Category 46
Best Improvised Jazz Solo
(For an instrumental jazz solo performance. Two equal performers on one recording may be eligible as one entry. If the soloist listed appears on a recording billed to another artist, the latter’s name is in parenthesis for identification. Singles or Tracks only.)
•All Of You
Gerald Clayton, soloist
Track from: Two-Shade
[ArtistShare]

Category 47
Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group
(For albums containing 51% or more playing time of INSTRUMENTAL tracks.)
•Brother To Brother
Clayton Brothers
[ArtistShare]

John Clayton also arranged a song and performed with Yo-Yo Ma and Diana Krall in the following Grammy © Nominated Album:

Category 107
Best Classical Crossover Album

‘Yo-Yo Ma & Friends: Songs Of Joy And Peace,’ Yo-Yo Ma (Odair Assad, Sergio Assad, Chris Botti, Dave Brubeck, Matt Brubeck, John Clayton, Paquito d’Rivera, Renée Fleming, Diana Krall, Alison Krauss, Natalie McMaster, Edgar Meyer, Cristina Pato, Joshua Redman, Jake Shimabukuro, Silk Road Ensemble, James Taylor, Chris Thile, Wu Tong, Alon Yavnai & Amelia Zirin-Brown)

Of all our year-end best-of lists (the 100 Best Songs of 2009 and 50 Best Albums of 2009 included), this is our favorite, because it’s the most individual (everybody has a different list) and it’s closest to our raison d’etre, live music in New York. Last year’s was difficult enough to narrow down to twenty; this year’s is criminally short. We could have put up a top 100 concerts list and it would be five times as good. 

This was the year of the Beast – Small Beast at the Delancey, New York’s most exciting weekly rock event. We caught onto this slowly - the concert series ran for about a month before we discovered it – but when we did we were there almost every week. Occasionally someone will ask, since you have a music blog, why don’t you start booking shows? With Small Beast, there’s no need: it’s your weekly chance to discover the edgiest, smartest rock-ish talent from Gotham and across the globe. You’ll see a lot of those shows on this list.

Yet 2009 was a weird year for us - running a New York live music blog and not being in town much of the time made it problematic, to say the least. Week after week, we watched from a distance, enviously as half the city got to see stuff we never did. In August, the Brooklyn What did a killer triple bill with Palmyra Delran’s garage band and amazing latin ska-punk-gypsy rockers Escarioka at Trash Bar, but we weren’t there. The second night of the Gypsy Tabor Festival just a few weeks later looked like a great time, but we missed that one too. As the year winds down and we finally (hopefully!) start to reap the rewards of a whole lot of hard work, it appears, pending some absolutely transcendent show exploding onto the radar, that this is it for our Best Shows of 09 list. Needless to say, we can’t wait for 2010.

Since any attempt to rank these shows in any kind of order would be an exercise in futility, we just listed them as they happened:

The Brooklyn What at Fat Baby, 1/15/09 – since we’d just reviewed a couple of their shows in the fall of 08, we didn’t even review this one, fearing overkill. But on what was the coldest night of the winter up to that point, they packed the club and burned through a characteristically fun, ferocious set, maybe fueled by the knowledge that one of their idols, Ron Asheton, had left us.

Kerry Kennedy at Rose Bar, 1/21/09 – the noir chanteuse was at the absolute top of her game as quietly resilient siren and southwestern gothic bandleader.

Paul Wallfisch and Larkin Grimm at Small Beast at the Delancey, 4/9/09 – the Botanica frontman (who books Small Beast) turned in a typically fiery set, followed by the avant-chanteuse who battled and finally lashed out at a crowd of clueless yuppie puppies who just didn’t get what the show was all about.

Kotorino at Pete’s Candy Store, 4/13/09 – the quietly multistylistic, gypsyish band filled the place on a Monday night and kept the crowd riveted as they all switched instruments and flipped the script over and over.

The New Collisions at Arlene’s, 4/23/09 – Boston’s best new band blazed through an early 80s inflected set of edgy powerpop.

Paul Wallfisch, the Ulrich-Ziegler Duo and McGinty and White at Small Beast at the Delancey, 4/23/09 – after Wallfisch had set the tone for the night, Big Lazy’s Steve Ulrich and Pink Noise’s Itamar Ziegler played hypnotic, macabre guitar soundscapes followed by the ferociously lyrical retro 60s chamber pop of Joe McGinty and Ward White.

The American String Quartet playing Irving Fine and Robert Sirota’s Triptych at Bargemusic, 4/26/09 – a sinister ride through one of the leading lights of the 1950s avant garde followed by a haunting, intense performance of contemporary composer Sirota’s 9/11 suite.

Paul Wallfisch, Vera Beren’s Gothic Chamber Blues Ensemble, Spottiswoode and Steve Wynn at Small Beast at the Delancey, 4/30/09 – after Wallfisch got the night started, Beren roared and scorched her way through a pummeling, macabre set. Then Spottiswoode impressed with a subtle set of nocturnes, setting the stage for Wynn, playing together with his friend and ex-lead guitarist Chris Brokaw for the first time in several years, a feast of swirling, otherworldly guitar overtones.

The Friggs and the Chrome Cranks at Santos Party House, 5/8/09 – a triumphant return for the popular 90s garage girl rockers followed by the equally triumphant, reinvigorated, snarling sonic attack of another one of NYC’s best bands of the 90s.

The French Exit at Local 269, 5/13/09 – NYC’s best new dark rockers playing one of their first shows as a four-piece, rich with reverb, tersely incisive piano, haunting vocals and defiant lyricism.

Chicha Libre on the Rocks Off Concert Cruise Boat, 5/15/09 – definitely the best party of the year that we were party to, a swaying excursion through psychedelic, surfy cumbia music, past and present.

Paul Wallfisch, Darren Gaines & the Key Party and Alice Texas at Small Beast at the Delancey, 6/4/09 – Wallfisch kicked it off, Gaines and a stripped-down trio impressed with gutter-poet, Lou Reed/Tom Waits rock and then Alice Texas turned in a swirling, incandescent, gently assaultive show that reminded how much we miss Tonic, the club where she used to play before it was torn down t0 put up plastic luxury condos.

Paul Wallfisch, Marni Rice and the Snow at Small Beast at the Delancey, 6/22/09 – another Wallfisch night, this one featuring the great LES accordionist/chanteuse/cabaret scholar and then Pierre de Gaillande’s clever, haunting art-r0ck crew.

Ian Hunter at Rockefeller Park, 6/24/09 – the former Mott the Hoople frontman, at age 70, has simply never written, played, or sung better. This show was a real revelation.

Daniel Bernstein at Sidewalk, 7/9/09 – the underground songwriter/lyricist/tunesmith casually burned through one haunting, haunted, ridiculously catchy tune after another.

Randi Russo and the Oxygen Ponies at the Saltmines, 7/10/09 - another haunting show opened with the absolute master of the outsider anthem, who did double duty playing in Paul Megna’s equally dark, intense, lyrical indie band.

The Main Squeeze Accordion Festival: Musette Explosion, Suspenso del Norte, Hector Del Curto’s Eternal Tango Quintet, the Main Squeeze Orchestra, Roberto Cassan and John Munatore, Liony Parra y la Mega Mafia Tipica and Peter Stan at Pier One, 7/11/09 – squeezebox heaven.

Amir ElSaffar’s Two Rivers Ensemble and the Dave Brubeck Quartet at Damrosch Park, 8/5/09 – cutting-edge Middle Eastern-inflected jazz followed by one of the great ones, undiminished and still inventive at 89.

Jenifer Jackson at Rockwood Music Hall, 11/19/09 – the panstylistic rock goddess played several good New York shows this past year, but this one with Matt Kanelos on piano and glockenspiel and Billy Doughty on drums and melodica was pure transcendence.

Carol Lipnik, Bonfire Madigan, Rachelle Garniez, Vera Beren’s Gothic Chamber Blues Ensemble and McGinty and White at Small Beast at the Delancey, 11/23/09 – what seems at this point to be the single best show of the year (if only because it’s the most recent one on the list) matched Lipnik’s phantasmagoria to Madigan’s equally artful chamber pop, Garniez’ irresistible charisma and ferocity, Beren’s contralto classical punk assault and then Ward White took over where the sirens had been and sang what could have been his best show ever.

222

Em homenagem ao 88° aniversário de Dave Brubeck, o Marcos Borelli Quartet apresenta na próxima quarta-feira, dia 02 de dezembro, músicas do seu disco mais conhecido, Time Out.

Gravado há exatos 50 anos, em 1959, Time Out foi o primeiro disco de jazz a vender mais de um milhão de cópias, com sucessos como Blue Rondo a la Turk e Take Five. Neste disco, Dave Brubeck quebra com o tradicinal compasso 4/4 e usa métricas impares, não convencionais no jazz.

Marcos Borelli Quartet é formado por Marcos Borelli – piano, Caiti Hauck – contrabaixo, Chico Filho – sax, Tiago – bateria.

Dia 02 de dezembro de 2009, a partir de 22h, no All of Jazz.

By Don Heckman

Los Angeles

Bob Mintzer

- Nov. 24. (Tues.)  Bob Mintzer’s Big Band.  Mintzer’s a high visibility saxophonist with the Yellowjackets, but he’s also a first rate big band arranger and composer.  All those skills will be on display in this rare appearance with a full ensemble.  Vibrato Grill Jazz…etc. (310) 474-9400.

- Nov. 24. (Tues.)  John Pisano.  “Brazil Night” — with Federico Ramos, guitar, Jose Marino, bass, Enzo Todesco, drums — offers an entertaining variation on Pisano’s weekly Guitar Night programs.  Spazio. (818) 728-8400.

- Nov. 24. (Tues.)  Jon Mayer Trio and Pete Christlieb.  Pianist Mayer and saxophonist Christlieb are stellar members of the Southland’s world class array of jazz artists.  They perform with Chris Connor, bass, Roy McCurdy, drums.  Charlie O’s. (818) 989-3110.

April Williams

- Nov. 25. (Wed.)  April Williams & Friends.  “The Night Before Thanksgiving Hang” – a laid-back evening of briskly swinging jazz to kick off the holiday weekend.  With April Williams, vocals, Andy Langham, piano, Dave Stone, bass, Don Williams, drums and Bob Sheppard, reeds. Upstairs at Vitellos.   (818) 769-0905.

- Nov. 25. (Wed.)  The Banda Brothers. Latin jazz meets Thanksgiving at the Brothers’ 10^th Annual Turkey Bash. Steamers. (714) 871-8800.

- Nov. 27 & 28. (Fri. & Sat.)  Jack Sheldon Big Band.  Sheldon celebrates his birthday with an evening of his inimitable trumpet and vocals, backed by his swinging collection of big band all-stars.  Catalina Bar & Grill (323) 466-2210.

- Nov. 28. (Sat.)  Dr. Richard Allen Williams Quintet.  A physician and a college professor, Williams nonetheless finds time to play the trumpet with probing musical inventiveness. (818) 728-8400.  Spazio.

- Nov. 29. (Sun.)  Alan Broadbent and Pat Senatore Duo. Broadbent’s piano playing, with its rich compositional foundation and lyrical touch blend superbly with the steady foundation and solid swing of bassist Senatore.  Vibrato Grill Jazz…etc. (310) 474-9400.

San Francisco

Tuck & Patti

- Nov. 27 – 29. (Fri. – Sun.)  Joe Sample and Lalah Hathaway. The veteran pianist and founder of the Jazz Crusaders reaches across the generations to musically blend with singer/songwriter (and daughter of Donny Hathaway) Lalah Hathaway. Yoshi’s Oakland.   (510) 238-9200.

