Pure Jazz Winter

Theo HillGroovin’ with

Fab 5 Freddy

Swan Records

US$6.00 / CanC$ 6.50 Winter 2012

Black

Winter 2012Volume 6 Number 3

Publisher / Editor & Chief

Jo Ann Cheatham

-Senior Editor-Fikisha Cumbo

-Editor-Agneta Ballesteros

-Contributing Writers-Jo Ann Cheatham

Ed DessissoWilliard Jenkins

Ted Wilson-

Graphics-Dwight Brewster

-Marketing-Danyelle Ballesteros

-Consultants-Eunice Lewis Broome

Jim HarrisonGreer Smith

Ed StouteRandy Weston

This magazine was made possible with public funds from BAC the Brooklyn Arts Council and the Department of Cultural Affairs.

African American Classical Music

Pure Jazz is published quarterly with editorial and advertising head quarters in Brooklyn, NY. Tel/ 718.636.9671. All rights reserved. The authors and editors have taken care to ensure that all infor-mation in this issue is accurate. Nevertheless, the publisher disclaims any liability loss or damages incurred as a consequence directly or indirectly of the use and application of any contents.

Features

Black Swan ............... 5

Vinyl Man Spins ......... 10

One on OneFab 5 Freddy .......... 23

Columns Our Culture Is .......9

Notes From Another Time ......11

Jazz Meets Clave’ .....12

Space is the Place ....... 15

Cover StoryGroovin’ With

Teo Hill ............ 16

The warm weather fades and it brings a chilly atmosphere, but provides an opportunity to do some jazz research, to gives us a fuller understanding of the music we love.

What is there to say about The Forgotten Story of Black Swan Records, the first title Pure Jazz Magazine gave for this article. I remember the first time I read the story more than ten years ago. It was truly profound and still remains a fascinating story of an industry icon, one that has proudly influenced the future of music. This is the second installment and final episode of this true story. Please do the research at the end of the story. It con-nects the past, which makes Black Swan Records relevant today.

The opportunity to do a three-part story about Fab 5 Freddie is an honor. The meeting of a great young entrepreneur and the jazz legend Max Roach shows the many arenas that Hip Hop and others have influence the genres and how the styles compli-ment each other.

For this issue, our cover story is Grovin’ with Theo Hill, a fine jazz pianist who is heading down the right path to his new mu-sic. A student of Lee Shaw and Barry Harris Hill leads his own group, the Theo Hill Trio—through the journey of jazz.

Jazz Meets Clave! Is there any place Playthell Benjamin can’t take us in reference to the culture of music? He gives us a his-toric introspective of when Afro-American and Afro masters put their heads together and created “Latin Jazz, for our apprecia-tion.”

The Vinyl Man is always full of surprises! When talking about his column he’ll say a name and you’ll say ok got it, not knowing who the person is, so you are really surprised when the artist is jazz pianist Mal Waldron. We hear the name from time to time, but when we hear the scope of his talent we wonder why he’s not on our iPod list.

Space is the Place is a Pure Jazz column that carries the name of a film about Sun Ra. Its premise is to bridge music and the cosmos that gives us a profound sense of connectedness. This month we begin with Alberta Hunter, a real Blues gal, started out as a successful vocalist for many years, then left and became a medical employee, only years later returned to show business -- a continued success. Jazz Piper Rufus Harley! How do you explain Jazz Bagger Harley, experimenting with a wide array of instruments during his adolescent years, then leaving them behind and go on to become a world class Jazz Bagpiper. Sheryl Renee, a new fire brought to us through years of experience and honing her skills has come to New York. To get a sense, examine her website, get to see what she has brought us, then go see her and you will truly appreciate all her talents. Say the name Sun Ra and all kinds of images meet the mind, the story of such an accomplished artist. In these films we begin to really see Sun Ra’s background and a look back to see just who he really was.

Our back cover this month is a reminder of things that has brought us great Jazz memories. There was a time when the public did not put dates on flyers. This is one when we didn’t. A quintessential jazz club, The Up Over Jazz Café is near trans-portation in Brooklyn where you could find good music and song. See if you remember being in the club this evening. Find a place and support it. Remember for Jazz to grow we have to go!!!

Jo Ann Cheatham

Publisher

With The Music In MindPublisher’s Statement

EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT!For the past 22 years!

Pure Jazz Magazine - Page 4

Black Swan Records Part 2By Jiti Weusi

In Part I we were able to look at the beginning of Black Swan Records. In Part II we are able see how this re-cord company proceeded. At the end of the ten-year period, we learn the history of Black Swan Records.

It was the summer of 1921 that Ethel Waters came to the rescue of Black Swan Records. Three versions are documented on how she got there, yet the outcome was the same. Her natural talent made Black Swan Records a major player in the recording business. Fletcher Henderson claimed to have heard her sing-ing in a basement as he walked down 135th Street in Harlem one night. “I had her come down and cut four sides of which two,‘Down Home Blues’ and ‘Oh Daddy’ ” became such hits, that we were made.

Harry Pace had a different recollection. He remem-bered hearing Ethel at a cabaret in Atlantic City. “I went into the cabaret and heard this girl, and I invit-ed her over to my table to talk about coming go New York to make a recording. She brusquely refused, but at the same time I saw that she was interested. I told her that I would send her a ticket to New York. I did send such a ticket and she came to New York and made two records ‘Down Home Blues’ and ‘Oh Dad-dy.’ This girl was Ethel Waters and the records were enormously successful. I sold 500,000 records within six months.” Pace said that for a long time she made a record a month, but none of them ever measured up to the ’ Down Home Blues’ record.”

Ethel naturally had a recollection. She had recorded earlier for the Cardinal Company, having been con-tracted by a free-lance talent scout who later suggest-ed that she go to Black Swan Records for an audition:

“I found Fletcher Henderson sitting behind a desk, looking very prissy and important. There was much discussion of whether I should sing popular or cultur-al numbers. They finally decided on popular, and I asked for one hundred dollars for making the record. I was still getting thirty-five dollars, so it seemed quite a lump sum to me. Mr. Pace paid me the hundred dol-lars, and that was the first Black Swan record I made. It had ‘Down Home Blues’ on one side and ‘Oh Daddy’ on the other. It proved a great success and got Black Swan out of the red.”

It was ironic that at the time of its earliest success, Black Swan had the opportunity to record and sign Bessie Smith, who would later become legendary as the “Empress of the Blues.” Upon hearing her sing one night, Harry Pace decided that she was too “nitty gritty” for his taste. Two years later she would top all sales, as a Columbia recording artist should.

High Times For Black Swan

Riding the crest of their first successful Black Swan recording, Pace and his small army hit upon the con-cept that would catapult Black Swan into annals of recording history — The Black Tours.

The company was doing better by the fall of 1921. Pace decided to send a group of Black Swan artists on a vaudeville tour. The announcement was made in the October 22, 1921 issue of the Chicago Defender. An orchestra, The Black Swan Jazz Masters was or-ganized to accompany Ethel Waters on this national tour. A road manager was appointed and a series of dates were lined up. But before the tour could begin


two matters had to be dealt with that revealed the social tone of the time, most especially in the world of African American entertainment.

Fletcher Henderson, the well-man-nered, quiet, studious pianist and leader of the Black Swan Jazz Mas-ters, was being advertised on a na-tional tour with a noted blues singer. This was not the e x p e c t e d profile of a young man from a dis-tinguished c o l o r e d family from G e o r g i a . There fore F l e t c h e r , an Atlanta University chemistry g raduate , had to en-tertain his parents in New York City to get their coun-sel before depart ing on the tour. After meet-ing Ms. Waters, his family gave them approval and the tour was set.

