Lazaro Vega

How did it go with the big band?

More reviews on Taylor/Braxton: http://soundsandtexts.blogspot.com/2007/07...2007-cecil.html And one including Ornette: Taylor/Braxton/Coleman 4 stars Royal Festival Hall, London John Fordham Wednesday July 11, 2007 Guardian The refurbished Royal Festival Hall got its first taste of jazz courtesy of Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor, two vigorously surviving founding fathers of the explosive 1960s avant garde. Alto saxophonist Coleman is 77 now, and pianist Taylor 78, but neither man is any nearer to planning a show's precise course, let alone showcasing a "legacy". Taylor was exploring a first-time partnership with the sax virtuoso and composer Anthony Braxton, while Coleman (whose gait is slower, but whose sound still cuts through a room like a flame) played the following night with a typically idiosyncratic lineup - him, his son Denardo on drums and three bass players. Both shows brought standing ovations. After a prologue of reciting his vivid sound-poetry and rattling shakers offstage, Taylor began in duo with his empathetic percussionist Tony Oxley. The famous rapid-fire chords and lightning- bolt treble clusters still surfaced in bursts, but as rejoinders to fluid, rippling, even tender treble melodies. Bassist William Parker then played an unaccompanied bowed solo that sounded like a choir of ghostly voices. The rest of the evening had Taylor, Parker, Oxley and multi-saxist Anthony Braxton on a single, seamless, mostly improvised jam, full of dynamic contrasts and idiosyncratic, on-the-fly logic. Taylor scrambled inside the piano lid while Braxton played a single, quavering, circular-breathed note. Braxton played raucous, guttural alto-sax lines while the band unleashed a steady, rolling thunder. Close to the finish, Oxley launched a cymbal feel that was almost swing, while the others ascended to a collective typhoon ended by Taylor's peremptory, that's-it chords. Coleman's gig was just as fast-moving, though with more references to a skewed jazz time, and to funk. Bassist Charnett Moffett provided a furious backdrop of fast jazzy walks and wailing electronics, while Tony Falanga contributed a classically articulated counter-melody. Falanga also quoted the Rite of Spring's opening passage, and Bach's first cello suite, just for Coleman's mercurial alto to pick up the themes and play with them. Several Coleman classics then followed, including the anthemic free-funk melody from Dancing in Your Head, and the Monkish blues Turnaround; there was also some exquisite slow ballad playing, and an infectiously rocking groover close to the end. Taylor and Coleman are unequivocally still there for the music, however it turns out. The audiences sensed they were present as jazz history was being celebrated - but still being made, too. Having been to both gigs i would personally give the Taylor/Braxton one 5 stars and the Coleman one 4 stars

Yep - to be broadcast this week. A good chance that it will also appear 'on the other site'. Dime?

Great blog entry: thanks for writing it out. Now, from what it appears, this concert will be broadcast on the BBC this Friday. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazzon3/pip/6ir82/

Jul 8 - Cecil Taylor Historical Quartet with Anthony Braxton, William Parker and Tony Oxley - Royal Festival Hall - London (UK) http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk

On *July 11*, Bill Dixon will close "The Music Show" with his first ever Chicago performance. Among those joining Bill to perform for the evening will be some of Chicago's great jazz talents: Josh Abrams (bass), Nate McBride (bass), Ken Vandermark (reeds) and Michael Zerang (percussion). Concert Date: July 11, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. Concert Venue: Ganz Hall, Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan Ave. Pre-concert Reception: 4:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Reception Venue: Chicago City Arts Gallery, 410 S. Michigan Ave., 6th floor Tickets are $25 and _can be purcased online at chicagocityarts.com <http://www.ticketalternative.com/TicketSelection.aspx?item=2381&sch=7929>_ The concert is being sponsored by The Five Percent Sessions <http://www.5percentsessions.com/>.

Up for tonight.

Nice.

Iverson notes the Garrison comment, heading off the inevitable disagreement with that one.

