January 2012 issue

52 Pages·2011·10.43 MB·English

January 2012 | No. 117 Your FREE Guide to the NYC Jazz Scene nycjazzrecord.com
JACK DEJOHNETTE
SOUND TRAVELS
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I
t is really hard to believe another year has gone by. Weren’t we just wearing
4 shorts? Right, that was in November. But much has happened over the past 12
New York@Night
months, not least of which was the changing of this humble gazette’s name after
establishing ourselves as an independent entity the year before. We at The New
6 Interview: Jimmy Owens York City Jazz Record are quite proud of the transformation and vow to continue
by George Kanzler supporting - for as long as the Mayan calendar allows - the jazz world, as we have
for nearly a decade (May 2012 marks our 10-year anniversary).
7 Artist Feature: Chris Speed But in a world with new birth, there must also be death and so we collectively
by Sean Fitzell mourn the passing of drummer Paul Motian on Nov. 22nd. Few musicians
embodied the probing spirit of jazz or were better representatives of the city’s
9 On The Cover: Jack DeJohnette scene than Mr. Motian. We have put together a two-page spread of remembrances
by Kurt Gottschalk from colleagues in honor of his stellar contributions. Also, we have fulfilled the
saddest duty of our year by publishing the complete list of jazz passings from 2011
Encore: Lest We Forget:
10 on our Miscellany page.
Hal Singer Julius Hemphill We would also like to make special mention of that annual tradition: the Best
by Alex Henderson by Ken Waxman Of list. We have climbed over mountains of music to bring you the best in a variety
of categories, all in a flashy centerfold.
11 Megaphone VOXNews Baby New Year must be a jazz fan or else why would the city be so chock-full
by David Murray by Katie Bull of music in the dead of winter? The National Endowment for the Arts will present
the final class of Jazz Masters this month at a ceremony at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Label Spotlight: Listen Up!:
12 Among the honorees are drummer Jack DeJohnette (On The Cover), who will also
Dreyfus Records Anders Nilsson have a one-night celebration of a new album at Blue Note, and trumpeter Jimmy
by Donald Elfman & Kris Bowers Owens (Interview), himself having just released a tribute to Thelonious Monk to
be fêted with a week’s worth of gigs at Dizzy’s Club. And sax/clarinet wonder
14 Chris Speed (Artist Feature), known also as the man behind Skirl Records, appears
In Memoriam: Paul Motian (1931-2011)
throughout town this month with several groups.
Happy New Year from The New York City Jazz Record!
16 CD Reviews: Ernst Reijseger, Brad Mehldau/Kevin Hays, John Zorn,
Geri Allen, Von Freeman, Jim Black, Joan Stiles, Terri Lyne Carrington and more Laurence Donohue-Greene, Managing Editor Andrey Henkin, Editorial Director
26
Special Feature: BEST OF 2011
On the cover: Jack DeJohnette (photo by Chris Griffith)
40
Event Calendar
Corrections: In last month’s Artist Feature on Lukas Ligeti, we made a mistake in
the Recommended Listening; the Tisziji Munoz album title is Auspicious Healing.
In last month’s Globe Unity: Japan multi-CD review, we included the wrong cover
49
Club Directory art for the Akira Sakata release on Family Vineyard.
Submit Letters to the Editor by emailing [email protected]
51 Miscellany: In Memoriam • Birthdays • On This Day US Subscription rates: 12 issues, $30 (International: 12 issues, $40)
For subscription assistance, send check, cash or money order to the
address below or email [email protected].
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Managing Editor: Laurence Donohue-Greene To Contact:
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116 Pinehurst Avenue, Ste. J41
Staff Writers
David R. Adler, Clifford Allen, Fred Bouchard, Stuart Broomer, Tom Conrad, Ken Dryden, New York, NY 10033
Donald Elfman, Sean Fitzell, Graham Flanagan, Kurt Gottschalk, Tom Greenland, United States
Laurel Gross, Alex Henderson, Marcia Hillman, Terrell Holmes, Robert Iannapollo,
Francis Lo Kee, Martin Longley, Wilbur MacKenzie, Marc Medwin, Russ Musto, Joel Roberts, Laurence Donohue-Greene: [email protected]
John Sharpe, Elliott Simon, Jeff Stockton, Andrew Vélez, Ken Waxman
Andrey Henkin: [email protected]
Contributing Writers
General Inquiries: [email protected]
Katie Bull, Anders Griffen, George Kanzler, Matthew Kassel,
Matthew Miller, David Murray, Sean J. O’Connell, Michael Steinman Advertising: [email protected]
Contributing Photographers Editorial: [email protected]
Jim Anness, Scott Friedlander, Peter Gannushkin, Calendar: [email protected]
Chris Griffith, Erika Kapin, Alan Nahigian, John Rogers
All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission strictly prohibited. All material copyrights property of the authors.
THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | January 2012 3
NEW YORK @ NIGHT
B S
assist Michael Bates, in a well-deserved showcase at ome musicians complain about the lack of steady
I-Beam (Dec. 10th), took charge with two contrasting gigs in New York City. Others just make it happen.
yet intimately related lineups. He began with music Drummer Gerald Cleaver swung a five-night run for
from the new album Acrobat (Sunnyside), performed his new band Black Host, although it took five clubs in
by most of the original in-studio cast: Chris Speed on Manhattan and Brooklyn to pull it off. The band was
reeds, Russ Johnson on trumpet, Russ Lossing on strictly metered and yet spontaneous at Zebulon Dec.
