Our top pick of New In Music This Week: June 2nd is:

BROADWAY: CAMELOT OBCR (Broadway Records)

Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of the Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe musical Camelot received 5 Tony nominations including Best Revival of a Musical. The musical tells the story of King Arthur (Andrew Burnap) and the knights he pursues for his round table. Amongst them is Lancelot Du Lac (Jordan Donica) who falls for Arthur’s beloved Guenevere (Phillipa Soo). The show is filed with such songs as I Loved You Once in Silence, If Ever I Would Leave You, How to Handle a Woman and the title song.

I haven’t seen this production, but Donica apparently steals the show with his incredible singing. That’s reason enough to follow this recording wherever it wants to take us.

Our other choices as the best of what’s New In Music this Week: June 2nd are:

CABARET: ACOUSTIC SONDHEIM: LIVE FROM BROOKLYN – Eleri Ward (Ghostlight Records)

Every day a little death. Apparently with this final volume of her trilogy, Ward is going to move on from Stephen Sondheim‘s music. But before she does she’s releasing this live in studio recording with special guest Bobby Conte (Company). Ward has a good thing going with these recordings and I’m looking forward to whatever she does next.

Her lo-fi recordings of Sondheim’s music had me losing my mind with how beautiful they were. It will be agony not to have more recordings of this musical theater genius from Ward, but I know things now about unique ways to bring color and light to his music.

CLASSICAL: MUSIC FOR A NEW CENTURY – Daniel Hope and the New Century Chamber Orchestra (Deutsch Grammophon)

Violinist Hope has assembled a fascinating line-up of music to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the New Century Chamber Orchestra. Pianist Alexey Botvinov joins for a performance of Philip Glass‘s Third Piano Concerto. The remaining three works are having world premiere recordings on Music For a New Century. They are Tan Dun’s Double Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra with Percussions; Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Lament for Solo Violin and String Orchestra and Jake Heggie’s Overture Joyfully. The latter three works were all commissions by the NCCO.

CONTEMPORARY OPERA: BLACK LODGE – David T. Little (Cantaloupe Music)

Last year Opera Philadelphia gave the premiere of this modern opera by David T. Little. Press materials describe Black Lodge as a metal/punk-infused opera. If you’re expecting Puccini, this won’t be for you. But if you want a work that pushes the envelope of what the form can do, Black Lodge is definitely for you.

The libretto is by poet Anne Waldman and the story of a man trying to escape from the torment of demons of his own design has echoes of William S. Burroughs and David Lynch. Black Lodge is performed by Timur and the Dime Museum with the Isaura String Quartet. Fasten your seat belts, this is going to a bumpy ride..but a seriously fascinating one. Little is amongst our finest contemporary composers.

JAZZ: SLOW DRAG – Donald Byrd (Blue Note Records)

This is one of two of the June reissues of vinyl only reissues of classic jazz albums remastered from the original master tapes. Slow Drag was originally released in 1967 and found the trumpeter joined by bassist Walter Booker, drummer Billy Higgins, saxophonist Sonny Red and pianist Cedar Walton. This proved to be one of Byrd’s last hard bop albums.

The six songs on this album are the title track, Secret Love, Book’s Bossa, Jelly Roll, The Loaner and My Ideal. His version of Secret Love is definitely different than the version many people know by Doris Day.

JAZZ: TORRENT – Satoko Fujii (Libra Records)

Pianist Fujii doesn’t just play the key on the piano, she plays the whole damn thing. Inside, outside, it’s all fair game for her adventurous music. You can’t call what she does traditional jazz for she incorporates multiple genres into her music. the end result is endlessly fascinating and definitely unique.

Each tracks sounds exactly likes its title: from the opening title track to the closing track, Wave Crest. Rather amazingly, all six tracks were completely improvised during the recording session. Titles were only added after they had all been recorded. If you’ve never heard Fujii before, this is a great way to get introduced to her superb talent.

JAZZ: THE JUNGLE – Wynton Marsalis (Blue Engine Records)

In 1997 Wynton Marsalis became the first recipient of a Pulitzer Prize in Music for a work that was jazz. He won the award for Blood on the Fields, an incredible work that defied easy categorization.

He’s back with another epic work: his Symphony No. 4 which also defies a single genre to define it. One ting that does define it is it is resolutely a work that has New York City at its heart. There are six movements in the symphony which definitely gives the listener a feeling of being in NYC.

The symphony concludes with a 15-minute final movement entitled Struggle in the Digital Market which sums up one of the points Marsalis is making with this work: the challenge of being alive in our modern day world.

This is a recording of a performance from 2019 with Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under the direction of conductor Nicholas Buc.

JAZZ: TIME FOR TYNER – McCoy Tyner (Blue Note Records)

This is the second of the two June vinyl-only releases. This was pianist Tyner’s 3rd Blue Note album and it was released in 1969. Tyner used an interesting combination for his quartet on this album: vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Herbie Lewis and drummer Freddie Waits.

The six tracks on the album are African Village, Little Madimba, May Street, I Didn’t Know What Time it Was, The Surrey With the Fringe on Top and I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face. The first three are originals and the last three come from the musicals Too Many Girls, Oklahoma! and My Fair Lady.

That’s it for the best of what’s New In Music This Week: June 2nd. What are you listening to? Leave a message in the comments section. Enjoy the music and enjoy your weekend.

Main Photo: Part of the album art for Camelot

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The world was casually introduced to jazz saxophonist and composer Walter Smith III with his 2005 album Casually Introducing Walter Smith III. Fourteen years later we learned he was Still Casual on his 2019 album. On Friday he makes his Blue Note Records debut with Return to Casual. Simply put, Smith is one casual dude.

He’s worked with some of the biggest names in jazz: Terence Blanchard, Herbie Hancock, Joe Lovano, Christian McBride, Jason Moran and more. What he’s been trying to do, as he told me recently when we spoke, is to “become a better composer. And slowly but surely, over time, I’ve kind of hit milestones that were important to me. I feel now I’m at kind of a foundational level of composition.”

Return to Casual features nine new songs composed by Smith. When he started writing the album, he wanted to make some fundamental changes in the way he wrote.

“One of the things that I noticed is as I started to improve as a composer,” he revealed, “I was leaving less space for the musicians to really interject. I was controlling every aspect of it. So in this one my goal was to keep the compositional aspect at the forefront, but to somehow build in space. A lot of my favorite composers, people that I work with, they leave space for personality. So that was what I was going for here.”

The album begins with a very playful song entitled Contra which reflects, in part, Smith’s own sense of humor, which he readily admits to and finds essential to who he is.

“To me, it is everything,” he admitted. “Because even when things are bad, you can still find there’s always humor in everything. Anything that happens to you, there’s always some kind of aspect of it that you can look at and have a chuckle. Even if it’s inappropriate to share with others. For your own well-being you can find it in there.”

In our conversation he shows how his sense of humor factors into how people might hear Return to Casual. The sixth song on the album, quiet song, is anything but. It smacks listeners in the face from the opening notes and surprised the musicians who joined him on the record.

“I wanted it to just be that. Even in the rehearsal I had to convince people from the very first note, it needs to just be crazy,” he says with a laugh before revealing another part of his thinking. “Also entitling it I pictured an algorithm picking that up and ending up on a Spotify Jazz for Calm Cooking playlist or something. I would get a lot of delight over someone putting it on and then spilling sauce or something.”

Smith did find an opportunity to arrange a song by Kate Bush that he’s always loved and put it on the album. The song is Mother Stands for Comfort which can be found on her Hounds of Love album.

“It’s a song that I’ve had on my radar for years and I’ve been trying to figure out a way to make it work in the context of original music. That’s something that I’m always trying to figure out, to take standards or popular music and try to make it work where if I played it on a concert, it would not be an outlier. It would feel very much connected to all the other music.”

While writing Pup – Pow for the album he recognized some similarities between his new work and Bush’s song which might suggest his mind had finally figured out how to make it all work.

