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AAJC members, whose annual AAJC memberships are current, are invited to submit timely items for transient (non-permanent) posting consideration, e.g., presentations, etc., on the AAJC website Bulletin Board. The substance of the submitted information must be consistent with the AAJC Mission Statement and in keeping with the general philosophy of the African American Jazz Caucus, Inc. If, in your opinion, your material meets these criteria, kindly submit it for consideration as a Microsoft Word document attached to an Email to AfAmJzCaucus@aol.com *************************************************************** JAZZ NOTES: Article in February 26, 2009 New York Amsterdam News. By Ron Scott Recently, while watching the 51st Grammy Awards it became evident these annual presentations aren’t giving America’s great art form known as jazz its full support. However, before we pursue the Grammies let me tie it in with a piece that appeared in Nat Hentoff’s monthly column Final Chorus in Jazz Times (March ‘09). “I read something Ron Carter said in Jazz Improv—New York that is seldom said in public: The black press, the black media has a great deal of responsibility for the lack of—and the possibility of—increasing the visibility and viability of jazz.” Hentoff continued his interview: “In our conversation, Ron elaborated: “Papers like the Amsterdam News, the Chicago Defender, the L.A. Sentinel, assuming all of them still exist, they have a responsibility not just to advertise Kangol hats and the latest wedding and church services, but also to say, this music is your contribution to more than your neighborhood.” Ironically, I interviewed Ron Carter, the great bassist, cellist and composer two years ago at his apartment in Manhattan. Our interview focused on his 70th birthday celebration and performance at the 2007 JVC Jazz Festival. At that time he did express his concern about the black press and we agreed there was work to be done. Just for the record the Amsterdam News is in the midst of celebrating its 100th year as the newspaper of record for the black community. Over the years this paper has written extensively on music, was jazz a focal point in the entertainment section maybe not. However, since the 1970s and early 80s there has been a jazz writer on board. The coverage of jazz by black newspapers and a lack of strong visible black audiences in jazz clubs and concerts is an on-going concern among black musicians. As a jazz fan I understand their critical critique and anxiety which ultimately means the media and public all have to do their part to support jazz, the American art form that was created by creative black folks. Which brings me back to the Grammy Awards, I only remember one jazz musician, Herbie Hancock, who was actually presented his award for “Best Contemporary Jazz Album,” in 2007 during the live telecast. Granted black newspapers have a responsibility but the Grammy Awards reach millions of people around the world and jazz presentations during their live-telecast would do a great deal for the music. Grammy.com notes there are 87 categories which include six jazz categories. Is it asking too much for Amercia’s only art form to have at least one live presentation at the annual Grammy Awards? “By us not being a part of the live-telecast it doesn’t even give people a chance to dislike jazz,” said pianist Barry Harris. “It would be a great opportunity to show the world how beautiful jazz is.” The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has acknowledged jazz with its six categories. Granted jazz recording sales never reach the great volume of pop, hip-hop or country whose sales can reach a million or more. And then there’s the popularity of such artists appearing on late night television, in fan/gossip magazines, television morning shows and national publicity tours. All of these outlets escape even major jazz artists. Roy Haynes has yet to sit and chat with Jay Leno, David Letterman or Conan O’Brien. “I would like to see the Grammies have more jazz presentations on the live telecast,” said Roy Haynes legendary jazz drummer (he’s received two Grammies none during the live telecast). “Jazz was represented in small ways during the telecast with Herbie Hancock and high-profile celebs like Jack Black who is married to Charlie Haden’s (jazz bassist) daughter Petra Haden using them as presenters,” noted Jim Eigo jazz public relations consultant. To be on-air certainly has a lot to do with popularity, age, and economics (these factors relate to television demographics which cater to the American Idol audience of 15 to 35 year-olds). However, if we are talking about the responsibility of increasing the visibility and viability of jazz and educating a younger generation to the tradition of jazz then jazz musicians appearing on the live-telecast as presenters, performers and winners is a must! "I have always had mixed feelings regarding the Grammy Awards as it relates to quantifying jazz and music in general,” stated Dr. Larry Ridley, jazz artist and Professor of Music-Emeritus, Rutgers University of New Jersey. “The African American Jazz Caucus, Inc., (AAJC), is partnering with the National Juneteenth Jazz movement, to promote the month of June as Black Music Month. The purpose is to preserve our African American Jazz Legacy and develop meaningful awards and exposure to those quality individuals and groups representing the spectrum of the African Musical Diaspora." Hentoff and Carter discussed jazz responsibility but the title of his piece is “Oprah & the Jazz Image.” They discussed Oprah and how significant she could be in getting the music to the masses. If she can turn her favorite book into a New York Times Bestseller in a matter of weeks, just think what she could do if you mentioned a favorite jazz artist. President Obama has mentioned during interviews that Miles Davis and John Coltrane are on his IPod, maybe while listening to these great musicians he will be inspired to start a series of White House jazz concerts. Such an action would surely prompt the Grammy Awards to step up their jazz game. In the mean time jazz musicians will continue to swing, and those who love jazz should support it in any way they can. ******************************************************** This is the poem that Amiri Baraka recited at Max Roach’s funeral, along with Baraka’s introductory comment: AMIRI BARAKA: I wrote a poem for Max on his seventy-fifth birthday. This is a picture of Max and I in Paris. And this is called “Digging Max.” (At Seventy Five, All The Way Live!) Max is the highest The outset the Largest, the greatest The fastest, the hippest, The all the way past which There cannot be When we say MAX, that what We mean, hip always Clean. That’s our word For Artist, Djali, Nzuri Ngoma, Senor Congero, Leader, Mwalimu, Scientist of Sound, Sonic Designer, Trappist Definer, Composer, Revolutionary, Democrat, Bird’s Black Injun Engine, Brownie’s Other Half, Abbey’s Djeli- ya – Graph Who baked the Western industrial Singing machine Into temperatures of syncopated beyondness OutSharpMean Papa Jo’s Successor Philly Joe’s Confessor AT’s mentor, Roy Haynes’ Inventor, Steve McCall’s Trainer, Ask Buhaina, Jimmy Cobb, Elvin or Klook Or even Sunny Murray, when he ain’t in a hurry. Milford is down and Roy Brooks Is one of his cooks. Tony Williams Jack DeJohnette, Andrew Cyrille can tell you or youngish Pheeroan Beaver and Blackwell and my man, Dennis Charles. They’ll run it down, ask them the next time they in town. Ask any or all of the rhythm’n Shadow could tell you, so could Shelly Manne, Chico Hamilton. Raschid knows. Billy Hart Eddie Crawford From Newark has split, but he and Eddie Gladden could speak on it. Mtume, if he will. Big Black can Speak. Let Tito Puente run it down He and Max been tight since they were babies in this town. Frankie Dunlop cd tell you and he speak a long time. Pretty Purdy is hip. Max hit with Duke at Eighteen He played with Benny Carter when he first made the scene. Dig the heavy learning that went with that. Newk knows, and McCoy. CT would agree. Hey, ask me or Archie or Michael Carvin Percy Heath, Jackie Mc are all hip to the Max attack. Barry Harris can tell you. You in touch with Monk or Bird? Ask Bud if you see him, You know he know, even after the cops Beat him Un Poco Loco. I mean you Can ask Pharoah or David Or Dizzy, when he come out of hiding, its a trick Diz just outta sight I heard Con Alma and Diz and Max In Paris , just the other night. But ask anybody conscious, who Max Roach be. Miles certainly knew And Coltrane too. All the cats who know the science of Drum, know where our Last dispensation come from. That’s why we call him, MAX, the ultimate, The Furthest Star, The eternal internal, the visible invisible, the message From afar. All Hail, MAX, from On to Dignataria to Serious and even beyond! He is the mighty SCARAB, Roach the SCARAB, immortal as our music, world without end. Great artist Universal Teacher, and for any digger One of our deepest friends! Hey MAX! MAX! MAX! ******************************************************************* Mr. George C. Fraser, http://www.frasernet.com: The PowerNetworking Minute was created to provide you with tips, facts and ideas to help you succeed in your "power-networking" endeavors. Most professionals and business owners say that they network. This may be true. But do they network effectively? Most don't. Here are a few suggestions for questions that can open up an informative conversation: How did you get started in your business? Why did you go into this line of business? What do you hope to get out of this conference? When do you enjoy your work the most? Where do you do your best business? Who is your best source of information. Bottom Line: When you ask good questions, it's easier to make a connection and establish common ground (people, places and things). Additionally, people are clear about the purpose of your networking. People also enjoy the verbal engagement and the sharing and exchange of interesting and meaningful information. Remember, the more common ground you establish, the higher the trust level; and, the higher the trust level, the more willingness a person has to share key contacts, private information and important resources. Action Steps: If you have trouble thinking of questions, I suggest following the standard rule that reporters follow when they are seeking basic information for a story. The first things they always get are: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? Then they build on that basic foundation of information. ********************************************************************** By Kenny Drew, Jr.; http://www.jayweb.com/kennydrew/ April 6, 2006 I've decided to add this section to my website as a vehicle to express my views on various topics, musical and otherwise, that have been on my mind lately. You may wonder why I'm talking about popular music in this first installment, since I am generally thought of as a "jazz" musician. However, anyone who knows me knows that my tastes in music are very eclectic (as are those of most jazz musicians, quiet as it's kept). In fact when I started my career as a professional musician, I was not playing jazz. I started out playing in R&B groups and Top-40 bands. We only played jazz if the club was almost empty! The 60s - 80s was such an incredible time for all styles of popular music, but for the sake of this discussion I will concentrate specifically on black music (or rhythm-and-blues, or funk, or whatever the hell you want to call it). Recently, I've been listening to a lot of my favorite music from that time, and to be honest, I am disgusted and sickened at how far our music has declined in the quality of the music and its message. How the hell did we get from Motown to Death Row; from Earth Wind & Fire to Ludacris; from Luther Vandross to 50Cent? I remember a time in our music when songs had great melodies and chord changes, you actually had to be able to sing or play an instrument to become a musician, and Michael Jackson was black! It's a sad commentary on our culture and society when the biggest thing in popular music is an ex-crack dealer whose claim to fame is being shot nine times, and one of the greatest entertainers in the world was on trial for child molestation. If that's not a sign of the coming Apocalypse, I don't know what is! And if 50Cent was really shot nine times, why couldn't one of those bullets have hit a vital organ? Who the f*** was shooting at him: Stevie Wonder? And as far as all these black rappers getting shot, how about a little equal opportunity violence here? Can't somebody pop a cap in Eminem's white ass? Another issue in the decline of music today is the stupidity and negativity in the lyrics and the video images that accompany this so-called "music". I recently discovered that there is now a form of rap called "coke rap", in which the lyrics deal mainly with the sale, distribution and use of cocaine and crack. I find it offensive that any record company would try to make a profit from glorifying something that has decimated the black community the way that crack has. I hope that one day while 50Cent is lounging by the pool in his humongous mansion surrounded by beautiful groupies, he might consider how many lives were ruined by the poison he used to sell, and how many more lives will be potentially damaged by the musical poison he's selling now. There's a video by Ludacris that I've seen of a song called "Act a Fool". All I can remember about the video is that there were a lot of shots of him and his boys running from the cops. Don't we have enough young black men running around acting like fools without some idiot rapper encouraging it? (But then again, Ludacris probably makes more money in one month than I'll make in my entire life as a jazz musician. So who's the idiot here? Maybe it's me!) Remember when the lyrics in our music spoke of love or the loss of love? Who can forget the uplifting messages of peace, hope and spirituality in the lyrics of Earth Wind & Fire? Or the social consciousness and protest messages in the lyrics of Gil Scott-Heron and Marvin Gaye? How the hell did we get from "Just to be Close to You Girl" to "Back That Ass Up Bitch"? How the hell did we get from "What's Goin' On" and "You Haven't Done Nothin' " to "Me So Horny" and "My Hump"? Last, but not least, it's time to address the musical quality of this bullshit, or more accurately, the lack of it. Way back when, when I first started studying music I was told that music had to consist of three elements: melody, harmony and rhythm. Rap music (an oxymoron similar to "military intelligence" or "jumbo shrimp") has basically discarded the first two elements and is left with nothing but rhythm. Since only one element of music is present in most of this crap it doesn't even justify being called music. Our culture has been dumbed down to the point where your average dumb-ass American can't tell the difference between a truly great musician and somebody who's been studying their instrument for a week. Playing a musical instrument at a high level is no longer a well-respected skill in our society. (I'm not 100% sure that it ever really was.) In fact, to be honest, I think that most of the students in music schools today who are studying jazz and classical music are wasting their f***ing time and their parents' money! (Boy, am I gonna get in trouble for saying this!) Why spend all that time mastering an instrument when you can just get a drum machine and a microphone, write some asinine lyrics about bitches, ho's and pimps and make a ton of money? Sometimes I wonder whether I'm wasting my time in this cesspool called the music industry. These days it seems like the only way to make any serious money in music is to produce some bullshit that doesn't even sound like music! So what's the solution here? Damned if I know! But I did see an encouraging story on the news recently. A billboard advertising 50Cent's new movie was put up in a black neighborhood not far from a school. In the billboard 50Cent is seen with his heavily tattooed back to the camera with his arms outstretched in a crucifix-like pose with a microphone in one hand and a gun in the other. Understandably, the community was outraged. They held protests, got some media coverage, and eventually succeeded in getting the movie company to remove the billboard. I say that we use this as a model nationwide. I propose a nationwide boycott of rap music; perhaps by picketing in front of record company offices and major record store chains. Anybody remember the "Disco Sucks" movement in the 70s? Maybe it's time for a "Rap Sucks" movement now. Who's with me here? (Actually, looking back on the disco era, that music sounds like Beethoven in comparison to the rap garbage that's poisoning our airwaves now!) Maybe we could have a big "Rap Sucks" rally somewhere. (As long as it doesn't escalate into a riot like the "Disco Sucks" one did.) ****************************************************************************************************** By Stephanie Reitz, Associated Press Writer | March 31, 2006 HARTFORD, Connecticut --Jazz alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, a performer and educator who played with legendary musicians including Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins, died Friday. He was 73. McLean, a contemporary of some of the 20th century's most famed jazz musicians, died at his Hartford home after a long illness, family members told The Hartford Courant. McLean was founder and artistic director of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford's Hartt School. He and his wife, actress Dollie McLean, also founded the Artists Collective, a community center and fine arts school in Hartford's inner city primarily serving troubled youth. University of Hartford President Walter Harrison said Dollie McLean called him Friday with news of her husband's death. Harrison said that despite his many musical accomplishments, McLean was a modest man whose connections with his students lasted for decades after they left his classroom. "He fully understood the way that jazz as an art should be passed down to students," Harrison said. "He saw his role as bringing jazz from the 1950s and '60s and handing it down to artists of today." McLean, a native of Harlem in New York City, grew up in a musical family, his father playing guitar in Tiny Bradshaw's band. McLean took up the soprano saxophone as a teen and quickly switched to the alto saxophone, inspired by his godfather's performances in a church choir, he told WBGO-FM in Newark, New Jersey, in an interview in 2004. McLean went on to play with his friend Rollins from 1948-49 in a Harlem neighborhood band under the tutelage of pianist Bud Powell. Through Powell, McLean met bebop pioneer Charlie "Bird" Parker, who became a major influence on the young alto saxophonist. He made his first recording when he was 19 on Miles Davis' "Dig" album, also featuring Rollins, which heralded the beginning of the hard-bop style. In the 1950s, McLean also played with Charles Mingus and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, experiences that he credited with helping him find his own style. "I never really sounded like Bird, but that was my mission," McLean said in the WBGO radio interview. "I didn't care if people said that I copied him; I loved Bird's playing so much. But Mingus was the one that really pushed me away from the idea and forced me into thinking about having an individual sound and concept." McLean made his first recording as a leader in 1955. He drew wide attention with his 1959 debut on Blue Note Records, "Jackie's Bag," one of dozens of albums he recorded in the hard-bop and free jazz styles for the label over the next eight years. His 1962 album "Let Freedom Ring" found him performing with avant-garde musicians. In 1959-60, he acted in the off-Broadway play "The Connection," about jazz musicians and drug addiction. McLean, a heroin addict during his early career, later went on to lecture on drug addiction research. In 1968, after Blue Note terminated his recording contract, McLean began teaching at the University of Hartford. He taught jazz, African-American music, and African-American history and culture, setting up the university's African American Music Department, which later was named in his honor. He took a break from recording for much of the 1980s to focus on his work as a music educator, but made his recording comeback in 1988 with "Dynasty," and later re-signed with Blue Note. His last Blue Note recordings included "Fire and Love" (1998), featuring his youthful Macband with son Rene McLean on tenor saxophone, and the ballads album "Nature Boy" (2000). He received an American Jazz Masters fellowship, the nation's highest jazz honor, from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001, and toured the world as an educator and performer. ********************************************************************* JAZZ IMPROVISATION IN AMOS A Biblical thesis on jazz worship in the church, www.ChristianJazz.net By Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D. "You strum on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments." (Amos 6:5 NIV) The Devil's music? "Jazz is the Devil's music!" That's a common notion in many churches, including many black congregations. We often teach our young people that there are only two kinds of music: Gospel music and worldly music. But the Bible teaches us to praise the Lord with all kinds of instruments. Do we dare to pass by an honor God and touch the lost? Of course not! Jesus said that if we hold back our praise, the rocks take over where we leave off! PSALMS 150 Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with high sounding cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord! _____________________________________________ A rich heritage! Jazz has deep spiritual and aesthetic roots in the black church and in the black tradition in general. It is the only strictly original form of African American music. In fact, it is most accurately described as the classical music of the black community. Noted author W.E. DeBois called it "the most beautiful expression of human experience born this side of the seas." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "This is triumphant music. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sound of the earth which flows through his instrument." |