JazzTrombones

2012-01-23T16:35:00.002-05:00

Riffing on Ray

Hitting the road with soul icon gave trombonist her big break

By Kevin Joy

The Columbus Dispatch Sunday January 22, 2012 11:59 AM

After performing two nights in 1995 as a Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra featured guest, Ray Charles inquired about a musician whose smooth, dulcet tones had caught his ear.

“Who was that guy on trombone?” Charles asked.

That was no guy — nor was the player a member of the ensemble.

Sarah Morrow, a Pickerington native, had been hired for the back-to-back concerts, the biggest gigs that the 27-year-old had landed since leaving a New Jersey arts-administration job to pursue music full time.

Unaware of Charles’ interest, Morrow approached his manager after the first show.

“I just had this overwhelming feeling,” she said, “that I needed to ask to audition for his band.”

As expected, she received a swift rebuff — until the brassy hopeful mentioned that she had played lead trombone that night.

“He stopped, turned and said, ‘That was you?’ ” Morrow recalled. “Then he said, ‘So you think you can handle the road?’

“A few days later, I was in L.A.”

Not only did Morrow land the break of a lifetime, playing for two years with a 22-piece orchestra in locales ranging from Barbados to Japan, but she also became Charles’ first (and only) female musician — the significance of which took time for the graduate of Ohio University in Athens to realize.

On Friday and Saturday in the Lincoln Theatre, Morrow, 42, will celebrate her mentor’s memory by joining the Columbus Jazz Orchestra for the show "Hit the Road, Jack: The Music of Ray Charles."

Columbus bassist Roger Hines, who toured and recorded exclusively with Charles in the 1980s, will also play with the ensemble.

Although Charles died in 2004, his repertoire endures — from the irresistible boogie-woogie groove of Mess Around to the sweet, soulful opening notes of Georgia on My Mind. The extensive Charles catalog includes gospel, blues and even country.

The material “has a way of bringing the spiritual world to us on an everyday level,” Morrow said. “He puts everything that he has into every note.

“I viewed him really like a grandfather.

“I think I probably got more face time than normal,” she said. “He was concerned about the fact I was a young woman and made it clear that if anyone messed with me they had to answer to him.”

Yet life on the road, in particular among the company of raucous male musicians — and some territorial members of Charles’ backing singers known as the Raylettes — wasn’t easy.

“It was like the army,” recalled Hines, an adjunct music professor, 59, at Capital University in Bexley.

“It was rowdy.”

In Morrow’s memory remains fierce dialogue with a Raylette who declared that the coveted trombone spot should have gone to a black woman.

Today, when thinking of the encounter, Morrow remembers something that Charles once said to her during an international flight: “If you let your emotions get the best of you, you’re not good for anything.”

“In the end,” Morrow said, “the beauty was that the music always wins out.”

These days, she also focuses on more practical pieces of Charles’ guidance: remembering to put proper space between notes, knowing when to use softer volumes and understanding the importance of timing.

Such pointers helped Morrow launch a solo career, which included overseas pairings with jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and the Duke Ellington Orchestra as well as with Columbus musicians Foley (a bassist, who goes by one name, who played for Miles Davis and recorded on the Motown label) and pianist Bobby Floyd.

Paris, where she was later scouted by a European jazz label, has been Morrow’s home for the past 14 years, although she plans to move back to the United States this year to be closer to her family.

A more recent engagement was a string of dates with pop trailblazer Cyndi Lauper and her “ Memphis Blues” tour. In the bedroom-turned-studio that Morrow uses when in Ohio is a signed, framed photo of Lauper. The trombonist gushed about having her makeup applied by the funky True Colors chanteuse.

Morrow’s success, her supporters say, is the result of more than that chance conversation in Dayton.

“She inspires you,” said Floyd, 57, of the Northwest Side. “She allows that creativity to happen.”

The performer remains a source of pride for Pickerington schools, said Mike Sewell, who served as band director during Morrow’s middle- and high-school years.

“The horn is an extension of her,” said Sewell, 54. “These things aren’t taught. It’s a gift. She’s always had that.”

Columbus Jazz Orchestra Artistic Director Byron Stripling, a trumpeter who once played some shows with Charles in the mid-1990s, noted Morrow’s toughness.

Being the “woman on the bus,” Stripling said, “that’s dues-paying. . . . She certainly won those guys’ hearts, minds and musical respect.”

The chutzpah began early. At the tender age of 4, Morrow became entranced with the trombone after attending a performance of The Music Man. When she was later assigned to the clarinet, she lied to her parents and claimed that her orthodontist had said reed instruments would harm her braces. She got her trombone.

These days, Morrow is preparing for the spring debut of her contemporary jazz album Elektric Air and remains at work co-producing a Louis Armstrong tribute album by five-time Grammy winner Dr. John.

The 71-year-old New Orleans blues rocker called Morrow “a bad-ass trombone player . . . who threw me a whole gang of loops.”

All opportunities, though, seem to circle back to the powerful influence of Charles.

Morrow played trombone as part of the opening music heard in the Academy Award-winning biopic Ray (2004), but she still can’t bring herself to watch the film.

Perhaps even more emotional than performing his tunes is playing them with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra, an ensemble that Morrow worshipped as a teenager.

“They are the reason I started playing jazz,” she said. “I do what I do because of the CJO.”

Morrow hopes that listeners find inspiration next weekend.

After all, as she can attest, only a few notes might be needed to get someone’s attention.

View Slideshow

JONATHAN QUILTER | DISPATCH

Pickerington native Sarah Morrow, who has played trombone in venues throughout the world

Fred Wesley - 'Boogaloo'

2011-12-29T16:41:00.000-05:00

Wesley rejoins Allstars for some 'Boogaloo'

Trombonist Fred Wesley played with James Brown in the '60s and '70s, becoming musical director of the J.B.'s in 1970. He joined the Count Basie Orchestra in 1978. He plays with the Greyboy Allstars on Dec. 30 at the Belly Up Tavern. Photo courtesy of Alex Hincliffe

Fred Wesley is one of the original founders of funk music. Serving as James Brown's bandleader for the majority of the soul icon's most creative years, Wesley's unmistakable trombone playing and funked-up arrangements continue to shape music today.

Wesley's gig with Brown was sandwiched between stretches with both Count Basie and Parliament-Funkadelic, and the one-time adjunct college professor in jazz studies has arranged for everyone from Ray Charles to Van Morrison.

In 1995, Wesley played on the debut album for then-relatively unknown San Diego jazz/funk collaborative, The Greyboy Allstars.

