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Thursday, October 22, 2009
Friday, April 20, 2007
A legend offers lessons in jazz and life
Grammy and Pulitzer winner Wynton Marsalis sits in at Springbrook
by Danny Jacobs | Gazette.net Staff Writer
Wynton Marsalis’ appearance Friday with Springbrook High School’s jazz band was like a great jazz song: a catchy beat with plenty of improvisation and multiple solos that left the audience standing and applauding.
For 90 minutes, Marsalis, a Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning classical and jazz trumpet player, taught the students on stage and entertained the 100 people in the audience, including band members from Springbrook and Briggs Chaney and White Oak middle schools.
Marsalis has held similar sessions with students across the country, and was at Springbrook in part because of Chad Arrendell, a senior trumpet player in the jazz band whose father is Marsalis’ manager. (Ironically, Arrendell was on a college visit Friday and not in school.)
Marsalis’ overarching message was simple. ‘‘Ultimately, it’s not just about the music. [Music] can help you understand life,” he said shortly after walking on stage in a gray suit, blue shirt and pale orange tie, blowing into his trumpet mouthpiece to warm it up.
The 20-plus-piece jazz band, having itself warmed up before Marsalis arrived, began playing ‘‘It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing,” one of three songs it played two weeks earlier on its way to second place at a national music festival in Anaheim, Calif. Marsalis walked around the stage looking over students’ shoulders and listening intently as band director Wyman Jones conducted.
Once the music stopped, Marsalis complimented the band and began critiquing ‘‘with love,” as he put it. He first asked who had ever heard Duke Ellington, the leader of the ‘‘greatest band in the history of planet Earth.” Only two students raised their hands.
Listening to and appreciating Ellington was the only way they would be able to play his songs, Marsalis said. ‘‘What chance do you have of speaking French if you’ve never heard it?”
By contrast, all of the jazz band members had written a biography of Marsalis before he came to Springbrook, so they understood the value of his advice, said Dara Wilson, a freshman trumpet player. ‘‘Having a person like that talk to you is very helpful,” she said.
Marsalis then delved into the actual playing of the song, riffing on politics and life as he made his musical points. Swing music, which he called America’s national rhythm akin to the samba in Brazil, reflects American values, he said. The bass and the drums can play their own sound but must respect each other in the context of the whole song, he said, much like Americans can be individuals but must respect each other’s individuality.
‘‘The highest and lowest notes have to be together on every beat, like democracy,” Marsalis said.
When discussing soloing, Marsalis ordered the students to play without looking at sheet music because, he said, a solo comes from inside. ‘‘The most valuable thing you have in life is your perspective,” he said. ‘‘It’s very important to have your own voice.”
For the students, though, the biggest thrill was hearing Marsalis’ musical voice as he played with them. ‘‘It’s one thing to have a classmate play with you. It’s another thing to have Wynton Marsalis,” Wilson said. ‘‘[I did] what many people dream of doing.”
Marsalis played the drums, piano and, of course, trumpet, trying two or three of the students’ ‘‘axes” before finding one he liked. ‘‘Trumpets are temperamental; they only like to play for their owner,” he said to laughter.
Braxton Cook, a sophomore alto saxophone player, performed a solo while Marsalis anchored the rhythm section on the piano. Cook won an award for soloing at the Anaheim festival, but was nervous playing with Marsalis. ‘‘I was so overwhelmed meeting a hero of mine,” Cook said afterward. ‘‘Hearing him play ...”
‘‘... You hear him on YouTube, but then to see him in person...” junior tenor saxophone player Joshua Glaser said, almost finishing the thought.
Marsalis wanted to see the brass section play notes with an edge. ‘‘Do-WHOP, Do-WHOP,” he played on Wilson’s trumpet, emphasizing the last note. (‘‘I’m not going to wash my instrument again,” Wilson said afterward.)
‘‘I want you to play hungry,” Marsalis said. ‘‘A lot of people paid a lot of dues to make this music.”
As time wound down, the full jazz band played once more, this time incorporating Marsalis’ instruction as he conducted. Cook and Glaser said they noticed a difference, and indeed the brass section attacked its notes, the rhythm section was balanced, steady and quiet during solos, and the soloists truly improvised.
American music is about talking, and playing music is supposed to feel good, Marsalis had said earlier, and the band was proving both to be true.
Still, Marsalis stopped the song before it finished. The students were expecting more tough love.
‘‘See how that sounded?” Marsalis said. ‘‘Good.”
The audience cheered.
by Danny Jacobs | Gazette.net Staff Writer
Wynton Marsalis’ appearance Friday with Springbrook High School’s jazz band was like a great jazz song: a catchy beat with plenty of improvisation and multiple solos that left the audience standing and applauding.
