Bill Henderson 1926 - 2016

By Mike Barnes
Bill Henderson, a well-respected jazz vocalist and actor, died Sunday of natural causes in Los Angeles, according to Lynne Robin Green, president of LWBH Music Publishers. He was 90.
A native of Chicago, Henderson sang with the Ramsey Lewis Trio, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Quincy Jones, the Charlie Haden Quintet and many others. His 1963 album, Bill Henderson With the Oscar Peterson Trio, is considered a classic in the jazz vernacular.
Henderson was a fixture on the Playboy circuit in the 1970s and appeared often at many festivals, including Playboy Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl, Monterey Jazz and the Litchfield Jazz Festival in Connecticut. Later, he performed at The Kennedy Center and in New York at the Hotel Algonquin’s Oak Room and at Lincoln Center.
“Henderson’s phrasing is virtually his own copyright,” music journalist Leonard Feather once said. “He tends to space certain words as if the syllables were separated by commas, even semicolons, yet everything winds up as a perfectly constructed sentence.”
At the suggestion of his friend Bill Cosby, Henderson pursued an acting career and in 1967 relocated to Hollywood.
He appeared in such films as The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension(1984), Clue (1985) — as the cop who is killed by a lead pipe in the library — City Slickers (1991),White Men Can't Jump (1992), Maverick (1994), Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) and Smiling Fish & Goat on Fire (1999) and on television in ER, Hill Street Blues, Happy Days, Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons,Good Times, MacGyver, Benson, NYPD Blue and My Name Is Earl.
Henderson made his show business debut as a singer and dancer at age 4. A stint in the Army led to him working with crooner Vic Damone, and in 1956, Henderson made his way to New York.
A year later, Horace Silver hired him to record a vocal version of the popular instrumental song “Senor Blues” for Blue Note Records. It was a jukebox hit and remains one of the biggest-selling singles in the label’s history.
Between 1958-61, Henderson recorded for the Vee-Jay label and recorded his first album, Bill Henderson Sings. Most recently, he released a self-produced live album, Beautiful Memory, co-produced by Green.
Survivors include his daughter Mariko, granddaughter Mya, son-in-law Marc, nephew Finis and niece Henreene.