- Nov. 27 – 29. (Fri. – Sun.)  Tuck & Patti. The guitar and vocal duo’s deep musical intimacy has been producing irresistible sounds for decades. Yoshi’s  San Francisco.  (415) 655-5600.

- Nov. 27 -  29.  (Fri. – Sun.)  Loretta Devine:” Night Devine.” One of the original stars of Dreamgirls, Devine’s acting career has embraced a wide array of films (among them, Waiting To Exhale, Crash) and television roles (including Grey’s Anatomy and Boston Public).  Here’s a rare chance to hear this dynaimc singer in an up close club setting.   The Rrazz Room at the Hotel Nikko.  (415) 394-1189.

New York

- Nov. 24. (Tues.)  Terese Genecco and Her Little Big Band.  Genecco’s quest to keep the jaunty rhythms of swing alive is enhanced by the guest star presence of veteran trumpeter Lew Soloff.  Iridium.   (212) 582.2121.

- Nov. 24 – 28. (Tues. – Sat.)  The New York Voices celebrate their 20^th anniversary with a collection of lush vocal harmonies and upbeat swing.  Birdland.   (212) 581-3080.

Renee Rosnes

- Nov. 24 – 29. (Tues. – Sun.)  Renee Rosnes Quartet. A musicians’ musician, pianist Rosnes has played with almost everybody over the past twenty years.  But she still doesn’t receive the acknowledgement her impressive talents deserve  She performs with Jimmy Green, sax, Sean Smith, bass, Lewis Nash, drums.  Village Vanguard.  (212) 255-4037.

- Nov. 24, 25 and 26 – 29. (Tues, Wed. and Fri. – Sun.)  Maria Schneider Orchestra. Schneider’s compositions continue to expand the palette of the large jazz ensemble, and they’re performed by an A-list musical aggregation.  The Jazz Standard.  (212) 447-7733.

Dave Brubeck

- Nov. 24 – 28. (Tues. – Sat.) Bucky Pizzarelli/Ken Peplowski Quintet.  Mainsream jazz at its best, with the master of the seven string guitar and the guy who’s helping keep the jazz clarinet alive.  Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola.  (212) 258-9595.

- Nov. 27 – 29. (Fri. – Sun.)  Dave Brubeck Quartet. A rare opportunity to hear one of jazz’s iconic figures, in action in a club setting.  The Blue Note.   (212) 475-8592.

Walk downtown. Enjoy the beautiful Fall weather.

Eat lunch. Walk to local bookstore to browse in a leisurely fashion. Proceed to the library. Check out books on CD for upcoming road trip to Philadelphia. Move on to coffee shop in the Memorial Union. Purchase caramel latte. Sip on latte as you read in a room that looks like this:

Spend the next few hours reading Oliver Twist in comfortable armchair while your spouse alternately reads and dozes in the armchair next to yours. Listen to the faint sounds of Dave Brubeck coming from the coffee shop down the hallway.

Walk home as the sun sets. Spend the rest of your evening reading. Try not to think about going back to work on Monday morning where, unfortunately, you do not get paid to read Oliver Twist.

Anwesende: Thomas

Motto: “2012 ist JETZT!”

Das hat heute mit einer Weltuntergangsstimmung begonnen….. aber 2012 geht ja eh die Welt unter! Und das ist HEUTE, wenn wir uns verrechnet hätten!

DOWNLOAD/STREAM

Musik von: John Coltrane, Hugh Masekela, mElek Bacsik, Count Basie, Yusef lateef, Dave Brubeck, Pink Turtle, Elder Richard Byrant’s Sanct. Singers, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Chet Baker & Stan Getz

I sat three feet away from Dave Brubeck as he played a rare club show in Minnesota at The Dakota.  Dave turns 89 in December;  you see every year and long road weary mile on his gnarled hands and frail posture as he shuffles with assistance to the piano. But once he starts playing, he’s transformed into fluid movement, sound and joy.  Yes,  that sounds corny as hell,  but I know what I saw, and it was a mystical, powerful experience.

Maybe part of the magic of that concert  came from the fact that everyone in the venue, including Dave Brubeck and his Band knew that he won’t be here much longer, but there he sat, defying death and all the gloom and doom that comes with it,  gently coaxing endless melodies out of all 88 keys.  He plays with the spirit of a child and the knowledge of the most season veteran in jazz.  It made me want to embrace life,  quit living like it’s over.  Like Dave, I should spend more time playing,  less time moping.

Remember what that great 20th century philosopher Groucho Marx said,  “Time Wounds all Heels.”

“Take Five” is a jazz piece written by Paul Desmond and performed by The Dave Brubeck Quartet on their 1959 album Time Out. Many think that the piece was written by Dave Brubeck because it was performed by his quartet. Recorded at Columbia’s 30th Street Studios in New York City on June 25, July 1, and August 18, 1959, this piece became one of the group’s best-known records, famous for its distinctive, catchy saxophone melody and use of the unusual quintuple (5/4) time, from which its name is derived. While “Take Five” was not the first jazz composition to use this meter, it was one of the first in the United States to achieve mainstream significance, reaching number five on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary Singles chart.

“Take Five” was re-recorded and performed live multiple times by The Dave Brubeck Quartet throughout the group’s career. In addition, there have been various covers of the piece, including one by Swedish singer Monica Zetterlund in 1962 and a dub version by King Tubby, released posthumously in 2002. Some versions also feature lyrics, including a 1961 recording with lyrics written by Dave Brubeck and his wife Iola, sung by Carmen McRae. “Take Five” has also been included in countless movies and television soundtracks, and still receives significant radio play.

Upon his death in 1977, Desmond left the rights to royalties for performances and compositions, including “Take Five”, to the American Red Cross, which has since received combined royalties of approximately $100,000 per year.

This week’s song list are all tunes that remind me of my mom.  The only problem is that I’m trying to stick to five.  Oh, well.  I can always do another list some other time and I’m pretty sure the sky won’t fall!