For 90 minutes, Marsalis, a Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning classical and jazz trumpet player, taught the students on stage and entertained the 100 people in the audience, including band members from Springbrook and Briggs Chaney and White Oak middle schools.
Marsalis has held similar sessions with students across the country, and was at Springbrook in part because of Chad Arrendell, a senior trumpet player in the jazz band whose father is Marsalis’ manager. (Ironically, Arrendell was on a college visit Friday and not in school.)
Marsalis’ overarching message was simple. ‘‘Ultimately, it’s not just about the music. [Music] can help you understand life,” he said shortly after walking on stage in a gray suit, blue shirt and pale orange tie, blowing into his trumpet mouthpiece to warm it up.
The 20-plus-piece jazz band, having itself warmed up before Marsalis arrived, began playing ‘‘It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing,” one of three songs it played two weeks earlier on its way to second place at a national music festival in Anaheim, Calif. Marsalis walked around the stage looking over students’ shoulders and listening intently as band director Wyman Jones conducted.
Once the music stopped, Marsalis complimented the band and began critiquing ‘‘with love,” as he put it. He first asked who had ever heard Duke Ellington, the leader of the ‘‘greatest band in the history of planet Earth.” Only two students raised their hands.
Listening to and appreciating Ellington was the only way they would be able to play his songs, Marsalis said. ‘‘What chance do you have of speaking French if you’ve never heard it?”
By contrast, all of the jazz band members had written a biography of Marsalis before he came to Springbrook, so they understood the value of his advice, said Dara Wilson, a freshman trumpet player. ‘‘Having a person like that talk to you is very helpful,” she said.
Marsalis then delved into the actual playing of the song, riffing on politics and life as he made his musical points. Swing music, which he called America’s national rhythm akin to the samba in Brazil, reflects American values, he said. The bass and the drums can play their own sound but must respect each other in the context of the whole song, he said, much like Americans can be individuals but must respect each other’s individuality.
‘‘The highest and lowest notes have to be together on every beat, like democracy,” Marsalis said.
When discussing soloing, Marsalis ordered the students to play without looking at sheet music because, he said, a solo comes from inside. ‘‘The most valuable thing you have in life is your perspective,” he said. ‘‘It’s very important to have your own voice.”
For the students, though, the biggest thrill was hearing Marsalis’ musical voice as he played with them. ‘‘It’s one thing to have a classmate play with you. It’s another thing to have Wynton Marsalis,” Wilson said. ‘‘[I did] what many people dream of doing.”
Marsalis played the drums, piano and, of course, trumpet, trying two or three of the students’ ‘‘axes” before finding one he liked. ‘‘Trumpets are temperamental; they only like to play for their owner,” he said to laughter.
Braxton Cook, a sophomore alto saxophone player, performed a solo while Marsalis anchored the rhythm section on the piano. Cook won an award for soloing at the Anaheim festival, but was nervous playing with Marsalis. ‘‘I was so overwhelmed meeting a hero of mine,” Cook said afterward. ‘‘Hearing him play ...”
‘‘... You hear him on YouTube, but then to see him in person...” junior tenor saxophone player Joshua Glaser said, almost finishing the thought.
Marsalis wanted to see the brass section play notes with an edge. ‘‘Do-WHOP, Do-WHOP,” he played on Wilson’s trumpet, emphasizing the last note. (‘‘I’m not going to wash my instrument again,” Wilson said afterward.)
‘‘I want you to play hungry,” Marsalis said. ‘‘A lot of people paid a lot of dues to make this music.”
As time wound down, the full jazz band played once more, this time incorporating Marsalis’ instruction as he conducted. Cook and Glaser said they noticed a difference, and indeed the brass section attacked its notes, the rhythm section was balanced, steady and quiet during solos, and the soloists truly improvised.
American music is about talking, and playing music is supposed to feel good, Marsalis had said earlier, and the band was proving both to be true.
Still, Marsalis stopped the song before it finished. The students were expecting more tough love.
‘‘See how that sounded?” Marsalis said. ‘‘Good.”
The audience cheered.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
The Words And The Days, Enrico Rava
by John Fordham
The Guardian
Growing into the kind of Miles Davis-sparked trumpet inspiration for the Italian jazz scene that Palle Mikkelborg has been for Denmark or Tomasz Stanko for Poland, Enrico Rava has become one of European jazz's major legends. This set follows up 2003's Easy Living, which brought a sumptuous brass-dominant small group to a mix of ambiguous, Kenny Wheeler-like music, tiptoeing tone-poetry, and nods to Ornette Coleman and the Miles Davis 1960s band.
