Lazaro Vega

Yes, that's the album. We don't have "One Upmanship," but I do have "The Seagulls of Kristiansund" Live at the Village Vanguard. Coming up.

First thing I played on the air here 24 years ago was a Henry Threadgill piece called "Fanfare and Celebration" which was renamed and issued as "When Was That?" on About Time records. Please join us until three o'clock in the morning tonight over www.bluelake.org. Drummer Matt Wilson is the featured artist. Requests are welcome.

Tom, You're right about the musical catholicity of musicians. Recently trumpeter Roy Campbell and bassist/violinist Henry Grimes played live on Blue Lake Public Radio. To warm up they played "Jordu," "What's New" and the "Shadow of Your Smile." When they hit the air it was all completely improvised. I recall producing a concert by Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio featuring Lester Bowie and the poetess N'tozake Shange (sp!) with Malachi Favors, bass; Ari Brown, tenor and piano; and Kahil on drums. As the band was packing up, Ari sat down at the piano and played "Betcha By Golly Wow." A genie in disguise, laddies.

Well, it's right under his nose: listen to Joey Calderazzo in Branford's Quartet. Though not a starting point for him, Cecil's vocabulary will come into play during climaxes of the music. Then, too, there's Myra Melford, Marilyn Crispell, to some extent Craig Taborn....Cecil's modus operandi is so personal that it would difficult to play "like" him without being an immitator, and a lesser one, yet pianists have played off him and incorporated aspects of his pianistic approach. Cecil's band approach and compositional method is one of many ways of dealing with the changes in jazz after the discontinuation of playing traditional song form. Maria Schneider once described Messiaen's music to me as like walking into a room that's all one color and then, woosh, the color changes. Basically she's saying it's solids, though. Cecil's music is more like bubbles, violent bubbles, and is underpinned an elemental quality that is like creation myths meeting the blues.

The idea that Cecil's music is not jazz because it is corrupted by classical music ignores his music and what he's said about it, yet more importantly it ignores the tradition of jazz. From statements by the great stride players that they could play Chopin faster than anyone; or the bel canto singing tradition on the sound and phrasing of Fats Navarro; or Teddy Wilson's whole thing, or Tiger Rag being a French dance, classical music has a deep, penetrating influence on jazz. Did classical music de-Negro Nina Simone? Not in a million years. And the sound of Bach on Mingus was fairly playful. Classical music has always been part of the mix. Just because it remained so when the new vocabularies of rhythm, melody and ensemble organization came to the forefront of jazz after Ornette showed the way out of song form doesn't mean that music was not jazz. The fundemental "thing" that Stanley does with his arguement is change the idea that jazz is a way to the notion that it is a thing ("blues plus swing equals jazz" is a commodification, a logo line, not an artistic process). I don't understand why people haven't challenged him on the idea that classical music corrupts jazz until it is unrecognizable with the same tradition he claims to so thoroughly comprehend. The little episode about Roland Kirk sitting in with Cecil echoes Wynton trying to sit in with Miles as both were told 'no' for the same reasons: we have a band here with certain operating principles that you don't know. That, to me, is legit. What of the notion that "free" musicians "should" have a pathway open for jazz musicians to sit in with? I've seen people jam in unplanned contexts at the old Southend Music works in Chicago-- Reggie Workman with Gerry Hemmingway, Paul Smoker, Steve Hunt and Kent Kessler -- who've made incredible music, whole music with a beginning middle and end all unplanned. So it seems the arguement breaks down as you get into the music more. I mean, Reggie Workman is a jazz musician, right? Listening to that WNUR interview with Leroy Jenkins it was clear he feels more comfortable "jamming" with Joseph Jarman than just about anyone else because he trusts Joseph's level of understanding the musical outcome they're both aiming for. How could he, then, just give over to someone who is only comfortable playing changes, and why would we expect him too?

And Jimmy Dorsey...

Just checked out "What's New" by Bird at St. Nick's alongside Coltrane's "Theme For Ernie" from "Soultrane" and I suppose -- it's kind of hard to tell. I mean, if recording quality is the issue the lo-fi of Bird at St. Nick's about disqualifies it...but then again, there's something there in the comparison. For what it is worth Von Freeman once expressed to me there were no good instrumental versions of "What's New." This version by Bird is an exception. Thought this was an exceptional interview.

The WNUR interview is very insightful. Played alto in college, Florida A and M, to help pay bills. At junk joints in a style informed by Charlie Parker. "I never knew...."

