Month of April , 2007

Yesterday would have been Duke Ellington's 108th birthday, if my shoddy math skills serve me well. His compositional and musical legacy that he leaves behind is undeniably huge, and yet it has caused some controversy, particularly Terry Teachout's 1996 essay "(Over)praising Duke Ellington," in which he attacks the writing of Albert Murray and Stanley Crouch, labeling it as hyperbole and uninformed, an undoubtedly polemical stance. I prefer the understanding of Duke's extended works proposed by Stefano Zenni in his well written and researched article The Aesthetics of Duke Ellington's Suites: The Case of "Togo Brava", which places his writing in a more appropriate context than either Teachout or Murray and Crouch.

I don't want to get into that whole discussion and the backlash it caused within the Ellingtonian community, but I think it's relevant to note that Duke is not as universally revered as it seems within the sometimes insular jazz community. If I have anything critical to say about the writing on Duke, it's that it has sometimes come at the expense of examining other musicians and composers who are also worthy of examination.

But critical reception is most certainly not what this post is about. Duke was a pioneer in jazz composition and I want to single out a couple of exemplary compositions by him.

The first is a tune that has already had a lot of ink spilled about it: Mood Indigo. The introductory orchestration, utilizing a trombone, a clarinet, and a trumpet, was revolutionary in its voicing, putting the trombone on top and the clarinet on the bottom, creating a unique blend of timbres and overtones that Duke would again utilize in his career. In examining the different versions, from the early Okeh recordings to the 15 minute extended, Strayhorn arranged version that appears on Masterpieces by Ellington, there is an integrity to the original piece that allows it to be condensed and expanded successfully. Listening to different versions also allows you to hear the variations of Duke's piano introductions and interludes, which I always find enjoyable.

You can see it performed live by Duke's orchestra here, with the introduction being played by two trombones and a bass clarinet (!).

The second piece that I want to single out is The Tattooed Bride, which appears on the aforementioned Masterpieces by Ellington album, which first came out in 1950 and was recently reissued within the last few years  (it also appears in the 1953 Pasadena Concert recording). Masterpieces was designed to showcase Ellington's pieces in an extended fashion, utilizing the advent of the LP. Previously, the extended work Creole Rhapsody necessitated flipping and changing records in order to hear the entire piece. I remember hearing it before and then being told to examine it more carefully by a teacher and friend years later to hear it significance not only within Duke's catalog, but also its possible influence on later jazz composers like Mingus.

The Tattooed Bride provides a feature piece for clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton, something Duke liked to do in his compositions: showcase the wonderful musicians in his band. This band also includes Ellington orchestra luminaries such as Cat Anderson, Ray Nance, Lawrence Brown, Harry Carney, Paul Gonsalves, the indispensable Sonny Greer, Johnny Hodges, and Russell Procope. 

To me, the piece exemplifies the way Duke was able to develop themes while utilizing the individual musicians in his band, striking a balance between composition and improvisation, structure and content. As opposed to classical compositions that were meant only to display the vision of the composer and to a certain extent the conductor, Duke integrated an understanding of individual expression inherent in jazz within the context of his own uniquely voiced compositions. The entire piece is really based around the manipulation of one musical motive, it's re-contextualization, and at times inversion.

I said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again: thanks for everything Duke.

Edward Kennedy Ellington, aka Duke was born on this day, April 29th, in 1899.

I'll have some thoughts on the master tomorrow...until then, thanks for everything Duke.

Greetings to anyone who has wandered their way over here via Destination: Out.

There has been a dearth of posting the past few days due to a few looming deadlines, both professional and personal, and also because the weather in Chicago has been absolutely sublime.

 I've got a few things in the works though that should make their way to onto the Soundslope in the coming days.

A few links of merit:

An audio profile of Sonny Rollins by Howard Mandel on NPR [via Rifftides]

The table of contents for George E. Lewis' forthcoming fall release of A Power Stronger than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music, a 672 page tome on the AACM that I am anxiously anticipating. Reading the table of contents got me excited about getting it into my hands so I can begin reading.

Of note to New Yorkers: Professor Lewis will be performing as a part of Robosonic Eclectic: Live Music by Robots and Humans LEMUR’s First Annual Commissioned Works Concert taking place May 31-June 2, 2007at the: 3-Legged Dog Art and Technology Center.

Apparently there is unrest in Estonia, at the same time the annual Jazzkaar Festival is going on. Here's a brief history of the reasons behind the riots.

Dig Cecil Taylor with the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Happy Malachi Favors day! Please enjoy my guest post over at Destination: Out.

Thanks to Chilly Jay Chill and Prof. Drew LeDrew for hosting my musings and the tracks of the great bass master.

When I drive to work, which is only a few times a month when I have an event I have to go straight to after hours, I oftentimes take the opportunity to listen to the radio and peruse the offerings that the public have to select from. Sometime in the last year I started a game with myself where I could only scan past two songs before I had to listen to one entire song, so that I would be forced to listen to whole songs and try and figure out what makes them tick. The restriction makes it so that I only skip the really bad stuff (I always make sure I have a skip left when I get around to 95.5, the smooth jazz station), and part of the exercise is for me to try and find the good in any given song. I'll admit that it's sometimes difficult, but there's oftentimes a great bass line or a cool keyboard hook that I can hone in on and dig. I'm also really into examining the production techniques and values that are prevalent in today's music. I caught a stone cold breakdown in the middle of some hokey disco tune this morning that made it all worthwhile.

