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Ralph Bowen is the special guest on this podcast of the Jazz Session with Jason Crane….

thejazzsession.com

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The Jazz Session #242: Ralph Bowen [37:10] Hide PlayerPlay in PopupDownload

 

 

Saxophonist Ralph Bowen returns with Power Play (Posi-Tone, 2011), his third CD in as many years. In this interview, Bowen talks about why he enjoys writing his own music; the importance of his bandmates in creating the right studio environment; and the lessons he learned from his time with Horace Silver. Learn more at ralphbowen.com.

 

Tracks used in this episode: K.D.’s Blues; Drumheller Valley; My One And Only Love; Two-Line Pass; The Good Sheppard; Bella Firenze.

 

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Here’s a new All About Jazz feature article about Posi-Tone Records!!!

www.allaboutjazz.com

When Posi-Tone Records founder Marc Free was growing up, he looked forward to each new record purchase, cherishing the cover artwork, devouring the liner notes and most of all, feasting on the music. He came to love the music and albums issued by iconic labels such as Blue Note and Impulse!, knowing that even if he hadn’t heard of the artist, it was likely to be a quality recording by a great musician.

And when Free launched Posi-Tone in 1994, he made those remembrances his business plan.

“I hadn’t intended it; it wasn’t my dream,” says Free of the company’s founding. “It was kind of an outgrowth of other things.”

Technically, he started his record-producing career when he built a studio in his mother’s house, ala Rudy Van Gelder, the Blue Note engineering master whose work set the standard for sound and quality in the 1950s. Free had even hoped to make a documentary on Van Gelder at one point, conducting interviews and gathering research, but the project ultimately fell apart.

“He didn’t think a documentary was the right way to tell the story and he never gave me the permission to do it,” says Free.

A jazz guitarist, Free used his studio space to record friends and other musicians whose music he enjoyed. A chance to record multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers performing at Los Angeles’ Jazz Bakery in 2002 led to a decision to turn the underground label into a “real business.”

“We try to make records we want to listen to,” he says.

At a time many labels struggle to find a niche, Posi-Tone has emerged with a solid lineup of well-crafted recordings, packaged in distinctive cardboard sleeves. Rather than focus on a particular genre of music, Posi-Tone’s stable of artists are picked by Free and partner/engineer Nick O’Toole.

“What we decided to do was go out to New York three or four times per year to scout for talent,” Free says. “That’s where the musicians who are more serious about making a career in jazz are.”

When a potential Posi-Tone artist is found, Free says the label will record them in a New York studio, such as Acoustic Recording Brooklyn or System 2 studios, also in Brooklyn. The masters are then taken to Los Angeles for post-production work.

This method has connected the label to a diverse collection of musicians, including saxophonist Sarah Manning, trombonist Alan Ferber and trumpeter Jim Rotondi. Free notes he doesn’t sign artists to long-term deals, and allows them to retain all of the publishing rights to their music.

“I can’t tell you how many people in the recording business told me I was crazy,” he says. “[One record company executive] said, ‘your roster of artists and publishing rights is what you build your business on.’ And I said, ‘No, my label’s reputation is what I’m building my business on.'”

Which, Free says, strikes at the biggest hurdle facing new artists and new labels in today’s marketplace: reissues. A quick look at the upcoming releases page on AAJ shows a deluge of reissued jazz recordings every month, with new CDs which repackage and reissue works by everyone from bandleader Artie Shaw to saxophonist Zoot Sims. This means a young artist doesn’t only have to compete with other musicians of today, but those from the last 80 years as well.

“I have a hard time competing with John Coltrane when he’s got 60 years of marketing behind him,” Free says.

The problem, as Free sees it, is the copyright act of 1978, which extended the time before the rights to musical compositions pass into public domain from 28 to 75 years. This meant the recording companies who owned the rights to music and recordings made in the 1950s and 1960s can continue to produce and sell the music for years. Hence the belief that building the back catalogue is the key to a label’s survival.

“All of us are struggling with these issues all the time,” says Free.

Another issue confronting labels concerns digital distribution: Free is sticking to emphasizing direct sales of physical CDs because he says the economics just don’t work with downloads. He says the average online customer won’t download a full CD, reducing the revenue to the label (and artist) to a fraction of what CDs net. Consequently, he says he would need to sell to 14 online customers to realize what he can earn for one CD sale.

“The music isn’t in any danger, but the record labels making recordings may well be,” Free says. He’s marketing the company’s releases through Amazon, the label’s website and with distributors outside the United States. “We’re seeing tremendous response to our efforts.”

Summing his philosophy up, Free says: “The answer is to make more and better records.

“We’re good for jazz, we’re good for business and we make good records.”

Selected Posi-Tone releases

Doug Webb
Midnight
2010

 

 

 

Hooking up with bassist Stanley Clarke and keyboard player Larry Goldings for a set of sweetly swinging chestnuts has saxophonist Webb playing in fine form. Although a session veteran, this is Webb’s first release as a headliner and it gives him a chance to stand out. Webb plays with smooth tone and uses the full range of his tenor, which works well on ballads such as “I’ll Be Around” and “Fly Me to the Moon.”

Webb builds his solos skillfully and is matched by the quality of Clarke’s and Goldings’ turns. Clarke offers a deep acoustic bass sound throughout, getting some amazingly legato notes that fill the quartet’s sound.

Sarah Manning
Dandelion Clock
2010

The demure face looking up from the cover of Dandelion Clock contrasts Manning’s often aggressive, experimental style, as she plays over a collection of original tunes and two covers, Michel Legrand‘s “The Windmills of Your Mind” and “The Peacocks” by Jimmy Rowles.

Her compositions offer enough harmonic room for Manning to craft exploring solos, often using long runs that seem to end in question marks. Never one to settle for an easy note choice when there’s a more interesting one available, her solos soar in such post-bop ballads as “Marbles” and “Habersham Street.”