I'm striking out on the records here: Don't have the trio with Hancock and Cobham; don't have the date with Zoot Sims; and the duo performance from "Black Codes" must be on the CD version 'cause the only track with Ron on the LP is a full band thing, "Aural Oasis." Iverson's kicking my ass!

Not one of his recordings under his own name in the library here -- many sideman dates with Stan Getz, Dizzy Reece, Charlie Rouse, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, others. Hope you can tune in: 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. est, www.bluelake.org

James Newton wrote a piece called "Juneteenth" and recorded it with Anthony Davis and Abdul Wadud on the Gramavision album "I've Known Rivers." He writes, " 'Juneteenth' is a compound word meaning June the 19th, the date the slaves in Texas were 'freed' in 1863. This date has been celebrated by blacks everywhere since as a reminder of the beginning of ther 'freedom.' " Does James have the wrong date?

There are more records than are generally known about by the wider, non-Michigan/Detroit audience. Check out this label: http://www.semja.org/jan2001/parkwood.html

Yeah man, played some of that date with Earl Van Riper on the birthday broadcast. Marcus and Van Riper played that music live in Grand Rapids about the time of that release -- a real treat. Van Riper is the guy few people know about, but Tommy Flanagan sure did.

Been reading through the printed transcripts on the web site. Haven't heard the tapes yet. Informative. His talk on counterpoint was insightful. And on playing with Chet.

Pepe, I think he does. The scene is diffuse. The trunk of the tree was the African American community, too, as much as it was an aesthetic evolution. Randy Weston pointed that out to me -- when the music moved out of the black community it lost its core. He'd like to see it get back to the community as a central part of life. Keep hope alive!

Simon, "Jackie McLean said bebop was sort of left for other things and going back to it to was artistically possible." What he meant was that there was potential for Wynton Marsalis, for instance, to go back to the pre-1959 era and pick up where the story left off before modal jazz and free jazz came in to change the form and re-direct the improvisor's base. "Roscoe Mitchell said there are no "cracks" left in playing on changes type jazz to truely investigate, meaning that methodology has been sufficiently covered. " He meant by that if you're going to piano, for instance, on popular songs of the great American Song Book in a jazz style you have to contend with everyone from Billy Kyle and Clarence Profitt to the greats of jazz piano, and that there is little space to develop your own voice because every time you try you run up against a "sound" or approach that someone else has already discovered and developed before you even get the table. Geri Allen was able to find a way yet she included Cecil Taylor and M-Base in her over all vision of what she could do -- a long view. Otherwise you make some good points in that post. LV

That version of "I Like the Sunrise" is a hit with listeners. Rumi's poetry set to a Von Freeman improvisation. Should you ever, Vonski's blow is on "The Improvisor" as a duo with pianist Jason Moran. Freeman said in an interview he didn't know Duke's "Liberian Suite" from which "Sunrise" came, but his solo is full of "weird" notes that wouldn't seem, on first blush, to be "interpretable" as a vocalese -- Kurt does it. Been playing Kurt's "Sunrise" on Saturday morning at 7 a.m. and people are really digging it. His "New Body and Soul" is strong, too, and makes a companion to his other transcribed Dexter solo done vocalese, "Tanya Jean." Does anyone know where "Leaving Again" by Keith Jarrett is from, or it is simply Keith's "Leaving" that Elling is building on in that medley with "In the Wee Small Hours" (a favorite tune of Randy Marsh's mom). Mark Murphy's new record features a terse but deep solo by Lee Konitz on "My Foolish Heart."

And whether the avenues opened up by Ornette, Taylor, Trane and the AACM are as fully as exhausted as those of Bird and Diz, for instance, is debatable. Jackie McLean said bebop was sort of left for other things and going back to it to was artistically possible. Roscoe Mitchell said there are no "cracks" left in playing on changes type jazz to truely investigate, meaning that methodology has been sufficiently covered. (Both said in interviews for attribution in The Grand Rapids Press and Blue Lake Public Radio). One big difference is that Ornette, Taylor, Roscoe, Braxton, Muhal -- major figures in the development of freer forms of improvisation are still alive. Don't know how much of a retread the living music of Roscoe Mitchell is, for instance.

