Baltimore Jazz Composers' Showcase Winners
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
AUGUST 2013 Baltimore Jazz Composers’ Showcase Winners . 1 BJA at Artscape . 2 Fay Victor: From Amsterdam to Mumbai to Baltimore . 3 BALTIMORE JAZZ ALLIANCE Jazz Meets Film Revisited . 4 Jazz Jam Sessions . 8 WEAA’s Cool Jazz Pick of the Month . 8 BJA Member Notes, Products and Discounts . 10 Ad Rates and Member Sign-up Form . 11 VOLUME X ISSUE VIII THE BJA NEWSLETTER WWW.BALTIMOREJAZZ.COM Baltimore Jazz Composers’ Showcase Winners PHOTO COURTESY OF TODD BUTLER PHOTO COURTESY OF ETHAN HELM PHOTO COURTESY OF NICO SARBANES PHOTO COURTESY OF IIAN SIIMS TODD BUTLER ETHAN HELM NICO SARBANES IAN SIMS The BJA is very excited about the upcoming Baltimore Jazz Composers’ Todd Butler Showcase, to be held on Sunday, September 29th, at 5 pm, at Loyola Trumpeter/educator/bandleader Todd Butler is the University’s McManus Theatre. Seventeen composers submitted materials, veteran of the competition winners. He holds a Mas - which were reviewed anonymously by our distinguished panel of judges, Todd ter’s Degree in Jazz Performance from Towson Uni - Marcus, Liz Sesler-Beckman and Whit Williams. The top three non-student versity (where he also earned his Bachelor’s) and scorers—Ethan Helm, Todd Butler, and Ian Sims—and the highest student studied extensively under the legendary composer scorer, Nico Sarbanes, were awarded commissions. We’re pleased to profile and director Hank Levy. Butler led his critically ac - these talented musicians in this month’s issue. claimed and popular jazz quintet in Baltimore for Six other composers will also be featured on the program: Tim Andrulonis, many years. Music Monthly magazine’s annual Read - Bill Murray, Mark Osteen, Phil Ravita, Brian Smith, and George Spicka. Two ers’ Poll named The Todd Butler Group “Best Jazz other composers, Matt Wolfe and Dr. Guy Bragg, were selected but will be Ensemble in the Baltimore/Washington Region” in unable to participate. 1999. In 2001, they were awarded first place in the DC All ten compositions will be performed by the BJA Quintet, led by Dr. Jazz Mid-Atlantic Recording Competition. He is a Anthony Villa, Professor of Fine Arts at Loyola. You don’t want to miss this Yamaha Performing Artist. one-of-a kind free concert and reception! Butler has been on the faculty of seven colleges The BJA gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Loyola and schools, while teaching at a full-time private les - University’s Center for the Humanities and the William G. Baker, Jr., Memorial son studio for twenty-five years. He has taught Fund, creator of the Baker Artist Awards: see www.BakerArtistAwards.org . Music Business, American Popular Music and Music (continued on page 6) BJA at ARTSCAPE BALTIMORE JAZZ ALLIANCE We are a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization he Baltimore Jazz Alliance (BJA) is a Tgrass-roots organization of jazz afi - cionados, musicians and venues dedi - cated to enhancing and promoting jazz in Baltimore and the surrounding areas. New members sharing this passion are always welcome as the BJA continues its efforts to build a stronger and better net - worked jazz scene. Together we can help this music thrive in the region and reward listeners and musicians alike. PHOTOS BY ROBERT SHAHID BJA Priorities • To develop new audiences for jazz The BJA booth at Artscape drew many new members and volunteers recruited many • To strengthen communication new members.. Our booth was included in Channel 11 TV's coverage of Artscape. within the jazz community • To improve media relations on Even three-digit heat indexes and two behalf of the jazz community nights of torrential downpours didn't • To bring greater visibility to the stop our BJA Artscape booth volun - entire array of jazz offerings in the Baltimore region teers from performing well this year. • To provide greater access to Thanks so much to returning volun - performance opportunities for teers Phil Ravita, Alice Downs, Mari - Baltimore-area jazz musicians anne Matheny-Katz, Robert Shahid, Visit www.baltimorejazz.com George Yost, Mark Osteen, Liz for information about our Fixsen, David McGarvey, Todd Mar - accomplishments and future goals. cus and Leslie Imes; AND newcomers Jim Kandlbinder, Steve Alpern, Andy Baltimore Jazz Alliance Dagilis, Gloria Gantt, Kirsten Downs, 847 North Howard Street Tom Schwartz, Tim Andrulonis and Baltimore, Maryland 21201 Pamela Bethea. Many thanks also to Please direct your Barbara Grubbs at Contemporary Arts Marcellus (Bassman) Shepard with a fan at the questions and comments to: for sending us volunteer Fred Cager. WEAA booth, which adjoined ours. [email protected] Special recognition must be given to the efforts of George Yost, who not only helped every day of the festival, but worked BJA STEERING COMMITTEE valiantly to keep the rain out of our