THIS IS THE SIXTH OF OUR BEST OF 23 REVIEW OF INTERVIEWS: “It’s kind of a remarkable thing to be able to have a real relationship with your heroes. It would be beyond my 11 or 12-year-old self. It would be beyond anything he really dreamed of. To know people like Herbie Hancock…they’re almost like mythical figures to us.” That’s how saxophonist and composer Kamasi Washington describes the opportunity to co-curate this weekend’s Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival with the legendary Hancock.

The two-day festival takes place Saturday and Sunday. The line-up Washington and Hancock have assembled features Bell Biv DeVoe, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Grammy winner Samara Joy, Aziza, Poncho Sanchez, Lionel Loueke and Gretchen Parlato, Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance Ensemble at UCLA and LACHSA Jazz on Saturday. Arsenio Hall is the emcee both days.

On Sunday the line-up includes Leon Bridges, Raphael Saadiq, Ledisi, Digable Planets, The Soul Rebels, Big Freedia, Andrew Gouché & Prayze Connection, Boukman Eksperyans, Butcher Brown, The Cardinal Divas of SC and LAUSD Beyond the Bell All District Jazz Band.  

Washington will perform both nights. On Saturday with his own band and on Sunday with West Coast Get Down. The members of West Coast Get Down are Washington, Miles Mosley, Tony Austin, Cameron Graves, Ryan Porter, Ronald Bruner, Brandon Coleman and Patrice Quinn.

In 2015 his album The Epic introduced the world in a very serious way to Washington’s other-worldly vision for jazz. He continued with 2018’s Heaven and Earth and the score to the documentary Becoming in 2020.

Washington and I spoke in March about this year’s jazz festival and more. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

I spoke to Herbie Hancock in 2019 when he was on tour in Denver with you. He was curating a show for the Los Angeles Philharmonic called The Next Generation in Jazz. I asked him what he was looking for and he said there so many things changing exponentially. What do you see as the biggest changes in the four years since he and I spoke?

The biggest change I see, which I think it’s a good change – but it can be a scary one as well, is that jazz seems to be, more so than it has in a number of years, kind of re-integrating into the larger musical conversation. For a long time jazz was kind of isolated. We had our own little jazz festivals. We had our own little clubs.

Jazz is now starting to infuse into non-jazz arenas. You see people like Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, Thundercat, all these other people who are taking jazz and bringing it into other arenas. And I think that’s a beautiful thing. I think that’s good for the music. 

I saw a video that you did for [record store] Amoeba’s What’s in My Bag series seven years ago. You were talking about participating in Grammy Camp and how you were so impressed with the young musicians who were there. You said you have to “watch out because they’re coming up so fast.” I don’t think 15 years ago we would have thought that young musicians would take this kind of interest in this type of music. What do you think’s changed?

We live in a different world. They grew up in a different world than where I grew up. There’s some young musicians that are so amazing. I hear them and I’m just floored. There are things that we had that they don’t necessarily have as much anymore. And things that they have now that we didn’t ever dream about having. 

Jazz, in its purest form, is an open and freeing art form that those people who are searching for artistry in music, some of them are going to find it no matter what. I think future generations are going to see even more kids gravitating towards jazz and gravitating towards the kind of the freedom and expressiveness that it lends itself to. 

These kids are going to bring stuff to the music that I just didn’t have to bring. They have a new a new reality to add. If we want them to play the music, then we have to accept who they are. They’re going to bring who they are and what they’ve been through and what their thoughts and their experiences are. That’s going to be something different to the music than its ever been. And that’s the beauty of it.

Is the word jazz, as a descriptive term for a genre of music, even appropriate anymore? You performed with Metallica. Vijay Iyer had a quote unquote classical work at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Terence Blanchard has his second opera at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Do you think that labels or genres are becoming passe?

The definition of the word jazz, having any type of control over what the musicians play themselves, that’s always been kind of no good to me. The functionality of a genre, to me, is just an organizational tool. If you’re scrolling through the infinite world of iTunes and you want to try to find some music that is similar to Wayne Shorter, well that’s sort of where it comes in handy. But I think when you put too much weight on it and you make it something that should dictate what the musicians are playing – jazz is this and if you play jazz, you should play this – that’s where it’s inappropriate and always has been. 

You’ve released a few singles since Becoming in 2020. And [at the time of this interview] you’re about to embark on a fairly substantial U.S. tour before the Jazz Festival. Does that mean you’re working on some new music that that might finally be recorded?

I’m almost finished now. I got one song that I have to figure out exactly what I want to do with it. I want to put it on this record. Just one more song to record. Pretty soon there’ll be some music coming down the pipeline. If I can finish this one last song.

This is one of those songs that I know is beautiful, but I’m just having a hard time figuring out exactly what it should be. That’s a weird way of saying things, but it’s like having a beautiful flower that you know you want in the garden. You just can’t really figure out exactly where it should be planted, you know?

You told Marc Maron in 2016, “The trick is letting go. Bird and those other guys, they ran right to the edge of the cliff. With Trane you got to run and jump off and just be okay falling down this cliff and have the confidence that somehow I’m going to have to land on my feet.” How does that perspective of Coltrane’s work influence the decisions you make as an artist, as a musician, and even as a man?

Fearlessness is a very important ingredient to making music. It can be kind of scary because you’re revealing your heart. It’s like you’re cracking open your chest and opening your heart up. It’s scary, but the greatest music needs to be fearless. Ultimately you have to have faith in the music and that it will lead you to where it should be.

Listening to someone like John Coltrane and hearing how far he would go, it’s almost like a cliff diver who has a parachute but he just never opens the parachute. 

Every musician has a different way of getting to the music that they have in their hearts. I’ve always been a bit meticulous. It’s always been a struggle for me to push the button to go. Once we go it is super easy for me to let go and let the music be what it is. But for some reason in my own head, I feel a need to measure everything is good. Now let’s push this plane out and see how it flies.

Maybe that’s the composer equivalent of measure twice, cut once. 

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I’m measure, measure, measure. Ten times.

Ronald Bernard Jr., who is a member of West Coast Get Down, said that being in this band is a gig forever. He went on to say that, “I could be 90 and Kamasi will still call me.” What makes West Coast Get Down a forever gig for you?

Our friendship and our musical relationship started when we were three years old. We’ve all had great teachers and mentors. But we’re probably all most heavily influenced by each other, you know? Whenever one of us would get into something, we all get into it. Every time we find a gem it would circulate among us.

It was just our friends who grew up in our neighborhood and we all just happened to love music and it stuck to us for our whole lives. Our friendship is more on a life level. I always say life is bigger than music and music is a propeller to life. But life is the real thing. Our friendship is forever and music is going to be forever Our musical relationship will be forever.

Max Roach, who I believe has been a big influence on you, said, “Music mirrors where we should go, have gone and can go. Music is an abstraction.” Looking forward to your next album or into the future, what strikes you at this moment in time as the most important thing you’d like your music to mirror?

This next record that I’m doing, it came during a time of me having a lot of personal reflection. A very kind of swirling transitional period in my life. I recently became a father. Normally my thoughts and music are aimed at the infinite. This record is much more based in my reality. I’m a super spacey guy, so it still has that element in it. It’s just more grounded than I’ve ever made before. Really close personally for me.

When you’re speaking a bit more directly, I want to make sure that I am conveying the thoughts that I actually have. Having the courage to just be able to let it be what it is, you know, despite whatever anyone may think.

To see the full interview with Kamasi Washington, please go here.

All photos of Kamasi Washington at the Hollywood Bowl by Farah Sosa (Courtesy Los Angeles Philharmonic Association)

The post Bo23: Kamasi Washington Collaborates With His Hero appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Our top choice of the best of what’s New In Music This Week: October 27^th is:  

JAZZ:  THE NUTCRACKER SUITE – Chineke! Orchestra

The Chineke! Orchestra is comprised of Black and ethnically diverse classical musicians in the UK and Europe. What better ensemble to take on this suite of Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet music re-arranged by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn?