Group-minded pianist Andrea Pozza is substituted for Stefano Bollani, and the feel is a little straight-jazzier - even if the Chet Baker vehicle The Wind has a ambient-music ghostliness in its slowly whoopy trombone countermelody. Echoes of Duke is an ecstatically riffy swinger, Serpent a spacily hypnotic, lonesome-Miles reverie, Don Cherry's Art Deco is turned into an early-jazz trumpet-trombone conversation, and there are two revisits to old Rava originals: the undulating Secrets and the Carla Bley-like Dr Ra and Mr Va. Rava's return to ECM has paid off handsomely so far.
View CD
The Guardian
Growing into the kind of Miles Davis-sparked trumpet inspiration for the Italian jazz scene that Palle Mikkelborg has been for Denmark or Tomasz Stanko for Poland, Enrico Rava has become one of European jazz's major legends. This set follows up 2003's Easy Living, which brought a sumptuous brass-dominant small group to a mix of ambiguous, Kenny Wheeler-like music, tiptoeing tone-poetry, and nods to Ornette Coleman and the Miles Davis 1960s band.
Group-minded pianist Andrea Pozza is substituted for Stefano Bollani, and the feel is a little straight-jazzier - even if the Chet Baker vehicle The Wind has a ambient-music ghostliness in its slowly whoopy trombone countermelody. Echoes of Duke is an ecstatically riffy swinger, Serpent a spacily hypnotic, lonesome-Miles reverie, Don Cherry's Art Deco is turned into an early-jazz trumpet-trombone conversation, and there are two revisits to old Rava originals: the undulating Secrets and the Carla Bley-like Dr Ra and Mr Va. Rava's return to ECM has paid off handsomely so far.
View CD
Friday, January 26, 2007
Wynton Marsalis drops in on the Hudson Valley for a benefit concert
By John W. Barry
Poughkeepsie Journal
The Oakland Raiders.
Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali.
Ichinoseki and Chiba, Japan.
The thread that binds these things may not be obvious. But the man for whom these things rank as favorites will likely be familiar to you, as the face and sound of America’s first family of music, a Pulitzer Prize-winning musician and director of one of the most prestigious jazz halls in the world.
He is Wynton Marsalis, a jazz trumpet player whose cherubic face has evolved into the very personality of that truly American, truly mysterious musical phenomenon called jazz.
Marsalis and his horn croon. They call. And they respond. Sound drips out of this guy’s horn like Sunday morning molasses over a stack of steaming flapjacks.
On Saturday, Marsalis and his quintet will play a sold-out concert at the Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill. This performance is a benefit concert for the Paramount, the African American Men of Westchester and Historic Hudson Valley.
“It’s just exciting for us to be able to feature someone like Wynton,” said Jon Yanofsky, executive director for the Paramount. “He’s provided an incredibly accessible point of entry into (jazz) and the history of the music for a lot of people.”
The American public knows an awful lot about Marsalis: he is the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and has won nine Grammy Awards. And many know of his brother Branford, who has played with Sting and Bruce Hornsby and served as band leader on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”
But what’s the deal with Marsalis and those Oakland Raiders?
“I like everything about them — their black and silver colors and their logo, their quick-strike offense...,” Marsalis is quoted as saying on his Web site, www.wyntonmarsalis.com. “They get amped up on the pressure of a big game, but they don’t get uptight. They’re ferocious, but they never lose their cool.”
And Sugar Ray Robinson? Ali?
“Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest, but my favorite boxer is Muhammad Ali.
Growing up in the ’60s and ’70s, I watched all of Muhammad’s classic fights on ‘Wide World of Sports.’ ”
Now, what about those two Japanese cities?
“For part of my early childhood, our family lived in a little town in Louisiana called Kenner, and I’ve always enjoyed the down-home feeling that small towns can have.
As a touring musician I have a lot of favorite towns, just like I have a lot of favorite cities. Ichinoseki and Chiba, in Japan, are two of my favorites. When we play in a small town, all the farmers and other local people will come to check us out, and we get a special feeling from being able to perform for the whole community.”
Raised in New Orleans
Marsalis grew up in New Orleans, the second of six sons, one of whom is autistic. At an early age, he heard his musical calling — loud and clear.
“My father was a musician,” Marsalis said during a recent telephone interview with the Journal. “I had an ability for it. I just came into it.”
At age 8, Marsalis performed traditional New Orleans music in the Fairview Baptist Church band. At 14, he was invited to perform with the New Orleans Philharmonic.
During high school, Marsalis was a member of the New Orleans Symphony Brass Quintet, New Orleans Community Concert Band, New Orleans Youth Orchestra and New Orleans Symphony. He was also admitted to the Tanglewood Music Center in western Massachusetts at age 17.
After moving to New York City to study music at The Juilliard School, Marsalis joined the Jazz Messengers and studied under the band’s leader, Art Blakey.
From Blakey, Marsalis learned “how to give everything all the time, to truly treat this like it’s a blessing to be a musician. His playing was always serious. He was always about it — in rehearsals, concerts, it didn’t make a difference.”