piano/Wurlitzer and Jeff Davis (sitting in for Tom 7th. At one moment guitarist Brandon Seabrook played
Rainey) on drums. In a welcome twist, trombonist quadruplets against Pascal Niggenkemper’s double-
Samuel Blaser joined the Acrobat group as well (he also time bass and a sax solo by Darius Jones slow enough
partnered with Bates as a co-leader in the second set, to border on drone, at the next the guitar split into an
debuting a new quintet with tenor powerhouse Michael overdrive undertow and Cooper-Moore’s keyboard
Blake). The Acrobat music, all inspired by or adapted took over the fast promenade and then suddenly they
from Shostakovich, rose to new imaginative heights were all uptempo and akimbo. They played without a
with the third horn. Leading off with the Intermezzo break for 25 minutes, a bit of fusion with ringing
from the Piano Quintet in G minor, Speed played slow Rhodes-like keys and spacey delayed guitar, abutted
and high-pitched clarinet, summoning the lonely by noise clusters and broad free jazz storms then
quality of the original violin line. Finishing with the downshifting hard. The drop in momentum was almost
Allegretto movement of the Piano Trio No. 2, the band painful. The second stretch began more sweetly
dug in with a grinding beat and captured the work’s melodic, a pinched alto sax singing over bowed electric
deep inner tension - its Russian-ness, if you will. Bates’ guitar, Cooper-Moore’s keyboard balanced on his lap,
originals were full of improvised fire and sonic flux, negotiating the angles as he worked an expression
with Lossing’s tweaked Wurlitzer adding jolts of pedal with his foot. They stayed within the constraints
electric post-fusion on “Silent Witness” and the of a gentle - if restless - ballad until Seabrook demanded
uptempo “Strong Arm”. Johnson’s unaccompanied that the energy be upped. He pushed from a place that
solo with mute on “Talking Bird”, hushed in volume seemed a little Waylon Jennings or a bit Joe Strummer
yet full of unbridled urgency, was a thing of wonder. but was certainly all Telecaster. The set was controlled
From the brash “Fugitive Pieces” to the legato balladry but not static, the players keeping close eyes on their
of “Some Wounds”, the music was unsettled, precise cue sheets, Cleaver’s sometimes shockingly precise
and poignantly lyrical all at once. - David R. Adler percussion reliably corralling them. - Kurt Gottschalk
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Michael Bates Sextet @ I-Beam Gerald Cleaver’s Black Host @ Zebulon
I I
n a cheerful and loquacious introduction at Bar Next s it the end of days? As 2011 drew to a close, John
Door (Dec. 4th), guitarist Peter Mazza announced his Zorn - the steward of Radical Jewish Culture - released
plan for the evening: arrangements of standards, an album of Christmas songs (covers and originals)
reflecting a passion for rich and intricate harmony. with his Dreamers group and then, on Dec. 9th, gave
Flanked by Marco Panascia on upright bass and an organ recital at Columbia University’s 1906 St.
Rogerio Boccato on a scaled-down percussion kit, Paul’s Chapel. The recital began promptly at 11 pm,
Mazza quickly made clear that he is indeed a chord- following a Miller Theatre concert of his chamber
hound. His treatments of “Skylark”, “Over the works, with a deep pulse that was almost felt as much
Rainbow”, “Someday My Prince Will Come”, “My as it was heard, soon coupled with high, dissonant
Romance”, “Darn That Dream” and “Stella By triplets. It was transfixing but within a couple minutes
Starlight” were packed with capricious chord-melody had moved to a watery midrange, the soft bass
voicings, darting counterlines and written bass parts continuing anon. Zorn remained in Messiaen mode for
that Mazza and Panascia often played in unison. Even another five minutes before switching to blurry
if the potential for guitar/bass muddiness was there, brightness, some John Barry perhaps, punching up the
the sound remained light and nimble. Boccato saw to middle and then falling to full-keyboard noise. It may
that with his dumbek, woodblocks and other have wandered a bit but it also made sense within the
accessories, which still allowed for a solid jazz feel on scope of Zorn’s work, with blocks of intensity coming
ride cymbal and brushes. Mazza got a clear and tailored in quick succession. He was clearly more comfortable
sound from a Gibson archtop and played to Boccato’s as a hand keyboardist, using the foot pedals for
strengths with Brazilian-inspired rhythms, waltzes prolonged bass drones, but as an improviser he
and other spacious feels. The single-note solo passages proceeded with unfailing commitment. At the
were inventive, sparking empathic trio interplay, but 20-minute mark he left a surprising two minutes of
ultimately Mazza’s pianistic block chords and bold silence, perhaps to reset stops but it felt something like
contrapuntal devices were the most consistently flipping a record over. The sections grew in breadth
absorbing part of this music. Never did his and scope during the second half, celestial horns and
arrangements detract from the original melodies, or sub-bass growls being mostly heaven but with a little
even the underlying harmonic logic that made these bit of hell. And tucked away in an alcove to the side
songs great. On “Stella”, the tour de force closer, one was a young man with a laptop and headphones. It
heard extravagance, but also simple good taste. (DA) could be a vinyl-ready release. (KG)
4 January 2012 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD
F D W H A T ’ S N E W S
or two nights in December, Issue Project Room was espite being enjoined from releasing the tribute CD
given over to Swedish Energies, a mini-festival of Jazz Guitars Meet Hendrix by the late rocker’s estate,
experimental music attempting to present as un-IKEA Sheryl Bailey and Vic Juris fêted the music of the
(a mere 10 minutes drive away) an image of the Nordic legendary guitarist with a performance at 92YTribeca
country as possible. For the second evening (Dec. 3rd), (Dec. 9th). Joined by organist Brian Charette and The annual APAP (Association of Performing Arts
industrial noise was the theme, befitting the former drummer Anthony Pinciotti, Bailey and Juris combined Presenters) conference is being held at the Hilton
factory space and taking full advantage of the high- their individual styles on the former’s arrangements to Hotel Jan. 6th-10th. As part of the myriad components,
ceilings and violent echoes. Dancer Anna Koch and present Jimi Hendrix’ music in a jazz setting, JazzTimes magazine will present the JazzTimes DIY
electronicist Mats Lindström started the proceedings highlighting its compositional strength and beauty Crash Course Jan. 5th, covering such topics as
with a visually and aurally arresting spectacle; sharp without attempting to duplicate the inimitable power “Music for Sale: New models for selling your music”
processed sounds and washes accompanying lights of the iconic innovator’s own sound. Opening with and “The Jazz Artist as Small Business Owner and
flashing on and off as Koch struck poses, creating “Manic Depression” the two guitarists played off each Manager”. Numerous musicians and industry people
marvelous layers of shadows on the stark white wall other’s diverse voices, Bailey playing soaring melodic will participate as moderators, panelists and
behind her. Carl Michael von Hausswolff oozed into lines while Juris laid down expansive harmonic speakers. For more information, visit APAPNYC.org.
his set, sitting off to the side of the room and generating canvases that he elaborated upon at length in his own In related news APAP has announced its 2012 award
an apocalyptic drone that swelled louder and louder in engaging solos. Bailey opened “Third Stone From The recipients; the Award of Merit for Achievement in
pinkish illumination. Laptop sound artist Ikue Mori Sun” with thunder and lightning effects that recalled Performing Arts has been given to George Wein.
had a first meeting with Ida Lundén, the former’s Hendrix’ screeching ‘60s feedback excursions before
processed chirps, whirrs, bleeps, blats and crackles settling into a bluesy groove over Charette’s soulful Pianist Jason Moran has been named Artistic
abutting what appeared to be Lundén’s rustic child’s keyboard bassline. Praising the genius of Hendrix’ Advisor for Jazz for the John F. Kennedy Center for
toy (wooden birds on a disc that pecked in a round) chords, Bailey noted that it was a “no brainer” to revisit the Performing Arts, replacing Dr. Billy Taylor, who
triggering further electronics. The closing set came his music. By changing the rhythms on her held the position from 1994-2010. Moran has been a
from another cross-Atlantic partnering in The Skull arrangements of “Angel” and “Burning of the Midnight regular performer at the venue, first appearing there
Defekts with guests C. Spencer Yeh and Daniel Higgs. Lamp” - to a swinging 6/8 and an easy flowing bossa as part of the Center’s Jazz Residency program Betty
But the highlight of the event came from one of nova, respectively - she reinvigorated the pieces. The Carter’s Jazz Ahead in April 1998. For more
Sweden’s most famous musical exports, saxophonist guitars revved up the energy level on “Have You Ever information, visit kennedy-center.org/jazz.
