Talking Cows – Almost Human (Jazz Sick)

Jeff Hamilton Trio – Red Sparkle (Capri)

Marin Xavier – When the World Was Young (Ateliers 79)

Mark Sherman – The L.A. Sessions (Miles High)

February 28

The Middlewood Sessions – The Middlewood Sessions (Middlewood)

Robert Glasper – Black Radio (Blue Note)

Jonathan Blake – Eleventh Hour (Sunnyside)

Rebecka Larsdotter – Feathers and Concrete (Prophone)

March 6

Post Jazz Mistress – Global Warming (TRP)

Sue Halloran and Ken Hitchcock – I Can Cook Too!

Wes Montgomery – Echoes of Indiana Avenue (Resonance)

Jane Scheckter – Easy to Remember (Doxie)

Sarah Elgeti Quintet – Into the Open (Your Favorite)

March 13

Chinua Hawk

Chinua Hawk – A Beautifully Complicated Life (Blue Canoe)

Peter White – Here We Go (Heads Up)

Tatum Greenblatt – Imprints

Scott Tixier - Brooklyn Bazaar (Sunnyside)

Max Merseny – Thanks Y’All (Enja)

March 20

Jerome Covington — Animism in the Digital Age (Covington)

Josh Arcoleo – Beginnings (Edition)

Dudley Owens/Aaron Wright Band

Dudley Ownes / Aaron Wright Band – People Calling (Origin)

Sara Leib – Secret Love (OA2)

March 27

Alon Yavnai and the NDR Big Band – Shir Ahava (SR)

Scent of Soil – Scent of Soil (Vinyl) (Hubro)

Greg Spero – Radio Over Miles (Katalyst)

Darren Rahn – Speechless (Trippin N’ Rhythm)

Alfredo Rodriguez – Sounds of Space

April 3

Kerong Chok

Kerong Chok – Good Company (Kerong Chok)

David and Rachel Diggs – Black Coffee (Gold Label)

Ray Jozwiak – Ambience & Wine (Bosky Dell/Sylvan Glade)

New World Beat – After Carnival (COM)

April 10

Bria Skonberg – So Is the Day (Random Act)

Deborah Shulman – Lost in the Stars (Summit)

Earl Klug – Finger Paintings/Heart String/Wishful Thinking

The Chris Flory Quintet – The Chris Flory Quintet Featuring Scott Hamilton (Arbors)

Bill Frisell – Everything is Alive (Winter and Winter)

Alexander Hawkins Ensemble

Alexander Hawkins Ensemble – All There, Ever Out (Babel)

Mustangs – Shaman and the Monkey (Trapeze)

April 17

Budman & Levy Orch – From There to Here (Oa2)

Pete Zimmer – Prime of Life (Tippin Records)

Rebecca Pidgeon – Slingshot (Decca)

April 24

Chihiro Yamanaka – Reminiscence (Decca)

Misja Fitzgerald Michel – Time of No Reply (No Format)

Zildjian Renaissance and Bounce Ride K Constantinople Cymbals

The the 22” K Constantinople Renaissance Ride is a versatile instrument that works well in small to medium size musical settings. This cymbal features smoother lathing on both sides and a bell that is unlathed underneath, adding stick definition to the instrument. Three rows of over hammering and four large hammer clusters give it a dark spread with overtones and a bit of “trash.” The K Constantinople Renaissance Ride is medium-thin in weight.

The 20” K Constantinople Bounce Ride, a smaller version of the popular 22” model launched two years ago. Like the 22” model, that was developed in conjunction with Kenny Washington, the 20” Bounce Ride features traditional K Constantinople hammering and eight unique cluster hammer marks on top that add just enough “dirt” to the sound. The new 20” model has more pronounced lathing and tonal grooves to produce plenty of dark wash and sustain. The K Constantinople Bounce Ride is medium-thin in weight.

www.zildjian.com

Graph Tech’s PrePlay Hand and Instrument Care Product

PrePlay is the first product in the new CHOPS line of professional hand care for musicians.

Acid from sweaty hands can attack an axe and deteriorate a guitar’s finish, shorten string life and eat away at precious hardware. PrePlay is formulated to balance skin pH on contact; thereby neutralizing the acid and protecting the instrument. The lubricating nature of this product also adds slide, glide and comfort feel to the neck.

PrePlay contains natural ingredients and oil extracts including sandalwood, lemongrass, black tea, mallow, clove, Irish moss, rosemary and chamomile. PrePlay has a fresh, clean citrus smell and is fast absorbing and non greasy. PrePlay comes in a 30ml pump action bottle that contains up to 200 uses.

Retail price: $19.95.
www.graphtech.com

Tycoon Percussion Bata Drums

Tycoon Percussion recently introduced its new series of Bata Drums. Traditionally, Bata drums are used in ceremonial scenarios and are played in groups, where a “call and response” pattern is exchanged between the members. Constructed in Tycoon’s own factory in Thailand, these drums are made from the finest sustainably-harvested Siam Oak wood, and are individually hand-made and tested, promising only the highest sound quality and durability. Each individual drum also features a premium water buffalo skin head clasped on the drum by chrome colored hardware. The Bata drum is just one of the numerous authentic and top-quality traditional instruments offered at Tycoon Percussion. Available in 3 different sizes: 18.5” tall 22” tall, & 27” tall.

www.tycoonpercussion.com

Anthem A-2500 Trumpet

The A-2500 trumpet features a .460 bore, a 4 7/8” hand-hammered brass bell, a red brass leadpipe, hand lapped stainless steel pistons, an adjustable 3rd valve ring, and a beautiful epoxy clear finish. The 7C mouthpiece is plated at Anderson plating in Elkhart, Ind. The A-2500 case has also been re-designed and features 4mm thick durable ABS plastic, with a plush interior and stackable rubber feet.

www.antheminstruments.com

Crossover Pieces for Saxophone by Peter Lehel

This new book from Advance Music offers the saxophonist a most varied stylistic palette of concert pieces in combination with comprehensive and illustrative information on the structure of the compositions with regard to composition techniques, melody, harmony , and ideas for improvisation. Additionally, the book presents essential and creative exercises based on the individual pieces, which aim at improving the saxophone players’ performance and at helping them delve deeper into the secrets of music. Features include a playalong CD, creative exercises, explanatory notes on all the pieces with regard to melody, harmony, and rhythm, ideas for improvisation, and ideas for composing.

www.advancemusic.com

Pro-Mark Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez Signature Drumstick

The Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez Signature Drumstick is 16” long x .500 in diameter with a wood tip. The stick has a smaller, versatile tip that is perfect for jazz and fusion and is also great for pop or R&B. They’re designed with Hernandez in mind. The Grammy-winning drummer has performed with McCoy Tyner, Carlos Santana, Steve Winwood, and as part of Tito Puente’s “Tropi-Jazz” All Stars.

www.promark.com.

LP Egg Shaker Trio and Conga Shaker Trio

Each LP Egg Shaker Set and Conga Shaker set includes three shakers, featuring a different fill formulation that produces a different volume level. The white shaker is the softest and is ideal for acoustic studio applications. The blue shaker is a multi-purpose medium volume shaker that can be used in a variety of applications and the red shaker produces a particularly loud, coarse sound that is perfect for live performances.

The patented LP Egg Shaker Trio and Conga Shaker Trio are filled with non-toxic steel shot.