Marsalis went on to receive commissions to create major compositions for the New York City Ballet, Twyla Tharp for the American Ballet Theatre and for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.
Marsalis has also pursued a career in classical music.
“I like his classical trumpet playing more than I like his jazz trumpet playing,” said jazz trumpet player Matt Jordan of Poughkeepsie, who plays regularly at Ciboney Cafe in Poughkeepsie. “I like his technique. He’s got one of the cleanest, fastest, tongue-ing techniques — very quick, very fast. ... He synchronizes his lip with his mouthpiece and the valves that have to come down to play in perfect tune. Nobody does it better than him.”
In 1987, Marsalis co-founded a jazz program at Lincoln Center. Three concerts were held the first season, but under the guidance of Marsalis the program now stages up to 400 events annually in 15 countries.
In 1995, the Lincoln Center Board gave the Jazz Department status equal to the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera and New York City Ballet. Jazz at Lincoln Center now occupies a state-of-the art facility on Columbus Circle in Manhattan, that is home to performance spaces and a recording studio.
“Jazz is the art form of America,” Marsalis said. “It is appropriate for it to be in the heart of New York City.”
Poughkeepsie Journal
The Oakland Raiders.
Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali.
Ichinoseki and Chiba, Japan.
The thread that binds these things may not be obvious. But the man for whom these things rank as favorites will likely be familiar to you, as the face and sound of America’s first family of music, a Pulitzer Prize-winning musician and director of one of the most prestigious jazz halls in the world.
He is Wynton Marsalis, a jazz trumpet player whose cherubic face has evolved into the very personality of that truly American, truly mysterious musical phenomenon called jazz.
Marsalis and his horn croon. They call. And they respond. Sound drips out of this guy’s horn like Sunday morning molasses over a stack of steaming flapjacks.
On Saturday, Marsalis and his quintet will play a sold-out concert at the Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill. This performance is a benefit concert for the Paramount, the African American Men of Westchester and Historic Hudson Valley.
“It’s just exciting for us to be able to feature someone like Wynton,” said Jon Yanofsky, executive director for the Paramount. “He’s provided an incredibly accessible point of entry into (jazz) and the history of the music for a lot of people.”
The American public knows an awful lot about Marsalis: he is the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and has won nine Grammy Awards. And many know of his brother Branford, who has played with Sting and Bruce Hornsby and served as band leader on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”
But what’s the deal with Marsalis and those Oakland Raiders?
“I like everything about them — their black and silver colors and their logo, their quick-strike offense...,” Marsalis is quoted as saying on his Web site, www.wyntonmarsalis.com. “They get amped up on the pressure of a big game, but they don’t get uptight. They’re ferocious, but they never lose their cool.”
And Sugar Ray Robinson? Ali?
“Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest, but my favorite boxer is Muhammad Ali.
Growing up in the ’60s and ’70s, I watched all of Muhammad’s classic fights on ‘Wide World of Sports.’ ”
Now, what about those two Japanese cities?
“For part of my early childhood, our family lived in a little town in Louisiana called Kenner, and I’ve always enjoyed the down-home feeling that small towns can have.
As a touring musician I have a lot of favorite towns, just like I have a lot of favorite cities. Ichinoseki and Chiba, in Japan, are two of my favorites. When we play in a small town, all the farmers and other local people will come to check us out, and we get a special feeling from being able to perform for the whole community.”
Raised in New Orleans
Marsalis grew up in New Orleans, the second of six sons, one of whom is autistic. At an early age, he heard his musical calling — loud and clear.
“My father was a musician,” Marsalis said during a recent telephone interview with the Journal. “I had an ability for it. I just came into it.”
At age 8, Marsalis performed traditional New Orleans music in the Fairview Baptist Church band. At 14, he was invited to perform with the New Orleans Philharmonic.
During high school, Marsalis was a member of the New Orleans Symphony Brass Quintet, New Orleans Community Concert Band, New Orleans Youth Orchestra and New Orleans Symphony. He was also admitted to the Tanglewood Music Center in western Massachusetts at age 17.
After moving to New York City to study music at The Juilliard School, Marsalis joined the Jazz Messengers and studied under the band’s leader, Art Blakey.
From Blakey, Marsalis learned “how to give everything all the time, to truly treat this like it’s a blessing to be a musician. His playing was always serious. He was always about it — in rehearsals, concerts, it didn’t make a difference.”
Marsalis went on to receive commissions to create major compositions for the New York City Ballet, Twyla Tharp for the American Ballet Theatre and for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.
Marsalis has also pursued a career in classical music.
“I like his classical trumpet playing more than I like his jazz trumpet playing,” said jazz trumpet player Matt Jordan of Poughkeepsie, who plays regularly at Ciboney Cafe in Poughkeepsie. “I like his technique. He’s got one of the cleanest, fastest, tongue-ing techniques — very quick, very fast. ... He synchronizes his lip with his mouthpiece and the valves that have to come down to play in perfect tune. Nobody does it better than him.”
