Joe Locke - NYC Jazz Record

Joe Locke
Lay Down My Heart

Vibraphonist Joe Locke has released over a dozen
albums under his name in the last ten years. This most
recent release was recorded in a single day last October
with help from pianist Ryan Cohan, bassist David
Finck and drummer Jaimeo Brown. The blues and
ballads theme is a long running one with a wide range
of implied settings. From Lonnie Johnson’s pass-the-hat
Bluesville releases to McCoy Tyner’s simmering
standards, the theme has broad potential. This version
is pretty direct. The quartet tackles a handful of tunes
that are more blues-implied than strict 12-bar workouts,
with some radio-friendly ballads scattered throughout.
Vol. 1 suggests more to come. Considering Locke’s
work ethic, he could produce another 364 this year.

“Ain’t No Sunshine” opens the record with a
punctual solo from Locke over the stop-start groove of
the band. On a similarly well-worn adult contemporary
standard, Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me”,
the band approaches at a similar clip as the original. In
fact, Locke’s band could be interchangeable, with a
similarly unobtrusive piano part but with a marginally
brighter pulse from Brown’s kit.

The nicest aspect of the record is Locke’s tone. He
gets a warm sound from his vibraphone, which can
occasionally get hypnotic with its oscillating hum
lulling on the long notes. But the band can pick up the
tempo too. The quartet digs into a brisk blues on Sam
Jones’ “Bittersweet”, Locke roaring into a rapid solo
while Finck gets a chance to swing in the spotlight,
offering a healthy dose of melody and technique.
A pair of tunes from the Great American Songbook
closes out the album: “Makin’ Whoopee” is transformed
into a swaggering triple meter stride while “Dedicated
to You” is a languid duet between vibes and piano.
Like the rest of the album, it’s a gentle track that can
hover somewhere without being distracting. The band
is crisp and clean throughout but it wouldn’t hurt to
throw a little dirt on Volume 2.

Joe Locke @ NYC Jazz Record

The Raymond's Bar 1886 - LA Times

A frosted door, etched "Est 1886," greets visitors who wind past a small, canopied patio behind Pasadena's Raymond restaurant. That door was not there 127 years ago. Nor was the patio. Nor the restaurant.

Instead, the year refers to the first incarnation of the famed Raymond Hotel, straddling the hilltop border of Pasadena and South Pasadena and luring wealthy visitors with warm hospitality and warmer winters. Those carefree days of orange-scented glamour are gone, but a little of it remains at Bar 1886, where a small cocktail oasis offers labor-intensive libations and a crowd more resembling the low-lighted haunts of downtown than the sleepy, suburban sidewalks of Pasadena.

Unlike many other cocktail bars in Los Angeles, there is a welcoming casualness to Bar 1886. There is no unsmiling doorman checking IDs, the diverse music selection shuffles through a well-stocked MP3 player and the restrooms have a homey air of comfort just short of a toothbrush next to the sink. "Cocktail aficionados go to a place because they love it," says consultant Marcos Tello, who helped with many elements, including the drink offerings and the decor at Bar 1886. "It's like hosting in a living room, and what better place to do it than a house?"

After the Raymond Hotel burned to the ground in 1895, owner Walter Raymond doubled down on the opulence and attracted the titans of industry with a rebuilt millionaire's playland. When the Great Depression struck, Raymond and his family went from a palace on the hill to the servant's quarters at the base. Forty years later, that house became the Raymond restaurant, and in November 2010 Bar 1886 was born.

Tello and partner Aidan Demarest formed their cocktail consultancy firm Liquid Assets in 2010 after building their reputation at such downtown-defining Los Angeles watering holes as Seven Grand and the Edison. "We always figured that we would do a program in the San Gabriel Valley," Tello says. "Only because so many patrons travel to have a drink downtown." Bar 1886 was not just their first venture in the area — it was their first consulting project anywhere.

With Congregation Ale House and a Stone Brewing Co. store recently joining a long list of Pasadena beer haunts, the City of Roses has solidified itself as a beer mecca, seemingly offering two taps for every patron the fire marshal would allow. Bar 1886, with its pressed-tin ceiling, narrow bar and sprawling cocktail list, is an anomaly in the area, challenging the city's sudsy reputation by instilling a respect for craftsmanship via the cocktail shaker and its limitless potential.

