Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2018 i JazzTimes

On Sept. 30 at the New York Hot Jazz Festival, Michael Mwenso & the Shakes presented The Joint Is Jumpin’, a Fats Waller revue the group debuted in London last year. Wearing a black catsuit, Mwenso emceed, conducted, danced, and sang songs like Waller’s “Thief in the Night,” which he delivered with soulful inflection. Sometimes he engaged in chorale-like harmonizing with Vuyo Sotashe, who subverted the lyrics of “The Reefer Song (If You’re a Viper)” with his angelic tenor. Ruben Fox and Julian Lee uncorked booting tenor sax solos, while on “Handful of Keys” and “London Suite,” Mathis Picard juxtaposed Wallerian stride with Sun Ra-meets-Messiaen colors on a ramshackle upright and Roland Juno synth. Code-switching through a broad lexicon of social music with maximum commitment, minimal irony, and an attitude…

In a moving ceremony in Dix Hills, N.Y., on Oct. 9, the National Trust for Historic Preservation officially designated the house that was home to the family of John and Alice Coltrane between 1964 and 1973 as a National Treasure. This means that the Trust, through its National African American Cultural Heritage Fund, will join with the nonprofit Friends of the Coltrane Home to help preserve the suburban Long Island house—which narrowly avoided the wrecking ball 14 years ago—with the aim of eventually opening it to the public. “The Coltrane Home is a physical manifestation of jazz history,” said Brent Leggs, director of the African American Cultural Heritage Fund, as he stood outside the house’s front door. “We are committed to creating a new kind of historic site here: one…

What do you do if you’re a singer with a deep love and appreciation for jazz and Brazilian music, but your own work is characterized by fans, critics, radio programmers, and presenters alike as smooth jazz? That’s the plight of singer/songwriter Michael Franks, who recently released The Music in My Head (Shanachie), his 18th album and first since 2011’s Time Together. It delivers the same quality of writing and singing that has marked his career from the beginning, replete with absurdly clever rhymes, hip references, and soft-spoken vocals. The truth is that Michael Franks’ music is smooth, but he’d prefer not to be called a smooth jazz artist. Franks likes to tell the story of a show at the House of Blues in New Orleans a few years ago, when…

Not long ago, Jeff Baker, the vocalist and educator, observed a building in the initial stages of construction next to his apartment in Portland, Ore. “They were building this tiny tower right in the middle and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it was,” Baker says. “Then I realized, ‘Oh, that’s the elevator shaft. They have to finish that before they can do things around it.’” Baker used the metaphor of the elevator shaft and building from the inside out—a concept he also gleaned from producer T Bone Burnett—in creating his latest album, Phrases. For the recording, Baker wrote several new songs, adapting texts by Pablo Neruda, J.D. Salinger, and other well-known authors, and also chose some covers, including both jazz standards and pop tunes by…

The genesis of My Way, Willie Nelson’s terrific new 11-track salute to Frank Sinatra, can be traced to Las Vegas circa 1978 when, so the story goes, impresario Steve Wynn introduced Sinatra to Stardust, Nelson’s landmark collection of standards. Wynn told Nelson and, according to Nelson’s longtime Nashville producer Buddy Cannon, “that’s how the connection began.” Nelson and Sinatra didn’t actually meet until 1984, sharing the bill at Sin City’s Golden Nugget. Remarkably, Sinatra was the opening act. “I thought, ‘That ain’t right,’” says Nelson, “but he was a great guy who didn’t mind opening or closing.” That same year, they united for a pair of TV spots supporting the NASA-linked Space Foundation. In one, a tuxedoed Sinatra playfully derides Nelson’s comparative informality. Pointing to his bandana, Sinatra sneers, “What…

When Raúl Midon sat down with JazzTimes for his first Before & After, he had only been back in the U.S. for a few days, following a Far East tour that included Japan, Australia, and a week at the Blue Note in Beijing. He strolled into VRTCL Entertainment, a Manhattan recording studio, with his small entourage: a publicist and a brawny assistant, who helps the blind singer/guitarist navigate his jam-packed travel schedule. The New Mexico-born Midón, 52, writes and plays music that defies easy classification, combining soulful tenor vocals with a prodigious guitar technique influenced by flamenco and other Latin styles, jazz, R&B, and favorite singer/songwriters like Joni Mitchell and James Taylor. He’s also known for his uncanny “mouth trumpet” solos, a technique he perfected while a student in the…

