By Tom Ineck

LINCOLN, Neb.—No other name on today’s jazz scene has the proven ability to fill nearly all of the 2,200 seats at the Lied Center for Performing Arts except Wynton Marsalis. He has done it before and he did it again Oct. 7, fronting the formidable Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

As the debut performance of the Lied Center’s 20^th anniversary season, it couldn’t have been a more auspicious occasion. The 15-piece big band has been the resident jazz orchestra at Lincoln Center since 1988, and under the leadership of the famed New Orleans-bred trumpeter it has established a worldwide reputation for excellence in composing, arranging and instrumental proficiency.

No prima donna, Marsalis leads the band from a seat in the back row, just another player in a star-studded trumpet section. He modestly played the leadership role simply by introducing the tunes and offering brief comments and proper credit for his many talented arrangers and soloists.

As an introductory nod to the Midwestern setting, the band kicked off with a swinging version of the familiar children’s song “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” Saxophonist Ted Nash’s arrangement included simulated barnyard cried from the horns, a tenor sax solo by Walter Blanding and a growling, slurred trumpet statement by Marsalis, who deftly employed a derby mute for vocal effect. Remaining in the nursery, the band followed with a creepy Marsalis arrangement of “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” It could have been sub-titled “The Arachnid Blues,” with its crawling pace, its colorful use of two flutes and clarinet and a plunger-muted trombone solo.

Marsalis finally tapped the standard jazz repertoire with Wayne Shorter’s “Free for All,” which had outstanding solos by Victor Goines on tenor sax, Elliott Mason on trombone and Marcus Printup on trumpet. Lou Donaldson’s “Blues Walk” was a tribute to the uniquely American music style that Marsalis referred to as “our national anthem.” Indeed, the arrangement by alto saxophonist Sherman Irby was rife with the blues, as he and pianist Dan Nimmer exchanged classic call-and-response phrases.

The orchestra opened the second half of the concert with a piece Marsalis wrote for the Vitoria Jazz Festival in Spain. Rhythmic hand claps conveyed a flamenco feel, leading to a Marsalis trumpet solo, a swaggering baritone sax statement by veteran Joe Temperley and a trombone solo by Vincent Gardner. A pair of Thelonious Monk tunes began with a Gardner arrangement of “Light Blue,” imaginatively featuring piccolos and clarinet and Nimmer faithfully rendering the melody before contributing an original piano solo. Trombonist Chris Crenshaw arranged “Epistrophy” to feature Ted Nash on alto sax, Carlos Enriquez on bass and Ryan Kisor on trumpet.

Kisor, 36, a native of Sioux City, Iowa, is no stranger to Nebraska jazz fans who first witnessed his astounding skills as a teenaged guest soloist with the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra. Confirming what we have known about Kisor for many years, Marsalis described him as “a freak of nature” on his horn, capable of playing difficult lip exercises that no one else can perform. Considering the source, that’s quite a compliment. Marsalis also thanked Kisor’s parents, who were in the audience.

From Duke Ellington’s late-period “New Orleans Suite,” Marsalis introduced “Portrait of Mahalia Jackson” with a slow, bluesy trumpet obbligato, muting the horn with a plunger. The trombones “shouted” in gospel fashion, and Irby turned in a soulful flute solo in keeping with the African-American spiritual. It must be noted that drummer Ali Jackson contributed to every performance with a wide array of percussion skills, while remaining tasteful and unobtrusive.

A standing ovation brought a sextet of players back to the stage for a brief set combining a mid-tempo blues tune and a bebop blazer. Marsalis led the charge, with saxophone, trombone, piano, bass and drums in hot pursuit, a nice contrast to the earlier orchestral jazz.

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By Tom Ineck

BROWNVILLE, Neb.—Wycliffe Gordon’s bluesy, tradition-laden trombone sound has been ubiquitous since he first came on the scene as an important element in the Wynton Marsalis Septet of 1989. He established his reputation in that historic group, as well as the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, but since 1996 he has recorded nearly 20 CDs under his own name.

Gordon is a well-traveled road warrior. In addition to several appearances with the Marsalis combo and big band, I have seen him in performance with fellow trombonist Ron Westray in Kansas City, Mo., and as a guest soloist at two Topeka jazz festivals (in 2002 and 2004). Most recently, Gordon brought his road show to the Brownville Concert Hall for a July 12 matinee, along with KC-based accompanists T.J. Martin on piano, Bob Bowman on bass and the young Ryan Lee on drums.

Though somewhat unfamiliar with his bandmates, Gordon’s thorough professionalism and charming stage presence helped them rise to the occasion. It also helped that much of his repertoire is drenched in the swing tradition and is well known to most jazz musicians.

The familiar opener, “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” was a perfect example of Gordon’s ability to set a casual mood and set the audience at ease. He utilized the plunger mute for a bluesy introduction, vocalizing on the horn and even singing a few lines in the raspy, soulful manner of Louis Armstrong. Martin, Bowman and Lee got enough solo time to establish their own credentials.

A mid-tempo “I’ll Remember April” proved a goldmine for an adventurous piano solo and some expert drumming, as Gordon’s lyrical trombone soared to the upper ranges. Thelonious Monk’s “Rhythm-a-ning” began with some fancy triple-tonguing trombone, lead to an aptly angular piano solo and finished with a Gordon solo that shifted to double time and stop-time while building in intensity.

“Amazing Grace” seemed especially appropriate for a Sunday concert, and it received the deluxe treatment, including a growling plunger solo, a great bowed bass solo, stately piano chording and a final horn solo that “testified” with shouts and moans. As a tribute to the Kansas City jazz tradition, the band finished the first set with “Moten Swing,” taken at that familiar Basie jump blues tempo. Again, Gordon used the plunger to create soulful wah-wahs and growls then joined with Bowman as he walked the bass.

The second half began with a mid-tempo “Just Friends,” with Martin essaying a breezy, Garner-like flow during his solo. Gordon sang “On the Sunny Side of the Street” with the irrepressible joy it deserves. Martin stated the theme of Dave Brubeck’s “In Your Own Sweet Way” on the piano before turning it over to Gordon and Bowman for their own solo statements and finishing with his own variations.

Gordon’s ballad “Savannah Song” was a complex composition beginning with a brief piano intro, the trombone stating the melody along with some lovely Arco bass, and then another piano solo before Gordon’s trombone brought it to a close on a high note. Lee showed his sensitivity on brushes during a moving rendition of “Body and Soul,” with Gordon again stating the familiar melody and the piano taking the bridge.

Finishing in grand style, Gordon gave “Hello Dolly” and “It’s a Wonderful World” the Armstrong treatment, singing, scat-singing and blowing the horn with everything he had. It was a rousing finale to a memorable performance. In its 19^th season, the Brownville Concert Hall series is still committed to bringing world-class music to rural America. Bravo!

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By Tom Ineck

CHICAGO—The venerable Congress Plaza Hotel on Michigan Avenue by Grant Park is most definitely on this city’s hectic, well-beaten path. But just a few blocks off the beaten path, at 806 S. Plymouth Court, is one of the world’s most famous jazz clubs.

The Jazz Showcase has been operated by Joe Segal since he started booking music for Roosevelt University in 1947. That’s right. Segal, 83, has been at the helm for 62 years, bringing the best jazz available to Chicago, moving from one venue to another as necessity dictated but never abandoning his mission to present live, world-class jazz. The last time I visited the Showcase was in 1988, when the club was housed off the lobby of the Blackstone Hotel, also on Michigan Avenue. It was the place to be after performances of the 1988 Chicago Jazz Festival had wrapped up and the musicians headed for the more informal club setting.

Much has changed since then, but not that special vibe at Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcase, as my wife and I discovered when we walked from the Congress Plaza Hotel to the club July 19 for a 4 p.m. Sunday matinee performance by the Mulgrew Miller Trio. Despite the daylight hour, the 170-seat club maintained that soft-lighted ambience so conducive to live jazz, and the walls displayed dozens of old photos and other memorabilia collected over the years.

