“this is NOT a memorial service,” Rev. Amandus Derr happily intoned in his lengthy opening remarks. Rev. Derr is Sr. Pastor of St. Peter’s, the Jazz Church in N.Y.C. where the pews were packed to raise high our praises for one of the greatest musicians and personalities in jazz, if not all music. CLARK TERRY. the nonagenarian lost both legs to diabetes and has not been in generally good health for some time. we WERE there to more than just defray his medical costs.

there were nearly four dozen performaners with as many more musicians auditing the proceedings: pros, colleagues, students, amateurs, acolytes, celebs, friends and fans cheered from the sidelines.

the subject checked in via Skype with devoted spouse Gwen at his side. with humor intact “Mumbles” even gave us a couple of bars of that unique vocal style.

CT & Gwen's Skype cameo. (photo Ed Berger)

the Terry twosome joined in writing the autobio entitled simply “Clark.” it’s a series of short chapters filled with joyous vignettes of a life spent on the road, in bars, clubs, concert halls, studios, and hospitals, and just hanging out. a quick read, the book opens with a line about his boyhood friend “Shitty.” how can do you put down a tome which opens with a dude named “Shitty”?

after preaching to the choir about Clark at the St. Peter’s do Dr. David Demssy, the sax-playing president and curator of the jazz archives at William Paterson University in N.J. played a tune with Clark’s latest trio: Helen Sung, Marcus McLaurine –the music coordinator for the event– and Syivia Cuenca, exemplifying what jazz is all about: the tones of the universe.

Dr. Demsey did a masterful job hosting. the musical fare were all familiar; the instrumentation ditto, but it was the joie d’vivre and love encompassing the night and the man that was the feature.

Lew Soloff & Wycliffe Gordon plunging for CT  (photo Ed Berger)

the musicians came on, had their musical say and were whisked off. if not for that we would have been there all night. as it was they literally locked the doors behind me. that never would have happened under the Revs. John Garcia Gensel and Dale Lind, who was on hand to offer his benediction.

i guess we have to be thankful that we still have such a place to worship our gods and celebrate camaraderie, often taking the corporeal form of personages such as Clark Terry.

all proceeds went to Clark for expenses via the Jazz Foundation of America. the musicians worked pro bono.

grand finale w/some of the musicians: Bryan Davis, Conrad Herwig, Don Sickler, Bob Kindred, Lew Soloff, Art Baron, ?? (photo by Frederic Sater)

- © arnold jay smith

April 2012

LINKS OF INTEREST 

www.jazzfoundation.org

International Jazz Day Mon. Apr. 30. in New Orleans and on WBGO-88.3 FM & www.WBGO.org.

PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER’S VALIANT ATTEMPT TO RE-OPEN CUBA WITH JAZZ MUSICIANS CELEBRATES ITS 35TH ANNY.

PRE-RAMBLE

It’s early May 1977. my first wife and i are going through a divorce. my kids, Jeanne, 10, and Russell, 7, and i have just returned from a weekend mountain-top Bluegrass Festival in Amcram, NY. we attempted sleep up there as well. that is to say we brought sleeping bags with us. we left the Amcram Mountain early Sunday spurred by my daughter’s remark that the Sunday Sunrise Service was not to her liking, “daddy,” she opined, “i like yesterday’s music better.” (Bill Monroe, et al. ) seems the whiney c&w service was an experiment for the Festival; definitely not bluegrass. i must admit i was real proud of her at that moment. her daddy’s lobes?

after driving them to their mother’s home on Long Island i’m about ready to collapse into my convertible couch in my studio apartment in the Village, which was not much bigger than a walk-in closet. but as East Coast Editor (sic) for Down Beat i had to retrieve my messages,

one was from my friend David Amram, the phone message which would change my life. “Arny. i’m going to Cuba with Diz, Fatha, Stan and others. i’ll call you when i get back and we’ll do a story, Pops.” like Louis David calls everyone “Pops.” they were to cruise from New Orleans on a ship. what kind of a ship? a tramp steamer no doubt under cover of darkness for sure. just like one of those classic noir radio dramas, i romanticized.

i listened again to those strange combinations of words coming from the answering machine. “Cuba? with (Cubop progenitor and legend) Dizzy Gillespie?” during the Cuban embargo no less, in effect since the early 1960s? aloud i said to the machine, “going to Cuba?! not without me you’re not.” this was the antidote to my blues.

without looking at the clock –it must have been early in the a.m. still Amram time– i rang-up David. “who do i call to get on that Cuba gig?” seems it was a Jazz Cruise leaving from New Orleans in less than a week (mid-May). adrenaline rush. couldn’t sleep. i called. it was still early that Monday.

