SF's treasured vocalist Mary Stallings speaks to the "exquisite" lyrics Joni Mitchell wrote to Charles Mingus' "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" in her #ThankYouJoni video. Joni Mitchell will be honored with the SFJAZZ Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's Gala on May 8th. Each week leading up to the Gala, we'll share new videos of artists speaking to Joni!
"The last time Charlie Rouse picked up his tenor in public was as the special guest at a concert honoring Thelonious Monk's birthday. The program, naturally enough, consisted of Monk compositions, selected by Rouse and the other performers, with some help from me. In particular, I suggested that Rouse be joined by Cables, Cherry and Montgomery (each of whom, along with Jessica Williams, had had an individual feature spot earlier in the evening) for a two-tune finale. 'Round Midnight was an inevitable part of the repertoire; and what more suitable way to close than with a full-long version of Epistrophy.
Thus, the very last piece Charlie played for an audience was the one he had played repeatedly and almost nightly for more than a decade as the sign-off theme for Monk's quartet.
It's a set of circumstances far too contrived and sentimental to be acceptable in fiction, but that is how it really happened. Seven weeks later on November 30, Rouse succumbed in a Seattle hospital to the lung cancer few people even knew he had.
That private ending was the way Charlie and his wife, Mary Ellen, preferred to accept the inevitable. It was pretty much the way Rouse lived his life: quiet, with dignity, and a lot less aggressively than many people thought he should have.
He was one of those who let his playing speak to the world for him, and it did so quite eloquently. But Rouse was rarely out in front on a band stand, and so his abilities were for the most part appreciated only by fellow musicians, and by listeners and writers with taste and understanding—which is a relatively small audience, though a satisfying one. It does not put him down at all to characterize Rouse as a sideman, particularly when you can point to eleven years as the perfect colleague for Thelonious—a man not at all noted for patience or for accepting the status quo. You didn't remain with this pianist just because he wasn't up to making a change; quite the opposite, he knew how well his music was being grasped and interpreted all those years...
Orrin Keepnews + Charlie Rouse share some words about Monk
I last saw and heard Rouse on Monk's birthday in 1988... He was playing extremely well that night. There were no readily visible or audible clues to his illness—except possibly in his willingness to talk with me about Monk in front of the audience. Being that extroverted was not at all characteristic, so I'm particularly glad we have those incisive first-hand comments..."
— Orrin Keepnews (1923-2015), excerpt from EpistrophyLiner Notes
SFJAZZ Resident Artistic DirectorZakir Hussain remembers the great Armando Peraza, and how the late Bay Area Latin percussionist influenced his own playing. Don't miss Zakir's special tribute to Peraza (10/12) with fellow percussionists John Santos, Mickey Hart, Abbos Kosimov and Sikiru Adepoju at the SFJAZZ Center!
Armando Peraza, 1995 San Francisco Jazz Festival, Masonic Auditorium
Opening Night: Eliane Elias celebrates the masterpiece Getz/Gilberto in Miner Auditorium
Opening Night: Paula West sings Ethel Waters in Joe Henderson Lab
Opening Night was an evening of tributes... Eliane Elias celebrated the bossa nova masterpiece Getz/Gilberto with lyrical saxophonist Harry Allen, while SF's own Paula West sang Ethel Waters in Joe Henderson Lab. Both Elias and West are back at it all weekend, as the SFJAZZ 2014-15 Seasonis underway! See what else is coming up at sfjazz.org.
A big thanks to pianist Herbie Hancock for a whirlwind of a weekend... from rocking it at the 2014 SFJAZZ Gala to 3 unforgettable performances with bassist Marcus Miller, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, guitarist Lionel Loueke and tabla maestro Zakir Hussain! From the start, this superband clearly came to play. Colaiuta's slamming groove introducing "Actual Proof" from Herbie's 1974 funk masterpiece Thrust kicked off the show and set the tone for each performance, which covered many of Herbie's best-known tunes including "Chameleon," "Cantaloupe Island" and a unique take on "Watermelon Man" that incorporated part of Lionel Loueke's odd-time composition "Seventeen." A highlight of each show was a duet between Loueke and Hussain, which seamlessly integrated African and Indian musical traditions, and the band ended the set with a supercharged performance of Herbie's smash 1983 electro-funk anthem "Rockit." Photos below:
Sean Jones dropped by the SFJAZZ Center to talk the trumpet, in light of his upcoming double bill with Christian Scott during The Festival of the Trumpet on Aug 21, 2014, part of SFJAZZ Summer Sessions. Special thanks to San Francisco Performances for facilitating the interview. Part 2 comes out later this week!
