Steve Heckman - "Search for Peace"

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

“SEARCH FOR PEACE, the fourth album by the acclaimed multi-reed instrumentalist Steve Heckman, is the exciting follow-up to Heckman's previous Jazzed Media outing, BORN TO BE BLUE, which remained on the JazzWeek chart for 12 weeks and reached the Top 20.

Featuring the same stellar musicians, including New York guitarist Howard Alden, on this release, Heckman plays tenor sax on seven tracks and baritone sax on two tracks, with Matt Clark trading his piano for the B3 to add a pinch of grease to the mix.

SEARCH FOR PEACE retains the same lyricism Heckman is known for, while delivering a hard-driving, straight-ahead set that pays homage to some of the greatest composers in jazz, including John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Thelonious Monk, Grant Green, Sonny Clark, Blue Mitchell and Randy Weston, as well as featuring an original composition by Heckman himself.”

• Holly Cooper, MouthpieceMusic

Tenor saxophonist Steve Heckman’s name was new to me.

His latest CD - Search for Peace - which was recently released on Graham Carter’s JazzedMedia [JM 1069]  label thus fell into the category of a pleasant Jazz surprise, the kind that revolves around hearing a musician for the first time and knowing that you’ve found a new Jazz “voice,” one that helps you appreciate the music in a new way.

What’s not to like about Search for Peace?

Great musicians, each of whom has an expressive sound on their respective instrument, a great selection of Jazz standards on which they perform terrific solos and music that is so well conceived and constructed that it creates in the listener a sense of satisfaction that comes from hearing Jazz played with intensity and a pulsating swing.

Steve introduces each of the musicians on the CD in the following insert notes to the recording and also gives a little background on why he chose each of the tunes that collectively represent one of the finest straight-ahead Jazz dates that I’ve heard in a long-time.

THE MUSICIANS

Multi-reedman STEVE HECKMAN has played with trumpeters Eddie Henderson, Howard McGhee, Chet Baker, and Tom Harrell; trombonist Roswell Rudd; pianists Andrew Hill, Benny Green, Jessica Williams, Jim McNeely, and George Cables; guitarists John Abercrombie, Cal Collins, Mimi Fox, and Bruce Foreman; drummers Jimmy Cobb, Billy Higgins, Eddie Moore, Donald Bailey and Pete Escovedo; and vocalists Jackie Ryan, Madeline Eastman, and Kellye Gray, to name a few. He has been praised by saxophonists including Stan Getz, Charles Lloyd, and Pharoah Sanders. His previous CD's ("With John in Miner and "Live at Yoshi's?1) received international praise, the latter being chosen by the San Francisco Chronicle as 1 of the 10 best albums by a Bay Area jazz musician. Tim Price (Saxophone Journal) wrote: "This is a kick-ass saxophonist with finesse... Heckman's sound on tenor is world-class." Steve's 3rd CD, "Bom to Be Blue" (Jazzed Media) hit #19 on the Jazz Week charts and was on the charts for 12 weeks.

Guitar virtuoso HOWARD ALDEN has performed and recorded with Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Benny Carter, Flip Phillips, Bud Freeman, Ruby Braff, Joe Williams, Warren Vache, Kenny Davern, George Van Eps, Joe Pass, Scott Hamilton and Ken Peplowski. He can be heard on at least 27 of his own albums as well as on the soundtrack to the Woody Allen movie "Sweet and Lowdown," starring Sean Penn. Howard was voted "Best Emerging Talent-Guitar" in the first annual Jazz Times critics' poll in 1990, and "Talent Deserving Wider Recognition" in the 1992,1993,1995 and 1996 Downbeat critics' poll.

Drummer AKIRA TANA has performed and/or recorded with jazz greats such as Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt, Zoot Sims, Hubert Laws, Milt Jackson, Jim Hall, Art Farmer, Paquito D'Rivera, James Moody, J.J. Johnson, Lena Home, and The Manhattan Transfer, just to name a few. He appears on over 100 recordings. Akira co-led a quintet for 10 years with bassist Rufus Reid, called Tana-Reid, which produced 6 CDs.

Bassist MARCUS SHELBY was the leader of the Black Note Quintet, and leads the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra and Trio. He has won numerous awards, including: Charles Mingus Scholarship to CA Institute for the Arts; John Coltrane Young Artists Competition; ASCAP Popular Award for Songwriters/Composers; Bay Guardian Award for Best Jazz Band; S.F. Weekly Wammie Award for Best Jazz Musician; and SF Weekly Master-Minds Award. His discography includes 10 albums.

Pianist/Hammond B-3 player MATT CLARK has performed with saxophonists Eric Alexander, Vincent Herring, Teddy Edwards, Frank Morgan and Mark Turner; vibraphonists Bobby Hutcherson and Stefon Harris; trumpeter Jon Faddis; and vocalists Madeline Eastman, Kellye Gray, and Denise Perrier, among others. He was a member of the Marcus Shelby Trio, and performs regularly with Bay Area vocalist Paula West, saxophonist Andrew Speight and many others.

THE SELECTIONS

This collection of tunes comprises a 2nd set of recordings by a group that I previously assembled consisting of New York guitar virtuoso Howard Alden, in the company of 3 of the finest musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area: pianist Matt Clark, bassist Marcus Shelby, and internationally-acclaimed drummer Akira Tana. I was honored to have these wonderful players collaborate with me on a previous album, Born to be Blue (Jazzed Media, JM 1062, released in 2013), which focused on presenting fresh versions of standards from the Great American Songbook (for those unfamiliar with this term, the Great American Songbook is comprised of the many thousands of show tunes and popular songs that have been written since the early 1900s, and which many jazz musicians have used as vehicles for improvisation).

