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winning spins by George KanzlerMusicians who've been around for years can sometimes be taken for granted. Then they'll make a recording that stands out so much it raises their profile in the jazz firmament. Such is the case with new albums from Charles Tolliver and Mark Soskin.
After emerging as a hard bop trumpeter with a personal tone and attack in the 1960s with leaders like Max Roach, Tolliver spent most of the following decades working and living in Europe, coming back to New York in the 1990s and teaching at the New School. His latest recording - With Love (Blue Note/Mosaic) - announces the presence of an exciting new big band on the jazz scene. Tolliver's concept of orchestral jazz is one of constant motion and energy, and the band rarely lets up from the tumultuous momentum it roars out with on the opening track, "Rejoicin'," a prime example of Tolliver's ability to write rhythmically driving jazz waltzes.
Tolliver's arrangements pit sections of the band against one another in tumbling, contrapuntal showdowns, as multiple lines play out, often in contrasting speeds. On "With Love," a fast 8/8 piece, Bill Saxton's tenor sax solo emerges out of two ensemble lines going at two distinctly different paces. Tolliver's trumpet solo bobs and weaves over jabbing, swirling horns, leading to a double-timed ensemble passage, a prancing piano solo (Stanley Cowell) and a finale featuring collective improvisation from the whole band. The leader's trumpet sings the melody of "'Round Midnight" sparsely at a slow tempo before the band charges in to reprise it in an uptempo central section with crackling solos against busy ensemble counterpoint.
"Mournin' Variations" is an update of a piece based on African-American Spirituals that Tolliver wrote for Max Roach in 1972. Here it starts with woodwinds and drums in a rubato prelude moving into a piston-like vamp with a rising throb of a backbeat as horns jab and punctuate Billy Harper's preaching tenor sax, momentum continuing through trombone and trumpet solos to a final slow, panoramic finish with a flourish of flutes and drums. "Right Now," originally done for a Jackie McLean combo, develops a contrapuntal theme against an exuberant rhythmic vamp, with solos from the leader, baritone saxophonist Howard Johnson and pianist Robert Glasper accompanied by sizzling, agitated brass and reeds. An Afro-Latin beat adds new dimensions of heat to "Suspicion," a piece full of contrasting tension-release sections, a Tolliver solo beginning as a duet with drummer Victor Lewis, a slowly building guitar solo from the track's guest artist, Tolliver's son Chad, and a punchy finale. The album ends as upbeat as it began, with "Hit the Spot," featuring Lewis' drums in colloquy with the band, fiery solos from Craig Handy's alto sax and Keyon Harrold's trumpet over darting riffs, and a drum-heavy coda.
Mark Soskin's One Hopeful Day (Kind of Blue) is one of those rare albums where everything conjoins to work perfectly. As pianist, leader and arranger, Soskin makes all the right moves, from song choice to tempo to programming. He's ably abetted by a stellar supporting cast anchored by the big bass sound of John Pattituci and effervescent drum kit work of Bill Stewart, and featuring the tenor sax of Chris Potter and, on two of the eight ensemble tracks, the guitar of John Abercrombie.
Soskin's long tenure with Sonny Rollins back in the 1980s and 1990s has given him a keen appreciation of standards less traveled, and the quartet kicks off this CD with "On the Street Where You Live," Soskin limning the verse on piano before Potter's tenor sax and Pattituci's bass share the melody at a swinging tempo that carries over to grooving solos all around. "End of a Love Affair" is also treated to an uptempo excursion by the quartet, while "It's Easy to Remember" gets a time signature and harmonic makeover from Soskin that makes the piano and tenor solos stand out.
Thelonious Monk's "Bemsha Swing" is also given a rhythmic and harmonic renovation, but without harming the tune's scampering, buoyant swing. Chick Corea's "Innerspace" is treated to an intricate romp, while Soskin develops Claire Fischer's "Pensativa" as an expansive piano solo piece. His three originals are all distinctive, with the title song a lyrical ballad with a yearning undertone perfectly captured by Potter's tenor solo. "Step Lively" adds Abercrombie's guitar, Soskin making good use of it in the arrangement as well as a solo voice. "Strive" is the most unusual piece, an undulating rhythm from toms and cymbals under a slinky melody from soprano sax and guitar. Like everything else on the album, the result is crisp and clear.