"West Coast Boogaloo" is now considered a classic, and the Greyboy Allstars have both lived up to their name and helped get San Diego into the jazz conversation.

On Friday night, Wesley will rejoin the much-heralded locals at the Belly Up for the first of only two shows (the other is Saturday in San Francisco), where they'll play the 16-year-old album together in its entirety.

And it all started when the legendary trombonist met Greyboy Allstars front man Karl Denson over a beer neither man was drinking.

"It's a funny story," Wesley said recently from his South Carolina home. "I first met Karl at an audition. It was a call for some kind of light beer. There were a bunch of horn players that showed up. They wanted to see groups of twos and threes and ended up putting me and Karl together. Before that, I didn't know Karl from Adam. We did our little thing together and hit it off real good. We didn't get the gig, but that was the hookup."

Although the pair got along famously, they didn't reconnect until years later when Stephan Meyner's jazz label, Minor Music, was releasing an album by Wesley.

"I didn't see him for a while," he said. "But then Karl was at a session for one of my albums. I saw him and said 'Hey, I remember you!' and we talked about the audition and everything was all right. But I realized what a fine tenor player he really was when he played on that album. And Karl was in it when I put my band together. We've been friends for a long time ---- longer than we can remember. But when we did 'West Coast Boogaloo,' he had left my band and started the Allstars. He just called me up to do it and I did it."

Wesley's unassuming, matter-of-fact demeanor permeates everything he does, from his 2002 biography, "Hit Me Fred: Recollections of a Sideman," to casually talking about his time in some of music's greatest bands.

"It's all an accident," said Wesley. "I was playing trumpet and my father needed a trombone in his band. But the trombone has stuck with me, and I've stuck with the trombone. I knew people like James Brown and George Clinton had an innovative style. I just had no idea it would last this long. Looking back now, I know it was radical and I do think it will last forever. But more than anything, I'm just really happy to be among the people who were with them."

Wesley has been forced to take time off recently, as he has been recovering from carpal tunnel surgery on his right hand. The two end-of-year dates with Greyboy mark a return to form, as the bandleader has performances with his own band booked well into the spring.

"I want to do as much music as possible," he said. "I'm 68 years old. I realize it's coming to the end at some point. But I'm going to try to get as much in as I can."

While Wesley will go down in the history books as part of some of the most influential acts of his (or any) generation, all he cares about is playing that trombone.

"Some horn players are never really famous or big stars," he said. "I just want to leave a body of work that is undeniable. I've played with everybody you could ever think of. I want to leave a big footprint when I'm done. From the beginning, that's something that I've always intended to do, and it's exactly what I'm going to continue to do."

Melba Liston- Curt's Jazz Cafe

2011-09-27T23:32:00.001-04:00

Melba Liston- Curt's Jazz Cafe
tags: Trombone music jazz

Archive for jazz trombone

Unsung Women of Jazz #6 – Melba Liston

Posted in Unsung Women of Jazz with tags dizzy gillespie, jazz, jazz trombone, melba liston, randy weston, Women in Jazz on September 24, 2011 by curtjazz
Melba Liston (1926 – 1999)

“When I saw the trombone I thought how beautiful it looked and knew I just had to have one. No one told me that it was difficult to master. All I knew was that it was pretty and I wanted one.” – Melba Liston
Trombonist/Arranger/Composer Melba Liston was born in Kansas City, MO on January 13, 1926. In her early years, she shuttled back and forth between the and Kansas City, KS, where her grandparents lived. She got her first trombone at seven, when a traveling music store brought instruments to school. By the time she was eight, she was playing solo trombone on local radio shows.
When Melba was eleven, her family moved to Los Angeles. There she was mentored by a local music teacher, who ran a big band made up of neighborhood children. That relationship ended after four years, when Melba decided to join the musicians union, against the teacher’s wishes. Nevertheless, Liston joined the pit band at Los Angeles’ Lincoln Theatre at age sixteen.
When the Lincoln discontinued live shows in 1943, Liston joined the new band being formed by Gerald Wilson. She also recorded in a group with old school pal Dexter Gordon. Melba stayed with Wilson for five years, until his group disbanded. She then joined Dizzy Gillespie’s Big Band, along with Wilson. That lasted about a year, until Dizzy’s band also broke up.

After joining Wilson again in a Bebop band that backed Billie Holiday on an ill-fated tour of the South, Ms. Liston gave up music for a few years. She took a job with the Los Angeles Board of Education. Music, however, was not completely out of her blood, as she continued to compose and arrange on the side. She even tried her hand at acting for a while, landing bit parts in The Prodigal, alongside Lana Turner and in The Ten Commandments, as a harp player.
But the music was never far away from Melba’s heart, so when the State Department asked Diz to form a big band for a Middle East/Asia tour, he coaxed Liston into joining him. Though she rarely soloed during that time, she did a considerable amount of arranging. Including “Stella by Starlight”, “My Reverie” and “Wonder Why”. These arrangements (and more by Melba) were recorded and can be heard on the Birks Works compilation, on Verve.

Diz wasn’t the only one who dug Melba’s arranging. Quincy Jones, who played trumpet in the Gillespie band at the time, was forming a band to tour Europe. he asked Ms. Liston to join him and she agreed. In 1958, Melba Liston recorded her sole album as a leader; Melba Liston and Her Bones. On this date, Liston and an array of trombonists, including Slide Hampton, Al Grey and Bennie Green, were front and center, with solid support from Kenny Burrell, Ray Bryant, Charlie Persip and others. Co-produced by Leonard Feather, it’s a shame that this fine album drifted into obscurity.

In that same year, Melba met pianist composer Randy Weston. Weston admitted that at the time, he had never met a woman trombonist before. Their meeting sparked a creative partnership that lasted almost 40 years. Weston initially hired Melba to put some meat on the bones of his compositions. They realized quickly that musically, they were two halves of the same coin. Said Weston; “Melba is incredible; she hears what I do and then expands it. She will create a melody that sounds like I created it. She’s just a great, great arranger.” All in all Weston and Liston worked on 10 albums together, including Little Niles, Earth Birth and Volcano Blues.

