New York City Jazz Record
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
January 2012 | No. 117 Your FREE Guide to the NYC Jazz Scene nycjazzrecord.com JACK DEJOHNETTE SOUND TRAVELS TNYCJR’s SPECIAL FEATUREBEST2011 OF JIMMY •••••CHRIS HAL DREYFUS PAUL EVENT OWENS SPEED SINGER RECORDS MOTIAN CALENDAR LIVE MUSIC 7 NIGHTS BROADWAY AND 51ST • RESERVATIONS: 212-582-2121 • BUY TICKETS AT: WWW.IRIDIUMJAZZCLUB.COM JANUARY 2012 LIKE US FOLLOW US JAN 2 / 8:00PM & 10:00PM JAN 4-5 / 8:00PM & 10:00PM JAN 6-8 / 8:00PM & 10:00PM JAN 10 / 8:00PM & 10:00PM JAN 13-16 / 8:00PM & 10:00PM MIKE STERN & GRACE KELLY OZ NOY BAND STEVE MARSHALL BAND JOE LOUIS WALKER STANLEY JORDAN W/ CHRIS LAYTON W/ JIMMY VIVINO JAN 27-30 / 8:00PM & 10:00PM JAN 17-18 / 8:00PM & 10:00PM JAN 19 / 10:00PM JAN 24 / 8:00PM & 10:00PM JAN 26 / 8:00PM THE NEW NRBQ JOE ALTERMAN TRIO TERESE GENECCO STEVE FORBERT STEVE STEVENS & HER LITTLE BIG BAND & SEBASTIAN BACH JAN 2ND 8:00PM & 10:00PM JAN 9TH 8:00PM & 10:00PM JAN 16TH 8:00PM & 10:00PM JAN 30TH 8:00PM & 10:00PM MONDAY NIGHTS MIKE STERN JOE LOUIS STEVE WITH THE LES PAUL TRIO & STANLEY JORDAN OZ NOY WALKER STEVENS : FEATURING 1650 Broadway (51st) New York, NY 10019 Reservations: (212) 582.2121 • www.theiridium.com LIVE MUSIC 7 NIGHTS It is really hard to believe another year has gone by. Weren’t we just wearing shorts? Right, that was in November. But much has happened over the past 12 4 New York@Night months, not least of which was the changing of this humble gazette’s name after establishing ourselves as an independent entity the year before. We at The New Interview: Jimmy Owens York City Jazz Record are quite proud of the transformation and vow to continue 6 by George Kanzler supporting - for as long as the Mayan calendar allows - the jazz world, as we have for nearly a decade (May 2012 marks our 10-year anniversary). Artist Feature: Chris Speed But in a world with new birth, there must also be death and so we collectively 7 by Sean Fitzell mourn the passing of drummer Paul Motian on Nov. 22nd. Few musicians embodied the probing spirit of jazz or were better representatives of the city’s On The Cover: Jack DeJohnette scene than Mr. Motian. We have put together a two-page spread of remembrances 9 by Kurt Gottschalk from colleagues in honor of his stellar contributions. Also, we have fulfilled the saddest duty of our year by publishing the complete list of jazz passings from 2011 Encore: Lest We Forget: on our Miscellany page. 10 Hal Singer Julius Hemphill We would also like to make special mention of that annual tradition: the Best by Alex Henderson by Ken Waxman Of list. We have climbed over mountains of music to bring you the best in a variety of categories, all in a flashy centerfold. Megaphone VOXNews Baby New Year must be a jazz fan or else why would the city be so chock-full 11 by David Murray by Katie Bull of music in the dead of winter? The National Endowment for the Arts will present the final class of Jazz Masters this month at a ceremony at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Label Spotlight: Listen Up!: Among the honorees are drummer Jack DeJohnette (On The Cover), who will also 12 Dreyfus Records Anders Nilsson have a one-night celebration of a new album at Blue Note, and trumpeter Jimmy by Donald Elfman & Kris Bowers Owens (Interview), himself having just released a tribute to Thelonious Monk to be fêted with a week’s worth of gigs at Dizzy’s Club. And sax/clarinet wonder In Memoriam: Paul Motian (1931-2011) Chris Speed (Artist Feature), known also as the man behind Skirl Records, appears 14 throughout town this month with several groups. Happy New Year from The New York City Jazz Record! CD Reviews: Ernst Reijseger, Brad Mehldau/Kevin Hays, John Zorn, 16 Geri Allen, Von Freeman, Jim Black, Joan Stiles, Terri Lyne Carrington and more Laurence Donohue-Greene, Managing Editor Andrey Henkin, Editorial Director Special Feature: BEST OF 2011 26 On the cover: Jack DeJohnette (photo by Chris Griffith) Event Calendar Corrections: In last month’s Artist Feature on Lukas Ligeti, we made a mistake in 40 the Recommended Listening; the Tisziji Munoz album title is Auspicious Healing. In last month’s Globe Unity: Japan multi-CD review, we included the wrong cover 49 Club Directory art for the Akira Sakata release on Family Vineyard. Submit Letters to the Editor by emailing [email protected] US Subscription rates: 12 issues, $30 (International: 12 issues, $40) Miscellany: In Memoriam • Birthdays • On This Day 51 For subscription assistance, send check, cash or money order to the address below or email [email protected]. The New York City Jazz Record www.nycjazzrecord.com Managing Editor: Laurence Donohue-Greene To Contact: Editorial Director & Production Manager: Andrey Henkin The New York City Jazz Record Staff Writers 116 Pinehurst Avenue, Ste. J41 David R. Adler, Clifford Allen, Fred Bouchard, Stuart Broomer, Tom Conrad, Ken Dryden, New York, NY 10033 Donald Elfman, Sean Fitzell, Graham Flanagan, Kurt Gottschalk, Tom Greenland, United States Laurel Gross, Alex Henderson, Marcia Hillman, Terrell Holmes, Robert Iannapollo, Francis Lo Kee, Martin Longley, Wilbur MacKenzie, Marc Medwin, Russ Musto, Joel Roberts, Laurence Donohue-Greene: John Sharpe, Elliott Simon, Jeff Stockton, Andrew Vélez, Ken Waxman [email protected] Andrey Henkin: [email protected] Contributing Writers Katie Bull, Anders Griffen, George Kanzler, Matthew Kassel, General Inquiries: [email protected] Matthew Miller, David Murray, Sean J. O’Connell, Michael Steinman Advertising: [email protected] Contributing Photographers Editorial: [email protected] Jim Anness, Scott Friedlander, Peter Gannushkin, Calendar: [email protected] Chris Griffith, Erika Kapin, Alan Nahigian, John Rogers All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission strictly prohibited. All material copyrights property of the authors. THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | January 2012 3 NEW YORK @ NIGHT Bassist Michael Bates, in a well-deserved showcase at Some musicians complain about the lack of steady I-Beam (Dec. 10th), took charge with two contrasting gigs in New York City. Others just make it happen. yet intimately related lineups. He began with music Drummer Gerald Cleaver swung a five-night run for from the new album Acrobat (Sunnyside), performed his new band Black Host, although it took five clubs in by most of the original in-studio cast: Chris Speed on Manhattan and Brooklyn to pull it off. The band was reeds, Russ Johnson on trumpet, Russ Lossing on strictly metered and yet spontaneous at Zebulon Dec. piano/Wurlitzer and Jeff Davis (sitting in for Tom 7th. At one moment guitarist Brandon Seabrook played Rainey) on drums. In a welcome twist, trombonist quadruplets against Pascal Niggenkemper’s double- Samuel Blaser joined the Acrobat group as well (he also time bass and a sax solo by Darius Jones slow enough partnered with Bates as a co-leader in the second set, to border on drone, at the next the guitar split into an debuting a new quintet with tenor powerhouse Michael overdrive undertow and Cooper-Moore’s keyboard Blake). The Acrobat music, all inspired by or adapted took over the fast promenade and then suddenly they from Shostakovich, rose to new imaginative heights were all uptempo and akimbo. They played without a with the third horn. Leading off with the Intermezzo break for 25 minutes, a bit of fusion with ringing from the Piano Quintet in G minor, Speed played slow Rhodes-like keys and spacey delayed guitar, abutted and high-pitched clarinet, summoning the lonely by noise clusters and broad free jazz storms then quality of the original violin line. Finishing with the downshifting hard. The drop in momentum was almost Allegretto movement of the Piano Trio No. 2, the band painful. The second stretch began more sweetly dug in with a grinding beat and captured the work’s melodic, a pinched alto sax singing over bowed electric deep inner tension - its Russian-ness, if you will. Bates’ guitar, Cooper-Moore’s keyboard balanced on his lap, originals were full of improvised fire and sonic flux, negotiating the angles as he worked an expression with Lossing’s tweaked Wurlitzer adding jolts of pedal with his foot. They stayed within the constraints electric post-fusion on “Silent Witness” and the of a gentle - if restless - ballad until Seabrook demanded uptempo “Strong Arm”. Johnson’s unaccompanied that the energy be upped. He pushed from a place that solo with mute on “Talking Bird”, hushed in volume seemed a little Waylon Jennings or a bit Joe Strummer yet full of unbridled urgency, was a thing of wonder. but was certainly all Telecaster. The set was controlled From the brash “Fugitive Pieces” to the legato balladry but not static, the players keeping close eyes on their of “Some Wounds”, the music was unsettled, precise cue sheets, Cleaver’s sometimes shockingly precise and poignantly lyrical all at once. - David R. Adler percussion reliably corralling them. - Kurt Gottschalk Photo by Erika Kapin Photo by Scott Friedlander Michael Bates Sextet @ I-Beam Gerald Cleaver’s Black Host @ Zebulon In a cheerful and loquacious introduction at Bar Next Is it the end of days? As 2011 drew to a close, John Door (Dec. 4th), guitarist Peter Mazza announced his Zorn - the steward of Radical Jewish Culture - released plan for the evening: arrangements of standards, an album of Christmas songs (covers and originals) reflecting a passion for rich and intricate harmony. with his Dreamers group and then, on Dec. 9th, gave Flanked by Marco Panascia on upright bass and an organ recital at Columbia University’s 1906 St.