Ethel Waters was faced with a far different challenge. She had to tol-erate an unusual intrusion into her personal life so that she could enrich the legacy of Black Swan Records. She was requested and agreed to sign a one year contract with Harry Pace that carried a startling proviso. The Chicago Defender of December 24, 1921 broke the news: “ETHEL MUST NOT MARRY—SIGNS CONTRACT FOR BIG SALARY—PROVIDING SHE DOES NOT MARRY WITHIN A YEAR, - Ethel Waters, Star of the Black Swan Troubadours, has signed a unique contract with Harry Pace, which stipulates that she is not to marry for at least a year, and that during this period she is to devote her time largely to singing for Black Swan Records and appearing with the Trou-badours. It was due to numerous of-fers of marriage, many of her suitors suggesting that she give up her pro-fessional life at once for domesticity, that Pace was prompted to take this step. Ms. Waters’ contract makes her now the highest salaried colored pho-nograph star in this country”.

The tour began at the Pennsylvania Standard Theater in Philadelphia on November 23, 1921, and the Black Swan Troubadours remained on tour until July of 1922. They visited 21 states and performed in over 53 cities, playing one or two night stands and up to three weeks on one engagement in New Orleans.

The turnouts and en-thusiasm of the audi-ences were fantastic. After the first month’s engagement, Pace hired Lester Walton, a noted newspaper columnist (the first Black) for the New York World (a ma-jor daily newspaper) as the road manager and advance –man for the tour. Walton got the African American newspaper network (New York Age, Chi-cago Defender, Pitts-burgh Courier, Balti-more Afro-American) involved in pumping out constant coverage of the tour and the people’s response to Ethel Waters and the Black Swan Jazzmen.

RAVE REVIEWS IN THE WEST AND SOUTH

The New York Age on January 7, 1922 trumpeted the news of “ETHEL WA-TERS MAKING BIG HIT IN WEST.” On New Year’s Day, they opened in St. Louis, Mo. and did record-break-ing business at the Booker T. Wash-ington Theater, whose manager sent a congratulatory telegram to Pace pre-dicting a thousand percent increase in sales for the affair. That success paved the way to the troupe’s next major booking.

An announcement in the Chicago De-fender on January 14 stated: “ONE WEEK ONLY- starting Monday, January 16, Walton and Pace present the Black Swan Troubadours, featur-ing Ethel Waters- World’s Greatest Singer of Blues and her Jazz Mas-ters, New York’s leading ‘Exponents of Syncopation.’ Also Ethel Williams and Frontal Manley in a whirlwind-dancing specialty. Grand Theater and 31st Street, Chicago Night. Nightly at 8:30.”

Their tour itinerary then charted a swing through the South. On that tour musicians wanted no part of that no-

torious environment. Waters acknowl-edge that the undesirable aspects existed, but felt it her duty to “make sacrifices in order that members of my race might hear me sing a style of music which is a product of the South-land.” The musicians’ places were quickly filled by other talented young men eager for work and the southern tour began at the Palace Theater in Memphis, Tennessee with the Trou-badours. They did a series of a 2-day gigs in four cities in Arkansas.

In April their week-long stint at the Lyric Theater in New Orleans regis-tered record attendance at every per-formance. They were even voted ‘the cleanest and strongest company of vaudeville performers offered there in a long time.” The impact of their appearances caused the Network Or-leans’ Item, a major daily, to persuade manager Walton to bring the com-pany’s star and its jazz band to their office, and arranged to have the group broadcast by radio all over the city and the surrounding territory. After the Friday night show, the company and the manager went to the Astor Hotel as honored guests at a special enter-tainment in its Red Room. Surely a ground-breaking occurrence when the story was reported in the New York Age on April 29.

Savannah, Georgia and Wilmington, North Carolina were also treated to performances by the troupe. The Wilmington Dispatch printed an ef-fusive report. Noting that the show was “so much better than had been expected, the crowd was left wide-eyed and gasping with astonishment and delight, for the company has class written all over it. Ethel Waters was headlined, but was forced to share her honors with Ethel Williams, a danc-er of more ability than two-thirds of those who have ever played in Wilm-ington” The lively review concluded with the declaration that “Waters’ ag-gregation is in a class by itself. It is so much better than the other colored shows which have appeared here, that a comparison is unfair to others.”

New Heights for Black Swan Records

The tour was an overwhelming suc-cess, with wide-range ramifications. Black Swan was established as a na-tional record label with respect and increasing record sales. The blues and jazz music had gained national recog-nition and a meaningful following. In New Orleans, Ethel Waters became the first Black performer to entertain

Fletcher Henderson


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on a news medium, radio. Musicians like Louis Armstrong in New Orleans and Joe Smith in Cincinnati came out to support and perform with the Black Swan Jazz Masters. A new camarade-rie and standard was adopted within the national jazz community.

By the time the members of the Black Swan Troubadours returned to New York in July of 1922, The Pace Phono-graph Company had exploded in suc-cess. From its modest beginning in the basement of the owner, the com-pany now owned a building at 2289 Seventh Avenue at 15th Street. It em-ployed: 15–30 people in its offices and shipping room; an 8–man orchestra; seven district managers deployed in the largest cities in the country; and over 1,000 dealers and agents in loca-tions as far away as the Philippines and the West Indies.

In January of 1922, Harry H. Pace had issued a public financial statement on the first year of existence. This strate-gy brought to everyone’s attention the financial success of Black Swan Re-cords. A company started with a $30, 000 investment had yielded an income of $104,628 ($74,000 during the first eleven months). Pace boasted of the success of their labors.

In April of 1922, Pace completed his final major deal when he bought part interest in a pressing plant to produce these records. He formed a partner-ship with John Fletcher, a white man to purchase the bankrupt Remington

Phonograph Corp. including their re-cording and pressing plant in Long Is-land City. With this increased capac-ity, Pace expanded the production of Black Swan records daily. Black Swan issued two new series of recorded mu-sic with its 100000 and 1400 series. With William Grant Still replacing the touring Fletcher Henderson, the company introduced music in every genre – including opera, choral groups and symphony orchestra.

Things were going so well for Harry Pace that, in an interview with writ-ers for the New York Age in August of 1922, he talked about manufacturing a “Swanola” phonograph. He felt that this part of the business had not yet been fully developed. But Pace’s com-pany was looking forward to having its own plant for the making of phono-graphs as well as records and looked forward to employing colored mechan-ics as soon as they could be properly trained. This was Harry Pace’s final dream for Black Swan Records.

The Decline of Black Swan Records


But despite the successes that Pace Phonograph Corporation, Inc. ex-perienced in the market, more than ever through the next two years, obtain-ing Black art-ists became increasingly harder as the major white companies be-gan to bid com-petitively for their services. That competi-tion became very costly and led to price-cutting by white-owned labels such as Okeh, Paramount and Columbia. Many African-American especially from the entertainment community, resented Pace for breaking his prom-ise of an all-Black recording company.

Though he continued to state in adver-tisements that the enterprise was run only by Blacks and that they produced only recordings by Black musicians, it was proven that the company was pressing records that used music by white ensembles such as the Original Memphis Five. Pace began to lose the respect and confidence of the musician community and it became even more difficult to sustain a quality product.

In March of 1923, the Pace Phono-graph Company was renamed The Black Swan Phonograph Co., a sure signal that trouble was coming. By the summer of 1923, no new recordings of Black Swan were announced. Pace summed up these troubles in a letter sent to Roi Ottle: “Business became so great that we bought a plant in Long Island City that we used as a record-ing laboratory, and a pressing labo-ratory, and shortly afterwards trans-ferred all shipping over to the plant. We were selling around 7,000 records a day and had only three presses in the factory, which could make 6,000 records daily. We ordered three addi-tional presses in 1923 that were made especially to improve the readiness for radio broadcasting. When they broke, this spelled doom for us.

“Immediately dealers began to cancel orders that they had placed, records were returned and unaccepted, many record stores became radio stores, and we found ourselves making and sell-ing only about 3,000 records daily and then it came down to 2,000. Our fac-tory closed for two weeks at a time,

and finally the factory was sold at a sheriff’s sale and brought by a Chi-

cago firm who made records for Sears & Roe-buck Company. However, this did not com-pletely defeat us, and we con-tinued to have records made at a concern in Connecticut and sold these repeat orders for a year or so until the thing finally came to a close.” In De-cember of 1923, Black Swan Re-cords declared b a n k r u p t c y ,

and in May of 1924, Paramount an-nounced a deal to lease the Black Swan Catalog. Black Swan Records was history.

Pace Moves On

As for Harry Pace, he moved on to become a major player in the African-American insurance industry between 1926 and 1940. He was down but not out. After shifting gears, he moved to Chicago and became a member of the Negro middle class. At the age of 46, he returned to law school and earned his law degree. He be-came a mentor and adviser to John H. John-son founder of Ebony Maga-zine and the president of Johnson Pub-lications. Pace passed away from illness n 1943.

Black Swan Influences

The long-term impact of Black Swan Records is too complex to elaborate upon fully here. One of the major consequences was that Paramount, Columbia and other recording compa-

nies could no longer ignore Black mu-sicians and singers.

The Black Swan Discography still has value. As late as 1987, Jazzology Records announced its intention to revive the name and reissue the se-ries of early recording. Ethel Waters, Fletcher Henderson. William Grant Still, Alberta Hunter and many others used Black Swan as a training period and went on to achieve outstanding success within the entertainment in-dustry.

It also opened up entertainment and recording industries to Blacks as well as attracted initially important advertisement in Black newspapers from major record and entertainment companies. Today, the many musical recording and entertainment stars who earn enormous salaries and have worldwide recognition should learn of the pride and self-determination of-- the Black Swan Recording Company.

Pure Jazz has been questioned about what happened to Black Swan Re-cords and the individuals involved. Thank you Jitu Weusi. It is a wonder-ful story. Below are two links that will keep you intrigued.

www.planetslade.com/black-swan-blues2.html

http://pmccray.hubpages.com/hub/The-Black-Swan-Elizabeth-Taylor-Greenfield

Jitu Weusi, is co-owner of For My Sweet, premier Jazz club located in Brooklyn and vanguard writer


We are the last of the beboppers the last of the genuine

the original of a way of being seeing the start of

a hipness for the second half of the twentieth century as it relates

to another from anotheraway of being and a way of seeing

from the head of as the body follows another way of living

and seeing culture is bebop it is the chalice

culture holds the components the pieces making our lives

what they are in its most real waynot dreams fantasies real

inside on top of reality

culture is how we live why we live

where we live what we live for/inwhen we live and we always live

bebop is a place in our real estatea piece of who how and what we desire/be/were...

in the vessel

Culture is... holding our sensibilities

a wealthy corporation of wholenessreceiving interpreting refining

passing on sometime regurgitating

We are the last the original of this kind

a period not to be againa place not to be revisited

in this waycan not must not be

for struggle always goes forward elevating that specialness

bestowed upon the chosen

writing dancing singing playing painting

writing singing dancingpainting playing calculating

images on celluloid

Observing tastes cooking and blending creatively

into the requiem of time

this is how we livedthe best and worst of us

Our Culture

is...By Ted Wilson


Vinyl Man’s SpinSomething Old, Something New…

By Ed Dessisso

I have had that blue mood lately; the one that begs retreat, reflection and the renewal of caring friendships. We all get these spells from time to time. They come with disappointments, loss, the demon of debt and abject loneliness. I was using the subtle har-monics of Mal Waldron to dissipate the mood, but didn’t have a sufficient amount of his work on vinyl or digital-ly to get the job done. Frankly, there is too little recorded material here in America on Malcolm Earl Waldron’s greatness. My soon depleted stack of vinyl forced my hunger for his music to raid the internet to see what could be had from the “You Tube” universe. I was so rewarded that I vowed to make mention of the treasures to be found on the world wide web in this edition of my Spin. Truly, my column is dedicated to the wonderful sonic ex-perience that analogue vinyl record-ing affords a listener, but there exists an archive of important and rare mu-sical gems stored in the ethers of the world wide web that everyone with a computer can enjoy for just the time it takes to dial the music up.

For reasons of research or just to fa-miliarize yourself with artists you don’t know, nothing is quite as con-venient (or as inexpensive) as the digital library at service to your com-puter browser. In the search engine, everyone is there; from the arcane to the mundane, from Ellington to every-man, from the really great to the ‘also ran’. I’m not ashamed to say I found a lot of really great Mal Waldron on the internet. I not only defeated my nega-tive mood, I was able to witness magi-cal combinations of Mr. Waldron’s genius with Jackie McLean, Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, Jim Pepper, Archie Shepp, Billie Holiday, Charlie Rouse, Ed Blackwell and a roster of European artists of equivalent celeb-rity. My Waldron web experience has inspired a new list of must haves for

my vinyl searches when my shopping muse returns. Waldron was a disciple of Theloni-ous Monk and Bud Powell “and was a pianist of stubborn singularity, with a rigorous, flinty individualism as un-concernedly independent as Monk’s, though not as bold in conception or memorable in theme”, according to John Fordham’s Guardian obituary. Classically trained on piano, the Wal-dron I enjoy listening to is the gifted minimalist who is able to frame any-one to their best effect, no matter what the tune. He was a master of time shifts and could keep the inten-sity of any tune no matter how slowly presented. Solo Mal Waldron piano is some of the most hypnotically engag-ing Jazz recorded. Sad and lonely for sure, Waldron’s relentless blues at-tack is fire-on-fire for the melancholic mood. Every note is a personal testa-ment to isolation and the frightening world of alienation. Like his mentors, Waldron could profoundly impact the tempo of a tune with the simplest of chord figures and contrast his musi-cal simplicity with elaborate, elegant and complex solos that change direc-tions and tell stories within the mu-sic. Mal Waldron’s music has geogra-phies as well as periods. He recorded significantly across Europe, America and Japan with different artists in each locale. He was stylistically ver-satile from bebop through free music and will always be remembered as the accompanist for Billie Holiday in the last two years of her performing life. The Waldron composing portfolio has the standards “SOUL EYES” and “ALL ALONE” to head a list of origi-nal works that continue to challenge and thrill the repertory of Jazz per-formers everywhere. Avail yourself of “You Tube” by all means and listen to the wealth of Wal-dron on display for the taking. Each tune you’ll d i s c o v e r is another layer of un-derstanding that decodes a musical personality of enormous c o m p l e x -ity with the gift of sim-ple expres-sion and an evolved sense of the blues. On “You Tube” I listened to a Mal Waldron recital of Erik Satie’s “DESESPOIR AGREABLE”, a French

classical etude produced in Japan by an African American musical auteur. The wonders of Jazz music and the brilliance of Jazz artists are tailor made for a living library the size and shape of the world wide web. From my perch in the vein of vinyl music, I for-mally endorse the use of the internet to boost the appreciation of the music and remind of its ability to point the way to existing vinyl treasure that can be acquired for the price of investiga-tion and the follow through of PayPal or a credit card. The vinyl is out there and the internet can help you find it. At very minimum, the internet can play the music for you, the rest is up to you. I am enriched beyond words by the op-portunity to listen to “ALL ALONE”, Waldron’s signature tune, in rendi-tions by Waldron and Jackie McLean; Waldron and Eric Dolphy; and Wal-dron and Archie Shepp. Other artists covered the song in duet form with Waldron as well but these particu-lar renditions spoke deeply to me of elemental urban living with distinct geographic references attached to each. I hear Philadelphia in Dolphy’s horn; no one sounds New York quite like McLean and Shepp is pan-urban squared. Nothing in my collection could have afforded me the unique experience of comparing so many un-discovered facets of one artist’s talents as my internet investigation of Mal Waldron. I just didn’t know. And now that I do know, my vinyl quests are greatly enriched. I listen with smarter ears to the Waldron piano in the Min-gus Workshop; to the arrangements of early Prestige Recordings of various artists when Waldron was the ‘house’ pianist; to the output of his trios, quartets and quintets when he collab-orated with Coltrane and Cherry and Farmer and Grover. The web trav-elled me from my computer screen to Waldron duets in Germany, Brussels,

