New DTM page, a tribute to Herbie Nichols on his centenary: “Herbie Nichols Trio.”

w. Dayna Stephens, Ben Street, Ingrid Jensen, Lewis Nash

Happy New Year!

I’m about to play in a new configuration with Eva Klesse and Phil Donkin in Germany. I heard Eva at a clinic last year and thought she was really swinging. To my delight she said that seeing Tootie Heath with Ben Street and me at the Vanguard was an important moment in her development. I haven’t met Phil yet but I’m sure these three nights are going to be at a high level.

January 3 Loft (Cologne)
Jan. 4 naTo (Leipzig)
Jan. 5 Jazz Club Tonne (Dresden)

January 7 I’m back working in NYC,  playing the Blue Note in Francisco Mela’s group with Hery Paz and John Hébert. On January 10 it’s the late night set at Smalls with Aaron Seeber and Simón Willson.

The Billy Hart Quartet with Dayna Stephens, Ben Street and me is part of the ECM stage at Winter Jazzfest on January 12. (Mark Turner will resume tenor duties with the BHQ starting the 29th of January at the Village Vanguard.)

January 19 I’m with Andreas Toftemark’s group at the Red Room in the East Village. January 25 I’m duo piano with Lewis Porter in Lexington, MA.

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Last year, the first “freelance” year after 17 years with the Bad Plus, was surprisingly busy. The big projects included MMDG Pepperland, Concerto for Scale, Ethan Iverson in London, Bud Powell in the 21st Century, and the ECM release Temporary Kings with Mark Turner. I also realized long term dreams of playing with Miranda Cuckson and Al Foster. Thanks to all who tuned in.

2018 gigs in review:

JANUARY

11 panel on jazz and race with Wynton Marsalis at JALC
12 panel (moderator only) with Kenny Barron, Joanne Brackeen, Harold Mabern at JALC
14 Pat Zimmerli “Clockworks” w. Chris Tordini and John Hollenbeck at APAP
19-20 w. Houston Person and Chris Smith at Mezzrow
30 w. Thomas Morgan and Gerald Cleaver at Korzo

FEBRUARY

8-11 Billy Hart 4tet (BHQ) w. Ben Street and Mark Turner at Jazz Standard
17-18 Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) Pepperland Seattle
21 MMDG Pepperland Portland
22 solo Portland jazz fest
24 MMDG Pepperland Toronto
28 BHQ San Antonio

MARCH

1 BHQ Outpost Albuquerque
2 BHQ Santa Fe
9-10 w. Joe Sanders and Jorge Rossy at Duc du Lombards, Paris
12-15 w. Joe Sanders and Jorge Rossy in Italy
28 Sophia Rosoff memorial concert

APRIL

6 “Concerto to Scale” with American Composers Orchestra at Zankel Hall
14 “Clockworks” w Pat Zimmerli at Merkin Hall
17 w. Billy Harper, Buster Williams, Billy Hart at Jazz Standard

APRIL 20 – MAY 5 tour with Martin Speake 4tet w. Fred Thomas and James Madden

MAY

10 MMDG Pepperland Santa Barbara
12 MMDG Pepperland La Jolla
17 w. Josephine Bode and Dodó Kis at Moers Festival

MAY 29 — JUNE 3 BHQ with Chris Potter at Village Vanguard

JUNE

15-16 w. Ron Carter at Mezzrow
21-22 MMDG Pepperland New Haven
24 w. Miranda Cuckson Spectrum
26 w. Dayna Stephens, Thomas Morgan, Eric McPherson at Korzo
28 – 30 MMDG Pepperland Dartmouth

JULY

2 Lorraine Gordon Memorial

4-25 BHQ featuring Josh Redman European tour
Getxo Jazz Festival
Noches del Botanico (Madrid)
Casa da Musica (Porto)
Funchal Jazz Festival
North Sea Jazz Festival
Umbria Jazz
Nice Jazz Festival
Montalcino Jazz & Wine Festival
Souillac en Jazz
New Morning (Paris)
Festival Jazz La Spezia
Langnau Jazz Nights
Dinant Jazz

SEPTEMBER

7-8 w. Dayna Stephens, Thomas Morgan, Eric McPherson at Jazz Gallery

13-20 duo w. Mark Turner
Baltimore
Chicago
Minneapolis
New York
Cambridge

27-30 MMDG Pepperland Berkley

OCTOBER

5 w. Miranda Cuckson Spectrum

10-18 duo w. Mark Turner
Denver
Santa Cruz
LA
Portland
New Orleans

23-31 duo w. Mark Turner
Paris
Milan
Florence
Ferrara
Rome
Madrid
Barcelona
Rikevorsel