Orrin Evans
Faith in Action
2010

Evans has been growing into a major figure in jazz piano, thanks to releases as strong as his 2010 release in tribute to saxophonist Bobby Watson. Combining his own compositions and five by Watson, Evans plays smoothly through oblique runs and blues turns on solos, and lets his accompanists—which include bassist Luques Curtis and drummers Nasheet Waits, Rocky Bryant and Gene Jackson—provide a solid base for his work.

Watson’s “Appointment in Milano” features a pounding bottom underneath Evans’ swift runs, which alternate between sweet scales and modal triplets. The delightful “Beattitudes,” another Watson gem, combines an airy intro with a gentle melody. Musicians know it takes more to keep a ballad moving than a burning up-tempo number, and Evans shows his real chops on this one.

Brandon Wright
Boiling Point
2010

Saxophonist Wright is clearly a student of the 1960s, and these eight tunes—including five original compositions—show he learned well. This is a disc fans of swinging, smoky jazz will favor. Wright never overplays and fits in pianist David Kikoski‘s playing marvelously. Case in point, the interplay on Jimmy Van Heusen’s “Here’s That Rainy Day.” With Kikoski comping sweetly, Wright gets just enough blues to keep his solo emotional without going saccharine. On the other side of the coin, the interplay between Wright, Kikoski and trumpeter Alex Sipiagin at the crescendo near the end of the samba-based “Castaway” is a real treat. All are playing hard but not over each other.

Jim Rotondi
1000 Rainbows
2010

Rotondi’s smooth chops and smart tune selection make this a delicious outing. Playing alongside a capable four-piece band, including Joe Locke on vibes, Danny Grissett on piano, bassist Barak Mori and Bill Stewart on drums, Rotondi shines on his compositions “Bizzaro World,” “One for Felix” and “Not Like This,” a beautiful ballad duet with Locke.

 

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Get up close & personal with Mike DiRubbo in this interview on AAJ…

www.allaboutjazz.com

Born on July 25, 1970 in New Haven, Connecticut, Mike DiRubbo began his musical life as a junior high school clarinetist, and switched to alto saxophone at 12. A primarily self-taught saxophonist, he developed into a talented instrumentalist drawn inexorably to the notion of improvising. At a high school band concert, Mike had the opportunity to perform with the Dwike Mitchell —Willie Ruff duo, an experience that would add to his desire to be a professional musician and also spark his interest in jazz music.

In the fall of 1988 DiRubbo entered the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz of the Hartt School, University of Hartford, where he studied the tradition and history of African-American music and earned a Bachelor of Music degree. Mike’s instructors included master saxophonist Jackie McLean, pianists Hotep Galeta and Peter Woodard, bassists Nat Reeves and Rick Rozie and classical saxophonist Ken Radnofsky.

DiRubbo has gone on to perform regularly as both a leader and a sideman in and around New York City and abroad in Europe and the Middle East. He can be seen regularly at clubs in NYC with his various groups at venues such as Smalls, Smoke, 55 Bar, the Kitano. Festivals he has performed at include the Litchfield Jazz Festival, the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, the Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz, the JVC Jazz Festival in NYC and the Jazz, Blues and Videotape festival in Tel Aviv, Ferrara Jazz in Italy, Ancona Jazz Festival, Jazz In’IT, etc. Some of the musicians he has performed and recorded with are: Cecil Payne, Eddie Henderson, Harold Mabern, Larry Willis, Ronnie Matthews, John Hicks, Steve Davis, Tony Reedus, Mike LeDonne , Dwayne Burno, David Hazeltine, Steve Nelson, Mario Pavone, Carl Allen, Michael Weiss, Peter Washington, Nat Reeves, Ugonna Okegwo, Jim Rotondi, Brian Charette, Joe Farnsworth, Eric Alexander, Anthony Wonsey , Brian Lynch, Peter Bernstein, Paul Bollenback, Ari Hoenig, Joe Magnarelli, John Swana, Ralph Bowen, Essiet Essiet, Rudy Royston, Matt Wilson, and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown .

Mike has six CDs as a leader: From the Inside Out (Sharp Nine Records 1999); Keep Steppin’ (Criss Cross Jazz 2001); Human Spirit (Criss Cross Jazz 2003); New York Accent (Cellar Live 2007); Repercussion (Posi-Tone Records 2009) and his latest, Chronos (Posi-Tone Records 2011). He has also been featured on seven of trombonist Steve Davis’ recordings: The Jaunt; Crossfire; Vibe Up! ; Systems Blue; Outlook; Live at Smalls and Images. Mike can also be heard as a sideman on the Fresh Sounds, Criss Cross, Double Time Jazz, Steeplechase and Knitting Factory labels. DiRubbo has been featured in articles, reviews, and interviews in magazines and online periodicals such as All About Jazz, Saxophone Journal, Hothouse, Jazz Times, Downbeat, Jazz Journal, Cadence, Swing Journal, Jazz Folio, JazzWise, and All Music Guide.

Continuing the circle of knowledge, DiRubbo has been a resident artist at the Litchfield Jazz Camp since it’s inauguration in 1996. Most recently he has been a guest instructor at SUNY Purchase in NY, at William Patterson University’s jazz program, at New York University, at the Jackie McLean Institute and is a saxophone tutor at the New School in NYC. He has also conducted master-classes at Baldwin Wallace University in Ohio, Loyola University in New Orleans, and at the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford.

Instrument(s):
Alto and soprano saxophones.

I knew I wanted to be a musician when…
I fell in love with the sound of the saxophone.

Your sound and approach to music:
I’m mostly hearing a sound that is closer to a tenor saxophone. I’m trying to keep an open mind and play with musicians on a high level as much as possible.

Your teaching approach:
I think the fundamentals are very important. Sound and time concept are things that are hard to reverse if not learned properly from the beginning. I try to get the student to use their ear more if they come from a reading or theoretical background or the reverse if they only use their ear.