Jeff Tzyik has created a new adaption for orchestra of this wonderful score. There’s only a bit more than 17 minutes of music, but your toes will be tapping and your fingers will be snapping all the way through.

Here are my other selections for New In Music This Week: October 27^th:

CLASSICAL:  BRUCKNER SYMPHONIES 0-9 – WAGNER: ORCHESTRAL MUSIC – Gewandhausorch/Andris Nelson – Deutsche Grammophon

Austrian composer Anton Bruckner idolized Richard Wagner when he first discovered the German composer’s music in his late thirties. To get an up close at how one composer inspired the other, this 12-and-a-half hour collection provides ample insight.

Latvian conductor Nelson recorded these 49 tracks with this orchestra from Leipzig with whom Nelson has conducted and recorded the complete Bruckner symphonies. They are highly-regarded recordings and you get them all here.

Serving as companion pieces for Bruckner’s symphonies are such works as the Overtures from Der fliegende Holländer; Tannhäser and preludes from Lohengrin; Parsifal and Tristan und Isolde. 

CLASSICAL: INSECTS & MACHINES – Jasper String Quartet – Sono Luminous

If you want to get a good snapshot of composer Vivian Fung’s chamber music, this excellent recording by the Jasper String Quartet will reveal exactly how talented Fung is.

There are four string quartets on this album: String Quartet No. 1 was composed in 2003 and premiere in early 2004. The second string quartet was commissioned by Shanghai Quartet and was composed and premiere in 2009. String Quartet No. 3 was commissioned by the Banff Centre and the Canadian Broadcasting Company (Fung is from Canada). The work premiere in 2014. The last work, which gives this album its title, was composed in 2019 and had its world premiere in a performance by the American String Quartet. 

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL:  SLEEP: TRANQUILITY BASE – Max Richter – Vinyl Only Release – Deutsche Grammophon

Last March on World Sleep Day, Deutsche Grammophon released a thirty-minute EP of music by Max Richter. But only those who listened on CD or digitally could get new music that serves as a companion to his eight-hour Sleep could get the music.

With this vinyl release now everyone can get both some beautiful and relaxing music, but maybe even a little more sleep. Though you will have to stay awake long enough to flip the record over!

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL:  PURNIMA – Rakhi Singh – Cantaloupe Music

Violinist Singh’s first solo recording is mightily impressive. She has recorded music composed by composers Michael Gordon; Alex Groves; Emily Hall and Julia Wolfe. Singh also composed music for Purnima entitled Sabkha.

Gordon is a member of Bang On a Can and Cantaloupe Music is their imprint.

The title is the Sanskrit word for full moon. Purnima is a beautiful album with fascinating, challenging and rewarding music throughout.

JAZZ:  THE CATS – Kenny Burrell, John Coltrane, Tommy Flanagan, Idrees Sulieman  – Vinyl Reissue – Craft Recordings

Guitarist Kenny Burrell, saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Tommy Flanagan and trumpeter Idrees Sulieman recorded this hard bop album in 1957, but it wasn’t released until late 1959.  With the exception of the Gershwin’s How Long Has This Been Going On? The songs are all Flanagan compositions.

Also contributing to the recording are Louis Hayes on drums and Doug Watkins on bass.

Billboard Magazine said of the album upon its original release, “It’s a swinging, driving album featuring some hard bop, smooth bop and pretty jazz as well.  No doubt this vinyl re-issue will bring out all these qualities.

JAZZ:  BREMEN/LAUSANNE – Keith Jarrett – Vinyl Release – ECM

On November 1, 1973, Keith Jarrett’s concerts from March and July of that year at the Kleiner Sendessal in Bremen, Germany and Salle de Spectacles D’Epalinges inLausanne, Switzerland were released. These were solo concerts and they began a long and richly satisfying series of solo recordings throughout Jarrett’s career.

This vinyl release (a must for all Jarrett fans) contains 3 records and includes just over 2 hours of music.

JAZZ:  A JOYFUL HOLIDAY – Samara Joy – Verve Records

I must be getting soft. This is the second album of holiday music I’ve included (so far) on New In Music This Week. But who can deny the joy, pun intended, of hearing this year’s Grammy Award-winner for Best New Artist sing some classic Christmas songs (including The Christmas Song) and a couple of songs I hadn’t heard before.

While she’s joined by several musicians and guest vocalists on A Joyful Holiday, keep an ear out for the stunning piano work by Sullivan Fortner (often seen and heard performing with Cécile McLorin Salvant).

MUSICALS: YENTL – 40^th ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION – Barbra Streisand – Columbia Records

Say what you will about the Golden Globe Awards, they recognized a women director far earlier than the Academy Awards. Not only did Streisand win Best Director, but her film, a longtime passion project, was named Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.

The Oscars did acknowledge the work of lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman and composer Michel Legrand by awarding them the Oscar for Best Music, Original Song Score and its Adaption or Best Adaption Score.

That work is celebrated on this 40^th anniversary edition. The originally released tracks are all here along with demos, alternate versions and remixes of the songs  and more. All in there is one and three-quarters hours of music. Of particular fascination is the version of Where Is It Written? With Streisand joined by Rabbinical Choir.

VOCALS: EVERGREENS: CELEBRATING SIX DECADES – Barbra Streisand – Columbia Records

Streisand has been recording for Columbia Records for over six decades and she celebrates that anniversary with 22 songs she selected that best represent the musical journey she’s taken with the label.

Amongst the 22 songs Streisand chose are showtunes like Bewitched (Bothered and Bewildered); Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man; I’ll Tell the Man in the Street; Some Enchanted Evening; Tomorrow and Where or When.

This is not a greatest hits compilation. Though it does include a new mix of her Oscar-winning song Evergreenfrom A Star Is Born.

Here ends New In Music This Week: October 27th.

Enjoy the music! Enjoy your weekend.

Main Photo: Part of the album cover for Chineke! Orchestra’s The Nutcracker Suite

The post New In Music This Week: October 27th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

In the music world the three Bs traditionally stand for Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. For jazz singer José James they stand for Billie, Bill and Badu (as in Holiday, Withers and Erykah).

His most recent album, On & On, was released at the beginning of this year and finds James putting his own vocal stylings to the songs of Erykah Badu. In 2015 he released Yesterday I Had the Blues: The Music of Billie Holiday and in 2018 he released Lean On Me, a selection of songs by Bill Withers.

This Saturday James concludes his summer US tour in support of On & On at The Ford Theatre in Los Angeles. This will be the first and only show of the tour that will feature his entire band that appeared on the album performing with him live.

Earlier this week I spoke with James about Erykah Badu and her music, lessons he’s learned over the years of his career and the challenges he faces as a jazz singer. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

What does this music that you’re performing mean to you now that is perhaps different than what it meant to you when you first recorded it or when you first started playing it live?

I first approached it from what it meant to me. To me, Erykah Badu is kind of like the Joni Mitchell of my generation. She changed the game with her songwriting, with her musicality, with her presentation, with the way that she effortlessly blended all these genres. So I think I first made the album and thought about it in terms of wanting to respect what she had created and find a way in. Now that I’ve been performing it for quite a while, the songs have sort of become mine.

There’s this beautiful moment where the ownership transfers to the performer. That happened with the Bill Withers project, too. You start putting your own thoughts and feelings and emotions into these songs. It really becomes a deeply powerful way to bring a piece of yourself to these songs that are so familiar to all of us. We’ve been kind of taking it in different directions every night. So now what you have is this deeply personal and deeply creative world that exists alongside Badu’s world.

What is the story you want to tell about yourself through her music? 

I think there’s a degree of deep seriousness these days around what jazz singers can do. Why is hip hop and R&B this impenetrable place that jazz singers can’t go? So to me, it’s really about breaking new ground. I’m always excited when it’s something that nobody’s really done before because it feels fresh and it feels like there’s a discovery here. That’s the most powerful thing we can do as artists.