The bar has been able to draw a crowd of regulars largely because its cocktail list is expansive and ever-changing. In April, the Raymond closed for a three-week renovation of its kitchen, dimming the lights at Bar 1886 at the same time. When it reopened, it introduced its spring menu featuring 14 new cocktails and an array of small bar snacks.

Bartender Brady Weise, who has been behind the bar since it opened, has a strong presence on that list, most notably with its line of bottled cocktails. Weise's "Coke & a Smile" is a nod to South Pasadena's Fair Oaks Pharmacy — a soda fountain with a history of employing bartenders during Prohibition. The cocktail, served in a small Coke bottle, is a blend of rye, Fernet Menta, Galliano Ristretto, Coca-Cola and a whole, frothy egg. It has strong echoes of a phosphate soda, conjuring images of a humid Manhattan street corner with a dense and almost chocolaty richness. Along with three other house bottled cocktails this season, Weise and company are making a bid for not just taste but a memorable presentation befitting the impending summer heat.

"We see a whole crowd that is not used to these kinds of cocktails," Tello says. "We wanted the place to look like it dictated the cocktails. For people used to Pasadena, this is a part of it. Locals are very comfortable here."

Wedged between the Gold Line tracks and the end of the Pasadena Parkway, Bar 1886 is not the easiest drinking destination to find. Nonetheless, on a Thursday evening, it's a curious mix of nattily dressed professionals and homebound hockey fans in jerseys and flip-flops crowding the bar. They all share patience and an appreciation for a well-made cocktail, commandeering the restaurant's seating area when the 24 seats in the bar area are all snugly occupied.

Clearly, the gamble has paid off and people are flocking to the cozy space, implying there's an audience for high-end cocktails in the San Gabriel Valley too. If Walter Raymond could have seen what has become of his old home, maybe he would try to rebuild the hotel one more time.

Bar 1886 @ LA Times

Jason Moran (sidebar) - DownBeat

On top of interviewing Charles Lloyd, I got to conduct a phone interview with pianist Jason Moran.

Pianist Jason Moran has been with Charles Lloyd’s New Quartet since 2007. He broke onto the scene ten years earlier, while in still in college, applying the lessons he had learned from pianists like Andrew Hill and Jaki Byard to saxophonist Greg Osby’s band. Since then he has built a considerable reputation as a bandleader with his trio Bandwagon, has regularly topped DownBeat polls since 2003 and was awarded a half million dollar MacArthur Fellowship three years ago.

Despite all the accolades, Moran is not always searching for the spotlight. “I felt this thing happening where I wasn’t getting to play with other musicians that I wanted to play with,” says Moran. “I just wasn’t called because I was a bandleader but I love a supporting role.”After getting back into playing as a sideman with musicians like Don Byron, Moran joined forces with Lloyd through his high school classmate, drummer Eric Harland.

Getting back into the sideman role came easily to Moran and he wasn’t daunted by the history of Lloyd’s piano bench. “When I got the gig, I only listened to a little bit of his earlier material because I thought the way Keith Jarrett was playing on there was so free and open. I was like ‘that means I can do anything.’ Plus, Charles is free and open.”

That limitless feeling has paid off with their partnership entering its seventh year and a newly recorded duo album. “In a duo, you’re naked,” says Moran. “My role is to deal with the space that the sound has. In one degree, I might say ‘I should keep a tempo together for a sustained amount of time’ but keeping tempo does not necessarily define a band’s sound. Making music that moves physically and emotionally, that’s what the goal is. The beautiful thing about it is that we don’t really have to explain much to each other. My main job in the duo setting is to create an orbit for the music and if I want to, to create the black hole as well.”

Moran credits Santa Barbara with contributing immensely to that sense of telepathy. “Charles, when he is in his home environment, is in a much more calm space. I live in New York and it’s a rat race there. Literally. It makes me really appreciate going to California. It’s a nice space for me to actually breathe, to inhale and exhale.  It really seemed quite right for the music we were going to play so we could lean back into some of these songs. When we turn up the heat, the heat is a different kind of fire there.”

