Howard Mandel's Urban Improvisation
Spyro Gyra, Al Jarreau, Tuck and Patti (pleasant entertainment for nice people) at Nokia Theatre — or New England Conservatory’s jazz gala (serious improv from jam band keybrdist John Medeski, singer Dominique Eade, et at.) at B.B. King’s? My new City Arts column explores jazz polarities in NYC this weekend. Something for everybody, waddya want?
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George Avakian is a jazz hero who’s done more than anyone else in the record business ever to ensure America’s greatest music endures. Inventor of the reissue, the jazz album, the liner note, producer of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, among others, on his 91st birthday March 15, Avakian gave a fascinating interview to Marc Myers, posted at JazzWax.com, Much of it’s about re-launching Miles’ career. Also, here’s Doug Ramsey’s report on Avakian from last year.
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David Honeyboy Edwards — at age 94 and 3/4s one of very few survivors of the original Delta blues generation — gigged at B.B. King’s Blues Club on NYC’s 42nd St. last week. He held the stage with little help from his two sidemen for nearly an hour, after receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Guitar Museum. His voice a warm burr reaching for a high, tight little cry, his acoustic guitar playing quirky but deliberate, Edwards was completely at ease delivering songs he’s performed most of his long life. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
Women are making future jazz history — despite seldom showing up in top high school band competitions. My new column in City Arts – New York’s Review of Culture, has local names and immediate dates; jazz gender parity is a slow movement but my bet is it’s irreversible.
Composer, conceptualist and multi-instrumentalist Ornette Coleman, b. March 9 1930, is widely known for “free jazz” — which is routinely depicted as the most abstract and daunting music to emerge from the U.S. But this overlooks Ornette’s deep roots in blues from the Southwest and his fealty to the freedom of expression, mobility and individuality that has made the U.S. great.
International House Philadelphia hosts a series way beyond old jazz conventions, with roots in the wild stuff fav’ son John Coltrane blew in 1961. I delve into the 50-year controversy for PMP online magazine of the Philadelphia Music Project here, before the Art Ensemble of Chicago plays what it’s come to on Saturday, March 6.
Next week WKCR-FM 89.9 www.wkcr.org, promises all-day music of Ornette Coleman and Bix Beiderbecke, linking the “free jazz” iconoclast (turning 80 Mar 9) to the Roaring ’20s jazz-mad kid cornetist/pianist (who would be 107 on March 10, if he hadn’t drunk himself to death at age 28 in 1931). Mark your calendars now!