Dr. Nelson Harrison's Posts - Pittsburgh Jazz Network
2024-03-19T04:38:19Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
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THE GEORGE BENSON INTERVIEW
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2024-03-16:1992552:BlogPost:719709
2024-03-16T22:17:00.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
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PHAROAH SANDERS TRIBUTE BAND at KENTE ARTS
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2024-03-13:1992552:BlogPost:719705
2024-03-13T03:26:33.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
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PLAYWRIGHT'S THEATER SEASON opens with DINAH by Ernest McCarty, Jr.
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2024-03-06:1992552:BlogPost:719983
2024-03-06T00:03:07.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
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<tbody><tr><td class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent" valign="top"><h1 class="yiv3235441085null">Dinah: a musical revue</h1>
<h2 class="yiv3235441085null">Tickets now…</h2>
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<tbody><tr><td valign="top" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><h1 class="yiv3235441085null">Dinah: a musical revue</h1>
<h2 class="yiv3235441085null">Tickets now available!</h2>
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<tbody><tr><td valign="top" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><p><img align="right" alt="Dinah (2015) production photo" height="133" src="https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmcusercontent.com%2F45a76befc0c5852cf37fb0a7a%2Fimages%2F0a389dc0-0c3b-aaa1-fbdb-9706ff49ace9.jpg&t=1709682658&ymreqid=d41d8cd9-8f00-b204-1c06-bc001d01e000&sig=IZrKAJFMv2hJzu6yt107EQ--~D" width="200"/>By Ernest McCarty<br/>Directed by Mark Clayton Southers<br/>At Madison Arts Center, 3401 Milwaukee Street<br/>April 5th – April 28th 2024<br/><br/>Set during the last year of the short life of the remarkable woman called the Queen of the Blues. Dinah includes a riveting array of musical numbers and biographical vignettes. This show provides a powerful insight into the tragic and often controversial life of Dinah Washington, one of the most popular African-American singers of the 1950s.<br/> </p>
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<tbody><tr><td valign="top" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><h3>Starring Delana Flowers as Dinah Washington</h3>
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<tbody><tr><td valign="top" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><h3><br/><span>With top Pittsburgh musicians:</span></h3>
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<tbody><tr><td align="center" valign="top" class="yiv3235441085mcnCaptionBottomImageContent"><img alt="" src="https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmcusercontent.com%2F45a76befc0c5852cf37fb0a7a%2Fimages%2Fd51f092b-426e-0798-9276-a25c22970803.jpg&t=1709682658&ymreqid=d41d8cd9-8f00-b204-1c06-bc001d01e000&sig=HUjQtRbIcqCAShFrVu5UXQ--~D" width="200" class="yiv3235441085mcnImage"/></td>
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<tr><td valign="top" width="564" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><div>Dwayne Fulton on piano</div>
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<tbody><tr><td align="center" valign="top" class="yiv3235441085mcnCaptionBottomImageContent"><img alt="" src="https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmcusercontent.com%2F45a76befc0c5852cf37fb0a7a%2Fimages%2F9924ee63-71c1-3d49-016a-44febc73fc16.jpg&t=1709682658&ymreqid=d41d8cd9-8f00-b204-1c06-bc001d01e000&sig=53tNen9hYOr0AuCNpmizwg--~D" width="200" class="yiv3235441085mcnImage"/></td>
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<tbody><tr><td align="center" valign="top" class="yiv3235441085mcnCaptionBottomImageContent"><img alt="" src="https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmcusercontent.com%2F45a76befc0c5852cf37fb0a7a%2Fimages%2Fe68936bc-3937-9ca9-b611-ef3ed854ff7d.png&t=1709682658&ymreqid=d41d8cd9-8f00-b204-1c06-bc001d01e000&sig=lgngsCBtgMGjgwwTPMw_DA--~D" width="200" class="yiv3235441085mcnImage"/></td>
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<tr><td valign="top" width="564" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><div>Dwayne Dolphin on upright bass<br/> </div>
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<tr><td valign="top" width="564" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><div>The incomparable Roger Humphries on drums</div>
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<tr><td valign="top" width="564" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><div>Special guest Royce Jones</div>
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<tbody><tr><td valign="top" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><h3><br/><span>Also featuring:</span><br/> </h3>
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<tbody><tr><td align="center" valign="top" class="yiv3235441085mcnCaptionBottomImageContent"><img alt="" src="https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmcusercontent.com%2F45a76befc0c5852cf37fb0a7a%2Fimages%2F6d71fade-f3b1-fce8-3c78-b4a25cd9516c.jpg&t=1709682658&ymreqid=d41d8cd9-8f00-b204-1c06-bc001d01e000&sig=Vj2coYMN94Q4LI0_nnVANg--~D" width="200" class="yiv3235441085mcnImage"/></td>
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<tr><td valign="top" width="564" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><div>Cheryl El-Walker</div>
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<tr><td valign="top" width="564" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><div>Katy Cotten</div>
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<tr><td valign="top" width="564" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><div>Les Howard</div>
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<tr><td valign="top" width="564" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><div>Sam Lothard</div>
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<tbody><tr><td align="center" valign="middle" class="yiv3235441085mcnButtonContent"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" title="Details and Tickets" target="_blank" href="https://pghplaywrights.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=45a76befc0c5852cf37fb0a7a&id=745b7c1ad6&e=606f41eb73" class="yiv3235441085mcnButton">Details and Tickets</a></td>
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<tbody><tr><td valign="top" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><h1 class="yiv3235441085null">Announcing PPTCO's 2024 Season!</h1>
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<tbody><tr><td valign="top" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><h3 class="yiv3235441085null">Save $25 off single ticket prices with a season subscription!</h3>
<h3 class="yiv3235441085null"> </h3>
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<tbody><tr><td valign="top" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><h1>Our 2024 Season</h1>
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<h2><img align="right" alt="Dinah (2015) production photo" height="133" src="https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmcusercontent.com%2F45a76befc0c5852cf37fb0a7a%2Fimages%2F0a389dc0-0c3b-aaa1-fbdb-9706ff49ace9.jpg&t=1709682658&ymreqid=d41d8cd9-8f00-b204-1c06-bc001d01e000&sig=IZrKAJFMv2hJzu6yt107EQ--~D" width="200"/>DINAH</h2>
<p>By Ernest McCarty<br/>Directed by Mark Clayton Southers<br/>At Madison Arts Center, 3401 Milwaukee Street<br/>April 6th - April 28th 2024</p>
<p>Set during the last year of the short life of the remarkable woman called the Queen of the Blues. Dinah includes a riveting array of musical numbers and biographical vignettes. This show provides a powerful insight into the tragic and often controversial life of one of the most popular African-American singers of the 1950s, Dinah Washington.</p>
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<tbody><tr><td valign="top" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><h1> </h1>
<h2><img align="right" alt="Playwright Monteze Freeland" height="230" src="https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmcusercontent.com%2F45a76befc0c5852cf37fb0a7a%2Fimages%2F68a6469a-5416-3e8f-7727-b47d474e9d93.jpg&t=1709682658&ymreqid=d41d8cd9-8f00-b204-1c06-bc001d01e000&sig=kkgYNESGDrbFzliG7yRfhg--~D" width="150"/>FISHY WOO WOO</h2>
<p>By Monteze Freeland<br/>Directed by Lovell McFadden<br/>At Madison Arts Center, 3401 Milwaukee Street<br/>May 31st - June 16th 2024<br/>World premiere!</p>
<p>Shawn’s best friends will do anything to protect his heart from being broken again. When they accompany Shawn to collect the last of his things from the apartment he once shared with his ex-partner Jonathan they discover secrets, lies, and an uninvited guest and make it their mission to keep Shawn oblivious. Fishy Woo Woo is a comedy highlighting friendship, chosen family and a little revenge when the facts stop adding up.<br/> </p>
<h2><img align="right" alt="Radio Golf (2013) production photo" height="225" src="https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmcusercontent.com%2F45a76befc0c5852cf37fb0a7a%2Fimages%2Fa2704a8a-f48e-b677-652d-04b63d3624b3.jpg&t=1709682658&ymreqid=d41d8cd9-8f00-b204-1c06-bc001d01e000&sig=Zc5esf2wIIFyYMvoCH1GKQ--~D" width="150"/>RADIO GOLF</h2>
<p>By August Wilson<br/>Directed by Montae Russell<br/>Outdoors at August Wilson House<br/>August 10 - September 14 2024<br/>Friday & Saturday at 8 PM, Thursday & Sunday at 7 PM<br/><br/>Real estate developer Harmond Wilks is determined to become the first black mayor of Pittsburgh, on a mission to revive his blighted childhood neighborhood. As Wilks confronts characters from the past, he is forced to question how pursuing change could put his neighborhood’s history at risk.</p>
<h2><img align="right" alt="festival mask logo" height="140" src="https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmcusercontent.com%2F45a76befc0c5852cf37fb0a7a%2Fimages%2F8e534ad1-d80d-0779-dcc0-556aabea70f6.png&t=1709682658&ymreqid=d41d8cd9-8f00-b204-1c06-bc001d01e000&sig=3lZZGb70SBACEYf0XPRA4w--~D" width="150"/>THEATRE FESTIVAL IN BLACK & WHITE</h2>
<p>At Madison Arts Center, 3401 Milwaukee Street<br/>October 5th - 27th 2024</p>
<p>Eight one-act plays by local playwrights in two programs.<br/><br/>Festival Coordinator Ashley Southers<br/> </p>
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<tbody><tr><td valign="top" class="yiv3235441085mcnTextContent"><h4>Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company thanks the following for supporting our season of plays and special projects:</h4>
<p>Mid Atlantic Arts Regional Resilience Fund <br/>Hillman Foundation<br/>Allegheny Regional Asset District<br/>The Heinz Endowments:<br/>Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh<br/>Opportunity Fund<br/>Pennsylvania Council on the Arts<br/>The Pittsburgh Foundation<br/>Richard King Mellon Foundation<br/>Eden Hall Foundation<br/>And our Donor's Circle and other individual donors<br/>Thank you!</p>
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tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2024-02-11:1992552:BlogPost:719861
2024-02-11T21:57:36.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
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B. Marshall, Founder, Stop the Violence Pgh
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2024-02-10:1992552:BlogPost:719664
2024-02-10T01:41:34.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
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Black History Spotlight<br />
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B. Marshall, Founder, Stop the Violence Pgh<br />
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Our dedicated staff and volunteers are always asked the same question: Who is B. Marshall and What Does He Do? We thought we would take this opportunity to shed some light on this most frequently asked question!<br />
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William B. Marshall is the Founder of Stop the Violence Pittsburgh, a local grass roots organization created in 2012 to help curb Violence among Young adults and youth in Allegheny county and to educate the…
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Black History Spotlight<br />
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B. Marshall, Founder, Stop the Violence Pgh<br />
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Our dedicated staff and volunteers are always asked the same question: Who is B. Marshall and What Does He Do? We thought we would take this opportunity to shed some light on this most frequently asked question!<br />
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William B. Marshall is the Founder of Stop the Violence Pittsburgh, a local grass roots organization created in 2012 to help curb Violence among Young adults and youth in Allegheny county and to educate the community on African American culture and history.<br />
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Since it's founding, using his organization, Mr. Marshall has produced several youth educational programs and events such as the annual High School Students Black History Month Summit, and the annual Juneteenth Youth Fest, in partnership with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Penguins and Steelers. Since 2018 these programs have serviced over 5,000 students in Western PA.<br />
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In 2013, Mr. Marshall started the annual Pittsburgh Juneteenth Celebration, and in 2016, he started a re-enactment of the 1870 Grand Jubilee of Freemen Parade originally created by Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, the National Equal Rights League of Western PA, and other religious leaders of his day.<br />
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In 2018 and 2019, Mr. Marshall created the Pittsburgh Black Music Festival and Pittsburgh Soul Food Festival, as a tribute to Black Musical icons from the City of Pittsburgh and Black food operators from the 18th and 19th centuries.<br />
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With the production of his many festival events, in 2023, B. Marshall brought together over 100,000 attendees from inside Allegheny and across the country and helped generated $9 million dollars back into the economy, he helped some 200 local small business vendors create a economic impact of $1.6 million back into the local communities and produced and hosted the largest Juneteenth Celebration in the nation. These statistics were reported and released by VisitPITTSBURGH and Stop the Violence Pittsburgh in its annual Economic Impact Survey Reports for 2023.<br />
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B. Marshall has partnered with various local organizations, the City of Pittsburgh, Foundations, Corporate Businesses, Individuals and Groups to produce his many events and programs.<br />
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These festival events celebration and promote the rich history of Black Pittsburghers from the founding of the City in 1758, highlight the cultural contributions of Black Pittsburghers since 1788 when Four (4) Black Men signed the original Petition to create Allegheny County, and promotes the spiritual aspect of Black Pittsburgh since the establishment of the first Black Church in Downtown Pittsburgh in 1808!<br />
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B. Marshall believes that it is his duty and responsibility to continue in the footsteps of community forerunners to promote inclusion, economic opportunities, social justice and equity for Black residences in Western PA!<br />
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We Appreciate Your Participation & Support!<br />
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Stop The Violence Pgh
George Benson cites age and health in canceling tour
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2024-02-07:1992552:BlogPost:719944
2024-02-07T18:17:37.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<h1 class="page__title title" id="page-title">George Benson cites age and health in canceling tour</h1>
<span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_24 a2a_target addtoany_list" id=""><small><strong>Share this article</strong></small><span> </span><a class="a2a_button_facebook" href="https://www.soultracks.com/#facebook" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="a2a_label">Facebook</span></a><span> …</span></span>
<h1 class="page__title title" id="page-title">George Benson cites age and health in canceling tour</h1>
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<div class="group-image-body field-group-div"><div class="field field-name-field-story-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://www.soultracks.com/files/stories2/georgebenson-live_by-carl-hyde_8219-v1.jpg" width="562" height="500" alt=""/><blockquote class="image-field-caption"><p>photo credit: Carl Hyde</p>
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<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="expanding-formatter expanding-formatter-processed collapsed"><div class="expanding-formatter-content"><p>(February 5, 2024) Over the past five decades, legendary guitarist and singer<span> </span><strong>George Benson<span> </span></strong>has been a road warrior, performing his magical jazz and soul music around the world. But that time on the road may be coming to a close, as Benson, age 80, announced on social media his cancellation of a planned Summer 2024 tour of the UK in the following way:</p>
<p><span><em>On the advice of George Benson's medical team, we must cancel his upcoming UK tour. </em><em>Unfortunately, it's now the end of a lifetime of bringing his unique music and exciting performances internationally. With a heavy heart and much consideration, George has accepted that the strain of long distance travel is too difficult to endure at this point in his life. </em><em>We are all terribly sorry to disappoint all his fans, especially those holding tickets in the UK.</em></span></p>
<p>In a recording career that has spanned two generations, the seemingly ageless Benson has proven himself one of the most influential and versatile performers in popular music. Discovered at an early age by jazz great (and strong influence) Wes Montgomery, Benson became a jazz star performing first on Columbia, and then on Creed Taylor's CTI label in the early 70s. But it was his signing with Warner Brothers in 1976 and teaming with producer Tommy LiPuma that led to his watershed album, <em>Breezin</em>, a terrific blend of Soul and Jazz that took off like a rocket, fueled by Benson’s smooth cover of Leon Russell's "This Masquerade" (which won the 1976 Grammy for Record of the Year). </p>
<p><em>Breezin'</em> was a multi-million selling smash (unheard of for a jazz record), and introduced the world to a fusion of R&B and jazz that countless artists would eventually incorporate. In fact, the entire Smooth Jazz and Contemporary Jazz formats, now popular around the world, owe more to <em>Breezin' </em>than to any other album.</p>
<p>That began a string of soulful jazz albums and an intense musical love affair between Benson and audiences around the world that continues to this day. And over these five decades, George Benson has been one of the most influential artists, universally loved. Here’s hoping for continued good health and music for Mr. Benson.</p>
<p><em><strong>By Chris Rizik</strong></em></p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-body2 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em>Many thanks to Gary Van den Bussche of Disco Soul Gold for letting us know</em></p>
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For Dizzy Gillespie, Queens Was the Place to Be and to Bop
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2024-01-06:1992552:BlogPost:719367
2024-01-06T05:00:00.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<div id="fullBleedHeaderContent"><div class="css-1xqucq6"><div class="css-cwq3wz"><div class="css-1sojcmr ehdk2mb0"><h1 class="css-g2fq84 e1h9rw200" id="link-4eac77ba"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Rebellious jazz took flight in Harlem at Minton’s Playhouse, but it was nurtured on the tree-lined streets that gave pioneering Black musicians a home.</span></h1>
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<div class="css-yi0xdk e89cr9k0"><p class="css-11vzj2f"><span class="css-1f9pvn2 realestate">Dizzy Gillespie…</span></p>
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<div id="fullBleedHeaderContent"><div class="css-1xqucq6"><div class="css-cwq3wz"><div class="css-1sojcmr ehdk2mb0"><h1 id="link-4eac77ba" class="css-g2fq84 e1h9rw200"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Rebellious jazz took flight in Harlem at Minton’s Playhouse, but it was nurtured on the tree-lined streets that gave pioneering Black musicians a home.</span></h1>
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<div class="css-yi0xdk e89cr9k0"><p class="css-11vzj2f"><span class="css-1f9pvn2 realestate">Dizzy Gillespie during a photo session in 1955.</span><span class="css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span><span>Carl Van Vechten Collection/Getty</span></span></p>
<p class="css-11vzj2f"><span class="css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90"><span>Images</span></span>By <span class="css-1baulvz last-byline"><a href="https://mianjackson.com/" class="css-n8ff4n e1jsehar0">Mia Jackson</a></span></p>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Dizzy Gillespie helped make Minton’s Playhouse famous.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Minton’s in Harlem was where jazz musicians, from out-of-towners to locals performing in nearby big band theaters in Harlem, sought refuge during late-night jam sessions and a new genre, bebop, was born. Gillespie, together with Charlie Parker, is largely considered a pioneer of the rebellious jazz style that diverged from mainstream swing jazz’s emphasis on orchestrated productions and collective harmony. Instead, it ushered in an era of artistic experimentation that better reflected the realities of Black urban life and the talents of Black musicians.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Jam sessions, such as those wonderfully exciting ones held at Minton’s Playhouse, were seedbeds for our new, modern style of music,” Gillespie wrote in his autobiography, “To Be or Not to Bop.”</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But there was another gathering spot for Gillespie and his peers: the three-story Colonial Revival-style building in Corona, Queens, that he bought in 1953.</p>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Jazz clubs were in Harlem. But jazz musicians lived on the tree-lined streets of Queens. While white musicians skedaddled to the suburbs, Black jazz virtuosos sought solace in the neighborhoods where their racial identity was welcomed — ultimately congregating into two enclaves in the borough. The first was in the southeast by Addisleigh Park where the composer Clarence Williams and his wife moved in the 1930s, with Count Basie, Lena Horne, Duke Ellington’s son, Mercer Ellington, and James Brown eventually following suit. The second was in Corona, where Louis Armstrong lived until his death, and a place that Gillespie, fellow trumpeter Clark Terry, and Ella Fitzgerald once called home.</p>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Queens had the charm of the South, conveniences of the northern lifestyle and was close enough to the teeming jazz scene of Harlem without being ensnared. The borough didn’t generate a fresh jazz genre like Harlem. But the borough was an incubator where music got worked out, imagined and revised, as Black musicians were grappling with the commercialization of their craft.</p>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In June, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission honored the formal and informal spaces from which New York’s jazz scene spawned and flourished by designating three sites as landmarks for their cultural significance to modern jazz — the building at 935 St. Nicholas Avenue in Washington Heights where Duke Ellington and Noble Lee Sissle once lived; Minton’s and its home the Hotel Cecil; and Gillespie’s house at 105-19 37th Avenue in Corona.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Although Gillespie lived in Corona after bebop had been established as a genre, he continued to hone his craft while living in Queens. He adopted his iconic bent trumpet and recorded several popular albums, including “Jazz at Massey Hall” (1954), and “Manteca” (1958), “and appeared live in 1956 from his home in a broadcast interview on Edward R. Murrow’s “Person to Person” television program.</p>
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<span class="css-jevhma e13ogyst0">Ernest Gillespie, Mr. Gillespie’s cousin, poses with his son, Philip Gillespie, and daughter, Anita Gillespie-Wallace.</span><span class="css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span><span><span>Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times</span></span></span></div>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Gillespie often invited fellow musicians to his basement to play alongside him.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Dizzy, Babs Gonzales, and I would mainly spend time down in the basement because that’s where he would rehearse,” said Ernest Gillespie, Dizzy’s cousin. Ernest Gillespie, now 96, lived in nearby East Elmhurst during that time and currently resides in Fresh Meadows, Queens.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The basement housed a full set of drums, a piano, and eventually a pool table and train set. The fridge in the basement was always stocked with Carlsberg Elephant, his favorite beer. The walls were adorned with art from other countries, souvenirs collected during his time as the nation’s first jazz ambassador. Starting in 1956, the State Department financed Gillespie and his band to travel across the world promoting democratic values.</p>
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<span class="css-jevhma e13ogyst0">Scrapbook photos of Mr. Gillespie with his family (left), and playing music with Philip Gillespie, in Mr. Gillespie’s home (right).</span><span class="css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span><span><span>Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times</span></span></span><br/></div>
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<span class="css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span><span><span>Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times</span></span></span><br/></div>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Gillespie also nurtured many up-and-coming musicians. “I met Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Junior Mance in that basement,” said Dizzy’s godson, Harris Stratyner, now 68, who was a budding saxophone and clarinet player at the time. “Dizzy really was a teacher. He would teach the young cats how to play and how to follow rhythms and it all happened in his basement in Corona.”</p>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Jeanie Bryson, 65, Gillespie’s daughter and an accomplished singer in her own right, lived in nearby LeFrak City along with her mother, the composer Connie Bryson, who was never married to Gillespie.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The father-daughter relationship, hidden from public view, was limited, but Ms. Bryson recalled how her father would visit and she remembered his mentorship of musicians fondly.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“He helped so many young musicians from different countries and gave these guys an opportunity that was beyond their imagination at the time,” Ms. Bryson said.</p>
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<span class="css-jevhma e13ogyst0">Jeanie Bryson blowing a kiss to her father, Mr. Gillespie, at Dizzy’s Club in Manhattan.</span><span class="css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span><span><span>Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times</span></span></span><br/></div>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Gillespie was married to Lorraine Gillespie, who was also his personal manager. They had no children together, but they built a family in the neighborhood. On the outside, their home was an ordinary red brick building much like the other homes in the area, including their neighbor’s, Louis Armstrong, who lived around the corner. Armstrong’s home was<span> </span><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1555.pdf" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">designated<span> </span></a>a historic landmark in 1988 and opened for public tours in 2003.</p>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Armstrong bought a home in Corona with his wife, Lucille Armstrong, in 1943, a full decade before the Gillespies. Here, he carved out a humble life in a neighborhood of predominantly Italian immigrants and a growing community of middle-income Black residents. “We’re right out here with the rest of the colored folk and the Puerto Ricans and Italians and the Hebrew cats,” Armstrong told Ebony magazine in 1964. “What the hell I care about living in a ‘fashionable’ neighborhood?”</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">His classic hit, “What a Wonderful World,” was written by Bob Thiele and David George Weiss as a tribute to Armstrong’s beloved Corona.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The demographics of the neighborhood have changed in the decades since, with Latino immigrants replacing Italian immigrants in the 1960s, drawn by relatively affordable real estate and a welcoming attitude, the same forces that once lured Black newcomers. Now, the neighborhood is a hub for the next generation of Mexican, Ecuadoreans and Dominican residents.</p>
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<span class="css-jevhma e13ogyst0">The exterior of the Louis Armstrong House Museum located around the corner from Mr. Gillespie’s Corona home.</span><span class="css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span><span><span>Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times</span></span></span><br/></div>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">There are very few public acknowledgments of the period when Black musicians called Corona home. The Corona East Elmhurst Historic Preservation Society has long argued that the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission has not properly recognized the historical significance of Queens properties. The society filed the initial<span> </span><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.change.org/p/melinda-katz-queens-borough-president-corona-east-elmhurst-is-significant-support-the-land-marking-of-gillespie-brown-fitzgerald-and-daly-homes-preserve-of-history-respect-our-community" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">petition</a><span> </span>in 2015 to have Gillespie’s home designated a landmark, but was denied. “Corona East Elmhurst, with its rich history and significant traditions is in jeopardy of becoming a negligible factor in the thought of the world,” the group wrote in the initial petition.</p>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“We felt we needed to create this society to preserve, protect, and promote the history and legacy so future generations will know the greatness of the community,” said Deborah Tyson, one of the founders of the local society.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The landmarking of Gillespie’s home is a step toward memorializing both a jazz legend and a moment when jazz musicians sought refuge in the borough, often overshadowed by the legacy of Harlem and places like Minton’s.</p>
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<span class="css-jevhma e13ogyst0">Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem is considered the birthplace of bebop.</span><span class="css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span><span><span>Librado Romero/The New York Times</span></span></span><br/></div>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Minton’s Playhouse opened on the first floor of the former Hotel Cecil in 1938, a year before the start of World War II. As riots, unemployment and discontent swung into the collective consciousness of Americans in the 1940s, Minton’s provided a sanctuary from wartime and racial tensions allowing Black musicians to tinker with musical styles without fear of retribution and to create new art forms. Bebop was a sonic chronicle of the world as its creators experienced it — a tapestry of anguish, discontent, and soul-stirring improvisation spun from within the marginalized spaces of the music industry.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“One of the really interesting things to think about as this designation is directed to the Hotel Cecil and Minton’s and to Dizzy Gillespie’s home is that it speaks to me of the ways bebop was quite famously developed in clubs like Minton’s, and especially Minton’s, but also a lot of those ideas got worked out in rehearsals that often happened in people’s homes,” said Eric Porter, a professor of history at University of California, Santa Cruz. “Whether they were rehearsing for a recording or just hanging out and thinking about music, the basement studios were really important for the development of bebop as well.”</p>
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<span class="css-jevhma e13ogyst0">The 14,000-square-foot Louis Armstrong Center which opened to the public in 2023.</span><span class="css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span><span><span>Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times</span></span></span><br/></div>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Nonprofits in Queens are building on this moment. The Louis Armstrong House Museum is partnering with Flushing Town Hall and the Kupferberg Center for the Arts to create an interactive digital experience that maps the histories of jazz and hip-hop in Queens. This new effort builds upon the Queens Jazz Trail map originally commissioned by Flushing Town Hall in 1998.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Jazz fans “live across the country or the world and they may never make it to New York, but they are able to engage with our mission and with our stories,” said Regina Bain, the executive director of the Armstrong museum in a news release in 2022.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Across the street from the house museum sits the shiny, 14,000-square-foot Louis Armstrong Center which opened to the public in July. The Louis Armstrong Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens was rebuilt and reopened back in 2018, replacing the 1978 tennis stadium of the same name.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But education still needs to happen locally, particularly within the neighborhood’s public schools, Ms. Tyson said. “We’ve had a lot of musicians and significant people of color who have lived in our community and we wanted to tell the story because we want the children to know,” she said. “The teachers didn’t even know about all this information.”</p>
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<span class="css-jevhma e13ogyst0">The entrance of Mr. Gillespie’s Corona home with graffiti written along the door. </span><span class="css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span><span><span>Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times</span></span></span><br/></div>
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<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">For now, much of the history lives in the memories of residents who lived in the neighborhood as children or can recall their parents’ encounters. “My mother used to talk about how Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong would sit on their stoop and play out in the block and the kids would come around and hang about,” Ms. Tyson said.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The Queens Borough President’s Office, in collaboration with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, has been placing banners, murals and signage along the AirTrain’s John F. Kennedy Airport route from Jamaica, Queens, as a small, but insufficient attempt to bring awareness to the borough’s rich musical heritage.</p>
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“We need to try to preserve the history because there aren’t many people left who know the story of the community,” Ms. Tyson said. “We have places that are worthy of preservation. They may not look like a brownstone or a mansion on Fifth Avenue, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t worthy of preservation as well.”</p>
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MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HANUKKAH AND KWANZAA to our members around the world.