Mark Soskin appears at Jazz Standard on July 10, while Charles Tolliver leads a group at Birdland on the nights of July 25-28.
SPOTLIGHT BY PAUL BLAIR AND GEORGE KANzlerSARAH McLAWLER
CHEZ JOSEPHINE/JULY 6, 13, 20 & 27
When singer-pianist-organist Sarah McLawler guested recently at the Jazz Museum in Harlem's ongoing "Harlem Speaks" discussion series, she had some great tales to share, and no wonder. Mingling with music greats in Louisville, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis. Founding an all-female band called the Syn-Co-Ettes. Relocating to NY and palling around with Dinah Washington, Cab Calloway, Nat Cole and Sammy Davis Jr. Recording hit singles like "Let's Get the Party Rockin'," "Babe in the Woods," and "Relax, Miss Frisky" for R&B labels. Happily, she's still a part of the scene, now focusing on jazz standards. PBDAVE VALENTIN
BLUE NOTE/JULY 10 AND 11
Valentin grew up in the Bronx during the formative years of salsa and was a Latin percussion player before he took up the flute, which became his first love after he began studying with Hubert Laws. He's equally at home in salsa, funk-rock and big band bebop. He plays a variety of wooden flutes he's collected from Africa, South America and Asia, as well as standard flute, and to them all he brings an infectious, Pied Piper quality that's made him one of the most popular figures in Latin jazz. At this gig, he'll be leading his Tropic Heat quintet. GKPREACHER ROBINS
B.B. KING'S/JULY 28
With all the options available on Jimmy "Preacher" Robins' website - checking the weather, calculating mortgage payments, purchasing health foods, renting a limo and more - visitors might not immediately notice that this singer and Hammond B3 specialist has been performing around the country and world for several decades. His credits also include spots on scads of TV shows and in several films. Locally, he's often been featured at Londel's and Showman's Lounge, two of Harlem's premier hot spots. At this midtown show he's guaranteeing especially good times, in fact scheduled to last until 3:00 AM, with vocals by Lady Sunshine. PBBRUCE BARTH
SMOKE/JULY 6
Pianist Barth's latest trio album is Live at the Village Vanguard (MAXJAZZ), but he'll be bringing the trio uptown a bit to this convivial jazz bar-club on upper Broadway. Barth's robust swing, two-handed virtuosity and fertile imagination have graced many bands over the last two and a half decades, from George Russell's and Terence Blanchard's to his current gig as Tony Bennett's accompanist. Barth is also a gifted composer and arranger, as evidenced by his work with his Sextet, which can be found on East and West (MAXJAZZ), showcasing his compositions based on growing up on the West Coast. GKEDDIE ALLEN
ARMSTRONG HOUSE/JULY 5
If you haven't yet visited the Louis Armstrong House in Corona, Queens, here's a golden opportunity. Trumpeter Eddie Allen plays a free-as-always Jazzmobile concert outdoors. Eddie's group (including fellow brassmasters Cecil Bridgewater and Ray Vega, along with pianist Rick Germanson, bassist Dwayne Burno and drummer Carl Allen) will do special three-horn arrangements of Armstrong features like "Mack the Knife," "West End Blues" and "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?" Eddie's been influenced by Louis, of course. "I always loved Woody Shaw's playing," he says, "and there was loads of Louis even in Woody's work!" PBCLAIRE MARTIN
OAK ROOM/JUNE 26-JULY 7
She's often billed as "the UK's best jazz vocalist." In fact, a Jazz Times writer called her "the finest British jazz singer of her generation [and] possibly of all time." Somewhat narrow criteria, yes? OK, let's hear her in our town. This Algonquin stint, Ms. Martin's New York debut, serves to showcase her new CD, He Never Mentioned Love (Linn), a lovingly conceived tribute to the late Shirley Horn. She enjoys great backup on the album from a superb trio plus special guests, and there isn't an overdone tune in the bunch. It's intelligence and class in a clear plastic case. PBEARL MAY
VILLAGE VANGUARD/JULY 17-22
Bassist May, who turns 80 later this year, didn't record his first album as leader until he was a septuagenarian. But the contrarian southpaw bassist (his instrument is strung for a right-handed player), who studied with Mingus, had a treasure chest of experience by then, playing and/or recording with the likes of Lester Young, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, George Benson and Doc Cheatham and spending most of a decade in Billy Taylor's trio. At the Vanguard, he'll be joining drummer Leroy Williams in the trio of bebop pianist Barry Harris. Hear Earl, too, at an afternoon party at The Cornerstone on July 8. GKJEFF NEWELL
BARGEMUSIC/JULY 4
