JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESRTA PERFORMED THE MUSIC OF MINGUS, DIZZY, ELLINGTON, COLTRANE & BRUBECK AT THE UMS JAZZ SERIES CONCERT

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

Of the fifteen members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, nine pitch in regularly with arranging music the orchestra plays. Thus giving it the ability to put together a show in a week. When you get to hear the meticulously arranged compositions like the ones the orchestra played Sunday afternoon at their annual concert for the University Musical Society’s jazz series at Hill Auditorium, you’d believe the members responsible for the arrangements spent way more than a week perfecting the arrangements.

The one hour and forty-five minute concert the orchestra put on Sunday was the best in recent years. The orchestra, under the direction of trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, featured some of the works of Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane and Dave Brubeck. 

The orchestra didn't play a group of Mingus numbers, for example, followed by a batch of Ellington numbers. Instead, the compositions were interspersed, which gave the overall presentation a freer structure.

The orchestra opened with “Dizzy Moods,” composed by Mingus as an nod to Gillespie. Then the orchestra moved into Ellington’s “Oclupaca” a movement from his “Latin American Suite” and Gillespie’s “Fiesta Mojo,” a samba the orchestra added a lot of swing to.

The concert switched into a thoughtful and somber state when the orchestra played Marsalis' arrangement of Coltrane’s “Alabama”. The touching  featured solo by saxophonist Paul Nedzela could have caused a convict to weep. The orchestra showed they’re more than bloodthirsty swingers.

They ventured way out their swing comfort zone on Mingus’ “Los Mariachis (The Street Musicians)”. This number had more changes than a fashion show. The orchestra played each seamlessly. 

The standout soloists here were bassist Carlos Henriquez and drummer Ali Jackson who had the woman seated to my left all worked up as if she was viewing Internet porn. Jackson had his Mojo working big time.

This was a wonderful concert to sit through. Each musician was in mint form. It was good to hear a female trumpeter, Tanya Darby, cutting up in the trumpet section.

Marsalis has taken a lot of heat over the years for the absence of female musicians in the orchestra. Darby wasn’t featured on any of the selections, but she fit in nicely in the trumpet section with Marcus Printup, Kenny Rampton and Marsalis.

One of the delights was listening to Marsalis explain the origins of each composition. Marsalis is a walking encyclopedia of jazz, and listening to him is like being in a graduate seminar on the music. 

ALTO SAXOPHONIST RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA BREAKS DOWN HIS NEW ALBUM 'BIRD CALLS'

Rudresh Mahanthappa

You could spend damn near a year listing all the jazz alto saxophonists who owe a debt to bebop icon Charlie Parker. The alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa is quick to acknowledge Parker was one of his main musical influences. 

To this very day, Parker influence remains a big part of Mahanthappa's playing. He has a new album that was released nationwide Tuesday. He titled the album “Bird Calls” and it is a tribute to the late bebop icon. Mahanthappa opted not to put his spin on some of Parker’s well-known bop classics. 

Instead, he infused new compositions with snippets of Parker’s works, and then he assembled an excellent group to execute the new material. The result is a Charlie Parker tribute album unlike any other. 

I Dig Jazz emailed a batch of questions to Mahanthappa about the making of “Bird Calls” and the impact Parker has had on him as a player. Here’s how Mahanthappa broke it down.

How has Charlie Parker influenced you?

It’s hard to sum up in a few sentences.  His innovative spirit and joyful presentation are the most influential traits.  He was obviously a genius but the ways in which I am affected by his work go beyond the music and transcend more towards a template for overall communication and expression as an artist and as a human being.

Can you recall your first exposure to Parker's music?

Of course, it was an album called "Archetypes" that my first saxophone teacher had loaned me.

Has Parker always been your chief influence? If not, where does he rank among your musical influences?

I don’t think it behooves anyone to rank ones influences.  The palette of impactful moments and experiences is so wide ranging.  He’s a very strong influence and maybe more importantly, an early one as I first heard his work when I was very young. Those artists who first inspire one to play or practice are so significant. 

