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August-September 2018 – Volume 9, Number 6

Cover Photo and photo at right of Mike Stern

By Ken Weiss

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CLUBS, CONCERTS, EVENTSCLUBS, CONCERTS, EVENTS 13 Calendar of Events 18 Clubs & Venue Listings

4 Mike Stern by Ken Weiss

Jazz History FEATUREJazz History FEATURE 32 Art Blakey, Part 8 by John R. Barrett

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Mike SternMike Stern The Fall and Rise of Mike Stern The Fall and Rise of Mike Stern

Interview & Photos by Ken WeissInterview & Photos by Ken Weiss


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By Ken Weiss

Mike Stern (b. January 10, 1953, Boston, Massa-

chusetts) has long been one of music’s finest gui-

tarists. He’s received six Grammy-nominations

after early associations with Miles Davis, Billy

Cobham, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Jaco Pasto-

rius. This interview took place on April 7, 2018

just prior to his performance at South Jazz Club

in Philadelphia. Stern openly spoke of his recent

devastating accident and details about his past.

Jazz Inside Magazine: You were Michael Sedg-

wick at birth, how did you become Mike Stern?

Mike Stern: I was adopted by my stepfather. I

kind of didn’t see my dad. I saw him for the first

few years after my parents got divorced but he

had a different family at that point, and I think he

was in favor of not having to pay for two fami-

lies. I met my half-sister, [actress] Kyra Sedg-

wick about twenty years ago for the first time.

We have the same dad. She’s a totally great per-

son, unbelievable. She married Kevin Bacon and

so that makes him my half-brother-in-law.

They’re really down to earth.

JI: Trip (Heads Up) is your first release since

your horrible 2016 accident. Would you talk

about Trip as a personal triumph and again hav-

ing the ability to physically perform at a high

level?

MS: I’m sure glad I can still play. I wasn’t sure

and I was freaking out. I fell on some construc-

tion that wasn’t supposed to be there in New

York City. It was very concealed on my street,

23rd Street. I was catching a cab to take a flight to

go on the road that day. I looked at both sides of

the street, like you normally would, and I tripped

over the debris and broke both of my humerus

bones. The right one was badly injured. I ended

up seeing a great hand specialist that [guitarist]

Wayne Krantz recommended and a couple

months later I was able to play with Chick Corea

at the Blue Note.

JI: So you feared your career was over?

MS: I was more than scared that I wasn’t going

to play again, that I wouldn’t even be able to

teach. I love to play the guitar, it just helps in so

many ways – my whole vibe. It’s a real gift for

me to be able to play and be into music.

JI: Is the photo on the cover of your CD the actu-

al site where you fell?

MS: No. That’s a photo of another street taken by

the wife of Will Lee, the bass player. I’m not a

big fan of getting my picture taken so I was hap-

py to use her photo.

JI: You’ve been forced to make alterations in

your playing due to your injuries. Have any bene-

ficial creative discoveries come about as a result?

MS: There’s some stuff that I wish I could do but

it’s getting there. My playing’s not too much

different and people say they don’t hear too much

difference, if at all. Some people that don’t know

I had the accident say, “Oh, you sound great,”

and I shake their hand and they go, “What’s

wrong with your hand?” There’s a good drummer

named Ray leVier who was burned in an accident

as a kid. I’ve always been amazed that he can

play, his fingers stop at the first knuckle. After

my accident I was struggling with how to hold

the pick and I had to have some tendon transfers

just so I could do a pinch. Since then I’ve had a

couple more surgeries in order to have an opposa-

ble thumb. I asked Ray how he held his sticks and

he said to try wig glue, which has helped. If you

want something bad enough, it’s amazing what

you can do. As far as any benefits to my playing,

that’s kind of a work in progress. I’m trying to

not think about what I have to do. When I heard

playbacks of the new recording I thought that it

sounded better than it felt because there’s some

pain involved. I still have pain when I’m playing

but the adrenalin kicks in and the music is heal-

ing, it just gets your mind off shit if you can push

yourself into that zone. I probably need to have

my shoulder done next.

JI: The new recording’s titles read like a chrono-

logical presentation of your accident and recovery

process. Did you set out to capture your journey

in that way?

MS: Not really, the tunes were already written. I

was actually going to do something with Chick

and then the accident happened. I titled them after

I did the record. I named it Trip because that’s

what happened and I didn’t want to try to hide

from it. You have to just keep going when these

things happen to you in life. I wanted to embrace

this and maybe give somebody else some inspira-

tion, and I’ve had good feedback.

JI: Your song “Gone,” which appears on Trip, is

touchingly sad and delicate. You’re known for

laying down monster chops and playing hard,

how is it to write and perform a work that leaves

you so exposed?

MS: I’ve always been partial to ballads, I think

it’s a natural thing for me in my heart. You try to

be who you are. There’s some stuff that I like to

be exciting on, and playing more with up-tempo.

But there’s also bluesy stuff, that’s in the middle

or more melodic, I love that, and there’s stuff that

I really want to be sad. That’s what I try to do

when I write and play.

JI: You’re known to be a practice-aholic, you’ll

practice 8 hours a day. How do you practice and

is excessive practicing still necessary for you?

MS: I love to do it because music is so endless. I

feel like I’m a beginner, we all are. It’s just so

huge, there’s so much you can learn. I’m usually

practicing stuff that I don’t know first. The things

I’m working on, brand new stuff, and not the

stuff that I’m getting better at and have already

played with for a month. I practice new vocabu-

lary. I’ll transcribe something from Sonny Rol-

lins’ Saxophone Colossus or something, which I

did get into recently. Not to memorize the licks

but just to have that vocabulary in my brain, to

see how he’s thinking.

JI: It’s interesting that you still actively tran-

“I love to do it [practice] because music is so endless. I feel like I’m a beginner, we all are. It’s just so huge, there’s so much you can learn. I’m usually practicing stuff that I don’t know first. The things I’m working on, brand new stuff, and not the stuff that I’m getting better at and have already played

with for a month.”

Mike Stern

The Fall and Rise of Mike Stern

INTERVIEWINTERVIEW


scribe solos of other musicians at this point in

your career. Is that something you hear other very

established musicians doing?

MS: Yes, I know a lot of cats that do that, or at

least play along with the records. I think ultimate-

ly that’s how you learn any language. You learn it

by hearing other people do it that are more fluent

in the language and you cop their stuff. I tell my

students that it will be very awkward in the be-

ginning. When I was first learning how to play

jazz, I was a pretty good blues player and had

really learned by ear. I was listening to a lot of

diatonic music – more rock, some soul music -

growing up in Washington, DC. My mom used to

play classical piano so I listened to a lot of Bach.

She also played a lot of jazz records so I learned

from that. I started studying more and learned

how to read and went to Berklee College of Mu-

sical Knowledge. [Laughs] To learn, you have to

play with people who are more fluent than you. I

was very aware of that’s what I needed to do and

I put myself in a lot of situations that were weird

for me. I felt scared to do them and I did them

anyway.

JI: Your first prominent gig was the two years

spent with Blood Sweat & Tears. How was the

experience of suddenly moving from the role of

student to that of a performer in front of large

audiences with high expectations?

MS: I was scared to play with that band, they

were more like beboppers. Ron McClure and

Larry Willis were in the band. Eventually, Roy

McCurdy, who played with Cannonball for many

years, joined the band. Bobby Colomby was the

original drummer and Jaco [Pastorius] joined the

band for a few months before he joined Weather

Report. “Spinning Wheel” never sounded so

good! I got that opportunity because of Pat Me-

theny, who I was studying with at Berklee. We

were playing and he said, “You have some spe-

cial stuff.” I guess he really liked my playing –

my time feel especially, I think. And I didn’t

know why. I thought I sucked, and I probably did.

He heard about the audition for the band so I

went thinking I wasn’t going to make the gig. I

just thought I’d get a taste of what it’s like to

audition for a band like that. I was real nervous

and then I got the gig, which really made me

nervous. [Laughs] I had played some little clubs

but I wasn’t ready for all that. I guess you never

are but I grew into it. I had to get over being shy.

JI: When you went to Berklee in 1971, was it

with the intent of playing jazz?

MS: I went very much with the intent of playing

jazz. I was really in love with the music. I was

kind of slow at learning it. I had a good feel ac-

cording to some of the teachers, including Pat,

but I thought the rest of it was really slow. I did-

n’t know how I was gonna learn how to play over

chord changes, and hear melodies over all the

harmony, and that kind of stuff. Gradually it got

better, but at first I thought it never would.

JI: After Blood Sweat & Tears, you left and

joined Billy Cobham’s band. What memories

stand out from that time?

MS: It was great, Billy was really awesome. I got

called because the guitar player that he wanted

couldn’t make the gig, or something, so I got

called. Just playing with Billy was a ball, he

swings so hard. We used to do a blues of mine

called “Brooze,” that I wrote for Japanese trum-

pet player Tiger Okoshi.

JI: You started your career playing fusion jazz.

Was that the primary focus of what you wanted to

do or was that reflective of where the work op-

portunities were?

MS: No, it was just an honest way of being who I

was because I grew up listening to rock and

blues, a lot of blues. Pop tunes and soul tunes. I

was really into Aretha. It’s just natural to include

that in my music, to write that way. And the gui-

tar tends to lend itself to more eclecticism than

maybe other instruments because it’s such a pop-

ular instrument. My favorite kind of music is

jazz, though. To give you an idea, one of my

favorite records is Friday & Saturday Night at the

Black Hawk by Miles Davis.

JI: Miles Davis famously returned to the stage in

1981 after a five-year hiatus and hired you for his

comeback band. What was that first week like

with Miles?

MS: I got the gig on the recommendation of sax-

ophonist Bill Evans, who’s a badass musician.

When we first started rehearsing, I thought Miles

was a little nuts. He asked me to play on some-

thing that had already been recorded for his

comeback record – The Man with the Horn. I

went to Columbia’s studio and he said, “Just play

over this.” But I didn’t really hear it. I tried and I

said, “Miles, it sounds done to me. It sounds

beautiful. It’s got a lot of space, it’s smokin’.” He

said, “Okay, okay.” So about a week later, we did

this other cut with the band live. It didn’t have a

title and there was a long guitar solo. I thought,

“Man, I’m not gonna get this.” First we did one

take and Miles said, “No, don’t do that.” I wasn’t

sure what he wanted, the form was loose as hell,

but Bill said to just play with a lot of energy. We

did it again and Miles came back in and said,

“Okay, that’s it.” And I said, “Can’t we do it

again, chief? I think I can do it better,” and he

said, “Fat Time,” that’s what he was calling me

when I first met him. I was heavier and he liked

my time feel. He said, “Fat Time, when you’re at

a party, you got to know when to

leave.” [Laughs] So in other words, the session

was over. He liked it and he called the tune “Fat

Time” after my nickname, which I really appreci-

ated. Miles was really a big fan of all kinds of

music. He liked whatever was cookin’, energy

wise. He dug Hendrix, he listened to a lot of clas-

sical music. He tried different things and com-

bined them. He was always moving music in a

different way, his way. He would conceptualize

something and then leave it up to the musicians.

He didn’t want to hand out charts for you to play

it exactly. There was not a lot of that until the

second time he asked me back in the band. At

times things were a little too loose for my taste.

At one point, I felt like I was obviously overplay-

ing with him when he was doing things like

“Human Nature” or “Time After Time” at gigs.

At live gigs, we would vamp forever and he did-

n’t want the drummer to go anywhere. So it was

long, so me and Bob Berg decided we were going

to play, so we overplayed and Miles used to get

pissed off a little bit, but he was very supportive

of me over all, big time. I loved playing with him.

JI: Your first major concert with Miles was at the

1981 Kool Jazz Festival which was his big come-

back performance after a five year hiatus. What

was going on behind the scene that day leading

up to the presentation?

(Continued on page 8)

Mike Stern

“I was scared to play with that band [Blood, Sweat and Tears], they were more like beboppers. Ron

McClure and Larry Willis were in the band. Eventu-ally, Roy McCurdy, who played with Cannonball for

many years, joined the band … Jaco [Pastorius] joined the band for a few months before ... Weather Report. ‘Spinning Wheel’ never sounded so good! I got that opportunity because of Pat Metheny, who I was studying with at Berklee. We were playing and

he said, ‘You have some special stuff.’”


MS: We were getting high as hell, for one thing,

me and Miles. We had already done a gig at Kix

in Boston which was a much better venue for a

band like that. The Kool Festival was held at

[New York’s] Avery Fisher [Hall] which is like

an echo chamber. I mean you can still hear the

notes from some of those licks if you listen hard

enough, [Laughs] it’s still echoing around. Since

then they’ve baffled it, but when we were there,

man, and Miles wanted it loud. Miles really want-

ed to do that. It wasn’t about making more bread,

he was making less bread sometimes. Eventually,

somebody in Japan offered him a fortune to put

the band back together with Tony and Herbie, but

he turned it down, saying, “I’m doing this now.” I

would have loved to have heard that myself. We

were always trying to get him to swing out a lit-

tle. I think he kind of threw us a bone when he

did “My Man is Gone Now,” but we did it in a

different way. So the [Kool Jazz Festival] gig

sucked, we all thought that the Avery Fisher Hall

was not happening. I mean nothing could really

suck with Miles, there were always moments that

he would hit a note right in the right place, and

most of his playing was just so soulful, no matter

what was going on. To me, that’s enough, I

would have been happy listening if I was in the

audience. So it wasn’t the right venue and the

band was still half-baked. We hadn’t really

played enough. It was really hit or miss.

JI: How was Miles handling the highly pressur-

ized setting of closing out the festival under the

watch of so many fans and critics?

MS: He didn’t give a fuck. I mean he cared but

he just said, “Fuck it!” One time he told a bass

player, who had just started playing with him, and

he told me something like this also, he could tell

the guy was nervous and he called him over and

said, “Yeah, man, I know you’re nervous, so am

I, but fuck it!” [Laughs] That’s how he dealt with

it. You got to push past it no matter what. Miles

was an extremely sensitive guy, obviously. He

played incredibly sensitive, beautiful ballads. It

would just make you cry, the way that he’d play

sometimes. He was so sensitive that sometimes I

think he had this kind of tough guy thing as a

defense. I always thought that, and I wasn’t alone

in thinking that because if you got to know him,

he was a lot warmer. Miles was always warm

because he had a sense of humor about himself,

underneath all of it. But he was very, very shy in

some ways, and insecure in a lot of ways. And

my respect kind of grew over the years for him,

even after I had stopped playing for him, that he

was able to be that insecure and still do what he

did, because he went against the grain. He could

have stayed with something that worked ages

before but he felt the drive to change up and go

for it. That was stronger than his insecurity. He

had to fight his natural thing. He worried, he got

scared, but he didn’t give into that. He had a

strong spirit.

JI: Would you share a Miles memory?

MS: One time I was really strung out. In those

days I was really fucked up, doing a lot of heroin,

and Miles saw it. He didn’t know it at first, but he

saw it. At one point, he was grabbing my arms to

look at my tracks. I said, “Miles, that’s old. I’m

not doing that anymore.” But he said, “Fat Time,

don’t try to fool an old pro.” [Laughs] And at one

point he tried to pay to put me in a rehab. He was

worried about me. He said, “Let me put you in a

rehab up there in Montauk. Truman Capote was

up there, it’s real nice.” It would have cost a lot

and he was gonna pay out of his own pocket.

That’s the side of Miles people don’t know. He

had that kind of real caring side and knew what I

was up against. But I wasn’t ready to go. I just

said, “Chief, I’m good. Don’t worry about me.”

He knew that I wasn’t going to get sober by him

suggesting it, it was gonna have to come from

me. Then I went on to play with Jaco and I went

from bad to worse. But that was a ball too. Jaco

was something else, an incredible musician, but

bipolar. I mean really up and down. I kind of

knew that the whole time, that he had ups and

downs. I had shit going on too, but he had it

worse. It was profound emotional issues for him

and everybody knew it. He just didn’t want to do

anything about it. We tried. When I got sober

later on, he was finally asking me [about it]. I just

couldn’t play with him anymore. He got really

pissed off and said, “Man, you promised me

when you got out of that place,” because I went

to a rehab finally and I got sober, and I told him,

“I’m not gonna go on the road if you’re doing

what you’re doing. I’m not gonna talk you out of

it, man. You do what you want to do but I can’t

hang because I’ll get fucked up again.” After a

couple years he saw me and that I was still sober.

He knew how fucked up I had been back in the

day and said, “Man, you’re doing pretty good.

How long has it been?” I said, “A couple years.

I’m going to meetings, I ask for help. Mike

Brecker helped me a lot, a lot of people.” And he

started asking about it so I thought he was really

bottoming out, which he was, and he wanted to

get his shit together. It was finally time for him

and then he said the wrong thing to the wrong

guy and got his ass kicked. It was really tragic.

He should still be around. That was really a loss.

JI: You mentioned your struggles with substance

abuse. There were also other people concerned

about you including Gill Evans and, most telling

of all, even Chet Baker was concerned for your

health.

MS: Yeah, Chet was totally out of it. At one

point, I went over to his house and somehow the

works didn’t work. You know, the needle that I

was using got jammed up and I had one shot of

dope and he said, “Well, you can come in but I’m

trying to stay sober now.” I guess his girlfriend

was coming back soon. She was trying to keep

him cool and he looked better. I said, “I just got

to use your bathroom for a minute, man.” And

my shit didn’t work and I went nuts - “Shit!

Motherfucker! I just lost the goddam shit!” And

he said, “Mike, you’ve got to cool out, man.” So

he saw that I was as bad as he ever got. And then

he went back to it, unfortunately. I was still going

crazy at that time. When he died, I had been sober

for a few months. Chet was a great player and a

great person. He was such a sweetheart.

JI: Did you think at the time that drugs were

helping you creatively or were you just using?

MS: No, I didn’t think they were helping me

creatively – ever. And Charlie Parker never

thought that either. None of that stuff helps. Some

people loosen up with a drink or two before a gig,

and that may be cool for some people, but there’s

no drugs that can help with music. For me it’s

(Continued from page 7)


“Miles came back in and said, ‘Okay, that’s it.’ And I said, ‘Can’t we do it again, chief? I

think I can do it better,’ and he said, ‘Fat Time,’ that’s what he was calling me when I first met him. I was heavier and he liked my time feel. He said, ‘Fat Time, when you’re at

a party, you got to know when to leave.’ [Laughs] So in other words, the ses-sion was over. He liked it and he called the

tune ‘Fat Time’ after my nickname”

Mike Stern


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very clear, the best I’ve ever felt and the most

creative I can be was when I’ve been sober. Then

you feel that music is your high and that’s plenty.

That’s a good addiction.

JI: You brought up Jaco Pastorius earlier. Would

you share a memory about him?

MS: He had a great sense of humor. He was just

a beautiful cat, a really good friend of mine. One

time, me and my wife Leni were down at his

house in Ft. Lauderdale, and we were all getting

fucked up in those days. It was a Saturday night

and we got really drunk and did a lot of blow. But

we were feeling horrible the next day. We hung

out and Jaco comes in with a rose and little, tiny

cat that he somehow found in the street. He came

into our room and said, “Happy Sunday” with a

sweet smile. He knew that Leni loved cats. His

dad was really cool too. he was good singer, he

really swung. Jaco got a lot from his dad. His dad

lived in Philly. He used to hang in all the bars,

unfortunately. Jaco was born drunk, legally, I

really think because his parents were really

“professionals” in that regard. His dad was beau-

tiful but it was sad. He told me one time how hurt

he was when Jaco died. He was so drunk at times.

