JAZZ CULTURE
The New York Jazz Project In These Pages: Review 1‐2 Rome Event by L. Fabris 2‐3 How‐To by R. Stone 4-5 Dr. Frank Foster by C. Bridgewater 6‐8
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Richard Wyands and Lisle Atkinson at Englewood Hospital
REVIEW
April 9, 2012
Richard Wyands
Patients at Englewood Hospital might be stunned to learn that two world class masters of jazz, Pianist Richard Wyands and Lisle Atkinson, Bass, play for them regularly in its atrium, a huge sunlit modern glass enclosure. On a recent Tuesday Michael, a patient was listening, said, “It makes being here easier, you know?” The concerts are produced by the Jazz Foundation, which partnering with Englewood Hospital, has helped countless jazz musicians with medical care. Richard Wyands played “Yesterdays” freely, with melodic invention and lyric beauty informed by both jazz and classical knowledge; he also played clusters. Mr. Atkinson played wide and scalar intervals, related to the melody, maintaining a strong rhythmic pulse. The duo swung so that you could hear the drums without them being present. They played “The Very Thought of You,” Mr. Wyands stating the melody eloquently with love, and Jazz Culture by YJP vI-n2
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Mr. Atkinson played with a featherlike touch, stating ideas over 56 octaves, and playing deep low notes at appropriate intervals. They are musicians who make you feel the upbeat and maintain a consistent tempo. “The Sound Sweetest I Ever Heard” was played up tempo, with an optimistic, rhapsodic spirit and harmonic daring. If the audience were blindfolded, it would swear that the musicians were kids, but totally evolved kids. J.J. Johnston’s classic, “Lament,” with a stirring bouquet of poetic voicings, chords played like a jewel-like setting for its beautiful melody evoking lost love, left the audience in tears, echoing Mr. Johnston’s devotion to music. Mr. Wyands can be heard on As Long As There’s Music, Savant.
ROME EVE T
Luciano Fabris, pianist
From March 19-23, 2012 at the Felt Club in Roma, Italy, there was an international masterclass featuring Barry Harris with 90 students from 19 different countries, including Europe, the United States, Canada, Israel, Syria, Russia, Japan, and Cyprus. The highlight of the event was on Friday, March 23, when Barry Harris played also a memorable concert with Luca Pisani on bass and Oreste Soldano on drums. p.2
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This was the 11h time a unique event of this kind has been produced in Rome by the Roma Jazz Workshop Cultural Association. Over 600 students have had the possibility in the last seven years to study with this great teacher, composer, and performer of jazz music. Besides being the foremost musician in the world with knowledge of Charlie Parker and Bud Powell's music, he is recognized worldwide as an innovator, also because of the great contribution to musical theory of his sixth/diminished scales. Barry Harris has a unique way of teaching. He believes that the best place to learn how to play is a class, where people of different levels come together and can improve. Seeing Dr. Harris at work, sitting in front of a bunch of horn players ready to play scales and phrases at really fast tempos and challenging them to play faster is a remarkable experience. For many years Barry Harris has traveled all over the world to teach young people and spread his message and his passion for jazz. In Rome, the brilliant pianist Andrea Papini collaborates with Dr. Harris as translator. Also every night, passionate jam sessions were held until late in the night, conducted by different piano players. Italian audiences had the chance to listen to some great players as Richard Clements from USA and Kuno Kurner from Germany, beside the Italians Fausto Ferraiolo and the above mentioned Andrea Papini. After the class was over, as always we received a lot of messages of joy sent for days from students and audiences alike, filled with gratitude. Things like that can happen when somebody's heart is touched.
Barry Harris in Y Workshop
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HOW TO by Rick Stone
A person can obviously become a GREAT jazz guitarist without going to a music school (countless examples exist) but the problem we face now is a lack of working situations and bands for a young musician to learn in. If you look back at the early history of jazz, most musicians got a lot of their training from playing in bands, learning on the job. But now people are so used to canned music, that in most cities, only the best musicians get to play even on little bar or cafe jobs that barely pay. This leaves very few opportunities and so the schools have kind of come in to fill that void by providing a place where young musicians can learn from (and sometimes perform with) their elders and perform with their peers. A degree is really only necessary if one is going to teach or have any sort of job in an academic setting. Teaching is really a different art from playing. Early on in my life I had some great teachers who inspired me to want to follow in their footsteps, but I also wanted to be a player. So I've kind of followed a split path; I've tried to grow as a player AND as a teacher. You have to really make a study of that and observe the lessons that you yourself have learned, and whether those things translate to your students. Every student is different as well, so to be a good teacher, you have to learn how you can get through to that person in a way that effects them positively. It takes a TREMENDOUS amount of patience and can be really frustrating p.4
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at times. Not every musician has the temperament to be a great teacher. Most jazz guitarists prefer an arch-top guitar. Of those, there are two main varieties: A carved top (in which the top is carved from a single piece of spruce) is much more responsive acoustically acoustically, but also much more expensive and fragile. Good examples of these are the Gibson L-5 and many guitars handmade by luthiers like Benedetto, Buscarino and Comins (which is what I play). A "laminate" (or plywood top) on the other hand, has a top that is arched by molding the wood on a form. The laminate is cheaper to build and much sturdier, so it's often the choice for a "road" guitar, even for musicians who prefer a carved top at home and in the studio. The Gibson ES-175 is a good example and there are many laminate instruments being made by Asian companies now that fall easily into the beginners’ budget. It should also be noted that when played electrically, a laminate is often less prone to feedback, so some players prefer them in live situations for that reason. I should also note though that ANY guitar can be used to play jazz and the choice of instrument can be a really personal thing. Some players (thinking now especially of the great Canadian guitarist Ed Bickert) even prefer solid body instruments like the Fender Telecaster, which believe it or not, can be a really great sounding jazz guitar (in the right hands of course!). I personally use several guitars regularly; I use two Bill Comins "Classic" models, both carved archtops (one is a 17" and the other an 18"). I also use a D'Angelico SS which was redesigned for the company by Bill Comins a few years ago. The SS is a laminate with a smaller body (14.75") and is very comfortable to play. I also use a Vestax nylon string guitar that was made as a prototype for the NAMM show about 10 years ago. It's different from a traditional classical in that it has a smaller body (15") and an arched top. The neck is also narrower than a traditional classical Jazz Culture by YJP vI-n2
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guitar and meets the body at the 14th fret (as opposed to the 12th) so it feels more like my jazz boxes. I've got a closet full of other instruments, but the ones I described are kind of my "go to" instruments for almost everything.
