The Independent Ear

Bassist Esperanza Spalding has led a bit of a whirlwind artistic life for one so young and fresh off their second release as a leader.  Esperanza,  the singing bassist’s sophomore release on Heads Up was rather promising, if a bit all over the map — as freshman label releases often are.  It proved to be a good calling card, landing the young woman on all manner of stages and festivals.  I witnessed on at least three occasions how Spalding, generally opening for some higher profile artist (ala Dianne Reeves at the Warner Theatre in DC), captivated audiences with the impressive dexterity of her bass work and singing.  Yes indeed, her original lyrics — seemingly part of her masterplan insistence, and which left  little room for her to truly breathe a song, tumbling out in torrents — could use further study, and her voice needs ripening and broadening, but evidence suggests that will surely come with experience.

Acclaim has come all along her sophomore trail, landing her in rarified atmospheres for a jazz artist, including an appearance on the Letterman show that was an instant YouTube classic.  These opportunities also included her recent stint on the televised BET awards show, which sparked some aw shucks post-show remarks from the bassist that gave clear indication that such experiences wouldn’t deter her on the road to creativity.  Last week Robin Givhan’s excellent and expansive Washington Post Style section piece  on Michelle Obama’s impressive White House arts events (7/21 edition), once again highlighted Esperanza’s (likewise pianist Eric Lewis‘) earlier White House performance, with a photo and this priceless quote from the First Lady: “She was such a series of contradictions; this little-bitty woman with an Afro and a bass with that angelic voice playing jazz.  You know, I love that…”  That mini-triumph led to a command performance by Spalding at President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony; as I said, rare atmospheres for a jazz musician.  And Ms. Spalding is indeed a jazz musician, despite her crossover appeal; and that’s what is continually promising about this young woman.  She makes no bones about the fact that she’s still very much on the learning arc, and still very much committed to playing the art of the improvisers.  One need look no further than her ongoing stint as bassist in the restless saxophone master Joe Lovano‘s bristling Us Five ensemble for some evidence.

More recently Spalding, who at the time of her engagement several years ago as a professor at her alma mater Berklee College of Music was their youngest-ever instructor (succeeding Pat Metheny in that distinction), has been appointed artistic adviser to her hometown Portland Jazz Festival.  Along comes her Heads Up follow-up release  its very title, Chamber Music Society, serving notice that there’ll be no gratuitous effort at capitalizing on her crossover success.  Instead she delivers an understated record whose initial listens promise further revelations with successive spins.  As opposed to fluffy pop, she’s put together a program with arranger Gil Goldstein (noted grad of the Gil Evans school) with her bass and vocals shaded by chamber strings and spare rhythm section, addressing material from the books of Dimitri Tiomkin, Jobim, Leonardo Genovese, plus eight of her originals, one based on William Blake poetry.  This coupled with interview pronouncements bathed in humility and strongly suggesting an admirable quest, are hopeful signs from this unusual young artist.

Continuing our investigation of folks who are endeavoring to present jazz in non-traditional ways and non-traditional venues (ala Search and Restore), our series of conversations with what has become a seemingly rare breed over the last 40 years – African Americans who present jazz on their stages — this installment is our chat with emerging young vocalist Chad Carter and his father Ted Carter, who are successfully carving out a Monday Night jazz series at Vicino’s, an Italian restaurant in Silver Spring, MD.

Detail the history and development of Monday Night Jazz at Vicino’s, and also your operation JazzKnights.

Ted Carter: JazzKnights is my son’s creation and idea.

Chad Carter: When we first started Vicino’s we were green as green could be on all fronts.  However we were blessed with creativity and the ability to do critical thinking to make our way through the art and business sides. The real reason Vicino’s is a reality for the music was because I needed a place to work at my [vocal] craft.  I was not getting the kind of work I wanted to get.  While musicians were being gracious enough to allow me to sit in on their gigs to do a tune here and there, and since I was not in school for music, I needed to go to the school of life through doing more singing and paying dues.

Chad’s debut was recorded live @ Vicino’s

Chad Carter’s odyssey has taken him through the Ronnie Wells and Ron Elliston jazz vocal workshop, gigs with the late DC drummer Ricky Loza, volunteer work on Wells and Elliston’s former East Coast Jazz Festival (re-christened last winter as the Mid Atlantic Jazz Festival), and sitting in with all manner of DC’s finest.  Graduate studies took him to Pittsburgh, where he became a regular at Pittsburgh Jazz Society jam sessions, and interacted with such Pittsburgh stallwarts as drummer Roger Humphries.  After graduate studies, in true DIY fashion, Chad began casting about for his own platform on the DC jazz scene.

