SPECIAL SAXOPHONE ISSUE • 1ST ANNUAL CLUB GUIDE

CHRIS SEAMUS
BLAKE
POTTER The View
From Paris
The Quiet
Virtuoso
By Natalie Weiner

GARY
BARTZ
BRANFORD Picks His
MARSALIS Bright
EXCLUSIVE Moments
Q&A WITH
DAVID FRICKE

+
Dayna Stephens JUNE 2019

Marty Ehrlich
Lauren Sevian
Scott Robinson
Alexa Tarantino JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M i
Grace Kelly
Depends on Yamaha.
"My Yamaha 82Z alto plays with amazing
ease and accuracy. It's effortless."

– Grace Kelly
Saxophonist, Singer, Composer, and Arranger
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 KENDRICK SCOTT ORACLE
A WALL BECOMES A BRIDGE
Drummer and composer KENDRICK SCOTT returns
with a 12-track song cycle titled, A Wall Becomes
A Bridge. Produced by DERRICK HODGE, A Wall
is a musical and metaphorical journey exploring
many themes: innocence (“Archangel”), acceptance
(“Windows”), and insecurity (“Voices”). Scott is
joined by his ORACLE band: pianist TAYLOR EIGSTI,
bassist JOE SANDERS, guitarist MIKE MORENO,
DQGVD[RSKRQLVWŴXWLVW JOHN ELLIS.
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JAMES FRANCIES (Flight). Now Joel carries the
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formative stuff that made him the man he is,
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WAYNE SHORTER
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A GRAMMY-WINNING musical & visual experience,
Emanon is NOW AVAILABLE DIGITALLY or as a
box set. The triple-album features THE WAYNE
SHORTER QUARTET & 34-piece ORPHEUS CHAMBER
ORCHESTRA and was named #1 JAZZ ALBUM OF
2018 by NY Times, NPR Critics Poll, and Billboard.
Rolling Stone hailed, “Shorter’s ideas have always
been bigger than jazz; what Emanon shows is that
they’ve also been bigger than music itself.”
RON CARTER AND DANNY SIMMONS
THE BROWN BEATNIK TOMES – LIVE AT BRIC HOUSE
A unique and powerful collaboration between the
artist and poet DANNY SIMMONS and legendary
jazz bassist RON CARTER. This live recording
from BRIC House in Brooklyn captured Simmons
reading poetry from his collection of prose
The Brown Beatnik Tomes with projections of his
own striking Abstract Expressionist paintings
providing the stage backdrop while Carter
performed solo accompaniment along with
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NORAH JONES
BEGIN AGAIN
On April 12, nine-time GRAMMY-winning
singer-songwriter NORAH JONES will release
Begin Again, a collection of singles that
gathers seven eclectic songs that Jones has
recorded over the past year with
collaborators including JEFF TWEEDY
and THOMAS BARTLETT.
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instagram - @bluenoterecords © Blue Note Records
 CONTENTS JUNE 2019 x VOLUME 49 x NUMBER 5

GUIDE TO 150+ In every issue

JAZZ CLUBS PG. 44
Features 7 JT Notes
8 Opening Chorus
Herb Alpert talks philanthropy, Alexa
CHRIS POTTER
22 He’s a former child prodigy and current modern master—as his 21st
Tarantino, Jon Lundbom and Big Five
Chord, farewells to Jeff Andrews
and John Oddo
album, Circuits, demonstrates—but he doesn’t make much of a fuss about
any of that. Natalie Weiner catches up with a musician whose sense 13 The Scene
of understatement is nearly as vast as the list of besotted fans who’ve Just Jazz at L.A.’s Mr Musichead
transcribed his solos. Gallery
14 Chronology
Ethan Iverson on James Newton
16 Before & After
Dayna Stephens
20 Overdue Ovation
Marty Ehrlich

50 Audio Files
Brent Butterworth on luxury head-

28 BRANFORD MARSALIS 52
phones
Chops
Want opinions? Branford’s got ’em, and in this Q&A with David Fricke, he Scott Robinson’s special relationship
lays out quite a few—on Kamasi Washington, jazz as entertainment, and with a ’24 Conn tenor sax
the concept of “living the blues,” among others—while also discussing
54 Gearhead
the excellent new release from his long-running quartet.
Mindi Abair goes wireless, plus new
products from RS Berkeley, Vic Firth,
Steinberg, and more
GARY BARTZ: BRIGHT MOMENTS
34 You could call him an elder statesman, but you’d be equally correct to call
56
64
Album Reviews
Artist’s Choice
him a forerunner of jazz’s newest wave. With the help of Evan Haga, Bartz
revisits key entries in a catalog that stretches over more than 50 years. Lauren Sevian picks her favorite
baritone saxophone solos on record

SEAMUS BLAKE
40 The cosmopolitan saxophonist has found a new home in Paris, with a group
of European musicians he’s dubbed the French Connection. Blake tells J.D.
Considine about the reasoning behind his move, his stance on electric instru-
ments, and a Siberian bus ride with Benny Golson. Cover image of Chris Potter by Dave Stapleton
Table of Contents image by Eric Ryan Anderson

4 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
 what's on
JAZZTIMES.COM
x Exclusive Content
In our biweekly JazzTimes 10, Michael J.
West ranks the 10 best works by drummer/
composers and observes ECM Records’
50th anniversary with a list of its 10 most
essential releases. Plus live reviews,
album reviews, photo galleries, polls, and
much more.
x JT Blog
The 2019 class of NEA Jazz Masters—Ab-
dullah Ibrahim, Maria Schneider, Stanley
Crouch, and the late Bob Dorough—re-
ceived their honors in Washington, D.C.
Read Jackson Sinnenberg’s report for JT
and watch the tribute concert webcast.
x Audio & Video
An exclusive premiere of Melissa Aldana’s
“Elsewhere,” a downloadable track from
the Ron Brendle Quartet, and more
6 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
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 JT NOTES
borhood, a club, a concert hall, a festival, Fans of our artist profiles, Q&As,
New Thing or something else entirely; this time, it’s
an art gallery in Los Angeles. Farther
reviews, and regular departments like
Before & After, Overdue Ovation, Audio

at JazzTimes into the magazine, we’ve expanded our

Gearhead section to two pages. This will
allow us to cover certain pieces of musical
Files, Chops, and Artist’s Choice, fear not:
None of that stuff is going away. And, of
course, our dedication to bringing you
ou may have noticed that the equipment in greater depth and—as in top-notch writing on some of the world’s
; Ìlatest issue of JazzTimes looks a this issue—talk to performers (yes, actual best music hasn’t wavered in the slightest.
little different. For months, our gearheads) about the instruments and We’ll simply be doing it in a better-look-
art director Carolyn Marsden and our accessories they can’t do without. ing way from now on. MAC RANDALL
graphic designer Eoin Laramee have been
on a mission to reset the magazine visual-
ly, fiddling with fonts, sampling swatches,
and laboring over layouts. You can now
see the results of all their hard work in
our first redesigned issue. To our eyes, the
new design retains a classic underlying
structure while ensuring that even our

XR TYPE
more text-heavy pages get a vivifying
splash of color. We hope you enjoy it.
This redesign of the print magazine
coincides with a similar retooling of
JazzTimes.com. If you’ve ever found our AMONG ALL SAXOPHONES
website frustrating, I’ve got a confession THIS XR TYPE IS UNMISTAKABLE
to make: So have we. It’s looked the
same for a decade, it was never all that
aesthetically pleasing to begin with, and
it’s become more difficult to navigate
through over time—that can happen
when you pile up 20-plus years of con-
tent. Despite this, it’s heartening to see
that our web traffic numbers continue to
rise, as hundreds of thousands visit our
From the familiar/unique key guard grills to
site each month. We’re thankful for ev- the subtle Bronze colorations throughout…
ery one of those visitors, we believe they coupled with precision-crafted “low profile”
deserve better, and we suspect they’ll thin key cups and extensive hand-engraved
all greatly appreciate the new, simpler, European style fleurets… here is truly a
more elegant, more intuitively organized stylish Saxophone that out-performs all
JazzTimes.com. others on the market.
Besides revamping the look of both ...Stainless Steel rods guarantee
our magazine and our website, we’ve fastest key response...
also made a few departmental changes.
...Thinner Italian choice leather
Most notably, this issue features the first pads assure complete tone hole
installment of Ethan Iverson’s Chronol- closure...
ogy column, which will explore some of
the less-traveled byways in jazz history ...Bronze alloy that produced
legacy European saxophones in
and offer fresh critical takes on a wide the ’30s...
array of artists. JazzTimes readers need
no introduction to Iverson’s work as a ...Bell taper and size that provide
pianist; those of you who’ve seen his optimum intonation and sound
projection...
Do the Math blog or his essays in The
New Yorker and elsewhere know that his This isn’t a Faux Vintage saxophone
writing skills are sharp too, and we’re based on today’s standards. This is
proud to have him on board. the real thing… we’re going “Back to
the Future” to give you today’s new
Another new addition is The Scene, a benchmark of Saxophone excellence.
quick primer on a place where jazz hap-
pens. That place could be a city, a neigh-
www.saxdakota.com
pjlabiz2@aol.com

JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 7
OPENING CHORUS
CALENDAR
Healdsburg Jazz
Festival
5/31-6/9 | Healdsburg, CA
The 21st edition of this Sonoma
County fest will orient itself around
13 separate concerts, three of
which celebrate ECM Records’ 50th
anniversary: Ralph Towner and Paul
McCandless (5/31), DeJohnette-
Coltrane-Garrison (6/1), and a Carla
Bley Trio/Ethan Iverson-Mark Turner
Duo double bill (6/2).
« www.healdsburgjazzfestival.org
DC Jazz Festival
6/7-16 | Washington, DC
Held in a variety of indoor and
outdoor venues across the nation’s
capital, this 10-day extravaganza
will feature performances by
Stefon Harris, Cécile McLorin
Salvant, Snarky Puppy, Jon Batiste,
Michael Franks, Joshua Redman,
Joey Alexander, and Terri Lyne
Carrington, among many others.
« www.dcjazzfest.org
Festival
International de
Jazz de Montréal
6/27-7/6 | Montreal, QC, Canada
The Montreal Jazz Festival turns
40 in 2019, and its co-founder/VP
André Ménard has announced that
this year will be his last in charge
of the event. Not surprisingly, he’s
going out with a bang; confirmed
artists include Norah Jones, George
Benson, Chucho Valdés, and the
Steve Gadd Band.
« www.montrealjazzfest.com
HERB ALPERT x ALEXA TARANTINO x JON LUNDBOM x FAREWELLS
Sweet Charity
As the award that bears his name turns 25, musician and
philanthropist HERB ALPERT keeps on giving
t was in the 1980s that trum-
+Ì peter Herb Alpert—creator of
a ’60s pop phenomenon, the
Tijuana Brass, and cofounder of A&M
Records—began to ponder what to do
with “some extra money” he’d accumu-
lated. “I didn’t want to buy a Monet or
a Van Gogh and hang it on my wall,” he
says. “I thought I could better use it by
trying to help others.”
The Herb Alpert Foundation was
incorporated in 1988. To date, it has
given $175 million to the arts. Last year
it bestowed 99 grants, all in the name
of Alpert and his wife of over 40 years,
singer Lani Hall. The gifts include
funding for jazz education, jazz radio,
and jazz musicians in need. Nobody ap-
plies; all beneficiaries are sought out by
Alpert and his staff of three. May 2019
brought the 25th anniversary of anoth-
er of his charitable endeavors: the Herb
Alpert Award in the Arts, five $75,000
grants given annually to mid-career
artists in a range of genres. Numerous
jazz musicians—including pianist
Vijay Iyer, bandleader Butch Morris,
composer/saxophonist Steve Coleman,
reed player James Carter, and flutist
Herb Alpert, a.k.a.
“the bank”
Nicole Mitchell—have been picked by
the award’s panel of three artists.
The effects have been life-changing.
“For so many years,” says Mitchell, “I
had attention and respect in Europe,
while my work was dismissed in my
home country. The Alpert changed that.
It was a critical moment for me, as I was
being considered for a tenure-track uni-
versity position, and I’m almost certain
the Alpert tipped the scales. Also, after
over 20 years of student-loan debt, I was
finally able to cut those chains and start
to rebuild my life.”
Risk-takers, not traditionalists, get
the panel’s ear. “The award is for pio-
neers,” says its director, Irene Borger.
“It is not driven by the marketplace.”
Alpert puts it this way: “There are
two kinds of musicians: first, the guys
who play the right notes, who know
where they’re going and are very
precise. You listen to them and you
stare out the window because nothing’s
really happening. Then there are those
other guys who are searching for the
DEWEY NICKS
right notes. The artists we choose are
not the beat of the week; they’re the
ones who took the road less traveled.”
 x Q&A: Herb Alpert and Lani Hall
Usually that path is strewn with
financial woes. But Alpert, who walked
it himself, has always combined mu-
sic-making with a degree of business
savvy that few musicians can boast. At
eight, he picked up his first trumpet. In
1962, when he was 27, he launched A&M
with an album by the Tijuana Brass,
whose mariachi-style pop-jazz became
one of the defining instrumental sounds
of the decade. As he and Jerry Moss (the
M of A&M) built up a roster of heavy-
weights, Alpert took pains to keep the
sound of his own bands modern—hence
his respect for cutting-edge artists. In
1979, his funk-disco single “Rise” hit
No. 1, further lining the A&M coffers. A
decade later, he and Moss sold the label
to PolyGram. They held out for approx-
imately twice the price their advisers
suggested, and walked away with half a
billion dollars. A breach-of-integrity suit
against PolyGram yielded them another
$200 million. Alpert has been giving his
money away ever since.
Both UCLA and the foundation’s
partnering entity, California Institute
Produced
by
Richard Elliot Peter White
Michael Lington Paul Taylor Vincent Ingala
of the Arts, now have a Herb Alpert
School of Music. Thanks to Alpert,
music students at Los Angeles City Col-
lege attend tuition-free. “Part of Herb’s
motivation,” says foundation president
Rona Sebastian, “is that people who
are dedicated to pursuing the life of a
musician will be able to do so. But we
provide the experience to young people
regardless of whether they’re going to
seek a career in the arts. The arts are
good for everybody.”
Arts education, of course, is in perpet-
ual need. Nine years ago, the Harlem
School of the Arts was $2 million dollars
in debt and about to crash. In the New
York Times, chairman of the board
Christopher Paci voiced a cry for help:
“If an angel or group of angels come to
the doorstep immediately we’ll be able to
save the school.” Alpert stepped forward
with a $6 million grant. He has helped
keep the school thriving ever since.
His jazz philanthropy seems endless.
KJAZZ, the Southern California station,
owes most of its survival to Alpert. He
funds jazz-composition scholarships
DW3
Featuring The West Coast Horns
Lindsey Webster
FOLLOW US @FESTEVENTS
at the American Society of Compos-
ers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).
Musicians perform in luxury at his
state-of-the-art jazz club, Vibrato, in the
fashionable Bel Air section of L.A. For
11 years he has aided the Jazz Founda-
tion of America, which saves musicians
who have fallen on hard times.
Says JFA founding director and vice
chairman Wendy Oxenhorn: “Herb
and Lani and Rona make it possible
for us to not lose anyone to eviction or
homelessness when they get sick. They
support our Jazz in the Schools pro-
gram for musicians who are no longer
able to tour. We pay them to teach and
perform for students. It gives purpose
and meaning to their lives and allows
them to continue paying their rent.”
Alpert is modest about all of it; he
doesn’t even boast of having received
the 2012 National Medal of Arts from
President Obama. Asked how big a
hand he takes in choosing the winners
of his own award, he says with a laugh:
“Zero. I don’t want to and I shouldn’t.
I’m the bank.” JAMES GAVIN
Brian McKnight
Sheila E
Everette Harp • Paul Jackson • Jeff Lorber
#Festevents #NFKJazzFest2019
J AJ A
ZZZ ZT T
IM EE
IM S S. C
. CO
OMM 99
 OPENING CHORUS x Video: The Alexa Tarantino Quartet performs “See Saw”
This Woman’s Work
Both as a player and a teacher, ALEXA TARANTINO is
leading the charge for a more inclusive jazz scene
n their debut album, Pride &
1 Ì Joy (Posi-Tone), the all-fe-
male sextet Lioness makes a
potent jazz statement while celebrating
female jazz artistry past and present.
The ensemble features six acclaimed
musicians—alto saxophonist Alexa
Tarantino, tenor saxophonist Jenny Hill,
baritone saxophonist Lauren Sevian, gui-
tarist Amanda Monaco, organist Akiko
Tsuruga, and drummer Allison Miller—
and all the tracks were composed by
women (okay, there’s one man with a
composer credit, but he’s a co-compos-
er). Fittingly, Pride & Joy was released on
International Women’s Day, March 8.
“Camaraderie is really the biggest
10 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
thing,” Tarantino tells me in the lobby
of a hotel on New York’s Upper West
Side. The young altoist plays with an-
other distinguished all-female ensem-
ble, the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, and she
likens the vibe of the Lioness sessions
to that of DIVA’s recent shows with tap
dancer Maurice Hines.
“I figured, this is what the guys have
been feeling about their work all the
time,” she says. “It feels like a vacation:
You’re going on the road with your best
girlfriends, your best buds. And I was
like, wow, this is just so natural and so
much fun, and everyone’s celebrating
each other, cheering people on during
their solos.” She adds, “I think—I would
Two-fisted saxophonist Alexa
Tarantino
like to believe—that’s what women in
general want, to uplift and support and
empower each other.”
Monaco and Posi-Tone founder/pro-
ducer Marc Free put Lioness together
and chose the tracks for Pride & Joy.
The album opens with Miller’s tune
“Mad Time,” its playful strut driven by
the horns and propelled by snare drum.
Tarantino’s composition, “Hurry Up and
Wait,” which she calls a “hard-hitting
swinging minor blues,” showcases her
musical rapport with Sevian, a close
friend with whom Tarantino co-leads a
quintet called LSAT. The group delivers a
moody, atmospheric take on Carla Bley’s
“Ida Lupino” and goes on a funky romp
through Aretha Franklin’s “Think.”
The triple-saxophone frontline
replaces the three-trombone lead on
Melba Liston’s “You Don’t Say.” Taran-
tino says, “That fresh take on having all
saxophones—I think it speaks to Marc’s
vision of not only promoting the women
composers and instrumentalists of to-
day, but also highlighting the tradition
and the past and showcasing the fresh-
ness of breathing new life into it.”
That summation also describes
Tarantino’s own career. The Connecti-
cut native, who just turned 27, decided
to become a jazz saxophonist in the
third grade, when her parents took her
to a concert where she heard saxophon-
ist Erica von Kleist. “I just said to my
parents, ‘Done. That’s what I want to
do. I’m sold,’” she recalls. Alto sax was
always her instrument of choice. “I love
the range of color that you can draw
from the alto,” she says. She received her
undergraduate degree from the East-
man School of Music and just complet-
ed her master’s at Juilliard.
Tarantino might be young, but she’s
already built an impressive résumé. A
substitute in the Jazz at Lincoln Center
Orchestra, she’s played in some of Wyn-
ANNA YATSKEVICH
ton Marsalis’ smaller groups, as well as
with Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro-Latin
Jazz Orchestra. She’s also played with
bandleader Darcy James Argue’s Secret
 x Audio: “People Be Talking” by Jon Lundbom and Big Five Chord
Society and in Cécile McLorin Salvant’s
song cycle Ogresse. Somehow, she found
time to record her own album as a lead-
er, Winds of Change (Posi-Tone).
The just-released quartet record
spotlights Tarantino’s elegant com-
posing and arranging style, as well
as her collaborative finesse. Pianist
Christian Sands, bassist Joe Martin,
and drummer Rudy Royston round out
the ensemble; Tarantino deftly engages
in musical dialogues with trombonist
Nick Finzer on several tracks.
Off the bandstand, she’s busy as a
Five for Grooving
In JON LUNDBOM’s group Big Five Chord, bouncy and
free can coexist
hen guitarist Jon Lundbom
9 Ì recalls what has fired his
BRYAN MURRAY
imagination, he frequently
talks about music that “blew my mind.”
Three specific examples have inspired
teacher and jazz ambassador for young
musicians. She’s part of Jazz at Lincoln
Center’s High School Jazz Academy, run-
ning one of its high-school big bands. She
founded and directs a summer jazz pro-
gram in Rockport, Mass., and she teaches
and performs at colleges and high
schools across the country. She says she’s
seeing more young women taking an
interest in jazz: “Now I go to these master
classes and I would say sometimes it
could be 40 to 60 percent female.”
Still, women jazz instrumentalists
continue to be outnumbered by men,
Jon Lundbom reaches
for the uncommon Chord
the writing for his band Big Five Chord.
The first is Focus, the 1962 Stan Getz
album that put the tenor saxophonist’s
improvisations in the midst of Eddie
Sauter’s written works for orchestra.
and it’s not uncommon for them, even
in the #MeToo era, to experience sexism
and other obstacles. “We’ve all had our
fair share of unfortunate moments and
unfortunate encounters,” Tarantino
says diplomatically. But, she elaborates,
focusing on the music helps break
down barriers. She cites the work ethic
her parents instilled in her, which she
describes as “Put your head down and
keep working and don’t let anybody
bring you down,” adding, “It’s all going
to come out on the bandstand.”
LUCY TAUSS
The second is Ornette Coleman, whose
disregard for chord changes liberated
Lundbom. Third is Voodoo, the 2000
neo-soul album by D’Angelo that
featured jazz musicians such as Roy
Hargrove and toyed with beat placement
and polyrhythms. On Lundbom’s ninth
album with BFC, Harder on the Outside
(Hot Cup), all these influences blend
together in satisfying ways; engaging
melodies and free-jazz interplay com-
bine, without losing a sense of groove.
“A lot of people have written that my
playing in Big Five Chord is free bop,
which it can be at times,” Lundbom says.
“I think that’s the Ornette Coleman
influence. It’s going to be jazz but we’re
going to do something other than just
follow chord changes.”
One feature that makes the group dis-
tinctive is its “no head out” rule, which
prohibits a return to the theme following
the last solo. On Harder on the Outside,
Lundbom’s fretwork, which ranges from
warm to frenzied, often has the final say
before a track comes to an unceremo-
nious end. The abrupt stops are meant
to make the writing and the solos more
impactful. “It’s not like we’re playing
standards where we’re cycling the same
32 bars over and over and over again,”
Lundbom explains. “We’re embracing
a more holistic improvisation. To force
yourself into coming back to it at the
end can be weird and artificial.”
Growing up just north of Chicago in
Arlington Heights, Ill., Lundbom began
playing the guitar in second grade. He
attended DePaul University, discover-
ing 20th-century classical composition
while also immersing himself in the
JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 11
OPENING CHORUS
Windy City’s jazz scene. Saxophonist
Bryan Murray was a graduate student
when he and Lundbom, an undergrad,
began playing weekly gigs at Phyllis’
Musical Inn. “I think Jon’s always had
his own voice and his own direction,”
Murray recalls. “He never tried to mimic
someone else or sound like another play-
er. He always had that drive, knew how
he wanted to sound and worked at it.”
Lundbom moved to New York City
two days before 9/11, hoping to attend
graduate school. Things didn’t pan out,
but he eventually formed BFC, a quintet
based predominantly around his origi-
nal compositions. Bassist Moppa Elliott
has been a mainstay of the band since
its 2003 debut and has released most
of its albums on his Hot Cup imprint.
Saxophonist Jon Irabagon, who worked
with Elliott in Mostly Other People Do
the Killing, has also played on most of
BFC’s albums.
Murray, who moved to New York and
joined Big Five Chord on 2009’s Accom-
plish Jazz, has brought more adventure
Jeff Andrews 1960-2019
FAREWELLS
Jeff Andrews, an acclaimed and influ-
ential electric bassist whose virtuosic
technique and fluid sound were a key
component of the jazz fusion scene
since the early 1980s, died in New York
City on March 14. He was 59. A cause
of death was not announced; however,
to the group. In addition to playing ten-
or, he often whips out an instrument he’s
dubbed the “balto!” saxophone, an alto
sax with a baritone mouthpiece, held in
place by toilet paper. “It was incredibly
loud. Just disgusting and out of tune,”
Murray says, recalling his discovery. “I
played the four or five low notes [and
they] all came out in multiphonics. It
kind of goes up a half-step as you go up
the octave.” The squonking instrument
has become such a band hallmark that
Murray has recorded with BFC under
the pseudonym “Balto Exclamation-
point.” (You can find several video
demonstrations of the balto! on Mur-
ray’s YouTube channel: bryan murray
BALTO EXCLAMATIONPOINT. One
clip is called “Round Midnight”—let’s
just say it’s not what you’d expect based
on the title.)
A collaboration between Lundbom
and Murray gave further depth to
Harder on the Outside. The saxophonist
has been building a library of looped
beats and started using BFC records as
Andrews was admitted to Manhattan’s
Lenox Hill Hospital on Jan. 14 and was
diagnosed with double pneumonia,
remaining in the hospital for at least
two weeks. Probably best known for
his late-’80s tenure with saxophonist
Michael Brecker and his work in the ’90s
sources. Lundbom, who in 2015 moved
from New York to Austin with his fami-
ly, wrote new melodies to go over five of
Murray’s beats, which the saxophonist
recorded and released as Beats by Balto,
Vol. 1 (Chant). For six of the eight tracks
on Harder, Lundbom, Murray, Elliott,
Justin Wood (alto and soprano saxo-
phones), and Dan Monaghan (drums)
recreate the Beats tracks in real time.
It’s a provocative mix of grooves and
tangled, fast-moving themes.
BFC doesn’t get many opportunities
to perform these days, but the distance
between band members doesn’t deter
them, as Lundbom gets back to New
York three or four times a year. They
also record under the name Bryan and
the Haggards, covering classic country
songs. Meanwhile, Lundbom keeps
busy with a Southern version of Big
Five Chord, as well as an improvisa-
tional group he calls the Jon Lundbom
Power! Trio! The two exclamation points
suggest that this guitarist aims to blow
some more minds. MIKE SHANLEY
with guitarist Mike Stern and drummer
Steve Smith’s Vital Information ensem-
ble, Andrews also had his own groups,
including the New Standards band in the
late ’90s and an eponymous trio that he
had led since 2000.
John Oddo, a respected musical direc-
tor, arranger, and pianist, passed away
suddenly at his home in White Plains,
N.Y., on April 2. He was 66. Oddo started
his career in the late 1970s arranging
and composing for Woody Herman and
the Thundering Herd, and he later served
as Rosemary Clooney’s musical director
for more than 18 years. Other collabo-
rators included Stan Getz, Patti Austin,
Joe Williams, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles,
Barbara Cook, Toots Thielemans, John
Pizzarelli, and Michael Feinstein.
 THE SCENE x Video: The David Weiss Sextet perform at Mr Musichead Gallery

L to R: Josh Nelson, Anna Butterss, Dan Schnelle,

and Jeff Parker at Mr Musichead Gallery

Art Music, L.A. Style Downs’ curatorial talents.