“When I was writing that song, I was like, it’s like the same chord progression, the same key. There we go. Now I’ve got a way to tie it in. Now I’ve got a way to use it.” And when he played the songs back-to-back at the Village Vanguard nobody seemed to notice. Which gave Smith tremendous satisfaction.

“That’s the whole point. Since that track was released as a single, I’ve gotten probably like a hundred DMs on Instagram from people that are like, ‘Man, I listened to this song every day for the last ten years. My mom had it on a tape and I forgot all about it. Then I found it on Apple Music and yours came up.’ All these people are in love with it. I don’t know if the Stranger Things situation helped put that on other people’s radar, but whatever it is, I think that’s kind of a cool way for people to find my music – which is a very unexpected situation.”

Equally unexpected was losing a good friend last year. Megan Stabile, a New York promoter who created unique opportunities for jazz and hip-hop to intersect and boosting awareness of jazz, took her own life. She was the head of Revive Music Group. Smith wrote the final song on the album, REVIVE, as a tribute to Stabile. It is, perhaps, the most emotional composition Smith has ever written.

“It’s bigger than just a personal thing. It is like a groundswell amongst a countless number of people. I look at her imprint on Blue Note, which launched Otis Brown and Marcus Strickland’s first records for the label. I look at the the first time I played Winter Jazzfest as a leader was through Megan on the Revive stage. I look at Igmar Thomas in the Revive big band. I look at the the Zinc Bar Session that was happening every week. Anytime you’d go down there, she would be there to greet you at the door. ‘Come in and have a drink. This is Walter, he doesn’t live here, but take care of him.’ Just creating community for people.”

Creating and having a community is a top priority for Smith. He is the Chair of the Woodwind Department at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. How and when he was most influenced by others inspires his desire to pass on the kind of experiences and information he gleaned from being mentored by Blanchard and being on the road with Hancock or the late Wayne Shorter.

“For a while there was a very lopsided aspect of in higher ed – and actually all levels – where everything was based on academic achievement and very little in the field. I guess the people that always inspired me were the people that were in the field. So getting to talk to Terence or Herbie as a student, that meant whether or not I learned how to spell a C major triad from them, it didn’t matter. What I did get from them is the reason that I’m doing this now, if that makes sense. There is the part where you’re dispensing knowledge to people, but there’s the part where you actually inspire them to do something with that knowledge and to actually stick with it. It’s not easy to do this. Especially in the beginning stages, you have to really love it and want to do it.”

He recalls one impactful moment from his time in high school (where he met Kendrick Scott who has played drums with Smith ever since and does so on Return to Casual. Smith returns the favor by playing sax on Scott’s recently released Corridors).

“I remember Roy Hargrove came to my high school. That one hour he was there kept me going for ten years after that. One of the things that I want to do is to continue to grow as an artist and have that work in the field and bring that directly to people that I get to work with. If I can give that same feeling to someone, that’s that’s the goal.”

As he continues to play and write music and inspire students, one thing he’ll always be is casual.

“I think it really does refer to kind of how I carry myself in general. I’m not really stressed out in any way. I’m pretty laid back, even when it comes to music. It was just something that we always talked about in high school. We would use it as a silly word. Being a touring musician, anything and everything does go wrong and you kind of learn by watching other people and seeing how different things affect the music, affect the tour, affect all of the aspects of it. To just relax and let it happen as it happens and roll with it is how I live in many ways.”

To check out Walter Smith III’s concert schedule, please go here.

All photos of Walter Smith III by George Clarke/Courtesy Blue Note Records

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“Gone are the days of releasing a record with a particular band and go right on the road with the same band for months at a time, plugging that music, plugging that album, playing that music, right? I look at every tour, every gig, every musical situation I have on my calendar and I just think what would make this as enjoyable an experience as possible for the band, for me and for for the audience. What can I do to make this what it needs to be?” So says pianist/composer Gerald Clayton when discussing how to approach the upcoming release of his new album, Bells on Sand.

Before Clayton’s album is released by Blue Notes Records on April 1st, he has a few concerts lined up. On February 17th he’ll be performing at The Soraya in Northridge. On February 25th Clayton will be at the Starlight Patio and Lounge with Domo Branch in Portland. After Bells on Sand comes out he’ll be at the Johnson Theatre in Durham, New Hampshire. Clayton is also part of three all-star concerts celebrating Nat “King” Cole with the Nashville Symphony.

Clayton is an immensely talented artist who gives considerable thought to who he is artistically and the traditions from which his career was possible. We spoke last week via Zoom to talk about Bells on Sand, those artists who inspire him and whether or not he is an old soul. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.

You said that Oscar Peterson’s Night Train was the first jazz album that really got its hooks into you. Peterson once said, “I don’t believe that a lot of the things that I hear on the air today are going to be played for as long a time as Coleman Hawkins records or Brahms concertos.” What are the challenges you face as a composer and a musician cutting through all the music that is available now and at the same time creating something that may last as long as a Coleman Hawkins record or a Brahms concerto?

That’s a really beautiful sentiment and fascinating to think about. One of the parts of the premise of that question is that I consider all of the music around me to cut through in the first place. Maybe the way to go about arts and making music is to to drown out all the other noise and really set your sights on that bull’s eye, on that North Star. Just serve the art, serve the music as best as you can, as honestly as you can, as diligently and thoughtfully and thoroughly as possible, and let the rest take care of itself. I think that’s generally the equation that been the modus operandi for me since I was a kid.

I think it’s natural that we all sort of aspire to leave something behind, to be so lucky as to to make music that is great and magical and wonderful enough that it even deserves to live on after we’re long gone. I think part of the allure of that is this very human desire to have your ego remain you’re gone. But to experience music and experience art that is that pure and worthy of that is really what excites me and is something that I’m inspired to try to get to. Just to even record something on the level of those artists you mentioned would be incredible.

At the same time I was first listening to Bells on Sand I was listening to Joel Ross’ new album, The Parable of the Poet and Ethan Iverson‘s new album Every Note Is True. One thing that struck me about all three albums was that there was a sense of calm that I heard in the music that I don’t think I’d been hearing in the last few years. They’re all coming out around the same time and reflect more of a coming to peace with one’s self or one’s world. Is that something that you wanted to express in this album, particularly after all that we’ve gone through as a society recently?

I think you’re probably onto something. I think there’s an affect from this wildly new time that we’re living in that is maybe hard to fully comprehend at this moment. Maybe it takes another couple of years to look back and see that all of the music coming out at this time all had this in common. Maybe it’s that sort of calm sensibility or what have you. It could also be just individual paths and journeys of all three of us. For me this record is also a reflection of where I am in comparison to the previous records I put out and feeling that it was time to include something that’s a little bit more intimate in my body of work.

This is an intimate record. What the title and narrative of the project is trying to get after is to play music without anything else. Just have a song and that sort of catharsis, that therapeutic relationship with you and the sound and how that’s just a thing that happens in a moment. And then you go on to the next moment. And if you come back to the same song it’s a new moment and the sands have shifted. To point that all back to the sensibility of calmness and and meditation feels very relevant.

If we were to take Boogablues, which opens your first album, Two-Shade, and then take Water’s Edge, which opens Bells on Sand and use them as goalposts at opposite ends of the field, what does that say to you about the journey that you’ve taken and who you are today versus who you were then?

There are different ways to to take people on a musical journey and I think that’s something I’ve had the privilege of exploring over these past 15-20 years of doing this. To see what it feels like to open the concert with a dance like Boogablues, then what comes after that? How does it feel to actually start not with the jovial sort of bouncy attitude feeling of Boogblues, but start with a little bit more of a pensive or intellectual or cerebral [composition]? Going there first and then taking them to the blues as sort of a release from that tension to end a set big or to end a set on a ballad. I like the variety of things and I definitely don’t have one way of doing things. That’s what always turns me on about art and music. I suppose it says that maybe it would be strange to start your first record, your first statement to the world on a ballad, you know? But now that I’ve got plenty of baggage that I take along with me to this next record, I think I feel the freedom to go there and to start on this energy.