In 1987, Marsalis co-founded a jazz program at Lincoln Center. Three concerts were held the first season, but under the guidance of Marsalis the program now stages up to 400 events annually in 15 countries.
In 1995, the Lincoln Center Board gave the Jazz Department status equal to the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera and New York City Ballet. Jazz at Lincoln Center now occupies a state-of-the art facility on Columbus Circle in Manhattan, that is home to performance spaces and a recording studio.
“Jazz is the art form of America,” Marsalis said. “It is appropriate for it to be in the heart of New York City.”
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Marcus Belgrave on stage at Schwartz Center
What a Wonderful World” when the soothing sounds of Marcus Belgrave take the stage at the Schwartz Center, kicking off the new year and spring season.
Belgrave, an internationally recognized jazz trumpet great, came to prominence touring and recording with Ray Charles in addition to spearheading the modern jazz movement in New York.
Along with his seven piece band, Marcus Belgrave incorporates the three essential qualities needed to deliver a loving and convincing tribute to Louis Armstrong: a trumpet virtuoso with a naturally low, gravelly voice and stage persona full of warmth and joy.
“Louis Armstrong Tradition” includes selections such as “Heebie Jeebies”, “Blueberry Hill”, “What a Wonderful World” and “Hello Dolly.”
Belgrave’s “Louis Armstrong Tradition” will perform at the Schwartz Center in Dover, Tuesday, Jan. 16, at 7 p.m. Tickets for adults are $22, with a $19 discount for student, senior - 65 and older - and military,
Children 12 and under are $12. For more information or to purchase tickets call the Box Office Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. at 302-678-5152. Advance sales are encouraged.
Belgrave, an internationally recognized jazz trumpet great, came to prominence touring and recording with Ray Charles in addition to spearheading the modern jazz movement in New York.
Along with his seven piece band, Marcus Belgrave incorporates the three essential qualities needed to deliver a loving and convincing tribute to Louis Armstrong: a trumpet virtuoso with a naturally low, gravelly voice and stage persona full of warmth and joy.
“Louis Armstrong Tradition” includes selections such as “Heebie Jeebies”, “Blueberry Hill”, “What a Wonderful World” and “Hello Dolly.”
Belgrave’s “Louis Armstrong Tradition” will perform at the Schwartz Center in Dover, Tuesday, Jan. 16, at 7 p.m. Tickets for adults are $22, with a $19 discount for student, senior - 65 and older - and military,
Children 12 and under are $12. For more information or to purchase tickets call the Box Office Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. at 302-678-5152. Advance sales are encouraged.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
MF Horn VI: Live at Ronnie's
By Jack Bowers
In August 2005, when Maynard Ferguson and Big Bop Nouveau recorded MF Horn VI at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London, no one could have known or even suspected that the trumpet legend would pass away one year later, shortly after a series of sold-out concerts at New York City’s Blue Note nightclub and another recording session with BBN, this one a studio date in Englewood, New Jersey.
There’s a saying about cowboys and westerners who lived life to the fullest that “they died with their boots on.” Maynard Ferguson died almost literally with his horn to his lips, which is quite appropriate, as that’s how several generations of jazz fans remember him, exuberantly leading a band while producing those incredible high notes that were not only his signature but placed him among trumpet players in a class by himself.
By the time MF Horn VI, his first live album in a dozen years, was recorded the high notes were few and far between, as Maynard let the youngsters in his band do much of the heavy lifting, but he was then 77 years old, and certainly entitled to a breather. He was smart and affluent enough to hire the best up-and-coming sidemen he could find, and modest enough to realize that people no longer expected him to shatter glass but were happy to see and hear a showman who so clearly loved what he was doing and always gave them their money’s worth in terms of decibels and excitement.
There are some talented newcomers in this edition of BBN and a few holdovers including trombonist/music director Reggie Watkins and lead trumpeter Patrick Hession. There’s even a distinguished alumnus, Denis DiBlasio, sitting in on baritone sax. One of the newbies, pianist Jeff Lashway, is a real find, while veteran drummer Stockton Helbing continues his steady improvement.
After “Blue Birdland” ushers Maynard onstage, the well-structured program opens with Jobim’s “The Girl from Ipanema” and closes with the mandatory “MF Hit Medley” (at 11:47 the album’s second-longest track). Sandwiched between them are Slide Hampton’s classic “Frame for the Blues,” the lovely Johnny Burke / Jimmy van Heusen ballad “But Beautiful” (on which Maynard is featured most prominently), Miles Davis’ fire-breathing “Milestones,” Jerome Kern/Johnny Mercer’s “I’m Old Fashioned” (featuring a dazzling four- minute intro by Lashway on which he quotes liberally from the Gershwins’ “A Foggy Day”), and a grungy Alan Baylock original, “Blues from Around Here,” on which DiBlasio unleashes his remarkable chops on the bari and wows the audience with his Clark Terry-style scat-singing.
