A Blog Supreme will be on vacation until after Labor Day. Until then, we are periodically leaving you with some photographs from The NPR Jazz Photography Pool, like the one below.

Bruce C. Moore/Flickr

Hadley Caliman.

Photographer Bruce C. Moore writes:

While I have photographed scores of improvising musicians, I can think of none who are more deserving of exposure than Hadley Caliman. Over several years he has become one of my favorite subjects. I'm on the board of the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra and, among other things, I photograph most of their performances. This shot was taken at Seattle Center's Mural Amphitheater on Aug. 8, 2009 — a free outdoor concert by SRJO.

Hadley is a fine player, and a wonderful person. He has a fascinating backstory, and has earned the admiration and respect of all the musicians and jazz lovers in our region,. He, and his music, are honored by the broad acceptance of his recent recording projects, and we are fortunate to have him, and his music, within our reach.

Here's the original, and links to Bruce C. Moore's website and Flickr photostream. Feel free to contribute your jazz shots to the NPR Jazz Flickr group.

A Blog Supreme will be on vacation until after Labor Day. Until then, we are periodically leaving you with some photographs from The NPR Jazz Photography Pool, like the one below.

Enlarge Scott Bump/Flickr

Lucia Micarelli.

Scott Bump/Flickr

Lucia Micarelli.

Photographer Scott Bump writes:

The Newport Festivals — both folk and jazz — shrugged off their stuffy, old attitude this year with some fantastic performances from some great young players. From the absolutely jammed performance of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros at the folk fest to Julian Lage, Jenny Scheinman and Jason Moran at the jazz festival, the shows were relevant and extremely well attended. This is Lucia Micarelli, notable for the range of music she plays from Led Zeppelin covers to her work with Yael Biz's The Love Project. Here she is closing the jazz festival on the main stage with Chris Botti.

Here's the original, and a link to Scott Bump's website and Flickr photostream. You may recall NPR Music recorded much of the CareFusion Newport Jazz Festival (and Folk Festival) this year. And feel free to contribute your jazz shots to the NPR Jazz Flickr group.

A Blog Supreme will be on vacation until after Labor Day. Until then, we are periodically leaving you with some photographs from The NPR Jazz Photography Pool, like the one below.

Enlarge Tom Wiebe/Flickr

Anthony Braxton.

Tom Wiebe/Flickr

Anthony Braxton.

Photographer Tom Wiebe writes:

As part of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad at the Roundhouse in Vancouver, Anthony Braxton was in town for the premiere public performance of his Sonic Genome project. For 8 hours, 60+ musicians moved organically through 3 rooms at the Roundhouse, "breaking apart and reforming into new organisms performing Braxton's compositions and using his improvisational languages to create a living sound world where the audience is free to listen and wander at will" (to paraphrase from the event description).

Sounds like a recipe for utter musical wankerism and self-indulgence of the worst variety but, as is so often the case with Mr. Braxton, it instead turned into an utterly engaging, immersive and moving experience. His enthusiasm with the local high school musicians who formed part of the "ensemble" (to use the term very loosely) was absolutely amazing to watch. The 2010 Winter Olympics brought a lot of great moments and memorable experiences to Vancouver this winter, but, for me, this was a very close second to Sidney Crosby's overtime goal for the Gold Medal in men's hockey.

Here's the original, and links to Tom Wiebe's website and Flickr photostream. Feel free to contribute your jazz shots to the NPR Jazz Flickr group.

A Blog Supreme will be on vacation until after Labor Day. Until then, we are periodically leaving you with some photographs from The NPR Jazz Photography Pool, like the one below.

Enlarge Reuben Radding/Flickr

Alan Ferber.

Reuben Radding/Flickr

Alan Ferber.

Photographer Reuben Radding writes:

Here, the brass band Asphalt Orchestra was playing their last performance of the week at Lincoln Center Out of Doors. They emerged from taxicabs on 65th Street and played in front of Alice Tully Hall, and then led us all over the grounds of the complex, eventually taking us to Damrosch Park, where this shot was taken. They were playing the Frank Zappa song "Zomby Woof," which Peter Hess arranged for the band. I had been shooting them from the start with a good Canon DSLR but I had only a small memory card and by the time they got to Damrosch I'd filled it. Fortunately I had another camera with me, a tiny Panasonic LX3, and its wide angle lens turned out to be exactly what I needed anyway, so I used that.

Alan Ferber started his solo blowing hard, bending his knees and leaning back. In my mind I saw this exact shot. I just needed him to bend a little more ... and more ... and then ... he did it! I snapped, and felt like I had directed him with my mind. Alan is an amazing player and musician but he's a quiet personality and I think there are a lot of people who don't see this side of him. You can see Jessica Schmitz, the piccolo player, in the background smiling at other people in the band in reaction. There were a lot of better photographers than me around that day, and with much better gear, but I was in the best place for this shot, and it felt at the time almost fated.

