Jazz in the First Person*

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Jazz in the First Person:

• “The Man with the Horn” wore horn-rimmed glasses – A retrospective look at the life and legacy of Sonny Bradshaw”
• Dancehall producers and artistes need to clean up their acts

Liner notes: Etienne Charles’ Folklore, Trinidad

Bio: Louis B. Taylor, USVI

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Following are select passages from an extensive essay published in the Jamaica Gleaner on November 29, 2009.

“The Man with the Horn” wore horn-rimmed glasses – A retrospective look at the life and legacy of Sonny Bradshaw”

Sonny Bradshaw according to Herbie Miller:

He was a complete musician who played trumpet, adding its warmer-sounding relative, the flugel horn, in his mature years. He was also a competent pianist and was more than useful playing the bass, drums, organ and trombone. Nevertheless, his playing was without the bravado of either Armstrong or Gillespie. He encapsulated the lyricism of Miles Davis and the warm melodicism of Harry James, whose popular song, The Man With the Horn, Bradshaw also made his band’s theme.

He was an imaginative arranger, a composer and an energetic bandleader with an eye for discovering talent.

Because of Armstrong, Bradshaw understood the challenges of being an artiste. Harry James gave him an idea of how to swing a big band and remain immensely popular. From Gillespie he learned to organise diverse musical elements into his arrangements and turn up the rhythmic temperature, regardless of idiomatic source, and Davis provided the definition of ‘cool’. All these elements contributed to the shaping of Bradshaw’s popularity during a time when Jamaican musicians performed at levels attained only by masters.

An emerging star during the war years, Bradshaw was popular with dance audiences, overcame the challenges and impediments of the entertainment business, outlasting successive trends that soared into and then fell from vogue, and organised bands, big and small, in every decade until his recent death at 83.

Consistently aware of trends, Bradshaw maintained such personal touch with the creative industry, consumer tastes and the necessity for the use of arts in the building of a nation, that his 60-plus years of cultural advocacy and organisation represent one of the single most independently dedicated servants to the elevation of creative aesthetics and the musician as artistic genius.

At one of his final performances I observed a ‘Johnny-come lately’ put down Bradshaw’s playing as weak and without velocity. This would-be hip listener missed the point and failed to understand that this octogenarian master, instead of making his trumpet a relic, responded to Father Time by cutting back on the stamina and locomotion he could summon during his earlier years. His playing was now redefined and refined.

Perhaps Bradshaw’s greatest skill was that of organiser, not only of bands boasting the best available musicians, but organiser of events and concerts and the Ocho Rios Jazz Festival, now approaching its 20th year. Over his 60-odd years of putting together bands and performing music, Bradshaw recognised and advanced the talents of his peers, some of whom went on to achieve international acclamation as important jazz innovators and improvisers. Joe Harriott, Wilton Gaynair, Harold McNair, Sonny Gray, Tommy McCook and Don Drummond are a few. He also used his Sonny B Seven to nurture and polish young musicians who would become seminal contributors to reggae as well as to continue the tradition of large and small band music, regardless of genre.

Noteworthy, also, are the amount and quality of leaders who came through Bradshaw’s groups – Willie Lindo, Dean Fraser, Boris Gardener, Esmond Jarrett and Desi Jones are examples.

The full essay here…

Herbie Miller is a cultural historian and the director/curator of the Jamaica Music Museum. His specialised interest is in slave culture, Caribbean identity and ethnomusicology. He can be contacted at herbimill@aol.com

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Richard Francois has a thing or two to say about the impact of Jazz on its audience.  In a Letter to the Editor of Guyana’s Stabroek News, Francois details the transformations that Jazz went through over the last century.  He concludes that in spite of of those changes, there were no negative social impacts on Jazz aficionados.  According to him, the same is not true with Dancehall Reggae, which has had a profoundly deleterious effect on listeners.

The WEC has excerpted Richard Francois’ comments about the evolution of Jazz, but will leave it to you to link to the source for the attack on Dancehall.

