Jazz Backstage Volume 01

Page 1


THIS BOOK IS AN ARTIST PROOF FOR VIEWING ONLY NOT FOR SALE



JAZZ ROOTS A Larry Rosen Jazz Series 2008-2009 Season One LEGENDS OF JAZZ Dave Brubeck, Paquito D’Rivera, and Fourplay: Bob James, Larry Carlton, Nathan East, Harvey Mason

“JAZZ MUSICIAN AND COMPOSER DAVE BRUBECK IS HELPING TAKE JAZZ INTO THE MAINSTREAM.”

BOSSA NOVA The first 50 years Oscar Castro-Neves, Ivan Lins and Eliane Elias

“ELIANE ELLIAS DELIVERS A SPELLBINDING MELD OF POP , BRAZILIAN AND LATIN MUSIC WITH A JAZZ SENSIBLITY.”

A TRIBUTE TO MACHITO AND TITO PUENTE Teodulo “Chocolate” Armenteros, Arturo Sandoval, Orestes Vilato, Nestor Torres, Dave Valentin, Sammy Figueroa, Albita and Machito Orchestra

“ORESTES VILATO IS UNDOUBTEDLY ONE OF THE GREATEST FIGURES IN THE HISTORY OF THE TIMBALES.”

A TRIBUTE TO ELLA AND BASIE Patti Austin and the Count Basie Orchestra with a special tribute to Ella Fitzgerald

“PATTI AUSTIN USES HER OWN REMARKABLE VOICE TO INTERPRET A TERRIFIC ASSORTMENT OF STANDARDS.”

ROOTS OF FUSION Chick Corea and John McLaughlin, joined by their Five Peace Band, featuring Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride and Vinnie Colaiuta

“CHICK COREA IS ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL JAZZ FUSION KEYBOARDISTS OF THE MODERN ERA.”

STRAIGHT AHEAD Featuring Sonny Rollins

“ SONNY ROLLINS IS THE GREATEST LIVING TENOR SAXOPHONE PLAYER.”

The New York Times

Billboard

WorldMusicCentral.com

JazzTimes.com

World Cafe, NPR

The New York Times


“Larry Rosen’s JAZZ ROOTS is the most important new concert and educational jazz series in America... It’s so important that Americans learn about their culture...and this series is simply imperative!” Quincy Jones


JAZZ ROOTS

A Larry Rosen Jazz Series

“The Drums That Came From Africa” The drum: the heartbeat, the pulse in the womb, the throb of love, the metronome of rhythm, the language of expression, the

vibrant vessel of deep riches and sacred truths. Africa, the habitat of the drum, may have been depicted by late 19th century British author Joseph Conrad as the “heart of darkness” in his novel of the same name, but the embattled and widely misunderstood continent has proved to be the beacon that illuminated the path to the development of a multitude of modern popular music styles in the western hemisphere, all infused with the animated beat of the drum. From South America to the Caribbean to North America, the drum served not only as the backdrop but also as the instigator of what makes music vital and free.

Beginning early in the 16th century, the foreign intrusion into Africa in the name of European colonialism triggered a diaspora.

Millions of people were forced to leave their homelands, exported to the New World as slaves. Yet, ironically, this diaspora laid the foundation for vital new styles of music as the two newly wedded cultures blended together, with elements of European classical music colliding with wonderful buoyancy with Africa’s drum rhythms.

The spawning grounds of the Africa-rooted, drum-infused music were widespread in the Americas, propagating, long after slavery was abolished, the development of samba and bossa nova in Brazil; son, mambo, rumba, and cha-cha-cha in Cuba; plena and salsa in Puerto Rico; calypso and soca in Trinidad; merengue in the Dominican Republic; compas in Haiti; mento, ska, and reggae in Jamaica; and, originating in the melting pot of New Orleans, blues, gospel, jazz, rhythm & blues, rock, soul, funk, and hip-hop in the United States.

