MARCH 2014 - ISSUE 143 YOUR FREE GUIDE TO THE NYC JAZZ SCENE NYCJAZZRECORD.COM ANNIE ROSS SING A SONG... WOMEN IN JAZZ ISSUE BARBARA • INGRID • BERTHA • FIREHOUSE • EVENT CARROLL LAUBROCK HOPE 12 CALENDAR “BEST JAZZ CLUBS OF THE YEAR 2012” SMOKE JAZZ & SUPPER CLUB • HARLEM, NEW YORK CITY FEATURED ARTISTS / 7:00, 9:00 & 10:30pm ONE NIGHT ONLY / 7:00, 9:00 & 10:30pm Fri & Sat, Feb 28 & Mar 1 SMOKE Wed, Mar 5 Winter / Spring 2014 DAVID BERKMAN QUARTET GREGG AUGUST QUINTET Dayna Stephens (saxophone) • David Berkman (piano) Sam Newsome (soprano saxophone) • Stacy Dillard (tenor saxophone) Ugonna Okegwo (bass) • Rudy Royston (drums) Luis Perdomo (piano) • Gregg August (bass) Donald Edwards (drums) SESSIONS Fri & Sat, Mar 7 & 8 COMPACT DISC AND DOWNLOAD TITLES TIA FULLER QUARTET Wed, Mar 12 Tia Fuller (saxophone) • Shamie Royston (piano) BILL CANTRALL & AXIOM Mimi Jones (bass) • Rudy Royston (drums) Josh Evans (trumpet) • Ian Hendrickson-Smith (alto saxophone) Stacy Dillard (tenor saxophone) • Bill Cantrall (trombone) Fri & Sat, Mar 14 & 15 Jeb Patton (piano) • Dwayne Burno (bass) • Montez Coleman (drums) Record Release Weekend Wed, Mar 19 DAVID HAZELTINE QUARTET RECORD RELEASE EVENT Eric Alexander (tenor saxophone) • David Hazeltine (piano) CORY WEEDS QUINTET David “Happy” Williams (bass) • Joe Farnsworth (drums) FEATURING STEVE DAVIS Cory Weeds (tenor saxophone) • Steve Davis (trombone) Fri & Sat, Mar 21 & 22 Sullivan Fortner (piano) • Dezron Douglas (bass) Right On Time SSR-1402 The Uptown Shuffle SSR-1403 Live Recording Sessions UlyssesSPECIAL Owens, EVENT Jr. (drums) / 7:00, 9:00 & 10:30pm DR. EDDIE HENDERSON QUARTET Wed,Sun & MarMon, 26 Feb 9 & 10 Eddie Henderson (trumpet) • Kevin Hays (piano) Doug Weiss (bass) • Bill Stewart (drums) JOHNBRAD WEBBERMEHLDAU QUARTET & PETER BERNSTEIN “TRIBUTEBrad Mehldau (piano) TO WES• Peter BernsteinMONTGOMERY” (guitar) Fri & Sat, Mar 28 & 29 BUSTER WILLIAMS Music 7 Nights a Week & Sunday Brunch SOMETHING MORE No Music Charge (Sunday to Thursday) Bruce Williams (alto saxophone) • Eric Reed (piano) For Complete Music Schedule Visit Buster Williams (bass) • Lenny White (drums) www.smokejazz.com Expression SSR-1404 For All We Know SSR-1405 WWW.SMOKESESSIONSRECORDS.COM 212-864-6662 • 2751 Broadway NYC (Between 105th & 106th streets) • www.smokejazz.com SMOKE Our first Women in Jazz issue was so much fun, we decided to do it again. But just like any month can be jazz appreciation month, celebrate the contributions of New York@Night women to (jazz) history not only in March but year-round. The problem is not 4 finding compelling female artists but figuring out how to fit them all in! We’ve Interview: Barbara Carroll tried, in selecting our features and front-loaded CD Reviews section, to demonstrate that in no area of jazz are women novelties. What has made jazz so resilient is its by Katie Bull 6 dedication to the idea that if you can play, that’s good enough. And thus we have Artist Feature: Ingrid Laubrock singers and instrumentalists, traditionalists and innovators, elders and upstarts. In by Ken Waxman the second decade of the 21st century, the celebration of women in jazz is really just 7 an extension of the celebration of jazz as a whole. To prove our point, in this issue On The Cover: Annie Ross we are featuring women born as early as 1904 and as recently as the late ‘80s. 9 by Anders Griffen Scottish-born vocalist Annie Ross (On The Cover) is an NEA Jazz Master and a veteran in the jazz trenches since the late ‘40s. She appears weekly at Metropolitan Encore: Lest We Forget: Room. Pianist and sometimes vocalist Barbara Carroll (Interview), born in England, 10 Bertha Hope Valaida Snow was among the first women to play bebop and continues to this day, with a weekly residency at Birdland. German-born, England-raised saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock by Ken Dryden by Donald Elfman (Artist Feature) has become a fixture on the New York scene with her numerous Megaphone VOXNews bands and collaborations, some of which can be heard this month at the Arts for Art 11 by Mimi Jones by Katie Bull series at Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, Cornelia Street Café and The Firehouse Space. Pianist Bertha Hope (Encore) has established her own career in Label Spotlight: Listen Up!: the decades since her husband Elmo Hope’s death; this month she performs as part of the annual Lady Got Chops Festival. Trumpeter Valaida Snow (Lest We Forget) 12 Firehouse 12 Brianna Thomas & Kaja Draksler was a legendary performer from the earliest days of jazz history. Bassist/vocalist by Brad Farberman Mimi Jones (Megaphone) is not just an in-demand player but also an entrepreneur CD Reviews: Kris Davis, Simona Premazzi, Mary Halvorson, with her Hot Tone Music label. And another label, Firehouse 12, features Mary 14 Sarah Vaughan, Aki Takase, Ali Ryerson, Angelica Sanchez & more Halvorson, Myra Melford and Nicole Mitchell among its forward-thinking roster. We’ll see you out there... 