#Mingus Plays Piano

[jazzdailyblog]

"Let My Children Hear Music:" Charles Mingus' Masterpiece of Orchestral Jazz

Introduction: Charles Mingus, one of the most innovative and influential composers in jazz history, produced an immense body of work over his career that spanned bebop, hard bop, and avant-garde styles. Yet, of all his creations, “Let My Children Hear Music,” released in 1972, stands out as a monumental testament to his genius. Described by Mingus himself as “the best album I have ever made,”…

[kinsey3furry300]

An extremely dumb guid to “Which famous 60’s/70's Jazz man is that?”

1, Is it Piano lead or Bass lead? If piano go to question two. If brass question three.

2, Does the Pianist sound like he’s taken all the acid, or is there a guy making love to a clarinet?

Oh yeah: he’s taken all the acid alight. Is… is he okay? Thelonious Monk.

Oh yeah, some guy is going ham on a clarinet. Dave Burkbeck Quartet.

Neither of the above: Duke Ellington.

3, If brass lead: is it Louis Armstrong? If Yes, it’s Louis Armstrong. If no, question four.

4, Does the Trumpet player make you feel sad? Even, dare I say, Blue?

Almost? Chet Barker

Kind of? Miles Davies.

If no, question five.

5, Is the trumpet player trying to blow your face clean off? Like, actively trying to kill the first row of the audience? Dizzy Gillespie.

It’s brass led, but Sax not Trumpet.  

Okay, question 6, isolate the stings: is Charles Mingus doing what he’s actually paid to do in the back of the ensemble, or is he dicking around and seeing how far a man can take a double bass before his band-mates kill him?

Seems to be playing normally: Charlie Parker

He’s fucking around in F minor, and also that Bari sax is filthy! The Mingus Big band, with Ronnie Cuber on the Sax.

[duck-of-the-mob]

1- Charlie, a person with a spirit box head who has ghosts speak for them, is helping Rover, a fella who gets possessed occasionally by a ghost that makes him play piano, with a sudoku puzzle

2- Cyrus, a veterinarian and perhaps maybe occasionally a bit of a stalker, plays violin for Jethro. Jethro is a sucker for music.

3- Jethro, an emo twink who works for Gabby but also happens to be a licensed attorney, is in court with Mingus. Jethro is trying to help Cyrus get his dream head- a cat head- while Mingus has made laws preventing that.

4- Cyrus, now pictured with Cat head (Jethro is a good attorney) cuddles his African gray parrot Ganymede. They both emit a pleased hum.

All of these were briefly doodled in ink and are not perfect lol

Characters made in collaboration with @zestyjestr , Jethro and Charlie are fully his.

[burlveneer-music]

Orbiting Human Circus - Quartet Plus Two - woozy interpretations of standards (and by "woozy" I mean "incorporating singing saws")

Orbiting Human Circus is the continuing evolution of the imagination of Julian Koster (Neutral Milk Hotel, The Music Tapes, Elephant 6), whose music and storytelling under this moniker have encompassed immersive theater and podcasts as well as more traditional EPs and singles. Quartet Plus Two is the group’s debut album. The origins of Quartet Plus Two are as magical and seemingly unlikely as everything else in Koster’s career. While walking through New York’s Central Park, he stumbled upon standup bass player Gauvain Gamon and drummer Kolja Gjoni playing Gershwin and Mingus, and, with the addition of pianist Benji Miller, a musical partnership was born. Koster’s longtime collaborators Robbie Cucchairo (horns) and Thomas Hughes (orchestral arranging and chimes) of The Music Tapes also contribute to the record. The music they make together is at once familiar and unrecognizable; while exploring new musical paths ever forward, there is something as comforting as the smell of autumn leaves or snow. Alongside those composed by Koster, Orbiting Human Circus interpret compositions by Irving Berlin, Duke Jordan, George and Ira Gershwin, and others. The use of the term “composition” is intentional and speaks to Koster’s relationship with the music of Quartet Plus Two in far more evocative terms than “cover” or even “standard.” Much like passionate young pianists will sit down to play Brahms, or children can still be found the world over singing “London Bridge,” or the traditional “Koliada” featured on this album is still sung at holiday time, this music is vital, eternal, and right now—and through the medium of the hearts and souls of Koster and Orbiting Human Circus, the spark that animates these songs has never glowed more warmly.  Starring North and Romika, the singing saws Julian Koster: saw encouraging, vocal, orchestral banjo, organ Gauvain Gamon: bass Benjamin Miller: piano Kolja Gjoni: drums And The Music Tapes Robbie Cucchiaro: trumpet, euphonium Thomas Hughes: orchestra chimes, orchestration And The Singing Saw Choir on track 9 And The Orbiting Human Circus Orchestral

[whileiamdying]

A SERENE JAZZ MASTERPIECE TURNS 65

The best-selling and arguably the best-loved jazz album ever, Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue still has the power to awe.

