by Scott Yanow
Ever since he made his recording debut with his father the great guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli in 1980, and especially since his first album as a leader in 1983 (I’m Hip – Please Don’t Tell My Father), guitarist-singer John Pizzarelli has been one of the top swing stylists around. While he does not limit himself to swing (a recent album found him creating solo guitar versions of Pat Metheny tunes), it can certainly be said that few jazz artists around today swing harder than Pizzarelli.
At Catalina Bar & Grill, Pizzarelli was joined by the regular members of his trio: the outstanding pianist Isaiah J. Thompson and bassist Michael Karn. While they featured a fair number of songs from their CD Stage & Screen, the trio also performed other superior selections. Their opener, “I Just Found Out About Love,” reminded one of the group’s debt to the Nat King Cole Trio and displayed the first of many charming Pizzarelli vocals. The guitarist, who was quite witty in his announcements and storytelling, took a warm vocal on “I’m In The Mood For Love.” The trio was at its hottest in a very uptempo rendition of “I Want To Be Happy” (during which Michael Karn somehow managed to sound relaxed) and a medium-slow version of “Tea For Two.” On those two numbers, Thompson was quite brilliant, throwing in runs that were worthy of Art Tatum, coming up with an endless flow of creative ideas, and constantly challenging the guitarist. Their tradeoffs and interplay over a long closing vamp on “I Want To Be Happy” was quite stirring and, on “Tea For Two,” Thompson’s lightning-fast runs over the slow tempo were dazzling yet also tasteful. I wish he had been featured on a solo piano piece too. As for Michael Karn, his solos were always melodic and inventive.
Other selections during the night included “I Love Betsy,” “Straighten Up And Fly Right,” “It’s Only A Paper Moon,” Dave Frishberg’s “Another Song About Paris,” “Waters Of March,” a ballad medley, “As Time Goes By” (starting with the little-known verse), and “Time After Time.” Pizzarelli took Pat Metheny’s “Last Train Home” and “Swingin’ On A Star” as unaccompanied solos. One of the night’s highpoints was the trio’s performance of “Oklahoma Suite,” a wonderful arrangement that included seven songs from the famous play.
John Pizzarelli has continued to grow as a soloist, singer and entertainer through the years. While he can still scat at blazing tempos in unison with his guitar, he has downplayed that skill in favor of taking warm vocals, creating memorable statements on the guitar, featuring his talented sidemen, and performing fresh and lively renditions of classic songs.
It is easy to take Tamir Hendelman for granted. The pianist is regularly heard in many settings in Southern California including accompanying top-notch singers and in all-star groups. His arrangements have uplifted the music of a countless number of artists, and he can always be relied upon to take superb solos.
At a house concert (the PQ Sessions) hosted by David Anderson, Tamir Hendelman was showcased in the ideal setting as a solo pianist. He began with a free improvisation that sounded like a logical classical-type original and then displayed effortless virtuosity on such numbers as “Alone Together,” “By Myself,” “Hank’s Blues” (a tribute to Hank Jones), “Summer Song,” “If You Could See Me Now,” “Good Bait,” a Gigi Gryce medley of “Social Call” and “Minority,” “This Happy Madness” and “I Love You Madly.”
Hendelman’s mastery of dynamics, the extra details that he adds to each song, and the logic behind his improvising made each performance almost sound as if it were composed in advance. In other words, he makes the near-impossible sound way too easy!
The Sun Rose, an attractive venue on Sunset Blvd, recently hosted trumpeter-singer Bria Skonberg. Ms. Skonberg’s roots are in New Orleans jazz and swing but she sometimes stretches herself into more modern idioms. At the Sun Rose, she led a versatile quintet that also included Nate Ketner on tenor, soprano and bass clarinet, pianist Chris Pattishall, bassist Grayson Brockamp, and drummer Darrian Douglas.
