Regular readers may recall the Independent Ear Blog post overview of the 2008 IAJE conference in Toronto last January.  Sadly that may have been the last IAJE conference for the foreseeable future.  What so many of us thought was a robust conference produced by what we assumed was the financially stable International Association for Jazz Education was in fact a complete house of straw.  And now the big bad wolf has come along and blown the whole house down. 

The bill seems to have come due (pun intended) with the post-conference "resignation" of former long time IAJE executive director Bill McFarlin.  For years boards came and boards went, presidents occupied figurehead chairs and the beat went on — all with Bill McFarlin wielding an unchallenged iron hand with zero oversight.  Well folks, the bill has come due.  Fact is McFarlin took a powder in lieu of being canned.  Once his dust cleared and the real books were examined, the rosy picture he painted for years was revealed to be as counterfeit and bankrupt as a proverbial house of straw.

Remember that highly-touted, optimistic Campaign For Jazz that IAJE launched several years ago, the one designed to put the organization on a forever firm foundation and establish a hearty endowment fund?  Again… smoke & mirrors.  Some of us recall IAJE conference banquets of the past couple of years that served in part to prop up this counterfeit Campaign for Jazz; various "donors" — or more to the point, donor pledgees — would be recognized from the dais by McFarlin and receive hearty applause and backslaps from those happy jazzers in attendance.  ‘Wow, isn’t that just wonderful news!’  A couple of years ago banquet attendees within earshot couldn’t help but hear one so-called donor pledgee mutter to anyone with open ears that he hadn’t exactly pledged anything of the sort.

At the 2007banquet a gentleman from out of the blue (regular IAJE attendees tend to be recognizeable faces in the crowd; the conferences thrived — or so we thought — on repeat business) was introduced by McFarlin as having pledged $1M to the Campaign for Jazz!  Last time I checked they were still looking for this guy and his so-far empty-suit "pledge" to the Campaign for Jazz.  A former IAJE affiliate got a call from an IAJE official seeking this gentleman’s whereabouts.  Not only was his million never banked, they can’t even locate this cat!

Since the disastrous Toronto conference (attendance was down a devastating 40% from the 2007 New York conference level!!!)allegations of malfeasance and misuse of funds have trickled through the rumor mill, McFarlin is apparently in deep cover and has been allowed to slink away scott free by the organization’s slumbering board, and now the board has issued a pitiful cash call asking the membership to pony up $25 per by snail mail in order to keep the organization afloat!  As if $25 per member, even if that paper tiger campaign were to be successful, would or could somehow stem the river of red ink which rumor has it has already reached $1.3M.  (I was reminded of a 1980s snail-mailed cash call from Joe Segal during one of his Jazz Showcase club struggles that was accompanied by a pathetic photo of a forlorn Joe with his empty pockets displayed inside-out of his slacks, palms up in despair.  But that was for a club, done mock humorously, not for an international organization for goodness sakes!)

The latest salvo comes with this week’s troubling news that Mary Jo Papich, IAJE’s first-ever woman president-elect, has resigned due to insurmountable differences on direction with the current board — members of whom apparently have their own series of agendas, IAJE and jazz be damned.  Talk about piling on!  With the exception of a tiny, clear-thinking cadre of IAJE board members characterized by Laura Johnson of Jazz at Lincoln Center (who smelled the coffee awhile back but whose warnings weren’t heeded until it was far too late), the great majority of the current and recent past IAJE board(s) must share the lion’s share of blame for this sorry state.  This was a classic case of a slumbering board perpetually asleep at the switch which never exercised due oversight over prior leadership machinations.

Current president Chuck Owen — the signator of that small-thinking, knee-jerk $25 red light cash call — and immediate past president David Caffey must share a great deal of this weight.  In fact during his presidency Caffey was duly warned by members of the IAJE staff and other concerned jazz citizens, formally and informally, that things were terribly amiss at the dear old Manhattan, Kansas HQ.  Caffey chose to keep eyes tightly shut, get his 40 winks and largely ignore these warnings.  And where does that leave us? 

It seems from this 25-year member’s standpoint that for far too long, even in the wake of the absorption of the old Jazz Times Convention’s industry-oriented model coaxed into the IAJE conference structure by such hard-working "Industry Tract" producers as Lee Mergner, Don Lucoff and more recently Suzan Jenkins, IAJE has continued to be ruled by the tight grip of jazz educators.  The organization cries out for new leadership that is a diverse, compatible mix of educators and industry leaders — not to mention its continued need for a greater degree of cultural and gender diversity in its governing body.  For far too long it appears the former E.D. was able to snow various educator-board members, greasing them up with overseas excursions to exotic jazz festivals and other locales, all the while building up chits that further solidified his armor against the kind of oversight scrutiny any intelligent organization engages in.