While DiBlasio alone is worth the price of admission, there’s far more to be appreciated, not least of which is the fact that the young musicians in BBN are first-class and that their peerless leader knew how to please an audience. To the very end, Maynard Ferguson was an awe-inspiring presence, and no less so here.
Track listing: Blue Birdland; The Girl from Ipanema; Frame for the Blues; But Beautiful; Milestones; I’m Old Fashioned; Blues from Around Here; MF Hit Medley; Blue Birdland (73:40).
Personnel: Maynard Ferguson: trumpet, leader; Reggie Watkins: trombone, music director; Patrick Hession, Ernie Hammes, Peter Ferguson: trumpet; Julio Monterrey: alto sax; Matt Parker: tenor sax; Denis DiBlasio: baritone sax; Jeff Lashway: piano; Craig Butterfield: bass; Stockton Helbing: drums.
In August 2005, when Maynard Ferguson and Big Bop Nouveau recorded MF Horn VI at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London, no one could have known or even suspected that the trumpet legend would pass away one year later, shortly after a series of sold-out concerts at New York City’s Blue Note nightclub and another recording session with BBN, this one a studio date in Englewood, New Jersey.
There’s a saying about cowboys and westerners who lived life to the fullest that “they died with their boots on.” Maynard Ferguson died almost literally with his horn to his lips, which is quite appropriate, as that’s how several generations of jazz fans remember him, exuberantly leading a band while producing those incredible high notes that were not only his signature but placed him among trumpet players in a class by himself.
By the time MF Horn VI, his first live album in a dozen years, was recorded the high notes were few and far between, as Maynard let the youngsters in his band do much of the heavy lifting, but he was then 77 years old, and certainly entitled to a breather. He was smart and affluent enough to hire the best up-and-coming sidemen he could find, and modest enough to realize that people no longer expected him to shatter glass but were happy to see and hear a showman who so clearly loved what he was doing and always gave them their money’s worth in terms of decibels and excitement.
There are some talented newcomers in this edition of BBN and a few holdovers including trombonist/music director Reggie Watkins and lead trumpeter Patrick Hession. There’s even a distinguished alumnus, Denis DiBlasio, sitting in on baritone sax. One of the newbies, pianist Jeff Lashway, is a real find, while veteran drummer Stockton Helbing continues his steady improvement.
After “Blue Birdland” ushers Maynard onstage, the well-structured program opens with Jobim’s “The Girl from Ipanema” and closes with the mandatory “MF Hit Medley” (at 11:47 the album’s second-longest track). Sandwiched between them are Slide Hampton’s classic “Frame for the Blues,” the lovely Johnny Burke / Jimmy van Heusen ballad “But Beautiful” (on which Maynard is featured most prominently), Miles Davis’ fire-breathing “Milestones,” Jerome Kern/Johnny Mercer’s “I’m Old Fashioned” (featuring a dazzling four- minute intro by Lashway on which he quotes liberally from the Gershwins’ “A Foggy Day”), and a grungy Alan Baylock original, “Blues from Around Here,” on which DiBlasio unleashes his remarkable chops on the bari and wows the audience with his Clark Terry-style scat-singing.
While DiBlasio alone is worth the price of admission, there’s far more to be appreciated, not least of which is the fact that the young musicians in BBN are first-class and that their peerless leader knew how to please an audience. To the very end, Maynard Ferguson was an awe-inspiring presence, and no less so here.
Track listing: Blue Birdland; The Girl from Ipanema; Frame for the Blues; But Beautiful; Milestones; I’m Old Fashioned; Blues from Around Here; MF Hit Medley; Blue Birdland (73:40).
Personnel: Maynard Ferguson: trumpet, leader; Reggie Watkins: trombone, music director; Patrick Hession, Ernie Hammes, Peter Ferguson: trumpet; Julio Monterrey: alto sax; Matt Parker: tenor sax; Denis DiBlasio: baritone sax; Jeff Lashway: piano; Craig Butterfield: bass; Stockton Helbing: drums.
MARCUS BELGRAVE: What a wonderful show it will be
By Zach Hanner, Star-News Correspondent
If you close your eyes for a second, you'll undoubtedly mistake the voice of jazz trumpet legend Marcus Belgrave for the man whose music he pays tribute to, the masterful Louis Armstrong. Since his teens, Belgrave has been a consummate pro, influenced by Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown and numerous other horn blowers.
