GA Russell

Pianist-Composer George Colligan Offers Musings On, And a Balm For, The Turmoil of Recent Days with "King's Dream," Due November 11 on PJCE Records Album of 11 Original Compositions Is the Acclaimed Polymath Musician's 36th as a Leader, 5th as a Solo Pianist   September 6, 2022 George Colligan expresses the complexities and conflicting emotions of our confusing, sometimes chaotic times with the November 11 release of King’s Dream (PJCE Records). Though not quite a sequel, the album builds on many of the themes presented on his previous solo album, 2018’s Nation Divided. The 11 original compositions on King’s Dream (Colligan’s 36th album as a leader) are not all new: Some of them go as far back as 2008. But like all the best improvised jazz, the tunes become about the moment in which they’re being played—in this case a very fraught moment. “It was and still is such an unusual time,” Colligan says. “Who knows what tomorrow brings? The music is a representation of that uncertainty.” The variety of moods on the album help underscore that uncertainty. It moves from the wistful, bittersweet “Clearing the Mind” to the glorious funk of “Change”; from the hard-bitten “Blues for Dwayne Burno” to the lyrical balance of hope and trouble in “King’s Dream”; from the plaintive “Wishing for Things to Happen” to the sanguine “Finally a Rainbow.” The title track of King’s Dream is also its centerpiece. Invoking the famous ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the piece both echoes and questions that optimism, making for a statement both timely and timeless about American life while also serving as a microcosm for the album’s precarious position between glass-half-full and half-empty—with glass-half-full perhaps taking the edge. “In this challenging era and complex world in which we live, we have to believe that good will and enlightenment will prevail over ignorance and hatred,” Colligan writes in the album’s liner notes. “I don’t know whether music can make a difference, but I dedicate my album to those who believe in, as drummer Al Foster would say, ‘Peace, Love, and Jazz.’” George Colligan was born December 29. 1969 in Summit, New Jersey, but considers his hometown to be Columbia, Maryland, where he grew up since about the age of 3. In the fourth grade he took up trumpet in the elementary school band, then got serious about the instrument in middle school—around the time he discovered jazz from a neighbor who gave him a stack of Clifford Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis records. Colligan went to Baltimore’s Peabody Institute, earning his degree in classical trumpet. While in Baltimore, though, he started teaching himself to play jazz licks on piano, soon getting gigs on the local scene, and suddenly found himself selling all his trumpets and becoming a professional pianist. He shuttled back and forth between Baltimore and Washington, DC, mentoring with such musicians as Paul Carr, Gary Thomas, and Reuben Brown for several years before he made the leap to New York City in 1995. These associations meant that he already had some cachet on the New York scene when he arrived, and he was soon working with legendary figures like Eddie Henderson, Gary Bartz, and Lee Konitz, as well as recruiting the revered bassist Dwayne Burno and drummer Ralph Peterson for his own 1996 debut Activism. His career continued to grow, collaborating fruitfully with other greats of his generation including Ingrid Jensen, Mark Turner, Nicholas Payton, and Kurt Rosenwinkel; working under Jack DeJohnette, Buster Williams, Billy Hart, and Al Foster; and recording dozens of albums under his own name. In 2005, he married fellow pianist Kerry Politzer, and a few years later they moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he began a career as a jazz educator. That career continued on to a job at Oregon’s Portland State University, where Colligan moved in 2011 and remains today. In addition to his academic work, he has become a mainstay of the Portland jazz scene—as a drummer as well as a pianist. (He’s the drummer on Kerry Politzer’s latest CD, In a Heartbeat, also on PJCE Records.) Indeed, although King’s Dream is a solo album, it is also a collaboration with a longtime Portland colleague, pianist Randy Porter, who recorded, mixed, and mastered the album at his Heavywood Studio. Photography: Douglas Detrick     George Colligan's EPK: "King's Dream"  George Colligan Web Site