Looking back on Ben Ratliff‘s New York Times review of the first night of your first stand at the Village Vanguard in 2010 he said, “Perhaps because he inherited* so much aesthetic knowledge, Mr. Clayton seems from a different era.” Do you feel like your are from a different era or are an old soul?

I think there’s something about being a 1984 baby that maybe our generational purpose is one of connecting past to future. That we are the last of that soulful generation that remembers being social before the internet. So yeah, there are values and lessons from the before times that are really near and dear to my heart that I think are actually really important. 

I think there are plenty of other people my age and younger who feel that as well and want to be about carrying that torch forward. But there are plenty who don’t have that connection and are still amazing, creative, beautiful artists that I love to work with. So maybe compared to some of those cats I am maybe a different kind of old soul. But really I think it’s just the same as anybody else, just trying to play what what feels right and be honest about the things you think are beautiful.

Legendary drummer Billy Higgins once said. “Because the stuff that they feed kids now, they’ll have a bunch of idiots in the next millennium as far as art and culture is concerned.” I think he’s been more than proven wrong twenty-one plus years into this century. But what would you say to him if you had a chance to respond to that comment?

I won’t really say anything. I listen and I take note and I say, I hear you Maestro. I’m really lucky to to work with Charles Lloyd who had that very deep connection with Billy Higgins. He talks about Billy a lot. Hearing him talk about life and music, the things that are and the things that aren’t, I love that. Just soaking that up and really ruminating on it and and making sense of it for yourself. I think that’s one of the gifts of this music is that community and the voice of the elders. I think part of the responsibility of my generation, and really probably anybody’s generation, is to take those lessons that those elders have to say and make sense of them for yourself and bring them forward and try to do do them justice and consider them as you move forward.

Without getting too cynical there’s a lot about this time we live in that feels a bit like smoke and mirrors. That the focus has maybe shifted. It’s not necessarily about the quality, maybe it’s more about the quantity. Without being too judgmental or critical a lot of this stuff is not that great. So I guess what happens as a result of that might be speaking to what Maestro Higgins was talking about. You create a whole audience of viewers and listeners that don’t have that same bar of expectation of what something could be or should be or needs to be for it to be considered good. I hear him on that. I also agree with you that there is something about this about music and about art that is much bigger than the dialects of the language. It is human creativity and this actual need for people to express their joys and their sorrows in a creative way. That never dies.

*Gerald Clayton is the son of jazz musician/composer John Clayton and nephew of the late jazz musician Jeff Clayton.

Photo: Gerald Clayton (Photo by Ogata/Courtesy Blue Note Records)

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We all have unique ways – we hope – of celebrating our birthdays. For jazz musician and composer Ethan Iverson he celebrated his 49th birthday on Friday the best way possible for all of us: he released a new album entitled Every Note Is True on Blue Note Records. The album finds Iverson joined by bass player Larry Grenadier and legendary drummer Jack DeJohnette.

Iverson may be best known for the avant-garde jazz trio The Bad Plus. He recorded 14 albums with the trio before moving on. My personal favorite amongst their recordings is 2014’s The Rite of Spring. It is absolutely Stravinsky’s music, but performed in a way that is completely its own. (Which you’ll see is a theme for Iverson.)

Every Note Is True features nine original compositions by Iverson and a cover of DeJohnette’s Blue (which was the drummer’s idea during the recording sessions.)

In late January I spoke with Iverson about the album, his prolific writing and interviews that can and should be read on his blog Do the M@th and whether jazz music will ever achieve a level of greatness beyond what legendary artists such as John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins accomplished. What follows are excerpts from my conversation with Iverson that have been edited for length and clarity.

I want to start with one of your interviews with the late Terry Teachout. He concluded his comments by saying, “I think I’ll just keep on doing what I do and waiting to see what happens next. I’ve always been open to surprise.” How much does that describe your own process and how does every note as true reflect the surprise you find in your own work? 

I do think it’s important to surprise yourself when you’re a composer or a piano player. Some people have careers in the arts where they really stay on a very specific track. But I’ve been lucky enough to have a more wayward experience going from thing to thing in a way. But I will say that I always feel like it make sense to me; there’s a thread there that I follow since I really started playing the piano for real. I have been aware of following a thread from the outside. It may look like it’s a mess. I don’t know, like all the different things I’ve done or who knows, but for me it’s all been logical. I guess I would also say that I hope to be keep on being surprised in the future.

How much does Every Note Is True serve as a document of your experience and emotions during these last two years and how is that reflected in the opening track, The More It Changes, which features cellphone recorded performances of the vocals by friends and family?

Everybody’s got to use what’s happening in real time. And I would say jazz improvisers are particularly suited to doing that. You’ve always got to be in the present day. When the pandemic hit, like most of my peers, the first question is when do we start working at the grocery store? It really felt like the end of everything and, of course, we’re not out of it yet. So it was hard not to see all my friends in that sort of thing. As you recall at the beginning everything was quite strict. I thought let’s just do a nod to this current moment and have a socially-distanced choir and try to bring people together through music. Even if it’s just for a short song that lasts a minute and change.

One track in particular hit me very emotionally was Had I But Known. Could tell me a little bit about that track and what it is that you wish you had known?

I really love Paul Bley and his two composers, Carla Bley and Annette Peacock. It is a little bit of my nod to that tradition. With Carla in particular as a composer, I think she’s an influence on some of the ways I think. She embraces a whole world of possibility from the very simple to the very complex. The title, there might be specific things about it that I don’t feel like sharing in an interview, but it’s not truly an original title. It’s from genre fiction.

That’s the most dissonant track on the record. But it has still a clarity, I think, a through line of pure harmony that makes it effective. It’s completely written out. I don’t improvise and I like to do something a little different, that I’m pretty sure is fairly different. Usually if it’s a trio record and the pianist takes a solo number, it’s sort of an improvised rhapsodic fantasy, you know? But this is I just read it down from my score.

On January 18th, you tweeted something that I thought was really interesting. You said “There’s nothing new, just fresh ways of combining things.” Do you genuinely believe there’s nothing new?

You could ask me about any jazz musician, for example, and I could tell you the references. But the older I get, the more I believe that is really the case, you know? All humans are essentially the same. What percentage of what’s really different between you and me? Just a small percentage. We’re all inspired by whatever we’re inspired by. You don’t wake up and have a new idea. Now there are people who are more innovative than others, but I think it’s because they’ve combined elements that had never been combined before.

I read your your essays and interviews which I think are essential reading for people just to get an understanding of the past and the present within music. What do you think the dialog you have with your audience vis-a-vis these essays and through your music will do for getting us into the future and understanding in the future where we’ve come from and what impact that will have on other musicians? 

Specifically about jazz, you know, there was room for me because the critical discourse never was too informed by the way the musicians actually thought about it. And sometimes when I’m teaching a master class I talk about Beethoven. I talk about Coltrane. For me they’re equal.

But Beethoven’s been dead for so long and the best and the brightest minds have been working on his reception history for years. They’re still working on it. We’ve sort of got Beethoven sorted now. Coltrane died in 1967 and we’re still pretty new in the reception history. Within the last maybe 15 years something has gotten better as people with real talent are actually taking on the reception history of our greatest American musicians. So I see whatever I’m doing in print is part of that – just trying to sort out something because there’s nothing better than 20th century jazz that’s top table. You know, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Haden, all of that stuff that was unbelievably great. All the piano players: Art Tatum, Earl “Fatha” Hines, Teddy Wilson, Ahmad Jamal, Hank Jones. I get chills thinking about these musicians. They were so great and people sort of knew they were great. Now they’re all gone and we kind of know that was it.

That was like Beethoven and Mozart. That was an incredible moment of human creativity. So whatever I’m doing in the jazz sense there with that is just trying to get more of the musician’s perspective. When I interview Ron Carter or Keith Jarrett as a musician, maybe I get some insight from them that, you know, sometimes stuff that I think it’s pretty obvious. But then later on someone will say, I just didn’t know they thought about it that way. So that’s what I believe my role is in trying to move the ball forward and just understanding how great jazz was.

