Jazz Beyond Jazz

Howard Mandel's Urban Improvisation

Congrats to Sonny Rollins

Saxophonist supreme Sonny Rollins turns 81 today, and was announced as recipient of 2011 Kennedy Center honors. He really deserves it: he’s been a beacon of robust, smart, honest American music for more than 60 years. Surfing for clips, I found this of “Alfie’s Theme” from 1982, but there are many good ones from earlier and later in his career.

Bret “the Jazz Video Guy” Primack has done heroic work documenting the Man — check out their collaborative video biography.  But as a sampler of his recordings, I recommend these five fine Sonny Rollins tracks, which may not be the typical critics’ picks, but are among my favorites. It’s easy to think of 50 or maybe 500 others.

“Strode Rode” — From Saxophone Colossus (1956). A hard-bop tribute to athlete and actor Woody Strode, who portrayed characters of integrity in John Ford westerns, and elsewhere. Rollins’ quartet is driven by drummer Max Roach.

“Love Is A Simple Thing” from Sonny Rollins/Brass-Sonny Rollins/Trio (1958). Sonny’s huge tenor sound soars boldly over a large ensemble of all-stars (Nat Adderly, Clark Terry, Ernie Royal in the trumpets; Roy Haynes drums and Henry Grimes, bass; Ernie Wilkins, arranger/conductor).

“Just Friends” from All The Things You Are: Sonny Meets Hawk  (1962). Coleman Hawkins, first and foremost tenor saxophonist in jazz, was Rollins’ near neighbor and idol while he was growing up on Sugar Hill in Harlem. Together, their interaction is master/acolyte. Hawkins goes first, Rollins comes on obliquely and continunes, jagged. Herbie Hancock on piano.

“Jungoso” from What’s New? (1962). Just Rollins, growling, propelled through 10 minutes by Candido on congas and Bob Cranshaw, who is still Sonny’s bassist.

“Isn’t She Lovely“ from Easy Living (1977). Composer Stevie Wonder couldn’t have hoped for a more exuberant rendition of his celebration of a new daughter. Tony Williams, drums; George Duke, keyboards. The album boasts two other especially dynamic tracks: “Arroz con Pollo” on which Rollins plays soprano sax — take that, Kenny G! — and “Hear What I’m Saying,” plus Rollin’s beautiful interpretation of the title track.

One piece that will bear repeated listening by jazz aficionados for eons is about to be released: “Sonnymoon for Two,” in the 21 minute exchange Sonny’s had with Ornette Coleman backed by bassist Christian McBride and drummer Roy Haynes, from R’s 80th birthday concert at the Beacon Theater in NYC. It’s on the album Road Shows Vol. 2, dropping Sept. 13.

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Foundation to run the Chicago Jazz Fest?

The Labor Day weekend free Chicago Jazz Festival had multiple musical high points, like Mike Reed’s   Myth/Science Assembly, yet Chicago Tribune critic Howard Reich believes the fest is old and creaky, in dire need of reinvention, under a new, fest-dedicated Foundation. With new mayor Rahm Emmanuel facing an immense budget shortfall, Reich may be right that something has to be done to convince City Hall the Fest should continue . . . but are his prescriptions the way forward?

Essentially Reich recommends separating the Jazz Festival from the City, which has been its producer for 33 years (the non-profit Jazz Institute of Chicago is responsible for programming). He doesn’t call for privatization, but for a “Chicago Jazz Festival Foundation,” whatever that would be. An appealing idea at first glance, however: This would very likely end up replacing “free” from “ticketed” at a time when cultural institutions that have historically been for everybody are increasingly charging large $, putting the arts out of reach for impoverished and even middle-class citizens. Chicago has no basis for creating a non-profit jazz-oriented foundation, and has had bad recent run-ins with privatization, as outgoing mayor Richie Daley leased the city’s parking meters to a private firm, a deal that’s locally considered outrageous. Turning the fest over to some stand-alone entity, for-profit or non-profit, is a highly dubious way to go.

And it’s not likely possible, anyway. Reich points to the San Francisco Jazz Festival and Montreal Jazz Festival as models, but neither of them are starting up in the constricted financial context of 2011 and both exist in very different public/private spheres than Chicago’s. Who would provide the money for a publicly beneficial Chicago-wide festival? Reich thinks the Chicago Jazz Partnership, major sponsor of the Fest and a collaboration of The Boeing Company, Kraft Foods, Chicago Community Trust, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, United Airlines and some philanthropies, could provide seed funding. Maybe so — and perhaps Reich is staking out a position for the Chicago Jazz Partnership to take over responsibilities.

But ask George Wein, producer of the 56-year-old Newport Jazz Festival, how he got Natixis Global Asset Management to be chief sponsor this year. It ain’t easy. Big funders are scarce. The Detroit Jazz Festival survives because philanthropist Gretchen Valade endowed it with $10 million. Any wealthy Chicago jazz fans out there?

Reich proposes, I believe more assiduously, that the Fest embrace and be extended further into Chicago’s thriving though factionalized musical community, along the lines of Chicago’s City-sponsored World Music Festival. Since the Fest’s mid-week club tour is a unique feature of Chicago’s events, carrying listeners throughout the city on trolleys to clubs they would probably otherwise not visit for a modest one-entry-to-13-venue price ($25 average), and is extraordinary fun, I endorse the thought. Thing is, the Chicago Jazz Festival already does that, having this year had fest-related events in the Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen and the South Asian community, too.

Fact is, the Chicago Jazz Fest isn’t how it’s been because no one wants it better, but because resources, financial, organizational and otherwise, are thin. It’s a great accomplishment that the Jazz Institute and City collaborate on what they’ve got now. Not to say it’s the best of all possible worlds and there should be no improvements. Reich has carped for years about the acoustics of the Petrillo band shell; the sound mix isn’t very good, and that’s the mixing engineer’s issue — better mixing engineer? Better mikes and/or speakers? — not so much the locale’s. Reich far prefers the new Frank Gehry designed Pritzker Pavillion, which is indeed a nice open air venue, but holds at best half the audience that Petrillo accommodates. And we don’t want to limit the number of Chicagoans and visitors who can enjoy this vibrant, locally-focused programming, do we?

