billbeuttler.com

This week's two pieces: the NEC Orchestra playing the music of Bob Moses for Calendar and a profile of the great singer and lyricist Jon Hendricks for yesterday's Jazz Notes column.

Bob Moses, as it happens, was playing drums with Gray Burton at the very first jazz performance I saw live, at a great little (and long since defunct) called the Amazingrace, in Evanston, Illinois. This would have been 1975 or '76. Saxophonist David Liebman and pianist Richie Beirach played an opening duo set, after which Burton brought out a quintet whose three other members included two bassists — Steve Swallow and Eberhard Weber — and a brilliant young guitarist named Pat Metheny. The ticket price: $2.50. I later caught Charles Mingus there a couple of times — and McCoy Tyner many, many times — for no more than $5. Those were the days.

Jon Hendricks is 84 years old, and has such a long, interesting life story and is such a gifted raconteur that telling it in 800 words or so would have been impossible. Among the great stories I knew I had to leave out: That he grew up singing in Toledo, Ohio, clubs as a teenager with the immortal pianist Art Tatum, who lived five doors down the block from the Hendricks family. That after he sat in with Charlie Parker one night in the late '40s, Parker told Henricks he should drop out of law school and become make singing his career; when Hendricks's G.I. benefits ran out a couple of years later, he took Bird up on the offer — and he tells a great story of Bird recognizing him from the bandstand when Hendricks walked into a club where Bird was playing on the night Hendricks moved to town. That the great vocal group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross and its debut album, "Sing a Song of Basie," was originally meant to have included 13 more singers, but the other singers couldn't have "swung if you hung them," according to Hendricks, who also jokingly referred to them as "the Moron Tabernacle Choir." When it became clear the original vocal orchestra wasn't going to work, the trio made the record via multitracking, which Hendricks claims to have been Dave Lambert's invention.

All intriguing stuff. But I decided to keep the piece focused on Hendricks having been the lead male vocalist for the premiere of the first of Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts, on September 16, 1965, in San Francisco. Hendricks tells a wonderful story about Ellington phoning him four days before the concert to ask if he'd be willing to perform the piece with him. I condensed that story as much as I could for the paper, but apparently space was especially tight this week, because most of it got snipped by my editors. So I'm going to give you the fuller version immediately below this note. I'll follow that with the Globe's abridged version. And next week's newsletter should include my Globe review of tonight's performance.

Cheers.

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Jon Hendricks is the king of vocalese, the term critic Leonard Feather coined for Hendricks's lyricizing of famous Count Basie Orchestra horn lines on the groundbreaking 1957 Lambert, Hendricks & Ross album "Sing a Song of Basie." And Hendricks remains best-known for that short-lived vocal trio with Dave Lambert and Annie Ross, whose five-year run ended with Ross's departure in 1962 and had any hopes of their reuniting dashed when Lambert died in a car crash four years later.

Hendricks, 84, has continued writing and singing vocalese throughout the four decades since. But his residency at Harvard this week, which will climax with a performance at Sanders Theatre tomorrow, is being built around something else from his past. Duke Ellington chose Hendricks to sing at the first of Ellington's Sacred Concerts, at the Sept. 16, 1965, consecration of San Francisco's Grace Cathedral. This week Hendricks is revisiting Ellington's sacred music with Harvard students and the tap dancer Jimmy Slyde, in a program entitled "In the Spirit of Duke."

Hendricks says Ellington tracked him down by phone four nights before that first Sacred Concert. "He said, 'You might have heard I'm doing my first concert of sacred music,'" Hendricks recalls. "And I said to him, 'Yes, it seems to me I've heard something about that.'"

Hendricks was being droll. The fact was, scattered beside his hotel room bed that day were copies of the Sunday New York Times, Life magazine, Time, and Newsweek - each containing stories previewing the much-anticipated concert.

"'Well,'" Hendricks says Ellington continued, "'I want to know if you would like to take part in it with me.' I said, 'It would be an honor.' And he said, 'O.K., I'd like you to do the featured male vocal part.' And I sat straight up in bed. 'What?!'"

It wasn't just the short notice that astounded Hendricks.