Mats Gustafsson, who paired his tortured, overtone- Been To Electric Ladyland”, then ended with ethereal
driven tenor with equally brutal analog electronic explorations of “The Wind Cries Mary” and “Castles The nominees for the 54th Annual Grammy Awards,
volleys, Swedish energy indeed. - Andrey Henkin Made Of Sand”. - Russ Musto to be given in February, have been named. Nominees
in the shrinking jazz realm are Best Improvised Jazz
Solo: Randy Brecker; Ron Carter; Chick Corea; Fred
Hersch; Sonny Rollins. Best Jazz Vocal Album: Karrin
Allyson; Terri Lyne Carrington; Kurt Elling; Tierney
Sutton; Roseanna Vitro. Best Jazz Instrumental
T
E Album: Gerald Clayton; Corea, Clarke & White; Fred
N
C. Hersch; Joe Lovano; Sonny Rollins; Yellowjackets.
USI Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album: Randy Brecker
M
N With DR Big Band; Christian McBride Big Band;
W
Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra;
O
NT Gerald Wilson Orchestra; Miguel Zenón. For more
W information, visit grammy.com.
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hkin oto b Stalwart Rochester jazz record store The Bop Shop
nnus y Jim hfoars a lo fsoto idts cleoausrte. aAf tneer w28 l oyceaatriso nin hoards ebre toe nm faokuen dro boumt
Peter Ga Anness tphree ssetonrte it ws icllo nnocte, rfto sr ethriee sfo, ras eseeambil-ere fguutularer ,h baep paebnlein tog
Mats Gustafsson @ Issue Project Room Sheryl Bailey @ 92YTribeca since 1988. For more information, visit bopshop.com.

Some players like to play with new people constantly Calling itself “the most intimate jazz room in New Jazz at Lincoln Center has partnered with St. Regis
to keep things unpredictable while others establish York”, The Kitano proved to be a most appropriate Hotels & Resorts to establish jazz clubs at several
regular partnerships so that comfort and experience environment for the Fred Hersch/Julian Lage Duo international locations. The first of five planned clubs
can birth innovation. While the individual members of (Dec. 2nd). Overlooking the blue-lit Park Avenue will open in April 2012 at The St. Regis Doha (in the
the Gowanus Bass Quartet - Stephan Crump, Sean boulevard, the Hotel’s cozy mezzanine bar lounge, capital city of Qatar). The St. Regis Hotel in New York
Conly, Reuben Radding and Garth Stevenson - may with its warm sound and impeccably tuned Steinway was the site of many jazz performances during the
have worked together before, their concert at Seeds baby grand, was undoubtedly deserving of some credit Jazz Age by such performers as Count Basie, Duke
(Dec. 7th) was only their second in 21 months. The first for the beauty of the music flowing from the interaction Ellington and Buddy Rich. For more information, visit
performance, from Issue Project Room, was a sublime of the veteran pianist and young guitarist. Hersch stregis.com or jalc.org. In related news, Adrian Ellis,
reading of advanced techniques and abstract textures. opened the proceedings with an improvised, Executive Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, is
So what would they do as an encore, so to speak? classically-tinged prelude that Lage quickly picked up stepping down this month after nearly five years
Surprisingly, given the interval between their two on, entering a contrapuntal conversation with the holding the position and Wynton Marsalis, Artistic
performances, the music began with remarkable pianist that seamlessly flowed into a swinging version Director, has been hired as a Cultural Correspondent
purpose and structure. The charming front parlor of of “You and the Night and the Music”. Playing off each by CBS News starting in February.
the Brooklyn venue became a Viennese salon, three of other, Hersch echoed the guitarist’s rich low sonorities
the four basses bowing gently with a single pizzicato with dark left hand chords as the two alternated Reports have it that the owners of Harlem’s Lenox
supporting them. One expects lots of things from melodic, harmonic and rhythmic lines with uncanny Lounge are not renewing their lease at 288 Lenox
groupings of basses but beauty and restraint are precision. Lage demonstrated moving maturity on Avenue as of February, presumably closing the book
usually not among them. During the 35-minute first Hersch’s brooding romantic “Canzona” while the on the club, which was founded in 1939 and was host
piece, the four musicians all inhabited different spaces pianist exhibited a youthful zest on the guitarist’s to many jazz legends over the decades.
- arco, pizzicato, percussive slaps, rubbing of the wood “Bluegrass Underscore”. A pair of Hersch dedications,
- but stayed together in a wonderful demonstration of “Hot House Flower” (for Billy Strayhorn) and “Down The music for the George Lucas movie Red Tails,
listening. The second piece, a morsel at 15 minutes, Home” (for Bill Frisell) found the team exploring a inspired by the first all African-American aerial combat
began like a woodpecker at work on a creaking house, dynamically wide range in emotionally diverse moods. unit in WWII and starring Cuba Gooding Jr, was
moving into a dense section of four-bowing, Radding Hersch recalled the lessons of his Bradley’s days, written by Terence Blanchard. It will be released Jan.
later attaching clothespins to his bass and a lugubrious quoting “Some Other Time” on Lage’s “The Time It 20th. For more information, visit redtailsfilm.com.
segment giving way to a perky plucked figure. Not Takes” and his Brazilian experiences on the choro
only could you hear the players’ varied styles, you could “Doce de Coco” before the duo ended with a bluesy Submit news to [email protected]
hear the different characters of each instrument. (AH) “Things Ain’t What They Used To Be”. (RM)
THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | January 2012 5
INTERVIEW
Jimmy
parents didn’t have the money to send me. So I
continued studying privately. I’d been studying with
Donald Byrd since I was 15 and he’s the one who
worked it out for me to audition for Marshall Brown’s
Newport Youth Band. My experience came from that
Owens band and coming out of that band I hit a lot of rehearsal
bands and eventually got into Slide Hampton’s Tentet,
Hank Crawford’s band and Lionel Hampton’s
Orchestra - that’s where the learning took place, on the
bandstand.
n TNYCJR: You were in Duke Ellington’s band too, how
a
higi was that?
