GA Russell

April 19 Don Barbour - 1927 Alexis Korner - 1928 Genya Ravan - 1940 Alan Price - 1942 Mark Volman - 1947

April 18 Al Lewis, lyricist (1901) Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (1924) Ken Colyer (1928) Mike Vickers (1940)

Karrin Allyson Revisits a Favorite Musical Destination with "A Kiss for Brazil," Releasing May 17 on Origin Records Vocalist's Third Album of Brazilian Songs Features a Quartet with Keyboardist Vitor Goncalves, Guitarist Yotam Silberstein, Bassist Harvie S, & Drummer Rafael Barata, Plus Legendary Special Guest Rosa Passos 2024 Schedule Includes Stops in Chicago (5/10-11), Los Angeles (7/12-13), Seattle (6/25-26), Kansas City (9/21), NYC (10/29-11/2)   April 17, 2024 Vocalist, pianist, and composer Karrin Allyson writes the long-awaited next chapter in her series of love letters to Brazil on the aptly titled A Kiss for Brazil, to be released May 17 by Origin Records. The sequel to 1999’s From Paris to Rio and 2008’s Imagina: Songs of Brasil adds a bold spice to the sauce: Brazilian singer, guitarist, and national treasure Rosa Passos appears on two songs alongside Allyson and all-star accompanists Vitor Gonçalves (piano, Rhodes, accordion), Yotam Silberstein (guitar), Harvie S (bass), and Rafael Barata (drums). The collaboration with Passos was the seed from which the album bloomed. Brazilian music is one of the through-lines in Allyson’s distinguished career, going all the way back to the rendition of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Insensatez” on her 1993 debut I Didn’t Know About You. The two singers are friends as well as mutual fans, and when Allyson learned that Passos would be visiting New York in March 2023, she arranged a recording session for the two of them. “I didn’t know what I was going to do with the recordings,” she recalls. “Maybe they would just be for posterity. I just knew I had to document the music.” What had originally been planned for just two songs stretched into a full album when the band—all, save for Allyson and S, Brazilian musicians—sounded too good to let go so quickly. Allyson led them through eight more tunes, including works by such titans as Djavan, Ivan Lins, and Luiz Bonfá as well as Jobim. As you might expect, the record quickly took on a life of its own. There’s no indication of an afterthought in “The Gift (Recado Bossa Nova),” performed by all and sundry with terrific precision and topped off with Allyson’s effortless vocal nuance—or in “Flor de Lis” and “Manhã de Carnaval,” both of which she sings in flawless Portuguese as well as English. Her tender turn on Lins’s “The Island” is similarly impeccable, not to mention the beautifully intimate duo of Allyson (who also plays piano) and S on Benny Carter and Sammy Cahn’s “Only Trust Your Heart.” Still, her duets with Passos remain at the heart of A Kiss for Brazil. On Jobim’s ballad “O Grande Amor,” the Brazilian singer handles the Portuguese lyrics in her inimitable contralto, Allyson’s velvet alto following her with the English words. The vocalists’ lively, co-written “Month of March in Salvador (Dunas)” not only lets each singer show off their rhythmic chops, but has them engage with each other in delightful, traded scat phrases. Even with Passos appearing only twice, the album ends up a triumph for her as well as for Allyson. A child of the American Heartland, Karrin Allyson was born July 27, 1962, in Great Bend, Kansas; grew up in Omaha, Nebraska; and began her career in Minneapolis and Kansas City. Her father was a Lutheran minister, her mother a classical music teacher, and Karrin accordingly began her musical journey playing classical piano and singing in church. She was a classical piano major at University of Nebraska Omaha, but by then her soundscape had widened: She fronted an all-girl rock band called Tomboy, played at a local piano bar, and sang in a jazz swing choir. It was jazz that ultimately won her heart, and she pursued it in Minneapolis and Kansas City. It was in the latter—the jazz mecca that bequeathed Count Basie and Charlie Parker to the world—that she recorded her first self-produced album, I Didn’t Know About You, in 1992 and, when it was picked up by Concord Records, saw it become a surprise runaway success. Though she recorded eight more albums in Kansas City, inevitably New York came calling. Her first recording in the Apple, 2000’s Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane, placed her alongside the likes of James Carter, James Williams, John Patitucci, and Lewis Nash, for whom she proved more than a match. Over the years she continued collaborating with giants-cum-equals, including Mulgrew Miller, Jon Hendricks, Kenny Barron, and Regina Carter (who was featured on Karrin’s all-original CD Some of That Sunshine in 2018). Karrin continues to write, and she put out two original singles—“Falling Up” and “Just Passin’ Through”—in 2024. A longtime devotee of Brazilian music, Allyson recorded From Paris to Rio, her first album of Brazilian and French songs, while still living in Kansas City in 1999. She followed it up nearly a decade later with Imagina: Songs of Brasil. A Kiss for Brazil continues not only that tradition, but—in collaborating with Rosa Passos—the one in which she holds her own with the greats of the music. Karrin Allyson was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2023 and will be inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame on 4/20. Her upcoming concert schedule includes: 5/10-11 Green Mill, Chicago; 6/21 Twin Cities Jazz Festival, St. Paul, MN; 6/25-26 Jazz Alley, Seattle; 6/30 Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Half Moon Bay, CA; 7/12-13 Catalina’s, Los Angeles; 9/21 Folly Theater, Kansas City, MO; 10/29-11/2 Birdland, NYC. Photography: Jim O'Keefe   EPK: Karrin Allyson | A Kiss for Brazil  Karrin Allyson Web Site  

