Go Giants!

Ooops, wrong mindset to greet you all is a no-no. When summer sets it, I get the baseball fever, and my poor SF Giants are in the cellar again, so I was just rootin’ for 'em. Steroids or not, if Barry beats Hank’s homer record, he’s the man. They used to ask the late, great sax-man Zoot Sims how he could always play so well while loaded. “I practice loaded,” he replied. Same diff…when you’re good, you’re good. Speaking of good…

There were some sparkling, bright moments in our occasional jazzy environment since I last reported to you folks. It all started at Barrymore’s, in downtown Lincoln, when former Nebraskan, now Denver-based pianist Jeff Jenkins got together with University of Nebraska-Lincoln music prof and trumpeter Darryl White, among others, to debut his new CD. I never received one to review, nor got the title, but the band cooked in a Latin-tinged Milesesque, Weather Report kind of groove.

I was the most gassed by the drummer from Salina, Kan., now residing in KC named Brandon Draper. What a monster! He's truly one of the best, NATURAL percussionists I’ve ever heard, and this kid is still in his late 20s or early 30s. Sax pro Rob Scheps alerted a lot of us in the Midwest that this cat was loaded for bear. My dear friend and BMF consultant and bassist Gerald Spaits confirmed how “into it” this young lion was after gigging with him.

I loved the sound of the room at Barrymore’s. Like the former Melting Spot, this basement lounge has great sound and reminds me somewhat of the ambience of NYC’s Village Vanguard. I spoke with their manager, John, on putting together a “back-to-school” KC jazz show featuring Brandon and some of the other top-notch players from KCMO. For a variety of reasons, a proposed date was scratched so Barrymore’s won’t work. I still hope to be able to bring this group and others into town sometime this fall when the proper venue presents itself. Bottom line…Brandon Draper’s a must-see and must-hear, at all costs. Try to catch him before he ends up in New York, which he's ready for now.

Next…Jazz in June. It warmed my heart when upon their 16^th year, the powers that be (my good pal, and ever-so-competent Doug Campbell, along with Martha Florence, who chaired the committee) chose to book three bands that the BMF originally brought to Lincoln, allowed me to interview them on my KZUM-FM jazz show “Reboppin” Revisited,” and gave me and my foundation VIP treatment at this year’s festival. A hearty thank-you from all of us at the BMF to all of you that made this years festival a smashing success all over again.

The bands in question: New York’s Kendra Shank Quartet; San Francisco’s Quintet of the Hot Club of San Francisco and, from Kansas City, Mo., Stan Kessler’s Sons of Brasil. All were stellar, as were Lincoln’s own NJO along with KC songstress Angela Hagenbach, who headlined the last performance. Elsewhere in this issue, see Tom Ineck’s in-depth reviews of them all and enjoy the great pictures that our photog Rich Hoover snapped at all four shows.

My favorite highlight of the whole season was the after-hour jam at my home between the Hot Club of San Francisco and our own Hot Club of Lincoln, featuring Dave Fowler on violin, Greg Gunter on lead guitar and Mike Herres on rhythm. Neither local bass player Brian “Pickle” Gerkensmeier nor the SF Hot Club bassist were able to make it, so everybody took turns on the upright. Paul Mehling and Greg Gunter traded their Django chops, a protégée of Dr. Dave’s, violinist Sam Packard (also of the Charlie Burton and the Dorothy Lynch Mob band) and the ever-so-distinguished and talented Englishman Julian Smedley exchanged fiddle concepts, and the other two Hot Club of SF rhythm guitarists, Jason Vanderford and Jeff Magidson, strummed their butts off even after their sizzling two sets earlier in the evening.

My wife Grace celebrated her birthday June 25 (the same date as my late mother…go figure), and we, along with my webmaster and editor Tom Ineck and his wife, Mary Jane, took a Sunday drive to Brownville, Neb., to catch Billy Stritch. Billy’s a wonderful, talented singer, pianist and arranger who, besides doing his gigs, also has been the main accompanist for both Marilyn Maye and Liza Minnelli. Brownville is a beautiful, quaint little burg nestled in the hills surrounded by the Missouri River. It’s the oldest city in the state and  has become an artist-based community that houses this lovely little church, which has be turned into an acoustically perfect concert hall (somewhat reminiscent to the famed Maybeck Concert Hall in California) and has been doing variety concerts there for 17 years. Cabaret was the genre this day, featuring the Ethel Merman-style vocals of Klea Blackhurst, along with Billy, KC’s Gerald Spaits on bass and Ray DeMarchi on drums, doing the music of Hoagy Carmichael. Check out Tom’s review of this splendid show in this issue.