1. “Walk the Line” – Johnny Cash -  My mom likes to sing the lyrics on this one as “I keep my pants up with a piece of twine… Because your mine, I pull the twine!”
2. “Lorelei” – The Pogues - My mom and I drove my sister to Grand Forks for college.  On the way back there was a lot of rain and only one cassette in the car.  This tape was The Pogues’ Essential.  My mom heard it so much that she could sing along to this song by the trip’s end.
3. “Take Five” – Dave Brubeck -  My dad owns a bunch of records but this was one that my mom brought into the marriage.  This song is my favorite on the album.  A friend commented on how good it was and when I told him that my mom introduced me to it he was flabbergasted.  Mom’s aren’t supposed to like music that is this cool, I guess.
4. “Moon River” – Henry Mancini -  I have a copy of the Breakfast at Tiffany’s record.  I’m surprised I don’t have more.  My dad knew that this was one of my mom’s favorites and I remember talking him out of buying several copies.  His argument was always “this one is in better condition!”  I remember my mom singing along to this one, too.
5. “Cotton Jenny” – Gordon Lightfoot -  I could have picked any Gordon song because my mom knows all the words.  My mom and sister broke out in song after the Lightfoot concert and this is the song they sang.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

While one expects that Dave Brubeck and his quartet would sell out multiple performances at The Dakota Jazz Club after performing for 58 years on the world’s music stages, that the legendary pianist still has it going on musically may be assumed, subject to verification. Seeing, and hearing, confirmed the faith of Twin Cities fans gathered in Minneapolis, Nov. 4, for the last of six shows over three evenings.

Holding court at the Dakota’s Steinway, the 89-year-old Brubeck made playing with one hand sound like three or four, as he did in a solo containing echoes of “Sweet Georgia Brown” that morphed into interludes for bassist Michael Moore and drummer Randy Jones. This followed an opening mix featuring solos for Moore and saxophonist Bobby Militello.

Each piece mesmerized more than the last in a set that continued without interruption for nearly 100 minutes. “Over the Rainbow” opened with Brubeck on keyboard, gave way to a transcendant flute rendition by Militello, and closed with piano and flute together. In Brubeck’s “Dziekuje,” composed during a 1958 tour of Poland, the opening homage to Chopin evolved into a wailing sax before resolving to a finish by the group.

For an aficianado of jazz music and dance, the quartet’s concluding, 2009 version of “Take Five” missed only one element: the presence of the jazz choreographer Danny Buraczeski, who created the definitive dance expression of Brubeck’s classic in his 1980 work “Fission.”

A boisterous and affectionate applause brought Brubeck back for whimsical solo encores, beginning with “I’m tired and I wanna go home.” The audience – whose members included the Minnesota Orchestra’s Osmo Vänskä, the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra’s Bill Schrickel, and veteran arts administrator Jon Lewis –  then joined in to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and to hum along with “Lullabye.”

In a verbal valedictory, Brubeck said, “I always enjoy our concerts here, and I hope to see you all again sometime.”

Brubeck will be presented with a Kennedy Center Honors medallion at a Dec. 5 dinner hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The other honorees will include the soprano/mezzo-soprano Grace Bumbry and rock-and-roll artist Bruce Springsteen, both of whom have performed in the Twin Cities in recent years. President Obama will host a White House reception for the honorees on Dec. 6, before the telecast gala from the Kennedy Center.

Performers at The Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant in coming months will include Herb Alpert and Lani Hall, Nov. 10-11; The Bad Plus, Dec. 25-27; Mark O’Connor, Jan. 20; and Ahmad Jamal, late Feb.

Dave Brubeck – Thank You (Chopin Tribute)

Welcome to the JAZZ MUSICIANS’ HELPLINE!  Your call is important to us so please use the following menu system to shorten your wait:

If you are a bandleader wishing to know your opinion of yourself, press 1.

 
If you are a tuba/sousaphone player in a ‘classic’ jazz band inquiring which beats you will be expected to play on, press 1 and 3.

 
If you are a drummer wanting to know on which beats to press your hi-hat pedal, press 2 and 4 – regularly spaced if you can manage it.

 
If you are a banjo player inquiring about how many strings to buy for a complete re-stringing of your instrument, press 4.

 
If you are old enough to remember Dave Brubeck  press 5 then 4.

If you are an agent wanting to know how much commission to charge, press 15.  Or 20. Or 25. Or whatever number you fancy.

 
If you want to know the REAL length in minutes of a jazz musician’s ‘15-minute break’ enter any number in excess of 45.

 
If you are at a cultural crossroads between jazz and rhythm & blues and can’t decide which Route to take, press 66.

 
If you are over 60 and always forget to play the coda, press RECALL.

If you wish to express your opinion of what your bandleader makes of gig arrangements, press HASH.

If you are a bebop tenor player press as many keys as fast as you can for 20 minutes or more or until the room is empty, whichever comes first.

A jazz musician friend sent this & we got a real kick out of it!

There’s never a shortage of great, even amazing live music in NYC. With the weather getting colder and colder, there’s less street performers around, but they still are there, just like the bed saleswoman, director, blogger, non-thinking salesman, and architect, they all need to make a living. The question is, “Do they?”

When I was at Arlene’s Grocery and heard The Band of Thieves, I was amazed at how damn good they were. Their hooks, guitar, drums…harmony were not meant for a basement bar, albeit a great one, but some pop culture Top 10 videos of the week TV show. When Jazz bands take over Central park or Washington Square park, I wonder…how great are their tips? Is this even their full-time job? I’ll go as far as to say that being a famous, successful (and wealthy) musician is as difficult as it is to be a professional athlete. Probability: 1 – … million?. But why are hedge funds, banks, and retail stores looking for musicians?

