Lazaro Vega

Jazz From Blue Lake Sunday, April 14, 2007 7 p.m. John Fedchock—Up and Running—Up and Running—Reservoire Striker/Slagel Band—Latest Outlook—Latest Outlook—Zoho Larry Willis—Nardis—Blue Fable—High Note Wynton Kelly—Kelly Blue—Kelly Blue—Prestige Kurt Elling—New Body and Soul—Nightmoves—Concord Jeff Darrohn—The Chase—T-Bird ’60—Jazzed Media Anat Cohen—Do It—Anzic Orchestra—Anzic 8 p.m. Bucky and John Pizzarelli – I’ll Remember April—Generations—Arbors Norah Jones—Sinkin’ Slow—Too Late Now—Blue Note Harry Connick, Jr. – New Orleans—Chason du Vieux Carre—Marsalis Music Ira Nepis/Steve Moore—The Romp, I’m in the Mood for Swing—Another Time/Another Place—Jazzed Media Benny Carter—I Can’t Get Started—The Three C’s—Sackville Hod O’Brien—Double Talk—Live at Blues Alley 3rd Set—Reservoir Howard McGhee—Lo-Flame, Fluid Drive—Introducing Kenny Drew Trio—Blue Note Wynton Marsalis—These Are Soulful Days—From the Plantation to the Penitentiary—Blue Note 9 p.m. Tchicai/Kohlhase/Fewell—Start to Finish—Good Night Music—Boxholder John Abercrombie—Round Trip—Third Quartet—ECM Ornette Coleman—Turnaround—Sound Grammar—Sound Grammar Exploding Star Orchestra—Sting Ray and the Beginning of Time Part 4—We Are All From Somewhere Else—Thrill Jockey Kahil El’Zabar’s Ritual Trio—Freedom Flexibility—Delmark Wayne Escoffery—Bee Vamp—Veneration—Savant Michael Musillami’s Dialect—Brooms—Fragile Forms—Playscape Records Lazaro Vega Blue Lake Public Radio 300 East Crystal Lake Road Twin Lake MI 49457 WBLV FM 90.3 / WBLU FM 88.9 www.bluelake.org

This is great news. Recognize Ornette!

April 13, 2007 The Jazz Datebook: Mondays from 7 to 10 p.m. jazz fusion bands Groove Merchant and Adams Apple alternate at The Intersection, 133 Grandville Ave. S.W., Grand Rapids. Phone (616) 451-8232. 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 as a “house” band. No cover charge. www.whatnotinn.com. The What Not Inn is located at M89 and the Blue Star Highway, 2405 68th Street, Fennville, MI. (269) 543-3341. Every Tuesday and Friday there’s jazz in Ada during the dinner hour (6 to 9 p.m.), with trumpeter/vocalist/entertainer Sweet Willie Singleton at the Thornapple Daily Grill, 445 Ada Drive, Ada, MI. (616) 676-1233. www.thegilmorecollection.com/Thornapple/thornapple.html Wednesdays from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sweet Willie Singleton plays trumpet, sings and entertains at Bite Piano Bar and Restaurant, 151 Ottawa Avenue, in the Waters Building, downtown Grand Rapids. Wednesdays, 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., Rick Reuther sings at Notos Italian Restaurant, 6600 28th St. S.E., Grand Rapids. Rick Reuther plays with drummer Cherie Lynn and pianist Tom Hagen. See http://www.notosoldworld.com/ or www.rickreuthersings.com Thursdays from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Sweet Willie Singleton is heard at Gill’s Blue Crab Lounge in The B.O.B., 20 Monroe Ave. N.W., Grand Rapids. Every Thursday at 8 p.m. ‘Til Midnight in Holland features live jazz in the dining room. Thursdays, April 19th, jazz with the trumpeter Chris Lawrence's Trio; April 26th, Jazz Ave; May 3rd, jazz with blue Coast Quartet; Sunday, May 6th, Jazz Brunch 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Thursday, May 10th, jazz with Junior Valentine; Sunday, May 13th, Jazz Brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Thursdays, May 17th, jazz with tenor saxophonist Michael Doyle and Evidence; May 24th, jazz with Moments Notice. ‘Till Midnight, 171 East 24th Street, Holland. For more information, (616) 392 – 6883 or www.tillmidnight.biz . Fridays and Saturdays from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. live local jazz 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. Friday evenings live jazz at Two Tonys Taverna Grille, 711 E. Savage, Spring Lake, 616-844-0888. Saturdays from 7 to 11 p.m. Restaurant Toulouse, 246 Culver Street, Saugatuck, features live jazz. (269) 857 – 1561. Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Pumpernickels, 202 Butler St., Saugatuck, pianist Jim Cooper plays music of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Roger and Lorenz Hart. Fridays jazz and other music at The Grand Rapids Art Museum, Lyon and Division, downtown Grand Rapids. See www.gramonline.org for more information. Music heard Fridays from 6:15-8:15 p.m.: Friday, April 20th, Jr. Valentine and the All Stars; April 27th, vocalist Rick Ruether; May 11th, The Dave Colley Quartet with Ginnie Dusseau; May 18th vocalist Mary Rademacher. Saturday, April 14th at 8 p.m. the Truth in Jazz Orchestra appears at the Thornapple Arts Council Jazz Festival in Hastings. Then, Tuesday, April 17th, The Truth in Jazz Orchestra wails at the West Side Inn, Beidler St., Muskegon. The sixteen piece big band led by bassist/bass trombonist Dave Collee features a swinging book and regular guests such as drummer Tim Froncek and trumpeter Dan Jacobs. See their web site: www.tijo.org . Monday, April 16th at 6:30 p.m. the West Michigan Jazz Society presents the next Jazz Gumbo Showcase concert with Francesca Amari and the Mark Kahny Trio featuring Michael Holmes as Judy Garland in a program called “Girl Swingers” held at The Kopper Top Guest House, 634 Stocking NW, Grand Rapids. Phone (616) 458 – 0125. Wednesday, April 18th at 8 p.m. pianist George Winston (www.georgewinston.com) appears in a benefit for the Inner City Christian Federation at the Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. Dinner at 6 p.m. with the solo performance at 8 p.m. Winston’s recent recording, “Gulf Coast Blues and Impressions” is dedicated to New Orleans and features compositions of Henry Butler, James Booker, Professor Longhair and Doctor John amongst others. Tickets for both the dinner and concert at $125; $60 for the concert alone; $35 for concert only student tickets. Phone (616) 336 – 9333 ext. 118 or e-mail concert@iccf.org. Monday April 16th, Tuesday April 17th and Wednesday April 18th at 7:30 p.m. the Hope College jazz ensembles appear in a series of concerts on campus. On the 16th the Contemporary Ensemble and vocal jazz groups appear; on the 17th three groups share the stage: the Blue Note, Verve and Vanguard Ensembles. Both concerts take place in the Wichers Auditorium of the Nykerk Hall of Music. Then on the 18th the Jazz and Mainstream Ensembles appear in Dimnent Memorial Chapel. Admission is free to all three concerts is free. Wednesday, April 18th from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The 21 piece Beltline Big Band presents a big band dance at The Peninsular Club (Ottawa and Fountain Street, downtown Grand Rapids). Tickets $7 at the door. (616) 459 – 3261. www.beltlinebigband.com. Friday, April 20th at 8 p.m. pianist Steve Talaga leads a nine piece instrumental ensemble in a program of original music inspired by Linda Nemec Foster’s book of poems “Contemplating the Heavens.” Foster will read her poems between each movement of the suite. Blue Lake’s Lazaro Vega wrote liner notes for the CD version of “Contemplating the Heavens.” The performance takes place at Kretschmer Recital Hall, Art and Music Center, Aquinas College, Grand Rapids. Tickets are $7 at the door, $5 for students. Information from www.aquinas.edu/music or by calling (616) 632 – 2413. Friday, April 20th at 7:30 p.m. the Northview High School Jazz ensemble is joined by trumpeter Sweet Willie Singleton (recently featured “Live From Blue Lake”) at the Northview Performing Arts Center, 4451 Hunsberger N.E., Grand Rapids. Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for students. Friday, April 20th at 8 p.m. The Ying Quartet (www.esm.rochester.edu/faculty/?id=19) with special guests Satoshi Takeishi (percussion) and Patrick Zimmerli (saxophone) perform their rare blend of improvised jazz and composed classical music at Dalton Center Recital Hall, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. The program includes music by Samuel Barber and Michael Torke. For information The Fontana Chamber Arts phone number is (269) 382 – 7774 of on-line via www.fontanachamberarts.org. Sunday, April 22nd at 4 p.m. a swing revue called “Steppin’ Out” featuring vocalists Mary Rademacher and Rick Reuther with accompanist Tom Hagen at Unity Church of Peace, 6025 Ada Drive S.E., Ada. $15 with reception following the concert. Monday, April 23rd The Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra appears at The Kopper Top Guest House, 634 Stocking N.W., Grand Rapids, at 7:30 p.m. $3. Wednesday, April 25th at 7:30 p.m. Cornerstone University’s Fine Arts Division presents the Jazz Band and Percussion Ensemble’s spring concert in the Corum Student Union, Cornerstone University, 1001 East Beltline Avenue, Grand Rapids. The concert is free and families are welcome. Thursday, April 26th at 7:30 p.m. Organissimo (www.organissimo.org) performs at a fundraiser for the Holland Habitat for Humanity. The performance takes place at Macatawa Band, 141 East 8th Street, Holland. See www.lakeshorehabitat.org. Friday, April 28th at 8 p.m. the Jim Cooper Trio with Cooper, vibes, Darrel Tidaback, bass, and Mike Van Lente, drums, appears a the Saugatuck Center for the Arts Performance Studio, Saugatuck. Phone (269) 857 – 2399 or on-line www.sc4a.org. Friday, April 28th at 7 p.m. the 21-piece Beltline Big Band plays a dinner-dance at the Middle Villa Inn, Middleville (www.middle-villa-inn.com). Tickets for dinner and dancing, $22.95. Just dancing, $8. RSVP (616) 891 – 1287. Also see www.beltlinebigband.com . Tuesday, May 15th at 7:30 p.m. the Musekgon Community Concert Association presents the “Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra” at the Frauenthal Theater, Muskegon. The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra is directed since 2002 by Bill Tole, the jazz trombonist from Pittsburg who’s recorded with Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra amongst others. See www.billtole.com or www.jimmydorseyorchestra.com for more on the current version of the swing band. Tickets are $15 to $20 and available via Star Tickets Plus from 1-800-585-3737 or at the Frauenthal Box Office Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