Retail price: $11.99 (egg shakers) and $14.99 (conga shakers).
www.lpmusic.com

Marshall Gilkes

A graduate of The Juilliard School as well as Interlochen Arts Academy, Gilkes was a 2003 finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. He made his recording debut in 2004 with the acclaimed Edenderry followed by a 2008 quintet recording, Lost Words.  Marshall has performed at jazz festivals and venues throughout Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, and taught and presented master classes at institutions around the world.

In addition to his work as a leader, Gilkes has performed or recorded with Richard Bona, Edmar Castaneda, Billy Cobham, Dave Douglas, the Maria Schneider Orchestra, and the Village Vanguard Orchestra. He is featured on Maria Schneider’s Grammy Award winning CD, Sky Blue, as well as CDs by John Fedchock, David Berger and Edmar Castaneda and many others. After living and working in New York for 12 years, he moved to Cologne, Germany where he is a member of the WDR Big Band. He is an artist for Edwards Instruments.

Gilkes’ new album, Sound Stories (Alternate Side Records) featuring Donny McCaslin, Adam Birnbaum, Yasushi Nakamura and Eric Dobb, showcases him as a distinctive composer of persuasive narrative power and a soloist with boundless melodic appeal.

1. Gently Disturbed – Avishai Cohen Trio

After hearing this trio live in Eilat, Israel a few years ago, I immediately purchased this record and it has been in my playlist ever since.  The folk-like melodies are beautiful and the rhythms and grooves they get into are incredible, but they do it in a way where it never sounds complicated.  There is never a dull moment.  All of the tracks relate to one another making for a record that you really have to listen to from start to finish.

2. Meant to Be – John Scofield Quartet

I have been a huge Scofield fan for a long time, but I never had this record until recently.  We did a project with him at WDR a few months back and played a few of the tunes from this record.  I’ve been occasionally playing the tune, “Go Blow“ from this record at sessions.  Really fun changes to blow over.  Scofield writes great melodies, and I love the way he phrases.  So natural!

3. Don’t Try This at Home – Michael Brecker

I always return to this and his other records for inspiration.  He makes me want to practice!  Check out the first track, “Itsbynne Reel.”

4. Jazz Mass – Ike Sturm

This record is beautiful – full of great players and writing.  Sometimes I put it on in the morning to get my day off to a good start.

5. Heavyweight Champion, Disc Three – John Coltrane

When I graduated from high school my parents gave me the Heavyweight Champion box set as a graduation gift.  Recently after hearing a colleague of mine playing “Fifth House” I got out disc three to check out the tune.  I love practicing Coltrane Changes, and this one is based on “What is this Thing Called Love.”  After listening to the disc, I actually ended up learning Ornette Coleman’s “The Blessing” first.  The disc has music from three different sessions and bands on it, and it is amazing how differently he plays in each setting.

6. The Next Step – Kurt Rosenwinkel

I just recently got this album back out.  When I first moved to NYC, I used to go see this group play at Smalls as often as possible.  Rosenwinkel’s writing always sounds fresh to me.  This record has a lot of the compositions that that they played at those concerts.  It’s funny how a record can remind you of where you were when you first started listening to it.

7. Ravel String Quartet – Belcea Quartet

Really incredible piece of music.  Incredible themes, development, and for lack of an appropriate classical term, “groove!”   The pizzicato sections in the 2nd movement always amaze me.

8. Bang Zoom – Bobby McFerrin

I love the pureness of McFerrin’s voice.  It’s always refreshing to hear.  This album was produced by Russel Ferrante and McFerrin, and features the other members of the Yellowjackets as well.  The record has a great spirit.

9. Mood Swing – Joshua Redman

When I was in high school I saw Redman’s band live a few times, and it was really inspiring as a young musician.  I’ve had this record since it came out.  I didn’t listen to it for a while, and then put it on again recently.  There is a track on this record called, “Rejoice.”  When I was still in New York, I used to keep it on my iPod.  Every now and then I would listen to it after a bad gig to get me back in a good mood.  And it worked!

10.   Los Grandes Exitos (Greatest Hits) – Isaac Delgado

I’ve been a huge fan of Isaac Delgado for a while now.  He was one of the founding members of the band NG La Banda, who are credited with creating timba.  I keep on coming back to the track, “La Sandungita” from this record.  The horn writing is incredible, and Isaac Delgado’s voice is smooth and effortless.

It is useful to study instruments other than one’s own: for composers, to facilitate writing more informed parts for these players; for teachers, to assist coaching of student ensembles. For non-drummers, for example, analyzing various rhythmic devices can also generate various compositional and/or arranging ideas.

Although I’m a saxophonist, I gained a great deal from exploring drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts’ playing on Branford Marsalis’ tune, “Housed From Edward.” The track was recorded May 26, 1989 on Marsalis’ album, Trio Jeepy, featuring Marsalis on tenor saxophone, Milt Hinton on bass, and Tain on drums.

The tune is a 12-bar F blues. Three minutes and 36 seconds into the recording is where my transcription excerpt begins, in bar nine of the 12-bar blues form. Tain is playing in an Elvin Jones-influenced triplet style. The highlight of this excerpt is Tain’s use of rhythmic displacement: beginning in the second bar, he takes the standard triplet language and moves the pattern forward an eighth note triplet, creating a different permutation of the beat. The 12-bar blues is a good vehicle for experimentation, including the use of rhythmic devices such as this one. It should be incredibly familiar to the performer, and it provides a relatively easy form in which to keep your place, with its short overall length and regular, four-bar phrases. Tain’s choice to displace the rhythm on this particular tune makes sense, given the quirky nature of Marsalis’ opening melodic statements. It should be noted that Tain plays rather sparsely for the first several choruses and doesn’t build to this excerpt’s level of rhythmic complexity until the 9th and 10th choruses. Also, Tain does not choose to begin or resolve this device at the top of a form or even at the beginning or end of a four-bar phrase.

Tain begins the displacement on beat three of bar 10, and continues it through the beginning of the next chorus, resolving on the “and” of four of bar seven of chorus 10. This excerpt is in a triplet eighth note swing feel where the last eighth note triplet is the same as the “and” of each beat.

A standard ride cymbal pattern is one two “and” three four “and”; when Tain moves this basic pattern forward one eighth note triplet, now the ride cymbal pattern begins on the “and” of one, the second and third eighth-note triplet of two, the “and” of three, and the second and third eighth note triplet of four. A standard hi-hat pattern lands on beats two and four, as Tain plays in the beginning of the transcribed excerpt. When he creates the rhythmic displacement, the hi-hat ends up on the “and” of one and the “and” of three. In the aforementioned Elvin Jones style, Tain ornaments this basic ride cymbal and hi-hat pattern with eighth note triplets on the second and third part of the triplet beat and bass drum notes on the “ands” of the beats. When he displaces this Elvin Jones vocabulary, Tain’s snare drum notes are now on one and the second eighth note triplet of one, two, three, the second eighth note triplet of three, and four; the bass drum notes end up on the second eighth note triplet of beats one, two, three, and four.

The trick to any technique like rhythmic displacement is how a player transitions into and out of it while still sounding musical. Tain begins this new pattern by leaving the “and” of two off in bar two of the transcription, and then essentially re-setting himself on beat three by playing a snare drum note with no ride cymbal note. He resolves it by playing a ride cymbal note on beat one of bar 12 of the transcription, thus resulting in three consecutive eighth note triplet ride cymbal notes (where there are usually only two in a row) and a resetting of the beat emphasis back to normal. When Tain moves into this rhythmic concept, Marsalis takes the opportunity to also ‘abstract’ the beat, while Hinton holds his ground. It is a testimony to Milt Hinton’s unflagging walking bassline abilities that his performance is not thrown off by Tain’s rhythmic displacement.  It is impressive to note that Tain’s playing leading up to and immediately following the rhythmic displacement is through-composed in style, where one might ordinarily expect a player to simplify his or her playing transitioning in and out of a rhythmic device such as this.

