September 2011 | No. 113 Your FREE Guide to the NYC Jazz Scene nycjazzrecord.com Keith Rowe New Traditionalism Hal Galper • The Necks • Rastascan • Event Calendar Only those living under rocks not bought during the housing bubble could be unaware of the recent debates going on in the nation’s capital about the country’s economic policies. Maybe some jazz musicians, who know how to stretch a dollar New York@Night and live with crushing financial insecurity, could have helped defuse the crisis. We 4 also have been reporting on the unilateral decision by the National Academy of Interview: Hal Galper Recording Arts and Sciences to remove Latin Jazz from its Grammy Award categories (along with a number of other ‘underperforming’ genres). There have 6 by Ken Dryden been protests, lawsuits and gestures in an attempt to have this policy reversed. Artist Feature: The Necks Though compared to a faltering multi-trillion dollar economy, the latter issue can seem a bit trivial but it still highlights how decisions are made that affect the by Martin Longley 7 populace with little concern for its input. We are curious to gauge our readers’ On The Cover: Keith Rowe opinions on the Grammy scandal. Send us your thoughts at feedback@ by Kurt Gottschalk nycjazzrecord.com and we’ll publish some of the more compelling comments so 9 the debate can have another voice. Encore: Lest We Forget: But back to more pleasant matters: Fall is upon us after a brutal summer 10 (comments on global warming, anyone?). As you emerge from your heat-induced George Barrow Jimmy Raney torpor, we have a full docket of features to transition into long-sleeve weather. by Laurence Donohue-Greene by Donald Elfman Guitarist Keith Rowe (Cover) is a founder of the legendary British avant garde Megaphone VOXNews group AMM and a pioneer in insectile English improvising. He’ll be at The Stone by Blaise Siwula by Suzanne Lorge several times this month. Pianist Hal Galper (Interview) has been in the jazz 11 trenches since the ‘60s as both sideman and leader. He makes two rare East Coast Label Spotlight: Listen Up!: appearances at Smalls and Cobi’s Place. And legendary Australian improvising trio The Necks (Artist Feature) will appear as part of Roulette’s grand reopening 12 Shimrit Shoshan Rastascan celebration. Of course we have our gaggle of other features, including more by Ken Waxman & LaFrae Sci festival reports from just up north, and a gaggle-squared of CD Reviews, plus the usual fall bounty of concerts in our Event Calendar. 13 Festival Report: Caramoor • Newport We’re looking forward to seeing and hearing from you... CD Reviews: Joel Forrester, Amanda Monaco, Dave King, Laurence Donohue-Greene, Managing Editor Andrey Henkin, Editorial Director 14 Evan Christopher, Adam Rudolph, David Binney, Lee Konitz and more On the cover: Keith Rowe (Photo by Peter Gannushkin/DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET) 40 Event Calendar 45 Club Directory Miscellany: In Memoriam • Birthdays • On This Day Submit Letters to the Editor by emailing [email protected] 47 US Subscription rates: 12 issues, $30 (International: 12 issues, $40) For subscription assistance, send check, cash or money order to the address below or email [email protected]. The New York City Jazz Record www.nycjazzrecord.com Managing Editor: Laurence Donohue-Greene To Contact: Editorial Director & Production Manager: Andrey Henkin The New York City Jazz Record Staff Writers 116 Pinehurst Avenue, Ste. J41 David R. Adler, Clifford Allen, Fred Bouchard, Stuart Broomer, Tom Conrad, Ken Dryden, New York, NY 10033 Donald Elfman, Sean Fitzell, Graham Flanagan, Kurt Gottschalk, Tom Greenland, United States Laurel Gross, Alex Henderson, Marcia Hillman, Terrell Holmes, Robert Iannapollo, Francis Lo Kee, Martin Longley, Suzanne Lorge, Wilbur MacKenzie, Marc Medwin, Laurence Donohue-Greene: Russ Musto, Joel Roberts, John Sharpe, Elliott Simon, Jeff Stockton, Andrew Vélez, Ken Waxman [email protected] Andrey Henkin: [email protected] Contributing Writers Ryan Blotnick, Anders Griffen, George Kanzler, Gordon Marshall, General Inquiries: [email protected] Matthew Miller, Sharon Mizrahi, Sean O’Connell, Blaise Siwula Advertising: [email protected] Contributing Photographers Editorial: [email protected] Sean Fitzell, Scott Friedlander, Peter Gannushkin, Tom Greenland, Calendar: [email protected] Ayano Hisa, Gabe Palacio, Carlos Ponti, Jack Vartoogian All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission strictly prohibited. All material copyrights property of the authors. THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | September 2011 3 NEW YORK @ NIGHT Since 2001, when the School for Improvised Music From the first moments of Ellery Eskelin’s trio set at (SIM) is in session, faculty concerts ensue, allowing the Cornelia Street Café (Aug. 6th), it was clear that it pros to demonstrate their concepts in performance. wouldn’t be a funky swing affair. The packed house SIM director, trumpeter Ralph Alessi, convened with might have come expecting an organ trio and to be bassist Drew Gress, pianist Andy Milne and drummer certain that’s what they got, but Eskelin’s groove Tyshawn Sorey for a student-rich crowd at The Jazz wasn’t exactly in the tradition so much as just aware of Gallery (Aug. 10th). They transitioned between notated it. The set began with Gerald Cleaver’s slow, skittering music and open improvisations and judiciously used drums and slippery lines from Eskelin’s tenor before extended techniques to blur any distinctions between Gary Versace’s Korg organ (matching in both color and the modern mainstream and avant garde, as Alessi is size the small stage) dropped in, shaping the music wont to do. He blew lyrically on the bassist’s quietly into a sort of minor blues drone. The first 40 minutes building “Dark Horse”, as Milne gently sailed the keys were consumed with a pair of chestnuts from their and traded barbs with the intensifying rhythm section. recent self-released CD Trio New York, “How Deep is The trumpeter’s peppy “Cross Chatter” boasted the Ocean” and “Lover Come Back to Me” and if it staccato horn and drums, thumping bass and punchy wasn’t a traditional organ trio Eskelin still played the piano. Sorey was in constant motion, but never role of traditionalist wonderfully, reaching deep into overbearing, with impressive flairs around the kit. He the ocean of Gene Ammons and Ben Webster and colored Gress’ spartan feature and responded to playing unabashedly soulfully. Versace was Milne’s inside-piano asides. Bowed bass and prepared understated, pure and strong support, as was Cleaver, piano were met by bare-handed drums and sustained but both brought their own swing to their solos. trumpet tones to open a lengthy collective improv that Cleaver’s second solo of the night at length upped the began abstrusely, then built contrast and suspense. A tempo and brought the easiest groove of the set. Later, fleet ensemble head deteriorated and the on Thelonious Monk’s “Off Minor”, Eskelin ran close instrumentalists diverged on an untitled Alessi tune circles around the theme while Cleaver and Versace that concluded the set. The trumpeter rode atop when played it like a whip and a car alarm. It wasn’t about the galloping bass and drums returned, spurred by abandon or ecstasy or ego or avant gardism. It was all Sorey’s punctuations. Deftly blending control and about the comfort zone, cognizant of the past without abandon, the faculty provided ample takeaway lessons being overly reliant on it, less a reminiscing than a for the students. - Sean Fitzell reimagining. - Kurt Gottschalk Photo by Scott Friedlander Photo by Scott Fitzell SIM Faculty Concert @ The Jazz Gallery Ellery Eskelin Trio @ Cornelia Street Café In a rare turn as a leader, bassist Christopher Tordini Vocalist (or singer as they used to be called) Anita brought Tiger Blood to Cornelia Street Cafe (Aug. 8th) O’Day might have also-ran status now that the history for a set of his originals. Not overly composed, the books have been printed, but in her day she was moody pieces provided thematic material for something of an upstart. Her adopted surname was interpretation by his winning cast: pianist Kris Davis, Pig Latin for “dough” because she was going to get guitarist Sasha Brown, reedist Jeremy Viner and paid and with an impeccable sense of rhythm she made drummer Jim Black. Tordini opened with a line the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival (and subsequent film reminiscent of “Stand By Me”, which ushered in a Jazz on a Summer’s Day) her own. She also made for a subdued theme that ceded to Brown’s heavily distorted subject both surprising and fitting for chanteuse swirls over the easy vamp. It was a study of contrast, a Jennifer Charles who, with her Elysian Fields recurring motif for Tordini. Davis tripped across the bandmate Oren Bloedow playing guitar and drummer keys on the second piece, alternating between Ben Perowsky, paid tribute to the “Jezebel of Jazz” at dampened and sustained notes, forceful chords and Doma Café in the West Village (Aug. 2nd). Charles’ tumbling clusters before joining the off-kilter melody. insouciantly sultry style is a far cry from the crisp “Fearful Symmetry” opened with oblique piano and backbeat vocals O’Day delivered in the bands of Stan basslines supporting Viner’s emotive tenor sax. With Kenton, Gene Krupa and Woody Herman, but her bleats and honks he rent the mood then unfurled dedication was clear and her easy gait warmed the boppish lines and sparred with Black. A piquant piano noisy spot nicely. O’Day never quite earned signature- line surfaced from a lull only to be raked by guitar and song status so it was, in a sense, a standards set, with bowed bass. The leader wielded bow amid dramatic deft yet casual versions of “Tenderly”, “I Can’t Give piano chords and clarinet sighs for the cinematic “Saga You Anything But Love”, “You Took Advantage of City”, which surged and ebbed before a folk-like theme Me”, “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Honeysuckle Rose”.