BRAZIL African rhythms took hold of the mainland of South America, most significantly in Brazil, best known for samba and its new-wave,

cooled-down bossa nova, which turned fifty on the anniversary of Joao Gilberto’s recording of the Antonio Carlos Jobim tune “Desafinado” (Out of Tune). The biggest bossa nova surge came in 1963, when saxophonist Stan Getz collaborated with Gilberto for the jazz classic “Getz/Gilberto,” featuring the lush tune “The Girl From Ipanema,” sung by Astrud Gilberto. Predating bossa nova, samba grew out of the late 19th century choro tradition in Rio, where ex-slaves helped to generate a percussive style of music to buoy the Carnaval celebrations with drum soundscapes and syncopated dance beats. In the 1930s, the style became Brazil’s official music. Today’s stars include Gilberto Gil, Ivan Lins, Eliane Elias, Oscar Castro-Neves, Caetano Veloso and others.

CUBA The styles of music that have emanated from the island are remarkable, all directly tied to African rhythmic roots. African slaves were imported to work on the sugar plantations and formed social groups called “cabildos,” out of which grew the AfroCuban religion of Santería. Bata drums, congas, and shekere percussion provided the musical accompaniment to the religious rituals. This led to intoxicating mixes of Cuban dance rhythms, including rumba, danzón, and later son, Cuba’s most important style of song and dance music, where the clave rhythm was central.


The mambo, (created by bassist/bandleader Israel "Cachao" López,) led to Afro-Cuban jazz (credited to trumpeter/arranger Mario Bauza) and later Latin jazz (when Bauza and bebop creator Dizzy Gillespie founded cubop). Much of today’s Afro-Cuban rhythms have become fully incorporated into jazz thanks to such pioneering movers-and-shakers as Chano Pozo, Candido, Machito, Perez Prado, and Chico OíFarrill. Today’s keepers of the flame are Grammy-winning trumpet virtuoso Arturo Sandoval, National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Paquito D’Rivera, and piano virtuoso Alfredo Rodriguez.

PUERTO RICO While Cuba stands as the capital of salsa (a musical style of modernized Cuban dance that originated in 1961), the music also

took root in Puerto Rico. Salsa became widespread worldwide not just as spicy dance floor tunes but also as jazz-infused performance works, due in large part to such Puerto-Rican American pioneers as timbales titan Tito Puente “El Rey” (the King of Latin Music) and conguero Ray Barretto (recognized as an NEA Jazz Master). Many have followed in these two giants’ footsteps, including flautists Nestor Torres and Dave Valentin, Nuyrican drummer/bandleader Bobby Sanabria, pianist Eddie Palmieri, and pop stars such as Carlos Santana and Mark Anthony.

THE CARIBBEAN Trinidad is best known for calypso, one of the most popular and widespread styles of African-derived music. It developed rhythmically

and melodically out of the work songs of African slaves on the plantations and intermingled with the European-style music of French masquerade balls that marked Lent. The African slaves developed their own celebrations, teeming with rhythm. The two camps of music combined forces to form calypso upon emancipation in 1834. On the island of Hispaniola, both the Dominican Republic and Haiti developed different hybrids.


The Dominican Republic is best known for merengue, a lively, syncopated dance music originating in the 1920s and traditionally played with a two-sided lap drum (called a tambora), a guira (a percussion instrument), and a diatonic accordion. Haiti adopted a slower style of merengue called meringue, with traditional rhythms and guitar instead of accordion. Haiti is also the home of compas, which traces its origins to colonial dance rhythms imported from Africa.

Reggae is Jamaica’s gift to the world, a musical force that has deep roots dating to the late 17th century, when African slaves, primarily from Ghana, escaped into the hills and developed a percussive music for religious rituals. Even after slavery was abolished in 1838, blacks strove to preserve their African culture, and from that developed a drum-driven folk music that was a composite of African, British, Irish, and Spanish vocal traditions. Mento led to fast-paced ska, which led to reggae, popularized in the early 1970s by Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytals, and the king of them all, Bob Marley, and his band, the Wailers. UNITED STATES

North American slave owners, who feared the beats would incite their workers to rebellion, banned African drums. Despite this, Africans maintained their tradition of drum-based music as work songs morphed into the blues decades later, gospel music grew out of sobering Negro spirituals, and European music melded with elements of African music to create jazz.

