No American should need an introduction to singer, songwriter, producer and activist Harry Belafonte.
But a good one can be found in the documentary, “Sing Your Song.”
An even better one can be found in Belafonte’s autobiography (written with Michael Shnayerson), “My Song,” which is among the best books I know of for contextualizing 20th-century African American music and culture within social and political revolution, and which contains a riveting (and if Belafonte is to be believed, transformative) moment in which Robert F. Kennedy essentially gets told off (pages 267-68).
I bring up Belafonte because I just got an email informing me that he was recently presented with an honorary doctor of music degree at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. According to a press release, the degree was awarded “in recognition of Belafonte’s inspiring musical and humanitarian achievements, exposing America to world music and challenging and overturning racial barriers across the globe.”
Read the entire article at ARTINFO.
Fanfare For Brooklyn (A Brass Fest is Born)
I played trumpet in junior high band, in Brooklyn. My father-in-law is a professional trumpeter. When I’m in New Orleans, I hang out with trombonists and tuba players.
Brass players are their own breed, with calloused lips and unusual ideas about harmony and volume.
Earl McIntyre was born in Brooklyn. His career as a trombonist, composer an arranger includes work with a long list of famous names that spans genres and generations: Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, among others, and the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, with which he was associated for more than 20 years.
He’s gathered some of his best brass-wielding friends in his (and my) home borough for his first annual “Brooklyn Brass Festival,” March 7-9 at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and Long Island University’s Kumble Theater (for a schedule, scroll down or go here). It includes a tribute to one of McIntyre’s closest collaborators, the late trumpeter Lester Bowie, featuring the brilliant trumpeter Tom Harrell and including Bowie’s rarely (as in inly once before) performed piece, “Beyond The Gray Haze.”
For anyone who plays, teaches or studies brass instruments (like McIntyre, most of these musicians are distinguished educators) or anyone in Brooklyn who just likes the sound of them, this festival should offer many and rare joys (such as 11 trombones in one band). The website says that students attend free.
We discussed the event via email:
How and why did you create the Brooklyn Brass Festival?
I created it to increase the brass presence in the New York City area. Years ago, we had many stores and vendors dedicated to selling brass and band instruments in New York. Now, we have very few. New York City students receive a limited amount of exposure to band instruments. We had brass conferences and other events where professionals met and shared ideas. Up and coming artists met masters of their craft.
We no longer have that for various reasons, including the cost of real estate, hotel prices, and changes in educational priorities. Brooklyn, as a borough, and both the Brooklyn Conservatory and Long Island University as sponsors strike me as components of what could be a positive situation. We hope to make this an annual event.
Do you think the festival communicates anything about the identity of brass players, and about Brooklyn’s scene?
I think it communicates Brooklyn’s “cutting edge” status within the arts community. Things that aren’t possible in other areas of New York for various reasons are occurring here. As for brass players, I think many of us miss the camaraderie that our community had years ago. Things are a bit far-flung, making it harder for us to exchange ideas, and certain performance practices are much easier to exchange live instead of online.
What do you think audiences will get out of this that they don’t normally get from the New York scene?
Students will learn how to improve their abilities and develop a greater understanding of the various cultures that use brass instruments to perform their music. General audiences will see great brass players in a higher concentration than in other situations. Also, we’re presenting the New York premiere of Lester Bowie’s “Beyond The Gray Haze.” This work has only been performed once—in Chicago, 15 years ago—and never in a brass/percussion configuration with trumpet master Tom Harrell, and an all-star version of [Bowie’s former band] Brass Fantasy. We’ve got the incredible [trombonist] Steve Turre! A David Taylor-Slide Ride event featuring 11 trombones!
What were your experiences with Lester Bowie like?
I met and began to work with Lester Bowie through the “Musicians of Brooklyn Initiative”. This was an organization Lester, [alto saxophonist] Oliver Lake and [pianist] Cecil Taylor started in order to increase music performance situations in Brooklyn. I later went on to write quite a bit for Brass Fantasy and for special projects involving the Art Ensemble of Chicago [of which Bowie was a founding member] and other bands.
Lester and I had similar backgrounds. Family bands, brass bands, the Salvation Army band. We also both had a wide musical concept, and a love for musical humor.