"I said, 'Well, look, Duke, you can get any number of really great singers. Much, much better singers than I am. You can get Billy Eckstine, you can get Joe Williams, you can get Frank Sinatra, you can get Tony Bennett. You can get Mel Tormé. Man, you can get some bad cats.' I said, 'All these guys are better singers than I am. Why do you choose me?' He said, 'Well, Jon, too many people sing about God without authority, and I want someone to sing about God with authority.'"

Hendricks figures Ellington must have known that Hendricks's father was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In fact, his dad used to have Hendricks, a straight-A English student, read through the King James Bible in search of text to incorporate in his sermons. What Ellington didn't know was that Hendricks's precocious literacy was limited to words. He never did learn to read sheet music.

Ellington made that discovery after several failed attempts to teach Hendricks his part during rehearsal. "Finally he says, 'I know what I'll do, I'll write a lead sheet,'" recalls Hendricks. "So he picks up a piece of manuscript, and he starts writing this lead sheet like you and I write a letter."

Hendricks began panicking as he watched Ellington scribble, worried he'd lose the gig once Ellington realized he couldn't read music. He finally forced himself to fess up.

"I said, 'Duke?' And he turns to me and says, 'Yes?' I said, 'I can't read.' And he turns partway around and says, 'What?' I said, 'I can't read.' He said, "That's all right. What's your high note?' I said, 'I don't know.' And he turned all the way around and said, 'You don't know your high note?!' I said, 'Duke, I don't know ANY note.' I said, 'I just got a lot of nerve.'"

Ellington resumed playing the piece until Hendricks learned it, and the rest is history. Hendricks's personal history since that day has some interesting twists to it, too. He spent a couple of years as the jazz critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, and taught music briefly at UC-Berkeley and Stanford before settling into his current job teaching at his alma mater, the University of Toledo.

Hendricks continues keeping busy musically as well. Three years ago, Hendricks and his group Vocalstra performed his version of Mile Davis's "Blues for Pablo" at the Sorbonne. He has since penned a vocalese version of the third movement of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade," and is now at work doing likewise with the first movement of Rachmaninoff's second Piano Concerto.

He also tours occasionally as part of the all-star vocal quartet Four Brothers, with Kurt Elling, Mark Murphy, and a rotating cast of fourth brothers including Andy Bey and Kevin Mahogany. Elling, the project's instigator, says that as he assembled the group's repertoire, he noticed that the tunes he gravitated toward usually turned out to have been written by Hendricks.

"He is the greatest jazz lyricist, period," says Elling. "The reason that's so is because of his incredible poetic gift, his unparalleled way with wordplay, his beautiful display of mother wit, and obviously the humanity that comes through everything - I mean, his spirit that he continues to bring to his writing and his performing. There's no way that I would be a jazz singer without Jon Hendricks."

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A glorious vocalist revisits Ellington's sacred sound

By Bill Beuttler, Globe Correspondent  |  April 21, 2006

Jon Hendricks is the king of vocalese, a term critic Leonard Feather coined after Hendricks innovatively set lyrics to Count Basie Orchestra horn lines on the groundbreaking 1957 Lambert, Hendricks & Ross album "Sing a Song of Basie." Hendricks remains best known for that short-lived vocal trio with Dave Lambert and Annie Ross, whose five-year run ended with Ross's departure in 1962.

Hendricks, 84, has continued writing and singing vocalese in the decades since. But his residency at Harvard this week, highlighted by a performance at Sanders Theatre tomorrow, is built around something else from his past. Duke Ellington chose Hendricks to sing at the first of Ellington's Sacred Concerts, at the Sept. 16, 1965, consecration of San Francisco's Grace Cathedral. This week Hendricks is revisiting Ellington's sacred music with Harvard students and the tap dancer Jimmy Slyde, in a program titled "In the Spirit of Duke."

Hendricks says Ellington tracked him down by phone four nights before that first Sacred Concert. "He said, 'You might have heard I'm doing my first concert of sacred music,'" Hendricks recalls. "And I said to him, 'Yes, it seems to me I've heard something about that.'"

Hendricks was being droll. Scattered beside his hotel room bed that day were copies of the Sunday New York Times, Life magazine, Time, and Newsweek — each containing stories previewing the much-anticipated concert.