Dexter is our featured artist tonight from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. est on Blue Lake Public Radio, www.bluelake.org

When Hemmingway and Butcher appeared live on Blue Lake Butcher mentioned he was deeply influenced by friends of his who played strings, and getting inner voicings and multiple layers of sound from his saxophone was in part inspired by the sound of stringed instruments. During that broadcast Hemmingway played midi-percussion, too. Though John's contacted us a number of times since to come back and play we, alas, haven't had the bread he's wanted.

Marilyn Crispell with Mark Helias and Paul Motian Tuesday Feb 27 - Sunday March 4, 2007 VILLAGE VANGUARD 178 Seventh Ave. S. NYC (212) 255-4037 ★ MARILYN CRISPELL TRIO (Tuesday through Thursday) Marilyn Crispell, a pianist equally celebrated for aggressive atonality and delicate lyricism, regroups with the bassist Mark Helias and the drummer Paul Motian, the same team as on her exquisite album “Storyteller” (ECM), from a few years ago. (Through March 4.) At 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037, villagevanguard.com; cover, $20, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen)

http://destination-out.com/?p=77 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/26/arts/mus...amp;oref=slogin

Written by George Lewis and Carlota Schoolman. LEROY JENKINS March 11, 1932 - February 24, 2007 Narrative biography, February 26, 2007 Leroy Jenkins is renowned as a virtuoso violinist and for his compositions and operas which are an extraordinary bonding of a variety of sounds associated with the African American music tradition and European styles. Throughout his long career, Jenkins never stopped experimenting. At Harvestworks Digital Art Center where he was Artist in Residence in 2005, he and Mary Griffin developed an interactive music/video instrument which allows Jenkins, "Blue" Gene Tyranny, and the other musicians in Coincidents to manipulate multiple video tapes with their acoustic instruments and voices. Most recently, he assembled a world music improvisatory group - Jin Hi Kim (Komungo) Korea, Rmesh Misra (Sarangi) India, Yacorba Sissoko (Kora) Africa, Leroy Jenkins (Violin) USA. A recording of the group, made at an AACM concert will be released shortly. In the last fifteen years, Jenkins has turned his attention to music/theater pieces: Fresh Faust, a rap opera was presented in workshop at the Institute of Creative Arts in Boston. The Negro Burial Ground, a cantata, was presented in workshop at the Kitchen Center in New York. A later work, The Three Willies, an operatic collaboration with Homer Jackson was presented at The Painted Bride in Philadelphia (1996), and at the Kitchen, NYC (2001). Coincidents an opera, with librettist Mary Griffin will receive its premiere in June at Roulette. Jenkins is developing two new operas: Bronzeville, a history of South Side Chicago in the 20s through 50s with Mary Griffin, and Minor Triad, a musical drama with composer/librettist, Carmen Moore. Leroy Jenkins was born on March 11, 1932 and began his violin training as a child, studying with Professor O. W. Frederick at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Chicago. He studied clarinet, saxophone and bassoon under the direction of legendary Captain Walter Dyett at Du Sable High School in Chicago, and received a music scholarship to study classical violin with Bruce Hayden at Florida A&M University. He received a B.S. in Music Education in 1961. Immediately following graduation, he taught music in Alabama schools, and then in Chicago. Classically trained, Jenkins was also influenced by the great jazz masters, and played saxophone and clarinet in a number of jazz ensembles, but his passion, from the age of eight, was the violin, and he found a way to meld his classical technique and his love of jazz when he joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a pivotal Chicago organization which originated a vibrant new form of creative improvised music. Moving to Paris in 1969, Jenkins toured Europe with his first group: The Creative Construction Company of Chicago, with Anthony Braxton and Leo Smith. In 1970, he came to New York and formed another cooperative, The Revolutionary Ensemble, a trio of bass, (Sirone) violin, and drums (Jerome Cooper), which toured internationally to critical acclaim, and went on to record five albums. He also developed his solo compositions and premiered his first works in this format at a concert at the Washington Square Peace Church in Greenwich Village. In the '70s and '80s Jenkins received major support for music composition with many grants and commissions for chamber ensemble, orchestra, dance, and theater. During this period, in addition to touring as a soloist and with various instrumental groups under his leadership, his music was performed by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Albany Symphony, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Kronos Quartet, the Dessoff Choirs, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and the New Music Consort, among others. In 1989 Jenkins was commissioned by Hans Werner Henze for the Munich Bienale New Music Theater Festival to write the opera/ballet, Mother Of Three Sons, choreographed and directed by Bill T. Jones. It premiered in Munich and was later staged by the New York City Opera, the Houston Opera, and was broadcast on German television. He received a Bessie (New York Dance and Performance Award) "for the lyrical, intricately constructed river of jazz and opera". In 1998, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony performed and recorded Wonderlust, a work for chamber orchestra and two soloists and in the last six years Jenkins has performed at numerous festivals and venues here and in Europe including the Other Minds Festival in San Francisco, California Institute for the Arts, the Contemporary Museum in New Orleans, the Chicago Jazz Festival, as well as international jazz festivals in Portugal, Sardinia, and Canada. Other recent projects have been a commissioned piece for tenor, baritone, and brass quartet which was performed at Merlin Hall as part of the World Music series in New York, in San Francisco and at North Florida State University. His most recent touring group - Equal Interest, a trio with violin, (Jenkins), piano, (Myra Melford), and woodwinds (Joseph Jarman) - was formed in 1999. The British Arts Council commissioned its members to write pieces for a group of nine British musicians, and Equal Interest performed with these musicians on a ten-city tour of England. Jenkins held residencies and guest professorships at many American universities including Oberlin, Bennington, Harvard, Brown, University of Michigan, Williams, California Institute of the Arts, Bard College, and Duke. He was guest composer/ master teacher/performer at the Della Rosa of Portland, Tom Buckner's Interpretations series in New York, the American Composers series at the Kennedy Center, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Atlanta Virtuoso, and the First American Violin Congress at the invitation of Sir Yehudi Menuhin. He received numerous commissions and awards - from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council for the Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation's Multi Arts Production Fund among others, and was awarded a 2003 composition grant from the Fromm Foundation for Coincidents. In 2004 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Jenkins also collaborated with dancer Felicia Norton and was commissioned by Lincoln Center's Out of Doors Series for collaborations with choreographers Molissa Fenley and Mark Dendy. Jenkins served on the Board of Directors of Meet the Composer in New York and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and as Artistic Director and Board Member of Composers' Forum. He has sat on many panels for music including the National Endowment, the Herb Alpert Foundation, The Bush Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and New York Foundation for the Arts, and the New York State Council for the Arts. He placed numerous times in critics' and readers' polls in Downbeat and Jazz Magazine. In groupings from solo to chamber orchestras, Jenkins has recorded 25 albums/ CD's, nine of which have been reissued. Recent recordings include: Solo, a suite for solo violin and viola, Lovely Music (1999), Equal Interest, Omnitone (2000), The Revolutionary Ensemble, Mutable Music (2004), And Now, The Revolutionary Ensemble, Pi Recordings (2004), and The Art of Improvisation, Mutable Music (2006).

