The Jazz Culture Feature -- Editorial
Jazz Musicians Trying Alternative Strategies: George Gee, above, Lafayette Harris, below, both have had campaigns on Kickstarter
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Editorial: Where is Your Tax Dollar Going? Quandary of the Latest Generation of Musicians:
• Many are brilliant, living on the edge, without enough money to record consistently; • Many of the most talented musicians go into commercial music to make money; • The Older generation of Songwriters, on the whole, produced more indelible melodies, because for one thing, they were connected to lyrics; • Many who used to be record producers, or people in the music business, have opted for careers in other areas. • The Switch to the web has engendered many differences in the marketplace and threatened the traditional mode –theme albums, cds. If the “Pursuit of Happiness” was considered an “unalienable right” by the signers of the Declaration of Congressman, for which people institute governments, maybe our government should start taking more responsibility for the future of jazz and music in general as well. John Conyers of Detroit has sponsored a 2014 Act for the Preservation, Education and Promulgation of Jazz, has been rated as having a 1% chance of being enacted. Please call your local Congressman and Senators and demand they pass this Bill. Most of the great jazz musicians found their first instruments in public school, but since the cutbacks in music programs in public schools of the US, which ironically affects minorities more, you have to be upper middle class or a rich kid to go to private school where they do have music programs, or pay for private lessons. If the cultural life of the United States could undergo such a fertile period of expansion during the Great Depression, when the ‘official’ unemployment rate was 25%, then we should not let the present hard times stop us from demanding art and music programs in the schools. Is There a Government Role:
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Private Industry: The closing of J&R,
In These Pages a Editorial 1‐4 music outpost in the Wall Street vicinity, sent April listings 5‐6 shock waves through New York City’s Fred Ho Obituary culture vulture community. Stores, clubs, John Watson Ad museums, newspapers—all are part of the Kuni Mikami Ad BEEHIVE, the WEB, that is the soul of New York, that allows its over 8 million inhabitants to breathe in respites from the dizzying pace of life here, indeed, to feel they exist as human beings. J&R has retained a “digital” presence by selling through Amazon, and although it claims to be renovating its brick and mortar store, no date has been set. New York waits with baited breath. The store began as a basement record shop. It had its own jazz festival, combining record and cd sales with promoting music: Kenny Dorham, a great and soft spoken trumpeter, once even worked there.
The Center?: New York City retains the allure of an international culture haven for artists, fans and the curiousity seekers of the world. It makes billions of dollars of profit every year off this reputation; 54 million tourists a year can’t be wrong. New York is purported to be the Jazz Center of the World. However, New York has suffered the death of many of its venues. In Jazz alone, the Half Note, the Five Spot, Sweet Basil, Fat Tuesday. Instances abound. Where will the great players of this generation find a foothold in this glittering and cold metropolis. In the manifold neighborhoods of New York City, wonderful jazz musicians are residing, but many have a tiny or non-existent catalogue, and if they get hit by a truck tomorrow, their followers and fans may not have anything to remember them by. They will also find it difficult to enlarge their following if they stick to only in person gigs. Special factors:
• New York is a really big town, and it’s easy to get lost here. If you’re not in an “in” clique, The Jazz Culture, V.III:114
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• don’t spend many nights at a club schmoozing to get gigs; • don’t have rich relatives who will finance you; • the Stance of many artists-“My job is practicing and playing. Not finding gigs, building an email list; acquiring PR and fans.” BUSINESS is a bad word. The danger is, if jazz is to survive, or, as some claim, it’s dead already, putting a taboo on “business” can be tantamount to claiming “Day Jobs Forever!” or “I don’t need to sully my hands.” Many top notch players are working as professors or adjuncts at universities across the country. Sometimes using subs for their classes, or taking their personal and vacation days, they work at international venues, or during the week at small local jazz clubs that dot the country. Jazz Festivals and the jazz industry worldwide spawned thousands of clusters of volunteers and communities of jazz fans. In many smaller areas than New York City, a regional movement in the United States has arisen from local fans and musicians, and the graduates of the 1,000 jazz departments around the country. Like most non profits, each jazz center has overworked idealists at the helm that attract friends and supporters that become a community. The Circuit:
Perhaps analogous to the theatre movement in the US, some of the best music and most important productions and jazz series may exist outside of New York, despite the devotion ofWynton Marsalis’s staff, good intentions, musical knowledge and intelligence of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Indeed, New Yorkers and New York jazz musicians really would be dead without a national and international circuit. That’s where most ‘stars’ make a living. New Yorkers would not want a monopoly on hip music; the center depends on the circuit. However many New York jazz musicians cannot even afford a car, much less traveling around the country or cont. p. 7 4 The Jazz Culture, V.III:114
The Jazz Culture Newsletter Jazz Tours in NYC are available; also music teachers in various countries for students & jazz lovers. email: info@thejazzculture.com. Ads are available in The Jazz Culture Newsletter. The Jazz Culture Newsletter has been read in 75 countries. Brian McMillen is a contributing Photographer. Connie MacNamee and Arnold J. Smith are contributing writers."