I played Erykah Badu’s songs and I don’t think what you’ve done is a huge leap. This makes complete sense to me.

It’s not a huge leap. We didn’t completely take apart her stuff and make it atonal or something. That’s part of the history of jazz singers, too. When Ella did her celebrated songbook series, she sang the melody, she sang the songs, but it’s the way that she did it, with the phrasing and the rhythm and the inflection and her history that made it jazz to me. Some of the songs I didn’t really change one note of the melody, but in order for me to get inside of her phrasing and then make it my own.

What I was referring to mostly was the fact that I heard a lot of jazz in what she was doing. 

That is so true, especially on her first two albums. There’s like upright bass on there, you know, like Appletree. Maybe it sounds like she’s performing with the jazz trio, which is so cool.

You’re a huge fan of Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane’s collaboration. I think you’ve said that’s the best male jazz vocalist album. Hartman did an interview with the New York Times in 1982, and he said, “The more you sing a song, you are apt to change it. It reflects the moods that you’re in.” Do you share that opinion about the many songs that you’ve recorded, whether they’re your own or somebody else’s? 

Jazz is Shakespeare. This is the classical repertoire. As you mature, hopefully, and deepen, hopefully, and go through some life experiences, then all of a sudden the words in the text become more relevant to you. Definitely when I first sang it, you know, this idea of being touched either physically or emotionally by this other person and kind of reminiscing about that moment, the times was much closer. But now that I’m 45, I can really think of a lot of different ways. For example, like a mentor who opened my world to jazz or to poetry or art kind of changes the feeling of it for me. Even though it’s ostensibly a romantic song, in my mind it’s turned into something else, which I hope comes across in the interpretation.

Should an artist have just a narrow range of interest and a way of expressing his or herself? Does it frustrate you that people seem to want you to be one thing because that’s easiest for them?

It has been frustrating in the past. I think I’ve sort of made peace and found my happy medium with how much I need to explore and how much we exist in service to people. That was a big shift in the pandemic for me. A lot of time to think about why I do it and when I would hopefully come back to jazz singing and performing would I do anything differently. The shift for me was I think I’ve artistically pushed the boundaries as far as I want to. Now my challenge is how creative can I be within sort of like the parameters that my fans enjoy because I definitely pushed it at some points past what my fans enjoy. For the hip hop kids who are like, why are you doing a duo with the jazz pianist? Or for the jazz purist you’re doing trap drums with autotune? There’s beautiful space in the middle, which I love. I think part of getting older is finding what you do best and figuring out how to explore that infinitely.

In an interview that you did in 2012 with the MinnPost you said, “If I could do jazz the way I wanted to, I would, but I just can’t. I can’t do it with the freedom I want or the audience development I want.” Along with your own perspective that you just expressed changing, has anything else changed for you in the 11 years since that comment that makes that less true today?

I think what’s changed is seeing people who have done both and in talking to some of them. Hearing the frustration of some people [who] feel like they’re in golden handcuffs and they can’t write songs or do things or produce that they want to. Then other people who spent their whole career just throwing paint against the wall but now want to sort of hit this commercial high. They’re not able to because they’re all over the map. Being at peace with your choice, no matter what the result is, that’s the challenge.

McCoy Tyner gave you great advice to just be yourself when you were touring with him. Knowing how much Coltrane means to you and how much McCoy Tyner means to you, which was more important, the advice or the man who was giving it to you?

The advice coming from him had a lot more weight. The thing about McCoy, which I found with a lot of living legends across genres, is that they are never looking backwards. McCoy was never telling people how to play. He was always positive. He was always uplifting. He really was in service to the music, to the audience and to his musicians. Never met another musician who was more generous with compliments or energy on stage. 

If you could go back in time to when you were in an a-cappella group called Cerulean and give yourself advice that you think your 16-year-old self really needed to hear to help him navigate his way through the life and career that you’ve had, what would that be?

I can’t believe that you found out about Cerulean, but I love it. I think I would just tell him that everything you believe about music and yourself right now is absolutely true. No matter what comes and goes, you don’t have to worry about anything. The cliché thing is true. The highs and the lows can knock you down. I remember when I was doing Letterman and Conan O’Brien, that was a bit too overwhelming for me. I wasn’t really ready for it. The downs, I haven’t sung in two years because of COVID. I wasn’t ready for that either. In both of those times I definitely did tap into how I felt about music back then because sometimes just putting on your favorite album and remembering this is why I do it is the most important thing.

To see the full interview with José James, please go here.

All photos by Janette Beckman/Courtesy Rainbow Blonde Records

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My top choice:

JAZZ:  COLTRANE’S SOUND – John Coltrane (Rhino High Fidelity)

Rhino launches a new vinyl series today with the release of this John Coltrane album from 1964. The six tracks on this record were recorded during the same sessions for My Favorite Things. Those tracks are The Night Has a Thousand Eyes; Central Park West; Liberia; Body and Soul; Equinox and Satellite.

Joining Coltrane for this record were Steve Davis on bass, Elvin Jones on drums and McCoy Tyner on piano.

I attended a listening party for this record earlier this week and can tell you that it sounds like you are in the recording studio with these musicians. There were only 5,000 copies pressed for this release and they are only available through Rhino’s website.

What else is New In Music This Week: May 19^th? Here’s my list:

BROADWAY: KIMBERLY AKIMBO OBCR (Ghostlight Records)

This highly acclaimed Broadway musical from Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire received eight nominations for Tony Awards including Best Musical, Leading Actress in a Musical (Victoria Clark), Featured Actress (Bonnie Milligan), Featured Actor (Justin Cooley) and nominations for Best Book for Lindsay-Abaire and Best Score for Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire.

The musical tells the story of Kim (Clark) who is a teenager from New Jersey. She does her best to fit in with the other kids at school, but the fact that she looks 72 doesn’t make things easy for her. That’s just the beginning of challenges she faces.

Clark won a Tony Award for her performance in The Light in the Piazza. Lindsay-Abaire won the Pulitzer Prize for his play Rabbit Hole. Tesori won the Tony Award for Fun Home and also collaborated with Lindsay-Abaire on Shrek: The Musical. (My favorite show of hers is Caroline, Or Change).

CABARET: THE JESUS YEAR: a letter from my dad – Matthew Scott (PS Classics)

Broadway star Scott lost his father at a young age. When the younger Scott was 13, his family found a series of letters his father had written to his four sons. They essentially served as life lessons his father had written because he was certain he wouldn’t live a long life. This show’s title, The Jesus Year, comes from the belief that a sense of rebirth that happens in your 33^rd year.

In the show Scott performs songs by Harry Chapin, William Finn, Ben Folds, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Yusef/Cat Stevens and an incredibly moving version of Children Will Listen by Stephen Sondheim.

Scott will perform the show at 54 Below on May 23^rd.

CLASSICAL: MAX BRUCH & FLORENCE PRICE VIOLIN CONCERTOS – Randall Goosby, Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Decca Classics)

Fast-rising violinist Randall Goosby performs Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor; Florence B. Price’sAdoration and her Violin Concerto No. 1 in D and Violin Concerto No. 2 on this, his second album.

Goosby has gotten a lot of attention in his brief career and this album is certain to widen the appreciation for his playing. 

Nézet-Séguin, who also leads the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, is a deeply passionate conductor. I saw him lead the Philadelphia Orchestra in the marathon performance of all four of Rachmaninoff’s concerti plus Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Yuja Wang and was seriously impressed with his conducting and the playing of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Their recording of Price’s Symphonies No. 1 & 3 won the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance in 2022.

CLASSICAL: THE RITE OF SPRING – Spectre d’un songe – Sylvie Courvoisier & Cory Smythe (Pyroclastic Records)

Pianists Courvoisier and Smythe perform the two-piano version by Stravinsky of his The Rite of Spring. Anyone who knows this work – either in the symphonic version or in the two-piano version – knows this is a massively complicated and exhilarating composition. Courvoisier and Smythe perform it as if it was effortless for them (it certainly wasn’t).

Also on the recording is another track named The Rite of Spring which is an improvisatory exploration of Stravinsky’s landmark work composed by Smythe. It makes for a fascinating conclusion to this terrific record.

JAZZ: LIVE AT SMALLS JAZZ CLUB – George Coleman (Cellar Music Group)

Here’s a pairing of two legends in jazz. The first is saxophonist George Coleman who was a member of Miles Davis’ Second Quintet. He also recorded five albums as a member of the Chet Baker Quintet and six albums with Max Roach. 

The second legend is Smalls Jazz Club in New York City. Not the oldest of clubs in New York, but a significant one that first opened in 1994. They closed for 3-1/2 years in 2003 before reopening the first quarter of 2006. It’s small (giving the club it’s name) with room for only 60 people.

Coleman was 87 when this album was recorded last year with drummer Joe Farnsworth, bassist Peter Washington and pianist Spike Wilner (who also happens to own Smalls Jazz Club.)

There are eight tracks on this album including Four by Miles Davis, the standards At Last, My Funny Valentineand Nearness of You; Jobim’s Meditation and Kander and Ebb’s New York, New York.

This is a terrific record. Don’t miss it.

JAZZ: BIRD IN LA – Charlie Parker  (VERVE/UMe)

28  live recordings from 1945, 1946, 1948 and 1952 by Parker in Los Angeles comprise this box set available as either 4 LPs, 2 CDs or streaming. Amongst the musicians joining Parker in these performances are Chet Baker, Ray Brown, Benny Carter, Nat King Cole, Miles Davis, Slim Gaillard, Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson, Frank Morgan and Buddy Rich.

The songs include Billie’s Bounce, Dizzy Atmosphere, How Hight the Moon, Night in Tunisia, Ornithology, Out of Nowhere and Salt Peanuts. There are fragments of other songs included. This is fascinating series of recordings sure to please any fan of Parker’s.

JAZZ: LEAN IN – Gretchen Parlato and Lionel Loueke (Edition Records)

Vocalist/songwriter Parlato and guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Loueke team up for this album of 12 songs – most of them composed by Loueke and Parlato. There are a couple of covers and perhaps the most surprising is Walking After You which was written by Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighters. The song appeared on their 1997 album The Colour and the Shape.

These beautiful songs are sung in English, Portuguese and Fon (the indigenous language of Benin.)

Eight of the songs find just Parlato and Loueke together. Joining them for the other four tracks on this recording are drummer Mark Guiliana and bassist Burniss Travis. Marley Guiliana, Parlato and Guiliana’s son, appears on one track. 

JAZZ: WEST SIDE STORY – André Previn and His Pals Shelly Manne & Red Mitchell (Craft Recordings and Acoustic Sounds)

Though Previn is best known as a composer, he was also a versatile jazz pianist. He’s joined by drummer Manne and bassist Mitchell for eight songs from the Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim musical. 

They perform Something’s Coming, Jet Song, Tonight, I Feel Pretty, Gee Officer Krupke!, Cool, Maria and America. This album won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance Solo or Small Group at the 3^rdannual Grammy Awards. (Trivia: both the 3^rd and 4^th annual Grammy Awards were not televised. They held private dinner ceremonies instead)

This re-release marks the first time this album has been released as an LP in over 30 years. (There is also a hi-res digital release).

Let us know what you’re listening to by leaving a comment!

That’s my list of the best of what’s New In Music This Week: May 19th. Have a terrific weekend and enjoy the music!

The post New in Music This Week: May 19th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Composer Dylan Mattingly and librettist Thomas Bartscherer didn’t set out to create an opera that runs nearly six hours. That just is what happened. It’s a project they’ve been working on for 11 years. In 2018, as part of the Prototype Festival in New York, there were two concert performances of the first act. When the Los Angeles Philharmonic presents Stranger Love on Saturday it will be the world premiere production of the entire work. There is just one performance.

Lileana Blain-Cruz directs. David Bloom conducts the ensemble Contemporaneous. Mattingly and Bloom are Co-Artistic Directors of Contemporaneous.

Earlier this week I spoke with Mattingly and Bartscherer about Stranger Love, the experience they’ve had creating it and the inspiration they found in John Coltrane. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: You reference Octavio Paz in Scene 12C: Lullaby. Paz wrote, in An Alternating Current in 1967, “Art is an invention of aesthetics, which is which in turn is an invention of philosophers. What we call art is a game.” Do you agree with him and what is your view of art as evidenced by the work each of you do in general and have done specifically with Stranger Love?

Bartscherer: Without the context, it’s difficult to jump in immediately. What first comes to mind is that there is something really interesting about thinking about games. There are two kinds of games: games that are solved, like tic tac toe, where once the first move is made, if you know the game, you know what all the alternatives are. Then there are unsolved games like chess. I know how to play the game, but I don’t know what all the options are.

I do like to think that work like this is an open and unsolved game. There’s something that’s necessarily undetermined at the beginning – both in terms of the making of it and the experiencing of it. What Paz might be getting at there is if you have a certain conception of art that emerges from a philosophical or a theoretical perspective, it might be more like a closed game. Whereas for him, if I’m reading that correctly, it doesn’t have that closed nature. It isn’t a theoretical construct, but is rather an opening or a way of being open to possibilities. And it’s certainly felt in creating this work that there was an openness to what would come.

Mattingly: I’ll tell you, I have no idea what art is. It’s a total mystery to me. There are a lot of things that I feel like I have some handle on of what they are and what they do in the world. I cannot tell you with any certainty what I think art is or does. In some way that’s probably why I’m so drawn to it. But I think that the impossibility of it, the indescribable nature of of art, or at least of my favorite art, is the thing that pulls me. Part of my response to that quote is that it’s hard for me to imagine art as the object, as the thing that gets created or gets described.

The world is a place where, among other things, we get to experience art. Finding ways to to be able to have that joy, which is sometimes a game, is kind of the greatest thing that exists on this planet.

Q: In the first sentence of your artist statement on the Stranger Love website, you say “Stranger Love is not practical.” It strikes me that art isn’t in and of itself practical and really shouldn’t be practical. But is there a practicality that is required to create art? 

Mattingly: The pursuit of art is not a practical pursuit. As an artist, I’ve chosen to spend my life doing this one very impractical thing. If I was trying to do something practical, I would choose to do just about anything else in the world. Going into it with that mindset, it doesn’t feel right to be thinking about the practicality of the thing I’m creating at the beginning. Because the whole point is that I’m doing something that’s after beauty and joy. The experience of the world in ways that live outside of that day-to-day experience: the things that are practical, things that are often necessities of the world. Devoting my life to trying to create something that’s outside of that.

Q: I would assume this is the kind of project for both of you that many people would ask why would you do something like this? It’s never going to get performed. How do you move forward when a lot of the world is telling you what not to do, when this is what you want to do? 

Mattingly: It’s really, really, really, really hard is the answer to that question. I feel like this life that I’ve chosen is the the best thing that I could possibly do, but I’m not sure that I would recommend it to anybody else. It’s extremely difficult to want something to exist in the world that doesn’t or to want the world to exist in a way that it doesn’t quite. To try and change everything into the shape that would make that happen, it’s so difficult. It really shows me how small I am as a human being against the forces of the world and the universe in a way that I felt that in an ecstatic way. When I look at the stars, I feel gloriously happy to be so tiny in the universe. But it’s also something that’s very terrifying in another way to see how strong the rest of the world is if you want it to be different at all. 

Bartscherer: I think to a large extent, at least in my experience, it’s beyond my decision or control in certain ways. The beauty and the goodness of the thing you’re making draws you on and inspires you. The joy and the thrill of seeing it come into being is so sustaining even with the onslaught of doubt or criticism or being told that’s impossible. But it’s so beautiful. It has to be. Where that comes from is a mystery to me.