Listening is a funny thing. There is a wide spectrum in what people conventionally refer to as listening.  Most people understand that there is a difference between hearing and listening; hearing implies basic acknowledgment of auditory input, while listening connotes an active processing of the information encoded in that auditory signal. That there are degrees of listening is plainly obvious to anyone who has been ignored while speaking, or to any person who has tried to deeply listen to music or to another human being with a receptivity and stillness of mind that allows a deeper listening to occur. The degree of listening is more involved with the state of the mind of the listener than with the physical mechanisms of the ears, and one’s own disposition and mental framework determines the depth and extent to which one listens.  Listening intently is largely a matter of where attention is placed, and how well the individual is able to maintain that attention in a focused manner, allowing them to receive without distraction or mental interruption.

In our society, I think listening to music is most often passive, and when it's active it's usually in the context of dancing. The idea of background music is pervasive, whether it's while we're doing the dishes, driving, or any other number of activities. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but there's a whole different realm of listening that occurs when it's the primary activity. The way you read a book, or even watch a movie that has an engrossing plot and you're forced to process possibilities and emotions.

One of the only musics that seems to have the luxury of active listeners most of time is European classical music. It's an art music, you go to a big theater to hear it, and you sit, and you listen. Sometimes I wonder if jazz is going through some kind of awkward adolescence, moving from a popular music to an art music, and what that transition really means for the artists and the audience is something I'm still considering.

Tarthang Tulku is a rinpoche in the Tibetan Nyingma school of Vajrayana Buddhism. As a teacher in the Western Hemisphere, he has developed a system of understanding the world around us in a series he wrote called “Time, Space and Knowledge,” the first book of which bears the same name. Tulku espouses a phenomenology and cosmology that understands conventional time as being qualitatively different from what he terms Great Time. The clumsiness of this verbal expression appears to create a dichotomy that places Great Time as superior and separate. However, according to Tulku conventional time is included in Great Time, and indeed is a necessary doorway to this experientially different state. Great Time and Space are expansive and accommodating in nature, and it is out of this great expanse that we and all other phenomena are constantly arising. Amongst his various visualization and meditational practices, there are several exercises he espouses that utilize listening. One such exercise's introductory instructions are as follows:

Sit quietly and attend to the presence of sounds. You can use speech, music, or any sounds that happen to appear. Do not get trapped in the labels and significations that sounds bear, but concentrate on the quality of the sounds themselves. This amounts to learning to see more deeply into all communicated presences, rather than being stopped by their surface partitioning (Tulku, 187).

I like that a lot. Cultivating a non-discriminatory reaction to sonic phenomena to better understand and appreciate their qualities as sounds.  The process of labeling and identifying is a reactionary mechanism of the mind that has a limiting result, and this is an attempt to open it up a bit.

There's so much to explore in the world of sound, or as William Parker calls it the Tone World. In his discussions of the phenomena in space, Tulku writes: “What we perceive as solid or opaque ‘things’, produced by a given ‘setting’, define by contrast what we perceive as the ‘space’ of that level” (Tulku, 4).  Similarly, there is an attribute of sound that can be described as sonic opacity, the quality of a sound as being separate from silence.  If we can position sound and silence as two halves of a whole, then that whole can be approached as music, and one way of viewing music is that it is based upon the practices of manipulating sound and silence.  The way sound merges into silence reveals a spectrum of sonic phenomena that includes many gradations, and it is only our perception of silence as the absence of sound that creates the experience of sonic solidity or opacity. Indeed, silence can be understood as the medium in which sound exists, an ever present canvas that at times can be accentuated or eliminated based upon the choices of the musicians.  Silence is an active accommodating medium in which sound and music can be expressed.

It is also important to note that silence is merely the “...absence of audible sound-rhythm” (Smith, 1973), a boundary that is defined by our senses.  Therefore, there is no such thing as absolute silence, only our perception of the lack of sound.  The conventionally accepted dichotomy between silence and sound can be seen as an expression of a “higher order unity” (Tulku, 9), which is music.  Silence and sound phenomena exist in our perception, and the expression of their unity is the making of music that is the manipulation of these two elements.  The higher order unity in music is a microcosmic expression of unity that exists as well on a macrocosmic level, and as such can be interpreted in the realm of spiritual understanding if that is the goal of the musician or listener. It was the basis of the exploration of ancient rshis or seers in the Vedic tradition, the idea that the very large could be approached by understanding the very small - the rta, or cosmic order.

There are some fascinating paradigms for understanding the act of listening and improvisational music making available to us in the realms of general systems theory and the Buddhist concept of pattica sammupada or mutually arising phenomena. I'm going to adapt some writing I've done on the subject to better suit the blog format. More on that later....

Smith, Ismael Wadada Leo. “notes (8 pieces ) | source | a new | world | music: creative music”. Self published, 1973.

Tulku, Tarthang. Time Space and Knowledge: A New Vision of Reality. Emeryville: Dharma Publishing, 1977.

...that Lester Bowie wrote the Cosby Show's theme song for Season 8? I didn't until today. I saw a videotape of Bill Cosby talking about Louis Armstrong and Lester Bowie for a special introduction he recorded for a tribute to Louis Armstrong that Lester Bowie did shortly before his death in 1999, here in Chicago. In fact, I think it was his last show.

I'm going to try and get it digitized to post it, because seeing Bill Cosby talk about Lester Bowie is priceless.

More of substance tomorrow....

This is the first post in what I hope will be a long series that will shine a spotlight on local musicians here on the Chicago scene who are not as well known on the national and international scenes. Another main criteria for the series is that it has to profile musicians who do something active to help foster the local scene. I'm sure you all know musicians that fit this description in your own local scene.

The first musician I'd like to write about is Ari Brown, a local tenor saxophonist and pianist.

