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com JANUARY 2013

Digital Edition
 26 Sax Man
Catching up with Joe
Lovano. By Bill Milkowski.
January 2013

36 Heart and Soul

The good life of musician
and Motéma Records
founder Jana Herzen. By
Steve Futterman

Dafnis Prieto

4 Januar y 2013 jazziz Cover photo and this page by Jimmy Katz
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Pianist and composer David Benoit has JAZZIZ OnDisc SUMMER 2012
been communicat-
ing with audi-
ences for decades.
So perhaps it’s
unsurprising that
he’s titled his latest SUMMER 2012
Summer Variations

release Conversation
Disc 1 PIANO VARIATIONS
(Heads Up). In fact,
he views the recording as a way of catching David Benoit • Anne Sajdera • Alon Yavnai • Eric Reed
Steve Kuhn Trio • Mike Levine • Ahmad Jamal • Lynne Arriale

up with fans. “This really represents where

OM
EX
Kevin Toney 3 • Chick Corea • Michel Camilo

Z .C
CL
Charlie Haden/Hank Jones • Alfredo Rodríguez

US

ZI
AZ
Chick Corea/Eddie Gomez/Paul Motian

IV
E

.J
D
Taurey Butler • Kenny Werner

W
C
AV W
AI .W

I am right now as a pianist, as a musician,

LA ED
BL RV
EO SE
NL
YF RE
R OM HTS
JAZZIZ L R IG
. & © 20 12 . A L

as a composer,” he says. “It’s a very good

OnDisc
On
snapshot for people who have been follow-
ing me for a while.” Of course, Benoit also
CMYK with full white flood
converses eloquently with the musicians on
the session, including guitarist Jeff Golub,
Anne Sajdera flutist Tim Weisberg and even Benoit’s
11-year-old daughter June, who plays violin SELECTION #:
LABEL:
DATE:
FILE NAME:
TECH:
TOTAL
NUMBER OF

on a version of the theme music to the Diary

Summer Variations
ARTIST: PO #:
COLORS
TITLE: JOB #:
DATE REVISED: SEPARATOR: AMT

of a Wimpy Kid movies. On the opening CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

CREATOR:

PMS #1 PMS #2 PMS #3 PMS #4 PMS #5

track, “Napa Crossroads Overture,” our

Disc 1 Piano Variations
TEMPLATE REV.

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06/20/2001

For more information regarding this and more than 100 other JAZZIZ discs available for purchase, go to
2 5 25 50 75 98 100 List PMS colors in the order they will be printed on the disc.

selection, the song’s co-author, guitarist

David Pack (of the band Ambrosia), joins 01 David Benoit “Napa Crossroads Overture”
Conversation (Heads Up)
The coastal geography of San Diego opening track, “Rashid,” included here, is standards. “Without other musicians as the pianist and orchestral players on a
02 Anne Sajdera “Rashid” Azul (Bijuri)
inspired the a prime example of Sajdera’s mastery of part of the dialogue,” she writes in the sunny jaunt through wine country.
Brazilian-leaning the Brazilian idiom, her trio’s dynamism liner notes, “it became essential to make 03 Alon Yavnai & The NDR Bigband
“Shir Ahava” Shir Ahava (AYM)
music of Anne supplemented by Moreira’s expert touch. the range of my playing wider and think bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Paul While he’s performed the music with
Eric Reed “Rhythm-a-Ning”
Sajdera. Like ‘orchestrally.’” Done, and done. Dig her Motian. The results, culled from record- orchestras all over
04
The Baddest Monk (Savant)
her Carioca Most listeners have come to know pianist sprightly, nuanced keyboard attack on ings of the trio during a two-week stay the world, Corea
05 Steve Kuhn Trio “Promises Kept”
counterparts, the Lynne Arriale as Monk’s “Evidence” or her funky stop-time at New York City’s Blue Note in 2010, are recorded it just last Wisteria (ECM)

Bay Area pianist a dynamic and rhythms on her own “Yada, Yada, Yada.” predictably brilliant. Spanning two discs, summer for the 06 Mike Levine “Gettin’ Ready”
and composer emotive ensemble But establishing an emotional connec- the program contains tunes written by or double-disc release Thinking of You (self-released)

infuses her playing and writing with sea leader. For 15 years tion with listeners has always been of associated with Evans, some dating back to The Continents 07 Ahmad Jamal “Autumn Rain”
Blue Moon (Jazzbook)
and sun and pulses that make listen- she worked solely primary importance to Arriale, and she the late-’50s-early-’60s sessions on which (Deutsche
ers want to get up and samba. Those with her trio, with does so even more directly here. Take a Motian played. An 11-year veteran of Evans’ Grammophon). 08 Lynne Arriale “Arise” Solo (Motéma)

influences can certainly be detected on
her latest trio recording, Azul (Bijuri).
Sajdera penned tunes for the album
while she was recuperating from a back
injury. Taking advantage of the time to
whom she also
recorded nine
CDs. More recently she’s been performing
and recording in combos with esteemed
players such as Randy Brecker, George
listen to “Arise,” our selection, and see if trio, Gomez gets the final word with his
you don’t agree. sprightly, spiky composition “Puccini’s
Walk,” which concludes the set and which
Modern-jazz giant Chick Corea has we’ve included here. An homage to the
never made a bassist’s beloved pooch — as opposed to the
In addition to members of The Harlem 09 Kevin Toney 3 “New American Suite”
New American Suite (self-released)
Quartet, Imani Winds and other top
Chick Corea “Solo Continuum 42”
orchestral players, Corea makes use of
10
The Continents (Deutsche Grammophon)
his quintet — saxophonist Tim Garland,
11 Michel Camilo “The Sidewinder”
trombonist Steve Davis, bassist Hans Mano a Mano (EmArcy)

woodshed, she says she went back and
studied the recordings of Herbie Hancock,
Keith Jarrett, Monty Alexander and
Egberto Gismonti. She then assembled her
seasoned trio mates, bassist Gary Brown
and drummer Paul van Wageningen,
in the studio, and invited guest percus-
sionists Airto Moreira and Michael
Spiro and drummer Phil Thompson. The
Mraz, Bill McHenry and Omer Avital.
Now, finally, Arriale’s released Solo
(Motéma), an entire album of nothing but
piano. Captured “live” at the Hillsborough
Community College Ybor Performing
Arts Center, the Florida-based pianist and
educator delivers a stark and gorgeous
set of original songs, interspersed with
interpretations of Monk tunes and
secret of his Italian composer — it’s a perfect example Glawischnig and drummer Marcus 12 Charlie Haden/Hank Jones
adoration of Bill of the trio’s remarkable synergy. Further Gilmore — bridging the worlds of jazz and “Come Sunday” Come Sunday (EmArcy)
Evans. On Further Explorations also serves as a tribute to the classical music. Disc One encompasses 13 Chick Corea/Eddie Gomez/Paul Motian
“Puccini’s Walk” Further Explorations (Concord Jazz)
Explorations ever-dynamic Motian, who passed away in The Continents suite, while Disc Two spot-
(Concord Jazz), November 2011. lights four tracks by the quintet and 11 14 Taurey Butler “Grandpa Ted’s Tune”
Taurey Butler (Justin Time)
Corea once again (mostly) brief and thoroughly absorbing
15 Alfredo Rodríguez “Transculturation”
bows to the In honor of Mozart’s 250th birthday, Chick solo pieces by Corea. One of them, “Solo Sounds of Space (Mack Avenue)
mega-influential pianist, this time in the Corea penned a six-part piano concerto Continuum 42,” is included here. At age 71,
16 Kenny Werner “Balloons”
company of two of Evans’ confederates: and titled each movement for a continent. Corea’s as creatively vital as ever. Me, Myself & I (Justin Time)

JAZZIZ ON DISC is a 2-CD music compilation from the artists of yesterday, today and tomorrow, bundled in the subscriber
copies of the print editions of JAZZIZ Magazine. This issue’s theme is “Piano Variations and Summer Variations.” Disc One
If you purchased this magazine without the CDs or would like additional copies, e-mail service@jazziz.com
contains a selection of songs by prominent pianists. Disc Two is a collection of music drawn from recently released albums. or log onto www.jazziz.com.