Better bug out of here. One last note of interest is that the BMF is getting ready to publish all of the music of the recently departed KC icon Russ Long.  I showed a prototype copy to Lincoln saxophonist Ed Long when he was visiting recently. After hearing the great "Time To Go" CD that we did for Russ before he passed, and seeing all of the music, I suggested perhaps the NJO might want to do his songbook sometime in 2008, using the same KC rhythm section and all of the NJO horns. Ed liked the idea, and so we are working on the possibility. I’ll fill you all in on this and other special stuff in our fall Jazz newsletter.

Have a great summer, everyone. Stay cool, let your music be hot and as I say at the end of my weekly KZUM “Tuesday Morning Soul Stew” radio shows…”Life’s a gas. You just got to inhale once in awhile.”

Later,

Butch Berman

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Dear Readers,

Well the buds are a buddin’ and the birdies are chirping and I guess this must be spring.  I had a fun, active winter…but I know it was brutal for many around the country.

You just can’t mess with Mother N.

Jazz goes and flows with the seasons. Cool when needed, and hot in usually (hopefully) the right places. Jazz always works for me, and I love working for jazz.

Speaking of jazz….one of the bright new talents out there, sax-man Andrew Vogt, wrote me recently from L.A. He’s a former Lincolnite who honed his chops on cruise ships, set sail to Colorado to gig his butt off the past few years, and just cut his first CD, "Action Plan," this year (for my review, click here). He found himself sitting near another great player who’s been around awhile, and is still moving upwards…Greg Abate. I've hired Greg a lot throughout the foundation years, and he gave a couple of private lessons to Andrew in the early days that made a difference in his development. Maybe these cats should get together and cut one another in the old tradition of sax players trying to blow each other off the stage and just tearing up the joint.

I caught Doc Severinsen last week at our Lied Center for Performing Arts, with his extremely talented and entertaining big band. I was hoping he’d have Ed Shaughnessy on drums or trumpeter Snooky Young, but no dice. Doc still looked and sounded great. He still processes that "old-school” charm and showmanship that a lot of bands seem to forget these days. 

Playing ability is foremost, but seeing Doc lead these young lions through those great old songs, with those "Tonight Show" Tommy Newsom arrangements was a gas. The major star in Doc’s house on this tour is L.A. jazz saxophone legend Ernie Watts. For me, he stole the whole show. I love all his stuff with Charlie Haden and others, and it was a thrill to see him still plays so magnificently that evening. What a monster!

I turned 58 on the 10^th of March, sharing a birthday with the likes of the late, great Bix Beiderbecke, and all-star pitcher Steve Howe, both lovers of life and its occasional excesses. When I was growing up during the 60s, most of my musical heroes didn’t make it past 27. Luckily, I turned 40 at the Hazelton Clinic, which probably made it possible for me to be telling you this tale now.  For the rest of the story…watch for the book.

Anyway, my rockin’ Cronin Brothers turned the usually groovy FAC at Lincoln, Nebraska’s famed Zoo Bar into a really cool party for me, and a whole bunch of my Pisces pals. Mega kudos as always goes out to my old friend, Joyce Latrom, and all of the Cronettes for making for a fab birthday to remember, and my lovely wife, Grace, for everything else.

Another night to remember was a benefit for one of Lincoln’s counter-culture leaders, who has suddenly taken ill, and is making his battle with the dreaded C, an adventure that only Terrence “Terry” Moore of Dirt Cheap Records could handle with such courage and curiosity. See www.dirtcheapreunion.com  to learn of this cutting-edge record store from the early '70s and how it helped define Lincoln’s always hip underbelly that later created our first community organic food market, Open Harvest, and its swell, diverse radio station, KZUM 89.3 FM, to name a few.

