Bill and Thelonious: Holman on Monk [From the Archives]

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

"’Of all the other peoples' music I've played in my life, I'd rather play Bill Holman's. He makes it such a delight. It's so naturally well crafted that it speaks when you play it. For all of us who are composers, he's been a role model in multi-voice writing and experimenting with longer forms. He was one of the first to do that and is still one of the most successful."

- Bob Brookmeyer, valve trombonist, composer-arranger, band leader

The following quotation is excerpted from a recent re-reading of Gary Giddins’ Weather Bird: Jazz at The Dawn of Its Second Century, a new paperback version of which made its way into the editorial offices of JazzProfiles as a holiday gift.

“A Holman arrangement is distinguished by several hallmarks, chief among them his ability to keep several balls in the air at the same time. Something is always happening. It is a cliche to say that a bandleader makes a small group sound like a big band or a big band sound like a combo. Holman makes a big band sound enormous—given the luxury of 16 musicians, he seems to imply, "use them, all of them, all the time."

Another hallmark is his distinctive use of counterpoint, which he never launches in a Bach-like fantasy, one melody bouncing off another, but in a kind of unison responsiveness, as though the melody under discussion suggested one or two related melodies that fit when played together. Why settle for a single tune when you have enough musicians to play several? Another hallmark is that the result is never cluttered and the secondary melodies often have a linear integrity to match the originals.

A typical Holman moment is an epiphany of sorts, as if contemplation of the melody at hand spurred an unexpected juxtaposition, idea, or joke. Brilliant Corners bubbles over with them. Indeed, Monk's title isn't a bad description of Holman's method. He keeps the big, colorful balls floating in front of your eyes, but you don't want to miss the action at the edges. …”

- Garry Giddins

I remember asking Bill Holman about the use of counterpoint in his arrangements and he replied: “‘Counterpoint’ is a term we heard a lot back in the heyday of West Coast Jazz in the 1950s, but it is not accurate for describing what I use in my arrangements, a least not technically. Strictly-speaking their countermelodies. That’s a better description.”

A little later he explained that he was looking for a way, a key or a method to approach arranging and he found it when, as a member of the saxophone section of Stan Kenton’s Orchestra, he got to play on some of the very few arrangements that Gerry Mulligan wrote for the band.

“Stan always claimed that Gerry stuff was too light for what he had in mind for the band. But with Stan, I always thought that it was a matter of timing because the charts I wrote for him that he featured a couple of years later on the Contemporary Concepts album relied a lot on what I learned from listening to Gerry’s use of countermelodies.”

The following comments about Bill Holman’s composing and arranging skills are  excerpted from Doug Ramsey’s insert notes to the JVC CD The Bill Holman Band: A View From The Side. Doug allowed their usage in an earlier blog feature on Bill Holman which you can locate by going here.

MIKE ABENE: "I first heard Bill Holman when I was 14 years old and just getting into arranging. I thought then and think now that he is one of the most original and challenging writers in jazz. Given his stature, he's not as appreciated or recognized as some other writers, and that's a mystery of the business. He turns a standard song inside out and creates his own piece of music out of it, 'Tennessee Waltz,' for instance, or 'Moon of Manakoora.' In that regard, he's like Gil Evans, a real original. And he's writing better than ever. "

MANNY ALBAM: "The guy is one of my heroes and has been ever since I first heard one of his charts. He's just off-center enough to make everything interesting. He puts together beautiful stuff. In 'Make My Day,' which I heard around the time he first did it for a band in Germany, he took another step into the unknown with those twists and turns in the trombones."

BOB BROOKMEYER: "Of all the other peoples' music I've played in my life, I'd rather play Bill Holman's. He makes it such a delight. It's so naturally well crafted that it speaks when you play it. For all of us who are composers, he's been a role model in multi-voice writing and experimenting with longer forms. He was one of the first to do that and is still one of the most successful."