26 summer 2012 jazziz David Benoit by Lori Stoll jazziz summer 2012 27

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MAGNUS LINDGREN

Norah Jones

Batucada Jazz

Prelude 14
Enrico Rava covers the King of Pop; Living
By Lanterns draws inspiration from Sun Ra;
George Coleman receives his due accolades
in Memphis; Norah Jones plays for the late
Levon Helm; and Cándido turns 91.

Fyra Auditions 44
Reviewed: Sam Rivers/Dave Holland/
Photo by Jim Wright

Barry Altschul, Graham Dechter,

www.magnuslindgren.com
International management & booking:
Mark van den Bergh vanbergh@wxs.nl
Nadje Noordhuis, Rob Mazurek Pulsar
Quartet, Medeski Martin & Wood, and
the Michael Formanek Quartet.

The follow up to Six String Theory, this release
puts the spotlight on the rhythm section featuring: Clarke,
Colaiuta, Corea, Duke, East, Elling, Emory, Erskine,
Goldings, Grusin, and many more… PLUS The winners of
the 2012 International 6 String Theory Competition.
Master conguero Poncho Sanchez, celebrating his 30th
anniversary with Concord Picante, presents this exciting
collection which includes legendary jazz classics such as
“Afro Blue,” “Mambo Inn/On Green Dolphin Street,” and
more.
Bob James - Nathan East - Chuck Loeb - Harvey
Mason - Smooth jazz super group Fourplay returns with
Esprit de Four. Their latest release includes a
poignant and moving tribute to Japan’s Tsunami victims,
with a special guest appearance by Seiko Matsuda.
Available at
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registered trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
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Kopp, Kara Manning, Bill Meredith, Bill Milkowski, John Frederick Moore, Alan
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Prelude

14 january 2013 jazziz

Rava Plays Jackson
The handsome Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava
has released many noteworthy albums over the
course of his 40-year recording career, perhaps
none, though, so curious and unexpected as his
latest outing with the 11-piece Parco della Musica
Jazz Lab. Rava on the Dance Floor (ECM) is a live
recording featuring eight songs plucked from the
expansive oeuvre of the late pop god Michael
Jackson along with a graceful cover of Charlie
Chaplin’s “Smile,” a song Jackson much admired.
This is no lark, as evidenced by Rava’s enthusiastic
endorsement of the artist and the material — and
his committed playing on the disc.
Rava readily admits that he paid little attention
to Jackson while the singer was alive. But in the
midst of the media circus that followed Jackson’s
passing in June 2009, the 73-year-old trumpeter be-
gan listening to his music in earnest. “What finally
convinced me,” he says, “was the contagious riff of
‘Smooth Criminal.’ The fact is that, from a certain
moment on, Michael Jackson simply invaded my
life. My wife and I bought all the Jackson discs and
videos we could find. And my long and dull road
trips were transformed into enthusiastic listening
sessions. It became clear to me that for years I had
ignored one of the great protagonists of 20th-
century music and dance. He was a total artist, a
perfectionist, a genius. I was especially knocked out
by the film This is It, which documents the rehears-
als for that extraordinary show. How amazing to
see that 50-year-old Peter Pan, so fragile and vulner-
able, transformed into a benevolent but absolute
authority on stage, in control of every small detail,
correcting a spotlight, the emphasis of a bass note, a
dancer’s step or the length of a musical pause.
“I felt the necessity to delve deeper into Jackson’s
music by adding something of myself to it,” Rava
continues. “In Mauro Ottolini, I found the ideal
partner for the arrangements. The band could only
be the PMJL, and the place the Auditorium Parco
della Musica di Roma, where everything got its
start.” (It was after a concert at the Auditorium that
Rava first learned of Jackson’s death.)
Rava on the Dance Floor breaks with the trum-
peter’s long-established habit of setting his own
compositions in the foreground of his many ECM
releases. Here he delivers sparkling, occasionally
downright funky interpretations of Jackson’s
material — “Speechless,” “Thriller,” “I Just Can’t
Stop Loving You,” “Smooth Criminal,” “Blood on
the Dance Floor” and more — and it’s all very
much worth hearing. —David Pulizzi

jazziz january 2013 15

For Levon
On November 19, Norah Jones appeared at a fundraiser in Manhattan to help save the Woodstock, New York, property
Photo by Jim Wright

where the late drummer and singer Levon Helm lived, worked and regularly held his legendary Midnight Rambles
— intimate concerts in the property’s studio featuring The Levon Helm Band and an assortment of talented and often
famous guests. Jones performed as a part of the trio Puss ‘n’ Boots, along with Catherine Popper and Suzanna Choffel.
Proceeds from ticket sales went to “Keep It Going!” a fund launched by Levon Helm Studios to keep the Helm property
solvent and the Rambles going. For more information, go to www.levonhelm.com.
MARGARITA ICE POP
10.99% ALCOHOL BY VOLUME | 4.8% PURE ALCOHOL CONTENT

jazziz january 2013 17

 Man of a Thousand Fingers
Cándido de Guerra Camero, the famed
percussionist who dramatically ex-
panded the role of the conga drum in
jazz in the 1950s and ’60s, celebrated
his 91st birthday during a late-October
performance at Seattle’s renowned Jazz
Alley. Known simply as Cándido, the
still spry conguero was in full command
of the explosive technique that earned
him such nicknames as “The Thousand
Finger Man.” On a rare tour of the West
Coast, he performed driving salsa and
traditional Cuban tunes fronting a septet
that included bassist Yunior Terry,
drummer Steve Berrios and timbalero
Pete Escovedo. Cándido is one of the
last surviving members of a genera-
tion of Cuba-born percussionists who
influenced the fusion of bebop and Afro-
Caribbean rhythms into what became
known as Latin jazz. —Mark Holston

MAKAYA MCCRAVEN • SPLIT DECISION

MAKAYA MCCRAVEN - drums; ANDREW TOOMBS - piano; TIM SEISSER - bass
“This is music made by a 21st century man who sees no need to suppress his hip hop chops or rock spirit
in an effort to fit in and be dubbed a jazz drummer. McCraven marries his love for music other than jazz
with a more jazz-oriented spirit built around in-the-moment, improvisational cunning and driving grooves
throughout this program of original music.” - Dan Bilawsky, AllAboutJazz.com
“a fresh take on the age-old piano trio, catapulted by McCraven’s propulsive percussion into an orbit
that few first-time groups ever achieve.” - Neil Tesser

