Michael Weiss on JazzProfiles

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“Weiss' four recordings have received unanimous critical acclaim. Stereo Review devoted a feature review to his debut album, Presenting Michael Weiss (Criss Cross). Power Station (DIW) was selected as one of the top five releases of 1997 by JazzTimes, in which Sid Gribetz said, “Weiss' originals sound as if they were standards of the genre.” In Fanfare, Royal S. Brown wrote, “Weiss' consummate command of the piano shows throughout the album.” According to the British magazine Jazz Journal, Milestones (SteepleChase) contains “splendid music on every track...piano playing of the highest order.” His 2003 release, “Soul Journey” (Sintra) features a collection of all original compositions for septet including the award winning, “El Camino.” As Terry Lawson of the Detroit Free Press writes, “the songs simply smoke.”

- www.Allaboutjazz.com

“He’s a very articulate, honest and precise person who takes care of business. To my ears, Michael is a real bebop piano player and you don’t find many like him around today.”

- Gerry Teekens, Jazz producer

“Make no mistake, Michael Weiss is good news for bebop ears ….”

- Mark Gardner, Jazz author and critic

I first “met” pianist, composer arranger, Michael Weiss through Gerry Teekens, the owner and proprietor of Criss Cross, a labeled devoted to Jazz that is located in Enschede, Holland.

A Jazz fan based in southern California “meeting” a musician who lives in New York via an introduction from a Dutch Jazz record producer?

I wish I could attribute this sequence of events to some cosmopolitan, jet set, bon vivant life style on my part, but alas, the so-called meeting came about by my purchase of Presenting Michael Weiss, a CD that Gerry Teekens recorded on April 4, 1986 for his Criss Cross Jazz label [#1022].

Frankly, I had no idea who Michael was at that time.

What I did know was that Gerry came to New York a couple of times a year to record primarily up-and-coming, New York-based, Jazz musicians for his Criss Cross label.

After a lengthy hiatus from Jazz due to personal and professional reasons, I was getting back into the music in the late 1980s, but I really didn’t know much about who the young players were on the Jazz scene, especially those on the East Coast.

I had come across the playing of drummer Kenny Washington on tenor saxophonist Ralph Moore’s Images CD [Landmark LCD-1520-2] which also featured the work of pianist Benny Green and bassist Peter Washington. Kenny, Peter and Benny recorded extensively for Gerry Teekens in the 1980s and 1990s.

I was particularly smitten with Kenny’s drumming because it was cut-out-of-the-mold of Philly Joe Jones, one of my early heroes and whose style I tried to emulate in my own playing.

It was Kenny’s efforts on Criss Cross that led me to Michael Weiss as he is the drummer on Presenting Michael Weiss.

After listening to Michael on Criss Cross, I couldn’t agree more with Mark Gardner’s assessment of Michael and the recording when he writes in its insert notes:

“If you are a believer in the continuing validity of bebop as the most challenging, complex and above all beautiful Jazz styles, this album is for you. In the hands of pianist/leader Michael Weiss and his four well-chosen companions [Tom Kirkpatrick on trumpet, Ralph Lalama on tenor saxophone and Ray Drummond on bass join Michael and Kenny] there is no ‘if’ about it: Bebop lives! With authenticity and creativity!”

What really turned my head around while listening to Michael’s Criss Cross CD was his interpretation of Joe Zawinul’s rarely heard Riverbed. [So you can sample it for yourself, I've used this tune as the audio track on the video tribute to Michael, which you will find at the conclusion of this piece].

On this track, which is played at a medium tempo while employing only a trio with Ray and Kenny, Michael displays a clarity and crispness of phrasing and an easy swing; what Mark Gardner refers to as the “… melodic contours of this lyrical tune” that is reminiscent of the great Jazz piano stylists.

This is what immediately appealed to me about Michael Weiss – his playing has a manner and a grace to it that brings to mind the work of Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Rowles and Barry Harris.

With Michael, it’s not about flashy technique or note-popping solos, rather, he creates swinging “lines” [improvisations] that fall so effortlessly and easily on the ears.

He seems to get “inside” a tune and finds its hidden meanings and mysteries.

Michael’s playing explores and examines, it probes and pushes, it discovers and reveals.

He strikes me as the type of pianist that other pianists go to listen to and not to marvel at; no pretenses, just a purity of expression that reminds you of why you fell in love with Jazz in the first place.

Since that first encountered with his music, I had loosely followed his career through his performances with Jazz giants such as Johnny Griffin and Art Farmer and his work on his own albums.