Melba Liston with Dizzy’s ‘Dream Band’ in 1982 on “Manteca” [Melba solos starting at 3:35]
Besides her work with Weston, Melba continued to freelance, working often with Clark Terry and briefly with Charles Mingus. Upon her return to Los Angeles in the late ’60′s, the pop music world took note of her talents and she arranged sessions for stars including Marvin Gaye and the Supremes.
Ms. Liston was very active until 1986, when she suffered the first of several strokes. She had to give up playing and was confined to a wheelchair, but Melba continued to compose and arrange, until her death in 1999.
Melba Liston – most of her career was spent behind the scenes, but her work was always headliner quality.
Recommended Recordings:

Melba Liston and Her Bones (Fresh Sound) – CD in print; mp3 available
Volcano Blues [w/ Randy Weston] (Verve – Gitanes) – CD OOP but available
Little Niles [Randy Weston] (Jazz Track [Import]) – CD in print [her first recording with Weston]
Khepera [Randy Weston] – (Verve) CD in print, mp3 available [her final recording with Weston]

The Night Glenn Miller played the Springs | Sonoma Valley Sun

2011-09-19T00:34:00.000-04:00

The night Glen Miller played the Springs | Sonoma Valley Sun
tags: Trombone music glenn Miller

Posted from Diigo.

The night Glen Miller played the Springs

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Sonoma Valley Sun

Jeff Gilbert | Special to The Sun
Back in the big band era, a hot venue for live music was the Boyes Hot Springs Mineral Baths dance pavilion. Known as “The Plunge,” it was a popular spot during the summer months where local orchestras and up-and-coming bands enjoyed big crowds. On one of those nights, in July of 1937 the audience witnessed history.
Trombonist Glenn Miller in early 1937 had saved up enough money to start up his own big band. Glenn had struggled through the 1920’s playing in theater orchestras and finding studio recording work where he could. Ben Pollack, the famous drummer and bandleader, hired Glenn to play trombone. Working with Pollack was a great experience, not only playing in the band but also arranging most of the band’s tunes. By 1933 Glenn was well known for his arranging skills.
The famous Dorsey Brothers, known for their studio work, decided to put a band together that would tour the U.S. Glenn was hired as musical director and arranger and to play trombone. The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra was a success and, in 1934, Brunswick Records recorded a novelty tune Glenn called “Annie’s Cousin Fanny. It caught on, and soon it was the most requested number in the band’s book.
Glenn left the Brothers Dorsey in 1935. The famous English composer and bandleader Ray Noble announced he was coming to America, thus marking the first musical British invasion. Ray hired Glenn as player and arranger, and he helped recruit the musicians, some of whom became household names: Claude Thornhill, Will Bradley, Bud Freeman and George Van Epps among them. The band was well received, but just did not have the success it had when in England. Glenn grew restless and left Noble in late 1936.
It was time to start his own orchestra. The first band would be known later as “The Band That Failed.” Always trying new things, Glenn had not yet found the sound that would later define his breakthrough orchestra. With the help of agent Cy Shribman, the band was booked on a string of one-nighters. The itinerary included a stop in the Sonoma Valley.
On that Saturday night in July of 1937, Glenn Miller and his first orchestra found themselves playing the Boyes Hot Springs Mineral Baths. Tourists from around the world and summering Bay Area residents would flock to Sonoma for vacation activities, and “The Plunge” in the Springs was always number one on the list of places to go for a swim during the day and music at night.
On this evening, the audience didn’t realize it was witnessing musical history.
It was a good band with good musicians. They recorded some sides for Brunswick and Decca, proving the band could swing, but something was missing. Sadly, the musicians was given notice on New Year’s Eve. Glenn’s paycheck for the year 1937 was $48. Never discouraged, he would try again. In early 1938 a new band was re-formed and Glenn finally found “The Sound” that would make him a household name.
“The Band That Hits Built,” by late 1939, was the number one orchestra in the country. Dozens of hit records followed and, two years later, Glenn was presented with the very first Gold Record for his recording of “Chattanooga Choo Choo.”
In 1942, at the height of his popularity, Glenn gave up his orchestra and enlisted in the Army Air Force where he also made musical history directing the Army Air Force Band. In December of 1944 he left from an airfield at Twinwood Farm in England to fly over the English Channel and make his way to Paris to set up accommodations for the AAF Band that would follow in three days. Glenn was never heard from again.
That was 67 years ago and since that time the Glenn Miller orchestra has never been silenced; it has been led by Tex Beneke, Ray McKinley, Buddy de Franco and currently under the direction of Gary Tole. The music and the memories will live on for those who danced that night in July of 1937 in Boyes Hot springs to the first Glenn Miller Orchestra.
Jeff Gilbert hosts “Jeff’s Joynt” on SUN 91.3 FM weekdays from 3 to 4 p.m.

“I got to see what it’s like to perform 10 stories in the air with a trombone” | Ottawa Citizen Blogs

2011-09-01T00:09:00.000-04:00

“I got to see what it’s like to perform 10 stories in the air with a trombone” | Ottawa Citizen Blogs
tags: Trombone

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

I knew that the New York-based trombonist/cellist Dana Leong was involved in some pretty adventurous music, having played with Steve Coleman, Dafnis Prieto and others. But I did not know until I read this story today that Leong’s work includes collaborating with an aerial dance troupe, and joining the dancers suspended in the air.
Tonight through Saturday, Leong performs with the dance company Project Bandaloop, during a work called Bound(less) at the Great Wall of Oakland (the backside of a large office building).
Leong, who is from the San Francisco Bay Area, last year flew to California every other week for five months to train with Bandaloop.
“We’d do sit-ups and pull-ups and climb up ropes,” Leong told The San Jose Mercury News‘ Andew Gilbert. “I had an intense crash course as to what these dancers and climbers go through. We performed Bound(less) as a work in progress in Costa Mesa, and I got to see what it’s like to perform 10 stories in the air with a trombone.”
Here’s a clip showing Leong’s first attempt at playing while wall-walking and hanging upside-down:

If Leong wants to bring his aerial music-making skills back into the jazz world, here’s a set list he could draw upon:
Air Dancing, Buster Williams
Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly, Flora Purim
500 Miles High, Chick Corea
Take It To The Ozone, Freddie Hubbard
The Spiderman Theme Song
But seriously, good luck to Leong. The next time someone invokes the risk-taking trope when it comes to improvising, I’ll be thinking of him.

