Two Marks Who Are Hip, Slick and Cool

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

"If Mark Murphy is the reigning king of vocal hipsterism, then Mark Winkler ranks directly behind Kurt Elling among heirs apparent As a lyricist, he is as consummate a traveler in the world of Dave Frishberg drollness as he is in the land of Cole Porter urbanity."

~ Christopher Loudon, JazzTimes

I am a big fan of vocal Jazz artists such as Bobby Troup, Bob Dorough, Dave Frishberg, Blossom Dearie and Mose Allison who can write hip, slick and cool Jazz melodies and create clever lyrics to sing them with.

The members of this club usually play a little piano or, at least, know their way around one, but their real instrument is their voice which they use to embellish and enhance lyrics much the same way a Jazz instrumentalist does.

Many of them achieve the ultimate in Jazz expression - an almost instantly recognizable sound. A few notes and/or a few bars and you know it's them.

Words register in the mind differently than sounds and a clever wordsmith can leave me with lyrics that I can memorize and repeat a little more easily than an instrumental solo by Bird, Diz or Bud [although it is easier with those that play fewer notes such as Bix and Miles, or Prez and Ben Webster, for example].

These are Jazz singers per se as distinct from song stylists such as Billie, Ella, Sassy although categorization can be a dangerous thing so I think I’ll stop here because no one ever used their voice to scat sing better than Ella or Sassy. I mean when they get it going, you can hear the chord progressions as they actually improvise on the changes - talk about Jazz singing!

Although both Mark Winkler and Mark Christian have each been around a while, their music was relatively knew to me. Thanks to Holly Cooper at Mouthpiece Music Publicity and Marketing, the editorial offices at JazzProfiles received copies of their latest CD’s and we thought we’d share the information that Holly’s team sent along as media releases as it contains a great deal of interesting background about the artists and the recordings.

Following each piece is an audio file that gives you the opportunity to sample the music as well as order information.

It’s nice to know that the Two Marks, Winkler and Christian, respectively, are around to carry on this aspect of the Jazz tradition and to make their own “hip, slick and cool” contributions to it.

Mark Winkler, Jazz and Other Four Letter Words [Cafe Pacific Records CPCD 45125]

“Featuring

Mark Winkler vocals; Cheryl Bentyne vocals (2,7);

Jamieson Trotter piano; Rich Eames piano (9,11);

John Clayton bass (2,4,7,10,11); Dan Lutz bass;

Jeff Hamilton drums (2,4,7,10,11); Mike Shapiro drums;

Pat Kelly guitar; Bob Sheppard saxophone (4,7);

Bob McChesney trombone; Walt Fowler (trumpet);

Kirsten Edkins saxophone (6,8)

Jazz and Other Four Letter Words is the witty, heartfelt, and swinging new release from Los Angeles jazz vocalist and lyricist Mark Winkler. The CD features two duets with Manhattan Transfer's Cheryl Bentyne and an eclectic mix of standards, not-so-standard tunes, and original songs by Winkler, a 2015 Downbeat Critics Poll "Rising Star.”

Backed by John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton, and some of the finest musicians on the West Coast, Jazz and Other Four Letter Words is Mark Winkler's 14th CD as a leader and showcases Winkler at the top of his game, both as a lyricist and vocalist.

JAZZ AND OTHER FOUR LETTER WORDS is the newest release from Los Angeles jazz vocalist and lyricist Mark Winkler. The project features an eclectic mix of standards, not-so-standard tunes, and original songs by Winkler, a 2015 Downbeat Critics Poll "Rising Star," backed by John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton, and some of the finest musicians on the West Coast.

JAZZ AND OTHER FOUR LETTER WORDS follows on the success of Winkler's last two CDs, The Laura Nyro Project and West Coast Cool, both of which spent many months in JazzWeek's top 25 and received stellar reviews. West Coast Cool featured Winkler and Cheryl Bentyne, the dynamic vocalist who is well known for her long association with the Manhattan Transfer. Bentyne makes an appearance on this project, singing duets with Winkler on two tunes -- the funny and swinging Dave Frishberg /Bob Dorough song "I'm Hip" and the Rodgers & Hart evergreen "I Wish I Were In Love Again." The easy rapport that has grown from their five year collaboration lends these numbers a fresh, new buoyancy. As Mark says, "I love working with Cheryl. She's a great singer and a real pro. She really knows how to get into a lyric. And she's a lot of fun to work with because her bubbly personality reminds me of my Aunt Shirley."

Winkler has had over 200 of his songs recorded and/or sung by such artists as Dianne Reeves, Randy Crawford, Liza Minnelli, Bob Dorough, Jackie Ryan, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Lea DeLaria and Claire Martin. His writing on this project ranges from deeply poignant, like the lovely "I Chose The Moon," which he penned for his partner of 34 years, to the tongue-in-cheek "Your Cat Plays Piano," which is a witty send-up of new age hipsterism based on a relationship Winkler had with a wild child a long time ago. Clearly, Mark Winkler likes to sing about having a good time. He wrote the opening track "My Idea of a Good Time" with music by Greg Gordon Smith, and includes a raucous version of Paul Simon's "Have a Good Time."