SECURING PASSAGE AND LINING UP THE GIG

the Cruise Company’s first response was a discouragingly curt, “we’re fully booked. with a full complement of press representatives.” then almost as an afterthought, “you need a visa, a letter that you’re on assignment, and, oh yes, F.B.I. clearance.” (do they call that vetting these days?) came more info. i thought i heard a snicker when he said “F.B.I. clearance,” that takes months, if at all, especially to Cuba. who has that?

i did! i was bonded by the Fed when i was an over-the-counter trader during an earlier Wall St. career. (see “About Me” on my home page.) but was it still effective? i had done some work for the then fledgling Nasdaq so i made calls to people i knew at securities agencies in N.Y. and D.C. i still had clearance, and it came with the required visa. my passport, which i always keep up-to-date, was.

Down Beat did not quite leap at the idea. their skepticism faded when i offered to pay half the fare. but they were not to have exclusivity. i made up for the balance by soliciting assignments from former affiliations, Variety and Billboard. eventually that consortium of publications grew to a total of five (5) with the addition of columns for Newsday alternating with Amram, and a long piece with photos for a classy Spanish language glossy publication, Nuestro.

all i now required was an airline ticket to New Orleans, returning from the Bahamas to the States (more on that later), which a friend secured with dutiful urgency.

all of the above was a sequential preamble series of events culminating in the most exciting trip of my life, then and now.

NEW ORLEANS

it was my freshman visit to the Crescent City –it was Spring Break as well– and i was there for only the overnight prior to boarding the Greek registry S.S. Daphne. what kind of name is that for a freighter?, i thought. anyway, i made the most of those few hours walking the famous streets, visiting the infamous boites, imbibing drinks i had never heard of as i strode..

here’s the deal as i remember it, quaint by today’s standards: as a U.S. citizen you weren’t permitted to travel to Cuba from a U.S. port. (Canadian trips were, and remain available.) and you weren’t permitted to re-enter the U.S. directly from Cuba. hence the reason our return port of entry was the Bahamas. we had to make our way home from there. on our own.

but i digress. while in N.O.LA we partied through the night. i wended my way back to the hotel for a quick rinse and a nap –it was already daylight– and thence to the ship docked at the foot of Canal St. on the Mississippi, hidden behind some warehouses. that scenario was more as i had envisioned it. did i hear sound effects, foghorns perhaps?

not! as i approached the pier i could hear crowd noises, more jeering than cheering. tor public consumption the trip was supposed to be an innocuous Islands Cruise. Pres. Carter was doing this surreptitiously and on his own initiative; he was trying to get a U.S. foot in Fidel Castro’s door then pry it open. it was nothing if not unprecedented.  the Hispanic citizenry (in self-exile?) objected, loudly.

protesters in N.O.

CONFRONTATIONS IN PORT

word had leaked to the Hispanic press and from them to the general media of our real destination, Havana. radio, tv, print were all present, in various languages. this was, after all, multi-cultural New Orleans. they were supposed to steer clear of the passengers and crew, but their bullhorns and placards were a-buzz including a pooled television crew on board. and then there were the attendant bomb threats. talk about stressful.

tv pool interviewer w/crowd in N.O.

tv interviewer w/N.O. street band

all of importance were interviewed and as we were sworn to secrecy, no one offered anything to the probing press crews. i don’t know how many of the passengers were aware of it, but we later learned there were ex-pat Cubans aboard with gifts such as food who were trying to get home to visit relatives. they were intercepted and may even have been arrested when we got into Cuban waters. the noir-ishness was coursing through my fecund imagination. we found out later how close we all came to that fate as well. or worse.

local media departed. bomb crews cleared us. promises were made by some of us to return to Nawlins to be debriefed. we didn’t know the (un)official line at that time about returning. we heard “castoff” and we slowly made our way down the muddy Ol’ Man towards the Gulf of Mexico.