2010-09-20T19:23:00.001-04:00

Raul de Souza - Sweet Lucy (1977)

(This was posted over at loronix.blogspot.com on Thursday, January 04, 2007 by zecalouro)

Hello, Good Night! Was unable to decide the first post of the day, when Joe Carter, Loronix Admiral in Charge, place a comment at the last Zimbo Trio post with a link to a video at YouTube featuring Zimbo Trio and Raul de Souza. Sometimes we have everything to make the right choice on hands and cannot make it. Amazing, this video was uploaded by zecalouro at YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUG0CwPwk64
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5S8sXFnYN4

This is Raul de Souza - Sweet Lucy (1977), for Capitol, produced by George Duke and featuring Raul de Souza, Patrice Rushen, Dawilli Conga, Embamba, Byron Miller, Leon Chancler, Freddy Hubbard, Ian Underwood, Al McKay and Airto Moreira. (For those who didn't already know it: Dawilli Conga = George Duke) Stay with Raul de Souza and watch the video. Tracks include:

01 - Sweet Lucy (George Duke)
02 - Wires (George Duke)
03 - Wild An Shy (Raul de Souza)
04 - At Will (Raul de Souza)
05 - Banana Tree (João Donato)
06 - A Song Of Love (L. L. Smith)
07 - New Love (Canção do Nosso Amor) (Silveiro / Medeiros / Castles)
08 - Bottom Heat (Raul de Souza)

This is Raul de Souza - Sweet Lucy (1977), at Loronix, here.

Hope uEnjoy!

Tommy Pederson Video- A Sneezing Bee

2010-04-03T12:34:00.000-04:00

This is one of the best Tommy Pederson Videos I have seen.
Tommy was a Spike Jones sideman and this track appeared on the 1956 release, Dinner Music for People Who Aren't Very Hungry (re-released in 1990)
This was uploaded originally by Rene Laanen at Trombone-Usa.com

Tommy Pederson

George Roberts Album - Meet Mr. Roberts

2009-07-22T03:31:00.000-04:00

[I found this over on Bongolong Land - http://bongolongland.blogspot.com/]

Here is the long out-of-print "Meet Mr. Roberts" by Mr. Bass Trombone, George Roberts. This rip is from a cassette tape of a vinyl copy given to me by George (my father-in-law) himself. Frank DeVol and his Orchestra accompany Mr. Roberts in some very interesting arrangements.

Meet Mr. Roberts

I hope to bring more of George's remarkable bass trombone music
to this blog in the near future, but for now...
enjoy "Meet Mr. Roberts"!

Comments:

: 18/1/07 7:43 AM
David Federman said...: George Roberts is that guy you always see listed in the personnel for every important group of accompanists for singers like Sinatra and Fitzgerald. How nice it it to discover that he was finally given his own 40 minutes or so of fame. Thanks. DeVol's arrangements are superb.

Kai Winding Album Downloads

2009-01-20T14:46:00.000-05:00

Vintage Kai Winding LPs
Verve V-8556
kaiwinding.zip
front cover
back cover
Kai handles the musical direction at New York's plush Playboy Club.

Kai Winding
The In Instrumentals
Verve V6-8639
ininstrumentals.zip
front cover
back cover
Can a jazz trombonist from a town in Denmark find happiness among the tunes of the "mods" and "rockers"?

Don't Let Jazz Fade Into The Background

2008-08-16T22:31:00.000-04:00

By CHUCK OWEN
Jazz remains one of the few American art forms almost universally viewed with admiration (at times bordering on awe) by those outside this country. Despite increasing foreign hostility toward everything American, my recent travels on behalf of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) to such far-flung locales as Europe, South Africa and Malaysia confirmed that jazz, while recognized universally as the cultural emblem of the United States, transcends divisive politics and continues to be received with great enthusiasm.
As synonymous with America as the bald eagle, baseball, or Mark Twain, jazz serves as the ultimate diplomat, proudly espousing and showcasing the freedom, individualism and democratic traditions we hold so dear in each riff and rhythm.
Yet, at home, within the country that can claim the birthright of this musical heritage, jazz is, ironically, in greater danger than ever of falling off the radar screen of the average American.
Jazz, from its earliest beginnings, has struggled to overcome obstacles ranging from the ignorance and artistic elitism of some of its critics to blatant racism. Amazingly, the music has survived, proving time and again to be remarkably resilient, confident and proud of its heritage, uncompromising in its standards, yet adaptable to its time and environment. Why, today, is jazz facing an even tougher fight?
The problem is, with each passing year, more and more Americans seem to have less and less contact with the music. At first, this would seem to be something of an enigma as technological advances, from digital music services to satellite radio and cable TV have resulted in a greater availability of jazz content than ever before. Yet the nature of this technology, which allows consumers to wrap themselves in a cocoon of their own choosing, actually serves to isolate individuals from anything they don't already know or like.
Conversely, when millions of Americans tuned into network television of decades past and Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson, the Grammy Awards, or any number of other variety shows presented an artist such as Dizzy Gillespie, a huge population with no previous exposure to jazz instantly had an opportunity to glimpse and be touched by the effervescence of this musical genius. Sadly, these and so many other points of casual contact with the public are diminishing steadily as jazz clubs disappear and jazz radio programming has decreased or has been relegated to late-night hours.
The essential role and importance of jazz education, given these challenges, has never been more obvious or critical. Individual educators as well as music, educational, and arts associations must, therefore, renew efforts to make certain that all students receive grounding in the concepts, history, and artists that define jazz. In addition, they must be given multiple opportunities to actively experience and engage with the music throughout their formative years. To truly address these concerns, however, jazz education will need a number of partners to step up as well. Congress must substantially increase federal funding to the National Endowment for the Arts (today's budget remains $50 million less than in 1992!). Corporations and prominent patrons of the arts need to consider sponsorships of jazz organizations just as they underwrite local symphonies, art museums and dance companies. Newspapers need to place jazz coverage at least on par with other arts coverage. Record companies, artist agencies and others in the "business" need to recognize the value of collectively working together to reach out and develop the audience for jazz.
"Keep Jazz Alive!" This well-worn, well-intentioned but, ultimately, misguided phrase is frequently heard in relation to the importance of jazz education. Well, make no mistake - jazz is alive! It is vibrantly alive and relevant; not only in the recordings and compositions of its past masters - the ebullience of Louis Armstrong, the swinging elegance of Duke Ellington, the moody lyricism of Miles Davis and the passionate spiritualism of John Coltrane - but also in the hands of its current practitioners from Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson and Wayne Shorter to the Bad Plus, Bill Frisell, and so many, many others.
It's hard to envision, in fact, an art form that is more alive. Jazz artists have routinely sought to stretch stylistic boundaries with compositions steeped not only in the jazz tradition but also drawing freely from sources as diverse and eclectic as Indian ragas, hip-hop, flamenco, minimalism, and many, many other musical genres. It's an art form that embraces improvisation (by its very definition "in the moment") and is a constant source of adventure for musician and audience alike. Now, that's alive!
This is not a plea to save jazz. The passionate musicians and fans who find their way to it will ensure its survival in spite of meager funding, poor exposure and public apathy. But is survival all we really want for this vibrant music that so defines our country's values and heritage?
Chuck Owen, a Distinguished University Professor at the University of South Florida and artistic director of USF's Center for Jazz Composition, is president of the International Association for Jazz Education.