MARCH 06, 2024

At a moment when jazz still loomed large in American culture, 1959 was an unusually monumental year. Those 12 months saw the release of four great and genre-altering albums: Charles Mingus’s Mingus Ah Um, Dave Brubeck’s Time Out (with its megahit “Take Five”), Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come, and Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue. Sixty-five years on, the genre, though still filled with brilliant talent, has receded to niche status from the culture at large. What remains of that earthshaking year in jazz? “Take Five” has stayed a standard, a tune you might hear on TV or on the radio, a signifier of smooth and nostalgic cool. Mingus, the genius troublemaker, and Coleman, the free-jazz pioneer, remain revered by Those Who Know; their names are still familiar, but most of the music they made has been forgotten by the broader public. Yet Kind of Blue, arguably the best-selling and best-loved jazz album ever, endures—a record that still has the power to awe, that seems to exist outside of time. In a world of ceaseless tumult, its matchless serenity is more powerful than ever.

On the afternoon of Monday, March 2, 1959, seven musicians walked into Columbia Records’ 30th Street Studio, a cavernous former church just off Third Avenue, to begin recording an album. The LP, not yet named, was initially known as Columbia Project B 43079. The session’s leader—its artistic director, the man whose name would appear on the album cover—was Miles Davis. The other players were the members of Davis’s sextet: the saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, the bassist Paul Chambers, the drummer Jimmy Cobb, and the pianist Wynton Kelly. To the confusion and dismay of Kelly, who had taken a cab all the way from Brooklyn because he hated the subway, another piano player was also there: the band’s recently departed keyboardist, Bill Evans.

Every man in the studio had recorded many times before; nobody was expecting this time to be anything special. “Professionals,” Evans once said, “have to go in at 10 o’clock on a Wednesday and make a record and hope to catch a really good day.” On the face of it, there was nothing remarkable about Project B 43079. For the first track laid down that afternoon, a straight-ahead blues-based number that would later be named “Freddie Freeloader,” Kelly was at the keyboard. He was a joyous, selfless, highly adaptable player, and Davis, a canny leader, figured a blues piece would be a good way for the band to limber up for the more demanding material ahead—material that Evans, despite having quit the previous November due to burnout and a sick father, had a large part in shaping.

A highly trained classical pianist, the New Jersey–born Evans fell in love with jazz as a teenager and, after majoring in music at Southeastern Louisiana University, moved to New York in 1955 with the aim of making it or going home. Like many an apprentice, he booked a lot of dances and weddings, but one night, at the Village Vanguard, where he’d been hired to play between the sets of the world-famous Modern Jazz Quartet, he looked down at the end of the grand piano and saw Davis’s penetrating gaze fixed on him. A few months later, having forgotten all about the encounter, Evans was astonished to receive a phone call from the trumpeter: Could he make a gig in Philadelphia?

He made the gig and, just like that, became the only white musician in what was then the top small jazz band in America. It was a controversial hire. Evans, who was really white—bespectacled, professorial—incurred instant and widespread resentment among Black musicians and Black audiences. But Davis, though he could never quite stop hazing the pianist (“We don’t want no white opinions!” was one of his favorite zingers), made it clear that when it came to musicians, he was color-blind. And what he wanted from Evans was something very particular.

One piece that Davis became almost obsessed with was Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli’s 1957 recording of Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. The work, inspired by Ravel’s triumphant 1928 tour of the U.S., was clearly influenced by the fast pace and openness of America: It shimmers with sprightly piccolo and bold trumpet sounds, and dances with unexpected notes and chord changes.

Davis wanted to put wide-open space into his music the way Ravel did. He wanted to move away from the familiar chord structures of jazz and use different scales the way Aram Khachaturian, with his love for Asian music, did. And Evans, unlike any other pianist working in jazz, could put these things onto the keyboard. His harmonic intelligence was profound; his touch on the keys was exquisitely sensitive. “I planned that album around the piano playing of Bill Evans,” Davis said.

But Davis wanted even more. Ever restless, he had wearied of playing songs—American Songbook standards and jazz originals alike—that were full of chords, and sought to simplify. He’d recently been bowled over by a Les Ballets Africains performance—by the look and rhythms of the dances, and by the music that accompanied them, especially the kalimba (or “finger piano”). He wanted to get those sounds into his new album, and he also wanted to incorporate a memory from his boyhood: the ghostly voices of Black gospel singers he’d heard in the distance on a nighttime walk back from church to his grandparents’ Arkansas farm.

In the end, Davis felt that he’d failed to get all he’d wanted into Kind of Blue. Over the next three decades, his perpetual artistic antsiness propelled him through evolving styles, into the blend of jazz and rock called fusion, and beyond. What’s more, Coltrane, Adderley, and Evans were bursting to move on and out and lead their own bands. Just 12 days after Kind of Blue’s final session, Coltrane would record his groundbreaking album Giant Steps, a hurdle toward the cosmic distances he would probe in the eight short years remaining to him. Cannonball, as soulful as Trane was boundary-bursting, would bring a new warmth to jazz with hits such as “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.” And for the rest of his career, one sadly truncated by his drug use, Evans would pursue the trio format with subtle lyrical passion.

Yet for all the bottled-up dynamism in the studio during Kind of Blue’s two recording sessions, a profound, Zenlike quiet prevailed throughout. The essence of it can be heard in Evans and Chambers’s hushed, enigmatic opening notes on the album’s opening track, “So What,” a tune built on just two chords and containing, in Davis’s towering solo, one of the greatest melodies in all of music.