Happily, it's hard to pigeonhole saxist Newell's New-Trad Octet. Some of its members are Brooklyn Undergrounders. Yet the group can also play an entire program devoted to (and elaborating on, with Haitian grooves underneath) the John Philip Souza tradition. Go figure. Anyway, while they're slated to Souza it up for a lunchtime concert at 1 Battery Park Plaza on July 5 and then play who-knows-what in the band shell at Brooklyn's Kingsborough Community College on July 22, their Bargemusic program will replicate the mix distinguishing their recent CD: funk, zydeco and brass band struts a la New Orleans and even a hymn or two. Fireworks follow. PBETHAN IVERSON
SMALL'S/JULY 5-7
Perhaps you know this pianist as one-third of The Bad Plus, the best-selling cooperative trio project which delights in deconstructing everything from Richard Rodgers to Neil Young and Abba. That group's popularity has riled more traditional listeners even as they attract new fans from among the rock-afflicted. Now here's Iverson (who's boasted that he hails from Wisconsin, "just like Liberace") with fresh material and a new configuration which also highlights the work of saxophonist Bill McHenry. Iverson's impressive keyboard technique reflects his classical training, but that's only a starting point. PBDAVID S. WARE
IRIDIUM/JULY 13 AND 14
For tenor whirlwind Ware, there was a high-profile signing with Columbia a few years ago, then the inevitable return to smaller labels willing and eager to record the artistic growth of a really dynamic improvisor. (His latest for Aum Fidelity is Renunciation.) Ware plays the entire horn, top to bottom, and employs an absolutely huge sound. His approach? Volcanic at times. And he's been mixing it up with other avant-garde masters right from the start: Cecil Taylor, Andrew Cyrille, William Parker, Matthew Shipp and the like. Interacting with him for this Iridium appearance will be guitarist Joe Morris, bassist Keith Whitty and percussion colorist Guillermo Brown. PB
JAZZ IN JERSEY BY FRED McINTOSHDIANA KRALL
NJPAC/JULY 8
As a youngster, Krall heard her dad playing stride piano. That led her to recordings by Fats Waller, Jimmy Rowles, Shirley Horn, Oscar Peterson and others. She herself began as a pianist but was encouraged (by Rowles, for one) to sing as well. Over the last decade, she's become one of music's most acclaimed artists, while continuing to maintain high artistic standards. Her current group includes guitarist Anthony Wilson, bassist John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton - all heard on From This Moment On (Verve). For an even more faithful look at her live concerts, check her Live In Paris DVD. Or better yet, score some PAC tix.DAN BLOCK
WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY/JULY 24
Clarinetist Block's mastered the Goodman style. But expect to hear him on tenor as well at WP, fronting a quartet that includes Steve Ash (piano), Lee Hudson (bass) and Tom Melito (drums). "Since Benny Goodman tributes are done so often," opines Dan, "we'd rather focus on a broader range of styles." And that he can, having played in the past with Marty Grosz ensembles, the Mingus Orchestra and big bands led by Toshiko Akiyoshi, Maria Schneider and George Gee. Catch him, too, on Tuesdays with David Berger's Sultans of Swing outfit at Birdland and with Vince Giordano's Nighthawks elsewhere around town. Dan's latest CD: Almost Modern: Swing to Bop (Sackville).BUD SHANK
SHANGHAI JAZZ/JULY 25
Shank, a working pro since the Bebop Era's headiest times, has survived and prospered. A Midwesterner by birth, he's spent most of his life in the Pacific Time Zone, beginning in the late 40s with bands led by Charlie Barnet, Alvino Rey and Stan Kenton and subsequently backing everyone from Carmel Jones to Sinatra. A founding member of both the Lighthouse All-Stars and the L.A. Four, he did some fondly remembered flute playing with guitarist Laurindo Almeida. Now, though, he concentrates solely on alto saxophone, on which he can swing madly. With him at Shanghai Jazz will be pianist Bill Mays, another relocated and reborn California studio guy whose work we greatly admire.JESSE GREEN
DEER HEAD INN/JULY 7; CENTENARY COLLEGE/JULY 14
Though pianist Green rarely accepts gigs outside his Poconos home base, he's making an exception of this mid-month campus appearance in Hackettstown. Son of trombone master Urbie Green, Jesse actually began as a trombonist himself, then switched to piano and managed to snare lessons with both Bob Dorough and Phil Woods, two guys who just happened to live down the road. Possessed with brilliant keyboard technique, Jesse's also an arranger, a composer, a teacher and a sound engineer. His past associates include Clark Terry, Lew Tabackin, Freddie Hubbard, Al Grey, Benny Carter, Gary Burton, Jimmy Heath and both Al and Joe Cohn. Sylvan Treasure (Chiaroscuro) displays his talents well.
PHIL WOODS: LOTS TO SAY by Ken Dryden
At this year's IAJE convention in New York, Phil Woods was finally honored as an NEA Jazz Master. Yet his sterling reputation within the jazz world was established decades before this award. The alto saxophonist vet has led well over a hundred recordings and appeared on hundreds more as sideman or guest with leaders like Monk, Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Manny Albam and George Russell.
What's more, around two dozen new releases by Woods have appeared since 2001. He's happy working simultaneously with three different labels: Jazzed Media, Philology and Kind of Blue. Projects done with Graham Carter at Jazzed Media have included tributes to Henry Mancini and Quincy Jones, plus a DVD documentary called Life in E-Flat. Meanwhile, Swingchronicity with the DePaul University Jazz Ensemble is due this fall; and The Children's Suite, with A.A. Milne's "Now We Are Six" tales set to jazz, is scheduled for spring release.
Philology owner-producer Paolo Piangiarelli has been recording the altoist for years, partnering Woods with some of Europe's finest musicians, including pianists Enrico Piernanunzi, Franco D'Andrea and Renato Sellani. He also paired Woods in a series of CDs with old friend Lee Konitz. "Going to Italy to work with Paolo provides a fine excuse to hang out, with good music and good food. It's like coming home." It also gave Woods the opportunity to achieve two firsts: an all-clarinet date with guitarist Irio de Paula; and an unaccompanied solo album, on which he also played piano and even sang a bit for a heartfelt tribute to his parents, who encouraged his love of music.
The Kind of Blue label, too, has enlisted Woods, where he's able to record with his regular quintet: trumpeter Brian Lynch, pianist Bill Charlap, bassist Steve Gilmore and drummer Bill Goodwin. "The label started out as 'Vertical Jazz' but then went horizontal! After getting new funding, they changed their name. American Songbook came out last year and American Songbook II will be released soon." With all of this activity, Woods muses, "I'm glad I'm in demand for recordings, though I'm not getting rich."
The saxophonist's touring schedule is somewhat lighter these days. "I'm not playing gigs as often. Travel, hotels and transportation are such hassles. Steve has to take a stick bass on the plane now and he's an acoustic player. So I often go out as a single." Woods' long-established quintet, anchored by Gilmore and Goodwin (with him since 1973), still works when opportunities arise.
Woods has been active, too, as a composer, with pieces like "Goodbye Mr. Evans," "Waltz For a Lovely Wife," "All Bird's Children," "Quill" and "How's You Mama?" (his set-closer theme). "But I never play anything on my sax," he notes, "until I can play it on the piano. When I attended Julliard, students had to be proficient on piano just to get in. While I was there, I even made some money playing for singers. That's something a lot of young jazz musicians have overlooked. Piano helps you work things out. Now the university jazz programs are turning out loads of graduates, even though the only regular gigs left are in military bands. But I'm not knocking them. I've played with the Airmen of Note and the Army Jazz Ambassadors on several occasions. They're damned good and they have a lot of great charts, not just a bunch of Glenn Miller stuff."