AARON KOPPEL QUARTET • MULTIVERSE

AARON KOPPEL - guitar; MATT NELSON - piano, Hammond B-3, Rhodes;
GRAHAM CZACH - upright & electric bass; ROBERT TUCKER - drums
One of Downbeat Magazine’s “Best CDs of 2012”!
HHHH “The band has been together since 2004 and knows
how and where to take chances... through time shifts, mood
changes and wide-branching tunes, the musicians stick
closely together...” – Jon Ross, Downbeat Magazine

Available at : CDBaby, iTunes, Bandcamp, ChicagoJazz.com & everywhere www.chicagosessions.com

Feted in Memphis
Here’s a shot of saxophone great George
Coleman blowing his horn during the
inaugural Memphis Music Hall of Fame
Induction Ceremony and Celebration in late
November. Some of the world’s finest musi-
cians, many of them no longer with us, were
honored during that gala at Memphis’ Cannon
Center for the Performing Arts.
Honorees hailed from a range of styles,
from blues (Memphis Minnie, W. C. Handy,
Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King and Bobby “Blue”
Bland) to gospel (Lucie Campbell, the Staples
Singers) to rock and R&B (Elvis Presley, Jerry
Lee Lewis, Al Green, Otis Redding, Booker T.
and MG’s, Isaac Hayes, Jim Dickinson, ZZ Top)
to hip hop (Three 6 Mafia). In the jazz realm,
bandleader Jimmie Lunceford was inducted
along with Coleman.
In the Spirit of Ra
“I really didn’t want to do it,” says drummer Mike Reed of
his latest project, Living By Lanterns, which recently released
its debut album, New Myth/Old Science, on the Cuneiform label.
Commissioned by the Experimental Sound Studio, a Chicago-based
non-profit, the disc features the band’s co-leaders, Reed and vibra-
phonist Jason Adasiewicz, working on music adapted from frag-
ments of a 1961 Sun Ra rehearsal tape culled from the ESS archive.
The pair is assisted throughout by cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, alto
saxophonist Greg Ward, tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, guitar-
ist Mary Halvorson, cellist Tomeka Reid, bassist Joshua Abrams and
second drummer Tomas Fujiwara. Nick Butcher adds his electronics
wizardry to a couple tracks, as well.
Reed believes he was offered the commission because of his
band People, Places & Things, which, among its endeavors, inter-
prets forgotten hard-bop pieces by Chicago jazz players. Initially he
was reluctant to accept the offer. “I was thinking, ‘What the hell is
anyone gonna say about Sun Ra at this point? I like Sun Ra’s stuff,
but there’s so much of it. I’m not an expert by any stretch; I’m just
somebody who likes some of his records.”
Undaunted, Reed and Adasiewicz — both of whom, along with
bassist Nate McBride, play in the trio Sun Rooms — used the project
as an excuse to gather a group of players they’d been wanting to
work with. “I had already been thinking about trying to do that,
22 january 2013 jazziz
and I was just trying to come up with a concept for it — and an
excuse,” Reed says. “So this gave me a little bit of that.”
The music on New Myth/Old Science doesn’t sound much like Sun
Ra’s music. Frequently it’s moody, swirling and abstract, with no
chanted mantras or interstellar journeys via synthesizer. The clos-
est it gets to Saturnian is when Bynum takes a growling cornet solo
as the other horns groan behind him; those moments recall Fletcher
Henderson, who Ra himself paid tribute to on record. “2000 West
Erie” swings hard, with fierce solos from Ward and Laubrock plus
floating vibes from Adasiewicz that imbue the song with the feel of
a mid-’60s Blue Note album by Bobby Hutcherson or Joe Henderson.
Having long since overcome his initial misgivings, Reed is now
talking about scheduling a second Living By Lanterns recording
session. And he’s got some interesting ideas about live performance
and taking advantage of his bandmates’ many other projects. At
a recent show in Poland, the Living By Lanterns ensemble brought
along bassist Nate McBride, and were thus able to present addition-
al sets by Sun Rooms and Halvorson’s quartet, which, in addition to
McBride, includes Bynum and Fujiwara. “We’re always one or two
people away from having three or four other bands,” says Reed. “I
think that’s our goal, actually — one or two extra bands for every
time we go out. Because it’s silly not to create other opportunities
for ourselves.” —Phil Freeman
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 By Bill Milkowski • Photos by Jimmy Katz

26 january 2013 jazziz

Joe Lovano is in a cramped
rehearsal room at New
York University, presiding
over the ensemble class he
teaches seven times a year.
A larger-than-life figure in “this world of music,” a phrase he frequently
drops when referring to the mystical place where he has resided since
becoming a professional musician nearly 40 years ago, Lovano strolls from
student to student, instructing each of his young charges on the finer
points of navigating through McCoy Tyner’s harmonically rich composi-
tion “Fly Like the Wind.” “Play those phrases with an attitude,” he imparts
with the zen-like calm of a true master. “It’s not just the notes, it’s not just
the rhythm — it’s those things plus an attitude. It’s how you play it.”
He conducts the nine-piece ensemble with his prized Borgani tenor
sax hanging from his neck. Finally putting horn to lips on the solo
section, Lovano’s robust tones fill the small room, eliciting wide smiles
and looks of awe from his 20-something students. He calls them all ‘cats,’
and they regard him as a kind of hipster shaman who has come down
from jazz’s Mount Olympus to connect them directly to the source of the
music. “Really give that downbeat,” he instructs the young drummer.
“Don’t play so loud there,” he tells the trumpeter. “You play the pickup,
dig?” he advises the trombonist. “You have to get the rhythm section’s
attention, you know what I’m sayin’?” he asks the tenor sax player. And
to the pianist: “Play those figures upfront, because that will really give
them something to play off of.”
His words carry uncommon authority. “Downbeats and offbeats really
strong now,” he reminds the drummer before they run through another
take.” That’s the key to this song, to really play with the power of the
rhythm of it all.” As they work through the Tyner piece for a third time, the
trombonist completes an impressive solo. Lovano looks him square in the
eye and gives an encouraging “Yeah!” It’s his way of welcoming another
aspiring musician into the tribe — just as Sonny Stitt once welcomed
Lovano during his formative days in Cleveland.
“I remember sitting in with Milt Jackson and Sonny Stitt in 1974,”
Lovano recalls. “I was in a little group playing opposite them at the Smiling
Dog Saloon. They were playing with a local rhythm section. I started to
hang out with Sonny Stitt, talking about saxophone, and he asked me
if I wanted to sit in with them on their set. I was thrilled that he asked
me, but Bags didn’t dig that at all! So I ended up sitting in. We played ‘On
Green Dolphin Street.’ Stitt told me to play two choruses and I was on my
second chorus when he whispers in my ear, ‘Play another one.’ So he was
real encouraging. Meanwhile, Bags didn’t say a word. I was always a little
nervous around Milt Jackson after that.
“Six years later, I’m living in New York and playing with Mel
Lewis, and Bags came down to hear the band one Monday night at the
Vanguard. I had played a solo on ‘Cherry Juice,’ and when we came off the
stand Bags was standing back by the telephone, near the kitchen. And he
looked at me and said, ‘Yeah, Lovano, I hear you.’ He gave me a little nod
and that made me feel OK.”

