Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* Shirley Bradley LeFlore, St. Louis poet laureate and member of the Black Artists Group who performed throughout her career with the city's jazz and creative musicians, died this past Sunday, May 12. She was 79 years old.
Formerly married to the late trumpeter Floyd LeFlore, she performed and/or recorded at various times with musicians including her ex-husband, saxophonists Oliver Lake, Hamiet Bluiett, J.D. Parran and Don Byron, pianist Ptah Williams, trumpeter George Sams, and more. Ms. Bradley LeFlore's funeral will take place today (Friday, May 17), with a visitation at 11:00 a.m. followed by services at noon at Christ Church Cathedral, 1210 Locust St. downtown.
Yesterday was the 91st anniversary of Miles Davis' birth, and to follow up on StLJN's video tribute to him in this space last week, today let's take a look at some of the musicians who worked with Davis and then went on to become significant influences on jazz in their own right.
Tenor saxophonist John Coltrane played with Davis as part of his "first great quintet" in the late 1950s, making a memorable contribution to the trumpeter's seminal album Kind of Blue. Leaving Davis' employ to start his own group in 1960, Coltrane over the next few years became one of the most emulated saxophonists in jazz, influencing several generations of players into the present day.
He's seen in the first video up above playing "Impressions" - a song that shares its chord progression with Davis' "So What" - on French TV in 1966, with McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass), and Elvin Jones (drums).
Combining the influence of Charlie Parker with generous dollops of blues and gospel, alto saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley also played on Kind of Blue, expanding Davis' working quintet to a sextet. After leaving Davis to concentrate on co-leading his own hard-grooving band with his brother, cornetist Nat Adderley, Cannonball became a headlining attraction around the world, even scoring a major pop hit in 1966 with "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy."
The Adderley brothers can be seen in the first video after the jump, performing Nat's composition "Work Song" in 1963 with some help from saxophonist Yusef Lateef, pianist Joe Zawinul (who pops up again a little later in this narrative), bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Louis Hayes.
Pianist Bill Evans was part of Davis' band for less than a year, but his participation in the Kind of Blue sessions helped make him a household name among jazz fans. Leading his own trio over the next couple of decades, Evans exerted a major influence on many pianists that still can be heard in several generations of players ranging from Keith Jarrett to Brad Mehldau.
Evans is in the second video after the jump, playing his popular original composition "Waltz For Debby" with Chuck Israels on bass and Larry Bunker on drums.
Davis' "second great quintet" began coming together in 1963, and would go on to become of the most popular and critically acclaimed small jazz groups of the decade (and eventually, all time). The quintet made a lot of memorable music over the next several years, and ultimately wound up seeding the nascent fusion movement as the various members left to launch their own groups.
Drummer Tony Williams was the youngest member of that quintet, joining Davis while still a teenager. His style - incorporating the influence of rock music and aggressive by default, yet also subtle when needed - was highly influential, and Lifetime, the band the formed after leaving Davis in 1969, was one of the pioneering groups of fusion.
You can see the second version of Lifetime in today's fourth clip, which captures basically all of their set at the 1971 Montreux Jazz Festival. In addition to Williams on drums, the group includes bassist Junie Booth, guitarist Ted Dunbar, percussionists Warren Smith and Don Alias, and organist Larry Young.
The pianist in Davis' second great quintet was Herbie Hancock, who after leaving Davis would go on to lead one of the most popular bands of the fusion era. His 1974 album Head Hunters was simultaneously one of the major musical statements of jazz-fusion and a huge commercial hit, ranking as one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, right after Kind of Blue. Hancock's subsequent work spanning a variety of genres has secured his place one of the most significant jazz musicians of the last 50 years.
In the fifth video, you can see and hear Hancock and the first touring edition of the Headhunters band playing a gig in 1974 in Germany, performing tunes from their first album and the follow-up, Thrust. Along with Hancock, that's Mike Clark on drums, Paul Jackson Jr. on bass, Bill Summers on percussion, and Bennie Maupin on tenor sax, flute, and bass clarinet.
Saxophonist Wayne Shorter was the longest-serving member of Davis' second quintet, coming on board in 1963 and staying until 1970. That's when Shorter and keyboardist Joe Zawinul, a former member of Cannonball Adderley's band who had played on Davis' albums In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew, formed Weather Report, which would become another of the most iconic and successful bands in the fusion genre.
