Metamorphosis

The term "metamorphosis" can mean a striking alteration in appearance and that certainly occurred in the body of work of the late artist Jackson Pollock [1912-1956] when he developed his technique which involved throwing paint on a canvass placed on the floor.

Metamorphosis is also the title of a tune that guitarist Peter Bernstein wrote for his Earth Tones [Criss Cross 1151] CD with Larry Goldings on Hammond B-3 organ and Bill Stewart on drums.

Given the editorial staff at JazzProfiles penchant for viewing art while listening to Jazz, we thought the two would go very well together.

See what you think.

Art Tatum – Sheer Brilliance

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

“Tatum is the greatest Jazz pianist of all time, the songs he chose the very finest of a much-maligned but nonetheless sublime repertoire. That is why these performances are immortal, because they show the best player interpreting the best material in the best conditions….”

“Art Tatum was one of the major American creative artists of his epoch, not just in the Jazz context but in the sense of the arts generally. The claim may still seem a shade bombastic to those unaccustomed to searching for the muses in saloon bars and nightclubs, but it is true for all that. The wise fool takes his art where he finds it, and when Tatum was around, he found it in any number of small rooms whose only significant item of furniture was a piano.”

- Benny Green, Jazz author, essayist and critic [emphasis, mine]

“The enormity of Tatum’s achievements makes approaching him a daunting proposition even now.”

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

I know that it may be hard to believe, but I didn’t know who Art Tatum was.

He died in 1956, just about the time that I stumbled into the world of Jazz by listening to a bunch of 78 rpm records that my parents had stashed the away in the basement [called a “cellar” in new England].

The closest I unknowingly came to Art’s approach to piano was Teddy Wilson’s playing with the Benny Goodman trio.

I discovered Art Tatum through a Norman Granz Clef LP that I found in a record store discount bin.  The record sleeve was in pretty bad condition which may have been why it was on sale for 25 cents, a hefty sum for me in those days as you could see a double feature at the local movie house for that price.

The David Stone Martin cover art of a bust of Art’s head was intriguing to me so I thought I’d give it a try. Perhaps, Art playing would help me “see out a little,” to use pianist Barry Harris apt expression for expanding one’s view of Jazz.

Despite the record store owner’s reassurances, the LP was in horrible condition.

Listening to it was the aural equivalent of eating Rice Krispies cereal when the milk first hits it – all “snap, crackle and pop.”

I could have cared less as what came through immediately was the magnificence of Art Tatum’s piano playing. I’d never heard anything like it [nor have I ever heard anything like it since].

The sheer brilliance of Art’s piano interpretation literally took my breath away.

His technical command of the instrument and his effervescent improvisations are astonishing, so much so that I can only take his playing in limited bursts.

I simply can’t absorb anymore.  It’s an exhausting pleasure to listen to his work.

Fortunately, for all of us in the Jazz World,  there is plenty of it to listen to because Norman Granz, who did so many important things for the music and its makers during his lifetime, brought Art Tatum into the recording studio in the early 1950’s.

The rest is history as described in Benny Green’s insert notes to the eight volumes of Solo Masterpieces that Art recorded for Norman’s Clef label and which have all subsequently been reissued to CD on the Verve.

“In 1954, Art Tatum (1910-1956) began recording a series of performances for Norman Granz's Verve label which were to occupy the rest of his life. This series included 121 piano solos,* all of which were committed to tape without rehearsal or preamble or reference to stopwatch; Tatum simply sat at the keyboard, the machines were switched on and the marathon began.

It was, of course, a marathon for which the artist had inadvertently been preparing all his life, for Tatum's repertoire was as stupefying as the art he brought to it. As there is no such thing as a specialized Jazz repertoire, the Jazz musician has been obliged to commandeer for his own purposes a quite alien repertoire, originally conceived for the musical comedy or vaudeville stage, the song-plugger's booth, the celluloid charade. For which reason Tatum's marathon was a watershed in the history of popular music, for it represents the confluence of the two great indigenous streams in American musical life, Jazz and the Art Song.

Tatum is the greatest Jazz pianist of all time, the songs he chose the very finest of a much-maligned but nonetheless sublime repertoire. That is why these performances are immortal, because they show the best player interpreting the best material in the best conditions. There is a greater preponderance on this disc than on some of the others in the series of what might be called conventional Jazz making, always remembering that in the context of a musician like Tatum, a word like conventional is no more than comparative. Sweet Lorraine and Sunny Side of the Street are fairly straightforward examples of improvisations on a standard 32-bar theme, without recourse to many orchestral effects like key-changing or switches of tempo, although in Sweet Lorraine a few of the quotes are facetious.

Obviously the same comments do not apply to the ballads and the more ambitiously-structured songs, one of whose most revealing passages comes in the bridge of I Won't Dance, where Tatum's baroque harmonic ingenuity is confronted by the equally baroque stratagems of Kern's creative patterns; the result is an exercise in subtlety, the beautifying of an already beautiful composition. The variations in These Foolish Things are of quite a different order. As the performance gathers creative momentum, it becomes clear that Tatum sees this song as one of those whose contours suggest not so much an improvisation as a fantasia based on the original.

As early as 1933 Tatum had recorded his famous version of Tea for Two, in which the innocent structures of Vincent Youmans were made to perform dizzying modulatory cartwheels; something similar occurs in the last eight-bar section of the first chorus of These Foolish Things; by the end of the track we are faced with a sort of series of variations on a theme. Some of the very best Jazz moments of all come in In a Sentimental Mood, one of Duke Ellington's most sumptuous ballads, and in the altogether more direct piece She's Funny That Way is so great a piece of out-and-out ja// playing that if anyone else but Tatum had been responsible for it we would all have been running round frothing with excitement. It is interesting that on this track Tatum, restricting himself more or less to only three of his effects, crotchet-triplet runs, occasional flurries of semi­quavers, and the contrasting measured tread of Stride left hand, still produces a solo rich and complex.