28 january 2013 jazziz

As the NYU ensemble finally begins to get the challenging
Tyner tune under their fingers, Lovano starts bopping his head
in time and dancing like Monk to the uplifting theme. Following
the third take, he lays more wisdom on his students: “OK, that’s
the idea on that one. Different energies and attitudes in all those
little sections are going to make the tune happen. Know who you’re
playing with. That’s the key to this music — the way you blend and
attack your notes. That’s the key to ensemble music.”
And Lovano should know, having racked up countless miles on
the road with Woody Herman’s big band from 1976-79 and spend-
ing invaluable time with Mel Lewis’ big band during the early ’80s.
And being the son of Tony “Big T” Lovano — the soulful, jazz-loving
Sicilian-American tenor saxophonist and full-time barber who
knew fellow Clevelander Tadd Dameron and who once jammed
with John Coltrane back in his pre-Miles days — Joe inherited a
legacy of hipness that’s hard to match. “When I went to Cleveland
and met Joe’s father for the first time, I immediately thought, ‘So
that’s where he got it from,’” recalls Bill Frisell, Lovano’s bandmate
for more than 30 years in the late Paul Motian’s trio. “Actually, that
whole scene — his mother cooking all this great Italian food for
us, his father telling stories, the whole warm family vibe — it all
helped to explain who Joe was.”
“My dad was really generous, man,” says Lovano of Big T, who
died in 1988. (Joe recorded an evocative tribute to his father, “T
Was to Me,” released that same year on his album Village Rhythm.)
“When I was a teenager, I learned from all those records he had and
also from the players that he was playing with at the time, the guys
of his generation. He would bring me around to jam sessions and
rehearsals. Eventually, when I started to drive, I would go to his gigs
and have my horn and sit in on the last set. And I studied the tunes
that he was playing so I could play with the band. I wanted those
cats to dig me, you know?”
Cleveland, along with Pittsburgh, Detroit and Philadelphia, had
a rich jazz scene back in Big T’s day. “They all had key players that
created modern jazz,” Lovano explains. “Everybody eventually
came to New York, but most of the real creative forces that came
through the bebop, modern-jazz and free-jazz movements were
figures who came from those places. I grew up knowing about the
Cleveland scene through my Dad and his community. They were all
my teachers. They gave me a real foundation and got me interested
in discovering who was from Cleveland, who was from Detroit,
who grew up in Philly, who came up playing together in Chicago
and Pittsburgh. That awareness really taught me a lot about the
music. And I talk about that a lot in my workshops and classes
today, about really being involved in the history of the music and
the players and people — the sounds and spirits, I like to call it. To
live in that library and try to know as much as you can about the
people that you’re listening to is important. And growing up, that
was a key element in learning the music — who the cats were, why
they were playing together, how they were playing together, how it
was all happening. I made it a point to know all that stuff.”
Later that evening, following his NYU ensemble class, Lovano
is on the bandstand at the Village Vanguard alongside trumpeter
Dave Douglas. It’s the New York premiere of Sound Prints, the band
they co-lead and which features Linda Oh on bass, Lawrence Fields
30 january 2013 jazziz
on piano and their longtime colleague Joey Baron on drums. (Baron
is Douglas’ bandmate in John Zorn’s Masada and he was Lovano’s
classmate at the Berklee College of Music during the early ’70s.)
Inspired by the musical vision of Wayne Shorter (Lovano came up
with the band name, which is a take on Shorter’s “Footprints”),
Sound Prints launched early in 2012 and has already created a buzz
following several rave reviews for gigs on two separate tours of
Europe. They also had a showcase last summer at the Newport Jazz
Festival. “We started talking about putting a band together during
the last season that we were both with the SF Jazz Collective, which
was 2009,” recalls Douglas. “And maybe a year and a half ago is
when we sat down and figured out what we wanted to do, what
the theme should be and what kind of playing we wanted it to be.
The concept of the group is to recognize and take inspiration from
Wayne Shorter, his vision and his philosophy and his way of ap-
proaching the music. I think he’s kind of a touchstone for both of us,
as well as for a lot of musicians. So the idea was, how do we write
some music that can reflect on that inspiration?”
Lovano first met Douglas in 1986, when the trumpeter showed
up one day at Joe’s 23rd Street loft, which was jam central in those
days. “He was the first cat to come over to my loft who wasn’t a
saxophone player,” Lovano says. “And we had a great first encoun-
ter which has carried through the years.” Lovano invited Douglas
to play on three tracks from his acclaimed 2001 Blue Note album
Flights of Fancy: Trio Fascination, Edition Two. Lovano later sat
in with John Zorn’s Masada at the now-defunct Lower East Side
experimental music club Tonic, bringing his inside-outside sensibil-
ity and expressive sensitivity to Zorn’s mercurial, Hassidic-inspired
music. He subsequently appeared on the Masada Quintet’s 2009
Tzadik release Stolas: Book of Angels, Vol. 12, filling in for Zorn on all
but one track and playing alongside Douglas, Baron, bassist Greg
Cohen and pianist Uri Caine.
Douglas and Lovano now strike a formidable front line in the
Sound Prints quintet. “Dave and I wrote all the music,” says Lovano.
“We have about 20 pieces that we put together over this year. And
the way we’re playing together and trying to create inner struc-
tures is amazing. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Of his Sound Prints partner, Douglas says, “As great a soloist
as Joe is, he’s like the ultimate team player too — especially with
Linda and Lawrence coming in as players who were just younger
by the calendar. They’re in their mid- to late-20s, and initially they
felt like, ‘I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. If Joe’s playing, I’m
going to get out of the way.’ And we went through a thing of trying
to get rid of that. Joe would always tell them, ‘Wait a minute, this
is a band. We’re all equal members. This is not about you getting
out of the way when I play a solo.’ So it’s become a very collective
operation, and one of the reasons that it works is that everyone’s in
a constant dialogue. For a lot of great jazz soloists, it can be difficult
to play within the group and play different roles and accompany
somebody else, but Joe’s really great at that.”
As for his own playing, Douglas believes that Sound Prints has
elevated his game. “I really feel like I don’t have a choice but to try
to exceed myself on every solo,” he says. “And there are moments
when I’m standing next to Joe, listening to him play on one of my
tunes, that I’m scared shitless because I’m like, ‘What am I gonna
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 Speaking of Lovano …
Bill Frisell: “I knew about him when I went to Berklee in 1975.
He had already been through there and was playing with Woody
Herman’s band at the time, but you’d always hear people talking
about him. He was like a legend around Berklee. I remember one
time when he came to town with Woody’s band, and he came by
this club afterwards where I was playing with Tiger Okoshi’s band.
And he just walks into the club, walks onstage, blows everybody’s
mind and then he was gone. I don’t even think he asked anybody to
sit in. He was fearless like that.
“He’s just so wide open and ready for anything, and he’s still like
that. It’s mind-blowing what he does. Even after more than 30 years
of playing with him, I can’t even figure out how he does it. There’s
something in his playing that’s not codifiable. You can hear Coltrane
and Sonny Rollins and the whole history in what he’s playing, but he’s
got his own thing going on, too. It’s unfigure-out-able! And he does
that every time he plays. Something different happens every time.”

John Abercrombie: “What I noticed right away about Joe when we

first played together [on Henri Texier’s 1988 Label Bleu album Colonel
Skopie] is the sound that he has and he’s always had, which was very
different than other saxophone players I had played with. It was
kind of an older sound in a way, harkening back to Stan Getz or the
old-school cats like Ben Webster. It was a softer, warmer, more jazz-
oriented tone. It didn’t have a lot of edge to it. He was somebody with
an older sound playing modern ideas. We seemed to have a pretty
good rapport instantly, and that has carried on through the years. I
was on his first Blue Note record [1991’s Landmarks] and he played on
a record of mine a few years ago called Open Land [1998]. We hadn’t
been playing regularly for quite a while when we did this last record-
ing [2012’s Within a Song, with Joey Baron and Drew Gress, on ECM],
so it was just kind of a magical thing the way it came out.”