He acknowledges his health problems: "I've got emphysema, so I take a wheelchair in the airport. I don't play as many notes as I used to, I'm not looking for velocity. I appreciate each note and try to make them count. Benny Carter told me it'd be that way. I had prostate cancer and have false teeth." Yet the listener won't find a drop in the quality of his playing, as Woods' creativity remains as keen as ever.
Woods' support of jazz education and up-and-coming musicians has been well documented. When teenaged Italian alto player Francesco Cafiso (a smash at the 2002 Perugia Festival) came to the U.S. for IAJE in 2004 and jammed nightly in a packed lobby bar at a midtown Sheraton with James Williams, Ray Drummond and Ben Riley, Phil jested in the hotel lobby, "I'd like to break his arm!" Woods also invited another teenaged alto saxist, Grace Kelly, to jam and was so impressed that he gave her his trademark leather cap. Still, he's sorely disappointed with the media's failure to acknowledge another alto vet. "Jon Gordon can blow everyone away. He deserves more attention than he's getting."
So how about a Phil Woods autobiography? "It's done," he reports. "I thought Scarecrow Press would be interested but no deal was reached. So I put it up on my website: www.philwoods.com. For $25 a year, you get all sorts of jams and jellies, my autobiography a chapter at a time, road stories, photos, audio and video from my archives, plus my old 'Reflections in E Flat' and 'Phil in the Gap' columns."
Catch "Phil Woods Plays Q and Ollie: The Music of Quincy Jones and Oliver Nelson" at the 92nd St. Y on July 17. Joining Woods will be Brian Lynch, Bill Charlap, Gary Smulyan, Steve Davis, Bobby Routch, Peter Washington and Kenny Washington. For ticket info, proceed directly to www.92y.org/jazz.
A FORTUNE IN JAZZ by Paul Blair
"I relocated from Philly to New York in 1967 and my first regular job here was with Elvin Jones, playing with his group six nights a week at a place down on Hudson St. called Pookie's. In fact, it was there one night that we all learned Coltrane had passed away. Then came a stretch with Mongo Santamaria, maybe two and one-half years with him, lots of that time on the road. I spent a while out in Los Angeles, then returned to New York, played three years with a group McCoy Tyner was leading - and then hired on with Buddy Rich, playing at a club that Buddy had opened on the Upper East Side. One night, Miles came into the place and sounded me out about joining him. Actually, he'd already asked me once when I was working with McCoy but I'd turned him down. Anyway, I ended up being heard on at least four of Miles' LPs: Big Fun, Get Up With It, Pangaea and Agartha."
You're with us so far? This is saxophonist Sonny Fortune speaking, and he's not idly dropping names. Fact is, he's been mixing it up with some of our music's brightest lights for the past forty years. Best of all, he's only 68, has benefited recently from a heightened profile on the scene - and is sounding as incisive and inventive as ever.
"Well," he says, "three or four years ago I made some decisions about really going after what I've been pursuing throughout my career. Playing this music the way it deserves to be played, making every performance count and so on. My aim is that all my nights on the bandstand should be great. I'm older and hopefully wiser. Maybe this all translates into a better presentation of myself. One step I took recently was to make a deal with Blue Note that allowed me to reissue, on my own Sound Reasons label, three CDs I did for them in the mid-90s. So now there's a three-disc set called Continuum available through CD Baby. You can even download individual tracks from Rhapsody.com.
"The new album, though, won't appear on my own label. Instead, it's for a company called 18th and Vine. Since You and the Night and the Music is the title, you just know that particular tune is one of the ones we do. There's also a Gillespie tune, a Monk tune, some standards that haven't been done to death by everyone else and an original of George's called 'Love Song' that we all like a lot. There's one of my pieces as well. It's called 'For Duke and Cannon.'"
Coltrane's music was, of course, a powerful influence on every saxophonist coming to prominence in the 60s. In his liner notes to the new CD, writer Ashley Khan quotes Fortune's reaction to hearing Coltrane's celebrated recording of "My Favorite Things": "I hadn't heard anything like that before, Jack. I certainly did feel that in the zone that I occupied at the time, which was one used to doo-wop it seemed like everybody who does doo-wop ought to be able to hear this cat! I mean, I don't know if I said that consciously, but that's what I meant, because here I was, standing over there and it knocked me head over heels." That Trane influence eventually inspired a 2000 Fortune CD on the Shanachie label called In the Spirit of John Coltrane.