Song credit:
"Touch and Go"
Composed by Sean Jones No Need For Words (Mac Avenue Records)
On Sale for the 32nd Annual San Francisco Jazz Festival and 2014 Summer Sessions opens up to the General Public next Wednesday (4/23) at 11am! Check out the line up!
Rosanne Cash opened her 4-night run at SFJAZZ Center last night, telling deep, lyrical stories inspired by her travels in the South, complete with projected photography (see below).
She's back on tonight, and sold out all weekend long!
Meanwhile, Adam Theis & Subharmonic gave Mingus Ah Um the Hotplate treatment in Joe Henderson Lab, without a doubt one of the most ambitious shows in this monthly series we've heard yet!
Hugh Masekela gave a pair of uplifting performances at the SFJAZZ Center this week to celebrate his upcoming 75th Birthday. The South African trumpet icon complemented his groovy, feel good music with a resounding message for heightened global awareness and social justice. Most importantly, he had Miner Auditorium getting loose and screaming louder than we've ever heard! All photos courtesy of Scott Chernis unless otherwise noted.
"Fruits of the labor"—look what Jason Moran sent to us this morning: a fresh skate video from Ben Gore, filmed exclusively at night in San Francisco, beautifully complemented by Moran's solo piano piece "For Coleman Hawkins." We can't wait for Round 2 in June! Skateboarding & Jazz returns to the SFJAZZ Center 6/7-8, part of Moran's final week as a 2013-14 SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director.
What kind, thoughtful and inspiring words from Wynton Marsalis....
"On this tour, we have played 19 concerts of various sizes and shapes; 104 different compositions by over 33 different composers. Finally, we get to play the new SFJazz Center, five concerts (Ellington, Basie, Mingus, Monk, Traditional New Orleans Music and Recent Arrangements and Compositions by our members) in four days. It is a rare and welcome treat to sit down for such a long time, and we thank Dan Pritzker for sponsoring this residency. SFJazz were welcoming and gracious hosts. Every night was sold out with a very attentive and appreciative Bay Area audience. As Jason Olaine and I held our own programming meeting at the SFJazz Center, we couldn't help but be proud of Randall and the entire organization for what they have achieved. From the omnipresent Artistic Producer Lilly Schwarz (who threw a great party for us on Saturday) to Marketing Director Patricia Gessner, Development Director Barrett Shaver, Stage Manager Tony Wilson and Sound Engineer Masa Tutu, from Production Manager Greg Kuhn and Director of Production Cecilia Engelhart, to the backstage crew of Joshua Badura and Christian Vela Porque, they took complete and absolute care of us. Carlos Henriquez stayed on us to make a Saturday afternoon JALC/SFJazz softball game happen, and Jeff Umetsu made it all possible from the SFJazz side. It provided much needed camaraderie and warm fellowship. Even the great Bobby Hutcherson came out. Friday afternoon, composer Jeremy Walker, his wife Marsha, Lilly and I were eating in the SFJazz cafe to the swinging sounds of Bobby Hutcherson, Lee Morgan and Stan Getz. The food was great and the environment soaked in swing. Because we all had struggled to celebrate this music and live in its spirit, the experience was transcendent. Sunday afternoon most of our orchestra showed up an hour and a half early to further clarify our Mingus roadmaps (Ali had been there studying the scores for much longer). We went from room to room verifying cues with each other, trying to figure out how to do better job of playing Mingus' music. Sherman and I laughed when we saw how many of us were early and Carlos said, "Cats have pride."