LAISSEZ BON TEMPS ROULER

the historic jazz partying of a lifetime was about to commence. and we were all atwitter about it.

did i mention that the S.S. Daphne was not a freighter but a luxurious, if intimate, ocean liner?

S.S. Daphne docked in N.O.

to be continued.

- © content & photos arnold jay smith

April 2012

LINKS OF INTEREST:

Hot House Mag celebrates its 30th Anny: www.hothousejazz.com

N.Y.U. Jazz Fest 2012 celebrates Sy Johnson Friday, May 4, 9:30p in Skirball Center: www.steinhardt.nyu.edu/music

for Newport Jazz Fest 2012 updates: www.nreportjazzfest.net

PIONEERING BANDLEADER FETED AT TRIBECA

in a  two-parter the pioneering bandleader JAMES REESE EUROPE was celebrated at the Tribeca Arts Center at Borough of Manhattan Community College in Feb. part one presented by historian/author Krin Gabbard was a panel. some survivors of Europe’s family were in the audience and from the look of them there will be more. there was a brief film excerpt from Ken Burns’ Jazz. other than that Europe remains a shadowy figure murdered too early for him to have made a further impact, other than being the first black troop leader in WWI, and a bandleader there as well. not an inconsiderable feat in 1918.

on another night RANDY WESTON’s African Rhythms Orchestra dedicated a concert to Europe also at Tribeca/BMCC. Weston’s patter on Europe did not enlighten us much on the man but some of the selections performed expanded our knowledge of the music he played.

WHO WAS JAMES REESE EUROPE? 

the fact that he existed and prospered at all was amazing. the music was ragtime and Europe composed, arranged and played it on the African American music scene in NYC in the 1910s. he organized the Clef Club, an African American Music society and in 1912 his band made history when they played Carnegie Hall 26 years prior to Benny Goodman, and John Hammond’s From Spirituals To Swing concerts there, and more than three decades before Duke Ellington’s series began in 1943. Europe’s was a benefit for the Colored Music Settlement School.

EUROPE IN EUROPE

the following year Europe recorded some of the best examples of pre-jazz extant. while a senseless war –is any otherwise?– was killing young people in the mud in France in 1918 Lt. James Reese Europe organized the first and only African American fighting and playing unit. his band not only took up arms but spread jazz throughout the Continent for the first time.

Europe led the 369th Infantry regiment, “The Harlem Hellfighters,” so-called because they rose from the trenches with such suddenness firing as they went. the Hellfighters did not lose a man neither in battle nor to the influenza pandemic. they travelled over 2000 miles in France performing for the British, French and American military as well as for French civilian audiences.

he was killed by a band member after the war.

RANDY WESTON’S DEDICATORY CONCERT

any reason to hear Weston’s African Rhythms Orchestra is a good one, but especially fine when the septet drives with purpose. this night they mixed their signature tunes such as The African Family, African Village Bedford Stuyvesant with W.C. Handy’s Memphis Blues, Weston’s Mobile Blues, Waltz for James Reese Europe and Hellfighters Blues. A Night In Mbari rounded out the evening with the added pleasure of an encore, African Sunrise.

the band? what more can be written? these guys come to play! they infuse Weston’s music with his imprimatur; it’s almost sacred. Alex Blake’s bass strumming vibrates you; Neil Clarke’s hand percussiveness pounds at your heart; T.K. Blue’s plaintive saxophone reaches your soul; the brass section, Robert Trowers, trombone and Howard Johnson, tuba adds color.

aboard for the ragtime feeling was banjoist Ayodele Ankhtawi Maakheru, but not playing the instrument a la New Orleans. his approach is more along the lines of the African multi-stringed kora thereby making it truly African-American. and tying in the African Rhythms Orchestra with James Reese Europe’s musical attack.