Just Jazz was launched last year, when
Milgrom, Downs, and music producer
The Just Jazz concert series brings creative improvisers Fred Smith, Jr., of The Late Late Show
to a Hollywood gallery every week BY MICHAEL JORTNER with James Corden, “hatched a plan,” as
Milgrom puts it. They bought a baby
grand piano and some new lights, then
“+ Ì t’s certainly not your straight Beyoncé, Mick Jagger, Nina Simone,
and narrow,” Los Angeles jazz im- Miles Davis, and John Coltrane.
set up tables and chairs to give the gal-
lery the feel of a nightclub.
presario LeRoy Downs says of his Los Angeles is home to a number of Adding to that feel, beer and wine are
emergent weekly concert series, Just Jazz. mainstay jazz venues, available pre-concert
“You’re not going to get standards.” including bluewhale, Sam and fresh eats from chef
Fair enough. You’re also not going to First, and Jazz Café, but JUST THE FACTS Anthony Goosby are
get a standard jazz venue. Instead, Just Downs believes his op- > The Just Jazz series for sale. Ticket prices
Jazz occurs within Mr Musichead Gallery, eration allows for more was established in 2018 range from $20 to $25.
a modest Hollywood art space with shiny musical experimentation, > Mr Musichead Gallery Downs, who is affiliated
blond wood floors and track lighting. addressing a local need. is located at 7420 with KJazz 88.1 FM, also
Established in 1998 and standing across “I want people focusing W. Sunset Blvd., Los broadcasts live interviews
from the Guitar Center on Sunset Bou- and concentrating on Angeles CA 90046 with his guests on site.
levard, Mr Musichead sells photographs creating new music,” he > Upcoming performers Milgrom believes that
and paintings of musicians, famous and says. Audiences, he adds, include Jean-Michel the pictures on the walls
infamous, living and dead. It was the first “need to hear what else is Pilc (May 29), Hitomi contribute in an unquan-
and remains the only L.A. gallery devoted going on.” Oba (June 5), Third Eye tifiable way to the success
solely to musical subjects. “We have a little niche with Nasheet Waits of the performances.
Stars from across the jazz galaxy in the market,” says Sam (June 19), and Grégoire “Musicians feel comfort-
now jam here every Wednesday night, Milgrom, who owns the Maret (June 26) able here,” he says.
thanks to the many connections Downs gallery. For more than > Go to justjazz.tv for He and Downs must
has built throughout his 25-year career. two decades, he was the video and audio from be onto something.
Performers have included such stalwarts owner of a record store in past performances, Just Jazz celebrated its
as reed player Bennie Maupin, bassist his native Detroit called tickets, and more info one-year anniversary
Nathan East, and drummers Marvin Sam’s Jams, where he last month. All Downs
“Smitty” Smith and Steve Ferrone, all hosted live jazz events. wants, he says, is for peo-
of whom have regaled listeners with The late Nancy Wilson once made an ap- ple to attend with an open mind. “And
BOB BARRY

their improvisation in the presence of pearance there, and Dianne Reeves sang generally,” he notes, “it can be pretty
large-format portraits of David Bowie, for him. Now, L.A. benefits from his and fantastic at Mr Musichead Gallery.” JT

JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 13
 CHRONOLOGY x Ethan Iverson’s 2017 Do the Math interview with James Newton

FURTHER LISTENING
> James Newton:
As the Sound of
Many Waters (New
World)—assorted
formal scores for
chamber ensemble,
includes “The King’s
Way”
> James Newton:
Sacred Works (New
World)—includes
“Mass”

Known Rivers by Newton, Davis, and

Wadud was a talking point of the era.
Newton’s debut on Blue Note, The African
Flower: The Music of Duke Ellington and
Billy Strayhorn, won DownBeat’s album of
the year in 1986.
This exposure didn’t last forever. In the
late ’80s, the lights dimmed on experi-
mentalists like Newton as Wynton Mar-
salis spearheaded a popular neoclassical
movement of “Young Lions.”
It was a difficult time. Some decided
that the new swinging bloods represented
a return to sincere values and that the
experimentalists were of interest only
to college students; others claimed that
James Newton’s the avant-gardists embodied the lived
wisdom of the blues and dismissed the

Lonely Path new swingers as conservative drones.

A flamboyant personage of this era was
critic (and recently honored NEA Jazz
In his debut column for JazzTimes, Ethan Iverson exam- Master) Stanley Crouch, originally a
ines the fearless flutist’s influential yet underappreciated friend and supporter of musicians like
legacy BY ETHAN IVERSON Newton and Murray, who then switched
sides to become the biggest champion of
Marsalis. Many younger jazz practitioners
ames Newton is still best-known unique voice on his instrument, Newton now see the music as a continuum that
,Ì for a remarkable series of jazz drew inspiration from the effusive bird can contain anybody who is sincere in
albums recorded in the 1970s and calls of Eric Dolphy; his virtuoso solo their art, but there are those who have
1980s, when the flutist was aligned with recitals, such as Axum and Echo Canyon, never forgiven or forgotten.
fearlessly creative musicians like Arthur are in a luminous category of one. Newton might have become less visible
Blythe, Henry Threadgill, David Murray, The American jazz critics appreciated since those days, but he’s kept growing.
ERON RAUCH

Amina Claudine Myers, Anthony Davis, the work of Newton and his community. It’s a trajectory like no other. I can’t think
and Abdul Wadud. In order to forge a The high-end Gramavision release I’ve of another person who made so many

14 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
 I can’t think of another person who made so many
classic jazz records before investing so
deeply in the process of writing fully classic jazz records before investing so deeply in
notated classical music squarely in the
European tradition.
the process of writing fully notated classical music
Being that kind of composer is squarely in the European tradition.
a lonely process. Newton has done
the work, and his latest recording is
thoroughly satisfying. The Manual of
Light (Orenda) is a survey of New-
ton’s chamber music from the last
decade, along with two lush orchestral
deconstructions of “Amazing Grace”
inspired by Barack Obama.
While the “Grace”s are lovely, hard-
charging abstractions for classical
virtuosi make up the meat of the
album. This is explicitly religious mu-
sic, created alongside Newton’s major
works of the same period: “Mass,”
“Saint Matthew Passion,” and “Psalm
119.” Two obvious references are the
florid effusions of Olivier Messiaen
(someone also important to Eric Dol-
phy) and the sacred work of Mary Lou
Williams. The pianist Yegor Shevtsov
has recorded Pierre Boulez pieces
with élan, so naturally he’s a perfect
choice for three intense, discontinuous
monologues. Solo works performed
by trumpeter Daniel Rosenboom and
harpist Alison Bjorkedal are similarly
illuminating. A stirring work for five
strings, “Elisha’s Gift,” is the album’s
centerpiece.
The overt jazz and black-music
references in The Manual of Light lurk
far beneath the gleaming modernist
surface. Those elements are some-
thing Promethean in the composer’s
subconscious, part of a synthesis that
includes everything from Maurice
Ravel, Hale Smith, and Charlie Parker
to all kinds of world music. Perhaps
only a proficient jazz musician could
conceive of how these melodies flow
next to each other, but the way the
scores look on the page is profoundly
un-jazz, and that’s absolutely the way
it has to be.
One word for Newton’s sound
might be “Afrofuturism,” but the mo-
ment I put that down is the moment I
know it isn’t quite right. His music isn’t
good for a hashtag or a movement. It’s
just for music. All Newton wants you
to do is listen. JT
 BEFORE & AFTER A LISTENING SESSION THAT PUTS ARTISTS' KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST
Dayna Stephens
The saxophonist gives thanks to colleagues, mentors, and heroes BY ASHLEY KAHN
here’s a tune called “Clouds” on Gratitude—saxo-
6 Ì phonist Dayna Stephens’ ninth and latest album,
from 2017—that captures his personality well.
Serene on the surface, it opens with a breathy tenor line
that soon digs deeper, achieving a high level of complexi-
ty with juxtaposed layers of synthesizer as Eric Harland’s
brushes chatter and comment. When the tune dissipates
one is left with a sense of reassurance, like an encourag-
ing hand on one’s shoulder.
Many bandleaders have found the same balance of
sophistication and surprise in Stephens’ sound and put it
to good use, pianists Kenny Barron, Gerald Clayton, and
Taylor Eigsti among them, as well as trumpeter Ambrose
Akinmusire. The New York Times has hailed his “judicious
exuberance,” and the credits on Gratitude are a measure of
the respect he’s earned among his peers; besides Harland, it
features Brad Mehldau, Julian Lage, and Larry Grenadier.
16 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
“Gratitude” is an accurate description of Stephens’ out-
look. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, he’s a prod-
uct of the Berkeley High School jazz program formerly
run by trombonist Charles Hamilton, the same program
that launched Akinmusire and fellow trumpeter Steven
Bernstein, saxophonists Peter Apfelbaum and Craig
Handy, pianists Michael Wolff and Benny Green, and
flutist Elena Pinderhughes. He’s now healthy and active
after years of battling a rare kidney disease (diagnosed
at 18, on the day he started at Berklee College of Music).
Having recently survived a transplant, he maintains a
prudent balance of diet, exercise, and positivity.
Stephens, who teaches at Manhattan School of Music,
is also starting to step out more as a leader. He held down
ALAN NAHIGIAN
a week at the Village Vanguard for the first time this past
February, but is ambivalent about forming a consistent
band of his own: “There are a few guys out there who are
x Profile: Dayna Stephens
able to pull it off—Miguel Zenón, Ambrose—but I haven’t
been able to do that myself. There always seems to be one
cat that can’t make it. In a way, I’ve gotten used to the fact
that every gig can be slightly different and unexpected and
spontaneous. I’ve done a few tours in Europe lately with the
same band and after three days I’m like, you know…” He
shakes his upper body in mock-agitation. “I’m wanting to do
something to change it up!”
This was Stephens’ first Before & After, which took place
in one of the studios of New York University’s Clive Davis
Institute of Recorded Music.
1. Vijay Iyer Sextet
“Good on the Ground” (Far from Over, ECM). Iyer, piano; Graham
Haynes, cornet; Steve Lehman, alto saxophone; Mark Shim, tenor
saxophone; Stephan Crump, bass; Tyshawn Sorey, drums. Record-
ed in 2017.
BEFORE: It’s avant, but with a swing-era vibe—definitely
from the last 10 to 20 years. That’s [Mark] Shim. I really
like his articulation, very unique, and I like his sound. The
timbre of his horn reminds me of Joe Henderson a little.
His precision and articulation always impressed me and his
rhythmic approach also is pretty awesome. I don’t have that
ability personally. I’m definitely a fan of Mark Shim. He’s a
fellow EWI player. Excuse me, he would not like that term
“EWI”—he calls it “wind controller.” He’s got the electric
side happening too.
I like the energy of this piece. I’m trying to figure out the
piano player. It feels like Jason Moran, but I don’t want to say
for sure. I really dig who’s on drums too.
AFTER: I did hear this when it first came out, a year or two
ago. I remember every song on this recording had its unique
vibe, different from the rest of the album. I think I’ve OD’d
on Shim. I’ve played with him a couple times and listened to
so much of him on record, like his first album [Mind Over
Matter] and the Greg Osby album Further Ado. I can’t get
enough of him. Mark should be better known. It’s hard to
know what the formula is—why someone is well known or
not. At least in my musical circles he’s pretty well known.
2. Ben Webster/Gerry Mulligan
“Sunday” (Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster, Verve). Ben Webster,
tenor saxophone; Gerry Mulligan, baritone saxophone; Jimmy Rowles,
piano; Leroy Vinnegar, bass; Mel Lewis, drums. Recorded in 1959.
BEFORE: [Immediately] It’s Gerry. Gerry is one of my absolute
favorite musicians. People are sometimes surprised to hear that
baritone is my favorite out of all the saxophones. I’m trying
to think of the tenor player. I didn’t know what era it was in at
first, but we’re in the late ’50s or early ’60s.
When I first started playing my dad took me to a record
store called Leopold’s right across from UC Berkeley. I remem-
ber going through the aisles, looking at the CD covers and saw
one with a baritone on it and it was Mulligan’s Carnegie Hall
Concert in ’74 with Chet Baker and Ron Carter. That was the
first time I heard a bari, and Gerry’s been one of my favorites
ever since. I love that combination of bari and tenor—there’s
also a Stan Getz and Gerry record I love. But this is Ben Web-
ster. I haven’t heard this in so long, man.
I’m listening to the rhythm section now—they have
such a great feel. The bass reminds me a little bit of Wilbur
[Ware] but it’s not quite loose enough and the piano player
is a really swinging cat.
AFTER: I love Ben’s feel—it’s so slippery [laughs]. I’ve always
loved this warmer, fluffy sound that Ben and Pres had, and
Stan had some of that. That’s the sound I personally gravitate
towards. There’s a cat who has this today, Stephen Riley. I
absolutely love his sound and it comes from that world.
[Still listening] Right now Ben is growling. You don’t hear
many modern players today who play really mellow and can
do the growl thing. James Carter for sure, but it feels different
when it’s coming from a cat with that kind of fluffy sound.
3. Michael Brecker
“Original Rays” (Michael Brecker, Impulse!). Brecker, EWI, tenor
saxophone; Kenny Kirkland, synthesizer; Pat Metheny, electric gui-
tar; Charlie Haden, bass; Jack DeJohnette, drums. Recorded in 1987.
BEFORE: [Immediately] You can go to the next track, man.
This is definitely Michael Brecker on EWI, Nyle Steiner’s
invention, from Michael’s first record. “Original Rays” it is.
This is genius stuff. I could sing this whole thing to you but
I’ll spare both of us that experience. [Laughs, listens] Wooo,
lord! DeJohnette is my favorite living drummer, he has been
since I knew who he was. It’s been a good nine to 10 years
since I heard this. It’s taking me back to all the places I re-
member when hearing this record. I’m in the south of Spain
right now driving from Cadíz to Tarifa, that’s where I am at
the moment.
A lot of people and students ask about the EWI. I always
tell them there will never be anyone who will play it as tech-
nically proficient as this cat did. Brecker had such a distinct
voice and just clearly spent hours on it. [Listens] Wooo! He
put so much music into it. In his time here he brought this
instrument to life, how it’s related to the saxophone but in
its range and textural possibilities it’s a distinct instrument.
As someone who plays it, I appreciate how Brecker displayed
that to all of us.
How do you choose when and where to bring out the EWI
these days?
On the sets I put together, I feel … not cheated, but incom-
plete if I haven’t played both EWI and saxophone. There’s
some gigs where it’s just EWI the whole time and I miss
the sax, and the reverse is true. I try to have EWI on at
least one song. For the EWI, I don’t tend to pick really fast
swing tunes, I don’t feel it lends itself to that situation. I like
it mostly as an atmospheric instrument, on slower, more
expressive tunes. Also, I think it fits better for me in an
JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 17
 BEFORE & AFTER
acoustic setting because it’s already such a unique instru-
ment that sometimes more electric things around it take
away from that.
The technology the EWI uses has evolved quite a bit since
Michael started playing it. Is it prone to technical chal-
lenges in a live situation?
It depends. I could have a very easy setup with one pedal that
adds a little bit of expression and I know it’s always going
to work, but lately I’ve been hooking it up to different iOS
devices like my iPad, or even through my computer. I have
a harmonizer that’s somewhat like the one Brecker’s using
here. Sometimes I get it to work on my computer, and other
times it can be very glitchy. But it’s such a unique thing I still
go for it. My first night at the [Village] Vanguard [in Febru-
ary 2019] I went to play it and literally
nothing came out! It was frustrating, to
say the least. But I look at it like I do the “A lot of people ask
saxophone: Every time you try some-
thing new on the gig, a new mouthpiece about the
or something, it’s really trial and error. always tell them
there will never be
4. Walter Smith III
“Contrafact” (Twio, Whirlwind Recordings).
anyone who
Smith, Joshua Redman, tenor saxophones; play it as technically name came to mind because of the
Christian McBride, bass; Eric Harland,
drums. Recorded in 2017. proficient
BEFORE: [Laughs] This is “Contrafact,”
Brecker] did.”
it’s Walter and Josh. This is on Twio, if
I’m not mistaken. I also recorded this
song on my own album with Walter and me playing bari-
tone. I love the interplay between these guys. Walter’s got a
slightly fluffier sound. These are two guys that I’ve OD’d on
a lot through the years. I remember Walter from when we
first got to Berklee together and now they just announced
he’s Mr. Head of the Woodwind Department—well de-
served. [Listens] Wooo! This is bad stuff.
“Contrafact” is the name but it’s “Like Someone in Love”
with a little twist—one bar at the end is ejected so it’s a
31-bar tune in 5/4, with a crazy-ass melody over it. I love
it but it’s a tough one. A little disclosure: I never really felt
comfortable with the melody, so what I play on my own
record I spontaneously came up with to complement what
Walter was playing.
I have eight saxophone students at MSM right now and
I can see that Walter’s a big influence on a lot of them, and
meanwhile, Josh is still obviously a big influence for my
generation. For me, this tune shows Walter playing with our first guess is Jérôme Sabbagh, but I don’t think it’s him. It’s
hero—one generation with the next.
I first saw Josh in ’91 or ’92, just after he won the Monk
competition. I was 12 and had just started playing saxo-
phone, and a crossing guard at my junior high school saw
me with a saxophone and showed me a newspaper article
about Josh playing at Yoshi’s. I begged my dad to take me.
When I saw him that night, that was when I decided this
18 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
5. Sun Ra
“Possession” (Jazz by Sun Ra, Transition). Art Hoyle, Dave
Young, trumpets; Julian Priester, trombone; James Scales, alto
saxophone; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone; Pat Patrick, baritone
saxophone; Ra, piano; Richard Evans, bass; Robert Barry, drums.
Recorded in 1956.
BEFORE: I would say ’50s, maybe even ’40s by the re-
cording quality. I love the arrangement. Wooo! A couple
chords sounded … I don’t want to say risqué, but they were
unexpected: a couple of strange notes in the top voice. The
way it resolved was really nice. I love the tenor player. The
sound almost reminds me of Fathead [Newman]. I like the
laidback-ness of the articulation and the
sense of dynamics. I’m always listening
for the dynamics, the volume range. I
know this cat.
EWI. I
AFTER: John Gilmore! That’s who I was
going to say. Why didn’t I say that in
the first place—uggh! I’d rather plead
agnostic than guess the wrong person.
will About halfway through that solo his
phrasing, a little bit like Dex’s sound
as [Michael and I know Gilmore was an influ-
ence on Coltrane too. Actually in this
situation, you don’t hear that influence
as much as I do in others. The context
definitely threw me for a loop.
I’ve been going back and listening to some early Sun
Ra recently. I’m a huge fan of Charles Davis’ baritone and
tenor playing and someone played me a Sun Ra track with
two baritones. But man, John Gilmore! He’s another whose
sound is on the fence between warm and brighter, but also
having a bit of edge so that still cuts through.
6. Melissa Aldana
“Obstacles” (Back Home, Word of Mouth Music). Aldana, tenor
saxophone; Pablo Menares, bass; Jochen Rueckert, drums.
Recorded in 2016.
BEFORE: Wooo, wooo! I like the texture of this already. I
love the bass sound. It’s spontaneous for sure. It’s got me
not knowing what’s going to happen next. But I know this
drummer. The saxophone I like—it’s a warm sound. My
very patient, careful, not too aggressive. Very influenced by
Mark Turner. [Listens more]
That’s definitely Melissa. I love Melissa, she’s great.
That’s Jochen on drums. I’m playing a gig with him next
month. And Pablo, I played a gig with him once. He’s a
great bass player.
Melissa’s command of the altissimo register and her
sound is a little bit different here. It’s still warm and fluffy. I
feel like she’s maybe using a different setup here than I’m
used to hearing her. We’ve actually hung out before and
messed around with mouthpieces and stuff. I think she’s
important to the scene today—as a composer and as a
saxophonist.
A lot of us are influenced by Mark Turner but we’ve each
taken our own direction with that. Also, some musicians are
often influential not only because of their playing, but the
whole package: writing, playing, and creating energy—and
for all three of those, Melissa’s on the top of her game. She’s a
fierce player. She can dig in and get hard but she can also
really explore a ballad and show the tender side of the tenor
saxophone. I feel a lot of dudes miss that part sometimes.

7. Charles Hamilton and Beyond

“Love, Always and Forever” (Mr. Hamudah, Global Recording
Artists). Ben Ball, soprano saxophone; Mosheh Milón, alto saxo-
phone; Joshi Marshall, tenor saxophone; Mark Wright, trumpet;
Hamilton, trombone; Mike Aaberg, keyboards; Miles Perkins, bass;
Josh Jones, drums. Recorded in 2010.

BEFORE: A soulful kind of thing, gospel-y, but that changed

right there, it’s a little jazzier. If you were making a set of music
this would be a good going-home tune, the set-ender. Hmmm,
this is a nice change on the bridge. Interesting chord chang-
es. I’m not sure who the trombone player is, but just by the
intonation of some of the chords I would venture to say this is
a school situation. If it’s not, I just offended a whole bunch of
cats! [Laughs] The trombonist really sounds familiar.

