"Visualizing" Jazz

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

Jazz it seems is constantly reinventing itself primarily through amalgamation.

Jazz blends well, in part, because as the late pianist Bill Evans asserted, Jazz is not so much a music per se as it is a process for making music.

If you do certain things musically - primarily improvise on a structure, form or motif employing a syncopated rhythmic pattern - then you create Jazz.

Whatever the source of the music - other musical styles; music from another culture; these use of different instrumentation, et al. - the process of making Jazz can incorporate anything and everything

Applying Jazz to visual mediums is a longstanding custom dating back to filming Jazz bands in action to create short subject movie trailers, or using the music in full scale theatrical films or as a soundtrack for a radio and/or television series, or as the audio track for a documentary.

Listening to Jazz while viewing paintings, sculpture, photography and other graphic media has always been a fun way for me to experience the music in a different mode.

Jazz with graphics is just another form of the music’s adaptability and malleability; it seems to go well with other artistic and cultural elements.

Slide presentations comprised of applying cover art illustrations from an artist’s LP’s or CD’s in combination with photographs of the musician, using various filters with  computer generated graphics and wildlife photography are just three examples that illustrate platforms that I have used to develop videos with Jazz soundtracks.

My usual purpose in generating these videos is to have their soundtracks serve as actual examples of the music under discussion in the Jazz style or Jazz musician being profiled in each blog feature.

Whatever the textual purpose or the visual context, the excitement that listening to Jazz generates never fails to show itself especially when it is placed in an orchestral context [another amalgamation] such as a Jazz soloist featured with The Metropole Orchestra of Holland [just one example]. The Metropole Orkest has the added feature of a large string section that has been specifically trained and rehearsed to perform Jazz phrasing.

With the magnificent Metropole Orchestra as a constant in each of the following videos, why not sit back, turn up the volume control on your speakers or headset and enjoy these videos, each of which uses visual elements set to Jazz..

The first video features trumpeter Randy Brecker performing his original composition Tokyo Freddie with the orchestra as set to cover art and photographs of Randy and his music. Vince Mendoza conducts the orchestra.

The second video is set to computer-generated, HD graphics and features Jeff Beal [trumpet], Harvey Wainapel [soprano saxophone] performing pianist Kenny Barron's Anywhere with the orchestra conducted by Jim McNeely. The arrangement is by Jeff Beal. As you may be aware, Jeff is also the composer of the music to the Netflix produced House of Cards television series.

The third video offers a series of gorgeous, wild animal photographs as set to a version of another Kenny Barron tune - Wildlife - with pianist Rob van Kreeveld and the orchestra in performance, Lex Jasper conducting. The arrangement is by J. Reinders.

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Francy Boland - Playing with the Trio

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

One could perhaps be forgiven if, without deep roots in the halcyon days of modern Jazz in the mid 20th century, they were only aware of Francy Boland as that half of the Clarke Boland Big Band who only did the bulk of the arranging and composing for the orchestra.

Like the bass, pianos in a big band are almost inaudible. And while Francy Boland is a pianist of considerable skill and talent, one would never know it because you can’t really hear him play the instrument in a big band.

Which is why the release of the trio-only tracks from the Going Classic Vogue LP by Schema Rearward as a special edition CD on February 25, 2014 is so significant because as the title indicates, here are nine [9] tracks in which one can actually listen to Francy Boland Playing With The Trio [RW 148].

The “trio” is not surprisingly Francy in the company of bassist Jimmy Woode and drummer Kenny Clarke, the three of whom formed the dynamic rhythm section that powered the Clarke Boland Big Band for so many years.

But what may be surprising to some is how well Francy applies his considerable talents as a composer-arranger to creating Jazz in a piano trio setting.

