Here, There & Everywhere: Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 (From the Archives)

By Don Heckman

Michael Jackson’s unfortunate, premature passing last week reminded me of the first time I’d seen him, thirty seven years ago, performing with his brothers at Madison Square Garden. At the time, I was covering rock and pop music for the New York Times, and the Jackson 5 performance was just another stop in my busy review schedule. Remembering absolutely nothing about either the program or the review, I pulled it out of my files today, curious to read what I had written. In retrospect, there’s nothing particularly unusual about what I had to say. It was no mystery that Michael and the Jackson 5 were rapidly ascending new stars. But there was one sentence in particular that startled me. It’s the sentence that begins “Watching him move across the stage….”

When I looked at it, I had to reread it several times before I could fully believe what I had written, nearly 40 years ago. I’ve never been accused of having prescient abilities, but there it was. I have no idea why I wrote “the next 40 years” other than the fact that something about the performance obviously reached out to me, and found its way through my rush to make a midnight deadline for the morning edition. But the real truth is that it undoubtedly says a lot more about the aura of Michael Jackson’s extraordinary presence — even then — than it does about my skills as a visionary. Here’s the complete review, with the sentence in bold face:

From the The New York Times (June 1972)

The Jackson 5

By Don Heckman

Like most groups whose appeal is focused toward young audiences, the Jackson 5 provide as much theatre as they do music. At Madison Square Garden Friday night, the ushers found it difficult to keep the young soul singers’ program from turning into a mixed media event for audience and performers.

Young as they are – and none is out of his teens yet, the Jackson 5 are consummately professional entertainers. They dance, joke, sing, play instrumental backing for themselves (except for a drummer) and produce some superbly voiced five part vocal harmonies.

But despite the emphasis placed upon the Jackson five as a group of talented brothers – and they are – the real standout of the show was the lead singer, and the youngest member of the group, Michael Jackson.

In a field that includes such stalwarts as James Brown, Isaac Hayes and Wilson Pickett, Michael Jackson has to be considered one of the legitimate heirs to major stardom. Watching him move about the stage with the poise of an old pro, listening to his appealing vocals on “I’ll Be There” and “Got To Be There,” one becomes vividly aware of observing a performer who could well be a dominant force in the entertainment business for the next 40 years.

At the moment, the balance is just right. Michael Jackson is a perfect lead singer; his brothers back and fill for him, and provide a few solo spots of their own. In combination, the Jackson 5 offers something more than one can usually expect from music aimed at very youthful audiences – talent, professionalism and personal magnetism.

©1972: The New York Times

Here, There & Everywhere: Playboy Jazz For the People

By Don Heckman

I don’t know exactly how many years I’ve been covering the Playboy Jazz Festival. At least twenty, probably more. And that big, two-day party in the sun at the Hollywood Bowl always has its delights – musical and otherwise. A quick montage comes to mind, jump cutting from one memorable moment to another: Jamie Cullum tearing the place apart in 2006; Thirteen year old Renee Olstead bringing an afternoon crowd to its feet with a stunning version of “At Last” in 2003; Michael Brecker’s extraordinary, five minute unaccompanied solo in 2002, Al Jarreau’s several definitive displays of jazz vocalizing; a rare appearance by J.J. Johnson in 1996; Terry Gibbs’ Dream Band in 1989; Wayne Shorter; Herbie Hancock; Dizzy Gillespie; Miriam Makeba; the great Cuban bassist “Cachao.” And I could go on, and on – a montage that would never stop.

Then there were the “otherwise” delights. The most memorable being the afternoon in 1998 when Pete Fountain was laying down New Orleans riffs before an excited capacity crowd. But it wasn’t just Pete who was causing the excitement. Many in the crowd – probably most – were either listening to portable radios or watching on portable TVs as the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz were in the last seconds of game six of the NBA finals. With five seconds left, and the Jazz leading 86-85, Michael Jordan hit a 20 foot jump shot to win the game and the finals. At the point, the Hollywood Bowl erupted with cheers, giving Pete Fountain one of the most unexpected responses of his long, stellar career.

