Recent Listening: End of 2013

It has been a while since I last checked in. Here are a few albums that have been making the rounds.

When I stumbled upon Owls Talk (Hote Marge 2010) I had know idea who Alexandra Grimal was. It was the other personnel that grabbed my eye - Gary Peacock (b) Paul Motian (d) & Lee Konitz (as). Grimal splits time between tenor and soprano, and I feel the latter suits her best. Lyrical and open interplay from all, plenty of space and in general the album has an unhurried feel to it. Very nice recorded sound too.

Le Vent et la Gorge (Leo 2012) is the latest from the Frank Gratkowski Quartet with Gratkowski  (as/cl/b.cl/contrabass cl) Wolter Wierbos (tb) Dieter Manderschied (b) Gerry Hemingway (d).

The first part of the album is the 8-part suite "Harm-oh-nie," mixing up composed and improvised material -which at times is very hard to differentiate (a good thing). The piece tends to alter movements of held notes/multiphonics/harmonics/glissandi with more rhythmically aggressive movements. The movements are quite short, most fall between 3 and 5 minutes and this helps keep things moving.

The second part of the album is made up of four pieces, three of which are longer works (between 9 and 17 minutes) - I have only given these an initial listen. Perhaps I will report back once I've spent some more time with them. I'm sure the quartet members long association together (formed from the Gratkowski trio in 2000)  plays a role in the ensemble sound they create. This blurb from Gratkowski's website sums up the group well, "In the music of the quartet, I am trying to form a synthesis of composition and improvisation where all instruments have equal functions to build a unified whole."

The Rock On The Hill (Nato 2011) by the trio Lol Coxhill (ss) Barre Phillips (b) JT Bates (d) has been as nice surprise. It has only been in the last year that I have started listening to Coxhill and I find his playing quite fascinating. Not nearly as virtuosic as Steve Lacy or Evan Parker but he is most definitely his own man. There's something about his tone that draws me in. The seven improvisations that make up the album move through moments that are lyrical, abstract, calm, minimal, light, and there's even some groove in there. It's an album with plenty of space and the trio work very well together with Coxhill & Phillips taking the lead. A good one to check out if you have an interest in less frenetic free improvising.

WKCR Frank Wess Memorial Broadcast

Columbia University's WKCR 89.9FM is commemorating the life of Tenor Sax/Flautist Frank Wess with memorial broadcast from 6pm Thursday October 31 - 9pm Friday November 1st (Eastern Time). Tune in!

recent listing: october contrafacts

Lately I've been listening to a few contrafacts (tunes written on the chords of other tunes).  For the most part I have been looking for pre-bop contrafacts. Drop me a line if you know any good ones.

First up was checking out some tunes based on changes from "Tiger Rag" (which shares plenty in common with "Won't you come home Bill Bailey") - Duke Ellington was a fan - "Daybreak Express," "Hot & Bothered," "Braggin' In Brass" & "The Slippery Horn" come out of "Tiger Rag."
A couple of others "Tiger Rag" based tunes I've come across include Louis Armstrong's "Hotter Than Hot" and Sidney Bechet playing "I'll Take That New Orleans Music" (Wilbur DeParis).

There are plenty based on "I Got Rhythm".... "The Jeep Is Jumpin" (Hodges/Ellington) "Apple Honey" (Woody Herman) "Seven Come Eleven" (Charlie Christian) "Shag" (Sidney Bechet) "Chant Of The Groove" (Coleman Hawkins).

Coleman Hawkins wrote a few contrafacts - "Bean Soup" (Tea For Two) "Bay-U-Bah" (Sweet Georgia Brown) "Bean At The Met" (How High The Moon) and I listened to his takes of a couple by Thelonious Monk too - "Rifftide" (aka Hackensack (Lady Be Good) & "Stuffy" (aka Stuffy Turkey (Stompin' At The Savoy).

Another based on Stompin' is "Byas A Drink" by Don Byas. He'ss a player I haven't listened to that much. I remember giving his famous duo with Slam Steward on I Got Rhythm quite a few listens, but that was some time ago.

A few different versions of "Moten Swing" (You're Driving Me Crazy) have been on, including Jay McShann (featuring Bird), Gene Ammons, Eddie Durham and Sonny Stitt.

The Count Basie band on "Dickies Dream" (I Found A New Baby - which seems to share a bit in common with "I Hope Gabriel Likes My Music" though I haven't sat down and tried working it out.)

