MOG - uvawitz's Posts

marvelling at rudresh mahanthappa

uvawitz — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 00:07:12 GMT

Rudresh Mahanthappa (pronounced rude-resh ma-han-thuh-puh) is a skilled technician of the alto saxophone but he also plays as if there is no tomorrow - with immense passion and sturm-und-drang (sp?). It's kind of like a mixture of late Coltrane with Sam Rivers, Frank Wright, Kadri Gopalnath (an Indian carnatic saxophone legend with whom he has collaborated) and bits of M-Base mentality/theory (read: Steve Coleman).

An interesting note. I inadvertently alluded to all saxophonic influences above, which begs the question: What other instruments and/or compositional approaches have influenced Rudresh's sound as a soloist.

His playing can also be extremely funky and "soulful" as he alludes to various harmonic devices employed by predecessors Joe Henderson and even Hank Mobley (very minor influences) as well as comtemporaries Kenny Garrett, whom he has clearly checked out - like any reasonable altoist playing jazz today would. Unlike Garrett, who is "thoroughly entrenched in a middle-period Coltrane modal vocabulary," (according to my acquaintance, the Pittsburgh-based oboe player/free improviser Lenny Young), Rudy (as those close to the saxophonist call him) is strikingly original.

He started out at the University of North Texas (a jazz program known for its big bands that foster development of flawless technique, speed and amazing (sight)reading skills - and very little individuality in terms of expression as far as I know). He ended up at Berklee exploring the fringes of jazz.

Today, as many informed observers of the creative music scene (where advanced composition combined with relatively "free" improvisation are equally important) would agree, Rudy is one of the most important voices on this scene.

Part of that is because of his close affiliation with pianist Vijay Iyer, a musician slowly but surely building a name and reputation not unlike trumpeter Dave Douglas built in the early 1990s in a variety of group settings without the support of major labels (which in Douglas' case came a bit later and quickly exited the picture and ended up in his groundbreaking Greenleaf Music label/collective).

Mahanthappa and Iyer are both Indian-Americans which connects them on a very important level, but their connection as cultural brothers is almost a coincidence in that they share a similar exploratory aesthetic in their music that has a lot to do with time signatures and form of compositions.

But what has made Mahanthappa a success today as a mid-30s improvising musician who doesn't take wedding gigs or play as a sideman in straight-ahead groups, I think, is his endless quest to find grants to support what he wants to be doing musically. He can take care of his technique and his path as an original voice as long as he has the financial backing to do so without having to play gigs most nights to stay afloat.

Supporting oneself through grants is certainly not a new idea but an important one that young students of music should take to heart. Rudy has very clearly used his cultural antecedents and his fascination with language and numerology to tie in with his musical explorations. In the process, he has convinced sponsoring organizations that his artistic vision is worthy of their support. I think this is his most admirable trait, because he has done it in a way that doesn't seem too contrived.

Most recently, Rudresh is the recipient of a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship which will allow him to travel to India a number of times to research a project and make some new music out of it. Godspeed Rudy!

I don't exactly know how much further I can go with this post except to say that this all hit me when seeing Rudresh perform his Chamber Music America-sponsored Codebook project last Friday as part of Ars Nova Workshop's recent progressive programming.

I encouraged him and Vijay to start a blog where all sorts of artists from their creative pool could come and post ideas, thoughts, whims, or stories and create a community through the web.

Let's see if they do it. Vijay has some strong feelings on the whole blogosphere. For more on that check out Still Life with Commentator by Vijay Iyer + Mike Ladd on Savoy Records.

Giant Steps - Matt Garrison (bass)

uvawitz — Mon, 21 May 2007 07:36:31 GMT

Ummm. Wow.

post Dewey Redman wrap-up

uvawitz — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 10:15:09 GMT

Pianist Frank Kimbrough playing at Dewey Redman's Memorial Service Sunday Jan. 7, 2007

- I attended Dewey Redman's Memorial three Sundays ago - my first visit to St. Peter's Church in Manhattan (aka the jazz church) - I know I blogged about it in advance of the show on my MOG and Last.fm pages but I don't believe I mentioned it here. Charlie Haden, Pat Metheny, Geri Allen and Jack DeJohnette gave the most touching performances of the evening. Violinist Leroy Jenkins played a bouncing pentatonic blues, Joe Lovano with his wife Judi Silvano (who was surprisingly good) did a operatic ballad that was amazing and the vociferous/jocular emcee Matt Wilson (who played with Dewey from 1994 on) played in a trio with Cameron Brown and Frank Kimbrough at one point. And I learned a lot about Dewey from the legions of folks who got up to speak about him and a short excerpt of a film about him. Ethan Iverson and Reid Anderson played a tune with Wilson and Dewey's son (Joshua Redman) played too - one short solo piece and then again on the last number with Haden, Metheny and Roy Haynes on the Ornette Coleman blues "Turnaround," which happens to be on the recent Sound Grammar.

Dewey Redman Memorial TONIGHT @ 7:30 PM at St. Peter's Church

uvawitz — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 23:45:15 GMT

I am sitting here in the Starbucks just below E 54th & Lexington getting ready to go into St. Peter's Church to attend the belated memorial service for Dewey Redman, a semi-famous saxophonist who died this past September of liver failure.

He struggled all his life as a musician. And though he was far outshone in the later years by his wunderkind son, Joshua (who just walked in and out of the Starbucks I'm sitting in), it sort of raised his profile at the same time. However, he was a very gruff and avant-garde player who would probably be hard for a lot of MOGGERS and regular music lovers to appreciate.

I will do a post-concert wrap-up with more of an explanation and who played. The preliminary lineup is:

Cameron Brown Charles Eubanks Pat Metheny Charlie Haden Frank Kimbrough Geri Allen Jack DeJohnette Joe Lovano Reid Anderson John Betsch John Menegon Joshua Redman Judy Silvano Leroy Jenkins Mark Helias Matt Wilson Teri Roiger Ethan Iverson Pheeroan AkLaff Sheila Jordan excerpts from 'Dewey Time,' a film by Daniel Berman

I will tell you how it was and who played what with who.

Favorite Recordings of 2006

uvawitz — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 12:27:00 GMT

My Top 10 Jazz Albums of 2006 (in order)

1. Chris Potter - Underground (Universal France/Sunnyside)
 2. Edward Simon - Unicity (CamJazz/Sunnyside)
 3. Bennie Maupin - Penumbra (Cryptogramaphone)
 4. Kenny Garrett - Beyond the Wall (Nonesuch)
 5. Charles Lloyd - Sangam (ECM)
 6. World Saxophone Quartet - Political Blues (Justin Time)
 7. Andrew Hill - Timelines (Blue Note)
 8. Avishai Cohen - Continuo (RazDaz/Sunnyside)
 9. Branford Marsalis - Braggtown (Marsalis Music)
10. Keith Jarrett - The Carnegie Hall Concert (ECM)

Honorable Mention (not in order)

Donny McCaslin - Soar (Sunnyside)
Kenny Werner - Democracy (Half Note)
Walter Smith III - Introducing Walter Smith III (Fresh Sound New Talent)
Roberta Gambarini - Easy to Love (Groovin’ High/Kindred Rhythm)
Stefon Harris - African Tarantella (Blue Note)
Dizzy Gillespie Alumni Big Band - Dizzy’s Business (MCG Jazz/Telarc)
Yosvany Terry - Metamorphosis (ewe/Kindred Rhythm)
Craig McIver - Reflections Passing (Dreambox Media)
Brian Lynch/Eddie Palmieri Project - Simpatico (ArtistShare)
Bill Frisell/Ron Carter/Paul Motian - s/t (Nonesuch)

Reissues

Lee Morgan - The Gigolo (Blue Note)
Hank Mobley - Dippin’ (Blue Note)
Charles Mingus - At UCLA 1965 (Sue Mingus Music/Sunnyside)

Box Sets

Sonny Stitt - Stitt’s Bits: The Legendary Bebop Recordings 1949-1952 (Fantasy/Concord)
Weather Report - Forecast: Tomorrow (Columbia Legacy)

new Charles Mingus release on Sue Mingus Music

uvawitz — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 06:53:11 GMT

The title of this new amazing disc for short is "LIVE AT UCLA 1965." It features music that Mingus had written for a truncated performance at Monterey Jazz Festival and played the music in it’s entirety only once at this UCLA concert in 1965 rather than at Monterey where he had intended to premiere it.