As I said, great delights. But there were others, too – at locations away from the Hollywood Bowl, presented at the best possible price; free. In 1995, Playboy began to offer a series of Free Community Concerts – first in Pasadena, eventually at locations reaching from Watts to Beverly Hills to the San Fernando Valley. Some of the performers (not all, by any means) may have had less international visibility than those on the star-studded Bowl programs, but they were no less skilled, and no less entertaining. And the camaraderie – the rainbow mix of listeners that makes the Bowl such a come-together experience — has continued at the Community events.

On Sunday, at Warner Center Park in Woodland Hills, the third 2009 Playboy Jazz Community concert takes place at Warner Center Park in Woodland Hills from 4:30 P.M. to 8 P.m.. And the headliners are a trio of artists whose work ranges across the full spectrum of the music.

Start with Diane Schuur – known to fans and friends alike as Deedles. In a more than two decade career that has embraced both pop and jazz qualities, Grammy-winning Schuur has demonstrated – at her best – a sense of swing, musicality and interpretive veracity that places her in the top level of jazz vocalizing. “My father really wanted me to become a country singer, and I kind of dabbled with the rock ‘n’ roll thing,” she told me, for a Jazz Times story. “But for me it was jazz. It is Jazz. That’s what was basic”

Interestingly, Schuur performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1975 with Energy Force, the big band of Ed Shaughnessy, who shares the bill with her at Warner Center. Although he’s well known as a big band drummer – most visibly with Doc Severinson on the Tonight Show – he’ll be performing at the Center with his own small, bebop-oriented group. My own recollections of Shaughnessy, however, date back to the ‘60s, when he was augmenting his mainstream skills with many of the avant-garde ideas coursing through the New York City jazz world. Always curious, always eager to explore new territory, always brightening his surroundings with a whimsical sense of humor, he was – and still is – a pleasure to know and to hear.

The third starring act at Warner Center is the inimitable jazz violinist Susie Hansen, currently celebrating the 20th anniversary of her Latin Jazz Band. And, even after years of seeing her in action – hair flying, a beatific smile on her face as she whips her bow across her electric violin – it still seems a little counter-intuitive for her to be standing in front of a dynamic band of Latin jazz musicians. Yet there she is, Scandinavian heritage and all, a girl from the mid-West, fronting one L.A.’s most rhythmically exciting Latin jazz ensembles. Expect your feet to start moving.

Opening the show – the El Camino High School Jazz Band directed by Kevin Glaser.

As I mentioned above, all this is free – Playboy’s gift to the L.A. community. And there will be, understandably, a big turnout. So get there early, find a cozy spot in the Park’s grassy surroundings, and enjoy your own neighborhood installment of the Playboy Jazz Festival..

Here, There & Everywhere: Email Glitch

It’s been house moving week for me, with the stress, distractions, systems problems and general annoyances that are always part of moving your goods, family and contacts from one location to another.  And, after being off line for five days, I’ve just discovered that, since I closed my Time-Warner cable account,  one of my email addresses — dhscribe@earthlink.net — has been apparently shut down for reasons unknown to me.  So, if you’re had a message bounce back, or if you just need to reach me, please use my gmail account — dhscribe@gmail.com — until further notice. 

Thanks, and I  hope I haven’t missed anything important

Don Heckman

Here There & Everywhere: Herbie Hancock, The Hollywood Bowl and the Jazz Bakery

By Don Heckman

Herbie Hancock

There’s been some good news, bad news and in-between news this week out here on the Left Coast.  The good news is that the Los Angeles Philharmonic has appointed Herbie Hancock for a two year term as the new Creative Chair for Jazz, starting in 2010.  He replaces Christian McBride, who has held the job since 2006.  If anything, it’s surprising that it’s taken this long for Herbie to get the job.  But better late than never.