Bria Skonberg primarily played songs from her new CD What It Means, a tribute to New Orleans. In addition to taking pleasing and swinging vocals (including on “Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans” and an extended “Mood Indigo”) and some hot open solos, Brian Skonberg was particularly adept when growling and creating tonal distortions on her trumpet by using a plunger mute. The plunger was utilized quite effectively on Sidney Bechet’s “Petite Fleur” (which had Ketner on bass clarinet) and “Comes Love.” Other highlights included her scat singing on “Sweet Pea,” an uptempo rendition of Louis Armstrong’s “Cornet Chop Suey,” a medley of Neal Hefti’s “Líl Darlin’” and her “Beautiful Boy,” an atmospheric version of Satie’s “Gymnopedie,” the hard boppish original “In The House,” an unusual arrangement of “The Beat Goes On” (which was turned into a boogalooish blues with hints of Lee Morgan’s “The Sidewinder’), and a menacing dirge that I think was called “I Want You But I Can’t Have You” which closed the evening in dramatic fashion.
Bria Skonberg and her band’s superior performances were filled with what the great jazz critic Whitney Balliett called “the sound of surprise.” It certainly kept listeners guessing as to what might come up next.
The newest limited-edition box set from the consistently superb Mosaic label is the seven-CD Classic Bobby Hutcherson Blue Note Sessions 1963-1970.
One of the greatest jazz vibraphonists of all time and the top vibist (along with Gary Burton) to emerge during the 1960s, Hutcherson (1941-2016) could be considered (if one simplifies things) a natural extension on Milt Jackson. He came out of the hard bop tradition, became involved in avant-garde explorations (where his vibraphone often took the place of a piano), explored post-bop music that includes aspects of funk and fusion, and ended his career back in hard bop.
Hutcherson first recorded during 1960-61 with tenor-saxophonist Curtis Amy and pianist Les McCann. He gained recognition working with the Al Grey/Billy Mitchell Sextet, and during 1963-64 was part of such adventurous albums as Jackie McLean’s One Step Beyond and Destination Out, Eric Dolphy’s Iron Man and Out To Lunch, Grant Green’s Idle Moments, Grachan Moncur III’s. Evolution, and Andrew Hill’s Judgment. Hutcherson would be a busy artist for Blue Note throughout the 1963-77 period, both as a sideman and the leader of 21 albums of his own.
The Mosaic box includes 11 of the first 12 Hutcherson albums, only skipping 1969’s Now which mostly features four singers. Oddly enough, the vibraphonist is not heard on the opening “If Ever I Would Leave You” until past the three minute mark, giving tenor-saxophonist Joe Henderson the opportunity to stretch out. He is also generous with solo space on many of the other sessions as is only right considering the often-remarkable lineups, but Hutcherson certainly makes his presence felt throughout with many very original vibraphone solos.
Included in the box is all of the music from the albums The Kicker, Dialogue, Components, Happenings, Stick-Up, Oblique, Patterns, Total Eclipse, Spiral, Medina, and San Francisco plus eight previously unreleased performances, seven of which are alternate takes. With the exception of the opener and two pieces by Ornette Coleman, all of the compositions were written by musicians from the sessions. The music is mostly hard bop-oriented except for the avant-garde explorations of Dialogue which have the reeds of Sam Rivers and pianist Andrew Hill in the sextet. Among the other musicians on the first seven Hutcherson albums are Joe Henderson on tenor, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, altoist-flutist James Spaulding, pianists Duke Pearson, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner (on Stick-Up, arguably the most rewarding of the albums), and Stanley Cowell, bassists Bob Cranshaw, Richard Davis, Ron Carter, Herbie Lewis, Albert Stinson and Reggie Workman, and drummers Joe Chambers, Al Harewood, and Billy Higgins. Chambers, an underrated composer, contributed quite a few of the originals.
The final four albums feature the group that Hutcherson co-led with tenor-saxophonist Harold Land. Chick Corea is on Total Eclipse (and contributes “Matrix”) with Cowell and Joe Sample being the other pianists. Reggie Johnson or John Williams is on bass and Chambers or Mickey Roker on drums. The unit performed rugged and unpredictable music that crossed many musical boundaries and, although it probably never prospered, the group lasted for nearly a decade. Land had evolved quite a bit since the 1950s and his playing is as forward-looking as that of the vibraphonist.
Any listeners with the slightest interest in Bobby Hutcherson are advised to pick up this essential Lp-sized box set (available from www.mosaicrecords.com) while it is still in-print.