Joey Baron: “While everybody was coming to New York and gravi-
tating toward Michael Brecker’s thing, Joe was investigating what
Dewey Redman was doing, and I think that’s pretty telling. Like
Dewey, Joe’s so soulful, and he’s got an openness that’s just amazing.
And I think that stems from having the knowledge of what hap-
pened on his instrument before he picked it up, whether it was the
bebop guys or the tenor players who were more experimental in na-
ture. And he combined those things, not just imitating what players
he admired did but actually going a step further and synthesizing
it and figuring out what his take was on it. And I think that’s hard,
especially today, because the vibe in which most people are coming
up now is through schools, and it’s a very kind of stifling environ-
ment. People in schools think that the whole point is to ‘get it right,’
which is really kind of anti- what jazz is all about. The whole point of
jazz is to develop this ability to be reactive and to synthesize pretty
quickly without thinking about it, on the spot in front of people. And
Joe communicates that. Plus, he’s really playful. It’s like, why be stuck
in one thing if you enjoy something on the other side of the fence? Or
does the fence have to be there at all?” —BM

32 january 2013 jazziz

play after this? It’s just so heavy!’ And luckily, I’m able to react
and still pull up my horn and play something. And I find that the
inspiration of having heard him takes me to an even higher place.”
Lovano has resided in that higher place for decades, winning
polls and earning accolades and honors along the way. (He won
a Grammy Award for 2000’s 52nd Street Themes in the “Best
Large Ensemble Performance” category and currently holds the
Gary Burton Chair in Jazz Performance at the Berklee College
of Music.) His latest triumph is Cross Culture, his third record-
ing with his Us Five ensemble and his 23rd release on the Blue
Note label. On that wonderfully eclectic offering, Lovano and
his flexible crew — the two-drummer tandem of Otis Brown
III and Francisco Mela along with pianist James Weidman and
bassists Esperanza Spalding and Peter Slavov — shift deftly from
straight-up bebop (“Royal Roost”) to probing free-bop (“Myths
and Legends,” “PM”) to a tribal percussion jam (“Drum Chant”) to
an elegant interpretation of a beautiful Billy Strayhorn bal-
lad. “‘Star Crossed Lovers’ is something I put in the repertoire
between Bird Songs [Us Five’s 2011 sophomore release] and Cross
Culture,” Lovano explains. “It was a tune we were playing on
some gigs, and we were finding a different way of playing
through it — in a real free manner in the beginning, then hitting
a nice groove with the mallets and brushes playing together un-
derneath. So it started to have a mood all its own, and Esperanza
began playing such a beautiful chorus on it. I thought I’d try to
put it on the recording because it’s definitely a statement about
our music. And the love of playing ballads is something that I’ve
explored throughout my life.”
Lovano extrapolates freely throughout Cross Culture on
tenor sax, G mezzo soprano sax, tárogató and the polyphonic
aulochrome (a double soprano sax invented by François Louis
that fuels the tracks “In a Spin” and the Ornette-ish “Modern
Man,” a tune he previously recorded as a duet with drummer Ed
Blackwell on 1990’s From the Soul). He also plays an assortment
of exotic percussion instruments that he picked up during his
world travels with various bands, including his own.
Guitarist and Blue Note label mate Lionel Loueke brings a
unique quality as Lovano’s frontline partner on the title track as
well as on two songs inspired by Lovano’s mentor and longtime
collaborator Paul Motian (“Journey Within” and the raucous,
uptempo closer, “PM”). “Lionel is fantastic,” says Lovano. “I’ve
known him for a while. He was in Berklee when I was teaching
there, and he had a working relationship with Francisco Mela. I
just felt that his contribution would be really key in integrating
within the rhythm section and also playing with me in a front-
line mode. And the way this band’s been developing through the
years musically and compositionally, especially with the double
drummers creating a tapestry of polyrhythms spontaneously,
I heard him in some of these new pieces that I was working on.
So it was just a natural choice to have him contribute who he is
within this music.”
Lovano says the music on Cross Culture came together easily.
“You know, the more you do things, the more you’re in tune with
what’s happening. The group’s been together now since 2007 in
this form, so the communication and trust is really happening.
34 january 2013 jazziz
Everybody’s listening and reacting, and we’re exploring ways of
playing together through the years that have really crystallized.
I’m really happy to have been able to have an ensemble that has
legs like that, that we can carry on. And in live performance, it’s
really been incredible to have the trust to create music like that
spontaneously, where we’re taking those risks and chances. For
me, that’s a key element in jazz music.”
“I think Joe is really committed to being a jazz player,
capital ‘J’,” says Douglas of his colleague. “He has this com-
mitment to the roots of jazz. He’s always listening to Bird and
Coltrane and always talking about the giants of the music,
grappling with that and trying to apply the lessons in this new
music context that we’re playing in. For somebody who’s played
so many different kinds of music and searched so broadly, he has
this incredibly strong home base that is really special. And that’s
something that I really admire.
“I also think Joe is like a perfect example of a guy who
combines this incredibly well-trained, sophisticated background
with a sort of very intuitive, non-academic approach to play-
ing,” Douglas continues. “Like, he’ll come to a piece, figure out
what’s going on on the inside, but then when it comes time to
perform — it’s something that’s not explainable. He’s a guy who
knows all the technical aspects of the music but when he gets
up to really play, it’s coming from the ear, it’s coming from the
heart. And that’s a hard place to get to, especially when you have
his vast experience, his background. When you know that much
stuff it can be hard to throw it all away and just bring yourself
to the moment. And he’s somebody that always does that every
time he hits the bandstand or walks into a studio. All of that
stuff goes out the window in the service of the moment. He’s
playing with what’s happening, with who is there, with what
the situation is and what’s going on around him. He’s just 100
per cent committed on every level.”
While he’s currently juggling Us Five and Sound Prints,
Lovano also plans to squeeze in a couple of tours in 2013 with
the Sax Summit (featuring himself, Ravi Coltrane and Dave
Liebman). He seems to be up for anything at any time. Just a
few days after his engagement with Sound Prints at the Village
Vanguard, he was seen locked in a turbulent duet with free-jazz
drummer Milford Graves at The Under Line benefit concert held
in the Angel Orensanz Foundation on the Lower East Side. His
musical horizons seem boundless.
“It’s been a real blessing to be able to create some situations
and to put some ensembles together with some real creative,
fantastic young folks, as well as playing with my peers and
collaborating with some of the masters that sent me on my way,”
says the jovial sax man, who turned 60 on December 29. As for
his latest Us Five release, Cross Culture, he says, “It’s not a sum-
mation but it’s a statement about what I’m doing today. You can
hear where I’m coming from, completely, and you hear where
things are going also. As an improvising musician, that’s really
what it’s about, and that’s what’s inspired me all these years
about trying to create music.” s
MACK
AVENUE
RECORDS
on the way in 2013…
Aaron Diehl
Kevin Eubanks
Christian McBride
Danilo Pérez
Cécile McLorin Salvant
Yellowjackets
Mack Avenue Superband
plus some we can’t even mention right now

for the vinyl lovers in the house:

