Lazaro Vega

Ottawa Citizen article: http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitize...ner-update.aspx and pianist Aaron Park's blog: Saturday, December 20, 2008 Good News (update on Mark Turner) Some very encouraging news regarding Mark Turner and his injury. It's looking like his recuperation is going much faster than anticipated, and he may be back to playing gigs again sometime in the next couple of months. Much better than the six months of recovery time that was initially expected. Let's all wish him continued healing through the rest of 2008 and into 2009...

He actively encourages listeners to submit ideas about his programming. If anyone who listens to Bob Parlocha on Blue Lake Public Radio wants to write him and say, "There's this great band here in Michigan we'd like to hear on your show and it fits with the "mainstream" idea of your programming" and then mention the station you listen on I don't think that's out of bounds.

an e-mail campaign is in order: bob@jazzwithbobparlocha.com to write directly to bob parlocha

Nice to hear your thoughts on KD, Mr. Weiss. As to JALC and "regional" survival...from personal experience in and around Grand Rapids, MI...can't say that it is directly true. There are tiers to hiring touring groups and the venues that would have previously hired, say, a Columbia Artits Touring Package with Joe Williams and George Shearing and Joe Pass all on the same bill, for instance, The Gathering of Friends tour, would now be hiring JALC Big Band, as they have: Congo Square played Grand Rapids in '08 (DeVos Hall) and Branford in '06, maybe, Meijer Gardens . But that level, that price and audience size, never really impacted what went on at the mid-sized theaters around town, or the non-profits, let alone restaurants. Local musicians could manage to mount a larger concert if they had the gumption and hustle to make it happen, if they could talk The West Michigan Jazz Society into it. JALC wouldn't really effect that. Right now there are two big bands that play nothing but a jazz book in West Michigan and at least two more who play a swing book with jazz. Can't say that's much changed over the last 25 years. If fact, it is an improvement. There was always The Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra, essentially, and The Truth in Jazz Orchestra is a great addition to Muskegon. The Beltline Big Band has been going for 9 years now thanks in large part to the swing dance revival. I mean, while serving on the music committee/board at both the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts and St. Cecilia Music Society that wasn't/isn't an issue. UICA is a small venue flexible enough to grab avant garde jazz bands -- Steve Lacy, Vinny Golia, Rova, even Lee Kontiz -- while on the road and give them a Thursday night or weekend afternoon and I was able to pull musicians out of Chicago for shows here over a 15 year period, which ended when we had kids and that type of volunteerism became impossible. Other producers there who took it more mainstream would be presenting Patty Barber or Fred Hersch. The non-profit, 120 seat theater and artists who were affordable for that scene had nothing to do with JALC. Randy could bring his craziest music in there, or The Northwoods Improvisers from Mount Pleasent could make a go of it. The JALC musicians often played in local college or high school concerts over the same period. The educators especially champion them. St. Cecilia, which is primarily a classical music venue with a 600 seat theater, has one big expensive concert a year that occurs outside of their classical and jazz series concerts, and that's where you'll find JALC or Branford's band playing, or the Julliard String Quartet. The trouble with St. Cecilia bookings is that there just aren't as many jazz "stars" a place such as Grand Rapids recognize or know enough about to fill the place. It takes an across the board appeal to make a jazz audience: old/young, black/white, well off and working class. If you're just getting one aspect of that mix, that just won't make it. So artists who appeal in the broad sense and have any commercial value are harder to come by. Joe Lovano and Kurt Elling recently did ok, not sell outs, but close. Bill Frisell and Jim Hall were scheduled this fall (Hall was replaced at the last minute by Russell Malone) and there may have been 300. Now in the past Ramsey Lewis, Billy Taylor, Ahmad Jamal and even Oliver Jones could fill the place up, but as they age and their fees rise, there aren't as many musicians with a "name" who can step in and fill the house who are affordable (say $10,000 - $12,000 for everything: fee, hotel, travel). The State Theater in Kalamazoo seemed un-affected by this aspect of JALC, too. Yes, I don't doubt they've sucked the air out of a lot of places which in part explains this phenomenon of fewer jazz "stars," yet at the same time, without that -- without Wynton and Branford and their activities pulling in all the school kids, as well as middle of the roaders who know about them from television, plus the black audience -- it's tough to find jazz instrumentalists with "star" power these days. Rollins, Herbie, Brubeck -- very expensive now. Was pretty shocked by the audience pianist Marcus Roberts drew up in Sutton's Bay, Michigan, a year ago. Big, for a small resort town, and wildly enthusiastic. Mentioned to Jason Marsalis that I was M.C.ing then joked they might not be able to trust me up there because of my love of Cecil Taylor's music. We talked about that a bit and Jason basically said, after admitting his respect for Taylor and Ornette etc., that they're from "another generation." It's within this generation, musicians in their 40's or so, that they were most concerned with knowing who James P. Johnson was, for instance. In any case... This is not the best time to judge audience size in Michigan. The state's been in recession since 2000 and now...the Lions can make it 0-16 today, the perfect metaphor for Goldman Sacks Socialism.

LK on Dizzy: "virtuosic ... terms, fail me here, but how about virtuoso surrealism for DG? " Idiosyncratic virtuosity?

I pulled him out of Lake Michigan once. Close one. Nice article. Funny...the quote on not hanging out with academics. I'm sorry I missed the boat on That Devlin' Tune. Sounds like a fascinating project.

The trouble with this point of view are the careers of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman and Roscoe Mitchell, Muhal Richard Abrams and Steve McCall, even Coleman Hawkins. They all in one form or another and to a greater or lesser degree started out "in the tradition" and found it lacking something for their own musical development. So it isn't an us vs them evolution as much as it was a creative need being filled by opening up forms and rhythms. Which is not much different than the guys playing in Bull Moose Jackson's band or the swing bands wanting to play a more soloistic role in bebop. Fats Navarro played some great lead AND jazz trumpet with Eckstine. It would have been a great loss, however, if that's all he did. Playing with Tadd Dameron gave us all those great recorded Navarro solos. There came a time when some musicians heard more musical choices available in the world around them and applied them to their music. That's how the music evolved as well as by the hipness quotient. That David Lee book about Ornette at the Five Spot would be good to mention at this point..... http://www.svirchev.com/features/l/lee-5spot.html

Well, not just economically: when was the last time we heard a "jazz standard"? Tony Williams "Sister Cheryl"? Band's can't seem to agree on, "Hey that's the shit" anymore and play a tune, in whatever style, that they feel is cool.

That said on Buster, o.k., yet his importance was in bringing, along with Armstrong, the southern blues sense to NYC in the period. In the expressiveness of his clarinet, the ability to moan and bend notes as well as to swing. The New Yorkers were ragtimers -- Buster, at Armstrong's invitation, left King Oliver's band in Chicago to play with Henderson.

It's an avenue for taking the easy way out, not a phenomenon restricted to jazz.

Yes, a chemist. And Betty Boop was a reefer fiend? Boo-boop-a-doop indeed Miss Betty. Thanks for wearing the polkadots. Last Spring during a "Live From Blue Lake" program, Phil Ogilvie's Rhythm Kings (http://www.porkjazz.com) led by pianist James Dapogny played a version of "Radio Rhythm" on the air. With a gong and everything. Last night we played the Henderson original and then PORK's version Blue Lake recorded. Dapogny could help you to find out more, if anyone could. There's a page on him at the University of Michigan School of music with his e-mail address: http://www.music.umich.edu/faculty_staff/dapogny.james.lasso Good to hear from you, Fass.

