Sunday Session: December 21, 2014

John Coltrane

For your Sunday reading enjoyment and edification, some noteworthy news stories about jazz, creative music, and more from the past seven days:

* Barcelona Jazz Fest Hosts Redman, Marsalis in Historic Concert Hall (Down Beat)
* George Wein to Receive Recording Academy Trustees Award (Jazz Times)
* Antonio Sanchez's soaring beat takes flight in 'Birdman' (Los Angeles Times)
* Pérez, Blade, Patitucci To Headline 2015 Panama Jazz Festival (Down Beat)
* Family, Friends To Honor Haden at Memorial Concert in New York (Down Beat)
* How Vince Guaraldi Made Charlie Brown Cool (Medium.com)
* Deborah Brown: The Plastic Sax Person of the Year (Plastic Sax)
* The True Story of How Vinyl Spun Its Way Back From Near-Extinction (Billboard)
* 12 Amazing Things Scientists Discovered About Music This Year (Mic.com)
* Fifty years ago, John Coltrane and another fab four made music history with 'A Love Supreme' (Cleveland.com)
* Discover the Church of St. John Coltrane, Founded on the Divine Music of A Love Supreme (OpenCulture.com)
* Did Coltrane say 'Allah Supreme'? (AlJazeera.com)
* Billy Berg: Los Angeles' Jazz Nightlife Ace (KCET.org)
* Solving the 70-year mystery of Glenn Miller's death (Examiner.com)
* Chance discovery casts new light on origins of polyphonic music (The Guardian)
* Book review: On Highway 61: Music, Race and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom (AllAboutJazz.com)
* George Shearing's Holiday Set On Piano Jazz (NPR.org)
* A Jazz Piano Christmas (NPR.org)

Also, we remember the superb pianist and former St. Louisan John Hicks, born on this day in 1941:

StLJN Audio Archive: Oliver Lake - Ntu: The Point From Which Creation Begins

As Black History Month winds down for this year, it seems an appropriate time to revisit an historic session involving musicians from St. Louis' original Black Artists Group of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Recorded in 1971 here in St. Louis, saxophonist Oliver Lake's album Ntu: The Point From Which Creation Begins was issued in 1976 on the Arista Freedom label, which was putting out a lot of avant-garde and "loft" jazz around that time. It's been out of print for years, but fortunately Ntu has been preserved online and can be downloaded, thanks in this case to the (seemingly now dormant) music sharing blog Botched Surgery.

Though delayed in reaching the public, Ntu actually is one of the earliest recordings involving the BAG crew, and shares some personnel and sensibility with another early session, Solidarity Unit, Inc's Red, Black & Green (which recently got a limited edition reissue on vinyl from the small label Eremite Records.)

In addition to Lake on alto sax, soprano sax, flute and "small instruments," Ntu features a number of musicians who were important parts of the Black Artists Group, most of whom went on to have substantial careers. (Interestingly, the LP's title also wound up serving as inspiration for author Benjamin Looker's 2004 history of BAG.)

The personnel on Ntu includes Baikida E.J. Carroll (trumpet, small instruments); Floyd LeFlore (trumpet, small instruments); Joseph Bowie (trombone, small instruments); Richard Martin (guitar); John Hicks (piano); Clovis Bordeaux, Jr., misspelled on the original cover as "Bordeux" (electric piano); Don Officer (electric bass); Charles "Bobo" Shaw (drums); and the Art Ensemble of Chicago's Don Moye (conga).

There are five tracks in all: "Africa," "Tse'lane," "Electric Freedom Colors," "Eriee," and "Zip." As you might expect given the parallel development of BAG and Chicago's AACM, the alternating sparse and dense textures and free-form improvisations of Ntu suggest some kinship with the Art Ensemble, but there also are passing resemblances to Sun Ra's Arkestra, the various "New Thing" recordings by Coltrane, Shepp and others on the Impulse! label, and some of the music Miles Davis was doing around the same time. If you have any interest in this period or style, it's certainly worth hearing for both aesthetic and historic reasons.

