Indholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2017 i JazzTimes

Despite its reputation for wallowing in nostalgia, jazz always tends to mirror its time. The manic optimism of America in the 1920s yielded hot jazz; the conservatism of the Reagan era bolstered the history-minded Young Lions; today, globalization has granted the music an international aesthetic few could have imagined in the ’50s. In the 1960s and ’70s, political upheaval and the spirit of psychedelia inspired musicians in rock and jazz to look for contexts far removed from what they’d been given. Many, including John and Alice Coltrane, looked East, toward Indian religions that offered the promise of inner tranquility and universal oneness. After John died in 1967, Alice found an everlasting salve in Hinduism, and until her death in 2007, she made music that matched the African-American traditions whence she…

The culture sprawl that is the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival came to a close May 7, putting a lid on seven full days of music programming spread across genres including (but hardly limited to) jazz, blues, Cajun, zydeco, rock, pop, bounce and hip-hop. A handful of this year’s headliners returned to, as Stevie Wonder put it, “fulfill [the] promise” of their scheduled performances from 2016, when storms washed out multiple days of the event. They were mostly treated to temperate breezes and blue skies, while crowds meandered among the 12 stages at the Fair Grounds. As is often the case, many of the fest’s highlights came courtesy of New Orleans natives. Kidd Jordan Though his usual Jazz Tent set was axed this year, saxophonist Edward “Kidd” Jordan brought…

When the guitarist Larry Coryell died on Feb. 19 at age 73, he left much in his wake: a fiery album by his band 11th House, titled Seven Secrets and released June 2; a legacy as a fusion pioneer whose musical curiosities knew no bounds; and a large and loving family. Just a few days after Coryell’s death, his family, friends and fans gathered at the SGI-USA Buddhist Center in New York, to grieve and reflect on a radiant life that nevertheless saw many personal and professional challenges. Among the most moving tributes was a eulogy by his son Julian, the L.A.-based guitarist, singer and songwriter. What appears here is an edited and condensed version; for Julian’s complete remarks, visit JazzTimes.com. I can look at my father through three lenses—as…

first comes the beat: Jack DeJohnette whips up an elliptical funk rhythm, combining a metronomic ride cymbal with a hiccupping kick and snare. Larry Grenadier locates the center of this slanted pulse and adds a stark, suggestive bass part. John Medeski fills in the midrange with a droning Hammond organ and a distorted Fender Rhodes. Then comes John Scofield’s electric guitar, run through filters that add a sharp metallic tang. This collegial throwdown is unfolding about a week into the new year, at an out-of-the-way studio in New York’s Hudson Valley, where each musician resides—hence Hudson, the name of the group. From the control booth, where recording engineer Scott Petito keeps a watchful eye on the levels, a window offers a view of Scofield, DeJohnette and Medeski, who share space…

Electro-Harmonix SYNTH9 Synthesizer Machine Why should the keys player have all the retro-synth fun? Guitarists can find their inner RTF-era Chick Corea or Keith Emerson with the very convincing sounds in this new stompbox from Electro-Harmonix. Among the nine emulations covered—but not directly named on the pedal, for legal reasons—are the Prophet-5 and Minimoog. $221.30 online. ehx.com Reverend Mike Watt Signature Wattplower Bass Mike Watt, a punk giant with a Coltrane obsession and plenty of cred in jazz-leaning experimental groups, spent four years developing this lean and mean signature bass with Reverend. Its features include a korina body; Reverend’s P-Blade pickups, a turbocharged take on classic P-bass pickups; a Hipshot A-style bridge with string-thru and top-load options; and a first-fret inlay of an anchor, a Watt trademark. $1,399 online. reverendguitars.com…

THE ECSTATIC WORLD OF ALICE COLTRANE TURIYASANGITANANDA: CELEBRATING THE MUSIC AND SPIRIT OF A TRUE ORIGINAL THE ECSTATIC WORLD OF ALICE COLTRANE TURIYASANGITANANDA: CELEBRATING THE MUSIC AND SPIRIT OF A TRUE ORIGINAL THE ECSTATIC WORLD OF ALICE COLTRANE TURIYASANGITANANDA: CELEBRATING THE MUSIC AND SPIRIT OF A TRUE ORIGINAL…

Despite taking place in Havana, Cuba, one of the most inspiring but politically complex nations on the planet, this year’s International Jazz Day Global Concert didn’t dig into specifics regarding any of the world’s governments or regimes. The two-and-a-half-hour all-star concert, broadcast live via Cuban TV and webcast on April 30, from the regal Gran Teatro de la Habana Alicia Alonso, was presented in English and Spanish and hosted by Will Smith, with show-stealing assistance from bassist-vocalist Esperanza Spalding. They, like all of the speakers, including Quincy Jones, stayed on message over and over again: International Jazz Day promotes the music as a language, a facilitator for meaningful, joyful democratic interaction between disparate peoples. Irina Bokova, the Director-General of UNESCO, which organizes the event alongside the Thelonious Monk Institute, talked…

