Jazz In Europe Magazine - Winter 2018

Colofon: Jazz In Europe Magazine.

Winter 2018 Publisher: Jazz In Europe Media Group Weversweg 13 7553BH HENGELO (o) The Netherlands

Brussels Jazz Orchestra

25 years and going strong!

Page 3

Keyon Harrold

A totally different type of energy!

Page 7

Bob James Trio Espresso and more.

Page 17

Bobby Sanabria West Side Story, a Puerto Rican in New York.

Page 23

Maxine Gordon Keeping the Flame.

Page 33

Laurent de Wilde Monk and beyond.

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Moods Jazz Club Live concert streaming the right way.

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Eric Bibb The truth of song.

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Editorial: Editor in Chief Nigel J. Farmer Content Manager: Andrew Read Sub-editor: Pia Sonne-Schmidt Contributors: Erminia Yardley Darrell Craig Harris Fiona Ross Jan Veldman Photography Credits: Carl Hyde, Pia Sonne-Schmidt, Marco Mertens, Simon, Roy Cox, Sarah Escarraz, Francis Wolff, Marie Planeille, Edu Hawkins and Patricia de Gorostarzu.

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All photo material contained in this magazine has been provided courtsey of the artist and/or their management. The publisher (Jazz In Europe Media Group), authors, photographers and contributors reserve their rights with regards to copyright of their work.

EDITORIAL

From The Editor

By Nigel J. Farmer

W

ith the incredibly positive response, feedback and global purchases of our first ecologically friendly print-on-demand Jazz in Europe magazine. We present our Winter 2018 second print edition.

Our Winter 2018 print-on-demand edition has an exciting mix of interviews and articles from artists from Jazz in Europe and beyond!

There is an interview with Bob James, an American Grammy Award-winning jazz keyboardist, arranger, and record producer.

He founded the band Fourplay and wrote “Angela,” the theme song for the TV show Taxi. Bob has released a new piano trio jazz album called ‘Espresso’ that has already hit No.1 on various renowned global music charts. This interview and review give the reader even greater insight into the past, present and future from this jazz icon.

Maxine Gordon is a fascinating and vibrant lady of jazz. A historian, researcher, author, producer, scholar, consultant, and the list goes on!

Maxine is the widow of the late great Dexter Gordon, and Maxine graciously agreed to meet for an interview in a Parisian café to discuss her new book and much more!

Keyon Harrold is a well-known poet, lyricist, activist and Trumpet player. Also known for the superb trumpet playing with Don Cheadle miming on the soundtrack for the ‘Live Concert Band’ on the film ‘Miles Ahead.’ - 2015.

Keyon Harrold’s interview is a very candid discourse.

Bobby Sanabria is a renowned New York drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, educator, Latin / Afro Cuban historian and has received numerous Grammy nominations. Bobby Sanabria gives insight into his world growing up in the South Bronx of New York City, surrounded by Latin musicians. Read how serendipitous occurrences led Bobby to maestro Berstein widow, facilitating the celebration of the 60th anniversary of a milestone of Americana – The West Side Story Reima-

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gined CD was realised with the full support of the Bernstein estate. All proceeds going to help Puerto Rican musicians recover after the recent devastation of Hurricane Maria.

One of France’s top Jazz pianist - Laurent de Wilde also adds composer and author to his CV (Resume). His latest album “New Monk Trio” was awarded Best Album of the Year (2017) by the French L’ académie de jazz. The awards just keep coming with Laurent receiving the prestigious “Grand Prix Sacem 2018 - Artist of the year”, and the 2018 Victoires du jazz award.

This Interview is unreserved and informative.

Eric Bibb - is an American Blues singer-songwriter. With multiple Grammy nominations, Eric is the son of Leon Bibb an activist who sang and marched in Selma, Alabama with Dr Martin Luther King.

Eric‘s passion for Peace and all that is good comes out through his music. Read the interview and find out more about this fascinating individual.

The Live concert streaming of Jazz music is fast becoming mainstream. Although the delivery of HD high-quality vision and sound is technologically complex. Meet one of the pioneers of Live streaming and the Co-director of Moods Jazz Club and the new project Moods Digital. That allows you and I to watch Live Jazz Concerts from the comfort of our own homes across the globe.

The Brussels Jazz Orchestra (BJO) celebrate their 25th Anniversary in 2018. The BJO grows in popularity year on year. With celebration concerts by guest composers such as the dynamic multi Grammy winning Maria Schnieder. Read why this Big Band orchestra remains popular and why Maria Schnieder keeps returning to conduct the BJO. I’d like to thank all of the JazzInEurope team, having become somewhat like a big family. I am proud to be part of our ongoing adventures and I hope you enjoy our 2nd print-on-demand Winter 2018 magazine and continue to follow us, once again thanks for all your support.

ADVERTISMENT Bob James

Photo Š Marco Mertens

ARTICLE

Brussels Jazz Orchestra 25 years and going strong!

Text By: Andrew Read | Photos by Marco Mertens

Maria Schneider photo by Simon, courtsey of Maria Schneider

In October the Brussels Jazz Orchestra celebrated their 25th anniversary with a series of special concerts in Belgium, the Netherlands and a unique performance in Vienna’s renowned hall of culture the Wiener Konzerthaus. The concerts will feature guest conductor Maria Schneider who will conduct a program of her compositions and arrangements specially selected for the project.

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E

urope has one of the best Big Band scenes in the world with professional ensembles resident in almost all EU member states. While many of these ensembles stem from statesubsidised broadcast organisations such as the WDR Big Band in Germany, The Danish Radio Big Band and the famous Dutch ensemble the Metropol Orchestra there are exceptions and the Brussels Big Band falls into this category. In 1993 the Brussels Jazz Orchestra was founded by Frank Vaganée, Serge Plume, Marc Godfroid and Bo van der Werf. Over the years the band has grown into one of Europe’s leading large jazz ensembles with a reputation that reaches well beyond its home borders. This is evidenced by the numerous awards including two Grammy Award nominations for the album “Wild Beauty’ featuring Joe Lovano, an Edison Award in the category “Vocal Jazz” for the album “BREL” with David Linx and in 2011-2012 a Golden Globe, BAFTA, César and Academy Award for soundtrack “The Artist.”

The band has toured and recorded extensively throughout its existence with major festival and concert hall performances in Europe and abroad. In 2015, the band notched up a major milestone with a residency at New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center. These performances were indeed noticeable in the fact that although they have performed many times on US soil, the Lincoln Center performances were the first performances in the US without the addition of an American soloist!

As far as their discography is concerned the band

has to date produced 12 CDs with a number of these recordings featuring guest soloists including David Linx, Joe Lovano, Bert Joris and Enrico Pieranunzi.

With the above, it’s clear that the band sports an impressive CV. However it can’t be overlooked that in an industry known for its volatility, maintaining a professional big band for 25 years is a major achievement in itself. I asked artistic director and co-founder of the orchestra Frank Vaganée what he believed was the secret to the band’s continuity.

Frank replied “that from the very beginnings of the band every musician was focused on the music, and the atmosphere in the orchestra was one of a highly creative and ambitious nature, in mutual respect and friendship. We kept this basis alive over the years by playing interesting and challenging music, while at the same time being aware of the stylistic qualities of each individual player by letting them shine whenever needed.”

He went on to say about the band. “We’re always looking for a well-balanced workload by playing on average 30 concerts each year.” “This has been largely facilitated by an ambitious business model guided by our general manager Koen Maes (who’s been with us since 2000) and his team.”

Throughout its history, the Brussels Jazz Orchestra has worked with many international guest soloists and conductors including Kenny Werner, Toots Thielemans, Dave Liebman, Bill Holman, Bob Mintzer, Norma Winstone, Kenny Wheeler and Philip Catherine and this is just the tip of the iceberg. One of the first

Photo © Simon 4. | Jazz In Europe - Winter 2018

international guest conductors to lead the band was US based Composer and conductor Maria Schneider. Following this initial series Maria has returned a number of times and with this in mind, it’s clear that Maria was a logical choice to join the band for their 25th anniversary.

Frank commented “The first time we collaborated with Maria, it was an eye opener for the band. The band learned so much from her in terms of musicality, and the way to use a big band sound wisely. In addition, the way she led the band during rehearsals and concerts was completely new for us. Playing her music is more than just big band, it’s beyond that specific world. She uses that orchestral setup but creates another world.”

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Maria about the project and in particular what keeps her coming back to the Brussels Jazz Orchestra. “Well, I just love working with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, there no doubt one of the finest Big Bands in Europe.

They have great soloists, a wonderful ensemble sound and most of all they are passionate about what they do,” said Maria. She went on to say that working with the band has always “been an artistic and fulfilling artist experience.”

Photo © Marco Mertens

I went on to ask Maria about the repertoire choice for the series. “Well, we went over a whole list of options and together we decided to do mostly repertoire from my last album with the exception of one or two older pieces. I haven’t played this music as yet in Europe and it’s also music that I’ve not done with this band before. We wanted to pick pieces that were good for

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the orchestra and also at the same time getting a good balance to feature the soloists as well. You Know, when putting together a big band program it’s a bit like a rubrics cube, that features everybody? what’s new for the audience and what fits together well.”

As the discussion progressed Maria spoke of a number of her current projects. This provoked the question as to whether or not she felt the experience of conducting a project as a guest conductor felt different artistically than working with her own orchestra. Maria replied that the answer was a “yes and no”, she went on to say that the material she will perform with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra has been played and recorded with her own ensemble and therefore she knows what’s coming. With the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, it’s new and this always brings a new dynamic. “It’s always fun to bring it alive with another group that’s a little more on the edge when they play the music because it’s new. It often adds a new aspect to the music, every group brings something new, a different rhythm section changes everything, different soloists, different band culture – it all adds to the artistic experience.”

As I mentioned above, keeping a professional Big Band together for 25 years is no mean feat and I’m sure that in the coming years there will be many more great projects to cross the music stands of the Brussels Jazz Orchestra. We at jazz in Europe wish them a happy birthday with many returns.

More Information about the Brussels Jazz Orchestra and their coming projects can be found at: www.brusselsjazzorchestra.com

ARTICLE

Keyon Harrold

A totally different type of energy!

Interview by: Erminia Yardley | Photo’s by Carl Hyde

“Mugician”, poet, lyricist and activist Keyon Harrold, is not someone you meet every day. His chilled and down to earth persona strikes one from the moment one meets him. I was lucky and honoured to be given a chance to chat with him at the time of his three shows at Ronnie Scott’s a few months ago.

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Photo © Carl Hyde 8. | Jazz In Europe - Winter 2018

K

eyon and his band had been playing at Love Supreme Festival the day before arriving in London and it had been a smashing gig.

Energy levels were very high, Keyon arrived for our interview which was being held in the small dressing room at Ronnie’s, and, although it was a hot day in London, he told me he was energized, ready to play the iconic venue. Ours was a relaxed interview, we talked about a lot of topics, from his band to his strong mother, to his heroes, to classical music. What follows is not just an interview, but rather a discourse with an amazing musician who is also an incredible human being.

words, full of praise and passion. Don Cheadle, whom I have always respected as an actor, triumphed as a director with the film, one that I always recommend to people, whether they are Miles’s fans or not. It is a must-see!