Japan and the Village V a n g u a r d back in the day. Thanks to some dig-ital magic, I can, at least, hear the creativity of a journey-man piano master who played for the world, until I can find the vi-nyl master-pieces that I

want to own. All praises to the search engine, the living library as it reigns

Mal Waldron


among us. It is a mighty sword with which to slay the dragons of igno-rance and anonymity; a viable method of keeping account of what has been played and the music in mind. My excursion into Waldron introduced me to a pantheon of ‘foreign’ artists with names to remember like Peacock and Warren and Hino and to Uematsu and Avenel, and so many others. It re-minded me of how wide the longitude of Jazz is capable of stretching; how trans-culturally emotional the musi-cal language is able to inhabit the hu-man spirit; it taught me again that the blues is a universal template capable of manifesting in the furthest reaches of humanity with none of us immune to its effects. My excursion into Wal-dron re-enforced my gratitude to the generations of skilled musicians who dedicated themselves to finding and creating the pathways out of the hell-ish isolation, the brackish loneliness of the blues, for the greater uplift of mankind in total. When you need to fight fire with fire, you’re grateful for the aid of the person who knows what they’re doing. If you need to fight the blues, Mal Waldron will put you back on your feet and he will get you through.

The music we listened towent with the way we dressed

the way we dressedwent with the music we listened to

The sounds we saw were the colors we heard

the combinations on our backs played out in our headsrepeating without being repetitious

stripes with chordslines flowed through plaids

weaving melodic phrases into tweeds

A rhythmic cacophony of soundsbring together a soft pastel colored shirt

with a smooth silk tieas smooth as the melodypropelled by the first note

into a chorus that spoke of cool/hip

NOTES…

Mashed gently into a three piece allegory ordouble breasted allegro

covered by a British Warmer or Chesterfield overcoattopped off by the slickest of brims

with class and stylea quarter note of harmony with kicks that matched

the combination of bass and drums yeah!

The brim, kicks and overcoat were the rhythm sectionwith that we stepped to a new place

a new mind set and a new vision with a not yet tried approach

Ted Wilson

*reprinted from SLO’ Dance- an earlier published collection

NOTES FROM ANOTHER TIME*

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African American Classical Music

Pure Jazz Historic Moment

Ed Dessisso is a Free Lance writer and is the author of Vinyl Man, which is regular column in this publication.

Cannonball Adderly and the guys performing at a loft club


The concert at Lincoln Center last Saturday night was aptly named, Jazz Meets Clave. It was like a re-play of that halcyon era in the 1940’s, when Dizzy Gillespie and Mario Bauza – Afro-American and Af-ro-Cuban master musicians – put their heads togeth-er and decided to experiment with a new sound that has become world famous as “Latin Jazz,” a distinct genre in the lexicon of Jazz music. Since this music was a mixture of the musical traditions of the two cul-tures, the Son Montuno and Jazz, and was concocted by Afro-Americans and Afro-Latin’s in Manhattan when the Bebop style invented by Bird and Diz was

“au courant”, this new synthesis became known as “Cubop”. The music played in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s beautiful Rose Hall by the great orches-tra that resides there, on last Saturday night, can be considered an exten-sion of that experiment.

One of the highlights of the evening was a compo-sition by Carlos Enriquez, the bassist in the Lincoln Center Orchestra, who is Puerto-Rican, or more ac-curately Nuyorican. The

piece was inspired by the Orchestra’s recent trip to Cuba. In his introduction of the composition, Carlos explained how the trip to that culturally rich Carib-bean isle was a musical and cultural revelation. He was first of all surprised to discover the high level of musicianship displayed by the young musicians of Cuba, as well as the educational system that trains them. Frankly I was astonished by his surprise, be-cause all one needs to do is look at the musicians who have migrated from that island to New York City, or simply come here to perform -like Chucho Valdez, whom I consider the greatest pianist in the world - to know that something rare and exciting is going on musically in Cuba. Chucho is not alone at the top of his game; the same argument can be made for the contra-bassist Carlos Del Pino; the multi-reed virtuoso Paquito de Rivera; or the trumpeter Arturo Sandoval – the only trumpeter in the world who can potentially rival Wynton Marsalis in his multi-lin-

gual virtuosity. And there are so many great Cuban percussionists that they defy tabulation.

In an eloquent and eru-dite monologue Carlos told us how the differ-ent movements of his composition were based on various rhythms and song forms that are integral to the Af-ro-Cuban style, and explained how they would alternate with the swing of Jazz. Un-like some ill-fated at-tempts to synthesize musical genres, this composition was a rousing success. The result was a performance of great drama, as the musicians in-terpreted this inspired and original score constructed on complex poly-rhythms and poignant blues voicing of various shades. This composition also featured an extended solo on the timbales, an instrument that of-fers far less to work with than the drum set preferred by Jazz drummers; yet it is critical to the Afro-Cuban rhythm section. Consisting of only two tom-toms on a stand, with two cowbells mounted on it, plus a ride cymbal, the timbales are a minimalist version of the Jazz drum kit.

The Jazz drum set is the most complex percussion instrument in the world, and by far the most difficult to play when performing in the modern Jazz context. While I am not prepared to say who played this instru-ment first, African American drummers in the United States created the great virtuoso tradition and are its greatest artists. To understand the complexity of the Jazz drummer’s art, let’s examine the art of precision rudimental trap drumming alone. Here I am refer-ring to the art of the snare, or trap drum. This kind of drumming is common to military style marching bands, including high school and especially the great college marching bands. The rhythmic compositions to which the band marches called ‘cadences’, are con-structed on twenty eight ‘rudiments.’ These rhyth-mic exercises, such as five stroke rolls, seven stroke rolls, flams, ratamacues, paradiddles, flam paradid-dles, etc., are very precise rhythmic statements, sort

By Playthell Benjamin

Jazz Meets Clave!

The JALC Orchestra

Wynton Marsalis

Dizzy Gillespie


of like etudes for drums. A won-derful re-c r e a t i o n of what it was like to try and make the great Flor-ida A&M drum sec-tion can be seen in the movie, “Drumline”.

Most jazz drummers had the benefit of this kind of rudimental training on the snare drum, having grown up playing in marching bands; but in the set the snare is only one of four or five drums, depending on the drummer’s taste. It is however the lead drum from which all rhythmic configura-tions are initiated. The standard set is snare, small tom-tom, and floor tom-tom, plus the bass drum.

In terms of the human voice it would be like soprano, tenor, baritone and basso; if they were viols it would be violin, viola, cello and conta-bass. When the jazz drummer tunes these drums, and some fine tune them to the pitch of the piano, a variety of per-cussive voices are possible.

That’s why the great Jazz drummers with musical imaginations – like Max Roach, Art Blakey or Jack De Johnette - sound as if they are playing melodically. Aside from the drums however there are at least three cym-bals; two are mounted on stands – some drummers prefer three – and the sock cymbal is played with the foot. The essence of the art of playing the drum set is to be able to play a different rhythm with each hand and foot. Hence the Jazz drummer cre-ates a complex poly-rhythmic state-ment by his lonesome.

