#jazzlives: The Live Jazz Twitter Campaign

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

If you're following the Jazz Internet/Twitterverse, you may have seen this crop up lately:

The idea: If you go see a live jazz performance, and you use Twitter, tell the world. Append the hashtag #jazzlives with a short description of what you saw and where. For example:

@blogsupreme: Just saw John Surman quartet at Blues Alley in D.C. with Abercrombie, Gress, DeJohnette. Wow. #jazzlives

@blogsupreme: At free show at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden in WDC. Trumpeter Tom Williams. #jazzlives

Please don't use it for promoting your/your clients'/your venue's own gigs, or to simply express solidarity with the idea of jazz being alive -- only during or after seeing live jazz. Hearing from the audience, not advancing commercial interests, is the point here. More details on the movement at Jazz Beyond Jazz.

Credit to Howard Mandel for the idea. All this is inspired by the Teachout-column business. (You can read my latest take here.) Even if jazz isn't "dying," we need to critically examine our stories about young jazz audiences, for they can tell us how we can increase the audience for this underheard music. Here's some experimental data-gathering in that vein.

And now, back to my "vacation."

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12:02 PM ET | 08-28-2009 | permalink

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We Interrupt This Vacation For A Message From The President

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

The once and future president. (Herman Leonard / Getty Images)

A Blog Supreme is thoroughly enjoying its time off, inasmuch as abstract entities can do that. But we would be remiss if we didn't mention that it's now 100 years since Lester Young entered the world. Tom Vitale's piece which aired this morning provides a nice gloss for those who need a Pres primer. Plus, there's this:

Throughout his life, Young struggled with racism, from the Jim Crow laws his family faced in the 1920s to the way he felt the Army treated him.

"They want everyone who's a negro to be an Uncle Tom, Uncle Remus and Uncle Sam, and I can't make it," Young said. "But it's the same way all over. You just fight for your life, you dig? Until death do we part. You got it made."

What the piece seems to have omitted, as any jazz history boffo knows, is the fact that Young gets increasingly profane -- also, drunk -- throughout that last interview. It's candid, heartbreaking and may well change the way you think about jazz. [UPDATE: WBGO's one-hour Lester Young special also features some of it.]

Also, as you may remember, our first Boss Lady IM chat was about Lester's first recording. It seems natural that jazzers of today wouldn't pay too much attention to that which happened 70 years ago [1] (40-50 years ago, of course, is totally different, you guyz). For me, the early Basie, Billie and assorted small group recordings (plus quite a handful of post-war sessions) are just crazy interesting, and so relevant to a generation which has seemingly already bent the rest of jazz history toward its will. (Cough MOPDtK Cough.) When he's on his game, Lester's solos are just so fresh, so buoyant, so wispily fleeting, so tactful, so full of life, so mythic, so rhythmically distinct, so "I need more of this now" -- so consonant, yet so adventurous at once.

To quote Young Jeezy for the second time in the last two posts, "My president is black."

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[1] Ethan Iverson takes up on this, and provides much more + suggested listening, in a 10-part Lester post that makes me want to give up on this whole blogging thing.

[2] I just realized that the headline could be referring to this campaign launched by Jazz Journalists Association President Howard Mandel. I'll have more on that after Lester at least gets his day.

9:30 AM ET | 08-27-2009 | permalink

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Gone Fishin': A Blog Supreme On Hiatus

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

Quoth Young Jeezy, "I need a vacation."

This video is apropos of nothing other than the fact that I'm going out of the office for two weeks, and I wanted to put up a "gone fishin'" message. So I Googled "jazz" and "fishing," and got Jazz & Fly Fishing, a television series about a real band from Scandinavia and their summertime adventures playing jazz and going fly fishing. (They sound pretty good, too.) Fear not, PETA: I have no actual angling plans for my forthcoming trips. I may well be at the Chicago Jazz Festival though (!), so if you're there, holler if you see a lanky, confused-looking dude typing Tweets into an obsolete brick of a cell phone.

Since I'll be gone -- as will much of the overlapping A Blog Supreme and NPR Music teams -- there will be little to no bloggage happening here, I fear. In the meanwhile, visit NPR.org/jazz for our weekly features, archived concerts and occasional jazz stories or interviews. Follow NPR Jazz updates and occasional random musings from the road on Twitter (@blogsupreme), courtesy of this little widget you see below. And below that, check out highlights from our first three months of publishing to the Jazz Internet.

Thanks so much for following our little jazz + new media experiment -- it's been a lot of work on top of our other work, but also a total blast. When we come back in full after Labor Day, we'll be clear-headed, loaded up with good stuff and better than ever. Also, jazz world: Please nobody die in the next two weeks? kthanxbye.

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Listening, Party For Two: 'Shoe Shine Boy': The first (published) Boss Lady IM chat, which doubles, in absentia, as our Lester Young centennial commemoration. (All Boss Lady features.)

The Birth Of The Blog: Wherein we amuse ourselves with names for ABS left on the cutting room floor.

'I Hate Coltrane!': Reflections Of A Jazz-Loving Dad: Our most trafficked post for a reason. And that reason is: "Awww!"

Dave Douglas: Jazz In The Digital Age: Dave Douglas writes intelligent things about music, technology and philanthropy for us. Also, his band slobbers all over our office. (We still love you!)

Newport 2009: All blog posts related to our time at George Wein's CareFusion Jazz Festival 55 -- aka the 2009 Newport Jazz Festival. For our full concert archive, visit NPR.org/newportjazz.

8:50 AM ET | 08-23-2009 | permalink

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Thoughts On A 'Post-Afrobeat Dance Explosion': NOMO In Concert

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

NOMO: not exactly what you think of when you hear 'afrobeat' -- but not exactly afrobeat either. (Doug Coombe)

You wouldn't necessarily call NOMO a jazz group, though as a touring band it certainly could pass for one. A week ago at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art, it carried a front line of trumpet, tenor sax and baritone sax, plus bass, drums and a guitarist who alternated between his electric axe and a second drum kit. There were also keyboards, samplers and amplified kalimbas, but the point is that it looked and felt like a jazz outfit. (A free jazz outfit, really.) Its horn players took improvised solos, its rhythm section played busy grooves appropriated from somewhere in the African diaspora and the compositions felt thought-through in an art-music sort of way.

