The Week's News from Abroad in Review
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Posted by: editoron Friday, November 20, 2009 - 11:40 AM |
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But now, have fun reading about the week that was!
20. November 2009
Halfway House, New Orleans
The Halfway House has been nominated by the New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission which grants it building protection from demolition, as Danny Monteverde reports (New Orleans Times-Picayune). The building's owner, the Firemen's Charitable and Benevolent Association, plans to appeal the commission's action to the City Council. The New Orleans Jazz Restoration Society had sponsored the nomination; it also had ensured first roof and structural repairs to the building. Rebuilding plans had then been cancelled because of environmental concerns -- the 100 year old building had for decades housed a pest control company. The building had been a venue for jazz performers from ca. 1914 until 1930. The cornetist Abbie Brunies had led the Halfway House Orchestra which also made some recordings between 1925 and 1928. Monteverde's article also contains photos of the building from around 1930 and today.
19. November 2009
Eric Le Lann, Walter White, Lukas Ligeti
Francis Marmande talks to the trumpeter Eric Le Lann about his musical aesthetics, about the humanity he feels around jazz musicians, about his daughters, about what can be played after Charlie Parker and about the pianist Martial Solal with whom he has played in a duo context (Le Monde). James D. Watts Jr. talks to the trumpeter Walter White who is staging a "Sound Maze" each fall on his farm in Ithaca, New York, in which the people instead of looking for the way out look for the next instrument to play and to interact with people at the other instruments (Tulsa World). White also talks about the program he is playing with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra. Tom Service listens to Lukas Ligeti, the son of the late composer György Ligeti, who tries to bridge the worlds of "contemporary classical, free jazz and the experimental end of world music" (The Guardian).
18. November 2009
Wynton Marsalis
In an interview with William Lee Adams Wynton Marsalis talks about how important the blues is to his music and to music in general (Time). He hears the blues in a lot of different genres. Personally, he doesn't listen to pop music, or as he puts it: "I don't listen to any music that has a backbeat on it. If I hear a drum going boom boom bap, boom boom bap, I don't listen to it. Never." He also sees rap music as a "destructive path through everything that we see". The blues is an African American music, he says, "but all races play it". "It is a cultural disposition," and thus universal.
Jazz Index: Bibliography on Wynton Marsalis.
17. November 2009
Art Tatum
Terry Teachout reflects about why Art Tatum's centennial on October 13th went all but unnoticed (Wall Street Journal). Too less is known about his private life, Teachout explains and writes that "James Lester's 'Too Marvelous for Words,' published in 1994, is the only biography of Tatum". Teachout has not yet heard about a new Tatum biography by Mark Lehmstedt which was just published and gives a lot more information, but so far it is only available in German. But not only did Tatum keep private a bit too private to become and stay a household name, he also made his pianistics look too easy, Teachout writes. He refers to a YouTube video: "Close your eyes and it sounds as though someone had tossed a string of lit firecrackers into the Steinway. Open them and it looks as though you're watching a court reporter take down the testimony of a witness in a civil suit."
Jazz Index: Bibliography on Art Tatum.
16. November 2009
David Murray
Jim Fusilli listens to David Murray's new album "The Devil Tried to Kill Me" and talks to the saxophonist about the fusion of Guadeloupe music and jazz, in which he found it important to keep the "gwo ka rhythms at the core of the music, not to put jazz on top of them" (Wall Street Journal). Murray, Fusilli writes, had often been miscast, identified with specific styles and genres, while his output and musical interest is much broader. Murray agrees and says, ""I have to go in and out of genres to accurately represent myself." The last time Murray, who lives in Paris, toured the US with the Go Kwa Masters there were no vocals in English. "People were totally lost", he recalls yet is sure that the music "can please a wide audience".
Jazz Index: Bibliography on David Murray.
15. November 2009
Exhibitions
The Cité de la Musique, Paris' wonderful music center, shows a large exhibition about Miles Davis (Liberation, Le Figaro, Times Online). Its curator Vincent Bessières has seemingly collected everything, Miles' trumpets, his clothes, his records, his art work, and much more. The exhibition follows one that concentrated on Serge Gainsbourgh and precedes one on Frédéric Chopin. It can still be seen until January 17th (Cité de la Musique). The Jewish Museum in Berlin meanwhile shows an exhibition about the Blue Note founders Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, both of whom were born in Berlin but fled from the Nazis and emigrated to New York in the 1930s (die tageszeitung). The exhibition includes original photos by Francis Wolff, but also a notebook from the collection of the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt listing in detail all records in possession of the members of the 1930s Berlin Hot Club -- the most of them owned by none other than Francis Wolff (Jüdisches Museum Berlin).