"No, I didn't have many chances to hang with Coltrane when I was getting started," reports Fortune. "I married at sixteen and didn't even buy a horn until two years later. Besides, Coltrane and those other Philadelphia players like Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath, and Odean Pope were a few years older than I. But they certainly were all inspirations to me."
Fortune stresses that eliminating sideman gigs, insofar as possible, is another part of his current thinking. But many will remember some splendid work he did in the front line of a Nat Adderley quintet during the 80s.
"At one point, sometime after Cannonball's death," he recalls, "Nat asked me to join his group. And since I already knew everyone else in that band - Larry Willis, Walter Booker and Jimmy Cobb - I decided to do so and ended up playing with them for a couple of years.
"At Dizzy's, it'll be a special group. Eddie Henderson or Charles Sullivan playing trumpet on various nights. Billy Harper on tenor and a great rhythm section made up of George Cables, Buster Williams and Louis Hayes. Up at the Litchfield Festival, though, it'll be the same guys who're on my new CD: George Cables playing piano, Chip Jackson on bass and Steve Johns drumming."
Sonny Fortune leads a sextet at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola on June 26-July 1; and a quartet at Connecticut's Litchfield Jazz Festival on August 4.JAZZWOMEN! BY ELZY KOLB
Light the candles
Pianist Diane Moser will have guests galore on hand to help her celebrate a major birthday at Trumpets on July 25. The lineup includes singers Tina Marsh, Teresa Rivera, and Gradie Stone. Though Diane's Composers Big Band has focused on a specific composer each month for more than ten years, this is her first turn in the featured slot. "I've been bringing in pieces off and on the whole time," Diane says. "I knew I wanted to take July for myself to have more time. But I just can't do me, so I invited Gradie. Our birthdays are just a few days apart, and I decided to make it a party." A Meet the Composers grant will help to underwrite the birthday shindig. The evening will include compositions by Tina Marsh, Rob Henke, and an arrangement of "Zing Go the Strings of my Heart," by Gradie's dad, singer Kirby Stone. Over the years, "I've let each composer have their night and decide what to do, and this is what I decided to do with mine," Diane says. "There's a guilt factor that I have: If I can get everyone together to play and bring in their music, then I gotta step aside and let them have their turn. It's not about me, even though my name is on the band."
Get the feeling
Saxophonist Saco Yasuma wrote the title tune for her debut CD, Another Rain (Leaf Note), two years ago, when her father was hitting a milestone birthday. "I wanted him to think of it as just another rain, not such a big deal," she says. Saco studied classical piano with her father from age 6 in her native Japan. She picked up the saxophone after she moved to New York in 1989, and fell in love with jazz. "It's been a long time in a short time: I don't feel like I've been here for 18 years," Saco says. Eric Dolphy is the first name she mentions when asked about her influences. She's attracted to "his technique, energy, everything. Really, beyond everything," she says. Also on her list: Oliver Lake, Monk, Mingus, and violinist Billy Bang. "I'm mainly influenced by energy," Saco says. "I don't analyze the music. When I feel it, that's it." Saco's celebrating the release of her CD at the Cornelia Street Cafι on July 30.Risk assessment
"To your own self be true" are words to live by for vocalist Tahna Running. "The music business is rough. You have to follow your own muse and don't let anyone else dictate," she says. "I've turned down parts on Broadway because I thought they were artistically lacking." Doing the same tunes the same way night after night wouldn't work for Tahna, either. "I thoroughly enjoy the experience of improvising. It's like you're on a train track and you see that train coming in and you've got to disentangle yourself," she says. Tahna compares her approach to music with her experimentation as a visual artist, and declares singing "riskier. You sing a note and you can't take that note back." Tahna is looking forward to her Birdland gig on July 8 with pianist John DiMartino and bassist Sean Smith: "They're great! You don't know what they're going to come up with."Catch them live
