Do you know what it means to miss… (Mardi Gras)?

(selections listed in playlist order by artist, track, album title and label)

1) New Birth Brass Band, "Hush Your Mouth", New Birth Family, Valley

2) Professor Longhair, "Big Chief" pt. 1, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Mardi Gras Records

3) John Boutte, "At The Foot of Canal Street", At The Foot of Canal Street, Valley

4) Professor Longhair, "Big Chief" pt. 2, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Mardi Gras Records

5) Adonis Rose & the N.O. Vaders, "’Lil Liza Jane", Untouchable, House Swing

6) Irma Thomas, "Early in the Morning", Simply Grand, Rounder

7) Donald Harrison, "I’m The Big Chief of Congo Square", The Chosen, Nagel Heyer

8) Matt Perrine, "New Orleans Blues", Sunflower City, (no label listed?)

9) George French, "Gloryland", It’s a Beginning, Nia

10) Shannon Powell, "Powell’s Place", Powell’s Place, King of Treme

11) Ed Blackwell, "Nevermore", Boogie Live 1958, AFO

12) Harold Battiste, "We’ll Be Together Soon", Lagniappe, AFO

13) Germaine Bazzle, "Secret Love", Standing Ovation, AFO

14) Herlin Riley, "Trouble in Treme", Cream of the Crescent, Criss Cross

Dream Lucky, the new book by Roxane Orgill (Smithsonian Books 236pp) would make splendid firestarter for a film.  Subtitled "When FDR was in the White House, Count Basie was on the radio, and everyone wore a hat…" the book is a beautiful stroll through the late 1930s using the Roosevelt administration, with Eleanor as an essential and quite resonant subtext, and the parallel evolution of Count Basie from territory band member then band chief, to his not-without-pitfalls conquering of Manhattan, to renowned road warrior bandleader to provide vivid context to the era.  Included also are chapters that shine a vivid light on the big band contrasts between the Benny Goodman and Chick Webb (with Ella as subtext in the manner of Eleanor to Franklin) outfits and their eventual historic confrontation at the Savoy Ballroom.  I found the passages on Reverends Adam Clayton Powell Sr. and (and eventual congressman) Jr. particularly strong, especially Jr.’s dogged and dashing determination and boycott leadership to open up Harlem businesses as employers of it’s black residents.  As they say in the publishing game, this is a true page-turner and highly recommended.  Ms. Orgill handles this colorful period in our history with aplomb and wry humor.

Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra births a tradition

Being on the campus of the University of Missouri February 17 & 18 for a NEA Jazz Masters Live site-visit for a presentation of Jon Poses’ exceptional We Always Swing series brought home just how special the Monday Night big band tradition is in New York.  As their participation in the NEA Jazz Masters Live funding program which supports a select number of presenting organizations to engage NEA Jazz Masters in special programming, We Always Swing had the brilliant idea of commissioning NEAJM Bob Brookmeyer to write a new piece for the Grammy-winning Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.  The concert and premiere of the new work, a suite entitled simply "Suite For Three" (written to spotlight three stellar VJO soloists: saxophonists Dick Oatts and Rich Perry, and trumpeter Scott Wenholdt played to a robust house at the University of Missouri Theatre.  But all the brilliance of their performance aside, let’s for a moment ponder just how difficult it is in the 21st century to bring an entire big band from New York all the way out to Columbia, Missouri for a one-nighter; sure makes you realize just how special this effort was!  The concert was also special for some marvelous solo turns from one of the finest trumpeters in the music, Terell Stafford.  Drummer John Riley kept the pots cooking in the grand tradition of Mel Lewis, and the band boasts one of the great baritone players of our time Gary Smulyan.

The preceding day as part of their NEAJM project the organization presented two interview sessions; the first featured NEAJM and renowned jazz historian-journalist Dan Morgenstern in a one-on-one reminiscing in tempo session with Bob Brookmeyer at the Univerisity of Missouri School of Music.  That was followed by Brookmeyer and Morgenstern being joined onstage by two of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra’s co-leaders, trombonists Douglas Purviance and John Mosca to further reflect on the storied 44+ year history of the orchestra which has morphed in that time from the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra to the Mel Lewis Orchestra (upon Thad’s departure to Denmark) to what is now the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (VJO), fresh off their Grammy win for the 2008 Planet Arts release "Monday Nights".  Brookmeyer, a charter member of the band and frequent contributor to its book, told funny stories about how the band started in rehearsals upstairs from the musician’s hang-out Jim & Andy’s, and about further adventures.  What became the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchstra officially launched on Monday, February 2, 1966.  Purviance and Mosca, both of whom came onboard in the 70s, spoke about how special it has been to play in the band and how Monday nights at the Vanguard have evolved over the years — including the three evolutions of the band to the point where today leadership is shared by five members, including themselves. 