About that programming, my favorites (many videos from the Fest and other sites — but not by me — linked below) included:

  • Cassandra Wilson singing “The Man I Love,”
  • Tenor saxophonist David Sanchez joined by vibist Stefon Harris in a powerhouse set,
  • Octagenarians Ira Sullivan (multi-instrumentalist, on tenor and soprano saxes, flute and trumpet) and pianist Willie Pickens, together, proving how jazz remains a vitalizing practice for all ages,
  • Trumpeter Orbert Davis leading his Chicago Jazz Philharmonic in a successful meld of idiomatic fire and classical forms,
  • Pianist Geri Allen strong, imaginative and focused on compositions by Eric Dolphy and Mary Lou Williams in company with Trio 3 (alto saxist Oliver Lake, bassist Reggie Workman, drummer Andrew Cyrille),
  • Violinist Zach Brock, brilliant in several settings,
  • Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano and Ravi Coltrane as Saxophone Summit (w/Cecil McBee, bass; Billy Hart, drums; Phil Markowitz, piano) heroically reviving the emotionally charged, deep sound of John Coltrane’s late works
  • Trumpeter Maurice Brown‘s Chicago/New Orleans band, full of youthful wit
  • Trumpeter Roy Hargrove quieting the entire audience with a beautiful rendition of the ballad “You Go To My Head” and his alto saxist Justin Robinson expanding on Charlie Parker’s inspiration
  • The Occidental Brothers Dance Band International (Greg Ward, alto sax) bringing Afro-beat to the fest — welcome, though no one danced,
  • Alto saxist Ernest Dawkins urging President Barack Obama in lyrics to fight back against GOP opposition.

And there was more. In Chicago as elsewhere — on Labor Day weekend, before and beyond — jazz lives.

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Chicago jazz fest: taking audiences into neighborhoods

photo © Marc PoKempner

The Chicago Jazz Festival began Wednesday night with a club tour — busses the Chicago Trolley Company’s open-air vehicles carting hundreds of ticket-holders on interlocking routes stopping at music-rooms throughout town. Of five venues on the South Side, City Life Cocktail Lounge was my favorite. Singer June Yvon has held a weekly gig there for 19 years, and delivers bluesy, swinging, funky standards such as “What A Difference A Day Makes”  a hit for both Dinah Washington and Esther Phillips, with experienced conviction, scatting and dramatizing the lyrics, too. I video-taped her and plan to produce an eyeJAZZ clip, but my friend Marc PoKempner‘s photo captures the tone of the place and her set. Click on the image to see it large.

Ernest Dawkins, photo provided by artist – no copyright infringement intended

Tonight (Friday) in downtown Millenium Park: guitarist Bobby Broom with organist Chris Forman in a band that plays regularly at the Green Mill, featuring guest alto saxophonist Bobby Watson, followed by the Saxophone Summit of Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman and Ravi Coltrane. Saturday and Sunday afternoons, local stars who have world-class talent (ragtime composer Reginald Robinson, hard-edged alto saxophonist Edward Dawkins — pictured at left — and trumpeter Orbert Davis in several configurations) perform near sparkling Buckingham Fountain.

Come evening the action moves across the Jackson Street to the Petrillo bandshell, for bills headlined by Cassandra Wilson (trumpeter Maurice Brown, Trio 3 + Geri Allen, Obert’s Jazz Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble), and Roy Hargrove (drummer Mike Reed’s Myth/Science Assembly, multi-instrumentalist Ira Sullivan’s 80th birthday celebration, tenor saxist David Sanchez w/vibist Stefon Harris). If you’re in the area and dig jazz, this free festival is where you want to be. If you’re not, get to one of the other couple dozen jazz events across the U.S. this weekend (and please please please Tweet about WHO you heard and WHERE you heard them, using #jazzlives).

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Call for Tweets! hashtag #jazzlives from Labor Day jazz fests

The #jazzlives Twitter hashtag campaign broadcasts on WHO was heard live-in-person and WHERE throughout the fast-growing social mediaverse. Over Labor Day weekend, with some two dozen jazz fests and parties throughout the States and neighbors, the audience for live jazz can use hashtag as a free and easy way to get the word out that there is a jazz audience by composing clever, info-packed messages of 140 words, raising jazz buzz.

Since contacting Labor Day jazz, blues and roots fests I recognized in a post last week, the Franklin Jazz Festival outside Nashville, Tennesee, the Tony Williams Scholarship Jazz Festival outside Philadelphia and the Jazz On The Mountain festival in Whistler, British Columbia have written to say they’ll have MCs urge from the the stage that audiences tweet using the #jazzlives hashtag. #Jazzlives works well when bands tell their audiences to Tweet about them, too. “Didja like us? Tweet and tell the world — spell our names rights, say where we are, and add #jazzlives.” Tweets (and facebook “likes”) are the new word-of-mouth, considered the most effective kind of recommendation that exists.

The #jazzlives hashtage is two years old, having been established in reaction to the National Endowment for the Arts survey of arts audiences’ participation reporting that jazz audiences in particular are aging and diminishing. Anecdotal evidence — the on-the-ground accounts from places that surveys sometimes overlook — suggested that new audiences may be thriving somewhat more than might be realized, in locales that are not where old audiences have traditionally collected.

The idea behind #jazzlives is that more social media-savvy listeners will get the message to send a message that they’re out here, loving jazz, and expect to be acknowledged whether they fit former categories or not. So far there have been several thousand hashtags, from every continent — not a viral reaction on the web in terms of quantity of Tweets, but impressive considering the geographic range from which they come.

Again, the #jazzlives hashtag protocol is simple. If you’ve got a Twitter account, when you hear jazz live Tweet WHO you heard and WHERE you heard them, plus whatever else you’ve got to say and the hashtag (for “#” — the number sign or hashmark) #jazzlives. Please do not post about recordings or radio, no notifications about birthdays or deaths or album releases or upcoming gigs — that information is collected elsewhere on Twitter and befogs the #jazzlives results. When you want to see who’s listening to what, and where they are, go to your Twitter account and search #jazzlives. There is also a #jazzlives widget which you can add to your website, if interested. Leave a comment on this blog and I’ll get back to you with details about it.

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Online video Charlie Parker Jazz Fest, day 2

Archie Shepp – photo ©Jan Kricke and Jan Kricke/The Spectrum

Hurricane Irene wiped out both days of NYC’s annual Charlie Parker Jazz Fest — but not the show of Archie Shepp, Anat Cohen, Gerald Clayton and Madeleine Peyroux available via YouTube. Here’s a dry, speculative approximation of what we missed (see yesterday’s post for the virtual fest with Toots Thielemans, James Carter, Tia Fuller and Cecile McLorin Salvant).

  • Pianist Gerald Clayton and his trio would have opened with something propulsive (thanks to bassist Joe Sanders, drummer Justin Brown) as in 2009 at the Berlin Jazz Festival:

Although it’s early in the afternoon for guests, would that pianist Hod O’Brien show up to duet with Clayton on “Close Your Eyes.” (Ella Fitzgerald did a definitive vocal version, but in Chicago Gene Ammon’s bold tenor rendition is the favorite). To end, Clayton essays “Con Alma” by Dizzy Gillespie (I like the trumpeter’s 1954 version with four Cuban percussionists).

  • Clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen is up next, with her quartet. Maybe she’d come on slow and sensual, as when she played “Body and Soul” at the 2010 Litchfield Jazz Festival.

    Cohen also plays lovely soprano sax, as in a studio duet with guitarist Howard Alden on Billy Strayhorn’s “Isfahan.”

Of course, the composition was originally recorded by Duke Ellington’s Orchestra as part of his Far East Suite.

Cohen really gets down on “After You’ve Gone” (from the 2010 Newport Jazz Festival)

so she finishes with that (Jason Lindner on piano).

  • Madeleine Peyroux is a controversial (at least to me) choice to program at a festival dedicated to bebop diety Charlie Parker and music in his wake. Now established as a singer-songerwriter, Ms. Peyroux began her career busking in Paris with a set list of covers exploiting


the aspect of her voice which most resembles Billie Holiday’s (and maybe Edith Piaf’s).

Ms. Peyroux could have introduced sly wit by segueing into her version (still in Holiday voice) of “Walkin’ After Midnight,” one of Patsy Cline‘s countrypolitan hits, following up with “Lovesick Blues,” which goes back to the last-of-the-blackface minstrels Emmett Miller, and closing with “Dance Me to the End of Love” (composed by Leonard Cohen).

.

Such would be her appropriately bluesy jazz stand.

  • Archie Shepp‘s jazz bonafides need no justification — he emerged in the early 1960s as a tenor saxophone protegé of John Coltrane. In recent years, Shepp has struggled with problems affecting his embouchure, taking a toll on his intonation. But he’s a smart man who studied drama in his college years; he knows how to build to a climax. He’d start strong — as he did in 1978 on this tune (which I ought to know the name of, but don’t — that’s Clifford Jarvis playing drums).

    Addressing the inexorable passage of time, Shepp could dip into “Things Ain’t What They Used To Be,” by Duke Ellington — which he record in an iconoclastic 1961 session led by pianist Cecil Taylor. Taking a cue from the news, he delves in “Lybia” — as he played it in 1975 accompanied by Charles Greenlee, trombone; Beaver Harris, drums; Dave Burrell, piano and David Williams, bass.

    No performance of Shepp’s these days is without his piercing composition “Steam” about the gang-related Philadelphia street shooting of his 15-year-old cousin. Shepp sometimes plays this on piano intoning the lyrics himself, but the version recorded on the album I Know About The Life features vocals by Joe Lee Wilson, who died July 17, 2011.

    For his finale, Archie plays Charlie Yardbird Parker’s “Confirmation.”

    Makes for a cool afternoon fest, right? But you haven’t heard the end of it ’til you see and listen to Coleman Hawkins and Bird himself, on a video that purports to be from 1950 —

    Hard to top Bird et al (Hank Jones, piano; Ray Brown, bass; Buddy Rich, drums), virtually. But live music trumps recording, and there are nearly two dozen jazz fests, coast-to-coast, over Labor Day weekend. So there’s a chance — grab it! And Tweet about WHO you hear, WHERE you hear ’em, plus the hashtag #jazzlives.

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Virtual Charlie Parker jazz fest (online video)

Fearing Hurricane Irene, New York City has suspended public transportation and cancelled everything — but not my  online video Charlie Parker Jazz fest,

a humble audio/video standin for the live sets scheduled but not-to-be in Harlem and the East Village, Saturday and Sunday, Aug 27-28.

Monday, Aug. 29 is the 91st birthday of the immortal alto saxophonist, called “Bird” (short for “Yardbird”), who legendarily died of the fast life in 1955. He and associates including trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie — with whom he plays “Hot House” in one of only two filmed performances – developed the musical language that soloists in jazz, blues, better rock/pop and improvisational music have built on ever since. You can hear bits of Bird and Diz’s influence (fellow bop originators included Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Kenny Clarke, Roy Haynes, Tadd Dameron, Charlie Christian) — dramatic, daringly harmonized pitches, slurred phrases of irregular lengths, acidic rather than sweet sound, rhythmic complexity —  in all the acts who were to be at the scratched fests. Such as —

  • Vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, from Florida, doesn’t have a record out yet, but she won last fall’s Monk Institute competition and her sets as shown on YouTube are entertaining, steeped in classic blues. She could have kicked off the Bird fest at Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park with a rousing old call to gather like this hit for Bessie Smith in 1927 — Irving Berlin’s “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” —

Then Ms. Salvant might have moved into sunny early (1935) Billie Holiday territory with “Miss Brown To You,” or bop-redolent repertoire such as All The Things You Are, which she delivers with Sarah Vaughan panache and which Bird recorded in 1945 and again in Toronto with an all-star combo, as captured on Jazz at Massey Hall (1952). I don’t know what she would have done to end. Something bold like her scat moment onstage with Al Jarreau, Dianne Reeves, Kurt Elling, Dee Dee Bridgewater, guitarist Kevin Eubanks, finale of the Monk competition she won?

