Since some have asked, here is a list of 10 of my favorite things from our recent trip to Paris:

1)Our first walk through Montmarte my wife, Cathie Blumer started taking pictures of doors. “I’ve fallen in love with doors,” she said. It wasn’t until we returned that the metaphoric meaning of this statement hit me. We were walking through a door, of history and place and culture. I have hopes to post some of these photos here in the future.

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2) A couple of days into our trip we were going to go on a boat trip on the Seine at dusk. We exited the metro to see the sun setting, with a view of the Eiffel Tower right next to it. Add Jupiter and Venus and it took our breath away. We had marvelous views along the waterfront as the night stole the day away from us.

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3) The cafes were numerous and marvelous. When I was first in Paris in 1993 there were no chains. Now there are many: Starbucks, McDonald’s, Burger King, Subways abound. But there are still many little cafes with tables that creep out into the sidewalk. Perfect for relaxed coffee drinking and people watching.

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4) My dad was in Paris in WWII. I have a picture of him on a bookshelf in my living room, dressed in his uniform with the Eiffel Tower in the background. I dreamed of my dad again and again in Paris. Hemingway was his literary hero. One morning I awoke at 5 a.m. and felt urged to take a walk in St. Germain and the Latin Quarter, where I found where Hemingway had written Big Two Hearted River

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Hemingway drank with the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Ezra Pound here, as did Jean Paul Sartre and Henry Miller.

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The home of Gertrude Stein.

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Where Pablo Picasso painted Guernica.

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Where Ben Franklin worked out details with the British to end the war of the American Revolution.

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I liked the walk a lot, and I think dad loved it.

5) Cathie and I walked the cemetery at Pere Lachaise. She bought flowers for Oscar Wilde and Proust. I played The End at Jim Morrison’s grave. The only overcast day of our trip, which was perfect for this occasion. The cawing of ravens helped, too.

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6) Speaking of creepy, the tour of the catacombs in Paris was actually worth the 2 1/2 hour wait it took to enter.

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7) Of course the museums. The Louvre was bustling. I was really moved by the Cezannes at the Musee D’orsey as well as the Kandinskys in the Pompidou.
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The people on the streets of Paris. So chic and hip.

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9) The miracle of modern travel: the ability to be on the other side of the globe in a matter of hours. The chance to catch up with old friend Cathy Lundey at Bert’s.

10) The camaraderie between Blumer, Holland & Stratton. We laughed ourselves to tears several times. What fun and what good memories!

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10) SUSANA BACA – AFRODIASPORA (Luaka Bop)
Peruvian vocalist Susana Baca cooks with fire on this strong recording. She stirs in a little N’Awlins flavor at one point, but the main ingredients are South American. Her ability to work a groove is reminiscent of some of the great soul singers of the 1960s.

9) WADADA LEO SMITH’s ORGANIC – HEART’S REFLECTIONS (Cuneiform Records)
The ghost of Miles hovers over this double disc set by trumpeter Smith, espescially on the badass back beat opener (dedicated to Don Cherry). Between the blues and the funk there is some old fashioned AACM style avant garde.

ROBERTA PIKET – SIDES, COLORS (Thirteenth Note Records)
Brooklyn pianist and composer Piket has one of the freshest releases of the year. At turns pretty (Laurie) and complex (check out the deconstructed gospel dedication to Sam Rivers, My Friends and Neighbors), Roberta is a force to be reckoned with and one to watch.

7) KEITH JARRETT – RIO (ECM)
Jarrett has built a career not just on his superlative trio recordings, but on his solo improv recitals as well. The newest, recorded in Rio (naturally) is maybe his best. Hard to believe that this fountain of ideas is conceived in the moment, so coherent and certain is Jarrett’s playing. Whereas in some of his earliest solo offerings there are extended and roiling sequences, here the pieces are compact and dense. Jarrett has astounding facilities as a pianist, and this may be his best work yet.

6) KARRIN ALLYSON – ‘ROUND MIDNIGHT (Concord Records)
Karrin has recorded a string of wonderful albums over the past decade or so, but this one stands alone. Like Frank Sinatra’s “Only The Lonely” or Joni Mithcell’s “Blue”, this recording relentlessly builds a mood for those with a need for expression of the ennui of love lost and longing. A heartbreaker of an album, from a heartbreaking singer.

5) BOB BELDEN – MILES ESPANOL (E One)
Like a previous project (Miles From India), Belden collects a small army of musicians (this time of the Hispanic persuasion) to interpret the Gil Evans / Miles Davis collaboration, Sketches of Spain. The double disc allows the conception to expand even further, utilizing some alum from Davis’ groups to romp cross cultures. And such delightful colors, utilizing exotic percussions, strings (Oud! Harp!) and even bagpipes. Not to be missed.

4) ETIENNE CHARLES – KAISO (Culture Shock)
Trinidad trumpeter Etienne Charles combines straight ahead with calypso to create a new and diverse dish. Sure, Blue Mitchell or Sonny Rollins have shown an influence from the isles, but Etienne goes the full monty here, including guest shots from Lord Superior, Ralph MacDonald and Monty Alexander. Another very young talent to watch.

3) SONNY ROLLINS – ROAD SHOWS VOL. II (Doxy Records)
This is a birthday party and a victory lap for octogenarian and living legend Sonny Rollins. Buoyed by a great band (Christian McBride, Roy Haynes and Russell Malone) Rollins is joined at turns by old friends Jim Hall and Bob Cranshaw, with a special guest appearance by Ornette Coleman. This document is a cherry that tops a stellar career.

2) JOE LOVANO US FIVE – BIRD SONGS (Blue Note)
Imagine Donna Lee as a ballad, or Dewey Square as a percussive rhumba, and you get the notion behind Lovano’s set of Charlie Parker music. Yet another entry in the book of Lovano, who is a perennial in the ‘best of’ lists at year’s end. One of the great sax players of our time, but also has the imagination to consistently find new ways to arrange and display the music of jazz.

1) LAURA KAHLE – CIRCULAR (Dark Key Music)
Laura has been known to refer to this album as ‘my little project’ (see Facebook), such is her modesty. This year may have been devoted to raising twin girls of she and husband Jeff “Tain” Watts, but the creation of this music is also more than noteworthy. This one seemed to get by most critics, but to my ears it’s the best thing I’ve heard in 2011. Why? First of all, the blend of Kahle’s pocket trumpet set against the uber powerful drumming of her husband creates a dynamic that reminds me of Miles and Tony Williams, or Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell. Her ideas are pithy, his funk is furious. This is music not to be missed. Claudia Acuna’s singular contribution is a rose in the forest. Beautiful.

This is the playlist for this week’s Vinyl Side of Midnight, which can be heard on 89.7 FM WLNZ in the Greater Lansing area, or you can tune in internationally on the web on http://www.lcc.edu/radio/ – hosted by Mike Stratton, Sunday nights, 9- midnight, Eastern Standard Time.
Feel free to forward this to friends.
If you’ve received this and would like to be removed from the list simply contact me at dreamtrane@gmail.com

Preview: Detroit Jazz Festival 2011

The Detroit Jazz Festival will be celebrated on Hart Plaza and a few blocks of Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit on Labor Day Weekend, September 2-5, 2011.

Art has always been a reflection of culture. And jazz has been the story of different peoples interacting and adapting to one another. Primarily reflecting the experience of African Americans, jazz has been called a gumbo, a veritable goulash of various elements.
This year the Detroit Jazz Festival has gathered a group of international artists who will exhibit a tapestry of the world’s take on jazz. New flavors will enter the goulash.
Famous for a series of thematically organized weekends, Terri Pontremoli conceptualized that for this year, “We Bring You The World.” So your tour for this experience might be organized by genre or by geography. Go listen to old favorites, or make a point to try something completely new. You can’t lose.
Friday, September 2nd, opens in the evening with the Soul Rebels Brass Band, out of New Orleans, second lining and testifying their way down the streets of Detroit. This year’s Artist in Residence is drummer fantastic Jeff “Tain” Watts, famous for his work in the Branford Marsalis Quartet. “Tain” will lead an original aggregation of musicians that he’s titled Drum Club: vibist Joe Locke, the experimental percussionist Susie Ibarra, a pair of cuban drummers (Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez & Pedro Martinez), the legendary Nigerian drummer who powered Fela Kuti’s sound (Tony Allen) and bassist Robert Hurst.
The evening will top off with Sing The Truth: three vocalists who will pay homage to the legacies of Mariam Makeba, Abbey Lincoln and Odetta. The singers, Angelique Kidjo, the West African Grammy winner, Dianne Reeves (another Grammy winner), and Lizz Wright. Backed by the international crew of Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrinton, James Genus, Munyungo Jackson and Romero Lubambo, expect a magical night that will explore new flavors.

Saturday, September 3rd, gives us an amazing lineup gracing seven stages that dot Hart Plaza and down Woodward Street in downtown Detroit. All stages are within easy walking distance of each other, and it’s entirely possible to catch more than one or two acts that are playing opposite of each other. And it’s a good thing, because there are some very tough choices.
Here’s what I’m planning to do on Saturday: start the day by being part of the live audience at the Jazz Planet Stage at 10 a.m. (Even if you can’t attend the Detroit Jazz Festival in person, you can follow the happenings, hear interviews with the artists, and even catch some of the performances by checking out Jazz Planet on line.) Then I’ll head over to the Waterfront Stage to catch the hot trumpeter, Derrick Gardner & The Jazz Prophets. His performance is opposite the University of Michigan Jazz Ensemble with guests Robert Hurst and Geri Allen at the Ampitheatre Stage, the Russ Miller Quartet at the Pyramid Stage, and Jeff “Tain” Watts giving a talk on the role of the drum at the Jazz Talk Tent.
Vibist Warren Wolf (of Christian McBride’s Inside Straight band) has a new release on Mack Avenue records, and he follows Derrick on the same Waterfront Stage. I’ll want to hear some of that set, beginning at 1:30 p.m., but then I’ve just got to slide over to the Pyramid Stage for my current favorite Brazilian vocalist, Luciana Souza, performing in duet with guitarist Romero Lubambo.
I may stick around to catch the first part of the Soul Rebels Brass Band, but I’d be a fool to miss the veteran trombonist Curtis Fuller, who played in a classic lineup of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers that had featured Wayne Shorter and Freddie Hubbard. Fuller will also feature tenor man Eric Alexander and drummer Carl Allen in a good sextet.
By now it’s late afternoon. The dilemmas become harder to reconcile: where to be in the early evening? Going to listen to trumpeter Sean Jones’ Quintet at the Ampitheatre? Or the harmonica/piano duo of Toots Thielemans and Kenny Werner on the Waterfront? How about some Latin spice by visiting the Pyramid again for Dayramir & Habana enTRANCE? Or take a break from the music, go to the Jazz Talk Tent, to meet Jason Moran and Dave Holland? Maybe I’ll try to do it all?
If you have a taste for funky organ jazz, park yourself in the Pyramid Stage for the night to hear Gerard Gibbs & (the return of) ORGANized Crime, followed by the Tony Monaco Trio. On the other hand, I’m going to be challenged by bouncing between Sun Ra Arkestra at the Ampitheatre, Downbeat Critic’s Award winner for jazz artist of the year, Jason Moran & the Bandwagon, performing at the Waterfront Stage, and then listening to the very dynamic Dave Holland Octet, again at the Ampitheatre. It will break my heart to miss the funk soul sounds of Mandrill on the Main stage up Woodward, but sacrifices must be made.
In fact, you could have a very fulfilling day sitting yourself down at that Main stage, hearing Detroit’s Kimmie Horne, the Japanese jazz of Vertical Engine, the Motown crooner Chuck Jackson, followed by the Deacon Jones Blues Revue, finishing with Mandrill. That’s the thing about this festival. Four or five different people could each have a great festival and never cross paths. The veritable embarrassment of riches.
Saturday night ends with fireworks on Hart Plaza at 11 p.m., as though the musical fireworks during the day weren’t enough.

I’m missing the usual sanctified gospel choir on Sunday morning. However, there is a great lineup of some superb big bands on the Ampitheatre stage, each one featuring a special guest: Wayne State Big Band with guest Joe Lovano, the US Airforce Airmen of Note with Joe Locke, MSU’s Jazz Orchestra with Jeff “Tain” Watts, a J.C. Heard Tribute led by Walt Szymanski and the EMU Jazz Ensemble with Christian McBride. Great to see so many youngsters get a chance on the big stage. However, linger here too long and you’ll miss Regina Carter & Reverse Thread, her sweet violin playing music from her most recent African homage on the Waterfront stage; or Anat Cohen, the hot clarinetist from Tel-Aviv, playing at the Pyramid. There’s great Latin jazz up Woodward at the Main stage, first Los Gatos (who just burned down the stage at the recent Lansing Oldtown Jazz Festival), then Sammy Figueroa & the Latin Jazz Explosion. It’s just not fair. Just in case you aren’t already exhausted, you can head over to the Jazz Talk tent, meet Joe Lovano at 4:15, and get yourself over to Jazz Planet for a chance to witness “Tain’s” Downbeat Blindfold Test. But you really need to get back to the Ampitheatre, where you can hear Jeff “Tain” Watts 4 play the sun down, followed by Joe Lovano’s Us Five on that same stage. And, see if you can slip over to the Pyramid to catch at least some of Vijay Iyer trio. This is my hardest choice of the weekend: on the one hand you have Lovano, a terrific sax player, with a tone out of the tradition of Coleman Hawkins or Ben Webster. His band, Us 5, features duo drummers and bassist Esperanza Spalding, and it’s a fountain of invention. On the other hand, Vijay (the son of Indian immigrants) is a master of deconstruction on the piano. He’s got a unique and firmly original approach that he uses on not only his own compositions, but also interprets everyone from Thelonious Monk to John Lennon.
Have I mentioned that you should have a schedule? You can download one on line at detroitjazzfest.com. It will show you what you’re missing. Which, again, is the biggest frustration of the festival. You have to clone yourself to see everything. On the other hand, if you’re not digging whatever concert you are attending, there’s more music right around the corner.
Now, on to Monday. Oh, here’s the gospel choirs! Larry Callahan SOG & Second Ebenezer Majestic Voices at noon on the Main stage. Catch a few minutes of memories with the owner of the VIllage Vanguard (Maxine Gordon, speaking with Tad Herschorn) at the Jazz Talk Tent before you find your way back to the Ampitheatre stage to hear Gary Burton’s New Quartet. You can either go back to the Jazz Talk Tent to listen to Norman Granz or reserve your seat at the Ampitheatre to hear the Northern Illinois University Jazz Orchestra with special guest Paquito D’Rivera. Because after that, hip hop poet and movie star Common with have a special performance with Detroit drummer Karriem Riggins. Common was a recent invitee to the White House, and raised some controversy by haters who misinterpreted his message. I’m told that we might expect some special guests during this set.
The festival will end at the Ampitheatre, where an all star Detroit Jazz Festival Orchestra will play the music of Christian McBride. Last time I interviewed Terri Pontremoli, Creative Director of the festival, she related she’d just gotten off the phone with Christian. She relat that he loves the Detroit Jazz Festival and wants to find a way to be there every year. I feel the same way.
Check out my interview with Terri Pontremoli on Sunday night, August 21st, on The Vinyl Side of Midnight. Following that interview I’ll be playing highlights from the 2010 Detroit Jazz Festival. The next week, August 28th, I’ll devote the evening to featuring artists that will be playing the festival this year.