We had multiple great periods of classical music well past Beethoven. Do you think we will have multiple great periods of jazz past all those artists you just mentioned?

I don’t think it’s going to be better than John Coltrane, frankly. Sonny Rollins, you know. I made a little album for Tom Harrell. There’s nothing like that in terms of playing jazz trumpet. He’s sort an old genius of true school, shall we say. I don’t think my generation, we’re not going to quite get to what that is. So what we have to do is figure out things to add to it, to make something a little different. My belief as I turn 50 and older is formal composition will become more and more the way I try to put things together. Nothing new, exactly, but fresh ways of combining old things.

Photo: Ethan Iverson (Photo by Keith Major/Courtesy Blue Note Records)

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McCraven, who calls himself a beat scientist, is a drummer, producer and one of the most successful artists to mix the past with the present and jazz with hip-hop to create new sounds that are both of the past and looking forward.

His latest project is Deciphering The Message. The album, also on Blue Note Records, finds contemporary artists Matt Gold, Marquis Hill, De’Sean Jones, Jeff Parker, Junius Paul, Joel Ross and Greg Ward adding new beats and music to classic tracks by Blakey, Clifford Brown, Dexter Gordon, Hank Mobley, Horace Silver and more.

Last month I spoke via Zoom with McCraven about the album, his view on the past meeting the present and if that pairing can help bridge the ever-widening distance between people in 2021. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.

In late 2019 you said, “It’s a crazy time to be alive. There’s a crazy craving for something visceral, something honest, something vulnerable from art.” So much has changed in the two years since you said that. How would you describe the time we’re in now?

It feels like we’re in a completely new world. But I think even more so than ever, you know, there is a feeling that people don’t want the bullshit. They don’t want this life anymore. They don’t want the superficial anymore. Increasingly people want and need a hug, a good talking to, a dose of reality. Something that’s not just fake. I need a dose of of of something real, you know? It’s difficult. It’s crazy. It’s challenging times.

When you embarked on this project, what did you want to accomplish?

In this world where people are listening to individual songs now, I have wanted to make albums. I want to make a record and not a collection of songs and definitely not a collection of beats on a project like this.

There are definitely some central themes dealing with the past and present. One thing I connected with is you look at the people who created this music they were the innovators. They were young people. I think often we look at as this old music. It’s all under these terms of the elders and whatnot.

I’m remixing and bringing things into the modern place and having guys like Joel Ross and young musicians and players that are doing things now, interacting with the youthful nature of that music.

You look at Lee Morgan and Herbie Hancock and Hank Mobley. These guys were like 20 years old and 18 years old. Lee Morgan was 21 when he died. The amount of influence that he gave to us and how he changed the music – now it’s part of the fabric of the sound of contemporary modern music. And so to interact with that with young musicians, with the fresh ideas and bring a light to the innovative nature of this old music celebrates the music and creates something that has some symbiosis.

Jazz tracks have often been sampled but as a backdrop to the new track. On Deciphering The Message the classic tracks seem to live comfortably next to the new music. They aren’t subservient to what you’ve created.

I definitely wanted there to be playing on the record. I didn’t want to just make these small beats. I wanted to make music out of it as well. And I appreciate that comment.

There has been a framing of jazz in a way for sometime where like it’s not for young people. It’s not cool. It’s not hip. It’s not funky. If you’re going to be a jazz musician say goodbye to your career.

I always want to push back on that one. I think the word jazz is wholly insufficient to really talk about the phenomenon of what we’re dealing with. This is music of innovation. This is music that’s hip and bad ass, you know?

A lot of the tracks you selected come from the bop, hard bop and post-bop era. What made that particular style of jazz so attractive to you for this album?

When I went about picking tracks a lot of it was organic and digging and just listening to stuff. I had a number of themes and ideas that I was working around when I was trying to conceive what the narrative was going to be and how I wanted to do it. But at the end of the day the music kind of just helped me bring it together. And you know, from this hard bop era, I did find a lot of these tracks. 

Finding a lot of great little vamps in intros and and particularly with the writing of like Horace Silver and Kenny Dorham. There’s a lot of really catchy moments and catchy things that I found just spoke to me. As I started to piece it together, it just got a sound and that kind of came throughout the whole thing. If it sounds right, if it feels right, then I’m on board.

In an interview you did with Ayana Contreras you said “Nothing ever is what it was.” How does that philosophy influence your work and how you live your life?

The way that the world unfolds is within chaos and unpredictability. You know we are all improvisers. It’s a given in the universe that we are out of control. We don’t have full control. We can create as much structure as we like and we can try to maintain as an individual and within society. But we are all subject to the chaos around us and having to improvise and be ready for the unknown. And to me improvisation in jazz and music, in this musical sense, is just an expression of the universe that we are living in.

I’d like to conclude by asking you about something the legendary Dexter Gordon said. “In nuclear war all men are cremated equal.” As polarized as society is today, what role can and should music play in helping us recognize that we’re all one people?

I think music and art in general can disarm even the worst of us in one way or another and transform it into another place where we can have collective experiences that are not bound by just our word or ideas.

Particularly like with this music that’s instrumental. I think there’s something with instrumental music that’s really special because we’re not dealing with the literal word. We’re not dealing with the lyric. We’re dealing with an abstract thing that we can experience beyond language, border or whatever. I hope that the work that we do as musicians and artists has a strong and profound place in society to help open the minds and change the hearts of of people who are suffering and angry and all of the above. 

Photo of Makaya McCraven by Michael McDermott (Courtesy Big Fish Booking)

The post Makaya McCraven Offers a Dose of Something Real appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

O’Farrill and I were talking about his new album, …dreaming of lions, his first for Blue Note Records. He is joined by The Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble for two works written for Malpaso Dance Company of Cuba. The album features two works O’Farrill composed: Despedida, inspired by a poem by Jorge Luis Borges and the title work which was inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.

Tomorrow, October 13th, O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra begin a series of performances in California.

The first concert on Wednesday is at Stanford. The rest of his itinerary includes shows at UC Davis on the 14th, UC Santa Barbara on the 15th, The Soraya at UC Northridge on the 16th and The Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts on October 17th.

We had a lively discussion about music, politics and legacies (he’s the son of legendary bandleader Chico O’Farrill and his sons, Zachary and Adam, are both making their own names as musicians.) What follows is nearly our entire conversation that has only been edited for length and clarity.

In a video for Malpaso Dance Company’s Dreaming of Lions, Fernando Saez Carvajal says “Music and dance are connected very much in Cuba to what we could consider cultural resistance.” What is your role, vis-a-vis this composition, in that cultural resistance? 

I think that anytime you do any kind of activity with Cuba, you’re certainly casting a vote for an examination of the relationship between the two countries. I’m not particularly communist and I’m not particularly this or that of the other team, but I am definitely up for engagement. I’m pro engagement. We have to deal with several realities.

We have to deal with the reality that Cuba exists, that they pose absolutely no threat whatsoever to anything by either ideology or safety. Yet we punish these people in a cruel and criminal nightmare because they happen to be communists. Well, of course, we are happy to do business with China. We’re happy to do business with Saudi Arabia, which has a horrifying track record of killing journalists. We’re happy to do business with or be comfortable with Russia, but we’re somehow penalizing Cuba in a way that is vicious and cruel. So again, I’m not making a political statement. I’m not making an ideological statement. I’m simply saying that we need to examine what’s really happening here. So doing art with Cuba is very much a statement. So it’s not an endorsement of a political ideology, but it is. It’s also the source of my blood. I’m Cuban. I’m Cuban Mexican. And so working with this dance company is very much something that feels sacred to me. It’s a sacred obligation. 

Do you think that the creation of music or any art is a political act? 