  • Alto saxophonist Tia Fuller & band up next. An exciting member of a new generation of women jazz leaders, Tia is featured on tours with Beyonce, and has learned something about presentation, check it out. She’d likely start with a tune such as “Breakthrough” from her album Healing Force, which she played at the 2010 JJA Jazz Awards:

And maybe she’d end with Bird’s “Billie’s Bounce,” (her version starting at 2:55 after a tv news interview from 2008).

  • James Carter, next up, is a ferocious reeds virtuoso to whom the entirety of jazz history is a living thing. Carter does typically dynamic things with “Night in Tunisia,” Dizzy Gillespie’s exotic bebop theme recorded by him with Bird at Town Hall in 1945, performed by Carter with trumpeter Nicholas Payton . . .

For all his bluesy roots, Charlie Parker harbored some dicty musical aspirations — and accomplished one, to play with orchestral backing, on two sessions compiled as Bird With Strings (and reeds). Carter takes on movie soundtrack ballad  “Laura”  which Bird recast (arranged by Joe Lipman) in the concert Eastwood After Hours at Carnegie Hall.

Carter doesn’t end with ballads, though — he tears up blues like “Walk the Dog” with his organ trio, as at Madison Square Park just a year ago. . .

  • Jean “Toots” Thielemans, harmonica soloist, guitarist, whistler and songwriter, jammed with Charlie Parker at a session in Paris in 1949. He wa to have headlined the Charlie Parker Jazz Fest and might have eased in using the bop’s standard “How High The Moon” (Ella Fitzgerald , with the Gillespie Orchestra, scats it). Suprise guest! Popular, soulful altoist David Sanborn joins Toots on sopranino sax (closer to the harmonica’s register than soprano or alto) for “Little Suede Shoes” which Bird recorded in 1951.

Of course, Thielemans won’t leave without playing his signature piece, the jazz waltz “Bluesette”.

And that’s all for today’s Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, quite sufficient to lead to finding a Bird favorite — like “Now’s The Time,” with (as I write in my book) the first mature solo Miles Davis committed to record in 1945. Tune in for tomorrow’s virtual online video Parker fest with Gerald Clayton, Anat Cohen, Archie Shepp and Madeleine Peyroux.

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Labor Day Jazz & Blues fests coast-to-coast; how many listening?

Jazz and blues festivals occur in America coast-to-coast over Labor Day weekend — how many listeners will the music engage?

Capacities vary: free multi-day fests in Chicago and Detroit attract tens of thousands each, and the free Memphis Music & Heritage Festival; River Front Jazz Fest in Stevens Point, Wisconsin; Franklin Jazz Festival outside Nashville, Tennessee;  Big Muddy Blues Festival at Laclede’s Landing near St. Louis’ Gateway Arch, and 23rd Annual DC Blues Festival at Rock Creek Park’s Carter Barron Amphitheatre in Washington add many more. A conservative crowd estimate for these seven productions would be, oh, 400,000.

Large-scale ticketed jazz/blues events during the holiday include:

There are also specifically promotional events like the Grand Hotel’s Labor Day Jazz Weekend in Mackinac Island, Michigan; the Jazz It Up Wine and Food Festival at Allair Village, New Jersey, and the light outdoor terrace acoustic sets promised by Chaddsford Winery in Chester, Pennsylvania. There may be an Uncommon Jazz Fest in Augusta, Georgia — that’s unconfirmed — but there’s definitely a Curacao North Sea Jazz Festival in the Caribbean. Throw in the Monterey Jazz Festival, Sept. 16 – 18; Indianapolis Jazz Festival, September 17; the first University City Jazz Festival, six miles from St. Louis on September 24. The Angel City Jazz Festival (LA) runs from Sept. 22 through Oct. 2. Total number of attendees for all this music might, I suppose, top 700,000.

Points of comparison: The three-day, eight-stage pop-rock fest Lollapalooza held in Chicago in early August sold out  270,000 tickets at $90 per day, $185 and up for the whole thing. Monterey’s one-day tickets this year cost $66 to $132, depending on which day, and that well-established fest typically draws somewhat less than 50,000 people over three days. The two-week Montreal Jazz Festival currently boasts of having a total audience of 2.5 million.

Few of these numbers are verifiable — several are based solely on my past experience and informed speculation — so they are of limited value to anyone interested in the size of the jazz audience. Hard quantitative data on the jazz audience is patchy, as the “Literature Review of Research on Jazz Audiences” and other reports from the Jazz Audience Initiative makes clear. Similarly, the National Endowment of the Arts’ 2008 survey of arts participation, which put the percentage of the U.S. adult population that year attending jazz performances at 7.8% (that’s 23.4 million).

In a nation of some 300 million people, an audience of even 5 million for live jazz at festivals (and also, one might assume, jazz on radio, tv, cds, the internet, in clubs, etc.) isn’t very impressive. Ok, there isn’t currently a massive consumer base for jazz; we’ve known that a long time. Are people who’d like to see a larger jazz audience going to dwell on the view our numbers are low, or figure a couple of million folks enjoying jazz occasionally — with maybe a third of them doing it all over, in a few days, to celebrate the end of summer — is a good thing? And seize what could be an annual opportunity to invite friends and neighbors, saying “Hey, come join us. The music’s fine and it’s ours”?

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Trademark “Miles” image? Estate sues jazz club

The Miles Jazz Cafe, a low-key, off-the-mainline music loft in midtown Manhattan, is being sued by the estate of trumpeter Miles Davis for copyright infringement, citing use of the musician’s silhouette as “free-riding on the goodwill associated with the Miles Davis marks” in a way “likely to mislead the public.”

The perpetually photogenic Davis was represented by a silhouette on album covers of his early 1960s Columbia albums Seven Steps to Heaven, Sketches of Spain and Quiet Nights. Compare the logo of the bare-bones third-floor room run by Satoru “Miles” Kobayashi, who says the late jazzman urged him to take the name in a dream, with that famous image or other pictures of MD holding his horn.Same trumpeter? Hard to tell.