From the Chicago Improv list: http://www.chicagocityarts.com/ > Chicago City Arts Gallery is honored to exhibit a series of eight > lithographs combined with an accompanying six-CD limited edition box > set by Bill Dixon, one of the great composers and instrumentalists in > contemporary improvised jazz for some 40+ years now. *Chicago City > Arts Gallery will produce Bill Dixon's first ever Chicago concert in > the second week of July *, giving you the opportunity to hear his > unique genius in person. Bill will also teach a master class and give > an in-gallery lecture about his art and his experience of working in > both music and the visual arts at a high level for many years. and from Dan Melnick: http://www.soundslope.com/blog/convergence > The first appearance will be a concert on Wednesday, July 11... I hear > the concert will feature Ken Vandermark and Michael Zerang. *** There > will be a second Bill Dixon show here in Chicago, in an intriguing > setting and format, later in the summer.

Up for tonight, the grand finale of Live From Blue Lake: Sweet Willie Singleton's Quintet with special guest Ronnie Gardiner, the American ex-pat drummer (Sweden) who appears on "My Name Is Albert Ayler" among many others. Mel Dalton, tenor saxophone; Paul Lizinski, piano; Dave Hay, bass. Singleton is from Baton Rouge, LA, originally, and moved into Grand Rapids in the 1990's following a series of concerts there with the Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble. He was an understudy of Clark Terry and played in both the Ellington and Basie "ghost" bands.