In a slightly different slant, most of the selections offered herein represent a sampling of what could be termed the "American Jazz Songbook," consisting of the compositions of a number of great jazz instrumental performers. For those who love the standards, I have also thrown in one of my favorite Great American Songbook ballads, as well as an original tune of mine. Additionally, this set of material features keyboard-master Matt Clark on Hammond B-3 organ rather than the acoustic piano on which he is much more frequently heard, to add a little bit of "grease." Whereas the previous album was rich in ballads and more introspective selections, the current set of material represents more of a straight-ahead "blowing session" in which there are no holds barred.

Fungii Mama is a highly-infectious and joyful calypso, written by the great trumpeter Blue Mitchell. (Neither I, nor anyone I know, can explain the meaning of the title). In any case, I loved this tune as soon as I heard it, and kept it in the back of my mind to perform and/or record someday. So here it is.

Grantstand is a "burner" by guitarist Grant Green from an LP by the same name, and is the most up-tempo of all the selections.

Search for Peace, the title tune, is a soulful ballad by pianist McCoy Tyner, a great vehicle to stretch out on.

Pannonica is a quirky (aren't they all?) but beautiful tune written by pianist Thelonious Monk, in dedication to the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, a Rothschild heiress who was a patron to countless jazzmen, most notably Charlie Parker and Monk. Although it begins as a walking ballad, it continues to build in intensity as the tune progresses.

Pianist Randy Weston's Hi-Fly, performed here on baritone sax, is done as a samba, which works surprisingly well on this tune, and is another high-energy feature in this set.

Hangin' at Slugs, the one original of mine, is dedicated to a long-defunct jazz club in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which I frequented in my late teens growing up in New York City. It is an altered minor blues, with a definitively funky attitude.

Melody for C is a straight-ahead, swinging tune by pianist Sonny Clark.

Autumn in New York, by Vernon Duke, the only "Great American Songbook" standard in this set of material, offers another reminiscence of the Big Apple, performed on baritone sax, which lends a slightly darker timbre to this lovely ballad.

Spiral, by John Coltrane, was included in his seminal album "Giant Steps." The tune is built on descending chromatic chords which are simple, yet complex—and much more difficult to solo on than one might expect, due to the very fast tempo and quick movement of the chords.

I hope this diverse collection of material pleases your ears and souls.

—Steve Heckman, July 15,2014.”

Dan Bilawsky writing for All About Jazz said of Steve:

“Saxophonist Steve Heckman has absorbed bits and pieces of many masters ...a matte finish take on Sonny Rollins, a fondness for Zoot Sims, and a hint of Coleman Hawkins merge with the Trane influence to create something altogether different, yet totally traditional Heckman's music is straight ahead, built in the image of those who came before him, but his blend-born sound belongs to no one else...the soul and sound of a true saxophone sophisticate."

While I agree with Dan that Steve is respectful of the tradition, I also hear today’s tenor sound in Steve Heckman; cats like Joshua Redman, Joe Lovano, Eric Alexander, Don Braden, Chris Potter, and Mark Turner. He also reminds of New York-based, Ralph Lalama and Los Angeles-based Pete Christlieb, both of whom exhibit a heavy and unrelenting drive and full, rich tone in their playing.

See what you think while listening to him on Fungii Mama, the lead track on

Search for Peace - [JazzedMedia JM 1069].

Order information  is available via this link.

The Significance of Tadd Dameron

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

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles concludes this ongoing feature on composer-arranger Tadd Dameron with three, distinct assessments of his music, all of which point to his significance in the world of Jazz.

The first is by Jazz composer and tenor saxophonist Benny Golson which was prepared as a Foreword to Ian MacDonald’s Tadd: The Life and Legacy of Tadley Ewing Dameron. A discussion of Ian’s self-published work was the basis of our first posting on Tadd and his music.

Next up is Andrew Homzy’s The Importance of Tadd, which serves as the Introduction to Ian’s biography of Tadd.

The third segment focuses on Matt Lohr’s review of Paul Combs’ Dameronia: The Life and Music of Tadd Dameron [Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2012].

Irene Kral sings Tadd’s beautiful ballad - If You Could See Me Now - on the video montage that closes this piece.

Benny Golson on Tadd Dameron

AS   A   YOUNG   ASPIRING   SAXOPHONIST in Philadelphia in the mid-forties, I began listening, not only to other saxophonists, but arrangers as well. Tadd Dameron quickly came to my attention because of his penchant for melody. His compositions were memorable. They always lingered after the fact like the taste of a fine, gourmet meal.

Some tend to think of Tadd Dameron as a composer, whereas others think of him as an arranger. He was both!

Those talents were entwined with each other. Even when he was arranging he was composing, because his concept of melody was so flowing. Even

I eventually came to alliteratively and lovingly call him the 'melody master'. It's no wonder, then, that since he was my idol, I, too, developed an affinity for melody . . . until this very day I aggressively pursue it.

It was in 1951 that I first met Tadd. He was the pianist with Bull Moose Jackson who was from the same town of Cleveland, Ohio. They knew each other as kids.

'Moose' had offered him an interim job as pianist while he was deciding what to do with his own group.