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Jazz audience surveyed, segmented

The jazz audience can be described by its parts: hip, participatory young artist/musicians, less experienced and cost-conscious but willing social butterflies, mid-aged and older cultural omnivores and dull-but-desirable comfort seekers, according to a segmentation study sponsored by the Jazz Audience Initiative.

Some of this has been reported by NPR’s A Blog Supreme as “Actually Useful Information About the Jazz Audience” (thanks, Patrick Jarenwattananon), but these categories which the study used to characterize the varied behavior of the music’s purported audience slivers for discussion at a “jazz leadership” convening last week by Columbus, Ohio’s Jazz Arts Group have not previously been publicized.I was privileged to be in the room as Alan S. Brown, researcher and

principal of WolfBrown, the segmentation study’s author, presented a chart-packed slide show breaking out research findings for the benefit of a powerful if incomplete cross-section of U.S. jazz organizations. Also at the meeting: representatives from Jazz at Lincoln Center, Monterey Jazz Festival, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild Jazz, AllAboutJazz.com, Chamber Music America, the Jazz Education Network, Jazz St. Louis, University of Michigan’s University Musical Society, Ohio State University’s Wexner Center for the Arts as well as the Jazz Artists Group’s flagship Columbus Jazz Orchestra and Ben Cameron, program director for the arts of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which has funded the Jazz Audience Initiative at the level of $200,000 over 21 months.

The study itself, described by project director Christy Farnbauch as a foot thick if it were to be printed, will instead be posted in its entirety online in an estimated six weeks; some of the pie charts and figures showing that the jazz audience is a fractious and/or many splendored thing were unveiled at a town-hall meeting at the Association of Performing Artists convention in New York City last January. Data compiled by sampling ticket buyers of a bulging handfull of major jazz venues plus “potential” jazz fan/ticket buyers living in Central Ohio arrive at several conclusions which seem intuitive once they are expressed, yet easier to label than act upon. Among them:

  • Audiences prefer to hear jazz in small venues affording opportunities to socialize
  • Jazz has entry points from other musics (classical, rock, blue grass) so booking jazz bands with other ensembles playing in different genres is a way to attract otherwise disengaged audiences
  •  Some listeners enjoy and participate in “contextualization” (such as pre- and post-concert discussions) but others don’t, or prefer to lurk silently
  • Jazz fans are most motivated to buy tickets when the musician is someone they want to hear . . .
  • Young audiences defy genre or style restrictions (so they claim) and just like whatever they like
  • People are most receptive to music recommendations from friends or family, tend to like what they’ve heard recently, and are exposed to a lot of newly released music on the radio . . .

Yes — but the point of this convening was to urge attendees to consider the finding’s implications especially in regards to jazz presentation, and to come up with suggested practices with the twined goals of growing and deepening the jazz audience, and selling tickets to specific jazz events. A glimpse of the data reveals how at odds those goals might be in the minds of traditional presenting organizations, since the fresh and energized jazz audience wants kinetic experiences in intimate settings especially if access is cheap (or better yet, free), while the established yet dwindling crowd isn’t all that esthetically adventurous but enjoys a nice night out on the town and has the money to pay for it.

For an enterprise like the Columbus Jazz Orchestra, a paradox revolves around its investment in a swing-oriented though stylistically flexible big band, performing a popular but paid-ticket outdoor series at the Columbus Zoo and also a concert series at two relatively large historic, refurbished theaters. Programming tries hard to appeal across a spectrum of Columbus’s 787,000 population; in 2011-2012 there are shows focused on banned and controversial tunes, on guest artist Kevin Eubanks, on winter holiday favorites, on the music of Ray Charles, on a collaboration with a ballet company, a commission for trombonist Wycliff Gordon, the ’20s sounds of the Cotton Club, “the legends of Soul” and the Harmony Project (a choir). They broadcast some concerts on WOSU, the Ohio State University’s classical fm station.

But to enlarge and improve the audience experience and sell more tickets should the Columbus Jazz Orchestra produce more off-site events featuring unaffiliated musicians or imported groups of non-big band style? Can it partner more with classical, hip-hop or blue grass ensembles, have more multi-media collaborations, offer enlightening (no-charge?) meet-ups and talks before big deal concerts or after them — in person or online? Should it incentivize ticket sales with two-for-one deals, coupons for extra values, hosted jam sessions, “compromised” curatorial standards? If these moves get the CJO into the mix, will that mix support it?

Some of the larger jazz institutions — the Monterey Jazz Festival, say, or Jazz at Lincoln Center — can ignore the report’s findings, as they operate under unique conditions. However, the problem for the small venues — whether non-profit or frankly commercial — that have the hot action rising audiences want is that their rents are going up, overhead for musicians’ travel and lodging puts out-of-towners out-of-price-range, old forms of marketing and promotion have failed while new forms are not yet in place. Jazz clubs, never very stable businesses, are drying up by the dive-full. They can’t produce off-site, they don’t have $ for enrichment programs, they might do alright from food and booze charges but not if they get serious about the music — unless they have independent funding sources like John Zorn’s The Stone in Manhattan, or ongoing funding campaigns like Philadelphia’s floating Ars Nova Workshop or schedules that appeal to well-heeled patrons who want nostalgia or traditionalism, draw a lot of tourists  (like Preservation Hall in New Orleans) or have favorable circumstances like being located inside a hotel (the Cafe Carlyle in NYC, Scullers Jazz Club in Boston).

There’s no one-size-fits-all prescription for “solving” the puzzle of attracting the right audience for every venue, and the survey’s categories are useful only to identify that there are several audiences within the amorphous community that identifies itself with jazz. Data can be interpreted in many ways, and the more people see the Jazz Audience Initiative’s survey results, the more discussion will ensue.