Insight to the performance mindset of a professional trombonist

2008-03-11T02:38:00.000-04:00

[This article has a classical perspective but the same principles apply to any musical or theatre performance]

State of Grace

By Eddie Silva
22 Dec 2006

St. Louis Symphony principal trombonist Tim Myers describes the performance mindset.

Tim Myers joined the orchestra in 1983 and it's safe to say that it has become a central part of his life since then. He met his wife, first violin Dana Edson Myers, here; they had their first conversation on an SLSO tour. The Myerses now have two sons who are both cellists: Peter attends the Colburn School in Los Angeles and Henry goes to a local middle school where he is also involved in the theater.
Tim Myers is an avid rock climber who spends his summers assaulting peaks in Colorado. And, interestingly enough, he's an asthmatic, which makes all of his accomplishments — especially being principal trombone of a major symphony orchestra — even more impressive and inspiring.
Recently, Playbill caught up with Myers to discuss the musician's experience — becoming one with an orchestral performance, the advantages of not being aware, and the nuts and bolts of playing Bolero.

Playbill: Describe what it feels like, as a musician onstage, when all the elements of a performance come together.
Tim Myers: There is a kind of a mental state — I would even say a physical state or a complete-being state — when you're not asking questions, you're making statements. You're just doing it. The fall Carnegie Hall concert last season was one performance where that happened.
Playbill: Do you get that feeling from the very start?
Myers: Pretty much. It has to start with "I'm ready to go." Then after a certain moment I realize I haven't been analyzing, I haven't been thinking about whether I'm together with the trumpets. I've just been doing it. It's actually pretty cool.
In general, composers use the trombones as a coloristic thing or as a special statement. We're very rarely the focus. There's a Schumann symphony, the Third, which has five movements, and in the first three we don't play anything. Then at the beginning of the fourth movement there's suddenly this big focus on the trombones: a musical picture of the cathedral in Cologne. It goes really high and we're really exposed. It requires a lot of concentration and a lot of not panicking before it comes in. You're sitting for 25 minutes and then you come in for the big event.
I find for a piece like that especially, I have to be part of the entire performance. When the downbeat comes I have to be there, participating in the music even though I don't have any notes to play, so when it comes time to play I've been with it the whole time. Most of the time that really works.
Playbill: It was once said of the great jazz trombonist J. J. Johnson that he knew everything there was to know about the trombone, and when he played, he forgot everything he knew.


Tim Myers
photo by Scott Ferguson/FK Photo

Myers: If I graph my performance life, from my earliest days of performing there wasn't that much self-awareness. I just did it. It must have been okay. But then I figured out there were things I needed to work on and I became very self-aware. And sometimes that mental state of being aware would affect my confidence. Then I would have to return to the just-doing-it state by assimilating the skills and issues — most of which were psychological — to the point where it was reflexive enough.
That's not to say there's no thoughtfulness or awareness. For example, Bolero is one of those career-busters for a first trombonist. If you can't do it, you probably shouldn't be there. I've talked to people about measuring my career in Boleros: How many more Boleros can I do? When I play Bolero I have to do it a certain way. I have to start blowing air through my horn when the tenor sax is playing to get my horn warmed up. Then, ten bars before I play, I start getting the instrument ready. Two measures before — with the snare-drum interlude — I have to start taking the breath — a very long, slow breath. I slowly form the embouchure so I'm really set. I have to make it a habit. At this point it's almost a ritual. And, once I start, it's like a really good batter — when he sees the ball coming it's this big. I have to look at all those notes as if they're whole notes and I'm going right at the middle of them. I can even miss a little bit and still have a good grip on it.
Playbill: What is the feeling when it's over?
Myers: It's hard to let go of the state. The piece is done, but it continues. It doesn't dissipate immediately. The best performances happen once all the verbal stuff goes away. The most simple instructions — "count," "watch" — are all that matter. There's no analyzing. If I'm trying to describe it then I'm not in the right place. It's a non-verbal place. And sometimes if it's really good the feeling is that I'm stunned. It's a very long diminuendo from the end of the performance to an everyday state.
Eddie Silva is the publications manager for the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

A Properly Drawn Trombone Player...

2007-07-21T23:40:00.000-04:00

This is by Corbett Vanoni
Visit him at http://cvanoni.blogspot.com/
[The following is one of my pet peeves also. No one seems to be able to draw a trombone player correctly...]

I'd like to take a break from sketches for a moment to talk to you all about something very, very important.
A long time ago I spoke to Steve Worth over at the ASIFA Animation Archive about how outraged I was that I never see a properly drawn trombone player. Vexed, irked and livid I was!

The concept behind holding and playing a trombone is a simple one, yet everytime I see a trombone in a cartoon they screw it up! Trumpet, Sousaphone and Piccolo players are struttin' around like pros while the trombone player fumbles with his slide and plays the fool!

The problem seems to root itself in the initial GRIP of the instrument - most people just pick a spot at random and CLAMP a hand on it like it's welded tight. Then they get confused about how the slide moves - so they figure "if I get the hand anywhere near the slide it'll work. . ." the same way you'd try and cheat a punctuation test by placing your apostrophe directly above the "s" instead of before or after it.

A) This lady has obviously never held a trombone in her life. Her right hand is CLAMPED onto the bell for dear life and her left hand (though pinky extended) is moving the slide when it should be holding the instrument.

B) This guy's form is so bad there are stink lines emanating from the end of his instrument. (eeew!) His trombone appears to be impaling him right through the chest, and he's trying to hold the trombone and move the slide in the SAME SPOT! What a retard!

C) When in doubt, hide any parts you're not sure of. This may mean placing your trombone player's hands behind his head, or putting the whole character behind a really fat tuba player.

D) Well this is just stupid. It almost looks correct, doesn't it? The hands are actually in the right positions! But the artist has designed a trombone to rival the best M. C. Escher creation. Try to figure out where all those ambiguous tubes are going and you'll see what I mean. Besides, Skippy here has it on the wrong shoulder.

FOLLOW MY SIMPLE DIAGRAMS FOR PROPER TROMBONE TECHNIQUE!

FIG. 1: The trombone sits on the left shoulder and is held in place with the left hand. Specifically, the thumb (located on a horizontal bar) and the pinky and ring finger (located on a vertical bar). The index and and middle finger can move freely and are often rested on the mouthpiece.
The slide is moved to and fro in a nimbly-bimbly manner using the right hand. Specifically the thumb, index finger. Though any number of fingers can be used, as long as they exhibit a light touch.
DO NOT CLAMP THE RIGHT HAND ONTO THE SLIDE WITH A CLINCHED FIST! Only trombone players with shiny new helmets do that.