But given the geographic distance between us, it wasn’t easy for me to check him out in person.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I received an inquiry from him a few months ago from Michael concerning the music of composer-arranger Dick Grove.

We got to chatting via e-mail and when I asked him if he would consent to an interview on JazzProfiles he said he would.

Here are Michael’s gracious replies to my questions.

-         How and when did music first come into your life?

I have a Polaroid of me sitting with a portable record player on my lap around the age of three. I remember Beatles records, beginning around 1964. I began piano lessons at six, and also started playing the guitar at the same time. We discovered I had a good ear and perfect pitch. I could pick out melodies and chords, so I took to music right away.

-         What are your earliest recollections of Jazz?

I grew up on rock music. I was first exposed to jazz while attending the Interlochen Music Camp in Michigan at the age of 15. The faculty quintet played a concert and opened with Freddie Hubbard's "Mr. Clean." That was it for me. During my summer there, Duke Ellington and Stan Kenton came to perform. Dave Sporny taught courses in jazz improvisation and arranging. He concisely laid out all the basics of jazz harmony, voicings and other fundamentals so clearly that I soaked it up like a sponge. Within six weeks I had written a big band chart. From then on I was on my way. I had been drifting as a young teenager in the suburbs so Jazz music really gave me a purpose in life.

-         Who were the Jazz musicians who first impressed you and why?

After Interlochen I attended a "magnet" high school in Dallas where I had four hours of music a day. The big band rehearsed daily. We played Thad Jones and Sammy Nestico and NTSU charts. My studies at Interlochen made it easier to comprehend what Thad was writing. My first jazz record was Horace Silver's "Blowing the Blues Away" because my high school teacher said, "Buy this record and transcribe the melody to "Sister Sadie." So I did it. It was all new and exciting - a new language. The seed was planted: If you want to figure something out on a record you listen over and over again and transcribe it. I then got Miles' Four and More and a Coltrane Atlantic compilation.  At that time (1973-4) so-called Fusion jazz was flourishing and that was very exciting too: Headhunters, Return to Forever, Mahavishnu, Billy Cobham, Weather Report, also Stevie Wonder's Innervisions, Steely Dan and Frank Zappa.... This sophisticated harmonic language blended with rock music was attractive to me. I also got Thad and Mel records, because we were playing Thad's music in school. It was a wide range of styles to be hit with at once but that didn't pose a conflict for me. It was all exciting - these new harmonies and rhythms. I wanted to digest everything.

- How would you describe the influence of any or all of the following on your playing?

-        Teddy Wilson

How to play the piano with elegance.

-    Hank Jones

A modern Teddy Wilson with harmonic ingenuity, sophisticated voice-leading and orchestration.

-    Tommy Flanagan

One of the supreme orchestrators on the piano of all time, attention to detail and a gorgeous touch. True pianism.

-        Bud Powell

Certainly the strongest influence on my playing - directly and filtered through his acolytes such as Barry Harris.  Trying to describe the importance of Bud Powell as an influence is as overwhelming as trying to answer the question, "what is jazz?" Bud is my foundation for swinging - how I feel and play the beat and how to swing the eighth note, for melodic construction - his fountain of melodic ideas.  He influences me in his intensity - an emotional immediacy, and wide range of expression in all tempos, his harmonic movement - voicings and passing chords.

-        Horace Silver

Horace is my first influence. His rhythmic precision, his thematic approach to improvisation, his personal mix of the blues with bebop (Sonny Clark, too) and humorous quotes in his solos, his compositions... all have left their mark.

-        Barry Harris

Barry is my good friend and mentor. We discuss musical problems and challenges all the time, usually over the telephone, with him at his piano and me at mine. We discuss harmonic theory, piano technique and just about everything else.

I've known Barry since I was 21 years old.  I'm influenced by everything Barry plays, but most of all his sense of swing and feeling.

-      Wynton Kelly

Wynton is one my models for accompaniment. He's one of the greatest. He knows how to listen to the soloist and react instantly and creatively with the most appropriate harmony and rhythm. Of course his creativity as a soloist is masterful as well and his touch is immediately identifiable. But I would say Wynton's sensibility as an accompanist has influenced me the most.

-    Herbie Hancock

Herbie is a genius and I admire him greatly. But his influence on my playing has been greater through his accompanying and his harmony than as a soloist. I never was able to really acquire his metrically displaced linear style of soloing - not like other contemporaries of mine can do. I guess I have too much bebop phrasing in my DNA. Herbie is a great model for how to combine classical influences in one's playing.