RALPH BURNS: "I love Bill's writing, always have. It's pure jazz, but he writes everything very classically. It’s linear and simple and clear.”

BENNY CARTER: “I like Bill’s work. Everything he’s done that I’ve heard, I’ve enjoyed very much.”

JOHN CLAYTON: “For my money, Bill Holman is the king of linear composing and arranging. I am really fond of the things he did with Mel Lewis and later with Jeff Hamilton on drums. He always seems to have drummers and rhythm section people who understand how they are to fit into his linear concepts."

QUINCY JONES: "I've been a fan of Bill Holman's since I was in knee pants. He stands for all the good stuff in music that God sends down when you believe. Nadia Boulanger said it takes feeling, sensation, believing, attachment and knowledge. Bill has known this for a long time. I'm his friend and loyal fan. Check him out."

BILL KIRCHNER: "Bill Holman is 'Mr. Line.' His linear concepts are among the most important innovations ever used in a jazz orchestra. His chart on 'What's New' on the Contemporary Concepts album for Kenton is a masterpiece."

DENNIS MACKREL: "As an arranger listening to Bill's music, you come across devices and lines that are part of your writing, which means that he has become part of you. He does more with two lines than most arrangers can do with twenty. He runs a simple idea through all the ensembles and makes everything sound amazingly full. Five bars, and you know it's him. I was part of a project Bill did for a German radio orchestra in Kiln.  He wrote a suite that involved full

strings and the big band. Being inside that incredible sound was an experience I'll never forget."

JOHNNY MANDEL: "An immensely talented guy. His music is ageless. It's easy to play. It flows.  And there's always a sense of humor. The things he wrote in the fifties sound as if they were written yesterday. Nobody can write counterpoint and make it sound improvised and have it swing like Bill does. You can tell an arrangement of Holman's the minute you hear it. He is a total original. "

BOB MINTZER:  "To me, Bill is the consummate big band arranger and composer. He has influenced most of the contemporary big band writing of the past twenty years in one way or another. I'm very fond of the way he uses certain kinds of contrapuntal techniques. He's a very colorful arranger, interesting and intelligent. He uses the big band instrumentation thoughtfully and thoroughly.  I'm a big fan.  People say they hear his influence in my writing and I'm sure that's true."

GERRY MULLIGAN:   "Along with his other more obvious qualities as a writer, Bill possesses a great sense of humor; his music is fun to play, and that's something I admire very much."

MARIA SCHNEIDER:   "Bill Holman has a sound, a beautiful and personal sound.  I'll never forget the impact his wonderful arrangement of 'Just Friends' had on me.   It's so daring, so simple, and so uniquely and perfectly him. It has just the bare ingredients, but through it comes his sound. It's impossible for him not to be him. That's the definition of a true artist."

DON SEBESKY: "Bill Holman is the single most impor­tant influence in my musical life. I listen to his music, literally, every day, including his stuff from 40 years ago. I hear nothing, past or present, that comes close to it because he combines the objective and subjective parts of music into a seamless whole. By that I mean that the music is always swinging loosely, yet underlying the loose swinging is a tight musical structure created by an able musical mind. It sounds improvised but there's real control at the heart of it."

ARTIE SHAW: "Bill's a great arranger. He's one of the guys out there who's extending the medium, illuminating the material. His work is extremely interesting. He's writing great American music. It's nice to do what you do so well that knowledgeable people buy it. You don't get rich that way; he's never going to cruise the Aegean like Rod Stewart does. But who wants to listen to Rod Stewart? Bill is what an artist ought to be."

GERALD WILSON: "Bill is one of the best writers that we have today. He's a fine scorer with his own way of doing things and making them sound great. I listen for the overall sound of a band. I'm always impressed with his."

Bill Holman's big band arrangement of Monk and Denzil Best's composition "Bemsha Swing" with solos by Christian Jacob, piano, Ron Stout, trumpet, Bob Leatherbarrow, drums and Bill Perkins, alto saxophone.Bill's tribute to Thelonious Monk’s music was released in February, 1997 as Brilliant Corners [JVC 9018-2] and it forms the soundtrack to the following video tribute to Bill, a man whom I have referred to as a Living National Treasure.