"'Well,'" Hendricks recalls Ellington saying, "'I want to know if you would like to take part in it with me.' I said, 'It would be an honor.' And he said, 'OK, I'd like you to do the featured male vocal part.' I sat straight up in bed. 'What?!'"

It wasn't just the short notice that astounded Hendricks.

"I said, 'Well, look, Duke, you can get any number of really great singers. Why do you choose me?' He said, 'Well, Jon, too many people sing about God without authority, and I want someone to sing about God with authority.'"

Hendricks figures Ellington must have known that Hendricks's father was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Toledo, Ohio. In fact, his dad used to have Hendricks, a straight-A English student, read through the King James Bible in search of text to incorporate into his sermons. What Ellington didn't know was that Hendricks's literacy was confined to words: He never did learn to read sheet music.

Ellington played the piece until Hendricks learned it, and the rest is history. Hendricks's personal history since that day has some interesting twists to it, too. He spent a couple of years as the jazz critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, and taught music briefly at UC-Berkeley and Stanford before settling into his current job teaching at his alma mater, the University of Toledo.

Hendricks continues to keep busy. Three years ago, Hendricks and his group Vocalstra performed his version of Mile Davis's "Blues for Pablo" at the Sorbonne. He has since penned a vocalese version of the third movement of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade," and is now at work doing likewise with the first movement of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto.

He also tours occasionally as part of the all-star vocal quartet Four Brothers, with Kurt Elling, Mark Murphy, and a rotating cast of fourth brothers, including Andy Bey and Kevin Mahogany. Elling says that as he assembled the group's repertoire, he noticed that the tunes he gravitated toward were written by Hendricks.

"He is the greatest jazz lyricist, period," says Elling. "The reason that's so is because of his incredible poetic gift, his unparalleled way with wordplay, his beautiful display of mother wit, and obviously the humanity that comes through everything — I mean, his spirit that he continues to bring to his writing and his performing. There's no way that I would be a jazz singer without Jon Hendricks."

Jon Hendricks performs at 8 p.m. tomorrow at Sanders Theatre. Tickets $15, $8 students and seniors. Call 617-496-2222 or visit www.fas.harvard.edu/ tickets.
 
© Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
 
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Calendar Jazz Picks

Thurs 4-20

NEC Jazz Orchestra Plays Music of Bob Moses
Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston. 617-585-1260. 8 p.m. Free.

The son of a press agent for jazz notables such as Charles Mingus, Max Roach, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, long-time New England Conservatory professor Bob Moses (above) was 12 when he first sat in on drums with Mingus. He went on to perform and record with Kirk, Larry Coryell, Gary Burton, Jack DeJohnette, David Liebman, and Pat Metheny, among many others. But Moses is also a first-rate composer, as documented on his albums such as "When Elephants Dream of Music," "Visit with the Great Spirit," and "Time Stood Still." Of the first of these, the eminent critic Nat Hentoff wrote, "No orchestral composer of this scope, mellow wit, and freshly distinctive range of colors has come along since Gil Evans." Tonight the Ken Schaphorst-directed NEC Orchestra offers a nine-composition sampling of what Hentoff was talking about.

Thurs 4-20 Ahmad Jamal Jamal is best known for "Poinciana." But he's also one of jazz's greatest pianists and has exerted a heavy influence on everyone from Miles Davis to Fred Hersch. His trio these days is comprised of the estimable drummer Idris Muhammad and bassist James Cammack. Regattabar, Charles Hotel, One Bennett St., Cambridge. 617-395-7757. 7:30 & 10 p.m. $27.50. Repeats Fri & Sat.

Wed 4-26 Toshiko Akiyoshi Quartet with Lew Tabackin Pianist-arranger-composer Akiyoshi is best known for her jazz orchestra featuring her reed-wizard husband, Tabackin. When they pass through Boston next week they'll be traveling lighter and playing more intimately: joined by bassist Doug Weiss and drummer Mark Taylor. Scullers, Doubletree Guest Suites Boston, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston. 617-562-4111. 8 & 10 p.m. $22, $62 with dinner.

BILL BEUTTLER