Besides a rich, melodic baritone voice, the essence of Winkler's singing is his sure sense of swing. It's hard not to tap your feet listening to "Stay Hip," with lyrics by Winkler and co-written, arranged and accompanied by pianist Rich Eames, or the title track, "Jazz and Other Four Letter Words," which is both an homage to and lament for the “bad rap” Jazz has recently been subjected to, with Jamieson Taylor and Mark Winkler sharing credit for both music and lyrics.

Trotter, who plays piano and wrote 10 of the arrangements for this project, is an in-demand pianist, arranger, and producer who tours with Sergio Mendez and has also performed extensively for TV and films. Horn arrangements were written by Jacob Mann, a rising star in the Los Angeles music scene. These gentlemen provide a fresh, new take on whatever song they take a pen to.

The other musicians backing Winkler are a Who's Who of Southern California musical talent, including jazz luminaries John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton, Bob Sheppard, Walt Fowler, Bob McChesney, Larry Koonse, Dan Lutz, Mike Shapiro, Pat Kelly, and up and coming tenor player, Kirsten Edkins. This is also Winkler's fourth CD produced by his longtime friend Barbara Brighton, the respected L.A. producer known for her work producing CDs for vocalists Julie Kelly and Judy Wexler, and her involvement with programs and events in the local jazz community.

Winkler is a platinum award winning singer/lyricist as well as a producer and educator. His lyrics are featured on four songs on the new David Benoit/Jane Monheit CD, 2 In Love which debuted at #6 on The Billboard Jazz chart and just received a four star rating from All Music Guide. As a writer, Winkler is very influenced by the craft and technique of the Great American Songbook lyricists, but his own lyrics speak to today's times and sensibilities.

Winkler is also an educator whose course ''Crafting Great Lyrics: A Songwriters Workshop" is popular at UCLA Extension and at the Los Angeles School of Songwriting.

A sought-after producer in his own right, Winkler recently produced Joanne Tatham's CD "Out of my Dreams," which reached number 25 on the Jazz charts this year, and he is preparing to go in the studio producing new projects for Lauren White and Miki Purnell.

A native of Southern California, Winkler grew up in a musical family. His mother and aunt were both singers who toured around the country. Mark credits his mother with teaching him about phrasing and singing in a natural, conversational style.

JAZZ AND OTHER FOUR LETTER WORDS is a witty, heartfelt, and swinging outing by a gifted performer and writer and backed by a crew of stellar musicians. Both the Jazz community and Winkler's large following of dedicated fans are sure to find a lot to admire with this new release.”

Available on Amazon, iTunes, and CDBaby.

Webs:

www.markwinklermusic.com

www.facebook.com/markwinkler

@markwinkler

You can sample tracks from Jazz and Other Four Letter Words on Soundcloud:

Mark Christian Miller, Crazy Moon [Sliding Door Jazz Productions]

“Crazy Moon is the new release from Los Angeles jazz vocalist Mark Christian Miller, his first project in 15 years. Miller, who performs regularly around Southern California, is known for his warm voice and solid sense of swing. On this project, he and arrangers Josh Nelson and Jamieson Trotter have taken mostly lesser-known standards and updated them with modern, edgy arrangements. Miller is one of those rare singers who can capture the poignancy of a lyric while swinging effortlessly.”

Backed by some of the finest young virtuosos and veteran jazz musicians in Southern California, Crazy Moon is an estimable outing for Miller who deserves the attention of a wide audience.

Featuring

Mark Christian Miller vocals

Josh Nelson piano

Dave Robaire bass

Sammy Miller drums

Larry Koonse guitar

Ron Stout trumpet

Billy Hulting percussion

Bob Sheppard bass clarinet

Arrangements by

Josh Nelson (4, 6, 8, 10,11)

Josh Nelson & Mark Christian Miller (3, 5)

Jamieson Trotter (1, 2, 7, 9)

CRAZY MOON is the newest project from jazz vocalist Mark Christian Miller. A music business veteran, Miller has been performing regularly in Southern California for over 20 years and has recorded with L.A. legends. Now, with the release of CRAZY MOON, Miller steps out front as a leader, accompanied by some of the most in-demand musicians on the West Coast.

Miller has a rich voice full of nuance and shadings. Combined with his effortless talent for melodic invention, he casts a new light on vintage under-the-radar standards with updated, modern arrangements by rising jazz stars, Josh Nelson and Jamieson Trotter.