Gato Barbieri 1932 - 2016

By Peter Keepnews and Christopher Mele

Gato Barbieri, a saxophonist whose highly emotional playing helped expand the audience for Latin jazz, and whose music for the film “Last Tango in Paris” won a Grammy Award, died on Saturday in New York. He was 83.
His death was confirmed by Jordy Freed, the vice president for marketing and communications at the Blue Note Entertainment Group, parent company of the Blue Note nightclub in Greenwich Village, where Mr. Barbieri often performed. Mr. Barbieri’s wife, Laura, told The Associated Press that the cause was pneumonia.
Mr. Barbieri recorded dozens of albums in a career that began in the late 1940s in his native Argentina, and continued recording and performing into the 21st century.
Although he was heavily influenced by John Coltrane and other saxophonists, his big, lush sound was distinctly his own and instantly recognizable.
Reviewing a performance by Mr. Barbieri in 1983, Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote that he “makes some of the most raucous sounds ever to emerge from a tenor saxophone,” adding: “His horn screams, grunts, honks, bleats, groans. Even in ballads, he works up to a hefty, throbbing tone that sounds like it could burst at any moment.”
Early in his career Mr. Barbieri was a prominent member of the jazz avant-garde, making records with the trumpeter Don Cherry, the pianist and composer Carla Bley and others that challenged the music’s harmonic and rhythmic conventions. He later developed a more melodic approach that acknowledged his Latin American heritage, and that won him a large and loyal worldwide audience.
His first taste of international fame came when he was asked to write and perform the music for “Last Tango in Paris,” the director Bernardo Bertolucci’s sexually explicit 1972 film starring Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider. Mr. Barbieri’s theme won a Grammy Award for best instrumental composition.
“It was like a marriage between the film and the music,” Mr. Barbieri said of his soundtrack in a 1997 interview with The Associated Press. “Bernardo told me, ‘I don’t want the music to be too much Hollywood or too much European, which is more intellectual. I want a median.’”
He went on to write several more film scores.
Leandro Barbieri was born on Nov. 28, 1932, in Rosario, Argentina, and moved to Buenos Aires in 1947. He earned the nickname Gato (Spanish for cat) in the 1950s because of the way he scampered from one Buenos Aires nightclub to another with his saxophone to make it to his next gig.
Drawn to music at an early age, he studied clarinet as a child and played alto saxophone with the Argentine pianist and composer Lalo Schifrin before switching to tenor.
“Music was a mystery to Gato, and each time he played was a new experience for him, and he wanted it to be that way for his audience,” Laura Barbieri told The Associated Press.
The success of his “Last Tango” soundtrack led to a contract with Impulse Records, the label for which John Coltrane had made some of his most celebrated recordings. His four Impulse albums, titled “Chapter One” through “Chapter Four,” blended jazz with various strains of Latin American folk music and, in the words of the jazz writer Ashley Kahn, “served as a virtual South American tour.” Later albums, for A&M and other labels, maintained the Latin elements of his music while exploring a more commercial, pop-oriented approach.
Despite health problems, Mr. Barbieri, still sporting his trademark black fedora, had been appearing monthly at the Blue Note, where he first performed in 1985. His last public performance was there on Nov. 23, Mr. Freed said.
“He was a worldly free spirit, a really sweet man,” Mr. Freed said. “He really was a pioneer.”
In addition to his wife, Mr. Barbieri’s survivors include their son, Christian, and a sister, Raquel Barbieri. His first wife, Michelle, died in 1995.
Last year Mr. Barbieri received a lifetime achievement Grammy Award from the Latin Recording Academy. The citation credited him with covering “virtually the entire jazz landscape” in his long career and with creating “a rebellious but highly accessible musical style, combining contemporary jazz with Latin American genres and incorporating elements of instrumental pop.”
Looking back on his recording career in 2006, Mr. Barbieri expressed pride in his embrace of different styles.
“In those days,” he said, referring to the 1970s, “the jazz people they don’t consider me a jazz musician. If I am Latin, they don’t consider me Latin. So I am here in the middle.”
“It’s a good thing,” he added. “You know why? Because they say, ‘What do you play?’ I say, ‘I play my music — Gato Barbieri.’”

1 Sem 2016 - Part Five

George Cables
In Good Company



By Michael J. West/JazzTimes
George Cables’ title refers first to the pianist-composers he covers—John Hicks, Kenny Barron, Ellington and Strayhorn—and second to his trio with bassist Essiet Essiet and drummer Victor Lewis. The album’s a cheery swinger, an exemplar of mainstream piano jazz. In short, the kind of record Cables always makes. But it’s his accompanists, and Victor Lewis in particular, that earn the titular salute.
Essiet records semi-regularly with Cables, and evinces an ability to disappear inside the pianist’s rich left-hand chords and the architecture and tenderness of his touch, as on Hicks’ “After the Morning” and Ellington’s “Love You Madly.” But Lewis has been with Cables for 15 years, and the album’s second track, Cables’ “Mr. Anonymouse,” plainly shows why. A bass ostinato bears down as Cables barrels over it with speedy single-note lines; underneath, Lewis lays out a cymbal-and-kick locomotion that’s preternaturally steady. If the pianist is a runaway train, the drummer lays down tracks for it in real time.
Lewis’ fingerprints are everywhere on In Good Company. His frequent accents shape Cables’ “EVC” almost singlehandedly, and the upshot of rendering Strayhorn’s poignant “Lotus Blossom” midtempo is to establish the ride cymbal as a playful foundation for Cables’ improvisation. (It also gives Essiet a chance to shoot the breeze.) Lewis gets his own snappy solos on “It Don’t Mean a Thing” and Kenny Barron’s “Voyage,” and space for his brushwork on “Lush Life” and “Day Dream.”
The pianist shouldn’t get short shrift; his lithe but thoughtful fingerings uplift every corner of In Good Company, and provide occasional surprises like the Monk-esque glissandi on “Lotus Blossom” and subtle syncopation breakdowns on “Naima’s Love Song.” Lewis simply shows himself to be Cables’ equal—surely the best of company.