And as the final cadences of the final chorus of the final number of the final track fade away, marking the end of the most ambitious undertaking by a major Jazz figure, something remains to be said of the musician who rose to the challenge so triumphantly.

Art Tatum was one of the major American creative artists of his epoch, not just in the Jazz context but in the sense of the arts generally. The claim may still seem a shade bombastic to those unaccustomed to searching for the muses in saloon bars and nightclubs, but it is true for all that. The wise fool takes his art where he finds it, and when Tatum was around, he found it in any number of small rooms whose only significant item of furniture was a piano.

Tatum's piano solos reappear at a moment in social history when the fortunes of popular music are problematic. The age of live performances would seem to be in eclipse; now is the winter of our discotheque. For that reason Tatum's art is more vital than ever it was before, because it is a living proof that the artist of genius laughs at the limitations of his environment and sometimes even takes a truculent delight in brushing them aside. Tatum is a jewel in store for posterity, which might sound a little unfair. After all, as a cynic once asked, what has posterity ever done for us? In the case of Tatum, posterity has much to do. It has to come to terms with the greatest baroque musical artist so far produced by American culture. Tatum's day of reckoning will come. In the meantime, there remains this set of superlative piano solos. They will unquestionably prove to have been the outriders to his belated recognition.”

—Benny Green

[*Four additional solo tracks were recorded by Tatum at an August 1956 Hollywood Bowl concert. The long available material is included in Volume Eight.]

Art Tatum in Retrospect:

Gary Giddins, Visions of Jazz – The First Century

“… if Tatum was a product of jazz, he was by no means a conventional jazz pianist and disdained the tag. He was too prolix to be an effective accompanist, and he was diminished rather than emboldened by collaboration. Although best known to the public for his piano-guitar-bass trio, which was modeled after Nat King Cole and inclined toward unison riffs and jokey juxtapositions, he was — like Chopin or Scriabin — a creator of sui generis piano music.

Tatum has always mystified jazz fans. … Too many jazz lovers are seduced by and dependent on the beat, which Tatum withholds and reshapes. What is most astonishing in his music is not the digital control, but the shifting harmonies and rhythms that he modulates and controls as no other musician has. His unequaled knowledge of chords profoundly influenced Coleman Haw­kins, Charlie Parker, and Charles Mingus, among others, but he used it as only a pianist can: in contrary patterns that demand parity for both hands, in rapid key substitutions, in entering and exiting chords at oblique angles. Oscar Peterson has speed, but his arpeggios are harmon­ically dim and therefore predictable. Tatum is as a rainbow, his music glimmers and cascades.”

Whitney Balliett, American Musicians

“Tatum did not fit comfortably in jazz, for his playing, which was largely orchestral, both encompassed it and overflowed it. He occupied his own country. His playing was shaped primarily by his technique, which was prodigious, even virtuosic. Tatum had an angelic touch: no pianist has got a better sound out of the instrument. He was completely ambidextrous. And he could move his hands at bewildering speeds, whether through gargantuan arpeggios, oompah stride basses, on-the-beat tenths, or sin­gle-note melodic lines. No matter how fast he played or how intense and complex his harmonic inventions became, his attack kept its commanding clarity….

Tatum was a restless, compulsive player who abhorred silence. He used the piano's orchestral possibilities to the fullest, simultaneously maintain­ing a melodic voice, a harmonic voice, a variety of decorative voices, and a kind of whimsical voice, a laughing, look-Ma-no-hands voice. The effect was both confounding and exhilarating.

Tatum had two main modes—the flashy, kaleidoscopic style he used on the job, and the straight-ahead jazz style, which emerges in fragments from his few after-hours recordings and from some of the recordings made with his various trios (piano, guitar, and bass), which seemed to galvanize him. (Tatum did not have an easy time playing with other instruments; he tended to compete with them, then overrun them.) He offered the first style to the public, which accepted it with awe, and he used the second to delight himself and his peers.”

Len Lyons, The Great Jazz Pianists

“From roughly 1935 until the early 1940's most jazz pianists worked with some combinations of the elements heard in the playing of Johnson, Waller, Hines, and Wilson. Although the basic approach to playing jazz on the piano had reached, at least temporarily, a point of definition, there were many pianists who created original and influential styles out of these basic building blocks.

By all accounts it was Art Tatum (1910-1956) who cast the longest shadow among them. There has been no more complete master of the instru­ment, and to no other pianist does the cliché ‘a legend in his own time’ apply more readily. Born in Toledo, Ohio, Tatum played in local clubs and on the radio until he went to New York in 1932 as the accompanist for singer Adelaide Hall. The cornerstones of his music were the harmonies of Hines, the driving left hand of Waller, and the flowing, legato melody and moving left-hand tenths that he heard in the playing of young Teddy Wilson.

The most obvious difference between Tatum and the other pianists was his conspicuous virtuosity. Despite his extremely limited vision in one eye (to the extent that he was judged legally blind), Tatum seemed to play everything twice as fast as his peers, while increasing the level of swing and harmonic variety. His influence on other pianists was profound, if not devastating. It is said that he intimidated many of them into taking up other instruments. But Tatumesque passages are evident in the music of many undaunted pianists who followed him, especially in the music of Bud Powell (in his ballads), Oscar Peterson, Billy Taylor, and Hank Jones, though these are only a few of the most obvious examples.