38 Event Calendar Laurence Donohue-Greene, Managing Editor Andrey Henkin, Editorial Director 45 Club Directory On The Cover: Annie Ross (photo by Alan Nahigian) 47 Miscellany: In Memoriam • Birthdays • On This Day Submit Letters to the Editor by emailing [email protected] US Subscription rates: 12 issues, $35 (International: 12 issues, $45) 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 - twitter: @nycjazzrecord - facebook.com/nycjazzrecord 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, New York, NY 10033 Katie Bull, Tom Conrad, Ken Dryden, Donald Elfman, Brad Farberman, United States Sean Fitzell, Kurt Gottschalk, Tom Greenland, Alex Henderson, Marcia Hillman, Terrell Holmes, Robert Iannapollo, Suzanne Lorge, Wilbur MacKenzie, Laurence Donohue-Greene: Marc Medwin, Robert Milburn, Russ Musto, Sean J. O’Connell, Joel Roberts, [email protected] John Sharpe, Elliott Simon, Jeff Stockton, Andrew Vélez, Ken Waxman Andrey Henkin: [email protected] Contributing Writers General Inquiries: [email protected] Duck Baker, Brian Charette, Brad Cohan, Anders Griffen, Advertising: [email protected] Mimi Jones, George Kanzler, Ken Micallef, Michael Steinman Editorial: [email protected] Contributing Photographers Calendar: [email protected] Christopher Baliwas, Alan Nahigian, Lydia Polzer, Julie Skarratt, James Szmidt, Jack Vartoogian VOXNews: [email protected] All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission strictly prohibited. All material copyrights property of the authors. THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | MARCH 2014 3 NEW YORK @ NIGHT David Krakauer’s spritely clarinet made an excellent Le Poisson Rouge became a house of sisterly love when stand-in for a singer in “Willkommen”, opening The Hot Tone records trotted out its hottest talent (Feb. 4th), Big Picture at the Museum of Jewish Heritage (Feb. beginning with label-founder/bassist Mimi Jones, who 9th). Halfway through its eight-show run, the program warmed up the crowd through an increasingly was love song through music, stories and video to the enthusiastic set with staunch support from pianist Luis silver screen. Covering decades in storytelling time, Perdomo, drummer Justin Faulkner and trumpeter Krakauer’s arrangements mirrored the vintage of the Igmar Thomas. Tenor saxophonist Camille Thurman films - spotlighting Sarah Caswell’s violin for the ‘30s was next, working the ‘swing shift’ and illumining the Patti setting of Cabaret and Sheryl Bailey’s electric guitar for stage with her one-hundred-candle smile and tough- the ‘60s of Lenny. But the music was solid and talking horn, beginning with her hard-bopping consistent, each selection including a piece of animation “Origins”; her ballad “Pursuit With a Purpose”, duly incorporating the tone and character likenesses. Three enhanced by Anthony Wonsey’s sensitive pianisms; a Sings Woody Allen films brought the music of Sidney Bechet, vocal rendering of “Skylark” showcasing her expansive Johnny Green and Sergei Prokofiev, paying tribute to range and elastic tonal inflections; capped by “In the filmmaker, fellow clarinetist and jazz fan. John Duetime”, a Latin bubbler replete with yodeling vocals Hadfield’s heavy drumming would have been out of and double-dutch-style shout-outs - all exemplifying place in a Bechet band but Krakauer made “Body and Thurman’s unrestrained sense of freedom and fun. Soul” his own, even employing Rob Schwimmer’s Drummer/percussionist Shirazette Tinnin, who had theremin to evoke the titular Radio Days. Another trio amped up the groove for Thurman’s last number, E � a ! of films dealt directly with the holocaust under the kicked it (the groove) clear to the curb during her heading Shoah Trilogy. The harrowing pieces were closing set, laying down a ferocious pulse from her 6 followed by “Keep it Gay” from Mel Brooks’ The very first hand-strokes on the cajón solo opening to MARCH Producers, with a hilariously updated Dictionary of “Her Powerful Locs” through the powerful Yiddish video. “People”, from Funny Girl, was AfroCaribbean heartbeat of McCoy Tyner’s “Passion admirably belted by daughter Alicia Krakauer and the Dance” and the final rim-shots and cymbal-taps of the closing “Tradition” from Fiddler on the Roof was closing Brazilo-funk medley, “The