(Mike Stratton is the author of the novel Everybody Dreams. As a jazz DJ he hosts The Vinyl Side of Midnight on 89.7FM WLNZ. He’ll report on the Detroit Jazz Fest for MLive with Meegan Holland and photographer Cathie Blumer.)

This note will relate some of the trainings I’ve been doing (and going to!) as well as health and other stuff. Let’s get started!

MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING

WiseWoman has once again hired me to do a round of trainings in Motivational Interviewing. This is a style of conversation that avoids arguments or confrontations in favor of developing a collaborative stance with your client. It’s essentially respectful.
I’ve done several trainings for WiseWoman around the state in the past, and also did a two day training for the staff at Devos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids. I have two more dates in Grand Rapids and Gaylord, Michigan to round out the summer.

IT’S A HIT!

I consented to have examples of these conversations taped by WiseWoman over a year ago. I looked at the first one we made, which describes the interviewing technique “Developing Discrepancy”, only to find that it had thousands of hits! In fact, as I write this on July 1, 2011 there are 16,295 hits on this site.

You can see it yourself here:

OTHER TRAININGS

I attended some superb trainings this Spring, including a two day training by Josh Smith on Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), a ‘working with eating disorders’ by Tish Vincent, treatment of sexual addictions by Randy Flood and a workshop on Jungian dream interpretation by Howard Tyas.

HEALTH

This past winter my doctor looked at the results of my blood test and told me my sugars were getting too high. He showed me how the elevation of my sugar readings perfectly traced the gradual incline in my weight. I was well above my BMI (Body Mass Index) weight, which topped out at 185# for my height. He suggested I change my diet and increase my exercise. He told me I was heading toward a diagnosis of diabetes unless I could turn things around through life style changes.

Now I’ve exercised regularly over the past thirty years, so it was distressing to hear I needed to up the ante. But I couldn’t deny that, very gradually, I had added 40 pounds of unwanted ME, mainly around my middle.

First step was diet. I had an appointment with a dietician, and we analyzed my diet. I’ve attended Weight Watchers in the past, so it’s not like I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Out with fast food and sandwiches, sugar cookies, ice cream and pizza. In with steel cut oats, salads, lean proteins and fruit.

Then a friend asked me, “Do you think you could swim for 20 minutes, bike for 20 minutes, and run for 20 minutes?” He was trying to entice me into entering the IRONMAC event at the Michigan Athletic Club. I thought I could. So the next day I tried it, but cut the amount in half. I swam for 10 minutes, biked for 10, and ran for 8 before I was pooped. Not as in shape as I thought. So I slowly worked my way up to it and then entered the competition, and finished!

By now, I was hooked. I looked up a website, Beginner’s Triathlete, and designed a training regimen that would get me ready for Hawk Island Tri-Sprint in the spring. The training was diligent but varied. I worked out 7 days a week: one long run, one short run, one long swim, one short swim, one long bike, one short swim. Plus yoga on the off day. The variation in the routine kept me from wearing down, like I’d experienced when I was way into running.

The event itself was actually fun. I just stayed at my own pace, didn’t let ego get the better of me (I can’t believe THAT person just passed me!) and enjoyed the whole process. I’ll do it again.

All this, plus I lost 30 pounds so far. 10 more to go (the hardest 10). In the meantime, I’ve eaten pizza a couple of times, a Five Guys cheeseburger, some pasta, a few wonderful steaks. But now I use them as treats to eat rarely instead of staples in my diet. And I feel great. I’ve had to buy new clothes as I’ve dropped a pant size. No more extra large shirts. I have more energy and get more done. And I’m happier.

The links between exercise, diet and good mental health and wellness are indisputable, and being added to on a regular basis. So, my friend, I ask you: Do you think you could swim for 5 minutes, bike for 5 minutes, run for 5 minutes?

(In alphabetical order, each selection is followed by a link for further investigation)

Scott Colley – EMPIRE (Cam Jazz)
Bassist Scott Colley draws on the inspiration of his family’s history in Empire, Kansas, a little ‘community’ that featured at least a post office, before the railroad came through and skipped the town, thus dooming the village. The cover of the disc ‘Empire’ shows members of the Colley family circa 1875. What would they have thought of this music?
We’ll never know. Because even though it evokes space, hopes, a wistful and plaintive sound, the music is also thoroughly modern. Colley, who has served as Herbie Hancock’s bassist in recent years (amongst various other projects and employers) gathers together a superb grouping of musicians for this work. Bill Frisell’s spooky guitar evokes so much color. Brian Blades (whose presence on any recording is enough to recommend it’s immediate investigation) plays percussion with such subtlety. Craig Taborn’s piano is also understated. In the face of this, Ralph Alessi’s trumpet is a brave figure on the horizon, much like those isolated characters on the prairie.
‘Sophia’ is maybe the pick of the litter. A gorgeous ballad in waltz time, Colley plays the melody first on bass, a dancing bear crooning a lullaby. When Frisell takes over after Colley’s solo it’s one of those moments that is pure transcendence. And check out Blade’s drumming, supporting with exquisite clarity.
Other tracks are a little more abstract and there is much here to like for those who enjoy open improv. Like all of the albums I’ve selected this year, this is a recording that is about something. A coherent statement, more than a blowing session.

http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Scott-Colley/dp/B003VC8TWU

Galactic – YA-KA-MAY (Anti- Music)
The party record of the year. Like any good gumbo, this New Orlean’s stew has varied and fiery ingredients. What ingredients? Jazz, blues, funk, hip hop, rap. A roux of flat out ecstatic sound. Galactic is a quintet of Ben Ellman (harps and horns), Robert Mercurio (bass), Stanton Moore (drums and percussion), Jeff Raines (guitar) and Rick Vogel (keyboards). However, they are joined by a plethora of N’Awlins talent: The Rebirth Brass Band, Trombone Shorty, Irma Thomas, Cheeky Blakk, Big Chief Bo Dollis, Allen Toussaint, and more.
This is big noise. Crank the sound in your car on a hot drive music. It’s a snapshot of the state of music from a group that is catholic in it’s approach, and by catholic I don’t mean the religion, but the adjective: all embracing and liberal, diffuse and global. There is going to be something here for everyone, the riotous (and sometimes obscene) raps, the deep groove of Irma Thomas’ feature (‘Heart of Steel’), Allen Toussaint’s thoroughly modern rhythm & blues. The hot blowing on ‘Cineramascope’. Trust me, you will want this in your collection. The most fun music of the year.

Mary Halvorson Quintet – SATURN SINGS (Firehouse 12)
Any jazz fanatic is always looking for music that pushes the boundaries, that says something no one has said before, or at least in a way it’s never been said before.
Here is another singular voice, proof that jazz is continuing to evolve and that improvised music is not dead. No one plays guitar like Halvorson, who is a mad scientist of melody and angularity and skronk. Her lines are plunked with a physicality that indicates a human being is actually playing a physical instrument here, and the notes she plays are unlike Bill Frisell or John Scofield or Pat Metheny or any of the other primary influences in this day and age. Cross Eric Dolphy with Frank Zappa, and send her to school with Anthony Braxton (that part is true) and you have Mary Halvorson.
Halvorson has recorded with her trio before, but this is a quintet, adding two horns (Jonathan Finlayson on trumpet and Jon Irabagon on alto sax) for a new approach.
‘Sequential Tears In It (No. 20)’ is a good example of her playing. Halvorson takes a solo at the outset that seems searching, and there is a sense of exploration (does she even know what’s coming next?) in her improvisation. The music builds and an unexpected slurring of the notes, sequences blurred, plinks and new sounds are teased from the strings and amp. But Mary never quite leaves the planet. In part because of her steady and inventive rhythm section (John Herbert on bass and Ches Smith on drums).
‘Sea Seizure (No. 19)’ is punk jazz, more than a name or attitude but great noisy driving rock, while ‘Crack In The Sky (No 11)’ is a relatively straight ahead horn driven thematically tuneful composition. ‘Crescent White Sings (No 13)’ is a winner. By the way, all of these numerical references (my guess) comes from the Braxton association by way of Heraclitus. Can one really step in the same river twice?
Monty Python famously stated, “And now for something completely different.” If you’re in the mood, give Mary Halvorson a turn.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=37354

Conrad Herwig – THE LATIN SIDE OF HERBIE HANCOCK (Half Note)
Conrad Herwig has been engaging the compositions of various jazz icons (Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane) and giving them reinterpretations via the Cuban mambo approach. His background is as an alum of the renowned North Texas University’s One O’Clock Jazz Lab Band. His discography covers numerous large ensembles, from Toshiko Akioshi in the ‘80s through Mingus Big Band, Joe Henderson, Joe Lovano and tons of session work. A busy cat indeed. Trombonist Herwig has found a happy recipe here though. Along with pianist Bill O’Connell he arranges eight Herbie tunes for a spicy entertainment.
The octet sounds larger than it is and the live recording from the Blue Note adds to the sense of spontaneous fun this music is meant to occupy. And what a band! Eddie Palmieri sits in on piano on nearly half the tracks, and Randy Brecker guests on nearly all of them. Craig Handy on all manner of reeds, from sax to flute and even bass clarinet takes some heated solos and adds great textures to ensemble passages. And the rhythm section is muy caliente (Ruben Rodriguez on bass, Robby Ameen on drums and Pedro Martinez on percussion).
My favorite track is ‘Butterfly’, a tune from Herbie’s funk opus “THRUST”. There are several pauses in the melody that give over perfectly to a Latinization. Percolating percussion under the drizzle of Herbie’s lines makes for a wonderful combination. Handy’s bass clarinet solo echoes memories of Bennie Maupin in the Headhunters.
Here’s to hoping that Conrad Herwig has a few more of these releases in mind. My Spanish Monk, anyone?

http://www.amazon.com/Latin-Side-Herbie-Hancock/dp/B003TGW6PO

Dave Holland Octet – PATHWAYS (Dare 2 Records)
Recorded live at Birdland, Holland adds to a series of hot recordings of the morphing band he’s lead over the past decade or so. Whether it’s a quintet or big band, the band is usually a high powered and muscular affair, yet with a light touch which is largely provided by vibes player Steve Nelson, who takes the place of the traditional pianist. Pathways, the title and first track on the album, is a perfect example of this. Opening with a bustling baritone solo by Gary Smulyan (who provides fat blats through whole gig) the band accompanies and states the theme under and over the soloists.
I had the good fortune to see this configuration live in Ann Arbor, just after this music was recorded. This is a band of dualities: orchestrated yet with a heavy emphasis on improv, lithe and heavy, swinging yet a big emphasis on grooves (Holland’s lines would sound just as good in a rock setting). And a leader that feels comfortable in spreading the wealth, whether it be composers adding their bit, or the very democratic lean towards solo time.
And what soloists! Chris Potter (tenor and soprano), Smulyan (bari) and Antonio Hart (alto) are the featured reed players, while Robin Eubanks (trombone) and Alex Sipiagin (trumpet and flugelhorn) represent the brass. Holland always features a hot drummer, for years Billy Kilson, and now Nate Smith. I’ve already mentioned Steve Nelson’s pivotal role in the band’s arrangements via vibes and marimbas, the sense of hearing the bare bones of the music in a translucent manner prevails (check out Potter’s Sea of Marmara, for instance). Soloists often begin melodically over a simmering rhythm section, then build to a crescendo with assistance of riffs and counter riffs from the horns. Altogether a very workable equation.

http://www.amazon.com/Pathways-Dave-Holland-Octet/dp/B0033XUHJU

Brad Mehldau – HIGHWAY RIDER (Nonesuch Records)
Mehldau pairs with wunder producer Jon Brion for a second time, this time to create a double disc of a soundtrack to his imagination. The cover is a tip off, a drive in theater at dusk, the screen blank and awaiting our projections. Plus, Brion, creator of soundtracks (The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind being primary) is another clue that this isn’t going to be just another great jazz blowing session.
Carefully and lushly orchestrated (in spots) the music highlights Mehldau’s writing as strongly as it does his playing. Since recording a series of fairly ripped (as in muscular) trio sets over his career, the composer is just as powerful as his chops. Don’t Be Sad is an excellent example, a bitter sweet melody, achingly played by Joshua Redman on tenor sax, the arrangement features touches of orchestra, accordian and bassoon to accent and color the screen.
There are moments of sheer aching beauty, such as Now You Must Climb Alone, a piece that features the orchestra without piano, just Mehldau’s writing. Or the wonderful tension between the orchestra’s ascending strings and the trio, with Redman climbing over the tumult, on We’ll Cross The River Together.
The album is careful and constructed and may be, if one had to choose, one of those very best of Mehldau’s superb canon. His trio is featured as well, the stalwart Larry Grenadier on bass and percussionists Jeff Ballard and/or Matt Chamberlain. I tend to favor the tracks that feature Redman, who plays with a new level of maturity, both restrained and with a different tone than I’ve heard in the past: the kind of tone you hear in the real masters of the music, like Billie’s voice or Miles’ horn. A kind of humanity that connects immediately.