Singer Teraesa Vinson has a brand-new CD, Next to You (Amplified); you can catch her at Langan's every Saturday Pianist Deanna Witkowski plays St. Peter's on July 1 Violinist Diane Delin's quartet plays the Kingston International Jazz Festival on July 1 Vocalist Sanni Orasmma is at the Bar Next Door on July 2 Bassist Anne Mette Iversen's quartet plays the Tea Lounge in Brooklyn on July 9 Singer Alexis Cole celebrates the release of Zingaro (Canopy Jazz) at the Zinc Bar on July 9 Andrea Wolper sings at the 55 Bar on July 10 Pianist Linda Presgrave plays music from The Journey (Metropolitan) at Iridium on July 12 The 92nd Street Y's Jazz in July series features singer Sandy Stewart (July 18) and pianist Renee Rosnes (July 24), plus vocalist Ethel Ennis and pianist Barbara Carroll (July 25) Akiko Tsuruga's organ trio plays the Priory on July 20; she's on piano at the Blue Note with Grady Tate on July 24, and back on organ at Jazzmobile with Lou Donaldson on July 27 Andrea Tierra sings at the Jazz Standard on July 23 Vocalist Flora Purim and Airto are at Dizzy's on July 24-29 Pianist Leslie Pintchik plays Kitano on July 26 Tulivu Donna Cumberbatch sings with the Ray Abrams Big Band at Club 412 on July 28 Eri Yamamoto plays keyboards at the Downtown Music Gallery on July 29 Nerissa Campbell sings at Sweet Rhythm on July 31 Catch saxophonist Sweet Sue Terry at the Sunburnt Cow every Tuesday.
Read all about it!
Aimed at young readers, Take-Off: American All-Girl Bands During WWII, by Tonya Bolden (Knopf), tells the story of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Ada Leonard's All-American Girl Orchestra, and others. A 16-track CD is included.
Singers unlimited
Janine Gilbert-Carter sings A Song for You (JGC) Sandy Dennison is Jazzed! (SDR) Catch Carmen Lundy on the Jazz Explorers' Jazz My Soul (Rhythm Dynamics) Who wouldn't love to receive Love Letters from Ella (Fitzgerald) (Concord) Lori Williams says It's About the Melody (Blue Canoe), with the Saltman Knowles Quintet Abra Moore declares she's On the Way (Sarathan) Carla Cook and George Gee's Jumpin', Jivin', Wailers Swing Orchestra ask If Dreams Come True (Gjazz) Get in touch with your hip inner child with Jazzy Fairy Tales from Louise Rogers and Susan Milligan Check out the new one from Carol Welsman (Justin Time) Darby Dizard says she's Down for You (One Soul) Get Intimate with Patti Austin (Mosaic) Dominique Eade is Open (Jazz Project) Elisabeth Withers received a Tony nomination for her role in The Color Purple on Broadway; now she's making her Blue Note label debut with It Can Happen to Anyone ... Jan Eisen recorded her CD Summer Me, Winter Me (One Take) "the old-fashioned way," live in the studio Wesla Whitfield says she's Livin' on Love (HighNote) Read The Book of Love (Telarc) with Cheryl Bentyne Gemma Genazzano sings Like a Woman in Love Elli Fordyce believes in Something Still Cool ... Paula Ralph-Birkett sings on Tyrone Birkett's In the Fullness of Time (Convergence) There's all original material on Kelly Lee Evans' Fight or Flight (Enliven!) Jessica Constable lends her voice to Ellery Eskelin's Quiet Music (Prime Source) Susan McKeown and Dawn Padmore sing with Sean Noonan and Brewed by Noon on Stories to Tell (Songlines) Tracy London guests on Frank Macchia's Emotions (Cacophony).
HOT FLASHES BY PAUL BLAIRGOTTA-MENTION GIGS
A busy month for pianist Ted Rosenthal, who's doing a master class with Bill Charlap at the 92nd St. Y on July 16 (and playing their fest two nights later), then appearing at Bargemusic (July 19), the Watercolor Cafι in Larchmont (July 20) and the Blue Note (July 26-29 with Ann Hampton Calloway) A party at the Blue Note on July 2 to highlight the release of the new John Fedchock big band CD called Up & Running (Reservoir) Ronin, the Zen-funk ensemble led by Swiss keyboardist Nick Bδrtsch, presenting material from their new ECM disc Stoa at Joe's Pub on July 3 Cellist Erik Friedlander ("Rostropovich one second and Rottweiler the next," wrote one critic) at Joe's on July 17 A Joe Turner Tribute extravaganza involving Kevin Mahogany, Red Holloway and Cyrus Chestnut at Birdland on July 18-21 Grady Tate at the Blue Note on July 24-25 Pianist Michael Weiss' outstanding trio at Bargemusic on July 26 Eddie Palmieri and Brian Lynch rocking the 92nd St. Y hall that same night Pianist Abdullah Ibrahim beginning a six-night stand (solo and trio) at Jazz Standard on July 31 ... Wait, one more: if you loved pianist Don Friedman's 1961 A Day in the City LP, you'll want to catch the same threesome (bassist Chuck Israels and drummer Joe Hunt) playing at Kitano under Hunt's name on July 25. It's their first gig together since 1962. New Yorkers, we're truly blessed nightly.