I think that breathing is a political act, I do. I think that if you’re dating, something is political. If you are ignoring something that’s political. If you don’t openly speak against things that you think are wrong, if you don’t openly endorse things that you think are right, if you just stay silent – you’re being political. So I feel like making art that’s purposeful and that supports a viewpoint is important.

I get criticized all the time because people think artists should stay away from politics and they should stay away from making political statements. I actually had an incident at Birdland in New York. I talked about the confusion in Washington and some audience members yelled out “Shut up” before I could say anything. And somebody at the bar got angry. Of course, they have a right to speak and before I knew it there was kind of a yelling match going on while the band was playing. Well, I got offstage and was thanking the the club manager for quieting this dispute. And he said to me, “Mr O’Farrill, you should go in the dressing room because these people are outside doing the Nazi salute and saying, ‘Heil Hitler.'” Things have gotten to a point where by not actively speaking out against this kind of rhetoric you are actively supporting polarization. We need to speak clearly and cleanly to the idea that there is a lot of wrong in our society. And I think the job of the artist is, whether you write openly political music or not, the job of the artist is to accurately reflect the state of things in our world. 

For a moment let’s leave politics behind and talk about the record. The two pieces that are on your album were composed for dance. What considerations did you have in writing this music knowing that it was going to be danced to and not just listened to? 

Oh, it’s such a thrill to work with dancers and choreographers. The idea of setting music to a narrative has always been thrilling to me. The idea of setting it to a visual narrative, to a specific sequence of events and a visual, has radicalized the way I approach music. Meaning, I no longer make composition just abstract state. Even if I don’t have a narrative I think visually. I think architecturally when I write music. I really try to see movement even if it’s not for dance. That’s really changed my approach to making music. If I sit down to compose I see things. I see movement. I see shapes. And that kind of opens up a lot of possibilities for me as a composer. 

What do you think the difference has been in the end result of what you’ve written? 

I always appeal to the idea that you should write the things that interest you with the curiosity that you have. And so I think that hopefully, because I’m interested and curious about the process and the sounds that are coming out of my brain, people will also find interesting the structures and the drawings, if you will, that come out of my music. If you’re an honest artist you’ll compose or write what’s compelling to you. And if you do that, then you’re being honest to your craft. Hopefully people will go on that journey. You can make music to placate, you can make music to monetize, or you can make music because you’re curious about how this sounds or that works. When you do that there are people who are adventurous who will go with you on that adventure. Maybe not the vast majority of the listening public, but I still feel like your job is to take people on a journey and that’s sacred work. 

These compositions debuted approximately five or six years ago. When it came time to recording this album did you make any adjustments, either in composition or arrangement, and if you did, why? 

I opened it up to more improvisational settings because that’s the nature of jazz, and that’s the nature of who I am. I’m really an improviser and my musicians are improvisers. So we did open up some of the pieces, but they’re basically the same. In fact, I think they were greatly enhanced by the improvisational aspect. The structures of the pieces are, except for the addition of improvisational sections, exactly as we performed them with the dance company. 

La Llorona is one of the most haunting pieces I’ve heard in a while.

Thank you. To have that piece was very powerful to me. I’m very socially and politically active and I deal a lot with victims of police killing. I’ve interacted a lot with with mothers who have their children, their sons’ lives, taken from them. That was the guiding principle in that piece. I was thinking directly about women who lost their children to violence.

I know that Despedida has farewells at its theme. Given what the world has gone through in the last 18 months, do you think this work has added resonance now? 

Yes, I do. And it’s funny because sometimes I’ll write a work that’s premature. For instance, I wrote Four Questions with Cornel West and could not have told you that it would come out during Black Lives Matter. I could not have predicted that. And I could not have predicted that Despedida would come out during this horrifying year of fear. And it’s been a horrifying year.

I was just lamenting to my wife that we’ve lost so many heroes; the people, musicians that I adored and loved and looked up to and just assumed would be there forever. Our community was diminished greatly by the pandemic and just by the natural aging process. A lot of our musicians are aging and dying.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens in two, three, five years from now and how everybody’s journey through this time influences how they choose to express themselves, particularly artists. 

I agree. I love the idea of art being journalism. I think we’re going to be thinking about this a lot for years to come and the art that was made during this time period is going to be a lot about who we are and what we think. 

You tackle two legends in this work with Borges and Hemingway. When you’re working with well-known works by these established writers as the inspiration for what you’re doing, how long are the shadows cast by these two men and their works on you? 

Well, I mean, particularly with the Hemingway, I read that when I was a kid and for some reason it really resonated with me. I think it was because I was fairly young in this country. I had just come maybe three or five years earlier and I didn’t really quite feel like I fit in. One of the themes in the Hemingway work is really about alienation. He’s getting old, he’s passing. You know, he’s no longer useful. He gets the biggest fish of his life , but he can’t show it off because the shark ate it and he just stays wistful for another time.

All those things were really prevalent to me when I was a kid. I didn’t quite understand why I didn’t fit it. I didn’t quite understand why I was other. And so that book really hit hard. And so writing this work the themes that Hemingway deals with, I think are really germane to my life, my feelings when I was young – even now. And so the the impact that that literature had on me, you know, is measurable. And I pray that it’s a measure of justice to that. 

You described yourself as an other. There’s been a lot of movement in the last year-and-a-half or two years about being more and having more inclusion in the arts. It seems to me that every group is being included except the Latino community – inclusion hasn’t made its way there yet. What are your thoughts are about where we are and what it might take for that inclusion to finally reach the Latino community. 

There’s an ancient tale of woe between the Americas and the Latin America that is seen in such a subservient way by the North American and Anglo Americans. And I don’t understand it myself because, quite frankly, I think our cuisine is better. I think our music is better. But you know, that’s just me as I’m partial to that.

A lot of the problems that caused the Great Migration were also birthed by American interests. Let’s face it, we had our hands in a lot of mess that has resulted in people leaving their homes. Let’s not talk about El Salvador, let’s not talk about Nicaragua, let’s not talk about Panama. Let’s not talk about puppet dictatorships that we helped to politically aid. There are a lot of things that we’ve caused that have brought great migration to the North.

Latinos are not wholly vested. We’re not invited to the cultural table in the way that I think we merit, you know? But that’s okay. I’m not a dominant culture in this nation and I understand that. I may not want to be. Maybe I like being outside looking in, you know, there’s less responsibility in that. But I think it’s wrong.

I think that Latino culture is front and center in so many ways. We are purveyors of great food and dance and music and culture in this nation. Whether or not we’re accorded the credentials that mainstream society accords itself is secondary. We’re still going to prevail. We’re still going to do the work that we do at the highest level that we do. And you know, being on Blue Note, it’s such a huge honor to me because there’s been so few Latinos on Blue Note. Blue Note is the iconic label of jazz, it’s not just one, it’s the iconic label of jazz and I’m really proud to represent my people. 

There was a story in the New York Times about 10 years ago, and you said at that time that you were able to let go of many ghosts of the past 10 years. What role, if any, do those ghosts play in your music and do you feel their presence in the work you’re doing now or even on this album?

If I’m not mistaken, I was referring to my father’s work and the different Latino artists that have come before me. The older I get the more I realize I don’t really want to lose touch with Machito and Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez. I am more in love with that music than ever. And I think that the stigma that I felt then was that we were expected to wave maracas and wear ruffled shirts and that somehow would lessen us. You know what? I’m proud of those maracas, I’m proud of those ruffled shirts. I’m proud of the work that these legendary heroes are part of.

The fact the Machito came to Harlem, saw Cab Calloway and Count Basie and said, I think I can do that. I’m proud of the fact that we’re innovators and we’re crazy enough to think that we can create music that’s a hybrid of so many things. So I think I may have changed my stance on that. I think I may actually feel now that I don’t want to exercise those ghosts, I’m proud of them.