No, Jim, it's not a "guise." As I said in the OP, I always post links to show everyone that I'm not making stuff up. CFL scores, Amazon box set sales, whatever. I note that the objections I've seen have not been to the subject matter I post about. They have always been aimed at the 21st Century media sites themselves. Shall we stop linking to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal sites because so much of their content is political? Or are their sites acceptable because those companies were founded before 2000, and are owned by billionaires? You once deleted a link I posted because somewhere the website also had an unrelated article (which I never saw) which Rooster objected to. Will you delete a link I post to an Amazon CD sale because elsewhere on its site Amazon sells rebel flags? I have friends who are offended by rebel flags. I've never cried censorship, so don't suggest that I do. And speaking of which, I've never whined (as certain people have) when their objectionable posts stay up. In my view, a large part of the appeal of the 21st Century organizations is that they discuss events that the old outfits ignore. Why post a link to an article which everyone already knows about?

Labour Day results Toronto 28....Hamilton 8 https://www.cfl.ca/games/6260/toronto-argonauts-vs-hamilton-tiger-cats/#videos https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/toronto-argos-hamilton-tiger-cats-cfl-sept-5-2022-1.6572848 https://3downnation.com/2022/09/05/ticats-suffer-first-labour-day-loss-in-a-decade-and-11-other-thoughts/ This was the Argos' first Labour Day win over the Ticats since 2012. The Ticats are in trouble. They are now tied with Ottawa and Edmonton for the worst record (3 wins) in the league. Their first two quarterbacks are injured. Rookie Jamie Newman made his first start. ***** Calgary 26....Edmonton 18 https://www.cfl.ca/games/6261/edmonton-elks-vs-calgary-stampeders/#videos https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/calgary-stampeders-edmonton-elks-cfl-recap-sept-5-2022-1.6572854 The Elks played much better than I expected, and led 8-7 at the half. But the Stampeders took the lead 22-11 in the third.

Oh, well!

Today I see this comment on the internet. Some of you know about recording and such things. Is all this correct nowadays? "With tools like GarageBand (included with any Mac) and Audacity (free open source software), anyone with technical know-how of audio mastering can create studio quality albums. Combined with the proliferation of direct-to-USB recording, you no longer need to deal with the analog headaches associated with microphone placement. Finally, you can use a platform like Soundcloud to get your initial music out there - all bypassing the parasite studio system that has put a chokehold on artists for decades." (I always post my links in the spirit of "Pics or it didn't happen." So here is the link, so that you can see that I haven't made this up.

Sunday (9/4) result Winnipeg 20....Sask 18 https://www.cfl.ca/games/6259/winnipeg-blue-bombers-vs-saskatchewan-roughriders/#videos https://3downnation.com/2022/09/04/liegghio-lifts-blue-bombers-over-roughriders-in-labour-day-classic-11-other-thoughts/ https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/cfl-recap-saskatchewan-roughriders-winnipeg-blue-bombers-sept-4-1.6572408 Great game! Sask played much better than I expected. The Bombers are now 11-1, and with this win they clinch a playoff spot.

Fleetwood Mac 1969-1974 (8 CDs) - $31.99 + $3.97 https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08DBHCYXJ

Thanks, Kevin!

Did the kids in NB root for the Als?

Is Eat to the Beat a legit label? They have a series of box sets of radio broadcasts called Transmission Impossible. Here is the Miles box - 3 CDs for $9.95. https://www.hamiltonbook.com/miles-davis-transmission-impossible-compact-disc