FREEBIES
Again this season, Jazzmobile concerts offer truly superior music at parks around town. Houston Person, Lou Donaldson, Winard Harper, Bobby Sanabria, James Spaulding, Fathead Newman and the Harlem Renaissance Orchestra are among this month's groups. So where? Google your way to Jazzmobile online, search out the "Events" tab, then click for specific dates Also of interest is "Rhythm Journeys: Masters of Jazz and World Music," being presented on July 18 at Riverbank State Park in Harlem (info: 212-694-3612) and on July 20 at the Brooklyn Children's Museum (info: 718-735-4400)
BROOKLYN!
Glance at the Brooklyn listings in each month's Hot House and you'll note that Park Slope hosts a lively jazz scene. Barbθs, for instance, is tiny but happening, with weekly or near-weekly appearances by violinists Stephane Wrembel's and Jenny Scheinman's groups, as well as the wild Slavic Soul Party bunch. Other July gigs include pianist Burton Greene's trio (July 5), mandolinist-clarinetist Andy Statman (July 12) and Sam Bardfield's Stuff Smith Project (July 26) and McNeil sends out the hippest gig-alert announcements ever, so ask to be added to his list And now that the unindicted co-conspirators comprising the Brooklyn Jazz Underground have made the Tea Lounge (837 Union St.) their rendezvous spot, there's lots happening there, too, on a no-cover/no-minimum basis. Holy cow, they even show movies chosen by musicians after their sets. See www.brooklynjazz.org for a rundown.
NEW VENUES
Jazz in Chinatown? Yes, at a Shanghai-style nightclub now open inside the Grand Palace Restaurant on Mott St. Vince Giordano's Nighthawks are on the menu on Thursdays - and George Gee's crack big band on Fridays - with their sets preceded by floor shows. Dancing is permitted - nay, encouraged. This we gotta see. For a melodious online preview, visit http://www.myspace.com/Grandharmonyswings ... Another new Park Slope entry: the Burger Bar (499 9th St. at Seventh Ave.) now offers jazz several nights weekly, with pianist Charles Sibirsky among the names we recognize in the ever-rotating cast of characters And Williamsburgers will want to check out the Velvet Lounge (174 Broadway, between Bedford and Driggs). Playing Thursdays is the trio called Lock and Key: Geoff Vidal, Nir Felder and Jon Pratt.
jazz anecdote by bill crowBill Crow's books "Jazz Anecdotes" and "From Birdland to Broadway" can be found at your favorite bookstore, and at www.billcrowbass.com along with many interesting photos and links.
Jazz singer Giacomo Gates lost several dates one winter to cancellations because of snowstorms and other kinds of bad weather. He also lost a couple because a building collapsed, causing enough damage to close the restaurant next door, where he had booked some gigs. But he said that one cancellation was a first for him. Giacomo was booked with a trio at a Connecticut ski resort at the end of February, but a sudden warm spell caused the manager of the resort to call him and cancel. He felt that, due to the melting snow, there wouldn't be any skiers there that weekend. Giacomo said it was the first time he was ever cancelled because of good weather.
Dave Frishberg told this story about his days with the Al Cohn, Zoot Sims quintet: One night we finished at the Half Note and Zoot didn't want to stop. The customers were gone, Mousie (Alexander) was packing up the drums, and Zoot was alone on the bandstand, wailing away chorus after chorus of Stompin' at the Savoy or something like that. Al was standing at the bar with his coat and hat on, and he yelled, "Zoot! Take off the red shoes!"