The other day we did a concert on the same bill with Eddie Palmieri – that’s just about as heavy as it gets. And I got the privilege of sitting with him for half an hour in his dressing room and just shooting the breeze. But I realize that man had such a huge intellect and thinks so deeply about his music, who he is and where he’s from. It’s amazing to me that I come from such a beautiful musical legacy.

As do your sons, of course, who are who are musicians in their own right. What kind of guidance can you give them in navigating that relationship between the past and still keeping an eye on the future? 

I’ve told them to always be proud of their father and their grandfather and their roots. I’ve taken them to Cuba. One of the first things I did was as soon as they were salient, I took them to Cuba to understand where they came from. I think it’s really important. I’ve told them whatever music they end up playing to be aware that their aesthetic was shaped by the music that they heard me play and they know their grandfather. Whether they’re playing modern jazz or Hip-Hop or whatever direction they go, they should really know and be proud of where they come from.

I’m also giving them some career advice. A freelance artist is a really harsh reality. So I told them don’t confuse your art with your identity, your human being. Your art stems from your humanity. But sometimes it’s so hard to make a living. You’re so aware of criticism and so aware of of the weight of making art that you can really let it eat you up.

I think the trick to all of this is to love life, to love friendships, to love the humanity of being here now, and that your art should spring from that. Both of my sons are noble, decent human beings with big, huge hearts. That makes me proud. 

And it doesn’t hurt that they’re talented on top of it.

Well, I hope they’ll come visit us where we get older. 

One more one more question for you, Arturo. Hemingway writes in The Old Man in the Sea, “Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky, but I would rather be exact then when luck comes you’re ready.” What’s your view of that idea and how do you approach every new day? 

Every new day, this is true – it is not just rhetoric, I really spend a lot of time being introspective trying to figure out where I am fraudulent, where I am self-congratulatory, where I am not humble, where I’m hurting other people. I really do. I spend an awful lot of time thinking exactly about how I can be a better person. I actually do that.

It’s a little bit like the Five Agreements. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Five Agreements. Being true to your word, being as integral as you can be, integrity is really important, being honest.

That stuff is exact. And I really firmly believe that if if you do that kind of work, if you try hard to be exact and live with integrity, then you will be much richer. 

Main Photo by Laura Mariet (Courtesy Unlimited Myles)

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So here is Jazz Stream: September 15th – September 20th:

Sasha Dobson Sextet – Smalls – September 15th – 4:45 PM EDT/1:45 PM PDT

In 2006 Nate Chinen introduced New York Times readers to singer Sasha Dobson like this:

“Spend enough time around the Lower East Side and you just might encounter a charming young singer with a taste for lilting acoustic folk-pop. She has an eminently listenable voice: sensuous but diffident, and devoid of showy pretense.”

Fourteen years later Dobson has released several albums, EPs and singles. Her most recent EP, Simple Things, was released this spring.

Joining her for this live performance from New York’s Smalls are Vito Dieterle – tenor sax; Dred Scott – piano; Neal Miner – bass; Mauro Refosco – percussion and Kenny Wollesen – drums.

Jeremy Pelt Quintet – Smalls – September 16th – 4:45 PM EDT/1:45 PM PDT

Jazz trumpeter Jeremy Pelt has performed/recorded with Ravi Coltrane, Roy Hargrove, Wayne Shorter, Mingus Big Band, Cedar Walton, Gerald Wilson and many more. He’s released twenty albums so far including his latest release, The Art of Intimacy, Volume 1. It’s a beautiful album of mostly ballads, but definitely feels like the right record to listen to in troubling times.

Kevin Whitehead, in his NPR review, said of the album:

“The music’s understated, as if the trio were playing off the cuff after hours. You can hear the nuances, all the subtle shifts in the trumpet’s vocal quality. It’s clear and veiled in whispered tones whether he’s playing open horn or with a metal Harmon mute placed in the bell.”

Pelt will be performing from Smalls with Chien Chien Lu – vibraphone; Victor Gould – piano; Allan Mednard – drums and Vicente Archer – bass.

Emmet Cohen Trio – Smalls – September 17th – 4:45 PM EDT/1:45 PM PDT

Composer and pianist Emmet Cohen was reviewed by Gary Fukushima for DownBeat as having conjured up the ghosts of Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Earl Hines and Art Tatum on his album Dirty in Detroit. That’s some pretty weighty spirits for such a young pianist.

But that’s what appeals about Cohen and his playing. He has one foot in the past and the other firmly in the present.

Of course, none of this comes as a surprise if you are familiar with his Master Legacy Series. These are recordings and conversations with jazz legends.

For this live performance from Smalls, Cohen will be joined by Russell Hall on bass and Joe Saylor on drums.

Wayne Shorter Celebration Part 5 – SFJazz – September 18th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

If you’ve been reading our previews of Fridays at Five from SFJazz, you know they have streamed a series of concerts celebrating jazz legend Wayne Shorter. The four previous concerts were all 2019 performances that took place when Shorter took ill and couldn’t perform. Each one featured Shorter’s regular band (pianist Danilo Pérez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade) with a number of very special guests.

For part five of this celebration we get the man himself: Shorter on saxophone with most of his band. Terri Lyne Carrington played drums for this concert from April 30, 2017.

An all-too-brief review of Shorter’s career would have to include his 11 Grammy Awards, he pivotal role as a member of Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet, his participation with Weather Report, his own recordings and compositions and Ben Ratliff in the New York Times called Shorter, “…probably jazz’s greatest living small-group composer and a contender for greatest living improviser…”

For those new to this column, SFJazz makes their concerts available for streaming only at 5:00 PM PDT and only on Fridays. To access the concert you have to sign up for either a one-month subscription (for all of $5 which gives you a month of access) or for a one-year subscriptions (for $60 for a year).

Bill Frisell Trio – Blue Note – September 18th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT $15

Guitarist Bill Frisell just released Valentine on Blue Note Records. To whom is this particular valentine? His long-standing trio partners Thomas Morgan on bass and Rudy Royston on drums. Though they had performed together for years, there wasn’t a real document of their work together. The album contains originals and covers and celebrates their musical partnership.

Frisell definitely falls into the jazz genre, but that doesn’t stop him from tackling songs by artists not associated with jazz. He’s recorded music written and/or performed by Madonna, Bob Dylan, Aaron Copland and many more.

This concert from Blue Note in New York costs $15. Advance registration is required.

Bill Charlap and Wynton Marsalis – Village Vanguard – September 18th – September 19th – 9:00 PM EDT/6:00 PM PDT

You rarely find piano and trumpet paired for a concert. But if anyone can pull it off, it will be pianist Bill Charlap and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. They will perform two sets from New York’s Village Vanguard this weekend.

I’m not sure either man needs an introduction. We’ve written about Charlap before and have interviewed him about his career. You can read that interview here.

Marsalis is known, of course, not just for his musicianship and composition, but for his fierce advocacy for education. He was also the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his 1995 composition Blood on the Fields.

This should be an amazing concert. Tickets to watch either performance are $10 and should be purchased in advance.

Ehud Asherie Trio – Smalls – September 19th – 4:45 PM EDT/1:45 PM PDT

The first time pianist/organist Ehud Asherie performed at Smalls he was a teenager. He’s come quite away since those halcyon days. Just ask Dan Bilawsky who reviewed Asherie’s Wild Man Blues from 2019 for JazzTimes:

“The “’ashionably old-fashioned’ label fits Ehud Asherie like a bespoke suit. A knowledgeable purveyor of everything from early Crescent City swing to Harlem stride and bop to the music of a bygone Brazil, this 39-year-old pianist might initially come off as a pure throwback. But with an overlay of wit and whimsy placed atop that vast golden-age repertoire, his status as an au courant artist is ensured. Teaming up here with the classy combination of bassist Peter Washington and drummer Rodney Green, Asherie delivers eight numbers that speak to his massive technical reserves, understanding of the continuum, gifts as an interpreter, and rightful place at the jazz piano summit.

His performance on Saturday from Smalls will include bassist Washington and Joe Farnsworth on drums.