The boundary between jazz and not-jazz has always been fluid, from the hodgepodge that was early 1900s New Orleans, to the sweet dance bands of the Jazz Age and Swing Era, to the sentimental balladeers backed by jazz instrumentation, to fusion or freely improvised music. In this case, there were a few lines in the sand. When pressed to self-identify with category, bandleader Elliot Bergman has issued this statment in press bios: "We are an American band, and in our hearts I think we're more of a rock band than anything else, but we do love so many different types of music." Not much of the music had a whole lot of harmonic variation to it; the songs were largely built on one or two chord vamps and pre-programmed electronics. (Which could have grown tiresome if the set had been much longer.) There was backbeat-heavy rhythm in surplus, though little that came close to swing. And of course, the fact that the homemade thumb pianos, not to mention many of the arrangements, so clearly referenced the trappings of Afrobeat -- but don't call NOMO an Afrobeat band -- made it difficult not to think, "Ooh, vaguely African dance music!"

But the jazz connection is real here.

Continue reading "Thoughts On A 'Post-Afrobeat Dance Explosion': NOMO In Concert" »

8:30 AM ET | 08-23-2009 | permalink

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The Teachout Fallout, Summarized

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

UPDATE: I've moved this post up again and added a few more responses to the list. Terry Teachout, of course, himself responded to all the heat he's been taking for asking "Can Jazz Be Saved?" Now, I don't mean to persecute the guy -- he's been listening to jazz much longer than I have, and knows a lot more about a lot more than I do -- but I still think he hasn't acknowledged the actual points of the criticism directed at him. At the same time, I am also a little concerned by those rushing to say "Jazz is fine!" Even if jazz isn't dying, it could be made much, much healthier. So I've attached some final thoughts at the bottom of all this before I go on vacation. Read them if you like.
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I've been in conferencing in Boston this week, and staying at a friend's apartment sans Internet. So no link dump this week.

I did want to compile some of the responses to the Terry Teachout piece which has so inflamed the Jazz Internet. You say anything resembling "___ Is Dead" and immediately everyone with a rectal orifice -- i.e. an opinion, per the saying -- gives his or her two cents. I'll grant Mr. Teachout this (in addition to being a worthwhile read on many other topics): if he only meant to start up this discussion, he succeeded. In no particular order:

Nate Chinen (plus, a blog addendum)
Terry Teachout's response to the response
Nate Chinen responds to Teachout's response
Howard Mandel
David Brent Johnson
Jason Parker
Marc Myers
Peter Hum
Tim Niland
Doug Ramsey
Chris Rich
David Adler
Jacob Teichroew
David Hill
Ramsey Lewis
Willard Jenkins
Peter Margasak
And of course, me. Send any further comments.

Closing commentary, after the jump.

Continue reading "The Teachout Fallout, Summarized" »

8:30 AM ET | 08-23-2009 | permalink

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Oh Julius Hemphill, You're Such A Tease

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

The original cover to the original recording of Julius Hemphill's "Dogon A.D.", the title track of the album released on Hemphill's own Mbari label. (Mbari Records)

When you work the weekend shift in an empty office, sometimes you just happen to notice stuff sitting on your colleagues' desks. Like this Bob Boilen script for Monday's All Songs Considered episode:

It's hard to pick just one great saxophone player, but if I had to name my favorite, it would be Julius Hemphill. Julius started the World Saxophone Quartet in the late 1970s, and if you want to hear some remarkable playing give any of their CDs a listen.

I also have a soft spot for Julius because I was lucky enough to play with him for a brief shining moment. His band was playing up in the loft one New Years Eve at a Washington, D.C. club called d.c. space, and my band Tiny Desk Unit was playing downstairs. Just after the stroke of midnight, Julius came downstairs and joined us on stage with his sax and started to wail. I cranked the volume on my homemade synthesizer and did the same. I'll never forget it.

Check out All Songs Considered sometime late on Monday to hear Hemphill's classic "Dogon A.D.", as interpreted by the Vijay Iyer trio on its forthcoming Historicity. (Pre-order here.) And while you're at it, hear a live version, as recorded at this year's Newport jazz festivities.

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Two NPR Music stories this weekend about records which aren't necessarily jazz, but involve serious jazz talent. The first is Jon Kalish's report on Mazel Tov, Mis Amigos -- a 1961 Riverside album which sets Jewish popular and folk songs to Latin beats. It's an interesting piece because it sheds some light on the crossover between Latino and Jewish communities in post-World War II New York. Moreover, the music is really solid; not only did it call upon the talents of folks like Doc Cheatham, Clark Terry, Ray Barretto and Charlie Palmieri, but Arturo O'Farrill deemed it worthy enough to lead a recreation of the album live at Lincoln Center Out of Doors.

The second story is an interview with Bloomington, Ind.'s Dena El Saffar, leader of a band called Salaam. She's an Iraqi American violist who got bitten by the Iraqi music bug during a family trip to Baghdad right before the Gulf War. Salaam blends Iraqi maqam, among other Middle Eastern musics, with all sorts of Western this and that. And it's quite interesting. If any of this sounds familiar, you may know of her brother, Amir ElSaffar, who also contributes to Salaam. He's a legitimate practicioner of Iraqi maqam, but also a jazz trumpeter who's played with Cecil Taylor and other heavy cats. (An NPR profile from 2006.) Anyway, I think I've made it clear that I dig his natural-feeling maqam-inspired improvised music on these servers before; these days, ElSaffar is also collaborating with Iranian American saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh, and he recently won a CMA grant to do further work with his Iraqi-jazz ensemble.

8:00 PM ET | 08-22-2009 | permalink

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The Down Beat Poll, Samples, Stalkers: The Friday Link Dump

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

Idea: if the Jazz Journalists Association ever throws a Town Hall meeting to address "Can Jazz Be Saved?", I think we can all agree, regardless of political affiliation, that we should chip in to hire Barney Frank as our moderator.

--Vote In The Down Beat Readers Poll: I can't tell whether or not I'll vote in the Down Beat Readers Poll. [UPDATE: I have. It was fun.] Y'all are more than welcome to (link here) up through Monday -- I just am generally uninterested in the results. OK, I'll concede what some commenters have said here -- I'm thinking of you, Joe Phillips of Numinous -- that winning important-sounding recognition makes people (presenters and journalists) look at you differently. At very least it's something that can go on your press bio. And that's of some importance.

But my problem with readers' polls is that they're often unsurprising, even more so than critics' polls. More often than not, as Christopher Weingarten reminded us, crowdsourcing just assures that the safest picks -- or at least the musicians the most people have 1) heard of and 2) are able to tolerate -- bubble to the top. I'm reminded of the fact that only in 1950 did Charlie Parker first get voted top alto saxophonist in the Down Beat Readers Poll -- five years after his bebop breakthrough. (The Metronome poll put him as number one in 1948, but at least one audience was a little slow on the uptake.) That's the sort of result that may be useful for music historians trying to approximate the tastes of an era; as a fan who wants to be surprised, it proves Weingarten's point that considered together, crowds have terrible taste. At least with the critics' poll, you can be somewhat assured that the respondents have heard a great many albums en route to voting. Here, the dude who's bought all of three records this year and is a total Joe Lovano stan -- his opinion counts as much as Ben Ratliff's. (Nothing against Lovano, who's a killer player with a stellar new album; he's just an example.)