Tatum's repertoire was vast but not otherwise unusual. Some of the songs he played early in his career-such as Tea for Two, Tiger Rag, Someone to Watch over Me, dozens more standards, and a few light classics-he con­tinued to record in the 1950's. Yet he rarely repeated himself in his treatment of the material. His harmonic variations were startling, especially when he soloed. Where another pianist might go directly from one chord to the next, Tatum's left hand would walk crablike through a cycle of four to six new chords between the original two. Meanwhile, his right hand would spin out a web of interconnecting lines of thirty-second notes. Tatum could keep up these magnificent circumlocutions for eight bars or more and never drop a beat. Jazz pianists idolized Art Tatum….

During the forties Tatum worked frequently with a trio that included Slam Stewart on bass and Tiny Grimes on guitar. The group was celebrated for the intuitive communication among the players as well as for Tatum's blister­ing speed, as they achieved a unity of sound that was rare at any tempo.

While Tatum was virtually without deficiency as a pianist, his improvising sometimes amounted to ornate, if not rococo, interpretations of his material. There was no doubt that those ornaments were gorgeous, but they were at times more decorative than creative. Most of Tatum's music, however, is gen­uine artistry amplified by awesome virtuosity. Moreover, those who knew him claim that he played best of all beyond the reach of recorded history and without the inhibiting presence of the public or recording microphones, at private, after-hours parties.”

 It is impossible to have a favorite Art Tatum recording, but if, mind you IF, I had to chose just one, it would be the version of Sweet Lorraine that accompanies the following video montage.

JazzHaus III: Oscar Pettiford and Jutta Hipp

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

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles has written extensively about the previously released CD’s on the JazzHaus label, all of which you can locate to the left of this feature in the blog sidebar.

JazzHaus has recently continued it’s CD issuance of “Lost Tapes” with Oscar Pettiford: The Lost Tapes, Germany 1958-1959 [#101719] and Jutta Hipp: The Lost Tapes, The German Recordings , 1952-1955 [#101723].

Both bassist Pettiford and pianist Hipp were somewhat tragic figures in modern jazz history, each for different reasons, as Oscar died in an automobile accident in 1960 at the age of forty-eight and Jutta mysteriously turned her back on the music and retired from the scene in 1958 at the age of forty-three.

In addition to having more of Oscar and Jutta’s music available, the latest JazzHaus CD’s also provide an introduction to the less familiar, but nonetheless excellent, local Jazz musicians who were making the German Jazz scene a happening place in the 1950’s such as trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff, pianist Hans Hammerschmid, clarinetist Rolf Kuhn, tenor saxophonists Hans Koller and Joki Freund, guitarist Attila Zoller, bassist Franz “Shorty” Roeder and drummers Karl Sanner and Rudi Sehring.

Ulli Pfau produced both CD’s and wrote these insert notes after which you’ll find tribute video montages celebrating both Oscar and Jutta with audio tracks selected from these new CDs.

PIONEER OF THE BASS

“Oscar Pettiford first arrived in Germany in 1958 and could scarcely believe the enthusiasm with which his music was received. Not that he had ever been short of success - even before Charlie Parker's breakthrough he had been a bebop pioneer in his quintet with Dizzy Gillespie. This was the dawn of a new jazz era - one that heralded the bass as a solo instrument. In Stuttgart, Pettiford met up with Joachim-Ernst Berendt, who invited him to studio re­cordings and enlisted the finest soloists Europe had to offer at the time: Hans Koller and Attila Zoller; Dusko Goykovich, Hans Hammerschmid, Rolf Kuhn. Kenny Clarke and Lucky Thompson flew in from Paris. Everyone extolled his bold melodic ideas, the bounce and swing of his playing. Between autumn 1958 and the summer of 1959, the sessions resulted in historic recordings -standards, mostly, which gave the alternating ensembles a harmonic orienta­tion.

Pettiford's brisk but elegiac duo with Goykovich in Gershwin's But Not For Me; gossamer-like, Lucky Thompson in Sophisticated Lady, followed by Koller with an uber-cool interpretation of The Nearness Of You and a bass solo; then Pettiford shows his cello skills in All The Things You Are.

O.P. moved to Baden-Baden, later Copenhagen, touring and playing frenetically - like a man possessed. He died following a car accident in September 1960. His colleagues played charity concerts for Pettiford's children, whose welfare had always been his primary concern - he himself had been one of fourteen brothers and sisters.”

[Bassist Oscar Pettiford performing his orignal composition "Blues in the Closet" with Hans Koller on tenor saxophone, Attila Zoller on guitar, Hans Hammerschmid on piano and drummer Kenny Clarke.]

DEAR JUTTA

“A woman from Leipzig. By the age of 13, Jutta Hipp had completed her classi­cal piano studies. With the war in full flow she embarked on an art degree and got to know all the jazz greats of the day: Emil and Albert Mangelsdorff, Joki Freund, Hans Koller, whose admiration for Lester Young would wonderfully complement her own relaxed performance style. A redhead with striking good looks, hypersensitive and outrageously talented - she quickly became an object of attention in the early 1950s. The great Leonard Feather wrote ‘Dear Jutta’ and promised her a great career in the USA. So in late 1955 she left for New York. Alfred Lion signed her to Blue Note; three recordings in just eight months; an object of awe in the clubs - the "Frauleinwunder".

And then it was all over as quickly as it had started. She fell out with Feather, withdrew from the jazz scene altogether, ran into financial difficulties, turned to drink. In 1958 she found a job as a seamstress in Queens, took photographs, painted in her spare time. She retired in 1995, devoted herself to making traditional dolls. She died in 2OO3, aged 78, reclusive, alone. She had never been back to Germany.