He was actually mentioned over at Do the Math, both in relation to a Muhal Richard Abrams album and in a follow up email by Craig Taborn singing his praises, the latter of which is particularly noteworthy for highlighting the fact that Chicago is "teeming" with unsung music masters. I agree wholeheartedly.

Ari Brown is probably best known for his extensive involvement in the AACM, appearing with Muhal Richard Abrams, Lester Bowie, an ongoing chair in Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio, also making a guest appearance with the Art Ensemble of Chicago on occasion. He's soft spoken in person with a monster tone on the tenor and a deft touch on the piano, displaying a mastery of both instruments that makes you wish he'd left a little talent for the rest of us.

He has two Delmark titles in his own name, Ultimate Frontier and Venus, featuring his quartet and his own compositions. Brown has an impeccable sense of history on his saxophone, encapsulating the entire tradition with an ease that is rarely heard while retaining an individuality. To me, he exemplifies the ethic of inside/outside playing, utilizing the vocabulary of bebop and Coltrane era harmonic understandings with post-Coltrane extended techniques and emotional expression. One listen to his tenor and you know he comes from Chicago, following in the great tradition of Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Clifford Jordan, Von Freeman, and John Gilmore, amongst others.

Perhaps more importantly, Ari has and continues to teach private lessons to young budding musicians here in the city on both saxophone and piano, regularly teaches in the public schools through a local program placing musicians in classrooms, and retains an ease of personality and conviviality that makes you wish he was your uncle. Just knowing that he's out there teaching makes me feel good about the future of music.

I wish there was some seminal recording that he's featured on that I could recommend to you - certainly the Muhal recording mentioned earlier deserves a listen (but then again I believe all Muhal Richard Abrams recordings deserve a listen, so I'm biased), and of his two quartet recordings I prefer the latter, Venus. He recently appeared with his Quintet at the Banlieues Blues festival in Paris, continuing a long standing relationship between the AACM and that festival, and last year he appeared in Poland leading his own group. It's a shame he doesn't get to lead in his own name more often, but I understand why it doesn't happen: he's so in demand as a sideman, and it seems to agree so well with his personality.

I have a dream that someday there will be a festival here in Chicago where Ari Brown will be the artist in residence and sit in with every band on the bill. There's no doubt in my mind that he could pull it off with ease - he's at home in any variation of jazz, as long as he has a horn or a piano to play.

An article about George Lewis/Miya Masaoka in San Diego and a nice profile of Pauline Oliveros are available for your perusal. Dan Pritzker of the billionaire Pritzker family is making a biopic about Buddy Bolden, based on what little is known of him.

Sorry for the deafening silence here the past few days. I was at a conference presenting a paper, and it is now so nice outside in Chicago that I consider it criminal to be anywhere near a computer instead of in the sunshine.

More this week, following up on previous promises and making new ones I can't keep. Off to enjoy the day.

I had the pleasure of seeing cornetist, composer, and fellow blogger Taylor Ho Bynum's trio, quartet, and quintet last night at the Velvet Lounge here in Chicago. He rolled into town as part of a tour his trio is doing, Chicago representing the western-most stop on the trip. I'm always happy to see out of town artists making it to Chicago, especially people who don't have a built in audiences and are taking a chance on playing here and building one.

Lucky for us Chicagoans we saw not only his trio, but also a quartet with bassist Nate McBride and a quintet that added the flutes of Nicole Mitchell, which allowed Mr. Bynum to display his playing and compositions in a variety of settings, with a range of timbres, and of course some changed dynamics and interplay. The results of all three configurations were fantastic.

I had never heard Mr. Bynum's own music until I walked into the Velvet that night - I had heard his playing with Anthony Braxton and with Jason Kao Hwang's Edge on recording, but otherwise went in ear unheard (akin to sight unseen).

The concert started with the trio and built throughout, adding Nate McBride on bass halfway through the first set and then Nicole Mitchell at the start of the second set.

My first impression of the trio was that Mr. Bynum keeps excellent musical company.

Tomas Fujiwara was fantastic on the drums, lending sensitive accompaniment as well as active musical input all through an astonishing economy of motion.

Mary Halvorson was an unassuming monster on the guitar, utilizing the whole fretboard, a whammy pedal, and her own impressive chops, technique, and musicality to produce some incredible music.

And Taylor himself played adeptly on the cornet, an instrument which I must admit is dear to my heart as my first instrument, a tarnished, beat up horn that I inherited from my father and played amongst a row of shiny rented trumpets in 4th grade concert band.

Mr. Bynum utilizes the horn's full range and all of its timbral possibilities, at times framing the proceedings with textures and interjections and other times taking on the traditional role of melody in the ensemble. I hesitate to say there was much "soloing" during the concert by any member, although of course there was - but this was truly an ensemble situation, and while certain members were highlighted and showcased at times, there was a remarkably egalitarian slant to the compositions and improvisations.

The addition of Nate McBride on bass added quite a lot to the rhythmic interplay with Tomas Fujiwara, and it also fleshed out the range of the ensemble by adding the low end. The addition of Nicole Mitchell added her unique voice to the ensemble and really brought out some of Taylor's compositional skills in a higher relief harmonically and timbrally than is possible in the trio.

I only made it partway through the second set before my drooping Tuesday night eyes led me back home. I did pick up Taylor's sextet's new album the Middle Picture which I look forward to listening to and writing about. I noticed that Mr. Bynum's CDs hold an esteemed spot on the shelf next to Donald Byrd and just a short way down from Mr. Bill Dixon.

Nice to meet you Taylor - thanks for the great music - sorry I didn't make it till the end of the show to chat more. Hopefully we'll see you in Chicago again soon!

