The Independent Ear

Have you heard Evan Christopher?

Posted on January 27, 2010 by The Independent Ear

Once you get past the outsized ego of its leader, trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, the burgeoning New Orleans Jazz Orchestra is potentially an exceptional representation of both the modern and traditional jazz fruits of the city.  The orchestra, or NOJO as it is known, boasts such gifted players as saxophonists Ed Peterson and Derek Douget, trombonist Ron Westray, and the sturdy rhythm section of pianist Victor Atkins, bassist David Pulphus, and drummer Adonis Rose, versatile modernists steeped in the New Orleans traditions to be sure.  Admit it, you may not have heard of these guys given the fact that unfortunately jazz musicians who choose to live outside the media centers often suffer in undue obscurity.

 

    During the roughly 14 months in ’07/’08 that I spent living in New Orleans the "local" artists and music were a constant delight and discovery.  For what is essentially a medium sized city with a peerless major metropolis culture, the number of world class musicians who live and work there per capita is staggering.  During my time there catching sets at Snug Harbor, Tipitina’s, Ray’s Boom Boom Room and assorted other joints both Uptown and below Canal Street, and being privileged to host programs over mighty WWOZ, one of the most impressive musicians I heard is perhaps the revelation of NOJO, the clarinetist-saxophonist Evan Christopher.  This brilliant musician manages a keen ear for both trad and modern jazz — versed in Django and Ornette — and plays both with brisk authority.  If you haven’t heard him, all I can say is DON’T SLEEP!

 

    Good friend and intrepid Twin Cities writer Pamela Espeland caught up with Evan Christopher recently for a conversation; here’s part one of that encounter.  Oh, and one more shout out to the Crescent City: WHO ‘DAT?!

 

Talking with Evan Christopher (part one)

by Pamela Espeland

 

Think "clarinet" and "New Orleans" and a certain sound may come to mind: sweet, quavery, old-timey Dixieland.  I once thought of the clarinet as an instrument that had seen its day in jazz, making rare appearances for color and nostalgia.  And then I heard Evan Christopher play (www.clarinetroad.net). 

 

             Evan Christopher contemplates his tricky axe

(photo by Jim McGuire)

 

    During my first encounter with the Creole-style clarinetist, an impromptu set at the Dakota Jazz Club (www.dakotacooks.com) in Minneapolis in 2008, he stole the show from Irvin Mayfield, who usually keeps a pretty firm grasp on such things.  I heard Christopher again at Chickie Wah Wah in New Orleans in March ’09, where he has a regular gig on Monday nights, and back at the Dakota in October, where he played for more than two hours to a packed house with no break.  Each time I came away knowing I had heard something old and something new.

 

    Born in Long Beach, CA Christopher began playing clarinet at age 11.  He moved to New Orleans in 1994 and left twice, the first time in ’96 to join the Jim Cullum Jazz Band in San Antonio, where he remained for two and a half years, and again in ’05 after Hurricane Katrina, when his Broadmoor neighborhood flooded and he became one of the city’s more than 4,000 displaced musicians.

 

    At the invitation of the French government, Christopher relocated to Paris, where he deepened his commitment to the music of New Orleans, solidified his claim to the title "Ambassador of the Clarinet," and formed two groups: The Jazz Traditions Project and Django a la Creole.  He returned to New Orleans in December ’07.

 

    Christopher is charismatic on stage, playing with passion and joy, connecting with the audience, occasionally singing, sometimes dancing as he plays.  Rooted in history and scholarship, his music is modern and fresh, sincere and full of emotion, respectful of the elders but not at all dusty or quaint.  Contemporary trad?  Or simply the living, breathing, right-now sound of New Orleans?

 

    We spoke in late ’09, when Christopher was in Minneapolis with pianist Henry Butler, and also to meet with the Minnesota Orchestra, which has commissioned him to write a new piece for orchestra that will have its world premiere on July 23, 2010.

 

The name of your website is "Clarinet Road" and you have two recordings called "Clarinet Road."  What is the Clarinet Road?

 

When I first met Tony Scott, the great bebop clarinet player, he was living in Italy.  I was on tour and he autographed a poster-size picture he used to carry copies of around, of himself backstage at Carnegie Hall in 1953 or 1954 with Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker.  He signed it "Good luck on Clarinet Road, lots of curves."  I lost that poster in the storm but I kept the Clarinet Road thing. 