David Sánchez, 2000 ARTHUR ELGORT: “I shot this up in Harlem for a men’s issue of Italian Vogue. I just told David, ‘Walk and play.’ The magazine dressed him, but he had to approve of what he was wearing. Luckily, I don’t think I’ve ever run into any problems with people in these kinds of sessions being unhappy about what they were supposed to wear—and if there were problems, they argued with the editors. I try to keep out of those arguments. I take the pictures, I don’t argue. Not worth it. You get a headache.” “I learned something early on,” Arthur Elgort says on the phone from his photography studio in Manhattan. “Jazz musicians, in general, liked pretty girls. If you brought a good-looking girl with you, the jazz…

Meinl Weston 25 BBb Rotary Tuba Marcus Rojas said it in our October issue: “Nothing is hotter than the tuba right now.” And if the regular tuba’s hot, can the BBb (or contra) tuba—the lowest-pitched member of the family—be much cooler? Meinl Weston’s Model 25 is designed for both school bands and professional BBb players. Its 4/4 size allows it to function as a supportive horn in large ensembles, while retaining the ability to perform more sensitive material. And its 3B linkage system makes for smooth operation. $9,450 online. melton-meinl-weston.com Moog One Polyphonic Synthesizer You may have already experienced the Moog One’s online publicity campaign, centered around a deliciously retro promo film in which ’70s-style titles and transitions are interspersed with grainy footage of Chick Corea, Robert Glasper, Dick Hyman,…

It’s been just over a decade since Sachal Vasandani emerged as one of the most compelling singer/songwriters in postmillennial jazz. To date, his own compositions have always figured prominently in his recordings. Now, for the exquisite Shadow Train, his fifth release as a leader, he focuses exclusively on jazz and pop standards; the album’s 10 tracks extend from Cole Porter and Johnny Mercer to Bill Evans and the Gibb brothers. Key to the project’s sublimity is all-star accompaniment from pianist Taylor Eigsti (featured on Vasandani’s previous disc, the all-originals-but-one Slow Motion Miracles), bassist Reuben Rogers, drummer Eric Harland, saxophonist Dayna Stephens, and guitarist Nir Felder. JazzTimes: What was your vision for the album? Sachal Vasandani: I wanted to celebrate community. There is a community aspect to this record that came…

There’s a moment at the beginning of “The Power Of,” the second track on drummer Sanah Kadoura’s debut album, Hawk Eyes, when the hip-hop-inflected beat begins to warp. About nine seconds in, her steady 16th-note hi-hat pattern slows down for just a hair, each stroke a bit more labored, and then speeds up again. It’s easy to miss—a subtle, four-second blip that brings to mind the stuttering grooves of J Dilla, now imitated by many jazz drummers. But in Kadoura’s case, the allusion wasn’t intentional. “There were times in the recording studio where my arms went numb,” Kadoura, 29, recalled matter-of-factly in an interview at her Yorkville apartment, where she lives with her cat, Malachi. That’s because, early last year, Kadoura suffered a traumatic head injury with unexpected side effects.…

Anyone old enough to remember Miles’ comeback is old enough to remember when the only sounds personal computers could play were the primitive bloops and bleeps of early video games. Thirty-seven years later, personal computers still aren’t really optimized for audio. Even the very latest laptops, fitted with relatively large hard drives, can’t hold a sizable collection of digital music, unless the music is data-compressed (and sonically distorted) using MP3 or some other digital technology. Ask any serious music fan, and they’ll probably tell you that the holiday gifts they remember best were audio products. The Sears 8-track player I got for Christmas 1975 gave me my first listens to George Benson’s Breezin’ and Jeff Beck’s Blow by Blow. Later, the Panasonic cassette boombox I got for Christmas 1979 let…

CHRISTIAN McBRIDE CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE’S NEW JAWN (Mack Avenue/Brother Mister Productions) The term “jawn”—a catch-all piece of Philly jargon covering everything from object to idea—speaks to Christian McBride’s home turf, his high-level hipness, and the broadness of vision at play here. And this most certainly marks the start of a new chapter for the distinguished bassist, serving as the launch of his own imprint (under the Mack Avenue umbrella) and the debut document from his titular piano-less quartet. Put that all together and this album’s name starts to make sense. Just don’t let that knowledge fool you into thinking you know what’s coming. In adopting said instrumental format, and with the herky-jerky demands of “Walkin’ Funny” and the dicey propositions of “Ke-Kelli Sketch,” McBride signals an embrace of a freer aesthetic.…

With the release of my new album, I’ve been talking to a lot of people about my history, where did I come from, how did this all happen. As I think about the signals received along the way, I realize that I can connect them all to songs that were part of my life and triggered each move forward. Taken together, they become a kind of autobiography of my life as a singer. Nina Simone “I LOVES YOU PORGY” Little Girl Blue (Bethlehem, 1958) I was 10 years old, in the ladies’ locker room at the pool, and this song was playing. I stopped what I was doing, sat there and listened. The way she sang that beautiful song, it impacted me so hard. Especially the voice, because I knew…