The quantity, diversity and quality of the compositions and arrangements we played the last 4 days speak for themselves. Here's a listing: Thursday Night: Ellington 1)The Mooche (1928) 2) Old Man Blues (1930) 3) Concerto for Cootie (1940) 4) Shout ‘em Aunt Tillie (1930) 5) Bragging in Brass (1938) 6) Mood Indigo (1930) 7) Echoes of Harlem (1936) 8) Happy Go Lucky Local (1946) 9) Jam a Ditty (1946) 10) Ahmad (1966) 11) Lady of the Lavender Mist (1947) 12) Island Virgin (1965) 13) Paris Stairs (1961) 14) Portrait of Wellman Braud (1970) 15) Self Portrait of the Bean (1963) 16) Chinoiserie (1970) 17) Isfahan (1966) --Billy Strayhorn comp. Friday Night: New Orleans Traditional 18) Lawd Lawd Lawd (1895)-- Buddy Bolden 19) Smokehouse Blues (1926)-- Charles Luke comp., Jelly Roll Morton arr. 20) Dead Man Blues (1926) -- Jelly Roll 21) Snake Rag (1923)-- Joe “King” Oliver 22) Petite Fleur (1952)-- Sidney Bechet 23) Muskrat Ramble (1926)-- Louis Armstrong/ Kid Ory Saturday Afternoon: JLCO 24) Wingspan (1987)-- Mulgrew Miller comp., arr. Chris Crenshaw (2014) 25) Insatiable Hunger from “Inferno" (2012)-- Sherman Irby 26) LBJ (The American Promise) from the Presidential Suite (2014)-- Ted Nash 27) Peace (1959)-- Horace Silver comp., arr. David Berger (2007) 28) Down by the Bayou from "Crescent City" (2014)-- Victor Goines 29) Buddy Bolden (1890s)-- Buddy Bolden Saturday Night: Basie 30) I Left My Baby (1938)
--Andy Gibson, Count Basie and Jimmy Rushing, 31) Tickle Toe (1940)-- Lester Young 32) Blue and Sentimental (1938)-- Count Basie 33) Jumping at the Woodside (1938)-- Eddie Durham 34) I Left My Heart in San Francisco (1963)-- arr. Billy Byers for Count Basie 35) Sleepwalkers Serenade (1958)-- Jimmy Mundy 36) It's Awfully Nice to be With You (1958)-- Neal Hefti 37) Blues in Hoss' Flat (1959)-- Frank Foster 38) Sixteen Men Swinging—(1954) Ernie Wilkins 39) Wiggle Walk (1960)-- Benny Carter 40) Goin’ to Chicago (1939)-- Count Basie and Jimmie Rushing 41) Moten Swing (1932)-- Bennie and Buster Moten, arr. Ernie Wilkins (1959) 42) Texas Shuffle (1938)--Edgar Battle and Herschel Evans 43) The Blue Room (1932)—arr. Eddie Durham 44) Sent for You Yesterday (1938)-- Eddie Durham/Jimmy Rushing Sunday Afternoon: Mingus 45) Dizzy Moods 46) Isabel's Table Dance 47) Tijuana Gift Shop 48) Los Mariachis (The Street Musicians)
All compositions Charles Mingus (1957), arr. Ron Westray (2002) 49) Self Portrait in Three Colors (1959)-- Mingus 50) Meditations on Integration (1964)-- Mingus comp, arr. Ron Westray (2002) 51) Goodbye Porkpie Hat (1959)-- Mingus comp., arr. Marsalis (2006) 52) Moanin' (1960)--Mingus comp., arr. Cy Johnson (1993) 53) Tom Cat Blues (1924)-- Jelly Roll Morton Sunday Night: Thelonious Monk 54) We See (1954)-- arr. Sherman Irby (2008) 55) Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues Are (1957)-- arr. Walter Blanding (2008) 56) Four in One (1951)-- arr. Chuck Israels 57) Ugly Beauty (1968)--arr. Marsalis (2008) 58) Bye-ya (1953)--arr. Carlos Henriquez (2008) 59) Light Blue (1958)--arr. Vincent Gardner (2008) 60) Epistrophy (1942)--arr. Chris Crenshaw (2008) 61) Blue Monk (1954) It is now 4:15 on Monday morning. We are well into our 30 something hour drive to Iowa. Having passed through mountains, deserts and casinos, we now go down into the heartland. Somewhere in Utah we stop to get gas. Damn! It's 16 degrees and falling. California is a sweet memory."
Wynton Marsalis & Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) were swinging hard on a diverse selection of Duke Ellington works last night at the SFJAZZ Center. JLCO gives four more sold out concerts throughout weekend, featuring the music of New Orleans, Basie, Monk and Mingus! All photos courtesy of Scott Chernis.
Vibraphone legend Bobby Hutcherson talks about where music goes when it's all said and done. Stay tuned for more video shorts with the NEA Jazz Master, former SFJAZZ Collective member and long-time San Francisco native! For more videos, subscribe today to the SFJAZZ YouTube Channel.
"Prized Possession," the photograph used as the album cover, comes from SFJAZZ Photographer Laureate Jim Goldberg's acclaimed Open See Collection—telling the story of refugees, immigrants, and trafficked individuals journeying from their countries of origin to their new homes in Europe. You can pick up a copy of Goldberg's Open See Collection at the SFJAZZ Box Office.