180gram Limited Edition Double LPs:
New Gary Burton Quartet - Common Ground
Christian McBride Big Band - The Good Feeling
Christian McBride & Inside Straight - Kind of Brown
more vinyl next year, too

mackavenue.com
 Heart
&
SoulThe good life of musician and Motéma Records founder Jana Herzen.
By Steve Futterman
“What a long, strange trip it’s been.”
Raised in northern California and later based in San Francisco,
it’s little wonder that Jana Herzen might instinctively call upon that
oft-quoted Grateful Dead lyric to describe the unlikely journey that
led her to launch her own record label, Motéma Music, 10 years ago.
With an eclectic roster that includes cutting-edge post-bop improvis-
ers, hard-bop veterans, musicians from Africa and Asia, mainstream
swingers, hip-hop/jazz fusioneers and other artists who blithely
swim past genre boundaries, Motéma fully encompasses its found-
er’s inclusive vision of music-making. In an uncertain economy,
Motéma has stayed nicely afloat with a catalog that presently boasts
some 90 albums released by 45 artists, including Randy Weston, Geri
Allen, Gregory Porter, Monty Alexander, René Marie, The Cookers,
and Herzen herself, whose recently released Passion of a Lonely Heart
finds the singer-songwriter-guitarist collaborating splendidly in an
intimate duet setting with the virtuoso bassist Charnett Moffett.
But how did a West Coast songstress with extensive experience in
theater find herself running a record label from offices in Harlem?
The long, strange trip has its origins in science. Herzen’s
parents are Leonard and Leonore Herzenberg, internation-
ally recognized research professors who are in charge of the
36 january 2013 jazziz
Herzenberg Laboratory at Stanford University, near Palo Alto,
California. (Dr. Herzenberg is the inventor of the FACS — the
fluorescence-activated cell sorter — a technology which has had
a major impact on science and medicine, and which has earned
Herzenberg a prestigious Kyoto Prize.) Innovative scientists and
inspiring academicians, the Herzenbergs also threw some mean
hootenannies back in the day.
“My parents were devoted scientists, but they also had a bohe-
mian side,” says Herzen (who shortened her name for professional
reasons and “because it sounded a bit more exotic”). “They would
have people over and play folk and bluegrass songs. I’ve been
singing since I was 5, joining them on harmony parts.” By age 13,
Herzen was playing guitar and immersing herself in the sounds of
early ’70’s pop and rock. “My relationship with the guitar has been
the deepest and longest lasting of my life,” she says with a laugh.
The Herzenberg home had always opened its doors to illustri-
ous guests, from acclaimed scientists to artists of all stripes. “One
day I came home,” Herzen remembers, “and there sat the most
radiant woman I had ever seen. She seemed to be practically
glowing.” The guest was the celebrated Scottish actress Morag
Hood, best known in the United States for her role in the BBC pro-
Photo by Joseph Bogges
duction of War and Peace, which also featured Anthony Hopkins
in his breakthrough performance.
With Hood as a friend and inspiration, Herzen found herself
drawn into the world of theater. Over the next decade, she at-
tended Stanford University and later New York University, where
she earned a bachelor’s degree in drama. After graduating, Herzen
remained in New York, uniting with Robert LuPone, an original
cast member of A Chorus Line, and six other fellow NYU alumni
to found the Manhattan Class Company. Among the varying hats
Herzen wore during her tenure with MCC were actor, director, dra-
maturge and lighting designer — all responsibilities that prepared
her for the multi-tasking role she plays as chief of Motéma. (MCC
remains a successful New York company to this day.)
“Although I loved acting, I wasn’t good at auditions,” Herzen re-
calls. “I also realized that what I was very good at was taking care
of the needs of others. I had been doing just that for a long time. At
16, I had even managed an adult ballet company. Organization has
always been a strong point.”
In 1991, Herzen left New York for what turned into a five-month
“musical mystery tour.” Sojourning in Japan, Bali and Australia, she
renewed her interest in performing — busking, picking up club dates
as they came, and playing with local musicians as she travelled — and
began refining songs that would later appear on her first album.
When she returned to the United States, she widened her scope
further, studying African music and dance with a group of African
expatriates in the Santa Cruz area, where she had relocated. “For me,
the African music that I had become passionate about at the time
seemed very close to jazz,” she says. “I remember the moment when I
heard the distinct patterns inside an African drum-ensemble concert
I was attending. At first, I could only hear the sounds as random noise.
Then suddenly the individual patterns came into aural focus for me,
and I was initiated into hearing the conversations in polyrhythmic
music, which then primed me for deep jazz appreciation.”
In 1995, she began working with the Congolese bassist and
producer Shaka Ra Mutela on her debut album, Soup’s on Fire.
Elaborately produced in an inventive if overly polished manner
redolent of its time, the album exhibits Herzen’s already refined
skills as a songwriter and singer while never quite disguising such
probable influences as Joni Mitchell, Suzanne Vega and Kate Bush.
Unattached to a label, Herzen found herself with a record in hand
and no way to effectively market or distribute it. In that quandary
lay the roots of Motéma Music.
As matters turned out, Soup’s on Fire had to wait its turn on the
nascent label. Having moved to San Francisco, where she worked
a stint as an agent for the visual artist Winston Smith, Herzen
began a musical association with percussionist and composer
Babatunde Lea. As executive producer of Lea’s 2002 album Soul
Pools — which features Herzen on her song “Round the World”
— she again found herself wondering how to release an album
unattached to a record label.
The answer was, of course, to start her own label, an ambition
that required nerve and determination. She named her imprint
Motéma, which means “heart” in Lingala, a Bantu language with
roots in central Africa. “The point was not to kick off a record label
so much as it was to just get Soul Pools released,” says Herzen,
38 january 2013 jazziz
Babatunde Lea
Six Picks
Unsurprisingly, Jana Herzen has a soft spot for every
album she’s released on Motéma, but she easily names six
recordings that are especially significant.
s Marc Cary Focus (2006) — “Marc was the first New York
scene player we signed, which was very meaningful for the
label. Until then, we were outsiders, but the critical success of
the album gave us super credibility.”
s Monty Alexander Harlem - Kingston Express Live! (2011)
— “I love reggae, and I found this musical combination
incredible. I fought for this [Grammy nominated] album,
and I’m glad I did.”
s Randy Weston The Storyteller: Live at Dizzy’s Club Coca-
Cola (2010) — “I was at this show, and it blew me away. I’ve
been listening to Randy Weston since I was a kid; for me,
that was jazz.”
s Geri Allen Flying Toward the Sound (2010) — “I love all
the albums that Geri has done for us, but this is special — a
solo-piano album inspired by her great influences. It’s a deeply
personal masterpiece.”
s Babatunde Lea Soul Pools (2003); Lynne Arriale Arise (2003) —
“I have to include both of the earliest albums the label released
for obvious reasons. This is where it all started.” —SF
who’s surname, perhaps not coincidentally, also means “heart”
in German. “And then I later heard the pianist Lynne Arriale, and
I knew we had to record her as well.” Both Soul Pools and Arriale’s
Arise were released in 2003, jumpstarting Motéma Music. Soup’s on
Fire was released the following year.
“I actually released Soup’s on Fire DIY-style with the Motéma
logo in San Francisco in 1999,” Herzen says. “I had some success
with it but generally could not figure out how to launch y career.
The idea of the label, as a label, came in 2002 with Babatunde and
Soul Pool’s producer Suzi Reynolds, who suggested I start a label
Photo by Jean-Marc Lubrano
and introduced me to David Neidhart, formerly of Polygram, who
taught me the ropes and initiated the label with me, Suzi and
Babatunde. Suzi was managing Lynne at the time and made that
connection. With these veterans on board, I launched the label.
Once it was up and running with a distribution deal, we re-released
Soup so that it would have a chance at broader distrubution.”
With a handful of records on the market, Herzen packed up the
business in San Francisco and moved east, setting up shop in New
York City, at the former home of Harlem Renaissance literary legend
Langston Hughes, where she also operated a collective performing
space. She’s since moved from there to another location in Harlem.
By 2006, with albums by pioneering pianist Marc Cary, world
beat-jazz fusion percussionist Koko Jones, neo-swing bandleader Kit
McClure and post-bop pianist Arriale sharing space on the Motéma
release schedule, Herzen’s vision was coming more clearly into
view. Never strictly a jazz or world-beat imprint, Motéma would
increasingly reflect its founder’s wide-ranging taste and instinctive
feel for musical and personal authenticity.
“Motéma is as much about people as it is about music,” Herzen
says. “I look for ‘deep people’ — that is, artists who understand that
there’s a significant purpose behind the music they make. I’m here