Na (CONTINUED ON PAGE 50)
n
a
Al
by by George Kanzler Junior Mance
o
ot
Ph …Jazz pianist
Hidé Tanaka…Bassist
T
rumpeter and flugelhornist Jimmy Owens, who turned 68 JO: The biggest thing is how much the music has at
last month, has an enviable resumé that includes sitting in changed; how Miles and Trane and Dizzy and Monk Café Loup
with Miles Davis at 15, holding down a trumpet chair in the and Horace Silver changed the music by setting down
EVERY SUNDAY
big bands of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Lionel a different kind of foundation. That was 50 years ago
6:30 - 9:30 pm
Hampton, being a charter member of the Thad Jones/Mel and it’s a foundation that young musicians coming up
Lewis Jazz Orchestra and playing with such jazz stars as today have to deal with, like the whole modal element
Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie and Herbie Mann. He’s became something accepted from every musician’s Junior Mance
Quintet
also been very active as a jazz educator and champion for the standpoint. So that is a change in a very positive way.
first Sunday
rights of jazz musicians in the workplace. A fixture on the But in a negative way, the musicians who have created
of each month
New York jazz scene since he basically gave up the road over this music in those 50 years, many of them have died
40 years ago, this month Owens will be honored as one of without having built anything substantive in the way
five 2012 National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Masters. of pensions or health care. That’s one of the things I’ve NO COVER, JUST AWARD
been trying to deal with for a number of years, getting WINNING JAZZ AND FOOD
The New York City Jazz Record: How do you feel musicians the possibility of having a pension sometime 105 West 13th Street 212-255-4746
about being honored by the NEA? in their lives.
www.juniormance.com
Jimmy Owens: You feel very happy when you get TNYCJR: You are one of the jazz musicians who does
recognized for something you’ve been doing already collect a pension from Local 802 of the American
and have been doing, but not so that you can be Federation of Musicians, aren’t you?
recognized. It’s a wonderful feeling.
JO: Yes, I get a pretty good taste and I’m happy about
TNYCJR: You’ll be joining one of your close musical my astuteness in building this over the years, as I’ve
associates, pianist Kenny Barron, an earlier NEA Jazz had the advantage of thinking about the business end
Master recipient. of it; some musicians never think about that. Local 802
has had a pension fund since 1959, but there are a
JO: Yes, in fact we will be going into Dizzy’s Club just number of jazz musicians from 1959 who either died or
before the NEA Awards ceremony, to do music from are still playing who could have gotten a pension but
my new CD, The Monk Project [IPO Records]. because of the musicians’ union and the industry and
all of that were stopped because they either didn’t
TNYCJR: Did you ever get to play with Monk? know about it or worked in places where dues weren’t
collected. We’re still fighting on that. None of the jazz
JO: No, unfortunately, I never got to play with him but clubs in New York pay into the musicians’ pension
I did get to speak with him a few times and he even fund.
answered me a couple of times. But I never had a
chance to talk to him about music. TNYCJR: How do they manage to get around that?
TNYCJR: How did the album project come about? JO: They come up with the excuse that “we’re not the
employer, the bandleader is.” About six years ago I
JO: I was part of three previous tribute to jazz was very involved in the union and we went to Albany
composers albums for IPO records [a Tom McIntosh and got the legislature to repeal the 8.25 percent
and two Thad Jones CDs] and [label owner] Bill Sorin, admission tax for the clubs because they were
who is a wonderful person, called me and said he had interested and said they’d apply that 8.25 percent tax
an idea: Would I like to do a tribute album to someone? savings to the pension fund. But when the bill was
I said Monk and that’s how it came about. My general passed the clubs all reneged and didn’t do it. And we
idea and concept was to do Monk’s songs in a way they also still have musicians who get ill and don’t have any
have not been done, different tempos or time health insurance. That’s why I was one of the members
signatures. For instance I slowed down “Pannonica” of the Jazz Foundation of America who started the
and put “Let’s Cool One” in 3/4 time. The one Duke Musicians Emergency Fund to help individual jazz
Ellington song [“It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got musicians.
That Swing)”] is from a transcription of Monk’s
recording and I have parts of Monk’s recorded solos TNYCJR: Besides the business, pension and health
played by the ensemble on it, as well as “Epistrophy” care sides of the music, you’ve also been very active in
and “Let’s Cool One” too. But the whole idea of doing jazz education for decades. What was your own jazz
this album was to emphasize the blues and the blues education like?
feeling in the music, like slowing down “Brilliant
Corners” to stress the blues feel. JO: I learned mainly on the bandstand. There were
some schools that taught jazz like Berklee in Boston.
TNYCJR: In over 50 years in jazz, how have you I wasn’t interested in going there but to a music school
seen the music and the jazz scene change? like Juilliard, but I never got an opportunity as my
6 January 2012 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD
ARTIST FEATURE
Chris
For more information, visit chrisspeed.com. Speed is at The
Stone Jan. 5th and 10th with Uri Caine, Le Poisson Rouge
Jan. 6th with Curtis Hasselbring as part of the Winter Jazz
Fest and I-Beam Jan. 14th with Leah Paul. See Calendar.
Speed Recommended Listening:
• Human Feel - Scatter (GM, 1991)
• Dave Douglas - In Our Lifetime
(New World Countercurrents, 1994)
• Tim Berne’s Bloodcount - Saturation Point
er (Screwgun, 1997)
nd • Chris Speed’s yeah NO - Swell Henry (Squealer, 2003)
a
dl • Claudia Quintet - I, Claudia (Cuneiform, 2004)
e
Fri • Endangered Blood - Eponymous (Skirl, 2010)
ott
c
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y
b by Sean Fitzell
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L
eaping into the jaunty head of Charlie Parker’s says. “I don’t feel like I’m better on one than the other,
“Segment”, tenor saxophonist Chris Speed quickly so I’m trying to constantly keep improving on both.”
