Jessica Williams – A Pianist with Taste, Touch and Temerity

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

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles was prompted to put this piece together by the arrival of the correspondence that closes it.

I first “met” Jessica around 1980. This was back in the days when one could kill a few minutes waiting for a business appointment or a luncheon while perusing the local record store.

Usually privately-owned and operated, every community in southern California seem to have one and some of these Mom-and-Pop stores even had a Jazz section.

It was during one such diversions that I noticed an LP in the cut-out bin by Jessica Jennifer Williams entitled Orgonomic Music [Clean Cuts CC703]. On the back of the album sleeve was the following quotation by Wilhelm Reich:

"Love, work and knowledge are the well-springs of our life. They should also govern it.”

I didn’t know who Reich was, nor did I know anything about “Jessica Jennifer Williams” and the only musician in the sextet featured on the album that I was [barely] familiar with was trumpet player Eddie Henderson.

But what the heck, Philip Elwood of The San Francisco Examiner said of Jessica that she was a devotee of Reich’s whose sentiments I agreed with, the LP was only a buck, so I gave it a shot.

Boy, am I glad I did. I’ve been listening to everything I can get my hands on by Jessica ever since.

However, it wasn’t until 1992, thanks to a fortuitous business trip to San Francisco, that I had the opportunity to hear Jessica in person as a part of pianist Dick Whittington’s on-going Maybeck Recital Hall series.

I “stayed close” to Jessica’s music in the 1990’s thanks to my association with Philip Barker, the owner of Jazz Focus Records for whom Jessica made a number of recordings including her Arrival CD which has the distinction of being the very first disc issued by Philip’s label [JFCD001].

Thanks to a tip from Gene Lees in one of his JazzLetters, I was also able to score one of the limited edition [1,000] Joyful Sorrow compact discs that Blackhawk Records issued as her solo piano tribute to the late, Bill Evans.

It was recorded at The Jazz Station, Carmel, CA on September 15, 1996 on the 16^th anniversary of Bill’s death.

Sadly, too, The Jazz Station in Carmel is no more, but Joyful Sorrow endures as just about my all-time favorite Jessica recording.

Thankfully, Jessica has subsequently released quite a number of solo piano and trio Jazz recordings, many of which are available as audio CD’s and Mp3 downloads.

Jessica is a powerful and pulsating pianist.  He music literally “pops” out at the listener it’s so full of energy and enthusiasm.

She records many solo piano albums, a format which can sometimes be a recipe for self-indulgence and excessive displays of technique.  But Jessica’s music is always tasteful and informed. You can hear the influences from the Jazz tradition in her playing, but you also hear innovative probing and forays into her unique conception of what she is trying to say about herself and how she hears the music.

Her touch on the instrument is such that she makes the piano SOUND! It rings clear and resonates as it only can in the hands of a masterful pianist.

As Grover Sales, the distinguish author and lecturer on Jazz has commented:

“Jessica Williams belongs to that exclusive group Count Basie dubbed "the poets of the piano" that includes Roger Kellaway, Sir Roland Hanna, Ellis Larkins, Jaki Byard, Bill Mays, Alan Broadbent, Cedar Walton, the late Jimmy Rowles and of course, Bill Evans. All share in common a thorough working knowledge of classic piano literature from pre-Bach to contemporary avant garde as well as the classic jazz tradition from Scott Joplin to the present.

All developed an astonishing and seemingly effortless technique that enabled them to venture anywhere their fertile imaginations wished to take them. All take to heart the dictum of Jelly Roll Morton in his epic 1938 interview for the Library of Congress: ‘No pianist can play jazz unless they try to give the imitation of a band.’

 And for all of their varied influences from Earl Hines to Bill Evans and beyond, all are instantly identifiable—unique in the literal sense of this often misused word.”

Writing in the insert booklet to Jessica’s Maybeck Hall CD [Concord CCD-4525], Jeff Kaliss notes:

“It's all there in the first track. Within a few choruses, Jessica Williams shows her hand, or hands: the harmonies in seconds (hit way off to the side of the piano), the punchy attack, the dust-devils in the upper octaves, the nutty quotes. It's familiar Jessica, but she's got plenty up her sleeve for the rest of this remarkable entry in the Maybeck menagerie. …

She came to my awareness as a word-of-mouth legend, a Baltimore-bred genius whose history and personality were said to be as mysterious and unpredictable as her keyboard inventions. As soon as I got to hear her, I was into the reality of her spontaneous magic and not much concerned with the legend. …

[She] has remained a best-kept secret … commanding awe and quiet in the clubs she visited … [her playing] filled with energy and imagination.”

One gets more about her sense of “energy and imagination” when one reads the following notes that Jessica wrote about herself and her music for her Intuition CD [Jazz Focus JFCD 010]:

“I'm occasionally asked where I studied to learn to do what I do; who taught me, what "tricks" are involved, what secrets enable me, how does the process occur... how does one "distill magic out of the air?" The truth is that there are no practice techniques, no miracle drugs, no mantras, no short-cuts to creativity. I tell them that I've played piano since I was four, that I've played jazz since I was twelve, that I've never taken another job doing anything except what I've always known I should be doing in this life: playing music. And maybe that's a part of the answer, if indeed there is one. It's about Castenada's PATH, Campbell's BLISS; you follow it no matter where it leads, and over many years you learn to control it, channel it, allow it to happen.

