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Book claims Natchez as center of American music | Mississippi’s Best Community Newspaper

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http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2015/02/15/book-claims-natchez-as-center-of-american-music/

** Book claims Natchez as center of American music
————————————————————
James L. Dickerson, above, wrote “Mojo Triangle: Birthplace of Country, Blues, Jazz and Rock ’n’Roll.”

If Natchez had developed recording studios, it may have been given the reputation of a music city like Nashville or Memphis.

That’s the argument made by James L. Dickerson in his most recent book, “Mojo Triangle: Birthplace of Country, Blues, Jazz and Rock’n’Roll,” which claims that Natchez is at the center of what became American music.

The Mississippi River and The Natchez Trace, Dickerson said, put the area at the center of American music.

The river and the Trace allowed the music to travel from Natchez to other parts of the United States.

In fact, one of the first published American songs came from Natchez, Dickerson said. The song was originally titled “Natchez Under-the-Hill” but has undergone some changes and is now known as “Old Zip Coon” or “Turkey in the Straw.”

“It has been played many times in the Grand Ole Opry and (on) ‘Hee Haw’ over the years,” Dickerson said.

“Hee Haw” was an American television show in the ’70s that featured country music.

The birth of American music began when slaves came in contact with Native American music, Dickerson said.

Chanting and background beats characterized African music. Through exposure to Native American music, African Americans learned to harmonize.

The combination of African and Native American music creates the blues, Dickerson said.

Traditional Irish and Scottish music played by white settlers also impacted the development of American music, Dickerson said.

Irish and Scottish music had three and four chord progressions that, when blended with African American music creates the blues.

The blues then aided in the creation of country music, Dickerson said.

“The African music blending with the Native American music helped to create the blues first,” Dickerson said. “And then you sort of detour from the Trace to Meridian and you have Jimmy Rogers, the Father of Country Music. He took Irish music and added the blues to it and also listened to Indian music.”

Music claimed by Nashville and Memphis also came from Natchez, Dickerson said.

W.C. Handy, who is known as the Father of the Blues, added chord progressions to music coming from Natchez and much of the music that came out of Nashville traveled to the city from the Natchez Trace. Even New Orleans jazz was adapted from music heard in Natchez, Dickerson said.

Dickerson said Natchez is not credited as the center of American music today because the city did not develop recording studios.

“Unfortunately, Natchez didn’t develop recording studios like Nashville and Memphis. If (they) had done this to record the center of traffic no one would have questioned where the center of American music was,” Dickerson said.

Dickerson hopes that his findings will prompt the City of Natchez to develop an entertainment district.

“It would be great if Natchez would designate an American music street like Beale Street (in Memphis, Tenn.) You could have blues and country and jazz and rock’n’roll. You could have a wonderful music experience there.”

Dickerson’s thinks genetic imprinting is the reason so many talented musicians come from the area.

“One reason why so many big music stars have come from this triangle is that it becomes genetic after a couple hundred years. I think it really does get in our blood. I fully expect the next Elvis will come from Mississippi,” Dickerson said.

“Mojo Triangle: Birthplace of Country, Blues, Jazz and Rock’n’Roll” won best non-fiction book in the South from the Independent Publishers Association.

Dickerson will be at Bookland in the Natchez Mall from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, to sign copies of his book

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February 15, 2015 / No Comments / More

Jazz at the Philharmonic 1967 BBC JATP Clark Terry, Teddy Wilson, Zoot Sims, T Bone Walker- YouTube

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In addition to Clark Terry, James Moody and Zoot Sims this amazing concert also features Teddy Wilson, Bob Cranshaw, Louie Bellson and T Bone Walker.

