LOTS TO CHEER ABOUT IN 2012, SOME OLD SOME NEW 

in a standout –and sold out Blue Note Club in N.Y.C.– presentation coordinated & choreographed by Prez Howard Mandel and JoAnn Kawell, there were many of the usual musicians who were winners, and a happily growing smattering of newbies.

not undeservedly, and certainly not a bad thing, more new names are coming up behind the biggies such as perennial multiple wnners Sonny Rollins and Joe Lovano.

multinational names like Ambrose Akinmurie, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Anat Cohen and Vijay Iyer are indeed already poised to be jazz’s next veterans having repeated in the recent past.  then there’s Regina Carter and remember when Kurt Elling and Maria Schneider were “who?”  now their wins are, “of course.”

however, my real interest always lies in the Journalism Awards.  these are the cats who get the words out, who, as pianist Mike Longo likes to say, “put asses in the seats,” inspiring interest in the art and the people who make it.  in fact, i was an early associate  of Elling and Schneider as part of their publicity team.

TAD HERSHORN’S “NORMAN GRANZ: THE MAN WHO USED JAZZ FOR JUSTICE”

the standout for me among the 2012 winners was Tad Hershorn.  Hershorn has written the definitive biography of one of the unsung heroes of our music, “Norman Granz. The Man Who Used Jazz For Justice” (University of California Press).  an alternate title might have been “The Man Who Saved American Music.”

a few of Granz’s highlights: integrator of concerts, record label owner (at least four of ‘em), presenter of artists who have been overlooked, touring companies which would not have toured in places where they dared not go such as the South.  making the age old jam session an artistic re-creation and then putting them on best-selling LPs, in multiple volumes.  all of this without ever having played an instrument, at least not seriously.

simplifying, it all started with his best friend, Nat “King” Cole in a series of concerts which became known worldwide as Jazz At The Philharmonic.  his record companies were Clef, Norgran, Verve and finally Pablo, named for another friend, Pablo Picasso, who gave the label its logo, a drawing of a dog.

J.A.T.P. was an integrated series oif concerts which Granz had a hard time selling.  he paid for everything: the halls, the transportation, the sound, the works.  on occasion he even had to pay the musicians when promoters would not integrate the audience, or who would not let the musicians enter through the front door, or who would not back him in getting food and/or lodging.for them.  he ceremoniously walked away from those concert venues.

his first attempt at recording them was largely the live concerts, initially on 78 rpm actual albums, then on multiple 10″ LPs, or 45 rpm EPs.  even the artwork was distinctive, stark stick-type abstract drawings by an unknown artist David Stone Martin.

eventually he brought the same performers into the studio for more organized sessions with the same format, jams, often in one-take.  the LP seemed to have been invented for Norman Granz allowing his musicians to stretch.

Granz went on to manage at least two of the greatest people in the history of any music: Ella Fitzgerald, whose contract he bought from Decca, and introduced Canadian Oscar Peterspn at a J.A.T.P. concert when O.P. wasn’t even supposed to be on a stage in the U.S.  and both without a written contract,  why bother when a handshake between friends would do?  for Ella he devised the oft-imitated “songbooks,” complete LPs dedicated to one composer.  another first.

there were others as well.  Granz was of the opinion, not unlike John Hammond, who once was heard to say when Count Basie, Duke Ellington and others were dropped by their recording companies, “what are these artists doing without a record label?”  so Granz picked up that gauntlet and recorded them.

when Granz sold Verve to MGM he retained his “friends” Ella and Oscar as well as his studio recordings of Art Tatum.  the latter became Pablo multi-LP-boxed sets “The Group Masterpieces” and “The Solo Masterpieces.”

as for Fitzgerald and Peterson, the reissues are still being re-packaged by the Concord Family of labels, where Pablo now resides.

