeter Wallace Roney pulled it off in Sept. 2004, sharing cover of JazzTimes with his wife, pianist Geri Allen. Ryles, 212 Hampshire St., Inman Square, Cambridge. 617-876-9330. 9 p.m. $18.
Fri 10-13 Jazz Composers’ Alliance Orchestra Among the compositions featured tomorrow night will be work by longtime JCA composer-in-residence and Boston Conservatory professor Dana Brayton, who died unexpectedly this past summer at age 53. Also on tap will be pieces by resident composers Darrell Katz, David Harris, Warren Senders, Ken Schaphorst, and Norm Zocher. Watertown Arsenal Center for the Arts, Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St., Watertown. 617-923-8487 . 8 p.m. $15 ($10 seniors and students).
BILL BEUTTLER
Calendar Jazz Picks
Fri 10-7
Al Di Meola
Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston. 617-747-2261. 7:30 p.m. $29.50-$35.
Al Di Meola (above) was just 19 when Chick Corea plucked him from his studies at the Berklee College of Music to assume the guitar chair in Corea's seminal jazz-rock fusion band, Return to Forever. Di Meola recorded the high-profile albums "Where Have I Known You Before?" and "No Mystery" with RTF colleagues Corea, Stanley Clarke, and Lenny White before proceeding to make his own records following the band's 1976 breakup. Di Meola's blazing chops, on both acoustic and electric instruments, have kept him a leading figure in fusion and contemporary jazz ever since. At 52, he has a new release on Telarc, "Consequence of Chaos," featuring guest appearances by his old boss Corea, Barry Miles, John Patitucci, and Steve Gadd. Tomorrow's concert touting the new album, one might say, marks a return to where it all started.
Thurs 10/5 Ben Monder Trio Guitarist Monder is more into mood than Di Meola-like flash, but he's one of the most in-demand guitar sidemen on the New York scene. His quietly evocative album "Oceana" was one of 2005's best. Monder will be followed into the R-bar on Saturday by youngish tenor sax standout Eric Alexander and his group One For All. Regattabar, Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St., Cambridge. 617-395-7757. 7:30 p.m. $16.
FRI 10/6 Tenor Battle of the Century Andy McGhee passed up a chance to join Count Basie's band to launch a long teaching career at Berklee. Bill Pierce was a star student there, toured with drum greats Art Blakey and Tony Williams, and has since returned to run Berklee's woodwind department. Tim Mayer studied with both of them at Berklee, and tomorrow the three generations of tenor saxophonists are planning a playful throwback to the cutting contests of yore. Ryles, 212 Hampshire St., Inman Square, Cambridge. 617-876-9330. 9 p.m. $10.
BILL BEUTTLER
By Bill Beuttler, Globe Correspondent | October 2, 2006
The sixth annual BeanTown Jazz Festival was a rollicking success on Saturday afternoon, and something approaching a fiasco on Friday night.
The opening-night concert at Berklee Performance Center featuring McCoy Tyner and an advertised septet celebration of the Impulse record label started off well enough. Bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding, whose silhouette adorns the building, wowed the crowd with a short set featuring a band made up of her trumpeter boyfriend, Christian Scott, their fellow Berklee alumni Mike Tucker and Lyndon Rochelle, and Berklee assistant professor Doug Johnson.
Next came a long love fest in which Berklee and BeanTown officials commandeered the stage to pat one another's backs and accept oversize checks from the event's leading sponsors. That commercial interruption lasted nearly as long as the headliner performed.
Tyner — far and away the biggest name to play the festival to date — was clearly upset about something, most likely the inaudible stage monitor that caused him to leave his piano bench during his first tune and gesticulate toward someone offstage. Tyner wound up snipping off his planned 90 minutes in about half that time, much to the consternation of the WGBH-FM (89.7) crew that was broadcasting the show live. Tyner was coaxed back onstage for a pair of what passed for encores, but his set wound up lasting less than an hour.
That wasn't the only problem with it, either. Donald Harrison missed a flight and didn't show up, and the band's other three all-star horn players — Dave Liebman, Wallace Roney, and Steve Turre — might as well not have. They played well when they made it onstage, but Tyner only let them play on one tune. The rest of the time he either played solo or with his trio, the very same trio that Tyner's relentless touring brings to the Regattabar every few months. It's a terrific group, to be sure, but the promise of the horns adding something special for BeanTown was mostly broken.
Saturday, though, the hope of a first-rate jazz festival for Boston took a huge step toward fulfillment. Bona fide jazz is finally taking over, and for the first time festival goers had the sort of hard choices people have to make at Newport and other top multi-stage festivals.
How much of Jimmy Cobb's combo featuring Javon Jackson on sax do you stick around for at the Marsalis Music Stage before heading to the Sovereign Stage for the Kenny Garrett Quartet? Do you watch all Lionel Loueke's set at the Global Stage or scurry off to see Delfeayo Marsalis and the Berklee student group back at the Marsalis stage? Do you leave Doug Wamble's rocking rendition of the gospel classic "Rockin' Jerusalem" to see if Christian McBride really lured Oliver Lake, Patrice Rushen, and DJ Logic to perform? (Reluctantly, I did, and so did McBride.) Hear Carmen Lundy sing or catch master drummer Michael Carvin's killer young quartet with Abraham Burton on tenor?
Boston police estimated that somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 people showed up throughout the day to make those choices, sample the similarly wide offering of food, and let their kids play on the children's attractions. This part of the festival wasn't disappointing in the least, and the BeanTown organizers are promising bigger things in the future.
© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Calendar Jazz Picks
Fri 9-29
Marian McPartland
Scullers, Doubletree Guest Suites Boston, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston. 617-562-4111. 8 & 10:30 p.m. $25, $65 with dinner. Repeats Sat.
She’s the grande dame of jazz piano, at age 88, having accumulated a perfect match of one year for each note on a piano keyboard. Her Peabody Award-winning NPR show, “Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz,” celebrated its silver anniversary two years ago at the Kennedy Center. But don’t think that longevity means she’s no longer hip. I recently asked Jason Moran what he’d taken away from his handful on duo piano performances with McPartland (above). “She's as witty with her words as she is with her fingers,” he replied. “Every time we play together, the looseness becomes the form. Usually we sit down at the pianos, look each other in the eyes, and dare one another to jump. She usually jumps first, because she is music. She steers the ship, and I usually, as she says, throw her some waves. It's rare to play with someone as pure as Marian. I cherish every concert we've done together.”
Sun 10-1 Joe Morris and Lewis Porter Morris is well-known in these parts as a cutting-edge guitarist (and sometime bassist). Porter is a pianist and musicologist whose day gig is directing the master’s program in jazz history and research at Rutgers University. This weekend they pair up for a series of freely improvised duets. The Lily Pad, Inman Square, 1353 Cambridge St., Cambridge. 617-388-1168. 10 p.m. $10.
Tues 10-3 Kate McGarry Vocalist McGarry joined the Maria Schneider Orchestra for a live DVD recording earlier this year and has a new album of her own in the works for Palmetto Records. Her previous stop at Scullers is set to air Dec. 21 on NPR’s “JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater.” But she’s also back in town next week, in case you prefer your jazz live and/or can’t stand to wait. Scullers, Doubletree Guest Suites Boston, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston. 617-562-4111. 8 & 10 p.m. $18, $58 with dinner.
BILL BEUTTLER
Calendar Jazz Picks
Sat 9-23
Cassandra Wilson
Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston. 617-876-7777. 8 p.m. $32.50-$40.
Cassandra Wilson (above) has covered everyone from Miles Davis to Robert Johnson to Van Morrison to the Monkees as she has become one of jazz’s best and most popular vocalists — bringing her breathy, blues-infused signature sound to all of them. Her latest release, “Thunderbird,” pairs her with renowned producer T Bone Burnett for the first time. The album, her seventh for Blue Note Records, has more electronic touches and an even more overtly pop feel to it than those that preceded it, but she’s still covering a wide range of artists: Jakob Dylan (“Closer to You”), Blind Lemon Jefferson (“Easy Rider”), and, indirectly, the Wild Tchoupitoulas (whose “Hey Pocky A-Way” is sampled on the album-opening original, “Going to Mexico”). That’s not to mention her refashioning of Burnett’s own “Strike a Match” and the familiar folk staple “Red River Valley.”
Thurs 9-21 Patricia Barber Barber’s Guggenheim Fellowship-financed song cycle, “Mythologies,” got its first full-scale performance at the Chicago Symphony Center this past Saturday, the album of that name having been released last month on Blue Note Records. Now the vocalist, pianist, and composer is taking her quartet version of it on the road with her longstanding sidemen: guitarist Neal Alger, bassist Michael Arnopol, and drummer Eric Montzka. Scullers, Doubletree Guest Suites Boston, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston. 617-562-4111. 8 & 10 p.m. $22, $62 with dinner. Repeats Fri, 8 & 10:30 p.m.
Fri 9-22 The Bad Plus Bad boys Ethan Iverson, Reid Anderson, and David King roll back into the Regattabar fresh off a weeklong double bill at New York’s Blue Note with another cutting-edge trio, Jason Moran and the Bandwagon. Expect yet more avant-garde covers of pop tunes: the Bee Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Love” and Rush’s “Tom Sawyer." Regattabar, Charles Hotel, One Bennett St., Cambridge. 617-395-7757. 7:30 & 10 p.m. $28. Repeats Sat.