Check out T Bone and Mumbles jamming on his mouth piece hand trumpet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-WwhDh894g

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February 14, 2015 / No Comments / More

Jazz at the Philharmonic 1967 BBC JATP Clark Terry, Teddy Wilson, Zoot Sims, T Bone Walker- YouTube

Check out T Bone and Mumbles jamming on his mouth piece hand trumpet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-WwhDh894g

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February 14, 2015 / No Comments / More

Jazz at the Philharmonic 1967 BBC JATP Clark Terry, Teddy Wilson, Zoot Sims, T Bone Walker- YouTube

Check out T Bone and Mumbles jamming on his mouth piece hand trumpet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-WwhDh894g

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February 14, 2015 / No Comments / More

▶ Clark Terry – Mumbles w/ Woody Herman – YouTube

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Clark Terry performing Mumbles with Woody Herman and the Young Thundering Herd. Recorded in 1985 at the Miller Theater in Houston, Texas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsw5jgWdwHY

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February 14, 2015 / No Comments / More

▶ Clark Terry – Mumbles w/ Woody Herman – YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsw5jgWdwHY

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February 14, 2015 / No Comments / More

▶ Clark Terry – Mumbles w/ Woody Herman – YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsw5jgWdwHY

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February 14, 2015 / No Comments / More

Report From the Grammys – JazzWax

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http://www.jazzwax.com/2015/02/report-from-the-grammys.html?utm_source=feedburner

** Report From the Grammys
————————————————————

http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401bb07efc500970d-popup
Jim Eigo of Jazz Promo Services (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/) sent along an email yesterday summing up what he saw and heard at the Grammys last Sunday. He flew out to Los Angeles to represent several Grammy nominees, and he took his two kids—Agnes, 16, and Jamie, 19. I asked Jim if he’d mind my sharing his email with you, and he said by all means. Here’s his blow-by-blow…

http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401bb07efc521970d-popup
“Soon after arriving, we stumbled on an armed robbery in progress on Hollywood Blvd. We thought it was a movie shoot at first, but it turned out to be the real thing. [Pictured above, Jim Eigo]
“Walking back to our hotel after Mexican food, we saw a guy have a heart attack through the window of a restaurant. Terrible.
“Also staying at our hotel were body builders attending a fitness expo. Sculpted bodies mingling with music industry types was pretty amusing.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401b8d0d56ae3970c-popup
“At the pre-telecast ceremony held at the Nokia Theater next to the Staples Center, the overall enthusiasm was very low. Gloria Gaynor (above) summed up the vibe succinctly when she said to the audience, ‘Are you alive out there?’
“After each category (there were 74), the losers got up and left.
“A special all-star jazz quartet featuring Joe Lovano, Robert Glasper, Nathan East and Billy Hart lifted the spirits to the level of polite applause.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401b7c74c0d92970b-popup
“The guest presenter for the jazz awards was John Waters (above).
“The most emotional moment came when the children of the late Gil Friesen, producer of Twenty Feet From Stardom, accepted his Grammy for Best Music Film. That received a standing ovation.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401bb07efc59b970d-popup
“After we left the pre-telecast ceremony, we ate at Smash Burger outside the Nokia Theater. Amusing to see everybody in black tie, gowns and spiked heels waiting on line for burgers.
“For the big live show at the Staples Center, our seats were in the nose-bleed section. When you attend the show that’s broadcast live, they announce you have 30 seconds to return to your seats. Funny to see everyone scramble.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401b7c74c0df0970b-popup
“Grammy pet peeve: When they used the small circular stage, they didn’t project the performers on the jumbo screen. So when Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga sang Cheek to Cheek, we had to strain to watch.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401b8d0d56b86970c-popup
“Buried in the live telecast were Herbie Hancock, who accompanied Ed Sheeran along with Questlove and John Mayer, and George Wein (above), who received the NARAS Special Merit Award.
“We hit the Grammy after-party at the Los Angeles Convention Center, but by the time we arrived there wasn’t a place to stand, sit or eat.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401b8d0d56ba3970c-popup
“We went to the jazz lounge to hear Justin DiCioccio and the 2015 Grammy Camp Jazz Session band. Then we went back to the main after-party to hear British pop-soul songstress Jessie J (above), who delivered a powerhouse set that had everybody up and dancing.
“Our flight home on Monday was cancelled due to the weather, so we flew into Washington, D.C., rented a car and drove back on I-95, passing the massive pile-up outside of Trenton.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401bb07efc61c970d-popup
“Finally made it home at 2 a.m. In L.A., it’s hard to separate fact from fiction. But at least my kids didn’t come down with the measles.”