Chad: I went through the process of canvassing the DC metropolitan area for potential venues that were virgin territory for presenting jazz.  When I first approached my Pops about Vicino’s he said, “No, I don’t think this would work too tough… it’s in the basement… and I just don’t see this…”  A few months later he re-thought Vicino’s and we went back and spoke with [the proprietor].  We tried one show, he liked it and the rest is history.

Over time we have developed the “basement” into a nice little supper club setting, with jazz photos, and artwork all over the walls, up and down the stairwell, and even in the bathroom.  I really wanted to create a bonafide “jazz joint” and club.  To do that we had to have all professionals in there from the start.  Eventually we have been able to get emerging artists in the rotation for shows.  However, the only rookie on the show rotation in the early days was yours truly.  After all, I sought out a place for myself to develop and grow.

JazzKnights developed when I was in a web and multimedia class while in graduate school.  I wanted to come back to DC and create an online community for musicians in the DC metro area to sign up for jazz webpages off of my site.  So, years later, I’m using JazzKnights.com for the online community for Monday Night Jazz.  The name JazzKnights came from my desire to protect and honor jazz.  I like the idea of being a champion for something, giving honor to an honorable and treasured art form.

So why Monday Night Jazz, and why Vicino’s?

Chad: Monday was a day that no one in the DC metro area was really exploiting as a viable evening for events.  Additionally, this happened to be the slowest night for Vicino’s, which made everything we brought to the business a bonus.  By locking in Monday night, any new business we brought to an otherwise slow night meant we were instant value added to the already successful Vicino’s business.

Ted: A1. A cooperative owner; B1. Slowest night at Vicino’s; A2. We were able to “lock down” Monday Night for our shows at the exclusion of anyone else wanting to be there for any other reason.  We had Monday Nights exclusively.  B2. [Vicino's] location is close to Metro, close to downtown Silver Spring on a familiar street (Sligo Avenue); and [Vicino's is] 500 feet from Georgia Avenue, the main [traffic] artery running from midtown DC well into Silver Spring and all the way to Olney.

Chad: Also [Monday Nights] helped to keep us somewhat under the rader while we got ourselves together (i.e. learning how to program shows, learning the etiquette for dealing with musicians, learning sound equipment and stage setup and break-down, email lists, website promotion, reaching out to the local radio station [WPFW], etc.), and even learning where in the room to best place the stage.  We are still learning!

Eventually Monday became an extension of the weekend.  Often times when we think of the golden years of jazz music and the clubs it was played in, we think of those intimate settings in a smoky room with amazing talent on the bandstand capturing the listening audience.  Well, that’s the charm Vicino’s brings… minus the smoke.  Before the jazz, Vicino’s was already a wonderfully quaint family friendly restaurant, serving the best Italian cuisine in Silver Spring.  The other thing that makes Jazz at Vicino’s so special is the owner, John Eshun.  As John likes to say, “you do the music, and I’ll stick to the spaghetti and meatballs!”

What kind of music menu do you endeavor to present at Vicino’s?

Ted: Straight-ahead jazz, some blues, American songbook fare.  In addition, these presentations are offered by very young musicians (i.e. inexperienced players) to old, seasoned veterans like [tenor man] Buck Hill.

Chad: We look to present straight-ahead jazz, blues, and plenty of vocal fare.  I wanted to create a jazz vocalist-friendly venue.  Unlike instrumentalists, vocalists are afforded the lyric to tell a story that only words and music can [convey].  Someone once said, “if words were enough to express human emotion, there would be no need for music.”  I contend that with the marriage of words and music, human emotion can at times reach its highest heights.

What do you see as the benefits of presenting jazz in a restaurant setting?

Ted: It provides an opportunity to satisfy several senses: visual, smell, taste, and sound; the appetizing smell, taste, sound, and visual offerings make it an experience to remember.  The overall atmosphere tends to be a relaxed one, and it can sometimes satisfy intellectual curiosity.

Chad’s latest is a studio date featuring Philly tenor titan Bootsie Barnes.  Keep up with Chad at www.chadcartersings.com; with Monday Night Jazz at Vicino’s at www.jazzknights.com.

Chad: I openly and unapologetically say, from a very self serving standpoint, it has allowed me the opportunity to work at my craft outside of practicing.  Putting the practice to work in a real setting is the greatest learning experience of all, its called life, living in the moment.  They say there’s no education like experience itself.  I was looking to get that education from experience and that’s what Vicino’s represented to me.  Presenting jazz in the restaurant setting has a benefit through the additional shared experience of people breaking bread together and enjoying an unspoken connection through the universal language of jazz music.

What have been some of your most successful presentations at Vicino’s?

Ted: Performances by [tenor saxophonist] Bootsie Barnes, [pianist] Danny Mixon, and [vocalist] Barbara Morrison.  [Some of our most successful presentations have been] whenever we have hard driving, creative musicians that like and respect their audiences as well as their music.