tent. Highlights of our activities were the recruitment of eighteen new members and hundreds Alice Downs Liz Fixsen of new people signing onto our email list. Barry Glassman, Founder – BOB JACOBSON Leslie Imes Bob Jacobson, Vice President Todd Marcus UNIFIED JAZZ ENSEMBLE Marianne Matheny-Katz Camay Calloway Murphy, Emerita EVERY TUESDAY NIGHT at 49 WEST CAFE Mark Osteen, President 49 West Street in Annapolis, Maryland Robert Shahid, Treasurer 410-626-9796 / www.49westcoffeehouse.com $6 cover / www.unifiedjazz.com Page 2 / August 2013 Baltimore Jazz Alliance FAY VICTOR From Amsterdam to Mumbai to Baltimore Reunion in Mumbai In March, 2001, while working at my day job in Mumbai, India, I learned about Jazz Fest PHOTO CREDIT: LESLIE IMES India. Who knew that India even had a jazz From left: Robert Shahid, Fay Victor, Amy Shook, Mark Meadows festival? One of the headliners of this un - likely week-long event was my old friend, Fay Victor, whom I hadn’t seen since meet - true jazz vocalist. Victor confidently made to Betty Carter and Carmen McRae, Fay complicated tunes seem easy. She sang Victor has an audacious approach and ing her years before in Amsterdam! In my ca - songs that even many instrumentalists her improvisations and interpretations reer with the foreign service I could end up won’t touch. For example, she invented are clearly based in musical knowledge living almost anywhere in the world, and Fay lyrics and rewrote the bass line to Thelo - and experience all her own. and I happened to be in the same place at nious Monk’s “We See,” making it fresh It can be challenging to bring a new the same time. We had a fantastic week to - and revitalized. voice to an established club, but in this gether, catching up on old news, as I showed The rhythm section was put to the test instance it was a rousing success. The her the places of interest around Mumbai. playing for this international songstress following day, I spoke to dozens of at - as she covered more than fifty years of tendees who raved about Victor’s per - ON SATURDAY , June 22nd, 2013, Caton real jazz music, such as Eddie Harris’s formance and wanted to know when Castle featured Fay Victor, who displayed “Sham Time,” Charles Mingus’s “Better she would be back at Caton Castle. If a level of vocal jazz artistry not typically Git It in Your Soul,” “Star Eyes,” “Take you haven’t seen Fay Victor live and the heard in Baltimore. Ms. Victor was accom - the ‘A’ Train,” “You Go To My Head,” opportunity presents itself, take it! panied superbly by Mark Meadows on and my all-time favorite, “All Blues.” In You’re in for an exceptional treat. Learn piano, Amy Shook on bass and Robert addition to this uncommon repertoire, more at: http://www.fayvictor.com Shahid on drums. It was refreshing to lis - Victor has perfected her own sound and – LESLIE IMES ten to the jazz songbook performed by a style. Although some may compare her Where’s the jazz in Baltimore? Check out the BJA Jazz Calendar at www.baltimorejazz.com Baltimore Jazz Alliance Page 3 / August 2013 Jazz Meets Film Revisited . jazz has returned to the silver screen in a new light, one that shines on its eclectic capacity to transform the moment into an infinite number of fantastic novelties. PHOTO COURTESY OF MONICA LÓPEZ-GONZÁLEZ From left: Monica López-González, César Orozco (piano), Adam Corson (saxophone), Jonathan Guo (bass) The fifties were a golden moment for jazz and cinema. The debut film about murder, mistaken identity, and unresolved frivolous and tantalizing subjects with which jazz was asso - love and needed it to be scored. Malle happened to meet ciated on soundies —three-minute 16mm films made during Davis in a nightclub in Paris and asked him to score his film. the 1940s—were transformed into more narratively sugges - Davis, Kenny Clarke, Barney Wilen, Pierre Michelot, and tive scenes in many film noirs . Those noir jazz scenes them - René Urtreger then recorded the soundtrack during a single selves rapidly grew stereotypical, as they were inevitably evening in December of 1957. It was a first in many respects linked to seedy gangsters, smoky nightclubs, and sexual in - for all involved: Malle’s first feature, Jeanne Moreau’s first nuendos. Robert Siodmak’s classic 1944 Phantom Lady , with role as a gorgeous heroine, Davis’s first film score, modal music by Hans J. Salter, is a case in point. Fortunately, Alex jazz’s first screen soundtrack, and more importantly, the first North’s scoring for Elia Kazan’s 1951 A Streetcar Named De - time a film’s soundtrack recorded what musicians impro - sire paved the way for a new type of jazz in film. Jazz was vised in the moment while watching the film. The sound - no longer an extra on set; it was a legitimate narrative tool track stands today as one of the most iconic jazz scores ever meant to express characters’ emotional states, and to work made for a film.