Granted, many upon many musicians are quite successful without being well-known household names and/or wealthy. When I mentioned Dave Brubeck to a friend, he wasn’t sure what I was talking about, thought he was an actor. How many have heard of Wynton Marsalis? Too many people watch VH1, MTV and BET for the latest and best, but what about the other ones? Where did they go? And how will I ever know that the woman in the park makes a living with her passion. I don’t know… But I do know there’s too much great music in New York City to pass up. Dylan, Ramones, Talking Heads, Blues Traveler all made a stops to NYC (some where from here), and I’m sure they once played in a park or on a corner…don’t cover your ears or be that fast walking ignore-the-world New Yorker all the time. Please.

Here’s a video of a woman playing in Union Square – BTW there’s a guy to the left taking a video of her ass… and I thought it was her voice that kept him there…

The author listens to a Norah Jones pirate song and contemplates the impending death of the universe.

I rushed to a computer to check the ticket situation and call my man Adam. Since Adam had taken me to see Costello (backed by the Minnesota Orchestra), I figured it was time to repay the favor. After a brief hesitation over his busy schedule, he agreed to go in for whatever available show. As the cheerleaders say: Bring it on!

But tickets appear to be sold out, except for maybe some Monday night for Dakota Jazz Club members. Is it worth a membership to snag tickets? I call the club but there’s no answer. The box office open doesn’t appear to be open Sundays. I dither. I debate. I decide to become a member for an UNGODLY amount of money, because that’s how bad I want these tickets. I buy my membership, click back on the Brubeck tickets, but nothing has changed. No tickets available for me. I call the Dakota again. This time someone picks up. “Sorry, Brubeck is all sold out.” Even for us preferred members. “Yea, everything’s sold out. Sorry.”

Wow. Way to bet the barn on that one, tiger. The same teetotaler who won’t spend $5 in slots at Atlantic City just wagered a week’s pay to gain access to Brubeck tickets. Being that I would have had to drive four hours to the cities straight after work, and hop on caffeine for the drive home straight after, this wasn’t the wisest plan in the first place. It seems I’m essentially as dumb as I was at 22, only with more expensive tastes. Like my friend Doc in Jersey once said: you’ve got a great heart, Joe, just not much of a head.

I also was rejected from the Washington Post’s pundit contest this week. Apparently my copy was did not compare to that of the Nobel physicists and former cabinet employees that were chosen. Really the only thing keeping me afloat right now is a Norah Jones pirate song/video. And that, my friends, means I’m on very thin ice.

Anyways, if anybody wants to check out some shows at the Dakota this year, we’ve got some great VIP access. As long they aren’t sold out.

Your comrade in the revolution of Love and Truth,

J.A.O.

Following in the tradition of Julie Andrews, Jim Brickman and the Dave Brubeck  Quartet, Disney Records has released a new collection of its classic movie tunes, this time performed by…Los Lobos? That’s right everybody. The guys from East L.A. are bringing “un poco del alma Latina” (a bit of Latin soul) to Disney.

(L to R: Los Lobos’ Cesar Rosas, Dopey, Snow White and Sneezy)

Since 1973, Los Lobos has combined rock, soul and traditional Spanish and Mexican music into a sound that has sold millions of records and won three Grammys. On the album, “Los Lobos Goes Disney” (released Oct 26, 2009), the group doesn’t change a thing. The song, “Heigh-Ho,” from the Disney classic animated film, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” is a standout.

Listen to the song here

The song kicks off with noisy, banging guitars and drums that settle into a rocking norteño-style groove. With appropriate Disney flourish, the “Heigh-Ho” singers begin alternating low and high “heigh-hos.”

Here are the lyrics:

First Verse
“Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, la hora ya llegó (The time has arrived.)
Whistles…heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-ho
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, la casa vuelvo yo (I go back home.)
Whistles…heigh-ho, heigh-ho

Second Verse
“Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, la casa vuelvo yo (I go back home.)
Whistles…heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-ho
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, el día ya acabo (The day is over.)
Whistles…heigh-ho, heigh-ho

The end of the song is even more hardcore than the beginning, complete with a chaotic drum roll, as if to say, “hell yeah” – but in a nice way for the kids.

By the way, if your kids can’t get enough of Los Lobos after listening to “Los Lobos Goes Disney,” the group made a children’s album with Lalo Guerrero called, “Papa’s Dream” (1995). They’re also on the soundtrack of the movie, “Spy Kids,” and they play the theme song to Disney’s “Handy Manny” TV show.

Also, see a replay of Los Lobos’ performance on Oct. 18, 2009, at the White House’s Fiesta Latina, a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoagkxrPshU

Los Lobos’ Web sites include www.loslobos.org and www.myspace.com/loslobos. Los Lobos also has a fan page on Facebook.

Sources: www.loslobos.org (band page), www.myspace.com/loslobos (Los Lobos Goes Disney Press Release, Oct. 15, 2009), www.latinheat.com/news (Valderrama Voices Handy Manny New Disney Channel Series, July 12, 2006), www.tracksounds.com/reviews/spykids.htm and iTunes (Disney search).

Special Thanks
¡Muchas gracias to friends Milagros Heeter and Kelly Knipe for contributing their Spanish-language skills to this review!

Second and Third Favorite Songs This Week: 2. Devendra Banhart – “Angelika” from the album, “What Will We Be” (Folk Rock) and 3. Devendra Banhart – “Can’t Help But Smiling” from the album, “What Will We Be” (Folk Rock)

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Declared a Living Legend by the Library of Congress, jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck will be capping off a banner year in his extraordinary career with a three-night run of six shows (8 p.m. & 10:30 p.m.) at New York’s Blue Note on November 27-29 and being honored at the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors in Washington on December 6, the artist’s 89th birthday. The 32nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors Gala Program will be broadcast on CBS television on December 29, 2009 at 9:00-11:00 p.m. (ET/PT).