One of the position’s most significant tasks is recommending jazz programming for the summer season at the Hollywood Bowl, as well as the Fall through Spring season at Walt Disney Hall.  The difficulties of creating that programming in a venue that seats over 18,000, became crystal clear in the Philharmonic announcement of the jazz schedule for the 2009 Bowl season – still under the guidance of McBride.

The list of names will surely draw, at the very least, questioning glances from anyone who expects jazz programs to actually include jazz artists.  The three scheduled jazz performances for July, for example, consist of appearances by Sergio Mendes, Eddie Palmieri and Poncho Sanchez (7/8), Natalie Cole (7/15), and Boney James and Fourplay (7/22).  The August programs consist of a recreation of the Miles Davis/Gil Evans’ “Porgy and Bess,” “Sketches of Spain” and “Miles Ahead,” with trumpet playing from Terence Blanchard and Nicholas Payton (8/5), a concert featuring Buddy Guy, Dr. John and James Cotton (8/12), an evening with Patti Labelle (8/19), and a performance by the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, James Moody and the Roy Hargrove Big Band and the Big Phat Band (8/26).  The final date, on September 2, showcases the almost-Return-To-Forever Trio of Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White.

That’s a total of three, maybe four or four and a half, authentic jazz dates out of a total of eight scheduled “jazz” events.  So let’s call that the in-between news.

Ruth Price at the Jazz Bakery

The bad news is that the Jazz Bakery’s lease will expire on May 31.  Ruth Price, the diva-in-charge of the fabled venue says she’s hoping to reopen at a new site on the Westside in the Fall.  A few events, using the Jazz Bakery brand, will be held over the summer, obviously in the hope of keeping the name alive.

This is, in fact, a sword that’s been threatening to drop for a while.  And the Bakery’s unsteady situation was undoubtedly exacerbated when the opening of the trendy Father’s Office restaurant — a few doors away from the Bakery in the old Helms Bakery building – brought crowds into the area who were not necessarily jazz aficionados and reducing parking to a minimum.

One can only hope that Price is right (no pun intended), that she will find a new, appropriate venue that can duplicate the concert style setting that made the Jazz Bakery a favorite among both musicians and their listeners.  If not, then yet another important era in Southland jazz history will have ended.

Here, There & Everywhere: The Ellington Quarter

By Don Heckman

It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally here.  The U.S. Mint has just announced the issuance of a District of Columbia quarter featuring the image of Duke Ellington.  The quarter represents the first appearance by an African-American musician on a U.S. coin.

Ellington was selected over abolitionist Frederick Douglas and astronomer Benjamin Banneker.  The quarter, one of six commemorative designs honoring the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories, will be circulated throughout 2009.  In addition to the Ellington image, the coin includes the District’s motto, “Justice For All,” even though the choice of D.C. residents, according to an early poll, was “Taxation Without Representation,” reflecting their continuing anger over their lack of voting rights.  The only previous circulating coin bearing the image of an African American was the 2003 Missouri quarter, which depicted explorers Lewis and Clark with a slave named York.  Non-circulating commemorative coins have featured Jackie Robinson, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver and Crispus Attucks.

Ellington was born in Washington, spent the early part of his career there, and named his first band the Washingtonians. All of which makes the coin’s association with the District appropriate.

But Ellington is an American icon with global magnitude.  And as welcome as his appearance on a U.S. coin may be, one can only wonder why it’s taken so long to arrive.  And – even more importantly – why his music isn’t heard in the arts centers of this country and around the world as often as, say, the music of Mozart, Beethoven or Bach.  ( Or, at the very least, as often as Sibelius, de Falla or Copland.)

Nonetheless, let’s embrace Ellington’s presence in our everyday lives, even on the face of a coin.  And hope that it motivates the Disney Concert Halls, the Carnegie Halls, the Kennedy Centers and the Ravinia Pavilions, the Musikvereins, the Concertgebouws and the Royal Albert Halls to provide meaningful acknowledgement of his real importance, by including Ellington’s remarkable music as a regular presence in their programming.

