Category: Date Specific

Happy Birthday Phil! On Friday, November 3, from 8pm to Midnight Eastern. WGBH 89.7FM’s Jazz From Studio Four host Steve Schwartz celebrates the 75th birthday of alto saxophonist Phil Woods (born Nov. 2, 1931) with a four-hour retrospective of his ongoing career. One of the true masters of the bop vocabulary, Woods has played with an impressive array of artists—touring and recording with jazz legends Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, and Benny Goodman and playing on pop albums by Billy Joel, Carly Simon and Steely Dan. I can’t think of a better way to enjoy an evening while simultaneously boning-up on large slice of jazz history. If you’re not within earshot via terrestrial radio, tune in online at wgbh.org/jazz

Meanwhile, here’s a little appetizer. It’s an excerpt from the liner notes I wrote for a live concert recording in honor of Johnny Pate, featuring Phil Woods, James Moody, Monty Alexander, Shirley Horn, and Ron Carter, among others.

…“Minor Detail,” opens with Pate playing solo piano – the first of many pleasures yet to come. The solo introduction to this minor-key ballad is thick with rich chordal harmonies that weave through the reed and horn sections. Then an alto saxophone is heard in the distance, and it’s Phil Woods, in his trademark black cap, who emerges from the wings playing. Soon a deeper horn sounds and James Moody wanders onstage playing tenor. Woods kisses the top of Moody’s balding head, and the two go on musically conversing with one another. The jazz ensemble members are mesmerized, and though it is not discernable to the ear, they are so awestruck that they nearly miss their musical cue to come back in. Woods and Moody wander off the stage.

At the microphone again, Pate waits just a beat to compose himself, and tries to lighten the moment by joking. “An intrusion,” he says, gesturing toward the wings. “They just let anyone wander around.” He tells the audience about the day he heard Phil Woods playing alto on a Dizzy Gillespie recording, and how he thought to himself that if he were ever in a position to produce records, Phil Woods would top his list of artists. Bringing Woods back onstage, “all the way from Pennsylvania,” his voice cracks with tears. A week earlier, Pate predicted this would happen, telling Spencer Patterson of the Las Vegas Sun, “I haven’t been in contact with most of these people for years. Seeing them all at once, all together will be quite a thing. I’ll need three or four boxes of Kleenex.”

It may not seem like such a long way from Pennsylvania to Nevada, but for someone battling emphysema and down with the flu just days earlier, it is a very long way indeed. Still, Woods would not have missed today’s events. Woods’ handwritten note to Pate, reprinted in the program book, says, “Your faith in me long ago lives forever in my heart.” Woods means it. He tells the audience about his life as a struggling musician in the 1960s. “I couldn’t get arrested. ‘Buy a flute, be a studio man,’ they told me. I said ‘forget it.’” Woods moved to Europe where he hoped the musical climate would be more hospitable to jazz musicians. But in 1968, salvation came from stateside in the form of Johnny Pate.

Then East Coast director of A&R for Verve Records/MGM, Pate was in a position to make Woods an offer. Tracking him down in France, Pate offered Woods a record deal with a dream rhythm section (Herbie Hancock on piano, Richard Davis on bass and Grady Tate on drums), augmented by a string section led by Gene Orloff. The album is titled Round Trip. “I’m talking the truth,” Woods tells us. “I went back to France with a shitload of money, and a few months later I was invited to play at Newport. I was back, baby! I was back, and that’s ’cause of Johnny Pate, and I want to say thank you.”

Woods sounds breathless when talking, but not when playing. He is featured on the next two selections, “Carolyn” and “Fill the Woods With Laughter,” both of which are on that 1968 recording. The first, a ballad dedicated to Pate’s wife, is a simple theme with variations, rich harmonies, a walking bass line, and a sweet trumpet turn at the end. The students acquit themselves well, breaking into double time before the bridge, but it is Woods who plays with such love that my eyes tear up. Pate is standing on stage, bending backward from the knees as if the music is the wind and he is a sail. Much later, the only words Pate will be able to muster are “I love what he does with a ballad. I just stood there in awe.” By the time they finish the second tune, the audience is cheering and all Pate can say now is “Wow!”

Speaking of jazz classics, I just saw a press release reminding me that it has been 50 years since Paul Gonsalves’ six minute solo on “Diminuendo and Crescendo In Blue” brought the proverbial house down at the Newport Jazz Festival.

Tonight, on the radio, Columbia record producer George Avakian, Newport Jazz impresario George Wein, and critic Stanley Crouch will be savoring the memory of Duke Ellington and His Orchestra’s historic performance — the program is Open Source, it airs from Boston (89.7 on the dial) at 7 PM and can be heard online here.

Sunday, July 9, from 11 p.m. to midnight (Eastern Daylight Time) “Jazz From the Archives” features the music of Eddie Harris. You can hear it online www.wbgo.org, or if you are in the New York City metropolitan area you can tune in to WBGO-FM (88.3). Producer Bill Kirchner writes:

Eddie Harris (1934-1996) started his professional career as a pianist, but he became one of the most distinctive post-bebop tenor saxophonists, with an appealing airy sound and virtuoso technique. He achieved popularity through a number of commercial hits, but those who knew his playing well were aware that he was a first-rate jazz improviser.