Dave Brubeck’s 1959 album Time Out is one of the landmark recordings in jazz history. For that reason alone, the 50^th anniversary of its release merits celebration. But, on a larger scale, Time Out represents a major development within American culture, one that was crucial to inducing the seismic shifts to occur in our country during the tumultuous 1960s that followed. While it is likely that such shifts would have occurred anyway, with or without Brubeck’s contributions, a strong case can be made that his group, and its most important work, helped accelerate progress on several fronts, advancing the cause of racial harmony while opening the door for later musical innovations.

It is further worth noting that Brubeck’s achievements represent, to a surprising degree, a triumph of conservative values: faith, family, hard work and self-reliance. His ideological compass has always remained pointed toward the California ranchlands of his youth—the kind of environment that was later famously embraced by President Reagan, who fully understood the symbolic value of his years of public brush-clearing and horse-riding. Reagan’s retreats to the ranch implied a desire to escape the Beltway’s rarefied air and reorient himself to the pioneer spirit which drove America’s development in its first century of existence. The simple beauty of such areas communicates an austere dignity that would surely impart perspective on the serious issues all Presidents must grapple with, and so it is make perfect sense that men as different in personality as George W. Bush, Richard Nixon and Teddy Roosevelt would embrace them.

For most of his early life—from childhood, through his years in the US Army and as a music student at Oberlin College—Brubeck existed firmly within the Tradition. Had he not caught the jazz bug early on, he might have ended up as a concert pianist working with symphony orchestras, or a composer of string quartets. He did eventually do a lot of work in these areas, but it was the worldwide acclaim earned as a jazzman that gave him the freedom to expand his musical horizons. Indeed, if his legacy could be summed up in one word, despite all his formalistic trappings, it would be “freedom”.

This legacy of freedom is being celebrated by Columbia Records, which recently reissued Time Out in a special three-disc package, on occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the album’s original release. Suffice to say that, if you have never heard this music, then you owe yourself the pleasure of doing so; likewise, people for whom this music is old hat will still find value in its enhanced sound quality and the wealth of bonus material, including photos, performance footage and eight songs recorded live at the Newport Jazz Festival between 1961-64. The highlight is an interactive tutorial in which Brubeck, now 89 years old, talks viewers through the melodies as he plays them.

The point of Time Out was to break out of the creative restrictions imposed on the jazz musician by strict adherence to the steady 4/4 beat that had characterized jazz since it first emerged from turn-of-century New Orleans. For the first 30 years of recorded jazz, that beat was maintained by the bass drum, replicating its role in the standard marching band, whose cadences and instrumentation were the basis of jazz early bands. Drummers of the 1940s New York scene, led by Kenny Clarke and Max Roach, shifted the burden of time-keeping from bass drum to the ride cymbal, which opened up the sound and set the standard for what modern jazz would sound like. (The upright bass, adapted from symphonic orchestras, evolved to replace the tuba as a rhythm instrument early on, and typically reinforced the 4/4 beat; its time-keeping role expanded in modern jazz, as the drummers went further beyond the beat, leaving its reiteration to the bassist.) By the early 1950s, all instrumentalists had unprecedented creative freedom in jazz, and the race to find the next great innovation was as competitive as the Space Race.

The introduction of long-playing (LP) records in 1948 quadrupled the amount of time available on an individual record, opened up song structures and brought a vaster range of material to the marketplace. Traditional American musical forms—jazz, blues, gospel, folk—predominated; rock was growing commercially, but did not become a creative force to rival the others until 1964.

The singer Ian Svenonius noted years back that the largest jazz groups are only a quarter the size of symphony orchestras, which are roughly 100 people; Swing Era bands could be half that size, while modern jazz groups of the ‘40s and beyond are usually between three and six people. Today, many artists do huge business as solo acts. Prince, for example, played all 27 instruments on his debut album and for years only used his bands for performances. Computers allow many pop singers and rappers to make albums without using any actual instruments at all.

Traditional European and early American music is labeled with the catch-all term of “classical” largely because of our nation’s record stores. It doesn’t seem to rankle so badly as certain artists who reject the idea of “jazz” as an organizational concept, maybe because the LP ensured that such music would remain in circulation as the country went more toward smaller (and logistically cheaper) groups. Most Americans today would know nothing of classical music if not for LPs and their CD reissues, particularly of the versions recorded in the 1950s and ‘60s. Likewise, although one can see top-notch jazz music anywhere in the world most nights, the closest that most jazz fans can usually get to experiencing serious big-band stuff is CD, or the occasional festival.

Brubeck, who studied with Darius Milhaud at Oberlin, did the industry a favor by wearing his classical affinities on his cuff-linked sleeve. His grounding in that tradition was the impetus to bust out of the 4/4. Max Roach had recorded an entire album, Jazz In ¾ Time, in 1957, and several songs on Time Out are rooted in ¾, as well as the standard 4/4. “Three to Get Ready” is in 3/4 and 4/4. “Kathy’s Waltz” starts in 4/4, then goes into 3/8, while “Blue Rondo ala Turk” starts in 9/8, with Desmond’s solo in 4/4.

Other tracks switch-up the rhythms more explicitly. “Everybody’s Jumpin’” and “Pick Up Sticks” are in 6/4. “Take Five” stays in 5/4 over its five-plus minutes, with Morello’s drum solo the definitive explication of that beat. “Strange Meadowlark” opens with a Brubeck solo running over two minutes with no set time whatsoever—a nod, perhaps, to the nascent free-jazz scene, or to Lennie Tristano, whose solo recordings “Spontaneous Combustion”, “Requiem” and “Turkish Mambo” anticipated much of this.