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-12-25:1992552:BlogPost:718933
2023-12-25T02:33:12.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<p></p>
<p>Amid all the gift wrapping, list making, tree decorating, and cookie baking, I'm wishing you a moment of peace and a chance to breathe. Life's such a rush these days, but I'm grateful for you and hoping your holiday season is full of joy.…</p>
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<p></p>
<p>Amid all the gift wrapping, list making, tree decorating, and cookie baking, I'm wishing you a moment of peace and a chance to breathe. Life's such a rush these days, but I'm grateful for you and hoping your holiday season is full of joy.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12335725898?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12335725898?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p>
Billie Holiday Play at homewood Library auditorium
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-11-19:1992552:BlogPost:718177
2023-11-19T01:15:27.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
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Saxophonist brings 6 decades of musical dedication to Monroeville concert
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-11-12:1992552:BlogPost:718222
2023-11-12T05:43:13.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<div class="row"><div class="col-xs-12"><div class="top subsection"> <br></br><div class=""><div class="fa fa-print"><span style="font-size: 2em;">Saxophonist brings 6 decades of musical dedication to Monroeville concert</span></div>
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<div class="row md-push-down sm-push-down"><div class="col-md-8 col-xs-12"><div><div class="author"><div class="columnist"><img alt="Harry Funk" src="https://triblive.com/wp-content/themes/TribLIVE2/assets/visuals/images/mugshots/default.jpg" title="Harry Funk"></img></div>
<div class="author-info"><a class="byline" href="https://triblive.com/author/harry-funk/">HARRY…</a></div>
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<div class="row"><div class="col-xs-12"><div class="top subsection"> <br/><div class=""><div class="fa fa-print"><span style="font-size: 2em;">Saxophonist brings 6 decades of musical dedication to Monroeville concert</span></div>
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<div><div class="author"><div class="columnist"><img src="https://triblive.com/wp-content/themes/TribLIVE2/assets/visuals/images/mugshots/default.jpg" title="Harry Funk" alt="Harry Funk"/></div>
<div class="author-info"><a class="byline" href="https://triblive.com/author/harry-funk/">HARRY FUNK</a><span> </span><a class="fa fa-envelope" href="mailto:hfunk@triblive.com"></a><span> </span><span class="hidden-xs"><span class="">|</span><span> </span>Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023 7:15 p.m.</span></div>
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<div class="caption" align="left">Calvin Stemley plays tenor saxophone with Mixxtape at the Monroeville Jazz Festival on Sept. 2, flanked by keyboard player Sean Baker and vocalist Lailonny Yvonne.</div>
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<div class="caption" align="left">Calvin Stemley will perform Nov. 19 at Monroeville Public Library.</div>
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<div id="storyContent"><p>The sounds emerging from his father’s bedroom prompted young Calvin Stemley to knock on the door one day.</p>
<p>How was it, the boy wondered, that Zackery Stemley Jr. could produce dazzling melodies just by using the three buttons on his trumpet?</p>
<p>“Instead of him answering the question, he said, ‘Have a seat,’” his son recalled. “He pulled a drawer open and got a mouthpiece out. And he said, ‘I want you to do this’:</p>
<p>“Bvvvvvvvvvp!”</p>
<p>Calvin’s attempts at emulation marked the beginning of nearly six decades’ worth of dedication to music that he brings to Monroeville Public Library for a free concert at 7 p.m. Nov. 15 in the Elaine Biondi Gallery Space.</p>
<p>Along with playing saxophone and the occasional clarinet with an impressive array of Pittsburgh-area bands, Stemley had a 25-year career teaching music for Pittsburgh Public Schools. And although he’s retired, the Wilkins Township resident continues his efforts to provide education through performance art.</p>
<p>For example, he collaborates with the instrumental-vocal group Mixxtape, which will stage its Black History Show at 6 p.m. Nov. 19 at Carrone Baptist Church, 7119 Frankstown Ave., Homewood. The free event features inspirational readings, poetry, dance and other elements to help enlighten the audience.</p>
<p>Members of Mixxtape — led by drummer Terrance Levels, who worked with percussionists in Westinghouse High School’s marching band when Stemley taught there — hope to bring a similar performance to Gateway High School for Black History Month.</p>
<p><span class="neFMT neFMT_body-subhead">A musical legacy</span></p>
<p>Regarding his own history, Stemley carries on the legacy of his father, whose musical pursuits went far beyond practicing trumpet in the bedroom. He was a member the Soul Crusaders, which served as “the backup band for every major act that was coming through Chicago” circa the ’60sat the city’s famed Regal Theater, according to his son.</p>
<p>Leading the Soul Crusaders was another trumpet player, Burgess Gardner, who had the pedigree of performing with the likes of Count Basie, Horace Silver and Ray Charles. Gardner also happened to be the band director at Calvin Stemley’s school when he decided to join.</p>
<p>No trumpets were available for Calvin to play, so Gardner started him on clarinet.</p>
<p>“I was so enthralled by it, I practiced and I practiced and I practiced,” Stemley said. “Three or four weeks later, I had practiced so much that I was moved from beginners’ band to intermediate band. And when that happened, I realized this was the thing that I really wanted to do.”</p>
<p>An early introduction to performance was with a 14-piece combo of classmates called the Soulful Exotics, which placed second in an amateur competition at the Regal.</p>
<p>“At the time, I was really into James Brown,” Stemley recalled. “As part of that band, I played the clarinet. I also was the dancer in that band, and I was doing all the James moves and the splits and all that kind of stuff.”</p>
<p>He went on to attend Grambling State University in Louisiana, earning a bachelor’s degree in music education and accolades including the Institute of Black American Music Award and Grambling’s Theory and Composition Award.</p>
<p><span class="neFMT neFMT_body-subhead">Coming to Pittsburgh</span></p>
<p>In 1976, Stemley enrolled as a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh. He earned his master’s in ethnomusicology, the study of the music of different cultures, especially non-Western ones.</p>
<p>“My emphasis was on jazz, and I wrote my master’s thesis on the great Dexter Gordon,” he said about the bebop-pioneering saxophonist, naming Sonny Rollins, Lester Young, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane as other influences.</p>
<p>Stemley takes pride in the musical contributions of Pittsburgh natives, especially those who called Westinghouse their alma mater: pianists Erroll Garner, Ahmad Jamal and Mary Lou Williams, and singers Dakota Staton and Adam Wade.</p>
<p><ins>On Nov. 6, Stemley will host Joy of Sax — an annual event celebrating the birthday of instrument inventor Adolphe Sax, who would have been 209 years old — from 6 to 11 p.m. at the Blue Sky Restaurant in East Liberty. A highlight is the honoring of several mainstays of Pittsburgh’s musician scene, among them retired Court of Common Pleas Judge Warren Watson, age 100.</ins></p>
<p>Approaching his 70th birthday in December, Calvin looks back on trying Zackery Stemley’s trumpet and playing for Burgess Gardner as defining his role in life.</p>
<p>“It really affected me in a great way. The first five years of school were different than when I got involved with band. And every positive type of association in my life was after I got involved with music,” he said. “So I guess I was getting musical therapy as a sixth-grader.”</p>
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<p class="credits">Harry Funk is a Tribune-Review news editor. You can contact Harry at<span> </span><a href="mailto:hfunk@triblive.com">hfunk@triblive.com</a>.</p>
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Goodbye, Mr. Bennett: A Tribute
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-11-01:1992552:BlogPost:718013
2023-11-01T00:41:08.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<h1>Goodbye, Mr. Bennett: A Tribute</h1>
<div class="kicker text-news"><p class="inline"></p>
<a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/new">NEWS,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/from-the-magazine">FROM THE MAGAZINE,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/tony-bennett">TONY BENNETT</a></div>
<p><span class="postinfo"><strong>By<span> </span><a href="https://downbeat.com/site/author/phillip-lutz">Phillip…</a></strong></span></p>
<h1>Goodbye, Mr. Bennett: A Tribute</h1>
<div class="kicker text-news"><p class="inline"></p>
<a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/new">NEWS,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/from-the-magazine">FROM THE MAGAZINE,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/tony-bennett">TONY BENNETT</a></div>
<p><span class="postinfo"><strong>By<span> </span><a href="https://downbeat.com/site/author/phillip-lutz">Phillip Lutz</a><span> </span></strong></span><span class="text-primary"> I </span><span class="postinfo">Oct. 31, 2023</span></p>
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<p>Bennett had a wealth of material to draw upon, and he had a direct association with much of it.</p>
(Photo: Steven Sussman)<br />
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<p>Perhaps no interpreter of American popular song had as long and distinguished a career as Tony Bennett. Yet in his everyday life, he was not one to dwell on the past. Neither his 20 Grammy statuettes nor the boatload of other awards — save for the Kennedy Center Honors medallion — were on display in his home, according to his son and manager, Danny Bennett.</p>
<p>And, he said, his father never regarded his albums as objects of nostalgia. The elder Bennett only listened to them for research purposes.</p>
<p>“He never looked back, was always in the present and hopeful about the future,” Danny said by phone after his father’s death on July 21 at the age of 96.</p>
<p>So it was all the more unusual that, in a 2018 interview for DownBeat almost exactly five years to the day before he died, the elder Bennett — seated on a well-worn couch in his small, spare art studio 15 stories above New York’s Central Park South — eased quite comfortably into a discussion of the past.</p>
<p>True to form, no awards were on display in the studio. And true to form, he looked dapper and spoke lucidly — despite having early-stage dementia — about his classical voice training at the American Theatre Wing, his haunting of jazz clubs on 52nd Street in Manhattan and his friendship with jazz cellist Fred Katz in the army during World War II.</p>
<p>Discussing his days at Columbia Records in the early 1950s, his tone became slightly heated when he recalled his successful battle with label executives to take a more adventurous approach to his interpretations. And it became wistful when he recounted his unsuccessful attempt to become a kind of double act with singer Rosemary Clooney, whose visage gazed out from a framed photo placed prominently on a table in front of the couch on which he now sat.</p>
<p>“I loved her,” he said softly, his hand lightly touching the arm of a writer seated next to him.</p>
<p>That he was thwarted in his desire to pair with Clooney is ironic, given that he would later win acclaim for a series of duets with women, among them Amy Winehouse, k.d. lang, Diana Krall, Carrie Underwood and Lady Gaga.</p>
<p>But that was hardly the biggest irony of his career. That may be the outsized popularity of “I Left My Heart In San Francisco,” which was expected to be the B-side of a 1962 single but famously emerged as his signature song. Less known is that the A-side, “Once Upon A Time,” the melancholy fairy tale with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams, was once also a staple of Bennett’s sets.</p>
<p>“I was sorry to see it go,” guitarist Gray Sargent, a member of Bennett’s working quartet from 1997 until the singer’s last gig in 2021, said by phone after Bennett’s death.</p>
<p>Some of Bennett’s most preferred material was not even on his set list. Top of mind, when Sargent was asked, was the Jerome Kern–Oscar Hammerstein II tune “All The Things You Are.” The tune had not been on the list during Sargent’s 24 years with Bennett despite — or because of — the prominence he gave it elsewhere.</p>
<p>A sublime four-and-a-half-minute rendition of the tune opens his Grammy-winning 2015 album of Kern songs,<span> </span><i>The Silver Lining</i>. His collaborator on that album, pianist Bill Charlap, said that the singer was well aware of the harmonically opulent, lyrically transcendent tune’s standing at the apex of the food chain in both the theater and jazz repertoires.</p>
<p>“Tony knew how important ‘All The Things You Are’ was,” Charlap said by phone after Bennett’s death.</p>
<p>Of course, Bennett had a wealth of material to draw upon, and he had a direct association with much of it. A set list Bennett’s staff provided DownBeat at the time of the 2018 interview included hits like “Just In Time,” “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams” and a medley that incorporated “Because Of You” and “Rags To Riches.” It also included tunes by the Gershwins and Michel Legrand that Bennett had sung many times.</p>
<p>Of particular interest was the inclusion of Irving Berlin’s “Steppin’ Out With My Baby.” A 1993 music video built on the tune helped Bennett connect with a younger generation when it aired on MTV. Coming after a period of financial and other setbacks, the video was a catalyst in a widely celebrated commercial resurgence — one that reestablished him as a presence on TV, from<span> </span><i>Saturday Night Live</i><span> </span>to<span> </span><i>The Simpsons</i>, and boosted his profile to epic proportions generally.</p>
<p>Danny Bennett, who is credited with engineering the resurgence, debunked what he said was a misconception about it: “Everyone thinks he reinvented himself. We reinvented the audience.”</p>
<p>In the 2018 interview, Tony Bennett was at a loss to explain the phenomenon, though he was obviously pleased with its impact: “It was a way of exposing the Great American Songbook to a new generation.”</p>
<p>Singer Kurt Elling, whom some locate in a lineage that includes Bennett — and who, in a 2021 DownBeat interview, said that as an aspiring singer he regarded Bennett as “the guy you want to be” — noted by phone after Bennett’s passing that the resurgence was accomplished without pandering.</p>
<p>“Tony carried the torch,” he said. “He sang the songs the way they were meant to be sung. He never deviated from the path. To my knowledge, he never recorded junk just to continue to be a star.”</p>
<p>Bennett’s uncompromising outlook grew out of a youthful desire to explore the more challenging path that jazz represented. He said he started fashioning himself as a jazz singer when he began listening in as his brother studied the music. Then, as a young man checking out 52nd Street, he was confirmed in his direction.</p>
<p>“I said, ‘This is the way to go.’”</p>
<p>Although Bennett never set out to be an improviser in the Betty Carter mold, few seem to argue that, in his freewheeling attitude and freethinking sensibility, he did not measure up to Sargent’s declaration: “He was a jazz guy.”</p>
<p>Elling took a view that was more nuanced, if no less certain.</p>
<p>“If the voice is willing and the approach is fresh with even the spirit of improvisation in there, then you have a better claim than anybody in the pop world who’s there to rearrange everything in a very straightforward fashion, even if they are there to invigorate it as though it were being sung for the first time,” he said. “But it’s not.”</p>
<p>Charlap, for his part, saw Bennett in multiple dimensions — as an artist equipped with a powerful arsenal consisting of “bel canto coupled with jazz phrasing coupled with Judy Garland’s way of setting the story.” The factors, he said, were a combustible combination, generating a sense of “intense drama” that, in his experience, was evident from their first rehearsal.</p>
<p>Naturally, Bennett felt freer to let his jazz flag fly when working in smaller units, especially partnerships with pianists with whom he could spar eye-to-eye. Notable among them were Bill Evans, with whom Bennett made two acclaimed albums in the 1970s, and Charlap, whose Kern collaboration was followed by one in 2018 focusing on the Gershwins and featuring Krall titled<span> </span><i>Love Is Here to Stay</i><span> </span>(Verve/Columbia).</p>
<p>Comparative treatments of “All The Things You Are” are telling. In contrast with the version on his 1962 live album<span> </span><i>Tony Bennett At Carnegie Hall</i>, where he is accompanied by a full orchestra, the duo’s take included on<span> </span><i>The Silver Lining</i><span> </span>displays considerably greater breadth musically and, arguably, emotionally.</p>
<p>Granted, the half-century that elapsed between the versions — and the maturity gained — might account for some of the change. Nonetheless, the number and spontaneity of the later version’s signature Bennett moves — the primal growls, tremulous glissandi, abrupt shifts in dynamics, risky intervallic leaps, unexpected modulations — are striking, reflecting a fuller expression of his instinct to make every note, every bar, every phrase a fresh one. And that argues for placing him squarely in the jazz tradition, where he wanted to be.</p>
<p>Bennett’s last touring gig was at the Count Basie Theater in New Jersey on March 11, 2020, the day the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. After that, he came back in August 2021 for a two-show, televised performance with Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall. That was his official swan song.</p>
<p>But he played with members of his band one more time. On New Year’s Day 2022, Sargent said, he and bassist Marshall Wood visited Bennett at his New York apartment. Bennett’s dementia had progressed, he said, but not to the point where he couldn’t sing — and, for 40 minutes, the three of them played as a band again.</p>
<p>“It was a wonderful feeling,” Sargent said. “He came out. He looked great. He gave us a big smile. We hung out and told him what a great time it had been making music with him.</p>
<p>“Then, you know it’s not going to be like that, but you want to offer just a nice thought.” So he did, on what would be his final parting with Bennett:</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>“‘Oh, yeah, we’ll see you some time.’”<span> </span><b>DB</b></p>
B-PEP JAZZ ‘ESTIMATED/GUESSTIMATED PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE – October 9, 2023
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-10-09:1992552:BlogPost:716604
2023-10-09T03:00:56.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<p><strong><u>B-PEP JAZZ ‘ESTIMATED/GUESSTIMATED PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE – October 9, 2023</u></strong></p>
<p><strong>5:30 PM – 6:30 PM – THE TIM STEVENS PROJECT (Kenny Blake, Saxophonist, Tim Jenkins, Pianist, Eric Johnson, Guitarist, Tim Stevens, Vocalist, Vince Taglieri, Drummer and Dan Wasson, Bassist)</strong></p>
<p><strong>Afro American Music Institute (Howie Alexander, Keys, Camille Brenne, Bassist, Ricky Bottegal, Viola player, Tim Bottegal, Vibraphonist/Keys, Alexis Rollins, Bassist,…</strong></p>
<p><strong><u>B-PEP JAZZ ‘ESTIMATED/GUESSTIMATED PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE – October 9, 2023</u></strong></p>
<p><strong>5:30 PM – 6:30 PM – THE TIM STEVENS PROJECT (Kenny Blake, Saxophonist, Tim Jenkins, Pianist, Eric Johnson, Guitarist, Tim Stevens, Vocalist, Vince Taglieri, Drummer and Dan Wasson, Bassist)</strong></p>
<p><strong>Afro American Music Institute (Howie Alexander, Keys, Camille Brenne, Bassist, Ricky Bottegal, Viola player, Tim Bottegal, Vibraphonist/Keys, Alexis Rollins, Bassist, Micah Vicaro, Alto Saxophonist, Kristian White, Drummer) Don Aliquo, Sr., Donna Bailey, Vocalist, Roger Barbour, Trumpeter, Betty Biggs, Vocalist, Harry Cardillo, Pianist, Etta Cox, Vocalist, Al Dowe, Sr., Trombonist, Al Dowe, Jr., Saxophonist, Tony Campbell, Saxophonist, Brian Edwards, Drummer, Bagumbo Lowery, Percussionist, The “Old Timers” (Hon. Warren Watson, Carl Murphy, Drummers, Sunny Sunseri, Bassist), Tim Stevens, Vocalist</strong></p>
<p><strong>6:30 PM – 7:30 PM – ROGER HUMPRHIES & THE RH FACTOR (Dwayne Dolphin, Bassist, Roger Humphries, Drummer, Max Leake, Pianist, Lou Stellute, Tenor Saxophonist and Yoko Zusuki, Saxophonist)</strong></p>
<p><strong>Betty Biggs, Vocalist, Carl Black, Guitarist, Cecil Brooks, II, Tubby Daniels, Vibraphonist, Frank Cunimondo, Pianist, Roby Edwards, Saxophonist, Joe Garuccio, Guitarist/Vocalst, Tom Glovier, Pianist, Bob Insko, Bassist, George Jones, Conga Player, Anita Levels, Vocalist, Terry Levels, Drummer, Kenny Powell, Flautist/Saxophonist, Barbara Ray, Vocalist, Lee Robinson, Saxophonist</strong></p>
<p><strong>B-PEP AWARD PRESENTATION – Ellen Estomin, Lead Co-chair B-PEP JAZZ Committee and Tim Stevens, B-PEP Chairman & CEO</strong></p>
<p><strong>7:30 PM - 8:30 PM – THE TIM STEVENS PROJECT (see members above)</strong></p>
<p><strong>Tim Bottegal, Vibraphonist, Hillary Borneo, Steel Drummer, Roger Day, Tuba Player, “V” Victoria Dorsey, Spoken Word Artist, Tom Evans, Vocalist, Mike Farrell, Bassist, Tom Glovier, Pianist, Sandra Greene, Vocalist with “TAYLOR MAYDE” (Ronnie Biggs, Bassist, Larry Keith Estes, Guitarist, Jeff Montgomery, Quinton Zigler, Keyboards), John Korpiel, Drummer, Janet Lawrence, Vocalist, Fred Pugh, Calvin Stemley, Saxophonist, Vocalist, Robert “Bongo Bob” Young, Percussionist,</strong></p>
<p><strong>B-PEP JAZZ “ESTIMATED/GUESSTIMATED” PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE (Continued)</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>B-PEP AWARD PRESENTATION – Ellen Estomin, Lead Co-chair, B-PEP JAZZ Committee and Tim Stevens, B-PEP Chairman & CEO</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>8:30 PM – 9:30 PM – ROGER HUMPHRIES & THE RH FACTOR (see members previously listed)</strong></p>
<p><strong>Esai Aliquo-Varela, Vocalist, ARTISTREE LIVE (Musicians: Greg Criss, Bass Guitarist, Mark Johnson, Electric Guitarist, Doug Lane, Drummer, Rick Purcell, Keyboard Artist, Mario Tierno, Keyboard Artist/ Vocalists: Darrell Jefferson and Stephen Thomas) Phatman Dee, Vocalist, Dr. James Johnson, Pianist, Pam Johnson, Vocalist, Carlos Pena, Guitarist, Windafire, Vocalist, John Shannon, Guitarist</strong></p>
<p><strong>9:30 PM – 10:30 PM – THE TIM STEVENS PROJECT (see members previously listed)</strong></p>
<p><strong>Heidi Beatty, Vocalist, Antonio Croes, Pianist, Scott Hanley, Vocalist, Teresa Hawthorne, Vocalist, Teresa Hawthorne, Vocalist, Chris McGraw, Bassist, Quinton Zigler, Pianist, Ken Roosevelt, Guitarist, Quinton Zigler, Pianist</strong></p>
Wendell Brunious Named First Musical Director of Preservation Hall
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-10-04:1992552:BlogPost:716500
2023-10-04T02:51:08.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<h1>Wendell Brunious Named First Musical Director of Preservation Hall</h1>
<div class="kicker text-news"><p class="inline"></p>
<a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/new">NEWS,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/from-the-magazine">FROM THE MAGAZINE,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/wendell-brunious">WENDELL BRUNIOUS</a></div>
<p><span class="postinfo"><strong>By<span> …</span></strong></span></p>
<h1>Wendell Brunious Named First Musical Director of Preservation Hall</h1>
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<a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/new">NEWS,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/from-the-magazine">FROM THE MAGAZINE,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/wendell-brunious">WENDELL BRUNIOUS</a></div>
<p><span class="postinfo"><strong>By<span> </span><a href="https://downbeat.com/site/author/cree-mccree">Cree McCree</a><span> </span></strong></span><span class="text-primary"> I </span><span class="postinfo">Oct. 3, 2023</span></p>
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<p>“You want to speak to someone’s heart, not just befuddle their brain,” Brunious says.</p>
(Photo: Camille Lenain)<br />
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<p>When you enter Preservation Hall in New Orleans, it’s like stepping back in time. The small no-frills room looks pretty much like it did when Allan and Sandra Jaffe first opened the now-legendary French Quarter venue on St. Peter Street in 1961. Bare unvarnished floors serve as the stage, surrounded by wooden chairs where the audience sits — until, as often happens, they are moved to get up and march around with a band that celebrates the living past of New Orleans jazz.</p>
<p>At the center of all the action is master trumpeter Wendell Brunious, the band’s exuberant long-time leader, who’s just been named Preservation Hall’s first-ever musical director. A tall, sharply dressed gentleman, his domain extends far beyond the walls of this tiny “hall.” As Pres Hall’s ambassador to the world, he brings the joyful spirit of New Orleans music to far-flung countries around the world. He’s also a born storyteller who lards his tales with pithy one-liners, as he did for an interview on his home turf.</p>
<p>Spiffy as ever, in a cream-colored suit and elegant brown-and-white spectator shoes, he was accompanied by Caroline Brunious, his Swedish wife of 23 years, who blows a sizzling hot clarinet in the Preservation Hall All-Stars. The scion of legendary trumpeter John “Picky” Brunious — who, like his son, was educated at Juilliard as well as by the brass bands of New Orleans — he’s also the brother of the late John Brunious Jr., who preceded him as Pres Hall’s bandleader.</p>
<p>Our interview ranged from his boyhood memories of Louis Armstrong to close encounters with jazz masters like Dizzy Gillespie, as well as the vitality of the music he passes on to future generations.</p>
<p><b>Cree McCree:<span> </span></b>I’ve been to Preservation Hall performances, but I’ve never been back to this room. It feels like a sacred space.</p>
<p><b>Wendell Brunious:</b><span> </span>It’s called the Library and it’s got a lot of beautiful old things, like the largest collection of miniature tubas in the world. New Orleans is a living library of music and rhythms, and just being born here is a great advantage. Because you grew up with the music.</p>
<p><b>McCree:</b><span> </span>You picked up the trumpet when you were 11, right?</p>
<p><b>Brunious:</b><b><span> </span></b>That’s when I got serious. But before that I would just take the mouthpiece and make these little duck-call sounds. Sounds kind of like a kazoo. [<i>Grabs a mouthpiece and starts to blow.</i>]</p>
<p><b>McCree:</b><span> </span>Wow! [<i>laughs</i>] That’s even better than a kazoo.</p>
<p><b>Brunious:<span> </span></b>Then, when I was 10, Louis Armstrong came to town and my dad took us all out to the airport. About a hundred musicians had gone there to meet him, and Louie was one of the last ones off the plane. We thought maybe he missed it [<i>laughs</i>]. Then, suddenly, there he was. The air got thick enough you could cut it with a butter knife, and the whole gang started playing “When The Saints Go Marching In.”</p>
<p>That was magic. God put him here for a specific purpose to teach and influence all of us. If you’re a guitar player, you think you don’t owe something to Louis Armstrong, think again. He revolutionized the whole art of music, especially American music.</p>
<p><b>McCree:<span> </span></b>What a thrill that must have been for a kid just starting out on the trumpet. Did your dad give you any specific tips about the trumpet?</p>
<p><b>Brunious:<span> </span></b>Not really, because he was always working. He played on Bourbon Street at night, and during the day he worked as a truant officer at Milne’s Boys Home. But on Sunday, when my dad was off, he’d tell everybody go get your horn. There were eight brothers and sisters in our family, and though just me and my older brother John got to the level of playing professionally, everybody played. Dad would say you hit this note, you hit that note, and it’d be this real crazy chord. And he’d say, see, that’s the kind of stuff I like. It was wonderful growing up with that.</p>
<p><b>McCree:</b><span> </span>You were still pretty young when you joined Preservation Hall.</p>
<p><b>Brunious:<span> </span></b>Yep, 23. I was the youngest person ever to be on the payroll, and it was strange how I came to play here. One night I was playing around the corner on Bourbon Street, blowing my brains off for $88, and my car was parked here. So as I came down the street, I passed right by the gate. I’d never been inside, but it wasn’t but $1 to get in, and when I went inside there was nobody playing trumpet. I said, “You need a trumpet player?” [<i>laughs</i>] And the drummer said, “Man, we don’t let people sit in.” I said, “I’m not sitting in, I come to play, man.” And I took my horn out and played a couple of songs. Allan Jaffe was there, and Kid Thomas [Valentine], and they came up front to see who the heck was playing that trumpet. Kid Thomas had this scowl on his face, and I felt like, “Oh, my God, I had violated something.” But he wasn’t angry, that’s just the way he looked. Then Kid put his hands together and the whole audience started clapping. And I sat down next to him and played the rest of the night.</p>
<p>But I was still playing on Bourbon and barely squeaking out a living. Then one morning my phone rang. It was the great trumpet player Wallace Davenport, who said, “I got a gig for you playing with Lionel Hampton. They need an extra trumpet player tonight.” I must have done OK because after that gig, I went up to New York and joined the Lionel Hampton Band for a while.</p>
<p><b>McCree:</b><span> </span>Is that where you met Dizzy Gillespie?</p>
<p><b>Brunious:<span> </span></b>No, that was when Dizzy played the New Orleans Jazz Fest. There’s a picture of Dizzy, Mahalia Jackson and Duke Ellington outside Municipal Auditorium. I wasn’t in the picture, but I was sitting there, and Dizzy was holding court. He said, “Man, Charlie Parker told me, keep one foot in the future and keep one foot in the blues.” And I’ve continued to spread that message. Because the blues is not 1, 4 and 5 or 1, 4, 2, 5, 1. You could wake up with a flat tire or a headache this morning, that’s the blues, man. When you hear Charlie Parker playing “Laura,” that’s not a blues. But you hear the blues all through there, that’s what makes your individual voice.</p>
<p><b>McCree:<span> </span></b>Circling back to Preservation Hall, I was very surprised to learn you weren’t just the youngest musical director but the first musical director. Why was there never a musical director before?</p>
<p><b>Brunious:</b><span> </span>The world has gotten more complicated [<i>laughs</i>]. A lot of our older people have passed on, so I’m gonna help channel the music in the right direction. Kids have so many options today that we gotta bring their focus back to where they need to be to play this kind of music. Back in the 1990s, Ellis Marsalis called me up one day, said, “Would you come teach ’em how to play?” So I made up a class, 40 forms of the blues. Hey, man, you really know how to play the saxophone, but are you delivering the message I want to hear?</p>
<p><b>McCree:<span> </span></b>And what is the message you want to hear?</p>
<p><b>Brunious:<span> </span></b>You want to speak to someone’s heart, not just befuddle their brain. ’Cause there are enough things that do that, anyway.<span> </span><b>DB</b></p>
What Do I Know? Smokey Robinson
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-09-25:1992552:BlogPost:716633
2023-09-25T02:30:00.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<div class="article-header"><h1 class="article-title">What Do I Know? Smokey Robinson</h1>
<div class="article-sub-heading">A life’s recounting in the subject’s own words</div>
<div class="article-author"><span class="author-prep">by</span><span> </span><a href="https://pittsburghquarterly.com/author/jeffrey_sewald/">JEFF SEWALD</a></div>
<div class="article-secondary-category"><a href="https://pittsburghquarterly.com/category/2023-fall/" rel="tag">2023 FALL…</a><br></br></div>
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<div class="article-header"><h1 class="article-title">What Do I Know? Smokey Robinson</h1>
<div class="article-sub-heading">A life’s recounting in the subject’s own words</div>
<div class="article-author"><span class="author-prep">by</span><span> </span><a href="https://pittsburghquarterly.com/author/jeffrey_sewald/">JEFF SEWALD</a></div>
<div class="article-secondary-category"><a href="https://pittsburghquarterly.com/category/2023-fall/" rel="tag">2023 FALL</a><br/> <a href="https://pittsburghquarterly.com/category/what-do-i-know/" rel="tag">WHAT DO I KNOW?</a></div>
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<div class="article-image"><br/><div class="article-image-caption">A Sexy Serenade: Bob Dylan once called Smokey Robinson “America’s greatest living poet.” But poet or not, one thing about Smokey is very clear. He is a great creator and purveyor of modern American love songs. Not only is Smokey’s wife, Frances, from Pittsburgh but they own a home here.</div>
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<div class="grid col-620"><div class="article-date">September 19, 2023</div>
<div class="article-content"><p>Everyone is born with a gift from God. Some people discover their gift, and use it to a positive end. Some discover their gift, but squander it. And others, for one reason or another, never discover their gift. I discovered mine very early in life. I was blessed with the gift of music, and worked to make the most of it.</p>
<br/> All creative people experience the feeling of something “coming through them.” They’re mediums. But I’m not one who needs a couple of months in the mountains to create. It doesn’t happen for me like that. It happens on an almost daily basis. I see and hear things every day that trigger something inside me that leads me to think, “That might make a great song.” Sometimes, when I’m driving, a melody will just come to me. There’s no formula. There’s no process, like “the words come first, and the melody comes second.” There’s none of that. Whatever comes first, comes first, man. I don’t question it.<br/> <br/> I’ve been making music professionally since the 1950s, and sometimes, I’ll have a block on a certain song. For example, “Cruisin’” took me five years to write. The song was inspired by my guitar player, Marv Tarplin, who has passed on now. Marv put a riff on tape for me that was so sensual and sexy, and I just loved it. So, I made a tape-loop and let that riff put me to sleep every night. Before long, I wrote some words for it, but thought they weren’t worthy of Marv’s music.<br/> <br/> After about four years, I came up with the first lines of a chorus. I liked the fact that the people in the song could fly, so I wrote, “You’re gonna fly away/glad you’re goin’ my way.” After that, I wrote about 20 different “I love it” lines to try to fill out the song. Then, all of a sudden, there was nothing. By that time, I had moved to Los Angeles and, one day in December, I was driving down Sunset Boulevard with my car-top down, thinking, “Man, this is incredible,” because I’m from Michigan, where the winters are brutal. As I was driving, I started thinking, “I’m cruisin’ down Sunset…,” and that was it, man. I turned my car around and headed back home, put the tape on, and finished the song. “I love it when we’re cruisin’ together.”<br/> <br/> About a year-and-a-half before Motown took flight, I was in a group called “The Matadors.” Jackie Wilson was my number-one singing idol when I was growing up and, like me, he was from Detroit. Jackie’s managers were in Detroit, too, always scouting talent, and we got the opportunity to audition for them. But rather than doing covers of currently popular songs, we sang five that I had written, thinking that might impress them and give us an advantage.