JazzWax clips: In case you missed the televised show, here are my three favorite performances:

Here’s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZEChv1AaOk) Annie Lennox (with Hozier) singing I Put a Spell on You (move the bar up to 2:03)…

Here’s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-38idLPYDw) Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga singing Cheek to Cheek…

And here’s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25pxF8y9rUs) Usher singing Stevie Wonder’s It’s Magic…

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February 13, 2015 / No Comments / More

Report From the Grammys – JazzWax

** Report From the Grammys
————————————————————

JazzWax clips: In case you missed the televised show, here are my three favorite performances:

Here’s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZEChv1AaOk) Annie Lennox (with Hozier) singing I Put a Spell on You (move the bar up to 2:03)…

Here’s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-38idLPYDw) Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga singing Cheek to Cheek…

And here’s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25pxF8y9rUs) Usher singing Stevie Wonder’s It’s Magic…

Jazz Promo Services
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Warwick, Ny 10990
USA

February 13, 2015 / No Comments / More

Report From the Grammys – JazzWax

** Report From the Grammys
————————————————————

JazzWax clips: In case you missed the televised show, here are my three favorite performances:

Here’s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZEChv1AaOk) Annie Lennox (with Hozier) singing I Put a Spell on You (move the bar up to 2:03)…

Here’s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-38idLPYDw) Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga singing Cheek to Cheek…

And here’s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25pxF8y9rUs) Usher singing Stevie Wonder’s It’s Magic…

Jazz Promo Services
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USA

February 13, 2015 / No Comments / More

Clark Terry Is in Hospice

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For those who did not see the post on Clark Terry’s Facebook this morning

“It is with a heavy heart we share that our beloved Clark Terry is now
in hospice care. Gwen and the health care team are making sure that
Clark is as comfortable as possible. During this time the family is
asking for your prayers. If you would like to share your favorite
stories or YouTube videos about Clark, please do so here or on his
website athttp://clarkterry.com/#/guestbook/”

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February 12, 2015 / No Comments / More

Clark Terry Is in Hospice

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For those who did not see the post on Clark Terry’s Facebook this morning

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February 12, 2015 / No Comments / More

Clark Terry Is in Hospice

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For those who did not see the post on Clark Terry’s Facebook this morning

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February 12, 2015 / No Comments / More

Saturday Night Live: Joe Franklin Show Routine| Hulu

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http://www.hulu.com/watch/274128

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February 12, 2015 / No Comments / More

Saturday Night Live: Joe Franklin Show Routine| Hulu

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http://www.hulu.com/watch/274128

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February 12, 2015 / No Comments / More

Saturday Night Live: Joe Franklin Show Routine| Hulu

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http://www.hulu.com/watch/274128

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February 12, 2015 / No Comments / More

A musician wonders if he’s related to a famous jazz composer; | Genealogy Roadshow | PBS

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Segment begins @ 27:57

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February 11, 2015 / No Comments / More

A musician wonders if he’s related to a famous jazz composer; | Genealogy Roadshow | PBS

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Segment begins @ 27:57

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February 11, 2015 / No Comments / More

A musician wonders if he’s related to a famous jazz composer; | Genealogy Roadshow | PBS

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http://www.pbs.org/genealogy-roadshow/home/

Segment begins @ 27:57

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February 11, 2015 / No Comments / More

The do’s and don’ts of jazz according to Gregory Porter – GQ.co.uk

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http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/entertainment/articles/2015-02/06/guide-to-jazz-music-with-gregory-porter

** The do’s and don’ts of jazz according to Gregory Porter – GQ.co.uk
————————————————————

Don’t know your blues from your bebop? GQ meets the Grammy award-winning jazz vocalist Gregory Porter to learn about jazz gig etiquette and the genre’s defining artists.