Hershorn tells Granz’s story facilely without getting pedantic, which can be a problem in a subject as vast as this.  Granz was not an easy subject to deal with.  on the few occasions when we spoke via telephone Granz was always polite and respectful, but curt and opinionated.  when i needed information and not just schmooze i had smoother contact with his assistant Mary Jane Outwater.

if there will ever be another bio of Norman Granz –why would we need another one?– i doubt if it will be as thorough as this one, and such an easy read, too.

another Journalists Award of interest went to Marc Meyers’ blog www.jazzwax.com.  jazzwax is always informative first-hand accounts from the mouths of.   a well-deserved choice.

one more thing.: isn’t it about time JazzTimes relinquished its perennial hold on the Jazz Publication of the Year Award and sponsored it instead?  might be a win-win-win for them, other publications and JJA.

Prez Howard take note.

- © arnold jay smith

June 2012

LINKS OF INTEREST

www.jjajazzawards.org

www.jazzhouse.org

www.jazzwax.com

June 2012

MORE BROKEN RULES: SETTING THE SCENE 

thus far NYT Guy and i avoided CubaTour.  walked unescorted from the Daphne pier to a main road.  hailed a cab.  offered the driver a tip.  spoke to a Communist aparatchik, at her headquarters.  and refused an invitation to remain in Cuba and report back to the U.S.  and i’m still here reporting.

the recurring thought of should we be allowed to walk these streets alone was gnawing at me.  we had just left Havana’s Red Square HQ after tossing a serous invitation back at them and here we are marching towards we-didn’t-know-where.

nonetheless, we’re back on the street in front of Party HQ.  NYT Guy tells me of a rumored jam session going on at the Habana Libré (formerly the Hilton) Hotel.  but where is that?  perhaps in Hotel Row, Downtown where the tourists and money launderers of olde gamboled?  we didn’t see it on our drive-by (see Chapter 3).  we could have asked, but we didn’t know who were natives and who were Cuban Men-In-Black in mufti.  it didn’t take long to ascertain.

seems my attire was drawing attention on the street.  dressed for the occasion, or so i thought, i was wearing a pair of tight corduroy Bermuda shorts –i had the bod for it then– and a tee shirt from an LP i was working on called “Suite For Pops,” by the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra (Horizon-A&M).  the cover of the album and the tee were the same: a rendering of a smiling, cherubic portrait drawing of the album’s dedicatee, Louis Armstrong.  (see photo).

"Suite For Pops" album cover

perhaps i might mention that i was sporting my latest long zoom lens slung across my chest bandoleer-fashion.

as we walked up the hill away from the waterfront a group of youngsters attached themselves to us dogging our path as it were.  i turned to snap the shot, and as i did they pointed to my chest  chanting, “Lou-ie, Lou-ie, Lou-ie.”  i was so taken aback by my hearing Satch’s name by young people in Cuba where contact hadn’t been made since 1959 –remember this was 1977– that i never got the photo.  but we did get directions to the Libré/Hilton; seems we were nearer than we thought.

DESCARGA @ HABANA LIBRÉ

the former Havana Hilton was housed in a non-descript edifice.  there were two large  rooms on the ground floor, one a reception area the other contained the bar, restaurant, entertainment and stage areas.  chairs were up on tables as though they were closed, which they were, of course.  we were guided into that room.  ”we” were some of the musicians from the Daphne, reporters, and a group of Cuban musicians called Irakere (“jungle”) who were to demonstrate how hip they were.  i had my interview cassette recorder at the ready.  and was i ever glad of that.

DRAMATUS PERSONAE :  IRAKERE & GUESTS

David Amram @ Habana Libré

JESUS CHUCHO VALDES, keyboards, director

OSCAR VALDES, percussion, vocals

JORGE ALFONSO, percussion

ENRIQUES PLA, drums

CARLOS PUERTO, elecric bass guitar, vocals

CARLOS EMILIO MORALES, electric guitar

PAQUITO D’RIVERA, allto & soprano saxes, clarinet

ARTURO SANDOVAL, trumpet, valve trombpne

CARLOS AVERHOFF, tenor & soprano saxes, flute, piccolo, vocals, Engllish            announcements