Press Release: Joe and Wayne Segal would like to invite you to the Jazz Showcase Relocation All-Star Benefit Concert. Thursday, March 1st at 7:30 p.m. Located at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance 205 E. Randolph Drive Master of Ceremonies Freddie Cole, along with an all-star line-up, including: Jon Faddis and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, Benny Green, Donald Harrison, Eric Alexander, Jack DeJohnette, The Willie Pickens Trio, Two For Brazil, Bobby Lewis with Eric Schneider and Andy Brown, Henry Johnson, Harry Allen, more.... The event is sponsored by the Mayor's Office of Special Events Columbia College Chicago, the Jazz Institute of Chicago WDCB Maxwell Drum Company DownBeat magazine Chicago Jazz Magazine For more information please visit http://www.jazzshowcase.com For ticket information please contact the Harris Theater at 312.334.7777 or visit: http://www.harristheaterchicago.org Hope to see you there! Joe and Wayne Segal

Did he play "The Peacocks." or "Round Midnight"? The radio station recorded him solo last spring in Grand Rapids. Wonderful. He just finished up another residency at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo last week.

Yes, me, too. He opened playing solo for the World Saxophone Quartet about the time of WSQ's Black Saint album "Steppin'" in Erikson Kiva at Michigan State University. Revolutionary thing to hear. Who knew music could sound like that?

I think they made the concert weekend available in a post produced 13 week one hour series; no longer a live broadcast.

Amen.

Please tell Charlie, "Hi" from Lazaro should you go. His old running buddy Matt Wilson is playing in Kalamazoo this Sunday. Charlie's Quintet with Wilson played at The Reptile House in Grand Rapids right before Matt left to join Dewey Redman (back in the day). Great concerts. Love Charlie's bands.