Or, as Francis Gooding explains in his insert notes to Francy Boland Playing With The Trio:

"There is a two-fold pleasure in listening to the leader of a big band play in a trio setting. First, there is the satisfaction of hearing a voice that is normally in the background being brought to centre stage. As a composer and arranger, Francy Boland typically spoke with many tongues. Like Ellington, he wrote with specific players in mind and so, as with a playwright, we usually hear his thoughts interpreted and given utterance by others. The big band format allows the band-leader to project their ideas in grand form, and with the widest range of tones and emphases. It also allows a reserved composer to hide his own light amidst the blaze of brighter burning stars. Boland was of famously modest and self-effacing nature, so to hear him play in this context is something to treasure. And with Klook and Woode behind him the session is, of course, a perfectly cut gem: unassuming but wholly flawless, and shining with intelligent musical light.

Second, there is a more intellectual pleasure, for with an occasional trio like this one we get to examine the music of a large ensemble in reduced form, and from the most privileged point of view. In the company of the composer himself, the trio guides us through versions of familiar Clarke-Boland numbers that have been pared back to absolute essentials, allowing us to see the delicate forms that reside within the complex machinery of Boland's arrangements. The thickets of brass and reeds, the star turns by soloists, the sheer noise and drama of the big band all drop away: the songs are stripped down to founding principles, to the clear colours and subtle accents of the compositional heartwood.

And with this trio in particular we also have the privilege of observing the reactions that take place at the core of the band. Not only do we get to hear Boland's piano in the foreground, but we also hear the quality of his relationship with Klook in direct form. Their interaction cushioned by the supremely constant Jimmy Woode, the two leaders of what was unquestionably the premier European jazz big band of its era can here be heard stretching out on their own material. There was good reason to separate these recordings from their original setting on Boland's Vogue LP Going Classic, where they had appeared stirred through with orchestral arrangements, for the private conversation between these three master musicians has all the wisdom and reserve that befits vast experience and immaculate good taste. We should feel lucky that we can listen in."

The following video will give you a sampling of what’s on offer in this delightful reissue of Jazz trio stylings by Francy, Jimmy and Kenny.

Vee Jay Records - A Tribute [From The Archives]

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

“There’s still nothing to beat the special thrill you get when you hear somebody who is absolutely new to you, of whom you have never heard before and who just simply knocks you out.

This shock of recognition is one of the greatest kicks in jazz. Just as those rare moments when everything goes right, the whole thing falls into place and everybody is together, is what keeps the musicians going through the bad times, so the now and then discovery of a beautiful, exciting new voice in jazz is what keeps the listener plowing through all those LPs.

When I first played this LP, I recognized no one on it. After I looked at the personnel, I knew I had heard some of the men before and heard of some of the others. But what shattered me, racked me up and made me play it over and over was the work of a man I had never heard of, of whose existence I hadn't dreamt but whose music hit me with exceptional force.

His name is Frank Strozier and he plays the alto saxophone. Predictions are chance-y things at best, but I'll chance one right here. We've all been waiting for something past Bird to happen to the alto. Ornette Coleman is taking it in one direction and it is welcome news. Frank Strozier, it seems to me, is taking it in a parallel direction bowing, not to Bird directly, but to John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins and possibly to Ornette, as well. He rips into his solos with the agonized wail that Coltrane has made a specialty of; he packs each long line, breath-taking in its searing irregularity, with high-voltage emotion. To come through on record as he does, he must be something else in person. Hearing him, as I did, for the first time in the context of this LP, was an exciting and thrilling experience. I am sure we will all be hearing a lot more from this Memphis-born youngster.”

- Ralph J. Gleason, Jazz author/critic

VeeJay Records was founded in Gary, Indiana in 1953 by Vivian Carter and James Braden, a husband and wife team whose first initials gave the label its name.

The company’s Jazz recordings were a small portion of its releases as it was primarily a rock ‘n roll label.

Gratefully, however, and as you will no doubt observe from the cover art in the video tribute, it provided a number of then fledgling Jazz artists an opportunity to display their talent to a broader audience through its LP’s.