for the artist who has a fierce independent vision of the kind of
music that he or she wants to make. It’s all about enabling the artist
to express that vision — telling their stories through their songs.
The question that I ask an artist when we first discuss a project is,
‘What is the album that you want to make?’”
Though running a record label consumes much of her time and
40 january 2013 jazziz
focus, making her own music is still very much a part of Herzen’s
life. “A kind of insanity sets in if I don’t perform,” she says. Passion
of a Lonely Heart, Herzen’s second album, is a different creature
altogether from Soup’s on Fire. Inspired by the intimate duet mas-
terpieces of Ella Fitzgerald and guitarist Joe Pass, Passion of a Lonely
Heart weaves a delicate tonal web between Herzen’s atmospheric
vocals and guitar work and Charnett Moffett’s telepathic bass
playing. Where her debut album was elaborate, Passion of a Lonely
Heart is a stripped-down affair, illuminating Herzen’s finely honed
songwriting and the jazz-inflected musical skills that allow her and
Moffett to communicate with such ease and grace.
“I’m kind of a troubadour,” Herzen says, “so keeping it intimate
appealed to me. Although I had originally conceived of the album
as a band project, when I ran through ideas with just Charnett,
it sounded great just as it was. We recorded 16 songs in one day!”
Herzen and Moffett (who has a solo-bass recording due from
Motéma in 2013) have already made plans for a second release.
Along with finding masterly musicians with the ability to
“change the molecules in a room” while performing, Herzen looks
for artists to sign who project a certain vibe. “I want to work with
good people who really are into spreading positive feelings around
the world,” she says. “I always say that I’m in the inspiration
business, not the music business. It’s all about the creative process,
whether it’s songwriting or business. As a daughter of scientists, I
learned the importance of asking the right questions. Aim for those
inspired moments and then figure out a way to make them happen.
I like to be able to say, ‘This is how you can do it.’” s
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 Medeski Martin & Wood
Free Magic
(Indirecto)
Although keyboardist John Medeski, drum-
mer Billy Martin and
bassist Chris Wood
have spent more
than two decades
establishing their
jazz bona fides, some
purists continue to
look askance at the
threesome. The reason, likely, is the acces-
sibility of their music, which appeals to folks
with principal allegiances to acts associated
with other genres, including post-Grateful
Dead jam bands. But just as the novel
Telegraph Avenue encourages appreciation
of “backbeat jazz,” author Michael Chabon’s
term for the soulful sounds of undervalued
’60s/’70s figures like Charles Earland, Free
Magic, a live, acoustic collection recorded in
2007, invites listeners to reconsider a trio that
remains chronically underrated.
“Doppler,” the Wood-penned opener,
takes a risk at the outset via an extended
intro marked by the composer’s bass drone,
Martin’s balaphone (an African instrument,
similar to a xylophone) and Medeski’s
melodica. But the resulting sound is so invit-
ing that few listeners will feel impatience
waiting for the main body of the song to kick
in. And kick it does, with Martin and Wood’s
syncopated groove providing the ideal
backdrop for Medeski’s hip-swaying vamps.
Medeski’s “Blues For Another Day” uses
a similar structure, juxtaposing a chaotic
opening passage with R&B-inspired exu-
berance fueled by Wood’s standup thump-
ing and Medeski at his most mesmeric.
That’s followed by a swirling medley of
the title tune and Medeski’s “Ballade in C
Minor”; “Where Is Sly?,” dominated by a
lengthy Martin solo that only rarely wears
out its welcome; and the closing combo
of Charles Mingus’ “Nostalgia in Times
Square” and Sun Ra’s “Angel Race,” which
moves from the dance floor to outer space
with beguiling confidence.
Few combos could pull off many of
the challenges Medeski, Martin and
Wood tackle on Free Magic, let alone do
so with such seeming effortlessness. And
it’s about time they got the credit they
Medeski Martin & Wood deserve. —Michael Roberts
Graham Dechter
Takin’ It There
(Capri)
Guitarist Graham Dechter’s second CD capitalizes
on a supremely tight
rhythm section (pianist
Tamir Hendelman,
bassist John Clayton and
drummer Jeff Hamilton)
and swings brightly
throughout with
in-the-pocket grooves.
Like many albums by members of that rhythm
section, there’s never a fear that any tune will
derail, and while some may find the playing too
controlled on Takin’ It There, many others — most,
I suspect — will simply admire the group’s art-
istry and chemistry. In keeping with other fluid
guitarists (Gray Sargent and Ed Bickert come to
mind), Dechter plays with an authoritative sense
of time. This is indeed a marvelous outing.
The album opens with nods to elder states-
men, tunes by monumental guitarists who
have clearly influenced Dechter’s phrasing: Wes
Montgomery’s “Road Song” and Barney Kessel’s
“Be Deedle Dee Do.” (The latter, as its onomatopoe-
ic title suggests, is a charming swinger that has
rarely been covered since Kessel waxed it with
the Poll Winners in ’58.) The trio ignites the tempo
of Lee Morgan’s “Hocus Pocus,” which features
spirited flourishes by Hamilton, and gracefully
explores such standards as “Chega de Saudade
(No More Blues)” and “Come Rain or Come Shine.”
They also cover tunes written especially for the
leader: Clayton’s “Grease for Graham,” as well as
the title cut, composed by pianist Josh Nelson.
But it’s the final piece, a ballad medley
uniting Dechter’s “Amanda” with “Every
Time We Say Goodbye,” that may speak most
memorably to Dechter’s exciting future. It
opens with the winning intimacy of solo gui-
tar, joined briefly by Clayton bowing his bass,
and segues into brushwork and gentle piano
comping as they transition into the standard.
It’s an ideal setting for Hendelman, warmly
featured as a soloist here, and when Dechter
concludes with the five melodic notes from
“Amanda,” we feel as though we know her,
too, and want her back. —Sascha Feinstein
Sam Rivers/Dave Holland/Barry Altschul
Reunion: Live in New York
(Pi Recordings)
This trio, led by the late saxophonist Sam
Rivers, was at the forefront of the New York
jazziz january 2013 45
“loft” scene of free-form jazz in the 1970s. Nadje Noordhuis
Recorded in 2007,
these two discs
capture a pair of
uninterrupted, com-
pletely improvised
sets. It’s free jazz to
be sure, but in this
group’s hands, that
hardly means chaotic. For nearly 90 minutes,
the music flows seamlessly, logically and
often beautifully. If there’s such a thing as
pure improvisation that’s approachable for
wary listeners, this is it.
Listening to the obvious rapport among
the musicians, it’s hard to believe that this
was their first performance in more than 25
years. Moods and tempos shift on a dime,
and there’s never a moment in which it
seems like one member or another is left
behind. Bursts of pure melody appear as
often as atonal passages. The music has its
own sense of order and logic, mostly because
it’s played by three masters of the form who
listen and anticipate so well.
Rivers switches among tenor and soprano
saxes and flute. Regardless of the instru-
ment, his phrases are always concise and
thoughtful. And no matter how far afield
he ventures, each phrase lays the founda-
tion for the next one. He even plays a bit of
piano, sometimes gracefully, sometimes
with abandon. Bassist Dave Holland often
keeps things grounded with his trademark
repeating figures. Although he’s not bound
to maintaining a tonal center as he is in his
own groups, he manages to explore widely
while establishing a firm sense of rhythm.
Drummer Barry Altschul — an underap- and various other styles into what Noordhuis Further along, there’s nothing heavy
preciated master — alternately swings and describes as “almost about “Big Footprint,” a subtle, under-
provides textural accents, depending on the like a suite to a film stated piece that positions Noordhuis’
direction his bandmates take. that doesn’t exist.” gentle lines atop Keezer’s cascading piano.
Rivers died in 2011. It’s hard to think of a bet- The pictures are Likewise, “Waltz for Winter” is a gorgeous,
ter tribute than this. —John Frederick Moore often vivid. “Water stirring track that features trumpet and
Crossing,” the fresh violin laid over a lush piano bed and
Nadje Noordhuis and upbeat opener, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Obed
Nadje Noordhuis moves across the Calvaire’s steady undercurrent. Although
(Little Mystery) sonic landscape like a steady stream clocking in at 7:11, the substantive and
The self-titled debut album from Aussie-born propelled by Geoffrey Keezer’s consistent structurally diverse piece never grows
trumpeter Nadje Noordhuis (pronounced piano line and the interplay of Noordhuis’ repetitive or tiresome. The gentle closer,
Nadia Nord-house) is a lush and melodic set trumpet and Sara Caswell’s violin. “Le “Open Road,” is nothing more than trum-
that positions a versatile young musician Hameau Omi,” the following track, evokes pet and piano — a duet that turns dark at
in the midst of a half-dozen high-caliber the European countryside, thanks to the times, yet one that ultimately ends the set
players. The result is an ambitious, satisfying Spanish-sounding mix of trumpet, violin on an optimistic and hopeful note.
recording that weaves jazz, Latin, classical and Rupert Boyd’s classical guitar. Despite occasional overzealous moments