He went to Jaco’s funeral and started banging on

the coffin like it was bongos. Jaco would have

done something like that, that’s their sense of

humor. I think they kind of believed that when

you’re gone, you send people off with a smile,

but it was weird for the people that were there. It

was just out of context. Jaco was especially great.

Wow, what a musician, what a composer. Of

course, his bass playing was amazing. When he

played with Blood, Sweat & Tears, we couldn’t

believe it. First of all his time was so strong, and

we got along really good because of that. And I

was way not playing like on his level at all, but he

was patient. We used to jam together and then

after I played with Miles he hired me to play with

his band, and we were playing together all the

time. He was so deep in all his writing. I heard

his first record at Bobby Colomby’s. Bobby was

his producer and they were recording at Bobby’s

studio, and I went and heard that because I had

just joined Blood, Sweat & Tears. Bobby said I

had to hear this guy. Apparently, I had met Jaco a

couple of times before. One time at the Flying

Machine, which was a disco and Jaco was play-

ing at halftime after a rock band. He played and

nobody was paying attention as he played his ass

off. I went up to him and told him I was going to

Berklee soon and I loved the way he was playing.

And then I saw him again in Boston around ‘72

when I was studying with Pat. Pat said, “You

have to hear this bass player.” And I went and

heard him at the Zircon, this tiny place, he was

playing with Bob Moses and Pat. Jaco was play-

ing his ass off and I went up to him and I said,

“Man, you look familiar,” and he looked down

from the stage and said, “Man, I don’t remember

your name but we met maybe five years ago at

the Flying Machine.” He had a photographic

memory. It broke my heart not to play with him

after I got out of rehab, but I think I made the

right choice. I don’t think I would have been able

to sustain Jaco and stayed sober.

JI: You’ve played with many great guitarists

during your career. Would you comment on play-

ing with Jim Hall and Pat Martino?

MS: Both of them are fantastic and Pat is still

playing his ass off and he’s a big inspiration of

somebody’s who’s come back from a lot. And

Jim, much the same. He had his bout with alco-

hol. We used to go to meetings together. It was

just an amazing opportunity to play with those

guys. I was really scared to play with both of

them in some ways, and I told them that. I said,

“Man, you’re a hero,” and they were cool. They

just said, “Just play, let’s play.” I’d love to do

more with Pat Martino and would have loved to

have done more with Jim. We were talking about

doing more but Jim had such back issues, he had

a titanium back at the end of his life. He’s always

such an amazing inspiration. When I first got into

jazz, he was like my favorite, him and Wes. Pat

Metheny loved those guys and he kind of pushed

me in that direction. I also loved George Benson.

JI: You also live with a great guitarist – your

wife Leni Stern. How did you meet?

MS: We met in Boston. I had already gone

through Berklee and she was still going there,

studying some composition, guitar and film scor-

ing. We met through Bill Frisell. He introduced

us and one thing led to another. We were living

together but said we were never going to get mar-

ried, unless she needed a Green Card. And then

she needed a Green Card, and I didn’t even think

about it. At that point we’d been together for a

couple years. I said, “Let’s get a Green Card,”

and so we got married. So far it’s lasted thirty-

seven-years, we’ve been married a long time.

JI: You have certain rules that help govern and

strengthen your marriage. Why is one of the rules

not playing together often and are there guide-

lines regarding performing each other’s composi-

tions?

MS: No, not regarding playing each other’s com-

positions. I’ve done a couple of her’s on my rec-

ords and I played on a couple of her records. We

always like to write our own tunes. Her own

tunes are beautiful, I want to do some more. And

we play together at home all the time, but at one

point, years and years ago, we were doing a few

gigs in clubs, and we just decided maybe it would

be wiser to kind of separate and not go on the

road together ever. So we never really did that

together. Sometimes she comes out, if she’s visit-

ing me, and she plays a tune. What happens is

sometimes you’re playing a gig and you’re deal-

ing with whoever you’re dealing with on the

bandstand, and you get into a little argument with

them – “Hey, you’re playing too loud or it was a

little... .” And you get a little pissed off, at least

you don’t have to go home and sleep with them.

[Laughs] It can be too much in that same world

where you’re smothering each other. But we

might start doing some gigs together as we get

older. We’re talking about it some. But I get so

much inspiration from her. She keeps moving,

her records are so different. She’s doing this Afri-

can stuff now but her first record was with Paul

Motian, he used to play with her at the 55 Bar for

like fifty dollars. He really dug her vibe. He said,

“You just get the drums there,” which was easy

because he didn’t use a big kit. She’s amazing.

JI: Has Leni’s work with African musicians in-

fluenced you and has she taught you to play the

n’goni?

MS: No, I can’t play the n’goni, that’s for damn

sure, but she can. She played on Trip. Every time

I hear her write in that kind of world music thing,

I get inspired by it. It’s really cool, she keeps

moving.

JI: Which of you owns more guitars?

MS: She does. I’m the type of guy who likes to

stick with something and just get deeper into it.

The same thing with the kind of music I write. I

always loved Bill Evans, the piano player. He

would play and just grow within the certain thing

he kept doing with his trio stuff. I like to change

up and have a lot of variety on my records, but

it’s still my tunes, and it’s still in a certain kind of

genre. Each record changes a little bit and guitar-

wise, I like to use one or two guitars.

JI: So you own only two guitars?

MS: Yeah, I do and Leni owns about ten.

JI: When Yamaha approached you about devel-

oping the Mike Stern Signature Pacifica Guitar,

what elements did you insist the instrument need-

ed to have?

MS: Yamaha came to me and said they wanted to

build a Mike Stern model and I said, “Yeah!” I

worked with them for a while and we got some-

thing that really sounded good to me and they

built it. I’ve used it ever since. I wanted my mod-

el to have a warm sound and it was based off of

Roy Buchanan’s old guitar that I used to have.

Telecasters are not known for their warmth but I

had a tele that Pat Metheny heard me play and he

said, “Man, you should never play anything but

that. That’s your thing, it’s special.”

JI: You’ve been playing at the 55 Bar in the Vil-

lage for many years.

MS: I love to play there. It’s been over thirty

years, off and on. Jeff Andrews and I actually

found the place in the early ‘80s. He’s a fantastic

bass player, we played together in Mike Breck-

er’s first band. Jeff heard about the place and

asked me if I wanted to play. We did it and got

almost no bread. I was drinking in those days,

I’ve been sober for more than thirty years, so the

guy just gave me a whole bunch of wine. That’s

all I needed, and Jeff got like twenty-five bucks.


Mike Stern


Now there’s a new owner and the place is hipper.

I was still playing with Miles at the time, but

even then, a place to play was a place to play, for

me. Not everybody wanted to play there but now

it’s a little place that people want to play. Cecil

Taylor used to come in there a lot and hang. He

dug the music and I was always very happy about

that because I dug him, man.

JI: What are your pleasures outside of music?

MS: I like to swim every day. I like to swim and

then go practice. Music is so much of what I love

to do. I love to read different stuff. I’m a news

junkie. I like to see what’s going on with the

world, which is a tragedy nowadays. There’s

plenty of inspiration from the blues today.

JI: I understand that you swim outdoors during

midwinter.

MS: Well, I have done that. I’m crazy enough to

do that. One time in Norway during March I went

into a Fjord and people said, “You’re a true Vi-

king!”

JI: The final questions have been given to me by

other artists to ask you:

Randy Brecker (trumpet) asked: “Hey Mike, can

you explain to the readers how you keep forging

ahead in spite of all your recent physical chal-

lenges? I remember you telling me once on the

bus that when the business started changing, you

refused to let yourself be a 'victim' of the chang-

es... maybe if you have a minute expound upon

that thought. Love ya’ Mike! Gain a lot of inspi-

ration from you and your attitude or maybe it’s

just the M&Ms...?!”

MS: [Laughs] That’s beautiful. Randy is like one

of my heroes for years. He’s a ridiculously great

player. Talk about a guy who’s been through all

kinds of stuff and had to deal with it. The loss of

his brother was huge. I know that he’s had to deal

with physical stuff and every time he plays, he

plays great. He’s an inspiration in forging ahead

no matter what. So I follow his footsteps.

John Scofield (guitar) asked: “Mike, what about

those Fender guitars that you owned as a young

man in D.C. that were formerly owned by Roy

Buchanan and Danny Gatton?”

MS: Those were really cool guitars. I actually

bought two guitars from Danny Gatton and one

was Roy’s. All Gatton used to do was repair gui-

tars until he became famous as a guitar player. He

wanted to buy a used car one day so he said, “I’ve

got Roy Buchanan’s spare. Do you want to buy

it?” So I bought it and it was great and then it got

ripped off in Boston. Somebody pulled a gun on

me. I always say they had a persuasive argument.

John’s another guy that I just love so much. It’s

such a treat to have played with him.

John Scofield also asked: “What memories do

you have about living upstairs at 55 Grand Street

and playing the club downstairs, and playing a lot

with me, Peter Warren and Victor Lewis? Give

Mike my love, ok? He’s so great.”

MS: Wow, that’s beautiful. A lot of memories

with that and a lot that I can’t remember [Laughs]

because those days were, yeah, I was pretty out

there. But Leni and I moved into this little loft

space and there was this little bar downstairs 55

Grand Street, which has no connection to the 55

Bar. They wanted jazz at this bar so Leni and I

played there as a duo and then we started getting

people to play with us. Then other bands came.

That was the hang after hours in New York for a

while. Every jazz musician in the world was there

and we were all getting toasted. But the music

was smoking’. I played with Sco there and every

time I play with him, every time, it’s a real treat.

That band with Victor Lewis, Peter Warren and

John Purcell was badass. Man that was fun. And

then to play with Miles together with Sco, what

awesome music. I’ve been a fan of Sco even be-

fore I could really play jazz. He’s one of the guys

that I heard at Berklee when he was playing with

Joe Hunt. He could really play the blues.

Billy Cobham (drums) had a personal request

and then a question: “Is there only one arrange-

ment for “Brooze?” If yes, please send me a lead

sheet.”

MS: [Laughs] Wow, I’ve got to get that to him.

We played that with his band. I will, I’ll do that.

Billy is special and I love the fact that he writes

all the time. There are drummers that do that but

not a whole bunch. He’s always trying to come

up with different concepts and he just plays his

ass off.

Billy Cobham also asked: “How long did you

play with Chet Baker and did you record?”

MS: I never recorded with Chet, we only played

a little bit together from time to time. I wanted to

play with him more but it never happened. We

played sometimes just hanging, getting high and

playing, but it wasn’t gigs. It would have been

great.

Jean-Paul Bourelly (guitar) asked: “Although

institutions, such as Berklee, can prepare people

very well for success in the music field, was there

any belief system you held strongly as a student

that changed as you got out there in the world as

a pro?”

MS: Ultimately, you learn any language by trying

to speak it yourself and by books and checking

out different musicians. I think at a point you just

have to jump out there. Berklee for me was very

helpful. I did what they taught me and I did extra

stuff and put myself in situations with other play-

ers that were kicking my ass, which wasn’t hard

at that time because I couldn’t play for shit but I

learned a lot that way. It was awkward as hell but

you gotta do it.

Bob Franceschini (saxophone) asked: “Can you

give some advice on how to avoid overweight

charges at the airport?” Bob added - “Mike is the

best at getting our gear on board without paying

exorbitant airline overweight charges. He is also

great at getting his guitar on the plane and from

keeping people from putting luggage on top of his

guitar in the overheads. It’s uncanny. He told me

Bob Berg used to kid him saying that while he

was a great guitar player, his real talent is negoti-

ating at the airport. Mike will get a laugh from

this.”

MS: [Laughs] I am getting a laugh and Bob Berg

did say that one time, he said, “Man, you can play

the hell outta the guitar but this shit, you’re a

motherfucker!” Now, those days are over. I used

to travel with all my own stuff. I had a trio with

Dave Weckl and Jeff Andrews and I would bring

two amps and Dave would bring all his own

drums and Jeff brought his amp top and bottom

and we’d pay fifty dollars or sometimes for free.

After 2001 it stopped and now you have to buy

the plane. So I rent amps and I bring my guitar on

board because finally they’re a lot looser.

Bill Evans (saxophone) recalled how you became

a member of the Miles Davis band: “In short,

1980 was Miles’ comeback into the music world,

and I was his liaison to helping him put his tour-

ing band of musicians together. Miles and I had

already been recording in the studio with Miles’

nephew Vince Wilburn and Vince’s crew of mu-

sicians for several months in New York. I was

spending everyday hanging with Miles and dis-

cussing the music, band, etc. I had introduced

him to Marcus Miller and he loved Marcus, so

Miles trusted my judgement when it came to mu-

sicians. Barry Finnerty was playing guitar, but

Miles wanted someone else. I liked Barry, but

Miles said, “Bill, do you know another guitar

player? “ I had played with Mike Stern in Boston

and loved his playing, and said, “Yes, I think I

do.” So sight unseen, we almost flew Mike to

New York on the spot, but then Miles said, “Wait

a minute” and some weeks went by. It just so

happened that Mike was playing with Billy Cob-

ham in New York so I said to Miles, “You know

that guitarist I mentioned? He’s playing in New

York next week with Billy Cobham, let’s go

down and you can hear him for yourself.” He

said, “I don’t want to go to a club.” I said, “Come

on, let’s do it!” He finally agreed and I told Mike,

“I’m bringing Miles down to hear you.” Miles

listened to the first set and then said to me, “Ok,

let’s try him out.” So he went backstage and told

Mike he wanted him to meet us in the studio soon

in New York. That’s how it started. Miles

thanked me for bringing him down to hear him

and then said, “If he didn’t play his ass off, I was

going to kill you!”

MS: Thank you very much! That was a fun inter-

view.


Mike Stern

August-September 2018 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com 12 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880 Visit JohnALewisJazz.com

New CD Release from Dallas Area Pianist

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John A. Lewis, piano Merik Gillett, drums Robert Trusko, bass TRACKS: Backstory Deadline Jacked Complicity Bylines Liable Precocity Excerpt from the "Ancient

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13 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880 August-September 2018 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com

Friday, August 17 Trio da Paz & Friends; Late Night Session: Adam Moezinia;

Dizzy’s Club, Jazz At Lincoln Center, 60th & Bdwy

Warren Wolf Quartet: Past Present Beyond; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.

Kurt Rosenwinkel, Guitar; Aaron Parks, Piano; Eric Revis, Bass; Allan Mednard, Drums; Village Vanguard 178 7th Ave S.

Jerome Jennings Sextet; Steve Davis Quintet; JD Allen "After-hours"; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Saturday, August 18 Warren Wolf Quartet: Past Present Beyond; Jazz Standard, 116

E. 27th St.


Jon Elbaz Trio; Jerome Jennings Sextet; Steve Davis Quintet; Brooklyn Circle; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Sunday, August 19 Warren Wolf Quartet: Past Present Beyond; Jazz Standard, 116

E. 27th St.


Vocal Masterclass with Marion Cowings; Ai Murakami Quartet feat. Sacha Perry; Tad Shull Quartet; Charles Owens Quartet; Hillel Salem "After-hours"; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Monday, August 20 Late Night Session: Adam Moezinia; Meg Okura & The Pan Asian

Chamber Jazz Ensemble; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz At Lincoln Center, 60th & Bdwy

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra; Village Vanguard 178 7th Ave S.

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah; Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd St.

Gilad Hekselman Trio; Joe Farnsworth Trio; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Natalie Douglas Tributes: Ella; Jim Caruso's Cast Party; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Tuesday, August 21 Late Night Session: Alphonso Horne August; Late Night Dance

Session: Alphonso Horne; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz At Lincoln Center, 60th & Bdwy

Brandee Younger Quintet: Electric; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.

Harold Mabern Trio - Harold Mabern, Piano; John Webber, Bass; Joe Farnsworth, Drums; Village Vanguard 178 7th Ave S.


Gilad Hekselman Trio; Lucas Pino Nonet; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Nina Storey; Susie Mosher; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Wednesday, August 22 Harold Mabern Trio - Harold Mabern, Piano; John Webber, Bass;

Joe Farnsworth, Drums; Village Vanguard 178 7th Ave S.


Pierre Christophe / Joel Frahm / Joe Martin Trio; Curtis Nowo-sad’s CNQ; Mike Troy - "After-hours" Jam Session; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Nina Storey; Susie Mosher; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Thursday, August 23 Etienne Charles Creole Soul; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.


Roberta Gambarini ft George Cables, John Lee & Victor Lewis; Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd St.

Tony Tixier Trio; Carlos Abadie Quintet; Jonathan Thomas -"After-hours" Jam Session; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

David Ostwald's Louis Armstrong Eternity Band; Sean Harkness Duo; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Friday, August 24 Etienne Charles Creole Soul; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



David Berkman Quintet; Jared Gold Organ Quartet; JD Allen "After-hours"; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Birdland Big Band; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Saturday, August 25 Harold Mabern Trio - Harold Mabern, Piano; John Webber, Bass;

Joe Farnsworth, Drums; Village Vanguard 178 7th Ave S.


Smalls Showcase: Ben Barnett Quartet; David Berkman Quintet; Jared Gold Organ Quartet; Philip Harper Quintet; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Olivia Chindamo Presents: Sophisticated Lady; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Sunday, August 26 Etienne Charles Big Band with Special Guest René Marie; Jazz

Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



Vocal Masterclass with Marion Cowings; Ai Murakami Quartet feat. Sacha Perry; Pete Zimmer Quintet; Bruce Harris Quintet; Jon Beshay "After-hours"; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Jane Scheckter "I've (still) Got My Standards" With Mike Renzi, Jay Leonhart, and Vito Lesczak; Birdland Latin Jazz Orchestra; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Monday, August 27 DW Jazz Orchestra featuring Benny Benack III; Dizzy’s Club,

Jazz At Lincoln Center, 60th & Bdwy

Mingus Orchestra; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.


Eddie Palmieri & Friends: Honoring The Legacy of McCoy Tyner; Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd St.

Ari Hoenig Trio; Rafal Sarnecki Sextet; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Evan Ruggiero and The S'Evan Legs; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Tuesday, August 28 William Parker: In Order to Survive Extended Ensemble; Dizzy’s

Club, Jazz At Lincoln Center, 60th & Bdwy

Dayna Stephens Group; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St. (Continued on page 14)

CALENDAR OF EVENTSCALENDAR OF EVENTS

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Joe Lovano, Saxophone; Lawrence Fields, Piano; Marc Johnson, Bass; Andrew Cyrille, Drums; Village Vanguard 178 7th Ave S.

Roy Hargrove Quintet; Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd St.

Robert Edwards Group; Abraham Burton Quartet; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Daryl Sherman “Too Marvelous For Words with James Chirillo (guitar) Boots Maleson (bass); Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Wednesday, August 29 Late Night Session: Joshua Bruneau; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz At

Lincoln Center, 60th & Bdwy

Darcy James Argue's Secret Society; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



Sebastian Chames Quartet; Sanah Kadoura Group; Isaiah J. Thompson "After-hours"; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Louis Armstrong Eternity Band; Katie Thiroux and Special Guest Ken Peplowski; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Thursday, August 30 Camille Thurman; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz At Lincoln Center, 60th &

Bdwy

Cyrus Chestnut Trio featuring Buster Williams and Lenny White; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



Roberta Piket Quartet; Dan Pugach Nonet; Davis Whitfield "After-hours"; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Kat Gang; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Friday, August 31 Lessons from Our Masters: George Coleman; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz

At Lincoln Center, 60th & Bdwy




Philip Dizack Quintet; Alex Sipiagin Quintet; Corey Wallace DUBtet "After-hours"; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.