BILL BEUTTLER
Tanglewood Jazz Festival
Venue/
Location:
Various Venues
Lenox, MA USA
Date(s):
September 1, 2006 - September 3, 2006
Written By:
Bill Beuttler
Chilly temperatures and threatening skies Saturday night prevented the sixth annual Tanglewood Jazz Festival from outdrawing its elder and more famous rival in Newport, R.I., for the second year in a row. But New England closed out its summer festival season in style over Labor Day weekend, with a surprise appearance by a very pregnant Diana Krall at her husband’s live taping of Marian McPartland’s “Piano Jazz” and a New Orleans tribute from native sons Wynton Marsalis and Dr. John.
It’s become a tradition to open the festival, which takes place at the Lenox, Mass., summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with a Friday night concert featuring Latin jazz. This year featured a double bill of big bands, with the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, led by Oscar Hernandez, opening for the Big 3 Palladium Orchestra. The latter group, formed in tribute to the legendary bandleaders Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez, was co-led by the sons of two of them—Machito Jr. and Tito Rodriguez Jr.—with Puente veteran Jose Madera Jr. as its musical director. Each of the three took a turn leading the orchestra through one of the Big 3’s songbooks, once Machito Jr. had finished taunting the audience good-naturedly about a recent five-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox by the New York Yankees.
Rock great Elvis Costello (pictured) was McPartland’s guest for “Piano Jazz” on Saturday afternoon, the fifth straight year she’s taped a segment of her National Public Radio show onstage at Tanglewood. Costello’s wife, Krall, sat quietly offstage as he bantered with McPartland about his music pedigree (Costello’s father, Ross MacManus, was a big band singer in Britain) and bravely worked his way through a series of old tunes from the days when jazz and pop were one and the same, most of which he said he was performing for the first time. Two highlights were his own lyrics to Billy Strayhorn’s “Blood Count” (which he bragged of having recorded an as-yet-unreleased version of with Bill Charlap and Joe Lovano) and McPartland’s “Threnody.” He also listened appreciatively as McParland improvised a pretty piano piece in his honor, which she called “Portrait of Elvis.”
Costello closed out the main portion of his set with “My Funny Valentine,” then turned to the audience and said, “Will you please welcome the love of my life, my wife, Diana Krall.”
Krall slowly made her way onstage, climbed onto a stool, and announced, “This wasn’t planned.” She then paused a beat, wrapped her hands around her prominent belly (she was several months along with twins), and added, “Oh, but this was.”
Krall sang a pair of standards herself—“If I Had You” and “Body & Soul”—then left the stage again so that Costello could conclude things with “At Last.” By then, she’d made it clear that she, more than he, has the chops to take their shared fondness for classic lyrics and honor them further by singing them well.
That night’s double bill of Wynton Marsalis and Dr. John accounted for the drop in attendance from last year, 13,000 total this year versus 17,000 in 2005. But it was bad weather that was the problem, not bad music. Marsalis and the rest of his quintet—Walter Blanding Jr. on saxophones, Daniel Nimmer on piano, Carlos Henriques on bass and Ali Jackson on drums—were superb through half a set of material drawn mostly from Marsalis’ The Magic Hour , then were joined by yet another Marsalis discovery, vocalist Jennifer Sanon, for impressive reads of three standards: “Comes Love,” “Good Morning Heartache” and “Them There Eyes.”
Dr. John’s set was a feel-good mix of classics from his own book and Johnny Mercer’s. Singers Ann Hampton Callaway, Catherine Russell (daughter of Louis Armstrong’s onetime musical director, Luis Russell ), John Pizzarelli and Irma Thomas took turns joining him for the latter, with Russell outshining the others with her solo version of “Moon River” and her duet with Dr. John on the comic “Save the Bones for Henry Jones.”
The sight of the night, though, was when Marsalis came out dancing as he led his band back onstage for a New Orleans finale. The man is from New Orleans, after all, and set his jazz purism aside long enough to indulge in a bit of New Orleans-style dancing as Dr. John and the band slowed down and funked up “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
Sunday afternoon’s headliner, the Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band, was indeed chockablock with all stars. Slide Hampton directed, and some of the other big names included Jimmy Heath, Cyrus Chestnut and Roy Hargrove, of whom Hampton at one point noted, “He’s here because he likes to play the music, because we couldn’t afford him otherwise.”
Hargrove had just finished a particularly resplendent flugelhorn solo on “I Remember Clifford,” but he seemed to like listening to the music as much as he did playing it—as demonstrated by the delighted look that would cross Hargrove’s face each time Heath took a solo. There were Latin accents on the Gillespie classics “Con Alma” and “Manteca,” and Antonio Hart took a furiously fleet solo on “Things to Come” at a tempo that called to mind how Gillespie earned his nickname. Vocalist Roberta Gambarini joined the orchestra for several tunes, and Hargrove joined her in scatting vocals to “Blue ’N’ Boogie.”
The Dave Brubeck Quartet and Symphonette wrapped things up Sunday night, with Brubeck slyly starting the set with “Gone with the Wind” and “Stormy Weather” in reference to the bad weather that still hadn’t entirely moved on. The quartet was joined after an intermission by the symphonette, primarily for a rare performance of some of Brubeck’s classical compositions, but the strings also joined him on a pair of Brubeck’s classics: “Blue Rondo a la Turk” and the inevitable “Take Five.” Billy Strayhorn’s “Take the ‘A’ Train” was Brubeck’s encore, and then he and the symphonette sent everyone home with “Brahms’ Lullaby.”
Another, newer Tanglewood tradition ran throughout the festival. Talented newcomers perform at the Jazz Café in between the headliners. This year’s batch included pianist John Stetch and his trio, the exquisite duo of pianist Taylor Eigsti and guitarist Julian Lage, the vocal quartet Syncopation, vibraphonist Warren Wolf and his fine quartet with Danny Grissett, Vicente Archer and Kendrick Scott, and vocalist Rachael Price (who was backed on piano by the multitalented Mr. Wolf). Grace Kelly, a prodigiously talented teenaged alto saxophonist and singer, performed at an opening press reception as well.
Price and Eigsti both took part in a Jazz Journalists Association panel discussion on the future of jazz that took place on Sunday afternoon; to judge by their work at the Jazz Café, and the work of the other rising talents there, the future of jazz is bright indeed.
©1999-2006 JazzTimes, Inc. All rights reserved.
By Bill Beuttler, Globe Correspondent | September 18, 2006
Last Tuesday was a day of debuts. The fall jazz season got underway with the Branford Marsalis Quartet cele brating the release that day of its newest album, "Braggtown," with a concert at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, whose Wimberly Theatre was in turn making its debut as a music venue.
Marsalis, who'd been awarded an honorary doctorate recently by the Berklee College of Music, began by announcing that the band would play the seven compositions on "Braggtown," in order, with a minimum of his own "jibber jabber" in between. He did pause while introducing his longtime bandmates pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts to note that he and Watts first met in 1979, when they were newly arrived Berklee undergraduates, and have been playing together ever since.
It was easy enough to see why. Watts's playing throughout the set was the glue holding this extraordinarily cohesive group together, even as its ferociousness propelled the others to greater and greater heights of derring-do. The quartet began with Marsalis's "Jack Baker," a burner with an addictive theme stated repeatedly by Marsalis on tenor sax. Watts got a solo on the piece himself, but he'd already been improvising just as furiously while pushing Marsalis and Calderazzo through theirs.
Next came two lovely ballads, for which Marsalis switched to soprano. Calderazzo's piece, titled "Hope," had a classical-sounding purity to it, with Watts wielding mallets for most of it. The Marsalis tune "Fate" was equally beautiful, but bluesier and more obviously rooted in jazz.
Other highlights included Watts's "Blakzilla," which Marsalis noted was loosely based on a snippet of music from the movie "Godzilla" that Watts had annoyed fellow musicians with on a 1985 tour of Japan, and Revis's "Black Elk Speaks," which featured a frenzied solo by the bassist that climaxed with his quoting the book of that name's famous line "Today is a good day to die."
"O Solitude," by the 18th-century English composer Henry Purcell, was another. The band played its parts as Purcell wrote them, explained Marsalis, "except for Tain's part he didn't envision Tain." So Watts created his own part, mostly emphasizing brushes.
One final debut wrapped up the evening as an encore: Berklee undergrad Lawrence Fields deftly filling in for Calderazzo on piano on a reading of Watts's "The Impaler."
Calendar Jazz Picks
Tues 9-21
Judi Silvano Quartet
Ryles, 212 Hampshire St., Inman Square, Cambridge. 617-876-9330. 8:30 p.m. $7. Featuring George Garzone with special guest Joe Lovano.
It's not every night that Ryles serves up a big-name headliner like Joe Lovano for a paltry $7 cover. But it's not every night that Lovano's wife, classically trained vocalist Judi Silvano (above, with Lovano), comes up from their home in Hudson Valley to play the club, either. Silvano who created her surname by splicing her husband's together with her own maiden name, Silverman has sung on a handful of Lovano albums. But she's also put out a half-dozen releases of her own, among them a duo effort with pianist Mal Waldron ("Riding a Zephyr") and a 2004 album of standards ("Let Yourself Go"). Expect something on the adventurous side at Ryles with Lovano and his old pal and tenor sax rival George Garzone on hand. (Ditto at the Lily Pad on Sunday and Monday, when Silvano is slated to guest with groups led or co-led by Garzone.)
Thurs 9-14 Stanley Jordan Across the Charles, Scullers has its own pair of guitar standouts this week. Stanley Jordan arrives tonight to show off his phenomenal tapping technique. Then John Pizzarelli comes in tomorrow and Saturday to sing and strum with his quartet. Scullers, Doubletree Guest Suites Boston, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston. 617-562-4111. 8 & 10 p.m. $20, $60 with dinner.