We’ll hear some of the best of Harris’s Atlantic recordings of the mid-to-late 1960s, featuring him along with pianists Cedar Walton and Jodie Christian, bassist Ron Carter, drummers Billy Higgins, Bobby Thomas, and Billy Hart, trumpeter Ray Codrington, and others.

I’ve only been to The Vic twice, first time to hear Roger Kellaway’s trio and and last Thursday night to hear Bill Henderson and celebrate his 80th birthday. Many of you would recognize Bill from his acting roles (ranging from big screen roles in movies such as City Slickers to small screen appearances on shows such as Cosby, ER, and lots of commercials), but if you are not familiar with Bill’s singing, you should check him out. Some may find him to be an acquired taste, his sound is recognizable and his style, phrasing, and interpretations of a song are always unique. He’s a hipster more than a suave crooner, yet it’s his ballads that I love most. Bill has recorded a bit, some out of print releases on the Discovery label and Bill Henderson/Oscar Peterson Trio (Polygram 1989), but my favorites are his four tracks accompanied by a chamber orchestra on a Charlie Haden CD titled The Art of The Song (Polygram 1999).

The Vic is an intimate room reminiscent of an old speakeasy, complete with password-required rear-door entry. A living-room setting with good food, a full bar, and excellent music — who could ask for anything more? This coming Thursday we’ll be there again to cheer on Clairdee, who is making a rare Los Angeles appearance. If you are a DevraDoWrite regular, then you’ve heard a bit about her before, and hopefully checked out her web site and perhaps purchased a CD or two. Accompanying her will be her musical director and pianist Ken French, along with Los Angeles’ own dynamic duo that is The Cross Hart Jazz Experience (Ryan Cross on bass and Lorca Hart on drums.) If you watch Friends, ER, The West Wing, Girlfriends or Eve, chances are you have heard music by The Cross Hart Jazz Experience.

Here’s are some press quotes about Clairdee

Downbeat – “Clairdee invests the songs with generous spirit and unpretentious sincerity.”
USA Today – “Clairdee offers swinging renditions of traditional tunes.”
San Francisco Examiner – “She is among the most skilled and appealing singers around – fine songs, beautiful voice, great moves.”
WBGO Radio, New York – “A force to be reckoned with!”
Urban Network – “A heartfelt connection that swings, grooves and soothes.”
Jazz Now Magazine – “Clairdee’s clear contralto is laid back and mellow, her phrasing impeccable, her lyrical interpretations warm and unpretentious. She produces a compelling argument for a prominent niche among the best of today’s young female vocalists.”

and a link back to what I wrote about her appearance at IAJE in New York.

The Vic is located at 2640 Main Street, Santa Monica CA 90405. Two shows — 8 PM and 10 PM. Call for reservations: 888-367-5299. I’ll be present for both of Clairdee’s shows, so if you’re there, please be sure to say hello. That’s this Thursday, March 30th.

I just left New York, but were I to be on the East Coast on April 8th you’d find me across the river in South Orange, New Jersey listening to Jackie Cain in the intimate club-like setting of The Baird Center.

You may have heard about Jackie’s appearance at Trumpets a few months ago — Mr. Rifftides wrote of it here, or you might have read Zan Stewart’s review in The Star Ledger — it was a sold-out, standing-room-only performance. At The Baird Jackie will be backed for the first time ever by her own trio with Allen Farnham on piano, Dean Johnson on bass, and Rich DeRosa on drums. I really do wish I could be there.

I’m not much of a commuter type, and there is no chance that I’ll be flying in from the Left Coast, but for you New Yorkers, I’m told that The Baird is only a half-hour away and easily accessible by car or train (just 8 blocks from the South Orange train station). And even better, the tickets are truly affordable at $17.

If perchance you are not familiar with the name of Jackie Cain, maybe “Jackie and Roy” will ring your bell. Jackie Cain and her husband Roy Kral were a popular duo attraction for more than fifty years. Gene Lees wrote in the liner notes for a recording titled Full Circle:

“One of the things that keeps Jackie and Roy so young is that they never lost their enthusiasm for the songs they sing. They are always coming up with fresh insights into familiar material or – as in the case of the present album – bringing unfamiliar or overlooked material to our attention. Their repertoire is constantly expanding.”

Sadly, Roy died in 2002, but, happily for us, Jackie is still singing and swinging.

FYI: Tickets may be purchased online here http://southorange.recware.com or in person or by phone from The Baird Center, 5 Mead Street in South Orange, (973) 378-7754.

Okay, I’m biased. Carol is a longtime friend and we were nightclub running buddies more years ago than either of us would like to count. Recently Jerry Jazz Musician did a roundup asking various artists to name a record session that they would like to have been at — I would like to have been present when Carol recorded direct-to-disc in Japan with Roland Hanna on piano, George Mraz on bass and Richie Pratt on drums. When that album first came out direct-to-disc was brand new technology and all her New York jazz friends were in awe, especially of the track that opened with just voice and bass. I think this was the Sophisticated Lady album was later released by Audiophile, but I’m not positive. Carol?

This Friday night, March 3rd, radio host Steve Schwartz is doing a Carol Sloane birthday show. Tune in to WGBH, 89.7 FM, 8 PM to midnight Eastern time. If you’re out of range, listen online: go to www.wgbh.org/jazz and click on “Jazz From Studio Four.”

If you are already a fan, you won’t want to miss it. If you’re not familiar with her work, you owe it to yourself to give a listen. You should also check out her web site.