Experienced jazz fans will recognize the segmentations and tensions between them from past eras. Here are the flappers who liked “hot jazz” and the businessman who preferred Paul Whiteman’s bounce. Swing players vs. beboppers vs. moldy figs — the cool school compared to hard bop a la the Jazz Messengers — “free jazz” fighting neo-conservatism. The mostly male hipster musicians and mostly female social butterflies should find each other and popularize certain informal, dark venues — until they mature enough to settle together and tend their recording collections (plus the kids), then eventually become old folks who just want to hear what they liked when they met. Having survey distinctions about what each segment’s preferences are may help presenters narrow in on what they need to do to get those segments to their jazz offerings. Until all the Jazz Audience Initiative’s data is offered for all comers to peruse, the wise jazz presenter will depend on their ears to the ground.

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Newport Jazz Fest via NPR #: day 2 my live reviews

11:55 am — JazzBeyondJazz attends the Newport Jazz Fest today, Aug 7, by listening on NPR, and reviewing as here it happens (tweeting #newportjazz). Ten performances are scheduled over 7 hours, and I won’t listen to everything, but will chime in with info and responses to the music and the broadcast (and I invite comments, discussion, even disagreements!). I did it yesterday and had some fun, so here goes . . .

12:05 — Starting with Randy Weston‘s trio, NOT live today but as they ended the Newport jazz fest last night. Weston sounds in a particularly lighthearted, quick-fingered mood and why not? At age 85 he’s gotten a Guggenheim for his future work, issued a well-received autobiography and a new album, The Storyteller; he’s in vigorous good health and plays at the top of his genre. Left hand rocksteady, right hand doin’ what he wants it to, “free” in the manner of Monk, elegant a la Ellington, with plenty of nuance in engagement with percussionist Neil Clarke and slap-bassist Alex Blake.

12:30 I do wonder, though, why the NPR broadcast touted as “live now from Newport” isn’t that, but instead has pre-recorded sets (edited, too, right?) on air, in a sequence different than the way things are going at Fort Adams State Park. I can imagine this gives the radio producers more control, but it renders tweets using the hashtag #newportjazz a mish-mash of reports from the (wet) field about the music in real-time with comments about what we’re hearing on the audio webcast. Does this confuse anyone else?

12:40 “That’s the Aug 6 2011 version!” exults Weston of his trio’s rendition of “High Fly” — “I never heard it that way before, either. I don’t know what those guys are going to do!” Yeah, that’s a beauty of jazz, inherent in the art form’s DNA. And another defining gene is the blues, which the pianist’s play now. For the classic piano blues: Otis Spann, , Speckled Red, Jay McShann, Jimmy Yancey.

12:50 Hiromi — also pre-recorded, though Josh Jackson promises James Farm coming next will be for-real live. She’s working Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” changes — left hand demonstrating full independence from her right, which I’ll call “sprightly.” If she slowed down just a fraction, the feelings might seep from these notes, but instead she pounces on the idea and presses it forward. Ah, now she states the melody — and hammers fast as if it’s “The Flight of the Bumblebee.” Am I impressed? Uh, not so much. But she’s good. . .

1:01 James Farm. I’ve been waiting for this, haven’t heard the praised CD, and I like Joshua Redman in general. Pianist Aaron Parks underwhelmed me at the PDX Jazz Fest (Portland OR) a couple years ago, bassist Matt Penman sounds solid, drummer Eric Harland is propelling this. Hurrah for pro-active drummers! The link between Parks and Redman seems palpable as the saxophonist picks up a phrase the pianist plays, Parks subsides while Redman expands upon it, at first unaccompanied, and when piano, bass and drums return they eddy around while the tenor works, evidently attempting to set up another song or episode — ah, now they fall in line with him. Sort of like Keith Jarrett’s American quartet with Joshua’s dad Dewey Redman, if DR had been more in the lead and if Paul Motian were a different kind of drummer than he is/was (I like him fine the way he is/was, just sayin’).

1:20 Whoa! Now Joshua and Harland are building to a climax, bursting with energy, and the quartet is united leading to an end as if it has no choice. I like the way they play, but can’t say the material is doing much to make it memorable. Ok — if it works to launch Josh like he’s rocketing, that chord pattern must be doing its duty. There’s a sing-song quality, no? to most of this book. Yes, melodies are hard to compose, though melodic ideas unfurl from a gifted improviser’s imagination and instrumental accomplishment ’cause that’s the task is about. (1:47 pm)

Harland drums-dance. Rimshots, tom and snare-rubbing? Dynamite drummer.

2:08 pm – In 1960 Charles Mingus established a Newport Rebels rump-fest, recording with Max Roach, Eric Dolphy, Roy Eldridge and Jo Jones, and George Wein quietly funded it as well as his main shows. So great to hear the Mingus Big Band on the radio, at a fest, or at the Jazz Standard on Monday nights (spelled by the differently-instrumented Mingus Orchestra and smaller Mingus Dynasty).

3:15 — Server hosting me at ArtsJournal went down, but I’ve been enjoying Avishai Cohen, jaunty trumpeter who started set with “Art Deco” by Don Cherry — there I was complaining about no melodies written these days, and here’s one (albeit 20 years old) well worth keeping in mind (though damn, the album it’s from, of the same name, is out of print, can’t buy Cherry’s version on Amazon or iTunes. Reissue, please — also features Texas tenor saxman James Clay).

Dig Cohen’s strolling, relaxed but with it approach; how hard it is for a trumpeter to carry off a trio performance, sans chordal instrument. Like he’s in the upbeat line with Armstrong, Dizzy, Clifford Brown, Cherry, Lester Bowie, Taylor Ho Bynum — very companionable, and Drew Gress, bass; Eric Harland (just heard w/James Farm, equally appropriate though from a different point of view here) are fine accompanists. Sister Anat Cohen showing her rangy stuff, reminiscent of Alvin Batiste . . . Avishai says his latest record is a tribute to Ornette Coleman, it’s probably in my waiting-to-be-heard stack and I’ll have to pull it out right after this afternoon’s over. Yes! with Avishai, Anat, Drew and Eric now a firm quartet! That’s some jazz. . .

3:27 — Mario Castro Quintet — from Berklee College of Music, but students or faculty or both? Trumpet/sax front line, finessed arrangement. Mature ensemble, but earnest.