The timbales are sparse in compari-son, but unlike the Jazz set the tim-bale player is not expected to carry the percussion rhythm alone; timbale-ros are accompanied by the conga and bongo drummers, guido or clave and the big cow bell. When each instru-ment is in the groove, they produce a

poly-rhythmic sound that compels the listener to dance. Thus the timbalero usually has help from other percus-sionists while the Jazz drummer is expected to supply all the percussion functions in the band. On this occa-sion the timbalero was a true master of his instrument and rendered an electrifying solo! When I first saw Afro-Cuban musicians play at Florida A&M I wasn’t at all impressed with the timbales. But that would change once I began to understand the na-ture of the instrument and the skill required to play them. And when I started to study the congas I came to admire, respect, and even love them. Part of the genius of the art of timbale playing is that they do so much with so little equipment.

Every part of the timbales can be played. Whereas jazz drummers play only on the skins of the drums, with the occasional rim shots, the timbale-ro plays all over the drums - the rims and the sides too. The skins are used to accent the rhythms that are steadi-ly played on the sides or the cowbells, and used for dynamic solos. The Afro-Cuban rhythm section is so pre-cisely worked out that every rhythm fits perfectly in its “pocket.” In other words, each man to his station in the rhythmic jig saw.

After a swinging interlude in which Ali, the trap drummer with the JALC, announced his presence like rolling thunder, Marcus Printup gave a solo of great sensual beauty, playing with a wide vibrato; the influence of his Cu-ban sojourn could clearly be heard as he conjured up memories of the great Afro-Cuban trumpeter, Chaputin. The composition and the set ended with an impressive solo from Carlos on the bass.

The second set began with the audi-ence being shown how to clap the clave rhythm, and Ali soloed on the drum set as they clapped in time. Then Carlos started walking the bass and Ali began swinging hard. The music is a movement from Wynton’s “Third American Symphony”, and it is very modern. Moving at the frantic pace of rush hour traffic on the West Side Highway, which is clearly visible from the piano where Wynton com-posed it, the influence of environment on the way musicians imagine music is very clear. In any case it’s clear to me; I don’t know if Wynton thinks of it that way…but it is there.

As in all of the performances the solo work was marvelous. First there was a kind of rapid fire interplay between Wynton and the trombonist. Wynton played magnificently, even though

he had just been back in his dress-ing room suffering with aching eyes. Walter Blanding Jr., my favorite ten-or prayer of the younger generation, gave a spell-binding solo on the so-prano sax. Obviously by his choice of horns, he is following in the footsteps of “John (Coltrane)- the Prophet”.

The next composition was also written by Carlos, who was obviously smitten with the great musical tradition of Af-ro-Cubans. This composition is based on the Songo form created by the Cu-ban master musician Chungito. The tune utilized the 6/8 time signature which is the rhythm of the most sa-cred of Afro-Cuban religions societies, like Santeria. However being Afro-Latin, raised in New York, he hears both traditions in a marvelous way. His orchestrations were fresh and highly inventive.

Carlos is extremely fortunate to be in a musical organization like JALC, because it allows him to fully exercise his musical imagination as a com-p o s e r . Like the Ellington O r c h e s -tra, the g i f t e d m u s i -c i a n s a r o u n d whom he is sur-rounded are capable of playing anything he can invent. This gives all the mem-bers of the band an added incentive to write, thus contributing to the band’s book of original compositions. Again the solo work by the trombonist was breathtaking. Surely when John Phillip Sousa chose trombonists for his band he never imagined anybody playing the instrument with such lyr-icism and imagination.

The next tune was a Cuban standard the “Peanut Vender”. However Car-los explained the history of the tune then delighted the audience with the announcement that this particular arrangement was done by the great Duke Ellington. This further estab-lishes the long standing interest Afro-American musicians had in Cuban music. To listen to the JALC perform this music with the standard Afro-Cuban rhythm section was a wonder. You could not tell they were not a Cu-ban orchestra. Another trumpeter took an extended solo that captured the flavor of the tune. The Latin per-cussionists were right in the pocket all night. Duke’s arrangement was in-toxicating, with that unique Ellington voicing for the different sections.Chucho Valdes

Mario Bauza

Arturo Sandoval


The trombonist Vincent Gardner, a former member of the FAMU march-ing band, wrote the next composition titled “Afro and Cubans.” A some-what strange title, which made me wonder if it was a reference to the fact that race conscience black Cubans do not consider themselves “Hispanic,” which they see as the proper designa-tion for those Cubans who descended from the Spaniards. They are quite aware of the fact that they are neo-Africans of the west. When I asked Vincent how much his composition was influenced by the cultural redefi-nition that is occurring among black Cubans, which is rife among Cuban hip-hop artists, he said it was this Afro-Cuban perspective that inspired the work.

The Conga drummer was featured in an extended solo on this tune. He was playing three congas, all tuned to dif-ferent keys, and he sounded like he had six hands!!! He was accompanied only by other rhythm instruments. His solo was followed by an extended solo on the timbales. It was an im-pressive demonstration of the art of Afro-Cuban percussion. I continue to be amazed by the level of virtuosity achieved by performers on these per-cussion instruments.

The final tune of this historic con-cert came from the song book of the late great Tito Rodriquez. While it’s rhythms were typical Afro-Cuban and it was dance music, the horn arrange-ments display the advanced knowl-edge of blues harmonies and Jazz en-semble arranging that is the hallmark of the New York salsa sound in its big band Latin /Jazz expression begun by Machito and elaborated on by Nuyori-cans. Wynton soloed on this tune and he used a mute, which allowed him to scream, laugh and cry on his trumpet. His sound was majestic! The rhythm was an up-tempo mambo of the sort made famous at places like the Pal-ladium and all those fantastic nights at the Village Gate. The bongo drum-mer got his moment on this tune and he thrilled the crowd with his virtuos-ity on those two little drums that look like toys. I have watched bongo play-ers for years – including the best ever, Mongo Santamaria – and it remains a mystery to me how they do what they do. When the last note was sounded the audience rose to its feet in a pro-longed and boisterous ovation!

Viva la musica!

Playthell Benjamin is an award winning journalist, his blog is: http://commentariesonthetimes.wordpress.com/

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Where the Music & the Universe Meet

Space Is The Place [Sun Ra Film 1974]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwNtxFH6IjU. Sun Ra, Brother From Another Planethttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqZHzpAYVIk In short Who Is Sun Ra? Watch them both, then decide which one you like better, if you choose. Anyway, it’s all Sun Ra!

It seems as if roaming over the internet looking for websites for people to review could be something to just be doing. I guess it could feel a lot like play-ing around but actually it is an important thing to do for our own personal information, given the history that Jazz has to contribute. In this issue I have chosen to give you both old and new artists, to give you a cross section of this awesome music.

Alberta HunterAlberta Hunter, blues singer, left the show biz stage in 1954 to enter the medical field upon retirement. In 1977 she successfully resumed her singing career at 82. Born in Memphis, she moved to Chicago and began a career that spanned the twentieth century. Club appearances, plays, films and touring Europe certainly made her a Grand Dame. Watch her film, “My Castle Rockin “: http://www.snag-films.com/. Click in, and put “Alberta Hunter”. Keep playing her “Handy Man”.

Rufus Harley Rufus Harley, Jazz bagpiper, learned C-melody saxophone, trumpet, flute, oboe and many other instruments as child. He became inspired when he heard “Black Watch” (Royal Highland Regiment of Scotland) who played in the John F. Ken-nedy 1963 funeral procession. He found his pipe and played internationally. His first appearance was in 1964 and he went on to record four recordings for the Atlantic label. He recorded with many artists, including The Roots in 1995’s “Do You Want More!!! Harley wore Scottish attire, including a kilt and MacLeod tar-tan. There’s a lot more to Rufus Harley. Check out his movie “Pipes and Peace”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NczQ7A0oLTQ

Sheryl Rene “More than Vocals”After honing her talent over a long period of time, she decided to come to what she calls the music capital of the world-- New York City. Here for only a few years, she has hit us like a tidal wave. You can check out her style from the ex-amples she has included on her site; videos which give a wide example of range; songs which give us the view of more than a singer. She assists her fellow per-formers by forming “SR Productions”, which offers not only advice but also helps with websites and other social media experiences. Check out Sheryl athttp://www.sherylrenee.com . Whether you are an audience member or a talented artist, you will love Sheryl Renee!

Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Arkestra He is the person whose film gave us the name for this column. Ask avid Jazz enthusiasts what kind of music Sun Ra plays and you will get a multitude of an-swers. It’s the kind of music that you have to hear…. because the music comes to us from another planet. Here are two films that will give you an idea about Sun Ra and his music. It is known as one of the best ‘cult movies ever made; one that never get the thanks or praise it deserves. It is difficult to watch because it has various stages of things we don’t really need to see. I had to watch it to the end and it was only after watching “Space Is The Place” that the music of Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Arkestra really made any real sense. After watching the entire film, it absolutely makes sense.



Theo HillGrooving With


Right in the middle of ‘who’s who’ on the 88’s, is a quiet firebrand from Albany, New York, who I first heard holding down the killer rhythm sec-tion at Bill’s Place in Harlem. Theo Hill guided “Bill Saxton’s All Stars” into the deconstruction of a B Flat Blues that left the club in smoking ashes. Bill blamed it on me because he is always gracious enough to play Ammon’s “Hitting the Jug” which we both revere, but this occasion wit-nessed an on-going blues clinic by Hill who ignited the joint with continu-ous choruses that reconfigured the blues attack from different angles. No one could say what got into him but Hill would not let the tune go. He kept reworking it and rebirthing it into a monster blues interpretation I will never forget. His skill was such that the stride of Johnson, Willie the Lion, Father Hines, Basie, King Cole, Waller and all the other greats were rolled out for display in all its ele-gance. I had come to expect the very best in Jazz at Saxton’s club but this was beyond extraordinary. How could anyone expect such terrifying accom-plishment from one so young, so hum-ble, and so new on the scene? It was not until a beautiful day ear-ly this summer that I got to answer my own question. Hosting me during what is Theo Hill’s practice time, I gained insight to the roots of virtuosity and a clear look at the work he does in the ‘off-hours’. Seated in the sanctu-ary of Hill’s rehearsa l studio, I ex-per ienced the momen-tary bliss of seeing the world from the edge of a great musical portal, where any direction leads to wonder-ful music and the magic that only music is capable of creating. Those feelings fade far too soon, because I only play the radio and the turn-table. The magic of creation belongs to musicians and while I am not one

of them, the refreshment in the mu-sician’s environment is still present enough to quicken my dilettante’s blood. We talked. From the quiet/pas-sionate place he sees the world; Theo Hill shared his sense of the music and a bit about the places he wishes to go in that universe. He gave me ex-amples of his work ethic and his work style. Hill demonstrated a technique by which he evolves improvisations and he showed me the importance of rehearsing. The whole interview, for me, was a deep immersion into the soul of a committed music maker whose view of the future, while un-charted in some aspects, is none the less on path for his own quadrant of the excellence and greatness associ-ated with the musical brilliance we know and love as Jazz.

PJ: What are you doing with the mu-sic? And start with last night’s per-formance at Small’s. I haven’t heard “INTREPID FOX” since Hubbard did it back in the day.

TH: That’s one of the things I’m really excited about and something I’m proud to be a part of at Smalls Jazz Club. It began with my 30th birthday celebra-tion at Smalls, which turned out to be a really great night with a lot of great

cats. My musical mentors--adopted fathers, c a m e out to support as well as my p e e r s , lots of awesome younger c a t s ,

friends and family. It was a special night. Since then it’s become a regular after-hours Tuesday night hang. Part of what makes it special is that we’ve been blessed to have Frank Lacy not only play but lead us in his arrange-ments ‘cause he shared the bandstand with “Bu”(Art Blakey) and so many

great masters. To be able to have an elder on stage with us is a powerful element. “Roots” (Frank Lacy) likes to call tunes by composers from his gen-eration like Freddie Hubbard, George Cables, Woody Shaw, Charles Fam-brough and Wayne Shorter. There is a lot of great music from that era that doesn’t get played so I feel like it is wonderful to be able to have his men-torship.

PJ: How long have you been playing as a unit?

TH: It’s interesting you know. I start-ed playing with “Roots” at St. Nick’s Pub on Wednesday nights some years ago. That’s how we started, at the Pub until it closed down. The Pub was home for so many great musi-cians uptown. It was one of the places that I also started making music with Stacy Dillard and Josh Evans. They are two of my favorite musicians on the scene. I’ve known Stacy for almost 10 years, something like that; Josh also for years, I forget how many. I’ve played with the cats in so many differ-ent situations over the years, various Jazz communities, depending on the bandleader or if I’m playing uptown, downtown or wherever. But this group has been together since the end of May.

PJ: Talk to me about the rest of the rhythm section. I understand mem-bers come in and go out?

TH: Yeah, especially now that it’s summer. A lot of musicians are on tour, there’s a lot happening, people are on the road, so in general the fac-es change according to who’s in town. It’s really a community of people. We try to get with the most like-minded people possible. Also the pairing of bass and drums is very important, so I build on top of that connection care-fully. We’ve been lucky to have really good members but it’s difficult to keep anybody consistently because cats are doing other things. Everyone is busy.

PJ: Well the sympatico between you and the other members of the section, last night was something to behold, very special indeed.


TH: Ameen Saleem is a wonderful bassist and we’re lucky to have his talents. He’s currently Roy Hargrove’s bassist. In addition to being a great person he’s so creative, so inventive, and a pleasure to make music with. Ameen is a special player because he can hook up with anyone and make it feel good.

PJ: He worked very well with your drummer last night. I understand they are not necessarily regulars with the front line horns. I thought that was incredible, given the cohesion that the sound had. I felt it was spe-cial, given that they were less than rehearsed and not exactly the regular crew.TH: Actually the first time we played together was several nights before. So I used the same cats and kept it loose like a jam session. I think it re-ally helped but you know we’re kind of used to that (the changing faces in a group) so we try to fit in where we can and try to hold it down.

PJ: Take it down another street. In the face of where music is right now, as regards hip-hop and the lack of musicianship, what’s the future, par-ticularly for a young musician holding down Jazz?

TH: First of all good music is good music. Today, lack of musicianship in music today is something that crosses into all genres and unfortunately too much of the mainstream. There are a lot of current trends that I’m not with and when I hear them I feel more concerned and disconnected with the younger generation for where their taste is because it is hard for me to relate to the music and the message. There are a lot of negative messages that are being put out and sold that I don’t find all so healthy. With that being said, there’s some really great music being put forth on all fronts that’s happening now. Now is a really exciting time. There is a movement of young artists who are pioneering new directions in all different kinds of music--especially Jazz and Black American music. There’s great mu-sic coming out on small independent labels, music challenging the norm and different cultures are coming to-

gether in new ways through music. Unfortunately, the masses don’t hear enough of this music on the radio or TV. It’s also exciting because we still have masters like Roy Haynes, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Han-

cock…with us to show us the way. My influences are not strictly from Jazz. I’m only 30 so I also came up listening to rap, hip-hop, alternative, classical, rock, punk, electronica, reggae…It’s just part of me and the music I grew up with you know? But I’m affected by everything out here.

PJ: What does that mean for the health of Jazz?

TH: On the scene right now, I’m seeing more and more young cats invested in the music and moving the music for-ward. I’m meeting young people who love this music like I do. They’ve got that youthful energy, inquisitiveness, and passion and are taking the mu-sic to the next level. Young cats like Justin Faulkner and Christian Sands remind me that the music is definitely in good hands with the younger gen-eration. In my high school I was one of the few kids that even knew about Jazz. That’s just me in over 2000 kids. I did graduate from the same high school as Stephon Harris. I didn’t know him personally because he was 9 years older than me, but he’s the one cat from my hometown that made it. We did get to perform together on one occasion. He was one of the cats I looked up to, bought all his records and could relate to him as a homey. But today, because of the growth of Jazz institutions, I feel that there are more opportunities for young musi-cians and playing Jazz is a more of a possibility.