AFTER: Oh my goodness gracious. I totally missed that,

man. Charles rarely played for us. I went out to a couple
gigs just to hear him play, and I think he played ’bone with
Joe Henderson Big Band when I saw him once but it was a
one-chorus blues solo in that situation. I never really got a
chance to hear him play a lot but I can hear him now. Wow.
I only went to Berkeley my last year of high school so I could
be a part of that program. Ambrose and Jonathan Finlayson
were freshmen when I was a senior.
I love what Charles picked out for us to play and I love
the freedom that he gave us to create our own thing. That is
much more important than people realize. He gave us free-
dom in our own ensembles to pick what we wanted to play,
write our own tunes, and really do our thing versus trying
to reach a particular standard. All that while still putting us
in competitions where we got our asses spanked sometimes,
and letting us realize [in stern teacher voice] you still gotta
practice when you get outta here! Getting an A in all the
categories of technical proficiency is one thing, but finding a
way to relate your music to your own story is really what the
end game is. Charles’ big focus was on you being you. Now
when I’m teaching at MSM, I’m trying to instill that in my
own students. For that I can never thank him enough. JT

xRead the complete Dayna Stephens listening session at

jazztimes.com.
 OVERDUE OVATION
Marty Ehrlich
The master reedman reflects on a fruitful career and
uncertain future BY MICHAEL J. WEST
cheduled to play a concert in
5 ÌBoston, Marty Ehrlich finds
himself facing more immediate
concerns. “I’m supposed to play with
the Makanda Project, which does the
music of Makanda Ken McIntyre,” says
the 64-year-old saxophonist, bass clar-
inetist, flutist, and composer, speaking
in early March from his Beantown
lodgings. “I’m the guest artist tonight—
if it happens. We’re in the middle of a
huge snowstorm.”
Snow is one of the more minor
obstacles that Ehrlich has seen lately.
Like most musicians, he’s had to
adjust to changes in the recording
industry, forcing him to rethink both
his compositional approach and his
20 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
x Album Review: Marty Ehrlich Large Ensemble’s A Trumpet in the Morning
revenue streams. (Ehrlich’s most recent
CD, Trio Exaltation, came out in May
2018.) He’s also not alone in feeling the
current trends in academia: dwin-
dling enrollment, decreased funding,
strained faculty.
Ehrlich’s case, though, is more public
than most. He’s a professor of jazz
and contemporary music at Hamp-
shire College, a liberal arts school in
Amherst, Mass., that’s been embroiled
in a high-profile financial crisis. In Feb-
ruary, Hampshire’s trustees announced
that there will be no incoming fresh-
man class in the fall. Other austerity
measures seem inevitable.
“I was in three emergency meetings
last week,” Ehrlich says. “It’s a very
open question what Hampshire will
look like next year. At this point in
time, no faculty or staff position there is
a given. I will look at my options as they
come along.”
The good news is that Ehrlich still
has a fruitful performing career. The
avant-gardist sustains several musical
projects, including Trio Exaltation
(with bassist John Hébert and drum-
mer Nasheet Waits) as well as a perfor-
mance of solo sax improvisations over
prerecorded percussion. He recently
worked at Hampshire with a quartet
featuring flutist Nicole Mitchell, cellist
Tomeka Reid, and bassoonist Sara
Schoenbeck, and performed at the
Smithsonian National Gallery of Art in
a quintet that shared the bill with the
avant supergroup Trio 3.
“I’m always trying things,” he says.
“Looking to what directions I can go
in.” That’s of a piece with his prolific
four-decade career in jazz. Born May
31, 1955 in St. Paul, Minn., Ehrlich
moved to Louisville when he was a year
old. At 10, three years after he’d taken
up the clarinet at a summer music
camp, the family relocated again to St.
Louis so his father, a social worker (like
his mother), could complete a doctoral
program at Washington University.
In high school, Ehrlich turned to
the alto sax. Contrary to some reports,
he never was formally affiliated with
St. Louis’ Black Artists Group (BAG),
though at 18 he did record with some
of its members in drummer Charles
“Bobo” Shaw’s Human Arts Ensemble.
After that, he matriculated at Boston’s
New England Conservatory.
This was where Ehrlich found his
great teachers: Gunther Schuller, Ran
Blake, George Russell, Jaki Byard. He
also encountered the city’s jazz scene,
during the last gasp of greats like Sonny
Rollins and Dizzy Gillespie playing in
small clubs. “I got so much information
that I can’t absorb it all in this lifetime,”
he says. “It was an amazing thing being
in Boston then, 1973 to 1977. That
school, that faculty, that city … it was a
very exciting time.”
ERIKA KAPIN PHOTOGRAPHY
A few months after graduating, his
saxophonist friend Tim Berne invited
Ehrlich to share his Manhattan loft
space. Moving there in January 1978,
Ehrlich soon got a gig with Chico
Hamilton—“one of the few times in my
career that I auditioned.” Not long after,
he dropped by a rehearsal of Anthony
Braxton’s Creative Orchestra to visit
some friends in the ensemble; he left with
a membership of his own, scrambling for
a passport so he could join them three
days later on a European tour.
Work piled up fast. Leroy Jenkins
called, followed by Muhal Richard
Abrams; then Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada
Leo Smith, Julius Hemphill, and Oliver
Lake, all of whom became mentors; and
George Russell, with whom he played
30 nights at the Village Vanguard in
1979 (and never again since). “Over the
next several years I think I played in
every new jazz big band in New York
City,” Ehrlich says. “The focus really was
on expanding things compositionally.
Everybody was trying to write. I have
been involved in many, many hundreds
of world premieres of new music.
“A lot of my own work started in that
context, but then I would take it into
small groups,” he adds. “Jerome Harris
[a bassist/guitarist who was also Eh-
rlich’s longtime roommate] and I started
a quartet; I did my first trio record
[1984’s The Welcome] with Pheeroan
akLaff and Anthony Cox.” The followup,
1987’s Pliant Plaint, featured a quartet
with tenor saxophonist Stan Strickland,
a friend from NEC. It began a collabora-
tion that lasted a decade.
The two-horn, non-chordal concep-
tion was one of two streams that Eh-
rlich’s music straddled—he calls it “the
Traveller’s Tale context,” named for a
As the millennium dawned, Ehrlich
changed course. He finally assembled
his own large ensemble for 2002’s The
Long View, reuniting it about 10 years
later for A Trumpet in the Morning. As
he’d seen earlier in his career, large
ensembles were an ideal vehicle for
composition, something that’s become
more difficult for him with recent
changes in the music industry.
“I might
over-believe in
interaction.”
“Part of my heartbreak over the
end of the long-playing album is that
the shape of the recording is how I
composed,” he laments. “I begin to
think of it as a longer arc and it helps
me. Although I’ve had a few things that
were more like hit singles; I have a tune
called ‘Hear You Say,’ which I thought
might make me millions. And you
know what? It may still. Maybe Jay-Z
will do his thing on it someday.”
Between the two big-band projects,
he renewed his interest in chordal
instruments, especially the piano,
forming groups with pianists Craig
Taborn and James Weidman and
recording duo albums with Mike Nock
Jamey Aebersold’s
and Myra Melford. He also became
intrigued with the cello, working with
Erik Friedlander and Hank Roberts.
But it’s telling that the chordless trio
format, with reed, bass, and drums (as
on Trio Exaltation), has remained a
touchstone all through his career.
“There are a couple reasons for
that,” he says. “One is artistic: I might
over-believe in interaction. It’s always
been exciting the way that this music
unfolds in front of the audience; they’re
drawn in and we’re drawn in. The trio
context is great for this. And then
there’s the practical side: For every
instrument you add, you have greatly
increased the difficulty of touring.”
It’s good to hear that the practical
side of things can yield inspiration,
when it can also just as often throw
up roadblocks. The reshaping of the
record industry bedevils Ehrlich
not just in terms of composition but
financially; at one time nearly half his
income came from sessions, which is
no longer feasible. And the drama at
Hampshire College, he acknowledges,
has been consuming. “This is a very
hard time,” he says.
Still, new ideas and experiments
flow; opportunities present themselves.
It keeps him going. “I am excited,”
Ehrlich says. “It’s not an easy time for
this, but I stay quite enthused. And I
continue to have a good time.” JT

Jazz
1989 quartet record with Strickland. The
other is “the Dark Woods context,” for
SUMMER
2019
his flute-, clarinet-, and bass clarinet-led
ensembles of the 1990s. He also contin-
ued working as a sideman for friends
like Braxton, Hemphill, and Andrew UNIV. OF LOUISVILLE
LOUISVILLE, KY
Hill, with whom Ehrlich played on the
pianist’s acclaimed sextet album Dusk. WORKSHOPS
Another regular collaborator is bass-
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texts (and uses Ehrlich in his current
septet). “Marty is a real multi-instru-
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x Profile: Chris Potter in 2013

Mas-
ter
of
Para-
dox
DAVE STAPLETON

Twenty-one albums
into his career,
CHRIS POTTER has
evolved from a
child prodigy
into a legend-
to-be hiding in
plain sight
By Natalie Weiner
“I t’s like asking, ‘Do you ever
get tired of living?’ You do,
but it’s always temporary.”
Chris Potter is laughing as he tries
to explain how, 30 years after he
arrived in New York as one of jazz
music’s most heralded prodigies, he’s
still motivated to write, record, and
perform. For the acclaimed saxophon-
ist, now 48, the reason is so fundamen-
tal that it almost sounds hyperbolic
and a little dark—to say that playing is
like breathing might seem like a line
consciously designed to project seri-
ousness, and Potter recognizes that as
he says it. But for him, it’s also true.
“Music has always been a vehicle for
me to investigate the things that are
important about life. It’s been a way of
figuring out what it is I need to say,” he
says. “Plus, I keep learning new things
about it.”
As much as music is intrinsic to
Potter’s existence, there’s still some
dissonance between his work as a player
and bandleader and his presentation
in person. He’s soft-spoken and utterly
unpretentious—nothing about the way
he looks or talks suggests that he’s one
of the most successful jazz musicians of
his generation. Sitting in a Park Slope
coffee shop not far from where he lives
with his wife and 10-year-old daughter,
Potter answers questions with such
clarity and focus that there seem to be inevitable. At age 12, he won the Inter-
few he hasn’t already pondered on his national Association for Jazz Education
own time. His presence is warm and Young Talent Award for Saxophone.
steady, without a trace of the kind of At 13, he started playing professionally
affect that so often (mis)defines jazz in around Columbia. By high school, he
the public eye. was earning praise from legends such
“It’s all about his sincerity, his as Marian McPartland, and played
diligence, and his work ethic—even regularly with the University of South
though he wouldn’t proclaim that he Carolina big band. Potter was named
has one,” says drummer Eric Harland, America’s top high school jazz instru-
who has known Potter since 1998 and mentalist by DownBeat, and received a
played with him on his 21st album as scholarship to study at the New School.
a bandleader, Circuits, released earlier But Potter’s talent quickly transcend-
this year by Edition Records. Those ed academia. “A lot of what I remember
characteristics connect his personality about music school is ... spending as
and his playing; the difference is that little time and energy on it as possible
while his playing is just as genuine so that I could hang out in New York,”
as his person, it’s also virtuosically he says, laughing. “I don’t know if
diverse. Potter drew attention early that’s good to put in or not—students
for his dexterity and athleticism, and are going to say, ‘You know, Chris
he’s as prone to a brash squawk as he said it wasn’t important to show up to
is to a florid melodic line. He’s had his class.’” After meeting trumpet player
share of brushes with the pop-crossover Red Rodney while still in high school,
world, and has performed with a slew he joined the veteran’s band when he
of jazz legends that have lent his oeuvre arrived in New York and became his
stylistic breadth.
But the common thread is that
practically molecular devotion to the
music and also to total, fearless honesty.
It hasn’t always been glamorous, but
protégé. A not-atypical night might
include performing in front of people
like Dizzy Gillespie and James Moody
at the Village Vanguard, as Potter did
with Rodney when he was 20.
that’s not really a concern for Potter, At the same time as he was refining
who has quietly built a rock-solid dis- his straight-ahead skills, Potter was
cography and reputation through that also getting exposed to some of jazz’s
most un-jazz-like trait: consistency and more experimental branches. “There
repetition. There’s nothing buzzy or hip were large holes in my knowledge that
about his work, just the re- I didn’t really
fusal to stop asking himself “My favorite fill until I got to
how to best play something New York—a lot
true. In his own words, question that I of stuff on the
“It’s hard for me to imagine freer side,” he
being finished.” ever got asked explains. “No
one I knew in
Heir to in a master South Carolina
Tradition was really into
“I don’t remember ever FODVVZDV¶:KDW that.”
deciding to be a musician,” But even
Potter says of his youth in do you plan on that education
Columbia, S.C., where he was shaped by
began playing saxophone doing after you masters. When
at age 10. “There was never Potter was
a moment where I was like, JHWRYHUUDWHG"·µ 19, he heard
this is what I’m going to do from Rodney’s
with my life. But by the time I gradu- manager that Ornette Coleman—with
ated high school, what else was I going whom he was barely familiar beyond
to do? It was the obvious path.” his name—wanted to meet him.
In typically self-effacing fashion, “He wanted to play, but I didn’t
Potter skims over some of the reasons have my horn,” Potter says, shaking
why that path—which for most people his head. “I don’t know what I was
appears untenably daunting—looked so thinking! So instead we sat and talked
JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 23
 for three hours—mainly him talking
and me scratching my head thinking,
‘Is this guy nuts?’ The main thing I
remember is how much he thought of
the saxophone as a voice. That definite-
ly stuck with me. As a matter of fact,
that’s kind of one reason that [Circuits]
is the first record where I’ve even used
some electronic effects on the horn.
But it took a long time for me to be
comfortable with that idea.”
Potter’s education connects him
to an earlier era of jazz in two ways.
First, he forged close relationships with
people like Rodney, who played with
Charlie Parker. Second, despite his
enrollment at the New School and later
at Manhattan School of Music, his most
memorable lessons happened in jazz
clubs and not in the classroom.
“At that time, jazz was further away
from being this academic music,” he
says. “There was the crowd that was at
Bradley’s, for example—just regular
folks who grew up listening to Dexter
Gordon and other down-the-middle
jazz. It was something that not just
musicians listened to.”
$7UDQVFULEHU·V
Hero
Paradoxically, there might not be
any place today where Potter is more
renowned than in conservatories. The
saxophonist’s own official bio quotes a
DownBeat assertion that he’s “one of the
most studied (and copied) saxophonists
on the planet”—his combination of tech-
nical skill, deep reverence for jazz histo-
ry, and approachable experimentation
created the perfect storm for a plethora
of detail-mad solo transcribers.
One example that’s become some-
thing of a contemporary jazz fixture
is a 12-minute solo version of “All the
Things You Are” that Potter performed
during a master class at Youngstown
University in 2003. (Those interested
can find a transcription courtesy of the
site sokillingman.com.) His rendi-
tion of the standard is both haunting
and mind-bending, a showcase of his
singular ability to channel virtuosity
with unequivocal purpose. The bootleg
recording includes the oohs and aahs of
his amazed students, as well as occa-
sional laughter—one can imagine the
audience shaking their heads in disbelief
at the sounds coming out of his horn.
24 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
This take on “All the Things” has
gained remarkable reach via decided-
ly new-school modes: Two YouTube
bootlegs have nearly 200,000 views The Circuits crew (L to R): Eric Harland,
combined, and a saxophonist named Potter, and James Francies
Eli Bennett got 56,000 views with a
note-for-note recreation of the solo
intended to market his own transcrip-
tion, available for purchase in an eb-
ook called Chris Potter Plays Acapella
Solo Standards.
Potter is, naturally, bashful about
the cult-favorite recording. “I don’t
know if that’s the best use of their time,
but they didn’t ask me,” he says of the
detailed transcription, laughing. “It
can get weird. ‘Most studied’ is a bit
much to wrap your head around when
as an artist, you’re thinking, ‘Don’t take
this as etched in stone, because it’s the
sound of me working it out.’”
Jazz’s epidemic of hero worship aside,
Potter embraces what he calls a respon-
sibility to pass the music on to the next
generation. “When I think back on my
move to New York and the older musi-
cians I looked up to then, I’m sure they
had that same feeling—like, ‘Man, I’m
just trying to get through the day and
play as well as I can,’” he says. “Then you
start to realize, okay, I’m in the position
of these other people who I remember
looking up to. The things they said and
did were very important in helping me
find my way, and you’re part of that
continuum. You want to be able to do
that for other people because you want
the whole thing to keep on going.”
Unsurprisingly, his favored lesson
lines up with his stated ethos: Every-
thing that happens on stage should
evoke or provoke something off it, and
all the technique and advanced melodic
and harmonic understanding in the
world is just a means to an end.
“I’ll get into the details a little bit, but
really what I want to say is, ‘Look, really
see if you can phrase like Billie Holiday
and Lester Young, really,’” Potter says.
“The whole point of learning notes is to
put intention behind them. That goes
with the whole music-as-a-vehicle idea.
DAVE STAPLETON
In and of itself, it’s some vibrating air.
It’s when it reaches that intentional level
that the human response thing kicks in,
and you feel stuff because of it. That’s
what’s interesting, and that’s why you’re
studying it. I think everyone knows that
or they wouldn’t put the time and energy
JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 25

into learning music in the first place—
but it can get lost in the thicket.”
Shifting
Perceptions
Potter’s ability to stay connected to
that idea is one of the things that sets
him apart—and one of the things that’s
possibly lowered the ceiling of his
acclaim. He rarely approaches projects
through the lens of a highbrow concept
or marquee collaboration. An early gig
with Steely Dan offered a massive stage
but wasn’t enticing in the long term,
and a 2017 viral guest appearance with
Snarky Puppy (which has, naturally,
been transcribed by reverent fans)
was truly a one-off. For a player who’s
collaborated with a wide variety of
remarkable musicians, including Dave
Holland, Pat Metheny, Paul Motian,
Renee Rosnes, and Joanne Brackeen,
Potter has been decidedly unstrategic
in how he capitalized on his various
26 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
A-list cosigns.
“Potter hasn’t produced a popular
hip-hop album or played with Flying
Lotus or anything,” Harland says. “I
really cut for Potter because he earned
that shit the hard way. It’s easy to be
like, ‘I’m out here playing my ass off
and nobody’s paying attention.’ You
just get dark, like, fuck it. Thankfully,
he doesn’t really care about all that
stuff. He was just like, ‘I’m gonna play
no matter what.’ He kept playing and
never got bitter.”
One could argue that the way his
early, prodigious success mellowed into
a steady, reliable flow of remarkable
work has been, at least on some levels,
a backfire. Potter is so even-keeled as a
person, and so consistent as a player, that
once he was no longer young enough
to be deemed a phenom, his allure
became harder to capture in a headline
or soundbite. The same students taught
to revere him in conservatory classes
eventually found—as so often happens
after institutional endorsement—that his
work felt clichéd.
“My favorite question that I ever
got asked in a master class was, ‘What
do you plan on doing after you get
overrated?’” Potter says, smiling at the
memory. “Like, that’s a brilliant ques-
tion. It’s just a landmine, no matter how
you approach it.”
In typically reflective fashion,
Potter explains that he isn’t put off
by criticism—or by the idea that he
has or hasn’t lived up to the promise
that drew so much attention all those
years ago when he was a talented up-
and-comer with an easily marketed
narrative. “So much of this stuff falls
under the heading of things you can’t
control. You just wake up in the morn-
ing and try to do the best you can that
day, and that was the only answer I
could give that question.
“I appreciated that he [the student]
didn’t think I was overrated yet, but the
implication was clearly that it was going
to happen, and when it did, what was
I going to do about it? My gut feeling,”
Potter concludes, “is that we should all
have such problems.”
The Big Picture
His process has remained constant:
near-daily practice, regular writing
when he’s inspired. The compositions
for Circuits, he says, came together in
a couple of weeks. “It does get difficult
to have a routine,” Potter says. “I have
a daughter, we have a house, there’s life
stuff that you have to do which is, again,
important. It’s not like, ‘Oh man, I can’t
practice’—it’s like, ‘Oh man, let me use
this too.’”
Starting a family, he says, has been
transformative. “It affects everything
about who you are and how you think
of yourself and what you spend your
days doing,” Potter explains. His
daughter isn’t interested in music, but
has given him a begrudging fluency in
pop radio. “I remember before I had a
child, it almost always seemed to me
that musicians played a little better
after having a kid—even though they
were always complaining that there
was no time to practice. There is some-
BILL DOUTHART
thing liberating about not being the
center of your own universe anymore.
I also leave for long periods of time on
the road, so I still have a lot of time to
myself, for better or worse. I can get
into navel-gazing, thinking too much
about that. But there’s no way to go
back to how it was before. I can’t even
put myself back there.”
His approach to balancing family
and work tracks with Potter’s overall
philosophy, that his music and his life
are one amorphous, inseparable entity.
“You realize at a certain point,” he says,
“that if you don’t back off and go, ‘Okay,
I’m a person who plays music, hope-
fully it’s there for life, but it’s not the
only thing I’m about’—you realize that
the music suffers if you don’t approach
it that way, if you don’t just deal with
being a person first.”
For Potter, part of that realization
came after a bout of Meniere’s disease in
his mid-twenties left him mostly deaf in
his left ear. “Like anything else,” he ex-
plained on a recent episode of WBGO’s
The Checkout, “it’s a weakness that you
can turn into a strength.” He then cheer-
fully cited his ability to stand just to the
right of a drumset with no ill effects.
That same optimistic understatement
characterizes Potter’s relationship with
his own legacy. Having made countless
records and played countless shows, he’s
much more comfortable discussing the
next project than the many that are in
his rear-view mirror. “You put all this
time into planning a record, and then in
the editing process you just pick it apart
and see every little thing you don’t like
about what you did—and then you never
listen to it again,” he says.
Sometimes, the longevity of his own
work surprises him, though. During
a recent visit to his hometown, Potter
heard his 2001 album Gratitude in a
store. “I was like, ‘Okay, that actually
sounds pretty good,’” he says. “Now I’ve
spent long enough away from it that I
could kind of hear it as music.”
In the context of that legacy, Circuits,
with its electronic effects and inclusion
of upstart pianist James Francies—an
artist much closer to his own heralded
arrival on the New York scene—is one
more gradual evolution, not an about-
face. “The fact is I think of everything
I’m doing as ‘groove’ music—even if it’s
out of time, it’s all about the groove,” he
says. “If I can’t connect to that, in the
bigger sense, I can’t play anything. I just
don’t hear anything.”
Change No Change Talking to Potter, one has the sense
Like most of Potter’s work, Circuits is that he’s completely mastered how to
impressive, beautiful, and remarkably live smack-dab in the middle of several
trend-agnostic. It’s not as though the tricky paradoxes—and not just live
saxophonist needed to restate his own there, but actually love it. Finding
musical vitality, but the album does balance and perspective when your
that too. Same process: write tunes, job is creative and totally consuming;
meet great musicians on the road or staying engaged by stepping back;
on stage, record, tour, repeat. For Pot- searching for something new within
ter, it seems, it’s always the same and the same model that’s always worked;
never the same. embracing ambigui-
“When you’re play- “I think of ty with total self-as-
ing, you’re getting in surance. “When
touch with a certain everything you’re a musician,
way of looking at reality that’s not the time
that’s different every ,·PGRLQJDV for any doubt,” he
day,” he says. “It’s never insists. “I just have
found in the same place ¶JURRYH·PXVLF³ to try to express who
twice, for whatever I am, whoever that
reason. Even playing HYHQLILW·V is—and my back-
with the same people ground, and where
in the same room twice out of time, I come from, and
doesn’t feel the same. the things I grew
One night, it’s like LW·VDOODERXW up believing and
everything is happen- not believing. That’s
ing, this feels great. And WKHJURRYHµ when the good stuff
then the next night, comes out. If you’re
it’s like nothing is landing. You can’t being careful, then you’re actually
make a basket to save your life. not going to be able to give as much.
“It’s about living and trying to get in Sensitive, yes, but afraid, no.
touch with what’s true about your situa- “All the things that go into playing
tion, whether you like it or not—and if I music beautifully are the same kind
think of my heroes, Herbie and Wayne of skills that you need to live, I think,”
or whoever, they’ve been living much he concludes. “Since I don’t have that
longer than I have, and they clearly together yet, there’s still a lot of things
don’t feel finished.” to be played.” JT
 x Q&A: Branford Marsalis in 2012