I asked them a question about how the band first locked down the Monday night at the Vanguard gig and learned that when it all started at the time there was a musician’s union ban on Monday night gigs, which were officially designated as musician’s night off.  They were able to circumvent that edict and since that time their storied gig has spawned all sorts of regular and semi-regular Monday night band gigs at clubs around Manhattan, none of which has enjoyed the longevity of the VJO, the grandaddy of them all.  I was reminded of an encounter a couple of weeks ago with two large ensembles on a Monday night in Manhattan.

Mingus Big Band

Of all the jazz widows of great masters my hat has long been off to Sue Mingus for the tireless way she has gone about maintaining and upholding the legacy of Charles Mingus and his music.  The Mingus Big Band is currently enjoying a Monday night residency at the Jazz Standard, a club which among other things enjoys hands-down the best menu and cooking of any jazz club in Manhattan.  Among her many efforts Sue Mingus has been quite clever about doing more than just ensuring gigs for the Mingus Big Band, Orchestra, and Dynasty; she has always stayed one step ahead of the game by seeking fresh approaches to their presentations.  For example this year they’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of three important Mingus records: "Blues and Roots", "Ah Um", and "Dynasty".  So the band is performing music pretty much exclusively from those three sessions — though they did veer off into some slightly more obscure Mingus from his "Baron Mingus" days for a vocal selection — and the results are bracingly fresh as always. 

Nominal co-leadership of the band appears to be shared by  bassist Boris Kozlov, who performs on Charles’ famed lion’s head bass, and tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, who also share the various intros.  Among other marvelous moments on this particular evening were excursions into such Mingus lore as "My Jelly Roll Soul" and "GG Train", tunes that have not been often performed otherwise.  Among the stalwarts in the big band on that particular Monday were saxophonists Vincent Herring, Abraham Burton, Jason Marshall, and Donny McCaslin; trumpeters Randy Brecker, Kenny Rampton, and former VJO trumpeter Earl Gardner (still one of the best lead trumpeters on the planet), trombonists Frank Lacy (who contributed one of his customary humorous vocal turns) and Andy Horton, Donald Edwards on drums, and the bracingly fresh Orrin Evans on piano, who injected some wicked clave into one of his turns.  When a band boasts such sturdy soloists it can be difficult for each to get a proper turn, but indeed each did as the set was very skillfully arranged.

Properly refreshed I headed over to Roulette for a large ensemble performance of a different flavor,  Percussionist-composer Adam Rudolph’s Go Organic Orchestra.  Rudolph, known by some for his long-standing duo with the great reedman Yusef Lateef, is a man who has long straddled the fence between jazz, improvising music, and various global music expressions.  On this night his Go Organic Orchestra was a string-heavy ensemble that included such notables as cornetist Graham Haynes, reed specialist J.D. Parran, and guitarists Leni Stern and Kenny Wessel — through a program of his original music heavily steeped in the Butch Morris school of gestural conduction.  Appropos the fresh flavor of Rudolph’s conduction, when I arrived the first people I spotted just off the entrance to the performance space were Butch Morris and Henry Threadgill!  Just another wintry Monday night in Manhattan! 

Randy Weston (shades) and your correspondent during a 2007 interview sposored

by Jazz Alliance International onstage at University of District of Columbia.

This is the latest installment in our ongoing series of anecdotes and excerpts from the forthcoming book African Rhythms, the autobiography of Randy Weston (composed by Randy Weston; arranged by Willard Jenkins) which will be published by Duke University Press.  This time we focus on Randy’s experiences at the historic 1977 FESTAC, the African world Festival of Arts and Culture held in Lagos, Nigeria.  Randy’s experiences are particulary pertinent now because the African nation of Senegal will host FESMAN ’09, the successor to FESTAC and thus the third African world festival, in December ’09.  Scroll down through the latest installments in The Independent Ear to Read details of the recent U.S. launch event for FESMAN 2009 last January at the UN.  Weston serves on the U.S. organizing committee of FESMAN 2009.