-    McCoy Tyner

If I had to choose, I'd say I feel a closer affinity to McCoy than Herbie. He was nicknamed Bud-Monk for good reason. But coming out of those two ,McCoy still managed to create his own personal language. McCoy is my model for how to imply several different tonalities - a "pan-tonality" -  while improvising over essentially one chord. The way he "fans out" the harmonic palette through related tonalities. Coltrane and McCoy were very likeminded in this regard. You have to find a way to make things interesting. When you play on one chord for 40 minutes, you look for ways to broaden the color range through related chords and tonalities. You look for contrasting tonalities to dip in and out of...consonance and dissonance in ways that make sense. And McCoy's left hand is amazing. The rhythmic vitality going on between his both hands in his solos is remarkable.

-    Buddy Montgomery

I first met Buddy while in college, but soon after arriving in NY I acquired some tapes of Buddy's gigs from the 1970s that I studied intensely. I was very attracted to his style. He had all the modern harmony and linear lines of a Herbie or McCoy but without sounding anything like them. I used to perform many of his compositions and worked with him several times with Buddy playing vibes. He's another player I was drawn to because of the rich soulful feeling he brings to everything he plays.

Of course my jazz conception has been influenced by a number of non-pianists too. Bird, Hank Mobley, John Coltrane, Kenny Dorham influences readily come to mind. But who can say - with all of our diverse listening experience - what influence comes from where?

   

 -        What were your first combo playing experiences?

As a kid - in garage bands since I was 13. As a teenager I made a few trio gigs in Dallas. Then I played a lot in college at IU. I put together bands that had Pookie Johnson from Indianapolis, Al Kiger - who was living nearby, and Benny Barth who would visit Indiana occasionally from the coast. I was transcribing arrangements from records - Horace Silver, and various Blue Note music. That was cool, but what I should have been doing is let Pookie and Al call the tunes and learn from their repertoire.

-    How would you describe your approach to small group writing?

I try to expand the material compositionally as far as I can take it - either in a "theme and variations" or some other type of compositional development. Wayne Shorter influence me how to develop and reuse one's material. Sometimes a piece originates as a song form and then expands to other sections and sometimes there's no standard song form. But introductions, backgrounds, codas, interludes - I learned that from Horace Silver and Thad. I like to write out my bass lines and harmonies. I enjoy attention to detail. Wayne and Monk are very specific about what they write.

-                 Melody, Harmony, Rhythm and Texture [the way the music sounds]      have been described as the musical atoms upon which all composing is based; is there anything unique or different in how you deal with these, individually and collectively, in your writing?

Any one of these elements can be the offspring for some type of development and can take center stage. What keeps the music accessible, allowing the listener to follow easily is to develop one or two of these elements at a time rather than all at once. One only has to study classical music to see how it's really done.

-       Talk about Junior Cook and Bill Hardman

Beginning in late 1982, I worked steadily with Junior Cook at the Star Cafe for about two years. This is where I “cut my teeth.”  Playing with Junior every week was a very fortunate opportunity for me.  Exactly the kind of experience any budding jazz musician needs to develop one’s musicianship and individuality – a rarity these days, for sure.  We always played an interesting and balanced repertoire.   

I then joined the Junior Cook/Bill Hardman quintet. We played mostly in small clubs around New York. The rhythm section included drummers Leroy Williams, Joe Jones, Jr., Al Harewood, Walter Bolden and bassists Hal Dodson, Paul Brown and Walter Booker. Playing with these veterans, I felt validated. We played a grueling European tour in 1986, but playing every night has its rewards.

After joining Johnny Griffin in 1987, I continued to work intermittently with Bill and Junior. The feeling Bill put through his horn was profound.  His sound, phrasing and rhythm were the essence of jazz.  Form, content, proportion, melodicism, soul, fire, storytelling – these were all exemplified in Junior Cook.  Junior and Bill will be remembered not only as great musicians, but also for their generous encouragement to the serious young musicians who sought them out. 

-          How did your association with tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin and trumpeter Art Farmer come about. How long did you work with their respective groups? What was the experience like working with these Jazz “masters?”