Not surprisingly, given the fact that Gary is 26 miles SE of Chicago, many of VeeJay’s Jazz recordings favored musicians who were or had been primarily based in The Windy City such as pianist Eddie Higgins, tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris and the MJT +3, although it also featured early albums by trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter and pianist Wynton Kelly.

Chicagoans, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Walter Perkins, dubbed themselves the Modern Jazz Two [“MJT”] and the “3” is made up of Willie Thomas on trumpet, also of Chicago, and Harold Mabern on piano and Frank Strozier on alto saxophone, both born and bred in Memphis, TN.

The tune on the audio track is Ray Bryant’s Sleepy which is based on an AABA structure but the “B” bridge or release is 12-bars while each of the “A’s” is 8-bars.

The tempo is doubled during the second 6-bars of the bridge and played with a triplet feeling in 6/8 time.

Walter Perkins announces the exit from the bridge with a thunderous backbeat that he plays simultaneously with the left hand on the snare drum, the right hand on the floor tom tom and the right foot using the bass drum beater ball.

Does anyone play Jazz at this tempo anymore?

Wynton Marsalis and Jazz At Lincoln Center

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

Jazz fans are a contentious lot.

They are always arguing about something: which style of Jazz is best?; who is the better piano player, bassist or drummer?; who should be granted a place in the Downbeat magazine Jazz Musician Hall of Fame or awarded a Grammy?; are Free Jazz, Jazz-Rock Fusion and Jazz performed on electronic instruments [think synthesizers] just so much noise or are they new and different ways to create the music?

These debates are as endless as they are endlessly boring.

Why choose, rate or rank? Enjoy all the aspects of the music that appeal to you and allow others the freedom to do the same. How can art be competitive?

For reasons which I will not go into here for fear of reopening and perpetuating the dialogue, one thing that is irrefutable in Jazz circles is that the mere mention of Wynton Marsalis’ name is enough to set off a debate that can reach incendiary proportions.

But, at the same time, as is explained in the following article from the April 26th edition of The Economist magazine, what is also incontestable is Wynton’s ability to raise money for Jazz.

Unquestionably, in the hundred years or so of Jazz’s existence, no one has ever done it better.

© -The Economist, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Jazz at Lincoln Center

Riff on the world

Building Wynton Marsalis's house of swing into a global brand

“FOR decades, jazz-club owners looked at their more well-heeled cousins in other genres with envy. Unlike metropolitan orchestras or opera houses, jazz groups usually lacked a steady home or grand performance space and a foundation of patrons to help them thrive. The art form that was rooted in the blues and folk music of African slaves in America was often performed in smoky basement joints. Fans paid a modest cover charge or nothing at all to hear music, and the musicians often took home a pittance as their reward for a hard night's work.

Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC), launched in 1987 as a concert series in New York, shattered that stereotype. In 1998 it was allocated 100,000 square feet (9,209 square metres) of space in the Time Warner Center in Manhattan's pricey Columbus Circle area. The organisation raised $i3im to build three state-of-the-art venues with virtually perfect acoustics that could accommodate a trio, a big band or a large ensemble.

When it opened in 2004, the centre's Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola and what is now called the Appel Room won praise for the romantic, postcard-like views of Central Park and New York's skyline. The "House of Swing", as Wynton Marsalis, a great jazz trumpeter, calls the space, provides him with a dream job. As managing and artistic director, he evangelises about jazz's importance to children and adults alike, while curating concert series and leading the Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra.

Today, ten years after moving into its new home (and against considerable odds), JALC has created a template for building a thriving cultural institution for jazz. The annual budget has grown from $10.5 million to about $48 million for the year ending in June. Much of that is covered by corporations, private donors and board members, many of whom work on Wall Street. And it lures big cheque-writers with finesse. Helen Appel and her husband, Robert, who is JALC'S chairman, gave $20 million this year, the largest gift in the institution's history. Its success has inspired imitators such as the San Francisco-based SFJAZZ, which last year opened the largest free-standing performing-arts building for a jazz organisation in America.

