Frank Wess 1922 - 2013

By David Colker at LATimes
Long before jazz pianist Billy Taylor became world-famous, he planned in high school to switch to saxophone. But then he heard the new kid in school — Frank Wess — play the horn.
"He's the reason I don't play the tenor saxophone," Taylor said in a 2008 Washington Post interview. "Even in his teens, he was really a remarkable player."
Wess never achieved the fame of his longtime friend Taylor, but he was a key player in some of the all-time great jazz ensembles, including Count Basie's big band, and he was a major force in establishing the flute as a jazz instrument.
He was also known as a mentor who went out of his way to help young musicians coming into jazz. No matter how progressive the music got, Wess told them, it all came down to swing.
"If you can't tap your foot or dance to it, you may as well be driving a cab," Wess said in a 2005 interview for the All About Jazz website. "When I do clinics, I have the individual instruments play by themselves and I want them to make me dance, make me want to dance."
Wess, 91, died in New York on Wednesday. He was in a cab on his way to get a dialysis treatment when he had a heart attack, said his companion, Sara Tsutsumi.
Wess played his last concert in April at the 54 Below club in New York, and had been in failing health for the last several months. But as recently as a month ago, he was still playing with friends.
"He would invite young musicians — maybe a rhythm section or horn players — to his home and they would have a jam session," said Marc Loehrwald, a saxophone player who maintained Wess' website. "He loved to play with other musicians. It was his life."
Frank Wellington Wess was born Jan. 4, 1922, in Kansas City, Mo., and his family moved when he was a small child to the town of Sapulpa, Okla., near Tulsa. "When I was 10 years old my life started — I got my saxophone," Wess said in a National Endowment for the Arts interview in 2007.
He eventually put the instrument away because the school orchestra played a lot of classical music he didn't enjoy. Then the family moved to Washington, D.C., in 1935 and he heard Taylor and others play jazz sessions in the high school orchestra room during lunch periods.
"I said, 'this is what I want to do,'" he said in the All About Jazz interview. "So I got my horn, had it fixed up and started playing again."
His early career as a professional was interrupted by military service during World War II — but he kept playing because the U.S. Army assigned him to various music ensembles that toured overseas. When he was out of the Army, he played with the famed Billy Eckstine Orchestra and several other outfits. And using the G.I. Bill education benefit, he began studying the flute in 1949 with Wallace Mann, a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington.
Count Basie had heard Wess on saxophone and called him several times to try and hire him. "I told him I was busy doing something else and I wasn't going to quit school to go back on the road, because I had had enough of the road," Wess told All About Jazz. Finally Basie convinced him by promising a regular salary and exposure. Wess joined the outfit in 1953 and stayed until 1964.
Wess said that one reason the band was so great was that unlike some other leaders, Basie strove to keep players for long periods of time. "If you fire people every four or six months, I don't care how good they are, you still got a bunch of strangers sitting on the band stand," Wess said in the NEA interview. "When they stay there long enough, they get to be brothers and you got a family, and everybody's happy and the music shows it."
And with Basie, Wess got to show off his expertise on his new instrument. Because of his time with the Basie band "being featured on the flute, it gave the instrument its place in jazz," said longtime jazz critic and historian Dan Morgenstern. "Also, of the people who played flute, he was pretty much the best of them."
Wess went on to play with several other ensembles, including the house band led by Taylor for "The David Frost Show" that ran on CBS from 1969 to 1972. And with an old friend from the Basie days, fellow saxophonist Frank Foster, he played jazz dates over a 20-year period under the title "Two Franks."
In 2007 he was named an NEA Jazz Master.
Wess may have not been involved in starting new movements in jazz, but he was known for his consistently fine musicianship over an exceptionally long career. And he knew how to move an audience.
"I think you can play anything you want to," Wess said in his NEA interview, "as long as you take the audience along with you."
In addition to Tsutsumi, he is survived by two daughters, Michele Kane and Francine Wess, both of New York; two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

EAGLES AND DROMEDARIES

By Claudio Botelho
Again: Denny Zeitlin has done an insipid recording. I’m talking about his latest “Both/And – Solo, Eletro-Acoustic Adventures”. Before I keep on, let me remind you once more that Zeitlin has been one of my heroes for long. And this is exactly what inspires me to insist on my critics about his latest launchings. Along with his former work (“Wherever You Are”), this is a totally dispensable recording: We could as well live without it, as much as himself.
While the most conventional one is too conventional to be taken seriously, the more adventurous is no more than a pale copy of things he’d done in the past (“Solo Voyage” comes to my mind). By listening to this newer outing of his, you could work very hard to find the author of recordings like his “Labyrinth”-“Precipice”- “Slick Rock’- “Solo Voyage” brethren. Or even find any similarity inspiration-wise to works like “As Long as There’s Music” or his “New River”- a fabulous duo with mandolinist David Grisman. Of course, his way of playing hasn’t changed and can be spotted easily, but where is the intellectual value of his playing?
Try listening to “Tiger, Tiger”, for instance, or the inaugural “Meteorology” and tell me why he bothered to compose and play them… Sigh!
Don’t think I’m that derogatory, but Zeitlin forced me into doing this. So, Instead of wasting your time with his last works, you could indulge your senses into savoring Alan Broadbent’s “Heart to Heart”- his latest solo recording. This time using a 9’ Schimmel Grand, Broadbent revisited songs like Charlie Haden’s “Hello my Lovely” along with standards like “Alone Together”, “Blue in Green”, “Lonely Woman”, “Cherokee” and four other songs, including the one of his pen who entitles this production. His very pronounced left hand sometimes almost takes the lead and, at times, works contrapuntally without ever breaking the unity of his renderings. His very unique and minutely way of playing exposes the songs to their entireness, extracting from them all the meanings intended by their authors. Broadbent is a “slow-food” kind of interpreter, always purveying a step-by-step construction without side moves, until he gets to his target.
To know what I mean, listen to his dissected deconstruction of “Alone Together” – the old played-by-everybody standard, enjoy his long and soulful rendering of “Blue in Green”, try “Hello my Lovely” and remember his days of “Quartet West” or savor his gothic interpretation of “Lonely Woman”, which nails straight to the heart of this song…
The sound of the Schimmel piano is magnificent, to the point of my fully acceptance: In no moment I reminded of any other musical instrument. So, there’s also life beyond the Steinway-Bosendorfer-Fazioli trio!...
I’ve been, for a very, very long time, a great fan of pianist Franco D’Andrea. For my ears, he has been one of the very sharpest improvisers in the history of jazz. It’d been a long time since I last heard of him. I’ve noticed he’s released some two or three albums recently, but I haven’t come across any of them. It seems they have a very restricted distribution. So, out of some longing of my part, I bought a CD recorded in 1997 and released in the following year called “Duets for Trane”. He plays with altoist Rosario Giuliani which, by the way, is the leader.
Yes, you guessed it right: Trane means Coltrane, being all the songs played, except the last one, from him. So, there you have: Equinox; Countdown; Naima; Giant Steps; Central Park West; A love Supreme; Like Sony; Lonnie’s Lament and Giuliani’s Solo for Trane.
From beginning to end, you have some two of the most articulated jazz musicians interplaying so synergistically that the quality of the presentations leveled the accomplishment of the tunes. Boy, D’Andrea is no chopped liver, but would you believe Giuliani, at least on this recording, is as much on the cutting edge as him? He is so strong that you hardly notice you’re listening to an alto sax! His Selmer sound is akin to the sound of a good tenor! I said a good tenor. You know, the world is full of flimsy sounding sax players…
Organic, articulated and done by utterly intertwined musicians, the renderings are just natural extensions of the tunes, as if done by the same author and a taste of Coltrane’s strong tenor permeates the whole album. D’Andrea? You can hardly find a better travel companion… (The truth is that this is an equal-responsibility-two-mind work…)
Splendid and the best thing I’ve listened this year, so far. A classic. Highly recommended.
Have you ever heard of a statistical phenomenon called “standard deviation”? It shows how much variation or dispersion from the average (mean, also called expected value) exists. So, as a rule, its graphic expression is like a sneak that has eaten an elephant or the back of a dromedary, which is like a camel, except that it has only one hump. Bellow the hump stay the great majority of cases, meaning they stand for average values. Let’s take into account that those which detach to the left side tend to mediocrity, those which go to the opposite side to excellence.
Now, take Christian McBride’s “Out There”. This is his 11th album as a leader and “the most in demand bassist of his generation” is partnered by Christian Sands on piano and Ulysses Owens jr. on drums. Surely, McBride belongs to the right side of the hump and has been very busy for some time now, but did he need to make such an uninspiring recording, firmly settled on the left side of the bump, something Ray Brown (his alter ego) used to do more than forty years ago?
This is the third incarnation of The Ray brown Trio, the second being by drummer Jeff Hamilton and Tamir Hendelman. Is it necessary a third Ray Brown trio? In these days of cerebral players, should we seek works founded solely on chops exhibitionism? I can only speak on my behalf, but I tell you: this kind of playing has been long, long superseded. One more thing about this album: to say the quality of the recording is so-so is an understatement…
Speaking of Tamir Hendelman: Wanna listen to the real musician? Try his “Destinations” and you’ll see what he can do out of the Brown-Hamilton-Mcbride circle… Here, he comes along with Marco Panascia on bass and Lewis Nash on drums. This time, you get everything from his rides with Hamilton plus…emotion!, this being just the main reason of this art called music.
For a change, let me suggest two honest British trios: Tim Lapthorn (p), with Arnie Sonogyi (b) and Stephen Keogh (d) and David Newton (p), Andrew Cleyndert (b) and Colin Oxley (g). The first trio released an album called “Transport” and the latter “Out of This World”. Lapthorn is a young musician who seems to be still searching his own voice. He’s a little hesitant and plays a little too carefully but is a talented composer. All songs played are from his pen and their span brings a very good balance to the presentation. You have the trio alone, piano solo, the trio and voices and the trio plus strings which, per se, establishes the necessary contrasts any sequence of songs must have to avoid boredom. I’ll dispense myself with nominating the songs as they’re all unknown.
Newton is a seasoned artist who, in this set, relies on nine standards plus two of his own compositions. Besides the tune that names the album, the trio plays Who Cares, Valse Jaq, I’ll be seeing You, Por Toda a Minha Vida/O Grande Amor, All Grown Up, Lament, Looking at You, A Felicidade and Why Did I Choose You. The second and the fifth songs above listed were composed by himself.
Newton has great chops, and his easy-flow style tends to go better with lyric songs. And he uses this to very good effect. His solo work “12th of the 12th – A Jazz Portrait of Frank Sinatra” - an album I particularly like- depicts his way with songs. A casual jazz listener would be pleased with his latest album release and could take it for something of the easy-listening kind, but any attention a bit more than skin-deep would reveal a trio of great rapport, full of intricate articulations, which should award it the highest of accolades. All summed up this is a simple-sophisticated outing; not that easily found!
Anyway, if I were to choose one of them, I’d go for the Lapthorn album, but you could as well pick the latter, as did the editor of this blog.
Have you ever heard of Patricia Barber? So, please, ask her why she has SMASHED us (ouch!) with her latest album…