Lester never told me what to write. I do remember him telling me this, when he had me do an arrangement of “My Way”: “All the things you always wanted to do to the tune that no would let you do—Do that for me.”
Brooklyn Conservatory of Music presents the
First Annual Brooklyn Brass Festival
in Association with the
Long Island University Brooklyn Campus
March 7-9, 2014
Event locations
BCM Concert hall
LIU Brooklyn Campus
LIU Kumble Theater LIU Kumble Theater
Friday March 7th
Steve Turre Quintet & 7:30 & 9pm BCM Concert Hall
Saturday, March 8 Long Island University Brooklyn Campus
10:00 am-6:00 pm Exhibits
10:00 am-1:00 pm Spotlight Performance with High School/College Band & critique
Bob Stewart, Conrad Herwig, Wayne Escoffery, Jerome Harris
Lunch Break 1-2pm (vendors remain operational)
2:00-3:20 “Classical, Jazz & Beyond” Workshop for Euphonium & Tuba with Dave Bargeron
2:00-3:20 pm Art of French horn Improvisation” Workshop with Jeff Scott
2:00-3:20 Jimmy Owens Wilmer Wise Trumpet discussion.
3:40- 5:00 pm Trombone Workshop (Conrad Herwig)
3:40- 5:00 Rhythm master class (Jerome Harris)
3:40-5:00 Wayne Escoffrey saxophone master class
5:00-6:00 Exhibits continue
6:00-7:00) Break
7:00-9:00pm
Brass Fantasy
Tribute Concert to Lester Bowie with Brass Fantasy/Carnival with guest artist
Tom Harrell
“Lester Bowie Day Award” to Deborah Bowie
(Lester Bowie’s wife)
Sunday March 9th
BCM 3pm
Dave Taylor Solo set
Slide Ride
Round table Discussion on Contemporary trombone
(where is it going and why?)
I played trumpet in junior high band, in Brooklyn. My father-in-law is a professional trumpeter. When I’m in New Orleans, I usually hang out with trombonists and tuba players.
Brass players are their own breed, with calloused lips and, often, unusual ideas about harmony and volume.
Earl McIntyre, who was born in Brooklyn. His career as a trombonist, composer an arranger includes work with a long list of famous names that spans genres and generations: Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, among others, and the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, with which he was associated for more than 20 years.
He’s gathered some of his best brass-wielding friends, including trombonists Steve Turre, Dave Taylor and Conrad Herwig, and trumpeter Tom Harrell, for his fist annual “Brooklyn Brass Festival” (for a schedule, scroll down or go here). It includes a special tribute to one of McIntyre’s closest collaborators, the late trumpeter Lester Bowie, and includes Bowie’s rarely (as in inly once before) performed piece, “Beyond The Gray Haze.”
For anyone who plays, teaches or studies brass instruments (like McIntyre, most of these musicians are distinguished educators) or anyone in Brooklyn who just likes the sound of it should offer many and rare joys.
We discussed the event via email:
How and why did you create the Brooklyn Brass Festival?
I created it to increase the brass presence in the New York City area. Years ago, we had many stores and vendors dedicated to selling brass and band instruments in New York. Now, we have very few. New York City students receive a limited amount of exposure to band instruments. We had brass conferences and other events where professionals met and shared ideas. Up and coming artists met masters of their craft.
We no longer have that for various reasons, including the cost of real estate, hotel prices, and changes in educational priorities. Brooklyn, as a borough, and both the Brooklyn Conservatory and Long Island University as sponsors strike me as components of what could be a positive situation. We hope to make this an annual event.
Do you think the festival communicates anything about the identity of brass players, and about Brooklyn’s scene?
I think it communicates Brooklyn’s “cutting edge” status within the arts community. Things that aren’t possible in other areas of New York for various reasons are occurring here. As for brass players, I think many of us miss the camaraderie that our community had years ago. Things are a bit far-flung, making it harder for us to exchange ideas, and certain performance practices are much easier to exchange live instead of online.
What do you think audiences will get out of this that they don’t normally get from the New York scene?
