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JAZZ ME NEWS FOR MARCH 2002
To find out
more about the Jim Cullum Jazz Band (JCJB), the Landing, and the Riverwalk
Public Radio series,
visit our websites at:
http://www.riverwalk.org
http://www.landing.com
THE
NEWS:
RALPH SUTTON TRIBUTES
As reported in last month's Jazz Me News,
the jazz world lost one of its giants last December--pianist Ralph Sutton.
During March, public radio stations nationwide launch their spring fund-raising
campaigns. You may hear a special fund-raising edition of Riverwalk on your
station this month. To celebrate the jazz legacy of Ralph Sutton, we've created
a special show, "Takin' It In Stride: A Look Back at the Life and Music of Ralph
Sutton," containing the best musical moments from Ralph's appearances on our
series, "Riverwalk, Live From The Landing."
NEW JCJB CD
Gaslight
Records of St. Louis has released a new CD featuring Ralph Sutton with the Jim
Cullum Jazz Band called "Long Way From St. Louis." During this spring
fundraising period, if your local public radio station carries Riverwalk, they
may be offering this new CD as a special thank-you premium gift for your
membership support. For more information on "Takin' It In Stride" and the new
CD, go to: http://www.riverwalk.org/proglist/showpromo/ralph_sutton_rw_spring_02_fundie_users.htm
STARS
OF RIVERWALK JAZZ TO APPEAR IN SPECIAL LIVE CONCERT TRIBUTE TO RALPH
SUTTON
The March of Jazz 2002 will celebrate the life of Ralph Sutton from
Friday, March 15 through Sunday, March 17, 2002 at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort,
Clearwater Beach, Florida. Here is more information on the event: http://www.arborsrecords.com/moj.html Riverwalk
guest artists appearing at this event include trumpeters Bob Barnard, Jon-Erik
Kellso; reedmen Kenny Davern, Jim Galloway, Bobby Gordon, Ken Peplowski, and Bob
Wilber; drummer Ed Metz Jr.; vocalist Rebecca Kilgore; pianists Dick Hyman and
the JCJB's John Sheridan; and guitarists Marty Grosz and Bucky Pizzarelli. The
March of Jazz is sponsored by Mat Domber of Arbors Records.
NEW
JAZZ SINGING BOOK BY STEPHANIE NAKASIAN
Riverwalk guest vocalist Stephanie
Nakasian has appeared in 12 Riverwalk shows including "A Riverwalk New Year's
Eve Jazz Party" and "Bix & Hoagy: Midwestern Romantics of the Jazz Age" with
Dick Hyman. Currently, Stephanie is an Instructor in Jazz and Jazz Voice at
The University of Virginia and The College of William and Mary. She also
maintains a busy schedule as a recording artist, road warrior, and mom.
Stephanie has written a new book, "It's Not on the Page! How to Integrate Jazz
and Jazz Rhythm into Choral and Solo Repertoire." "It's not on the Page!" is the
result of 10 years of teaching and putting into simple terms
some of the
basics of hearing and singing rhythm, especially jazz and syncopated rhythm.
Elementary teachers benefit from Nakasian's improvisation games and techniques
by helping their students to appreciate the dimensions of musical expression and
their own individuality while learning about the American legacy of jazz music.
Choral directors use Nakasian's book to help them to interpret what is written
"on the page." They often find that strict reading of the music does not
produce the rhythm and results they want. They find that singing many types
of pop, Gospel, theater and jazz music requires a special rhythmic "translation"
of the written music. For more information and how to purchase, go to http://www.stephanienakasian.com
RIVERWALK
JAZZ EDUCATION OUTREACH
by Lynn Osborne Bobbitt, Riverwalk Director of
Development and Special Projects (LCBobb@aol.com) Frequently, Riverwalk receives
requests from educators around the country asking for audio copies of radio
broadcasts for classroom use. Worth Lovett, Music Teacher, Fort Campbell,
Kentucky writes us: "I am a teacher at Wassom Middle School. I caught your
Live at the Landing programs on my public radio station (Nashville). They
were simply great! I used them in my history class and the students
loved it. I would love to continue using your program to teach music
history." Let us know at LCBobb@aol.com if
you are interested in Riverwalk Jazz programs for your classroom.
FREE
LANDING ADMISSION EXTENDED TO ACTIVE-DUTY U.S. MILITARY, POLICE,
FIREFIGHTER, AND EMERGENCY PERSONNEL
For March, 2002, Jim Cullum's
Landing in San Antonio offers FREE ADMISSION
if you are currently employed
as:
*Active-duty U.S. Armed
Forces
*Firefighter
*Law-enforcement
*EMS
Please show your ID to
your server. There is a limit of 4 free admissions per party. For reservations,
please call the Landing, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Central Time, Monday through Friday,
at 210-223-7266 or 210-602-0967. Or, you may email your reservation to Chris
Cullen at christocullen@hotmail.com.
Reservations are suggested only on weekend nights or for large
parties.
UPCOMING ON "RIVERWALK, LIVE FROM THE LANDING"
Note: dates
given are for the weekly (Thursday) satellite feed only. To find out when your
local station airs Riverwalk, go to: http://www.riverwalk.org/carriage/carriage.htm 3/7
Bix & The Wolverines: Hot Jazz in the Midwest Join The Jim Cullum Jazz Band
as they bring to life the music of cornetist Bix Beiderbecke and the Golden Age
of hot jazz in the Midwest. For more about Bix, go to: http://www.riverwalk.org/profiles/bix.htm or
http://www.redhotjazz.com/bix.html
3/14
Gumbo Ya-Ya: A Look Back At Creole Customs and Folklore The Jim Cullum Jazz Band
and special guest Vernel Bagneris take a look at the unique customs and folklore
of the New Orleans Creole culture.
3/21 The Further Adventures of
the Dynamic Duo Special guest, piano legend Dick Hyman, joins Riverwalk's piano
man John Sheridan live from the Sacramento Jazz
Jubilee for
selections by Rube Bloom, Hoagy Carmichael, Willie "the Lion" Smith and Bob
Zurke. Many of the songs performed on this two-piano show are included on a new
Arbors CD, "Forgotten Dreams." To purchase online, go to:http://www.jazzbymail.com/albums_piano/arb19248.html
3/28
California Jammin' The Jim Cullum Jazz Band turns up the heat for a sizzling jam
session with cornetist Bob Schulz, saxophonist Jim Galloway, and
multi-instrumentalist Clint Baker.
More on upcoming Riverwalk programs
here: http://www.riverwalk.org/proglist/proglist2002.htm
More
on Riverwalk guest artists here:http://www.riverwalk.org/profiles/rwgalery.htm
ON
THE ROAD
March Tue. 26 This is the only out-of-town date in March,
a JCJB Concert at the Englewood United Methodist Church, Englewood, FL with
pianist/organist Dick Hyman. Call 941-473-2787 for more information. This
concert is part of a subscription series. To find out when the JCJB is coming to
your town in 2002, go to the JCJB Touring Itinerary page at http://www.riverwalk.org/events/calendar/itinery.htm.
ACOUSTIC
THOUGHTS WHILE HEARING BRENDEL PLAY By Dick Hyman
We would have spent the
evening differently, had it not been for an old friend who offered two tickets
to a special Carnegie Hall concert. And we would have missed a great event. On
the bill was the Y Chamber Symphony, a prestigious group conducted by Gerard
Schwarz, and Alfred Brendel, one of the great pianists of this era, and a
distinguished Beethoven specialist. Julia and I found ourselves in fourth row
orchestra seats on the keyboard side, no more than 20 feet from the performers.
The all-Beethoven program opened with the Fifth Symphony, a work which has
survived its association with the V-for-victory slogan of World War II (the
rhythm of the opening theme is the same as that of the Morse Code letter "V"),
and has even continued to be heard in its original form despite the success of
Walter Murphy's 1976 disco adaptation "A Fifth Of Beethoven" and a similarly
mechanistic treatment in "Hooked On Classics." It is difficult to be convincing
when presenting an overly familiar piece, but Mr. Schwarz conducted a dramatic
performance. During the intermission, Mr. Brendel's Steinway was moved center
stage. When the orchestra was again in place, the artist himself appeared, took
his seat, and, after a moment's eye contact with Mr. Schwarz, began the solo
opening phrase of the "Fourth Concerto." At the time this concerto was written,
it was normal for the orchestra to state the entire exposition of the
first-movement themes before the solo instrument made its entrance, but
Beethoven's remarkable game plan has the piano begin the movement by itself,
proposing a relatively brief theme to which the orchestra responds at surprising
length. During this response, Brendel adjusted his seat and sat poised
patiently. (From my own more commercial background a fantasy floated through my
mind: The soloist, trapped in overtime on another gig, arrives onstage in a
panic several minutes late and sneaks onto his seat hoping that no one has
noticed his arrival. In this concerto he would have missed only the short piano
intro, and the conductor, equally panicked, might have begun without him....I
guiltily put aside such speculation to concentrate on the performance.) The
piano re-entered, and a dialogue between soloist and orchestra built a symbiosis
in which the orchestra might at one moment support the soloist, at another go
its own way, at till another subside altogether while the piano played
unaccompanied. Brendel was a marvel of expressivity and clarity. Every tone,
every phrase was exactly right in relation to the whole. In the first movement
Beethoven used sonata form like a wordless novel. The listener was introduced to
a protagonist and a host of secondary characters and allowed to follow them
through plot complications, conflict, reconciliation, and denouement, all in
the abstract. In the slow second movement there was a moment which made me feel
as if I were watching an incredible trapeze artist, worried that he might
plunge to the ground. Brendel had neared the end of a sensitive phrase during
which each tone had become softer than the last in coordination with a graceful
ritardando. At the next to last note, one feared that he could not possibly
settle on the final one with the ultimate delicacy demanded by the line. He
sustained the penultimate note until it had all but died away, then concluded at
last with a tone even softer. In the row ahead of me, my neighbor turned to his
companion and smiled in marveling awe. While one side of my brain followed
Beethoven's inexorable logic and Brendel's exquisite playing, the other side was
entertaining quite different thoughts. I myself have been on the august stage of
Carnegie Hall a fair number of times, and have wondered on each occasion whether
we ought to be performing with natural sound, as at this concert, taking
advantage of the hall's magnificent acoustics. Pragmatically, however, in every
situation I can recall we have used some form of audio amplification. This is
not to say that I cannot imagine an acoustic jazz concert at Carnegie. Solo
piano obviously works fine. The trouble begins when bass is added. An
unamplified bass simply doesn't project satisfactory, at least not with the
presence to which we have grown accustomed. The acoustic problem grows worse
when we add the drum set. Even if the drummer limits himself to playing with
brushes on the snare and cymbals, this tends to distract from the sound of the
piano, and as soon as our man picks up his sticks, the game is up. At that point
one is forced to acknowledge that, as far as the role of the acoustic piano is
concerned, a jazz combo is inherently unbalanced in volume; a jazz band of any
size is even worse. Amplification leads to more amplification. From the point of
view of the bass player, it is understandable for him to want to keep turning
the knob to the right. Not only does his tone gain in presence, his agility is
greater since he can play with less force. Having turned up, however, he is
liable to be carried away by the excitement of the song and may well play just
as hard as he would have at the lower volume setting. The raised level of the
bass, in turn, requires that the drummer play louder. There is no way that the
poor pianist can match the pair acoustically except by playing more
forcefully than he ought to, which may lead to a hard tone and less than facile
technique. Even then, he will probably be overwhelmed. Add an electric guitar to
the group, and it is easy to see how tempting it is for the pianist to switch to
an electric keyboard altogether. The answer, and it is not a perfect one, is to
convince the bass player that we know he is there, even if we do not hear the
tramping of dinosaurs, to beg the drummer to percuss in a more moderate
fashion, and to apply a microphone to the piano. The piano mike does not have to
be very loud, merely sufficient for the player to hear himself while others are
playing. Our acoustic problem is also related to the requirements of singers.
Since pop-jazz singers do not project in the manner of opera singers, they
must be amplified. Pop singing since Bing Crosby has depended on the use of the
microphone, and an entire idiom has come about because of the discovery in the
'20s of microphone technique. This is well and good, but the corollary is
that the accompanying instruments, at least the piano, must also be amplified to
match the voice. Stage monitor speakers, in my opinion, are a cure for
acoustical problems which is worse than the disease. While their ostensible
function is to keep scattered sections of the orchestra in touch with one
another, my experience is that they often add to the general muddle of sound, so
that the players get progressively louder in an effort to project their
individual parts. I certainly didn't see any monitors onstage during the
Beethoven concert, and there were 40-odd musicians up there, frequently all
playing at the same time--and very nicely, too. A full-sized symphony orchestra,
which the Y Chamber Symphony is not, may consist of up to 100 people, none of
them screaming to stagehands to get them a monitor. One more point needs to be
made: Pianists like Alfred Brendel are trained to play with a full dynamic
range, from very soft to very loud. Jazz pianists generally play within a more
circumscribed range. When Brendel plays softly, however, it is not necessarily
the pianissimo the audience assumes it to be. He is able to play tenderly and
delicately and still cause his sound to sing out. Many of us, on the other hand,
have come to depend lamely on amplification and have not thought enough about
projection. On the positive side, a new idiom has been created with an esthetic
based on the technology of amplified sound. Without even thinking about
synthesizers, we should consider the variety of guitar styles, the enriched
possibilities of tone control and agility for brass instruments played directly
into a microphone, the use of an amplified flute, the dazzling technique of
amplified bass players. My plea, therefore, is not to do away with all
amplification. Rather, it is to use it only as needed for balance in halls
such as Carnegie. And perhaps, for chamber jazz, we might attempt now and then
to get by with none at all, everyone playing more softly than usual. From
"Dick Hyman: Piano Pro" (c) 1992 Ekay Music Inc. Reproduced with permission of
the author.
VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITES
Cast your vote for your favorite
recent Riverwalk show and guest artist on our revamped Riverwalk poll at http://www.misterpoll.com/poll.wga?id=3696458478 Let
your voice be heard! If you haven't taken the poll in a while, the choices for
favorite performer and show have been updated.
LISTENER FEEDBACK
Fan
mail is music to our ears. We love hearing from you. If you have any comments
about our radio program or a live performance by the Jim Cullum Jazz Band, send
them to me at mophandl@landing.com,
and please let us know where you are located and on which radio station you
heard the show.
STREAMING RIVERWALK ON THE WEB
Can't hear
Riverwalk over the air on your local public radio station? Or, are you located
outside the United States? Listen to us on the Web in streaming format, from
anywhere on the planet at: http://www.riverwalk.org/audionet.htm You
can always keep up with the latest news about the JCJB, the Riverwalk Jazz
public radio series, and Jim Cullum's Landing in San Antonio by periodically
checking in with us at: http://www.riverwalk.org/new.htm
The
Riverwalk public radio series is sponsored by See's Candies, Inc. Visit the
See's site at http://www.sees.com
See
you next month!
--Don Mopsick, Bassist and Web Guy |
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