To download a free copy of Oliver Lake's Ntu: The Point From Which Creation Begins, go here, scroll down about a third of the way through the post until you see the text "Ntu: The Point From Which The Creation of Botched Surgery Begins," which links to a Rapidshare page containing the actual download.

The StLJN Audio Archive links only to recordings that are out-of-print or that never have been commercially available. The purpose of the Audio Archive is to encourage discussion, appreciation and knowledge of St. Louis jazz artists, and we urge you to support them (or their estates) by purchasing authorized recordings and merchandise and, whenever possible, attending live performances.

StLJN Audio Archive: John Hicks - Hells Bells

For today's Audio Archive post, we feature Hells Bells, the very first session recorded as a bandleader by the late pianist and former St. Louisan John Hicks. Hells Bells - spelled without the apostrophe on the album cover (pictured), but sometimes with it in other references - was recorded in 1975 for trumpeter Charles Tolliver's Strata-East label, though it wasn't issued until 1978.

There was a CD reissue of the album in 2000 by the Charly label, which now is out of print. As of this writing, the one new copy that could be found for sale online has an asking price of $90, with used copies commanding nearly $30.

Hells Bells is a trio session featuring Hicks with Clint Houston (bass) and Cliff Barbaro (drums), performing four tracks: "Hell's Bells," "Avojca," "Yemenja," and "Angie's Tune." The .mp3 rip of the album linked to here today is from the blog Freedom Records; to download a free copy, go here and click the link labeled "Mediafire MP3," which will take you to, you guessed it, a Mediafire page with the download.

The StLJN Audio Archive links only to recordings that are out-of-print or that never have been commercially available. The purpose of the Audio Archive is to encourage discussion, appreciation and knowledge of St. Louis jazz artists, and we urge you to support them (or their estates) by purchasing authorized recordings and merchandise and, whenever possible, attending live performances.

Notes from the Net: Miles' box set of box sets; John Hicks honored in NYC; plus news, reviews, interviews and more

Here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:

* The big Miles Davis news this time out is the release on September 14 of The Genius of Miles Davis , a new collection bringing together eight deluxe multi-CD box sets, including 43 CDs of music, which were originally released on Columbia/Legacy between 1996 and 2007.

Presented in a replica of Miles' own trumpet case (pictured), the collection contains Miles Davis & Gil Evans: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings (6 CDs); Miles Davis Quintet 1965-1968 (6 CDs); The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (4 CDs); Miles Davis & John Coltrane: The Complete Columbia Recordings, 1955-1961 (6 CDs); The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions (3 CDs); The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions (5 CDs); Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings Of Miles Davis, 1963-1964 (7 CDs); and The Complete On The Corner Sessions (6 CDs).

Extras include a replica of the 'Gustat' Heim 2 model mouthpiece used by Davis; a "previously unseen and unavailable fine art lithograph" by the trumpeter himself; and a "boutique-worthy" T-shirt with an image of Davis playing his horn.

In other Miles-related news, the 40th anniversary of the release of Davis' influential Bitches Brew has prompted "Miles Davis: Forty Years of Freedom - The legacy of Bitches Brew," an article by Geoffrey Himes in the September issue of Jazz Times. Also, the 40th anniversary reissue edition of the album is reviewed here for AllAboutJazz.com by Doug Collette, and the music from the sessions also was celebrated earlier this month at a concert in Los Angeles. Last but certainly not least, here's audio of a recently rediscovered interview from 1970 with Teo Macero, in which Macero, who produced Davis' Columbia recordings, discusses the making of albums like Bitches Brew and Live Evil.

* Speaking of recently unearthed recordings, trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry's episode of the NPR program "Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz" recently was posted online. Terry also is one of several jazz legends interviewed for the Visionary Project, an archive of African American oral history. You can check out Terry's interview here.