Charles Minugs' band playing "Take The A Train" and "Exactly Like You" at the same time. This is from the album "Mingus Revisited" (aka Pre-Bird - Mingus wrote the pieces before he had heard bop) I hadn't heard this album in ages - I'll have to find time to have a listen to the rest of the album.

I didn't really listen to many of the bop melodies. One I did check out was Charlie Parker's "She Rote." For this the melody is over of pedal tone and the blowing in on the changes from "When I Grow Too Old To Dream" - I've been listening to Nat Cole's version with Stuff Smith and another by Roy Eldridge.

Aside from contrafacts I have also been listening to artists improvising on standard forms without stating the melody (and renaming the tune in the process). Again, I've pretty much been sticking to pre-bop stuff. If you know of any others - from any era - please let me know (I have the Tristano work pretty well covered).

A couple of favourites to start of with - Roy Eldridge & Chu Berry on "Sittin' In" (Tiger Rag) and "Forty-six West-52" (Sweet Georgia Brown)

Not as well known as his 1939 version Coleman Hawkins' "Rainbow Mist" (Body & Soul) from 1944 is worth checking out. Another one from Hawkins in the mid-40s is "Hawk Variations." I'm not totally sure on this one yet - it sounds as if Monk's "Round Midnight" makes and appearance in the 2nd half but I'm not sure of the 1st half yet..... suggestions? This is an excellent (and surprisingly not very well known) solo saxophone performance. Apparently this was recorded as a promo for Selmer saxophones.

Couldn't pass up a couple from Lester Young too - "Lester Swings" (Exactly Like You) and "Lester Blows Again" (Honeysuckle Rose).

Hamilton College Jazz Archive

For those of you interested in jazz oral histories be sure to check out the Hamilton College Jazz Archive. A couple of hundred interviews covering a wide range of artists from Michael Abene to Danny Zeitlin and Nat Adderley to Snooky Young.

Here's a little bit from the talk with clarinetist Kenny Davern.

Monk Rowe: Was there a point where you said music is going to be my career?

Kenny Davern: Right.

MR: A definite...

KD: A definite — I can remember it like it was yesterday. 

Kenny Davern & Bill Payne
Photo by Mark Weber

There used to be Ted Huesing’s bandstand. Ted Huesing I think originally was a sports car enthusiast or whatever. And he had, he played popular music like from three to six everyday, I forget what the station was, WJZ or WOR or something like that. And the last 15 minutes he played Dixieland band music. And I liked that. I liked the way those bands sounded. I liked it especially because the clarinet was free. And then on Saturday mornings from 11 to 12 he’d play a whole hour of all these different people, you know, Dixieland jazz bands, whether it be Tony Parenti or Wild Bill Davison or you know, you name it, whoever was around at that time. And one day he played a Muggsy Spanier recording of Muggsy Spanier’s Ragtime and they were playing “Memphis Blues.” And I was just standing in the kitchen listening and I heard this, because the radio was on top of the ice box. And I heard this instrument growling and grunting and [scats], and this beautiful background like the band playing whole notes. And it was Pee Wee Russell playing clarinet. Well you know you can go look at paintings, you can read books, you can see movies, you can listen to music, and if you haven’t had a musical experience from any one of those things you’re never really going to be hooked. I mean if a book can make you laugh and cry and the same with a painting or whatever, if you can experience something — prior to that you just listen, you know, like a fan. Yeah that’s good, yeah. But if it doesn’t really grab you emotionally — and I stood there transfixed looking at that radio. And I said that’s it, I want to do that for the rest of my life. I was about 14.

The Jazz Review

Recently, I sent this link to some friends and thought I may as well post it here too.

The Jazz Review was published between 1958-1961.

Lots of interesting articles including album reviews by musicians - The February 1959 issue has Cannonball Adderley reviewing albums by Ahmad Jamal and Tony Scott and Bill Crow reviews Adderley, Paul Bley and Ray Charles.

The same issue contains a review of Warne Marsh's self-titled album on Atlantic. Possibly one of Marsh's longest reviews.... about 75% of which is dedicated to his tone (reviewer Mimi Clar is not a fan!). Great album - be sure to check it out!

Currently there are about half a dozen copies online (PDF files) - they intend to upload the journal's entire run.