Her volume of work is slender and erratic. The Koblenz recordings from November 1952 reveal a precocious talent: entirely at ease in the standards, creatively original with the tunes and headstrong in improvisation. Dieter Zimmerle's studio recordings with her quintet were made just before she left for the USA - and what a legacy it turned out to be! What Is This Thing Called Love? asks Cole Porter of all the great jazz soloists. Jutta Hipp had an answer. But she never told anyone.”

[Pianist Jutta Hipp performing "Daily Double" with Albert Mangelsdorff on trombone, Joki Freund on tenor saxophone, Franz "Shorty" Roeder on bass and Karl Sanner on drums.]

Deborah Latz – An Accomplished Artist

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

"Deborah is a beautiful singer and a great talent. Fig Tree is wonderful. Really wonderful!"

— Sheila Jordan, 2012 NEA Jazz Master

"... few are in Deborah Latz's league..."

— Scott Yanow, L.A. Jazz Scene

"...a bold singer with a strong sense of her own musical identity."

 — Suzanne Lorge, NYC Jazz Record

"She draws out the melodies, making each note count, and may be one of the finest balladeers in some time."

— Kyle O'Brien, Jazz Society of Oregon's Jazz Scene

I’m always hesitant to call anyone a “Jazz vocalist” these days because I think the connotation of what that implies is different now.

It’s almost as though the use of that reference consigns someone back to the days when Pops, Ella, Billie Holiday, Mel Torme, Peggy Lee and others vocalists of that ilk reigned supreme.

It’s an unfair comparison because the nature of the contemporary music scene is much broader and much more cosmopolitan and provides a Jazz-oriented vocalist with a more sweeping array of influences.

Today, there is no New Orleans scene, Chicago scene, New York scene, West Coast scene, et al. These local, cultural entrepôts have been replaced by a music scene that is international in scope and one that affords myriad, world music influences.

Today’s Jazz is more diffuse, more diverse.

But according to bassist and author Bill Crow, “Jazz is supposed to be fun,” and today’s young performers seem to be having a good time coloring Jazz with Acid Rock, South African chants, Indian Raga rhythms and a whole host of other, stylistic elements.

I suppose the point I’m trying to make is that today Jazz vocalist is going to come at the music with many new and different musical perspectives. Therein, lies the blessing or the curse of the interesting times in which they live [to paraphrase the Chinese proverb].

How do you find your own style as a Jazz vocalist today with all these competing influences?

Enter Deborah Latz!

Deborah’s latest CD – Fig Tree – is scheduled for release today, May 7, 2013 and it is an artistic feast for the senses, let alone, one’s Jazz sensibilities.

The artwork and graphics under the direction of Kristopher Pelletier and Todd Weinstein’s photographs of Deborah that populate the jewel case make the CD a joy to behold and to hold.

The recording and mixing of Michael Brorby, the mastering of Gene Paul and the attention to detail of co-producer Don Flagg has created a recorded sound so intimate you’d swear you were sitting in the middle of the music as it is being performed.

And the musicianship on display here is simply startling; it’s what differentiates the recording from so many of today’s self-produced efforts.

Deborah Latz has something to say and she has the talent and the ability to say it.

Deborah Latz is not putting on airs, she’s not aping or miming or imitating, she is an accomplished Jazz vocalist in her own right.

She is accomplished in the fullest meaning of the word: highly trained, skillful, finished, complete, polished, refined, realized.

Deborah’s Jazz vocals have a presence and once you’ve been in their presence your enraptured by it.

When she sings the following lyrics from the legendary Alberta Hunter’s I’m Having a Good Time she infuses them with such a strong mixture of sincerity and humor that you find yourself nodding with approval:

“I’m livin’ my life while I’m livin’

‘cause tomorrow I may die.

That’s why I’m havin’ a ball today,

And I ain’t passin’ nothin’ by.

Her voice is rich; her enunciation is clear; she has a great sense of time. And depending on the mood she is trying to evoke, Deborah’s voice has just the right amount of punch and pop or just enough gentleness and tenderness. She is in command because she knows what she is doing and she knows what she wants to do.

Deborah Latz is an accomplished artist and so are the musicians who work with her on Fig Tree: pianist Jon Davis, guitarist John Hart, bassist, Roy Parker, drummer Willard Dyson and guest stars Peter Apfelbaum on tenor sax and percussion and the voice of Abdoulaye Diabate.

All of them are interesting soloists and Deborah offers generous dollops of the solo spotlight to each of them throughout the CD’s fourteen tracks. In this regard, she reminds me of vocalist Tierney Sutton who maintains that “I make music with the guys in the band, not in spite of them.”

I’ve mentioned this previously in blog features - when I’m listening to a Jazz artist for the first time, I need some place to set my ears – something that gives me a known frame of reference in which to understand what the vocalist/musician is doing with and in the music.

There are a number of such reference points on Fig Tree.

But although you are familiar with Irving Berlin’s Blue Skies, or Randy Weston ‘s Hi-Fly with Jon Hendricks’ lyrics, or Jobim’s Corcovado [Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars] with Gene Lees’ lyrics, you’ve never heard them rendered like this before. This is where the diversity and diffused musical influences are brought to bear and they serve to help make Deborah a Jazz vocalist of her time.

You Are and She Was are lyrical love poems penned by Deborah and she also contributes another original as the title tune Fig Tree which as Scott Yanow describes in his insert notes “weaves a fantastical tale using offbeat phrasing, unusual syllables and unexpected sounds with swinging bass and drums. Deborah’s whimsical lyrics surprise and delight.”

Scott’s always masterful insert notes afford the following background information on Deborah and “the guys in the band.”

