US sax man blows up hope in Jamaica

KINGSTON, Jamaica

For American saxophonist Brent Birckhead (left), a visit to Jamaica, under the auspices of the United States Embassy was a coveted gig, and not just for a tropical break in the middle of winter. Through a workshop hosted by the Embassy on the campus of the capital city's Edna Manley College for the performing arts(EMC), it offered the 2010 Downbeat Poll winner a chance to connect with the renowned Jamaican musical spirit


For youngsters like  trumpet player Sheldon Griffiths(below left) from Kingston's troubled and depressed inner cities, it meant even more. The lanky Griffiths, who is part of a charity programme called St Patrick's Foundation played Bob Marley's No Woman Nuh Cry, in the process inspiring the clinician who after a minute or two of .  listening to Griffiths, eased into the tune with dexterity and tenderness

In addition to St Patrick's The workshop participants were drawn from members of the Jamaica Combined Cadet Force Band, the Sam Sharpe Community Band from the western capital of Montego Bay, students at the EMC, and high schools from the southern parishes of Clarendon, St Catherine and the capital, Kingston.


After bringing all the participants on the auditorium stage for an impromptu "group improv" Birckhead challenged the gathering to nourish a vision of themselves as great and to practice so that they could one day eclipse him and other leading players.

The programme, which also included a live performance the following evening inside Kingston's Emancipation Park, came at a time when Kingston's music scene, in deep depression after a vibrant heyday (up to the mid 1980s) is once again showing signs of life. Venues new and old are offering live programmes with instrumental as well as vocal performers. 

A Sample

turanator1

The following is a sample minicast of recent CDs and other items from the site (from podomatic.com) set to the tune of Dr Lonnie "The Turbanator" Smith

Jazzin Up Downtown

THE Ward Theatre in downtown Kingston will benefit from a fund-raising concert to be staged by The Institute of Jamaica (IOJ) in collaboration with the Ward Theatre Foundation (WTF), as another in the Sunday Morning Concert Series on Sunday, March 6. The concert simply titled 'Jazz for the Ward' is scheduled for 11:00 am in the Institute's Lecture Hall, at the Tower Street entrance.

Jazz for the Ward will feature accomplished musicians Nicholas Laraque on flute; tenor and alto saxophones, Dr Carol Ball on piano, as well as multi-talented jazz vocalist, Myrna Hague. The concert will be presented under the patronage of Leonora Rueda, Ambassador of Mexico to Jamaica, in recognition of the strong cultural ties between both countries

The Ward Theatre has been "under construction" since it was severely damaged by Hurricane Dean in 2007. Work was completed on the roof, stage and some outer areas in 2010. However, the building is still not ready for commercial use and the Foundation is preparing to award a contract for a complete refurbishing/ reconstruction to facilitate re-opening of the Ward in 2012. Financing for this final phase of the project is expected to begin by mid-year and will be provided by the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF)
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Fluid & more: CD Reviews

welcome aboard th Jazz Bus  for 2K11. Thanks to all our friends, contacts  and well-wishers for your support through 2010, and we intend to do even greater work this year as we advance improvised music. Our review bag today features the latest from soprano sax explorer,  Jane Ira Bloom, some freshly "reFused" sound from Heavy Tin, new Orleans 'force of nature' Trombone Shorty's "Backatown" and guitarist Chris Crocco and his aptly named Fluid Trio

Trombone Shorty - Backatown (Verve)

Visitors to the Monterery Jazz fest this past fall would have experienced the boundless energy and razor-sharp musicianship of Troy 'Trombone Shorty' Anderson. Now, Anderson, and his co-horts have attempted to bottle some of that "We do it all" spirit in this disc, and happily, little has been lost in the process. The infectious grooves are all there, undiluted and even if the madcap motions and shifts of the live show are not fully replicated in the sound, there's enough for the listener to put himself vicariously in the performance space. Anderson very nearly does it all - multiple instruments, and vocals on some tracks, but he does get some help, notably from rocker Lenny Kravitz on 'Something Beautiful". The instrumental tracks generally outshine the vocal one, but its all shot through with the leader's irrepressible optimism. This si good-time music for anytime.