You become the bow; the arrow is the gift. You never fully own it, just as you can never explore all of its depths, because it springs from the infinite possibilities within you. In this realm, your only ally, your only guide, is intuition. It is seeing instead of looking, knowing instead of believing, being instead of doing. It is Coltrane on the saxophone, Magic Johnson on the court, Alice Walker on the printed page; it is the primary intuition of "right-brained" activity, the birthing of idea into existence.

Perhaps it cannot be taught, but it certainly can be shared...and it is in the sharing that we all experience the best parts of ourselves. We instinctively intuit our organic truth; when we learn to live it, our planet could be paradise.

Your dreams are your sacred truth. …”

You can listen to Jessica’s quite stunning pianism on the audio track of the following video from the Joyful Sorrow Bill Evans tribute CD.

As to Jessica’s temerity, let alone downright courage, it’s all here in the following notice which she sent out recently to her fans.

I hope you’ll heed and help Jessica in her time of need.

I CAN NO LONGER PLAY THE PIANO

Dear friends, critics, fans, friends of fans, anyone who loves my music or at least has enjoyed it:

FEEL FREE TO SHARE THIS WITH OTHERS, IN PUBLICATIONS, EMAIL CAMPAIGNS, PHONE CALLS, ETC. GO TO

http://www.jessicawilliams.com/donations/index.html

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DONATE TO JESSICA WILLIAMS’ SPINAL SURGERY RECOVERY FUND VIA PAYPAL or any credit cards:

http://www.jessicawilliams.com/donations/index.html

================

SEND DONATIONS

You can opt to send personal checks or money orders to

·  Jessica Williams

·  PO Box 2391

·  Olympia, WA 98507

·  

·  

·  email: jjw1@me.com or jessica@jessicawilliams.com

·  Please make checks payable to Jessica Williams

================

BUY CDS:
http://www.jessicawilliams.com/shop.html
Every dollar counts and is deeply appreciated.

================

I CAN NO LONGER PLAY THE PIANO. NOR CAN I WALK, SLEEP, EAT WELL, STAND OR SIT. MY PAIN IS INTRACTABLE, AND 30mg daily of Vicodin (NORCO) does very little to cut it. 35 YEARS AGO I had a disc surgery (a Laminectomy, L5-S1) but many years of flying and playing music have taken their toll. I am in DIRE NEED OF RADICAL SPINAL SURGERY. MY SURGEON IS DR RICHARD ROONEY AT THE NEW MADISON ST POLYCLINIC.

This is NOT a solicitation for help to pay for the surgery as I HAVE INSURANCE: This request for donations is for the time AFTER surgery, the 6 months to perhaps a year that I won't be able to play or perform. Instead, I'll be doing physical therapy, pain management, and recuperation.

Without a spinal operation I face trunk and leg paralysis, the possible loss of renal function, and constant intractable pain. If it progresses up the spine and reaches the thoracic and cervical spine, I will lose all movement or sensation in my arms and hands. I have moderate scoliosis which increases the possibility of this happening.

Fortunately I have medical coverage. This request for donations is for the time AFTER surgery. It may be a year or more before I can play again, or it could be months - I won't know until it's done.

My surgeon - http://www.polyclinic.com/richard-rooney-md-facs - has decided to do a lateral-entry cage-fusion of L5, L4 and S1. I have had other opinions but I've chosen the premier neurosurgeon in this state (WA), and my age - 64 - rules out fancy but still unperfected alternatives like Pro-Disc©. My surgery will be scheduled soon, probably for some time in LATE JULY or EARLY AUGUST of 2012. (I presently have an viral upper-bronchial infection, so we need to wait until that clears.)

I'll be in the hospital for about 10 days, and then recuperating for 6 months to a year. I feel very lucky and very secure to have chosen the great surgeon who will do the procedure, making it possible for me to get back to my life's work.

I am so happy I can give back through my music. The music that awaits is why I am here.

And THAT, friends, is why I'm asking for help. I know that the people who love my music are the kindest, gentlest people in the world.

But a lot of us tend not to be billionaires. I, for one.

I need your help.

================

I'm sure that the results will be positive. My surgeon is the best there is, an artist of neurosurgery. He loves my music. I have a lot of NEW MUSIC TO MAKE.

Please make a donation of any size that you can afford. Each of you who makes a donation will get a signed copy of my newest CD for OriginArts - my personal favorite - Songs of Earth. And you'll get your name included in the drop-down "Life Savers Menu" on this donations page.

And if you ORDER MY CDs, that'll help too, and you can do that HERE. Every order and every extra dollar helps, as I can no longer play or pay the bills for a while.

Thank you from my heart, with peace, sanity, love, and freedom, Jessica

DONATE PLEASE!!!  You can use paypal or any credit cards: go to

http://www.jessicawilliams.com/donations/index.html

================

A message from good friend and fellow pianist and composer Richard Rodseth:
Dear friends,
Some of you have attended or played at house concerts I have hosted in my home. Some of my happiest 
and proudest moments.
I was introduced to the concept by pianist Jessica Williams, and since 2005 she has enthralled listeners in my living room once or twice a year, most recently on March 17, her birthday.
I'm sorry to report that Jessica needs our help, and is not well enough to play for us at this time. It would mean a great deal to me if you would read her heartfelt request at the following link and support her if you can: http://www.jessicawilliams.com/donations/
Whether you purchase one or more of her wonderful CDs (which make excellent gifts), or are able to make a donation, you will have supported a wonderful artist who has touched many with her beautiful music.
Thanks so much, Richard - P.S. I apologize if you receive this message more than once. Feel free to share it with others.