Making the transition from a concert programme to a music centre was a struggle for the board, which was led in the early days by a determined and able record executive, Lisa Schiff. It had to train dozens of people to operate its three venues and an accompanying restaurant. And it needed to build a base of loyal donors and corporate sponsors who were more used to supporting New York's world-class museums and established performing-arts spaces. Mr Marsalis came to Ms Schiff's aid and added corporate pitchman to his duties. He helped lure local sponsors such as Samsung Electronics, Coca-Cola and Bank of America. Attracted by JALC'S reputation for cool, wealthy individual donors began stepping up to the plate. Agnes Varis, a former managing director of the Metropolitan Opera and a fan of Mr Marsalis, made a $3 million unrestricted gift in 2010, the year before she died.

With its growing pains behind it, Mr Marsalis and the executive director, Greg Scholl, now want to turn JALC into a global brand, something no traditional jazz centre has achieved. Mr Marsalis is keen to help jazz evolve from its traditional small, dark and smoky character, and create an international following that will help expand the art form's musical vocabulary. In 2012 it set up a venue at the St Regis Doha in Qatar and enlisted Dominick Farinacci, an emerging American trumpeter, as its "brand" ambassador. A similar plan is in the works to establish an outpost in Shanghai. On June 3Oth Mr Marsalis and the JALC orchestra will perform at the Barbican in London with the Sachal Jazz Ensemble from Pakistan, a genre-blending group that recently created a stir on YouTube with its renditions of Dave Brubeck's standard, "Take Five", and REM'S "Everybody Hurts". Taking JALC global will require more donations. It is a safe bet that Mr Marsalis is already plotting how to use his trumpet, passion and charm to draw them in.

Max Roach Legacy Collection Unveiled

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

“Embellishing a style introduced by Kenny Clarke a few years earlier, Roach devised a fresh approach to playing his instrument that initially mystified and thoroughly challenged other drummers. On his first recordings with Parker, he displayed a highly responsive, contrapuntal style. The time was established on the hi-hat or top cymbals, rather than the snare and bass drums. A regular pulse, softly played on the bass drum, provided a foundation (or "bottom") for the music. This was a holdover from the old way of playing. Added to the recipe were comments on accents made on the snare and bass drums, often in close conjunction.

In essence, Roach worked with techniques out of the drums' lively tradition, some of them stemming from Jo Jones, some from Sid Catlett, more than a few from Kenny Clarke, and combined them with techniques he invented himself. His performances were highlighted by singular patterns that were used in fills and solos and also appeared in one form or another when he played a purely supportive role. He consistently showed how to effectively use space, silence and dynamics. Roach made a case for the drummer as a musician.

Because he practiced incessantly and was a player who performed around the clock, Roach developed admirable technique and coordination. He concentrated on what drummers call independence, playing different rhythms with each appendage, which created new levels of interest for the attentive listener. He began to liberate the drum set in a major way. His talent, razor-sharp mind and inventive approach to music resulted in new applications of drum rudiments and increased use and integration of the bass drum, cymbals and hi-hat.

It was no longer just a matter of announcing time and establishing a groove. Roach took things way beyond that, bringing into play his sensitivity to sound and the so-called melodic possibilities of the instrument, while venturing into previously unexplored areas of drum set technique.”

- Burt Korall, insert notes to The Complete Mercury Max Roach Plus Four Sessions [Mosaic Records MD7-201]

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles is hard at work on an extended piece about drummer Max Roach, who along with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and Charles Mingus, deserves to be recognized as one of the creators of Bebop and the style of music that predominated the post World War II modern Jazz movement.

While this feature is in the works, we thought we’d call your attention to the following announcement which appeared in the April 24, 2014 edition of Downbeat Magazine. and to the video tribute to Max that follows it.