That meeting was a glorious fantasy fulfilled. I was in awe of his ability to make a quintet sound much fuller than a quintet usually sounded.

Being a completely unselfish person, he later showed me everything he knew, including how to arrive at a fullness of sound in a dearth situation (few instruments).

After hearing me play on our first one-nighter together, he excitedly approached me at the intermission and said, "I love the way you play. I'd like you to do some things with me sometimes, perhaps even go to Europe with me".

I couldn't believe my ears. This was a solid stamp of approval as far as I was concerned. And from that day onward, we were fast friends right up until the day he died.

He taught me how to listen for logical chords to a tune even if I didn't know the tune. His harmonic prowess was unequalled. Because of him I learned how to move around smoothly in harmonic concepts, without causing emotional 'bumps' in the musical scheme of things.

While we were together in Moose's group, he often wrote things for other people.

I remember once he was writing something for the Duke Ellington orchestra. I was so excited that he shared the entire score with me from beginning to end.

In fact, I copied the arrangement for Duke just so I could eviscerate it even more.

It was instances like this that helped me on my journey of moving progressively forward. Tadd was completely illuminating and I was the direct recipient of his talent and years of practical experience. Many of the things he lovingly passed on to me in my early days of immaturity and development still hold me in stead today.

It was Tadd who drew upon the talents of young Clifford Brown. He hired him to play in his group in Atlantic City in 1953. He also hired Philly Joe Jones (whose name was then simply, Jo Jones), Jymie Meritt, Gigi Gryce, Cecil Payne, Johnny Coles and me.

During the existence of the group we recorded the album 'Dameronia'. It was during this album that he changed Jo Jones’ name to ‘Philly Joe Jones’ so as to distinguish him from Jo Jones who used to play with Count Basie. He, in fact, featured him on one of his original tunes called 'Philly Joe Jones' which was why the ‘Philly' handle came about.

We all loved Tadd because he always had a way of pulling things together and making them work in a quite natural way.

None of his music ever sounded artificial, arbitrary, or manufactured. It always had depth and personality - his personality. It touched not only our minds but hearts as well. This is what's really important.

Though he never permitted his creativity to be pressed between the pages of other people's history, he was flexible enough so as not to hinder his growth and power of reason.

He had an acute sense of comprehensibility (assimilation) and could intellectually approach his music on the deepest levels, however, his heart was always the true crucible - barometer of emotional fulfilment; it took his music in directions only he and his heart would indefatigably go.

The pages of this book will explore - on the deepest level - who and what Tadd Dameron really was, the effect of his music on the jazz scene, and its longevity as in the case of 'If You Could See Me Now.’

Ian MacDonald has been inexhaustible in his research: looking into the man, his music, his life as well as people associated with him. He gives us privy into many things never before seen or heard, things that have never reached the eyes and ears, and possibly the hearts of people.

Of course, we'll not be able to hear all of these, but we will have the knowledge of their existence. Tadd wrote many things that not even I know about. Ian MacDonald magnificently and amazingly brings all of this to our attention ... no small feat.

I'm hoping readers around the world will enjoy and remember the things brought to life and frozen for all time within the quadrilateral boundaries of these two dimensional pages.

Would that Tadd Dameron could tell his own story. But, Ian MacDonald has masterfully done that for him.”

Benny Golson

Friedrichshafen, Germany

1997

Andrew Homzy - The Importance of Tadd

“WHILE COMPLETING MY MUSICAL STUDIES at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, I played in a weekend Dixieland band led by trombonist Ralph Gnigel. Our club, Pagan's Beacon House located where the Cuyahoga River empties its industrial filth into Lake Erie, was a place where sailors and longshoremen used to relax - but they were essentially pushed out on weekends as the pre-yuppie crowds filled the club in search of the exotic.

Near the end of Winter in 1967, after the gig one Saturday night, Ralph asked me to meet him on Sunday afternoon, and to bring my horn. He then took me to a place on Cedar Avenue that had seen the charm of another era. But despite the slum-like decay of most buildings there, I saw a few that maintained an imposing elegance.

As we walked up to one, Ralph told me to be quiet and look confident. He then rapped a rhythm on a large door and to my surprise, a small plate slid open with the demand: "Who's there?" Ralph gave his name, and after a few seconds, the large door swung open and we were led into a beautiful dance-hall decorated with large photos of black servicemen and their friends seated at the very tables I could now see neatly placed around the perimeter.

We were then led to one of these tables and asked what we would like to drink. I then realized that since the consumption of alcoholic beverages was prohibited in Ohio on Sundays, that we were in a genuine speakeasy.

I saw some musicians gathering on the elevated stage and Ralph told me to bring my horn; there was someone I should meet. 'This is Caesar Dameron" said Ralph, "He plays alto sax and runs the Sunday jam sessions." 'Welcome" said Caesar; and then with some concern, "Is that your horn? "Yes", I said, lifting up my tuba. "We've never had a tuba player here before, but Ralph said you can play modem jazz as well as Dixieland, so come on up and join us."

The truth is that I believe Ralph overestimated my abilities. But, my love of playing music and youthful naivete" blinded me to any shortcomings I may have

had. We played a variety of modern tunes such as On Green Dolphin Street and variants of I Got Rhythm and the blues.

I was thoroughly enjoying myself and after the session Caesar and the other musicians welcomed me to come back. I did return on several occasions and once I met a great tenor saxophonist named Joe Alexander. He and Caesar were very, very good. Later, I was to learn that Caesar was Tadd's brother and that Joe Alexander was a local hero on the Cleveland jazz scene.