* Updating the world via his Twitter feed, saxophonist and former St. Louisan Oliver Lake writes that he recently went to Belgium with the World Saxophone Quartet and percussion group M'boom to play the Middelheim Jazz Festival; did a week at NYC's Birdland with Trio 3 and pianist Geri Allen; and is set to play the Jazz Standard this week with his Organ Quartet, featuring Jared Gold.

* Another Oliver - the late composer, alto saxophonist and St. Louisan Oliver Nelson - recently was the subject of a post on Doug Ramsey's blog Rifftides.

* Remember that Greg Osby live NPR broadcast from the Village Vanguard we told you about here? The saxophonist, composer and St. Louis native's gig also was reviewed by the New York Times' Nate Chinen here, and has been archived for online streaming and downloading here.

* A section of West 139th St at Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem has been renamed "John Hicks Way" in honor of the late jazz pianist and former St. Louisan. WBGO’s Josh Jackson reports on the renaming here, and there's a photo of the new street sign bearing Hicks' name here.

* Saxophonist Chris Cheek has a new CD, Jugendstil II, recorded for ESP Disk in collaboration with the venerable sax master Lee Konitz and bassist Stephane Furic Leibovici. Here's a review of the album written for AllAboutJazz.com by Raul d'Gama Rose.

* Turning to news of coming attractions, pianist Vijay Iyer has a new CD, Solo, that's attracting lots of interest after the success of his previous release Historicity. AllAboutJazz.com already has up three reviews of the disc: one here written by Bruce Lindsay, here by Lyn Horton, and here by Chris May. Meanwhile, About.com's Jacob Teichrow has a review of the new Iyer disc here, and the pianist is interviewed for a feature about the release by the Los Angeles Times' Chris Barton here. Iyer will return to St. Louis to play with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet in November at the 560 Music Center under the auspices of New Music Circle.

* Dave Brubeck celebrated his 90th birthday a bit early this month at the Newport Jazz Festival. Brubeck is scheduled to come back here in October to perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall as part of the American Arts Experience -St. Louis festival.

* In other Newport-related news, pianist Hiromi's performance is documented here by NPR's "Jazz Set," and the network's recording of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band's concert at the parallel Folk Festival can be heard here. Hiromi will play with bassist Stanley Clarke in February at Jazz at the Bistro, while the PHJB's tour with the Del McCoury Band comes here in October to the Family Arena in St. Charles.

* After his recent hospitalization in France, singer Al Jarreau resumed his European tour. Jarreau said on his website he expects to complete the rest of the European tour and fulfill other concert commitments in the United States, Japan and elsewhere after doctors in Marseille successfully treated him for arrhythmia, or heart palpitations. Jarreau is scheduled to perform in February at the Touhill Performing Arts Center under the auspices of Jazz St. Louis.

* Apparently, tenor saxophonist Wilton Felder is the Jazz Crusader having health challenges that have forced the postponement of the group's St. Louis appearance, originally scheduled for next month at the Touhill. Interestingly, Felder was replaced on the band's date in Long Beach by Euge Groove, who was just here last weekend at the Pageant.

* Speaking of Groove, he's just released Groove On This, a new "interactive album" on data DVD. The recording is designed to be listened to and played with on something called the Beamz Player Interactive Music System, which allows listeners to remix songs in real time, among other things.

* In more news of recent visitors, saxophonist Boney James, who played the Bottleneck Blues Bar last month, is still glad to be back on stage touring after a serious auto accident and dental surgery sidelined him for several weeks earlier this year.

* Signer and pianist Harry Connick Jr, who played here in June at the Fox Theatre, recently brought his big band to the Hollywood Bowl.

* In other miscellaneous news from around the jazz internet, The Bad Plus' pianist Ethan Iverson recently "rebooted" his widely read blog Do The Math; Argentine pianist Esteban Sehinkman has posted online a free "real book" of compositions by Argentine jazz musicians; and photographer William Gottlieb's jazz photos in the Library of Congress have just entered the public domain.

