Urban Music Presents Newsletter
This Week in Jazz
December 9 - 16, 2009
This is a resource that is committed to help AMAZING musicians
get the word out about their performances and looks to inform
and educate the community about incredible music.
I can't encourage you enough to go out and support LIVE MUSIC
- it is what brings our community together! Be sure to scroll down to
read the interviews, click on the hyper-links and check out the calender
listings!
To Subscribe: Please email urbanmusicpresents@gmail.comPeace through Music,
Stephanie
Urban Music Presents
|
 Greetings!
This past Sunday, I was blessed to be able to participate in the Save Fred Harris House Campaign. Pianist Fred Harris' house is in foreclosure and will be lost if $12,000 is not raised by this Friday, December 11th. WE ARE ALMOST THERE! I am asking you to lend support. Fred's story is compelling - this is a home that has been in his family for over 40 years with a good amount of equity. Fred fell on hard times - and got a little behind - he then was able to catch up and start making payments on the behind payments as well as the current - when the bank sent his payments back and told me he had to pay it all at once or they would take his house. The bank also told him he had been moved to a different plan, Fred was informed of this after they sent the payments back! I encourage you to read his story at his website below - the beauty of what has already been raised through community coming together is $9,500! Fred needs only $2,500 to reclaim his house. To read more about Fred's situation and how you can help please visit Fred Harris Website.
Community coming together can make a difference. The banks, the corporations and the government cannot help middle America - WE can help each other! Thanks for supporting and thanks for listening!
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The SFSU Afro-Cuban Ensemble directed by Dr. John Calloway plays at Anna's Jazz Island this Wednesday, December 9th and Tuesday December 15th at San Francisco State University, Knuth Hall.
They are really amazing young lions of Latin Jazz - and I urge you to check them out! As you know San Francisco State is taking a hard economic hit, as most schools are - please support these concerts and this educational program that is making a significant difference in so many peoples lives.
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 We as a community are blessed to have such amazing talent in the Bay Area. Included in this talented group is writer and jazz supporter Dr. Wesley Watkins. He is giving much time and talent to incredible musicians by giving them a voice through outstanding interviews. To learn more about Dr. Watkins please check out the Jazz and Democracy Project website. The Jazz & Democracy Project™ uses
jazz
as a metaphor to bring American democracy to life, enrich the
study of U.S. History in elementary, middle, and high school, and
inspire youth to become active, positive contributors to their
community. Dr. Wes is available to teach J&D at schools in San
Francisco, Oakland, and the greater Bay Area. Go to the website for more information.
In this weeks newsletter I want to direct your attention to the interviews Watkins conducted with the amazing Ahmad Jamal (video), Mark Levine (video) and Marcus Shelby (video) . All three venerable jazz musicians are playing this week at Yoshis both in Oakland and San Francisco - be sure to support these shows! You can check out these three amazing interviews below in this newsletter!
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Thursday - Sunday
December 10 - 13
Ahmad Jamal
@ Yoshi's San Francisco
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Saturday December 12VALERIE TROUTT
& The Fear Of The Fat Planet Crew: Album Fundraiser
@ Red Poppy Art House
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Monday, December 14
Mark Levine
& The Latin Tinge 'Off & On': The Music of
Moacir Santos CD Release
Please see interview below!
Mark Levine (piano)
Mary Fettig (reeds)
Michael Spiro (percussion)
John Wittala (bass)
Mark Levine's WebsiteBuy Tickets Here!Buy CD Here!
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Tuesday December 15th
The Dynamic
Miss Faye Carol
with special guest
Sista Kee
'Carolizing Christmas'
CD Release
@ Yoshi's Oakland
www.fayecarol.com
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Wedensday and Thursday
December 16 & 17
Marcus Shelby
Jazz Orchestra with The Pacific Boys ChoirHoliday CelebrationAfrican American Spirituals@ Yoshi's Oakland
Please see interview below!www.marcushelby.com
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A note from John Santos
Monday
night (Dec 14), I've got the honor of playing at a cool event with some
of my most highly respected colleagues in Los Angeles: poet
extraordinaire Kamau Daaood, legendary Colombian jazz giant Justo Almario, and the wonderful bassist René Camacho. I'll be on percussion.
It's a combo that has never worked together before. I'm very excited
about the opportunity to improvise with these masters. It's not an
open-to-the-public event, and our segment is very short, as there will
be several artists making brief presentations. But it will be broadcast
live on the web. If you're interested, here are the details forwarded
from the presenter, US Artists . . . john
Where can you see these world-renowned performers?