A while back I posted about an interview with the founder and owner of Thirsty Ear and he brought up some interesting points I wanted to go back to. First of all, there is this quote:

"If there’s a problem with music and jazz in particular today, it’s that [jazz] is caught up in form and structure. And that should come later, after you’ve done the innovation. If we start with form and structure then you can’t ever get beyond that—it becomes your prison. What we encourage at Thirsty Ear is to just let it go."

I'm going to take this thought in a different direction, if you will indulge me....

Michel Foucault published a fascinating book in 1975 called Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison - in it, he examines the birth of the penal, disciplining culture, and the spread of this ideology into other institutions, such as schools. Before prisons, public torture and humiliation were the most common forms of punishment for crimes, usually scaled based on the crime committed itself. There were still traces of the eye for an eye tooth for a tooth idea, in the sense that the crime that was committed was to be meted back upon the criminal in some form. It was certainly corporeal, in that it focused on the body as the receptor of punishment, where the modern prison, while holding the body hostage, was more oriented toward the psychological - the more generalized thesis stating that the punishment moved from the body to the soul.

The public executions and humiliations were too costly politically to go on. It was such a brutal display of sovereign power that they sometimes lead to revolts and riots if there was a broad base of support for the criminal or he was believed to be innocent by a percentage of the population.

When reform began, they didn't move to a prison system immediately, and it wasn't done for any humanitarian reasons. Rather, it came from a sense that the punishment had to be more even, and the belief that only then would it carry the weight that discipline must have.

Now we get to the interesting part, which deals with this concept of discipline. Foucault believes that discipline didn't really emerge as a value or construct until the 18th and 19th centuries, emerging in tandem with the new economy of industry.

Part of this creation of discipline was putting people into roles, jobs they do that keep the machinations of industry and economy running, cogs if you will. Roles are very clearly defined, and straying from those roles is seen as deviant.
The goal is the creation of what Foucault terms "docile bodies" who can fit into roles and structured environments such as: classrooms, factory jobs, military roles, etc. Predictability.

Okay, okay, where was I going with this...oh yes. What I really want to take away from Foucault's thesis is that he believes the concepts of Prison, of Discipline, and of Punishment, crept their way into our entire institutional structure, into all of these entities that encourage sameness and uniformity. There is a tendency to create orthodoxy, in line with the sovereignty, which in turn creates delinquency, which heretofore had not existed.

When there exists an institution that has no defined orthodoxy, no standard by which to compare and create a delinquency, it is the modern social equivalent of a vacuum which must be filled. And whomever fills that vacuum is handsomely rewarded with the support of the bourgeoisie.

Of course the creation of an orthodoxy will favor the clearly defined structure (harmony, rhythm, swing) over any kind of disorder (free), as it is difficult to define roles in the latter, while the former creates a very tidy, clean sense of discipline. Have I taken this idea too far?

Okay, now I've officially lost my train of thought. Perhaps I will indulge myself and ramble more later.

Ornette Coleman has been awarded this year's Pulitzer Prize for his 2006 release Sound Grammar. He beat out a bunch of more classically oriented pieces; from the Pulitzer site:
 
"Also nominated as finalists in this category were: "Grendel" by Elliot Goldenthal, premiered June 8, 2006 by the Los Angeles Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, libretto by Julie Taymor and J.D. McClatchy, and "Astral Canticle" by Augusta Read Thomas, premiered June 1, 2006 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (G. Schirmer, Inc.)."

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall for those deliberations and discussions about musical merit.

John Coltrane has been awarded a Pulitzer as well, a  "...posthumous special citation to composer John Coltrane for his masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz." I can't argue with any of that, but I do wonder: why now?

The Coltrane awards follows Duke Ellington's award in 99 and Thelonious Monk's in 2006. As far as I know, Ornette Coleman is the only jazz musician to be awarded one while still alive. My understanding is that there was actually a rule change necessary in the Pulitzer's wording in order to allow jazz musicians to win at all.

Author Ray Bradbury also won a special award.

In his review of The Tonic's last show, Nate Chinen mentions that Marc Ribot was arrested during a demonstration on Saturday.

It's important to stand up and be heard if we believe in something. Mr. Ribot is putting his money where is mouth is.

Per the Take it to the Bridge website, there will be a press conference and rally on the steps of City Hall in NYC tomorrow, at noon.

Title to this post provided by the late, great, under appreciated folk singer Tim Hardin.

Looking ahead to this week I am going to wrap up some loose ends and fulfill those promises I've made earlier to: post the music of the Great Black Music Ensemble doing a tribute to Fletcher Henderson; talk about Bruce Eisenbeil's Inner Constellation and Joseph Jarman's As If It Were The Seasons (re-release); and continue some discussions and lines of thought that I left dangling in the nether regions of the internet.

One of my primary listening spaces, my desk at work, has been taken from me by a CD drive that appears to have kicked the can. My early morning routine includes listening to at least one recording all the way through and making brief notes of my impressions. Hopefully I'll get the drive figured out this week so I can get back to talking about all the wonderful music people are making these days and in days gone by.

I'll also, lord willing, be seeing Taylor Ho Bynum at Fred Anderson's Velvet Lounge. If I can remember my camera I'll take some pictures and definitely post some thoughts on the music. I look forward to picking up his new release as well.

AAJ has a belated but excellent tribute to Leroy Jenkins, a collection of quotes from his musical peers.

It's always interesting to hear from someone who runs a small label documenting creative music and jazz. This interview with Cryptogramophone's Jeff Gauthier does just that [via AMN].