Countries: US, UK, Albania, Argentina, Armenia,
Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Bangladesh, Belize, Brazil, Burma, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan,
April Listings Clarence Banks‐ Swing 46 most Thursdays with Felix and the Cats, 346 W. 46 St. Ray Blue: German tour, Paris, Jazz Foundation concert,
Cleo's
Richard Clements‐ Pianist, 11th Street Bar most Mondays, 8 Kenney Gates, pianist. Philadelphia, Tues., Sun. some Sats.‐ High Note Cafe on Tasker & 13th, 5‐9 p.m. Bertha Hope ‐ Minton's on 206 W. 118 Street, every weekend George Gee Orchestra at Swing 46, every Tues, most Fridays 9:30 Loston Harris: Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle; Tues ‐ Thur 9:30pm ‐ 12:30am, Fri‐Sat 9:30pm‐1:00am Bemelmans Bar Residency 12th year at The Carlyle, 35 East 76th St., New York, NY 10021 (76th St. & Madison Ave.) 212‐744‐1600 Mike Longo: Tuesdays Gillespie Auditorium in the NYC Baha'i Center at 53 East 11th Street 8:00 and 9:30 John Mosca & Michael Weiss, Vanguard Orchestra every
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Monday at the Village Vanguard 8 p.m. David Pearl‐ Mondays at the Thalia, 95 St. bet. B'way & West End 8 p.m. Valery Pomoronov‐ Zinc Bar on April 2, 9:30 p.m. Bill Saxton; Every Friday and Saturday Bill’s Place 133 Street Rick Stone: Bar Next Door on April 15 Murray Wall, bassist, 11th Street Bar most Mondays, 8 p.m. Leroy Williams, drums: Minton's Sun & Tues 2‐6 W. 118 St. Richard Williams, singer/poet: April 5, 8:30 p.m. Nuyorican Poets Cafe 236 E. Third bet. B&C 718‐233‐8048 Kumiko Yamakado: April 7 at Tomi's on East 53rd Street ENGLAND: John Watson Trio at the Palm Court, Langham Hotel, London, 1c Portland, Regent St. 207‐636‐1000 Fri‐Sat Save the Dates: George Gee‐May 23, Frankie Manning's 100th, Edison Ballroom, NYC John Kamitsuka Annual Recital Weill Recital Hall April 30, 8
Happy Birthday March- April Babies Michael Hashim, George Gee, Lew Tabackin, Stafford Hunter, Lil Phillips, Randy Noel, Eric Lemon, Kenyatta Beasley Thank You for Bringing Beauty & Love to the World LEEE JOHN LIVE AT HIDEAWAY 17TH APRIL 2014 featuring John Watson on piano/vocal/keyboards!