© -Geoffrey Himes/Downbeat, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“At a public ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 27, 2014 the Library of Congress unveiled the Max Roach Legacy Collection, the drummer's personal papers, recordings and memorabilia, which the library had acquired from the Roach family a year earlier.

To give a sense of the roughly 100,000 items in the holdings, samples were spread across two tables. At the end of one table were several artifacts related to Roach's landmark 1961 album, We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite. The artifacts include the contract with Candid Records, the original, unused album artwork, a program from a live performance and a portion of the score written in Roach's own hand.

Roach was a collector. He saved anything that might document his career: contracts, photos, posters, programs, reel-to-reel tapes, rehearsal cassettes, videos, scores, written correspondence, address books, date books, magazines, newspaper clippings and more. The documentation filled the basement cage of his Upper West Side apartment building; it spread out to as many as three self-storage units.

One item in the Library of Congress collection that jazz historians will be particularly interested in is the unpublished manuscript for an autobiography that Roach had worked on with writer Amiri Baraka (who died Jan. 9, 2014).

"He had a strong sense of his place in history, and he wanted it documented," the drummer's oldest daughter, Maxine Roach, said at the Library of Congress. "In the last years of his life, I asked him, 'What do you want us to do with all the stuff you have in storage?' He said, 'I don't care where it goes, but I want it to stay together.'"

Maxine Roach had attended the April 2010 unveiling of the Dexter Gordon Collection at the Library of Congress with Maxine Gordon, Dexter's widow. Roach was so impressed by the experience that she convinced her stepmother and her four siblings to give the Max Roach Collection the same home.

"When we were kids, they were just boxes of junk," said Maxine's brother Daryl. "But as I got older, when I spent a summer setting up his drum kit at European festivals, I realized he was more than just my dad. And now, seeing some of the stuff in those boxes, it's like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. I can see the breadth of his associations. I can see that he wanted to be viewed not just as a musician but also in a sociopolitical-economic context. He was a holistic thinker."

The Library of Congress plans to create a searchable database of all the artifacts in the collection. If a musician, academic, journalist or blogger wants to research the Freedom Now Suite, for example, he or she can request it and the staff will know which carton contains the related materials. The staff will bring the materials to a table at the library's reading room so that the person doing research can examine them up close.

"The purpose of these archives is not to collect boxes and put them on the shelf," said Larry Appelbaum, senior music reference librarian and jazz specialist at the Library of Congress. "We want people to come and use them."”

—Geoffrey Himes”

The following video tribute to Max is set to George Coleman’s Shirley from Max Roach + 4 On The Chicago Scene [EmArcy 36132; Mosaic MD7-201]. In addition to George on tenor saxophone and Max on drums, the quintet includes Booker Little on trumpet, Eddie Baker on piano and Bob Cranshaw on bass.

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Randy Johnston - "Walk On"

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

In a recent Downbeat magazine “Blindfold Test,” Eric Harland, one of the current crop of terrific young drummers on today’s Jazz scene said:

“Lewis Nash? No? Kenny Washington!? [after he was given the information that the tune and the players he was being asked to identify was Magic Beans from Benny Green’s Benny's Crib on Sunnyside, 2013 with Benny on piano, Peter Washington on bass and Kenny Washington on drums].

 

“Only a few people can swing like that. When Kenny or Lewis play swing, it's a lifestyle. They live and breathe it. The trio is great. ... 4 stars.”

I can’t think of a higher compliment to pay a drummer than to say that they make the music swing.

Or as the late announcer Chuck Niles often declared when introducing his next track on his Los Angeles, CA FM Jazz radio program: “straight-ahead and swinging.”

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles takes great joy in finding music by the current crop of Jazz musicians that’s played in a straight-ahead and swinging manner.

In this regard, Benny Green and Kenny Washington were responsible for my discovery of guitarist Randy Johnson as they along with bassist Ray Drummond formed the rhythm section on Randy’s Walk On Muse CD [MCD-5432].

I didn’t know who Randy was but since Benny and Kenny were on the date, I thought I’d take a punt on this recording.