That September, I moved to Montreal to continue my studies at McGill University.

In Montreal, I inevitably learned more about modern jazz and began playing my tuba with the Vic Vogel Big Band - Pepper Adams sat in with us a few times and we once accompanied Gerry Mulligan.

The importance of Tadd Dameron became clearer to me. And perhaps the combination of playing with his brother and pride in my home town led me to pursue any leads concerning Dameron and his music.

Almost thirty years later, and now teaching Jazz Studies at Concordia University, I've done my utmost to help keep Dameron remembered among my students and Montreal audiences. Last year while surfing the Internet, I heard of someone working on a Dameron biography.

Through the miracle of news groups and e-mail, I met Ian MacDonald, a Londoner now living in Sheffield, England. Ian told me about his book which was nearing completion. Since I had always wanted to write something about my Cleveland mentor, I suggested to him that I contribute a brief appendix -perhaps a study of Dameron's Fontainebleau. Ian, to my grateful surprise accepted the idea.

That idea has since grown into a whole chapter of his book. I hope you, the reader, enjoys my contribution, and while there are a few musical examples, I hope my text conveys sincere love and enthusiasm for this beautiful music.”

Matt Lohr A Review of Paul Combs - Dameronia: The Life and Music of Tadd Dameron

Paul Combs’ Dameronia: The Life and Music of Tadd Dameron which is described on the University of Michigan’s website as “the first authoritative biography of Tadd Dameron, an important and widely influential figure in jazz history and one of the most significant composers and arrangers of jazz, swing, bebop, and big band. This book sets out to clarify Dameron’s place in the development of jazz in the post–World War II era, as he arranged for names like Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford, and Dizzy Gillespie and played with Bull Moose Jackson and Benny Golson It also attempts to shed light on the tragedy of his retreat from the center of jazz activity in the 1950s. By tracing Dameron’s career, one finds that until 1958, when he was incarcerated for drug related offenses, he was at the forefront of developments in jazz, sometimes anticipating trends that would not develop fully for several years. Dameron was a very private man, and while some aspects of his story will probably remain an enigma, this book manages to give an intimate portrait of his life and work.”

Paul Combs  -Dameronia: The Life and Music of Tadd Dameron by Matt Lohr, JazzTimes 5.27.2013

Paul Combs set himself a considerable challenge in Dameronia, his new biography of arguably the most influential composer and arranger of the bebop era. By Combs’ own admission, the record of Tadd Dameron’s personal history is a sketchy one. Dameron was “secretive almost to the point of paranoia,” and frequently provided interviewers with false or misleading information about his life (such as an occasionally mentioned stint as a premed student that never in fact took place). The inevitable result of this guardedness is a book that is only intermittently satisfying in its treatment of Dameron’s biographical background. But musicians and composers will find Combs’ book invaluable in its precision analysis of the seminal works of this singular jazz talent.

Given the problematic sources at hand, Combs delves as well as anyone could into the life and frequently hard times of his subject. The author traces Dameron’s upbringing in Cleveland and his early gigs writing and arranging for Harlan Leonard and Jimmie Lunceford. He follows Dameron through collaborations with such illustrious figures as Milt Jackson, Mary Lou Williams, John Coltrane and Benny Golson (who in his foreword marks Dameron as a major influence on his own songwriting). He tracks the composer’s checkered romantic relationships as well as his all-too-typical battles with heroin addiction, a curse that resulted in arrests, incarceration and the hobbling of his musical output during what should have been his peak years. (These struggles likely exacerbated the illnesses that led to Dameron’s premature death in 1965, at the age of 48.)

Combs makes a valiant biographer’s effort and occasionally unearths a particularly illuminating quote or anecdote—notably a painfully poignant barroom encounter between two touring musicians and Dameron, dressed in workman’s overalls while on break from a factory job he took between stints on the jazz scene. But the hazy nature of the historical record vis-à-vis Dameron lends the book’s prose an unavoidably oblique tone; many points are prefaced with “apparently,” “it is reported that” and other non committal verbiage that protects Combs from making potentially incorrect assertions but nevertheless results in a muddling of the narrative flow. This is not helped by the sparse presence of quotations from Dameron himself. Combs makes the most of the limited interview material available, but as he asserts, “[Dameron] was a man of few words, and those few words were generally reserved for music.”

It’s when Combs turns his own attention to the music that Dameronia proves its worth as a piece of jazz scholarship. A composer and music educator, Combs is fully equipped to tackle the technical particulars of Dameron’s work, and the book features detailed beat-by-beat, sometimes bar-by-bar breakdowns of “Good Bait,” “Hot House,” the ambitious Fontainebleau album and numerous other Dameron classics. Many of these analyses are accompanied by staff notation, and Combs’ explanations are heavy on musical jargon that may prove dry or impenetrable to those not schooled in theory. (I’m not ashamed to admit I had to look up “contrafact,” a term Combs utilizes with some frequency.) But to readers with a musical background, particularly those interested or educated in jazz composition and arranging, these probing and intelligent explorations of an unsung great’s work make Dameronia an essential addition to their library.”

Cat Conner - "Cat House"

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

"Cat cruised through everything she sang with the soaring vocals, interpretive magic and enthusiastic musicality that are essential aspects of her vocal art... In sum, it was one of the most rich and varied, beautifully performed collection of songs I've heard in recent memory. Would that more jazz artists planned their sets this well."