Any musician should attempt rhythmic displacements only when he or she has solidified the basics: tone, time, time feel, technique and facility on his or her instrument, reliable intonation, and other fundamental ensemble and musicianship skills. In attempting rhythmic displacement, it is important to be able to feel how your new beat emphasis relates to the original beat emphasis (that others will still be playing) and to perform with that awareness, instead of just mentally adding or subtracting a given note value to initiate your new beat emphasis and then playing without reference to the original pulse. A good exercise when listening to this track (or others like it) is to try to continue to feel the original beat through the entirety of the rhythmic displacement by tapping your foot, and not let yourself be swayed by the new beat emphasis Tain’s rhythmic displacement creates. Once one becomes comfortable, this type of exercise will aid a performer in being able to keep form through many rhythmic devices that rhythm section players may employ in the course of an improvisational performance.

Along with keeping track of the beat and form while listening to recordings such as this one, these rhythmic ideas can be practiced in group situations of various sizes, having one or more people take turns deviating from the original beat emphasis while the remaining members maintain it. Because you won’t always have another individual or rhythm section at your disposal, the inverse of this idea can also be practiced with a metronome. For example, instead of having the metronome play on all the beats (i.e., every quarter note beat in 4/4), you can treat the metronome as if it were playing every third or fifth beat while you play along with it in 4/4. Also useful is to practice with the metronome clicking on the second or fourth beat, rather than on every beat, so that the bulk of the timekeeping responsibility lies on the player. For example, if the piece’s tempo is quarter note = 160, try putting the metronome on 80 or 40.

Rhythmic devices were a hallmark of Tain’s playing during this period in various ensembles, including Wynton and Branford Marsalis’ respective groups. Another example of rhythmic displacement (where, in contrast, the entire group is involved) is Thelonious Monk tune “Friday The 13th” on the Branford Marsalis Trio album, Bloomington. The album has the same lineup as Trio Jeepy, excepting the presence of Robert Hurst on bass rather than Milt Hinton. “Friday The 13th” is another great song for employing rhythmic devices such as displacement: it is only four bars in length total and the harmonic phrase structure is only two bars in length. Rhythmic playfulness also matches the characteristic idiosyncrasy of this type of Monk melody.

Joe Manis is a saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator active in the Pacific Northwest. Currently serving on the faculty of Umpqua Community College, Manis frequently serves as a clinician, masterclass presenter, and guest performer throughout the region. Quickly gaining recognition for the strength of Manis’ “intense, updated take on the Rollins-’Trane tradition,” the Joe Manis Trio received praise for its 2008 release, Evidence, and its high-energy performances at venues such as the Portland Jazz Festival and the John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts.

Lee Evans

By Lee Evans

In his brilliant 1968 analytical book on jazz, Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development (Oxford University Press) author Gunther Schuller makes a very strong case for jazz’s African origins, writing that “the analytic study in this chapter [Chapter 1, pages 3-62] shows that every musical element – rhythm, harmony, melody, timbre, and the basic forms of jazz – is essentially African in background and derivation.” This article is an examination of those musical elements and of the rationale for that statement.

Schuller’s conclusions are based on the writings of ethnomusicologist Arthur Morris Jones in his 1956 two volume analysis of African music, called Studies in African Music, and on Winthrop Sargeant’s pioneering analytical study of jazz called Jazz: Hot and Hybrid, Da Capo Press, 1975, 3rd Edition, enlarged.

Polyrhythms

Polyrhythms, two or more different rhythms occurring at the same time, may be found in both European folk music and concert music, but the African polyrhythmic tradition is thought to be much stronger than that of the European as an influence in jazz.

Schuller writes that African music is not only contrapuntal (two or more lines sounded simultaneously), but is:

1. polymetric – the occurrence of two or more meters simultaneously; and
2. polyrhythmic – the sounding of two or more independent rhythms simultaneously.

By contrast, European music has primarily been:

1. monometric – one meter at a time; and
2. monorhythmic – one rhythm at a time.

An extraordinary number of examples of polyrhythms in jazz and jazz inflected music can be cited. For one, consider the cross rhythm (the overlaying of one rhythmic pattern over another) in a typical measure of Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag:

In the right hand, the rhythmic accentuation of the melody is:

1   2   3   1   2   3   1   2

In the left hand, the basic pulse in each bar is:

1       &        2       &

Schuller also writes about Jones making the interesting point that African phrases “are built up of the numbers 2 and 3 or a combination of 2 and 3”, and that this ragtime rhythm again demonstrates the African American’s urge to combine two rhythms simultaneously within the European (i.e., white man’s) musical framework.

Schuller writes: “The African slave’s adjustment to the white man’s music consisted precisely of translating these polymetric and polyrhythmic points of emphasis into the monometric and monorhythmic structures of European music. Syncopation, preceding or following the main beats, was the American Negro’s only workable compromise. It left the Negro with a vestige of his love for cross-rhythms and cross-accentuation; at the same time it enabled him to carry on the tradition within the white man’s musical structures.”

The European rhythmic concept of polyrhythm generally involves two or more simultaneous rhythms that ordinarily feature vertical coincidence at phrase beginnings and endings, as well as at other focal points in the music; whereas the African rhythmic concept of polyrhythm does not ordinarily feature such vertical coincidence. Examine virtually any European orchestral score and you’ll notice that the bar lines are in vertical alignment on the page. Remember that one of the principal functions of the bar line is to let musicians know the location of beat one. In the example below, of the woodwind, brass and timpani parts alone of the orchestral score of Manuel da Falla’s El Amor Brujo, all orchestral parts experience beat one simultaneously.

By contrast, the African approach to rhythm may be seen and heard in African drumming, where drummers may play lengthy and extended cross rhythms whose downbeats seldom coincide. Try to score an African dance – say the Nyayito Dance, a Ghana funeral dance – and you’ll see that rarely does such a vertical coincidence of bar lines occur.

Example: Nyayito Dance, measures 38-39 – (from p. 12 of Early Jazz.)

Syncopation

Apart from the use of accents, syncopation was an effective way for early-jazz black musicians to emphasize weak beats within the European musical notational system. Syncopation allowed them to express their natural tendency for rhythmic democratization, and to accent against the beat. Schuller also points to their custom of clapping on a bar’s weak beats as an example of their affinity for polyrhythmic organization.

Call and Response

African music is essentially antiphonal – that is, responsorial – as in call and response, a musical pattern that characterizes much of African music, usually manifested by the group responding to the leader or soloist, as may be heard in the religious services of Baptist churches, as well as in vocal blues, where each two-bar line of sung text – the “call” – is followed by a two-bar instrumental “response”.

Mark Gridley in his outstanding jazz history textbook Jazz Styles: History and Analysis, 9th Edition (Pearson Prentice Hall), makes the point that what distinguishes call and response as a strongly African based source, as opposed to music from elsewhere, is what he refers to as “overlapping call and response”, where the response begins before the call ends, thus creating rhythmic conflict.