Stanley Cowell
Reminiscent: Plus A Xmas Suite



By Parsifal
'Reminiscent' includes a featured program of Christmas melodies ("A Xmas Suite") as well as Stanley Cowell originals and compositions by Brahms, Thad Jones and Richie Powell. His trio includes the acclaimed bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Billy Drummond.
Since his retirement in 2013 from the professorship at the prestigious Rutgers University, where he led its jazz department, pianist/composer Stanley Cowell has been increasingly active on the scene both in concerts and recordings.
In a glittering career Cowell has recorded for labels such as Strata-East - the cult jazz label he started with Charles Tolliver, ECM, Galaxy, and as a sideman on Blue Note, Atlantic, Muse, Impulse! and many others. He has recorded with an array of jazz stars, including Bobby Hutcherson, Stan Getz, Johnny Griffin, Art Pepper, Max Roach, Charles Tolliver and Clifford Jordan.
Track Listing:
1. Intermezzo - 4:11 2. Re-Confirmed - 6:05 3. A Child Is Born - 7:55 4. A Xmas Suite - 10:03 5. Peace - 6:44 6. Midnight Diversion - 9:06 7. Hear With Me - 3:34 8. Time - 6:48 9. Reminiscent - 5:11 10. Sweet Song - 5:22
Personnel:
Stanley Cowell (piano, thumb piano) , Jay Anderson (bass) , Billy Drummond (drums)


Mirko Signorile
In Full Life



By Jazzos
Gia' da piccolo manifesta una passione per la musica ed in particolare per il pianoforte.
All'eta' di 6 anni prende le prime lezioni di strumento e solfeggio entrando dopo qualche anno nell'Accademia musicale diretta dal m° Battista Bia.
Il luogo e' molto stimolante perche' gli permette di conoscere gli altri strumenti a tastiera come l'organo Hammond, i sintetizzatori; strumenti che per molto tempo...
Personnel:
Fabio Accardi ( Drums ); Fabrizio Bosso ( Trumpet ); Gaetano Partipilo ( Percussion )
Gianluca Petrella ( Trombone ); Giorgio Vendola ( Double Bass ); Mirko Signorile ( Piano )
Stefano Jacoviello ( Electronics )


André Ceccarelli/ Jean-Michel Pilc/ Thomas Bramerie
20 - Twenty



By Catfish
To become a co-star for 20 years, Andre Ceccarelli (1945～), Jean-Michel Pilc (1960～), Thomas Bramerie (1965～), Recorded by the powerful All-Star trio of. Piano nice sharp hard touch crisp in the clearing is, sing the middle. Undulating vigorously emotion in dynamic and bluesy, explosive power and mobility to the rich drums and bass of attacking a touch also showed an antagonistic the first time in the thrilling , some crunchy, and taste of even enough fighting bravely content. Such as rhythm form and tempo, while also a variety of creative is one after another note to arrange plane, extremely high realistic improvisation degree in total, a rich sharp "serious, lyrical-action" type of high-tension bravely continued, while Watariai a guerrilla invasion of Ceccarelli and Bramerie, of Pilc to carry through the valiant resolute down as being in high spirits - complete combustion in the seat of the protagonist, the narrative of a certain deep in the furious playing, indescribably. It stands out. → by the hard touch of Me percussive, while exhibiting the underlying strength of the large-action offensive of irregularities some aggressive with an emphasis on swordfight ish mechanics properties, to truly expertness, or was more meditative, introspective or was aesthetic (or chic such of lyricism-oriented approach of bluesy Dattari ditty wind), thoroughly there like the depth of rich poetic that sitting of the waist is also in the rarity, while traffic to the extremes in an instant, only discussions and exhilarating Millionaires entertainment tone of storytelling to show finish in the road (good support of Ceccarelli and Bramerie also shining) is, indeed wonderful masterpiece.
Tracks:
1. All Blues; 2. Cry Baby Cry; 3. On Green Dolphin Street; 4. Twenty; 5. Opus #3
6. Ne Me Quitte Pas; 7. Old Devil Moon; 8. Returning; 9. Things Are
10. Straight No Chaser; 11. L'Auvergnat; 12. Solar
Personnel:
Jean-Michel Pilc(p); Thomas Bramerie(b); Andre Ceccarelli(ds)