(BLURB) http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/html/mulligan/gm-home.html One of the most widely respected and admired jazz musicians of our time, Gerry Mulligan occupies a unique place in the American musical scene. As composer, arranger, performer and band leader, he has played a vital role in the history of modern jazz and contemporary music. This unique set of spoken recordings, taped in 1995, came to the Library of Congress through the generosity of Gerry's wife, Franca R. Mulligan. Edited and excerpted from hours of material, this unique look into Mulligan's evolving musical career--from the "Birth of the Cool" recordings to the Pianoless Quartet to his Concert Jazz Band and beyond--gives us the chance to experience a very personal story of a man, musician, and innovator.

Called Detroit today to wish trumpeter Marcus Belgrave a happy birthday. He's in great spirits and good health. Said in April he and his wife went down to New Orleans with his friend Charles Gabriel (a New Orleans native who studied with Lorenzo Tio Jr.). He played with Bob French, Herlin Riley, and was invited by the Louis Armstrong Society to some events. Marcus said, "I visited the 9th Ward and of course it devastated me." His last appearance in Grand Rapids was with a nonet playing a repertoire of Louis Armstrong's music (there's a CD of the band recorded at the Capitol Theater in Windsor, Ontario in 2001 on WJS Jazz Discs). Right before that he was here with Detroit guitarist A. Spencer Barefield playing Spence's involved post-bop compositions. Tonight, as we feature Marcus on Jazz From Blue Lake, there are little known recordings we'll play with pianist Steve Sandner, the Scott Gwinell Big Band, Earl Van Riper, Walter Booker, Jeff Haas and, of course, the more well known appearances with McCoy Tyner, Ray Charles, Fathead Newman, Hank Crawford and Marcus's cousin, baritone saxophonist Cecil Payne. "Well, that's my legacy; that's what I'll be remembered for: I play with EVERYBODY," he laughs. Marcus said his first recorded solo, from "Alexander's Ragtime Band" on the great Ray Charles Atlantic date, "The Genius of Ray Charles," he didn't want to do. They passed out the music at rehearsal. He saw his name on that, thought it was corny as hell (he's playing in clubs and freelance record dates with Mingus, Dolphy and Max Roach at this time) so he gave the part to Clark Terry. Rehearsal starts, they come to the trumpet solo, and Terry starts to play. Charles whistles the band to a halt, yells, "TRUMPET!!!!" Belgrave argued sheepishly, relented, and was heard around the world playing that solo. Had the good fortune of touring Europe with him in 1985 with the Blue Lake Monster Big Band featuring a teen age James Carter and another great Detroiter, pianist Harold McKinney, plus all of the Blue Lake faculty players. Blue Lake's George West wrote a tune for him, "Marcus Meets the Monster." Those tapes need to be baked before we can transfer them to digital. In any case, Marcus Belgrave is a wonderful musician -- a former protégé of Clifford Brown -- and teacher (during last week's live broadcast with bassist Rodney Whitaker I mentioned something to the effect that Rodney was taught by Marcus and Whitaker laughed and said, "Marcus says that about all of us! He claims us all!"). Marcus Belgrave tonight on Jazz From Blue Lake, 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. via www.bluelake.org. Lazaro Vega Blue Lake Public Radio

Wednesday night at midnight, so it's actually turning Thursday a.m. Thanks Ghost, and thanks Margaret!