Oscar Castro-Neves 1940 - 2013

By Julio Maria at OEstadão
Após meses de luta contra um câncer, morreu ontem o músico Oscar Castro-Neves, aos 73 anos. Ele, que ajudou a divulgar a bossa nova no exterior, morava em Los Angeles, nos EUA. O tumor estava alojado inicialmente no estômago, depois tomou o fígado e passou por um processo de metástase, atingindo outros órgãos.
Sem a sofisticação de cabeças como a de Castro-Neves, formada por encadeamentos do jazz de Dizzie Gillespie e de Charlie Parker, a bossa nova seria reconhecida como um sambinha de luxo. Oscar não ficou como o nome de frente da turma por sua discrição – e por opção. Depois do histórico show da bossa nova no Carnegie Hall de Nova York, em 1962, ele foi um dos que preferiu não voltar ao País.
De Nova York, ele partir para a Califórnia, onde seguiu em excursão com o quinteto de Dizzie Gillespie, depois com o trio de Lalo Schifrin, o quarteto de Stan Getz e o quarteto de Laurindo de Almeida. Gravaria depois com Quincy Jones, com Ella Fitzgerald, com Herbie Hanckock, com Barbra Streisand e até com Michael Jackson. Ausente de sua terra, veria de longe a bossa ganhar muitos pais. João Gilberto, Tom Jobim, Baden Powell, Vinicius de Morais, Carlos Lyra, Roberto Menescal. Talvez o menos lembrado seja Oscar Castro-Neves.
Seu instrumento era o violão e sua cabeça era de maestro. Cantava, mas não se considerava um cantor. Sentia-se muito mais em casa quando se apresentava como compositor, arranjador, produtor e instrumentista. Sempre esteve bem acompanhado, desde o nascimento, quando veio ao mundo trigêmeo, em 15 de maio de 1940.
Não havia quem não tocasse um instrumento em sua casa. Era tanta informação que o menino de 16 anos já tinha música demais querendo sair de sua cabeça. A primeira delas foi Chora Tua Tristeza, a estreia de um adolescente como gente grande. Ela lhe veio quando ele estava dentro de uma Kombi, uma lotação, no Rio de Janeiro. Guardou cada um dos acordes imaginários na memória até chegar em casa, pegar o violão correndo e dar vida àquela criatura.
Formou um grupo com os irmãos até descobrir que a turma da zona sul do Rio de Janeiro tinha as mesmas intenções que ele. Correu para lá. De parceria em parceria, ganhou nome o bastante para ser designado o homem que ensaiaria todo mundo para a apresentação estelar do Carnegie Hall de 1962.
A bossa nova atracou nos mares da MPB e Oscar Castro-Neves seguiu em frente, retornando ao Brasil algumas vezes até estabelecer-se de vez nos Estados Unidos. Já tinha nome suficiente quando os anos 1970 chegaram. A indústria de filmes o descobriu como autor de trilhas sonoras e o contratou par fazer Blame it On Rio; Gabriela; LA Story; He Said, She Said; Larger Than Life.
Fez valer as aulas de instrumentação e arranjo que um dia teve com Moacir Santos, tornando-se também diretos de musicais e produtor de discos. Em 1999, associou-se ao violoncelista Yo Yo Ma e dele produziu Soul of Tango, com o qual voltaria ao calor dos holofotes conquistando o prêmio de "melhor crossover clássico".
Assinou ainda, durante seis anos, a noite brasileira do super evento norte-americano Hollywood Bowl, em Los Angeles. Contudo, era definido por seus próximos como um gentleman.

2 Sem 2013 - Part Eleven

David Newton/ Andrew Cleyndert/ Colin Oxley

Out Of This World 



By Dave Gelly
Piano, guitar and bass: one of the two classicjazz piano-trio formats. The other has drums instead of guitar and the difference is striking. With the three instruments on a more equal footing, and a generally cooler dynamic range, every note and phrase stands out clearly. It's the perfect set-up for these three. Newton, who spent 10 years as Stacey Kent's pianist, has a deliciously crystalline touch, well matched by Oxley's mellow guitar. Cleyndert is not only a masterly rhythm bassist; he produces a wonderfully rich cello-like tone with the bow. Outstanding tracks include a Gershwin rarity, Who Cares?, and two of Newton's own pieces, Valse Jaq and All Grown Up. No fireworks, but a set to relish.
Tracks:
1. Out of This World ; 2. Who Cares? ; 3. Valse Jaq ; 4. I'll Be Seeing You ; 

5. Por Toda Minha Vida/O Grande Amor ; 6. Laverne Walk ; 7. All Grown Up ; 8. Lament
9. Looking at You ; 10. A Felicidade ; 11. Why Did I Choose You?

Makoto Ozone/ Christian McBride/ Jeff "Tain" Watts
My Witch's Blue



By R. PeterssonA soft Makoto that highlights the tone and the melody. But be aware - there are also some upbeat that will take you away for a ride. But the main story here is a gentle Makoto Ozone with lovely intepretations of a well balanced bunch of tunes. Hank Jones is the name that comes to my mind if I have to compare his tone with someone. The rythm section is the best you can get and they do it. They really play as unit - a real trio recording in the good old school but with a great touch of modern playing. Highly recommended.
Recorded At – Avatar Studios
Mixed At – MSR Studios
Mastered At – Battery Studios, New York
Producer – Makoto Ozone, Makoto Shinohara
Recorded By, Mixed By – Joe Ferla
Mastered By – Mark Wilder
Recorded May 19-21, 2012
Tarcks:
Bouncing in My New Shoes; My Witch’s Blue; Gotta Get It !!; Longing for the Past
So Good!!; Take the Tain Train; Time We Spent Together; Nova Alvorada
Solo Improvisation “Continuum”; Satin Doll（An encore Track）


Alan Broadbent

Heart To Heart



By Dan Bilawsky
Pianist Alan Broadbent can't be accused of rushing to release his second solo piano album; Heart To Heart comes more than two decades after Broadbent initially took the solo plunge with Live At Maybeck Recital Hall, Volume 14 (Concord, 1991), but it was worth the wait.
While only Broadbent knows the exact reason for waiting so long to return to this format, it's safe to assume that it has something to do with his in-demand status in so many other musical arenas. Much of his work has been dedicated to the art of the trio, supportive sideman stints, and arranging jobs, leaving him precious little time to explore things on his own. Many people, in fact, aren't even aware of his pianistic prowess, knowing him only as the man who creates musical drapery for everybody from songbook kingpin Michael Feinstein to Natalie Cole to SirPaul McCartney; those people are missing out. Broadbent's piano work—solo or otherwise—is pure poetry in motion, filled with sophisticated musical trappings that tickle the ear and fuel the imagination.
The title of this album is a bit of a misnomer, giving the impression that Broadbent may be taking an introspective journey; that proves false from the get-go. Flowery gestures and stereotypical romantic notions are not sine qua non for solo piano success in Broadbent's world. He's far more likely to embark on a rhapsodic thrill ride than a ruminative walk on this one, and that's a good thing. He sprints along, as might be expected, on "Cherokee"; visits waltz territory with "Now And Then"; and plunges his hands into the heart of darkness on a riveting take ofOrnette Coleman's "Lonely Woman." A few numbers tend to be a tad more reflective than the rest, but none get bogged down in emotional indulgence; Broadbent is too good to fall into that trap.
Broadbent's bread and butter may be his arranging work, but his heart and soul have everything to do with his piano playing. Heart To Heart puts those thoughts in perspective for all to hear.
Track Listing: 

Hello My Lovely; Heart To Heart; Alone Together; Now And Then; Journey Home; Blue In Green; Love Is The Thing; Lonely Woman; Cherokee.
Personnel: Alan Broadbent: piano.