Fri 9-15 John Scofield Trio Scofield, another sometime Lovano collaborator, brings his stellar trio with bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Bill Stewart to Cambridge for two nights in a week that's unusually heavy on guitar stars. Scofield's predecessor in Miles Davis's 1980s bands, Mike Stern, starts his own two-night stand with bassist Richard Bona, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, and saxophonist Bob Malach at the R-bar on Wednesday. Regattabar, Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St., Cambridge. 617-395-7757. 7:30 & 10 p.m. $25. Repeats Sat ($28).
BILL BEUTTLER
By Bill Beuttler, Globe Correspondent | September 10, 2006
Establishing one's own sound is often thought to be the final hurdle separating the great jazz musicians from the merely good ones. By that standard, 33-year-old guitarist Lionel Loueke has already achieved greatness.
Loueke, who brings his trio to the BeanTown Jazz Festival this month, grew up in the West African nation of Benin, where at age 17 he began teaching himself to play guitar.
Guitar strings were hard to come by in his village, so he made do as best he could. Once a week he'd soak his strings in vinegar, which he says didn't do much to maintain their sound but at least made them look better. He also once tried using a bicycle brake cable as a replacement string, with disastrous consequences.
"The problem," says Loueke, "was the tension was so hard that one day it just broke my neck — the neck of my instrument."
Formal music education followed. He moved to Ivory Coast and studied classical music for three years. Next came a three-year immersion in jazz at the American School of Modern Music in Paris. Then came three more at Berklee College of Music.
"That was even better than Paris," says Loueke, "because the facilities are bigger and better, and I had a chance to study with some of the best teachers," including his favorite, Mick Goodrick .
The downside to Berklee, however, was that Loueke's attempt to fit in with the school's modernist aesthetic sometimes kept him from finding his own sound.
"One semester," explains Loueke, "I would sound like John Scofield , because I was checking him out, and the next semester, I'd sound like Pat Metheny. My study at Berklee was great in the sense [that] I learned a lot about harmony and melody. But it wasn't a school for me where they had me doing my own thing."
That came next, at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance at the University of Southern California. The institute's artistic director, Terrence Blanchard, told the story at Scullers last winter of how Loueke wowed him and fellow judges Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock at his audition.
Loueke remembers surprising them by asking if he could play an intro to the tune he'd been told to open with, the John Coltrane classic "Moment's Notice. "
"Coming from Berklee," says Loueke, "I was, like, 'Man, I don't want to be like anybody. I just wanna be myself. Either they like it or they don't.' And I remember that when I finished my audition, they were clapping. Herbie was saying, 'Man, what about we forget about the Monk Institute and we go on the road?'"
Loueke completed his Monk Institute studies, but he's in Hancock's group now, having previously put in four years in Blanchard's. He made the switch because Hancock spends less of the year touring than Blanchard does, and Loueke wanted time to concentrate on his trio, which includes Swedish-Italian bassist Massimo Biolcati and Hungarian drummer Ferenc Nemeth.
The group's second album, "Virgin Forest," due out later this year, includes cameos from Hancock, Cyro Baptista, Gregoire Maret, and Gretchen Parlato. There are also snippets of traditional drumming and singing that Loueke recorded in Benin, which he used as intros to most of his new pieces on the album and reproduces in performance using a loop machine.
Such rhythms, and Loueke's singing, which bears some resemblance to Milton Nascimento's, contribute heavily to the guitarist's unique sound. But so do such innovations as stuffing paper between his guitar strings and fret board to mimic an African thumb piano, or slapping his instrument's hollow body with his hand and bending the resultant pitches with a Whammy Pedal to approximate talking drums.
That sort of stuff they don't teach in music schools. And Loueke isn't finished seeking it on his own.
"I'm still looking," he says, "for new sounds and new approaches."
© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Impressions: Jazz
September 10, 2006
All in the family: Branford Marsalis celebrates the release of his quartet's latest album, "Braggtown," with a concert Tuesday at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts . His brother Delfeayo Marsalis plays the Bean Town Jazz Festival on Sept. 30. Meanwhile, their father, pianist Ellis Marsalis, joins the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to kick off the 2006-2007 Bank of America Celebrity Series at Symphony Hall on Oct. 15.
Berklee bound: The Berklee Performance Center lineup includes Cassandra Wilson celebrating the release of her album "Thunderbird" (Sept. 23); Al Di Meola (Oct. 6); Madeleine Peyroux (Nov. 1); Eguie Castrillo & Friends (Nov. 9); Bill Frisell's Unspeakable Orchestra (Nov. 12); Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood (Nov. 16, with guitarist John Scofield joining the MMW boys); and Marcus Miller performing with a student group led by Berklee guitar prof David Fiucynski (Dec. 8). Two other BPC concerts that aren't quite jazz but close enough to deserve mention: the eclectic little big band Pink Martini (Sept. 16-17) and vocalist/guitarist C. Calloway Brooks, director of his late grandfather's Cab Calloway Orchestra, injecting a bit of swing into a joint concert with the Hankus Netsky-led Klezmer Conservatory Band (Oct. 29).
At Scullers: The season bolts out of the gate this week with Esperanza Spalding on Tuesday, the Kenny Werner Trio on Wednesday, Stanley Jordan on Thursday, and the John Pizzarelli Quartet on Friday and Saturday. Other acts in the offing: Dave Weckl (Sept. 19); Patricia Barber (Sept. 21-22); Maggie Scott (Sept. 26); the Marian McPartland Trio (Sept 29-30); Kate McGarry (Oct. 2); Eldar (Oct. 3); Keely Smith (Oct. 12-14); the Aruan Ortiz Trio (Oct. 31); Natraj (Nov. 1); Pat Martino (Nov. 2-3); John Stein (Nov. 7); the Yellowjackets (Nov. 10-11); Ann Hampton Callaway (Nov. 16); Arturo Sandoval (Nov. 24-26); and Joe Lovano (Nov. 28).
At the Regattabar: Headliners include the John Scofield Trio (Friday and Saturday ); Steve Smith's Jazz Legacy (Sept. 19); the Mike Stern Band (Sept. 20-21); the Bad Plus (Sept. 22-23); a Stevie Wonder tribute from Ron Gill (Oct. 4); the Ben Monder Trio (Oct. 5); Eric Alexander & One for All (Oct. 7); Kurt Rosenwinkel & Toninho Horta (Oct. 13-14); the John Patitucci Trio (Oct. 18); the Tomasz Stanko Quartet (Oct. 19); the Dave Holland Quintet (Oct. 26-28); the Pierre Hurel Trio, (Nov. 1); and Dominique Eade and Jed Wilson toasting their new duo album (Nov. 14).
Otherwise engaged: At Ryles, Joe Lovano backs his wife, vocalist Judi Silvano, along with George Garzone on Sept. 19; a "Tenor Battle of the Century" featuring Tim Mayer, Bill Pierce, and Andy McGhee takes place on Oct. 6; and trumpeter Wallace Roney stops in Oct. 13. The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra performs an election-year concert titled "Booboisie & Beyond" Oct. 14 at MIT's Killian Hall, then does its annual Christmas concert Dec. 17 at Emmanuel Church. Young singers Rachael Price and Jeremy Ragsdale perform Oct. 14 at Needham's Christ Episcopal Church, as part of the Highland Jazz concert series. Stan Strickland performs his one-man theatrical show "Coming Up for Air — An AutoJAZZography" Sept. 27-Oct. 14 at the Boston Center for the Arts.
BILL BEUTTLER
© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Calendar Jazz Picks
Tues 9-12
Branford Marsalis Quartet
Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., Boston. 617-933-8600. 7:30 p.m. $40- $96 (premium ticket package includes a signed copy of “Braggtown” and admission to a post-show reception for Marsalis).
Branford Marsalis (above) has a special pair of days ahead of him in Boston this week. Tomorrow night he’ll return to his alma mater, Berklee College of Music, to collect an honorary doctorate of music degree and address the school’s entering class of 2010. Then the saxophonist brings his longstanding quartet to the Boston Center for the Arts on Tuesday for a concert celebrating that day's release of the group’s new album, “Braggtown.” Pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts have been working with Marsalis for years now, and it shows in their extraordinarily tight rapport. Their previous two discs together were dominated, respectively, by an old-time New Orleans feel and melancholy ballads. “Braggtown” is full of post-bop fire and original compositions, with all four musicians contributing new material, plus a piece by 18th century English composer Henry Purcell. It all adds up to something worth bragging about indeed.
Thurs 9-7 Diane Schuur Schuur’s impressive June release, “Live in London,” features her singing and playing piano on classics such as “Poinciana” and “Besame Mucho,” backed by a trio nearly identical to the one joining her tonight and tomorrow in Boston. Scott Steed and Reggie Jackson will play bass and drums, respectively, as on the album; Dan Balmer takes over for Rod Fleeman on guitar. Scullers, Doubletree Guest Suites Boston, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston. 617-562-4111. 8 & 10 p.m. $24, $64 with dinner. Repeats Fri, 8 & 10:30 p.m.
Fri 9-8 Ron Carter Quartet Carter is unquestionably one of the greatest bassists in the history of jazz, one of a handful to convincingly transform it into a lead instrument. This weekend he brings his Latin-edged quartet to Cambridge for two nights, with Stephen Scott on piano, Payton Crossley on drums, and Rolando Morales-Matos on percussion. Regattabar, Charles Hotel, One Bennett St., Cambridge. 617-395-7757. 7:30 & 10 p.m. $26. Repeats Sat.
BILL BEUTTLER
By Bill Beuttler, Globe Correspondent | September 5, 2006
Things kept happening at the 2006 Tanglewood Jazz Festival that weren't supposed to. Luckily, most of them — in particular the surprise guest appearance of Diana Krall at her husband's taping of "Piano Jazz" — only made for a better show.