Leaders in their own right, Nelson and Trotter are among the most innovative younger pianists, accompanists, composers and arrangers on the scene. From the first bars of the introduction to the opening track, "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams," you can hear how Trotter has updated this 1930s swinger by wrapping it in an arrangement reminiscent of a movie dream sequence. Combined with Nelson's high energy piano playing and Miller's solid sense of swing and crystal clear diction, it's as fresh and new today as if it were composed only recently. Or listen to Nelson's arrangement of "Strange." Popular in the 1950's with recordings by Nat King Cole, Woody Herman and Chico Hamilton, Nelson has given it a modern groove accentuated by bass clarinet and percussion that highlights Miller's warm timbre and darker hues.

Miller is an effortless storyteller. He takes liberties with time, phrasing, and melody, but he never needs extraneous vocal ornamentation to communicate a lyric. Adept at a wide range of emotional tones, Miller can swing like a 1930's big band singer in tunes like "Cheek to Cheek," and can also convey a deep sense of longing in ballads like "April Fooled Me" and "Second Chance."

The core trio includes pianist Josh Nelson, bassist Dave Robaire, and drummer Sammy Miller, all younger players with a growing fan base. The rest of the band are seasoned veterans, including Larry Koonse on guitar, Ron Stout on trumpet, Bob Sheppard on bass clarinet, and Grammy winner Billy Hulting on percussion.

Miller is a native of Iowa. He grew up on a 350-acre farm where his family raised corn, soybeans and cattle. His first musical training was from his mother, who taught piano. More interested in music than in farming, Miller joined the school band where he played the baritone horn. After graduation, he moved to San Francisco and joined the famed Lamplighters, a light opera company specializing in Gilbert and Sullivan, where he had featured roles. He moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to study at the highly competitive Los Angeles Civic Light Opera's Musical Theater Workshop. Miller soon began working in many small theater productions around Los Angeles. He did several seasons of summer stock and understudied the lead in a tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. In the early 90's, he won a full scholarship from Herb Alpert's brother, David, and attended Los Angeles City College as a full time music major. At that time he came to the attention of the late Teri Merrill-Aarons, founder of the Los Angeles Jazz Society, who started booking him into top local venues paired with the finest pianists in town. He quickly gained a following and stellar reviews. During this time he studied jazz piano with two highly respected artists, Joyce Collins and Jane Getz.

Also during this time, he met Page Cavanaugh, the veteran pianist-singer whose trio was popular in the late 1940s and '50s and who became one of music's most enduring jazz artists. The two became good friends and their friendship was a source of deep musical inspiration for Miller. "Page turned me on to many obscure songs that I never would have heard otherwise. But it was really his approach to tunes that taught me so much. He took care of the music." The two eventually recorded several tracks for Miller's debut CD Dreamer With a Penny that also featured Dave Tull on drums and Phil Mallory on bass. Cavanaugh died in 2008, and Miller was honored by being asked to perform at his memorial, where he shared the stage with Michael Feinstein.

Miller began working behind the scenes as a music promoter and booked two successful jazz series in upscale Los Angeles restaurants. He joined Corniche Entertainment as an artist manager and booker, and has presented entertainment for events in the most prestigious festivals, resorts and hotels in Southern California, launched a highly successful music series, and served as Associate Producer for four music festivals at the John Anson Ford Amphitheater. While this has given him a very complete approach to the music business, he found himself performing less -- something was missing from his life. On a trip to New York City, Miller ran into noted writer James Gavin, who encouraged him to get back into singing, and made an introduction to Jim Caruso. Miller performed that very night at Caruso's weekly "Cast Party" at Birdland. It was a seminal moment in his life. He felt completely reinvigorated, and when he returned to Los Angeles he approached the gifted pianist Josh Nelson and began working on this project.

With the release of CRAZY MOON, Mark Christian Miller takes the lessons he's learned and truly takes care of the music, adding his own distinctive voice and modern take to an out-of-the-box song selection.”

Available at CDBaby, Amazon and iTunes.

You can sample the track "Tomorrow Is My Turn" on Soundcloud:

Lucas van Merwijk - Cubop City Big Band - Que Sensación! Revisited

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

I am revisiting this piece in order to add the video tribute to Arsenio Rodriquez that opens it and to re-size the videos below so that they will fit more comfortably into this new blog format.

Lucas continues to grow and develop as one of the major musical talent of our generation and one of the busiest. One visit to the activities, recordings and concert appearances listed on his website will tell you why.

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

Lucas van Merwijk is one of the great drummers of our time.

He lays down so much good stuff that even the eyes of a trained drummer can't catch it all [thank goodness for the ears, too!].

And he makes it all look so easy.

Lucas is based in Amsterdam, although he travels all over the world as a principal in a number of percussion-oriented groups.  You can locate more information about Lucas' background, his current group affiliations and his recordings by visiting his website.

Lucas' main passion is Latin Jazz; he's a real afficianado when it comes to the many percussion rhythms and elements associated with this music.