Q: What was the original impetus for this project? Was it always something you both envisioned as having a serious length as it does? 

Bartscherer: This is the sort of thing one has been preparing for all one’s life. Of course, everything that you do in a way, you’ve been preparing for it all your life. But with this I felt that so much of things that Dylan and I’d been thinking about for a very long time really came together in this. We first started talking about it in April of 2012.

I remember coming out of a concert that Dylan had performed in with a musical idea that might make sense with some voices. It had a specific structure and I shared that idea with Dylan. 

Mattingly: I feel like going back further for me makes sense. I was six years old when I knew that I wanted to be a composer and very quickly was introduced to the magic of creating something out of nothing in that way. It was the most wonderful thing in the world. I have spent most of my life with that certainty of knowing this is the life that I want. I had spent my whole life on that path and I had done all the things that it seems to make sense to do to become a composer. [It was] around that time in 2012 when I realized that the things I really, really wanted to create were not really accessible on that path.

I realized that what I wanted to create were worlds that people could live in for as long as possible. It wasn’t necessarily a realization that I wanted to write long music, but it was the realization that I wanted to write things that would change your life from the moment when you stepped into it to the moment you left. Because those were my favorite things. It really required taking a huge leap into the unknown in order to carve out a different life for myself.

So when Thomas had this idea, it was right around the same point in my life where I was realizing that I felt like I had the capacity to do it. I could make the things that I felt were my favorite things in the world, but it would necessitate me giving everything to doing it. It took a couple of years from that moment to really make that decision and saying this is what I’m going to do. 

Q: Did the work tell you that it needed to be 6 hours?

Mattingly: That’s exactly right. We did not go into this saying let’s write a six hour piece. I think the initial vision that Thomas had was thinking maybe an hour.

Bartscherer: There are these great messages between us where one of us says, “Wait a sec, you know, this is getting very long.” And the other one says, “That’s okay. Let’s just do what we need to do and worry about it later.”

Mattingly: We kept coming back and asking ourselves it’s going to be over 3 hours now. I don’t think it makes sense to write this totally wild thing that can never exist. We just kept following it wherever it seemed like it was supposed to go and it ended up at the length that it is. 

Q: I feel like there’s a lot of work that’s being done at this time in our lives that is asking us to cut out the noise and the distractions. Why is that important to both of you because I assume that is an ultimate goal for what this work accomplishes?

Bartscherer: I think that one of the reasons why it’s so important and so valuable is because there’s a way of stepping out of our normal experience of time which increasingly is fragmented. Slowing down. One way to talk about it is for the imagination to dilate, to expand. That’s not just the creative or the artistic imagination. It’s also the ethical imagination, the political imagination to be able to think about things that move at a different time scale. A kind of thinking that is not instantaneous, that requires that you dwell for a while, that you move slowly.

Mattingly: So much of this music is also wanting to give us access to the things that we love so much about being alive. To just live in a world that’s made up of those things to remind us of what’s beautiful about being in this world. In order to do that, I think it is necessary to be able to to push out the noise to some degree and to live in a slower time.

Q: Your director, Lilliana Blain-Cruz, was quoted in the New York Times interview with Zachary Wolfe as saying, “I also think the dedication to joy is an interesting politics.” I’ve long thought the creation of art is a political act, but have we gotten to the point where joy itself is a political act?

Mattingly: I think the answer is yes. I don’t know about joy itself. Hopefully that’s something that we still always have. But certainly creating something that is so committed to joy, I do think it is. 

Bartscherer: The piece really does reject cynicism completely, but it doesn’t reject pain or suffering or difficulty. For me, it’s also related to the question of imagination. If there’s not a moment that you can affirm and say, yes, this is worth it, how can you imagine a world different and better than the one you’re in?

Mattingly: Life is very difficult in a lot of ways. It is easy to be cynical and it’s hard at times to love the world. It does feel like a very important political experience to find ways in spite of, and in its totality and because of all the things within it, to love the world. I think this piece is really committed to that.

Q: I’m also assuming that it’s no accident that there is a reference to John Coltrane and A Love Supreme on the first page of the opera’s website. I think that what you’re trying to do is a lot of what Coltrane was trying to do. This is how Coltrane described it for himself in the year 1957. “I experienced, by by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music.” Are you guys on that same journey?

Mattingly: Absolutely. That’s exactly the space that I want to be in. A Love Supreme is crucial to the piece in a lot of ways. He’s invoking something in that quote that there’s something more than this that he has access to and something mysterious that he wants to share. That’s a big part of it as well. 

Q: Is there a responsibility with having access to that?

Mattingly: I think responsibility is the exact right word. That’s what it really feels like to me. I don’t know exactly why it feels like I’ve had access to this thing. It doesn’t feel like it makes me any better, a more worthwhile person. It’s just like something that happens to align with the weird, strange nature of who I am. Because of that, it has set me on a path that gives me a really, really heavy feeling of responsibility. 

Bartscherer: Don’t take our word for it. I want to do everything I can to make it possible for people to hear it. And I want to make the next thing, too. It feels like a responsibility, but a joyful one.

Mattingly: I don’t know if anybody else can create Stranger Life. But what I do know is that nobody else is going to. To be able to see it, what it could be like, it’s worth my life to make sure that happens. I’ve spent my life to make sure that it happens. And it’s really difficult. But it is a really important responsibility, I think, because I think it’s worth it.

To see the full Stranger Love interview with Dylan Mattingly and Thomas Bartscherer, please go here.

Main Photo: Artwork for Stranger Love (Courtesy Los Angeles Philharmonic)

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Legendary jazz saxophonist John Coltrane only ever recorded with one vocalist: baritone Johnny Hartman. Their 1963 album, simply titled John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, is considered an essential jazz album. Only six songs are on the album which runs just over 30 minutes. Nonetheless, it is a classic. On June 15th, saxophonist Ted Nash is going to celebrate that album in a show at Chelsea Table + Stage in New York.

Nash is an innovative musician who composes much of the work he plays. He’s a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. That ensemble has recorded and performed Nash’s work. He’s a two-time Grammy Award winner and his most recent album was last year’s Transformation: Personal Stories of Change, Acceptance and Evolution.

Joining Nash for this show is baritone Tyreek McDole with bassist Ben Allison, Isaiah J. Thompson on piano and drummer Matt Wilson. Last December I spoke with Nash about the significance of this album and his approach to performing it live. The show was scheduled for early in 2022, but was postponed. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.

John Coltrane is quoted as having said, “I’ve found you’ve got to look back at the old things and see them in a new light.” What will be your approach to looking back on this classic collaboration between John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman?

Well, that’s a good question. I love the recording and I’ve listened to parts of it so many times over the years; as a jazz musician and someone who is it improviser, because that’s largely what makes jazz so special. We’re always looking for a way to put our stamp on something. We tend not to want to do it like the original because what’s the point? These artists were masters and geniuses. For us to say, “Well, I can do what they did” it kind of misses the point. We love the music so much so we tend to want to play them at some point during our life.

I think this record, which it’s all standards, what makes it so incredibly unique are the two artists, of course, Johnny Hartman and Coltrane, and their incredible commitment to melody and the way they phrased the melodies and with such expression. My goal to do this is not try to figure out a complete different way to do it. My feeling is to try to embrace it for what it is – almost a recreation of it. People now are more modern and play differently. But to find ways to respect this original project by presenting it close to what it is, that’s what I want to do. I want to embrace it.

What do you think was so special about this collaboration that these two men had at this given moment in time? 

I think both the artists featured here were really at the height of their of their expression. Coltrane, of course, went on to continue to develop as a composer and as an improviser in different directions from this. But I think that it was magical. You can’t really explain things that are magical. They just happen. I read somewhere that there was talk of Mel Torme being the collaborator with Coltrane and Coltrane, said, “No, there’s this guy, Johnny Hartman, who is really singing great for me.” It’s like two great artists that come together and it just created its own thing. I don’t think even if they had gotten together later that they could have recreated the feeling and the spirituality behind the sound of this of this recording.