The weather, alas, wasn't as near-perfect as it's been in previous years, driving attendance down to 13,000 from last year's peak of 17,000, with Saturday night's chilly, rain-threatened double bill of Wynton Marsalis and Dr. John by far the hardest hit. The weather wasn't responsible, but Marsalis showed up with a quintet instead of his advertised septet, and Dr. John was missing his promised all-star horn trio as well.
Some things went off as planned, however. It's become a tradition for the festival to open Friday night with hot Latin jazz, and this year it was provided by two terrific orchestras: the Spanish Harlem Orchestra led by Oscar Hernandez and the Big 3 Palladium Orchestra , the latter roaring through the music of Machito, Tito Puente, and Tito Rodriguez under the direction of co-leaders Machito Jr. and Tito Rodriguez Jr. and musical director (and Puente veteran) Jose Madera Jr.
Saturday afternoon was, for the fifth year in a row, given over to a live taping of Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz." This year's guest was Elvis Costello, who charmingly bantered with McPartland in between his earnest crooning of lesser-known gems by giants such as Ira Gershwin and Glenn Miller, and his own lyrics to Billy Strayhorn's "Blood Count" and McPartland's "Threnody." He then brought out his very pregnant wife and exited the stage. Krall gamely clambered onto a stool and sang versions of "If I Had You" and "Body & Soul," making it clear that, when it comes to singing standards, she is very much Costello's better half.
Saturday night's big concert had a couple of happy surprises, too. Marsalis was in strong form as his quintet made its way through material drawn mostly from his recent album, "The Magic Hour." He then brought out a talented young vocalist, Jennifer Sanon, whose confident runs through "Good Morning Heartache" and "Them There Eyes" suggested big things to come from her.
Dr. John's set opened with a New Orleans gumbo including his old hit "Right Place, Wrong Time." It moved on to a series of singers — Ann Hampton Callaway, Catherine Russell, John Pizzarelli, and Irma Thomas — coming onstage to join Dr. John for a couple of tunes apiece, many of them coming from his new album, "Mercernary." The surprise of the night, though, was when Marsalis came out dancing as he led his quintet back onstage with everyone else for the New Orleans tribute encore.
The Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band was up Sunday afternoon, and it wasn't misnamed. Just a few of the biggest names on hand included director Slide Hampton, Roy Hargrove, Cyrus Chestnut, and Jimmy Heath. The surprise here was vocalist Roberta Gambarini getting Hargrove to join her for scatted vocals on "Blue 'N' Boogie," and Hargrove pulling off his side of the exchange with aplomb.
The festival concluded Sunday night with Dave Brubeck's quartet being augmented after intermission by a symphonette for rarely heard reads of Brubeck compositions for strings. But the symphonette also joined in on a set-ender that was no surprise at all: the Brubeck classic "Take Five."
© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
By Bill Beuttler, Globe Correspondent | September 1, 2006
Dr. John has a dual mission for his Tanglewood Jazz Festival performance tomorrow night: He'll introduce the audience to his new album, "Mercernary," and he'll pay tribute to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. "It'll be like a Johnny Mercer-meets-New Orleans kind of night," says the 65-year-old music legend.
Tanglewood is the latest stop on Dr. John's tour promoting "Mercernary," his delightful new Mercer tribute on Blue Note Records. Joining him for that part of the program will be guest vocalists John Pizzarelli, Ann Hampton Callaway, Irma Thomas, and Catherine Russell, plus an all-star horn section of Jeremy Pelt on trumpet, Craig Handy on tenor sax, and Howard Johnson on baritone sax. Callaway will join Dr. John for duet versions of "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "Makin' Whoopee." (Dr. John's recorded version of the latter with Rickie Lee Jones won a 1989 Grammy.)
"I love how natural he is," says Callaway, who sang the two tunes with him earlier this summer in New York. "The thing I really enjoyed about performing with him, we didn't really come up with an arrangement per se. We just sort of listened to each other and made music. There's such a sense of freedom and fun."
Once the Mercer tribute wraps up, the evening's opening headliner, Wynton Marsalis, will return to the stage to join Dr. John and Thomas, the Soul Queen of New Orleans, for a tribute honoring their devastated hometown during this first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
Dr. John says his next album, for which he is now assembling demos from collaborators, will be made up of new songs focused on New Orleans and Katrina. Expect an angry record. Dr. John is furious at the government for what happened to his city.
"I'm tryin' to get something to maybe open it and close it on a not-angry note," says Dr. John, who uses his real name, Mac Rebennack , in conversation. "But right now, just about everything for me and my co-writers is, I couldn't even call it 'anger.' I'd call it 'pissed off.' "
Dr. John is not a naturally angry man, however. The Mercer material he'll draw from tomorrow is loaded with nostalgic charm. The idea came from his daughter, Tina, who'd been urging him to record "Personality" for years. He was surprised to learn Mercer hadn't written "Personality" himself, but he liked Mercer's 1946 hit recording of it enough to want to make an album of that song and others Mercer had written lyrics to.
Tina sent her dad a bunch of possibilities to check out, but some he found he couldn't sing convincingly. "Like 'Skylark,'" he explains. "I love that song, but I just couldn't pull it off. For me to do a song, no matter what song it be, I've gotta really feel that song."
Dr. John had better luck with other Mercer favorites: "Blues in the Night," "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby," "Come Rain or Come Shine," and "Moon River" are among those to make the album. He also plucked a couple of more obscure Mercer gems. One was "I'm an Old Cowhand," which Sonny Rollins had previously unearthed for an album nearly 50 years ago.
"Tangerine," meanwhile, took Dr. John back to his New Orleans youth. "Red Tyler used to always play 'Tangerine,' and I just did that as a tribute to Red on this record," he says. "Before he passed away, he was always a bandleader in a studio band in New Orleans, and he was kind of like my mentor."
Tyler was on hand for Dr. John's first studio experience. So was tenor saxophonist Herbert Hardisty, who performs on three tracks on "Mercernary."
"Herbert Hardisty, who's on this record playing a lot of stuff, and Red were the horn section, along with Dave Bartholomew," he recalls. "I walked in on a session, and Dave just leaned over for the last note of the song and hit a fat chord. It was just like, 'Wow.' That's my first memory of seeing a recording session. That's like a long, long time ago in the '40s. I wasn't even playing music then or anything, I don't think."
Dr. John also contributed a song of his own to the album, "I Ain't No Johnny Mercer," itself a pastiche of Mercerisms. One in particular struck his fancy, in a way perhaps only a fellow singer-songwriter can fully appreciate.
"It was a line in one song that absolutely fried me," Rebennack explains, laughing, "where he said something about 'sexy and apoplexy,' for a rhyme. I'm thinking, 'Who the hell would say the word apoplexy?' It's such a poppin'-of-the-mike word. And who would have ever cut the damn song? It just completely cracked me up."
Dr. John performs after Wynton Marsalis tomorrow at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival. Show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets $22 to $75. Call 888-266-1200 or visit www.tanglewoodjazzfestival.com.
© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Calendar Jazz Picks
Tues 8-29
Denny Zeitlin Trio
Scullers, Doubletree Guest Suites, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston. 617-562-4111. 8 & 10 p.m. $17, $57 with dinner.
The Los Angeles Times has called pianist Denny Zeitlin (above) "the jazz world's most visible Renaissance man a full-time practicing psychiatrist, a medical schoolteacher, and a world-class jazz musician." That's not to mention Zeitlin's interests in wine, mountain biking, fly-fishing, and the outdoors, which also get space devoted to them on his website (www.dennyzeitlin.com). It's his jazz accomplishments that concern us here, though. Zeitlin's first records were acoustic ones released in the 1960s, earning him laurels from critics. He turned his attention next to electronic efforts, a period that yielded his score for the 1978 remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." These days, Zeitlin is back to playing acoustic jazz, often joined by the very accomplished sidemen who'll be with him Tuesday: bassist Buster Williams and drummer Matt Wilson. Their album together, "Slickrock," came out from MaxJazz in 2004.
Thurs 8-24 Jackie Cain & the Bill Kirchner Trio Vocalist Cain joined saxophonist Kirchner and trio mates Eddie Monteiro (accordion) and Ron Vincent (drums) for Kirchner's 2005 album, "Everything I Love," which earned praise in JazzTimes for its "novel instrumentation, first-class material, and superior playing." Don't be surprised to hear a little vocalizing from Monteiro, too: He sings Brazilian tunes in fluent Portuguese. Scullers (see venue info above), 8 & 10 p.m. $20, $60 with dinner.
Fri 8-25 Candida Rose New Bedford native Rose's recently released debut album, "KabuMerikana: The Sum of Me," mixes her Cape Verdean musical roots with jazz, gospel, and R&B to create what she calls "KabuJazz." She'll be singing it tonight backed by pianist John Kordalewski. Tanner Tavern, 474 Main St., Woburn. 781-935-0777. 7 p.m. No cover.
BILL BEUTTLER
By Bill Beuttler, Globe Staff | August 18, 2006
He recorded songs called "Dracula," "Frankenstein," and "Igor's Revenge," but Greg Abate didn't include any tunes named for ghosts on his new album, "Monsters in the Night."
Maybe he should have. He shares a couple of characteristics with them, after all, as a frighteningly invisible minor master of bebop alto saxophone.
It's not like he's unknown everywhere. For five years now Abate has headlined a tiny jazz festival annually in Lubec, Maine, and he is regularly booked to front pick up bands all across the country. He's a little better known in Europe, where he tours heavily each summer. But then, musicians often note that jazz is more appreciated overseas than it is stateside.
