Music Group 2021-03-25 and 2021-04-01: Jazz

  Liz

       Sunrise (Angel Bat Dawid Sunset Remix)

Giovanni Russonello wrote the following description of this song in the New York Times, A billowing saxophone melody becomes just one element in a digital swarm in this remix of an Alan Braufman tune by the young multi-instrumentalist and composer Angel Bat Dawid.

  Mike

       Rahsaan Roland Kirk

While my favorite is his version of "Old Rugged Cross", I think it's important so see him in action. Here he is with McCoy Tyner and Stanley Clarke in 1975.

Lewis says: I second that motion! His flute playing influenced Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull).
  Here's some of it. Start at 8:00, watch through 09:07. I was at this concert! Watch what happens from 24:00 through 25:45!!! Sidelight: I played that same piano!

  Bob

       Don Ellis Orchestra: Hank Levy: Chain Reaction

I suggest listening to all nine minutes. Don Ellis modified the traditional "big band" sound by adding an amplified string quartet, employing sax players who all doubled on other woodwinds, adding a second trap-set drummer, utilizing electronics and a 4-valve quarter-tone trumpet, and hiring a Bulgarian piano player (Milcho Leviev) whose first English word was "bull-sheet!" Most of the music is written in odd time signatures. Bob, Mary, Liz, Lewis, and Mike all had either 1 or 2 degree-of-freedom connections to Hank Levy and Don Ellis in the early 1970's.

  Lewis

       Hank Levy: Whiplash

Performed by Hank's Towson State University Jazz Ensemble at the Chesapeake Jazz Festival in 1972. Possibly the first public performance anywhere, as Hank liked to try out new stuff at our jazz festival. Our high school jazz band played it the following year.

Hank wrote in odd time signatures. This one is in 7/8, subdivided into groups of 2,2,3.

The lead trumpet player went on to play lead in the Don Ellis Orchestra, the lead trombone player went on to play in the Stan Kenton Orchestra, and Whiplash itself became featured in a movie of the same name 42 years later! Compare Hank's blazing tempo with that in the trailer at 00:25!

  Deb

       Point of No Return (1993) set to Nina Simone Feeling Good (1965)

             Lyrics

Eunice Waymon, (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned a broad range of musical styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B. She enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. She then applied for a scholarship to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she was denied admission despite a well-received audition, which she attributed to racial discrimination. In 2003, just days before her death, the Institute awarded her an honorary degree.

To make a living, Simone started playing piano at a nightclub in Atlantic City. She changed her name to "Nina Simone" to disguise herself from family members, having chosen to play "the devil's music" or so-called "cocktail piano". She was told in the nightclub that she would have to sing to her own accompaniment, which effectively launched her career as a jazz vocalist.

  Mary

I got curious about the female jazz musicians who weren't vocalists. There are just a few. I was delighted to find a woman who has earned the right to be among jazz's greatest and most prolific composers and performers - Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981).

Mary Lou Williams was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, and LP versions). Williams wrote and arranged for Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. She was a friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell, and Dizzy Gillespie.

In recognition of her contributions to jazz, the Kennedy Center has been hosting the annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival since 1996.

       Roll 'Em — Written by Marry Lou Williams for Benny Goodman

       Mary Lou Williams — Brief Bio

  Leslie

       Roy Hargrove Quintet — Parker's Mood

I love to watch this band play together (which I have only seen in videos) and to see how much they look like they are enjoying it. Until I looked up his bio, I didn't realize that he was so young when he died - 49. This was recorded in 2015, so just a few years before his death. He had been on dialysis for the last 14 years of his life but was still touring and giving his audiences some beautiful music. As he said, "Everything for the gig."

His life and work are also a testament to the importance of good music programs in our schools. As the rest of you may know, he went to a high school for performing arts in Texas and was discovered by Wynton Marsalis.

  Myndall

       Delfeayo Marsalis and his Uptown Jazz Orchestra This is an iPhone video I took in March 2013 of Delfeayo Marsalis and his Uptown Jazz Orchestra at Snug Harbor in New Orleans.

