Jazz Profiles: Metropole Orchestra - A Tribute to Joe Zawinul

Woody Herman: Blue Flame Documentary DVD

Boy, I sure miss Woody Herman, no less so after viewing Graham Carter’s brilliantly conceived and executed documentary DVD - Woody Herman: Blue Flame – Portrait of a Jazz Legend.

Graham is the owner-operator of Jazzed Media through which he periodically issues CD’s by and DVD’s about Jazz musicians like composer-arranger-big band leader Bill Holman, alto saxophonists Phi Woods and Bud Shank, tenor saxophonist and big band leader Don Menza, trumpeter and big band leader Carl Saunders, vibraphonist and big band leader Terry Gibbs, and vocalists Jackie Cain and Roy Kral and Irene Kral.

You can review his catalogue as well as locate order information by visiting Graham’s website at www.jazzedmedia.com.

I have been a fan of Graham and his efforts on behalf on Jazz for many years. I have no idea why he keeps issuing such high quality digital products devoted to Jazz subjects and personalities, but I suspect that in large measure, what he does is a labor of love as very few people have ever become wealthy due to their involvement with Jazz.

Year-after-year, Graham skillfully scripts, produces and narrates Jazz documentaries and also produces recordings of high audio quality and artistic merit.

By way of analogy, he reminds me of the developers and builders who constructed the attached homes in what is commonly referred to as “The Avenues,” the western part of San Francisco where most of the people who work in the city’s hotels, restaurants and shops live and raise their families.

After the land was purchased and the construction funds were borrowed from the bank, these homes were generally put up two at a time. When both houses were sold, the real estate developers would use the funds from the sale to start the process all over again.

These homes, which have come to be known as “railroad Victorians,” were custom-crafted in much the same way that Graham approaches his projects.

The railroad Victorians were made for working people and their families and Graham’s CD’s and DVD’s are made to honor the Jazz musicians who make the music and the fans who appreciate it. He covers his costs through his sales and uses some of his proceeds to pay for his next project.

The comprehensive scale and attention to detail that he applies to his films, in particular, makes them really deserving of a wider audience than one made up of Jazz fans alone.

Graham’s Jazz documentaries are as much social and cultural histories as they are musical tributes and they will offer a lasting legacy of knowledge and information to future generations curious about the subject of Jazz in the 20^th century.

Michael Bloom, whose firm is handling the media relations for Woody Herman: Blue Flame – Portrait of a Jazz Legend, has prepared a fact sheet to accompany the DVD’s release and its details are copied below.

As usual, Michael has put together an informative synopsis that covers the significance of Woody’s career and what you can expect to see as you view the documentary DVD.

In addition to this information, I wanted to share some personal thoughts and feelings about Graham’s film.

After viewing it, my primary impression was how little I really knew about Woody Herman’s contributions to Jazz over his fifty years as a bandleader from 1936-86.

Some Jazz fans grew up with Woody’s various bands – often referred to as “Herds – I didn’t. I came in somewhere in the middle and never knew much about Woody’s origins in the business. And make no mistake about it, Woody was in the Jazz “business,” and, as Graham explains, it’s a good thing he was as a lot of young Jazz musicians got their start in the music thanks to Woody perseverance with the business side of things.

The trials and tribulations that Woody endured over the years are all portrayed in the film.

Woody’s half century in Jazz is an amazing accomplishment from a commercial standpoint, let alone an artistic one.

And while it was never easy for Woody [or anyone else, for that matter] to make a buck in the business, some of the tragic circumstances that undercut and dogged him throughout his career are no less painful to recall 25 years after his death in 1987.

Yet, Graham never makes Woody an object of sympathy. Instead, he emphasizes a term of endearment that many used when referring to him – “Road Father.”

Graham helps us understand that what Woody endured on behalf of the many musicians who were on his bands over the years are what the patriarch of any family is traditionally expected to undertake, let alone withstand.

Woody protected his family of musicians: he provided for them, nurtured them and helped them grow and develop both as people and as artists.

One look at the following chapter sequence tells you all you need to know about the comprehensiveness of Graham’s movie.

- Opening Title – “Four Brothers”

- Road Father

- The Early Years, 1913-1935

- The Band That Plays The Blues, 1936-1943

- The First Herd, 1944-1946 – “Who Dat Up Dere?”

- The Second Herd, 1947-1949 – “I’ve Got News For You,” “Lemon Drop,” “Early Autumn”

- The Third Herd 1950-1955

- The Fourth Herd 1956-1959 – “The Preacher,” “Your Father’s Moustache”

- The Swinging Herd, 1960-1967 – “Caldonia,” “Woody’s Boogaloo”

- The Thundering Herd, 1968-1979 – “Blues in the Night”

- The Young Thundering Herd, 1980-1986

- Early Autumn, 1987

- The Chopper – The Legacy of Woody Herman

Watch them in chronological order or click on each chapter individually and you are in for a celebratory feast of music, commentary, interviews, photographs, film and TV clips including many with Woody himself modestly reflecting on some of the highlights of his career.

And although it’s main theme has to do with one of the central figures in contemporary Jazz history, Graham has put together a heartwarming and enduring story that will reach out to anyone interested in the human experience.