Keyon Harrold – Blue Note – September 19th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT $15

You must be a great musician if you are called on to create the sound of Miles Davis for a film. That’s precisely what Keyon Harrold did for Don Cheadle’s film Miles Ahead. But there’s much more to Harrold than being able to perform like Davis.

Ben Ratliff of the New York Times first encountered Harrold 17 years ago. He recognized immediately how talented Harrold was during Roy Hargrove’s The Trumpet Shall Sound Festival in 2003:

“Mr. Harrold, playing in unfamiliar surroundings, aimed high and played broadly. Through a kind of post-bop classicism, he showed the desire to dominate, and played in a way that only a musician in his youth can play, and it was exciting.”

To date Harrold has appeared on almost 100 albums in in all genres of music. He’s recorded with Beyoncé, Common, Robert Glasper, Gregory Porter, D’Angelo, Maxwell and many more. Earlier this year he released the single Passages with Matt Little, Lagos and Jason McGuiness. His most recent album was 2017’s The Mugician.

No information was available of who the other musicians joining him might be. If we are able to get those details, we will update this post.

There is a fee of $15 to watch this performance. Advance purchase is recommended.

Before we wrap up Jazz Stream: September 15th – September 20th, I want to recommend an album for you.

Last Friday, Blue Note Records released the debut album by super group Artemis. The self-titled album features pianist Renee Rosnes, clarinetist Anat Cohen, tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, bassist Noriko Ueda, drummer Allison Miller & vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant.

It’s a really terrific album. I strongly urge you to check it out.

That’s our Jazz Stream: September 15th – September 20th. I hope you enjoy the music and the musicians you do know and also discover new artists you might not have heard before.

Photo of Keyon Harrold courtesy of his website.

The post Jazz Stream: September 15th – September 20th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

It could be said that both his compositions and the way Wilkins performs are also way beyond his years. That was my impression when listening to his Blue Note Records debut, Omega, produced by Jason Moran. Amongst the ten tracks on the record are compositions addressing the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson; the 1918 lynching of Mary Turner and a four-part suite that addresses an on-again/off-again relationship.

It was also my impression when speaking with him recently by phone about Omega, working with Moran and about the jazz giants on whose shoulders he certainly stands. Here are excerpts from that conversation that have been edited for clarity and length.

You are quoted in the bio from Blue Note as stating that “Ferguson” and “Mary Turner” are both “American traditions in a way.” (Each song has “An American Tradition” as part of its title.) Do you see anything going on in America to indicate that these traditions will soon become relics of history?

I think it is too early to tell. I am an optimist, but I think when we look at history and how things have transpired, the one thing I’m grateful for – and I have a lot of hope in – is I feel my generation of young people, thinkers, artists, activists and intellectuals in my generation and generations surrounding my own, I feel we do have the power to change things and I think we have the wherewithal and mind set to do so. I do have a lot of faith in my generation. It’s going to take a lot of work for things to change.

What role can music, specifically your music, play in motivating personal and substantive change?

First I’ll say that my kind of artistic vision, in a way, is pretty selfish. I write music for myself, for my own pleasure or my own feelings in a way. I’m also writing certain music as research or awareness to certain things. As artists it’s our job to document the times and kind of take heed of what’s going on in the world and comment on it – whether that’s a reaction to it, or against it. I hope this record sounds like a soundtrack for 2020 in a way.

As you recently found out in the August 7th New York Times listing of songs to listen to, the soundtrack of 2020 not only includes your music, but also the Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion hit song WAP.

(He laughs before responding.) That’s the great thing about what we’re doing. It’s all music and it’s all going in one place. Here’s the thing, some of my friends are buying the record who don’t listen to jazz to support. I end up being in the same playlist as Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion – the new Kanye. It’s interesting seeing how people kind of consume music. Music is generally consumed while doing something else – usually something mundane. A big thing I wanted to do was create music that radically grabs the listener in ways to stop what they are doing and command their attention.

Before producing Omega, you played with Jason Moran. How did having him produce your album influence the end product?

He was super instrumental. As a band we’d been playing together for 2-3 years, so I didn’t want someone to come in and strong-arm the situation. I trusted him with the music. He acted where he needed to and let us do our thing when we needed to. Jason is an interesting thinker because he’s always thinking about the upside down way of things. It’s a super unique perspective. It was nice to have someone like that in the studio.

Earlier this year I spoke to Jason who told me that young musicians in their 20s have to be aware of things like the environment, mass incarceration, gender equality and more. He said, “I love that because I think people are more awake and that makes the work harder. It doesn’t make it better necessarily, but it makes them learn and their audience grow.” Do you share that philosophy with Jason?

We need to be aware of everything going on to have more vantage points the music. Not just in music. We’re artists, but we’re humans. We’re creative people who have some sort of influence on society. I think it’s important we are always aware of the full spectrum and broaden our vantage point.

Releasing Omega during the Covid pandemic means you can’t tour to support the album and create awareness. How do you feel about the timing of the album’s release?

I wrestle with it. I think that people need to hear it live. The band is a live band. It’s definitely something that should be played live and it would have been nice to have a proper release concert. That was a little selfish of me. Once we were approaching the date, people are hungry for the music right now. Whether that’s social justice or Covid, our duty as artists is to serve the people and meet them where they are. I’m happy with the outpouring of support for the album. I hope it provides some sort of enjoyment and clarity for the times.

You’re from the Philadelphia area and have spoken about the mystique of the John Coltrane House there. Given your faith you seem to share some qualities with Coltrane who said, “My music is the spiritual expression of what I am – my faith, my knowledge, my being…When you see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups…I want to speak to their souls.” Does his thinking reflect the way you think about music yourself?

That quote is very special to me. Trane’s ideology and his views are very much a part of me as an artist and me as a person. I’m really inspired by his pursuit of life. He had a serious amount of humility, compassion and was blessed with spirit as a person. You could tell it from his family, from interviews and from people talking about him. For me it was something I realized early on listening to him play. How could someone play so many notes and play for so long and so intense? Somehow it sounds completely intersected and in servitude to the music. It doesn’t sound self-fulfilling.

I was so inspired, but why is there something missing in my playing? What’s the difference when I play the same amount of notes? It’s a spiritual thing. It’s a humility thing. It took me digging deeper into my spiritual pursuits. I think that was what really inspired me with John Coltrane was he had a similar situation in that our music was at the intersection of black consciousness, identity and spirituality. He was immediately the blueprint for me musically and spiritually. He’s about doing it all. That really inspired me.

Photo of Immanuel Wilkins by Dana Scruggs/Courtesy of Blue Note Records

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Here is Jazz Stream: August 18th – August 23rd:

Conrad Tao – National Sawdust – August 18th – 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT

Pianist and composer Conrad Tao is best known for performing classical music. However, for this National Sawdust event he’s going to be adding his own improvisations to the mix. The program is scheduled to include China’s Gate by composer John Adams. The work was written in 1977. After that the improvisations take over.

Tao is one of our most talented musicians. To see and hear him move beyond the classical idiom with which we’re already familiar into the jazz world should be very interesting indeed. Take a look at how quickly and deftly he can maneuver his away up and down a keyboard.

This is a live-stream event I strongly encourage you to watch.

There is no charge to watch this performance. Donations to the performer are encouraged.

An Evening with Monty Alexander – Birdland – August 18th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

In the second of Birdland’s new series, Radio Free Birdland!, jazz pianist Monty Alexander performs at the venerable New York club.

Born in Jamaica, Alexander has been playing live since the age of 14. Ever since then his concerts, which he performs around the world, run the gamut from jazz to the Great American Songbook to gospel & blues to bebop to calypso and, given his heritage, reggae.

The cost to watch this performance is $23.50

Brooklyn Circle – Smalls – August 19th – 4:45 PM EDT/1:45 PDT

I’ll be honest, I don’t know much about Brooklyn Circle. But I have heard Stacy Dillard play and that’s reason enough to watch this performance from Smalls in New York. Dillard is a sublime musician who has been acclaimed for his austere use of bass and drums. But don’t be fooled, he and his musicians can let it rip, too!