The majestic tranquility of Kind of Blue marks a kind of fermata in jazz. America’s great indigenous art had evolved from the exuberant transgressions of the 1920s to the danceable rhythms of the swing era to the prickly cubism of bebop. The cool (and warmth) that followed would then accelerate into the ’60s ever freer of melody and harmony before being smacked head-on by rock and roll—a collision it wouldn’t quite survive.

That charmed moment in the spring of 1959 was brief: Of the seven musicians present on that long-ago afternoon, only Miles Davis and Jimmy Cobb would live past their early 50s. Yet 65 years on, the music they all made, as eager as Davis was to put it behind him, stays with us. The album’s powerful and abiding mystique has made it widely beloved among musicians and music lovers of every category: jazz, rock, classical, rap. For those who don’t know it, it awaits you patiently; for those who do, it welcomes you back, again and again.

James Kaplan, a 2012 Guggenheim fellow, is a novelist, journalist, and biographer. His next book will be an examination of the world-changing creative partnership and tangled friendship of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

[projazznet]

Charles Mingus – Oh Yeah

by Atlantic Records. It was recorded in 1961, and features Mingus (usually known to play bass) singing on three of the cuts and playing piano throughout. Allmusic awarded the album five stars and reviewer Steve Huey wrote: “Oh Yeah is probably the most offbeat Mingus album ever, and that’s what makes it so vital.” Charles Mingus – piano and vocals Rahsaan Roland Kirk – flute, siren, tenor saxophone, manzello, and stritch Booker Ervin – tenor saxophone Jimmy Knepper – trombone Doug Watkins – bass Dannie Richmond – drums

[jpbjazz]

LÉGENDES DU JAZZ

MAX ROACH, LE BATTEUR ACTIVISTE Né le 10 janvier 1924 dans le township de Newland, dans le comté de Pasquotank, en Caroline du Nord, Maxwell Lemuel Roach était le fils d’Alphonse et Cressie Roach. Max avait quatre ans lorsque sa famille était déménagée dans le quartier de Bedford-Stuyvesant, près de Brooklyn. Sa mère étant chanteuse de gospel, Max avait baigné très vite dans un environnement musical. Après avoir joué du bugle (flugelhorn) dans les parades, Roach avait commencé à apprendre le piano à l’age de huit ans. Deux ans plus tard, il était batteur dans des groupes gospel. Roach venait tout juste de décroché son diplôme au Boys High School de Brooklyn lorsqu’il avait été invité à remplacer Sonny Greer avec l’orchestre de Duke Ellington qui se produisait alors au Paramount Theater de Manhattan. Il avait aussi joué au Georgie Jay’s Tap Room, où il avait accompagné son camarade d’école Cecil Payne. Roach avait fait ses débuts sur disque en décembre 1943 avec Coleman Hawkins.

Plusieurs batteurs de jazz avaient influencé le jeu de Roach, en particulier Philly Joe Jones. Roach expliquait: "Jo Jones was the first drummer I heard who played broken rhythms. I listened to him over and over again. But a lot of people inspired me. Chick Webb was a tremendous soloist. There was Sonny Greer, Cozy Cole, and Sid Catlett, who incorporated this hi-hat and ride cymbal style. Then I heard Kenny Clarke. He exemplified personality and did more with the instrument. It affected me."

Après avoir joué avec Benny Carter, Roach avait connu un des tournants de sa carrière au début des années 1940 en jouant avec Charlie Parker et Dizzy Gillespie dans des clubs comme le Monroe’s Uptown House (dont il était devenu le batteur maison en 1942) et la Minton’s Playhouse de New York.

Roach avait été un des premiers batteurs avec Kenny Clarke à adopter le style bebop. Roach avait joué dans les groupes de Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell et Miles Davis. C’est avec Parker que Roach avait réalisé certains de ses plus enregistrements les plus novateurs, notamment pour les disques Savoy en novembre 1945, lors d’une session qui avait marqué un point tournant dans l’histoire du jazz. Le travail de Roach avec le trio de Bud Powell avait été particulièrement acclamé par la critique. Roach avait décrit ainsi sa collaboration avec Parker: "Everything was on the edge with Bird, you never knew what he was going to do musically, but it always worked out."

Roach, qui avait toujours apprécié la musique des Caraïbes, s’était rendu à Haïti à la fin des années 1940 afin d’étudier avec le batteur traditionnel Ti Roro. En 1949, il avait également participé à l’enregistrement de l’album ‘’Birth of the Cool’’ de Miles Davis.

UNE RENOMMÉE CROISSANTE

Roach avait étudié les percussions classiques et la composition à la Manhattan School of Music de 1950 à 1953, où il avait décroché un baccalauréat en musique. En 1990, la Manhattan School of Music lui avait décerné un doctorat honorifique. Roach avait d’abord envisagé de compléter une majeure en percussions, mais il s’était ravisé après qu’un professeur lui ait déclaré que sa technique laissait à désirer. Comme Roach l’avait expliqué avec humour: “The way he wanted me to play would have been fine if I’d been after a career in a symphony orchestra, but it wouldn’t have worked on 52nd Street.”