So, what is the birthplace of jazz? New Orleans, where musical influences from the U.S., the Caribbean, and Europe commingled freely. The first distinctively American music art form has been perfected throughout its hundred-years-plus history by a roll call of jazz giants, from Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Benny Goodman to Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk. The torch continues to be passed by such stars as Dave Brubeck, Ramsey Lewis, Sonny Rollins, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Pat Metheny, and many more. The dance element of African-American music found life in swing and rhythm & blues, which then evolved into rock, soul,

funk, rap, and hip-hop. Marquee names include blues guitar great B.B. King, Buddy Guy, jazz/blues legend Ray Charles, soul star Smokey Robinson, rap star/entrepreneur Diddy, and hip-hop giants Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy, Kanye West, and 50 Cent. The music keeps on evolving.

So it is that the strains of the ancient African drums still resonate, whether they’re embedded in bossa nova or thrust to the

foreground in the manifold stripes of jazz. They reign supreme as one of the most valuable contributions that the continent of Africa has bestowed on the western world. In his book, Drumming at the Edge of Magic: A Journey Into the Spirit of Percussion, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart writes, “musically, Africa represents an alternative evolution to that of the West, a musical culture whose emotional strategies may be different from but no less successful than European art music.”

At the heart of this malleable music is the drumbeats’ throb, being the life-giver, as expressed in this African proverb: A village

without music is a dead place. Long live the drum and its accents, its staccato, its songs, its ability to create new music to dance and listen to.

Written By Dan Ovellette



LARRY ROSEN, PRODUCER Larry Rosen is a musician, producer, executive producer, and music industry entrepreneur. He is the creator and producer of

JAZZ ROOTS: A Larry Rosen Jazz Series, at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.

Mr. Rosen, along with Miami arts patron Carl Randolph, worked for seven years to bring a major world-class jazz and educational program to Miami. It was in the fall of 2007 that the Adrienne Arsht Center asked Mr. Rosen to present this vision as a series at the center. Mr. Rosen created a committee of Miami musicians, business and community leaders, educators, and arts patrons to plan a unique jazz series to address the Miami community. The JAZZ ROOTS series is based on the concept of the drums that came from West Africa at the time of slavery, which became the musical DNA for all the music of the Americas. Thus, the music we celebrate from South America, the Caribbean, and the U.S. all came from the same musical root. The JAZZ ROOTS series launched in the fall of 2008 and has created a groundbreaking, sold-out concert series with a unique educational program that has brought more than 900 Miami-Dade students to the Arsht Center to meet the artists, learn about the music, and see the concerts. The 2009-2010 season was launched on November 4, 2009. Mr. Rosen hosts a radio series on WLRN-FM and radio segments on WDNA-FM, where he interviews jazz artists who appear in the JAZZ ROOTS series. “Larry Rosen’s JAZZ ROOTS is the most important new concert and educational jazz series in America. It is so important that Americans learn about their culture, and this series is simply imperative!” --Quincy Jones

Mr. Rosen is the producer/executive producer of over 350 albums, 80 of which have been nominated for Grammy Awards, as well as numerous award-winning film/video productions and television specials. Mr. Rosen and multi-Grammy-and-AcademyAward-winning pianist/composer Dave Grusin co-founded GRP Records, the award-winning contemporary jazz label featuring major artists Chick Corea, Diana Krall, Patti Austin, B.B. King, Dave Grusin, Ramsey Lewis, Arturo Sandoval, Diane Schuur, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Kevin Eubanks, Spyro Gyra, Lee Ritenour, Gary Burton, Dave Valentin, Larry Carlton, David Benoit, Tom Scott, Gerry Mulligan, Yellow Jackets, and the Rippingtons, among others. Mr. Rosen is currently the chairman of Larry Rosen Productions, and co-chairman of LRS media. He is the creator and producer of the PBS HD television series Legends Of Jazz, and is currently producing a seven-part television series titled Recording: The History of Recorded Music, with hosts Quincy Jones and Phil Ramone, scheduled to air in 2010. Mr. Rosen co-founded N2K Inc. (NASDAQ), one of the Internet’s premier e-commerce and content companies, launching the web sites for The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Miles Davis, Leonard Bernstein, and the music superstore Music Boulevard. N2K was also the first company to offer music downloads to consumers. For these efforts, he was featured in the Forbes magazine cover story "Masters of the Universe" as an Internet Icon in 1998.