- Don Heckman, Jazz critic

"A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not."

- Ernest Hemingway

“There's a direct sincerity in the way she tells the stories of these lyrics. Few can attain it, and you know it when you hear it. Conner is the understated real deal.”

— George Fendel, Jazz Society of Oregon

“Recording each one of my 13 lucky tunes has helped me to express my joy, let go of shame and understand my experiences in my life and love. As I am flirting with my golden years, I was utterly compelled to put together my big juicy vision 11 refuse to be haunted by ghosts of the past and I choose to be here in the moment and not live in fear... but in love!”

- Cat Conner, Jazz vocalist, “Cat House”

Cat Conner is one of our favorite Jazz vocalists. She has a new CD coming out today and I thought I’d bring it to your attention by sharing the following information that was developed by Holly Cooper at Mouthpiece Music.

Cat has her own website: www.catconner.com

Cat House [Cat Tales Records CT 1011] is now available on CD Baby and Amazon and will be available on iTunes on October 15, 2014.

“Cat House, the new CD by jazz vocalist Cat Conner, is a profoundly personal project that reflects the ups and downs of a life lived with empathy and a keen awareness of the heart's vicissitudes. Conner sings with a wide range of emotional expression and a depth of feeling that cuts right to the essence of the lyric. The songs on this disc are not the usual fare. They were chosen because each one tells a story that resonates with Conner's own experiences and outlook. From playful and suggestive to poignant and passionate, Conner opens the door to her Cot House and invites you in for an intimate tour.

Conner is accompanied on this project by her long-time friends and collaborators, a group of extraordinarily talented and experienced musicians. Conner says, "I've been working with this band in different venues and configurations for a long time. They know me well, both musically and personally. I'm sure no one else would be able to achieve the kind of intimacy I wanted to convey."

The core group is led by co-producer and masterful guitarist John Chiodini, who has worked with countless musical luminaries, from vocalists Nina Simone, Peggy Lee and Nancy Wilson to Paul McCartney and Louie Bellson. Chiodini, who also provided most of the arrangements, adroitly captures the breadth of Conner's affections, from her sheer joy in swinging standards like "You're Driving Me Crazy" and "What A Little Moonlight Can Do," to her sexy discernment in the soulful "Baltimore Oriole."

Chiodini's sensual and mysterious arrangement of "Sans Souci," the Sonny Burke composition with lyrics by Peggy Lee, is beautifully rendered by Gene ("Cip") Cipriano's haunting bass oboe line. Cipriano, a multi-reed instrumentalist whose music has been recorded on literally hundreds of albums and dozens of movie soundtracks, adds deep tonal colors and stunning turns on clarinet, tenor sax, bass oboe, English horn, and bass clarinet throughout this CD.

Tom Ranier, the widely recorded and highly regarded multi-instrumentalist, accompanies on piano. His graceful musicianship shines in his solos on "Giant Steps" and "Wishing On The Moon." Bass player Chuck Berghofer has worked with everyone from The Everly Brothers and Elvis Presley to Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand. His rich tone and powerful sense of swing are at the heart of each tune on this disc. Joe LaBarbera, the marvelous drummer perhaps best known for his recordings and live performances as part of the Bill Evans Trio, as well as quartets led by Chuck Mangione and Joe Farrell, completes the rhythm section.

Also included are notable contributions by renowned horn players Dick Nash on trombone ("You're Driving Me Crazy"), Ron Stout on trumpet ("Baltimore Oriole"), Stephanie O'Keefe on French horn ("Remind Me" and "Handsome Man"), and Bob Carr on bassoon, bass clarinet, and alto flute ("Handsome Man").

From the opening song, "Everything I Love/Everything I Desire," a Cole Porter tune to which Conner added her own lyrics and created a new song, to the final number on the CD, the deeply heartfelt "People Say (Song for Rob)," which Conner wrote for the son she was obliged to put up for adoption when she was quite young, Conner and the band take the listener on an expedition through the inner life of a woman who has experienced love, loss, delight, and sorrow, but who ultimately finds comfort in the felicity of musical expression that is both universal and singular.

Cat Conner is a Los Angeles-based jazz singer who got her start in her hometown of Toronto. She performed for many years with some of Canada's most well-known jazz musicians, including Peter Appleyard, Eugene Amaro & Don "DT" Thompson.

Conner moved to L.A. many years ago and put her vocal career aside for several years because of personal difficulties. However, music was never far from her heart, and she became very involved in the L.A. jazz scene. Conner was encouraged to return to performing by the legendary Gene Cipriano, who is widely regarded as the most recorded musician ever. She reved up her career again and began performing in jazz clubs up and down the California coast, accompanied by jazz greats like Pete Christlieb, Emil Richards, Gary Foster, Gary Smulyan and Don Menza.

Conner released her first CD, "Cat Tales," in 2012. The CD featured Cipriano and bassist Jim Hughart, with arrangements and accompaniment by the late George Mesterhazy, one of the finest East coast pianist/arrangers, known for his work with Shirley Horn and Rebecca Parris. "Cat Tales" received excellent reviews and was named "Best CD of 2012" by All About Jazz.”

George Robert and The Metropole Orchestra

This piece is largely a reposting of an earlier piece about The Metropole with a new video at the end that features alto saxophonist George Robert with the orchestra performing My Secret Love as arranged by Henk Huizinga. The recording was made in 1993/1994. The orchestra was under the direction of Rob Pronk at that time.