Pablo Ziegler & Metropole Orkest
Amsterdam Meets New Tango



By Scott Albin at JazzTimes
Pianist Pablo Ziegler will always be remembered for his auspicious role from 1978 to 1989 in Astor Piazzolla's transcendent New Tango Quintet. Upon Piazzolla's death in 1992, Ziegler became a key force in New Tango, his mentor's innovative blend of tango, jazz, and classical music. Ziegler plays both his own and Piazzolla's compositions in various settings while expanding upon Piazzolla's vision, and has drawn many jazz musicians into the fold, including Joe Lovano, Paquito D'Rivera, James Carter, Joe Locke, and Stefon Harris, all attracted by the challenge and passion of the music. This CD presents selections from a 2009 concert that brought together Ziegler's quartet with Amsterdam's Metropole Orkest, founded in 1945 and the world's largest pop and jazz orchestra, which has shared the stage with such artists as Andrea Bocelli, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, and Pat Metheny. It's a tribute to both the versatile musicianship of the Orkest's members, and Ziegler's ever-present inspiration, that the orchestra is able to play these arrangements of Ziegler's tunes with such conviction and authenticity. Ziegler's quartet includes Quique Sinesi on guitar, Walter Castro on bandoneon, and Quintino Cinalli on percussion and cajón, and while it's clear when someone from this group is soloing, this is not the case with the Orkest players since the CD notes provide no such details.
For "Buenos Aires Report," Ziegler's reverberating tones and the dissonance-tinged string section create a tense atmosphere to evoke "the chaotic, urban city of Buenos Aires." A magnetic uncredited trumpet solo, and Castro's fluid, expressive bandoneon outing precede Ziegler's energetic foray, as the Orkest blares behind him. A contrapuntal volley between strings and horns makes for an exciting finish capped by the pianist's jabbing, circular theme (first heard as the title tune of an earlier CD). The only non-Ziegler composition is Sinesi's "Milonga par Hermeto," dedicated to Hermato Pascoal, and it successfully captures Pascoal's harmonic and melodic personality. The infectious milonga rhythm builds up to the Orkest's interjection and the swirling them itself with Castro in the lead. The full textures at times give this piece a movie theme sound, but Sinesi's nimble, lucid solo, a brawny (uncredited) tenor sax statement, and Ziegler's prancing improv, with fiery orchestral support, bring things down-to-earth. The reprise has great climactic impact. Blues meets New Tango on "Blues Porteño." The initial bass ostinato is remindful of the one on the Beatles' "Come Together," and a darting Castro and bluesy Ziegler are backed by a sultry string orchestration that ebbs and flows gracefully. Sinesi contributes a subtle solo, while a saxophonist comes on more forcefully. Muted trumpets add to the overriding heady atmosphere.
"Desperate Dance" is in 7/4 rather than the usual 2/4 tango rhythm, as Ziegler visualizes "desperate dancers" trying hard to adjust to the novelty. His quartet and the Orkest have no such problem, with the dramatic, insistent pulse spurring a probing trombone solo, Castro's finely threaded trip, and an assertive trumpet turn. The zesty rhythmic framework serves as the main element of the arrangement's final section. The title "Murga del Amanecer" also defines a primitive rhythm from the 1920's of African origin. Ziegler's vamp and the strings lustily pave the way for Castro's recital of the celebratory theme. The Orkest appropriates the theme for itself in soaring fashion prior to dancing solos by Ziegler, Sinesi, and a trumpeter. The pianist entrances during the easing down of the out chorus. "Places" has a provocative melodic and rhythmic opening, and the variety of moods and harmonies in the sections that follow make this work very reminiscent of Piazzolla's modus operandi. Castro and Ziegler offer melancholy improvs prior to a more upbeat interlude sparked by the bandoneonist, Sinesi, and unyielding projections from the Orkest.
The slow waltz "Pájaro Angel" begins with interplay between Ziegler and Sinesi before romantic strings and horns emerge and oscillate around the pianist and guitarist's lyrical and thoughtful solos. This beautiful tune was originally written for a '70's episode of a popular Argentinian TV series of the same name, and was no doubt quite evocative of its subject matter. Ziegler composed "Buenos Aires Dark" during the tumultuous 2001 political crisis in Argentina. The orchestration is indeed dark and foreboding, with a biting Castro up front as he and the Orkest reach a crescendo that is transformed into a mournful interlude and then a staccato urgency that frames vibrant solos by a trombonist, Sinesi, and a tenor. Castro and Ziegler's tango rhythm launch the dramatic cry of protestation that comprises the finale. "Que Lo Parió" revolves around Malambo, an Argentinian folk rhythm danced to by the Gauchos, and is a tribute to the late author Robert "El Negro" Fontanarrosa and his comic strip "Inodoro Pereyra" that featured a Gaucho and his talking dog. The performance seems to portray the spirit and determination of the dancers, with Ziegler, Castro, and Sinesi cavorting gaily and a trombonist expounding with gusto. The Orkest's concluding passages mix whimsy with assertiveness to dizzying effect.

Lorenzo Tucci and Luca Mannutza

Lunar



By CDUniverse
Lunar is a journey into the magical freedom of Lorenzo Tucci and Luca Mannutza. Is there any need to say that 'Duke's Nightmare' is their eccentric and fascinating rework of 'Caravan', and Tucci at the drums delivers six minutes of pure magic? Hard to believe, there hasn't been any overdubbing. Is there any point in noticing that Mannutza switches from Lunar intro to Lunar , from piano to electronic keys and back with disarming simplicity? Or, is it pointless to mention their ability to express in music the uneasiness of a 'sidereal breakdown'? This musical journey at the end leaves us astonished and almost drunk, and exalts for the sureness with whom these musicians can afford unexpected drifts, swoops and loops....
Track Listing:
1 Jungle & Space; 2 Lunar Intro; 3 Lunar; 4 Moon Boots; 5 Voyager; 6 Avaria
7 Jet Leg; 8 Duke's Nightmare; 9 Tea for Two; 10 Earth; 11 Inception

2 Sem 2013 - Part Ten

Jeff Hamilton Trio

The Best Things Happen....



By Dr. Judith Schlesinger
The Best Things Happen' when you listen to Jeff Hamilton. He's universally acknowledged as one of the greatest drummers in jazz, whether he's swinging the Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra or waking up a famous ghost band by sitting in—I witnessed that once, and the before/after difference was stunning. Unmatched for chops, ears, and flair, Hamilton has led his own trio for nine years. Previously with the superb Larry Fuller and maestro Lynn Seaton, it now contains players who all live in the same city. Pianist Tamir Hendelman's Eastman composition degree shows in his imaginative arrangements, and bassist Christoph Luty has a fat sound and unerring sense of melody. Together they balance, challenge, and support each other wonderfully, fulfilling Hamilton's mandate that a trio should consist of three equal parts.
But enough with the background. From the irresistible swing of its first track, "I Love Being Here with You," this CD is a first-class ticket to musical fulfillment. The journey includes new twists on old favorites—for example, "Poinciana," while explicitly honoring the historic Ahmad Jamal version, lifts and lightens its familiar beat. Luty's innovative arrangement gives "C Jam Blues" a langorous morning-after feel, all slow and stretchy. The spirit of Oscar P. hovers happily over Hendelman—check out his precise parallel octaves on the closing burner, Hoagy Carmichael's "L'il Old Lady." Hendelman also provides an intriguing new setup to the quietly lustrous "Skylark," and he wrote the jubilant "Bennissimo" in tribute to pianist Benny Green, who trio-ed with Ray Brown and Hamilton in the early '90s.
As for the leader' while he's long-celebrated as a fully frontal player, Hamilton's brushwork is exceptionally elegant and judicious. You can hear this most clearly on Larry Golding's lovely "Moonbird" and the graceful "We'll Be Together Again," where his contribution is both crucial and nearly subliminal. All told, this CD is a fabulous ride, and highly recommended.
Track Listing: 

I Love Being Here with You, I Concentrate on You, We'll Be Together Again, I Didn't Know What Time It Was, Like a Lover, Poinciana, Bennissimo, The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing, Skylark, Moonbird, C Jam Blues, L'il Old Lady
Personnel: 

Jeff Hamilton (drums), Tamir Hendelman (piano), Christoph Luty (bass)

Julia Hülsmann Quartet

In Full View



By John Kelman
There's no denying the benefit of stable longevity, but neither is there anything wrong with change. Following three ACT recordings that featured her trio—together since Scattering Poems (ACT, 2003)—supporting a series of vocalists, Julia Hülsmann moved to ECM, where the pianist was afforded greater freedom to more fully explore her trio's potential on 2008's The End Of A Summer and 2011's Imprint. Both albums presented a trio beyond anything left to prove and functioning in thoroughly egalitarian fashion, both compositionally and in performance.
In Full View ups the ante, expanding Hülsmann's trio to a quartet with the addition of British trumpeter Tom Arthurs. Continuing Imprint's more outgoing direction has not come at the expense of the gentle elegance endemic to the trio's ECM debut; instead, Arthurs' voice expands the group's reach without losing anything carved out since Hülsmann's move to the label.
It's hard not to feel ex-ECM alum (and fellow UK-resident) Kenny Wheeler's influence—not just on Arthurs' playing, but in the quartet's overall engagement. Avoiding Wheeler's signature intervallic/stratospheric leaps but referencing the Canadian expat trumpeter's rich tone and melancholic approach to lyricism, Arthurs' broader interest in contemporary classicism and Afro-centric music afford the younger trumpeter his own specificity.
Some of the vibe from Wheeler's early ECM recordings—in particular the similarly configured, award-winning Gnu High (1976)—imbues Hülsmann's quartet, especially on drummer Heinrich Köbberling's "Forever Old," which manages to swing gently despite being in 5/4, and an initially darker, rubato piano/trumpet intro that leads to bassist Muellbauer's similarly odd-metered but smoothly flowing and gradually intensifying "Meander," its simmering pulse strengthened by the bassist's robust foundation and Köbberling's subtle shadings. Arthurs' episodic "Forgotten Poetry" is also underscored by a Wheeler connection, its deceptively simple melody weaving through some change-heavy balladry, time briefly contracting and expanding before settling into some understated interplay between Arthurs and Hülsmann until the trumpeter removes himself, ultimately leaving the pianist to ruminate over Muellbauer and Köbberling's firm yet pliant support.
The group also simmers on Muellbauer's quirky "Dedication," Hülsmann constructing a solo of near-perfect poetry, while the initial melody of the pianist's title track is doubled on bass and flugelhorn before a stronger groove leads first to an even more serpentine theme, doubled on horn and piano, before solos from Hülsmann and Arthurs emerge, dichotomic paradoxes of restrained energy that ultimately unfold over more fervent propulsion.
Fiest's "The Water" is one of three covers on In Full View—another change over previous sets' sole non-originals— but it's the best-known. Still, just as Hülsmann's cover of Seal's "Kiss From a Rose" was an unexpected gem on The End Of A Summer, covering Feist here proves the pianist's quartet as capable with a simpler song form as it is more complicated fare.
Beyond the obvious addition of a fourth voice, there's a stronger sense of effortless collective aplomb on In Full View. If Wheeler's spirit looms large over the session, Hülsmann could certainly do far worse; and if Arthurs is a permanent addition to the pianist's decade-old trio, where this sublime quartet goes next will be well worth the attention.
Track Listing: 

Quicksilver; Dunkel; Gleim; Forever Old; Spiel; Richtung Osten; The Water; Forgotten Poetry; Dedication; Snow, Melting; Meander; In Full View; Nana.
Personnel: 

Julia Hülsmann: piano; Tom Arthurs: trumpet, flugelhorn; Marc Muellbauer: double bass; Heinrich Köbberling: drums.