PJ: That must have been a tough scene for the music coming up; not being able to play gigs in your home-town of Albany?

TH: Actually I was playing gigs around Albany as early as 14. In addition to playing at local bars and nightclubs with older local cats I was a member of the “Empire State Youth Orches-tra” and the “College of St. Rose Jazz Ensemble”—two big bands where I formed some of my first musical rela-tionships with kids my age. But I was also very blessed in that I come from a musical family. My grandfather was a pianist and was a conductor in the Army Band. I have aunts and great aunts who were pianists. My mother was a dancer. My father’s a drummer and a real Jazz lover. I grew up with records all over my house. There was music everywhere. I started playing classical music with my first piano teacher, Mary Moran, when I was five. She was a fabulous teacher and I was really blessed to have her. It eventually got to the point where at the age of 12, I decided to study with my first Jazz teacher, Lee Shaw, who was a student of Oscar Peterson and heavily influenced by Bill Evans. I consider her to be my musical “moth-er.” She gave me the foundation nec-essary to go sit in at jam sessions and play with cats who were open to help-ing a newcomer along the way. When I was 16, I had my parents take me down to Smalls to go sit in and then I knew what I wanted to do.

PJ: You seem to have chops in both Jazz and classical music if I’m hear-ing you correctly?

TH: Yes, I have grounding in both forms but I really wish that I had studied classical music longer, I re-ally do.

PJ: Why is that?

TH: Because the piano, unlike the drum set, has over 400 years of Euro-pean classical tradition that you can’t just ignore. Well, let me not say that. Every instrument has it’s own deep tradition. But I find the older I get that I have to go back further. I al-ways have to go back because there’s always something to be learned from the old masters. It increases your depth as an artist. So I studied with Lee Shaw until I graduated high

On the scene right now, I’m seeing more and more young cats invested in the music and moving the music forward.


school and went on to SUNY Purchase. I could have gone to school in the city but I connected with a great teacher at Purchase who opened a lot of doors for me. Charles Blenzig was a giving and selfless teacher and just a very cool cat. There were no secrets in his teaching style. Straight information always: “What do you want to work on? This? Here you go…” He used to run the jam sessions at the Blue Note on Friday and Saturday nights. He had been doing this for many years and that was the real school because every weekend we would hang out downtown, get in the Blue Note for free, hang out with the cats backstage and get invited to sit in with world class musicians after his set. I got to play with and be around cats like Donald Edwards, Sean Conly, Essiet Essiet, Eric Harland, and many other great musicians. It was around that time that I got into hanging out at clubs like Smalls and Zinc Bar. I also studied with Hal Galper who had a huge impact on my playing.

PJ: Everything was poured into you. Where are you going with all that? What’s the attack?

TH: I’ve got a lot of things going on. I wish I could narrow down my focus but so much is of interest right now. I feel like I’m still developing, so much is still changing, I can’t say that I’ve found my place yet. I’m trying to con-nect with “my voice” -- is what I re-ally want to say. I’m doing the sextet at Smalls on Tuesdays with Josh and “Roots”, I’m working with lots of dif-ferent bands as a sideman, and I’m touring with different groups, and working with my trio. I did a trio re-cord last year with Joe Sanders and E.J. Strickland that I’m trying to put out. It’s my first effort as a leader. It was the culmination of two concerts at the Jazz Gallery that I was really proud of.

PJ: The Jazz Gallery is a very capable environment.

TH: The Gallery is one of those great New York Jazz institutions where I had the honor of playing with Marcus Gilmore and Burniss Earl Travis and then a second time with Burniss and

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Obed Calvaire. It’s always been one of my favorite places to go hear music. When I was in school I would go check out Steve Coleman’s workshops. The Gallery is still one of the best places to check out new music and emerging artists.

PJ: It’s interesting that you feel you haven’t necessarily found your voice yet, because I find you capable of play-ing many kinds of styles well. I first became aware of you at Bill’s Place when you were there on Friday nights for that all out, no bullshit good time. I heard you do a tribute to Fats Waller that amazed me. I can still recall your stride from that night. That’s a func-tion of the broad styles you come out of. Can you talk a bit more about all that?

TH: It really comes from the people I’ve had the opportunity to study and play with. It really runs the gamut of more than 100 years of Black Ameri-can music. I’m only coming in on 20 years of study, but I have had to cover everything from early Jazz to modern music. I‘ve worked as a solo pianist, with big bands, all kinds of small en-sembles, for vocalists, tap dancers… I’ve had to play so many different styles because it has to do with sur-vival in the music industry. It’s very difficult to make a career these days playing in only just one style or only one group. I also enjoy playing differ-ent styles and playing different peo-ple’s music because it keeps me open minded.

PJ: Who do you consider your contem-poraries? By that I mean whose work do you feel you have to hear or keep abreast of for creative reasons?

TH: It’s always changing. When I was in school, I used to hang out in the old Zinc Bar. In those days you could go out and hear pianists like James Hurt, Raymond Angry, Jason Moran, Robert Glasper, David Kikoski and Eric Lewis one after the next. And each was so different and so expert, it was a non-stop lesson. I remember Eric on many a night where chorus after chorus he would build his solo until you wondered how could it pos-sibly get more intense. And it always

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would. Eric’s work is like that. But lately I’ve been checking out pianists like Gerald Clayton, Taylor Eigsti, David Virelles, Lawrence Fields, Da-vid Bryant and Harold O’Neal.

PJ: I was introduced to Eric’s music by a friend who used to hear him at Cleopatra’s Needle uptown; very pow-erful player. I gave him a Monk re-quest. I asked him for “EVIDENCE”. He had never played it before. He sight read it and knocked it right out. Convinced me.

TH: He is a real talent.

PJ: In putting your career together, did it cost you a social life? What was the sacrifice? Did you get to hang out?

TH: I’m definitely blessed to have my partner Michela who shares my love of Jazz and is a tap dancer. We perform together and form musical relationships with so many beautiful cats on the scene. Most of my friends are both musicians and mentors. They are like adopted family. People I can call on the phone and get valu-able advice from; people who share my dreams and love for the music. It’s a real family with a real sense of community. So I feel blessed to be able to go to work to play with and be around my favorite people. Also with so many young people on the scene, newcomers looking for entry into the field, meeting them and finding them so cool, with just the same vibe, you know, reassures me that the future of the music is changing but viable and healthy. It’s a great hang. With every generation, something new is

innovated and old ways are lost. But that’s just culture and the way it hap-pens. I’m striving to learn from the masters and creators of this music to carry on the tradition. I’m playing to those roots, reaching for that energy. There’s a gig in a couple of weeks where I’ll be playing with Victor Bai-ley, Jeff “Tain” Watts and Marcus Strickland. It’s the first time that I’ve played with this group and I’m really honored to be performing with them. “Tain” is one of those cats I have idol-ized my whole musical life. After all those years at Zinc, listening to his recordings over and over again, and transcribing Kenny Kirkland…I’m so thrilled to finally have the opportu-nity to play with him.

PJ: Are you getting to the places you want to go?

TH: I am pretty much. It isn’t hap-pening overnight. It’s taking a lot of time but that’s fine with me. I’m just striving to be a little bit better every day and learn something new from every opportunity.

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Ed Dessisso is a Free Lance writer and is the author of Vinyl Man, which is regular column in this publication.