Chad: Some of our most successful presentations have been by artists who take a proactive role in promoting themselves, the supporting venue, and the music.  Many times one would expect the less seasoned and lesser known artist to take the more proactive role, but we have found that often times it’s the artist who already has some name recognition that go the extra mile in making phone calls, beating the bushes and the pavement to get people out to hear the music.

Are you looking to expand at any time, and what do you have coming up that you can share with the readers?

Ted: We are experimenting with Friday night jazz and blues on selected weeks.  We contemplated having a workshop series which would in some instances include music performances.  There will also be a continued attempt to integrate high school students and young people in general in our jazz and blues workshop series.

Chad: We are always “noodling” through different ideas.  We continuously try to think of creative ways to bring more people to the music via new twists on tried and true formats.  Going against the norm when possible is one of the things that helps us to standout as a unique experience, although taking these risks can be politically risky at times.

Plain and simple folks, as I’ve been preaching for many moons, the biggest issue facing jazz music is not a matter of lack of gigs or venues, dying record companies or jazz masters checking out for ancestry, or the lack of widespread 24/7 jazz radio; the biggest issue is audience, and our collective ability to grow the audience for this music.  I’ve long held that they’re out here — "they" being the latent audience for this music, the undiscovered audience for this music, the slumbering audience for this music.  After many years of teaching jazz courses on the college level, and hearing dozens of students exclaim that their experience with this music through my course was their first exposure to the music — and how a new world of music has opened up for them — I’m convinced there is a broader audience for this music than we’re reaching through our traditional means.

There’s a fresh web portal operating in New York City which is endeavoring to do its part to grow the audience for this music by providing timely information about who’s playing where in the five boroughs, and more.  But Seach And Restore is much more than an information-based web portal; they are also one of the entities behind the recent, and quite ambitious, 2010 New York City Undead Jazzfest.  Over two reportedly electric June nights in the Village, the Undead Jazzfest presented a 35+ group marathon festival at three venues not ordinarily known for jazz presentation: Le Poisson Rouge, Kenny’s Castaways, and Sullivan Hall. This was their first warm weather foray following two years of the very successful Winterfest, a similar jazz marathon presented in January to piggyback on the Association of Performing Arts Presenters conference in NYC.  Recently I sought out Sarah Charles of Search And Restore for the 411 on their efforts.

What is the mission of Search And Restore?

Search & Restore is a nonprofit organization dedicated to sustaining, expanding and exploding the live jazz audience in New York City among younger and bigger audiences.  Through creative concert presentation and SearchAndRestore.com, the best resource for live jazz in New York City, Seach and Restore aims to unite a community around forward thinking jazz and is determined to shatter the pretense that an audience needs to understand the music before they hear it.  Rather, Search and Restore feels that jazz being made today is some of the must human music ever made, and will bring these incredible melodies and improvised insanities to as many people as possible.  Don’t try and stop them.

How would you make the case for the basic necessity of Search & Restore?  And please detail the development of Search & Restore.

We’re just throwing the shows that we would want to go to.  When I moved to New York in 2006, I was 19 years old and every show I went to had incredible music, but there were a lot of issues present that I felt kept the scene from developing as a sustainable and dynamic community.  Most venues charged by the set, so you were basically ushered in and out of the venue for an hour of music.  On top of that there were drink minimums, and often times ticket prices that exceeded $20.  The only venues to see a great show for a cheap ticket were tiny, and a sold out show often meant some audience discomfort.  I knew that things could be better, so I started a monthly series at the Knitting Factory.  My goal has and will always be to value the audience and the music equally, as part of the whole, a positive and memorable event. 

The shows are often double bills, for one cheap cover, with a student discount, no drink minimum, and taking place in unconventional settings for the music.  The Knitting Factory series developed our community among jazz fans in the city, young and old alike.  Then when the Knit closed its doors we began working on SearchAndRestore.com, again making an effort to fill a void. 

I wanted to create a web site that was a true home for the modern jazz and improvised music scene, and was also a place for people who wanted to know more about the music but didn’t know where to start.  We started by taking the calendar information for every venue in the city that has jazz shows and putting it into our database, which we do by hand every month.  So, you can go to SearchAndRestore.com and find out what shows are happening every night, or see a venue’s calendar for the entire month all in one place.  We are slowly but surely making the move towards hosting much more original content, and in the next year SearchAndRestore.com will be the absolute best place to see dynamic video of all the amazing music happening in New York.  We really just want to provide a great place for people to go to discover new music.  Since the beginning I’ve built up a trust with the community that we only present and endorse what we think is great.  There’s so much magic happening in New York City and we want to show it to more people all the time.