Great night. Barry Altschul mentioned he's recording a reunion with Dave Holland and Sam Rivers on May 25th, and that he just finished a duo session with Anthony Braxton. His ability to keep the form, no matter how far it stretches, makes this band. Just makes it. He (and Hillard Green on bass) lay down a groove of shifting textures and rhythmic patterns that will at times go completely free, yet mostly are highly creative within a structure, which allows the horns to blow their minds out in front of them. Barry's command of rudiments makes him accurate and precise within the freer flow of things. As an ensemble they embrace a lot of information. Hilliard's obviously classically trained. They'll delve into textural oriented improv, play sections oriented towards European classical music, hit patches of composed material, and do what Swell reports the people in Boston are now calling "lower case." (?) Whatever, it was fun. Good to see everyone, too, and hang in such an informal setting. Set Lists: 1st Set -- Improvisation Kleine Figuren #3 (Ullman) Planet Hopping On A Thursday Afternoon (Swell) 2nd Set -- Improvisation Seven 9/8 (Ullman) For Grachen (Swell)

Filed the CIMP cd under Ullman's name. Gebhard's big band music on Soul Note, as well as Basement Research and the various trio records he came out with recently, and the duo on Leo with Chris Dalgren, chart a wide array of approaches.

Glad to hear this winter weather isn't in Grand Rapids. The band's leaving Ann Arbor about 1:30 -- should be smooth sailin' on 96. Out here on the lakeshore it snowed like mad this morning. "I'm dreaming of a white Easter...." Have John Erskine from the Hope College Recording Arts Center ready to capture tonight's performance for future broadcast on Blue Lake. Very much looking forward to seeing everyone. Hey Werf, where do you park for Hugo's place?

Monday April 9 Gunda Gottschalk - solo violin Bohemian National Home 3009 Tillman Detroit, MI 48216 313.737.6606 Wuppertal based violinist Gunda Gottschalk performs solo improvisations. Gunda well known for her work with the late Peter Kowald and makes her triumphant return to Detroit. Admission is $5-10 and doors are at 8:00 pm Tuesday April 10 – Gunda Gottschalk solo and duets with Mike Khoury WHFR.FM Wuppertal based violinist Gunda Gottschalk returns to Detroit with a live streaming audio performance on Pat Frisco's Spirits Rejoice radio show. Gunda will perform solo works and in duet with Mike Khoury. Tune in online at 7:30 PM EST.

http://www.dextergordon.com/

Up for this Saturday, and Blue Lake Public Radio will be featuring them tonight, 4-3-07, at midnight "Out On Blue Lake." www.bluelake.org

From Michigan Improv: (begin forwarded message) A great radio program has been lost for those who live in the S.E. MI. area. W. Kim Heron's Sunday night program on WDET has been canceled. Station management has decided that it needs to promote its news and information. I hope that the mich improv list would go to wdetfm.org and send an email to the management to register a complaint. Kim's program will really be missed, he did a outstanding service by promoting creative music in the area and by allowing musicians a performance outlet with his live in the studio programs. This was a great outreach service that WDET has now abandoned. I encourage the readers of this list to register a complaint. Go to wdetfm.org, click on the Contact Us menu.

Recently spoke to the author of that Tommy Dorsey biography, Livin' in a Great Big Way, and he notes that the Dorseys had upwards of 250 hit records between them through-out their careers. Not all #1's, but in the top lists of radio play and sales. Not all were vocals, but many were, and that was the most commercial of all the big bands. The rise of singers popularity after WWII is a well documented trend which was shaped as much by economics and changing tastes, the eventual advent of television and the closing down of the theater circuits and ballrooms, as it was by the choices jazz musicians made.

Our pleasure. Thanks for listening. The boys sweat blood tonight.