I'm a lot more interested in how individual people justify their tastes than what those tastes are. Polls don't give you that. Plus, just thinking about thinking about all my favorite saxophonists -- some of whom I'm sure to forget -- and trying to rank them in Favoriteness: yeesh. (Also, choosing a [categorized musician] "of the year"? What kind of nonsense way of thinking about music is that?) So maybe if I'm bored this weekend I'll vote for some folks who deserve more shine. [UPDATE: Done and done.] But I'm [still] not going to hold my breath for the December issue.

--The Best Rashied Ali Internet Tribute: Comes courtesy of Destination: Out, who were supposed to be taking an August rerun hiatus. But players like him only die once.

--The Catalog Of Jazz Samples In Hip-Hop: I could go on browsing this for days on end. (H/T @accujazzradio)

--'U.S. Has Secret Sonic Weapon -- Jazz': Is the title of a New York Times article from 1955. "What many thoughtful Europeans cannot understand is why the United States Government, with all the money it spends for so-called propaganda to promote democracy, does not use more of it to subsidize the continental travels of jazz bands and the best exponents of the music," says the article. One year later, the U.S. government took that advice to heart.

--The Laurie Verchomin Interview: All this week, Marc Myers at JazzWax has been speaking with Bill Evans' lover in his final 18 months. She was 22 when she met Evans; he would have been hovering around 50. What emerges is a candid portrait of an incredible artist who suffered from self-destructive behaviors and addictions. Verchomin is, by the way, writing a book about the experience.

--I Was Wondering About That: Finally, the off-color troll of various jazz blogs, comment sections and message boards known as "Rab Hines" is outed by the musician he's been impersonating: German trumpeter Bruno Leicht. This Internet creep is living somewhere in New Jersey, say the IP data, and is posting under many fake e-mail addresses and aliases. I was unaware that jazz could inspire such weirdos -- wait, never mind.

11:00 AM ET | 08-21-2009 | permalink

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kindofbloop.com: An 8-Bit Miles Davis Tribute

No words. (kindofbloop.com)

Err? From Time magazine:

Jazz musicians might consider Kind of Bloop heresy, but the video game community can't wait to hear it. ... "The Kind of Blue musicians came together for one album and then broke up. It was a one-time project and this one is the same way," he [Andy Baio of kickstarter.com] said. "I don't want it to be gimmicky."

I can't tell if this is WIN or if this is FAIL: kindofbloop.com (H/T Lars Gotrich)

--Patrick Jarenwattananon

5:37 PM ET | 08-20-2009 | permalink

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Dave Douglas: 'A Call To Arts'

by Dave Douglas

Trumpeter, composer, blogger and arts philanthropy beneficiary Dave Douglas. (Paul Natkin)

Dave Douglas is one of today's most celebrated jazz trumpeters, composers and, well, bloggers. And from time to time, he's also sharing some of his thoughts about music and technology with us. We're calling it Jazz In The Digital Age.

We last heard from Dave when the Tiny Desk Concert of his newest band, Brass Ecstasy, was featured on YouTube's Music Tuesday series and racked up 92,000+ views in a matter of days. Win. Lately, he's been thinking about the good things that are happening in arts philanthropy these days. --Ed.

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A Call To Arts

It's good to see arts and especially jazz philanthropy back in business, thinking about what to fund and how best to fund it and not so much about how to punishing artists who use government money to smear their bodies in chocolate or worrying about just how in particular they plan to use that crucifix. There's a new director at the National Endowment for the Arts named Rocco Landesman who is more interested in putting on shows; The Doris Duke Foundation and Mary Flagler Cary are out with innovative initiatives; and the alphabets -- MTC, CMA, AMC, NYFA, NYSCA -- are all looking at ways of giving jazz and related music a place at the table. All I can say is, Thank You. Finally. At long last, we can sit down and have a decent fight over real pieces of the pie.

Continue reading "Dave Douglas: 'A Call To Arts'" »

9:15 AM ET | 08-20-2009 | permalink

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Brett Favre And The Myth Of Artistic Legacy

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

Brett Favre in a Vikings jersey makes this jazz blogger sad -- but not for anything having to do with "legacy." (Scott A. Schneider / Getty Images)

Now that quarterback Brett Favre is officially a Minnesota Viking, ending months of fake speculation less "if" than "when," all this chatter has arisen anew about legacy. "He should have retired after the '07 playoff run," goes the line of argument. "He's not what he once was, and he's damaging his legacy."

Which got me to thinking about aging jazz artists. As with football players, old age does not do favors to jazz musicians. They lose their physical chops and general resilience with time -- and in some cases, their creative inspiration. But they're also expected or financially forced to maintain a busy touring schedule, which is increasingly demanding with age. (That, and they love what they do, so they keep doing it.) Meanwhile, jazz gigs are becoming ever less lucrative, and they certainly don't provide a pension plan. So like Favre, many keep going in spite of so-called tarnish to their legacies.

Continue reading "Brett Favre And The Myth Of Artistic Legacy" »

1:00 PM ET | 08-19-2009 | permalink

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Kind Of Blog, Fed Jazz, Ramsey Lewis: The Tuesday Link Dump

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

Back to the chicken shack, and onto the Internet.

--Ramsey Lewis On 'Can Jazz Be Saved': Far be it from me to argue with pianist Ramsey Lewis about widening the jazz audience, as he is one of the greatest artists to find success with people who wouldn't normally listen to jazz. The first half of his WSJ letter to the editor, in response to the Terry Teachout "Can Jazz Be Saved" op-ed, is completely on point. Jazz musicians do need to reach out to audiences, and interesting bills could help that process. But the latter half misses the point that audience outreach these days happens online. Lewis' suggestions about wardrobe choices and calling for CD giveaways to students may help the cause marginally. However, the real problem with image and exposure is that artists and record labels aren't reaching out on the Web. You know where you could market your own image, and give away music to both students and fans in formats today's youth audience is accustomed to, and where this is already happening in seemingly every other genre except jazz? The Internet. Just sayin'. (Related: a brief interview with Lewis.)

