Blues in the Blood a M U E S L B M L E O O R D
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March 2011 | No. 107 Your FREE Guide to the NYC Jazz Scene nycjazzrecord.com J blues in the blood a m u e s l b m l e o o r d Johnny Mandel • Elliott Sharp • CAP Records • Event Calendar In his play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare wrote, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” It is a lovely sentiment but one with which we agree only partially. So with that introduction, we are pleased to announce that as of this issue, the gazette formerly known as AllAboutJazz-New York will now be called The New York City Jazz Record. It is a change that comes on the heels of our separation New York@Night last summer from the AllAboutJazz.com website. To emphasize that split, we felt 4 it was time to come out, as it were, with our own unique identity. So in that sense, a name is very important. But, echoing Shakespeare’s idea, the change in name Interview: Johnny Mandel will have no impact whatsoever on our continuing mission to explore new worlds 6 by Marcia Hillman and new civilizations...oh wait, wrong mission...to support the New York City and international jazz communities. If anything, the new name will afford us new Artist Feature: Elliott Sharp opportunities to accomplish that goal, whether it be in print or in a soon-to-be- 7 by Martin Longley expanded online presence. We are very excited for our next chapter and appreciate your continued interest and support. On The Cover: James Blood Ulmer But back to the business of jazz. We have another busy month ahead of us. 9 by Kurt Gottschalk Guitarist James Blood Ulmer (Cover) brings his Memphis Blood Blues Band to Jazz Standard; recent National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master composer/ Encore: Lest We Forget: arranger Johnny Mandel (Interview) will lead the DIVA Jazz Orchestra in an 10 Helen Merrill Thad Jones evening of his music at Dizzy’s Club; guitarist Elliott Sharp (Artist Feature) by Andrew Vélez by Donald Elfman celebrates his 60th birthday at Issue Project Room; vocalist Helen Merrill (Encore) performs at Saint Peter’s as part of this year’s Prez Fest and late bandleader Thad Megaphone VOXNews Jones (Lest We Forget) is fêted at Symphony Space. There is also a Label Profile on 11 by Fay Victor by Suzanne Lorge CAP (Consolidated Artists Productions), a Megaphone by vocalist Fay Victor and all the CD reviews and concert listings you’ve come to expect. Label Spotlight: Listen Up!: So you see, things really aren’t any different. Keep picking us up at the clubs, 12 CAP Records Steven Lugerner read us online (nycjazzrecord.com), follow us on Twitter (@nycjazzrecord) and by Marcia Hillman & Ryan Meagher look out for us on the town... CD Reviews: Kurt Elling, Eddie Henderson, Matthew Shipp, Laurence Donohue-Greene, Managing Editor Andrey Henkin, Editorial Director 14 Wes Montgomery, Kresten Osgood, Charlie Haden, Tarbaby and more 40 Event Calendar On the cover: James Blood Ulmer (photo by Alan Nahigian) 44 Club Directory On the cover: In last month’s CD Reviews, the original label of Vince Guaraldi’s Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus was Fantasy, not Prestige. 47 Miscellany: In Memoriam • Birthdays • On This Day Submit Letters to the Editor by emailing [email protected] US Subscription rates: 12 issues, $30 (International: 12 issues, $40) 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: Andrey Henkin The New York City Jazz Record Staff Writers 116 Pinehurst Avenue, Ste. J41 David R. Adler, Clifford Allen, Fred Bouchard, Stuart Broomer, Thomas Conrad, New York, NY 10033 Ken Dryden, Donald Elfman, Sean Fitzell, Graham Flanagan, Kurt Gottschalk, United States Tom Greenland, Laurel Gross, Alex Henderson, Marcia Hillman, Terrell Holmes, Robert Iannapollo, Francis Lo Kee, Martin Longley, Suzanne Lorge, Laurence Donohue-Greene: Wilbur MacKenzie, Gordon Marshall, Marc Medwin, Russ Musto, Joel Roberts, [email protected] John Sharpe, Elliott Simon, Jeff Stockton, Celeste Sunderland, Andrew Vélez, Ken Waxman Andrey Henkin: [email protected] Contributing Writers General Inquiries: [email protected] Rex Butters, George Kanzler, Sean O’Connell, Fay Victor, Seth Watter Advertising: [email protected] Contributing Photographers Editorial: [email protected] Jim Anness, Laurence Donohue Greene, Calendar: [email protected] Peter Gannushkin, Alan Nahigian, Jack Vartoogian All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission strictly prohibited. All material copyrights property of the authors. THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | March 2011 3 NEW YORK @ NIGHT When drummer Neal Smith took the stage at Miller It’s hard not to think of the guitar when looking at Theatre (Feb. 5th), eyes and ears were focused on the Rhys Chatham onstage. He has led orchestras of band’s pianist, Mulgrew Miller, who had recently hundreds of them and, along with Glenn Branca, suffered a stroke. Thankfully, Miller’s playing was created a new form of electric composition that made undiminished, as pliant and rhythmically confident as the rock meltdown of such bands as Sonic Youth ever. The rest of the lineup wasn’t strictly as advertised: possible. But it’s not just his reputation that sets the altoist Andrew Beals stood in for Eric Alexander and stage. Appearing as a trumpeter at Le Poisson Rouge Steve Nelson joined unexpectedly on vibraphone, Feb. 9th, there was still the guitarist in his playing. supplementing Mark Whitfield on guitar and Nat Putting his horn through a chain of effects pedals, he Reeves on bass. Naturally, all played well, but the worked with overdrive and excess, multiple layers and music was hobbled by poor sound - with too many multiple drones. He opened with the title track from microphones and too much volume came a loss of the his new solo trumpet record, Outdoor Spell (Northern- timbral subtlety ideal for acoustic jazz. Miller Theatre Spy), but here was joined by David Daniel on guitar. is a choice room for classical and new music, but throw Together they built a slow, swelling crescendo, with in a drumkit and electric guitar alongside horn and Chatham adding trumpet flourishes as it seemed to piano and it can be hit or miss. Reeves’ bass sound was peak but then folding the filigrees into more loops. far too muddy to provide the vigorous anchor Smith They were joined by drummer Ryan Sawyer for a piece needed. Hand it to the leader, though, for his song dedicated, very tellingly, to the late Bill Dixon, another picks: “The Cup Bearers” and “With Malice Toward purveyor of prolonged trumpet tones. (Daniel and None” by the underrated Tom McIntosh; “The Holy Sawyer were both a part of Chatham’s guitar orchestra Land”, a cooker by Cedar Walton; “A Portrait of You”, at Lincoln Center in 2009 of which, full disclosure, I too a lyrical bossa by Donald Walden and “Sophisticated was a small part.) Built over a steady count of spittley Lady”, Nelson’s vibraphone feature. Still, even with repetitions and ringing guitar with steady rolls and Mulgrew Miller at the bench, it was questionable to sudden punctuations from the drums, the piece begged begin nearly every tune with a rubato piano intro. the question if Chatham is really a trumpet player and Rotating the personnel as the set progressed was a answered that it doesn’t really matter. The concert wiser move and yet the prevailing feeling was one of showed that he knows his way around the horn and, claustrophobia, of too many instruments struggling for more importantly, knows how to fill space. space. - David R. Adler - Kurt Gottschalk Photo by Peter Gannushkin/DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET Photo by Jim Anness Photo by Jim Neal Smith Group @ Miller Theatre Rhys Chatham @ Le Poisson Rouge Drummer Joe Farnsworth shares a birthday with the Playing before Charles Gayle at Issue Project Room great Tadd Dameron and that’s as good a reason as any Feb. 5th, drummer Andrew Barker (whose Acid Birds to pay tribute to the late composer, arranger and bebop group with harmoniumist Jaime Fennelly and multi- innovator, who died in 1965 at age 48. Taking up that reedist Charles Waters played a phenomenal set) took task at Smoke (Feb. 11th), Farnsworth led a quartet the occasion to say how excited he was to open for the featuring Danny Grissett on piano and Gerald Cannon saxophonist, citing Gayle’s 1992 album Repent as a on bass. Tenor saxophonist Stacy Dillard found himself “mind-blowing listen” when it came out. And true in the supremely unenviable position of filling in for enough, for a half-decade before and ever since, Gayle the legendary George Coleman, but the young has followed a blaze of intensity. There have been Midwesterner brought energy and insights of his own, occasional detours, but for the most part he has been warming up the dinner crowd - and himself - with a one of the few true torch-holders of the sax scream of briskly uptempo “Sonnymoon for Two”. No, this was the ’60s. He’s never managed to claim the stature he not an all-Dameron set and yet the shout-chorus idea deserves (and indeed has often sabotaged it himself) during the drum spotlight in “Nica’s Dream”, by and he’s grafted an awful lot of dramatic tension onto Horace Silver, seemed to underscore Dameron’s his music over the years with the same forceful passion influence, his way of importing big band aesthetics as is in his playing. Each time he plays, an urgency into small group contexts. Cannon took an assertive emerges; it’s an emergency.