En 1952, Roach avait co-fondé les disques Debut avec le contrebassiste Charles Mingus. Il s’agissait d’une des première compagnie de disques de l’histoire à être entièrement gérée par des artistes. C’est Mingus lui-même qui avait enregistré le célèbre concert du 15 mai 1953 à la salle Massey Hall de Toronto. Le concert mettait en vedette Roach, Mingus, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell et Dizzy Gillespie. Les disques Debut avaient également publié un album intitulé ‘’Percussion Discussion’’, une improvisation libre entre une batterie et une contrebasse. À la fin de 1953, Roach avait décidé de s’établir dans la région de Los Angeles, après avoir obtenu un contrat pour remplacer Shelly Manne au sein des Lighthouse All Stars.

En 1954, Roach avait formé un quintet avec le trompettiste Clifford Brown, le saxophoniste ténor Harold Land, le pianiste Richie Powell (le frère de Bud Powell) et le contrebassiste George Morrow. Lorsque Land avait quitté le groupe l’année suivante, il avait été remplacé par Sonny Rollins. Le quintet était un bon exemple du style hard bop qui avait aussi été popularisé par Art Blakey et Horace Silver. Roach avait participé plus tard à l’enregistrement des albums ‘’Saxophone Colossus’’ et ‘’Freedom Suite’’ de Rollins.

Le quintet de Roach et Brown est considéré comme une des meilleures formations de jazz de l’histoire aux côtés des Hot Five et des Hot Seven de Louis Armstrong et des quintets de Charlie Parker et Miles Davis. Au cours des huit années suivantes, la réputation de Roach n’avait que croître. Durant cette période, Roach avait accompagné plusieurs artistes émergents comme Bud Powell, Sonny Stitt et Miles Davis. Malheureusement, Clifford Brown et Richie Powell étaient morts dans un accident de voiture en Pennsylvanie en juin 1956. La mort de Brown et de Powell avait plongé Roach dans la dépression et l’alcoolisme. Il avait fallu plusieurs années à Roach pour s’en remettre.

Le premier album que Roach avait enregistré après le décès de Brown et Powell était intitulé ‘’Max Roach + 4.’’ Après la mort de Brown et Powell, Roach avait continué de diriger des groupes de petite taille. Son nouveau groupe était composé de Kenny Dorham (il a été remplacé plus tard par Booker Little) à la trompette, de George Coleman au saxophone ténor et de Ray Bryant au piano. Grand innovateur, Roach avait élargi la forme standard du hard bop en utilisant des rythmes de 3|4 sur son album de 1957 intitulé ‘’Jazz in 3|4 Time.’’ À la même époque, Roach avait enregistré une série d’albums pour les disques EmArcy qui mettaient en vedette les frères Stanley et Tommy Turrentine.

En 1955, Roach avait accompagné la chanteuse Dinah Washington en concert et en studio. Le concert de Roach avec Washington au festival de jazz de Newport de 1958 avait été filmé. Quant à l’album live de 1954 ‘’Dinah Jams’’, il est considéré comme un des meilleurs disques de jazz de tous les temps.

UN ARTISTE ENGAGÉ

Particulièrement impliqué dans le mouvement des droits civiques et opposé au racisme sous toutes ses formes, Roach avait été invité à participer en 1960 aux célébrations entourant le 100e anniversaire de la proclamation d’émancipation d’Abraham Lincoln. La réponse de Roach ne s’était pas fait attendre: il avait enregistré ‘’We Insist !’’ (sous-titré ‘’Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite’’), un album particulièrement revendicateur dans lequel il avait chanté en compagnie de son épouse de l’époque Abbey Lincoln sur des paroles écrites par Oscar Brown Jr. Pour Roach, la carrière de musicien de jazz était indissociable de la lutte contre le racisme. Il expliquait: “I will never again play anything that does not have social significance. We American jazz musicians of African descent have proved beyond all doubt that we’re master musicians of our instruments. Now what we have to do is employ our skill to tell the dramatic story of our people and what we’ve been through.”

En 1962, Roach avait enregistré ‘’Money Jungle’’, un album en trio avec Charles Mingus et Duke Ellington. L’album est aujourd’hui considéré comme un des meilleurs enregistrements en trio de l’histoire du jazz.

Au cours des années 1970, Roach avait formé M’Boom, un ensemble de percussions. Tous les membres de la formation participaient aux compositions et jouaient de plusieurs instruments. Parmi les membres du groupe, on relevait Fred King, Joe Chambers, Warren Smith, Freddie Waits, Roy Brooks, Omar Clay, Ray Mantilla, Francisco Mora et Eli Fountain.

Impliqué de longue date dans l’enseignement du jazz, Roach avait été recruté en 1971 par le chancelier de l’Université du Massachusetts à Amherst, Randolph Bromery. Premier musicien de jazz à enseigner au niveau universitaire, Roach avait contribué à établir une majeure en jazz dans cette université. Roach avait enseigné dans cette institution jusqu’au milieu des années 1990.