I’m sure glad I did as Randy’s blues-drenched, straight-ahead and swinging guitar style has since become a staple of my Jazz guitarist playlists.

Here’s more background on Randy and Walk On from the CD’s insert notes as authored by Bob Porter of WBGO Jazz Radio.

“Randy Johnston was working in Harlem at Small's Paradise with singer Delia Griffin when Etta Jones heard him for the first time. While her accompaniment has rarely included guitar (except on records), Etta Jones knows a good musician when she hears one. Within a few months, she and her partner, Houston Person, began dropping Randy's name among those on the lookout for new talent. Randy quickly began showing up on Etta's recordings -then Houston's.

Walk On is his first album as a leader. His accompanists are among New York's finest. Kenny Washington was the first player who came to Randy's mind. The versatile young percussionist is a favorite of almost everyone. Kenny, born in Brooklyn (5/29/58), has been a regular member of working groups led by Betty Carter, Kenny Burrell, Tommy Flanagan and, at this writing, Milt Jackson. Randy felt that Washington would be able to handle-with-ease the range of material for this first recording. One quick listen will tell you that the drum chair is in good hands.

Bill Easley plays a whole variety of reed instruments and has been active in Broadway show bands as well as studio work around New York. Originally from upstate New York he has worked out of Pittsburgh and Memphis prior to settling in the New York area. His long list of affiliations includes George Benson, Mercer Ellington and Jimmy McGriff. His own albums have appeared on Sunnyside and Milestone.

Benny Green seems the natural heir to what Wynton Kelly represented in the 50s and 60s. His lines are clean and cliche free and his style blends easily with much of the music being made today. While his customary working situation finds him at the head of a trio, his work with Art Blakey made certain that his abilities as a band pianist would have the best possible tutelege. He currently records for Blue Note.

Ray Drummond is a major league performer on bass and has been for many years. Raised in the San Francisco bay area he was the bassist of choice for travelling musicians coming to that part of the country prior to his move to the Apple.

The material chosen by Randy and producer Houston Person covers a lot of territory. The Jumping Blues is a Kansas City anthem long associated with the composer Jay McShann while Moanin' is the quintessential Jazz Messenger standard (one that Benny Green knows very well). Crazy She Calls Me is a feature for Randy's best ballad playing while his compositions, The Queen's Samba (a dedication to Etta Jones) and the title track, Walk On, demonstrate Randy's abilities as a writer as well as a player.

This album is being released in January 1992 at a time when much of the country will be battling chilly, winter weather. The music on this disc will certainly help to keep your soul warm at any time of year. The album title says it all. It is certainly time for thirty-five year old, ex-Detroiter Randy Johnston to take center stage and to Walk On - into the spotlight!

I’ve selected the title track to accompany the following video tribute to Randy which includes a collection of images of all of his recordings as well as some photographs of him.

Jammin' with Joey DeFrancesco

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

“Organ-tenor ensembles have been a staple of the Jazz performance legacy for the better part of 40 years.

Pipe organs were actually the first organs available to Jazz artists, Pioneering musicians like Thomas “Fats” Waller used pipe organs in churches, as accompaniment to silent films and of course in ensembles featuring secular music.

It was the introduction of the first electric organ by Laurens Hammond in 1935 and the subsequent development of a speaker containing two rotating baffles by Don Leslie that jump-started the popular interest in the instrument by players in all genres of music.

Of course the most outstanding quality of the Hammond organ was its (relative) portability. Like its predecessor, the theater organ (Developed by Robert Hope-Jones and introduced by the Wurlitzer organization in the early 1900s), there were multiple stops and pedals for the imitation of other instruments and to allow for orchestral voicing of the music.

Jimmy Smith is generally credited with having pieced together all of the elements of the technique inherited from the pipe, theater and electric organ traditions of Jazz and the blues and rhythm and blues influences which are the critical factors in creating a sound which is so accessible it often becomes the doorway by which Jazz fans first discover their love for the music.