Branford
Marsalis’
Secret
The acclaimed tenor saxophonist
discusses the key to maintaining
his long-running quartet, his
hometown, his father, and why
he doesn’t consider Kamasi
Washington a jazz player

By David Fricke
Photography by Eric Ryan Anderson
 “ The guys who say,
‘You can’t play the
blues unless you’ve
lived them’—what
the fuck does that
even mean? I gotta
have my teeth
punched out before I
can play the blues?
“I
’m ready when you are.”
Branford Marsalis does not
waste time. In the handful of
minutes since we shook hands in the
lobby of his New York hotel, the saxo-
phonist has marched into the adjacent
restaurant, picked a window table, and
ordered coffee and a pastry. He’s still
looking at his cellphone, scrolling for
last-minute messages, when he fires the
starting gun for this interview.
What follows is like a flash flood, a
90-minute torrent of strident judgments,
firm challenges, and illustrative anec-
dotes, delivered with informed passion
in often colorful language. Questions
are asked; some don’t make it to a full
sentence before Marsalis fires back. “It
was never really popular,” he declares,
cutting short a suggestion that jazz was
a mainstream entertainment in its first
decades. “Swing was popular.”
Later, Marsalis corrects an assump-
tion about his own emotional commit-
ment to jazz. “I play it, I don’t live it,” he
explains. “The music is a reflection of my
life. But the guys who say, ‘You can’t play
the blues unless you’ve lived them’—
what the fuck does that even mean? I
”
gotta have my teeth punched out before I
can play the blues? Of course not.”
If pianist Ellis Marsalis is the local
pillar/patriarch of New Orleans’ most
famous jazz clan, and the second of his
four musician sons, trumpeter Wynton,
is the polymath and public educator, the
eldest, Branford, now 58, is the enforc-
er—a street-savvy dynamo with fiercely
held ideals forged from wide-ranging
experience and exploration.
Marsalis, who lives in Durham, N.C.,
is in New York on this snowy winter
day for a club date with his acclaimed
Branford Marsalis Quartet. Founded in
1986, the quartet—currently featuring
two players (pianist Joey Calderazzo
and bassist Eric Revis) who’ve played
with Marsalis for more than 20 years
and one (drummer Justin Faulkner)
who joined a decade ago—is launching
The Secret Between the Shadow and the
Soul, its first album since 2016’s Upward
Spiral, a collaboration with vocalist
Kurt Elling. Recorded over three days
in May 2017, while the band was in
Australia, the new record showcases the
quartet’s twofold might as composers
(Revis’ convulsive opener “Dance of
the Evil Toys”; Calderazzo’s delicate
conviction in “Cianna”) and a jubilant
performing collective, particularly in
the closing version of Keith Jarrett’s
“The Windup.”
At one point, Marsalis reveals that
he wanted to cover that song’s parent
album—1974’s Belonging by Jarrett’s
Scandinavian quartet—“but play it with
our sensibility. Then we did the thing
with Kurt. It blew that out of the water.”
The saxophonist also pays tribute to
trumpeter Roy Hargrove, who died in
November (“The people with that kind
of talent usually play pop because that’s
where the money is”), and compares
his ’90s trials as a bandleader on The
Tonight Show with Jon Batiste’s success
on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert:
“You have to have a certain mentality to
do it. Jon gets what it is.”
Marsalis prefers his ongoing path
with the quartet. “We make records, we
tour a lot—this is what it is,” he says.
There is a pause, then a grin. “Don’t
choose some shit that’s unpopular, then
be pissed off that it’s not popular.”
JT: You’ve made two albums with
the quartet over the last decade.
How do you define a working
group at this point?
BRANFORD MARSALIS: I don’t
think of it as a working group. It’s a
band. Jazz has been so fucked for so
long that having a band is a novelty,
which spawns hilarious questions:
“You’ve had the same band for 20 years.
Don’t you ever want to change it up?”
JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 29

And I say, “You mean like the Rolling
Stones? They can stay together but we
can’t?” We did the thing with Kurt, but
the band was intact.
And I change it up more than any-
body—in classical music, popular mu-
sic, jazz. But my history in music has
been formed around bands, whether
it’s the Who, Led Zeppelin, and Earth,
Wind & Fire or Ornette Coleman’s
and Miles Davis’ bands. I have always
gravitated toward bands.
Do you decide when to tour or
record? Clarence Clemons, Bruce
Springsteen’s saxophonist, once
told me that he knew it was time
for the road when he got a phone
call: “Big Man, it’s Boss time.”
It’s a different context. We don’t take
two years off. We do it perpetually. We
will not sell enough records or make
enough money on tours to not tour. So
we go all over the place, all corners of
the world. And when nobody’s buying
records, which will be soon, we keep
touring. With non-popular music,
that’s the reality. We’re all entertain-
ers. When jazz musicians understand
that, they might change their outlook
on things.
30 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
Jazz was certainly dance music in
the beginning, in New Orleans.
I can’t dance worth shit. But I can
tap my foot, shake my booty in my
seat. Charlie Parker understood that.
Coleman Hawkins understood that.
The next generation, right after Parker,
ceased to be enamored with whether
a song was good or bad. They fell in
love with structure. Parker’s music
bounced. The next guys fell in love
with complication. Everybody wanted
to play the break in “Night in Tunisia”
as fast as possible.
The trick is to write hard shit but
make it sound simple. When regular
people listen to Stravinsky, they don’t
think Petrushka is hard—they don’t have
to play it. In jazz, we’ve gone the other
way: “Y’all gotta be smart to deal with
what we’re doing.” That’s not a winning
formula. You have to accept that people
hear music with their eyes first. That’s
why the operative verb is “see” when you
go to a concert, not “hear.”
How would you define the en-
tertainment at your quartet’s
concerts?
All of the guys are incredibly charis-
matic. When people come backstage,
L to R: Marsalis, Justin Faulkner,
Eric Revis, and Joey Calderazzo
they don’t say, “Oh, man, what was the
structure on that tune?” They say, “It’s
great to watch guys who enjoy each oth-
er, who look at each other when they’re
playing.” And we always play a song
from the ’30s or like that, which has a
melody everybody knows.
We played a gig at a jazz festival in
Washington, D.C. last week. There
were a lot of older people. We played
our stuff, and they’re just staring at us.
Then we played “On the Sunny Side of
the Street.” A man comes up later: “You
played the hell out of that song. Why
don’t you play more of that and less of
the crazy shit?” [Laughs] But we gave
him one song he could identify with.
So he likes what we do, instead of being
confused by it.
How did you decide what to
record for the new album? The
band is named after you but most
of the original pieces are by Joey
and Eric.
I’m more the way Miles operated. He
never told you what to do. He told
you what not to do. That leaves a lot of
leeway. We talk about the songs—and
we argue. On my piece, “Life Filtering
from the Water Flowers,” I didn’t want
Joey to play solo piano: “Just do it the
way I set it.” But we played it and the
more I heard it, the more I thought, “He
might be right.”
I am the leader, but I’m not the one
with all the good ideas. It’s a dialogue
among all the guys. Each song has a
unique color. We didn’t have a song like
[Andrew Hill’s] “Snake Hip Waltz.”
Revis brought it in, and I’m like, “We
can use a happy song.” Joey’s “Cianna”
is more like a cute love song.
I was struck by his “Conversation
Among the Ruins.”
Joey writes melancholy music with
beautiful, long melodies. He was going
through some personal turmoil when
he wrote that song, and it captures that.
I don’t read a lot of poetry, but when
I’m starting records, I read stuff to
find apt titles. And I thought that was
a good one [from the 1956 sonnet by
Sylvia Plath].
How did Eric’s “Dance of the Evil
Toys” first hit you?
Nuts. Eric’s own group is an avant-gar-
de band. We’re way inside compared
to that. So he’s in both worlds. But in
the second break, the last note in Eric’s
ostinato bass line is also the first note
of the melody. So rather than have him
play that note, then have me play it,
I decided I would play the note as he
ends, so the ending and beginning start
in the same place.
Did you lead your first quartet
[with pianist Kenny Kirkland,
bassist Robert Hurst and drummer
Jeff “Tain” Watts] the same way?
Yeah. We were funny as shit on stage.
And we were serious. Tain calls me one
day and says, “Hey, man, you gotta get
down to Bradley’s [the fabled Green-
wich Village club, which closed in
1996].” It was a band with Walter Davis
Jr. on piano, Ben Riley on drums, and I
think [Ahmed] Abdul-Malik on bass—
as close as we were ever gonna get to
how bebop really sounded.
It was amazing to see how they
looked at each other as they played,
how much they talked to each other.
Walter would play something, and
Ben would say, “Oh, so it’s gonna be
like that!” I was like, “We need to start
doing this, let our personalities come
out.” It wasn’t like we were shy, reticent
actors who had to learn how to be axe
murderers. We were already like that:
“Let’s go kill people.”
Was that something instilled in you
as you grew up in New Orleans?
It is a very charismatic city. There’s a lot
of competition. But it isn’t insecurity.
We take on all comers. It’s not “We
gotta keep them away, they might take
our gig.” When I got to New York, I saw
the jam sessions—guys inviting people
on stage and calling songs in keys they
“
People say jazz
isn’t popular but
should be. My dad’s
philosophy is, ‘Jazz
isn’t popular. Let’s
play jazz.’
”
know people don’t know. It’s like the
ultimate inside joke. Somebody did it
to me—I walked off the stage. He said,
“Go home and practice.” I said, “Why
would I spend weeks of my life learning
to play a song in a stupid key so I can
trick somebody up on a bandstand?”
Life’s too short.
How do you now see your father’s
impact on jazz—as a player and
teacher, creating a family aesthet-
ic? He never sought the limelight
beyond New Orleans.
He regrets not moving to New York.
But if he had moved to New York, none
of us would exist. People say jazz isn’t
popular but should be. My dad’s phi-
losophy is, “Jazz isn’t popular. Let’s play
jazz.” When Wynton and I were playing
in R&B bands, doing cover tunes, we
were making way more money than he
was. Wynton was like, “Doesn’t that
bother you?” “No, I chose this.” That
was the end of it.
I moved to New York with that atti-
tude. I went off and played with Sting [in
the ’80s], a great guy and fantastic song-
writer. But there was this assumption:
I’ll be going back to this other music I
was doing. Sting understood that.
What did you learn from your
time with Sting about supporting
a singer?
I learned that in New Orleans. There’s
a scene in that Charlie Parker movie
[Clint Eastwood’s 1988 film Bird]
where he’s playing all this shit and the
woman singer turns around and curses
him out. I went through that scene
[smiles]. My dad burst out laughing
when I told him: “The singer is the
most important person on the stage.
And if you don’t understand that,
don’t play with singers.”
What did you carry over from
your experience with Sting to
your collaboration with Kurt
Elling?
There is no concrete way to say, “These
are the five things I learned with Sting.”
When I was playing with Sting, I wasn’t
reflecting on what we played. It was
happening, and we were trying to get
better at what was happening.
The funny thing with Kurt is that
he has this absolutely gorgeous voice,
but he’d rather be a saxophone player.
On tour, we would come out and play
a song, and the audience would just
stare at us. We’d announce Kurt, and
they’d get this shit-eating grin on their
faces. He would sing, move to the side,
and people would keep looking at him,
so happy to see a singer. And he’s like,
“These guys are soloing, and I’m just
standing here.”
But it wasn’t singer-with-backing
band. It was more like the Branford
Marsalis Quintet. He was completely
integrated with the band, and we had a
good time out there.
JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 31
 Your two albums in the ’90s
with the band Buckshot LeFon-
que—mixing jazz, pop, and DJ
culture—got a mixed reception.
What’s your take on artists like
Robert Glasper and Kamasi
Washington, who are now work-
ing at the crossroads of jazz and
hip-hop?
Robert Glasper has a limited jazz vocab-
ulary, and that’s not anything he would
say is not true. I think it’s in his best
interest to do that. Kamasi’s not a jazz
player either. He’s a sax player. But his
vocabulary is not jazz. It’s some jazz.
This is not something I want to go
to war with. But I can listen to a Lester
Young record, a Dexter Gordon or
Wayne Shorter record, and ask, “Do
you hear that lineage in his playing?” If
you don’t, what makes it jazz? Improv?
We’re back to that illusion again. The
success that Kamasi has had—it’s awe-
some. But the people defending him as
a jazz player are not jazz players. They
have their own idea of what jazz is, and
they are entitled to that. But so am I.
You reunited with some of the
surviving members—the offshoot
Dead and Company—at the Lockn’
Festival last year. What was it like
going back to that music—and
with another guitarist, John May-
er, in Jerry Garcia’s spot?
It’s a different band now. John doesn’t
have the same sonic vocabulary that
Jerry had. Jerry came from bluegrass
and folk, a little jazz. John’s thing is
more Delta blues, and he goes to that
lane. It doesn’t have the same feeling as
when Jerry was there. But there’s this
other thing, and it’s cool.
What’s next for you, with or out-
side the quartet? Are there other
concepts you want to pursue?
We’re gonna play. We just hit, and
an idea will develop or it won’t. And
we’ll keep playing until it does. I’m not
part of the concept crowd, this idea
that musicians have to come up with
a new concept on every record. When
Einstein came up with the theory of
relativity, he didn’t come back two
years later and say, “I need some new
shit.” It took him forever to get to that
one. And it was a discovery, not an
invention, because the data was pre-ex-
isting. He stared at the same forest as
the other physicists, but the trees made
sense only to him.
That’s a great metaphor for music.
You hear all these sounds, and then
you hear the things that other guys
don’t hear. So many players are about
knowing things, not hearing them. My
marker is listening to great musicians
and saying, “Am I in that camp? Am I
learning everything they left out here?”
That’s the only thing that matters when
you decide to do this. JT

One interesting thing about

Kamasi’s rise is the way he has
connected on the jam-band and
rock-festival circuit. But you first
did that in 1990 when you played
with the Grateful Dead at Nassau
Coliseum in New York.
That was different. I was playing in
their band. Buckshot played with [the
jam band] String Cheese Incident for
a while. We could have been in that.
But at no time would I have accepted
the notion that this was jazz. We had
influences from jazz, from rock. It was
a hybrid thing.

But you fit into the Dead’s aes-

thetic so well they invited you to
join them at later gigs.
The first time, some of the guys were
like, “Oh, no, another jazz guy.” Because
they had David Murray and Ornette
come in, and they just did their David
Murray and Ornette thing on the tunes.
But I never bought into the genius thing.
The modern definition of genius is not
about adaptability—it’s about a singular
idea that you thrust and bogart on every
situation. If I’m going to play with the
Grateful Dead, I’m going to play with
them, not on top of them.

32 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
 Freedom to perform,
from sopranino to bass saxophone.