The legendary Mingus stage presence is in full force here as he guides his Jazz Workshop through the new material with a demanding, mercurial, sometimes vociferous approach until the tunes positively glisten with brilliance. Mingus initially self-released only 200 copies of the LP and it was reissued in a very limited (~2000 copies), numbered LP edition in 1984 but this is the first CD issue of this very rare and historical document.

Buy it! It's really good - and political and funny.

new to me, old to you

uvawitz — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 22:25:36 GMT

I was recently listening to my "Charles Lloyd Radio" on Pandora and it played all stuff that I was digging on heavily - Kenny Garrett's album Pursuance, Lloyd's Hyperion for Higgins, Joshua Redman's Spirit of the Moment: Live at the Village Vanguard.

Then it played the title track from Lloyd's 1966 masterpiece, Forest Flower which was recorded live at the Monterey Jazz Festival with Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette, and Cecil McBee. Apparently it was one of the first jazz records to sell a million copies (that was before the days when platinum was common parlance). And its success helped Lloyd go on to tour with some of the biggest names of the psychedelic rock era such as the Grateful Dead. They were the first jazz group to play the Fillmore Theatre in San Francisco.

Now after years of collaborations with the drummer Billy Higgins (who passed away in 2001), Lloyd is collaborating with new musical partners in a trio where each player plays multiple roles. It combines the sufi vocals, percussion, and tablas of Zakir Hussain, the drums of the not-so-young-anymore Eric Harland (and piano too!), and Lloyd's mastery of all the instruments (from alto flute to tenor saxophone to piano).

Here are some videos up on YouTube that explain the birth of this new band:

Sangam Part 1:

Sangam Part 2:

new to me, old to you

uvawitz — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 22:25:35 GMT

Here are some videos up on YouTube that explain the birth of this new band:

Sangam Part 1:

Sangam Part 2:

Rob Mazurek & The Sao Paolo Underground

uvawitz — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 08:53:01 GMT

I had meant to make this post the night of the show, but I got home and forgot all about it.

I don't know if I've blogged about an Ars Nova show yet, but this past Wednesday night myself and a group of about 30 other people gathered in an unassuming black box-like theater. We sat in bleacher-like seating in dingy chairs and watched magic occur between a group of musicians that have come together as a result of one man's journey to find a new musical voice (perhaps a new life) in the Brazilian jungle.

Of course I'm speaking of the now-esteemed Chicago-born quasi-avant-straight-ahead trumpeter Rob Mazurek. His current project moves the spirit, moves the torso, taps the foot, and generally fucks you up.

Despite arriving about 10 minutes late, the set hadn't started. The band was aligned in a very specific manner: drum set up front on the far left (from the audience's vantage point). To his left was a cat playing various samples and distortion/feedback boxes. To his left and slightly forward was a seated Mazurek with an array of mutes and feedback/effects pedals at his feet. And finally to Mazurek's left was another drum set who also had an Apple iBook laptop directly next to his hi-hat so he could program beats (it was my impression). It appeared it was this 2nd drummer's job to keep the flow of the set going as his computer housed the basis of their set.

The concert was ultimately an experimental yet funky and generally moving affair. Mazurek has a strange yet refreshing tendency to hint at the avant-garde while momentarily dipping in and out of straight-ahead playing a la Freddie Hubbard. However while he's playing his trumpet, the rest of the band has the listener fully enrapt in a trance as they rock out over dub and hip-hop grrrroooves punctuated by the occasional solo cadenza by the bearded (and on this night red-shirted) Mazurek.

It was the most fun shooting the shit with the band members and Mazurek after the show. I made my best attempt to impress everybody with my musical knowledge, like the show-off I tend to be. Rob was a really chilled out dude; very casual. When I walked up to him, I introduced myself as the guy who tried to book him in Pittburgh and he remembered me. So I mentioned the Invisible Jukebox which ran in the June 2006 issue of The Wire. We talked about how he correctly identified Lee Morgan from The Last Session (Blue Note 1973) and about how a couple days earlier after the Guelph Jazz Festival the band went back to Dixon's home in Bennington, VT and Rob had asked the elder trumpeter if he had any copies of the renowned 6-CD collection of of solo works, also known as Odyssey.

