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Notes TM The Journal of the Jazz Journalists AssociationSM

Vol. 18, No. 4 • Winter 2008

From the Editor 2 Arriving at jazz criticism by way of the city desk.

President’s Report 3 Reporting on Jazz 8 By Ashante Infantry Somewhere Over 4 Nine Minutes riting about jazz h a s b e e n t he In The Other Room — that didn’t appeal to By Cyril Moshkow most challenging yet adaptable the Star’s jazz critic. W undertaking of my journalism Interest piqued, I began to help out on the After You’ve Gone 5 career. I’d worked primarily on the city beat — reviewing a festival appearance By John McDonough news side after joining the Toronto Star by Joshua Redman, interviewing Sonny staff in 1995. But I always contributed to Rollins for an advancer — and audited the entertainment pages, writing mostly Tom Terrell 7 a university course on jazz history and about hip-hop and R&B, out of personal criticism. Before long I was hooked by the interest in music that wasn’t being cov- beauty and tradition of the music and its Book Reviews 8 ered in the paper and for the opportunity personalities, controversies and complex- By David R. Adler, Stuart Broomer to write more creatively. ities. I eventually assumed the mantle in and Ken Dryden the wake of the retirement of the paper’s I had a passing familiarity with jazz longtime jazz critic. Though juggling pop News of Members 8 (Miles, Billie, the Marsalises) when and jazz criticism is sometimes hectic, I pitched a few years ago by a Verve pub- hope that those who read me for J.Lo and licist about a series of recordings — Jamie New Members 13 Cullum, RH Factor, Diana Krall’s The continued on page 17 | »

Dale Lind Retires 15 By arnold jay smith

R.I.P., 2007 19 IN THIS ISSUE IN

ON THE COVER: Ornette Coleman at the 2004 JVC Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island. Photograph by Michael Kurgansky. Conferencing Jazz Notes

o Answers Yet to This Ques- fying step forward for our discipline. “ tion.” That’s the generic ban- Some of the prepared statements from the quarterly journal of the N ner put up by the JJA’s Inter- symposium participants will be ar- Jazz Journalists Association actiview Q&A software before users chived at jazzhouse.org. start posting responses. In Editor Meanwhile, in Jazz Notes, the past we’ve used this tool we’ll strive to explore these David R. Adler for online chats and confer- and other questions from a ences. But on September 29, variety of angles. In this is- Associate Editor at the “Jazz in the Global sue — available only in PDF James Hale Imagination” symposium form thanks to temporary held at Columbia Univer- budget constraints — JJA Art Director sity, I used Interactiview member Ashante Infantry Forrest Dylan Bryant as a note-taking device offers the perspective of a and hopefully a prompt for From the working newspaper writer Photo Editor further discussion. (Visit in Toronto (site of the 2008 Laurence Svirchev jazzhouse.org to access the Editor IAJE conference), who transcript.) On one long came to the jazz beat circu- Circulation Manager day, six panels convened to David R. Adler itously. Joseph Petrucelli discuss jazz journalism in global and local perspec- I find Ms. Infantry’s com- Editorial Consultants ments particularly relevant as I con- tive. The mood — no surprise given Howard Mandel tinue my print incursions into The the academic setting — was interroga- W. Royal Stokes Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia tive: “What is the place of jazz in the Weekly. Good news: both these publi- David Franklin societies the journalists come from?” cations are showing genuine interest “What intellectual, social, and political in wider coverage of jazz and creative engagements do jazz journalists feel music — and not just the names but the Editorial Correspondence are important?” “What is the place of most obscure nooks of the local scene as journalism in writing the history of David R. Adler well. Bad news: noble intentions count jazz?” “What kinds of aesthetic, eco- 2122 Kater Street for only so much in light of what my nomic, methodological, and cultural Philadelphia, PA 19146-1215 Inquirer editor calls “the time–space– alignments are musicians pursuing in money continuum.” Plenty of important (215) 366-1099 the 21st century?” musicians, either passing through town [email protected] As the dust settled, my computer’s me- or enriching their native soil, are going chanically generated phrase seemed unlisted or unreviewed. Circulation to say it best: No answers yet to these Which leaves open another option: questions. Reaching a conclusive end- Joseph Petrucelli blogging. I’ll be discussing that at the point wasn’t exactly the goal, however. IAJE conference, on a panel moder- 74 Jewel St., 2nd Floor Merely by gathering jazz journalists ated by the JJA’s Neil Tesser. If you’re Brooklyn, NY 11222 from around the world in the same around, it’s Friday, January 11 at 3:00 917 292-4901 room and grappling with a set of com- ( ) p.m. mon concerns, Columbia’s Center for [email protected] Jazz Studies and the JJA took a clari- < < < © 2007 Jazz Journalists Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication, as a whole or in any part, JJA PANELS & WORKSHOPS AT IAJE 2008 without prior written permission of the Jazz Don’t miss these JJA-sponsored events at the Journalists Association, Inc. is prohibited. 35th annual IAJE conference in Toronto: jazz journalists association, who asked you, anyway? and jazz awards are service Jazz in the Digital Age, Part 3 marks or registered service marks of the “Who Asked You, Anyway?” writers’ clinic Jazz Journalists Association, Inc. jazz notes is a trademark and service mark of the Jazz In addition to these events, several JJA members are serving as IAJE Journalists Association, Inc. All other marks panelists and presenters. Consult your program for details. are the property of their respective owners.

2 JAZZ NOTES • Vol. 18, No. 4 µ Above: David R. Adler photograph by Noah Kalina. Jazz Journalists Forward to ‘08 Association he membership of the Jazz share of the chores of moderating, pon- promoting the interests of Journalists Association — that’s tificating and instructing (we will also journalists covering jazz T you and me, folks — ought to have that party — watch jazzhouse.org consider what kind of organization we for details). The JJA board has come c/o Village Postal want to have. Is it enough up with some interesting 151 1st Avenue to be a social club, organiz- ideas for programs going New York, NY 10003 ing parties at conferences forward, including the and conventions? Shall we institution of a JJA Speak- [email protected] initiate programs that edu- ers Bureau, which might cate the public, train new help arrange members’ Board of Directors generations of jazz writers, engagements (for a small Howard Mandel broadcasters, photogra- percentage of their fee), President & Executive Director phers and new media pro- and has emphasized that James Hale, Vice President fessionals, and keep cur- educational programming rent working journalists President’s is the activity most likely Forrest Dylan Bryant up-to-date? Do we main- to attract funding to our Susan Fox tain a website that’s about Report organization. But of course Gary Giddins music news, or news about it takes skilled and devoted Reuben Jackson Howard Mandel music journalism? What’s workers to start and main- Fred Jung the mission of Jazz Notes: tain a speakers initiative or to keep us all connected, or to serve as write grants for educational programs, Membership Secretary a vehicle for reaching out to those who or most of anything else we’re likely Jerry D’Souza don’t know we’re here? to want to do. And such volunteer la- bor is in short supply, as JJA members 209 Hollyberry Trail Such questions are crucial right now naturally take care of their requisite Willowdale, Ontario m2h 2p3 because the JJA has suffered a fiscal personal responsibilities before their Canada downturn, commensurate with the discretionary associative ones. (416) 497-9785 tightening of belts throughout media [email protected] and jazz’s related industries. We have The JJA is having cash-flow problems produced this issue of Jazz Notes as because we reined in fundraising last year around the Jazz Awardssm Treasurer a PDF rather than a print publication , as it because the costs are so much lower: became clear that even our returning Arnold Jay Smith essentially zero compared to $2,000 for sponsors could not support the Awards 436 State Street printing and mailing. Jazz Notes i n pr i nt as they had in 2005 and 2006. The Jazz Brooklyn, NY 11217 form might be distributed to attendees Awards will be a matter for discussion (718) 625-2026; fax: (718) 625-2866 at the IAJE conference in Toronto in again, any day now: Do we want to have [email protected] January, to members of the Associa- a modest event that breaks even, as tion for Performing Arts Presenters, to we did in 2007? Or something else en- The Jazz Journalists Association (JJA) civilians wherever JJA members put on tirely? Can we mount presentations on is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, panels or lead discussions. In PDF form, the West Coast or anywhere other than promoting the interests of writers, pho- we can at best hope to get the emails of New York, to demonstrate our members’ tographers, broadcasters and new media unaffiliated but interested parties, and dispersion and variety of honors? If we professionals covering jazz. The JJA sup- send ’em the file. Maybe that’s enough. intend to recharge fundraising efforts, ports the creation and dissemination of As Willard Jenkins often asks, What’s who will lead that campaign? accurate, balanced, ethical and informa- your take? tive journalism on all of jazz’s genres; In November, the JJA board — that’s the growth, development and education The “Jazz in the Global Imagination” Forrest Bryant, Susan Fox, Gary Gid- of the jazz audience and the dissemina- conference produced by George E. dins, James Hale, Reuben Jackson, Fred tion of information pertaining to jazz to the general public, by providing forums Lewis of Columbia University’s Center Jung and me — unanimously endorsed for the discussion of jazz-related issues for Jazz Studies with consultation from ourselves to continue governing the and events, fostering the development the JJA was an outright success (though organization. When I communicated of journalistic and presentation skills we’ve been slow to document the events this via email to the membership, there among new journalists and the continu- at jazzhouse.org). As panels and work- was not one response about this deci- ing development of such skills in jour- shops at IAJE are currently scheduled, nalists already engaged in the field. JJA members are responsible for a large continued on page 18 | »

µ Above: Howard Mandel photograph by Lourdes Delgado. Winter 2008 • JAZZ NOTES 3 A post-conference addendum on jazz in Russia Somewhere Over Nine Minutes 8 By Cyril Moshkow

t Columbia’s “Jazz in the Glob- Every succeeding generation of musi- There is nothing new in this situation. al Imagination” symposium cians felt itself a totally new and un- For me as a jazz journalist, new aes- A on September 29, I had nine precedented one. Every new generation thetics in jazz doesn’t only mean the minutes to discuss “New Music, New had to decide whether or not to imitate importation of new ideas. Russia has Aesthetics” in my native Russia — defi- American jazz or create Russian jazz. a great tradition of music, not to men- nitely not much time for a detailed And for each new generation, this ques- tion music education. Why not export presentation. Especially if you’re from tion has been left undecided. For some our own traditions? Why not blend the a country where the history of jazz dif- reason, few discovered that they could, jazz we love with the traditions we pos- fers so dramatically from what your in fact, do both. sess? Western counterparts are used to. And I have to admit that, in the everyday especially if you know that only a few struggle, with little or no support from of your country’s great jazz figures will How to discuss new either government or private funds, be known to the audience. artists if you haven’t Russian musicians who try to find their How on earth to discuss new artists in own voice within the jazz idiom are your country if you haven’t even told told the story of the a rare breed. But they do exist. From the story of the old ones? Thanks to Eu- old ones? the tight and complex harmonies of gene Marlow: it was an American, not ’70s great German Lukianov and the a foreigner, who first said during this ’80s extravaganzas of the late Sergey conference that the history of jazz in The generation currently onstage is Kuriokhin, to the sonic magic cur- any given culture is inherently linked to facing almost the same problems as the rently done by the Andrey Kondakov/ the social and political history. America first two generations of jazz in Russia, Slava Guyvoronsky/Vladimir Volkov experienced a two-year recording ban, those of the 1920s and 1930s, except trio, or the ethno/classical/jazz cross- part of a union struggle against greedy that playing jazz is no longer regarded over projects by horn virtuoso Arkady record labels. In my country, there were as ideological treason, and you cannot Shilkloper, or the delicate soundscapes two “recording bans” against jazz, each be imprisoned simply for your interest of the Second Approach trio in inter- nearly 10 years long (1928–1937 and in music that is originally American. action with everyone from American 1946–1956). These had nothing to do trombonist to Ukrainian Back in the mid-1980s, the great fol- with musicians unions, but rather our saxophonist Yuri Yaremchuk, or the lower of American jazz in Russia, saxo- government’s resenting jazz as “enemy overwhelming avant-garde shamanism phonist Igor Butman, had to marry an music” during one decade and support- of Siberia-based pianist Roman Stol- American in order to emigrate ing it as “progressive proletarian cul- yar… or the music of the brave youth, ture” during the other. to the U.S. to study at Berklee. By that time, emigration was still a one-way like multireedist Alexey Kruglov, pia- The question for Russian jazz has al- ticket: if you were leaving the coun- nist Alexey Chernakov and the latter’s ways been not just “to be or not to be,” try, you were a traitor who gave up his 17-year-old sister Dasha Chernakova, but first how to survive in a society that identity. Now, if you go to the U.S. to one of the most promising acoustic resents the music you like, and then, play or study jazz, you are just another bassists in the country: surely the ef- after the end of communist rule, how of several thousand Russian students forts of these musicians are not worth- to survive in a society that has less and who do so in America every year. The less. But we need to make their voices less tolerance for art forms that require question is, are you going to return af- heard, and not only inside Russia. any mental effort from the listener. ter a while, to bring what you’ve been < < < A wildly growing capitalist economy taught to local soil, or will you stay in proved even more efficient at eliminat- the U.S. to become just another immi- Cyril Moshkow is publisher and editor ing bold creativity than had the stag- grant musician struggling for survival of Moscow-based Jazz.Ru, Russia’s only nant communist ideology. in New York? jazz magazine.

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4 JAZZ NOTES • Vol. 18, No. 4 Thoughts on the fate of important jazz collections. After You’ve Gone 8 By John McDonough

ost journalists, if we live homes have developed, and the Rutgers about such things. If they want to hear long enough, become his- collection is mature. The options for be- the Original Jass Band play M torians. We know it when quest have shrunk, and as for records: “Darktown Strutters Ball” (widely, we can no longer jam another manila “It’s now reaching the point,” says though not unanimously, considered the folder into our bulging file cabinets or Morgenstern, “where certain places first jazz record), an LP or CD transfer another LP or CD into our five-figure are looking askance at LPs, not to men- will do fine. This is what distinguishes collections. As we recognize the history tion 78s. In many cases younger people a research institution, which caters we’ve captured, we become concerned don’t now what they are and have no to the orderly mind, from a museum, for its preservation. playback equipment.” For the jazz jour- which plays to the romantic heart. nalist looking to place a major personal In the June 2007 Jazz Notes I noted the Archives that include unique mate- collection with any hope of keeping it example of Bill Savory, whose 1930s rial will get a more favorable hearing. transcriptions were nearly left home- “We’re most interested in privately less in an atmosphere of Dickensian made recordings,” says Morgerstern. decay. It got me thinking: What will “We have a collection of New Jersey become of other record collections as- Will these materials Jazz Society material. These are live sembled over decades, along with let- be flung to the winds performances that are beginning to be ters, programs, pictures, press releases, mined, and pretty soon Arbors is com- notes and taped interviews? Will these in a garage sale or will ing out with the first volume of stuff. As materials be flung to the winds in a they find perpetual for journalists, we always want inter- garage sale? Or will they find a perma- views and broadcast material. Ira Gitler nent home in some institution with the life? has given us a lot of his interviews over gift of perpetual life? time. Chris Albertson has given us his. Michael Bourne from WBGO has given Today’s most senior jazz journalists are us tons of interview material. Some of at least the second and mostly third intact, the prospects are dim. “We’re it goes back quite a way. We’re very in- generation of the species. The first not interested in duplicating what we terested in that kind of thing, and we emerged in the 1930s and included col- have,” notes Morgenstern. very much encourage journalists to do- lector-critics such as Charles Edward nate their interview tapes.” Smith, and Marshall Duplicate recordings, however, can Stearns. It was Stearns who first con- end up being useful to the IJS. When When Leonard Feather’s home was sidered this question of archival sur- enough material accumulates, the In- damaged in a flood in the ’90s, many as- vival. His solution was to incorporate stitute makes arrangements with an sumed the worst for his career archive. his collection into the Institute of Jazz outside body to come in and auction it But he had already given away much of Studies (IJS) in 1952. for an agreed percentage. Some items his valuable material, the least of which are exchanged for newer jazz releases, was his record collection. “It was the “Until it came to Rutgers,” says IJS di- which otherwise would have to be paper,” says Morgenstern. “Letters and rector Dan Morgenstern, “the Institute bought at retail. It’s a small but valued correspondence, beautiful letters from was in Stearns’s apartment and open source of liquidity to support the Insti- Louis; a few from , includ- only by appointment. It wasn’t institu- tute’s mission. ing one she wrote when she was in jail; tionalized.” In 1966 Rutgers University all kinds of little notes from Ellington; Not even the prestige of a famous-name absorbed the Stearns collection and inscribed programs and postcards from critic provides immunity from liquida- made it the cornerstone of what has everybody ranging from Armstrong and tion today, although it may affect mar- become the world’s preeminent jazz Hines to . Some he had given ket value. “What we do is create special archive. Stearns died late that year, to Marshall Stearns when he moved stickers and put them on the records presumably satisfied that his materials from New York to Los Angeles in 1960. would have a permanent home. or 78s,” Morgenstern says. “They read, But he gave us the rest, including all ‘From the collection of…’ to indicate But to the generations since, such sat- the forms that were filled out by musi- the original owner.” isfaction has become elusive in a world cians like Coltrane and Clifford Brown now crowded with critics bearing sub- While collectors may value the meta- for the .” stantial personal libraries. The problem physical qualities of an authentic ar- is that relatively few new institutional tifact, researchers are less emotional continued on page 18 | »

Winter 2008 • JAZZ NOTES 5 ABOVE: Hiromi Uehara performs with her Sonicbloom band at the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival, June 26, 2007. Photograph by Bill King. TORONTO DOWNTOWN JAZZ FESTIVAL ROY RELAXES Two views of in his trailer at the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival, June 28, 2007. Photographs by Bill King (above) and Kris King (below). Is your JJA membership up to date? The Jazz Journalists Association relies on the continuing support of its members to continue operations. Our current membership categories and dues are:

Student (non-voting)...... US$25/year Professional Journalist...... US$75/year Industry Associate (non-voting)...... US$300/year

All members receive access to Jazz Notes quarterly, an updated telephone and address list of JJA members, inclusion in the JJA’s member database and discounted admission to JJA events.

Make check or money order payable to Jazz Journalists Association and submit to: Arnold Jay Smith 436 State Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217 or use our secure online server, courtesy of jazzcorner.com, at www.jazzhouse.org

6 JAZZ NOTES • Vol. 18, No. 4 Generations

LEFT: “Time Stood Still for Andrew Hill” — the pianist gazes toward the camera immediately following his final live con- cert performance at Trinity Church, New York, March 29, 2007. Photograph by Laurence Donohue-Greene.

ABOVE: Robert Glasper and a friend on MetroTech Com- mon, Brooklyn, New York, summer 2007. Photograph by Laylah Amatullah Barrayn.

Tom Terrell: Beloved Friend and Colleague

n November 29, 2007 at 5:05 a.m., Tom Terrell, among the most passionate and versatile of music O journalists, lost his battle with cancer at the age of 57.

Tom worked as a radio DJ and publicist for Gee Street, Man- go/Antilles and Verve before turning to music journalism and photography in 1996. His writing was featured in Jazz Times, Jazziz, Global Rhythm, Vibe, Essence, The Village Voice and other publications, as well as in the books Men Of Color, The Vibe History of Hip-Hop and Transculturalism.

I didn’t know Tom well, but ever since our first brief intro- I worked my way through the crowd to look for Tom, who duction earlier this decade, he would hug me every time we was then healthy enough to attend. And when I found him, crossed paths. sure enough, he pulled me in for that signature hug. But this Last September 11 there was a benefit at the Canal Room time was different. There was an urgency, an unmistakable in lower Manhattan for Tom’s medical expenses. The huge and deeply felt “thank you” in the embrace, a moment I’ll never forget. It was in fact our final goodbye. turnout, and the stellar musical lineup (Vernon Reid, Bran- don Ross, Angelique Kidjo, etc.), told you all you needed to Rest in peace, Tom. know about Tom’s popularity and good taste. — David R. Adler

Winter 2008 • JAZZ NOTES 7 Book Reviews News of Members Coltrane: The Story of a Sound E By Ben Ratliff

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2007; David R. Adler wrote a cover story on Keith Jarrett 250 pp.; $24.00 hardcover for the January/February issue of Jazz Times. He wrote 8 Review by David R. Adler about Kidd Jordan, Odean Pope, Andy Milne, John McLaughlin, Anat Fort, Dave Liebman, Charles Lloyd, ohn Coltrane is not only, as Ben Willem Breuker, Edmar Castaneda, Fred Hersch, Bill Ratliff argues in this profound Mays, Anat Cohen, Jack Wright, Tiger Okoshi and J book, “more widely imitated in more for the local press in Philadelphia. jazz over the last fifty years than any other figure.” He is also one of the most Larry Appelbaum, after 25 years as the Senior Studio extensively written about. Publishing a Engineer at the Library of Congress, has moved over to new text on the saxophone legend re- the Library’s Music Division, where he is now a Senior quires an airtight rationale, and Ratliff Music Reference Specialist. Larry recently completed has several. “Before & After” pieces on Donald Byrd, Vijay Iyer and Don Byron for Jazz Times, produced a concert with Coltrane: The Story of a Sound succeeds as biography, but it Kidd Jordan, interviewed Reggie Workman and Helen is more a compact critical essay, an argument. Ratliff is less Sung, moderated a radio panel at the Jazz Improv con- interested in praising a long-departed hero than in reach- ference in New York, and conducted oral history inter- ing conclusions about the “hundreds of microclimates” that views with Allen Toussaint and Henry Butler. make up today’s jazz scene, a beat he has covered as staff critic for since 1996. Ana Lucia Bizinover produces and hosts Tempo At the same time, Ratliff looks at how a society understands, de Jazz (“Time for Jazz”), a new jazz radio program assimilates and mythologizes genius. “[J]azz isn’t an ex- broadcast twice a week on Radio Roquette Pinto (94.1 ercise book, or a father’s record collection, or music as a fm), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Tempo de Jazz can be heard closed-off thing-in-itself,” he insists, opening the door to online Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Fridays at 11 p.m. (Rio de deeper questions about art and aesthetics, culture and poli- Janeiro time) at radioroquettepinto.rj.gov.br. tics. So in Ratliff’s pages we read about Edmund Burke and Robert Lowell on the nature of the sublime. We encounter Bob Blumenthal’s first book, Jazz: An Introduc- insights gleaned from Susan Sontag, Oscar Wilde and D. H. tion to the History and Legends Behind America’s Mu- Lawrence, among others. We come to see Coltrane not as a sic, was published on December 18. The paperback demigod but as part of an environment, at a time of wide- original, part of a Smithsonian series published by spread artistic and political ferment. HarperCollins, appeared in a British edition in Novem- Ratliff divides the book into two parts, building interest with ber under the title Need to Know? Jazz. cryptic lowercase chapter headings such as “best good,” “you must die” and “who’s willie mays?” Part one describes how Claire Daly, baritone saxophonist, has two new re- Coltrane went from “a perfectly indistinct musician” in the leases: Speak, Spake, Spoke, backing jazz wordsmith mid-’40s to “unreasonably exceptional” by the time of his Kirpal Gordon along with James Zollar, Art Baron, Eli death from cancer in 1967. Meshing historical detail with Yamin, Warren Smith, Dave Hofstra and more (Daly keen music analysis and a storyteller’s instinct, Ratliff packs was musical director); and Scaribari by the 2 Sis- Coltrane’s career into a gripping 110 pages — from the early ters, Inc. Band (motto: two baris, one mind ... and a apprenticeships and Prestige albums to Giant Steps, A Love bass), with baritonist Dave Sewelson and bassist Dave Supreme and finally the visceral, “ecstatic” avant-garde mu- Hofstra. Press copies of each are available to JJA mem- sic that stirs controversy to this day. The story itself is well bers. Contact [email protected]. known, and Ratliff doesn’t merely retell it. He charts the evolution of Coltrane’s sound, laying bare its logic. Between the lines, he patiently builds a case about how jazz innova- Enid Farber’s solo exhibition of 25 hand-painted jazz tion works. photographs, including some legends of jazz, reggae and world music, ran from September 5 until October Part two is an equally vital “reception history” of Coltrane’s 15 in Jersey City, New Jersey. Fellow jazz photographer music. It should be understood that was not and Newark Star-Ledger photography critic Mitch- “John Coltrane” while alive. He was not immediately revered;

8 JAZZ NOTES • Vol. 18, No. 4 some never accepted him. Nonetheless, and through no con- ell Seidel reviewed the show for his weekly column. scious effort on his part, he cast a “heavy blanket of influ- Two of Enid’s photos are included in the new Dreyfus ence” during his life and after. In jazz, “entire careers have release A Life in Time: The Story, a ret- drafted in his tailwind,” writes Ratliff. Beyond jazz, Coltrane rospective of Haynes’s work. Enid’s color photos are inspired everyone from Iggy Pop to the Grateful Dead, Steve included on the cover of the slipcase, on the digipack Reich to the Minutemen. His sound became “a metaphor for and the cover of the inside booklet, along with two dignified perseverance,” and the spiritual urgency of his late vintage black-and-white photos by Chuck Stewart. An- works made him an unwitting Black Power icon. (In Phila- other black-and-white photo of Enid’s will be used for delphia, his old stomping ground, t-shirt vendors hawk his publicity. Mauriat Saxophones hired Enid in Septem- image right next to that of Elijah Muhammad.) ber to photograph James Carter for an ad campaign, Ratliff is equally wary of the “bitter dogmatic reactions” to including posters and a calendar featuring endorsees. Coltrane’s avant-garde period and the “thunderous credence” Two of her photos from ’s August funeral of those who hail it as his truest, most important work. The appear in the November 2007 issue of Jazz Times. late-period music, in Ratliff’s view, could be seen as “apod- ictic” art, an art of the “single, potent gesture” that resists Sascha Feinstein’s most recent book, Ask Me Now: all interpretation — a notion that gained popularity in the Conversations on Jazz & Literature, has been published mid-’60s. To some, this music, in its severity and rejection by Indiana University Press. The anthology collects of Western musical norms, embodied nothing less than the 20 interviews originally conducted for and printed in black freedom struggle itself. In the jazz press of the time, Brilliant Corners: A Journal of Jazz & Literature, which talk of Coltrane turned into “an ugly circle of irritation.” Sascha still edits (lycoming.edu/BrilliantCorners). Ex- Ratliff parses it with admirable evenhandedness. ploring the relationship between the language of mu- The Coltrane legacy has sparked “general confusion and a sic and the music of language, Ask Me Now includes forty-year critical breakdown,” Ratliff contends. Correcting conversations with a great range of musicians and this — gently dislodging clots in the bloodstream of jazz ap- writers, and, according to Craig Werner, “immediately preciation and criticism — is the author’s highest aim here. becomes the single most important sourcebook on jazz When Coltrane traveled light years in a decade and then died poetics.” at 40, he didn’t just leave a huge void; he skewed the very idea of artistic development, shaping the expectations we David Franklin received the Ella Scoble Opperman place on jazz musicians today. “The structural innovations Faculty Citation for Distinguished Achievement in Jazz of jazz really did slow down precipitously after Coltrane,” and Jazz Criticism from the College of Music of Ratliff admits. “Yet the surrounding rhetoric traveled on and State University. The award, for an alumnus or alumna on and on, disembodied from its context, like a rider thrown in any area of musical endeavor, has been presented headlong from a horse.” five times since its creation in 1963. Opperman was the first dean of the then School of Music. Ratliff is no water-carrier for Wynton Marsalis’s pugnacious neoclassicism, but he takes pointed aim at the “future- mongering” he encounters elsewhere in the jazz world. The Patrick Hinely’s fall photo exhibition “Jazz People, demand for perpetual newness is rooted in a “hippie myth” 1974-2007” in the Staniar Gallery at Washington and about jazz, he maintains; the less sexy reality is that the Lee University featured 68 of his black and white pho- music “will advance by slow degrees.” To speculate about the tographs, including 50 of the 56 images in the 2008 arrival of “the next Coltrane” is ahistorical: “It is the wrong Jazz Calendiary, published by jazzprezzo/Nieswand of question for jazz — hostile to it, or basically uninterested in Germany. Two members of the quintet performing at it.” Better to recognize the diverse bounty of talent under the opening reception were Ron Free on drums and our noses. reverend Jeff Mosier on , both depicted in the exhibition and also included in the book. < < < A version of this review appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Thomas W. Jacobsen featured clarinetists Paquito October 10, 2007. D’Rivera and Mort Weiss in his two most recent (Sep- tember and December) columns (“The Jazz Scene”) in The Clarinet, the quarterly journal of the International Clarinet Association. He also reviewed clarinetist Anat SUBMIT YOUR TOP-TEN LISTS Cohen’s latest CD, Poetica, in the December issue of The Clarinet and trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso’s CD, Blue JJA members are invited to add their lists of the best recordings Roof , in the October issue of The Rag. from 2007 to the new jazzhouse.org collaborative wiki website. Registered members can also attach comments to others’ lists. continued on next page | » To participate, send lists to James Hale at [email protected].

Winter 2008 • JAZZ NOTES 9 Arcana II: Musicians on Music » | NEWS OF MEMBERS: from previous page , ed. Thomas’s piece about this year’s Ascona (Switzerland) Hips Road/Tzadik, New York, 2007; 300 pp.; Jazz Festival was the cover story in the August issue $34.95 paperback of the Rag. 8 Review by Stuart Broomer Willard Jenkins, one of the founding members of his is a sequel to Arcana (Gra- JJA, has relocated to New Orleans after 18 years in nary, 2000), a John Zorn-edited Washington, DC. His wife, Suzan, is Senior Vice Presi- T anthology of musicians’ writing dent of the Institute and director that had a distinctly combative thesis: of its graduate studies program, which recently relo- “[T]his book exists to correct an un- cated from USC to Loyola University. While eagerly fortunate injustice, the incredible lack anticipating opportunities to assist in the renewal of of insightful critical writing about a sig- New Orleans, Willard seeks to continue his commu- nificant generation of the best and most nity radio jazz programming efforts at WWOZ and important work of the past two decades,” wrote Zorn. The is looking to affiliate with the New Orleans Jazz and new edition has an equally intense, if more general, posi- Heritage Foundation and the Contemporary Arts Cen- tion: “In the ten years since the first Arcana volume came ter. Meantime his artistic direction efforts continue at into being the Dark Ages have gotten even darker…. Career festivals and concert series in Cleveland, Boston and building is taught in music schools, integrity is replaced by New York. He also coordinates the NEA Jazz Masters compromise, news has become advertising, and our popu- festivals program and contributes to Down Beat, Jazz lar culture — more and more bereft of intellectual proper- Times and most recently Jazzwise. Willard’s book Af- ties — numbs us, impeding creative thought.” rican Rhythms, the as-told-to autobiography of Ran- Zorn’s point is well taken, for substantial critical writing dy Weston, is completed and forthcoming. Contact on current music has been relatively thin, and much of it [email protected]. in forums tied to currency (in both senses). Further, much valuable music is oppositional, whether overtly or in its re- Fran Kaufman’s photos are on the cover and inside of sistance to commodification. What makes the Arcana project two October CD releases: Cyrus Chestnut’s Cyrus Plays so valuable is that it collects writings by musicians with- Elvis (Koch) and Dena DeRose’s Live at out apparent filtering — the authors appear to be writing in (MaxJazz). their own way about topics of their choosing. You don’t need to share Zorn’s militancy to enjoy this, though it may have helped in putting such diverse material all in one place. Wolfram Knauer, director of the Jazzinstitut Darm- stadt in Germany since its establishment in 1990, will The first thing to note is that most of the musicians en- be the Professor of Jazz Studies at the gaged here don’t think about music in the terms that most Center for Jazz Studies, Columbia University, for the writers address it. This seems like a natural divide, since spring semester 2008. Wolfram, who holds a Ph.D. in music journalists are usually trying to describe something musicology, has published more than 10 books in Ger- that is, while the other group is attempting (sometimes) to man on different jazz subjects; he also serves on the create something that hasn’t existed before. Further, Zorn editorial board for the Press’s is much more interested in a musician’s vitality of thought jazz book series and as the book review editor for the than in categories. While you’ll find musicians here primar- scholarly journal Jazz Perspectives (Routledge). He is ily associated with “jazz,” there are others associated with the first non-American to serve as Columbia’s Louis “non-idiomatic improvisation,” electronic composition, rock, Armstrong Professor. Wolfram will teach a course on noise and other aesthetic practices so diverse that any at- “Jazz in Europe — European Jazz” and also organize a tempt at labeling is doomed. If you’re looking for material special presentation/event related to that subject. He specifically about jazz, you may be limited to a few pieces. will live in New York from January to May 2008. If you enter the book open to fresh perspectives, you’ll be amply rewarded. Bill Milkowski, author of Jaco: The Extraordinary For the jazz-centric, Dave Douglas’s “A Little Piece” seems and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius (Backbeat Books), has a model of what jazz writing can be: the trumpeter takes had a flurry of Jaco-related activity in recent months to a detail from the work of Booker Little — a frequent use of commemorate the 20th anniversary since the bassist’s half-steps to create tonal ambiguity and emotional complex- passing. In October, Bill moderated a panel on Jaco at ity — and traces it through a series of Little’s compositions. the Jazz Improv convention in New York. In November Then Douglas explains how he’s used it in his own composi- he did a book signing and lecture at the Barcelona Jazz tions.

10 JAZZ NOTES • Vol. 18, No. 4 Among the most challenging are essays by Steve Coleman Festival, in conjunction with the release of a Spanish and . Coleman writes about organizing a con- edition of his book. And on December 2, the day after cert series and trying to structure pieces with lunar-solar Jaco’s birthday, Bill emceed a tribute concert featuring calendars, ending with scores that are circular rather than the Peter Graves Orchestra with special guests Gerald linear. Graves’s intriguing “Book of Tono-Rhythmology” ex- Veasley, Randy Brecker, Ira Sullivan and Bob Mintzer, plores rhythmic patterns in nature and ends with graphs of held in Jaco’s hometown of Fort Lauderdale. heartbeat oscilloscope patterns. Autobiographical and nuts-and-bolts music writing both ap- Bill Minor participated in the 50th annual Monterey pear here in significant quantity. J. G. Thirwell writes on Jazz Festival by serving on a panel on co-founder “Tinnitus: An Occupational Hazard,” and what makes the Ralph Gleason (moderated by Dan Ouellette); consult- piece arresting is his ability to speculate on the meaning ing for Alan Schultz’s “conversation” with Mort Sahl of such an experience rather than simply bemoan it. Sylvie (emcee at the first MJF in 1958); providing information Courvoisier, for her part, creates a list of things she does for articles in All That Jazz, Jazz West, the “50 Years of with the insides of the piano. Jazz” Monterey Airport display and more; and taking Reflections on student experiences unite writings by Trevor part in a KBGO-FM radio documentary. Bill’s “histori- Dunn, Uri Caine and Matthew Welch. Dunn gives an interest- cal” (1976 American Bicentennial) comic novel, Trek: ing account of his experience studying various bass-playing Lips, Sunny, Pecker and Me, has just been published. methods (classical and contemporary) and finds them (con- Following a book release event at Borders in Monterey, trary to expectation) inconsistent, contradictory and highly Bill will travel north to Mendocino and south to Los personal. Caine’s “Theme and Variation” compares some key Angeles to give readings from the book, accompanied examples — Bach’s Goldberg and Beethoven’s Diabelli Varia- by bassist Heath Proskin. tions — with the traditional jazz technique of creating varia- tions on chord changes, creating a common ground for clas- sical composers and Coltrane. Matthew Welch begins with Dan Morgenstern received the Down Beat Lifetime his own early bagpipe studies to work toward a model of Achievement Award and was featured in the maga- cross-cultural music. zine’s November issue. A touchstone for several musicians (and likely many writers Cyril Moshkow, publisher and editor of Moscow- and readers) might be John Cage, whose aphorisms, diaries based Jazz.Ru, Russia’s only jazz magazine, signed a and composition notes became a literary form in themselves in the 1950s and ’60s (e.g., Silence, A Year from Monday). This contract for his first jazz book, The Jazz Industry in is most evident in “Glitch,” Marina Rosenfeld’s imagined America, to be published next March in Russian by conversation with Cage in 2007. But there are other writ- Planeta Muzyki, the St. Petersburg-based branch of ings here that would be even more of a revelation without Russia’s Lan publishing house. The book is based on a Cage’s model. Carla Kihlstedt’s “Confessions of a Sensualist” collection of more than 40 in-person and several more combines anecdotes to construct insights (some of her notes phone and email interviews with American jazz educa- describe working on a composition using tapes of cattle auc- tors, club owners, festival organizers, scholars, radio tioneers), while Evan Parker’s “Why 211” (which reads like a presenters, record label executives, producers, sound Cageian address) wanders along a narrative course in which engineers and others who create and support jazz. thoughts about several thinkers interrupt one another only From 1998 to 2007, Cyril took 11 self-supported trips to assemble eventually into sudden insight. There may be a to the U.S. (some 20 weeks in total) to meet people in hint of Cage, too, a certain whimsical creativity, in Zeena the jazz industry and visit jazz festivals, jazz clubs and Parkins’s “Nocturne Meditation: The Necklace Eternity,” in jazz organizations in 10 states. He regards the book as which various acquaintances speak as historical figures. his own 40th birthday present. Some of this is literally “arcana,” hermetic writing that while fascinating does not surrender meaning readily (and there Roberta Piket (pianist) toured in the fall with bass- are occasional patches of impenetrable prose). Part of what’s ist Ratzo Harris and drummer Billy Mintz. The trio fun about this kind of speculative musicology is how rapidly hit Seattle (a repeat performance at the Earshot Jazz it turns into religious mysticism. (a member Festival), Portland, San Francisco, Berkeley, Los An- of Mr. Bungle) writes of the principles underlying his cur- geles and San Diego. Roberta is spending a good part rent band in “Ruminations on ,” an essay that of December in Europe, performing and teaching in roots the band in “Hermeticized Pythagorean cosmology.” Spain, Poland, Germany, Ireland and Austria. She is I find much of this heavy going (I think I understood it a also writing for a new recording she plans to do soon. long time ago), but Spruance cites the great scholar of Indian music Alain Danielou (enough recommendation for me), and continued on next page | » continued on next page | »

Winter 2008 • JAZZ NOTES 11 » | ARCANA: from previous page | NEWS OF MEMBERS: from previous page his extensive notes touch on a book about Persian music that » strikes me as likely essential reading. So what you get here Doug Ramsey’s novel Poodie James became his pub- touches on illumination, ancient wisdom of the unproveable lisher’s best-selling book and went into a second print- sort, but also a fount of information that will trigger further ing less than a month after it appeared. Among those exploration. who praised the book, author Jack Fuller (The Best of These musicians are generally more diverse listeners than Jackson Payne) compared Ramsey to John Steinbeck critics are. mentions that the music of Chad and wrote, “Poodie James pulses with Steinbeck’s sense (the country) was to him as much of a revelation as Rollins of character — the hurt ones, their tormentors, and ev- and Coltrane; Christopher Adler and Matthew Welch both eryone in between. This novel will take your heart.” explore issues of cross-cultural composition, and often the Ramsey’s previous book was the award-winning biog- music of the Balinese gamelan turns up. As often as not, the raphy Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul issue seems to be the idea of time. The Australian composer Desmond. For information about Poodie James, go to Chris Dench provides a piece called “Time-Travel” that may libroslibertad.ca become a touchstone for me, along with the concept of time binding. Cynthia Sesso at CTSIMAGES curated and exhibited This is definitely not a book to be read in a hurry. Its arbi- 13 commemorative fine art prints by photographer Ray trary alphabetical arrangement will likely break down with Avery at the Monterey Jazz Festival from September every reader and in different ways, as one chooses familiar 21-23, in celebration of the festival’s 50th anniver- artists (or short essays, or essays with lists or illustrations) sary. The special exhibit, “Behind the Lens: 50 Years as a point of entry. In any case, it’s particularly important for of Monterey Jazz Festival Photos,” drew from Avery’s those of us who write about music to pay close attention. extensive MJF images from 1958 until his passing in 2002. Cynthia represents Avery’s photo archives. All < < < prints are available for viewing at ctsimages.com.

Dawn Singh has been named Senior Project Coordi- Music in the Post-9/11 World nator for the Jazz Festival, produced by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Jonathan Ritter and J. Martin Daughtry, eds.

Routledge, New York/, 2007; Arnold Jay Smith moderated a panel at the recent 328 pp.; $24.95 paperback Jazz Improv convention in New York titled “The Great 8 Review by David R. Adler Cuban Encounter + 30,” a reminiscence on a Havana cruise in 1977 with groups led by , Stan n the liner notes to Up For It, writ- Getz, Earl “Fatha” Hines and David Amram. Arnold ten about a month before the start brought back tapes of the Latin-jazz-rock group Irak- of the Iraq war, Keith Jarrett asked: ere, which was led by Chucho Valdés and included I Paquito D’Rivera and , both of whom “Why play music at all? What difference could it make?” Many involved in the now live and create in the U.S. The panel included Ray arts expressed similar sentiments in the Mantilla, who was aboard with Amram. Arnold also aftermath of 9/11. Lost lives, a marred moderated a panel called “: The Co- Manhattan skyline, political disquiet lumbia Years” focusing on the long-form works. Guests and the prospect of ongoing war made were George Avakian and David Berger. art, and certainly the pleasure of enter- tainment, seem insignificant, even disrespectful. And yet the Joan Stiles (pianist/composer) has released her sec- feeling gradually subsided, and the music never stopped. ond CD, Hurly-Burly, which reached #11 in nationwide airplay as charted by JazzWeek Radio. New York CD This new essay collection, Music in the Post-9/11 World, metic- release events included performances at , the ulously reconstructs a period of time that can now seem like Fazioli Salon and the New School. Reviews appeared a blur. The foreword, by ethnomusicologist Gage Averill, sets in Jazz Times, Jazz Improv, All About Jazz and Down- out the mission: to explore “how music is implicated in con- beat (four stars from Ted Panken). Radio appearances flict, justice, intercultural understanding, and peace” — or, included an hour-long interview on Bonnie Grice’s more broadly, “to assess the richness of sound and music syndicated “The Song Is You” and another on WBGO’s in the emotional life of humankind.” The contributors rep- “Jazz from the Archives.” Visit joanstilesmusic.com for resent a range of academic disciplines: ethnomusicology, more information. music theory, folklore, communications, American studies. None of the essays deal specifically with jazz, although one

12 JAZZ NOTES • Vol. 18, No. 4 jazz journalist, the JJA’s Larry Blumenfeld, weighs in with John R. Tumpak’s article “Legh Knowles From Glenn “Exploding Myths in Morocco and Senegal: Sufis Making Miller to the Napa Valley” appeared in the October Music After 9/11,” an insightful account of the Fez Festival 2007 edition of L.A. Jazz Scene. (Knowles played trum- of World Sacred Music and the musical-political activity of pet during the era with Miller and Charlie Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour, who has done much to Spivak and went on to become the chairman of Beau- combat anti-Muslim stereotypes in the West. lieu Vineyard in the Napa Valley.) John also gave a Blumenfeld’s essay is found in part two of the book, which presentation titled “A Tribute to Duke Ellington” on focuses on the climate outside the . Elsewhere November 29 at the Brand Library and Art Center in in this section, co-editor Jonathan Ritter examines commem- Glendale, California. orative 9/11 songs in the pumpin style indigenous to Peru’s Fajardo region; John Holmes McDowell offers close readings Adina Williams, Promotion Associate for Jazz and of corridos, or Mexican ballads, relating to 9/11; James R. Standards at Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., will moderate Grippo investigates the sha‘bi music of urban working-class a special session, “Music Without Borders,” featuring Egypt; and Veronica Doubleday gives a fascinating report on panelists David Benoit and Paquito D’Rivera, at the the state of musical culture in Afghanistan. On the musico- 35th annual IAJE conference in Toronto on January 12, logical level, every one of these essays is illuminating. On 2008. For more information, visit www.boosey.com/jazz. the political level, two of them have major weaknesses, typi- fying an uncritical indulgence of “the Other” often found on the academic left.

Part one, dealing with the music and mass media landscape in the U.S., includes James Deaville’s innovative analysis of TV news music — an inscrutable world of “stingers,” “bum- New Members pers” and “promo beds,” starkly reminding us that “music is unsurpassed in its ability to tap into the personal narratives of individual viewers” and promote government-sanctioned viewpoints. We also find Martin Scherzinger’s especially nuanced “Double Voices of Musical Censorship after 9/11”; Jason Berry, historian, lives in New Orleans. Reebee Garofalo’s synoptic “Pop Goes to War, 2001–2004”; Kip Pegley and Susan Fast’s analysis of the 9/11 memorial Alex Dutilh, editor of Jazzman, lives in Paris, concert “America: A Tribute to Heroes”; reflections on the France. politics of and Darryl Worley, by Bryan Garman and Peter J. Schmelz, respectively; and thoughts Thomas Erdmann is the jazz editor of Saxophone on “Classical Music and Remembrance after 9/11” by Peter Journal and lives in Burlington, North Carolina. Tregear. What emerges is a picture of music in its various and overlapping social functions: salve for a wounded com- Susan Havlish is with Vanderbilt University Press in munity, vehicle of inclusion and exclusion, protest against Nashville, . national policy, or belligerent defense of that policy. Somehow, each of these essays has to contend with the ag- Emra Islek, photographer, lives in London, England. gressively unenlightened reign of George W. Bush, and there is much well-deserved criticism of pro-war Jacques Laurin is a student member from Quebec. jingoists such as Worley, Toby Keith and Lee Greenwood. But elsewhere, the forgiving treatment of Egyptian sha‘bi singer Christopher Tyle contributes to jazzstandards.com Sha‘ban ‘Abd al-Rahim and Mexican corridista Andrés Con- and lives in Milwaukie, Oregon. treras makes for a striking contrast, and seems to indicate a broader political bias. Tim Wilkins is at Rutgers–Newark and lives in Brooklyn. Grippo, in his discussion of al-Rahim, is willing to censure “Israel’s apartheid-like domination over the Palestinian peo- Bonnie B. Wright lives in San Diego, California. ple.” But when it comes to al-Rahim’s video-clip depicting a cartoon George W. Bush scrawling a large Star of David over < < < a world map, or his lyric “O People, O Mankind, it wasn’t but a tower/and certainly its owners are the ones that made it fall,” Grippo is studiously neutral. “Controversial” and “brazen” is as far as he’ll go. Al-Rahim is a self-professed ignoramus on world affairs, but Grippo, in the end, lauds

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Winter 2008 • JAZZ NOTES 13 » | 9/11: from previous page him as part of “a long line of sha‘bi singers who have used exercise of terror for political ends…. As I coped with my their craft to enlarge sociopolitical criticism….” The idea grief and shock following 9/11, I also had to deal with an that anti-Semitism and 9/11 conspiracy theories are in fact unsettling sense of complicity and guilt, a failure of my stultifying sociopolitical criticism in countries like Egypt humanism. doesn’t enter the discussion. Introspection of this sort isn’t terribly common on the anti- Similarly, McDowell can’t summon an unkind word about imperialist left, and it doesn’t surface again in the book. corrido singer Andrés Contreras, who praises Osama bin Averill reminds us that critical thinking involves more than Laden as “a valiant man” and regards the 9/11 attacks as a dissection of “the comfortable capitalist matrix of U.S. he- just. To be fair, McDowell seeks to establish that Contreras’s gemony,” in the words of co-editor J. Martin Daughtry. At “El Corrido de Osama bin Laden” fits comfortably within the some point the critique must turn inward, toward the com- corrido tradition, in which respect for the cunning Mexican fortable matrix of the left’s own design. outlaw trumps other moral considerations. But the Contreras < < < song is one of five 9/11 corridos explored in McDowell’s essay. Three of them are, in McDowell’s estimation, “conformist,” in that they endorse “the official story” of 9/11. McDowell repeats the phrase “the official story” five times in his final : two paragraphs. He defines it as “a world of black and white, Conversations on the Improviser’s Art of terrorists and victims — the Twin Towers are portrayed as beautiful (though fragile), the victims are innocents, the By Andy Hamilton attackers cowardly, and the quest for vengeance is a natural University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI, 2007; and legitimate response by the injured party.” 284 pp.; $24.95 paperback Oddly, McDowell seems to prefer not only the inverted black- 8 Review by Ken Dryden and-white Contreras narrative, with its “damned gringos” and heroic bin Laden, but also the “neutral” stance toward iographies are often lightning bin Laden expressed by another corridista, Rigoberto Cárde- rods for critics. Reviewers often nas Chávez: “I am not God to judge you/but you must have fear that the writer has been your reasons.” While McDowell never praises the pro-bin B restricted from probing certain topics Laden sentiments outright — like Grippo, he affects schol- openly. There are also far too many arly objectivity in describing them — he is enthused about jazz biographies that are amateurish in the “counterhegemonic potential” of the corrido genre, its nature, coming off like a fan’s gushing ability to “challenge the official story and propose a differ- tribute, full of errors or leaving the gen- ent understanding of our collective history.” Why a “counter- eral impression that the writer, while hegemonic” understanding like Contreras’s is superior to the maybe a veteran journalist, knows little putative conformism of “the official story,” McDowell does about jazz. not say. It’s supposed to be self-evident. In an intellectual en- vironment where the easy appeal of the counterhegemonic is Fortunately, Lee Konitz: Conversations on the Improvisers Art itself hegemonic, this makes perfect sense. consistently hits the mark. Author Andy Hamilton has not only been listening to Konitz for decades, but is a jazz musi- Larry Blumenfeld, in his essay on , rightly calls for cian himself. As a veteran jazz journalist, his approach to “intelligent, open, and complex discussion of the issues at writing is thorough. Rather than writing a typical biography, hand,” and there is much of it to be found in Music and the he conducted a series of interviews with Konitz, transcribing Post-9/11 World. However, the Grippo and McDowell entries both questions and answers, while seeking to keep the alto raise questions about some of the tacit assumptions guiding saxophonist’s answers intact whenever possible, editing only the project. Gage Averill, in the foreword, throws the prob- when necessary to improve the flow or avoid redundancies. lem into relief with a refreshingly candid passage about his Vietnam-era “dalliance with the violent wing of the antiwar While Konitz had no interest in jointly writing the book, he movement.” For a time, Averill “allowed [himself] to justify generously gave of his time over a period of years, allowing violence in the pursuit of political aims,” a habit of mind that Hamilton to conduct numerous interviews and also review- struck him as “frighteningly current” during the 9/11 crisis: ing the transcriptions for accuracy. His outspoken comments (particularly his strong criticism of ’s re- The perpetrators of 9/11 and their sympathizers justi- cordings) have been left intact, giving the impression that fied the violence because it ‘brought the war home’ to any edits were made only to correct errors or add detail. America, and they have argued that no one living in Hamilton also fleshed out these discussions by incorporating America is innocent — arguments that were familiar to interviews with musicians who have worked with or admired me. I had once been complicit in a way of thinking that Konitz. The result is a fascinating portrait of someone who excused or rationalized the loss of innocent lives in the

14 JAZZ NOTES • Vol. 18, No. 4 has developed a distinctive, personal sound on his instru- Pastor Dale Lind, Minister to the ment and remained difficult to categorize. The book touches on every corner of Konitz’s career, from his New York Jazz Community at participation in ’s historic nonet (documented on St. Peter’s Church, Retires Birth of the Cool), to work with , , and many others. Konitz’s studies with Lennie 8 By arnold jay smith Tristano are of particular interest — he benefited from the blind pianist’s unique method of instruction, which involved astor Dale Lind, minister to the jazz communi- singing famous recorded solos, intense practice in multiple ty at St. Peter’s, the “Jazz Church” in New York, keys and working out intricate variations on familiar stan- P has retired. Pastor Lind rose to his pulpit upon dards, many of which are still a part of the alto saxophon- the retirement of the late Pastor John Garcia Gensel, ist’s repertoire, decades after he wrote them. But Konitz also who retired at 75 in 1994. Gensel founded the United saw the limitations of following Tristano unquestioningly; States’s — perhaps the world’s — first Jazz Ministry at he was far more open than his teacher was to performing the Advent Lutheran Church on West 93rd Street and with a wide variety of musicians, and eager to make a living Broadway. “It was a once-in-a-while Jazz Vespers but it as a player. became regular in 1964,” Lind recalls. Among Hamilton’s interlocutors are , Bob Brook- An imposing figure of a man, Lind was a former partner meyer, Martial Solal, , Dave Liebman and Peggy with Paul Colby in the original Bitter End on Bleecker Stern. Considering Konitz’s curt comments on Braxton, it is Street, later opening his own club, Preacher’s, at the fascinating that he has a mutual admiration society with Or- former site of the Dugout, also on Bleecker. nette Coleman — they even played together on one occasion, Lind’s first assignment was a seminar on women in though Konitz admits to still not understanding Coleman’s jazz. “Fifty women attended, leading Cobi Narita to harmolodic theory. form International Women In Jazz, which remains to- The format of Hamilton’s book makes it easier to read a chap- day,” Lind says. He continued to shepherd the night ter or two at a time; it can be overwhelming to read straight flock (Ellington’s term) with the annual All Nite Soul through. But Konitz is a sincere, fascinating subject who event, begun by Pastor Gensel in 1965 to celebrate the consistently speaks his mind and has long proven himself fifth anniversary of Jazz Vespers. It soldiers on. with his extensive recorded output. Hamilton was clearly the “There was no such thing as Jazz Vespers anywhere right man to deal with this complex musician, long admired in the world,” Lind emphasizes. With the help of Ruth by fellow players and critics, though never elevated to the Ellington, and later her brother Edward (Duke), his- stature he deserves by the jazz-buying public. torian Marshall Stearns, Duke’s doctor Luther Cloud < < < (a founder of U.M.M.G.) and Billy Taylor, John Gensel made Jazz Vespers a regular occurrence. “There have been over 500 funerals and memorials at St. Peter’s,” Lind notes. “It’s almost a must to be eulogized there somehow.” There is a whisper that the Jazz Ministry will disap- pear, as no one has been specifically appointed to lead it. Lind says it will be a shared ministry. “Two more pastors will be appointed, bringing the total to four, but none have anything to do with jazz per se.” Bassist/composer Ike Sturm remains musical director. There has also been a greater religious presence dur- ing services. “Hey, this is a church, after all,” quips Lind. “But no one will be asked to join the Lutheran Church. St. Peter’s has always been a house of worship welcoming to all, no matter their affiliation, if any. Jazz musicians should continue to feel comfortable.” As for Lind himself: “I’m compiling a history of the Jazz Ministry, probably for a book.” ’s piano, delivered to St. Peter’s while Pea was still in hospital, remains in its place of honor. < < <

µ Above: at the 2004 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, Washington, DC. Photograph by Ronnie James. Winter 2008 • JAZZ NOTES 15 LEFT: performing at the New School for Jazz and Contempo- rary Music, March 15, 2007. Photo- graph by Nancy Kaszerman.

BOTTOM LEFT: Roy Haynes at the 2005 JVC Jazz Festival in New- port, Rhode Island. Photograph by Michael Kurgansky.

BOTTOM RIGHT: at the 2004 JVC Jazz Festival in New- port, Rhode Island. Photograph by Michael Kurgansky. ELDER STATESMEN

16 JAZZ NOTES • Vol. 18, No. 4 » | REPORTING: from page 1

Beyoncé will stick around when the in the entertainment pages, as well as manual and have turned down offers to subject is Jerry Bergonzi or Ravi Col- three other dedicated music critics and write publicity bios and contribute to trane. writers on theater, dance, TV, film, event guides. books and breaking news. The paper’s After a decade covering crime, politics On the second issue, I grew up on reg- recent redesign has resulted in a limit of and local issues, I didn’t doubt my abil- 500–700 words for most stories. Owing gae, Hollywood musicals and Motown, ity to research, interview and write to my senior reporter status, my aware- so I’m partial to rhythm, big bands and coherently about such seminal figures airy, optimistic female vocalists, as as Wayne Shorter, or Ce- ness of editorial politics (optimum days well as , the only instrument cil Taylor. But critiquing albums and for best play are Monday/Tuesday) and I’ve played. Music that doesn’t appeal concerts (the Star is one of few North my sense of which artists guarantee to me personally I often cover in an American dailies still publishing next- higher-ups’ interest (, interview, allowing the musicians to day reviews) required a whole new vo- cabulary. No amount of book learning make their own case. I give jazz fused was going to help me recognize “My At the Columbia with hip-hop and Indian classical music Foolish Heart” or “On Green Dolphin extra consideration because it attracts Street,” or aptly contextualize Wal- forum, I was in the younger, ethnically diverse audiences. lace Roney’s Jazz without having heard minority as a full- Some of those new potential listeners Miles Davis’s On The Corner. So when are black, and I’m troubled by the lack my sister asks, “Do you only listen time writer for a daily of black representation in local jazz au- to jazz now?”, the answer is, “Pretty diences and bandstands. much.” metro paper. As the only black woman on an edito- Dominated by newcomers who are only rial staff of about 400, I don’t have the a few albums deep, the pop side of my Diana Krall, etc.), I don’t have much luxury of thinking that race doesn’t job isn’t as demanding, and I don’t have trouble getting specific jazz stories in. matter. I’ve always been proactive to spend as much time catching up. Tricks of the trade: good pictures, a lo- about addressing diversity oversights in cal angle, having the piece done and While fortunate to live in a city with the Star’s content and staffing (appar- a robust jazz community — live club waiting in case someone else’s story ently unsuccessfully). I don’t know why shows nightly, three major festivals, falls through. Toronto’s largely West Indian-rooted 24-hour radio station, close-knit cadre Though I’m regularly published on our black population doesn’t support jazz, of musicians, publicists and promot- section front, surrounded by colleagues but on my watch it won’t be because the ers — I rely on a plethora of websites cranking out exposés on terrorism and and blogs to keep tabs on the global music isn’t written about in an appeal- corruption, page A-1 is still the objec- scene. ing and accessible way. tive. In two years, I’ve put jazz on the September’s “Jazz in the Global Imagi- front page only once, when the famed I’m still figuring it out, muddling my nation” forum, organized by Columbia Montreal Bistro abruptly closed last way through a music theory course and University and the JJA, was one of the summer. So I’m always on the look- taking in Charlie Haden’s and Ornette best opportunities I’ve had to fraternize out for that hard news “jazz matters” Coleman’s catalogs (the Toronto Public with like-minded journalists (although story. Library system rocks!), but I can al- on the death beat, I did attend a fabu- ready say this has also been my most A couple of issues raised during the lous obituary writers conference in New personally rewarding beat. Life before Columbia forum provoked further Mexico). However, with the majority of thought. June Cross urged journalists jazz , and “Jitter- attendees attached to jazz-specific me- to think hard about adjunct endeavors bug Waltz” now seems awfully dull. diums, I did find myself in the minority such as penning liner notes for artists as a full-time writer for a daily metro < < < they cover. And one audience mem- newspaper, which comes with its own ber wondered whether a person could Ashante Infantry, a pop and jazz critic unique challenges. write fairly about music they don’t like. with the Toronto Star, spoke on “Global- The main issue is space. I’m compet- On the first issue, I’m guided on ethics izing the Personal” at the September 29 ing with myself (since I also cover pop) and freelance gigs by the Star’s policy forum “Jazz in the Global Imagination.”

Moved? New email address? New affiliation? Please be sure to notify the JJA’s membership secretary, Jerry D’Souza, at [email protected]

Winter 2008 • JAZZ NOTES 17 » | PRESIDENT’S REPORT: from page 3 sion. I think I can write for the board the jja? Do you have time and energy to eryone. It’s time to review and refresh in expressing our gratitude for your execute those ideas? Please let us hear that idea, and renew energies toward confidence, but we are all well aware from you, via email, on jazzhouse.org, getting what we decide to do actually that the strength of an organization whichever. Challenges continue to face done. lies in its members’ potential to step up the JJA, the same way challenges face Best hopes to everyone for 2008. to leadership positions. The JJA has a each of us in our careers. The idea of — Howard Mandel strong core of responsible activists, but the JJA is that by banding together, needs more doers. Do you have ideas for we can get more accomplished for ev- < < <

» | COLLECTIONS: from page 5

Burt Koral gave large files of notes Procrastination is often posterity’s presently without formal exhibit space, before he died, but no tapes. After his principal enemy. “You’re making me is building for its future at the soon- death, his wife offered the IJS his re- feel guilty,” told me recent- to-be-restored Victoria Theater on 125th cords and books. “It was a good library ly when I asked him what provisions he Street. Director Loren Schoenberg re- of jazz books,” Morgenstern said, “but had made. “I have so many deadlines, I portedly has made some acquisitions, we had 99 percent of them. Some were never get around to it. But I have two presently in storage. sons and two daughters and they have first editions, but that isn’t important Journalists who have covered jazz over instructions, which are to send it to to our mission. They fall into the ‘arti- the years but have special pockets of Dan Morgenstern and to my alma mat- fact’ category.” depth (as, say, biographers) may con- ter, Northeastern University in Boston.” sider splitting their archives. Gary Gid- Some critics traveled unexpectedly He said he gave much of his record col- dins, Bing Crosby’s biographer, says he light. Outside of his published work, lection years ago to the Loeb Library at would prefer a one-stop destination but Whitney Balliett’s holdings were sur- Harvard. prisingly modest. “Not a huge record would consider offering his Crosby files collection,” says Morgenstern. “He The Institute of Jazz Studies is not the to the singer’s alma mater, Gonzaga only repository for a journalist’s ar- University. “But it’s much too soon to only kept the things he liked, and they chive, merely the most famous and se- make any decision,” adds Giddins, who stayed with the family along with some lective. There are other places to shop. is 59. photos. And he did not tape interviews, Tulane University was the first aca- of course. He had amazing recall and Items pertaining to certain musicians demic institution to set up a recognized his own system of taking notes which are often housed in dedicated collec- jazz archive in the late ’50s. Its mission no one else can interpret.” John S. Wil- tions that may welcome additions. The remains focused on New Orleans. The son left a large amount, mostly clip Louis Armstrong House is administered principal collection of Chicago jazz his- files but no interview tapes. His record by Queens College. ’s torian John Steiner is at the University collection was sold privately by the music library is at Yale; Stan Kenton’s of Chicago. And James Neumann, an at North Texas State; Thad Jones’s at family. Evanston, Illinois, collector, recently William Paterson; and Artie Shaw’s at donated his huge library of more than Koral, Balliett and Wilson were typi- the University of Arizona. The Univer- 100,000 78s, LPs and CDs (plus much cal of an older generation that pre- sity of Missouri-Kansas City has a Buck memorabilia) to Oberlin College, which ferred notes to tape. Even among the Clayton collection, and Georgia State plans to open a jazz studies center in younger, more tape-oriented writers, University has the pa- 2009. It will all be digitized, according it was common to reuse tapes once the pers. Many others — Parker, Monk, Col- to Howard Reich’s Chicago Tribune sto- notes had been transcribed, especially trane and more — have been scattered ry, which did not indicate the ultimate when cassettes came in. I’ve always re- by eBay or the auction hammer. gretted wiping a reel-to-reel interview fate of the original discs. Those interested in dedicated collec- I did with guitarist Fred Guy in June There are smaller institutions as well. tions might contact Ann Kuebler, archi- 1968. But tape seemed expensive then. East Stroudsburg University houses the vist for the Institute of Jazz Studies, at Telephone interviews tend to have a Collection and is receptive to [email protected]. particularly short life as journalistic some donations. And the nascent Na- ephemera. tional Jazz Museum in Harlem, though < < <

18 JAZZ NOTES • Vol. 18, No. 4 R.I.P. — Deaths in 2007 and Late 2006 8 Compiled By W. Royal Stokes and Ken Franckling

ALICE COLTRANE, MICHAEL BRECKER, FLOYD LEVIN, WHITNEY BALLIETT, TOM TERRELL, MAX ROACH, JOSEF ZAWINUL, FRANKIE LAINE, PEGGY GILBERT, LEROY JENKINS, AL , BOBBY ROSENGARDEN, RONNIE WELLS, TONY SCOTT, CECIL PAYNE, DAKOTA STATON, ANDREW HILL, TOMMY NEWSOM, ALVIN BATISTE, CAREY , CARLA WHITE, NELLIE LUTCHER, JOHNNY FRIGO, HERB POMEROY, JOHN WALLOWITCH, CARLOS “PATATO” VALDES, SPECS POWELL, , ELAINE LORILLARD, FRANK MORGAN, JOEL DORN

Trumpeters Jimmy Earle Brown, Pat Keyboardist Joe Hunter; keyboardist, Paul deLay, Luther Ingram, Zola Taylor, Jenkins, Buddy Childers, Ernest “Doc” harpist and bandleader Alice Coltrane; Carey Bell, Alphonse (Bois Sec) Ardoin, Paulin, Donald Ayler, Leon Merian; keyboardist, bandleader and composer James B. Davis, J. Robert Bradley, Hank trumpeter and manager Pedro Knight; Josef Zawinul; keyboardist, singer, Medress, Bill Pinkney, Oliver Morgan, trumpeter, bandleader, composer, ar- songwriter, producer and educator Wil- Porter Wagoner, Hank Thompson ranger and educator Herb Pomeroy; lie Tee (Wilson Turbinton) Composers Ray Evans, Hy Zanet; com- trumpeter, bandleader, discographer Accordionist Severino Dias de Oliveria poser, producer and writer Carter Har- and archivist Arnvid Meyer Guitarists Ronald Muldrow, Al Viola, man; composer, singer and pianist John Trombonists Jimmy Cheatham, Bobby Charlie Labarbera, Bob Borgstede, Rod Wallowitch Byrne, Tyrone Hill, Frank Strong, Paul Poole, Johnny Fourie; guitarist and Writers Floyd Levin, Whitney Balliett, Rutherford; trombonist and educator singer Mary Kaye Glenn Dodson; trombonist and leader Tom Terrell, Ralph de Toledano, Mari- El Tojo (Generoso Jimenez) Bassists Victor Venegas, Eldee Young, anne Ruuth, Richard Cook; writer and Gary Costello, Art Davis, Herbie Lewis; curator Dick Allen; writer and photog- Tuba player Bill Barber bassist and singer Sonny Dallas rapher Silvio Alava; writer and singer Kitty Grime Saxophonists Cecil Payne, Frank Mor- Drummers Take Toriyama, Hans Georg gan, David Alan Gross, Boots Randolph, Klauer, Dinerral Shavers, Danny Bar- Oral historian Michael James (son of Johnny Hope, Earl Turbinton, Mike Os- celona, Ron Jefferson, Earl Watkins, Duke Ellington’s sister Ruth) borne, Marchel Ivery; saxophonists and Akbar DePriest, Luquman Ali, Masa- Poet and performing artist Sekou Sun- bandleaders Peggy Gilbert, Michael hiko Togashi, Specs Powell; drummer diata Brecker; saxophonist, arranger, com- and bandleader Bobby Rosengarden; poser and bandleader Tommy Newsom drummer and educator Stephen Bagby; Photographers Joel Brodsky, Eddie drummer, bandleader and educator Clarinetists Tony Scott, Alan Cooper, Aguilar Max Roach Ron Going, Gabe Essien; clarinetist and Editor David Solomon saxophonist Peter Müller; clarinetist Percussionists Carlos “Patato” Valdes, and bandleader Norrie Cox; clarinetist Joe Habao Texidor; percussionist and Discographer Kurt Mohr and educator Alvin Batiste; clarinetist, performance artist Paul Dean Burwell Label founder-executive, producer and saxophonist and bandleader Jacques Multi-instrumentalist Dick Wetmore DJ Joel Dorn; label executive, produc- Gauthé er, producer and photographer Esmond Singers Barbara McNair, Frankie Laine, Multi-reed and woodwind player Tim Edwards; label founder-executive and Dolores O’Neill, Dakota Staton, Joe Eyermann producer Hans Nagel-Heyer; label ex- “” Lane, Nükhet Ruacan, Hec- ecutive, talent scout and song doctor tor Casanova, Evelyn Blakey, Teresa Multi-reed and brass instrumentalist Lee Magid; label co-owner Stan Lewis Brewer, Ruby Glover; singers and pia- Mario Rivera nists Joan Steele Magaldi, Nellie Lutch- Producer, promoter and broadcaster Violinist Johnny Frigo; violinist, band- er, Aletra Hampton; singer, festival Gene Norman leader and composer Leroy Jenkins founder-producer and educator Ronnie Pianists Bruce McKinnon, Vince Gen- Wells; singer and educator Carla White; Newport Jazz Festival co-founder ova, Hilton Felton, Jr., Vince Genova, singer, writer and educator George Elaine Lorillard Siegfried Kessler, Matthew Quinn, Jon Melly; singer, guitarist and bassist Jon Lucien; singer, composer and percus- Club owners Queva Jayne Lutz, George Marks, Sal Mosca, George Greeley, Cees Brumat Slinger, Joe Palin, Jack Browlow; pia- sionist Sheila Wilkerson Smith; singer and entertainer Merv Griffin; singer nists and composers Andrew Hill, Al- Managers Michael Davenport, Herbert and actress Carol Bruce; singer, orches- demaro Romero; pianist and trumpeter Barrett tra leader, arranger and bassist Manny Andrzej Kurylewicz; pianist, organist, Green Recording engineer and archivist Bill composer and arranger Doug Riley; Savory pianist and bandleader Jack Wilson; Blues, R&B, Soul, Zydeco, Gospel, pianist and restaurateur Bobby Van Country, etc., performers Etta Baker, < < <

Winter 2008 • JAZZ NOTES 19 AN HOUR TO DREAM IN VANCOUVER

Nicole Mitchell conducts the High School Jazz Intensive in a performance of Charles Mingus’s “Chil- dren’s Hour of Dream” at the 2007 Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Vancouver, British Columbia. Photograph by Laurence Svirchev.

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