To hear call and response in a purely instrumental jazz context, listen to the opening of Miles Davis’s recording of the dorian-mode song So What on his album Kind of Blue. After a brief introduction, one can hear each bass “call” answered by the “response” of piano chords playing the following rhythm:

Repetitiveness

Schuller states that repetition is an African based characteristic, and that an important aspect of African songs and dances is repetitiousness. This corresponds to the repetitiveness of the riff/ostinato (the constant repetition of a short musical phrase) in jazz performance, such as may be heard in pianists’ left hand boogie-woogie patterns, in drummers’ ride rhythms, and in riff-based songs such as Count Basie’s Jumpin’ At The Woodside, to name but a few examples.

Blue Notes

In Winthrop Sargeant’s book Jazz: Hot and Hybrid, in his chapters on the scalar structure of jazz and the derivation of the blues, he makes the case that the blues scale, with its blue notes (lowered 3rd and 7th of the major scale), are derived primarily from African sources; and, as author Schuller points out, “from the quartal and quintal harmonies of African singing and from the tendency of African melodies to shift around a central tone.” Notwithstanding the above, however, Gridley states that the decoration of tones, such as pitch bending, originated in European classical, operas and folk music as well as in West African musical practices.

Incidentally, the lowered 5th was a new blue note created later on, during the bebop era of jazz in the 1940’s. This note, with its tritone (three whole-steps) relationship to the tonic tone of the major scale – Fb in the key of Bb, for example – was just the touch of abstraction so eagerly sought after by bop musicians in their performances. (In fact, Dizzy Gillespie’s and Charlie Parker’s famous recording of Shaw ‘Nuff even ends with the tritone pitch, the most unstable pitch of all.)

Open Tone and  Natural Quality

Important characteristics of jazz vocal and instrumental performance, “traceable directly to African singing and indirectly to African speech and language” – according to Schuller – are an open tone and natural quality, compared to the cultivated and trained sound of singers and instrumentalists in the European classical music tradition. A good example of this open tone and natural quality in jazz may be heard in the singing of Louis Armstrong.

Individuality

Have you ever noticed that players of the various string choirs in a symphony orchestra always move their bows in the same direction at the same time? The purpose is to achieve uniformity of phrasing and sound. By contrast, jazz musicians prize individuality. Other than in big band section playing, where blending in with the other section players is an important goal, it is one’s ability to stand out from the crowd, so to speak, that is the surer path to success and fame in jazz. What is the connection to African sources? Subjugation to the group or to a composer’s style is not a feature of African musical performance, while individuality is an African musical characteristic adopted by jazz musicians.

Collective Improvisation

Improvisation is an essential component of jazz.  There are precedents for solo improvisation in much folk and popular music and in the European classical tradition of Baroque figured bass and in concerto cadenzas, to cite only a few examples, but there are no known precedents for the collective improvisation of early small combo Dixieland jazz performance and its simultaneous improvisation of several musical lines, except for the fact that collective improvisation has long been a strong feature of African music.

Portamento

Sliding into notes from above or below, called portamento, is a prominent jazz characteristic related to the natural quality heard in African singing, and may also be heard often in jazz performance. For excellent examples of portamento in jazz, listen to Bessie Smith singing St. Louis Blues (Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz), and to soprano saxophonist/clarinetist Sidney Bechet’s recording of Blue Horizon (SCCJ).

End Note

Throughout jazz’s relatively short history, jazz musicians have adopted certain influences, forms, musical instruments, and the concept of chord progressions from the European musical tradition. However, the strongest musical traditions from which jazz emerged in America in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s are believed by many jazz scholars and historians to be mostly of African origin. For a convincing and detailed analysis of jazz’s African origins, read Gunther Schuller’s essential volume, Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development.

Lee Evans, Ed.D., is professor of music at NYC’s Pace University. In addition to his extensive list of Hal Leonard publications, his solo-piano books for The FJH Music Company include the late beginner/early intermediate level Color Me Jazz, Books 1 and 2; the intermediate/upper intermediate level Ole! Original Latin-American Dance Music and Fiesta! Original Latin-American Piano Solos. Also, along with four co-authors including Dr. James Lyke, Dr. Evans is author/composer/arranger of the just published Keyboard Fundamentals, 6th Edition (Stipes Publishing), formerly a two but now one-volume beginning level piano method for adult beginners of junior high age and older.

Jazz is by nature an improvisatory art form, and that holds true for the way its practitioners have pursued educations as well as on-the-spot compositions.  From its roots in New Orleans, mixing African folk rhythms with Western harmonies to current jazz ensembles taking on Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” the music and its pioneers have largely decided on their own curriculum, as they scrambled for new tricks and voices to add to the vibrant and quickly-growing musical language.

Pianist and Jazz Messengers veteran Joanne Brackeen is one of the all-time greats at this kind of stylistic self-determinism. Growing up in California in the 1940s, Brackeen began teaching herself how to play piano at 11 after becoming enthralled by recordings of Charlie Parker. She transcribed all the solos she could get her hands on and quickly became a prodigy at the keys. She struck out on her own and was soon performing with West Coast musicians like Dexter Gordon, Teddy Edwards, and Harold Land, picking up styles virtually out of thin air whenever she felt like it.

She’s enjoyed a full, world-traveling career that continues to this day, but Brackeen is now also a full-time faculty member of the Berklee School of Music’s piano department (she teaches a class at the New School in New York City, as well), where she brings her wide-open instincts to new generations of students. Her classes are built on free-thinking principles and a stern expectation that students work as hard as she does. She asks the students what they’d like to learn and who they’d like to sound like by the end of the class. The journey from there is different every time.

“I let people do anything, as long as they get a result,” she says.

It’s no standardized type of education, but Brackeen certainly has the experience to back up her techniques.  After moving to New York from California (with four children to boot!), she was soon rubbing shoulders with luminaries like McCoy Tyner, Ornette Coleman, and Chick Corea, to whom her lively playing is often compared.

The ‘60s and ’70s saw her expand incredible collaborative work as she teamed up with Freddie McCoy on five albums and partnered with Woody Shaw and David Liebman. She went on to join Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1968 – she was the first ever female to perform and to record with the group. Brackeen plays a major role in the Messengers’ Catalyst album. After that stint, she worked with Joe Henderson and then Stan Getz, who said that she was, “one of the most original and creative composers in my band.” She finally began releasing albums under her name in 1975, evolving into a dynamic group leader.  Over the years, her ensembles have included all sorts of cutting edge musicians – she has eagerly worked with musicians like Rufus Reid, Cecil McBee, Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane, Al Foster, Ryo Kawasaki, John Abercrombie, Freddie Hubbard, Terence Blanchard, Gary Bartz, Glen Hall, and Branford Marsalis.

A true believer in the free assimilation of styles, Brackeen spent the ‘90s churning out a treasure trove of recordings inspired by a love of Brazilian music that she had just developed, leading to a collaboration with Ivo Perelman on an acclaimed tribute to Heitor Villa-Lobos called Man of the Forest.  The Grammy-nominated Pink Elephant Magic soon followed.

Through it all, she’s earned a reputation as a musician who breaks conventions of all types and her convictions remain as strong today.  In her classes, it’s that fierce pursuit of the things to which individuals find themselves connected that she works the hardest to foster.  Everything else, as she says, is easy.

She’s won countless awards and honors, including last year’s Distinguished Faculty Award at Berklee, serving on the grant panel for the National Endowment for the Arts, and performing solo at Carnegie Hall.  JAZZed recently caught up with her from her home in Manhattan.

JAZZed: It’s amazing that you still maintain such a busy professional performing career – what duties are you responsible for in your teaching positions nowadays?