  Keith

       Jamie Younkin

    (Replaced a previous post because you had to log into Facebook to see it, but that post is highly recommended!)

  Larry

       Joe Walsh I've always enjoyed seeing rock bands incorporate jazz into rock music. The jazz interlude in this Joe Walsh song starts at 4:00 minutes in and runs about 2 1/2 minutes.

       Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead borrowed liberally from many musical genres such as folk, country, blues, psychedelic rock, and ... jazz. In this 3/29/1990 concert at Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, NY, the Dead played one of their jazzier songs with Branford Marsalis on sax. What is remarkable about this show is that it was the first time the Dead ever played with Branford Marsalis. It sounds very smooth and polished for a song they never rehearsed together. The first 7:00 minutes of the song is enough to get the gist, but, if you have the time, the entire song is delightful.

Posted for April 1:

  Gary Tannenbaum

Oscar Peterson was a titan in the jazz piano world. Discuss piano jazz with people in the know, and his name is one of the first to pop up. He was from Montreal and was influenced by famous jazz pianist Art Tatum. Peterson recorded many albums, and many clips of him are available on YouTube. Here are two of many worth listening to:

       Oscar Peterson — Boogie Blues Etude

• Listen from 00:22 to 01:30.
• Unfortunately, the video quality if awful, but not the sound quality. As you can see, his bassist is impressed.

  Oscar Peterson — When I Fall in Love

• Listen from 00:00 to 01:20.
• Peterson could also slow down and play ballads such as this classic composed by Victor Young.

  Jazz Futures — Captain Hook

• Listen from 05:51 to 06:36.
• Green composed this song in tribute to his bassist, Christian McBride. Green played this very hard driving blues piece with a very muscular style with his group “The Jazz Futures” in 1991. Green’s playing from minutes 2:35 through 6:02 is awesome. Some great camera work here following his flying fingers. Note that famous trumpeter Roy Hargrove (brought up by Leslie on 3/25) is in that group wearing a grey jacket.

  Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, and Bigotry

Well, bigotry goes both ways --- and in several ways. Though he passed away in 2007 I still worship jazz pianist Oscar Peterson whom we will address this Thursday. Part of my living room is a sort of shrine to him. I have many of his albums and have seen him three or four times in New York City concert venues, the last at Carnegie Hall when he made his return concert there after his stroke which greatly affected his left side. Peterson got a lot of hatred and criticism thrown at him when he brought a white man, guitarist Herb Ellis, into his trio in 1953. That hate came from black musicians. (I don’t know who those musicians were.) Oscar did not fold like a cheap camera. Instead he spoke against such hate. Below is a link from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation which I found addressing this subject. It includes interesting information as well as an audio clip of Oscar addressing unwarranted racial discrimination generally as it related to musicians. Oscar had very high standards with respect to whom he brought into his music groups. It did not matter what the musicians looked like. Their musicianship, and shall I say, “the content of their character” were paramount to him. (By the way, one of my first two Peterson albums was “Hello Herbie” with Herb Ellis.)

  Lewis

       Don Ellis' Pussy Wiggle Stomp.

• In 7/8 time. At one point, the audience claps along in 7/8.
• I recorded this at Towson State University, 1972.
• Worth listening to the whole thing.
• The brass and winds are kinda hard to hear at the end, as they all walked out into the audience.

  Don Ellis' rendition of Hank Levy's Whiplash

• For those interested. Note how different from Hank's version above.
• Also recorded at Towson State University, 1972.

  Myndall

       Jean-Pierre Rampal — Claude Bolling — Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Listen to bits of this. Claude Bolling is a French pianist and composer that dedicated part of his work to create "crossover" music, blending classical and jazz languages. His most famous work in this style is the Suite For Flute And Jazz Piano, recorded in 1975 with Jean-Pierre Rampal playing the lead "classical language" part on flute. Here you can hear the complete 7-part suite.

I "jammed" on the piano with musical theater friends many years ago. Even though I couldn’t improv and needed music, it was still a blast!

  Liz

BONUS track:     Alan Braufman "Sunrise" — unremixed version

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