Under his leadership, the Cubop City Big Band [CCBB], which is partially supported by an ethnic music grant made possible through the people of The Netherlands, has developed a reputation for performing authentic and excellent quality Latin Jazz.

Therefore, whenever the CCBB puts out a new CD, in this case -  Que Sensación! - it is considered to be "an event" by those who follow the music.

Fortunately, for fans of the Cubop City Big Band, there are also first-rate videos of the band performing two tracks from the new CD that were made from the Dutch public broadcaster VPRO's "Free Sounds" [vrije geluiden] television program.

The first of these has the band performing the title track: Que Sensación! The arrangement is by pianist Marc Bischoff.

The audio track on the next video is also a Marc Bischoff arrangement and is entitled A Puerto Padre.  See if you can pick up on what Lucas is laying down beginning at 4:54 minutes - it's a shame that we can't see his feet in action, too.  By the way, Lucas is holding his drum sticks in the "matched hands" position.

Earlier we featured the best in Latin Jazz by the Nettai Tropical Jazz Big Band based in Tokyo, Japan!

And now we follow with a Latin Jazz profile of a band led by a drummer based in Holland!!

The world is becoming such a cosmopolitan place.

Rest assured, wherever the best in Jazz is happening, we'll bring it too you here on JazzProfiles or should we say - JazzProfielens?

Howard Rumsey: 1917-2015 - The Los Angeles Times Obituary 7/25/2015

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

Whether you are a musician, a club owner, recorded producer or concert impresario, Jazz has always been a tough business to be in.

I mean one answer to the question - “How do you make a million dollars playing Jazz?” is to “Start with two million dollars!” - basically says it all.

So when a nice guy comes along and touches the lives of Jazz musicians, fans, record labels, club owners and concert promoters in such a positive way, the least we can do is call attention to him as a way of saying “Thank You.”

Such a person was bassist, bandleader and Jazz entrepreneur Howard Rumsey who passed away on July 15, 2015.

I knew Howard Rumsey for 57 years and every time we met he asked after me, gave me words of encouragement and told me “How nice it is to see you again.”

Here’s Steve Chawkins’ loving tribute to Howard which appeared in the July 25, 2015 of The Los Angeles Times.

"Howard Rumsey, a bass player who turned a down-at-the-heels sailors’ hangout in Hermosa Beach, CA into ground zero for West Coast jazz, has died. He was 97.

Rumsey, whose Lighthouse Cafe provided a hip, popular show-place for established musicians and a proving ground for up-and-coming players, died July 15 in Newport Beach, his friend Ken Poston, director of the Los Angeles Jazz Institute, said.

"He came along at precisely the right time," Poston said, "and was able to establish what became an iconic place in the history of jazz."

In 1949, the Lighthouse drew a rough crowd of longshoremen and merchant seamen. Rumsey, a tall, self-effacing musician who played dime-a-dance halls along the coast before hitting the road with big bands, wandered in for a beer one afternoon in May. Tired of traveling, he was patching together local gigs and tried to talk owner John Levine into letting him stage Sunday afternoon jazz performances.

"Hey, kid," Levine said, "Sunday is the worst day of the week for the liquor business."

But Rumsey persisted. "I pointed to the empty club and said, 'What can you lose?'" he told The Times in 1989.

"The next week we propped open the two front doors and blasted music out onto the street, and in a couple of hours there were more people in there than he'd seen in six weeks."

Rumsey drew on his old pals from Stan Kenton's big band, and within a couple of years, his Lighthouse All-Stars played hard-driving bebop six nights a week. Big names in jazz — drummer Shelly Manne, composer-trumpeter Shorty Rogers, saxophonist Jimmy Giuffre — were part of the house combo.

In later years, Max Roach, Miles Davis and Lee Morgan swung by to play. Cannonball Adderley, Art Blakey, Wes Montgomery — all eventually took their turns.

One night, reclusive pianist Thelonious Monk came in.

"He was trying to be very incognito, sitting quietly at the end of the bar," Rumsey recalled. "Then his name was announced. He walked to the piano, played 'Round Midnight,' got up, took a bow and walked right out the front door. I never saw him again."

In the early days, African American musicians had a tough time navigating around local police officers, who sometimes tailed them through town. To the chagrin of Levine and Rumsey, many quit coming and didn't resume for several years.

Rumsey "just had to stick with it and overcome it," Poston said.

"He became a trusted member of the community and was able to break down some of that stuff."

At Levine's urging, Rumsey joined the local Chamber of Commerce. He wrote music columns for a local newspaper. The Lighthouse co-sponsored an annual beauty contest and participated in parades.

In addition to acting as the club's frontman, Rumsey booked talent, announced acts, kibitzed with the guests, made people feel at home and, occasionally, picked up his bass. On busy Saturday nights, the Lighthouse turned away hundreds of would-be patrons, many of them students from UCLA and USC.