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Ahmad
Jamal:
A True American Classicist
by Wesley Watkins
Ahmad Jamal is frank,
"There are only two art forms that developed in The United States: American
Indian art-which is still pushed back-and American Classical Music...this thing
they call Jazz." When he graces the San Francisco Yoshi's stage next weekend,
Jamal's very presence will carry with it 100 years of our Classical Music. Few
living musicians have had first hand contact with the repertoire, styles, and
pioneers from the early 20th Century, through virtually every major
innovation in our indigenous art form, to the present day. Of the precious few
who have, Jamal may be the only one who can boast a technical brilliance that
is the envy of ticklers more than half his age, and swing that must have Count
Basie, Duke Ellington, and all the masters of yester-year cheering nightly from
the big jam session in the sky.
Born on
July 2, 1930, Jamal was a child prodigy pianist who, at age 3, began mimicking
pieces his Uncle Lawrence played note for note. "Music chose me. I didn't
choose it, that's for sure. You don't make any conscious decisions at 3 years
old. I was just born to play the piano." He had his union card at age 14 (two
years before the legal minimum, thanks to the union president turning a blind
eye), and he performed regularly with men in their 60s. "We had a different
camaraderie then. The older people really inspired the younger people, and
that's what should happen all the time. Ben Webster gave me a pair of cuff
links, for example. I never forgot it. I loved Ben, and he loved me."
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At
around three o'clock in the morning one night at The Washington Club, an after
hours spot in Jamal's beloved hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Art Tatum
walked in, the man whom many consider the greatest piano proponent of American
Classical Music.
"That
only happened once. I wasn't around Art Tatum much, bu
t that was enough for the
rest of my life. It's quality, not quantit
y that counts. So Art Tatum was very
motivating, to say the least."
Tatum
wasn't the only one who inspired the young Jamal. Pittsburgh was replete with
legendary artists of all kinds: musicians George Benson, Art Blakey, Ray Brown,
Kenny Clarke, Roy Eldridge,
Earl Hines, and Billy Strayhorn, as well as dancer
Gene Kelly, painter
 Andy Warhol, playwright August Wilson, and founder of The
National Negro Opera Company, Mary Caldwell Dawson. Jamal shares the
illustrious list with a great sense of pride. "I play like I play because I'm
from Pittsburgh." Due to early exposure with master practitioners and
dedication to the craft for over three quarters of a century, on any given night
Jamal is bound to present music from the pantheon of American Classicists. "I
don't ever want to be around a person who doesn't change their mind. You have
to be flexible in life. So that's what I do: I'm adjusting my programs every
day, saying, 'This works, and this doesn't work tonight.'"
Regardless
of what tunes the maestro calls, Ahmad Jamal performances consistently showcase
stunning unity and balance. His ensembles are the epitome of swing. Able to
shift tempo and change dynamics at will, the group seems to breathe together.
With a seemingly psychic communication they may suddenly explode in volume just
as boldly as they punctuate with tenderness, even silence. Thunderously dense
passages resolve into calm melodic space after the storm, creating a sonic
silver lining that highlights both the beauty in rain and blue sky, if only
because they weathered the storm together. All of this, reflects Jamal, has to
do with lived experience.
"Whatever
your life is, it comes out in your work. So my work is very emotionally charged
because I've lived a very interesting life, a very emotionally charged life. I
may make you cry, I may make you laugh, I may make you think. But those are
things I'm doing. So whatever I do, some of that is going to project to my
public-some of that's got to
project."
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 Project,
indeed. Transmission may be a more precise term-to his sidemen as much as to
the audience. Yet, that doesn't fully explain the magic connection which allows
his ensemble to change musical directions as though they were one being. On the
one hand, Jamal explains that it's sheer communication on all levels: social,
musical, compositional, and improvisational. "Without communication you're
gonna be in trouble." There's also experience, talent, and character which are
requisite for potential sidemen. "You can't play this music if you don't have
character. You must have some qualities that make up a good person, or you must
have the intentions to be a good person. Sometimes we're not successful in our
attempts to be sound characters, but at least if the intention is there, eventually
you'll get there. So you have to have a person who really is trying to do
positive things. You don't want negativity on a band stand. The negativity
produces bad music. It's as simple as that."
But
there actually is a bit more to it. School is in session:
"You
have to be a good leader. A body is no stronger than its head. So you have to
be a good leader and one that respects the people that are working with you so
they can respect you. You know, what goes around comes around. And I've managed
over the years to respect others, and they respect me. And that's what you see
on the band stand. You see respect and love. It's ignorant to entertain the
concept that you can play with bad vibrations, because you can't."