[Editor’s note: in yet another of their localisms New Orleanians rarely refer to their August 2005 calamity as "Hurricane Katrina" or "Katrina", but simply as "the storm."]

 

How did your music change when you moved to Paris after Katrina?

 

When I went to Paris, I was very aggresively trying to move forward, trying not to cry over spilled milk.  Initially, I thought there was no way I was ever going to go back to New Orleans, I was so pissed off about it.  I envisioned getting a project started in Paris, and I envisioned staying there.  To shape that project, I had to come up with a slightly new aesthetic, because I had to find a way to represent New Orleans music outside of New Orleans, with musicians who weren’t living there or from there.

 

You were working with French musicians?

 

On the Live at the Meridien recording, the drummer is French.  The other two musicians live in France but they’re actually Australian.  The bass player, Sebastien Girardot, has played traditional jazz with real New Orleans-style revival bands since he was 19.  [Guitarist] David Blenkhorn came up with Australian musicians in the Australian traditional jazz scene.  He plays the shit out of blues.  He approaches jazz in almost a more American way than a lot of American musicians do.

 

What does that mean?

 

He likes to swing and play blues.

 

Do you find there’s a difference between working with American musicians and those who aren’t American?

 

I can’t make a generalization like that.  But I will say that I enjoy the spirit of these guys.  It seems more American to me than a lot of the cats I work with here.

 

Talk about your Jazz Traditions Project, the group with whom you recorded Live at the Meridien.

 

It’s a tongue-in-cheek thing.  A lot of avant-garde/contemporary groups use the word "project" and it’s sort of annoying.  The Jazz Traditions Project is a way of saying "We’re not going to apologize for having a foot in the door or New Orleans music."

 

I met Sebastien when he was about 19 years old, at a festival in Norway.  He was playing with an Australian band, good revival-style New Orleans jazz.  The drummer, Guillaume [Nouaux], I met a couple years later in Paris.  David Blenkhorn I met in Ascona, Switzerland.  He was there at a festival with a great Australian jazz musician named Tom Baker, who embodies what I think is more the American spirit/aesthetic of jazz better than a lot of American musicians.

 

You taught for a time.

 

I was adjunct faculty at the University of New Orleans and I’m done with that.  I had the distinction for three semesters of having the only performing ensemble at the University level dealing with New Orleans music.

 

That is so bizarre!

 

Everybody says that, and I want people to have that reaction.  But maybe it’s not so bizarre.  If you think about what has become the norm for modern jazz pedagogy, New Orleans strategies and schema for music-making or learning music don’t really fit in.  I found ways to make them fit in, but they don’t generally.  It’s not people’s experience who teach on that level.  It’s not something, except in New Orleans, that students can engage in directly when they walk out their door.  The fact that they choose not to is the part that I want to seem strange.

 

When you are bringing the music forward, making the music contemporary, how are you doing that?  What’s going through your mind as you’re preparing and performing?

 

During my preparation with the band, I have some rules in my head, to intentionally avoid repertory. The idea behind Django a la Creole was if we do these Django tunes, we have to find a new way to do them.  We have to find elements in them that say that they want to be something else.  We have to find rhythmic elements, harmonic things, that make them actually want to not be the same thing that they’ve been for years and years, that everybody else is doing.

[See and hear Django a la Creole perform "Fantasie" and "Riverboat Shuffle" at www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JsazOf3bWs&feature=related]

    With the Jazz Traditions Project, it’s the same thing.  You have to take vehicles that lend themselves to using the vocabulary that’s rooted in tradition.  A song like John Coltrane’s "After the Rain" is a beautiful waltz.  You imagine, well, what if Elvin Jones is playing in a brass band, what if [clarinetist] George Lewis is playing the melody?  And it’s not to make anachronisms.  It’s like a postmodern strategy, where you’re blurring the lines between genre, where you’re blurring the lines between tradition.  At the same time, it still has to be musical, to have what I would call narrative.

[See and hear the Jazz Traditions Project perform Coltrane’s "After the Rain": www.youtube.com?v=SCSeiAWZzSM]

 

You also play an Ornette Coleman tune, "Lonely Woman."

 

Ornette is one of the pioneers of modern jazz.  To be anchored firmly in the earliest New Orleans traditions and yet find a way to make an homage to one of the pioneers of the avant-garde was more symbolic to me than anything.

 

Is it difficult?

