Musicologists are convinced blues icon Robert Johnson’s recordings as released are 20% faster than he performed in two solo sessions in 1936 and 1937. It’s unclear whether they were sped up intentionally (to push their excitement, which seems hardly necessary) or accidentally at some point in the chain between microphone and pressing plant. What is obvious is that since only 11 of the 41 existent Johnson takes were issued by Vocalion on 78 rpm discs during his lifetime (and one posthumously), his complete documented repertoire of 29 tunes issued on two Columbia Records lps, King of the Delta Blues Singers (1961) and King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol. 2 (1970) and finally 41 tracks, alternates and all, released on a best-selling 2-CD boxed set, Robert Johnson The Complete Recordings by Columbia in 1990, we have probably never heard what the blues’ most influential singer-guitarist actually sounded like.
World’s music in NYC parks
Caribbean music is big — and free — in the city’s parks this summer; my City Arts column details some of the best shows. There’s also music from Africa, Turkey, Syria, Brazil — almost everywhere, as well as the good ol’ USA. I’m off to teach my NYU class about “World Music,” a nebulous concept, so can’t report all the dates and places here/now, but check out calendars for Summerstage, River-to-River Festival, Celebrate Brooklyn, the BAM Rhythm & Blues Festival at Brooklyn’s Metrotech Center, and any of the other presenters mentioned in the piece. Global sounds are, by definition, everywhere.
Swing stops: Japanese jazz mag fails
Swing Journal, the magazine promoting American jazz in Japan since the end of WWII, ceases publication with its June issue. According to editor-in-chief Takafumi Mimori, “We will make efforts to revive it somehow,” but the monthly publication known for its photography, articles by U.S. as well as Japanese commentators and previously robust support from electronics firms and instrument manufacturers has suffered a serious decline of advertising revenue.
Hank Jones, reigning jazz pianist, dies, age 91
A moderate modernist with beautiful touch and exquisite taste, Hank Jones was a beacon of gentle authority, genuine modesty and jazz grace at the keyboard. Oldest brother of the more unruly trumpeter-composer Thad Jones and drummer Elvin Jones, Hank epitomized balance, consistency and flexibility. It was a joy to be in his company, whether listening to him or speaking with him. I was lucky to interview him in tandem with pianist Geri Allen — generations apart, but both from the Detroit area — as published in my book Future Jazz, and to sit with him at length again in 2009 for Down Beat. Here’s a photo by Enid Farber from the 2009 Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards of Hank with the picture of himself by Kris King that won the Award for Photo of the Year.  photo /Hank%20Jones%20with%20his%20%28Kris%20King%27s%29%20photo%20enid%2009.jpg)
What follows is my (long) article from my 2009 interview — with links to Amazon of some of his best albums, in case you’re moved, as I hope you will be, to hear him play . . .
Tremé, the musical
Lovers of jazz, jazz beyond jazz, jazz before jazz are all watching Treme, right? The HBO series about New Orleans three months after Katrina sets a new standard for celebrating America’s roots music where this should happen — on tv.
Jazz lofts as they used to be
Thelonious Monk photo by W. Eugene Smith for promotional use
Composer Steve Reich said, “Without John Coltrane, there
would be no minimalism.” The topic was Hall Overton, the man who arranged Monk’s music, treating jazz as contemporary “classical” composition. The occasion was a panel discussion sprung from an exhibit at the NY Public Library of the Performing Arts about the Jazz Loft hosted by photographer W. Eugene Smith from 1955-1964 (this is Smith’s shot of Overton with Monk in the Loft).
Read about it in my new City Arts column.
Herb Alpert rescues Harlem School of the Arts
Trumpeter Herb Alpert’s foundation kicks in $500,000 to sustain a failing Harlem arts school — more philanthropy from the Tijuana Brassman hailed by Jazz Journalists Association last year for his great good works. Why aren’t there more like Herb?
What’s in a Jazz Award?
Finalists for the 14th annual Jazz Awards presented by the Jazz Journalists Association are up at JJAJazzAwards.org. See and hear who critics like. These are our Pulitzer Prizes.
Central Brooklyn Jazz Festival goes to roots, future, justice
My column in City Arts highlights the 40-event Central Brooklyn Jazz Festival, taking place throughout April “from Flatbush up Fulton Avenue through the neighborhoods of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Ocean Hill to Bushwick . . . the area that gave birth to Max Roach and Randy Weston some 80 years ago.” It’s booked with lesser-known yet highly active African-American jazz musicians; on Saturday I talk about “Where is Jazz Going?” at Medgar Evers College (2 to 6 pm) in distinguished company.
Arts funding disparities show philanthropists’ priorities
A $30 million gift to the Metropolitan Opera – the Harlem School of the Arts closes for lack of 1/60th that amount. Pretty clear what big private funders value, and it’s not the American vernacular or immediately next generation of artists. There’s hardly anything jazzy about this post.
Mike Zwerin, jazz journalist, musician, bon vivant dies at 79
A trombonist in Miles Davis’ Birth of the Cool band, memoirist whose The Parisian Jazz Chronicles set a standard for wit and candor in self-examination, and writer for the International Herald Tribune and Bloomberg News, Mike Zwerin died April 2 in Paris, where he’d lived since 1969. Recipient in 2009 of the Jazz Journalists Association’s Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism Award, Mike was an inspiration ever since I read his reports from the jazz scene in the Village Voice in the 1960s, and I’m glad to say I got to know him as a friend.
Smooth jazz vs. hard jazz in Times Square
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, jazz records hero, at 91 speaks of Miles
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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