A German Shepherd, a Doberman, and a cat have died. All three are faced with God who wants to know what they believe in. The German shepherd says: "I believe in discipline training and loyalty to my master." "Good," says God. "Then sit down on my right side. Doberman, what do you believe in?" The Doberman answers: "I believe in the love, care, and protection of my master." Ah," says God. "You may sit to my left." Then he looks at the cat and asks, "And what do you believe in?" The cat answers: "I believe you're sitting in my seat."

Two-Time World Series-Winning Dodgers Pitcher Dead At 97 (msn.com) Carl Erskine has died. RIP.

Whitey Herzog dies at 92: Hall of Fame MLB manager led Cardinals to World Series title (msn.com)

A little bit, a long time ago.

April 16 Henry Mancini (1924) Herbie Mann (1930) Dusty Springfield (1939)

Minor league teams exist only because the major league teams want them to. The product has a fundamental flaw. Nobody wants to be there. In college football and basketball, the players are happy to be where they are this year. In minor league baseball, the players want to be promoted in mid-season, and are disappointed if they are not.

From the Jimmy Smith 5OA box.

Former Yankees All-Star pitcher Fritz Peterson dies at 82 (msn.com)

A young exec of the Seattle Pilots recollects what happened fifty years later. An enjoyable read, but not a scholarly endeavor.

Today is David Letterman's birthday (1947). USA Today refers to him as "The iconic 'Tonight Show' host." Celebrities who have April birthdays (usatoday.com)

Ohtani interpreter stole more than $16 million from baseball star, feds allege (msn.com)

That's good to know! Still, I think that Pharoah is properly considered a nickname rather than a stage name.

I went to the second weekend of the New Orleans Jazzfest in both '90 and '91. Jazz fans were objecting to the non-jazz acts even then. However, there was one stage that was 100% modern jazz. If you had no interest in anything else, you could at any time listen to the real deal.

Not to be picky, but I suggest that "Pharoah" is a nickname of a youngster named Farrell. I'm reminded of T-Bone Walker, whose given name was Thibeault.

From the Joe Farrell OAC box.

A precursor to the Mickey Spillane school.

Disc One of the Elegy box.

