AUGUST 2015 U.K. £4.00 DOWNBEAT.COM DOWNBEAT 63RD ANNUAL CRITICS POLL • VIJAY IYER • B.B. KING • LEE KONITZ • MARIA SCHNEIDER AUGUST 2015 DB1509.indd 2 7/17/15 11:34 AM August 2015 VOLUME 82 / NUMBER 8 President Kevin Maher Publisher Frank Alkyer Editor Bobby Reed Associate Editor Brian Zimmerman Contributing Editor Ed Enright Art Director LoriAnne Nelson Contributing Designer ĺDQHWDÎXQWRY£ Circulation Manager Kevin R. Maher Assistant to the Publisher Sue Mahal Bookkeeper Evelyn Oakes Bookkeeper Emeritus Margaret Stevens Editorial Assistant Stephen Hall ADVERTISING SALES Record Companies & Schools Jennifer Ruban-Gentile 630-941-2030 [email protected] Musical Instruments & East Coast Schools Ritche Deraney 201-445-6260 [email protected] Classified Advertising Sales Pete Fenech 630-941-2030 [email protected] OFFICES 102 N. Haven Road, Elmhurst, IL 60126–2970 630-941-2030 / Fax: 630-941-3210 http://downbeat.com [email protected] CUSTOMER SERVICE 877-904-5299 / [email protected] CONTRIBUTORS Senior Contributors: Michael Bourne, Aaron Cohen, Howard Mandel, John McDonough Atlanta: Jon Ross; Austin: Kevin Whitehead; Boston: Fred Bouchard, Frank- John Hadley; Chicago: John Corbett, Alain Drouot, Michael Jackson, Peter Margasak, Bill Meyer, Mitch Myers, Paul Natkin, Howard Reich; Denver: Norman Provizer; Indiana: Mark Sheldon; Iowa: Will Smith; Los Angeles: Earl Gibson, Todd Jenkins, Kirk Silsbee, Chris Walker, Joe Woodard; Michigan: John Ephland; Minneapolis: Robin James; Nashville: Bob Doerschuk; New Orleans: Erika Goldring, David Kunian, Jennifer Odell; New York: Alan Bergman, Herb Boyd, Bill Douthart, Ira Gitler, Eugene Gologursky, Norm Harris, D.D. 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Box 11688, St. Paul, MN 55111–0688. CABLE ADDRESS: DownBeat (on sale July 14, 2015) Magazine Pub- lishers Association. Á AUGUST 2015 ON THE COVER 22 Vijay Iyer Jazz Artist, Jazz Group BY PHILLIP LUTZ Few pianists can claim Iyer’s drive and intellect, fewer still the acclaim he and his trio have received for his marshalling of those gifts. FEATURES 18 B.B. King The Undisputed King 40 BY AARON COHEN 28 Top Jazz Albums Rudresh Mahanthappa topped three categories in the DownBeat Critics Poll, including Jazz Album of the Year. JIMMY KATZ 30 Lee Konitz Cover photo of Vijay Iyer shot by Jimmy and Dena Katz in New York City on May 7. Hall of Fame BY TED PANKEN 34 Muddy Waters Veterans Committee Hall of Fame BY FRANK-JOHN HADLEY 38 Top Historical Albums 76 Kenny Werner 79 Matthew Stevens 84 Dan Brubeck Quartet 85 Keith Jarrett 40 Rudresh Mahanthappa Jazz Album, Alto Saxophone, Rising Star Alto DEPARTMENTS Rising Star Composer Saxophone BY ALLEN MORRISON BY BILL MILKOWSKI 8 First Take 96 Transcription Ron Miles 42 Maria Schneider 50 Ben Williams 10 Chords & Discords Cornet Solo Composer, Arranger Rising Star Bass BY THOMAS STAUDTER BY KEN MICALLEF 13 The Beat 98 Toolshed 73 Reviews 102 Jazz On 46 The Cookers 52 Tyshawn Sorey Campus Rising Star Drums 94 Master Class Rising Star Jazz Group BY KENNY WERNER BY TED PANKEN BY DAN OUELLETTE 106 Blindfold Test Jaleel Shaw 48 Steve Lehman 54 Complete Rising Star Jazz Artist, Critics Poll Results 6 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2015 First Take BY BILL MILKOWSKI Ornette Coleman at the 2011 Moers Festival in Germany HYOU VIELZ True Revolutionary ORNETTE COLEMAN WAS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ARTISTS THAT the United States has ever produced. The avant-garde icon, who changed the course of jazz and made profound contributions to the music for six decades, died of cardiac arrest in Manhattan on June 11. He was 85. More than almost any other jazz musician of his generation, he was as revered for his philosophy and ideas as he was for his groundbreaking music. “I have always wanted to do as many things as I could learn to do,” he told associate editor Dan Morgenstern in the April 8, 1965, issue of DownBeat. “The reason why I am mostly concerned with music is because music has a tendency to let everybody see your own convictions; music