Keyon, the trumpet player, had been contacted by Don Cheadle to play the music; he recalls that he then had to play for the Miles Davies estate, the Miles Davies family, for Wayne (Shorter), for Herbie (Hancock), for all of those people, it was tough and humbling at the same time. And yet, they called him!

“It was a blessing, it propelled me to do my own thing, my own music”.

The first three dates at Ronnies Scott’s followed a mega gig on the Sunday at Love Supreme. This, Keyon told me, went well, it was fantastic and amazing, with a lot of people, a lot of energy, with some people also seeing him for the first time and “you don’t know whether they are gonna love you or throw tomatoes at you”, he says, laughing.

When we talked about his vision, his actual stepping into Miles’ shoes, he told me that it was “almost like jumping out of a plane”. Keyon said during our conversation and in a genuine manner, “Can you play like Miles AND in a way that honours him, whilst at the same time, you know, enough to make everyone also believe in it?”.

Once at Ronnie Scott’s, though, Keyon and his band were aware of the exemplary touch the venue would give them. There were different vibes flying about the place. The trumpeter and his band would do a quick sound-check and then chill. From talented band members like vocalist supremo Jermaine Holmes to guitarist Nir Ferder, Keyon was eager to tell me they have all known each other for years, it took a long time to “exist in the way they do now”, a way that is invaluable to him because this represents the importance to communicate and how the vibrations work, how they all feel.

For example, we talked a lot about “Miles Ahead”, Keyon told me that the film was shot before the music was done so anytime we see Don Cheadle’s fingers (who played Miles in the film), Keyon’s task was to transcribe Don’s fingers, but make them sound like Miles, and then he continued saying “so, if you can imagine, if I gave you my trumpet and you did like this (he is emulating the playing one does on the trumpet), no matter how fast you did it, I would have to look at this and make sense of it, not just for the notes, but also make sure that it sounded like Miles Davies. That was the kind of twist: to make it all come to life! “

With the incumbent three dates at Ronnies, I asked Keyon whether there was normally a lot of rehearsing to do, but he calmly explained that “there is going to be some telepathic stuff, I am literally at peace with it, we have played so much together, I just show up!”. He continued by saying that “it’s like basketball, like a point guard, I am just the Captain and they all make it happen. I don’t wanna sound ridiculous, but I can imagine what Miles was thinking with his quintet, when he got on the stage, he didn’t have anything to worry about and he allowed them to be auxiliaries to the ‘bigger vision’. I feel like that right now and I hope I can continue. It’s the perfect way of being with a band, no need to set guidelines. We always set the target for more and see where it takes us!”.

Keyon’s strength, endurance and energy, was once again showing and coming alive. On talking about the Miles playing sequences, he passionately but very clearly stated “you walk, you fall, and I was saying to myself, stay focused, I had a specific talent: editing, playing, it worked and I had maybe 8 versions of each sequence of fingers to make it all work so.”

There was a clear sense of confidence in the air that afternoon at Ronnies, Keyon was making a lot of references to the Master Miles Davies, and quite rightly so! When we talked about his latest album, “The Mugician”, a work of art encompassing trumpet, lyrics and orchestration, Keyon also referred and explained the big production that was behind the film “Miles Ahead” amongst Don Cheadle, Robert Glasper and himself.

A true lover of “The Mugician”, I had also read what Don Cheadle has said about the album, like a preface, they were words that have stuck in my head, true

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If his energy was not enough, Keyon Harrold’s truth also lay in his incomparable sense of confidence.

Did he ever feel like hesitating? The importance of having the confidence, the sheer support behind one was paramount and so we ended up talking about his mum, Shirley Harrold. Keyon turned “Voicemail”, one of the tracks on his album, into one of the most amazingly orchestrated pieces of music I have listened to for a while! I had to confess to Keyon I had cried listening to that piece: a mother leaving a message of strength and comfort to his son, and him, in turn, creating a unique piece. Keyon understood the look on my face at that point and told me that when everything could go wrong, whether a relationship or a financial situation, that special unconditional love and support from home was, literally, everything to him.

Being a parent myself, I was interested to ask Keyon about his mother. To pre-empt: this is a woman that with a simple voicemail message, made me emotional but also made me think about the bigger picture,

Photo © Carl Hyde 10. | Jazz In Europe - Winter 2018

Photo © Carl Hyde

one of love, compassion and care. I then learnt from Keyon his mother “had 14 kids, you know, she is “iron woman”, she is an amazing force and when I did this song, working on a record, I had just got the strings for it and before mixing it, she had a massive heart attack. I had to shoot to St Louis for 3 days, I was supposed to go to Africa, so had to put it off. I played the piece for her although she was sedated and then I went to Africa. Well, you know, I had to go to Africa anyway because what else could I do except worry myself to death for 10 days? The whole time, of course, I was anxious but thank God she pulled through and she is doing well now”. Keyon talks about his mother and depicts her as more than a mother, because “she has done everything to make me happy, everything she has seen it, done it, known it all”.

During our little chat, in the Ronnie Scott’s dressing

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room, some of the key elements that sprung up over and over were family life, solidarity, energy, the connection we all have so Keyon said “I go away and get back home and, you know what, it’s still the same.

I can be out on a road and people look at me and go ‘wow, amazing, Keyon Harrold’ and then I go home and get ‘Keyon, will you take out the trash?”. Laughter all round! “Love to me is everything” says Keyon.

As a writer and journalist, when I interview other people as well as musicians, I am also keen to find out what goes beyond their main trade, so, in this case, the trumpeter’s façade.

I asked Keyon how he would keep people engaged in listening to his political message in an era of social media overload. His answer? A clever, straight-forward one: “the way I keep going and discovering the bias I

Debussy, Chopin, but also Rachmaninoff and 20th century composers, he loves the romantics but also loves Bach. Classical music puts him in a different space. He says “format wise, it is different, but it has elements that today’s music doesn’t have, that today’s music is lacking because people get lazy and one of the reasons why I wanted “Voicemail” orchestrated.

It represents something that is bigger than that”.

Importantly, Keyon adds “That is why I wanted “MB lament” orchestrated because it is so much more than the original melody, it’s connected to so many things: the picture it depicts, for example, where certain sounds are to remind the listener of the bullets flying, the staccatos, when you hear certain strings, it is to do with the cigarillo smoke, the last cigarette that Mike Brown bought. just the whole thing, everything has a purpose”. Keyon says that basically certain arrangements can portray certain sounds whilst certain others don’t have the ability to show. But then, Bach et al, are not just his only heroes, one of his other “musical idols” is Miles (Davies). A tough choice (to just choose one), he explains, but he adds that, as a holistic type of life and journey, Miles is his type of person, always changing and experimenting but also living life! And whether he pi**ed people off or whether he made beauty, he lived with honesty”. And continuing the list of people he loves, “Clifford Brown is another, he makes my soul happy”.

With a talent and such gentle persona like him, I asked Keyon what a piece like “MB Lament”, so strong and powerful in resonance, must have meant to him, what inspired him to put that down on music: “To me writing is pretty cathartic, when something happens to me, I don’t fault, I want to speak about it. As a musician, I say ‘I must get this out’. (When Mike Brown died), It was like torment to me, I could only imagine what his mother was going through. I saw what it did to the people of St Louis and of Ferguson (I am from there as well). I looked at the places, I remember walking through those very streets and I remember how the police treated me. I was with the most clean-cut people that you ever know, but I was profiled pretty regularly. Systemic racism was so real that I can imagine why what happened, actually happened”.

have myself? I have a partner who is the most candid, she is like a mirror and tells me what that I should probably get better at. And despite what we go through, the truth will always out”. She tells me “you know, what you should really rethink is the way you look at this, I think your view is great but that might be misconstrued”. Keyon’s partner makes him aware that what he believes in as a person, what he is looking into at that particular moment in time, that simple process affects people in many different ways. Or even how his life might affect another person’s life, all these aspects make the world go round. All of that matters to him, in life and in music.

If Keyon Harrold, the musician loves life, family, whom does he love in music? Is there a favourite music hero? So I discovered that Keyon listens to all sorts of music: from classical to rock. He loves Ravel,

Life, love, family, music, Keyon and I talked about a lot, and it is revealing that in such a relatively small amount of time, we covered so much. Keyon’s universe is a multiverse one, even when we conversed on how he relaxes, he told me he tries to keep it cool “‘Cos life is too short. I like to be happy, I aspire to be happy. I might have a drink or have good food. I love to bowl and play golf. I work on the trumpet, there are so many nuances on how to play, on how you get your sound out there. One of my favourite instruments is also the electric guitar: there are so many ways you can approach it, look at Django (Reindhart), Hendrix, Prince, or Nir (Ferder)”.

As I said at the beginning of this piece, I was honoured to meet with Keyon Harrold. I learnt so much and enjoyed the conviviality of his company. A true and gentle soul.

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Photo © Carl Hyde 14. | Jazz In Europe - Winter 2018

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Photo © Carl Hyde 16. | Jazz In Europe - Winter 2018

Photo © Roy Cox

ARTIST FEATURE

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B This last summer Bob James released his new solo album titled “Espresso” on the Evosound label. The album marks his first solo album since the 2006 release, “Urban Flamingo” and sees Bob James return to a largely acoustic piano trio setting. Recently I had the great pleasure of spending some time speaking with Bob about the new release, the early days with CTI and highlights from his almost 5 decade long career.

BOB JAMES TRIO Espresso and more.

Text by: Andrew Read | Photos by Roy Cox

Bob James has had a long and highly successful career ranging from his hit albums in the 1970’s on Creed Taylor’s CTI label through to the success of Fourplay, one of the most successful groups in the adult contemporary jazz genre. Bob James is truly an artist not limited by genre, he composed the theme music for the late 70’s hit TV series “Taxi”, found popular success overseeing significant hits for Paul Simon, Neil Diamond, Maynard Ferguson, and Kenny Loggins as well as producing a number of hybrid classical recordings.

After some small talk about the weather, we moved on to speaking about the new album and of course the question arose as to the reason for the 12 year gap between recordings. Bob’s last solo release was his “Urban Flamingo” album released in 2006. Bob replied “Good question, part of it had to do with Fourplay, we’d been recording and touring a great deal and also in that period I did a major project with David Sanborn. We hadn’t collaborated since the 80’s Double Vision project.

We spent a great deal of time not only preparing for the recording (Quartette Humaine – ed) but also touring.

So, it’s not like I haven’t been busy, for some reason I just didn’t focus in on it.” He went on to say, “In 2015 I also did a project with Nathan East, a record called “The New Cool” and a live recording project titled “Live at the Milliken Auditorium” that I recorded in a theatre here in Traverse City where I live, so there’s been stuff out there but committing to my own solo studio project just didn’t happen. Finally I said, enough is enough, I’ve just got to do it.”