In 1985 I had been using Kenny Washington on some gigs. When Griffin's pianist couldn't make a gig in Cambridge in October that year Kenny recommended me. The next time I filled in was three nights at the Vanguard in 1986. I joined the band a few months later. we toured every year through 2001. After that Johnny had a stroke and didn't perform in the US with his quartet until 2005. We recorded four CDs. Outside of the USA and Canada, we toured Japan three times and performed in Brazil. Since Griff lived in France we didn't tour as frequently throughout the year as other working bands, but I was proud of being in the band of a heavyweight. Playing with Johnny on the bandstand was electrifying. He was a fun loving and often silly guy but on the bandstand there was no nonsense.

Art Farmer was always one of my favorites and I was hoping to have a chance to play with him. He first took me to Israel in 1988, where we were on a double bill with Tommy Flanagan's trio. Art Farmer was for me the most challenging soloist to accompany. Everything he played was so lyrical and poignant I was walking on eggshells. His phrasing, like Johnny Griffin, was so unpredictable. It was hard to anticipate when a line would stop or start, or what direction it would go. With Art I was never more concerned about everything I played behind him. A year later I replaced James Williams in Art's quintet with Clifford Jordan, another one of my favorite players and a real character. We played three straight weeks at Sweet Basil. Those were the days! I did a European tour with the Jazztet in 1995 with Art, Benny, Curtis and Buster Williams. That was a great experience. After that I worked intermittently with Art in quartets or quintets until he passed. I'd describe Art as a more serious, somber kind of guy, but not without a sense of humor. He was always willing to talk about the old days.

One can learn a lot by observing how these veterans approach a gig, how they approach a tune, the way they play a melody, the way they phrase something. They don't solo too long. They don't practice on the bandstand. They construct their solo and tell a story. Having the opportunity to play several nights in a row with these artists was indispensable to my development. In this music, you have to be playing all the time to develop your own style.

-          What do you look for in a drummer? What drummers do you enjoy working with?

-          Who are your favorite bassists? What do you listen for in selecting a bassist to work with?

Perhaps stating the obvious, I like rhythm section players who have a well rounded knowledge of the recorded history of jazz so they know what's appropriate. Good time, good taste, a good sound on their instrument. I like bassists who like to use the amp as little as possible. I like bassists and drummers who like to syncopate and not just play straight time.

I like players who are really creative and contribute but at the same time have good sense and good taste. In the end, everything comes down to taste - and one's own sense of taste is as personal as it gets.

-          Could you describe how you approached the following recordings in terms of the general conception for each, the personnel you selected and why, and the mix of music?

          Presenting Michael Weiss

During this period I was interested in finding good compositions that hadn't been overplayed. Junior Cook, who I was working with, also enjoyed playing obscure Monk tunes and obscure standards that Coltrane recorded on Prestige. I wanted to be sure I had at least one original tune on the date. As on all of my gigs and recordings, I try to be conscientious about programming - to have a balance and variety of tempos, keys, rhythm, and in the construction of the arrangements. Kenny Washington recommended me to the record company, and with his encyclopedic knowledge of recordings he was a natural choice. Tom Kirkpatrick and Ralph Lalama were guys I was playing with it that time. They have distinctive voices and fit well with the program. The style of hard-bop was dominant and it was exciting to be recording at Rudy Van Gelder's.

            Power Station

At this time I began getting serious about composing. I formed a sextet to focus on composing and arranging. The quartet personnel here were taken from that group. The title track I composed instantly - I conceived it and played it on the piano in real time spontaneously. If only it were always that easy!  Everyone played very well and the studio and piano were excellent. The two standards I arranged are unusual in that the typical tempos for those tunes are reversed. I play Some Other Spring fast and Alone Together slow.

           

            Milestones

This opportunity came about somewhat quickly after having been a sideman on a few SteepleChase dates. I chose not to focus on my compositions. Jackie McLean gave me his blessing to premier on CD his composition Walter Davis Ascending. I was friends with Walter and just after he died, Jackie called me up with this new tune that he heard in his head the night Walter passed. Jackie played it over the phone for me on his horn while I notated it. I also included Jackie's Little Melonae. One of my cherished possessions is a phone message from Jackie in which he is very complimentary about this recording. After hearing Buddy Montgomery play I'll Remember April as a ballad I tried my hand at that with other standards, such as Like Someone in Love. To help me break out into different ideas, I chose B major for Like Someone in Love and Stella By Starlight.