In 1956, NBC's Dave Garroway, and the Monitor TV program, riding a wave of interest in California's far-out beach scene, gave the Lighthouse national exposure. "We just step out of the ocean and start for the music," Garroway said, as a couple in swimsuits emerged from the surf and walked barefoot down the street.

"Oh, your feet will still leave little wet footprints on Pier Avenue every step of the way to John Levine's Lighthouse Cafe," Garroway said as the camera panned over a sun-baked crowd and the new sounds of California cool played in the background. "This is jazz — modern jazz—not for the cultist or the sectarian, but free-swinging music improvised with enthusiasm."

Critics suggested that East Coast jazz and West Coast jazz were essentially different, but Rumsey didn't completely buy it. In 2009, he offered his own description of the West Coast strain to jazz writer Marc Myers: "It's the music of happy — in a hurry."

Born Nov. 17, 1917, in Brawley, Calif., Rumsey started piano lessons when he was 4. By the time he was 18, he was playing bass in clubs. When Stan Kenton wanted him to play with his band at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa Beach, the great jazzman asked permission from Rumsey's mother, who at the time ran a chicken pie shop in San Diego.

Ultimately, Rumsey spent two years on the road with Kenton's band.

"He made a professional musician out of me — which was rather hard to do," Rumsey said in Ken Koenig’s award-winning 2005 documentary, Jazz on the West Coast: The Lighthouse.

At the Lighthouse, Rumsey started annual collegiate jazz competitions, cultivating his audience and his future players at the same time. He took his Lighthouse All-Stars on college tours and, at one of them, met future wife Joyce. They were married for 47 years until her death in 1998.

In 1970, Levine, whom Rumsey said he saw as a second father, died suddenly.

When the club's new owner, Levine's son John, wanted to feature blues more prominently, Rumsey opened another jazz spot — the Concerts by the Sea club in Redondo Beach. After retiring in 1985, Rumsey pursued a quiet life of golfing in Hemet.

Eventually, he moved back to Newport Beach. In his later years, he was an elder statesman of local jazz.

"Whenever Howard showed up, it was a big deal," Poston said. "The musicians loved it, the patrons loved it—it was just a great scene."

And so it was for Rumsey.

"When you have great jazz improvisationalists working together, it's like the aperitif of life," he told The Times in 1999. "There's nothing more elegant and beautiful.""

Denny Zeitlin: "The Two Track Mind" by Grover Sales

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

I’m never certain as to why I get into a listening mode that focuses on the music of one musician, but I often do and lately the center of my undivided attention has been the music of pianist Denny Zeitlin.

What I like best about Denny’s approach to Jazz is that I know he’s always going to give me an honest rendering; his compositions and improvisations are unmistakably his own. Cue Magazine [circa 1965] even went so far as to say that “Denny Zeitlin was the most inventive pianist in at least two decades.”

Art Tatum, Fats Waller, Earl Fatha Hines, Teddy Wilson, Bud Powell, Nat King Cole, George Shearing Lennie Tristano, Oscar Peterson, as well as, Denny’s contemporaries including Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea, all have an instantly recognizable “voice” on an instrument that’s not known for its individuality of expression.

And yet, it doesn’t take long before Denny’s unique style to manifest itself. He’s such an honest player who rarely falls back on licks and tricks and hardly ever repeats himself.

I’ve been listening to Denny’s music for a long time, having first become familiar with his work through three recordings that he recorded for Columbia in the mid-1960s under John Hammond’s supervision: Cathexis, Carnival, and Zeitgeist. Another of my favorite recordings by Denny on Columbia from the same period is Shining Hour: Denny Zeitlin Live at The Trident [a Jazz club that was based in Sausalito, CA just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco]. It was recorded in performance at the club in 1965.

Bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Jerry Granelli join Denny on most of these recordings with bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Freddie Waits accompanying him on Cathexis.

While researching a lengthier profile on Denny that encompasses  his 50+ year career in the music, I came across the following piece by the eminent Jazz scholar and author Grover Sales which appeared in the May 1986 edition of Gene Lees Jazzletter.

While I continue my research into the ever-evolving music of Denny Zeitlin so as to do it justice from a career perspective, I think you’ll be in good hands with Grover in the meantime.

"The good thing about being famous," quipped the late Howard Gossage [an advertising innovator and iconoclast during the ‘Mad Men’ era who was also sometimes referred to as ‘The Socrates of San Francisco’], "is that you don't have to explain yourself." Though famous in two divergent arenas, jazz pianist-composer and psychiatrist Dr. Denny Zeitlin has been forced to "explain himself since he first pursued his dual career.