Students will learn how to improve their abilities and develop a greater understanding of the various cultures that use brass instruments to perform their music. General audiences will see great brass players in a higher concentration than in other situations. Also, we’re presenting the New York premiere of Lester Bowie’s “Beyond The Gray Haze.” This work has only been performed once—in Chicago, 15 years ago—and never in a brass/percussion configuration with trumpet master Tom Harrell, and an all-star version of [Bowie’s former band] Brass Fantasy. We’ve got the incredible [trombonist] Steve Turre! A David Taylor-Slide Ride event featuring 11 trombones!
What were your experiences with Lester Bowie like?
I met and began to work with Lester Bowie through the “Musicians of Brooklyn Initiative”. This was an organization Lester, [alto saxophonist] Oliver Lake and [pianist] Cecil Taylor started in order to increase music performance situations in Brooklyn. I later went on to write quite a bit for Brass Fantasy and for special projects involving the Art Ensemble of Chicago [of which Bowie was a founding member] and other bands.
Lester and I had similar backgrounds. Family bands, brass bands, the Salvation Army band. We also both had a wide musical concept, and a love for musical humor.
Lester never told me what to write. I do remember him telling me this, when he had me do an arrangement of “My Way”: “All the things you always wanted to do to the tune that no would let you do—Do that for me.”
Brooklyn Conservatory of Music presents
First Annual Brooklyn Brass Festival in Association with the
Long Island University Brooklyn Campus
March 7-9, 2014
Event locations
BCM Concert hall
LIU Brooklyn Campus
LIU Kumble Theater LIU Kumble Theater
Friday March 7th
Steve Turre Quintet & 7:30 & 9pm BCM Concert Hall
Saturday, March 8 Long Island University Brooklyn Campus
10:00 am-6:00 pm Exhibits
10:00 am-1:00 pm Spotlight Performance with High School/College Band & critique
Bob Stewart, Conrad Herwig, Wayne Escoffery, Jerome Harris
Lunch Break 1-2pm (vendors remain operational)
2:00-3:20 “Classical, Jazz & Beyond” Workshop for Euphonium & Tuba with Dave Bargeron
2:00-3:20 pm Art of French horn Improvisation” Workshop with Jeff Scott
2:00-3:20 Jimmy Owens Wilmer Wise Trumpet discussion.
3:40- 5:00 pm Trombone Workshop (Conrad Herwig)
3:40- 5:00 Rhythm master class (Jerome Harris)
3:40-5:00 Wayne Escoffrey saxophone master class
5:00-6:00 Exhibits continue
6:00-7:00) Break
7:00-9:00pm
Brass Fantasy
Tribute Concert to Lester Bowie with Brass Fantasy/Carnival with guest artist
Tom Harrell
“Lester Bowie Day Award” to Deborah Bowie
(Lester Bowie’s wife)
Sunday March 9th
BCM 3pm
Dave Taylor Solo set
Slide Ride
Round table Discussion on Contemporary trombone
(where is it going and why?)
Pianist Danilo Pérez Opens a Jazz Club, and a Conversation About Culture
Were he not a brilliant pianist and composer, an insightful educator and a forceful advocate for culture as a primary means of transnational relations and economic development, Danilo Pérez would still be the kind of guy you’d want to hang around—for his charm, positivity and seriousness of purpose. He looks you squarely in the eye while conversing—to engage, not to challenge—yet is willing to talk about challenging things.
Read the full article here.
Now Playing (new & forthcoming CDs)
Matthew Shipp Trio Root of Things (Relative Pitch, March 18): Here’s what I wrote about pianist Matthew Shipp in a 2010 Wall Street Journal piece: “Shipp’s style knows no single pattern…. Even on his earliest recordings, some 20 years ago—specifically those in a quartet led by the powerhouse saxophonist David S. Ware—Shipp stirred up fervent rhythmic propulsion and wove fresh, web-like harmonic patterns. His playing sounded new then, and does still.” Update: Still does. Continue reading “Now Playing (new & forthcoming CDs)”
Sport of Jazz, Jazz of Sport
Bassist Christian McBride has been scoring big lately.
Last year, he released two acclaimed CDs—“People Music,” from his Inside Straight septet, and “Out Here,” which introduced a sharply refined trio with pianist Christian Sands and drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. (both on Mack Avenue Jazz). In 2013, he also assumed a post as jazz advisor for The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), where he serves as artistic director for the annual TD James Moody Democracy of Jazz Festival.