John will be performing with Leee John & his jazz soul quartet at Hideaway in Streatham on Thursday 17th April. Hideaway was voted the UK's Best Venue 2011 in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards. 8.30pm - tickets £20. Call 020 8835 7070 or visit: http://www.hideawaylive.co.uk/leee-john-
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thursday-17th-april-2014 JOHN WATSON CD ALBUMS -- YouTube Kudos Records. The JW3 Live At The Langham, Master OfThe Mood, Heaven: A Night At Four Seasons and Easy. Enjoy! COMPLIMENTARY NIGHT AT THE LANGHAM-- The minimoon must be taken by December 2015 and is a 1 night weekend stay. For more information and to make a booking call 020 7965 0195 or visit: http://www.palm-court.co.uk/#/propose JOHN WATSON by Max Garr
KUNI MIKAMI, Pianist is also an acclaimed, talented Videographer Special Introductory Sale: Five Minute Edited (with music) Video Resume for Performers $300 Contact Kuni @: 123mime@gmail.com
Artist must provide: • Good quality HD video on computer file • Good recorded audio sound • A photo of yourself • Text you want to see on the video
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Cont. from p. 4
the world. Some of this may be due to the lack of alternatives in smaller places. Living in New York, when you open a jazz periodical, you Congressman John Conyers sponsored the are faced with a 2014 National Act for the Preservation, dizzying array of Education and Promulgation ofJazz. Here choices: and on some with Nelson Mandela. weeks, maybe you would be better off staying home and playing your favorite cd’s or records. In order for any art to thrive and survive, it has to have nests or venues, villages of relationships, symbiotic and nurturing that permit it and its artists and audiences to grow. The Jazz Culture Newsletter issues a challenge to all readers and fans to throw their two cents into the fire. Please respond to the website, http://thejazzculture.com. Perhaps understanding that "it takes a village" in 2001, the JJA started their "Jazz Heroes" campaign. On April 1, the Jazz Journalists Association announced “Jazz heroes” in 21 American cities and Toronto, Canada were chosen to culminate in the Herbie Hancock supported “International Jazz Day.” These “Jazz Heroes” were educators, festival producers, venue owners, musicians across the country who have devoted their lives to the survival and flourishing industry of jazz music. The list includes two of our favorites, • Jon Poses, Executive Director of: We Always Swing Jazz Series in Colombia, Missouri, affiliated with the University of Missouri’s Music Department; 8
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• Jim Wilke, DJ of “Jazz After Hours,” a radio producer for several decades in Seattle among other places. This article will be viewed optimistically by “glass half full” types, and pessimistically by “Glass half empty types. It will take all our determination not to give up on this one. When faced recently by an older musician who said, “Jazz is dead,” a younger musician declared,” We won’t let jazz die!” Please respond: info@thejazzculture.com
Ira Jackson, tenor saxophonist, and Jon Weiss, pianist, right, have both had private donations help produce recordings
FRED HO Obituary Fred Ho, a leader in fusion of free-jazz and traditional Chinese music has passed away after 8 years of a struggle against cancer war the morning ofApril 12th, 2014 in his Greenpoint, Brooklyn home, surrounded by loved ones. Fred Ho was a Chinese American baritone saxophonist, Fred Ho at BAM composer, writer, producer, political activist and led several music ensembles. For two decades, he innovated a new American Multicultural Music embedded in swing using forms ofAfrican American music and The Jazz Culture, V.III:114
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influences ofAsia and the Pacific Rim. Ho recorded fifteen albums as a leader and wrote several operas, music/theater epics, multimedia performance works, scores, oratorios and a martial arts ballet. He received grants and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Apollo Theatre Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, NY State Council on the Arts, Chamber Music America and World Music Institute. Fred Ho received a 1996 American Book Award and was the youngest person to receive the Duke Ellington Distinguished Artist Lifetime Achievement Award. Commissions include the nationally toured and celebrated Voice of the Dragon; Josephine Baker's Angels from the Rainbow for Imani Winds; Suite for Matriarchal Shaman Warriors for percussion ensemble IIIZ+ and a Jazz Commissioning Award from Chamber Music America for his Suite Sam Furnace. The music/theater project Deadly She-Wolf Assassin at Armageddon!, a martial arts sword epic paying homage to manga and samurai film classics, the opera Mr. Mystery: The Return of Sun Ra to Save Planet Earth with libretto by Quincy Troupe, and Dragon vs. Eagle for the Apollo Theater and Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival. Fred Ho founded the Afro Asian Music Ensemble in 1982 and Monkey Orchestra in 1990, co-founded the Brooklyn Sax Quartet with David Bindman in in 1997, Caliente! Circle Around the Sun (featuring Ho's solo baritone saxophone with poets Magdalena Gomez and Raul Salinas), and the Green Monster Big Band. Mr. Ho published several books -- Wicked Theory, Naked Practice, Deadly She-WolfAssassin at Armageddon! (2013, La MaMa), and Sweet Science Suite (2013, BAM). Fred Ho is survived by his two sisters, Florence Houn and Flora Hoffman, and “legions of friends and comrades.” A memorial concert to Fred Ho will be at Ginny's on April 23rd at 7:30 and 9:30pm organized by Fred’s student, Marie Incontrera, and Benjamin Barson, with the Eco-Music Big Band. There will be a public funeral at a later date. 10
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