In that sidebar from Do the Math about the Long Feud between Wynton and the AACM are the parts in italics Wynton's words or are those Iverson's from another piece he wrote? In any case, you guys are touching on the crux of the musical matter. If Wynton says this is about how "we" are going to play "together" but then leaves off "free" rhythm because it isn't "jazz" then there's a problem there. He talks about it right at the onset. It isn't that he as an artist has chosen to play time. Who could have a problem with that? And it isn't that he's ignorant of Kidd Jordan's music, for instance, as he says. It is that he has chosen to devalue the evolution of musical systems that have made choices away from playing strict, agreed upon, fixed, "conventional" meter. Playing a fixed time sense with Cecil Taylor does not work -- the drummer had to evolve a role for that music to "swing." And on and on through a couple of generations now -- musicians who've basically said, Roach, Blakey, Joe Jones, Jimmy Cobb, Elvin, Tony Williams: who's going to play in that musical language better than those players who invented it? As to playing together there are musicians the world over, black and white, who can interact with "free" rhythms the way changes players could hit "Cherokee." And the subtext of the conversation which says free time isn't jazz is that it isn't "black" is used to dismisses too many creative musicians in what Lewis calls the black experimentalist tradition. Braxton had it right in the above quoted passage. Though in Lewis's book Braxton also acknowledges Wynton and the New Orleans musicians ability to stick together and promote each other. It was also good to read in Lewis's book how he dealt humorously with the '80's (pg. 526 note 15): "Newer histories of the period often uncritically recapitulate the corporate-supported tale told by the heavily funded Ken Burns Jazz series, a story which goes something like this: John Coltrane went mad in 1965, and a mysterious virus that he and others were carrying killed hundreds of musicians until Wynton Marsalis arrived in 1983, carrying a powerful mojo from the birthplace of jazz that put the deadly germ and its carriers to flight."

Driggs mentions that in the earliest period Henderson's was still an ensemble band, trying to hit a standard in ensemble playing represented in that era by Paul Whiteman. Dicty Blues, though, has a roaring tenor solo by Hawk, and this cool walking bass part for the bass sax and tuba, maybe, that made it a bit different. The Club Alabam years, or year. What a great bunch of trumpet players, soloists, he had down through the years. Damn. Pops, Rex Stewart, Joe Smith, Tommy Ladnier for a long time, the underrated Bobby Stark, the great Red Allen, Roy Eldridge. Great improvisors in Hawk and Buster Bailey, too, but man those trumpets!

The Study In Frustration box on Legacy, a few from the Classics label and one on Decca (Tidal Wave). Only one from 1923, Dicty Blues.

Henderson's music will be heard in the first 20 minutes to half hour of each hour in the five hour program. 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. eastern time. Includes King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band doing "Dippermouth Blues" as well as Jelly Roll Morton and Oliver doing "King Porter Stomp" followed by versions by Henderson's bands. Trad-o-licious. Streaming live, http://www.bluelake.org/radio Hope you can join us, Lazaro

Thanks Aggie.

Go here http://images.google.com/hosted/life and type in Jazz or Blues or Gjon Mili and you'll discover treasure trove of amazing jazz photographs.

http://thebadplus.typepad.com/

That's the one I want to get.

Blue Lake is featuring McCoy Tyner tonight on Jazz From Blue Lake, 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. eastern time streaming live from http://www.bluelake.org/radio, although the Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz by Feather and Hentoff lists his birthday as Saturday: December 13, 1938.

Presented a five hour radio special on him last night, and another hour this morning, including in both excerpts of a nearly hour long face to face interview taped in 1993. Happy birthday Dave Brubeck! In a sense his solo piano recording "Indian Summer" is like playing himself off the stage.

Don Ellis and his four valve trumpet....

Good to hear the segment on pitch correction technology on Weekend Edition today where you took the human out of Lee Ann Hanson's all too human voice.