Take Five has no shortage of highlights, staring with “Take Five”, which is simply one of the greatest songs ever recorded. A masterpiece of dramatic tension, it was an instant classic when released as a single, becoming the first million-seller in jazz history; the album itself would soon follow. To this day, media references “Take Five” to invoke feelings of class and sophistication; it was famously used to launch Infiniti automobiles in America, with cool narration by British actor Jonathan Pryce.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet functioned as a unified whole, working together 16 years, yet each member has distinguished himself as a master of his own instrument. Bassist Eugene Wright is easily overlooked, as he played with little flash and almost no solos, but a close listen reveals how crucial his work was. He kept the group’s forward-reaching sound rooted in the fundamentals, which he learned from the best in hot spots like Kansas City and his native Chicago. Together, Wright and drummer Joe Morello comprised one of the all-time greatest rhythmic tandems, easily ranking up there with such towering twins as Walter Page and Jo Jones (Count Basie); Jimmy Blanton and Sonny Greer (Duke Ellington); Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones (Miles) Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones (Coltrane); Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins (Coleman); Mingus and Dannie Richmond; Scott Lafaro and Paul Motian (Bill Evans).

Naturally, a record built around rhythmic complexity puts special pressure on the drummer, and Morello attained legend status with his work on Time Out. His brush-work on “Everybody’s Jumpin’” anchors a brilliant piece that holds up just fine against its adjacents. “Take Five” is one of the rare examples of a major pop hit built around a drum solo; the other notable case would be “Sing Sing Sing”, an epochal Swing Era anthem by Benny Goodman (and a star-making vehicle for drummer Gene Krupa), recorded in 1937. Like Desmond’s earlier on the same track, musicians and students know their solos better than some know their best friends.

As for the leader himself, Brubeck’s playing is spare but efficient, each note pressed for maximum resonance. His solo on “Kathy’s Waltz” is strictly old-school, with hints of Ragtime, while those on “Three to Get Ready” and “Everybody’s Jumpin’” sound downright modernistic, with overt references to future label-mate Monk.

Ultimately, the real star of the album is alto saxophonist Paul Desmond (1924-1977), a fellow Californian whose musical partnership with Brubeck lasted over 30 years. His sound, which typically enters after a few bars’ introduction by Brubeck, dominates the quartet’s output. Desmond is often dismissed by purists for a coolness of tone that can sometimes border on the antiseptic, but the quiet intensity of his playing can be lost on ears trained to listen for strain, sweat and other signifiers of serious effect. If Desmond’s style sounds effortless, it is only because of rigorous practice. After his death, the author of “Take Five” left his split of royalties to the American Red Cross, which receives annual royalties in the low six figures.

1959 was a year of explosive growth in jazz, and Time Out was just one of at least three major events that year. Columbia also issued Miles Davis’ seminal Kind of Blue, which marked the emergence of a new approach to harmony based on modal scales; this gave the soloist—Davis himself, most notably, as well as collaborator Bill Evans—access to unprecedented emotional range, a major factor in the current perception of jazz as a “romantic” music. Due to the constant reissues over the decades, the prevalence of bootlegging and the pervasiveness of digital downloading, it may be impossible to determine which of these is, in fact, the most successful jazz album of all time; yet both helped shift the business model firmly toward the LP, which had only been around for about a decade at that point.

John Coltrane, who spent five years in Davis’ group, played on Kind of Blue, but his sideman work was soon eclipsed by the Atlantic Records release Giant Steps. After years of rigorous experimentation, 1959 saw the emergence of Coltrane’s mature sound, and he would go on to be, arguably, the last true giant of jazz music, a figure whose very name still inspires devotion that borders on the religious, over 40 years after his death. On the surface, it would be impossible to find two more different men, in terms of tone, technique and temperament, than Coltrane and Paul Desmond—but at the intersection of their styles, as heard on these three albums, one hears the future.

1959 also included major works by Ornette Coleman, who along with Coltrane helped bring Free Jazz to fruition, and Charles Mingus, who recorded three brilliant albums for Atlantic that year. Max Roach had already been first to record pianoless groups, and among the first to openly lobby for civil rights through his music; and Thelonious Monk, whose rhythmic and harmonic innovations made him, in essence, the father of modern jazz. The fact that all these men, with volatile personalities and deep-set musical tastes, all gave respect to Brubeck speaks to his chops and credibility.

Brubeck is rightfully lionized by the left for his role in helping to shape a world defined by JFK’s “New Frontier” and Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society”. In generational terms, the Baby Boomers’ collective self-definition is rooted in the 1960s, for better and for worse, and jazz artists like Brubeck, Coltrane and Davis are thus regarded almost as highly as the rock bands that would ultimately dominate the American music scene.

 The primary beneficiary of the commercial growth of jazz music was the African-American community, which got its first taste of the free market and was soon able to alter the widespread perceptions of the white majority, and ultimately obliterate many vestiges of racial prejudice in this country. Jazz was the wedge that forced integration; as more and more of the top draws—Goodman, Krupa, Artie Shaw—integrated, and others insisted on playing for integrated audiences, bigotry took a backseat to box-office. By the time of Time Out, integrated bands weren’t exactly commonplace in the US, but they were hardly unusual. Norman Granz’ “Jazz At the Philharmonic”, for example, toured the country with all-stars of all races.

The other major beneficiary of jazz music’s global presence was the United States government, which quickly recognized the value of a uniquely American cultural export. Brubeck, who served briefly under Patton in the Army, would become a front-line soldier in a war of ideas, spreading his vision of musical and personal freedom around the world, often directly in collaboration with the State Department.

The arrival of Louis Armstrong in Europe in 1927 basically introduced jazz to the world; a handful of devoted critics and musicians had imported stacks of jazz records from New York for distribution in London and Paris. By the time Duke Ellington’s band made the same trip, in 1932, jazz had become its own cottage industry, with magazine and radio shows catering to the market, as well as the first generation of European jazz musicians. For the first time, America had a cultural product to compete with Europe, and in this realm we remained well ahead.