Jazz Studies Online has plenty of other articles and book excerpts
Here's Barry Ulanov's feature on Lennie Tristano from the August 1949 issue of Metronome.

NYC September 2013

I'm slowly catching up on things. I spent the first week of September in New York City - it had been awhile since I was last in town (Easter I think). It's well after the fact and a bit light on details but here's a run down on the weeks happenings.

Grakowski & Heberer 

First stop was the  Downtown Music Gallery. I try and make it there each time I'm in town, though this was my first time at one of the in-store concerts they host on Sunday evenings - nice vibe and plenty of CD browsing (and some buying) before the show. Performing in store was the duo of Frank Gratkowski (alto sax) & Thomas Heberer (cornet/trumpet). I really enjoyed this yet. Great to be up close to the music in a (very) small space. The pair played a set of improvised duos. I found out that these two have a playing history going back to their teens - and it showed with plenty of common ground shared. I must remember to check if they have recorded together (I forgot to ask them!). Picked up a copy of Frank's latest album "All At Once" - just released on Relative Pitch Records. I've only had time to give it one spin - a saxophone trio disc with Phillip Greenlief & Jon Raskin - but I've liked what I've heard so far. I joined the duo and some friends for dinner in Chinatown.

After dinner we walked up to Nublu for Frank's second gig of the night. Got to have a good chat with him about projects he has under way including the few weeks he had just spent at CNMAT (Center for New Music & Audio Technologies). He's been working on his project "Artikulationen E" solo alto sax with live electronics and 8-point surround sound. In fact Frank has built his own wireless electronics controller that attaches to his alto (see pic). For the 2nd gig Frank was part of percussionist Joe Hertenstein's "Future Drone"with Anthony Coleman (fender rhodes) Ken Filiano (b). This is a gig that I would have dug a lot more had it not been so loud. The main culprit was the rhodes - and it brought the rest of the group with it. When the volume was lower I could hear everyone and there was plenty of interesting music happening. But too often the volume took away the enjoyment.

Tender Trap Jam Session

Monday night I joined friends at the Tender Trap jam session in Brooklyn. They're had a regular set followed by a jam session there for some time now. It's a sweet scene - friendly and welcoming. Last time I was in town I wasn't able to play due the problems with my hand/arm so it was nice to get a few tunes in. The only jam session I've attended with four violinists! Take your horn down if you are in the neighborhood or just take your ears and have a beer.

Tuesday morning I joined Will and Carol at B&H to check out some microphones. What a crazy place - I still can't get over that I'd never heard of them. Following that it was off to Carol's for a duo session of standards and free improvisations. It seemed an age since we and played together but things came into place nicely. The free stretches seemed to move into some new places. I must remember to bring my recorder next time I'm in town.
After the session we headed downtown to hear our friend Nick playing a pre-show duo gig at the Signature Theatre. The acoustic was very live (a large space with plenty of concert and wood). Nick's alto sound filled the space and he was barley breathing into the horn. Very relaxed, melodic playing.

Zach Brock Quartet - 55 Bar

I spent Wednesday afternoon out in Newark meeting some of my classmates and sat in on the first of the Duke Ellington classes. I'm sure I'll blog a bit about school in the future.
That evening it was off to Greenwich Village and the 55 Bar for the Zach Brock (violin) Matt Penman (b) John Beasley (fender rhodes) and Obed Calvaire (d). Two sets of mostly Brock originals - plus one from Beasley, Herbie Hancock's "Eye of the Hurricane" and a ballad "You've Changed" (I think). The quartet was tight and bass & drum combo were particularly locked in. Nice catching up with Matt - hadn't seen him since he played in Chicago with the SFJAZZ Collective.

Kept things fairly mellow on Thursday. In the morning I caught up with Richard, a sax playing friend from New Zealand who has just moved to NYC to study towards his Masters Degree. Then it was off out to Brooklyn for a hang, session and lunch with Nick. Hanging and playing with Nick always provide plenty of surprises and laughs. Spent the night with my wonderful hosts - Will & Jennie - dinner and drinks. All in all a fun week - plenty of music and friends - and that's a good thing indeed.

Chicago Jazz Festival 2013: Saturday

Saturday followed a similar pattern as Friday - check out a couple of gigs in the marquee's before the evening concerts on the main stage.