The technical part of the film never intrudes.

It’s a fun film to watch and is an example of the informal “art” of storytelling at its best.

Graham allows Woody’s story to unfolds at a pace that is an entertaining as it is educational.

Fortunately, Jazz has had a number of caring, conscientious and talented people “tell its story” over the years.

Thanks to his work on Woody Herman: Blue Flame – Portrait of a Jazz Legend, let alone the many, other projects that he has undertaken on behalf of the music, you can add Graham Carter’s name to that list of notables.

"WOODY HERMAN: BLUE FLAME"

JAZZED MEDIA'S LATEST DOCUMENTARY TRIBUTE

“In recognition of the Centennial celebration of Woody Herman's birthday in 2013, Jazzed Media will release "Woody Herman: Blue Flame", a feature length documentary film by award winning producer & director Graham Carter, produced in association with The Woody Herman Society. It provides an in-depth look at Herman's 50+-year career as a big band jazz leader and features rare film and video performances of The Woody Herman Orchestra including broadcasts from The Ed Sullivan Show and Iowa Public Television.

Woody Herman led his big band for over 50 years, starting in 1936 and all the way to his death in 1987. His story is one that parallels the changes in jazz, from the Swing Era in the 1930s through bebop and cool jazz in the 40s and 50s, and the emergence of jazz/rock fusion in the 60s and 70s (Woody returned to his straight-ahead jazz roots in the 1980s). Considered one of the greatest big band jazz leaders, Herman is fondly remembered by his fans and by the many musicians and friends associated with his various bands.

Herman was also responsible for helping bring to fame many jazz stars who got their start on his band - to name only a few: Pete Candoli, Conte Candoli, Flip Phillips, Neal Hefti, Terry Gibbs, Stan Getz, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Sal Nistico, Bill Chase, Frank Tiberi, Alan Broadbent, Joe Lovano, and Jeff Hamilton. Essential to the forward-thinking and always contemporary music of the Herds were some of the finest jazz composers/arrangers of the past seven decades including Ralph Burns, Neal Hefti, Shorty Rogers, Gene Roland, Gerry Mulligan, Bill Holman, Nat Pierce, John Fedchock, Gary Anderson, John Oddo, and Alan Broadbent.

DVD includes:

Documentary film includes almost 400 rare photographs and images of Woody and his various bands over a 50+-year career. Features interviews with 35 musicians and jazz historians associated with Woody Herman (including Phil Wilson, Joe Lovano, Terry Gibbs, Jeff Hamilton, Sonny Igoe, Frank Tiberi, Dr. Herb Wong, Dan Morgenstern, and Bill Clancy) and extensive filmed interviews with Woody. Film and video performances of the Woody Herman Orchestra are also featured. DVD Total Viewing Time: 110: 00.

Jazzed Media: Dedicated to releasing new and previously unreleased jazz media of the highest possible musical integrity and production standards.

Jazzed Media, a jazz record label and film production company, was founded in the Denver, Colorado metropolitan area in 2002. Jazzed Media's owner Graham Carter is a multi-Grammy nominated record producer (The Bill Holman Band "Live" and The Bill Holman Band "Hommage") and award winning jazz filmmaker (Phil Woods: A Life in E Flat, Bud Shank: Against the Tide, and Stan Kenton: Artistry in Rhythm). Jazzed Media owner Graham Carter has recently produced & directed a documentary film on big band jazz legend Woody Herman titled Woody Herman: Blue Flame.

Jazzed Media offers both newly recorded jazz sessions and historic recorded jazz not available previously. Newly recorded jazz offerings are performed by the world's greatest jazz musicians coupled with state of the art recording facilities. Historic jazz recordings are thoroughly restored to the best sonic condition via computer software programs and dedicated engineering talent. Extensive liner notes and photographs are utilized whenever possible to increase the musical listening experience. A recent

Jazzed Media CD release, Lorraine Feather's Ages, received a 2011 Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Jazzed Media also produces and distributes jazz documentaries utilizing leading edge production techniques and extensive interview segments of jazz greats.

Filmmaker Graham Carter has received the following awards for films released through Jazzed Media:

Phil Woods: A Life in E Flat- Portrait of a Jazz Legend

2005 Telly Awards - Silver 2005 Videographer Awards - Award of Excellence

Bud Shank: Against the Tide- Portrait of a Jazz Legend

2009 EMPixx Awards - Gold Award

2008 Aurora Awards - Gold

2008 Telly Awards - Bronze

2008 Videographer Awards - Award of Distinction

Stan Kenton: Artistry in Rhythm- Portrait of a Jazz Legend

2011 Telly Awards - Bronze

2011 Videographer Awards - Award of Excellence

2011 EMPixx Awards - Platinum Award: Documentary

2011 EMPixx Awards - Platinum Award: Use of Music

www.JazzedMedia.com”

JazzHaus

It’s not everyday that a new Jazz label is announced and certainly even rarer still that such a label will focus on previously un-issued music by Jazz Giants such as Gerry Mulligan, Benny Goodman and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, to name just some artists from the label’s initial release.