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

As a young man aspiring to make a career in music, the catchphrase as I was maturing in the business was – “Don't give up your day gig.”

Fortunately for my career in the music business, I came-of-age in the greater Los Angeles area where discipline, diligence and the ability to read music resulted in a decent living being earned by playing club dates, working casuals and receiving some studio calls for gigs involving TV and movie soundtracks, commercials and jingles.

I even got to play at the famed Lighthouse Café in Hermosa Beach, CA for six months as part of a college quintet that spelled the featured group while the latter took a dinner break during the famous [infamous?] 2:00 PM – to 2:00 AM Sunday marathons at the club.

Bassist Howard Rumsey, The Lighthouse’s impresario, fed us, gave us all the free Coca Cola we could consume and provided enough actual money to pay for a fill-up in my ’55 Chevy; but hey, it was THE Lighthouse and I think that all of us in the group would have paid him to make the gig!

The era of resident orchestras as maintained by the movie studios was coming to an end, although a number of local municipalities sponsored bands for their summer concerts series, and there were many classical orchestras in the area, too.  But this kind of “legit” work never appealed to me [sitting around for what seemed like hours, counting 142 measures of “rest” and then picking up two huge, heavy cymbals to strike them together once before sitting down again to count more measures of rest was not my idea of playing music]. 

Sometimes, the chance to pick-up a few schimolies by riding a bus with a big band came my way, but the music was generally uninspiring and the downside was being out-of-town when the studio contractors called, thus losing your place in the hierarchy.

Imagine my surprise then when I learned that many cities in Europe kept radio orchestras on staff that were supported by various state governments. Can you picture it – being on salary with benefits and showing up for work each day to play Jazz on a regular basis – and this is your “day gig?!” Heck, they even got paid for rehearsals [and the music obviously sounded much better because of this extra time spent on learning it].

Most of the major European countries, but especially Germany and Holland, maintained such aggregations who in turn supplied a steady stream of music for broadcast over radio and television as well as a fairly active performance schedule at some of these countries most renown concert halls.

Holland, a nation of only around sixteen million people, provides government support for two, such orchestras – The Metropole and The Concertgebouw – the former playing at concert venues throughout The Netherlands while the latter performs primarily at its namesake auditorium in Amsterdam.

Unfortunately, for those of us without ready access to Holland, until the advent of concerts streamed via the internet, the music of these orchestras was not widely heard outside The Netherlands.

To compound matters, since it lost its recording contracts with the Koch and Mons record labels, commercial CDs by The Metropole Orchestra are only rarely available and the Concertgebouw Jazz Orchestra, for the most part, has underwritten the issuance of its own recordings during its comparatively briefer existence.

Listening to the way in which the string section of Holland’s magnificent Metropole Orchestra plays Jazz phrasing, one wishes for a time machine so that Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown could be re-make their famous “with strings” albums and benefit from a string section that knows how to play Jazz.

The reasons why The Metropole Orchestra are so adept at Jazz phrasing are explained in the following article about the orchestra, its history and evolution by the noted Jazz author, Mike Hennessey.

[Incidentally, when the string section is included, it is referred to as The Metropole Orchestra and sans strings it is The Metropole Orchestra Big Band.]

Also integrated in this piece for JazzProfiles’ readers is an overview of the orchestra and its origins and development as excerpted from the orchestra’s own website - http://en.metropoleorkest.nl/mco_page/theorchestra.

The High-Flying Dutchmen - Jazz Now, July 2004 issue

Mike Hennessey spotlights the unique Metropole Orchestra

© -Mike Hennessey Jazz Now, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“The Metropole Orchestra was founded in 1945 by the Dutch Radio Foundation. It came into being because, after the Second World War, Holland's newly re-established public radio network needed an ensemble capable of producing high quality music programmes covering every genre of light music.

Dolf van der Linden was appointed chief conductor and was given the task of recruiting musicians for the orchestra. He began by contacting top class Dutch musicians who were playing in orchestras all over Europe and inviting them to return to Holland to join the new ensemble.

The son of a music dealer who owned several musical instrument shops, van der Linden took violin and music theory lessons from his father, who was an excellent player, and later studied composition at a music academy. When he was 16, he took a job as a theatre organist and, from 1936 to 1939, he worked regularly as an arranger for various radio orchestras. It was after the war that he concentrated on conducting.

The 17-member Metropole Orchestra made its début on November 25, 1945 and has since won international acclaim as a major institution of the European music community.

There is no other ensemble like it anywhere in the world.

The orchestra today has 52 full time members, all on regular salary with full social security and pension rights. It plays an average of 40 concerts a year and spends about eight weeks a year doing studio productions. It is financed by the Dutch government and has an annual budget of 5.5 million euros.

Dolf van der Linden was chief conductor for three and a half decades, up to his retirement in 1980, and he developed the ensemble into an orchestra which included a full symphonic string section and a conventional big band line-up.

The orchestra rapidly earned a glowing reputation throughout Europe, first through radio and television productions initiated by the European Broadcasting Union, then later through live performances in various countries. To date, the Metropole Orchestra has performed in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Norway, Greece and the United States.