Saturday, September 1 Josh Evans Quintet; Late Night Session: Joshua Bruneau; Diz-

zy’s Club, Jazz At Lincoln Center, 60th & Bdwy



Smalls Showcase: Kristina Koller Quartet; Philip Dizack Quintet; Alex Sipiagin Quintet; Brooklyn Circle; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Billy Stritch; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Sunday, September 2 Lessons from Our Masters: Houston Person Quartet; Dizzy’s

Club, Jazz At Lincoln Center, 60th & Bdwy



Vocal Masterclass with Marion Cowings; Ai Murakami Quartet feat. Sacha Perry; Ralph Lalama & "Bop-Juice"; JC Stylles/Steve Nelson Hutcherson Band; Alon Benjamini "After-hours"; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Birdland Latin Jazz Orchestra; Adison Evans "Meridian" Album Release Show; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Monday, September 3 Scott Reeves Jazz Orchestra; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz At Lincoln

Center, 60th & Bdwy


George Coleman; Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd St.

Ari Hoenig Trio; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Clint Holmes; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Tuesday, September 4 Henry Conerway III Trio: “With Pride for Dignity” Album Release

Concert; Godwin Louis; Late Night Session: Lucy Yeghiazaryan The Music of Fats Waller; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz At Lincoln Center, 60th & Bdwy

Steel House; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.

Bill Charlap Trio - Bill Charlap, Piano; Peter Washington, Bass; Kenny Washington, Drums; Village Vanguard 178 7th Ave S.

Christian McBride & The New Jawn Quartet; Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd St.

Spike Wilner Quartet; Theo Hill Trio; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Nicole Zuraitis; The Cookers; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Wednesday, September 5 Trumpet meets Latin America featuring Linda Briceño, Michael

Rodriguez & Rachel Therrien; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz At Lincoln Center, 60th & Bdwy

Steel House; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



Jochen Rueckert Quartet; Dan Blake & The Digging; Aaron Seeber "After-hours"; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Louis Armstrong Eternity Band; Emmet Cohen Trio; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Thursday, September 6 Steve Wilson & The Analog Band; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



http://www.jazz.org/dizzys


http://www.jazzstandard.com



Jochen Rueckert Quartet; Micah Thomas Trio; Endea Owens "After-hours"; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Perry Joslin; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Friday, September 7 Kurt Elling and Friends Celebrate Jon Hendricks; Dizzy’s Club,


Steve Wilson & The Analog Band; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



Matt Haviland Quintet; Jack Walrath Group; JD Allen "After-hours"; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.


Saturday, September 8 Steve Wilson & The Analog Band; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



Smalls Showcase: Nick Masters Quartet; Matt Haviland Quintet; Jack Walrath Group; Philip Harper Quintet; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Billy Stritch; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Sunday, September 9 George Cables Trio featuring Victor Lewis & Essiet Essiet; Diz-

zy’s Club, Jazz At Lincoln Center, 60th & Bdwy

Smokestack Brunch: Anthony Ware; Steve Wilson & The Analog Band; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



Vocal Masterclass with Marion Cowings; Ai Murakami Quartet feat. Sacha Perry; Sam Raderman Trio; David Gibson Quintet; Jon Beshay "After-hours"; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Emilio Solla Tango Jazz Orchestra; T. Oliver Reid Celebrates Bobby Short; Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Monday, September 10 Zaccai Curtis Orkesta: An Evolution in Latin-Jazz Big Band;


Mingus Big Band; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.


Lawrence - "Living Room" Album Release Week; Victory; Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd St.

Jonathan Barber Quintet; Joe Farnsworth Group; After-hours Jam Session; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Amanda McBroom With Michele Brourman; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Tuesday, September 11 Jonathan Barber, Victor Gould and Buster Williams; Late Night

Session: Endea Owens; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz At Lincoln Center, 60th & Bdwy

Marquis Hill Blacktet; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.


Donald Harrison, Ron Carter & Billy Cobham Trio; Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd St.

Steve Nelson Quartet; Abraham Burton Quartet; After-hours Jam Session; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Joey Defrancesco With Terri Lyne Carrington and Mark Whitfield; Roseanna Vitro; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Wednesday, September 12 Doug Wamble presents Memphis in Harlem; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz


Marquis Hill Blacktet; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



Joris Teepe Group; Ed Cherry Quartet; Jovan Alexandre "After-hours"; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.


Thursday, September 13 Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth Band; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz At


Rufus Reid Quartet; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



Francisco Mela Group; Julius Rodriguez "After-hours"; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.


Friday, September 14 Rufus Reid Quartet; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



Melissa Aldana Quartet; Peter Zak Quartet; Corey Wallace DUBtet "After-hours"; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.


Saturday, September 15 Rufus Reid Quartet; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



Smalls Showcase: Ben Barnett Quartet; Melissa Aldana Quartet; Peter Zak Quartet; Brooklyn Circle; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.


Sunday, September 16 Celebrating Cannonball's 90th with special guest Jimmy Cobb;


Smokestack Brunch: Astrid; Rufus Reid Quartet; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



Vocal Masterclass with Marion Cowings; Ai Murakami Quartet feat. Sacha Perry; Tardo Hammer Trio; Richie Vitale Quintet; Alon Benjamini "After-hours"; Small's, 183 W. 10th St.

Cheryl Bentyne and Mark Winkler; Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra; Erkin Kydykbaev & Salt Peanuts Jazz Band; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Monday, September 17 Clockwise: The Music of Cedar Walton with the Ben Markley Big

Band featuring Terell Stafford; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz At Lincoln Center, 60th & Bdwy




Tuesday, September 18 Todd Marcus Quintet; Late Night Session: Charles Turner III;


Ethan Iverson / Mark Turner Duo; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.

Bill Stewart Trio - Walter Smith Iii, Saxophone; Larry Grenadier, Bass; Bill Stewart, Drums; Village Vanguard 178 7th Ave S.

Stanley Clarke Band; Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd St.

Coltrane Revisited: Eric Alexander, Greg Osby, Jon Irabagon, Helen Sung, Lonnie Plaxico, Matt Wilson; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.


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Wednesday, September 19 Regina Carter & Xavier Davis; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz At Lincoln

Center, 60th & Bdwy

Davina and the Vagabonds; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



Coltrane Revisited: Eric Alexander, Greg Osby, Jon Irabagon, Helen Sung, Lonnie Plaxico, Matt Wilson; Birdland, 315 W. 44th

Thursday, September 20 Ulysses Owens, Jr. THREE; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz At Lincoln Center,

60th & Bdwy

Theo Croker Quintet; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



Coltrane Revisited: Eric Alexander, Greg Osby, Jon Irabagon, Helen Sung, Lonnie Plaxico, Matt Wilson; Birdland, 315 W. 44th

Friday, September 21 Ulysses Owens, Jr's New Century Big Band; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz






Saturday, September 22 Late Night Dance Session: Charles Turner III & Uptown Swing;






Sunday, September 23 Smokestack Brunch: Jamie Reynolds; Theo Croker Quintet; Jazz

Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



Greg Ruvolo Big Band Collective; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Monday, September 24 Monday Nights with WBGO: Orrin Evans Captain Black Big Band;





Scott Allan; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Tuesday, September 25 Tord Gustavsen Trio; Late Night Session: Jen Allen; Dizzy’s Club,


Mark Guiliana SPACE HEROES; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.

Chris Potter, Saxophone; James Francies, Piano; Eric Harland, Drums; Village Vanguard 178 7th Ave S.

Chick Corea Trio; Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd St.

Allyson Briggs & Fleur Seule; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Wednesday, September 26 Ted Rosenthal Trio: Rhapsody in Gershwin; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz At


Mark Guiliana SPACE HEROES; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.



Yellowjackets; Birdland, 315 W. 44th St.

Thursday, September 27 Magos Herrera and Brooklyn Rider; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz At Lincoln

Center, 60th & Bdwy

Freddy Cole Quartet; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.




Friday, September 28 Louis Hayes: Serenade to Horace Silver; Dizzy’s Club, Jazz At


Freddy Cole Quartet; Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St.




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“Some people’s idea of free speech is that they are free

to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back that

is an outrage.”

- Winston Churchill



5 C Cultural Center, 68 Avenue C. 212-477-5993. www.5ccc.com

55 Bar, 55 Christopher St. 212-929-9883, 55bar.com

92nd St Y, 1395 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10128,

212.415.5500, 92ndsty.org

Aaron Davis Hall, City College of NY, Convent Ave., 212-650-

6900, aarondavishall.org

Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, Broadway & 65th St., 212-875-

5050, lincolncenter.org/default.asp

Allen Room, Lincoln Center, Time Warner Center, Broadway and

60th, 5th floor, 212-258-9800, lincolncenter.org

American Museum of Natural History, 81st St. & Central Park

W., 212-769-5100, amnh.org

Antibes Bistro, 112 Suffolk Street. 212-533-6088.

www.antibesbistro.com

Arthur’s Tavern, 57 Grove St., 212-675-6879 or 917-301-8759,

arthurstavernnyc.com

Arts Maplewood, P.O. Box 383, Maplewood, NJ 07040; 973-378-

2133, artsmaplewood.org

Avery Fischer Hall, Lincoln Center, Columbus Ave. & 65th St.,

212-875-5030, lincolncenter.org

BAM Café, 30 Lafayette Av, Brooklyn, 718-636-4100, bam.org

Bar Chord, 1008 Cortelyou Rd., Brooklyn, barchordnyc.com

Bar Lunatico, 486 Halsey St., Brooklyn. 718-513-0339.

222.barlunatico.com

Barbes, 376 9th St. (corner of 6th Ave.), Park Slope, Brooklyn,

718-965-9177, barbesbrooklyn.com

Barge Music, Fulton Ferry Landing, Brooklyn, 718-624-2083,

bargemusic.org

B.B. King’s Blues Bar, 237 W. 42nd St., 212-997-4144,

bbkingblues.com

Beacon Theatre, 74th St. & Broadway, 212-496-7070

Beco Bar, 45 Richardson, Brooklyn. 718-599-1645.

www.becobar.com

Bickford Theatre, on Columbia Turnpike @ Normandy Heights

Road, east of downtown Morristown. 973-744-2600

Birdland, 315 W. 44th St., 212-581-3080

Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd, 212-475-8592, bluenotejazz.com

Bourbon St Bar and Grille, 346 W. 46th St, NY, 10036,

212-245-2030, [email protected]

Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery (at Bleecker), 212-614-0505,

bowerypoetry.com

BRIC House, 647 Fulton St. Brooklyn, NY 11217, 718-683-5600,

http://bricartsmedia.org

Brooklyn Public Library, Grand Army Plaza, 2nd Fl, Brooklyn,

NY, 718-230-2100, brooklynpubliclibrary.org

Café Carlyle, 35 E. 76th St., 212-570-7189, thecarlyle.com

Café Loup, 105 W. 13th St. (West Village) , between Sixth and

Seventh Aves., 212-255-4746

Café St. Bart’s, 109 E. 50th St, 212-888-2664, cafestbarts.com

Cafe Noctambulo, 178 2nd Ave. 212-995-0900. cafenoctam-

bulo.com

Caffe Vivaldi, 32 Jones St, NYC; caffevivaldi.com

Candlelight Lounge, 24 Passaic St, Trenton. 609-695-9612.

Carnegie Hall, 7th Av & 57th, 212-247-7800, carnegiehall.org

Cassandra’s Jazz, 2256 7th Avenue. 917-435-2250. cassan-

drasjazz.com

Chico’s House Of Jazz, In Shoppes at the Arcade, 631 Lake Ave.,

Asbury Park, 732-774-5299

City Winery, 155 Varick St. Bet. Vandam & Spring St., 212-608-

0555. citywinery.com

Cleopatra’s Needle, 2485 Broadway (betw 92nd & 93rd), 212-769-

6969, cleopatrasneedleny.com

Club Bonafide, 212 W. 52nd, 646-918-6189. clubbonafide.com

C’mon Everybody, 325 Franklin Avenue, Brooklyn.

www.cmoneverybody.com

Copeland’s, 547 W. 145th St. (at Bdwy), 212-234-2356

Cornelia St Café, 29 Cornelia, 212-989-9319

Count Basie Theatre, 99 Monmouth St., Red Bank, New Jersey

07701, 732-842-9000, countbasietheatre.org

Crossroads at Garwood, 78 North Ave., Garwood, NJ 07027,

908-232-5666

Cutting Room, 19 W. 24th St, 212-691-1900

Dizzy’s Club, Broadway at 60th St., 5th Floor, 212-258-9595,

jalc.com

DROM, 85 Avenue A, New York, 212-777-1157, dromnyc.com

The Ear Inn, 326 Spring St., NY, 212-226-9060, earinn.com

East Village Social, 126 St. Marks Place. 646-755-8662.

www.evsnyc.com

Edward Hopper House, 82 N. Broadway, Nyack NY. 854-358-

0774.

El Museo Del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Ave (at 104th St.), Tel: 212-831-

7272, Fax: 212-831-7927, elmuseo.org

Esperanto, 145 Avenue C. 212-505-6559. www.esperantony.com

The Falcon, 1348 Rt. 9W, Marlboro, NY., 845) 236-7970,

Fat Cat, 75 Christopher St., 212-675-7369, fatcatjazz.com

Fine and Rare, 9 East 37th Street. www.fineandrare.nyc

Five Spot, 459 Myrtle Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 718-852-0202, fivespot-

soulfood.com

Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd., Flushing, NY, 718-

463-7700 x222, flushingtownhall.org

For My Sweet, 1103 Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY 718-857-1427

Galapagos, 70 N. 6th St., Brooklyn, NY, 718-782-5188, galapago-

sartspace.com

Garage Restaurant and Café, 99 Seventh Ave. (betw 4th and

Bleecker), 212-645-0600, garagerest.com

Garden Café, 4961 Broadway, by 207th St., New York, 10034,

212-544-9480

Gin Fizz, 308 Lenox Ave, 2nd floor. (212) 289-2220.

www.ginfizzharlem.com

Ginny’s Supper Club, 310 Malcolm X Boulevard Manhattan, NY

10027, 212-792-9001, http://redroosterharlem.com/ginnys/

Glen Rock Inn, 222 Rock Road, Glen Rock, NJ, (201) 445-2362,

glenrockinn.com

GoodRoom, 98 Meserole, Bklyn, 718-349-2373, goodroombk.com.

Green Growler, 368 S, Riverside Ave., Croton-on-Hudson NY.

914-862-0961. www.thegreengrowler.com

Greenwich Village Bistro, 13 Carmine St., 212-206-9777, green-

wichvillagebistro.com

Harlem on 5th, 2150 5th Avenue. 212-234-5600.

www.harlemonfifth.com

Harlem Tea Room, 1793A Madison Ave., 212-348-3471, har-

lemtearoom.com

Hat City Kitchen, 459 Valley St, Orange. 862-252-9147.

hatcitykitchen.com

Havana Central West End, 2911 Broadway/114th St), NYC,

212-662-8830, havanacentral.com

Highline Ballroom, 431 West 16th St (between 9th & 10th Ave.

highlineballroom.com, 212-414-4314.

Hopewell Valley Bistro, 15 East Broad St, Hopewell, NJ 08525,

609-466-9889, hopewellvalleybistro.com

Hudson Room, 27 S. Division St., Peekskill NY. 914-788-FOOD.

hudsonroom.com

Hyatt New Brunswick, 2 Albany St., New Brunswick, NJ

IBeam Music Studio, 168 7th St., Brooklyn, ibeambrooklyn.com

INC American Bar & Kitchen, 302 George St., New Brunswick

NJ. (732) 640-0553. www.increstaurant.com

Iridium, 1650 Broadway, 212-582-2121, iridiumjazzclub.com

Jazz 966, 966 Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY, 718-638-6910

Jazz at Lincoln Center, 33 W. 60th St., 212-258-9800, jalc.org

Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th St., 5th Floor

Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Reservations: 212-258-9595

Rose Theater, Tickets: 212-721-6500, The Allen Room, Tickets:

212-721-6500

Jazz Gallery, 1160 Bdwy, (212) 242-1063, jazzgallery.org

The Jazz Spot, 375 Kosciuszko St. (enter at 179 Marcus Garvey

Blvd.), Brooklyn, NY, 718-453-7825, thejazz.8m.com

Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St., 212-576-2232, jazzstandard.net

Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St & Astor Pl.,

212-539-8778, joespub.com

John Birks Gillespie Auditorium (see Baha’i Center)

Jules Bistro, 65 St. Marks Pl, 212-477-5560, julesbistro.com

Kasser Theater, 1 Normal Av, Montclair State College, Montclair,

973-655-4000, montclair.edu

Key Club, 58 Park Pl, Newark, NJ, 973-799-0306, keyclubnj.com

Kitano Hotel, 66 Park Ave., 212-885-7119. kitano.com

Knickerbocker Bar & Grill, 33 University Pl., 212-228-8490,

knickerbockerbarandgrill.com

Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard St, 212-219-3132, knittingfacto-

ry.com

Langham Place — Measure, Fifth Avenue, 400 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10018, 212-613-8738, langhamplacehotels.com

La Lanterna (Bar Next Door at La Lanterna), 129 MacDougal St,

New York, 212-529-5945, lalanternarcaffe.com

Le Cirque Cafe, 151 E. 58th St., lecirque.com

Le Fanfare, 1103 Manhattan Ave., Brooklyn. 347-987-4244.

www.lefanfare.com

Le Madeleine, 403 W. 43rd St. (betw 9th & 10th Ave.), New York,

New York, 212-246-2993, lemadeleine.com

Les Gallery Clemente Soto Velez, 107 Suffolk St, 212-260-4080

Lexington Hotel, 511 Lexington Ave. (212) 755-4400.

www.lexinghotelnyc.com

Live @ The Falcon, 1348 Route 9W, Marlboro, NY 12542,

Living Room, 154 Ludlow St. 212-533-7235, livingroomny.com

The Local 269, 269 E. Houston St. (corner of Suffolk St.), NYC

Makor, 35 W. 67th St., 212-601-1000, makor.org

Lounge Zen, 254 DeGraw Ave, Teaneck, NJ, (201) 692-8585,

lounge-zen.com

Maureen's Jazz Cellar, 2 N. Broadway, Nyack NY. 845-535-3143.

maureensjazzcellar.com

Maxwell’s, 1039 Washington St, Hoboken, NJ, 201-653-1703

McCarter Theater, 91 University Pl., Princeton, 609-258-2787,

mccarter.org

Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufman Center, 129 W. 67th St., 212-501

-3330, ekcc.org/merkin.htm

Metropolitan Room, 34 West 22nd St NY, NY 10012, 212-206-

0440

Mezzrow, 163 West 10th Street, Basement, New York, NY

10014. 646-476-4346. www.mezzrow.com

Minton’s, 206 W 118th St., 212-243-2222, mintonsharlem.com

Mirelle’s, 170 Post Ave., Westbury, NY, 516-338-4933

MIST Harlem, 46 W. 116th St., myimagestudios.com

Mixed Notes Café, 333 Elmont Rd., Elmont, NY (Queens area),

516-328-2233, mixednotescafe.com

Montauk Club, 25 8th Ave., Brooklyn, 718-638-0800,

montaukclub.com

Moscow 57, 168½ Delancey. 212-260-5775. moscow57.com

Muchmore’s, 2 Havemeyer St., Brooklyn. 718-576-3222.

www.muchmoresnyc.com

Mundo, 37-06 36th St., Queens. mundony.com

Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave. (between

103rd & 104th St.), 212-534-1672, mcny.org

Musicians’ Local 802, 332 W. 48th, 718-468-7376

National Sawdust, 80 N. 6th St., Brooklyn. 646-779-8455.

www.nationalsawdust.org

Newark Museum, 49 Washington St, Newark, New Jersey 07102-

3176, 973-596-6550, newarkmuseum.org

New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center St., Newark, NJ,

07102, 973-642-8989, njpac.org

New Leaf Restaurant, 1 Margaret Corbin Dr., Ft. Tryon Park. 212-

568-5323. newleafrestaurant.com

New School Performance Space, 55 W. 13th St., 5th Floor (betw

5th & 6th Ave.), 212-229-5896, newschool.edu.