At a tribute to Charlie Parker with different alto players in Vienne, France, last summer, he was impressed by the dedication of fans gathered in a Roman amphitheater.
"I remember doing `Donna Lee' and `Lover Man,'" says Abate, "and I started a little cadenza, and you look out there and you see thousands of people, just their heads, and beautiful lighting — and you cannot hear one sound from all those people."
Abate got a similar response from a smaller crowd at Marblehead Summer Jazz earlier this summer, he says. But he doesn't often get booked for high-profile gigs in Boston like the one he has coming up Tuesday at Scullers. That one will show off the monster-monikered tunes on the new disc, a project Abate conceived while watching a werewolf movie with a band mate after a gig in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
The musicians backing Abate Tuesday will be the local guys on the new album: trombonist Artie Montanaro, pianist Paul Nagel, bassist Bill Miele, and drummer Vinny Pagano.
"The live version of this band," says Abate, "is very high-energy — more so than the CD."
Abate has recorded with bigger names in the past, Kenny Barron, Hilton Ruiz, James Williams, and Billy Hart among them. But for this album he stuck closer to home, which for him has been Rhode Island nearly all his life. He grew up in Woonsocket, and played music throughout junior high and high school.
"I didn't really know what I was getting into," he recalls, "but I loved the music. When I heard Paul Desmond and Dave Brubeck with 'Take Five' I was in the 9th or 10th grade, and I started to migrate toward that sort of alto sound."
His jazz education didn't get much beyond Brubeck, however, until he got out of high school. "The band director was a New England Conservatory classical pianist," Abate explains, "and he didn't say, `Hey, you should listen to Bird or Cannonball Adderley or Sonny Stitt or Dexter Gordon or John Coltrane.' I never heard those names until I got to Berklee."
After beginning his studies there, Abate moved to California and began supporting himself working R&B gigs. He returned to Berklee in 1972 to finish his degree, doubled back to California afterward, and at 28 was hired to play lead alto in Ray Charles's band.
In 1974, he got homesick and returned to Rhode Island, where he found steady work at a local club and eventually launched a fusion band called Channel One.
Abate's focus on bebop began when Dick Johnson hired him in 1986 to play tenor sax with the Artie Shaw Orchestra. The Shaw band is known for swing, of course, but playing with it gave Abate a better feel for playing standards and for soloing with a strong sense of a song's harmonic structure.
"That helped me become a better bebop player," he says, "because to play bop you really have to concentrate on the elements of being your own timekeeper and having the technique to play the ideas that you have coming through your head."
Abate has long since established himself as a top-notch bebop player. If the general public hasn't quite caught up with that fact yet, his fellow musicians have. Pianist Mark Soskin played with Abate in Marblehead a few weeks ago, and the two will play together for a week this fall at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola in Lincoln Center.
Soskin knows a thing or two about quality saxophone players, having worked alongside Sonny Rollins for 15 years, and he's among those who believe Abate deserves wider recognition.
"As far as being underrated, this business works in mysterious ways," Soskin says. "In Greg's case, I really don't know why. But he definitely should be out there more, and I hope that he gets there."
The Greg Abate Quintet performs at 8 and 10 p.m. Tuesday at Scullers. Tickets $16. Call 617-562-4111 or visit www.scullersjazz.com.
© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Calendar Jazz Picks
Sat 8-19
Houston Person
Marblehead Summer Jazz, Unitarian-Universalist Church, 28 Mugford St., Marblehead. 781-631-128. 8 p.m. $27, $25 advance.
Tenor saxophonist Houston Person (above), some believe, is scandalously undervalued. A big-toned, soulful blower who turns convincingly tender on ballads, Person, 71, spent three decades backing vocalist Etta Jones. But he also made arty duo albums with Ron Carter, Ran Blake, and, most recently, Bill Charlap — their exquisite "You Taught My Heart to Sing" (HighNote) is already among this year's best albums. He'll have his usual quartet with him in Marblehead (including pianist Stan Hope, bassist Phil Flanagan, and drummer Chip White), joined by Berklee violin phenomenon Aaron Weinstein. Person played on Weinstein's debut album, "A Handful of Stars," and the 20-year-old came away from the experience much impressed by the saxophonist's reverence for melody. Person, he told Nat Hentoff in the Wall Street Journal, "constantly seeks out interesting songs from the depths of the American songbook and is always eager to share his finds."
Fri 8-18 Tania Maria This fiery, well-traveled Brazilian singer-pianist rolls into town for two nights of celebrating the release of her splendid new album for Blue Note Records, "Intimidade." Then she's off to New York for a six-night run doing likewise at the Blue Note club. Joining her in Cambridge are Rick Sebastian on drums, Sergio Brandao on bass, and Mestre Carneiro on percussion. Regattabar, Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St., Cambridge. 617-395-7757. 7:30 & 10 p.m. $25. Repeats Sat.
Fri 8-18 Jon De Lucia Group Saxophonist-composer De Lucia, a Quincy native, celebrates the release of his debut album, "Face No Face," a well-conceived disc of ambitious originals recorded with a band of fellow, fast-rising Berklee-ites since relocated to New York. Joining him tonight is a somewhat different group made up of guitarist Nir Felder, pianist Pete Rende, bassist John Lockwood, and drummer Mark Ferber. Ryles, 212 Hampshire St., Inman Square, Cambridge. 617-876-9330. 9 p.m. $10.
BILL BEUTTLER
By Bill Beuttler, Globe Correspondent | August 11, 2006
When violinist Jenny Scheinman opens the Waterside Stage at noon tomorrow at the JVC Jazz Festival-Newport, she'll be debuting new music written specifically for her big-name, short-term sideman, Jason Moran.
Scheinman's past couple of CDs, "Shalagaster" and last year's "12 Songs," earned spots on several critics' year-end lists of best albums for their soulful, lyrical mix of jazz, folk, blues, classical, and other influences. But this month will be the first time she'll have Moran backing her on piano. Tomorrow they'll have bassist Matt Penman and drummer Jim Black joining them, and Thursday, Scheinman, Moran, and drum legend Paul Motian start four nights together as a Scheinman-led trio at New York's Jazz Standard.
Scheinman, 33, was scrambling to get ready for a quick trip to Lisbon last week, where she would join an expanded version of the Rova Saxophone Quartet in a performance of music from John Coltrane's famous late-period album "Ascension." But she paused to discuss her latest project by phone from her Brooklyn apartment.
"As I'm talking to you, I'm surrounded in sheet music," Scheinman says. "I'm trying to write out all this new stuff I've been writing with Jason in mind. I'm sort of also working toward making a new record in the fall, hopefully with Jason. And so I have like 15 new tunes or something. We're not going to fit in 15 tunes [at Newport], but we'll do some of them."
Scheinman confesses to having been unfamiliar with Moran's work before joining him last year as a last-minute fellow special guest at a Christian McBride concert. The all-star band that night had the audience up and dancing to a wonderful yet "somewhat static" groove, she said. Then Moran's turn came to solo, and he thoroughly changed the dynamic.
"Jason got up and just put these billowy, cool chords over everything," Scheinman recalls. "It was so surprising, and it just changed the whole night. I was lucky I got to play after him — he gave everybody possibilities. It was totally beautiful."
Not long afterward, Scheinman saw Moran perform with clarinetist Don Byron and drummer Billy Hart in Byron's Ivy-Divey trio. "Billy Hart and Jason Moran were amazing together — totally playful and strong," she says. "And Jason has such a tremendous sound. I was riveted."
Those two concerts inspired Scheinman to acquire all of Moran's albums, and eventually to send him some of her own work and ask if he'd like to collaborate on something. When he agreed, she set up the Jazz Standard dates.
In a sense, their pairing marks a flip-flop of their usual roles. The Ivy-Divey group and a stint with Greg Osby early in his career aside, Moran has generally led his own dates, fronting his group the Bandwagon. Scheinman has been most widely heard backing others. She tours occasionally with Madeleine Peyroux, turns up on two tracks on Norah Jones's "Fly Away With Me," and plays in an assortment of Bill Frisell-led groups. (One of them, Frisell's Unspeakable Orchestra, will bring her to Berklee Performance Center in November.)
Leading bands at higher profile venues like Newport and the Jazz Standard is a step up for Scheinman, and Moran jumped at the chance to join her. He relishes the challenge.
"How can you take all of this stuff that you've learned from Jaki Byard and Thelonious Monk and Andrew Hill, and incorporate it into Jenny Scheinman's music? Which at times can be folkie," Moran says. "Which at times can be — you know, it kind of runs across the gamut of what the landscape of pastoral sound can be, but in a contemporary way. That's what I'm going to really enjoy working with."
Scheinman says some of the pieces she's writing are closer to straight-ahead than her previous work, because of Moran. Others will stretch him. "There are three or four cartoony pieces in the set," she says, "plus one absurd march currently titled `Blues for Istanbul' — a tricky head with a fast and angular melody over steady marching fifths, [and] an intangible harmonic center. I think it will sit well with his palette."
There are also two gentle pieces she calls "akin to a Chopin prelude," which exploit Moran's undervalued ability to play soft.
"With certain other contemporary pianists," says Scheinman, "I would fear that these songs would go into the schmaltz zone, into a world of bittersweet nostalgia. I've never heard Jason go there — he is able to access sweetness without nearing any cloying or mushy quality."
© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Calendar Jazz Picks
Sat 8/12 - Sun 8/13 JVC Jazz Festival-Newport
For Adams State Park, Newport, R.I. 866-468-7619. 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. $70 festival weekend, $65 advance; $5 children under 12, free under 2. Repeats Sun.