Here, There & Everywhere: “Yes, We Can!”

By Don Heckman

“Yes, we can” was one of the most frequently heard slogans of the Obama presidential campaign.  And it was a good one, with its implicit sense of working together toward common goals.  This week, President Obama took a giant step toward holding up his end of the catchphrase by effectively taking action on the economic stimulus package.

But what about all the eager supporters, chanting the phrase over and over, holding up the placards, eager to join in the all-together-now choruses of “Yes, we can?”  What’s left for them to do, now that Obama is in the White House and the Democrats control the Congress?  Sit around and wait to see what the President and his minions do next?

Earlier today, a friend forwarded a link to me that provided a view of some of the actions one might take to translate “Yes, we can” into something more closely resembling President John F. Kennedy’s classic phrase “Ask not what your country can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your country.”

The link connects to a video created by, of all people, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher.  In it, some familiar (and less familiar) faces offer thoughts and commitments about the pledges they’re making to pitch in and share the burden.  Sure, it has some of the superficiality that’s present in all celebrity we-are-the-world get-togethers.  But it also has a core of commitment and meaning that is worth considering.  If, that is, the pledges are taken beyond the form of persuasive promises and into the realm of action and productivity.  So I’m posting it here for everyone to take a look, and make their own judgments.

Here There & Everywhere: “Civil Rights — Jazz Document 1963″

By Don Heckman

I’m willing to bet that anyone who was actually around in the sixties remembers the decade as a whirling kaleidoscope of people, events and  places.  Yes, I know the line – if you remember the sixties, you weren’t there.  But I was there, and I remember it well.  Or, at least, I thought I did, until I recently read a posting on Howard Mandel’s always-informative blog, “Jazz Beyond Jazz”

The posting is titled “Civil Rights – Jazz Document 1963.”  In it, Howard disputes an article in the entertainment section of the New York Times asserting that movies opened the way toward the election of the country’s first African American president.

Thad Jones

I maintain, writes Mandel, that the jazz community was in the forefront of the civil rights movement, and remains in the lead for demonstrating how all-inclusive meritocracies look, sound and work. A historical document highlighting the conjunction of jazz and the Civil Rights movement has come to hand — programs from two nights in 1963 when major players performed and major jazz journalists emceed a benefit for CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality) at New York City’s Five Spot Cafe, plus a letter of thanks to bassist Henry Grimes  participation.

Kenny Burrell

Mandel goes on to describe the remarkable assemblage of individuals who came together on October 20 and 27 – barely two months after the March on Washington  — in the now long gone jazz club at the corner of Third Avenue and St. Marks Place.

The extraordinary gatherings on October 20 and October 27 of musicians now regarded as jazz giants — among the most recognizable: saxophonists Ben Webster, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Booker Ervin, Eric Dolphy, guitarist Kenny Burrell, brass man and composer-arranger Thad Jones, pianists Bill Evans, Paul Bley, Sal Mosca, Horace Parlan, Billy Taylor (now Dr. Billy . .. ), Don Friedman, Dick Katz, drummers Roy Haynes, Ben Riley (misspelled “Reilly” — and other misspellings abound), Paul Motian, Joe Chambers, bassists Gary Peacock, Ronnie Boykins (of Sun Ra’s Arkestra), Ron Carter and vibist Bobby Hutcherson, singers Helen Merrill and Sheila Jordan — were likely prompted by the Civil Rights rally at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28 (occasion of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have A Dream” speech) and the September 15 bombings by the Ku Klux Klan of Birmingham, Alabama’s 16th St. Baptist Church, which targeted church-going children and killed four little girls.

I hadn’t read more than two sentences of the posting before it all began to come flooding back to me.  Because I was there.  More than that, I was a participant.