New School University-Tishman Auditorium, 66 W. 12th St., 1st

Floor, Room 106, 212-229-5488, newschool.edu

New York City Baha’i Center, 53 E. 11th St. (betw Broadway &

University), 212-222-5159, bahainyc.org

North Square Lounge, 103 Waverly Pl. (at MacDougal St.),

212-254-1200, northsquarejazz.com

Oak Room at The Algonquin Hotel, 59 W. 44th St. (betw 5th and

6th Ave.), 212-840-6800, thealgonquin.net

Oceana Restaurant, 120 West 49th St, New York, NY 10020

212-759-5941, oceanarestaurant.com

Orchid, 765 Sixth Ave. (betw 25th & 26th St.), 212-206-9928

The Owl, 497 Rogers Ave, Bklyn. 718-774-0042. www.theowl.nyc

Palazzo Restaurant, 11 South Fullerton Avenue, Montclair. 973-

746-6778. palazzonj.com

Priory Jazz Club: 223 W Market, Newark, 07103, 973-639-7885

Proper Café, 217-01 Linden Blvd., Queens, 718-341-2233

Clubs, Venues & Jazz ResourcesClubs, Venues & Jazz Resources

— Anton Chekhov

“A system of morality

which is based on relative

emotional values is a mere

illusion, a thoroughly vulgar

conception which has nothing

sound in it and nothing true.”

— Socrates


Prospect Park Bandshell, 9th St. & Prospect Park W., Brooklyn,

NY, 718-768-0855

Prospect Wine Bar & Bistro, 16 Prospect St. Westfield, NJ,

908-232-7320, 16prospect.com, cjayrecords.com

Red Eye Grill, 890 7th Av (56th), 212-541-9000, redeyegrill.com

Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main St.,

Ridgefield, CT; ridgefieldplayhouse.org, 203-438-5795

Rockwood Music Hall, 196 Allen St, 212-477-4155

Rose Center (American Museum of Natural History), 81st St.

(Central Park W. & Columbus), 212-769-5100, amnh.org/rose

Rose Hall, 33 W. 60th St., 212-258-9800, jalc.org

Rosendale Café, 434 Main St., PO Box 436, Rosendale, NY 12472,

845-658-9048, rosendalecafe.com

Rubin Museum of Art - “Harlem in the Himalayas”, 150 W. 17th

St. 212-620-5000. rmanyc.org

Rustik, 471 DeKalb Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 347-406-9700,

rustikrestaurant.com

St. Mark’s Church, 131 10th St. (at 2nd Ave.), 212-674-6377

St. Nick’s Pub, 773 St. Nicholas Av (at 149th), 212-283-9728

St. Peter’s Church, 619 Lexington (at 54th), 212-935-2200,

saintpeters.org

Sasa’s Lounge, 924 Columbus Ave, Between 105th & 106th St.

NY, NY 10025, 212-865-5159, sasasloungenyc.yolasite.com

Savoy Grill, 60 Park Place, Newark, NJ 07102, 973-286-1700

Schomburg Center, 515 Malcolm X Blvd., 212-491-2200,

nypl.org/research/sc/sc.html

Shanghai Jazz, 24 Main St., Madison, NJ, 973-822-2899, shang-

haijazz.com

ShapeShifter Lab, 18 Whitwell Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11215

shapeshifterlab.com

Showman’s, 375 W. 125th St., 212-864-8941

Sidewalk Café, 94 Ave. A, 212-473-7373

Sista’s Place, 456 Nostrand, Bklyn, 718-398-1766, sistasplace.org

Skippers Plane St Pub, 304 University Ave. Newark NJ, 973-733-

9300, skippersplaneStpub.com

Smalls Jazz Club, 183 W. 10th St. (at 7th Ave.), 212-929-7565,

SmallsJazzClub.com

Smith’s Bar, 701 8th Ave, New York, 212-246-3268

Sofia’s Restaurant - Club Cache’ [downstairs], Edison Hotel,

221 W. 46th St. (between Broadway & 8th Ave), 212-719-5799

South Gate Restaurant & Bar, 154 Central Park South, 212-484-

5120, 154southgate.com

South Orange Performing Arts Center, One SOPAC

Way, South Orange, NJ 07079, sopacnow.org, 973-313-2787

Spectrum, 2nd floor, 121 Ludlow St.

Spoken Words Café, 266 4th Av, Brooklyn, 718-596-3923

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, 165 W. 65th St., 10th Floor,

212-721-6500, lincolncenter.org

The Stone, Ave. C & 2nd St., thestonenyc.com

Strand Bistro, 33 W. 37th St. 212-584-4000

SubCulture, 45 Bleecker St., subculturenewyork.com

Sugar Bar, 254 W. 72nd St, 212-579-0222, sugarbarnyc.com

Swing 46, 349 W. 46th St.(betw 8th & 9th Ave.),

212-262-9554, swing46.com

Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, Tel: 212-864-1414, Fax: 212-

932-3228, symphonyspace.org

Tea Lounge, 837 Union St. (betw 6th & 7th Ave), Park Slope,

Broooklyn, 718-789-2762, tealoungeNY.com

Terra Blues, 149 Bleecker St. (betw Thompson & LaGuardia),

212-777-7776, terrablues.com

Threes Brewing, 333 Douglass St., Brooklyn. 718-522-2110.

www.threesbrewing.com

Tito Puente’s Restaurant and Cabaret, 64 City Island Avenue,

City Island, Bronx, 718-885-3200, titopuentesrestaurant.com

Tomi Jazz, 239 E. 53rd St., 646-497-1254, tomijazz.com

Tonic, 107 Norfolk St. (betw Delancey & Rivington), Tel: 212-358-

7501, Fax: 212-358-1237, tonicnyc.com

Town Hall, 123 W. 43rd St., 212-997-1003

Triad Theater, 158 W. 72nd St. (betw Broadway & Columbus

Ave.), 212-362-2590, triadnyc.com

Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers St, 10007,

[email protected], tribecapac.org

Trumpets, 6 Depot Square, Montclair, NJ, 973-744-2600,

trumpetsjazz.com

Turning Point Cafe, 468 Piermont Ave. Piermont, N.Y. 10968

(845) 359-1089, http://turningpointcafe.com

Urbo, 11 Times Square. 212-542-8950. urbonyc.com

Village Vanguard, 178 7th Ave S., 212-255-4037

Vision Festival, 212-696-6681, [email protected],

Watchung Arts Center, 18 Stirling Rd, Watchung, NJ 07069,

908-753-0190, watchungarts.org

Watercolor Café, 2094 Boston Post Road, Larchmont, NY 10538,

914-834-2213, watercolorcafe.net

Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, 57th & 7th Ave, 212-247-7800

Williamsburg Music Center, 367 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY

11211, (718) 384-1654 wmcjazz.org

Zankel Hall, 881 7th Ave, New York, 212-247-7800

Zinc Bar, 82 West 3rd St.

RECORD STORES

Academy Records, 12 W. 18th St., New York, NY 10011, 212-242

-3000, http://academy-records.com

Downtown Music Gallery, 13 Monroe St, New York, NY 10002,

(212) 473-0043, downtownmusicgallery.com

Jazz Record Center, 236 W. 26th St., Room 804,

212-675-4480, jazzrecordcenter.com

MUSIC STORES

Roberto’s Woodwind & Brass, 149 West 46th St. NY, NY 10036,

646-366-0240, robertoswoodwind.com

Sam Ash, 333 W 34th St, New York, NY 10001

Phone: (212) 719-2299 samash.com

Sadowsky Guitars Ltd, 2107 41st Avenue 4th Floor, Long Island

City, NY 11101, 718-433-1990. sadowsky.com

Steve Maxwell Vintage Drums, 723 7th Ave, 3rd Floor, New

York, NY 10019, 212-730-8138, maxwelldrums.com

SCHOOLS, COLLEGES, CONSERVATORIES

92nd St Y, 1395 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10128

212.415.5500; 92ndsty.org

Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music, 42-76 Main St.,

Flushing, NY, Tel: 718-461-8910, Fax: 718-886-2450

Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, 58 Seventh Ave., Brooklyn,

NY, 718-622-3300, brooklynconservatory.com

City College of NY-Jazz Program, 212-650-5411,

Drummers Collective, 541 6th Ave, New York, NY 10011,

212-741-0091, thecoll.com

Five Towns College, 305 N. Service, 516-424-7000, x Hills, NY

Greenwich House Music School, 46 Barrow St., Tel: 212-242-

4770, Fax: 212-366-9621, greenwichhouse.org

Juilliard School of Music, 60 Lincoln Ctr, 212-799-5000

LaGuardia Community College/CUNI, 31-10 Thomson Ave.,

Long Island City, 718-482-5151

Lincoln Center — Jazz At Lincoln Center, 140 W. 65th St.,

10023, 212-258-9816, 212-258-9900

Long Island University — Brooklyn Campus, Dept. of Music,

University Plaza, Brooklyn, 718-488-1051, 718-488-1372

Manhattan School of Music, 120 Claremont Ave., 10027,

212-749-2805, 2802, 212-749-3025

NJ City Univ, 2039 Kennedy Blvd., Jersey City, 888-441-6528

New School, 55 W. 13th St., 212-229-5896, 212-229-8936

NY University, 35 West 4th St. Rm #777, 212-998-5446

NY Jazz Academy, 718-426-0633 NYJazzAcademy.com

Princeton University-Dept. of Music, Woolworth Center Musical

Studies, Princeton, NJ, 609-258-4241, 609-258-6793

Queens College — Copland School of Music, City University of

NY, Flushing, 718-997-3800

Rutgers Univ. at New Brunswick, Jazz Studies, Douglass Cam-

pus, PO Box 270, New Brunswick, NJ, 908-932-9302

Rutgers University Institute of Jazz Studies, 185 University

Avenue, Newark NJ 07102, 973-353-5595

newarkrutgers.edu/IJS/index1.html

SUNY Purchase, 735 Anderson Hill, Purchase, 914-251-6300

Swing University (see Jazz At Lincoln Center, under Venues)

William Paterson University Jazz Studies Program, 300 Pompton

Rd, Wayne, NJ, 973-720-2320

RADIO

WBGO 88.3 FM, 54 Park Pl, Newark, NJ 07102, Tel: 973-624-

8880, Fax: 973-824-8888, wbgo.org

WCWP, LIU/C.W. Post Campus

WFDU, http://alpha.fdu.edu/wfdu/wfdufm/index2.html

WKCR 89.9, Columbia University, 2920 Broadway

Mailcode 2612, NY 10027, 212-854-9920, columbia.edu/cu/wkcr

ADDITIONAL JAZZ RESOURCES

Big Apple Jazz, bigapplejazz.com, 718-606-8442, gor-

[email protected]

Louis Armstrong House, 34-56 107th St, Corona, NY 11368,

718-997-3670, satchmo.net

Institute of Jazz Studies, John Cotton Dana Library, Rutgers-

Univ, 185 University Av, Newark, NJ, 07102, 973-353-5595

Jazzmobile, Inc., jazzmobile.org

Jazz Museum in Harlem, 104 E. 126th St., 212-348-8300,

jazzmuseuminharlem.org

Jazz Foundation of America, 322 W. 48th St. 10036,

212-245-3999, jazzfoundation.org

New Jersey Jazz Society, 1-800-303-NJJS, njjs.org

New York Blues & Jazz Society, NYBluesandJazz.org

Rubin Museum, 150 W. 17th St, New York, NY,

212-620-5000 ex 344, rmanyc.org.

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By Eric Nemeyer

Steve Wilson, a native of Hampton, Virginia,

attended Virginia Commonwealth University

and has performed with Chick Corea, Dave

Holland, Mulgrew Miller, Mingus Big Band

and numerous other artists, in addition to

leading his own group.

JI: Talk about your association with Bruce

Barth.

SW: Bruce and I have done a few duo gigs

here and there, though we had never really sat

down and planned a project. We were invited

out to play a duo concert by Jon Poses, who

has an jazz organization that stages concerts.

He said that as long as we were performing,

why don’t we also record it? The recording

came out beyond our expectations. We have a

great time playing together. It was actually a

house concert, rather than in a concert hall. So

the setting was very casual and intimate with

60 or 70 people. We always talk about feeling

like you’re playing in a living room, and this

time we did. [laughs] So, along with the vibe

of the people, the intimacy of the setting, our

long standing relationship of playing together

that Bruce and I have worked so that all of the

elements just came together for that day.

JI: Could you talk about one or more of the

influential artists

with whom

you’ve played

who have provid-

ed you with guid-

ance or advice

that has signifi-

cantly influenced

you?

SW: I’ve been

fortunate because there have been many. One

of those is someone who may not be known to

many—my teacher, Doug Richards of Virgin-

ia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

He was the one who really opened my eyes to

the full history. Legacy and greatness of this

music, and prepared me for being a profes-

sional. He turned me on to a lot of the early

jazz, the Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton,

Benny Carter. After that, I worked with Li-

onel Hampton and learned about giving it all

up for the audience. When you hit the stage,

just be ready to play all the time. He loved the

showmanship. After that, Buster Williams—

who really taught me how to listen. I was rec-

ommended to him by Billy Drummond, who

is a dear friend of mine, who was working

with him. Buster called me and said: “I don’t

like to audition people but Billy recommend-

ed you and I would love for you to come in

and make a rehearsal.” Whether it was at a

rehearsal or at one of the gigs, he would al-

ways say, “Listen. Listen. Listen for the

sound. Listen for the beat.” He really taught

me about listening for melody. He is one of

the best melody writers of all time, in my

opinion. And, his music commands you to

listen. One of the things I tell my students is

that playing is 50% listening. Another mentor

is Dave Holland, whose band I joined in 1996

or 97. Dave helped me hear the different pos-

sibilities of the music—playing in odd meters,

playing with unusual song forms, and the

whole thing about being spontaneous and in

the moment. Dave is just so strong and so fast,

that you could play something and he would

challenge you to come up with something new

every night. Dave didn’t say a lot, but the way

he played commanded that you had to think

very fast. You couldn’t rely on what you

knew. You had to be totally in the moment.

After Dave, Chick Corea. He was more spe-

cific about what he wanted out of the music—

in terms of dynamics, color—but not in a con-

trolling way. He wanted you to bring your

personality. What I learned from Dave and

Chick and Buster was that they didn’t rest on

any laurels—and to play every night like it’s

your first night. Chick would not allow you to

get into a comfort zone. He challenged you.

He would challenge you from his playing,

from his instrument. He’s pushing you to go

past what you know and what you’ve been

doing. He’s a bottomless well of imagination,

who never repeated himself from night to

night—in his improvisation. I’m talking about

my years with the [Chick Corea] Origin Band.

By the way, talking about that [box set, multi-

disc] recording at the Blue Note, we knew he

was recording every night. He told us before.

It was only afterwards that he came to us and

said we’re going to release the whole week.

We were like, “What?” [laughs] It took us by

surprise. We were really flying by the seat of

our pants. A lot of that music was new, and it

was only our second gig. The band started at a

gig in Schenectady a few months before.

Chick called that gig an experiment. He never

said, “Hey, I’m putting a band together, I

want you guys to be in it.” He just said, “I’m

trying this experiment with this new music

I’m writing. Would you like to participate?”

Right after that he said, “This is the new band,

we’re going to book it.” At the end of the

week, when he announced he was going to

release the whole thing, we said. “Are you

sure?” We thought at the time it was kind of a

second rehearsal. But, a lot of people have

heard it and we still get a lot of compliments

on it, and that’s a testament to his writing and

the collective of the group. Two other mentors

were James Williams and Mulgrew Miller.

And, the biggest thing I got from them is in-

tegrity and soul.

JI: What was it like when you first came to

New York?

SW: When I was in Richmond, I was working

a lot. I was doing studio work and all sorts of

gigs, and Ellis Marsalis was there, so I was

working with him. When I came to New

York, I went from working all the time to

having no work. [laughs] But there were a lot

of different scenes and a lot going on here. I

would sit in with David Murray, Jon Faddis’


Steve Wilson “When you hit the stage, just be ready to play all the time”

INTERVIEWINTERVIEW

“Dave [Holland] helped me hear the different

possibilities of the music—playing in odd meters, playing with unusual song forms, and the whole

thing about being spontaneous and in the moment. Dave is just so strong and so fast, that you could

play something and he would challenge you to come up with something new every night. Dave

didn’t say a lot, but the way he played commanded that you had to think very fast. You couldn’t rely on

what you knew. You had to be totally in the moment.”


Steve WilsonSteve Wilson Appearing at Jazz StandardAppearing at Jazz Standard

September 6September 6--99

© John Abbott© John Abbott

www.johnabbottphoto.comwww.johnabbottphoto.com


quartet that would play at the Vanguard. I was

introduced to Dick Oatts, who got me into the

sub rotation with the Vanguard Orchestra. I

did get to play with Mel Lewis quite a few

times, and he was a great mentor who told me

some great stories and the importance of time

and feel. It was priceless. I also got to play

along side of another mentor, Jerry Dodgion,

in the last year of the American Jazz Orches-

tra, led by John Lewis. I was doing kind of the

opposite of what other guys my age were do-

ing at the time. It was the height of the Young

Lions period, and everyone was going after

record deals. I wasn’t focusing on being a

leader or a recording star. I was just trying to

find my way and learn, to explore a lot of

different kinds of music, and to get next to the

elders. That’s really why I came to New York.

It widened my relationships across different

generations of musicians and it provide me

with a lot of different working and playing

opportunities—which carries me to this day,

because I didn’t get pigeonholed.

JI: The creative side of jazz—composing

music, playing, improvising—will be strong

as long as there are people who want to cre-

ate, which is why we’re all here. I see the in-

dustry figures cross my desk everyday. The

business side of the jazz world is a contracting

market. There are fewer venues (outside of

New York). There is a bigger gap between the

top paying gigs, that is those at festivals and

for more well-known artists compared to the

one-nighters, or one-offs for most musicians,

playing for $50 to $100 to even just the door.

