Discovering Jazz

Latest Episodes:

Episode 47, Jazz Contrafacts Nov 20, 2018

Show notes

Contrafact refers to a new melody written over the chord sequence of an older tune. And there are a lot of very popular jazz tunes that have done just that!

In this program I play a few of them.

You’ll find out what old tune has had the most jazz tunes stealing its chord sequence. If you’re a jazz player, you probably know the answer!

On this program you’ll hear Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Susie Arioli, Django Reinhardt, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk w. Jon Hendricks, Don Shirley, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan, Mike Murley, and more.

Episode 46, Music I Listened to Over the Past Week: Roy Hargrove, The Brooks, Myriad3, and More Nov 06, 2018

Show notes

Today was a day to catch up on some of my listening and play a few records, cd’s, and downloads that I came across over the last couple weeks. Then I learned about the death of one of my favourite trumpeter/fluegelhornists, Roy Hargrove. He was only 49.

I start the program with him playing a lovely rendition of The Nearness of You.

Then I listened to a download sent to me by Josh McLeod of a Montreal funk group (with nuggets of jazz) called The Brooks. Great funk-soul can rattle your bones, and my were rattled enough to make this and another track I found online to be worth playing.

Then there’s the under-rated saxophonist-flautist who, after becoming a ‘founder’ of what is called new-age music, moved from California to Vancouver. This is from when he was still a great jazz artist. I’m talking about Paul Horn.

An interesting Toronto group called Myriad3 which includes a Peterborough bassist, Dan Fortin, is next. And a wonderful find at a library sale—-the only album Toronto drummer Archie Alleyne recorded under his name. With the Frank Wright Quartet.

That Roger Kellaway album I played music from a few episodes ago is still sitting by my turntable so I played another track today—what a combination of stride, bebop, and polyrhythms.

Staying with keyboard—two tracks from Chick Corea, one of which features a 20 year old Al Dimeola.

Last but not least, Brazilian guitarist and singer from Vancouver, Celso Machado.

Episode 45, Jazz, Improvisation, and Saying “Yes”. Oct 29, 2018

Show notes

The focus on today’s episode is the relationship between improvisation and spontaneity in life. It all involves a willingness to say *yes*. I start with a statement from Vancouver jazz writer, drummer, and choral director, Brian Tate, where he compares it to Theatre Sports.

And also feature interviews with Paul L. Clark and James Seaborn, two members of a Peterborough group called The Smirky Waters Band. They talk about how saying ‘yes’ has assisted them in their collaboration. I feature three examples of that collaboration from a release called The Secret Woodpile Sessions.

Other music you’ll hear: two Tony Bennett recordings 59 years apart; a pianist (Harold Lopez-Nussa) from an amazing Cuban jazz family; Geof Bradfield and nine improvisers from and album called “Yes and”; an alto saxophonist/composer who was inspired by rhythms of her father’s heart condition. And last, but not least, you’ll hear some “Real Sick Sounds”—-which, to my ears, actually sound pretty healthy.

Episode 44, Records from the Trent Radio Library Oct 23, 2018

Show notes

I had another pre-recorded program I was going to air on my October 22 Trent Radio program—and then I discovered that it didn’t all record onto my flashdrive. So I had to run into the Trent Radio record library and quickly find some records to avoid several minutes of dead air.

Here are some of the records I found. Some delightful discoveries!

The two biggest surprises were both Canadian artists. Did you ever hear of a singer named Ivy Steel? Apparently she was born in Peterborough, and did one gig with the great saxophonist Buddy Tate in Toronto. This is her only album, from around 1980, called Reincarnation. And does she ever sound like Billie Holiday! I guess that’s why its called ‘reincarnation’.

The other surprise is by a pianist named Steve Holt. This is his debut album from 1983, nominated for a Juno award. Today you can hear him at his natural food store in Warkworth, Ontario—-where he brings in special guests and every second Friday puts on an amazing jazz concert.

Other albums I pulled out and played a track from are by Hubert Laws, Billy Cobham, Milt Jackson, and a supergroup of David Friesen, Paul Horn, Chick Corea, Airto, and Paul Motian.

Episode 43: Jazz on 78rpm Oct 16, 2018

Show notes

Today, I play a few jazz 78rpm records from my collection. 78’s were popular from the turn of the century up into the late 1950’s.

One unique thing about 78’s is that you could eat them. Technically at least! As well as some great music, you’ll hear Alex Campagnolo, a researcher in Sustainability Studies–a man who focuses on the sustainability of recorded music—talk about why 78’s are good for the environment.

As for the great music: I play three tracks by the father of cool and free jazz, Lennie Tristano. From 1949, believe it or not. Also some Gene Krupa, Jon Hendricks, Ellington and Basie (of course), Red Norvo Trio with Tal Farlow and Charles Mingus, Lionel Hampton, and so much more!

And lots of surface noise. We love surface noise!

Episode 42, Beginning the 2018-2019 season. Oct 02, 2018

Show notes

Lots of discoveries over the summer. Some of them records, some cd’s, and a lot of them being music posted by friends and friends of friends.

And one discovery begats another….such as when Peterborough bassist Craig Paterson posted something by the great singer Cecile McLorin Salvant—-and it led me to discover her pianist and his trio—Aaron Diehl.

Also two versions of Hi Lili Hi-Lo—described as a ‘trite’ song, but performed beautifully by Paul Desmond and also by Bill Evans. And its actually quite a well written song (though comparatively simple), composed by the same composer as On Green Dolphin Street and Invitation.

Which leads me to play a version of On Green Dolphin Street—-by a bunch of musicians best known as bluegrass players. But some pretty hot jazz.

Wanting to play something Canadian, I open up a Rob McConnell album (he was quite the valve trombonist) and play his version of Body And Soul.

Then I end up with some Chick Corea and his Return to Forever Band, as you hear Vulcan Worlds.

Broadcast live on Trent Radio in Peterborough, Ontario, 92.7 on your FM dial.

Episode 41, Jazz and Politics, Part 4 Sep 20, 2018

Show notes

The first part of this episode addresses the inroads female jazz artists have made over the years, as I start with a track by the amazing trio of Geri Allen, Teri Lyne Carrington, and Esperanza Spalding, followed by something from the new album by Molly Johnson.

Then I play another Canadian: Vancouver born composer and bandleader, Darcy James Argue. His album “Real Enemies” addresses the vicious circle of conspiracy theories.

Then 19 minutes of Sonny Rollins, who composed one of the earliest Civil Rights composition—his 1958 “Freedom Suite”, with Max Roach on drums.

And speaking of Max Roach, you’ll hear an improvised duet between Roach’s drums and the remarkable voice of Abbey Lincoln, tracing the parallels between slavery in America and the bondage of apartheid in South Africa.

Lastly, from Les McCann and Eddie Harris, the great Eugene McDaniels composition of Compared to What.

Episode 40, Jazz and Politics Part 3 Sep 04, 2018

Show notes

Jazz has always been political in some form. Right from its earliest beginnings, this African American music was taken over by the dominant American middle class ‘white’ culture with no credit going to the black originators. That’s political—since politics is about power differentials. Most of the money was made by white people taking over the music in the early years.

Who was called the “King of Jazz? Paul Whiteman! And when an all white band made the first jazz recording (they called it ‘jass’), the leader, James Larocca. claimed to have ‘invented’ jazz. In this program I play that recording.

Ironically and unintentionally, I play mostly white artists in this episode. Except for the great Wadada Leo Smith and his tribute to Martin Luther King. And saxophonist Bobby Watson and his tribute to the black cyclist, Major Taylor who defied the odds and the effects of racial prejudice to win an international bicycling competition in Montreal in 1899.

But rather than reinforcing the racial stereotypes and the white upper and middle class ‘establishment’, these white artists are doing their bit to try balance the unequal power distribution. Joni Mitchell writes lyrics to the Charles Mingus composition, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, celebrating how black tenor sax master Lester Young successfully avoided playing clubs that refused to admit black customers. Brandi Disterheft plays her tribute to Nelson Mandela. Toronto pianist and singer, Elizabeth Shepherd protests politicians who used prejudice against veiled Muslim women to reinforce their own political power. Alex Samaras and The Queer Songbook Orchestra sing a Bronski Beat song about the struggles of growing up gay in a world hostile to gays. And Kurt Elling sings Bob Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s a Gonna Fall.

Episode 39,Jazz and Politics Part 2 Aug 21, 2018

Show notes

You’ll hear about the struggle of people of colour to be treated equally, as I start with music by Archie Shepp and Charles Mingus.

Then you’ll hear Bessie Smith and the stance of economic independence black women were compelled to assume for their shear survival–even as early as 1923. And later in the program, Nina Simone turns a song from ThreePenny Opera into a black power anthem.

Then the ‘politics’ of the drum, as Arturo O’Farrill talks about how the drum has been used both as an instrument of oppression and liberation. Then his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra performs 11 1/2 minutes of “The Offense of the Drum”.

Speaking of Cuba—some different viewpoints from the Cuban musical community in Toronto, as you’ll hear Maqueque (led by Jane Bunnett) and singer Luis Mario Ochoa.

Last but not least—-The Revolution Will Not be Televised, by Gil Scott-Heron.

Episode 38, Jazz and Politics Part 1 Aug 06, 2018

Show notes

This is the beginning of a series illustrating the connection between jazz and social or political activism.

On today’s episode I play and talk about the following:

Oscar Peterson’s Hymn to Freedom, which has been embraced by people around the world as an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement. I also talk briefly about Peterson’s own experience with racial prejudice both in the U.S. and in Canada.
Louis Armstrong as a world ambassador. His 1955 European tour at the height of the cold war did more to ease East-West tensions than the many conferences designed to directly address the conflicts. That’s why they titled the album recorded from those concerts “Ambassador Satch”.
A medley by Jazzmeia Horn, an amazing jazz singer, who parallels the thump of the child in her womb as its ‘hunger’ to change positions with the hunger for enlightenment in today’s world.
Charlie Haden, one of the most recorded bassists in jazz history, started a very political project in 1970 called The Liberation Music Orchestra. It is still going today, even after Haden’s death—-led by Carla Bley.
An excerpt of pianist Arturo O’Farrill talking about how the right wing Cuban musicians who left Cuba are betraying their country. He recommends a young Cuban trumpeter, Yasek Monzano.who he says “deserves a shot at correcting the betrayal the Arturo Sandoval has created”. I play a composition by Monzano from 2018.
It is said that Mose Allison was a social critic before Bob Dylan. He protests the domination of money over everything. “Everybody’s Crying Mercy, when they don’t know the meaning of the word”.
The classic political song, by Billie Holiday. You know the one. Columbia records was afraid to release it, so they gave her a one session release from her contract so she could record it for an alternative jazz label.

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