Bob’s new album “Espresso” is stylistically diametrically opposed to the Urban Flamingo album and sees James return to the piano trio format. Bob explained that the impetus for the new album started last year and stems from a number of live trio dates he played with long term collaborator on drums Billy Kilson and bassist Michael Palazzolo “I was loving the way they blended and fit in with my music and I was feeling a kind of response from the audience that they wanted more of it. So, it was this that allowed me to zero in and commit to the trio format as the basis for a new project.” Bob went on to say that he also wanted to tour the project and the classic setting of Piano, Bass and Drums was not only easier to organise, but had always been his favourite format. He added that “in a way felt like I was re-connecting with the dream he had going back to his college days.”

Bob James is no stranger to the Piano Trio format. His last venture into this world was the 2004 album “Take It From The Top”, once again with Billy Kilson on drums and this time with bassist James Genus. Prior to this was the 1996 album ‘Straight Up’ with Christian McBride and Brian Blade. “Take it from the top” was largely straight ahead standards album while “Straight Up” features more original music from James. It’s Bob’s trio albums recorded in the Mid Sixties that I find are of particular interest. His début album, “Bold Conceptions” (1963) showed a young Bob James with amazing chops, no wonder he caught the attention of Quincy Jones who became a mentor to Bob in these early days.

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His later Trio recording in this early period, “Explosions” (recorded in 1965), featured Barre Phillips (bass) and Robert Pozar (drums). This album delves into the Zeitgeist of the 1960’s avant garde. What I found fascinating with this album was the way Bob used his entire instrument to create an amazing sound-scape while at all times retaining a sense of melodic movement. This album also includes some interesting use of electronic tape effects quite reminiscent of Stockhausen. For those adventurous listeners out there, I recommend checking this one out.

Espresso, James latest outing, features eleven tracks mostly penned by James and is far from another straight ahead album and in my mind will appeal to a wide range of Bob James fans, in fact, the album seems to touch on almost all genre’s that Bob has delved into during his long career.

“Pretty much the success of Grover Washington, Jr led Creed Taylor to sign me as a solo artist...”

Bob James although best known for his work in the jazz fusion or as same would say “Smooth Jazz” genre has reached across many genre boundaries composing music for Film and TV, re-imagining classical works from the baroque repertoire through to explorations into the avant garde. “When I look back at the big picture of what’s happened over the last 30 years has been eclectic and I kind of new all along that I like being an accompanist almost as much as being out front as a soloist.”

chose the material on that album to showcase different aspects as to how I work with Orchestra, jazz ensemble, whatever - but fate took a little bit of a different turn as the recording of “Feel Like Making Love” came out simultaneously to the big hit recording of the same tune by Roberta Flack and achieved a lot of commercial success. That sort of forced me into contending with the fact that I would end up touring and led me to make a commitment to peruse a solo career.”

When Bob speaks of being an accompanist, we are not talking about just being a side-man on tour or a one off session player. Most of Bob’s work as an accompanist has been far more pivotal to the production than this.

In the late 1960’s Bob James worked with Quincy Jones, performing and arranging for his album “Walking In Space”. It was through this project that Bob met Creed Taylor and this meeting led almost immediately to Bob being called to play and arrange on albums by Hank Crawford, Earl Klugh and Grover Washington, Jr, to name just a few. It was also during his time working with CTI that Bob achieved popular success overseeing significant hits for Paul Simon, Neil Diamond, Maynard Ferguson, and Kenny Loggins.

At this point in the conversation we moved on to perhaps one of the most iconic projects of Bob’s career and this is of course the band Fourplay. In 1990 during the recording of his album “Grand Piano Canyon”, Bob reunited with long-time friend, drummer Harvey Mason. Also on these sessions were Lee Ritenour, and bassist Nathan East. In Bob’s biography it’s stated regarding this session that “This would be the start of something beautiful...” Almost 1 year down the road the four musicians released their début album titled simply “Fourplay”. The release was a major success selling over a million copies and remained at the number one position on the Billboard contemporary jazz chart for 33 weeks.

Since then the band has released countless albums and toured the entire globe multiple times. It would not be out of place to say that Fourplay became one of the most successful bands in the genre.

Bob recalls his work on the Grover Washington, Jr albums as being an important turning point in his career. “The collaboration with Grover Washington, Jr became very successful and was a big turn around moment for me, I received a lot of publicity as a result of it. Pretty much the success of Grover Washington, Jr led Creed Taylor to sign me as a solo artist. That was 1974 and he decided to give me a shot and frankly at that time I was so busy as an arranger, a behind the scenes guy and doing session work in New York City I had no feeling at that time that I would embark on a full time solo career.”

“I actually viewed that first solo album on CTI as almost a demo album to get more arranging work. In fact, I

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Since the beginning the band’s line up has been consistent however the guitar chair has undergone a number of incarnations. Bob said “Three out of the four of us have been very loyal and are still ambitious and want to continue. We’ve not had quite that same luck with the guitar chair. That’s proved to be difficult schedule wise but in another way very challenging and for me wonderful as I’ve had the opportunity of working with three very different style guitarists.” Bob went on to speak about how the fans reacted to the changes in line-up. “It was mostly positive and most of the fans liked the contrast”.

Photo © Roy Cox In 2017 the then Fourplay guitarist Chuck Loeb passed away. Chuck’s passing not only had a deap personal impact on Bob, it also presented the band Fourplay with a problem, “We found ourselves in a very problematic situation. How are we going to find someone who would live up to the very high standards the other three guitarists kept. And for now we’ve decided to go into a sort of hiatus and not rush into anything new. it was one of the major reasons that I was able to find the time to embark on my new solo trio project.”

A great deal of Bob’s work and especially with Fourplay has been rightly or wrongly pigeon-holed as Smooth Jazz.

The genre is very popular in the United States however in Europe it never really took off and at times drew some rather negative connotations especially within the industry. I asked Bob if he had any thoughts as to why this may be. After a short pause he answered “Well the short answer is - I don’t know.” After some consideration he went on to say “In a way, I’m glad that it didn’t. In the USA I think it had a lot to do with a radio format that was unique to the American market. There was a time where the music that was played on radio had to fit a specific formula that was very predictable, not at all adventurous and far less about improvisation and more about mood and melody.

The fact that this didn’t happen in Europe is pleasing to me and makes me want to play there more often. I like it when we can be more ambitious with the music.” I asked Bob about being stereotyped as a Smooth Jazz artist and whether or not he was concerned about this. “It’s a bit of a dual edge sword” he said. “While we were making records with a variety of music the only tracks that were played due to the format were the smoothest of the smooth cuts.

We then got identified as a smooth jazz group because we did have success in that market. While we enjoyed the fact that we were getting so much exposure and success. I never liked the idea where you end up being so stereotyped to a degree where the music starts to get compromised as a result of it. I’ve seen many young artists make this mistake.”

To finish up I asked Bob what’s next? Bob explained that the next few months will be spent touring with the Trio promoting the new album. He said “I’ve still got a few more years and I want to keep embarking on new and challenging projects. I feel like I still have a lot of loyal fans out there and I want to keep challenging them and create music that I like and hope that it finds an audience.”

If Bob’s latest album is any sign of the things to come I’m sure this will be the case.

20.| Jazz | Jazz Europe - Winter 2018 14.

InIn Europe - Summer

Bob James Trio Espresso

Release Date: 31 August 2018 Format: CD | Vinyl | Digital

1. Bulgogi | 2. Shadow Dance | 3. Ain’t Misbehavin’ | 4. One Afternoon | 5. Mister Magic | 6. Topside | 7. Il Boccalone | 8. Mojito Ride | 9. Promenade | 10. Boss Lady | 11. Submarine. www.evosound.com

CD Review by: Jan Veldman In August 2018 Bob James released his new album titled “Espresso.” The album is Bob James’s first solo release since his 2006 album “Urban Flamingo” and sees him once again return to the piano trio format. The album features his current working trio with Billy Kilson on Drums and Michael Palazzolo on Bass. Billy Kilson is a long time collaborator with James and has appeared on a number of releases including his last trio release in 2004 titled “Take It From The Top”. Michael Palazzolo is a new addition and makes his recording debut with Bob James on this album.

With this release, James breaks a 12 year hiatus regarding recordings as a leader, however during this period Bob has not at all been absent from the scene. In a recent interview with Andrew Read on this platform, Bob stated the reason for the absence was partly due to his commitments with Fourplay and projects with David Sanborn and Fourplay band-mate Nathan East. Bob stated “... there’s been stuff out there but committing to my own solo studio project just didn’t happen. Finally, I said, enough is enough, I’ve just got to do it.”

Espresso, is a recording that is 180 degrees opposed to his “Urban Flamingo” and is largely an acoustic based album with the addition of some keyboards added and limited use of multi-track overdubs. Stylistically the album can be described as mainstream however unlike the last trio album “Take it from the top” this set includes only one standard, a version of the Fats Waller classic “Ain’t Misbehaving”.

During his long and distinguished career, Bob has lent his hand to many musical genres however unlike a Chameleon he has developed a distinctive

21. | Jazz In Europe - Winter 2018

voice that can be heard no matter what project he’s involved with. This album is proof of this, It’s pure Bob James and in my opinion, will appeal to the full spectrum of Bob James fans.

The album opens with “Bulgogi”, an uptempo track couched with a strong back-beat, setting the tone for what’s to come and featuring strong solo’s from James and Pallazzolo. Following this is Shadow Dance, an atmospheric track with a melting pot of styles encapsulated within it. I mentioned above that there is a distinctive Bob James voice and with this track, it comes across loud and clear.

The only standard included in the set is “Ain’t Misbehaving” and is given a rather traditional reading.

While I enjoyed the performance I found it to be the odd one out in the set. My personal highlight on the album is “Mister Magic”, a syncopated 6/8 track that features strong solo’s from all player’s.

Of particular note is the well crafted bass solo from Palazzolo. “Topside” is a strong track that immediately reminded me of Bob’s TV music of the late seventies (Bob James wrote the theme music for the TV series Taxi - Ed). While leaning strongly to the Instrumental Adult Contemporary genre the track fits well with the rest of the music and is in no way out of place with the largely acoustic nature of the rest of the album.

Espresso is a wonderful album that consolidates a number of styles into a coherent and superbly performed set. The recording quality is beyond reproach giving the production a transparent sound that captures the essence of Bob James. Both Billy Kilson and Michael Palazzolo prove to be the perfect partners for James, stepping forward when required and supporting where necessary.

This album will appeal to a wide range of listeners as is evidenced by its chart success reaching No 1 on Apple Music charts and rising to No 2 on the USA Billboard charts. I can highly recommend this album.

Photo © Roy Cox 14.

22.| Jazz | Jazz InIn Europe Europe - Summer - Winter 2018

INTERVIEW

BOBBY SANABRIA

West Side Story, a Puerto Rican in New York Interview by Darrell Craig Harris All photos by Sarah Escarraz

Bobby Sanabria is a noted drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, educator and Latin / Afro Cuban historian. He has had a highly successful career for many years recording and touring with many of the Latin / Afro Cuban music worlds luminaries garnering him numerous Grammy nominations and a worldwide reputation as one of the best in the Latin / Afro Cuban field!

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Editors Note: To mark the Leonard Bernstein’s centennial year Bobby Sanabria and the Multiverse Big Band reimagined the score to the timeless Broadway musical West Side Story.

The result was premiered at the Lincoln Center in NYC in November 2017.

The performances were recorded and are now available on CD. Recently Darrell Craig Harris sat down with Bobby to get the full back story on this project. Enjoy

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R

aised in the South Bronx in New York City surrounded daily by music of all kinds, his love for his Puerto Rican American culture provided him a launching pad for a lifelong love of Latin music and its origins immersing himself into the history of both Latin and Afro Cuban rhythms and culture.

Darrell Craig Harris: Hello Bobby it’s great to get to speak with you today about your life and music, thanks so much for taking the time!

Bobby Sanabria: My pleasure!

DCH: You have such a huge body of work as a band leader, sideman, composer, and so much more, I would like to perhaps start at your beginnings growing up in the 1960’s in the South Bronx of NYC and

which became the premier rock station in New York City on FM. The program director Jonathon Schwartz played Procol Harum, The Alman Brothers, YES, and Emerson Lake and Palmer, but also because he loved Tito Puente all of a sudden he’d play a Tito Puente track (laughs) or something

by Sinatra because he loved Sinatra as well!

DCH: So, you’re really hearing a huge mix of genres everyday on the radio?

BS: Yeah it was very eclectic at the time, and we were all the beneficiaries of that and we needed that because New York City was in chaos at that time. The city was bankrupt, and we had several blackouts with the biggest one being in 1977 when the Bronx and particularly the South Bronx imploded.

But the music is what really kept us alive, and anyone’s that’s a student or lived through that time period whatever part of the country you were understood. The country was going through a lot of chaos with the Vietnam war, Watergate hearings and the Civil Rights movement and all that was reflected in the music. Like I said though we were all really the beneficiaries of that, as I think that was the last really creative time period in music.

All fields whether you’re talking about Latin music, Latin Jazz, jazz and popular music funk, R&B and even in Country and Western music back then.

DCH: It seems to me that in Latin and Afro Cuban based music there’s so many different influences from different parts of the Latin world that goes into making what we know as that style of music!

Photo © Sarah Escarraz

talk about your cultural and musical influences.

BS: Ok well yes the 60’s and 70’s yeah!

DCH: There must have been so much energy there at that time culturally and musically in New York City, especially in the South Bronx which was heavily Puerto Rican at the time. What was that energy like to grow up with?

BS: Well, it was fantastic musically because at the time we had great Jazz radio in New York City, great R&B, Soul, Funk, Rock and FM had just started in the early 70’s. The station directors in New York at that time had complete freedom because there wasn’t that much advertising. For example WNEW

BS: Right, well Brazilian Music was big at that time, you know Sergio Mendez and Brazil 66 when they came on the scene that was like the last great wave of something Latino (the term used now is Latin X) culturally coming into the mainstream and becoming popular. Of course today now you have Latin pop, you have people like Romeo Santos, Juanes and all that kind of thing of course.

DCH: West Side Story is an iconic musical of course, somewhat based on the street life of the upper West side of New York and Puerto Rican American culture. Growing up in a Puerto Rican family in the Bronx what was your first influences in learning the Latin based rhythms that have fuelled your journey and this new project based on the music of West Side Story and Leonard Bernstein!

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Photo © Sarah Escarraz 27. | Jazz In Europe - Winter 2018

BS: Well in my case, it’s two things. Growing up in a Puerto Rican household and being a Puerto Rican in New York that means you grow up listening to Afro Cuban music, what we call Salsa today (Afro Cuban dance music). So the early influences just from recordings people like Mongo Santamaria, and Tito Puente and then the sidemen that worked with those guys, also the great Machito and Chito Rodriguez.

You have to understand that when I was growing up in the South Bronx at that time, it was very common to hear people playing Cuban rumba in the Park with conga drums. In the summertime you would hear that at night, in-fact if you didn’t hear that you got worried ha-ha! So, the culture was really in your face, so that was a common occurrence growing up at that time.

And there were musicians living in my neighborhood too! I grew up in the Melrose projects, and in my building there was a gentleman by the name of Candido Rodriguez and he was the timbale player and drummer for Ricardo Ray and Bobby Cruz who were very hot salsa artists at the time. So he was a local hero and his wife use to do my mothers hair, and then in the projects across from me, used to live a guy by the name of “Kako” and he was the timbale player for the “Alegre All Stars” which was an all star Latin salsa super group made up of band leaders from the Alegre record label. So yeah you had local heroes and you looked up to these people when you were a kid.

Also, at that time on TV in the 60’s that was the last time that jazz was part of the mainstream of American culture, so it was very common to see people like Buddy Rich, The Duke Ellington orchestra on TV and of course Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie. People don’t understand that the “I Love Lucy” show was a very important thing, because for example Desi Arnaz on the show was Cuban and he was a bandleader and he owned the club as well on the show. So when do you see a character like that on TV in those days. Then he’s singing about “Babalu” again everybody thinks it’s a novelty song, but we in the Hispanic community in New York City we knew that oh man he’s talking about “Babalu” the African deity of pestilence in the Yoruba religion known as Santeria, so he was exuding African culture on mainstream TV in a clandestine kind of way!

Unfortunately it’s now looked on as a caricature.

By that time in the 50’s Cuban or Latin music had

become so big internationally that it sort of became a parody of itself and that’s what happened. Then I think around 1955/56 is when the transistor radio was invented, and Elvis comes in on the scene and that changes everything! A few things happened at that time to Latin music, Fidel Castro takes over Cuba on Jan 1st 1959, the US imposes the trade embargo in 1960 and then the travel embargo in 62 and what happens right after that, the Beatles come and the British Invasion so that killed Latin music in the mainstream except for when Sergio Mendez came on the scene in 1966, that was the last great wave!

DCH: let’s talk about your new project and upcoming release “West Side Story reimagined” what spoke to you in this iconic musical score, and what was the motivation for you to take on this piece of musical history and what many consider to be Leonard Bernstein’s masterwork?

BS: Well first of all it goes way back when I first saw the movie, I saw the movie on its tenth anniversary when my mother and father took me to the Loews Paradise theatre in the Bronx, the biggest theatre in the Loews chain in New York. It held about 2500 or 3000 people at the time, it was very ornate and it was like stepping into this other world when you go inside. So anyway around 71 or 72 my mother, father and my sister, took me, and from the very beginning I was just flabbergasted by everything, The visuals, the color and especially the music that’s what really grabbed you!

DCH: I think really one of the most iconic scores in American musical theatre!

BS: Yeah, in musical theatre. It’s still considered one of the most complex difficult scores. The thing is you’re taking jazz, lyric opera, opera, chamber ensemble music and also Latin music and then combining that with ballet! As we would say in the Bronx, it’s all that and a bag of chips!

DCH: And it seems that that music, lyrics and film really speaks to New York, and the Puerto Rican culture in a way from that time period in American culture.

BS: It’s speaks to the Newyorican experience, a Newyorican is someone who’s born and raised in New York or brought to New York at a very young age from Puerto Rico and raised in New York. So they call us Newyoricans!

Anyways the film speaks to our experience, 28. | Jazz In Europe - Winter 2018

and of course there are people that criticize the movie, especially the Puerto Rican intellectual community but most of those people are from the island and they don’t understand what it is to grow up in New York City!

There was gang life in New York City, but it’s funny the movie was chock full of nuance, for example if you notice the Puerto Rican characters all speak in complete sentences, they have jobs where the white gang they speak in broken English, they don’t have jobs and they’re very disrespectful. The Puerto Ricans in the film are always portrayed majestically and as people of dignity!

Just to have a movie where the major characters were Puerto Rican, I mean there’s some flaws in the movie but I think everyone should see West Side Story because it deals with one thing, how do you deal with hate and especially in this day and age we 29. | Jazz In Europe - Winter 2018

need to address that even more so!

But the music in and of itself with the opening whistle with the tri tone, to the chase scene in the beginning. My favorite piece of music from the movie is “Cool” because it’s basically a jazz fugue and it’s very complex and it swings like hell too!

DCH: What was your first time really digging into the West Side Story Music as a bandleader / musician?

BS: About ten years ago at the Manhattan School of Music I did a concert adapting movie themes to a Latin jazz orchestra, and one of the pieces was that we used to close the Concert was from the Mambo scene from West Side Story, so I kind of put that in the back of my head and one day I’m going to tackle this, you know the whole thing! Finally I started thinking about this three years ago and I realized, wow, it’s going to be the 60th anniversary of the

Photo © Sarah Escarraz

musical soon and then I looked up the date and realized oh wow, that’s the same year I was born when the Broadway show premiered! So yeah it was kismet or serendipity!

So I started in earnest on the arrangements, and what I did was I used it as a teaching tool because I started asking several of my students and former students to start working on certain pieces and also certain people in my band. So I was sort of like Dr. Frankenstein putting all the elements together!

DCH: Well, that’s such a huge project putting all those arrangements and pieces together for one person to handle, especially when you have great young arrangers and others in your band that you can call upon.

BS: Well yeah, even Bernstein had the help of orchestrators but he supervised everything!

The great thing for me is I’m in the vortex of everything because on the recording I’m playing drums and conducting at the same time from the drum set and it was recorded live at Dizzys Club Coca Cola in New York City, November 19th of last year (2017) and it was another serendipitous occurrence actually, because my wife goes to me you know what November 19th is don’t you? She says that’s the day Columbus landed on the shores of Puerto Rico in 1493!

So this was meant to be!

DCH: You had contact directly with the Bernstein estate/offices in Manhattan to arrange the permissions/publishing for this project, tell me about that?

BS: It was nice, when I walked into their offices in New York they said oh Mr. Sanabria your reputation precedes you, so I guess they had 30. | Jazz In Europe - Winter 2018

done some research on me so it was great! Very easy!

DCH: To me when I first heard this album on my advance copy I was really blown away by the energy of your band, yourself and of your arrangements! Such a vital and fresh approach in a truly authentic way to the culture the film portrays!

BS: You have to have the knowledge of the rhythms and of the different cultures! What I did with this project was to bring in the many different communities and cultures that have come to live in New York City since this music was first written.

During the time period the maestro Bernstein composed this music Puerto Rican forms of music like the Bomba and the Plena where not very prevalent, the Bomba which is our most African rooted style was just being adapted at that time for band performance by a gentleman named Rafael Cortijo, and the Plena had just started to be adapted

by Sorsa Concepcion in a big band format. So they weren’t really part of the mainstream of Latin dance culture yet because Cuban music was so big, but in this reimagining you hear these different styles of rhythm in full force. Different types of Bomba such as Bomba Sica and then there’s Bomba Yuba and that’s prevalent in the score. There’s also Dominican rhythms, Haitian rhythms, and Brazilian rhythms!