Enrico Rava

Rava On The Dance Floor



By Thom Jurek
Enrico Rava isn't the first jazz musician to cover the music of Michael Jackson. Nor, at 70, is he the most likely. (Younger men like Nicholas Payton, Christian Scott, and Robert Glasper would seemingly be more obvious candidates.) That said, with On the Dance Floor, the Italian trumpet legend takes on an entire album of tunes associated with Jackson. According to Rava, he wasn't even really aware of Jackson's music until a few days after his death; his wife was watching a concert video, he haphazardly took a look and listen and was riveted to the point of obsession. On the Dance Floor is not the usual tribute then, because it's not wrapped in grief. Instead, it's the mark of one master musician celebrating another -- Rava rightfully considers Jackson to be among the most important musicians of the 20th century. Recorded live in Rome with the large ensemble, Parco della Musica Jazz Lab, under the direction of trombonist Mauro Ottolini, Rava takes on some of Jackson's biggest hits and some of his less familiar numbers. The set opens with a ponderous, laid-back reading of "Speechless," on which Rava uses his trademark spacing and lyricism to find room for improvisation that reflects the Italian jazz tradition, theatrical and cinematic music, and the source material. While the orchestra isn't up to playing at the communicative level of the trumpeter's smaller groups, they don't need to be. They understand how to bring the funk and make it bubble and boil on the medley of "I Just Can't Stop Loving You"/"Smooth Criminal," "Thriller," and "Blood on the Dance Floor." That said, they also color ballads with enough emotion and sensitivity to allow Rava's own sense of exploratory admiration to come through as on the hinge piece, a beautiful cover of Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" that reflects much of the tenderness Jackson imbued it with. The reading of "Little Susie" wonderfully balances drama and melody. On the Dance Floor doesn't come off as one of Rava's more disciplined recordings -- it may indeed be his loosest -- but that's by design. It's a laid-back, accessible tribute recording that celebrates Jackson's music as an achievement, and offers jazz fans of all stripes a way into it.
Track Listing: 

Speechless; They Don't Care About Us; Thriller; Privacy; Smile; I Just Can't Stop Loving You/Smooth Criminal; Little Susie; Blood on the Dance Floor; History.
Personnel: 

Enrico Rava: trumpet: Andrea Tofanelli: trumpet, flugelhorn; Claudio Corvini: trumpet, flugelhorn; Mauro Ottolini: trombone, tuba; Daniele Tittarelli: alto saxophone, flute; Dan Kinzelman: tenor saxophone, clarinets; Franz Bazzani: keyboard; Giovanni Guidi: piano, Fender Rhodes, toy piano; Dario Deidda: bass; Mercello Gianni: electric guitar; Zena de Rossi: drums; Ernesto Lopez Maturell: percussion.

Rosario Giuliani & Franco D'Andrea

Duets For Trane



By Scott Yanow
Altoist Rosario Giuliani is not well known outside of his native Italy, but he should be. On the inspired outing Duets for Trane, he performs nine songs composed by John Coltrane as duets with pianist Franco d'Andrea. The interplay between the musicians is reminiscent of Lee Konitz and Lennie Tristano; in fact, this set gives one an idea of what Konitz and Tristano might have sounded like if they had explored a full set of Coltrane tunes. Their interpretations are fresh and extend the ideas of the songs, which not only include the minor blues "Equinox" and "Giant Steps" but a 12-and-a-half minute rendition of the themes from "A Love Supreme." The memorable set concludes with Giuliani playing unaccompanied on "Solo for Trane." A classic of its kind.
Recording information: 

Interface Studio, Lavinio (06/17/1997). Photographer: Pieroni Carlo. Translator: Giordano Pietroni. Personnel: 

Rosario Giuliani (alto saxophone); Franco D'Andrea (piano). 

Liner Note Author: Paolo Piangiarelli.
Tracks:
1 Equinox ; 2 Countdown ; 3 Naima ; 4 Giant Steps ; 5 Central Park West
6 Some Other Blues ; 7 Love Supreme ; 8 Like Sonny ; 9 Lonnie's Lament ; 10 Solo for Trane


Denny Zeitlin

Both/And: Solo Electro-Acoustic Adventures 



By Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Denny Zeitlin has the distinction—among many others—of having written one of the loveliest of loves songs: "Love Theme From Invasion of the Bodysnatchers." The tune can be heard in its unadorned beauty on Zeitlin's Precipice (Sunnyside Records, 2010), the recording of an extraordinarily beautiful and adventurous solo concert. The original version of the tune, from the soundtrack of the 1978 movie, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers(1978)—a masterful remake of the classic 1954 science fiction film—was Zeitlin's lone effort at writing for film. Hired originally to do a "jazz" score, Zeitlin found it necessary—when plans changed—to convince the powers-that-be that he was indeed capable of writing music for symphony orchestra and electronics—the then-new-on-the scene synthesizers.
Zeitlin had experience with synthesizers. His Expansion (Arch Records, 1973) and Syzygy (Arch Records, 1977) had prepared the pianist for the electronics work. His preparation for working with a symphony orchestra? Essentially non-existent, until the opportunity presented itself with the soundtrack, which turned out to be a rousing success, a perfect accompaniment to one of the great sci-fi movies of all time.
But it was an enormous effort. Working with the cumbersome synthesizers of the day and directing a symphony orchestra had made it necessary for Dr. Denny Zeitlin to put another of his life's passions, his psychiatric practice, on hold for a time; so, in the wake of this successful foray, pianist Denny Zeitlin took a thirty-plus year hiatus from electronic and symphonic music and immersed himself mostly piano trio and solo work, acoustic style, offering up the previously-mentioned Precipice, Labyrinth (Sunnyside Records, (2011), and Wherever You Are: Midnight Moods for Solo Piano (Sunnyside Records, 2012), for a marvelous recent track record—totally acoustic—that makes Both/And, which is subtitled Solo Electro-Acoustic Adventures, such a surprise.
Zeitlin says he always wanted to be an orchestra. The new-millennial technological advances in the equipment for electronic music creation make that possible, on a CD that blends electric, electro-symphonic and acoustic sounds in fresh ways.
"Meteorology," a nod to the fusion group Weather Report, announces Zeitlin's artistic gear shift. A funky bass line is soon joined by towering electronics, majestic, glowing washes of neon color backed by zooming, precision, synthetic hand clap percussion, followed by a gorgeous and introspective acoustic piano interlude, with an electro-chorus singing in—a marvelous minor symphony adeptly done.
If the opener is a minor symphony, the thirteen minute "Dystopian Uprising" is a moody symphony. A masterpiece that evokes the unsettled mood of a world gone terribly wrong. Atmospheric and gloomy, full of impending dread, Zeitlin's acoustic piano backed by "strings" has the feeling of a soundtrack more perfect, perhaps, than even his "Bodysnatchers" work—a complex piece of music all the more beautiful for its mostly-restrained-but-vivid exploration of a darkening existence.
If "Dystopian Uprising" is a moody symphony, the five part,twenty-three minute "Monk-y Business Revisited" is a major one. Zeitlin has expressed—after thirty-plus years of working in the acoustic mode—some dissatisfaction with the timbrel limitations of he solo piano and piano trio formats. With synthesizer/electronics, the timbrel possibilities are pretty much endless, and Zeitlin exploits those possibilities very deftly, whether with the spacey harmonic glow on "Intro and Main Theme" of "Dystopian Uprisings," or the eerie electric warble of the opening of "Into the Funk;" or the same section's near-authentic—in terms of reproducing the acoustic sounds of that instrumentation—string and percussion work.
Electronics have been creeping into the world of jazz music bit-by-bit. Denny Zeitlin embraces the format and marries it to the acoustic side with a rare finesse. Both/And, is an extraordinary work of art. A masterpiece? Maybe. Time will tell. Denny Zeitlin is an orchestra, one that uses an acoustic/electronic blend with a master's touch, to transcend even the "timbrel limitations" of the orchestral format, creating his finest and most compelling work.
Track Listing: 

Meteorology; Dawn; Tiger, Tiger; Kathryn's Song; Dystopian Uprising; Charango Dream; Monk-y Business: Intro and Main Theme; Into the funk; Waltzing to Memories;Piano Seque; Audio Kaleidoscope and Finale.
Personnel: 

Denny Zeitlin: acoustic piano, synthesizers, keyboards.

Sam Most 1930 - 2013

By Peter Keepnews on June 22, 2013
Sam Most, a flutist who helped bring his instrument into the modern jazz mainstream, died on June 13 in Woodland Hills, Calif. He was 82.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, his twin sister, Ruth Labensky, said.
In 1952, when he recorded the flute feature “Undercurrent Blues,” Mr. Most was an accomplished jazz saxophonist and clarinetist who, like many reed and woodwind players, played flute only occasionally. Jazz flute was not much more than a novelty at the time, and it was virtually absent from recordings or performances in the modern style known as bebop. “Undercurrent Blues” displayed the instrument’s potential in a new way and, while not a big hit, caught the ear of many musicians.
“When I started playing jazz on flute,” Herbie Mann, the first jazz flutist to achieve widespread popularity, once said, “there was only one record out: Sam Most’s ‘Undercurrent Blues.’ ” By the early 1960s, flutes were almost as common as saxophones in jazz ensembles.
Mr. Mann and many other jazz flutists, including Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Yusef Lateef and Hubert Laws, have acknowledged Mr. Most — and especially his unusual technique of humming into the flute while playing — as an early influence. Charles Mingus once called him “the world’s greatest jazz flutist.”
Samuel Most was born on Dec. 16, 1930, in Atlantic City, and grew up in the Bronx. His parents, Jacob Most and the former Dora Kaplan, were immigrants from Lithuania. His older brother, Abe, was a prominent jazz clarinetist while Sam was growing up.
Mr. Most studied at City College and the Manhattan School of Music and became a professional musician at 17. He spent time with the big bands of Tommy Dorsey, Don Redman and others before forming his own small group.
After recording prolifically as both a leader and a sideman and touring with Buddy Rich from 1959 to 1961, Mr. Most moved west and settled into lucrative but anonymous work in Los Angeles studios and Las Vegas showrooms. He continued to record in a jazz context on occasion and released a number of critically praised albums on the Xanadu label in the late 1970s. His later projects included an album of unaccompanied alto flute improvisations.
He was the subject of a 2001 documentary, “Sam Most, Jazz Flutist.”
In addition to Ms. Labensky, Mr. Most is survived by another sister, Frances Tutshen, and a brother, Bernard. His brother Abe died in 2002.