--Kind Of Blowout: A taste of our office humor: "You know what we really need at NPR Music? Another story about Kind Of Blue." So rather than note the 50th anniversary of the album release with some sort of blog-stravaganza, I'll point you to Slate's coverage. For those who need a refresher course (or introduction, period), Fred Kaplan's gloss on why the music is good is worth reading. But more intriguing (to me, anyway) is a look at Kind Of Blue as film music, and a photo gallery of the artists behind the album (dig those Newport '58 shots). (Related: Ashley Kahn on Kind of Blue for NPR, from earlier this year.)

--Federally-Supported Jazz In Washington, D.C.: Howard Mandel looks at the jazz lineups for the coming season for the three major players in town here: the Library of Congress, then the Smithsonian and finally the Kennedy Center. He concludes that the Kennedy Center, because it offers far and away the most jazz (and a respectable lineup too), is D.C.'s best presenter. Which is cool and all, but we also ought to note D.C. has an active club scene as well: not all the jazz in this city has a stamp of "officialness" to it. This city's jazz network isn't completely non-market-supported -- at least not yet. (Also the fact that the individual Smithsonian museums sometimes present their own concerts, often for free: see the summer Jazz In The Garden series at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden.) There's also a tangent possible about government lip service to jazz (service often weighed down by "historical" repertory, at that), but I'll not indulge it here.

--Metro Detroit's Best Jazz Club To Close: Or so it would seem in this article about the Firefly Club: the venue owes the state of Michigan a collective total of over $120,000. That, upon the recent struggles of Baker's Keyboard Lounge, means that Detroit's scene -- which produced so many and still houses many great jazz musicians -- is officially struggling. (Meanwhile, Ann Arbor won't have a jazz club for the first time in ages.) It certainly seems as if the state is being a rather harsh mistress here: the club was tied to a payment plan of $2000 a month, but only managed to put together $1500/month during June and July. So the state is responding by seizing the property and demanding the entire payment of $120,000 within 10 days. Seems awfully cold of the Michigan IRS to come down so hard on something that means so much to a certain crowd over such a relatively piddling sum, but I doubt anyone up there cares.

--Iconic Jazz Album Cover Homages: The Oakland Jazz Music Examiner -- anyone know just how Examiner.com works? -- has a look at classic jazz album art that has been riffed on by later artists. Part two here. It's not all there is, certainly, but a good sampling is here. For what it's worth, this Blue Note meets Wu-Tang Clan/side projects mashup is also pretty great.

--Chris Albertson Has A Blog: He wrote the Bessie Smith biography. And he writes now at Stomp Off, Let's Go too. Lots of historical tidbits here so far.

--Take The El Train: A musical train is set to ride in Chicago this Sunday, featuring a local trio of saxophone, guitar and bass. Not your average gig. More information at the Jazz Institute of Chicago Web site.

--The Difficulties Of Leading Large Ensembles: The seeming rise in interest in leading large jazz ensembles lately -- the post-Maria Schneider crowd, one could say -- seems to coincide with the exact point in time that it's becoming less sustainable than ever. Which makes this All About Jazz piece -- a series of interviews looking into the real difficulties of trying to put together a modern big band, and why it's still appealing to many -- a worthy read.

--Lawrence Lucie Passes: Finally, rhythm guitarist Larry Lucie has died, age 101. He played with Duke Ellington and Jelly Roll Morton, Billie Holiday and Fletcher Henderson. And personal reports say he was quite lucid, especially for a 100-year-old, as of last year. May he rest in peace.

12:56 PM ET | 08-18-2009 | permalink

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New New York: The Search & Restore Interview, Pt. 2

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

New Yorkers Adam Schatz and James Donahue, ages 21 and 24 respectively, are the co-founders of Search and Restore (searchandrestore.com). In the first half of my conversation with them, we talked largely about their efforts in putting on interesting shows with important young artists. Which they still do: their month-long Charlie Hunter residency is still going strong on Sundays at Rose Live Music in Brooklyn, and next Tuesday, Aug. 25, they present the album-release show for bassist Linda Oh and her trio at Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan.

Lately, though, keeping searchandrestore.com afloat has become more of a priority. So in this second part of the interview, I asked Adam and James to talk more about their Web site, and what it means to the scene. Here are their thoughts on presenting several genres at once, the problems of the Jazz Internet and why jazz has been reincarnated as a partygoing zombie.

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So what are your roles, specifically? I think your Web site attributes founder and editor-in-chief to both of you. Do either of you update the Web site yourself?

James: Those are arbitrary titles.
Arbitrary titles.
Adam: I'm the emperor and he's the king of the Web site. We both edit. I think James is far more versed in Web lingo -- just, I know nothing about it -- so at this point, I'm doing more on the content side of things, and James is really great with handling all the logistical and structural things with the site. So I set up a lot of interviews, I do a lot of live reviews and I'm starting to reach out to other people to do some reviews for the site as well. And then we all work together with a couple other people -- we have a couple interns and some other strategists who work with us to gather all the venue info for every month. ... It can be sort of relaxed at times, but at the end of every month, when it comes time to sort-of purge every venue's Web site, it becomes, like, a two-day marathon.

Continue reading "New New York: The Search & Restore Interview, Pt. 2" »

12:27 PM ET | 08-17-2009 | permalink

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Hot Jazz, Cold War, Celluloid Of Indeterminate Temperature

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

A Night In Karachi: Dizzy Gillespie, 1956. (Courtesy of the Marshall Stearns Collection, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)

Back in the '50s and '60s -- and in some guise up until the present day -- the U.S. Department of State sent top jazz musicians to far-flung locations around the world as cultural ambassadors. Back then, it was the Cold War, and the Soviets were sending around their dancers, classical musicians and artists. So what better image for the U.S. to counter with than homegrown, curious, charismatic, racially diverse, internationally beloved jazz musicians?

A year and change ago, Tad Hershorn, media archivist at the Institute for Jazz Studies in Newark, N.J. e-mailed me with a curious story idea. The Meridian International Center in Washington, D.C. had put together a photo exhibit of those jazz ambassadors in their travels abroad, which he had done some photo restoration for, and would NPR like to do something about it?

I went to the show one Sunday afternoon and loved it. There were the most amazing shots: Louis Armstrong being mobbed in South America, Benny Goodman posing with the traditional Thai dancers, Dizzy doing Dizzy in South Asia. But at the time, our photo and multimedia division wasn't nearly at the state it's in now. And the story demanded a good way to feature the images. So I let it slide.

The Meridian's Jazz Ambassadors exhibit cropped up on my radar again when it made a tour stop in San Francisco. This time, NPR had already been running its excellent photo blog: The Picture Show. I pitched the idea to Claire O'Neill, who runs that there publication, and she ran with it, interviewing Dr. Curtis Sandberg of the Meridian and creating a little audio slideshow of images and voice.