legere.com/freedom
Bright
Moments:
Gary Bartz

Elder statesman or forerunner of the newest wave? Revisiting some of his greatest
recordings—as the sax legend himself does here—proves that he’s both.
By Evan Haga
Photography by Alan Nahigian
Bartz at Cooper Union,
New York, October 1984
ne of jazz culture’s many
O graces is that a musi-
cian’s value—his or her
relevance, to use a deeply flawed
term—has little to do with age. A
brilliant example of this is Gary
Bartz, who seems to have hit
upon yet another apex. At 78, the
Baltimore-born, Oakland-based
saxophonist, composer, and edu-
cator is in a rare position to be all
things to all jazz people.
To start, he’s one of the most
reliable living narrators of the
music’s history, an intermedi-
ary between the bop and fusion
generations with oodles of mem-
oir-worthy firsthand accounts. A
nice haul of those tales appears
below (and is expanded further
on JazzTimes.com), but this
interview yielded much more: a
recollection of the time Bartz’s
hero Jackie McLean taught him
to never leave his horn with a
tough-love prank; the memory
of meeting Bud Powell, after a
Brooklyn club owner thought
the genius pianist was a vagabond,
and playing with him; anecdotes from
Ornette Coleman’s historic Five Spot
stand; and reflections on Sun Ra’s
sprawling two-night Omniversal Sym-
phonic on Manhattan’s Lower East Side
in 1984. To name but a few.
Lately, as artists like Kamasi Wash-
ington and an ascendant London scene
have made jazz’s longstanding relation-
ships to R&B, social justice, Afrocentric
spirituality, cosmology, and DJ culture
seem new, Bartz’s status as a crucial
forebear has become clearer. His per-
formances at this year’s NYC Winter
Jazzfest—especially a 50th-anniversary
celebration of his LP Another Earth at
Le Poisson Rouge, featuring Pharoah
Sanders—felt like showcase gigs by a
breakout star. And for good reason.
Bartz’s playing continues to deliver a
distinctive meld of the many lodestars
he’s spent a lifetime studying, among
them Bird, Trane, Ornette, Wayne
Shorter, and Jackie Mac.
At New York’s Blue Note in March,
Bartz joined Charles Tolliver, Vijay
Iyer, Buster Williams, and Lenny
White to mark the half-century
anniversary of Tolliver’s Paper Man.
Again and again, regally dressed and
gripping his alto in a power stance
near the edge of the stage, he offered
perfectly charted lines that surged in
fervor until the applause and smart-
phone cameras rose to meet them. A
couple of days later, he sat down in the
breakfast nook of a Greenwich Village
hotel to take the Bright Moments chal-
lenge, using various recordings from
throughout his career to summon up
stories and invaluable wisdom.
x Before & After: Gary Bartz
Art Blakey and the Jazz
Messengers
Soul Finger (Limelight, 1965)
Blakey, drums; Bartz, alto
saxophone (originally uncredit-
ed); Lucky Thompson, soprano
saxophone (on “Spot Session”);
Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan,
trumpets; John Hicks, piano;
Victor Sproles, bass
That was my first record-
ing. My dad had a nightclub
in Baltimore called the North
End Lounge. I worked there
for years, learned how to be a
bandleader. I was commuting
from New York down to Balti-
more on the weekend. [Messengers] Lee
Morgan and John Hicks, who was one
of my best friends, they had been trying
to get me in the band. [The Messengers]
were at my dad’s club. My dad found out
that John Gilmore was leaving, so he
called me in New York. He said, “Why
don’t you come down and sit in with the
band? I hear his horn player is leaving.”
I did that, and Bu [Blakey’s nickname]
liked me, so I ended up joining the band
there.
We did all the touring and went out
west. Coming back from California, it
was 1965 and we left three days before
the Watts riots. I felt the tension in
L.A. I didn’t like L.A. at that time. I
later fell in love with L.A. and actually
moved there.
So we get back to New York and Lee
disappeared. Couldn’t find Lee for the
JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 35
 With early employer McCoy Tyner (L) and Gerald Cannon (R)
at the Blue Note, New York, September 2016
record date because we didn’t know we
had a record date until we got back. We
get to the record date, and Bu hadn’t
heard from Lee so he called Freddie.
But Lee showed up! That’s why the two
trumpets are on that album. But what an
auspicious first record. To have two of
the greatest trumpeters, Lee Morgan and
Freddie Hubbard—are you kidding me?
That’s my big memory of that particular
record. And Art Blakey tried to take one
of my songs—that was another memory.
“Freedom Monday.” I got it back. I knew
nothing about publishing. Freddie was
trying to tell me I got to sign a “notice of
use” and all that. But by the time I found
all that out, the recording was out and
Art Blakey’s name was on my song.
[On the fact that his name was left off
the original credits, although it appeared
in the liner notes and DownBeat’s re-
view] My first album! Are you kidding?
I was more than upset—I was morti-
fied. But I got over it [laughs].
Max Roach
Members, Don’t Git
Weary (Atlantic,
1968)
Roach, drums; Bartz,
alto saxophone;
Charles Tolliver, trumpet; Stanley Cowell,
piano; Jymie Merritt, bass; Andy Bey, vocals
(title track)
I had met Max in Baltimore when I
was about 14. My dad took me down to
36 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
the Club Casino in Baltimore, and I sat
in. I think that’s when I met Clifford
Jordan, who ended up being one of my
best friends. I sat in and they called the
fastest thing they could, “Cherokee.”
I’m a Charlie Parker nut, so that’s what
started me off.
I knew “Cherokee,” even though I
didn’t know anything about harmony
and theory. I wasn’t playing wrong notes;
I was playing the right notes, I just didn’t
know why. Which is why I ended up
moving to New York to go to Juilliard—
to find out what this harmony was about.
Max was very gracious. I guess he liked
what he heard, and he said to look him
up when I moved to New York. I started
going by his house, and we would play
chess and talk and listen to music. I
moved to New York in ’58 and in ’64
he asked me to join the band. My first
airplane flight was with Max.
[Members, Don’t Git Weary] turned
out to be a good, lasting record. I knew
Andy from Andy & the Bey Sisters.
We would see each other around, and
I used to hang in Newark, New Jersey
[where Bey was born and raised] with
my friend Grachan Moncur.
Gary Bartz
Another Earth (Mile-
stone, 1969)
Bartz, alto saxophone;
Charles Tolliver, trum-
pet; Pharoah Sanders,
tenor saxophone; Stanley Cowell, piano;
Reggie Workman, bass; Freddie Waits,
drums
That was my second record [as a lead-
er]. I’d been reading about Beethoven,
and Beethoven would write a piece that
was a light piece, like the Pastoral Sym-
phony, then he would follow that with
a heavy piece, and go back and forth.
I liked that concept. I had done Libra,
and that was more of a light record. So I
said, okay, now let me do a heavy piece.
I had gotten into astronomy through
studying astrology. I was drawing charts
for myself and other people, and I real-
ized that a chart is just a photograph of
the sky at a particular moment. That got
me into astronomy, because now I want-
ed to see it. So I got my telescope and I
got into it, and that inspired the Another
Earth music, which is still going because
I’ve added some new things. What was
missing from the Le Poisson Rouge
[performance were] films and footage
of space that I wanted to have going.
Hopefully when we do it elsewhere, we’ll
get that going.
Pharoah and I had met in the early
’60s, when he first came to town. I had
already been here, and so we started
hanging out together and practicing.
Actually, Pharoah taught me how to
do circular breathing. We used to go to
a park and practice, and try to play as
loud as we could. We’d go out there to
try to open up our sounds.
 McCoy Tyner
Expansions (Blue
Note, 1969)
Tyner, piano; Bartz, alto
saxophone, wooden
flute; Woody Shaw,
trumpet; Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone,
clarinet; Ron Carter, cello; Herbie Lewis,
bass; Freddie Waits, drums
Wayne was my hero. One night,
Lee Morgan said, “Come on, Gary, I
want you to hear this tenor saxophone
player. I got this gig in Newark.” And
we went over and I had my horn; I
was going to go play with him. That’s
the night I met Wayne Shorter, and it
changed everything about my outlook.
I was trying to hide my horn after
hearing Wayne [laughs]. I’ve been
following him ever since. I think he’s
America’s great composer. He’s in
the same vein as a Duke Ellington or
a Charles Mingus … or Beethoven.
He’s our Beethoven. I learned so much
working with McCoy. When I met
McCoy he was working with Benny
Golson and
Art Farmer’s
Jazztet. I had
known him for
a while, before
he went to John
[Coltrane]. So
when he asked
me to join the
band I was very
happy. Now I’m
in the role of
the Trane.
[McCoy]
and John Hicks
were the first to
pianists I knew
of who knew
how to play
with soloists
when they were
playing free,
not necessarily following the harmonic
structure. Because McCoy had done
that with Trane. They figured out a way
through Trane studying with Ornette.
I loved John Coltrane so much. The
alto saxophonists I like play like tenor
players, and the tenor players I like
play like altos, which would be John
Coltrane. He started out on alto, and he
always to me played like an alto player.
Miles Davis
The Cellar Door
Sessions 1970
(Columbia/Legacy,
2005)
Davis, trumpet;
Bartz, alto and soprano saxophones; John
McLaughlin, electric guitar; Keith Jarrett,
electric piano, electric organ; Michael
Henderson, electric bass; Airto Moreira,
percussion; Jack DeJohnette, drums
When Miles called me, I was
disappointed because I knew he was
playing that electric music from
Bitches Brew, and I knew all the music
from his bands before that. I knew
all those songs, and that’s the band I
wanted to be in—the quintets, espe-
cially the first quintet with Trane. But
I said, I can’t turn Miles Davis down,
that’s the gig everybody aspires to, so
I’ll give it a few weeks. We had one
rehearsal and I began to see what he
was doing. And really, in essence, he
wasn’t doing anything different than
he had been doing. He had already
The Warriors in 2012 (L to R): Greg Bandy,
Barney McAll, James King, and Bartz
gone modal with Kind of Blue, but
now he had changed the rhythms.
Everything around him changed, but
he didn’t change.
I didn’t have to do anything but
play the way I always play. I felt very
free. [But] Keith [Jarrett] and I always
had a problem. I didn’t like the way
Keith comped behind me. I didn’t
think he was listening to me, and
above all we have to listen. I could
go out and play without listening to
everybody and just play what I want
to play, but that’s not a band. The
greatest thing about Miles is that
he knew how to listen. Because he
listened from the inside. Hearing is
like a fingerprint; everybody hears
differently. We have to find out how
we hear. That’s our job, to find out
what it is that only we can hear—and
for that we have to go inside ourselves.
Miles was always inside of himself.
Whatever he heard on the outside, he
could then bring that into what only
he could hear and meld it with that.
So with Keith—and I love Keith—he
just wasn’t listening because he was so
excited and he’d do his stuff. And it
bothered me, because I’m trying to go
where I want to go, but he’s trying to
take me where he wants me to go—and
it’s my solo. So I would complain to
Miles about that.
[On the various reactions to Miles’
electric music] I remember the
Modern Jazz
Quartet came
in one night at
Paul’s Mall in
Boston. Milt
Jackson, Percy
Heath, and I
think Connie
Kay may have
been there.
Percy, he didn’t
like it: What
the hell are you
doing? But Milt
Jackson said to
me, “You ain’t
doing nothin’
but playin’ the
blues.” I said,
“Yeah, that’s
what we’re
doing.” It ain’t
no different; it’s just the rhythms
are different. What we’re doing is no
different from what Bach did, Beetho-
ven, Mozart. They just didn’t have a
rhythm section, so they could only do
theme and variations by themselves.
We figured out a way to do theme and
variations with a group of people, and
changed the whole pathway of music.
JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 37
 With George Cables at the Roy Hargrove
Musical Celebration, Jazz at Lincoln Center,
January 2019
Woody Shaw
Blackstone Legacy
(Contemporary,
1971)
Shaw, trumpet; Bartz,
alto and soprano sax-
ophones; Bennie Maupin, tenor saxophone,
bass clarinet; George Cables, piano, electric
piano; Ron Carter, Clint Houston, electric
bass; Lenny White, drums
At that time, Woody, George Cables
and I were like three peas in a pod.
We’d see each other every day. We
would hang out, work on music, go
eat and talk. So that’s how that record
came about. When he got a record
date, of course we’re with each other
every day creating music anyway. So
he brought these songs and [two tracks
of] George’s writing—he’s a great, great
composer himself.
[On the album’s themes of black
freedom] We all were [thinking about
social-justice issues] in the ’60s. I
mean, they killed the president; they
killed our leaders. Our leaders were
assassinated in the ’60s, and we act like
it was just a footnote in history. But
that was traumatic. I was going to stop
playing music because I didn’t think
the world needed another musician. I
38 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
thought, we got more problems than
what a musician can solve, even though
as I got to know Max and Mingus and
different people, I saw that you can
address social ills through music. That’s
the only thing that kept me out of the
Black Panthers.
Gary Bartz NTU
Troop
Harlem Bush Music
– Uhuru (Milestone,
1971)
Bartz, alto and
soprano saxophones, piano and vocals on
“Blue”; Juni Booth, bass (on “Vietcong”);
Ron Carter, bass, electric bass; Nat Bettis,
percussion; Harold White, drums; Andy
Bey, vocals
[The NTU Troop recordings were
a] result of me listening to “Fables of
Faubus” and We Insist! Max Roach’s
Freedom Now Suite and all of that.
That’s when I came up with the concept
of the NTU Troop.
[My friends and fellow musicians
and I] used to go to the Shabazz
restaurant near the mosque uptown
off 116th Street just to see Malcolm X
come in. We knew what time he came
into the restaurant, and then we’d
follow him. He’d walk through the
streets of Harlem, talking to the
prostitutes and pimps, drug addicts
and drug dealers. He would talk to
everybody and say, “Brother, that’s
not the way to go.”
There are two people I’ve been
around who had a Christ-like ef-
fect, or a Buddha effect; you just felt
their aura of peace and goodness.
Malcolm was one of them, and
John Coltrane was the other. [Ed.
note: Harlem Bush Music is dedi-
cated to the memories of both men.]
Everybody respected Malcolm
X—everybody. They knew Brother
Malcolm. He was ready to die for
this. And he did.
It was a very important time. Gil
Scott-Heron, we used to do gigs op-
posite each other, and then there were
a lot of Black Student Unions during
that time, all over the country. They
had budgets for the music … and they
would say [to the college and univer-
sity administrations], “Well, you’re
bringing these other groups, these
rock groups and country groups.
What about us?” So that’s why they
started bringing in Gil Scott, the Last
Poets, NTU, Max Roach.
 Gary Bartz
Music Is My Sanctu-
ary (Capitol, 1977)
Bartz, alto and
soprano saxophones,
piano, electric piano,
synthesizer, vocals; Ray Brown, Eddie Hen-
derson, trumpet; Juewett Bostick, John
Rowin, David T. Walker, Wah Wah Watson,
guitar; George Cables, piano; Welton Gite,
Curtis Robinson Jr., bass; James Gadson,
Howard King, Nate Neblett, drums; Bill
Summers, Mtume, percussion; Sigidi,
Syreeta Wright, vocals; with Larry and
Fonce Mizell, producers
I had been doing the Donald Byrd
records, Stepping Into Tomorrow and
Caricatures, and so that’s how I met
the Mizells and how [1975’s] The Shad-
ow Do! album came about. I ended up
signing with Capitol [prior to Music
Is My Sanctuary], so now we had a
big budget. I could get my strings; I
always wanted to do an album with
strings. Wade Marcus did the strings.
We got Wah Wah Watson, James
Gadson … great musicians. I really
enjoyed doing that.
I did a lot of writing for those [re-
cords with the Mizells]. Because I’m
like Ornette Coleman. Ornette said
he thinks of himself as a composer, as
do I. I’m not an improviser. I resent
when somebody says I’m improvising,
because improvising means you’re just
making stuff up. The only time I’m
improvising is when I make a mistake,
because I didn’t plan on doing it. I
just call it composing, because I was a
composition major at Juilliard, and I
understand what composition is. You’ve
got to have a great entrance, a great
ending, good thematic material in the
middle. You’ve got to think about that;
you don’t just start playing.
Norman Connors
You Are My Starship
(Buddah, 1976)
Extensive personnel
including Norman
Connors, drums,
producer and arrangements; Bartz, Carter
Jefferson, saxophones; Michael Henderson,
bass, vocals; Phyllis Hyman, vocals; Onaje
Allan Gumbs, electric piano, synthesizer;
Keith Loving, Lee Ritenour, guitar; Anthony
Jackson, Larry McRae, bass; Don Alias, Neil
Clarke, percussion
[Norman] wouldn’t do a record
without me [laughs]. He felt I was a
good luck charm. I met him one Sun-
day afternoon, I think it was the Aqua
Lounge [in Philadelphia] with Max
Roach. We used to do these matinees.
This little 14-year-old kid came in, and
Max let him sit in because he had met
Max. That’s when I first met Norman.
So we were friends from the time he
was a young teenager.
He said, “I got this record date.”
He had discovered this great vocalist
Phyllis Hyman. My goodness. I got
Michael on the gig. I had moved out to
Los Angeles. I was out there from ’74 to
’79. He flew me in [to New York] from
California and Michael from Detroit.
I met Phyllis on that record, Starship.
I knew that was going to be a good
record, and that record also taught me
something. We were rehearsing and
we were ready to record when New
York got hit by this huge blizzard. The
studio was closed because the engi-
neers couldn’t get into town. So we
rehearsed and worked on that music for
an extra week—and that record came
out great. Ever since then, I make sure
I’m prepared when I go into the studio.
Each time I go into the studio I learn
something, even today.
Gary Bartz
The Red and Orange
Poems (Atlantic,
1994)
Bartz, alto saxophone;
Eddie Henderson,
trumpet, flugelhorn;
John Clark, French horn; Mulgrew Miller,
piano; Dave Holland, bass; Steve Kroon,
percussion; Greg Bandy, drums
There was a record of Curtis Fuller’s
called Sliding Easy, and I love this re-
cord. Curtis is my favorite trombonist.
The personnel was Curtis Fuller, Hank
Mobley, Lee Morgan, Tommy Flanagan,
Paul Chambers and Elvin Jones, and
Benny Golson [and Gigi Gryce] had
done the arrangements. I wanted to do
a record like that.
I called Curtis, but he couldn’t do it
for some reason, and I couldn’t think
of another trombonist that would give
me what I wanted. I thought, well,
the French horn gives me that kind of
sound, so I thought of John Clark, a
great, great musician. I called Benny
to do the arrangements. He said,
“Gary, you’re a great arranger—you do
it!” I still don’t think I can arrange as
good as Benny Golson, but I did the
best I could.
Tony Williams was supposed to
be on that record, but at the end we
couldn’t finalize a deal. So that’s how I
got with Greg, and Greg worked with
me for years after that.
Gary Bartz
Coltrane Rules (Tao
of a Music Warrior)
(OYO, 2012)
Bartz, alto and soprani-
no saxophones, bass
clarinet; Barney McAll, piano; James King,
bass; Greg Bandy, drums
I’ve been studying Trane all my life,
it seems. That was a working band, so
we’d been working on the material on
the road. Most everything we did was
one take. And one album was not long
enough to give my whole take on how
I’ve felt about John and his music, so
that’s why it ended up being a double
album. The second volume will be com-
ing out this year.
I didn’t want to do a recording where
I just played his songs. I wanted to
show how he influenced me and other
musicians. For instance, I did a song
called “Birdtrane.” Trane had writ-
ten “26-2,” which is based on Charlie
Parker’s “Confirmation.” I took part
of “26-2” and part of “Confirmation,”
and combined the Bird and the Trane.
I was doing things like that to show the
continuum of the music.
Now I’m working on [preparing for
my] Charlie Parker/Ornette Cole-
man recording. Ornette understood
Charlie Parker like nobody else I know
of. Because he didn’t try to play like
him. He just took his concepts and
his approach, because he could hear it
from the inside. When you can hear
from the inside, you will only sound
like yourself and bring your ideas.
Every picture you ever see of Ornette
Coleman and every picture you ever
see of Charlie Parker, they both stand
the same way. They’re both standing
straight, because their breathing is
correct. You can only do that kind of
articulation when you really know how
to breathe. And they both did. Ornette
really got Bird. JT
JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 39
x Album Review: Seamus Blake’s Superconductor

40 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
 Between
Many
Worlds
SEAMUS BLAKE
likes to range far
and wide—both
geographically
and stylistically
speaking
By J.D. Considine
I
n 2002, the Thelonious Monk
International Jazz Competition
focused on saxophonists. There
were 15 musicians, and the bar was set
high enough that a player as polished
and original as Marcus Strickland only
placed third. The winner was 31-year-
old Seamus Blake, a British-born, Van-
couver-reared New Yorker who, at that
point, was little known outside of a few
select scenes. But as Ben Ratliff, writing
for the New York Times, put it, Blake’s
win was no contest. By the end, Ratliff
wrote, “most at the competition, judges
and spectators alike, agreed that he had
more of everything: melody, harmony,
time, coherence, originality.”
“I honestly didn’t think I would win,”
Blake says now. “I entered because I
wanted to meet Wayne [Shorter] and
Herbie [Hancock], two of my biggest
idols.” He not only got to meet them,
but he played with them at the compe-
tition’s finale. Even so, Blake is modest
about his achievement, shrugging it off
as having been more about hard work
and preparation than inborn ability. “I
treated the competition like an import-
ant gig,” he recalls. “I like having gigs
to practice for.”
That work ethic, combined with the
solidity of his sound and the remark-
able consistency of his performance
across almost 90 albums as a sideman
or leader, has made Blake, now 48, one
of the most admired saxophonists of his
generation.
Admiration and reputation goes only
so far, though, and Blake is the first to
admit that winning the Monk compe-
tition in 2002 wasn’t quite the golden
ticket it had been a decade earlier. “I
don’t think the experience changed
my career in the way it did for Joshua
[Redman],” he says. When Redman
won, in 1991, he landed a major label
record deal with Warner Bros., while
second-place winner Eric Alexander
was picked up by Delmark and Criss
Cross and third-placer Chris Potter (see
pg. 22) also signed with Criss Cross.
“When I won, the record labels were
already dismantling,” says Blake. On
the other hand, by the time he won the
Monk competition, Blake already had
three albums as a leader under his belt,
including two for Criss Cross. The Call,
his debut, found the 22-year-old front-
ing a band that included guitarist Kurt
Rosenwinkel, pianist Kevin Hayes, and
bassist Larry Grenadier; Four Track
Mind, his second album, found him
sparring confidently with tenor great
Mark Turner.
Maybe, then, the reason the Monk
prize didn’t have a huge impact on
Blake’s career was that he’d hit his stride
artistically well before he’d entered the
contest. But it’s also worth wondering
whether the marketing machinery of a
major label would have been a good fit
for Blake in the first place.
Record companies often see artists
as product that can be boiled down to
a simple idea and sold with a catch-
phrase. Jazz musicians in general
aren’t easily pigeonholed, but Blake is
a particularly challenging case because
he seems almost constitutionally in-
capable of doing just one thing. At the
same time that he was establishing his
straight-ahead bona fides as a sideman
working with the likes of Victor Lewis,
Billy Drummond, and the Mingus Big
Band, he was also a member of the
Bloomdaddies, an electric quintet that
found Blake feeding his horn through a
wah-wah pedal.
To Blake, it’s all part of the same
music—jazz—though a marketing
executive might beg to differ.
“There does seem
to be a strange
prejudice against
electric music
… I think it will
change. The new
crop of musicians
are embracing
electricity more
and more.”
“The electric guitar is not jazz, then?
A synth? It’s a ridiculous notion,” he
says. “There does seem to be a strange
prejudice against electric music. I’ve
noticed that critics seem to ignore
Wayne Shorter’s amazing electric
records. I think it will change. The
new crop of musicians are embracing
electricity more and more.”
Blake makes this point while
touring behind what is perhaps the
JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 41
 The French Connection (L to R): Florent Nisse,
Tony Tixier, Blake, and Gautier Garrigue
most un-amplified album of his career,
the strictly acoustic Guardians of the
Heart Machine (Whirlwind), featuring
his relatively new quartet, the French
Connection. The album is a stylistic
departure from Blake’s previous record,
Superconductor, on which Blake played
an electronic wind instrument, or EWI,
alongside guitarist John Scofield, bassist
Matthew Garrison, and drummer Nate
Smith. “Probably with the next [album]
I will go back to electric,” Blake says ca-
sually. “I seem to enjoy going between
the two worlds.”
It’s tempting to wonder
if part of the ease with which Blake
moves between worlds stems from his
own transatlantic background. Born
in London of Irish parentage, he grew
up in Vancouver, B.C., and then moved
to Boston to study at Berklee. “I feel
Canadian from growing up there and
American from living there so long,”
he says. “I also feel a connection to Eu-
rope, being born in London and having
an Irish father.”
Since February of last year, Blake has
lived in Paris. “I finally got an Irish EU
passport,” he explains. “An EU passport
enables me to live and work in Europe
indefinitely. I’ve always loved the diver-
42 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
sity of culture in Europe—life is vibrant
and refined. When the project with the
French Connection began, I started to
think it might be fun to live in Paris.”
The concept for that group, however,
actually originated in London. “The
idea was pitched to me by Olivier Saez,
who saw me playing with Antonio Sán-
chez in Ronnie Scott’s,” says Blake. “He
wanted to organize a tour with some
French musicians.”
Saez, the director of French invest-
ment firm IÉNA Capital, is a former
saxophonist himself, and an active
and devoted jazz fan. “He is passionate
about jazz and has donated his energy
in helping me,” Blake says. “During the
process of putting the new recording
together, he formed a company with
two other friends, Fred Crouzier and
Glenn Francis, who also love jazz. They
are known as FOG Music. Fred, Olivier,
and Glenn have been helping a great
deal with the organization and imple-
mentation of the record release tour.”
As for the musicians Saez was
touting, Blake was already familiar
with one of them, pianist Tony Tixier,
having played with him in New York.
Bassist Florent Nisse and drummer
Gautier Garrigue were new to him.
Blake had already been writing, so he
got together with the Connection to
work up the new material. “Some of the
music had to be played a bit to find the
right approach,” he says. “Sometimes
I guided them, and sometimes they
suggested things.”
Saez organized a tour of France
and Spain for the quartet, and things
worked out so well that Blake imme-
diately took the band into the studio.
Blake seems hesitant to describe their
playing as particularly French, suggest-
ing instead that “nowadays, more than
ever, we have a global jazz community.”
At most, he adds, “they are aware of Eu-
ropean players that perhaps Americans
are less aware of.”
Still, Blake saw the album as an
opportunity “to bridge what I consider
elements of European and American
styles, writing music I like to play, but
also with a European sensibility, in-
cluding classical harmony and certain
types of groove.”
Blake started out in classical
music, having studied violin from ages
seven to 14, and lists Bach, Beetho-
ven, Brahms, Mozart, Debussy, Ravel,
Stravinsky, and Bartók among his
compositional inspirations. Although
the classical influence on Guardians of
 the Heart Machine isn’t as immediately
obvious as on Superconductor, which
boasted a string section arranged by
Guillermo Klein, Blake makes con-
sistent use of strategies derived from
classical harmony.
Take, for example, the tune “Vaporb-
abe,” which plays off of the circle of
fifths to create a tension that has Blake,
in his solo, perpetually chasing har-
monic resolution. “I wrote ‘Vaporbabe’
“I have a lot of
whys that I ask
myself about the
music business.”
with a desire to have a bit of a classical
sound,” he says. “It’s all about melody
and bass twisting with each other.”
Then there’s “Lanota” (“atonal”
spelled backwards). Blake’s melody
seems to establish a central key for the
piece, then sneaks in and out of it, as
do his and Tixier’s solos. The playing
is lively and engaging, thanks in large
part to the way Garrigue’s supple
polyrhythms work against the ground-
ing pulse of Nisse’s bass. “Gautier
HARDY KLINK
plays great,” Blake says. “I hear some
of the younger New York sound in his
playing—some Bill Stewart, but also
the tradition of Tony [Williams], Elvin
[Jones], and Philly Joe [Jones], amongst
others.”
“Lanota” also shows off the extent to
which Blake has polished his use of the
altissimo register; though the melody
climbs into the stratosphere at points,
his tenor tone remains clear and sweet.
“It’s part of the evolution of saxo-
phone technique,” he says. “Eddie Har-
ris was maybe the first example. Check
out ‘The Shadow of Your Smile’ [from
Harris’ 1966 album The In Sound]. He’s
playing in the fourth octave in a sweet
way, the way many of us do now.”
When I wonder why Harris doesn’t
seem to get the credit he deserves, Blake
nods. “I have a lot of whys that I ask
myself about the music business,” he
says. “There are quite a few musicians
that know and appreciate him. I used to
play a song of John Scofield’s called ‘Do
Like Eddie,’ so some folks know.”
“Betty in Rio,” from Guardians, is
also a tribute to a sax great, being a
contrafact to Benny Golson’s classic
“Along Came Betty.”
“I love Benny Golson,” Blake says. “I
had the pleasure of riding in a bus in
Siberia with him once.”
A bus in Siberia?
“I was on a tour with the David
Kikoski Quartet in Russia. There were
several bands being bussed together.
It was a long trip. I loved talking with
him. He is a beautiful guy. So kind. His
music is a big part of the jazz repertoire,
and I’ve played many of his tunes since
I was a student. We all should talk
about him more.”
As for the album’s title, a record
company press release suggested that
it’s derived from Fritz Lang’s 1927
science-fiction classic Metropolis. But
Blake explains that the story goes deep-
er than that.
“For me, the title symbolizes the
importance of creating music with
feeling,” he says. “The title track also
took on added meaning a few months
ago, when my father underwent qua-
druple heart bypass surgery. The song
became an anthem to protect him and
to keep him strong, and [on tour] I was
sometimes dedicating the song to my
father, in the hope that he would have
a successful operation. And he did; he’s
recovering well. So protecting the heart
of music, playing with heart, playing
with feeling—those are all intercon-
nected for me.” JT
JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 43
 North America
2019 Club Guide

Arizona The Tap Room (415) 795-1375 Dazzle

1401 S. Oak Knoll Ave., www.localeditionsf.com 1512 Curtis St.
PHOENIX Pasadena (303) 839-5100
The Nash (626) 568-3900 Mr. Tipples Recording www.dazzledenver.com
110 E. Roosevelt St. www.langhamtaproom.com Studio
(602) 795-0464 39 Fell St., San Francisco El Chapultepec
www.thenash.org The Varnish (415) 384-9365 1962 Market St.
118 E. 6th St. www.mrtipplessf.com (303) 295-9126
TUCSON (213) 265-7089 www.thepeclodo.com
Elliott’s on Congress www.213hospitality.com/ Pier 23 Café
135 E. Congress St. the-varnish/ Pier 23 The Embarcadero, Nocturne
(520) 622-5500 San Francisco 1330 27th St.
www.elliottsoncongress.com Upstairs at Vitello’s (415) 362-5125 (303) 295-3333
Supper Club www.pier23cafe.com www.nocturnejazz.com
Pastiche 4349 Tujunga Ave., North
3025 N. Campbell Ave., Hollywood Revolution Café Connecticut
Suite 121 (818) 769-0905 3248 22nd St., San Francisco
(520) 325-3333 www.vitellosrestaurant.com/ (415) 642-0474 OLD LYME
www.pasticheme.com supperclub www.revolutioncafesf.com The Side Door Jazz Club
85 Lyme St.
California Vibrato Grill Jazz SFJAZZ (860) 434-2600
2930 Beverly Glen Circle 201 Franklin St., www.thesidedoorjazz.com
HALF MOON BAY (310) 474-9400 San Francisco
Bach Dancing & www.vibratogrilljazz.com (866) 920-5299 District of Columbia
Dynamite Society www.sfjazz.org
311 Mirada Road SAN FRANCISCO/ WASHINGTON
(650) 726-4143 OAKLAND The Royal Cuckoo Blues Alley
www.bachddsoc.org Bix 3202 Mission St., 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW
56 Gold St., San Francisco San Francisco (202) 337-4141
LOS ANGELES (415) 433-6300 (415) 550-8667 www.bluesalley.com
bluewhale www.bixrestaurant.com www.royalcuckoo.com
123 Astronaut Ellison S. Marvin
Onizuka St. #301 Black Cat Yoshi’s 2007 14th St. NW
(213) 620-0908 400 Eddy St., San Francisco 510 Embarcadero West, (202) 797-7171
www.bluewhalemusic.com (415) 358-1999 Oakland www.marvindc.com
www.blackcatsf.com (510) 238-9200
Catalina Bar & Grill www.yoshis.com MilkBoy ArtHouse
6725 Sunset Blvd. Boom Boom Room 7416 Baltimore Ave., College
(323) 466-2210 1601 Fillmore St., Zingari Ristorante Park, MD
www.catalinajazzclub.com San Francisco 501 Post St., San Francisco (240) 623-1423
(415) 673-8000 (415) 885-8850 www.milkboyarthouse.com
Sam First www.boomboomroom.com www.zingari.com
6171 W. Century Blvd., Mr. Henry’s
Suite 180 Club Deluxe SAN JOSE 601 Pennsylvania Ave. SE
(424) 800-2006 1511 Haight St., Café Stritch (202) 546-8412
www.samfirstbar.com San Francisco 374 S. 1st St. www.mrhenrysdc.com
(415) 552-1555 (408) 280-6161
The Baked Potato www.clubdeluxe.co www.cafestritch.com Rhizome DC
3787 Cahuenga Blvd., 6950 Maple St. NW
Studio City Le Colonial SANTA CRUZ www.rhizomedc.org
(818) 980-1615 20 Cosmo Place, Kuumbwa Jazz Center
www.thebakedpotato.com San Francisco 320-2 Cedar St. Sotto
(415) 931-3600 (831) 427-2227 1610 14th St. NW
The Lighthouse www.lecolonialsf.com www.kuumbwajazz.org (202) 803-2908
30 Pier Ave., Hermosa Beach www.sottodc.com
(310) 376-9833 Local Edition Colorado
www.thelighthousecafe.net 691 Market St., The Birchmere
San Francisco DENVER 3701 Mt. Vernon Ave.,