“Inventive, edgy, fearless, delicate, fun, a passion for music — these are some of the words Deborah Latz brings to mind. A consummate performer, Deborah gives us a range of expression extending from intimate to raucous to otherworldly, and all with a beautiful voice. Following her previously acclaimed discs, Toward Love and Lifeline, Fig Tree is a wide-ranging and ambitious project, backed by a remarkable set of players, that includes acid jazz, spellbinding ballads, songs in Portuguese and Greek, and three originals worthy of becoming new standards.

Latz attacks each genre with verve and style, demonstrating skills reminiscent of Mel Torme in her purity and pitch, but also of Joao Gilberto when she brings us to velvety intimate moments. Deborah has a distinctive sound that matches her broad musical interests — gentle pianissimo at times, and edgy and brassy when she is showing us a spark of fire. And, like Betty Carter, she can deconstruct a song to create a surprising new sound, uniquely her own.

In June 2011, Latz formed a group with pianist Jon Davis, guitarist John Hart, and bassist Ray Parker. Within a short time, they knew they needed to record the magic that they were creating. Deborah notes, ‘We found an organic place, where we all created in the moment. Taking our time, the ideas started to flow, and within just a few sessions we found our groove. I realized we had to capture it, while it was still fresh.’

Jon Davis, who played and recorded with the late, great bassist Jaco Pastorius, is a superbly skilled and exceptionally intuitive pianist. ‘I feel a musical telepathy with Jon,’ Latz said. ‘We challenge one another, and suddenly we're moving, dancing, down an unexpected and unknown path. It's exhilarating!’

John Hart, known for his long tenure with organ master Jack McDuff has also played guitar with trumpeter Randy Brecker and jazz singer Jon Hendricks, among other greats. ‘John is a connoisseur of the guitar. And he has a sly sense of humor — in a flash second he can send us off in an entirely new direction!’ Latz observes, ‘We always have a super great time!’

Bassist Ray Parker, who worked with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and vocalist Bobby McFerrin, has a distinctive sound and impressive versatility, highlighted here in some outstanding duets and solos. ‘Like when Ray gets behind the wheel and puts the pedal to the metal, he is always on the move,’ Latz explains. ‘Yet at times, when he takes on a slow ballad, he can create some of the most languid, sensitive lines.’

Willard Dyson, who joined the group on drums, has worked regularly with singers Michael Franks, Regina Belle, and Jimmy Scott. Dyson is both a powerful player and very sympathetic in his support of the lead voices. ‘Willard can funk it up! His rhythmic choices are inspired and unconventional, it's a thrill to play together!’

Avant garde jazz instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum and singer Abdoulaye Diabate are special guests on Fig Tree. ‘I heard Peter play with Omar Sosa at the Blue Note in May 2011 and I was blown away,’ remembers Deborah. ‘He played the flute, put it down, blew the tenor, put it down, and went on to various Brazilian and African percussion instruments. Every one of them amazing! I knew at that moment I'd like him to play on my CD.’ And later, Latz heard Diabate sing with Apfelbaum’s band, Hieroglyphics. ‘Abdoulaye is an extraordinarily gifted Griot (storyteller) singer from Mali, and I am so happy that he lent his soulful voice, and heart, to my original, She Was.'

Nancy Hudgins of Ann Braithewaite find team at Braithwaite & Katz sent along the following media relations information about Deborah’s forthcoming Fig Tree CD:

“From the opening selection, Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" with an acid jazz feel, to Latz' offbeat and eccentric title track "Fig Tree," to a beautiful and haunting piano duet on Mercer and Mancini's, "Moon River," Deborah Latz' third CD, Fig Tree, is a breakout performance, proving her artistic mastery as vocalist, songwriter and arranger. The CD will be released on the June Moon Productions (JMP) label on May 7, 2013.

Latz' recording career began in 2004 with her debut CD, Toward Love featuring Jimmy Wormworth, which earned immediate praise: "Her voice rings with a fetching richness...I'm Bewitched." (Dan McClenaghan, AllAboutJazz.com,) "...one of the BEST new voices I've heard in a LONG time...." (Jan Jenson, Jazz Now). Her 2008 sophomore release Lifeline featuring Joel Frahm, received even wider critical acclaim: "’I Didn't Know’ hits glory strides a la Carla White." (Fred Bouchard, DownBeat). "I hadn't heard this lady until I played 'Lifeline,' but I'm now an ardent fan." (Steve Emerine, Arizona Daily Star), "...a sensibility that incites a lyric with her innate dramatic instincts..." (Alan Bargebuhr, Cadence). "Latz knows how to deliver the songs with a different slant... jazz vocal fans have a new star to celebrate."(Chris Spector, Midwest Record).

Latz comes to jazz after an award-winning career in dramatic and musical theater, where she garnered a Best Actress Award at the Jerzy Grotowski Theatre Festival in Poland for her one-woman performance of Juliet, and recorded the original song, "I'm Neurotic Over You" for the off-Broadway comedy, High Infidelity starring John Davidson and Morgan Fairchild. Latz received rave reviews in New York and Europe for Travels With Ma Own Self, the one-woman musical that she wrote, produced and performed. She studied theater at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford, England, and in New York City with Richard Edelman best known for his work with the Living Theater and the Neighborhood Playhouse.

With a creative take on both the Great American Songbook and contemporary jazz, Latz has recorded dynamic and unpredictable interpretations of standards on Fig Tree, and her original pieces are, indeed, worthy of becoming new standards.