Once again, I turn your attention to Claire's work: How Jazz Warmed Cold-War Hearts

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Completely unrelated, but I also got this jazz photo gallery and write-up in the e-mail today, spotlighting the work of Jimmy Katz. From the New York Times: Showcase: Riffing in Black and White (H/T Mike Katzif)

6:16 PM ET | 08-14-2009 | permalink

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New New York: The Search & Restore Interview, Pt. 1

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

In light of this week's chatter about how jazz's future audience isn't necessarily dying -- or at least not at the rate it appears -- there's no better time to feature this interview.

New Yorkers Adam Schatz and James Donahue, ages 21 and 24 respectively, are the co-founders of Search and Restore (searchandrestore.com). Right around the time I left New York City for NPR, they both started out as inspired, independent jazz concert promoters, booking some of the hottest acts in (and out of) town in creative ways. With the launch of their Web site, Search And Restore is also quickly becoming an online hub for all things involving live jazz in New York. And dudes are just, like, really good dudes.

Full disclosure: Adam offered his unpaid services to NPR Music as a volunteer at CareFusion-Newport this year. (I did note the fact that 55 years ago, George Wein was but a young concert promoter himself.) But I had never met James or Adam when this interview was conducted several weeks prior, in NPR's New York bureau. It's quite long, but, in my humble opinion, well worth feeling out. (Can I get Steven Bernstein to say "that's what she said"?)

This is the first of two parts, focusing on the concert-producing part of their enterprise. That continues this Sunday, when guitarist Charlie Hunter plays the second installment of his month-long, Search and Restore curated residency at Rose Live Music in Brooklyn. (Tickets.) Schatz and Donahue offered their takes on finding the right beer sponsor, being welcomed to life by Dave Binney, and why it's [not] all about the Benjamins, baby.

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Briefly, each of you: who are you and what do you do? I mean, what's the idea behind this Search and Restore thing that you're doing?

Adam: Well, I can give sort of a backstory from the beginning. I came to New York City in 2006 to attend college at New York University as a jazz saxophone studies major, which is [dryly] one of the most respected majors in the field. You know, the second I got to the city -- I had already been doing this in Boston, just playing in bands, organizing shows, and I liked the idea of community-building through music -- and I wanted to find different ways to rejuvenate any of the scenes that I was a part of. And it seemed in New York that a lot of things were struggling.

So I started a series at the Knitting Factory, which is now closed. [Ed.: a new Knitting Factory location is scheduled to open in Brooklyn this September.] But it was a great series that ran for a little over a year at the Knitting Factory in TriBeCa, where I just sort of took ideas based on little problems I had with different shows I was seeing, and made it all work in one cohesive environment.

Continue reading "New New York: The Search & Restore Interview, Pt. 1" »

1:00 PM ET | 08-14-2009 | permalink

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The Revolutions Of Drummer Rashied Ali

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

Rashied Ali, pictured here in 2008, died on Wednesday. (Ben Johnson)

Drummer Rashied Ali has died. A simple note on his Web site, as well as an e-mail from his manager, confirms the news.

When he was with us, from time to time Rashied would play in a group called By Any Means -- a trio with bassist William Parker and saxophonist/pianist Charles Gayle. As Parker explained to me and WBGO's Simon Rentner after the set, the band's goal was "to incite human and spiritual revolution through art ... We are not restricted by style, by sounds. You know, you use any sounds, you use any key, use any rhythm, you use any idea to promote and get where you're going." In practice this meant largely a freely improvised music that wove in and out of patterns both recognizable and foreign.

The relative few at the By Any Means trio set at the Newport Jazz Festival this year did not see Rashied Ali there; his brother Muhammad Ali was subbing on drums. I saw Roy Haynes approach the bandstand after the show, pleased to be seeing Muhammad, but inquisitive about the whereabouts of his more famous sibling. I would imagine Rashied was not in a good way on Sunday at 5 p.m. ET; according to his manager, he had been admitted to the hospital last Thursday with a mild heart attack. Just when he was about to be released, he died almost instantly of a blood clot.

I was going to write at length about free jazz at Newport this year -- the Vandermark 5 was there too -- and perhaps I still may. But as of this moment, it seems empty to think about that without acknowledging Rashied's legacy.

Ali gave much that was great into the world. In addition to the By Any Means trio, there were his several records with Alice Coltrane, his extensive discography period, his loft space/venue Ali's Alley, his own Survival Records. (Someone one day needs to devote some serious study to 1970s loft spaces and early musician-owned record labels more in depth.) I recall receiving his latest albums on Survival, Judgment Day Vols. 1 and 2, as the jazz co-director at WKCR in New York, and noting that in spite of amateur packaging, Ali still was creating some vital, interesting music. Not quite hard-bop, not quite free jazz, it was raw and fresh and very much of the now.

But when the dust settles, he'll be chiefly remembered for being John Coltrane's last drummer, the fellow who replaced Elvin Jones when Trane was looking to take his music even further into the nether regions. And he always carried on the legacy of the heavyweight champion. It's telling that the title of By Any Means' greatest recorded document is called Touchin' On Trane. Plus, WBGO has a 55-minute duet with Sonny Fortune on Coltrane's "Impressions"; this is from 2004, nearing 40 years after Trane's passing. Which has clear echoes of this:

"Mars," from John Coltrane, Interstellar Space. John Coltrane, tenor saxophone; Rashied Ali, drums. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Feb. 22, 1967.

Purchase: Amazon.com / Amazon MP3 / iTunes

Like many, the Coltrane and Ali duet album Interstellar Space was a key to me understanding John Coltrane's much talked-about later work. So much sound, man. What glorious din he produced, seemingly acting as the furnace apparatus behind Coltrane's passionate, gut-level screeching. I still have trouble believing that was just one drummer. Having met and seen Rashied perform as recently as two years ago, I now have trouble believing he left us before I could see him again.

But you know what? He did incite a personal revolution, at least for this listener. And whatever comfort that can offer to his friends, family and collaborators, I'm glad for.

3:00 PM ET | 08-13-2009 | permalink

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Babs and Lorraine: A Short Rumination

by Felix Contreras

Barbra Streisand is returning -- yes, "returning" to the Vanguard this September. (Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images)

So Barbra Streisand is returning to the Village Vanguard. Returning? you may be asking.

I would have wondered the same had I not read Lorraine Gordon's autobiography Alive At The Village Vanguard. Streisand and the Vanguard go back to the days when Lorraine's late husband Max Gordon ran the place, and he took a chance on the young singer. She eventually moved uptown to Gordon's other room, a supper club called the Blue Angel, then to Broadway and beyond.