JAZZ HERITAGE
Dr. Frank Foster
by Cecil Bridgewater [Frank Foster] He had several bands, the big band for festivals concerts that also played dances. He had another group called Swing Plus, a smaller group, more of a dance group, with fewer horns and a rhythm section. He also had the Non Electric Company, a small group – quintet/sextet. Cecilia his wife took over the booking and management and PR and all that. She was as much a part of the band as he was. She was behind the scenes, taking care of the business stuff. It was a great partnership. It took a lot of work to get rehearsals, trying to transport and house that many people. Festival people or concert people don’t want to put out that much money. It is a lot harder for bands to travel now days. I remember Max Roach told me that bands used to stay in a city for 8 weeks at a time. Nowadays you travel to a venue, do the concert/engagement and return home until the next concert. A lot of concerts are in colleges or schools. In Europe you’re doing festivals, so you during the festival p.6
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season. It’s a little more difficult, in terms of financially making it viable not only for the artist but the venue. Frank did all kinds of other things as well, commissions. He just finished writing the “Nippon Lament,” for the Cecil Bridgewater rehearsing for 25th Anniversary of ew School Jazz people of Japan tsunami victims, which had its premiere at his memorial on September 23, 2011. He also taught at Jazzmobile and several Colleges and Universities around the world. [Now you have a] General public [who] doesn’t hear jazz. Unless you seek out WBGO or some other jazz stations so there is less awareness and appreciation for the music. You have to seek it out. Going to Europe and Japan someone would come up to and say, “I remember a recording you made for so and so..” often something that I had forgotten. There is a different level of knowledge of the music. A lot of people in this country don’t know who Frank Foster is. We don’t remember the ancestors whose shoulders we are standing on, we’re always looking for the next new thing, we don’t give them the respect their due until after they’re dead and gone, whether it is in fashion or music. It’s very very young country… this country is very young like a little kid, and so the music is the same way. We’re so used to throwing away stuff, so we toss it aside. It has to be termed monumental for something not to be built in its place…in another place they wouldn’t think of doing. Jazz has withstood the test of time for 100 years, but that’s still a very short time. [Frank Foster] He is one of America’s great composers, along with Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, his contributions have Jazz Culture by YJP vI-n2
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been as a saxophonist, mentor, composer, arranger and organizer. Those are things he…excelled in from the time he left Cincinnati, from the time he left college. Some [people] are great instrumentalists, or great innovators, [e.g] John Coltrane was great innovative, saxophonist, but Frank was known for all of those things, and revered for all those things. He was a great teacher. I first encountered him as a teacher at Jazzmobile, Diz and Jimmy Heath used to teach there. He went on to teach at several universities. Within the band he was always challenging us, making us experience the difficulty in his music. As a composer, arranger, saxophonist, as a mentor, all of those things... We are going to do the best we can to keep the music going and let people know who Frank Foster is. He was one of the few people who had a hit, like “Shiny Stockings,” his music was in a couple of Jerry Lewis films; Dizzy commissioned him to write for London Philharmonic. He was commissioned to do a piece for double big bands, in Ohio, Sean Jones’ Big Band, and Byron Striplings Big Band. That’s a very rare happening. Lincoln Center Orchestra commissioned him-- he wrote for everybody. His great sense of humor and curiosity came through and gave life to everything. He fought through his illnesses. Taking on having your own big band is a huge task as well, to try to keep it working. Frank’s life was a big part of the history of the music, from the era of Basie right on up to last year. “A simple thing, never give up your dream. Whatever you think you want to do, don’t shrink that for an easier route. Something you really want to do, put in the effort and it’ll happen...He would come to rehearsals in a wheelchair and conduct the band, the band was his instrument. You felt the energy he was putting into it, you could do no less. He was the kind of person that overcame all the obstacles, no matter what it was.” p.8
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