Music Education Monday: Still all about that bass (with Ray Brown and Milt Hinton)

As yr. humble editor is not one to leave any good material unused, or any bad pun or pop culture reference unmade - at least of couple times - today's "Music Education Monday" post is a sequel to last December's "All About That Bass", featuring a few more bass-related links and video clips that turned up during the info-gathering for that post.

Keeping in mind that the general criteria here is "music instructional materials available for free on the internet," bassists may find some items worthy of perusal at the aptly named InstituteOfBass.com, which offers free online lessons from bassists including Michael Manring (who's coming to St. Louis to perform next month), Cliff Engel, Todd Johnson, Ray Riendeau and others.

Also worth a look are the handout materials put together by bassist and jazz educator Lou Fischer for a master class in jazz bass presented as part of a "Music for All Summer Symposium" sponsored by Yamaha. You can download the notes in PDF format here.

And if you've ever wondered how a bunch of local Detroit jazz musicians used their skills and experience to create some of the biggest pop hits of the 20th century, check out "James Jamerson: From Jazz Bassist to Popular Music Icon," a master's thesis by a Texas jazz student that has some interesting info and insights about the bassist who provided the backbone for many of Motown's greatest recordings.

On the video front, we have lessons from two masters of swinging, straight-ahead jazz. The first clip features a short-but-sweet lesson from the late Milt Hinton, who played with many of the major jazz musicians active during his lifetime and did thousands of recording sessions in a career that stretched from the 1930s to the 1990s.

After that, there's an entire master class from Ray Brown (pictured), who was celebrated as one of the top bassists in jazz for his work with Ella Fitzgerald (who also was married to Brown for six years); Oscar Peterson, who employed Brown as his bassist of choice for several decades; and others.

You can see the videos of Milt Hinton and Ray Brown after the jump...

Jazz this week: Ray Brown Tribute, Galactic, Jimmy Webb, Latin and East Indian rhythms meet jazz, and more

The jazz and creative music calendar this week in St. Louis offers a variety of stylistic approaches, from a tribute to a beloved mainstream bassist to shows mixing jazz with funk, Latin and East Indian sounds, electronica, and more.

Fans of bop and swing naturally will gravitate toward the Ray Brown Tribute that begins tonight and continues through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Headed by Brown's protege, bassist Christian McBride, and featuring pianist Benny Green and drummer Gregory Hutchinson, the trio pays tribute to Brown as composer as well as to his bass playing with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson that helped set the standard on his instrument for the post-WWII era and beyond. For more about Brown and some video samples of the tribute trio in action, see this post from last Saturday.

Also tonight, saxophonist Dave Cheli, multi-intrumentalist John Covelli and drummer Martino Covelli (John's son) debut a new project called The Name Of This Band Is at The Gramophone. They'll be doing a live recording session at the club for the next three Wednesdays, laying down original tunes that - Talking Heads reference in their name notwithstanding - Covelli describes as being in a funk/fusion style.

Tomorrow night, the New Orleans funk/jazz band Galactic (pictured) returns to The Pageant, this time bringing along special guests Cyril Neville of the Neville Brothers and Corey Henry of the Rebirth Brass Band. Mike Gordon will open, and given that this is being billed as a "special show" by both acts, the Phish bassist seems likely to join Galactic and friends to jam a bit as well.

Also on Thursday, famed songwriter Jimmy Webb begins a three-night run of his cabaret show for the Presenters Dolan at the Kranzberg Arts Center. The performance features Webb singing, playing piano and telling stories about his many hit songs, which range from the wistful country hit "Wichita Lineman" to the melodramatic pop bombast "MacArthur Park" and beyond. Given the limited seating capacity of the room, advance reservations would seem to be a must. For more about what Webb has been up to recently, see this interview with him published last fall by the Onion's AV Club.

On Friday, the eclectic Chicago-based guitarist Fareed Haque brings his new electronica-influenced band MathGames to 2720 Cherokee, headlining a bill that also include saxophonist Dave Stone's trio, and Hot House Sessions with special guest guitarist Dave Black.

Also on Friday, Latin-jazz band Musica Slesa will perform on a triple bill with the Aakash Mittal Quartet and Les Filles du Jazz in the Sheldon Concert Hall ballroom. Mittal is an alto saxophonist from Boulder, CO who combines jazz with East Indian musical meters, rhythmic cycles, and raga-informed melodies; Les Filles du Jazz is the Francophone name for a collaboration between singer Carmen Emborski and pianist Heather Bosshardt.