What inspired "Bird Calls"?

The concept behind Bird Calls was an idea that had been marinating in my brain for several years.  I had always considered that further dissection of Parker’s work could yield fresh and intriguing compositional ideas beyond the normal extraction of “licks” that have become be-bop cliches.  "Donna Lee" was the most blatant example to me of a piece that contains a plethora of modern material that defies genre and style.

How long did the album take to make, and were there any obstacles you had to overcome?

The music was constructed in several phases over 1½ years as I had other projects going simultaneously and did not yet know that I would be recording this Bird experiment. The process started with writing a few tunes for a concert at Tribeca Performing Arts Center’s Lost Jazz Shrines series where I had been asked to put together a program that somehow paid homage to Charlie Parker. 

A few months later, I presented this project again with a few more tunes at The Stone in NYC. The band debuted in its full formation with the album set of material at the Newport Jazz Festival this past year and we recorded a few days later.  The main obstacle concerned finding myriad modes and strategies to convey Parker’s musical wizardry while maintaining my own voice as a composer.

Why did you decide to compose new music instead of playing some of Parker's signature works?

I don’t believe playing Parker’s music adequately pays tribute to the gifts that he bequeathed to us.  It’s much more important to show his lasting impact on the shape of modern music.  That is something that goes well beyond the scope of performing his compositions.

How challenging was it working chunks of Parker's music into your original compositions?

Working in “chunks of Parker's music” is an over simplification. Each of my compositions for this album has a unique strategy in how Parker’s music is utilized. Sometimes it’s rhythmic content of something he played, other times it might be a snippet of a melody that has been re-contextualized.  Each piece is tied to a particular Bird tune or solo but that tie varies greatly from piece to piece. So keeping that in mind, it was very challenging to keep my approach fresh through out the album.

Do you see yourself someday making an album of Parker's compositions?

No. That does not interest me at all.

You have a world-class group in trumpeter Adam O'Farrill, pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist Francois Moutin, and drummer Rudy Royston. Adam O'Farrill's playing throughout the album was exceptional. How important was he to the project?

It was important to me to have a trumpet player on the album, as I wanted to maintain that front line sound of Bird and Diz (or Miles, Herb Pomeroy, etc).  I had been hearing about Adam for a while so I did some YouTube research and was blown away. Beyond being a forward-thinking prodigy, Adam is a wonderful human being and perfect fit for the band. I hope that we will play together for years to come.

if you had the chance to meet Parker, what would you have said to him?

I would say “thank you” and probably give him a kiss and long hug.

KENNY GARRETT MOSTLY STUCK TO HIS RECENT MUSIC AT THE PARADISE JAZZ SERIES CONCERT

Kenny Garrett

If you caught the Kenny Garrett set Friday night at Orchestra Hall, the third of the Paradise Jazz Series, and expected him to swing through music from his past albums such as “Songbook,” “Simply Said,” and “Pursuance: Music of John Coltrane,” chances are you were a bit disappointed when he didn’t.

There’s plenty of swinging that happened on the stage anyway but Garrett stuck to his most recent music. Garrett didn’t present any of the old stuff that put him on the map as a bandleader many moons ago. That doesn’t suggest in any way Garrett put on a bad concert. Garrett still plays the alto like a frustrated tenor sax player.

Garrett remains the reigning king of the alto sax. He has for many years although there’s some stiff competition out there with the likes of Rudresh Mahanthappa and Miguel Zenon, It was the band’s first gig of the New Year. There weren’t any visible signs of rust. That’s a sign of the level of musicianship in this band.

Some of the music Garrett’s band played had chanting, which was a disruption at times. You couldn’t tell who was doing the chanting. Garrett’s sweetness manifested when he gave the up-tempo burners a rest and played a ballad at grown folk’s tempo. 