            Soul Journey

I had a collection of sextet arrangements ready to record and was looking for a company. In the end, to do it right required me to produce it myself. I rerecorded a few of the compositions from Power Station because they had expanded considerably since then. I had come under the spell of Wayne Shorter's CD High Life, which led to a breakthrough for me in my composing - to go the extra mile with compositional development and detailing, to seize the moment, so to speak, with my brainstorms. For example, if you devise several ways to go from point A to point B, you don't have to pick just one. Why repeat the same thing verbatim? Wayne inspired me to go beyond standard song forms and flesh out other sections - introductions, interludes and codas that eventually gain more prominence in the piece. Having a percussionist helped to highlight this approach adding different colors. Wayne also inspired me to compose lines for the bass - syncopated melodies that you can build everything else around. I was happy to have Steve Davis, a very swinging, tasty player. Steve Wilson is one of my favorites because he's a great all around and versatile musician as well as a nice guy. He's less derivative then most so his ideas always sounds fresh. Daniel Sadownick is also a great musician with a wide range of musical experience and interests. I've continued to use Steve and Daniel in my more recent groups where the stylistic boundaries are less defined.

-          Switching to the subject of “favorites:”

What are some of your favorites books about Jazz?

I like the books about jazz that are either written by musicians themselves or feature extensive interviews with the musicians such as Ira Gitler's "Swing to Bop"

and Art Taylor's "Notes and Tones." Nica's book "Three Wishes" was quite entertaining. Miles', Dizzy's, Jimmy Heath's and Horace's autobiographies were very informative. I wish Jackie McLean, Johnny Griffin had written memoirs. Lou Donaldson, with all the stories he's told, really should write one.

-          What are some of your favorite Jazz recordings?

Of course when it comes to Bird, Bud, Monk, Newk, Miles, the Messengers, Horace it's hard to single out one over another, because there are so many classics. Having said that, I especially like Bud's live recordings from Birdland 1953. I enjoy Monk with Griff at the Five Spot. These are particular favorites:

Horace Silver - everything up through The Jody Grind

Kenny Dorham - Quiet Kenny

Tommy Flanagan - Trio overseas

Sonny Clark - My Conception

Barry Harris - At the Jazz Workshop

Sonny Redd - Breezin'

Jackie McLean - Jackie's Bag, A Fickle Sonance

Hank Mobley - with Kenny Dorham and Sonny Clark, A Caddy For Daddy

Dexter Gordon - Go, A Swingin' Affair

Johnny Griffin and Jaws - everything

Herbie Hancock - Inventions and Dimensions, Speak Like a Child

Lucky Thompson - Plays Jerome Kern and No More

Art Blakey - Free For All, Golden Boy

John Coltrane - Live at the Half Note 1965

Grant Green - Street of Dreams, Matador

Bobby Timmons - The Soul Man

McCoy Tyner - Inception, Reaching Fourth, Time For Tyner, Tender Moments, Sama Layuca

Larry Young - Unity

Bobby Hutcherson - Oblique

Lee Morgan - The Procrastinator

Tyrone Washington - Natural Essence

Pete La Roca - Turkish Women at the Bath

Sun Ra - Jazz in Silhouette, Fate in a Pleasant Mood, Heliocentric Worlds, Pathways to Unknown Worlds

Lou Donaldson - Fried Buzzard

Freddie Hubbard - High Blues Pressure

Stanley Cowell - Brilliant Circles

Chick Corea - Inner Space, Hymn to the Seventh Galaxy

Buddy Montgomery - The Two-sided Album

Tony Williams Lifetime - Emergency!

Joe Farrell - Moongerms

Wayne Shorter - All VeeJays, all Blue Notes, Atlantis, Phantom Navigator, High Life

Weather Report - Mysterious Traveler

Jim Beard - Song of the Sun

-          Who are your favorite Jazz vocalists?

Dinah Washington, Carmen McRae, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra. I like Jimmy Rushing.

-          Who among current Jazz musicians do you enjoy listening to?

I'm surely forgetting some people but off the top of my head -

Under 60: Danny Grissett, Grant Stewart, Alex Hoffman, Dick Oatts, John Webber, Joe Farnsworth

Over 60: Andy Fusco, Tom Harrell, Barry Harris, Cecil Taylor, Roy Haynes

-          What are your thoughts about blogs and websites devoted to Jazz?

If the blogger's insights can inspire readers to dig deeper to appreciate something or to turn them on to something they didn't know about, why not?

What are you trying to convey in your music? What kind of an experience do you hope that the listener will take away after hearing it?

Each composition has it's own mood or moods. I like to write music that has more compositional substance than just the same old head-solo-head format. I hope listeners will be affected on an emotional level in some way and can follow the narrative.