Etienne Charles Debuts As a Big Band Leader With "Creole Orchestra," Arriving June 14 on Culture Shock Records Album Features 13 Tunes Arranged for 22-Piece Big Band, Featuring Acclaimed Vocalist Rene Marie & Other Special Guests Spring & Summer Itinerary Includes 3-Night Stand at Dizzy's, NYC, June 14-16   April 8, 2024 Etienne Charles presents himself to the jazz world as an accomplished large-ensemble arranger with Creole Orchestra, set for a June 14 release on his own Culture Shock imprint. The album is the premiere of the titular band, 22 musicians strong and specializing in executing the Trinbagonian trumpeter’s elaborate charts. Long hailed for his work as a trumpeter, composer, and improviser, as well as for his deep knowledge of rhythms from his native Trinidad & Tobago and around the Eastern Caribbean, Charles has mostly worked with small combos over his nearly 20-year career. He had written only a few pieces for large ensemble when vocalist Rene Marie tasked him with arranging for a full set of big band tunes to take on the road. That was “baptism by fire,” Charles recalls. “Okay, now I’m a big band writer.” And, as Creole Orchestra makes clear, he is a shrewd and inventive one. It’s not just anyone who can orchestrate both the classic swing anthem “Stompin’ at the Savoy” and Bell Biv Devoe’s new jack swing hit “Poison” with equal flair and crispness. Those are just two of the many dimensions Charles explores on the album. Marie herself is a featured guest, taking the vocal spotlight for four of the 13 tracks—including “I Wanna Be Evil,” Eartha Kitt’s theme song that was the centerpiece of Marie and Charles’s first collaboration (her 2013 album of the same name), as well as the jazz standard “Centerpiece” and two of her own originals. Rapper Brandon Rose and turntablist DJ Logic appear together on “Poison,” connecting Charles’s arrangement with the song’s hip-hop roots. The ensemble and its various soloists put in exemplary work as well. Lead trumpeter Jumaane Smith and trombonist Michael Dease both give standout performances on Monty Alexander’s reggae-spiced “Think Twice”; bassist Ben Williams wows with his soulful improv on the hard-swinging “Night Train”; while Charles, alto saxophonist Godwin Louis, and pianist Sullivan Fortner illuminate the leader’s calypso “Douens.” The real stars of Creole Orchestra, of course, are Charles’s sterling charts. “In many musical situations the Arranger has become the ghost,” he writes in the album notes. “One of the first working on a project and many times the last to be recognized.” No more. Etienne Charles was born July 24, 1983 in Port-of-Spain, the capital city of the island nation of Trinidad & Tobago. Carrying the torch of Caribbean musical traditions in all their eclectic facets is, itself, a family tradition for the Charleses. Etienne’s father, Francis, was both a member of the Trinidadian steel band Phase II Pan Groove and the owner of a colossal record collection, and Etienne thus grew up soaking in music. He learned to play trumpet as a boy, and by high school he, too, was a member of Phase II Pan Groove. But jazz had gotten Etienne’s attention, and he moved to the United States in 2002 to matriculate at Florida State University—where he found his way to the celebrated pianist and educator Marcus Roberts, who became his mentor. He quickly gained not only a mastery of the jazz tradition, but the recognition to prove it. Charles placed second at the 2005 International Trumpet Guild Jazz Competition in Bangkok, Thailand, then took first place a year later at the U.S. National Trumpet Competition in Fairfax, Virginia. He was also awarded a full scholarship to The Juilliard School of Music, where he earned both a master’s degree and an entrée into the cutthroat New York jazz scene. Charles not only survived but thrived in that scene, recording and performing with artists ranging from Maria Schneider to Wynton Marsalis to Rene Marie. He also made a striking impression as a leader, injecting his encyclopedic knowledge of Caribbean music and rhythms into an improvised jazz context. He recorded his debut album Culture Shock in 2006 and followed it with nine more, of which Creole Orchestra is the latest. Etienne Charles will be appearing at Berklee College of Music, Boston, 4/11; California State University East Bay, Hayward, 4/12; Wortham Center, Houston, 4/19 (world premiere of "Earth Tones"); Omaha (NE) Performing Arts, 4/26; The Townhouse, Los Angeles, CA, 5/2; Mt. Hood Jazz Festival, Portland, OR, 5/4; Le Taquin, Toulouse, France, 5/11-15; Spoleto Festival, Charleston, SC (w/ Terri Lyne Carrington New Standards), 5/26; SFJAZZ Center, San Francisco (w/ Rene Marie), 6/10; Dizzy’s, NYC, 6/14-16; Fête de la Musique, North Beach Bandshell, Miami Beach, FL, 6/21; Caramoor Festival, Katonah, NY (w/ Rene Marie), 7/18; Carlyle Room, Washington, DC, 7/26; Riverside Center for the Arts, Fredericksburg, VA, 7/27; JAS Cafe, Aspen, CO, 8/10; Missy Lane’s Assembly Room, Durham, NC, 10/11-12. Photography: Luigi Creese (top), Jason Henry Bandcamp: https://etiennecharles.bandcamp.com/music   EPK: Etienne Charles | Creole Orchestra  Etienne Charles Web Site  

Iconic American Jazz Drummer Dies Of Leukemia (msn.com)

Stephen Strasburg’s retirement officially listed by MLB (msn.com)

Everyone is entirely credible. But these guys are not as interesting people as the players from The Glory of Their Times. Maybe the guys from a hundred years ago were country.