Jazz accidentally became an exclusive and inaccessible art.  I believe that is due to the popularized academic notion that you need to truly understand the history of the music to understand what’s happening with it.  I’ve taken people to shows and they think they’re supposed to "get" something.  But they’re not.  There is a strong breed of modern jazz and improvised music being made right now that I believe is more human than anything.  You could have been born yesterday and let the music envelop you, and it would feel really, really great.  I’m in the business of music that makes people feel really great, and everything Search & Restore does revolves around that.  This music is for everyone; jazz is a music of the people, and we’re taking it back.

How can the jazz community best support the goals of Search & Restore and also become involved or engaged if they wish?

On the most basic level, the community can come to shows.  We’re always throwing shows and festivals and love seeing the recurring familiar faces as our community grows.  We’re all working towards the same thing.  Our organization has a large volunteer program as well. so if anyone would like to see great shows for free, they can email SearchAndRestore@gmail.com to find out how they can contribute to our operations of creative promotion, audience development, and the many other endeavors we have in the works.

Now that we are a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization we also of course accept tax deductible donations.  We haven’t made a full-fledged fundraising effort, but we will embark on one in the next few months to help get our video department up and running.  Finally, people can simply tell their friends.  Our web site really needs to offer what every jazz fan is looking for, and the more people who can dig into it, the more we can grow.

Where do you and your partners envision Search & Restore going with this, and ultimately what services do you see yourselves providing to the jazz community?

I believe at the core, Search And Restore is injecting a raw energy into the jazz scene.  Because we are so young, we’re able to approach our shows in a unique way, and audiences are responding to being dealt something different.  So, we’re going to keep upping the ante.  Eventually we’ll be able to have a weekly concert series, a new double bill each week that can bring people of all ages and backgrounds together to hear some amazing music.  We’ve felt the fire, such as with our 4 night Kneebody consecutive nights residency at 45 Bleecker in February, which packed in 200 people every night, many of whom were under the age of 25.  I want to access that energy more frequently.

But the Search And Restore video peogram is the real gold on the horizon.  Once we begin integrating live video into our web site, done the only way we know how — by filming everything [ourselves] — people will suddenly have an entry point to the NY jazz scene online.  These bands truly shine in the live setting, significantly more than on record.  And the albums tend to sound better once you’ve seen it live.  So, by giving people a quality video database of amazing performances, more and more people will be able to engage with the music being made today, and modern jazz can develop a sustainable scene, rather than barely hold onto the audience it has.  The next step will be to travel to festivals across the world and film the jazz produced at a local level, so that through SearchAndRestore.com people can get a great sense for where jazz and improvised music is at on a global scale.

I also want to shatter the barrier between jazz and the rest of the music world.  The current rock scene is more dynamic than ever, but it’s been very hard to develop any audience crossover.  It’s been happening between rock and the classical new music scene, but never with jazz.  Jazz shot itself in the foot with the fusion movement, which was so explicitly "rock + jazz" and I think it scared a lot of people off, and still does.  But there’s so much great jazz happening now that has a serious aggressive energy and pulse that is not far off from current rock and roll magic being created by bands such as the Dirty Projectors or Liars, or These Are Powers.  The list could go on and on and on, and by recognizing that I think Search And Restore can become a trusted entry point into great jazz for people who have normally rejected the music all together.

                                                            www.SearchAndRestore.com

COMING IN OCTOBER on Duke University Press:

An as-told-to autobiography Composed by Randy Weston; Arranged by Willard Jenkins

 "Randy Weston is a magical, spiritual, ebullient, and generous soul who just happens to be one of the most original composers and pianists of the last sixty years.  African Rhythms is his fascinating story in his own voice — a story that starts in Brooklyn and moves through the Berkshires, Africa, and Europe before returning to Brooklyn.  A wonderful read."

                         — Michael Cuscuna, jazz producer & writer

"African Rhythms is unlike anything I’ve ever read.  Randy Weston — pianist, composer, bandleader, activist, ambassador, visionary, griot — takes the reader on a most spectacular spiritual journey from Brooklyn to Africa, around the world and back again.  He tells a story of this great music that has never been told in print: tracing its African roots and branches, acknowledging the ancestors who helped bring him to the music and draw the music from his soul, singing praise songs for those artistic and intellectual giants whose paths he crossed, from Langston Hughes to Melba Liston, Dizzy to Monk, Marshall Stearns to Cheikh Anta Diop.  And in the process, Mr. Weston bares his soul, revealing a man overflowing with ancient wisdom, humility, respect for history, and a capacity for creating some of the most astoundingly beautiful music the modern world has ever experienced."

                        – Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original                                                

 Last Tuesday evening at the Jazz Standard, fortified by a plate of succulent ribs and amidst an appreciative audience, sonic rewards were plentiful from pianist Orrin Evans once again offering ample evidence that his arc continues on the rise.  That evening and the next at the agreeable East Side joint, Evans piloted a rough & ready quartet with Eric Revis on bass, that Buddah of zest-for-life drumming Ralph Peterson, and the too often overlooked, ever-dapper tenor man Tim Warfield. Casually dressed for the heat & humidity, newsboy topper in place amidst his be-suited bandmembers, Evans delivered as always.

(Faith in Action on the Polytone label is Orrin Evans’ latest effort.  He’s working towards a big band date that’ll feature musicians from New York and his home base Philadelphia.)

The first set was built amidst on-the-fly thoughtful improvisation so rigorous that by the second piece Revis – the heartbeat of this quartet and the one who seems to have the most telepathic connection to the leader - had already sweat through his suit jacket by the time they finished the piece "Miles", dedicated to Evans’ young son.  A trickster arrangement of Mingus’ seldom interpreted "Scenes in the City" found Warfield circling the theme then darting to the bullseye essence of that typically enchanting Mingus melody as the piece unfolded. 

Orrin Evans consistently challenges himself and his mates, ever mindful of the traditional values, but prodding and plotting originality all along the watchtower.  Contemplation begat some swinging business as the family guy’s fine tribute to his mother-in-law "Dita" unfolded.  Now how often do you hear warm, sincere in-law tributes? 

The 2011 class of National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters, the highest honor this country bestows on living jazz artists and advocates, is not without controversy.  There’s been much conversation about the unprecedented elevation of the entire Marsalis Family; and just the other day while doing some research at the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University’s Newark campus, I overheard two musicians debating the merits of Johnny Mandel being named a NEA Jazz Master to represent the composer/arranger’s art on this occasion.  Their words were to the effect that Mandel’s merits otherwise are without question, but as a jazz master(?).  From my perspective Mandel’s wizardry on NEA Jazz Master Shirley Horn’s striking album Here’s to Life, with strings, alone would bear this consideration; evidence: the title track and especially the heartbreaking string arrangement on "If You Love Me."

But the name from this year’s class that took me back a bit, in a fit of warm nostalgia, was flutist Hubert Laws.  In jazz there have been few absolutes, despite decades of all manner of popularity polls.  Sure, there are a handful that standout; for example the greatest living tenor saxophonist is without question NEA Jazz Master Sonny Rollins; and the three pillars of jazz history remain Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Parker, the fourth being a tossup between NEA Jazz Master Miles Davis and John Coltrane. 

Another of the few certainties is that Hubert Laws is the greatest living flute specialist in jazz history.  Notice I said specialist; certainly his peers on the instrument include such worthies as fellow NEA Jazz Masters Yusef Lateef, James Moody, and the late Eric Dolphy, (who unfortunately passed prior to the inception of the program in ’82) – doublers all.  The case for Laws is admittedly weakened by several choices of recorded material, including a soft underbelly of flyweight fluff from his CTI days.  But it is precisely that segment of the Laws discography, bordered by a couple of fine earlier dates for the Atlantic label, that is the core of his recorded work to consider.  Those CTI dates, which carry me back to my formative college years in the late 60s/early 70s, were also notable for ample displays of Hubert Laws’ enormous classical chops.  And there’s where some may get stuck in their consideration of Laws jazz credentials.

There are some who dismiss Laws for the crystal clarity of his dexterity, or his rich and pristine tone on the instrument — ‘lacks grit’ some might declare.  But for serious consideration of Hubert Laws considerable jazz bonafides, don’t sleep on the following performances:

"Airegin" from In The Beginning (CTI)

"Equinox" from Wild Flower (Atlantic)

"Windows" from Laws Cause (Atlantic)

"Moment’s Notice" from In The Beginning (CTI) (also available on a "Best Of" compilation on Columbia)

 Though still in progress with James Gavin’s thick new volume on the life & times of the recently departed ancestor Lena Horne, several in-progress observations give high marks to the writer’s thorough, detailed efforts.  Gavin, who penned the equally-rewarding Chet Baker bio The Long Night of Chet Baker, details La Horne’s vivid and often troubling life, a life full of seemingly equal measures of heartache & triumph from the moment of her life’s inception in Brooklyn, pulls no punches in telling it like it was, and delivering a balanced sense of Lena’s life through the lens of someone possessing deep admiration coupled with the often gritty realities of her life.

I’ve lifted a couple of sample paragraphs to give some sense of Gavin’s craft, beginning with this passage on Horne’s early chorus-girl days:

    "But in their attic dressing room, Webb’s chorines [dancer-choreographer Elida Webb] faced the tawdry realities of show business seven nights a week.  They were crowded into a long, narrow space, one side occupied by racks of costumes, the other by dressing tables and mirrors.  The dingy walls were hung with mirrors and the dancers sat elbow to elbow, budget cosmetics and overflowing ashtrays spread out in front of them.  Outfits were slung over chairs, and the air reeked of perfume, cigarettes, and sweat.  It was a typical backstage chorus-girl scene; dancers at most of the big white nightclubs had it no better."