Garrett was unsurprisingly brilliant mostly, and he has an outstanding band in drummer McClenty Hunter, bassist Corcoran Holt, percussionist Ruby Bird and pianist Vernell Brown.

Brown was the standout throughout hitting big with a series of highly charged solos. It seemed as if his fingers had knocked back a case of energy drinks before the set began. 

Garrett fancies percussive and showy pianists in his band. Over the years, Garrett has had some fine ones in Carlos McKinney and Benito Gonzalez. Brown has been with Garrett the longest. Brown sounded like McCoy Tyner at the height of Tyner’s power.

Brown didn’t carry the show though. Holt and Hunter pitched in, too. Hunter participated in the concert’s best spot with the meaty exchange with Garrett on the fourth number, which came off as a battle of wills. 

Holt was absolutely brilliant. He played a lively bass solo that had the hairs on the necks of the audience doing the Dougie.

Bird, on the other hand, seemed out of sorts. Throughout the set, he was in his own world. He’s a decent enough percussionist but he didn’t put forth anything memorable. His dancing at the end of the set was silly and unnecessary.

Garrett showed he can be a ham also doing everything in his power to get the audience to cheer louder when he played his signature set closer “Happy People”. It was cheesy and overkill because Garrett had the crowd eating out of his hands all night long.

THE OAKLAND JAZZ QUARTET WITH REGINA CARTER TOOK A STAB AT SOME OF JIMI HENDRIX'S BIGGEST HITS

Regina Carter

Chances are the full house at the Virgil Carr Center Saturday evening really didn’t know what to expect. Yes, Detroiter violinist Regina Carter was playing. She’s one of a handful of jazz musicians who consistently put on memorable shows. Her set at the 2014 Detroit Jazz Festival was one of its high points. This time Carter wasn't with her regular touring band, and she wasn’t performing cuts from her wonderful 2014 album “Southern Comfort” or cuts from her other albums. 

The Carr Center isn’t the best place in the world to hear music. The sound system needs upgrading. The seating is such you can barely see the musicians. Installing a small stage would be an improvement. 

Carter was at the Carr Center with the Oakland Jazz Quartet playing some of rock-n-roll icon Jimi Hendrix’s greatest hits. The program was the brainchild of Carter and the jazz bassist Miles Brown, the director of Jazz Studies at Oakland University. Brown is an exceptional jazz bassist with a bottomless imagination.  

Carter isn’t new to ambitious undertakings. She’s the only jazz musician to play the prestigious Paganini violin. In 2006, she won the MacArthur Genius Grant. She was honest with the crowd, telling them she didn’t grow up with Hendrix’s music. At times that was apparent. 

Carter performed with drummer Sean Dobbins, pianist Scott Gwinnell, percussionist Mark Stone, and Brown. For musicians unaccustomed to playing Hendrix’s music regularly, they did a fair job. 

Gwinnell and Carter did most of the arranging. The band opened with “Fire,” moved into “Ezy Rider”. Then Dobbins took the floor on “Third Stone from the Sun”. This was the most far-out number the band played. Normally, Dobbins’ drum solos stick to your ribs. This wasn’t one of his shining moments although the bulk of the crowd seemed impressed. 

Overall, the problem with the performance was neither musician seemed intimately knowledgeable of Hendrix’s songbook. You wonder how sweet this project would’ve been had the band spent more than a day or so familiarizing themselves with Hendrix’s hits. 

DRUM ROLL PLEASE, I DIG JAZZ TOP TEN JAZZ ALBUMS OF 2014

1.          Embraceable Vincent Chandler (Self-produced) Trombonist Vincent Chandler left Detroit this year to run the Jazz Studies department at Claflin University in Orangeburh, S.C. For Detroit, it was a big lost. Chandler was a top player and jazz educator on Detroit’s scene. Chandler left behind the city with an outstanding album titled “Embraceable”. The album, which features some of Detroit’s leading veterans and young players, was Chandler’s first full-length date as a session leader. Some years ago, he co-led two sessions with the great ensemble Urban Transport. “Embraceable is a gem and shows Chandler at the height of his virtuosity. Chandler composed all the tunes on the album.  The more you play this album the more you'll love it. 

