Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2017 i JazzTimes

After playing the second tune at her CD-release party in early April, at Smalls in the West Village, Roxy Coss put her tenor saxophone down. “I’m looking for a microphone,” Coss told the house, packed with 20- and 30-somethings, including a high percentage of young women. “My voice is very soft.” She found the mic and introduced her collaborators, praising the contributions of pianist Miki Yamanaka, a brand-new bandmate, and the personnel from her new record, Chasing the Unicorn (Posi-Tone): guitarist Alex Wintz, bassist Rick Rosato and drummer Jimmy Macbride, whose rumpled informality contrasted the leader’s crisp black ensemble. Coss stated the titles of the anthemic, metrically modulated “Unwavering Optimism” and the bright, Brazil-tinged “You’re There.” She projected pungently on both selections, with a centered tone and impeccable articulation, executing…

At just 33, Gerald Clayton is no stranger to exploring the roots of jazz. He was a toddler when he first accompanied his father, bassist John Clayton, to gigs around Los Angeles, and later joined John and his brother, saxophonist Jeff, as the pianist in the fiery hard-bop unit the Clayton Brothers. On his new album as a leader, Tributary Tales (Motéma), Clayton aims to connect his life experience—the places he’s traveled to, the people he’s met—with his musical and cultural ancestry. Helping the pianist along in this journey are saxophonists Logan Richardson, Ben Wendel and Dayna Stephens; bassist Joe Sanders; drummer Justin Brown; percussionists Henry Cole and Gabriel Lugo; guest vocalist Sachal Vasandani and poets Carl Hancock Rux and Aja Monet. Clayton was also recently commissioned by Duke Performances…

There’s always been a serious sense of groove in Nate Smith’s drumming. Whether navigating the heady rhythms of Dave Holland’s bands, propelling the electric explorations of Chris Potter’s Underground or meshing jazz and R&B behind singer José James, Smith’s playing fluidly intermingles the soulful and the intricate. On his long-awaited leader debut, KINFOLK: Postcards From Everywhere (Ropeadope), he adds a touch of the personal to that tantalizing mixture. Carving a distinctive path through 21st-century soul-jazz, KINFOLK brings together a diverse roster from both worlds, setting the likes of Holland, Potter, guitarist Lionel Loueke and saxophonist Jaleel Shaw next to guitarist-producer Jeremy Most and singer Amma Whatt to create a unique, eclectic mash-up. As the name implies, the album takes inspiration from an expanded notion of family, both blood (Smith’s parents…

JACO PASTORIUS TRUTH, LIBERTY & SOUL: LIVE IN NYCTHE COMPLETE 1982 NPR JAZZ ALIVE! RECORDING (Resonance) It’s curious that we don’t more directly associate electric jazz bass playing with Latin rhythms, given that the greatest practitioner on the instrument featured them so centrally in his sound. This newly unearthed document is a key sonic case in point. Here we have Jaco Pastorius with his Word of Mouth Big Band, live at NYC’s Avery Fisher Hall in the summer of 1982 for George Wein’s Kool Jazz Festival, regaling listeners with 130 minutes of music in which his evervirtuosic bass work is neatly folded into a larger group dynamic. (The set is available as a three-LP box, two-CD package and digital download, including a 100-page book with contributions by Metallica’s Robert Trujillo,…

Early in the new documentary Chasing Trane, Benny Golson recalls his friendship with John Coltrane, complaining that the iconic saxophonist made him do all the talking. “He was quiet,” Golson recalls. “He never talked—until he put that saxophone in his mouth.” Director John Scheinfeld, never a diehard jazz fan before making Chasing Trane, discovered Coltrane’s penchant for silence the hard way. Searching for footage to help tell Trane’s story, Scheinfeld realized that TV interviews were non-existent and radio interviews were scarce and of subpar sound quality. He solved the problem in two ways: one, by having Oscar-winner Denzel Washington read Trane’s own words; and two, by acknowledging what Golson and countless other jazz fans have learned over the last half-century: that Coltrane could speak volumes through his saxophone. Though it…

Multi-instrumentalist Steve Wilson, best known as an alto and soprano saxophonist, is busier than ever these days. One look at his tour schedule can confirm that fact: a recent U.S. trek with the Maria Schneider Orchestra; a date with Christian McBride’s big band and another alongside the bassist in a one-off Weather Report tribute; duo sets with drummer Lewis Nash, pianist Fred Hersch and others; East and West Coast performances of an all-star salute to Stephen Sondheim. Wilson, 56, is also an in-demand clinician, and teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University, the City College of New York and the Juilliard School. His most recent release as a leader is Live in New York: The Vanguard Sessions (Random Act), and his next effort will be the vinyl-only release Sit Back, Relax &…

“ONE POTENTIAL PITFALL IS TRYING TO OUTDO THE OTHER PERSON AT THEIR OWN STRENGTHS,” GREENE SAYS. “NO MATTER WHAT THE OTHER PERSON DOES OR DOESN’T DO, YOUR VOICE IS YOUR VOICE.” One tune that Jimmy Greene always plays for his sax students is the title track to Sonny Rollins’ 1956 classic Tenor Madness—the famous tenor battle between Newk and Trane. “Coltrane plays the first solo,” Greene recounts, obviously hearing the thrilling virtuosity in his head. “He’s doing the things that he was working on at the time: fitting a lot of notes into each measure, playing a lot over each chord; there’s a lot of velocity to what he’s doing. Then Sonny comes in, and, although he can play tempos as fast as anyone, he plays one of the most…

The interjection “Not to get political, but…” became a leitmotif in writer Gary Giddins’ speech honoring fellow critic Ira Gitler at the 2017 Jazz Masters tribute concert, held April 3 for a second year at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Not getting political was a difficult undertaking at the 35th anniversary celebration of the National Endowment for the Arts’ fellowship for jazz musicians, the highest honor that the U.S. government offers the music. The Trump Administration’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2018 calls for the elimination of the NEA, among other federal agencies. Faced with its endangerment, this year’s recipients of the Jazz Masters fellowship used the ceremony as a rally for its preservation—in Giddins’ words, “that jazz advocacy of the hip, by the hip and for the hip…

With Point of Departure, a group exploring charged and often lesser-known repertoire from the late ’60s and early ’70s, trumpeter/ bandleader David Weiss has spent more than 10 years testing the youngest and rawest of New York talent through trial-by-fire on the bandstand. Talk to virtually any PoD member and they’ll offer some version of the sentiment voiced by tenor saxophonist JD Allen: “I was new in town and David was one of the only guys that gave me a shot in the beginning. He gave me work.” Maintaining a band is notoriously difficult, but for Weiss, PoD has proved relatively simple: “If you have absolutely no pressures, then you have all the time in the world to do whatever you want. You just let it all happen.” In practical…

IN JULY 2015, WHEN PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA OFFICIALLY RE-ESTABLISHED DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH CUBA, IT ENDED A 54-YEAR POLITICAL STALEMATE AND COMMENCED A NEW ERA OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE BETWEEN THE ISLAND NATION AND THE U.S. But more than three decades before Obama’s historic rapprochement, Canadian soprano saxophonist, flutist and composer Jane Bunnett had begun working tirelessly to promote Cuban jazz worldwide, and to provide its practitioners with performance opportunities far beyond their borders—including gigs in the States. Bunnett’s Toronto home has also served as a hub for several generations of Cuban players, many spending weeks or months in her guest rooms. Bunnett’s devotion to Cuban music and musicians began unexpectedly in 1982, when she and her longtime partner, trumpeter Larry Cramer, spotted an ad for a cheap vacation in Santiago de…