14. November 2009
Dick Katz (Piano)
(b: 13.Mar.1924, Baltimore/MD; 3: 13.Nov.2009, New York)
The pianist Dick Katz died at the age of 85 from lung cancer. Katz was born in Baltimore and studied music at the Manhattan School of Music in the 1940s. He took private lessons with Teddy Wilson and in the 1950s regularly played with the clarinetist Tony Scott. In the mid 1950s he was part of the house rhythm section at New York's Cafe Bohemia, then toured with J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding as well as with Kenny Dorham. He recorded as sidemen with musicians such as Sonny Rollins, Carmen McRae, Roy Eldridge and Lee Konitz. In 1966 Katz and Orrin Keepnews co-founded the Milestone record label. In the mid 1980s Katz worked with the American Jazz Orchestra, and he also taught at the New School, the Manhattan School of Music and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Obituaries: WNYC, New York Times.
Jazz Index: Bibliography on Dick Katz.
13. November 2009
Black Jazz Writers
Patrick Jarenwattananon talks to critic Willard Jenkins about his series about African American jazz writers entitled "Ain't But a Few of Us" on Jenkins' blog "The Independent Ear" (National Public Radio). Jenkins started his series because he had noticed that there had never really been many African Americans writing about jazz. They talk about what would be different if more African Americans wrote about the subject and why it is so important that Black people are interested in jazz. Jenkins reflects upon why young black people are less interested in the music. African American publications probably would only get interested in jazz again if by chance it became a more commercial art form.
12. November 2009
Newport Jazz Festival
The online recording archive Wolfgang's Vault recently bought the archives of the Newport Jazz Festivals, as Ben Ratliff reports (New York Times). The archive includes more than 1,000 performances dating back to 1955. The company posts free streams from the archives on their website. It started with concerts from the 1959 festival by Count Basie (with Joe Williams and Lambert, Hendricks & Ross), Dakota Staton and Art Blakey and will soon continue with Ahmad Jamal, Joe Williams, Thelonious Monk and Horace Silver. The concerts can be downloaded in higher quality for 10 to 13 dollars. There is uncertainty as to who actually made the tapes. Bill Sagan, founder of Wolfgang's Vault, claims the recordings were made by Festival Network or their predecessor company who run the festival, while George Wein says he only started recording the concerts much later. There might be lawsuits about copyright issues ahead, suggests Ratliff and concludes: Enjoy it while you can. (www.wolfgangsvault.com).
PS (18. November): Meanwhile more shows were added, for example by the Ahmad Jamal Trio, Dizzy Gillespie, the Four Freshman, the Gene Krupa Quartet, George Shearing, the Herbie Mann Sextet, the Horace Silver Quintet, Jack Teagarden with Bobby Hackett, the Jimmy Smith Trio, Johnny Dankworth, the Mastersounds, the Oscar Peterson Trio, Maynard Ferguson and his Orchestra, the Stan Kenton Orchestra, Thelonious Monk and others. Aside from the music you can also hear enough audience noise to get a feeling of a (not always attentive) festival atmosphere.
11. November 2009
Jazz Echo
Germany's music industry has its own music award (a German equivalent to the Grammy), the "Echo" which from 2010 will present a "Jazz Echo" in a special award show, as the Deutsche Phono-Akademie announced (Frankfurter Rundschau). Dieter Gorny, the head of the Federal Association of the German Music Industry cites Till Brönner, Nils Wülcker and Roger Cicero as three musicians who helped find a broader audience for jazz in Germany. Record companies can submit artists until November 30th; a jury of twelve will then select the winners. The first show will be staged in Bochum, after that the Jazz Echo will be presented in different cities.
Correction:
The Stacy Rowles obituary of our last JazzNews contained some wrong information, including the date of her death. Here is an updated version (and we thank those readers who alerted us to the mistake):
Stacy Rowles (trumpet)
(b: 11.Sep.1955, Los Angeles; d: 27.Oct.2009, Burbank/CA)
The trumpeter Stacy Rowles died October 30th from injuries after a car accident. Rowles was the daughter of the pianist Jimmy Rowles with whom she performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1973. In the 1980s she played with the Jazz Birds Quintet together with the trombonist Betty O'Hara, but also toured with the Swinging Ladies, the Jazz Tap Ensemble and the band Maiden Voyage. Obituary: All About Jazz, New York Times, Los Angeles Times (1), Los Angeles Times (2).
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