Granted, this year's JVC Jazz Festival-Newport kicks off tomorrow night at the Newport Casino, inside the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Bellevue Avenue, with a double bill pairing Jane Monheit with the John Pizzarelli Big Band, touring behind its new album, "Dear Mr. Sinatra." But the fullest Newport experience happens Saturday and Sunday, when a steady stream of stars keeps the music flowing on three competing stages. Just a few of Saturday's highlights include main-stage acts George Benson, Al Jarreau, the Robert Glasper Trio, and the McCoy Tyner Septet (Tyner, above) performing "The Story of Impulse Records." Sunday's headliners include Dr. John, Chris Botti, the Bad Plus, and the Dave Brubeck Quartet. But that just scratches the surface. For the complete schedule, visit www.festivalproductions.net.
Thurs 8/10 Jon Faddis Quartet Trumpet virtuoso Faddis's new album, "Teranga," is his first small-group effort in 15 years, and it's a gem. Joining him to promote it over two nights at Scullers is the rest of Faddis's working quartet: pianist David Hazeltine, bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa, and drummer Dion Parson. Scullers, Doubletree Guest Suites, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston. 617-562-4111. 8 & 10 p.m. $22, $62 with dinner. Repeats Fri at 8 & 10:30 p.m.
Fri 8/11 Charlie Haden Quartet West 20th Anniversary Bass great Haden is a sideman extraordinaire, but the quartet he put together after moving back to Los Angeles in the 1980s is something special, too, a group that explores decades-old American popular music, much of it film-related. Pianist (and standout composer) Alan Broadbent and saxophonist Ernie Watts have been with Haden throughout; Rodney Green mans the drums. Regattabar, Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St., Cambridge. 617-395-7757. 7:30 & 10 p.m. $26. Repeats Sat.
BILL BEUTTLER
By Bill Beuttler, Globe Correspondent | August 9, 2006
Jon Faddis seems to spend more time directing orchestras these days than he does playing trumpet. Which makes the release this summer of his album "Teranga" — and the tour supporting it that will bring him to Scullers tomorrow and Friday — something special.
Faddis, 53, burst onto the jazz scene nearly 35 years ago and was hailed as a second coming of Dizzy Gillespie. He was a just-out-of-high-school kid who joined phenomenal technique with an amiable, audience-friendly personality. No less an authority than Gillespie himself declared Faddis "the best ever — including me!"
Faddis's trumpeting is no less phenomenal now, but his directing various large ensembles — he currently leads the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble — limits his opportunities to show it off.
"As my wife tends to remind me," Faddis says during a recent tour stop in Atlanta, "one of the things that I do when I'm leading a big band is I tend to shine the spotlight on other members, more so than myself."
Faddis is far more comfortable in the spotlight now than he used to be. After roaring through apprenticeships in the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra and groups led by Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, and Gil Evans, Faddis spent most of his 20s supporting himself as a studio musician. This was in the late '70s and early '80s, a period in which work was scarce for most young straight-ahead jazz players. But Faddis says he could have been an exception.
"I was actually approached by [legendary producer] Norman Granz to put together a group and to go on the road," Faddis says. "But I think more than anything it was my own fear — or fears, plural — that kept me from going out and getting my own group and trying to live up to all of the pressures I felt at the time of being the next trumpet player. And studio music was, I guess, a pretty convenient escape from that."
So instead of taking on the role Wynton Marsalis would assume a few years later — the young man with the horn calling people back to undiluted jazz — Faddis began popping up in low-profile roles on high-profile albums by the likes of Frank Sinatra, the Rolling Stones, Luther Vandross, and Billy Joel, among many others. His horn was heard, too, on "The Cosby Show" theme, the soundtracks to the Clint Eastwood films "The Gauntlet" and "Bird " and on countless commercials.
A White House appearance with Gillespie in 1982 brought Faddis's attention back to live performance and, within a year, he was leading a combo that included saxophonist Greg Osby and pianist James Williams. His work leading big bands began with a celebration of Gillespie's 70th birthday in 1987, which eventually led to a decade-long run leading the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the group that in 2003 evolved into the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra.
Faddis maintained a quartet all along. For the past several years it's consisted of pianist David Hazeltine, bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa, and drummer Dion Parson. But he hasn't put out an album with one since 1991. The decision to shift gears and record "Teranga," Faddis says, is "not a conscious move to do more small-group playing, but it's a more conscious move to do something in my own direction, do more of my own music."
Hazeltine, for one, is glad to see Faddis doing so. "I've always encouraged him to play his original material," says Hazeltine, who's been playing with Faddis for about a decade. "He's got a lot of great compositions lying around."
All but one tune on the new disc are written by Faddis. They include a graceful waltz dedicated to jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker and his ongoing struggle against a life-threatening illness (``Waltz for My Fathers & Brothers"), a song paying tribute via high-note trumpet pyrotechnics to "some very, very important women in [Faddis's] life" ("The Hunters & Gatherers"), a bebop burner honoring Faddis pal and pianist Kenny Barron ("The Baron"), a ballad with guest guitarist Russell Malone celebrating Faddis's wife ("Laurelyn"), and a blues, featuring the comic mumbling of guest trumpeter Clark Terry ("The Fibble-Ow Blues").
Guest percussionists Abdou M'boup and Alioune Faye join the quartet for the album's West African-accented title track, whose meaning Faddis finds particularly significant.
"It's more than just a word," he explains. "It's a Senegalese way of life. It's sort of, I guess, a great manifestation of the golden rule. It's something started by the mothers in Senegal, ensuring that their children will not ever be without, or wanting. And the way it works is that if strangers come and ask for a favor or anything, you take them in and treat them as family. And that will ensure that when their children are somewhere else, they can be taken in and treated as family."
© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
By Bill Beuttler, Globe Correspondent | August 4, 2006
Oscar Brown Jr. died last year at age 78, having lived a full and fascinating life. His chief claim to fame was as a jazz lyricist — he wrote "Strong Man" for Abbey Lincoln, and put words to such well-known jazz instrumentals as Miles Davis's "All Blues," Mongo Santamaria's "Afro Blue," and Nat Adderley's "Work Song" — but Brown also made marks as a singer, poet, playwright, actor, television host, and social activist. He unsuccessfully ran for public office in his native Chicago, wrote musicals that starred Muhammad Ali ("Buck White" ) and the Blackstone Rangers street gang ("Opportunity, Please Knock" ), and performed his cleverly rhymed, often politically charged lyrics in a style — as much spoken and acted as sung — that some consider a precursor to rap.
For all that, Brown died not particularly well-known. So it's a pleasure to see director Donnie L. Betts come along with the well-wrought documentary "Music Is My Life, Politics My Mistress: The Story of Oscar Brown Jr." to give Brown his due.
Betts breaks Brown's life into three acts. The first opens with a clean-shaven, youngish Brown singing "Work Song" on "The Ed Sullivan Show" morphing into the white-bearded, middle-aged Brown doing likewise on some more anonymous stage, then cuts back and takes us through Brown's youth in the Bronzeville section of Chicago and his early jobs as a radio actor and union organizer. Act II shows him hitting full stride as a musician, moving from cranking out songs and plays while supposedly working in his father's real-estate office to selling his first album to Columbia Records ("Sin & Soul" ), chasing financing for his first would-be Broadway musical ("Kicks & Co." ), and collaborating on (and quarreling over) Max Roach's "Freedom Now Suite."
Act III takes as its starting point Brown's declaration that "a long time ago, I made a choice — I said you could either operate for money or for people," and gives a sense of how his civil- rights advocacy may have prevented his achieving the wealth and renown he seemed headed for in the early 1960s. The poet Amiri Baraka, one of several admirers popping up to comment on Brown (others include Lincoln, Studs Terkel, and the late Chicago journalist Vernon Jarrett), suggests that Brown could have been the black Neil Simon were it not for his politics.
The farm's worth of marijuana that Brown jokes of smoking over the years may have slowed his career's advance, too. One of the film's many strengths is that it shows Brown's shortcomings and losses without flinching. We hear of his first two marriages going awry, and one of the most affecting segments concerns the 1996 death of Oscar Brown III, who as a little boy had inspired Brown's charmingly childish lyrics to the Bobby Timmons tune "Dat Dere."
The film's greatest strengths are Brown and the access Betts had to him via archival footage and six years of interviews. There's no better way to appreciate Brown's humanity and humor than to watch the man in action.
Bill Beuttler can be reached at bill@billbeuttler.com.
© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Calendar Jazz Picks
Sat 8-5
Joe Locke and Geoffrey Keezer
Marblehead Summer Jazz, Unitarian-Universalist Church, 28 Mugford St., Marblehead. 781-631-1528. 8 p.m. $24 advance, $26 door
The Joe Locke/Geoffrey Keezer Group has a fiery new album, "Live in Seattle," just out on Origin Records, on which vibraphonist Locke (right) and keyboardist Keezer are joined by Mike Pope on acoustic and electric basses and Terreon Gully on drums. This weekend in Marblehead, they'll be playing as a duo. But both men have stayed busy individually as well. Locke's pair of 2005 discs "Rev-elation," with the Milt Jackson Tribute Band, and "Van Gogh by Numbers," with Christos Rafalides helped lead to 2006 Mallet Player of the Year honors from the Jazz Journalists Association. Keezer's other output included his 2006 trio album, "Wildcrafted: Live at the Dakota," and extensive touring with the Christian McBride Band, the latter of which brought him to Berklee Performance Center in April for a splashy, multi-headliner concert titled "What Is Jazz."
Fri 8-4 Lee Konitz Trio Sax great Lee Konitz, who helped Miles Davis and Lennie Tristano launch the cool-jazz movement of the late '40s and early '50s, brings what the New York Times has called his "martini-dry alto saxophone" to the Regattabar tonight for a rare local appearance. Bassist John Hebert and drummer George Schuller will join him. Regattabar, Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St., Cambridge. 617-395-7757. 7:30 & 10 p.m. $24.