Additionally, we probably have Messrs. Waller, Smith, Bill Basie, Milt Buckner, Wild Bill Davis and a host of others to thank for many of the techniques which are now commonplace for keyboard players who work with synthesizers.

Growing up in Philadelphia, right smack in the middle of the Northeast corridor, Joey DeFrancesco was surrounded by this tradition and by the club scene which nutured it. On this his fifth recording for Columbia, Joey pays tribute to this legacy with an all-star, live date captured at the recently opened New York nightclub which takes its name from its famous predecessor, the Five Spot.”

- Al Pryor, insert notes to Joey DeFrancesco: Live at The Five Spot Columbia CD [CK 53805]

Aside from his musical inventiveness and blazing technique, I’ve always felt that other qualities have made Hammond B-3 organist Joey DeFrancesco one of the more admirable members of the current Jazz generation including his amiability, geniality and respect for the Jazz tradition.

Jazz has always been about jam sessions or in the parlance of the music - Jammin.’ In the early years of the music, jam sessions were where you learned your craft. You sought out places to jam, sat in and measured yourself against the skills and ideas of other musicians.

Jam sessions could be competitive, sometimes brutally so and, in this regard, they could be a test of courage. My initiation into the world of jammin’ involved getting up on the stage with a half dozen or so horn players and playing a blistering uptempo version of All The Things You Are for what seemed like an eternity while each hornman took an extended solo. When it was over, my right hand was shaking so bad from playing a continuous cymbal beat that it couldn’t hold a glass of water. I don’t know how musical it was, but I got it done. I guess I cut it because I was allowed to stay on the bandstand to play the next tune.

More often, though, jammin’ is about learning to play with musicians whose style and approach are different if not singular. Experiencing such diversity served to broaden your Jazz vocabulary and helped you learn other ways to express yourself in the music.

Cats like baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, drummer Shelly Manne and bassist Milt Hinton played with anyone and everyone. Swing-era saxophonist Coleman Hawkins employed some of the earliest beboppers in his band because he wanted to learn the “new music” from associating with them. Even The King of Swing, clarinetist Benny Goodman, tried his hand at be-bop for awhile and other Swing Era icons like clarinetist Woody Herman, drummer Gene Krupa and trumpeter Harry James led big bands that fit very nicely into the modern era.

No one on today’s Jazz scene is more into jammin’ with musicians from all eras and styles of Jazz than Joey DeFrancesco. If you have any doubts about this assertion all you need do is check the personnel on the recordings he’s made over the last 15 years or so.

Although I didn’t recognize it as a conscious choice on Joey’s part because I had nothing to compare it to at the time, my first awareness of his inclination to such diversity was Joey’s Live at The Five Spot Columbia CD [CK 53805] on which he appeared with a variety of guest stars including tenor saxophonists Illinois Jacquet, Grover Washington, Jr., Kirk Whalum and Houston Person and one of the icons of the Hammond B-3 organ, “Captain” Jack McDuff.

Since then, Joey’s been in the recorded company of Jimmy Smith, who more than any other musician is responsible for bringing the Hammond B-3 organ into the modern Jazz era, saxophonists Teddy Edwards, George Coleman, and Gary Bartz, guitarists Larry Coryell, Pat Martino, Ron Eschete, Randy Johnson, Jake Langley and Danny Gatton, and drummers Jimmy Cobb, Billy Hart and Jeff Hamilton.

He even formed a super trio with guitarist John McLaughlin and drummer Dennis Chambers and went on a world tour with them - talk about moving your ears in new directions!

For many years, Joey’s has primarily been in the company of guitarist Paul Bollenback and drummer Byron Landham, two marvelous musicians who can adapt their styles to work with any horn player.

In person, Joey’s admiration for his fellow Jazz musicians is almost palpable - he looks like a kid in a toy store who can’t wait for his turn to make a choice.