November 14, 2008 The Jazz Datebook: Regular Hits: Mondays from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The What Not Inn features a jam session open to musicians and vocalists and featuring local, regional and international jazz musicians sitting in with the “house” band with pianist Wally Michaels, bassist Jeff Beavin and drummer Jack Wilkins. No cover charge. Music also presented Saturdays and Sundays. www.whatnotinn.com. The What Not Inn is located at M89 and the Blue Star Highway, 2405 68th Street, Fennville, MI. (269) 543-3341. Tuesday, December 2nd from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 The Truth In Jazz Orchestra plays swinging improvisational jazz at The West Side Inn, 1635 Beidler St, Muskegon, MI. Fronted by West Michigan's legendary drummer Tim Froncek the TIJO is 16 Muskegon’s crowning glory: the highest level musicians play charts from the classic big band era and today's challenging writing for large ensemble. The band was organized by Dave Collee, Ed Spier, and Matt Lintula to perform great songs and the most demanding music literature for big band. They have the players to pull it off, plus it is a great hang! More from www.tijo.org. Wednesdays from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. the Mike Michewicz Quartet plays classic and contemporary jazz on the patio at Zeytin Turkish Restaurant, 400 Ada Dr S.E., Ada Township, 49301. Regular members of the saxophonist’s band are pianist Steve Talaga, drummer/trumpeter Max Colley, and bassist Tom Lockwood. No cover. Thursdays through December from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Junior John plays jazz at Louis Benton Steakhouse, 77 Monroe Center NW, Grand Rapids MI 49503. The group features saxophonist John Gist, pianist Paul Lesinski and drummer Kevin Depree. They’ll be taking Thanksgiving and Christmas off. (616) 454 – 7455 or www.louisbenton.com . Thursdays from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Baton Rouge, LA native Sweet Willie Singleton, or varying cast of Grand Rapids jazz musicians, swing at Gill’s Blue Crab Lounge in The B.O.B., 20 Monroe Ave. N.W., Grand Rapids. Thursday evening local live jazz or blues is featured at Naya’s Restaurant, 1144 East Paris, Grand Rapids, MI. (616) 719 – 4400. www.nayagr.com. Fridays from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. live music in the Peter M. Wege Pavilion at The Grand Rapids Art Museum, 101 Monroe Center, Grand Rapids, with a Jazz Encore from 7:45 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, November 21st, bassist Jeff Beaven’s trio; 28th, The Fred Knapp Trio; Jazz Returns Friday, December 26th. GRAM is also presenting classical chamber music Sunday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. See www.artmuseumgr.org or call (616) 831 – 1000. Three Fridays a month trumpeter/vocalist/entertainer Sweet Willie Singleton plays jazz in Ada during the dinner hour (6 to 9 p.m.) at the Thornapple Daily Grill, 445 Ada Drive, Ada, MI. (616) 676-1233 www.thegilmorecollection.com/Thornapple/thornapple.html. Fridays and Saturdays from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. live local jazz, blues and other musical forms at The Grand Seafood and Oyster Bar, 24 Washington St., Grand Haven. Live local jazz or blues guitarists on Wednesday evenings from 8 to 11 p.m. (616) 844- 5055. Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Pumpernickels, 202 Butler St., Saugatuck, guitarist Chip Kristi plays jazz for breakfast. (269) 857-1196. Timely Hits: Thursday, November 20th at 8 p.m. guitarist Eric Menendez Trio, “All Strings Considered,” performs at Z’s Bar and Restaurant, 168 Louis Campau Promenade NW, Grand Rapids. www.zsbar.com. Friday, November 21st at 8:15 p.m. clarinetist and saxophonist Ken Peplowski is the guest artist with the University Jazz Orchestra and University Jazz Lab Band as The Western Michigan University School of Music presents their 26th Annual Tribute to the Great Swing Bands at Dalton Center Recital Hall, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. See www.kenpeplowski.com for more information. Tickets through the Miller Auditorium Ticket Office, (800) 228 – 9858. Sunday, November 22nd from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. The Rhythm Section Jazz Band with vocalist Francesca Amari swings at Westwood at the Crossing, 5760 West River Drive, Grand Rapids. The group performs on there on the third Sunday of each month. Saturday, November 28th Smooth Jazz and Poetry with The Social Exchange at 3668 29th Street, Kentwood. Featuring music by Too Smooth for Notes and poetry by Nalink. Information from www.sonicbids.com/toosmoothfornotes.com or by calling (616) 248 – 4291. See myspace.com/thesocialexchange for more information. Sunday, November 30th