The Cronins, The Stringtown Castanets and Charlie Burton and the quartet version of his Lynch Mob brought a whole lot of folks from the old days together for a beautiful, heartfelt evening that rocked, and help raise money to put a small dent in his mounting medical bills. Many fences were mended that night, as the reality of life, our mortality and uncertainty of anything beyond now crept through the hundreds of  old friends that packed the Loft at The Mill.

If you want to donate to this worthy cause, the necessary info is also linked to the website mentioned earlier. Terry and I go back to the 8^th grade, and his B-Day is just one day past mine, both in 1949. We had our ups and downs (mostly ups) over the years and always seemed to be supporting each other's stuff once Dirt Cheap started. We both ended up working for KZUM, and were really reuniting when his illness befell him. Quite a guy!

I’m excited to announce that “the Gates” is returning. Good buddy, great singer, entertainer and educator Giacomo Gates is first returning with Kansas City’s Joe Cartwright Trio (Joe on piano, Gerald Spaits on bass and Ray DeMarchi on drums) which will perform at the Brownville Concert Hall in Brownville, Neb., April 6-8, and then here at the Embassy Suites Ballroom on Tuesday April 10 with the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra. He's one of the hippest and most talented cats I’ve ever come into contact with in my 12 years of jazz biz.

Be there or be square, and I’m not kiddin’. You can catch us both chatting about the gig, his career, and other bright moments on my KZUM radio show, “Reboppin’ Revisited.” We’ll be on 1-3 p.m. Tuesday April 10 on 89.3 FM, Channel 10 on  local cable TV and via streaming at www.kzum.org. Should be a gasser.

Speaking of gas…I’m runnin’ out, so gotta go. Back at cha by Jazz In June.

Later,

Butch Berman

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I want to wish a happy holiday greeting to all of my faithful fans, friends and readers.

It seems as I get older, I find myself repeating the opening statement of “I come to you today with a heavy heart” unfortunately more and more often in these letters. Today is no exception as we lost three titans in the music world recently—r&b singer Ruth Brown, jazz vocalist Anita O’Day and legendary Kansas City stride piano player and blues and jazz singer Jay McShann, plus a slightly lesser known, but dear man and wonderful bass player, Walter Booker Jr.

Ruth Brown was a pioneer in the early ‘50s, when African-American musicians were undergoing the same racial bigotry their other brothers and sisters shared, even though they entertained mostly white audiences in the rock ‘n’ roll days traveling across the country on tour busses. She was noted for taking care of the other players, helping with sewing, finding suitable lodging and places they could eat and such. Besides singing r&b and rock ‘n’ roll she could belt the blues, do jazzy standards and was an accomplished actress on both TV and in movies, perhaps best remembered for the role of “Motor-Mouth Mable” in John Waters’ film “Hairspray.” She was a true ambassador whose music will hopefully endure and be enjoyed forever.

I got to meet and hang with Anita O’Day after her performance at NYC’s famed Rainbow Room in 1995. Her chops still pretty much intact, she gave me and my way-former partner Susan a half-hour after the show to talk and inscribe her wonderful bio, “High Times Hard Times.” Through her manager at that time, she kept in touch with me over the years. She was a classy dame, went through hell and back, and had a cooler, more stylish and hipper song styling and stage patter than most of her peers. Performing into her 80s, she passed at age 87. I really loved her—right up there with Billie, Carmen, Sarah and Shirley Horn for total uniqueness, and she could sing ‘n’ swing her ass off. Check out her stuff backed by the Billy May orchestra doing Rodgers and Hart, and you’ll be in jazz heaven.

I only met Jay McShann once, many, many years ago at a private party held by Russ Dantzler after Jay’s regular gig at Lincoln, the old Legionnaire Club. This was years before Russ moved to NYC to form Hot Jazz Management and help shape the careers of talented musicians like the late Claude Williams and other famous jazz cats who were approaching their senior years, and provide them which much deserved work, recording and touring opportunities and the like. I’m going to defer any more readable stories of Jay to Russ.