The award gives the SFJAZZ Collective some well-deserved recognition, highlighting but one chapter of its extensive book. To celebrate its ever-growing legacy of music, the Collective (with new members Warren Wolf, Obed Calvaire and David Sanchez) embarks on an extensive domestic tour throughout March and April, commemorating its 10th Anniversary. Check out the tour dates! Buy the album online at sfjazz.org.
A great honor having vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson back in the house last night. The NEA Jazz Master rounded a superstar group with organist Joey DeFrancesco, saxophone star David Sanborn and swinging drummer Billy Hart--the quartet is set to release an album in June, keep an eye out. Their sold out performance in Miner Auditorium peaked with renditions of Hutcherson's "Montara" and "Hey Harold" (a shout out to his longtime collaborator Harold Land). The fun continues all weekend long. Check out a few more photos below.
Hutcherson, Sanborn, DeFrancesco & Hart
Celebrating NEA Jazz Master Bobby Hutcherson
The weekend is largely sold out. Follow SFJAZZ on Twitter and Facebook for last minute ticket updates and releases. Keep up to date with the SFJAZZ Calendar. To see more photos, visit SFJAZZ Flickr.
Bay Area guitarist Terrence Brewer kicks off 2014 on a high note, releasing two new albums! Mosaic — Setting The Standard: Vol 2 breaks down well-known standards and builds them back up again, with fresh reharmonization, rhythms, time signatures and sounds. Mi Historia — The Latin Jazz Project features mostly originals with Afro-Caribbean and Brazilian rhythms. Brewer's Double Album Release Party happens next Thursday (2/27) and Friday (2/28) in Joe Henderson Lab at the SFJAZZ Center.
They call themselves TheSpring Quartet, and their sound is without a doubt fresh. Joe Lovano pulled out an impressive collection of horns and woodwinds, using them interchangeably throughout the night and exploring altissimo on all. Jack DeJohnette, recently honored as an NEA Jazz Master, was ever youthful in spirit, listening and reacting to his younger bandmates, but still driving the bus. He also whipped out a melodica late into the set, playing countermelody to Lovano's delicate flute melodies. Bassist Esperanza Spalding was as eclectic and inventive as ever, from her intrepid bass lines, to her precise whistling, her (by now renowned) singing chops, and something new... she picked up a tenor saxophone, young pianist/keyboardist Leo Genovese suddenly wielded a soprano, joining Lovano for her squawky "Chasing The Shark." Genovese might not have as big a name as the others, but the longtime Spalding collaborator brings tremendous energy, creativity and sound (he rocked at least four keyboards as well as the Steinway). More photos from last night below.
"Chasing The Shark" (Esperanza Spalding)
Jack DeJohnette, Joe Lovano, Esperanza Spalding & Leo Genovese
The Spring Quartet
Four sold out shows this weekend with Bobby Hutcherson, Joey DeFrancesco, David Sanborn & Billy Hart! Keep up with the SFJAZZ Calendar. For more photos from last night, check out SFJAZZ Flickr.
A big night at the SFJAZZ Center—Cecile McLorin Salvant and sidemen Aaron Diehl (piano), Paul Sikivie (bass) and Pete Van Nostrand (drums) left a sold out Miner Auditorium breathless! In tasteful moments of silence, the audience was dead silent in anticipation. So much could be said, but San Francisco Chronicle's David Wiegand was right on point:
"I have never heard McLorin Salvant sing the same song the same way twice. Each time she approaches a song, it becomes something different. She probes and explores it with her insanely supple voice, lolling in the deepest contralto range and building back to a high, breathy soprano. Vibrato can flutter like Nina Simone, or swing slow and deep. She modulates tone like a sculptor models clay."
Definitely worthwhile to read the full article→"Happy birthday, SFJazz Center." On his way out, Wiegand also gave a shout out to the Claudia Villela / Harvey Wainapel'Getz/Gilberto'Hotplate in Joe Henderson Lab. Looking into the transparent Lab with a few others, "...it was almost as if I could have touched the sound."
Brazilian singer Maria Rita dazzled a sold out crowd at the SFJAZZ Center last night. Joined by pianist and longtime collaborator Tiago Costa, Rita paid tribute to the legacy of her mother, the late, legendary bossa nova vocalist Elis Regina. More used to performing with a full backing band, Rita reveled in the intimacy, joking to the front row, "You're so close, I can actually see what you're thinking!"
Plenty of more Brazilian shows coming up at the SFJAZZ Center! Bookmark SFJAZZ Season 2: 2013-14 online to stay up-to-date. To see more photos of artists at the SFJAZZ Center, check out SFJAZZ on Flickr.