Paul Quinichette (1916-83) had a sound and style so similar to Lester Young’s at times that he was dubbed “the Vice Pres” as opposed to Lester Young often being called Pres. While acknowledging Young’s influence, Quinichette claimed that he developed his sound largely independent of Young. Unlike the other musicians of the time who had what was called the “Four Brothers” sound (including Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Allan Eager, and Brew Moore) and were most inspired by Young of the 1930s and early ‘40s, Quinichette emulated Young’s playing of the 1950s. But despite not being all that original in his tone, Quinichette recorded a series of rewarding sessions during that decade.
The two-CD Fresh Sound set The Vice Pres contains all ten of Quinichette’s dates as a leader from the 1951-54 period, complete except for skipping nine of his 11 alternate takes. Since he was part of Count Basie’s big band during part of 1951-53 (where his tone was a major contrast to that of the other tenor, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis), some of Basie’ sidemen including Count himself are on some of the earlier sessions.
Quinichette is joined by such all-stars as organists Bill Doggett and Marlowe Morris, Count Basie and Jimmy Golden (who double on piano and organ), pianists Kenny Drew, Bobby Tucker, Jimmy Jones, and Sir Charles Thompson, guitarists Jerome Darr, Skeeter Best, Barry Galbraith, and Freddie Green, bassists Jimmy Lewis, Walter Page, Al McKibbon, Gene Ramey, Jimmy Richardson, Milt Hinton, Paul Chambers, and Al Hall, drummers Gus Johnson, Les Erskine, Jo Jones, and Harold Wing, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Joe Newman, trombonists Dickie Wells and Henry Coker, altoists Marshall Royal and Ernie Wilkins, baritonist Charlie Fowlkes, flutists Sam Most and Herbie Mann, and percussionists Tommy Lopez, Willie Rodriguez and Manny Oquendo. While the organ playing of Doggett, Morris and even Basie is a bit overwhelming and dated in spots (this was the pre-Jimmy Smith era), Quinichette is in excellent form throughout. There is a fair amount of variety with two dates having extra horns, one adding the percussionists, and two sessions teaming the tenor with a flutist.
Paul Quinichette, who later in the decade would hold his own on a few dates in which he was teamed with John Coltrane, displays his own musical personality in spots and shows throughout that he deserves to be remembered as more than just a clone of Lester Young. The Vice Pres, which is available from www.freshsoundrecords.com, is easily recommended.
Dan Ouellette has long been a top-notch jazz journalist. Perhaps best known for his association with Downbeat (where he has written articles and conducted Blindfold Tests in front of festival audiences), he has written for many magazines through the years. Because quite a few of those publications are no longer around and the articles have not been digitized, he refers to those writings as the “Landfill Chronicles,” meaning that the magazines that printed his pieces are now mostly found on landfills.
His book, which is subtitled “Unearthing Legends Of Modern Music,” has 27 chapters, each one focusing on an artist or, with the exception of Saxophone Summit, a group. He has mostly restored his articles to their full-length (before editors cut them back to fill limited magazine space) and some chapters include a few complementary pieces on the same artist. Dating from 1988 to the near-present, a few of the articles are a little dated when they sometimes focus around the release of an album, but all serve as valuable time capsules.
Ouellette is an excellent interviewer who often befriends his subjects which allows the artists to feel comfortable and freely discuss many topics. His musical tastes are wide so some of these musicians are outside of jazz, but each one has interesting tales to tell. The jazz greats profiled are John Abercrombie, Carla Bley, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Regina Carter (talking about her adventures with Paganini’s violin), Ornette Coleman (a review rather than an interview), Charlie Haden, Freddie Hubbard (a Blindfold test), Bobby Hutcherson, Abdullah Ibrahim, Keith Jarrett, Elvin Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Jason Moran, Saxophone Summit, Wayne Shorter, Jimmy Smith, Esperanza Spalding, Henry Threadgill, and McCoy Tyner. In the “beyond” category are Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Elvis Costello, John Lee Hooker, Joni Mitchell, Astor Piazzolla, Lou Reed, and Frank Zappa (his final interview which is quite intriguing).