Thanks to the information contained in a recently received press release by Michael Bloom Media Relations, it looks as though such a cause for celebration is on its way, March 27, 2012.

For on that date, Naxos of America and ArtHaus Musik will launch JazzHaus with the first quarterly release of CD’s by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, the Gerry Mulligan Sextet and the Benny Goodman Orchestra featuring vocalist Anita O’Day.

The JazzHaus CD/DVD series will include a first quarterly release [March 27] of CDs by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet recorded in performance at Liederhalle, Stuttgart, Germany, March 20, 1969, the Gerry Mulligan Sextet recorded in performance in the same venue on November 22, 1977 and the Benny Goodman Orchestra in performance at Stadthalle-Freiburg, Germany, on October 15, 1959 featuring vocalist Anita O’Day.

According to Michael’s press information, in its future issues, JazzHaus will continue to bring forth audio and video discs featuring “an indefinite number of audio and video jazz programs taken from live radio and television recordings from the archives of Sudwestrundfunk Stuttgart, Baden-Baden and Mainz in southwest

Germany

Jazz broadcasts by Sudwestrundfunk (SWR) started in the summer of 1947 with young impresarios Joachim-Ernst Berendt and Dieter Zimmerle. Today, almost 65 years later, the archives contain about 1,600 audio and more than 350 television recordings of all major modern jazz artists - probably the biggest collection of unpublished live jazz recordings in the world: 3,000 hours - and almost all of it has never been released before. More than 400 ensembles and soloists are listed - many of them recorded three, four, five or more times over the decades.

For the last three years, the JAZZHAUS team has been thoroughly researching the vaults, carefully making the final selections. The old tapes are currently being re-mastered to high-end technology standards and will be released on CD, DVD, vinyl, and as audio /video-on-demand downloads.”

Here’s some additional background information about the project.

Post-War Europe -

Germany

in particular - gave American jazz artists a warm reception. Following the nightmare of Nazism, Deutschland was a devastated country and culturally in ruins. The people warmly welcomed

U.S.

soldiers who brought jazz to the nightclubs of their cities and later the big bands and ensembles to the major venues of their towns.

Many of the performers felt accepted and understood with their art for the first time in their lives - and needless to say, these circumstances improved the quality of their playing. Many of them remained in Europe, finding new homes in Paris, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, and Baden-Baden.

People flocked to the concert halls in Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Mainz, Ludwigshafen, and Sindelfingen. It took the expertise of young Stunde Null jazz editors at the radio stations not only to invite top artists and ensembles but also to ensure excellent audio and (later) video results from the public performances. The superb acoustics of the newly built Liederhalle-Stuttgart turned many performances into an unforgettable experience.

In the vaults, we find exuberant music treasures (to name just a few): a jam session with Duke Ellington, Lester Young and The Modern Jazz Quartet (1954), a riveting recording of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers made shortly after their first Blue Note recording (1958); a Quincy Jones big band television recording (1960).

All major big bands traveled extensively through

Germany

's southwest and set the standard for the radio big bands from Stuttgart and Baden-Baden. Stunning audio recordings feature Dave Brubeck, Gerry Mulligan, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Zoot Sims, Ben Webster, Joe Henderson, Cannonball Adderley, Roland Kirk, Max Roach, Archie Shepp, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, Thelonious Monk, and Eric Dolphy.

Also documented are upcoming European performers like Hans Koller, Albert Mangelsdorff, Klaus Doldinger, Joe Zawinul, Joachim Kiihn, and Attila Zoller. Mainz also holds superb hitherto unknown Volker Kriegel recordings from 1963. From

France

we hear Kenny Clarke, Martial Solal, Andre Hodeir, Barney Wilen, Rene Urtreger, and Pierre Michelot.

All the most influential performers of free jazz and the so-called Third Stream are extensively recorded. We are gripped by the voices of Nina Simone, Carmen McRae, Ella Fitzgerald, Abbey Lincoln, or Cassandra Wilson. Blues artists are featured, with all the leading performers from B.B. King to Olu Dara. We experience the breakthrough of John Mclaughlin, Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Eberhard Weber, Jan Garbarek, Pat Metheny, and Bobby McFerrin and crossover artists like Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.”

Each of the “Legends Live” JazzHaus CD is formatted in a six-pack: a tri-fold paper sleeve with cover art, tray plate information and a photo of the artist by Jorg Becker on the outside and insert notes in English and German plus the disc itself on the inside.

The sound quality of these recordings has to be experienced to be believed. The re-mastering has complemented the original acoustics in which the performances were made to the point that the music almost jumps out at you.

And the artists respond to the obvious adoration that these German audiences put on display by bringing forth a series of first-rate performances. There is nothing like the experience of “live” Jazz and these JazzHaus CDs go a long way toward underscoring this fact.

The late Jazz writer and essayist Mike Zwerin once said that after the Second World War, Jazz went to Europe to keep from dying.

If the music on these JazzHaus CDs is any example, Mike’s argument is well-substantiated as they leave little doubt that Jazz was alive and well in

Germany

from 1959 – 1977.