Throughout the book Gavin repeatedly takes the reader back to the scene of Horne’s various exploits, pratfalls and all, with an unerring eye to detail; the kind of detail that makes the reader a veritable fly on the wall of 20th century show business history, in "sepia" tonalities. 

Here’s a later passage from Horne’s earliest Broadway star turn, as part of the determined integrationist impressario Lew Leslie’s doomed show "Blackbirds of 1939":

    "Finally, on  February 11, Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds of 1939: A Harlem Rhapshody opened at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre.  After all the turmoil, the results reeked of haste and desperation.  The show looked like a bus-and-truck version of a Cotton Club review [The notorious, tough-on-black-asses Cotton Club was Ms. Horne's show biz entry point, as a teenaged chorine].  Its dancers executed a cyclone of punishing moves, but the sketches seemed pale and cliched.  There were a few entertaining songs by the team of Johnny Mercer and Rube Bloom (who would soon write "Fools Rush In"), and some memorable scenes.  In the opener, "Children of the Earth," hands pushed up through the ground and wriggled like snakes.  "Frankie and Johnny," the old folks song about a murderous woman, was spun inot a fully staged courtroom scene; this time Johnny was tried for shooting Frankie, and jurors, lawyers, and defendant sang their testimony."

This is one of many examples of how Gavin turns back the hands of time and places the reader squarely in a box seat at the Hudson Theatre for this vivid glimpse of one of Horne’s earliest tribulations, prior to the great triumphs of her hall-of-fame career. 

The book is Stormy Weather – The Life of Lena Horne by James Gavin (pub: Atria), and it is highly recommended.   

 Monday, June 14 marked the annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz (JJA) Awards event.  The venue City Winery proved to be quite the ambient locale for what has become a jazz community tradition.  As the tribes gathered to schmooze, catch-up on news, hugs and air kisses, and just generally revel in the greatness of jazz music (and the auspicious list of jazz greats on hand), I was reminded not so much of the actual birth of the JJA as it’s conception. 

JJA was actually conceived at A Jazz Media Symposium, May 20-22 at the University of Illinois-Chicago.  The symposium was produced by Arts Midwest, co-sponsored by DownBeat magazine, and at the time I was Jazz Program Coordinator at that Arts Midwest, a regional arts rganization (a relationship I’ve happily renewed more recently with my work as coordinator of the NEA Jazz Masters Live project for Arts Midwest via the National Endowment for the Arts).  As Wayne Self, a fellow writer who at the time was also on staff at Arts Midwest, and I hammered out the details for the symposium our primary goal was the development of a jazz writer’s association and a concurrent jazz radio programmers association; the former proved much more successful (i.e. the JJA), while the latter remains in the we’ll-see category.  There have been various collectives of jazz radio stations and programmers, but nothing approaching the success or longevity of the JJA; and for that the primary thanks goes to the JJA’s tireless and longtime Pres. Howard Mandel. 

Our symposium featured general sessions on "Record Companies & the Media"; "The Future of Jazz: Hope or Hype?"; and jazz writer-specific sessions on "Plugging into Outlets: Jazz Writing Opportunities Today & Tomorrow"; "Jazz Journalism: Responsibility & Function;" and a Day 1 closing general session on "Musicians & the Jazz Media: A Dialogue" between writers, programmers and musicians.  Our closing general sessions on Sunday included separate feasibility studies on "Establishing an American jazz radio network and a jazz writer’s guild" — thus the eventual birth of the Jazz Journalists Association, whose first president was writer Art Lange, who at the time was concluding a stint as editor of DB.

On the writer side the panelists for those sessions included Mandel and Lange, Paul Baker, Leslie Gourse, the late Gene Lees, Bill Millkowski, Don Palmer, Neil Tesser (who wore both his writer and radio hats for the occasion), and Kevin Whitehead (Stanley Crouch, scheduled to appear, stiffed — another story/another time).  Other symposium participants included musicians Bunky Green, Ernie Krivda, Ben Sidran (also wearing his radio syndication hat), Bill Smith (ditto his Coda magazine hat), and Douglas Ewart.  Radio folks included the late Oscar Treadwell ("An Oscar for Treadwell"), Bob Porter (also wearing his writer hat), Sandy Ratley (NPR at the time), and Linda Yohn.  The record industry was repped by such panelists as Terri Hinte, Don Lucoff (pre-DL Media), and Ricky Schultz.  The evening hits were provided by the annual UIC Jazz Festival, including Dizzy Gillespie, and the Count Basie Orchestra, and of course the ever-lively Chicago jazz scene.