* Finally, condolences to the family, friends and fans of Kansas City saxophonist and jazz-scene elder statesman Ahmad Alaadeen, who recently died after a battle with cancer. Plastic Sax's Bill Brownlee penned a nice tribute to Alaadeen for the Kansas City Star, which you can read online here.

Notes from the Net: New releases from Marty Ehrlich and Keyon Harrold, plus news, reviews, interviews, and more

Here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest.

* In the latest Miles Davis-related news, the Associated Press has distributed a feature story about the 50th anniversary of Kind of Blue, with remarks from Jimmy Cobb, Quincy Jones, Chick Corea, Ron Carter, Chris Botti and others.

Meanwhile, Wolfgang's Vault, which claims to be "the largest collection of licensed streaming live recordings on the Internet," will open its archives beginning November 3 to add more than 1,000 titles from 919 artists to the approximately 500 already available for purchase from the site's Concert Vault section. To promote "Cracking the Vault Day," they're offering a few new shows twice weekly, with concerts featuring Davis, Weather Report and the Mahavishnu Orchestra going online this Friday, October 16.

Also, here's a review of the new Complete Birth of the Cool reissue from Tim Niland's blog Music and More, and a free download of a previously unissued Davis concert, recorded November 3, 1969 at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, France.

Lastly, news comes this week that Davis' former home on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu is up for sale; if you've ever wondered just how large the trumpeter was livin' on the West Coast, you can check out the description and photos here.

* Turning to news of other St. Louisans, here's a review written by Marcia Hillman for AllAboutJazz.com of three new solo piano CDs, including the posthumously issued I Remember You from the late St. Louis native John Hicks.

* Here's a review of saxophonist Oliver Lake's new Organ Trio CD Makin' It written for for AllAboutJazz.com by Hrayr Attarian, who calls it "a very stimulating session that successfully marries the soul-jazz format of the organ/saxophone/drums trio to freer improvisations and edgy avant-garde styles."

* Here's a review of a recent Hamiet Bluiett duo gig in Takoma Park, MD that paired the baritone sax master with poet Lee Pearson.

* Multi-instrumentalist Marty Ehrlich's Rites Quartet has a new CD, Things Have Got To Change, on the Clean Feed label. Inspired by the sound of Julius Hemphill’s Dogon A.D., it features Ehrlich (pictured) on alto sax with James Zollar on trumpet, Erik Friedlander on cello, and Pheeroan AkLaff on drums. AllAboutJazz.com already has up two reviews of the disc, one from Stuart Broomer here, and another from Troy Collins here.

* Here's an interview with bassist and St. Louis native Steve Kirby, who now teaches music at the University of Manitoba, focusing on his take on the Canadian jazz sound and Canadian musicians.

* The Night Lights program on radio station WFIU in Bloomington, IN recently broadcast “John Zorn’s Hardboiled Bop,” a tribute program featuring music from the alto saxophonist's two News for Lulu releases; Voodoo: the Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet; and other late-1980s recordings. Zorn attended Webster University here in the mid-1970s.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold has just released his first CD as a leader, Introducing Keyon Harrold, on the Criss Cross label. The disc features six original tunes, a spiritual, and an interpretation of Horace Silver's "Peace," performed by a band including Harrold, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, his brother E.J. Strickland on drums, pianist Danny Grissett and bassist Dezron Douglas. Harrold's former teacher, trumpeter Charles Tolliver, guests on one track.

* Turning to news of recent visitors to St. Louis, JazzWax' Marc Myers has a multi-part interview with saxophonist Sonny Rollins, focusing on Rollins' affinity for the Wild West and the connection between his childhood love of Western movies and his 1957 album Way Out West. Read part one here, and follow the links to subsequent installments. Rollins was here last month for a concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

* Singer and pianist Ann Hampton Callaway, who was in town a couple of weeks ago for a performance at the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis, will perform this week at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on a bill with pianist Ramsey Lewis.