Recorded live at Liederhalle Stuttgart on March 20,1969 Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (as), Nat Adderley (tp) Joe Zawinul (p, key), Victor Gaskin (b), Roy McCurdy (dr)

Total Time: 60:12

“Adderley achieved immortality in the Miles Davis Quintet with Kind of Blue - and his album Something Else is possibly the best of the Blue Note albums. That was the late 1950s. Ten years later, Adderley was touring Europe with his own quintet and gave a performance at Stuttgart's Liederhalle. Even during the sound check, the musicians must have sensed the concert hall's unique atmosphere; that evening would go down as a landmark performance. From soul jazz, and blues ("Sweet Emma", "Why Am I Treated So Bad"), to free-form contemporariness ("Somewhere") and lollipops infused with canny commerciality ("Work Song", "Walk Tall"), the listener is treated here to the sublime art of the quintet - even at a time when that classic bebop formation was already on the wane.

And then there is Zawinul! If truth be told, it was his concert. A jet-black figure at the keyboard ("Oh Babe"), swinging and quirky on the piano ("Rumpelstiltskin," "The Painted Desert"). A kobold stoking the flames - as if trying to shed the state of hypnosis that had gripped him a month earlier while recording In A Silent Way. Something stopped to make way for the new. Things are getting better. The following year Zawinul formed Weather Report and stormed to worldwide celebrity. But the concert of March 1969 remains: the legacy of a unique quintet. Soulful and swinging, a timeless classic even today.”

Recorded live at Liederhalle-Stuttgart on November 22,1977 Gerry Mulligan (bs), Dave Samuels (vib), Thomas Fay (p) Mike Santiago (g), George Duvivier (b), Bobby Rosengarden (dr) Total Time: 68:32

“The youngest of four brothers, New Yorker Gerry Mulligan spent his teenage years in many different parts of the

United States

, learning in succession to play piano, clarinet, alto, tenor, and finally baritone sax. Together with Gil Evans and Miles Davis, the 20-year-old worked on the revolutionary nonet compositions for Birth of the Cool in 1948. The gangly sandy-haired musician with his big Conn baritone made his recording debut as a leader in 1951 and moved to Los Angeles as arranger for the Stan Kenton Big Band. With Chet Baker, he formed a popular piano-free quartet and worked as a sideman on numerous recording sessions. He never liked the label West Coast Jazz: "My bands would have been successful anywhere."

In 1960, he put together the successful Concert Jazz Band and around 1968 began a sporadic but sustained partnership with Dave Brubeck. In Stuttgart, now aged 50, he was already looking back on a career spanning almost 30 years and was much in demand at that time as a soloist for symphonic saxophone concertos. Mulligan presents his handpicked sextet at the Liederhalle, where the opening number "For An Unfinished Woman" shows that far from being tinged with nostalgia his approach is still a contemporary work in progress - albeit one that never abandoned its Cool School roots. The irrefutable evidence is to be found in inspired, elegant versions of classics such as "Line For Lyons" and "My Funny Valentine", as well as in Mulligan's sense of theatre.”

Recorded live at Stadthalle-Freiburg on October 15,1959 Benny Goodman (cl, arr), Anita O'Day (voc), Russ Freeman (p), Red Norvo (vib), Jack Sheldon (tp), Flip Phillips (ts), Bill Harris (tb), Jerry Dodgion (fl), Jimmy Wyble (g), Red Wootton (b), John Markham (d)

Total Time: 76:07

“Ecstatic acclaim for the King of Swing that Thursday in Freiburg back in October 1959 remains an intoxicating experience. A tight and sprightly band in top swinging form, the elegant tones of Benny Goodman's clarinet and the sensational Anita O'Day. O'Day's sensuality and mellow phrasing in Fats Waller's impudent "Honeysuckle Rose" and Earl Bostic's somewhat frivolous, leisurely version of "Let Me Off Uptown" make these sets spark and crackle with energy even 50 years on.

The recordings reveal the warmth and enthusiasm with which the King of Swing was received on his tour of

Germany

. The tumultuous applause was merely a foretaste of the liberating effect that rock 'n' roll was about to unleash - a new genre which before long would steal the limelight from those in the jazz world who had made it possible. Goodman's orchestra, effectively a band of bandleaders, showcases one of the finest line-ups of the post-war era and underpins the evening's success with solos that are sharp and savored to the full.

Almost a generation separated Jack Sheldon and Jerry Dodgion from Goodman and the idiosyncratic Red Norvo, but the ensemble playing is superb. A real highlight is the medley based on "Not For Me" featuring the scatting O'Day.”

And thanks to the assistance of the crackerjack graphics team at CerraJazz LTD, we are able to be you an example of the music on offer in this series with this video tribute to JazzHaus.

The audio is from the Gerry Mulligan Legends Live CD with Gerry’s sextet performing Duke Ellington’s Satin Doll.

More information about future releases in this wonderful series can be located at www.jazzhaus-label.com.

More Treasure from JazzHaus

"This is the stuff collectors dream of. The numbers induce salivating: a literal trove of never-before-released live jazz recordings dating back to 1947, some 3.000 hours of music. In all, there are 1.600 well-preserved, German-made audio recordings and 350 TV broadcasts by more than 400 artists and groups... That's three down, 1,597 to go. Bring 'em on!"