LAZARO MORUA, percussion, vocals

and…

DIZZY GIllESPIE, trumpet

STAN GETZ, tenor sax

DAVID AMRAM, French Horn, piano, Middle Eastern flutes, ocarinas, beads, bells, dumbeg, et al

RAY MANTILLA,, congas

Irakere front line: (r-l) Arturo Sandoval, Carlos Averhoff, Paquito D'Rivera

A NEW KIND OF LATIN-JAZZ FUSION

Irakere opened the afternoon’s set with three tunes: Illa. En Nosotros and Daimo.  they were there to show us what they had, and they had plenty.  the music was  Nordamericano rock and jazz, European classical, all fused into a unified whole underpinned by that Afro-Cuban rhythm which seemed to come directly from the diaspora.  in that brief prorgram we were treated to a montuno, a bolero, a danzón in many manners of rhythmic configurations, as well as some Mozartian clarinet figures thrown in for good measure by D’Rivera.

we were dumbfounded.  where did they learn this?  even Gillespie with his Chano Pozo and other African and Cuban influences didn’t quite know what to make of it.  Getz’s  bossa nova experience gave him something of an edge.

[Averhoff told me later that the band surreptitiously listened to unjammed broadcasts from the Voice of America, particularly Willis Conover's programs.  radio broadcasts from the mainland U.S. were not available.  i'm presuming there was some clandestine transcribing afoot as those musicians are virtuosi.]

Mantilla’s approach to the music was from the Bronx-borne salsa.  ”i  had never heard this kind of music before,” D’Rivera and wife Brenda Feliciano, a Puerto Rico native and a classically trained soprano told us over dinner in 2012.  ”i could hardly understand his language, and it was Spanish.”  more to the point, “Spanglish” derived from the Apple’s NuYoRicans.

Ray Mantiilla sits in w/Irakere percussionists

concluding the Libré set was an extended Billie’s Bounce with all of the players exchanging choruses as if to prove that the Cubans could speak our musical language equally as well.  needless to say we were impressed.  if i don’t sound sufficiently breathtakingly gushing, i guess you had to be there.  i play the now CD i made from the tapes in class regularly, and hear something different every time.

(r-l) Sandoval, Amram, Averhoff, Stan Getz

SYMBIOSIS

at the Libré there was symbioses beyond the descarga.  Sandoval was demonstrating Gillespie’s signature uplifted bell trumpet to anyone who would listen.

Sandoval explains Dizzy's horn

D’Rivera who could only speak English haltingly at best was busy with Getz carrying on a comparative anatomy demonstration on their respective instruments.

Mantilla was picking up pointers from the source as it were speaking with Irakere’s percussionists, verbally and percussively.  no language barrier there.

Amram, who speaks Spanish, was flitting hither and thither garnering information for his debut piece that was to be performed later that evening.  (Chapter 5)

me?  i was busy snapping away and making friendships which would last a lifetime.

Irakere rhythm section

FURTHER ENCOUNTERS

Irakere became the darlings of a resurgent latin dance scene in N.Y.C. and were brought here for an appearance at Carnegie Hall during a Newport-In-New York Jazz Festival.  seems they could not legally work for bread but only serve an “educational” function.  i was asked to be their unofficial chaperone.

in your classic fox-watching-the-henhouse scenario our first hotel room reunion since Havana was almost ritual; they dramtically opened their suitcases which were filled with Havana Club Rum –i still have one bottle, emptied– and Partagas and Cohibas, famous Cuban cigars.  i kept those as long as i could, until they disintegrated. i still have the box.  the rest of our time together is a blur.

the Carnegie stage was ablaze.  Columbia’s stars augmented Irakere with Getz and Maynard Ferguson in the forefront among them.  i reported for Biillbard and Down Beat.

in another surprise Irakere encounter during the 1979 Montreux Jazz Festival i was asked to photograph the group’s acceptance of instruments from a famous international, U.S.-based manufacturer.  it seems that was considered remuneration, even though the instruments were for just that purpose, i.e., education, in schools back in hometown Havana.  it was that no-play-for-pay Communist manifesto bullshit raising its ugly political head again.  Irakere was allowed away from mother Cuba to “educate” not to entertain.  certainly not to make friends for Fidel.  the politburo-tchic dummies shot themselves in the foot, again.

for Irakere it was like a college reunion.  my fee covered my week’s room and board in Montreux jet-set fashion.  i had to spend all those “Swizz” (Swiss-jazz) Francs in Switzerland, however; there were no Euros at the time.

friendships cemented, we moved on.