Dixon answered, "We only have one copy of Odyssey here....I guess the Odyssey goes to Rob." Dixon charged Mazurek zero dollars.

Speaking of Merch, the band had sold out of all copies of its latest CD, Sauna: Um, Dois, Tres.

Anyways, I think that about sums it up....Oh, I also met a middle-aged hippie woman named Linda who asked me for info on ProTools and I ended up driving home. Random, I know.

Rob called me the next day at work hoping to hook up and see my boss' record collection, but the reception was shitty and we got cut off. Sorry Rob. Until we meet again, it was a pleasure. Your music rocks.

Also, Guilherme, you owe me a CD! Don't worry. I am going to purchase the album

SEE SPU LIVE: Go see the Sao Paolo Underground in Mazurek's native Chicago at the World Music Festival on September 20.

Sao Paulo Underground features: Mauricio Takara, drums/percussion/electronics (the guy on the right) Richard Ribeiro, drums/percussion (the guy on the left) Gulherme Granado, samplers/percuscion/voice (the dude in the middle to Rob's left) Rob Mazurek, cornet/electronics (well, its not hard to pick out Rob).

Rob Mazurek's annoyingly cubist website. If you get discouraged with the navigation, try this. Strangely, Rob Mazurek is strangely on MySpace. Go figure.

Now listening to: RJD2 - F.H.H. from Deadringer. Buy it at

Mickey Roker w/ Joanna Pascale @ Ortlieb's Jazzhaus

uvawitz — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 06:06:07 GMT

I went to Ortieb's Jazzhaus for the first time tonight with my buddy Max from CMU. We made it there in a very roundabout way but it was totally worth it. Despite a lukewarm crowd and a half-decent singer (Joanna Pascale) who failed to scat once and did not project much above the piano, it was a really heart-warming experience knowing that this place exists in a neighborhood where so much jazz history has occurred.

The pianist on this gig was very talented. Not an innovator but very tasteful nevertheless. The saxophonist had typical "white-tenor-player syndrome" - basically a cross between the sound of Pete Christlieb and the technique of Baltimorean Al Maniscalco (that's not a good thing). The local celebrity was Mickey Roker who used to play with Joe Pass, Ray Brown, Dizzy Gillespie and Milt Jackson on many Pablo and Muse dates over the years.

I am gonna take this opportunity to look through my LPs to see if I have him on anything that I didn't realize.

Setlist (what I caught and remember):

Our Delight I'm Getting Sentimental Over You I've Got You Under My Skin Day by Day Honeysuckle Rose

My pal Max looking at the musicians on stage (portraits of musicians on stage at Ortlieb's over the years line the walls - much like the Village Vanguard or Birdland).

steve coleman and five elements

uvawitz — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 07:20:30 GMT

I saw Steve Coleman and Five Elements at the MoMa for free on Sunday evening. It was a very very long world premiere of a new work. Their series this summer is dedicated to world premieres. Coleman was excellent at points but much of the piece was disinteresting. It did not hold my complete attention for the full hour and a half it took to complete. His sound was somewhat shaky but his ideas (often composed on the page were always as angular and strange as usual). You could hear why other players like Steve Lehman and Rudresh Mahanthappa play the way they do - because of the influence of Steve Coleman.

The trombonist Tim Albright, vocalist Jen Shyu, trumpeter Jonathan Findlayson, drummer Tyshawn Sorey and bassist Thomas Morgan were the backing Five Elements. This was part of the MoMa's summer series which is suprisingly funded in part by Jazz @ Lincoln Center as well as by private contributions.

The place was PACKED! We were sitting on the marble ground in front of one of the small ponds in the sculpture garden. As the concert unfolded, more and more people were leaving until we eventually got seats for the most interesting last 25 minutes which included all group members singing their parts at times, playing at others.

Jen Shyu was a real surprise - kinda like Luciana Souza and Theo Bleckmann combined - really cute too!

Amadou & Miriam: Live @ The Kimmel Center

uvawitz — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 13:15:51 GMT