 

It’s hard finding things.  I’ve been looking for other Ornette tunes, and I’ve hung out with him.  He’s a lovely cat.  He appreciates things that sound good.  His whole thing has always been about being free of all those trappings — what’s traditional, what’s modern, freedom from tonality, even more abstractly, freedom from what he calls our "classness," or even gender.  He’d rather be free of all of that.

 

What were you doing before you started playing in the New Orleans style?

 

When I was in college, I was playing a lot of saxophone.  When I first started university, I was playing a lot more saxophone.  I thought I was being groomed to be a New York musician, someone who was going to wait in line to audition to be one of Art Blakey’s last alto players.

 

Doesn’t everybody have that Art Blakey dream?

 

I don’t know if it was specifically Art Blakey.  I was kind of making a joke.  Those kinds of stories resonate with one’s imagination when you’re out there in California.  A couple of my mentors were modern musicians.  I think that’s what I envisioned myself being.  I still know a lot of that music, even though I never get to play it.

 

………………….STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO………………….

 

 

Posted in That's What They Heard | 1 Comment

The State of Latin Jazz

Posted on January 22, 2010 by The Independent Ear

I remember posing the question in a BET Jazz interview to the late conguero and bandleader Ray Barretto about exactly what is meant by Latin Jazz and getting an earful, including what is NOT Latin Jazz.  More recently I received a bit of a manifesto from the potent timbalero and bandleader Bobby Matos on the subject, which had been published in the LA Jazz Scene periodical.  The SoCal-based leader of Bobby Matos & his Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble agreed to respond to a few questions on the subject.

 

Bobby Matos

 

What motivated you to write a sketch of Latin Jazz History?

 

I was concerned at the lack of radio play that Latin Jazz artists receive on so-called mainstream Jazz programs and I was talking with some of my associates about this.  They replied that this was because most "jazz" radio and media people do not know the history of this music.  And the only way to change the conception of Latin Jazz as being a foreign music was to educate them.  As I am not teaching in a mainstream institution, I felt that writing and publishing this article was one way I could contribute.

 

The ancestor NEA Jazz Master Ray Barretto often spoke very authoritatively of the difference between what he referred to as "Jazz Latin" and what he felt was the truest "Latin Jazz".  Do you see an obvious line of demarcation as to what is essentially jazz employing "Latin" or Afri-Caribbean characteristics, instruments and devices, and died-in-the-wool, "authentic" Latin Jazz?

 

I guess that line is constantly shifting and moving.  Sometimes an artist may want to explore different blends of sounds that may be very different from each other.  I see the whole idea of what is Latin Jazz as something that is constantly growing and developing.  Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band had a lot to do with showing that there could be new ways to play Latin jazz.  Ray Barretto, Papo Vazquez, Dafnis Prieto, Yosvanny Terry, John Santos, Paoli Mejias, and many others have taken this idea and developed their own expressions of Latin jazz.  I don’t think that there is a formula to determine what Latin jazz is, and that’s a good thing.

 

As someone based on the west coast, do you hear differences in how Latin Jazz or Afro-Caribbean jazz is approached east of the Mississippi versus west of the Mississippi (ala the suggested east coast vs. west coast approaches to jazz)?

 

I don’t think that there is as much of a difference as there was in the fifties between west coast and east coast jazz.  Today, many former east coasters have moved west and vice versa.  There used to be a definite NY sound in Latin Jazz (like Mongo, Sabu’s Jazz Espagnole, Tito Puente) and west coast (California) Latin Jazz (Cal Tjader, Bobby Montez, Eddie Cano), but I think those differences are not so obvious any more. 

 

    Most artists are influenced by good music that comes from everywhere.  Many Latin Jazz artists criss cross the country regularly and pick up a lot of influences.  My 7-piece group is based in Los Angeles but 5 of us are originally from New York.  Are we a west coast group with a NY vibe, or an east coast group that lives on the west coast?  Poncho Sanchez’s group is definitely based on the west coast but has strong NY influences through the legacy of Mongo Santamaria and strong California influences through Cal Tjader’s legacy.  I think it would be hard to determine where a group is from by listening to their music.  Puerto Rican groups like Batacumbele and Zaperoko have assimilated a lot of the Cuban sound, and musicians are constantly migrating.

 

If you were to name ten exemplary recordings of Latin Jazz what would they be?