44 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
Alexandria, VA Constellation Winter’s Jazz Club Fritzel’s European
(703) 549-7500 3111 N. Western Ave. 465 N. McClurg Court Jazz Club
www.birchmere.com www.constellation-chicago.com (312) 344-1270 733 Bourbon St.
www.wintersjazzclub.com (504) 586-4800
The Hamilton FitzGerald’s www.fritzelsjazz.net
600 14th St. NW 6615 Roosevelt Rd., Berwyn Indiana
(202) 787-1000 (708) 788-2118 Jazz Playhouse
www.thehamiltondc.com www.fitzgeraldsnightclub.com INDIANAPOLIS 300 Bourbon St.
The Jazz Kitchen (504) 553-2299
Twins Jazz Hungry Brain 5377 N. College Ave. www.sonesta.com
1344 U St. NW 2319 W. Belmont Ave. (317) 253-4900
(202) 234-0072 (773) 687-8230 www.thejazzkitchen.com Palm Court Jazz Cafe
www.twinsjazz.com www.hungrybrainchicago. 1204 Decatur St.
com Louisiana (504) 525-0200
Georgia www.palmcourtjazzcafe.com
Jazz Showcase NEW ORLEANS
ATLANTA 806 S. Plymouth Ct. Bacchanal Preservation Hall
Velvet Note (312) 360-0234 600 Poland Ave. 726 St. Peters St.
4075 Old Milton Parkway, www.jazzshowcase.com (504) 948-9111 (504) 522-2841
Alpharetta www.bacchanalwine.com www.preservationhall.com
(855) 583-5838 Room 43
www.thevelvetnote.com 1039-1041 E. 43rd St. Blue Nile Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro
(773) 285-2222 532 Frenchmen St. 626 Frenchmen St.
Illinois www.room43.com (504) 766-6193 (504) 949-0696
www.bluenilelive.com www.snugjazz.com
CHICAGO The Green Mill
Andy’s Jazz Club 4802 N. Broadway d.b.a. Spotted Cat
11 E. Hubbard St. (773) 878-5552 618 Frenchmen St. 623 Frenchmen St.
(312) 642-6805 www.greenmilljazz.com (504) 942-3731 (504) 943-3887
www.andysjazzclub.com www.dbaneworleans.com www.spottedcatmusicclub.com
The Whistler
California Clipper 2421 N. Milwaukee Ave. Dos Jefes Cigar Bar Sweet Lorraine’s
1002 N. California Ave. (773) 227-3530 5535 Tchoupitoulas St. 1931 St. Claude Ave.
(773) 384-2547 www.whistlerchicago.com (504) 891-8500 (504) 945-9654
www.californiaclipper.com www.dosjefes.com sweetlorrainesjazzclub.com
 JAZZTIMES 2019 NORTH AMERICA CLUB GUIDE

The Maison (617) 542-5108 (313) 345-6300 Aster Café

508 Frenchmen St. www.winebar129.com www.theofficialbakerskey- 125 SE Main St.,
(504) 371-5543 boardlounge.com Minneapolis
www.maisonfrenchmen.com Regattabar (612) 379-3138
1 Bennett St., Cambridge Bert’s Market Place www.astercafe.com
The Maple Leaf Bar (617) 661-5000 2727 Russell St.
8316 Oak St. www.regattabarjazz.com (313) 567-2030 Black Dog Café
(504) 866-9359 www.bertsentertainment- 308 E. Prince St., St. Paul
www.mapleleafbar.com Scullers complex.com (651) 228-9274
400 Soldiers Field Rd. www.blackdogstpaul.com
Maryland (617) 562-4111 Cliff Bell’s
www.scullersjazz.com 2030 Park Ave. Crooners Lounge & Supper
BALTIMORE (313) 961-2543 Club
An die Musik The Lilypad www.cliffbells.com 6161 Hwy. 65 NE,
409 N. Charles St. 1353 Cambridge St., Minneapolis
(410) 385-2638 Cambridge Dirty Dog Jazz Café (763) 571-9020
www.andiemusiklive.com www.lilypadinman.com 97 Kercheval Ave., Grosse www.croonersloungemn.com
Pointe Farms
Massachusetts The Mad Monkfish (313) 882-5299 The Dakota
524 Massachusetts Ave., www.dirtydogjazz.com 1010 Nicollet Mall,
BOSTON Cambridge Minneapolis
Beehive (617) 441-2116 Minnesota (612) 332-1010
541 Tremont St. www.themadmonkfish.com www.dakotacooks.com
(617) 423-0069 MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL
www.beehiveboston.com Wally’s Café 318 Café Hell’s Kitchen
427 Massachusetts Ave. 318 Water St., Excelsior 80 S. 9th St., Minneapolis
Darryl’s Corner Bar & (617) 424-1408 (952) 401-7902 (612) 332-4700
Kitchen www.wallyscafe.com www.three-eighteen.com www.hellskitcheninc.com
604 Columbus Ave.
(617) 536-1100 Michigan Amsterdam Bar & Hall Icehouse
www.dcbkboston.com 6 W. 6th St., St. Paul 2528 Nicollet Ave.,
DETROIT (612) 285-3112 Minneapolis
Les Zygomates Baker’s Keyboard Lounge www.amsterdambarandhall. (612) 276-6523
129 South St. 20510 Livernois Ave. com www.icehousempls.com

Winner North American Edition 2018

Tour 2019
June 5 Blue Note Jazz Festival NYC
June 15 DC Jazz Festival
June 18 San Francisco Jazz Festival
June 21 CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival
June 29 TD Ottawa Jazz Festival
June 30 Festival International de Jazz de Montréal
July 1 TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival
July 6 Iowa City Jazz Festival | Summer Of The Arts
September 28 Monterey Jazz Festival

www.l1risingstarsjazzaward.com Powered by Air Artist Agency

 JAZZTIMES 2019 NORTH AMERICA CLUB GUIDE

Jazz Central Studios KANSAS CITY LunÀtico CHELSEA/FLATIRON

407 Central Ave. SE, The Blue Room 486 Halsey St. Jazz Standard
Minneapolis 1600 E. 18th St. (718) 513-0339 115 E. 27th St. (between
(612) 695-7573 (816) 474-6262 www.barlunatico.com Park and Lexington Aves.)
www.jazzcentralstudios.org www.americanjazzmuseum. (212) 576-2232
org/blueroom ShapeShifter Lab www.jazzstandard.com
Loring Pasta Bar 18 Whitwell Place
327 14th Ave. SE, ST. LOUIS www.shapeshifterlab.com Metropolitan Room
Minneapolis Jazz at the Bistro 34 W. 22nd St.
(612) 378-4849 3536 Washington Ave. Sistas’ Place (212) 206-0440
www.loringbarrestaurant.com (314) 571-6000 456 Nostrand Ave. www.metropolitanroom.com
www.jazzstl.org (718) 398-1766
www.sistasplace.org

The Mingus Big Band has a longstanding Monday-

night residency at New York’s Jazz Standard

The Riverview Café The Jazz Gallery

3753 42nd Ave. S., New Mexico St. Mazie Bar & 1160 Broadway (at 27th St.)
Minneapolis Supper Club (646) 494-3625
(612) 722-7234 ALBUQUERQUE 345 Grand St. www.thejazzgallery.org
www.theriverview.com Outpost Performance Space (718) 384-4808
210 Yale Blvd. SE www.stmazie.com MIDTOWN
Saint Paul Hotel (505) 268-0044 Birdland
350 N. Market St., St. Paul www.outpostspace.org The Brooklyn Firefly 315 W. 44th St. (at 8th Ave.)
(651) 292-9292 7003 3rd Ave. (212) 581-3080
www.saintpaulhotel.com New York (718) 833-5000 www.birdlandjazz.com
www.thebrooklynfirefly.com
Vieux Carré NEW YORK CITY Club Bonafide
FRAN KAUFMAN/COURTESY OF JAZZ STANDARD

408 St. Peter St., St. Paul The Rosemont 212 E. 52nd St. (at 3rd Ave.)
(651) 291-2715 BROOKLYN 63 Montrose Ave. (212) 918-6189
www.vieux-carre.com Clover Club (347) 987-3101 www.clubbonafide.com
210 Smith St. www.therosemontnyc.com
Missouri (718) 855-7939 Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola
www.cloverclubny.com Williamsburg Music Center 10 Columbus Circle
COLUMBIA 367 Bedford Ave. (212) 258-9595
Murry’s Jazz 966 (718) 384-1654 www.jazz.org/dizzys
3107 Green Meadows Way 966 Fulton St. www.wmcjazz.com
(573) 442-4969 (917) 593-9776
www.murrysrestaurant.net www.fortgreenecouncil.org

JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 47
 JAZZTIMES 2019 NORTH AMERICA CLUB GUIDE

Iridium The Stone at the New Ohio PHILADELPHIA

1650 Broadway (at 51st St.) School Chris’s Jazz Café
(212) 582-2121 55 W. 13th St. AKRON 1421 Sansom St.
www.theiridium.com (near 6th Ave.) BLU Jazz+ (215) 568-3131
www.thestonenyc.com 47 E. Market St. www.chrisjazzcafe.com
Kitano (330) 252-1190
66 Park Ave. (at 38th St.) Village Vanguard www.blujazzakron.com MilkBoy Philadelphia
(212) 885-7189 178 7th Ave. S. 1100 Chestnut St.
www.kitano.com (212) 255-4037 CLEVELAND (215) 925-6455
www.villagevanguard.com Nighttown www.milkboyphilly.com
VILLAGE/DOWNTOWN 12383 Cedar Rd.
Fat Cat UPTOWN/HARLEM Paris Bistro & Jazz Café

Joe Lovano, Joshua Redman, Matt Penman, Eric

Harland, and John Santos at SFJAZZ in San Francisco

75 Christopher St. Bill’s Place (216) 795-0550 8235 Germantown Ave.

(212) 675-4056 148 W. 133rd St. www.nighttowncleveland.com (215) 242-6200
www.fatcatmusic.org (212) 281-0777 www.parisbistro.net/music
www.billsplaceharlem.com Oregon
55 Bar Relish
55 Christopher St. Minton’s Playhouse PORTLAND 7152 Ogontz Ave.
(212) 929-9983 206 W. 118th St. Jo Bar & Rotisserie (215) 276-0170
www.55bar.com (212) 243-2222 715 NW 23rd Ave. www.relishphiladelphia.com
www.mintonsharlem.com (503) 222-0048
Mezzrow www.jobarpdx.net/jazz SOUTH
163 W. 10th St. Smoke 600 N. Broad St.
(646) 476-4346 2751 Broadway (at 106th St.) The Jack London Revue (215) 600-0220
www.mezzrow.com (212) 864-6662 529 SW 4th Ave. www.southjazzkitchen.com
www.smokejazz.com (866) 777-8932
Nublu/Nublu Classic www.jacklondonrevue.com Time
151 Ave. C/62 Ave. C North Carolina 1315 Sansom St.
www.nublu.net Wilfs Restaurant & Bar (215) 985-4800
DURHAM 800 NW 6th Ave. www.timerestaurant.net
Smalls Jazz Club Beyú Caffé (503) 223-0070
DREW ALTIZER/COURTESY OF SFJAZZ

183 W. 10th St. 341 W. Main St. www.wilfsrestaurant.com Warmdaddy’s

(646) 476-4346 (919) 683-1058 1400 S. Christopher
www.smallslive.com www.beyucaffe.com Pennsylvania Columbus Blvd.
(215) 462-2000
The Blue Note DELAWARE WATER GAP www.warmdaddys.com
131 W. 3rd St. Deer Head Inn
(212) 475-8293 5 Main St.
www.bluenote.net (570) 424-2000
www.deerheadinn.com

48 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
PITTSBURGH Canada Emmet Ray Fairmont Pacific Rim
MCG Jazz 924 College St. Lobby Lounge
1815 Metropolitan St. MONTREAL (416) 792-4497 1038 Canada Place
(412) 322-0800 Bar de Courcelle www.theemmetray.com (604) 695-5300
www.mcgjazz.org 4685 Notre-Dame St. W. www.fairmont.com
(438) 382-4685 Home Smith Bar at
South Carolina www.bardecourcelle.com the Old Mill Frankie’s Jazz Club
21 Old Mill Rd. 765 Beatty St.
HILTON HEAD Bílý Kůň (416) 236-2641 (604) 688-6368
The Jazz Corner 354 Mont-Royal Ave. E. www.oldmilltoronto.com www.frankiesitaliankitchen.ca
1000 William Hilton Pkwy. (514) 845-5392
(843) 842-8620 www.bilykun.com Hugh’s Room Goldie’s Rustic Pizza
www.thejazzcorner.com 2261 Dundas St. W. 605 W. Pender St.
Bootlegger L’Authentique (416) 531-6604 (604) 620-0650
Tennessee 3481 Boulevard www.hughsroom.com www.goldiespizza.com
Saint-Laurent
MEMPHIS (438) 383-2226 Jazz Bistro Guilt & Company
Alfred’s on Beale www.barbootlegger.com 251 Victoria St. 1 Alexander St.
197 Beale St. (416) 363-5299 (604) 288-1704
(901) 525-3711 résonance! www.jazzbistro.ca www.guiltandcompany.com
www.alfredsonbeale.com 5175A Park Ave.
(514) 360-9629 Lula Lounge Libra Room
NASHVILLE www.resonancecafe.com 1585 Dundas St. W. 1608 Commercial Dr.
Rudy’s Jazz Room (416) 588-0307 (604) 255-3787
809 Gleaves St. Diese Onze www.lula.ca www.libraroom.ca
(615) 988-2458 4115 St. Denis St. A
www.rudysjazzroom.com (514) 223-3543 Orbit Room Marulilu Café
www.dieseonze.com 580a College St. 451 W. Broadway
The Jazz Cave (416) 535-0613 (604) 568-4211
1319 Adams St. House of Jazz www.orbitroom.ca www.marulilu.com
(615) 242-5299 2060 Aylmer St.
www.nashvillejazz.org (514) 842-8656 Poetry Jazz Cafe Moii Café
www.houseofjazz.ca 224 Augusta Ave. 2559 Cambie St.
Texas (416) 599-5299 (604) 569-0666
Jardin Nelson www.poetryjazzcafe.com www.facebook.com/MoiiCafe
AUSTIN 407 Place Jacques-Cartier
Elephant Room (514) 861-5731 The Pilot Tavern Pat’s Pub
315 Congress Ave. www.jardinnelson.com 22 Cumberland St. 403 E. Hastings St.
(512) 473-2279 (416) 923-5716 (604) 255-4301
www.elephantroom.com L’Astral www.thepilot.ca www.patspub.ca
305 Rue Sainte-Catherine
FORT WORTH Ouest The Reservoir Lounge Pourhouse Restaurant
Scat Jazz Lounge (514) 288-8882 52 Wellington St. E. 162 Water St.
111 W. 4th St. www.sallelastral.com (416) 955-0887 (604) 568-7022
(817) 870-9100 www.reservoirlounge.com www.pourhousevancouver.com
www.scatjazzlounge.com Le 4e mur
2021 St Denis St. The Rex Hotel Jazz & Prohibition
Washington www.le4emur.com Blues Bar 801 W. Georgia St.
194 Queen St. W. (604) 673-7089
SEATTLE L’Escalier (416) 598-2475 www.rosewoodhotels.com
Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley 552 St. Catherine St. E. www.therex.ca
2033 6th Ave. (514) 419-6609 Revel Room Supper Club
(206) 441-9729 www.lescalier-montreal.com VANCOUVER 238 Abbott St.
www.jazzalley.com Aperture Coffee Bar (604) 687-4088
Modavie 243 W. Broadway www.revelroom.ca
The Royal Room 1 Saint-Paul St. W. (604) 620-8065
5000 Rainier Ave S. (514) 287-9582 www.aperturecoffeebar.com Tangent Café
(206) 906-9920 www.modavie.com 2095 Commercial Dr.
www.theroyalroomseattle.com Blue Martini Cafe & Jazz (604) 558-4641
Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill 1516 Yew St. www.tangentcafe.ca
Tula’s 1254 Mackay St. (604) 428-2691
2214 2nd Ave. (514) 931-6808 www.bluemartinijazzcafe.com Uva Wine & Cocktail Bar
(206) 443-4221 www.upstairsjazz.com 900 Seymour St.
www.tulas.com Breka Bakery & Café www.uvavancouver.com
TORONTO 6533 Fraser St.
Wisconsin DeSotos (604) 325-6612
1079 St. Clair Ave. W www.breka.ca
MILWAUKEE (416) 651-2109
The Jazz Estate www.desotos.ca
2423 N. Murray Ave.
(414) 964-9923
www.jazzestate.com

JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 49
 AUDIO FILES x Audio Files: Brent Butterworth on great places to hear high-end gear
How High the Price
Top-of-the-line headphones have gotten incredibly expen-
sive. Are they worth it? BY BRENT BUTTERWORTH
any people think of head-
/Ì phones as commodity items
that deserve little of your
attention or budget. Headphone enthu-
siasts beg to differ. As manufacturers
started inching up their prices after
seeing the success Beats had selling
$300 models, they found ’phone enthu-
siasts happy to spend more in search of
sonic nirvana. The last two years have
seen the launch of numerous head-
phones priced at $2,000 or more … and
sometimes way more.
Don’t Take
the A Train
Non-enthusiasts surely wonder how
anyone could justify spending thou-
sands of dollars on something you plug
into your phone when you’re on the
subway, but most high-end headphones
50 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
Clockwise from left: HiFiMan Susvara, Focal
Stellia, Abyss Diana Phi, JH Audio Layla,
Audeze LCDi4
are designed only for use in the home.
Many are bulky, some are heavy, and
most reach optimum performance only
when paired with a separate amplifier.
Many are of open-back design, which
lets sounds from around you leak into
the headphones—and makes them
practically useless in noisy public
places.
Still, could any headphone be worth
thousands of dollars? I got my answer
when I compared HiFiMan’s $6,000
Susvara headphones to the company’s
HE1000 V2 headphones, which cost
$2,999 when they were introduced.
Numerous reviewers thought the
HE1000 v2’s ambient, detailed sound
was as good as headphones can get, so
I wasn’t expecting the Susvara to be
substantially better. But all those same
reviewers thought the Susvara sounded
far clearer and more natural. “The Sus-
vara makes the HE1000 v2 sound like
it’s broken,” one told me. I’ve never had
$6,000 to spare for headphones, but for
jazz fans with plenty of disposable in-
come, I think the Susvara is one of the
best bargains in audio—even though it
requires spending another thousand or
two on an amplifier powerful enough
to drive it.
What do you get with the best
ultra-high-end headphones? Clarity
and naturalness, basically. When I
heard my best jazz recordings on the
Susvara, it was hard to tell the timbre of
a reproduced saxophone from the real
thing. When I switched to almost any
other headphones, it seemed like the
sax player had suddenly started playing
through a P.A. system.
That’s not to say all high-end head-
phones are great. Around the same
time, I got to try HiFiMan’s Shangri-La
electrostatic headphone, which includes
a purpose-built amplifier powered by
a quartet of vacuum tubes roughly the
size of 12-ounce beer cans. Despite
the system’s $50,000 cost, I preferred
the Susvara’s sound. To my ears, the
Shangri-La needed more bass—it made
Trane’s “Giant Steps” sound almost as
if the band had started without Paul Chambers.
Focal, a French company known for high-end speakers,
recently introduced a few super-high-end models, including
the new Stellia, which runs $3,000. The big, blingy Stellia
not only ranks among the best headphones I’ve heard; it’s
also the most user-friendly high-end headphone I’ve tried.
The closed-back design does a pretty good job of blocking
the sound of the burbling coffee machines and background
music at Starbucks, and even when plugged straight into a
smartphone, they’ll reproduce Billie Holiday’s softest whis-
pers as easily as they handle the ferocious dynamics of Mike
Stern’s wildest solos.

High End, Low Profile

Nobody said high-end headphones have to be colossal.
Abyss, whose $4,995 AB-1266 Phi TC headphones are among
the world’s largest, heaviest, and most revered, just intro-
duced the $3,999 Diana Phi, a high-end model so compact
and conventional-looking that you could even wear it to the
gym without attracting stares. I hadn’t heard the Diana Phi
as of this writing, but initial reviews suggest nothing was
compromised when the size was slimmed down.
There are even a few ultra-high-end in-ear headphones.
One of my favorites is Audeze’s $2,495 LCDi4, which
squeezes the same audio technology found in the company’s
$3,995 LCD-4 over-ear headphones down to about the size of
a couple of poker chips. The LCDi4’s sound is so natural and
spacious, you won’t believe you’re wearing earphones. But
like the LCD-4, the LCDi4 is an open-back design, so it’ll let
traffic noise and chit-chat intrude on your Miles sides.
If you want ultra-high-end sound while you’re walking
around, your best bet might be JH Audio’s Layla in-ear
headphones, which start at $2,725. Each of the tiny earpieces
contains 12 minuscule drivers: four each for the bass, mid-
range, and treble, and all tuned to work perfectly in concert.
Because the earpieces are custom-molded to fit your ears, the
Layla does an excellent job of blocking outside sound—and
you can also get it in a wide range of styles, from carbon
fiber to zebrawood.
Sonically superb as ultra-high-end headphones can be,
it’s quite a leap of faith to spend more than $2,000 on a pair.
Fortunately, most large cities have specialty audio dealers
where you can try different high-end headphones. You can
also hear them at CanJam, a headphone show that takes
place annually in Denver, Los Angeles, New York, and sever-
al other cities worldwide. Even if you decide to spend less, it’s
worth the effort just to find out how great your favorite jazz
albums can possibly sound. JT

JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 51
 CHOPS x Overdue Ovation: Scott Robinson

Robinson with his ‘24 Conn

times, and we’ve been through a lot of

scrapes and jams together.” He does
all his own repairs, “soldering this,
reinforcing that, replacing pads, patch-
ing the metal where it’s nearly worn
through, even making my own parts
when needed.” (Significant work of this
kind was required after that unfortu-
nate NJ Transit incident.)
Despite their long relationship—“like
an old married couple,” he says—Rob-
inson is a tenor player who has been
famously promiscuous in his pursuit of
other wind instruments. He’s probably
most famous for his work with the
Maria Schneider Orchestra, in which
he has played baritone sax for over 25
years, although he’s also contributed
to more than 250 recordings with such
greats as Frank Wess, Joe Lovano, Ron
Carter, and Roscoe Mitchell. And he
curates an epic collection of rare and
exotic instruments (sarrusophone,
anyone?) as part of his passion project,
ScienSonic Laboratories, a membership
society and record label for his more
experimental projects that he runs out
of a converted garage in the back of his
Teaneck, N.J., home.
On Tenormore, however, Robinson
atones for neglecting his beloved Conn.
The album, which includes his
stellar quartet of pianist Helen
Sung, bassist Martin Wind, and

Married to His Saxophone drummer Dennis Mackrel, is,

surprisingly, his first as a leader
playing only tenor. With a mix
On his new album, multi-reedist Scott Robinson quits his of playful, absorbing originals
straying ways and commits to tenor BY ALLEN MORRISON and innovative interpretations
of standards, it’s a showcase for
his imagination and range on
the instrument.
as Scott Robinson’s tenor sax- by phone, referring to the silver 1924
* Ìophone ever forgiven him for Conn that has been his partner since
the time when, exhausted after he bought it from an antiques dealer in JT: Why did you make
a late gig, he absentmindedly left it on a 1975 when he was 16. In the liner notes
New Jersey Transit bus? for his new album, Tenormore (Arbors), Tenormore?
BUD GLICK

“I sometimes feel my horn is rebuk- Robinson writes, “This old tenor has SCOTT ROBINSON: I felt like it was
ing me,” Robinson, 60, told me recently been around the world with me many time to make a statement on the tenor.