Trombonist Steve Swell's Quartet with Gebhard Ullman tenor saxophone/bass clarinet; Hilliard Green, bass; Barry Altschul, drums, in Grand Rapids, MI, Saturday, April 7th at 8 pm, at Mexicains Sans Frontieres , 120 S Division Av # 226, Grand Rapids MI, 49503, tel 616-706-7963. All ages, $10. http://home.earthlink.net/~sdswell/

Simon wrote: "I think that Smooth Jazz plays on this in a cynical way, by drawing on the cultural capital of Jazz to assert, in its name, that this music itself is something of value. If people just said it was instrumental pop - i.e. something without necessary pretentions to such value - I wouldn't have a problem." Having spoken to both Bob James and Ramsey Lewis in the last couple of years the second sentance above needs to begin with "if radio people," because "smooth jazz" is invention of commercial radio, not musicians. Aesthetically some of the "problems" with "smooth jazz" are similar to faults one might find with straight ahead or avant garde "repertory" instincts. Ramsey Lewis was frustrated that younger musicians will take a little piece of his career and try to build their commercial universe around it without understanding what led Ramsey to make the choices he made that led to the music he recorded. That the evolutionary creative process both he and James feel they've lived is misunderstood by many younger musicians looking to cash in on the "smooth jazz" formula. Essentially "smooth jazz" is three or four generations removed from electric Miles where only the commercial impulse is left to inspire, not the music. Does that make sense? Music education is the key to turning people on again. And more bands. We need more bands. In pop, in jazz, in wherever. Regular working bands.

Up for this Wednesday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V7gqcqHRs4...ted&search=

Congratulations on this work. Just saw the notice tonight.

"Much antitrust regulation, they argued, did not benefit the economy but just protected small businesses..." Just?