- text & photos © arnold jay smith

June 2012

LINKS OF INTEREST:

www.billboard.com

www.downbeat.com

Jazz Journalists Association 2012 Jazz Awards :  www.jjajazzawards.org

MILES DAVIS/EDITH PIAF STAMPS CELEBRATED IN TWO CEREMONIES

he was known as “the Dark Prince.”  she “the Little Sparrow.”  (“Piaf” means “sparrow;” songwriter Randy Newman might call her a “short person.”)  they never sang together.  they never met.  he saw her perform in Paris.  she liked jazz.  yet there they were being honored jointly on U.S. and French Postage stamps pictured below (courtesy USPS), Miles Davis, an icon of America’s musical artform, and Edith Piaf a tragic national French symbol.

When Miles passed we gave him a quasi-private send off at St. Peter’s Church.  when Piaf went they shut down Paris as a spontaneous outpouring of emotions erupted.  neither were pillars of virtue; their art transcended it all.

this was the third co-issuance between the United States Postal Service and France’s La Poste, the 100th anny of the Statue of Liberty and a Revolutionary War stamp being the other two.

there were two celebrations: one the official issuance ceremony at the Rubin Museum of Art, the other sponsored by the Jazz Foundation of America at the Bogardus Mansion, an historic building in the shadow of another tragic icon, the World Trade Center.

after a red carpet ceremony with many family members and musicians there were the usual talking heads nicely corralled by host Mark Ruffin and others.  highlights on the Piaf team included hitmaker Mike Stoller (Lieber and Stoller), biographer Carolyn Burke and surprisingly producer George Avakian who knew them both at Columbia Records but chose to speak on Piaf.

Piaf acolyte Maria Elena Infantino delivered some of her songs most dramatically.  Infantino has all Piaf’s moves down pat.  her dramatic poses, her famous vibrato, so perfectly evoked by others as diverse as Eartha Kitt and Sidney Bechet were moving as she sang Mi Lord, La Mer, Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (No Regrets), La Vie en Rose (later translated and covered in the U.S. by Louis Armstrong) and Two Loves Have I.  one observer said it didn’t give her the expected goose flesh; it did me.

my mother, who barely achieved five feet in height, loved this diminutive singer/actress.  we heard Piaf recordings scattered throughout our early lives.

on the Miles side there were his scions: daughter Cheryl, son Erin, nephew Vincent Wilburn, Jr., as well as producer now Blue Note head Don Was, who never met or knew him, and added nothing.   and former wife Cicely Tyson and bassist Ron Carter, who did.  Carter’s repeated mantra of “Miles wanted something different” was so effectively delivered that is was followed by a standing-o.

i was hoping that Avakian would retell the tale of Miles’ honorable side.  seems that Columbia (under a & r director Avakian) signed and recorded the landmark ‘”Round About Midnight” prior to the trumpeter’s release from his contract with Prestige Records.  Miles refused to allow the Columbia LP to be released until he fulfilled a three-record-monty.  he went into the studio and in two sessions recorded what turned out to be “Steamin’,” “Relaxiin’,” and “Cookin’.”  in addition, while the tunes on those historic recordings remained in his repertoire, Davis never played them the same way twice.  but that’s another story.

a tandem of three trumpets plus rhythm from Julliard played arrangements by Julliard Jazz Director Carl Allen of famous Davis tunes closed the proceedings.

among the missing was any mention of Davis’ infamous producer Teo Macero, who made sure that Miles Davis’ name was not forgotten when it appeared that Davis would not come out of a self-imposed musical exile.  Macero recorded Davis’ comeback LP when he did play again.   he was also the precursor of Davis’ electric period, utilizing the new techniques of cutting-and-pasting tape to produce different sounds.  he once told my New School class that Davis got sick over the studio floor during a session and Macero took 17 minutes of tape and made two LPs!   sounds like cheating to me.  now they do it digitally.  to these older ears, it still smacks of lazy short-cut.

it was Macero who facilitated my only interview with Davis, an afternoon affair during his “retirement” period which lasted well into the evening in Davis’ W. 77th St. townhouse.

later on the stamp premiere night the JFA reservation-by-invitation do was held.  the invitees included some members from Davis-led groups.  i would have liked to have seen first quintet, and sole survivor, drummer Jimmy Cobb.  but alas no former members were in attendance.

there were lots of hangers-on, press, and musicians galore (see photo).  host for the evening was WBGO’s Rob Crocker, who helped me identify the younger players.

the assembled multitude (photo Earl Gibson courtesy Jazz Foundation)

JFA Prez Jarrett Lillien welcomed the jammed room.  the family unveiled the Miles Davis part of the stamps issue.  then Erin Davis presented the first group led by trumpeter Gabriel Johnson.

the second was led by saxophonist Michael Gough.  both were high energy electric fusion bands.  i missed why Gough was dressed in 18th century couture from powdered wig to buckled shoes.  in any case no matter how hard Crocker tried for decorum neither group could be discerned to any great effect over the din in the room.  i will say this: all those young cats had chops for days.

SHEILA JORDAN & JAY CLAYTON @ VISION FESTIVAL 2012 IN BROOKLYN

in addition to gourmet restaurants amid gentrified blocks Boerum Hill in Downtown Brooklyn houses a recently opened venue.  called Roulette it is located in the YWCA on Atlantic and Third Avenues.  the musical fare bends towards the forward looking and eclectic.  one night latin bands; another jazz-rock; other times just plain noise dangerous for aging lobes like mine.

during the 2012 Vision Fest Roulette hosted an entire evening (7p-post midnight) of avante-jazz.  i caught the opening set of vocalists Sheila Jordan and Jay Clayton.  backed by Jack Wilkins and Cameron Brown, guitar and bass, respectively, the pair traded off on a brooch of selections dubbed “Bebop To Freebop.”  the admixture was  standards,  jazz tunes –one by Brooklyn’s Kenny Dorham– and some blues.

there was more Brooklyn history represented on that stage.  Jordan was married to Brooklyn’s Duke Jordan. (“I loved Charlie Parker so much that i married his piano player.”)  when Clayton and i met decades ago she was living in Dumbo.

but it wasn’t about repertoire nor Brooklyn so much as it was about presentation.  Jordan’s pure jazz improvsations played well against Clayton’s use of vocal intervallic leaps, free verse and a voice splitter, or “looper,” as she calls it.

Whitney Balliett might have said that this was “the sound of surprise.”

- © arnold jay smith

June 2012

WONDER WOMAN

she didn’t have an invisible airplane, yet she flew.  no bulletproof bracelets, yet she fended off any brickbats thrown at her clients.  her couture, while always fashionable, was her disguise, as was her smile and demeanor.  but her magical powers were seemingly endless.  there will be no comic books, movies, radio shows, television series about Phoebe Jacobs.  she was a publicist.  having been there, done that, i know we are supposed to stay in the shadows and let our clients shine through.

but Phoebe got involved.  she was old school the likes of which will never be seen again.  her métier was jazz and her clients were legendary with household nicknames such as Satchmo & Duke & Eubie.  she made them so famous that we got to know them by their first names such as Ella & Benny.  they were welcome in our homes as friends whether on the radio and television, in the press, or, most prominently, recordings.