Tues 8-8 Mimi Fox Trio Fox's recent two-CD release, "Perpetually Hip," is proof positive that a woman can play killer bebop guitar. Backing her will be fellow stereotype-smasher Esperanza Spalding on bass and James Williams on drums. Scullers, Doubletree Guest Suites, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston. 617-562-4111. 8 & 10 p.m. $18, $58 with dinner.
BILL BEUTTLER
Calendar Jazz Picks
Thurs 7-27
Bruno Råberg Quartet
Rutman's Violins, 11 Westland Ave., Boston. 617-578-0066. 7:30 p.m. $10
It's no secret that bassists are generally the most in-demand of jazz side musicians. Around Boston, Råberg (below) is among the busiest. Recent months have seen him recording albums with drummer Brooke Sofferman and trombonist Dave Harris and performing with groups led by Daryl Lowery, Rich Greenblatt, and Teresa Ines in addition to fronting his own nonet. Miller, like Råberg, is a Berklee professor by day. Drummer Nick Falk has emerged from undergraduate work at Berklee into roles with an assortment of groups around town. Saxophonist Jeremy Udden, whose undergrad and graduate degrees are from rival New England Conservatory, is best known as a longtime member of the Either/Orchestra.
Thurs 7-27 Mari Rosa Vocalist Rosa promises a program mixing 60 percent bossa nova and other Latin tunes with 40 percent straight-ahead standards and progressive jazz, including originals in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. Joining her will be pianist Ben Zecker, bassist Sven Larson, and drummer Zach Field. Ryles, 212 Hampshire St., Inman Square, Cambridge. 617-876-9330. 8:30 p.m. $8.
Wed 8-2 Bjorn Wennas and Carmen Marsico Septet The husband-and-wife team of Swedish guitarist Wennas and Italian vocalist Marsico perform music from his 2005 album, "Static," as well as improvisations on traditional music. Joining them will be Todd Marston on piano, Fender Rhodes, and accordion; Daniel Blake on saxophones; Kendall Eddy on bass; Miki Matsuki on drums; and Michael Daillak on percussion. Ryles, 212 Hampshire St., Inman Square, Cambridge. 617-876-9330. 9 p.m. $10.
BILL BEUTTLER
By Bill Beuttler, Globe Correspondent | July 21, 2006
WOBURN — When the white-haired gentleman in suit and tie blew his tenor saxophone at the Tanner Tavern a couple of weeks ago, leading a quartet through a set featuring "Summertime" and other standards, most of the diners barely looked up. But Andy McGhee is too important a jazz figure to ignore.
McGhee's accomplishments include nearly a decade of touring with Lionel Hampton's and Woody Herman's big bands and more than four decades of teaching at the Berklee College of Music.
This spring, the restaurant began experimenting with building a part-time jazz schedule around McGhee, who plays there every couple of weeks. Is he unfazed by the occasional lack of attention?
"No, that doesn't bother me," says McGhee, 78, a few days later during a chat at Berklee. "It changes my program, because I try to keep it softer, and light. I play standard tunes: 'There'll Never Be Another You,' tunes like that. I compromise.
"I think jazz musicians have made a grave mistake," he says. "The hell with the people, they're going to play what they want. And they play one tune for 20 minutes. Charlie Parker didn't do that, and he was the greatest player ever."
Parker and bebop were hitting full stride when McGhee began studying at New England Conservatory in 1945. A childhood friend of jazz great Jimmy Heath, McGhee grew up in Wilmington, N.C., and moved to Boston at 17 after their high school band director urged him to consider a career in music and McGhee's brother offered to help pay for it.
Boston was becoming a magnet to student musicians in those days, with NEC and the newly opened Schillinger House (since renamed Berklee) creating courses to appeal to veterans wanting to study music on the GI Bill. And because Boston was segregated, McGhee was one of several stars-in-the-making to find themselves rooming in two Rutland Square boarding houses.
"I could go to Gigi Gryce and say, 'What about these modes and stuff?'" McGhee recalls. "And he'd sit down and tell you. Or I'd go to Jaki Byard and say, 'Do you know this tune "Cherokee"?' He'd say, 'Yeah,' and write it out for me."
After McGhee graduated NEC and served in the Army, he returned to Boston, where his first steady gig was with Fat Man Robinson, a popular local singer and baritone sax player in the style of early R&B star Louis Jordan. "This guy had it all down," McGhee says of Robinson. "All of Louis's stuff. And I did some whooping and hollering things, like 'Flying Home.'"
The peak years of McGhee's performing career began in 1957. He had quit Robinson's band by then, and one night after a practice session with another band on Commonwealth Avenue, he decided to catch Lionel Hampton at Storyville on the way home. A fan of Robinson's sitting at the bar persuaded Hampton to let McGhee sit in, which led to a job offer the next day. McGhee stayed with Hampton's band for six years, then got a job offer from Woody Herman within hours of giving notice that he was quitting Hampton.
McGhee stuck with Herman until April 1965, when he decided to get off the road and find work that would provide his two daughters a better education. But he was tempted to hit the road again when a job offer arrived soon afterward from Count Basie. He says he's still got the telegram offering him the gig.
"That was a hard decision," McGhee admits. "But my wife was a super lady, and she made it easy for me. Because I asked her, 'What should I do?' And she said, 'I'm not going to answer that. That's up to you. I know you'll be sitting there watching television, and you'll see Count Basie there and you'd say, "I could be there if I wanted. "'And the way she put it, I went right to the telephone, called [Basie's] New York office, and told them, 'Thank you, but no thank you.'"
McGhee joined the Berklee faculty the next year. Since then, many of his students have gone on to build impressive resumes themselves — most visibly Ralph Moore of "The Tonight Show" band.
"Matter of fact," McGhee says, laughing, "all of my bosses now once were my students."
© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Calendar Jazz Picks
Sat 7-22
Cyrus Chestnut Trio
Marblehead Summer Jazz, Unitarian-Universalist Church, 28 Mugford St., Marblehead. 781-631-1528. 8 p.m. $25 advance, $27 door
Much of the best jazz in Greater Boston this weekend happens beyond the city’s borders. The most obvious case in point: pianist Cyrus Chestnut (above), who brings bassist Michael Hawkins and drummer Neal Smith to Marblehead on Saturday. The trio has been touring in support of Chestnut’s enjoyable new CD, “Genuine Chestnut,” with stops at the Regattabar in May and at New York’s Jazz Standard earlier this month. Reviewing the latter, New York Times critic Nate Chinen wrote of Chestnut having “played music tinged by gospel coloration and rooted in earthy swing” – an apt description of the 43-year-old’s career-long approach to making music. But the new disc also saw Chestnut exploring a pair of pop tunes to which he has sentimental attachments. Don’t be shocked to hear his versions of “If” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” in Marblehead.
Sat 7-22 Katahdin’s Edge The trio of pianist Willie Myette, bassist John Funkhouser, and drummer Mike Connors has a new CD, “The Ridge,” following up on its 2004 debut, “Step Away.” Once again, there’s the high-altitude adventurousness suggested by the band’s name and album titles. But the music stays rooted and engaging enough to avoid provoking vertigo. The Center for Arts in Natick, 14 Summer St., Natick. 508-647-0097. 8 p.m. $15.
Sun 7-23 Mark Kleinhaut Trio Guitarist Mark Kleinhaut and trio mates Jim Lyden (bass) and Les Harris Jr. (drums) explore tunes from their deliciously understated and swinging new CD of Kleinhaut originals, “Holding the Center,” in a free matinee concert. Maudslay State Park Arts Center, Curzon Mill Rd., Newburyport. 978-499-0050. 2 p.m. Free.
BILL BEUTTLER
By Bill Beuttler, Globe Correspondent | July 15, 2006
The fast track that trumpeter Igmar Thomas is riding requires a flexible wardrobe.
Leading his young, hip-hop-and-soul-injected jazz band J4DA in its weekly Wednesday-night gig at Wally's Jazz Cafe last week, Thomas, 24, resembled a rapper in his jeans, baggy white T-shirt, and long-billed San Diego Padres baseball cap. A few days earlier, when he'd played weekend dates at Sweet Rhythm in New York as a member of Ralph Peterson's straight-ahead sextet, Thomas had been wearing a suit.
That was nothing. Some days turn Thomas into a virtual quick-change artist. "In the same day," he says, "I'll have three gigs, where I have to wear a tuxedo [to the first job], and then I'll have a gig with J4DA, and I can just wear, you know, jeans. And then that night I'll go play at a wedding."
He'll be nearly that busy on Wednesday. First comes his 6:30 performance at Mothers Rest Playground, where he'll lead his own straight-ahead band as part of the Swingin' in Mothers Rest summer concert series. Joining Thomas at Mothers Rest will be his sometime boss Peterson on drums, bassist Luques Curtis, pianist Victor Gould, and tenor saxophonist Stacy Dillard.
Three hours later, Thomas and J4DA will play their usual Wednesday-night session at Wally's. That group's lineup consists of Donald Lee on tenor sax, Tuffus Zimbabwe on keyboards, Frank Abraham on bass, Lyndon Rochelle on drums, and Brian "Raydar" Ellis as "floet" (an amalgam of "flows" and "poet").
Thomas inherited his love of music from his father. "He has a huge record collection," says Thomas, "and he's always playing music — a whole different bunch of types of music. But he loves jazz. He loves Art Blakey and Jimmy Smith and all those cats."