Heavy Tin - reFused (Concinnity Records)
A similar spirit pervades this CD, a follow-up to the fused jazz disc released last fall.

Provocateurs BR Pearson on piano and Izzy Reel (bass) have added Viktor Lorak on drums to further round out their bop-funk explorations, and the difference can be heard on steamrolling tracks like "Hammer Dat!" and "Bop Bomb" Which is not to say that the group doesn't know how to ease up on the gas: "Sweet Beet" begins in classic ballad style, with Pearson's gently contemplative yet expansive pianisms and Lorak's subtle brush work, while "Simple Saviour" could have formed part of the soundtrack of any contemporary Oscar-worthy drama.

But its clear that reFused is meant  to convey the fun of the music, even the brief liner notes betray a sly sense of humour. The intention is to impart a feel-good vibe to the listener, but on the band's own terms, without pandering.

In that, they have succeeded handsomely.  



Jane Ira  Bloom - WingWalker (Outline)

Jane Ira Bloom is hardly the first jazz artist to reference the cosmos, but she's one of the cleverest.

Her latest exploration of inner and outer space is chock full of re-imaginings and re-constitutions of existing conventions. Early case in point: "Life on Cloud 8" presents a striking contrast to the blissful ignorance of "Cloud 9" and presents instead a strutting, struggling, even somewhat menacing kind of drudgery. Bloom is well aided in this by her collaborators- Mark Helias on bass, drummer Bobby Previte and Dawn Clement on piano and Fender Rhodes.
'Freud's Convertible" suggests a stroll rather than a drive, but one in which the iconic psychoanalyst is attentive to the varied stimuli of his environment;Bloom's soprano suggests waves of thoughts and ideas - thorny issues being confronted, if not resolved. "Rooftops Speak Dreams" conjures up lazy nights of fascination, gazing at the stars from some preferred vantage point.

Of particular note is the final track, and the only cover, "I Could Have Danced All Night". Yanking it from the heady, romantic delirium of "My Fair Lady" Bloom's solo rendition instead sounds like the wishful thinking of a dance marathon loser, or maybe the wistful recollections of one who can no longer dance at all.





The Chris Crocco Fluid Trio +
Guitarist Chris Crocco has devoted his career thus far to the quest for authentic expression - ie, he has sought to let his music speak to whatever his life experiences may be at the particular time.

Such phrases may seem lofty, but in various musical combinations, Crocco has made his explorations palpable, and this latest iteration is no exception, boasting both impressive compositions and instrumental dynamism, as one might expect from the presence of George Garzone, Peter Slavov and Francisco Mela.

The songs vary in both tempo (fast to slow) and pitch (loud to
soft) and more importantly, their open-ended structures leave plenty of room for
all the players to fill. Indeed, Crocco's highest virtue as a leader may be in his innate
sense of when to push forward with his largely single-line musings and when to hang back and
allow his excellent partners to take his ideas forward. The drumming of Mela in particular, is a treat, hopping across the set one moment, pounding authoritatively the next and near silent another moment.

The Fluid Trio + is testament to the sonic benefits that come from focussing on the integrity of musical interplay in the moment; one doesn't waste any energy trying to avoid cliches - they simply have no room to enter.

Financing a JazzFest: Marciac reveals

As the following from NPR shows, financing a major jazz fest like France's annual Marciac Festival really comes down to one thing: keeping an army of volunteers happy.

• Jazz in Marciac generated over 7 million Euros' worth of economic benefit for the Marciac region.
• The festival's overall budget is 3,455,000 Euro. Public financing makes up 421,000 Euro, while private sponsorship provides 354,000 Euro. Thus, the festival is 72.1 percent self-financed, accounting for additional revenue.
• 225,000 people came for the festival (up 2.3 percent), and 66,500 tickets (up 8.46 percent) for paid shows were sold.
• The festival depended on its 800 volunteers. They would have cost 950,000 Euro to employ at minimum wage alone. However, the festival did host 400 of those volunteers on site for a total of 6,000 person-nights.
• 17,500 meals were served in all, including musicians, technical crew, staff and volunteers. The volunteers accounted for 11,190 meals alone.