John Scofield: Past Present

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

“John Scofield. "Filibuster" (from Electric Outlet, Gramavision). Scofield, guitars, DMX bass; Steve Jordan, drums; David Sanborn, alto saxophone.

That's John Scofield, right? It's his tone, and the way he's been writing lately with Miles. Like the layman's ear, I tend to get lost when people start playing too much noodle-roni, or too much improvisation without theme. But his playing lately has gotten infinitely more thematic and more melodic, and to me it's great because it keeps my attention much more closely. It's that old saying, "It's more fun to improvise than it is to listen to it," and that's a fact, unless you're close to that other galaxy of Charlie Parker and Trane and people like that. But I think the song is really positive, and it's a really good groove. Four stars. That's David Sanborn, right?

 - Carlos Santana, guitarist and bandleader, Downbeat “Blindfold Test” - August 1985

“Scofield, John (b Dayton, OH, 26 Dec 1951). Electric guitarist. He became attracted to rhythm-and-blues, urban blues, and rock-and-roll at an early age, particularly the playing of the guitarists B. B. King, Albert King, and Chuck Berry…. his display his blend of blues and country styles with the harmonic sophistication of bop.” 

- Bill Milkowski, in Barry Kernfeld [ed.]The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz

“Seen by many as the quintessential, most widely read and flexible contemporary Jazz guitarist. … His playing is an intriguing mix of a classic, open-toned bop style and a blues-rock affiliation. … His six Gramavision albums are a coherent and highly enjoyable body of work on which his playing assumes a new authority; tones are richer, the hint of fuzz and sustain is perfectly integrated and his solos are unflaggingly inventine. … Scofield’s transfer to Blue Note moved his career and his music substantially forward where he released a number of strong and thoroughly realized recordings that featured his consistent strength as a writer: variations on the blues, slow modal ballads, riffs worked into melodies. … The guitarist is always finding new ways to walk over old paths.”

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

“John Scofield's rugged, rawboned sound fits his trademark blend of hard bop, fusion, electric blues, and the rock music he grew up on in the 1960s; but his gift for intrepid, sharply chiseled improvisations has made him a favorite of jazz purists as well as fusioneers through such albums as Meant to Be and Hand Jive (his collaboration with Eddie Harris), both on Blue Note.”

- Neil Tesser, The Electric Guitar and the Vibraphone in Jazz, in Bill Kirchner [ed.], The Oxford Companion to Jazz

“John Scofield, a young guitarist with romantic leanings and an inclination toward relaxed, understated swing in his melodic lines ... is one of the few younger guitarists who seems to be exploring the style of Jim Hall, possibly because he is one of the few temperamentally and technically equipped to do so.”

- Doug Ramsey, Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music and Some of its Makers

Every time I listen to the music of John Scofield, I wonder why I don’t spend more time with it?

John’s innovative pairing of instruments in forming his groups and his imaginative approach to Jazz guitar nearly always moves my ears in new directions while generating a satisfying listening experience.

Above all, John is a storyteller, with a good sense of pace and timing, relishes a tight, in-the-pocket groove and even displays occasional splashes of humor to keep things interesting.

Our most recent visit with with Sco’s music was prompted by a preview copy of John’s latest CD and was prompted by a preview copy of his latest Impulse! CD - Past Present.

Max Horowitz at Crossover Media was kind enough to send along the following press release and, since I couldn’t improve upon it, I thought I’d share it with you “as is.” Remember, you can always go on www.crossovermedia.net and click on the artist search in the upper right hand corner for more information about the artists they are working with and to listen to samples of music from their latest recordings.