"Some musicians I work with," he says, "feel threatened that I'm trying to psych them out; some are envious that I'm making a comfortable living as a psychiatrist while they're scuffling. Some doctors wonder, “What is he doing with this Jazz? — still a dirty word to some people. Some in both music and medicine doubt I can be good at something I'm not doing full time, and even get angry about it. But there are many who can see that the dual career enriches both my medicine and my music — which I know to be true — mainly in Europe where the pursuit of a double career does not seem as bizarre as in America. And it's always been a problem in American that you should be having fun with your work.

"On both sides there's been a tendency to suppose that I do psychiatry primarily for the money and music mainly for the fun. Actually, I get equal pleasure and fulfillment from each, and couldn't imagine not dividing my time this way. Also, music and psychiatry are not as afield as some assume. One of their many similarities is perpetual newness. I know a lot of doctors who become bored and burned out with their three-hundredth appendectomy, and many musicians drugged with recording repetitive jingles and schlock movie scores. Even though many psychological themes are common to many people, each individual's mode of experiencing and expressing is unique; and in music, I’ve been lucky enough to be able to pick and choose projects that are challenging and exciting."

Tall, athletic, bearded, and with a rabbinical cast, Zeitlin combines the seeming incompatibles of seething intensity and relaxed grace. Reflecting his diverse trades, his professorial speech is laced with staples of the jazz argot. A radio announcer's voice resonates with untempered enthusiasm for his multiple interests. This associate clinical professor of psychiatry has played the Newport and Monterey jazz festivals and has recorded nearly a dozen albums of his own works, as well as standards, all raptly acclaimed by jazz critics. In the recent Jazzletter poll of forty-two pianists, Zeitlin garnered as many votes as Count Basie, McCoy Tyner and Jimmy Rowles.

Zeitlin came by both music and psychiatry honestly. He was born in Chicago in 1938 to a radiologist father who could play any popular tune on the family Steinway by ear and a speech pathologist mother who was a classically trained pianist. "At two and three I started doodling at the piano, climbing on mother's or father's lap and putting my hands on theirs while they were playing. I started studying music at six, but was always more interested in composing and improvising than playing. A comment on my parents' remarkable sensitivity is that when I was nine, they rejected my teacher's advice that I start grooming for a concert career to the exclusion of all other interests. They knew that, as much as I loved Bach and Chopin, my object was not to include them in a concert repertoire but to learn how their music was constructed, and use this knowledge in my own compositions.

"I first heard jazz in the eighth grade when a wonderful piano teacher brought me an early George Shearing album that just knocked me out! Here was a pianist with all the technical chops, playing this marvelous new music. And that rhythm! Then she brought me Art Tatum records, and I was totally blown away by his technique, but even more by his incredible ability to reharmonize pop tunes. In high school I played with Dixieland bands that were popular at that time, but my heart wasn't in it; this music never spoke to me emotionally like Debussy or Ravel. Then I got into Stravinsky, Bartok, Schoenberg and Berg, who knocked me out, man! Galvanized me! And when I first heard Bud Powell and Lennie Tristano I immediately moved over to that. Because I was tall and looked lots older, I started going to jazz clubs in Chicago in the mid-1950s, digging major players, and again, my folks were so sympathetic and so trusting because here I was at fifteen, and often the only white cat in these clubs, sitting in, coming home at five in the morning, and my folks never batted an eye, even though they knew nothing of jazz.

"My medical career also started early, in the fourth and fifth grade. I became a spontaneous playground psychotherapist, interested in the kids, their problems, and they'd ask me, 'Why do the other kids pick on me?' or, 'Why can't I get along with my father?' 'Why does the teacher have it in for me?' And a leader would talk to me about how he felt lonely at the top. From my mother, who was a marvelous listener for me, I seemed to get this intuitive radar about people. I was a member of a peer group, not the neighborhood four-eyes, which I could have been if my folks had let that piano teacher suppress every urge in me but a concert career. My uncle was a psychiatrist and I felt in the playground that I would become one, as well as a musician.

"At the University of Illinois I took four years of pre-med with a major in philosophy, mainly existentialism, and again lucked out running into top jazz players like Wes Montgomery and Joe Farrell, who was a classmate of mine, and played gigs with them. The same thing happened at Johns Hopkins med school from 1960 to 1964 when I ran into the great reedman Gary Bartz, whose dad owned a jazz club in Baltimore.

'Then I got a fellowship in psychiatry at Columbia, a period that shifted my whole life. Paul Winter dragged me kicking and screaming to John Hammond. I grew up believing that to record was to put yourself at the mercy of some soulless megastructure, prostitute your music and give away artistic control. I heard all the horror stories from other musicians, so why should I bother with this? But Hammond was such a marvelous, exuberant, open guy, and so genuinely excited about my music. He said, ‘I’d love to record with you! What do you want to do? Play whatever you want! How would you like to record with Jeremy Steig?' And he played me tapes of Steig's wonderful, wild flute things, and I said, 'Sure!' So 1963 saw my first album with Steig, Ben Riley and Ben Tucker, just a blowing date — we'd never played together before — and in the studio everything clicked. Six months later, with Hammond at Columbia Records, I cut Cathexis, my first record date as a leader, and then Zeitgeist - - they had to come up with something cute for a title, but it was nothing as horrendous as Group Therapy, which is what they were going to call the album until I threw a fit.