On "Blue Skies" Latz shows her funk chops, and allows the lyrics to breath, while offering some signature scatting. John Hart sets up hip, clean guitar lines, while Ray Parker and Willard Dyson hold down the rhythm on bass and drums. Latz' original and title track, "Fig Tree" weaves a fantastical tale combining offbeat syllables and unexpected sounds with a swinging bass and drums. Latz' whimsical lyrics surprise and delight, and the solos alternate in and out of time with Latz, Davis and Hart clearly digging in and having a ball. "You Are" another Latz original, opens with the prodigious Peter Apfelbaum on tenor sax. Apfelbaum lays the groundwork for this indelible love poem told with Latz' fresh and poignant delivery intertwining with the tenor sax, while Willard Dyson's sparse percussion lends an otherworldly take. And on the breathtakingly beautiful duet, "Moon River," Jon Davis is a genius as he caresses the keys, while Latz answers with a devastatingly heartfelt delivery.

Fig Tree is richly shaped and supported by veteran jazz artists Jon Davis on piano, John Hart on guitars, Ray Parker on bass, Willard Dyson on drums, and special guests Peter Apfelbaum on saxes, flutes, percussion and Abdoulaye Diabate, guest voice on Latz' original "She Was." Collectively these jazz veterans have played and recorded with Sonny Fortune, Stan Getz, James Moody, Maria Schneider, Randy Brecker, Dizzy Gillespie, Jimmy Cobb, Regina Belle, Michael Franks, Rosa Passes, Jon Hendricks, Jimmy Scott, Don Byron, Jaco Pastorious, and Omar Sosa, among many others.

Latz most recently played at CD Blues Cafe in Beijing, China and was invited to sing in duo with Beijing's celebrated jazz pianist, Liang Heping. In Paris, she has played with Alain Jean-Marie, France's jazz piano luminary, at Cafe Universel, Le Neuf Jazz Club, Sept Lezards and Atelier de la Main d'Or and will continue her collaboration with Jean-Marie in Fall 2013. On her 2011 West Coast tour she headlined in Seattle, Portland and Eureka, CA and in 2010 she played to packed houses in Kansas City at Jardine's Jazz Club.

Fig Tree is truly a major accomplishment. It is, in fact, Latz' breakout performance as vocalist, songwriter, and arranger. From the acid jazz interpretation of "Blue Skies," to the dead-on rendition of "S'Wonderful," to the delightful, funky rhythms of "Fig Tree," Deborah Latz demonstrates an outstanding range of technique and creative musicality that places her at the forefront of jazz today.”

Fig Tree is available through iTunes and Amazon.com and for those of you with ease of access to New York City, Deborah will be celebrating the CD’s release with a May 18th appearance at the Somethin’ Jazz Club.

Deborah has two websites: www.deborahlatz.com and www.sonicbirds.com/deborahlatz.

With the help of the crackerjack graphics team at CerraJazz LTD and the production facilities of StudioCerra, the editorial staff at JazzProfiles, put together the following video which features Deborah singing Alberta Hunter’s I’m Having A Good Time with John Hart on guitar, Jon Davis on piano, Ray Parker on bass and Willard Dyson on drums.

Why not pick-up a copy of Fig Tree and join the party?

Beboppin' and Testifyin' with Benny Green [From the Archives]

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

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles was reminiscing about some of the details in this piece on Benny Green and thought it might be fun to revisit it by re-posting it to the blog.

It’s hard to forget the first time I heard pianist Benny Green beboppin’ and testifyin’ as both he and the circumstances surrounding the experience made a lasting impression on me.

The date was January  16, 1994. a Sunday evening in Southern  California. I had moved to San   Francisco a couple of years, earlier.

Since I had business meetings scheduled in Los Angeles for most of the week of January 17^th that year, I decided to fly into Burbank, CA where my folks lived and have dinner with them Sunday night in order to get an early start on Monday.

My parents generally liked to watch TV following dinner, so I rolled my well-stuffed tummy into the rental car and took the Hollywood Freeway over to Catalina’s Bar & Grill, which was then located just up the street from the original Shelly’s Manne Hole.

I had no idea who was playing at Catalina’s.  My plan was to catch the first set along with an after-dinner drink and then get back to my hotel for a good night’s sleep prior to the advent of the workweek.

A lot had changed since the closing of Shelly’s club in the early 70’s including the disappearance of any and all free parking on the surrounding streets.

After virtually spending my young, adulthood in Hollywood,  I still knew my way around and I was able to find a free parking spot at the nearby Ivar Theater.

As I walked up to the club, the name “Benny Green” was on the marquee. The only Jazz musician I knew by that name was “Bennie Green,” a trombonist. I thought he had passed away in the late 1970’s [1923-1977].

Upon entering, the maitre d’ asked me if I had a reservation, and when I said I didn’t he informed me that I was lucky - there was still a seat at the bar.

When I looked out at the seating in the club, I saw what he meant by “lucky:” the placed was packed.

Fortunately, the one remaining seat at the bar offered a clear view of the bandstand [everyone else seated at the bar had a clear view into one another’s eyes, if you know what I mean].

I placed my order with the barkeep and while he was filling it I asked him who was performing that night.

He said: “You are in luck: [the second time within 5 minutes that someone had used that word with me] pianist Benny Green, with Christian McBride and Kenny Washington.”

It took me a minute to place them, but I had remembered hearing both Benny and drummer Kenny Washington on tenor saxophonist Ralph Moore’s Images CD [Landmark LCD-1520-2] which was recorded in 1989.

You can hear a cut from this album as Ralph’s version of Elmo Hope’s One Second, Please forms the soundtrack to the following tribute to Jazz drumming. Benny’s solo begins at 2:32 minutes and both he and Ralph trade 8-bar solos with Kenny Washington starting at 3:27. Peter Washington is on bass.

“Christian McBride,” Benny’s bassist that night, was a name that was new to me.

Vague recollections and newness were soon to be replaced by a smile of recognition when the music commenced.

Benny, Christian and Kenny were in fine form that night, so much so that I forgot to drink my wine during the first set, finished it during intermission and had a coffee while staying for the second show.