It's Labour Day Weekend! I'll catch up on the past two weeks, but first let's look at the big games this week. Analyses and Picks https://doorfliesopen.com/2022/09/01/cfl-beat-163/ http://17degreesports.com/index.php/2022/08/31/cfl-week-13-preview-2/ https://3downnation.com/2022/09/02/3downnation-cfl-picks-will-there-be-a-labour-day-upset-on-tap/ https://www.cfl.ca/2022/09/01/prediction-time-cfl-ca-writers-labour-day-weekend-picks/ ***** Power Rankings https://3downnation.com/2022/08/29/3downnation-cfl-power-rankings-maier-of-calgary-leads-stampeders-to-no-2-spot/ https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/29/power-rankings-a-hard-to-peg-race/ ***** 8/30 QB Index https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/30/qb-index-a-new-maier-in-town/ ***** 8/31 Checking Down https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/31/checking-down-news-and-notes-from-labour-day-weekend/ ***** 9/1 Game Notes https://www.cfl.ca/2022/09/01/cfl-ca-game-notes-a-look-at-labour-day-weekend/ ***** The Plays of the Week have a habit of disappearing. So before it's too late, here are last week's Plays of the Week https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/29/diving-into-the-week-12-plays-of-the-week/ And here are Week 11's Plays of the Week. https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/22/thrilling-finishes-in-the-week-11-plays-of-the-week/ ***** Friday (9/2) result Ottawa 38....Montreal 24 https://www.cfl.ca/games/6258/ottawa-redblacks-vs-montreal-alouettes/#videos https://3downnation.com/2022/09/03/the-good-outweighs-the-bad-10-other-thoughts-on-the-redblacks-beating-montreal/ https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/cfl-ottawa-redblacks-montreal-alouettes-recap-sept-2-1.6572051 Ottawa made Nick Arbuckle their starting quarterback, and they have won both games! Montreal may be in disarray. First they fire their coach for no apparent reason. Now this week the team's owner has resigned from the league's Board of Governors. https://www.tsn.ca/montreal-alouettes-sale-a-test-of-cfl-s-revamped-business-model-1.1843874

Joe, I thought you were from Montreal! Did you grow up in the Eastern Townships, maybe?

6/66 - Ramsey Lewis Trio - Hang on Ramsey! - Cadet 7/66 - Ray Bryant Trio - Gotta Travel On - Cadet 10/66 - Richard "Groove" Holmes - Soul Message - Prestige