unfurled a lengthy improv drawn from its melody, But he remains integral to several long-running
propelled by Reid Anderson’s thrumming bass and ensembles, including Black’s AlasNoAxis, trombonist
www.innova.mu
Dave King’s emphatic drums. The Bad Plus rhythm Curtis Hasselbring’s New Mellow Edwards, drummer
www.facebook.com/innovadotmu
team smoothly navigated the twisting transitions of John Hollenbeck’s critically lauded Claudia Quintet,
www.composersforum.org
the spry new piece of Speed’s that followed, without the various classical-meets-improvisation works of
his overt direction. With sustained wails, drones and pianist Uri Caine and, more recently, Dave King’s
breathy huffs, Speed beautifully emoted on “Nap Trucking Company. “The bands that I’m a part of I
Clarity”, an old ballad from his book, before the trio work on just as hard as projects that I’m sort of the sole
fAjmcwaloeymaunxlsset e iessrdc,mew i saiJpitsonnsiohso gjr nanianz rmCwzgy o ocasclhtrstuae orln tapotdnioscnae sowgr emda- ientasmdh nda god ete Lnx T.feul uhyIebnne e sK,Sr taasotesounansnrtdoi pter,cz .rei .tiaa hstTdieenhiidngre g sfosurw loobdimfvt- hsAe c trlhhsbitoreoheorneetl aHbag nleesaendovne hiSt rnospiaggi tesgh oepnalrdu ii gmfo rilhf caau tamun tnhundutiac s sctlh iBohlcey ra hd oflsoil oumeSrkn,pk”,lg piy nrhenolo e hr tcR t sioiomeavmncye olcsm yorp. dnuotostno i ilnpit nuytla o a2oy l0df l hy0cr.i6ao sH wl ltmaeo fb’ usrsoo suprimapcla,tp yohboreuarsdstt. JSjan12 12/21/11 Get a free QR Code App 11and scan to see our :Youtube channel32 AM .. .IPSa gOeN 1 ODUDIFRRF UELMRAMTEBNHEERTEL
“They were all tunes I love. That’s what we grew on half of Skirl’s 18 titles to date, most recently flutist
up doing,” says Speed. “It’s a challenge, but also to feel Leah Paul’s chamber work Bike Lane, the label’s first
like I have something to say that’s personal is important fully composed release. After a decade hiatus, Human
2011July.indd 1 6/17/11 3:52 PM
to me.” Growing up near Seattle, he began playing Feel was revisited on 2007’s Galore and the musicians
classical piano and then clarinet at a young age, before tapped their collective chemistry and gained experience
discovering jazz and rock and taking up tenor sax. for new material. “One remarkable aspect of Chris and
With supportive parents and dynamic public school his music,” D’Angelo says, “is his sense of timing. Not “Best Jazz Venue of the Year”NYC JAZZ RECORD★“Best Jazz Club”NY MAGAZINE+CITYSEARCH
SUN JAN 1
music programs, he was able to gig throughout high just rhythmically, but the way he is able to cue in RICHARD BONA:MANDEKAN CUBANO
school with a big band that drew from the area’s backgrounds, improvised melodies and other MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ - OZZY MELENDEZ - OSMANY PAREDES - LUISITO QUINTERO - ROBERTO QUINTERO
burgeoning talent. There he met alto saxophonist compositional moments.” He adds, “It’s as if he does it MON-WED JAN 2-4 CLOSED
THU-FRI JAN 5-6
Andrew D’Angelo and drummer Jim Black, who would purely through his intuition.” TOM HARRELL CHAMBER ENSEMBLE
become enduring friends and collaborators. Skirl is also home to Speed’s other cooperatives:
WAYNE ESCOFFERY - DANNY GRISSETT - UGONNA OKEGWO
Speed attended New England Conservatory and The Clarinets, with Anthony Burr and Oscar Noriega, JOHNATHAN BLAKE - DAN BLOCK - MEG OKURA - RUBIN KODHELI
SAT JAN 7
while in Boston played everything from weddings to and his latest venture, Endangered Blood, with JOSE´ JAMES
Haitian groups and Afropop bands, even touring with Noriega, Black and bassist Trevor Dunn. Initially a
TAKUYA KURODA - KRIS BOWERS - SOLOMON DORSEY - NATE SMITH
the Artie Shaw band after graduation. With Black and ‘neighborhood’ band that convened to raise money for SUN JAN 8 A TRIBUTE TO
DAVELL CRAWFORD:
D’Angelo, he founded Human Feel in 1987 and, after D’Angelo when he was ill, the group has become RAY CHARLES
guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel joined, the band’s brash Speed’s primary compositional outlet. The depths of ★★MMOINNGDUAYSS★★ MINMGOUNS J OARN C9H &E 2S3TRA★★MMOINNDGAUYSS★★
combination of improvisation and tuneful melodies their connections seep through the music. “I feel
TUE JAN 10
gained notice in the early ‘90s. “Human Feel was the fortunate, because working on music and feeling that ETIENNE CHARLES & KAISO
band of all bands for me,” Speed says. “That was my flow happening is kind of it for me - it’s meditative, it’s JACQUES SCHWARZ-BART - BRIAN HOGANS - SULLIVAN FORTNER - BEN WILLIAMS - GREGORY HUTCHINSON - D’ACHEE
WED-SUN JAN 11-15
first band and that’s where I learned how to do transcendent, it’s all those sort of spiritual things you DR. LONNIE SMITH TRIO
everything.” read about,” says Speed. The group recently did four
JONATHAN KREISBERG - JAMIRE WILLIAMS
recogRneiltoicoant iansg a nto a dNveewnt uYrooruks, imSppereodv iseearr nanedd nfuasrcthenert dhiast ehs oimn ethtoew Pna’csi fEica rNshoortth wFeesstti,v ianl claunddi ntgw ao cwoneceekrst iant ★★MMOINNGDUAYSS★★ MIMNOGNU JSA NB I1G6 &B A30ND ★★MMOINNDGAUYSS★★
talent in saxophonist Tim Berne’s seminal Bloodcount. Europe. In Spring 2012, Endangered Blood will tour TUE JAN 17
ED REED
Soon entrenched in the NYC creative scene, his tenor the Southeast US and record their second CD.