Mr. Rosen began his musical career as a drummer with the Newport Youth Band and met future partner Dave Grusin while working as the drummer for singing star Andy Williams and attending the Manhattan School of Music. In 1972, the duo produced vocalist Jon Lucien for RCA Records and went on to form Grusin/Rosen productions, which discovered and produced new recording artists including Earl Klugh, Noel Pointer, Patti Austin, Lee Ritenour, and more. In 1978, Grusin/Rosen Productions signed a long-term contract with Arista Records’ president Clive Davis to develop new talent for the Arista/GRP label, including Dave Valentin, Angela Bofill, Bernard Wright, and Tom Browne. In 1979, Rosen engineered and co-produced the Dave Grusin album Mountain Dance, the first digitally recorded non-classical album. Mr. Rosen has received the Ernst & Young prestigious “Entrepreneur of the Year” award in New Media & Entertainment. He serves on the boards of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA), Music For Youth Foundation (MFY), Music Education National Council (MENC), the Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific, and the Manhattan School of Music Presidents Board, as well as on the Dean’s committee at the University of Miami Frost School of Music.


DANIEL AZOULAY, PHOTOGRAPHER Daniel Azoulay was raised in Israel and began playing rhythm guitar in a rock band at the age of 14. He continued playing

music in Denmark, where he began his pursuit of photography. He started working as a fashion photographer throughout Europe, and, in the 1970s, as a young professional, he moved to the United States and worked in New York City in fashion and commercial photography, contributing to magazines such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and others. In conjunction with his busy advertising and editorial campaigns, he has traveled extensively for the past 23 years to photograph and build his Americana series, capturing life in the American heartland. He moved to Miami in the early 1980s and continued to work in the fashion and editorial worlds until 1998. From then on his focus shifted from his commercial to his personal work.

Jazz Backstage, Daniel’s most recent body of work, is based on a series of jazz concerts produced by his friend, the re-

nowned musician, producer, and music industry entrepreneur Larry Rosen. With his profound understanding of jazz and unique conceptual approach to music production, Mr. Rosen needed a keen photographer who would help capture the making of the most ephemeral and conceptual of all art forms: jazz.

Having a background in music prior to making the camera his main instrument of artistic expression has enabled Daniel to possess

a deeper understanding of Larry’s concepts. He decided to capture imagery that would reveal the process of concert-making by photographing everything chronologically: from backstage details and artists rehearsing during the sound checks to the peak of the performance. Choosing a cinematic approach as his method, Daniel energetically and obsessively recorded multiple frames close in action, revealing in his photographs amazing details of the stage, audience, and the artists in the process of sound-making.

While capturing the musicians’ emotions, body movement, and synchronization with their instruments and the surrounding acoustic environment, he successfully reveals the invigorating process of sound being transformed by the artist into a powerful tool of communication that deeply affects the audience members, leaving them with an unforgettable experience. Jazz Backstage Volume 01, by Daniel Azoulay, is an exceptional photography book that will take you on a unique visual journey, commemorating a series of six groundbreaking jazz concerts performed in Miami at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and featuring some of the most acclaimed living jazz artists. Daniel continues to work on the Jazz Backstage project 2010-2011 in Miami, Dallas and Indianapolis.