George Gruntz 1932 - 2013

By John Fordham
George Gruntz obituary
Swiss pianist, composer and bandleader famed for his innovative Concert Jazz Band

When the jazz pianist George Gruntz's Concert Jazz Band played at Ronnie Scott's club in London a dozen years ago, they caught listeners unawares with a blend of the ambiguities and mysterious undercurrents of Gil Evans's partnerships with Miles Davis, and the punch and power of a conventional swing group. Gruntz, who has died aged 80, was one of the few internationally acclaimed Swiss-born jazz musicians, and had an unusually broad vision.
It was his Concert Jazz Band – or just plain CJB – under Quincy Jones's baton that backed an ailing Davis in 1991, on the trumpeter's swansong visits to the classic scores from Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, and Sketches of Spain. No bandleader could have been better suited than Gruntz to furnishing a premier-league international orchestra in his homeland for one of the historic events of late 20th-century jazz.
A native of Basel, Gruntz studied at conservatoires there and in Zurich. In his mid-20s he became a member of Swiss swing-to-bop saxophonist Flavio Ambrosetti's groups, and in 1958 he performed and recorded at the Newport jazz festival, as a member of American trombonist and educator Marshall Brown's International Youth Band. Gruntz played for the Youth Band's Yugoslavian representative, the trumpeter Duško Goyković (1960-61), and then in a bebop trio that accompanied American stars including Donald Byrd, Dexter Gordon and Lee Konitz on their trips to Europe. From 1963 Gruntz – who had previously been supporting himself as a car salesman – devoted himself exclusively to music, touring with the vocalist Helen Merrill, and performing in the saxophonist Phil Woods' European Rhythm Machine (1968-69).
In 1964 he aired his classical-harpsichord skills on the crossover album Jazz Goes Baroque. Three years later he explored Middle Eastern instruments for the Bedouin-inspired project Noon in Tunisia, and showed his openness to free-jazz in 1969 in a brief partnership with Ornette Coleman's trumpeter Don Cherry. The restlessly energetic Gruntz was also music director of Zurich's Schauspielhaus theatre (1970-84), and artistic director of Berlin's prestigious international jazz festival, the Berliner Jazztage (1972-94).
Gruntz combined these assignments with a busy schedule as an innovative bandleader and player, working in the 1970s with his unique Piano Conclave – a six-piano band plus rhythm section, which at various times employed such European piano stars as Martial Solal, Joachim Kühn and Gordon Beck. He premiered his settings for The Rape of Lucrece at Southwark Cathedral in 1975, and two years later composed a complex percussion-orchestra piece for the Montreux jazz festival.
Principally, however, this was the period in which his most famous big-band creation, the CJB, came into its own. In 1972 Gruntz had become a co-founder of a large ensemble, the Band, with Ambrosetti, his trumpeter son Franco, and Swiss drummer and painter Daniel Humair. Six years later, Gruntz took over the group, renamed it, and made it a successful and stylistically broad outfit that toured the world, with American heavyweights including singer Sheila Jordan, guitarist John Scofield and saxophonist Dave Liebman in the lineup at various times. The band was augmented by former Evans sidemen for Davis's famous farewell at the 1991 Montreux jazz festival, and the following year they were invited to China, on the first official jazz tour of that country.
A democratic, charming and humorous bandleader, Gruntz meticulously wrote at least two featured spots per gig for all his soloists on the band's tours, frequently featured band-members' original compositions, and regularly picked up the tab for high-class restaurant evenings with his players on the road.
Gruntz also wrote Money: A Jazz Opera with the American poet Amiri Baraka in 1982 and the following year he wrote the oratorio The Holy Grail of Jazz and Joy. In 1988 he collaborated with the beat poet Allen Ginsberg on the opera Cosmopolitan Greetings. The most ambitious of these ventures was Chicago Cantata – commissioned by the city's jazz festival in 1991 – a mix of jazz, blues, soul and gospel music with the Art Ensemble of Chicago's Lester Bowie and Malachi Favors, saxophonist Von Freeman, and gospel stars Pops Staples and the Norfleet Family in the lineup.
Radio Days, a 10-CD retrospective of Gruntz's works, was released in 2007, and though in declining health, the irrepressible maestro performed in the US with the CJB late in 2012. The long-time Gruntz trumpeter Marvin Stamm described him as "the face of Swiss jazz, and a strong enough presence to gather a slew of top American and European players into his Concert Jazz Band, many of whom … returned again and again".
Gruntz is survived by his wife, Lilly, a son and a daughter.
• George Paul Gruntz, jazz pianist and bandleader, born 24 June 1932; died 10 January 2013

2 Sem 2013 - Part Nine

Marc Cary

For The Love Of Abbey



By Selwyn Harris at JazzWise
The soulful pianist Marc Cary is a long time New York resident who has worked with everyone from high-level American mainstream post-boppers such as Stefon Harris and Roy Hargrove (who featured on some of Cary’s own recordings in the mid-1990s) through to the hip hop legend Q-Tip and neo-soul diva Erykah Badu. But right up there with the career highlights so far are his alliances with jazz vocalists, and not just any jazz vocalists: Cary spent a few years in the 1980s and 90s on tour with Betty Carter before starting a 12-year stint with Abbey Lincoln that lasted until 2006. That’s where this recording comes in; it’s a solo piano set dedicated to Lincoln – the singer and her songs – who passed away in 2010.
Released on the Harlem-based Motéma label, Cary’s playing is packed with drama: orchestral-like ripples and flourishes, richly sustained chords, tremolos and pedal points, but the pianist is also grounded in the earthy rhythms and incantatory folk-melody of the African-American tradition, with McCoy Tyner an important influence on his playing. Yet at the same time he is able to capture the essence of Lincoln’s 13 songs here, and their piercing melancholy (Duke Ellington’s ‘Melancholia’ previously released by Cary, is the odd exception but he says Lincoln loved to hear him play it), much of it drawn from her post-1990s recordings for Verve. The most well known among them are the wonderful, and much loved, ‘Music is the Magic’ and ‘Throw it Away’. The best advice would be to get to know something of Lincoln’s back catalogue first for a more thorough understanding of where Cary’s passionate love letter to the lady is coming from.


Joel Weiskopf

Change In My Life



By C. Andrew Hovan
At times living in the shadow of brother Walt, pianist Joel Weiskopf is a serious jazz pianist with an individualistic style that is an amalgam of a great number of influences from American jazz to Brazilian samba. His third date for Criss Cross finds him returning to the trio format of his debut set for the label a few years back. This time around he brings along for the ride two vital members of Wayne Shorter’s current quartet, namely bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade.
All of the pieces on the hour-long set are Weiskopf originals with titles that allude to the pianist’s strong sense of spirituality. Very much steeped in the McCoy Tyner tradition, Weiskopf speaks with a bell-like tone and a sense of clarity in his solos that is simply remarkable. Post bop sensibilities are at the heart of most of the pieces here, but particularly distinctive is "Righteousness, Peace, and Joy" with its funky beat and in-the-pocket feel. Patitucci lets loose with one of his best solos on this one and Blade keeps everything on the up and up. Other highlights include a heartfelt "Song For My Grandmother" and the shifting accents of "Day of Rejoicing." A mature and advanced player of considerable talents, Weiskopf is at his best here on this most rewarding trio effort. Hopefully it’s one that will bring him even more name recognition.