2.               Improvise Sean Jones (Mack Avenue Records) This is a milestone album for trumpeter Sean Jones, marking his tenth year on Mack Avenue Records. Jones was one of the company’s first stars, and he’s consistently put out great jazz music. “Improvise” is his best to date, and it can serve as sufficient proof that all the talk about Jones being the finest jazz trumpeter of his generation is correct. Jones could blow the heat off the sun. He pulled off this exceptional date with the assistance of some of his running buddy’s pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Luques Curtis and drummer Obed Calvarie.

3.              Afro Physicist Theo Croker (DDB Records)This is the jazz trumpeter’s first record on jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater’s record label, but it isn’t his first outing has a session leader. Suffice it to say, “Afro Physicist” certainly has all the energy and the work ethic of a debut. It’s Croker’s mission statement, and should solidify him as a major player in jazz. “Afro Physicist” is a melting pot of styles, the kind of jazz album that up-and-comers like Croker are making.

4.          Road Shows Volume 3 Sonny Rollins (Doxy Records) This is the best of the “Road Show” albums, which Rollins started releasing a few years back. It’s a live date, and Rollins is in top improvisational form. “Solo Sonny” demonstrates why he’s been the reigning king of improvisation for five decades.

5.         In My Solitude Branford Marsalis (Marsalis Music) Marsalis gave his working band the night off and performed this date solo. The album was recorded live at Grace Cathedral. A cathedral is a suitable venue to accommodate Marsalis’s massive tone. The saxophonist works out on a number of well-known standards. This album feels as if Marsalis invited a bunch of people to his house to experience one of his marathon practice sessions firsthand.

6.        Midnight Melodies Cyrus Chestnut (Smoke Sessions) It isn’t too premature to call pianist Cyrus Chestnut a legend. Chestnut has the body of work to support such a distinction. “Midnight Melodies” is Chestnut’s first live album, a date he’s been plotting for years and finally got around to executing. Chestnut’s version of the Milton Jackson oldie “Bag’s Groove” is the standout here. 

7.    Manhattan Stories Charles Lloyd (Resonance Records) A live two-disc recording that Lloyd made with guitarist Gabor Szabo, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Peter La Roca Sims. It's Lloyd in his glory after he’d worked all that John Coltrane shit out of his system. Throughout Lloyd and Szabo sound like kindred spirits.

8.     Acacia Jesse Kramer (Self-produced) Kramer’s net worth is growing around the Detroit jazz scene. The youngster is in demand. And “Acacia,” his debut as a leader is the kind of hybrid jazz music he’s into currently. The music on the album isn’t straight ahead jazz, and most jazz purists wouldn't cotton to it. But, man does the music swing.

9.          The Art of Conversation Kenny Barron and Dave Holland (Impulse!) On paper, this pairing seems odd. Barron and Holland are from different points of the music. Barron is a post-bop apostle who has blessed every band he’s played in, and Dave is a central figure in both jazz fusion and free jazz. Putting them in the studio together seemed foolish, but somehow it worked. “The Art of Conversation” is one of the best jazz duo dates ever made. Barron and Holland wisely selected to perform music from their songbooks.

10.          Kayak Gary Schunk Trio featuring Peter Erskine (Detroit Music Factory) Pianist Gary Schunk knows how to make an old school jazz trio album, the variety that Oscar Peterson, Red Garland and Ray Brown used to make. Schunk was in a near fatal car accident and recovered in sufficient time to experience the success of this album, which to date is the best the upstart label Detroit Music Factory has put out. The ingredient that makes every cut on this album memorable is the superior drumming of Peter Erskine. 

DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER SANG LADY DAY HITS & YULETIDE FAVES AT PARADISE JAZZ SERIES CONCERT

Dee Dee Bridgewater

Jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater’s live shows can be R-rated at times, which her fan base enjoys because she is such a dynamic performer. Being over the top is part of her game. Friday night, at the Paradise Jazz Series in Detroit, She was tamed. She still put on a great show due largely to the young band she works with nowadays – trumpeter Theo Croker, pianist Michael King, saxophonist Irwin Hall, bassist Eric Wheeler and drummer Kassa Overall.

Croker is the band’s leader. Earlier this year, he put out a fine album titled “Afro Physicist,” which Bridgewater produced. Croker runs the band, but King is its workhorse and its star. As he proved during his soloing. 

He’s a tasteful pianist who communes with the piano instead of banging it as if he's angry at it. Bridgewater seemed to be in heaven surrounded by all the testosterone.

She shared the bill with vocalist and guitarist Raul Midon, a one-man band. He can turn his voice into a brass instrument at will. During his set, it seemed as if an invisible trumpeter was on stage. He sang a handful of cuts from his current album. His set scored with the crowd. He loosened them up for Bridgewater.

Her set was tamed mostly. She did unlock her inner hoochie a few times, making sexual remarks about Eric Wheeler's big bass, and rubbing Midon’s inner thigh when he joined the band for “A Christmas Song”. 

Bridgewater sang cuts from her Grammy winning “Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959) To Billie with Love from Dee Dee Bridgewater”.

Her band stripped down and then applied new coats of varnish to Holiday’s “Lady Sings the Blues,” and “Fine and Mellow”. The band’s take of “God Bless the Child” was so touching it would’ve made Holiday weep in her grave. 

The band segued nicely into a gang of Christmas songs after Bridgewater’s nod to Holiday.

Bridgewater was a bit nervous when Croker put her on the spot calling Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas”. It was Bridgewater’s first time singing it. She sight read the lyrics and brought down the house in the process.

BOB JAMES MIXED SMOOTH JAZZ & BOP WITH SOME OF HIS GREATEST HITS AT UMS CONCERT

Bob James

Jazz pianist Bob James is the king of smooth jazz. He always brings sophistication and cool to the music. There’s an element of bop to his playing also. He can stretch out on a Horace Silver number, for example, with the same aplomb as on a smooth jazz number. Those strengths were on display at his concert Saturday at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, MI. James played the second concert of the University Musical Society’s 2014-2015 jazz series.

The first half of the concert was heavy on smooth jazz with James’ band – guitarist Perry Hughes, drummer Harvey Mason, bassist Carlitos del Puerto and saxophonist Aaron Heick – kicking ass on some of James’ greatest hits. The band was hardcore. 

They’re adept smooth jazz musicians who know their way around pure jazz also.  Heick subbed for James’ regular saxophonist Andy Snitzer. Heick blowing had a rich bop feel. Picture how Charlie Parker would’ve sounded had he invented smooth jazz.

Hughes, a Detroiter and one of the most respected jazz guitarist on the scene, was sort of a security blanket for James who was relaxed with Hughes at his side. The star of the band was del Puerto, a monster bassist from Cuba. He’s the youngest and the most colorful member. He delivered the most exciting solos.

After the band got the crowd going, they switch to more straight-ahead jazz. James saluted the late jazz greats Horace Silver and Dave Brubeck. James’ exchange with del Puerto on Silver’s “Sister Sadie” was outrageous. On the surface, it seemed as if they were horsing around, but midway it became a serious exchange of improvisational ideas. 

James played to original tunes honoring Brubeck “Don’t Go to College” and “Follow Me”. Both had Brubeck’s trademarks such as those odd time signatures Brubeck fancied.

The crowd got a big boner when James played the theme song of the hit 80’s sitcom “Taxi”.  James is 74 and he played as if in his prime. His solos were joyous, and he successfully married straight-ahead jazz with smooth jazz. Something different for the conservative crowd who supports the UMS jazz series.