-          What's coming up for you in terms of future club performances, concerts, and future recording projects?

I'll be appearing in April with Frank Wess in NYC. I play most Mondays with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra at the Village Vanguard. I'm working on the final compositions for a  recording project I began a few years ago with my current group.

-          In both personal and professional terms, what has the Jazz experience [i.e.: a career as a Jazz musician] meant to you?

This maybe stating the obvious but it's all that comes to my mind at the moment:

It is a chosen lifestyle as that of any self-employed freelance artist in their respective field.

You live to do what you do. As long as you can remain so inspired, your artistic goals are limitless. You, yourself are your harshest critic, the only one that really matters and ultimately the only one you aim to please, which is very hard to do.

-          Where can one get updated information on your activities and hear samples of your recordings?

Visit www.michaelweiss.info 
Soul Journey can be sampled and purchased at cdbaby.com/cd/mweiss

-          Aside from jazz, what other kind of music interests you?  What other music do you like to play and practice? Has any of this music rubbed off on your playing and composing?

          I've played "classical" piano literature since the age of six. but I didn't enjoy practicing much until my last year of high school when my teacher assigned me a Scriabin etude. In college my classical music took a back seat to my jazz playing. But after I moved to NYC and got my own piano I began playing a lot of classical repertoire at home: Scriabin, Bach, Chopin, and really enjoying it. Scriabin's harmonic language really appealed to me, obviously. Reading through all this repertoire was improving my technique and sound on the piano. I'd say I'm most attracted to music that has complex harmony. Szymanowski can really stretch it! Several years ago I became obsessed with the piano works of Samuil Feinberg, a very obscure Russian composer, known primarily as a pianist and pedagogue. All of his compositions are out of print, but I found them. He is the one heir to Scriabin who speaks the most to me but I also like many works of Alexandrov, Obouhov and Roslavets. I struggle through a couple of the Ligeti Etudes and the Messiaen preludes. I love Messiaen's Turangalila Symphonie and Trois Petite Liturgies - great pieces.  

          It's all "jazz" to me, just without the improvisation. I used to define "jazz" in much narrower terms, but now the point is really meaningless. I like the way Wayne Shorter puts it: "Improvisation is composition sped up and composition is improvisation slowed down." We are informed by everything we come into contact with. I could tell you exactly where the ideas for some parts of my compositions come from, but not everything.

          I usually don't like to rearrange classical pieces because they always sound best to me just as the composer intended. But there are a couple of occasions where I've been willing to adapt a classical piece to my group. There's a Roslavets prelude, a funeral march, that I played at the Vanguard. I hope to record it on the next project. Another is the second movement from Schoenberg's opus 16. These are both really dark pieces, but still very beautiful.

          As an improviser these influences come out when it's appropriate and feels natural. I never like to deliberately go against the flavor of a tune - I think that's corny. But sometimes the door can open by itself... Everything comes down to one's own sense of good taste.

          I like any kind of music that sustains my interest - rhythmically, melodically, harmonically - whatever. Who cares about genre.  Bulgarian choir music is incredible. I've gone back to Led Zeppelin. In addition to the many great jazz composers and arrangers of the 40s and 50s, the "fusion" era of jazz is so important from a compositional perspective. That's when standard song forms started to really get thrown out the window. Wayne Shorter's High Life is a monumental work, a symphony of nine movements.

         

Two from Tommy Vig

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

For those of us who were fans of the music of Stan Kenton, Tommy Vig stepped into our lives on Monday, April 4, 1966.

That was the night that Stan’s highly [overly?] ambitious Neophonic Orchestra premiered Tommy’s Four Pieces for Neophonic Orchestra.

At the time of the premier, few Kenton fans knew anything about Tommy Vig.

Frankly, I would venture to say that few Jazz fans anywhere knew anything about this 28-year old percussionist, composer-arranger who had come to the United States as a refuge from the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

Ultimately, Tommy chose the vibraphone as his main instrument and gained a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music where he studied composition.

From New York Tommy moved to Las Vegas and Hollywood, where his bold approach to arranging was well received. As a vibraphonist and a percussionist, he performed with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Tony Curtis, Miles Davis-Gil Evans big band, Woody Allen, Diana Ross, and The Carpenters, just to name a few. He is the percussionist on all the albums of the legendary Rod Stewart. 

There is more information about Tommy on his comprehensive website which you can locate by going here.