Francesco Bearzatti: Bizart Trio + Rava

Hope



By Marco Losavio, Alceste Ayroldi per Jazzitalia
IIa prova del BizartTrio capeggiato dal sassofonista Francesco Bearzatti. Con Aldo Romano alla batteria (…e chitarra) ed Emmanuel Bex all'organo, dopo oramai tanti concerti insieme, il trio si muove in modo assolutamente equilibrato nei ruoli, nelle dinamiche, nelle intenzioni e nelle invenzioni musicali.
E' un trio in cui ad ogni azione dell'uno corrisponde una reazione dell'altro spesso quasi anticipata e comunque sempre assolutamente on time. Il trio è talmente ben rodato da permettersi di ospitare senza "costrizioni" la tromba di Enrico Rava il quale, a sua volta, si colloca all'interno dell'impianto sonoro con estrema naturalezza. Lo dimostrano i brani che vedono il trombettista ospite, a cominciare da T Tango in cui Rava sfodera un ottimo solo che aumenta l'intensità del pezzo sino a cogliere dei sovracuti che diventano l'idea iniziale del solo di Bearzatti il quale coglie perfettamente "l'urlo finale" della tromba di Rava come in un ideale, armonioso, passaggio di testimone. La sonorità della tromba ben si integra anche in Caorle, consueto omaggio alle sue origini questa volta sotto forma di bossa nova. Così come nello scenario da sala da ballo anni '50 evocato da Soap Bubble, dove i due fiati conducono la loro danza all'unisono, sorretta dalle armonie insistenti di Bex.
Nel duo con la chitarra classica suonata da Aldo Romano, Enrico Rava interpreta soavemente il melanconico Assenza su cui, forse, sarebbe stato interessante ascoltare il tenore di Bearzatti. Ed è proprio il tenore di Bearzatti a convincere più di ogni altra cosa: una voce splendida, una capacità interpretativa di spessore al punto da sembrare che parli direttamente con l'ascoltatore. E questo lo si può apprezzare in ogni brano persino nell'esecuzione rock di Endless of this Love dove lo stridore del sax si mescola al suono distorto della chitarra fino a confondersi formando quasi una voce corale. Ma Bearzatti, si sa, ama anche il clarinetto che usa con rimarchevoli risultati nel brano dal sapore parigino, Il Camino di Aldo Romano, riuscendo a far immaginare proprio un vecchio camino nell'intento di raccontare secoli di storia che gli sono scorsi dinanzi. Su questo brano va però una particolare nota di merito a Emmanuel Bex che all'organo supporta Bearzatti non solo nel sostegno ritmico e armonico ma anche improvvisando tempestivamente frasi che si contrappuntano in modo esemplare. Un altro esempio emblematico dell'intesa che esiste tra questi musicisti.
In From Halab to Damascus è ancora il clarinetto di Bearzatti a guidarci, questa volta, tra i vicoli di una fusione di suoni tra l'Arabia più pura e le contaminazioni mittileuropee dell'hammond di Bex, con i tempi dettati dal magrebino tambureggiare di Romano.
Accattivanti le rincorse asistoliche di Kids, sospinte da un veloce drumming e da sonorità ancora una volta piuttosto fuori dagli schemi.
Su Aldo Romano non si può dire assolutamente nulla se non che presenzia con classe e maestrìa, con saggezza e regolarità qualsiasi sia la direzione intrapresa dalla loro musica divenendone interprete ed ispiratore al tempo stesso al pari dei suoi compagni.
Il CD si chiude con la title track, Hope, la quale merita un particolare encomio non tanto per la coinvolgente e bella linea melodica o per l'arrangiamento, quanto per l'emozione che riesce a trasmettere nei suoi undici minuti in cui si passa dal soft-funk al quasi jungle offrendo un escursus di tutto ciò che è racchiudibile all'interno di una semplice parola inneggiante alla speranza di un mondo migliore, di un uomo migliore, di un destino migliore. Durante l'ascolto di questa composizione, non possono non scorrere nella mente dell'ascoltatore immagini, eventi che purtroppo oramai caratterizzano costantemente la nostra attualità. Rimane una grande speranza, che tutto ciò non diventi inconsapevolmente una consuetudine…Bearzatti, in una performance di assoluto rilievo, si rende portavoce ideale di questo auspicio riuscendo a porre nell'esecuzione di Hope tutta la sua interiorità maggiormente ravvisabile nel meraviglioso primo minuto di introduzione solitaria del sax.
E la speranza risiede proprio nel recondito desiderio di poter ascoltare solo le dolci note che pervadono il tema anziché gli scenari più apocalittici che sono alimentati, nell'immaginario, dai passaggi più elettronici presenti nel brano.
Il Bizart trio si colloca senza dubbio tra le più interessanti espressioni musicali attualmente in circolazione riuscendo a dosare avanguardia, melodia, tradizione e coinvolgendo l'ascoltatore in un inebriante percorso musicale.

Tracklist:

1 T Tango 7:35; 2 Soap Bubble 5:56 ; 3 From Halab To Damascus 4:55
4 Caorle 5:13 ; 5 End Of This Love 3:38 ; 6 Assenza 2:44 ; 7 Il Camino 3:49 

8 Body-Trap 4:30 ; 9 Kids 4:45 ; 10 Hope 11:44

Line-up/Musicians:

Guitar – Enrico Terragnoli (track 5),Aldo Romano (track 6)
Organ [Hammond] Oscar Marchioni (track 5)

Vocals – Francesco Bearzatti (track 10)
Drums – Aldo Romano,Paolo Mappa (tracks 5,10)
Organ, Electronics – Emmanuel Bex
Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet, Keyboards – Francesco Bearzatti
Trumpet – Enrico Rava (tracks: 1, 2, 4, 6, 9)


Fabizio Bosso & Javier Girotto: Latin Mood
Vamos



By DustyGroove
A sparkling set of Latin jazz, done the Schema way – which means that the team of Favrizio Bosso and Javier Girotto are even tighter than on their previous release for Blue Note! The best tracks here bristle with an upbeat sense of rhythm that's undeniable – grooves that roll out beautifully from the sextet, spurred on with unified energy that's way more than the usual Latin style – very unique, and wonderfully groovy! Bosso's trumpet is as top-shelf as always, a great solo vehicle for the group – and Girotto plays both soprano and baritone sax with a deft touch – alongside drums from Lorenzo Tucci, plus keyboards, bass, and percussion too – all live instrumentation that puts this one more firmly on the jazz side of the Schema spectrum. Titles include "Sophia", "Vamos", "Waltz Del Clavel", "Algo Contigo", "El Mastropiero", "Mathias", "Africa Es", and a surprisingly great version of "In A Sentimental Mood".

Tim Lapthorn

Transport



By EastWind
British pianist Tim Lapthorn (b. 1976) began his professional career after graduating from the Guildhall School of Music in London with a jazz postgraduate degree in 2000, and has performed and recorded with his own trio as well as leading jazz musicians such as Chris Potter, Eddie Henderson and Robben Ford.
His fourth, and debut album from the Japanese label Spice of Life, Transport purely consists of original compositions featuring solo, trios and larger ensemles (including with string quartet ). Lapthorn's music is characterized by simple, accessible melodies and lyricism, drawing from jazz, blues, clasical, folk and Brazilian influences.
Beautifully recorded and brimming with lyrical creativity, this is one of the top piano-centric jazz releases of 2012!
Recorded in London, 2011.
Tim Lapthorn (piano)
Arnie Somogyi (bass)
Stephen Keogh (drums)

Terence Blanchard

Magnetic



By Mark F. Turner
One of today's foremost jazz musicians and composers Terence Blanchard's achievements have soared since his formative days in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers to a trajectory of successful bands, recordings and award winning film scores such as 2007'sA Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina) (Blue Note). He's still pursuing new challenges with the upcoming June 2013 premiere of his first opera— entitled Champion, "An Opera In Jazz"— based on the life of world champion boxer Emile Alphonse Griffith.
Blanchard's ideas are still thriving in his twentieth release and return to Blue Note withMagnetic—a vibrant recording colored with the usual consummate performances, and a modernist bent that's replete with compelling themes. The ten compositions are written by various band members consisting of drummer Kendrick Scott, pianist Fabian Almazan, the unfaltering tenor saxophonist Brice Winston and the addition of 21-year-old bass prodigyJoshua Crumbly.
This indicates another clue to Blanchard's vibrancy: his unselfishness mentoring and willingness to learn from younger musicians—one time acolytes and now leaders—like drummerEric Harland, pianist Edward Simon, and West African guitarist Lionel Loueke who guests here on two tracks and also performed on Blanchard's previous Blue Note dates: Bounce (2003) andFlow (2007). Blanchard gives his band members plenty of opportunities to shine. Almazan's "Pet Step Sitter's Theme Song" features a larger-than-life theme with Blanchard's electronically processed trumpet, virtuosic piano work, and Loueke's usual finesse touches on guitar and vocalizations. Crumbly's elegant and stirring ballad "Jacob's Ladder" and Winston's tightly wound swinger "Time To Spare" are memorable and revealing of the artist's multiple talents.
Magnetic's theme rolls out like some galactic metropolis—vast, complex and colored with futuristic techno embellishments. Yet the music is always filled with Blanchard's elongated lines and emotional urgency as found in the opening title track and the moody dreamscape in "Hallucinations." Swing is also a constant element, proven in "Don't Run" as Ravi Coltrane's soprano burns and Ron Carter's muscular bass walks true with bopping precision. Other vivid moments are found in Scott's brilliant "No Borders Just Horizons" where the music moves with feverish intensity and Almazan's superb acoustic/electronic-enhanced solo track "Comet."
These individual threads are intricately woven together by Blanchard's masterful leadership, musicianship, and openness. It's a fine return to Blue Note and another exceptional release in Blanchard's extensive and continuing discography.
Track Listing: 

Magnetic; Jacob’s Ladder; Don’t Run; Pet Step Sitter’s Theme Song; Hallucinations; No Borders Just Horizons; Comet; Central Focus; Another Step; Time To Spare.
Personnel: 

Terence Blanchard: trumpet; Fabian Almazan: piano; Kendrick Scott: drums; Brice Winston: tenor saxophone (1, 2, 5, 6, 10); Joshua Crumbly: bass (2, 4-6, 8-10) Ron Carter: bass (1, 3); Ravi Coltrane: soprano saxophone (3), tenor saxophone (4); Lionel Loueke: guitar (4, 5, 9).


Marian McPartland

Twilight World



By Ken Dryden
With her long-running series on public radio, Marian McPartland has seemed to many fans to always be a part of jazz. Just a few months shy of celebrating her 90th birthday at the time of these 2007 sessions, the pianist demonstrates why she has been able to play with so many different guests on her program. But this is a regular trio date with her attentive, longtime rhythm section, bassist Gary Mazzaroppi and drummer Glenn Davis. It's hard not to be enchanted immediately with new versions of her upbeat "Twilight World" and the elegant "In the Days of Our Love," the latter played with a hint of looking back on life without getting overly sentimental. McPartland has long been praised as a masterful interpreter of ballads, so her lyrical takes of "Close Enough for Love" and "Alfie" only serve to reinforce her strength in that department. Her good friend, the late Alec Wilder, penned the lush, intricate ballad with her in mind, and it is hard to imagine the notoriously hard-to-please composer (whose frequent comment, according to Marian, was "Play the melody!") not being overjoyed with McPartland's warm rendition. She also delves into the works of other jazz composers with equal enthusiasm, including two spirited explorations of songs by Ornette Coleman, John Lewis' spry "Afternoon in Paris," and a shimmering take of the modal masterpiece "Blue in Green" that is notable for its imaginative introduction. Marian McPartland's Twilight World is among the very best CDs of her long, impressive career.
Track Listing: 

Twilight World; The Days Of Love; Turn Around; Close Enough For Love; How Deep Is The Ocean; Alfie; Lonely Woman; Blue In Green; Afternoon In Paris; Stranger In A Dream; Blackberry Winter.
Personnel: 

Marian McPartland: piano; Gary Masaroppi: bass; Glen Davis: drums.