Currently, one Euro is worth around 1.31 U.S. dollars, which is about the exchange rate at the time of the festival this past summer.

 

I've never studied the accounting sheets in depth for other festivals, but one element looks to me to be rather extraordinary. For a festival of such magnitude to generate 72.1% of its revenue by itself — largely in ticket sales, one imagines, though "l'autofinancement" isn't exactly defined — is a serious achievement. Even Jazz in Marciac says that 2010 was a banner year (an "année record") for them.

But it isn't shocking that these sorts of things bring in so much money for their communities. The arts seem to require a lot of money, especially when you bring in Wynton Marsalis, Diana Krall, Chick Corea, Jamie Cullum, Chucho Valdes, Ahmad Jamal and Esperanza Spalding, plus tons of other artists. (That was just in 2010.) But the arts can also be even more massive economic engines; in this case, the economic benefit to the area far outstrips taxpayer cost. Plus, how do you put a value on human creativity? [La Dépêche du Midi: Festival Jazz in Marciac tient la forme (French) / Jazz in Marciac festival takes shape(automated English translation)]

Primack's Time: Year-end Notes from the Jazz Video Guy

Tireless jazz advocate Bret Primack, otherwise known as the Jazz Video Guy,  has put together another excellent package in service of the sound.


This time around, it includes a recent interview with saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins; an EPK for Joe Lovano’s new Charlie Parker tribute; a report on Jazz in Taiwan; a preview of the Yellowjacket’s first studio recording in three years; and, a Message to the Jazz Community from the Jazz Video Guy.

The numbers:  Bret posted 172 videos in 2010.  There are now 600 videos available on the Jazz Video Guy YouTube channel, which has 15.5 million views, 18,546 YouTube subscribers and friends.

Sonny Digs Groucho:  Bret interviewed the Saxophone Colossus on December 23rd via phone and put together this video using John Abbott’s remarkable photographs.

http://tinyurl.com/newkgroucho Lovano Digs Bird:  Joe Lovano’s Bird Songs, coming January 15th from Blue Note Records, explores the music of Charlie Parker.  Bret put together an EPK:

http://tinyurl.com/lovanobird 
Joe’s group US Five will be featured in a live webcast from the Village Vanguard on January 12th, to celebrate the release.  Bret created a trailer for the webcast:

http://tinyurl.com/lovanowebcast  
Bret Digs Taipei:  During a recent trip to Taipei, Taiwan where his daughter teaches English, Bret sampled the local Jazz scene and came up with this report, featuring an American currently based in Taipei, Louis Goldford.

http://tinyurl.com/jazzintaiwan 
A Message to My Friends:  The Jazz Video Guy will be participating in next month’s JEN Conference in New Orleans.  Reflecting on the importance of solidarity, Bret offers a Message to the Jazz Community.

http://tinyurl.com/jazzcommunity 




- form Jazz Promo Services

From Avant-Garde and "Straight Ahead to 'Moonlighting" and Dubwise

This go-round, we have a mix of American and Jamaican releases, include the headline debut from longtime, part-time performer (when he's not helping entrepreneurs) Harold Davis (above), and a longstanding and still exciting release from guitar whiz Robert 'Dubwise' Browne (left). We also have the aptly named "Straight Ahead" (though not in the least predictable) from horn virtuoso and journeyman player Mac Gollehon and the latest from avant-pianist Bob Gluck.