Do you think Hartman is overlooked as an artist? 

I think he is. I can’t tell you why it is that we know other artists more like, let’s say, Tony Bennett or or Frank Sinatra. Why do you know Clifford Brown more than Booker Little? It could be something personal, it could be something about choices that they made. I have no idea. I do know that he’s got an incredibly deep and rich beautiful voice that makes you feel good.

The album contains what my favorite song of all time, which is Billy Strayhorn’s Lush Life. I had the privilege of talking to Betty LaVette. She told me that she could spend her whole life performing that song and never feel like she got it right. Now you’re working with someone who is closer in age to Billy Strayhorn, who was 16 when he wrote the song. What are your hopes are for what your collaboration with Tyreek McDole will be and what you as somebody who’s further down the line in your career and he, who’s more a newbie in his career, are going to bring to this challenging, beautiful song? 

It’s probably one of the greatest songs ever written. I just have to say that. It’s humbling that it was written by somebody so young and so attuned to social and human characteristics and qualities to be able to talk like that in a song. It’s always a reminder that there’s depth in people at any age.

Getting off your question a little bit, but it’s interesting that the words tend to fall second place to the melody and harmony for a lot of horn players, myself included. I always tell people they should learn the song and the lyrics because it’ll give you some insight into what the song is about and maybe you’ll play it differently as a result. I’ve heard, of course, the lyrics to Lush Life. I’ve read and heard and listened to and thought about it a lot, but a lot of these songs I haven’t. This is a learning experience for me at my age. I’m hoping that with Tyreek will find that place inside of himself, even as a youngster, to bring something of humanity to these songs.

You’ve gotten so much attention for your own compositions, why this project now?

Coltrane continues to be an incredible inspiration and an influence on people. When you’re younger you’re trying to figure out ways to copy his style and copy his notes, copy his sort of expression. And then at a certain point you’re like, I can’t do this anymore. I have to try to find my voice. So you run away from Coltrane. You spend your life running away from Coltrane, right? Then here comes a project where I have license now to play something similar to Coltrane. That’s part of what I’m looking forward to on this gig is to kind of try to find Coltrane, but not to the notes that we do when we’re younger. In this case I want to try to find the spirituality behind Coltrane’s playing and bring it to this gig. In other words, even if I’m not kind of mocking or copying him, I want to copy the feeling that he had back at this time because that’s what’s truly sticks out.

All images of Ted Nash Courtesy Chelsea Table + Stage

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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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Also on tap are two great (and very different ballets); two great jazz concerts; a contemporary classical music festival; a celebration of playwrights and a reading of a rare comedy from the 17th century that seems as topical as ever.

Here are our Top Ten Best Bets: June 11th – June 14th

*TOP PICK* MUSICAL REVUE: Show of Titles – Broadway’s Best Shows – June 13th – 7:00 PM ET/4:00 PM PT

What exactly is a Show of Titles? Simply put, a show featuring title songs from some of Broadway’s biggest musicals. For instance, Oklahoma has a well-known title song. Dear Evan Hansen does not. The Light in the Piazza does. Gypsy does not.

The cast of Broadway stars performing in this show, directed by Lonny Price, includes Annaleigh Ashford, Stephanie J. Block, Kerry Butler, Len Cariou, Glenn Close, Gavin Creel, Darren Criss, Dame Edna, Santino Fontana, Kelsey Grammar, David Alan Grier, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joshua Henry, Isabelle Huppert, Norm Lewis, Patti LuPone, Rob McClure, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Melba Moore, Jessie Mueller, Eva Noblezada, Kelli O’Hara, Laura Osnes, Steven Pasquale, Michael Rupert, Ernie Sabella, Lea Salonga, Phillipa Soo, Will Swenson, Aaron Tveit, Leslie Uggams, Vanessa Williams and Patrick Wilson.

There will also be special appearances by Debbie Allen, Broadway Inspirational Voices, Candice Bergen, Danny Burstein, Bryan Cranston, Tony Goldwyn, Adam Guettel, John Kander, Angela Lansbury, John Leguizamo, John Lithgow, Lindsay Mendez, Phylicia Rashad, Chita Rivera, Ben Stiller, Charles Strouse, Richard Thomas, Blair Underwood, BD Wong, and Florian Zeller.

The link to this event goes to Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles. There are two options for tickets: a $29 ticket allows purchasers to view Show of Titles on demand for 96 hours. (An appropriate number with the film adaptation of In the Heights opening this weekend. A show that not only has a title number, but also a song called 96,000).

A $39 ticket will include a ticket to stream Sarah Ruhl‘s Dear Elizabeth which begins on June 17th and reunites Kevin Kline with Meryl Streep (they appeared on screen together in Sophie’s Choice and Rikki and the Flash). That ticket also allows you to stream it for, you guessed it, 96 hours.

JAZZ: Coltrane: A Love Supreme – Jazz at Lincoln Center – Now – June 16th

Many many years ago I attended the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. One of the concerts I went to – not on the fairgrounds – was a performance by Wynton Marsalis and his band. They were the last of several performers and concluded their main set around midnight. As an encore he announced they would be performing A Love Supreme.

I’m well-acquainted with John Coltrane’s masterpiece and assumed he meant they would perform one of the tracks (they all include A Love Supreme as part of their title). I was wrong. They performed the entire album from start to finish. It was exhilarating and one of the best concerts I’ve ever attended.

Marsalis will once again perform A Love Supreme with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra as the final concert of their virtual season.

This performance will be feature big band arrangements with saxophonist Camille Thurman serving as guest soloist. Sherman Irby will lead the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Tickets are $20 and allow for streaming through June 16th. Tickets can be purchased here.

BALLET: Giselle of Loneliness – Ballez/The Joyce Theater – Now – June 23rd

Perfectly timed for Pride Month is this presentation of Giselle of Loneliness by Ballez. The decade-old dance company is comprised of queer, transgender, non-binary and gender non-confirming artists.

As you might imagine from the title, Giselle of Loneliness uses a key moment from that classic ballet as its inspiration.

The dancers in this work, choreographed and directed by Katy Pyle (founder of Ballez), are all auditioning to win the title role of Giselle. To do so, they have to come up with their own version of the insanely challenging mad scene from that ballet.

In what seems to be a bit of a nod to and a twist on A Chorus Line, the dancers have to come face-to-face in this work with their desire to perform within an industry that doesn’t welcome them. It begs the question, how much personal degradation and rejection of your identity will you undergo to continue to do what you love.

The dancers performing in Giselle of Loneliness are Charles Gowin, Meg Harper, Maxfield Haynes, Matthias Kodat, Deborah Lohse, MJ Markovitz, Janet Panetta, Ash Phan, Alexandra Waterbury, and Nat Wilson.

Tickets are $25 and allow for viewing through June 23rd at 11:59 PM ET/8:59 PT.

BALLET: Balanchine and Robbins – Royal Opera House – Debuts June 11th – 2:30 PM ET/11:30 AM PT

The Royal Ballet will live stream their June 11th performance of a trio of works under the title Balanchine and Robbins. Which means, of course, that the works were either choreographed by George Balanchine or Jerome Robbins.

The evening begins with a performance of Apollo by Balanchine set to the music of Igor Stravinsky.

Four dancers are featured in this work which had its world debut in 1928. In this performance the ballet will be danced by Matthew Ball, Claire Calvert, Melissa Hamilton and Fumi Kaneko.

Next up is another work by Balanchine entitled Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. No need to tell you who wrote the music. This short work had its world premiere in 1960. For this performance the dancers are Vadim Muntagirov and Marianela Nuñez.

The performance concludes with Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering. This hour-long work, set to the piano music of Frederic Chopin, had its world premiere at New York City Ballet in 1969. Reece Clarke, Teo Dubreuil, Benjamin Ella, James Hay, Fumi Kaneko, Mayara Magri, Yasmine Naghdi, Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Romany Pajdak are the dancers.

