Author: Devra Hall Levy

Friday was John’s big day and Leroy Hamilton was on hand to document it. If you’ve not yet heard of Leroy, go here. Leroy is a truly talented photographer with an artist’s eye and the soul of a saint. He arrived in New York at dawn and at 10:30 AM he met up with us in a conference room where John was being interviewed by Katti Gray, a columnist for Newsday. [Her piece about John ran on Monday, January 16th, here’s the link].

After the interview, we went to the Etrusca Restaurant for the Jazz Masters Luncheon. This is the event that most Jazz Masters like best, because it’s the only time when they can sit and visit with one another, swapping stories and telling ‘lies.’ Hosted by NEA Chairman Dana Gioia, it’s a private affair for the Jazz Master’s and their significant others. All Jazz Masters are invited and usually a handful of past recipients show up in addition to the current year’s inductees. In attendance at Friday’s luncheon were Ray Baretto, Tony Bennett, Bob Brookmeyer, Chick Corea, Buddy DeFranco, Freddie Hubbard, and John, plus Chico Hamilton, Jim Hall, Nat Hentoff, Nancy Wilson, Jimmy Heath, Ron Carter, Slide Hampton, Frank Foster and probably a few others I am not remembering at the moment. Before we sat down to eat, The Masters were led out into a roped-off area in the hotel lobby for this year’s group photo. Never before had they staged the photo in a public area, but it was a stroke of maketing genius to do so as both the public and he paparazzi seemed to love it. After the group shot of all the Jazz Masters on hand, they did a shot of just this years inductees. Finally, they led us back into the restaurant for lunch.

The original plan was to eat first, and then Chairman Gioia and IAJE President David Caffey would give out the plaques. But no sooner did we finish our Farmer’s Market Salads with herbed goat cheese and toasted croutons atop a bed of mixed baby greens with a light citrus vinaigrette, than the plan changed — that’s jazz, always improvising — it was decided to give the awards before the main course. While talking to NEA Director of Music & Opera Wayne Brown, who was seated to my left, I noticed John get up to say hello to Freddie Hubbard, but when I turned my attention to the podium, I didn’t see John anywhere in the room. The giving of the awards involved little more than announcing the person’s name, applause applause, and a photo. Luckily John was last in line as he came back into the room with barely a minute to spare.

Following the luncheon (a choice of Petit Filet Mignon with Wild Mushroom Ragout or Grilled Atlantic Salmon with Picante Mango Peach Salsa, and Warm Peach Cobbler for dessert), John amazed me by agreeing to do more press interviews. It was around 2:30 or so when he spoke with a local television crew (NY1) and then he did a lengthy segment for Listen Here! The jazz review with Neil Tesser and Mark Ruffin. We had wanted to see Nat Hentoff’s one-on-one interview with Clark Terry, but we just couldn’t be everywhere at once, and we needed a short rest before the evening events.

John was scheduled for his NEA portrait photo at 5:45 PM, just before the Pre-Concert Reception that began at 6. He also took a few minutes to do a short cable television interview with Jaron Eames, who has been pursuing him with a smile for many years. Then it was on to the reception in the Mercury Ballroom. It’s not that large a room and it was crowded. Somehow I managed to find our invited guests in the crowd: retired William Morris booking agent Marty Klein, musical director Bobby Tucker, and John’s son, Michael, who had worked with him at one time as road manager for Sarah Vaughan, Freddie Hubbard, and Wes Montgomery. There were lots of friends in the room, some of whom we barely had a chance to wave at: John Snyder, Bill Kirchner and Judy Kahn, and Maria Schneider come to mind. Then it was hurry up and wait time. They shepherded the Jazz Masters through the kitchen and into the back entrance to the Grand Ballroom where we waited, and waited, and waited some more. Chairs had been set up along the wall with name tags, and we were to wait in these positions so that we could enter in a processional. The Ballroom was filled to capacity, and later I heard that even people who had VIP tags could not get in to the main floor and had to go up to the balcony.

The program opened with two big band pieces played by The Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra — “Beige,” from Duke Ellington’s suite, “Black, Brown & Beige” and a Frank Foster arrangement of John Coltrane’s “Countdown.” Then the first three of seven Jazz Master awards were presented to Freddie Hubbard, Ray Baretto, and Chick Corea. Each presentation was preceded by a short biographical video clip, and followed by a brief acceptance speech. Then the Count Basie Orchestra took the stage and was all-too-soon joined by vocalist Nnenna Freelon. After her third song it was back to the awards presentations.

The video segment on John, which included the obligatory childhood photo, also included some seldom seen footage of John playing bass with the original George Shearing Quintet, something most people in the room had never seen or heard before. Then it was time for Nancy to give John his award, the moment she’d been waiting for all night. I have seen her tear up before when talking about John, but this time it really got to her. She wanted to regale the audience with chapter and verse of John’s good deeds, but she couldn’t, and it was just as well because John wanted to get on with thanking some of the people who helped him in his long career. He thanked Bobby Tucker, George Shearing, Cannonball Adderley, Marty Klein, Laurie Goldstein, his son, George Wein, Darlene Chan, his in-laws (my parents), and me.