2 Sem 2013 - Part Eight

Idea6

Metropoli



By Franco Fayenz
The professional listener, especially if seasoned, develops personal preferences with time: styles, composers, performers (and composer-performers when the music is improvised). But he must try to keep them in the shadows, as much as possible, in the silence of the critical conscience. The author of these notes is a journalist who has been writing about music, and jazz in particular, for almost half a century. Let's put aside the great music of Europe, which is not discussed here. Instead, let's stop and consider the vortical path traveled by jazz in the past fifty years, the sudden changes of tack, the revivals, the flights forward. He who was very young at the end of the 50s, after having, with some difficulty, approached the explosion of modern jazz, had to read up on the past of jazz and its origins, especially after having resolved to choose this music among the fundamental elements of his work. He had to attempt to be neither traditionalist nor modernist, but rather observe day after day what was happening to Afro-American music in the United States, Europe and Italy.
In Italy modern jazz had difficulty catching on but managed to with many sacrifices by the musicians who gave preference to these expressions (they did it, let's be honest, because unlike others they had the option). Two of them are amazing seventy-year-olds, Gianni Basso and Dino Piana, who are the characterizing protagonists of Idea6. In those days, they acknowledged the supremacy and mastery of the American virtuosos (some had already stopped). However, they soon realized that they were able to compete with them and, in any case, provide a personal touch. Without their contribution, who knows when, or even if Italian modern jazz would have taken off. Here they are, now. None of their good old shine has been lost, but actually enhanced by maturity and experience: Basso, capable of extreme sweetness, aggressive episodes and seductive phrasing; Piana, who thrills the listener with the solemn sound acquired by the jazz trombone in the 50s and 60s and still going strong.
The other four are younger (or much younger). They drew near the music coming from across the Atlantic in different contexts, but perfectly fit into the atmosphere suggested by the two illustrious soloists and actively contribute to it, offering in turn sequences of superb effectiveness. I'm especially thinking of the input given to compositions (and improvisations) which belong to previous generations, such as Metropoli by Gianni Ferrio, listening to which this aging reporter must be careful and not to give way to nostalgia, or Pittura by Enrico Intra, Train Up by Sandro Brugnolini, Autumn in Milano by Gianni Basso. The result is an excellent CD.
I fear, at this point, that I have given myself away. However mine is neither a preference for the type of music that was the background of youth; nor (but perhaps a little) for the clear and immediate sounds which, though at times complex, never pass through the suffering of the listener. It is the preference for beauty.

1) Metropoli (G.Ferrio) 4.23
2) New born (F.Piana) 8.10
3) Minor Mood (F.Piana) 5.44
4) Pittura (intra) 5.09
5) Train up (Brugnolini ) 5.04
6) Windly Coast ( R.Pistocchi) 4.20
7) Vivacità (F.Piana E. Valdambrini) 5.56
8) Marmaris (R.Pistocchi) 7.19
9) Autumn in Milano (Gianni Basso) 6.15
10) Tokyo Lullaby (R.Pistocchi) 5.25

Mario Nappi feat. Javier Girotto
Thank You




By Fabio Caprera
La musica di Thank You la senti che si avvicina di soppiatto, con discrezione, quasi che non debba arrecare disturbo. Si pone in maniera semplice, diretta, come quelle piante che crescono lentamente giorno dopo giorno, e ci si accorge di loro solo dopo che hanno coperto l'intera parete. L'arte di Mario Nappi somiglia a quel tipo di piante. Il suo pianismo, le sue composizioni, danno l'impressione di accarezzare le superfici, di sfiorarle, di evitare qualsiasi contatto fisico.
Naturalmente è solo un'impressione perché bastano pochi ascolti per rendersi conto che quelle melodie ti sono entrate nella testa e le stai elaborando. Il suo tocco delicato - impreziosito da una nostalgica vena blues e dai colori mediterranei - moderno, fatto di poche note profondamente melodiche, ti seduce al primo istante. Canzone Appassiunata, brano d'apertura del disco è anche la summa di tutto questo. È una ballad, eseguita in trio, carica di pathos e tensione narrativa. Forse, il pezzo più bello del cd. Thank You, la title track, si apre sulla scia del precedente, ma ha un profilo più arioso, orchestrale, con la voce di Martina Nappi e il soprano di Girotto che si libra con insistenti fraseggi e volute di alta scuola. È sempre il sassofonista in un soliloquio al soprano ad aprire Bon Aurio, una ballad intensa che rievoca melodie argentine cadenzate dal pianismo di Nappi, sincrono con il basso e la batteria. Il disco procede con favore di vento, le composizioni di Nappi si ritagliano spazi all'interno di un progetto che con Girotto collega due porti e due mondi di eguale sensibilità. La musica enigmatica de Il Dubbio di Medeasi stempera nella fresca composizione intitolata Flowers, una tavolozza di colori dove il sax di Girotto ha le sembianze di una farfalla che salta di qua e di là tastando fiori fatti di brillanti cromie. Forse quello È Il Senso della Vita e Nappi lo suona con "saggezza popolare" alla fisarmonica. Il mainstream di My Secret Place, un pezzo bluesy, rinforzato dalla chitarra di Luongo e dalla ritmica di Sergio Di Natale, prepara la svolta finale di Memories of Pain. Il brano chiude in dolcezza, una sorta di title track filmica, il primo trailer musicale di Mario Nappi, la prova da leader. Girotto ne screzia i colori al baritono dandogli un tono nostalgico, da ricordi sognati.


Oltremare Quartet

Uncommon Nonsense



By London Jazz News
Although first impressions of the music made by the Oltremare Quartet might bring Iain Ballamy’s wistful but deceptively robust lyricism to mind, it is also easy to identify another (acknowledged) influence on bassist/leader Andrea Di Biase’s thoughtful, gently insinuating compositional style: Kenny Wheeler.
Saxophonist Michael Chillingworth moves unfussily between the earnest, slightly plaintive approach demanded by the album’s more restrained fare and the fiery pep appropriate to its livelier moments (a particular highlight pianist Antonio Zambrini’s driving tumultuous “Chanson”, and the rhythm section (completed by ubiquitous drummer Jon Scott) is also adaptable and skilful enough to purr quietly through the contemplative moments but rattle and roll under, for instance, the scalding piano solos of more rumbustious pieces such as “Even Shorter”.
Zambrini, indeed, irresistibly draws the ear to both his boisterous, often grandiloquent up-tempo runs and his restrained musings on more temperate compositions, but overall it is the quality and variety of Di Biase’s writing and the uncontrived versatility of the quartet – sweet-sounding and punchily muscular as required – that impresses about this classy, enjoyable album.

Arnold Klos Trio

Peace Piece




By EastWind
Dutch veteran pianist Arnold Klos is considered to be firmly in the Bill Evans school of the jazz piano tradition. In his sixth release from Atelier Sawano--and his first new recording in three years, Klos shows his affinity to Evans by choosing nine songs are either composed by or strongly associated with the legendary pianist. The program also includes Clare Fischer's "Pensativa" and Klos' three originals. Of course, Klos is not intersted in imitating Evans, and he has his own unique style -- sweet lyricism and even-tempered pursuit of gentle beauty.
Recommended for fans of lyrical piano jazz!
Produced by Arnold Klos. Recorded November 14, 2011 in Belgium.
Personnel:
Arnold Klos (piano)
Jos Machtel (bass)
Eric Ineke (drums)
Album Tracks:
1. Autumn Leaves 2. Detour Ahead 3. Israel 4. Pensativa 5. All Blues
6. The Shadow Of Your Smile 7. The Opener 8. I.O.U.
9. Peace Piece   10. Night And Day   11. Via Solaris     12. Like A Band

13. How Deep Is The Ocean


Giovanni Mirabassi Trio & Strings

Viva V.E.R.D.I.



By JazzBreakfast  
No, this is not a collection of jazz tunes adapted from Verdi operas. The title stands for the Italian pianist living in Paris as a reminder of his homeland, using the iconic nature of the composer but also the initials for Vittorio Emanuele Re d’Italia from the secret revolutionary society of the Carbonari.
To further confuse, the trio – Mirabassi with Gianluca Renzi on double bass and Lukmil Perez Herrera on drums – is recorded live with the South Korean Bee String Orchestra in Goyang.
The title track opens the album and introduces us to a graceful trio packed with melody and fleet on its feet, intermingling with some jolly romantic string arrangements. The striking thing about it all is how naturally the trio and strings entwine, and how lithe and sensitive to the jazz swing the strings are.
With the exception of Hermeto Pascoal’s Bebe and a traditional South Korean song calledArirang, it’s made up of tunes by the pianist and the bassist, and all arranged by Renzi.
It flows effortlessly, Mirabassi adept at lifting the emotional heft and then relaxing it. And it has bags of Italian sunshine and easy Romanticism running through it. Jazz-wise it’s pretty conservative, but pretty nevertheless. And very well recorded.
Recorded live in Goyang (South Korea) on 27 November 2011 at Goyang Aram Nuri Concert Hall
Recording engineer Junghoon Choi