In the editorial corrections department, I've been told by a colleague that Henry Threadgill is back living in NYC, not still in India as I speculated earlier.

Fecund Spring appears to have finally sprung here in Chicago, although I say it with hesitation. Winter has been hesitant to lose its grip on us this year.

If, like me, you'd like to show your support for The Tonic but can't physically go to any rallies or protests or meetings, sign their petition.

I'm never quite sure what petitions like this do - maybe try and prove a critical mass of support? Whatever can help, I guess.

Free, as in: of no cost to the listener, not as in: without musical structure.

The place: Millennium Park.

The shows:

Great Black Music Ensemble: Tribute to Fletcher Henderson, with Von Freeman and Franz Jackson, July 26

Blues/Jazz Summit Chicago, with Sharon Lewis, Billy Branch, Ari Brown, Lurie Bell and Chris Foreman, Aug. 2

Nicole Mitchell Black Earth Orchestra: Tribute to Alice Coltrane, Aug. 9

Legends and Lions: Ragtime and Beyond, with Muhal Richard Abrams, Reginald Robinson and Fulcrum Point, Aug. 16

Sirens of Song: Dee Alexander's Tribute to Nina Simone and Dinah Washington, Aug. 23

Chicago Jazz Philharmonic on Tap: Songs from the Chicago Songbook, with Orbert Davis, vocalists and tap dancers, Aug. 27.

I'm really looking forward to the Great Black Music Ensemble tribute to Fletcher Henderson - the show last year was phenomenal and I expect this one will be even better. Nicole Mitchell's tribute to Alice Coltrane will also feature Myra Melford and Hamid Drake, and should be fabulous. Pairing Muhal Richard Abrams with current ragtime revivalist Reginald Robinson is nothing short of brilliant juxtaposition. Dee Alexander is the only singer I'd like to see try and do a tribute to Nina Simone. The blues summit isn't particularly intriguing to me, although Ari Brown is always a pleasure, and any chance for Orbert Davis to convene his Jazz Philharmonic is a special treat indeed.

I'll be doing podcast interviews with the main musicians for each show as a preview to their respective concerts - stay tuned for details.

An Open Letter to the Musicians, Staff, and Fans of Tonic

When Tonic closes this friday, we will have a lost a great club, and the last avant jazz/indie/new music club in manhattan with a capacity of over 90 presenting music on a nightly basis.

Tonic's closing is not an isolated event: Coming on the heals of the closing of CBGB's, Siné, The Fez, the Continental, this wave of club closings, downsizings, and displacements to Brooklyn constitutes a market failure.

But we don't have to accept the diminishment of our musical culture. We're organizing a response, and we intend to fight for the viability of new music/ indie/experimental jazz traditionally based in the LES. We don't intend to let Tonic's eviction pass without making some serious noise.

We hope you'll join us. If you'd like to help out or be kept informed of upcoming events, please sign up for the mailing list by sending an email to: indy_music_action-subscribe@... [NB: sorry this was cut off in the email I received...I'll pass along the full address when I get it - DM].

and if you just want to keep up to date with what we're planning, you should go to:

http://www.takeittothebridge.com

We are an ad hoc coalition of musicians and supporters of new/ experimental jazz/indie music. We represent a racially and culturally diverse community united in our desire to preserve the cultural legacy and future viability of the progressive jazz, experimental rock, and new music historically based in the LES.

Thank you,
Marc Ribot

Rest in peace, Kurt. Looks like all those Pall Malls finally caught up with ya.

Some pertinent quotes from KV:

"The only specifically American inventions that have made this a better world are Alcoholics Anonymous and jazz, and jazz has no bad side effects."

"I will say too, that lovemaking, if sincere, is one of the best ideas Satan put in the apple she gave to the serpent to give to Eve. The best idea in that apple, though, is making jazz."

"If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don’t have nerve enough to be a homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts. “

Once a month, the Jazz Institute of Chicago holds a jam session for elementary through high school aged kids at the Chicago Cultural Center.  The cost to the students to play and the public to hear is nothing - and they hire a killer house band to back the kids up, encourage them, and lead by example.

I caught one of the sessions today. The band consisted of Robert "Baabe" Irving III on piano, the man behind the later years of Miles Davis (not his proudest years, but to be Miles' right hand man you have to be the real deal). Baabe is a killer player and he possesses a very generous and kind spirit.

Kobie Watkins played drums. He's a young guy but his recent appointment as the new drummer in Sonny Rollins' current touring unit speaks for itself.

Lorin Cohen played bass, a first call guy in Chicago who plays with all kinds of guys. MC'ing the session and playing trumpet was the multi-talented

Corey Wilkes, another young guy who's already all over the place with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Will Calhoun, Greg Osby, and others.

They don't get paid a ton of money, but they make as much if not more than a door gig in the city. But the real point is that they're playing because they want to, and they see the value in playing with the young kids and passing along their craft. These kids can't get into clubs, and they know the value of learning on the bandstand as well as the classroom. They offer encouragement, tips, and you can tell that being on the same stage as them means a lot to the kids.

People come just to hear the kids go, cheer them on, and occasionally laugh at the funny faces kids make when they're soloing.

Corey got some of his first playing opportunities from the Jazz Institute, as did Maurice Brown, and I'm sure many other musicians in the future will have come through this program at some point.

One particularly incredible story emerged in the last year. A 12 year old, blind since birth, pianist showed up at one of the sessions with his parents. He'd been playing his whole life but never played with a band before. When the MC asked him what he wanted to play, he called a somewhat obscure Eddie Harris tune, got up, and killed it. Everyone was in awe.

A few sessions later someone took a little video clip of him playing. His name is Ade (pronounced AH-day), and he has a musical sense beyond his years.