“On Past and Present, John Scofield updates his early-’90s quartet with drummer Bill Stewart and saxophonist Joe Lovano by recruiting bassist Larry Grenadier for his fetching, appropriately titled impulse! debut, Past Present. Between 1990 and 1992, the celebrated guitarist released three well-received discs – Meant to Be, Time on My Hands and What We Do – for the Blue Note label as the John Scofield Quartet. On those records, either Marc Johnson or Dennis Irwin played bass. Nevertheless, Grenadier also has history playing with Scofield; he toured with Scofield in support of the 1996 disc, Quiet.

The nine exciting tunes Scofield penned on Past Present also reflects his philosophy on playing jazz music. He stresses the importance of being knowledgeable of the music’s deep, complex roots while simultaneously being spontaneous and in the moment while performing it. For an artist with such a multifaceted discography as Scofield’s, getting to the root of jazz means channeling the blues, as demonstrated on the disc’s closing, titled-track.

Buoyed by Grenadier’s ebullient, recurring bass line and Stewart’s delicate swing, Scofield describes “Past Present” as “futuristic blues,” on which he and Lovano craft unison melodies before the two separate then intertwine invigorating improvisations.  In Scofield’s estimation, “Past Present” sums up the whole disc.

In addition to Scofield’s meditation on a William Faulkner quote: “the past is never dead. It’s not even past,” – from the 1951 book Requiem for a Nun – the disc’s title gains even more poignancy and thematic heft from Scofield’s enduring love for his son, Evan, who passed away in 2013 after a battle with cancer. “There are people in the past who are really still alive for us – like my son, Evan,” Scofield says. “He’s in the past but he’s still with me right now.”

Scofield emphasizes that point on three tunes that touch upon Evan’s legacy. Two songs – “Get Proud” and “Enjoy the Future!” – are titled after some of Evan’s catchphrases. The former is a strutting, bluesy number, steered by Stewart’s implied boogaloo shuffle, on which Scofield’s rough-hewn guitar lines and comping mesh with Lovano’s brawny tenor saxophone passages. Like the title suggests, the latter tune evokes a bright optimism as Scofield and Lovano develop billowing melodic lines that swirl around each other while the rhythm section powers them with a snazzy, pneumatic swing.

Evan’s spirit also informs the introspective, mid-tempo ballad, “Mr. Puffy,” which was a nickname Scofield gave him to help lift his spirits when he was undergoing chemotherapy. The quartet hints at the physical transformative effects the chemotherapy had on Evan by John Scofield Press Release and Bio having the song’s breezy A section progress into a more bristling B section.

Scofield’s love for R&B and blues tends to inform all of his discs regarding of idiomatic styling. After all, his first guitar hero was the legendary B.B. King, who strummed very vocal-like single-note melodies. Singable melodies and infectious rhythms shine on the soul-jazz opener, “Slinky,” on which the guitar tickles an instantly catchy riff before Stewart underscores it with a supple 5/4 groove that suggests New Orleans’ second-line rhythm. Grenadier propels the momentum with a loping blues bass line while Scofield and Lovano trade soulful licks and tasty solos.

Past Present also highlights Scofield’s love for country music on the whimsical “Chap Dance,” which evokes both the wide-eyed Americana compositions of Aaron Copeland and the hoedown sophistication of Ornette Coleman’s harmolodics. Scofield says that the song’s exuberant opening melody and spry rhythmic pulse remind him of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s 1943 Broadway musical, Oklahoma!, particularly the scenes with the cowboys dancing in chaps and vests.

In spite of its suggestive title, “Hangover” is lyrical waltz on which Scofield and Lovano weave comely melodies atop of the rhythm section’s gentle thrust. Originally written with lyrics penned by Scofield’s wife, Susan, the song’s theme actually deals with romance rather substance abuse.

Scofield originally penned the sanguine melody of “Museum” for promotional use by a hometown museum where Scofield curated a successful music series for seven years.  The guitarist liked the melody so much that he developed it into an intricate jazz excursion that contains a tricky in-between rhythm that Scofield argues could not have been well realized by any other rhythm section.