Books such as The Landfill Chronicles (available from cymbalpress.com) are very valuable because they capture artists talking frankly about their lives at a particular point in their careers. Easy to read and filled with fresh stories, this is a book well worth acquiring.
UPCOMING:
It is coming up pretty soon. This year’s Monterey Jazz Festival will be taking place at the Monterey Fairgrounds during Sept. 27-29. Five stages operate simultaneously throughout the weekend and the music will be going on pretty much nonstop for 30 hours: 3-11 p.m. on Friday, Noon-11 p.m. during Saturday and 11:30-10:30 on Sunday.
This is the first year with Darin Atwater as Monterey’s artistic director. He has put together a diverse lineup of mostly young artists with a few exceptions. While most are jazz-oriented, a few funk and r&b bands are also included. Some of the highpoints will be supplied by the SF Jazz Collective, Joshua Redman, Hiromi, Stanley Clarke (leading N*4ever), the Mimi Fox Organ Trio, Stephane Wrembel (a swing group with Jean-Michel Pilc), Ulysses Owens Jr.’s Generation Y, the New Orleans Groove Masters (featuring Herlin Riley, Jason Marsalis, and Shannon Powell), Tarbaby with Orrin Evans, Pedrito Martinez, the Tim Green Quartet, David Binney with the Action Trio, the Miguel Zenon-Luis Perdomo Duo, three groups led by Jason Moran (Ellington 125, BlankFor.ms and Bandwagon), Samara Joy, Ben Williams, Christie Dashiell, Julia Keefe’s Indigenous Jazz Ensemble, Yuko Mabuchi, James Brandon Lewis’ Red Lily Quintet, the Jahari Stample trio, Joel Ross, Endea Owens & The Cookout, Harriet Tubman, Marquis Hill, Brandee Younger, Gerald Clayton, Ana Popvic & Fantastafunk Big Bank, the Leon Joyce Jr. Quartet, the Sara Jones Trio, Carolyn Sills, G. Thomas Allen, Cory Henry, Keyon Harrold, Sean Mason (a great swing pianist), the Huntertones, Christian Pepin & Orquesta Bembe, Shayna Steele, Jamison Ross, Sunny Jain’s Wild Wild East, Don Was’ Pan-Detroit Ensemble, and Kyle Eastwood with Eastwood Symphonic. Whew! I plan to be there for the 35th time since 1987. Be sure to contact www.montereyjazzfestival.org as soon as possible to get tickets.
Every jazz musician needs a well-written press biography, every CD (and even downloads) deserves informative liner notes, and important events benefit from press releases. I write all of these and more at reasonable rates. Please contact me at 661-678-3542 or at scottyanowjazz@yahoo.com for further information about my services. My latest book, Jazz Through The Eyes Of A Jazz Journalist (My Jazz Memoirs) is available at www.amazon.com
I have a new book that is available from amazon.com. Life Through The Eyes Of A Jazz Journalist. It is subtitled My Jazz Memoirs and is my 12th book and first in a few years. I discuss in an often-humorous fashion my early days and discovery of jazz, my period as the jazz editor of Record Review, the story behind my involvement with the All Music Guide, and I reminisce about some of my adventures as an amateur musician. Included are vintage interviews with Freddie Hubbard, Chick Corea, and Maynard Ferguson, encounters with Clint Eastwood, summaries of the Monterey and Playboy Jazz Festivals (including a full-length review of the 1985 Playboy Festival), memories of other events (such as the IAJE Conventions), and brief snapshots of many memorable club and concert performances. There is also background information about my other books, evaluations of the jazz critics who inspired me early on, and my thoughts on jazz criticism which includes advice to up-and-coming jazz journalists. Rounding out the book is a chapter on how the jazz writing business has changed over the past 50 years, and appendixes that include the jazz greats of the past, 86 jazz giants of today, 21 young performers to look for in the future, jazz books and DVDs that everyone should own, and a dozen enjoyable Hollywood jazz films.
Life Through The Eyes Of A Jazz Journalist, a paperback book, sells for $26 through Amazon.com Signed copies (which will take 2-3 weeks) are also available for $30 (which includes free postage) by sending the money via Pay Pal to scottyanowjazz@yahoo.com and by sending your mailing address to that E-mail.