Entries associated with the tag "Jazz":

I’m no fan of Javon Jackson’s most recent album, Now (Palmetto, 2006), where the tenor saxophonist puts a tepid spin on R & B, mixing originals and covers of tunes associated with, e.g., Robert Flack and James Brown. But he's one of mainstream jazz’s most reliable players, a graduate of the informal school of hard bop known as the Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers. He kicks off a stint at the Jazz Showcase tonight that pairs him with redoubtable soul-jazz pianist (and occasional singer) Les McCann, still best known for his partnership with saxophonist (and Chicago native) Eddie Harris; their classic 1969 album, Swiss Movement (Atlantic), is one of the sacred texts of soul jazz. Here’s hoping that his presence will bring out the grit missing on Now. The band also includes Henry Johnson on bass and Rudy Royston on drums. The group performs tonight through Sunday.

Today’s playlist:

Guttorm Guttormsen Quartet, Soturnudi & Albufeira (Plastic Strip)
Original Silence, First Original Silence (Smalltown Superjazz)
Shelagh McDonald, Let No Man Steal Your Thyme (Castle)
Walt Dickerson, Vibes in Motion (Fresh Sound)
Various Artists, Não Wave (Man Recordings)
 

A Howard Reich story in Sunday's Tribune reported on the return of the venerable Jazz Showcase, which closed at the end of 2006 after losing its lease at its Grand Avenue location. The piece said the club hoped to reopen on Thursday at its new Printers Row digs (809 S. Plymouth Court, in the Dearborn Station building), and now it's official: Joe Segal's bebop temple returns with an engagement by pianist Junior Mance that starts on June 12. Music is already booked through July, including stints by Charles McPherson (7/3-6), Eric Alexander (7/10-13), and John Abercrombie (7/18-20).

Today's playlist:

Mariana Baltar, Uma Dama Também Quer Se Divertir (Zambo)
Shweta Jhaveri, Anahita (Intuition)
Islaja, Ulual YYY (Fonal)
Ranking Joe, Zion High (Blood and Fire)
Cheer-Accident, Variations on a Goddamn Old Man (Pravda)

Pianist Andrew Hill, one of the most distinctive, versatile, and important composers and improvisers of the last half-century, died of lung cancer this morning at his home in Jersey City. He was 75. Hill was born and raised in Chicago and cut his teeth on the local hard-bop scene, working with folks like Von Freeman and Malachi Favors, but it wasn’t until he hooked up with Blue Note Records in the mid-60s (after moving to New York to play with Roland Kirk) that he established himself as a major figure.

Beginning with Black Fire in 1964, Hill made a series of classics for the label that have slowly become recognized as part of the canon. His tunes were dense and filled with unexpected twists, both harmonically and rhythmically. During the 60s his work grew more edgy, and on his 1966 album Compulsion (just reissued by the label) he brought free jazz into the equation, with some particularly smoking horn work by Sun Ra saxophonist John Gilmore (one of his old Chicago running buddies) and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. But for the most part, Hill worked out of the post-bop model, even while his tunes demanded much more of his bandmates than the typical repertoire. He was quiet during the 70s, but enjoyed a late 80s renaissance that included a second stint with Blue Note. He spent the first half of the 90s teaching at Portland State University, then moved back to New York. After releasing a few albums for Palmetto earlier this decade he signed on for the final time with Blue Note, releasing the excellent Time Lines last year. 

By all accounts Hill was a quiet, gentle man. And unlike so many veterans of the post-bop era, he never stopped pushing himself and his bandmates to create something new and fresh. One of the finer moments in my own life was sharing a taxi with him and his wife in Istanbul back in 2001, where he was performing at a jazz festival. He was as sweet and kind as anyone I’ve ever met, and considering his artistic genius, he was modest to a fault.