Sometimes things come together for no apparent reason.

Bill Dixon's name comes up more often these days, and his exposure seems to have increased as a direct result of the internet and blogosphere.

I recently found out that he will be making what is believed to be his first ever appearance in Chicago this summer.

The first appearance will be a concert on Wednesday, July 11. There will also be a Master Class and an in-gallery talk about his visual art. I hear the concert will feature Ken Vandermark and Michael Zerang. I'll post the details here when everything is confirmed and set up. I'm hoping to interview Mr. Dixon if he's willing and available.

There will be a second Bill Dixon show here in Chicago, in an intriguing setting and format, later in the summer. I'll divulge that info when everything is confirmed and it seems appropriate to do so.

Mwanji has a nice review of the Exploding Star Orchestra show he had the pleasure of seeing. It's a rarity, mostly because of the size and personnel to get the whole band in one place at the same time. I had the honor of helping produce their first show in Millennium Park two years ago, which was the show the band was formed for. It wasn't received particularly well by the audience - I'd say half of them or more got up and left in the course of the show. The critical reception was actually much better. It was praised for its adventurous spirit and for taking chances, described in the title of one review as "quietly cosmic."

There's a rare article about Charles Gayle in the Boston Globe. Nice to see him getting some press - I remember the first time I saw him and he stole the show.

A fascinating interview by Mike Heffley with Mei Han at his new blog - I'm glad to see Mike is doing some new research and I am excited to see the fruits.

It's always interesting to see the entire history of jazz in a few paragraphs.

I'll have some substantial posts up this week, some with some music - including a couple tracks of the AACM big band, the Great Black Music Ensemble doing a tribute to Fletcher Henderson from earlier this week - not to be missed.

I had the pleasure of seeing the William Parker Quartet last night at the Empty Bottle here in Chicago. I've seen Mr. Parker on several occasions, but never with his Quartet, which is by far my favorite group of his, having released two excellent recordings, 2000's fantastic O'Neal's Porch and the followup, 2004's Sound Unity.

The band consists of: Lewis 'Flip' Barnes on trumpet, Rob Brown on alto sax, William Parker on bass and shehnai (thx Jason), and Hamid Drake on drums.

Parker and Drake have become an indispensable rhythm team in recent years after their first encounter in one of Peter Brotzmann's groups, and with good reason. Their dynamic and empathetic interplay is second to few, if any.

I've always enjoyed the Quartet's music because of the impeccable balance Mr. Parker has struck between composition, improvisation, inside and outside playing. Last night showcased all of these elements in a set that had seamless segues between most of the songs - if I recall correctly there was only two breaks in the set, one in the middle, and one at the end before the encore, and there were several songs played during each of those stretches.

There's also an interesting mix of timbres from the players - Flip Barnes has a very clear trumpet tone, with nothing in the realm of extended technique - at times, Rob Brown has a very reedy, brash tone on the alto, but he also slips into some very smooth and fluid bebop lines - and Parker and Drake utilize all of their respective instruments, dynamically and harmonically. I've heard Parker state that one aspect of his study of the bass has been to view it as a drum set, with each string representing a different aspect of the set. It comes across in his strong rhythmic playing that lays a foundation for Drake's explorations in swing and polyrythms.

Fred Anderson was in the crowd enjoying the show, as William Parker alluded to when he mentioned there were musical luminaries in the audience. The band tipped their hat to the Chicago scene by playing a tribute to John Gilmore called "Gilmore's Hat" and a tribute to Malachi Favors Maghostut called "Malachi's Mode."

Unfortunately they only played one short set and an encore, it was an early show at the Empty Bottle to make way for the real money makers, a rock set with an audience that likes to drink. After the show I picked up the new William Parker/Hamid Drake duo disc from Aum Fidelity, Summer Snow, and I look forward to the new William Parker Quartet and Sextet recordings due out this spring on the same label.

Also, Rob Brown mentioned to me that hopefully he'll be back in town with his trio, with William Parker and Gerald Cleaver, at the Velvet Lounge, but that he was still working out the details.

Pictures later....

Bill Dixon will be honored this year at the Vision Festival. I'm really going to try to make it out there this year.

What: Vision Festival XII
A Dozen Years Of Visionary Music, Dance, Spoken Word, Film And
Visual Art

Date: Tuesday, June 19 through Sunday, June 24, 2007

Time: Tuesday - Saturday 7pm; Thursday 6pm; Sunday 5pm
plus a Saturday afternoon session starting at 2pm on June 23!

Place: Angel Orensanz Foundation
172 Norfolk Street, New York, NY

Tickets: $30 per night in advance / $35 day of show / $150 for 6
night pass
on sale April 5 at http://www.BrownPaperTickets.com or 800.838.3006

More Info: http://www.visionfestival.org or 212.696.6681

Vision Festival XII Schedule

Tuesday June 19
Poet/Host Lewis Barnes

7:00 Opening Invocation
Patricia Nicholson / William Parker / Hamid Drake

7:30 William Parker - "Double Sunrise Over Neptune" - World
Premiere
Lewis Barnes trumpet / Rob Brown alto saxophone / Sabir Mateen reeds
Bill Cole double reeds / Joe Morris guitar, banjo / Jason Kao
Hwang violin
Mazz Swift violin / Jessica Pavone viola / Shiau-Shu Yu cello /
Brahim Fribgane oud
William Parker bass / Shayna Dulberger bass / Hamid Drake drums /
Gerald Cleaver drums

8:30 Fieldwork
Steve Lehman saxophones, compositions / Vijay Iyer piano,
compositions
Tyshawn Sorey drums, compositions