Often that kind of fire is a different approach to what Moran would do with his own ensemble. Playing with Lloyd has forced Moran to get back to the roots of jazz accompaniment, frequently digging into straight-ahead ballads on this most recent release. “You have to really lay down the carpet with Charles,” says Moran. “And it has to be a plush carpet for him to walk on.”

Jason Moran @ DownBeat 

Charles Lloyd - Downbeat

How this slipped my blog, I don't know.

I wrote the cover article for DownBeat magazine for the May 2013 issue. I had the opportunity to talk with saxophonist Charles Lloyd for over three hours in Montecito, California and I will never forget it.

You can still pick up copies at poorly refreshed newstands everywhere.

It's over 3500 words so I'll just link to the digital edition...

Charles Lloyd @ DownBeat

Noah Preminger - Haymaker

Noah Preminger - Haymaker


Noah Preminger’s official biography is probably the
only one to express a desire to “not get hit in the face”
and mean it literally. His fascination with the pugilist
lifestyle and other physically demanding pursuits
seem to be a large part of his mythology. Thus naming
his most recent album after an all-or-nothing swing of
the fist seems appropriate. The 20-something tenor
saxophonist may not have written any anthems to
replace LL Cool J’s monopoly over heroic ring entrances
and not every tune here renders the listener unconscious
but that’s a good thing.

Preminger’s last album had him in the presence of
a straight-ahead piano/bass/drums trio, which helped
place his classic tone in a classic setting. Here he is
joined by bassist Matt Pavolka, drummer Colin
Stranahan and guitarist Ben Monder, the latter’s
reverb creating a modern surface, opening things
up harmonically for the two lead instruments.

The title track, one of seven Preminger
compositions on the album, is a curious juxtaposition
of ground-level intensity from Stranahan and a subtler
melody from Preminger. His horn is patient and
deliberate over the percussive hurricane, gradually
stretching out. Although the album is largely selfpenned, the lone standard is an unexpected twist, with
Preminger taking the melody of a curly-haired orphan
for a meditative take on “Tomorrow”. It’s a short
performance dwelling entirely on the hopeful melody.
Preminger spends a minute alone, providing a breathy
exploration before the band gently joins him to recite
the popular tune. On “15,000”, Stranahan is a
wonderful bouncing presence with a litany of sounds
and feelings coming from his kit while “Stir My Soul”
gives Pavolka a little chance to stretch out over
Monder’s surf-inflected vibrations.

The resulting album is not nearly as physically
exhausting as one might expect given all the boxing
talk but it is a carefully controlled display of confidence,
allowing timing and patience to dictate when and
where the punches should land.

Noah Preminger @ NYC Jazz Record

Cecilia Coleman - NYC Jazz Record

Cecilia Coleman - Who Am I?


It is unclear whom the title of pianist/arranger/
composer Cecilia Coleman’s big band release is
addressing. Is she asking herself? The listener? Do we
ask ourselves? Coleman made a name for herself as a
performer and teacher in Southern California before
making her way east; the high school yearbook-like
collage on the cover proudly boasts the city of Long
Beach but this album was recorded in Brooklyn.

The field of big band arranging is no stranger to
women. From Mary Lou Williams to Melba Liston to
Maria Schneider, there has been a great tradition of
musical minds combining the disparate instrumentation
of a big band into a formidable and swinging unit.
Although it is almost entirely irrelevant to the sound
on the album, it is interesting to note that Coleman is
the only woman involved in her own big band. Maybe
that’s because of scheduling, the makeup of her social
circle or just a coincidence. That discussion opens up a
whole can of worms that someone else can tackle for
their thesis. We’re just here to listen.

Coleman has produced nine arrangements (eight
of them original tunes) for this release, showcasing an
ability to pilot a large ensemble from her piano bench.
Opener “Ode to A Tip Jar” is a straight ahead swinger
that puts piano up front for a little bit before the full
band kicks in with shades of Monk’s “In Walked Bud”
and soprano saxophonist Peter Brainin gets a chance to
stretch out. The lone standard, “East of the Sun”, gets a
very straightforward reading with vocalist David Coss
offering up an inoffensive croon.