- Jeff Tamarkin, JazzTimes

With the October 30, 2012 JazzHaus release of 3 more performances from the archives of the Südwestrundfunk [a regional public broadcasting company based in southwestern Germany], I think this may have brought the Jeff Tarmarkin’s yet-to-go number down to 1,594, but who’s counting!

Michael Bloom, a long-time friend of Jazz whose firm is handling the media relations on behalf of the US distributors for the series - Naxos of America, Inc. – caringly referred to these previously unreleased treasures from the Südwestrundfunk vaults “… an embarrassment of riches.”

Michael went on to say: “I met the JazzHaus guys at a Naxos sales conference this summer and got a peek at the future releases – Whoa!”

Perhaps it is just as well that these recordings are being periodically released in small batches as each contains so much great Jazz that it takes multiple listening sessions to absorb it all.

Here’s a closer look at the recordings in the latest series.

The Lost Tapes: Zoot Sims in Baden-Baden [JazzHaus #101710]

This concert recording lay long forgotten and lost to Jazz enthusiasts. A pressing issued in 1988 was flawed and of relatively poor quality. That alone was reason enough for allowing Zoot Sims and others one more opportunity to be heard.

What you get with Zoot Sims in Baden-Baden, recorded on June 23, 1958, is a single jam session with each number featuring a different line-up and instrumentation:

Zoot Sims (as, ts, cl), Hans Koller (as, ts, cl), Willie Dennis (tb), Adi Feuerstein (fl), Gerd Husemann (fl), Helmut Brandt (fl, bs), Hans Hammerschmid (p), Peter Trunk (b), Kenny Clarke (dr).

OPEN THE DOOR!

“In 1958 Sims played with Benny Goodman at Expo '58 in Brussels, where he met the Viennese-born Hans Koller, then Europe's coolest tenor sax. Two years earlier Sims had made a Blue Note recording with the German pianist Jutta Hipp and he was keen to meet other European jazz musicians. So Joachim-Ernst Berendt, head of the jazz department at the then SWF, invited the two to a studio concert, supplementing the horn section with Adi Feuerstein and Gerd Husemann, Willie Dennis and Helmut Brandt. The ensemble also featured Hans Hammerschmid on piano, Peter Trunk on bass and on drums Kenny Clarke, who had quit the Modern Jazz Quartet and moved to Paris.

What you get with Zoot Sims in Baden-Baden is a single jam session in which each number features a different line-up and instrumentation: Sims and Koller on tenor sax get in the frame with All The Things You Are, before switching to clarinet for Minor Meeting For Two Clarinets. Sims' brilliant interpretations of Allen's Alley and Tangerine are met with the nimble, elegant ripostes of Koller's Fallin' In Love and Brandt's I Surrender Dear. Blue Night (featuring a six-piece horn section) is a number which beguilingly alternates between big band and ensemble jazz. The same goes for Open Door, in which Kenny Clarke urges the ensemble inexorably onwards with every bar, and the alto saxophone of Zoot Sims briefly opens the door to allow the sound of the day - bebop - to flood the studio.”

Legends Live: The Albert Mangelsdorff Quintet [JazzHaus #101706]

Recorded live at Freiburg on June 22,1964 with Albert Mangelsdorff (tb), Heinz Sauer (ts, ss), Gunter Kronberg (as), Gunter Lenz (b), Ralf Hiibner (dr)

“It is hard to believe this concert lay all but forgotten in the archives for almost 50 years - particularly as it marks the breakthrough of Albert Mangelsdorff as

Germany

's one true international jazz star. At the insistence of Joachim-Ernst Berendt, head of SWF's jazz department, the Goethe Institut dispatched Mangelsdorff and his quintet on a tour of Asia in 1964. Nobody had reckoned on concert sell-outs, a frenzied media circus, and prestigious honors. Back home and swinging from their encounters with Asian folk and dance music, the Quintet guested in Freiburg with a performance of pure avant-garde: a tense, frantic bop, shifting playfully between musical styles from

Mali

("Burung kakak"),

Thailand

("Ramwong") and

Japan

("Sakura Waltz"), and ultimately reaching the point of entry to free jazz.

For five soloists at the top of their game the formula was a simple one: Heinz Sauer's tenor is Trane-like in quality (Theme from Father Panchali)-, Glinter Kronberg's alto (Set 'em Up) develops rugged, edgy figures in the style of a young Wayne Shorter; Gtinter Lenz on bass and Ralf Hiibner on drums combine to form a heart-lung machine that provides oxygen for the horns and oceans of space for improvisation. This material later gave rise to Now Jazz Ramwong, the quintet's best known recording. It would launch the ensemble to the top of the "downbeat" polls (Talent Deserving Wider Recognition). It also assured Albert Mangelsdorff a place in the pantheon of jazz greats.”

Legends Live: The Dizzy Gillespie Quintet [JazzHaus #101711]

Recorded live at Stuttgart, November 27, 1961 and Frankfurt November 29, 1961 with Dizzy Gillespie [tp], Leo Wright [as/fl], Lalo Schifrin [p], Bob Cunningham [b] and Mel Lewis [d].