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A Jazz Up-Bringing

at the Roots of Hip Hop

Part ThreeBy Willard Jenkins

Fab 5 Freddy

In part one (scroll down or check the archives) of our lively conversations with Fab 5 Freddy, the graffiti artist who was one of the pioneers of what has become the global pop phenom-enon known as hip hop, we discussed the heavy jazz influence on young Fred’s Brooklyn upbringing, which included the significant influences of his godfather, NEA Jazz Master Roach.

One course correction: the crib Fab described in part one, as Roach’s home on Gates Avenue, where Max, his dad Freddy Braithwaite, Sir and other Brooklyn Jazz ‘heads’, chess players and advanced thinkers would gather for their “jazz sets”, was actu-ally rented by Fab’s dad and several members of his crew.

It was a kind of hipsters’ clubhouse. “It was not Max’s but he surely was there often,” Fab corrected. “It was known and always referred to as 212 Gates Avenue.” In part two we explore the continuing influence of Max Roach and his encouragement of Fab’s early forays into what was then known as “rap” music and has become the broader global phenom-enon as hip hop.


Wj: Is it safe to say that some of Max’s early consc ious -ness of what was going on in early hip hop cul-ture came from you?

Fab: Oh yeah. One day Max came to visit my dad and asked what I’m into and my dad said ‘oh he’s into some rapping thing’. This was before (hip hop) blew up, this was the early 80s when we were having street block parties and what not (in Brooklyn). I was already mak-ing my moves on the arts scene and I was never trying to be a rapper but I had a few rhymes that I could get on the mic at a block party and do my thing. There was a DJ across the street who had built a nice system in his crib, so I would go over there and rap a little bit. So my dad was aware of this, unbeknownst to me; my fa-ther was never into much contempo-rary music - - with the exception of James Brown. So one day I came home and my father said Max had been there and “I told him you’ve been doing this rap thing with your man across the street”…Right away I get kind of nervous be-cause I never at that point considered anything music with the developing rap scene. I knew we weren’t playing instruments, we were making sounds and we were energetic and I knew this was a new thing that I dived into full speed ahead, but I didn’t consid-er it music-------- as in musician. My father said, “Max wants to check it out”, so I said OK. So we arranged a time a week or two later and he came through on my block on Hancock Street between Lewis and Summer (Brooklyn)-------which is now Marcus Garvey Blvd… which is very appro-priate. I prepped my DJ and we worked out a little routine. Once again the music is not formulated – the four-minute rap song is not developed, it’s just an “in the streets” equivalent to just jam-ming, no real structure. Max comes

by and I’m rhyming and my DJ is cutting up; he’s scratching… Max just peeped it. We did a little 20-min-ute thing and when we’re walking back to the house I’m think-ing ‘what the hell is Max gonna think of this shit?’ Max said, “Let me tell you guys something, that shit that you and your

man were doing was as incredible as anything that me, Bird, Dizzy and any of us were doing…” I’m thinking to myself [skeptically], ‘that’s so nice, trying to placate a young teenager…’ But that’s how Max was, always very encouraging, but I’m thinking to my-self, ‘yeah, right…’ Because I’m not seeing this as music, this a hip hop thing…

“Rapper’s Delight” was probably out as a big record at that point, nothing really breaking crazy like it is now. It wasn’t long after that through, me now making moves on the art scene and people knowing that I’m doing my thing on the downtown scene in New York, graffiti, introducing peo-ple to the beginnings of this hip hop culture, that a guy who promotes a lot of things with performance art-ists says, “Man, I found out that Max Roach is your godfather… We were talking with him about his M’Boom group…’” And he says, “Man, I feel like why don’t you do something with Max together…” And I’m like think-ing, ‘huh, how the hell…?’ Next thing I knew Max says “yeah, let’s do it…” So then I started to have these con-versations with Max, and Max says “yeah, you’re in charge, put this stuff together…”

This is the kind of enthusiasm he had and how ea-ger they were to check out some-thing new, which is the point Max made to me. He ex-plained how Bird and the guys were about checking out new things; about how when Olatunji came around

and they all jumped into the African thing and they were the first [genera-tion] to take African names. He was saying this also to explain how a lot of cats wanted him to continue playing the stuff that they architected back in the 40s and 50s, but Max was always saying ‘I’m always about checking out that new thing…’ Obviously Max was able to put that in full effect. Max had hipped Miles to my show “Yo MTV Raps” and [Miles] was checking it out. This was an extension of how Max would always bring me up when the hip hop thing came up.Another key thing that Max said to me after I gave him that demonstra-tion with DJ Spy, Max said, “…You know western music has for a long period of time been a balancing of three different things: melody, har-mony and rhythm in equal ways. As black folks have been involved in mu-sic we’ve added an increasing empha-sis on the rhythm element through-out the development of this music.” And Max, when he would have a con-versation like that would always say, “…from Louis Armstrong up until…” He said, “What you guys are doing is just totally rhythm…” Now that’s one thing that when he broke it down I said, ‘…oh shit, yeah…’ just grab-bing a piece of the music and having a way to manually manipulate the record to have this extended rhythm was something Max heard clearly. He also told me, “Man, if you don’t know it, this is so big what you guys are doing…” I’m like ‘yeah Max, great…’ [still skeptical]. It was the early 80s when I had this conversation with Max. By 1988 I’m

the host of the first nationally televised show to focus on this rap music [“Yo MTV Raps”] and go around the coun-try interviewing the different peo-ple who were de-fining this culture – everybody from Tupac and Snoop to Will Smith and

Run D.M.C., etc., etc. It would all become so much bigger than I ever, ever could have imagined… I’m talk-ing like on a global basis – where peo-

Max Roach

Fab 5 Freddy


ple who speak other languages could adopt this thing and make it theirs in a unique way. I thought back to what Max had said and how he was right, and how when we get into it, we were just gonna embrace this whole rhythm thing, and how just the verbal, this whole rapping thing was interesting. At what point did the light go on and you realized that this was part of a continuum – that what your father and Max and those guys were into… there was a straight-line continuum to what you and your contemporaries were getting into in the 80s?Fab: It was during that time that it blew up. I’m hosting “Yo MTV Raps,” which just came out of nowhere, that was never an intention of mine to be on camera doing things… I always wanted to do things culturally to help stir it up and create these big-ger platforms. A lot of my ability and understanding of that were things that I absorbed around my dad and his friends; knowing that Max Roach and these musicians were loved more so around the world than here… The fact that I knew people who were big in Paris, and Italy, and Japan was just amazing to me, it gave me a sense of the world as a very young kid.

Hence key things that I would make happen or launch or instigate in hip hop were motivated by these ideas – knowing that, wait a minute, this stuff that we’re doing in the ‘hood’ – in the Bronx or Brooklyn – is not hap-pening anywhere else in the world. To me that was interesting and I knew it would be at least accepted in other places around the world be-cause these people had embraced and understood the music we were mak-ing and put musicians like Max and them on a pedestal on a par with the greatest European musicians ever, and I felt that these people would at least appreciate the things we were doing, because at that time it was not in any way appreciated by main-stream culture here in America. And that led me to then do things which would become very significant. The first film on hip hop culture, “Wild Style,” I starred in, I did all the music for, I collaborated with a guy named Charlie Ahearn on the film.

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The initial idea I had was to make a film that showed that there was a link between this music, this rap-ping and DJ’ing, this break dancing and this graffiti art… there were no links [established previously]. I felt that they were all very similar and if we could put it together in a movie, in a story that depicted it as such, it would create a much more cohesive cultural picture and a look at what we were doing in the streets and the ghettos of New York. There was no positive press or mentions of a young kid with sneakers on and his hat to the side… you were made to look like you were one of those criminals that was destroying the city. So “Wild Style” the movie became this first look that many people around the world had and a spark that ignited them to get busy, and I’m proud of that. Those ideas came directly from the experiences I had being around those kind of individuals [like Max Roach] and knowing that they made global moves.

Willard Jenkins is a Jazz Journalist his blog is www.openskyjazz.com

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