52 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
A few years ago, I emerged from a
period of being thought of as a baritone
player, which had certain advantag-
es. I was getting a lot of attention for
it. I love the instrument. But there’s
something funny about the baritone—it
has a way of taking over your life. Once
people find out you’re good at that, they
don’t want to know about anything
“Life teamed me up with this horn.
We’re closer today than ever.”
else. I stopped getting calls for tenor,
and people kinda forgot I was a tenor
player. Of course, I’m grateful to be
highly regarded at anything. But I was
starting to lose my relationship with
the tenor. And I was hearing people
say things like, “Wow, you sound great
on tenor—I didn’t even know you
played that,” which gave me chills. So I
thought, I’ve gotta fix this.
I’ve worked hard to re-establish
myself as a tenor player. I’ve been
practicing more and really making
the effort to get my voice back on the
instrument. I’ve turned down baritone
work in order to make room for that.
And it’s worked out. Now I’m playing
almost exclusively tenor. And when I
do pick up the baritone, it’s fun because
it’s something different.
What was your prac-
tice routine for getting
up to speed on tenor?
I’m never up to speed. You can easily
get frozen by the thought of all the
things that need to be worked on.
Right now, I’m biting off different
chunks of material. I spent about a
year practicing out of the famous
Arban trumpet method but doing it
on the tenor sax, trying to do most of
it in the written octave, then in the
sounding octave of the tenor, which
puts it up quite high. That was more
than a year of work, with the abridged
version of the book.
Recently, I’ve been working on
tunes. I spent several months listen-
ing, practicing, and preparing for [pi-
anist Frank Kimbrough’s] mammoth
Thelonious Monk recording project,
Monk’s Dreams, which spans 70 of his
known compositions over six CDs.
I play a lot of tenor with the Mingus
Big Band, so I’ve spent a lot of time
with Mingus tunes. And right now,
I’m trying to learn standards, bebop
heads—tunes that I sort of know, but
there’s little bits of them where I know
I’m not quite accurate. I’m just trying
to step up my game, all across the
spectrum.
Are you your own
worst critic?
The ultimate critic is the music. I
always feel like she’s looking down
on me, skeptically. But when I get
something right, and I get a little smile
out of her face, that makes me happi-
er than any poll. She’s always going,
“C’mon, that’s it? That’s all you got for
me today?” [Laughs] I don’t have to be
that critical, because she’s the one that’s
critical, and I just take that home and
say, “Okay, I need to work on this so
I’m not as much of an idiot next time.”
What’s the signif-
icance of the rela-
tionship between
musicians and their
instruments?
Well, it’s like people, isn’t it? Things
have personality too. And probably no
other objects that people make have
as much personality as instruments—
they’re really sculptures. They’re like
people. As I said [about my tenor] in
the liner notes, we kinda roll our eyes
and forgive each other.
Life teamed me up with this horn.
We’re closer today than ever. There are
many imperfections with this instru-
ment, just as with the guy who plays it.
At the end of the day, when I blow into
it, it just feels like she’s saying, “Okay,
let’s go.” It’s her personality. She seems
to want to play. I don’t have to force the
sound to come out. I’ve strayed, I’ve
dallied, I’ve played another instrument
for a few months. But at this point it’s
probably too late for us to call it off. JT
 GEARHEAD

Deed (Pretty Good for a Girl) when we

tracked her down to ask how she deliv-
ers her signature sound.
“Obviously, it starts with my saxes,”
she says. “With the Boneshakers and
some of the touring acts I play with, I
have to be heard over a loud band. I find
that Yamaha horns can cut through while
still sounding full, big, and dynamic.
Plus, they can stand up to the rigors of
touring—something I couldn’t say about
some of the vintage horns I played earlier
in my career.”
Other essentials include La Voz and
Rico reeds and her signature Theo
Wanne mouthpiece. “Theo is amazing,”
Abair says. “We were working on devel-
oping a mouthpiece together for years.
Then one night, all my gear got stolen
after a gig. So I called him and said, ‘We
need to finish this—now!’ Not only do I
love the mouthpiece, but I’m proud that
other players use it as well.”
Abair says her secret weapon is an
Audio-Technica wireless microphone sys-
tem. “People don’t realize how important
a good wireless can be when playing sax
with amplified instruments,” she ex-
plains. “It isn’t like playing with upright
bass and a drummer using brushes in a
small club. My rig needs to project the
horn’s tone over electric guitars, bass, and
drums, and do it without feeding back.
Mindi Abair, Also, I need a mic that sounds accurate
and—something people may not think

Without the Cables about—doesn’t slip off the horn when I

move! Fortunately, our wireless system is
bulletproof onstage. It lets me be me.”
When pumping her high-wire solos to the crowd,
this Grammy-nominated sax virtuoso cuts the cord Saxophones: Silver-plated Yamaha YSS-
BY EMILE MENASCHÉ 82ZRS Custom Z soprano, YAS-82ZIIS
Custom Z alto, YTS-82ZIIS Custom Z tenor,
and YBS-62S baritone
Mouthpiece: Mindi Abair Signature alto

C
ombine Cannonball Adderley
with Clarence Clemons, pour in
a large beaker of R&B, garnish
my-nominated saxophonist, singer, and mouthpiece by Theo Wanne
songwriter—whose credits range from Reeds: La Voz Medium Soft (soprano and
Aerosmith and American Idol to Dave alto), Rico Royal 2.5 (tenor and baritone)
MONICA OROZCO

with eye-grabbing stagecraft, and you Koz, Jeff Golub, Keb’ Mo’, and her own Wireless System: Audio-Technica
have the essential ingredients of a per- group, the Boneshakers—was on the ATW-R3210 receiver, ATW-T3201 body
formance by Mindi Abair. The Gram- road to promote her album No Good pack, and PRO 35cW clip-on microphone

54 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
 e
Eddie Daniels Signature
Series Ligature
When instrument maker RS Berkeley teamed
with Daniels (to whom JT gave an Overdue
Ovation in September 2018) to create his
signature ligature, their goal was to provide
“a greater sense of balanced overtones and
warmth in tone.” According to the company, the
innovation making this possible is an air chan-
nel design that changes the ligature’s pressure
against the reed. Available for B-flat clarinet
and soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones, the c
Eddie Daniels Signature Ligature comes in
Carbon Fiber and Gold Series versions. MeeBlip Geode Synthesizer
When you’re introduced to the world as “raw and
digital, dirty and analog—in one compact box,”
$225 | rsberkeley.com
you’re sure to grab some attention. So it is with the
geode (sic) by MeeBlip, a small tabletop mono-
f phonic synth that’s all about grab-and-go sound
making. Instead of presets and menus, users can
Leaps & Sounds: twiddle knobs and flip switches to control two
12 Contemporary Etudes oscillators and digitally generated PWM, pulse,
for Jazz Saxophone sawtooth, and triangle waveforms. MIDI connectivi-
In this pair of instructional books, NYC-based ty comes via both DIN and USB jacks for driver-free
tenor player and recording artist Adam operation on macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, and
Larson aims to teach serious students some Android operating systems.
things that he missed early on. “As a young
saxophonist, I was fluent with basic intervals $149.95 | meeblip.com
such as thirds, fourths and fifths, yet I was
unaware of how to integrate them into my
playing,” he explains. “The goal of this book
is to provide etudes that [use] large intervals,
along with strong bebop, modern vocabulary
and good voice leading.” Both volumes are
available in E-flat, B-flat, concert, and bass
clef editions.

$35 physical, $22 PDF | adamlarsonjazz.com

e
Vic Firth Professional
Drumstick Bag
Imagine showing up for a gig without sticks,
brushes, or drum keys. Oh wait, you don’t have
to imagine—it’s happened to you! Vic Firth’s
SBAG3 drumstick bag won’t improve your
memory, but it will make it easier to keep all
your necessities organized and prevent those
Ralph Kramden “humna humna” moments
when you sit on the throne. In addition to
compartments for sticks, accessories, and
sheet music, the SBAG3—made of expand-
able waterproof canvas—sports watertight
reverse-track zippers, adjustable padded
shoulder pads, a comfortably padded handle,
and a useful pouch for your tablet.
$150 | vicfirth.com
c
Steinberg Dorico Pro 2
Notation Software
Best known for music production software like Cu-
base and Nuendo, Steinberg recently stepped into
the music notation arena with Dorico, available
in Pro and Elements packaging. What does the
latest release, Dorico Pro 2, add to a marketplace
already occupied by established programs like Si-
belius, Notion, and Finale? According to Steinberg,
Dorico provides over 1,500 high-resolution sounds
and offers a simplified user interface, helping to
speed the work of professionals and students
alike. Try it for yourself by downloading the free
30-day full-featured trial version.
$599 Pro, $99 Elements | new.steinberg.net/dorico

JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 55
 REVIEWS ALBUMS x VIDEOS x BOOKS
Dancing in a
Political World
Kendrick Scott’s latest is a meditation on serious
subjects that leaves room for buoyancy
KENDRICK
SCOTT ORACLE
A Wall Becomes a Bridge
Blue Note
Culturally aware, historically inclu-
sive, produced by Derrick Hodge with
some startling sonic effects, swinging
madly and beautifully arranged, A Wall
Becomes a Bridge once again confirms
Kendrick Scott as one of the finest
drummers of his generation, as well
as a thoughtful composer with deep
reserves and compelling ideas.
Three years ago I was lucky to catch
Scott’s live response to the murder of
Philando Castile in his bold, moving
solo piece, “Philando.” Composed and
performed using Sunhouse Sensory
56 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
“Spreads a serene
and powerful spell”:
Kendrick Scott
Percussion, it showcased Scott’s ability
to turn tragedy into concise vistas of
sound. A Wall Becomes a Bridge finds
him digging deeper and coming up
with what is essentially a 12-song cycle
covering black history, racism, black
music, and contemporary sociopolitics
in an uplifting way that both reveres the
past and presses into the future. Scott is
joined by his longtime Oracle quintet of
guitarist Mike Moreno, pianist Taylor
Eigsti, reedist John Ellis, and bassist Joe
Sanders (with the addition of turntab-
list Jahi Sundance).
This album is blessed with the spirit
of the dance. Every song glides, pul-
sates, and glows—from Scott’s graceful
drumming to the Bennie Maupin-wor-
thy textures of Ellis. Oracle simmers
where many would bash, focuses on a
single flame where others would fan
a firestorm. It’s an album of lovely
moments, rewarding (and enabling)
focused attention, drawing the listener
in with its tranquil state. Surely to be
ranked among 2019’s best jazz record-
ings, A Wall Becomes a Bridge spreads a
serene and powerful spell.
KEN MICALLEF
ANTHONY
BRAXTON
GTM (Syntax) 2017
New Braxton House
Certain recording projects are so vast
in their conceptual scope that attempt-
ing to process their remit can feel like
being a test pilot in a science-fiction
drama. So, buckle up, buckaroo, for
this 12-CD Anthony Braxton odyssey
that features none of Braxton’s horn
play and centers exclusively on his
vision as a composer for voice of what
Braxton terms the Rosetta Stone of his
music systems, that being the Ghost
Trance Music compositional decod-
er ring. I can find that kind of thing
screwy—if you have to serve me much
exegesis in terms of what you’re up to,
the music is normally not accessible.
Luckily, for all of his depth, Braxton
has always been. Mostly. This isn’t ex-
actly sitting down to kick back with a
Horace Silver jam, but we have entered
the lair of the jazz sirens.
The Tri-Centric Vocal Ensemble
is basically the house band of these
sessions, with member Kyoko Kitamu-
ra acting as Braxton’s aide-de-camp
in his exploration of polyphony. Cut
in mid-January of 2017, each vocal
symphony immediately invokes a sonic
mise-en-scène, suggesting a laboratory
rather than a recording studio. With
the opening “Composition No. 192,”
funereal voices enter as if borne atop
winds, remnants from a concluded
service for the dead. Those voices mod-
ulate into a bebop bridge that sounds
TODD COOPER
like a choir of Charlie Parker solos.
You never know which direction this
music will venture in next—not unlike
what you hear on Braxton’s 1969 solo
album For Alto; it’s as if that lone voice
had invited friends over. These parties,
though, if parties they be, are long-sus-
taining affairs, each composition
lasting about an hour. “Composition
No. 254” is like some protracted Sesame
Street aural tapestry featuring the
Count, with the choir using numbers
and letters for what constitute their
central refrains. This may be the jazz
vocal version of coding.
Here’s a number to keep in mind:
how many times, after listening to this
set once, you might listen to it again. If
the over/under is three, I’d say bet the
under. Because, why, exactly, return
repeatedly? This is music to think
through, less so music to do anything
else to—and that includes pondering in
non-algebraic ways. Still, this ensemble
has serious chops. On “Composition
No. 340,” it sounds like a woodwind
section, with the full range of that
musical family housed in these human
voices. Taken as a whole, GTM (Syntax)
2017 is like being in rebarbative and bel
canto realms at once. The push and pull
of a puzzle. COLIN FLEMING
ALEX SIPIAGIN
NoFo Skies
Blue Room
Through 11 records as a leader on
the Criss Cross label between 2001
and 2017, the Russian trumpeter
Alex Sipiagin steadily tweaked his
no-compromise template of inge-
nious compositions and high-octane
interplay, allowing his ace cohorts
plenty of room for explosive expres-
sion. Sipiagin’s move to the Blue Room
imprint has not deterred NoFo Skies
from becoming the latest pinnacle in
this thrilling evolution.
Reared in big bands with an empha-
sis on Mingus, Sipiagin loves polyph-
ony, and when all three horns (Chris
Potter, Sipiagin, and alto Will Vinson)
are gamboling, Harland seems like he’s
specifically catering to each—with a
hat tip to bassist Matt Brewer, who is
woody, bold, yet purposefully comple-
mentary to the rhythmic enterprise.
Drummer Eric Harland is a monster
accompanist throughout but seizes
some spotlight on the final solo of the
opener, “Rush,” and via his ambient
percussion on the atmospheric “Sky 1”
and “Sky 2.”
As good as Vinson and the underrat-
ed Sipiagin play, Potter is first among
equals in the horns, treating the acerbic
flair of Joe Henderson and gleeful dare-
devilry of Sonny Rollins as parallel bars
for his own gymnastic excursions. John
Escreet’s sustained synth notes often
chauffeur the horns into their solos
and color both of the “Sky” renditions,
while his two-handed fusion-funk on
“Start of…” is reminiscent of Joe Zaw-
inul’s playfully nasty riffs.
Then there is vocalist Alina En-
gibaryan. Her contributions to a couple
of songs on Sipiagin’s 2017 album
Moments Captured (featuring the exact
same personnel as NoFo Skies) were
enjoyable in a vacuum but disruptive
REVIEWS ALBUMS

in the context of the entire disc. It’s a
dicey balance—Ryan Keberle had simi-
lar initial difficulty integrating Camila
Meza into his albums—and Sipiagin
ups the ante by including Engibaryan
on four cuts this time. The best of these
is “Between AMs,” a delightful jazz-
rock suite that stretches the comfort
zone of band and singer alike. Expect
further tweaks if Sipiagin is able to
take a third crack at folding her into
this fabulous band.
BRITT ROBSON
EHUD ASHERIE
TRIO
Wild Man Blues
Capri
The “fashionably old-fashioned” label
fits Ehud Asherie like a bespoke suit.
A knowledgeable purveyor of every-
thing from early Crescent City swing
to Harlem stride and bop to the music
of a bygone Brazil, this 39-year-old
pianist might initially come off as a
pure throwback. But with an overlay of
wit and whimsy placed atop that vast
golden-age repertoire, his status as an
au-courant artist is ensured. Teaming
up here with the classy combination of
bassist Peter Washington and drummer
Rodney Green, Asherie delivers eight
numbers that speak to his massive tech-
nical reserves, understanding of the
continuum, gifts as an interpreter, and
rightful place at the jazz piano summit.
Opening with “Wild Man Blues”
and “Parker’s Mood,” the trio is quick
to draw a line from Louis Armstrong to
Bird while distilling different shades of
meaning from each. Both performances
paint this outfit as easygoing, but what
follows—a warp-speed “Flying Down
to Rio”—dispels that notion. As the
program continues, the players migrate
from one scenario to another with
grace and smarts. “Autumn Nocturne”
envisions a placid eventide with nary
a problem on the horizon; “Chasin’
the Bird,” with Asherie reconfiguring
the original horn lines for his hands,
retains its bebop standing while dialing
things down a notch; Ary Barroso’s “Na
Baixa Do Sapateiro” quickly shifts from
an atmosphere of poignancy to perk-
iness; and “Oh, Lady Be Good,” with
its mellow after-hours aesthetic, calls
straight out to the night owls. Then the
curtain comes down with a spright-
ly trip through the tropics on Dizzy
Gillespie’s “And Then She Stopped.” It’s
a solidly sunny ending completely in
line with Asherie’s retro-chic allure.
DAN BILAWSKY
LUCIAN BAN
AND ALEX SIMU
Free Fall
Sunnyside
“This concert and music was inspired
by, and is dedicated to, Jimmy Giuffre,”
says a notation in the liner notes for
Free Fall, featuring the Romanian-born
musicians Lucian Ban (piano) and Alex

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 Simu (clarinet and bass clarinet). Only
two of the eight tracks here, “City,
Want” and “Used to Be,” which close
the program back-to-back, were writ-
ten by Giuffre, though; the rest, other
than Carla Bley’s “Jesus Maria,” were
either composed by Ban and Simu sep-
arately, sometimes in conjunction with
others, or improvised at the concert,
which took place in Bucharest in 2018.
In other words, the Texas-born clari-
netist/saxophonist Giuffre, who died
in 2008, serves more as an inspiration
than a source of material. A listener
might need to do some stretching to
grasp the connection that Ban and
Simu made to him, but the music,
nonetheless, is commendable.
Ban’s “Quiet Storm,” the opening
number, specifically notes (with an as-
terisk) that it’s “For Jimmy Giuffre,” but
neither its structure nor the interaction
between his piano and Simu’s clarinet
display much of an overt reference
to Giuffre’s style or sound. Here as
throughout, the two players remain
sharply attuned, respectful, and open,
each allowing the other ample space to
illuminate without losing sight of their
obligation to the duet. They are, together
and apart, adventurous: “Free Fall,”
one of the improvisations, is practically
giddy at times, a lighthearted dance,
while “The Pilgrim,” by Simu and Dutch
pianist Folkert Oosting, is imbued with
mystery and implied danger.
In addition to their joint explora-
tions, one individual outing accentuates
the level of virtuosity and perception at
the core of this collaboration. “Near” is
a solo piece by Simu on bass clarinet—
as airy as it is bold, it nods to Giuffre’s
perpetual free-spiritedness, even as,
again, it bears little resemblance to his
own work. JEFF TAMARKIN
GREG WARD
PRESENTS
ROGUE PARADE
Stomping Off from
Greenwood
ROBERT LEWIS/ECM RECORDS
Greenleaf
If, as critic Larry Kart has postulated,
jazz is “a form of self-enactment in
sound,” then this “enactment” must
become ambiguous, even contradic- sax configurations swirl down over the
tory, as the very concept of “self ” in top. The unison sax/guitar melody line
our culture becomes increasingly fluid glows, then plunges into a bombastic
and ineffable. Case in point: Stomp- power-pop interlude, then re-emerges
ing Off from Greenwood’s opener, (at times, the quartet’s extended free-
“Metropolis,” which melds influences form sequences almost sound culled
and identities with shape-shifting from a Grateful Dead second-set
abandon. Quin Kirchner’s drumming “Space” segment).
mimics the mechanized, herky-jerky Emotionally as well as musically,
trigger-shot beats of hip-hop; cyber- Ward and his compatriots seem intent
plink guitar punctuations (from either on decimating both predictability and
Matt Gold or Dave Miller—the credits sanctuary (seldom has romanticism
don’t specify) accentuate that feel. But been deconstructed with such gleeful
then the other guitar comes flowing ferocity as in their full-frontal assault
in with tremolo-washed chording that on “Stardust”). On relatively meditative
recalls surf music, and leader Greg outings like “Excerpt 1,” “Pitch Black
Ward’s concentric, post-“Spiral” alto Promenade,” and “The Fourth Reverie,”
Editor’s Pick
DAVID TORN/TIM BERNE/CHES SMITH
Sun of Goldfinger
ECM
That David Torn is the most electric of jazz guitarists is made clear in the opening
minutes of “Eye Meddle,” the first of three 20-minute-plus performances here.
Before even the first note is plucked, there’s a pulsing thrum of feedback from Torn’s
Marshall amp, while in the background, a sampler oscillates between two notes like
a demented klaxon. As Ches Smith’s drums kick in, treated so they sound like the
clanking of a factory in a 1930s cartoon, Torn continues to coax shrieks and wails
from his axe, while Berne, playing the highest of high harmonics, whistles in the
background like an impatient tea kettle. It’s a nervy, imposing swirl of sound, and
yet there’s something oddly welcoming about its eddying melodies and raucous
clangor. There may be noise, but there’s also passion, a patiently arching narrative,
and even (about 12 minutes in) what could pass for a dance groove.
Given the way it melds elements of ambient electronics, saxophone skronk, and
industrial noise, it’s tempting to see Sun of Goldfinger as the son of Prezens, Torn’s
2007 collaboration with Berne, Craig Taborn, and Tom Rainey. (Taborn appears on
one track here, “Spartan, Before It Hit.”) But as much as I admire Prezens, the
music on Goldfinger is more varied and ambitious, bringing an almost symphonic
sense of scale to its hi-tech caterwauling. “Spartan, Before It Hit” conjures an
astonishing electro-acoustic soundscape, offering moments of startling delicacy
as well as bursts of
paint-peeling guitar
distortion. Nor is there
anything ironic about the
title “Soften the Blow,”
which whisks Berne’s
keening altissimo wail
into a soothing soup of
electronics to create
the sonic equivalent of a
razor blade swaddled in
cotton.
J.D. CONSIDINE
“The sonic equivalent of a razor blade swaddled in cotton”:
Smith (left), Torn, and Berne
JA Z Z T I M E S .C O M 59
 REVIEWS ALBUMS

