Jazz

Stop Smiling, a Chicago based magazine for high minded lowlifes (their tagline, not mine), has just released a Jazz issue, and it's well worth your attention for a number of reasons.

First, and perhaps foremost, is the great writing contained within: there are interviews with Ornette Coleman, Bobby Hutcherson, Avreeayl Ra, Robert Barry, Jeff Parker, Ron Carter, and Olu Dara amongst others. There is music writing by musicians: Josh Abrams interviews Avreeayl Ra and Robert Barry, Damon Locks interviews Jeff Parker, Patricia Barber writes about Nina Simone, and Peter Brotzmann writes about Eric Dolphy in an extended tribute to the man and his music.

Second, there are three beautiful black and white covers to choose from (or collect all three, if you're into that kind of thing): Ornette Coleman, Bobby Hutcherson, and Eric Dolphy. Click here to check them out.

Third, this is not a strictly music magazine, but they have the presence of consciousness to devote an issue to the art form of jazz (the covers feature the tagline: Start Appreciating America's Greatest Art Form), a principled act of advocacy on their part. They always cover music, but this is a whole issue; their support of jazz was clear to me last year when I attended a show they put on with Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake, reviewed here.

I love a good magazine. Don't you?

If I've managed to pique your curiosity, you can purchase the magazines online here, or find them in your local spots here. If you buy it online, you also have an option to purchase a Limited Edition 7" Peter Brotzmann single, if you're into that kind of thing.

Pick up a copy, peruse, and support publications that help support and promote the arts.

Is there a more beautiful male vocal jazz album in the history of recorded music than the one John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman made?

If there is, please let me know, as I'd be more than willing to let another album of that caliber into my regular listening rotation.

Despite my avant proclivities, this album gets frequent listening time in my house. There's an unhurried calm that pervades the proceedings that I find soothing and soul-baringly gorgeous.

What are the qualities of the sound produced by these men that makes the album strike such a chord with me?

What separates the sincere from the saccharine when dealing with balladry such as this?

We all know that a ballad can head into Velveeta-ville rather quickly if put in the wrong hands. I'm not quite sure, other than the obvious reasons of skill and expressiveness, what makes John Coltrane and his quartet, with the addition of Johnny Hartman, so able to avoid swimming in the seas of cheese.

But they do.

There's a minimalist quality to the accompaniment that shows the utmost restraint. It's this understanding of the most basic underpinnings of what makes a song that also makes Coltrane's Ascension such an interesting and incredible achievement.

When asked about his collaboration with Hartman, in a Franz Kofsky interview, John Coltrane said:

"There was something about his voice."

Maybe that's as specific as we need to be in explaining beauty such as this.

Yesterday was a great day of music here in Chicago, starting out at the Hyde Park Arts Center where I led a panel discussion about the realities of local musician run record labels. The panelists included Asian Improv Records co-founder Francis Wong (the other co-founder, Jon Jang didn't come out to Chicago for the festival this year), Tatsu Aoki, and co-owner/proprietors of Southport records, Bradley Parker-Sparrow and Joannie Palatto. There was a great crowd of around 75-100 people there, and it took place in a gallery enveloping us in visual art.

After talking about the history of their labels and how they came to be and interact, some interesting points came up in the ensuing conversation. One point made by Francis Wong was that they are not in the record business in the same way Columbia or Blue Note is. This might seem obvious, but his assertion tied into a recurring theme in the conversation, which was that these labels existed more to give these artists a voice than to make a lot of money. That point was hammered home by Tatsu Aoki, when asked about the role of the internet and technology in the label business, he noted that before they peddled records on the internet he sold about 10 copies a year of his solo bass album. Now that his records are all on the internet, he still sells about 10 copies a year.

Once we were done with our yapping, the first music of the day began. Billed as the Jeff Chan Trio Plus One Plus Two, it ended up being a reeds quintet featuring Jimmy Ellis on alto, Ed Wilkerson on tenor and clarinet, Jeff Chan on tenor and bass clarinet, Francis Wong on tenor and flute, and Lewis Jordan on alto and poetics.

Obvious comparisons to the WSQ aside, this was a great lineup that really took the music to a variety of interesting places. There were some very interesting compositions by Jeff Chan that added some structure while maintaining an improvisatory edge, and each member was featured at one point or another in the proceedings. One highlight was a solo montage by Jimmy Ellis who said he was going to paint a picture for the audience of a Sunday in his neighborhood growing up, where everyone would go to church in the morning and then the community would gather to spin jazz records in the afternoon, a trip to a different kind of church. Starting out slow with the sunrise and working through the church service, complete with a Come Sunday quote, once he got to the jazz portion he quoted a variety of standards in a fluid, unforced manner.

The evening festivities brought a reprise of a quartet that first got together last year for the Asian American Jazz Festival, playing two nights last year but only one this year. With Fred Anderson and Francis Wong on tenors, Tatsu Aoki on bass, and Chad Taylor in from New York on drums, I was anticipating the show since last year's music proved to be incendiary. While this year's set might not have reached the otherworldly highs that I recall from last year, it was still a superlative evening of music.

Tatsu Aoki and Chad Taylor are an incredible rhythm section, prone to locking into trance-like yet surprisingly malleable grooves that had many heads in the audience bobbing to the beat. There was one groove in the second set that any hip hop artist would have been proud to sample. It should be noted that Tatsu played incredibly well in spite of the fact that he has badly injured his back and had a full torso body cast on underneath his shirt, causing him considerable discomfort. Here's hoping he heals quickly and fully. Francis Wong and Fred Anderson both did their part, but there wasn't as much meshing of their musical sensibilities as I remember last year.

All in all, a fantastic day of music from all involved. I'm already looking forward to next year's fest.

Tomorrow is the closing day/night and biggest chunk of programming for the 12th Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival.

Starting off at the Hyde Park Art Center at 1 PM, there's going to be a panel discussion moderated by yours truly on the subject of the 20th Anniversary of Asian Improv Records, with Tatsu Aoki, Francis Wong, Bradley Parker-Sparrow and Joannie Palatto. It should be a good time, and in my role as moderator I hope to bring up some issues about the state of recording, the internet, and technology today.

That will be followed at 2 PM by a performance by The Jeff Chan Trio plus One plus Two featuring Hyde Park's own Jimmy Ellis - saxophone, Jeff Chan - winds, Tatsu Aoki – contrabass, Ed Wilkerson - winds and special guests from the West Coast, Lewis Jordan and Francis Wong – winds.

That's the billed group, but I'm told that Tatsu Aoki won't be performing - he recently had an accident that slipped a disc in his back and actually is currently wearing a body cast. Send out some good thoughts to Mr. Aoki if you have a moment, a wonderful musician and person. He's not going to play the afternoon set because he wants to save his energy for the gig later in the day:

Fred Anderson – tenor saxophone and Tatsu Aoki – contrabass, New-York-resident-but-Chicago-native Chad Taylor – drums and San Francisco’s Francis Wong – saxophone.

Live at the Velvet Lounge. This is a reprise of the same group that played two nights at the Velvet last year for the AAJazz Fest, and I was in attendance for the second night. Nothing short of smoldering, incendiary playing from all four members of the band. I'm really looking forward to this hit - last year, Tatsu and Chad locked into these incredible grooves with Fred Anderson and Francis Wong providing tenor fireworks over the top.

If you're in Chicago, come on out. It's going to be a great day of music.

Adam Rudolph & Hu Vibrational

Vijay Iyer

Duke Ellington