Here's the original, and a link to Reuben Radding's Flickr photostream. You may also know Reuben Radding as a bass player. And feel free to contribute your jazz shots to the NPR Jazz Flickr group.

A Blog Supreme will be on vacation until after Labor Day. Until then, we are periodically leaving you with some photographs from The NPR Jazz Photography Pool, like the one below.

Enlarge Tom Marcello/Flickr

Hannibal Marvin Peterson, 1976.

Tom Marcello/Flickr

Hannibal Marvin Peterson, 1976.

Photographer Tom Marcello writes:

That was taken on July 6, 1976 in New York, N.Y. As a part of the Newport Jazz Festival New York, George Wein set up stages for free concerts called "The 52nd Street Jazz Fair" along 52nd Street, and Hannibal Marvin Peterson's Sunrise Orchestra was one of them. I had known of Hannibal's playing before with Gil Evans and Roy Haynes and I picked up his masterpiece Children of the Fire, but this performance was really exciting and inspiring. I especially remember a series of stop-time choruses that he played with the wonderful [drummer] Freddie Waits.

I've never been able to identify the saxophonist in the band. Maybe you know who it is?

Here's the original, and a link to Tom Marcello's Flickr photostream. And feel free to contribute your jazz shots to the NPR Jazz Flickr group.

A Blog Supreme will be on vacation until after Labor Day. Until then, here are some midweek links. Also, NPR Music's other jazz coverage.

• Louis, the silent film about a juvenile Louis Armstrong, and featuring a live band led by Wynton Marsalis, is now touring. Felix and I saw it this weekend. It is not particularly historically accurate. It is an impressive synchrony, though. The band is good. And it is also, in the way of good farces, fun.
• Phil Woods is not happy about the NEA making the entire Marsalis family Jazz Masters.
• RIP Bob Bowen. Man, this isn't supposed to happen any more.
• The matriarch of New York jazz.
• Burning Ambulance, the newish quarterly dedicated to music (including plenty of out jazz) is now available.
• Nextbop has been putting up new music from U.K. piano trios (and the Portico Quartet) this week.
• Chicago and Detroit jazz festivals this weekend. Nicole Mitchell! Mulgrew Miller!

This looks labor-intensive:

Enlarge Revive Music Group

The poster for Revive Da Live's Roy Ayers tribute concert.

Revive Music Group

The poster for Revive Da Live's Roy Ayers tribute concert.

As a student at the Berklee College of Music, Meghan Stabile's peers were jazz musicians who grew up with hip-hop as popular music. So during her last semester of study, she first put together a show that brought together musicians from both jazz and hip-hop communities, exploring the connections within.

Stabile's operation, now based in New York, has become Revive Da Live, a concert production group presenting street-savvy jazz artists like Robert Glasper, Jaleel Shaw and Esperanza Spalding, often on stage with hip-hop performers like Talib Kweli, Pete Rock and Large Professor. Revive Da Live produces frequent performances around New York and the world; the Revive Music Group now also manages and books a roster of artists.

Revive's underlying goal has always been about education through live experience: Of jazz to the hip-hop crowd, and vice versa. In lieu of being able to bring a Revive show to all blog readers, I recently sat down with Stabile and two associates, MC/DJ Brian "Raydar" Ellis and pianist/writer Jared Pauley, to talk about jazz records for the hip-hop crowd.

"There's a way back to jazz through any kind of song that a 13, 14-year-old loves," Raydar Ellis said. "It's just a matter of tracing it back in a way that they find appealing. And that's what we do. That's our thing."

From our informal discussion, I've culled five (six, really) songs or albums to feature. Do leave us your suggestions, in the comments below.

1. Dorothy Ashby, Afro-Harping (1968).

Enlarge Tracy Collins

A rare sighting of Steve Coleman, photographed in Brazil, without a backwards baseball cap.

Tracy Collins

A rare sighting of Steve Coleman, photographed in Brazil, without a backwards baseball cap.

About as soon as I hit "publish," I began to see gaps in my recent short rant essay, titled "You're Not Too Dumb To Like Jazz." In particular, Dan DiPiero points out something which I feel I ought to clarify here. I think he's misreading my intent a little bit, but I'm certainly leaving that possibility open by leaving out a few missing pieces.

Thinking about those lacunae, and how to fill them, dovetails nicely with my thoughts on another collection of music which has captivated me this summer: Steve Coleman's new album Harvesting Semblances And Affinities.