The assault on jazz by totalitarian regimes—first the Nazis, then the Soviet Union—only enhanced its appeal to youth across Europe, many of whom risked death to continue playing such music. By this point, the old world had produced its own masters like guitarist Django Reinhardt, while American musicians like Benny Carter and Sidney Bechet had emigrated (not unlike the Japanese who brought judo to the west). World War II brought hundreds of current and future jazzmen into Europe and Asia, either as combat troops or in some musical capacity. The music of the war years deserves its own category in the lineage, but by decade’s end American jazz had become the new music of choice not only throughout Europe, but also in Japan.

Like rock and rap, which came along later, jazz began as an indigenous form of expression within the minority community, then “crossed-over” to become the primary vehicle of white rebellion—a means of drawing cultural lines between generations. Jazz was viciously attacked by the mainstream in the 1920s and ‘30s; such criticisms read now as time-capsule pieces of hyperbolic calumny. By the 1950s, the US State Department saw fit to give jazz its ultimate stamp of legitimacy by backing some leading musicians on international tours conceived as propaganda for post-war America. It was a textbook example of how “soft power” worked in the nascent Cold War.

Penny Von Eschen’s excellent 2002 book Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War (Harvard University Press) offers a definitive look at the program, organized in 1955 by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and US Rep Adam Clayton Powell (D-NY), whose district encompassed the epicenter of modern jazz. Dizzy Gillespie’s second great big band took the first trip in March 1956, covering parts of Europe, Asia and the Middle East. According to the program’s website: “In 1956, 1960 and 1961, Louis Armstrong [toured] Ghana (then the British Gold Coast), Congo, Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, and the United Arab Republic. In 1963, 1970 and 1972, Duke Ellington toured the Soviet Union, Southeast Asia, and Africa.”

These musicians and others—including Carter, Coleman, Davis, Goodman, Mingus, Charlie Byrd, Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman, Earl Hines, Quincy Jones, Roland Kirk, Gerry Mulligan, Anita O’Day, Oscar Peterson, Clark Terry, Sarah Vaughn and Randy Weston—traveled to the far corners of the musical world before the program ended in 1978. Many such areas were suspicious of western interests, and sometimes openly hostile. George Wein, impresario of the Newport Jazz Festival, was enlisted for logistical support. Brubeck was, of course, a major attraction.

In 1958, his quartet toured Sweden, Turkey, Ceylon, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. Brubeck’s gigs in Poland that year, repeated in 1970, are considered key moments in the spreading of jazz into the Soviet Bloc. Cadres devoted to “improvised music” began sprouting in Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland and Hungary soon after, while at least one major group (the Ganelin Trio) made great jazz in Russia itself. He and Armstrong later collaborated on The Real Ambassadors, a musical and recording based on their experiences, in 1961-62.

The musicians and artists in Eastern Europe (with support from sympathetic parties in the west) drove the engine of progress away from Communism and became totems in the way Charlie Parker was for the Beatniks, or Coltrane was for the Black Power movement. Their records were being smuggled into the West long before the Iron Curtain finally fell, at which point those scenes exploded into the creative powerhouses they are today. When Brubeck and other older jazzmen appear in Europe today, they are held to a similar status as their own native masters.

Japan got its introduction to jazz from occupying American soldiers, and has never lost its taste. As domestic sales of jazz records slumped hard in the 1970s and early ‘80s, the Japanese (typically) provided a vital commercial lifeline, helping to keep it vital long enough for the resurgence driven by CD technology. CDs, of course, were invented by the Japanese, while companies like JVC, Polygram and especially Sony bought up all the major jazz catalogs (Verve, Mercury, Blue Note/Capitol, Columbia) to be reissued in their new format. Every American who values their native culture owes a debt of thanks to those Japanese who rescued all that music from likely extinction.

Leading the way among the reissues that began flooding the market, well past the point of cultural saturation, were Columbia’s valedictorians from the class on ’59, Kind of Blue and Time Out, each of which has been re-released in increasingly completist form at least a half-dozen times (including box sets), while their lead singles, “So What” and “Take Five” have become standards. Both retain almost all of its original freshness and potency, despite three generations of innovation that followed its release. In the case of Time Out, time itself has only burnished the luster of an album dismissed by many top critics upon its release; very few would bother to raise any objection now.

sdh666@hotmail.com

October 9, 2009

Time Out é um álbum de jazz do The Dave Brubeck Quartet, o quarteto que o pianista Dave Brubeck formou ao lado Paul Desmond (Sax), Joe Morello (bateria) e Eugene Wright (contrabaixo).

O álbum data de 1959, e é até hoje um dos mais vendidos da história do jazz, ao lado de clássicos como Kind Of Blue, de Miles Davis.  São 7 faixas: três do Lado A, e quatro do lado B, totalizando 38 minutos de boa música, para não dançar.

E por que uma antivalsa?

Vamos escolher como exemplo a faixa “Take Five”.

Lembra do ritmo da valsa? Um-pá-pá, um-pá-pá. Pode batucar os dedos na mesa, isso dá um 3/4, como naquela música que o Los Hermanos canta, gravada pela Maria Rita (“Casa Pré-fabricada”). O ritmo desta música é um 3/4 duplicado: um 5/4. Quando você pensa que completou o ciclo, a música te engana de leve, suingando, ou melhor dizendo: sincopando. Impossível dançar uma valsa ao som de “Take Five”.

Neste álbum, as coisas não parecem ser como são. Pega outra faixa: “Kathy Waltz” (A Valsa da Kathy). Enquanto a bateria dita um ritmo acelerado (em 2/2), o piano toca levemente, num ritmo que é a metade da velocidade da bateria (mas é um 3/4). Isso atordoa, e mostra que é impossível dançar a Valsa da tal da Kathy.

O compositor e o intérprete: Brubeck (sentado ao piano) e Paul Desmond, compositor de "Take Five".

Em tempo: Dave Brubeck está vivo (!) e prepara um álbum em conjunto com o maestro brasileiro João Carlos Martins.

Abaixo, um vídeo de “Time Out”, para apreciação de antigos e novos fãs de jazz (pronucia-se /ʒas/).

Lucas de Sena Lima

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