The jazz matinee is a relatively new phenomenon across the country, with clubs attempting to augment their aging audiences by encouraging folks to introduce their children and grandchildren to this priceless American art form. At the Showcase, there are special matinee discounts for students, musicians, seniors and members of the Jazz Institute of Chicago. All children age 12 and under are admitted free of charge. The early Sunday show also allows jazz fans to get home by a reasonable hour.

On the day we were there, the policy appeared to work pretty well, with some obvious grandparents and grandchildren in attendance and quite a few others, as well. Of course, a performance by pianist Mulgrew Miller is reason enough to make the effort.

Miller was accompanied by young bassist Ivan Taylor and the amazing drummer Karriem Riggins, a former member of the Ray Brown Trio who has also performed or recorded with Betty Carter, Diana Krall, Oscar Peterson, Bobby Hutcherson, Ron Carter, Cedar Walton and others.

Of course, Miller himself has 15 recordings of his own since his debut as a leader in 1985, plus dozens of others as a sideman with the likes of Art Blakey, Donald Byrd, Betty Carter, Freddie Hubbard, Johnny Griffin, Benny Golson, Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Lovano, James Moody, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Woody Shaw. One of his most memorable associations was with the great Tony Williams Quintet of the mid-1980s, which I witnessed at the 1987 Russian River Jazz Festival.

So, it was with much anticipation that I awaited the performance of this piano master, perhaps as close to an heir apparent of Oscar Peterson as you’re likely to hear. He began with a lyrical, mid-tempo rendition of “A Sleeping Bee,” and proceeded to accelerate mightily on “You and the Night and the Music,” with Riggins effortlessly driving the tempo. Miller’s composition “Carousel” was a Latin tune featuring a bass interlude and slyly quoting a children’s ditty.

Miller launched into “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life” in a gorgeous ballad style before moving uptempo. Riggins, on brushes, proved a master at any speed. The drummer locked into a solid, soulful pocket on a bluesy, mid-tempo “What a Difference a Day Makes.” Duke Jordan’s classic bopper “Jordu” was taken at a blazing tempo, allowing Miller to illustrate his mastery over the entire range of the keyboard.

A gentle, soft-spoken man, Miller thanked the audience for coming out on a Sunday to listen, suggesting that jazz was an alternate form of worship “if you didn’t go to church.” Amen.

On a somewhat bizarre, and discordant, note, Segal then took the stage to briefly thank the audience for their patronage, and proceeded to harangue them about what he sees as the demise of jazz. Alluding to the recent death of Michael Jackson, he blamed the King of Pop and Elvis Presley for “destroying music.” As we left the club, he was still arguing his point with a Jackson fan at the bar. Perhaps it is such righteous indignation and downright crankiness that has kept the curmudgeonly octogenarian going all these years.     

By the way, Butch Berman shared his impressions of Joe Segal and the Jazz Showcase with readers in the October 2003 BMF newsletter. He and Grace had just returned from their honeymoon trip to Chicago, where they had spent two evenings at the club (hearing drummer Roy Haynes one night and clarinetist Buddy DeFranco the next), and he was understandably enthused by their experiences there.

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By Tom Ineck

TORONTO—Travel plans to a city I’ve never visited always involve a little research on available music venues. Preparing for my first trip to Ontario’s capital city in July, I discovered there are precious few jazz clubs in this metropolis of 2½ million people (5½ million in the greater Toronto area).

In fact, only one club stood out from the rest. The Rex Jazz & Blues Bar, adjacent to The Rex Hotel at 194 Queen Street West, is a night spot favored by local jazz buffs for more than 20 years. One loyal patron told me it is the last great jazz club in Toronto, which used to boast several world-class venues. The others have come and gone, but The Rex hangs on, making the most of a prime downtown location and a policy of heavy jazz and blues booking. For the month of July, the club listed 72 shows on its calendar! Of course, most of those are local artists who vary greatly in quality.