While Streisand is not a jazz singer, the first time I really paid attention to her was back in the late '70s, when I saw one of her albums amid Coltrane and Miles at the house of a sax-playing friend of mine.

"Bro, what's up with the Streisand album?"

He then went on to gush about her phrasing, intonation, selection of tunes, how she just killed on ballads. You would have thought he was talking about an NEA Jazz Master.

In her book Lorraine Gordon details the days when she and Streisand would take to the streets for political causes back in the days when the singer could walk anonymously in NYC. There were countless hours spent in deep discussions between the two about show biz and life in general. It completes a nice circle to have a big deal gig like this one at the Vanguard: there's a familial history there, if not an artistic one.

The only drag is that there's a lottery-style distribution of 100 tickets for the gig, scheduled for Sept. 26. I hear unconfirmed rumors that the date may be recorded, though there's no word on how or when the recording would be available if it indeed happens.

Reading about the club date takes me back to my friend's final word on his admiration for Streisand: a vocalist doesn't have to be a jazz singer to have an influence on jazz musicians.

9:10 AM ET | 08-13-2009 | permalink

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Listening, Party For Two: 'Bob The Robin'

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

Cover to Serge Chaloff's Boston Blow-Up!. (courtesy of Capitol Records)

My boss readily admits that she doesn't know a whole lot about jazz. But she lets me write all this nonsense on the Internet, so I'm not complaining. And at least she's willing to learn. So every week -- or at least as often as possible -- she and I get together to listen to and Instant Message about a different great jazz song.

All this week, I'm in Boston for a conference. So I thought of a Beantown-themed sleeper favorite of mine to play for the Boss Lady, who's back home in Washington, D.C. "Bob The Robin" is the lead track off of baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff's Boston Blow-Up, and it just so happens to have been made during a curious juncture in jazz history.

"Bob The Robin," from Serge Chaloff, Boston Blow-Up! Herb Pomeroy, trumpet; Serge Chaloff, baritone saxophone; Boots Mussulli, alto saxophone; Ray Santisi, piano; Everett Evans, bass; Jimmy Zitano, drums. Boston, Mass.: Apr. 4, 1955.

Purchase: Amazon.com / Amazon MP3 / iTunes

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Boss Lady: It's dance music again. Wow, I'm out of breath.

me: This really strikes you as dance music?

Boss Lady: Well, I feel like people could swing to it, but they'd have to be in good shape.

me: Haha! Fair enough. But I don't think this was designed as dance music necessarily.

Boss Lady: Well, if it wasn't played for dancers, where was it first performed?

Continue reading "Listening, Party For Two: 'Bob The Robin'" »

5:18 PM ET | 08-12-2009 | permalink

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JD Allen Trio: Live At The Village Vanguard

UPDATE: Show's over. Check out the video and chat archives above.

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If you haven't guessed, I like saxophone trios a lot. Not all of them are good, of course, but there's something about the directness and liberty of saxophone, bass and drums that sounded great with Sonny Rollins in 1956, and still sounds fresh today.

One of the modern renovators of the form is JD Allen, whose new album Shine! makes meaty little 3-5 minute vignettes out of the choicest bits of his group's improvising. Tonight at 9 p.m. ET at the Village Vanguard, he plays with Gregg August (bass) and Rudy Royston (drums). Once again, the WBGO crew is on the scene, recording and broadcasting. Live video and chat above; audio-only stream and more information here: JD Allen Trio: Live At The Village Vanguard

If you've been following our broadcasting experiment, hopefully I shouldn't have to tell you that you can catch the full audio archive of this show tomorrow at www.npr.org/villagevanguard.

--Patrick Jarenwattananon

5:16 PM ET | 08-12-2009 | permalink

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Five More Great Moments From Newport 2009

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

This week's Take Five installment features five of our personal highlights from NPR Music's recordings of the Newport Jazz Festival. If you don't know where to start with our many hours of Newport 2009 recordings, try this: Highlights From The Newport Jazz Festival 2009

We weren't the only people to think in these terms. Writer Jim Macnie, whom I had the pleasure of meeting briefly, wrote about five of his favorite moments from the entire festival.

Of course, there were clearly more than just five great moments. I've already given some thoughts to day one (Saturday), but as a Macnie-inspired addendum to our Take Five, here are five additional observations culled from watching day two. I was busier on Sunday, glued largely to the Harbor Stage for production assistance, but I tried to make it to as many shows as possible. Ready go:

--Around 11:00 a.m.: When the Rudresh Mahanthappa Indo-Pak Coalition walked on stage, and the only one dressed in traditional South Asian garb was the white guy with the Jewish name: percussionist Dan Weiss. Of course, Weiss is the hinge on which that group turns; he's devised a way to play the tablas plus a snare, bass drum and ride cymbal in complicated, Indian-inspired rhythmic patterns that feel totally unforced. At one point he even started doubling his solo with his voice: the man knows what he's doing. If I can attach a rider to this moment, it would be at the end of the fascinating, richly detailed set. Mahanthappa was doing his closing credits, and forgot his pre-cooked closing line for a second. But he went back to the mic for a Conan O'Brien-inspired joke: "You can find us on Twitter, on YouTube, on Facebook, and the new one: YouTwitFace." (Full Set)

--Around 2:00 p.m.: Upon finishing a riveting, warm, colorful set with his Fellowship Band -- one which caused the Boss Lady to remark, "These guys have, like, five different levels of pianissimo" -- Brian Blade was mobbed. He was first roundly congratulated by other musicians, who were the closest in proximity to him, but once he did all his handshaking and backslapping, he was held up for at least 15 minutes by massive crowds of admirers asking for autographs and posing for photos. And many of them were high school students, several of whom asked me if they could borrow a Sharpie. Which is slightly strange, right? He's still worshipped by teenagers, who can't have listened to him for more than a handful of years. Did these guys even know about the first two Fellowship discs, or any of the Joshua Redman recordings that I and my fellow pubescents loved when we were worshipping Brian Blade? With all this blogospheric chatter about the young jazz audience disappearing, that was an encouraging sign, to say the least. (Full Set)

Continue reading "Five More Great Moments From Newport 2009" »

10:30 AM ET | 08-12-2009 | permalink

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More Photos From The Newport Jazz Festival, Day Two

What an incredible weekend. Lars Gotrich (back in Washington, D.C. -- God bless him) prepared two photo galleries of George Wein's CareFusion Jazz Festival 55. Here's day one. And here's day two. There's much more coverage at www.npr.org/newportjazz.