Dillard already has an extensive amount of touring and recording experience under his belt. He’s performed with such artists as  Winard Harper, Cindy Blackmon, Shirley Ceasar, Frank Lacy, Wycliffe Gordon, Eric Reed, Ali Jackson, John Hicks, Carl Allen, Victor Lewis, Steve Wilson, Jeremy Pelt, Antonio Hart, Russell Malone, hip-hop legend C.L. Smooth, Mark Whitfield, Stephanie Mills, Freddie Jackson, Blowfly, Clarence Reid and more. 

Joining Dillard for this performance are Diallo House on bass and Ismail Lawal on drums.

Dominick Farinacci and Tamir Hendelman – August 19th – 9:00 PM EDT/6:00 PM PDT

This is the first of two different performances by Dominick Farinacci that I’ve included in week’s Jazz Stream. Here the trumpeter will be performing with pianist Tamir Hendelman. (You might remember that Hendelman is the musician who performs with jazz singer Tierney Sutton.)

Farinacci is a graduate of Juilliard. His career was launched in Japan before going global. When the New York Times‘ Nate Chinen reviewed Farinacci’s 2011 album, Dawn of Goodbye, he said:

“Mr. Farinacci plays beautifully, with expressive control, throughout a program of love-haunted standards and compatible originals, including his yearning title track. His phrasing attests to some close study of Miles Davis and Clifford Brown, but avoids outright imitation. That evident respect for jazz history is one reason for both his great success in Japan (where he has released seven albums) and his early endorsement by Wynton Marsalis (who featured him on a PBS special at the age of 17).”

The cost of seeing this show is $25

2020 National Endowment For the Arts Jazz Masters Tribute – SFJAZZ – August 20th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

This year the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Tribute was slated to be held at SFJazz. We all know why that isn’t happening. But the NEA and SFJazz have teamed up to make this year’s event a free-streaming one we can all watch.

The honorees this year are Dorthaan Kirk (a jazz advocate), vocalist/composer Bobby McFerrin, saxophonist/composer Roscoe Mitchell and bassist/composer Reggie Workman. The emcee for the event is singer Dee Dee Bridgewater was was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2017.

Every tribute is bound to have the obligatory speeches bestowing the honor and accepting the honor. But this is jazz, so you know there’s going to be music.

Terri Lyne Carrington is the Music Director. Slated to perform are Ambrose Akinmusire, Dee Dee Bridgewater, James Carter, Gerald Clayton, Vincent Davis, Lisa Fischer, Morgan Guerin, Oliver Lake, Christian McBride, Jevon McFerrin, Madison McFerrin, Taylor McFerrin, Kanoa Mendenhall, Junius Paul and Steve Turre, as well as the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars.

The event will be followed by an on-line discussion with the honorees. Randall Kline, SFJAZZ Founder and Executive Director, will lead the conversation which will be open to questions from the audience.

Unlike other SFJazz streaming programs, there is no charge to watch this event. It can also be streamed on arts.gov.

Mike Rodriguez Quintet – Smalls – August 21st – 4:45 PM EDT/1:45 PM PDT

Mike Rodriguez is a Grammy-nominated trumpeter and composer who has toured and/or performed with Clark Terry, Bobby Watson, Quincy Jones, Joe Lovano, Toshiko Akiyoshi Orchestra, Jessica Simpson, The Chico O’Farill Orchestra, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Lincoln Center Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Jon Faddis and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Carla Bley Band and Quintet, The Clayton Brothers, Kenny Baron’s Quintet, Conrad Herwig Latin Side Projects, Clayton Brothers Quintet, Harry Conick Jr., Bob Mintzer, Eddie Palmieri Septet, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Smithsonian Jazz Orchestra and is a member of Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra.

Credits are great, but what matters is the music. Take a look and hear what he can do:

Joining Rodriguez for this performance from Smalls in New York are John Ellis on tenor sax; Gary Versace on piano; Joe Martin on bass and Obed Calvaire on drums.

Dianne Reeves – SFJazz – August 21st – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

I’m not sure much truly has to be said about Dianne Reeves. She’s quite simply one of our finest singers.

In this concert at SFJazz from February of 2019 Reeves celebrated the 20th anniversary of her album Bridges. On that album she performed songs by Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Peter Gabriel. The album was Reeves’ 11th in a long and successful career that began in 1982.

Reeves received one of her nine Grammy nominations for Bridges. Though she didn’t win that year, she has, to date, five Grammys.

This performance, while celebrating the album’s anniversary, was also a tribute to the producer of Bridges, the legendary keyboardist and composer George Duke. Duke was her cousin. He passed away in 2013.

This concert is part of SFJazz’s Fridays at Five series. As a reminder you must sign up for either a one-month membership ($5) or a full year membership ($60) to watch this concert. Those memberships will give you access to other upcoming Fridays at Five concerts and also their newly-launched live performances.

Andrew Cyrille – Village Vanguard – August 21st – August 22nd – 9:00 PM EDT/6:00 PM PDT

At the age of 80 years old, drummer Andrew Cyrille has seen it all and performed it all. But rather than rest on his laurels, he continues to record and collaborate with some of today’s finest musicians including Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, Bill McHenry and many more.

Cyrille’s resume would takes pages to fill. From an early recording session with Coleman Hawkins to becoming a member of Cecil Taylor’s band to working with 2020 NEA Jazz Master Reggie Workman, Cyrille has performed and recorded massive amounts of music.

In addition to performing and composing, he’s also a life-long advocate of music education and has long been teaching.

Joining him for these two live performances from the Village Vanguard in New York will be Bill Frisell on guitar; David Virelles on piano and Ben Street on bass. (Side note: Frisell just released a new album on Blue Note called Valentine.)

There is a $10 charge to see each performance.

Dominick Farinacci’s Rhapsody in Blue: Revisited – Tri-C JazzFest – August 22nd – August 23rd

Here’s our second of Dominick Farinacci’s performances. What appeals to me about this one is he will be playing his revised version of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue from 2018. Goodbye clarinet, hello trumpet.

Joining Farinacci for this performance are Jamey Haddad on percussion, Walter Barnes Jr. on bass, Jonathan Thomas on piano, Gabe Jones on drums and Orlando Watson performing spoken word. Rhapsody in Blue is one of my favorite pieces of music. I’m intrigued both by the focus on trumpet and the inclusion of spoken word.

Will it work? Who knows. But it’s at least going to be interesting.

There’s your eclectic line-up for Jazz Stream: August 18th – August 23rd. Enjoy and stay cool!

Photo: Stacy Dillard (Courtesy of his Facebook Page)

Correction: We incorrectly stated that George Duke was Dianne Reeves’ uncle. He was her cousin. We regret the error.

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If you want to experience the way Reeves brings joy and light to the holiday season, then you won’t want to miss Friday night’s concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The show is called Christmas Time is Here.

Two years ago Reeves was scheduled to perform at WDCH, but an illness prevented her from being here. (Her friend Dee Dee Bridgewater performed in her place.)

Joining Reeves for this concert are Peter Martin on piano; Romero Lubambo on classical guitar; Reginald Veal on bass and Terreon Gully on drums. So you’re basically getting a club configuration for the show. (Thankfully the acoustics at Walt Disney Concert Hall will make this seem much more intimate than it really is.)

But the star here is Reeves. She released an album on Blue Note in 2004 that shares its name with this concert. That album included such songs as “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Let it Snow,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and the title song. I usually find that songs utterly depressing, but Reeves takes the despair and melancholy out of it and makes it beautiful.

Friday night’s weather looks considerably warmer than it was when I saw Reeves. So if you even remotely enjoy Christmas music, you’ll want to consider this concert. If you love great vocals you should already have tickets for this concert. Do you?

For tickets go here.

Photo of Dianne Reeves by Jerris Madison/Courtesy of Los Angeles Philharmonic Association

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