Au début des années 1980, Roach avait commencé à se produire en solo, ce qui avait contribué à démontrer que l’utilisation de plusieurs instruments de percussion par un seul artiste pouvait répondre aux besoins d’un concert en solo tout en comblant entièrement les goûts du public. Roach avait composé des pièces inoubliables pour ses concerts en solo. Un album live avait même été enregistré par l’étiquette japonaise Baystate. L’un des concerts en solo de Roach est disponible sur vidéo, et contient les prises de l’album ‘’Chattahoochee Red’’, qui mettait en vedette un quartet composé du saxophoniste ténor Odeon Pope, du trompettiste Cecil Bridgewater et du contrebassiste Calvin Hill.

Roach avait également enregistré quelques albums en duo. La plupart de ces enregistrements sont composés d’improvisations libres avec des musiciens d’avant-garde comme Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp et Abdullah Ibrahim. Sur un de ces duos, on entendait même Roach improviser sur le célèbre discours ‘’I have a Dream’’ de Martin Luther King. Roach avait aussi enregistré des duos plus traditionnels avec Dizzy Gillespie et Mal Waldron.

Dans les années 1980, Roach avait également composé de la musique pour le théatre, notamment sur des pièces de Sam Shepard. Roach avait d’ailleurs été directeur musical d’un festival organisé en hommage à Shepard. Intitulé ‘’ShepardSets’’, le festival avait été présenté au MaMa Experimental Theatre Club en 1984. Le festival comprenait les pièces ‘’Black Dog Beast Bait’’, ‘’Angel City’’ et ‘’Suicide in B Flat.’’ En 1985, George Ferenz avait publié ‘’Max Roach Live at La Ma Ma: A Multimedia Collaboration’’, un enregistrement en concert qui reproduisait la performance de Roach dans le cadre du festival.

Grand innovateur, Roach était tellement audacieux qu’il créait constamment de nouveaux contextes pour ses performances, ce qui avait souvent donné lieu à la formation de groupes exceptionnels. L’un de ces groupes était le Double Quartet. Ce dernier était formé des membres de son quartet régulier, à la seule exception que Tyrone Brown avait remplacé Hill à la contrebasse.

Un autre des groupes de Roach était le So What Brass Quintet, un groupe à l’instrumentation inusitée qui était composé de cinq cuivres (deux trompettes, un trombone, un cor français et un tuba) qui étaient accompagnés par Max Roach à la batterie, sans instruments à cordes ni bassiste. Le groupe comprenait Cecil Bridgewater, Frank Gordon, Eddie Henderson, Rod McGaha, Steve Turre, Delfeayo Marsalis, Robert Stewart, Tony Underwood, Marshall Sealy, Mark Taylor et Dennis Jeter.

Loin de se contenter d’élargir ses frontières musicales, Roach avait passé les années 1980 et 1990 à rechercher de nouvelles formes d’expression musicale et de performance. Il avait même joué un concerto avec le Boston Symphony Orchestra. Roach avait aussi joué et composé avec la chorale gospel de Walter White et les John Motley Singers, en plus de se produire avec des compagnies de danse comme le Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, la Dianne McIntyre Dance Company et la Bill T. Jones|Arnie Zane Dance Company. Roach a également collaboré à un concert de hip hop mettant en vedette Fab Five Freddy et les New York Break Dancers. Lorsqu’on demandait à Roach pourquoi il évoluait dans un univers aussi éclaté, il répondait que selon lui, il y avait toujours existé une relation étroite entre le travail de ces jeunes artistes de couleur et l’art qu’il avait pratiqué durant toute sa vie.

Roach avait également fondé le Max Roach Double Quartet, une combinaison de son propre quartet avec le Uptown String Quartet dirigé par sa fille Maxine.

Même si Roach s’était produit avec plusieurs sortes de groupes dans le cadre de différents styles musicaux, il avait toujours continué de jouer du jazz. Après avoir joué avec le Beijing Trio, avec le pianiste Jon Jang et le joueur d’erhu (une guitare à deux cordes orientale) Jeibing Chen, Roach avait enregistré un dernier disque avec le trompettiste Clark Terry. Amis de longue date, Roach et Terry Ils avaient souvent travaillé ensemble, tant en duo qu’en quartet. Roach avait livré sa dernière performance publique lors du 50e anniversaire du concert de Massey Hall. En 1994, il avait également collaboré à l’album ‘’Burning for Buddy’’ du batteur Neal Peart de l’ancien groupe de rock progressif Rush.

DÉCÈS ET POSTÉRITÉ

Au début des années 2000, Roach avait dû ralentir ses activités à la suite de problèmes de santé. Atteint de la maladie d’Alzheimer, Max Roach est mort le matin du 16 août 2007 à New York à l’âge de quatre-vingt-trois ans. Roach avait passé ses dernières années au Mill Basin Sunrise à Brooklyn. Il laissait dans le deuil cinq enfants: deux garçons (Daryl et Raoul) et trois filles (Maxine, Ayo et Dara). Roach avait quatre petits-enfants: Kyle Maxwell Roach, Kadar Elijah Roach, Maxe Samiko Hinds et Skye Sophia Sheffield. Son gendre Fab Five Freddy, un pionnier du hip hop, était réalisateur et artiste. Souvent comparé à Art Blakey dans le cadre des concours couronnant le meilleur batteur, Max Roach avait été un des musiciens les plus innovateurs de l’histoire du jazz.