9:30 The Keyboard Project: Cooper-Moore Quartet with Marlies Yearby
Darius Jones alto saxophone / Cooper-Moore keyboards
Nioka Workman cello / Chad Taylor drums / Marlies Yearby dance

10:30 Spiritual Unity featuring Marc Ribot (with special guest Henry
Grimes)
Roy Campbell trumpet / Marc Ribot guitar
Henry Grimes bass / Chad Taylor drums

Wednesday June 20 - Bill Dixon Lifetime Recognition
Poet/Host Barry Wallenstein

7:00 Barry Wallenstein and Friends
Barry Wallenstein vocals, poetry / Daniel Carter reeds, trumpet /
special guests TBA

7:30 Bill Dixon with the Sound Vision Orchestra - World Premiere
Bill Dixon trumpet, compositions
Graham Haynes trumpet / Stephen Haynes trumpet / Taylor Ho Bynum
cornet
Dick Griffin trombone / Steve Swell trombone / Joe Daley tuba
Andrew Raffo Dewar soprano saxophone / Michel Cote reeds / J.D.
Parran reeds
Will Connell, Jr. reeds / John Hagen reeds / Karen Borca bassoon
Glynis Lomon cello / Andrew Lafkas double bass
Warren Smith vibraphone, percussion / Jackson Krall percussion

9:30 Co-Pilots: Henry Grimes and Marilyn Crispell
Henry Grimes bass / Marilyn Crispell piano

10:30 Survival Unit III
Joe McPhee reeds, flügelhorn / Fred Lonberg-Holm cello
Michael Zerang drums

Thursday June 21
Poet/Host Alexandre Pierrepont

6:00 New York - Paris Poetry
Tribes, New York
Miguel Algarin, Steve Cannon, Steve Dalachinsky, Post Midnight,
Ishle Park
The Weavers, Paris
Thomas Gilson, Mathias Gross, Alexandre Pierrepont, Laurence
Pierrepont, Daniel Vassaux

7:30 Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble - Xenogenesis Suite: A
Tribute to Octavia Butler
David Young trumpet / Nicole Mitchell flute / David Boykin reeds
Justin Dillard piano / Tomeka Reid cello / Josh Abrams bass
Arveeayl Ra drums / Marcus Evans drums / Mankwe Ndosi vocals

8:30 Hardcell
Tim Berne alto saxophone / Craig Taborn piano / Tom Rainey drums

9:30 Local Lingo
Jason Kao Hwang violin, viola, compositions / Sang Won Park ajang,
kayagum, voice

10:30 Jayne Cortez and The Firespitters
Jayne Cortez poetry / Bern Nix guitar / special guests TBA
Al MacDowell bass / Denardo Coleman drums

Friday June 22
Poet/Host David Budbill

5:30 Panel Discussion Part I - Art in America: A Grassroots Struggle

7:00 50 Violins for Leroy Jenkins
Memorial tribute led by Billy Bang, coordinated by Jason Kao Hwang

7:30 Matthew Shipp Solo Piano

8:30 Roy Campbell's Ahkenaten Suite - World Premiere
Roy Campbell trumpet / Billy Bang violin / Bryan Carrott vibraharp
Hilliard Greene bass / Zen Matsuura drums

9:30 Dance/Music/Art Installation "A State of Mind" by Patricia
Nicholson
Dance: Miriam Parker, Julia Wilkins, Gus Solomons, jr
Music: Lewis Barnes, Rob Brown, William Parker, Hamid Drake
Artists: Jo Wood Brown, Katie Martin, Kazuko Miyamoto, Phyllis
Bulkin-Lehrer, Lili White

10:15 Fred Anderson Trio
Fred Anderson tenor saxophone / Harrison Bankhead bass
Hamid Drake drums

11:15 Spindrift for Leroy Jenkins
Myra Melford piano, melodica / Mark Taylor French horn
Brandon Ross guitars / Shuni Tsou di-zi

Saturday Afternoon June 23

2:00 Michael Bisio Quartet
Stephen Gauci winds / Avram Fefer winds
Michael Bisio bass / Jay Rosen percussion

3:00 SYNERGY Sight and Sound
Amir Bey costumes, set design / Saco Yasuma alto saxophone,
compositions
Ras Moshe reeds / Dave Ross guitar / Christopher Dean Sullivan
bass / Lou Grassi drums

4:00 Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone
Mary Halvorson guitar, vocals / Jessica Pavone viola, vocals

5:00 Corey Wilkes Quintet
Corey Wilkes trumpet, flügelhorn, vocals / Kevin Nabors tenor
saxophone
Junuis Paul bass / Isaiah Spencer drums / Jumaane Taylor dance

Saturday Night June 23
Poet/Host David Budbill

7:30 Ganelin Trio Priority
Vyacheslav Ganelin piano, synthesizer, percussion / Petras
Vysniauskas soprano sax
Klaus Kugel drums, percussion

8:30 Eddie Gale All-Star Band
Eddie Gale trumpet / Prince Lasha reeds / Kidd Jordan tenor saxophone
Valerie Mih piano / William Parker bass / Alvin Fielder drums /
Patricia Nicholson dance

9:30 Rob Brown Quartet
Rob Brown alto saxophone / Lewis Barnes trumpet
Todd Nicholson bass / Guillermo E. Brown drums

10:30 Whit Dickey Trio
Sabir Mateen reeds / Todd Nicholson bass / Whit Dickey drums

11:30 Amiri and Amina Baraka's Blue Ark
Amiri Baraka poetry / Amini Baraka poetry, vocals
Dwight West vocals / Rene McLean reeds / Adegoke Steve Colson piano
Curtis Lundy bass / Pheeroan akLaff drums

Sunday June 24
Poet/Host Alexandre Pierrepont

3:30 Panel Discussion Part II - What Is "Serious" Music or Art?