The CORE benefits’ emcees, continues Mandel, besides Dr. Taylor, who has  made his mark as a jazz television and radio broadcaster, educator and activist as well as pianist-composer-bandleader, were

• Don Heckman, then writing about music for the Village Voice, soon to go to the New York Times, and today, after a lengthy tenure with the now beleaguered Los Angeles Times, is a key blogger at The International Review of Music.
• Alan Grant, then WABC disc jockey behind the radio show “Portraits In Jazz” eventually retired with his wife to New Zealand but with his own Last.fm channel.
• Ira Gitler, a ’50s record producer and in ‘63 the New York editor for Down Beat, a jazz historian, author (with Leonard Feather of The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz and journalist these days teaching at Manhattan School of Music and often read in New York’s Jazz Improv magazine.

Dr. Billy Taylor

I don’t know why the event had somehow wound up in the distant corners of my memory.  Because, in retrospect, I remember it vividly – an extraordinary experience for a young writer just beginning to gain his footing in the big city.  There I was, emceeing the October 20^th program with Billy Taylor, introducing the likes of Ted Curson, Roy Haynes, Thad Jones, Kenny Burrell, Frank Strozier, Helen Merrill and more – many more.  Reveling in the transcendent togetherness that – in its own unique way – makes jazz the art form that most directly reflects the ideal of what America can and should be.

sheila Jordan

Carefully preserved somewhere in my memorabilia files, I have a framed letter of thanks from James Farmer, then the Executive Secretary of CORE.  Reminded of those two remarkable days in 1963, I will now dig through the boxes, find the letter and once again proudly hang it near my desk.  And I thank Howard Mandel for the jog to my memory that has allowed me to reclaim a treasured event in my personal history of the sixties.

Howard Mandel’s complete “Civil Rights – Jazz Document 1963″ blog can be read here: http://www.artsjournal.com/jazzbeyondjazz/2009/01/civil_rights-jazz_document_196.html.

Here, There & Everywhere: The Jazz Grammy Awards

By Don Heckman

The jazz Grammy awards are in.  Early as usual, of course, since the Recording Academy again didn’t choose to present any of the awards for this great American art form during the prime time telecast (which hasn’t quite begun as I write these thoughts).  Here’s the list of winners, along with the nominees and some random comments.  Followed by a few other worthy honorees.

Best Contemporary Jazz Album

Grammy Award: Randy Brecker:  “Randy in Brasil.”

“Floating Point,” John McLaughlin

“Cannon Re-Loaded: All-Star Celebration Of Cannonball Adderley,” Various Artists

“Miles From India,” Various Artists

“Lifecycle,” Yellowjackets featuring Mike Stern

No argument from me on this one, since it was my choice, as well.  But the category itself is a grab bag.  Every nomination is worthy, in its own context.   And the “Miles From India” project deserves special notice for originality of concept, if nothing else.  But how can one possible evaluate it in comparison with CDs from the Yellowjackets and John McLaughlin?

Best Jazz Vocal Album

Grammy Award: Cassandra Wilson:  “Loverly.”

“Imagina: Songs of Brasil,” Karrin Allyson

“Breakfast on the Morning Train,” Stacey Kent

“If Less is More … Nothing is Everything,” Kate McGarry

It’s a quality field of jazz vocalists, any one of whom would have made a solid choice.  But it’s good that it was won by an artist who brings a rare quality of authenticity to everything she touches.   And whom, despite what the Los Angeles Times seems to think, hasn’t been at all influenced by Norah Jones.

Best Jazz Instrumental Solo

Grammy Award:  Terence Blanchard:  “Bebop.”

“Seven Steps to Heaven,” Till Bronner

“Waltz for Debby,” Gary Burton & Chick Corea

“Son of Thirteen,” Pat Metheny

“Be-Bop,” James Moody

Another of the Academy’s weird categories.  How many voting members can honestly say that they’ve heard enough jazz solos to place one above all the others.  Using what criteria?  Certainly Terence deserves an award.  But what about Moody, who played superbly on the same track?  And how does one evaluate these individual solos in the context of Chick Corea and Gary Burton playing together?

Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group

Grammy Award: Chick Corea and Gary Burton: “The New Crystal Silence”

“History, Mystery,” Bill Frisell

“Brad Mehldau Trio: Live,” Brad Mehldau Trio

“Day Trip,” Pat Metheny With Christian McBride & Antonio Sanchez

“Standards,” Alan Pasqua, Dave Carpenter & Peter Erskine Trio

My choice here would either have been Frisell’s “History, Mystery” or the lovely album of standards by the Pasqua, Carpenter, Erskine trio.  But it’s unlikely that these West Coast-based guys (including Carpenter, who died at a far too early age in June) could have received the national (and East Coast) support to grab the award.

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album

Grammy Award: The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra: “Monday Night at the Village Vanguard”

“Appearing Nightly,” Carla Bley And Her Remarkable Big Band

“Act Your Age,” Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band

“Symphonica,” Joe Lovano With WDR Big Band & Rundfunk Orchestra

“Blauklang,” Vince Mendoza

It’s a shame that Carla Bley’s wild-eyed group of players were overlooked.  Yes, the Vanguard Orchestra is doing an impressive job of carrying the baton for straight ahead big band jazz.  But it sure would have been nice for Carla’s envelope stretching work to receive the notice it deserves.

Best Latin Jazz Album

Grammy Award: Arturo O’Farrill &and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra: “Song for Chico”

Afro Bop Alliance,” Caribbean Jazz Project

“The Latin Side Of Wayne Shorter,” Conrad Herwig & The Latin Side Band

“Nouveau Latino,” Nestor Torres

“Marooned/Aislado,” Papo Vázquez The Mighty Pirates

No argument here, either.  Arturo O’Farrill’’s been doing an impressive job of keeping alive the memory of his father, the great jazz arranger/composer , Chico O’Farrill.

Best Traditional World Music Album

Grammy Award: Ladysmith Black Mambazo: “Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu,”

“Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide Guitar Odyssey,” Debashish Bhattacharya
“The Mandé Variations,” Toumani Diabaté
“Dancing In The Light,” Lakshmi Shankar

The other entries didn’t stand much of a chance, given Ladysmith’s international visibility.  But they’re a great ensemble, always worth hearing.  Even though the most fascinating album musically was surely the remarkable slide guitar playing of Bhattacharya.

Best Contemporary World Music Album

Grammy Award: Mickey Hart, Zakir Hussain, Sikiru Adepoju & Giovanni Hidalgo: “Global Drum Project”

“Shake Away,” Lila Downs
“Banda Larga Cordel.” Gilberto Gil
“Rokku Mi Rokka (Give And Take),” Youssou N’Dour
“Live At The Nelson Mandela Theater,” Soweto Gospel Choir

Pretty hard to make a choice here.  Given the range of possibilities and the genre of styles, it could have gone to any one of these fine acts.   But the most intriguing, from my perspective, is the fascinating work being done by Downs, whose career has matured by leaps and bounds over the past few years.

A Few Other Interesting Awards:

Best New Age Album

Jack DeJohnette:  “Peace Time”

Yes, it’s that Jack De Johnette, bringing the same thoughtful sensitivity to an atmospheric collection of New Age sounds that he does to his work with Keith Jarrett and Gary Peacock.

Best Album Notes

Francis Davis: “Kind of Blue: 50^th Anniversary Collector’s Edition”

As any jazz writer knows, “Kind of Blue” was a great project to work with, but give Francis Davis credit for writing about it with sensitivity, insight and knowledge.

Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist

Nan Schwartz.  “Here’s That Rainy Day” from Natalie Cole’s “Still Unforgettable.”

Nan Schwartz has been crafting superb arrangements, making singers and instrumentalists sound their best, for years. This is a much-deserved acknowledgment of her impressive skills.