LEGENDS OF JAZZ

F

or half a century, Dave Brubeck has been a major figure as a pianist, composer, and leader of one of the most widely known and well-traveled quartets in the history of jazz. The album Time Out, released in 1959, was the first million-selling jazz record in modern jazz history and included the singles “Take Five” and “Blue Rondo a la Turk.” In 1954, Brubeck became the first jazz musician to be featured on the cover of Time magazine, which heralded him as the leader of “the birth of a new kind of jazz age in the U.S.” Between the years of 1959 and 1965, the quartet, with saxophonist Paul Desmond, drummer Joe Morello, and bassist Gene Wright, won Down Beat magazine’s reader’s poll five times and garnered the top spot in the Billboard reader’s poll in 1965 and 1966. Throughout a career that spans more than six decades, Brubeck has received the highest honors in the industry, including a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award, a Presidential Medal of the Arts, and designation as an NEA Jazz Master . Brubeck was joined by Cuban-born, New York-based Grammy Award-winning jazz great Paquito D’Rivera, whose music is best described as joie de vivre. Since he made his recording debut in the U.S. in the early 1980s, the NEA Jazz Master has made dozens of highly acclaimed albums. The program also featured Fourplay, the world’s premier contemporary jazz group, which has recorded numerous gold-selling albums and has been on the top of the Billboard jazz charts for years.

P12



LEGENDS OF JAZZ





BOBBY MILITELLO, MILITELLO, RANDY JONES, MICHAEL MOORE BOBBY MICHAEL MICHAEL MOORE,RANDY BOBBY JONES, MILITELLO, RANDYMOORE JONES, DAVE BRUBECK


“My dad said to me, ‘Why do you wanna be in a smoky old nightclub playing that music?’” DAVE BRUBECK

DAVE BRUBECK




PAQUITO D’RIVERA





BOB JAMES


DAVE LARRYBRUBECK, CARLTONBOB JAMES


LARRY CARLTON NATHAN EAST



NATHAN EAST




HARVEY MASON


NATHAN EAST, LARRY CARLTON


HARVEY MASON BOB JAMES


BOB LARRY JAMES ROSEN, NATHAN EAST



LARRYGRIFFIN, ROSEN, NATHAN EAST CARL LARRY CARLTON





BOSSA NOVA THE FIRST 50 YEARS

W

hen the musical movement that became known as bossa nova emerged on the international scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the legendary Brazilian-born guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves, a contemporary of bossa nova pioneers Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luis Bonfa, and Joao Gilberto, was a pivotal player. In the five decades since, this musician and Grammy-winning producer has continued to be an ambassador of Brazilian sounds worldwide through numerous collaborations with artists like Stan Getz, Paul Winter, and Yo-Yo Ma. Joining Castro-Neves at this concert were two fellow Brazilians. One of them is Grammywinner Ivan Lins, the renowned innovative songwriter, vocalist, and pianist whose songs were recorded by legendary artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughn, Patti Austin, Dave Grusin, and Quincy Jones. He recently appeared on the hit album Call Me Irresponsible with singer Michael Buble. Sao Paulo-born multi-award-winning pianist, singer, and songwriter Eliane Elias also joined Castro-Neves on stage. She is heralded as one of the great interpreters of Jobim’s music, and she is currently a Blue Note Records recording artist whose recent album, Something For You, has received significant critical praise. Her album Dreamer, released in 2002 on RCA, has become a worldwide classic, paying homage to the great bossa nova and American songbook composers.



BOSSA NOVA The first 50 years



“Isn’t that funny? My first concert in the United States at twenty-two years old was Carnegie Hall. Not bad.” OSCAR CASTRO-NEVES



ELIANE ELIAS, OSCAR CASTRO-NEVES, IVAN LINS IVAN LINS



IVAN LINS OSCAR CASTRO-NEVES VAN LINS,



ELIANE ELIAS





“You know, the music just.... it almost chose me.” ELIANE ELIAS


OSCAR CASTRO-NEVES, ELIANE ELIAS, IVAN LINS



A TRIBUTE TO MACHITO & TITO PUENTE In the 1940s, two styles of music -Afro-Cuban jazz and bebop, commingled to create a cross-cultural feast of intoxicating rhythms and virtuoso performances. The fusion of Latin rhythms with jazz improvisation broke new musical ground as such Afro-Cuban stars as Machito, Mario Bauza, and Chano Pozo collaborated with the jazz stars of the day, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Stan Kenton. This show celebrated those exciting historic meetings as

well as their aftermath, highlighted by Afro-Cuban pioneer Machito’s Orchestra and salsa maestro Tito Puente’s music.