"I moved to San Francisco in 1964, having fallen in love with the place, and never applied for an internship anywhere else. I was at S.F. General on a tough one-year rotating internship. One night, I had a woman on the verge of delivery and her baby conveniently came an hour before I was due to play at the Trident in Sausalito. The Trident experience was fortunate because I was part of the woodwork there every Monday night for two and a half years, an incredibly long time for a steady gig, with a chance to develop. And manager Lou Canapoler was such a warm, utterly sympathetic boss. At the Trident I was playing what I call 'acoustic modern jazz piano trio music,' but augmented with unusual time signatures and more extended compositions, which hadn't been done much at that time.

This continued until the mid-'60s when I began to get restless and feel limited. Synthesizers were then at their primitive, unwieldy state, so I dropped out of public performance for several years to do research and development in synthesized and electronic keyboards, integrating jazz, electronic and avant garde classical with some things in rock that many in jazz were too contemptuous of — a lot of rhythm 'n blues, Muddy Waters and Chicago, a dynamite group. I loved Frank Zappa, the Band from Big Pink, and the Stones, which had a fantastic rhythm section, and of course I adored the Beatles. But when I started to expand into this new territory, the record companies said, 'How can we sell it? What is it? We have no established conduits to market this kind of music.' So I put out the record on my own mail-order label, Double Helix records. It sold well enough and got good reviews, so a small, classy label in Berkeley, 1750 Arts, took it over. I did two more albums for them, one of the few labels that truly care about music, but sadly, it looks like they're disbanding.

"Then in 1978 my career took a shift when Philip Kaufman did a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and hired me to write the film score because he dug my records; he wanted a contemporary symphonic acoustic-electric mix, big stuff, and I had never written for a symphony orchestra before. I had to sell producer Bob Solo, and frankly, if I had been him, I never would have hired someone with as few credentials. I only got the gig because Phil Kaufman twisted his arm. I closed my medical office for five weeks to undertake the most exciting and exhaustive experience of my life. The thrill of hearing my music performed by the very best of L.A. musicians was a gas! Overwhelming, man! During a break, the first violinist said, 'I love your music, but of course, you have done many scores.’ When I told him no, this was my first, his eyes widened and he said, 'But you should be doing this all the time!' After Body Snatchers I got a lot of movie offers, but shied away now that the mystery was gone. There are too many extra-musical considerations in sculpting music to fit a producer's and a director's concept of what the film is about, and if you can do this and still please yourself, that's rare. Film composers have told me that I could do a thousand films before lucking into a unique situation where, thanks to Phil. I could hire the best conductor, the best musicians, the best studio, the best sound engineer absolutely unheard of!

"After the tremendous musical congestion of Body Snatchers I had the urge to return to the simplicity of the acoustic piano. and recorded Soundings for 1750 arts, and then a duet with bassist Charlie Haden, Time Remembered One Time Once, live at Keystone Korner for the German label ECM. followed by Tidal Wave for Palo Alto Records, mostly my own compositions. Herb Wong then included me in a potpourri 'twofer/ Bill Evans — A Tribute in the exalted company of John Lewis, Teddy Wilson, George Shearing and Dave McKenna. Almost anyone playing acoustic piano today owes a debt to Bill Evans, but I started early enough so that my first influences were before Bill's time, which I'm glad about because his influence on younger pianists is so formidable that it's hard to get from under. But I'm grateful for the exposure to his early work on Riverside, which I feel is Bill's best, and thankful that I had him for a friend. He was rare in that he was so comfortable with his talent that he never felt the need to be competitive, and took great delight in encouraging other players, like me.

"To get back to medicine, I did a psychiatric residency at Langley Porter [a hospital in San Francisco] from 1965 to 1968 when the human potential movement was burgeoning and studied a broad range of psychiatric disciplines, including many Esalen workshops with Fritz Perls. Later my training and orientation became more psychoanalytic. My feelings about groups like est are mixed; est is a blunt instrument that has proved its unquestionable value for some people, providing them with a genuine breakthrough experience; for others it was a form of adult recreation. But serious studies have found that among est, and most encounter groups of this kind, a disturbing rate of casualty exits, in some cases as high as ten percent.

"During the '60s I worked with the drug study unit at Langley Porter, the first unit to deal with the ravages of the 'flower children.' Drugs have never been part of my life. Apart from the legalities, I don't condemn it for others who seem to function better on judicious amounts of drugs, but I do condemn it when it gets out of control like cocaine, which is the major problem today among middle- and high-income people. Cocaine is totally destructive, far more than LSD, and is incredibly addictive, psychologically; it's worked its murderous way into every sector of society.

