Lazaro Vega

I'm jealous!

Ah, I did mention that the bassist on that record, Rodney Whitaker, organizes the jazz program at Michigan State University. Going to the Mother's Day concert by Reed and Chestnut, and then hanging around to go see the Police later that night.

Eric Reed doing "Ornate" from his album "Here" on MaxJazz is the one I think you're refering to. We're all ginned up for the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival. Reed and Cyrus Chestnut are playing together in Grand Rapids on Mother's Day. Mulgrew Miller in Kalamazoo, Dick Hyman "The Man At Odds With Himself" is playing noon time concerts in smaller venues, all kinds of stuff. Kurt Elling is back. See http://www.thegilmoreiscoming.com

That's because it is new on ESP -- Volume 2 of the Montmartre tapes that they've issued. And I'm glad you where there to dig it last night, today.

How'd we do?

No more encores!

Nessa!!! Yes, that's us. Hey everyone thank you for the good wishes and the GREAT photo manipulation because today, April 30th, is my birthday. Have that all set, again, in my profile. So because this is my birthday, and because I'm celebrating my 25th anniversary on the air, I'm happy to announce we'll have Arno Marsh's quartet playing at our house this July. 'z gonna be a good 1 !

Bernard Stollman, founder of ESP-Disk, is on WNYC now: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2008/04/29.

Friday, May 2nd in Ann Arbor the Kerrytown Concert House "Jazz @ the Edge Series" presents the GEBHARD ULLMAN/STEVE SWELL 4TET featuring drummer Barry Altschul, an international ensemble with bassist Hillaird Greene. http://www.kerrytownconcerthouse.com/calen...iew.asp?e=25138 Then, Sunday, May 4th at 8 p.m. eastern time the Gebhard Ullman/Steve Swell 4 tet with Barry Altschul appears live on Blue Lake Public Radio, streaming from http://www.bluelake.org/radio .

http://www.kerrytownconcerthouse.com/calen...iew.asp?e=25138

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...toryId=90004452

Werfenstein!

Warne Marsh.

Mel Dalton live in 1991 on Blue Lake Public Radio

Up for broadcast right now. www.bluelake.org/radio

April 26, 2008 A Jazz Lifeline to Academia Is Severed By BEN RATLIFF Over the last week, the jazz world has been reeling from the announcement that the International Association of Jazz Educators, a de facto trade organization, is going out of business. In an e-mail message sent on April 18, the 10,000-member organization, based in Manhattan, Kan., announced that its executive board had decided to file for bankruptcy and that its annual convention, which was to be held in Seattle next year, had been canceled. The group’s demise is a major disappointment to jazz’s international network of professionals — educators, musicians, promoters, music publishers, critics, historians — who have few other occasions to meet, conduct business face to face or have their music exposed to a discerning public. The conferences offered hundreds of workshops, panel discussions and performances by top musicians and far-flung university big bands. At root, the annual convention — which alternates between New York and other locations — was a demonstration of jazz’s lifeline to academia: its reliance on students and instructors in the flourishing world of jazz education to keep the music circulating, program it for live performances on the university circuit and create its next generation of audiences. “The conference was an indispensable networking opportunity,” said Mitchell Feldman, who runs a jazz publicity and radio promotion business and is one of the thousands who attend the event every year. Russell Thomas Jr., a professor and director of jazz ensembles at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss., said, “It gave the students a chance to hone their skill and see outstanding musicians that they wouldn’t see otherwise.” After meeting musicians like Donald Byrd, Jimmy Heath and Jackie McLean, he said, he found it easier to recruit them for clinics and concerts. Not all the conventions have been well attended. Despite a poor turnout in Toronto in 2003, the group’s annual event returned there in January, and attendance was down by 40 percent from the previous year, according to last week’s e-mail message. Not long after that, Bill McFarlin, the organization’s executive director for 24 years, left for another job. As word of the organization’s bankruptcy, a Chapter 7 liquidation, traveled throughout the jazz world, the reaction was mixed. Some had heard reports of overspending and had long felt that the organization’s ambitions were too big for its means. Still, many people seemed stunned by the speed and finality of its implosion. In early April, Chuck Owen, the president of the organization’s board, sent an e-mail message to the organization’s members, asking them each to pay $25 to help cover debts. That fund drive produced $12,000, according to the group’s recent message, but the debt was “in the million-dollar range,” said Alan Bergman, its legal counsel. The organization’s most recent available financial records, from 2005-6, show a deficit of $90,000, although two years earlier its revenues were in the black. The group also published a bimonthly magazine, Jazz Education Journal, but it depended almost solely on the conventions to cover its operating costs. Last year’s convention, held in Manhattan, attracted nearly 8,000 attendees and vendors, many of them paying a $250 registration fee. But the event moved back to Toronto this year, Mr. McFarlin said in an interview last week, because the hotels and convention center that housed it could write off the penalties owed from the poor performance of the convention there in 2003. This year, he said, the combination of the weak American dollar and expensive air fares dissuaded attendance and brought down the association. People within the group also point to its failed fund-raising efforts as a major reason for its implosion. It had sought to create an endowment — “a war chest for jazz,” Mr. McFarlin called it — with the Campaign for Jazz, a drive begun in 2006 whose costs, Mr. Owen said, “greatly exceeded the cash that was received.” It sought to raise $8 million to $13 million, but far less than that was pledged, and some of the money — including $1 million promised by a Los Angeles entrepreneur — never materialized. There has been speculation since the April 18 announcement, on Web sites and blogs, that Mr. McFarlin had stepped down because he knew that the association was on the verge of collapse. He denied this, explaining that he left because he “needed a break” after 20 years of service. “If I had known,” he said, “I would have tried to stay and work fervently to try and sustain the organization. It was our life’s work.” The cause of the crisis, said Laura Johnson, a board member and treasurer for the last two years, was “the accumulation of the debt incurred by the campaign” and the last conference. “We hadn’t realized early enough just how striking that amount was. We knew that there was a hole there, but we had no idea it was the size that it was.” Ricky Schultz, a former record executive, current jazz industry consultant and longtime member, said, “It was absolutely shocking to see this well-established organization that had a lot of support just pull the plug.” He added, “A million dollars in red ink is not a crazy, insurmountable amount of money.” The group’s board filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, Mr. Bergman said, “because we have outstanding obligations which we do not have money to pay, and we’ll probably be sued by creditors.” He added that “if someone were to come along and give money, it might still be possible to convert to Chapter 11.” The prominent jazz composer Maria Schneider said, “The old jazz culture doesn’t exist anymore,” adding that jazz is dependent on “educational institutions, for better or worse.” In her own case, Ms. Schneider’s career was given a major boost when she won a prize commission from the group in the early 1990s and played the work at the conference. That performance resulted in residencies and clinics at schools, as well as greater industry and critical recognition. “The saddest part about this,” Ms. Schneider said, “is that for a lot of young musicians, the I.A.J.E. conference is a place where they perform to professionals in the audience. You hear some kid get up and take a solo, and you say, ‘Oh, my God, who’s that?’ ” Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company Privacy Policy