The lineup featured a cast of Latin jazz all-stars, includ-

ing two of the original pioneers of the music, trumpet legend “Chocolate” and timbalero Orestes Vilato. Also featured on the program were Grammy-winning trumpet virtuoso Arturo Sandoval, jazz flutists,(added comma) Latin Grammy-winner Nestor Torres and Grammy-winner Dave Valentin, Grammy-nominated percussionist Sammy Figueroa, Latin Grammy-winning vocalist Albita, and the Machito Orchestra.

This concert was dedicated to the memory of Cuban-born

bassist and mambo innovator Israel “Cachao” Lopez, who passed away several months earlier in Miami at age 89.


CHOCOLATE


A TRIBUTE TO MACHITO & TITO PUENTE In the 1940s, two styles of music -Afro-Cuban jazz and bebop, commingled to create a cross-cultural feast of intoxicating rhythms and virtuoso performances. The fusion of Latin rhythms with jazz improvisation broke new musical ground as such Afro-Cuban stars as Machito, Mario Bauza, and Chano Pozo collaborated with the jazz stars of the day, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Stan Kenton. This show celebrated those exciting historic meetings as

well as their aftermath, highlighted by Afro-Cuban pioneer Machito’s Orchestra and salsa maestro Tito Puente’s music.

The lineup featured a cast of Latin jazz all-stars, includ-

ing two of the original pioneers of the music, trumpet legend “Chocolate” and timbalero Orestes Vilato. Also featured on the program were Grammy-winning trumpet virtuoso Arturo Sandoval, jazz flutists,(added comma) Latin Grammy-winner Nestor Torres and Grammy-winner Dave Valentin, Grammy-nominated percussionist Sammy Figueroa, Latin Grammy-winning vocalist Albita, and the Machito Orchestra.

This concert was dedicated to the memory of Cuban-born

bassist and mambo innovator Israel “Cachao” Lopez, who passed away several months earlier in Miami at age 89.




A TRIBUTE TO MACHITO & TITO PUENTE

I

n the 1940s, two styles of music: Afro-Cuban jazz and bebop, commingled to create a cross-cultural feast of intoxicating rhythms and virtuoso performances. The fusion of Latin rhythms with jazz improvisation broke new musical ground as such Afro-Cuban stars as Machito, Mario Bauza, and Chano Pozo collaborated with the jazz stars of the day, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Stan Kenton. This show celebrated those exciting historic meetings as well as their aftermath, highlighted by Afro-Cuban pioneer Machito’s Orchestra and salsa maestro Tito Puente’s music. The lineup featured a cast of Latin jazz all-stars, including two of the original pioneers of the music, trumpet legend “Chocolate” and timbalero Orestes Vilato. Also featured on the program were Grammy-winning trumpet virtuoso Arturo Sandoval, jazz f lut i s t s , Latin Grammy-winner Nestor Torres and Grammy-winner Dave Valentin, Grammy-nominated percussionist Sammy Figueroa, Latin Grammy-winning vocalist Albita, and the Machito Orchestra. This concert was dedicated to the memory of Cuban-born bassist and mambo innovator Israel “Cachao” Lopez, who passed away several months earlier in Miami at age 89.