Over the years, the orchestra has worked with a glittering array of world-class vocalists and instrumentalists from the worlds of opera, operetta, musicals, Jazz, rock and pop. But perhaps Dolf van der Linden's greatest achievement was that, in spite of playing in a multitude of musical styles and in constantly changing circumstances, particularly with regard to technical developments, the orchestra always maintained a strong identity of its own.

When van der Linden retired in 1980, he was succeeded by Rogier van Otterloo, the son of the celebrated conductor, Willem van Otterloo. He rapidly brought the orchestra up to speed with the newest developments in music and adopted a double rhythm section policy, one for Jazz and the more traditional forms of light music and one for pop and rock music.

Rogier van Otterloo's involvement with the orchestra came to an untimely end with his death in 1988 at the age of 46. It took a number of years to find a worthy successor and it was in 1991 that Dick Bakker, already a successful composer/arranger, was appointed chief conductor and artistic director.

Bakker studied music at the Hilversum Conservatory and also qualified as a professional sound technician. He has won many international awards and it was with his song, "Ding-a-Dong", that Teach-In won the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest. Since 1982 he has expanded his European activities, composing and arranging music for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra, among others.

The brilliant Dutch composer and arranger, Rob Pronk, was the Metropole's guest conductor for 21 years . He was succeeded by the Grammy Award-winning Vince Mendoza. Jules Buckley, the current principal guest conductor, took over the orchestra in 2013. 

The roll call of artists who have appeared with the Metropole Orchestra over the years is staggering and richly diverse. It includes Charles Aznavour, Burt Bacharach, Kenny Barron, Shirley Bassey, Tony Bennett, Michael and Randy Brecker, Ray Brown, Joe Cocker, Natalie Cole, Pete and Conte Candoli, Eddie Daniels, Manu Dibango, CÈline Dion, George Duke, Bill Evans, Clare Fischer, Ella Fitzgerald, Tommy Flanagan, Art Garfunkel,

Gloria Gaynor, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove, Shirley Horn, Freddie Hubbard, Hank Jones, the King's Singers, Lee Konitz, Hubert Laws, Joe Lovano, Vera Lynn, Bob Malach. Andy Martin, Bob Mintzer, Mark Murphy, Peter Nero, the New York Voices, Bill Perkins, Oscar Peterson, Frank Rosolino, Zoot Sims, the Supremes, the Swingle Singers, Lew Tabackin, Clark Terry, Toots Thielemans, Mel Tormé, Sarah Vaughan, Dionne Warwick, Kenny Werner, Andy Williams, Nancy Wilson and the Yellowjackets.

Arrangers and composers who have contributed scores to the Metropole's book include Bob Brookmeyer, John Clayton, Steve Gray, Peter Herbolzheimer, Bill Holman, Chuck Israels, Jim McNeely, Vince Mendoza and Rob Pronk.

The Orchestra today has its own recording studio with the control room built by NOB Audio and the control room acoustics designed by the British company, Recording Architecture. Recordings are made and mixed using a Neve VR Legend 60-channel console and a protools mix cube. In addition, there is a hard disc editing system, the full range of state-of-the-art out-board gear and custom-made ATC monitoring facilities. The whole set-up is designed for Dolby Surround post-production and has projection systems installed for the recording and editing of film and television scores.

For live recordings the orchestra uses Audio 1, a mobile studio with separate recording and machine rooms, which is equipped with a first class SSL console, plus state-of-the-art microphones, outboard-gear and monitoring facilities.

Recordings by the Metropole Orchestra are not that easy to come by, but amazon.co.uk currently has 21 releases listed on its website, including albums featuring such guest soloists as Claudio Roditi, Swiss saxophonist George Robert, German saxophonist Peter Weniger, trombonist Andy Martin, bassist Chuck Israels, Clark Terry, Dee Daniels, Bill Perkins, Jiggs Whigham and Lew Tabackin.”

© -The Metropole Orchestra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

The Metropole Orchestra is the world's largest professional pop and jazz orchestra. Renowned for its wide-ranging abilities, the Metropole Orchestra performs anything from chansons to World-music, film-scores, Rock- or Pop-tunes as well as high-octane jazz. The orchestra is a regular feature at the North Sea Jazz festival and the yearly Holland Festival along with countless TV and radio programs broadcast to millions. The ever-growing Dutch film and television industry relies heavily on the Metropole Orchestra for its film scores. Since 2005 the Metropole is under the baton of its Chief, four-time Grammy Award winner Vince Mendoza, and can be seen frequenting the concert stage, in festivals and on recordings in the Netherlands as well as internationally.

A sampling of the performers who have shared the stage with the Metropole Orchestra underscores the ensemble’s quality and flexibility to cover a wide range of genres: Oleta Adams, Vicente Amigo, Antony & The Johnsons, Within Temptation, Andrea Bocelli, Joe Cocker, Elvis Costello, Eddie Daniels, Brian Eno, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Hank Jones, Chaka Khan, Pat Metheny, Ivan Lins, Mike Patton, Paquito D’Rivera, John Scofield, The Swingle Singers, Jean ‘Toots’ Thielemans, Gino Vannelli, Steve Vai, Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson, Dino Saluzzi, Trijntje Oosterhuis, the legendary Turkish singer Sezen Aksu and Fado-queen Mariza, just to name a few.

The CD recording Ivan Lins & The Metropole Orchestra with the Brasilian singer/songwriter Ivan Lins, released in August 2009, received a Latin Grammy for 'Best Brasilian Album'. 