From Margaret Davis, Dear great Lazaro, In case there's to be a CD release, and / or just to have your notations right, that's Hilliard Greene with an "e" on the end (see http://home.earthlink.net/~hilliardg), and Grachan, not Grachen, for trombonist Grachan Moncur III -- see http://www.grachanmoncur.com , and there are two "n"s on Ullmann, as per http://www.gebhard-ullmann.com . xo xo M. >>>>

Please join www.bluelake.org at midnight this Wednesday, June 13th, and next, June 20th for trombonist Steve Swell, tenor saxophonist/bass clarinetist Gebhard Ullman's Quartet recorded live in Grand Rapids, MI, April 7, 2007. With Hilliard Green, bass; Barry Altschul, drums. Set list for June 13th: Improvisation Kleine Figuren #3 (Ullman) Planet Hopping On A Thursday Afternoon (Swell) > Set List for June 20th: Improvisation Seven 9/8 (Ullman) For Grachen (Swell)

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/northwest/chi-ovn_jazz0608jun08,1,6666563.story?ctrack=1&cset=true "THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE" As Fred Anderson returns to local stages, jazz musicians sing his praises Prolonged illness can't silence this free-jazz giant By Howard Reich, "Tribune" arts critic (hreich@tribune.com) Published June 8, 2007 It has been more than six months since Fred Anderson played in public, and some listeners have been wondering whether he ever would perform again. But this weekend, the 78-year-old tenor saxophone giant will return to the stage of the Velvet Lounge, the South Side club he developed as a nexus for new music in Chicago. Better still, Sunday's cameo performance with the Great Black Music Ensemble will launch a month's worth of dates that will place Anderson directly in the spotlight -- where he belongs. Though Anderson doesn't want to get into the specifics of the health woes that sidelined him for so long, he says that, generally speaking, he had run out of energy for the first time in his life. "I was run down," says Anderson, who first picked up his horn again a month ago and has been reacquainting himself with it ever since. "All those years I was playing around the world, I didn't get sick. I had a long run," adds Anderson, who understood that his performance career might be coming to a close. "But I took a lot of tests, and it worked out fine," continues Anderson. "I had some good doctors, and they put me back on track again." For the past several weeks, Anderson has been rehearsing alone on stage at the Velvet Lounge -- building up his breath and stamina, working to recapture the plush tone and heroic musical gestures that long have been his trademark. To anyone who follows Chicago jazz, his return comes as something of a blessing. "It's not just all the people out there who love and Fred as a musician who will welcome him back," says Lauren Deutsch, who serves as executive director of the non-profit Jazz Institute of Chicago. Anderson's comeback, continues Deutsch, "has great resonance for all the musicians who look to Fred as a father figure." Indeed, from his role as a founding member of the Chicago-based Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in the mid-1960s to his stewardship of the Velvet Lounge starting in the early 1980s, Anderson has been a guiding spirit to some of the city's most intrepid young artists. Everyone from veteran reedist Mwata Bowden to ascending young trumpeters Maurice Brown and Corey Wilkes have drawn inspiration from Anderson's devotion to the most innovative forms of jazz improvisation. Equally important, Anderson's Velvet Lounge has given them a forum in which to play their music as they wanted to, without artistic restrictions. When the Velvet Lounge closed in April of 2006, uncounted musicians played benefit concerts on Anderson's behalf, enabling him to raise the $160,000 needed to reopen the place in its new home, on East Cermak Road. Anderson dug into his own pocket as well, taking a financial gamble at an age when many others might not. If the reopening of the Velvet Lounge last July was a boon for music in Chicago, Anderson's return to it is no less significant. "Music is my life," he says, "and I'm just trying to keep this club going." Fred Anderson will be guest with the Great Black Music Ensemble at 6 p.m. Sunday and will play a CD release party with Hamid Drake, Jeff Parker and Josh Abrams at 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Velvet Lounge, 67 E. Cermak Rd.; $10-$20; 312-791-9050. He also will play at the "Tuesdays on the Terrace" series from 5:30 to 8 p.m. June 19 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave.; admission is free but reservations are recommended; 312-397-4034. << <> <> <> <> >< >< > From Margaret Davis: P.S. Fred Anderson's Velvet Lounge has a Web site at www.velvetlounge.net, and you can get on its Email list by Emailing Stuart Mann at jazz.mann@comcast.net.