Baritone saxophonist Keith Bishop’s low honk is a
pleasant presence throughout the album, especially
when anchoring the funkier “Hope” and album-closing
title track. Coleman has a smooth swinging touch
writing for a large ensemble but unfortunately doesn’t
take much of a solo spotlight on the album. Hopefully
for her next release she can pen some features for
herself and fully show off her wide range of abilities.

Cecilia Coleman @ NYC Jazz Record

Five Historic LA Jazz Spots - LA Weekly

Have you hugged a jazz musician today? You should. For the second year in a row, April 30th has been declared International Jazz Day by no less a reputable organization than the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. This year's host city is Istanbul.

But why not L.A.? After all, jazz matured simultaneously with the City of Angels and throughout the last 100 years some of the most important jazz musicians have lived and worked here. While clubs like the Blue Whale and the Jazz Bakery keep the spirit alive, many ghosts still swing in the dark corners of our desert grid. Here are five of the very best Los Angeles jazz landmarks.

Contemporary Records
8481 Melrose Place, West Hollywood

Lester Koenig's Contemporary Record label was probably the most vital chronicler of the Los Angeles jazz scene in the 1950s and '60s. The label recorded local legends like pianist Hampton Hawes and saxophonist Harold Land, as well as visitors like Sonny Rollins (Way Out West) and Ornette Coleman (Something Else!), the latter of whom lived briefly in Los Angeles, notably working as an elevator operator at Bullock's department store in downtown L.A.

The most impressive feat of Koenig's operation was that many of his releases were recorded in the wee hours of the morning at his distribution warehouse on Melrose Place, under the guidance of engineer Roy Dunann. It is unlikely that the shoppers in what is now a rather ritzy shopping district have any idea of the brilliance that once echoed in those streets.

Manne Hole

Shelly's Manne Hole
1608 North Cahuenga, Hollywood

Drummer Shelly Manne was Contemporary Records' go-to drummer. He had a long running series with the label entitled "Shelly Manne & His Men," featuring a rotating cast of local talent. From 1960 to 1972, he ran a Hollywood jazz venue called Shelly's Manne Hole.

Pianist Bill Evans recorded an immortal live session there in 1963 while Jazz Bakery impresario and vocalist Ruth Price recorded a live album with Manne and his men, while she was still in her early twenties. The small manhole plaque is embedded off-center on the once-again happening sidewalk of Cahuenga Boulevard, commemorating the spot where so many great heroes once stubbed their cigarettes.

Lincoln Theater sign

Central Avenue Jazz Corridor
Central Avenue between 23rd & Vernon Avenue, South Central Los Angeles

From the late 1910s until the early 1950s, Central Avenue was the center of the West Coast jazz world. No less than the inventor of jazz, Jelly Roll Morton, lived, recorded and even pimped on the Avenue while musicians like Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton were regular visitors to palaces like the Lincoln Theater.

Miniscule joints like the Down Beat club housed equally great musicians like Los Angeles' own Buddy Collette, Dexter Gordon and Charles Mingus. A series of signs mark the spirits of jazz past on a rather run-down strip of Los Angeles. Important buildings like the Dunbar Hotel still remain intact, but the memories of walking into a room and witnessing Art Tatum pounding Pabsts and playing a busted piano are distant.

Where Les Paul's garage used to be

Les Paul's Garage
1514 North Curson, Hollywood

At the behest of crooner Bing Crosby, guitar god Les Paul set about converting his Hollywood garage into a recording studio. (Are there any personal garages that aren't studios now?) While tinkering with his toys, Paul discovered the indispensible technique of immediate multi-tracking that revolutionized the recording process. He also perfected a portable recording system that allowed him to record radio shows while on the road.

The recordings that came out of this tinkering, although viewed as a bit of a novelty, were intricate displays of music and mathematics, with Paul accompanying himself at all manner of speeds to create superhuman but swinging sounds. Paul's garage is no longer there -- it's a driveway for an auction house -- but it seems appropriate that Sunset Boulevard's massive Guitar Center is only a couple of blocks away.

Lighthouse Cafe
30 Pier Avenue, Hermosa Beach

The Lighthouse defined the West Coast jazz scene for many record buyers worldwide. The venue began booking jazz in 1949 when bassist Howard Rumsey hosted a jam session, which filled the dive with bare-footed beatniks almost immediately.