On Saturday, saxophonist Stan Coleman will bring his University Big Band back to Robbie's House of Jazz, and on Sunday, the Funky Butt Brass Band is doing a free concert at Second Baptist Church in Richmond Heights for the St. Louis Jazz and Blues Vespers Series.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday BB's Jazz Blues and Soups has pianist Dave Becherer's trio and on Tuesday, Robbie's presents their weekly open jam session.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or clicking the "Like" icon on the StLJN Facebook page.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Paying tribute to Ray Brown

This week, let's take a look at some videos previewing the tribute to bassist Ray Brown that will play at Jazz at the Bistro starting next Wednesday, March 16 through Saturday, March 19. The band is led by bassist Christian McBride, who was a protege of Brown's, and includes pianist Benny Green and drummer Greg Hutchinson, who both worked with Brown as up-and-coming musicians during the 1990s.

Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any readily available clips online of the McBride-Green-Hutchinson troika, so instead, we've got four videos of McBride, Green and drummer Karriem Riggins doing a tribute to Brown last September at the Detroit Jazz Festival. These were all shot by an audience member with a camcorder, so they're not broadcast quality, but the audio is more than adequate to convey the trio's sound and overall approach.

Up above, you can see and hear them play "Captain Bill," a blues written by Brown as a tribute to Count Basie. Below, there's a version "Li'l Darlin," which was made famous initially by Basie and later recorded by Brown, and renditions of two more Brown compositions, "Gumbo Hump," which evokes a New Orleans vibe, and "Bass Face," the title track to a 1993 CD of Brown's.

As for the subject of the tribute, though Ray Brown may not be as well known outside the jazz world as seemingly ubiquitous tribute subjects such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane or Thelonious Monk, his stellar career and lasting influence on generations of bassists certainly are worth celebrating.

Ray Brown was born in 1926 in Pittsburgh, and made his first major breakthrough at age 20 when he got a job playing with Dizzy Gillespie. He spent five years with Gillespie during the height of the bebop era, during which time he also met and married Ella Fitzgerald, though the union lasted only until 1952. Brown also appeared during those years in Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts, through which he met pianist Oscar Peterson, with whom he would go on to play from 1951 to 1966.

After leaving Peterson, Brown moved to Los Angeles, where he became a manager and promoter as well as a performer. He worked with singers including Frank Sinatra, Billy Eckstine, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan, and Nancy Wilson, and composed music and played in orchestras for TV and movies. Brown also managed artists such as the Modern Jazz Quartet and Quincy Jones; produced concerts at the Hollywood Bowl; and wrote jazz bass instruction books, some of which still are used today.

Later in his career, Brown performed and recorded with the The L.A. Four, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, pianist Gene Harris and others as well as with and his own trios. Brown died in 2002, but his big tone, musical versatility, and always-swinging support for his collaborators set a standard for mainstream jazz bassists that still applies today.

For more on Ray Brown, check out this article from a couple of years ago on Jazz.com, in which Christian McBride selects and comments on 12 of his favorite tracks featuring Brown on bass. Also, read this remembrance of a late career gig by the bassist; pore over transcripts of his solos on "Li'l Darlin," "Au Privave" and "Night Train"; or just check out some of the many videos of Brown's performances that have surfaced on YouTube.

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Regina Carter with the Ray Brown Trio,plus the Terell Stafford Quintet featuring Mulgrew Miller

This week, we've got two videos featuring artists who will be performing in St. Louis during the month of May.

Today's first clip shows violinist Regina Carter playing the Gershwin standard "Lady Be Good" with the Ray Brown Trio. It was recorded at the 2001 Bern Jazz Festival as part of a concert paying tribute to Brown. Carter will be in St. Louis with her own group to play at Jazz at the Bistro from Wednesday, May 23 through Saturday, May 26.

The second video shows pianist Mulgrew Miller, who will be at the Bistro with his trio May 9 - 12, working as a member of the Terell Stafford Quintet at Jazzbaltica 2006. (Both Miller and Stafford record for the St. Louis-based MAXJAZZ label, and, coincidentally, both have new CD releases this spring.) The tune is "Off The Marc," and in addition to Miller on piano and Stafford on trumpet, the band includes Matt Wilson (drums), Martin Wind (bass) and Tim Warfield (saxophones).