The kings of jazz knew how to make it up on the spot, according to American vocalist and songwriter Gregory Porter (http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/comment/articles/2014-07/02/stevie-wonder-south-london-concert-2014) . Scatting, for example, actually started when Louis Armstrong forgot his lyrics and started singing “Do be do be do” to fill in. Hopefully then, the jazz legends of old will forgive us for asking Gregory Porter to tell us how to bluff your way through such a vast, knotty subject.

** Do expect jazz to be free
————————————————————

“What makes jazz different is that you can’t predict it, it’s all about freedom. Just when you think you know what you’re going to hear there’ll be a left turn, a jazz musician will change it up. Even if you’ve being playing together for years, there’ll always be something new. You’re constantly back phrasing, front phrasing, singing faster, singing slower. You’ll change the rhythm, change the tune, change it to 3-4. There’s just an endless amount of ways that you can constantly change and improvise.”

** Don’t assume you don’t like jazz
————————————————————

“Whether you like punk, grunge, or early rock and roll, there’s probably something in there you’ve been living with your whole life and you didn’t even know it was jazz. Lose your assumptions. You wouldn’t judge all classical music based on one Wagner tune that you heard. The umbrella of jazz is so big and so wide . If you don’t like saxophone, try a vocalist, if you don’t like vocalists, try guitar.”

** Do go to see jazz live
————————————————————

“You’ve got to find jazz live – because of the spontaneity, you never know what’s going to happen. When it works it’s genius. It may never happen in the course of a night but sometimes you can come out of a jazz gig and be, like, ‘bam, what just happened?!’ In the UK I’d recommend going to Ronnie Scots.” [GQ recommends Nightjar (http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/promotions/gqfoodanddrinkawards) .]

** Don’t think of jazz in the past tense
————————————————————

“Something I enjoy about my career is that there will be a nine-year-old and an eighty-nine-year old at my concerts. That’s dope to me. I got the mumma, the grandmother and the daughter. Don’t assume that jazz is the music of your grandfather or even your father. It’s a living music, it’s not this thing that sits on a shelf and gets dusty. As years pass you take the spirit and energy of that time and that gets put it into and changes the music.”

** Do clap (but only when you’re supposed to)
————————————————————

“The number one no-no in jazz is clapping or clicking on the one and the three beat. It ruins the swing! If you click on those beats do you know what you get? A children’s song. If you’re going to snap your fingers, always do it on the two and four – that’s where it’s suppose to be. The other thing is clapping before the solo is over. Of course, if you feel some joy, you can clap anywhere, jazz is a music that comes out of expression. But, if you clap too early people might think you’re tired of the solo, so it’s generally better to wait.”

** Do use the lingo
————————————————————

“If a tracks got a a got a good beat a real jazz man would say ‘mmm, that’s funky!’ (you’ve got to say the ‘mmmm’). If something’s got really good brass, when a trumpet player is really in a place, you say ‘he’s singin’. It goes back to the voice. And generally, you could always just say ‘that’s killing’ – you can use that about any instrument, ‘he’s killing on his instrument. That’s bad, he destroyed his instrument. He f***** those drums up! Church ladies don’t read GQ otherwise I wouldn’t put that in.”

Rex Features

** A condensed history of jazz, courtesy of Gregory Porter
————————————————————

** The voice
————————————————————

“For me as a singer, I think you have to start in terms of the voice, with Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday in the Thirties (although Armstrong had been playing the trumpet for decades before that). To bluff your way through a conversation about early jazz, you can always bring it back to how the most impressive thing about Louis Armstrong was his speaking voice. He had an incredible speaking voice, an incredible singing voice, and incredible playing voice.”

** Big bands
————————————————————

“You will know you are listening to big band because it is just this massive sound, this loud group of 18 or 25 player just doing all they can musically to support this voice. All of these elements create a pillow, a palette, a bed for the voice to float on top of. That’s an extraordinary thing. If you want to get into big band Ella Fitzgerald backed up by the Chick Webb orchestra, is one of the greats. Fitzgerald is one of the quintessential voices of jazz.”