==========

See MRI/DICOM scans of my L5/L4 compression/degradation and my scoliosis and disc deterioration here:

http://www.jessicawilliams.com/donations/

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For removal from this list, click here:

http://www.jessicawilliams.com/news/remove.html

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I wish you happiness, wisdom, peace, and above all, HEALTH. Stay well and love each other, Jessica

Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra - "Bird Feathers"

I always wondered what  a big band arrangement of Charles Mingus' Bird Feathers might sound like. Thanks to this performance by the Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra, I don't have to anymore. To my ears, there nothing more exciting in Jazz than a roaring, driving big band.  This version of Bird Feathers was recorded in May, 2007 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and features Simon Rigter on tenor saxophone, Marco Kegel on alto and Hans Vromans on piano.

“The Rules” - Joris Roelofs Quartet and The Art of Clifton Karhu

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

There is so much to say about both the music and the artwork on the following video montage, but as it is a lengthy performance, the editorial staff at JazzProfiles thought it would keep its comments to a minimum.

This piece is another in an ongoing effort to combine looking at art while listening to Jazz.  As you view the slides of contemporary Japanese woodblock prints by the artist Clifton Karhu [1927-2007], we hope that you will not only recognize Karhu’s virtuosity, but also that of the young musicians who comprise the Joris Roelofs quartet.

I will have more to say about saxophonist-clarinetist Joris Roelofs in a future JazzProfiles feature devoted to his music.

The audio track is Aaron Goldberg’s The Rules which was recorded in performance at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on October 17, 2008. Joining with Joris on alto saxophone and Aaron on piano are bassist Johannes Weidemuller and drummer Ari Hoenig.

This is a long piece, but if you can sustain your interest in and involvement with it, I think it will move your ears in a new direction, one, perhaps, that the late composer-pianist Lennie Tristano might relish.

The interpretations of pianist Goldberg and saxophonist Roelofs harkens back to the ultra cool and intellectual style of Jazz favored by Tristano along with alto saxophonist Lee Konitz and tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh.

What is markedly different in the Roelofs quartet’s approach is the drumming of Ari Hoenig, who plays stuff on drums that I’ve never heard before, and whose interactive approach is a far cry from the keep-the-time-and-stay-out-of-the-way drumming of Jeff Morton with Tristano’s quartet.

Clifton Karhu, was born in Minnesota, but lived most of his adult life in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, where he mastered all aspects of making traditional Japanese woodblock prints or Ukiyo-e.

Karhu self-designed, self-carved and self-printed his own wood block prints and his use of mood, color, and geometric design has reserved for him a prominent place in 20^th century Sosaku Hanga [neo-ukiyo-e or creative prints done “in the shadow of” ukiyo-e].

There is some irony in using music entitled The Rules in a video tribute to Clifton Karhu as some considered him to be an iconoclast for the manner in which he used traditional Japanese woodblock techniques to represent his art.

The Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra and “The Sound of Surprise”

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

Whitney Balliett, one of Jazz’s most eloquent chroniclers, once characterized Jazz as being “The Sound of Surprise.”

And so it was for me – a joyful surprise - with my first listening of The Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra’s Single Petal of a Rose which was released on June 5, 2012 on Renma Recordings [6403 CD].

By way of background, The Duke Ellington Legacy is a nine-piece group founded by Edward Kennedy Ellington II, Duke’s grandson, and the band’s guitarist.

Edward chose saxophonist Virginia Mayhew to lead and serve as musical director of the band and Virginia staffed it, beginning with pianist Norman Simmons who has a long and distinguished career performing with many Jazz luminaries, most particularly serving as the accompanist for vocalists Carmen McRae, Joe Williams and Betty Carter.

Virginia and Norman share the arranging duties for The Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra and their scoring talents help present Duke’s music in new, musical settings.

Duke once said that music is beyond category and falls into two groups: good music and bad music.

The music on Single Petal of a Rose is good music as are the musicians who perform it.

Equally important is that they have the ability to fashion their own musical personalities into a coherent and cohesive group, a quality which Duke Ellington prized. 

While he loved the individual voices of some of his legendary band members such as trumpeters Cootie Williams, Rex Stewart and Clark Terry, alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges, tenor saxophonist Ben Webster and baritone saxophonist Harry Carney, the Duke needed them to blend-as-one because the orchestra en toto was his instrument.

Credit for melding the sound of The Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra into a consistent whole begins with trumpeter [and flugelhornist] Jami Dauber, whose attack, phrasing and dynamics forms the basis for the manner in which the band articulates the arrangements.

There was no greater admirer of Duke’s music than bassist Charles Mingus who often anchored his own group’s compositions with the playing of trombonist Jimmy Knepper.

Charles would have loved The Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra’s trombonist Noah Bless who brings not only Knepper’s spirit to mind while taking care of brass bass clef business for the group, but also those of Ellington stalwart bone players such as “Tricky Sam” Lofton, Lawrence Brown and Britt Woodman.

Speaking of Mingus, the Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra’s other bass clef role is in the capable hands of bassist Tom DiCarlo, whose playing is suggestive of the big sound and expressiveness of two of today’s Young Lions on the instrument: John Patitucci and Christian McBride.