The intriguing “Season Creep” is yet another blues – this time dedicated to climate change. Scofield composed the slow, shuffling ditty in February 2013 when he noticed warm, spring-like temperatures were slowing creeping into a month, commonly noted for being freezing.

As Scofield continues to solidify his reputation as one of modern jazz’s most dynamic guitarists, history will reveal Past Present as an integral chapter in his expansive discography – one that reflects him being more reverential than referential to his personal and professional past while remaining fresh and ever-present.

It’s been 40 years of professional recording underneath his belt, John Scofield is one of the most distinctive and versatile modern jazz guitarists; his capacity to play in fusion, funk, blues, bebop, country, drum-n-bass, avant-garde and pop settings while retaining his distinctive voice is peerless. In addition to leading numerous ensembles and recording more than three dozen albums as a leader, Scofield has played with a “who’s who” of jazz greats that include Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, George Duke, Joe Henderson, Billy Cobham and Herbie Hancock, among others. In 1998, the Montreal International Jazz Festival gave Scofield its prestigious “Miles Davis Award.” John Scofield was also awarded Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France.

Track Listing

1. Slinky   7:09
2. Chap Dance 5:18
3. Hangover 6:33
4. Museum 5:02
5. Season Creep 4:34
6. Get Proud 5:18
7. Enjoy The Future! 5:21
8. Mr. Puffy 5:00
9. Past Present 6:01

Bonus Tracks Available On Request

10. 1. Weird Hands 5:30
11. 2. Pedals Out 5:16

All songs written by John Scofield

John Scofield (guitar); Joe Lovano (tenor saxophone); Larry Grenadier (double bass); Bill Stewart (drums). Recorded on March 16 and 17, 2015 at The Carriage House Studios, Stamford, Connecticut.

Rob Madna: The Wizard of Dutch Jazz

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

“Rob was also a teacher of mathematics and maybe that had also something to do with the fact that he became a wizard in harmony. He was a very straight ahead and honest person and he only wanted to play the music he liked. That was one of the reasons he gave up his job as a professional musician and became a teacher in mathematics. That way he had a steady income in order to give his family financial support and he could still play the music he loved on a very high level. Later on he got an offer for a teaching position at the conservatory in Amsterdam, which he accepted and he became a great inspiration for young upcoming pianists.’

- Eric Ineke, drummer, bandleader and educator

Thanks to the efforts Jazz buddies and Jazz musicians based in The Netherlands, I’ve have been able to piece together a modicum of awareness of the Dutch Jazz scene.

Each in their own way has been a regular source of information, education and awareness about “Jazz Behind the Dikes.” [the phrase comes from the title of one of the earliest compilations of the music of Dutch Jazz groups which was released on Philips Records in 1955.]

For a country with a population of 16.8 million people - about the same number of people are in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties; four of the five counties that make up the greater part of southern California - the Dutch have produced quite a respectable number of distinguished Jazz musicians, many of whom have been previously featured on these pages.

Because of my “inside connections,” I have been made especially privy to knowledge about many of the talented composer-arrangers who write charts for big bands, but who don’t lead their own orchestras.

Occasionally, individual or retrospectives performances of the work of these less well-known big band arrangers is the focus of concerts by publicly and/or privately supported resident Dutch orchestras such at The Metropole Orchestra [which includes a string section], The Metropole Big Band [sans strings], the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, the Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra, and the Dutch Jazz Orchestra.

The Metropole, although based in Hilversum about 35 kilometers SE of Amsterdam frequently gives concerts at the Bimhuis, the musicians union concert hall based in Amsterdam, the country’s capital city. The Concertgebouw’s Jazz Orchestra is resident in that great concert hall which is located in Den Hague while the Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra is resident in the North Sea port city that bears its name. Rotterdam also hosts the annual North Sea Jazz Festival at which the Dutch jazz Orchestra has made frequent appearance.