** Bebop
————————————————————

“You can recognise bebop by its rapid succession of notes. Charlie Parker was the master and the foundation of bebop. He’s bebop personified. It’s less about being lyrical than what came before where the soloist would oftentimes consider the voice, try and compliment the voice, sticking closely to the melody of the song. Once Charlie Parker came in he was breaking down the chords of any particular chord that was being played, flipping a chord upside down, inverting it and doing all kinds of amazing things. Bebop really expanded jazz in the way it takes music apart and puts it back together.”

** Sixties onwards: experimental modern jazz
————————————————————

“You’ve got to start with Miles Davies. Miles was the leader. The hip thing about Miles was that he was in the big band era, the bebop era, but then he kept changing. So his fusion was ahead of his time. What came out after was free and experimental. That’s what I think jazz is now. When people say something is jazzy it almost means that it has that different angle, a freedom, and individualism not present in other genres.”

**
————————————————————

Jazz the influencer

“Jazz has fed into all sorts of modern genres from pop to hip-hop. Sting has been a genius in adding jazz and jazz musicians into his band. And he’s had top musicians from great bassist Ira Coleman to Branford Marsalis in his band. Motown was also genius in taking the skills of jazz musicians and using them in a more palatable way. You should always listen out for the ripples in music that have been influenced by jazz.”

Watch Gregory Porter on The Graham Norton Show tonight at 10.35pm on BBC1, or buy The Deluxe Edition of Gregory Porter’s album Liquid Spirit (http://po.st/os8PFw) out now.

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February 7, 2015 / No Comments / More

The do’s and don’ts of jazz according to Gregory Porter – GQ.co.uk

** The do’s and don’ts of jazz according to Gregory Porter – GQ.co.uk
————————————————————

Don’t know your blues from your bebop? GQ meets the Grammy award-winning jazz vocalist Gregory Porter to learn about jazz gig etiquette and the genre’s defining artists.

** Do expect jazz to be free
————————————————————

** Don’t assume you don’t like jazz
————————————————————

** Do go to see jazz live
————————————————————

** Don’t think of jazz in the past tense
————————————————————

** Do clap (but only when you’re supposed to)
————————————————————

** Do use the lingo
————————————————————

Rex Features

** A condensed history of jazz, courtesy of Gregory Porter
————————————————————

** The voice
————————————————————

** Big bands
————————————————————

** Bebop
————————————————————

** Sixties onwards: experimental modern jazz
————————————————————

**
————————————————————

Jazz the influencer

Watch Gregory Porter on The Graham Norton Show tonight at 10.35pm on BBC1, or buy The Deluxe Edition of Gregory Porter’s album Liquid Spirit (http://po.st/os8PFw) out now.

Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA

February 7, 2015 / No Comments / More

The do’s and don’ts of jazz according to Gregory Porter – GQ.co.uk

** The do’s and don’ts of jazz according to Gregory Porter – GQ.co.uk
————————————————————

Don’t know your blues from your bebop? GQ meets the Grammy award-winning jazz vocalist Gregory Porter to learn about jazz gig etiquette and the genre’s defining artists.

** Do expect jazz to be free
————————————————————

** Don’t assume you don’t like jazz
————————————————————

** Do go to see jazz live
————————————————————

** Don’t think of jazz in the past tense
————————————————————

** Do clap (but only when you’re supposed to)
————————————————————

** Do use the lingo
————————————————————

Rex Features

** A condensed history of jazz, courtesy of Gregory Porter
————————————————————

** The voice
————————————————————

** Big bands
————————————————————

** Bebop
————————————————————

** Sixties onwards: experimental modern jazz
————————————————————

**
————————————————————

Jazz the influencer

Watch Gregory Porter on The Graham Norton Show tonight at 10.35pm on BBC1, or buy The Deluxe Edition of Gregory Porter’s album Liquid Spirit (http://po.st/os8PFw) out now.

Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA

February 7, 2015 / No Comments / More

The Bill Evans Legacy By Doug Ramsey – WSJ

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http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-bill-evans-legacy-1423008187

** The Bill Evans Legacy
————————————————————
By

Doug Ramsey
Feb. 3, 2015 7:03 p.m. ET

Bill Evans, who died 35 years ago this year at age 51, has remained a central influence on how pianists play jazz. His conception of the jazz trio became the model for balancing the good of the group with individual freedom in the modern rhythm section of piano, bass and drums. And musicians unborn when Evans was at his peak are inspired by his harmonic concepts, the way he touched the keyboard, the flow of his rhythm as he phrased his solos.
Evans conceived of a trio that could master simultaneous improvisation. ENLARGE
Evans conceived of a trio that could master simultaneous improvisation. Photo: Getty Images

As a youngster, Evans emulated Nat King Cole’s light keyboard touch and melodic imagination, but what he called bebop giant Bud Powell’s “comprehensive composition talent” for improvisation directed his mature development. In a 1970 radio interview, Evans told the Norwegian journalist Randi Hultin: “There are some feelings which don’t make you emotional. They don’t make you cry, they don’t make you laugh, they don’t make you feel anything but profound, and that’s the feeling I got from Bud.” The Powell feeling suffused Evans’s best keyboard work, but Evans left a legacy that opened jazz to interaction and harmonic richness well beyond the norms of bebop.

Evans shaped the most significant music in trumpeter Miles Davis’s 1959 sextet album “Kind Of Blue,” the best-selling jazz recording in history. His interest in improvisation rooted in scales and modes, rather than in traditional sequences of chord progressions, was the basis of “Flamenco Sketches” and “Blue in Green.” Those pieces in “Kind Of Blue” had an effect on Davis’s tenor saxophonist, John Coltrane, as he lessened his reliance on standard harmonic structures and became an influence on generations of jazz artists. As for Evans’s playing, Davis described it in a widely quoted phrase as “like crystal notes or sparkling water cascading down from some clear waterfall.”

In a recent conversation, pianist Bill Mays called my attention to another Evans attribute. “People don’t seem to talk about his ability with rhythmic displacement of lines—that is, to play an improvised line that was not hemmed in by two-bar or four-bar phrasing. It might surprise you by starting later and ending later than you would expect.”

In his study “The Harmony of Bill Evans,” composer and pianist Jack Reilly says: “He changed the approach to the sound of jazz piano by his touch and his attention to pedaling, phrasing and dynamics.” Mr. Reilly emphasizes Evans’s “remarkable way of handling the possibilities of interplay within the piano-bass-drums trio.”

Evans had a vision of that interplay well before he found musicians who could help him achieve it. The work with Davis behind him, in December 1959 he finally formed the trio he had been hearing in his mind for three years. The young New York veteran Paul Motian was the drummer. The bassist was 23-year-old Scott LaFaro. Evans had heard him three years earlier in a Los Angeles audition. He recognized LaFaro in 1956 as talented, but according to Evans biographer Peter Pettinger, likened his playing to “a bucking horse.” Now, however, he had fluidity of thought and execution that was ideal for Evans’s concept of a trio that would “grow in the direction of simultaneous improvisation rather than just one guy blowing followed by another guy blowing. If the bass player, for example, hears an idea that he wants to answer, why should he just keep playing a steady background?” LaFaro made possible an even more fundamental element of Evans’s specifications for his trio: “Especially, I
want my work—and the trio’s if possible—to sing. It must have that wonderful feeling of singing.”

Pianist Fred Hersch detects a commonality between the Evans trio and the quartet of saxophonist Ornette Coleman, which also debuted on record in 1959. Coleman is inevitably identified as “iconoclastic” in histories and the jazz press. But “I can’t see now what the fuss was about Ornette Coleman,” Mr. Hersch says. “It was just beautiful playing, very lyrical. You hear lots of blues and Charlie Parker, but he just basically said, ‘Dump the chord changes.’ He approximated them sometimes, and sometimes not. What he did that was comparable to what Bill did was to let the rhythm section loose. He could invent harmony and Charlie Haden on bass would be right there with him. Bill opened up sonic space for LaFaro’s bass and, in a way, Ornette did the same thing. Ornette was the star, but Charlie was the supporting actor, just as Bill was the star and LaFaro was the No. 2.”

