Jazz News: New Documentary for Dave Brubeck's 90th Birthday

Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way will air on Turner Classic Movies on Brubeck's birthday, December 6 - as reported in the Chicago Tribune...

 

‘In His Own Sweet Way’: Celebrating Dave Brubeck’s 90 Years - on Film

By Howard Reich 

Dave Brubeck will turn 90 next Monday, and of all the tributes sure to flow his way, one of the most endearing will be public: the broadcast of an ambitious documentary film on his remarkably enduring career. More...

Jaleel Shaw - "Bemsha Swing" (2008)

Jaleel Shaw on saxophone, with Chris Lomhiem on piano, Billy Peterson on bass, and Kenny Horst on drums.

Note: I had the pleasure of hearing Jaleel Shaw in person recently with Roy Haynes at the SFJAZZ Festival (my review). Terrific young player.

This Week in Jazz History: November 25 to December 1

November 25

• Cornetist Nat Adderley born 1931 in Tampa, FL.
• Alto saxophonist Paul Desmond born 1924 in San Francisco, CA.
• Pianist/composer Willie “The Lion” Smith born 1897 in Goshen, NY.

November 26

• Duke Ellington records “I’m Just A Lucky So-and-So,” 1945.
• Charlie Parker records “KoKo” at his first session as a leader, 1945.
• Louis Armstrong records “After You’ve Gone,” 1929.

November 27

• Bandleader/composer Maria Schneider born 1960 in Windom, MN.
• Violinist Eddie South born 1904 in Louisiana, MO.
• Pianist Jacky Terrasson born 1966 in Berlin, Germany.

November 28

• Drummer George Wettling born 1907 in Topeka, KS.
• Tenor saxophonist Lester Young records The President Plays with Oscar Peterson, 1952.
• Saxophonist/composer Gigi Gryce born 1927 in Pensacola, FL.

November 29

• Drummer Adam Nussbaum born 1955 in New York, NY.
• Trumpeter Lee Morgan records The Rajah, with tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley and pianist Cedar Walton, 1966.
• Composer/pianist Billy Strayhorn born 1915 in Dayton, OH.

November 30

• Trumpeter Jack Sheldon born 1931 in Jacksonville, FL.
• Louis Armstrong records Satchmo at Symphony Hall with drummer Big Sid Catlett and trombonist Jack Teagarden, 1947.
• Bunny Berigan records Bix Beiderbecke’s “In A Mist,” 1938.

December 1

• Saxophonist Jimmy Lyons born 1933 in Jersey City, NJ.
• Bassist/composer Jaco Pastorius born 1951 in Norristown, PA, and records The Birthday Concert, 1981.
• Tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin records Five Birds and a Monk with pianist Stanley Cowell, 1978.

Source: Smithsonian Jazz

Jazz News: The Bird's Old Roost

A New York Times piece on Charlie Parker's old apartment...

Where a Bird Played Sax, Now Others Find Refuge
By Corey Kilgannon

There are two signs in front of 151 Avenue B, a row house in the East Village facing Tompkins Square Park. One is a bronze plaque identifying the building as a former home of the jazz legend Charlie Parker, who lived in the ground-floor apartment from 1950 to 1954. More...

Jazz News: Brubeck Back in Action

Dave Brubeck is back in action after cardiac surgery, as noted in this story from the Worcester, Massachusetts Telegram-Gazette:

Brubeck Makes Up-Tempo Return

Ticker repaired, pianist keeps beat

By Peter Landsdowne

WORCESTER — Joined by alto saxophonist and flutist Bobby Militello, bassist Chris Smith and drummer Cody Cox, perennially popular pianist Dave Brubeck kicked off the 16th annual Mass Jazz Festival Friday night with a dynamic concert at Mechanics Hall that served as part of Music Worcester Inc.’s 151st Worcester Music Festival. More...

Happy Birthday, Coleman Hawkins!

Coleman Hawkins Quintet playing "Centerpiece," filmed in London, 1964. Coleman Hawkins on tenor sax, Harry "Sweets" Edison on trumpet, "Sir" Charles Thompson on piano, Jimmy Woode on bass, and Jo Jones on drums.