With few record labels, artists have both the

challenge and responsibility and the opportu-

nities to create their own successes. There are

fewer radio stations. 50 to 100 radio spins

nationally in a week will get you into the top

20 for airplay. Airplay doesn’t help to gener-

ate sales of recordings now, and so on. All of

this is combined with the fact that, as always,

there are an array of predatory (and some-

times not very competent) business creatures

in jazz who camouflage themselves well, in

their self-swerving efforts to take advantage

of artists’ emotional connection to the music.

So artists have the added challenges of trying

to distinguish the honest record executives,

managers, publicists, promoters and others,

from the wolves in sheep’s clothing and those

who want to lord over the . With the shrinking

market, there is a palpable and pervasive anxi-

ety over fewer gigs for artists who have com-

mitted their lives to this, and so on. What are

your views on how the business side is inter-

secting with the creative side and what are the

prospects for the future.

SW: You know that’s a loaded question. First

of all, it’s a great observation—and I totally

agree with it. It’s anybody’s guess now. On

one hand, with most of the major record com-

panies getting out of the jazz business, I think

it’s positive. It puts the music back into the

hands of the musicians. You don’t have rec-

ord companies determining the pecking order

so to speak. The music traditionally has al-

ways determined that. When you look at the

history of this music, there has always been an

apprenticeship system in place until 15 or 20

years ago. Then they started to elevate young-

er musicians over some of the more mature

musicians. There is always going to be great

young talent around. To me it got turned

around by default. The record companies pro-

moted a lot of younger musicians who weren't

necessarily ready to be leaders. In so doing,

they dismantled the apprenticeship system.

That changed the music in a profound way.

JI: Someone commented to me that the con-

cept used to be about established musicians,

for example Coltrane, “What is John Coltrane

going to do next?” as opposed to the media

and business hype constantly and every few

weeks or months focusing on “Who is going

to be the next John Coltrane?”

SW: Exactly. Exactly. That’s exactly right.

We’re now seeing the effects of this on the

music, and culturally also. What I see with a

lot of the new music now—a lot of which I

enjoy—is that the foundations of swing an

blues getting left behind. That is also palpable

and is a real concern—because when you

think culturally and esthetically about the

foundation of what we call jazz, it is blues and

swing. When that gets left behind, and we

take these key ingredients out of the music—

is it still jazz, just because it has some im-

provisation? I don’t know. I see that there is a

push to play in odd meters and to see how

intellectual, how tricky and complex it can

get. Okay. That has its merits. But, when

we’re talking about this music—whose foun-

dation is blues, swing, and spirituality, and

being about communication, and a folk mu-

sic—and you remove those ingredients, it

makes it something else. What that means is

that a lot of young people are not going to get

the kinds of experiences we’re talking

about—such as going into clubs and com-

municating with an audience, who are there to

be moved and to hear and feel the music.

Most audiences don’t care if you’re playing a

flat 6th over a Major chord. They couldn't

care less. I couldn't really care less either

when I go to hear music. I don’t go to hear

music to discover how much they’re calculat-

ing, I go to be moved and enlightened and

stimulated. If they do that with simple Major

triads, beautiful. If they do it with something

more complex, beautiful. But the whole idea,

is that music at its best reflects humanity, hu-

mility, spirituality and communication, and

has those at its core. What is going to stay

with you as a listener, a day from now, a week

from now, years from now? The formulas?

How intellectual, complex or tricky the music

is? Or, the feeling you experienced?


Steve Wilson

“What I see with a lot of the new music now—a lot of which I enjoy—is that the

foundations of swing an blues getting left behind. That is also palpable and is a

real concern—because when you think culturally and esthetically about the

foundation of what we call jazz, it is blues and swing. When that gets left behind, and

we take these key ingredients out of the music—is it still jazz, just because it has

some improvisation? I don’t know.”


Cyrus ChestnutCyrus Chestnut Appearing at Jazz StandardAppearing at Jazz Standard

August 30August 30--September 2September 2

© Eric Nemeyer© Eric Nemeyer


xxxxxxxxxx

By Eric Nemeyer

JI: Could you talk about how your association with

Dexter Gordon developed and how that contributed

to shaping your musical and/or personal develop-

ment?

RR: Well, I’m still reaping the benefits of playing

with Dexter to this day. I played with him a little

bit in Chicago. He came back almost every year,

although when he made that Homecoming record,

he had made the decision that he was really going

to stay in the United States this time. Homecoming

was with Woody Shaw’s band. Then, drummer

Eddie Gladden had just left Horace Silver’s band

and we got him. I played four years with Dexter’s

band. Dexter was so consistent with everything. He

was a great guy - never had any arguments ever

with him. He use to make me angry because he

would be so laid back sometimes - laid back about

being on time and stuff like that.

JI: Did that prompt you to take more of a leader-

ship role in the day to day business of the band?

RR: Yes absolutely. Self preservation. He use to

call me the straw boss. Someone had to do those

things. Dexter was drinking a lot and he was also

indulging a lot. I didn’t need any of that stuff. The

club owners would always come to me first if they

saw me first. I would say, you know this isn’t my

band. I ended up having to do a lot of that stuff.

But I did it because someone needed to do it.

JI: The organizational aspect of it was loose, but

how about the musical end of it?

RR: We never rehearsed. George Cables plays so

magnificently in the way that he orchestrates, when

he comps. The chemistry of that band was so

strong, even when

we played things

for the first time.

We were playing

for six nights a

week for months

and months. So

things would just

manifest them-

selves, and when

we would say, “Oh

that sounds pretty

good,” we kept it that way. The only rehearsals we

did were to rehearse the tunes to go in to record.

JI: What prompted your departure from the group?

RR: It was just getting too much for me. I loved

Dexter so much, that I had to leave before I didn’t

like him anymore. I wanted to protect that. I wasn’t

as happy because of all the stuff. We were starting

to work so much and get into the college circuits -

which was not an easy thing for Dexter. When you

have the schedules and concerts at these colleges,

eight o’clock concerts - that’s what time they want-

ed to go. It was hard work for the management to

make sure that Dexter was always towing the mark.

JI: Was Dexter’s move to Europe in the 1960s,

because of the racial issues here in the United

States, ever a topic of discussion?

RR: Yes. In Europe he was appreciated much

more. He could be loose, and everybody still loved

him. He was able to work enough to keep himself

together. Nils Winther of Steeplechase would be

right there to give him a record date. I guess he was

trying to live like that here when he came back but

he still couldn’t really deal with that.

JI: Traveling in some of those communist bloc

countries must have felt really isolating then.

RR: Oh, incredibly so! But the people loved the

music so much it was amazing. There were a cou-

ple incidents when we would go out in the country,

and we would stretch out beyond control. A couple

of times he really, really made me angry. We were

the representatives of whatever we were supposed

to be – the American jazz group. Sometimes we

didn’t look like what I thought we should look like.

It was still an incredible experience to be with him.

He had a big sound. He was clear, and it swung

like crazy. He loved the energy. He said hit it. He

just let us go. We just played.

JI: A few years later you were playing with anoth-

er great tenor sax player, Stan Getz, at the end of

his career. That rhythm section of course had Ken-

ny Barron, and you. Could you contrast or compare

the different leadership styles or the different dy-

namic that you experienced later on with Stan?

RR: Well it was really interesting Stan and Dexter

were very close in age. They both had the same

pulse, rhythmically I think. Stan kind of played the

upper part of his horn and Dexter played on the

lower half of the horn. It was a totally different

dynamic because Stan knew he was a star. He

knew what he wanted. He would tell me, “You

know I don’t like bowed solos, so don’t take bowed

solos. No offense to you. You know George Mraz

plays great with the bow, but I didn’t like them

either. I just don’t like bowed solos.” When I

played with him during that period, he wasn’t

drinking. He was actually trying to become a little

healthier because he had to have this big operation.

I had played with him a few months or a year on

and off. Stan was easy to get along with as long as

you didn’t let him manipulate you. Stan wasn’t a

really a nice guy, although he was a gentleman to

me and to my wife. I didn’t have to have that gig if

he was going to treat me like trash. Then I would-

n’t have played with him. Stan would mess with

certain guys because they allowed him to. But I

loved playing with him because he had a beautiful

sound. You had to play beautifully with him, other-

wise you were out of place.

JI: Those albums that you did, Serenity and Anni-

versary, with him and Kenny are just magnificent,

everything just flows so right.

RR: That was an ideal period because we were on

tour five weeks tour and we knew the music. Stan

wasn’t drinking. He was still smoking but they

were trying to get him to eat better and be healthi-

er. That record was recorded when we were in

Copenhagen, Denmark. The piano was great, the

room was great, the atmosphere felt great, the engi-

neer was really nice, my bass felt great. It was per-

fect.


“When we moved into this town, Teaneck New Jersey, it was July 4th 1976. It was scorching hot. My brother was here with

his family helping us move in. I’m upstairs, and my brother tells me there are two gentlemen at the front door wanting to

see me. I said, ‘What? Nobody knows I’m here, expect the bank.’ He said, ‘it’s a tall guy and a short guy.’ I said, ‘well who

the hell is that.’ So I go downstairs and it’s Sam Jones and Nat Adderley, and they said ‘welcome to the neighborhood.’”

Rufus Reid

“if you write your book, you own it”

INTERVIEWINTERVIEW


Rufus ReidRufus Reid Appearing at Jazz StandardAppearing at Jazz Standard

September 13September 13--1616

By Jimmy KatzBy Jimmy Katz


xxxxxxxxxx

JI: I guess what your sayings that as long as you

didn’t allow him to manipulate you things were

cool.

RR: Right, exactly. Stan would pay for the extra

weight charges to ship my bass, and he would al-

most do it reluctantly. He was still whining that he

had to pay these charges, and they were minuscule

compared to the money that he was making. I

would laugh at him. I played with him once when

he was just coming off his wagon. I told him, I’m

really proud of you. I’ve been with Dexter when he

was drinking too much and Dexter was nice. He

just got more lovable. But when Stan would drink

he would go the other way. He was not nice. He

lived in the upper echelon of money, hob-nobbing

with actresses and people who have money. He

would just act stupid sometimes - but he never did

that with me. He was very respectful to me and

particularly to my wife. He would call up and say,

“You got your bags packed? We’re getting ready to

go.” She would say, “You know Stan you’re so

nice.” He would say, No, I’m really not nice.” He

knew what he was. He was a very shrewd business

man too. Musically, he was fabulous.

JI: How did you prepare for the recordings with

Stan?

RR: We were on the road for five weeks, and that

recording was the fifth week. We knew the materi-

al. It couldn’t have been better. To me that is the

way you should record. All those records that

Miles did? Those guys were on the road playing

that stuff, all the time. Those records are magnifi-

cent because the music went to another place. It

was fun playing with Victor Lewis, and Kenny

Barron was tremendous, and Stan. People have

always come up to me and they said, “I have every

record that Stan has ever recorded and I love this

one the best.” Stan taught me a few things. On the

solo, Stan’s Blues, I’ll never forget this. We played

somewhere in California. There were about ten

thousand people - one of those festivals outside.

We were playing this blues, medium tempo and he

said, “Don’t take a solo, just walk.” So I walked for

about ten choruses or more, all over the bass - up

and down, high register and low register. I would

get louder and louder. Victor and Kenny got louder

with me and the people went nuts. Then Stan came

over by my ear and said, “See I told you.” He was a

special guy.

JI: Could you talk about your participation in the

BMI Jazz Composers workshop? What kind of

experiences you might have had that motivated you

to devote more time to composition?

RR: Well, quite honestly, you may or may not

have known I’ve had a great fortune to play with a

lot of fantastic people in my career thus far. When I

first came to New York I was playing with Thad

Jones and Mel Lewis’ Big Band for a couple of

years, before Thad actually went to Europe. It was

always fascinating to me to play these charts. I

thought “Wow, I wish I could write like that.” I

never studied composition in school, per se, but I

always tried to write little songs, and buy books on

orchestrating and arranging, and do all these things

on my own. I’ve always somehow ended up want-

ing to get deeper into it. I just never really had the

time - particularly while I was teaching at William

Paterson University. I was there for twenty years.

Between Thad and my professional life, I had

enough on my plate. Since I retired, it’s been five

years. It gave me opportunity and that was just one

of the fist things I said I wanted to do, is get in-

volved with that workshop. I’ve heard about it and

Jim McNeely is a long time friend, and he encour-

aged me to submit some scores. I was accepted and

a whole other world just began to open up. I had

difficulty at first because people were expecting a

lot of things from me - because they saw Rufus

Reid the bass player. I said you know, when I’m

playing that’s one thing, but when having to write

I’m a novice, I’m in here studying just like you, so

don’t do that to me. It just opened up my head - all

the devices you would learn, and all the things you

learn from each other. When everyone was present,

there could have been twenty-five to thirty people

in the class. We met a couple times a month, and

then a reading session. We would actually go over

people’s music, literally, sitting around the piano

discussing, why did you use that, and what moti-

vated you to do that. We would listen and read. We

had a reading session and we would play that back.

You got a chance to really get intimate with your-

self. The biggest thing that really sold me on the

BMI thing was that you didn’t have to write to

appease or please anyone. Most of the stuff we do

as players or even just people, we do to please

other people. There is some kind of mandate, I hate

to use the word shackles, but you know, if you are

going to record you got to get to some air space, or

the tone can’t be that long so you got to make the

publisher happy or someone happy. If its not bebop

and this person likes bebop, then you’re not going

to make this person happy, and so forth. This was-

n’t an arranging course. That was the first thing

Manny Albam, Jim McNeely and Mike Abene

said. You could go down the street, and there are

incredible arrangers, all over New York. We want

you to start a little charm of an idea and we want to

see it work, and we want to see it develop. This is

my fourth season and not ever have I ever heard

either one of these guys say, “I don’t like it or this

was no good,” or anything else that was trying to

help you make this sound like you wanted it to

sound like. If that is what you wanted it to sound

like then they accepted it. But they tried to make it

sound the best way possible - through the tech-

niques of orchestration, and getting you out of your

comfort zone. That’s mainly also one of the great

things for me. I have written some big band charts

and some arrangements and I knew some things

that sounded really good. Then they said why don’t

you try this, and use this instrument and that instru-

ment. It completely just blew my stuff away. It

completely just dismantled it and eventually I be-

gan to search and investigate other ways. They

encourage you. If you had eight measures of some-

thing, re-orchestrate it three or four times before

you actually made a decision. You don’t get that

opportunity in most situations, unless you are under

tutelage of someone and your studying in this kind

of curriculum. They would have the top notch play-

ers in New York for the reading sessions, so you

actually got to hear your music read quite well.

JI: Was the reading session designed for specific

instrumentation?

RR: Yes, it’s specifically for big band. But they

don’t want it to sound like a basic band or Stan

Kenton band or Woody Herman Band. It’s just

using that instrumentation. Although the instru-

mentation could also be augmented with wood-

winds, if you liked - oboe or wanted English

Horns. You had to specify that and these people

would bring those instruments. If you wanted an

extra guitar, or to use vibes or something then it


“On the solo, Stan’s Blues, I’ll never forget this. We played somewhere in California. There were about ten thousand people - one of those festivals outside. We were

playing this blues, medium tempo and he said, ‘Don’t take a solo, just walk.’ So I walked for about ten choruses or more,

all over the bass - up and down, high register and low register. I would get louder

and louder. Victor and Kenny got louder with me and the people went nuts. Then

Stan came over by my ear and said, ‘See I told you.’ He was a special guy.”

Rufus Reid


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was your responsibility to see that those persons

were there. Other then that, that was the only thing

that you would say would be a normal big band. It

was just the instrumentation, but not the material.

That was the most exciting thing for me.

JI: You mentioned they didn’t want to pre-direct

you to what instrumentation to use.

RR: Well, first of all, I have to assume it was spe-

cifically a big band, and that’s how it was deliv-

ered. I didn’t have a problem with that because

what I was trying to do was to just expand myself

in terms of ideas. It has opened up for me in other

ways. The BMI is specifically for the big band. But

what I learned from it, I can take to any ensemble,

and I have done so. Bob Brookmeyer and Burt

Korall got this thing started about eighteen or nine-

teen years ago. It’s really blossoming and driving

in some of the musicians who are there, and writing

some incredible stuff. It was really inspirational.

Jim McNeely, Mike Abene and Manny Albam

before he died, were very impressed and very hap-

py to see us learn from each other. They weren’t

saying don’t do it just because we say this. We

have more experience then you and we suggest

things, but if you are really adamant about some-

thing lets see what’s up. That was really a very

healthy situation. I won a commission the first year

and that was really exciting.

JI: What was the process that was involved in your

winning that Charlie Parker jazz composition

award for Sky’s Over Amelia?

RR: There was twelve people who had been cho-

sen at the end of the season which is in June, to be

put on the concert. There is a concert at the end of

each season, to showcase the music. Mine was one

of them. When this award came in, they chose

three of the twelve that they felt would benefit, or

that were extra special or whatever. That year, they

hired Dan Morganstern, Slide Hampton and Phil

Schaap. They were the judges. They put my piece

on the first half of the program. Then they went

and deliberated during the intermission and they

came back. They just heard it for what it was, and I

won, and I couldn’t believe it. It was three thou-

sand dollars. It really empowered me that I was on

the right track. There were some wood wind dou-

bles in the arrangement. I needed bass clarinet.

That was the first piece, and that piece guides what

I did. The commission piece ended up being called

the Hymns of the Blue Bird. I then was charged to

have that ready for the following year. What I’ve

done even with those pieces was that I extracted

themes out of “Skies” and condensed them down to

my quintet. This gave us some more things to do

other then just playing a hit and everybody taking a

solo in the traditional sense.

JI: One of the most important steps in the creative

process is that we all start with some excitement

and enthusiasm – when we have a new idea for a

song or whatever. Then the enthusiasm wears off

and we go through the trials and tribulation of hav-

ing to get it to the next stage and the next stage

until finally you’re almost done. When you are

almost done, that is the most difficult point. At that

point we are close to completion but not there, and

it is a point where we might be tempted to delay or

lay back or get lazy. This is the point where we

have to apply ourselves the most. And, in the com-

pletion are the seeds of your next creation. When I

have arranged for big bands or studio orchestra or

whatever, I find that many of the ideas that come

much later, that I might use in other compositions,

are little germs from those pieces I completed earli-

er.

RR: Right, right. Well it’s amazing to me, because

I have difficulty getting started. Arranging is some-

one else’s song that you like, or someone wants

you to write an arrangement. Then a lot of the stuff

is already prescribed for you. If you have some

kind of imagination, the arrangement might devel-

op something else you heard and then it kind of

flows okay. But to come up with a whole idea

yourself … and of course I had to learn that the

first things I wrote weren’t necessarily going to be

first in the piece. It was a trip the first year, it’s

gotten a little easier for me and now I have scrap

books, and the time to put down little kernels of

ideas all the time. I’m beginning to have, not a

surplus, but beginning to have a lot of ideas that I

can actually bounce off into other things.

JI: What medium are you using to document your

musical ideas?

RR: I’ve tried to do it with the computer, which I

eventually dump it into the computer. But I can’t

function with the midi stuff initially. I don’t know

if it’s because sitting at the piano enables me to

hear the resonance of the piano and decay and all

that stuff. It sounds better. I find that everything

that I come up with at the real piano and having the

pencil and actually making erasures and changing

minds … I invariably like. It is ninety-nine percent

better then if I did it at the computer. It’s a great

tool now to be able to have that. I’ve been taking a

few lessons from McNeely, and he really feels he

likes to see the erasures and coffee stains and stuff

on the scores. He says he kind of sees your brain

working a little bit in terms of decision making and

etc. Looking at some of your worksheets are

sketches - and I can see that. Of course being able

to write and transpose a score was kind of manda-

tory because they want us to write what the actual

musicians sees - particularly with woodwinds. I’m

pretty familiar with this. I used to be a trumpet

player so I know that about brass players. It has

helped me a great deal to think like that.