Andrés Vial Explores a Lyrical Compositional & Pianistic Vision on Juno-Nominated "When Is Ancient?," Set for Physical Release Sept. 30 By Chromatic Audio Records Montreal-Based Pianist/Composer Presents 9 Original Compositions In a Trio with Bassist Martin Heslop & Drummer Tommy Crane Appearing at GigSpace, Ottawa, 10/1; L'Off Jazz Festival, Montreal (Quintet), 10/13, & 10/15 (With Joe Chambers) August 26, 2022 Lyricism is the order of the day on When Is Ancient?, the sixth album by Montreal pianist-composer Andrés Vial, releasing in the U.S. September 30 on his own Chromatic Audio label. Recorded with a trio featuring bassist Martin Heslop and drummer Tommy Crane, the album is an expressive affair packed with rumination, sensitive interplay, and stunning melody. Initially released as a streaming-only album on December 31, 2020, When Is Ancient? has already garnered considerable acclaim, including a 2022 Juno Award (the Canadian Grammy) nomination for Jazz Album of the Year. As its June 2020 session date might suggest, it’s a small miracle that When Is Ancient? happened at all. Both Heslop (Kevin Dean, Devin Brahja Waldman) and Crane (Aaron Parks, Melissa Aldana) are old friends of Vial’s, but the three had never performed together before. “Martin, who I’ve played with for 15 years, was moving to Toronto to go to law school and work at a legal clinic for refugees. I wanted to cut a record with him before he left town,” the pianist recalls. “Tommy had moved to Montreal a few years before, but he was always on tour or teaching in Italy.” The COVID-19 pandemic kept all three of them in the city, of course, but hardly encouraged a group effort. The session was scheduled, then delayed several times over. “There was so much uncertainty about even being in a room together,” Vial says. What they finally captured once together is well worth the effort. The somber tones of “La Nuit Est Un Soleil Voilé” and “Spring 2020” carry a powerful resonance, but it finds a complement in the understated joy of “Jabok” and “Mister Mystery.” This shadows-and-light balance is also studded with idiosyncratic gems, such as the Afro-Latin meditation “Senderos” and the surprisingly down-home “The Map Is Not the Territory.” L. to r.: Martin Heslop, Andrés Vial, Tommy Crane. There are some themes running across When Is Ancient?, among them the musicians’ shared intensity after months of silence and a marking of lost time (“Spring 2020”) and people (the title track was inspired by the deaths of McCoy Tyner and Harold Mabern, along with Keith Jarrett’s loss of performing ability). The album’s true throughline, however, is its lyrical richness. Not one track is untouched by the trio’s confluence of melody, grace, and uncommon delicacy that keeps calling out to the listener well after the last notes have faded. Andrés Vial was born January 25, 1979 in Montreal. From his first memories, Andrés was seated at the piano of his father, an accomplished amateur musician, making up little songs. He eventually began taking classical lessons, also learning pop and Latin records that he heard around the house. But when he was 11 his mother came home with a copy of John Coltrane’s Blue Train, which altered his trajectory forever. Andrés joined his middle school and high school jazz bands, then enrolled in the New School in New York, where his teachers included Hal Galper, Joe Chambers, Bill Charlap, and Buster Williams. After graduation, he returned to Montreal and became a full-time musician playing jazz, funk, hip-hop, and reggae (and writing commissions for films and contemporary dance). He also became a member of the city’s Kalmunity Vibe Collective, a grassroots assemblage that welcomes players and ideas from black musical forms all over the world. Vial had the opportunity as well to perform with visiting musicians including Ingrid Jensen, Michael Blake, Greg Cohen, Bassekou Kouyate, and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble. Members of Kalmunity, including singer Malika Tirolien, appeared on Vial’s debut recording, 2007’s Trio/Septet. He followed it up with 2011’s The Infinite Field, a minimalist effort on which he played piano and vibraphone. While these two albums featured all original compositions, the next, conception/oblivion (2015), concentrated on a variety of American and Argentine composers, and Sphereology Volume 1 (2018) explored the music of Thelonious Monk. Vial the composer re-emerged with 2019’s Gang of Three (a trio record with bassist Dezron Douglas and Eric McPherson) and 2021’s Music for Film and Contemporary Dance Vol. 1 (a collection of Vial’s commissioned works). He continues in that vein with When Is Ancient? Andrés Vial will be performing with his trio at GigSpace, Ottawa, ON, Sat. 10/1; with his quintet at l’OFF Jazz Festival in Montreal, Thurs. 10/13; and with the Joe Chambers/Andrés Vial Ensemble at l/OFF Jazz Festival, Sat. 10/15. Photography: Nicolas Pétrowski (trio), Andi State (Vial). Andrés Vial Trio: "Jabok"  Andrés Vial Web Site ‌ ‌ ‌

There were three songs not played on New Orleans radio at that time. Barry McGuire - Eve of Destruction Dion - Abraham, Martin and John Janis Ian - Society's Child

Dick Clark played Chet Baker on American Bandstand.

RIP. Pat Martino's Live at Yoshi's is a favorite of mine.

It was my experience living in Pittsburgh in the '70s that CTI was by far the best distributed label for jazz.

RIP. I was a fan. He would have been a hall of famer if he had done nothing but his bossa nova records.

RIP. That's how I remember him as well.