FIG. 2: Here is a shot from the right side, showing a good view of all the plumbing! (photo has been cropped to eliminate the vulgar plumbing!) Look at how happy our subject is! Knowing that he is displaying proper trombone holding technique!

FIG. 3: Here is a picture of some figs.

Help spread the word and fight improper trombone holding in cartoons.
I tell you what. . .if you draw me a trombone player correctly clenching his instrument, I'll post it up here on the blog for all the world to see so that people can see how smart you are!
http://cvanoni.blogspot.com/

Big Sam's Funky Nation

2007-05-26T00:31:00.000-04:00

I went down to the "Jack of the Wood" nightclub tonight and sat in with Big Sam's Funky Nation. They will definitely funk you out of your seat. Big Sam used to be the trombonist for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and I can see why he went out on his own. Sam has good stage presence, a Big solid sound and a tight, well rehearsed group of musicians behind him. He puts on a good show and really knows how to keep the audience moving. It really is hard to stay in your seat while they are playing.
You can check out some of their music on the website at:
http://bigsamsfunkynation.com/
They have CDs and other collectibles available on the site along with their touring schedule and much more. Big Sam's Funky Nation recently played at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
and they will once again be touring with Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint this summer, hitting the Europe Festival circuit for the month of July.
Be sure to check them out.

2007-03-22T00:56:00.000-04:00

Why Americans Don't Like Jazz

By Dyske Suematsu

The current market share of Jazz in America is mere 3 percent. That includes all the great ones like John Coltrane and the terrible ones like Kenny G (OK, this is just my own opinion). There are many organizations and individuals like Wynton Marsalis who are tirelessly trying to revive the genre, but it does not seem to be working. Why is this? Is there some sort of bad chemistry between the American culture and Jazz? As ironic as it may be, I happen to believe so.

One day, I was talking to my wife about the TV commercial for eBay where a chubby lady sings and dances to an appropriated version of “My Way” by Frank Sinatra. The lyrics were entirely re-written, and “my way” was transformed into “eBay”. I told her that they did a good job in adapting the original song. Then she said: “Ah, that’s why I like it so much!” She actually did not realize that it was adapted from Sinatra’s song.

My wife and I have always known how differently we listen to music. I tend to entirely ignore lyrics, while she tends to entirely ignore music. We are the two opposite ends of the spectrum in this sense, and it appears that my wife’s side is more common. Many of my friends think that I have a peculiar, or plain bad, taste for music. Whenever I say I like this song or that song, they look at me like I am crazy. Then they go on to explain why it is bad, and I realize that they are referring to the lyrics, not to the music. I then pay attention to the lyrics for the first time, and realize that they are right. The opposite happens often too where many of my friends love a particular song, and I can’t understand what’s good about it until I pay attention to the lyrics.

The eBay example is an extreme case where my wife could not recognize the original once the lyrics were swapped. To her, if you change the lyrics, it is an entirely different song. It is the other way around for me; in most cases, I would not notice any change in the lyrics. The eBay song was an exception; I only noticed it because it is a famous song used for a TV commercial.

I believe my wife’s way of listening to music is typically American, and my way of listening to music, typically Japanese. If you don’t speak English, any songs written in English are instrumental music. Singers turn into just another musical instrument. These days, no matter where you live, you cannot get away from the dominance of the American music. This means that most non-English speakers grow up listening to a lot of instrumental music. In Japan, I would say, it constitutes about half of what people listen to. When they are listening to Madonna, Michael Jackson, or Britney Spears, they have very little understanding of what their songs are about. In this sense, their ears are trained to listen to and enjoy instrumental music, which explains why Jazz is still so popular in Japan.

To be able to enjoy instrumental music, you must be able to appreciate abstract art, and that requires a certain amount of effort. Just mindlessly drinking wine, for instance, would not make you a wine connoisseur. Mindlessly looking at colors (which we all do every day) would not make you a color expert either. Great art demands much more from the audience than the popular art does.

In this sense, the American ears are getting lazier and lazier. It wasn’t so long ago that most people knew how to play a musical instrument or two. Now the vast majority of Americans couldn’t tell the difference between a saxophone and a trumpet. Thanks partially to music videos, music is now a form of visual art. The American culture is so visually dominant that a piece of music without visuals cannot command full attention of the audience. For Americans, music is a background element, a mere side dish to be served with the main course. If they are forced to listen to a piece of instrumental music without any visuals, they don’t know what to do with their eyes, much like the way a nervous speaker standing in front of a large audience struggles to figure out what to do with his hands. Eventually something visual that has nothing to do with the music grabs their attention and the music is push to the background.

If you have written your own music, you have probably experienced this before: You play it for your friends to get their opinions. For about 10 seconds, everyone is silent. After 20 seconds, their eyes start to wander around. After 30 seconds, someone says something, which triggers everyone else to speak up. After 40 seconds, no one is actually listening to your music. I grew up sitting in front of the stereo with my father, closing our eyes, listening only to what came out of the speakers. This would go on for an hour or two as if we were watching a movie. It wasn’t just me; many of my friends did the same. Who does that anymore? In today’s living rooms, stereos are treated as accessories to television sets.

Visual dominancy isn’t the only problem. The bigger problem is the dominance of our thought. Most Americans do not know what to do with abstraction in general. To be able to fully appreciate abstraction, you must be able to turn off your thought, or at least be able to put your thought into the background. This is not as easy as it might seem. In modern art museums, most people’s minds are dominated by thoughts like: “Even I could do this.” Or, “Why is this in a museum?” Or, “This looks like my bed sheet.” Etc.. They are unable to let the abstraction affect their emotions directly; their experience must be filtered through interpretations. In a way, this is a defense mechanism. It is a way to deal with fears like, “If I admit that I don’t understand this, I’ll look unsophisticated.” This type of fear fills their minds with noise, and they become unable to see, hear, or taste.

This is why songs with lyrics in your own language and paintings with recognizable objects are easier for most people to appreciate. They give their minds something to do. It is like holding a pen in your hand when you are speaking in front of a large audience; you become less nervous because your hands have something to do.

Aesthetically, the paintings of Mark Rothko and those of Monet are quite similar, but the former is utterly unacceptable for many people even though they consider the latter to be a master. The difference is that in Monet’s paintings, you can still see things represented in them: rivers, trees, mountains, houses, and so forth. The audience interprets these objects, and projects their own beautiful memories onto the paintings, which makes the whole process much easier. In Mark Rothko’s paintings, there is nothing they can mentally grab on to. What you see is what you get; there is nothing to interpret. So, the audience is left without a pen to hold on to.