Phoebe Jacobs passed away in April 2012 aged 93 having led a full and productive life till her last public appearance.  she was in the audience when the Duke Ellington Society presented Duke’s granddaughter Mercedes Ellington in a program of reminiscences.

Mercedes Ellington, Marilyn Lester, Earl Wilson, Jr., Louise Michelle, Georgette Gittens, Phoebe Jacobs @ Dule Ellingotn Society April 2012

a memorial was given in Phoebe’s honor at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theatre.  i have been to (too) many of these to be impressed by them any longer no matter how loving the deceased –i’m planning on eating those words– but this one was, indeed, special.  it had to  be as Phoebe was such an exemplary personage.

[obituaries appeared in the world's press.  so i won't recount here.]

i met Phoebe ca. 1974.  i can’t quite put my finger on the exact event at which Phoebe and i got together.  i know that her late husband Dr. Lew Jacobs, was still with us; we bonded almost immediately.

EUBIE

Phoebe had earlier introduced me to the then 86 year old Eubie Blake and his wife Marian. Eubie had recently received his BA from N.Y.U.  notice i did not say “honorary” degree.  the great composer was having a resurgence and i was writing somethings about him.

at his 99th Birthday party at a recording studio on the Lower East Side Eubie was seated talking with another legend, blues singer Alberta Hunter, with me being a fly-on-the-wall nearby when in walked pianist McCoy Tyner and his then wife.  McCoy shyly beckoned me over to him and asked in an impressive whisper, “is that Eubie Blake you were talking to?  you think you could introduce us?”  i asked for only one thing, a photo of them, with me, of course.   no Phoebe, no intros, no photo, no memories.  it hangs on my wall to this day.

Eubie Blake, McCoy Tyner, Arnold Jay Smith @ Carl Selzer Studio, Feb. 1982 (photo Carl Hultburg)

a year later Phoebe organized a centenary tribute to him at the Town Hall which was broadcast via closed circuit to his home in Brooklyn.  Eubie Blake died the next day.  he was 100,

LOUIS & LUCILLE

Phoebe’s favorite client, and closest friends, were Louis and Lucille Armstrong.  she helped him get his manager, Joe Glaser, and worked with them until their passing.   afterwards she developed what is now the landmarked Louis Armstrong House and Musuem in Corona, Queens, Louis last residence.  she also got a Queens, N.Y. Middle School named after him and, oh yes, the N.O.LA airport!

in 1979, when developing my New School course entitled Jazz Insights ©, the first topic was Louis Armstrong.  my guests were pianist and historian Dick Hyman and Lucille.  (Phoebe always refused to be a guest.  probably for the same reason she never wrote a book. “i’m too busy living it,” i heard her once say.)

 the format of Jazz Insights was live interviews with audio and visual aids.  i called Lucille, who called Phoebe, who told Lucille, in effect, “he’s ok; loved Louis; knows a lot.”  having had my way paved with such verbal rose petals i was greeted warmly at the Armstrong home by the lady of the house, who made  sandwiches.  we ate and talked, Lucille running up and down stairs bringing more LPs with her each time.  afternoon turned to evening ending with me on the living room floor an island surrounded by records.

Arnold Jay Smith, Lucille Armstrong, Dick Hyman @ Jazz Insights, New School 1979 (photo Marty Smith from AJS Archives)

amongst those records was a boxed set of Louis narrating his Musical Autobiography in between recorded performances,  Lucille told me she had one left and wanted me to  have it.  ”i know you will take care of it,” she said.  i bet she passed it through Phoebe first.  as you can imagine, there were tears.  she endorsed it to me. (below)   it is now housed in the Armstrong Archives.  i presented it to Phoebe during a fundraiser for the House.

not long after the interview with Lucille, but well before the fundraiser i got a long distance call from Phoebe.  she was touring Europe with Lucille when Lucille suddenly  suffered a heart attack and died.  Phoebe, on her way home with Lucille’s remains, asked, “could  you write something, please?”  need she have asked?

