Music Review: Big Bands Live: Duke Ellington Orchestra

This article was first published at Blogcritics

Joining the initial release of a 1959 concert of the Benny Goodman Orchestra in the Jazzhaus Big Bandbands Live series culled from the archives of German radio and television broadcaster Südwestrundfunk is a remastered recording of a previously unreleased 1967 Stuttgart concert featuring the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Recorded only a few weeks before the death of the inestimable Ellington right hand man Billy Strayhorn, the set list for the date avoids most all of the iconic Ellington repertoire and dips into the wealth of the orchestra's material less often featured. Still, except for one tune, all the songs on the album are Ellington or Strayhorn compostions, yet for the more casual  fans there may well be more than a few of these dozen tracks they have never heard before.

And that's a shame, because as even a cursory hearing will make clear there is some truly fine music here, and the individual solo work is often as good as anything you're likely to hear on any of the more famous Ellington repertoire. Just listen to Cat Anderson's virtuoso trumpet solo on Raymond Fol's "Salome" or Cootie Williams strutting his stuff with witty perfection on "The Shepherd" and the swinging "Tutti for Cootie." It's not only the trumpets. Lawrence Brown plays some low down 'bone' on "Rue Blue." The bass of John Lamb is featured in "La Plus Belle Africaine" along with Harry Carney.  Johnny Hodges is up front with the alto sax for an elegant take on "Freakish Lights." The final piece on the album is a spot for a show ending ovation for drummer Rufus Jones on an Ellington original, "Kixx."

The album begins with a short nod to the orchestra's theme, "Take the 'A' Train." The rest of the concert includes "Johnny Come Lately" and "Swamp Goo," which features some nice clarinet work from Russell Procope. Paul Gonsalves has the honors on the Latin Anerican vibed "Knob Hill." "Eggo" and "A Chromatic Love Affair" round out the album.  Ellington, of course, handles the piano throughout, and makes sure to acknowledge the featured soloist at the end of each number.

This album is a gift for all fans of big band music--forget that: this album is a gift for all music lovers, big band or otherwise. This is a concert that shouldn't have been moldering in some broadcaster's vault. Turns out those vaults contain about 1,600 audio and 350 television recordings of more than 400 ensembles and soloists—3,000 hours most of it previously unreleased and ripe for the pickings. Jazzhaus with its Bigbands Live  and Legends Live series have barely made a dent in the stash. If what they've put out so far is any indication, there have to be gems to come, and the jazz audience as a lot to look forward to.

 

Music Review: Joe Jackson - The Duke

This article was first published at Blogcritics

There are tributes and there are tributes, and imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but paying an artist the complement of using his work as a foundation to build upon may be the best kind of flattery.  And this best kind of flattery is exactly what alternative rocker Joe Jackson has done for the music of Duke Ellington in his new album The Duke set for release June 26^th from Razor & Tie. Imitation is far from Jackson's mind.  He takes the music and in a real sense makes it his own. “Ellington didn’t consider his own arrangements to be sacred”, Jackson says. “He constantly reworked them, sometimes quite radically. So I think my approach is in the spirit of the man himself.”

Jackson has collected an eclectic crew to join him in the project from punk favorite Iggy Pop and Iranian songstress Sussan Deyhim to Zuco 103 Brazilian vocalist Lilian Vieira and soulful blues artist Sharon Jones. Then there are the musicians—jazz stalwarts violinist Regina Carter and bassist Christian McBride, rock guitarist Steve Vai, and Roots drummer Ahmir '?uestlove' Thompson.  Older Jackson collaborators include Vinnie Zummo on guitar and percussionist Sue Hadjopoulos.  With this kind of musical cast working on different tracks, the one thing you can expect is variety, and variety is what you get.

Jackson takes 15 Ellington classics and combining some into unique medleys (not to mention adding some quotations from other pieces) arranges them into 10 highly original tracks. He is clearly having himself a good time, just listen to the quotation at the end of "The Mooche/Black and Tan Fantasy" or the drum and bass coda at the end of "It Don't Mean a Thing."  In the middle of Vieira's hot and sexy romp through "Perdido" he inserts a time bending "Satin Doll" piano solo.  This is Ellington's music, but there is no escaping Jackson's aesthetic touch.

Take the classic "Caravan;" here be manages to create a big sound without any of the trademark Ellington horns.  “I wanted to take it in a completely different direction, and there was a danger of just sounding like watered-down Ellington if it wasn’t different enough. Not using horns was a good place to start. It makes you think: what else can we do?” Instead you get a Farsi vocal from Deyhim and some exciting ensemble work from Jackson and the band.  It may well make me forget what had been my ex-favorite cover from Benny Goodman and the orchestra.  He gets a big textured sound on most of the instrumentals, the opening track, "Isfahan" and "The Mooche/Black and Tan Fantasy."  "Rockin' In Rhythm," on the other hand, is a bubbly bauble.  And not a horn to be found.

"Mood Indigo" is a boozy vocal for Jackson worthy of Tom Waits, indeed the whole bit has that drunken vibe, even the violin highlights.  Jackson also does the vocal on "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)" usually a vehicle for a female singer for what it's worth, and "I'm Beginning to See the Light." Iggy Pop joins him on "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing).  Sharon Jones does a number on "I Ain't Got Nothin' But the Blues" and Jackson adds some nice solo work with"Do Nothin' Til You Hear From Me" as part of the medly.

Jackson's transformations of classic Ellington may not please everyone.  Some of the originals and even earlier covers have become so much a part of the culture, it will be hard for many to listen to what he has done without hearing echoes from the past.  It is not easy to overcome the bias of familiarity.  On the other hand we all know what familiarity breeds.  Besides the more you listen, the more respect you have for Jackson and his musical ideas.  The Duke is nothing if not a fitting tribute from one musical genius to another.

Music Review: Jessye Norman-Roots: My Life, My Song

Article first published as Music Review: Jessye Norman - Roots: My Life, My Song on Blogcritics.

When an opera diva turns to pop and jazz, she's likely to have mixed results, and dramatic soprano Jessye Norman's 2010 double CD collection Roots: My Life, My Song is no exception. Of the 23 tracks recorded in concert in Munich, Frankfort and Berlin there are some truly remarkable performances, but there are also some that miss the mark.

The repertoire is not solely pop and jazz. The album includes a nice helping of spirituals, a show tune or two and even a classical piece. In the liner notes, Norman explains she has chosen "music that comprises my personal universe and allows my fellow musicians and me to explore, to expand our own musical language and to pay homage to the icons who created the music that we celebrate and love." This is the "music of her heart," and there is little question that whether she is singing a French cabaret torch song or an upbeat Dixieland standard, she is enjoying herself immensely, and that joy is infectious.

Her passionate swinging version of the traditional "God's Gonna Cut You Down" which closes the first CD to a huge ovation shows her at her powerful best. The lullaby "Pretty Horses" shows the softer side of her voice and echoes with a simple beauty. Thelonious Monk's "Blue Monk" and Duke Ellington's "Heaven" give her the opportunity to do some interesting scat and vocal improvising. On the other hand her performance of "Mack the Knife" seems mannered and artificial at times. Her voice seems shrill at times in "Don't Get Around Much Anymore." She uses "Somewhere" from West Side Story to show off her operatic chops if only for about a minute and a half.

It is when she can make the most of the drama implicit in the music and the lyric that she is in her most clearly in her milieu. She milks "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" for all the pathos inherent in the traditional plaint. Her "Stormy Weather" begins slowly against a bass accompaniment and builds to a stormy crescendo that rocks the concert hall. This is not to say that she can't swing. She may not be Ella Fitzgerald, but her homage to Nina Simone with "My Baby Just Cares For Me" swings with the best of them, as does her take on the Duke Ellington classic, "It Don't Mean A Thing," a crowd pleaser that gives the band a chance to shine. Mike Lovatt begins with some fine work on the trumpet and then the rest of the band—Ira Coleman, double bass, Martin Williams, reeds, drummer Steve Johns and Mark Markham—gets recognized for an impressive solo.

She features a number of pieces she calls her French connection. The "Habanera" from Bizet's Carmen is her sole concession to her operatic background, although even here she makes sure to add a playful element to the performance. Poulenc's "Les Chemins de L'Amour" written for a popular cabaret singer of the day begins with some bluesy give and take between the trumpet and the saxophone before transitioning into a sultry waltz. "J'ai Deux Amours,"made famous by Josephine Baker, is another cabaret classic done with stylish ease. Then there is also "April in Paris" which seems to get into the mix simply as a result of the title.

While there will certainly be those who would prefer that the opera star stick to opera, there will just as certainly be others who are thrilled by versatility. If the reactions of the audiences to her performances are any indication, the later may well be in the majority.

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