The biggest surprise here is Mel Lewis, who supposedly, at the time, was a scion of the more laid back “West Coast” style of drumming, making these gigs with Dizzy and playing his backside off.

Taking nothing away from Kenny Clarke and Charlie Persip, who always did a magnificent job of booting Dizzy Big Bands along in the 1940’s and 1950’s, respectively, I always wondered what Mel, whom many consider to have been the ultimate big band drummer, would have done with that band.

Thanks to the addition of Argentinean pianist Lalo Schifrin, who also composed and arranged Dizzy’s masterful Gillespiana around this time, Dizzy is once again playing with fire and brio during these concerts.

To Be or Not To Bop!

“The Mooche was written by Duke Ellington in 1928 for the trumpeter Bubber Miley. In his long version, performed in Stuttgart, Dizzy Gillespie explores it at length. Lalo Schifrin's piano solo uses block chords to further heighten the dramatic intensity of this soul remake. Schifrin had had doubts in 1960 whether Dizzy even wanted him in his band; he could never get hold of him by telephone and almost returned home to Buenos Aires. "I've had many mentors in my life, but only one master - Dizzy," Schifrin explained. "Dizzy is always hungry for new musical food. Calypso today, bossa nova yesterday, tomorrow - who knows?"

The trumpeter loved the open form above an Afro-Cuban rhythm, such as in Con Alma, the number he had composed back in 1956. He engaged the versatile saxophonist and flautist Leo Wright after a sensational concert at the Monterey Festival. Willow Weep For Me provides a reminder of his enormous talent on flute. Dizzy's hipster contribution is Oops-Shoo-Be-Doo-Be, a humorous pastiche on scat, from which Dizzy launches his solo like a fountain gushing skywards. In I Can't Get Started he throws in quotes and saunters through the upper registers as if it were child's play. The Frankfurt versions of Kush and Con Alma demonstrate how the Quintet is able to inject new life even into these familiar themes. The manner in which a muted Dizzy, without piano accompaniment, dances with bass (Bob Cunningham) and drums (Mel Lewis) in Kush remains an audio adventure even today.”

The holiday gift season is right-around-the-corner; perhaps you can add one or more of these new JazzHaus CD’s to your Wish List?

Ellington in Stuttgart/JazzHaus

It’s always a great occasion when more of Duke Ellington’s music is made available through recordings, especially when these are made “in performance” [I hate the word “live;” what’s the alternative – “dead?”].

To my ears, nothing beats the sound of Jazz recorded as it is happening [recording studios can be such sterile places].

I have always enjoyed the simple lyricism and vivid gracefulness of the music composed by Duke and his close associate, Billy Strayhorn.

Duke and Billy wrote some of the most instantly recognizable melodies in the history of Jazz. You hear it, you hum it.

Needles to say, then, that the editorial staff at JazzProfiles was thrilled when JAZZHAUS released Big Band Live: Duke Ellington Orchestra [They didn’t ask our opinion on their choice of titles.]

“JAZZHAUS is the new music label featuring audio (and video) jazz programs taken from live radio and television recordings from the archives of Sudwestrundfunk. Jazz broadcasts by Sudwestrundfunk (SWR) started in the summer of 1947. Today, 65 years later, the archives contain about 1,600 audio and more than 350 television recordings of all major modern jazz artists - probably the biggest collection of unpublished live jazz recordings in the world: 3,000 hours - and almost all of it has never been released before. More than 400 ensembles and soloists are listed - many of them recorded three, four, five or more times over the decades.

Recorded at the Liederhalle in Stuttgart on March 6, 1967 Big Band Live: Duke Ellington Orchestra [#101703] contains thirteen [13] previously unreleased performance fFrom the Sudwestrundfunk Archives with an Ellington band that features Cat Anderson, Cootie Williams, Paul Gonsalves, Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney,Russell Procope, Jimmy Hamilton, et al.

Michael Bloom’s firm is once again handling the media relations for Naxos of America, the north American distributors of the JAZZHAUS series and he sent along a press release that contains the following review by Jonathan Woolf which appeared on MusicWeb International.

“The Ellington road show hit Stuttgart in March 1967. Cootie Williams was back in the serried ranks but Billy Strayhorn was nearing the end; he died a few weeks after the concert. The tunes played reflect a diverse range of Strayhorn and Ellington and beyond - beyond being represented by Raymond Fol's tune Salome. According to W.E. Timmer's massive Ellingtonia, a number of other songs were performed but aren't presented in this 73-minute disc, including long time favourites such as Blood Count and Things Ain't, as well as, Mount Harissa and Drag.

We must be grateful for the material that has been preserved and presented in such good sound here. Procope and Hamilton form a formidable clarinet choir, echoing the late 20s days in Swamp Goo with the former taking an extensive cadential passage. Knob Hill is a sinuous Latin American swinger with hints of Horace Silver. Gonsalves rips through it. One can hear Ellington's very ducal piano prompts in that genial finger snapper, Eggo, whilst Cat Anderson's trumpet, like a dazzling Bird of Paradise, is peculiarly iridescent in La Plus Belle Africaine. We also hear Harry Carney's evocative lowing, Jimmy Hamilton's famously 'straight' clarinet and the fine bass playing of John Lamb, often overlooked in discussions on the subject of Ellingtonian rhythm sections.