The unifying idea of Coleman's new album, he writes, is "energy harvesting, i.e. the gathering, through musical symbolism, of the energy of particular moments." He describes the opening track as follows:

"Attila 02 (Dawning Ritual)" represents the opening energy of this assemblage of compositions. It is a sonic ritual that opens the way and prepares for what is to come. The tricky rhythms, dominated by the number 3, are reminiscent of combined energies of the Yoruba Orisha Eshu-Elegba, the Opener of the Way.

Have a listen to the first part of "Attila 02," before the solos:

A few months after Miles Davis taped that material that would become Bitches Brew, he went on a two-week European tour with his quintet. A short clip of their Copenhagen, Denmark performance appears above. That's Miles with the pink shirt, multi-colored vest and red trumpet; elsewhere, that's Wayne Shorter on soprano sax (not seen here), Chick Corea sporting the robe-like garment that remains his sartorial signature (also, sadly, obscured from camera), and youthful incarnations of Dave Holland (upright bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums).

They play "Miles Runs The Voodoo Down," and it's quite different than the album version. On Bitches Brew, this thing is ... well, it's just as unclassifiable. But it's definitely a different breed of unclassifiable, with that insistent bass line, and that shape-shifting lounge-funk (stoned-funk?) beat, and all those keyboard and guitar and percussive interjections.

We only have two-and-a-half minutes of the video here, but this live performance feels both freer and less willing to let go. Miles' live band hasn't fully become the impossible future funk-rock enterprise it would become; it's still tied to something like a ride cymbal-based swing beat. But there are only five people here, versus the 11 on the recording (plus Teo Macero in the studio), and man: they go out.

Lars Gotrich/NPR

Like the album, Bitches Brew ale is a cut and paste affair with three strands of imperial stout and an East African honey wine.

Last summer, I sat on my front porch with Orr Shtuhl, Washington City Paper's Beerspotter, and paired six summer jazz songs with six summer beers. Sun Ra smoked funky grooves with a La Sancerroise au Gruyt and Charles Mingus' "Ysabel's Table Dance" was seduced by a Verdi Imperial Stout. To quote one torn commenter about our project, "I don't know whether to hate you or make you my hero."

On Tuesday, to celebrate 40 years of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, Dogfish Head brewery will release a limited edition Bitches Brew ale. And in order to verify the Brew-ness of such an ale, I invited back Orr, as well as our Blogger Supreme Patrick Jarenwattananon, to taste the imperial stout and honey wine fusion.

Pouring out the first glass, there was no foam and a lot of black.

More links from this week:

• Nate Chinen on the youthful elements of the Seattle jazz scene, for the Times. Very glad somebody has told this story.
• Brad Mehldau writes on "Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, Beethoven and God," filtered through the lens of German authors and philosophers. Also, Mehldau recently duetted with John Mayer.
• Branford Marsalis turned 50. Here's a Nate Chinen reflection, and a discordant note from Phil Freeman.
• Howard Mandel on the #jazzlives Twitter hashtag, after one year. Also, in the comments last week, Mandel linked to this amusingly dated 1997 piece he wrote called "Jazz Vs. Computers."
• Mark Stryker of the Detroit Free Press on Mulgrew Miller, who is artist-in-residence at the Detroit International Jazz Festival.
• A Chicago club, actually doing well in this rough summer.
• The Smithsonian National Museum of American History blog posted photos and audio clips about Lena Horne and Abbey Lincoln this week.
• A 1979 Abbey Lincoln interview. Also, Chinen (again!) on Abbey's lasting influence.
• Chico and Rita: The animated story of a Cuban couple of musicians making their way in bebop-era New York (H/T Peter Hum).
• More Savory Collection goodies from Newsweek. Also, Seth Colter Walls speaks with historian Loren Schoenberg. And WNYC spoke with Schoenberg and Bill Savory's son at length too.
• It takes two saxophonists to replace one Joe Lovano.
• This is a fun New York Times human interest piece (plus video) from Aidan Levy about jazz musicians' ping-pong obsessions after hours. (Who knew that Aaron Goldberg was so good at table tennis?) Also, I'm a little confused as to why it's a bit heated in the comments.
• Dennis Hopper among the jazz beatniks, from WFIU's Night Lights.
• From The Onion: "Ask A Guy Who's Not Doing The Gig For Less Than $200."
• Destination: Out re-posts a Pat Martino jam.
• JazzWax has an interview with historian Phil Schaap (a personal mentor as well).
• The Jazz Session speaks with Jimmy Amadie and Shane Endsley.
• The Checkout this week was a rerun. It is, like, the second rerun in about a year and a half? Busy man, that Josh Jackson.
• Finally, this is funny (H/T Jazz24):

A few links we have mentioned:

Enlarge iStockPhoto

Finding stock photos of potential "jazz boyfriends" has been one of the best parts of this whole exercise.

iStockPhoto

Finding stock photos of potential "jazz boyfriends" has been one of the best parts of this whole exercise.