 

It’s always hard to stick to just 10 but I’ll give it a shot:

 

1. Sabu Martinez Jazz Espagnole

2. Tito Puente Tambo

3. Mongo Santamaria Explodes At The Village Gate

4. Cal Tjader Lost Ritmos Calientes

5. Machito Kenya

6. Jerry Gonzalez Ya Yo Me Cure

7. Cal Tjader & Eddie Palmieri El Sonido Nuevo

9. Mark Weinstein Cuban Roots

10. Mario Bauza Tanga

 

And there are many more I want to add but I’ll just mention some artists like Irakere, Mon Rivera, Papo Vasquez, Herbie Mann, Dizzy Gillespie, Paquito D’Rivera, and so many more.

 

…And don’t sleep on Bobby Matos & his Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble, whose latest release is Gratitude on the LifeForce label.  Keep up with Bobby at www.bobbymatosmusic.com.  

Posted in Artist's P.O.V. | 1 Comment

A Pet Peeve… once again!

Posted on January 21, 2010 by The Independent Ear

Once again in the process of presenting the Ancient Future radio program (see playlists below), a vexing disparity reared its ugly head.  With so many artists going the DIY route and producing their own recordings, not to mention the myriad and sundry small labels cropping up, why are folks so stingy with the pertinent information? 

 

    Much of what’s left of jazz radio is broadcast on public or community radio stations; case in point on the latter tip being WPFW, the home of Ancient Future.  Increasingly I see my show host colleagues eschewing the idea of toting a load of plastic or digi-pack encased CDs to the studio; in fact there’s a growing trend of producing radio shows via laptop and MP3 files.  (Another pertinent point to consider: particularly at community radio stations, the programmers put their shows together at home, bring their own recordings, and largely do NOT rely on station record libraries; that’s the case at WPFW, it was that way when I programmed at WWOZ in New Orleans, as well as KFAI in the Twin Cities.)   Of the majority that still bring hard copy to the station to produce their shows, a number of folks use either those convenient CD albums or CD carrying cases with hanging files.  In such cases one can simply slip the CD and (hopefully) the booklet into a sleeve and presto — all the information is there… or so we think.

 

    So why are so many artists and small labels so poor about more widely disseminating the pertinent information on their releases?  Example, the Australian pianist Barney McAll’s latest release is titled Flashbacks.  It’s a digi-pack (cardboard casing) release, so no booklet.  Why so stingy with the information Barney?  Why nothing but the album title directly on the disc?  What’s so hard about including not only the album title, but also a track listing and even a personnel listing?  Why when I’m compiling my playlist do I need a magnifying glass to read the label name?  Which raises another point, what’s so difficult about coming up with even a cursory label title for your releases, even if it is your first (which in McAll’s case it is not)?  For goodness sakes just call the label your first or last name, or name it after your favorite pet or the street where you live!  Isn’t part of the point of having your own imprint to build catalogue?  How do you build catalogue if you have no label name?

 

Notice how dark this is… artsy, but you can barely read the graphics

 

    Which brings me to the hip young Malaysian bassist Linda Oh’s debut release which has garnered significant critical ink, including inclusion on certain ’09 Best Of lists.  Linda, why’d you choose to overload the senses with an endless reel of philosophical gibberish on your disc rather than providing pertinent info like CD title, track listing, and a simple personnel listing (don’t your trio mates Obed Calvaire on drums and Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet deserve that)?  And where’s your label name Linda?

 

 

On the other hand, here’s a highly recommended new release from saxophonist Erica Lindsay and pianist Sumi Tonooka who’ve teamed up for Initiation on the ARC label.  Their digi-packed disc lists album title, label name, their names, and a complete track listing directly on the disc quite legibly  I don’t know Erica, but Sumi has always known what time it is!

One quibble: the artist names should be in larger font

 

C’mon people, we’re just trying to give you some airplay!  Why’s it so difficult to give us clear, legible, pertinent, factual information.  As Joe Friday used to say "just the facts, ma’am."   

Posted in Records | 7 Comments

Ancient Future – radio 1/21/10

Posted on January 21, 2010 by The Independent Ear

The Ancient Future radio program is produced & hosted by Willard Jenkins for WPFW 89.3 FM, Pacifica Radio for the Washington, DC metro area.

 

Meditations on Dr. King

 

Max Roach

Praise for a Martyr

Percussion Bitter Sweet

Impulse!

 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Desired Eulogy

Motown

 

Sunny Sumter

Freedom

Freedom Sampler

J Jordan

 

Cecil Payne

Martin Luther King Jr.