Alan Broadbent, a few years older than Mr. Hersch, acknowledges Evans’s singing quality as an influence, and says: “My aim was to have a swinging eighth note, and that comes by singing like a horn player. You can have a pianist’s technique if you like, but the feeling has to come from that same singing place.” He says that he doesn’t hear the Evans feeling in most of today’s young pianists. “I hear virtuosity for its own sake. I’m waiting for the kid who speaks to my heart just as Bill Evans and Sonny Clark did when they were kids. Early Bill Evans is deep in the swinging eighth note feeling. And somehow he learned to translate that into a three-person unit that felt it as one.”

Evans is so much a part of the jazz environment that many musicians who reached maturity in the 21st century are not conscious that his concepts are part of their musical DNA. Exceptions are Jeremy Siskind, an active player who also teaches at Western Michigan University, and Sullivan Fortner, a New Orleanian who plays piano in trumpeter Roy Hargrove’s quintet. Former students of Mr. Hersch, each was born seven years after Evans’s death.

Mr. Siskind calls Evans an influence but adds: “It’s pretty hard to say what comes from Bill and what comes from somebody who comes from Bill. Essentially, for every jazz pianist and rhythm section player out there, that kind of trio playing has become deeply ingrained. If you’re a bassist, for instance, who can’t capture some element of how LaFaro interacted with everybody in the Evans trio, then you’re not going to work much. I find it easier to play when I don’t have the whole weight on my shoulders, when surprising things are happening and I can latch onto an idea from the drums or the bass and let it take me somewhere unexpected.”

Mr. Fortner says, “It’s really hard to be a modern pianist and not be affected by Bill in some way, as far as touch and feeling and overall interpretation of tunes, especially ballads. He had a really, really big influence on me in ballad playing, and playing waltzes, because of the looseness and the density of his voicings and harmonic choices, which goes back to Bud, you know.”

A future seems assured for the Evans-Powell legacy.

Mr. Ramsey, a winner of the Jazz Journalists Association Lifetime Achievement Award, blogs about jazz and other matters at Rifftides, www.dougramsey.com.

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Jazz Promo Services
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February 4, 2015 / No Comments / More

The Bill Evans Legacy By Doug Ramsey – WSJ

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/jazzpromo https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jazz-Promo-Services/216022288429676
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-bill-evans-legacy-1423008187

** The Bill Evans Legacy
————————————————————
By

Doug Ramsey
Feb. 3, 2015 7:03 p.m. ET

A future seems assured for the Evans-Powell legacy.

Mr. Ramsey, a winner of the Jazz Journalists Association Lifetime Achievement Award, blogs about jazz and other matters at Rifftides, www.dougramsey.com.

Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA

February 4, 2015 / No Comments / More

The Bill Evans Legacy By Doug Ramsey – WSJ

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/jazzpromo https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jazz-Promo-Services/216022288429676
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-bill-evans-legacy-1423008187

** The Bill Evans Legacy
————————————————————
By

Doug Ramsey
Feb. 3, 2015 7:03 p.m. ET

A future seems assured for the Evans-Powell legacy.

Mr. Ramsey, a winner of the Jazz Journalists Association Lifetime Achievement Award, blogs about jazz and other matters at Rifftides, www.dougramsey.com.

Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA

February 4, 2015 / No Comments / More

Astoria Characters: The Sax Player | Nancy Ruhling

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-ruhling/astoria-characters-the-sa_b_6545442.html

** Astoria Characters: The Sax Player
————————————————————

A pair of pinstriped pants is hanging from the lamp. A breakfast bowl of oatmeal, half eaten, sits at the desk. A mini-trampoline, turned on its side, issues a challenge to a pair of five-pound free weights. A keyboard, clarinet, flute and a couple of saxophones are aching to band together to sing their stuff.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-11-23-Carol43.jpg

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Carol is the founder of Astoria Big Band.

Carol Sudhalter, the founder of Astoria Big Band (http://www.sudhalter.com/) and the quartet that bears her name, walks into this improv stage, which is her living room and the room she does most of her living in.

She hoists Betty, a big brassy baritone sax, and cradles it in her arms like a baby.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-11-23-Carol1.jpg

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Carol’s apartment is filled with music and memorabilia.