If you ever wondered with the Duke’s music might sound like complimented by the polyrhythms of Elvin Jones and Tony Williams, all you need do is listen to Paul Wells whose drumming with the Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra’s provides these elements plus the sounds of a very contemporary drum kit.

Saxophonist Virginia Mayhew has a big, throaty tone on tenor and when she combines it in unison phrasing with trumpeter Dauber and trombonist Bless, it echoes the sound of Wayner Shorter-Freddie Hubbard-Curtis Fuller version of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers to Duke’s music [checkout the shout chorus that close-out the Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra’s version of Upper Manhattan Medical Group].

It’s quite fitting that Kenny Burrell loaned Edward Kennedy Ellington II his guitar for the date because the latter’s note selection and placement are lean and propulsive in a style similar to the one that Kenny has literally hand-crafted over six decades of playing Jazz.

And then there is Norman Simmons on piano: lyrical, beautiful and always tastefully swinging. He reminds me so much of the late Tommy Flanagan and the late Hank Jones.

Many years ago when I was working at a club on the tri-corner of Columbus, Broadway and Grant in San Francisco, I and the pianist in the group would run down the street during our breaks to catch vocalist Carmen McRae at Sugar Hill.

Norman was backing Carmen and on the way back to our gig my pianist friend would reflect: “How does Norman do it? He doesn’t play the piano, he graces it. And he swings so beautifully … all the time!”

Thankfully, some things only get better with the passing of the years and Norman’s piano playing is one of them. In addition to being so superb on piano, Norman has also written the majority of the charts on the album.

Other “surprises” on Single Petal of a Rose include the sensitive percussion work of Shelia Earley, Nancy Reed’s marvelous vocals on In A Mellow Tone, Squeeze Me, and Love You Madly, and tenor saxophonist Houston Person’s special guest appearance on Norman’s composition, a blues entitled Home Grown and Duke’s In My Solitude.”

Shelia Elaine Anderson writes of Houston in her insert notes to the CD: “Houston’s big sound, improvisations and playfulness make listeners feel happy and reminds them of what Jazz is.”

More details including websites and order information about The Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra’s Single Petal of a Rose are contained in the following News Release which was developed by Ann Braithwaite, Nancy Hudgins and the fine team at Braithwaite & Katz, Communications.

If you are in the mood for surprises, you’ll be delighted by the music on this disc.

"This band breathes new life into Duke Ellington's treasured, voluminous canon."

— Joseph Blake, Times Colonist

"...sounds as classic as the day Duke Ellington gave his music birth, while still sounding like a contemporary jazz band..."

- Susan Frances, Jazzreview.com

Almost four decades after Duke Ellington's passing, he looms larger than ever as a singular giant of American music. With Single Petal of a Rose, slated for release on June 5 on Renma Recordings, the talent-laden Duke Ellington Legacy offers an insightful, often-breathtaking tour through a program of masterpieces by Ellington and his inimitable creative partner, Billy Strayhorn.

A nine-piece multi-generational ensemble founded by guitarist Edward Kennedy Ellington II, Duke's grandson, the Duke Ellington Legacy doesn't attempt to replicate the Ellington Orchestra's sound (because really, who could?). Rather, the band explores sublime ballads, hard-charging flag wavers, lustrous tone poems, and sultry vocals, channeling an essentially Ellingtonian spirit from a contemporary perspective. With savvy music direction by saxophonist Virginia Mayhew and brilliant arrangements by the great Norman Simmons, who also handles piano duties with elegant authority, the band fully adheres to Duke's prime directive, swinging as if their lives depended on it.

"Before a concert I tell the band, let's make them want to dance," Simmons says. "People these days are afraid to move their bodies, but they can't help it when we get going."

Programmed with an ebb and flow similar to an Ellington Orchestra concert, the album opens and closes with ravishing solo piano renditions of "Single Petal" and "Lotus Blossom," delivered by Simmons with all the requisite love and tenderness. The session kicks into high gear with "Happy-Go-Lucky Local" a piece that premiered at Ellington's 1946 Carnegie Hall concert as the final movement of his "Deep South Suite." Houston Person's locomotive tenor solo is perfectly gauged to the swaggering mood of Ellington's most irrepressibly swinging train song.

"Houston has got his own sound and it's beautiful," Ellington says. "Our last album featured the great baritone saxophonist, Joe Temperley. Bringing in guests like that anchors the ensemble. They come in with such deep knowledge of the music."

"In My Solitude" offers Houston another ideal setting in which to shine as he provides empathic support for vocalist Nancy Reed. The big-toned tenor saxophonist has spent much of his career in intimate dialogue with jazz's greatest singers, most significantly during his three-decade creative partnership with the inimitable Etta Jones. Like the much-missed Jones, Reed is an underappreciated treasure who has collaborated with jazz masters such as pianist David Leonhardt, David "Fathead" Newman, Phil Woods, Dave Liebman, and Bob Dorough. Her lovely, clear tone and understated delivery make her an ideal vocalist for the Duke Ellington Legacy, whether she's bringing the mellow to "In A Mellow Tone," flirting playfully with Houston on "Squeeze Me," or convincingly delivering Duke's trademark catch phrase "Love You Madly" on a fine arrangement by Mayhew.

With four numbers to his direct credit, Strayhorn is well represented on Single Petal. Mayhew's inspired arrangement of "Johnny Come Lately", an expansive chart that features some particularly inspired tenor work by her, puts a Latin spin on the piece. Trombonist Noah Bless follows with a beautifully crafted solo, which builds to a percussion finale. Bless displays his expressive, singing tone on the aching ballad "Blood Count," while bassist Tom di Carlo propels the briskly swinging, typically ingenious "Upper Manhattan Medical Group" (often rendered as "UMMG"), which features another incisive Mayhew tenor solo.

"Ellington always featured his men, and that's something I work on," says Simmons.

"Duke was always very advanced with his harmonic structures, which provides the framework, and then for orchestration you're drawing on the colors in the band's palette, painting a picture."

The Duke Ellington Legacy was born out of the friendship between Mayhew and Edward Kennedy Ellington II, who met at the West Village jazz club Sweet Basil in the late 1980s. When Ellington approached her about launching a band with the support of the Duke Ellington Legacy, Virginia, having had studied and worked with Norman Simmons, knew Simmons would be an ideal musician for the group. In fact, Simmons has become the Legacy's heart and soul.

It's hard to overstate the depth of experience Norman Simmons brings to the Duke Ellington Legacy. A Chicago native, he was weaned on the Duke Ellington Orchestra, which he heard as a child from a neighbor's radio. As a teenager in the mid-1940s he caught the band at the Regal Theater when Sonny Greer still presided from his giant drum kit. After graduating from the Chicago School of Music, Simmons cut his teeth in the mid-1950s as the house pianist at the Beehive, where he worked with jazz icons such as Charlie Parker, Lester Young and Wardell Gray. Convinced by Ernestine Anderson to move to New York City in 1959, he quickly gained recognition as an exceptional accompanist. Over the years he put in significant stints with Dakota Staton, Carmen McRae, and Joe Williams. Working as an arranger for Riverside Records, Simmons was responsible for classic sessions with Johnny Griffin (including "The Big Soul-Band") and toured widely with the Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis/Johnny Griffin Quintet. At 81, he continues to accompany and arrange for various artists and leads his own band.

Mayhew's affinity for veteran jazz masters has been apparent since she established herself on the New York scene in the Iate1980s. A savvy bandleader, commanding saxophonist and respected arranger, she has performed with legends such as Earl "Fatha" Mines, Al Grey, Junior Mance, Doc Cheatham, Joe Williams, Clark Terry, and Chico O'Farrill, and Toshiko Akiyoshi. With six acclaimed CDs under her own name, Mayhew recently completed a recording focusing on the music of Mary Lou Williams. She is also part of another revelatory Ellington project, Dreamin' the Duke, featuring jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon and classical soprano Harolyn Blackwell.

Edward Ellington II got a very close look at the life of touring musician as a child. Over the years he occasionally joined his grandfather on the road with the orchestra, and after Duke's passing he joined his father, Mercer Ellington, as guitarist and roadie in the new Ellington orchestra. After five years, he gave up performing and didn't return to the stage for two decades, when he and Mayhew launched the Duke Ellington Legacy in 2002. Since then the group has performed widely and recorded the critically praised 2008 album Thank You Uncle Edward (Renma Recordings).

While Duke Ellington's canon needs no defenders, Single Petal of a Rose makes an incontrovertible case for the Duke Ellington Legacy as inspired torchbearers.

"The key thing is we're not just playing Ellington arrangements," Ellington says.

"These are fresh arrangements reflecting new influences, and that's the point."

www.ellingtonlegacy.com

www.renmarecordings.com

         

Max and Dado – “Two for Duke”

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

“The Jazz duo is an affirmative exercise in self-denial, a musical fast in which one gives up some expected ingredient in the cause of the greater good; intimacy, freedom, self-exploration, name your poison. Without the ballast of a beat, the emptiness leaves the duo in the back alley of the experimental where expectations are discouraged.”

- John McDonough, Down Beat

“Ellington and Strayhorn have invented something that did not exist before, laying the foundations of a harmonic and melodic language that anticipated the times of several decades.”

- Franco Fayenz, insert notes to Two for Duke

If you stick around Jazz in Italy long enough, you’ll soon discover that all roads lead to Dado … Moroni, that is.

Sooner or later, just about everyone on today’s Italian Jazz scene works with him.

Maybe it is because the guy is so personable, engaging and really knows what he’s doing.

Or maybe it’s because, whatever the setting, he swings like mad.

John McDonough is correct when he underscores that in a duo setting, “without the ballast of the beat … expectations are discouraged.”

But when you are performing music in a duo setting with Dado Moroni on piano, there’s never an absence of a beat.  It is just not possible to play the music with him without driving it forward in some way.  No meandering here; no rhythmic vacuums; no limpid introspections. When you play Jazz with Dado, it swings.

Dado is from the old school who believes that Jazz should always have what Marshall Stearns in The Story of Jazz defines as a certain “metronomic sense” that is derived from the march rhythm which is basic to Jazz.

Stearns explains that the early New Orleans brass bands added something new to march rhythm – they made it swing.

“Theorists tell us that there is no limit to the complex­ities that can be superimposed upon march rhythm—and that is what jazz is doing. The basis of jazz is a march rhythm but the jazzman puts more complicated rhythms on top of it. He blows a variety of accents between and around, above and below, the march beat. It's a much more complicated process than syncopation, which is usu­ally defined as stressing the normally weak beat, for syn­copation sounds unutterably old-fashioned to a jazzman. A regular six-piece band playing in the New Orleans style can create rhythmic complexities which no machine yet invented can fully diagram.” [pp.4-5]…

“Understanding and enjoying this kind of rhythmic com­plexity is entirely a matter of training. Contrary to the popular notion, nobody is born with a fine sense of rhythm —people simply learn it, sometimes quite unconsciously. … If your metronome sense is highly developed, you can feel a foundation rhythm when all you hear is a shower of accents being superimposed upon it.” [p. 6]

What’s the connection between Stearns’ “metronomic sense” and Dado?

It’s an easy one to make as some of Dado’s earliest exposure to Jazz was through listening to recordings that his father brought home featuring pianists Earl “Fatha” Hines, Thomas “Fats” Waller and Teddy Wilson.

All three of these early paragons of Jazz piano developed rhythmic styles that were infused with a heavy metronomic sense. Erroll Garner also became an influence on Dado with his use of “a steady left hand [that] creates and fulfils the expectancy of a continuous rhythm. Garner’s lag-along right hand … sets up a contrasting tension which is released when, by means of more unexpected accents, he catches up.” [Ibid.].

Because he is resident in Genoa, Italy for most of the year, is it any wonder that younger Jazz players in Italy seek him out?

He’s their connection to the Jazz tradition because Dado brings many characteristics   of the whole history of Jazz to his playing - metronomic swing, blue tonality, call-and-response techniques, not to mention a sophisticated understanding of modern Jazz harmonies.

One minute Dado is coloring his solos with ragtime notations, the next he’s playing flatted fifths like Bud Powel or using the quartal and quintal harmonies that pianist McCoy Tyner employed with John Coltrane ‘s quartet in the 1960s.

Another reason why so many contemporary Italian Jazzmen associate with Dado is because of his fervent love for, and immense understanding of, the music of Duke Ellington.

As he remarked recently: “I never get tired of playing Duke's music...in many ways probably the best repertoire in jazz.” 

Jazz has always been about setting new directions, but perhaps before seeking these, it might not be bad idea to take a “compass” of Duke Ellington’s music along to guide the way.

It would seem that saxophonist Max Ionata had the presence of mind to check his bearings early in his career by collaborating with Dado on a recording of Duke’s music.

Max is a monster player who combines the harmonic qualities of John Coltrane on the tenor and soprano saxophones with the melodicism and sonority of modern cool school tenor saxophonists such as Al Cohn, Zoot Sims and Richie Kamuca.

He’s a forceful player, but he gets a warm, rich sound, particularly on the tenor. 

He doesn’t get caught up in saxophone calisthenics while seemingly trying to wrestle the instrument to the ground; Max’s is more interested in making beautiful music that swings.

Max’s ideas flow easily and on Two for Duke [ViaVenetoJazzVVJ o77] both he and Dado have found a variety of ways to make Duke’s music their own whether it’s the gospel-like intensity of their version of Come Sunday, a soulful rendering of Day Dream or the ¾ waltz interpretation of All Too Soon which forms the audio track to the following video tribute to Max and Dado.

On Two for Duke, they add new and masterful interpretations to one of the great cultural gifts of the 20^th century – The Music of Duke Ellington.

[Two for Duke is available as both an audio CD and an Mp3 download from Amazon, CD Baby and other on-line sellers. We would also like to recognize the creative and supportive contributions of Giandomenico Ciaramella of Jando Music for making this recording possible].

Joe Lovano Leaps In With Little Willie

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

“ … His solos display the spontaneity of an ear player, but behind them is the urbane sophistication of a conservatory-trained musician with twenty years experience interpreting difficult charts in big bands ranging from Woody Herman to Carla Bley. Fully conversant with the harmonic vocabu­lary of Coltrane, Shorter and beyond, he is able to navigate complex structures with an uncannily relaxed rhythmic facility and big furry sound at the most intense outer partials. …” – Ted Panken, WKCR, NYC

There is nothing quite like Jazz that’s made in-performance.

You can get an idea of what’s involved in the process of Jazz creation and how monumentally complex it is to pull off well with a reading of the following observations by Ted Gioia [the paragraphing has been modified for added emphasis]:

"If improvisation is the essential element in Jazz, it may also be the most problematic. Perhaps the only way of appreciating its peculiarity is by imagining what 20th century art would be like if other art forms placed an equal emphasis on improvisation.

Imagine T.S. Eliot giving nightly poetry readings at which, rather than reciting set pieces, he was expected to create impromptu poems - different ones each night, sometimes recited at a fast clip; imagine giving Hitchcock or Fellini a handheld camera and asking them to film something - anything - at that very moment, without the benefits of script, crew, editing, or scoring; imagine Matisse or Dali giving nightly exhibitions of their skills - exhibitions at which paying audiences would watch them fill up canvas after canvas with paint, often with only two or three minutes devoted to each 'masterpiece.'

These examples strike us as odd, perhaps even ridiculous, yet conditions such as these are precisely those under which the Jazz musician operates night after night, year after year."

Is it any wonder, then, that Ted has entitled the book from which this excerpt is taken - The Imperfect Art: Reflections of Jazz and Modern Culture.

It’s even more remarkable to consider these factors while listening to tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano’s double CD Quartets: Live at The Village Vanguard.

Recorded over about a one-year interval from 1994-1995 and involving two, different groups, the consistently high level of improvisation that Joe and his cohorts establish on these in-performance recordings is astounding.

See what you think with a viewing of the following video tribute to Joe.

The audio track is Little Willie Leaps In by Miles Davis and features Joe on tenor with Mulgrew Miller on piano, Christian McBride on bass and Lewis Nash on drums. It was recorded at the Village Vanguard in NYC on Sunday, January 22, 1995.

Ryan Truesdell Presents Centennial: Newly Discovered Works by Gil Evans – A Review

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

“He was a mysterious man, as elusive and evanescent as his art. He could be maddeningly absent-minded; yet he could be closely attentive and solicitous, and you never quite knew how much Gil Evans was noticing about you. His childhood is an enigma, and there is even a question about his real name. Tall, lank, professional of mien, he was kind, self-critical, and self-doubting.”

- Gene Lees

“The mind reels at the intricacy of his orchestral and developmental techniques. His scores are so careful, so formally well-constructed, so mindful of tradition, that you feel the originals should be preserved under glass in a Florentine museum.”

- Bill Mathieu [arranger-composer]

“His name is famously an anagram of Svengali and Gil spent much of his career shaping the sounds and musical philosophies of younger musicians. … His peerless voicings are instantly recognizable.”

- Richard Cook

“I bought every one of Louis Armstrong’s records from 1927-1936. … In each of these three minute records, there’s a magic moment somewhere. Every one of them. I really learned how to handle a song from him. I learned how to love music from him. Because he loved music and he did everything with love and care. So he’s my main influence I think.”

- Gil Evans

As a teen-ager, Gil Evans listened to records at speeds slower than 78rpm’s to pick out sounds from the Louis Armstrong recordings that he treasured and then invented his own notation system to write arrangements before he had any sort of schooling in the art of orchestration.

This may account for the fact that Gil’s arrangements always seem to use unique combinations of instruments including tubas with flutes and rarely heard [in Jazz] reed instruments such as the oboe and English horn.

He was trying to replicate into music, sounds that he heard in his head and these odd or unusual instruments were the best source to emulate his impressions.

He didn’t know what he couldn’t do, because he had no formal training to tell him otherwise.

- the editorial staff of JazzProfiles

“We build our styles not on our abilities, but on our limitations.”

- Charles Aznavour

To offer a context in which to truly understand what Ryan Truesdell has accomplished with his recording of Centennial: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans [ArtistShare 0114], when Jazz pianist Michel Petrucciani died quite suddenly in January, 1999, Francis Marmande wrote in La Chambre d’Amour:

“If the death of a musician touches us in a special way, it is because they take their secrets with them – the secret of their unique musical sound, the secret of their precise relation to space, air and the movement of their bodies that they alone knew how to produce.”

So what do you do if your name is Ryan Truesdell, and as an ex-student of the late Gil Evans, you are faced with unlocking the secrets of a musician who died in 1988?

What happens when Gil’s family and estate grant you access to the his musical archives and you discover “… nearly fifty never-before heard manuscripts, which illuminate as-yet-unheard aspects of said master’s musical world?”

How do you unravel the unique essence of a lost artist who, like Michel, left such a huge footprint of the Jazz world?

What do you do to bring this music to life?

And when you do, how are you going to play it?

What tempos are you going to employ; what dynamic ranges are you going to use; what are you going to do with the uncompleted parts? These questions only hint at the magnitude of the challenge one faces in bringing the Gil Evans musical treasures that Ryan discovered into existence.

As Ryan’s colleague, composer-arranger Maria Schneider [who also studied with Gil] explains it: “It’s like finding the impossible: imagine you buy and old house and discover a box of lost Beethoven manuscripts in the attic – scores that have never been heard before. That’s exactly what happened here. It’s been something that I’ve wished for, for decades now – something that so many of us have wanted and it’s here. It’s an incredible opportunity to hear this music uncovered.”

The genius of what Ryan Truesdell has accomplished with Centennial: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans is twofold: [1] he’s not only brought the music to life in the ArtistShare CD, no small feat in and of itself, but he’s also documented in words and photographs what he and the musicians associated with this project did in the form of the two, brilliant insert booklets which accompany the CD.

The CD itself is comprised of ten tracks of previously unrecorded arrangements [including two original compositions by Gil] that Evans penned between 1946 and 1971.  See www.GilEvansProject.com or www.iTunes.com/GilEvans100 for order information.

In a way it’s ironic that a man like Gil Evans, who shunned bringing direct attention on himself for most of his lifetime, has such adoring adulation shined upon him and his music with the issuance of this CD in celebration of the 100^th anniversary of his birth.

In these introductory paragraphs from A Portrait of Centennial, the expository insert booklet which accompanies the disc, Ryan Truesdell offers these insights into his approach.

© -Ryan Truesdell, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“Composition is an isolated art form, with countless hours spent alone at the piano in front of empty sheets of staff paper. Until instruments give breath to what's been written, the scrawls of a composer are little more than marks on a page. Much of the process takes place in the composer's mind; requiring an experienced ear, and a comprehensive understanding of the colors and capabilities of each individual instrument. Gil heard more than just the sound of a particular instrument, creating even more distinctive sonic and harmonic textures by writing for the unique sounds of specific musicians. In Gil's compositional mind, a soprano wasn't just a soprano, it became Steve Lacy; a trumpet became Miles Davis, or Johnny Coles.

The combination of these distinct voices breathe life into the music, creating the sounds, feel, and energy that we hear in each performance. Although Gil originally wrote these pieces with other musicians in mind, I chose each person on this record for what I felt their individual voice would bring to the music. If even one member of the ensemble were changed, the atmosphere might have yielded something entirely different. The confluence of this diverse group of musicians has resulted in the stunning performances represented on this record, honoring Gil Evans and his timeless legacy.

As you explore these new works, I encourage you to look through the photos taken during the recording sessions, in hopes that you'll be able to put a face and a name to the sounds that you are hearing. Then you'll begin to hear what I heard; that an alto saxophone became Steve Wilson or Dave Pietro, and a trumpet became Greg Gisbert. And in the moments when their voices become more than the sum of their parts, you'll hear the magic that can only be described as the unique voice of Gil Evans.”

Braithwaite and Katz are handling communications for Centennial: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans and Ann Braithwaite, Jon Muchin and the other members of the team there had this to say in their news release:

CENTENNIAL features an eclectic but cohesive collection that represents the best of Truesdell's historic discoveries. Of these ten works, half were originally written for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra, including an Evans original composition, "Dancing on a Great Big Rainbow" and a striking arrangement of "The Maids of Cadiz" written in 1950, seven years prior to the version for Miles Davis on their landmark collaboration, Miles Ahead. "It's fascinating to compare the two versions," Truesdell says of Cadiz. "With the discovery of this arrangement for Thornhill, we can gain new insight into Gil's original approach to the tune, and how he adapted it for the version we all know with Miles."

Three of the new works, two of which were originally written for Astrud Gilberto and Lucy Reed, will feature vocalists. On CENTENNIAL, these arrangements are masterfully interpreted by the seasoned voices of Kate McGarry, Luciana Souza and newcomer Wendy Gilles, who glides effortlessly over Gil's intricate arrangement of "Beg Your Pardon" originally written for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra in 1946.

Kurt Weill's "Barbara Song" and Evans' medley, "Waltz/Variation on the Misery/So Long" are arranged for a twenty-four piece orchestra which more closely resembles a wind ensemble than a modern day big band, and is augmented by oboes, bassoons, French horns, and percussion. While both pieces may ring a familiar bell to the veteran Evans listener, these arrangements illuminate a key element in Evans' compositional process, and present each tune in a whole new light. "It was evident from sifting through Gil's manuscripts, that he was constantly revising and revamping old arrangements," Truesdell remarks. "With these two large ensemble arrangements, Gil has greatly expanded upon what we know from the previous recordings, and further developed these pieces in terms of form, harmony, and rhythm. The sonic palette offered by this large instrumentation was like nothing Gil had available to him before. I felt these tunes were essential to presenting this newly discovered world of Gil's." Soloists Steve Wilson and Donny McCaslin on saxophone, vibraphonist Joe Locke, and trombonist Marshall Gilkes, add their distinct creative voices to this new sonic world, exploring the endless possibilities revealed in these arrangements.

One of the most exceptional pieces on the record is "Punjab," another Evans' original composition, written for his 1964 album The Individualism of Gil Evans. The process of bringing this particular work from the page to the studio provides an excellent example of the research required to assemble this groundbreaking album. The score was incomplete, with no indication of tempo, and very little notation for the rhythm section. "I knew Gil had recorded sketches and an initial reading of "Punjab" during the Individualism sessions," recalls Truesdell. "Gil had no intention of these performances being commercially released, but I knew they were my only chance to figure out what Gil had intended for the rhythm section." Assistance from Universal Music made it possible for Truesdell to hear the rehearsal tapes, enabling him to interpret Evans' intentions, and make the informed decision to add tabla to the track. "There was something about the drums in the rehearsal that didn't seem to support what Gil had written," said Truesdell. "I knew "Punjab" had its roots in Indian music, so I decided to add tabla player Dan Weiss to the ensemble and see what happened. I'm glad I trusted my instincts, because the effect was almost transcendent. It was a moment of recognition between the musicians and I, confirming what we had felt all along; that we were all a part of something truly profound."

With CENTENNIAL, his first CD as a leader, Truesdell has taken on a daunting task, relying heavily upon his encyclopedic knowledge and love of Evans' music, his discerning ear, and decisive leadership in the studio to breathe new life into a collection of Evans' works that might otherwise have remained forgotten. This achievement, to say nothing of the remarkable number of first-call musicians more than willing to follow his baton, solidifies Truesdell as an emerging producer and bandleader to watch out for.

Upcoming Gil Evans project performances:

Saturday, July 7 through Thursday, July 12, 2012

SIX-CONCERT RESIDENCY            Umbria Jazz Festival, Perugia, Italy

Featuring Ryan Truesdell with the Eastman School of Music Chamber Jazz Ensemble and special guests, saxophonists Francesco Cafiso, Stefano di Battista, and Scott Robinson, and trumpeters Frabrizio Bosso and Paolo Fresu.

_

Sunday, August 5, 2012

GIL EVANS PROJECT DEBUT         Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, Rl

Presenting all new music from CENTENNIAL on the festival main stage.

It’s been said that our immortality lives on in the minds of others.

100 years after his birth, the musical mind of Gil Evans lives on thanks to the mortality of Ryan Truesdell.

Jazz fans, new and old, owe him a debt of gratitude as it’s not often that something this special comes along.