Your dream band:
Probably John Coltrane’s classic rhythm section of Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner and Jimmy Garrison, or Miles Davis’ rhythm section of Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams…or maybe Billy Higgins, Bob Cranshaw, and McCoy or Cedar Walton…etc, etc…

I would like to some day collaborate with Brian Blade. We share the exact same birthday, which I always thought was interesting. He almost made my first CD back in 1994, but he was super busy with Joshua Redman back then.

Favorite venue:
I really dug the sound in Sweet Basil, which then became Sweet Rhythm.

Your favorite recording in your discography and why?
I have tunes from each record that I like for different reasons. I always like the way “Introspection” turned out on Keep Steppin’. I’ll pick the most recent, Chronos, as far as my playing goes.

The first Jazz album I bought was:
New Wine In Old Bottle, by Jackie McLean with the Great Jazz Trio.

What do you think is the most important thing you are contributing musically?
I hope my music lifts people’s spirits and helps them deal with their hardships or celebrate their happiness. Music affects me this way so I try to reciprocate in my music. I always strive for authenticity and sincerity in my music.

Did you know…
At the age of 40 I still love playing video games of all kinds!

If I weren’t a jazz musician, I would be a:
A boxer (I like to scrap), a psychiatrist, or maybe an actor (I love movies…”you talkin to me?”).

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Orrin Evans with Bobby Watson on the Checkout…

www.npr.org

Orrin Evans And Bobby Watson: Faith In Action

Bobby Watson (left) and Orrin Evans performed live on The Checkout on WBGO.

EnlargeJosh JacksonBobby Watson (left) and Orrin Evans performed live on The Checkout on WBGO.

HEAR MORE SONGS FROM THIS SESSION

“Lover”

[4 min 42 sec]

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January 7, 2011

In many ways, Orrin Evans is emblematic of the jazz hustle. He’s always in action — with peers on the bandstand, club managers on the phone and his fans online. Evans workshops a big-band project in his native Philadelphia, and lately he’s released two recordings a year, not including his numerous sideman dates. This is the requisite effort of a jazz musician with kids.

“There are two people that I looked at musically and as role models for fathers and husbands,” Evans says. “[Recently deceased Philly bassist] Charles Fambrough and Bobby Watson.”

Last year, the pianist released Faith in Action, an unofficial tribute to Watson, the veteran saxophonist who hired Evans for his Urban Renewal band in 1995. Watson, 57, was a member of drummer Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, the perpetual hothouse for young musicians willing to earn their merit badge on the road. He is now the Distinguished Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Evans recalls when Watson hung up his spurs.

“Bobby called me and told me he was moving back to Kansas to teach,” Evans says. “I was like, ‘Bobby’s going to teach? He’s been on the road for almost 30 years. You can’t take him and lock him up!’ He’s doing a great thing over there, and touching so many lives.”

In May 2010, Watson made a rare return to the New York jazz scene, and he did it to perform with Orrin Evans. Naturally, WBGO invited them to our performance studio. In this studio session forThe Checkout, they played a single duet, Watson’s “Beatitudes,” and three songs with bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Vince Ector. “Faith in Action,” one of many memorable Bobby Watson compositions, is itself a tribute to Watson’s own mentor.

“Art Blakey personified faith in action,” Watson says. “They say faith without works is dead, but Art was like, ‘Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead.’ ”

 

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A great interview with Sarah Manning

by David A. Orthmann

Listening to Sarah Manning speak at length is nearly as absorbing as her music. She’s intelligent, direct, witty, and serious-minded. As Manning waxes eloquent on topics ranging from the impact of three special mentors, to the benefits of being a well-rounded person, to issues surrounding woman’s empowerment, you realize that she relishes every aspect of her life. The alto saxophonist and composer is the leader of the New York City-based band Shatter the Glass. Both on and off the bandstand, she’s a role model for young women who aspire to play jazz and lead their own groups. Dandelion Clock (2010), the excellent new release on Posi-Tone records which includes her Shatter the Glass cohorts, is sure to expose Manning’s music to a wider audience.

[Sarah Manning—Copyright © Renee Allen]

All About Jazz: Jackie McLean, Rufus Reid and Dr.Yusef Lateef were three of your teachers during your high school and college years. Tell us something about their influence in your development.

Sarah Manning: I grew up in Torrington, CT. Jackie McLean had a school called the Artists Collective. He and Dolly McLean, I believe, were the founders of the school. I think that in growing up in Connecticut, his sound was sort of in the air. I certainly knew who he was and listened to his playing. Jackie was always a little sharp in his tone. I’m one of those people who loved that sound. He definitely encouraged me. I only met him a couple of times in the Artists Collective. One of them was when I debuted an arrangement of a Sonny Clark tune that I transcribed off of one of Jackie’s records. I arranged the tenor and the trumpet a half step apart on either side of the alto melody. So I added four bars to that particular arrangement, which was extremely dissonant. He happened to be sitting in the front row and covered his ears. But he actually sort of liked it. That was kind of neat. It definitely encouraged me to have a legend right in front of me when I debuted the arrangement.

I studied with Rufus Reid at William Paterson. He coached the big bands. I would occasionally go in and talk with him. He’s such a great person—just a really warm person, very supportive and encouraging. It was after I left the school that I had a dream in which he gave me a bicycle and told me to travel to places where there were musicians who, frankly, could kick my butt. At that time I was living in Northampton, MA. That dream had a big effect on me. I moved to the Bay Area shortly after that.

He was the person who got me in contact with Akira Tana, who played on my first two records. They had a group called TanaReid for about ten years. When I went out to California, I emailed Rufus and I told him what I was doing. He told me a couple of people to look up, and one of them was Akira. I played with Akira for several years. Whenever he was available, I always worked with him. He’s a funny guy, too. I think the California lifestyle suits him. He likes to play golf and carries around a golf tee in his pocket. He’s got his golf shirt and his golf cap. When the gig’s over and it’s a nice day, I think he’s heading for the green.

Yusef Lateef had a monumental influence on me, philosophically. William Paterson is a very straight-ahead school. When I went there, I played one of my original tunes on a jury. One of the people who came from a very strong tradition was kind of questioning why I played an original. You don’t want to be playing an original, you want to play the tradition of the music.

I transferred to Smith College from William Paterson. I spent two years at William Paterson, then I got my degree in Women’s Studies from Smith. Yusef Lateef had a Monday morning master class at Hampshire College. I went to his office hours and played him a recording of a couple of things of mine, including a version of “Body and Soul.” He kind of said, “Look, this isn’t really relevant. This is music of 40 or 50 years ago.” He really put the emphasis on finding your own voice, even if it means having a small audience. It took a while for his words to sink in. I had been very concerned with sounding like a bebop player before I could get to my own sound and my own voice. I think he kind of pushed it aside and said that you always need to be searching for that. He had an enormous influence. I studied composition with him privately as well, when I was at University of Massachusetts, where I did a couple of years of graduate school.

AAJ: Were there others in or outside of the field of music who spurred your creativity?

SM: I always like to think that I allow myself to be influenced by many different things. I deliberately did not just study music. At Smith, there were a whole lot of other things I could study. I was interested in Asian Literature. A certain style of Japanese poems has influenced some of my compositions. So I try to take a holistic approach to music, in general. I think that if you can be a well- rounded, beautiful person, then your music will follow.

AAJ: That’s a unique approach. A lot of young musicians are pretty much all music, all of the time. Perhaps that’s a tad too narrow.

SM: When I was at William Paterson, I spent much of my time in the music building. It had no windows. It was basically concrete walls.

AAJ: Shea, the music building, has a bit of a maximum security feel, doesn’t it?

SM: It does. Whether it’s true or not, there’s a legend floating around that the designer/architect of the building committed suicide. It’s kind of a labyrinth.

When I was a kid I ordered the T-Shirt from Down Beat that had a picture of Charlie Parker and said, “If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.” I think I took the view that it’s true. So if you spend all of your time in a windowless, concrete practice room, your music can become too self- referential.

AAJ: As you mentioned earlier, you left the Jazz Studies Program at William Paterson to pursue a degree in Women’s Studies at Smith College, while continuing to grow as a musician. Can you talk about the challenges inherent in being immersed in two distinct disciplines?

SM: I had to be very self-directed, and I still am now. One of the things I do in addition to being a musician is I’m also a Real Estate Agent for Cooper & Cooper Real Estate. That’s my choice of day job. Many musicians have day jobs in music. I find that this is something I love to do and it helps me have that freshness of perspective on my music. You have to remind yourself how much you love both aspects of your life: the creative side and the non-creative side. Self- direction has never been a real problem for me. In fact, it’s usually been people who tell me, “You’ve got to stop working,” or, in high school, “Maybe you’re practicing too much.”

You might say that a discipline like Women’s Studies is totally unrelated to jazz, but I have always tried to tie in everything that I’m doing to my music. I would say in that sense, jazz tends to be a little bit of an old-fashioned, male dominated profession. Having the perspective of being in Women’s Studies and studying women’s works, gender politics, and the ways in which women gained agency in society, really helps me as a musician work my way through a business that’s set up where you don’t see as many women.

AAJ: The world of jazz performance is as male-dominated as any other field of endeavor. Have you ever experienced and can you describe any forms of sexism and discrimination you’ve encountered playing music and trying to find work in the music business?

SM: Sure. I have been told by a promoter that my photo wasn’t interesting enough. They wouldn’t listen to my music. I was also told that “We like to support diversity but our audience isn’t ready.”

AAJ: That’s ludicrous.

SM: What it comes down to, and I think it’s changing with this generation of players, is that jazz is a business based on social networking. It’s not a business like any corporation where there are policies in place. Most work comes from word of mouth. People tend to hire and work with people who fit best into their social circles. And so I think that’s where jazz kind of lags behind the times, because it’s the way we find work. I think what’s changing is that younger players are more used to working with women, and don’t think anything of it. I think that’s one thing. The other aspect of it is that, as far as promoters are concerned, they don’t necessarily know what to do with women. They’re coming from a sort of old-fashioned perspective. So you often see the solution right now is to have Women In Jazz Festivals, Women In Jazz Days. It’s an effort on their part to be inclusive of women, but I think we’re not really there yet until we don’t need that.

AAJ: So, at least in terms of the younger generation, the artists are really ahead of the business infrastructure.

SM: I think so, because there is a really big disconnect generally in jazz between the promoters and the artists themselves. That’s changing with technology because the more artists have technology on their side, they can promote their own music through things like Facebook, CDBaby, to get in touch with their fan base directly. I really don’t have a problem with the people that I’m able to reach, who listen to my music. They’re not coming at me and saying they don’t want to listen to me because I’m a woman. It’s more in terms of overall marketability. It’s the structures that have been in place for years that are coming from the institutionalization of jazz, not so much the listeners or the younger generation of players. And that’s not to say that some of the masters of jazz of an older generation haven’t been supportive—I would absolutely not be where I am (wherever that is!) without having receptive and encouraging mentors.

AAJ: At what point in your career did you decide to start Shatter the Glass?

SM: I started in 2007, when I was still living on the West Coast. I was slowly getting things going towards moving to New York. I chose the band in New York, and then I moved here. I think it was addressing the issue of the elephant in the room, which is that people know there aren’t too many women in jazz. How do you feel about that? What do you have to say about it? And also to address the issue by keeping the focus on performance. It’s been interesting that a lot of times people assume that my group is all female—and it’s very distinctly not. I think that can promote the marginalization of women. The guys in my band, we’re working together because we like how we sound together. It has nothing to do with gender.