In March, at the finale of “Django a Gogo 2017 Music Festival: A Celebration of Guitar Through the Music of Django Reinhardt,” nine acoustic guitarists stood on the stage of Carnegie Hall, strumming in unison in the Gypsy-jazz style. Nearly all of them had already been spotlighted at some point during the two-and-a-half-hour concert—the 10th anniversary of the festival—which featured not only the compositions of the late leader of the Quintette du Hot Club de France (“Nuages,” “Djangology,” “Minor Swing”) but also a handful of unexpected, unrelated delights: Chick Corea’s “Spain” and even a John Denver hit, “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Only one of the participants, Al Di Meola, could truly be called world-renowned, but several of the others—the Dutchman Stochelo Rosenberg was particularly mind-blowing—deserve to be. Helming the…

Canons are useful constructs when looking at the history of the arts, and organizations like Jazz at Lincoln Center are synonymous with the virtues and vices of honoring such a hall-of-fame concept. Holding up a curated list of masters and epochs is important, but there are snares to consider, like repetition and the exclusion of great music not yet old enough for a historian’s judgment. The guitarist and composer John Scofield, for his JALC retrospective, titled “Quiet and Loud Jazz” and held May 5-6 in the Appel Room, upended common notions of what it means to revisit the past in jazz programming. In one roughly 90-minute program, Scofield returned to two albums: Blue Matter, a 1987 LP reflecting a specific era of brainy funk-fusion; and Quiet, from 1996, where he…

The audio gear we listen to music on has changed radically over the decades. The audio gear we perform music on, not as much. Only a few traditionalist audiophiles still want the kinds of stereo systems commonly in use when Getz/Gilberto debuted in 1964, but most guitar players would be thrilled to own a Fender or Marshall amp from that same era. Recently, though, guitar amps have started incorporating a modern feature that musicians of all types should welcome. It’s Bluetooth wireless—a smartphonefocused technology that may change the way we think about instrument amps. Bluetooth allows transmission of audio signals over short distances, usually 15 to 30 feet max. It’s built into every smart-phone and tablet as well as into many laptop computers. Bluetooth has already revolutionized car, home and…

“I’M AMAZED BY ALL THE SOUNDS YOU GET FROM THAT,” Ravi Coltrane said to Jimmy Heath on April 29, as he was listening to the tenor legend backstage before a concert honoring Sonny Rollins. Held at SUNY Purchase College’s Performing Arts Center, it was a photogenic evening of tributes to the man and his music, featuring six tenor heavyweights, trumpeter Jon Faddis and a sweet rhythm section of pianist David Hazeltine, bassist Todd Coolman and drummer Victor Lewis. (Rollins did not attend.) Here are a few quotes about Sonny that I heard backstage, at the sound check and during the performance. Joe Lovano: “‘Airegin’ is the kind of tune that teaches you how to play.” James Carter: “Sonny’s work is at work in other people. He is always in the…

JOHN PIZZARELLI SINATRA & JOBIM @ 50 (Concord Jazz) In 1964, when Getz and Gilberto ignited the bossa-nova craze across America, vocalists of all stripes—from Perry Como to Mel Tormé to Sarah Vaughan—quickly went Latin. Sinatra was a tad late to the party, teaming with bossa’s global exemplar for 1967’s Francis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim. Speculation was that Sinatra, then at the height of his ring-a-ding-ding bravado, was ill suited to such delicate material. In fact, he delivered what is arguably his finest album of the era, his exquisitely crafted readings shot through with soft sapience. He and Jobim reunited in ’69, but Sinatra was dissatisfied with his performances (most surfaced on 1971’s Sinatra & Company). Now, a half-century on, John Pizzarelli revisits the Sinatra-Jobim oeuvre with sublimely…

Paul Bley “ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE” Sonny Meets Hawk! [Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins] (RCA Victor, 1963) It’s a classic album but still a little bit under the radar. I heard that solo on “All the Things You Are” and I was completely blown away. It felt like a precursor to everything I’m hearing now. It was really different than a lot of the forward-looking music happening at the time, because it was still dealing with the harmony very directly but in a previously unexamined way. Everything was incredibly clear but incredibly fresh. It’s captivating and magnetic. Oscar Peterson “BROTHERHOOD OF MAN” Oscar Peterson Trio + One/Clark Terry (Mercury, 1964) I don’t have a lot to say about Oscar Peterson that hasn’t been said before, but you can’t have…