3:53 – Josh Jackson interviews Rudresh Mahanthappa who explains his history with inspiring fellow saxophonist Bunky Green, coming up . . .
Eager for their Apex set . . .

3:59 – Ravi Coltrane quartet w/ Drew Gress, E.J. Strickland drums and Luis Perdomo, piano. When I’m at a festival, I can be immersed in the sound for hours without serious break (unless the music turns awful). At the radio, I’ve got to be dropping in and out, but gladly I’ve got desk work to do. . . At hour four the music’s beginning to blend into itself. However, Ravi is going to blow on Bob Dorough’s “Nothing Like You,” so let that distinguish these minutes from what’s come before . . .
Gee, they cut away from Ravi to hear Charles Lloyd w/Zakir Hussain — CL casting an exotic air though he treats the tarogato (Hungarian origin, maybe this one’s Turkish?) like a soprano sax he needn’t keep in tune.

4:45 As Lloyd plays flute, there’s a pianist with Sangam? Zakir singing? This sounds exceptional if you’ve never heard bansuri flute. Why don’t I buy the sanctity of this act?

4:54 – a pre-recorded set by John Hollenbeck’s Large Ensemble. JH employs repetition derived in part from minimalism; there’s a steady-state pulsing pedal point underneath here, gradually shifting to another pitch and –

4:57 -and some tape/live mix up. . . I guess it’s back to Hollenbeck on a tenor solo, with those vibes ringing and voice (?) crooning along, on is it “Witchita Lineman” stretched out?
5:11 – Too much Kenton for my taste. Large, alright, but stolid. No we’re not going to hear any swing in this. Blue either. “Man of Constant Sorrow,” sung by Theo Bleckmann and Mate McGarry. Studied, oddly arranged — organ behind TB. The band pumps a lot of air. Tony Malaby, Uri Caine. . . fine players. This’ll make me a Philistine but one can’t like everything, can one? In fact, I’m getting positively annoyed by the war whoops and noise.

5:30 – Miguel Zenon w/wind ensemble arranged by Argentine Guillermo Klein. The composition bears some resemblance to Hollenbeck’s due to the cyclical riffing. Zenon is a splashy horn player, and the drummer here splashes along with him on cymbals, like waves crashing through the massive ensemble. I like better than the ambitious writing the tune at 6:10, also florid but based on showing off more of Zenon in a typical combo setting, Perdomo comping.

Alto, alto, alto – this broadcast will conclude with Apex, which earlier I was looking forward to but now am concerned about. Streaming scads of notes in the high-pitched register. After Zenon’s cadenza demonstration of horn skills, further demonstrations of skills aren’t what I’d like but rather a focused, intentional collaboratively-arrived-at music that shakes the ground. The fast bass run under Zenon now is doin’ it, the rhythm-against-rhythm, the swelling winds and dissonant piano clusters, all surrounding and buoying MZ . . . and the drums, the drums. You can’t have a good jazz band without a good drummer — a good drummer can make a middling jazz band a much better one.

6:30: Patrick ABlogSupreme Jarenwattananon explains we’ll hear only first part of the Apex set. Which will do just fine — from Rudresh Mahanthappa’s first melismatic call the sax timbre is richer even that what Miguel’s. This tune’s from Kinsmen, RM’s album pre-Apex, in which he went back to India to perform with Carnatic saxist. . . Bunky can do anything,though, playing himself with Indian inflections included. Throw in heaping amounts of Coltrane — who’s playing piano, that’s not Vijay Iyer is it? And is this Eric Harland again on drums? No need for 20 musicians if five can drive like this. But what, is the broadcast gonna end on a bass solo???? That’s what they call, in Newport, a cliffhanger. . . No! More sax, please — We’re jazzlovers.
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My live reviews, Newport Jazz Fest via NPR broadcast #newportjazz

I just got the bright idea of live/remote coverage of today’s music at the Newport Jazz Fest – tweeting briefly but fleshing out comments here and on Facebook — wherever people respond. Follow me @jazzbeyondjazz or #newportjazz and hear the broadcast: http://t.co/acrBBnq

I’ll start at 2:45 pm – with Regina Carter’s Reverse Thread performance — and probably quite at 5, before the New Orleans finale — unless it’s really fun and working out —

To kick things off: two profiles of fest-producer George Wein, produced by eyeJAZZ.tv participants over the past couple months:

Thanks to R.J. DeLuke:

Thanks to Susan Brink:

Catching the end of Joey DeFrancesco, who was that singer? Oh, Joey D himself? Rollicking stuff,

“Eddie Palmieri just about knocked the walls of the fort down” — wish I’d heard that! Palmieri is Mr. Energy, and gets so excited, and conveys it. More info on those side sets: like, the size of the ensemble? What made this gig special?

Ok, here comes a Regina, pre-recorded (and tweets say Wynton’s currently on the mainstage — what are we missing. “Live” is not quite live, then. . .

Celtic touch from the accordion (bandoneon?) and Regina’s pizzicato + the kora brings to mind Bela Fleck’s Africa project. Everything converges. . . Tightly arranged, but now she’s bringing out the saw edge, fiddle-aspect — more of that, please! Dig in and go! — (what an impatient listener I am . . .) Nice dance music, bare feet in the dust. . . and she touches on the gypsy edge —

That first was a Amadou and Mariam piece — now, “Friendship.” The kora is one of the most beautiful instruments, a harp with a glistening edge, typically underlay by flowing bass register counterlines. The sea-chanty accordion and keening, long-bowed violin phrase; nimble bass playing, too — no one in each other’s way, a transparent weave of strings and breathy squeezbox reeds. . . I imagine this goes down very easily, also, in Fort Adams Park, set on a rocky prominatory, usually a nice breeze (though few trees/little shade except from the stage . . .
— Now, Regina quotes “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and the accordion suggests a penny whistle — Regina quotes a tango, and the accordion gladly dips into that rich stream — “friendship” across the waters, the continents. . .

