Creating Freedom
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May 2013 | No. 133 Your FREE Guide to the NYC Jazz Scene nycjazzrecord.com CHICK COREA CREATING FREEDOM WILL • MIKE • STEVE • MUTABLE • EVENT CALHOUN PRIDE WILLIAMS MUSIC CALENDAR It is a little strange to think that keyboardist Chick Corea (On The Cover) is in his 70s. He seems ageless, not too far from the mop-haired, mustachioed genius that came up in the bands of Mongo Santamaria, Herbie Mann, Blue Mitchell and, most notably, Miles Davis (who never reached septuagenarian status). He is, simply put, one of the legends and Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) celebrates his wide- New York@Night ranging achievements with a multi-night festival in his honor: Corea will join the 4 JALC Orchestra at Rose Hall for performances from his songbook while the Allen Interview: Will Calhoun Room will host Friends of Chick Corea: Musicians of the Future and Dizzy’s Club will showcase a number of bands fêting his legacy. by Brad Farberman 6 While the piano is considered a percussion instrument, our other two features Artist Feature: Mike Pride focus on actual drummers. Will Calhoun (Interview) is best known from the rock by Clifford Allen band Living Colour but has tons of impressive jazz credits and a new album on 7 Motéma Music, which he’ll celebrate this month at Blue Note. And Mike Pride On The Cover: Chick Corea (Artist Feature), veteran of numerous avant garde jazz and rock bands himself, has 9 by Suzanne Lorge a big month of May, releasing two different projects on AUM Fidelity: a new disc from his From Bacteria to Boys group, who play Greenwich House Music School Encore: Lest We Forget: this month, and his Drummer’s Corpse project, including fellow drummers Tyshawn 10 Steve Williams Revolutionary Ensemble Sorey, Ches Smith and Bobby Previte. In the other features, drummer Steve Williams (Encore) honed his skills with by Marcia Hillman by Andrey Henkin Shirley Horn for decades, experience he will bring to several groups this month. Megaphone VOXNews Legendary chamber jazz group Revolutionary Ensemble (Lest We Forget) is the 11 by Kirk Knuffke by Katie Bull beneficiary of a posthumous release on Mutable Music, which also happens to be our Label Spotlight. And local cornet luminary Kirk Knuffke writes our Megaphone Label Spotlight: Listen Up!: and performs with a typically diverse range of bands throughout the month. Of course, there are CD reviews aplenty and an Event Calendar packed full as 12 Mutable Music Justin Brown & Jon De Lucia the spring thaw segues into the summer burn. by Kurt Gottschalk We’ll see you out there... CD Reviews: Steve Kuhn, Andrea Centazzo, Bill Frisell, 14 Miguel Zénon, Deborah Latz, Christian McBride, Craig Taborn and more Laurence Donohue-Greene, Managing Editor Andrey Henkin, Editorial Director On the cover: Chick Corea (Santa Istvan Csaba / www.photo-santa.com) 38 Event Calendar Club Directory Corrections: In last month’s Lest We Forget on Borah Bergman, we mistakenly said that 45 the pianist was influenced by Earl Hines after hearing him on Louis Armstrong’s “Potato Head Blues”; in fact the song was “West End Blues”. 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 / twitter: @nycjazzrecord 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, Katie Bull, New York, NY 10033 Tom Conrad, Ken Dryden, Donald Elfman, Sean Fitzell, Graham Flanagan, United States Kurt Gottschalk, Tom Greenland, Alex Henderson, Marcia Hillman, Terrell Holmes, Robert Iannapollo, Francis Lo Kee, Martin Longley, Wilbur MacKenzie, Laurence Donohue-Greene: Marc Medwin, Matthew Miller, Sharon Mizrahi, Russ Musto, Sean O’Connell, Joel Roberts, [email protected] John Sharpe, Elliott Simon, Jeff Stockton, Andrew Vélez, Ken Waxman Andrey Henkin: [email protected] Contributing Writers General Inquiries: [email protected] Duck Baker, George Kanzler, Kirk Knuffke, Suzanne Lorge, Robert Milburn, Stanley Zappa Advertising: [email protected] Contributing Photographers Editorial: [email protected] Bill Bernstein, Santa Istvan Csaba, Scott Friedlander, Calendar: [email protected] Peter Gannushkin, Erika Kapin, Alan Nahigian, Jim Newberry All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission strictly prohibited. All material copyrights property of the authors. THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | May 2013 3 NEW YORK @ NIGHT The Hell’s Kitchen Cultural Center, Inc. With the band name Voyager emblazoned on his bass The ICP Orchestra’s opening piece at Littlefield (Apr. drum head, drummer Eric Harland appeared at Jazz 13th) could have been called “All The Things They Presents: Standard (Apr. 13th) and played five powerful Are” except it was Monk, not Jerome Kern, under an extended numbers straight through, speaking only to arrangement by pianist Misha Mengelberg. But with introduce his colleagues at the end: tenor saxophonist the array of fragments they worked through, from Walter Smith III, guitarist Julian Lage, pianist Taylor graceful minuets for the horns or strings to momentary, The Seventh Annual Eigsti and bassist Harish Raghavan. Each of these rousing free jazz to brief and blistering tenor solos mammoth musicians could have played a full solo set from Tobias Delius to full band swing, it made for a “Rhythm in the Kitchen” and left the crowd happy, but what they did was a show of prowess whether or not it was intended that sequence of unaccompanied virtuoso spots to introduce way. It was the ensemble’s first US tour without Music Festival 2013 or transition the tunes - “Intermezzos”, as Harland Mengelberg, who co-founded the band some 45 years termed them on his 2011 debut Voyager: Live By Night ago. “He’s just not up to touring right now, but he’s Wednesday, June 5th (Sunnyside). Following a bright and challenging with us in spirit,” violinist Mary Oliver told the full In Collaboration with Harvestworks opener with the provisional title “New Song”, Lage house and few in attendance could have been unaware 7pm - Hans Tammen & Denman Maroney brought a ragged experimentalism and strategic of the missing figure at the piano. Along with 8pm - Lori Napoleon effects-pedal tweaking to his intro on “Voyager”. Mengelberg and Monk they played Basie and Ellington 9pm - Phillip Stearns Raghavan was nimble and deeply expressive as he as well as compositions and arrangements by 10pm - Peter Edwards segued into the lyrical waltz ballad “Trust the Light”. saxophonists Ab Baars and Michael Moore and cellist Eigsti destroyed at the piano but also brought a cool Tristan Honsinger and a couple by the late South and glowing harmony to the band, taking the spotlight African saxophonist Sean Bergin, with whom many of right before the irresistibly soulful “Eclipse”. Smith them worked. From a surgical perspective, the nonet Thursday, June 6th battled a little harder to be heard, but he shred the wasn’t so different without its leader. Mengelberg - Hell’s Kitchen Cultural Center, Inc. Benefit music to pieces consistently. Harland’s show-stopping who was never one to play 20 notes where one would 7pm - In Performance Music Workshop directed solo before “Play With Me”, the catchy groove-based do - wasn’t usually heard so much as felt. His spirit of by Sean King with guest JD Parran finale, might have topped the energy of all previous playful absurdism, of unhinged bop, was still instilled 8:30pm - David Jimenez/Charles Evans Duo intermezzos combined. But Harland doesn’t seek to in the music forwarded by a talented pool of instant 9:30pm - York College Jazz Ensemble dominate: he picks players who can do what he does, composers who have all played with him for years, if directed by Thomas Zlabinger transforming the moment in their own highly personal not decades - and with hope, in spirit or practice, for 10:30pm - Elise Wood /Bruce Edwards way. - David R. Adler decades to come. - Kurt Gottschalk Friday, June 7th P 7pm - Eri Yamamoto Trio with e t e r David Ambrosio, Ikuo Takeuchi G with a 8pm - Rob Reddy Ensemble n n Charlie Burnham, John Carlson, u s h Dom Richards, Guillermo Brown k i n 9pm - Alex Garcia/AfroMantra with / D Ole Mathisen, Mike Eckroth, Ariel De La Portilla O W 10pm - Ernie Hammes Group with N n T i O p Pierre Alain Goualch, Paul Wiltgen, Jay Anderson a W K N a M k i r U E S y I C b Saturday, June 8th . o N t E o T 7pm - Curtis Stewart PUBLIquartet with h P Jannina Norpoth, Nick Revel, Amanda Gookin Eric Harland @ Jazz Standard ICP Orchestra @ Littlefield with 8pm - Michele Rosewoman Liberty Ellman with 9pm - William Hooker/Strings 3 Wadada Leo Smith Tatsuya Nakatani David Soldier and David First When trumpeter and pianist The former New York percussionist Angelica Sanchez played duo at Greenwich House - who has taken up residence in Pennsylvania - and with 10pm - Joseph C. Phillips, Jr. and Numinous Edward Wilkerson, Jr. Ana Milosavljevic, Maya Bennardo, Music School (Apr. 6th), there were zones of deep Chicago saxophonist stopped Hannah Levinson, Richard Vaudrey concentration and silence, but also an outburst or two at Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center (as a part of the from car horns on the small West Village street just Arts for Art Evolving Music series) Apr. 5th during outside. Smith’s horn, too, shattered the calm, but with their tour playing music for the 2012 Japanese silent high musical intent and creative control.