Cover & endorsement Louis Armstrong Box Set

MAKING CONNECTIONS

as i said, without Phoebe…  if you were in her zone she was there for you.  she would introduce someone to me, then turn to him/her and say, “see, i told you he would know [you.]”  she was proud that she had picked the right person for an introduction to make the perhaps neophyte subject feel comfortable.

DUKE

over the years relationships developed between the Ellington family and myself: sister Ruth. son Mercer, grandchildren Gaye, Mercedes and Edward II.  in retrospect the warmth among us was at least initially due to Phoebe’s giving her clearance, again.  Mercedes speaking at the JALC memorial mentioned that Phoebe was “up there with my father and grandfather [Mercer and Duke] giving them hell to pay.”  (interesting dichotomy there.)  Phoebe could be admonishing at times especially when she felt she was right.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER CELEBRATION 

after opening remarks from writer Stanley Crouch in the guise of President of the Jacobs-founded Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, the LCJO led by its Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, began with What A Wonderful World, Lew Soloff as special guest soloist.  Soloff handed off to Jon Faddis, another guest, who out high-C-ed Louis. both remained in the band creating a powerhouse trumpet section with Wynton not heard since Alan Rubin, Randy Becker, Soloff and Faddis sat n the N.Y. studio bands of the 1970s. and ’80s.

Impresario George Wein said that Phoebe defined New York.  ”she was Queen Mother” [of jazz], he said.  Jimmy Heath played and conducted Billy Strayhorn’s  A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing.  Bobby Sanabria burst on stage clapping clavé and got the audience into it on Juan Tizlol’s Caravan.

Jimmy Heath conducts LCJO (photo Frank Stewart. courtesy Jazz At Lincoln Center)

after Robert O’Meally informed us that Phoebe formed the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University with Louis’s money the band played the Gordon Jenkins-penned  Goodbye.  (mis-announced as the theme for the Benny Goodman Band, it was the band’s closing tune.  Let’s Dance was the band’s well-known theme.)  Victor Goines’ clarinet made it work just fine.

other highlights: Dream A Little Dream of Me had Brianna Thomas singing alongside trombonist Vincent Gardner subbing for Louis in a straight take a la Satch and Velma Middleton.  Lil Hardin Armstrong’s Struttin’ With Some Barbecue featured young pianist Courtney Bryan re-harmonizing an introduction.  Wynton played Louis on Spencer Williams’  Mahogany Hall Stomp.

then out they marched leading a second-line-like procession into the foyer of Rose Hall.

The Second Line @ Rose Hall (photo Frank Stewart. courtesy Jazz At Lincoln Center)

AFTER-WORDS

family and friends repaired uptown to the National Black Theatre in Harlem for reminiscences organized by Phoebe’s friend and assistant Jackie Harris, who produced the entire day’s events.  prior to that Phoebe’s daughter told the JALC audince that “she had money, but gave it away,”  at the Harlem gathering speakers such as Michael Cogswell, Director of the House and Museum, told how she got them started then watched over them.  vocalist/percussionist Fran McIntyre thanked the family for “letting us borrow Phoebe.”

if you weren’t smiling you wandered into the wrong place.

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN! (photo Grayson Dantzic. courtesy Jazz At Lincoln Center)

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: NARAS REINSTATES LATIN JAZZ 

as we went to post word reached us via e-mail, then in the print media, that NARAS, the Grammys ® people, has reinstated the Latin Jazz Category.  congratulations to Bobby Sanabria and kudos to the rest of us [see my blog] who stuck to our resolve and for screaming loudly enough.  now i can exhale and pay my dues again, with a clearer conscience.  Phoebe would have qvelled –Yiddish term meaning to shake with joy– over this.

sometimes it works.  we didn’t even have to picket, use a blow-up rat, or camp out.  just persevere.  read all about it: www.nytimes.com

next up in the box to reinstate is the Jazz Journalists Association.  come to our Awards Gala June 20 @ the Blue Note and find out:  www.jjajazzawards.org

let there be descarga dancing in the streets!

- © arnold jay smith

June 2012