Thomas grew up a self-proclaimed "music head" as a result, and began playing trumpet around age 12. He didn't get serious about jazz until he was 17, but his progress from then on was rapid. Within a year he'd earned the first Lionel Hampton Scholarship by improvising alongside the great trombonist Al Grey during a clinic at the University of Idaho. He'd also auditioned for Berklee, and nailed a second scholarship offer.
But Thomas was more interested in moving to New York than coming to Berklee. He wound up spending his freshman year at Idaho and occasionally joining Hampton's big band as a guest soloist. He then took a year off to return home to California, gig, and contemplate what to do next. Thomas spent the final few months of his time off living in New York, "just trying to learn as much as I could and be exposed to as much as I could." And then he decided to return to school — this time in Boston.
Thomas began sitting in on sessions at Wally's, and within a month or two had been offered his own night as a leader. That led to his getting more serious about blending hip-hop rhythms and attitude with jazz.
"There's many more opportunities for the stuff [J4DA plays]," says Thomas. "That group has been very busy."
They've played all over the city, but Wally's has been J4DA's primary testing ground. It will remain so for only a few more weeks. Now that he has graduated, Thomas will soon be making good on his earlier ambition and relocating more permanently to New York in a month or so. But his time here won't be forgotten.
"Most places we've got to keep it really soft, or we've got to keep our solos pretty short, or I can't play too high — you know, different things like that," says Thomas. "And Wally's is the place where it's like going-home week — you just go there and lay out, loosen up. That's why I'm able to wear my Padres hat."
Igmar Thomas performs at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Mothers Rest Playground in the Back Bay Fens. Free. Visit www.berklee.edu . Thomas’s band J4DA performs at 9:30 that same night at Wally’s Jazz Cafe. Call 617-424-1408 or visit www.wallyscafe.com.
© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Calendar Jazz Picks
Sat 7-15
Kendrick Oliver & The New Life Jazz Orchestra
Regattabar, Charles Hotel, One Bennett St., Cambridge. 617-395-7757. 7:30 & 10 p.m. $25.
Boston is blessed with an abundance of top-notch, experimental-minded big bands. The Either/Orchestra, the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, the Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, and Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra are four that spring to mind; that list ignores others associated with the city's leading music schools. Yet another outstanding big band, Kendrick Oliver & the New Life Jazz Orchestra, has collegiate roots. Oliver put an early version of the group together in the mid-'90s while a sophomore at Berklee College of Music, to back guest trumpeter Roy Hargrove in a celebration of Black History Month. But Oliver (above) held the band together post-graduation, captivating listeners with joyful, hard-driving arrangements of classic swing and gospel. It's become an incubator of solo careers in the process; alumni include trumpeter Jeremy Pelt and saxophonist Miguel Zenon.
Sat 7-15 Arturo O'Farrill and the New Hampshire Music Festival Big Band The New Hampshire Music Festival kicks off its three-concert big-band series with a tribute to Duke Ellington. Arturo O'Farrill, Grammy-nominated music director of the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra at Jazz at Lincoln Center, will direct the festival's big band. Silver Center for the Arts, Plymouth State University, 17 High St., Plymouth, N.H. 603-279-3300. 8 p.m. $20-$65 (buy one, get one free for opening concert; series discounts also available).
Fri 7-14 Jim Hobbs and Jeff Galindo For worthy jazz this weekend not involving a big band, consider this duo. Saxophonist Hobbs is best known for leading the playfully misnamed Fully Celebrated Orchestra, which is neither an orchestra (it's a quartet) nor as fully celebrated as it ought to be. Galindo doubles as a Berklee assistant professor and a much-in-demand trombonist.
BILL BEUTTLER
By Bill Beuttler, Globe Correspondent | July 7, 2006
When cornetist and composer Taylor Ho Bynum brings guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Tomas Fujiwara to Brookline Tai Chi for a trio performance tonight, he'll be close to the more offbeat venue where he and Fujiwara got their start playing together more than a decade ago.
Back in their high school days, Fujiwara used to come from Cambridge to join Brookline native Bynum for gigs at the now-defunct Tuesday's Ice Cream in Brookline Village.
"We did a weekly gig at the ice cream store when we were 16 or 17," explains Bynum, now 30. "I worked there [scooping ice cream] for six years. My boss let me do a weekly music series."
Bynum has moved on to bigger things, even if most are too adventurous to attract major notice from the jazz mainstream. He still makes it back to the area semi-regularly for gigs with a pair of Boston-based bands, the Fully Celebrated Orchestra and the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra. In New York, he continues performing with avant-garde piano great Cecil Taylor's large ensemble.
He also belongs to a quartet with his first jazz mentor, trombonist and Northeastern University professor Bill Lowe, and has spent a decade working in various contexts with his second, Wesleyan University professor and legendary composer-saxophonist Anthony Braxton. With Braxton, Bynum has done everything from their CD "Duets (Wesleyan) 2002" to co-conducting Braxton's European Creative Orchestra on a Braxton composition for 100 tubas.
Bynum was also with the Braxton sextet that performed at the Institute for Contemporary Art last November, when Braxton, in a Globe interview, called Bynum "one of the most brilliant of the new third millennial masters of his generation."
Bynum gives an embarrassed laugh when reminded of the quote, but he does think that composers and instrumentalists his age are working from a different set of circumstances than their predecessors.
"My generation has come up where you have access to all the music in the world," he says. "I mean, it's so easy to listen to Indian classical music or West African drumming or hip-hop or heavy-metal or classical music."
At the same time, he says, today's splintered jazz scene makes it harder to find a community of like-minded innovators to develop with on bandstands, the way it was done in the early days of swing and bebop.
"There's not a consistent musical community to be in," Bynum says, "so in a way everyone has to create it for themselves. For me, the trick is to find a way to play all the music I enjoy, pull from all those influences and have that be part of me, but then also not do it in a genre-hopping kind of a way. I think a lot of music is very referential now, and I try to stay away from that."
In that regard, his splashiest success to date is the 2005 CD "Other Stories," recorded with Bynum's nonet, SpiderMonkey Strings. The group got its start when Bynum's brother-in-law, filmmaker Dana Jackson, asked him to compose a score for a string quartet; Bynum later added tuba, guitar, vibraphone, drums, and his own cornet.
Bynum's cornet work leans more toward Braxton-like timbre experimentation than classic jazz — or classical — trumpet technique. With lots of improvisation.
Nonets are expensive and difficult to maintain, however, so Bynum also leads a separate sextet. And he's further economizing tonight by bringing just half to Brookline. Halvorson, like Bynum and Fujiwara, grew up nearby. She and Bynum met while touring with Braxton a couple of years ago and discovered they both attended the same high school (Brookline High) and colleges (Wesleyan, plus short stays for both of them at The New School University) about five years apart.
Bynum says he's been writing the trio its own repertoire, but that writing for small ensembles doesn't come naturally.
"For compositional things," Bynum says, "I tend to like big groups. The people I really love as my compositional heroes — like [Charles]Ives and [Duke] Ellington and Braxton — often work with big groups because of the way it gives you multilayered possibilities. I'm trying to discipline myself, both for musical curiosity and marketplace reality, to write for smaller groups. I think it's sort of trying to figure out that balance."
Taylor Ho Bynum performs at 8 tonight with guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Tomas Fujiwara at Brookline Tai Chi. Tickets $10, $5 students. Call 617-277-2975 or visit www.brooklinetaichi.com.
© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Calendar Jazz Picks
Fri 7-7
Gonzalo Rubalcaba
Regattabar, Charles Hotel, One Bennett St., Cambridge. 617-395-7757. 7:30 & 10 p.m. $25. Repeats Sat.
It was only a matter of time before Gonzalo Rubalcaba, 43, recorded a solo piano album. Four of Rubalcaba’s first eight CDs for Blue Note Records earned him Grammy nominations for best jazz album, and they established him as a pianist and composer of unusual refinement. But the earlier CDs all involved bands. The most recent of them, “Paseo,” had Rubalcaba (above) and his Cuban Quartet revisiting pieces from the pianist’s past. On “Solo,” Rubalcaba does more of the same but unaccompanied. The result is pristine solo interpretations of several tunes he has put on disc before — his own “Quasar,” Charlie Haden’s “Nightfall,” and the standards “Besame Mucho” and “Here’s That Rainy Day,” among them — performed with Rubalcaba’s exquisite mix of jazz, classical, and Afro-Cuban folkloric elements. Expect more of the same at the Regattabar this weekend.
Fri 7-7 Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson, Tomas Fujiwara Three avant-garde types with Boston roots come to Brookline for a trio performance. Trumpeter Bynum, guitarist Halvorson, and percussionist Fujiwara have all logged time in bands led by composing giant Anthony Braxton, and Brooklyn transplant Bynum still occasionally schleps home for gigs with the Boston-based Fully Celebrated Orchestra. Brookline Tai Chi, 1615 Beacon St., Brookline. 617-277-2975. 8 p.m. $10 ($5 students).
Sat 7-8 Rebecca Parris Parris, arguably Boston’s most popular jazz vocalist, makes her annual summer stop in Marblehead this weekend. Backing her will be longtime associated Brad Hatfield on piano and Peter Kontrimas on bass, with Bob Savine substituting for the newly bicoastal Matt Gordy on drums. Marblehead Summer Jazz, Unitarian-Universalist Church, 28 Mugford St., Marblehead. 781-631-1528. 8 p.m. $24 advance, $26 door.
BILL BEUTTLER
By Bill Beuttler, Globe Correspondent | June 30, 2006
CAMBRIDGE — Drummer Chris Punis and trombonist Joel Yennior, both 32, sit at an outdoor table at Cambridge Brewing Company in Kendall Square, a snifter of the extra-potent house stout before