AAJ: Did you have a fully formed idea of what you wanted to do with the group, or have the concepts and goals evolved along the way?

SM: I think that I’ve been determined to have the same band, the same members, and to write for them and their strengths, as opposed to just picking up bands. That’s one thing I see a lot of in jazz that is unfortunate. Again, it’s just the structure of it—the way that leaders work as opposed to sidemen. It’s less conducive to having the same group. I think that the music suffers. I just got through playing on the West Coast, where there were certain things I couldn’t write if I didn’t have the rehearsal time. It couldn’t be sight-read on stage. I can’t bring in the charts. And the times I would do that, something might fall apart. It was limiting me as a composer.

Now I feel that my band really challenges me, and they’re opening my ears to different directions. For example, [pianist] Art Hirahara has an incredible left hand. He has the most contrapuntal left hand of any jazz pianist I’ve heard on the scene today. This counterpoint that he’s doing is almost like a classical sound. That’s definitely influenced how I’ve written for the band, because I know he has that capability.

AAJ: What motivated you to become a role model for young women who want to play jazz and lead groups?

SM: I didn’t have a lot of those role models, coming up. It was significant to me when I met the first other female jazz player who became my friend—she’s a flautist by the name of Sukari Reid-Glenn—somebody who had the same interests that I did. Since they were few and far between when I was growing up, it was really important for me to be able to talk over my experiences with them. I want to provide that for other women coming up and also to lead by example. By promoting my own group and getting out there and getting heard and being a visible presence, that’s going to encourage young women, and it will encourage people as a whole to listen to women players and pay more attention to us.

AAJ: Does the politics of women’s empowerment ever get in the way of the music, or vice versa?

SM: That’s a good question. I would say that I do my best to not let that happen. I’m basically trying to lead by example more than anything else. As part of our mentoring, we’ve invited women to open rehearsals. For instance, I played a show at the Jazz Gallery where I had people submit an inquiry to come to the show as a special guest and come backstage—another female instrumentalist—and get to know the band, be a part of the hang. But it’s not something I talk about while on stage. When I’m on stage, it’s just about the music.

AAJ: In putting together Shatter the Glass, was it difficult to find musicians who share both your musical and political visions?

SM: No, I don’t think so. I actually got very lucky with who I ended up choosing, right away. I’m sure there are people who wouldn’t be supportive of the name of the band. Generally speaking, the meaning is a double-entendre. It could also mean music that’s edgy and can shatter glass. So it’s got a double meaning. We’re not a political organization. We’re just out there to challenge people’s perceptions by what we play.

AAJ: Tell me something about the kinds of responses you get from Shatter the Glass’ live performances.

SM: They’re really no different than if the band was performing under my own name. We try to perform in different ways. For instance, we did a residency in Northampton, MA at an art gallery on the main street. It had floor-to-ceiling glass windows. We performed in the window and left the door open. People were walking by on the street. We were in a fishbowl scenario. We try to interact a little more with the audience when we can in that way. During the concerts, there was a point in which there were about 20 or so people on the sidewalk looking in, while the rest of the audience was looking out at them and at us. So we’re trying to break the barrier between the audience and the music in ways that are a little less conventional.

AAJ: Congratulations on the release of Dandelion Clock. It’s impressive how well everything works on the record. Your compositions are interesting and melodically rich. You’ve developed into a soloist with a genuine voice. There’s a feeling of mutual support in the band. And everyone on the record gets a chance to shine. Please elaborate on the origin and evolution of the project.

SM: Actually, this project is extremely cathartic for me. I hadn’t recorded in about three years. And in that time, I moved to New York City on April 1st of last year. It was a major life change for me in many ways. I arrived in the city with little more than some books and my horn. So it was a major transition. I really felt like I had arrived at a place where what I was going for with the music was almost implicit in lives of my peers. I feel like I stepped into a community in a way I never felt before. The life change was very positive but also painful. The compositions are coming from a place where I was able to translate what I was going through in my life into music.

One of the compositions is called “Crossing, Waiting.” That one is modeled after the sound of a train’s signal gate. I had Kyle [Struve] use one of his cymbals that has a concert A overtone. And then I wrote the tune based on knowing that. It’s got some tritone elements as well.

The train crossing is very symbolic for me in my life experience, and it has a literature reference as well to a book by Madeline L’Engle. She’s written some books for children and a number of books for adults. In one pivotal scene from the book, And Both Were Young, the protagonist is a young artist and boarding school student. She has broken the rules to visit someone outside of campus boundaries, and just when she is about to cross the train tracks and back onto campus and safety, she’s spotted by school officials. Because it is dusk she can’t be sure they recognized her since many of the girls look alike in their uniforms. At that moment a train passed by, giving her the choice to run off and hope they didn’t identify her, or wait for the train to pass, cross the tracks, and face the consequences, which could include being expelled. She chose to wait for the train to pass and then cross the tracks. So that’s kind of the metaphor I was using for this particular tune.

AAJ: Art Hirahara, Linda Oh, and Kyle Struve are your cohorts in Shatter the Glass and they play on the new record as well. Tell me something about their individual contributions to the music on Dandelion Clock.

SM: I tried to write features for each person. The tune “The Owls (Are On The March)” ended up being a real feature for Art. Again, it’s because of his almost classical-sounding contrapuntal playing. There are some passages that are almost fugue-like, where he and I and the bass are playing, where the time kind of breaks down. He’s also using the piano strings on that piece.

Linda is featured on “Crossing, Waiting,” both in keeping up the pulse of the tune, and also the bridge is a little bit of a nod to Mingus’ “Fables of Faubus.” Basically, it’s a division of three. She’s playing triplets over the four-four time.