To use a particularly apt phrase given what was to come later that night, Benny and the Boys blew-the-place-down; it was some of the most inspiring and swinging Jazz that I had heard in years.

Benny plays in a style that is marked by carefree exuberance and daring. At the same time, he exhibits phenomenal technical precision. 

There’s plenty of Bud Powell, Horace Silver and Walter Bishop, Jr. on display, so in this regard, much of what he plays is “in the tradition,” yet, he puts it together in such a way that he makes it sound original.

And he swings, oh does he swing; thus never forgetting the first rule of Jazz.

After the set concluded, I made my way up toward the bandstand to express my appreciation to Benny, but soon concluded that this was not a good move because judging from the mob scene around him it seemed that every one in the club had the same idea.

Instead, I “talked drums” with Kenny Washington who was taking his cymbals down and putting them in their carrying-case. “You play?” he asked. “Did” I responded before telling him how much his playing reminded me of Philly Joe Jones to which he responded with a knowing smile.

Is there a better joy in Life than the first-hand experience of well-played Jazz in the intimate surroundings of a Jazz club?

With this thought in mind, out the door I went, past Shelly Manne’s old club [talk about many first-hand Jazz listening experiences when the World was young!], got in my rental car and headed-off to my hotel.

For reasons of convenience, I had chosen one across from the Burbank [CA] airport which was a relatively quick drive from Catalina’s in Hollywood.

I happily settled into with the music still playing in my mind and fell off to sleep almost instantly.

I was to be lucky again for a third time.

At 4:30 AM, I was awakened by sound that made me think that I had fallen asleep inside KW’s bass drum while he was dropping “bombs” with it.

The infamous January 17, 1994 earthquake had struck that morning and a very large portion of the greater Los Angeles area and the San Fernando Valley in north west portion of that county was particularly hard-hit by it.

Many of my business meetings for that week were scheduled in cities heavily affected by what was later referred to as The Northridge Quake of 1994.

I spent most of that morning rescheduling these and, fortunate once again given the severe interruptions in the flight schedule caused by the jolt, I was able to catch an afternoon flight home to the Bay area.

Shortly after this incident, I learned that pianist Benny Green was born and raised in Berkeley, CA, a part of this very same “Bay area” when I read in a local newspaper that Berkeley’s [a suburb east of San Francisco, CA] own “Benny Green … would be appearing for a week with bassist Ray Brown trio featuring Jeff Hamilton on drums at Yoshi’s Jazz Club and Sushi Bar.”

What an irresistible combination!

Although the original Yoshi’s was located in a converted home in a residential district, because of the refurbished premise’s proximity to a business zone, the club had managed to get a commercial license which enabled it to offer food and entertainment.

So off I went one rainy Spring evening, taking the Bay Bridge [US Highway 101] east from my downtown San Francisco flat, connecting to Interstate 80 east, then to California State Highway 24 toward Berkeley and Walnut Creek before exiting at Claremont Avenue.

All of these meanderings were necessary just to cover a mere 14 miles!

Set back from the street with a most unassuming entrance and hardly no parking of its own, Yoshi’s had the good sense to be within walking distance of the Dryer’s Grand Ice Cream factory’s parking lot on College Avenue. And College Avenue was also the home of one of the locations of Barney’s Gourmet Hamburgers.

With the money saved from the Free Parking, I filled my tummy with one of Barney’s best and headed over to catch the 8:00 PM set and more of Benny Green’s ferociously swinging piano. Once again, although I hadn’t planned to, Benny, Ray and Jeff played so well that night that I stayed for the second and final set. 

In the fall of 1994, Benny was back at Yoshi’s, but this time he brought in his own trio comprised again of Christian McBride [b] and Kenny Washington.  I was there often and got to chat with Benny during the breaks. I told him my earthquake story; Kenny Washington and I also “talked more drums.”

As you can hear in the soundtrack to the following video, Benny writes catchy tunes. This one is entitled Nice Pants in which Benny and the trio are accompanied by a horn section made up of Byron Stripling [tp], John Clark [Fr.H], Delfayo Marsalis [tb], Herb Besson [tuba], Jerry Dodgion [as/fl] and Gary Smulyan [bs].  Benny and Bob Belden did the horn arrangement.

In addition to Benny funky solo, some highlights in the music to the following video include: Christian playing in unison with Benny’s left hand in the Call and Response sequence, first with the piano at 0:58 seconds and then with the horns at 1:20 minutes, KW launching into a shuffle beat when Benny begins his solo at 1:42 minutes and the long quotation from Work Song beginning at 3:51 of Christian’s solo.

For the next few years, Benny continued to appear at the original Yoshi’s with Ray Brown and his own trio, although in each case, Gregory Hutchinson replaced Jeff Hamilton in the drum chair.

And while living in San   Francisco is always fraught with feeling a few tremors, I am delighted to report that the geological shaking was minimal during this period of time.

Here’s more about the formative years in and influences on Benny Green’s career from Stanley Crouch’s insert notes to Benny’s Prelude CD [Criss Cross 1038].

© -Stanley Crouch, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“'I began studying with a teacher named Carl Andrews, who was instructing me in jazz harmony. I studied with him for about two years.' Green would try to get in jam sessions and play jazz whenever he could. 'I would go hear pianists Bill Bell and Ed Kelly, who taught me a lot at that time. Dick Whittington was also a big help and Smith Dobson gave me some important pointers. I was starting to understand the music much better and could see how much more is needed to learn.'