(From the Jazz Programmer's List). I'm sorry to report that I just heard from Juanita Giuffre that Jimmy died of pneumonia and Parkinson's today (April 24) two days before what would have been his 87th birthday. I met them (via email) because they listened regularly to my show and we discovered that Jimmy and I shared our birthday, April 26. We usually exchanged cards this time of year. He was most famous for "Four Brothers" with Woody, or with Shorty Rogers "Martians Go Home" or the Lighthouse All Stars, but fewer are aware of the beautiful very personal music he made in the 70's, 80's and 90s, much of it very free but in a thoughtful, non-aggressive kind of way. He was very important as a teacher as well, notably at the New England Conservatory. I'm spending the evening listening to some of Jimmy's great trio music... right now the trio with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow "Fly Away Little Bird". I just read a beautiful article on Jimmy written about 5 years ago by Rex Butters on allaboutjazz.com . Jim Wilke I was going to play a few things by Jimmy on my show tonight to celebrate his birthday. Now I will also play, "Jimmy Giuffre, A Jazz Portrait" a half hour radio documentary I Produced about 10 years ago. It's Jimmy telling his own story, in his own voice, complemented by the music he heard and made throughout his long career. He was still teaching at NE Conservatory at the time, coming in to Boston from West Stockbridge, MA a few days a week. I also visited Jimmy and Juanita at their beautiful stone mill house in Western Massachusetts to complete the interview when Jimmy got too ill to travel into Boston. I'll air this program tonight at 9pm, Eastern Time. Rest in Peace, Jimmy Steve Schwartz Jazz from Studio Four Friday, 8p-midnight WGBH, 89.7FM, Boston ww/wgbh/org/jazz __________________

A reminder that Blue Lake is featuring Mel Dalton's music this Sunday evening from 7 to 10 p.m. (followed by Night Lights). The music from the club hit that Randy put together and m.c.'d is classic: 3 tenor players on Blues Up and Down, Sugar, Killer Joe, Anthropology. Mel was an important player locally -- while the other two men on this performance, Curt Purnell and Jackson, Michigan's, Benny Pool, are out of the swing and mainstream eras, Mel brought the expressionism of Joe Henderson and John Coltrane with him.

The Robert Hurst Trio broadcast will re-broadcast this Saturday morning at about 8:45 a.m. With Woody Goss, piano ( a 19 year old freshman at U of M who studies with Geri Allen) and Quentin Joseph, drums ( a 27 year old senior at U of M).

wow is right.

Ben Opie. Quote: Yes, that would be me. If you have any questions, direct them to my home email address: opek.music@verizon.net. Part of this weekend will be spent taking care of some major business for this mini-festival to happen: book flights, sign contracts, etc. There's no website yet, but I will probably set up a MySpace page for simplicity's sake. I can elaborate on a few details since my previous posting. There will (probably) be only one concert with pre-sales, and that would be at the Manchester Craftsman's Guild. That's the Braxton Septet, May 30, 8pm. I don't even know for sure yet, I have to ask them about that. Price will be below the $20 range. It's arguably one of the nicest halls in the US. For the May 31st concert, we have dubbed our group the Three Rivers Tri-Centric Ensemble. We're at thirteen pieces, with a small chance we'll add one or two more. No word yet on what compositions we'll play. There may be as many as three National Aviary appearances, each around 10am or so, on May 30, 31, and June 1. If this all seems vague or in the abstract, I'll repost the overall schedule when I get this on a webpage. Ben (unquote)

Well, Cecil did make a record with the Art Ensemble, and Braxton has appeared on Roscoe's records. Seemed they tried to telescope a larger press release into a single sentance. More importantly it is good to hear Roscoe being positive, being busy. A symphony. That is new, isn't it? This work, yes, but Roscoe with a symphony? Haven't heard that before.

"Flanagan's lyrical touch is legendary -- each note sounds like a pearl wrapped in silk -- and this is the first topic he addresses when the songs ends. "My touch comes from listening and trying to get a sound that I had in my head," he says in a gentle voice that rarely rises above a stage whisper. "I never did get much out of playing too hard. In fact, when I thought I was playing too loud, I'd use the soft pedal. I liked that -- you play harder but get a softer sound. I had an old, harsh-sounding piano at home, anyway."" A sound he may have gone for after hearing Earl VanRiper.

http://www.timeout.com/chicago/articles/mu...reative-writing

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/476957.html