Author Archives: kjem

The Jazz Cover And The Vijay Iyer Trio

Posted by kjem

There are six covers on the forthcoming Vijay Iyer Trio album, Accelerando. You can hear them now; the album is currently streaming on our site in full via NPR Music’s First Listen series. (It will be released next Tuesday, March 13.) As a bit of a prelude, above lies the music video for “MmmHmm” by Flying Lotus, a song re-interpreted on Accelerando.

It feels odd to call these recordings “covers.” The jazz cover is so often an act of re-imagination, of annexing a song as a vehicle for personal statement. That’s different from the mimicry of Lynyrd Skynyrd night at the roadhouse with a local rock band. Indeed, on the liner notes for his previous trio album, Historicity, Iyer uses the term “versioning” (as in “doing a version of”) as a more suggestive descriptor. And, because creative adaptation is the idea, even the mere choice to cover a particular song can say a lot about how an improvising musician thinks.

There are also six covers on the previous Vijay Iyer Trio album, Historicity. It shows that Iyer is invested in the dances with ancestors and dance music of contemporaries that form so much of the African-American musical tradition. Upon closer examination, it might also say something about what he prioritizes within that tradition.

I’ve lined up his choices from one album to the next in loose analogues in an effort to identify some consistencies of thought. Here’s a track-by-track comparison, with links to YouTube samples where available: Continue reading →

Time Is On Their Side: Ageless Jazz Drumming

Posted by kjem
By Patrick Jarenwattananon
"Killer" Ray Appleton, a veteran drummer with the wisdom of experience and ageless swing.

“Killer” Ray Appleton, a veteran drummer with the wisdom of experience and ageless swing.

Jimmy Katz/Courtesy of the artist

I’ve been listening to two very good new albums led by drummers. After learning that both men are in their early 70s, I can’t help but wonder how I process that fact in what I hear.

“Killer” Ray Appleton (b. 1941) and Barry Altschul (b. 1943) practice different styles. But they both came of musical age in the hard-bop era, spent many years living in Europe and eventually returned to New York. In other words, they’ve each got a lot of experience.

The new album from Appleton, Naptown Legacy, which is old-school in almost all good ways. It’s unselfconscious, head-solo-head hard bop for three tightly-arranged horns and rhythm section. (Tenor saxophonist Todd Herbert even affects a lot of Blue Train-era Coltrane mannerisms, a bit disconcerting for my taste.) It’s a program of standards and tunes by Appleton’s fellow Indianapolis natives Wes Montgomery, Freddie Hubbard and J.J. Johnson. It wouldn’t be out of place on Blue Note or Riverside c. 1961, and that’s apparently the intended effect: Even the cover art, track listing, slim bi-fold packaging and liner notes are formatted to evoke the LPs of the era.

You get the sense that this is Appleton’s bread and butter, and highly present in the mix, he struts all over this record. His fills aren’t virtuosic in a jaw-dropping way; on tunes like “Backlash” and “Fatback” he’s happy to take a good beat and play it essentially the entire song. (Does anyone do that any more in jazz?) Simplicity can be deceptive, though, and attention to detail is where Appleton shines. His splaying ride cymbal, his ease with accents and commentary, his hookup with conguero Little Johnny Rivero — these sorts of things set this music apart from its imitations. Could this be attributed to finely-honed touch and timing cultivated over decades, a sense of swing deeply embedded from a young age? Whatever it is, it reminds me how infectious the heralded recordings of a half century ago remain today.

Altschul is often thought of as belonging to a different era and community. His early recordings were with musicians like Paul Bley, Sam Rivers, Anthony Braxton and the band Circle (with Braxton, Chick Corea and Dave Holland). Altschul’s known for his avant-garde or free jazz playing — specifically, for melding a driving bebop pattern with further out improvisations, an idea known as freebop. On his new trio recording, bassist Joe Fonda and tenor saxophonist Jon Irabagon are game, and they straddle the lines between uptempo bebop and free improvisation with authority.

The 3dom Factor is ultimately Altschul’s showcase,which he uses to demonstrate a wide range of styles. His funk groove (“Papa’s Funkish Dance”) and old-time shuffle (“Natal Chart”), his literal bells and whistles, his sense for loosening or unwinding a beat. It’s his music, too: The band reinterprets original compositions from throughout his discography (and Carla Bley’s “Ictus”). They’re tuneful and worth paying attention to, although he still doesn’t really consider himself much of a composer:

Cover art to Barry Altschul's new album, The 3dom Factor.