Still, McBride’s got to feel a bit like a loser.
His beloved 76ers, the basketball team from his hometown, Philadelphia, are a mess, posting the second-worst record in the NBA.
That’s got to hurt for McBride, who is a true sports guy—enough so to contribute to the popular sports website The Bleacher Report. (Here’s a piece he wrote about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.)
So it makes perfect sense that on Sunday, March 2, at NJPAC’s Victoria Theater, McBride will host “Jazz Meets Sports.” Continue reading “Sport of Jazz, Jazz of Sport”
Bruce Lundvall On Playing By Ear
My January Wall Street Journal Cultural Conversation with Don Was, president of Blue Note Records, began with a sincere tip of the hat—via onstage hat-tips from pianist Jason Moran and Robert Glasper—to Bruce Lundvall, who ran that company for 25 years and who continues to provide guidance as chairman emeritus.
Lundvall’s story is a great one, about a singular man, maybe the last of his breed of music executive, whose work spanned a few important eras at a few major record labels, companies that also may be the last of their breeds.
In a July post, I interviewed writer Dan Ouellette, who was then working on “Playing by Ear,” a book documenting Lundvall’s half-century career.
Now that book is available. You can find it at Amazon, or by going to the ArtistShare page.
As he did with a previous biography of bassist Ron Carter, Ouellette pursued an interesting path, developing this book through the fan-funded Artistshare website. Besides forgoing a traditional publisher and offering readers various forms of participation in the process, Ouellette worked in a nontraditional biography form, he says, inserting “snapshot” chapters within the narrative of Lundvall’s life story. “A reader can choose to read the entire story on Bruce’s Elektra experience,” he says, “or choose to read the focused sections on Bobby McFerrin or Whitney Houston or Ruben Blades. This whole setup offers the reader options. Most people read a book cover to cover without skipping around. This format allows people to skip around at their leisure, kind of like someone listening to a CD and selecting different tracks to play versus the entire album.”
Here’s a brief excerpt, courtesy of the author: Continue reading “Bruce Lundvall On Playing By Ear”
Whole Gritty City
It’s not often that a documentary about how real culture transforms actual lives airs on Saturday-night network TV.
I’m not talking about a lucky aspirant getting plucked out of ordinary existence and voted into stardom by a celebrity panel (though I suppose that’s a form of transformation, too, and maybe even a vehicle for someone’s idea of culture).
What I mean is the way that rigorous and deep training by musicians steeped in both excellence and jazz culture offers boys and girls in New Orleans a path away from danger and despair and toward something admirable, promising and, yes, frequently swinging.
That’s the story told by “The Whole Gritty City,” a poignant, feature-length documentary that goes behind the scenes with three dedicated New Orleans marching band directors— Wilbert Rawlins Jr., Lonzie Jackson and Derrick Tabb—and that airs this Saturday, Feb. 15 (9pm EST, 8 Central). No narration. No voiceover commentary. Just real life, real music and the connections and contrasts between the two. And sometimes the camera is held by one of those young musicians. (You can find a trailer here, and another website with useful links here.)
The film is billed as “48 Hours Presents: The Whole Gritty City,” and the link to the true-crime newsmagazine program makes sense, not just because the school-based marching-band programs in New Orleans may be among the city’s most effective safeguards against violent crime, but due to the genesis of the film itself.
I first met Richard Barber, a “48 Hours” editor-producer (who created this film with cinematographer and photojournalist Andre Lambertson) in early 2007, in New Orleans. Barber was researching a “48 Hours” episode investigating two murders that sent shock waves through New Orleans. Continue reading “Whole Gritty City”
Fresh Spots for New Sounds: Ibeam Brooklyn
There was an excellent panel discussion at the City of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center Monday night, titled “Jazz and New York: A Fragile Economy,” within a worthy series called “Cultural Capital: The Promise and Price of New York’s Creative Economy.” (The series continues Feb. 25 with a conversation between composer Steve Reich and critic Justin Davidson, followed by a performance by Reich and friends of the composer’s “Clapping Music” and “Mallet Quartet.”)
I’ll transcribe my notes and unpack some of the issues discussed Monday in another post soon, and they relate well to the stuff I’ve been writing of late about both New York and New Orleans..