any hint of blissful solitude is threat- they already are, even if we manage to down with the record to review it. For
ened by ominous gatherings of power arrive in one piece. DAVID WHITEIS Outliers, the stars so aligned. Stephan
and darkenings of texture. Meanwhile, Crump’s Rosetta Trio appeared in
Ward’s breath-softened, woody tone the Just Jazz series at Mr Musichead
sustains a bedrock of naturalness even Gallery on Sunset Boulevard in Los
as he breaks into unfettered flights, STEPHAN Angeles on February 27, 2019. Work on
tempered on occasion by a pristine, CRUMP’S this review began the next morning.
neo-classical precision—a blend of ROSETTA TRIO Live versions of tunes are often lon-
fearlessness, merriment, pathos, and ger and looser than recorded ones. Not
Outliers
perhaps a measure or two of irony. so much here. Crump (acoustic bass),
Papillon Sounds
Music like this captures the zeitgeist. Liberty Ellman (acoustic guitar), and
No longer can we be assured that jour- Jamie Fox (electric guitar), on record or
neying into the unknown will reveal In a perfect world, critics would always in person, sound disciplined. Con-
truth or beauty, let alone salvation— hear a band live, playing music from centration is required to create such
things may get worse out there than their new record, right before sitting intricate patterns of counterpoint.
Yet there are differences. Live, it was
easier to feel the heat below the cool
surface of this music. The album is
Editor’s Pick
more inward and wistful. “Re Eyes” is a
sigh of yearning. It could be a country
VANESSA RUBIN song. Crump is from Memphis. When
The Dream Is You: Vanessa Rubin Sings Tadd Dameron Fox begins to improvise, Ellman offers
Nibur an alternate narrative with a stark
repeated figure. Crump’s arrangements
More than a labor of love, The Dream Is You is a reckoning, a polished-to-a-sheen leverage the unique resources of his
tribute to bebop’s greatest orchestral mind. Like Tadd Dameron, vocalist/producer small string orchestra.
Vanessa Rubin came up in Cleveland, and she’s spent years developing a program “Away From, A Way To” is anoth-
devoted to his seminal, often lushly romantic music. Directed and co-produced by er Crump melody like a transitory
Cecil Bridgewater, the album hits all the right notes, with a thoughtful array of Dam- gesture, but its haunting quality lingers.
eron’s standards and lesser-known works arranged for a talent-laden octet. Space is allocated for Fox and Ellman to
In many ways this project highlights the vital, ongoing presence of bop-era separately reimagine the song. In their
masters and their unprecedented creative longevity. Although Dameron died in comping for one another, counterlines
1965 at the age of 48, afflicted by addiction and a lack of playing and recording and solos merge. Crump’s bass lines
opportunities in his final decade, Rubin makes brilliant use of nonagenarian stars contribute dark drama. Why aren’t
Jimmy Heath and Benny Golson, and the late Frank Foster and Willie “Face” Smith there more string choirs in jazz?
(a Cleveland jazz institution) for arrangements. The results are consistently lovely,
Crump’s previous album, Rhom-
and often revelatory.
bal, was a eulogy for a brother lost to
A fine singer, Rubin has never sounded better than on the ballad “Whatever Pos-
cancer. “Dec 5” is a piece for his brother
sessed Me” and moderately swinging “I Think I’ll Go Away.” Wrapped in Heath’s
sinuous brass charts, which key on Alex Harding’s pleasingly gruff baritone sax,
Patrick that Crump “held back” from
she makes a compelling case that both songs should be rescued from obscurity. Rhombal. Like most of his composi-
Likewise with Bobby Watson’s strikingly beautiful arrangement of the ballad “Never tions, it sounds like a spiritual journey
Been in Love” and Foster’s exquisitely detailed chart for “You’re a Joy,” pieces toward acceptance.
that provide welcome reminders of Dameron’s melodic genius. Rubin contributes Outliers provides an approximation
an original lyric for another gorgeous of the live gig experience, but offers the
ballad, “Reveries Do Come True (The advantage of repeated listenings, where
Dream Is You).” Throughout, she’s well- you keep encountering new revelations
served by her top-shelf rhythm section within Crump’s modest, deep music.
featuring pianist Jon Cowherd, bassist THOMAS CONRAD
Kenny Davis, and drummer Carl Allen.
Recorded within months of Tadd
Dameron’s 100th birthday, The Dream QUINSIN
Is You is a belated but fully realized
NACHOFF’S FLUX
celebration of an overlooked modern
jazz giant. Path of Totality
Whirlwind
ANDREW GILBERT
CHRIS DRUKKER

“Consistently lovely, and often revelatory”: Vanessa Rubin

In physics, flux is the movement and
flow of radiant energy across a given

60 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
area. In the mind of saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff, it’s a band
of varying size uniquely qualified to explore a vast array of
his latest concepts. Path of Totality doesn’t stint on this explo-
ration—four of its six compositions go beyond 13 minutes.
Take “Bounce” as an example. Working with University
of Toronto physicist Dr. Stephen Morris, Nachoff translat-
ed the mathematical model of a bouncing ball into music.
Few percussionists are better for this endeavor than Kenny
Wolleson, an original thinker who has invented his own
“Wollesonic” collection of instruments—but add Kneebody
timekeeper Nate Wood too. Nachoff and fellow saxophonist
David Binney display their own sonic crossover dribbles
while pianist Matt Mitchell comps the placeholder groove.
A series of crescendos at the end is undergirded by Jason
Barnsley stressing a 1924 Kimball theatre organ.
“Toy Piano Meditation” pivots from an opening
reference to John Cage’s “Suite for Toy Piano” into one of
NIGHTS
Mitchell’s more majestic ivory journeys, laced with cymbal I NG
ZL
splashes, before yielding to the horns and everything from IZ
S
glockenspiel to Tibetan singing bowls from guest Mark

IX
S
Duggan. “Splatter” ransacks the keyboard collection of
Canada’s National Music Centre (David Travers-Smith
alone plays five different instruments), opens with a Mitch-
ell harpsichord solo, and ends with eruptive chaos. “March
Macabre,” a commentary on the Trump administration and
totalitarianism, opens with a collection of clomping clogs
Wollesen rigged together, closes with tap dancer Orlando
Hernandez, and features Nachoff’s glorious, nearly un-

9
wieldy arrangement for nine horns played by seven people.
Sure, not all of this works to perfection, and you can’t
get the context without the liner notes. But Nachoff

Z
Z
doesn’t mind his reach occasionally exceeding his grasp. A
J
It keeps him limber, adding new pathways for the radiant WI
TH OF
S
THE MASTER
energy to flow. BRITT ROBSON

ULYSSES OWENS JR. BILL CHARLAP

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Songs of Freedom
Resilience Music Alliance
CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT
One sign of a successful concept album is that it doesn’t JOHN PIZZARELLI
wear out its welcome. Drummer, producer, and savvy
musical ringleader Ulysses Owens Jr. showcases four very MAUCHA ADNET
different vocalists on Songs of Freedom, an album that
could have easily expanded to twice its nine songs—all of
DUDUKA DA FONSECA
them associated with or written by Nina Simone, Abbey TOM HARRELL
Lincoln, or Joni Mitchell.
The freedom Owens has in mind isn’t necessarily politi- RENEE ROSNES
cal. The material explores notions of spiritual and emotion-
al liberation as well, though the album’s pulse is driven by STEVE WILSON
the disquieting sense that civil rights-era songs resonate
more loudly than ever these days. René Marie sounds for-
ROXY COSS
midable on Max Roach and Oscar Brown Jr.’s “Driva’ Man” AND MANY OTHERS!
from the Freedom Now Suite and positively ferocious on
Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam.”
In an inspired casting and sequencing choice, Owens
follows both of Marie’s tracks with ethereal work by Theo GET TICKETS!
92Y.ORG/JAZZ • 212.415.5500
 REVIEWS ALBUMS
Bleckmann, whose lapidary vocals on
the spiritual “Balm in Gilead” bring
to mind his long association with
Meredith Monk. He’s just as effective
on the album’s most unexpected piece,
the quietly scathing “Borderline” from
Mitchell’s overlooked 1994 album
Turbulent Indigo. Alicia Olatuja’s three
songs feel like a postscript to her excel-
lent new album focusing on songs by
and about women, Intuition, particu-
larly her rollicking sanctified version of
Andy Stroud’s “Be My Husband.”
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Secrets of My Heart
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The wild card is young Toron-
to-based singer Joanna Majoko, who
makes a powerful impression with
her brief piece, delivering Roach and
Brown’s “Freedom Day” with poise
and purpose (and a jolt of energy from
the prodigiously gifted pianist Allyn
Johnson). Owens doesn’t dress up the
songs with elaborate arrangements, and
the band fits each singer to a tee, guided
by the redoubtable Reuben Rogers, who
never seems to allow a phrase to drag.
ANDREW GILBERT
TOM HARRELL
Infinity
HighNote
A powerful spirituality illuminates Tom
Harrell’s work, but that doesn’t mean that
there’s anything pretentious or dogmatic
going on. An irrepressible sense of play
also abounds; trumpeter/flugelhornist
Harrell sounds both delighted by his
musical quest and enraptured by what he
discovers. “The Fast,” this set’s open-
er, might easily have been titled “The
Feast”—it’s a veritable smorgasbord of
inspiration, propelled by a surging drive
reminiscent of Africa/Brass-era Col-
trane. (Johnathan Blake’s drumming,
reminiscent of Elvin Jones, accentuates
that feel.) Harrell’s solo work summons
quickness, precision, and focus along
with deep melodicism and tonal surety;
saxophonist Mark Turner and guitarist
Charles Altura, even when they ramp
down the velocity, are no less rigorous in
their imaginative flow, and their timbre is
likewise sure yet flexible and expressive.
Myriad moods and references enrich
this set, from the Celtic tinge of “Dub-
lin” and “The Isle” through the meld of
stateliness and improvisational exuber-
ance in “Coronation” to the dexterous
postbop intensity of such offerings as
“Blue” and “Ground.” “Taurus,” the
concluding number, seems to both
encapsulate and summarize the gifts
Harrell shares with us here, as his muted
trumpet skips with precision, dexterity,
and brio, his solos so logically construct-
ed that one could almost believe he’s
able to fully imagine each note, each
run, each statement in its entirety before
playing it. DAVID WHITEIS
TOBIAS
MEINHART
Berlin People
Sunnyside
The Berlin connections here are various.
The rhythm section (pianist Ludwig Hor-
nung, bassist Tom Berkmann, drummer
Mathias Ruppnig) lives there. The leader,
tenor saxophonist Tobias Meinhart,
moved from Germany to New York 10
years ago but spends his summers in
Berlin. Kurt Rosenwinkel, a major Amer-
ican guitarist who plays on five of the
nine tracks, teaches at the Jazz Institute
of Berlin, where Hornung, Berkmann,
and Ruppnig were his students.
Berlin People gets off to an unprom-
ising start. On “Mount Meru,” Hor-
nung plays a block chord monotone for
eight minutes. The melody, portrayed
in tight unison by Meinhart and
Rosenwinkel, is apparently meant to be
mysterious. All you hear is Hornung’s
tortuous piano. But things improve.
Rosenwinkel lights up this album every
time he touches it. His penetrating
guitar sound is intensely electric, yet
human and personal.
Meinhart, like so many of today’s
young jazz musicians, wants to write
his own stuff but is a better player than
composer. “It’s Not So Easy” is typical, all
hard angles, spikes and lurches. The skill
required for Meinhart and Rosenwinkel
to maneuver it together is impressive, and
the energy is fierce. But the achievement
sounds more technical than aesthetic.
“Childhood” (for his mother), “Mala-
la” (for Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel
Prize winner whose story touched hearts
all over the world), and “Alfred” (for his
grandfather) are compositions with deep
meaning for Meinhart. But their nonde-
script melodies are merely pleasant. This
album gets truly interesting only when
the solos start. Rosenwinkel takes the
major triads of “Childhood” and soars
with them. Meinhart is also an accom-
plished improviser. His best moment is
his relaxed, rolling, wide-ranging excur-
sion on Joe Henderson’s “Serenity.”
By the way, Hornung redeems
himself. On his own “Früher War Alles
Besser,” a pretty ballad with a sublimat-
ed groove, his piano is rapt and radiant.
THOMAS CONRAD
JOSH LAWRENCE
Triptych
Posi-Tone
Trumpeter Josh Lawrence is as straight-
ahead as it gets—making it seem a little
odd at first that he would dedicate a
three-part suite to abstract expression-
ist Wassily Kandinsky. But then, jazz
was at its most commercial when, like
Kandinsky’s art, it was branded “de-
generate” by the Nazi regime. Perhaps
it’s appropriate after all.
“Lost Works” (labeled herein as
“Compositions #1-3,” after lost Kan-
dinsky paintings) is one of three suites
on Triptych. It’s also the most cohe-
sive. Two joyful swingers and a waltz
ballad, all 32 bars, each have fine work
by Lawrence, alto saxophonist Caleb
Curtis, and pianist Luques Curtis. All
three soloists submit album-best solos
on “#2,” the ballad; drummer Anwar
Marshall does the same on “#3.”
Another suite, “Earth Wind Fire”—
inspired by the eponymous ’70s
band—has one genuinely funky part
(“Earth”). Lawrence even manages to
sound eerily like EWF trumpeter Les-
lie Drayton. The other parts diverge.
“Wind” uses Ahmad Jamal’s “Poinci-
ana” groove, with a suitably sensitive
piano part and quietly confident bass
line; “Fire” is just that, hard-swinging
postbop that Lawrence and Caleb
Curtis set ablaze with their harmo-
nized melody and forceful solos. This
suite is a bit scattered.
The third suite, however, is deliber-
ately scattered: Its three parts are the
opener, the other two suites’ divider,
and the penultimate track. Each has a
breezy, melodic bounce, sounding for
all the world like Gershwin stan-
dards—with Gershwin-esque titles like
“We’re Happiest Together” to boot. In
sequence, they would flow nicely; stag-
gered, they seem incidental. Even more
confusingly, its third movement, “Sun-
set in Santa Barbara,” is followed by
EWF’s “That’s the Way of the World,”
a faithful and soul-drenched rendition
featuring organist Brian Charette but
starkly distant from the EWF suite.
Triptych is easily digestible and fun, if
you don’t try to make sense of it.
MICHAEL J. WEST
CAESAR FRAZIER
Closer to the Truth
Savant
Hammond B-3 vet Caesar Frazier
and company offer listeners drawn
to vintage jazz organ abundant relief
with this album, clearly inspired by the
keyboardist’s organ-combo influences.
Suffice to say, fans of Jimmy Smith,
Brother Jack McDuff, Shirley Scott, and
Don Patterson, to say nothing of gui-
tarists Kenny Burrell, Grant Green, and
George Benson, have reason to cheer.
Though Closer to the Truth marks
Frazier’s label debut on Savant, his list
of credits, including a pivotal associa-
tion with saxophonist Lou Donaldson,
is as impressive as it is long. Unsur-
prisingly, the 11 performances here
are stamped by Frazier’s authority and
soulful, none more so than the Benny
Golson standard “Blues March,” cast
as a hypnotic funk interlude streaming
with evocative solos by the bandleader,
tenor saxophonist Lyle Link, and gui-
tarist Jacques Lesure. Selecting album
highlights is tricky, though, since
repeat spins of Nat Adderley’s “Jive
Samba,” George Shearing’s “Lullaby of
Birdland,” and Frazier’s own “Codes”
reveal new virtues and nuances.
While there’s a lot to be said for
Frazier’s slow-burn finesse—check
out the album’s lovely, brush-stroked
coda “That’s All”—the keyboardist also
swings with consummate ease, adroitly
aided by drummer Leon Joyce, Jr.
Uncluttered and unfussy, the arrange-
ments are another big plus: roomy
enough to showcase each member of
the group without resorting to routine
exchanges. MIKE JOYCE
LOGAN
STROSAHL
SPEC OPS
Sure
Sunnyside
Saxophonist Logan Strosahl has been
nothing if not prolific since releasing
his debut, Up Go We, on Sunnyside
in 2015. That was a septet recording,
as was 2017’s Book I of Arthur; in
between, the newcomer released a duo
set, Janus, with pianist Nick Sanders.
Each of the three was an ambitious
undertaking, collating influences from
Renaissance-era music to free jazz to
songbook standards. Strosahl gave
the impression, from day one, that he
wasn’t about taking the easy way out.
Sure, his fourth release for Sunnyside,
is a trio session, with Henry Fraser on
bass and Allan Mednard playing drums.
Strosahl, who has heretofore stuck to the
alto, adds tenor sax and flute this time.
What he doesn’t do, however, is simplify
the music. A trimmer format, for him,
is no excuse to coast. Even when Sure
touches down where saxophone-led
trios often go—a walking bass serves as
the foundation of “Bark,” the lead track;
nothing unusual about that—there’s al-
most always something unconventional
going on elsewhere.
“Coming on the Hudson” is the
shortest tune here, at three-and-a-half
minutes, and rhythmically it’s rooted
in the blues. But Strosahl doesn’t allow
his horn to linger where the rhythm
section suggests it should. He dives and
darts, trills and weaves, flies ahead of
and lurks behind the others. “Isfahan”
is a conversational ballad suggesting ex-
otica and intrigue; “Chacarera,” a flute
piece, rarely stays on track for long,
Mednard’s restlessness on the toms and
Fraser’s deep plunges giving Strosahl
carte blanche to make up new melodies
as they occur to him.
Sure is less of a set piece than the
Arthur extravaganza, but it’s satisfying
for its own reasons, displaying another
side of this young, impressive composer
and musician. JEFF TAMARKIN
Scott s Aural Fixation
Buys Records
and CDs
anywhere in
the USA
Loves Big
Collections!!
Call or Email
Scott at: 978-930-0395
jaideeone@yahoo.com
 ARTIST'S CHOICE x Album Review: Lauren Sevian’s Bliss

Best of the Baritone

I was playing alto saxophone when I was growing up and was not really
connected to it. I didn’t want to switch to tenor, so my teacher suggested the
bari. I said, “What are you, crazy? I don’t want to carry that thing around!”
But the first time I tried it, three notes in I was connected. The first player he
hipped me to was Pepper Adams, who became my biggest influence in terms
of sound and approach. Then came Cecil Payne and Gerry Mulligan. As far as
what makes an effective solo, something has to come to my mind when I’m
listening to it, like I can almost feel what the story was that they were trying
to tell. The baritone saxophone is often overlooked, but if you want something
new to transcribe, why not do a bari solo? LAUREN SEVIAN

Cecil Payne Ronnie Cuber

“Stop and Listen”
The Connection (Charlie Parker, 1962)
When I first got this record, I hadn’t transcribed any Cecil.
I loved even the intro, when he’s playing that low C, just the
sound. And then he goes into the head and it’s effortless.
It’s so beautiful the way he shapes his lines. I’m just talking
about the melody right now, but the solo has so much in-
credible bop language.
“The Cooker”
George Benson, The George Benson Cookbook (Columbia, 1967)
Aside from being one of the baddest baritone players on the
planet, Cuber is an incredible musician. He plays drums, he
plays flute, he plays tenor. “The Cooker” is just power. The bari-
tone is no-holds-barred—the way he articulates. A lot of people
would say it’s like a tenor or an alto. This solo proves that you
can do anything on the baritone.

Nick Brignola and Harry Carney

Pepper Adams X “Sophisticated Lady”
“Donna Lee” Duke Ellington, Ellington at Newport (Columbia, 1956)
Baritone Madness
(Bee Hive, 1978)
I love the arrangement, and Harry soars and sings through-
out the tune. Duke obviously wrote for members of his
The first solo is Pepper. He’s band, and when you hear everything that Harry puts into
burning, he’s killing it. Then playing a melody the way that he does—sound, control—I
they have a piano solo or don’t know if it gets any better than that.
something and then Nick
comes in and I just felt like Serge Chaloff
I got smacked in the face.
“All the Things You Are”
He’s coming out of Pepper but he is also on something else:
Blue Serge (Capitol, 1956)
crystal-clear intonation, upper register, playing lines into the
stratosphere and perfectly in tune. I heard that and I was like, I He would have been more of a household name had he lived
want to be able to do this. past the age of 33. He had addiction issues and used to hang out
with Charlie Parker and he played with Woody Herman’s Sec-
Gerry Mulligan ond Herd. He lived really hard—when he recorded this he had
spinal cancer—but every time he put the horn to his mouth,
“Venus de Milo”
you couldn’t stop him.
The Gerry Mulligan Songbook (World Pacific, 1958)

Everything that Mulligan ever played, solos especially, sounds
like a song. It’s so lyrical and has that quintessential West
Coast cool sound, which he invented. I like the solo but I
used to listen to the melody incessantly. His composition and
arranging influences his playing so much.
Lauren Sevian can be seen performing as a bandleader around
the New York area with the LSQ (Lauren Sevian Quartet) and LSAT
(Lauren Sevian Alexa Tarantino). As a side musician, she plays
regularly with the Mingus Big Band and other groups, notably the
Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, Christian McBride’s Big Band,
Robin Eubanks Big Band, and the Count Basie Orchestra. Sevian’s
DAUGUST.RU

latest album, Bliss, was released on Posi-Tone in 2018.

[as told to Jeff Tamarkin] « For more Sevian picks, visit JazzTimes.com

64 JA Z Z T I M E S JUNE 2019
Tickets at dcjazzfest.org | @dcjazzfest

DC JAZZ FESTIVAL AND THE KENNEDY CENTER PRESENT

GREAT MASTERS OF JAZZ
Celebrating the life and work of
Quincy Jones • Nancy Wilson • Shirley Horn • Roy Hargrove

Sunday June 16, 2019 • 8:00 PM

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts • Concert Hall
Tickets available at kennedy-center.org
WITH PERFORMANCES BY

ROY HARGROVE
PATTI AUSTIN JUSTIN KAUFLIN SHARÓN CLARK BIG BAND
and Adam Clayton Powell III • Angela Stribling and more!
Presentation of Annual DC Jazz Festival Lifetime Achievement Awards
to Quincy Jones and DC saxophonist-educator Fred Foss.

PRESENTING SPONSOR PLATINUM SPONSORS

GOLD SPONSORS MEDIA SPONSOR

For more information visit DCJAZZFEST.ORG

The DC Jazz Festival®, a 501(c)(3) non-profit service organization, and its 2019 programs are made possible,
in part, with major grants from the Government of the District of Columbia, Muriel Bowser, Mayor; with awards
from the National Endowment for the Arts, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported
in part by the National Endowment for the Arts; the Office of Cable Television, Film, Music & Entertainment;
the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development; and, in part, by major grants from
the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Galena-Yorktown Foundation, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz
Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation, Gillon Family Charitable Fund, the NEA Foundation, Venable Foundation,
The Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts, The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, and the
Reva & David Logan Foundation. ©2019 DC Jazz Festival. All rights reserved.
 1919 - 2019

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THE FIRST
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
JAZZ FESTIVAL
On April 13, an Ivy League institution became an
improvisational center as Princeton University
welcomed an impressive roster of musicians to
its main New Jersey campus for the university’s
first jazz festival. Organized by Jazz at Princeton
University—which is helmed by saxophonist and
university jazz director Rudresh Mahanthappa—
the day-long festival featured performances by
students as well as (and sometimes alongside)
Joel Frahm, Tia Fuller, Ingrid Jensen, the
Charenée Wade Quartet, the Pedrito Martinez
Group, and the Donny McCaslin Quartet. At a
ticketed evening event in Alexander Hall, bassist
Dave Holland provided the final set of the festival,
with help from the university’s Small Group I.
Photographer ALAN NAHIGIAN was there both
day and night, and captured the following images.

Joel Frahm
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY JAZZ FESTIVAL

Rudresh Mahanthappa

Ingrid Jensen Jason Lindner

JAZZTIMES | JUNE 2019

Left to right: Ingrid Jensen, Tia Fuller, and Anson Jones

Charenée Wade

JAZZTIMES | JUNE 2019

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY JAZZ FESTIVAL

Darrell Green

Donny McCaslin gets pulled away near the main performance tent

JAZZTIMES | JUNE 2019

Outside Princeton’s Alexander Hall

Pedrito Martinez

JAZZTIMES | JUNE 2019

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY JAZZ FESTIVAL

Pedrito Martinez (left) and Tia Fuller

Dave Holland

JAZZTIMES | JUNE 2019

Zach Danziger

Left to right: Phillip Taylor, Sam Bartusek, Anson Jones, Dave Holland, Alex Laurenzi,
Benny Rosenzweig, and Maya Stepansky

JAZZTIMES | JUNE 2019