Cover art to Barry Altschul’s new album, The 3dom Factor.

TUM Records

I’m a drummer, man. All I want to do is play. So any music I write, or that I thought about writing, or that I contribute to a band, was to stimulate a playing attitude, someplace to have fun in, to maybe be interesting, to be challenging, but I do not try to make a mark as a composer.

That’s from an extensive recent interview with fellow percussionist Harris Eisenstadt. Like Appleton, Altschul is quite happy playing others’ music, and doesn’t prioritize leading a band, so much so that he hadn’t recorded as a leader since 1985.

In my mind, these two albums are overdue returns, career-portrait recitals from veteran masters. Their experience isn’t the only lens we have into these artists, but it seems like an important one here. Do you have any favorite albums by elder statesmen and women in jazz? Let us know on facebook. Just search for kjemjazz.

What Is Jazz Night In America?

Posted by kjem

Along with NPR Music’s partners at WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center, we’re proud to announce a new public media initiative: Jazz Night In America. You can check it out on your local public radio station, as well as online at npr.org/jazznight.

Jazz Night In America is many things. It’s a weekly radio show from three groups that have all made nationally syndicated jazz radio for many years, with an internationally renowned musician as our guide. It’s a weekly concert video webcast from venues across the country. It’s a hub for video features, multi-platform journalism and on-demand access. All together, it’s a portrait of jazz music today, as seen through many of its exceptional live performances and performers.

Here’s how to experience it.

On The Radio: Every week, starting today, we’re offering a one-hour program centered on great concerts and the stories behind them. Christian McBride, whom you may know as a phenomenal bass player and bandleader, hosts the show. Currently, more than 100 public radio stations have signed on to broadcast Jazz Night In America, so check your local listings for when it’ll be on.

On Demand: On our new online hub, we’ll feature all sorts of content on demand. Our new Jazz Videos channel will gather highlights from our webcasts, documentary features and more series from NPR Music, such as Tiny Desk Concerts and Field Recordings. We’ll also spotlight audio and written journalism from NPR’s news shows or A Blog Supreme. And we’ll archive the radio shows and audio from the concert webcasts if you want to peruse them on your own time. Again, that’s all at npr.org/jazznight.

We’ve joined together as partners because we want to reach as many people in and around the jazz community as we can. We know, from decades of experience, that there’s immense power in music and conversation on air — that it reaches people like nothing else can. We know, from being fans, that this music demands to be seen live, so we’ve captured visually stunning concert recordings to simulate the experience as beautifully as possible. We know that today, people expect to consume media on their own time and schedules, so we wanted to enable you to do that. We hope to reach the people who live for this music, and we hope to make it easy for the curious to get hooked.

We’ve planned what we think is a great lineup — check out the webcast schedule on the homepage — and we’re certainly still planning. We’re confident that this music speaks strongly: of lived experience, of great labor and intelligence, of life-affirming artistic creativity. With Jazz Night In America, we intend to convey that in all the ways we can.

Copyright 2014 WBGO and Jazz At Lincoln Center. To see more, visit .

To Preserve ‘America’s Gift To The World,’ A Jazz Elder Becomes A UCLA Professor

Posted by kjem
Kenny Burrell performs at his 80th birthday concert in 2011.

Kenny Burrell performs at his 80th birthday concert in 2011.

Reed Hutchinson/UCLA

Just before 11 o’clock on a crisp Monday night in Hollywood, 82-year-old Kenny Burrell put his Gibson guitar in its velvet-lined case and said goodnight to several members of the Los Angeles Jazz Orchestra Unlimited. He had just finished an intermission-free, two-hour-plus set with the large ensemble, as he has done once a month since the summer. Waiting patiently among the suits and smiles was a 21-year-old guitarist eager to meet his idol. When the room finally cleared, Burrell was amiable and inquisitive, talking to the young fan about music and Michigan, where he grew up. Continue reading →

A DIY Guide To The History Of Women In Jazz

Posted by kjem
Trombonist and arranger Melba Liston is one of the women featured in a new documentary about female instrumentalists in jazz, The Girls in the Band.