Plus de 1900 personnes avaient assisté aux funérailles de Roach à l’église Riverside le 24 août 2007. Roach a été inhumé au cimetière Woodlawn dans le Bronx. Dans son hommage funéraire, le lieutenant-gouverneur de l’État de New York, David Paterson, avait comparé le courage de Roach à celui de héros comme Paul Robeson, Harriet Tubman et Malcolm X. Paterson avait déclaré: ‘’No one ever wrote a bad thing about Max Roach's music or his aura until 1960, when he and Charlie Mingus protested the practices of the Newport Jazz Festival."

Roach s’est marié trois fois. Roach avait épousé sa première femme Mildred en 1949. Roach avait eu deux enfants avec Mildred, un fils, Daryl Keith, et une fille, Maxine. En 1956, Roach avait rencontré la chanteuse Barbara Jai Johnson qui lui avait donné un autre fils, Raoul Jordu. Le couple ne semble jamais avoir été marié. De 1962 à 1970, Roach avait été marié à la chanteuse Anne Marie ‘’Abbey’’ Lincoln, qui l’avait accompagné sur plusieurs de ses albums. En 1971, la troisième épouse de Roach, Janus Adams Roach, avait donné naissance à deux jumelles, Ayodele Nieyela et Dara Rashida. Sur le plan religieux, Roach s’identifiait lui-même comme musulman depuis une entrevue qu’il avait accordée à Art Taylor au début des années 1970.

Le batteur Stan Levey avait un jour décrit l’importance de Roach en affirmant: "I came to realize that, because of him, drumming no longer was just time, it was music." En 1966, sur son album intitulé ‘’Drums Unlimited’’ (qui comprenait quelques pièces qui étaient entièrement composées de solos de batterie), Roach avait fait de la batterie un instrument à part entière en démontrant que celle-ci pouvait être utilisée comme un instrument solo capable d’exécuter des thèmes, des variations et des phrases rythmiques cohérentes. Roach décrivait d’ailleurs lui-même sa conception de la musique comme une ‘’création de son organisé.’’

Max Roach a remporté plusieurs prix et récompenses au cours de sa carrière. En 1988, Roach avait décroché une bourse de la MacArthur Foundation, devenant ainsi le premier musicien de jazz à recevoir cet honneur. Roach avait été élu Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France l’année suivante. Roach a aussi été nommé Jazz Master par la National Endowment of the Arts en 1984. En plus d’avoir remporté à deux reprises le Grand Prix du Disque de France, Roach a été admis au temple de la Renommée de l’International Percussive Art Society ainsi qu’au Down Beat Hall of Fame. Roach a également été intronisé au sein du North Carolina Music Hall of Fame en 2009. Roach avait aussi été nommé ‘’Jazz Master’’ par l’Université Harvard.

Roach était également récipiendaire de huit doctorats honorifiques. En 1986, la paroisse de Lambeth à Londres en Angleterre avait nommé un parc en l’honneur de Roach. Le batteur avait d’ailleus inauguré le parc lui-même en mars de la même année à l’invitation du Greater London Council. Lors de ce voyage, Roach s’était produit en concert au Royal Albert Hall avec le batteur ghanéen Ghanaba et plusieurs autres.

c- 2023, tous droits réservés, Les Productions de l’Imaginaire historique

SOURCES :

KEEPNEWS, Peter. ‘’Max Roach, a Founder of Modern Jazz, Dies at 83.’’ New York Times, 16 août 2007. ’Max Roach.’’ Wikipedia, 2022. ‘’Max Roach.’’ Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2022. ‘’Max Roach.’’ National Endowment for the Arts, 2023. ‘’Max Roach Biography.’’ Net Industries, 2023. ‘’Roach, Max.’’ Encyclopedia.com, 18 mai 2018.

[coldcanyon]

this week: nina simone, lots of depression-era blues, marcel khalife, mingus plays piano!!

[dustedmagazine]

Kris Davis — Diatom Ribbons Live At The Village Vanguard (Pyroclastic)

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

The bio on Kris Davis’ website borrows a line from the New York Times which described the Canadian pianist as the beacon that told listeners where in New York City one should go on any given night. Diatom Ribbons Live At The Village Vanguard proposes a more expansive understanding of her relationship to jazz, because the ensemble’s music is a zone where Davis’s notions about was worth hearing in the 20th century gets processed and beamed out into the 21st.

The first project’s first, self-titled iteration wasn’t really the work of a band as much as it was the manifestation of a concept. The musicians at its core were Davis on piano, Trevor Dunn on electric bass, Terri Lynne Carrington on drums and Val Jeanty wielding turntables as a source of sampled speech, natural sounds and scratches. They were supplemented by six other musicians playing electric guitar, saxophones, vibes and voice, who enabled Davis to incorporate blues, rock, hip-hop and classical elements into her already-inclusive vision of the jazz continuum. The two-disc Diatom Ribbons was ambitious, but also a bit exhausting to negotiate.