James Moody – 4A (IPO Recordings)
WIth James Moody’s passing this past month we lose one of the last of the boppers. Who is left? Roy Haynes, Sonny Rollins, both still playing amazing and vital music. But, like WWII vets, we are witnessing the end of an era as each of these national treasures leave the stage. Moody left it burning.
Armed with an armful of jazz chestnuts and a cracker jack rhythm team (Kenny Barron on piano, Lewis Nash on drums and Todd Coolman on bass), Moody attacks each tune with aplomb. His deep tone and elegant phrasing brings to mind Dexter Gordon every now and then, high praise indeed.
So many of these tunes are such old friends: ‘Round Midnight’, ‘Stella By Starlight’, ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’; here they are played so superbly by a master who has devoted his life to playing this music.

Danilo Perez – PROVIDENCIA (Mack Avenue Records)
Bassist Rodney Whitaker once noted that Mack Avenue Records producer Al Pryor’s approach to a recording session is to encourage the artist to find a way to express their influences and passion. Hence Providencia finds pianist and composer Danilo Perez expressing Panamanian flavors while also addressing the meaning of the title, which he relates means ‘to be prepared for the future’ or ‘to be prepared for the unknown’.
‘Daniela’s Chronicles’, the first track, is mainly a trio thing, augmented by steel drums during the statement of the sweet melodic theme. Add altoist Rudresh Mahanthappa to the next tune, ‘Galactic Panama’; on ‘Bridge of Life’ Perez adds several horns to the palette, and the music sounds more like modern classical than it does jazz. Which says something: jazz continues to draw in influences from various cultures and styles. Perez, with chops to spare and fresh from his amazing tenure with the improv heavy Wayne Shorter Quartet, draws from some deep waters for this music.

http://www.amazon.com/Providencia-Danilo-Perez/dp/B003VOP732

Christian Scott – YESTERDAY YOU SAID TOMORROW (Concord Records)
The opening sounds more like a rock album, with electric guitar strums and drums roiling and tumbling along, nearly chaotic, and then Scott’s muted trumpet, a soft line, more drum freak out and then Scott without mute, full throated trumpet, a shout, as Jamire WIlliams (drummer) slowly deescalates his efforts. ‘K.K.P.D.’ is based on Scott’s interactions with police in the city, and traces that tension while exposing the tender hopes of some new way out of the historic hatred.
And this is the first cut.
Christian Scott has crafted an album that evokes Miles without imitation. Leading a quintet (Williams on drums, Matthew Stevens on guitar (he also serves as musical director), Milton Fletcher on piano and Kris Funn on bass) Scott explores a jazz rock blend that is pretty much unlike any other I’ve ever heard. Not that it’s all thrum and thrash. ‘Isadora’ is a hesitant, aching ballad, for instance. And there is much about this music that is tender, though often contrasted with electric guitar. Rock fans might dig this!
This is music that was carefully conceptualized, that blends rock and hip hop and jazz and various other influences. It’s also overtly political with titles like ‘The Roe Effect’ or ‘Angola L.A. & The 13th Amendment’.
I’m often asked, ‘What does jazz have to do to draw in a younger audience?’ I think that Christian Scott might have an answer here.

Kenny Werner – NO BEGINNING, NO END (Half Note)
This disc has already received much critical appraise. Werner has won a Guggenheim Fellowship Award for the composition. The music, and the poem that serves as the libretto for this piece, are a tribute to his daughter Katheryn, who died in a car accident a few years ago.
This is transcendent music, written for woodwinds, voices and strings, and featuring Kenny’s good friends, Joe Lovano (saxophone) and Judi Silvano (vocals). It sounds more like modern classical music than it does jazz, though Lovano’s contribution is profound.
The process of creating and recording this music is described in a series of videos you can view on YouTube.

It’s advisable to do this before purchasing the album, because this is not light listening. But it’s a healing document and anyone familiar with loss, grief and spirit may find this helpful. Kenny is a practitioner of meditation, and the title of the album reflects his attitude and philosophy regarding these themes of mortality.
Years ago a colleague of mine had a young adult daughter who died in a car accident. The funeral service was achingly sad and somehow uplifting as well. Several people got up to tell stories about the young woman, each part deeply appreciated by the community that had gathered. And then a cellist stepped forward and played a Bach Sonata. And it just said, in music, something no one else could express.
That’s what this music does. Beautiful writing, beautiful playing. A magnificent achievement.

I’m participating in a panel discussion today at my alma mater, M.S.U., to discuss working as a therapist. I’ve been able to make a good living doing meaningful work and have managed to put together a life that has included things I’m passionate about.

One of the questions on the prep sheet for the speakers is “What is a typical day like for you?” I realized, it really depends on the day. From Monday – Thursday I see clients. From 4-7 clients a day, sometimes in the a.m. but most often in the afternoons and evenings. My caseload includes teens and couples but mainly adults. Some issues we address are depression, trauma, anxiety, relationships, substance abuse, creative blocks and personal development. I usually end up seeing between 17-25 people a week. Why that number? If I see more than that, I end up burned out. If I see fewer than that, I can’t make a living. So, that number has evolved from my personal experience as optimal.

On Fridays I write. I’m writing my second novel, a mystery. I’m calling it a post 9-11 mystery set in Greenwich Village. I don’t want to say too much about it, but there is a political and cultural sub-text and a story line that is very compelling. And frightening. I really intend it to scare the hell out of you.

On Sunday nights I host my radio show: The Vinyl Side of Midnight. I’ve done this since 1997, believe it or not. Three of my favorite hours of the week, as I spin records and CDs, 95% jazz and 5% whatever. I also interview both national and local jazz personalities every few weeks.

So, how can YOU develop your own practice? Here’s my top 5 pieces of advice:

1 – Develop a specialty. I started in family therapy. Hardly anyone was doing family therapy in Lansing in the 1980s. Now tons of people include it as part of their practice. Since then I’ve developed a number of other specialties, including EMDR and MET/CBT, stuff that is uniquely specialized that you can’t get from most providers. Specialize.

2 – To get what you haven’t got, you’ll have to do something you’ve never done. Get good training. Get supervised. Find the national and local experts and allow yourself to be mentored. Make this a life long habit. Some day, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly it occurs, you’ll be the local expert.

3 – Network. Give away the stuff you know to organizations. Free seminars. Meet other professionals for lunch. Give away your business cards. Make a web site. Join organizations that might have an overlap in your area of expertise. Blow your own horn. Find kindred spirits and create your own support groups of friends.

4 – Volunteer. You’ll meet people from all walks of life and it will broaden your experience and they’ll also learn about you. And you’ll make new friends.

5 – Keep your passions alive. I love to write. I love music. I love to travel. I’ve found ways to do all three in this career. This can be tough work. Keeping your passions alive will keep you fresh and vital. In the same spirit, take impeccable care of yourself. Feed your interests. Feed your spirit and your soul. Take care of your body. Start a practice of regular exercise.

Hopefully this has been helpful. You’ll find your own way, and maybe some day you’ll be able to share with someone else what’s worked for you. Best of luck!

For ongoing updates from the festival from myself, Meegan Holland and photos by C. Blumer, check out m-Live throughout the weekend.

I was in my teens and loved to listen to Beatles, CSN&Y, The Who, Santana, all the bands who played at Woodstock. When I saw a triple LP documenting the Isle of Wight festival, with a whole side of new live Jimi Hendrix, I had to have it.

The album ended with a long track by someone named Miles Davis, titled “Call It Anything”. I started to listen but couldn’t make any sense of the music. I felt ripped off. What the hell was this?

A buddy of mine in high school (Renaldo Migaldi) said, “I knew you were hooked because you’d come to school day after day complaining about Miles Davis.”

I started to read about him. Ralph Gleason published a complimentary review of “On The Corner” with Santana’s “Caravanserai” and I respected his writing and his taste. Clearly there was something here I wasn’t getting. That summer I went several times to the library (what a geek, I know) and checked out jazz records and old editions of Downbeat magazine, trying to get a handle on this music.

Finally, freshman year of college, I checked out a Smithsonian collection of classic jazz that contained a track from Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue”. I’m pretty sure it was “So What”. It clicked. I got it. I fell in love.

I’m still in love today. I love each of Miles Davis’ periods, from his apprenticeship with Charlie Parker to his Birth of the Cool sessions; both of his great quintets from the 1950s & ’60s. The electric Miles, and even the last batch of recordings he made before his death. He was the Picasso of music in the last century.

When I went through a divorce a decade ago, part of my dealing with it was to put together a talk on Miles Davis, which I gave at the Creativity & Madness conference in Maui later that year. He has been a touchstone for my life story. My love of his music goes beyond my intellectual capacity to express. My year isn’t complete without working my way through listening to all of my Miles music, which is a mountain of listening. I just listened to Dark Magus yesterday.

And yes, today I can make sense of “Call It Anything”.

I haven’t written here in a bit; a busy spring which included getting married to Cathie Blumer (see photos of the wedding on my facebook page if interested) at the Creole Gallery in May. Work has been intensely busy and prepping for the Peninsula Writer’s summer retreat/conference in June, which I’ll be co-coordinating with Kimm X. Jayne. We’re having poet Mary Ann Samyn as our speaker this year, a native Michigander who now teaches at West Virginia University and the winner of the Emily Dickinson Prize from the Poetry Society of America. Cool.

Here are some random (really) thoughts that have been on my mind this season:

- Seeing a wave of clients who are now bona fide marijuana customers; some of these folks identify themselves as being in recovery, yet smoke pot on a daily basis. Will marijuana be to alcohol what methadone is to heroin? A less dangerous addiction? I’m not seeing much written about this (yet) but I’m betting other therapists are seeing the same thing I’m seeing in my practice. I have split feelings about this and am likely to explore this topic at more depth here in future. Maybe the very near future.

- Summer is here lining up for the festivals I love to attend: Old Town Jazz Festival; the East Lansing Summer Solstice Jazz Festival has upped the ante by including Joe Lovano in their line up! And of course the Detroit Jazz Festival, which looks amazing, again. My daughter is getting married a half a day away from Detroit, so I’m going to have to miss a good chunk of this year’s festival. But you can’t do everything and family trumps everything.

- Politics. The news about the BP oil spill, the emergence of the Tea Party and the story line of the Obama administration continues to be riveting for me and I can’t go a day without catching up on what is happening. I’m an unapologetic liberal, and I believe that change, progress and evolution are essential if we are to survive, not as a democracy even, but as a species. The corporations, which hit their high water mark under the rein of Haliburton/Cheney/Bush will not go gently into that good night.

- Mysteries. Finishing the first draft of my Murphy mystery and gaining a whole new appreciation for the craft of creating suspense, tension and release. Watching Hitchcock, reading Cormac McCarthy, and devouring lots of material along these lines. I haven’t been sleeping as well as I’d like. Is there a connection? Which brings me to….

- Spirituality. My sister Linda has inadvertently started me on a course of meditation. I’m starting small, attempting ten minutes a day of focus on my breath. Usually I get a few moments of complete stillness here, but it’s a beginning.

LIT: A MEMOIR, Mary Karr
Best book I’ve read so far in the young 2010. The author of The Liar’s Club and Cherry continues to amaze. I’m recommending this book to client’s of mine who are interested in addiction and recovery. Provocative and jagged in sections, but ultimately a soothing balm that relays possible pathways in negotiating the 12 steps. I found this book to be beautifully written and exquisitely moving.

In A Perfect World, Laura Kasischke
Another apocalyptic landscape, perhaps a feminized version of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Laura has such mastery in portraying the internal landscape of her characters and a poet’s eye for the natural world. When it all goes wrong you can’t help but be captured by this book. This one kept me up at night.

My Germany, Lev Raphael
Lev’s best book (not that I’ve read them all, but he agrees). The son of holocaust survivors, the author tells the story of his parents with bruising detail. In the second part he tells about his own becoming, his rapprochement with his Jewish heritage, and his coming out. Finally, Raphael details his book tours in Germany (hence the title) to discover his own relationship with the places and people of Germany.

Lush Life, Richard Price
If you are a fan of The Wire you shouldn’t miss this book. Price wrote some episodes of the HBO series as well as several other crime novels. This one is set in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and the neighborhood becomes a character as vivid as any person in this story. The clash of overlapping cultures between kids in the project, gentrified hopefuls who all have screenplays but work in bars, Chinese, Jews and cops. Overriding themes of family and dreams and dreams that are crushed. A brilliant and entertaining ride.

Black Cross, Greg Iles
This is the first book I’ve read by Iles and I’ll be back for more. I’ve been telling friends that it’s a kind of a cross between Schindler’s List and Guns of Navarone. It’s a quick read for a thick book. A page turner. Taut.

Weather Bird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second Century, Gary Giddins
This tome collects many of the articles written by Giddins in the late ’90s and early ’00s. Giddins served as one of the primary ‘talking heads’ for Ken Burns special on jazz. His writing is superb, his topics (if you are a jazz fan or an aesthete) are compelling. Why isn’t jazz dead? he asks at the end of this opus. The preceding 600+ pages give us more than a hint of an answer.

End of the year, end of the decade Musical Notes

As one decade tips into another it was irresistible to indulge in a favorite past-time: making lists. Here are a few relating to music:

My 10 Favorite Musical Moments of 2009

Emceeing at the Detroit Jazzfest – Meeting Jesse Palter was a pleasure, introducing Geri Allen was a thrill, but the funniest moment was bringing on a high school band at the festival. I called them “Up and comers…” only to hear a Beavis/Butthead voice somewhere behind me chuckle, “He said come…”; really, it was all I could do to keep a straight face.

Wayne Shorter Quartet wows an enormous crowd with 90 minutes of uninterrupted improv at the Detroit Jazzfest

Rodney Whitaker’s many roles at the Detroit Jazz Festival, from leading the MSU Big Band in accompanying Dee Dee Bridgewater to presenting an homage to Donald Byrd’s New Perspectives to playing with Christian McBride and John Clayton’s “Bottoms Up” bass spectacular to his own collaboration with Carl Allen and their hot CD “Work To Do”, Rodney was everywhere doing everything. Are we sure there’s only one of him?

The Roots & Parliament Funkadelic at Common Ground – probably the most jaw dropping fun I’ve ever had at a concert event. Sun Ra meets James Brown. Unbelievable.

organissimo battles Linda Dachtyl during an organ throw down at the Lansing Jazzfest.

Professors of Jazz play the Creole. Can we wish for this to continue to be an annual event? Is that possible?

Larry Cosentino on The Vinyl Side of Midnight. Going through our ‘best of’ lists. Great fun.

Hank Jones/Chick Corea opening night at the Detroit Jazzfest. Pianistic elegance and virtuosity side by side.

Pete Siers Quartet CD release party at Kerrytown Concert House – Pete brings in Pat Labarbera as a sax ringer to join the saxy front line + organ in an homage to the great Blue Note sound of the 60s.

Sophie Milman plays Wharton Center and Diego Rivera surprises as the Lester Young to her Billie Holiday. Music magic follows and the duo tour Russia.

My 5 Favorite Jazz Trends of the Aughts

The Creole Gallery – Robert Busby and Meegan Holland were the dynamic duo of the decade, making the Creole Gallery THE musical destination for jazz, folk, blues, etc. A perfect example of syngergy, they gave a gift of love to the community and presented Lansing with the coolest thing I’ve ever seen here. Wynton Marsalis, MSU Professors of Jazz, Cyrus Chestnut, organissimo, Mose Allison and many others carved out a chunk of wonder in night after night of fun and music.

Jazz Festivals Galore – Where did jazz go in the aughts? To the streets. Not just the Old Town Jazzfest but East Lansing’s Summer Solstice created a jazz bracket to the summer. Oh, and did I mention the Detroit Jazz Fest, rising from the ashes with the help of Gretchen Valades and wunderkind director Terri Pontremoli? The hottest festival in the world right now, trust me.

MSU – Rodney Whitaker sat across from me during his first appearance on The Vinyl Side of Midnight and said, “I want East Lansing to become a jazz mecca.” We may not be downtown New York, but for a midwestern city we have become a destination. Whitaker created a place that not just welcomed jazz stars like Derrick Gardner, Wycliffe Gordon and Wess “Warmdaddy” Anderson to teach and play, but also saw the development of great jazz talent ala Diego Rivera (who became a Professor himself), Kris Johnson, Lynne Grunwald, Mike Sailor, Curtis Taylor and Ben Williams (who just won this year’s prestigious Thelonious Monk award!)

The Rise of the Independents – Just as the publishing and movie companies constricted access to the magic making machinery, so did the big recording companies nearly kill the goose. But, like movies, jazz players went indie, and then with the rise of smaller labels (that are quickly becoming big labels, like Origin, AUM, Mack Avenue and OA2 for instance) the tunes are bubbling forth like never before.

The Vinyl Side of Midnight – How could I not pick my own show as one of my favorite trends of the decade? I don’t know how long this show can last as WLNZ has switched to LCC Radio and a triple A format, but what a great decade this has been for jazz on the radio in Lansing!

My 10 Favorite CDs of the Aughts (not jazz!)

Amy Winehouse – Back to Black; Retro yet modern, Winehouse shakes out the ghosts of the Shirelles and Motown while crafting her own tragically sultry style. Let’s hope she pulls herself together for a long career, but it’s doubtful she’ll ever top this masterpiece.

Robert Plant & Alison Krause – Raising Sand; A little bit country, a little bit rock, mostly subdued and haunting. Who’d have guessed this pairing would work so well? T-Bone Burnett, for one.

M.I.A. – Arular – Imagine a cheerleader who leans towards revolution and is a beat maestro. Weird and very catchy.

LCD Soundsystem – LCD Soudsystem; Daft Punk IS playing at my house.

Justin Timberlake – Future/Sex/Lovesounds; Ready for the funk, mouseketeers?

Bjork – Medulla – All vocals. All sweet ear candy.

Toumani Diabate – Boulevard De L’Independance – The Sergeant Pepper’s of African music.

Hamsa Lila – Eh Mustapha; A nostalgic nugget for a very special night at the Creole Gallery.

Tribalistas – Tribalistas; The CS&N of Brazillian music. Heavy rotation in the car.

Wilco – Yankee Foxtrot Hotel; The country-alt band crafts The Great American Album.

(Honorable mentions: No Doubt – Rock Steady; Sufjan Stevens – Illinoise; The Neptunes – Present…Clones; Nelly – Nellyville; Missy Elliott – So Addictive; Outkast – Speakerboxxx)

One of the most fun and interesting things I’ve been involved with this past year was producing 9 radio shows for the Vinyl Side of Midnight called DECADES; exploring, in depth, the history of jazz through recordings has been an enlightening experience. Below I’ve included the set lists for each of the shows, in case anyone wants to check out some of the music I played.

After putting these shows together, here is my BIG INSIGHT:

Jazz is all about collision. One musical stream from one culture smashing into another. Then a dedicated small army of musicians and composers set about to perfect the form. Then, another BIG BANG! Check it out:

We first get recorded jazz in the late teens and early twenties. By and large it’s the musical gumbo arising from New Orleans, the sound of rags, cakewalks, marching bands, second line, Congo Square, flat out blues and breaking through in an exuberant noise called jass, or jazz. Louis Armstrong. Jelly Roll Morton, emphasizing “It has to have that Latin tinge…” foreshadowing Duke Ellington’s exhortation that “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing…” Satchmo and Duke embody the importance of spontaneous improvisation and composing, a tension that will stay with the music throughout her history.

In the 1930s jazz collides with the Great American Songbook; Gershwin, Berlin, Porter, and many others give musicians the musical jumping off point for jams and dance. See Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Lester Young.

The 1940s discovers be-bop through Bird, Monk and Dizzy, and a new vocabulary launches the music into a more cerebral and esoteric direction. Jazz becomes counter culture. The velocity of bop forecasts the changes ahead in wider society over the next three decades.

Bebop is solidified in the 1950s, and branches out into cool and hard streams. Ornette and Cecil launch the avant garde at the end of the decade. Bop hits it’s “Sistene Chapel” with Coltrane’s Giant Steps while Miles cools us out with Kind of Blue.

In the 1960s the wheels come off. Jazz collides head on with rock, with politics, with a movement and a war and civil rights and assassination. Never before (nor since) has the music been furiously propelled to discover the limits of improv. Coltrane spawns a generation of devotees, while Miles conducts an apprenticeship for a dozen young geniuses who will define the following decade.

The 1970s brought people back to dance, hence the funk. Put on a dashiki and plug in. Fusion music and smooth jazz is born. ECM launches a European version of jazz. Even Ornette goes electric. Anthony Braxton makes a strong case for the use of jazz mixing with the avant garde classical music of the 20th century. We’re just now catching up to that.

Wynton Marsalis started a school of neo-traditional jazz. Let’s not just remember Coltrane, he seemed to urge, but how about Duke and Louis? The country takes a hard turn to the right as the young lions bring the music back to mainstream. A strong counter culture continues to thrive with the AACM. The 1980s also begin to spawn tribute albums and projects. Jazz becomes nostalgic.

In the 1990s new threads emerge. Everybody’s everything. World music is influenced by, and influences jazz. Jazz begins to move into the universities while keeping a foot in the clubs and another on the festival scene.

This past decade has seen another collision or two: the Indo-Pak movement unites Coltrane with traditional eastern sounds via Rudresh Mahanthappa and Vijay Iyer, while John Hollenbeck combines Steve Reich with Mingus. The music continues to evolve, always sounding amazingly vital, both reflecting and forecasting the zeitgeist of the times. Jazz, a term disowned by both Ellington and Miles, is the state of constant change, of influences and colors merging and changing, a flow of sound and intellect and culture. I have never tired following her shifting moods and textures.

DECADES: 2000s

What a long, strange trip it’s been. The Vinyl Side of Midnight wraps up the series of DECADES shows with a review of the past ten years. The line up is strong and some tough choices made. What, no Keith Jarrett? New influences are felt from world to hip hop to classical spheres. The Lansing area experiences a renaissance of jazz with the twin influences of a top notch jazz department at MSU (under the guidance of Rodney Whitaker) and the jewel of Old Town, the Creole Gallery, through the efforts of Robert Busby and Meegan Holland. An amazing decade indeed. Musical ‘beds’ are made up from popular and significant records of the last few years. Check it all out on Sunday night.

Dave Douglas – Blue Heaven; SOUL ON SOUL (RCA Victor)
Joe Lovano – Don’t Ever Leave Me; JOYOUS ENCOUNTERS (Blue Note)
Jason Moran – Planet Rock; MODERNISTIC (Blue Note)
Justin Timberlake – Sexyback; FUTURE/SEX/LOVESOUNDS (Jive)

Dianna Krall – The Look of Love (title track); (Verve)
Maria Schneider Orchestra – Sky Blue (title track); (artist share)
Amy Winehouse – Back to Black (title track); (Universal Republic)

Herbie Hancock w/Tina Turner – Edith and the Kingpin; RIVER (Verve)
Wayne Shorter Quartet – Masquelero; FOOTPRINTS LIVE! (Verve)
No Doubt – Hella Good; ROCK STEADY (Interscope Records)

Kenny Garrett – Realization; BEYOND THE WALL (Nonesuch)
Dave Holland Big Band – Blues For C.M.; WHAT GOES AROUND (ECM)
Snoop Dogg – It Blows My Mind; THE NEPTUNES PRESENT…CLONES (Arista Records)

Greg Osby – Ashes; THE INVISIBLE HAND (Blue Note)
Andrew Hill – Tough Love; DUSK (Palmetto Records)
LCD Soundsystem – North American; SOUND OF SILVER (Capitol)

John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble – Folkmoot; A BLESSING (Omnitone)
Chris Potter 10 – Closer to the Sun; SONG FOR ANYONE (Sunnyside)
Bjork – The Pleasure is All Mine; MEDULLA (Elektra)

David Murray Octet – Giant Steps; OCTET PLAYS TRANE (Justin Time Records)
Ornette Coleman – Turnaround; SOUND GRAMMAR (Phrase Text)
William Parker Quartet – Wood Flute Song; SOUND UNITY (AUM Fidelity)
Toumani Diabate – Mali Sadio; BOULEVARD DE L’INDEPENDANCE (Nonesuch)

Vijay Iyer – Infogee’s Cakewalk; REIMAGINING (Savoy Jazz)
Rudresh Mahanthappa – Ganesha; KINSMEN (Pi Recordings)
M.I.A. – Pull Up The People; ARULAR (Interscope Records)

Tomasz Stanko Quartet – I; SOUL OF THINGS (ECM)
Charles Lloyd – Tales of Rumi; SANGAM (ECM)
Hamsa Lila – Eh Mustapha; GATHERING ONE (BRG)

Karrin Allyson – Never Say Yes; FOOTPRINTS (Concord)
Kurt Elling – I Like The Sunrise; NIGHTMOVES (Concord)

DECADES: 1990s

This can’t possibly be an oldies show, can it? Well, tonight we climb back into the time machine and travel back to the era of the Clintons, O.J., tribute albums, hip hop, world and some surprisingly excellent jazz.

Medeski, Martin & Wood – Sugar Craft; COMBUSTICATION (Blue Note)
John Scofield – Chank; A GO GO (Verve)
John Scofield – Away With Words; QUIET (Verve)
Common – The Light; HIP HOP GOLD (Hip-O)

Carmen McRae – Dear Ruby; CARMEN SINGS MONK (Novus)
Cassandra Wilson – You Don’t Know What Love Is: BLUE LIGHT ‘TIL DAWN (Blue Note)
BLACKstreet w/Dr.Dre – No Diggity; 90s SOUL NUMBER 1s (Hip-O)

Jimmy Cobb’s Mob – Gingerbread Boy; ONLY FOR THE PURE AT HEART (Fable)
Joe Chambers – Caravanserai; MIRRORS (Blue Note)
Ali Farka Toure w/Ry Cooder – Bonde; TALKING TIMBUKTU (World Circuit)

Herbie Hancock – The Man I Love; GERSHWIN’S WORLD (Verve)
Joe Henderson – Isfahan; LUSH LIFE (Verve)
Macy Gray – I Try; ON HOW LIFE IS (Epic)

Diana Krall – I Don’t Know Enough About You; LOVE SCENES (Impulse)
Charlie Haden Quartet West – Haunted Heart; HAUNTED HEART (Verve)
Tom Ze – Ogodo, Ano 2000; THE HIPS OF TRADITION (Warner Brothers)

Don Grolnick – Nothing Personal; WEAVER OF DREAMS (Blue Note)
Bob Moses – Trevor; WHEN ELEPHANTS DREAM OF MUSIC (Gramavision)
Paul Simon – Spirit Voices; THE RHYTHM OF THE SAINTS (Warner Brothers)

Wynton Marsalis – The Majesty of the Blues; LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD; (Columbia)
Los Lobos – Kiko and the Lavender Moon; KIKO (Warner Brothers)

Joshua Redman – Turnaround; WISH (Warner Brothers)
Marcus Roberts – Nebuchadnezzar; DEEP IN THE SHED (Novus)
Snoop Doggy Dog – What’s My Name? HIP HOP PARTY (Rhino)

Joe Lovano – Birds of Springtimes Gone By; QUARTETS (Blue Note)
Dave Douglas – Everyman; MAGIC TRIANGLE (Arabesque Recordings)
Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit; NEVERMIND (sub pop)

Kenny Barron – Take The Coltrane; WANTON SPIRIT (Verve)
Brad Mehldau – Moon River; LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD (Warner Brothers)
D’’Angelo – Feel Like Makin’ Love; VOODOO (Virgin)

Henry Threadgill – Too Much Sugar for a Dime (Title Track); (Axiom)
Steve Coleman – Day Three; GENESIS (RCA Victor)
Tom Waits – I Don’t Wanna Grow Up; BONE MACHINE (Island Records)

Charlie Haden/Hank Jones – Steal Away (Title Track); (Verve)
Frank Morgan – You Must Believe In Spring (Title Track); (Antilles)

DECADES: 1980s

The most schizophrenic of decades, with a plethora of adventurous trailblazers and the advent of the young lions, led by Wynton Marsalis. Dance music, MTV, and rap lead popular music further away from jazz than it has ever been before. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Tune in Sunday night and we’ll have a great time.

Miles Davis – Jean Pierre; WE WANT MILES (Sony)
Miles Davis – Full Nelson; TUTU (Warner Brothers)
Miles Davis – The Doo Bop Song; DOO-BOP (Warner Brothers)
Rick James – Super Freak; 80s SOUL GOLD (Universal Music)

Wynton Marsalis – Father Time; WYNTON MARSALIS (CBS)
Marcus Roberts – In A Mellow Tone; THE TRUTH IS SPOKEN HERE (Novus)
Michael Jackson – Billie Jean; NUMBER ONES (Epic)

Wayne Shorter – Joy Rider; JOY RIDER (Sony)
John Scofield – Rule of Thumb; STILL WARM (Rykodisc)
Herbie Hancock – Rockit; FUTURE SHOCK (Columbia)
Michael Sembello – Maniac; 80s DANCE GOLD (Universal Music)

Eberhard Weber – Maurizius; RARUM; (ECM)
Dave Holland – You I Love; RARUM; (ECM)
Prince – 1999; THE HITS (Warner Brothers)

Sun Ra – Quest; THE SINGLES (Evidence)
Sun Ra – Outer Space Plateau; THE SINGLES (Evidence)
Max Roach – Ghost Dance (Pt. II); TO THE MAX (Blue Moon)
Bobby Brown – My Perogative; 80s SOUL NUMBER ONES (UNIVERSAL MUSIC)

David Murray Octet – Ming; MING (Black Saint)
World Saxophone Quartet – Hattie Wall; DANCES AND BALLADS (Nonesuch)
Sugarhill Gang – Rapper’s Delight; HIP HOP GOLD (Universal Music)

Don Pullen – Jana’s Delight; NEW BEGINNINGS (Blue Note)
Charlie Haden – The Ballad of the Fallen; THE BALLAD OF THE FALLEN (ECM)
Muhal Richards Abrams Orchestra – Bermix; THE HEARINGA SUITE (Black Saint)
Arrested Development – Tennessee; MILLENNIUM HIP HOP PARTY (Rhino)

John Zorn – The Big Gundown; THE BIG GUNDOWN (Nonesuch)
Sonny Clark – Voodoo; VOODOO (Black Saint)
Public Enemy – Bring The Noise; IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS TO HOLD US BACK (Def Jam Records)

The Art Ensemble of Chicago – The Sun Precondition; URBAN BUSHMEN (ECM)
Erik B. & Rakim – Paid In Full; COLORS (Warner Brothers)

The Art Farmer Quintet – Blame It On My Youth; BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH (Contemporary)
Archie Shepp/Horace Parlan – Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out; TROUBLE IN MIND (Steeplechase)

DECADES: 1970s

Time to plug in and turn out the funk. A bunch of alums from the University of Miles Davis, from Zawinul to Corea, a lion in winter (Mingus) and a big dollop of avant garde in the shank of the evening will explode the decade of Have A Nice Day. This was one of the most fun shows I’ve ever put together. Enjoy listening!

Billy Cobham – Some Skunk Funk; Anthology; Rhino
Stanley Clarke – Silly Putty; JOURNEY TO LOVE; Epic
Parliament – Tear The Roof Off The Sucker; FUNK PARTY; Rhino

Ronnie Laws – Always There; PRESSURE SENSITIVE; Blue Note
Freddie Hubbard – Red Clay; RED CLAY; CTI
Al Green – Call Me; GREATEST HITS; Hi Tone

Mahavishnu Orchestra – One Word; BIRDS OF FIRE; Columbia
Return To Forever – Duel Of The Jester And The Tyrant; ROMANTIC WARRIOR; Legacy
The O’Jays – For The Love Of Money; THE PHILLY SOUND; Epic

Weather Report – Boogie Woogie Waltz; SWEETNIGHTER; Columbia
Steely Dan – Aja; AJA; MCA

George Benson – Masquerade; BREEZIN’; Warner Brothers
Chick Corea/Gary Burton – What Games Shall We Play Today?; CRYSTAL SILENCE; ECM
John Klemmer – Touch; TOUCH; MCA
The Trammps – Disco Inferno; DISCO GOLD; HIP-O Records

Herbie Hancock – Chameleon; HEADHUNTERS; Columbia
Stevie Wonder – You Haven’t Done Nothin’; ORIGINAL MUSIQUARIUM; Tamla

Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Bye Bye Blackbird; DOES YOUR HOUSE HAVE LIONS; Rhino
Charles Mingus – Sue’s Changes; PASSION OF A MAN; Columbia
Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On?; WHAT’S GOING ON? Motown

Dexter Gordon – Fenja; HOMECOMING, LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD; Columbia
Curtis Mayfield – Pusherman; THE ANTHOLOGY; MCA

Anthony Braxton – Piece One; CREATIVE ORCHESTRA MUSIC; RCA
Ornette Coleman – Theme From A Symphony, Variation One; DANCIN’ IN YOUR HEAD; Polygram
James Brown – There It Is; STAR TIME; Polydor

Miles Davis – On The Corner; ON THE CORNER; Columbia

DECADES: 1960s

A tumultuous decade and it was both a trick and a treat to try and line up the most iconic tracks of the 1960s. Enjoy.

Ramsey Lewis – The “In” Crowd; FINEST HOUR; Verve
Cannonball Adderly – Mercy, Mercy, Mercy; CANNONBALL PLAYS ZAWINUL; Capitol
Hugh Masekela – Grazin’ In The Grass; 60s SOUL; Universal Music

Bill Evans Trio – Gloria’s Step; SUNDAY AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD; Riverside
Wayne Shorter – Witch Hunt; SPEAK NO EVIL; Blue Note
Temptations – Ain’t Too Proud To Beg; HITSVILLE U.S.A.; Motown

Grant Green – I Wish You Love; STREET OF DREAMS; Blue Note
The Drifters – On Broadway; Atlantic Rhythm & Blues; Atlantic

Miles Davis Quintet – E.S.P.; 1965-68 Box; Columbia
Miles Davis Quintet – Nefertiti; 1965-68 Box; Columbia
Percy Sledge – When A Man Loves A Woman; Atlantic Rhythm & Blues; Atlantic

John Coltrane Quartet – Chasin’ The Trane; THE COMPLETE 1961 VILLAGE VANGUARD RECORDINGS; Impulse
Marvin Gaye – I Heard It Through The Grapevine; HITTSVILLE, U.S.A.; Motown

Eric Dolphy – Out To Lunch; OUT TO LUNCH; Blue Note
The Bar-Kays – Soul Finger; ATLANTIC RHYTHM & BLUES; Atlantic

Herbie Hancock – Maiden Voyage; MAIDEN VOYAGE; Blue Note
John Coltrane Quartet – Acknowledgement; A LOVE SUPREME; Impulse
James Brown – Cold Sweat; THE HARDEST WORKING MAN IN SHOW BUSINESS; Polydor

Ornette Coleman Double Quartet – Free Jazz; BEAUTY IS A RARE THING; Rhino
Sly & The Family Stone – I Want To Take You Higher; THE ESSENTIAL…; Epic

Miles Davis – Pharoah’s Dance; BITCHES BREW; Columbia
Jimi Hendrix – Third Stone From The Sun; ARE YOU EXPERIENCED; Reprise

DECADES: 1950s

A great decade or the GREATEST decade? Check out this ridiculous playlist! Mingus, Monk, Trane, Miles, Lady Day and Bird. A time when giants walked the earth and were at the heights of their powers. Bebop becomes hard bop, the vocabulary of new jazz becomes fully integrated into the mainstream. But wait… who’s that on the horizon? Ornette? Join me Sunday night. Destination radio.

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Moanin’; MOANIN’; Blue Note
Charles Mingus – Better Git It In Your Soul; MINGUS AH UM; Columbia
Howlin’ Wolf – Smokestack Lightnin’; CHESS BLUES; Chess

Charlie Parker – Kim; CONFIRMATION; Verve
Charlie Parker – In The Still Of The Night; CONFIRMATION; Verve
Miles Davis Nonet – Rocker; BIRTH OF THE COOL; Capitol
Miles Davis Nonet – Darn That Dream; BIRTH OF THE COOL; Capitol
Muddy Waters – Got My Mojo Workin’; CHESS BLUES; Chess

Clifford Brown – Quicksilver; THE COMPLETE BLUE NOTE…; Blue Note
Jimmy Smith – The Champ; A NEW SOUND, A NEW STAR; Blue Note
Elvis Presley – Good Rockin’ Tonight; THE SUN STORY; Rhino

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong – Autumn In New York; BEST OF…; Verve
Dave Brubeck Quartet – Take Five; TIME OUT (Legacy); Columbia
Anita O’Day – A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square; Verve
Carl Perkins – Honey Don’t; THE SUN STORY; Rhino

Thelonious Monk/Sonny Rollins – I Want To Be Happy; THELONIOUS MONK/SONNY ROLLINS; Prestige
John Coltrane – Theme For Ernie; SOULTRANE; Prestige
T-Bone Walker – You Don’t Love Me; COMPLETE IMPERIAL RECORDINGS; Imperial

THELONIOUS MONK/JOHN COLTRANE – Evidence; …AT CARNEGIE HALL; Blue Note
Sonny Rollins – St. Thomas; SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS; Prestige
T-Bone Walker – Blues Is A Woman; COMPLETE IMPERIAL RECORDINGS; Imperial

Miles Davis Quintet – Bye Bye Blackbird; ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT; Columbia
John Coltrane – Giant Steps; GIANT STEPS; Atlantic
The Diamonds – A Beggar For Your Kisses; ATLANTIC RHYTHM & BLUES (‘52-’54)

Roy Eldridge & Dizzy Gillespie – Trumpet Blues; ROY AND DIZ; Verve
Billie Holiday – Body And Soul; THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION; Hip-O
Herbie Nichols – The Third World; THE COMPLETE BLUE NOTE…; Blue Note
Ray Charles – I Got A Woman; ATLANTIC RHYTHM & BLUES (‘52-’54)

Art Pepper – Yardbird Suite; THE RETURN OF…; Blue Note
Sarah Vaughan/Clifford Brown – I’m Glad There Is You; SARAH VAUGHAN; Verve
Ray Charles – Drown In My Own Tears; ATLANTIC RHYTHM & BLUES (‘55-’57)

Ornette Coleman – Lonely Woman; BEAUTY IS A RARE THING; Atlantic
Miles Davis – All Blues; KIND OF BLUE; Columbia (Legacy)
John Coltrane – Naima; GIANT STEPS; Atlantic

DECADES: 1940s

We continue our review of jazz through the century as we countdown to the ‘00s by year’s end.

We wrapped up the ‘30s at the height of the swing era. And the 1940s picks up where we left off. Due to the war there is a big hole in the center of the decade. The need for petroleum based products precluded the need for jazz recordings. When recording resumed, we find many of the big bands broken up, replaced by jump bands, smaller r&b combos, a music that will morph into rock and roll within a few years; and a new form of jazz, invented by a group of brilliant innovators: bebop. Check out this set list and join us for an amazing evening of music.

Coleman Hawkins – Bouncin’ With Bean; BODY & SOUL; Victor Jazz
Coleman Hawkins – April In Paris; BODY & SOUL; Victor Jazz
Ella Fitzgerald – Perdido; SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR; Verve

Duke Ellington – Sepia Panorama; CENTENNIAL EDITION; RCA Victor
Duke Ellington – Sophisticated Lady; CENTENNIAL EDITION; RCA Victor
Duke Ellington – Day Dream; CENTENNIAL EDITION; RCA Victor
Duke Ellington – A Lull At Dawn; CENTENNIAL EDITION; RCA Victor
Duke Ellington – Take The “A” Train; CENTENNIAL EDITION; RCA Victor

Billie Holiday – Good Morning Heartache; THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION; Hip-O
Billie Holiday – No Good Man; THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION; Hip-O Records
Billie Holiday – The Blues Are Brewin’; THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION; Hip-O
Billie Holiday – Solitude; THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION; Hip-O Records
Billie Holiday – Easy Livin’; THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION; Hip-O Records

Illinois Jacquet – Flying Home; THE BIG HORN; Proper Records
Cab Calloway – Everybody Eats When They Come To My House; ARE YOU HEP TO THE JIVE? Columbia
Cab Calloway – Are You Hep To The Jive?; Title Track; Columbia Records
Roy Brown – Good Rockin’ Tonight; GETTIN’ FUNKY; Proper Records
Clarence Samuels – Lollypop Mama; CHESS BLUES; Chess
Joe Morris – Lowe Groovin’; ATLANTIC RHYTHM & BLUES; Atlantic

Sarah Vaughan – Black Coffee; THE DIVINE…; Columbia
Billy Eckstine – Everything I Have Is Yours; BEST OF THE M-G-M YEARS; Verve
Lester Young – I’ve Found A New Baby; JAZZMASTERS 30; Verve
Lester Young – Polka Dots And Moonbeams; JAZZMASTERS 30; Verve

Benny Goodman & His Orchestra – Solo Flight; CHARLIE CHRISTIAN; Columbia
Various – Blues In B; CHARLIE CHRISTIAN; Columbia
Various – Waitin’ For Benny; CHARLIE CHRISTIAN; Columbia
Various – Air Mail Special; CHARLIE CHRISTIAN; Columbia

Charlie Parker’s Reboppers – Now’s The Time; ORNITHOLOGY; Proper Records
Charlie Parker’s Reboppers – Thrivin’ On A Riff; ORNITHOLOGY; Proper Records
Charlie Parker’s Reboppers – Ko-Ko; ORNITHOLOGY; Proper Records
Charlie Parker’s Reboppers – Moose The Mooche; ORNITHOLOGY; Proper Records
Charlie Parker’s Reboppers – Yardbird Suite; ORNITHOLOGY; Proper Records
Charlie Parker’’s Reboppers – A Night In Tunisia; ORNITHOLOGY; Proper Records

Dexter Gordon – Dexter’s Mood; SETTIN’ THE PACE; Savoy Jazz
Dexter Gordon – Dextrose; SETTIN’ THE PACE; Savoy Jazz
Dexter Gordon – Index; SETTIN’ THE PACE; Savoy Jazz
Dexter Gordon – Dextivity; SETTIN’ THE PACE; Savoy Jazz

Thelonious Monk – Round Midnight; THE BLUE NOTE YEARS; Blue Note
Thelonious Monk – Evidence; THE BLUE NOTE YEARS; Blue Note
Thelonious Monk – Misterioso; THE BLUE NOTE YEARS; Blue Note
Thelonious Monk – Epistrophy; THE BLUE NOTE YEARS; Blue Note
Thelonious Monk – I Mean You; THE BLUE NOTE YEARS; Blue Note

Miles Davis – Move; BIRTH OF THE COOL; Capitol Jazz
Miles Davis – Jeru; BIRTH OF THE COOL; Capitol Jazz
Miles Davis – Moon Dreams; BIRTH OF THE COOL; Capitol Jazz
Miles Davis – Venus De Milo; BIRTH OF THE COOL; Capitol Jazz
Miles Davis – Budo; BIRTH OF THE COOL; Capitol Jazz

DECADES: 1930s

Wrapping up the first decade of this new century, we’re periodically reviewing the history of jazz through a retrospective romp of each decade up to (and including) now. This week, our focus is on the 1930s. The riotous group improvisations of New Orleans morphs into the discipline of swing. The arrangements get tighter and more complex. A new generation of soloists emerge from the shadow of Satch. The great American Songbook gives jazz a new way of organizing the beats and expression of the times. This is dance music. Kick back and enjoy some of the greatest artists of the 1930s.

Program list:

Louis Armstrong – Sweethearts On Parade; THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN; Legacy
Louis Armstrong – When It’s Sleepy Time Down South; (as above)
Louis Armstrong – Lazy River (as above)
Louis Armstrong – Chinatown, My Chinatown (as above)
Louis Armstrong – Stardust (as above)

Fletcher Henderson – Christopher Columbus; KEN BURNS JAZZ; Columbia
Fletcher Henderson – Grand Terrace Swing; (as above)
Fletcher Henderson – Stealin’ Apples; (as above)
Fletcher Henderson – Jim Town Blues; (as above)
Fletcher Henderson – Stampede; (as above)

Fats Waller – Honeysuckle Rose; A PORTRAIT OF FATS WALLER; Gallerie
Fats Waller – Whose Honey Are You?; (as above)
Fats Waller – Twelfth Street Rag; (as above)
Fats Waller – Tea For Two; (as above)
Fats Waller – Dinah; (as above)

Duke Ellington – It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing); THE DUKE; Columbia
Duke Ellington – In A Jam; (as above)
Duke Ellington – Caravan; (as above)
Duke Ellington – Battle of Swing; (as above)
Duke Ellington – Prelude To A Kiss; (as above)

Benny Goodman Quartet – Moonglow; THE VERY BEST OF…; RCA Victor
Benny Goodman and His Orchestra – King Porter Stomp (as above)
Benny Goodman and His Orchestra – Sing, Sing, Sing (with a Swing) (as above)

Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grappelly w/ The Quintet of the Hot Club of France:
Honeysuckle Rose
Night And Day
Sweet Georgia Brown
Souvenirs
My Sweet
SOUVENIRS; Decca Records

Benny Goodman Sextet – Stomping At The Savoy; CHARLIE CHRISTIAN; JSP Records
Benny Goodman Sextet – Honeysuckle Rose; (as above)
Kansas City Six – Paging The Devil; (as above)
Kansas City Six – Way Down In New Orleans; (as above)
Kansas City Six – Good Morning Blues; (as above)

Coleman Hawkins – Meet Doctor Foo; BODY & SOUL; Victor Jazz
Coleman Hawkins – Fine Dinner; (as above)
Coleman Hawkins – She’s Funny That Way; (as above)
Coleman Hawkins – Body and Soul; (as above)
Coleman Hawkins – When Day Is Done; (as above)

Count Basie – Boo Hoo; THE COMPLETE DECCA RECORDINGS; Decca
Count Basie -The Glory of Love; (as above)
Count Basie – Boogie Woogie; (as above)
Count Basie – Smarty (You Know It All); (as above)
Count Basie – One O’Clock Jump; (as above)

Lester Young – Shoe Shine Boy; THE LESTER YOUNG STORY; Proper Records
Lester Young – Oh Lady Be Good (as above)
Lester Young/Billie Holiday – This Year’s Kisses (as above)
Lester Young/Billie Holiday – Easy Living; (as above)
Lester Young/Billie Holiday – Me, Myself & I; (as above)

Billie Holiday – Miss Brown To You; THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION; Hip-O Records
Billie Holiday – What A Little Moonlight Will Do; (as above)
Billie Holiday – I Cried For You; (as above)
Billie Holiday – Mean To Me; (as above)
Billie Holiday – Strange Fruit; (as above)
Billie Holiday – Fine And Mellow; (as above)

Tonight we begin a series that will run every other week through the rest of the year. You’ll be hearing some of the best jazz ever recorded. From New Orleans to Kansas City to Washington D.C., from rags to blues to stomps, we’ll listen to some of the essential icons of the music.

Decades: 1920s

Sam Moore – Laughing Rag
Dixieland Jug Blowers – House Rent Rag
South Street Trio – South Street Stomp
Savoy Bearcats – Hot Notes
Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Club – 12th Street Rag
(from CLASSIC RAGTIME, ROOTS AND OFFSHOOTS, RCA/VICTOR)

The Original Dixieland Five – Tiger Rag
King Oliver’s Creole Jazz – Sugar Foot Stomp
New Orleans Rhythm Kings – Tin Roof Blues
Frankie Trumbauer & His Orchestra w/Bix & Lang – Singin’ The Blues
Joe Venuti & Eddie Lang – Goin’ Places
(from MASTERS OF JAZZ VOL.I; TRADITIONAL JAZZ CLASSICS; RHINO)

Kiing Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band – Chime Blues
King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band – Snake Rag
Clarence William’s Blue Five – Texas Moaner Blues
Clarence William’s Blue Five – Everybody Loves My Baby
(from LOUIS ARMSTRONG, THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN; COLUMBIA)

Bessie Smith – St. Louis Blues
Bessie Smith – Sobbin’ Hearted Blues
Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra – Sugar Foot Stomp
Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra – T.N.T.
(from LOUIS ARMSTRONG, THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN; COLUMBIA)

Duke Ellington & His Kentucky Club Orchestra – East St. Louis Toodle-o
Duke Ellington & His Kentucky Club Orchestra – Birmingham Breakdown
Duke Ellington & The Washingtonians – Black & Tan Fantasy
Duke Ellington & His Cotton Club Orchestra – Take It Easy
Duke Ellington & His Cotton Club Orchestra – Jubilee Stomp
(from THE BEST OF EARLY ELLINGTON; DECCA)

Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five – Heebie Jeebies
Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five – Cornet Chop Suey
Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five – Skit-Dat-De-Dat
Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five – Big Butter and Egg Man
(from LOUIS ARMSTRONG, THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN, COLUMBIA)

Louis Armstrong Stompers – Chicago Breakdown
Louis Armstrong & His Hot Seven – Potato Head Blues
Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five – Struttin’ With Some Barbecue
Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five – Hotter Than That
(From Louis Armstrong, THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN, COLUMBIA)

Bessie Smith – Any Woman’s Blues
Bessie Smith – Chicago Bound Blues
Bessie Smith – Mistreating Daddy
Bessie Smith – Frosty Morning Blue
(from BESSIE SMITH: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS; COLUMBIA)

Jelly Roll Morton – Doctor Jazz
Jelly Roll Morton – Cannonball Blues
Jelly Roll Morton – The Pearls
Jelly Roll Morton – Wolverine Blues
(from THE PEARLS; BLUEBIRD)

Duke Ellington & His Orchestra – Black Beauty
Duke Ellington & His Orchestra – Yellow Dog Blues
Duke Ellington & His Orchestra – Toshimingo Blues
Duke Ellington & His Orchestra – The Mooche
(from THE BEST OF EARLY ELLINGTON, DECCA)

Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five – West End Blues
Louis Armstrong & Earl Hines – Weather Bird
Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five – Muggles
Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra – Ain’t Misbehavin’
(from LOUIS ARMSTRONG AS A YOUNG MAN; COLUMBIA)

Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra – Black and Blue
Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra – That Rhythm Man
Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra – When You’re Smiling
Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra – St. Louis Blues

Book Review

THELONIOUS MONK; THE LIFE & TIMES OF AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL
by Robin D.G. Kelley

To give you a clue about how fastidiously researched Professor Kelley’s tome on Monk is, there are 101 pages of annotated notes at the end of the book. In small font.
This book is an amazing resource for Monk-a-philes and jazz scholars and geeks alike. (I fit all of the above.) Beginning with a look into the Monk family tree during the Civil War era, and ending with a gig by gig account of Thelonious’ professional life, there is no question left unanswered.
Kelley’s thesis is that Monk, often portrayed as an eccentric genius, has been misunderstood as to the degree to which he had to work hard for his art, was a deeply committed family man, suffered from a mis-diagnosed bipolar disorder, and was often under-employed or under-appreciated during his lifetime.
Monk, who first comes to notice as Coleman Hawkin’s pianist, emerges as a player at the Harlem hot spot for jam sessions, Mintons, proved to be one of the giants of jazz in the 20th century. He was one of the father’s of bebop, and Kelley’s description of those early times in the 1940s are some of the highlights of the book. They stand right up next to Laurence Bergreen’s description of the origin of jazz in New Orleans in his book on Louis Armstrong as as close to a definitive version of the genesis of a music that we’re likely to find. Discovering the etiology and the evolution of bop has been difficult on record, due to the ban on recorded work because the vinyl was necessary for the war in the early 1940s.
Kelley quotes Monk as claiming that Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were influenced by him, not the other way around; he goes so far as to document how Dizzy mimicked Monk’s fashionable look of shades and a beret.
Monk did work hard to earn his eventual due, first with a string of brilliant recordings for Blue Note, then his famous stand with Coltrane at the 5 Spot, his feuds with Miles Davis, his “Lion in Winter” decade with Columbia Records. All carefully documented here and you never know when a new pearl of an anecdote will appear in the details.
However well Kelley proves the points of his thesis, he also amply illustrates the character of Monk he was hoping to downplay. Monk is shown to be a bit of a diva, stubborn, unreliable, taciturn and sometimes bizarre in behavior. He (almost undoubtedly) suffered from a bipolar condition, but also spent much of his life as a substance abuser, under the influence of a heady cocktail of whisky, thorazine, reefer and other drugs and meds.
In spite of it all, Monk remains one of jazz music’s main luminaries. As a player, unique and influential, a link between the Harlem stride stylings of Willie “The Lion” Smith or James P. Johnson and the sounds of bebop exploded by Bud Powell. As a composer, Monk ranks just below Duke Ellington in importance and sway.
Finally, this book returns us and encourages us to listen again to the recordings of Thelonious Monk. This is a trip that is always worth the while.

Everybody Dreams

There will be a reading and a book signing at Schuler Books in Okemos on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 7:00p.m. Hope to see you there.

I’ll also be starting a NEW Dream Group. Some of the fans of the book have discussed when I’m starting a new dream group and this one will start in mid November. We’ll meet week on Thursday nights, 6-7:15p.m. for a total of 16 sessions (just like the novel!). The cost is $45 per group. Space is limited to six attendees. So call me at #336-7721 to sign up.

How I Spent My Summer

This has been a very full season for me and I’m grateful for all the opportunities I’ve had this summer. There were speaking engagements in Traverse City (Motivational Enhancement & Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for the M.S.U. Summer Institute with Monkey Business Consulting), Montreal (The Solution Focused Process for the International Policy Governance group that services boards of directors around the world with Sue Stratton), and Detroit Ren Cen (MET/CBT again for the State of Michigan Substance Abuse Conference). Deborah Johnson Wood and I served as coordinators for this year’s annual Peninsula Writers Summer retreat at Glen Lake, with Guggenheim winning poet and novelist Laura Kasischke as our keynote speaker. I emceed at both the Lansing and Detroit Jazz Festivals. Cathie Blumer and I traveled to New York for a week of research on my new novel in August. In between it all I had book signings in Traverse City, Montreal and Grand Rapids. Again, I am eternally grateful for all of these wonderful chances to connect with such diverse groups of people over ideas and creativity.

Book Reviews
THE ALCOHOLISM AND ADDICTION CURE (A Holistic Approach to Total Recovery) by Chris Prentiss; Power Press

This past year I started to hear clients talking about this book, then saw it advertised on television, so I knew that I had to read it myself. The book asks the question: Is There A Cure For Alcoholism? and answers an emphatic YES! So, first as a clinician and secondly as a practitioner of a different approach to recovery, I was very interested in checking this out.
Chris Prentiss is the author of a dozen self help books. I haven’t read any of these but it is interesting, first of all, that this is his background. He isn’t a doctor or a therapist. He goes at great lengths to describe his upbringing by a sociopathic mother and his own problems that he experienced early in life. One of the best features of the book is a very extended chapter written by Chris’ son, Pax, who describes his own story of addiction and recovery.
I had a mixed reaction to the book. I felt that Mr. Prentiss makes some good points and I would like to expound a little of the positives and negatives about this book:

POSITIVES:

Mr. Prentiss stresses the need for an individualized treatment approach, something you don’t always find in the treatment of addictions. And I agree with this.
Mr. Prentiss takes some well deserved swipes at the field of addiction treatment, though he also offers a disclaimer in support of Alcoholics Anonymous. Much like Herb Trimpe does in his work with Rational Recovery. I DO think that there needs to be alternatives to A.A. Because A.A., in spite of having the best recovery rate of available programs, doesn’t work for everybody. And maybe nothing will work for everybody. But if there are several viable options for recovery, all the better. And they don’t need to be at war with one another.
I also liked the very strong focus on both the physical and psychological health of the client. Chris and Pax are founders of a treatment center in Malibu. He encourages everyone who can to attend his treatment center, naturally. However, if you can’t, he descibes how one can design their own treatment.
You see, Mr. Prentiss doesn’t believe that people use drugs or drink too much because they are alcoholics or addicts. He doesn’t like those terms. He believes that there is one or a variety of several reasons WHY people use. Here are those reasons:

Cause 1: Chemical imbalance
Cause 2: Unresolved events from the past
Cause 3: Beliefs you hold that are inconsistent with what is true
Cause 4: Inability to cope with current conditions

(It is interesting to contrast these causes with what research is telling us about who is likely to become addicted: a blend of genetic predetermination with either depression, anxiety, trauma, delinquency or truancy as key variables.)

So Mr. Prentiss believes that one must address the underlying cause to cure the addiction.
And then, and this is important, the individual can NEVER use drugs or alcohol again. I’m betting this is disappointing to most alcoholics and addicts, who usually go through an extensive search to find a way to continue to have drugs or alcohol in their lives successfully before surrendering to abstinence.
Mr. Prentiss encourages the use of a holistic team of healers to address the underlying issues: integrative medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, clinical psychology, marriage and/or family therapy, hypnotherapy, personal fitness, visualization and meditation and spiritual therapy. He also encourages the creation of a healing circle of friends that will support your new self.

NEGATIVES:

As I mentioned above, Mr. Prentiss is not a physician, nor a PhD nor a therapist. But he does believe in change as a reality which is a positive. At the end of the day, the addict still has to remain abstinent, so where’s the cure? And the swipes he takes at A.A. are, I think, unnecessary.

Bottom line: in the A.A. literature they relate that “We know but a little…” and I’m glad people are out there researching and finding new avenues to recovery. A.A. says that those who complete the program are ‘recovered’ or cured from their alcoholism. But in the end, they say that the most an alcoholic can hope for is a ‘daily reprieve’ from their condition. It doesn’t sound like Mr. Prentiss offers much more than that.

OLIVE KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout; Random House

This book won the pulitzer prize in literature last year and it’s sure easy to see why. What wonderful writing and what a great character we have in Olive Kitteridge.
The book is actually less a novel than it is a collection of short stories, all set in the small town of Crosby, Maine. But all of the stories feature Olive. Sometimes her appearance seems more like a cameo. Few of the baker’s dozen focus squarely on her. This really doesn’t seem like a device, but a fascinating way to reveal aspects of a character through the eyes of a spouse, a son, a neighbor, an acquaintance. Such triangulation brings out aspects of personality that are often overlooked in fiction.
There is an old adage in psychology. There is the person we know ourselves to be, then the person we reveal to those closest to us. And yet another person who we are known by in public. Few stories delve into each of these facets of character, but Elizabeth Strout just nails it in this book.
We are treated first to a loving and bittersweet portrait of Henry, Olive’s faithful but wistful husband in the very first chapter. Subsequent chapters take us to a piano bar, a wedding reception, a donut shop, the reception following a funeral. I don’t want to reveal any thing else of consequence, because the reader will be delighted and in despair by the discovery of the events of Olive’s life. This is a book I spent hours reading aloud to my girl friend, and I don’t know which of us had a better time at it. This is a book that will make you laugh out loud (which is what began to reading out loud) and it will make you cry. And for all the vinegar that runs in Olive’s veins, you will come to love her. Do yourself a favor and get this book. And if you can, read it out loud to someone you love.

Detroit JazzFest 2009

Speaking of the Detroit Jazz Festival, Meegan Holland and I posted daily blog entries for MLIVE and Cathie Blumer contributed photos for this year’s event. I wanted to post my diary for the festival. I understand now that 700,000 people attended this festival, which has got to be the largest FREE jazz festival in the U.S.A., maybe the world. It is the best thing Detroit has to offer.
The Festival is always held on the weekend of Labor Day, but this event felt like it started for me the Sunday before, when I interviewed Festival & Artistic Director Terri Pontremoli. Terri is such a great interview, so bubbly and effervescent, a great ball of kinetic energy and a smile you can see over the phone. When it looked like the Detroit Jazz Festival was about to fold, Gretchen Valade (the owner of Carhartt clothing, Mack Avenue Records and the Dirty Dog restaurant) stepped in as a benefactor. One of the best things she did was to bring on board Terri Pontremoli, who has done such an amazing job of booking great talent and keeping a blend of new and old, local and international. But also keeping the emphasis on jazz. So many jazz festivals these days put jazz off to the side while their headliners are pop musicians.
On Friday, we (Holland, Blumer & Stratton) checked into the Ren Cen and headed towards that evening’s event: two headliners to open the festival, Hank Jones and Chick Corea/Stanley Clarke/Lenny White. After proclamations and awards had been deservedly doled out, Hank Jones took the stage. He was dapperly dressed in an elegant dark pin striped suit. He was joined on stage by bass stalwart George Mraz and drummer Carl Allen.
The trio opened with an easy stride performing at first Horace Silver’s Nica’s Dream, then a Wes Montgomery tune. I noticed that the 92 year old Jones would at times vocalize along with his piano solos, something I remember his brother Elvin doing when I saw him perform years ago. Hank’s playing was the epitome of grace and taste.
At one point Jones’ music blew off the stage, just as the band had kicked into J.J. Johnson’s Lament, which lead to an extended bass solo by George Mraz (what a beautiful tone he has!). They did a Charlie Parker tune (Jones is one of the last surviving musicians to have actually played with Bird), a tune by Hank’s other brother Thad (A Child Is Born) and some other classics. The trio encored by performed Thelonious Monk’s Round About Midnight.
The second piano trio of the evening also stuck to the acoustic format. Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White began by playing the Return To Forever tune 500 Miles High. Their playing was dynamic and blazingly fast but always tasteful. They next played a Monk tune, I Mean You and I thought about the evening being a Tale of Two Pianos, contrasting styles and generations. Lenny White’s drumming was more propulsive than swinging, a reflection of the rock influence on jazz in the 1970s. Stanley Clarke is such a virtuoso! I’d forgotten how much I liked his playing.
This trio then performed I Love You Porgy, followed by a dissonant interlude the morphed from a passage that sounded influenced by Bartok to Monk’s Straight No Chaser, before Clarke started a walking bass line and Lenny White started swinging underneath. The band’s encore was a medley of the Concerto de Aranjuez (via Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain) and the Chick Corea original Spain. Chick lead a kind of a sing along with the Detroit audience, which was clearly enraptured with the music. Everyone went home happy.
Meegan and I stayed up too late blogging at the Ren Cen lounge, while listening to a jam session that got progressively more interesting as the night progressed. Orrin Evans, Sean Jones, etc. etc. One table away a woman was holding forth with her pet dog, every musician in the place coming by to visit and chat. Turns out it was Dee Dee Bridgewater.
The next morning I wrote this poem while sitting in the Starbucks at the Ren Cen:

DETROIT
sitting in the coffee shop
Saturday, Detroit
a cylinder of glass, concrete & steel,
motown gives ‘the finger’
to the midwest
just as Joe Louis’ fist
is in your face
so is Detroit
attitude, swagger
not a sneer, but hip,
hipper than you, and tough
and music

from where i sit there
is music, a big band
practicing in a ballroom
the sound bleeding
into the core of the ren cen

detroit bleeds music
marvin & stevie & smokey
diana & gordy & aretha
iggy & eminem & grand funk

and jazz….
this weekend is about jazz
the players are the painters
the city is the canvas
the canvas Joe Louis
danced on to kick ass
the canvas Diego Rivera
used to sketch his great mural
the canvas of pollsters who
found out what’s happening
the canvas of a city
the music is the
paint of culture
and people, pain and laughter
work, effort, blood funk & attitude
swagger
“Hey Baby!”
that’s Detroit

I reflected on that very specific swagger that is so uniquely Detroit, a vibe that is so different than the New York vibe I was still feeling from a week before.
Ate a king’s breakfast at the Coney Island on Woodward (eggs, grits, sausage and pancakes) with Meegan and Cathie and slipped down to the ‘Talk Tent’ and heard a group of drummer (including Carl Allen, Karriem Riggins, Gayelynn McKinney and Michael Nastos) discuss Elvin Jones. This is such an interesting aspect of the festival, the chance to hear musicians meet and talk music. The consensus seemed that it was a journey to ‘get’ Elvin. The most entertaining story and insights were provided by Carl Allen, who talked about Elvin playing the drum kit at Bradley’s in New York on a tiny stand (“I like these drums but they won’t stay still.”) Carl also pointed out, and vocally displayed, how when most drummers play triplets they accent the first beat, but Elvin accented the second. Interesting.
Checked out a ripping set by Dee Dee Bridgewater and the MSU Big Band, conducted by Rodney Whitaker. Then slipped down to the Pyramid Stage to catch Jose James in his skinny grey suit. I heard two concert goers behind me describe him as a cross between Big Joe Williams and Al Jarreau. I am always impressed by how hip and knowledgeable the audience is at the Detroit Jazz Fest. I agreed with the guys in the audience, though I would add the ingredient of Gil Scott Heron. How is it that Jose James isn’t signed by a major record label? Somebody should snatch this guy up. He treated the audience to versions of Equinox and Stolen Moments, using a technique I’ve heard practiced by Eddie Jefferson and Kurt Elling to sing a solo using poetry instead of scatting. The keyboard player (who?) was great.
The big problem with the Detroit Jazz Festival is that there is NO WAY to catch everything. I left Jose James before his set was over in order to catch part of Sean Jones’ set at the Water Stage. I heard him play a soulful version of Mama with some gospel overtones.
We withdrew to try and blog midday and ended up missing too much music. So all of our blogs were entered very late p.m. or early a.m. after that. Live and learn.
In the early evening I caught part of Louis Hayes hard bop unit, featuring a great front line of Jeremy Pelt and Vincent Herring.
One of the highlights of the festival was Benny Maupin’s Dolphyana. Maupin was on sax but also clarinet and (my favorite) bass clarinet. Nestor Torres was filling in for James Newton on flute, with Jay Hoggard on vibes and Billy Hart on drums. The band performed Dolphy tunes, The Panther, Something Sweet Something Tender and Out To Lunch. They also performed a Maupin original, Message to Prez, which Benny dedicated to Lester Young. This was performed as a trio, with a series of existential queries, many phrases sounding like questions to the open skies of Detroit. No answers. The most avant garde event I caught all weekend.
Meanwhile, on the Main Stage Christian McBride’s Inside Straight was swinging away like crazy. They used a combination of originals and standards of the mainstream. A mix of muscle and finesse. I thought of Lionel Hampton while I listened to relative new comer Warren Wolf on the vibraphone. The band performed Brother Mister, which somehow seemed that the title track for the festival this year.
On Sunday, after blogging and another Coney Island breakfast with Meegan and Cathie, I picked up my emcee credentials and headed to the Pyramid Stage to introduce Jesse Palter. She is a great young singer via Detroit and Chicago and we will hear more of her. Jesse played several originals and made it clear that she’s a good developing writer as well as a song bird.
I introduced the Waterford Kettering high school band at the Meijer Education stage in the afternoon. These young kids were set up behind me and I was reminded of Beevis and Butthead when I said “Here is a group of up and comers…” only to hear a voice a few feet behind me snicker “He said ‘come’…” It was really all I could do not to laugh.
I caught up with my nephew, now Detroiter Ron Stratton for awhile in the afternoon and ate too much Greek food. Then headed to the Water Stage to introduce Geri Allen and quartet. Allen was having a dispute with the sound man, who was doing everything to address her concerns. Interesting to have a back stage perspective on how things get set up.
Geri Allen’s quartet featured a tap dancer on several of the tunes, whom she used as an instrumentalist. One of the highlights of the set was a ‘duet’ between the drummer and the dancer, which brought the huge audience to a standing ovation, just 20 minutes into the music. Geri continued to be highly creative by using a poet (Sandra Turner Barnes) and playing a great mix of originals and standards (McCoy Tyner’s Blues By 5).
Finished the day by listening to the Wayne Shorter Quartet play an uninterrupted 80 minute set of improv based music that was Herculean. I recognized Sanctuary and Myrrh in the mix, but I think most of the music wasn’t just the first time I’d heard it, it was the first time the band had heard it. I blogged at length about this show and if you want more, hunt down the MLIVE blog from the Detroit Jazz Fest. As impressed as I was with the music, I was JUST as impressed with the Detroit audience, who gave a roaring standing ovation at the end of the show.
Monday was short. We were exhausted and needed to return home to get ready for another busy week of work, but not before catching Rodney Whitaker’s salute to Donald Byrd’s A New Perspective. His wife, Cookie, was leading a gospel choir that offset the terrific line up of Mack Avenue talent. A wonderful way to end a perfect weekend of music.

Here is the line up for the end of the 2009’s Vinyl Side of Midnight

10/18/09 = DECADES: 1960s
1025/09 = New Stuff
11/01/09 = DECADES: 1970s
11/08/09 = New Stuff
11/15/09 = DECADES: 1980s
11/22/09 = DECADES: 1990s
11/29/09 = New Stuff
12/06/09 = Best of 2009 Pt. 1
12/13/09 = DECADES: 2000s
12/20/09 = Holiday Show
12/27/09 = Best of 2009

New updates on Everybody Dreams, the changes at WLNZ (and the Final Side of Midnight?), book reviews and more…

Everybody Dreams

New book signings have been scheduled at Schuler Books in Grand Rapids for 9/10/09 at the 28th Street store, 7 p.m. There will be media attention in G.R. before the signing and reading, including a review and story in the Grand Rapids Press.

There is another signing at Schuler Books in Okemos, 10/28/09 at 7 p.m.
I am humbled at the local response to the book. Schuler Books has called several times this summer, requesting more books. It has been one of their best sellers of the year. And every time I run into someone who talks about reading it, they relate that they’ve passed their copy on to a friend or relative. That is very flattering, that the readers want to share the book with others.

I had a great time doing signings at Horizon Books in Traverse City, Montreal at the IPGA conference and espescially at the St. Lawrence campus of Sparrow Hospital. Anyone who has read the book knows that several of the scenes are set at a certain Lansing-based psychiatric hospital, and it felt very special to do a reading and a signing for the staff at St. Lawrence.

WLNZ & The Final Vinyl?

WLNZ is making some big changes and I know only a little about these. I’ve been approached by several people in the community, wanting to know more about the changes and who to talk to about keeping jazz radio alive in Lansing. I’ll relate what I know, and, if you have concerns, where to direct your concerns.

WLNZ is shifting to a AAA format. Triple A is Adult Album Alternative. It has a lot of classic rock and is designed to draw a larger audience. I’m told these are decisions that have been made by LCC’s Marketing Director, Lucian Leone (leonel@lcc.edu) and Jane Kreha (krehaj@lcc.edu). I’ve been told by WLNZ’s administration that feedback should be directed to these sources. There will be an outside consultant that will be working with WLNZ and will be making further changes to the station.

Already you’ve seen a loss of dozens of hours of jazz programming each week. What remains at this point is Byron Lyle’s Crystal Jazz, Jim Stone’s Big Band Swing, Sunday Jazz and my show, The Vinyl Side of Midnight. Even with the huge loss of hours, WLNZ still remains the only station in town that offers this much classic and straight ahead jazz. But that might change.

I’ll be bummed to lose the show, but on the other hand it’s been a great run of thirteen years and counting. I like to think I’ve done a little bit in serving the jazz community in Lansing, helping some people learn about this great art form and gain a deeper appreciation for the music. More will be revealed, but it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that these next few shows could be the Final Side of Midnight.

BOOKS

I just finished reading three amazing books that I have to mention here.

Cool Water; Alcoholism, Mindfulness, and Ordinary Recovery by William Alexander

This is a book I’m recommending to friends and clients in recovery. It is a deeply inspired work, that is in turn inspiring. For anyone interested in recovery, struggling with recovery, or wants to figure how to blend Buddhism with recovery, this book is a jewel. Alexander speaks from the inside out, recovering himself, he offers education about what science tells us about addiction, weaves in his own story and comes up with a book of experience, strength and hope. It’s clear that he’s a practitioner of the Twelve Steps, but he doesn’t merely parrot slogans. His is a well thought out work, which at times challenges some of A.A.’s assumptions. A really great read.

Road Dogs by Elmore Leonard

Before I published Everybody Dreams I did a youtube video, trying to attract an agent or a publisher. In the video, I said I wasn’t capable of writing at the level of Barbara Kingsolver, but I think I told a story as well as Elmore Leonard. I’d like to go on record relating what an arrogant whelp I am: Elmore Leonard is also out of my league. How does he do it? No one writes dialogue, both spoken and the internal riffs, like Elmore Leonard. Road Dogs features something unusual: the reappearance of several characters Elmore has introduced in different novels. Jack Foley (from Out of Sight, played by George Clooney in the movie), Cundo Rey (from LaBrava) and Dawn Navarro (Riding The Rap) are the shadiest of characters, a group of vipers that warily circle each other in planning the next scam. Hats off to Elmore Leonard. The most entertaining read of my summer.

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

What a strange book. Just like the movie, Memento, the protagonist wakes up with no knowledge of who he is. There’s a note that tells him to go see Dr. Randle, along with an address and a map, a picture of his vehicle and keys. He learns that he has a condition of severe dissociation, that he’s suffered these attacks before. And he’s warned not to read any letters he might get. After returning home, he gets a letter. It says don’t trust Dr. Randle.

So that’s for openers. Along the way you’ll be reminded of The Wizard of Oz, The Matrix, Jaws, Alice In Wonderland and the novels of Haruki Murakami (The Wind Up Bird Chronicles, specifically). Where is the line between imagination and reality? Can our ideas hurt, even kill us? What does it mean to be chased by a conceptual shark? This is supposed to be a movie, although I have the same reaction as when I heard a movie was being made of Naked Lunch: how the heck are they going to do that?

OTHER SUMMER HIGHLIGHTS

I was so disappointed to hear that MSU’s Jazz Studies was losing Derrick Gardner. Then I heard that Etienne Charles, who was a guest on Rodney Whitaker’s set at the Oldtown Jazzfest, is teaching at MSU this Fall. Etienne has just released a new disc, called Folklore, that I’ve been playing ever since I received it in the mail a couple of months ago. It’s a great disc, beautifully conceptualized and performed. I review each disc I receive, on a 0-5 star system. This is what I wrote about Folklore:
***** Etienne Charles – FOLKLORE; Etienne Charles
This is a little masterpiece. Trinidad born trumpeter Charles leads a band through a set of original compositions that call on influences from calypso to Miles. Charles’ rapport with saxist Jacques Scharz-Bart seems telepathic. A beautiful disc. Use tracks #1 (Folklore) or #3 (Dance with la Diablesse).

In addition, Rodney Whitaker wrote and premiered a piece dedicated to our mutual friend, Robert Busby (“The Mayor of Oldtown”), who was murdered a couple of years ago. The tune was titled “Robert’s Lament” and it is a wonderful and soulful ballad, an excellent tribute to a one of a kind individual. I hope Rodney records this on his next record.

This is a very busy season!

From June 20th-27th I will be attending (and co-coordinating) the Peninsula Writers summer retreat at Glen Lake in northern Michigan. This will be the fifth time I’ve attended this conference and each year has been a little different, but always wonderful. We have our largest group yet, 37 writers!

Our keynote speaker this year is Laura Kasischke. Laura is a novelist and poet extraordinaire. She has been highly celebrated, won numerous awards (most recently the Guggenheim for poetry!), two of her novels have been made into films and is a best seller in France. I’ve known Laura for, I think, over twenty years. I had known her for at least a couple of years before she showed me her poetry, before she’d even been published. It has been an honor to watch her career blossom. The very last time I saw her we were watching Allen Ginsberg perform Howl in Ann Arbor. I’m really looking forward to seeing her again and hearing her read and talk about her writing.

From July 8th-12th I will be traveling to Montreal to speak at the International Policy Governance Association Conference. I’ll be presenting my ideas an work with Board of Directors and businesses on the Solution Focused Process, a model that combines therapy and coaching techniques with the world of governing systems. I combine systemic, narrative and solution based models to address challenges and enhance strengths for organizations.

I’ll be introduced by my old business partner, Susan Siers Stratton Radwan.

The Montreal trip also happily coincides with the Montreal Jazz Festival!

For more information on the Montreal Conference, look here:

http://www.policygovernanceassociation.org/conference_09/sponsors.html

On July 16th-17th I will be teaching a course for the Michigan State University’s Summer Institute in Traverse City, Michigan. This is the first Summer Institute by MSU and is being done in conjunction with the efforts of Monkey Business Consulting as well as several other MSU instructors. I’ll be teaching a two day workshop on weaving Motivational Interviewing and Cognitive Behavioral Therapies into your clinical work. This workshop is designed for people in the helping professions but would probably be of interest to anyone interested in the science of change. I always do this workshop in a manner that leaves audiences touched, moved and inspired. Really looking forward to it. I’ll follow up with a book signing at Horizon book store in Traverse City on July 18th at 3p.m.

For more information on the MSU Summer Institute, look here:

http://socialwork.msu.edu/ceu/glsi.html

The English Major
by Jim Harrison

This is a very funny book, filled with bawdy humor. Harrison’s protagonist is a teacher turned farmer from Boyne City who has been divorced by his wayward wife. This and the death of his dog unhinges him to the extent that he takes to the road with a childhood jigsaw map of the U.S., in an attempt to visit and rename each state of the union. It is a kind of “Travels With Charley” without the dog.

Along the way he meets up with an old student, now twenty years later, and they start a wild affair. As he weaves his way across the north towards California he explores several themes. Who are we without our families and familiar landscapes? What’s in a name, or a label? How do we look at a cow and not think the word ‘cow’? Harrison’s character finds solace in nature, good food and the occasional whiskey.

“Be careful what you wish for” seems to be one of his messages. “F@#& Republicans” seems to be another.

This book is a quick read and I highly recommend it.

A college professor friend of mine taught Harrison (both as a student, then as a subject) and later wrote about him. He interviewed Harrison as part of his research, and allowed me the pleasure to listen to the tapes. Anyone who has heard Harrison speak publicly knows that he writes like he speaks, which indicates to me something along the lines of what his thinking must be like: a winding wild river, clear, gushing, babbling, sometimes deep and prone to take circuitous pathways. Always worth camping nearby and fishing for uncommon riches.

Memorial Day Entry

Politics, Torture & The Evolution of The Species

For some reason I watched Valkyrie, the movie starring Tom Cruise, this week. I watched it back-to-back with a documentary of the same event. I’d always assumed Valkyrie was the plot to kill Hitler, but it was actually an operation to use the German army reserves to do a coup against the SS after the assassination to kill Hitler.

My dad was in WWII, European theater. He’s been gone since 1995. Whenever I see something about WWII I wonder how he’d like it.

My dad was also a staunch Republican and Richard Nixon was his hero. Really. As much as I love Obama, that is how much he loved Richard Nixon. We didn’t quite see eye to eye on that.

I wonder if he would even recognize his political party these days. Declaring pre-emptive wars, falsifying information through torture to justify the invasion and occupation of a nation, the enrichment of corporations and the dismantling of the middle class, the use of the government to conduct an enormous transfer of wealth from the middle class to the highest reaches of the upper class. Conducting a war without raising taxes. The ruin of Wall Street and New Orleans.

The news this week has been on Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House. She said the C.I.A. had mis-lead her in a briefing on torture. Now the Republicans want to make the issue whether or not she has lied, what did she know when, etc. (Also last night they voted on whether or not they should re-label the Democratic Party the Democrat-Socialist Party – so it’s come to name calling?).

When I look at what the Republicans did in the last decade under Bush and Cheney, I see a very cynical administration that, more than anything, operated as though the ends justified the means. They wanted results and didn’t care how they got them. Even if this meant moral corruption.

The irony is that moral corruption leads to other types of corruption. Real flesh and blood results. The corruption of systems and ideals and… well, look at the economy, look at our standing in the world.

The idea of torturing our enemies because we can get confessions and information is so arcane and midieval that it is almost beyond belief. My favorite bumper sticker of the week was “Who would Jesus torture?” And the hypocrisy behind calling it “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” is so cynical. But the fight is not just moral. What is right or wrong. It is also for our very evolution as a species.

I looked at a book once that was about travel in third world nations. The author made the point that travel in such countries was like time travel to him. Want to visit the 18th century? Here are places you can go… How about the 15th century? Here are some other places.

It hits me that examples of the evolution of our consciousness are walking amongst us. And I’m not just talking about IQs. There are plenty of smart people who don’t have the ability to see subtleties, the ability to see things from different points of view, the ability to value the process along with the content of an argument.

You really cannot separate process from content. The ‘how’ is just as important as the ‘what’. Understanding that takes a little sophistication. Which is an indication of an evolved intellect. I won’t say I have one of those, but Obama certainly does. Any species has to evolve and adapt given the change of it’s circumstance. And a world that faces multi-culturalism, a shrinking world with a polluted eco-system and dwindling resources, a world that, more than ever, must operate on understanding, respect, cooperation, and innovation, this is a world that calls for a new set of solutions. And the way we address this is just as important as the ideas and ideals we hope to implement.

So this rant started out as a comment about my dad and memorial day and WWII. Sorry that I got distracted but my brain is loosely associated this early in the morning. The title came later.

So thank you all for buying and reading the book. I have had some amazing feedback from many of you and I am deeply touched at much of what you’ve shared. Some people are actually making profound changes in their lives as the result of reading this book. I’m glad it is making a difference and giving some people the courage to change. I’d go into more detail, but that would be giving away some of the fun of reading.

I’d also like to formally apologize to Lansing readers for all the lost sleep, the crazy dreams, the tears that some of you have experienced as the result of reading Everybody Dreams. Just kidding. I love it!

On Friday (4/24/09) I’ll be delivering the keynote Friday for the Wise Woman Program (Michigan Breast & Cervical Cancer Control) at the Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City. My topic is Motivation & Beyond, and will be focused on how to access the healthiest parts of our selves in order to do the work to help others gain access to their own motivation to change. I’ve worked with this group before, delivering a two day training last spring. It was the only time in my career that I received completely unanimous 5 star ratings (on a scale to 5, you smarties!). So we have some history and some chemistry.

Thanks for looking at the web site. Feel free to send me a note or feedback on what you’d like to see.

On Friday I attended the Robert Busby Memorial Benefit at the Creole Gallery. Even though I’ve been in the Creole for several other events over the past two years, it was great to hear MSU’s Jazz Orchestra I under the direction of Rodney Whitaker, great to see Meegan Holland introducing the music, great to see John and Mary taking tickets and Cathie Blumer serving coffee. The show was oversold and the place was packed with new and old fans. And the music was sublime! Rodney claimed that this was his best band yet and I’m thinking we’ll be hearing from a bunch of these folks in the future. I’ll get some names and share them in the future but there are some hot players in this group: baritone and tenor players, the pianist and drummer, trumpet and the singer… you know who you are!!! I hope to have a recording of the show and maybe feature some of the students in a future Vinyl Side of Midnight.

Then the Spartans beat UConn to make the NCAA basketball finals. This team has peaked at exactly the right time. The whole state is abuzz over this amazing team. Good job, Tom Izzo. Good job, Michigan State!

This week on the Vinyl Side I’ll play some music by local musicians: I’ll post the playlist below. There maybe a chance that I can begin some podcasting in the near future! Keep your fingers crossed and your ears open, all of you that can’t stay up that late….

Vinyl Side of Midnight 2009

This is the playlist for this week’s Vinyl Side of Midnight, which can be heard on 89.7 FM WLNZ in the Greater Lansing area, or you can tune in internationally on the web on www.wlnz.org – hosted by Mike Stratton, Sunday nights, 9- midnight, Eastern Standard Time
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4/5/09

Miles Davis – Mystery; DOO BOP; Warner Brothers
Various (Red Hawk) – Now’s the Time; BIRD UP (CHARLIE PARKER REMIX PROJECT) Savoy
Charlie Parker – Now’s the Time; CONFIRMATION: BEST OF… Verve

Joe Kap Organ Trio – Myrtle Avenue Steet Crawl; STREET NOISE; Severn
organissimo – Bleeker; GROOVADELPHIA; Big O Records

Sean Jones – The Ambitious Violet; THE SEARCH WITHIN; Mack Avenue
Derrick Gardner and The Jazz Prophets – Mac Daddy Grip; A RIDE TO THE OTHER SIDE…Of Infinity; Owl Studios

Ray Levier – Ray’s Way; RAY’S WAY; Origin Records
Jimmy Greene – Trials; MISSION STATEMENT; RazDaz Records
Esperanza Spalding – I Know You Know; ESPERANZA; Heads Up

Tierney Sutton – Get Happy; ON THE OTHER SIDE; Telarc
Rick Roe – Minor Shuffle; MINOR SHUFFLE; Unknown Records
Arlene McDaniel – Monk-Like; TIMELESS;
Thelonious Monk – Misterioso; THE COMPLETE BLUE NOTE RECORDINGS

Bob Sneider/Joe Locke – Theme From Blow Up; NOCTURNE FOR AVA; Origin
The Diego Rivera Quartet – Hercules; HERCULES; Rivera Records

Wessell “Warmdaddy” Anderson – Warm It Up Warmdaddy; SPACE; Warmdaddy Music
Carol Fredette – Without Rhyme or Reason; EVERYTHING IN TIME; Soundbrush
Fat Cat Big Band – I Do Know What Love Is; ANGELS PRAYING FOR FREEDOM; Smalls Records

Bill Wimmer – I Thought About You; PROJECT OMAHA; WimJazz
Rodney Whitaker Quintet – The Way They Always Said It Should Be; BALLADS & BLUES; Criss Cross
Kendra Shank Quartet – So Far Away; MOSAIC; Challenge Recordings

The Omar Sosa Sextet – Gabriel’s Trumpet; ACROSS THE DIVIDE; Half Note
Charles Tolliver Big Band – On The Nile; EMPEROR MARCH;

Sunny Wilkinson/Tom Gavin – O Cantador; A GENTLE TIME; CMG
Miles Davis – Bye Bye Blackbird; ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT; Columbia