DCH: And included in this recording with the packaging there’s a book of rhythms, correct?

BS: In the booklet, it has rare photos of maestro Bernstein and photos of us performing and recording this live at Dizzy’s and it also has text explaining each movement in the score and what rhythms are being performed, so just the booklet itself is worth the price of the CD.

many of whom have lost their homes, can’t pay their rent, many have lost their instruments due to the recent hurricanes! Tourism is a big part of Puerto Rico but no one wants to go there now because the island has been destroyed, so it’s a tough situation!

DCH: Are you going to be performing the cuts from this album live? If so where will you be performing?

BS: Yes, we had a big performance in August at Lincoln Center out of doors, It was a monumental mega concert, it’s interesting because we had video and photo projections behind us corresponding to each piece and that was provided by a group of 6 photographers all Newyorican a group known as “Six from the South” all from the South Bronx!

Then January 18th we will be performing it at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. DCH: People can view your schedule on your website and full bio at www.BobbySanabria.com and other social media outlets of course!

BS: The main thing I want to get across is that Puerto Ricans have been so instrumental in the transformation of New York making it a vibrant city in rhythm, and changed the city culturally, artistically from dance to painting, art work, poetry, drama and of course through music as well!

I must say that all of the musicians on the CD are fabulous and the arrangers did a fantastic job, this is a true jazz orchestra. I like collaborating and many of my collaborators on this are my current as well as some former students of mine.

DCH: Thank you so much Bobby for your time and lifetime of musicianship, and hopefully we will get a chance to talk again in the future!

BS: Thank you so much for the opportunity!

Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola where we recorded this CD funny enough is located at 60th street and Columbus circle and that’s part of the area where the original West Side Story occurred is a nice serendipitous thing!

WEST SIDE STORY Reimagined

DCH: The album is on the Jazzheads label, and was released on July 20th, correct?

BOBBY SANABRIA & Multiverse Big Band

BS: Yes, and if you get the recording, partial proceeds will go to Puerto Rico, to the Jazz Foundation of America who has a special Puerto Rican relief fund to help musicians on the island, 31. | Jazz In Europe - Winter 2018

Recorded Live at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, NYC On November 19, 2017 Label: Jazzheads Format: CD | Digital

Al s o Ava i l a b l e :

More Information :

www.jasonmilesmusic.com

Available at:

ARTICLE

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Maxine

Gordon Keeping the Flame.

Interview by; Fiona Ross Images by Francis Wolff, additional images Courtesy of the Dexter Gordon Collection

Maxine Gordon. Historian, researcher, author, producer, scholar, consultant.

President of the Dexter Gordon Society and President of Dex Music LLC (which controls the copyright to Dexter Gordon’s compositions and licenses his name and image). She was also married to Dexter Gordon. Woody Shaw’s ‘Theme for Maxine’ was written for her. Now that I have had the huge honour of meeting Maxine, I will add role model and utter inspiration to this list.

M

axine has just completed an epic journey of writing ‘Sophisticated Giant: The life and legacy of Dexter Gordon’. The book is a masterpiece. Everything you think you want from a biography and things you didn’t realise you needed. The beautiful combination of historical facts, anecdotes and Dexter’s own words is brought together through Maxine’s own experiences, allowing us a precious insight into not only Dexter Gordon’s world but the wider context of time – this is a much-needed narrative. Maxine’s love and dedication to the role she has in bringing this story to an audience, makes it clear the value she places on the importance of the story that must be told – and told in the right way. Maxine Gordon is someone who carries within her the spark of true jazz, it’s in her very fibre, it runs through her veins and she is not only holding and sharing the flame of Jazz, she is an actual part of that fire.

I first met Maxine in a gorgeous, typical Parisian café in the Bastille district of Paris where we discussed her book, life with Dexter Gordon, the Jazz industry and so much more. I left this experience enlightened, inspired and honoured to have had the opportunity to sit and talk to such a legend. The whole experience would be Left: Dexter Gordon greating a fan at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London in 1962.- Photo courtesy of the Dexter Gordon Collection

a chapter in any biography of my own life.

I asked her about her experience of writing the book and what she hoped people would take away from it.

MG: I mean I promised him (Dexter Gordon) I would do this, but when I made the promise I didn’t really know what it would take. I mean he died in 1990, I had to go back to college – I wanted to write about jazz in the context of African American history, – but you know, I had to study it. You have to learn research methods, oral history. I mean I didn’t want to just write another jazz biography – that wasn’t what he had in mind. One of the people I quote extensively in the book is Jimmy Heath. He used to say to me, you got to get this book out before you die – and he’s 90! I was like, don’t worry, I’m getting it out. What I had in mind, was Dexter’s life story, as a way of talking about African American history, jazz history, his idea of living outside the country. Dexter read in the paper that we were expatriates ‘I thought we were just living in Europe’ so just because you are travelling and working somewhere else, doesn’t mean you are no longer part of that country. I hope people will think about Jazz in wider terms, people would be encouraged and particularly interested in incarcerated people – we have a very big problem in the US. My idea is to take the book to the prisons, drug users, the drug users union in Copenhagen, I went there and its was so great, I was like, can I put my husband picture up here?

And they were like, we love Dexter! He never hid the

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Above: Dexter Gordon with Bertrand Tavernier, Director of the film Round Midnight Photo courtesy of the Dexter Gordon Collection fact that he was a drug user and he is a great hero.

So, I’m interested in people that can identify with Dexter and what he said about his life and yes there were ups and downs, but in the end, he had a happy ending. He was an optimist.

FR: You are only accepting interviews from women and African Americans and all the book launch events are at independent book stores – an obvious question, but why?

MG: Ha, makes me sound a little narrow, doesn’t it? Ha! Well, most Jazz writers, or critics as they are called sometimes, typical ones, are men, of a certain age, white and I have found their approach does not include black cultural history and it doesn’t include the issues of gender and social issues that we are interested in. So, I was hoping that this book would be not so much a jazz biography, but a story of the culture of his life, musical, social and political and that he’d be the character to tell the story but the story would be bigger. My idea was to present him in relationship to African American cultural history.

Our focus is Jazz, of course, but there are many other issues that we need to address. The idea for the book tour is to follow the geography of Dexter’s life. LA Nov, New York, Barcelona, Madrid, London etc. the launch

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in London is at Honest Johns and this is where all the musicians would hang out in London when they came to play at Ronnie Scott’s. Dexter would always go to Honest Johns and buy vinyl – he always liked to keep up with the latest recordings. Honest Johns, you know, they care about music. And I’m only doing independent book stores – I’m not doing chains – and I want to do black owned book stores.

Maxine is deeply passionate about the rights of musicians and the chapter ‘Business Lessons’ shows the harsh reality of contractual law and the impact on musicians lives. She describes Dexter and Miles Davis sharing a single room in 1946, taking turns to sleep in the one bed, but how they loved every minute of it because they were playing on 52nd Street.

MG: I have a chapter on what I call the political economy of bebop. I supported Prince when he put the word slave on his face. Love him. (personal note, a halo literally appeared over Maxine’s head at this point) I thought when I do start to write a book, I want to be clear and in Jazz studies, the focus is always on the big stars at the expense of what made them.

You know Count Basie said, ‘I’m nothing without the band’ and Duke Ellington – it’s always about the band.

I always tell people, especially young women, if you

are going to go in the business and think people are going to say thank you, acknowledge how hard you work – well if they do, and I used to make this joke until it happened – if they thank you it’s because they have a terminal illness. But then my very good friend, was sick, and he said I want to tell you something, and I got very worried, and I asked him are you sick, and he was like no – but he died a week later – and he just wanted to tell me that he appreciated that I never repeated, anything I saw or heard on the road with him. He said I just want you to know that that’s why we let you stay around. I was like ha, you didn’t let me stay around, I just stayed around! I was like first of all, I can’t remember, second of all, I don’t think about it, I don’t care! I was a road manager with 50 musicians, bookings to deal with, what did I care what they were doing?!

FR: You must have been so strong and fierce! You must have faced issue with being a woman back then?

MG: No, I just didn’t know it would be that hard. I mean, now, if you thought about it, if you want to be a performer, would you do it? No. If you really thought through the economics of it and all the things involved, you’d be like never mind. No, I didn’t have any barriers, actually not. And with the discussions going on at the moment, and talking to women about harassment I wonder why I didn’t have any of those problems. I think it was because I was just always around women. Shirley Scott and I were such good friends and I travelled with her, and we always had back up. It was very different back then, I mean there was a very famous booking agent back then and he paid my very first phone bill with Dexter. I saw this phone bill and was like what am I going to do and what he said was you must be doing a good job if you are making a lot of calls. I showed him the bill, and he said, ok I’ll pay it. And then when I made money and tried to pay him back, he wouldn’t take it. I just think I was around people that, by their experience, knew – you know some people come into the business, but they’re not like musicians, you know.

And not that I’m fearless, but I’m not afraid to confront things if they don’t come through. I mean what we know now with the whole’ me too’, but back then, a lot of people are lucky because their careers would

have been over. But now, I’ve told some people – don’t take down the music because you don’t know how to act. Don’t mess this up. And women have to be very careful today. Camille Thurman, I love her. I’m totally devoted to her (even though I’m retired) and Dee Dee Bridgewater and I heard her and we went down and Camille got out of the car and Dee Dee said, ‘look if any one messes with you or touches you, makes you uncomfortable, you call me. You got back up. Maxine and I got your back’. Then she said,’ I’m not going to let them do to you what they tried to do to me’.

I love that. Incredible. Maxine and I talked about how women seem to often get labelled with the term diva or that they are difficult, when in reality they are just being strong, confident and not afraid to stand up for themselves MG: What I would say about women in the business, always being attacked for being difficult, singers getting the diva label, but you know, I don’t accept that.

Sometimes we have to be a little more you know, stronger, forceful, than the norm. Thinking about recording contracts – when I was negotiating Dexter’s first contract, I remember this guy, he was a great guy, and he was like, Maxine, what you are asking for is not standard practice, and I said, well your standard practice is very unappealing. It doesn’t apply to what Dexter needs or wants.

Among many things Maxine is a passionate arts advocate and one of her roles is as a senior researcher for the Bronx African American History Project, at Fordham University, USA. The project is phenomenal. It explores the lives and stories of hundreds of African American’s who lived in the Bronx since the 1930s and focuses on the economic, cultural, religious and political histories.

Maxine’s book ‘Sophisticated Giant – the Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon’ explores what life was like through not only Dexter Gordon’s eyes, but many others. It is not ‘just’ a Jazz biography. It is so much more.