Joanne Brackeen: I teach full-time at Berklee and they’ve allowed me to do one class at the New School, so I do that.  At Berklee, I teach private students and I have a Jazz Master class, which is a maximum of eight students and a rhythm section.  Then I have an ensemble. So let me see if I can remember – the ensemble is three guitars, bass, piano, and drums. So there are six people in that at Berklee.  At the New School, I have eight people in the ensemble. Trumpet, two horns, guitar and a rhythm section, plus vibes.

JAZZed: In those classes, what is your goal?

JB: My goal is the students’ goal.  Their goal is my goal.  I always have taught like that.

JAZZed: So do you start with a discussion every semester?

JB: I find out everything about them. Who they like, what they like to listen to. What they don’t like and what they think is weak or strong, what they want to bring up, and what they want to work on.  That’s how I teach.  It’s different with each student, and also the rate that they learn is different because I go according to how they learn.

JAZZed: Did it take much trial and error to work that process?

JB: No, it’s pretty much how I started teaching. It’s just the way I am.  It’s the way I learn and it’s the way I teach. It’s the way I live. [laughs]

JAZZed: You had received a bit of education early on when you enrolled at the L.A. Conservatory of music, right?

JB: Not really – I quit there after two or three days.  I didn’t like their concept of whatever that was. I didn’t really agree with what they were doing.  So I’ve mainly learned everything by myself.

JAZZed: It seems like, since you’re so great at teaching yourself new things, you’ve had free reign over what you’ve been able to learn – you don’t have to seek out particular teachers or anything.  

JB: For me, of course.  I feel like anything that anybody likes is theirs.  So if someone else is doing something that you like, that’s yours. You better learn it if you’re serious.  And it’s not just music, of course.  It’s everything.

JAZZed: When you were coming up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, did it seem like your approach was out of the ordinary? 

JB: Everybody else’s way seemed rigid.  It seemed hopeless.  Ever since I was in high school, they taught music.  I was in one of the classes. I’d talk to the teacher and say, “Look, I’ll practice the grand piano in the room by myself, and when there’s a test I’ll come in and take it.”  And so that’s what I did.  I always seemed to get my way there.

JAZZed: When you were going into the more professional jazz world, were there similar attitudes with other musicians?

JB: No, people who are into this kind of music aren’t like that.  I mean, the people who can really play, as a rule. Of course there is every kind of person everywhere, but as a rule they’re very flexible and in tune with the harmonies and the rhythms of the earth.

JAZZed: How did it change in the different generations that you’ve performed with since then?

JB: It’s always evolving. So when I was writing and playing and conceiving and trying to find people to play new music in 1980 it could be challemging. Now, 32 years later, there are actually people who have no problem with that and some of them are actually writing that same type of music now.  So it’s great.  And different varieties of course. Everybody has their own nature, which makes it all fascinating.

JAZZed: It seems like a lot of your approach to things in general involves being able to accept things that are already in existence around you.

JB: If you can encompass what’s coming to you in every instant of time, that’s what learning is.  As much as you can encompass.  That’s for everybody, all the time. Music is what I love, so that’s what I do.  But that is not an inactive state.  It’s an extremely active state, and increasingly so because humanity is constantly evolving.  I know who thinks along the lines of this is Ray Kurzweil.  I love to hear him talk.  I mean maybe he’s drinking a little bit extra green tea. [laughs] He’s really listening.  When you listen, you begin to learn things that there is no other way to know. When you do that, and you help your students listen, they also know things there’s no other way to know.  But when they get it, they know it.  It’s theirs.  They don’t lose it.

JAZZed: So much of your music, especially the Brazilian albums of the ‘90s, assimilates so many styles that it seems that travel itineraries like yours could benefit that a lot.  Is it at all a factor?

JB: No, I knew all of those things before I went anywhere.  It was great to go see that those things existed, but whatever I wrote in any of my music wasn’t actually around me.  When I’d go to certain countries, all I could really say was, “Wow, there it is.  That’s nice.”  But what I’m trying to say is that it wasn’t the other way around.  Everything comes for everyone from inside themselves and then goes out. So anybody – before they made computers, it’s the same way. Anybody anywhere has access to knowledge of anybody else on the earth, certainly in the past or present, but perhaps even to the future.  And that’s how I write. Now don’t ask me how I know that because I just do, but it’s 100 percent effective.  That’s how it works.

JAZZed: Playing with so many different types of people – have you found it hard to relate to different folks or different generations of musicians?

JB: Not really.  The only people I would have a problem are ones who aren’t open to certain things. But I don’t care what they’re like as long as they can play music. And I don’t think there’s any age to life or music. If there is, I haven’t discovered it. Some of the youngest people you’ll ever meet are some of the oldest ones you’ll ever know.  Someone can be two years old and be older than the 95-year-old that lives next door to you. Your body does not define your essence, and music is something that of course doesn’t get defined that well either.

JAZZed: The story of your beginnings always go back to being enamored of Charlie Parker and wanting to learn from his harmonies and melodies and everything, transcribing every bit of it. 

JB: I never felt like I ever wanted to learn from a harmony or melody because I never divided music into harmonies and melodies. It was very deep music and it’s the way I felt.  That was why I wanted to play and that’s why I did play. There was nothing different about it at all. There was something different about all the other music that made me not interested in that.  Good music felt like it was part of me – “Let me do that.”

JAZZed: It’s an interesting and also unorthodox approach to learning – did you ever have any problems with teaching institutions while trying to get students to learn that way?

JB: No.  There was this one class where the idea was that they all picked the members of the class themselves, and then that class picks the teacher.  That’s the kind of class I had yesterday as well, but this class was like that.  They didn’t like that notes had to be written for notation in music, and they wanted a new way to write notes for music and communicate with each other. So they did that for a semester and people were almost down on their knees with hands in prayer after they heard this concert.  But unlike any other class, they refused to go back to the school unless they were allowed to have me for another semester after that.

So the next semester, it turned out that their music had become so involved and complicated – they were doing all kinds of 15/7 and 2/5 all at the same time, that  they actually had to go back and write notes.  So they ended up writing notes, but only because their music became that complicated that they could not longer use those drawings or pictures they were making.  That’s what they did.  I let people do anything as long as they get a result.

Some people don’t like to teach like that because it means that from the moment you start teaching to the end, you have to be aware.  They don’t like that – a lot of people don’t like to be aware.  They just like to have a method.  They force it, and that’s that. I would be very bored and so would my students.

JAZZed: Another one of your early associations was Ornette Coleman.  How did you come to appreciate music that seemingly came from so far out?

JB: He was never far out.  It’s the other people who were far out. I thought that was the best music I ever, ever heard in my life. Better than Bartok, and Bartok was the one that I’d heard before that who might have been close. But when I heard Coleman, that was the best music I had heard and still the best that I have heard. Wherever it is, It came from this moment. That was why – it is more natural than anything else. A lot of people would say the same thing – “Bartok sounds really far out.” I had first thought, “Wow, that’s the first thing I’ve heard that wasn’t boring.”  Especially those quartets.

JAZZed: That music all sort of develops on its own terms, right?  It seems to go right along with your philosophy toward a lot of things.

JB: Yes, that’s right. It’s living right at that moment. It’s breathing.  I like to play music that breathes.

When less-experienced ensembles—vocal or instrumental—perform these tunes and similar, we seek that high a standard of swing groove. If we fail—whether on a sassy “shout” section or a whispering ballad—it’s typically because our ensemble lacks a shared concept of the swing groove; so we don’t place the downbeats and upbeats definitively within any one beat. Since all swing comes from Afro-Cuban, introducing or re-introducing the Afro-Cuban 6/8 feel can lock in that groove for anything from “Lil’ Darlin’” to “Shiny Stockings.”