Dave Brubeck. (Wiqan Ang)

8:18 PM ET | 08- 9-2009 | permalink

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Photos From The 2009 Newport Jazz Festival, Day Two

Don't scroll down too far now. More coverage: www.npr.org/newportjazz

Joe Lovano, performing with UsFive. (Wiqan Ang)

Brian Blade, performing with the Fellowship Band. (Wiqan Ang)

Rudresh Mahanthappa, performing with Indo-Pak Coalition. (Wiqan Ang)

Continue reading "Photos From The 2009 Newport Jazz Festival, Day Two" »

2:48 PM ET | 08- 9-2009 | permalink

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Where Were The Young People At Your Last Concert?

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

My rant about Terry Teachout's article is over. You should read it. But you should do this too:

So all day long yesterday, I had this "young jazz audience" thing on my mind. (The Teachout commentary also came on the heels of this Peter Hum thought about the same subject, which ran on Friday.) The NEA Stats in question, for your reference.

It's clear to me that after a day of hanging out with WBGO's Josh Jackson, I don't (or can't) get out on the scene enough to see vital shows night after night (and that the combination of listening to records and monitoring the blogosphere isn't an effective substitute for doing so). So I'm asking for more anecdotal evidence: is the situation really that damning? Where were the young people in the crowd at your last concert? Do write in.

For my part, I saw a lot more young people than I thought I would in the crowd at Newport on Saturday. The ticket prices for George Wein's CareFusion Jazz Festival 55 are $69 per day, or $125 for the weekend. It's more if you want a seat, and not just a plot of land to squat on, at the main stage. (To be fair I'm told there's some sort of steep last-minute discount in town, but that doesn't do much for people making long-term vacation plans.) Few young people I know would pay that much for a jazz festival -- even my jazz friends. But some were there. This is where they were:

Continue reading "Where Were The Young People At Your Last Concert?" »

7:00 AM ET | 08- 9-2009 | permalink

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Can Jazz Be Saved? (Is That A Useful Question?)

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

I'm supposed to be thinking about Newport -- or sleeping so I can later be thinking about Newport -- but I had to get this out of my system.

I woke up yesterday in Newport, R.I. to find this Terry Teachout Wall Street Journal opinion piece forwarded to my inbox. The headline: "Can Jazz Be Saved?" Which -- yikes! -- even considering the prospect of watching live jazz all day, was not the greatest way to start Saturday.

Here's the catch: Nobody's listening.

No, it's not quite that bad -- but it's no longer possible for head-in-the-sand types to pretend that the great American art form is economically healthy or that its future looks anything other than bleak.

The subject of the op-ed is one dear to my heart, which has only been beating for some 24-odd years. (Yes, I played that card; not like you couldn't have Googled it anyway.) I'm very much of this critical demographic whose participation in jazz could "save" it, should you choose to accept the logic of the article. And I'm fairly sensitive to the suggestion that jazz's future doesn't look "anything other than bleak," and that it's implied to be the fault of my generation for not embracing jazz.

Believe me, the reality of the NEA survey that Teachout writes about is not lost on me.

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7:00 AM ET | 08- 9-2009 | permalink

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Photos From The 2009 Newport Jazz Festival, Day One

Jazz for the eyes. More coverage: www.npr.org/newportjazz

Esperanza Spalding. (Wiqan Ang)

Branford Marsalis with the North Carolina Central University. (Wiqan Ang)

Claudia Acuna. (Wiqan Ang)

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7:00 PM ET | 08- 8-2009 | permalink

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Live From The 2009 Newport Jazz Festival ...

Blogging will be a bit abbreviated today. I'm already behind schedule to catch my plane to Providence, R.I. -- which is an hour away from Newport, R.I. -- where NPR Music, with WBGO and WGBH are Webcasting, recording for online archive and covering lotsa good stuff from this year's jazz festival all weekend long. Again! All pertinent info is found here: www.npr.org/newportjazz

@blogsupreme on Twitter will be documenting this weekend in 140-character fits and starts. Also, it's my plan that this space be updated with photos, recaps, features, etc.

In the meanwhile, have this clip from the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival (I presume from Jazz On A Summer's Day? via @sethcolterwalls). Pops is all up in it:

(Lookit all the young people tripping out in the crowd!)

--Patrick Jarenwattananon

9:57 AM ET | 08- 7-2009 | permalink

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It's The Economy, Stupid: Jazz Cancellations

by Felix Contreras

The economy. Health care proposals. Foreign policy. We can read more about all that in other parts of this Web site. So why here on our jazz blog?

Let's just focus on the economy for now.

Drummer Winard Harper. (Richard Galosy)

I was cruising through some jazz news from all corners and saw a curious note about jazz drummer Winard Harper in the Seattle Times about how he may have to leave behind a long-time member of his band for a gig on the West Coast (which just ended) because the "money is funny," as some working musicians refer to uncertain financial arrangements.

That's not to say his gig at Seattle's famed Jazz Alley will not be paid. But there may not be enough bread to cover the costs of flying his percussionist Alioune Faye across the country. The determined bandleader was quoted: "It's just rough out there. Flying is already so expensive, and now they want to charge you for luggage. Keeping a band together is harder than ever. We're figuring out how to make things work."

I hope things work out there, but it got me thinking about the summer jazz festival season at the local level.

Continue reading "It's The Economy, Stupid: Jazz Cancellations" »

1:30 PM ET | 08- 6-2009 | permalink

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Is This Jazz? The New Mulatu Astatke Album

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

"Masenqo," from Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics, Inspiration Information 3.

Purchase: Amazon.com / Amazon MP3 / iTunes

Cover art to Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics' new album. (Courtesy of Strut Records)

I know, I know. The response to this question is always "does it matter?" And the answer is usually "no."

Still, it's occasionally useful to explore. And this year, there seems to be some balking at the inclusion of Ethopian groove music pioneer Mulatu Astatke within the jazz umbrella. I heard it privately from a few people when Bob Boilen, host/creator of NPR Music's All Songs Considered, called Astatke's new album Inspiration Information 3 "the best jazz record I've heard in 2009." Recently, the voracious listener known as Free Jazz Stef also expressed some reservations:

This album is OK, but nothing more than that. It is a mixture of stuff, often characterless, but the Ethopian's music is so compelling, that it even withstands the treatment given here. I hope it will lead listeners to the real music.

Stef provides a valuable service in sharing opinions about underheard music (within an underheard genre), and for free, at that. So one wouldn't hold him to the standards of a professional critic. But he does raise this essentialist notion of "real music" versus this "stuff," which I find problematic.