Center: Dexter Gordon from the “Doin Allright” photo session, May 6, 1961 Photo by Francis Wolff

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MG: I wanted to write the story of the culture of his life, musical and social political culture and he be the character in it to tell the story, but the story would be bigger. Many of the books I have read tend to be, very linear, very much about where they were, what they recorded. …and not so much about the history and the culture. So, my idea was to present Dexter in relationship to African American history and culture. I mean our focus is jazz, of course, but there are many

other issues that need to be addressed. I have been doing some work with Camille Thurman and was talking with the woman who is organising her tour etc. We were discussing this and how it would be for Camille and she said we have gender training now.

The men have to go to these courses and basically learn how to behave. One of the men who took the course – he’s a friend of mine – he said he took it twice and got a certificate in like gender behaviour!

The culture is very conservative even though the music is not. The people are very slow to accept change and this is true in many of the institutions, in Jazz studies programmes. You know, I mean, there’s no women. A woman just got a job replacing Geri Allen, who just died, but she’s probably the only one. All the other programmes have men, white men, very few African Americans and hardly any women.

FR: It’s a complete contradiction to what Jazz is, to what jazz is about?!

MG: Right! I mean now, they are being forced to come into the real world. My friend who did the gender course, and this was specifically for musicians – and he’s a really cool guy – said it was great but you know, I have never seen him be anything other than correct.

He said it was very good because now there are rules – don’t touch, don’t make these jokes, if you see

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something you have to approach it, don’t let anyone be alone in a situation – and this is really what Dee Dee (Bridgewater) and I were saying. You know in the past, you really didn’t see a lot of men step up when there was a problem, but I never had that problem because Shirley Scott – who was my friend – we worked together and we always had back up, men that we could call, great people – we called them our bodyguards, ha – but I do know that was unusual.

Maxine is very passionate about sharing and supporting unknown artists and the book explores many musicians that the audience may not know. We discussed the problems with promoting musicians who have made a significant contribution to the Jazz industry but that are virtually unknown.

MG: I have talked to people about writing books about lesser known musicians, but you know, nobody wants to publish them. What would be good would be if in the academic world, people would do dissertations and theses, specifically on people that made contributions that don’t have the big name.

Then maybe they could be collected into a book or something. When I had the first reading of my book, we had an anonymous reader and he said he didn’t see any reason to mention all the members of Lionel Hampton, Billy Eckstine and Louis Armstrong bands, ‘because after all, no one’s ever heard of them’. I said, well of course no one’s ever heard of them because no one ever mentions their names! We were doing the index, I told them, every single musician needs to be included, which makes for a very long index – but I don’t care. They all have somebody who is related to them, or knew them and I just find it unacceptable to not include them.

Maxine’s knowledge of the music business from quite early on in her career is rare. So many musicians made barely any money, lost the rights to their music and signed contracts that were quite simply, not in their best interests. This still goes on today. I was curious as to how Maxine seemed to have a business ‘know how’, that so many others lacked during this time and in fact, now.

Left: Dexter Gordon with step son Woody Louis Armstrong Shaw III Right: Dexter Gordon in Paris 1963 Blue Note photo session for “Our Man in Paris”. Photo by Francis Wolff.

MG: I think it came from the musicians, especially early when I was thrown into it and I didn’t know anything.

You know I always say, if you can play an instrument and improvise, you can read a contract! They were always like we can’t understand it, legal wording etc., but I would say sure you can! It’s English, you know.

There was this book, written for musicians and we always went to this book.

At this point Maxine went online, while we were talking to track down this book. It may have been the first book published about the music industry. She found it.

It is now in its tenth edition – ‘This Business of Music’ – and was first published in 1964 written by Sidney Shemel and M. William Krasilovsky.

MG: I probably still have a first edition! So, I studied that and you know the way it was written made it easy to understand – and if I don’t understand something, I ask, I like to learn one on one. But now, I see they have music business courses and they cover the ‘rules’ of the business, here’s a typical contract etc., but they’re missing the hands on and you know, put the human factor in business, right? It’s a huge problem. One of the big problems. I’ve been thinking of doing more work on the political economy. There were times when musicians would come to me and we would go through contracts and I would say, you can’t sign this – they will own the rights to your recordings forever. But they would say, yes, but Max, I have bills to pay, I have to pay my musicians so it’s a way for

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me to give them some money. I come from their point of view, I don’t come from outside of the music. I was told by a promoter once that I had no future in this business because I like musicians too much.

Maxine is a huge supporter and advocate of new artists, advising on the business side of things but regularly going to gigs not only in New York, but across the country.

MG: I want to go and support and I am totally opposed to the idea that it is over, you know that everything good has already happened, Jazz is dead etc. I also have the over 80 rule – if they are over 80 and still working, I have to go and see them. But a lot of times with what we call the older crowd, and they talk and say it’s over and that new musicians don’t understand. but you know when the beboppers came out, all the older guys said the same thing… these guys can’t play… it’s just totally not true. There are all sorts of young people out there doing great things. And you know, these young people find gigs in places I’ve never heard of, like in the mountains, with actual bears. I spoke to this young drummer at a doughnut place – they made the best doughnuts, soooo good – and he said to me ‘I don’t play this music for the money. I play this music for the love of the music’.

One of the chapters in Maxine’s book is called ‘Mischievous Lady’ which focuses heavily on Melba Liston, the trombonist, composer and arranger – Dexter Gordon dedicated the song of the same title to her. She is known for being the only female trombonist playing with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Count Basie etc. A formidable woman in a male dominated industry.

MG: My next book is about four women – Shirley Scott, Melba Liston, Velma Middleton and Maxine Sullivan. I’m currently working on the proposal and thinking about picking a moment from their lives and writing around that. I’m giving a talk about Louis Armstrong in August and writing an essay on Errol Garner and then I’m going to devote some time to the next book.

Maxine’s book shows us not only the world Dexter Gordon lived and breathed, but many other musicians we know, don’t know and should know. We see the reality of the Jazz world, the unthinkable hardships and struggles brought together through the common love of music. The book is incredible. Maxine Gordon is incredible. Her passion to share, explore and discuss the reality of the Jazz world is a true inspiration. To close off I want to go back to a thought I stated at the beginning of this interview, Maxine Gordon not only holds and shares the flame of Jazz, she is an actual part of that fire.

Sophisticated Giant

The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon Maxine Gordon’s Biography of Dexter Gordon is to be published in November 2018 on University of California Press. The first edition is in Hard Cover and contains 284 Pages and is now available for pre-order direct from the Dexter Gordon website or at Amazon.

The Books forward has been written by Farah Jasmine Griffin with the Afterword written by Woody Louis Armstrong Shaw III. Publishing Date: 2 November 2018 Hardcover: 296 pages Publisher: University of California Press.

Language: English ISBN-10: 0520280644 ISBN-13: 978-0520280649 Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.6 x 8.9 inches

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INTERVIEW

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Laurent de Wilde

Monk and beyond Interview by: Andrew Read | Photos by Marie Planeille

To say French Pianist Laurent de Wilde is a versatile musician is an understatement. As one of France’s top jazz pianists, de Wilde is also a highly respected composer and an author of a number of books including his biography of Thelonious Monk titled simply “Monk.” his versatility does not stop here, Laurent has also created and toured a number of theatre productions throughout France and produced TV documentaries for French broadcaster Arte. Laurent’s work has not gone unnoticed in France, at the time this article goes to press it it will have been just announced that the French performing rights association Sacem has awarded him the prestigious “Grand Prix Sacem 2018: Artist of the year” as well as receiving the 2018 Victoires du Jazz award. If this is not enough his latest album “New Monk Trio” was awarded Best Album Of the Year (2017) by the French L’académie de jazz.

L

aurent has produced an impressive discography as well as producing albums for his Gazebo Label. Of note is the 2015 release of Geraldine Laurent’s “At Work” album featuring Paul Lay on piano, Donald Kontomanou on drums and Yoni Zelnik on double bass that received Jazz Album of the year award by “l’académie Charles Cros” in 2015.

His most recent release on Gazebo is “Thanks a Million” a piano, trumpet duo album featuring Eric Le Lann and Paul Lay. With all this going on we thought it’s a great time to sit down with Laurent to find out more about this eclectic musician.

Andrew Read: Laurent, thanks for taking the time to speak with us. I’d like to start with a rather esoteric question. You were born in the United States and moved at a very young age back to France. In 1984 you

moved back to New York and then in 1991 you returned to Paris. How do you feel that this cross Atlantic connection has influenced your career to date.

Laurent de Wilde: Well, to paraphrase Joni Mitchell, I guess I’ve seen the clouds from both sides now... I came to understand the importance of tradition as it’s taught in New York, and the necessity of reinventing myself by questioning other musics, other influences, other philosophies, as it’s largely practiced in Europe. In the early 90’s, I was the typical “classic jazz player” coming from America, and branded as such. Twenty five years later, that image has blurred into something completely different, and that’s definitely thanks to the Paris scene, which is thriving on all kinds of grooves and cultures.

AR: The New York jazz scene was incredibly vibrant in 1980’s with the rise of a new generation of musicians expanding the boundaries of idiom. Tell us a little about your time in New York in this period.

LDW: It was booming! Thanks to a music

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scholarship, I joined the Jazz Program at Long Island University on the Brooklyn Campus, where, among others, the Calderazzo brothers (Gene and Joey) were studying. I couldn’t believe my eyes : Eddie Henderson was my small ensemble supervisor, Mulgrew Miller was my piano teacher, our big band would play every week with guests like Tito Puente, Joe Henderson, Michael Brecker, Jimmy Heath... It was heaven!

And it was the time of the Wynton Marsalis revolution: jazz was the Great American Music, that heritage needed to be upheld, studied, revered, and we felt... entitled. We were wearing double breasted suits (too bad the fad never came back, they’re still hanging in my attic), jazz was a serious thing, and its “young lions” were all about redefining the respect and the attention it required. Major labels like CBS, Warner or Polygram were going back to investing big money on upcoming stars, it felt that the whole world belonged to us ! Little did we know.... But it sure was a lot of fun.

AR: On your return to Europe in the early 1990’s you continued to tour both in Europe and internationally however it was also in this time that you wrote your successful biography of Thelonious Monk. What was your motivation to add the title Author to your CV (Resume)?

LDW: To be honest, I wasn’t the one who set the whole thing in motion. At some friend’s dinner party, I met a French Publisher, Gerard Bourgadier, who by the end of the evening had decided that I was the guy he had been looking for to write a biography of Thelonious Monk. He offered me an advance, and the promise that he would help me write it. And that, he did. He really pulled that book out of me, showing me how to find my style, my rhythm... That being said, looking back at that period, I really wonder how I managed to write it : I had two small kids and a third on the way, I was touring around the world, I had a meningitis right after writing the first page, my son then had a meningitis (unrelated) a few months later, those were very bumpy days ! But it was all worth it, because that book has brought only good, luminous things in my life.

AR: The book received critical acclaim and has been translated and published in the United States, U.K., Japan, Spain and Italy. You followed this up with a second book that takes an in depth look at the story of the inventors of keyboards in the twentieth century titled “Fools of Sound”. Do you have another book in you and if so what would be the subject?