A reed-thin woman with a tightly wound crop of iron-thick curls and deep brown-black eyes, she manages to do this without looking awkward.

Betty, she remarks, is a big girl who has a full-throated, feminine voice. The other smaller sax, a tenor that Carol hasn’t named, makes more macho music.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-11-23-Carol.26a.jpg

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Music and mundane life intersect.

There’s this funny thing that happens when Carol smiles: She squints. When she’s holding Betty, her eyes turn into slits.

She’s grinning because she wasn’t supposed to be a sax player. Or, for that matter, any kind of professional musician.

Her father, Albert, was a noted sax player, and her brother Dick was a trumpeter and music scholar/critic. Her other brother, Jimmy, switched from the sax to business. Their history, as well as hers, plays out in her apartment.

Family photos line the walls. Dick’s books are in the cabinet with her CDs. And her father’s pipes are displayed by her music stand.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-11-23-Carol10.jpg

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Carol with her sax Betty.

But Carol’s parents, children of East European Jews, had a different career in mind for their only daughter. They didn’t realize that Carol, who learned her steady scales at the piano bench, wasn’t interested in playing the role of wife and mother.

“I came close so many times to getting married,” she says, “but I always ran away from it at the last minute.”

When it came time for college, she left her home in Newton, Massachusetts and enrolled in Smith College in Northampton as her parents instructed her to do.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-11-23-Carol15apsd.jpg

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Hands of steel, on brass.

She studied biology, which, she hoped, would lead to steady employment.

The thing was, she got very depressed the summer before her senior year. Therapy and playing the flute made her feel better.

“The music made me so happy I was flipping out,” she says.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-11-23-Carol16.jpg

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Carol started playing the sax 40 years ago.

When she graduated, she took a government writing job in Washington, D.C. She stuck it out only six months.

“I was having more fun moonlighting at clubs,” she says.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-11-23-Carol45.jpg

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
The sax waits solo.

In short order, she moved back to Northampton and began taking music lessons. Her studies — and gigs — took her to Italy and a variety of venues near and far.

It was at this time that she established the pattern that put her on her life’s path: work at anything and everything during the day (as a house cleaner, typist, secretary, Italian translator, medical transcriptionist and even music teacher) and jam jazz into the evening hours.

In 1978, she came to Manhattan to play in a band and two years later settled into the second-floor walkup she shares with her band of instruments and revolving roommates.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-11-23-Carol31.jpg

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Carol wants to study arranging and composing.

She focused on the flute until her father died some 40 years ago.

“The sax was his instrument,” she says. “He was such a perfectionist — he kept practicing the same parts over and over — that I never felt free playing it. It was at his funeral that I decided to pick it up.”

She brings out his sax. It’s a Selmer “Balanced” that she declares has a “beautiful, dark sound.” She got it from her brother Dick, who inherited it.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-11-23-Carol32.jpg
Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Carol playing Gonna Light the Lights Tonight.

“I love performing,” Carol says. “It gives me the chance to play beautiful tunes with excellent players; it’s an honor to play the tunes. And it gives me the chance to reach people.”

In the mornings, Carol rehearses and tends to bookings and other band business.

She devotes her afternoons and early evenings to teaching flute, saxophone and piano in the homes of her students, most of whom live in Queens and Long Island.

She’s not booking as many gigs as she used to. She sounds sad when she says this.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-11-23-Carol46.jpg

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
The stage is empty.

“Many of the clubs don’t hire bands any more,” she says. “They want them to play for free, promising them exposure in exchange. At this point, if I want more exposure, I’ll take off my clothes.”

She’s not going to fret about this. Instead, she’s decided to study composing and arranging.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-11-23-Carol40.jpg

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Where did the last 50 years go?

When Carol thinks over her musical journey, she’s amazed that she has managed to do what she loves for more than a half century.

“It’s been interesting,” she says. “And everything gets more pleasant as the years go by.”

Reluctantly, she places Betty, mute, back in the music stand.

Follow Nancy Ruhling on Twitter:www.twitter.com/NancyRuhling

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