from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. a benefit for jazz drummer Randy Marsh’s twin sister Pam Castleman at Knight’s of Casimir Hall, 6th and Davis NW, Grand Rapids. Food, raffle, and music by Organissimo, The Greg Nagy Trio, Root Doctor, The Cooper/Hay/VanLente Trio and others. Donations are requested to help pay Pam’s hospital bills and her eventual rehabilitation at Mary Free Bed. Donations may be made to the Pamela Castleman Benefit Account, c/o Union Bank of Hastings, 529 W. State Street, Hastings, MI, 49058. Wednesday, December 3rd at 9 p.m. saxophonist Eric Alexander leads his quartet featuring Billy Hart, drums, Peter Zak, piano, and Tom Knific, bass, in a concert to benefit the Billy Hart Jazz Scholarship at Western Michigan University. The performance takes place at The Union Cabaret and Grille, 125 South Kalamazoo Mall, Kalamazoo, MI. Admission is $20; $5 for students, and available at the door. See www.wmich.edu/jazzstudies. Thursday, December 4th from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. The Beltline Big Band and the West Michigan Jazz Society present, “’Tis the Season to be Swinging,” a holiday jazz party at The Kopper Top Guest House, 634 Stocking N.W., Grand Rapids, 49504. Tickets are $25 per person and include a buffet dinner of beef sirloin medallions and chicken breasts. Reservations to (616) 458 – 0125 or by mail to The West Michigan Jazz Society, 304 Paris S.E., Grand Rapids MI 49503. The Beltline Big Band, formed nine years ago by Marilyn and Steve Tyree, specializes in jazz and dance music of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Saturday, December 6th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. auditions are being held for the new St. Cecilia Music Center’s School of Music All-Star Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Kurt Ellenberger. The new ensemble is designed for serious high school jazz musicians. For the audition: Students will be asked to perform a solo jazz piece from a “lead sheet” or a school band piece as well as be asked to improvise, play Major and Minor scales and sight read. Rehearsals start January 5th and continue to May 12th every Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m. To schedule and audition please phone Martha Cudlipp at (616) 459 – 2224. Sunday December 7nd from 6 to 8 p.m. The Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra performs at Founder’s Brewing Company, 235 Grandville Avenue S.W., Grand Rapids. Information from www.grjo.com. Sunday, December 14th at 5 p.m. pianist Steve Talaga presents a special Christmas Service at Forest Hills Presbyterian Church, 7495 Cascade Road SE, Grand Rapids. (616) 942 – 2741. Saturday, December 20th pianist Steve Talaga and Mind’s Eye is heard from 6 to 7 p.m. in the First United Methodist Jazz Vespers service at 227 East Fulton St. Grand Rapids. Then: January 17th, Hugh DeWitt and Friends; February 21st drummer Keith Hall and Another Dimension; March 21st, Nelson Wood and the Village Jazz Trio; April 18th, drummer/trumpeter Max Colley III; May 16th, vibraphonist Jim Cooper. Information from (616) 451 – 2879 ext. 126 or www.grandrapidsfumc.org. Friday, January 9th from 7 to 10 p.m. guitarist Rick Hicks plays jazz at The Alley Door Club, part of the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts, downtown Muskegon. Music is heard on the second and fourth Fridays of each month until May 8th. January 23rd, The Buster Blues Band; February 13th, jazz by Organissimo; February 27th, vocalist Edye Evans Hyde sings jazz; March 13th Big Daddy Fox plays R&B; March 27th, Root Doctor plays the blues; April 10th is singer/songwriter night; April 24th Troll For Trout plays modern folk; and May 8th the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp Jazz All Stars swing hard. Tickets are $6 at the door. Information from (231) 727 – 8001 or www.frauenthal.info. Thursday, January 15th at 8 p.m. The Tord Gustavsen Trio from Norway performs at 8 p.m. in the Dalton Center Recital Hall, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, as part of the Fontana Chamber Arts Winter Season. See http://www.norway.org/culture/music/tordtrio+turne.htm. Vibraphonist Stefon Harris and Blackout appear Thursday May 14th. Information from (269) 382-7774. The Fontana Chamber Arts is located at the Epic Center, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall, Suite 200, Kalamazoo, MI 49007. www.fontanachamberarts.org . Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. vocalist/pianist Freddy Cole, Nat King Cole’s younger brother, appears in St. Cecilia Music Center’s jazz series at Royce Auditorium, 24 Ransom Avenue N.E., Grand Rapids. Tickets are available from (616) 459 – 2224 or from www.scms-online.org .

He was a mofo. The joke, of course, is that the one brother didn't go into music.