LDW: The problem with writing is that when you start doing it on a daily basis, you build a little bubble around yourself. You’re creating worlds and characters with the sole power of your brain, nothing else, and that’s pretty exhilarating... Very powerful drug... So yes, I’m pretty well inclined to ride that dragon again. But history books take so long to write ! You have to triple-check all the details (I once spent a whole morning figuring out if I should use a singular or a plural on one specific issue), and I’m always

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terrified of overlooking something important. My last book, which could be translated Sound Nuts, took me three years of research and 18 months of writing ! And during that last year and a half, I didn’t get to play much music anymore, and that sucks.

So, no more history books. I think the next one will be fiction, that way I can make everything up with a peaceful mind !

AR: Around the turn of the century you broadened your musical horizons venturing into electronic music, a genre that you said challenged and inspired you to record six albums including “Fly” and “Fly Superfly”. With your current return to the acoustic format are there any plans for new projects in this direction?

LDW: Actually, after 2005, I resumed my “traditional” activity as an acoustic jazz piano player, toured and recorded up until now, and I’m pretty happy to be able to run both tracks at once. It took some time to get my balance, but I think I’m pretty steady now. So, after two acoustic albums, my next recording will be a trio with electric bass, drums, and myself on the Rhodes, various synths and machines. But no computer. I’ve been using computers for the past ten years, they’re wonderful instruments, but they have a tendency to rigidify the music, they push me to overproduce and I miss the the good old feeling of a trio groovin hard on electro beats with no strings attached, so that’s where I’m going right now.

AR: Your latest album was released in 2017, in France and earlier this year for the rest of the world. The album saw a return to the piano trio format and was titled the “New Monk Trio” where you decided to re-read a selection of Monk’s songs, to interpret them in your own manner. Tell us a little about your concept when approaching Monks music.

LDW: Well, the way I see it is that every Monk tune is a riddle. It immediately asks you how you’re going to play it. Because it makes no sense to imitate Monk, unless you spend your lifetime practicing his completely unorthodox type of playing. A good part of the surprise you feel when your hear his music comes from the fact that he plays the piano in a way you’re not supposed to, and the sounds that he creates with such a personal technique are literally unheard of - they would be totally forbidden in any serious and responsible music school ! So when you take that out, you’re left with wonderful chords, rhythms and harmonies, but they somehow become soulless, and it’s that part that you’re compelled to provide with your own feeling, your own language.

For example, I like to loop phrases and motives. So I could rather shamelessly extract a few bars in Coming on the Hudson, rhythm and melody, and take off on that. Or use some floating time on a ballad like Pannonica, and linger on a few chords like C major or Db Major,

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just because they sound so peaceful and open that way. Or keep only the melody of Monk’s Mood and harmonize it with repeating chords that underline the mysterious quality of the song....

AR: You have just been awarded the two most coveted French cultural awards, the “Victoires du Jazz” 2018 and the 2018 “Grand Prix Sacem”.

Earlier this year the New Monk Trio album was awarded Best Record of the year by the French L’académie de jazz. These awards are not the first awards you have received, In 1993 you were awarded the French Django Reinhardt Prize and later in 1998 you first received the “Victoires du Jazz”. Do you believe this recognition has had an impact on your career?

LDW: The Django Reinhardt prize was definitely a turning point. When you look at the alumni,

conservation of the instrument, the piano hardly exists in African music.

That’s where Ray comes in : he managed to translate on the piano the rhythmic and melodic figures of drums and guitars in a completely unique way. We’ve been friends for a long time, and I was always fascinated by his ability to bridge African and Western music. And I always knew that a time would come when we would be ready to work together, which happened a couple of years ago. I felt the time was right, called him to invite him for a two pianos recording, and he immediately said yes !

So we got together for a month and started writing our own repertoire for the duo. We had a lot of fun doing it, and we’re still touring since the record came out, we must have played 40 dates already, and the more we play, the more fun we have, so I guess we’ll just keep on doing it!

AR: When I look at your biography the word artistic omnivore comes to mind. You’re a musician and author. You’ve produced theatre productions together with actor Jacques Gamblin, two TV documentaries produced for French broadcaster Arte on Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus. How have all these aspects affected your music?

you feel very humble. And since the Académie du Jazz represents the cream of the critics, getting that prize attracts a lot of attention, and that certainly helps. It makes you feel like you belong to something, it gives you confidence, even if you know that it’s not the prize that is the real marker, but the substance of your work, and that has to improve no matter what.

AR: One of your other current projects is the Duo with fellow pianist Ray Lema that resulted in the in the 2016 album “Riddles”. Can you tell us about this project?

LDW: With pleasure. Ray is an extraordinary musician : he’s a Congolese singer, guitar player, master percussionist and piano player. You know, the piano is a very western concept, and the idea of splitting the pitches in even half tone slices is, from an African point of view, completely extravagant. So, in addition to the climate conditions that are not best suited for the

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LDW: It’s food for thought. I don’t consider myself as a virtuoso on my instrument, so let’s say I compensate this misgiving by paying a lot of attention to the broader aspect of the music : its forms, its rules of interplay, its intentions... I think a lot about my repertoire and the group sound, so that we can tell a convincing story together. A great soloist is a fine thing, but I tend to think that jazz can be more than a succession of brilliant paraphrases over a given melody. It can run deeper in emotions if you take the time to step back for a minute and ask yourself : what do I really want to say?

AR: So to finish up, What’s next for the Laurent De Wilde?

LDW: In a rather French fashion, I’m going to smoke a cigarette (gotta quit for good this year) and have a sip of wine, because that was quite a chunk of an interview!

AR: Great idea, I’ll join you.

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ARTICLE

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Live Concert Streaming The Right Way

Text: Nigel J. Farmer | Photos courtesy of Moods Jazz Club

There is no denying that the music industry has been impacted by technology throughout the 20th century changing both the way music lovers consume music and the way in which the industry delivers it. The largest examples of technology fundamentally changing the way music is consumed was the introduction of the wax cylinder in the early years of the 20th century, followed closely by the introduction of Digital Technology in the 1990’s.

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M

any say that the way we listen to music is technology driven and to some degree, this is correct, however, I would prefer to say that change is device driven. The introduction of the wax cylinders spawned the recording industry to deliver content for the device. At the other end of the century the introduction of the iPod delivered the digital download market and now some 25 years down the road, the smartphone coupled with cheaper data plans and greater bandwidth is driving the Audio streaming world.

Since the mid-2000s there has been a number of initiatives to create platforms to stream live concerts, some successful but mostly substandard due to bandwidth problems and a lack of devices to suit consumer wishes. Currently, with the introduction of Smart TVs with high resolution and more connectivity, the bar has shifted. Many venues are now looking to expand their reach further than the limitations of their walls by streaming concerts live, however the quality of the streams currently available is in many cases dubious, to say the least.

One venue that does not fall into this category is one of Europe’s leading jazz venues, Moods in Zurich, originally founded in September 1992 by the Moods Jazz Association. Being a wellloved and respected nightclub, Moods outgrew its original venue in February 2000 and closed looking for a new and larger space to operate from. The Venue re-opened later that same year in September, in an area of the city known as the Schiffbau, which was originally an industrial area building large ship engines. The jazz club quickly re-established its global reputation amongst musicians and critics. Not surprising when you can accommodate approximately 600 standing and 350 people seated with a well-stocked bar, excellent views of the stage and very good quality acoustics. Throughout the succeeding decade, Moods has developed into one of Zurich’s largest and most important cultural venues with the Schiffbau area now one of Zurich’s most dynamic and vibrant city locations.

During the summer of 2016 Moods once again went through an extensive renovation and upgrade. Being equipped to be the first jazz club in the world able to broadcast and stream concerts in high-definition with its own subscription video live (and) on-demand web platform. The facility features 12 full HD mobile cameras plus a state-of-the-art broadcast studio and specialist Sennheiser audio equipment.

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In March 2017 Moods Digital began documenting every possible show that performed at the club.

On September 8th 2017 Moods launched the Moods Digital platform with an archive of 60 shows and a plan to stream 350 broadcast shows per year. That target and archive grow almost daily.

Music fans from all over the world can now watch broadcast concerts either live or on demand, through a competitively priced subscription system. Subscribers choose when and where to watch Moods concerts, either on their mobile, tablet, computer, Roku or Smart TV devices.

Having had the opportunity to experience from

my home on a 68cm “Smart TV a full HD quality live concert, I must say I didn’t experience any buffering issues in rural France. Plus, the audio quality was really crisp through our home theatre sound system.

Claudio Cappellari is currently a Co-director of Moods and is key in helping bring parties together and overseeing all the technical requirements needed to deliver first class HD live streaming to a global audience, and the archived content via Moods Digital. Claudio’s background is well grounded for the task. Since the 1990’s as an early pioneer of streaming-technology, his company live-streamed concerts from major festivals such as Montreux Jazz Festival, the AVO

Session and the German New Pop Festival.

Claudio is also a well-accomplished performing musician as well as a technologist, very forward thinking and passionate about supporting the artist. With this set of blended skills, I can see why he holds his current position at Moods. I recently spent one on one time with Claudio and was eager to find out more.

I first asked Claudio what does it take and what equipment do they use to achieve such a high quality of delivery to their subscribers.

In answering the question, Claudio first talked about the importance of making sure the sound recordings are of the highest quality.

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This requires two sound engineers. One is responsible for all the Live concert sound in the venue and the other sound engineer behind the scenes is independently responsible for the quality of the sound being sent out for the live stream. To achieve the best quality sound Moods partnered with Sennheiser, using AMBEO 3D audio technology.

Claudio went on to say that they have a dummy head in situ fitted with two high-quality Neumann KU 100 microphones in its ears which

captures the sound image in 3D - this binaural recording carries the complete spatial and ambient information, which is then reproduced unadulterated when listening via standard stereo headphones.

Whatever device or environment you choose to watch the live stream from, the binaural AMBEO 3D recordings allows Jazz enthusiasts all over the world to be able to enjoy the excellent quality sound of concerts as if you were there!

Claudio went on to talk about the video.

Explaining that they film with 12 HD high-quality cameras that are able to work in a very low light situation. These 12 HD cameras in situ give the film director the opportunity to cut from one angle to another perhaps focusing specifically on the drummer or a featured artist or a wide angle showing the whole band. Claudio then shared the comparison that it’s very similar to highquality television giving you the best experience

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that Moods Digital can currently produce via the live streaming experience. Claudio went on to stress that there is still no alternative to the experience of a live concert at Moods Jazz Club.

To protect that live concert experience the 12 HD cameras are located in unobtrusive positions and very quickly forgotten by the audience or the musicians. While all being controlled by the director in the broadcasting booth.

I went on to ask Claudio to explain for the novice how Moods Digital execute the live stream to ensure the paying customer receives and experiences the highest quality stream and with a contingency for congestion over the Internet.

Claudio stated that the broadcast network that Moods Digital have in place allows them significant latitude.