Trombonist and arranger Melba Liston is one of the women featured in a new documentary about female instrumentalists in jazz, The Girls in the Band.

Carol Comer & Diane Gregg/Courtesy of the artist

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has issued a proclamation declaring Friday, May 10th, “Women in Jazz Day” — an attempt at cultural reform that’s bound to enjoy the same resounding success as . Which is to say: Nice try, Mr. Mayor.

Women in jazz certainly deserve to be celebrated. But trying to persuade arbiters of the jazz canon to make room for women as a fundamental, integral part of our history? You’d have better luck extending term limits .

The mayoral proclamation was occasioned by the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s premiere of , a documentary about female jazz instrumentalists from the 1920s to the present. Described by producer and director Judy Chaiken as women’s answer to Ken Burns’ Jazz (the 19-hour miniseries that only spares a minute or two for the contributions of women instrumentalists), The Girls in the Band has already seen its share of festival screenings and won a few awards. Herbie Hancock, who was interviewed for the film, brushed away tears of joy when he watched it, according to a press release.

The Girls in the Band brought a tear to my eyes, too, but only because I wish it had gone deeper and been afforded a little more polish, offering viewers an experience as vibrant and well-crafted as the music these women made. Continue reading →

Duke Ellington: Highlights Of His Twilight

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Duke Ellington rehearses for a 1973 concert in London's Westminster Abbey.

Duke Ellington rehearses for a 1973 concert in London’s Westminster Abbey.

Central Press/Getty Images

When received the news that , his songwriting and arranging partner of 28 years, had died, Ellington reportedly cried and told a friend, “No, I’m not all right! Nothing is going to be all right now.”

The cancer-stricken Strayhorn passed away on May 31, 1967, and Ellington himself would follow seven years later, dying on May 24, 1974, at the age of 75. But the Duke did not go gently into the good night of his own mortality; he toured incessantly in the last years of his life and produced late-period masterpieces such as The New Orleans Suite and The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse. “Who’s 70?” he said to a reporter who kept bringing up his age. “That’s an awful weight to put on an up-and-coming man like me.”

As his son Mercer Ellington later noted, Duke Ellington took Strayhorn’s passing as an impetus, born of necessity, to increase his own productivity as a writer. His discography from 1967 to 1973 contains numerous points of interest, such as The River (written for an Alvin Ailey ballet), a duet date with bassist Ray Brown (This One’s for Blanton) and a stellar piano-trio concert (Live at the Whitney). Here are five more glowing snapshots from the Ellingtonian twilight. Continue reading →

Black History Meets Black Music: ‘Blues People’ At 50

Posted by kjem

Amiri Baraka leaves the polling place after voting in Newark, N.J., in 2010. Amiri's son, Ras Baraka, is currently running for mayor.

Amiri Baraka leaves the polling place after voting in Newark, N.J., in 2010. Amiri’s son, Ras Baraka, is currently running for mayor.

The year saw the March on Washington, the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Medgar Evers, the bombing of the Birmingham church that resulted in the deaths of four black girls and the passing of W.E.B. Du Bois. That same year, LeRoi Jones — a twentysomething, Newark, N.J.-born, African-American, Lower East Side-based Beat poet — published a book titled Blues People: a panoramic sociocultural history of African-American music. It was the first major book of its kind by a black author, now known as Amiri Baraka. In the 50 years since, it has never been out of print. Continue reading →

A Sax Trio Taps Tradition While Thriving In The Present

Posted by kjem

Melissa Aldana and Crash Trio released its self-titled debut album in June.

Melissa Aldana and Crash Trio released its self-titled debut album in June.

Listen:

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=331709979&m=331751486

Melissa Aldana, who became the first female instrumentalist and first South American musician to win the International Jazz Saxophone Competition last fall, is not the average talent-contest winner.

Aldana plays tenor saxophone — which is unusual enough by itself, jazz still being mostly a boy’s club. On top of that, she has a big, fierce sound that carries echoes of nearly forgotten swing-era players like , and she’s got a distinct style accented by long, cleanly executed melodic lines.

One significant thing about Melissa Aldana & Crash Trio’s self-titled debut album is what’s missing: There’s no piano or harmony instrument. Some of Aldana’s favorite musicians recorded in similar settings; she says it’s an important step in her evolution, and that she likes the responsibility of outlining the chords, as well as the freedom to change them. Continue reading →