Tickets are $18.50. The performance will remain available for streaming through July 11th.

JAZZ: Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band – SFJAZZ – June 11th – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

This week’s Fridays at Five concert from SFJAZZ features a 2016 performance by Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band.

Drummer Blade formed this band in 1997 with pianist Jon Cowherd, bassist Chris Thomas, saxophonists Myron Walden and Melvin Butler, guitarist Jeff Parker and pedal steel guitarist Dave Easley.

All but Easley join him for this show that features a five-song set featuring two traditional songs arranged by Blade and three original compositions by Cowherd.

Those songs are Landmarks found on the album of the same name from 2014; Duality from their 2017 album Body and Shadow and Return of the Prodigal Song from their 2008 album Season of Changes.

There is an encore showing of this concert on Saturday, June 12th at 1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT. Tickets for either show require either a monthly digital membership ($5) or an annual membership ($50).

If you join to watch this Brian Blade concert you will also have access to a special matinee broadcast on Sunday featuring Marcus Shelby and His Orchestra in a tribute to Duke Ellington. That concert will stream at 2:00 PM ET/11:00 AM PT. You can find details about that show here.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL MUSIC: Kronos Festival – June 11th – 10:00 PM ET/7:00 PM PT

The renowned Kronos Quartet launches a virtual festival this year on Friday with a 45-minute concert. Included in this program are several world premieres and one classic work closely associated with Kronos.

Works by Nicole Lizée (Are You From Here Or Just Visiting?), Soo Yeon Lyuh (Tattoo), Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté (Wawani) and Mahsa Vahdat (Vaya, Vaya) are given their debut performances.

Stacy Garrop’s Glorious Mahalia; Clint Mansell’s Lux Aeterna; Jlin’s Little Black Book and Pete Seeger’s Where Have All the Flowers Gone? are also being performed.

There is no charge to watch this, or any, performance. There is also a kids concert on Sunday, June 13th at 2:00 PM ET/11:00 AM PT.

The festival will continue with performances on Wednesday, June 16th at 10:00 PM ET/7:00 PM PT and Friday, June 18th at 10:00 PM ET/7:00 PM PT. The evening concerts are 45 minutes and the kids concert is 30 minutes.

All performances will remain available for viewing online through August 31st.

PLAY/FUNDRAISER: Connections – Ojai Playwrights Conference – June 12th – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

The works of playwrights Luis Alfaro, Jon Robin Baitz, Father Greg Boyle, Bill Cain, Culture Clash, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Danai Gurira, Samuel D. Hunter, David Henry Hwang, Julia Izumi, James Morrison (with his son Seamus), Jeanine Tesori and Charlayne Woodard will be performed in this 90-minute celebration from the Ojai Playwrights Conference.

Liza Powel O’Brien is also contributing a piece.

Performing their work will be a mix of the playwrights themselves and some well-known actors: Brian Cox, Culture Clash, Eileen Galindo, Danai Gurira, Francis Jue, James and Seamus Morrison, Tony Okunghowa, Rose Portillo, Samantha Quan, John C. Reilly, Israel López Reyes, Nikkole Salter, Samantha Sloyan, Jimmy Smits, Phillipa Soo, A. Zell Williams and Charlayne Woodard.

The theme of the show, as the title would suggest, is human connections moving forward in a post-pandemic world.

This is a one-time only event. There is a requested donation of $20 to watch Connections.

Looking forward the Ojai Playwrights Conference New Works Festival will take place August 5th – August 15th.

PLAY: 1 Hour Photo – East West Players – June 12th – 11:00 PM ET/8:00 PM PT

Tetsuro Shigematsu’s 1 Hour Photo had its world premiere in 2017 at Vancouver’s The Cultch. The ostensibly one-man play tells the story of Mas Yamomoto, a man who owned and operated multiple Japan Camera stores which promised processing of film in one hour. (Remember those? Remember film?)

His conversations with Mas, a much older man, covered a lot of territory of personal and racial history of the 20th century. What starts as a humorous catch-up to outdated 1970s technology riff turns into a very personal and emotional story.

To help tell the story Shigematsu incorporates models, miniatures and some very interesting effects.

Shigematsu has now created a 75-minute film version of 1 Hour Photo and East West Players in Los Angeles will offer five virtual screenings of the film beginning on Saturday, June 12th. (Additional shows are on Sunday, June 13th; Friday, June 18th; Saturday June 19th and Sunday June 20th – times vary). Tickets are $34.99.

BROADWAY VOCALS: Matthew Morrison – Seth Concert Series – June 13th – 3:00 PM ET/12:00 PM PT

I’ve seen Matthew Morrison in three Broadway musicals: Hairspray, The Light in the Piazza and South Pacific. Perhaps the only thing they have in common is that he appeared in all three.

For many people Morrison may be best known for his role as Mr. Schuester on Glee.

All four projects allowed him to showcase one thing he does very well: sing. As will this weekend’s Seth Concert Series with Seth Rudetsky.

Yes there will be some conversation sprinkled amongst the performances, but it will mostly be about the music.

If you are unable to see the live stream on Sunday at 3:00 PM ET, there is an encore showing at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT the same day. Tickets for either are $25.

PLAY READING: Volpone, or The Fox – Red Bull Theater – Debuts June 14th – 7:30 PM ET/4:30 PM PT

17th-century playwright Ben Johnson may not be the best-known writer today, nor are his works commonly performed, but time hasn’t dulled his quick wit and ability to skewer the foibles of human behavior.

Take for example Volpone, or the Fox. The title character loves nothing more than gold. And he will stop at nothing to get as much of it as he can. With the assistance of his servant Mosca, the men of Venice who should know better inevitable fall for his schemes and his charm. It seems as nothing can outwit Volpone.

André De Shields (who won the Tony Award for his performance in Hadestown) plays Volpone. He’s joined by Jordan Boatman, Sofia Cheyenne, Franchelle Stewart Dorn, Clifton Duncan, Amy Jo Jackson, Peter Francis James, Hamish Linklater, Roberta Maxwell, Sam Morales, Kristine Nielsen and Mary Testa for this reading.

Jesse Burger, the Founder and Artistic Director of Red Bull directs. He and Jeffrey Hatcher have made some tweaks to Johnson’s play. (The press release calls them “emendations & elaborations.”)

After the live performance on Monday, June 14th, the show will be available for streaming through June 18th at 7:00 PM ET/4:00 PM PT. There is a suggested donation of $25.

A small bit of trivia: Larry Gelbart, who co-wrote Tootsie and was instrumental in the long-running television show M*A*S*H, wrote an updated version of Volpone that went by the name Sly Fox. It had its Broadway debut in 1976 with George C. Scot in the title role.

That concludes our official Top Ten Best Bets: June 11th – June 14th. But a few reminders before we go:

The film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights is now in theaters and streaming on HBO MAX.

Los Angeles Opera’s Signature Recital Series has now unveiled all five recitals for streaming with Russell Thomas, Susan Graham, Christine Goerke, Julia Bullock and J’Nai Bridges. They will remain available through July 1st. You can find details here.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has added a newly-announced episode for the second season of Sound/Stage. Debuting on June 11th is a performance by the LA Phil with the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles and the band Weezer. They will be performing songs from their album OK Human. Rob Mathes leads the LA Phil and did the orchestrations.

This weekend’s offerings from the Metropolitan Opera are the 2012-2013 season production of Thomas Adés’ The Tempest on Friday; Verdi’s Falstaff from the 2013-2014 season on Saturday and the 2017-2018 season production of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte on Sunday.

Monday the Met begins a week of operas to celebrate Father’s Day. The first production being streamed is Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra from the 1994-1995 season. We’ll have the full schedule and clips on Monday.

What inevitably follows another opening is another closing. Here ends this weekend’s Best Bets: June 11th – June 14th.