“New for N’Awlins” — this is a bit more set-up, but are those spoons and rubbaboard in the background? Clickety-clack percussion, cuts the accordion sauciness, (single note accordion lines, has anyone here heard of Leon Sash? Art Van Damme? Block chords — has Joey D. suddenly returned to the stage? Rockin’ Dopsie’s influence passes through, too) . . When Regina returns, can’t you hear the Western Swing?

Whooops! Sound drop out! Hate that! Is it only over the online broadcast? ‘Cause turning on WBGO quickly, there’s a signal —

The music’s all different, though. In full swing, so to speak, but I need to get acclimated: A sweet voice singing unfamiliar language, staggered saxes behind her and the drumming seems worth focusing on (oh, of course, it’s Tyshawn Sorey drumming, and Steve Coleman, alto saxophonist/innovator), piano wending throughout . . . many lines to follow, and they double back on each other . . .

Now Steve Coleman stands alone, putting forth a theme — and his people fall in behind . . . brooding, Middle Eastern hints . . .and here’s what Coleman does that’s so fascinating — the offbeat synchronicity of accents driving forward. Colllective improvisation, thick and fast, expanding and contracting only to spring forward… use of riffs turning tight, and after climactic full grip, subsiding as if into the air.

With barely a moment – Mostly Other People Do The Killing. NPR’s on-sight commentator Andy Beanstock (sp?) unfamiliar with this quartet, talking over the end of Coleman (why?), enthused about “having this many jazz people in one place” (duh, that’s a jazz fest for ya). These guys have been around for several prominent records with spoof covers but solid + playing. The band I’m most sorry I haven’t heard live yet. I’ve caught saxophonist Jon Irabagon in person, but not Peter Evans and from what he’s done on record, I’ll dig being in a room while he’s blowing, feeling him move the air.

The quartet rolls as a team through episodes, loose and together like acrobats disguised as clowns. Clowns in suits. Scary smart ones.

Ambrose Aminmusire, trumpeter with quintet — another rising star I haven’t heard live yet, so yet again, thanks NPR for making it easy! Trumpeter of the Year and Up and Coming Artist of the Year in the 2011 Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards — an unusual double win. Starting with his “slow jam,” as NPR/the Checkout host Joshua Jackson describes it. Does ruminative work at Newport? Does quiet? Last time I was there (for the fest’s 50th anniversary) the answer was: If you sit close and concentrate. Or if the power coming from the stage is so intense it can be restrained without fear of getting talked-over. Outdoors, sunshine is hard on jazz, the nightmusic.

Coincidentally, last night I watched the scone great Miles Davis quintet — Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and especially Tony Williams — on DVD from German concerts circa fall 1967. Those gents went straight for a high level of improvisation, immediately upon hitting the stage, and created this stretching-from-the-inside style that Akinmusire’s approaching with his ensemble — (“Regret No More” was the name of that tune they just laid out; a rather abstracted mood from it, consoling not celebratory). It’s not conviction that’s lacking here; maybe just experience. The Davis 5 seemed like serious adults, though Williams was 22 at the time, Hancock 27. Ok, Akinmusire was born in ’82, how has he ever had three week stints of four sets a night?

Modernism, and today’s jazz milieu. Ambrose’s ensemble is working hard, both the tenor saxophonist and drummer contributing high points. Saxophonist Walter Smith III is running through and past what he knows, and that element of exploration — search — is one of jazz’s most exciting dimensions, especially when it results in find. Finding what’s new or distinct, different, even if it’s only a corner or niche, post Coltrane/Rollins/Ayler/(Fred Anderson and Kidd Jordan might be on the list, Von Freeman for his unique intonation, Dewey Redman, Joe Henderson, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, John Gilmore, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Jimmy Forrest, Frank Foster?)/Shorter is a huge challenge to any saxophonist.

Vladimir Chekasin – VilniusJazz32nd

Have Jimmy Heath, Joe Lovano, James Carter, David Murray, Michael Brecker for sheer technique, Chris Potter, Tony Malaby, Ernie Watts, Joshua Redman, Ravi Coltrane, David Ware, Peter Brotzmann, Ken Vandermark, Larry Ochs, Vladimir Chekasin, Charles Gayle, Roscoe Mitchell achieved it? Let’s search their repertoires and identify the genuiine acccomplishments. There are some, but it is an ongoing quest. There will be a new music, someday. Maybe tomorrow. Tune in again, I’m taking a listening-only position vis a vis Grace Kelly & Phil Woods, Wynton, the New Black Eagle band, Trombone Shorty, and whatever else Newport has in store. But I think I’ll try this exercise — live tweeting/blogging to a radio broadcast — again tomorrow.

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Radio Days: Newport Jazz fest on NPR

National Public Radio does jazz fans worldwide a huge service today (Sat., Aug 6) and tomorrow, broadcasting live from the Newport Jazz Fest. See the complete schedule and listen at NPR.org if your local station’s not carrying the feed.

Regina Carter promotional photo

I’ll be tuned in from 2:45 pm EDT for violinist Regina Carter’s African-referent Reverse Thread and plan to keep listening through powerhouse alto saxophonist Steve Coleman’s Five Elements, the rampant quartet Mostly Other People Do The Killing and emergent trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire’s set, ending at 5 (but the show starts at 2 with organist Joe DeFrancesco and continues after Akinmusire with paired alto saxophonists Grace Kelly and Phil Woods, then a New Orleans lineup: the New Black Eagle Jazz Band, Wynton Marsalis’s quintet, and Trombone Shorty). Tomorrow (Sun., Aug 7) master pianist Randy Weston’s African Rhythms Quartet starts at noon, and the final set is by blazing alto saxists Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green.

George Wein – Newport Jazz Festival

Being at the site of Newport is fun — but hotels are expensive, restaurants after the fest always crowded, if you drive there the traffic is a hassle, so I’m quite content to attend to the music from home. Yes, there are two stages at the fest, but NPR promises that music it doesn’t air today and tomorrow will be accessible on its website starting next week. This is why radio was invented! Thanks, Guglielmo Marconi! And thanks, George (Newport Jazz/Folk Fests) Wein!

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