This similarly dimensioned successor comes from a weekend engagement at the Village Vanguard. The latest material, which hinges around a three-part “Bird Suite,” and the ensemble’s lack of augmentation — besides the core group, there are no horns and just one guitarist, Julian Lage — results in a more cohesive statement of Davis’s thesis, which echoes a point that Charles Mingus already made a long, long time ago; you do Charlie Parker no honor by trying to play like him. He is the namesake of the three-part “Bird Suite,” which is the album’s center of gravity. Buttressed by Jeanty’s snatches of speeches by Sun Ra, Stockhausen, and other visionaries, as well as liberally reinterpreted tunes by Wayne Shorter, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and Geri Allen, the music seems to be arguing that today’s jazz musician, like Bird, need to deal with everything that’s happened, and then come up with something personal.

To that end, Davis makes a hash of old, dualistic notions like inside/outside, improvised/composed or jazz + (one other genre) hybrids. Properly prepared, hash is pretty tasty, and that’s the case with this overflowing platter of pristine lyricism, bebop-to-free structural abstractions, shifting rhythmic matrices and multi-signal broadcasts of sound and voice. This is the good stuff, Davis seems to be saying, and a music maker following a jazz trajectory needs to deal with it all. But, while the music of the Diatom Ribbons ensemble is way more creatively inclusive than all those bebop copycats Mingus used to rail against, it’s a highly personal reordering of what is known, not a total paradigm shift into the new. Come to think of it, however, Mingus’ own undeniably magnificent accomplishments were more on the order of what Davis is doing here than Charlie Parker’s transformation of the music of his time.  

Bill Meyer

[arterrorist]

The traveling record shop has visited my town for this weekend, so it was good ol’ crate diggin’ time. Went there twice, just in case. As you can see on the second photo, it was a good idea :)

Here are my findings:

1. Echo and The Bunnymen „Crocodiles” I was lacking their debut in my collection, hence was more than happy to fill the gap. They are a bit raw yet here, but already at home with their style.

2. Gerry Mulligan „The age of steam”from ’71 shows him on a funkier side of things. It’s very, very good. Also he is in a good company here (incl.: Bud Shank, Bob Brookmeyer, Harry „Sweets” Edison, Joe Porcaro).

3. Astrud Gilberto/ Walter Wanderley „A certain smile, a certain sadness”. Astrud and Walter were both present at the birth of Bossa so it’s no surprise their pairing brought us fine, jazzy and classy album full of first rate Bossa Nova.

4. „Mingus Quintet meets Cat Anderson”. It’s a ’72 bootleg from Berlin (good quality) Two side-long tracks and mindblowing versality from all the musicians, they swing and fool around, effortlessly flow from dixie to avant (jungle-style muted horns extravaganza included). Brilliant stuff!

5. Nat „King” Cole and his trio „After midnight”, which is one of his most jazz records, when he sings and plays piano, with a really swingin’ backing band.

6. Dr. John, The Night Tripper „Remedies”. It captures The Good Doctor still deep in his New Orlean voodoo phase, which I love.

[theloniousbach]

TWO QUARTETS AT SMALLS

EVITAR SLIVNIK with Dayna Stephens, David Kikoski, and Alexander Claffy, 6 NOVEMBER 2024, 10:30 pm set

TIM ARMACOST with Bruce Barth, Ugonna Okegwa, and Adam Cruz, 8 NOVEMBER 2024, 7:30 pm set

Good old tenor sax/piano/bass/drums lineups and again the bands the leaders assembled drew me into their sets. I have seen EVITAR SLIVNIK on drums before, contributing skillfully to worthy ensembles. He had Dayna Stephens’ reeds in particular, but Alexander Claffy is more than reliable on bass as is David Kikoski though I often find him just too unvariably big and busy. It was TIM ARMACOST who was new to me but he had Bruce Barth and Ugonna Okegwa. Adam Cruz was, like Slivnik, the reliable but overlooked member in the band. Such is often the fate of drummers, as important as they are.

Good old ensembles playing good old tunes: SLIVNIK drew on Coltrane, Dizzy, a standard a la Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Corea and Walton while ARMACOST played three Monk tunes and two originals (one tune had a bar for drums every chorus which was on first hearing clever, not merely clever).

But, once again, I’m cranky and not just because these next day streams on YouTube have ever more intrusive ads to the point that I’ll explore the feasibility of YouTube Premium but more likely just wait a few days until shows get archived on the SmallsLive website.

But there’s other crankiness.

Kikoski continues to strike me as if he can’t ratchet down from a regular gig in the Mingus Organization’s larger ensembles. There I can imagine his energy and roar is valuable, but even there some dynamic modulation helps. Barth was much subtler with sympathetic accompaniment and clever solos, but he’s not the pianist for a Monk heavy set. He nailed the melodies but smoothed over the harmonies at least a little and smoothed over the rhythms quite a bit. ARMACOST was better at the rhythmic quirkiness but he took Ugly Beauty out of waltz time, but he and Barth were quite sympathetic and he has a nice midregister approach. Under Kikoski’s prodding, Stephens was grittier than I often hear him and was on tenor exclusively.

I’m glad I caught these sets and thought about them in relation to one another. It’s worthwhile even when there are things in the sets that rub me the wrong way.

[kinsey3furry300]

Given how good improv on a banjo sounds, and how nice it sounds played with piano, double bass, and brass, it's a pity there aren't more banjos in blues and jazz music. Could you imagine how hard a song would slap if it had the combined energies of Earl Scruggs and Charles Mingus?