Paul Smith 1922 - 2013

By Peter Keepnews Published: July 3, 2013 at NYTimes
Paul Smith, a jazz pianist who accompanied singers like Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Sammy Davis Jr. and Rosemary Clooney but who was best known for his long association, both on record and on concert stages worldwide, with Ella Fitzgerald, died on Saturday in Torrance, Calif. He was 91.
His death was announced by his publicist, Alan Eichler.
Tall, lanky and rugged-looking, Mr. Smith did not fit most people’s image of a jazz musician. When he was the musical director on the comedian Steve Allen’s television show in the 1960s, Mr. Allen told him that he looked more like “a Nebraska cornhusker.” At concerts, Mr. Smith would sometimes walk onto the stage and ask the audience, “Where is the piano you want moved?”
He didn’t entirely see himself as a jazz musician either. Early in his career, he told The San Diego Union-Tribune in 1991, “I could see there was more money to be made in studio work than playing a jazz joint.” And studio work took up much of his time: he worked as a staff musician for NBC and Warner Brothers, and for many years he was the musical director for Dinah Shore’s daytime talk show.
But he was at home in the jazz joints, too, and after gaining early experience with Tommy Dorsey’s big band and the guitarist Les Paul’s small group in the late 1940s, he went on to record dozens of jazz albums under his own name, gaining a following for his prodigious technique and his lighthearted approach.
He made his most lasting mark through his work with singers, most notably Fitzgerald, with whom he worked on and off from the late 1950s until the early 1990s. In addition to leading the trio that backed her in concert, he was part of the ensemble on her celebrated “Song Book” albums of the ’50s and ’60s and the sole musician on her 1960 album featuring selections from “Let No Man Write My Epitaph,” one of the few movies in which she acted.
Paul Thatcher Smith was born in San Diego on April 17, 1922. His parents, Lon Smith and Constance Farmer, were vaudeville performers and encouraged his interest in music. (His father later became a newspaper editor.)
He began studying piano at age 8, led a jazz band in high school and became a professional musician at 19 with the Johnny Richards band. From 1943 to 1945 he served in the Army, where he played in a band led by the trumpeter Ziggy Elman.
Mr. Smith performed in Southern California nightclubs until his death, mostly with his wife of 54 years, the singer and pianist Annette Warren. She survives him, as does his daughter, the actress Lauri Johnson; two sons, Gary and Paul; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Critics sometimes accused Mr. Smith of emphasizing flash over substance, and some were put off by his pianistic playfulness. “They don’t seem to realize we ain’t doin’ ‘Hamlet’ up here,” he said in 1991. “So when I toss in a shot of ‘Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town’ in the middle of ‘Take the A Train’ or a few bars of ‘School Days’ in ‘Jumping at the Woodside,’ that’s my way of saying, ‘Stay loose.’ ”

Marian McPartland 1918 - 2013

By NPR

Marian McPartland, who gave the world an intimate, insider's perspective on one of the most elusive topics in music — jazz improvisation — died of natural causes Tuesday night at her home in Long Island, N.Y. She was 95.
For more than 40 years, she hosted Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, 

http://www.npr.org/series/15773266/marian-mcpartland-s-piano-jazz, an NPR program pairing conversation and duet performances that reached an audience of millions, connecting with jazz fans and the curious alike. She interviewed practically every major jazz musician of the post-WWII era.
McPartland's soft English accent wasn't the only thing that made her a good radio personality. She was an accomplished jazz pianist herself, which was readily evident on her program.

McPartland The Pianist
Marian McPartland, radio host, was at one time Margaret Marian Turner, piano student. She told NPR in 2005 that her interest in music started when she was a young girl, after she heard her mother play piano.
"From that moment on, I don't remember ever not playing piano, day and night, wherever I was," she said. "At my aunt's house, at kindergarten — wherever they had a piano, I played it. Of course, on the BBC they played all the hits from over here [in the U.S.]. They played them, I heard them and I learned them."
Young Marian Turner studied classical music, then went on to perform in vaudeville theaters across England. During WWII, she entertained troops, often jamming with American soldiers.
She married one of them: cornetist Jimmy McPartland. After the war, the couple made their way to the U.S. — first to Chicago, then to New York.
There, she tracked down one of her early idols, one of the few women in the bebop revolution, pianist Mary Lou Williams.
"A man might come into New York in 1951 and be kind of gunning for his competition," says Paul de Barros, McPartland's biographer. "Marian McPartland came to New York City and befriended Mary Lou Williams. She immediately tried to establish a kind of camaraderie with her, a kind of female strategy of 'we're in this together.' "
That "we're in this together" attitude was central to the success of her radio program and her career — not that she had an easy time of it at first. As McPartland struggled to make a name for herself in New York, one critic caustically suggested that she had three things going against her: She was British, she was white and she was a woman.
"I guess it wasn't that usual to see a woman musician playing in a group, although there were many, actually," McPartland told NPR. "But everybody seemed to think that this was pretty strange, maybe because I was British also. And someone would say, 'Oh, you play good for a girl,' or 'You sound just like a man.' At the time, I just took all those things as encouragement."
McPartland landed a gig in 1952 at The Hickory House, a noisy steakhouse on 52nd Street, the center of the city's jazz scene.
"Everybody came by," de Barros says. "I mean, she had the opportunity to meet everyone from Duke Ellington to Pee Wee Russell to Thelonious Monk. Jazz was really an underground community, and everybody hung out."

Conversations Like Jazz
McPartland continued to record and perform throughout the 1950s and into the '60s, but as rock 'n' roll took over, she began to lecture on college campuses. In the late '60s, she started spinning jazz records on a New York radio station where other pianists would drop by the studio unannounced, just to chat.
A casual hello became a regular program in April 1979, when McPartland and South Carolina ETV Radio launched Piano Jazz. Her first on-air guest was the late Billy Taylor, also a pianist and NPR jazz host.
"It seemed as if every opportunity that came her way in the past prepared her for being a radio host," de Barros says. "She had researched other people's styles, so she had questions that she wanted to ask. All of those skills were in place, and she was ready for the opportunity that came to her."
McPartland said the conversations themselves were very much like jazz, spontaneous and free-flowing.
"It's so easy to make it a conversation, and you don't know where it's going to lead," McPartland said. "The whole thing is so improvised, you really don't know where it's going to go."
Along the way, McPartland also became a mentor to many young pianists. Geri Allen, one of those pianists, says she hears something familiar to musicians when she listens to Piano Jazz.
"It's a very personal exchange that only happens to musicians on the bandstand," Allen says. "But to have it opened up to the fans, I think it helps to create even more of an understanding [of] what that whole experience of improvising is about."
McPartland was once asked how she did this. Her answer was simple: "You have to love what you do," she said.
That was perhaps Marian McPartland's greatest talent: She madePiano Jazz not about her, but about the musicians, the fans and our collective exploration of jazz. For more than 40 years, she reminded listeners every week that we're all in it together.

Cedar Walton 1934 - 2013

Cedar Walton died just after 03:00h this morning at his home in Brooklyn. He was 79.

By John Fordham at TheGuardian 
Back in the day at Ronnie Scott's club in London, when artists were booked on the personal whims of the founding proprietors Scott and Pete King without much regard for the box office, the same performers would reappear year after year with the regularity of old friends turning up to reunions. One such was the pianist and composer Cedar Walton, who has died aged 79. Like almost all the regular favourites at Ronnie's in the Scott-King era, Walton was a class jazz act who could play intelligent, probing bebop and swing-based music in his sleep, but who refashioned familiar jazz traditions in his own ways.
Walton's engrossing performances might open on a brisk blues that would develop first in silvery, balletic treble melodies and build to chord-thumping climaxes. A swoony standard-song such as All the Things You Are could be unexpectedly delivered as a series of flinty, Thelonious Monk-like prods, or a familiar jazz vehicle like Lover Man might move from a subtly evolving repeated phrase through a shower of bright runs and trills to jubilant block chords.
But he was as creative a composer as he was a player. Walton's punchy, clever and shrewdly shaped originals – including Bolivia, Ojos de Rojo and Mode for Joe – became jazz standards. He was a much sought-after and prolific artist, participating in or leading more than 100 albums over a recording career that began in 1958.
He was born in Dallas and was taught to play the piano by his mother, Ruth, who also took him to jazz concerts by piano stars including Art Tatum. From his early years he showed a preference for composing his own pieces rather than practising other people's. From 1951 until 1954 Walton studied music and education at the University of Denver, and ran a local trio that got to accompany such illustrious visitors as Dizzy Gillespie. He was then drafted into the army, where he had the opportunity to sit in with Duke Ellington's orchestra, and to play with the trumpeter/composer Don Ellis and the saxophonists Leo Wright and Eddie Harris in the 7th Army band while stationed in Germany.
On his demobilisation and return to the US in 1958, Walton made his recording debut with the bebop trumpeter and vocalist Kenny Dorham, playing reservedly but supportively on the album This Is the Moment. The following year, Walton almost found himself involved in what was to become a jazz landmark – John Coltrane's Giant Steps –but though he played on the early takes at Coltrane's invitation, he was absent on tour for the final ones, and Tommy Flanagan took his place.
Walton was now in demand for the leading young bands practising the bluesy, viscerally exciting style called hard bop. He worked in the trombonist JJ Johnson's group from 1958 until 1960, and then alongside the trumpeter Art Farmer and saxophonist Benny Golson in the elegant Jazztet for a year. But in 1961, his most significant career choice presented itself, and he joined the drummer Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers – the doyen of hard bop bands, with a gospelly energy that sprang directly from Blakey's volatile drumming.
Walton later maintained that playing with Blakey greatly sharpened his alertness and attentiveness as an accompanist as well as a soloist. But since the Messengers were an open and evolving jazz workshop that devoured new original material, this was also an opportunity for Walton the composer to blossom – and the presence of the trumpet virtuoso Freddie Hubbard and saxophonist/composer Wayne Shorter in the lineup were added inspirations. Walton contributed such deviously lyrical themes as Mosaic and Ugetsu to Blakey's repertoire in his tenure from 1961 to 1964, years in which the Messengers were at their zestful best.
Walton then accompanied the vocalist Abbey Lincoln, recorded with the popular former Messengers trumpeter Lee Morgan, worked as a house pianist for Prestige Records, and participated in a tough bebop band with the saxophonists George Coleman and later Bob Berg that from 1975 took the name Eastern Rebellion. Walton was also a key member of the tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan's Magic Triangle group in the mid-70s, and though he touched on electric music and funk in the same decade, bebop and swing were closest to his heart and he soon returned to acoustic groups.
He frequently toured with a trio featuring the gracefully inventive Billy Higgins on drums, an inspiration that helped bring the pianist's uncliched improv phrasing to a new level of telling concision. He made magnificent recordings with lineups from duos to an 11-piece through the 1990s. But Walton also remained an open and willing partipant in other players' ventures, cannily shadowing the London vocalist Ian Shaw on the 1999 album In a New York Minute, and the UK sax/trumpet bebop partnership of Osian Roberts and Steve Fishwick on With Cedar Walton (2009). He was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2010, and his last recording – The Bouncer, in 2011, for his trio augmented by sax and trombone – was a typically nimble canter through the old master's favourite kinds of jazz.
Walton is survived by his wife, Martha, and four children, Carl, Rodney, Cedra and Naisha.
• Cedar Anthony Walton Jr, jazz pianist and composer, born 17 January 1934; died 19 August 2013