JI: What was it like for you to play with Mel Lew-

is on drums?

RR: I tell people that if you couldn’t play with Mel

Lewis something was really wrong. This guy was

like a clock. He was amazing. I had done a play-

along recording with Mel Lewis. We did about

fourteen tunes, and we started out with one and it

ended up being about six minutes and thirty sec-

onds. Then we played the rest of the stuff, and they

said well lets go back to the first one - this was

three or four hours later. Let’s do it again because

the sound was better. We played the tune again,

and it was like six minutes and thirty-two seconds.

It was so close, and he said I got it, and just cut it

off. He was like that, and he was amazing to me

because he was one of the first drummers whoever

said to me, “I got a cymbal for your sound. I got a

cymbal for George Mraz’s sound. I had one for

Richard Davis, and I got one for you.” It was great.

That was a magnificent time for me. That’s actual-

ly when people began to realize I was in New

York. I’d been in New York maybe six months,

just kind of doing jam sessions. Playing with that in

that band was a big credential thing. It was a pretty

hot chair in that you had to swing and you had to

be able to read and you had to have a good sound,

etc. I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried.

JI: Could you talk about your association with

Thad Jones and how he was influential for you?

RR: Well I met Thad in Wichita at one of Jamie

Aebersold’s camps. He was a guest and that’s

when we first met. He was only there for a couple

days or something like that. We hooked up right

away and of course he said, “yeah let’s go get some

ribs.” It was like I’d known him for a long time. He

said, “You ought to come to New York.” And I

said, “Well I’m planning to.” I was living in Chica-

go at that time. I guess about four or five months

later they came to Chicago and George Mraz was

playing. I met Mel and then they told me George

was leaving the band. I said well actually I’m com-

ing to New York to check out a place to live. They

said if you come up, let us know and you can play.

I did that. They said, “We play Monday nights, but

we got a gig on Sunday. Can you do it?” I said,

“Yes of course. Are you crazy, is that a trick ques-

tion?” So I played with the band on the road, or out

of town. No rehearsal, no nothing. I had to sight

read everything. Of course, I knew a couple of the

really hot tunes that I’d better be able to know -

like, “Tiptoe.” There were a couple others, “Little


“We kept asking Thad, ‘but what are we going to play, but what are we going to play?’ -

almost up to the time we were about to go on. He just called tunes and we knew them about

that soon. It was exciting! Thad was an incredible improviser and had an incredible imagination rhythmically and obviously harmonically. A lot of people are asleep on his trumpet playing.”

Rufus Reid


xxxxxxxxxx

Rascal On A Rock.” So I had shedded on some of

those things. I was able to get the charts from them.

That Monday night I played. Then I left to come

back to Chicago. I guess about a year later, I came

back and here I am. Actually they had Bob Bow-

man who was going to play in the band. I called

Mel and he said, “You know we’ve been using Bob

Bowman, so we are going to go with him.” I said,

“Well okay, I’m here, I’m just letting you know

I’m here. Two weeks later, he said Bob Bowmen

didn’t want to live in New York, and that he was

moving back to Texas or where ever. He said,

“You still want to play?” I said “Yes, I did.” I was

there for a solid two years. It was two of the busiest

years with that band with Thad. We were busy and

traveling a lot. Thad had such a strong command of

the band. You know the Vanguard is small - so my

legs were damn near touching the bass drum. Alt-

hough you only heard the bass drum when he really

wanted you to hear it, it was always playing. I

could always feel his pulse at all times. When I was

soloing, Thad said,“ You don’t have to play all the

changes. Let some of them go by.” Then of course

his written stuff … I really did try to write and play

some things that were my own but they were never

better than the ones he wrote. When he wrote

something they would have the graphic shape of

the line of the saxophones or whatever harmonical-

ly. They were very specific. When he wrote chang-

es, he expected you to open it up. I grew a lot in

that band because the rhythm section really

stretched. Harold Danko was there most of the time

when I was there. We had so much fun. We would

have gotten fired playing in most other big bands,

playing the way we did rhythmically and super

imposing pedal points. It felt great and then we got

a chance to do the quartets.

JI: Yeah, and you recorded that one album for

Artist House Records.

RR: Right! It was supposed to have been recorded

in two days but it ended up only being one. We

kept asking Thad, “but what are we going to play,

but what are we going to play?” - almost up to the

time we were about to go on. He just called tunes

and we knew them about that soon. It was exciting!

Thad was an incredible improviser and had an in-

credible imagination rhythmically and obviously

harmonically. A lot of people are asleep on his

trumpet playing.

JI: I’ve always thought that Thad is among the

most creative, most original trumpet players. One

thing that I admired about him and have always

strived for is to not play licks or patterns or any-

thing - but to be totally immersed in the present, in

the moment … to be able to feed off of the other

people with whom you’re playing. One of the

things that really struck me about him when I was

analyzing his work years ago is how his melodic

and rhythmic and harmonic conception on trumpet

was so closely aligned with his writing. There was

an extraordinary connection. Many incredible im-

provisers may write tunes but they cannot neces-

sarily be identified as having come from the same

thought process.

RR: I guess that is really why it worked. He had

the audacity to do a lot of things that most people

just would not do. Of course, if you look at or deal

with a lot of his scores, he would probably flunk

some music classes - doing some of the things he

did. But they worked. If you listen to the big pic-

ture, he was really amazing. I think to get back to

your question on how he inspired me… When I

came here, I was ready to fly and go, although I

was very well seated, I’ve learned to fly even freer.

I think as I get older, ensemble-wise, I learned how

to play through the sound and still not be so pre-

dictable with my bass lines. Playing with Thad,

particularly with that quartet - and a lot of that is

evident on that quartet record - we were just having

fun and were moving into other things. We could-

n’t have planned it. We had to do it right then and

that was very exciting. It was like that even with

the big bands. He was doing different things with

the band changing backgrounds etc. You had to be

alert, all the time because he was always manipu-

lating the music. I still play his music as much as I

possibly can with the group or even solo stuff that I

do. The music is unbelievable and strong. When I

play with McNeely, we always play at least one

tune of Thad’s.

JI: Did you ever hear him speaking about his writ-

ing approach or discussing any of his musical ide-

as?

RR: Actually, you couldn’t really get real close to

Thad. I mean you could hang with him and have

fun. He was a fun-loving guy. I remember one time

we were in Europe and we were on a bus going to a

recording session. It was the only record I actually

did with Thad and Mel and with the singer Monica

Zetterlund. We had about a five-hundred mile bus

trip. Thad still needed to write two charts. I sat

across from him on the bus. I saw him put on his

baseball hat and put on his glasses. This invisible

bubble just kind of came over him. He just went

inside and he started writing. When we got to the

recording session, he checked the stuff just a little

bit at the piano. I was curious. Then he gave it gave

to the copyists. By the time we recorded the other

stuff, they had copied the music. The counterpoint

and the other stuff was unreal. Everyone was flab-

bergasted. Jerry Dodgion and Pepper Adams—that

was the band. We were all wondering what the

charts were going to sound like. We all knew he

wrote them on the bus. I deliberately wanted to

watch him to see what he did. He didn’t change

much, if anything. He just checked a couple things

and handed the score to the guy, and I said “OK.”

Then when I heard it, it was just wonderful. But he

never really discussed anything. At that time, I

didn’t even know what to discuss with him about

that. I didn’t feel I was even anywhere close to that.

He liked the way I played and he did say a couple

of times, “Well you know, I really need this part to

be played better.” After that he never had to tell me

anything. I realized I had to pay more attention to

the written stuff and be as accurate as possible.

JI: That’s pretty interesting that he would hear

those subtleties that called for probably very minor

adjustments in terms of what you were doing.

RR: Right! Right! And I mean it wasn’t like I

played some really funky notes. But the notes

simply weren’t the ones he had heard. After Thad

had left, I stayed with the band and recorded the

album of the music of Bob Brookmeyer: “Hello

Goodbye,” “Skylark.” Bob was very, very specific

about the notes. He was actually much more ada-

mant about that than Thad was, in terms of verbal-

ly. Bob has gone through a whole bunch of trans-

formations I think in the way he writes. Thad’s

music was dense but it was accessible. I learned

that if he was writing backgrounds for the trom-

bones they would sound good by themselves. Then

he would write another background for the trum-

pets to go over the same chord changes. They

would sound great together or by themselves.

JI: Was it your observation that Thad might not

have wanted to discuss his approach in order to

avoid analyzing himself.

RR: I don’t really think he even went there at all. I

think he was just a raw talent that he didn’t need to

discuss anything. He knew what he wanted to

sound like. He wrote in such a way that players

would look at him and say, wow what is this? Sax-

ophone parts were pretty treacherous. But when

they played it they heard how it fit. I was like one

of those puzzles with a lot of colors in it. If you

don’t play it, it looks okay. But when you actually

play it right it says wow, and just kind of jumps

out. That was very exciting for me and I really feel

that, I certainly don’t try to write like him, but I

hear that stuff in my head.

JI: Could you talk a little bit about your experience

playing with Eddie Harris – one of your first major

gigs? What kinds of instruction did Eddie Harris

provide? What kinds of lessons did you learn?

RR: Eddie Harris did all of that for me. It’s pretty

incredible. As a leader, all he would say is, “All I

want you to do is be on time and be able to play.”

That sounds simple but a lot of people might have

abused that. We got paid on time. He said, “I’m

giving you X amount of dollars and I’ll pay you on

Friday.” We never had to hunt for him. He was

always there. He paid us by a check, and it was a

band checking account. Then he had his books and

that was another name, and of course he had his

own personal checks. That was the beginning of

understanding that “oh the band is a business.” He

would run it like that. He would actually be very

specific. He would say, “Okay I want to play the

tune as kind of like a bebop tune and I don’t want

to hear any outside stuff. If we play a ballad, I want

it to really be beautiful and I don’t want it to really

get hyper. Just let it be beautiful. Then when we

play funk, I want it to be funky. I don’t want it to

be outside. When we play outside, I don’t want to

hear a triad, I want it to be out.” He was very

graphic in terms of how he wanted to paint the

picture. We would do all those things in the course

of a set. I was with him for five years. It was like

“wow.” I was playing through echo-plexus and ring

modulators. With the bow, it sounded like a B52,

but it was fun! Then I was playing the electric bass

and the double bass at the same time - within the

same set. Eddie was very respectful and he was

very knowledgeable about people. He said, “I hired

you because you said you liked my music.” There


Rufus Reid


xxxxxxxxxx

are a lot of people who want to play with certain

people because they are recording artists and

they’re very visible people. Other then just liking

their music, it’s the way they can get more famous

too. But Eddie didn’t want that to be the reason

why you played with him. He was really a very

sensitive man. He was magnificent. He taught us

the posture for recording, how to prepare to go into

the recording studio. Don’t waste time because

that’s money. The producers at Atlantic Records

wanted him to use Chuck Rainey and Bernard Pur-

die - the hit makers. They had just done something

with Aretha Franklin, and they were really hot. He

said, “You know they don’t want me to use you

guys. But I want you. Because you played good

enough to play with me on the road, you can play

good enough to record with me.” He was adamant

about it. He’s the one that actually gave me the

inspiration to write my book. He wanted me to

finish school before I played with him. He said “Go

ahead.” I had a year to go and I was ready to quit

and my wife was going to kill me. He said, “No no,

there’s enough out here. Just go ahead and get your

degree because education is important, and if I got

some work, I’ll use you.” And he did. He was a

super guy. I bitched and moaned. It was one of the

reasons when Jamie Aebersold heard me play with

Eddie, he asked me if I would do a workshop with

him, in Grand Forks, North Dakota. I will never

forget that. I had twenty-five bass players, little

kids about fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years old. They

didn’t know much, but they wanted to know. I

would tell Eddie and Ray Brown that I had just

sold twenty-five books for him. Eddie said, “Well

why don’t you write your own books?” He was a

very wise man. When everybody went right, he

went left automatically. He was not a conformist.

That’s why a lot of people really couldn’t get with

him. He was really adamant, and he was so good

musically, and he was so strong and he could do

some many different things so well. The industry

really had difficulty putting him in a place where

they could say this is Eddie Harris. He was more

then that, he was bigger than that. The most pro-

found thing he told me was that if you write your

book, you own it. He said, “If it collects dust, it’s

your dust.” The book has been out over thirty-three

years now, and I still own it and I’m thankful to

him. Eddie was well ahead of his time, not only

musically, but as a business person. He understood

a lot and I feel that he was probably the biggest

influence in how I try to carry myself in terms of

being a band leader and also being a side man. I

guess I’m very fortunate because he was the first

one that I really got next to. People that tried to do

a bunch of things to me, or were disrespectful or

owing me money - I don’t work with them any-

more. Whenever I get some work for myself, for

my own band and music. I try to treat them just like

I would like to be treated. Eddie Harris was my

biggest mentor.

JI: Could you talk a little bit about Kenny Dorham

and Sonny Stitt, with whom you spent some time?

RR: Well, I played with those people when I was

in the house rhythm section at the Jazz Showcase

in Chicago. I got a chance to play with Gene Am-

mons and Sonny Stitt several times. They made

some great records together. It was about the

groove. If you couldn’t groove then you weren’t

asked to be there. What was really interesting was

to play with them, and then turn around and hear

Kenny Dorham come in - so harmonically differ-

ent. I liked it but it took me a while to learn. I guess

one of the things about that whole thing was that

each week I was playing with somebody different,

for almost two or three years in a row, weekend

after weekend. There were about three really good

years in Chicago. I played with McCoy and the

trio, and he was not really well at all that weekend.

I’ve never played with anybody with that kind of

energy. I had to sleep the whole next day just to be

able to play with him the next night. It was amaz-

ing. I loved it but I didn’t know what was happen-

ing. Kenny Dorham was really a nice man and nice

music. Although the first year I played with him, I

guess it was around ‘71 or something like that, and

he was ill. Then the next time, which was about

nine months later he was more ill, then he passed

away. So I didn’t really get a chance to get to talk

with him to much. He wasn’t a really talkative guy,

but he was really nice and straight ahead.

JI: Did McCoy give you any instruction or tell you

what he wanted at all?

RR: No, no. Probably the other most significant

person during that period that I got to play with

was Moody, Kenny Burrell. Bobby Hutcherson and

Harlod Land were two that were really significant.

They took me to Europe for the first time in 1972.

JI: What the was dynamic like playing with their

group and what kind of interaction or discussion

went on?

RR: The interaction and discussion was very re-

fined. Bobby was very very adamant about what he

wanted to hear. From the piano voicing and pedal

points - the music was very specific. In fact, of all

the people I’ve very played with during those days,

Harold Land and Bobby Hutcherson were adamant

about rehearsing - I mean really rehearsing, not just

going over it with the head tunes, really trying to

get the concept clear.

JI: Did they have very specific or elaborate ar-

rangements for you to become aware of?

RR: They were specific but I won’t say that they

were super elaborate. They did have some very

specific ways that they wanted the music to devel-

op. Even to this day, Bobby Hutcherson is one of

the most exciting persons to play with. He’s very

special and I talk about him all the time. It was

actually he who kind of slapped me in the face and

said, “You need to go to New York.” This was in

1971. I found I wasn’t playing with that kind of

energy for awhile. These guys would come into

Chicago they’d bring that energy force with them,

and when they left, they took it with them. It was

really hard. There were some great players in Chi-

cago and I was playing. This one time he came

through and I played with him. We played Friday,

Saturday and Sunday, and on Sunday night when

he paid me, he said, “What’s wrong with you?

Your stuff doesn’t seem like it was.” I really hadn’t

been playing at that level. I was almost in tears. I

came home and I told my wife. We’d been thinking

about coming to New York. It still took us almost

two years to get that together. But mentally I left, I

was ready to go. I thanked Bobby Hutcherson be-

cause he loved me enough to say that. The next

time I saw him was 1977.

JI: It was on the record with Dexter Gordon—the

one that Slide Hampton arranged.

RR: That’s right, My Manhattan Symphony, and

Sophisticated Giant. Bobby was on that record. So

he hadn’t seen me since that event in Chicago

where he busted me. Then he looked over to me

and said, “Oh your chops aren’t down now.” He

remembered that and to me those were really in-

credible periods for my growth. To not get placed

and to not ever let that happen again like that.

JI: How did you prepare yourself for the move to

New York?

RR: Mentally and financially. But when Bobby

said that to me, that kind of put the fire on to really

get it together and to make the move, and not just

talk about it.

JI: It sounds like you wife was very supportive and

that this was a very carefully planned and under-

stood move. And during that time, when you really

need that kind of support, when you make a move

to a new town, there wasn’t any of the doubt but


“When everybody went right, he went left automatically. He was not a conformist … he was so good musically … he could do

some many different things so well. Whenever I get some work for myself, for

my own band and music. I try to treat them just like I would like to be treated. Eddie Harris was my biggest mentor.”

Rufus Reid


rather, a lot of love and encouragement. Could you

talk about that a little bit?

RR: Absolutely, I wouldn’t be able to have accom-

plished almost all of the things that I have accom-

plished without her help. And yes the support was

immense then, she was just as excited about mak-

ing the move and we didn’t know what the hell we

were getting into. But she was very supportive of

me from the beginning. She helps me now to keep

the house and all the necessary day-to-day things

together. I had the support and, yes, I agree with

you that that was a very pivotal period – and that

one needs to have that kind of support from some-

one. The moral support that you are doing the right

thing … and I still won’t say that was an easy

move for us. When we first moved here, my son

was ten months old or something and I was still on

the road. We moved to a place were she had no

friends, no nothing. She had to just kind of learn to

take care of that and I’m on the road. But it still is

great to this day.

JI: Talk about your long time association with

drummer, Akira Tana.

RR: Akira and I worked together for ten years with

the band, Tana-Reid. I’m really proud of that, be-

cause we have five CDs. Actually six CD’s. One

was not commercially accessible. I wanted to have

a band but I really didn’t want to be the leader at

that time. I always thought about the associations

with Ray Brown or Ed Thigpen, and Eddie Gomez,

Paul Motian, Marty Morell, Sam Jones with Louis

Hayes, Jimmy Cobb with Paul Chambers and

Philly Joe. I never had that association. So I started

making a list of drummers that I’d love to play

with. I started making a list of the drummers I’d

played with and really loved the way a lot of them

played. But when you start putting in the ingredient

of doing business with these people, the list just

starts to dwindle rapidly. Akira’s name always rose

to the top and I approached him. He said “no” at

first. We began to put our heads together. He’s a

great business man. I learned a lot from him be-

cause he did a lot of the production of our CDs.

He’s really fabulous in the studio as a producer.

We never talked about how we would play with

each other. We just did it. We just had chemistry.

We were still close, although the band has been put

on the shelf. He’s in California now. I miss him not

being in New York. That was a wonderful period -

business wise, and I began to write more for the

band. Now I’m more ready to have my own band.

So it was kind of a stepping stone.