Lawrence Brown has his feature on Rue Bleue whilst Carney's is on A Chromatic Love Affair where he displays his incredible tonal variety - at points, you'd swear he was playing tenor and not baritone. Anderson finally goes stratospheric on Fol's Salome, whilst his desk partner Williams arrives for a preaching outing on the Gospel-drenched The Shepherd and stays to turn up the heat on his well-loved Tuttifor Cootie. At long last Johnny Hodges casts his hypnotic spell on Freakish Lights before drummer Rufus Jones has an animated, though occasionally tawdry, bash during Kixx.

Ellington kept up a mighty schedule, of which this single concert (or part of it) forms a useful element. The band seldom slipped lower than great. What a privilege it would have been to have seen them in the flesh.”

In his insert notes to the disc, the recording’s producer, Ulli Pfau, offered these observations about the music on Big Band Live: Duke Ellington Orchestra [JAZZHAUS 101703].

“NEVER NO LAMENT

Ellington considered two topics to be off-limits: illness and death. It was for this reason he refused to make a will to the last, fearful of tempting fate and provoking his own demise. He was able to maintain his orchestra ("the most important thing in my life") with the millions he earned from Tempo, his music publishing company - always conscious of the need to surround himself with individualists; some players stayed with him for decades. Almost constantly on the road following his comeback in Newport in 1956, his career staging posts were largely marked by the studio recordings. He released around 35 albums between 1960 and 1967 alone, including adaptations of classical works, the "Far East Suite" and the "Sacred Concerts".

1967 was a year of triumphs: the outstanding trumpeter Cootie Williams, unbelievable in "The Shepherd" and "Tutti for Cootie", was back on board; but then tragedy struck again a few weeks after the Stuttgart concert with the death of Duke's alter ego Billy Strayhorn.

Throwing caution to the wind and refusing to rely solely on time-served hits, Duke and his 14 musicians launch themselves into the new adventure. "Johnny Come Lately" breaks the ice, "Swamp Goo" featuring clarinettist Russell Procope has the magical "Jungle Sound", Paul Gonsalves' tenor sax dances though "Knob Hill", Cat Anderson's trumpet hit the stratosphere and Harry Carney's baritone horn gives a close-up account of "A Chromatic Love Affair".”

Here’s a sample track from Big Band Live: Duke Ellington Orchestra [JAZZHAUS 101703].

Ivory "Dwike" Mitchell: 1931-2013 R.I.P. - "The Catbird Seat"

I’m always asking Jazz musicians and Jazz fans what they are listening to or for their opinions about my current listening and/or favorite recordings.

It’s a fun way to get differing opinions about the music.

But when I asked Italian Jazz pianist Dado Moroni what he thought of Dwike Mitchell’s performance on The Catbird Seat from the Atlantic album of the same name, I was momentarily surprised by his answer.

“I cried,” he said.

Although I was taken aback for an instant, I intuitively understood why Dado would react this way to Dwike’s playing on this piece on which he is joined by bassist Willie Ruff and drummer Charlie Smith.

As George T. Simon describes it on the album’s sleeve notes:

“The Catbird Seat, a slow, swinging blues, gets its title because, as bassist Willie Ruff points out, ‘it has such a groovy feeling. There's an old Southern expression, “sitting in the catbird seat” which means you're sitting pretty and everything is groovy, and that's how we felt on this number. In fact, it's how we feel most of the time when we're at home in the club [Dwike and Willie owned The Playback Club in New Haven, CT].’ The piece projects a tremendously funky feel, but it's also full of musical polish, such as Willie's marvelous articulation, Dwike's tremendous technique and Charlie's beautifully controlled brush shadings. Note too the contrast between the long, tremulous, two-chorus build-up into the lovely, relaxed statement of the theme.”

The Catbird Seat is a slow burn all the way. The very unhurried tempo at which it is played is one that is rarely heard today and very tricky to execute because there is a tendency to rush or drag.

The intensity is there but you have to let it quietly capture you. The track builds and builds and builds until it reaches an exciting climax. And just when you think it is finished, Dwike offers a different ending from the one that “your ears” are expecting.

Elsewhere in his liner notes, George T. Simon has this to offer by way of background information on what came to be known as the Mitchell-Ruff trio.

“This is thrilling jazz. I know you read such superlatives in almost every liner note, but believe me, the music herein is really something special.

It's modern jazz with the emphasis on the jazz. Like many modernists, both Dwike Mitchell and Willie Ruff are thoroughly-schooled musicians. But, unlike most modernists, they haven't forgotten the basic romping, swinging beat of jazz, and the results here are pretty electrifying.

Maybe, like me, you remember Dwike and Willie when they were just the Mitchell-Ruff Duo. They achieved international fame in 1959 when, as members of the Yale Russian Chorus that was touring the

USSR

, they temporarily tossed aside their tonsils, hauled out piano and bass, and proceeded to regale the Russians with American jazz.

At that time the group's jazz feeling was highly personal - almost completely implied. Now though, with the addition of Charlie Smith's drums, you can't possibly miss it. Before his advent, what they were playing had relationship to themselves only, just as in modern art a painting on an infinite canvas can only relate to itself. But now, thanks to Charlie, they have been supplied with a rhythmic framework inside which they are able to create jazz masterpieces with a spatial, or rhythmic relativity that all of us can feel and understand.

Mitchell, a Floridian who graduated from the Philadelphia Musical Academy, and Ruff, an Alabaman who earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees in Music at Yale (they once played together in Lionel Hampton's big band) joined forces last year with Smith, a New Yorker, who has played for Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Billy Taylor, at a New Haven club called The Playback. It was founded by Ruff himself, ‘because we needed a place in which we could work out things the way we wanted to, and just stay on until we felt we were really ready to show the rest of the world what we could do.’

For close to a year, the trio worked, played, and, in the case of Ruff and Smith and their families, even lived together. ‘We got so that each of us could feel what the others were going to do without even looking,’ says Smith. By early autumn of 1961 when they felt they were ready, they brought portable recording equipment into the club and recorded the numbers heard herein. The first Artist and Repertoire man to hear the tapes, Atlantic's astute jazz-loving V.P., Nesuhi Ertegun, flipped, and - well, here's the result.”

Dwike Mitchell passed away on April 7, 2013 at the age of eighty-three.

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles wanted to remember him on these pages with this feature and the following video tribute on which the music is – what else but - The Catbird Suite.

Remembering Gene Lees: 1928-2010

"In the past few years, I have been only too aware that primary sources of jazz history, and popular-music history, are being lost to us. The great masters, the men who were there, are slowly leaving us. I do not know who said, "Whenever anyone dies, a library burns." But it is true: almost anyone's experience is worth recording, even that of the most "ordinary" person. For the great unknown terrain of human history is not what the kings and famous men did — for much, though by no means all, of this was recorded, no matter how imperfectly — but how the "common" people lived. When Leonard Feather first came to the United States from England in the late 1930s, he was able to know most of his musical heroes, including Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton. By the end of the 1940s, Leonard knew everybody of significance in jazz from the founding figures to the young iconoclasts. And when I became actively involved in the jazz world in 1959, as editor of Down Beat, most of them were still there. I met most of them, and became friends with many, especially the young Turks more or less of my own age. I have lived to see them grow old (and sometimes not grow old), and die, their voices stilled forever. And so, in recent years, I have felt impelled to do what I can to get their memories down before they are lost, leading me to write what I think of as mini-biographies of these people. This has been the central task of the Jazzletter."

The Drums in Jazz

"The basis of Jazz has always been rhythmic. The development of jazz and its innovation from the early days of ragtime at the turn of the century to the many highly sophisticated, exciting and challenging styles of jazz that can be heard today, has always derived from that basis. In the European concert tradition, the drums serve as a noise-making device, aiming to create additional intensity or dramatic fortissimo effects. They do not effect the continuity of the music and could even be left out without creating the breakdown of a Beethoven or a Tchaikovsky symphony. In Jazz the drumbeat is the ordering principal which creates the space within which the music happens. The beat of a swinging drummer forms the basis of the musical continuity of a jazz performance." - Introduction to the Properbox set - THE ENGINE ROOM: A History of Jazz Drumming from Storyville to 52nd Street."

The Piano in Jazz

"At the turn of the century-before the age of radio, television, high-fidelity recording, and computerized video games-the piano was one of the focal points of American family life in the home. The image of Mother seated at the keyboard with the children gathered around her and Father in his pinstriped shirt and suspenders looking on proudly epitomized the American dream. White American families purchased moderately priced "uprights" at the rate of nearly 250,000 per year. In black family life the piano was one of the first major purchases made by those who could afford it. Although they were less likely than white families to own instruments, blacks frequently heard piano music in churches, which were the center of community life, or in the urban "tonks" and "juke" houses (the ancestors of the jukebox). Indeed, black pianists were largely responsible for the instrument's acceptance as "part of the family." The music they played and composed during the late 1890's, eventually known as ragtime, was a major source of the piano's popularity in the two decades that followed."

Jazz Improvisation

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Friday, July 23, 2010

Metropole Orchestra - A Tribute to Joe Zawinul - Tower of Silence

Doug Ramsey of Rifftides on JazzProfiles

Dado Moroni and Tom Harrell - "Poinciana"

The Victor Feldman All-Stars - "Polyushko Polye"

Frank Rosolino - Sings!

Shelly Manne and His Men - "Goofin' at the Coffee House"

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May 16th is the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Woody Herman

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Woody Herman: Blue Flame Documentary DVD

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Ellington in Stuttgart/JazzHaus

Ivory "Dwike" Mitchell: 1931-2013 R.I.P. - "The Catbird Seat"

Jazz Writers and Critics

Big Band Jazz from St. Petersburg, Russia

Remembering Gene Lees: 1928-2010

Steppin' Out With Ludwig's Speed King

What Heaven Looks Like to a Drummer

"Jazz is only what you are." - Pops

Alain Gerber - "Portraits En Jazz"

A Note of Appreciation

Something To Think About

The Drums in Jazz

The Piano in Jazz

Noal Cohen - Jazz Historian and Discographer

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