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<p><strong>Smokey Robinson, Singer-Songwriter<br/></strong> – Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame (2022)<br/> – Library of Congress Gershwin Prize (2016)<br/> – Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame inductee (2016)<br/> – BET Lifetime Achievement Award (2015)<br/> – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, with The Miracles (2012)<br/> – Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award (2011)<br/> – Hollywood Walk of Fame, with The Miracles (2009)<br/> – Kennedy Center honoree (2006)<br/> – National Medal of Arts (1993)<br/> – Soul Train Music Awards, Heritage Award (1991)<br/> – Songwriter’s Hall of Fame (1989)<br/> – “Just to See Her,” Grammy Award, Best Male R&B Vocal Performance (1988)<br/> – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a solo artist (1987)<br/> – Hollywood Walk of Fame, as a solo artist (1983)</p>
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<p>During the audition, I noticed a young man sitting off in the corner, just listening. I was 16 years old. He looked to be somewhere in his mid-20s. I thought he was waiting there to audition, too. So, we sang our five originals and, when we finished, Jackie’s manager told us that he didn’t like us at all, and that we would never make it, especially because we had a girl in the group. (One of our members, Sonny Rogers, left to join the Army, but had a sister named Claudette who sang well. She went with us to the audition.)<br/> <br/> Well, that young man sitting off in the corner soon approached us. It turned out that he liked my songs, and asked if I had any more. Back then, I had a loose-leaf notebook containing more than 100 pages of lyrics that I had been writing since I was in elementary school. Intrigued, the young man reviewed them and soon began to teach me how to write songs. He said that a song should be a short story, where the beginning, middle, and end are tied together. That young man was Berry Gordy Jr. And that day was a “God-day” for me. It was purely good fortune that Berry was present for our audition with Jackie’s people. My professional music career really began on that day.<br/> <br/> People always say that Berry Gordy was very lucky to have so many talented people in Detroit at the same time — and he did. But I think that, ratio-wise, every city has a lot of talented people. They just have to be discovered. And, in Detroit, in the 1960s and ’70s, they were. But we certainly were lucky at that time and in that place to have Berry. He’s a rare dude who had the wherewithal to make something amazing happen. He wasn’t a corporate guy who decided to go into the record business for fun. He was truly a music man, who started out as a songwriter and record producer. Those were his first loves. But, in those long-ago days, nobody was getting paid much to make music, especially if you were black. That’s just the way it was, and Berry got tired of it. So, he borrowed $800 from his family and started what, in time, became the “Motown Record Corporation.” The rest is history.<br/> <br/> I was born in Detroit in 1940, to two great parents who were complete opposites. When I look back, man, I don’t know how they hooked up. My parents couldn’t be in the same room for five minutes without arguing over something. They were like night and day and, when I was 2 years old, they divorced. But for years after that, my dad would tell me, “Boy,” which is what he always called me, “your mama may be crazy, but she loves you. If I’m not here, for some reason, I want you to look out for her because she’s a great woman.” Curiously, my mother would often tell me, “Junior, your daddy’s crazy, but you are his favorite person, so you’ve got to love him, always.” She also said, “One day, I’m not going to be here, and you’re going to have to take care of him. Make sure you do, because your dad loves you.” Now, I don’t know how or if my mother sensed that she wouldn’t be there for me in the long term, but, sadly, she died when I was 10, at age 43, from an aneurysm.<br/> <br/> After my mom passed, my dad came back to live with us. I had two older sisters: one was 14 when I was born; the other was 17. The oldest had six kids when she moved back and, when all was said and done, she had 10. So, my nieces and nephews were more like brothers and sisters to me, and my oldest sister and her husband raised us.<br/> <br/> When I was 3 or 4 years old, if you asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have told you, “A cowboy.” My uncle, Claude Robinson used to take me to see cowboy movies when I was little, because I loved cowboys, man, especially the ones who sang. During that time, Uncle Claude decided that, since I loved cowboys so much, I should have a proper cowboy name. So, instead of calling me by my given name, which was William (Robinson, Jr.), he started calling me “Smokey Joe,” and the name stuck. I dropped the “Joe” when I got older, and that’s when I became “Smokey Robinson.”</p>
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<p>“Tears of a Clown”<br/> “Shop Around”<br/> “Ooo Baby Baby”<br/> “I Second that Emotion”<br/> “My Guy”<br/> “Going to a Go-Go”<br/> “Get Ready”<br/> “My Girl”<br/> “Tracks of My Tears”<br/> “The Way You Do the Things You Do”<br/> “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me”<br/> “Just to See Her”<br/> “Cruisin’”<br/> “One Heartbeat”<br/> “Being with You”</p>
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<p>As a kid, our house was a gathering place. There were 11 children in my family, of all ages, and our friends would come over every day, when they weren’t in juvenile detention, or jail. Sometimes, they’d come to me and say, “Hey, man, we’re going to rob the gas station tonight.” And I’d say, “Forget it. I’m not going to do that with you. Are you crazy?” But even if they decided to pass on a “big score” like the gas station job, they’d come back to my house the next day with $10 apiece from beating somebody up and robbing them.<br/> <br/> When I was young, some of my friends ended up in “juvie.” When I got a little older, some were in jail. And, sometimes, one or two of them would wind up dead, after getting shot by the police while trying to rob somebody of $20. So, I grew up with some young gangsters, man, and although I didn’t always roll with them, we still loved each other. I didn’t have to do something wrong for them to care about me.<br/> <br/> By the time I got to be about 9 or 10, if you asked me what I wanted to be, I would have told you, “A singer.” I always loved to sing. And when we finally got a TV in our house, I would watch every musical show that came on. Those were the days of “The Rat Pack” — Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. I saw them all on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” By then, they had been doing their act for 25 years, and I would look at them and say, “How could someone manage to do something so great for so long?” It seemed impossible.<br/> <br/> When it came to music, I didn’t find it; it found me. In my home, growing up, I heard music of many kinds. On some days, my mother would play The Violinaires, The Five Blind Boys and The Ward Singers — all of those Gospel groups. On others, she would play Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Rachmaninoff. My younger sister who, remember, was 14 years older than me, listened to Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Patti Page and Sarah Vaughan. But while I loved Sarah Vaughan’s beautiful voice, I was particularly fond of artists like Muddy Waters, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Little Walter, and Little Esther. So, musically, I got the total picture, man. And my world of music kept getting bigger and bigger.<br/> <br/> When I was 11, me and another guy from our neighborhood, named Ronnie White, formed a group called “The Five Chimes” and started singing at school functions, house parties, and at the local recreation center. Hell, we’d play anywhere if we could find girls there! We also engaged in what were called “battles of the bands.” When we first met “The Temptations” in competition, they were called “The Distance.” But the only group we had to worry about at the time were “The Four Aims” (who later became “The Four Tops”). If they showed up, the best any other group could hope for was second place.<br/> <br/> In time, we decided as a group to change our name from “The Five Chimes” to “The Matadors,” because we thought that name sounded more exotic. But while we continued to sing at community functions, we chose to set our sights a bit higher. In Detroit, at that time, there was a TV program called “Ed McKenzie’s Amateur Hour,” which came on every Saturday. So, we auditioned for Ed, appeared on his show — and won the prize for top vocal group! Man, we thought we were the hottest musical thing in the world after that.<br/> <br/> I graduated from high school in June of 1958, but chose not to start college until January of ’59. I was working for Western Union at the time, delivering telegrams by bicycle, and wanted to save enough money to buy new clothes and the books I needed for school. But in December of that year, with help from Berry Gordy, we recorded “Got a Job,” an answer to the song “Get a Job,” by “The Silhouettes.”<br/> <br/> So, I’m in college, man, listening to music on a transistor radio, and hoping that our song would be played. The record came out in February, on my birthday, and I was sitting in class when, lo and behold, “Got a Job” came on, and I hit the ceiling, man! I jumped up from my seat, and the professor asked, “Mr. Robinson, where are you going?” Saying nothing, I ran out of the classroom and into the hallway to a phone booth. I called Claudette and told her to contact everybody we knew and tell them that our record was being played on the radio.<br/> <br/> When I got home, I had to tell this news to my dad, whose dream it was for me to go to college. So, I went to him, while he was watching TV, and asked, “How are you today, dad?” “I’m fine,” he said. “How was work?” “It was fine, Boy.” Then I asked, sheepishly, “How ‘bout them Dodgers?” and he replied, “Boy, what do you want?” Suddenly, I blurted out: “I want to quit school to make music.” My dad turned slowly and asked, “What did you say?” So, I repeated, “I want to quit school to make music.” And, to my amazement, he said, “OK. You’re only 17. You’ve got time to fail. And if you do, you can always go back to school.”<br/> <br/> In those days, the goal for all of the groups in Detroit was to make a record, and we’d done that. We weren’t thinking about getting paid, man. We just wanted to be on the radio, and we got a taste of that, too. But to become truly professional recording artists, we felt that we needed a name-change again, one that was fit for a group with a female member. So, we each put some names in a hat and asked Claudette to reach in and choose one. She picked “The Miracles” (which was one of my suggestions), and there you have it: Bobby Rogers, Ronnie White, Pete Moore, Claudette, and me.<br/> <br/> When I was just 19, Claudette and I got married, and were soon trying to have babies. But during the early years of our marriage, we had seven miscarriages, man. As a result, my older son, Berry, was born through a surrogate mother. (My other son, Trey, was born many years later, the product of another relationship.) Later, the doctor who helped us find the surrogate built a brace for Claudette to help her carry a new pregnancy to term. When it was time, they removed it and my daughter, Tamla, was born.<br/> <br/> In the mid-1960s, Berry Gordy made me vice president of Motown, so I started going to the office every day to work with him. I also recorded with The Miracles, and we produced a series of hits for the label. Our second single, “Shop Around,” entered the Billboard “Hot 100” in December of 1960, and peaked at number two. Then, at a party, sometime in 1967, Stevie Wonder gave me a tape of a song he was working on with Henry Cosby. He said, “Hey, Smoke, we got a killer track, man, but I can’t think of words to go with it. Why don’t you listen to it and see what you can come up with?” I took the tape, of course, and the first thing I heard on it was what sounded like a calliope. So, I thought, “Am I going to have to write something about the circus?” I’m from the city, man, and I didn’t want to write about animals, trapeze artists, or anything like that. But what could I write about the circus that would touch the heart?<br/> <br/> As I considered my options, I remembered that, in elementary school, one of our teachers told us the story of “Pagliacci,” the Italian circus clown who made everybody happy. People came to see Pagliacci and they loved him. But after his performances, he would return to his tent and cry because he never received the kind of affection from a woman that he received from the adoring crowds. So, I decided, “I’m going to write about Pagliacci. I’ll just personalize it.” I did that, and we placed the song, “Tears of a Clown,” on an album called “Make It Happen.” But by 1969, weary from the grind of the music business, I told the group, “I’m going to retire” — and they laughed at me, saying, “OK, baby, that’s cool. We’ll talk to you about it later.” We had been together since childhood, and they knew all too well how much I loved writing and performing music. But I truly wanted to take an extended break to help raise my kids. I wanted to know them, and I wanted them to know me.<br/> <br/> In 1970, however, a young lady who worked for Motown in England started playing our album in the office. When “Tears of a Clown” came on, she called John Marshall, a Motown executive in Britain, who was looking for a follow-up to a re-release of our single, “Tracks of My Tears.” She said, “John, this is a hit.” He listened to the track and said, “You’re right.” So, they released “Tears of a Clown” as a single in the U.K., and it went to number one, the biggest hit we ever had there. Then it snowballed all over Europe. At the time, I had another single ready for release in the U.S., but I told Berry, “No, man. We have to put out ‘Tears of a Clown.’ ” He agreed, and the record went to number one in Billboard in December.<br/> <br/> In those days, we were doing everything a group could do. We had been all over the world. But when “Tears of a Clown” was released, our career skyrocketed. So, the guys came to me and said, “You definitely are not retiring now.” I said, “OK. I’m going to go for another year or so,” which I did. But I also said, “You have to look for somebody to replace me, because I’m not going to do this forever.” Luckily, they found a guy named Bill Griffin, from Baltimore, who traveled with us for about six months, to watch the show every night. Then, with Bill in place, in 1972, I retired, moved to Los Angeles, and went back to the office at Motown.<br/> <br/> Sometimes, I would make deals with publishers and, at first, it was fun. We were set up to break new talent, and I really loved that because I’d seen new talent all over the country while touring with The Miracles. But when I made that move to L.A., Berry said, “Smokey, you’re my best friend, so I’m going to change your office function. You are now going to do financial work. You’re going to sign all the payroll checks.” But, after about two-and-a-half years of that, I was miserable. I didn’t tell Claudette because I didn’t want her to think that I was unhappy being around for the kids. And I didn’t tell Berry because I didn’t want him to think that I’d let him down. I didn’t tell anybody, man. But inwardly, I was suffering.<br/> <br/> One day, Berry came to my office, and said, “Hey, man. Will you do something for me?” I’m thinking, he’s going to tell me something corporate, you know? So, I said, “What do you need?” He said, “Sit down for a second. I want you to do something.” I said, “What?” He said, “I want you to get the hell out of here.” I said, “What did you say to me, man?” He said, “You heard me.” I said, “What are you talking about? You don’t think I’m doing my job?” He said, “No, not that, man. I see you come in here every day, and you’re miserable. And when I see that you’re miserable, it makes me miserable, and I don’t want to feel that way. So, I want you to get the hell out of here, put a band together, go into the studio, and make a record.”<br/> <br/> Now, I always considered myself to be a “quiet singer.” But as I was being reborn as a solo artist, I was determined to take the world by storm. Then, I thought to myself, “Hmm … ‘Quiet Storm.’ That’s a great song title,” and I started to write a song around it. My younger sister had become a lyricist, so I took it to her, saying, “The theme is ‘Quiet Storm,’ and here’s the beginning of the song.” Soon, she finished it, and we produced an album called “A Quiet Storm,” which was released in 1975. In time, the term “Quiet Storm” actually became a radio format. I couldn’t believe it, man. There were “Quiet Storm” radio stations all over the country!<br/> <br/> When it first started, Motown was local, just in Detroit, Flint, and Ann Arbor. It didn’t really touch Dearborn, Grosse Pointe, Bloomfield Hills, and the other suburbs of Detroit. In those days, if you were black and were caught in one of those suburbs, you better have had something on you that said you work for somebody there because, if the police got ahold of you, they would either whoop your ass, or take you to jail. But soon, we started receiving letters from the white kids out there, saying, “We love your music, but our parents don’t know we have your records. If they did, they might make us throw them away.” One regret I have is that we didn’t save those letters. But we were young, and thought, “It’s great that white kids are loving our music.” Then, a year or so later, we started getting letters from their parents. “We found out that our kids were listening to your music, so we listened to it to see why — and we love your music, too!”<br/> <br/> When I think about those times, man, I think about Sammy Davis Jr., who I came to know very well. Sammy used to tell me war stories about being black in a white man’s world. The reason he loved Frank Sinatra so much was because when Sammy, his dad and his uncle — “The Will Mastin Trio” — first started playing Las Vegas, they had to do three shows a night and, in between, they had to return to the black side of town until the start of the next show, only to come back to the casino, where they weren’t allowed to stay, to play. They couldn’t eat there. They couldn’t walk through the lobby. They had to come in through the back door. But one day, Sammy was talking with Sinatra, who was “the man” in Las Vegas. And, after hearing Sammy’s story, Frank went to the powers-that-be and said, “If you’re going to treat people like that, we’re not going to play here anymore.” And with that, black artists could finally stay at the white-side hotels in Vegas.<br/> <br/> When Claudette and I moved to Los Angeles in the early ’70s, I was finally retired from touring and smoking a lot of “weed.” Naturally, she was concerned and had heard that “The Beatles” had stopped doing drugs after they met with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. They talked about how clean their lives had become from doing Transcendental Meditation (TM), so Claudette suggested that I try it. Well, I went over to the TM center and, after a while, discovered yoga. I also discovered that I got the same benefit from just stretching my body and relaxing as I did from practicing TM, so I dropped the meditation. Now, at 83, I still do yoga, usually in the mornings, to get me started.<br/> <br/> I don’t ever want to be “old,” man. As long as I live, I want to be mobile and as vibrant as possible — physically, mentally, and emotionally. I think we are indoctrinated to feel old. We live in societies, especially in the United States, where being young is the thing. We promote everything about youth, and direct everything toward that. Fortunately, we also live in a day and age when you can take care of yourself better than ever before. Think of all the medical advances that have been made to help us stay and feel younger, longer. Nowadays, we’ve got a better chance than our parents did of living a long, good and healthy life.<br/> <br/> Claudette and I divorced in 1986, and I married my wife, Frances, in 2002. She was from Pittsburgh, but I met her in Los Angeles. We’ve known each other for more than 30 years now but, for a long time, we were just two people among a group of friends who hung out and celebrated holidays, birthdays, and so on, together.<br/> <br/> For years, Frances and I often talked on the phone, but I wasn’t thinking about being romantic with her. I’m 12 years older, but we share the same birthday, February 19th. Then, one year, all of our friends got together and said, “We’re going to take you both out for your birthday,” to which we said, “Cool.” So, we went to a restaurant in L.A. called “Crustacean,” and one of the items on the menu was coconut shrimp, which was something new to me, and it turned out that I loved it. Frances loved it, too. A week or so later, as I was getting ready to travel somewhere, Frances and I were on the phone laughing and talking about our birthday party, when I said, “Hey, let’s go get some coconut shrimp.” “Sure,” she said. That was the beginning for us, and I tell her all the time, “You do realize that I married you because of coconut shrimp.”<br/> <br/> Given that Frances is from Pittsburgh, I thought we might as well get a house here. By trade, she is an interior designer — one of the best I’ve ever seen — and she’s done a great job with our homes in L.A., Las Vegas and Pittsburgh. I love it here. It’s one of the only cities I know that’s still progressing.<br/> <br/> At this point in my life, I’m more excited about music than ever, because of the fact that I’m still writing, singing and performing — and still loving it. Of course, I continue to sing in concert some “have-to” songs, like “Ooo Baby Baby,” “Cruisin,” and “Tracks of My Tears.” If I don’t sing them, I’m afraid that people might throw stuff at me. I’ve sung those songs so many times but, don’t ask me why or how, every night they feel new to me. People in the audience can sing those songs on their own, because they know them so well. And from the stage, I see people, sitting with 3- or 4-year-olds on their laps, and realize that I probably saw some of those same people 40 or 50 years ago, when they were sitting with their parents.<br/> <br/> Music is the international language, man, and it’s not bound by time or place. My “international anthem” as a songwriter is “My Girl.” We perform all over the world and, sometimes, we go to places where 60-to-70% of the people in the audience don’t speak English. But as soon as they hear those opening notes, they know what’s coming.<br/> <br/> As for Motown, there will never be anything like that again. It was a once-in-a-lifetime musical phenomenon. To have so many people assembled in one city at the same time — wonderful singers, musicians, writers and producers — making all those hit records, it was a blessing from the very first day.</p>
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<p>Jeff is an award-winning independent filmmaker and writer who specializes in defining the cultural significance of American people, places, things and events.</p>
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Afro-American Music Institute plans expansion with ‘Ahmad Jamal Performance Hall’
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-09-09:1992552:BlogPost:716625
2023-09-09T02:30:00.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<h1 class="entry-title">COURIER EXCLUSIVE REPORT: Afro-American Music Institute plans expansion with ‘Ahmad Jamal Performance Hall’</h1>
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<li class="author-name">Rob Taylor Jr. - Courier Staff Writer</li>
<li>September 8, 2023…</li>
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<h1 class="entry-title">COURIER EXCLUSIVE REPORT: Afro-American Music Institute plans expansion with ‘Ahmad Jamal Performance Hall’</h1>
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<li>September 8, 2023</li>
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<div class="entry-content"><div title="COURIER EXCLUSIVE REPORT: Afro-American Music Institute plans expansion with ‘Ahmad Jamal Performance Hall’" class="hero__featured col mb-3"></div>
<p><strong>AFRO-AMERICAN MUSIC INSTITUTE LEADERS DR. JAMES T. JOHNSON AND PAMELA JOHNSON, NEXT TO A MURAL OF AHMAD JAMAL.</strong></p>
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<h4><strong>Space will hold roughly 200 people; new ‘Mural Museum’ on display now</strong></h4>
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<p>There is so much history inside the walls of the Afro-American Music Institute, in Homewood.</p>
<p>Take a tour inside, and you’ll see the irreplaceable photos of some of jazz’s all-time greats, along with today’s jazz aficionados who are keeping the famed music genre vivacious. You’ll notice the different instruments, countless videos and audiotapes, and the rooms where Dr. James T. Johnson teaches some 200 to 300 students yearly the ins and outs of music through a specialized curriculum in gospel, jazz, and other forms of the African Diaspora.</p>
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<p>But the energetic Dr. Johnson told the New Pittsburgh Courier in an exclusive interview, July 6, that oftentimes, when one of his students performs at their recital, “one student…would bring the parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, sister and the brothers, and the first cousin,” he said. “It got to the point that I would have to ask some young people to get up to let the older people sit down.”</p>
<p><img width="2560" height="1707" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-367406" src="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/09/IMG_8788-scaled.jpg" alt=""/><a href="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/09/IMG_8788-600x400.jpg">https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/09/IMG_8788-600x400.jpg</a> 600w, <a href="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/09/IMG_8788-1536x1024.jpg">https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/09/IMG_8788-</a> </p>
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<p><strong>ARTIST KYLE HOLBROOK, FAR RIGHT, WITH LEADERS OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN MUSIC INSTITUTE IN HOMEWOOD.</strong></p>
<p>Dr. Johnson’s talking about the loading dock in the rear of the AAMI building that’s used as a multi-purpose room. It holds about 75 people, and that’s where a lot of the organization’s events and performances are held, namely the popular “Jazz on the Loading Dock” series.</p>
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<p>Dr. Johnson’s wife, Pamela, said enough was enough. “We need to have our own space,” she told the Courier, which led her to announce that the Afro-American Music Institute would be expanding its physical space.</p>
<p>Pamela Johnson said the addition to the building at 7131 Hamilton Ave. will be in the rear, and it will be able to hold up to 200 people, almost triple the amount of the current loading dock space. Reverend Deryck Tynes, chairman of the board for the Afro-American Music Institute, said $500,000 in funding has already been raised, and an aggressive plan is in the works to raise the $2 million more needed to complete the building addition.</p>
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<p><strong>A MURAL OF AAMI FOUNDERS THE JOHNSONS. SEE ALL THE FINISHED VERSIONS NOW AT THE AAMI BUILDING.</strong></p>
<p>Pamela Johnson and Rev. Tynes said the space would be called the “Ahmad Jamal Performance Hall,” or a similar title that, no matter what, would honor Jamal, one of the most accomplished jazz musicians of all-time. Jamal, born in 1930 and who died in April of this year, was a Pittsburgher who graduated from Westinghouse High School in 1948. Among Jamal’s numerous awards was the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2017.</p>
<p>Reverend Tynes said the new space, scheduled to open by the fall of 2026, could be available to the community for outside events.</p>
<p>Dr. Johnson, known as “Dr. J.,” told the Courier the new space should have “some type of quality performance (every quarter) from a musical group from the Diaspora since our mission covers the Diaspora. When people come to know that it’s going to be something there of quality every quarter; ‘we don’t know what it’s going to be but it’s going to be good, so let’s show up,’ that’s what I want to get to.”</p>
<p>Reverend Tynes said AAMI is in talks with the corporate and philanthropy community about their contributions to the new performance space. He also said individuals can contribute to the capital campaign by going to AAMI’s website, afroamericanmusic.org.</p>
<p>What can be experienced right now at the AAMI building is a new “Mural Museum,” curated by artist Kyle Holbrook. Holbrook, known for his murals all throughout the Pittsburgh region, the nation and the world, said he’s had a “longtime relationship with Dr. J and Pam,” and knows how much they mean to the Pittsburgh community, the Homewood community, and the music community internationally.</p>
<p>Visit the Afro-American Music Institute, and you’ll see the paintings outside of the music greats—Ahmad Jamal, Mary Cardwell Dawson, Billy Strayhorn, Maxine Sullivan, George Benson, Kenny Clarke, Phyllis Hyman, Erroll Garner, Mary Lou Williams, Dakota Staton and Art Blakey. It took pretty much the entire summer for Holbrook to perfect the murals, but that’s not all. He said each mural will have “QR codes” under them, which allows a person to scan the code with a smartphone. The phone will then show information on that particular musician.</p>
<p>“They (the Johnsons) wanted to do something that was going to be here that would be educational,” Holbrook told the Courier, “so people can know who they are because these are legends.”</p>
<p><img width="2560" height="1707" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-367408" src="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/09/IMG_8819-scaled.jpg" alt=""/><a href="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/09/IMG_8819-600x400.jpg">https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/09/IMG_8819-600x400.jpg</a> 600w</p>
<p>Holbrook painted a mural on an outside wall of the AAMI building back in 2005, but these murals are on the columns on the front and sides of the building. They’re painted in purple, green and gold colors.</p>
<p>Dr. Johnson, who started the Afro-American Music Institute in 1982, told the Courier you can’t say “jazz” without “Pittsburgh.” He said when you combine the talent that came from Pittsburgh with the impact they’ve had on the jazz circuit, it’s unmatched.</p>
<p>“Pittsburgh is a city of innovators,” Dr. Johnson told the Courier. “Everybody else…is a city of imitators.”</p>
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Billy Strayhorn: Something to Live For,’ the musical, to debut in Pittsburgh
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-08-21:1992552:BlogPost:716342
2023-08-21T02:22:05.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
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<div class="entry-content"><div title="‘Billy Strayhorn: Something to Live For,’ the musical, to debut in Pittsburgh " class="hero__featured col mb-3"></div>
<p><strong>BILLY STRAYHORN</strong></p>
<h5><strong>Westinghouse High graduate had ‘irreplaceable contributions’ to jazz </strong></h5>
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<p>by Marcia Liggett </p>
<p>For New Pittsburgh Courier </p>
<p>The O’Reilly Theater in Downtown Pittsburgh will be home to the world premiere of the Broadway-aimed musical, “Billy Strayhorn: Something to Live For,” placing a long overdue spotlight on Strayhorn’s life and irreplaceable musical contributions to American jazz. </p>
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<p>William “Billy” Thomas Strayhorn was born Nov. 29, 1915, in Dayton, Ohio, and moved with his family to a humble homestead in Homewood during the early 1920s. As a child he learned to play the piano and later immersed himself in musical studies while attending Westinghouse High School. After graduating, Strayhorn continued his education at the acclaimed private Pittsburgh Musical Institute, headquartered in Oakland. The institution was in existence from 1915 to 1963, boasting numerous accomplished graduates, including Ahmad Jamal, Vivian Reed and Earl Wild. </p>
<p>Recognized as a local jazz phenom, Strayhorn was well known throughout the Pittsburgh area for his musical genius. However, it was an encounter on Dec. 1, 1938, that altered his life and professional career. </p>
<p>George Greenlee, nephew of Gus Greenlee, owner of the infamous Crawford Grill nightclub in the Hill District, took Strayhorn backstage at the Stanley Theater (now known as the Benedum Center). Strayhorn was introduced to the racial barrier-breaking jazz legend Duke Ellington. </p>
<p>Impressed with Strayhorn’s musical talents, Ellington gave Strayhorn an opportunity to collaborate in New York City. Shortly thereafter in 1938, Ellington hired the then 24-year-old Strayhorn, a decision that changed the course of jazz history, while solidifying Ellington’s legacy in musical infamy. </p>
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<p>As the dynamic duo collaborated, Strayhorn composed music, arranged lyrics, occasionally played piano during performances, and was a faithful friend to Ellington, while Ellington became the face of the music. Ellington and his band performed to sold out audiences as he headlined at the legendary Cotton Club in Harlem, and during his tour in Europe and Scandinavia in 1939. </p>
<p>Tired of financial exploitation by manager Irving Mills, Ellington shattered racial barriers during the Jim Crow Era of segregation in the early 1940s by creating his own music publishing firm, Tempo Music, ensuring personal control of his music copyrights and royalties. </p>
<p>Strayhorn composed numerous songs for the band under the protection of Tempo Music, while Ellington returned to Victor Records (having previously recorded at various record labels) in 1940 to expand his recorded catalog. Strayhorn’s composition, “Take the A Train,” was an instant hit, revitalizing Ellington’s career, legitimizing the label and providing a steady source of revenue for Ellington. It became the band’s theme song going forward and is still deemed one of the most important songs in jazz history by music historians as it showcased Strayhorn’s extraordinary ability to blend jazz and classical music, while celebrating the cultural revolution during the swing era in America. </p>
<p><img width="2560" height="2048" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-366597" src="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/MV5BMzI2MzhmMWYtNGY1OC00NzQ4LTg0NjYtMGU1ZmJlZDQ2ZDJkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjQwMDg0Ng@@._V1_-scaled.jpg" alt=""/>https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/MV5BMzI2MzhmMWYtNGY1OC00NzQ4LTg0NjYtMGU1ZmJlZDQ2ZDJkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjQwMDg0Ng@@._V1_-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, <a href="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/MV5BMzI2MzhmMWYtNGY1OC00NzQ4LTg0NjYtMGU1ZmJlZDQ2ZDJkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjQwMDg0Ng@@._V1_-2048x1638.jpg">https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/MV5BMzI2MzhmMWYtNGY1OC00NzQ4LTg0NjYtMGU1ZmJlZDQ2ZDJkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjQwMDg0Ng@@._V1_-2048x1638.jpg</a> 2048w, <a href="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/MV5BMzI2MzhmMWYtNGY1OC00NzQ4LTg0NjYtMGU1ZmJlZDQ2ZDJkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjQwMDg0Ng@@._V1_-375x300.jpg">https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/MV5BMzI2MzhmMWYtNGY1OC00NzQ4LTg0NjYtMGU1ZmJlZDQ2ZDJkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjQwMDg0Ng@@._V1_-375x300.jpg</a> 375w, <a href="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/MV5BMzI2MzhmMWYtNGY1OC00NzQ4LTg0NjYtMGU1ZmJlZDQ2ZDJkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjQwMDg0Ng@@._V1_-750x600.jpg">https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/MV5BMzI2MzhmMWYtNGY1OC00NzQ4LTg0NjYtMGU1ZmJlZDQ2ZDJkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjQwMDg0Ng@@._V1_-750x600.jpg</a> 750w, <a href="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/MV5BMzI2MzhmMWYtNGY1OC00NzQ4LTg0NjYtMGU1ZmJlZDQ2ZDJkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjQwMDg0Ng@@._V1_-1140x912.jpg">https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/MV5BMzI2MzhmMWYtNGY1OC00NzQ4LTg0NjYtMGU1ZmJlZDQ2ZDJkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjQwMDg0Ng@@._V1_-1140x912.jpg</a> 1140w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" /></p>
<p><strong>DARIUS DE HAAS</strong></p>
<p>Despite the song’s timeless achievement and the success of many other songs Strayhorn composed throughout the following decades, he remained an unsung hero and a constant force behind the scenes for Ellington’s success until his death in New York City in 1967. Strayhorn died at just 51 years of age. </p>
<p>Embraced by the art scene in Pittsburgh, Strayhorn’s impact remains visible as both the Kelly Strayhorn Theater (KST) and the KST’s Alloy Studios in East Liberty and Friendship bear his name. </p>
<p>Now he will be reincarnated on stage in hopes of keeping his story alive and relevant to future generations of jazz enthusiasts. </p>
<p>“This world premiere new musical follows the highs and lows of Billy Strayhorn’s career, the joys and heartbreak of his personal life, and the challenges he faced living as an openly gay Black man in mid-20th century America at the dawn of the civil rights movement,” explained Pittsburgh Playhouse Theater (PPT) in a release. </p>
<p><img width="574" height="770" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-366596 aligncenter" src="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/Mollison_JD_628_xret.jpeg" alt=""/>https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/Mollison_JD_628_xret-224x300.jpeg 224w" sizes="(max-width: 574px) 100vw, 574px" /></p>
<p><strong>J.D. MOLLISON</strong></p>
<p>“Billy Strayhorn was an innovator and a real musical genius. He had such an indelible and distinctive musical voice which was evident in the output of material and music that he wrote, composed, and wrote lyrics for,” explained Kent Gash, the director and co-author of the new Strayhorn musical. “He’s written and co-written some of the most beloved music in the American songbook but is not well known for those contributions like Gershwin or Ellington.” </p>
<p><img width="1367" height="2048" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-366595" src="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/Billy-Porter-Headshot-by-Meredith-Truax.jpeg" alt=""/>https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/Billy-Porter-Headshot-by-Meredith-Truax-1025x1536.jpeg 1025w, <a href="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/Billy-Porter-Headshot-by-Meredith-Truax-200x300.jpeg">https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/Billy-Porter-Headshot-by-Meredith-Truax-200x300.jpeg</a> 200w, <a href="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/Billy-Porter-Headshot-by-Meredith-Truax-750x1124.jpeg">https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/Billy-Porter-Headshot-by-Meredith-Truax-750x1124.jpeg</a> 750w, <a href="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/Billy-Porter-Headshot-by-Meredith-Truax-1140x1708.jpeg">https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/08/Billy-Porter-Headshot-by-Meredith-Truax-1140x1708.jpeg</a> 1140w" sizes="(max-width: 1367px) 100vw, 1367px" /></p>
<p><strong>BILLY PORTER</strong></p>
<p>Gash is a graduate of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, as are co-author Rob Zellers and Pittsburgh’s own Grammy, Tony and Emmy Award winner Billy Porter, who recently joined the musical’s team as a producer. J.D. Mollison, a Broadway star, actor and fellow CMU grad, will depict Duke Ellington in the musical. </p>
<p>“I couldn’t think of a better city for this to premiere in because Billy spent his formative years in Pittsburgh. He was fed, fueled and supported by the community. And nobody is better equipped on the planet to tell this story for us than Darius de Haas.” </p>
<p>Darius de Haas, playing Billy Strayhorn, will be performing in Pittsburgh for the first time. Mark Power (investor and longtime friend of Zellers) describes de Haas as “a Strayhorn scholar,” sharing that “de Haas had the great benefit and unique opportunity of sitting with and talking to Luther Henderson, Ellington’s former bandmember, where he learned from firsthand accounts of Strayhorn.” </p>
<p>“Billy’s talent was so prodigious that despite grave circumstances, he survived and became a testament for Black people making a way out of no way. It’s a blessing to bring him to the forefront where the audience can get an idea of what his viewpoint was, how he felt about things, what his loves were, his hates, his points of view, etc.,” de Haas shared. “We are at a time in our history where people are happy to reinvent, erase or bury our history, so this to me is the perfect time” for the musical to debut. </p>
<p>Matthew Whitaker, a 22-year-old jazz pianist and composer, will be making his musical directorial debut, leading a nine-piece jazz band for the musical. The orchestrator, Tony Award-winner Bruce Coughlin, will assist Whitaker with Strayhorn-inspired arrangements and settings of the songs. </p>
<p>“Jazz is America’s only true original art form,” explained de Haas, who has been singing the Strayhorn catalog for over two decades. “People oftentimes look at me quizzically when I mention Strayhorn and Ellington. These are the giants on whose shoulders we stand. This is why it is so important to scream, shout and sing their names to the high heavens because of what they contributed to our culture.” </p>
<p>The musical runs in Pittsburgh at the O’Reilly Theater for 21 performances, Sept. 19 to Oct. 8. </p>
<p>“I think the musical will be particularly appreciated and celebrated where Billy spent most of his formative years as there’s a huge, rich legacy of jazz brilliance that came into and from Pittsburgh,” Gash told the New Pittsburgh Courier. “My hope is that all of Pittsburgh will hear the clarion call that is Darius de Haas, and they will be taken into the world of one of our greatest composers and lyricists through this work. It’s so nice to be able to put this life, this music, this creative genius, this spirit, that was so ahead of his time on stage and share that with people.” </p>
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Alice McLeod Coltrane: Hall of Fame
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-07-30:1992552:BlogPost:716029
2023-07-30T23:17:28.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
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<div class="container-fluid"><div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-sm-7 col-sm-push-2 pad-col"><hr class="margin-top-sm margin-bottom-sm"></hr><h1>Alice Coltrane: Hall of Fame</h1>
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<div class="container-fluid"><div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-sm-7 col-sm-push-2 pad-col"><hr class="margin-top-sm margin-bottom-sm"/><h1>Alice Coltrane: Hall of Fame</h1>
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<a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/new">NEWS,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/from-the-magazine">FROM THE MAGAZINE,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/alice-coltrane">ALICE COLTRANE</a></div>
<span class="postinfo"><strong>By<span> </span><a href="https://downbeat.com/site/author/suzanne-lorge">Suzanne Lorge</a><span> </span></strong></span><span class="text-primary"> I </span><span class="postinfo">Jul. 27, 2023</span><br />
<div class="pad-btm-sm pad-top-sm"><img src="https://downbeat.com/images/news/_full/87_Alice_Coltrane_by_Frans_Schellekens.jpg" class="img-responsive" alt="Image"/>
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<p>Alice Coltrane enters the Hall of Fame for her groundbreaking contributions to jazz composition and performance, leaving behind an impressive oeuvre of eclectic works and a hallowed legacy.</p>
(Photo: Frans Schellekens)<br />
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<p>Alice McLeod Coltrane Turiyasangitananda (1937–2007) spent just four years of her life with tenor saxophonist John Coltrane. These few years proved momentous for them both, however — they toured internationally, turned out several important jazz albums, forged a shared spiritual path and had three children together.</p>
<p>But Alice’s work as a musician extended beyond her towering relationship with John, significant as that alliance has been to jazz history. She enters the DownBeat Hall of Fame for her groundbreaking contributions to jazz composition and performance, leaving behind an impressive oeuvre of eclectic works and a hallowed legacy.</p>
<p>Born in 1937, Alice McLeod got her musical start in Detroit, her hometown, by then already one of the most important centers for Black music in the U.S. Following some early classical training, by age 9 she was playing gospel piano and organ in church. This experience prepared her for the jazz clubs that came later, as she followed the lead of her older half-brother, bassist Ernie Farrow — future sideman for bandleaders Terry Gibbs, Yusef Lateef and Stan Getz, among others.</p>
<p>It was in Detroit in the 1950s that Alice likely first heard the inventive music of jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby, five years her senior. Notably, Alice would decide a few years hence (with John’s encouragement) to pursue harp as a mode of jazz expression herself.</p>
<p>She continued her jazz education with a move to Paris, where by 1960 she was gigging as the intermission pianist at the Blue Note and with tenor saxophonist Lucky Thompson, with whom she’d worked in Detroit. While in Paris, she had the chance to befriend and learn from trailblazing bebop pianist Bud Powell. And she married for the first time — to singer Kenny (Pancho) Hagood, who had fronted the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra and recorded with Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. Alice had her first child, Michelle, with Hagood. (John would later adopt Michelle.)</p>
<p>In 1963, newly divorced and back stateside, Alice met John Coltrane one evening in New York at Birdland, where she was part of vibist Terry Gibbs’ rhythm section and Coltrane was leading his already-famous quartet. Within three years of this seemingly fated backstage encounter, Alice and he would be a couple with two children: John Jr. and Ravi. They married in 1965, and she soon began playing with his band. In 1966, she took over the piano spot in the quartet from McCoy Tyner when John’s longtime pianist decided to leave the ensemble.</p>
<p>Tyner’s decision stemmed largely from a growing division between the two players’ respective creative views. Throughout the early 1960s, Trane had been moving away from his earlier fascination with bebop and was starting to experiment with free and modal forms and incorporate elements of world music in his compositions. This musical evolution reflected not just John’s musical interests but a deepening spiritual quest that he and Alice shared.</p>
<p>As a part of John’s rhythm section from 1966 to ’67, Alice recorded multiple albums, several of them live, all of them released via the Impulse! label. However, only one of these,<span> </span><i>Live At the Village Vanguard Again!</i>, came out during John’s life. These recordings document Alice’s increasing skill with free improvisation, playing alongside avant-gardists such as saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and drummer Rashied Ali.</p>
<p>The couple’s creative time together was short-lived. John died from liver cancer in July 1967, just four months after Alice had given birth to their third son, Oran. Despite the challenges of this loss, within a year she had succeeded in releasing her first solo record,<span> </span><i>A Monastic Trio</i>, on Impulse! This record marked the debut of the Alice Coltrane Quartet, with Sanders on woodwinds, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Ben Riley on drums. Recorded at the Coltrane home on Long Island, in January 1968, the album established Alice’s authority as a bandleader and composer. It also marks her recording debut on the harp, which would soon become one of her principal instruments.</p>
<p>In 1968 Alice also self-released<span> </span><i>Cosmic Music</i>, which Impulse! picked up soon after. The album captures the first studio session between the newlyweds, recorded in early 1966 during a tour with John’s quartet. Her musical output expanded rapidly in the years following his passing. As a composer and bandleader, she released 12 studio albums over the next decade. As these recordings show, more and more fre- quently Alice was playing harp and Eastern musical instruments, and she had started to add strings to her own works.</p>
<p>These musical changes were the outward manifestation of a personal shift that had been in process at least since Alice’s first days with John, when they had begun to embrace Eastern spiritual ideas. Further to this pursuit, in 1970, Alice became a follower of Indian guru Swami Satchidananda, and later with Sri Sathya Sai Baba.</p>
<p>In 1972 she moved to Southern California, where in 1975 she founded the Vedantic Center, north of Los Angeles. In acknowledgement of her new metaphysical devotion, Alice changed her name to Turiyasangitananda, or the “Transcendental Lord’s Highest Song of Bliss.” By 1978, Turiya, as she became known, was fully immersed in ashram life as a spiritual leader, and Alice Coltrane had largely left the jazz world behind.</p>
<p>That same year, Warner Bros. released<span> </span><i>Transfiguration</i>, the recording of a live concert at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall in Los Angeles that spring. Alice had played organ and piano on the gig — forgoing the harp (not surprising, given the heft of the instrument) — alongside bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Roy Haynes. Later, in the studio, she had overdubbed strings onto some of the cuts, enhancing their medita- tive effect. She would not record a commercial album for another 26 years.</p>
<p>Alice, now Turiya, did continue to write and record music during her quieter life at the ashram, however, distributing her new music to devotees informally on cassettes under the ashram’s Avatar label. These worshipful compositions reveal her turn toward simpler melodic and chordal structures — gone were the elastic, furious bebop riffs and free-ranging extrapolations. The first known record under these auspices came with 1982’s<span> </span><i>Turiya Sings</i>; this recording also chronicles her first steps into vocal music, as she sings in Sanskrit and accompanies herself on Wurlitzer organ.</p>
<p>In the late 1970s, Turiya also became an author, publishing several books through the Avatar imprint:<span> </span><i>Monument Eternal</i>, an autobiographic telling of her spiritual journey;<span> </span><i>Endless Wisdom</i>, a volume of more than 100 of her inspired verses;<span> </span><i>Divine Revelations</i>, a compilation of sacred experiences associated with Satya Sai Baba; and<span> </span><i>Turiya Speaks</i>, a collection of her spiritual teachings.</p>
<p>In 2004, at the behest of sons Ravi and Oran, Turiya returned to the studio for what would be her final commercial jazz release,<span> </span><i>Translinear Light</i>, again on Impulse!. On this, she played piano and keyboards with an intergenerational ensemble: bassist Haden and drummer Jack DeJohnette, both longstanding collaborators; Ravi and Oran, on tenor and alto, respectively; and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts and bassist James Genus, on a first-time studio date with the legendary composer. With these musicians she crafted a concise retrospective of her musical life: two gospel hymns, two devotional chants, two of John’s tunes and six of her originals. She released the album under the name Alice Coltrane.</p>
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<p>When Turiya “left her physical form,” as her website says, in January 2007, she ceded her legacy — and John’s — to her surviving children Michelle, Ravi and Oran, each a successful musician in their own right. (John Jr. died in a car accident in 1982). This legacy includes an interest in maintaining The John & Alice Coltrane Home, the Long Island house where John wrote<span> </span><i>A Love Supreme<span> </span></i>and Alice recorded six of her leader albums. Noting its significance to Black culture, in 2018 the National Trust for Historic Preservation awarded the Home its National Treasure designation. The Home’s mission, stated simply, is “to be a force for good” — John’s words and Alice’s prayer for humanity.<span> </span><b>DB</b></p>
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A new day is dawning for New Granada Theater
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-07-24:1992552:BlogPost:715807
2023-07-24T19:14:36.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
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<li class="author-name">Rob Taylor Jr. - Courier Staff Writer</li>
<li>July 24, 2023</li>
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<div class="entry-content"><div title="A new day is dawning for New Granada Theater" class="hero__featured col mb-3"></div>
<p><strong>THE GROUNDBREAKING TO THE RESTORATION OF THE HISTORIC NEW GRANADA THEATER, MAY 25, IN THE HILL DISTRICT. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)</strong></p>
<p>Sooner than you think, thousands of people in the Hill District and beyond will be enjoying the brand new performance spaces, small businesses and overall vitality of the New Granada Theater and its surroundings along Centre Avenue, called New Granada Square. Walking into the New Granada will be as normal as heading to the grocery store.</p>
<p><img width="667" height="1000" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-365488" src="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/07/IMG_1341.jpg" alt=""/>https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/07/IMG_1341-200x300.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 667px) 100vw, 667px" /></p>
<p><strong>MARIMBA MILLIONES</strong></p>
<p>But to put into words the time, effort and finances it has taken to start the restoration process of the New Granada back to its glory days of the early and mid-1950s, might take up this entire newspaper. Like a lot of people in the ‘90s, Marimba Milliones, the longtime president and CEO of the Hill Community Development Corporation (Hill CDC), didn’t have it in her mind originally to restore the historic theater, designed by Black architect Louis Bellinger, which played host to the legends; Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, and countless others. Milliones was the first web developer for the City of Pittsburgh, when the Internet was in its infancy.<img width="667" height="1000" class="size-full wp-image-365492 aligncenter" src="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/07/IMG_4782.jpg" alt=""/>https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/07/IMG_4782-200x300.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 667px) 100vw, 667px" /></p>
<p><strong>MARIMBA MILLIONES AND HUSBAND, RICHARD W. TAYLOR</strong></p>
<p>In the late ‘90s, Milliones decided to have a meeting with the former Hill CDC leader Elbert Hatley. She had an idea to give African Americans in the Hill District and elsewhere a place to come to train on web coding, which is a highly-paid profession.</p>
<p>“I was super green and super young,” Milliones recalled, “and I didn’t know I was being cultivated for volunteer work. So, I walked in pitching to him (Hatley) and I walked out on his list of people he was going to recruit to the (Hill CDC) board.”</p>
<p>As part of their conversations, Milliones said she remembered Hatley wanting to raise money to save the New Granada Theater. “He thought we should save that building,” Milliones said, “and he was the one who planted that seed in my heart to carry that struggle forward.”</p>
<p>Fast forward more than 20 years later, and here we are. In the year 2023, May 25 to be exact, the hard hats and shovels were out in front of the New Granada Theater, symbolizing the official groundbreaking to the restoration of the historic building that means so much to African Americans, means so much to Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>It took more than 7,300 days of fighting ferociously for the funding, the capital for the project. More than 7,300 days of being told “No,” “Yes,” “Maybe,” “Not right now,” “Why are you doing this?” and more. More than 7,300 days of hearing from longtime Hill District African Americans, telling Milliones to keep pushing forward.</p>
<p>About 100 people celebrated the milestone on a sunny Thursday afternoon, hugs and handshakes abound, knowing that the endless fighting for the tens of millions of dollars needed for the project had been secured, and it was time to “get to gettin’.”</p>
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<h1 class="entry-title">A new day is dawning for New Granada Theater</h1>
<div class="byline vcard d-flex px-0 py-4"><div class="d-flex flex-grow-1 author"><div class="author-info d-flex flex-shrink px-2"><ul>
<li class="author-name">Rob Taylor Jr. - Courier Staff Writer</li>
<li>July 24, 2023</li>
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<div class="entry-content"><div title="A new day is dawning for New Granada Theater" class="hero__featured col mb-3"></div>
<p><strong>THE GROUNDBREAKING TO THE RESTORATION OF THE HISTORIC NEW GRANADA THEATER, MAY 25, IN THE HILL DISTRICT. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)</strong></p>
<p>Sooner than you think, thousands of people in the Hill District and beyond will be enjoying the brand new performance spaces, small businesses and overall vitality of the New Granada Theater and its surroundings along Centre Avenue, called New Granada Square. Walking into the New Granada will be as normal as heading to the grocery store.</p>
<p><img width="667" height="1000" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-365488" src="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/07/IMG_1341.jpg" alt=""/>https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/07/IMG_1341-200x300.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 667px) 100vw, 667px" /></p>
<p><strong>MARIMBA MILLIONES</strong></p>
<p>But to put into words the time, effort and finances it has taken to start the restoration process of the New Granada back to its glory days of the early and mid-1950s, might take up this entire newspaper. Like a lot of people in the ‘90s, Marimba Milliones, the longtime president and CEO of the Hill Community Development Corporation (Hill CDC), didn’t have it in her mind originally to restore the historic theater, designed by Black architect Louis Bellinger, which played host to the legends; Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, and countless others. Milliones was the first web developer for the City of Pittsburgh, when the Internet was in its infancy.<img width="667" height="1000" class="size-full wp-image-365492 aligncenter" src="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/07/IMG_4782.jpg" alt=""/>https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/07/IMG_4782-200x300.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 667px) 100vw, 667px" /></p>
<p><strong>MARIMBA MILLIONES AND HUSBAND, RICHARD W. TAYLOR</strong></p>
<p>In the late ‘90s, Milliones decided to have a meeting with the former Hill CDC leader Elbert Hatley. She had an idea to give African Americans in the Hill District and elsewhere a place to come to train on web coding, which is a highly-paid profession.</p>
<p>“I was super green and super young,” Milliones recalled, “and I didn’t know I was being cultivated for volunteer work. So, I walked in pitching to him (Hatley) and I walked out on his list of people he was going to recruit to the (Hill CDC) board.”</p>
<p>As part of their conversations, Milliones said she remembered Hatley wanting to raise money to save the New Granada Theater. “He thought we should save that building,” Milliones said, “and he was the one who planted that seed in my heart to carry that struggle forward.”</p>
<p>Fast forward more than 20 years later, and here we are. In the year 2023, May 25 to be exact, the hard hats and shovels were out in front of the New Granada Theater, symbolizing the official groundbreaking to the restoration of the historic building that means so much to African Americans, means so much to Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>It took more than 7,300 days of fighting ferociously for the funding, the capital for the project. More than 7,300 days of being told “No,” “Yes,” “Maybe,” “Not right now,” “Why are you doing this?” and more. More than 7,300 days of hearing from longtime Hill District African Americans, telling Milliones to keep pushing forward.</p>
<p>About 100 people celebrated the milestone on a sunny Thursday afternoon, hugs and handshakes abound, knowing that the endless fighting for the tens of millions of dollars needed for the project had been secured, and it was time to “get to gettin’.”</p>
<p><img width="667" height="1000" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-365486" src="https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/07/IMG_1252.jpg" alt=""/>https://newpittsburghcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/07/IMG_1252-200x300.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 667px) 100vw, 667px" /></p>
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Bartz, Blanchard, Myers, Jenkins Named NEA Jazz Masters - 2023
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-07-19:1992552:BlogPost:715704
2023-07-19T01:50:28.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<div class="kicker text-news"><p class="inline"></p>
<a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/new">NEWS,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/gary-bartz">GARY BARTZ</a>, <a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/terence-blanchard">TERENCE BLANCHARD</a>, <a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/amina-claudine-myers">AMINA CLAUDINE MYERS</a></div>
<p><span class="postinfo"><strong>By<span> …</span></strong></span></p>
<div class="kicker text-news"><p class="inline"></p>
<a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/new">NEWS,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/gary-bartz">GARY BARTZ</a>, <a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/terence-blanchard">TERENCE BLANCHARD</a>, <a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/amina-claudine-myers">AMINA CLAUDINE MYERS</a></div>
<p><span class="postinfo"><strong>By<span> </span><a href="https://downbeat.com/site/author/downbeat">DownBeat</a><span> </span></strong></span><span class="text-primary"> I </span><span class="postinfo">Jul. 13, 2023</span></p>
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<li class="clone"><img src="https://downbeat.com/images/news/_full/2023_Willard_Jenkins_courtesy_of_Willard_Jenkins.jpg" class="img-responsive" alt=""/>
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<p></p>
<p>Willard Jenkins</p>
(Photo: Courtesy Willard Jenkins)<br />
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</li>
<li class=""><img src="https://downbeat.com/images/news/_full/2023_Terence_Blanchard_by_Cedric_Angeles.jpg" class="img-responsive" alt=""/>
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<p></p>
<p>Terence Blanchard</p>
(Photo: Cedric Angeles)<br />
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<li class="flex-active-slide"><img src="https://downbeat.com/images/news/_full/2023_Amina_Claudine_Myers_by_Crystal_Blake.JPG" class="img-responsive" alt=""/>
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<p></p>
<p>Amina Claudine Myers</p>
(Photo: Crystal Blake)<br />
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<li class=""><img src="https://downbeat.com/images/news/_full/2023_GaryBartz_by_Alan_Nahigian.jpg" class="img-responsive" alt=""/>
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<p></p>
<p>Gary Bartz</p>
(Photo: Alan Nahigian)<br />
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</li>
<li class=""><img src="https://downbeat.com/images/news/_full/2023_Willard_Jenkins_courtesy_of_Willard_Jenkins.jpg" class="img-responsive" alt=""/>
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<p></p>
<p>Willard Jenkins</p>
(Photo: Courtesy Willard Jenkins)<br />
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<li class="clone"><img src="https://downbeat.com/images/news/_full/2023_Terence_Blanchard_by_Cedric_Angeles.jpg" class="img-responsive" alt=""/>
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<p>Terence Blanchard</p>
(Photo: Cedric Angeles)<br />
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<p>Gary Bartz, Terence Blanchard, Amina Claudine Myers and Willard Jenkins have been named recipients of the 2024 NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships. The honors, awarded for more than 40 years by the National Endowment for the Arts, are given to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the advancement of jazz. The honorees will each receive an award of $25,000 and will be celebrated with a free concert in Washington, D.C., on April 13, 2024, staged in collaboration with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.</p>
<p>“Jazz is one of our nation’s most significant artistic contributions to the world, and the NEA is proud to recognize individuals whose creativity and dedication ensure that the art form continues to evolve and inspire new audiences and practitioners,” said Maria Rosario Jackson, NEA chair.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.arts.gov/node/307006" title="">Gary Bartz</a>, a purveyor of informal composition (as opposed to improvisation), has been one of the leading alto saxophonists on the scene since the 1960s, working with the likes of Max Roach, Charles Mingus, Art Blakey and Miles Davis. He has released more than 45 albums as a leader and appeared on more than 200 as a guest artist or sideman.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.arts.gov/node/307016" title="">Terence Blanchard</a>, a seven-time Grammy winner, has been a force in jazz for more than 40 years. A distinguished alumnus of Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard went on to write film scores for many directors, most famously Spike Lee, as well as tour and perform with his own groups and as a sideman. Blanchard’s work has gone far beyond jazz into composing for television and film, conceiving grand operas and collaborating with dance companies.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.arts.gov/node/306846" title="">Amina Claudine Myers</a><span> </span>has honed her craft as a composer for voice and instruments, often displaying gospel influences. From her beginnings as a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), she moved to New York City in the 1970s, where Myers gave her compositional work priority and began taking on theatrical production projects.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.arts.gov/node/306851" title="">Willard Jenkins</a>, this year’s recipient of the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for Jazz Advocacy, has been involved in jazz as a writer, broadcaster, educator, historian, artistic director and arts consultant since the 1970s. He is major voice in promulgating the music and its importance to American culture. Currently the artistic director of the DC Jazz Festival and host of the<span> </span><i>Ancient/Future</i><span> </span>program on DC’s WPFW radio station, Jenkins is an authority on the local as well as national jazz scene.</p>
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<p>“Gary Bartz’s saxophone has blazed trails with his dynamic phraseology and iconic tone for decades — he is representative for the truth in music,” said Jason Moran, Kennedy Center artistic director for jazz. “Terence Blanchard does it all, from the trumpet to the screen with a singular genius. Amina Claudine Myers has devoted endless time and energy to creating a new canon in the AACM, and when she’s at the keys, soul pours freely from her voice and fingers. And, Willard Jenkins has wielded his pen to be a passionate amplifier for the music and the musician.”<span> </span><b>DB</b></p>
African American Music Institute Mural Museum Celebrating Legendary Jazz Musician Ahmad Jamal
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-07-05:1992552:BlogPost:715313
2023-07-05T16:30:00.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<blockquote><div dir="ltr"><div id="yiv9956926261m_4004277810871589357ydpc60144b9yahoo_quoted_9071748155"><div id="yiv9956926261m_4004277810871589357ydpc60144b9yiv0906344983"><p>AAMI Mural Museum for Ahmad Jamal</p>
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<p>July 1, 2023</p>
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<p><strong>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</strong></p>
<p>African American Music Institute Mural Museum Celebrating Legendary Jazz Musician Ahmad Jamal</p>
<p>Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — July 6, 2023 — The African American Music Institute (AAMI) is…</p>
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<blockquote><div dir="ltr"><div id="yiv9956926261m_4004277810871589357ydpc60144b9yahoo_quoted_9071748155"><div id="yiv9956926261m_4004277810871589357ydpc60144b9yiv0906344983"><p>AAMI Mural Museum for Ahmad Jamal</p>
<p> </p>
<p>July 1, 2023</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</strong></p>
<p>African American Music Institute Mural Museum Celebrating Legendary Jazz Musician Ahmad Jamal</p>
<p>Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — July 6, 2023 — The African American Music Institute (AAMI) is thrilled to announce the painting of a captivating Mural Museum, showcasing a stunning mural of the late jazz icon, Ahmad Jamal, in honor of his birthday week. The museum, painted by acclaimed artist Kyle Holbrook in collaboration with Serena English, will pay tribute to the lifetime achievements of the iconic musician and feature a QR code linking to a fundraising campaign for the AAMI's future performance space extension.</p>
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<p>Born on July 2, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ahmad Jamal was one of the most successful small-group leaders in jazz history, earning the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award. His musical contributions spanned six decades, inspiring countless musicians worldwide. Tragically, Ahmad Jamal passed away on April 16, 2023, leaving a profound impact on the world of jazz and Pittsburgh's rich music history.</p>
<p>AAMI Mural Museum, located at <strong>7131 Hamilton Ave.</strong>, Pittsburgh, will be showcased on <strong>July 6, 2023, at 11 AM</strong>. The momentous occasion will gather admirers of Ahmad Jamal and jazz enthusiasts to celebrate the legacy of this iconic figure.</p>
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<p>The centerpiece of the Mural Museum will be the breathtaking portrait of Ahmad Jamal, painted live by artist Kyle Holbrook during his birthday week. The mural will capture the essence of his musical prowess and his invaluable contributions to African American music. Serena English's creative touches will add depth and vibrancy to the artistic masterpiece.</p>
<p>Moreover, the museum serves a greater purpose as it marks the announcement of AAMI's new extension, which will be named after the late Ahmad Jamal. This extension will provide a dedicated performance space for aspiring young musicians, carrying forward the legacy of excellence fostered by AAMI for the past 40 years.</p>
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<p>Pam Johnson and Dr. James Johnson founded the African American Music Institute in 1983 with a mission to provide educational opportunities, inspiration, and services to the community. The institute has been instrumental in shaping the lives of countless young musicians from the Pittsburgh area, empowering them to make an impact in the world through their music.</p>
<p>AAMI calls upon jazz enthusiasts, music lovers, and community members to join in the celebration of Ahmad Jamal's life and support the fundraising campaign for the future extension. The QR code on the Mural will offer a convenient way to contribute to this significant endeavor and continue the legacy of nurturing young talents.</p>
<p>For media inquiries and more information about the event, please contact:</p>
<p>Press Contact:</p>
<p>Name: Kyle Holbrook</p>
<p>Phone:724-531-2184</p>
<p>Email:AAMI@mlkmural.com</p>
<p>Join us on July 6th as we showcase the Mural Museum, a testament to the greatness of Ahmad Jamal and a step towards a brighter future for young musicians at the African American Music Institute.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>About African American Music Institute (AAMI)</p>
<p>Founded in 1983 by Pam Johnson and Dr. James Johnson, AAMI has been at the forefront of providing educational services and opportunities for the Pittsburgh community for four decades. Its mission is to inspire and uplift through the power of music, fostering young talents and preserving the legacy of African American musical heritage.</p>
<p>About Artist Kyle Holbrook</p>
<p>Kyle Holbrook is a renowned artist known for his stunning and socially relevant murals that adorn numerous cities across the United States. His work often captures the essence of historical figures and significant cultural events, leaving an indelible mark on the communities he touches.</p>
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Wayne Shorter: The Final Interview
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-06-27:1992552:BlogPost:715466
2023-06-27T22:56:04.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
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<div class="container-fluid"><div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-sm-7 col-sm-push-2 pad-col"><hr class="margin-top-sm margin-bottom-sm"></hr><h1>Wayne Shorter: The Final Interview</h1>
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<a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/q-a">INTERVIEW,<span> …</span></a></div>
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<div class="container-fluid"><div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-sm-7 col-sm-push-2 pad-col"><hr class="margin-top-sm margin-bottom-sm"/><h1>Wayne Shorter: The Final Interview</h1>
<div class="kicker text-news"><p class="inline"></p>
<a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/q-a">INTERVIEW,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/from-the-magazine">FROM THE MAGAZINE,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/wayne-shorter">WAYNE SHORTER</a></div>
<span class="postinfo"><strong>By<span> </span><a href="https://downbeat.com/site/author/michael-jackson">Michael Jackson</a><span> </span></strong></span><span class="text-primary"> I </span><span class="postinfo">May. 9, 2023</span><br />
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<p>“Remember to be a warrior, not a worrier,” Shorter said, 10 days prior to his passing on March 2.</p>
(Photo: Michael Jackson)<br />
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<p>Sadly, the formative giants of jazz are passing the torch and joining the ancestors. But such cliché and dwelling on pantheons wouldn’t interest Wayne Shorter, despite the DownBeat Hall of Famer’s fascination with mythology.</p>
<p>His interstellar career threaded through a brief stint with Maynard Ferguson, four formative years with Art Blakey, six with Miles Davis — concurrent to mining a deeply personal (and influential) leader career at Blue Note — then fusing global sounds with Weather Report and delving into further synthetic flavors alongside the sonic subtleties of Brazil before cracking his modus operandi even wider with decades of daredevil acoustic improv in the new century, and then an operatic finale. Despite all this, Shorter was, beyond music, fundamentally a humanist. A science fiction freak as a kid in New Jersey, “Mr. Weird” and “Mr. Gone” discovered Buddhism at 40, but had ever been searching for “other ways” to navigate life’s puzzles and postulations.</p>
<p>Clues to his unquenchable curiosity can be traced in myriad compositional conceits, pregnant with ominous musing, that bespeak the saxophonist’s boundless quest and embrace of rebirth: “Someplace Called ‘Where,’” “More Than Human,” “Fee-Fo-Fi-Fum,” “On The Eve Of Departure.” Thus, don’t unduly mourn Shorter’s transition, which occurred on March 2, at the age of 89, after an extended period of ill health. Instead, celebrate his terra firma triumphs, while squinting at the night sky, awaiting the explosion of a supernova — to reference one of Shorter’s most exploratory, least tethered sessions from 1969.</p>
<p>The following is one of the maestro’s last interviews, a phone conversation that began as a discussion of crucial Shorter collaborator and pianist Danilo Pérez for the May 2022 DownBeat cover. DownBeat found Shorter, despite the discomforts of dialysis, to be utterly lucid — contemplating intimate details of his incandescent career — and fearless. Shorter’s responses have been edited for space, clarity and continuity.</p>
<p><b>Michael Jackson:</b><span> </span>I’m wondering how the premier of your opera<span> </span><i>Iphigenia</i><span> </span>went?</p>
<p><b>Wayne Shorter:</b><span> </span>Well, the New York Times and other newspapers … they used the word “landmark.” They even compared it to Stravinsky’s<span> </span><i>The Rake’s Progress</i><span> </span>— [with] the impact, the road that it’s on. So they seem to think it’s a doorway into something.</p>
<p><b>Jackson:</b><span> </span>Well, that will work for you, won’t it? And Frank [Gehry, who designed the sets] was in attendance?</p>
<p><b>Shorter:<span> </span></b>Yeah, he was there at the end, too, taking bows. And the conductor, he was the director of the L.A. Phil at one time, and some other people, I couldn’t see them all; we were all on stage together.</p>
<p><b>Jackson:</b><span> </span>And was it sold out?</p>
<p><b>Shorter:<span> </span></b>Oh, yeah, sold out. In fact, people were standing outside still trying to get in, waiting for a loose ticket here and there, y’know.</p>
<p><b>Jackson:</b><span> </span>That’s amazing. Must have taken you back, to, well, I was going to say Weather Report days, but that doesn’t quite make sense.</p>
<p><b>Shorter:</b><span> </span>No, this is another hallway, unvisited. … Before he died, Miles Davis called me. He also wanted to do [an opera] rendition, as if Gil Evans was still around. But he called, asking me to write something …<span> </span><i>Tosca</i>, the opera<span> </span><i>Tosca</i><span> </span>and some of the other operas he wanted to get into. Then he passed away.</p>
<p><b>Jackson:</b><span> </span>I was thinking back to the first time I saw you perform with Weather Report in Manchester, U.K., 1980 … Jaco [Pastorius], Joe [Zawinul], Peter Erskine, Robert Thomas Jr. I think that was the first time a laser was used for onstage special effect.</p>
<p><b>Shorter:</b><span> </span>Oh, yeah-yeah, I remember!</p>
<p><b>Jackson:</b><span> </span>Was that your idea?</p>
<p><b>Shorter:</b><span> </span>The laser? No, all I was into was doing the performance … just like with Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit,” those robots they used on the video, that was somebody’s idea, a guy from Scotland. Other people tried to take credit, including management, but Herbie reached out beyond the management handcuff. They were against it, but when it was a hit, they were all for it, took their 10 or 15 percent.</p>
<p><b>Jackson:</b><span> </span>I was but a twinkle in my father’s eye during your Jazz Messengers era, but they were some heady days, eh? Art Blakey was a progressive, pushy leader.</p>
<p><b>Shorter:</b><span> </span>Art and his family knew about a lot of things. “Don’t worry about Fidel Castro, watch out for Papa Doc in Haiti,” he’d say. We went to Algeria. Things happened there, man, with the French gendarmes and all that, the French colonists. We played a concert, and in the middle, Art went to the microphone and said [<i>Shorter offers a gruff-voiced Blakey impersonation</i>], “Ladies and gentlemen, we are unable to continue the concert because of a certain situation. …” Art had all these big words. He’d found out they’d raised the ticket price so high, regular Algerians couldn’t get in. [In protest] we walked out the dressing room to the cars waiting. It was wall-to-wall people steaming with anger at us. Art had a Koran under his arm and went under the name Abdullah Ibn Buhaina. They’d say, “What’s your name?” He’d state, “Abdullah Ibn Buhaina!”</p>
<p><b>Jackson:<span> </span></b>Was that during the Algerian War of Independence with France?</p>
<p><b>Shorter:</b><span> </span>Yes, 1959, when I got in his band. As Art left the room the promoter said, “You’d better stay in there, they’re very angry. We don’t know what they’re gonna do.” Art said to us — [and] I’d just got out of the Army, by the way — he said, “Gentlemen, are you ready to die?” I’d got that Army thing, I said, “Yeah!” And Art said, “Wayne, you walk beside me.” They were raising their fists and spitting at us. That night we went to a restaurant and all these little soldiers, walking around with machine guns, they knew who we were, but knew we were Americans. Art had a valet, they detained him at the airport. … He had a nose like a hook, and they thought he was Algerian. We saw cannons and bombs over the mountains. [Ahmed] Ben Bella fighting for freedom from France …<span> </span><i>boom-boom</i><span> </span>went the bombs!</p>
<p><b>Jackson:</b><span> </span>Not exactly “halcyon days” with Blakey in the early days then, but that was an organization with a mission.</p>
<p><b>Shorter:</b><span> </span>Once, we were at the Village Gate and here comes Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine walking in, and Blakey got on the microphone: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are blessed with the company of [composer] Samuel Barber.” He’d been standing against the wall unnoticed. A lot was happening then: Leonard Bernstein going to the Five Spot, congratulating Ornette Coleman on accomplishing something musically.</p>
<p><b>Jackson:</b><span> </span>Hard-living days, though. I recall, I believe from Michelle Mercer’s book<span> </span><i>Footprints</i>, something about you and Zawinul — Was it cognac-infused? — falling flat on your faces? And what about that showdown at Slugs’ [the notorious New York saloon where Lee Morgan was murdered], where you had recourse to pull out the hammer you kept in your sax case, right?</p>
<p><b>Shorter:</b><span> </span>That was McCoy Tyner’s gig. We were there six nights, and this gang came in from Brooklyn, the doors swinging, you know, like the Wild West. They came in real quiet and lined the walls. I had a hammer in my saxophone case and a big,<span> </span><i>long</i><span> </span>screwdriver, and Roy Haynes had these big<span> </span><i>long</i><span> </span>drumsticks made for the big tenor drums in marching. You can knock somebody out with those drumsticks! And McCoy and Ahmed Abdul-Malik on the bass, had something, too. Roy spoke up, “We know that some people are here to turn the place out. We don’t know what the reasoning is, but we’re here to tell you, we came prepared.” He took those big drumsticks from behind his back, I reached in my sax case, took out this hammer and the screwdriver; next thing we saw the doors were swinging again, they were on their way out.</p>
<p><b>Jackson:</b><span> </span>But you didn’t feel quite out of the woods at the end of the night, if I recall.</p>
<p><b>Shorter:</b><span> </span>I walked down the street to get a taxi, and I heard footsteps behind me. There’s a guy who worked at Slugs, C Sharp, he lived across the street, and on pay night they mugged him, took his horn, the money, everything. So I got under a streetlight in the rain, and I took the hammer out again and said [<i>in malevolent voice</i>], “I’m gonna get me somebody tonight!” Ha-ha! The footsteps disappeared, and I went and got my taxi.</p>
<p><b>Jackson:</b><span> </span>“Footprints” could have been “Footsteps.”</p>
<p><b>Shorter:</b><span> </span>All of this fantasy and ideas is how we make metaphors in the music. We did it a lot in the quartet with Danilo, Brian [Blade] and John [Patitucci]. I’d hear stories about Danilo growing up and Brian, I’d call him “razor blade,” he’s sharp on the drums, man. And John, he worked on my<span> </span><i>Phantom Navigator</i><span> </span>album [Columbia, 1986] at Chick Corea’s Madhatter Studios. He’d tell us about his family and how his mother knew how to make lasagna.</p>
<p>We’d have dinner at his house with Chick. Chick and I had camaraderie. We never talked about religion — Scientology, Christianity or anything like that. Whenever we saw each other, we’d make musical noises —<span> </span><i>oom-cha-gat</i>,<span> </span><i>da-da, oom-cha-gat</i>. Yay, Chick! His mother cooked lasagna, too. She’d call him, [<i>sings</i>] “Chickie-Chickie-Chick! Chick-ie, Chick-ie!”</p>
<p>We all met at the jam sessions with Tito Puente, the Latin bands, along with Count Basie and all that; there was Chick and Ray Baretto at Birdland and Joe Zawinul would come in off the road from Dinah Washington.</p>
<p><b>Jackson:</b><span> </span>Dinah was not to be trifled with, from what I’ve heard — or her father, for that matter. Jimmy Cobb told me once that he was married to Dinah, and I said, “Hmm, I don’t see that listed in her Wikipedia bio anywhere.” To which Jimmy responded, “Put it this way, whenever I went back to her place and bumped into her father, I had to tell him we were married!”</p>
<p><b>Shorter:</b><span> </span>Curtis Fuller, the trombonist, told me that when he was working with Quincy Jones’ big band, they all went to Dinah’s wedding to a young Mexican actor. He was in the movie<span> </span><i>12 Angry Men</i><span> </span>with Henry Fonda. At the time, that<span> </span><i>Flower Drum Song</i><span> </span>was a big hit, and all the girls from the musical were at the reception getting around the groom. Dinah walked over into the center of the girls and said to the star, Nancy Kwan, “Aloha, bitch!” Ha-ha! “Get your hands off my man, aloha!” Dinah knew how to swing. If she got angry, she couldn’t stop swinging. Her voice, her sentences, they had that musical swing. Miles was like that, too. He didn’t talk much, but whatever he said had a swing to it.</p>
<p>Someone would come in the dressing room unwarranted and Miles would say, [<i>gruff-voiced Miles impression</i>] “How did<span> </span><i>you</i><span> </span>get in here? Get him outta here!”</p>
<p><b>Jackson:<span> </span></b>I had a similar experience with Jimmy Smith, I was introduced to him in the green room as the guy from DownBeat. He wasn’t well, had a newspaper over his head at the time and grunted, “DownBeat? Get the fuck outta here!” Later we spoke on the phone, and he offered, “If I was Miles Davis, muthafucka, I’d shoot you!”</p>
<p><b>Shorter:</b><span> </span>I knew Jimmy Smith pretty well. He said he would never smoke, drink or get involved with drugs. We flew to Japan for a concert that was cancelled because of a typhoon and had to fly back to the U.S. together. He was smoking and hitting the scotch. On another occasion we were at Ronnie Scott’s Club. George Harrison was there, and Roberta Flack. I think Dizzy Gillespie was on the stand with Stan Getz. Jimmy was at the bar holding court, showing people his karate moves. He’d put his foot way up in your face — “<i>Haaaaaa!</i>”</p>
<p><b>Jackson:<span> </span></b>It didn’t matter that you’d met Jimmy before. He was, “You’re not Leonard Feather!” Miles was not impressed with hearsay either, so I gather.</p>
<p><b>Shorter:</b><span> </span>Here’s the way Miles would ask about somebody. … He’d hear about somebody that he should investigate. “Everybody’s talking about this new guy on the saxophone. You gotta check this guy out.” And Miles would say, “Well that’s all right, but can he<span> </span><i>see</i>?” They didn’t know what he was talking about.</p>
<p><b>Jackson:</b><span> </span>Can he scan the dots, right?</p>
<p><b>Shorter:</b><span> </span>Because everybody who worked with Miles and Gil Evans, that big band stuff, you had to read. Philly Joe Jones could read good. Miles could read. But one night he was talking to Trane at the Blue Coronet in Brooklyn. We were up on the bandstand doing a new tune I wrote called “Paraphernalia,” and he read the music but was stumbling a bit in memorizing it. He stopped the band in front of the people — and this was the only time he had done this — held the music up and said, [<i>another Davis impression</i>] “Let’s start it again.” I mean, they called him a king, but that would have been considered vulnerable. He was a human being.</p>
<p>Beethoven suffered a lot writing what he did, but you hear schools and professors say, “This was pure genius. This music came from above.” Had you heard Beethoven himself, it would have been: “Man, I was in trouble. I was fighting this stuff!”</p>
<p><b>Jackson:</b><span> </span>Two watchwords that come up in reference to the sonic adventures with your last, long-running quartet are “zero gravity” and “optimistic chaos.”</p>
<p><b>Shorter:</b><span> </span>Optimistic chaos is a term Frank Gehry came up with. I lived at Frank’s place in Santa Monica with my wife and Esperanza [Spalding] for three months. I was working on an ending to the opera, and said, “I want the ending to be like chaos, all kinds of<span> </span><i>brrr, brrr, brrr</i>.” And Frank said, “You mean like optimistic chaos?” So I’m working on that now for a classical pianist I’ve been asked to write things for in Holland. He doesn’t improvise, so I’m working with optimistic chaos. But I’m writing out everything that he could choose to play. There’s 10 other instruments with him and the piano.</p>
<p><b>Jackson:</b><span> </span>[Gehry] had this fad of making fish-shaped structures at a certain point in his career but failed to unite the concrete tail with the head of the fish for this important project in Japan. Ultimately he decided to make the building snake-like, despite what had been commissioned. It’s been lovely talking to you, as a non-sequitur, which I’m sure you’ll approve, I recall you once said, “Water is something a fish knows nothing about.”</p>
<p><b>Shorter:</b><span> </span>Yes, but does the water take the shape that the fish makes, or does the fish make the shape that the water takes?</p>
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<p><b>POSTSCRIPT</b></p>
<p>It was always both intriguing and entertaining to converse with Wayne Shorter and to listen to his visionary music. Forlorn fans can take heart from some of his last words, “Remember to be a warrior, not a worrier.” He communicated that message to Rob Griffin, his road manager and audio engineer for 30 years, just 10 days before passing away in Los Angeles. Griffin worked on Shorter’s final album,<span> </span><i>Live At The Detroit Jazz Festival</i><span> </span>(Candid), an all-star affair with Terri Lyne Carrington, Leo Genovese and Esperanza Spalding, earning Genovese a 2023 Grammy for Best Improvised Solo.<span> </span><b>DB</b></p>
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The Jazz Side of Taj Mahal
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-06-27:1992552:BlogPost:715463
2023-06-27T22:38:17.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<h1>The Jazz Side of Taj Mahal</h1>
<div class="kicker text-news"><p class="inline"></p>
<a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/q-a">INTERVIEW,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/from-the-magazine">FROM THE MAGAZINE,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/taj-mahal">TAJ MAHAL</a></div>
<p><span class="postinfo"><strong>By<span> </span><a href="https://downbeat.com/site/author/josef-woodard">Josef…</a></strong></span></p>
<h1>The Jazz Side of Taj Mahal</h1>
<div class="kicker text-news"><p class="inline"></p>
<a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/q-a">INTERVIEW,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/news/list/cat/from-the-magazine">FROM THE MAGAZINE,<span> </span></a><a href="https://downbeat.com/archives/artist/taj-mahal">TAJ MAHAL</a></div>
<p><span class="postinfo"><strong>By<span> </span><a href="https://downbeat.com/site/author/josef-woodard">Josef Woodard</a><span> </span></strong></span><span class="text-primary"> I </span><span class="postinfo">Jun. 27, 2023</span></p>
<div class="pad-btm-sm pad-top-sm"><img src="https://downbeat.com/images/news/_full/23DB_Taj_Mahal_by_Jay_Blakesburg_copy.jpg" class="img-responsive" alt="Image"/>
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<p>“I’ve known these songs all my life, but I saw that there wasn’t enough attention on the older music,” Mahal says.</p>
(Photo: Jay Blakesburg)<br />
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<p>It may come as a surprise to find that the artist known as Taj Mahal — born Henry Fredericks Jr. — has officially jumped into the realm of jazz for his new album,<span> </span><i>Savoy</i>. Classic tunes from the jazz standard book are treated with Mahal’s gravelly-yet-sweet vocals, delivered with a supple sense of swing and marinated with choice scatting interludes.</p>
<p>This twist comes on the heels of his delectably unpolished gems of last year’s country blues reunion with old ally Ry Cooder,<span> </span><i>Get On Board<span> </span></i>(Nonesuch), laureled by a well-deserved Grammy in the Best Traditional Blues category this year.</p>
<p>But, then again, elements of surprise, blurring of genres and roots research have been central to the 80-year-old Mahal’s long and discovery-enriched musical life. Surprise is no surprise for him by now, even this deep into his self-defined and self-directed game.</p>
<p>In fact, the essence of his new jazz venture taps a personal foundation of his life, or even a prehistorical gleam in his parents’ eyes.<span> </span><i>Savoy<span> </span></i>(Stony Plain) refers to the legendary Savoy Ballroom, the influential seed bed of jazz in his hometown of Harlem, going back to the ’30s. It was there that his parents literally met, forging the union that would produce Mahal’s family.</p>
<p>After studying agriculture and animal husbandry at Amherst College in Massachusetts, music grabbed hold of Mahal’s heart and future. He headed west to Los Angeles and formed Rising Sons with fellow blues/roots enthusiast Cooder, then went solo, then went every which way in a career spanning a vast discography, a few Grammy awards, occasional acting turns, avid musicology and now life as a very hip and influential senior musical statesman.</p>
<p>Although Mahal — an innately hard-to-pigeonhole artist — is considered generally as a proponent of country blues and American rootsiness, his curiosity and hands-on engagement in music of the wider world and its impact on American music. To that list, thanks to his new album, we can add jazz standards, à la Savoy fare.</p>
<p>With deceptively simplicity, he said, “I just love music, man. I’ve been lucky to have it. There’s not a day goes, I don’t hear it, or listen to it or play it or make my connection with the Caribbean, South America, Central America, Africa. I’ve always been thinking about it.”</p>
<p>DownBeat caught up with the peripatetic, multitasking Mahal — officially based in Berkeley, California, these days — while he was in New York City. He was there in his capacity as the New York University Steinhardt 2022–’23 Americana artist-in-residence, and was preparing for a panel discussion with Krystal Klingenberg (curator of music at the National Museum of American History) and Leyla McCalla, from the collective Our Native Daughters (which also includes Rhiannon Giddens). What binds these artists, and many others on the roots music reclamation movement in America, is a deep-diving commitment to both uncovering American musical histories — including lesser-known pockets of Black American experience and culture — and giving those sources new life for a new and expanding audience.</p>
<p>Of the pending panel, Mahal explained, “It’s gonna be kind of an armchair situation, with students being able to talk to somebody who’s had a long career in the music and been their own person, and done whatever they wanted to do — as opposed to follow along and paint-by-numbers, sing by overdub.”</p>
<p>Mahal naturally fell, almost hypnotically, into his known status as a walking, dancing encyclopedia of musical data and important names, stylistic family trees and the expanding universe of his research.</p>
<p>This interview has been edited for consistency, style and length.</p>
<p><b>Joe Woodard:</b><b><span> </span></b>In your livestreaming project “Roots Rising” during the lockdown, you hosted such artists as Allison Russell — who released the much-acclaimed album<span> </span><i>Outside Child</i><span> </span>— Ranky Tank and others. In a way, they’re following in your footsteps. Are you getting a sense of cross-generational influence from your example among younger roots-based musicians?</p>
<p><b>Taj Mahal:</b><b><span> </span></b>Pretty much. I started being a great dad, starting out with Keb’ Mo’ and Guy Davis. There was also Eric Bibb. There’s more out there than meets the eye. One of the things I want to do, going forward, is to create some kind of a pathway for those guys to be seen hiding in plain sight because of the way the old business is set up, and translating into the new business. It still isn’t giving them any visibility.</p>
<p>Keb’ Mo’ and I did this amazing album [the Grammy-winning album<span> </span><i>TajMo<span> </span></i>(Concord, 2017)] and went on tour. We started out 2014, thinking about this thing. Then we got it done, toured it in 2016. We went traveling around the country and around the globe and it was happening wherever we went. But it just didn’t resonate outside of that. But those things don’t deter the creativity from sneaking in the middle of the night and whispering in your ear. And that’s all I really care about.</p>
<p><b>Woodard:</b><span> </span>I assume you’re referring to the corporate machinery, which controls the public media pipelines. Still, with these artists you’re mentioning, I go to their shows and there’s a strong following. Do you feel that a kind of grassroots energy is keeping roots music alive, off to the side of the mainstream?</p>
<p><b>Mahal:<span> </span></b>It actually has been, all along. When I started out and was playing music and seeing what else was out here, I discovered that there was a kind of parallel universe of people knew who Lightning Hopkins was and appreciated Son House and Bill Monroe and Mike Seeger. And, you know, it goes on, with Mississippi John Hurt and Sleepy John Estes and Elizabeth Cotton … I could go just rattle on for hours.</p>
<p>Those (old) songs were left hanging out in some vault underground. My objective is to keep that corridor open. That’s bringing the inspiration to me every day, every hour, every minute.</p>
<p><b>Woodard:<span> </span></b>You have rescued a lot of things from various vaults over the years.</p>
<p><b>Mahal:<span> </span></b>Look at the first album. I’m recording with the Rising Suns. The group breaks up around all the politics and stuff. We all break up as friends. That’s the really great thing. But we were all signed individually to the record company.</p>
<p>By this time, I knew “Statesboro Blues” as a 12-string guitar tune I found on a country blues album put out by Sam Charters [<i>Country Blues</i><span> </span>(Folkways Records)] in 1959. In fact, there’s probably about five songs up in that album that I’ve taken in and created a new song for the era that I was coming through. Jesse Ed Davis heard “Statesboro Blues.” I left him alone with it for a while. That’s how he arranged it, with the slide guitar. He actually was the first person I ever saw play slide, like Muddy Waters played slide. And it was in standard tuning, not open tuning.</p>
<p>That’s what Duane Allman saw and heard, got a hold of and came out. Duane and Greg were really big fans of ours. We were all playing together around that time. When Duane got fed up with the West Coast and went back to Macon, that’s when finally Greg got back there and that scene went down. Duane brought that album over and sat in bed, with a broken arm and went like, “Hey, I can do this.” That jump started Southern rock. It was the Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker, Lynyrd Skynyrd …</p>
<p>I only found out just a few years ago that Jesse Davis (1944–’88) was kind of rankled, because everybody thought Ry Cooder was playing slide, because he was on the record and known for his slide playing. But it clearly says on the record, “Jesse Davis, lead guitar; Ry, rhythm guitar.” I was so sorry to have heard this secondhand, long after this man had passed on in this world, because I would’ve piped up right away in every interview I ever had, making sure that people knew them.</p>
<p><b>Woodard:</b><span> </span>There weren’t many slide players in the public ear back then, so Ry must have seemed the ripe guess.</p>
<p><b>Mahal:</b><span> </span>I can almost empathize with ’em, but it’s hard because this is a great music, man, and needs a lot of respect. You gotta really dig in. Yeah, there’s a lot. I’ve lived with it for 70 years now.</p>
<p>They don’t know. They don’t know Sonny Roads, Black Ace [BK Turner], Good Rockin’ Robinson [LC Robinson], Chuck Berry. Then I started hearing “Sacred Steel” music — Jewel and the Keith Dominion, the Campbell Brothers, Calvin Cook and Sunny Treadway. I had no idea. Even farther, I had no idea about the whole United House of Prayer, where their choir is like 40 to 60 trombones.</p>
<p><b>Woodard:<span> </span></b>Ah, yes, the gospel trombone tradition. The more the better.</p>
<p><b>Mahal:</b><span> </span>Oh, yeah. The more the better. I mean, they have a tuba, a baritone horn. They got a snare, they got a bass drum, they got cymbals, and they got hi-hat and tambourines. Oh, my God [<i>laughs]</i>. That stuff is ridiculous. It’s beautiful.</p>
<p><b>Woodard:<span> </span></b><i>Savoy</i><span> </span>is a fascinating album. I’ve just been soaking it up. It also represents a new wrinkle in your already varied discography, given its jazz focus. Can you tell me about the genesis of it?</p>
<p><b>Mahal:<span> </span></b>Well, the genesis is where I started. My dad [Henry Saint Claire Fredericks Sr.] was a classically trained West Indian from Saint Kitts and Nevis, about 200 miles southeast of Port San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the British Commonwealth. And the tradition in the Caribbean is that everybody thinks that if you’re African, you have this natural rhythm. So when you’re young, they get you to play classical. They say that “at some point or another, you’re gonna be influenced by the contemporary music of your time.”</p>
<p>So now, if you got the ability to play classical, and then you can take those abilities and those sensibilities to jazz, ragtime, such as the way it was with Scott Joplin. I was in that movie, too, with Billy Dee Williams [<i>Scott Joplin</i>, 1977].</p>
<p>Anyway, my dad was like that. My mom was a gospel-singing school teacher, graduated in 1937 from South Carolina State, in early childhood development. She came up and they met at the Savoy. My dad became a composer and copyist. So he used delivering some charts for Chick Webb as a way of getting in to be able to see this new phenom, Ella Fitzgerald. And my mom was there with her girlfriends. He came over and checked them out. And, you know, I’m the harmonic between all that meeting [<i>laughs</i>].</p>
<p>Then my father traded a music career for being basically a day laborer. Although my mother was college-educated, he was self-educated in his own life, a very bright man. In the exchange for having a big family, he didn’t mind going to work. But he had a grand piano in the house, and then we had an upright later on. He collected all the records, and kept up with the music through records. So I grew up listening to Coleman Hawkins, Count Basie, Earl Hines, Nat “King” Cole, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Helen Hughes and Hazel Scott.</p>
<p>[Regarding the songs chosen for Savoy], these were songs I was closely related to. Like “Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good To You” — I was in single digits when I first heard that. My thought was, “Wow, I can’t wait to grow up so I can figure out what that means.” [<i>laughs</i>] I’m certainly well enough grown to have experienced whatever the heck that’s all about, to be able to sing it with authority.</p>
<p>I’ve known these songs all my life, but I saw that there wasn’t enough attention on the older music. They weren’t just old and in the way. And it’s not old, either, [that impression is] just because of the mindset here, the construct, the paradigm here in this 500-year-old experiment. These started in the early century — no television, no telephones, no corporate music, no satellite. And they connected that music up, generation to generation.</p>
<p>It’s compounded. But inside of this experience, yesterday seems like it’s 500 years ago. A lot of people say, “Man, you crazy.” No, it’s not that long. You’re not paying attention to it. You get to be an anthropologist or ethnomusicologist, or any of those “ologists” out there, where you going back and looking at these songs. Let me think who else did some old songs, besides Linda [Ronstadt]. Well, Rod Stewart made an attempt at it. Attempt is the word. We won’t go there. [<i>laughs</i>]</p>
<p><b>Woodard:</b><span> </span>And Savoy marked a reunion and a fresh approach with your longtime creative partner John Simon, who served as producer and arranger on the album. How did that come about?</p>
<p><b>Mahal:</b><span> </span>John and I have known each other since 19, since he was working with Blood, Sweat & Tears. I came into a session that he was doing when he was a staff producer at CBS. He also worked with The Band, Leonard Cohen and many other people. This guy did some fantastic work, but the work that really stays with me, aside from The Band, is his work with Marshall McLuhan. I’ve lived long enough to see what Marshall was talking about. In fact, you and I are communicating over it. The medium of our time is our electronic secretary. The medium is the message, you know?</p>
<p>John was a piano player for my albums<span> </span><i>Natural Blues</i>,<span> </span><i>Giant Step</i><span> </span>and<span> </span><i>The Old Folks At Home</i>. But then there was<span> </span><i>Sounder</i><span> </span>and<span> </span><i>The Real Thing</i>, with Howard Johnson and Orchestra. I did an album with [tuba player] Howard Johnson called<span> </span><i>Right Now!</i><span> </span>and we toured in Germany. I was able to do some different things, which opened my chops up. I did a thing with Kip Hanrahan, on the<span> </span><i>Conjure</i><span> </span>album [<i>Music For The Texts of Ishmael Reed</i>, American Clave, 1984]. I did some things with Jules Holland, and I did a piece for<span> </span><i>The Divine Secret of the Yaya Sisterhood.</i><span> </span>I started opening up.</p>
<p>I wanted to do album of all these kinds of tunes, but bring in a bunch of different female singers, like Dee Dee Bridgewater or maybe Lady Bianca. And then I would be a part of that. But then as we got going with it, we decided that we’d go with me and see where that was gonna work.</p>
<p><b>Woodard:<span> </span></b>It does work. The album brings out this jazz side of your musical being, as if it was always there in your bloodstream and lineage, on such songs as “Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me,” “Killer Joe” and others. Was it an easy process for you to get into the jazz vocalist head space?</p>
<p><b>Mahal:<span> </span></b>No, it is with me all the time. It’s very easy to come from where jazz is and not know anything about what’s underneath it. For me, I knew that it was built on something. You can’t start building your temple from John Coltrane, where he’s like really fully out there. You gotta start somewhere. Why was all this negativity toward the older music? That’s the only way people knew how to do it. They didn’t know how to take what they needed and leave the rest.</p>
<p>I’m interested in passing along something positive from generation to generation. I just didn’t really want those voices to be lost out there, and those styles of music. Personally, I didn’t care whether or not it was a career to make money. I would be just as happy being a farmer playing on playing on the weekend or at night when I got done with work, because the music really was, for me, my personal therapy. I wasn’t really out to try to win over the world.</p>
<p><b>Woodard:<span> </span></b>You have strong attributes as a jazz vocalist, including being a fine scatter and having that quality of what we could call jazz phrasing. It seems to come really natural to you. Were there particular jazz singers that you had a thing for? I’m hearing Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan, for instance.</p>
<p><b>Mahal:<span> </span></b>Well, I like jazz. I like Jordan. I like Slim and Slam, and my Godfather is Buddy Johnson. When I was growing up, a lot of his music used to be around the house my parents had. They talked about him a lot. When I was 8 or 9 years old, I met him and his band. My mother cooked for about three days and set up these guys with armloads of food to go back on the bus. That was actually one of the highlights for my young life — the musicians and so much incredible energy. It still buzzes me now, the thought that some day I’d like to have a band myself, and these things have been accomplished.</p>
<p><b>Woodard:<span> </span></b>You set things up nicely with the opening track, “Stompin’ At The Savoy,” with a short spoken-word piece telling the tale of your parents’ fateful meeting at the Savoy. It sets the stage of what’s to come. Do you consider<span> </span><i>Savoy</i><span> </span>a concept album of sorts?</p>
<p><b>Mahal:</b><span> </span>No. That was right off the top of my head. None of that was written down. All I gotta do is look inside my life and just have a conversation. That’s what records were with me. People really talk to you on records.</p>
<p><b>Woodard:<span> </span></b>You could be at a stage where you bask in nostalgic revery over what’s gone by, but you seem to be moving forward all the time. Is that fair to say?</p>
<p><b>Mahal:<span> </span></b>Yeah. I’m taking my signal from some American musicians, but I take my deeper signal from musicians from another continent, born in a musician clan and class, who have been musicians for generations.</p>
<p>When I was in Africa in 1979, we visited 13 countries as musical ambassadors from the United States. I remember one of the conversations, when a guy came up to me, an African brother, who said, “My brother, tell me, what do you do?” And I said, “Oh, I play music.” He says, “Yes, yes, I knew that. But what do you do?” [<i>laughs</i>]</p>
<p>We went back and forth with this like a couple, three times. And then I realized what he was asking me, and I said, “I’m a farmer.” He says, “Oh, good, good, good.” Music is like breathing there. [<i>laughs</i>]<span> </span><b>DB</b></p>
Miles Davis Did Not Exactly "Steal" Tunes
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-06-21:1992552:BlogPost:715459
2023-06-21T20:30:00.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<div class="post-header"><h1 class="post-title unpublished">Miles Davis Did Not Exactly "Steal" Tunes, 1: Record Labels, Publishers, and "Solar"…</h1>
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<div class="post-header"><h1 class="post-title unpublished">Miles Davis Did Not Exactly "Steal" Tunes, 1: Record Labels, Publishers, and "Solar"</h1>
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<div class=""><div class="available-content"><div class="body markup" dir="auto"><p><a href="https://lewisporter.substack.com/p/miless-voice-part-one" rel="">In my first post on Miles</a><span>, I wrote: Strangely, Miles has become the artist that people “love to hate.” Under articles about him on the internet, there are often readers’ comments saying very insulting things, even cursing him out in crude childish terms. (If you don’t believe me, or if you want to waste your time reading foolish things, you can, for example, read the </span><a href="https://youtu.be/KQuZU2K_H9c" rel="">comments on this page</a><span>. I often wonder if people who upload videos to Youtube know that they can delete rude and unwanted comments.) My research tends to support a much more sympathetic view of him. For some examples, you can scroll through to my previous posts showing </span><a href="https://lewisporter.substack.com/p/miles-daviss-affectionate-behavior" rel="">his warmth toward his musicians</a><span>, showing that he was </span><em>not</em><span> responsible for losing his voice (</span><a href="https://lewisporter.substack.com/p/miless-voice-part-one" rel="">here is Part 1</a><span>—there are two installments so far), and so on. And almost all of the musicians who actually worked with Davis speak positively about him.</span></p>
<p><span>In the past, whenever I have said online that Miles did not steal tunes, many people wrote to me hysterically, almost yelling, “But everybody </span><em>knows</em><span> that Miles did steal tunes!” I’m sorry, but that is absolutely not what “everybody knows.” That is not even what you, my dear reader, know. What you know is this, and </span><em>only</em><span> this:</span></p>
<p><em>A few tunes that were not written by Miles Davis have his name listed as the composer.</em></p>
<p><span>That is </span><em>all</em><span> you know. Nothing more than that. Am I right? Do you have some evidence that Miles himself put his name on those tunes? Have you done some research on this? The usual explanation is that he must have handed in a leadsheet of each piece with his name listed as composer. As I will show, that is wrong.</span></p>
<p><span>And it’s not just word of mouth that says he “stole” tunes. You will often see books and articles saying that Miles did this. It amazes me that people who write about jazz often know nothing, and I do mean absolutely </span><em>nothing</em><span>, about the music business. In order to discuss this, one needs to know how things worked in the recording industry. (Of course in today’s era of streaming, many things have changed. However, a surprising amount of the terminology is the same, even though it is often applied differently.)</span></p>
<p>So please calm down, keep an open mind, and read closely:</p>
<p><span>After a recording session, but before a recording is packaged and released, it is somebody’s job at the recording company, aka the label, to research and file a copyright for every track. On the released album, the composer is usually listed in parentheses after each song title. When the album is available in stores, and people start buying it, and money is being made, there are </span><a href="https://soundcharts.com/blog/music-royalties" rel="">several kinds of royalties</a><span> that get paid out of that money:</span></p>
<p><span>The leader of the group gets an artist royalty on every album sold. The exact amount is determined by his or her contract. Sidepersons do not collect royalties—they get a flat payment for completing a “work for hire.” (And please, let’s not cry about the fact that the musicians on </span><em>Kind of Blue</em><span> other than Miles did not get royalties. They knew that was the deal, and that still is the way things work. I have recorded as a pianist on 37 albums to date, mostly as a sideperson, and although I do my best to make each piece sound its best, I am constantly aware that I am performing in support of the leader’s or co-leaders’ vision. I am following their instructions. They should, and do, get the most credit.)</span></p>
<p><span>I should mention, however, an additional payment to sidepersons: I mentioned in a </span><a href="https://lewisporter.substack.com/p/coltrane-projects-that-never-happened" rel="">post about a proposed Coltrane recording</a><span> that the musicians’ union (the N.Y.C. Local 802 of the A.F.M) was involved in professional recordings—paperwork was filed through the union, payments were made by the record company to the union, and the musicians went to the union to pick up their checks. Sidepersons did get a small bonus based on sales during the first five years of each recording’s existence. (Thank you to Richard Weissman for reminding me about this.)</span></p>
<p>Back to royalties: For every track on each album that is sold, there is a “mechanical royalty,” a standardized payment, based on the length of the track. (In those days it was 2 cents per song per album sold.) That royalty is split between the composer (or composers), and the publisher. In practice, it is paid to the publisher of each composition on the album, and it is each publisher’s job to pay 50% of that fee to the composer.</p>
<p>There are other royalties that are split between composer and publisher: Performance royalties for radio or television airplay are collected by an organization that the composer or publisher belongs to, most often BMI or ASCAP, and sometimes SESAC. And royalties from sheet music sales, also shared between composer and publisher, at one time were a much bigger part of the music business than they are today.</p>
<p>I should note, however, that the “publisher” refers to the entity that owns or administers the copyright of the piece, and handles business relating to that copyright. Most people think of “publishing” as having music printed out and sold in stores. That is not necessary in this case, although as I’ve just noted, if it is published in that form (such as a Chick Corea songbook, anything like that), royalties are collected.</p>
<p>One more type of royalty: Whenever a recording is synchronized to a film or TV show (or today, a video), a “synch royalty” is paid. These fees are negotiated on a case-by-case basis and shared between all partes— the label and the recording artist, as well as the composer and publisher. Although “synch licensing deals” are infrequent, they can be, as you might imagine, some of the largest payments that a musician will ever earn.</p>
<p><span>The composers of the tunes on an album are very often people like Monk, Ellington, or Gershwin, not the performers on the album. But if the composer is indeed a performer on the album, but is not the leader, then he or she gets the flat payment for being a sideperson, plus the performance royalties for the composition. A famous example of that is “Take Five.” For the Brubeck album </span><em>Time Out</em><span>, Desmond was a sideperson, so he did not directly receive any artist royalties for sales of the album after it was released in December 1959. But Desmond’s was a special case—he had a private agreement that Brubeck would share 20% of all profits with him. And when his song “Take Five” became one of the biggest jazz hits ever, possibly </span><em>the</em><span> </span><em>very</em><span> biggest, Desmond did very well due to his mechanical, performance, and sheet music royalties. Since his death in 1977, his estate has also collected synch royalties for its use in soundtracks.</span></p>
<p><span>Now, as you’ve just learned, if a song has a publisher, there are a several types of royalties that will be split between the composer and the publisher, 50% to each. In the 1950s, a number of jazz musicians began to realize that if they were their own publisher, it meant more money for them. Saxophonist and composer Gigi Gryce was one of the first to set up his own publishing for just this reason—to keep 100% of these royalties instead of 50%. As the late pianist-composer Horace Silver told Noal Cohen and Michael Fitzgerald for </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rat-Race-Blues-Musical-Gryce/dp/0990668606" rel="">their book on Gryce</a><span>: “Gigi was responsible for turning me on to music publishing.”</span></p>
<p>But most musicians, including Miles, did not handle their own publishing business. And a number of recording companies, such as Savoy, Prestige and Blue Note, had their own publishing division. (Again, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you could buy the sheet music in a store. It means that they owned the copyright and handled the publishing business.) Although the artist’s contract did not usually require him to use the label’s publishing services, there was definite pressure to do so. There was enough pressure that some musicians to this day tell me that if they wanted their album released on a certain label, it appeared that they would have to assign their copyrights to the label’s publishing branch.</p>
<p><span>As Bob Weinstock, founder of Prestige Records, told the authors of </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rat-Race-Blues-Musical-Gryce/dp/0990668606" rel="">the Gryce biography</a><span> just mentioned, if the musicians didn’t already have a publishing company, he would explain to them why they needed to let Prestige handle their compositions. He said, “I explained to them that if they did publish with me, that they would get money from all over the world because my company was respected and people requested licenses from everywhere.” And, to be fair, there was some truth to that. As with many situations, such as payments to agents, some musicians felt that it was worth letting the label have some of the income, because they brought in much more business. As I like to say, “Half of something is better than all of nothing.”</span></p>
<p>Now, here is where you need to really pay attention, please:</p>
<p>Jazz musicians often bring pieces to a recording session that have no known composer. (Often, they are untitled as well, which I’ll discuss in other posts.) When preparing the album for release, the record label, and the person in charge of the composer credits and copyrights, has to make some decisions. Here’s an example:</p>
<p>It’s 1954, and Miles Davis is under contract to Prestige Records. At a recording session (with, incidentally, Silver on piano), Miles brings in a previously unknown piece based somewhat on “How High the Moon” and says that he learned it by ear from other musicians and doesn’t know who wrote it. (That appears to be true, as we’ll see next time.) In preparing the album for release, the people at Prestige Records have to make some decisions:</p>
<p>Even if Miles said, “I don’t know who wrote this, but it was not me,” the label would still need to give someone the credit. With no clues to go on, they could conduct an intensive research process to discover the composer. It wouldn’t be easy, but if they were successful, they would discover that it was written by guitarist Chuck Wayne (1923-1997). If they credit the piece as a Chuck Wayne composition, they would have to contact Wayne or his publisher. Prestige would pay some money “up front” (that is, before the album comes out), and would continue to pay mechanical royalties for the song once the album is selling. (For performance and sheet music royalties, people would usually contact Wayne or his publisher directly.) Prestige would of course get royalties from the sales of the album, but if the song becomes a hit, and other artists record it for other labels, Prestige would get nothing from those, but Wayne and his publisher would profit.</p>
<p><em>On the other hand:</em><span> If they credit it to Miles, who is currently under contract to Prestige, they will handle the publishing. When he signed his contract with Prestige, Miles had already agreed that they would serve as the publisher for any piece where he was the listed composer. So Prestige would keep half of the mechanical, performance, and sheet music royalties. As for the other half, they will pay Miles an advance payment, usually $50, and it becomes a simple bookkeeping matter to keep track of what is owed to Miles once his royalties exceed $50. (And as I’m sure you know, many musicians over the years have suspected that they were not getting their royalties, but there was no way to check.) If the song becomes a hit, and numerous other artists record it, even for other labels, Prestige will indeed benefit, and will share the income from that with Miles, half and half.</span></p>
<p>Silver, in the same interview cited above, clearly spelled out why it was an advantage to the record company to own the publishing rights to his music. Initially he was with Mills Music, which had published Duke Ellington and others:</p>
<blockquote><p>[I]f I had my tunes with Mills Music, and I did something for Blue Note, they would have to pay Mills Music 100% royalty, you know. And then Mills Music would take 50% and give me 50%. But now, if Blue Note started their own publishing, and they get me to put my tunes with them, that means they save 50% because they pay themselves 50%. They only pay me 50%.</p>
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<p>IN SHORT, here is the bottom line:</p>
<p><span>When a piece is being recorded for the very first time, and there is some room for legitimate debate as to who composed it, it is </span><em>always</em><span> to the financial advantage of the record label to say that it was composed by an artist who is under contract to them. If they knew the composer, they would not blatantly lie and credit it to their artist, but if there was reasonable uncertainty, they would say, “Let’s give the composer credit to our artist.”</span></p>
<p>Put slightly differently, from the musician’s side, there is always a certain amount of pressure on an artist who has a recording contract, to record pieces that he or she has composed. In fact, it was not unusual for a producer to say to an artist, “At your next recording, I hope you’ll bring some things that you wrote, and that you’ll let us publish them for you.” And, of course, this was financially beneficial to the artist. Very few musicians would say “The composer is unknown, but please, please do not give the credit, and royalties, to me.”</p>
<p>Now, since you’ve followed me this far, let’s look at the copyright information for that song, the one that is based on “How High The Moon.” As you probably know, it’s called “Solar.” Who owns the copyright? Let’s see:</p>
<div class="captioned-image-container"><div class="image2-inset"> <a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbfe159e4-34e0-4967-a838-92bcb14152d4_1600x1200.jpeg">https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_</a>1456w<img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbfe159e4-34e0-4967-a838-92bcb14152d4_1600x1200.jpeg" width="1456" height="1092"/></div>
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<p>HELLO!! Are you looking? Prestige Records owns the copyright, not Miles Davis. Miles, the person whom you love to call a thief, is listed as the composer. And it was Prestige who sent in the form claiming that he wrote it, not Miles himself.</p>
<p>The copyright registration above was filed on August 8, 1963, which is a different matter: According to U.S.A. law, copyright exists from the moment a work is created, without registering the copyright at the Library of Congress. Registration offers additional legal protections, but it’s a bit of a hassle and requires a fee, and the fee is lower for a group of works. So, often companies and individuals will wait until they have a pile of them and then send them all in at once. (Many of Coltrane’s compositions were first registered in the 1970s, even though he had died in 1967!)</p>
<p>And another side note—At the top of the page, the form asks if the piece is published. Here they are referring not simply to having a publisher assigned, but as to whether the piece has actually been printed and is for sale. That’s why it says that if it has been published you should attach “two copies of the best edition.”</p>
<p>There is much more to this complicated story, so I will be presenting it in several more installments. I will address the following questions, and more:</p>
<p>How did Miles learn “Solar”? What is the evidence?</p>
<p>How does Miles’s version differ from Chuck Wayne’s original?</p>
<p>How is “Solar” based on “How High the Moon”?</p>
<p>Where did the name “Solar” come from?</p>
<p>What about Coltrane, Rollins, Parker? Did any pieces get wrongly credited to them? If so, do you want to say that they “stole” tunes too?!?</p>
<p>Were there instances when Miles explicitly demanded a composer credit, when one might say that he was not justified?</p>
<p>What are some other ways that pieces get credited to the wrong composer?</p>
<p>Also, I will go through many of the specific pieces in question, tune by tune. I will specify in each case what role Miles himself played, if any, in getting the piece credited to him.</p>
<p>BOTTOM LINE:</p>
<p>I am NOT saying that Miles was always totally innocent. I AM saying that it is not a simple matter of him “stealing” tunes. Instead, it is a question of how the music business is structured.</p>
<p>MUCH MORE TO COME!</p>
<p><span>All the best,</span><br/> <span>Lewis</span></p>
<p><span>P.S. For musicians: As noted above, half of your performance royalties from BMI or ASCAP will go to your publisher. But every online site that I’ve seen says that if you do not list a publisher, you will lose that half of the money. That is false, false false! Ask BMI, ASCAP or whatever organization you belong to. They will tell you that if you don’t list a publisher, </span><em>all</em><span> the money goes to the composer, period. BMI refers to this as getting 200%, meaning that you get 100% of the composer’s royalty </span><em>plus</em><span> 100% of the publisher’s royalty. </span><a href="https://www.bmi.com/faq/category/publishing" rel="">They state</a><span>: “You need not affiliate a publishing entity in order to receive publishing shares, as we pay all royalties (writer and publisher) to the composer on any self-published works…Please note that while composer affiliation is free, there is a one-time fee to affiliate a publishing company with BMI.”</span></p>
<p>P.P.S. I thank long-time jazz record producer Michael Cuscuna for looking over an early draft of the section about types of royalties. But any errors are mine alone, of course.</p>
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Music as a Bridge to the Soul
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-06-19:1992552:BlogPost:715246
2023-06-19T22:59:34.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
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<h1 class="pulse-title text-display-md text-color-text lg:text-display-lg font-bold w-11/12">Music as a Bridge to the Soul…</h1>
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<h1 class="pulse-title text-display-md text-color-text lg:text-display-lg font-bold w-11/12">Music as a Bridge to the Soul</h1>
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<div class="core-section-container__content break-words"><div class="base-card relative w-full hover:no-underline focus:no-underline base-card--link base-main-card flex flex-wrap py-2 pr-2 babybear:pr-0 base-main-card--link publisher-author-card"><a class="base-card__full-link absolute top-0 right-0 bottom-0 left-0 p-0 z-[2]" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepakchopra?trk=article-ssr-frontend-pulse_publisher-author-card"><span class="sr-only">Deepak Chopra MD (official)</span></a><img class="inline-block relative rounded-[50%] w-6 h-6 lazy-loaded" alt="Deepak Chopra MD (official)" src="https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/D5603AQG4h12hkUCuyA/profile-displayphoto-shrink_400_400/0/1683508148476?e=1692835200&v=beta&t=qMlxeqRW4aiZQh7wGx-9rDN1-D7zYyEeBGMXvRQ1cUY"/><div class="base-main-card__info self-center ml-1 flex-1 relative break-words papabear:min-w-0 mamabear:min-w-0 babybear:w-full"><h3 class="base-main-card__title font-sans text-[18px] font-bold text-color-text overflow-hidden">Deepak Chopra MD (official)</h3>
<h4 class="base-main-card__subtitle body-text text-color-text overflow-hidden">Founder at Deepak Chopra LLC</h4>
<div class="body-text text-color-text-low-emphasis base-main-card__metadata">Published Jun 19, 2023</div>
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<div class="article-main__content max-w-[744px]"><p>By Deepak Chopra, MD, FACP, FRCP </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Soul music appeals to millions of people, but the music of the soul appeals to everyone. It is the one reliable bridge to the soul in every culture, but ancient India made a specialty of it. Instead of looking back thousands of years, however, it is more powerful to begin in an Alzheimer’s ward.</p>
<p>Imagine that you are present the first day that someone has the bright idea to play music to these patients. A waltz starts up. For a minute, the patients are mute and unresponsive, swathed in the cocoon of their dementia. Then something happens, or rather, a whole range of things. Some patients start tapping their feet to the music; others smile. A few get to their feet amazingly, and begin to dance. We are talking about people whose brains seem too damaged to respond to anything around them.</p>
<p>Change the waltz to a popular song. Some patients start to sing along, recalling lyrics from decades ago. If their response is awake enough, the same patients begin to talk coherently to their caregivers.</p>
<p>This very moving picture represents a breakthrough made in dementia research some years ago, and of course researchers want to know why music had such a seemingly magical effect. The best answer is that music acts like a bridge. The parts of the brain less affected by Alzheimer’s responded normally to the delight of music the way we all do, but in addition, these areas reached out to damaged areas, trying to embrace them into the experience.</p>
<p>That’s a fascinating finding, but step away from brain scans and go deeper. Why does a character in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night declare, “If music be the food of love, play on”? Because love and music point beyond everyday experience. They are delightful and mysterious at the same time. No emotion escapes the reach of music, as every culture has discovered. We are attuned to music just as we are attuned to love.</p>
<p>The Vedic civilization of India looked deeper still. A science of vibrations (Shabda) emerged that gave a vibrational signature to everything in creation. Some vibrations were pure sound, such as mantras, while others pertained to objects such as gems. This conclusion is exactly parallel to quantum physics, in which matter, energy, space, and time are reducible to ripples in the quantum field.</p>
<p>Therefore, when you feel carried away by music, the sensation is real. Music bridges you to the fundamental vibrations in Nature, and since these vibrations are you, music carries you closer to your source and origin. You can call this a soul journey, but terminology doesn’t matter. What matters is that music connects you to basic qualities in creation.</p>
<p>· Creation is organized rather than chaotic.</p>
<p>· Creation has a purpose.</p>
<p>· Creation is knowable to the human mind.</p>
<p>· Creation on the human scale leads to inspiration.</p>
<p>· The harmony (orderliness) of Nature is the invisible glue that keeps matter and energy aligned rather than flying apart in a mist of atoms.</p>
<p>These principles apply equally to human DNA, a heart cell, a fetus in the womb, your brain, and a Bach fugue or Mozart symphony. You can use physics as your worldview, or spirit as your worldview. Some version of these same principles will eventually emerge, the deeper into Nature you investigate.</p>
<p>Great musicians and composers take advantage of the bridge that music creates very directly. Their minds and brains are flooded with musical vibrations. Their delight is to remain in this world forever. For the rest of us, what is important is where the bridge takes us, because the bridge leads to infinite possibilities. When all of creation is vibration, you have the key to all experiences. Change the “signature” of the experience, and you change the experience itself.</p>
<p>That’s what happens to Alzheimer’s patients. Music changed a “signature” of isolation, despair, and disconnection into something better. The field of music therapy is far larger than this one example. Music has been used to ease traumas, rehabilitate physical and mental injuries, restore a sense of being present and alive. Look around, and it becomes obvious that music is the food of the soul. Where this insight might lead us no one can predict, but it is certain that we’ve only begun to take our first steps.</p>
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<p><strong>DEEPAK CHOPRA</strong> MD, FACP, FRCP, founder of <a href="http://www.choprafoundation.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">The Chopra Foundation</a>, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and <a href="http://www.chopra.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Chopra Global</a>, a whole health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 90 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 91st book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Total-Meditation-Practices-Living-Awakened/dp/1984825313" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"><em>Total Meditation: Practices in Living the Awakened Life</em></a><em> </em>explores and reinterprets the physical, mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual benefits that the practice of meditation can bring. For the last thirty years, Chopra has been at the forefront of the meditation revolution. His latest book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Living-Light-Yoga-Self-Realization/dp/B09YKW1KBH/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1XJJYJNGEO7O6&keywords=living+in+the+light+deepak+chopra&qid=1672957850&s=books&sprefix=living%2Cstripbooks%2C121&sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Living in the Light</a> co-authored with Sarah Platt-Finger. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.” <a href="http://www.deepakchopra.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">www.deepakchopra.com</a></p>
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Steve Coleman's Rebuttal to Natalie Weiner's article
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-06-07:1992552:BlogPost:715421
2023-06-07T22:00:00.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
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<p class="lede">... to Natalie Weiner's article on Maria Grand.…</p>
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<div id="content" class="site-content"><div class="o-wrapper"><div class="o-layout o-layout--large c-sticky-wrapper"><div class="o-layout__item primary-content-container"><div id="primary" class="content-area"><h1 class="entry-title"></h1>
<p class="lede">... to Natalie Weiner's article on Maria Grand.</p>
<div class="entry-meta entry-meta--posted-on entry-meta--current-article u-text-upper"><span class="entry-meta__posted-on u-font-weight-light"><span class="posted-on">PUBLISHED<span> </span>MAY 8, 2023</span></span><span> </span><span class="meta-separator"> – </span><span class="byline entry-meta__byline u-margin-bottom-small">STEVE COLEMAN</span></div>
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<div class="entry-content-wrapper"><div class="entry-content"><div class="page" title="Page 35"><div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><em>I would like to thank the current JazzTimes editor for allowing my voice to be heard. This is being addressed two years after Weiner’s 2021 heavily biased article because Mac Randall (JazzTimes’ former editor) would not allow my story to be told.</em></p>
<div class="page" title="Page 36"><div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><img class=" wp-image-192908" src="https://cdn2.jazztimes.com/2023/05/DiMiCoLoGy-Steve-Coleman-Los-Angeles-2018-_DGY5603-2-393x550.jpg" alt="" width="340" height="475"/></div>
<div class="column"> Steve Coleman. Photo DIMICOLOGY.NET | All Rights Reserved<br/> <br/><p>My complaint is about the biased, one-sided depiction of my legal dispute with Maria Grand, which was never ethically investigated by Weiner. The article should’ve been limited to Grand’s music.</p>
<p>My defamation litigation is ongoing, despite what was falsely claimed in Weiner’s article. It shouldn’t have been mentioned at all without proper vetting — unless the purpose was to help Grand. Grand’s narrative relies heavily upon the tendency to dehumanize Black men as violent, scary, and distrustful, in keeping with this nation’s long history of confirmation bias.</p>
<p>The details of the sexual relationship between Grand and me should have remained private. However, Grand chose to ignore the advice of an attorney, Lisa Miller, and instead published her knowingly false narrative. Grand distributed her lies to my friends, professional colleagues, and to music industry professionals (journalists, promoters, publicists), while weaponizing her white privilege and the #MeToo movement to circumvent the need for evidence. Grand engineered an environment that discouraged people from hiring me and, by extension, those who worked with me.</p>
<div class="page" title="Page 39"><div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p>For those who are unaware, in November 2017, Maria Grand began covertly sending several versions of the letter(s) to the aforementioned individuals, falsely accusing me of rape, kidnapping, and sexual assault. Grand (and the many individuals she conspired with) made it their mission to prevent me from working. Contrary to what Weiner wrote,<span> </span><em><strong>Grand did identify me by name to almost all recipients.</strong></em><span> </span>Had Weiner vetted Grand (or contacted me), she would have learned this.</p>
<p>Weiner would have also discovered that Grand spent years in a consensual relationship with me, which many knew about yet said nothing against. This relationship turned sour when I rejected Grand’s desire that I leave my wife and marry Grand. From there, things grew worse, devolving into threats to harm my career, which she later made good on via her letter(s).</p>
<p>In an effort to whitewash Grand’s letter(s), Weiner ignored multiple criminal accusations of three years of repeated forced sex, instead falsely portraying Grand as never claiming that our relationship was anything but consensual.</p>
<p><strong>Weiner:<span> </span><em>“Coleman replied with a more widely distributed and considerably more explicit letter of his own, which included a slew of personal text exchanges intended to prove that it had been a consensual relationship—although Grand had never claimed otherwise.”</em></strong></p>
<p>The “text exchanges” are of Grand continuously asking me for sex, throughout the same three-year time period that Grand falsely claimed she did not desire<span> </span><strong>ANY</strong><span> </span>sex with me, proving that she knowingly lied. Grand’s letter, falsely describing me forcing her to have sex and lying that I told her that she owed me a “lifetime of pu**y,” is not explicit?</p>
<p><strong>Here are examples of the criminal accusations in Grand’s accusation letter(s):</strong></p>
<p><strong><em>“In September 2013 he broke up with me … By that point, though, I wasn’t in love with him anymore. I didn’t want to be intimate with him anymore. That period is when the sexual harassment started.”</em><span> </span>Document 87-1</strong></p>
<p>What Grand refers to as<span> </span><strong>“sexual harassment”</strong><span> </span>is really forced, unwanted sex, allegedly obtained through extortion and coercion, for three years (October 2013 thru September 2016). The following “explicit” accusations of forced sex in Grand’s letter(s) were presented to the district judge but never referenced or quoted in his ruling:</p>
<p><em><strong>“However in the last three years of my interaction with him, I have been sexually harassed and pushed into saying yes to sexual acts I did not want to do.”</strong></em><span> </span><strong>Document 102-4</strong></p>
<p><strong><em>“Whenever he offered me more work, he would wait until I actually slept with him to solidify the dates.”</em><span> </span>Document 87-1</strong></p>
<p><strong><em>“On tour I would have to sleep with him at the end of the day lest him be absolutely angry and sometimes refuse to rehearse the band the next day.”</em><span> </span>Document 87-1</strong></p>
<p><strong>Coerced, extorted, unwanted sex is a federal crime called sexual abuse — 18 U.S. Code section 2242 — commonly referred to as rape.</strong></p>
<p><strong>“Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority …”</strong><span> </span>(Wikipedia)</p>
<p><img class="alignnone wp-image-192909" src="https://cdn2.jazztimes.com/2023/05/DiMiCoLoGy-Steve-Coleman-Philadelphia-2014-_IND4898-550x364.jpg" alt="" width="552" height="365"/><a href="https://cdn2.jazztimes.com/2023/05/DiMiCoLoGy-Steve-Coleman-Philadelphia-2014-_">https://cdn2.jazztimes.com/2023/05/DiMiCoLoGy-Steve-Coleman-Philadelphia-2014-_</a></p>
<p>Harvard Professor Vijay Iyer, whom I mentored, conspired with Grand to harm my career. Iyer, a ringleader conspirator, required no evidence, choosing instead to reflexively believe Grand without a shred of proof. Private communications obtained via subpoena later revealed that I was presumed to be guilty, while Grand was presumed to be a victim, simply based on our physical appearances — Grand is a young- er white woman, and I am an older Black man. Statements made against me and three other Black male musicians surfaced in private communications written by Iyer. Iyer has for years refused to publicly address both this statement and his role in helping Grand to harm my career.</p>
<p>In November 2017, Grand and Iyer assembled a group of 25 musicians and journalists, about a third of whom (all non-Black members) covertly plotted to destroy my career. Subpoena documents reveal that Grand manipulated this group from behind the scenes. Yet in her deposition, Grand repeatedly lied under oath, denied contacting journalists, denied receiving help editing her letter(s), made no mention of her multiple conspiracies to harm me, and issued many other lies, apparently unconcerned about perjury.</p>
<p>Grand also lied to key allies, such as Iyer, telling them that she was only sending her letter(s) to friends while actually distributing to influential promoters and journalists. Grand lied that I abused and physically beat my ex-wife, the great pianist Geri Allen. Grand specifically sought out journalists (New York Times, two from NPR, New York Daily News) to publish articles on her false accusations, which she admitted in deposition testimony she knew would damage my career. The falsehoods in Weiner’s JazzTimes article amplified this harm.</p>
<p>Grand’s letter(s) created a lynch mob with their sights set on me, a Black American man (almost all who assisted Grand were non-Black). Once I moved to defend myself against her false accusations, Grand’s weaponizing of #MeToo gained her financial backing to cover her public relations efforts and legal defense. Grand knew that in America, few would believe that any Black man accused of raping a white woman was innocent, especially within an environment where multiple men were being canceled.</p>
<p>Of course, I would like to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. However, in my lifetime, I’ve learned that innocent until proven guilty is rare for Black people. Thus, I have pro- vided a link to mountains of evidence proving that Maria Grand’s criminal accusations of forced sex, kidnapping, and sexual assault were knowingly false.</p>
<p>Both Grand and her unethical lawyers know that she is lying. The evidence is overwhelming. Their only chance is to silence me and keep this dispute from going to a public trial. One cannot simply make criminal accusations knowing that they are false. This is some Emmett Till shit. Grand and her co-conspirators wished to destroy my career via eliciting emotional outrage, without evidence. Review the evidence at the QR link below. Make up your own mind.</p>
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Chronology: Freddie Redd Steps Out of the Shadows
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-04-27:1992552:BlogPost:714257
2023-04-27T21:00:00.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<h1 class="entry-title">Chronology: Freddie Redd Steps Out of the Shadows</h1>
<p class="lede">A look back at the pianist's brief but memorable moment in the spotlight</p>
<div class="entry-meta entry-meta--posted-on entry-meta--current-article u-text-upper"><span class="entry-meta__posted-on u-font-weight-light"><span class="posted-on">UPDATED<span> </span>JUNE 15, 2021</span></span><span> </span><span class="meta-separator u-font-weight-light"> – …</span></div>
<h1 class="entry-title">Chronology: Freddie Redd Steps Out of the Shadows</h1>
<p class="lede">A look back at the pianist's brief but memorable moment in the spotlight</p>
<div class="entry-meta entry-meta--posted-on entry-meta--current-article u-text-upper"><span class="entry-meta__posted-on u-font-weight-light"><span class="posted-on">UPDATED<span> </span>JUNE 15, 2021</span></span><span> </span><span class="meta-separator u-font-weight-light"> – </span><span class="byline entry-meta__byline u-margin-bottom-small"><span class="screen-reader-text">BY</span><a class="url" href="https://jazztimes.com/author/mark-stryker/">MARK STRYKER</a></span></div>
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<div class="entry-content-wrapper"><img width="800" height="533" src="https://cdn2.jazztimes.com/2021/06/freddie-redd-chronology-mosaic-francis-wolff-800x533.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Freddie Redd (photo: Francis Wolff/©Mosaic Images LLC)"/> Freddie Redd makes<span> </span><i>The Connection</i><span> </span>at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., February 15, 1960 (photo: Francis Wolff/©Mosaic Images LLC)<br/> <br/><div class="entry-content"><p class="p1"><span class="s1">O</span><span class="s1">ne day in 1959, pianist/composer Freddie Redd went to see alto saxophonist Jackie McLean with some new music and a unique opportunity. Redd had fallen into a Bohemian circle of painters, actors, and writers. Among them was Jack Gelber, a young playwright whose debut,<span> </span><i>The Connection</i>, was being produced by the experimental Living Theatre.</span></p>
<p class="p3">Combining a play-within-a-play structure descended from Pirandello and an existential bleakness à la Beckett,<span> </span><i>The Connection</i><span> </span>explores the gritty reality of heroin addicts waiting for their fix. Gelber’s script calls for an onstage jazz quartet to perform “in the tradition of Charlie Parker.” The musicians have speaking roles too.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
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<p class="p3">With Gelber’s blessing, Redd wrote an original score and recruited McLean, whose Parker-inspired alto and animated personality were perfect for the play. “When I heard the music, it enraptured me and made me weep,” McLean told Will Thornbury three decades later in the liner notes for<span> </span><i>The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Freddie Redd</i><span> </span>(Mosaic). “I had to play that music!”</p>
<p class="p3"><i>The Connection</i>, which opened in July 1959, became a theatrical sensation. Most notable from a jazz perspective, Redd’s inspired score led to a pair of remarkable Blue Note recordings taped six months apart in 1960.<span> </span><i>The Music from The Connection<span> </span></i>and<span> </span><i>Shades of Redd</i><span> </span>granted immortality to a musician who spent most of his peripatetic career in the shadows.</p>
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<p class="p3">Redd, who died March 17 in Manhattan at age 92, was a profound composer. Songful melodies merge with soulful harmony, intriguing forms, and the significant influence of Bud Powell to create music delirious in its lyricism and spellbinding in its drama. His LPs from 1960 are precious documents, by far the best he ever made: a magical confluence of compositions, personnel, record label, and culture just at the moment the hard-bop hegemony was starting to splinter.</p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">A native New Yorker and child of bebop, Redd worked with Cootie Williams and Charles Mingus in the ’50s and recorded with Tiny Grimes, Art Farmer, and Gene Ammons. He made his debut as a leader in 1955 on a Prestige 10-inch LP, and his<span> </span><i>San Francisco Suite</i><span> </span>(Riverside) in 1957 is notable for imaginative and urbane tone painting.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1"><a href="https://amzn.to/3ctll14" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i>The Music from The Connection</i></a><span> </span>and<span> </span><a href="https://amzn.to/2RIeklO" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i>Shades of Redd</i></a><span> </span>showcase the symbiosis of Redd’s yearning romanticism and McLean’s passionate astringency. Both records deliver a dialect of hard bop now extinct: muscular vulnerability. It was a New York sound of the early ’60s. Style, culture, race, hipness, and drugs coalesced in bittersweet music that swung behind the beat and aspired to a state of wounded grace. At the risk of putting too fine a point on it, it was junkie music.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>
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<p class="p3">Ben Sidran once wrote perceptively about musicians in this era channeling the urgent intensity of young artists trying to prove themselves but tempered by the enforced relaxation of heroin. The resulting tension—Sidran calls it an attitude of “passionate indifference”—helps define players like McLean, Tina Brooks, Sonny Clark, Billy Higgins, and Lee Morgan. Unlike these musicians, Redd was never a hard drug user, but he certainly knew the emotional territory of blissful alienation.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p class="p3">“Who Killed Cock Robin” opens<span> </span><i>The Connection<span> </span></i>in a furious rush of syncopation and melodic pirouettes, but feelings of longing seethe in the subtext. Chords move in descending major or minor ii-V sequences that underpin the song’s lyrical ache; such harmonic movement is a Redd calling card, especially the way he leans on evocative half-diminished chords (min7 with a flat fifth). The song is through-composed—a 16-bar intro plus an unusually long, regenerating 56-bar melody that divides into eight-bar sections—another formal wrinkle that creates surprise. “Wigglin’” is a wailing blues in which 16-bar choruses in F minor alternate with 12-bar choruses in F major. “Time to Smile” captures the euphoria of a heroin high. “Theme for Sister Salvation” is tragicomedy: A mocking minor-key march dissolves into a ballad of wistful regret.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">Redd is less compelling as a soloist, but his two-fisted accompaniment gooses the action with smartly orchestrated figures. McLean plays electrifying solos, and his tart sound and pitch amplify the music’s honesty without lapsing into sentimentality. Bassist Michael Mattos and drummer Larry Ritchie aren’t big names but they deliver the goods, and the quartet is tight as family, having played these songs nightly for seven months before heading into the studio in February 1960. (Shirley Clarke’s 1961 film adaptation of<span> </span><i>The Connection</i><span> </span>captures the band in situ.)</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span class="s1">Taped in August 1960, S<i>hades of Redd</i><span> </span>has a darker cast. Tina Brooks’ prayerful tenor sax creates a spine-tingling blend with McLean’s alto. The Detroit bass-and-drum team of Paul Chambers and Louis Hayes swings much harder than Ritchie and Mattos, and the seven Redd originals dazzle in their diverse expression. “The Thespian,” a Byzantine structure that unfolds as poetically as a Keats lyric, begins as a lofty ballad with a sinuous melody and ends with that same material played twice as fast. “Olé” takes us to the bullfights in Spain. “Blues-Blues-Blues” returns us to Harlem via an A-B-A (12-8-12) structure with a pedal-point bridge.</span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">Over the next 60 years, Redd recorded sporadically and moved often. He worked into his nineties, but he never again soared as high as he did in 1960, when he made two records that were comets of truth and beauty. </span></p>
<h2>Further Listening</h2>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><a href="https://amzn.to/2RGzDEi" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><b>Tina Brooks:<span> </span><i>True Blue<span> </span></i>(Blue Note, 1960</b>)</a>—McLean’s understudy in<span> </span><i>The Connection</i><span> </span>captures bittersweet emotions similar to Redd but with a wholly personal spin.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><a href="https://amzn.to/3glTqB9" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><b>Bud Powell:<span> </span><i>Jazz Giant<span> </span></i>and<span> </span><i>The Genius of Bud Powell</i><span> </span>(Verve, recorded 1949-51)</b></a>—Affecting Powell originals like “Oblivion,” “Strictly Confidential,” and “I’ll Keep Loving You” contain the seeds of Redd’s drama, melodicism, harmony, and sequential construction.</span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><a href="https://amzn.to/3w7hmyJ" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><b>Howard McGhee:<span> </span><i>Music from The Connection<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i><span> </span>(Felsted, 1960)</b></a>—Uneven version of Redd’s score led by a veteran trumpeter a few months after the cast recording for Blue Note. Interesting to hear but workaday and no magic. With Brooks, Redd, Milt Hinton, and Osie Johnson.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://jazztimes.com/features/tributes-and-obituaries/freddie-redd-1928-2021/">Freddie Redd 1928-2021</a></p>
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<span class="posted-on">Originally Published<span> </span>June 10, 2021</span><br/>
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<div class="c-author c-author--excerpt o-media"><div class="o-media__body u-sans-serif"><h3 class="c-author__name u-margin-bottom-small u-sans-serif">MARK STRYKER</h3>
<p>Mark Stryker is the author of<span> </span><em>Jazz from Detroit</em><span> </span>(University of Michigan Press), named Jazz Book of the Year in the 2019<span> </span><em>JazzTimes</em><span> </span>Critics’ Poll. Inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in 2020, Stryker covered jazz, classical music, and visual arts for the<span> </span><em>Detroit Free Press</em><span> </span>from 1995 to 2016. He also grew up working as a jazz alto saxophonist.</p>
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Chronology: The Early Bebop Education of Howard McGhee
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-04-20:1992552:BlogPost:714239
2023-04-20T22:48:04.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<h1 class="entry-title">Chronology: The Early Bebop Education of Howard McGhee</h1>
<p class="lede">A look back at a founding trumpeter of the style</p>
<div class="entry-meta entry-meta--posted-on entry-meta--current-article u-text-upper"><span class="entry-meta__posted-on u-font-weight-light"><span class="posted-on">PUBLISHED<span> </span>SEPTEMBER 8, 2021</span></span><span> </span><span class="meta-separator u-font-weight-light"> – …</span></div>
<h1 class="entry-title">Chronology: The Early Bebop Education of Howard McGhee</h1>
<p class="lede">A look back at a founding trumpeter of the style</p>
<div class="entry-meta entry-meta--posted-on entry-meta--current-article u-text-upper"><span class="entry-meta__posted-on u-font-weight-light"><span class="posted-on">PUBLISHED<span> </span>SEPTEMBER 8, 2021</span></span><span> </span><span class="meta-separator u-font-weight-light"> – </span><span class="byline entry-meta__byline u-margin-bottom-small"><span class="screen-reader-text">BY</span><a class="url" href="https://jazztimes.com/author/mark-stryker/">MARK STRYKER</a></span></div>
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Howard McGhee, September 1947 (photo: Library of Congress/William P. Gottlieb Collection)<br />
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<div class="entry-content"><p class="p1"><span class="s1">D</span><span class="s2">izzy Gillespie, Howard McGhee, and Fats Navarro—the first three bebop trumpeters out of the gate—once crossed paths in Chicago. Navarro’s biographers Leif Bo Petersen and Theo Rehak think the summit occurred in August 1944. McGhee was subbing in Billy Eckstine’s band, which included Gillespie. Navarro was likely in town with Andy Kirk. After their gigs, the threesome would jam in a park around 4 a.m.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">“We’d play trio—one guy playing lead, the other second, the other third,” McGhee recalled in an unfinished autobiography that his son, Howard (Boots) McGhee Jr., shared with me. “Next chorus we’d switch parts or chop it up a bit and play around. Sometimes I’d take eight bars, and then Fats would take eight, and then Dizzy. Then all of us would play together or else play different lines on the same chords. The three of us had a ball. I wish we could have recorded it.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span class="s1">You and me both, Maggie.</span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">McGhee (1918-1987) is today by far the least celebrated of the founding bebop trumpeters. Yet he was a star in the late ’40s. He recorded prolifically, headlined clubs and theaters, and in 1949 won the<span> </span><i>DownBeat</i><span> </span>Readers Poll for his instrument. Every young trumpet player in jazz, from Miles Davis on down, lionized him. Navarro, who played with McGhee in Kirk’s band, called him a key influence.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">McGhee had a spitfire personality and a brassy sound with a wide, crackling vibrato rooted in Roy Eldridge. There is a charismatic and combustible frenzy in his early work, but he was also a progressive, his ears attuned to Gillespie and Charlie Parker. McGhee combined dazzling speed and high notes with fresh harmonic ideas and an evolving approach to rhythm and phrasing that traced the swing-to-bop continuum of the 1940s. To follow his career through that raucous decade of change is to chart the emergence of bebop in real time.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span class="s1">In Scott DeVeaux’s essential history<span> </span><a href="https://amzn.to/3hdd17T" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i>The Birth of Bebop</i></a>, McGhee plays an important supporting role. He represents gifted but lesser-known players with forward-looking dispositions—black musicians whose careers began in swing-era big bands and who navigated the shifting economic, musical, racial, and cultural terrain of the ’40s to come out on the other side as modern jazz (bebop) musicians.</span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">Listen to the 1942 Kirk recording of “McGhee Special” (Decca), which the trumpeter composed and arranged. McGhee, 24, struts confidently in front of the band. His jaunty rhythms swing on the button of the beat, and his phrases are blocked off mostly in two-bar chunks, markers of the swing era. The piquant harmony, however, hints at the future. The bridge modulates up a minor third from F to A-flat (unusual for 1942, Gunther Schuller notes in<span> </span><a href="https://amzn.to/2YDjnad" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i>The Swing Era</i></a>), and McGhee’s improvisation touches on prescient flat 5ths, flat 6ths, and flat 9ths. Ascending modulations lead to an exciting climax on a high G-sharp (trumpet key).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>
<blockquote><p class="p1"><span class="s1">To follow McGhee’s career through the 1940s is to chart the emergence of bebop in real time.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span class="s1">In fall 1942, McGhee encountered<span> </span><a href="https://jazztimes.com/features/profiles/charlie-parker-the-birth-of-bebop-and-americas-greatest-recording-session/">Charlie Parker</a><span> </span>for the first time. Hearing Bird, with whom he’d later work and record, was revelatory. To paraphrase DeVeaux, it focused McGhee’s self-awareness as a progressive musician. Soon he was frequenting jam sessions at Minton’s in Harlem, where Gillespie, Monk, Kenny Clarke, and others were forging a new musical language. McGhee quit big bands in 1944, finding greater expressive possibilities in small groups. He joined Coleman Hawkins’ proto-bop quintet on 52nd Street and headed west to Los Angeles with Hawkins in early 1945.</span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">McGhee spread his wings on Hawkins sides like the harmonically slick “Sportsman’s Hop” (Asch) and the brisk “Sweet Georgia Brown”-derived “Hollywood Stampede” (Capitol). His virtuosity is especially striking on the breakneck version of the latter tune captured in the 1945 film<span> </span><i>The Crimson Canary</i>.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">The trumpeter took another swing at “McGhee Special” in September 1945 with his own 12-piece band (Modern Music). The tempo is brighter than in 1942, and McGhee generates tremendous momentum. Paced by Roy Porter’s ride cymbal and bass-drum bombs, the trumpeter’s melodic lines lean toward bebop. His phrases are longer, with more strings of eighth notes, more triplets, more chromaticism, and Gillespie-inspired flourishes above the staff. Still, his swing feel remains tied to a slightly bumpy dotted eighth-sixteenth pattern that echoes the past. He lacks the syncopated complexity of Parker and<span> </span><a href="https://jazztimes.com/features/lists/jazztimes-10-essential-dizzy-gillespie-recordings/">Gillespie</a>.</span></p>
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<p class="p3"><span class="s1">Two years later, on McGhee’s brilliant Dial recordings in December 1947, he speaks<span> </span></span><span class="s2">bebop without an accent. On “Dorothy” and “Coolie-Rini,” he controls his improvised lines through spontaneous rhythmic feints and parries and chromatic half steps placed strategically to smooth out his ideas. His phrasing is more legato, the eighth notes played more evenly so they swing in up-to-date fashion. The ideal band includes likeminded modernists: James Moody, Milt Jackson, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, J.C. Heard. On another front, McGhee’s evocative ballad “Night Mist,” with its Ellington/Strayhorn-like harmonic and rhythmic shifts, suggests that his composing skills remain underrated.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2">On the 1948 Blue Note sides with Navarro, McGhee takes another step forward. Particularly on “Double Talk” (parts 1 and 2) and “Boperation,” the two trumpeters at times sound like twins. It can be easier to tell them apart by tone—McGhee has the broader, edgier vibrato—than by their melodic lines.</span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">McGhee’s star dipped precipitously in the 1950s. He lost most of the decade to drug addiction. While his post-1960 LPs have rewarding moments, he never again commanded the technique or intensity that he did in the 1940s and early ’50s. As always, however, the records and the spirit survive. </span></p>
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<h2>Further Listening</h2>
<p><strong>Howard McGhee:<span> </span></strong><span class="s1"><b><a href="https://amzn.to/3hdSGiy" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>On Dial: The Complete Sessions</em></a></b></span><span> </span>(Spotlight, 1945-47)—McGhee’s best early work can be tough to find. This collection appears to be in print and available on some streaming services.</p>
<p><strong>Howard McGhee:<span> </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/West-Coast-1945-1947-Howard-McGhee/dp/B00ILGPIE8"><em>West Coast 1945-47</em></a></strong><span> </span>(Uptown)—Terrific radio broadcasts open a window on early bebop in the context of the entertainment business. Also includes rare Melodisc and Philo sides.</p>
<p><strong>Howard McGhee:</strong><span> </span><span class="s1"><b><a href="https://amzn.to/3jRhJtK" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i>Howard McGhee & Howard McGhee Vol. 2</i></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b></span><span class="s2">(Blue Note, 1950-53)—</span>Compelling playing and writing, dynamite bands, and excellent recording quality, though McGhee’s chops are showing wear. For the indispensable McGhee-Fats Navarro sides, look for Blue Note releases under Navarro’s name or McGhee’s<span> </span><a href="https://amzn.to/3yYGoAO" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i>1948</i></a><span> </span>(Chronological Classics).</p>
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<div class="c-author c-author--excerpt o-media"><div class="o-media__body u-sans-serif"><h3 class="c-author__name u-margin-bottom-small u-sans-serif">MARK STRYKER</h3>
<p>Mark Stryker is the author of<span> </span><em>Jazz from Detroit</em><span> </span>(University of Michigan Press), named Jazz Book of the Year in the 2019<span> </span><em>JazzTimes</em><span> </span>Critics’ Poll. Inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in 2020, Stryker covered jazz, classical music, and visual arts for the<span> </span><em>Detroit Free Press</em><span> </span>from 1995 to 2016. He also grew up working as a jazz alto saxophonist.</p>
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Kente Arts Alliance presents STEVE TURRE and Generations at the New Hazlett Theater
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-04-11:1992552:BlogPost:713808
2023-04-11T16:30:26.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
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The Jazz Journalists Association gives 2023 Pittsburgh Jazz Hero Award to Gail Austin and Mensah Wali
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-04-11:1992552:BlogPost:713944
2023-04-11T16:30:00.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
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<p style="text-align: center;">Jazz Heroes Gail Austin & Mensah Wali</p>
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<div class="wpb_text_column wpb_content_element"><div class="wpb_wrapper"><p>Gail Austin and Mensah Wali, a married couple, were retirees when they incorporated the<span> </span><a href="http://.kentearts.org/">Kente Arts Alliance<span> </span></a>as a 501(c)3 organization in 2007, to present high-quality jazz and other music of the African diaspora in Black neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, which they regretted didn’t have entertainment options comparable to the city’s Downtown Cultural District. They’ve changed that, slowly, steadily, definitively.</p>
<p>For the first concerts they booked (of Louis Hayes Cannonball Adderley Legacy band – the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette proclaimed it “Best Jazz Show of the Year”), Wali (who had jazz world contacts) and Austin (who learned to write grants), depended on their own finances, promotion and grassroots fundraising, but over 14 years they’ve gained support. A devoted fan base attends concerts held at The New Hazlett Theater and The Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, and funding comes from BNY Mellon Foundation, Highmark (health insurers), The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments and PNC Charitable Trusts, among other entities.</p>
<p>The pair choose who to present based on their complementary tastes, emphasizing artists with strong African affiliations – Randy Weston, Cyrus Chestnut, South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini and trumpeter Hugh Masekela, among others. They’ve shined a spotlight on social justice issues, presenting Charenée Wade<i>’s<span> </span></i>project featuring the works of Gil Scott Heron, and trombonist Craig Harris, whose on-going project “Breathe” memorializes victims of police violence. Kente’s “Color of Strings” concer<i>t<span> </span></i>paid homage to both iconic bassist Ray Brown and women quilters of the deep south.</p>
<p>This is retirement? Besides productions, they maintain an informational website and during the pandemic produced “Kente at Home“ livestreams, reluctantly at first but with increasing enthusiasm as the events – featuring playing including Lakecia Benjamin, Dwayne Dolphin and Orrin Evans, video’d at social distance inside a tent set outdoor s– were enjoyed more widely than they’d expected.</p>
<p>“We missed hearing music live!” Gail explained why they tried the format during an<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nvNS7ksA4E">Alternative Venues for Jazz presentation</a><span> </span>she and Mensah did in January 2022. It didn’t take much for Jazz Heroes Gail Austin and Mensah Wali to agree that streaming live music as an expression of the African diaspora was indeed fulfilling Kente Arts Alliance’s mission.</p>
<p><em><span>By <a href="https://www.jjajazzawards.org/2015-jazz-heroes/">Dr. Nelson Harrison</a>, Photo by Ryan Loew/90.5 WESA<br/></span></em></p>
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Walter Page: Freedom Bass Dance
tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2023-04-11:1992552:BlogPost:713940
2023-04-11T03:25:40.000Z
Dr. Nelson Harrison
http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<h1 class="entry-title">Walter Page: Freedom Bass Dance</h1>
<p class="lede">The liberating style of a four-string pioneer</p>
<div class="entry-meta entry-meta--posted-on entry-meta--current-article u-text-upper"><span class="entry-meta__posted-on u-font-weight-light"><span class="posted-on">PUBLISHED<span> </span>MARCH 17, 2021</span></span><span> </span><span class="meta-separator u-font-weight-light"> – …</span></div>
<h1 class="entry-title">Walter Page: Freedom Bass Dance</h1>
<p class="lede">The liberating style of a four-string pioneer</p>
<div class="entry-meta entry-meta--posted-on entry-meta--current-article u-text-upper"><span class="entry-meta__posted-on u-font-weight-light"><span class="posted-on">PUBLISHED<span> </span>MARCH 17, 2021</span></span><span> </span><span class="meta-separator u-font-weight-light"> – </span><span class="byline entry-meta__byline u-margin-bottom-small"><span class="screen-reader-text">BY</span><a class="url" href="https://jazztimes.com/author/colin-fleming/">COLIN FLEMING</a></span></div>
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<div class="entry-content-wrapper"><img width="576" height="565" src="https://cdn2.jazztimes.com/2021/03/Walter-Page-02a.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Walter Page"/>https://cdn2.jazztimes.com/2021/03/Walter-Page-02a-550x539.jpg 550w" sizes="(max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px" />
Walter Page (photo: Dave Dexter, Jr. Collection, LaBudde Special Collections, Miller Nichols Library, UMKC)<br />
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<div class="entry-content"><p>Were it possible to measure the weight of a band’s sound, I’m not sure you could find a greater scale-tipper than the Count Basie Orchestra of the late 1930s. They surged as a slab of pure rhythm, a juking continental shelf. Such a setting might not seem an ideal playground for an imaginative bassist. But the Count’s man of the low tones, Walter Page, brokered no fetters—you could even say that he was a liberator, establishing sonic freedoms few players at the time got to enjoy. </p>
<p>Born February 9, 1900, in Gallatin, Missouri, Page arrived at the very dawn of a century he’d help to imbue with its rhythmic edge. He started with the Bennie Moten Orchestra, later led his own Blue Devils—with Lester Young in tow—and was eventually absorbed into the old Bennie Moten band when Basie absorbed what remained of it. Page, guitarist Freddie Green, and drummer Jo Jones combined as the ultimate rhythm-section triumvirate, the men who made the floorboards in ballrooms vibrate, and hearts jackhammer so that one just had to dance.</p>
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<p>There are no dud tracks from Page’s stay with Basie, but it’s the live recordings and airshots of the late ’30s where we can really experience how valuable his skills were to the free-ranging functionality of this band. Page would blast out a walking bass figure less oriented to peregrinating and more in the line of power-striding. His pace often blazed, and he was loud in an era when a lot of bassists couldn’t make themselves heard over the ensemble. Page’s sound buttonholed you, got up in your face, though sans confrontation. Here within the joyous maelstrom, his was the most ingratiating voice.</p>
<p>Ellington’s bass man, Jimmy Blanton, was a ballerino in his playing, all leaps and bounds, graceful interludes in air. We might think of the Ellington band as a diaphanous, coruscating cloud, whereas the Basie boys came to you as a block of osmium, in which internal movement would seem to be limited. Page took care of that. It was usually his bass that drove the unit, the quarterback bearing the brunt of the offense’s responsibilities. An ideal pairing, given that the band was pure offense; there are no “prevent” defenses in prime-era Basieland.</p>
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<p>On a recording from NYC’s Famous Door club in 1938, Basie’s piano and Page’s bass rip into<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77ZhIjpX8Y4">“Doggin’ Around”</a><span> </span>like they’re skinning a hide at some molten fast-forward setting. The bass punches space in the very air, creating room for these big-time, badass players to do their thing.</p>
<p>Minus Page, we don’t get the contrast between tenor players Herschel Evans and Lester Young, because there might not have been enough separate ground for each to do what he did. Evans is the Jimmie Foxx of the duo: brawny, bestial—but smart bestial—power. Young is Ted Williams, the obvious thinker who never thinks anything obvious, and who flits—actually, he plays his horn like Blanton will work his bass with Ellington. Page is an identity facilitator. If you put him in Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd, it would have had clearer separation of instruments, more individual nuance, rather than a juggernaut-ish Wall of Sound. Not that said Wall is a bad thing, but it isn’t a core Basie tenet. The best waves have sub-aqueous depths to explore. And those are Basie—and Walter Page—waves.</p>
<p>The Basie band thrilled in the studio, making some of the truly perfect American sides, but live they were jazz’s early answer to the Lewis and Clark spirit. Lester, in particular, gamboled, attempting runs and solos that he wouldn’t within the confines of an antiseptic room, with Page helping to send him on his way as a knight-errant of envelope-pushing style.<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNBVr5ZaWLo">“Wo-Ta-Ta”</a><span> </span>from the Famous Door gig posits a heavy metal Young, and who even knew that was a thing? You could interpolate the saxophonist’s riffs in<span> </span><em>Live-Evil</em>-era Miles Davis and the Wagnerian heft and hoodoo would hold true. </p>
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<p>At Pittsburgh’s Chatterbox Café in 1937, Page kicks off<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xboo9I5x7o">“Tattersfield Stomp”</a><span> </span>with this three-note figuration that seems to dip into the earth, such is its booming resonance. The song is a free-for-all, and it has a proto-<em>Ascension</em><span> </span>vibe to it. But there comes this moment when Page’s bass is the loudest instrument—so loud that it causes distortion on the primitive recording device. The other players drop out, as if they’re both intent on seeing where Page next takes this ball of energy and trying not to fly off the bandstand.</p>
<p>We’re talking music as elemental as the weather, a sea throwing itself against shore-rock again and again, the incessant “I’m not going anywhere” advance, and yet so orderly, controlled, both repeatable and always new. A daring empiricism, an improvised science of rhythm-making.</p>
<p>And if you’re in that band, there’s no way you’d be saying, “Gonna play it safe today.” You’d be hearing Walter Page, this man who took next to no solos—he played one long solo that helped out his mates—and thinking, “Right! I got next, and I’m going to tear it up, me-style.”</p>
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<div class="c-author c-author--excerpt o-media"><div class="o-media__body u-sans-serif"><h3 class="c-author__name u-margin-bottom-small u-sans-serif">COLIN FLEMING</h3>
<p>Colin<span> </span><span class="searchHighlight">Fleming</span><span> </span>writes fiction and nonfiction on myriad topics—art, film, music, sports, literature, current events—for a wide range of publications, and talks regularly on radio and podcasts. His most recent books are an entry in the<span> </span><em>33 1/3</em> series on Sam Cooke’s <em>Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963,<span> </span></em>a volume about the 1951 film<em><span> </span>Scrooge<span> </span></em>as the ultimate work of cinematic terror, and the story collection,<span> </span><em>If You [ ]: Fabula, Fantasy, F**kery, Hope</em>. Find him on the web at colin<span class="searchHighlight">fleming</span>lit.com (where he maintains the unique online journal, the<span> </span><a title="https://www.colinfleminglit.com/blog" href="https://www.colinfleminglit.com/blog">Many Moments More</a> blog) and on Twitter<span> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/colinfleminglit?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">@colin<span class="searchHighlight">fleming</span>lit</a>. He lives in Boston and has contributed to <em>JazzTimes</em> since 2006.</p>
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