A TRIBUTE TO MACHITO & TITO PUENTE ORESTES VILATO


ARTURO SANDOVAL, DAVE VALENTIN, CHOCOLATE


CHOCOLATE





ARTURO SANDOVAL


DAVE VALENTIN




NESTOR ORESTES TORRES VILATO



NESTOR TORRES

NESTOR TORRES







“Latin jazz is a combination of Afro-Cuban rhythms and jazz. The Puerto Ricans adopted Cuban music in many ways. And at one time in Cuba, Fidel didn’t want people to listen to Afro-Cuban rhythms. But we kept that tradition going. This was a pot of soup. And eventually it just came together.” DAVE VALENTINE







ORESTES VILATO, SAMMY FIGUEROA & SILVANO MONASTERIOS ORESTES VILATO, SAMMY FIGUEROA & SILVANO MONASTERIOS


SAMMY FIGUEROA




MARIO GRILLO ALBITA



PATTI AUSTIN




“As you can imagine, our house was filled with incredible musicians. It’s a pretty cool thing when you wake up in the morning and Dizzy Gillespie

is having coffee and toast and scrambled eggs in your kitchen. MARIO GRILLO

MARIO GRILLO


ROOTS OF FUSION









A TRIBUTE TO ELLA & BASIE

T

wenty-five years after bandleader Count Basie’s death, his majestic orchestra lives on, keeping his legacy alive while also infusing the golden charts with fresh, vital arrangements under the direction of alumni trombonist Bill Hughes. Basie’s music, characterized by a blues-steeped jumping beat and contrapuntal piano accents, was a showcase for top-drawer singers, from Jimmy Rushing, Billie Holiday, and Joe Williams to Frank Sinatra. But it was Ella Fitzgerald’s collaborations with the Count on record and on tour that, as one of their album titles suggests, were A Perfect Match. Joining the Count Basie Orchestra for this special evening was vocalist Patti Austin, who recorded the 2002 Grammy-nominated album F or E lla, which featured songs associated with the legendary diva as well as one of Austin’s own compositions in tribute, “Hearing Ella Sing.” (Austin won a Grammy for best Jazz Vocal Album in 2008 for Avant Gershwin.)



A TRIBUTE TO ELLA & BASIE










“Dinah dared me to go up on stage and sing after I had proclaimed that I was, in fact, a singer. And I said, ‘Okay.’” PATTI AUSTIN




ROOTS OF FUSION

I

n the early 1970s, jazz underwent a dramatic upheaval as the popularity of rock began to influence the music with electric instruments at the fore. Miles Davis is most famously championed as the instigator of fusion with his groundbreaking 1970 album Bitches Brew. In its wake came several rock-meets-jazz groups, many of them spawned by Miles’ experiments. Multi-Grammy-Award-winning legendary keyboardist Chick Corea and fusion pioneer electric guitarist John McLaughlin both played with Miles and went on to form two of the most influential bands of the 1970s: Corea’s Return to Forever and McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra. Both virtuosos revisited the fusion years with new vigor as Corea and McLaughlin lead the all-star five peace band featuring jazz saxophonist Kenny Garrett (another Miles alum), bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Brian Blade.



ROOTS OF FUSION

CHICK COREA



CHICK COREA


“When I joined Miles’ band, Miles’ mind was really in a mode of change… It was just a lot of experimentation and a lot of individuality coming out in music… It was like anything goes.” CHICK COREA


CHICK COREA, JOHN McLAUGHLIN, CHRISTIAN McBRIDE





SONNY ROLLINS




BRIAN BLADE


CHRISTIAN McBRIDE



BRIAN BLADE



THE END OF CONCERT FIVE



STRAIGHT AHEAD

T

here is nothing straight ahead about Sonny Rollins’ journey. One of the great all-time tenor saxophonists, a multiple Grammy Award winner and an NEA Jazz Master, Rollins’ life story teems with twists and turns in his search for meaning through his horn. He took two sabbaticals from music to strengthen his delivery as well as nurture his spiritual health and has managed to outlive most of his peers to stand tall as one of the few remaining jazz titans. Known as the Jazz Colossus and nicknamed Newk, the living jazz legend started his recording career in 1951 with Miles Davis and two years later recorded with Thelonious Monk while on his way to a career of recording dozens of jazz classics. Today, he continues to be a marquee concert attraction. Rollins once said about his fellow jazz greats who have passed that he represents them: “I’m one of the last guys left, so I feel a holy obligation to evoke these people.” Rollins no longer has to deliver overwhelmingly colossal statements, as he did when he was coming of age in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Today, all Rollins has to do is breathe deep and sing on his tenor saxophone with his singular voice.