"In more recent years I've become increasingly interested in the creative process. Many of my patients are involved in creative pursuits, and not necessarily people labeled by society as 'artists,' but entrepreneurs, business people who are feeling blocks to the flow of their creativity. I conduct workshops and lecture-demonstrations on 'unlocking the creative impulse: the psychology of improvisation.' All creative pursuits share a common task of entering an ecstatic or merger state where the artist can tap into the wellspring of his emotional and unconscious life, while simultaneously, in some subliminal way. bringing to bear everything learned, felt and believed about his or her art. There's a parallel between playing Jazz and doing psychiatry because the deepest kind of creativity and communication is involved in both fields. Ideally. when I'm playing with a group, a state of subconscious merger exists between me and my fellow musicians, just as it ideally exists between me and my patients; a complete immersion and a state of genuine trust allows something special, musically or psychologically, to emerge. When that state is reached, whether in music or in therapy. I give up all sense of my physical body, or the positional sense of self.

"One of the reasons drug use is often prevalent among Jazz musicians is so they can achieve this state despite the distractions of noisy audiences and bad amplifying systems, and also deal with the internal noise which is potentially much more insidious and disruptive. Like. I’m playing a concert in Edmonton. and am going to Japan the next day. and in the middle of a phrase, suddenly I think. "Where did I put my plane tickets?'and get pulled out of the music. Being a professional. I'm still moving my fingers and maybe haven't made an actual mistake, but I'm no longer centered in the music. Another common kind of internal noise is self-doubt, and self-flagellation for making a mistake. My fascination with Bjorn Borg's tennis experience  - I'm a wild tennis nut and an avid player - is that Borg is able to get into a state of total concentration, playing at the moment, that no other player has been able to achieve in quite this way. This is what I try to do at the piano and my medical practice; I try to merge with my patients, their dream and fantasy life, leaving a part of myself free to observe and comment and help the patient understand what they are experiencing. I try to merge in this same way with the other cats on the stand.

"One of my patients, an extremely gifted Jazz musician, had this tremendous block about performing in front of people, so severe that he began to withdraw from playing entirely. What he was consciously aware of was a fear of failure, of humiliation, and on the surface he chronically undervalued his own playing. But alter we worked for a while, what at first seemed a fear of failure slowly emerged as a tremendous guilt over success, which is what he was really afraid of, that he would get up on the stand and blow the other cats away, show them up, knowing himself to be supremely gifted. For him, the act of performing was the recapitulation of an important childhood conflict, wherein he felt he had always outdistanced his younger brother, crippling him, and his brother never had as good a life. And as he became more consciously aware of this dynamic, and could re-live early experiences, he began to feel less guilty, more free to perform, and went on to become extremely successful. Without giving any clues as to his identity, let's just say he was able to actualize his talent. This took many months, there was no sudden Hollywood breakthrough. Certainly there are ‘Ah-Hah' experiences in psychotherapy, but the bulk of change occurs as a result of slowly working these things through."

One night at the Trident in 1967. in mid-performance, Zeitlin experienced "an external distraction of the most delicious kind" when his future (and second) wife, Josephine Shady, entered the room: "The hell with the merger experience …  who is this woman? I couldn't wait for the set to be over. We've been together ever since, and she's the hub of everything in my life. Josephine's one of the most creative people I know, as a professional landscape and garden designer, as a photographer and as a gourmet chef. She can look at a recipe and instinctively sense how much to add and what to leave out. just as she can see a client's disaster-area backyard and get an immediate physical impression of what can be there. When we went on a restaurant safari in France, very few of these three-star outfits came up to her level."

As a guest at the Zeitlin table. I can attest that Denny's enthusiasm goes well beyond routine husbandly pride: Josephine Zeitlin is indeed one of the world's great cooks. Since 1973 the Zeitlins have occupied a captivating house in wooded Kentfield with a rare Egyptian Pharaoh dog and three exotic cats. A gleaming grand piano dominates the living room, but the household centers around the kitchen. Spacious gardens and orchards provide "live" fare for sublime lunches and dinner. Downstairs is Zeitlin's suburban office; he has another across from Langley Porter in the city. Adjoining the home-office is a studio crammed with an array of electronic keyboards, plus a cavernous temperature-controlled wine cellar. Zeitlin approaches wine and food with the same breathless rapture that marks his passion for music, medicine and tennis: "I got interested in wine in high school, not drinking it, but reading about it. Then as an intern I got started collecting great French vintages in those days you could buy Chateau Lafitte for three, four dollars a bottle! Fantastic!

"All of my activities seem organically related, I can't say exactly why. When I run on Mount Tamalpais [Mill Valley, CA], I get the same sense of merger with the mountain that I do with my music and my patients, I find a deep, sensual and aesthetic pleasure in all of these activities, all of which make me appreciate the wonder of humans, what they feel, what they think about."”