Currently it seems prospects are pretty hopeless for the planned January 2009 IAJE conference in beautiful Seattle.  I recently convened an informal dialogue among industry veterans to discuss the sad state of IAJE in the wake of the now-infamous $25 cash call (which has reportedly netted a paltry $10K).  The responses were a mixed bag ranging from the we’ve all got to pull together for the sake of the music cadre, to those questioning that limp $25 cash call, to the righteous indignation crew calling for some measure of financial recompense from the former E.D.  Where do you stand on the current sorry state of what was always thought of as our lone infallable international jazz support organization?  Your comments below are most welcome and encouraged.

                             WWOZ On the Good Foot

After 18 years on-air doing a Friday evening jazz slot on DC’s bastion of community radio, WPFW, one of my first priorities upon landing in New Orleans last October was a prospecting visit to the studios of WWOZ, community radio in the Crescent City.  GM David Freedman and Program Director Dwayne Breashears, clearly recognizing a community radio diehard, were quite welcoming.  I had been familiar with WWOZ mainly from many trips to Jazz Fest, the two New Orleans IAJE conferences, and assorted other conference and meeting trips down here.  Familiarity with WWOZ came courtesy primarily through the programming exploits of Michael Gourrier ("Mr. Jazz"), Michael Kline, and the late, lamented "Moose".  

I vividly remember pulling over on Canal Street one sultry April morning during Jazz Fest while Suz dashed across the street for a coffee and being thoroughly enthralled by a John Sinclair spin of George French’s unforgettablly rich-voiced rendition of the Hoagy Carmichael classic "New Orleans."  A quick trip to the now-defunct Decatur Street Tower Records store and I was introduced not only to George French but to his drumming brother Bob French and his Tuxedo Jazz Band.  Arriving down here last fall for this as yet undetermined spell in the Crescent City, 90.7 FM (listen live at www.wwoz.org) became my instant broadcast soundtrack for life in NOLA.  Flipping on the station Tuesdays and Fridays 9-11 am even yielded the sardonically-humored, New Orleans-proud, Musician’s Village-dwelling Bob French himself (hear him musically on his ’07 Marsalis Music Honors series disc).

WPFW is part of that last bastion of politically progressive radio stations the Pacifica network; a station whose motto "Jazz & Justice" is manifested by a balanced menu of jazz, Latin, blues, global rhythms, R&B and left-leaning politics, much of it from a decidedly African American perspective befitting DC’s populace.  On the other hand WWOZ is thoroughly, 100% about music; leave politics for others to ponder.  Much of WWOZ’s music is about roots — classic blues and R&B, New Orleans and Louisiana music, likely the most radio hours devoted to early jazz in America, modern jazz, a strong global strip on Saturdays, gospel on Sundays, and an "open door policy" towards resident artists’ recordings and interview opportunities.

Yes, I do know the drill at community radio; i.e. it wasn’t about walking in off the street with 30+ years of public radio experience in my pocket and being immediately installed in a programming slot.  The community radio pecking order calls for signing up as a program sub and abiding your time for openings.  Fortunately those openings have come at a decent clip for yours truly.  And in a fascinating twist I’ve been able to stretch a bit musically.  As is the case at WPFW programmers largely work from their own extensive record collections, in the case of WWOZ largely eschewing a station record library that was severely depleted by Katrina and is just now getting back up to speed. 

WWOZ, a station with an impressive percentage of ‘net listeners from across the globe who also contribute mightily during the station’s pledge drives, is a decidedly "character" driven radio station.  Besides Bob French the characters abound, including "Jelly Roll Justice", "The Problem Child", "Black Mold", "Gentilly", the stellar Saturday evening classic R&B spinner who goes by "The Soul Sister", "Hazel the Delta Rambler", "The Midnight Creeper", "Big D", "Jivin’ Gene", "The Minister of Swing", "Cousin Dmitri", "Brother Jesse", the Operations Director is the inimitable "Freddie Blue"… you get the drift.

My own stretching has enabled me to work towards fresh and unique combinations of music from my collection, often spinning styles of music I’d never had a previous opportunity to radio program particularly when subbing for one of the nightly "Kitchen Sink" 10-midnight slots which I’ve had the pleasure of doing on several occasions.  That particular format, as in "everything but…" has a tendency to be about R&B at the core with opportunities for myriad related spin-offs.  I’ve tended to take the format literally by its title, which might call for a set featuring for instance the neo-soul sista Sy Smith, followed by John Coltrane, Sekou Sundiata, the Neville Brothers, and concluding with some Jimi Hendrix.  Yes you can roll that way with the "Kitchen Sink."

Depending upon when/if you read this, the next upcoming opportunities to catch the Open Sky way on the WWOZ airways are Thursday, March 27 and Friday, March 28 subbing for the Morning Jazz Set from 6-9am CST; and sitting in for my man "Black Mold" on the daily New Orleans Music Show Thursday, April 11 from 11am-2pm CST.  And the WWOZ studio line is 504/568-1234.  Listen live at www.wwoz.org.