The last award given was to Tony Bennett, who, in his acceptance speech, thanked his son, the best manager he’s ever known…except for John Levy. I couldn’t see in the dark, but John might actually have blushed at that one.

The evening ended with a classic battle of the bands, playing the Frank Wess arrangement of Ellington’s “Battle Royale” and a Thad Jones piece titled “To You.” The finale was One O’Clock Jump, during which several Masters sat in (Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton, Chick Corea, James Moody scat singing) and were upstaged by a ten-year old trumpet dynamo named Tyler.

When it was all over…we were hungry. There was no dinner served, just the luncheon and some hors d’oeuvres at the reception, so we went upstairs, changed into “street clothes” and headed for the Carnegie Deli where I had a bowl of matzo ball soup and we shared a hot pastrami sandwich. Can’t get that in Los Angeles (Jeri’s Deli and Cantor’s not withstanding). We didn’t linger, though, because Saturday’s schedule was just as busy. Stay tuned.

[Note: As you can see, the photo of John and Nancy posted here is not one of Leroy’s. I hope to have his pictures soon, and I know that between my blog, John’s website, and Leroy’s site, we’ll be posting quite a few. I’ll let you know when that happens.]

Fabulous News!!! As I mentioned two days ago, John did an interview with Sara Fishko that aired in New York on WNYC as part of Sara’s series called Fishko Files. We just now received an email from Sara announcing

“the piece I did on John Levy has been picked up by the NPR program All Things Considered. It will run this Sunday on hundreds of radio stations all over the country. So – tune in! They think it’s going to run in the middle of the program, which in most places runs from 5 to 6 PM – but check your local station! ”

Click here to find the broadcast time and station in your area.

Thursday morning I spent two hours talking with Duane Grant, Luther Henderson’s step-son and right hand man for many years. It was time well spent, though I was sorry to miss out on hearing A.B. Spellman’s one-on-one with Billy Taylor. At least I got to spend some time with Dr T over coffee the next day, and to hear him play several days later in the studio, recording with Nancy. (He played a very beautiful solo on “I’ll Be Seeing You.”)

At 2 o’clock, John and I both went to the Jazz Lives In Print panel, moderated by Paul de Barros. We had lots of friends in the audience, including attorney Noel Silverman, producer George Avakian, Mr. Jazz Times a/k/a Ira Sabin with his wife, Irma, and photographer Stephanie Myers, who was kind enough to bring me a contact sheet with pix from an event involving Luther Henderson.

The blurb for the panel sounded interesting (as I mentioned in my January 4th post about biographies, here), but it’s hard to reach any real depth when you cram five panelists into one short hour and spend far too many precious minutes reciting their credentials. Their credits are impressive, but if I had been moderating I would have printed up a sheet of mini bios instead and let the attendees take it with them…hopefully to the bookstore.

Gary Giddins, who could easily conduct an invaluable biography workshop all on his own (is anybody listening – this would be great!), had some sound advice – “Never trust anybody. Everybody lies.” Perhaps stated in the extreme, but true. Not only do biases abound, but credence is often given undeservedly to those perceived to be experts or gurus. In the world of jazz, Leonard Feather comes to mind; I have seen a number of examples documented by researchers that show his pronouncements were inconsistent and often motivated by matters other than the music itself. Then there is the simple mistake that today is magnified thanks to the Internet. For example, the AP Wire ran a story about the Jazz Masters and one of the accompanying photos identified “Pianist John Levy…” [FYI, I wrote to the AP Entertainment Editor, saying in part, “I realize that this is not a huge error, perhaps even inconsequential, but given the wide reach of the AP Wire, and the permanence of digital information in these times, I would hope that the mis-information could be corrected so as to not proliferate inaccuracies in perpetuity.” I am happy to report that I received an immediate response: “Thanks for calling this to our attention. We actually ran a correction on Monday, Jan. 16.” I’m glad they did, but I’d be even happier if I were to see the correction run in the papers that actually ran the photo.]

Most jazz biographies are about performers — singers and instrumentalists. Not only are they usually more famous than, say, arrangers or recording engineers, but their work is something that the public understands. Some composers become famous enough to merit a biography (even a movie) – think Cole Porter, George & Ira Gershwin… — but not often does an arranger get the spotlight. Maybe that is changing, and when a comment was made about the relatively recent spate of biographies about arrangers and composers (including panelist Peter Levinson’s “September in the Rain : The Life of Nelson Riddle” and Stephanie Stein Crease’s “Gil Evans: Out of the Cool“), Mr. Rifftides kindly made mention of my work in progress – Seeking Harmony: The Life & Music of Luther Henderson. I have to admit that I have not yet read the Gil Evans bio, but I plan to do so very soon. There are apparently some similarities between the Evans and Henderson approach, including their penchant for borrowing from other musical genres, especially classical.