One of my pet peeves in this jazz racket I'm caught up in is when people describe complex music they don't understand as "overly intellectual," or one of its variants: "brainy," "highbrow," "mental masturbation," etc. The implication is that "normal" human beings aren't intelligent enough to "get" jazz, as if the music required naturally advanced-level mental faculties to begin to appreciate.

I'm on the subject because of a few comments in our recent musing on the "jazz boyfriend" phenomenon and The Dolphy Test. They're actually quite charming, friendly comments, but I am puzzled about the sentiments within. This is from Megan Bartlett (megggers):

This May I married my Jazz Boyfriend. As the non-jazzer there are many reasons to accuse me of not "getting it" or not being an "intelligent listener." My offenses include, but are not limited to ... complaining about 28 min. songs and when asked how I like Lovano's set at The Vanguard replying with, "I was too grossed out by the jazzgasms everyone was having to listen" (you know — the head bobbing, facial contorting and moans that are required to listen to jazz). Sometimes my Jazz Husband makes me feel like a Jazz Widow. ... I'm too dumb to like jazz. But when its 1am and we walk into the club where my husband is about to play ... I'm smart enough to know the tenor will be the most beautiful and complex thing I've ever heard.

This is from Lin Harraway (coffeeiv):

Enlarge Joey L.

Robert Glasper's Double-Booked features a cameo from Mos Def and a vocal turn from Bilal.

Joey L.

Robert Glasper's Double-Booked features a cameo from Mos Def and a vocal turn from Bilal.

Robert Glasper straddles two distinct worlds. He's an accomplished jazz pianist, who was signed to Blue Note Records in his mid-twenties. And he works with lots of hip-hop and R&B artists, both in the studio and on the stage: Q-Tip, Mos Def and Maxwell, to name a few. Both sides are reflected on his 2009 album Double-Booked, which captures both his acoustic piano trio and his electrified Robert Glasper Experiment collective.

Most interviews I've read approach Glasper from a jazz angle; I wanted to talk to him about hip-hop. So in late 2009, I sat down to play him five different rap songs and talk about them. At the end, we talked further about the idea of being both in jazz and hip-hop worlds at once. I'm happy to finally present the results here.

1. Mos Def, "Auditorium" from The Ecstatic (2009).

Robert Glasper: Mos Def! [hums along]

Patrick Jarenwattananon: How'd you meet him?

Coming up on A Blog Supreme, we'll be exploring some of the intersections between jazz and hip-hop. Soon, we'll post a conversation with pianist Robert Glasper — the jazz musician who also happens to play with Mos Def and Q-Tip — where we played five rap records for him. (UPDATE: Now posted.) Later, we'll post part of our interview with the folks behind the innovative concert presenters Revive da Live about getting the hip-hop generation into jazz.

As prologue to all this, and also kind of just 'cause it circulated around the various Internets yesterday, we submit to you Wayne Marshall's rather amazing mashup of M.I.A.'s "Galang" (2003) and the Vijay Iyer trio's version of the same song (2009). (A download link is here, and technical details here.) Yes, I know M.I.A. isn't exactly "hip-hop" by many definitions. But for those who quibble over terms for this one: Let them eat truffle fries.

Vijay Iyer has a new solo album coming out soon, we might mention again. It's called Solo. (More info here.) And you can see the original videos for both versions of "Galang" below.

First, watch this short video:

We admit it's pretty funny, even if it does cut to the quick for some. (If you smart guys out there are wondering, no, I have never dated the lead singer of Mindtroll.) It also comes courtesy of Jezebel, which used the video as a launching pad for its piece "Has Your Partner's Musical Taste Ever Been A Dealbreaker?"

Being a jazz blog, we at A Blog Supreme have a slightly different spin on it. I suspect that for some of you more dedicated jazz fans and musicians, your love for the music has indeed been a point of contention in your romantic relationships. I know quite a number of couples where one person is obsessed with the stuff, and the other — usually, though not always, the female in a heterosexual couple — couldn't generally care less.

Even if you've never been in one of those relationships, we fans who care deeply about jazz generally realize: Most human beings don't. Which is cool by me, since I love a lot of not-jazz music too. But loving music in general — whether actively pursuing new sounds, regularly going to concerts or even making it at some level — that's very important to me. I don't know about the rest of y'all: I don't think I could ever be in a relationship where the other person doesn't care for music even remotely as much as I do.

Owing to both its depth of craft and general unfamiliarity, I think that good jazz music is a good test for this.