All For One: Harold Battiste

Dillard University has embarked upon an ambitious initiative to develop the Institute of Jazz Culture on one of New Orleans’ three HBCU campuses.  Under the direction of trumpeter-educator Edward Anderson one of the first projects of the Institute of Jazz Culture (IJC) is to conduct oral histories of some of New Orleans’ most important contemporary jazz musicians, including several who are Dillard alums.  Recently I had the privilege of conducting an oral history interview with the sage saxophonist-composer-arranger-educator Harold Battiste at his home adjacent to Bayou St. John in the Mid-City area.

Though physically slowed by some of the inevitable infirmities of age, at 77 Harold Battiste is blessed with exceptional recall of his rich and varied career in music.  A white-bearded, gentle spirit, the coffee-complected gentleman is one of the scions of New Orleans’ modern jazz — or if you’d prefer as he might — late 20th century NOLA jazz development.

Born and raised in New Orleans and a product of Booker T. Washington High School, Harold Battiste earned his Bachelor’s in music at Dillard in 1953.  In ’57 after connecting with producer Bumps Blackwell, Battiste experienced his first pop success as the arranger of Sam Cooke’s classic hit "You Send Me."  What followed was a raft of other work as producer and arranger for recordings and television.  These included Barbara George’s gold record "I Know", Lee Dorsey’s "Ya Ya" and a long stint as music director for Sonny and Cher, notably their hit records like "I Got You Babe" and their television show. 

Harold Battiste is also responsible for unleashing on the music world a quirky New Orleans music character born Mac Rebennack who under Battiste’s production morphed into Dr. John.  Rebennack is someone who literally learned much of the business under Battiste’s tutelage.  During our interview Harold chuckled as he recounted how Rebennack adopted the Dr. John moniker somewhat by default; a personna based on NOLA’s voodoo folklore, and how Mac’s intial records like "Gris Gris" and "Babylon" (both under the direction of Harold Battiste on the Atlantic label) were more spoof than anything thoroughly serious; a murky mix of folkloric expression leavened with bayou funk and edgy jazz inflections that recall Sun Ra.  But somehow that spoof caught on and Dr. John was born and transformed into one of the quintessential New Orleans-identified music personalities.

Despite all his successful pop hits, major tours, and television activity  — all achieved during an extended stint in Los Angeles —  Harold Battiste has always been at heart a jazz modernist, a saxophone playing disciple of Charlie Parker to the core.  Perhaps most significantly from his jazz perspective he was a contemporary of a coterie of fellow New Orleans modernists that included the clarinetist Alvin Batiste, drummers James Black and Edward Blackwell, pianist Ellis Marsalis, and saxophonists Nat Perilliat and Alvin "Red" Tyler.  These artists and others were all featured on Harold’s All For One, or AFO, Records label.  Formed in 1961 AFO was significantly the first African American musician-owned label.

After so much success in Los Angeles in the studios, Harold Battiste succumbed to the siren song of his hometown New Orleans and returned home in 1989, assuming a teaching position on the Jazz Studies faculty at the University of New Orleans under the direction of Ellis Marsalis.  In 1991, with the assistance of poet and fellow sage Kalamu ya Salaam (www.kalamu.com, where you can check out his dialogues and downloads on black music at Breath of Life) Harold re-birthed AFO. 

If you can locate it, perhaps the quintessential key to experiencing the early efforts of the very vital but quite overlooked work of Harold Battiste and his intrepid crew of New Orleans jazz modernists is the four-Lp boxed set New Orleans Heritage: Jazz 1956-1966.  These records detail a vibrant kind of New Orleans jazz underground.  Traditional New Orleans jazz has become one of the city’s trademarks, but little is known of these modernistic developments.  Its almost as if the modern approach to jazz expression was born with the NOCCA generation, including the Marsalis sons, Blanchard, Connick, Harrison, et. al.  The musicians represented by the earliest days of AFO were indeed the mentors of that very prominent generation.  One only hopes Harold is able to reissue this superb package on compact disc or perhaps make it available in some downloadable form.  It can certainly unlock what to many is the unknown story of modern jazz development in the Crescent City.

Harold Battiste has established AFO as a foundation, in the main under the credo he lays down on his web site (www.afofoundation.org) "One of the focal points of my life’s work has been the documentation and preservation of New Orleans Music of the Post WWll era."  In that light he has produced and released a series of recordings, some of which are issues of previously unreleased sessions from the late 50s and early 60s that chronicle the vitality of these New Orleans modernists.  You can access these recordings at www.afofoundation.org, which is also where you can catch up on Harold Battiste’s efforts on behalf of what he refers to jointly as "The Second 50 Years" of New Orleans jazz, gazing into the future or what he dubs "The Next Generation"; a generation typified by such promising young artists as pianist and AFO recording artist Jesse McBride, who holds forth weekly at NOLA’s bastion of modern jazz Snug Harbor under the Next Generation banner. 

We’ll try to make that Harold Battiste oral history available to Independent Ear Blog readers as a transcript becomes available.  Next up for Dillard’s Institute of Jazz Culture are anticipated oral history sessions with clarinetist Dr. Michael White and Ellis Marsalis.