Pianist Keith Jarrett gives his only North American solo concert of the year this Saturday, February 17, at Symphony Center. (It’s also his first solo gig in Chicago since 1985.) Jarrett’s Köln Concert, recorded back in 1975, set a watermark for the pianist’s grueling, epic solo concerts, where he sat down at his instrument without anything formally prepared; it was also a commercial smash by jazz standards. He’d just make it all up on the spot, and when one delves into the melodic and harmonic realm with Jarrett’s rigor and focus, each performance becomes like running a marathon.

Since being diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome back in 1996 the pianist has made the most of his recovery, performing frequently and releasing albums like he’s running out of time. Last year he released The Carnegie Hall Concert (ECM), a double CD recorded live in September 2005 that showcases the state of his solo performances now. The bulk of the collection is made up of a ten-part untitled piece that goes through all kinds of moods, rhythms, and melody, much of it subdued. It’s a dazzling accomplishment, especially considering that Jarrett doesn’t easily fall into familiar licks or gambits—he manages to keep a fresh spin on most of it. While I’m impressed by the music, however, I can’t say it moves me too much. I dig the pianist’s old group with Dewey Redman and Charlie Haden, and his trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette is pretty fine as well, but there’s a kind of deeply polished surface to the music that prevents me from penetrating it. Of course, there are an awful lot of jazz listeners that would consider me a fool, too. Can you tell me what I’m not getting?

Tomorrow night, January 4, marks the final night of jazz programming on WBEZ, and the station made a strange announcement about it this morning on the locally produced news program Eight Forty-Eight. Jazz critic John McDonough—a longtime contributor to Down Beat and a notorious enemy of most artistic advancements in the music over the last four decades—filed a report investigating whether the loss of jazz on the radio was really worth lamenting.

He interviewed some heavy-hitters in the local jazz scene—Lauren Deutsch, executive director of the Jazz Institute of Chicago, Jason Koransky, editor of Down Beat—who admitted that they don’t actually listen to jazz on the radio, and then interviewed his 17-year-old son and a few of his friends, who said they prefer listening to music on the Internet and their iPods. This, McDonough essentially said, suggested that music programming was no longer useful. I'll admit that I don’t listen to the radio much either, but I'm not the average listener. Neither is Deutsch or Koransky. We get loads of CDs in the mail and earn a living listening to them. If I didn’t have such access, radio would be the ideal medium to hear new stuff.

JIC alum Penny Tyler told McDonough she stopped listening to jazz on WBEZ because the programming was terrible, and it’s true that former music director Chris Heim turned the station's once-diverse programming to shit during her too-long tenure. But not once did McDonough wonder if better music might get audiences to tune back in. He did interview Tribune critic Howard Reich, who posited that most of the criticism aimed at WBEZ’s jazz programming was generated by local insiders bitter about their lack of control over it. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't, but there are an awful lot of outsiders who aren't listening to the programs. 

Finally, in the story's idiotic conclusion, McDonough said that jazz and blues (which is also getting the hook) weren't doing too bad in Chicago. As proof he pointed out that House of Blues has become a nationwide franchise, as if the club (which books jazz almost never and blues only sparingly) were some sort of homegrown operation done good, which it's not--it didn't start here and it's been a chain for more than a decade now. He also cites the presence of jazz at Ravinia and Symphony Center (each puts on maybe six or seven concerts a year) and the programming at the Jazz Institute as further evidence. But these are all venues that, much like WBEZ, focus on national and international artists, largely ignoring the individuals who are key to the local scene's survival.

The piece contained so many intersecting agendas that it’s hard to tabulate them all--a good chunk of the story took pains to explain that public radio's audience was best served by thoughtful news programming because it isn't available elsewhere (cough, cough). But ultimately it was WBEZ patting WBEZ on the back for its own controversial decision.

To listen for yourself, go to the Eight Forty-Eight audio library for January 3 (scroll down to “Music Programming Changes Hit Home”) and let the disbelief sink in. Then let’s hear what you have to say.