ANTON SCHWART - RANDY PORTER - UGONNA OKEGWO - AKIRA TANA
and clarinet adorned the projects of composer John Speed also recently recorded with Italian drummer WED JAN 18
DAVE STRYKER ORGAN QUINTET
Zorn, bassist Mark Dresser, pianist Myra Melford and Zeno De Rossi, along with guitarist Marc Ribot and
trumpeter Dave Douglas. Speed also explored Balkan bassist Danilo Gallo, interpreting old Italian songs. In FREDDIE HENDRIX - STEPHEN RILEY - JARED GOLD - BILLY HART
THU-SUN JAN 19-22★7:30PM & 9:30PM ONLY
music with peers in Pachora and honed his skills as a addition, a set of improvised music with Black and LOU DONALDSON QUARTET
composer and leader with yeah NO, featuring Black, Sverrisson was recorded in New Orleans during Mardi
RANDY JOHNSTON - AKIKO TSURUGA - McCLENTY HUNTER
trumpeter Cuong Vu and bassist Skuli Sverrisson. Gras but not released. “I can’t complain. It’s so tough TUE-WED JAN 24-25
WOLFF & CLARK EXPEDITION
“When I’m writing, that’s where my ear goes: unison for everybody at the moment, not just musicians. So
LENNY PICKETT - STEVE WILSON - MICHAEL WOLFF - JAMES GENUS - MIKE CLARK
or harmony lines,” Speed says. “I try to be conscious of I’m really thankful for the work,” Speed says. This
THU-SUN JAN 26-29
what’s happening and when ideas come that surprise month will be busy: he’ll be playing with Caine in BILLY CHILDS QUARTET
me, I try to acknowledge them somehow.” Intertwined Cologne and locally with Pachora, Hasselbring, FEATURING STEVE WILSON - HANS GLAWISCHNIG - ERIC HARLAND
lines over deep grooves typified the music, culminating Mexican brass Banda de los Muertos and with Leah TUE-SAT JAN 31-FEB 4
DAVID SANCHEZ QUARTET
with the nuanced and hauntingly beautiful Swell Henry Paul.
(Squealer, 2003). “I’m happy with what I’m doing, I’m composing LUIS PERDOMO (EXCEPT 2/4) - MATT BREWER - HENRY COLE
★★★JAZZ FOR KIDS WITH THE JAZZ STANDARD YOUTH ORCHESTRA EVERY SUNDAY AT 2PM [EXCEPT JAN 1] - DIRECTED BY DAVID O’ROURKE★★★
Speed reduced his number of projects and focused and I’m working and that’s the whole point for me,”
on refining his sound. “It’s challenging to have two Speed says. “I need to keep putting stuff out and keep
instruments that I want to be on the highest level,” he challenging myself and I think that’s happening.” v
THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | January 2012 7
JOCHEN BILL ACHIM MARC COPLAND &
RUECKERT CARROTHERS KAUFMANN JOHN ABERCROMBIE KEVIN HAYS
5 6 7 8 9
5 5 5 5 5
0 0 0 0 0
3 3 3 3 3
T T T T T
PI PI PI PI PI
SOMEWHERE A NIGHT AT THE VERIVYR SPEAK TO ME VARIATIONS
MEETING NOBODY VILLAGE VANGUARD ACHIM KAUFMANN p MARC COPLAND p KEVIN HAYS p
MARK TURNER ts BILL CARROTHERS p VALDI KOLLI b JOHN ABERCROMBIE git
“Variations is pure pianism
BRAD SHEPIK git NICOLAS THYS b JIM BLACK dr “This is an album of sensitive on parade.”
MATT PENMAN b DRÉ PALLEMAERTS dr “The exciting streams of touch and softly rippling (Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz)
JOCHEN RUECKERT dr musical thought, the heat atmosphere, but its core is
“If you need something new
of creative moments, the durably clear.”
“Rueckert is spot-on in this in the Evans et al bag, this
intensity of musical move- (Nate Chinen, New York Times)
meeting with a fi ne band of is the place. It’s two discs of
ment—all are blended with
musicians who give graceful can’t miss. Well done.”
the allure of discovering
testimony to his music.” (Chris Spector, Midwest Record)
new musical possibilities.”
(Jerry D’Souza, All About Jazz)
(Arnaldo DeSouteiro, jazzstation.com)
www.pirouet.com
ON THE COVER
P
h
JACK o
to
b
y
C
h
ris G
DEJOHNETTE riffith
SOUND TRAVELS
by Kurt Gottschalk
D
uring a career that has stretched across six decades pianists out there who are much better than I am. You live in London, included compositions by Williams
- dating back to early appearances with Herbie put it in a setting and it feels OK. I know what I wanted and Lifetime guitarist John McLaughlin and organist
Hancock, Charles Lloyd and Jackie McLean - Jack to get out of it. I didn’t worry about ‘is this good or is Larry Young as well as all three band members. But it
DeJohnette has been many things: a drummer, a pianist this bad?’ I just stayed in the moment.” also included pieces by other departed greats: John
and an experimenter with electronics; a composer for The album - which also features McFerrin, pianist Coltrane, Miles Davis, Joe Henderson and Jule Styne.
both film and for his own bands; a stylist in the terrains Jason Moran and bassist Esperanza Spalding - kicks off The sad truth about a career as long as DeJohnette’s
of jazz, world and new age musics and a timekeeper a year of festivities marking DeJohnette’s 70th birthday. - and perhaps especially in jazz - is that you lose so
behind many of the greatest names jazz has produced. This month he will celebrate the album’s release with a many along the way. Perhaps one of the more unusual
But across all of it, the multi-faceted artist’s work is show at the Blue Note playing with the band he releases in DeJohnette’s expansive catalog is the 1989
always uniquely his own. DeJohnette doesn’t assembled for that album and two days later he will be album Zebra, a set of trumpet and synthesizer duets
immigrate into new sound worlds, he journeys through honored at a concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center featuring the late Lester Bowie. The music was
them, retaining identity as a citizen of one of the commemorating his being awarded the 2012 National recorded in 1985 as a soundtrack for a film called
thirstiest and most absorbent of musical forms, a Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Master Fellowship Tadayuki Naito / Zebra featuring photographer Naito’s
notion well exemplified by the title of his new CD, where he will perform with Sheila Jordan, Von documenting of African zebras. While Bowie and
Sound Travels (eOne Music). Freeman, Jimmy Owens and Charlie Haden. That DeJohnette worked together elsewhere (1978’s New
In that respect, DeJohnette might be called jazz’ night’s set list, according to DeJohnette, will include Directions and 1980’s New Directions in Europe, both
great equalizer. His associates have ranged from the “When Will the Blues Leave?” a composition by 1984 also including John Abercrombie and Eddie Gomez),
pop jazz singer Bobby McFerrin to avant pop stylist NEA Jazz Master Ornette Coleman. The summer will it’s the duo soundtrack record that stands out in both
Lester Bowie. His playing has ranged from classic bring appearances at the Newport and Monterey men’s discographies. “I was hired to write some music
acoustic jazz to fusion to the sort of electronic and festivals as well as a European tour. for a photographer who made a 40-minute film on
meditative settings often disparaged by jazz purists. “It’s the highest honor a jazz musician can get in zebras,” DeJohnette recalled. “The producer wanted to
His influences have included Indian, Latin, South America,” he said of being named an NEA fellow. “It’s have Lester Bowie come in and improvise on that. It’s
African and Moroccan traditions, but he’s never fallen quite a distinguished honor. And I’m celebrating the all programmed drums and I played keyboards and
into the lowest-common-denominator trap of so-called whole year. Herbie did that in 2010, Chick [Corea] did Lester came in. It’s one of my favorites.” The record,
“world music”. He doesn’t change course so much as it last year and I’m doing it now.” however, was met with lukewarm reviews and hasn’t
simply cover the field. It’s a funny thing to say about The NEA award is recognition a long time coming. gained in popularity since, probably in no small part
someone who was part of Bitches Brew and who did a DeJohnette was a significant part of the original due to the heavy use of electronics. Zebra employed not
session with Alice Coltrane and Carlos Santana, but Charles Lloyd Quartet and Miles Davis’ fusion bands just synths but drum machines. For better or worse, it
DeJohnette’s music up to and including the new album of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. He’s anchored Keith made for an unusual record and DeJohnette stands
rarely comes off as a fusion (verb, not noun) of forms, Jarrett’s Standards Trio since the ‘90s and all the while behind his use of programmed drums. “It depends on
of jazz and world music or of jazz and amped-up rock. has led his own bands as well. He’s also had the what sounds you use,” he said. “In African drumming
More often it is simply as an open approach to different unusual distinction of taking over Tony Williams’ chair there’s a lot of repetition, so a drum machine is perfect
sources from different regions of the world. in two different bands: both drummers got their starts for that.”