5:00 T.E.C.K. String 4tet
Tomas Ulrich cello / Elliott Sharp acoustic guitars
Carlos Zingaro violin / Ken Filiano double bass

6:00 Hamid Drake now
Hamid Drake drums / Paolo Angeli prepared guitar
Sabir Mateen reeds / Patricia Nicholson dance

7:00 Thomas Buckner Trio
Thomas Buckner vocals / Jerome Bourdellon flute / Roscoe Mitchell
reeds

8:00 Daniel Levin Quartet
Daniel Levin cello / Nate Wooley trumpet / Joe Morris bass / Matt
Moran vibraphone

9:00 Louis Moholo and Friends
Kidd Jordan tenor saxophone / Dave Burrell piano
William Parker bass / Louis Moholo drums

Visual Art at The Vision Festival
A State of Mind
Dialogue Amongst the Arts

Amir Bey - installation
Jo Wood Brown - installation
Kazuko Miyamoto - installation
Yuko Otomo - installation
Maura Sheehan - installation
Cassie Thornton - installation

Bill Mazza - live drawings
Jorgo Schaefer - live drawings
Jeff Schlanger - live drawings

Bill Dixon - painting
Robin Kahn - painting

Phyllis Bulkin Lehrer - video
Katy Martin - video
Lili White - video

Peter Gannushkin - photographer
Luciano Rossetti - photographer
Michael Wilderman - photographer

There's a nice interview with Peter Gordon of Thirsty Ear Recordings up on AAJ, talking about the industry, the music, and the birth of the Blue Series that Matthew Shipp and Mr. Gordon have cultivated.

I'm always appreciative of people who are documenters of the music and who release recordings whose artistic potential is inherently greater than its commercial potential. I guess potential isn't the right word there - I'd like to believe that the commercial potential is huge, but the commercial reality isn't remarkable.
A few quotes I like from the interview:

"If there’s a problem with music and jazz in particular today, it’s that [jazz] is caught up in form and structure. And that should come later, after you’ve done the innovation. If we start with form and structure then you can’t ever get beyond that—it becomes your prison. What we encourage at Thirsty Ear is to just let it go."

"We have our great masters and no one can escape our big masters—it’s like a quicksand we fall into. You have to force innovation because it’s not promoted as greatness. If you look at the essence of jazz—that’s the original punk rock back in the day. These guys are the bad boys, these are the guys that were saying “screw you” to music, doing their late night sessions and cutting the cloth in a different way. [Jazz] has become so institutionalized it’s become antithetical to its original roots."

"Jazz doesn’t succeed because it’s not in the common culture. The common culture is about today not about yesterday—yesterday is history. And if jazz wants to be alive and it needs to be alive, it needs to relevant and it can’t be relevant if you’re always tipping the masters of fifty years ago. It can only be in historical society then. The masters are great and the masters will never be topped and that’s precisely the problem—they never will be topped. So let’s try something new! Let’s try something fresh."

Emphases mine.

More later....

I had the great fortune to recently receive a live AIR show from 1979, featuring Fred Hopkins, Steve McCall and Henry Threadgill. For my money they're one of the most interesting and innovative sax trios in the history of the music, and a flagship AACM group that really embodies the aesthetic and ethic of ancient to future, tackling everything from Jelly Roll Morton to Threadgill's own music, which was certainly forward (as well as horizontal) looking.

I like Greg Sandow's description of AIR: "In Air, it's fair to say, nobody kept time, and everyone played melody. Musical space -- normally organized by rhythm and harmony -- is instead shaped by movement. Or, to put the same thing in visual terms, Threadgill's pieces for Air are like surprising pencil drawings, in which you don't see colors or even forms, but which instead are brought to life by the active twisting of the penciled lines."

It's an exaggeration to say nobody kept time - I think it's better to say that everyone kept time and everyone played melody. There are certainly examples of buoyant and joyous rhythmic playing by the band.

It's a remarkably democratic trio. The concert that I'm listening to begins with introductions of the band members by an Italian announcer in the order listed in the title above, and then goes directly into a Steve McCall solo introduction, a tune that has a form of drum solo/head/drum solo/head/ensemble playing/drum solo out.

Threadgill is so versatile. When I listen to him I hear Eddie Harris, Clifford Jordan, John Gilmore, I hear the double reed bombast of the bombard, and so, so much more, all filtered through Threadgill's unique range of musical and life experience. I hear the flute, and I hear sensitive avant balladry. He's always been attuned to issues of timbre, as is obvious by the diverse instrumentation he utilizes in his groups.

As far as I know, Threadgill is still living a secluded life in India with his wife and daughter. He rarely performs in his hometown of Chicago anymore (I think the last time was in the late '90s) or even in the US. I respect his decision to step out of the hustle of modern life although I wish I had more opportunities to hear his music live. His recorded output is so consistently good in my opinion that I can't complain about the rate of the releases.

A great article by Wayne Shorter in Downbeat from 1968 (via Jeff Parker).

Apparently I'm not the only one digging on Charles Brackeen's Worshippers Come Nigh. I'll second Hank's question at the end, which is what became of Mr. Brackeen and his bold tenor and buoyant writing sensibilities?

Looks like EMI has come to its senses and will release music DRM-less. I'm also excited to hear that they'll be offering downloads in higher fidelity for a marginally higher price. I'd still like to see them sell some form of lossless compression, but hopefully in time they will.

More later.....