DOWNBEAT 76th Annual Readers Poll Winners! 76TH 76TH A NNUAL REA NNUAL D E R S POLL POLL S W INNE Trombone R S // Tr OM B ONE ONE SHORTY S HO R TY // The Pride of A HMA D JAMAL New Orleans // E S P Poll Winners E R ANZA ANZA Ahmad Jamal Sp HALL OF FaME AL D ING Esperanza Spalding // B R A D Brad Mehldau M EHL D AU Miles Davis Jeff Beck COMPLETE RESULTS INSIDE! Rudresh DECEMBER 2011 U.K. £3.50 Mahanthappa BLINDFOLD TEST D E C EM Holiday B E R 2 011 Gift Guide DOWNBEAT.COM DECEMBER 2011 VOLUME 78 – NuMBER 12 President Kevin Maher Publisher Frank Alkyer Managing Editor Bobby Reed News Editor Hilary Brown Reviews Editor Aaron Cohen Contributing Editor Ed Enright Art Director Ara Tirado Production Associate Andy Williams Bookkeeper Margaret Stevens Circulation Manager Sue Mahal Circulation Assistant Evelyn Oakes 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 Assistant Theresa Hill 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, John McDonough Atlanta: Jon Ross; Austin: Michael Point, 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 Or- leans: Erika Goldring, David Kunian, Jennifer Odell; New York: Alan Bergman, Herb Boyd, Bill Douthart, Ira Gitler, Eugene Gologursky, Norm Harris, D.D. 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Box 11688, St. Paul, MN 55111–0688. CABLE ADDRESS: DownBeat (on sale November 15, 2011) Magazine Publishers Association. Á DECEMBER 2011 ON THE COVER 24 Trombone Shorty No Guts, No Glory BY JENNIFER ODELL Trombone Shorty, one of the most exciting musicians on the scene today, plays his namesake horn with passion, and he’s also a fiery trumpeter and an engaging vocalist. With the studio album For True (Verve Forecast), he and his backing band, Orleans Avenue, have reached a new peak. FEATURES 24 76th Annual Readers Poll Cover photography of Trombone Shorty shot by Jimmy and Dena Katz in New York City. Image above of Trombone Shorty shot 32 Ahmad Jamal by Erika Goldring at Tipitina’s in New Orleans. Hall of Fame BY JOHN MCDONOUGH 40 Esperanza Spalding Jazz Artist of the Year BY SHAUN BRADY 44 Brad Mehldau Jazz Album & Pianist of the Year BY GEOFFREY HIMES 84 Claudia Quintet +1 85 Tony Bennett 86 Tierney Sutton Band 95 Tá Lam 11 48 Miles Davis, Bitches Brew Historical Album of the Year DEPARTMENTS BY JOHN EPHLAND 54 Jeff Beck 8 First Take 16 European Scene 102 Master Class Beyond Artist & Beyond Album BY MATT SHEVITZ of the Year 10 Chords & 20 Players 104 Transcription BY BOBBY REED Discords Michael Kaeshammer BY shawN PURCELL Jakob Bro 13 The Beat 106 Toolshed 56 Complete Poll Results Tineke Postma 110 Jazz On Campus 14 Riffs Matt Jorgensen 66 Special Section 114 Blindfold Test Holiday Gift Guide 14 The Insider 79 Reviews Rudresh Mahanthappa 6 DOWNBEAT DECEMBER 2011 First Take | BY BOBBY REED From left: Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland and Miles Davis ONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT S SANDY SPEISER/ SANDY Listening to the Best he best. That’s what people want to hear. Life is short and pre- cious, so why waste time listening to subpar music? Assembling the December issue of DownBeat is always a thrilling and infor- Tmative process because it gives us a clear picture of what our readers love, and what music they think is the very best. The 76th Annual DownBeat Readers Poll includes such legendary names as Gary Burton, B.B. King, Pat Metheny, Wayne Shorter and Phil Woods, as well as younger artists who are performing at the highest level, such as Regina Carter, Anat Cohen, Christian McBride, Joshua Redman and Maria Schneider. The Readers Poll contest for Historical Album of the Year wasn’t even close. The landslide victor was Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew: 40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition. For listeners around the globe, Davis has provided the gateway to the world of jazz. The first time you hear Kind Of Blue or Bitches Brew, you immediately want to know the names of the musicians with whom Davis collaborated. So you read the liner notes. You memorize their names. Then you start exploring the music of those collaborators. And that leads you to other musicians with whom these players have recorded and toured. The process goes on and on, and along the way, your jazz library gets bigger and bigger. But it all started with Miles, the man at the top of the mountain. In his superb essay on Bitches Brew (page 48), writer John Ephland caught up with musicians who played with Davis, such as Harvey Brooks, Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, Bennie Maupin, John McLaughlin and Lenny White. Ehpland also quotes Dave Holland. It boggles my mind to ponder all the music I’ve discovered simply by seeking out the works of Davis collaborators Corea, DeJohnette, McLaughlin and Holland. Elsewhere in this issue, we’ve got features on DownBeat Hall of Fame inductee Ahmad Jamal and Jazz Artist of the Year Esperanza Spalding, as well as poll winners Brad Mehldau and Jeff Beck. Our cover subject, Trombone Shorty, mixes genres in a way that appeals to open-minded listeners who enjoy “Jazz, Blues & Beyond.” This is a young man (only 25) who tours the globe, records original music, energizes festival stages and brings new listeners to jazz and improvised music. Keep your eye on him. We won’t be surprised if his name turns up atop DownBeat polls in the near future. The fact that Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews uses his resources to donate musi- cal instruments to schools makes us applaud him with even more vigor. Thanks again for voting in the poll, and please keep on reading. DB 8 DOWNBEAT DECEMBER 2011 Chords Discords makes it increasingly impossible for music, art and humanity to flourish or even exist. NED CORMAN ROCHESTER, N.Y. Remembering Eddie Marshall I was saddened by the news of Bay Area jazz drummer Eddie Marshall’s death on Sept. 7. I was immediately transported back to San Francisco’s Keystone Korner, the mecca of my teenage years, where, as a Palo Alto high schooler in the early ’70s, I used to see Mar- shall play with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson and saxophonist Manny Boyd. What a perfect, swinging, joyous combination of drums and vibes. I loved the way Marshall played, espe- cially with Hutcherson! I consider these to be some of the happiest memories of my youth. I remember Marshall’s drumming with a great deal of fondness and I will miss him. I hope Champian Fulton Blue Note Records will reissue such Hutcher- son gems as Knucklebean and Waiting. How Block Chord Champs I would love to hear those records again. Champian Fulton’s article (“Pro Session,” BOB ZANDER September) about four jazz pianists who PALO ALTO, CALIF. used block chords effectively—Milt Buck- ner, Erroll Garner, Red Garland and Oscar Carl Allen Peterson—was refreshing. I feel that Red Garland used block chords with the great- est artistic effect. When I listen to his use of block chords in the recordings that he made with Miles Davis in the ’50s and his trio recordings, I am enthralled. George Shearing is also a seminal pianist in the use of block chords. I feel that his influence on the development of jazz piano styles has been somewhat overlooked because of his “commercial” output of such albums as Velvet Carpet and Black & White Satin, in which his piano was swathed by string sections.