In Los Angeles in August, 1967, Tommy recorded Four Pieces for Neophonic Orchestra with his own orchestra along with five other arrangements of his original compositions. Earlier, in April, 1967, Tommy had recorded six of his charts with a band based in Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas tracks were released as Encounters with Time [Discovery LP #DS 780] and the Los Angeles tracks were issued as Sound of the 70s [Milestone LP #MSP 9007].

In 1986, Discovery/Trend coupled both albums together as a CD release entitled Space Race DSCD-925.

In order to give you a sampling of Tommy’s extraordinarily exciting big band arranging and the unusual use of percussion instruments in his scoring, here are two videos featuring soundtracks from both the Los Angeles and Las Vegas 1967 sessions.

The first features a rapid burst version of Sunrise, Sunset from the score of the Broadway show Fidler on the Roof which was subsequently also made into a Hollywood film. Charlie McLean takes the alto solo.

The second video also features Charlie Lean, this time on Tommy’s arrangement of Satan Takes a Holiday, which Larry Clinton composed as the theme for his swing era, big band. Shelly Manne is on drums.

Beginning at 1:09 minutes of this track, be sure and checkout Tommy’s solo on the 18 note chimes which are made up of 1¼” brass tubes that are struck at the top of the tube with a rawhide mallet [both pictured above]. These are usually played one note at a time, but on his solo, Tommy uses two mallets and plays the chimes as though they were a vibraphone – not an easy thing to do. He’s even figured out a way to dampen or stop the sustaining tones on the chimes!

Visions of Jazz - A Tribute to Gary Giddins

"Wild Man" by alto saxophonist Jeff Clayton with Terell Stafford on trumpet, Gerald Clayton, piano, bassist John Clayton and drummer Obed Calvaire.

Bobby Militello: Mellifluous, Melodic and Moving

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“Militello’s inspired playing with Brubeck has established him as the new Paul Desmond.”

-Richard Cook & Brian Morton, The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6^th Ed.

Bobby Militello must be some kind of saxophone player.

Until “The Old Indian’s” [Dave Brubeck’s name for himself] retirement from music performance at the end of 2011, Bobby had played alto saxophone in Dave’s Brubeck’s quartet for almost 30 years!

Dave asked Bobby to join his group in 1982 and aside from the longevity itself, Bobby followed in the footsteps of alto saxophonist Paul Desmond and baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, two musicians who have achieved iconic stature in Jazz lore.

I first heard Bobby in the late 1970s when he played baritone saxophone and flute with trumpeter Maynard Ferguson’s orchestra.

A native New Yorker, Bobby was resident in Los Angeles for most of the decade of the 1980s which gave me an opportunity to hear him in a variety of settings including big bands led by drummer Chuck Flores, trumpeter Steve Huffsteter and pianist Bob Florence.

But hearing is one thing and listening closely is another and I really didn’t get a chance to dig into his playing until I stumbled upon copies of two CDs that Bobby co-produced for Positive Music after he moved back to Buffalo, New York in the early 1990’s

The recordings in question are Heart & Soul [PMD 78014-2] and Easy to Love: Dedicated to the City of Buffalo [PMD 78006-2].

Hammond B-3 organist Bobby Jones and drummer Bob Leatherbarrow are on both CDs while Jeff Jarvis makes the Easy to Love date on trumpet and flugelhorn.

Since I’m a sucker for organ-trio formats, I really dug into both of these albums and finally gained a deeper appreciation of what’s on offer in the music of Bobby Militello.

After repeated listening, I came away with an understanding of why Bobby’s been a favorite of Dave Brubeck’s for almost three decades, a period during which he put his own stamp on the legacy of Brubeck’s quartets.

In the parlance of the times, Militello is a monster saxophone player. He can do just anything on the instrument, but what he chooses to express is generally mellifluous, melodic and moving.

Bobby is what used to be referred to as a wailer: he just plants his feet and brings it. His solos are filled with outpourings of emotion.

On medium and up-tempo tunes, Bobby’s solos are hard-driving and intense; on ballads they are reflective and sensitive.

He plays with a firm melodic foundation and while he ventures off into occasional harmonic forays, Militello isn’t looking to be adventurous for the sake of impressing or exploring.

Along with more than a passing reference to the late alto saxophonist Bud Shank’s style, the alto sax sound of Lou Donaldson and Sonny Stitt come to mind while listening to Bobby’s music

Militello’s phrasing in primarily expressed in the language of bebop, but with doses of funk and fusion that serve to “spice-up” his music with numerous surprises. Your ears think that they know where the music is going, but Bobby often interjects “twists and turns” that keeps you continually engrossed in what he has to “say.”