JI: Could you discuss some of the understandings

you gained about contracts or business and/or of

course human nature, based on the experiences you

had in all these different capacities.

RR: Well Akira and I began to collaborate, and

really be quite aware of being partners. It was like

having another wife. You had to let everyone know

how you felt on things. We didn’t agree on every-

thing but we were able to talk about it. Then we

were able to come up with something that was

perhaps better then either one of our ways - which

was really great. We never did make much money.

But for the little money that we did make, we were

accountable to the penny. I learned about the im-

portance of integrity. Akira and I had a lot of mutu-

al respect. He’d also had good and bad relation-

ships with people he’d played with, and I did too.

We talked about that and wanted people to play

with us who had respect for us—not only musical-

ly, but for the big picture. I still try to carry with

those same ideas. I just wish I could work more so

I could keep them more. Akira and I own our last

two records. Evidence Music actually bought the

license for those CDs for X amount of years, but

we actually owned the masters. It was really grati-

fying. I just began to really see things are happen-

ing. As you know, the record companies don’t have

the toe hold they use to.

JI: How has your experience as an educator, which

included 20 years at William Paterson University,

made an impact on your own artistry and develop-

ment.

RR: Immensely so. I think the more one teaches,

the more it solidifies or validities that you’re on the

right track yourself. This particularly true if you

can get the people you’re talking to, who are may-

be just kind of getting started, to get the picture.

When the light goes on, you see it immediately.

Because if you weren’t really communicating ef-

fectively, it just doesn’t come back the same way. I

feel that I’m investing in myself when I teach, and

in the music and in the lineage of what’s going on.

The job at William Paterson was actually Thad

Jones’ position. When he left, he didn’t tell them

he was leaving. It was in October, and school start-

ed in September. I had done several workshops

when we would go out as a quartet, with Mel and

Harold Danko. The director called me and told me

that Thad had left and that they needed somebody

to come in and teach. He asked if I would like you

to come and check it out. I said, “I didn’t really

come to New York to teach.” He said, “Yeah I

know, but I liked your clinics and I liked your

workshops and I would like you to come and check

it out.” I said, “Okay.” I went out there and I kind

of enjoyed it, but I told him I might be gone for

two months at a time with Dexter. He said that was

okay. He wanted to do things differently than other

schools and to have more of a direct link to the

market place. I helped him in a way because of my

reputation as a player, but also I had a degree from

Northwestern University. I had published my book

already. He went and took all this stuff and made a

portfolio. He was a really strong facilitator. I didn’t

believe that it was going to last. A lot of the stuff

worked, a lot of the stuff didn’t work. He would

say that it was okay if something didn’t work, and

we would try something else. At the end of each

year we asked all the seniors what we did wrong,

and what we should have done. A lot of the stuff

we knew they were going to say. Other stuff we

would write down and implement the next year.

That’s how the program began to evolve. Then I

hired the faculty. The adjunct faculty, the people

who I liked personally and I who thought they had

something to offer. They were all practitioners in

the market place. Then he went forth in doing what

was necessary to get the proper accreditation. Then

we became the first in the tri-state area to have a

bona-fide bachelor of music degree program.

JI: Could you talk about the bassists who have

influenced you most?

RR: Ray Brown was the first person that could

play that I actually saw live. I was in Japan. I was

in the Air Force in 1964 and I saw Ray Brown, and

it was unreal. It was so powerful. I remember wait-

ing outside. I was in the Air Force Band in Tokyo

and waiting outside for them to come out. He came

out with his bass, and sees me. He comes down the

steps and I’m pretty close to him, and he looks at

me, and the people are really trying to get him to

sign the records or autographs or whatever. He

gives me his bass and he says hold this and I said

“uh.” I grabbed the bass and I held it as he com-

menced to sign all these autographs. After he got

finished, he says, “Who are you?” I talked to him

and said who I was, and that I am in the Air Force

band and I learned to play the bass. He told me to

come on back to the hotel with him to have some

dinner. The next day I asked him if I could have a

lesson? He told me to be at the hotel at ten o’clock

in the morning. I was there at nine waiting in the

lobby. It wasn’t really a lesson. He heard me play a

little bit and they would say you need to work on

this, you need to work on that. We just talked. It

was great and from that point on I began to have a

relationship with him. Come 1973 or ‘74 when my

book was out, I showed him my book and he en-

couraged me. He’s one of the first black jazz musi-

cians to actually fund a book himself. It was his

own stuff. That’s when Oscar Peterson had the trio

up there in Canada. That was probably one of the

first black vocational jazz clinics or camps that you

could go to. He encouraged me to do those kinds of

things. Then later years he would say you are one

of the few guys that actually did what you said you

were going to do. We were in Japan together when

I was with J.J. Johnson. when he had his trio. We

would have lunch together and he would say

“You’re taking care of business, and you got to

keep the bass up front.” He was always encourag-

ing for a person to be aggressive and take care of

their stuff. I would listen to stuff on the recordings

with Oscar Peterson and it was incredible. Then I

heard Andy Simpkins with The Three Sounds, and

that blew me away too. I met him when I was in

Seattle, after I got out of the service. He was the

nicest man you’d ever want to meet. He played so

strong, but different. When I first met him he was

fabulous. That’s why I really, really get bugged

hearing about some people who were truly rude to

people when they met them. When people come up

to hear you play or spend the time, or buy your

products or they just come up in awe of you, it’s

wrong for you to trash them. Be polite and say,

“I’m busy right now … at another time.” But don’t

be ugly. These people were never that way to me,

ever. Each one of them, as I began to play more

and more, would say “Yeah, I’ve been hearing

about you man.” It was really gratifying. Then I got

a chance to really get close with Sam Jones. His

pulse was so great, unbelievable. When we moved

here, he lived ten blocks away. When we moved

into this town, Teaneck New Jersey, it was July 4th

1976. It was scorching hot. My brother was here

with his family helping us move in. I’m upstairs,

and my brother tells me there are two gentlemen at

the front door wanting to see me. I said, “What?

Nobody knows I’m here, expect the bank.” He

said, “it’s a tall guy and a short guy.” I said, “well



Rufus Reid


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who the hell is that.” So I go downstairs and it’s

Sam Jones and Nat Adderley, and they said

“welcome to the neighborhood.” I said “Wow,

that’s it. We made the right move by those two.”

Sam lived in Teaneck. I said, “Well how did you

know I was going to be here in this house?” He

said, “Well I knew the guy you bought the house

from, and I asked who he sold it to.” He said,

“Some bass player named Rufus Reid.” They knew

me. I met Sam in Japan with Oscar. I was very

close with Sam up until the day he died. I’ve al-

ways loved Oscar Pettiford.

JI: Could you talk a little bit about your perspec-

tives about learning how to improvise and the pro-

cess of improvisation?

RR: I had to learn how to do that. I did a lot of

things naturally. When I came up there were no

books. My first gig as a bass player was in Mont-

gomery Alabama when I was playing electric bass.

I was playing with this saxophone player, off the

base, 1961. I was at Maxwell Field Air Force Base

in Montgomery Alabama for two years. That’s

were I basically taught myself how to play the bass.

I had a lot of time. It was very segregated. I had to

go across town where all the black people lived

because that’s the only place you could to hang out.

That’s where I saw Ike and Tina Tuner’s bands,

James Brown’s band, and the first Motown review

- with the Supremes, Mary Wells. It was a pretty

special time. I auditioned to play in this guy’s band.

He hired me because I had a good feel I guess. He

just taught me the right notes to play on the electric

bass because I didn’t have a string bass at all. The

military had one. I would try to practice it, but I

wasn’t strong enough really to do this. We had to

learn stuff off the juke box for that weekend. There

were tunes coming out almost every week on the

radio. Every Wednesday we would learn all these

tunes on the juke box and have them ready to play

for the public on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

That way we knew we were on top of the new

stuff. That’s how I learned how to play. I could

read music because I was a trumpet player, but bass

was different. I didn’t read bass clef. I didn’t know

what chords were. I really didn’t. I just knew what

sounded good to me. I didn’t really think about

putting it in a formal kind of way until I began to

work with Jamey Aebersold. I would say “well

what’s wrong with it, it sounds okay to me.” I

would get very angry sometimes because they were

trying to make everything perfect - in terms of this

scale goes with this, that scale goes with that.

When you are learning right away you wanted to

do what they tell you to do. Then I would play

stuff, and people would say, “I heard you play that

note. Why did you do that.” I would say, “I don’t

know.” Eventually I began to really listen to my-

self, and be a little more like, “oh okay that makes

sense.” I began to see the importance of messing

with the keyboard and really understanding. No-

body really told me that stuff before. I began to

really assimilate all those things together. When I

started writing that book I had to become a lot

more explicit and much more articulate in terms of

what I meant. Then to put it down in ink, I had to

feel pretty good about it and explain why I did

certain things. I still do the workshops and clinics

with Jamey. There was a period when I was so

busy I couldn’t do them. I enjoy them and I really

feel it’s important. I’ve seen a lot of the players

who have become well known. I saw them when

they were really young. I feel my teaching has

solidified. Doing the thing at William Patterson …

being the Director of the Jazz Studies Program

meant I had to establish a curriculum. I had to have

a big picture. So when I teach now it’s a broader

thing. Students must be able to see, so they can put

it together on their own eventually. That’s what a

good teacher is - one who can help you teach your-

self.

JI: You mentioned earlier about how you used to

get angry when you played a wrong note.

RR: The thing is I hated to. I still do with a lot of

the things in the academic world about what is

correct. When you play music it is neither correct,

it either feels good nor it doesn’t. I would hear

these young players, and they sounded great. They

were really creating some wonderful things. I

would say “oh man that sounds great” and they

would say, “oh man I suck.” I said, “what are you

talking about?” They would say, “I missed a

change and I played a wrong note.”

Some of them would be so depressed.

JI: Like their whole lives and self-esteem was

based on this fleeting musical moment.

RR: Yes, and that is what I object to. I am adamant

about the attitude being excellent as best as you

possible can, playing with as much accuracy as you

possibly can do - but perfect is not the word.

JI: Even though I went to school, I learned how to

play in funky clubs.

RR: That’s really were you learn to get it together.

I was also trying to get the students to not be so

super critical about one note here or there. That’s

not the way you make music. I had a good deal of

playing with people like Buddy Montgomery. If he

looked at a piece of manuscript paper, he would

have gotten hives. Both he and his brother Wes

didn’t know anything about written music. But they

played fabulously. If you have the ability to read

and understand chords, do not let it get in the way

of your flow of ideas. It’s just there to help you.

You got a parachute. Use your intellect, that’s

where all this knowledge comes in. Many of the

mistakes end up being “wow that’s where it should

have gone in the first place maybe.” …because it’s

about the way it has to feel. I use to wonder how

people would write this music, then all of the sud-

den there would be a three four bar or a five four

bar or a two four bars somewhere. I wondered why

they did that. Then when I started writing stuff and

I would play it, I realized this or that doesn’t feel

right.

JI: Could you address what you think are some of

the essential non-musical perspectives or qualities

that an artist needs to embody.

RR: That’s a big one. In a nut shell I think we as

human nature want people to like us. But you know

everyone doesn’t like you. Even if you try, you

can’t please everybody because everybody’s got

different things that please them. Music is so sub-

jective that I really found out that you must please

the music. If you play a tune by Wayne Shorter or

George Gershwin or Cole Porter, you have to play

that music the way that composer wanted it, being

respectful of the melody. Then the people that

don’t even like you respect you. Barry Harris heard

me play one time. I’ll never forget it. He came over

to me and said, “Rufus, on this tune, the bridge

goes like this. Okay?” He didn’t get angry at me.

He didn’t trash me. It was just - this is how it goes.

Then I went with Hank Jones. I played one with

him and he showed me one. He said, “You know

everyone is playing the changes to “Love For Sale”

wrong. Do you know how Cole Porter wrote this?”

He’s really clever. He has the major chord there,

and the dominant chord here. I was in a recording

studio with Hank Jones, doing something with

Frank Wess and Frank Foster. We were making

some changes to some of the arrangements. It was

a simple change. I was standing there waiting for

everyone to mark their parts. Hank looks at me and

says, “Rufus, do you have a pencil?” It was his

polite way of saying, “Write it down Rufus, so we

don’t mess this up - because this is not your money

if we have to stop.” I will never forget that.

JI: It was a very subtle way of communicating the

lesson.

RR: Right. This is how you do it. He was one of

the guys of the studio, having the posture of being

ready to deal. Grady Tate was always talking to me

about how he would do three or four records a day

of big band stuff - hard stuff. “We’d write it down,

sight read it, record it next and then move on. You

don’t even remember half the stuff you’ve record-

ing.” So I get very angry with the way the kids are

coming up and want to rehearse two or three times

over a phrase. Then they say “we got it.’ But you

don’t have it. You haven’t the skills. Ron Carter

went into the studio to do Stan Getz’ Sweet Rain

album. Two hours. They had recorded the day be-

fore with some other bass player. Stan didn’t like it.

Ron said, “Well I’m so busy, but I have this two

hour window.” He came in and played and it’s a

classic.

JI: How do you stay on the right path and do the

right thing?

RR: I don’t know, I really feel that what goes

around comes around - Karma or whatever you

want to call it. I think one has to be spiritual, I

don’t feel that you have to be religious. I’m not

talking about ethnic religion. I really feel that it is

important that you have integrity about life. Every-

body wants to make a fast buck and they don’t

want to work for it. I really feel that if you can stay

busy mentally - even if it’s not what you wish you

could do - it’s healthy. If you’re busy, people see

you’re busy, and then they make you busier. I’ve

seen it happen.


Rufus Reid


By John R. Barrett, Jr.

While extra players were added on some dates, the main unit consisted of Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, Kai Winding, Al McKibbon, and Thelonious Monk, on his final extended tour. Art had played with all of them before, but agreed to the tour because of Monk, who he hadn’t recorded with since 1957. While live discs exist of the various tour spots, the only studio recording took place in London, on No-vember 15, 1971. Monk was the leader, playing solo for most of the session; on five of the tunes he was joined by McKibbon and Blakey, recalling his various ‘Fifties trios. The music, now available as Thelo-nious Monk: The London Collection, Volume Three, marks several mile-stones: besides being Art’s last album as a sideman, it was also Monk’s final studio date as a leader. Blakey was glad to be part of it: “We did the one trio date in London, and he [Monk] just did it because they asked him to, and I did it because I’d do anything they’d ask me to do with Monk.” It may have been quickly planned, but that doesn’t make it slop-py. “Evidence” is given new harmo-nies, sounding like a cocktail pianist through the spindly theme. Art keeps the rhythm fast and steady, the cym-bal consistent as Monk slows down, engrossed in the chord structure. “Crespuscule with Nellie” is some-what faster than usual, and far moodi-er: Art’s rhythm is delicate, propelled by McKibbon’s hard thrum. “Nutty” finds Thelonious active, with side-tracks and grace notes all over the melody. The rhythm chores are well-performed but never the focus – this is Monk’s show all the way, and it is grand. The Messengers continued to work during the Giants of Jazz tour, though at a reduced schedule. Woody Shaw took over on trumpet, for the first of several stays; Joanne Brackeen was the pianist for about a year, replaced by the returning John Hicks. The 1972 album Child’s Dance found the group in major transition: rec-orded over three sessions, the disc featured two flutes (Ramon Morris and Manny Boyd), two basses (Stanley Clarke and Mickey Bass, who played together on one track), piano duties shared by John Hicks and George Cables, and no less than four percussionists. For a short time a guitar was used – James “Blood” Ulmer, years before his experiments in “punk jazz”! (This

proved to be short-lived: “Ulmer only played five jobs in three months with the group.”) Cedar Walton returned to the group in early 1973, this time on electric piano. A marathon block of sessions in late March yielded the al-bums Anthenagin and Buhaina; the lineup, with Shaw and Steve Turre, was Blakey’s strongest in years. Soon after Shaw was replaced by Eddie Henderson, and the group underwent a series of changes, few of them lasting. (To quote a later Messenger, James Williams: “John Hicks and Albert Dailey were practically platooning on the gig. Schnitter [saxophonist David Schnitter] told me that around 1974-75 on a given night, he wouldn’t know who’d be on the stool.”) Stability returned to the group in early 1977, as Blakey entered the recording studio for

the first time in four years. It began at New York’s Storyville Club on October 11, 1976, when Art sat in with Curtis Fuller’s group. It was there that Blakey met Bobby Watson, a young alto just out of college. Educated at the University of Miami (where he attended at the advice of a friend, Pat Metheny) Watson arrived in New York that August, and found out from somebody that Art’s birthday party would be at Storyville. He took his horn to the club, played a few tunes, and was surprised when Blakey ap-proached him: “Art asked me, ‘Whatcha doin’? How’d you like to join the Messengers?’ Look-ing back on it, I’m probably one of the only guys he asked who wasn’t beating the doors down.

When I told everyone Art asked me to join, no-body believed me.” Three months after this meeting Bobby was in the Messengers, on a two-sax line with David Schnitter. Their trumpeter was Johnny Coles, who had played for Horace Silver and Duke Ellington – this group played just one engage-ment, a weekend at the Village Gate. If Blakey found Watson in unlikely circumstances, Coles’ successor came by a stranger route – from a nation where jazz was illegal. Valery Ponomarev had been a drum student in a Moscow university, learning the classical repertoire; he picked up jazz from Voice of America radio broadcasts, studying the tunes through the fuzzy, jammed signals. His first love was Clifford Brown, who he heard from smug-gled LPs and tapes borrowed from other fans. When he heard his first Messengers album – Moanin’ – he memorized all the solos, and ac-quired Lee Morgan as an influence. It was Brown who inspired Valery to be-come a trumpeter, and he started in an unlikely way: as his college orchestra was rehearsing, Ponomarev waited for the trumpet section to stop playing, then grabbed a horn and blew a strong note. “At that moment – I’ll remember it forever – everybody stopped and turned to me.

The bandleader was standing in front of the band, and he showed a look of surprise and appreciation. Everybody said, ‘What was this?’ Then they said ‘That was Val!’ The bandleader told me that I had a beautiful tone and that I should practice. Trumpet I loved anyway. He didn’t have to persuade me to practice trumpet after he gave me one.” Once he got his horn, Valery practiced assiduously, jamming with anyone willing to play jazz. For prac-tical purposes the music was banned, though the Soviet government al-lowed jazz clubs in major cities – clubs that only foreigners could at-tend. (“The authorities tried to fool the West by showing them, ‘Look, we don’t forbid jazz. We have it right here.’”) He started playing the Mos-cow clubs, seated beside decades-old veterans, and appeared on his first album, a live set at a Moscow jazz festival. By this time Valery was get-ting restless, and by 1973 obtained an exit visa under false pretenses.