Kerry Politzer Offers Post-Pandemic Creative Resurgence with "In a Heartbeat," Set for Release October 21 On PJCE Records Pianist/Composer Leads Top-Flight Portland Quintet On Her First Album of All Original Compositions in 8 Years Appearing at The 1905, Portland, Friday, October 21 August 22, 2022 Kerry Politzer reaffirms her high regard as both a pianist and a composer on In a Heartbeat, to be released October 21 on Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble (PJCE) Records. In particular, it puts Portland, Oregon-based Politzer’s writing back in the spotlight. The quintet album (featuring Portland trumpeter Thomas Barber, saxophonist/flutist Joe Manis, bassist Garrett Baxter, and drummer George Colligan) is her first in eight years to exclusively feature her own compositions and arrangements. Not to say that Politzer hasn’t kept busy in the time since 2014’s Below the Surface, her last collection of originals. The pianist is a first-call player on Portland’s increasingly rich jazz scene, as well as an educator on Portland State University’s jazz faculty. She also received grants in 2019 and 2020 to explore the work of great Brazilian pianists (one of whom was the subject of her 2019 album, Diagonal: The Music of Durval Ferreira). Even so, writing music has remained among Politzer’s top priorities. “Composing is one of the things I enjoy the most,” she says. “I tend to be shy and I feel like I need to put myself out there, to make an emotional statement.” In a Heartbeat certainly does that. It’s a kaleidoscope of moods, grooves, and even timbre (with Manis’s rotation between flute and tenor and soprano saxes as the wild card). “Spring Day” basks in a midtempo waltz and knowing satisfaction; the gently swinging title track is both romantic and mysterious; “3 AM” is slow and unsettling, even foreboding; and “Goodbye” is all lyrical melancholia. The powerful emotions and equally powerful shifts are a reflection of the time of COVID-19, during which the bulk of the music was created. “A lot of this music was coming from my subconscious,” Politzer says. “Some of it came to me in a dream, and I’d wake up and write the rest of it down. This music is a product of the dreamlike headspace I was in during the pandemic.” If it was not a comfortable headspace in which to be, it was a remarkably inspiring one. In a Heartbeat is a glimpse at how Politzer, like any artist worthy of the name, transformed her reaction to anxious and uncertain times into bold, often haunting creative work. Kerry Politzer was born in Washington, DC in 1971. There was music on both sides of her family, and she inherited that muse. She started playing piano at the age of four and pursued its study first at North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC, where she attended high school, then at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she studied with Geri Allen, Bevan Manson, and Charlie Banacos. Having caught the jazz bug as a teenager, Politzer went to the music’s mecca, New York City, after completing her degree at NEC. She worked with the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, established herself on the jam session and Brazilian jazz scenes, and began cultivating a book of original compositions, made manifest on her 2001 debut album Yearning. She continued documenting her music with 2002’s Watercolor, 2005’s Labyrinth, and 2010’s Blue in Blue. The latter two featured George Colligan—the acclaimed pianist and multi-instrumentalist who became her husband in 2005—on drums. The family transplanted itself across the country to Oregon in 2011, where both Colligan and Politzer took faculty positions at Portland State University. Her music has continued to flourish and develop on the West Coast, where Politzer has also taught at the University of Portland and played in Bossa PDX, the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra, and the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, and as a featured artist in the 25th Annual Gene Harris Jazz Festival in Boise, ID. She has also continued recording with 2014’s Below the Surface, 2019’s Diagonal: The Music of Durval Ferreira, and the new release In a Heartbeat. Kerry Politzer will be performing a CD release concert with her quintet at The 1905, 830 N. Shaver Street, Portland, OR on Fri. 10/21, 5:30-6:45pm. Photography: Douglas Detrick Kerry Politzer EPK: "In a Heartbeat"  Kerry Politzer Web Site ‌ ‌ ‌

Back Door sax, elec. bass, drums

Week 11 picks https://3downnation.com/2022/08/19/3downnation-cfl-picks-can-nathan-rourke-keep-record-setting-pace-against-healthy-riders-defence/ ***** Mid-year Analysis https://www.sportsnet.ca/cfl/article/around-the-cfl-what-we-learned-in-the-first-half-of-the-season/

Nielsen: Streaming TV now tops Cable TV for first time. Streaming TV viewership tops cable in Nielsen measurement - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)

The season is now half over, and Winnipeg is finally getting its first bye. No Thursday game this week. ***** Week 10 analyses and Week 11 picks https://doorfliesopen.com/2022/08/18/cfl-beat-161/ http://17degreesports.com/index.php/2022/08/17/cfl-week-11-preview-3/ https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/15/landrys-5-takeaways-from-week-10/ https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/16/prediction-time-cfl-ca-writers-week-11-picks-are-in/ https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/17/weekly-predictor-trusting-in-toronto/ ***** Power Rankings https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/15/power-rankings-perfect-no-more/ ***** QB index https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/16/qb-index-its-all-about-poise/ ***** 8/17 Checking Down https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/17/checking-down-news-and-notes-from-week-11/ ***** 8/18 Game Notes https://www.cfl.ca/2022/08/18/cfl-ca-game-notes-a-look-at-week-11/