From The New Yorker Satellite Sisters by James Surowiecki March 19, 2007 When the satellite-radio companies XM and Sirius announced, last month, that they were planning to merge, it looked like a futile attempt to flout antitrust regulations. The merger would benefit Sirius and XM—which, despite signing high-profile figures like Howard Stern and Bob Dylan, have cumulatively lost close to seven billion dollars—but it would confront radio listeners with a satellite-radio monopoly. Not surprisingly, then, when Sirius’s C.E.O., Mel Karmazin, appeared before Congress to defend his plans, he was grilled by legislators convinced that regulators would block the merger. The deal, though, is far from dead. Thanks to an intellectual revolution that, over the past three decades, has transformed the way the government assesses mergers and monopolies, we may yet end up with only one satellite-radio provider in America. And, surprisingly, we may be all the better for it. Antitrust law in the U.S. rests on two documents—the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act and the 1914 Clayton Act. Their underlying principles are clear (competition and lower prices are good, collusion and price-fixing bad), but the laws themselves are remarkably vague, and regulators have had much leeway in enforcing them. In the era after the Second World War, for instance, the government took an aggressive stand against mergers. In 1962, it blocked a deal between the third-largest shoe company in the country and the eighth-largest, even though the new company would have owned just five per cent of the shoe market. A few years later, it barred two California supermarkets from merging, despite the fact that together they controlled less than ten per cent of the market and had many competitors. Bigness, regulators seemed to assume, was always bad. The idea that if mergers were bad for competition they were bad for the economy was intuitively appealing. But it wasn’t always accurate, as a group of law professors and economists, usually called the Chicago School, set out to show in the nineteen-seventies. Much antitrust regulation, they argued, did not benefit the economy but just protected small businesses; it could even make consumers worse off. (Most obviously, economies of scale allow bigger companies to produce more for less, which can lead to lower prices.) This meant that regulators should scrutinize deals through a different lens: if a merger reduced competition but enhanced “consumer welfare,” it should be approved. Later economists have complicated these arguments—there’s now a post-Chicago School—but the idea that mergers should be measured by their impact on “consumer welfare” remains central to antitrust law. Even by these standards, though, the XM-Sirius deal looks sketchy, since monopolies created by merger are usually bad for consumers. So why does the deal have any chance at all? It comes down to the question of what market XM and Sirius are in. If it’s just satellite radio, then they are competing only with each other and the deal would be sure to send prices soaring. But it makes more sense to see XM and Sirius as part of the bigger radio and digital audio markets and thus in competition with AM/FM, HD, and Internet radio. In that case, even a merged company would have only a small percentage of radio listeners, and competition would limit its ability to raise prices. Consumers, then, have little to fear from a merged satellite company in the radio market, and they may actually have a lot to gain. Dominated by chains like Clear Channel, AM/FM radio has become a catalogue of bland choices, pre-programmed playlists, and syndicated talk. A recent study by the Future of Music Coalition found that four companies received fifty per cent of all radio advertising revenue and had nearly fifty per cent of all listeners. Even among competitors, there is often tremendous overlap in music playlists; in this environment, XM and Sirius, which offer real diversity across three hundred channels, are a gain for consumer choice. And there’s no reason to think that this diversity would ebb after a merger; no one wants to pay thirteen dollars a month to hear the same songs he could have got free from his local KISS-FM. The National Association of Broadcasters, which represents commercial radio stations, has lobbied hard against the deal, arguing that XM and Sirius compete only with each other. But the very fact that broadcasters are fighting the merger demonstrates that they view Sirius and XM as a threat. Similarly, for fifteen years AM/FM stations have done everything they could to cripple satellite radio, lobbying the F.C.C. to stop its roll-out in the nineteen-nineties and persistently trying to limit the types of programming XM and Sirius can carry. Just last month, a bill was introduced in Congress—for the third time in as many years—that would bar satellite stations from providing local traffic and weather. Broadcasters understand that a merger between Sirius and XM would help extend satellite radio’s reach, making it a more formidable competitor. Many consumers have hesitated to subscribe to satellite because they didn’t know which company would survive. And desirable content is split between the companies: if you want major-league baseball and Bob Edwards, you need XM, but if you want N.F.L. games and Howard Stern, you need Sirius. Allowing Sirius and XM to merge would eliminate this problem in one stroke. And that would significantly increase the competitive pressure on traditional radio stations, perhaps forcing them to abandon their cookie-cutter model. Paradoxically, by reducing choice you could stimulate more diversity. Sometimes, it seems, you can have fewer competitors but more competition.

>From AllAccess.com: As ALL ACCESS reported on MONDAY (NET NEWS 3/12), NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO is planning legal action aimed at overturning a ruling from U.S. Copyright Royalty Judges that raised royalty fees for webcasters. Now we know that legal action will come tomorrow, as NPR VP/Communications ANDI SPORKIN said in a statement, "NPR will begin on FRIDAY, MARCH 16 by filing a petition for reconsideration with the COPYRIGHT ROYALTY BOARD panel." SPORKIN called the CRB's ruling "a stunning, damaging decision for public radio and its commitment to music discovery and education, which has been part of our tradition for more than half a century. Public radio’s agreements on royalties with all such organizations, including the RIAA, have always taken into account our public service mission and non-profit status. These new rates, at least 20 times more than what stations have paid in the past, treat us as if we were commercial radio -- although by its nature, public radio cannot increase revenue from more listeners or more content, the factors that set this new rate. Also, we are being required to pay an Internet royalty fee that is vastly more expensive than what we pay for over-the-air use of music, although for a fraction of the over-the-air audience. "This decision penalizes public radio stations for fulfilling their mandate, it penalizes emerging and non-mainstream musical artists who have always relied on public radio for visibility, and ultimately it penalizes the American public, whose local station memberships and taxes will be necessary to cover the millions of dollars that will now be required as payment. We ask that the online royalties be returned to their historic arrangement and that public radio can continue to provide its vital service to music discovery."

"Room 608" from the Horace Silver Quintet on Blue Note. He does well in Monk's sextet and on Andrew Hill's "Point of Departure," too.

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/7...C25729E002048FF

WNUR in Chicago And thanks! the CD is here!