NOVEMBER

10-11 Dance Heginbotham “Easy Win” Boston

16-18 “Ethan Iverson in London” Raising Hell with Henry Purcell, Ethan and the British Composers, Ethan’s Last Rent Party

23-25 BHQ w. Dayna Stephens In Mexico
Mazatlan
Mexico City
Cuernavaca

DECEMBER

7 w. Christian McBride and Al Foster at Zinc Bar
18 w. Dayna Stephens, Ben Street, and Eric McPherson at Korzo
29-31 “Bud Powell in the 21st Century” w. Ingrid Jensen, Dayna Stephens, Ben Street, Lewis Nash, and the Umbria Jazz Orchestra in Orvieto

At the very end of the month I’m premiering my first suite of big band music, Bud Powell in the 21st Century, at the winter Umbria Jazz Festival. It’s a kind of “concerto” for a quintet of Ingrid Jensen, Dayna Stephens, Ben Street, Lewis Nash, and myself plus local horn players. Sincere thanks to Carlo Pagnotta, Enzo Capua, and Manuele Morbidini for the gift of this project. Thanks also to Darcy James Argue, who gave me a quick lesson in orchestration and Finale wrangling, and Brian Krock, who did the editing.

On February 28th I’ll be doing the same program with an all-student orchestra at NEC in Boston.

As DTM readers know, Hall Overton is my main man, and in some ways I emulate Overton’s arrangements of Thelonious Monk for my big band version of Powell, at least to begin with. (Halfway through the charts I start letting my hands go a little bit.) After all, Bud’s music is so great, how can we improve it? There are three pieces I regard as the most significant piano improvisations in the idiom made when Powell was a leader in the studio, “Cherokee,” “Tempus Fugit,” and “Celia.” I’ll play the Bud solos on the first two and the saxes have Bud’s flawless chorus “Celia.” The core quintet will play more or less exact versions of the only original pieces Bud wrote for horns (the session with Fats Navarro and Sonny Rollins) interspersed with original music, and there is a glamorous french horn feature on “I’ll Keep Loving You.”

(DTM: Bud Powell Anthology.)

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Tuesday December 18 at 10:30 I’m at Korzo with Dayna Stephens, Ben Street, and Eric McPherson playing my tunes and a standard or two. 9 PM is Jim Carney with Ravi Coltrane, Chris Lightcap, and Mark Ferber.

Wednesday 19 I’m a sideman with Kyle Nasser’s group with Rich Perry, Pablo Menares, and Jeff Hirshfield at Cornelia St. Cafe.  Perry and Hirshfield are a little bit the “elders” here, I’ve always admired their playing and am really curious to see how this goes…

After this week Korzo is no longer going to be hosting Jim Carney’s Konceptions series; Cornelia St. is closing next month. We all pray that more venues open and flourish for the thousands of great jazz musicians in this city.

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New pages this year on DTM:

Received Wisdom

McCoy Tyner’s Revolution

Chamber Music and Piano Practice

Glenn Gould plays William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons (and Sweelinck)

Interview with Cécile McLorin Salvant

Interview with Joanne Brackeen

Interview with Bill Frisell

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Other places:

Writings at the Culture Desk of the New Yorker  (Wayne Shorter, Doctor Who, Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Vince Guaraldi, Vicky Chow, Michael Gordon, Carla Bley)

NewMusicBox:  The Syncopated Stylings of Charles Wuorinen

“Artist’s Choice” ECM streaming playlist

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I think this is it on DTM until January: I gotta practice “Tempus Fugit” and “Cherokee.” Thanks for reading and listening.

New DTM page, more tech stuff for my students. Received Wisdom. (Jeff Goldblum, the iReal Book, Kamasi Washington.)

McCoy is 80 today. NEW DTM page: McCoy Tyner’s Revolution.

I saw a great set of Peter Bernstein, Doug Weiss, and Leon Parker at the Village Vanguard tonight. I was particularly curious to hear Parker, who had moved away from New York for a time and just came back a year or two ago. He was kind of everybody’s favorite enfant terrible when I first got to town in the early 90s before vanishing to Europe for over a decade.

Well, Parker hasn’t lost a step. I loved watching him play a set of standards with two other world-class musicians. It was a relaxed and beautiful vibe.