Currently residing in Detroit, where he has performed on dozens of Motown hits, Belgrave hits the road frequently with his partner-in-crime, Charlie Gabriel, bringing the sounds of Louis Armstrong to modern audiences with their tribute show. They'll perform twice in the area this week: Jan. 11 at Odell Williamson Auditorium on the campus of Brunswick Community College in Supply, and Jan. 14 at Thalian Hall in Wilmington.
Currents caught up with Belgrave as he prepared to bring his eight-piece band to the area.
How did you get interested in music? The bugle was the first instrument that I blew. I was 4 years old. My father was a musician and he played in a marching band that would gather around in a local park and they would leave their instruments out lying around. I figured I chose the trumpet because it was the smallest one available.
What was your first professional gig? I was 19 years old when I joined Ray Charles' band. I was in the service in Wichita Falls, Texas; he was coming through there. I got a chance to sit in with him there, but I didn't get the gig at that point. A month later, he came through my hometown of Chester, Penn. He played at a place called the Harlem Club and one of his trumpet players told me he was leaving the tour. I had left with some friends to see Max Roach in Philadelphia, and when I got home this lady at the club told me they had been looking for me all night. Ray asked me if I could be ready to leave in an hour and I was.
What are your earliest memories of Louis Armstrong's music? My father loved Louis Armstrong. I first remember hearing him when I was just a little kid, but I wasn't affected by him until I was maybe 10 years old. I heard the tune When It's Sleepy Time Down South, and it brought tears to my eyes.
How did Armstrong's music affect your growth as a musician? Louis Armstrong helped me develop as an artist not only because of his playing but also because of his singing. At the time, I wanted to play bebop, so I put Armstrong's style of music on the back burner. But he was always a big influence on me as a performer. Later on in my life, people would always tell me that I sounded like him. I guess I had that same frogginess in my voice. I didn't hear it but so many people told me that I should sing his songs that I finally broke down.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, it's poignant that you're bringing one of New Orleans' most beloved musician's sounds to the world again. New Orleans is jazz. It's the birthplace of that music in America. The musicians that come out of that city are simply supreme. The reason for that is that New Orleans is music all day, every day. From birth until death life is celebrated with music. It combines African traditions, Portuguese and French traditions and it's simply the most beautiful melting pot in America. It's really the greatest American city, but sometimes it doesn't seem like you're in America.
What is it about the music of Louis Armstrong that makes it continue to resonate with audiences decades after his passing? His tunes are just so joyful. I really enjoy them so much and, if I'm lucky, sometimes Louis comes and visits me. Sometimes I'm singing and I hear his voice back at me and I think it's him.
Wilmington Morning Star - Wilmington,NC,USA
Currents: 343-2343
currents.wilmington@starnewsonline.com
If you close your eyes for a second, you'll undoubtedly mistake the voice of jazz trumpet legend Marcus Belgrave for the man whose music he pays tribute to, the masterful Louis Armstrong. Since his teens, Belgrave has been a consummate pro, influenced by Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown and numerous other horn blowers.
Currently residing in Detroit, where he has performed on dozens of Motown hits, Belgrave hits the road frequently with his partner-in-crime, Charlie Gabriel, bringing the sounds of Louis Armstrong to modern audiences with their tribute show. They'll perform twice in the area this week: Jan. 11 at Odell Williamson Auditorium on the campus of Brunswick Community College in Supply, and Jan. 14 at Thalian Hall in Wilmington.
Currents caught up with Belgrave as he prepared to bring his eight-piece band to the area.
How did you get interested in music? The bugle was the first instrument that I blew. I was 4 years old. My father was a musician and he played in a marching band that would gather around in a local park and they would leave their instruments out lying around. I figured I chose the trumpet because it was the smallest one available.
What was your first professional gig? I was 19 years old when I joined Ray Charles' band. I was in the service in Wichita Falls, Texas; he was coming through there. I got a chance to sit in with him there, but I didn't get the gig at that point. A month later, he came through my hometown of Chester, Penn. He played at a place called the Harlem Club and one of his trumpet players told me he was leaving the tour. I had left with some friends to see Max Roach in Philadelphia, and when I got home this lady at the club told me they had been looking for me all night. Ray asked me if I could be ready to leave in an hour and I was.
What are your earliest memories of Louis Armstrong's music? My father loved Louis Armstrong. I first remember hearing him when I was just a little kid, but I wasn't affected by him until I was maybe 10 years old. I heard the tune When It's Sleepy Time Down South, and it brought tears to my eyes.
How did Armstrong's music affect your growth as a musician? Louis Armstrong helped me develop as an artist not only because of his playing but also because of his singing. At the time, I wanted to play bebop, so I put Armstrong's style of music on the back burner. But he was always a big influence on me as a performer. Later on in my life, people would always tell me that I sounded like him. I guess I had that same frogginess in my voice. I didn't hear it but so many people told me that I should sing his songs that I finally broke down.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, it's poignant that you're bringing one of New Orleans' most beloved musician's sounds to the world again. New Orleans is jazz. It's the birthplace of that music in America. The musicians that come out of that city are simply supreme. The reason for that is that New Orleans is music all day, every day. From birth until death life is celebrated with music. It combines African traditions, Portuguese and French traditions and it's simply the most beautiful melting pot in America. It's really the greatest American city, but sometimes it doesn't seem like you're in America.