The same happens to instrumental music. If there are no lyrics, that is, if there is nothing for the minds to interpret, projecting of any emotional values becomes rather difficult. As soon as the lyrics speak of love, sex, racism, evil corporations, loneliness, cops, etc., all sorts of emotions swell up. Jazz to most people is like a color on a wall; unless you hung something on it, they don’t even notice it.

This rather unfortunate trend in the American culture seems to be irreversible. The popularity of Rap music seems to be a clear sign of this trend. I can appreciate Rap music for what it is, and I see nothing wrong with it, but it does not promote the full development of musical ears. If the song has any musical substance, it can be played on a piano alone (without a singer or any other instruments), and we would still enjoy it. The lack of musical substance becomes clearly visible if you would take many of today’s popular songs, and play them on a piano alone. Many of them would utilize hardly more than a few keys. Perhaps this trend would promote the appreciation of poetry, but it certainly would not promote the appreciation of music as an abstract form of art.

If we were to reverse this trend, we would need to make a conscious effort in promoting the abstract aspect of music. For instance, play more instrumental music in schools or teach how to play an instrument instead of how to sing. We could go as far as to teach kids in school instrumental music only, because their musical exposure outside of school would be dominated by non-instrumental music anyway. It would be a good way to balance things out.

This problem extends far beyond the American disinterest for Jazz; it is a problem for music in general. The dominance of words and visuals in the American culture has lead people to believe that listening to Rap or watching music videos is the full extent of what music has to offer. If this goes on, they’ll be missing a huge chunk of what life has to offer.

How Jarrett Became A Music Pirate

2007-03-21T19:49:00.000-04:00

[This is an article from consumerist.com. The protagonist here- Jarrett, may be a little computer illiterate but he is indicative of many thousands of new and older computer users that can't or don't want to understand the workings behind many of the new technologies. The major music companies better wise up to this or change will be coming; probably to their detriment...]

Does DRM drive even honest well-meaning people to piracy? Yes, of course it does.
Reader and music lover Jarrett tried to send the following "detailed, passionate complaint letter" to Rhino, but their only reply was:

450 Server configuration problem

Good for us, because Jerrett decided to send his letter to us. So, without delay, here is "How I Become A Music Pirate" by Jarrett.

Jarrett writes:

How I Became A Music Pirate
I thought I was the music industry's dream consumer.

As a 40 year old male with a long-standing passion for "all things music," I've spent a bundle on my collection. In college most of my waking hours were spent wandering around record stores, swap meets and record conventions, much to the dismay of the women I was ostensibly dating. Then again, the fact that I also worked as a DJ at the radio station and hung out with obsessive record collector types probably didn't help matters in the romance department.

Then while in grad school in the 1990s, I became busy replacing many of my vinyl releases with CD's. At the same time, entrepreneurial music industry types began to exploit the market for out-of-print recordings by reissuing long out-of-print records on CD formats, which of course I instantly snapped up.

So here I sit circa 2007 with a house filled with over 1000 vinyl records and around 800 CD's. If you figure about $12 per recording as an accurate average, that's somewhere around $20,000. Not a bad chunk of change for the music business, I say.

Last week while I was busy importing my CD's into iTunes so I could listen to them on my iPod (a most tedious task), I hopped on the internet. iTunes was busy importing a Luna CD, one of my favorite bands, so I decided to see what they were up to since they disbanded a few years back. After a few clicks in Google, I found a blog site describing a posthumous, internet-only release of a collection of covers the band had recorded throughout their career. While I already had many of the songs (they were often featured on b-sides and imported singles, etc.), I couldn't resist tracking down this compilation. As I read further on the blog site I encountered a link to a .zip file containing the entire collection ripped as 128kbps mp3's.

While I must admit being tempted to simply click away and download the collection, I though to myself, "Well, if I buy the music it's only $10, and this way I will get high quality .WAV files. Besides, it's not like Luna were getting rich off of their careers, they could use the money..."

So I headed to Rhino's online store, purchased the music, and downloaded the files.

A little later that evening, I tried to move the .WMA files into iTunes, when I received an error message telling me that iTunes could not import them because they were copy protected. I downloaded the files again (which took another 12 minutes) and again, the same message.

So I called Rhino customer support and after an 8 minute wait spoke with a representative. She informed me that the files were indeed copy protected so that I could only play them on specific music players, most notably not iTunes.

"You don't understand," I said, "These files were not copied or pirated, I actually purchased them."

"Well" she responded, "You didn't actually purchase the files, you really purchased a license to listen to the music, and the license is very specific about how they can be played or listened to."

Now I was baffled. "Records never came with any such restrictions," I said.

She replied, "Well they were supposed to, but we weren't able to enforce those licenses back then, and now we can"

She later went on to explain that I could burn the songs to a CD and listen to them in a regular CD player, but I would need an additional Windows based music player to listen to them on my computer. But either way, she suggested there was no way the files could be played on my iPod.

Frustrated, I hung up and began my search for a Windows application to allow me to burn the music to a CD. After downloading Nero and firing it up, imagine my frustration when I receive another error message telling me it cannot locate the licenses for the music I purchased.

I call Rhino again, and this time speak to a young male CSR. He explains that I need updated licenses in order to burn the music and often the problem is that many firewalls will allow the music to pass through the firewall, but not the licenses because of their encryption schemes. Lest you think I am exaggerating, I included below the following text from their website (apparently this is a big enough problem that it warrants mentioning in their FAQ):

1. Temporarily disable all firewall and pop-up blocker software you may be running on your computer.

2. Attempt the download again

If the Licensing portion of the download is still hanging, please update the Digital Rights Management (DRM) component on your computer via the following URL: http://drmlicense.one.microsoft.com/Indivsite/indivit2.htm

The friendly CSR representative then suggests that I try once more to download the files and licenses and if I still have no luck to try accessing the internet from other providers such as a local coffee shop, library, or work computer.

"Basically, just keep downloading the music until you find a gateway that let's your licenses through without problems"

While I would like to say I responded with something witty, I must admit to being completely flummoxed. There I sat, a loyal music fan who has shelled out actual money to a business that is supposed to be having financial problems, and the best they can do is tell me to wander the streets of Seattle looking for different internet providers who might allow me to download the music that I have already paid for, music that I have spent the better part of three house trying to listen to, and which is still unusable?

How on earth have things come to this?!?!?!

Honestly, if this is the best you can do, you're business is in really, really serious trouble.