After that group ended its run, both Shorter and Zawinul went on to enjoy very successful individual careers as bandleaders, and though Zawinul dies in 20017, Shorter continues to work and is regarded as one of the most noteworthy jazz composers of his generation.
In today's final video, you can see the two of them performing with the first Weather Report lineup on German TV in 1971. Miroslav Vitous is on bass, with Alphonse Mouzon on drums and Dom Um Romao on percussion, and for part of the set, they are augmented by trombonist Eje Thelin and saxophonists Alan Skidmore and John Surman.
You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...
With the unveiling of the Miles Davis statue in Alton set for this Saturday, today's Music Education Monday offers an opportunity to hear from a couple of his former sidemen, the saxophonists Dave Liebman and Bill Evans(pictured, from left).
In addition to playing with Davis at the turn of the 1970s, Liebman also had a notable stint early in his career with drummer Elvin Jones' group. In the ensuing decade, he's performed all around the world and appeared on hundreds of recordings, including more than 100 as a leader or co-leader.
Liebman also has been involved with jazz education for most of his career, and in 1989 founded the International Association of Schools of Jazz, which seeks to bring together jazz educators from all over the globe. He can be seen in the first video embed after the jump, presenting a workshop in December 2014 at the Woodbrass music store in Paris, France.
Evans, who was once a student of Liebman's at William Paterson University in New Jersey, had his time with Davis came more than a decade later, as he was part of the trumpeter's series of "comeback" albums that began with The Man With The Horn.
After making his reputation with Davis, Evans has continued to work steadily as a sideman, a collaborator in groups such as Soulgrass and Elements, and as a band leader, putting out nearly 20 recordings in his own name. You can see Evans in the second video embed after the jump, giving a master class in 2012 at the Mariachi music store in Moscow, Russia.
For your Sunday reading, here are some interesting music-related items that have hit StLJN's inbox over the past week:
* Matthew Shipp unveils new trio with upcoming release The Conduct of Jazz(Something Else)
* Ornette Coleman and a Joyful Funeral (The New Yorker)
* Until the Real Thing Comes Along - Sorting out the Billie Holiday centennial onslaught (Jazz Times)
* The Next Generation of 3D-Printed Musical Instruments Are Worthy of a Star Trek Movie (Classical Lite)
* The Great Columbia Jazz Purge: Coleman, Evans, Jarrett, And Mingus (WFIU)
* The Singer and the Song (Ronan Guilfoyle)
* BMG Acquires Catalog of Verse Music, Includes Songs of Nina Simone, J. Lo (Billboard)
* How Jazzman Robert Glasper Won Over the Hip-Hop Heads (Mother Jones)
* The Exit Interview: I Spent 12 Years in the Blue Man Group (Atlas Obscura)
* If SoundCloud Goes Under, Music Will Change for the Worse (Mic.com)
* Apple Music first impressions: something borrowed, something new (The Verge)
* Meet Brian Wilson's Secret Weapon: Darian Sahanaja (Rolling Stone)
* The Care and Feeding of Songwriters: Why “Art for Art’s Sake” Could Have An Unfortunate Future (Pro Sound News)
* How Do You Teach A Robot Feelings? Make It Sing Opera (Vice.com)
* Terry Riley, a Founder of Minimalism, Turns 80 (Studio 360)
* The Con Man Who Invented American Popular Music (Radio Silence)
* Digital Watch: Apple Music Conflict Highlights the Problem of Free Music (Radio Survivor)
* Did Nielsen Kill The Radio Star? (FiveThirtyEight.com)
* Minimalist Composer La Monte Young on His Life and Immeasurable Influence (Vulture)
* Quincy Jones: Honey, we have no music industry (Fortune)
* Does The Death Of Album Revenue Spell The End For Rock Stars As We Know Them? (SeatSmart.com)
* Deep Soul - How Muscle Shoals became music's most unlikely hit factory (The Telegraph UK)
* John Luther Adams: a force of nature (The Guardian UK)
* Cassette Revolution: Why 1980s Tape Tech Is Still Making Noise in Our Digital World (Collector's Weekly)
* Ringo's no joke. He was a genius and the Beatles were lucky to have him (The Spectator UK)
* NPR Music's 25 Favorite Albums Of 2015 (So Far) (NPR)
* Fife and drum: Keeping the Mississippi rhythm alive (BBC)