Gregory Porter

The Nick Mazzarella Trio started off my day. Mazzarella's burning alto was teamed with his regular rhythm section paring of Anton Hatwich (b) Frank Rosaly (d). They jumped straight into a high energy set of originals from the leader. A ballad made a welcome appearance about four tunes in, providing some contrast to the searing bite I have come to expect from Mazarella. I wasn't digging the live sound today - loud, boxy and metallic. It may not have been helped by the fairly empty tent . The crowd was down on the day before - not helped by the weather (it had been raining all day and started pouring not long before the set started). Mazarella's tone in particular suffered - while it is edgy and biting, I found the P.A sound made it one dimensionally bright. I felt for the trio as it really didn't do their sound any justice.

I left the set slightly early so as not to miss the start the Hamid Drake Quartet with Kidd Jordan (ts) Cooper-Moore (p) and William Parker (b) over in the southern tent. Murphy's law..... they started late! It was amateur hour during the set up. With a large crowd waiting the band made efforts to set up and sound check as music pumped through the P.A. No surprises then that when the music got underway the mix was terrible. In general it was a loud, wash of sound - no clarity at all. Parker's bass sounded like I giant amplified rubber band and the piano was obnoxiously bright and way too high in the mix. After a long free improvisation, they finally worked out that the bass was humming. I changed seats, then moved to the back of the tent. No improvement. I left. This must have been close to the worst live sound I have heard. Very disappointing. 

Rudresh Mahanthappa's "GAMAK"

The evening of concerts on the main stage started off with vocalist Gregory Porter (v) and his band of Chip Crawford (p) Aaron James (b) Yosuke Satoh (as) Emanuel Howard (d). I arrived during the set and could hear the crowd applauding well before I could see them. The rain during the day had cleared and a large audience had turned out - in the seated area and on the lawn. Lucky for me there were a couple of  empty seats down at the front of stage so I set up camp there for the night. It was a nice group and I can see why Porter gets plenty of attention and the crowd were really into it. The band backed him up well - bass and drums were a good pairing and the some nice comping from the piano. The odd one out, for me, was the alto to Satoh - his tone and phrasing seemed to be coming more from a "smooth jazz" type thing. While he played well and offered contrast to Porter's vocals I felt someone more in classic "Chicago-tenor" mold would have rounded the group out more seamlessly. 

Saturday Night's audience

Second up on the main stage was Rudresh Mahanthappa's "GAMAK" with David Fiuczynski (g) Francois Moutin (b) Dan Weiss (d). Mahanthappa's seamless blend of jazz-isms & Karnatic-isms (!), Moutin holding down rock solid bass, Fiuczynski's rock sensibilities, and rhythm mastery from Weiss combined for set of driving, high energy music (Off-kilter Indian-jazz-rock was written in my notebook). Lots of chops on display - both sax and guitar are lighting quick - but the music was interesting. If you are after something different, the group released an album at the start of the year. Weiss's drumming was the stand out to me. I've heard a few recordings he's been on but I believe this was the 1st time I'd heard him live (I'd need to double check my notebooks.... I may have heard him with David Binney). Music just seemed to be flowing out of him with minimal effort - wonderful. 

Rounding out the night was the Jason Moran: Fats Waller Dance Party. Moran (p/fender rhodes)  along with Earl Travis (b) Joshua Roseman (trb) Leron Thomas (trpt) Charles Haynes (d) Lisa E. Harris (vocal) Martin Sewell (g) and members of the Organic Magnetics dance company put a modern spin on classic tunes by Waller. This was really well put together but not my thing at all - at least not on that night... perhaps my mind was on the early start on Sunday morning to head to NYC? I renewed my membership with the Jazz Institute of Chicago and took my opportunity to get a head start on the exiting crowd.

Some final thoughts......Though this particular post has bit of a negative feel, I did enjoy the first three days of the festival. I would have been at the fourth had I not been NYC bound. The festival does a nice job mixing up the program. It seems like there is something for everyone - mainstream, up and comers, veterans, local artists, traditional groups, freer music, school bands - a nice cross-section of the jazz spectrum. The weather was the biggest hassle - hot, humid and sticky one day, thunder storm the next - but people still turned out. You can't beat the price - free admission! Combine that with the Millennium Park location (in the heart of downtown Chicago) and I'm sure it brings in a lot of listeners that wouldn't normally go to such gigs. Lets hope there is a flow on effect for the live scene. The volunteers I dealt with were great too.

The Main Stage - Saturday Night