If you’re reading this and are surprised to hear that all swing comes from Afro-Cuban, be assured that you’re not alone. But it’s absolutely true; and we need to spread the word because the musical benefits are immense.

I had the great pleasure recently of workshopping an ensemble that was performing a terrific arrangement that incorporated shifts from swing to Afro-Cuban styles and back. The young musicians were dedicated, talented, and extremely musical in their delivery. But though the arrangement even included points where different melodic lines were to inflect swing and Afro-Cuban styles simultaneously, the ensemble members were unaware that swing comes from Afro-Cuban. Knowing even just the most basic 6/8 Afro-Cuban rhythmic underpinnings can add worlds of maturity to your swing style. And once these fine musicians got a taste of that link, their performance of the music skyrocketed in authentic feel.

I incorporate Afro-Cuban grooves under swing tunes in my ensembles’ rehearsals whenever our swing groove is lacking. If you’ve kept these two styles separate in your own rehearsals, I invite you to read on as to how this can make a positive effect in your own ensemble.

The Prerequisite: Listen!

I believe it is the singer/lyricist Jon Hendricks to whom the following one-word poem regarding jazz is attributed: “LISTEN!” So before I go any further, I must emphasize that one cannot take for granted the importance of experiencing the swing feel before even attempting to perform it. Has every member of your group heard recordings of great instrumental and vocal groups and soloists in this tradition? It is remarkable how many ensembles I encounter in my travels that have not. And is it possible to ensure that your group hears at least one exemplary professional ensemble live in concert? If so, your musicians will grow exponentially from the experience.

A Solution

So often the only words an ensemble might hear from its leader regarding improving swing style are “don’t rush” or “lay back” or “don’t drag.” While often accurate, these instructions lack sufficient detail to communicate well with less-experienced students of the music. What if you could demonstrate to them exactly where the groove should be?

Here’s a melodic line we’ll use as a sample swing phrase for experimentation (Example 1). The top stave represents, say, the horns or vocals; and the bottom stave represents the two most critical time-keeping portions of a drum set: the ride cymbal and hi-hat. Currently the drums are playing a basic 4/4 swing pattern—but our horns or vocals are supposedly not lining up well within the swing groove.

First, let’s explore the powerful solution rooted in the history of swing: the Afro-Cuban groove known most commonly as abakwa and its triplet-feel bell pattern. Here the abakwa pattern is written as two measures of 6/8 (Example 2). Spend some time singing the upper line while tapping the bottom (hi-hat) rhythm with your hand. Feel the cross-rhythm of the upper grouping of four eighths (three notes plus a rest) played over the lower grouping of three eighths (each dotted-quarter note), as well as across the overall sum of four dotted quarters. If it takes you a while to get it right, enjoy the ride; but it’s critical that you be able to feel this cross-rhythm over the ground beat.

From this abakwa pattern comes a cymbal bell pattern that is commonly played in, say, a “2-3 son clave 6/8 feel” (Example 3). Again, spend some time singing the upper line while tapping the lower line. Feel the cross-rhythms!

Now that we’ve viewed these rhythms in their indigenous pair of 6/8 measures, let’s re-write the same sounds as in a single bar of 12/8 (Examples 4 & 5): here you see a bar of the abakwa and a bar of the bell pattern.

So now we’re set to align these four beats with the four beats of a swing tune’s 4/4 measure. Let’s start with the bell pattern now written as triplets within a single measure of 4/4. If your drummer or conga player were to play what we’ll still call the 6/8 bell pattern under the ensemble’s delivery of the swing melodic line, you’d have Example 6. Even by yourself you can experience the 6/8 influence by tapping the lowest (hi-hat) line while singing the rhythms of the upper (ensemble) line and then continuing directly into singing the middle (ride cymbal) line. By alternating melody and 6/8 groove, you can easily feel how the two are related.

Have your ensemble vamp/loop a two-bar cycle: two bars playing the melodic line over drums, then two bars drums only, repeating: with each passing cycle, you’ll hear the musicians locking in to the triplet feel of the groove.

Then make a vamp performing two bars of Example 6 followed immediately by two of the swing-accompanied Example 1 (thus horns/vocals do the same all times)—and back again to Example 6, then Example 1. The triplet-placed timing of the Afro-Cuban phrasing will influence the ensemble’s delivering the same melodic feel over the swing groove that had originally been the challenge. And you didn’t have to repeatedly request “don’t rush” or “lay back” or “don’t drag”—you let the Afro-Cuban groove speak for itself.

If your group needs a bit more detailed reinforcement, try placing the abakwa pattern (now also notated within a single measure of 4/4) under the ensemble (Example 7). Some ensembles might find the additional rhythmic attacks helpful; others might find it too much detail. But the principle remains the same: after vamping the melodic phrase over this groove, then make a vamp performing two bars of Example 7 followed immediately by two of the swing-accompanied Example 1—and back again to Example 7, then Example 1.

This is not my original idea, by any means. Long before anyone had thought about this historical link, the triplet divisions of these Afro-Cuban grooves had sown the seeds of blues and swing feel into the turn of the twentieth century—and have infused their essence into medium-tempo 4/4 swing ever since. You can even listen to African drum and mbira masters currently perform music rooted from hundreds of years ago that to the modern jazz musician’s ear clearly sounds like the inflections of swing and blues: adding the Cuban influence in later centuries only made these inflections more pronounced.

Mature rhythm sections feel these 6/8 patterns as the underlying groove between the quarter notes of a walking-bass line or a swing ride-cymbal pattern. The most modern jazz musicians still inflect the occasional middle-triplet accent in their swing solos and accompanying lines.

The Challenge of Swing Ballads

Few grooves reveal more about a jazz ensemble’s maturity than a jazz ballad with swing eighth notes. Whether a vocal or instrumental group, can the musicians place the notes in just the right spot so as to convey the feel intended?

The typical challenge for most ensembles is rushing given notes or entire phrases. This is a fairly natural occurrence because the ballads usually include a number of short quarter notes. These are easier to rush than long, legato quarters.

Allow yourself a visual metaphor: imagine your goal was to hold in the outstretched palm of your hand a dozen pencils, each fitted tightly against the next in a bunch. It would be a fairly easy task, as each pencil is aligned by its neighbor touching it.

But if your goal was to hold a dozen toothpicks—yet each spaced evenly apart at the width of the original pencils—it would be extremely challenging to keep them exactly in place: the slightest movement of your hand could easily roll one or more toothpicks off target. There’s nothing in between them, in the “dead spaces,” to assist in aligning them.

In this visual metaphor, the pencils are legato quarter notes, each smoothly connected to the next by the width of its neighbor and thus easier to maintain in place. The toothpicks are short quarters, a fraction of the pencils’ width, without supportive neighbors to assist in accurate placement and thus easily knocked off target. The typical response by most ensemble directors is “Wait for the beat! Don’t rush!” This usually generates limited and temporary results. What about a way to improve the ensemble members’ perception of the width of the beat surrounding each “toothpick”?

Filling in the Spaces

If the short quarters are rushing because there’s nothing in between them to support their placement, then a clear solution is to provide everyone with the complete picture of the divisions within the beat so that these “toothpicks” can be firmly anchored in context. And the 6/8 Afro-Cuban groove makes the perfect complement to a swing ballad for this purpose.