After the panel, we left quickly hoping to get in to see the DownBeat First-Person Interview with Sonny Rollins, moderated by Ira Gitler. Whatever were we thinking?! Sheraton’s New York Ballroom East was filled to overflowing long before it was time to start. We were but two among the hundreds of people who were turned away – no exaggeration.

Thursday evening we ventured off site and headed for Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola. It was our first time seeing the new Jazz at Lincoln Center digs in the new building on Columbus Circle. For those of us to whom “malls” are nothing new, this cornucopia of shops and offices and whatnot is not all that unusual, still it has that New York je ne sais quoi with a savvy, sophisticated, up-scale air about it. The club has the feel of a cosmopolitan movie set and it will not surprise me when I see it on the big screen (Woody Allen has probably made such plans already). The Lewis Nash Quartet, featuring Peter Washington on bass (one of John’s favorites), Renee Rosnes on piano, and Steve Nelson on vibes, was paying tribute to two jazz legends from Detroit – Tommy Flanagan and Milt Jackson. I had forgotten that Lewis and Peter played for ten years as members of Tommy’s Trio, which explained why they seemed to breathe as one, even though the ensemble as a whole was not as tight. The bass was consistently solid and steady, the drums always tasty, but the group, falling in and out of the pocket, was unable to sustain a groove.

That’s not to say they were bad – these are four musicians of the highest caliber – but there’s always room to be even better. There were beautiful moments, unusual unison riffs, and arrangements crafted with much forethought and love. Selections included a Bag’s favorite FSR (For Sonny Rollins), Arioso (a James Williams original), that drummer’s showcase of a tune, Caravan, and the set-closer, Bag’s Groove. Today’s Rifftides post says “Nash’s unaccompanied introduction to Flanagan’s “Eclypso,” using only his fingers and the palms of his hands across the drums, was electrifying.” I agree wholeheartedly, having heard Nash apply the same technique to the intro of Caravan. Lewis Nash is my favorite drummer, and “way high” on my list of all-around favorite people, period. Still I can’t help but wonder what the jazz scene would be like today if, instead of makeshift groups assembled from persons set on their own individual career paths, we had ensembles that played together for a long time to develop a group identity. And what if, like the good old days, gigs were to last for weeks, or even months? You remember — the kind of gigs that fostered a repeat audience who came in night after night and never heard the same thing twice.

Each year, the kick-off event to the IAJE conference is a Gala Dinner (black-ie optional). During the affair, the primary purpose of which is to thank the convention sponsors and major IAJE donors, awards are given, and a student ensemble (the Clifford Brown – Stan Getz Fellowship All-Stars) provides musical entertainment. Cocktails were followed by dinner in the Trianon Ballroom. John wore his tux and we were seated at the host table with Nancy Wilson, IAJE President’s Award honoree Clark Terry and his wife, Gwen, NEA Chairman Dana Gioia, and IAJE President David Caffey. Across the room I spotted George Wein and Jesse Jackson, the latter in town to eulogize Lou Rawls.

It’s all about seeing and being seen, and it’s often the only opportunity to see folks who are on hand for the convention but who you might not otherwise see because of conflicting schedules. For us, those hellos included composer and band leader Maria Schneider (an amazingly talented young lady who I had the privilege of managing for five years), Doc Severinsen, bassist John Clayton, and pianist Mike Wolff. Nancy introduced all the Jazz Masters past and present, getting predictably emotional when she spoke about John, who has not only been her manager but also the steadiest and most reliable force in her life for nearly fifty years, through ups and downs, births, deaths, and marriages. Two nights later at the NEA Concert and Award Ceremony she would say “John Levy is one of the most special men I have ever known in my life. I want to thank him for being my father. I want to thank him for being the man who made me.”

When Nancy introduced the five high school student all-stars she set the bar high, suggesting that they would have to be really good to hold their own with the Sisters in Jazz Collegiate All-Stars. Perhaps it was an unfair contest to pit high-school against college, but something worth striving for. Sad to say, in my not so humble opinion, this year’s young men were not up to the challenge – they had plenty of technique, but little else. The usual excuse given for such a weak ensemble performance is that the group had little if any opportunity to work together, but I don’t buy it. Jazz is not a solo sport, and it seems to me that young players today are either not taught to listen, or they are not interested in the art of listening – everyone was way too busy showing off their chops.

After a video segment featuring one of his inimitable performances of “Mumbles” – a hilarity that never fails to amuse and delight no matter how many times it’s been heard – Clark Terry walked onstage looking very dapper, right down to his blue patterned shoes. (Perhaps alligator?). He has received so many proclamations, citations, city keys, and hall-of-fame inductions, not to mention multiple honorary doctorates, three Grammy nominations, the French Medal of Honor, and a German knighthood, that the IAJE award might have seemed a small thing, but not to CT. He was truly moved, and so was the audience.