One of the things Kyle’s done as part of his musical resume, is playing with a rock band called Heavy Rescue. He has the indie rock sound as part of his drumming. So the arrangement of “The Windmills Of Your Mind” is sort of a homage to Radiohead’s “Exit Music (For a Film),” when the drums come in at the very end with a really rock-and-roll back beat.

AAJ: Were the compositions written specifically for the record date?

SM: “The Owls (Are On The March)” was written when I was in transition from the West Coast to New York City. I spent about a year-and-a-half in Massachusetts, in between. So that was written ahead of time. As the band grew tighter, the tune evolved a little more. “Marble” was written specifically for the date. The arrangements of “The Peacocks” and “The Windmills Of Your Mind” were done especially for the date. “Phoenix Song” and “Habersham Street” I had recorded previously, but not with this ensemble. “I Tell Time By The Dandelion Clock” and “Crossing, Waiting” were written with the album in mind.

AAJ: It’s striking how well “The Peacocks” and “The Windmills Of Your Mind” mesh with your original compositions. What made you decide to choose these two tunes for the record?

SM: Marc Free was the producer of the record. He asked me to include two tunes that were not originals. I chose those particular tunes mainly because of their melodies. For years I have been haunted by “The Peacocks.” The Wayne Shorter version, actually. When Marc asked me to choose a couple of tunes, that one immediately came to mind. As far as “The Windmills Of Your Mind” is concerned, I’m sort of obsessed with that tune. It’s cyclical in nature. One of the things that I really get into as a composer is sort of hypnotic manifestations of time. And that particular tune is a 14-bar phrase. It seems like it could go on forever. That’s what really attracted me to it.

AAJ: Is there anything else you would like to say?

SM: Actually, there’s one thing I would like to add. There’s one tune on the album that is completely improvised.

AAJ: “Through The Keyhole”?

SM: Yes. That’s also something I’ll credit to Marc. I didn’t know, going into the studio, that we were going to do that. It turned out to be something I’m very proud of. It’s like somebody turned the lights off and turned the tape off, and we got a chance to play without knowing we were being recorded. Everything I’d internalized over the past six months finally came to the surface. I was struck by how much I love playing with who I’m playing with, and how they really listen. I think it really comes out in that particular piece.

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Dan Bilawsky’s poignant review of the new Dan Pratt Organ Quartet CD “Toe the Line” taken from AAJ.com ….

Dan Pratt Toe The Line Album CoverToe The Line
Dan Pratt | Posi-Tone Records (2010)

By Dan Bilawsky

Toe The Line does far more than its name implies. Saxophonist Dan Pratt has put together a record that, while loyal to the “small organ group” tradition, also manages to cover broad stylistic ground. Within this category, certain norms or standards seem to be expected in the music: Jimmy Smith’s records provide a grooving and intense blues-based sound; Larry Young’s albums have an adventurous streak; and modernists like Sam Yahel often create otherworldly aural collages. Organist Jared Gold takes from all of these ideals and creates his own sound, owing to everybody and nobody all at once, throughout this program.

Pratt penned eight of the album’s nine tracks, and the urgently energetic tunes seem to stand out. “Houdini” moves back and forth between a funky feel in seven and a straightforward swing section in four, with Pratt and trombonist Alan Ferber acting as a powerful tag team combination. The catchy, rhythmically-charged melodic motif on “Doppelgänger” sharply contrasts with Gold’s mellow organ work here and the enthusiastically choppy funk of “Uncle Underpants” is a musical delight.

Drummer Mark Ferber proves to be a tremendous asset to the band, as he helps to establish different feels for each song. His freely executed solo introduction on “Stoic”—set-up with some ominous cymbal and tom statements—helps to set the mood. Ferber also drives the band, whether simply swinging or trading solos, on “Minor Procedure.” The drummer even backs a Pratt solo—as the lone accompanist—on the title track, which includes some spectacularly sinister organ work from Gold.

Both horn players also excel on the more sensitive material. The opening of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s “Star Crossed Lovers” features some gorgeous saxophone work from Pratt, with a gently rising and falling trombone line behind him. Both Pratt and Alan Ferber, backed by Gold’s subdued and churchy organ work, also deliver the goods on the slow and soulful “After,” which ends the album in a mellow and satisfying way.

Track listing: Houdini; Minor Procedure; Wanderlust; Doppelgänger; Star Crossed Lovers; Toe The Line; Stoic; Uncle Underpants; After.

Personnel: Dan Pratt: saxophone; Alan Ferber: trombone; Jared Gold: organ; Mark Ferber: drums.

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The Beyond Race Magazine Interview with Sean Nowell…

www.beyondrace.com

Sean Nowell

BRM has done it again. We’ve hunted down, captured and documented the most innovative and exciting artists to recently emerge on a number of different scenes. All month long we’ll be running interviews with our discoveries to help get you ready for what’s to come in 2010. But to get a complete look at our full list of emerging artists, check out our current winter issue.

Sean_Nowell_03_-_Kyle_TimlinEqually soulful and badass, Sean Nowell was studying to become a Baptist music minister while hitting up the downtown Birmingham, AL dive clubs that his mom warned him about. After leaving the minister track, the tenor saxophonist/composer acted as “unofficial artistic ambassador” for the Bond Street Theatre. The traveling musical theater group allowed him to bring the skills he learned from the cats in Alabama to places like Kosovo, Macedonia and Bulgaria. Nowell’s second album, The Seeker (which dropped this past June), plus the range of his current projects—an electric, beat-boxified funk group known as THE KUNG-FU MASTERS, right down to the Yutaka Uchida Quartet—reveal his truly unique brand of composition and improvisation.

BRM: You came to New York City from Birmingham, Alabama. What was the music scene like growing up?

Sean Nowell: The music scene in Birmingham is heavily influenced by New Orleans— the Meters, stuff like that. That sort of sound: southern rock, southern funk. I grew up playing with the old cats in dive clubs in downtown Birmingham that my Mom did not want me go to, but I did anyway. It was great. I learned how to swing with the old cats, and I got vibed by some of the other old cats, and then came back and whipped some ass.