Central Avenue veterans like saxophonists Teddy Edwards and Sonny Criss traveled across town to play in Rumsey's integrated free-for-all, while trumpeting dreamboat Chet Baker, who lived nearby at 1011 16th Street, became a regular performer, launching a career that is romanticized as much for its decline as its rise.

The venue still hosts Sunday jazz gigs (at 11am!) but through the 1960s it remained a key venue for touring artists like Cannonball Adderley, Elvin Jones and Lee Morgan to record live sessions and take in that unmistakable Pacific breeze.

Five LA Jazz Spots @ LA Weekly

Joshua White's Top Five - OC Weekly

WireImage

Pianist Joshua White seeks the history of the music he loves and layers it into his own sound. His confident delivery and endlessly engaging approach have attracted a fair amount of attention including a second-place finish at the Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition in 2011 and constant appearances anywhere between San Diego and Los Angeles on any given night. Tonight, he'll be appearing at the Aliso Creek Inn with bassist Hamilton Price and drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith. He spoke with us about five of those history-makers who have influenced him the most.

Richard Davis
"Number Two" on Booker Ervin's Space Book (1964)
I became aware of his work through a Booker Ervin record entitled Space Book which also features Jaki Byard on piano and Alan Dawson on drums. Overall, I find his playing very stimulating. His rhythmic choices and how he would break things up into different groupings. He's obviously well aware of the whole tradition. He's well aware of all sorts of music traditions not just Black American music. There's an overall guiding aesthetic with most great players that lead you into finding directions that are most positive in terms of the music. When I hear him play, it always inspires me to keep pushing forward, to think and to learn.

Geri Allen
"Blues In Motian" from Etudes (1988)
I find her music always interesting, always stimulating, always intriguing. There is a light that shines through when she is in the band. Lately, I've been going back and investigating her recordings with a wonderful trio featuring bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Paul Motian. There is always something wonderful happening. There isn't really too much to explain. You just have to listen to the dialogue because that's where I find the music is always found. Sometimes I think there is too much emphasis on arranging and setting up the music. I'm more interested in hearing things develop in the moment instead of having a super developed framework.

Steve Coleman
"Respiratory Flow" from Functional Arrhythmias (2013)
The first Steve Coleman album I picked up was 2011's The Mancy of Sound. I've been playing it at least once a week since I bought it. The compositions are brilliant, the playing is fantastic, the sound of the band is incredible. Having the opportunity to meet with him and talk with him really shed some light upon how things are developed within his language and within his band, his whole environment. I've definitely been embracing his work. I've been getting every record I can get my hands on. Enough can't be said about his work and his dedication and his constant development and his constant need to learn new information.

Andrew Hill
"Dedication" from Point of Departure (1964)
I would say he's a pianist and composer who just kind of turned me around and had my head spinning for quite some time now. To be honest, when I first heard Point of Departure I was super heavy into Tony Williams at the time but I was like "Who's this cat on the piano?" I really couldn't dig it. Some older cats were like "Go back and listen to him." I go back and start listening again and I guess I was just listening to him solo. I was listening to his last works with his trio and listening to his music and the way he played the piano and the command that he had in that environment just knocked me out. His approach to improvisation and his approach developing melodic content really opened a new world to me that I was never really aware of or really took the time to listen to and investigate. The thing that really strikes me about his playing is his compositions are so tethered to how he plays as an improviser. You are hearing him even when cats are soloing on his compositions. He has the ability to translate his language if the musicians are open into any vessel that's available.

Herbie Nichols
"Love Gloom Cash Love" from Love Gloom Cash Love (1957)

Nichols doesn't have a large recorded output but he does have a substantial body of work in a tight, compact package. Some of the same ideas that I hear with Herbie Nichols are present in what I hear with Andrew Hill but they are two completely different individuals. To listen to Herbie Nichols as a soloist and how he weaves lines using different rhythmic groupings outside of the perceived tradition of the music commonly referred to as bebop and his sense of swing and his feel for lines is something totally unique but equally as satisfying as any other player I hear from that period. It's wonderful to hear a fresh approach to a language that's constantly being developed as opposed to having some sort of definitive answer to what is right and wrong.