"You
have to stay with what you do best, and you have to be around the practitioners
who do it best with you. You have to have practitioners who are in tune with
what you are doing-musically, character-wise, and socially. A person has to be
in tune himself first, and he has to have others who are in tune. Out of tune
players don't make for good music."
Then the
master begins to speak of inspiration.
"We are
receiving vessels. We don't create anything. All we can do is receive and
reflect creativity. People have the wrong impression of creativeness. You can
reflect creativity-you're not going to create. You can discover, but you can't
create. There is nothing new under the sun."
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Another
master, Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, once told me that the best moments in
music happen not when the musicians are playing the music very well, but when
the music is playing the musicians. Jamal knows the feeling. "It's a wonderful
unification of spirit and body, and certainly a wonderful communication between
ourselves and what is controlling this universe. To me everyone is afforded
that opportunity-everybody. It's up to them to make the decision to accept or
reject [it]."
Jamal
most often plays American Classical Music in an ensemble setting. This means
that he is co-creating at the spur of the moment with others. "People think
you're just sitting down and just playing what comes to mind. That's not so.
You have to be a skilled artisan to improvise."
Jamal
identifies a key skill in this process: "catching," akin to catching a cold,
though in a positive way. "When you're in tune, others follow. Whether they're
on the same philosophical bent or not, it can be so powerful that it reaches
many, many hearts and minds." In fact, Jamal finds that focusing on the
commonalities between us helps create his art.
"I believe
there is more in common than what we don't have in common, if we'd just
reflect. So that's what happens on a band stand: we have a lot of things in
common. And if we use those things we can accomplish a lot. If we take
advantage of the things we have in common musically, then we can get the magic."
"I'd
like all my moments to be like that. That's the consistency, and that's a gift.
When you reach that level you've been blessed with a great gift because very
few of us can sit and write a book and it dictates itself. You ever hear that?
The book begins to dictate itself. You're the vehicle through which the pen is
writing, and music is the same way. When you reach that level, consider
yourself one of the gifted ones on this earth."
Not
surprisingly, Jamal has a healthy dose of humility to accompany the sage
insights.
"I'm
discovering things every day. It look a lot of lotta lotta: a lot of struggles,
a lot of battles, a lot of sadness, but [there is also] the desire to get
there, the desire to reach the goal. And then you're happily surprised if you
see a little glimpse of that goal. But to say you've arrived is a big, big
mistake. I'm not going to say that. When the scholar says he's a scholar, he's
no longer a scholar. To say you've arrived is dangerous. I'm still trying to arrive. So I'm trying to reach
that level. There are a few glimpses and a few indications that I know a little
teensy bit about it."
Fans,
fellow musicians, and critics alike have given much more credit than that for
decades. In the late 1950s and early 1960s The U.S. State Department sent
so-called "Jazz Ambassadors" around the globe. "They sent American Classical
Music all over the world to try and create a unification, or some kind of bond
between nations, or some kind of dialogue. So they decided to send Ella
Fitzgerald, or Louis Armstrong, or Dizzy Gillespie, or Dave Brubeck." If you're
searching for the keys to creating unity in your own life, sit near the stage
at the San Francisco Yoshi's this weekend. Just a teensy drop of magical
quality may fall from the Steinway and provide you substance for the remainder
of your days.
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Left At
Rio:
Mark Levine and The Latin Tinge
Re-Present Obscured Brazilian Music
To The
World
by Wesley Watkins
Pianist,
educator, and author Mark
Levine has written what many consider to be bibles in the field of
Jazz theory: The Jazz Piano Book
(Sher Music, 1990) and The Jazz Theory
Book (Sher Music, 1995). He begins the latter, "A great solo consists of:
1% magic, 99% stuff that is explainable, analyzable, categorizeable, doable.
This book is mostly about the 99% stuff." Fair enough for the purposes of a
book on music theory, but when asked about the magic of making music, Levine is
thoughtful about that 1%.
"I once
heard Bobby Hutcherson say, 'When everything is going right, when I'm really
playing my best, and everybody is playing their best, it's like the music is
coming from some place else and it's just going through me.' And I relate to
that because whenever I feel like I'm playing my best, that's what it feels
like: coming from some other place. But I'm not a particularly religious
person, so I don't think it's coming from God. It's just a peculiar combination
of our own personality make-ups, our history, our childhood, our
education-everything. And in that there is something magical at some point.
Whether it's soul or what, I don't know what it is. Like we're tapping into
something that's out there-we just gotta find a way in. And when we do,
everything is right."
"It's a
feeling of tapping into something which connects me to the rest of the world
both physically and also in terms of time, the flow of time. I've connected
with Louis Armstrong and I've also connected with somebody 50 years in the
future that's going to listen to one of my records and connects with that... I
just read something last night: our conception of what time is, is skewed
because we're immersed in it. In one sense there's really no such thing as
time. There's just a series of events that all take place at the same time, yet
we experience it as a sequence. I don't know. All that stuff is really hard. I
wrap my head around it all the time and I come up with no answers!"
While
the nature of time itself may elude him, one thing has been certain throughout
the life of Mark Levine: when the music spoke to him, he knew it. Growing up in
Concord, New Hampshire, there wasn't exactly a Swing Street, but at age 6 or 7
his mother took him to the municipal auditorium to see Perry Como. "I remember
that night thinking, 'Yeah, this is what I want to do when I grow up!' (Not
wear cardigans and sing like Perry Como, but [be a musician])." Then, at age
13, Levine was Best Man in his brother's wedding. "So as a present for being
Best Man, he gave me a bunch of 10-inch LPs....a whole bunch of white guys from
the West Coast. 'Yes! Wow! I love this music!'" Fast forward to one night in
New York when Bobby Porcelli took Levine to The Palladium for $5 to hear two
bands he'd never heard of: Tito Rodriguez and Tito Puente. "I said, 'Yeah! I
want to learn this music!'" Levine went back to Boston where he had studied
music theory at Boston University, and joined the only Latin band in town. The
pianist had given thirty days notice, so flautist and saxophonist, Dick Meza,
and conguero, Don Alias, had time to sit Levine down with a bunch of Eddie
Palmieri records and teach him how to play Latin music. "But they also threw in
a bunch of Brazilian records. That's when I first became aware,
'Hey-Brazil-there's something happenin' there!'"
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Shortly
after this, Levine moved to Los Angeles where the trumpet player, Luis Gasca,
told him that Moacir Santos was looking for a piano player. "I remember the
first time I heard [Moacir's music] I was utterly mesmerized by it. What is this?" Though he had limited experience
with Latin music-and even less with Brazilian music-Levine got the gig. There
was a short-lived and under-appreciated week in Lake Tahoe and Reno which
represented the only gig Levine ever played with Santos, and in 1975 he played
piano on Santos' recording, Saudade.
Despite
popularity in Brazil and a great deal of respect among U.S. Jazz musicians,
Santos is not widely known in the U.S. This is due in part to the timing of his
arrival in the U.S., circa 1970, when Sergio Mendes and Brazil '66 were all the rage. "At the time everybody was signing
Brazilian groups left and right," remembers Levine. Legend has it that it was
Mendes who took Santos to Blue Note records, who signed the newcomer to a three
record deal anticipating another Mendes-esque success. But when the executives
didn't get the music they expected, they put less and less behind each record.
"And then, many years later a friend of mine, Jack O'Neil-there's nobody on the
planet who has bigger ears than him-went to Blue Note and he says, I'd like to
license the Moacir Santos LPs for two years and put them out in a limited
release. They said fine, they signed the contracts and everything. They went
down in the vaults-couldn't find the masters. Not there. At that particular
point in time the project hit a wall. So [Santos is] pretty much unknown in
this country."
Enter Off & On: The Music of Moacir Santos,
the latest release by Mark Levine and The Latin Tinge, celebrating their CD
release at the San Francisco Yoshi's on December 14th. Levine puts the record
squarely in the "World Music" category because he is combining genres:
Brazilian, in which the songs were originally conceived by Santos, and Latin or
Afro-Cuban, the style in which Levine's band interprets many of the
compositions. This is possible because the genres share a fundamental
commonality: "Cuban music and Brazilian music are both in clave," the
syncopated two bar rhythmic pulse central to Afro-Cuban music, also found in
both Bossa Nova and Samba. "[Brazilians] don't observe the same rigid rules that
the Cuban music does, but you can snap your fingers [in clave] to Gal Costa
just as easily as you can to Chucho Valdes."
|
 Despite
this core similarity, these two genres have rarely been combined. Luckily for
Levine, one of the few musicians who has done so, Michael Spiro, is The Latin
Tinge percussionist. This made interpreting the Brazilian music in an
Afro-Cuban context relatively easy. "As soon as I gave the music to Michael
Spiro, I knew that it would happen automatically. He was familiar with Moacir's
music...and I knew as soon as we started to play some of these tunes, on the way
to Rio he would take a left and go to Havana. And we did." However, that left
turn is not without controversy if you're following the strict rules of
Afro-Cuban clave.
"Some of
Moacir's music is unusual in that it has 7-bar phrases-things that tend to
throw the clave off. So you either have to tweak the music to fit the clave, or
nothing. If you're playing with strict Cuban-oriented musicians it's just a
break in the rules, and they don't like it. But Mike is flexible enough; he's
familiar enough with Brazilian music. He just worked with it. So we broke the
Cuban rules a few places-we had to. I mean, all of a sudden you got two 7-bar
phrases in a row and that's the hook that makes the tune? You don't
automatically add an extra bar just to make it work for clave purposes."
One
thing that certainly works on both the album and live in concert is the musical
togetherness and connection between members of The Latin Tinge. "The band itself
is a little over 10 years old. [Drummer, Paul Van Wageningen] and Mike were
original members. They're a pair, a team. They've played together for many,
many years. Mikey tends to take the lead as far as what rhythm to do, and
occasionally he'll actually verbalize and tell Paul, 'Do this rhythm.' But most
of the time it's non-verbal communication. They have worked together so much
that one does something and the other follows."
John
Wiitala I've played with as a Jazz bassist for 20 years or more. He's been my
bass player of choice. He was not a Latin bass player, but I noticed on Jazz
gigs occasionally we would play a Latin tune...and he played great tumbao. Most
bass players can't even feel it. He's been, by far, the best bass player to
play with the band."
Wanting
to add another solo voice to the band, Levine decided to add flute on this
album, but he didn't know of any flautists off hand. Everyone he asked gave the
same name: Mary Fettig, who doubles on alto saxophone. "She knew Moacir's
music, she's been playing Brazilian music for 20 or 30 years, she works with
Marco Silva who plays some of Moacir's music, so she was really a great choice.
So I think I got a great band! I think it's very well balanced.... I feel that
everybody in this band is positive. They like playing with me, they like
playing the music."
The
harmony and balance in the band is mirrored in the multi-layered arrangements
themselves. Many of the melodies sound like lullabies. "However, there is a
complexity that's parallel to that simplicity-or locked in with it. So
something that sounds almost like a nursery rhyme nevertheless occurs in a
7-bar phrase. Those are the things that jolt you. Your body tends to-maybe
because of dance-organize itself into even-numbered bars. And all of a sudden
you have an odd numbered phrase in there-boom-that creates a major upset in our
psyches. Some people stumble and fall, and other say, "Wow, what was that? I
want to do that!" Guess which camp Levine falls into.
Levine
admits to using a broad brush to paint the world's music into two basic
categories: those with core rhythms having 1-bar, as opposed to 2-bar phrases.
Jazz, for example, repeats a 1-bar rhythmic pulse. (Imagine snapping on two and
four as you listen to any swing tune. Your snapping is the same in every bar.)
The clave pattern is separated into two bars: one contains the "2-side" of the
clave, and the other the "3-side". Whichever phrasing you prefer, Mark Levine
and The Latin Tinge will give you ample opportunities to snap your fingers, pat
your feet, and sway your hips. Thanks to a complicated dance of Brazilian
rhythms, Afro-Cuban grooves, and Jazz improvisation, all with simple melodies
delicately placed on top, this music is at once intriguing and accessible,
re-presenting a well respected yet little known Brazilian composer to American
audiences. Don't miss this unique opportunity to see what happens when you take
that left at Rio and find yourself on the shores of Havana.
|
One
thing that certainly works on both the album and live in concert is the musical
togetherness and connection between members of The Latin Tinge. "The band itself
is a little over 10 years old. [Drummer, Paul Van Wageningen] and Mike were
original members. They're a pair, a team. They've played together for many,
many years. Mikey tends to take the lead as far as what rhythm to do, and
occasionally he'll actually verbalize and tell Paul, 'Do this rhythm.' But most
of the time it's non-verbal communication. They have worked together so much
that one does something and the other follows."
John
Wiitala I've played with as a Jazz bassist for 20 years or more. He's been my
bass player of choice. He was not a Latin bass player, but I noticed on Jazz
gigs occasionally we would play a Latin tune...and he played great tumbao. Most
bass players can't even feel it. He's been, by far, the best bass player to
play with the band."
Wanting
to add another solo voice to the band, Levine decided to add flute on this
album, but he didn't know of any flautists off hand. Everyone he asked gave the
same name: Mary Fettig, who doubles on alto saxophone. "She knew Moacir's
music, she's been playing Brazilian music for 20 or 30 years, she works with
Marco Silva who plays some of Moacir's music, so she was really a great choice.
So I think I got a great band! I think it's very well balanced.... I feel that
everybody in this band is positive. They like playing with me, they like
playing the music."
The
harmony and balance in the band is mirrored in the multi-layered arrangements
themselves. Many of the melodies sound like lullabies. "However, there is a
complexity that's parallel to that simplicity-or locked in with it. So
something that sounds almost like a nursery rhyme nevertheless occurs in a
7-bar phrase. Those are the things that jolt you. Your body tends to-maybe
because of dance-organize itself into even-numbered bars. And all of a sudden
you have an odd numbered phrase in there-boom-that creates a major upset in our
psyches. Some people stumble and fall, and other say, "Wow, what was that? I
want to do that!" Guess which camp Levine falls into.
Levine
admits to using a broad brush to paint the world's music into two basic
categories: those with core rhythms having 1-bar, as opposed to 2-bar phrases.
Jazz, for example, repeats a 1-bar rhythmic pulse. (Imagine snapping on two and
four as you listen to any swing tune. Your snapping is the same in every bar.)
The clave pattern is separated into two bars: one contains the "2-side" of the
clave, and the other the "3-side". Whichever phrasing you prefer, Mark Levine
and The Latin Tinge will give you ample opportunities to snap your fingers, pat
your feet, and sway your hips. Thanks to a complicated dance of Brazilian
rhythms, Afro-Cuban grooves, and Jazz improvisation, all with simple melodies
delicately placed on top, this music is at once intriguing and accessible,
re-presenting a well respected yet little known Brazilian composer to American
audiences. Don't miss this unique opportunity to see what happens when you take
that left at Rio and find yourself on the shores of Havana.
|
See With
Your Ears:
Marcus Shelby
Paints The Season Bright
by Wesley Watkins
On
December 16th and 17th the Oakland Yoshi's stage will be teeming
with musicians as approximately 40 members of The Pacific Boychoir (PBC) surround
the 15-piece Marcus Shelby Jazz
Orchestra (MSJO) for a special two-night holiday engagement. The MSJO will
open with instrumental numbers from Duke Ellington's arrangement of The Nutcracker Suite, followed by other
Ellington classics featuring the PBC, e.g.
"Come Sunday," "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing," and a piece
Ellington specifically orchestrated for voice, "On A Turquoise Cloud." In
addition, Shelby has arranged pieces from his celebrated oratorio on the life
of Harriet Tubman, as well as Christmas classics, "Go Tell It On The Mountain",
"Little Drummer Boy", and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing".
The
chance to hear selections from Ellington's arrangement of The Nutcracker Suite is reason enough to attend the show.
Professional big bands are a rare breed, and the MSJO is one of few that can
navigate these particularly difficult charts. Even absent Duke's trademark arranging
genius, the opportunity to experience Shelby's would be well worth the price of
admission. He is one of the most earnest arranger/composers you will find,
dedicated to the integrity of the music itself, and the subjects of his larger
works. He conducts thoughtful research that allows him to capture the essence of
time, space, character and mood, and he combines all these in a vivid canvas of
sound for your ears and imagination alike. What is more, to support the MSJO is
to support the Bay Area jazz scene, for Shelby is intent on creating work for
his fellow musicians.
"I
started this band 10 years ago. When I was thinking about putting it together,
I wanted to have a long term commitment and concept that would be a process of
building, a process of development, a process of growth, and to allow all of
that over time. Part of that long term concept was not to just put together a
band to do gigs and clubs, but to develop projects, to work with other arts
disciplines-like dance companies, or theatre companies, or film projects-and to
do the type of work that I really wanted to do: write for the jazz orchestra,
develop compositions that could really capture life and character, much like
classical composers."
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Unlike
other bands-large or small-the MSJO has a particular historical and educational
focus.
"Currently
the characteristic of the band is really about developing music and
compositions and arrangements that deal with history-specifically African
American history-[and] taking stories that are inspiring that also have a
relationship with music. For example, Harriet Tubman and how she used
music to
do the work that she did, or how music was used in the Civil Rights period to
successfully unite people and to overturn social injustices-or how music has
always been a critical part of social progress."
"The
other part of it is really trying to support the scene in the sense of creating
work so that there is work for other musicians to participate in. The work that
I'm trying to do is very much influenced by everybody that's in the band who
I've tried to maintain a long term commitment to."
By the
law of returns, there should be no shortage of continued work for the MSJO
because Shelby puts a substantial amount of research into these larger works,
traveling to places like Montgomery, Alabama, in order to prepare a piece on
Rosa Parks. He uses elements of music to capture specific aspects of historical
context and feeling, all of which inform the musical representation of his
primary subject.
"When
you talk about evoking a mood, or a sense of time and space, then you're
talking about rhythm. Is it going to be something that's going to have a slow
movement-a dirge? If you're talking about New York City is it going to have the
same rhythms as Montgomery, Alabama? Probably not. So there are ways you work
with rhythm to sort of translate time and space. Then there is color-just the
nature and the emotion of people. How passionate are they? If you know that,
then you know how to choose your chords because chords are really an effective
way of capturing emotion and color, temperature-how hot the situation is, or
how cold it is. So if you're literally translating these experiences, these are
the tools. And then there's the third thing: the character of people-the
quirkiness or the coldness. No one place is going to have only one type of
people, so you want to be able to see all the different types of ways that
melody can capture this character because that's what melody does: it captures
the character of an idea or a person. And so these real life experiences put
you even closer to realizing what that subject is."
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Though
he may seem systematic in his literal translation, Shelby also knows to leave
room for an essential ingredient of jazz. "I also think music is effective when
it leaves space for the imagination-much like a painting. So the trick is to
really try to give someone who is listening that space for imagining, but also
in a sense creating the sort of template of where that imagination takes place."
For Shelby, this occurs when he has provided room for a band member to solo.
"When that soloist is going on that journey in those chords and rhythms and
melodies you've given them in the [improvisational] space, that's where the
listener is imagining: 'What could be happening in the context of this form?'"
Recall that the form is all of the literal translation that Shelby has chosen
to aurally paint a scene in which his main character resides. So when the
soloist takes flight, the audience is equally free to interpret that solo
within the larger canvas. "What I may think that soloist is playing might be
different from what you think. That's the beauty of jazz, really.
That's what
Louis Armstrong invented-or Buddy Bolden, maybe. That's really what's so
exciting about jazz: it allows for imagination right there."
The
imagination of a soloist strikes even deeper chords for Shelby.
"When a
musician is performing they've got a thousand and one decisions they are
making, particularly in jazz: what note to play, how loud to play, when to
play, etc. I think that you can look at a musician who is performing on stage
and through their solo you can probably get a good sense of their nature-their
spirit-by the choice of their notes. The choice of their notes is a reflection
of their ideas. Their ideas is a reflection of their spiritual inner being. And
I think that all of that is a determinant of how they want to articulate that
in their music."
"A lot
of times-particularly in jazz-a jazz musician can be quite pent up on trying to
play something that reflects their genius: how fast they can play, or how many
notes they can play over a chord, or how much knowledge they have of the
literature-and that has to come out every time a note comes off of their
instrument. There's a moment when someone lets go where there's not that sense
that you have to prove yourself. There's the sense that you're complementing,
you're leading, you're following. There's this back and forth like a dance-it's
a beautiful dance-as opposed to someone demanding to lead. That's dictatorship.
I think that in jazz the beautiful challenge is that you have this really
complex dance going on and early on when you had this-particularly in New
Orleans where you had [polyphonic improvisation]-you still had the character
and uniqueness and parity in all the voices. And so that concept extended to
today is what I think is beautiful about our music. Everyone is playing at the
same time, but there's the sense that, 'Oh, I hear the trumpet. Oh, I hear the
trombone. Oh, I hear the sax. I hear the bass!' But they're all in a very
democratic setting. So when you let go then you're not trying to always lead,
you're not trying to always dominate. You're not worried if you're playing that
note right. You're not worried if you're hitting that phrase exactly right.
You're relaxing and you're listening and you're responding."
Shelby's
ability to verbally articulate the subtle profundity of jazz is on par with his
talent for arranging. Trust that he has captured with equal accuracy and brilliance
the essence of every number to be played next week. Expect both his band and
The Pacific Boychoir to shine, illuminating a facet of the holiday spirit as
yet unknown to you, but sure to touch your spirit and allow your imagination to
soar.
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Upcoming Shows
December and beyond
Thursday December 17
GILLIAN HARWIN GROUP
@ Anna's Jazz Island
Gillian Harwin Website
www.annasjazzisland.com
Friday December 18
John Santos Sextet
@ La Pena Cultural Center
www.johnsantos.com
www.lapena.org
Friday December 18
MISS FAYE CAROL TRIO
THE HOLIDAY SHOW
@ Anna's Jazz Island
www.fayecarol.com
www.annasjazzisland.com
Saturday December 19
OUR 5TH ANNUAL
HOLIDAY CAROLING with
TERRANCE KELLY &
ELLEN HOFFMAN
@ Anna's Jazz Island
www.ellenhoffmanmusic.com
www.annasjazzisland.com
Sunday December 20
CANJAM!
Admission is food for the
Alameda County Food Bank
@ Anna's Jazz Island
Alameda County Food Bank Website
www.annasjazzisland.com
Sunday December 20
Mazacote
@ Coda Supper Club
www.mazacote.com
www.codalive.com
Sunday December 20
Tangonero
@ Cafe Cocomo
www.tangonero.com
www.cafecocomo.com
Tuesday December 22
Charanga Habanera
at Cocomo's
www.charangahabanera.net
www.cafecocomo.com
Saturday - Monday
December 26 - 28
THE FIRST-EVER:
ARTURO SANDOVAL ALL-STAR BAND
Featuring Horatio 'El Negro' Hernandez, Giovanni Hidalgo, Rebeca Mauleon and more!
@ Yoshi's Oakland
www.arturosandoval.com
www.yoshis.com
Tuesday - Thursday
December 29 -31
LEDISI
New Year's Celebration
@ Yoshi's SF
www.ledisi.com
www.yoshis.com
Monday - Sunday
December 29 - January 3
McCoy Tyner
New Year's Celebration
with Ravi Coltrane, Esperanza Spalding, and Francisco Mela
www.mccoytyner.com
www.yoshis.com
Monday January 4
Latin Jazz
Youth Ensemble
CD Release of "Generation"
Directed by
John Calloway
@ Yoshi's San Francisco
www.ljye.com
www.johncalloway.com
www.misterlatinjazz.com
www.yoshis.com
Friday and Saturday
January 22-23
Rebeca Mauleon
"Rock with You"
A Latin dance tribute to Michael Jackson with
singer/dancer/choreographer Seaon,
featuring live band with musical
direction by Rebeca!
at
the Cowell Theater in Fort Mason, San Francisco
www.rebecamauleon.com
Urban Music Presents
@ Coda Supper Club
Tu Gusto Musical
a weekly concert, every Sunday
celebrating the finest Latin music in the Bay Area!
www.codalive.com
February 7
Montuno Swing
A small salsa band with a BIG sound!
www.montunoswing.com
February 14 - Valentine's Day
Anthony Blea and Friends
Latin Jazz and Charanga
www.anthonyblea.com
February 21
Tangonero
Music of Argentina Dance
www.tangonero.com
February 28
Sombra y Luz
Plays a fusion of bossa nova, bolero, samba, flamenco and jazz
www.homenagem-brasileira.com
March 7
Hector Lugo y La Mixta Criolla
A dynamic music and dance ensemble that features range of the Puerto Rican and the Venezuelan cuatros - the bass guitar, the
accordion, the percussive drive of the barrel shaped Bomba drums,
the panderos of the Plena, and the güícharo- bongó tandem of the Música
Jíbara of the Puerto Rican countryside. La Mixta's performances also feature traditional Bomba dancing.
Hector Lugo's La Mixta Criolla - Eso se te ve Video
Bomba Baile La Mixta Criolla Shefali Shah y Christina Navarro Video
March 14
Tanaóra
A blend of Brazilian, Latin and American jazz
www.tanaora.com
March 21
Anthony Blea and Friends
Celebrating Family
www.anthonyblea.com
March 28
John Calloway
Afro-Cuban Jazz
www.johncalloway.com
April 11
Coto Pincheira
The Sonido Moderno Project
www.cotopincheira.com
April 18
Chelle! and Friends!
Music of Mardi Gras, New Orleans, and celebrates
it's Creole people and their remarkable music!
www.chellemusic.com
April 25
Quijerema
A potent mix of Latin American folk music and jazz
www.quijerema.com
May 2
Ray Obiedo and the Urban Latin Jazz Project
Eclectic combination
of Latin Jazz and funkified fusion
www.myspace.com/rayobiedo
May 9
Kat Parra and the Sephardic Experience
www.katparra.com
May 16
Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet
Here the sounds of his new album, ¡Bien Bien!
www.walacomusic.com
May 23
Mazacote
www.mazacote.com
May 30 - Carnaval Weekend!
Brian Andres & The Afro Cuban Jazz Cartel
Afro Cuban Jazz Cartel Website
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