And a productive time was had by all, particularly the assembled journalists.  So there you have the conception of the JJA.  For membership, complete details on this year’s Jazz Awards, and other timely & useful jazz news & views, be sure to visit (and bookmark) WWW.JAZZHOUSE.ORG.

— Willard Jenkins, Founding Member, Jazz Journalists Association

 Coming this fall: African Rhythms, the autobiography of Randy Weston, composed by NEA Jazz Master Randy Weston, arranged by Willard Jenkins (Duke University Press).

Geographically, ranking third only to Africa and Brooklyn in the odyssey of NEA Jazz Master Randy Weston, is the idyllic, green-mountain Berkshires region of New York and Massachusetts.  The past Memorial Day weekend was a particularly joyous time for Randy to renew his Berkshires connection.  A collective of Berkshires jazz enthusiasts presented Randy in concert at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, MA.  The evening was preceded by an afternoon panel discussion featuring journalist-broadcaster Seth Rogan, veteran writer Milton Bass (who wrote tellingly in his concert preview in the May 27 edition of Berkshires Week: "I first encountered Randy more than 50 years ago in Lenox [MA]") at the Music Inn, and writer-professor (Boston University) Jeremy Yudkin, author of the important book The Lenox School of Jazz ("A vital Chapter in the History of American Music and Race Relations"; Farshaw Publishing), and Weston, which I had the pleasure of moderating.

The evening’s concert was a sublime duo performance by Randy Weston and his longtime bassist Alex Blake.  One of the highlights was a pungent, obligatory essay on Weston’s enduring waltz "The Berkshire Blues."  The journey was a particularly nostalgic one for Weston as numerous friends and associates came out to celebrate his return, including one of the former chefs at the Music Inn, whose culinary magic inspired a Weston tune "Willie’s Blues."  Randy’s granddaughter, filmmaker Rebecca Farella, captured Weston’s reminiscences for a future film.

The Sunday following the concert we took a drive through various of Weston’s former haunts, including the resort formerly known as Avaloch where Weston began to establish his 10-year Berkshires piano residency.  This vital chapter in Randy Weston’s odyssey is chronicled in great detail in our forthcoming book, which will be released by Duke University Press in October.  As they say in radio land, Stay Tuned… and don’t sleep!

African Rhythms, the autobiography of Randy Weston; composed by Randy Weston, arranged by Willard Jenkins (Duke University Press, October 2010).

                                — Willard Jenkins

 Following on the heels of our recently concluded series Ain’t But a Few, conversations with African American jazz and music writers, we begin a series of conversations with African American and other black folks who have presented jazz music on their stages.  Historically, as my current research project on jazz venues in Brooklyn courtesy of the Weeksville Heritage Society clearly indicates, as well as anecdotal evidence from Lost Jazz Shrines across the country, there have been many examples of African Americans operating jazz venues… but not so much here in the 21st century.

Our series begins with Twins Jazz, one of Washington, DC’s most vibrant jazz clubs, located on bustling, re-born U Street N.W., upstairs at 1344 U.  After years of presenting all manner of jazz artists — from emerging talents to NEA Jazz Masters — Twins Jazz has embarked on the development of a not-for-profit foundation as a means of further spreading its tentacles into broader service to the art form and sustaining the audience for jazz. 

Twins Jazz was developed by the twin Ethiopian sisters Kelly and Maize Tesfaye ("Jazz found us," says Kelly).  Kelly’s daughter, Love-Leigh Beasley, is spearheading the Twins Jazz foundation, and we turned to her for some history and update on Twins Jazz.  [Full disclosure: Willard Jenkins serves on the board of directors of the Twins Jazz Foundation.]

What is the history of Twins Jazz?

For over twenty-three years, Twins Jazz Club and [sister venue] Twins Lounge have worked to conceptualize and develop a friendly environment wherein jazz lovers can congregate in geniality and ambiance, sharing our love and celebration of jazz.  Twins Lounge, Twins Jazz uptown sister club located at 5516 Colorado Avenue N.W., opened as an Ethiopian restaurant in 1986 in a 50-seat space that previously featured jazz and blues music.  Several musicians would continue to patronize the Lounge and insisted upon the continuation of showcasing live jazz performances.  By 1987, Twins Lounge opened their stage nightly to live jazz performers.

Twins Lounge closed in 1999 due to building condemnation, and re-opened as Twins Jazz along the famous U Street Corridor, also known as Black Broadway back in the day.  Twins Jazz perpetuates and cultivates "authentic" straight-ahead traditional jazz, and features a combination of Ethiopian, American, and Caribbean cuisine. 