“That’s the idea - it’s like sound travels,” in Jackie McLean’s band, DeJohnette coming in when Which in a sense might point to something about
DeJohnette said, invoking the title of the new record Williams left for Davis’ band in 1963, and when his work overall. For the jazz legend who has won a
and putting the emphasis on the first word, connoting Williams left that gig, it was again DeJohnette who got Grammy for Best New Age Album, it’s not about
that it’s not an incidental statement (like “news travels the job. tradition or nationality or invention or technology so
fast”) but a process, a journey, like “international “I was always the guy Miles called when Tony much as it is about what sound you use. “Music is
travel” or “air travel”. It’s not so much that sound couldn’t make it, so when Tony finally did leave I took music - it’s either good or bad,” he said. “I think all
waves move, in other words, but that we are moving over,” DeJohnette said. “We had a little competition music is world music, it’s all folk music, it all draws
with them. “It travels in different environmental going on but later we hung out together at Mt. Fuji, got from the folk. I don’t really like to get tied down by
worlds. Pieces like ‘Dirty Ground’ sort of came together a lot closer, we developed a friendship.” genres or compartmentalizing. It’s music. You like it or
organically... I had some good help from incredible Now DeJohnette looks back admiringly on you don’t. The guy who really made it happen was
musicians and an incredible producer and engineer,” Williams’ life and career, cut short when he died in Harry Belafonte, 40 or 50 years ago. And even people
he said. “It was Bob [producer Robert Sadin] who got 1997 at the age of 51. “Tony and I are contemporaries, like Dizzy, Louis Jordan, there was a Caribbean kind of
excited about my music and [engineer] Dave we came up together,” he said. “Tony was very a thing. The terms came because the industry wanted
[Darlington] gave me some really good creative input. talented, an amazing drummer and he was quite a to sell products, you know? ‘New Age’, there’s all these
I had some good help on this. I wrote the music but we composer. We were on similar paths with our own sorts of terms, but people listen to all sorts of music.”v
kind of put it all together so it made some sense. It was ways of interpreting the music. Tony left a very strong
a group effort.” mark on the music. With people like Cindy Blackman For more information, visit jackdejohnette.com. DeJohnette is
It was Sadin who encouraged DeJohnette to play you can still feel his presence. Lifetime is still one of at Blue Note Jan. 8th and Rose Theatre Jan. 10th as part of the
piano on the record as well. On most of the tracks he’s the best organ trios around. That’s why I wanted to NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony. See Calendar.
heard on both piano and drums and the album opens make the Saudades album for him.”
and closes with a pair of unaccompanied piano pieces. That record, released in 2006, simulated the Recommended Listening:
DeJohnette took piano lessons as a youth before original Lifetime instrumentation with Larry Goldings • Charles Lloyd - Dream Weaver (Atlantic, 1966)
picking up the drumsticks. He has played acoustic and on organ and John Scofield on guitar as Trio Beyond. • Miles Davis - Live-Evil (Columbia-Legacy, 1970)
electric keyboards throughout his career and part of But in typical DeJohnette fashion, the record referenced • Jack DeJohnette - Special Edition (ECM, 1979)
his strength on the instrument might be knowing his more than just one influence. It took as its title a • David Murray/Jack DeJohnette - In Our Style (DIW, 1986)
limits. Portuguese word, which means a deep sadness and • John Surman/Jack DeJohnette - Invisible Nature (ECM, 2000)
“The piano on the album makes sense, the way I that is often applied to fado, that country’s tradition of • Jack DeJohnette/John Patitucci/Danilo Pérez -
use it,” he said. “I’m not trying to compete with the folk, guitar-based music. The double-disc set, recorded Music We Are (Kindred Rhythm, 2008)
THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | January 2012 9
ENCORE
Hal Singer
group.’ So that’s the way it happened, but other than Recommended Listening:
that, I think I would have been with the Ellington band • Hal Singer - Rent Party (Savoy, 1955-56)
until it broke up or something.” • Hal Singer - Blue Stompin’ (with Charlie Shavers)
by Alex Henderson
Singer’s first recordings as a leader made him a (Prestige-OJC, 1959)
prominent figure in the early R&B market and, • Hal Singer/Milt Buckner - Milt & Hal
A
t 92, Hal “Cornbread” arguably, helped pave the way for the birth of rock ‘n’ (Black & Blue, 1968)
Singer has seen a great roll in the mid ‘50s. “Rock Around the Clock” (not to • Hal Singer/Jef Gilson - Soul of Africa
deal of jazz history be confused with Bill Haley & the Comets’ famous (Chant Du Monde, 1975)
first-hand. The veteran 1954 recording) isn’t quite rock ‘n’ roll in the Little • Hal Singer - Senior Blues (Carrere, 1991)
tenor saxophonist still Richard/Chuck Berry/Elvis Presley sense, but it • Hal Singer - Challenge (featuring David Murray)
has vivid memories of definitely rocks hard for 1948. (Marge, 2010)
‘40s ‘10s the months he spent in Although Singer’s roots were Swing, he kept an
Duke Ellington’s orchestra and of his friendships with open mind to post-Swing styles of jazz. Hardbop
legends like Billie Holiday, Dexter Gordon and Dizzy eventually influenced him, as did postbop and modal
Gillespie. And after all these years, Singer continues to jazz. “I was fortunate enough to have come through
perform and record. As recently as 2010, he recorded the big band period and to have witnessed the changing
an album in France (his adopted home since 1965) that of the styles into bebop and into what they call free
prominently features fellow tenor man David Murray. jazz,” Singer notes. “Some of it I didn’t think would fit
Singer and Murray might seem an unlikely me as a person, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t
combination; Singer came out of the Swing Era, associate with some of the guys, talk with them and try
whereas Murray is an inside/outside musician with to understand where they were trying to go.”