I mean, could you imagine the consumer response if Coke could only be consumed from specific Coke-approved equipment, and then only in the specific ways that the folks at Coke wanted the product to be consumed. "drinking Coke with fast food is no problem, but we must warn you that your license forbids the mixing of Coke with any alcoholic beverages..."

In the end, I never was able to get the music to play on anything--my computer, on a CD or on my iPod. I invested $10, several hours of my time, and my reward was, well, nothing.

I'd like to say I was outraged, but in the end I must admit to feeling remarkably sad and deflated over the whole process. See, the thing is, I was raised on music. I was saved by music. I (used to) live for music. Lester Bangs wasn't my idol, he was my soul mate (in a matter of speaking).

I've devoted a not-inconsequential chunk of my life to collecting music; to tracking down obscure records, cassettes, 8-Tracks and CD's of all genres and styles. And now apparently that is all but over. Music has somehow evolved from tangible things into amorphous collections of 1's and 0's guarded over by interested parties as if they were gold bullion. How so very sad.

I would like to think that someone at a place like Rhino would care enough to not let these kinds of things happen. But alas, my suspicion is that anyone who would have been cool enough to work at Rhino in their heyday some twenty years ago would never be so callous, foolish or shallow to allow these kind of absurdities to occur.

Since I've resigned myself not to waste any more time with the music business, I suppose I'll have to resort to purchasing used CD's & records, or having my friends occasionally make me a copy of one of their newer CD's.

Call it piracy. Call it whatever you want. But at least I tried. I gave you several chances and you failed miserably at every level.

Jarrett

Well, it's a good thing you stopped Jarrett from sharing his files on the internet. Imagine! Losing a good customer! Oh wait. It's not free music that drives some people to piracy, it's the lack of a quality product from legitimate music sources. —MEGHANN MARCO

========================================================

JohnOB1 says:

Back in the day, during an interview Prince said what he loved about Napster was that you were able to get music that you would not be able to get anywhere else because that music is considered no longer financially viable.
For example, a friend was able to download Eddie Hazel's Games, Dames & Guitar Thangs... this was an album that was not available for many years... yet, he was able to find it on Napster.
The great thing about finding these tunes online was that you heard the needle drop and the faint scratches of a vinyl record. Someone took great care in recording these tracks.

My 2007 New Year's Resolution

2007-01-22T01:52:00.000-05:00

BY JUDY ROBERTS
[This article appeared in the Chicago Jazz Magazine Jan/Feb 2007]
I hope that 2007 will be the year when jazz musicians and jazz fans decide that they've had enough and won't take it anymore. The corporate dictatorship currently controlling the music we get to hear needs to be overthrown.
The fact that we are being deprived of one of the greatest radio shows of all time, Piano Jazz, is reason enough for some kind of revolution. Because the corporate bean-counters have been allowed to infiltrate Public Radio, we are no longer allowed to have Marian McPartland.
Music is being used as both a weapon and hostage by those in power. WBEZ jazz-turned-talk radio is just a recent high profile example. The anti-art, logic-defying corporate attacks are continually making sneaky inroads into our daily lives. Executives who run pharmacies and supermarkets have come up with the notion that revenues will increase if they blast inescapable rock music overhead while we innocently try to shop for groceries or pick up our prescriptions.
A few weeks before Christmas, I went to my local suburban Pier One store for some holiday browsing. The minute I got inside, I was bombarded by the usual unavoidable "background" music. This is annoying all year long, but during the Christmas shopping season, I was at least hoping to get a little relief with some mood-enhancing seasonal fare.
But instead of the feel-good, sales-inducing Ella or Frank or Armstrong tunes that would have put me into the sing-along mode, I was stunned into a grumpy silence by the blaring sounds of a garage-band-in-a-box version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." As I stood there in disbelief while the assault of the ruined holiday classics continued, I looked around and saw that every customer in the place was in my "demographic." In other words, no Generation X-ers, no backward caps, no teens, no kids.
So why blast these perverted technopop destroyers of "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" at adult shoppers, instead of offering the much more appropriate (and of course totally superior) Bing Crosby/Nat Cole originals? Because somewhere, in some office, some corporate whiz-kid has once again exerted his influence in a situation for which he is not the least bit qualified.
The fact that a spastic two-chord version of "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" is all wrong for a Mel Torme-loving clientele like those in my demographic group will never be addressed. The corporate "suit" in charge (much like the ubiquitous hotel Food & Beverage Director and the young, arrogant bistro manager) will soon move on to some other job, where he/she will be involved in foisting more inappropriate musical choices onto the public.
Then there's the disparity between the kind of live music people want to hear and the kind of music they're getting. This hits me the hardest where I live as a performing jazz artist with fans I care about. Since I play many nights a week in a variety of settings and am in personal contact with a good cross-section of active listeners, I continually hear the ongoing concerns of a very disappointed jazz public. These people are expressing real sadness and dismay over the limited and inappropriate music that is now being tossed their way, not just via the media, but even at some of our local clubs, and at our city festivals. There is a growing passion to reclaim the classy, sophisticated music that used to be ours.
While everything wasn't perfect back in the sixties and seventies(as our memories sometimes trick us into believing) the fact
remains that there was a high level of quality that was expected by the music loving public. But these days, just like at Pier One,
the listener is at the mercy of decisions being made by the uninitiated, the uniformed, and the uninspired.
Short of boycotting all stores, award shows and public music events, something has to be done to curtail the power of the people currently in charge. It's easy enough to avoid the Jane Monheit-wannabes at local winebars or the college jazz majors reading out of Realbooks at suburban steakhouses. But as adults who would like to participate and invest our energies in worthwhile music on a broader scale, we are tired of being force-fed inferior goods. As consumers and providers and enjoyers of the arts, we do not want to have our grocery shopping infiltrated by earsplitting rock, and we don't want to see the Grammy go to a disgustingly violent non-song. And if we can't control those things, then we would at least like to have our city jazz festivals not be compromised by the too often out-of touch people currently booking our public events. Their periodic susceptibilities to jazz hoaxes are forcing increasing numbers of real jazz fans to run for the exits. The Revolution can start here.
On the keep-thinking-positive side of 2007, let's stay vigilant that the corporate body snatchers don't "get to" WDCB; and let's fervently hope that Joe Segal finds (or has already found) a new location for the Jazz Showcase, truly one of Chicago's great musical treasures.
Judy Roberts, named "Chicago's Favorite Jazz Woman" by the Chicago Tribune, is a Grammy-nominated pianist/vocalist/recording artist who has been serving the Chicago jazz scene for many years. For more information please go to www.judyroberts.com.