Why did you decide to go to Berklee College of Music?

Well, I was attending a small, Southern Baptist college for a couple of years, studying on a track to become a Southern Baptist music minister. I was really into that, that’s what I grew up doing—I grew up singing in church all the time and touring around with different choirs. Basically I was going to church at least three times a week, doing my thing. Finally…one day I had an epiphany that I really needed to learn how to play jazz saxophone. Like for real. I had played jazz, kind of, since I was a freshman in high school…playing saxophone really got me the most excited, but I loved doing the church music thing, too. Shortly thereafter I met this piano player named Victor Atkins. Victor Atkins is from Selma, Alabama, about 8 or 9 years older than me. And I saw him play piano and he sounded just like Jamie Kirkland, McCoy Tyner and Marcus Roberts— all those guys I really connected with on piano. I like that sound, and I saw him playing like that, and I just couldn’t believe it… I didn’t know that you could do that. I thought that was just for other people to be able to hear, you know?

He’s kind of like the same guy…coming from the same environment I was, and showing me you could actually do that. So I asked him how he learned to do what he was doing and he said he went to the Berklee College of Music. So the next day I made an audition tape, just like that. Got a partial scholarship to go there, and just went. Didn’t visit, didn’t ask any questions, I didn’t want to know.

How did you end up in New York?

The way I got to New York was, the next thing that [Atkins] did, in his life, was he went to Manhattan School of Music and got a master’s degree. So that was exactly what I did. After Berklee, where I got a degree in jazz composition…I got my master’s [and] I went back down south for about 6-8 months, touring with a Dead and Phish cover band, which was awesome, doing frat parties all around the southeast. Then [I] moved to New York. Here we are…That’s pretty much it.

How’s everything been going with your new album (The Seeker), since it came out in June?

Going great, getting tons of reviews. I got a great review today as a matter of fact. The critics seem to really like it, so I guess we did have a pretty good day that day.

It was recorded in one day?

Yeah, about a ten hour day of just straight recording. It’s nothing but a snapshot of what we happened to be feeling that day. It’s a great record, I really am happy with it, but it’s just a moment in time.

A lot of jazz records are the same way though, no?

Yeah. I have friends that make R&B records that take ’em like a year. It’s insane. I’m like, “No kidding, wow. We did this all in…daytime.” You know what I mean? It wasn’t even 24 hours.

Can you talk a bit about the instrumentation on the album? I’m pretty sure I heard a cello in there…

Well basically, the coolest thing about being a NYC jazz musician is that it’s like the ultimate music salad bar. There’s everything in the world you could ever want to try. And then eventually you make your way around to try it. So I…for example, I play with a hammer dulcimer player, we play traditional African music, and also original music based on African and Indian music. So it’s a hammered dulcimer player, a six electric bass player from Japan, and this pandero drumset player. It’s freakin’ nuts. So there’s that’s project, then there’s all kinds of other projects, including the way that I met this cello player. I was playing a jam session in my neighborhood, and this cello player just happens to walk in. And everybody’s like, “Hey, what’s this guy doing here?” And he rips out his cello and just starts throwing down. It’s really cool because you don’t normally expect to have a cellist totally throwing down at a jam session. It was pretty hardcore. Turns out he lives across the street from me, which is pretty cool. Also turns out he’s the cello player from Evanescence. He’s a pretty big cat in the world classical/pop crossover thing going on now, buddies with Josh Groban and all those dudes.

What’s it like being married to actress Kirsten Wyatt, another artist?

It’s all I ever wanted in my life, for all my friends to be super cool, super creative musicians…or actors, you know, or people. And those are the people that I like to be around the most, and those are the people that I often am around the most. My wife’s been in…this will be her 6th Broadway musical that she’s been in, she’s in Shrek the Musical. She was in Grease before that. She really gets it. I mean, her dad is a tenor sax player and her mom is a percussionist, and they are both band directors in West Virginia. She knows what it is. It’s pretty great, I get a lot of support.

It was kind of a done deal when we first met. From the downbeat, from the moment, I’ve always liked hanging out with actors. They’re generally a lot more interesting and a lot more fun than jazz musicians. A lot of jazz musicians, they’re pretty neurotic about their playing, worried about getting better, about other people being better than them, just minute, minute details—the music or the scene, that there’s not enough scene, or not enough gigs…getting paid a lot but it’s not inspiring, not getting paid but it’s super inspiring…you get the idea with jazz cats. But actors are generally about just having a really good time. It’s a pretty self-sufficient hang when you hang with actors. They’re pretty chatty, so instead of having to carry a conversation a lot, which I do with musicians, I just get hang back and be like, “Yeah, what she said.” It’s kind of fun. A lot of energy, a lot of social energy, and I really enjoy it quite a lot.

How did you choose the cover songs on the album? What’s figuring out that balance like?

Well, for one, the label wanted me to do a couple of covers. So there’s that. [Posi-Tone Records are] really cool, super supportive. They’ve been around a while, but they’re starting to come into power. Honestly, I feel really fortunate to be on their team, kind of like the ground force of something that’s really gonna be big in the jazz world. They’re great guys, and I stand behind them. That’s a rare thing, because when you’re working with record labels, people have a certain run of their record and that’s it.

A couple of these covers have a really deep personal meaning for me. “I Will” [originally by The Beatles] is the song that my wife walked down the aisle to. It’s a beautiful song, and “I Will” is imprinted on the inside of my ring, so, you know, there’s a deeper meaning to that. One of our favorite tracks to listen to is by this trumpet player, Dave Douglass and it’s a cover of “Poses,” by Rufus Wainwright. It’s really great music to wake up in the morning to. Starts out really quiet and mellow, and then builds until you’re awake. Then there’s another cover that’s a traditional Bulgarian tune, “Oy Matze Matze.” I spent a lot of time in Eastern Europe with this crazy avant-garde theatre company, called Bond Street Theatre.