Parker doesn’t use a high-hat. Very odd. He also just has one cymbal, and usually plays with matched grip. Looking at his kit before hearing him play, it would be easy to suspect he simply isn’t a straight-ahead jazz drummer, but more of a world beat or European conceptual type.

It’s an idiosyncratic set up but Parker’s a real swinger of the old school. His beat is precise, essentially metronomic, but it also has the roundness of placement that separates the groovy from the stiff. Perhaps Ben Riley is a reference for that driving, singing ride cymbal of Leon Parker.

Nothing Parker plays is that unusual, really, but the orchestration of the kit is by necessity unique. Parker has also allowed in non-straight ahead influences: mallet techniques from concert percussion and groove music from the planet at large. He’s certainly got enough power to play with anybody but in this situation he was restrained and tasty. A lesson all the way around.

It’s really a blessing to have Parker back on the scene. Peter Bernstein and Doug Weiss both sounded just great as well. Tonight was a kind of trio tribute to Jim Hall, tomorrow they start with Sullivan Fortner for the rest of the week. Essential NYC jazz of the best kind.

New DTM page for my NEC students: Chamber Music and European Piano Practice.

This week: Mexico w. Billy Hart featuring Dayna Stephens and Ben Street: Thursday in Mazatlan, Saturday Mexico City, Sunday Cuernavaca. Thank you DeQuinta Producciones!

And a couple of gigs in NYC:

1. “Ethan Iverson in London”
2. “And on the Third Day” by Michael Gibbs
3. “Afterglow” by Marian McPartland
4. Early British Syncopation (Percy Grainger and Constant Lambert)
5. Raising Hell with Henry Purcell

Bonus track: Time Tunnel.

I’d like to thank Richard Williams, whose blog The Blue Moment is a model of its kind. Richard will be joining me onstage Saturday as part of the “composers” night to discuss some of the many things I’m leaving out of this three-day overview. Richard also suggested “Doxology” for a John Surman piece — great suggestion!

Also thanks in advance to my collaborators Brigitte Beraha, Mandhira de Saram, Cath Roberts, Dee Byrne, Kim Macari, Olie Brice, Laura Jurd, Peter Wareham, Tom Herbert, Sebastian Rochford, Adam Fairhall and Alexander Hawkins,

OK, I’m headed to the plane. If you are in London this weekend, do come out! It’s going to be a one-time only event!

[Fifth post about the forthcoming Ethan Iverson Residency in London]

One of my great artistic experiences was going to see Hamlet at the Globe Theatre. I was a groundling, where Mark Rylance shouted at us and we shouted back. A brass quartet played Tudor-style fanfares between acts. The last event on stage was a joyful “dance with death” accompanied by primitive percussion.

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Using European classical music as a resource for improvisation is standard practice.  Generally speaking, the more avant-garde the jazz, the more explicit the references to the tradition of European modernism. In 2018, serious improvisors all over the world can make beautiful abstract music in real time, creating sounds that would have taken a midcentury composer weeks to notate.

Jazz and improvising musicians have done more and more literal performances of repertory classics. In the Bad Plus we played a faithful rendition of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.” Uri Caine recorded a thrilling set of Wagner in Venice with an unusual quintet.

Bach can be arranged for any instrumentation successfully but he is hard to deconstruct for improvisation. I am not really a fan of Jacques Loussier and his rather corny “Play Bach” stuff, I’d rather listen to the Swingle Sisters sing Bach straight with a hint of swing.

Earlier baroque fanfares might be easier to appropriate…or at least that’s my thinking for a night at King’s Place.

The AACM school is full of square marches that open up for chaos. Anthony Braxton’s Creative Orchestra Music “March” is famous.

Purcell was one of the great fanfare composers. The melodies are strong and beautiful, the counterpoint is simple, yet the emotions are as complex as a joyful dance with death. My contention is that these fanfares will offer a smooth gateway to improvisation in the manner of an AACM march.

(I am also influenced by the deconstruction of Angelo Beradi’s “Canzone Sesta” I participated in earlier this year with Josephine Bode and Dodó Kis.)

We have a wonderful singer, Brigitte Beraha, so there are not just fanfares planned for the set of “Raising Hell with Henry Purcell,” but I don’t want to give anything else away in advance (also we need to see what works in rehearsal). But here’s a quick (one take) voice memo recording of prelude I’m going to play on harpsichord with perhaps additional theatrical elements from the band. Purcell is damn quirky, that’s for sure. He offers a tune, bangs a drum, gets lost in arpeggios, and modulates to the subdominant only just before screeching to a halt. Great stuff. Looking forward!