1945-1980

The Metropole Orchestra was popular right from its inception in 1945 by founder Dolf van der Linden, who led the group from one success to another. When van der Linden formed the group shortly after the Second World War, his mandate was to create an ensemble with the ability to produce high level performances of pop and jazz music for public radio. He traveled extensively throughout Europe to find the right mix of musicians for his orchestra. His refreshing and challenging musical ideas spoke directly to a public starved for a new musical culture after years of war. Dolf van der Linden directed the orchestra for 35 years. Radio, and in later years television broadcasts helped spread the orchestra’s fame even further. International tours and pan-European broadcasting (EBU) brought the Metropole’s musical message to countless listeners all over the world

Perhaps the greatest compliment to the legacy of Dolf van der Linden is that the Metropole Orchestra has maintained its own unique musical personality and still continues to develop within an increasing variety of musical styles and technical innovations.

1980-1991

The energetic, young Rogier van Otterloo, the son of the famed classical maestro Willem van Otterloo, followed van der Linden as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor. Van Otterloo’s enthusiasm was contagious and the orchestra developed into a first-class ensemble with the flexibility to work in the newest genres in light music, from rock 'n roll onwards. The Metropole Orchestra was expanded to include a double rhythm section, one for pop-music, the other for jazz- and World-music. Van Otterloo developed into a major figure as composer and arranger. Soloists from genres ranging from American top jazz stars to Opera divas joined forces with the Metropole Orchestra. The orchestra contributed greatly to the growing European jazz scene.
 

1991 and beyond

Dick Bakker’s arrival to the Metropole brought a new life to the Metropole orchestra. The group made countless appearances in large-scale television productions at home and abroad and a selection of memorable performances including the Acropolis concert with George Dalaras and Mikis Theodorakis in Greece, and performances at Amsterdam’s rock temple, Paradiso. At the same time, The orchestra moved to a new, modern studio and worked steadily on recordings for radio, television, cds and film soundtracks.

In 1995 Vince Mendoza began his relationship with the orchestra primarily in the area of jazz. The relationship blossomed with the music that he wrote for the orchestra as well as the concerts and recordings featuring many of the top Jazz and Pop soloists in the world. During this time a new fleet of arrangers and composers joined the ranks to create the contemporary sound of the orchestra that you know today. In 2005 Mendoza became the chief conductor and continues to maintain the high level of performances that the public has grown to expect from the orchestra. Today the Metropole is active with more than 40 concerts a season on concert stages all over the Netherlands and internationally.

In August 2013, Jules Buckley took over the leadership of The Metropole. Orkest.

INTERNATIONAL SOLOISTS

The Metropole Orchestra prides itself on the glittering array of great artists it has worked with. In alphabetical order, the lineup of stars: Oleta Adams, Sezen Aksu, Antony & The Johnsons, Charles Aznavour, Burt Bacharach, Victor Bailey, Kenny Barron, Shirley Bassey, Jeff Beal, Jim Beard, Tony Bennett, Andrea Bocelli, Terry Bozzio, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Ray Brown, Patrick Bruel, John Cale, Amit Chatterjee, Chico Cesar, Joe Cocker, Natalie Cole, Pete and Conte Condoli, Elvis Costello, The Creatures, Pete Christlieb, Ronnie Cuber, Eddie Daniels, Manu Dibango, Céline Dion, Eva de Dios, George Duke, Brian Eno, Sertab Erener, Peter Erskine, Bill Evans, Clare Fischer, Ella Fitzgerald, Tommy Flanagan, Bruce Fowler, Art Garfunkel, Gloria Gaynor, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove, Tom Harrel, Conrad Herwig, Roger Hodgson, Shirley Horn, Freddie Hubbard, Al Jarreau, Ingrid Jensen, Hank Jones, Junkie XL, Mike Keneally, Nancy King, The King's Singers, Lee Konitz, K's Choice, Hubert Laws, Ivan Lins, Joe Lovano, Vera Lynn, Kevin Mahogany, Bob Malach, Mariza, Andy Martin, Nancy Marano, Dina Medina, Daniel Mendez, Pat Metheny, Bob Mintzer, Mark Murphy, Andy Narell, Daniel Navarro, Silje Nergaard, Peter Nero, Ed Neumeister, The New York Voices, Trijntje Oosterhuis, Alan Parsons, Mike Patton, Bill Perkins, Oscar Peterson, Fabia Rebodao, Diane Reeves, Paquito D’Rivera, Frank Rossolino, John Scofield, Zoot Sims, Sister Sledge, Mike Stern, The Supremes, The Swingle Singers, Lew Tabackin, Within Temptation, Clark Terry, Jean 'Toots' Thielemans, Tulug Tirpan, Mel Tormé, Rafael de Utrera, Steve Vai, Gino Vannelli, Sarah Vaughan, Harvey Wainapel, Dionne Warwick, Kenny Werner, Andy Williams, Nancy Wilson, The Yellowjackets and Karim Ziad.

INTERNATIONAL COMPOSERS/ARRANGERS/CONDUCTORS

Michael Abene, John Adams, Manny Albam, Jeff Beal, Bob Brookmeyer, Dori Caymmi, John Clayton, Michel Colombier, Bill Dobbins, Clare Fisher, Steve Gray, Tom Harrell, Peter Herbolzheimer, Bill Holman, Chuck Israels, Jim McNeely, Vince Mendoza, Bob Mintzer, Ennio Morricone, Ed Neumeister, Chuck Owen, Gunther Schuller and Maria Schneider.