- © arnold jay smith

March 2012

HIS MUSIC ENDURES DESPITE HIMSELF

that’s an interesting premise. he was controversial while he lived and remains an enigma. Stan Kenton, towering physically, hired some of jazz’s greatest arrangers and let them have reign. names like Shorty Rogers, Pete Rugolo, Bill Russo, Manny Albam, Robert Graettinger, Johnny Mandel, Gerry Mulligan, Neal Hefti, Bill Holman and Johnny Richards

his female singers began the vibrato-less, cool trend:  June Christie, Chris Connor and Anita O’day.

he featured Latin percussion, nay, gave them prime seating, often down front rather than the traditional rear. sidemen went on to greatness (see below).

even in death he was controversial. his head remains in a cryogenic state and he refused in his will to allow survival bands in his name.  yet his music endures.

those arrangers and reflections of his sideman were celebrated by the Manhattan School of Music in two concerts in February and March: “The Innovations Orchestra” and “Big Band Retrospective.” Wynnton Marsalis and the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra also dedicated a weekend to the Kenton Centennial.

MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC JAZZ PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

for the initial concert with its dedication to the late educator, percussionist and MSM alum, Clem DeRosa (see my blog), conductor Justin DiCioccio opted to present the “often inaccessible” Kenton.

as if “Artistry In Rhythm,” the Kenton band’s theme, isn’t enough of an American musical icon, the band’s opening gambit alluded to Gershwin. perhaps that wasn’t merely an allusion as the Kenton/Rugolo arrangement is similar in concept to Gershwin’s Rhapsodies and Preludes. most of the remainder of the pieces have rarely been “reformed.”

the orchestra dug right in with the Pete Rugolo Innovation Suite: ”Mirage,” “Interlude,” “Machito.” and “Conflict.” originally performed by the Kenton 43-piece Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra, the Suite included classical as well as jazz devices weaving in and out of written improvisations with the occasional solo. those cross cultural goings-on harken to John Lewis and Gunther Schuiller’s Third Stream experimentation. other writer/arrangers who signed on for 3rd Stream were J,J, Johnson, who later partnered with Kenton alumnus Kai Winding, and Albam.

some in the mostly sold out Kenton fanatic audience were already squirming. whispers were heard to ask,”are they gong to swing?” “will there be something we can hum?” then there were those who proudly called out that they had a 2-sided 78 rpm recording of some rara avis. i imagine Kenton himself endured any number of brickbats when he played these pieces in 1950-51.

Russo’s Improvisation goes still further afield. the total improv near the close is a precursor to the “free jazz” movement of the 1960s strings and all. i had never heard much of this; i was hooked, and hypnotized.

other innovative pieces followed some with titles i remember others less so: Lonesome Road, Shelly Manne, written by Kenton for his then drummer, Evening in Pakistan, Albam’s Latined Samana, Russo’s Ennui, and Kenton’s own Opus in Pastels. but the piece which remains in my mind was the famous City of Glass.

the Graettinger piece is easily the most artistic in terms of strength of composition and depth of intent. it is an atonal work as in Alban Berg. but did he swing? does City of Glass “swing” ? there is room for sax and brass exclamations as only Kenton’s could, but as the program notes assert you have to dig for the jazz as it is  hidden and abstracted. but then again, that’s what Kenton was all about.

the stuff sounded like it was written tomorrow.

HITS OF THE ’40S, ’50S AND ’60S

we’re talkin’ sidemen emphasis here: names like Manne, Mel Lewis, Art Pepper, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Maynard Ferguson, Rogers, Pepper Adams, Laurindo Almeida and the vocalists mentioned above.

the more-than-capable students hit us in the face on Artistry Jumps, another Kenton flag waver. but it was his Latin side which most affected me as a jazz comer. my parents loved to dance so we had all the big bands in the house. as a pianist i led a small group beginning in JHS. the drummer was Terry Snyder’s nephew. Snyder was the house drummer for many back-ups including Columbia a & r man Mitch Miller and RCA vocalist Perry Como. it was Snyder’s 78 record collection which added zing to our understanding. interestingly no Stan Kenton. “couldn’t dance to it,” came the reply to my query.

i investigated further and discovered The Peanut Vendor with its multi-layered Latin rhythms and instrumentation including a Winding trombone solo. Vendor was the first Cuban hit to enter these shores via radio and Desi Arnaz. (a later Kenton congero Candido Cemero was in the audience.) there was a very Latin-ed “rhythmelodic” piano solo followed by clarinet and flute which added some spice to the arrangement.