 Pianist Bob Gluck has assembled a strong trio (Christopher Dean Sullivan on bass and Joe Giardullo on soprano sax) for this, a gently insistent and compelling collection  for which the term "rewards repeated listenings" is definitely apt.  The sound is potent yet expansive and open-ended. Beginning with the crystalline cascade of "Waterways" the listening experience is quite broad. On song after song, notably the by turns haunting and uplifting "October Song" Gluck & Co. keep the listener delightfully off-balance; tinkling sequences give way to percussive piano runs, with the plaintive wail of the soprano both counterpoint and accompaniment. This is music for those who want a little more - heck a lot more  - than the comfort of familiar melodies and chord changes. Gluck recognizes that dissonance - applied judiciously - can result in an illuminating musical experience, given the presence of excellent and committed players.



While the vagaries of the music business may see him doing duty in the service of globe-trotting artists like Shaggy, Robert 'Dubwise' Browne is actually a blazingly talented guitarist in the mode of a Joe Satriani or Steve Vai - except of course, for the fact that he has a far greater sensibility for reggae (and its pesky but resilient offshoot, dancehall) than either of those two gents.
Indeed, his Birth CD, first release several years ago, remains - despite its reliance on programmed background tracks - a visionary work in its ability to restore the longstanding instrumental credibility that reggae established in the heyday of dub, but sound contemporary at the same time. Indeed, his virtuosity was sufficient to draw the master himself, Ernie Ranglin, into a duet on the Marley classic, "Sun Is Shining". But there's more to this startlingly original collection than old hands and cover songs. On Birth, we get to hear the beginnings of a truly remarkable sonic vision, one that deserves to escape the confines of current conventions in the homeland to find more receptive ears around the globe.

With a resume that encompasses Madonna and Chaka Khan as well as Lester Bowie, multi-hornist (pardon the coinage) Mac Gollehon gives new meaning to the term journeyman.


His latest both typifies and departs from the premise of its title, with the opening track, Roy Eldridge's "Fish Market" hewing to the former, while the leader's original "Mac straight Ahead"  throws in a funky organ treatment to complement the stratospheric 'Maynard Ferguson-type' flights.


Indeed, the overall mood is propulsive; his "Lush Life" has a bit more forward momentum than some renditions, and Gollehon's trumpet work, along with some stellar solo runs, make for an intriguing listen. Of course, the support cast is more than up to the task. Baritone saxophonist Ronnie Cuber delivers a strong performance. The soloists on this one could easily be walking the bar as they deliver their spirited lines. Gollehon and company further crank things up on "Strange Behavior,"  and practically nuke a reading of "After You've Gone." They only catch their collective breath a bit at the end, with a soulful take on the Mingus dirge, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat." Gollehon's trombone and Cuber's baritone smoldering. Gollehon has certainly been around, but on this excellent release, he shows that he knows how to take it home.


Though a journeyman in his own right, you'll find no signs of wear in vocalist-keyboardist Harold Davis. Its one thing to be trained as a musician, and even to play music on a regular basis; its another thing entirely to bring a seemingly boundless and contagious joie de vivre to one's work -a spirit that says "hey I love this stuff!"

Of course, Davis is far from among strangers on this outing. The consistently excellent drummer Andrew "Pregs" Thompson shares both playing and producing duties on this disc and the rest of the personnel is drawn from what may be referred to as "the usual suspects" in Jamaican live music: Dale Brown on bass (with Davis doubling on a few tracks), Steve Golding and Winston 'Bo Pee" Powell guitars; and on saxophone (various tracks) Tony Green and Warren Harris. The latter player in particular enlivens all of the tracks he's on, especially the live-recorded closer - a combination of Sting's 'Englishman in New York" and the Shinehead adaptation "Jamaican in New York."

Davis' own keyboard work sparkles throughout, but vocally, the album is best served when he collaborates with others, including DJ Royale on "Sunshine" (from Bill wither's "Ain't NoSunshine") and with Third World vet on the much-travelled Randy Newman gem "Baltimore."

Well-known though he may be on the cabaret scene, the smartly conceived and joyfully executed Harold Arthur should serve as a neat recorded introduction to his manifold musical talents.