Here’s a melodic line we’ll use as a sample swing ballad phrase for experimentation (Example , with the top stave representing the horns or vocals and the bottom the ride cymbal and hi-hat in still a basic 4/4 swing pattern, but slower. Those dots over most of the quarter notes in the upper line are going to invite trouble for the melody’s tempo!

Let’s talk about how such staccato markings might be interpreted. Some ensembles will perform short quarters as fifty percent of the beat or less (as in the classic rendition by the Count Basie Orchestra of “‘Lil’ Darlin’” on The Complete Atomic Basie). While dramatic and accomplished by some very experienced ensembles, this effect can be extremely difficult for a young group to master, as it takes great rhythmic maturity to hold a slow tempo amid such space between these “toothpicks.” It also subtracts much of the potential vocal quality of the melodic line, changing it from lyrical to almost purely instrumental in nature—and most ballads crave a lyrical effect from the instruments involved.

Another interpretation by many is to make each short quarter one third of the beat, an even greater challenge for a younger ensemble.

A third interpretation, which I encourage for all developing ensembles (and which is adopted by many pro groups as well) is to perform short quarters as approximately two-thirds of a beat, promoting a lyrical quality in which each note easily could support a word or syllable. In this Louis Armstrong-inspired phrasing of short notes (as in “Struttin’ with Some Barbeque” on his Hot Five recordings) the space between the notes is less than in either of the previous two scenarios above. But the challenge to most ensembles’ groove often does not entirely disappear. So how best might the group rehearse this style?

My preferred method is to play—or have a student play—on congas the “6/8” ride cymbal pattern shown atop the bottom stave of Example 9, while the drummer plays the downbeats on the hi-hat. If there’s no conga player in the ensemble, the drummer could play the ride pattern with brushes or light sticks on the ride cymbal along with hi-hat downbeats. The horns or vocals then either play the entire tune or just vamp the first one or two phrases of the tune for added focus on the groove.

One of the primary weaknesses of many swing-ballad performances is not so much the attacks but the releases of various notes and phrases. So much attention is brought to bear on beginning notes together within the ensemble that the phrase-endings are often relatively ignored. And yet a fundamental element in attacking a note in unison timing is for everyone to release the preceding note together as well, so as to prepare the next entrance.

So it is in these melodic exercises that the full benefit of rehearsing swing ballads with a 6/8 Afro-Cuban underpinning comes to light: the triplet-based conga line not only reinforces when to begin each note but also exactly where to release it.

Once everyone has experienced this unity of groove using the Afro-Cuban bell pattern, count the ensemble off on the chart as written, without congas, and note the marked improvement in the ensemble’s musicality. For when the group’s timing is together, its phrasing improves, as usually does its dynamic ability and often even its intonation!

If your group needs more swing eighth-note detail, try (as we did with the medium swing example) placing the abakwa pattern under the ensemble (Example 10), using congas or lightly sticked ride cymbal. Again, some ensembles might find the additional rhythmic attacks distracting; others will benefit from it.

If your ensemble needs assistance during a loud “shout” section of the ballad, then in rehearsal replace the swing ride-cymbal pattern completely with one or the other Afro-Cuban pattern. Played strongly, it will provide the entire ensemble with a full perspective of the width of each beat in the measure.

Full Circle

I’ll state outright that not all swing is fully triplet-based: there’s a lot of variance between the first and second eighth-notes in a given musician’s swing style. But I’ll also state that when it comes to unifying an ensemble’s attacks, releases, and overall groove for medium-swing and ballad-swing arrangements, exposing ensembles of any age to the underpinnings of 6/8 Afro-Cuban have brought the most profound and stable improvement I’ve witnessed. You’ll not only give your musicians a great tool with which to swing, you’ll reconnect them to the critical, historical link between swing and Afro-Cuban.

There’s no better way to bring an ensemble into the heart of what really makes jazz swing than delving into its Afro-Cuban roots.

Antonio J. García is an associate professor of Music, director of Jazz Studies and formerly the coordinator of Music Business at Virginia Commonwealth University. His book with play-along CD, Cutting the Changes: Jazz Improvisation via Key Centers (Kjos Music) offers musicians of all ages standard-tune improv opportunities using only their major scales. He is associate Jazz Editor of the International Trombone Association Journal, past editor of the IAJE Jazz Education Journal, network expert (Improvisation Materials) for the Jazz Education Network, co-editor and contributing author of Teaching Jazz: A Course of Study, IAJE-IL past-president, and past IAJE International co-chair for Curriculum and for Vocal/Instrumental Integration. A trombonist, pianist, and avid scat-singer, he has performed with such artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Dave Brubeck, George Shearing, Mel Tormé, Louie Bellson, and Phil Collins. Visit his web site at www.garciamusic.com.

BY LEE EVANS

Quite a few years ago, after having completed three years of undergraduate school at New York University, I was drafted into the U.S. Army and served a mandatory two-year stint. After completing four months of basic training and band training at New Jersey’s Fort Dix, I was stationed for the remaining time with the Army band at Ft. McClellan in Anniston, Ala. It was quite a culture shock, to be sure, for this Caucasian Bronx-born-and-raised young man to be shipped from a rather benign Northeast political environment to what might be described as the then Southern hotbed of racial tensions, with its train station and drinking fountain signs marked “Colored” and “White.”

I have often told anecdotes to my friends about my military “heroics,” relaying to them various amusing details of my official Army job as a glockenspiel player with the base’s marching band at parades and ceremonies. (I, a pianist by profession, was assigned to the glockenspiel because one obviously can’t play the piano in a marching band.) However, on many mornings, I also conducted our band in rehearsal in classical music literature. You see, we had quite an extensive library of music that had been transcribed from their original symphonic orchestrations to symphonic-band orchestrations – the main difference being that there are no strings in a symphonic band (those parts are instead ordinarily played by clarinets and other woodwinds).

Also, once a week, a song-and-dance fellow band member and I wheeled a small upright piano from ward to ward in the large post hospital, entertaining ill soldiers with popular songs of the day.

My military service occurred during a time of no ongoing wars, so fortunately my life and safety were never threatened, and I truly enjoyed an exuberant and fun couple of years involved in music and, happily, a long distance away from sweating over mid-term and final exams and from the supervision of my parents with whom I had been living at the time.

Meeting Phineas

Coinciding with the time of my own military service, African-American jazz pianist Phineas Newborn, Jr. (1931-1989) was stationed with the Third Army Band in Atlanta, Georgia; which was considered to be a plum musical assignment, because the Third Army Band was reputed to be among the best musical ensembles in the entire Army at that time. At some point, however, Newborn, who was evidently starting to experience mild symptoms of emotional stress, ran into some conflicting situations with his superior officers. As a result, he was expelled from that organization, and was subsequently transferred to the Army band in Anniston, where I was serving. So, for the last couple of months of my Army days I got to know, at least somewhat, this gentle and fantastically gifted man. I had even once loaned him a few bucks so that he’d have enough money to be able to travel to visit family and friends in Memphis, his home city.

Phineas and I compared musical notes on a few occasions; he informally playing some incredibly impressive bop-based jazz piano improvisations for me, and I sharing with him some of the classical piano repertoire I had been practicing at the time. Through these shared experiences we developed a good rapport and comfortable casual friendship, at least as much as can be achieved in only two months or so.

Birdland

Not long after our discharge from the military, lo and behold, I read that Phineas had been booked into New York City’s world famous Birdland jazz club. Of course, I immediately went downtown to hear him play, and received a personal warm greeting when I walked up to him to say hello.