For now, I’ll simply mention that when the subject of venues came up, pianist Jason Moran (one of the three panelists, with critic Gary Giddins as moderator) cited a few places run by musicians that he thought were especially dynamic in terms of exposing worthy talents, nurturing new audiences and creating modest and self-sustaining business models: in Manhattan, John Zorn’s club, The Stone; and in Brooklyn, Matt Garrison’s Shapeshifter Lab, which is among my current favorite music spots, and Ohad Talmor’s Seeds, where I heard one of the most memorable sets of 2013.
I’d add to that list Ibeam Brooklyn. On his website, trombonist Brian Drye describes his place this way:
…a performance, rehearsal and teaching space for professional musicians and students located in the Gowanus area of Brooklyn, NY. [directions here] Our goal is to foster a community of innovative musicians, educators and students in a clean, comfortable environment. Ibeam Brooklyn features a Schimmel Concert Grand piano, a vintage Gretsch drumset and a state of the art sound system. Ibeam supports established and emerging artists by providing the rare opportunity to experiment with new works.
In February, Ibeam will host residencies by two pianists, Aruán Ortiz (Feb. 13-15) and Mara Rosenbloom (Feb. 27-March 1), each leading three different bands, some of which include the likes of saxophonist Darius Jones and singer Fay Victor. (Scroll down for full listings for these gigs.)
In an email exchange, here’s how Drye described the genesis of his venue: Continue reading “Fresh Spots for New Sounds: Ibeam Brooklyn”
When Nicholas (Payton) Met Philip (Seymour Hoffman)
That headline is intentionally misleading.
Yet not as misleading as this one, from New York’s Daily News: “Jazz saxophonist Robert Vineberg, arrested for heroin dealing in Philip Seymour Hoffman net, has A-list recording credits”
And neither is as clever or cynical as this one, from trumpeter Nicholas Payton‘s website: “Another Shot in the Arm for Jazz,” which ran atop Payton’s riff in response to the Daily News piece.
Through his music, Payton has attracted a wide range of listeners and consistent acclaim: His most recent CD, “Sketches of Spain” (BMF Records), revisits the classic Miles Davis-Gil Evans collaboration of the same name, expanding his working group into a 19-piece ensemble conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.
Though his website, Payton has angered a great number of people during the last few years, mostly through a series of blog posts beginning with one on November 27, 2011 titled, “On Why Jazz Isn’t Cool Anymore.” His prose style can veer toward anger, his posts sometimes sounding like rants. Yet he nearly always has good and necessary points to make, not least that to talk about the word “jazz” and about whatever music you associate with that word is also, at some point (if you’re honest and well-educated) to consider the issue of race. Payton’s 2011 post, which was structured almost like a poem, contained these lines: Continue reading “When Nicholas (Payton) Met Philip (Seymour Hoffman)”
What The Songwriting World Needs Now
Burt Bacharach‘s music has resonated through every generation and genre since he first started composing hit songs more than a half-century ago. His memorable and distinctive music, along with the words of his longtime collaborator, lyricist Hal David, gets a focused celebration six nights each week at the New York Theater Workshop, through “What’s It All About?—Bacharach Reimagined” (which has been extended through Feb. 15th.)
I’ve not yet seen the show, but Charles Isherwood, writing in The New York Times, assures that it isn’t “another jukebox musical manufactured to supply baby boomers with a sweet rush of synthetic nostalgia.” Instead, Isherwood writes, “the musical reinvigorates the staged-songbook genre by stripping familiar pop songs of their shiny veneer, and by digging into the melancholy and yearning that suffuses so many of the hits Mr. Bacharach wrote.”
Aside from his compositions and David’s lyrics, Bacharach’s own words commanded attention recently, lending a different sort of context to his catalog of hits on the Opinion page of The Wall Street Journal. In an essay titled “What The Songwriting World Needs Now,” he implored the U.S. Justice Department to revise the consent decrees that govern licenses (and therefore, pay, for composers, lyricists and musicians) in order to align with a digital world that, under the current scheme, amounts to a badly rigged game (with artists coming out the losers). Bacharach began by describing his humble beginnings: Continue reading “What The Songwriting World Needs Now”