Another engaging quality of Bobby playing is the smooth sound he produces, especially on alto saxophone.  Nothing harsh, nothing strained, nothing cacophonous, but rather, a tone that is mellifluous and mellow.

When you listen closely to Bobby Militello’s playing, it’s little wonder that Dave Brubeck has “kept him around” for almost 30 years.

See what you think while listening to this video tribute to Bobby which features him Graduation Day from his Heart & Soul CD along with Bobby Jones on Hammond B-3 organ and Bob Leatherbarrow on drums.

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra - Mean What You Say

Pianist Michael Weiss will be a featured artist on JazzProfiles in a posting that is planned for March 15, 2012. You can sample Michael's playing in the introductory portion of this video of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.

JazzHaus

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

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.

Max Ionata is Making Jazz

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“Good stuff.  It's nice to hear someone who appears to be under 60 who doesn't play one cliché after another.”

David Scherr, Composer and Saxophonist

Max Ionata is not a familiar name in Jazz circles.  He should be.

Max’s Jazz tenor saxophone playing is accomplished and refreshingly unique.

To be fair, he’s very well-known in his native Italy and thanks to Matteo Pagano, the owner and proprietor of Via Veneto Jazz, his two recent CDs for that label offer more of Max’s marvelous music which should garner him even more appreciation, both at home and abroad.

You can locate more information about Via Veneto Jazz by going here.  And while currency exchange rates and foreign postal services may be expensive and time-consuming, the good news is that the Via Veneto Jazz CDs Dieci and Kind of Trio along with other of Max’s recordings are available as Mp3 downloads.

For many years, the two signature instruments associated with Jazz were the trumpet  - Pops, Bix, Diz and Miles – and the tenor saxophone – Hawk, Pres, Sonny and Coltrane.

Trumpet and tenor saxophone are the two front-line instruments in most Jazz combos and their sounds blend particularly well when played in unison.

The human ear seems to have an affinity for the tenor saxophone which may, in part, be due to the fact that its sounds are very close to that of the human voice. It has been said that the tenor sax has an almost vocal quality.

Given the imposing stature of the Jazz greats who have played the instrument over the almost hundred years of the music’s existence, a great deal is expected of those who pick up “the big horn” and follow in this tradition.

Max Ionata doesn’t disappoint.

Whether he is featured in quintets that he co-leads with trumpeters Fabrizio Bosso and Flavio Boltro, or evoking the dueling tenor tradition of the great Dexter Gordon & Wardell Gray, or Al Cohn & Zoot Sims or Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt in combination with Danielle Scannapieco, another of Italy’s rising young tenor sax stars on their Tenor Legacy Albore CD, or as a member of drummer Roberto Gatto’s quintet on the Remembering Shelly CDs recently issued on the Albore label, Max Ionata always plays with presence, power and passion.

His sound is robust and yet mellow, his phrasing is long and continuous, and he generates a steady sense of swing.

Max doesn’t overreach the range of the horn to litter his solos with squeaks and squawks nor does he take lengthy solos whose most appealing quality to the exhausted listener is that they have finally come to an end.

When Max is making Jazz, his solos are so artfully constructed that you don’t want them to end, at least, not too soon.

He incorporates just enough harmonic extensions to make his solo melodies interesting, but these never become ends in themselves.

Max doesn’t come to impress, he comes to play.  What you hear in his music is the fun of making Jazz; the music as an expression of a good time being had by all concerned.

Nothing laborious or contorted: nothing elaborately diminished, augmented or raised.  Just a beautifully played and very swinging tenor saxophone.

When a musician like Max comes along, other musicians can’t wait to have the chance to work with him. He brings out the best in them. In his presence, Jazz is once again accessible and yet still an adventure.

The following video features Max performing Astrobard from his new Via Veneto CD Dieci with Fabrizio Bosso on trumpet, Luca Mannutza on piano, Nicola Muresu on bass and Nicola Angelucci on drums.

Stefano Di Battista: "Goodbye Mr. P."

Something "easy-on-the-ears" from Stefano. Click the "X" in the upper right hand corner to close out of the ads.


Soprano saxophonist Stephano di Battista performing his original composition "Goodbye Mr. P" with Daniele Scannapieco on tenor saxophone, Flavio Boltro, trumpet, Julian O. Mazzariello, piano, Dario Rosciglione, bass and Andre Ceccarelli, drums.