jazziz january 2013 47

MUSIC REAL
FOR
EOM-CD-5165
THE RIPPINGTONS
BUILT TO LAST
One of the best-loved, and best-
selling, contemporary jazz groups
ever is celebrating its Silver Anniversary
with its biggest, most ambitious
album. Maestro Russ Freeman
takes listeners on an epic journey -
orchestrated and widescreen, high-
energy and progressive. Absolutely
not to be missed!
EOM-CD-2392
THE BAD PLUS
MADE POSSIBLE
Reid Anderson, Ethan Iverson and
David King return with a new album.
Tightly performed, infused with energy,
irreverence and the sound of surprise.
Music to capture and hold the
attentions and passions of aware
listeners everywhere.
from Calvaire and percussionist James
Shipp, the album is well-crafted overall
and a fine opening statement from a young
trumpeter who is clearly one to watch in the
years ahead. —John C. Bruening
Rob Mazurek Pulsar Quartet
Stellar Pulsations
(Delmark)
Chicago-based cornet player and compulsive
band-former Rob
Mazurek’s latest
group makes its
debut with this con-
cise outing — seven
tracks, 47 minutes
— his ninth release
for Delmark (count-
ing albums by Starlicker, the Exploding Star
Orchestra, and the Chicago Underground
Duo, Trio and Orchestra.) Here he’s working
with a couple of longtime collaborators,
electric bassist Matthew Lux and drum-
mer John Herndon, with whom he’s played
previously in ESO and Isotope 217. That leaves
pianist Angelica Sanchez as the group’s wild
card, and she was an excellent choice to
complete the quartet. Her solos have a McCoy
Tyner-esque blend of lightness and majesty
that allows her to float above the thundering
rhythm section. As an accompanist, though,
she musters force as needed.
The album’s opening track, “Primitive
Jupiter,” is driven by chords laid down like
bricks in a wall, and, except for Mazurek’s
murmuring horn, the overall feeling is
reminiscent of mid-’60s Blue Note hard
bop. Other tracks are even more aggres-
sive. “Spiritual Mars” features a drum solo
that sounds like Herndon dropping his kit
while attempting to carry it down a flight
of stairs. The drummer’s work is decidedly
rock-influenced throughout the album; he
swings about as much as Led Zeppelin’s
John Bonham did, which is to say plenty if
you’re listening to hard rock but hardly at
all if you’re listening to jazz.
Despite its title, Stellar Pulsations is easily
one of Mazurek’s most conventional albums.
Even when the solos break somewhat free,
they do so in a manner familiar from hun-
dreds of other records. Those who’ve come
to expect the unexpected from Mazurek
projects like Mandarin Movie, Exploding Star
Orchestra and São Paulo Underground may
find this album slightly pedestrian. But in
a way, hearing a dedicated experimentalist
crank out a string of enjoyably accessible
tunes is a surprise, too. —Phil Freeman
Michael Formanek Quartet
Small Places
(ECM)
For so long, jazz has been defined by
freedom within
boundaries, the
restraints manifest-
ing in song forms
and chord struc-
tures. The “free
jazz” movement
was a concerted
effort to break these bonds and, since
that time, some composers have done an
excellent job of melding both genres.
One of the most successful is bassist
Michael Formanek, whose sketchy frame-
works of ominous sonorities and lightheart-
ed allusions coax a tangible freedom from
his working quartet of alto saxophonist Tim
Berne, pianist Craig Taborn and drummer
Gerald Cleaver. Small Places is their second
CD, a starkly urban rendering that connects
with the listener first on an emotional level,
and then challenges one to appreciate the
complexity of their ensemble play.
The 18-minute manifesto “Parting Ways”
is a case in point. The song opens with
Taborn’s sensitive piano introducing an
angular melody that barely conveys the
ambiguous harmonies yet to come. Bass and
drums enter softly while Berne’s classically-
tinged alto crescendos on a repetitive,
four-note melody. Following Taborn’s
lengthy, whimsical piano solo, Formanek’s
bass introduces a second, jauntier melody
leading to a duet improvisation between
drums and bass. The organized vamp that
follows seems written but likely developed
from the players’ imaginations.
Such is the beauty of Formanek’s
music. Each piece relies greatly on the tal-
ents of the individual musicians to create
a seamless whole through listening and
improvisation. The abrupt but appropri-
ate ending to “Parting Ways” shows that
everything was not set in stone here. To
achieve such spontaneity with cohesion
is a testament to this group’s extraordi-
nary musicianship. —James Rozzi
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