At about sixteen, Green was hired by a singer named Faye Carroll and began performing with her frequently. He learned a lot while with the singer because she gave him a lot of room top/ay, which is how jazz musicians really develop their skills. No matter how many classes they might take or how many improvisations they might memorize or techniques they might work out, unless those materials are brought to the level of performance function, they are largely academic. It is within the sweating demands of the moment, when everything is in motion and every decision has to count, that the jazz player must be able to create musical logic expressive of the emotional qualities that define the individual sensibility. Aware of that, Green would sit in with the best musicians he could, which he did with trumpeter Eddie Henderson after meeting him in San Francisco.

'I sat in with Eddie whenever it was possible, and a few months later he called me to work with him. He was working with a tenor player named Hadley Calliman. Both of them encouraged me a lot. I learned so much being around Eddie. He played me tapes of live gigs with Herbie Hancock that were fascinating to me because of the way the music moved through so many forms, and how one performance could slide through many colors. It was very inspirational and added to what I was already trying to learn. My father had turned me on to Art Tatum, Bud Powell, and Monk. I was trying to get a scope of all the eras, so I was listening to a lot of musicians, particularly Red Garland, Tommy Flanagan, Wynton Kelly, Herbie Hancock, and McCoy Tyner.'

By the time Green got out of high school, he was doing trio jobs of his own, which allowed him to work at making the things he was listening to and discovering function within his own improvisational efforts. He was listening to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers when they would come to town and he was noticing that there was something different going on in the music of the musicians who were from New York. He could hear a more powerful level of swinging, a deeper groove, a more substantial grasp of rhythmic components that fuel the phrasing of jazz. He knew he had to move east. 'I had that on my mind for the last few months that I was in California, regardless of what I was doing. I worked for those months with a band led by the bassist Chuck Israels, which was about twelve pieces. Then I got to play with Joe Henderson for one night before I left. I knew if I was going to be serious about this music, I had to go where the sound I was hearing from the musicians in New York was coming from. I knew I was missing a lot being in California. There was a focus to swinging I heard coming from New York, which was more definite, more disciplined. In the Bay Area, a lot of the musicians played with a very loose feeling. So I moved to New York when I was nineteen, in 1982.'

Shortly after Green got to New York, he heard Walter Bishop with Junior Cook

and Bill Hardman. He approached Bishop about studying with him and became a student of the older pianist, who helped him a great deal. 'He showed me a lot about comping because I was impressed by the big sound he got out of the instrument.' Bishop was the link to Bud Powell and he was willing to show Green how he voiced his chords. But, most importantly, Bishop encouraged Green to look for his own music, not just emulate somebody else. 'Walter said that there are three stages of development: imitation, emulation, innovation. Not to say that a musician gets to all three, but those are the logical stages of development. He got me to think about the extensions of the tradition of the piano that have come since Bud Powell'.

At that time Walter Davis and John Hicks also gave Green valuable instructions. Bishop introduced Green to alto saxophonist Bobby Watson, who eventually hired the pianist. While working with Watson, he met pianist James Williams, who also encouraged him to work on his music and stick with it. Williams' encouragement was in line with the assistance and inspiration the young pianist had received from Mulgrew Miller, whom he had heard with Woody Shaw just before leaving the Bay Area. Green was strongly impressed by the sense of tradition and the personal approach within Miller's piano work. Miller also pointed him in productive directions by giving him specific and useful advice. Johnny O’Neil was also very helpful. O'Neil had just joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and was willing to share his knowledge with Green. 'I had heard Donald Brown with Art when the band recorded live in San   Francisco. Hearing such a fresh voice was enlightening. I'm grateful to Donald, Mulgrew and James for being at once so inspirational and supportive.'

Green freelanced around New York for about a year, then was called to audition for Betty Carter, who had heard him on a job on Long Island. Green started working with the singer in April of 1983 and remained in her group a few weeks short of four years. 'Betty is a great musician and you learn from her in every possible way. She is a master of pacing. She understands rhythm and tempo and how they fit with harmony and melody perfectly. And most of all Betty Carter swings* Her gig is very challenging because she has very precise things she wants to achieve but she is also very spontaneous. She also helps to heighten her musicians' awareness of their role within an ensemble. That was a very good job for me and it is a very good job for any young musician. Like Art Blakey because she's always finding young musicians, giving them work, teaching them a lot of music, and encouraging them to dedicate themselves. Betty Carter is a great musician and a great person.'

In April of 1987, Green left the singer's band for the Jazz Messengers. 'Playing with Art Blakey has been, by far, the greatest experience of my life. I never have before and I'm sure I never will again come in contact with a greater musical spirit. When Art comes on the bandstand, whatever else is going on in life is forgotten and the music takes over. Art truly practices what he preaches in washing away the dust of every day life with music. And this is certainly the musician's job. As I mature, I hope to come closer to being able to achieve this on my own.'

For his first time out, Benny Green has put together a group of players that have come to New York from such different places that it is obvious how wide the message of jazz still stretches. Terence Blanchard is from New Orleans, Javon Jackson is from Denver, Peter Washington is from Los Angeles, and Tony Reedus is from Memphis. Green chose each of them because he wanted to have a date of players from his age group and musicians who were inspirations to him. Each of the young men is gathering a list of credits and is working at his craft, doing the homework that is so obvious in what they play as they move through the program. The concerns heard in the thoughts and the playing of the leader are sustained in the work of the rest of the players, which makes for a date that shows, again, just how much dedication and how much courage these young people have. They are far from conventional in that they have chosen the path of greatest resistance and are obviously intent on adding their artistic signatures to the declaration of musical democracy that is jazz. Such young people are of priceless importance, and pianist Benny Green should be commended for putting together such a solid ensemble and for making such an honest statement on his first date as a leader.”

Stanley Crouch (N.Y.C., 1988)

Here’s another sampling of Benny’s piano work on Bopag’in, the Jimmy Heath tune that forms the audio track on a tribute to vibist Milt Jackson.