Allowing them to go above and beyond the typical broadcasting model which often reaches a maximum bandwidth and the end user may experience what is commonly known as buffering issues. Moods Digital upload data feed has extremely large bandwith and can serve without concern a significant global audience with a measured latency time of only 45 seconds from the live performance to delivery on your chosen device. In addition they have a built-in contingency of seeking out the fastest pathway to your own IP address should there be some local Internet congestion in your area. Even if this meant the live concert stream being delivered to you having travelled to the far side of the globe and back – Wow! With the level of financial investment and know how Claudio’s reply gave me some more insight into how they achieve something very special.

I must add that I personally find it frustrating when I experience significant buffering on platforms such as Facebook live, of course, I understand this is partly based on one’s data plan and age of the device you’re using.

There is no doubt in my mind and with many music industry pundits confirming, that the

decline in CD sales is significant as time marches on and with the majority of music now being consumed via audio streaming platforms, many musicians are looking for additional sources of income. In the future as live concert streaming enters the mainstream the revenue generated could be one of these sources.

I asked Claudio to explain about the innovative way that Moods Digital and the Moods Jazz Association have been able to set up a payment structure that allows them to pay a larger significant purse to the musician-artist-band than most musicians, artists and bands have been experiencing of late, and what Claudio had to share with me was extremely interesting.

Claudio shared that he himself as both a musician and an information technologist was able to see from more than one perspective, (for me that’s a plus point straight away) Claudio

went on to explain that Moods Digital created and developed a very fair revenue-sharing system by offering artists a 70/30 partnership in the revenue from digital streaming subscriptions, with all the costs covered by Moods. The revenue portion kept

by Moods (30%) is used to cover online and studio operating expenses. Knowing that the production of the video is of the highest quality, the artist also benefits from a segment of their concert at Moods that is up-loaded to the Moods YouTube channel, that can be used for promotional activities. (That in itself is worth a great deal in today’s world).

This income is of course above and beyond the standard industry fee for playing at Moods.

The artist also receives residuals from the ongoing stream plays of their concerts via the live ondemand Moods Digital platform. This is dependent on the length of time the artist agrees with Moods Digital to have the concert remain in the archive library.

Claudio Cappellari.

Co-Director Moods Jazz Association and Founder moods.digital project.

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My view on this is: as Moods expands and has more content available – the artist has more and more chance to gain a much wider societal profile as the live on-demand archive is shared with business willing to licence the content on a global basis. One can say – the bigger the snowball becomes the more money is generated for all.

Our time was passing quickly as it often does when fully engaged.

Claudio is a fascinating individual and very much a self-made person. In wrapping up our time together I wanted to finish on the future. I asked Claudio what he sees on the horizon for the music industry and will it be the consumer who dictates change, the music industry or some new form of technology, such as the wax cylinder did last century.

Of course, Claudios first response was this would need an Italian dinner and a nice red wine. I think I agreed to owe him dinner and wine next time I’m in Zurich!

Claudio did share that he perceived that above and beyond the increase in internet speeds to us all. He’d been closely looking into how the end user could have the ability to control a number of the camera angels and or control which cameras they choose to view the live or on-demand content. Virtual reality environments which would allow musicians to meet with you as avatars in a virtual reality as a way for the artist to interact with their fans. Beyond this is holographic technology which would allow the end users to holographically project the performance into a 3-dimensional form within the end users home.

In coming to a close I’d like to offer a comparison and one of the reasons for Jazz In Europe committing to become a media partner with Moods Digital. (More information about this can be found on our website and newsletter.)

You may be asking why I didn’t mention the resurgence of vinyl record sales rather only the decline in CD sales? Good point. I think with vinyl, people once again crave the immersive music listening experience of yesteryear where one has to take the time to sit and enjoy music instead of listening on the go.

For those that don’t have the equipment, the demand now for both second-hand and new turntables is outstripping supply and equipment costs are high. Plus, premium prices are being paid for vinyl releases making this an expensive hobby.

The difference with Live concert streaming is that you can have the same immersive music listening experience utilizing the current technology that they already own – the smartphone, tablet, computer or smart TV. Couple this with your existing broadband package and now Jazz lovers can immediately have access to the entire continuously growing library of concerts and all further content on www.moods.digital. All content can be viewed in Full HD and with the perfect mastered sound all for less than €20 a month.

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INTERVIEW

Eric Bibb

The Truth Of Song Interview by: Fiona Ross | Photos Edu Hawkins and Patricia de Gorostarzu

Eric Bibb is a multi Grammy nominated American Blues singersongwriter, whose passion and drive for change informs and develops his music. Son of Leon Bibb, the activist and singer (who marched at Selma with Dr Martin Luther King) and Godson of Paul Robeson, Eric’s life has been surrounded by the need and desire to not only want the world to be a better place, but to do something about it, with music being his chosen tool. Once again, I have been honoured to speak to a truly inspirational artist.

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B

orn in 1951, Eric Bibb was literally born into a hugely significant point in the civil rights movement and his Father, Leon Bibb, played a huge part in this.

Harry Belafonte said of Leon Bibb: ‘Between him and Mahalia Jackson, we had all the music we needed for the movement’ I can’t even begin to imagine growing up around such inspirational people during such a pivotal time in history. We discussed the impact and influence his upbringing had on shaping his artistry and his tribute album of Paul Robeson music ‘Praising Peace’ that he recorded with his father.

EB: It has had a tremendous impact on my evolution as an artist. My Father – and I was

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thinking only recently about how much he actually gave me, by passing on his world to me and introducing me to his world. His love and passion for music – this was in my daily life because it was part of my Dads intense focus. Music had to reflect what was going on in the real world, not just entertainment and my Godfather, Paul Robeson, came with the commitment to melding, forging ahead with a kind of message of how we can unify and get together as human beings and make a better world. The album ‘Praising Peace’ was actually inspired by a fan who came up to me at a gig and said that I should do a tribute album to my Godfather and that I should do it with my Dad. I was like, of course! So, I immediately contacted my Dad and we were able to accomplish that

and I am so happy that we did. I really would have felt bad if we hadn’t. We also recorded another album together ‘A Family Affair’ but that is slightly harder to come by, although you mentioned streaming – and I have a double feeling about streaming and I realise it has a positive impact but, you know, not getting paid is not positive.

We talked about how there was a recent article about Jazz being brought to a younger audience purely because of streaming, which is positive but how the music industry also brings some negativity.

EB: This to me is just adding to the legacy of exploitation of musicians, particularly – I’ll go there – black musicians, who are at the foundation of popular music that is being streamed. It just strikes me as odd, you know, here we go again, it’s really not good. The music industry, in one moment, shares a wonderful, wonderful, beautiful thing, called music but on the other hand, it is so exploitative of the people who create it and make it. So, this is nothing new, but hopefully, like everything else, we are moving forward and it will be more equitable in the future, but it means being awake to these issues and really talking about them and not just accepting. We have to keep the debate going.

We discussed if traditional blues has a place with a younger audience as a way to raise social awareness.

EB: I think young people are really switched on these days as they are able to connect through technology and I think young people are discovering the truth and the beauty of the real Blues. They have access to

archives of music at the touch of a finger, they don’t have to go to special libraries. So, I think the power of the Blues, and I’m not necessarily talking about these popular, recent offshoots, I’m talking about country Blues from the 20s and 30s because I think all artistically curious people will find it. I’m happy to have people from 16 to 86 comes to my performances and it’s really encouraging.

We talked about protest music and the power of songs such as ‘Strange Fruit’ and I asked Eric: FR: What are your thoughts on the role of the protest song in today’s society?

EB: I like the question and it needs a multifaceted answer…Protest songs as a label bother me – it’s a reactionary term. A song like Strange Fruit, a ‘protest song’ is more a true song. It’s a song about what is real. Sharing with a large audience in a poetic way and it’s powerful because of it kind of reaches people on the fly.

Whereas to come and sing a song directly, in a protest way, will not be as effective. So, this term bothers me. Having said that there will always be a place for truth songs and we need that now more than ever. Collectively, we have been asleep at the wheel and I really think we need, like a double shot of espresso and to wake up to the fact that we need to get moving, ahead.

I loved the term ‘truth song’ as opposed to a Protest song. So many ‘protest songs’ are quite simply just exploring the reality of a situation.

Eric’s website quotes him as saying that he ‘challenges us to do better, to reach higher and strive harder’ and we talked about what he would actually like to see happen.

EB: I would like young people to see through the tactics of certain people who would like to divide humanity

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as opposed to unify humanity. Young people are switched on and they are starting to see that this doesn’t really make sense. We are right on the edge, but there is defiantly hope. That’s what I think!

Eric has worked with some amazing musicians – Mavis Staples, Taj Mahal, Odetta, George Benson, to name a few – and we discussed their influence on his development and if any were especially influential to him.

EB: One of the things that keep me growing as a musician, as an artist, as a writer, as a performer, that is vital to that growth is collaborating with other wonderful musicians. I have had the blessing of meeting some fantastic musicians and that leads to new connexions and things move and I think that has something to do with sharing. I have been working recently with a wonderful bassist Neville Malcolm, a wonderful drummer Paul Robinson, and for many years, long-term working relationship with the wonderful guitarist, Staffan Astner.

That group of people, with the addition of a musician from Quebec, Michael Jerome Browne, and one more I will add, a fantastic Senegalese musician Solo Cissokho – those musicians have been pivotal for me with my new direction which involves more of a band, keeping a unit together so we can develop a synergy that we have already begun to build. We all have common ground, musicians we admire, but we all have a unique experience and a lot of that is shaped by where we are from and where we spent most of our time – putting that into a pot and coming up with a gumbo that’s unique is very exciting.

Odetta, Richie Havens, Taj Mahal and Mavis Staples are people I have actually spent time emulating, meaning that they have given me a way forward, as a role model – all of them.

Role models in the way they sing, the way to perform, the way to convey your message – all

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of those things, like a whole package. It amazes me sometimes when I reflect on the people I have been able to spend time with – I have been very blessed.

Eric is currently touring worldwide, with some of his projects. His ‘Migration Blues’ project, where Eric is hoping to ‘encourage us all to keep our minds and hearts wide open to the ongoing plight of refugees everywhere’ and his project ‘Tales from a Blues Brother’.

EB: My Tales from a Blues Brother project is a oneman show which is a combination of my own autobiographical journey, combined with songs and a back projection of pictures that illustrate my upbringing. This includes a big dose of images from the Civil Rights Movement, moving to Europe and becoming an immigrant myself and understanding what that means.

And also, moving away from the States and becoming more interested in sharing history through songs in a way that educates, because I think part of the problem is that we are not aware. I think for me, being an African American, being outside of the American Theatre, with its institutional and cultural racism embedded in it, I think that it gave me a spiritual breather. I was able to reflect on, not only who I was and where I come from, but the world in general from a whole other angle that wasn’t constantly dominated by the ills that haunt Americans because of the legacy of slavery. So that’s one answer – I’ve been able to see myself in another mirror.

It was a highly moving experience talking to Eric Bibb – an amazing artist and human being who uses his music to educate and inspire – he succeeds.

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