I remember his piano playing vividly. He sounded like a reincarnation of Art Tatum, with unending jazz musical ideas and the piano technique of a jazz equivalent to the concert pianist Vladimir Horowitz. I also will never forget Newborn’s keyboard touch at that time, which was as light as a feather. You know how some people among the general public sometimes say corny things about pianists, such as “He really tickles the ivories”? Well, Newborn was most definitely the embodiment of that expression – especially in those earlier days before his rapidly growing emotional problems were soon to cut his musical career short. He barely touched the keys, yet produce firm but gentle jazz of the most incredibly impressive inventiveness and virtuosity. To be sure, the critical consensus was that had he not succumbed to emotional instability, he would eventually be recognized as the next Tatum. Today, Newborn is only a faintly remembered cult figure to jazz keyboard aficionados, and is not known at all by the general public. But fortunately some of this jazz giant’s recordings can still be acquired, and I strongly urge jazz lovers to seek them out.

End Word

Life can sometimes be quite unfair! Several fabulous and historically significant jazz musicians have been lost to us through death at a too early age, including such luminaries as Bunny Berigan, Bubber Miley, Chick Webb, Paul Chambers, Fats Navarro, Charlie Christian, Clifford Brown, Jaco Pastorius, Scott LaFaro, Bix Beiderbecke and Charlie Parker, to name a few. Just imagine what additional contributions they would have made to jazz history if only they had survived longer and lived a normal life span! Add Phineas Newborn, Jr. to this distinguished list of immensely important jazz creators. Phineas conceivably could have reached the highest artistic peak and recognition in jazz, if only his creative life had not been tragically cut short.

Lee Evans, Ed.D., is professor of music at NYC’s Pace University. His most recent solo-piano publications for The FJH Music Company include Color Me Jazz, Books 1 and 2 for late elementary to early intermediate levels; Ole! Original Latin American Dance Music, and Fiesta! Original Latin American Piano Solos, both for intermediate to upper intermediate levels. Along with four co-authors, Evans is author/composer of the 6th and latest edition of Keyboard Fundamentals (Stipes Publishing), a formerly two-, but now one-volume beginning-piano method for adult beginners, scheduled to be published in March 2012.

December

Tri-Fi – A Tri-Fi Christmas (Tri-Fi)

Frank Macchia – Swamp Thang (Cacaphony)

Mark Colby – Yesterday’s Gardias (RCI)

January 3

Jimmy Owens – The Monk Project (IPO)

Jack Cassidy – SYMBIA (Self-Released)

January 10

Jimmy Owens – The Monk Project (IPO)

Charlie Haden and Hank Jones – Come Sunday (EmArcy)

Oscar Castro-Neves – Live at Blue Note Tokyo (Zoho)

January 17

Chick Corea / Eddie Gomez / Paul Motian – Further Explorations (Concord)

Tim Hagans

Grammy-nominated composer and trumpeter Tim Hagans is one of the more unique and influential modern voices in jazz. Hagans’ latest album, The Moon is Waiting (Palmetto Records), features his quartet performing all original compositions by Hagans.

Hagans also performs with Bob Belden, Joe Lovano, Blue Note All-Stars, Gary Peacock, Yellowjackets, and Bob Mintzer. He was nominated for Grammy awards for Best Instrumental Composition for “Box of Cannoli” from The Avatar Sessions (2010 Fuzzy Music); Best Contemporary Jazz CD for Re: Animation (2000 Blue Note) and Animation*Imagination (1999 Blue Note). In 2012 Tim Hagans will be awarded an honorary doctorate of music from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

Additionally, he has performed and recorded with the likes of Thad Jones, Ernie Wilkins, and Dexter Gordon. For three years Hagans was a member of the Stan Kenton Orchestra. For fifteen years Timwas artistic director and composer-in-residence for the Norrbotten Big Band, traveling to Sweden to perform, conduct and arrange projects with guest artists such as Rufus Reid, Randy Brecker, Peter Erskine, and Dave Liebman.

1. The Magnificent Thad Jones, Volume 3 – Thad Jones

Thad Jones was one of the most original and in-the-moment improvisers in the history of jazz. His trumpet playing was out of this world, but Thad Jones is renowned more as a composer. I think this is because his skills as a composer and arranger were so brilliant that they overshadowed his legacy as a player. This record showcases his genius on the trumpet. (Thad Jones, Billy Mitchell, Barry Harris, Percy Heath, Max Roach).

2. Consummation – Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band

This CD is just incredible! True to its title, it is the consummate big band record. The tunes “Tiptoe,” “A Child is Born,” and “Fingers” exemplify the hipness, humor and exquisiteness that is Thad Jones.

3. The Cellar Door Sessions – Miles Davis

Six CDs: one for each night of the six nights Miles Davis performed and recorded at the Cellar Door in Washington DC in 1970. six days of wild free funk and through the roof energy. (Miles Davis, Gary Bartz, Keith Jarrett, Michael Henderson, Jack DeJohnette, Airto Moreira, John McLaughlin).

4. One Down, One Up: Live At the Half Note – John Coltrane

What can you say? The classic Coltrane Quartet going nuts! (John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones).

5. Sunship – John Coltrane

This is a studio album recorded a few months after One Down, One Up: Live at the Half Note. If you listen to the recording you can hear Coltrane’s voice instructing the band. He tells them “to keep the thing happening all through.” He’s talking about the energy, the intensity, the emotion; it’s the thing and you have to keep it happening, keep it going. (John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones).

6. Doin’ Allright – Dexter Gordon

What I love about Dexter is his behind-the-beat- 8th notes that combine with this huge broad sound. I played with Dexter in Copenhagen in the late 1970s. One night after a gig he let fall a big heavy arm around my shoulders. He started talking about all the things he had been through in his life. He looked so serious and then there was this awkward silence after he finished. I was in awe of him and I didn’t know what to say, so I said, “Was it worth it?” It sort of caught him off guard for a moment. He thought about it and then I saw that big square smile of his spread across his face and he said, “Yeaahhh.” Whenever I listen to him play I can’t help but see that magnificent smile. I find that I like to listen to Dexter in the morning; it’s great to have that sound and that smile – that are so uniquely Dexter – to welcome the day. This CD also has Freddie Hubbard on it and I love hearing them play together. (Dexter Gordon, Freddie Hubbard, Horace Parlan, George Tucker, Al Harewood).

7. The Hub of Hubbard – Freddie Hubbard

I would say this is Freddie at his absolute finest. The bar that Freddie sets on this recording is a lifetime goal for me. (Freddie Hubbard, Eddie Daniels, Roland Hanna, Richard Davis, Louis Hayes).

8. The Complete Columbia Albums Collection of Woody Shaw – Woody Shaw

I think the recordings from Woody’s Columbia period – from 1977 to 1981 – are his very best. He had refined his style to perfection. The sound, the ideas, and the compositions are extraordinary. Also, hearing Woody play over the standard tunes not included in the original releases shows the origin of his melodic and harmonic concept. (six CDs all with different personnel).

9. Out Front – Rufus Reid

The centerpiece to this CD is a three-movement suite called “Caress the Thought.” It’s outstanding. Rufus Reid is not only one of my favorite bassists, he’s one of my favorite composers. (Rufus Reid, Steve Allee, Duduka da Fonseca).

10. The Firebird: New York Philharmonic – Stravinsky

This work contains two of the greatest moments in all music. The first is when the French horn enters, leading into the second greatest moment, the breathtaking finale. Stravinsky was one of the greatest composers of all time and a constant inspiration for me. (Conducted by Leonard Bernstein)