tends to reveal more of the kind of person you are than any other medium of expression.” While his iconoclastic approach to alto saxophone was grating to many listeners in the 1950s, Coleman found kindred spirits in pianist Paul Bley, trum- peter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden and drummers Ed Blackwell and Billy Higgins, with whom he began forging a new collective improv vernacular in Los Angeles (where he had moved in 1953 from his native Texas). A triumverate of his now-classic albums—Something Else!!!!: The Music Of Ornette Coleman (1958) along with Tomorrow Is The Question! and the pro- phetically titled The Shape Of Jazz To Come (both released in 1959)—ushered in the free-jazz movement and introduced Coleman’s “harmolodic theory,” whereby harmony, movement of sound and melody all share the same value. After moving to New York City in November 1959, Coleman gained notoriety from a 10-week residency at the Five Spot with his quartet of Cherry, Haden and Higgins. For a second four-month residency at the Five Spot in 1960, Blackwell re- placed Higgins on drums. Three important Coleman albums were released around this time, extending his influence in the music world—his double quartet project Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation and two potent quartet recordings, Change Of The Century and This Is Our Music. Coleman’s boundless imaginative powers as a composer were illustrated on 1972’s Skies In America, which was a single lengthy piece performed by the Lon- don Symphony Orchestra. Other noteworthy albums in his diverse oeuvre include 1986’s Song X, a collaboration with guitarist Pat Metheny, and 1988’s Virgin Beau- ty, which featured Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia on three tracks. Throughout his lengthy, prolific career, no matter how far “out” Ornette took his music, that plaintive alto sax cry and deep blue Texas feel remained at the heart of his soaring improvisations. Coleman, a 1969 inductee into the DownBeat Hall of Fame, was also honored with an NEA Jazz Masters fellowship in 1984, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 and a Pulitzer Prize in music the same year, for Sound Grammar. There are artists who amaze us with their musical talent, and there are artists who impress us with their tremendous intellect and acumen. There are those who move us with their humanity and sincerity. And then there’s Ornette Coleman, who did all that and more—a titan who was a category unto himself. How many artists can say they transformed a genre? Coleman passed away on the day this issue went to press. There is so much more to say about him. Our September issue will include an extensive tribute. DB 8 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2015 Chords Discords Source of Inspiration Harold Mabern I enjoyed Ted Panken’s excellent profile of Harold Mabern in your July issue. I was par- ticularly struck by Mabern’s observation that after many decades of work, he gets “a million dollars’ worth of experience” from even modestly paying, low-profile gigs. That someone of his vast talent and experience still feels this way was very thought-provok- ing (and helpful) to this reader. I can recall the thrill of hearing Mabern’s work for the first time on Lee Morgan’s The Gigolo, and later on his fine composition “Mr. Johnson” (also covered by Morgan) and on the pianist’s excellent LP Greasy Kid Stuff! Bravo to Mr. Mabern and DownBeat for an uplifting, inspiring read. RICHARD FREEMAN [email protected] © JACK VARTOOGIAN/FRONTROWPHOTOS Hooray for Harold the minor pentatonic triad pairs and the mi- It’s about time that the great Harold Mabern nor-major scale patterns in Herring’s work, as was recognized with a feature in DownBeat (“A he takes the torch from Trane and Brecker and Million Dollars’ Worth of Experience,” July). I moves it up a notch. had the privilege of working with him in mas- The problem is simple: Vincent Herring ter classes for several years at the Stanford Jazz plays alto saxophone, so all the comments will Workshop.