During my three-day stay in the city, however, the schedule included a local group of jazz veterans that caught my attention. The Mark Eisenman Quintet features Pat LaBarbera on saxophones, a New York native and the older brother of drummer Joe LaBarbera and arranger/trumpeter John LaBarbera. In his early years, he toured and recorded with Buddy Rich, Elvin Jones and others, and since moving to Canada in 1974, he has recorded with the likes of Rob McConnell, Kevin Mahogany, Ranee Lee, Gap Mangione and even rocker Bruce Cockburn. LaBarbera also has half a dozen recordings of his own.

I decided that any band whose ranks included the reed virtuoso was worth checking out, and I was not mistaken. The rest of the quintet consisted of leader and prolific composer Mark Eisenman at the piano, trumpeter John MacLeod, bassist Steve Wallace and drummer John Sumner. In format, it was a typical bebop quintet, but its front-line soloists were atypically imaginative and accomplished. LaBarbera and MacLeod ran unison lines with ease, then alternately soared on their respective horns in extended, frequently exciting solo passages.

After a brisk, 20-minute walk from my room at The Bond Place Hotel, I paid the cover charge for the 9:45 p.m. show and slipped into the last remaining seat—just inches from the bandstand and directly in front of LaBarbera and MacLeod! My vantage point had me alternately peering over their music stands in an attempt to see the musicians and flinching in fear of flying spittle from their horns. While the sound was grand from that proximity, I later moved to the bar for a better view.

I arrived as the band was counting off the first tune, Cole Porter’s “Everything I Love.” Eisenman introduced one of his cleverly titled compositions, “Fathom,” as a tune based on the changes for “How Deep Is the Ocean.” The beautiful “Ballad for Benny” is a tribute to saxophonist Benny Golson. The hard-bopping “Apparition” is the title track from the pianist’s 2006 release on Cornerstone.

A rather unusual but effective choice was Dave Frishberg’s “Saratoga Hunch,” sans lyrics. LaBarbera was featured on soprano sax on the waltz “My Mind,” based on the classic “On Green Dolphin Street.” Eisenman’s “Bird’s Assurance” is another cleverly titled tune, obviously inspired by Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation.”

Despite its cramped quarters and somewhat down-in-the-heels condition, The Rex Jazz & Blues Bar has a comfortable, well-worn ambiance and a well-deserved reputation, drawing an enthusiastic Thursday night crowd of jazz lovers. Many of them gathered afterwards to chat with the musicians and enjoy one more for the road.

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By Tom Ineck

LINCOLN, Neb.—The Labor Day appearance by John Kay and Steppenwolf at the Nebraska State Fair was almost as good as that magic carpet ride we first took more than 40 years ago.

These hardened road warriors have shortened their tour schedule and even spoken of retirement in recent years, so it was a rare privilege to once again witness the full power and prowess of The Wolf, their youthful, 65-year-old leader stalking the stage like the band’s lupine namesake, growling the familiar lyrics in his trademark baritone. John Kay remains one of the most vital proponents of the music genre now known as Americana, a blend of blues, roots rock, folk and country influences.

Ironically, Kay (born Joachim Fritz Krauledat in Tilsit, East Prussia) was first introduced to American roots music via U.S. Armed Forces radio after the family moved to East Germany. When he was 14, they relocated to Toronto, where he formed the band Sparrow. After a brief stay in New York City, the band finally landed in Los Angeles, changed their name to Steppenwolf—after the novel by Hermann Hesse—and released  their first record in 1968. The single “Sookie Sookie” was the soulful cover of a song by Don Covay and Steve Cropper, but it was the follow-up hit, “Born to be Wild,” that put the band on the map.  

In 2009, Kay and his veteran bandmates still kick off their concerts with “Sookie Sookie.” From there, they sampled the best from the entire Steppenwolf songbook. “Rock Me” and “Rock and Roll Rebels” captured the band’s tradition of original good-time tunes. They paid homage to the blues with “Hoochie Coochie Man” and “Hey Lawdy Mama” and even dipped into country with the Hank Snow classic “I’m Movin’ On,” which Kay first recorded for his 1972 solo release “Forgotten Songs and Unsung Heroes.” It is his deep-seated respect for the history of American music that makes Kay one of the great interpreters of song, as well as a formidable composer.

His most lasting contribution as a songwriter may be “Monster,” a nine-minute suite that encapsulates the history of America—the good, the bad and the ugly. As Kay said in his stage introduction, the song continues to resonate 40 years after its release as the title track of Steppenwolf’s most overtly political album.

"And though the past has its share of injustice,

Kind was the spirit in many a way,

But its protectors and friends have been sleeping,

Now it's a monster and will not obey."

Or as Kay reminded his audience, “The Constitution does not say ‘We the corporations or we the lobbyists. It says ‘We the people.’”

The set list also included fine performances of Hoyt Axton’s anti-drug song “Snowblind Friend,” “Who Needs Ya,” “Ride With Me” and “Screaming Night Hog,” dedicated to the band’s many biker friends. Saving the best for last, they concluded with “Magic Carpet Ride,” “Born to be Wild,” and an encore rendition of “The Pusher,” also written by Axton.

The multitalented Michael Wilk has anchored the essential keyboard role since 1981, as well as providing harmony vocals and bass lines and even maintaining the band’s website. Drummer Ron Hurst has been with the band since 1984 and guitarist Danny Johnson joined in 1996. With Kay adding rhythm guitar, slide guitar and harmonica to the mix, these guys have developed a high level of musical compatibility and obvious camaraderie.

For the complete Steppenwolf story, narrated by Kay, see the 2008 DVD “A Rock ‘n’ Roll Odyssey.” Using archival footage and interviews with past and current band members, it chronicles the 40-year journey of one of the great American rock bands.

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Colorado Correspondent

Jazz twofer celebrates guitarist's 87 years

By Dan DeMuth

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Local jazz fans in the Colorado Springs area were treated to a great twofer on June 27, through the efforts of members of the Pikes Peak Jazz & Swing Society. A guitar quartet, if you will, paid tribute to and led the 87^th birthday celebration for the legendary Johnny Smith, a gentleman who has called Colorado Springs home for many years.

Headlining this quartet was Gene Bertoncini, a long-time friend of Johnny's whose bio is as impressive as anyone’s actively performing today. Gene was augmented very ably by three other guitarists, the well-known Dale Bruning, who makes his home in the Longmont, Colo., area; Alan Joseph, who teaches and performs in the Colorado Springs and Denver areas; and Wayne Wilkinson, also a local performer with impeccable credentials.

Getting the call on drums and bass were Richard Clark and Marc Neihof, two sterling musicians culled from the incredible pool of jazz musicians in this area, a real honor indeed. And while Johnny doesn’t pick up the guitar anymore, his spirit was definitely in the air throughout the evening.

The SRO crowd at Giuseppe’s was comprised not only of listening fans, but many musician fans as well, with some of both groups having brought albums to get autographed and perhaps a photo op with Johnny, who graciously filled all requests. And while the performances featured some of Johnny's hits, each guitarist was allowed to showcase a bit of their own talents, along with some occasional banter recalling their friendship and learning experiences with Johnny over the years.

Respect was the word of the evening. A comfortable jam session feeling prevailed with each of the guitarists calling out tunes and the others joining in after the lead-off (controlled improvisation?). As luck would have it, our table was in proximity to the guest of honor, and I was able to note the look of quiet satisfaction as he heard his music and the tributes throughout the night.

On a personal note, in the relatively short time I've lived in this area I have been fortunate to meet and call many of the local jazz professionals my friends. Five years ago, Johnny granted me an interview (which appears in the BMF Winter 2004 online newsletter), at which time he autographed my 78 rpm on the Royal Roost label of his first solo hit “Moonlight in Vermont.” A copy of that label graced all of the tables at his celebration. In addition, some of his LPs from my collection were a part of the front desk display. I felt extremely honored.

In the interim between compiling my notes and the publication of this piece, we lost Les Paul. In retrospect, it is intensely gratifying to have been present at a function honoring a living guitar legend.

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