Jazz Poetry - “Eleven”

Eleven by Sterling D. Plumpp

There ain’t/No word

I ain’t/Heard.

ain’t/No word

Bird/Ain’t heard.

Language is an/Inventor’s

privilege.

I/Blow psalms.

I/Blow sinner’s deeds.

I/Blow prayer before death.

I/Blow curses.

I/Blow laughter.

I/Blow vocabulary of my axe.

You can’t/Hold

folks/Down who Be-Bop

but you/Kin hold

them/Up.

Every Be-Bopper/Renew

his/Subscriptions

to/Genius when he riff some

thing/New on his axe.

--From Velvet Bebop Kente Cloth (Third World Press, 2003)

Note: Sterling Plumpp was born in 1940 in Clinton, Mississippi. He grew up poor, working in cotton fields and corn fields by the age of eleven and prepared for the life of a field hand. But an aunt of his, who happened to be a bootlegger, had bigger plans and paid for him to attend school in Jackson. He earned a scholarship to a local college, but when the money ran out, he hitchhiked to Chicago and began writing poetry. He graduated from Roosevelt University in Chicago, had his first poems published, and began teaching English at the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC). His poetry often includes the rhythms of jazz (as does “Eleven”) and especially the blues. In a recent interview, Plumpp said that “bebop becomes the moment when people find their voices in some kind of collective process of innovation” - something that might apply equally to jazz (or poetry) as a whole. He has won numerous literary prizes for his twelve volumes of writing. Plumpp retired from UIC in 2001.

This Week in Jazz History: November 18 to November 24

November 18

• Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra records Hoagy Carmichael’s “Washboard Blues,” 1927.
• Trumpeter/multi-instrumentalist Don Cherry born 1936 in Oklahoma City, OK.
• Tenor saxophonist John Coltrane records “Alabama,” 1963, in reaction to the church bombings in that state that killed four girls.

November 19

• Drummer/bandleader Chick Webb records “Don’t Be That Way,” 1934.
• Trombonist/bandleader Tommy Dorsey born 1905 in Shenandoah, PA.
• Pianist Teddy Wilson records “Pennies From Heaven” with vocalist Billie Holiday and clarinetist Benny Goodman, 1936.

November 20

• Trumpeter Miles Davis records arranger Gil Evans’ version of “Concierto de Aranjuez,” 1959.
• Tenor saxophonist Don Braden born 1963 in Cincinnati, OH.
• Guitarist Skeeter Best born 1914 in Kinston, NC.

November 21

• Pianist Geoff Keezer born 1970 in Eau Claire, WI.
• Xylphonist/composer Red Norvo records “Dance of the Octopus,” 1933, with Benny Goodman on bass clarinet.
• Tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins born 1904 in St. Joseph, MO.

November 22

• Pianist/arranger Horace Henderson born 1904 in Cuthbert, GA.
• Trombonist /arranger/composer Jimmy Knepper born 1927 in Los Angeles, CA.
• Composer/author/conductor Gunther Schuller born 1925 in Jackson Heights, NY.

November 23

• Bassist/composer Ray Drummond born 1946 in Brookline, MS.
• Composer Johnny Mandel born 1925 in New York, NY.
• Drummer Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers record At the Café Bohemia, with trumpeter Kenny Dorham, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, and pianist Horace Silver, 1955.

November 24

• Vocalist Bessie Smith makes her last recordings, including “Give Me A Pigfoot,” 1933.
• Organist/arranger Will Bill Davis born 1918 in Glasgow, MO.
• Saxophonist/composer/arranger Al Cohn born 1925 in New York, NY.

Source: Smithsonian Jazz

Shorty Rogers - "Martians Go Home" (1962)

Shorty Rogers on flugelhorn, with Lou Levy on piano, Gary Lefebvre on flute, Gary Peacock on bass, and Larry Bunker on drums.

Note: When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth, on October 4, 1957, the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union was officially on. This became a national obsession for the next decade, culminating with the United States landing men on the moon in 1969. Jazz artists responded to the zeitgeist by producing songs and albums with space-related names. Generally, as in this case with "Martians Go Home," the music wasn't other-worldly at all and was merely given the name as a novelty.