Joshua White @ OC Weekly

Introducing...Vince Abbracciante - Liner Notes

A stab at liner note writing...

Although this album is an introduction to accordionist Vince Abbracciante, he has already been at the party for a while. Not yet 30, Abbracciante made his mark by winning the prestigious Castelfidardo Accordion Festival International Prize before he was old enough to drive. Since then, he has criss-crossed the globe performing on five different continents in every setting imaginable, from ancient amphitheaters to stuffy, low-lit basements. Finally, with all of this experience under his belt, Abbracciante is ready for his close-up.

Wisely, the young man from Puglia is not doing it alone. Abbracciante has surrounded himself with a sharp crew of musicians to help him mingle. Veteran saxophonist Robert Ottaviano contributres the first and last subdued notes of the album, inbetween he provides a few ruthless solos. Fellow youthful Italian Fabrizio Scarafile provides soprano saxophone for a couple of tracks, the swinging “No or Yes” as well as “Nublu Bossa” a burning re-arrangement of the Kenny Dorham classic reworked into an homage to the unofficial headquarters of the lone American on the album, bassist Juini Booth.

The unflappable Booth got his start in his teens working for legends like Art Blakey before going on to expand his sound in the 1970s as a member of McCoy Tyner’s band as well as Tony Williams’ Lifetime. Aside from holding down the low-end Booth also contributes a third of the album’s compositions including the backbeat-heavy “MDX” which features a boisterous seduction from vocalist Giuseppe Delre. The other contributing vocalist, Adriana Ciannella, make her recording debut on “En Mi” blending seamlessly with Abbracciante’s reedy  accordion. And through it all is in-demand drummer Antonio Di Lorenzo keeping the pace on his gliding cymbals.

Of course all of this is in support of the man of the hour. From the clattering thunder of album opener “Visione” to his solo exploration on the swooning “Triss,” Abbracciante has presented a wide range of capabilities that only hint at what is to come in the future. His compositional talents combined with his breathless jaunts come together to form the complete package. His mastery of the handheld orchestra is a wonder to behold.

After taking the time to let Abbracciante introduces himself, you will only be left wishing he had done so sooner.

"Sean J. O'Connell scrive per DownBeat, LA Weekly e il New York Jazz Record. Gli piace ascoltare la fisarmonica, ma ha scoperto che i suoi avambracci gil fanno male de quando la suona."

Vince Abbracciante's Home on the Internet

Yusef Lateef - NYC Jazz Record

Yusef Lateef
Roots Run Deep

Yusef Lateef was 83 years old when filmmakers Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel spent a week at his home in Western Massachusetts, resulting in the short documentary “Brother Yusef.” They recorded his performances and meditations every day, leaving hours of performance material off of their finished project.  Nine years later, Rogue Art has released a lovingly compiled collection of some of those unused performances from that week, seamlessly blended into a brief, flowing album that finds Lateef both playful and introspective. 

The album is bookended by extended improvisations entitled “Roots Run Deep” that feature a melancholy mix of vocals, piano and flute. Lateef is the only performer on the album and it is his vocals that stand out the most. A strained but honeyed knowingness imbues the entire project with a relaxed wisdom. Four of the seven tracks feature Lateef reading short stories from his 1975 book “Spheres.” Behind the brief but amusing “Cream Puff” Lateef provides a honking tenor for his tale of his practicing limitations and the daily procedures while “Goodbye” remains a largely unadorned reflection on death until the end of the piece pops with descending sounds from his saxophone.  The most resounding piece on the album features a repeated and spacious piano figure used throughout the record as Lateef sings a slow and tragic rendition of the traditional blues standard “Motherless Child.”

The CD package includes a 22-page booklet with remembrances of that week from the filmmakers, a few words from Lateef, a handful of photographs and some sheet music. Now 92 years old, Lateef is still performing, no doubt still wrestling with many of the themes he revisited in 2004 and originally conceived in 1975. It is a beautiful project that is sadly far too short but serves as an intriguing companion to the documentary.

Yusef Lateef @ NYC Jazz Record