(Stockton, California, February 20, 2007) Dedicated to jazz, contemporary concert music, lectures and symposia, Brubeck Festival 2007 will be held from April 11-15 in Stockton, California. An annual event that celebrates the musical, intellectual, and philosophical ideas of Dave Brubeck, this year’s festival is entitled Words with Music and honors the words and music of Iola and Dave Brubeck. In its sixth year, the five day festival includes nine concerts, symposia and lectures centered on the University of Pacific campus. The festival’s centerpiece performance is on April 13, with an evening entitled “The Dave Brubeck Songbook.” The concert will open with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and Grammy-nominated vocalist Roberta Gambarini ("* a true successor to Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Carmen McRae" Boston Globe) and concludes with a performance of the Cannery Row Suite, commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival in 2006 and to be performed at Brubeck Festival 2007 by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Triple Play (including Chris Brubeck) and others. Cannery Row Suite is “based on the John Steinbeck novel about the drifters and workers of old Monterey. . . [the work] includes a roadhouse blues number, a sing-along sea chantey and a pair of arias, wickedly difficult to pull off (Brubeck said he derived them from 12-tone rows) yet sounding a little like Gershwin” (San Jose Mercury News). The concert will be preceded by a presentation by Susan Shillinglaw, Scholar in Residence at the National Steinbeck Center. Dave Brubeck, designated a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress, continues to be one of the most active and popular musicians in the world today. Brubeck Festival 2007 is sponsored by the Brubeck Institute, which was established by the University of the Pacific in 2000 to honor its distinguished alumni Dave and Iola Brubeck. The mission of the Institute is to build on Dave Brubeck's legacy and his lifelong dedication to music, creativity, education, and the advancement of important social issues For more information on the Institute, see http://www.pacific.edu/brubeck/index.asp For queries about interviews and articles, contact Dave Webb, 530.758.1799, davewebb530@sbcglobal.net

From Margaret Davis: Concert / workshops / master classes Thursday-Saturday, March 29th-31st: Henry Grimes residency with the Creative Arts Orchestra directed by Mark Kirschenmann, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, workshop / master class on Thursday, March 29th, 5-8 p.m. (also possible 2nd workshop / master class on Friday, March 3Oth), 734-764-O583 or -O594, www.umich.edu, www.umich.edu/faculty_staff/kirschenmann.mark.lasso; concert on Saturday, March 31st at Kerrytown Concert Hall, 415 North 4th Ave., Ann Arbor, Michigan, 734-769-2999, www.kerrytownconcerthouse/calendar, KCH@kerrytown.com...

Insightful essay on the downside of monopoly. Would just add that older listeners are drawn to classical music not just conservative talk radio and that the older demographic has more income to invest in high end purchases, such as homes. The Orek crack is horseshit.

Don's improv's would sometimes take on an almost military pronouncement as with his entrance on The Relativity Suite. Throughout that long piece, too, he sings his own version of "scat," for lack of a better word, punctuating those flights with a great ability to play a single note in rhythm on the trumpet, again out of bugle tradition. How do you say this, because he wasn't playing on songs as much as his improvisations sounded like songs? He had an ability to lay just a few notes right into the rhythm that gave his melodies a singing quality. As far as his timbre, well, that's where it gets simultaneously "sloppy" and incredible. There's a flexibility to his playing sound which opened the trumpet up at a time when high octane saxophones were the dominant voice. He found affinity with Pharoah and Frank Lowe, screamers in the period, for instance. checka checka bin and o so rin

Strayhorn's work gave Ellington a more "popular" slant, is one way to perceive a difference in Duke's music before 1939 and after. There's a general sense that Strayhorn was taken by the realm of Gershwin, Porter, etc. and wanted to "compete" with that world: Take the A Train; Satin Doll. Not that "Mood Indigo" wasn't a pop worthy melody, and surely there are other early examples. Yet the great writing Ellington did before 1939 was oriented towards the band members and the ensemble. Ellington established himself as a greater jazz composer than Morton before Strayhorn came on. The issues are far more complicated than that but that is one very general area where there's a perceived difference in composerly intention.

As Chuck and Ghost mentioned on another thread, when they announced Natalie with "Jazz innovator Ornette Coleman," they panned the crowd and almost to a expression was the look of, "Who's that?" At least the Chili Peppers celebrated the great man in their midst. At least those maniacs knew who he was. Out of all the people in that hall they chose to shout out to Ornette -- at least there was that. It was too bad when Ornette started to read off the names of the bands up for the award he read his prompt. I can't remember the name of the bands but the cue card would have looked something like "Ornette: The Red Tomatoes" and Ornette read it like that, so his name was actually first on the list. There's some Freud with your music all up in it now.