STRAIGHT STRAIGHT AHEAD AHEAD

SONNY ROLLINS




“So the ‘Freedom Suite’ was a very natural thing for me to do. It was a protest, but I’d been protesting all my life, really.” SONNY ROLLINS









SONNY ROLLINS, LARRY ROSEN, MARKUS HOWELL



THE THEEND END


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the many people who have made this book possible. As a photographer, my inspiration comes not just from what happens on stage but especially from what happens behind the scenes, in the guts of the performing arts center. I am grateful to everyone who generously offered me access to the many aspects of these magical performances, allowing me to document the JAZZ ROOTS series’ inaugural year. That group includes the brilliant musicians themselves, of course, as well as Larry Rosen and the JAZZ ROOTS committee members, patrons, and audiences; the talented, hard-working staff at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of MiamiDade County; Carl and Toni Randolph; Hazel Rosen; Gorgette Azoulay; and, of course, my own wonderful staff at the Daniel Azoulay Studio in Miami.

Daniel Azoulay Larry Rosen Productions Larry Rosen, Creator and Producer Carl Griffin, Co-Producer Audrey De La Rosa, Executive Assistant Leslie Jose Zigel, Esq. Steve Dupler, Writer Hazel Rosen, Inspiration Š 2010 LARRY ROSEN PRODUCTIONS, INC. JAZZ ROOTS: A Larry Rosen Jazz Series are owned and controlled by Larry Rosen Productions, Inc. For more information on JAZZ ROOTS and JAZZ ROOTS products please visit: www.jazzroots.net JAZZ ROOTS Committee Carl Randolph, Chairman Shelly Berg Lilia Garcia Carl Griffin John Richard Larry Rosen Scott Shiller Alberto Slezynger Leslie Jose Zigel Capsule Media Pascal Jacquelin Rick Cikowski Brandon Dumla

Adrienne Arsht Center For The Performing Arts Ricky Ariola, Chairmen John Richard, President CEO Scott Shiller, Executive VP Andrew Goldberg, VP Marketing Kathryn Garcia, Director of Programming Louis Tertocha, General Counsel Sarah Evans, Programming Coordinator Jeanne Marie-Fisichella, Engagement Manager Melissa Messulam, Artist Coordinator Deanna Costa, Director of Education Daniel Alzuri, Director of Productions Andres Puigbo, Technical Director Fred Schwendel, Head Carpenter Tony Tur, Head Electrician Michael Feldman, Head Audio Suzette Espinosa Fuentes, Media and Public Relations Luis Palomares, Creative Services Director Raul Vilaboa, Designer


91.3 WLRN-FM W. Theodore Eldredge, Station Manager Peter J. Maerz, Programming and Operations Manager Alicia Zuckerman, JAZZ ROOTS on WLRN Series Producer The producers would like to thank the following people or organizations for their unending support. Carl and Toni Randolph Lin Arison Woody and Judy Weiser Daniel and Georgette Azoulay Carole Ann Taylor Richard and Ruth Shack Larry Wilker Leslie Jose and Natalie Zigel Quincy Jones Dave Brubeck Phil Ramone 88.9 FM WDNA "Serious Jazz" WPBT Channel 2 Our Fisher Island Friends The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County

JAZZ BACKSTAGE I.N.C. STAFF Photographer: Daniel Azoulay Photo assistant: Natasha Nesic Color specialist: Randy Mitchel Layout and design: Natasha Nesic, Laura Massa Equipment: Canon and Profoto Audio transcription and editing: Romina Linnell, Josh Malina Website design: Developing Zone, Inc. Publisher: Daniel Azoulay www.jazzbackstage.com info@jazzbackstage.com Copyright Š 2009 by the photographer and author of JAZZ BACKSTAGE, INC., Daniel Azoulay. The book author retains sole copyright to his contributions to this book. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise without written permission of the photographer and publisher. This is a sample draft for exhibition only, not for distribution.


THIS BOOK IS AN ARTIST PROOF FOR VIEWING ONLY NOT FOR SALE


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