FESTAC ’77 and another hang with Fela…

In 1977 I traveled [to Africa] on my own to join a delegation of artists and great thinkers at the FESTAC event.  FESTAC ’77 was actually the second Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture.  The organizer’s idea was to bring over black representatives of the global arts and culture community from across Africa and the Diaspora, including places as far away as Australia, which sent some Aborigine artists.

    Once again I traveled to Lagos, which by that time was a bit different place than it was when I was there in the 1960s.  For one thing cars had literally taken over the place and the traffic was horrendous around the clock.  Ethiopia was the host of FESTAC ’77 even though NIgeria was the site.  The Nigerian government reportedly put up huge amounts of oil money to stage this event.  The whole idea is that we are one African people, that was the goal of FESTAC.  No matter if we’re in Mississippi or Havana or Australia, or wherever…

    They invited about 20,000 artists from across the globe.  I only wound up playing once, at least officially, though I did jam with Fela; but we’ll get to that in a minute.  Sun Ra was there and he played once.  There was so much great artistry at this conference that you didn’t need to play more than once.  Representatives from the entire black world organized this thing.  They hosted colloquiums throughout FESTAC on everything from education to health to music, all things involved with African people.  It was designed to develop a sense of global unity.  FESTAC lasted one month, throughout January.  I stayed most of the month because I had come individually on my own; I didn’t come with the American delegation because I was living in France at the time.

    The array of folks there was incredible.  For example I’d have breakfast and my tablemates might be Louis Farrakhan, Stevie Wonder, Queen Mother Moore, and a heavy Sufi master named Mahi Ismail.  Imagine me hanging out with those cats!  When he arrived Stevie came into the hotel with his guitar, walked in the lobby, sat down and started singing and playing his guitar.

    Fela was one of the main people I wanted to see while there, and like many African musicians he had his own club called The Shrine, just opposite his village in Lagos.  Fela’s club was really big, it must have held about 1,000 people and the night I went there it was packed.  When I got to Fela’s village he was sitting in a corner, holding court and eating away.  I’m stepping through all kinds of women, all surrounding this dude.  It was quite a scene.  He saw me and said "Randy, come on and have some food."  We talked awhile then it was time for him to perform, so he put on his stage costume and we were stepping around all these women to get outside.  As we’re walking through this village it was obvious Fela was like a king to these people.

    We entered The Shrine and this place, along with Bobby Benson’s joint, really became my inspiration for wanting to open up my own club.  Fela got his band together for the performance and he called me over and said "Randy, you sit there."  He had an English film crew capturing his every move.  He started playing this little rhythm on the piano, then the band came in and he grabbed his saxophone.  The rhythm was totally infectious, but you have to hear it live, you have to be where people are dancing to this band to fully appreciate this groove.  At one point in his performance Fela grabbed the mike and said "Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to meet my brother from America," and they brought me onstage.  So we jammed a bit.  Next thing I know he’s talking on the mike again and he’s got me by the hand and he’s cursing out the military — and there were military guys in the club!  I wanted to get the hell off that stage with a quickness ’cause those cats don’t play!  Man, Fela was fearless, but I was sweatin’… what this guy DIDN’T call the government… and he wouldn’t let go of my hand!  The people were cheering him on!

    One week later, after we had all left, the soldiers raided Fela’s village and destroyed the place.  They threw his mother out of a window, beat him up and took him to prison, and raped all his girls.  But when he came out of jail Fela was the same, still defiant.  He said "I’m the president of Africa"; he was against all that stuff that was in opposition to the true Africa, he was incredible.

    As for FESTAC, which was over by the time all that madness happened to Fela, the final night was Stevie Wonder, Miriam Makeba, and Osibissa in a stadium with 50,000 people in the stands.  As I always say, we’re all a part of this, all our music is different, and all our music is the same.  But this FESTAC thing was too powerful, it was too big.  The white press gave it absolutely no coverage…  But this was the most fantastic event I ever participated in up to that point.

 Excerpted from African Rhythms, the forthcoming autobiography of NEA Jazz Master Randy Weston.  Stay tuned to these pages for further anecdotes from our book…