Update: This post has been updated to include newly announced participants in Connections

Photo: Jake Gyllenhaal in Sunday in the Park with George (Photo by Matthew Murphy/Courtesy IBDB.com)

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It would be foolish to label Jeff Gold as just one thing. He’s a writer. He’s a former music executive. He’s a music historian. He’s a memorabilia collector and seller. And he’s a cultural anthropologist. Just take a look at his recently published book, Sittin’ In – Jazz Clubs of the 1940s and 1950s.

A collector reached out to Gold and said he had photographs that were taken by the in-house photographers at multiple jazz clubs during that time. Gold met with him and was immediately struck with the idea of a book. Though he had sworn off ever doing another book after publishing 101 Essential Rock Records and Total Chaos: The Story of the Stooges.

“I put them on my bookcase and engaged in a staring contest for six months,” Gold told me in a phone call recently. “Periodically I’d Google to see if I could find other photos and I looked up books on other jazz clubs. They are such an obscure topic and so evocative and there was so little about them anywhere. They stared me down and won.”

If you read Gold’s blog posts on his website, RecordMecca, you wouldn’t think the man who spent over 40 years getting a rare Bowie album signed by the singer and his band would be so passionate about jazz.

“When I started it I knew very little about jazz clubs beyond what an obsessed music fan picks up along the way. Skimming 40 books and hundreds of hours on the internet, I’m kind of an expert.”

A few things surprised Gold during his journey of writing Sittin’ In. The first is that you rarely see photographs of the audience. It’s usually the performers who are shown. When he writes about Bop City (a Manhattan club based in the Brill Building), he quotes a reporter for New York Age as saying, “Outside of Ella Fitzgerald, the great performance was that put in by the audience, the greatest mixture of humanity this side of the Casbar (sic).” It forced him to ponder why the audience is so rarely considered.

“This turns the camera around on the people who watched the performances. In almost every case they look like they are having a great time, even if in some cases you’re in the middle of World War II and there’s racism going on. But this was an escape from it all. The interesting thing is some pictures have artists posing with the fans. These are primordial versions of celebrity selfies. When would you see earlier examples? I couldn’t think of any.”

There’s also the issue of race which is unavoidable looking at the photos.

“You have African American performers posing with white audiences and that was something you didn’t see in any other circumstance,” Gold says.

In an effort to understand more about how these clubs operated, he interviewed Quincy Jones and Sonny Rollins. Gold was surprised when Jones told him he didn’t sense any racism when attending the clubs he could get into (some of them were segregated) nor when he was performing. Which prompted me to ask Gold whether he thought jazz clubs laid the groundwork for tolerance.

“That’s kind of a heavy question I don’t know if I have an answer to it. One thing that came out for me is context and time is everything. There was a completely racist club I have a portfolio from in St. Louis called Club Plantation. Their advertising said, ‘strictly white patronage only.’ That was a selling point for them. Oddly enough there was a Black-owned club in Watts [an area of Los Angeles] called Joe Morris’ Plantation Club. That is a reprehensible thing in 2021, but in the 40s it didn’t seem to be objectionable to Black people because it was successful and [Black-owned.]”

During World War II, when most of these clubs were featuring swing music that allowed patrons to dance the night away, the government added a cabaret tax to raise money for the war effort. This forced the club owners to find a way around the tax and the end result lead to a whole new style of jazz.

“Swing was the dominate music. There were some musicians who were getting tired of the regimented and charted swing music with one solo per show. Those people, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and people like that, experimented with what becomes bebop. Someone realizes if you hire the bebop guys it is music you listen to and people don’t dance. They can pay less people. This cabaret tax ends up being the thing that causes these owners to book bebop.”

Amongst Gold’s collection is one of John Coltrane’s saxophones, who performed bebop early in his career. So it was appropriate I ended our conversation by asking him about something the musician had said. “I’ve found you’ve got to look back at the old things and see them in a new light.” I wanted to know what the new light is Gold has found by looking back at these jazz clubs from the 40s and 50s.

“The new light is not just a new light, it’s a light. The fact that if people have ever seen these photographs it’s maybe one or two of them. There’s not been a collection like this published ever. It’s a niche phenomenon. It’s an opportunity to look at issues like jazz, the race relations in America, American history and the laws of unintended consequences through a different lens. I was the guy able to illuminate this phenomenon.”

Main Photo: A soldier, Joan Davis and Duke Ellington at 400 in April, 1945 (Photo courtesy Jeff Gold)

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Actor Keith David serves as the narrator. Samuel L. Jackson, Delroy Lindo, Derek Jacobi and Harry Connick, Jr. are amongst the additional voices. Footage and interviews with the biggest names in jazz music are incorporated throughout the documentary.

There are ten episodes in Jazz:

Gumbo (Beginnings to 1917) – Airing January 7th

As you would expect with a title like Gumbo, the series begins in New Orleans, a melting pot of a city in the late 1800s and early 1900s that gave rise to Jelly Roll Morton, Buddy Bolden and Sydney Bechet who took that rich brew of culture and began creating what we now call jazz.

The Gift (1917-1924) – Airing January 14th

The period known as the “Jazz Age” plays like a tale of two cities: Louis Armstrong moving from New Orleans to Chicago and Duke Ellington moving from Washington, D.C. to Harlem.

Our Language (1924-1928) – Airing January 21st

In the “Roaring 20s” not only do we follow Armstrong and Ellington, but are introduced to Bix Beiderbecke, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Bessie Smith and famous jazz venues like New York’s Cotton Club.

The True Welcome (1929-1935)- Airing January 28th

The Depression hits, but jazz has taken on a life of its own. With New York as the hub of jazz, Fats Waller and Art Tatum are fast-rising stars; Ellington is writing more serious music and bandleader Chick Webb adds a young female singer to his band by the name of Ella Fitzgerald.

Swing: Pure Pleasure (1935-1937) – Airing February 4th

The Depression is ongoing and people want and need entertainment. They want to dance and swing music offers them exactly what they crave. Benny Goodman becomes the “King of Swing” and Billie Holiday starts to make a name for herself.

Swing: The Velocity of Celebration (1937-1939)- Airing February 11th

The depression finally comes to an end, but the second world war is looming. Swing music loses a little of its momentum until Count Basie and his band enter the scene. By the start of the war in Europe, Coleman Hawkins is creating quite a stir.

Dedicated to Chaos (1940-1945) – Airing February 18th

The United States enters the war and bandleaders like Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw are entertaining folks at home and the troops overseas. Back in New York, with a cabaret tax hitting jazz clubs that have dancing pretty hard, club owners find a way around the tax by embracing ensembles that are smaller and don’t play music that inspires dancing. Be bop is born with artists like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.

Risk (1945-1955) – Airing February 25th

The war is over and the cold war is beginning. Amidst it all young artists like Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk are making names for themselves and changing forever the direction of jazz.

The Adventure (1956-1960) – Airing March 4th

Early jazz pioneers are dying off and a new breed is capturing the spotlight: Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Sarah Vaughan. While Davis continues his rise to superstar, Ornette Coleman is experimenting with free jazz.

A Masterpiece by Midnight (1961-The Present) – Airing March 11th

It’s tough to imagine wrapping up what was then 40 years of history in a single episode, but Burns does that in the final episode with the introduction of Dexter Gordon and Wynton Marsalis; the unlikely bumping of The Beatles off the pop charts by Louis Armstrong and the deaths of some very significant pioneers of the music.

When it first aired, Ben Ratliff, writing for the New York Times, had mixed feelings about the success of the series, but nonetheless said, “jazz is presented as part of American history — not just artistic history, but the history of our wars, social programs, taste in clothing, civil laws, migrations, economic ups and downs. It sometimes seems that there is more film in the documentary containing no jazz musicians than film that does. But nonmusical moments in Jazz build up to demonstrations of how Americans felt in their bones about jazz.”

As with all PBS programming, be sure to check with your local listings for exact air times and dates in your city.

Photo: Louis Armstrong, Newport 1955 (Photo ©Herman Leonard/Courtesy PBS)

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