Once out of Russia, Ponomarev contacted the International Rescue Committee, a group that protected Soviet defectors. They successful-ly argued his case to American immigration, and found him a job and apartment in New York. Within a week he had a gig, playing for trom-bonist Matthew Gee at Churchill’s. A few months later he got to sit in with the Messengers at the Five Spot, where he impressed Art with his Clifford Brown inflections. (“He was shocked I had traveled so far from the Iron Cur-tain.”) Blakey promised him a spot in the band, which opened up in early ’77; his first disc with the group was Gypsy Folk Tales, cut in late Feb-


Art Blakey

His Life & Music — Part 8

FEATUREFEATURE


ruary. Now out of print, Scott Yanow describes the album by saying “[T]he hard-bop solos are consistently fresh.” The new school of Messengers was com-pleted by pianist James Williams, added to the group in October 1977. An intense, funky player with a flair for composition, Williams would later form his own band patterned after Art’s, with talent like Kevin Eubanks and his nephew Tony Reedus, a rising drummer. Thoroughly schooled in the ways of Blakey pianists (especially Bobby Timmons), Williams could not have been a better fit. Art now had another hand of aces, and the next golden era of Messen-gers would begin. The first album made by this new crop was In My Prime, recorded for Timeless on Decem-ber 29, 1977. Curtis Fuller was added to the mix, making for a four-horn front line, Blakey’s larg-est for a working group. The tunes mostly con-

sisted of things from recent album, including “Hawkman” and “Estimated Time of Arrival”. Five months later the same group, minus Fuller, would be in San Francisco, playing a week at the Keystone Korner; the May 8 show was recorded by Concord as In This Korner. Blakey gets it started with a merciless solo; the sound quality is excellent, especially for a live album. (This was standard at the Korner, which had a sound engineer on staff during shows.) “Pamela” is a showcase for Watson’s power, his maturity at such a young age. His tone combines the metallic bite of an alto with the airy surge of a soprano; his solo switches from mannered leaps at precise intervals to ex-cited trills, and then to mad screams. There are elements of Trane and elements of Shorter, but it never sounds like either musicians – Bobby uses those devices his way, not theirs. Williams deco-rates it with warm chords, somewhat like Cedar Walton; Blakey adds some thunderous snares, and it’s all you need. Next up is “Unlimited”, and Schnitter shows what he can do. In the ‘Seventies he trav-

eled in the best company, recording with Freddie Hubbard, Charles Earland, and others – he never became a big name, though not for lack of talent. This solo has the strength of Dexter Gordon, with a little Coltrane mixed in; it culminates in a long mad circular twirl. While free, the bit is exquisitely structured: a long phrase is played out, given variations, then truncated (with varia-tions on the shortened theme), cut further, and so it goes. Schnitter never loses melody no matter how fast it gets … and he ends with a witty quote of “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” The handoff to Watson is pretty good, and there he goes … you can tell they competed every gig they played. “In This Korner” comes through with a smoky old sound – the right mood for Valery and his mute. Sounding exactly like Lee Mor-gan, he walks cautiously with sly phrases, as Williams gets happy in the background. That comp is so “jazzy” in the ‘Fifties sense that it’s almost a parody of the style – in this context it works, and I can’t explain why. Ponomarev gets good applause as he leaves, and Schnitter raises the bar: a full-bore take-no-prisoners saxophone

strut, somewhere between Dexter and Rollins. Williams’ moment comes on “The Song Is You”, where cocktail chords are taken fast and mixed with Monkish sourballs. This is aggres-sive lyricism, taken to the edge but never be-yond; Mulgrew Miller would use the same ap-proach on his features. Valery’s solo is terse but good, and the whole album seems to say “Blakey Is Back”. That is, if he ever left. The Messengers spent much of 1979 on the

road, keeping the same lineup most of the way. Starting at the end of October, special guests – all former Messengers – were added to the group, giving it as many as 13 members. This started informally, at the Berlin Jazz Festival: several alumni were playing there, and were invited onstage during Blakey’s set. This meant Bobby Watson dueling Jackie McLean, Schnit-ter trading solos with Benny Golson, Cedar Wal-ton next to James Williams. Blakey was pleased with the results, and invited alumni (this time McLean, Fuller, Billy Harper, Eddie Henderson, Walton, and Airto Moreira) to his December 31 show at the Keystone Korner. Freddie Hubbard was apparently promised on the poster, but nev-er appeared; Blakey claimed this set was record-ed by Timeless but if so it has yet to be released. In March 1980 David Schnitter was re-placed by Billy Pierce, an agreeable hard bopper who had played with James Williams. His first disc with them, a live date in West Berlin, was released as Jazzbohne Berlin ’80. The songs include many of the usual, such as “Blues March”, “One by One”, and “I Remember Clifford”. On that same European tour, the two oldest Marsalis brothers were added to the lineup, making their first recordings. At the Northsea festival on July 13, a ten-piece group essayed “Minor Thesis”: the horns walk slowly, atop a prickly bass pattern by Charles Fambrough. Throughout the theme Wil-liams makes little sliding patterns, not really related to the tune, but still complementing it. The first solo belongs to Pierce: hard, direct, a cleaner sound than Schnitter. Four days later the same group played at Montreux, plus another pair of brothers: Robin Eubanks on trombone, Kevin at the guitar. The group is almost the size of a big band, and the harmonies prove it: a big twang opens “Bit a Bittadose”, with Kevin and Fambrough walking the same path. A fiery strut-ter, Wynton appears to get the first solo, drawl-ing with force as Blakey gets to pounding. Wal-lace Roney replaced Ponomarev at the start of August, and this quasi-big band toured Europe for another week or so. When Blakey returned to the states, the band was back to its usual size: the lineup was Pierce, Watson, Wynton Marsalis, Williams, and Fambrough. Not yet 19, Wynton was the young-est Messenger ever; he was scouted by Valery Ponomarev, who encouraged him even as his own time in the group was coming to an end. As Marsalis tells it: “I have the utmost respect for Valery … I mean, I was young and ambitious, and I came around the band trying to get his job. It was a strange situation …. But Valery was very nice to me, always supportive. He was great as a man.” The group began its American tour in New York, then moved south for a series of festivals in Florida. On October 11, the band rolled into Bubba’s Jazz Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale for an important date: not only was it Blakey’s birthday, it also marked the only time Wynton’s father Ellis Marsalis played with the Messen-gers. The entire evening was recorded, yielding enough material for three albums; originally released on the Lionel Hampton-owned Who’s Who in Jazz label, these tracks have been repeat-ed reissued, most recently on the Break Time


“The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes.

That’s the day we truly grow up.”

- John Maxwell

Art Blakey, Part 8

“Three months after this meeting Bobby was in the Messengers, on a two-sax line with

David Schnitter. Their trumpeter was Johnny Coles, who had played for Horace Silver and Duke Ellington – this group played just one engagement, a weekend at the Village Gate.

If Blakey found Watson in unlikely circumstances, Coles’ successor came by a stranger route –

from a nation where jazz was illegal ... Valery Ponomarev ….”


label as Featuring Wynton Marsalis, Volumes 1 and 2. Ellis Marsalis plays on “Jody”, which his son begins by shooting high. These notes are pursed, precise, and confident – most trumpeters aren’t this facile, no matter what age. Ellis comes in with muted chords: warm, but nothing to get in the trumpet’s way. For a moment Ellis plays the Cedar Walton riff from “Ugetsu” – perfect in this context. His solo is an extended

cocktail piece; there are nice moments but it’s somewhat ordinary. Wynton returns on a feath-ery tone, painting a mood that is pure Freddie Hubbard. Marsalis disputes this, claiming Hub-bard was not an influence … but this album would say otherwise. (Additionally, Freddie Hubbard says otherwise: “One time he [Marsalis] sat in with me and played all my licks right back at me.”) For the remaining tracks, James Williams mans the piano: he is slick on “Moanin’”, doing a two-handed parallel harmony on the theme. Faster than usual, Blakey drives a hard cymbal, and the horns are into it: Wynton gets the first solo, doing a flawless paraphrase of Lee Mor-gan’s solo from the original. At times it goes further than that – many passages are exact cop-ies of Morgan phrases, played in the same tone. An example of this opens his solo: Wynton’s initial five-note charge matches Lee’s main phrase from this tune. Marsalis said he hadn’t heard the solo at the time, and whatever similari-ty comes from coincidence: “I didn’t know where that lick was from – I just thought that’s how they’d play it in a funk band or something.” Borrowed or not, the tone is sterling, and the execution is perfect. Following this display, Pierce is somewhat subdued: he walks in tiny steps, sounding a little like Johnny Griffin. In time he goes faster and his tone toughens up, but he cannot catch Mar-salis. Watson tries the opposite direction: a hy-

perbolic flood of notes, screeching at the peeks and revolving like mad. It gets your attention, but it’s also far from the mood of the tune; Wil-liams brings it back, in a blues-soaked effort Timmons would be proud of. The end-theme goes soft and intimate, all for the horns to roar back, as Wynton does eloquently. If he needed to prove something, the mission is accom-plished. 1984 began with a new sextet: Johnny O’Neal was replaced by Mulgrew Miller, for a marked improvement. Miller’s approach was a maze of lush chords, percussive jabs, and funky interjections. Clearly indebted to earlier Messen-

gers, this style recalled Cedar Walton – and, at certain moments, Bobby Timmons. It was the right sound for this group and for Miller, who would soon find himself in demand as a side-man, adding sparkle to numerous recording ses-sions. After some club dates in February (with a reunion band of past Messengers), Blakey took Mulgrew on the road: they began at Ronnie Scott’s, then return to New York for a week at Mikell’s. Some time in May Concord brought in their tape machine, and the result was New York Scene. At once Miller takes charge, Drilling sharp rhythms into “Oh, By the Way”. The horns blend nicely, with a definite “section” feel; Blanchard goes beneath the reeds, taking the role of Curtis Fuller. His solo is first, rumi-nating on a three-note phrase; in time he moves higher, slurring his tone slightly. Blakey surrounds him with cymbals, ac-centing with delicate taps; Lonnie keeps the pace, walking one moment, sliding into the next. Harrison slows it down, with an air of caution: his notes are few and placed with care. These phrases are echoed by Mulgrew, who pounces quick – thus goaded, Donald works faster, in a nice throaty tone. There’s a multiphonic trill, a rush of piano, and restless darting phrases – right as it starts to boil, the theme takes us back home. More promise than payoff, this tune confirms Miller as the right man for the job. Not like there was any doubt.

As further proof, Mulgrew then offers a ballad medley. Strong on the chords, a sour “Oh! Susannah” becomes a proud “My One and Only Love”. Brittle on the bridge, he tries new harmo-nies, then strides into “Easy to Remember”. It is here that the rhythm joins him: Lonnie springs hard, at times for its own sake. The final “Who Cares” is glistening romance, with an end phrase worthy of Red Garland … the audience cares, and so will you. Harrison’s “Controversy” is an organized storm, all busy angles in a sea of changing chords. (To me it sounds like “Giant Steps”, as re-thought by Wayne Shorter.) Donald gets the

first solo, slurping the notes in a leisurely circle. With a Tynerish vamp behind him, the reed be-comes strong, wailing like a sopran0 – he hops between octaves, ending in a mad squeal. Mulgrew has a fast, lavish effort; it was good while it lasted. His mark is more lasting on “Tenderly”: a languid intro, where soft chords moan in elo-quent sadness. Blanchard crawls through the echo, bleating gently; come the theme he lingers, drawing each note to beautiful lengths. He gets tough on the third chorus, blowing blue and hitting the ceiling – Miller gets a quick state-ment and hands it back to Blanchard for the sendoff. Unaccompanied for three minutes, Ter-ence uncorks a fast series of fanfares, in Freddie Hubbard’s tone … his finale is whispered, with applause washing over. The horns are labyrinthine on Mulgrew’s “Falafel”, twisting their way through the arid background. Donald sounds tart, saying his piece in brief, detached phrases; Terence follows with warmth, a quiet touch, and a sound that blooms. The notes, played without force, just seem to appear – a wall of breezy sound. Mil-ler’s comp becomes strong, turning into a mon-tuno; Blakey responds by clicking a samba. Toussaint walks an introverted circle, in his brightest moment: the lines are rusty, tinged with Trane. Parts of this are nice, but it tends to meander: not so for Miller, who is brash and


“The group began its American tour in New York, then moved south for a series of festivals in Florida. On October 11, the

band rolled into Bubba’s Jazz Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale for an important date: not only was it Blakey’s birthday, it also

marked the only time Wynton’s father Ellis Marsalis played with the Messengers. The entire evening was recorded, yielding

enough material for three albums; originally released on the Li-onel Hampton-owned Who’s Who in Jazz label, these tracks

have been repeated reissued, most recently on the Break Time label as Featuring Wynton Marsalis, Volumes 1 and 2.”

Art Blakey, Part 8


direct. He gets muscular with the blues as Benny Green would later; horns coalesce on the busy end-theme, for the loudest applause of the date. While nothing is great, everything is at least good – a typical night’s work for the group. And, as it turned out, another award – the disc won a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental by Individual or Small Group. This would be Bla-key’s only Grammy – like many deserving musi-cians, it was not for his best work, but at least he was honored in his lifetime, unlike many deserv-ing musicians. On February 25, 1985 the sextet arrived at Ronnie Scott’s the visit on this tour. They were met by a crew from Wadham Films, working on a documentary; it would be released in 1991 as Live at Ronnie’s. While just an excerpt appeared in the film, the whole evening was taped and issued on disc as Art Blakey: Live at Ronnie

Scott’s. “Ginza” begins with a mighty roar, Blakey expounding with taps and raucous thumps. This is organized power, swift but uncluttered – and a melodic sense to rival Max Roach. He defers to Miller for a half-chorus, then the theme begins: faster than normal, with Harrison in command. His tangy tone is fit to tightly-wound phrases; Mulgrew does the same in his comp. (The bad sound hurts his cause; the piano seems tinny and distant.) As the solo progresses the notes be-comes slurped, as Joe Lovano would do it – he ends with fast twirling, and shrieks inspired by Coltrane. Blanchard sounds pinched at first, but goes into a sleek zigzag. Fast and anguished, he floats at the top of his range, propelled by hot cymbals. When Toussaint plays, all turns quiet: a throaty whisper, accented by big bass. A two-note pattern takes root, gives birth to fluttering phrases, and then blares in fiery beauty. (Plaxico’s bassline is wonderful: bounce bounce bounce snap bounce bounce bounce slide.) Overlooked in this pride of young lions, here Toussaint outroars them all. “Dr. Jekyll” is built for speed, starting out breathless and building from there. Blanchard excels at this pace, sneaking “Flight of the Bum-blebee” in a torrent of notes. (There’s also a near

-quote of “Move”, which is pretty clever.) There are moments when speed trumps melody, but it’s good all the same. Donald begins by slowing it down, but soon he’s racing, with agility that tops Terence. Admirably structured, the solo links tight phrases with polish – so strong it sounds composed. Miller’s comp is percussive, with Tyneresque chords; he shifts to single notes for Jean’s solo. The tenor chugs like a rusty en-gine, tough but uneventful: Mulgrew then turns a fast blues, like a gentler Junior Mance. Its only flaw is being too short; the theme comes with precision and the applause comes in waves. “Two of a Kind” is a ride through down-town: fast, smooth, sophisticated. Composed by Blanchard, this tune has the smoky feel of the ‘Fifties; I’m reminded of Mingus and “Reincarnation of a Lovebird”. The theme sim-mers for a minute, then Toussaint gets the first solo. With Miller’s comp gleaming behind him, Jean moans, darting softly between two notes. Turning muscular on the second chorus, he stut-

ters a bit before venturing upward. Once here, he spins in small circles, filling the silence around Miller’s chords. Flashes of double-time appear, as do multiphonics – and the calm returns just as quickly. This solo has about three different styles without committing to any; as such it ac-complishes little, reflected in the mild applause. Blanchard is tangy in his approach, sound-ing like Hubbard as he slurs through the first chorus. He works a racetrack fanfare, hurries his way to the top, and hovers on beautiful fluttering notes. Always strong and never shy on ideas, this solo is match for Donald’s on “Dr. Jeckyll”. Speaking of Harrison, he now appears on soprano, honking like a quizzical duck. He switches between oboe-like sadness and bizarre little squeaks – a mix of Yusef Lateef’s exotica and Coltrane’s exultation. Mulgrew brings the heat down with his stately effort; Lonnie tries to get busy in a way I find distracting. (He’s better on the solo: round cello-like notes, rolling down a slow slope.) Easily the best of the set, Terence and Donald are definitely “Two of a Kind”. After traversing the world for 14 months, the jazz message was taken to San Francisco, for a week at Kimball’s Nightclub. By this time the group had solidly coalesced, as you can hear on Live at Kimball’s, recorded on April 13, 1985. There is no hesitation on “Second

Thoughts”: the horns unite, in glistening harmo-ny. While the reeds charge, Terence is somewhat pensive, creeping slowly on flugelhorn, This creamy vibrato is everywhere – walking down low, then carefully climbing, then shrieking into orbit. It’s a thrilling ride; Art caps it by crushing his cymbal as the applause grows thick. Mulgrew follows with quietude, breaking out the big chords as his solo ends. While nice, it seems tentative, like he was struggling for ideas – cer-tainly Terence set a high standard. The spotlight then falls on Harrison: he takes “I Love You” through a slow groove, hold-ing the notes while giving them warmth. Art gives him a soft, steady cymbal; when he switches to a bossa beat, Donald blows a perfect Getz. Mulgrew stays delicate, turning stronger on his brief solo – the alto returns with a sly rasp, getting active before the endless fadeout. The end is a parade of proud noise: floods of piano, followed by a foghorn’s blare, followed by the customers’ appreciation. They still applaud the last number when Art thunders in “Jody”: loud cracking snares, an-swered by taxi horns. Donald opens with Col-trane trills; the pace is fast and the heat intense. The piano comps sparsely, but lush like Tyner – he’s calmer for Toussaint’s solo, which is jagged and brusque. He also evokes Trane, from an earlier period … with intensity and imagination in equal amounts, this is one of Jean’s better moments. Mulgrew’s turn is rife with anxiety, where hurried notes jab a scary theme. Varia-tions follow, as sour chords find their way in; a great manic riff is cut short by the final theme. The horns exit in a wild whinny, and Art rains the cymbals with unmistakable passion. And the crowd does likewise. “Old Folks”, a solo for Miller, combines lingering chords with a busy right hand – like a duel between Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson! The climate is thick and marvelous: effortlessly he switches to stride, and from there to waltz time …precious. “You and the Night and the Music” is the same mood painted dark; Lonnie creeps low for sweet counterpoint. This is miles beyond the New York medley, in style and exe-cution. Blanchard gets his due on “Polka Dots and Moonbeams”: pristine notes, glowing like a small fire. The tune is slightly decorated, but otherwise played straight … until he quotes “Surrey with the Fringe on Top”! There’s soft blues from Mulgrew, a steady click from Art, and a triumphant sendoff by Terence, where the “Bumblebee” flies and the horn hits the ceiling. After this “Dr. Jeckyll” explodes, even faster than the London version. Donald is frantic and precise at the same time, shooting high with an oboe’s tone. A quote of “Giant Steps” gives him an idea and he takes off, squealing an uproarious Trane whistle. Miller’s effort is frustratingly brief, and the tune dissolves in a cloud of ap-plause. Made as bookends on the mid-‘Eighties tour, the Concord discs show the group taking root and blossoming before your ears. (Appropriately, they are now packaged together, under the name Coast to Coast.)

Art Blakey, Part 8

“Stability returned to the group in early 1977, as Blakey entered the recording studio for the first time in four

years. It began at New York’s Storyville Club on October 11, 1976, when Art sat in with Curtis Fuller’s group. It

was there that Blakey met Bobby Watson, a young alto just out of college. Art’s birthday party would be at

Storyville … [Watson] took his horn to the club, played a few tunes, and was surprised when Blakey

approached him … ‘to join the Messengers?’”

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