JAZZ CULTURE
The New York Jazz Project In These Pages: Review 1 Rome Event: L. Fabris Jazz Heritage: Frank Foster 4 by C. Bridgewat Mastering Guitar: R. Stone 3 2
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REVIEW
April 9, 2012
Richard Wyands & Lisle Atkinson
RICHARD WYA DS
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 Mr. Atkinson played with a featherlike touch, stating ideas over 56 octaves, and playing deep low notes at appropriate intervals. Jazz Culture by YJP, v1,n2
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ROME EVENT
Barry Harris Workshop in Rome
Luciano Fabris Luciano Fabris, pianist-producer
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. 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. p.2
Jazz Culture by YJP, v1,n2
JAZZ HERITAGE
Dr. Frank Foster
P a rt I I
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 photo: Bruce McMillen 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 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 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. Jazz Culture by YJP, v1,n2
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MASTERING GUITAR
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 Photo: Chris Drukker 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
Jazz Culture by YJP, v1,n2