Change is inevitable.  Everything changes over time, even music.  And so we would have seen that within all the genres of music, there are changes in composition and delivery.  This does not necessarily mean that the foundations of the different genres of music has changed, but just that subtle changes would have been made probably to phrasing, timing, harmony, or  lyrical composition.

Let us examine Jazz. A few years ago we celebrated 100 years of Jazz.  The sound of Jazz today has changed considerably from what it used to be in the early and mid 1900s.  Jazz as a genre had several sub genres back in the day like most music today.  And even today, Jazz still remains sub divided.  In the past, the composition of Jazz revolved around a variety of sub genres.  The music moved from New Orleans Dixieland dating from the early 1910s to the Big Band-Style Swing from the 1930s and 1940s.  Then it accommodated the Bebop from the mid-1940s, a variety of Latin Jazz Fusions such as Afro-Cuban and Brazilian jazz from the 1950s and 1960s, Jazz-Rock Fusion from the 1970s, and late 1980s developments such as Acid Jazz, which blended Jazz influences into Funk and Hip-Hop.  These are just a few sub genres of Jazz.  There are many more.  Today Urban Smooth Jazz is a sub genre that is widely sought after by both the young and mature Jazz fan.

The genre of Jazz evolved through time and is still widely accepted as pleasing to the trained musical ear and the not-so-trained ear.

Jazz has shown that the changes it went through did not have a negative impact on its audience.  If anything happened, it was that the changes seem to have sought to expand its listening audience.

More here…

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A JAZZ WARRIOR’S TALE

by Ming

Bandleader, Élan Parle

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A deluge of early evening rainfall would keep all but the most ardent Jazz fans at home. Those who braved the elements though were rewarded with a wonderful evening of music, food and friends. That’s how the first Smooth Jazz Sundays at Martin’s Piano Bar passed on August 02, 2009.

The band Élan Parle, playing new music from their forthcoming CD ‘Jazzalypso,’ was loudly applauded by the small but appreciative crowd.  Among the attendees were Jazz promoters Nigel Campbell and Anton Doyle, musicians Sherwin Cooper, Clifford Charles and Arthur Marcial among others.

The band consisted of Sean Friday on bass, Richard Joseph on drums and me on piano/keyboard.

We played two 1-hour sets starting just after 6:00pm and closing around 8:30pm just in time for patrons to get home early and safely.

Smooth Jazz Sundays @ Martin’s Piano Bar, Woodford Street, Port of Spain Trinidad, 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm

WEC note: Since then, Martin’s Piano Bar has hosted Smooth Jazz guitarist Clifford Charles.

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Trinidadian Jazz Singer, Vaughnette Bigford, is one of an arguably rare breed of Caribbean vocalists who is not content to rest on the laurels of a natural chord, but who has developed an insatiable appetite for advanced skills.  In short, the girl does not play around in the Woodshed.

Her drive and passion over the past six years earned her a coveted 2008 summer scholarship to study at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.  She also belongs to an elite conglomeration called International Women in Jazz, Inc. (IWJ), “…a non-profit organization committed to supporting women jazz artists and related professionals, and to fostering a greater awareness of the diverse contributions women make to jazz, worldwide,” proudly wearing its badge.

Vaughnette has just returned to Trinidad (July 5, 2009) from another run through the Woodshed.  And she has provided us Warriors with a First Person account of that trip.

Vaughnette:

Man I have been in Boston since June 18th, 2009; came back on Sunday, July 5.  I attended two workshops at Berklee College (Vocal Summit and Stage Performance).  It was fabulous.  I got a chance to meet and work with some fabulous musicians and choreographers including Lalah Hathaway and Otis Sallid of  St. Kitts roots.  Google him and you will see.

I also did two gigs where I played at the All Seasons Restaurant in Malden with Berklee faculty and I was the guest performer for the band Earthsound at their CD release party.  It was beautiful.  These guys are phenomenal.  Interesting to note too the diversity of their nationalities, what made it so special.  There was Jason Davis – Boston; Fernanado Micheline – Uruguay; Fernando Brandao – Brazil; Jorsge – Peru; and me Vaughnette – Trinidad.

Earthsound

Could you imagine?

Yes we can.  (I just had to throw that in;  sorry)

Catch Vaughnette Bigford:

July 18th at Gayap, St. Joseph, Trinidad.  As you can see, a really good cast too.

July 26th at Jazz in July, Queens Hall in Port of Spain.  Jazz in July was headlined by international singer Cheryl Pepsii Riley.

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Peter Shim, Trinidad’s premier “starving on call drummer” hung out again with compatriot Clive Zanda at Satchmo’s on June 05.  Peter packed his “choice cast bronze cymbals” for the gig and came away with the following impression:

As usual, Clive was his creative self…

I see him steering over the grand.  He’s playing a flurry of notes and chords.

Now please understand, I can’t read nor interpret music; I can’t technically tell chordal or tonal expression; I learned everything I know by ear.  But I understand everything.  This ability has somehow enabled me to express myself musically on drums – in any musical environment.

So, as I was saying, Clive is searching, feeling.  Russell Durity [bass] begins to feel the direction Clive is going in.  This thing grows into a 4/4 Jazz swing, but a lot looser, if you know what I mean.

I’m not holding a typical ride and hi-hat pattern.  I’m just using spaces in between 7/8 interspersed with 6/8 measures.

Clive loves to take chances.  This is greatly spurred on by his participants.  With greater understanding of the direction, there’s reciprocation and things only get higher…and a piece has just been written.

Zanda created three improvs that way.

After some renditions of old Calypso standards, bossas/sambas and a break, the master begins to feel another vibe.  That rhythm is basically a 12/8 Afro type rhythm.  Russell and I enter the fold in 1/4 then 1/2 measures until the piece is in full tilt.

During the performance, I’m able to place 3/4, 6/8, 7/8 and basic 4/4 measures thus creating intricate musical landscapes.  We visited many musical cultures that way.  It started out in a basic African sensibility.  Then I introduced a back beat in the measure, pushed it forward, pulled it short, changed it around and then held the timing.

It’s very hard to talk drums being that the measures are just numbers, but it’s the sub-divisions that really add to the feel of the pattern.  Playing with the palette of music that surrounded my senses, I was given an immeasurable amount of freedom to express my musicality on the drum kit…as a drummer.  It’s what I thrive on.

On the pieces Clive instigated, a few of the close listeners asked, “What’s the name of the number?” to which Clive replied, “Made Up.”  Nothing more was asked of any new piece knowing right off what the answer would be.  I asked him about that later and he said they were “Extempo” – one and two, I suppose.

Clive Zanda sometimes creates his music pieces on those nights and that was the one night a recorder was not present.   It was epic though.   I guess one had to be there to experience it.

This was the best fun I have ever had.  Satchmo’s was Fantastic.

Read Peter Shim’s previous tale about jammin’ with pianist Clive Zanda at Satchmo’s in Trinidad.

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LINER NOTES

Etienne Charles (trumpet), Trinidad/United States of America

The Scribe, John Stevenson, has written the Liner Notes to the now-released (June 01, 2009) Etienne Charles CD, ‘Folklore.’  John was gracious enough to share the notes with us in advance of the CD hitting the store shelves.  Thanks John.

Watch the Preview video

Wasting no time whatsoever, Charles is off on another assignment, this time at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem where, on Friday, June 05  2009, he will dialogue with the museum’s Director, Loren Schoenberg, at an event called ’Harlem Speaks: Caribbean Swing,’ part of the institution’s Family Arts Festival.

Afterwards, Charles takes the helm of the NJMH Allstars for a swing into a “jazz-fused Afro-Caribbean groove.”  It all takes place at the Riverside Church at 91 Claremont Avenue (above 120th), New York, NY, 10027.

Harlem Speaks: Caribbean Swing

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BIOGRAPHY

Louis B. Taylor (piano), St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands