© -Steven
Cerra , copyright protected; all rights reserved.
“Passing the
baton” in Jazz is a recurring theme in the history of the music.
There are aspects
about it that can’t be formally taught so they must be informally learned, in
many cases, through observation.
Whether it’s King
Oliver shepherding the gang of youngsters from Austin High closer to the
bandstand at Chicago’s Lincoln Gardens so that they could more closely watch
the music being made, or alto saxophonist Bud Shank holding forth at the back
of The Lighthouse, a Jazz club in Hermosa Beach, CA, demonstrating reeds and
mouthpieces to a group of admiring, teenage disciples, or Joe Morello
bewildering a coterie of young drummers with a dazzling display of technique
between sets with Marian McPartland’s trio at the Hickory House in NYC, the
“old guys” help the “young guys” learn the music.
These shared gifts
of knowledge and technique help The Tradition that is Jazz, grow and develop.
The late, bassist
Ray Brown was particularly keen on helping to “pass-the-torch.” As I once heard
him put it: “When you get off the train from Pittsburgh New York City
Among his many
accomplishments, Ray fronted his own trios during the last two decades of his
illustrious Jazz career in which he nurtured the likes of drummers Jeff
Hamilton and Gregory Hutchinson and pianists such as Benny Green and Geoff
Keezer.
To keep expenses
down and their own revenue up, Ray and Jeff would make a swing of Europe as a duo. Contractors would then pair them
with local young musicians such as British trombonist Mark Nightingale, Italian
Jazz pianist Dado Moroni and Swedish guitarist Ulf Wakenius.
In club dates and
the concert stages of the summer Jazz festival season, European audiences would
get to hear their favorites performing with “the big guys” from the States.
On one such
occasion in 1993, Stephen Meyner, owner-operator of Minor Music, produced a
recording session with Ray and Jeff that featured three, young German
musicians: Till Bronner on trumpet, Gregoire Peters on alto and baritone
saxophones and Frank Chastenier on piano.
The results of
these recording sessions which took place on May 1st and 2nd,
1993 in Cologne , Germany
Jazz pianist
Walter Norris points out the benefits of such a generational and international
blending of Jazz musicians in the following insert notes to the recording.
© -Walter Norris/Minor Music, copyright
protected; all rights reserved.
“GENERATIONS OF JAZZ gives the listener a cohesion, found not
only in the musician's performance but a cohesion of music existing in each
musician's generation. Music that survives as art has this cohesive quality,
yet, there must also be a "spirit of musical joy" and this joy
combined with musical cohesiveness is heard throughout all these omnigenous
titles.
The opening blues
[Dejection Blues], their first
playing together, was recorded in one-take and this "good omen"
continued for the entire session. Ray Brown, the most recorded bassist in jazz
and recognized as a master for his outstanding contributions with Oscar
Peterson's trio, has perhaps formed an alliance with the musically compatible
Jeff Hamilton, Peterson's percussionist, as they have become renown for their
ability to energize, as a rhythm section, any assembled group regardless of
instrumentation. It's touching hearing them project their warmth and affection.
Their example
should be followed more... where the older, more experienced, give of
themselves musically in order to bring out and mature the better qualities of a
younger generation. Here, these better qualities, resulting from hard but
gratifying work, sound surprisingly mature.
Frank Chastenier
studied with the late Francis Coppieters, to whom his composition [This One’s For Francis] is dedicated.
Gregoire Peters studied woodwinds with Allan Praskin and Heinz vonn Harmann.
Till, whose talents extend to piano and drums, studied trumpet with Ack van
Rooyen, Bobby Shew, Derek Watkins and Chuck Findley.
I remember hearing
Gregoire when he was sixteen. Till, I believe was sixteen and Frank about
eighteen when they entered the Bundesjazzorchestra - seminars led by Peter
Herbolzheimer and it has been most rewarding for me to watch them grow and
develop musically.
Although this is
the group's first recorded effort, other recordings will surely follow for
these young musicians will continue and survive this most difficult profession.
Frank is contracted with the WDR Radio in addition to a teaching position at Hochschule-Cologne and
Till and Gregoire are members of the RIAS Radio Orchestra.
All titles are
cleverly arranged, the improvisations and original compositions are truly
effervescent, yet, there's a seasoned maturity that will impress any
connoisseur. Of course, this music is traditional but one is aware that phrases
have been reshaped and molded which is reason to rejoice since, historically,
music has always been traditional and changed only through a process where
individuals mold and reshape harmony, form and phrasing. It's refreshing to
hear the 'torch of music'' carried on by a new generation
Walter Norris
Guest Professor
Piano Improvisation
Dejection Blues forms the audio track to the following
video montage having to do with paintings, illustrations and photographs, all
of which were loosely gathered to fit the stated theme of the music.
I think that you’ll
feel anything but dejected after listening to Till, Gregoire, Frank, Ray and
Jazz make Jazz together. “Elation” may be more like it.