[cdbrainrecords]

Mingus* - Mingus Plays Piano (Spontaneous Compositions And Improvisations) (LP, Album, RE)

Vinyl(VG++) Sleeve(VG++) Insert(VG++) Obi(VG++) // with Obi 帯つき / No scratches on Vinyl, VG+ or better. in great shape / / nice sleeve, more than VG+ conditions, except for some small foxing spots on inside of the gatefold. / / コンディション　盤 : Very Good Plus (VG+) コンディション　ジャケット : Very Good Plus (VG+) コンディションの表記について　  [ M > M- > VG+ > VG > G+ > G > F > P ] レーベル : Impulse!,ABC Impulse! –…

[burlveneer-music]

Dezron Douglas - ATALAYA - double bassist’s new quartet set, straight-ahead to spiritual (International Anthem)

ATALAYA is new work by bassist Dezron Douglas, and it is alive. That is, ‘alive’ in all the ways that jazz is at its best – as a pure and personal expression of Black Music channeled through time-honored traditions by a group of musicians who practice sonic coherence through musical unity. As Dezron puts it in the opening statement of his liner notes for the album: “Mysticism, Magic, Faith, Love, Power, Discernment! These are words that embody the creative process of Music.” With Emilio Modeste on saxes, George Burton on keys, and Joe Dyson Jr. on drums, Dezron’s crew summons the dynamism of Coltrane’s classic Quartet, or Dave Holland’s Quintet on Prime Directive, or Charles Mingus on Nostalgia In Times Square… swinging virtuosically and firing on all 4 cylinders. But there’s nothing remotely revisionist here – Dezron and his quartet embody poetry, presence, artistic and emotional clarity in every note they play. Free and dissonant, sweet and consonant, sweeping and pure… This is the band you hope is playing every time you walk into a club.  Dezron Douglas – basses George Burton – piano and rhodes Joe Dyson Jr. – drums Emilio Modeste – saxophones Melvis Santa – vocals and percussion on “Wheeping Birch” Artwork by Adama Coulibaly.

[sheetmusiclibrarypdf]

Silence - by Charlie Haden Piano solo

Silence - by Charlie Haden Piano solo with sheet music

https://vimeo.com/490669458

Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. In the late 1950s, he was an original member of the ground-breaking Ornette Coleman Quartet. Haden revolutionized the harmonic concept of bass playing in jazz. German musicologist Joachim-Ernst Berendt wrote that Haden's "ability to create serendipitous harmonies by improvising melodic responses to Coleman's free-form solos (rather than sticking to predetermined harmonies) was both radical and mesmerizing. His virtuosity lies…in an incredible ability to make the double bass 'sound out'. Haden cultivated the instrument's gravity as no one else in jazz. He is a master of simplicity which is one of the most difficult things to achieve." Haden played a vital role in this revolutionary new approach, evolving a way of playing that sometimes complemented the soloist and sometimes moved independently. In this respect, as did his predecessor bassists Jimmy Blanton and Charles Mingus, Haden helped liberate the bassist from a strictly accompanying role to becoming a more direct participant in group improvisation. In 1969, he formed his first band, the Liberation Music Orchestra, featuring arrangements by pianist Carla Bley. In the late 1960s, he became a member of pianist Keith Jarrett's trio, quartet and quintet. In the 1980s, he formed his band, Quartet West. Haden also often recorded and performed in a duo setting, with musicians including guitarist Pat Metheny and pianist Hank Jones. Read the full article

[garudabluffs]

'Hello there, I'm Hazel Scott': Jazz's unsung artist-activist

Jazz Night shines a light on the artistry and activism of pianist and singer Hazel Scott, and the efforts to recover her legacy.

If you've been on social media these past few years, you might have seen a video of Hazel Scott, without knowing it was Hazel Scott. In the clip, she sits poised between two pianos — one white, one black — the back of her spotless white gown showing off a boldly deep V-cut. She captivatingly plays those pianos simultaneously. Her fingers perform fox trots and quicksteps across the keys, showcasing just some of what made her a thrilling performer. But there is more to Scott than that one stunning display of her skills.

The Juilliard-educated child prodigy counted noted jazz icons Art Tatum, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus among her mentors and contemporaries. Scott featured at iconic venues like Café Society and Carnegie Hall, on the radio and Broadway stages, and commanded both top dollar and dignified roles in Hollywood in the 1930s and '40s. Scott's stardom culminated in her becoming the first Black person to host a television show in 1950, setting the stage for Black hosts like Nat King Cole and Oprah Winfrey.

So why is Scott likely unfamiliar to the casual jazz fan, unlike those mentors and contemporaries? At a time when it was dangerous to simply exist as a Black woman in America, Scott audaciously fought against segregation and spoke against the Sen. Joseph McCarthy-era Red Scare of the 1950s, all to the detriment of her career. In this Jazz Night in America video, we shine a light on the artistry and activism of the pianist and singer, and the efforts to recover her legacy.

LISTEN 7:40 https://www.npr.org/2024/04/09/1241598862/-hazel-scott-jazz-unsung-artist-activist