Zodiac

Strata-East

 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Drum Major

Motown

 

Afro Blue

It’s a Matter of Pride

It’s a Matter of Pride

Howard University

 

Sweet Honey In the Rock

Letter to Dr. Martin Luther King

Live at Carnegie Hall

Flying Fish

 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I’ve Been to the Mountaintop

Motown

 

Zim Ngqawana

Long Waltz to Freedom

Vadzimu

Sheer

 

Ranee Lee

Hymn to Freedom

Maple Groove

Justin Time

 

Herbie Hancock

I Have a Dream

The Prisoner

Blue Note

 

Max Roach

I Have a Dream/It’s Time

Chatahoochie Red

Columbia

 

Geri Allen

I Have a Dream

Timeless Portraits and Dreams

Telarc

 

Donny Hathaway

Someday We’ll all Be Free

Movin’ On Up Vol. 2

Right Stuff

 

Soundviews (weekly new release spotlight)

Ben Allison

Green Al

Think Free

Palmetto

 

Ben Allison

Sleeping Giant

Think Free

Palmetto

 

Ben Allison

Broke

Think Free

Palmetto

 

Ben Allison

Fred

Think Free

Palmetto

 

What’s New (the new release hour)

Dana Hall

I Have a Dream

Into the Light

Origin

 

Kristina

Ilu Aye

Offshore Echoes

Patois

 

Barney McAll

New Eyes

Flashback

 

Linda Oh

Numero Uno

Entry

 

Hank Jones & Oliver Jones

Groove Merchant

Pleased to Meet You

Justin Time

 

Gerald Wilson

Miss Gretchen

Detroit

Mack Avenue

 

Dafnis Prieto

Si O Si

Live at Jazz Standard

Dafnison

 

contact:

Willard Jenkins

Open Sky

5268-G Nicholson Lane

#281

Kensington, MD 20895

 

willard@openskyjazz.com

Posted in Playlists | Leave a comment

NEA Jazz Masters 2010

Posted on January 14, 2010 by The Independent Ear

Full disclosure: Willard Jenkins is a coordinator of the NEA Jazz Masters Live program which funds NEAJM presentations at sites around the country.  Email if you’d like further information…

 

Last Tuesday evening was yet another sublime NEA Jazz Masters awards concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s sumptuous Rose Theatre.  The evening commenced with each of the living Masters in the house being introduced at their seats to warm applause as the audience saluted these great artists who’ve meant so much to the development of jazz music.  Members of the 2010 class were introduced separately starting with revealing excerpts from video interviews conducted by writer and former NEA official A.B. Spellman.  Several of the 2010 class also performed during the evening.

 

Muhal Richard Abrams

(photo by Alan Nahigian)

    The first presentation featured 2010 inductee pianist-composer and founder of the AACM Muhal Richard Abrams, conducting the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra through one of his typically knotty and challenging compositions.  This in itself was a revelation, given that some misguidedly view the orchestra as a representative of staunch jazz conservativism.  They played Muhal’s music with grace and skill; a later conversation with JALCO alto saxophonist Ted Nash revealed eager enthusiasm for such an opportunity because it afforded the band a chance to really stretch.

 

Yusef Lateef

    Later in the evening another stunning performance was turned in by the duo of 2010 NEAJM Yusef Lateef and his percussionist Adam Rudolph.  If there as a deeper, more satisfying sound on flute than Lateef’s rich tone then I haven’t heard it.  He worked his way through several manner of flutes, including a couple of haunting end blown instruments – which Lateef also employed for their inherent percussiveness – tenor sax, and traditional western flute while Rudolph tastefully accompanied on frame drum, small flutes, piano, and dijeridoo. 

 

Annie Ross

    These were but two in an evening of immense celebration and abundant love for this great art form that was summed up so beautifully by vocalist Annie Ross.  After her acceptance speech Ms. Ross sang a piece whose lyrics were a litany of jazz greats that aptly recognized the ancestors. 

 

    NEA Jazz Masters are selected annually — and along with the recognition each receives a check for $25K — through nominees from the general public subsequently selected by a panel of Masters.  For further information on the NEA Jazz Masters who’ve been selected since the 1982 inception of the program (must be living), and how you may nominate some deserving Master who has not yet been selected, visit www.arts.endow.gov and click on the Lifetime Honors icon.  All it takes is a simple one-page letter.

Posted in General Discussion | 4 Comments