Twins Jazz strives to not only be a jazz venue, but a social and economic force in the local and regional community via our newly formed Twins Jazz Foundation.  We not only feature popular staple jazz artists, but also offer opportunities for young, aspiring musical talents attending Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Georgetown University, Howard University, Catholic University, American University, University of Maryland, and George Washington University.  Music students are encouraged to participate in our weekly jam sessions to learn their craft from more experienced musicians.  We aim to bring greater appreciation and understanding to jazz from traditional to contemporary, via festivals, forums and workshops.

Kelly & Maize Tesfaye, the "Twins" in Twins Jazz

How did your mom and aunt come to develop Twins Jazz?

The development of the Twins Jazz brand was certainly not an overnight discovery.  Twins has evolved from a live music "mom & pop" shop to "Washington’s Top Jazz CLub" through the hard-work and dedication of our staff, and respected counsel from jazz industry professionals.  Over the years we have worked to establish a solid, unmistakable identity by working to remain current in jazz as well as researching the ever-evolving trends of the social entertainment consumer. We are continuously working to gain a market presence via web and social portals, newspapers, radio, and other media outlets, and we certainly have learned over the years that a loyal patron goes a long way.  We thrive on creating an environment that is actually friendly and meaningful, so that our patrons and artists continue to comee back and support our establishment, as well as the music we love.

What have been some of the highlights of Twins’ history?

The restless iconoclast Peter Brotzmann has touched down at Twins Jazz with his Die Like a Dog Quartet

The original Twins Lounge, Twins ll (our temporary location on Moore St. NE), and the current club Twins Jazz, have been host to many performances that have since become regarded as legendary milestones in DC jazz lore.  Twins has also showcased a great variety of younger talent and acts that have later gone on to national (if not international) fame.  And Twins is still the local venue of choice for many established jazz greats who make their homes in the DC metro area.  The Twins venues featured some of the last DC appearances of many of the great artists who have passed on, including Shirley Horn, Keter Betts, James Williams, John Hicks, Malachi Thompson, Kenny Kirkland, Walter Bishop Jr., David "Fathead" Newman, Cecil Payne, and Ronnie Wells.

Some landmark events fondly remembered by our regulars include the Twins-sponsored "Piano Summit" at the University of the District of Columbia, the 2001 grand openinig of Twins Jazz at our current location featuring Barry Harris and Charles Davis, acclaimed poet Amiri Baraka reading his always-provocative poetry written for jazz accompaniment by groups led by (trombonist) Reginald Cyntje, and (saxophonist) Rene McLean; many appearances by the versatile Hamiet Bluiett — always bringing different groups and very different musical concepts — active veterans Gary Bartz and Larry Willis re-united for two sellout evenings; the late Shirley Horn sitting in with the late James Williams’ band ICU; rare DC appearances by such international acts as Peter Brotzmann’s "Die Like a Dog" quartet; the Jean Michel Pilc Trio, and the Moutin Reunion; the 2007 NY-DC exchange series of new music organized by Reggie Workman (culminating in a great performance by the Workman-Hal Galper-Rashied Ali trio); David Murray offering (in addition to his well-known instrumental talents) a unique vocal twist on "When the Saints Go Marching In"; and our festive New Years Eve celebrations for jazz purists — featuring the likes of Larry Willis, Bruce Williams, Miles Griffith, and the late Cecil Payne.

Reggie Workman’s New York-to-DC connection series was a Twins Jazz highlight

Twins is also proud to have hosted performances that helped launch the careers of young artists once based (or schooled) in the DC ara, who have gone on to success, such as pianists George Colligan, Benito Gonzalez, and Allyn Johnson; saxophonists Antonio Parker, Tim Warfield, and Kelly Shepherd; drummer Aaron Walker; and bassist Kris Funn and Corcoran Holt.

Talk about your plans for the Twins Jazz Foundation.

The Twins Jazz Foundation was formed in an effort at stimulating a renewed, living relationship with America’s rich jazz heritage for younger audiences today, at the same time providing vehicles for students and less-established musicians to extend their mastery of the forms and reach newer audiences.  The Twins Jazz Foundation aims to preserve and promote jazz, to provide education funding assistance to deserving students, and to create opportunities for students and young aspiring musicians to play and perform.  We strive to bring greater appreciation and understanding of jazz from traditional to contemporary, via festivals, concerts, forums, workshops, and jam sessions.

The key activities of the Foundation are:

    – Annual Jazz "Mini-Tour" series

    – Annual Town Hall Event

    – Annual Jazz Achievement Awards Gala

Twins Jazz has launched a new and improved website: www.TwinsJazz.com.

Twins Jazz Foundation activities are underway.  Please visit www.TwinsJazz.org to remain current on upcoming events.