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66 ANNUAL CRITICS POLL JAZZ ARTIST JAZZ GROUP

THERE’S SOMETHING PARTICULARLY APT ABOUT VIJAY IYER’S ACADEMIC TITLES AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY, WHERE HE’S BEEN TEACHING SINCE 2014: Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts and Graduate Advisor in Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry. Yes, the endowed chair is nice, but “professor of the arts” and “advisor in creative practice” seem to sum up the man. It’s fitting that the terminology here is not “jazz studies” or “theory and practice,” but rather, “the arts” and “critical inquiry.” For Iyer—winner of the 2018 DownBeat Critics Poll categories Jazz Artist of the Year and Jazz Group (for his namesake sextet)—jazz doesn’t exist in isolation. Which is another reason why the appointment at Harvard, with its core liberal arts program, suits the 46-year-old pianist’s particular take on jazz, on music, on the arts and on the world. A child of immigrants, and the winner of multiple accolades—including a handful of previous DownBeat Critics Poll wins with his longstanding trio (with bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore) and a 2013 MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship— Iyer began his academic career as a scientist. He was a physics and math major as an undergraduate at Yale, and his Ph.D. thesis at the University of California, Berkeley, was titled, “Microstructures of Feel, Macrostructures of Sound: Embodied Cognition in West African and African-American Musics.” So his pedagogical inclination is toward diversity, and his expansive attitude toward jazz is second nature.

24 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 25 Jimmy & Dena Katz

“This isn’t a school of music,” Iyer says, sitting read a black author or maybe they’ve never had learn how to hear in different ways and learn in his basement office in the Harvard Music a black teacher.” On the other hand, “I also have how to accommodate other perspectives. To Building. “There’s no performance program. a lot of students of color in my classes, mostly me, that’s the real tradition … people kind of There are courses that involve performance. children of immigrants, including children of coming together from different corners and But I guess it has more in common with how I African immigrants. So, they may self-identify building something that didn’t exist yet. That’s learned, which was kind of in dialogue with the as black, but do not have a lot of contact with how I see the birth of what’s called bebop. That’s larger world. … I don’t want to say that noth- older African-American culture. So, it’s sort of how I see the Harlem Renaissance. That’s how ing good happens in conservatories, but it’s a new for a lot of them.” I see the creative music movement of the ’60s bit removed from the context in which music That diversity of backgrounds also shapes and ’70s.” exists. Music doesn’t exist for the conservato- the music-making itself. Looking back at his It’s not as though all of Iyer’s methods ry. It exists for people. And so, if you don’t have ensemble workshop students of the previous would be out of place in a conservatory. “There’s contact with the larger world, then you lose semester, Iyer says, “Some of them were sing- lot of rigor involved,” he says, “and rigorous track of what you’re doing.” er-songwriters. Some of them were beat-mak- training. There’s a lot of rigor involved in just In his courses, Iyer assigns a broad range of ers. Some of them situate themselves as jazz the doing of the music—like, how do you listen reading and writing—“everything from Robin musicians. Some of them had classical training. to each other? How do you synchronize? We Kelley’s biography of [Thelonious] Monk to The main thing was that they were all serious talk about form. We talk about orchestration George Lewis’ book about the AACM, to and they all had potential collaborative abili- and texture and kind of give a bit more detail Benjamin Looker’s book on the Black Artists’ ties. So, just to get them intensely making work and nuance to what they’re doing; so it’s not Group, Horace Tapscott’s autobiography, and together—and we didn’t have to call it anything just a beat, even when some of them are mak- Angela Davis’ book on blues women and black until it happened, and then we could listen to it ing beats on their laptop.” feminism.” And, depending on where the stu- and figure out what it was. These students are There’s also jazz history, though not neces- dents’ projects take them, Iyer might assign up for a challenge like that, of building some- sarily a typical historical survey. “Everything I pieces by French post-structural theorists or thing that has no real precedent. It was really know, and all my wisdom as an artist, comes selections from black studies scholarship. exciting to hear what they came up with.” from being in that world and that space and Students have to audition for Iyer’s ensem- Along the way, Iyer says, “I often had to dis- from all those artists, from Duke Ellington and ble workshops, so there is a basic skill level that’s abuse them of a lot of things, a lot of assump- Thelonious Monk, Cecil Taylor, John Coltrane, required. But, he says, “It’s a mixed bag.” A good tions about what jazz is, and whether it is what Miles Davis, Muhal Richard Abrams, Alice proportion “are young white kids from afflu- they think it is.” Coltrane, Geri Allen, to name just a handful,” ent backgrounds who maybe had a good high And that, according to Iyer, is how real jazz Iyer says. But the musical examples might also school jazz ensemble, but maybe they’ve never gets made. His students, he explains, “have to extend from the jazz canon to Bach and Berg,

26 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 or maybe some of the hip-hop and techno art- to move with it, and then it’s just about creat- session, another Iyer regular, Tyshawn Sorey, ists who have inspired Iyer, like Detroit produc- ing together with that as a sort of framework.” came in on drums. (Iyer has maintained long er and DJ Robert Hood, the inspiration for the The genesis of the sextet dates back to 2011, relationships with both Sorey and Gilmore, song “Hood,” from the 2015 Iyer trio disc, Break when Iyer was invited to New York’s River to having collaborated with the former for 18 Stuff (ECM). River Festival and was encouraged to broad- years and the latter for 16 years.) “Basically,” Iyer says, “this is not a ‘great en his palette beyond the trio. For that first Though the sextet is by necessity more man’ theory of jazz. It’s more of a series of com- gig, Rudresh Mahanthappa, from Iyer’s quar- tightly arranged than the trio, Iyer says it munities, of collective histories. It’s histories of tet, was on alto, with Graham Haynes on cor- offered yet another chance for him to work with collective action. And it’s also not about styles. net and flugelhorn and Mark Shim on tenor musicians “who could bring a creative sensitiv- It’s about people, which is an important distinc- saxophone, as well as Crump and Gilmore. ity to the music and could deal with intricate tion to me.” Eventually, Mahanthappa was overtaken with forms and kind of push beyond them.” The idea of jazz being fostered by diverse commitments to his own projects, so Iyer And, of course, it was—unlike some of his communities is central to how Iyer understands turned to longtime collaborator Steve Lehman more unclassifiable ensemble arrangements for the musician’s place in the world. for the alto chair. For the April 2017 recording the string quartet-centered Mutations (ECM), “What’s been great is that these young artists have been able to remain grounded in a world of ideas and in contact with a community that isn’t just made of other musicians, so then they can actually respond to what’s hap- pening in the world, and they can make the work a pointed response.” Those responses have been varied. “Last fall, my students put on a concert that was a benefit for Puerto Rico, and they put on another benefit concert for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. That was just partly because that was what was in the air at that time, and obvious- ly still is. That kind of work has a very clear context in the campus community or in the city. So, they’re learning how to be artists in the world.” Iyer’s own direct responses have included his 2013 collaboration with poet and DJ/producer Mike Ladd, Holding It Down: The Veterans’ Dreams Project (Pi Recordings), part of a trilogy addressing the post-9/11 context of American life. That aesthetic also applies to the award-winning sextet’s 2017 release Far From Over (ECM), whose title refers to the never-ending struggle for justice and equal rights. Iyer has described “a resistance in this music, an insistence on dignity and compassion, a refusal to be silenced.” Far From Over, Iyer’s third release for ECM, is stunning not just for the individual virtuosity of the players, but for its formal daring—which is, in its way, a metaphorical embodiment of the collective vulnerability that Iyer refers to when talking about the music. That’s true for the electric funk grooves of tunes like “Nope” and “End Of The Tunnel,” as well as the expanding form of album closer “Threnody” or the brooding ballad “For Amiri Baraka,” for the late poet. Though the shifting form of a piece like “Threnody” is enthralling, Iyer downplays its complexity. “The forms aren’t that hard, actually, in the long run,” he says. “I have these forms that are four bars long, but those four bars might be stacked with information. There might be layers of rhythms that it would take you a few days to learn, even if it’s four mea- sures long. So, it’s not necessarily something you can read down, either. But then you kind of get it in your body and then figure out how

AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 27 like 10 beats or something. We don’t know what they’re changing to. We just know that that’s when they change, so then a form emerges through that process of changing on time.

STEVEN SUSSMAN “The other thing is that it has a target, which is that eventually we’re going to arrive at A flat, and then we’re going to move between A flat and F, just sort of alternate between those two. When we get there, that’s when the saxophone comes in, and we keep building from there. “So, we have what’s sculpted as this trajec- tory. We don’t know the details of how it’s going to happen, but somehow we’re going to get from almost nothing being specified to this very identifiable sequence in the music. It has a certain kick to it, rhythmically. It has identifiable harmony. So it’s sort of like we move from something more ambiguous to something that’s quite resolved. It unfolds as this 8- or 10-minute piece of music, and all of it is very Iyer (left) sees the sextet format as “iconic” within the jazz genre. specific and careful, but it’s not written down.” Iyer’s peripatetic life as a jazz musician and his work with Ladd, or even his otherworld- how the center of what each of us does,” says Iyer, teacher makes for long days. For the Harvard ly duo collaborations with trumpeter Wadada “including Graham—of course, being the son job, he commutes from Harlem, where he lives Leo Smith—a classic jazz format. of Roy. But he’s also someone who’s traversed with his wife, Christina Leslie, a research sci- “If you think about the history of that for- these different musical histories. He’s dealt with entist, and their daughter. By 10:30 a.m. on the mat—Kind Of Blue, Andrew Hill’s Point Of Gnawa musicians, musicians from Mali and day of our interview, he already has met with Departure [1964], or even Herbie Hancock’s Cameroon, and he did a lot with Indian musi- a pair of students. He and his trio will be play- Sextant [1973]—there’s no shortage of sextet cians. So, he’s got this openness, temporally, in ing that night and the following night, two sets records. It’s kind of an iconic form.” the sense that he will really take a long view on each, at Harvard Square’s Regattabar. For his own sextet, Iyer says, “It’s a matter of things. There’s something incredibly unhurried True to the form of Iyer’s ever-expanding basically having these three pretty disparate about his playing, but he can also rip it when he circle of regulars, the set introduces yet another identities as a front line. They converge on these wants to, and his time is super strong.” new player: bassist Nick Dunston, filling in for arranged sequences, but each of them can also By the time the sextet convened for the Far Crump, who is on tour with his band Rhombal. spin the music in a different direction and each From Over recording sessions, Iyer’s challeng- Iyer introduces this as Dunston’s very first gig of them has a very strong relationship to the ing compositions had been road-tested at gigs. with the band, but says he’s ready “to navigate rhythm section.” In the studio, he added a few refinements, like through this music”—adding, “He learned it Crump and Sorey describe the larger band the soli section for the horns on the outro to the from my records.” as requiring more focused roles for each of album’s opener, the slow-boil anthem “Poles.” The trio begins at a ballad tempo, with softly them than the trio—a responsibility to support But he was also careful not to over-arrange. sustained chords and Sorey’s precise swirl and the soloists. But still, says Crump, one of the “I wanted there to be space for the music splash of brushes before a heftier groove emerg- constants in Iyer’s bands is “trying to find ways to move, and points of reference. Point Of es with an abstracted take on Thelonious Monk’s to crack it open, even in that larger ensemble.” Departure is a great example, where, yeah, there “Work.” The music expands and contracts, For his part, Sorey says that the social con- are these kinds of signature moments where the Sorey—a wizard of layered rhythms and tim- sciousness that’s a natural part of the music is arrangement matters. But then there are also bres—in constant dialogue with Iyer’s move- compounded in the sextet. “Any time I create these long stretches where you feel like any- ment from repetitive rhythmic figures to rhap- music, I’m dealing with the time period we’re thing could happen.” sodic outpouring, and a soft, mournful chord living in, politically,” he says. With the sextet, Iyer rejects the easy dichotomy between that introduces “For Amiri Baraka.” Dunston, though, “The statement of what we’re dealing “composition” and “improvisation.” meanwhile, holds the core of the beat with inven- with politically carries out more because of how “I think the sort of dichotomy that we sub- tive patterns and adept shifts to arco work. relentlessly charged it is.” scribe to is a little false, between what’s written Iyer has said that he met Dunston—as well The convergence of disparate identities also down and what’s spontaneous, because, actual- as another new face in the Iyer universe, Jeremy reflects those classic sextets—think of Miles, ly, there could be something that’s not written Dutton, a drummer from Houston who will be Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane on down that’s still very specific, and that’s worked playing with the trio at the Village Vanguard Kind Of Blue, or Kenny Dorham, Eric Dolphy on. And there also can be things that emerge the following week—through Iyer’s work as and Joe Henderson on Point Of Departure. in the moment that can be quite intricate and director of the Banff International Workshop Lehman and Shim are “the mercurial have a lot of formal detail in them. A form can in Jazz and Creative Music. note-slingers,” says Iyer. “They’re very differ- emerge. It’s not just preordained.” “Every now and then, I have to tap one of ent from one another, of course, but they have He gives as an example “Threnody,” a rich, these guys from there to fill in, and it’s been a longtime rapport through Steve’s octet, too.” mood-shifting track onFar From Over. great, actually, getting to keep tabs on the com- And then there’s Haynes as the Miles/ “It has, I guess, what I would call a harmon- munity through that, and hear what’s coming, Dorham axis of brass lyricism, with a touch of ic rhythm, which is to say that, ‘OK, the chords hear what’s next, and be part of that, be able to Miles-like electronic effects. “Rhythm is some- change every this many beats.’ It’s something nurture it.” DB

28 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 29 1. CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT Dreams And Daggers (MACK AVENUE) 62 Encompassing an impressive 23 tracks divided between standards and origi- JAZZ ALBUM nals, Dreams And Daggers represents a new level of ambition for vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant. With the juxtaposition of strings captured during studio recordings and the grittier ambiance of a OF THE YEAR live club setting, the album mirrors the complexity of human emotion in all its dimensions.

2. ANAT COHEN TENTET 3. CHARLES LLOYD NEW 4. DEJOHNETTE/GRENADIER/ 5. AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE 6. MATT WILSON Happy Song QUARTET MEDESKI/SCOFIELD A Rift In Decorum: Live At Honey And Salt (ANZIC) 61 Passin’ Thru Hudson The Village Vanguard (PALMETTO) 44 (BLUE NOTE) (MOTÉMA) (BLUE NOTE) Anat Cohen’s Happy Song is the 59 56 46 6SRNHQZRUGDQGVRQJKDYHŶHFNHG result of a diverse, remarkably tal- With Passin’ Thru—recorded live at It would be easy to dismiss this Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire Matt Wilson’s work in the past, and ented cast of players, composers the Montreux Jazz Festival and at supergroup as mere boomer nos- was once a wunderkind who won with this album, he’s actively harked and arrangers. Cohen wrote or co- a theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico— talgia, but that would overlook the 2007 Thelonious Monk Interna- back to his Midwestern roots with a wrote three of the tracks here, and Charles Lloyd celebrates 10 years just how vigorous and downright tional Trumpet Competition. Now, collection of music inspired by Carl the musical director for the project with his illustrious New Quartet, pleasurable its debut sounds. Us- he’s cementing his position as an Sandburg’s poetry. This album not was Oded Lev-Ari. Cohen’s clarinet which features pianist Jason Moran, ing its common experience in New essential bandleader of his genera- only reminds listeners how whim- work is consistently compelling bassist Reuben Rogers and drum- York’s Hudson Valley as a backbone, tion. For those still not familiar with sical a poet the master truly was, throughout, whether she’s explor- mer Eric Harland. Since 2007, this the quartet explores tunes by Bob his brand of small-group interac- but also how gifted a drummer and ing fusion on Lev-Ari’s “Trills And band has reanimated the approach Dylan, The Band and Joni Mitchell, tion, Rift is a reassuring document arranger Wilson is. The combination Thrills” or unleashing the toe-tap- /OR\GŵUVWGHYHORSHGZLWKKLVRULJL- as well as original compositions by RI D \RXQJ EDQGOHDGHU IXOŵOOLQJ D of singing and recitation makes for per “Oh Baby.” nal troupe during the ’60s. 'H-RKQHWWHDQG6FRŵHOG rite of passage. an engaging program.

11. RON MILES I Am A Man (ENJA/YELLOWBIRD) ...... 35 12. STEVE COLEMAN’S NATAL ECLIPSE Morphogenesis (PI) ...... 34 13. JOHN BEASLEY MONK’estra, Vol. 2 (MACK AVENUE) ...... 33 7. JAIMIE BRANCH 8. FRED HERSCH 9. BILL CHARLAP TRIO 10. CHICK COREA 14. RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA’S INDO-PAK COALITION Fly Or Die Open Book Uptown, Downtown The Musician Agrima (INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM) 42 (PALMETTO) 37 (IMPULSE!) 36 (CONCORD) 35 (SELF RELEASE) ...... 33 Listening to “Leaves Of Glass,” a track Pianist Fred Hersch long has been Making old stuff sound new, under- Chick Corea is a pianist without peer. 15. TYSHAWN SOREY on Jaimie Branch’s leader debut, recognized as an extraordinary in- scoring stylistic eloquence and lift- From all evidence on The Musician, Verisimilitude is a truly haunting experience. Her terpreter of the Thelonious Monk ing the hood on tradition have been his 2011 monthlong stand at New (PI) ...... 33 WUXPSHWŶRDWVIURPIRUORUQPHORGLF VRQJERRN$QGWKHVWULGHLQŶHFWHG at the center of the Bill Charlap Trio York’s Blue Note Jazz Club for his 16. JULIAN LAGE meditations to ambient, spectral lines of Monk’s “Eronel” are relat- for two decades. Uptown, Downtown 70th birthday featured creative Modern Lore background noise in the space of ed in a dizzying array of variations makes it seem as if the group gets revelry every night. This deluxe (MACK AVENUE) ...... 31 about three minutes. Supported on Hersch’s 11th solo album. Fea- more articulate on each new record- documentation of Corea’s historic 17. ROSCOE MITCHELL by a coterie of Chicago-related per- turing a spate of other interpreta- ing. With bassist Peter Washington engagement—three albums and Bells For The South Side formers, Fly Or Die glides through tions and Hersch’s own opus, the and drummer Kenny Washington at a 96-minute documentary—is par- (ECM) ...... 29 the avant-garde, references bebop’s 19-minute “Through The Forest,” his side, the pianist and bandleader adoxically a substantive feast that heyday and contemplates life’s Open Book splays open the com- SXWVDQRULJLQDOŵQJHUSULQWRQRWK- might leave listeners wishing it were 18. MARY HALVORSON rough patches. poser’s lavishly evocative practice. ers’ sage formulations. just a little less, but still craving more. Code Girl (FIREHOUSE 12) ...... 28 19. VIJAY IYER SEXTET Far From Over (ECM) ...... 28 For more of the year’s top jazz albums, see page 52.

30 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 31 HALL OF FAME BENNY By Ted Panken GOLSON Photo By Bill Douthart ‘ART IS A LIFETIME COMMITMENT’

AS A RECIPIENT OF COUNTLESS ACCOLADES DURING HIS 70 YEARS IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS, BENNY GOLSON MIGHT WELL BE BLASÉ ABOUT HIS ELECTION TO THE DOWNBEAT HALL OF FAME. BUT THE 89-YEAR-OLD TENOR SAXOPHONIST AND COMPOSER CONSIDERS THIS LATEST HONORIFIC A CONSEQUENTIAL MILESTONE.

n the beginning, I was much in tune New York Scene, from 1957. That date featured with wanting to be a poll-winner,” a nonet version of “Whisper Not,” which “IGolson said over the phone from Golson also recorded that year with Dizzy his Upper West Side Manhattan apartment. Gillespie’s big band. It’s the most enduring “Then I stopped thinking about it, because I staple of an oeuvre that includes such jazz lin- had other goals; what I was actually doing and gua franca works as “I Remember Clifford,” creating was important. But now I’m over- “Along Came Betty,” “Stablemates,” “Blues whelmed. I’m glad it happened before I die. March,” “Sad To Say” and “Are You Real?” For all these years, DownBeat has been the Horizon Ahead includes three recent bible of what jazz is all about, and I’m hon- Golson songs and one less-traveled gem titled ored. I’m happy. It makes me feel validated.” “Domingo,” from a 1957 Blue Note date led The Hall of Fame designation makes com- by trumpeter Lee Morgan, then Golson’s plete sense to Quincy Jones, Golson’s good 19-year-old bandmate with Gillespie and, friend since 1953 and, later in the ’50s, his a year later, his front-line partner with Art neighbor in a West 92nd Street apartment Blakey’s Jazz Messengers on the iconic album building populated by a cohort of night peo- Moanin’, for which Golson served as music ple who inspired Golson’s famous tune “Killer director. “It’s one of those tunes that never Joe.” “As a composer and a player, Benny is made it like ‘Whisper Not’ did,” Golson said. one of the absolute backbones of jazz,” Jones “I wrote ‘Whisper Not’ in 20 minutes. I was said via email. “He is almost 90, and that cat so plethoric with ideas, I could hardly write it is still playing! Benny is a mad monster of a down. Dizzy liked it and recorded it, and now musician, and he always has been.” it’s a standard in the jazz repertoire.” At the time of our interview in late April, “When you play ‘Whisper Not’ for 20 Golson was focusing on a forthcoming 10-day years, you’ve really got to dig deep to find tour of Japan with pianist Mike LeDonne new things—and we do,” said LeDonne, ref- and drummer Carl Allen, two-thirds of his erencing Golson’s determination to avoid working quartet since the late 1990s along a by-the-numbers attitude to interpreting with bassist Buster Williams, for whom good-old-good-ones in live performance. Luke Sellick would sub on this occasion. The “His tunes are all very soulful, with beautiful LeDonne-Williams-Allen trio joins Golson melodies over highly sophisticated harmonic on the aptly titled Horizon Ahead (HighNote), movement. He’s written so many unbelievably a 2016 release that is the most recent of his beautiful ballads that people need to investi- 40 or so leader albums since Benny Golson’s gate, and those ballads are mostly in minor

32 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 33 keys, with a dark, romantic sound. And he’s in cian: Imagination. Extrapolations. New ways to New York; and how it felt to be recognized by enthusiastic support of what you’re doing all do the old things. That’s what we do. If there’s Duke Ellington, who asked if he wouldn’t con- the time. He takes off all the limits. He wants no imagination to create things that have no sider contributing something to the orchestra. you to go as far as you can with whatever it is prior existence—and that’s what improvising In the book’s introduction, Golson com- you’re doing. He is an adventurer, and he loves is—then you may as well get a job as a park- pares his journey to that of the hero in Homer’s an adventurous imagination.” ing attendant or a cook. When we go to sleep at The Odyssey, which itself represents a collective “Imagination” is a word that cropped up night and wake up the next morning, what do consensus of orally related tales. “I’m sure the when Golson uncorked an eloquent declama- we intuitively say to ourselves? ‘What can I do warrior who invented the Trojan horse … was tion on the title of Horizon Ahead, which he better today than I did yesterday?’ Age doesn’t too restless to keep his head on the pillow when traced to conversations with two fellow jazz usually interfere with that, as opposed to an he got back to Ithaca,” Golson writes. “I’ll bet immortals: tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins athlete. I tell my audiences: ‘Can you imagine that Odysseus—who tricked the Cyclops, faked and pianist Hank Jones (1918–2010). an 89-year-old quarterback?’ I’m being ridicu- out Circe, avoided the Sirens, and rafted the “Sonny basically said, ‘There’s no end to lous when I say it, of course.” hellish seas between Scylla and Charybdis— this music we play.’ He’s right. We musicians “I like to talk,” Golson said, and his oracu- had one more adventure in him. No truly cre- don’t say, ‘I know everything there is to know; lar soliloquies—delivered with an orotund ative person ever arrives home without imme- there’s nothing else to discover.’ We know it’s baritone voice in complete sentences and para- diately beginning to long for the next gig. Art is just the opposite. graphs, even chapters, using vocabulary bed- a lifetime commitment.” “Hank Jones put it another way. He said, rocked in King’s English—are a beloved staple Golson’s odyssey began in Philadelphia, ‘The horizon is ahead.’ I didn’t know what he of Golson’s performances. where he was born in 1929. There he remained meant at first. But we’re never satisfied. To Many of those stories appear in Golson’s until he matriculated at Howard University in be satisfied is a caveat that we have to avoid, 2016 memoir, Whisper Not: The Autobiography 1947. Raised by a single mother, he took classi- because then you slow down. You stop stretch- Of Benny Golson (Temple University Press), cal piano lessons from an early age, barely toler- ing out. You stop reaching. It’s like falling over- which features a lovingly rendered portrait of ating his mother’s affection for “the low-down board of a ship. The ship sails over the horizon the young John Coltrane, his close friend. The dirty blues.” His views would evolve. Now, without you, and you tread water, and you’re book also documents various encounters with Golson writes, “I hug the blues to my chest the existing for as long as you can, and then it’s Thelonious Monk; eyewitness accounts of way Whitman hugged the seashore.” over. No, we have to stay on the ship. There’s trumpet battles between Clifford Brown and “I had the classical thing in my mind, and always something to learn, so we’ve always got Fats Navarro and between Brown and Louis she’s playing Bill Broonzy and Lil Green,” something to aim for, to hope for. But of course, Armstrong; what it was like to play the debut Golson reminisced. “When I talked to Sonny, we need the talent. We need the one thing engagement of the Jazztet at the Five Spot oppo- he brought up ‘Romance In The Dark.’ I said, that’s always axiomatic with the jazz musi- site Ornette Coleman, when Coleman first hit ‘You remember that?’ Boy, my mother used to play that thing. And another tune, ‘If you feel my legs, you want to feel my thighs, and if you feel my thighs you want to go up high.’ I said, ‘That’s terrible music!’ But she was also playing Billie Holiday—‘Mean To Me’ and ‘I’ll Get By’ and things like that.” Another connection to jazz, well-depicted in the memoir, was Golson’s Uncle Ralph, a bartender at Minton’s Playhouse who allowed his nephew to be a fly on the wall there on periodic visits to Harlem. Golson’s mother bought him a saxophone after he heard Arnett Cobb play “Flying Home” with Lionel Hampton at Philly’s Earle Theater in 1943. Two years later, Golson joined his teenage friends Coltrane and Ray Bryant at the Academy of Music to hear a sextet featuring Gillespie, Charlie Parker, saxophonist Don Byas, pianist Al Haig, bassist Slam Stewart and drummer “Big Sid” Catlett. “I started trying to play bebop for all I was worth,” Golson recalled. “I drove my neighbors crazy, because I got my saxophone during the summer, and the windows were open. When John Coltrane joined me, they wanted to kill two people. We were rank amateurs.” Golson credited a course at Howard, “Vocabulary Building,” as the starting point of his enviable linguistic skills. “The professor, Mr. Carroll, told the corniest jokes that he thought were just hilarious—but he knew so much about the English language,” he said. “The next semester, I was the only one who took him. I

34 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 learned so much about the English language from that guy, and I started to read.” The mandatory orthodoxies imposed by Howard’s music department circa 1949 were less appealing. Golson left abruptly, launch- ing the apprentice stages of his career, which DOWNBEAT ARCHIVES included stints playing fourth tenor with Jimmy Heath’s excellent Philly-based big band, and subsequent r&b sojourns with singer Bull Moose Jackson and alto saxophone titan Earl Bostic. He acknowledges that his pianistic skills and knowledge of theory gave him a head start, even before he fully under- stood how to apply his knowledge to the saxophone, to which he initially sought to apply the tonal values exemplified by Byas, Lucky Benny Golson (left) with Thompson and Coleman Hawkins. Art Farmer and Curtis Fuller circa 1960 “Benny could read the music and he had a good sound,” Heath, 91, said. “He was ready ments. What does the hi-hat mean? What does allels between the process of making music to enter the world with what he did, with a lot the ride cymbal mean? … What does it mean and the act of composing. “Anybody can write of determination—and his development was when you’re playing in the middle of the piano? a tune that reaches the ear,” he began. “But you obvious. He’s a very lyrical tenor player who What about the glassy sound in the upper part want to go past the ear and touch the heart— found his voice and established a style.” of the piano? The mutes. Louis Armstrong though the head is involved, too. When I Proximity to bebop poet Tadd Dameron never played any mute but the straight mute. write, I go full-throttle, whatever I feel, and during their mutual tenure with Jackson facili- Dizzy Gillespie used a cup mute. Miles Davis hope people understand what I’m saying.” tated Golson’s musical vocabulary building. “It used a Harmon mute. In the Jazztet, sometimes Inevitably, they do. amazed me what Tadd could do with a paucity I’d tell [trumpeter] Art Farmer to use a little “Benny wanted to be a composer, he want- of musicians,” Golson said. “I made it a point to hat, which looked like a derby, which changes ed to be an arranger, he wanted to be a soloist, [learn] everything that each instrument is capa- the sound. These things make a difference, and he wanted to write for symphonic orchestras ble of, and the sound you get when you blend you learn to use them and combine them.” and big band—and he did,” Heath reflected. them in combination with the other instru- Golson was asked to comment on the par- “I’m very proud to be his lifelong friend.” DB

AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 35 VETERANS COMMITTEE HALL OF FAME MARIAN McPARTLAND INVITATION TO LISTEN AT THE END OF FRANK D. GILROY’S POIGNANT 1985 JAZZ FILM, THE GIG, A SEASONED PROFESSIONAL BASS PLAYER BIDS FAREWELL TO A BAND OF WEEKEND WARRIORS HE’S MADE PEACE WITH ON A JOB IN THE CATSKILLS, NOTING AS HE DEPARTS THAT ONE OF HIS NEXT ENGAGEMENTS IS WITH MARIAN MCPARTLAND.

t’s a plausible moment. McPartland, one and 40 CDs of Piano Jazz sessions on the Jazz In the 1960s and ’70s, McPartland of this year’s DownBeat Hall of Fame Alliance label. Particularly on ballads, her reviewed records for DownBeat, started her Iinductees, was that rare phenomenon: command of complex harmony—inspired own label, Halcyon, and became committed an A-list jazz musician who hired great play- in part by the English composer Delius and to jazz education, headlining the first con- ers, such as bassist Eddie Gomez, but was often compared to Bill Evans—was legendary. vention of the National Association of Jazz also enough of a household name in non-jazz “When we played with her on her 85th Educators in 1973. On the recommenda- households that viewers would get the ref- birthday, we had a little party for her,” tion of her longtime friend, composer Alec erence. The reason, of course, was Marian recalled George Wein, founder and producer Wilder, she was invited by South Carolina McPartland’s Piano Jazz, her informative of the Newport Jazz Festival and a respectable Public Radio to do Piano Jazz. McPartland and approachable National Public Radio pro- pianist himself. “The musicians backstage interviewed and played duets on the show gram, which she hosted from 1979 to 2010. At said she is more advanced in her harmonic with everyone from Eubie Blake to Cecil its peak, her show had 800,000 listeners and structure than all the other piano players put Taylor. Bootleg cassettes of her in-depth was broadcast on more than 250 radio sta- together.” interview with Evans circulated for years tions. (Re-runs still air on 107 outlets.) McPartland also possessed a notoriously among pianists. Whether onstage or on the airwaves, salty wit. On a tour of the Bill Clinton White McPartland was an ardent champion of McPartland, who would have turned 100 this House, publicist Helene Greece reported female musicians, whom she regularly fea- year (she died in 2013), had a gift for mak- that as they passed the Oval Office, Marian tured on her show, encouraging every- ing audiences feel like they had been offered said, “I wonder if that’s where she washed one from Joanne Brackeen and Diana Krall a personal invitation to listen, whether they out the dress.” to Norah Jones and Grace Kelly. She also knew anything about jazz or not. Born Margaret Marian Turner on March left a legacy of excellent songs, including “The show’s appeal often has been 20, 1918, in Slough, Berkshire, McPartland “Ambiance,” recorded by the Vanguard Jazz described by people as being like they was raised near London, where she studied Orchestra, and the lovely ballad “Twilight were eavesdropping on a conversation at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama World,” rendered beautifully on Marian held by two friends,” explained Shari (1935–’38). After several years working in McPartland & Friends: 85 Candles–Live Hutchinson, McPartland’s longtime produc- English music halls, she went to Europe In New York by another Piano Jazz guest, er at Columbia, South Carolina, radio station with a USO troupe in 1944, where she met Karrin Allyson. SCETV, where the show originated. and married Chicago jazz cornetist Jimmy “Marian was a wonderful combination of Her achievements did not go unrecog- McPartland. being utterly fearless and very open,” Allyson nized. In 1983, her show earned a Peabody After four years in Chicago, working said. “She was a pioneer not only for women award (the highest honor in radio); in 2000, under the stage name Marian Page, [jazz] pianists but for all jazz pianists, wheth- she was named a National Endowment for McPartland relocated to New York, where er they realize it or not.” the Arts Jazz Master; in 2004 she received she formed a piano trio, eventually landing McPartland’s music lives on. Some of her a Grammy Trustees Award for Lifetime a career-making gig at the Hickory House, best albums—Ambiance, Live At The Maybeck Achievement, and in 2010 she became an the last of the 52nd Street clubs. During the Recital Hall and Silent Pool—remain in print, Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the next decade, she worked in a trio with bass- and there are episodes of Piano Jazz archived British Empire. McPartland performed for ist Bill Crow and future Dave Brubeck drum- at npr.org. —Paul de Barros two U.S. presidents at the White House and, mer Joe Morello, and recorded for Savoy and in 1997, for the Supreme Court. Capitol. In 1958, she was one of three women She also left behind a considerable legacy pictured in the famous photograph A Great Paul de Barros is the author of Shall We Play That One Together?: The Life and Art of Jazz Piano Legend Marian as a player, including 25 albums for Concord Day in Harlem. McPartland (St. Martin’s Press, 2012).

36 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 COURTESY OF MARIAN MCPARTLAND

AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 37 Marian McPartland, circa 1964 1. MILES DAVIS & JOHN COLTRANE HISTORICAL The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 (COLUMBIA/LEGACY) 195 Recorded during Davis’ 1960 spring tour of Europe, this collection showcases Col- ALBUM WUDQHōVƓQDOSHUIRUPDQFHVZLWKDEDQGLQ which he had been an integral member. Coltrane plays hard, twisting melodic concepts and exploring harmonic combi- OF THE YEAR nations that would form the foundation of his next phase of musical development.

2. THELONIOUS MONK 3. BILL EVANS 4. ALICE COLTRANE 5. SONNY ROLLINS 6. ORNETTE COLEMAN Les Liaisons Dangereuses Another Time: World Spirituality Classics 1: Way Out West–Deluxe Edition Ornette At 12/Crisis 1960 The Hilversum Concert The Ecstatic Music of Alice (CRAFT) 75 (IMPULSE/REAL GONE/UMG) 69 (SAM) 117 (RESONANCE) 106 Coltrane Turiyasangitananda (LUAKA BOP) This Rollins classic, recorded with Two long-out-of-print live albums Recorded at Nola Penthouse Studios This recording of Evans with bassist 102 bassist Ray Brown and drummer from 1968–’69 are combined on in New York on July 27, 1959, the al- Eddie Gomez and drummer Jack These historic recordings present Shelly Manne for the Contempo- this single-CD reissue. Ornette At bum contains all the Monk music uti- DeJohnette was captured live at the the piano-, organ- and harp-play- rary label in 1957, presents the 12 ŵQGV&ROHPDQLQDTXDUWHWZLWK lized in Les Liaisons Dangereuses (a Netherlands Radio Union Studios ing Alice Coltrane as an innovative tenor saxophonist in top form, at his young son Denardo, Dewey )UHQFKŵOPE\5RJHU9DGLP DVZHOO in Hilversum on June 22, 1968. It’s artist and thinker who continued to the peak of vitality and creativity. Redman and Charlie Haden per- as some tracks not heard on screen. only the third known recording of challenge herself after retiring from The reissued vinyl edition sup- forming in Berkeley, California. For the recording, Monk leads tenor this particular trio, which performed public performance to focus on spir- plements the landmark album Crisis, recorded at New York Uni- saxophonist Charlie Rouse, bassist together for a six-month period. The itual practice. The 10 tracks that con- with a second LP of previously versity during an era of riots, assas- Sam Jones and drummer Art Taylor, music was originally broadcast on stitute this collection are assured unreleased bonus material, deluxe sinations and war, adds frequent with French tenor saxophonist Bar- the radio program Jazz in Actie by and communal, forward-thinking packaging and rare photos by Wil- Coleman collaborator Don Cherry ney Wilen joining on three tunes. Dutch producer Joop de Roo. and resolute. liam Claxton. to the lineup.

11. WES MONTGOMERY In Paris (RESONANCE) ...... 46 12. ALBERT AYLER Copenhagen Live 1964 (HATOLOGY) ...... 44 13. ANTHONY BRAXTON Sextet (PARKER) 1993 (FIREHOUSE 12) ...... 37 14. ART PEPPER, West Coast Sessions, Vol. 6: Shelly Manne (OMNIVORE) ...... 36 7. JACO PASTORIUS 8. SONNY CLARK TRIO 9. KEITH JARRETT/GARY 10. THELONIOUS MONK PEACOCK/JACK DEJOHNETTE WITH JOHN COLTRANE 15. SUN RA Truth, Liberty & Soul The 1960 Time Sessions Of Abstract Dreams (RESONANCE) 64 (TOMPKINS SQUARE) 53 After The Fall The Complete 1957 (STRUT) ...... 31 (ECM) 51 Riverside Recordings This two-CD set captures the bass This double-LP vinyl set (and digi- (CRAFT) 16. BOB DYLAN, Trouble No innovator leading a 22-piece big tal download) includes eight orig- This two-disc live album by Jarrett’s 51 More: The Bootleg Series band on June 27, 1982, at Avery inal album tracks and six alternate Standards Trio—recorded on Nov. This three-LP vinyl set celebrates the Vol. 13, 1979–1981 Fisher Hall in New York as part of takes from a session the pianist 14, 1998, at the New Jersey Per- only recordings of Monk and Col- (COLUMBIA/LEGACY) ...... 30 George Wein’s Kool Jazz Festival. recorded three years before his forming Arts Center—marks the pia- trane collaborating in the studio. The 17. OSCAR PETTIFORD The program, culled from the orig- demise at age 31. Remastering QLVWőVŵUVWSXEOLFSHUIRUPDQFHDIWHU musicians performed together regu- New York City 1955–1958 inal 24-track tape reels and present- has given the sound an intimate recovering from a bout of chronic larly at New York’s Five Spot Cafe in (UPTOWN) ...... 29 ed in its entirety, showcases Pasto- new presence, and the music spar- fatigue syndrome that befell him 1957, and their easy rapport reveals 18. EDDIE DANIELS & ROGER rius’ brilliant compositions for large kles with lyrical joie de vivre and in 1996. The trio conjures magic in itself here on Monk repertoire like KELLAWAY, Just Friends ensemble. A portion of this historic rhythmic subtlety. Clark is joined the moment as they honor familiar “Ruby, My Dear,” “Monk’s Mood,” (RESONANCE) ...... 27 concert previously was broadcast on by bassist George Duvivier and jazz repertoire, shining light into “Crepuscule With Nellie” and “Nut- the NPR program Jazz Alive! drummer Max Roach. neglected corners. ty,” complete with alternate takes. 19. LESTER BOWIE Numbers 1 & 2 (NESSA) ...... 25 20. MYRA MELFORD Alive In The House Of Saints For more of the year’s top historical albums, see page 52. (HATOLOGY) ...... 25

38 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 39 JAZZ ALBUM FEMALE VOCALIST

40 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 Jimmy & Dena Katz SALVANT

WHEN TOLD THAT SHE ONCE AGAIN WAS VOTED THE TOP FEMALE VOCALIST IN THE CRITICS POLL, HARLEM-BASED CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT SAID, “I’M GRATEFUL AND SHOCKED. BUT NOW, WHEN I’M TOURING, I’M SEEING PEOPLE WHO COME TO EIGHT OR 10 OF MY SHOWS. I NEVER THOUGHT THESE LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE AUDIENCE WOULD HAPPEN.” he 28-year-old artist also topped the poll’s Jazz Album cat- her choices,” Sikivie said in a separate phone egory for her double album, Dreams And Daggers (Mack interview. “Another of her strengths is great Avenue). The ambitious, high-art program includes stan- variety and control of timbre, so I wanted to Tdards performed live at the Village Vanguard, as well as origi- hear her voice against as many different tex- nal musical commentary on them, as recorded in the studio tures as possible.” with a string quartet in support. Salvant has been labeled as one of the In a phone conversation from her hotel in Milan, Italy, young performers who is ushering in the where she was amid a European tour, the singer was exu- future of jazz. “That’s a high honor, but I berant when discussing the success of Dreams And don’t really see myself in that role,” she said. Daggers—which she didn’t initially envision as a two- “My music is modern, it’s traditional, and it disc package. “I didn’t know that’s the way it was may stretch into the future. I like to explore going to happen,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking CDs, and I like to play with music in different but how all these 21 songs would play out—with ways to see how it evolves, how it transforms folding in the live music and the studio, and tell- over time. It’s a challenge to take some of ing all the stories with different perspectives.” those ideas in the old songs and put them in As for the strings in the studio, Salvant front of the present day.” had done some performances with string Salvant’s music traverses a range of sen- quartets, and she loved her bassist Paul timent, from rapturous to spunky. But an Sikivie’s arrangements. “I wanted to often-overlooked element is a pulsing vein of showcase the strings, rather than wait humor, often revealed onstage. for another album to include them Her upcoming high-profile gigs include two years later,” she said. “I’m not the Newport Jazz Festival on Aug. 5 and the obsessed with the homogeneous. Monterey Jazz Festival on Sept. 22. I like the eclectic. It pushes the Additionally, she is collaborating with musicians and the listeners to find big band leader Darcy James Argue on an and create new links. It’s about ambitious song cycle, Ogress, which will be creating new stories.” premiered at the Metropolitan Museum of Writing and arranging the Art in New York on Sept. 28. “I’m writing pieces was an outgrowth of the music and lyrics and then sending them Sikivie’s rapport with her, to Darcy,” she explained. “The storyline has cultivated since 2012. different characters that I’ll sing. I’m fasci- “One of Cécile’s many nated with French baroque cantatas, where strengths is a drive to one singer is the narrator and then does all explore different pos- the characters.” sibilities in phrasing, so Could this be Salvant’s next album? I tried not to box her in “We’ll have to see,” she replied. “If it’s not a rhythmically, not to force fiasco, we will record it.” —Dan Ouellette

AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 41 FLUTE RISING STAR JAZZ GROUP NICOLE MITCHELL COMMUNITY LEADER ONE OF THE MOST STRIKING THINGS ABOUT NICOLE MITCHELL’S TONE IS THE SIZE OF HER SOUND. OTHER FLUTISTS SOMETIMES STRUGGLE TO MAKE THE INSTRUMENT’S LOWER RANGE CUT THROUGH THE WAY THE UPPER REGISTER DOES, BUT MITCHELL EASILY HOLDS HER OWN IN THE FIRST OCTAVE AGAINST TRUMPETS AND SAXOPHONES. ASK HER HOW SHE GETS SUCH A BIG SOUND, AND SHE JUST LAUGHS.

rom years and years of playing with than a concept, one that uses a revolving cast don’t go around writing a drum chart for taiko,” drummers and having no mic,” she of players to realize the variety of Mitchell’s she said—but it really adds to the ensemble’s said. “All those years you toil away, compositions. palette. “Fplaying clubs and the microphone doesn’t “The way I designed it, the instrumentation “Nicole doesn’t make it like there’s some work and there’s like 50 people on the stage. You and the personnel would change according to special delineation about [the taiko], either,” learn how to project by necessity.” the project,” she said. “Even in the very begin- Reid said. “It’s just another color or voice added Mitchell is more interested in making music ning, when we were just playing at the Velvet to the ensemble.” than fussing with technique. “Playing the flute, Lounge [in Chicago], every time we played it Mitchell also is fond of integrating vocals I always wanted just to put it together and play was with a different configuration. Of course, into her work. On Mandorla Awakening II, sing- it,” she said by phone from her office at the we had members who have been involved with a er Avery R. Young takes a traditional, if often University of California, Irvine. “Not go through lot of projects and have even been on a majority admonitory, role advancing the work’s lyrical a bunch of exercises and warm-ups, go through of the recordings. But then, we also have musi- themes, while on the upcoming Maroon Cloud, my scales and this and that. This is probably dif- cians who might be invited into a new project, Fay Victor’s singing often is wordless, making ferent from what other people might say about because of what they bring, and then start doing her a melodic equal to Mitchell, Reid and pia- playing their instrument, but I really try to train other things with the group after that.” nist Aruán Ortiz. myself to just pick it up and play it, and work the “Nicole always tries to foster a community “I have singers because I’m a closet singer,” kinks out in the meantime, if I have to. Or keep vibe in whatever project she’s doing,” said cel- Mitchell said. “I don’t really feel comfortable ’em in.” She chuckled. “Kinks are good.” list Tomeka Reid, a BEE regular since 2000. singing things myself, but I’m always writing That attitude might not endear her to flute “I’ve always loved the moments of silence we all lyrics. teachers, but the results she gets have consistent- share before going onstage, standing in a circle, “And I definitely feel a connection between ly made her a critical favorite. “There are a lot of with our eyes closed, holding hands. Sometimes my voice and the flute,” she continued. “My amazing flute players out there,” she said, mod- someone would say a few words, like a prayer voice is actually really close in range to the flute, estly. “It’s a blessing to be put in that category before a meal. It was always very centering, a which is unlike a lot of the other flute players again, and I was really excited about [the Critics feeling of we’re all in this together.” who’ve come before me, because they’ve been Poll win for] my Black Earth Ensemble.” For the Black Earth Ensemble’s 2017 album, men for the most part and they have low voices. Topping the category Rising Star–Jazz Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds Also, I don’t have a lot of overtones in my voice, Group makes a nice anniversary present for the (FPE), Mitchell brought in Kojiro Umezaki on so it’s very close to a sine wave, which makes it ensemble, which is celebrating 20 years of play- shakuhachi (Japanese flute) and Tatsu Aoki on even closer to the texture of the flute sound. ing and recording this year. But it also under- shamisen and taiko (Japanese lute and drum, “There’s still a lot to discover,” she added. scores Mitchell’s gifts as a composer and band- respectively). Writing for non-Western instru- “There’s definitely a lot more to figure out.” leader. The Black Earth Ensemble is less a band ments is a challenge, Mitchell admitted—“You —J.D. Considine

42 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 KRISTI SUTTON ELIAS

AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 43 Nicole Mitchell leads the Black Earth Ensemble, winner of the category Rising Star–Jazz Group. RISING STAR JAZZ ARTISTS JULIAN LAGE FOCUSED ON THE SONGS

RECENTLY, JULIAN LAGE FINISHED UP A STINT IN NELS CLINE’S EXCITING QUARTET SUPPORTING (BLUE NOTE) AT LE POISSON ROUGE IN NEW YORK BEFORE HEADING TO EUROPE FOR A TOUR. CLINE’S LEADER PROJECT FEATURES THE TWO VIRTUOSO GUITARISTS SHARING THE RAW-ENERGY SPOTLIGHT.

es, it was the brawl,” this year’s Rising Star–Jazz Artist co-winner said with a laugh on the phone while on his way to Burlington, Vermont, to perform at the club Higher Ground with his romantic partner, singer-songwriter Margaret Glaspy. “Y“Nels is a pillar of improvised music. He’s one of my dearest friends and collaborators.” In a sweeping switch from the tumult of Cline’s band, the 30-year-old Lage now is revved up to tour behind his trio album, Modern Lore (Mack Avenue), featuring bassist Scott Colley and drummer (and vibraphonist) Kenny Wollesen. The disc offers toe-tapping, playful grooves in infectious songs that are more akin to Americana simplicity than to a full-fledged, jagged, look-at-me jazz blast. And that’s exactly what makes Modern Lore such a treat. Most of the 11 tracks clock in at the three- to four-minute range, there are no extended solos, and the program moves from the quiet and pastoral to the tangled and high-flying with impeccable ease. “This is a song-based record,” Lage said. “The songs are telling a story, and my hope is that listeners experience that. That’s why I wanted Jesse Harris to produce. We go back a little way, and he really loves songs. He’s built a beautiful life in that world of song, and he’s not spe- cifically in that jazz-world exploration. He helped to keep me focusing on the songs.” Lage often listens to other artists’ music during a type of research and development phase before going into the studio. In the case of Modern Lore, he drenched himself in tunes from decades ago: Bo Diddley, Little Richard and early Jeff Beck. But he also listens to a fair amount of classical and orchestral music, as well as the work of some of his colleagues, including drummer Tom Rainey and pianist Kris Davis, the co-winner of the Rising Star–Jazz Artist category (see page 45). “I see Kris a lot,” Lage said. “I’m grateful to be tied with her for this award, but she gets the win, in my opinion.” The bassist in Lage’s touring trio, Jorge Roeder, has played regularly with him for 10 years. He has watched the guitarist evolve from a guy playing blues on a Stratocaster to a fully developed, amped-up guitarist on a Nachocaster, built by luthier Nacho Baños, who specializes in vintage Telecaster-style instruments. “Julian had been looking to find a sound that most represents him,” Roeder said. “He found his voice with the Nachocaster. He’s the consummate improviser, but jazz is only one of his many hats. He also embraces the blues and all kinds of American music.” Cline is another one of Lage’s biggest fans. “The musical relationship that has sprung up between Julian and me has been truly profound,” he said. “Julian was who I needed to be playing with as a sensitive collaborator, on both a chromatic and modern level. We started touring as a duo and magic would happen every night.” The guitarists released an acclaimed duo album, Room (Mack Avenue), in 2014. Lage is planning a solo electric guitar album (he recorded the solo acoustic guitar CD World’s Fair in 2015), as well as a duo project with bassist Steve Swallow, partially influenced by Dixieland music. He’s also excited about the Tzadik album Insurrection, recorded with bassist Trevor Dunn (of Mr. Bungle) and guitarist Matt Hollenberg and drummer Kenny Grohowski (both of whom are in Simulacrum). “It’s a smok- ing album,” Lage said. “It’s my heavy metal project.” —Dan Ouellette

44 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 Pianist Kris Davis runs the independent to find my voice, how do I go about that?” label Pyroclastic Records. The answer, she said, was to move toward “a more linear approach and not so much one in which the harmony structures how the melodies and the improvising would come out.” She began working away from the piano, writing out lines over modes and then shap- ing the raw material into etudes at the instrument. Gradually, she moved back to a more bal- anced approach that synthesizes the horizontal and the vertical. The fruits of that approach have become evident. On Duopoly, for example, she facilitates col- loquies with musicians who, though like-minded, might not always share with her all the particulars of a language: pianists Angelica Sanchez and Craig Taborn (her sole collaborator on Octopus); guitarists Frisell and Julian Lage; woodwind players Tim Berne and Don Byron; drummers Billy Drummond and Marcus Gilmore. “There’s something nice about making music with someone with whom you share an aesthetic,” she said. “But there’s also something

PETER GANNUSHKIN nice about playing with someone from a different world, where you have to find a middle ground.” Increasingly, Davis has found common ground in the community at John Zorn’s venue The Stone, where she was in residence for a week last year. On Aug. 1, she will perform Zorn’s bagatelles in Lisbon with guitarist Mary KRIS DAVIS Halvorson, bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen. On Aug. 18, she will be back at INNOVATIVE VOICE the Stone, joining Lage for his week there. (Lage, incidentally, is the other co-winner of the Rising AFTER ANSWERING AN INTERVIEWER’S QUESTIONS FOR AN HOUR IN AN EMPTY Star–Jazz Artist category in this year’s Critics REHEARSAL ROOM AT THE NEW SCHOOL, KRIS DAVIS WAS ASKED TO PLAY A FEW BARS Poll; see page 44.) ON A PIANO THAT SAT IN THE CORNER. THE REQUEST, COMING AS A CLUTCH OF ANXIOUS From late August through late September, she will play a spate of festivals—in Detroit STUDENTS WAITED OUTSIDE THE DOOR, MIGHT HAVE SEEMED A BIT PRESUMPTUOUS. (with Terri Lyne Carrington and Esperanza Spalding), Chicago (with Eric Revis, Ken ut Davis was game. Without hesitation, albums, Duopoly (2016) and Octopus (2018), Vandermark and Chad Taylor) and Monterey she strode to the instrument and dove both released on her Pyroclastic Records label. (with Ingrid Jensen and Tia Fuller) before cir- into an abbreviated version of a newly “When I hear her, I don’t know what’s writ- cling back to Chicago for a solo performance in Bwritten tribute to Cecil Taylor. What emerged ten and what’s being created in the moment,” Hyde Park. was a highly evocative turn that alternately said an admiring Bill Frisell, with whom she laid As the year winds down, Davis will be found her negotiating a maze of tricky inter- down two haunting tracks on Duopoly, “Prairie expanding her Pyroclastic label, which, two vals, dissecting a series of gnarly clusters and Eyes” and a free improvisation. Recalling the years after its creation, is seeking nonprofit sta- scampering cat-like across the keys. studio session, the guitarist added, “My mem- tus, as it takes on its first outside artist, pianist The piece, commissioned by The Jazz ory is that we were not to differentiate between Cory Smythe. She will also be involved in a new Gallery, was finely wrought. At the same time, the two pieces. It felt like it was the same monthly collaboration between The Jazz Gallery its cell-like structure readily allowed for extem- atmosphere.” and the School for Improvised Music, where she poraneous expansion. The result was a work Blurring the line between the notated and has been teaching for more than six years. that seemed at once fixed and fluid, occupy- the improvised has not always been foremost Meanwhile, Davis will be entering her sec- ing a nether zone between the calculated and in Davis’ mind. From her early days in Canada ond year of teaching at both The New School the spontaneous. It is a zone that Davis, 38, has through her debut album—Lifespan (2004), a and Princeton University. Glancing at the stu- made her own. sextet effort—she embraced the dual impera- dents waiting outside the door of the New The strategy has helped win her accolades, tives of comping and blowing. School rehearsal room, she reflected on their like her co-victory as Rising Star–Jazz Artist “I had to go through that phase of learning journey. in this year’s Critics Poll. And it has proved the language to discover how it was done in the “It’s [very] intense for the students,” she adaptable to a variety of formats, not least the past,” she said. “Then I had to figure out: If I said. “There’s a lot of pressure to get it together duo—her setting of choice for her most recent want to be an innovator in this music, if I want to have a life in music.” —Phillip Lutz

AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 45 RISING STAR TRUMPET, ARRANGER MICHAEL CROMMETT

AMIR By Howard Mandel ELSAFFAR DEEPER INTO EXPRESSION THE DOWNBEAT CRITICS POLL’S RECOGNITION OF TRUMPETER, COMPOSER, SANTUR PLAYER AND MAQAM SINGER AMIR ELSAFFAR AS A RISING STAR–TRUMPET AND RISING STAR–ARRANGER IS TIMELY—AND WELL DESERVED.

ot Two (New Amsterdam), his widely though, ElSaffar strikes an aesthetic one. His hailed 2017 release—recorded in ana- music demonstrates the fluidity and applica- log, released in multiple formats but bility of his insight, employing written and/ Nintended as two LPs—is his most ambitious or improvised material that absorbs, yet tran- work yet, a suite for the 17-piece Rivers of scends, classical and pop music conventions. Sound ensemble, building on his Two Rivers Jazz and Arab maqam have guided him to septet. ElSaffar is thriving as a teacher-in-res- embrace and master a more continuous flow of idence at France’s Royaumont Foundation, pitch than 12 tones to an octave, with intrigu- writing and premiering chamber works ing harmonic implications he eagerly explores. throughout Europe, but also gigging from ElSaffar’s innovations don’t dominate his Katowice, Poland (duos with saxophonist music, but flow through it. Hafez Modirzadeh), to New York City (with Caught by phone during a rare week off, he flutist Jamie Baum’s septet during Winter enthused about his new projects and focus on Jazzfest), and fronting Rivers of Sound in cit- honing compositional chops. He was appre- ies across the United States. ciative, of course, about his DownBeat wins, ElSaffar continues to advance his overar- but questioned one distinction. ching idea: that Middle Eastern music—spe- “I’m happy to receive recognition as a cifically the Iraqi maqam vocal tradition— Rising Star–Arranger, of course,” he said, “but opens vistas for jazz improvisers and indeed because I’m not arranging standards—the typ- music-makers of all ilk within a sphere of ical work of an arranger, with pre-composed sound that denies division. Highly structured material—I assume votes for me in that cate- maqam assumes a more complexly refined gory were on the basis of my ability to orga- continuum of tonality than does Western tra- nize music for ensembles of mixed instrumen- dition. Microtonality, modality, decorative tation, like Rivers of Sound and Two Rivers. gestures and free rhythmic practice across cul- I think of ‘arranging’ in that sense more as tures worldwide had led ElSaffar to hear all orchestrating. The term ‘arranger’ carries a lot as one. It’s worth noting that he’s politically of implications that don’t necessarily apply to aware (album titles like Crisis reflect this) and what I do.” trying to supplant tribalism with universal- Critics can be forgiven for difficulty differ- ism, while divisive forces roil the world, par- entiating between composing, arranging and ticularly the Middle East region, with which orchestrating in ElSaffar’s work. His themes he’s deeply connected. and counter-themes often seemlike ancient Rather than taking political stances, airs vividly voiced—on Not Two weaving

46 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 together his trumpet, voice and/or santur tinued. “The first time I heard him sing, I knew he belonged to, or recording under conduc- (hammered dulcimer), ouds, oboe, English I wanted him for ‘Song Without Words,’ which tor Daniel Barenboim with members of the horn, saxophones, strings (his sister Dena I wrote for my father after he passed away, Chicago Symphony Orchestra— but like jazz ElSaffar plays violin), piano, vibes, electric gui- based on ‘Kol Nidre,’ the Jewish prayer for our and maquam, they’re irrefutably part of him. tar, upright bass, trap drums and various forms Day of Atonement. Whenever I listen to Amir “There are so many different gradations, so of percussion. sing that, he brings me to tears.” many different ways you can play a sound that Microtonality, modality and decorative ElSaffar was surprised when asked if he gets at the emotions,” he said. “Ultimately, devices give his compositions surface sin- explicitly draws on his youthful musical expe- that’s what I’m after: how to get deeper into gularity, but ElSaffar sets up or scores elab- riences—late-’60s rock, his father’s inter- expression.” orate polyphony for individualistic partici- est in jazz and blues, his mother’s Bach and Playing trumpet, composing, leading pants, such as Jason Adasiewicz, Craig Taborn, Haydn albums, the wedding and corpo- ensembles, working with others, Amir ElSaffar Miles Okazaki, Ole Mathisen, J.D. Parran and rate dates he played in college, the r&b band is a rising star and already a brilliant one. DB Nasheet Waits in a manner uncommon, if not unknown in traditional Arab music. Moreover, Not Two is impossible to catego- rize. It flashes momentary references to spectral composition (“Iftitah”), minimalism (“Penny Explosion”), prepared piano (“Jourjina Over Three”), samba rhythms (“Hijaz 21/8”) and baroque brass (the 16-minute “Shards Of Memory/B Half Flat Fantasy”). Close listening reveals ElSaffar’s broad range, and perhaps the truth of his insight that all music is one. He recently has expanded on that realiza- tion with French-Lebanese rapper Marc Nammour (“It’s the first time I ever worked on a hip-hop project”) and electronics composer Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch (“He creates his own software and does live processing; it’s an inter- esting direction, inspiring new ideas”). ElSaffar also has written, performed and plans to record Interstices, an hour-plus piece for the Belgian contemporary music octet Ictus: “I’ve used the same musical materials I’ve been developing over the years, but no improvisation per se.” At the urging of Royaumont’s director, he’s composing a flamenco piece for an ensemble with a vocalist (“Flamenco singing is close to maqam in terms of intonation, and there’s the historical tie through the Moors”) but no guitar (“since the piece goes beyond equal temper- ament”). And he’s been caught up in writing for combined forces of Rivers of Sound and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, 27 musicians in all, commissioned by the Yale University and supported by the 2018 International Festival of Arts and Ideas. ElSaffar credits pianist Cecil Taylor, whose large ensemble he played with in the early 2000s, as his “strongest influence,” acknowl- edging that “what I write might not immediately strike someone that way.” Jamie Baum, who consulted with the trumpeter when composing her cross-cultural works on Bridges, said, “Amir has certainly come out of jazz, but not jazz only. After he played with me on In This Life, which was inspired by South Asian music, while I was writing Bridges I con- ferred with him about the confluences of that and maqam and Jewish music, about how there are common scales and ways to develop pieces from those scales. He knows a lot. “And Amir’s such a soulful guy,” she con-

AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 47 RISING STAR GUITAR © RYO MITAMURA / ECM RECORDS JAKOB BRO UNDERSTATED

The time Jakob Bro spent performing with NUANCE Paul Motian has been integral to his development.

A KEY MOMENT OF THE 2016 COPENHAGEN JAZZ FESTIVAL ARRIVED IN QUIET, BOLD AND Playing in Motian’s Electric Bebop Band in DEEP STROKES WHEN GUITARIST JAKOB BRO MET VETERAN DANISH TRUMPETER PALLE the early ’00s was a major catalyst in Bro’s musical evolution. “Playing his songs and him say- MIKKELBORG AND NORWEGIAN DRUMMER JON CHRISTENSEN, ALONGSIDE BRO’S ing that he liked my writing really set me on KINDRED SPIRIT BASSIST-ALLY, THOMAS MORGAN. some sort of path,” Bro explained. “For a while, I thought the ideas in my writing were obvious- he setting: the ancient Kastelskirken that DownBeat is even noticing is nice for me ly coming out of Paul’s things, but slowly, that church in the 17th century Kastellet for- to see.” developed into something else.” tress, an enchanting site for a group Bro is something of a reluctant guitar hero. Bro also was profoundly touched by the leg- soundT at once musing, exploratory and rev- He started on trumpet and eased into the gui- endary elasticity of Motian’s time feel, a loose, erent. The next day, the quartet took its col- tar, inspired by Jimi Hendrix, studying formally rubato relationship that has carried over to laborative songbook into the storied Rainbow at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen Bro’s trios, both with Christensen and Baron. Studio in Oslo, Norway, and the result is Bro’s and Berklee College of Music in Boston. He In that mode, he said, “You don’t have to dictate acclaimed ECM album, Returnings. counts among his influences and heroes a vari- the melodies. They can make their own life. For Bro, winner of the category Rising Star– ety of jazz instrumentalists—Louis Armstrong, me, that was a revelation. I never thought about Guitar, has been winning fans around the Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and Thelonious the fact that time is loose, because when playing world, thanks to his subtle and often dark- Monk—as well as guitar icons Pat Metheny, with Paul, it felt so natural.” ly lyrical musical voice. Guitarists can be loud, John Scofield, Jim Hall and John Abercrombie. That central link to Motian is something he fast and brash, but players such as Bro and Bill The transition from releasing his music shares with Morgan, who also played in Frisell (with whom Bro has worked and shared independently to working with ECM was a big Motian’s band and first worked with Bro in an important mentor—the late, great drum- step, he admitted: “I never listen to myself and 2009. Morgan offered that “Jakob is distin- mer Paul Motian) have waged a veritable revo- say, ‘How did I sound? Was that a good gui- guished by his sense of melody—the kind that lution of understatement and nuance. At times, tar solo?’ … Entering with ECM and Manfred transcends genre—and blend, and his way of Bro can be a minimalist master, but he’s also a wanting me to do a guitar trio, I was thinking, setting up situations to unfold beautifully and well-rounded, uncommonly sensitive compos- ‘Can I figure out what I want to do with this?’ naturally.” er and bandleader. But I really learned a lot from that. I’m happy Bro currently is composing a choir project, At 40, Bro is no longer a newcomer, boast- that I waited so long to take that step. I felt also including Christensen, in addition to ing 14 albums—mostly on his own Loveland proud of [Gefion] as a whole, and I also thought, steady work with his trio, noting, “It took label, including Balladeering (featuring Lee ‘Wow, I didn’t even know I could play these awhile for me to find a group that I could tour Konitz, Frisell and Motian). A much higher things.’ I had always been writing sketches for and record with. Joey and Thomas helped me a public profile has resulted from his signing with Lee Konitz, who would interpret them. All of a lot in that sense, because it’s a band I enjoy, both ECM. The label previously released his album sudden, I had to interpret myself.” socially and musically.” Gefion in 2015, followed by 2016’s Streams Bro’s relatively late emergence as a leader In terms of basking in a sense of having (featuring his ongoing trio with Morgan and occurred after close, inspirational contact with “arrived,” though, the still-rising Bro abides by drummer Joey Baron). A new live trio album veterans. His ECM debut came as a sideman the creative creed of remaining open to explor- and U.S. tour are scheduled for later this year. with Motian on 2005’s Garden Of Eden, leading and evolving. “I’m still working,” he insist- The soft-spoken Dane humbly said, “I’m ing to a gig with Polish trumpet legend Tomasz ed. “I’m still thinking about what I want to do.” still far away from the U.S., somehow. The fact Stanko, appearing on 2009’s Dark Eyes (ECM). —Josef Woodard

48 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 RISING STAR House (Davis, guitarist Mary Halvorson, bass-

TENOR ©CAROLINE MARDOK ist John Hébert, drummer Tom Rainey) and the SAXOPHONE Ingrid Laubrock Octet (Halvorson, Rainey, pianist Liam Noble, bassist Drew Gress, cellist Ben Davis, accordionist Ted Reichman, trumpeter Tom Arthurs). “As I was new in New York and it takes time to become part of a scene, I suddenly had more time than I ever had before as an adult,” she recalled of her early years in the Big Apple. “That gave me headspace to think about what I did and what I did not want to do. Composing filled those periods.” In addition to Davis, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, bassist Stephan Crump (who appears with her and pianist Cory Smythe on the 2017 Intakt release Planktonic Finales) and her hus- band, Rainey (whom she married in 2010), the saxophonist considers Halvorson to be an essential musical ally. “Mary is one of the first musicians I played with in New York, and I am very grateful for that connection, not only as a musician but also Ingrid Laubrock, who was born in Germany, now is based in Brooklyn. as my friend,” Laubrock said. “I had heard of her when living in London, but first listened to her play live with [drummer] Tomas Fujiwara’s The Hook Up at Barbès in Brooklyn. I was immediately impressed by her unique way of playing. Her compositions are just as true, personal and creative as her playing. Also, Mary introduced me to Anthony Braxton, who has been the most INGRID life-changing musician I have met. So, I owe her big-time for that.” [Laubrock was part of Braxton’s Diamond Curtain Wall ensemble and his Falling River Music Quartet.] Rainey and Laubrock—who met in the U.K. at the 2004 Cheltenham Jazz Festival—have an LAUBROCK ongoing duo that highlights their conversation- al exchanges in a purely improvised setting. Their TRUE IMPROVISER, third duet recording, Buoyancy, was released in 2016 on the Relative Pitch label. “Ingrid is rare in the sense that she is a true SERIOUS COMPOSER improviser, as well as a serious composer,” Rainey said, “meaning she doesn’t just write music that AFTER 20 YEARS ON THE LONDON SCENE, WHERE SHE COLLABORATED WITH is a vehicle for her to solo over. For Anti-House, she brings a unique compositional perspective, as BRAZILIAN SINGER MÔNICA VASCONCELOS AND WAS A MEMBER OF THE F-IRE well as her prowess as an improviser. And for my COLLECTIVE, SAXOPHONIST INGRID LAUBROCK MOVED TO NEW YORK IN 2009. trio and Sleepthief [their trio with pianist Noble], she brings a personal sound and spontaneity that ince settling into the Columbia Heights Laubrock, who studied in London in 1992 is completely her own. Our duo is where we can section of Brooklyn, Laubrock has been with ex-Jazz Messenger Jean Toussaint and in meet and distill everything else we’re involved in making an impact on the scene centered the States during the summer of 1998 with Dave musically to a very direct improvisational place.” aroundS cutting-edge Brooklyn venues like The Liebman, described herself as a reluctant com- Next up for Laubrock is Pieces For Orchestra Owl Music Parlor, LunÀtico and Roulette, as well poser. “I didn’t start until I was 27 or 28 years old,” With Soloists, an Intakt album slated for release as John Zorn’s Manhattan performance space, explained the native of Stadtlohn, Germany. “In in November. Pieces includes two commissioned The Stone. retrospect, I think that I was nervous about the works: Vogelfrei, which was premiered in 2014 “Moving to New York was an important finality of putting something down on paper and at Roulette by Braxton’s Tri-Centric Orchestra, step,” said Laubrock, who topped the catego- saying, ‘This is me.’ Then the bug bit and I real- and Contemporary Chaos Practices, which was ry Rising Star–Tenor Saxophone in this year’s ized that, like with everything else, you only get premiered at the 2017 Moers Festival by the Critics Poll. “There are so many amazing musi- better by doing it.” Cologne-based EOS Chamber Orchestra. cians here, and especially as a composer, I feel I Her composing skills blossomed in New “[Because] the project involves 47 musicians, can pretty much write anything and find open- York through her groups Paradoxical Trio (pia- I count myself lucky to have been able to docu- minded and great musicians to realize it.” nist Kris Davis, drummer Tyshawn Sorey), Anti- ment both works,” she said. —Bill Milkowski

AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 49 PIANO ©PAUL NATKIN/PHOTO RESERVE, INC

Geri Allen (1957–2017) topped the Piano category in the Critics Poll. GERI ALLEN COURAGEOUS EXPLORER PIANIST GERI ALLEN’S DEATH—FROM CANCER COMPLICATIONS AT AGE 60 ON JUNE 27, 2017—ELICITED AN OUTPOURING OF TRIBUTES, FROM JAZZ ELDERS, HER PEERS AND YOUNGER MUSICIANS SHE TOUCHED. VOTERS IN THIS YEAR’S CRITICS POLL CHOSE TO SHOW THEIR APPRECIATION AS WELL.

Michigan native who became one of the keyboard and brought a purity of intent, the first to graduate from Howard focus and fierce determination to the music University with a bachelor of arts she played.” degreeA in jazz studies, Allen turned heads Lloyd was one of many established players immediately when she moved to New York who recruited Allen to contribute to their City in 1982. recordings and live performances. With one “She was the one who pulled together all of these elders, Ornette Coleman, Allen made of the histories, from Mary Lou Williams and history, becoming the first keyboardist to work Erroll Garner to Cecil Taylor and M-Base,” with the iconoclastic altoist in the 48 years pianist Jason Moran wrote in a tribute to her. since he had formed his first quartet in 1958. “She made the newest language on the piano.” Recordings like the two volumes of Sound It was as a member of The M-Base Museum she made with Coleman in 1996 Collective—the loose assemblage that cemented her reputation as a fierce improviser includes saxophonist Steve Coleman—that who never settled for predictability. Allen first gained prominence with her lan- Allen began to build an academic career in guage, drawing comparisons to Williams for her forties, serving on the faculty of Howard her stylistic breadth. University, New England Conservatory and Speaking to pianist and jazz journalist Bill University of Michigan, where she taught King in 1995, Allen said: “[Williams] said for 10 years. In 2013, she became director she was playing bebop when Charlie Parker of the jazz studies program at University of was still in short pants. She lived through Pittsburgh, a position she held until her death. the ‘Fatha’ Hines years and the transition of Summarizing Allen’s contributions, the Harlem piano players from [Art] Tatum to Bud veteran author, educator and social rights [Powell]. … In her day, everybody wanted to leader Angela Davis wrote: “[Her] music will talk to her; she had all the answers.” always remind us that we do not have to relin- “Geri Allen was all music,” saxophonist quish our cultural anchors in order to engage Charles Lloyd wrote in tribute. “She tran- in courageous explorations. Her brilliance will scended labels and gender. She was a poet on inspire generations to come.” —James Hale

50 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 COMPOSER MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS ©PAUL NATKIN/PHOTO PURSUING EVERY DIRECTION PIANIST MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS—WHO DIED OCT. 29 AT AGE 87—NEITHER RELEASED NOR RECORDED AN ALBUM DURING THE FINAL YEAR OF HIS LIFE. Muhal Richard Abrams (1930–2017) sound-painted with a capacious palette.

ut the impact of Abrams’ genre-transcending music, documented on System of Musical Composition. “Schillinger analyzed music as raw mate- more than 30 albums, is remarkably widespread, as implied by his rial, and learning the possibilities gave you an analytical basis to create any- posthumous win in the DownBeat Critics Poll Composer category. thing you want,” Abrams said in 2010, upon his induction in the DownBeat BMarty Ehrlich, who played woodwinds on four Abrams albums and Hall of Fame. “But I am the sum product of studying many things.” recruited the pianist to participate on two of his own projects, elaborated In 1961, Abrams established a workshop ensemble, the Experimental on the composer: “Muhal wrote really challenging music, and you came to Band, into which he recruited local aspirants like Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph it with a lot of hats. You’d be playing some structurally unique chromatic Jarman, Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, Jack DeJohnette and Malachi world you’d never quite heard before, followed by a slow Chicago blues, fol- Favors. In 1965, he co-founded the Association for the Advancement of lowed by an uptempo, open, bebop-oriented thing … .” Creative Musicians, in which members could operate within a collabora- Indeed, Abrams sound-painted with a capacious palette. His pianistic tive infrastructure while developing ideas. Next-generation avatars Steve voice referenced ragtime, stride and Serialism. His legacy includes works Coleman and Greg Osby drew deeply from Abrams’ well of knowledge. for piano solos and duos, small combos, string quartets, saxophone quar- They connected him to eminent Millennials and post-Boomers like Jason tets, big bands and symphonic orchestras, as well as computer music. Moran, Vijay Iyer, Craig Taborn, Tyshawn Sorey and David Virelles. Born and raised in Chicago, Abrams deserved, as Ehrlich put it, “the In a 2009 interview, Abrams said, “I helped inspire other people Nobel Prize for DIY.” Self-taught on his instrument, he studied scores, prac- to be themselves from my example: ‘I am going to be myself; you have ticed classical piano pieces and assimilated Joseph Schillinger’s massive the opportunity to be yourself.’” —Ted Panken

AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 51 We are proud to present the results of COMPLETE the 66th Annual DownBeat International Critics Poll, which includes Jazz Album of the Year (page 30) and Historical RESULTS Album of the Year (page 38).

Benny Golson ...... 91 Jack DeJohnette ...... 84

Anthony Braxton ...... 71 ANNA WEBBER John McLaughlin ...... 63 Jon Hendricks ...... 60 Pharoah Sanders ...... 60 George Benson ...... 59 Marian McPartland...... 55 Charles Lloyd ...... 54 Bob Brookmeyer ...... 52 Shirley Horn ...... 52 Kenny Barron ...... 46 Dave Holland ...... 42 Oliver Nelson ...... 41 Sam Rivers ...... 41 Kenny Burrell ...... 40 George Russell ...... 40 Jaki Byard ...... 39 Mel Tormé ...... 36

Kurt Elling, winner of the Male Vocalist category

Marian McPartland ...... 70% Tyshawn Sorey, Verisimilitude Kamasi Washington, Harmony Of Note: Artists must receive at least (Pi) ...... 33 +PɈLYLUJL (Young Turks) ...... 25 66% of the Veterans Committee Cécile McLorin Salvant, Dreams Julian Lage, Modern Lore Bill Frisell & Thomas Morgan, votes to gain entry. Other artists And Daggers (Mack Avenue) . 62 (Mack Avenue) ...... 31 Small Town (ECM) ...... 24 receiving more than 50% of the Anat Cohen Tentet, Happy Song Roscoe Mitchell, Bells For The Linda May Han Oh, Walk Against votes: (Anzic) ...... 61 South Side (ECM) ...... 29 Wind (Biophilia) ...... 23 Scott LaFaro...... 58% Charles Lloyd New Quartet, Mary Halvorson, Code Girl Louis Hayes, Serenade For Les Paul...... 55% Passin’ Thru (Blue Note)...... 59 (Firehouse 12) ...... 28 (Blue Note) ...... 22 DeJohnette/Grenadier/Medeski/ Horace Vijay Iyer Sextet, Far From Over Jamie Saft, Solo A Genova Scoﬁeld, Hudson (Motéma) ..... 56 (ECM) ...... 28 Ambrose Akinmusire, A Rift In (RareNoise) ...... 21 Vijay Iyer ...... 80 Amir ElSaffar/Rivers Of Sound, Decorum (Blue Note) ...... 46 Wadada Leo Smith, Najwa Not Two (New Amsterdam) ...... 27 Anat Cohen ...... 68 Matt Wilson, Honey And Salt (Tum) ...... 21 Jazzmeia Horn, A Social Call Ambrose Akinmusire ...... 65 (Palmetto) ...... 44 Joshua Abrams, Simultonality (Prestige) ...... 27 Charles Lloyd ...... 61 Jaimie Branch, Fly Or Die (Eremite) ...... 20 Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Mary Halvorson ...... 59 (International Anthem) ...... 42 Fabian Almazan & Rhizome, Diaspora (Ropeadope/Stretch) 27 Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah 59 Fred Hersch, Open Book Alcanza (Biophilia) ...... 20 Wadada Leo Smith ...... 59 (Palmetto) ...... 37 Esperanza Spalding, Exposure Chris Potter, The Dreamer Is The Fred Hersch...... 56 Bill Charlap Trio, Uptown, (Concord)...... 27 Dream (ECM) ...... 20 Esperanza Spalding ...... 53 Downtown (Impulse!) ...... 36 Nicole Mitchell, Mandorla Regina Carter, Ella: Accentuate Awakening II: Emerging Worlds Terri Lyne Carrington ...... 51 Chick Corea, The Musician The Positive (OKeh) ...... 19 Chick Corea ...... 49 (Concord)...... 35 (FPE) ...... 26 Kurt Elling, The Questions Cécile McLorin Salvant ...... 49 Ron Miles, I Am A Man Lizz Wright, Grace (Concord) ...26 (OKeh) ...... 18 John McLaughlin ...... 48 (Enja/Yellowbird) ...... 35 The Bad Plus, Never Stop II Eddie Palmieri, Sabiduria (Legbreaker) ...... 25 Kamasi Washington ...... 48 Steve Coleman’s Natal Eclipse, (Ropeadope)...... 18 Christian McBride ...... 47 Morphogenesis (Pi) ...... 34 Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Jason Moran ...... 43 John Beasley, MONK’estra, Vol. 2 The Emancipation Procrastination Roscoe Mitchell ...... 42 (Mack Avenue) ...... 33 (Ropeadope/Stretch) ...... 25 Bill Frisell ...... 41 Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Wadada Leo Smith, Solo: Miles Davis & John Coltrane, The Robert Glasper ...... 40 Coalition, Agrima 9LÅLJ[PVUZ(UK4LKP[H[PVUZ6U Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Henry Threadgill ...... 39 (Self Release) ...... 33 Monk (Tum) ...... 25 Vol. 6 (Columbia/Legacy) ...... 195

52 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 Thelonious Monk, Les Liaisons Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet ... 46 Maria Schneider won the Arranger category, Dangereuses 1960 (SAM) ...... 117 Steve Coleman & and the Maria Schneider Orchestra won the Big Band category. Bill Evans, Another Time: Five Elements ...... 45 The Hilversum Concert Snarky Puppy ...... 43 WHIT LANE (Resonance) ...... 106 The Cookers ...... 40 Alice Coltrane, World Spirituality Keith Jarrett Standards Trio ..... 40 Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas’ Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda Sound Prints Quintet...... 40 (Luaka Bop) ...... 102 Brian Blade & The Fellowship Sonny Rollins, Way Out Band ...... 39 West–Deluxe Edition (Craft) ..... 75 Miguel Zenón Quartet ...... 37 Ornette Coleman, Ornette At Dave Holland Quintet ...... 36 12/Crisis Wadada Leo Smith (Impulse/Real Gone/UMG) ...... 69 Golden Quintet ...... 33 Jaco Pastorius, Truth, Liberty & Wayne Shorter Quartet ...... 32 Soul (Resonance) ...... 64 Sonny Clark Trio, The 1960 Time Sessions Maria Schneider Orchestra... 149 (Tompkins Square) ...... 53 Darcy James Argue’s Secret Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack Society ...... 108 DeJohnette, After The Fall Jazz at Lincoln Center (ECM) ...... 51 Orchestra...... 102 Thelonious Monk with John Christian McBride Big Band .... 91 Coltrane, The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings (Craft) .... 51 Carla Bley with Charlie Haden’s Wes Montgomery, In Paris Liberation Music Orchestra ..... 80 (Resonance) ...... 46 Sun Ra Arkestra ...... 76 Albert Ayler, Copenhagen Live John Hollenbeck Large 1964 (hatOLOGY) ...... 44 Ensemble ...... 69 Anthony Braxton, Sextet (Parker) Michael Formanek 1993 (Firehouse 12) ...... 37 Ensemble Kolossus ...... 51 Art Pepper, West Coast Sessions, Satoko Fujii Orchestra ...... 47 Vol. 6: Shelly Manne Steven Bernstein Millennial (Omnivore) ...... 36 Territory Orchestra ...... 42 Sun Ra, Of Abstract Dreams Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro-Latin Tony Malaby ...... 30 (Strut) ...... 31 Jazz Orchestra ...... 41 Donny McCaslin ...... 30 Bob Dylan, Trouble No More: The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra ...... 41 Wycliffe Gordon ...... 111 John Butcher ...... 26 Bootleg Series Vol. 13, 1979–1981 Orrin Evans’ Captain Black Roswell Rudd ...... 107 Joshua Redman ...... 26 (Columbia/Legacy) ...... 30 Big Band ...... 39 Steve Turre ...... 102 Kenny Garrett ...... 24 Oscar Pettiford, New York City Mingus Big Band ...... 39 Ryan Keberle ...... 86 Christine Jensen ...... 24 1955–1958 (Uptown) ...... 29 Clayton–Hamilton Jazz Robin Eubanks ...... 76 Eddie Daniels & Roger Kellaway, Orchestra...... 37 Michael Dease ...... 70 Just Friends (Resonance) ...... 27 Ryan Truesdell Gil Evans Conrad Herwig ...... 61 Lester Bowie, Numbers 1 & 2 Project ...... 29 Trombone Shorty ...... 59 Rudresh Mahanthappa ...... 171 (Nessa) ...... 25 Rob Mazurek Exploding Ray Anderson ...... 53 Miguel Zenón ...... 109 Myra Melford, Alive In The House Star Orchestra ...... 27 Ku-umba Frank Lacy ...... 47 Kenny Garrett ...... 88 Of Saints (hatOLOGY) ...... 25 NDR Big Band ...... 27 George Lewis ...... 44 Jon Irabagon ...... 85 Jimi Hendrix, Both Sides Of DIVA Jazz Orchestra ...... 26 Steve Davis ...... 43 Steve Coleman ...... 80 The Sky (Legacy) ...... 19 Christine Jensen Jazz Marshall Gilkes ...... 42 Steve Lehman ...... 66 Isaac Hayes, The Spirit Of Orchestra...... 26 Curtis Fowlkes ...... 39 Tia Fuller ...... 61 Memphis 1962–1976 Delfeayo Marsalis ...... 34 Lee Konitz ...... 56 (Craft Recordings) ...... 18 Steve Swell...... 32 Donald Harrison ...... 48 Jay Clayton and Fred Hersch, Ambrose Akinmusire ...... 147 Jeb Bishop ...... 29 Henry Threadgill ...... 47 Beautiful Love (Sunnyside) ...... 17 Ingrid Jensen ...... 109 Curtis Fuller ...... 29 Anthony Braxton ...... 45 Dave Liebman/Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas ...... 94 Vincent Gardner ...... 29 Bobby Watson ...... 45 Compassion: The Music Of Wadada Leo Smith ...... 87 Joe Fiedler ...... 28 Sherman Irby ...... 39 John Coltrane (Resonance) ..... 17 Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah .. 85 John Zorn ...... 38 Pharoah Sanders, Deaf Dumb Ron Miles ...... 66 Tim Berne ...... 36 Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun) David Binney ...... 35 Tom Harrell ...... 62 Jane Ira Bloom ...... 238 (Anthology/Verve Records) ...... 17 Paquito D’Rivera ...... 35 Wynton Marsalis ...... 57 Wayne Shorter ...... 120 Steve Wilson ...... 33 Kirk Knuffke ...... 56 Dave Liebman ...... 114 Darius Jones ...... 32 Terence Blanchard ...... 53 Jane Bunnett ...... 108 Jaleel Shaw ...... 31 Vijay Iyer Sextet ...... 69 Avishai Cohen ...... 49 Anat Cohen ...... 91 Fred Hersch Trio ...... 67 Marquis Hill ...... 46 Sam Newsome ...... 89 Charles Lloyd & The Marvels ... 66 Nicholas Payton ...... 46 Branford Marsalis ...... 84 Matt Wilson’s Honey and Salt.. 51 Steven Bernstein ...... 45 Steve Wilson ...... 72 Charles Lloyd ...... 146 The Bad Plus ...... 50 Sean Jones ...... 39 Ravi Coltrane ...... 65 Joe Lovano ...... 134 Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Brian Lynch ...... 36 Evan Parker ...... 56 Chris Potter ...... 100 Indo-Pak Coalition ...... 50 Roy Hargrove ...... 34 Chris Potter ...... 45 Kamasi Washington ...... 66 Jane Bunnett & Maqueque ...... 47 Wallace Roney ...... 33 Tia Fuller ...... 44 Noah Preminger ...... 63 Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom .47 Jeremy Pelt ...... 31 Ingrid Laubrock ...... 44 JD Allen ...... 60 Henry Threadgill Zooid ...... 47 Ralph Alessi ...... 29 Roscoe Mitchell ...... 44 Donny McCaslin ...... 60

AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 53 MATHIEU BITTON STEVEN SUSSMAN

Robert Glasper, winner of the Keyboard category Rudresh Mahanthappa, winner of the Alto Saxophone category

Joshua Redman ...... 59 Eddie Daniels ...... 76 Steve Wilson ...... 23 Matthew Shipp ...... 31 Branford Marsalis ...... 54 Don Byron ...... 73 Kali. Z. Fasteau ...... 20 Kris Bowers ...... 30 Wayne Shorter ...... 51 Ben Goldberg ...... 73 Henry Butler ...... 30 Melissa Aldana ...... 49 Paquito D’Rivera ...... 72 Jim Baker ...... 29 David Murray ...... 43 Marty Ehrlich ...... 71 Django Bates...... 27 Geri Allen...... 128 James Carter ...... 42 Evan Christopher ...... 68 Wayne Horvitz ...... 27 Kenny Barron ...... 116 Jimmy Heath ...... 42 Victor Goines ...... 35 Geoffrey Keezer ...... 25 Fred Hersch...... 108 Houston Person ...... 39 David Krakauer ...... 31 Kris Davis ...... 90 Mark Turner ...... 39 Jeff Lederer ...... 31 Vijay Iyer ...... 82 Eric Alexander ...... 37 Jason Stein ...... 30 Craig Taborn ...... 70 Dr. Lonnie Smith ...... 229 Walter Smith III ...... 30 Ab Baars...... 29 Jason Moran ...... 65 Joey DeFrancesco ...... 226 Evan Parker ...... 29 Michael Moore ...... 28 Brad Mehldau ...... 62 Larry Goldings ...... 102 Pharoah Sanders ...... 27 Ken Vandermark ...... 26 Chick Corea ...... 53 John Medeski ...... 100 Oscar Noriega ...... 23 Herbie Hancock ...... 47 Brian Charette ...... 66 Ned Rothenberg ...... 22 Bill Charlap ...... 44 Mike LeDonne ...... 59 Gary Smulyan ...... 179 Louis Sclavis ...... 22 Satoko Fujii ...... 42 Carla Bley ...... 54 James Carter ...... 170 Chris Speed ...... 19 Keith Jarrett ...... 42 Amina Claudine Myers ...... 52 Claire Daly ...... 115 Oran Etkin ...... 18 Matthew Shipp ...... 38 Booker T. Jones ...... 50 Mats Gustafsson ...... 99 Myra Melford ...... 37 Barbara Dennerlein ...... 44 Scott Robinson ...... 94 George Cables ...... 34 Jamie Saft ...... 42 Brian Landrus ...... 89 Nicole Mitchell ...... 281 Cecil Taylor ...... 34 Craig Taborn ...... 42 Ronnie Cuber ...... 83 Jamie Baum ...... 119 Ahmad Jamal ...... 30 Jared Gold...... 39 Colin Stetson ...... 60 Jane Bunnett ...... 109 Henry Butler ...... 29 Gary Versace ...... 37 John Surman ...... 56 Charles Lloyd ...... 109 Dick Hyman ...... 28 Wil Blades ...... 33 Tim Berne ...... 53 Henry Threadgill ...... 81 Greg Lewis ...... 33 Hamiet Bluiett...... 53 Hubert Laws ...... 67 Rhoda Scott ...... 31 Ken Vandermark ...... 48 Pat Bianchi ...... 29 Elena Pinderhughes ...... 63 Robert Glasper ...... 137 Dave Rempis ...... 41 Matthew Shipp ...... 27 Holly Hofmann ...... 55 Craig Taborn ...... 132 Patience Higgins ...... 32 Wayne Horvitz ...... 21 Roscoe Mitchell ...... 51 Herbie Hancock ...... 125 Vinny Golia ...... 26 Sam Yahel ...... 21 Lew Tabackin ...... 48 Chick Corea ...... 123 Roger Lewis ...... 25 Dave Liebman ...... 43 Marc Cary ...... 80 Howard Johnson ...... 22 Tia Fuller ...... 32 Jamie Saft ...... 80 Lisa Parrott ...... 17 Anne Drummond ...... 31 John Medeski ...... 74 Mary Halvorson ...... 190 Charles Evans ...... 16 Ali Ryerson ...... 31 Larry Goldings ...... 69 Bill Frisell ...... 168 Chris Cheek...... 14 Robert Dick ...... 30 Uri Caine ...... 68 Julian Lage ...... 126 James Newton ...... 29 Nik Bärtsch...... 54 Nels Cline ...... 112 T.K. Blue ...... 28 Jason Lindner ...... 54 John Abercrombie...... 72 Anat Cohen ...... 363 Marty Ehrlich ...... 26 Gary Versace ...... 45 John McLaughlin ...... 71 Ken Peplowski ...... 92 Ted Nash ...... 26 George Colligan ...... 40 John Scoﬁeld ...... 71

54 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 Peter Bernstein ...... 53 John Patitucci ...... 30 Didier Lockwood ...... 43 Russell Malone ...... 50 Mark Dresser ...... 29 Charles Burnham ...... 36 Rez Abbasi ...... 48 Christian Howes ...... 36 Hamid Drake ...... 98 Lionel Loueke ...... 45 Carla Kihlstedt ...... 35 Zakir Hussain ...... 97 Dave Stryker ...... 45 Mat Maneri ...... 34 Pedrito Martinez ...... 94 Steve Swallow ...... 126 Pat Metheny ...... 44 Mark O’Connor ...... 30 Cyro Baptista ...... 89 Esperanza Spalding ...... 100 Kahil El’Zabar ...... 88 Howard Alden ...... 42 Miri Ben-Ari ...... 25 Stanley Clarke ...... 97 Dan Weiss ...... 72 Gilad Hekselman ...... 31 John Blake ...... 24 Thundercat ...... 93 Sheila E ...... 64 Marc Ribot...... 31 Carlos Zingaro ...... 19 Marcus Miller ...... 79 Poncho Sanchez ...... 58 Kurt Rosenwinkel ...... 28 Andy Stein ...... 17 Matthew Garrison ...... 76 Bobby Sanabria ...... 56 Charlie Hunter ...... 23 Mads Tolling ...... 17 Christian McBride ...... 69 Susie Ibarra ...... 55 Pat Martino ...... 23 Naoko Terai ...... 15 Linda May Han Oh ...... 66 Adam Rudolph ...... 40 Kevin Eubanks ...... 22 Derrick Hodge ...... 63 Giovanni Hidalgo ...... 39 Mike Stern ...... 21 Meshell Ndegeocello ...... 60 Han Bennink ...... 37 Richard Bona ...... 58 Jack DeJohnette ...... 154 Mino Cinelu ...... 36 John Patitucci ...... 55 Brian Blade ...... 115 Jerry Gonzalez ...... 36 Christian McBride ...... 186 Jamaaladeen Tacuma ...... 55 Matt Wilson ...... 98 Sameer Gupta ...... 36 Dave Holland ...... 128 Ingebrigt Håker Flaten ...... 49 Tyshawn Sorey ...... 87 Trilok Gurtu ...... 34 Linda May Han Oh ...... 128 Victor Wooten ...... 45 Terri Lyne Carrington ...... 72 Airto Moreira...... 33 Ron Carter ...... 109 James Genus ...... 41 Roy Haynes ...... 62 Ches Smith ...... 31 Stephan Crump ...... 70 Tim Lefebvre ...... 39 Billy Hart ...... 60 Alex Cline ...... 28 Esperanza Spalding ...... 69 Tony Levin ...... 36 Gerald Cleaver ...... 55 Michael Formanek ...... 45 Tarus Mateen...... 36 Jeff “Tain” Watts ...... 48 Charnett Moffett ...... 32 Eric Revis ...... 45 Andrew Cyrille ...... 47 Stefon Harris ...... 208 Drew Gress...... 44 Hamid Drake ...... 46 Warren Wolf ...... 170 Stanley Clarke ...... 42 Joey Baron ...... 45 Joe Locke ...... 124 Scott Colley ...... 42 Regina Carter ...... 297 Herlin Riley ...... 45 Steve Nelson ...... 124 William Parker ...... 40 Jenny Scheinman ...... 191 Mark Guiliana ...... 44 Jason Adasiewicz ...... 116 Ben Williams...... 40 Mark Feldman ...... 111 Eric Harland...... 44 Gary Burton ...... 106 Avishai Cohen ...... 37 Jason Kao Hwang ...... 64 Willie Jones III ...... 44 Chris Dingman ...... 61 Victor Wooten ...... 37 Zach Brock ...... 60 Marcus Gilmore ...... 43 Mulatu Astatke ...... 57 Ben Allison ...... 34 Sara Caswell ...... 60 Nasheet Waits ...... 40 Kenny Wollesen...... 47 Gary Peacock...... 33 Eyvind Kang ...... 60 Cindy Blackman Santana ...... 33 Karl Berger ...... 45 Reggie Workman...... 33 Jean-Luc Ponty ...... 56 Lewis Nash ...... 32 Jason Marsalis ...... 43

AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 55 JAY BLAKESBERG ELIZABETH LEITZELL

Stefon Harris, winner of the Vibraphone category Taj Mahal (left) and Keb’ Mo’ won the Blues Album category.

Terry Gibbs ...... 41 Kate McGarry ...... 55 Wadada Leo Smith ...... 64 Matt Moran ...... 29 Catherine Russell ...... 55 Vijay Iyer ...... 62 Steve Hobbs ...... 24 Cassandra Wilson ...... 54 Mary Halvorson ...... 60 ECM ...... 197 Mike Mainieri ...... 22 Cyrille Aimée ...... 44 Christian Scott Pi Recordings ...... 115 Blue Note ...... 102 Joe Dyson ...... 19 Fay Victor ...... 44 aTunde Adjuah ...... 52 Motéma ...... 89 Warren Smith ...... 19 Jen Shyu ...... 40 Henry Threadgill ...... 51 Mack Avenue ...... 85 Hendrik Meurkens ...... 18 Becca Stevens ...... 40 Steve Coleman ...... 49 Clean Feed ...... 71 Orphy Robinson ...... 17 René Marie ...... 39 Chick Corea ...... 48 Resonance ...... 60 Joe Chambers ...... 15 Luciana Souza...... 35 Terence Blanchard ...... 47 John Herndon ...... 15 Diana Krall ...... 34 Sunnyside ...... 55 Tom Harrell ...... 46 Mosaic ...... 46 Diamanda Galas ...... 32 John Zorn ...... 45 Carmen Lundy ...... 32 Concord ...... 44 John Hollenbeck ...... 44 HighNote ...... 40 Tierney Sutton ...... 32 Akua Dixon (cello) ...... 86 Satoko Fujii ...... 40 Impulse! ...... 36 Roberta Gambarini ...... 31 Béla Fleck (banjo) ...... 83 Wynton Marsalis ...... 40 ACT ...... 35 Stacey Kent ...... 28 Anouar Brahem (oud) ...... 77 Wayne Shorter ...... 38 Intakt ...... 34 Edmar Castaneda Rudresh Mahanthappa ...... 37 Ropeadope ...... 34 (Colombian harp)...... 71 Bill Frisell ...... 33 RareNoise ...... 32 Scott Robinson Kurt Elling ...... 258 Cuneiform...... 30 (bass saxophone) ...... 67 Gregory Porter ...... 201 Greenleaf Music ...... 30 Gary Versace (accordion) ...... 64 Theo Bleckmann ...... 129 International Anthem...... 30 Maria Schneider ...... 128 Chris Potter (bass clarinet) ...... 63 Giacomo Gates ...... 77 Smoke Sessions Records ...... 29 Carla Bley ...... 90 Erik Friedlander (cello)...... 58 Tony Bennett ...... 65 Criss Cross Jazz ...... 28 Grégoire Maret (harmonica) ..... 54 Jon Hendricks ...... 65 Darcy James Argue ...... 87 Nonesuch ...... 28 Ikue Mori (laptop) ...... 52 José James ...... 64 Steven Bernstein ...... 80 Columbia Legacy ...... 26 Toumani Diabaté (kora) ...... 43 Bobby McFerrin ...... 46 John Hollenbeck ...... 69 ArtistShare ...... 25 Chris Thile (mandolin) ...... 43 Andy Bey ...... 45 Billy Childs...... 68 OKeh ...... 25 Jon Batiste (melodica/ Kevin Mahogany ...... 45 Terri Lyne Carrington ...... 65 Posi-Tone ...... 20 harmonaboard) ...... 42 Freddy Cole ...... 41 Muhal Richard Abrams ...... 54 David Murray (bass clarinet) .... 42 John Pizzarelli ...... 34 Jim McNeely ...... 46 John Beasley ...... 45 Hendrik Meurkens (harmonica) 41 Bob Dorough ...... 33 Manfred Eicher ...... 188 Pat Metheny (orchestrion) ...... 38 Kenny Washington ...... 33 John Clayton ...... 41 Michael Cuscuna ...... 95 Steve Turre (shells) ...... 37 Allan Harris ...... 32 Robert Glasper ...... 41 Terri Lyne Carrington ...... 93 James Carter (bass saxophone) 36 Jamie Cullum ...... 29 Vince Mendoza ...... 40 Zev Feldman ...... 91 Richard Galliano (accordion) .... 34 Ed Reed...... 27 Wynton Marsalis ...... 39 Don Was ...... 74 Wycliffe Gordon (tuba) ...... 34 Jaap Blonk ...... 25 Christian McBride ...... 37 Dave Douglas ...... 70 John Boutté ...... 23 Arturo O’Farrill ...... 36 John Zorn ...... 68 Johnny O’Neal ...... 23 Ryan Truesdell ...... 32 Todd Barkan ...... 50 Cécile McLorin Salvant ...... 282 Satoko Fujii ...... 30 Brian Bacchus ...... 45 Lizz Wright ...... 79 Bill Holman ...... 24 Christian McBride ...... 45 Sheila Jordan ...... 69 Muhal Richard Abrams ...... 111 Gil Goldstein...... 23 Larry Klein ...... 44 Esperanza Spalding ...... 62 Maria Schneider ...... 107 Christine Jensen ...... 22 Bill Laswell ...... 41 Dee Dee Bridgewater ...... 57 Carla Bley ...... 85 Evan Parker ...... 22 Marc Free ...... 39 Dianne Reeves ...... 57 Darcy James Argue ...... 74 Esperanza Spalding ...... 20 Robert Glasper ...... 34

56 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 Joe Fields ...... 32 North Mississippi Allstars, Mighty Joe Young, Live From Mavis Staples, If All I Was Was Al Pryor ...... 30 Prayer For Peace (Legacy) ...... 59 The North Side Of Chicago Black (Anti-) ...... 85 Branford Marsalis ...... 24 Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters, (Rock Beat) ...... 11 Bettye LaVette, Things Have François Zalacain ...... 22 The Luckiest Man (Stony Plain) .. 55 Changed (Verve) ...... 75 Steve Wagner ...... 20 Sonny Landreth, Recorded Live David Byrne, American Utopia In Lafayette (Provogue) ...... 50 (Todomundo/Nonesuch) ...... 65 Kendrick Lamar ...... 86 Walter Trout, We’re All In This Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, The Tedeschi Trucks Band ...... 55 Together (Provogue) ...... 26 Nashville Sound (Southeastern) ...40 Bettye LaVette ...... 90 Rhiannon Giddens ...... 46 Wee Willie Walker & The Anthony Chuck Berry, Chuck (Dualtone) ..38 Gary Clark Jr...... 89 Robert Glasper Experiment ..... 45 Paule Soul Orchestra, Romero Lubambo, Sampa Buddy Guy ...... 81 Jason Isbell ...... 40 After A While (Blue Dot) ...... 26 (Sunnyside) ...... 36 Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’ ...... 61 Dr. John ...... 37 Sherman Holmes Project, Van Morrison, Roll With The Taj Mahal ...... 46 Mavis Staples ...... 35 Richmond Sessions Punches (Exile) ...... 36 Shemekia Copeland...... 43 A Tribe Called Quest ...... 33 (M.C. Records) ...... 22 Ranky Tanky, Ranky Tanky Eric Clapton ...... 38 Laurie Anderson ...... 33 Mud Morganﬁeld, They Call Me (Resilience Music Alliance)...... 35 Marcia Ball ...... 34 Lizz Wright ...... 33 Mud (Severn) ...... 22 Jay Z, 4:44 (Universal/ Robert Cray ...... 34 Richard Thompson ...... 32 Kim Wilson, Blues And Boogie, Roc Nation) ...... 31 Robben Ford ...... 33 David Byrne ...... 31 Vol. 1 (Severn) ...... 22 Ryuichi Sakamoto, Async Otis Taylor ...... 33 Flying Lotus ...... 30 Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, (Milan) ...... 31 James Blood Ulmer ...... 31 Thundercat ...... 30 Lay It On Down (Concord) ...... 21 August Greene, August Greene Corey Harris ...... 27 Anderson .Paak ...... 27 Amy Black, Memphis (Reuben) .. 19 (Austin Greene) ...... 28 Eric Bibb ...... 24 D’Angelo ...... 27 Johnny Rawls, Waiting For The Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Charlie Musselwhite ...... 23 Yo La Tango ...... 27 Train (Catfood) ...... 17 Rangers, The Long-Awaited Album Danielle Nicole ...... 22 Meshell Ndegeocello ...... 26 Melvin Sparks, Live At Nectar’s (Rounder) ...... 25 Steve Cropper ...... 18 Björk ...... 25 (One Note) ...... 17 Chris Stapleton, From a Room: Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials ... 18 Childish Gambino ...... 25 Danielle Nicole, Cry No More Volume 1 (Mercury Nashville) ... 24 Duke Robillard ...... 18 Bob Dylan...... 25 (Concord)...... 15 Yusuf/Cat Stevens, Brian Eno ...... 25 Selwyn Birchwood, Pick Your The Laughing Apple Van Morrison ...... 25 Poison (Alligator) ...... 12 (Decca/Cat-O-Log) ...... 24 Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’, TajMo Chris Cain, Chris Cain St. Vincent, Masseduction (Concord) ...... 140 (Little Village) ...... 11 (Loma Vista)...... 24 Gregg Allman, Southern Blood Corey Dennison Band, Kendrick Lamar, Damn. Various Artists, Black Panther (Rounder) ...... 84 Night After Night (Delmark) ...... 11 (Interscope/TDE) ...... 131 Soundtrack (Interscope) ...... 24 Robert Cray, Robert Cray & Hi Rick Estrin & The Nightcats, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Vince Staples, Big Fish Theory Rhythm (Jay-Vee) ...... 67 Groovin’ In Greaseland (Alligator) ...11 Soul Of A Woman (Daptone) .....90 (Def Jam) ...... 21

AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 57 FRANCK BOHBOT ELTON ANDERSON COURTESY OF ARTIST

Rhonda Larson, winner of the Jamison Ross, winner of the Rising Rising Star–Flute category Star–Male Vocalist category Scott Tixier, winner of the Rising Star–Violin category

Antonio Sanchez & Migration .. 30 Nate Wooley ...... 72 Yuval Cohen ...... 114 The Thing ...... 30 Keyon Harrold ...... 71 Michael Blake ...... 99 Willie Jones III Sextet ...... 29 Mathias Eick ...... 64 Hailey Niswanger ...... 72 Kneebody ...... 27 Freddie Hendrix...... 59 Russ Nolan ...... 46 Kris Davis ...... 87 (TIE) Thumbscrew ...... 27 Corey Wilkes ...... 48 Aurora Nealand ...... 34 Julian Lage ...... 87 (TIE) The Curtis Brothers ...... 24 John Raymond ...... 41 Jasmine Lovell-Smith ...... 32 Shabaka Hutchings ...... 78 Duchess ...... 24 Duane Eubanks ...... 35 Jason Robinson ...... 32 Orrin Evans ...... 68 Tierney Sutton Band ...... 24 Takuya Kuroda ...... 30 Steven Lugerner ...... 30 Sullivan Fortner ...... 68 Michael Rodriguez ...... 30 Ryan Whitehead ...... 23 Craig Taborn ...... 65 Josh Berman ...... 26 Audrey Welber ...... 21 Maurice Brown ...... 26 Julio Botti ...... 19 JD Allen ...... 56 John Beasley’s MONK’estra 197 Scott Wendholt ...... 26 John Wojciechowski ...... 19 Joey Alexander ...... 50 Ghost Train Orchestra ...... 71 Ian Carey ...... 25 Jürg Wickihalder ...... 18 Nicole Mitchell ...... 50 Vince Giordano’s Josh Evans ...... 25 David Bindman...... 14 Tia Fuller ...... 48 Nighthawks ...... 62 Russ Johnson ...... 23 Nathaniel Facey ...... 14 Rez Abbasi ...... 45 Ed Palermo Big Band ...... 55 Nadje Noordhuis ...... 22 Mihály Borbély ...... 13 Darcy James Argue ...... 43 Nicholas Payton The Black Gerald Clayton ...... 40 American Symphony ...... 52 Eric Harland...... 31 Joel Harrison Large Ensemble .43 David Virelles ...... 30 Karl Berger Creative Music Jacob Garchik ...... 130 Caroline Davis ...... 104 Amir ElSaffar ...... 28 Workshop Orchestra ...... 42 Samuel Blaser ...... 93 Darius Jones ...... 102 Jamison Ross ...... 27 Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra 35 Alan Ferber ...... 78 Greg Abate ...... 84 Melody Gardot ...... 25 Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra .. 33 Nick Finzer ...... 76 Greg Ward ...... 72 Gilad Hekselman ...... 25 Cecilia Coleman Big Band ...... 31 Natalie Cressman ...... 68 Sharel Cassity ...... 58 Jon Irabagon ...... 24 Chicago Afro-Latin Jazz Joe Fiedler ...... 68 Logan Richardson ...... 56 Grace Kelly ...... 24 Ensemble ...... 30 Sarah Morrow ...... 58 Tineke Postma ...... 49 Scott Robinson ...... 24 Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Chris Crenshaw ...... 50 Hailey Niswanger ...... 47 Orchestra...... 30 Jason Jackson ...... 37 Godwin Louis ...... 42 Nicholas Payton The Television Michael Dessen ...... 30 Nick Mazzarella ...... 41 Studio Orchestra ...... 29 Corey King ...... 29 Braxton Cook ...... 38 Nicole Mitchell’s Black Tommy Igoe’s Birdland Big Band ..27 Scott Whitﬁeld ...... 28 Dave Rempis ...... 38 Earth Ensemble ...... 90 Pedro Giraudo Orchestra ...... 25 Jeff Cressman ...... 27 Jessica Lurie ...... 36 Julian Lage Group ...... 76 The Dorf ...... 22 JC Sanford ...... 27 Casey Benjamin ...... 35 Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah David Berger Jazz Orchestra ... 21 Jeff Albert ...... 26 Francesco Caﬁso ...... 33 Quintet ...... 73 Diane Moser’s Composers William Carn ...... 24 Mike DiRubbo ...... 33 Myra Melford’s Snowy Egret .... 63 Big Band ...... 21 Tom Garling ...... 24 Will Vinson ...... 33 Ryan Keberle’s Catharsis ...... 62 New Standard Jazz Orchestra .18 Charlie Halloran ...... 24 Silke Eberhard ...... 31 Gerald Clayton Trio ...... 52 Beats & Pieces Big Band ...... 17 Corey Peyton ...... 23 Tim Green ...... 30 Miguel Zenón Quartet ...... 51 Maraca & His Latin Jazz All Stars ..17 Ed Partyka ...... 22 Danny Janklow ...... 29 Shabaka & The Ancestors ...... 48 Ron Westray ...... 22 Orrin Evans Trio ...... 46 Tia Fuller Quartet...... 45 Mostly Other People Amir ElSaffar ...... 133 Ingrid Laubrock ...... 135 Do the Killing ...... 43 Bria Skonberg ...... 104 Jimmy Greene ...... 156 Dayna Stephens ...... 100 Sons of Kemet ...... 37 Etienne Charles ...... 93 Roxy Coss ...... 127 Walter Smith III ...... 78 Aaron Diehl Trio ...... 36 Peter Evans ...... 92 Tineke Postma ...... 115 Marcus Strickland ...... 75

58 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 BILLY MINTZ ANNA YATSKEVICH

Behn Gillece, winner of the Rising Star–Vibraphone category Roberta Piket, winner of the Rising Star–Organ category

Ellery Eskelin ...... 71 Todd Marcus ...... 62 Taylor Eigsti ...... 50 Alexander Hawkins ...... 41 James Brandon Lewis ...... 62 Chris Byars ...... 58 Ehud Asherie ...... 47 Atsuko Hashimoto ...... 37 Mats Gustafsson ...... 60 Aurora Nealand ...... 53 George Colligan ...... 46 Kyle Koehler ...... 36 David Sánchez ...... 56 François Houle ...... 51 John Escreet ...... 41 Joe Bagg ...... 33 Ben Wendel ...... 49 Mike McGinnis ...... 48 Christian Sands ...... 41 Ben Patterson ...... 31 Bill McHenry ...... 42 James Falzone ...... 42 Alfredo Rodriguez ...... 41 Wayne Peet ...... 31 Ralph Moore...... 41 Mort Weiss ...... 42 Benoit Delbecq ...... 39 Brian Coogan ...... 27 Rahsaan Barber ...... 33 Matt Bauder ...... 41 Helen Sung ...... 38 Charlie Wood...... 27 Abraham Burton ...... 31 Gabriele Mirabassi ...... 39 Roberta Piket ...... 35 Raphael Wressnig ...... 27 Jeff Cofﬁn ...... 28 Avram Fefer ...... 36 Dan Tepfer ...... 32 Radam Schwartz...... 26 Andrew Rathbun ...... 25 Gebhard Ullmann ...... 36 Jon Cowherd ...... 29 Pete Benson ...... 23 Grant Stewart ...... 25 Harvey Wainapel ...... 36 Tigran Hamasyan ...... 29 Marius Neset ...... 22 Jeremiah Cymerman ...... 35 Stefano Bollani ...... 28 Tivon Pennicott ...... 22 Darryl Harper ...... 35 Aaron Parks ...... 28 Jakob Bro ...... 91 Jerome Sabbagh...... 22 Ted Hogarth...... 34 Jeff Parker ...... 81 Skerik ...... 22 Sam Sadigursky ...... 29 David Gilmore ...... 60 John Ellis ...... 21 Rudi Mahall ...... 25 Elio Villafranca ...... 94 Brandon Seabrook ...... 56 Marco Benevento ...... 88 Lage Lund ...... 55 Zaccai Curtis ...... 83 Matthew Stevens ...... 55 Alex Harding ...... 88 Rhonda Larson ...... 84 Kit Downes ...... 77 Camila Meza ...... 54 Gebhard Ullmann ...... 66 Orlando “Maraca” Valle...... 81 Rob Mazurek ...... 70 Miles Okazaki ...... 54 Josh Sinton ...... 64 Sylvain Leroux ...... 76 Jim Beard ...... 62 Paul Bollenback ...... 49 Roger Rosenberg ...... 63 Jorge Pardo ...... 70 Lawrence Fields ...... 61 Jonathan Kreisberg ...... 46 Frank Basile ...... 55 Magic Malik ...... 59 Bugge Wesseltoft ...... 45 Adam Rogers ...... 44 Charles Evans ...... 54 Itai Kriss ...... 50 Russ Lossing ...... 43 Sheryl Bailey ...... 42 Michaël Attias ...... 53 Steve Adams ...... 42 Henry Hey ...... 39 Joel Harrison ...... 42 Jon Raskin ...... 51 Ben Kono ...... 36 Oscar Perez ...... 26 Ava Mendoza ...... 42 Lauren Sevian ...... 44 Jean Derome ...... 31 Mamiko Watanabe ...... 26 Yotam Silberstein ...... 37 Karen Sharp ...... 43 Evan Francis ...... 29 Scott Kinsey ...... 25 Mike Moreno ...... 36 Jonah Parzen-Johnson ...... 42 Bart Platteau ...... 29 Matthew Bourne ...... 24 Fareed Haque ...... 34 Adam Schroeder ...... 38 Tom Reese ...... 28 Thomas Lehn ...... 22 Nguyên Lê ...... 30 Herwig Gradischnig ...... 35 Geni Skendo ...... 28 Adam Benjamin ...... 20 Graham Dechter ...... 27 Mikko Innanen ...... 31 Finn Peters ...... 25 Rod Williams ...... 20 Andy Brown...... 25 Linda Fredriksson ...... 29 Michel Gentile ...... 21 Sean Wayland ...... 18 Fredrik Ljungkvist ...... 28 Gareth Lockrane ...... 18 Jacob Anderskov ...... 17 Glenn Wilson ...... 28 Thomas Morgan ...... 83 Céline Bonacina ...... 27 Ben Street ...... 64 Ted Hogarth...... 25 Orrin Evans ...... 85 Roberta Piket...... 119 Dezron Douglas...... 59 Tony Lustig ...... 23 Aaron Diehl ...... 79 Greg Lewis ...... 118 Moppa Elliott ...... 59 Sullivan Fortner ...... 74 Kit Downes ...... 110 Hans Glawischnig ...... 59 Emmet Cohen ...... 67 Akiko Tsuruga ...... 91 Mimi Jones ...... 55 Matana Roberts ...... 96 Matt Mitchell ...... 57 Gerald Gibbs ...... 60 Ingebrigt Håker Flaten ...... 53 Shabaka Hutchings ...... 84 Arúan Ortiz ...... 54 Erik Deutsch ...... 57 Lisa Mezzacappa ...... 53 Dan Block ...... 64 Nik Bärtsch...... 50 Bobby Sparks ...... 42 Reuben Rogers ...... 50

AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 59 LAUREN DEUTSCH JACOB BLICKENSTAFF

Jazzmeia Horn, winner of the Rising Star–Female Vocalist category Tomeka Reid, winner of the Rising Star–Miscellaneous Instrument category

Katie Thiroux ...... 48 Karen Briggs ...... 42 Lukas Ligeti ...... 38 Cynthia Sayer (banjo) ...... 28 Martin Wind ...... 48 Nils Økland ...... 40 Tupac Mantilla ...... 33 Vincent Peirani (accordion) ...... 26 François Moutin ...... 46 Ben Powell ...... 38 Eli Fountain...... 31 Scott Robinson (theremin) ...... 26 Joshua Abrams ...... 41 Diane Monroe ...... 35 Arto Tunçboyaciyan ...... 29 Min Xiao-Fen (pipa) ...... 26 Rodney Whitaker ...... 41 Rob Thomas ...... 27 Kevin Diehl ...... 28 Joachim Badenhorst David Wong ...... 40 Ola Kvernberg ...... 26 Mingo Lewis ...... 28 (bass clarinet) ...... 25 Kyle Eastwood ...... 39 Majid Khaliq ...... 21 Brian Andres...... 26 Andrea Parkins (accordion) ...... 24 Joëlle Léandre ...... 33 Szilárd Mezei ...... 19 Nitin Mitta ...... 22 Victor Provost (steel pans) ...... 23 Matt Ulery ...... 31 Nora Germain ...... 15 Michele Rabbia ...... 20 Greg Cohen ...... 30 Matt Rhody ...... 15 Kris Funn ...... 29 Jazzmeia Horn ...... 131 Behn Gillece ...... 91 Dominique Eade ...... 78 Johnathan Blake ...... 108 Mike Dillon ...... 84 Sara Serpa ...... 67 Mimi Jones ...... 121 Obed Calvaire ...... 88 Kevin Norton ...... 68 Sara Gazarek...... 55 Stomu Takeishi ...... 117 Allison Miller ...... 75 Jim Hart ...... 63 Daymé Arocena ...... 45 Melvin Gibbs ...... 96 Willie Jones III ...... 65 Tyler Blanton ...... 49 Charenée Wade ...... 43 Felix Pastorius ...... 84 Tomas Fujiwara ...... 63 Rolando Morales-Matos ...... 44 Hilary Gardner ...... 40 Tal Wilkenfeld ...... 59 Dan Weiss ...... 54 Corey Mwamba ...... 41 Camille Bertault ...... 37 Lisa Dowling ...... 42 Justin Brown ...... 52 Kjell Nordeson ...... 40 Alicia Hall Moran ...... 36 Nate McBride ...... 38 Scott Amendola ...... 51 Christian Tamburr ...... 36 Fay Victor ...... 36 Kai Eckhardt ...... 36 Otis Brown III ...... 41 John Cocuzzi ...... 35 Kat Edmonson ...... 35 Matt Perrine...... 36 Ulysses Owens Jr...... 41 Lewis Wright...... 31 Lorraine Feather ...... 30 John Lee ...... 35 Kate Gentile...... 40 Jon Metzger ...... 27 Thana Alexa ...... 29 Chris Morrissey ...... 34 Ari Hoenig...... 38 Tom Beckham ...... 24 Buika ...... 29 James Cammack ...... 30 Dafnis Prieto ...... 36 Smith Dobson ...... 22 Sarah Elizabeth Charles ...... 29 Jeff Denson ...... 28 E.J. Strickland ...... 36 Yuhan Su ...... 22 Camila Meza ...... 29 Al McDowell ...... 26 Paal Nilsson-Love ...... 33 Christopher Dell ...... 21 Dena DeRose ...... 24 Tom Kennedy ...... 25 Jaimeo Brown ...... 32 Mike Pinto ...... 19 Reed Mathis ...... 23 Ches Smith ...... 32 Alfredo Naranjo ...... 16 Mike Pope ...... 22 Justin Faulkner ...... 31 Jamison Ross ...... 127 Chris Tarry ...... 17 Joe Farnsworth ...... 30 Leslie Odom Jr...... 100 Dominique Di Piazza ...... 16 Mike Reed ...... 30 Tomeka Reid (cello) ...... 119 Ian Shaw ...... 76 Steinar Raknes ...... 15 Brian Landrus (bass clarinet) ... 73 Jacob Collier ...... 69 Ben Goldberg (contra alto Dwight Trible ...... 60 Satoshi Takeishi ...... 77 clarinet) ...... 67 Mark Winkler ...... 49 Scott Tixier ...... 79 Harris Eisenstadt ...... 72 Peggy Lee (cello) ...... 67 Pete McGuinness ...... 44 Mary Oliver ...... 78 Manolo Badrena ...... 66 Todd Marcus (bass clarinet) .....64 João Bosco ...... 42 Tomoko Omura ...... 66 Daniel Sadownick ...... 65 Brandee Younger (harp) ...... 60 Vincent Gardner ...... 36 Aaron Weinstein ...... 61 Steve Kroon ...... 63 Casey Benjamin (vocoder) ...... 59 Milton Suggs ...... 31 Jason Anick ...... 57 Warren Smith ...... 58 Okkyung Lee (cello) ...... 55 Jeff Denson ...... 28 Sarah Bernstein ...... 48 Richie Flores...... 52 Vincent Chancey (French horn) . 48 John Proulx ...... 28 Marcus Moore ...... 48 Peter Apfelbaum ...... 50 Brandon Seabrook (banjo) ...... 42 Peter Cincotti ...... 24 Jesse Zubot ...... 46 Jon Wikan ...... 46 Helen Gillet (cello) ...... 35 Casey Abrams ...... 21 Elektra Kurtis ...... 44 Rogério Boccato ...... 45 Matt Perrine (sousaphone) ...... 29 Saalik Ahmad Ziyad ...... 20 Susie Hansen ...... 43 Guilherme Franco ...... 43 Marcus Rojas (tuba) ...... 29 Wade Schuman ...... 18

60 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2018 Jeremy Davenport ...... 17 Alan Hampton ...... 17 Frank Senior ...... 17 Grzegorz Karnas ...... 15

Tyshawn Sorey ...... 120 Nels Cline ...... 76 Christine Jensen ...... 62 JD Allen ...... 57 Nik Bärtsch ...... 54 Satoko Fujii ...... 53 Steve Lehman ...... 52 Mike Reed ...... 49 Frank Kimbrough ...... 44 Jaimeo Brown ...... 38 Claire Daly ...... 34 Miho Hazama ...... 34 Jenny Scheinman ...... 34 Yosvany Terry ...... 34 Jacob Garchik ...... 32 Amina Figarova ...... 30 Ben Goldberg ...... 28 Moppa Elliott ...... 26 Marcus Shelby ...... 24 Samuel Blaser ...... 22

Amir ElSaffar ...... 101 Nels Cline ...... 96 Miguel Zenón ...... 79 Uri Caine ...... 74 Guillermo Klein ...... 58 Dafnis Prieto ...... 56 David Weiss ...... 52 Moppa Elliott ...... 47 Peter Apfelbaum ...... 45 Leslie Pintchik ...... 39 Jacob Collier ...... 35 Ben Allison ...... 34 Miho Hazama ...... 31 Edward Simon ...... 31 Harris Eisenstadt ...... 26 Warren Wolf ...... 26 Brian Carpenter ...... 24 Mark Masters ...... 22 Anthony Wilson ...... 22 JC Sanford ...... 21

Flying Lotus ...... 76 John Hollenbeck ...... 73 Ambrose Akinmusire ...... 66 Willie Jones III ...... 59 Delfeayo Marsalis ...... 57 Taylor Ho Bynum ...... 56 Kris Davis ...... 56 Oded Lev-Ari ...... 54 Seth Rosner & Yulun Wang ...... 49 Allison Miller ...... 42 Kenny Garrett & Donald Brown...... 39 Ben Allison ...... 38 Spike Wilner & Ben Rubin ...... 37 John Corbett ...... 36 JD Allen ...... 35 Terrace Martin ...... 35 Danilo Pérez ...... 32 Lenny White ...... 26 Eric Alexander ...... 25 Pedro Costa ...... 25 Ryan Truesdell ...... 25

AUGUST 2018 DOWNBEAT 61 Below are the 142 critics who voted in DownBeat’s 66th Annual International Critics Poll and some of the publications to which they have contributed. In the poll, critics distributed up to 10 points among up to three choices (but no more than 5 points per choice) in each of two groups of categories: Established THE CRITICS Talent and Rising Stars. (Note: The asterisk [*] denotes a Veterans Committee voter.)

David R. Adler: New York New York City Jazz Record Washington Post, JazzTimes * Jim Macnie: DB Chicago Tribune City Jazz Record, JazzTimes Alain Drouot: DB Rob Hoff: WQLN-FM, JazzErie * Howard Mandel: DB, The Tom Reney: New England * Don Albert: DB Ken Dryden: New York City Eugene Holley Jr.: DB, Hot New York Times, artsjournal. Public Radio * Frank Alkyer: DB Jazz Record, Hot House, All House, Publishers Weekly, New com/jazzbeyondjazz Simon Rentner: WBGO-FM’s Larry Appelbaum: JazzTimes, About Jazz Music Box, Chamber Music * John McDonough: DB The Checkout, NPR WPFW-FM José Duarte: DB, Radio & TV C. Andrew Hovan: DB, Kerilie McDowall: DB, Guy Reynard: Freelance Glenn Astarita: All About Jazz (Portugal) All About Jazz Bethlehem Centre, Friends of Derk Richardson: The Abso- Nanaimo Jazz Society Mark R. Bacon: Main Event Shannon J. Effinger: DB, Tom Hull: tomhull.com lute Sound, KPFA-FM, Peghead DC, Insider Louisville Pitchfork Tom Ineck: NET Radio, Peter McElhinney: Nation, Acoustic Guitar, AFAR Style Weekly Chris J. Bahnsen: DB Jordannah Elizabeth: DB, LA Lincoln Journal Star Media Weekly, New York Amsterdam * Michelle Mercer: DB, NPR Bradley Bambarger: Michael Jackson: DB, Alex Rodriguez: News, Chicago Reader Music, NPR’s All Things Consid- DB, Listen Jazzwise Ethnomusicology Review * Ed Enright: DB ered, Chamber Music America Michael Barris: DB Willard Jenkins: DB, The * Gene Santoro: DB Bill Meyer: DB, The Wire, Chi- * John Ephland: DB, All About Independent Ear, JazzTimes Phil Schaap: DB, WKCR-FM, Peter Bastian: Jazzthetik cago Reader, Dusted, Magnet Jazz Jeff Johnson: DB, Chicago Jazz at Lincoln Center Eric Berger: DB, St. Louis * Ken Micallef: DB, Bass Steve Feeney: artsfuse.org, Sun-Times, Chicago Blues * Thomas Staudter: DB, Magazine, Riverfront Times Player, Stereophile, Modern broadwayworld.com, Portland Guide Croton Gazette Bill Beuttler: DB, JazzTimes, Drummer, MIX Press Herald/Maine Sunday Martin Johnson: The Wall The Boston Globe W. Royal Stokes: JJA News, Telegram Street Journal Virgil Mihaiu: DB, Steaua/ wroyalstokes.com Edward Blanco: All About David Franklin: Cadence, * Ashley Kahn: NPR, Mojo, Jazz Context, JAM (Jazz Mon- Jazz, WDNA-FM Laurence Svirchev: JazzTimes, Jazz Forum, jazz. The New York Times tenegro) misterioso.org Ross Boissoneau: Progres- com * Bill Milkowski: Richard Kamins: DB, The sion, Local Spins, mynorth.com Otakar Svoboda: Philip Freeman: DB, The Wire, steptempest.blogspot.com Absolute Sound Fred Bouchard: DB, The Czech Radio Stereogum George Kanzler: Hot House, Ralph A. Miriello: Huffington Boston Musical Intelligencer * Jean Szlamowicz: DB, Jon Garelick: DB, The Boston New York City Jazz Record Post, Notes on Jazz blog * Michael Bourne: Spirit of Jazz DB, Globe, Jazziz, artsfuse.org Fred Kaplan: Stereophile, * Dan Morgenstern: Jersey Chris Tart: DB, dubera.com WBGO-FM Dustin Garlitz: jazztalent.com Slate Jazz, Journal of Jazz Studies * Herb Boyd: Larry Reni Thomas: DB, Cineaste, Richard Gehr: Rolling Stone, Matthew Kassel: DB, The Allen Morrison: DB, Jazz- ejazznews.com, jazzcorner.com New York Amsterdam News, Relix New York Times, The Wall Times The Network Journal Andrew Gilbert: San Francis- Street Journal, JazzTimes, * John Murph: DB, NPR Mark F. Turner: Nelson Brill: DB, co Chronicle, Bay Area News Cosmopolitan, Village Voice Music, JazzTimes, Jazzwise All About Jazz bostonconcertreviews.com Group, berkeleyside.com Yoshi Kato: DB, San Francisco Russ Musto: DB, New York Chris Walker: DB, LA Jazz Stuart Broomer: New York * Ted Gioia: The History of Jazz Chronicle, The Christian Science City Jazz Record Scene, California Tour & Travel, City Jazz Record, Point of JazzTimes Kurt Gottschalk: DB, The Monitor Michael G. Nastos: Departure, Musicworks Wire, New York City Jazz Larry Kelp: KPFA-FM, kpfa.org Hot House, WCBN-FM, G1NBC/ Emma Warren: DB Hilary Brown: DB, Reverb Record, WFHU-FM Elzy Kolb: Hot House Dixon Media Group Natalie Weiner: JazzTimes, Andrea Canter: Steve Greenlee: JazzTimes Jason Koransky: DB Ron Netsky: City Newspaper Billboard jazzpolice.com (Rochester, New York) George Grella: DB, The Wire, * Kiyoshi Koyama: NHK-FM’s Ken Weiss: Jazz Inside, * Dave Cantor: DB New York City Jazz Record, The Japan Tonight, Jazz Japan Sean J. O’Connell: DB, Cadence Los Angeles Times, Playboy, Henry Carrigan: DB, Living Brooklyn Rail Jeff Krow: Audiophile Michael J. West: DB, Jazz- KPCC-FM Blues, No Depression * Frank-John Hadley: DB, X5 Audition Times, The Washington Post, * Jennifer Odell: DB, Offbeat, * Aaron Cohen: DB Music Group David Kunian: DB, Offbeat, Washington City Paper Gambit Thomas Conrad: Stereophile, Carl L. Hager: jazzjazzersjazz Louisiana Cultural Vistas * Kevin Whitehead: NPR’s * Dan Ouellette: DB, Bill- New York City Jazz Record, ing.blogspot.com Will Layman: popmatters. Fresh Air board, zealnyc.com JazzTimes, All About Jazz * James Hale: DB, sound com, Spectrum Culture Carlo Wolff: DB, CAN Journal, * Ted Panken: DB J.D. Considine: DB stagexperience.com Angelo Leonardi: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Cleve- Anthony Dean-Harris: DB, Robert Ham: DB, Billboard, All About Jazz Italy Thierry Peremarti: land Jewish News M&C (le Son Du Monde) nextbop.com, KRTU-FM Portland Mercury Bruce Lindsay: All About Jazz, * Josef Woodard: DB, Los * Paul de Barros: DB, The George W. Harris: Jazz Weekly Jazz Journal Terry Perkins: DB Angeles Times, Jazziz, Jazz Hot Seattle Times Ron Hart: DB, Billboard, John Litweiler: Point of j. poet: DB, Magnet, Relix, New * Scott Yanow: DB, New York Coen de Jonge: JazzBulletin Village Voice Departure, WHKP-FM Noise, Oakland Magazine City Jazz Record, Jazziz, LA Jazz NJA, Jazzism Andrey Henkin: New York Martin Longley: DB, Jazzwise, Jeff Potter: DB, Modern Scene, Syncopated Times R.J. DeLuke: All About Jazz, City Jazz Record The Wire, The Brooklyn Rail, All Drummer, TDF Stages Izzy Yellen: DB, Albany Times Union Andy Hermann: DB, NPR About Jazz, Songlines Norman Provizer: DB, KUVO/ The Lawrentian Bob Doerschuk: DB, Drum!, Music, Billboard, Los Angeles Christopher Loudon: KVJZ Eli Zeger: VAN Magazine, Acoustic Guitar, USA Today Magazine JazzTimes * Bobby Reed: DB RBMA Daily, Vinyl Me, Please Laurence Donohue-Greene: Geoffrey Himes: DB, The Phillip Lutz: DB * Howard Reich: Brian Zimmerman: DB, Jazziz

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