One of these appearance by the DJO at the NSJF has particular meaning for me because it was at that festival in 2008 that the big band paid tribute to the music of Rob Madna who was the DJO’s musical director for a short time when it was first organized in 1983.

The title of this piece derives from the fact that Rob was a very analytical individual who solved problems of technique and perception in a very deliberate manner. He taught himself to play piano, how to arrange music for a big band and established himself as both a professor of music at a conservatory level and as a university professor in mathematics. “Wizard,” perhaps is an understatement. Mathematics has been described as “the bridge to infinity” and is no doubt a suitable training ground for the infinite variation that is Jazz improvisation. It was Rob’s genius to be able to function and create in both universes, thus bridging the worlds of Mathematics with the world of Jazz.

I first became familiar with Rob when I heard him as a pianist in a trio with Dick Bezemer on bass and Wessel Ilcken on drums. Later in his career, Rob could often be heard in the company of Marius Beets on bass and Eric Ineke on drums as a trio or as a rhythm section for Ferdinand Povel, an excellent tenor saxophonist.

That rhythm section was joined by Ferdinand Povel, the dynamic Dutch soprano and tenor saxophonist, for a club date at Cafe Nick Vollebregt, Laren, The Netherlands and the July 4, 1976 performances by the group were recorded by Ruud Kleyn of Dutch NPS Radio and subsequently issued on CD in 2003 as Broadcast Business ‘76: The Rob Madna Trio featuring Ferdinand Povel [Daybreak DB CHR 75162].

Harm Mobach provided these descriptive insert notes which will give you some background information about Rob Madna’s career in music and a brief discography of his recordings.

Rob Madna (1931-2003)

“Rob Madna, one of the founders of modern jazz in postwar Holland, died on April 5th, 2003. He'd been active for many years as a pianist, trumpet player, composer, arranger, bandleader and teacher. His death came as something of a shock, in and out of Holland; only the month before, Madna had been conducting workshops for members of German bandleader Peter Herbolzheimer's Orchestra. Foreign and domestic students at the Amsterdam Conservatory counted on him to tweak their emerging concepts. And he still had plenty of ideas and plans he never got to execute.

Rob Madna was born in The Hague on June 8, 1931, the son of an Indonesian father and Dutch mother. His interest in music was kindled during World War II. As he'd tell it later, his parents had two records that fascinated him, one by Mildred Bailey with Teddy Wilson and a recording of "My Man's Gone Now" from Porgy and Bess. He taught himself to play piano by ear, and after the war, while still in high school, he quickly ripened into a respected modern pianist, initially inspired (like many Dutch colleagues at the time) by West Coast jazz musicians.

In 1950 he started playing professionally in the Amsterdam jazz club Sheherazade, with a small group led by the American drummer Wally Bishop; by the following year he was a member of the Rob Pronk Boptet. In 1953, he was reunited with Bishop for a club gig in Dusseldorf, where by chance Lionel Hampton's band was also playing. Hamp's trumpeter Art Farmer came down to check them out and wound up sitting in for five hours. (Madna met Hampton trumpeter Quincy Jones then too.)

After an engagement in Sweden in 1954, he entered military service—"the greatest disappointment in my life" he called it later. But he was granted leave to participate in the first studio recording of Dutch modernists, anthologies issued as Jazz from Holland and Jazz Behind the Dikes. Subsequently he backed American stars like Phil Woods, Dexter Gordon, Don Byas and Lucky Thompson, played in a Freddie Hubbard quartet, and has worked with valve trombonist and arranger Bob Brookmeyer and trumpeter-bandleader Thad Jones. (More on Jones in a minute.)

During the 1970s, Madna had started and written for a rehearsal band which more or less spun off from Frans Elsen's so-called Hobby Orchestra. Madna also arranged and composed for Jerry van Rooijen's Dutch Jazz Orchestra, in which he played piano and trumpet. This connection ultimately led to the recording of the 1996 double-CD Update, Music from Rob Madna. (He'd picked up trumpet only at age forty, but ultimately preferred flugelhorn.) Madna had also investigated the potential of synthesizers; there's a live recording of the Rob Madna Fusion Group, from 2001, which has yet to be issued.