* Turning to the "coming attractions" file, there's some entertaining reading in one saxophonist's account of how "James Carter Ruined My Life," via the Twin Cities jazz blog bebopified. Carter will be back in St. Louis next May to perform at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Pianist Vijay Iyer, who will make his St. Louis debut in January at the Bistro, recently was featured on NPR's A Blog Supreme. Also, here are two reviews Iyer's new CD - the first written for AllAboutJazz.com by Troy Collins, and the second from About.com's Jacob Teichroew.

* From the "items of more general interest" file: A new issue of the always interesting online jazz magazine Point of Departure is now available.

* And, last but not least, regular readers of this space know that yr. humble editor has an interest in unusual musical instruments. from homemade to high tech. Falling into the latter category is the Eigenharp, a new synth controller that looks like something played by the aliens in the Star Wars cantina band and costs nearly $6,400 US . Is the Eigenharp, as its British developers claim, "the most expressive electronic musical instrument ever made," or is it just a tarted-up Chapman Stick with a bassoon-like breath controller stuck on the side? See it (and decide for yourself) in a BBC report here.

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Piano players, past and present

As the headline implies, this week's videos showcase a couple of piano players with roots in St. Louis.

First up is a clip featuring the late, great John Hicks, seen here performing the Kenny Barron composition "Sunshower," which served as the title track of his final CD. This video was shot in October 2001 at the Lenox Lounge in NYC, and the group features Hicks' spouse Elise Wood on flute, fellow St. Louisan Ronnie Burrage on drums, bassist Curtis Lundy and tenor saxophonist Craig Handy. Whatever the musical context, it's always a pleasure to spend a few minutes with Hicks, and he's still fondly remembered and dearly missed by his many fans and friends.

The second clip shows University City native Peter Martin performing the Gershwin standard "A Foggy Day" with singer Dianne Reeves, bassist Reuben Rogers, drummer Greg Hutchinson and the Philharmonie Berlin. The clip is undated, but would seem to be recent.

Though the orchestral arrangement here is, as you'd expect, more structured than what's heard in Hicks' quintet clip above, Martin delivers a nicely understated intro behind Reeves, plus some succinct comping and commentary throughout. After serving as Reeves' music director for a number of years, recently Martin has been gigging with trumpeter Chris Botti.

StLJN Saturday at the Movies:The Pharoah Sanders Quartet featuring John Hicks,plus Dave Brubeck live in 2006

This week's videos put the spotlight on two legendary jazz pianists. First up is a 1988 clip of the Pharoah Sanders Quartet performing in Koeln, Germany, featuring the late, great former St. Louisan John Hicks on piano. There's a brief statement of the head, and then Hicks takes off with a blistering solo, which he makes look as easy as a Sunday afternoon stroll in the park. Along with Hicks and Sanders, you can see the great Idris Muhammad on drums, as well as a few shots of the bass player, who I didn't recognize. Anyone know who it is? The video is more than 20 minutes long, so it may take a while to download, but it's worth it.

The second clip features Dave Brubeck, who will be coming to St. Louis in a couple of weeks to do a benefit performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall. There are several good vintage clips of Brubeck floating around the net, but this one is very recent, featuring his current quartet in a 2006 performance of "Someday My Prince Will Come" at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Looks like it may have been shot from the balcony of the hall, but it should provide some idea of what to expect from Brubeck's upcoming show here.

A video tribute to John Hicks

To commemorate the first anniversary of the passing of former St. Louisan John Hicks (December 21, 1941 - May 10, 2006), jazz journalist Bret Primack has produced a tribute to the pianist on his video blog, Bird Lives.

The tribute includes rare performance video of Hicks with Art Blakey, documentary footage from one of his last sessions (Streams of Expression), and clips from a concert by the Joe Lovano Nonet in Paris, as well as Primack's own memories and interviews with Lovano and Mulgrew Miller and Lovano.

You can see the video tribute to John Hicks in the embedded window below. And in other Hicks-related news, his musical partner and spouse, flute player Elyse Wood, has organized a tribute perfomrance dedicated to Hicks this weekend in NYC.