strong avant garde credentials. But, in fact, the two of About half of Singer’s life has been spent in Paris.
them proved to be quite compatible on Singer’s album Singer might have moved back to New York, but after
Challenge, which favors a passionate blend of postbop, marrying a French woman (his wife Arlette) and
hardbop and soul jazz. having two daughters with her, he ended up staying
“I had never worked with David at all before this permanently. Asked what some of his fondest memories January 10th
record,” Singer explains. “We have two different styles of his pre-Paris days are, Singer responds: “Oh,
Chip White Ensemble
and come from two different eras of the music. But we working with Henry ‘Red’ Allen, working with Hot
tried to make it as interesting as we could in our Lips Page, working on 52nd Street with Don Byas and
respective ways and it worked out OK. I think that having Count Basie up the street at the Famous Door January 17th
some of the younger guys are realizing that they have and having Stuff Smith across the street. Roy Eldridge Dave Chamberlain’s
to go back and respect some of the past.” here, Coleman Hawkins there. As I look back on it now,
Band of Bones
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Oct. 8th, 1919, Singer it was a lovely period of my life.”
has been active in the jazz world since the ‘30s. The And when Billie Holiday’s name comes up, Singer
saxist, who moved to New York City in 1943, built an remembers: “Billie was, for me, a very, very beautiful January 24th
impressive résumé as a sideman for Jay McShann, Roy lady. When I was working at the Famous Door with Mike Longo and the NY State
Eldridge, Hot Lips Page and other Swing giants. In [drummer] Big Sid Catlett’s band - we were the
of the Art Jazz Ensemble
1948, Singer recorded his debut single as a leader, intermission band - I would take her dog for a walk
“Fine As Wine”/“Rock Around the Clock”, for sometimes. Billie had a dog named Mister. Just to be
Mercury, waxed the hit instrumental “Cornbread” for able to say I worked in the same club where Billie January 31st
Savoy and spent several months in Duke Ellington’s Holiday worked is really something. People in the club Warren Chiasson Group
orchestra. would be rowdy before Billie came on and when she
“To hear Cootie Williams, Lawrence Brown, Harry would sing, the club would get quiet.”
Carney and Jimmy Hamilton was just mind-boggling,” But as many happy memories as Singer has of his
Singer says of his time with Ellington. “Every night, I youth, one won’t hear him complaining about the jazz
was going to work and it was like I was on a cloud. It scene of 2012. In fact, Singer is quite optimistic about
was just a beautiful thing. And what happened was jazz’ future in both the United States and Europe.
that I had made some records for Savoy; one was “When I was coming up,” Singer asserts, “all the jazz
named ‘Cornbread’, which swept the country at that books and jazz education like you have today didn’t
time. Different people were telling me to get out of exist. People who really want to play jazz now are
Duke Ellington’s band and start out for myself and making a living teaching these kids jazz and the
Sonny [Greer] and Johnny [Hodges] were telling me musicianship in jazz is so high now. It’s a wonderful
the same thing. They were saying, ‘Get your own thing.” v
LEST WE FORGET
Julius Hemphill
part of Hemphill’s life growing up. Brief R&B gigs multi-instrumentalism and overdubbing. Hemphill
(1938-95)
with Ike Turner’s band following a hitch in the US collaborated with dancer Bill T. Jones on “The Last
Army intensified these currents. Moving to St. Louis in Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land”;
by Ken Waxman
the late ‘60s, Hemphill helped organize the organized one eponymous big band disc on Elektra/
multidisciplinary collective Black Artists’ Group (BAG) Musician around a setting of K. Curtis Lyle`s poetry;
K
nown best for the 15-odd years he spent as a with future WSQ members Oliver Lake (alto) and composed “Long Tongues”, a 75-minute opera for six
founding member of the World Saxophone Quartet Hamiet Bluiett (baritone). Moreover, it was compositions saxophones, rhythm section, strings, brass and piccolo
(WSQ), saxophonist and composer Julius Arthur such as his epic “The Hard Blues”, initially recorded that utilized spoken word, dance and photo montage;
Hemphill influenced the shape of jazz before and after on the influential Dogon A.D. for his Mbari label wrote for non-jazz ensembles such as the Arditti String
that affiliation. Live at Kassiopeia, a 1987 German (recently reissued by International Phonograph), Quartet and the Richmond Symphony and, in live
concert recently released by NoBusiness, demonstrates which confirmed that the textures of experimental jazz performance, would often play alongside pre-recorded
his prowess in extending solo reed language and in could be combined with bedrock blues rhythms. tapes.
powerful duets with German bassist Peter Kowald. This tendency was extended with the WSQ, The results of a serious car accident, plus diabetes,
Hemphill’s organizational and musical smarts also initially consisting of Lake, Hemphill, Bluiett and tenor cancer and heart problems, adversely affected his life
encouraged younger saxophonists such as Tim Berne saxophonist David Murray. Hemphill was chief from the early ‘80s onward. Although his health didn’t
and especially Marty Ehrlich, whose Julius Hemphill arranger for the cooperative until personal conflicts permit him to perform after 1994 - Berne took his place
Sextet preserves the all-saxophone ensemble Hemphill and health problems forced him to leave. With albums in the sextet - before that Hemphill had worked
created after splitting with the WSQ. under his own name such as Roi Boyé & the Gotham steadily with associates like percussionist Warren
Born Jan. 24th, 1938 in Fort Worth, TX, the sounds Minstrels (Sackville/Delmark) and Blue Boyé Smith and cellist Abdul Wadud. Hemphill died in New
of blues, jazz and gospel live and on jukeboxes were (Screwgun), he started experimenting with multimedia, York on Apr. 2nd, 1995. v
10 January 2012 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD