February 2017 VOLUME 84 / NUMBER 2 President Kevin Maher Publisher Frank Alkyer Editor Bobby Reed Managing Editor Brian Zimmerman Contributing Editor Ed Enright Creative Director ŽanetaÎuntová Design Assistant Markus Stuckey Assistant to the Publisher Sue Mahal Bookkeeper Evelyn Oakes Editorial Intern Izzy Yellen ADVERTISING SALES Record Companies & Schools Jennifer Ruban-Gentile 630-941-2030 [email protected] Musical Instruments & East Coast Schools Ritche Deraney 201-445-6260 [email protected] Advertising Sales Associate Kevin R. Maher 630-941-2030 [email protected] OFFICES 102 N. Haven Road, Elmhurst, IL 60126–2970 630-941-2030 / Fax: 630-941-3210 http://downbeat.com [email protected] CUSTOMER SERVICE 877-904-5299 / [email protected] CONTRIBUTORS Senior Contributors: Michael Bourne, Aaron Cohen, Howard Mandel, John McDonough Atlanta: Jon Ross; Austin: Kevin Whitehead; Boston: Fred Bouchard, Frank- John Hadley; Chicago: John Corbett, Alain Drouot, Michael Jackson, Peter Margasak, Bill Meyer, Mitch Myers, Paul Natkin, Howard Reich; Denver: Norman Provizer; Indiana: Mark Sheldon; Iowa: Will Smith; Los Angeles: Earl Gibson, Todd Jenkins, Kirk Silsbee, Chris Walker, Joe Woodard; Michigan: John Ephland; Minneapolis: Robin James; Nashville: Bob Doerschuk; New Orleans: Erika Goldring, David Kunian, Jennifer Odell; New York: Alan Bergman, Herb Boyd, Bill Douthart, Ira Gitler, Eugene Gologursky, Norm Harris, D.D. Jackson, Jimmy Katz, Jim Macnie, Ken Micallef, Dan Ouellette, Ted Panken, Richard Seidel, Tom Staudter, Jack Vartoogian, Michael Weintrob; North Carolina: Robin Tolleson; Philadelphia: David Adler, Shaun Brady, Eric Fine; San Francisco: Mars Breslow, Forrest Bryant, Clayton Call, Yoshi Kato; Seattle: Paul de Barros; Tampa Bay: Philip Booth; Washington, D.C.: Willard Jenkins, John Murph, Michael Wilderman; Canada: Greg Buium, James Hale, Diane Moon; Denmark: Jan Persson; France: Jean Szlamowicz; Germany: Detlev Schilke, Hyou Vielz; Great Britain: Brian Priestley; Japan: Kiyoshi Koyama; Portugal: Antonio Rubio; Romania: Virgil Mihaiu; Russia: Cyril Moshkow; South Africa: Don Albert. Jack Maher, President 1970-2003 John Maher, President 1950-1969 SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION: Send orders and address changes to: DOWNBEAT, P.O. Box 11688, St. Paul, MN 55111–0688. Inquiries: U.S.A. and Canada (877) 904-5299; Foreign (651) 251-9682. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Please allow six weeks for your change to become effective. When notifying us of your new address, include current DOWN- BEAT label showing old address. DOWNBEAT (issn 0012-5768) Volume 84, Number 2 is published monthly by Maher Publications, 102 N. Haven, Elmhurst, IL 60126-2970. Copyright 2016 Maher Publica- tions. All rights reserved. Trademark registered U.S. Patent Office. Great Britain regis- tered trademark No. 719.407. Periodicals postage paid at Elmhurst, IL and at additional mailing offices. Subscription rates: $34.95 for one year, $59.95 for two years. Foreign subscriptions rates: $56.95 for one year, $103.95 for two years. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited manuscripts, photos, or artwork. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from publisher. MAHER PUBLICATIONS: DOWNBEAT magazine, MUSIC INC. maga- zine, UpBeat Daily. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to: DownBeat, P.O. Box 11688, St. Paul, MN 55111–0688. CABLE ADDRESS: DownBeat (on sale January 10, 2017) Magazine Publishers Association. Á 4 DOWNBEAT FEBRUARY 2017 FEBRUARY 2017 ON THE COVER Clarinetist Anat Cohen onstage at Fasching in Stockholm 24 Robert Glasper & Terrace Martin No Barriers. No Limits. 60 No Fear. BY PHILLIP LUTZ Pianist/keyboardist Robert Glasper and producer/multi-instrumentalist Terrace Martin are fearless artists who respect tradition but don’t want to be confined by it. Both worked on Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 hip-hop masterpiece To Pimp A Butterfly, and both have been busy recording new material with Herbie Hancock. ALEXANDER TILLHEDEN/ROCKFOTO Cover photo of Terrace Martin (left) and Robert Glasper shot by Jimmy & Dena Katz in Brooklyn on Oct. 13. FEATURES 34 Larry Coryell Back from the Brink BY BILL MILKOWSKI 5-Star Review 5-Star Review +++++ +++++ 40 Wallace Roney Taking the Hard Trail JOS L. KNAEPEN BY TED PANKEN 45 195 Great Jazz Venues The Best Places to Hear Live Jazz Worldwide 72 David Virelles 74 The Fat Babies 75 Steve Slagle 85 Nate Smith RECORDING SCHOOL DEPARTMENTS 88 Big Phat 95 Pressed for All Time Book on Historic Jazz 8 First Take Emmet Cohen Production Values Ellen Andersson The Art of Recording Producers Contemporary Large 96 Transcription 10 Chords & Discords Ensembles Jane Ira Bloom Soprano 69 Reviews BY GORDON GOODWIN Saxophone Solo 13 The Beat 102 Jazz On Campus 92 Master Class 20 Players BY FRED BREITBERG 98 Toolshed Yotam Silberstein 106 Blindfold Test Al McLean Joel Harrison 6 DOWNBEAT FEBRUARY 2017 First Take BY BRIAN ZIMMERMAN JIMMY & DENA KATZ Robert Glasper (left) and Terrace Martin Building Bridges A FANTASTIC JAZZ SONG CAN DISSOLVE BORDERS. GROOVE IS universal, and even bitter enemies can tap their feet to the same beat. In today’s political climate—which has carved entire populations into needless factions, turning mere debate into rancorous discord—we should all try to make room for a little more harmony. Theses days, jazz is more porous than ever, inclusive of different ideas (and of people from different backgrounds) in ways that our politics, unfortunately, is not. At a time when Democrats and Republicans are drawing lines in the sand, musical genres are perpetually being blurred. Of course, this is hardly a new phenomenon. The jazz greats of yore have always known better. “There are simply two kinds of music,” Duke Ellington wrote in the Music Journal back in 1962, “good music and the other kind.” Robert Glasper and Terrace Martin, the artists on our cover, make the good kind of music. They’ve also dissolved some borders of their own. Reared on the rhythms of hip-hop and r&b yet steeped in the ways of jazz, they play a style of music that defies easy categorization. (But if you feel that jazz is a huge umbrella term, a river with endless tributaries, then, well, let’s call this music jazz.) Purists may scoff at any divestiture of old ways, but it’s clear that the movement of jazz/hip-hop hybridity has already altered the landscape. “The cats who believe in barriers, we don’t see them around,” says Martin in his profile on page 30. There are plenty of reasons to believe that only good can come from this expansion of jazz territory. Glasper and Martin—along with Kamasi Washington and his ilk—have opened doors to a new generation of lis- teners, many of whom are coming to jazz for the first time. What these fans are embracing is a music devoid of classification—a music of plural- ity and acceptance. What they’re responding to is good music. In his profile on page 26, Glasper tells DownBeat that the only con- stant in jazz is change: “The tradition is, it keeps moving,” he says. “It reflects the time we’re in.” There is profound truth in that statement, but it doesn’t quite capture the whole truth. For as much as jazz is a mirror, reflecting the present moment, it’s also a crystal ball, revealing what is yet to come. In 2017, we see jazz musicians building bridges. We don’t see any walls. DB 8 DOWNBEAT FEBRUARY 2017 Chords Discords Fuller & Richer Your January issue— with its articles on Theloni- ous Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Buddy Rich—sparkled. I especially liked Ted Panken’s article on Gilles- pie, “The Greatest Linguist in Jazz,” in which he points out how arrangers like Gil Fuller helped Dizzy expand on his harmonic and rhyth- mic ideas in order to create a finished composition. The day after I read the article, I attended a concert by the Oberlin January issue, I also enjoyed the Jazz On Jazz Ensemble, directed by Dennis Reynolds. Campus article “Jazz Essential at Oberlin.” The last piece on the program was Gillespie’s It may not be essential, but it has made life 1946 composition “Things To Come,” ar- richer for me. ranged by Gil Fuller. SID COMINGS In addtion to the historical pieces in your OBERLIN, OHIO Offer for Keppard? should trade him to CNN, where he belongs I’m writing in regard to John Mc- (for a wastebasket and a player to be named Donough’s essay in your January issue later). about the first jazz record, recorded by the RON WEBSTER Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1917. THE VILLAGES, FLORIDA It would have been interesting to hear his opinion of the widely circulated story Duopoly Disparity that trumpeter Freddie Keppard was offered I am all about the current jazz releases. But the chance to make the “real” first jazz re- based on your reviews nowadays, it’s hard to cord two years earlier, but turned it down. tell what’s good. There’s such a disparity lately. A Wikipedia article on Keppard describes For instance, in The Hot Box in your Decem- the numerous differing versions of this sto- ber issue, pianist Kris Davis’ album Duopoly re- ry, none of which can be called definitively ceived a 1½-star rating (from John McDonough) authentic. However, it is still fascinating to and a 4½-star rating (from John Corbett). It’s think that a black man could have been the hard to feel confident with that. real pioneer. That said, it’s difficult to find a jazz radio station that plays your reviewed albums on a GARY MILLIKEN LOS GATOS, CALIFORNIA consistent basis. So here’s my suggestion: Have all of the reviewed albums available on your website, and allow subscribers to stream any of them for one time only. The key is that it would be a one-time listen.