Kenton was just warming up in 1945 as was the band this night. Russo’s 23⁰ North-82⁰ West opens with a clave count-off and soars from there.

a word about the band. the ensemble, consisting of students who can read as well as improvise, is an enthusiastically well-rehearsed –by DiCioccio– 17-19-piece affair augmented by additional percussion. while not as many hand drum players as Kenton’s –who often added some half dozen plus band members doubling on “toys”–  you get the point. i had heard that some students only wanted to do the hits as the Innovations Orchestra concepts were too difficult. DiCioccio insisted they play both or neither. the students rose to the occasion with two concerts which were nothing short of breathtaling.

they reprised Opus In Pastels with the sax section in the ascendancy. it was all written and pre-arranged, and beautiful. a couple of Kenton charts followed: Concerto To End All Concertos, with its challenging rhythms, and Dynaflow, named for Stan’s car (?).

the first half featured two re-worked standards: Porter’s Love For Sale (Rugolo) and Mandel’s A Time For Love (Hank Levy). but it was the second half which featured that dance band side of which the Kenton band was less critically popular.

Bob Haggart’s composition What’s New? shows what Kenton could do with a ballad. the melody is understated in this first of a quintet of Holman pop charts, while the ensemble is foremost. Stella By Starlight (Victor Young’s music from a ghost story flick called “The Uninvited”) is another ballad but with the added fillip of an up-tempo middle section.

drummer Mel Lewis spent a great deal of time in the Kenton organization. the heavily rhythmic influences on Porter’s I’ve Got You Under My Skin utilize his concepts. it’s a straight ahead jazz blower with soli.

every jazz band worth its arranger has one on Ray Noble’s Cherokee. the MSM/ Kenton band is no different. it’s all Holman with saxist Cam Collins featured. ensemble is key in one of Holman’s more famous charts on Stompin’ At The Savoy. you don’t have to know the lyric to this world-famous Benny Goodman-Chick Webb melody. it’s the Swing era incarnate. for those who suggest that the Kenton band lacked swing, listen up!

Kern’s Yesterdays, the last we hear from Holman for the night, featured Jonathan Ragonese’s tenor sax. concluding, Mulligan weighed in with a piece he was to use in one form or another, big band or small ensemble, for the rest of his life, Limelight.

THE LINCOLN CENTER JAZZ ORCHESTRA

it was your classic momenta of musical comparisons, a journalist’s dream. Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra decided to ignore Stan Kenton’s dictum that swing, while important, was not the only thing. Kenton put swing on the back burner in favor of conception, composition and rhythm. not so the LCJO. damning with feint praise may i offer that while expertly performed, every tune had the swing for which they are famous. (the Marsalis canon?) an interesting concept, which the audience loved, cheeerd and stood up for. (there were two shows; i was at the Sat. night show.)

when i walked into Rose Hall i was sorely disappointed not to see Latin percussion. how in hell, i thought, are they going to play Stan Kenton’s Music sans hand drums? easy; just make everything 4/4 “ching-a-ding.”

it was all there: the famous tunes; the charts by the famous arrangers (see above); even a bonus or two such as the Lecuona/Holman Malaguena. but the feature of the night was guest artist, and Kenton alum, alto saxist Lee Konitz. the 80+ year-old veteran of innovative bands and groups led by Claude Thornhill, Lennie Tristano and Mulligan played two tunes, My Funny Valentine and Lover Man in the first half which had the band, with which i presume he rehearsed, paying close attention. Konitz jammed with them after the interval. tenor saxist Victor Goines told me later that they really enjoyed working on Kenton’s music. it showed in their enthusiasm.

Mulligan was represented by two selections this time, Limelight and Swing House. other surprises on the program included Kenton’s Southern Scandal, Holman’s In Lighter Vein and Zoot, Russo’s Portrait of a Count and My Lady. solid choices all.

personally i would  have preferred more tonal color for which Kenton was famous, and less swng, for which he wasn’t.

in the final analysis, the crowd went wild. what do i know?!

- © arnold jay smith

March 2012

LINKS OF INTEREST:

James Moody Democracy of Jazz Festival and Sarah Vaughan Vocal Competition: http://njpac.org/moody/default5,htm

for Jazz Standard’s 10th Anny line up: http://www.jazzstandard.com