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3:33 PM ET | 08- 5-2009 | permalink

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Herman Leonard: Photos From The 1955 Newport Jazz Festival

A happy belated 108th birthday to Louis Armstrong, pictured here at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1955. (Herman Leonard / Herman Leonard Photography, LLC)

As you undoubtedly know (while I clear my throat for emphasis), this weekend ABS and NPR Music are going up to George Wein's CareFusion Jazz Festival 55 -- more informally and elegantly known as the Newport Jazz Festival -- for a series of live broadcasts. More info about our evolving live coverage is at our hub: Jazz At Newport (accessible also as www.npr.org/newportjazz).

In the lead-in to that, consider the great jazz photographer Herman Leonard. He knows the scene at Newport pretty well -- or at least he did in 1955, when he captured great shots of Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Count Basie, Gerry Mulligan ... you get the picture. (Yes, pun intended.) NPR's The Picture Show blog recently tracked the 86-year-old Leonard down to talk about his captivating photography from Newport, and built a magnificent audio slideshow with those images and that audio. Learn more at the blog post, and then check out the gallery.

--Patrick Jarenwattananon

3:30 PM ET | 08- 5-2009 | permalink

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An Ode To The Wordless Melody Vocal

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

Listening to Felix's feature on female Latin jazz vocalists got me thinking about this again. But it all began when music super-consumer Steve Smith alerted ABS to this charming little take on "I Want To Be Happy," produced for Time Out New York:

There's a bit more about vocalist Jo Lawry, who is quite charming in this video, at The Volume, the music blog of TONY. Surely, Steve intuited that we have a thing for in-store in-office performances here at NPR Music. But it really got my brain churning about my love for what seems to be an increasingly common texture in jazz these days: the non-scatted wordless vocal.

Ok, so she's improvising in that video there -- hear me out. Lawry is a part of Fred Hersch's Pocket Orchestra, a group that has released one of my favorite discs so far this year (Live At Jazz Standard). There's a lot to admire about that record: Hersch's duetting with Richie Barshay on brushes; the smart, fresh compositions; Ralph Alessi's legato tack on the trumpet. But it's Lawry's wordless vocals which really sell me on the whole thing. When she flits about while duplicating or stating the melody line, it pretty much slays. (Check out some examples in the sidebar of this Fred Hersch profile.)

I'm not talking about vocal improvising a la Ella Fitzgerald here, engrossing as that can be. It's the much more infrequent use of wordless vocals as a melody instrument which intrigues me here.

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2:50 PM ET | 08- 4-2009 | permalink

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Robot Armies, The Jazz M.D., Christmas Creep: The Tuesday Link Dump

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

--Pat Metheny's Robot Army: Forgive the mischaracterization, although when you commission an ensemble of 21st century orchestrions (what?) to take on a "solo" tour with you ... anyway, guitarist Pat Metheny has done this very thing, and announced it on his Web site. The whole thing sounds like an odd steampunk idea of the future; rather than control his musical climate with synthesizers, Metheny is determined to make use of these large acoustic machines (is it fair to call these precisely engineered instruments ungainly?) in creating music around him. Peter Hum has more info. From what I can make of it, it's potentially really cool if it works, and probably a wee bit self-indulgent. Sort of like jazz blogging, actually.

--Pianist Denny Zeitlin, M.D., Interviewed: This week at JazzWax, Marc Myers is speaking with pianist and practicing psychiatrist Denny Zeitlin. The first part goes in on the psychological aspects of improvising. On why people don't really get into jazz today: "Ever since the advent of rock and roll, our Elvis-presley culture has been veering more and more toward instant gratification. There's no longer the sense that the listener has an implied responsibility to reach out and meet the music half way or put some energy into the experience." Part two, out today, goes into biographical history, and two more parts are on the way.

--Mats Gustafsson Likes To Curse: But in an adorable, Swedish sort of way. The prolific free-jazz saxophonist, of The Thing among many other bands, grants an interview with The Quietus in which he reveals a lot of viewpoints I personally find fascinating. Like how an out musician could be initially inspired by Little Richard, or how his music says "Nothing [period]" about Swedish culture or the Nordic regions at large, or the Swedish and Norwegian words for a-----e, or that he's just a dude who likes barbeque and soccer and hanging out. I especially think his comment that the "audience for this music is basically the same" everywhere around the world is telling, in some part because he qualified it with a characterization of "50-year-old men with beards, with German beers in their hands."

--Teddy Charles Profiled: Good to see the 81-year-old vibraphonist return to the scene, even if it's because it's not easy to pay the bills as a retired jazz musician. (Article here.) He recounts stories of when Max Roach stole his drums, and how he got into sailing. There's video, too. What this piece is missing, of course, is the news that saxophonist and composer Chris Byars has been collaborating with Charles for some time recently, and has been working on a suite called "Bop-ography," portraying Charles' life.

--Album Pricing: I Don't Get It Either: Mike Fabio of iamfaster likes a record that some of us like too: Bill Frisell's new Disfarmer. But he's baffled at some of the pricing differences among various vendors. Notably, that it's more expensive to buy direct from the label, without the retail middleman. Because they can sell in large quantities, the Amazons of the world can undercut the suggested retail price, and even the price at which the label offers its own product. Which hurts my brain, and makes we wonder how I possibly passed Principles of Economics.

--The Creep Of Christmas: Not like weird old uncle creepy, but encroachment of holiday music on the distinctly non-winter-holiday month of July. The folks at JazzTimes got their first Christmas promo CD recently, and I know they would know about the heavy burden of summer -- they're up the road in Silver Spring, Md. Luckily, they like the music.

12:22 PM ET | 08- 4-2009 | permalink

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Judging By The Cover: 'United'

by Michael Katzif

Great sessions are occasionally hidden under the weight of Art Blakey's massive catalog. (Robert Parent / Time and Life Pictures/Getty Images)

When it comes to artists like drummer Art Blakey, whose catalog is enormous, it can be easy to overlook a classic. Over his long career, Blakey had so many studio recordings and live albums with his seminal group The Jazz Messengers that it can be difficult to parse which are the the ones worth hearing. In cases like these, a cover song can open the door to a new discovery that might otherwise slip through.

This was certainly the situation with "United," a Wayne Shorter tune I first found on Medeski Martin & Wood's first album Notes From The Underground, back in high school. I loved the trio's version so much at that time that I was inspired to hunt down the original, which can be found on Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers' somewhat lesser-known album, Roots And Herbs.

"United," from Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Roots And Herbs. Lee Morgan, trumpet; Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone, Walter Davis Jr., piano; Jymie Merritt, bass; Art Blakey, drums. New York, N.Y.: Feb. 18, 1961.

Purchase: Amazon.com CD / Amazon MP3 / iTunes

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11:45 AM ET | 08- 3-2009 | permalink

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