Here, There & Everywhere: The Tatum Mazurkas?

By Don Heckman

Trying to distract myself from a too-juicy cold yesterday that had me sneezing every five minutes, I put some Chopin mazurkas on the CD player.  Aside from the lyrical melodies and the soaring harmonies, it’s always fascinating to me to hear how he adapted popular dance forms to his free flying imagination.

Frederic Chopin

As I was listening, I was struck  by the seemingly improvisatory current that flows through so many of his solo piano pieces, especially the mazurkas and waltzes.   One can almost imagine, in some of them, Chopin sitting down at the piano among a group of friends, and improvising something on the spot.  Which is probably exactly what he did, codifying them to manuscript paper after the fact.

All of which led me to a reconsideration of a thought that has often occurred to me.  Why isn’t a recorded, improvised  solo jazz piano piece by a great jazz artist – like Art Tatum’s “Elegy,” for example, or Bill Evans’ “Waltz For Debby”  or “Peace Piece” (to mention only a few of the myriad possibilities) — equally worthy of transcribing, printing and performing in concert?

The first answer I usually get when I mention this idea to anyone is, “Oh, well, but those were improvised pieces, and all you have to do is listen to the recordings to hear the real deal.”  Okay, so there are two parts to that objection.  I’ll deal with the second one first, by asking this: if we had recordings of Chopin playing his mazurkas and waltzes, does that mean that other, interpretive pianists would never want to play them?  I don’t think so.  And, insofar as the first part of the objection is concerned, isn’t all music improvised at the beginning, before it is committed to paper?  Or are we dealing with some sort of unspoken subtext here that is based on the faulty premise that composed music (mostly by Europeans) is somehow more complex and more worthy than improvised music (mostly by Americans and frequently by African Americans)?  I refer everyone who believes in that premise to any Tatum solo recording.

The second answer I get usually has to do with the principle of swing and jazz phrasing.  Granted the fact that these are among the elements that make jazz what it is.  But there is plenty of written music from different eras, with different performing conventions – ornamentation, dynamics, etc. – that require study and practice for an artist to deliver a convincing rendition.  No one will ever have precisely the phrasing of Art Tatum or Bill Evans.  Nor should they.  What I’m suggesting is not a replication, but an interpretation.  In which a talented contemporary interpretive artist, performing one of the Tatum or Evans pieces I mentioned above – as well as hundreds of other possibilities – provides his or her own reading.  And bringing to it the same kind of personal perspective that is commonly present in the performance of pieces by Chopin, Beethoven, Schumann, etc.

French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s 1997 recording, “Conversations With Bill Evans,” tried something similar that was beautifully done, but diminished by his effort to reproduce too closely the original Evans’ versions, rather than invest the material with his own interpretive imagination.

It seems to me that there is a very large, very wonderful body of jazz works out there, waiting to be transcribed, waiting to be performed, waiting to affirm the self-evident fact that jazz has produced music whose quality and importance reaches far beyond its manifestation as the product of a single recording session.  Who knows?  Maybe the principle would apply to horn players, as well.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has any thoughts about all this, either pro or con.

Here, There & Everywhere: Secretary of the Arts Quincy Jones?

by Don Heckman

A little over a month ago, I had a conversation with Quincy Jones at Santa Monica’s Barnes & Noble about his new biographical book, “Quincy Jones: My Journey & Passions.”  In addition to the book, we discussed  a lot of other things, with Q. using my questions as take off points for his free flying verbal improvisations.  We’ve done a few of these Actors Studio type conversations, and I pretty much know the themes that will produce the best results from Q’s prodigious array of fascinating memories, tales and opinions.

With the Inauguration of Barack Obama three days away, it occurred to me that there was one question I’d asked Quincy that was especially relevant at this particular time.  And, by good fortune, someone videotaped it and posted it on YouTube.  Here it is.   One can only hope, as I said in my question, that Obama has the good sense to make the offer, and that Q. has the temerity to accept it.