Is that when you were in Kosovo?

Yeah, exactly. Same trip, where this tune comes from. We played this wordless version of Romeo and Juliet with a Bulgarian theatre company and toured it all over Kosovo and Macedonia and Bosnia. It was insane.

How’d you get involved with Bond Street?

My first summer in NY, actually, right before I moved to NY, between Alabama and moving here, I visited Europe for the first time. I went with my buddy, and we wandered around and visited a bunch of friends out there, because most of my friends from Berklee were European. So I really wanted to get back there real bad. And I answered this ad at the job board at Manhattan School of Music that wanted a saxophonist, pianist, clarinetist, composer, actor, comedian, acrobat, stilt walker, the list goes on. So I like, was crazy yes…but I kept reading and it said: “…for two month salary tour of Europe.” So I didn’t care what it was, I just went down there and met with these people…and I still work with them, after 13 years now. We toured all over the world together. We toured South America a couple times, Asia a couple of times, Western Europe, Eastern Europe a whole bunch of times. It’s crazy. We’ve done amazingly and fantastically fun and exciting things that I never thought I’d be involved with. And also some really scary and dangerous things where I literally thought I was going to die.

Was this during the war?

No, right after though. We were in Bogota, Colombia for a couple weeks one time and every night there’d be a themed, giant Cumbia dance party. Cumbia is kind of like African rhythms and Egyptian scale kind of stuff. Which is great, it’s a great sound, lots of giant drums being played. A lot of instruments, a lot of horns and we were part of the international theater festival… so every night there’d be a huge dance party with live music in this atrium of this theatre in this historic section of Bogota, under the stars with a zillion Capoeira dance company, you know, acrobatic, kung-fu dancing. And they were pouring aguadiente all over everybody, like the fire water version of South America. So big giant dance party and we went snorkeling off the coast of Venezuela one time, with all these national parks, we went to an iguana reserve, which was crazy and beautiful. I got to go to the Great Wall and walk all over the Great Wall in China because I was on tour with this theater company. I’ve gotten to meet fantastic and interesting people all over the world just because I happened to be in town.

On the flip side, one time [I got] punched in the mouth by a Bulgarian mobster because I was playing during quiet hours in the afternoon that I didn’t know about. I was playing out in the woods, by the Black Sea, about 60 yards away from the hotel we were staying at. And all of a sudden I turn around and big crazy dude is on top of me, just punching me right in the mouth and tries to steal my $4000 soprano saxophone. And I got told later that it was quiet hours. The mob is the law in Bulgaria. So I couldn’t really eat or play for about a week and a half. It was a mess.

Then we toured in Kosovo, where we’d be driving in a van powered by auto-gas. Auto-gas is essentially compressed gas fumes in a tank inside the van. So if you get in a wreck or something, the van immediately blows up. It makes the van like a giant hydrogen bomb. I was in the van, and we traveling through wilds of Kosovo: cliff roads with no guard rail, with a few thousand foot drop on the right, mountains on the left and it’s like, a lane and a half. Freaking giant trucks coming directly at you the other way and you have to swerve around each other, and I just about lost my cookies. I had to sedate myself. Oh, and then we’d get to whatever town we were playing, and sometimes they wouldn’t have electricity, and you’d hear missiles exploding in the distance. So that was exciting. Also I almost got kidnapped a bunch of times, if it wasn’t for the German military giving us an escort. They were like, “Yeah, you guys didn’t see it, but there were bandits and rebels lining the road—if you guys had tried to make this journey on your own, you’d be prisoners.” And the only reason we had military escorts was because we played a party for the German military police.

That worked out nicely…

It definitely worked out. You know, I’ve had some really fun experiences, really fun, and some really, really, really dangerous ones that I’m not interested in having anymore. So I’m happy that I’m more settled now, and getting more momentum on the NYC jazz scene.

Yeah, I was going to ask if you see yourself doing another tour like that any time soon, or if you’re content sticking around the city for the foreseeable future.

My wife is not allowing me to go back to those wild type of tours, which is fully understandable. I can totally see it. The only really wild stuff I’m planning on doing, maybe next year, is applying for the Rhythm Road Jazz Ambassadors tour—which I was going to do this year, but then I decided to do this record stuff, which is cool. But basically it’s a U.S. Government/U.N. Embassy tour, where…they send you to different regions of the world and it’s basically to spread the word of American jazz. So that’s the only thing I have planned on that end.

It sounds a little more structured.

Oh, yeah—more structured, a little higher pay, more security…Oh, when we were in Colombia that one time we had bodyguards, actually. And we had one really big dude with, like, a 9mm gun, and a little, small girl with one of those front backpacks with an Uzi in it. So that was fun. But we’ve done a lot of other tours that were more low key, and really beautiful—South of France, without those security issues. The others just make for better stories.

So the beatboxer in your group, The Kung-Fu Masters, is a new addition?

I was doing a gig, back with a bunch of modern dancers that he was involved with. And he’s this Russian guy. But he’s great, his name’s Alex but he goes by KRUSSIA. He’s great, a big time up and coming rapper that raps in Russian. Great beatboxer.

I view modern jazz these days as a sponge, absorbing all the good stuff that’s going on around it. Being in NY, seeing African music one night, indie rock the next night, incredible classical the next night. I have to live here, I have to. I can’t say I’m going to move to X city, where I can be a big fish in a small pond; I have to make my stand here. That’s it. I’m trying to make my mark, and the city’ll make its mark on me. For better or worse, I’m here no matter what. It’s liberating in a way, to know that I don’t have any other option but to stand and fight. I’ll make it happen, that’s it.

Words by Erica Block

Photo by Kyle Timlin