What is it about the music of Louis Armstrong that makes it continue to resonate with audiences decades after his passing? His tunes are just so joyful. I really enjoy them so much and, if I'm lucky, sometimes Louis comes and visits me. Sometimes I'm singing and I hear his voice back at me and I think it's him.
Wilmington Morning Star - Wilmington,NC,USA
Currents: 343-2343
currents.wilmington@starnewsonline.com
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
WCU hosts trumpet festival
Smokey Mountain News - Trumpet players from across the United States will converge at Western Carolina University for the Fifth Annual WCU Trumpet Festival, with several free performances throughout the Jan. 12-14 weekend, including a mass ensemble expected to top 100 musicians on stage at one time.
The festival has become the largest of its kind in the United States, and last year’s event brought to campus participants from 13 states and Canada, said Brad Ulrich, professor of music and festival organizer.
“This year’s event promises to be even bigger than the previous four,” said Ulrich. “The WCU Trumpet Festival has gained so much attention lately that the International Trumpet Guild, with a membership base of nearly 7,000 trumpet players from around the world, has become one of our official sponsors this year.”
Headlining the festival are internationally famous jazz trumpet artist Randy Brecker, who will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 12, in the Fine and Performing Arts Center, and classical trumpet artist Vladislav Lavrik, principal trumpet of the Russian National Orchestra in Moscow, who will perform in the Coulter Building recital hall at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 13.
Brecker has been shaping the sound of jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock ‘n’ roll for more than three decades, Ulrich said, and his trumpet and flugelhorn performances have graced hundreds of albums by artists ranging from James Taylor to Frank Zappa.
Lavrik is known as one of the most outstanding trumpeters of his generation in both the classical and jazz performance styles, Ulrich said. Born in the Ukraine in 1980, he was twice the winner of the Dokshitzer Competition of Young Trumpeters, and in 1994 won the Classical Heritage International Competition in Moscow.
In addition to their performances, Brecker and Lavrik will be leading clinics designed to provide festival participants an opportunity to learn tricks of the trade from master performers, Ulrich said.
Three university trumpet professors also will be offering their skills as conductors and clinicians: Ramon Vasquez of Auburn University, Gary Malvern of Furman University and Mark Clodfelter of the University of Kentucky. Clodfelter also will conduct a large trumpet ensemble made up of all festival participants at 5 p.m. Jan. 13 in the Coulter recital hall. Last year’s ensemble had 110 trumpet players performing simultaneously.
All concerts are open to the public free of charge. For more information contact Ulrich at 828.227.3274.
The festival has become the largest of its kind in the United States, and last year’s event brought to campus participants from 13 states and Canada, said Brad Ulrich, professor of music and festival organizer.
“This year’s event promises to be even bigger than the previous four,” said Ulrich. “The WCU Trumpet Festival has gained so much attention lately that the International Trumpet Guild, with a membership base of nearly 7,000 trumpet players from around the world, has become one of our official sponsors this year.”
Headlining the festival are internationally famous jazz trumpet artist Randy Brecker, who will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 12, in the Fine and Performing Arts Center, and classical trumpet artist Vladislav Lavrik, principal trumpet of the Russian National Orchestra in Moscow, who will perform in the Coulter Building recital hall at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 13.
Brecker has been shaping the sound of jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock ‘n’ roll for more than three decades, Ulrich said, and his trumpet and flugelhorn performances have graced hundreds of albums by artists ranging from James Taylor to Frank Zappa.
Lavrik is known as one of the most outstanding trumpeters of his generation in both the classical and jazz performance styles, Ulrich said. Born in the Ukraine in 1980, he was twice the winner of the Dokshitzer Competition of Young Trumpeters, and in 1994 won the Classical Heritage International Competition in Moscow.
In addition to their performances, Brecker and Lavrik will be leading clinics designed to provide festival participants an opportunity to learn tricks of the trade from master performers, Ulrich said.
Three university trumpet professors also will be offering their skills as conductors and clinicians: Ramon Vasquez of Auburn University, Gary Malvern of Furman University and Mark Clodfelter of the University of Kentucky. Clodfelter also will conduct a large trumpet ensemble made up of all festival participants at 5 p.m. Jan. 13 in the Coulter recital hall. Last year’s ensemble had 110 trumpet players performing simultaneously.
All concerts are open to the public free of charge. For more information contact Ulrich at 828.227.3274.