Inspirations

When Madna mentioned his influences in interviews, he seldom brought up pianists first. He's always valued Bud Powell, Horace Silver and Herbie Hancock but his greatest model was a horn player: Miles Davis. Madna had been transfixed by his 1949-50 Birth of the Cool recordings, before he caught Miles (with John Coltrane) in 1956. Hearing them play "Stablemates" and "How Am I To Know" really hooked him. Madna once said, "Miles Davis has been enormously important to me. His playing was as natural as speech — you could hear the human voice coming through. (Miles once said: 'I'd like to play the way Orson Welles speaks'.) And he also had that tremendous feeling for 'time.' To me he's the great role model."

And then there's Thad Jones. Back when Rob Madna's 'big-band period' started, his friend and mentor Jerry van Rooijen had pressed him to start writing orchestral arrangements. When Madna protested he didn't have the training, Van Rooijen said, "Use your imagination; you've heard enough." When he hunkered down to it, Madna took particular inspiration from Jones, then co-leading his own fine big band with drummer Mel Lewis. (It had also started as a rehearsal band.) Madna had met Jones in Hilversum, Holland, when the trumpeter was recording with the Metropole Orchestra. Later when Jones heard Madna with the radio band the Skymasters, he invited him to join his orchestra for a European tour — an invitation Madna alas had to reject, as he was busy with his other career as a mathematics master at the time.

With typical modesty, Madna disparaged his writing as too much like Jones's. He went too far, but there are similarities: his writing is traditional and modern at the same time, rhythmically dynamic, with simple melodies beautifully harmonized. From Jones he also learned to respect other musicians. In 2000 he said, "When we in Europe judged someone's playing, we'd say it was 'OK, but...'. When Jones talked about members of his band, like trumpeter Snooky Young, he emphasized only the good things.'

Conservatory Teacher

Rob Madna also made his mark as an educator. Even into his 70s, he continued to mentor and teach piano students in the Jazz Department of the Amsterdam Conservatory. Colleagues and students esteemed him for his skill and musicality, his conviction and empathy, and the joy he brought to teaching. The thoughtful quality that characterized his playing revealed itself in the criticism he offered, always based on broad experience.

Broadcast Business '76

The CD Broadcast Business '76 is no memorial album, having been in the works for some time, and the quality of this 1976 live recording of Madna's trio with guest Ferdinand Povel speaks for itself. For one thing, the opener is a seldom-heard Thad Jones tune, "Quietude," recorded by Thad and Mel in 1969. The album also features a rare appearance by Povel on soprano sax, and '70s Madna staple, Billy Strayhorn's "U.M.M.G. (Upper Manhattan Medical Group)."

Everyone's in excellent form. Madna's playing has his characteristic harmonic richness, and he audibly inspires the swinging bassist Koos Serierse and drummer Eric Ineke. And Ferdinand Povel's playing flows here in a way I've never heard elsewhere. On Coltrane's "Like Sonny" and "Satellite," he rips through the harmonies sometimes, maintaining tightrope control. Another player Povel admires, Joe Henderson, wrote the ballad "I Know You Care," inspiring a particularly emotive tenor solo.

Comparing this live recording from a cafe in Laren with the 2000 Madna CD 'en blanc et noir' #6 (Daybreak DRCHR75095) may lead you to conclude that Broadcast Business '76 is in fact Povel's date. There are two of his tunes, "In An Aquarian Mood" (for the astrologically-minded, he was born on February 13), and "Pori." (Povel had appeared at Finland's Pori festival in 1974). The level of interplay between Rob Madna and Ferdinand Povel was always very high, and this impressive CD is a key part of Rob Madna's musical legacy.”