I don’t remember if I ever met Walter Booker Jr., but the first time I ever heard jazz in New York, on New Years’ Eve at no less a venue than the current Sweet Rhythm—then known as Sweet Basil’s in the Village—it was the famed Nat Adderley band with Walter on bass, Jimmy Cobb on drums, and a pianist who’s name escapes me.  Vince Herring was on sax that night, after being discovered playing in the subways, and he truly launched his fine career with Nat and the boys. Walter was married to a lovely, talented woman named Bertha Hope (Elmo’s ex) who still performs her bebop piano with aplomb in the city quite often.

Yup, heaven is swinging a little harder with these new additions, and we’ll miss ‘em all. If some of these folks were new to you, go out and buy their stuff, dig it and tell everybody how great they all were. They deserve it, and you’ll be better off for checking it all out.

Here’s a little cheerier news to brighten your day.

I can’t say enough good stuff about Kansas City’s own Russ Long. I’m just thrilled that after the wondrous tribute concert at Jardine’s we held for Russ a couple of months ago, and covered in our last Jazz newsletter, we were able to go into the studio with the same great bunch of cats and record “Time to Go: The Music of Russ Long.” The Berman Music Foundation put up the dough, BMF consultants and long-time pals Gerald and Leslie Spaits did all the leg work involved in the recording and marketing process, and all the players dug in and made “Time to Go” a most beautiful album.

Special thanks to Ron Ubel and all the folks at Soundtrek Studios, photo work by Matthew Peake, Keith Kavanaugh’s BauWau Design, trumpeter Gary Sivils for all his heart and soul and last, but not least, guitarist Pat Metheny for donating his time and talents to make this work of art a real treasure. For all the facts, photos and review of this timely project please enjoy Tom Ineck’s fine coverage in this issue.

While mentioning Tom, I sent him out to do a piece on Bob Popek’s dynamite new, all-purpose music shop called CGS Music. He’s been keeping my axes in line for over a quarter of a century and is a mater craftsman. It sounds like his new venture is taking off in leaps and bounds, and we wish him the best. Check out the story, and then go and check out this groovy establishment—a must for guitarists, and they cover almost all the other musical bases as well.

My good friend and killer reedman Andrew Vogt popped in from his home in Fort Collins, Colo., to spend an evening with me around Thanksgiving. His newest CD, and the first under his leadership, called “Action Plan,” just came out. It is, of course, a total gasser, a must have for all jazz lovers. My Discorama review will fill you in further.

I guess I just can’t get enough of that good ole radio stuff, as besides my beloved “Soul Stew” which airs every Tuesday from 10 a.m. to noon CST on our own community  radio station, KZUM 89.3FM, I’m doing jazz again from 1-3 p.m. the same day with my new show entitled “Reboppin’ Revisited.” After Bill Wimmer’s “Jazz Journey” reached its final destination, I was hot to bop again, and the time slot seemed to be made for moi. Please tune in, and tell your friends the bebop man is back in the building. Also, major kudos to the fine job my old buddy and BMF photographer Rich Hoover is doing as the interim program director at the station. I sincerely hope it works out for him to stay on there fulltime.

I want to send a worldwide thanks to all the folks from Oakland, Neb., that had my rock band The Cronin Brothers play at their most recent holiday get-together, which has been going on for more than 20 years. It was Dec. 16 at the ever-so-cool WSI building in one of Lincoln’s oldest neighborhoods, the “Russian Bottoms.” The party rocked, we rocked and for me, it was maybe the best party I’ve played at since the legendary Preston Holder (now deceased) mid-‘70s New Year’s Eve basharoo with the fabled Megatones. Nice job, Oak Creek Plants, for the beautiful decorations and mostly to all the Oakies for their generous outpouring of love, devotion and unbridled energy towards rock ‘n’ roll—and the food… delicious!

My home pad is legally listed as a museum, but because I live here, tours to strangers seem a little risky. Still, by special appointment (call (402) 475-3112 if interested) I do enjoy having folks over to check out my vast collection of Americana from the late ‘40s to the present—mostly music and lots of classic and not-so-classy flicks of all kinds, plus a bunch of sports memorabilia.

Anyway, when one day I was trying to contact my local TV cable station to order the BET jazz channel, I ended up talking to a Pat Greene. Sadly, the station wasn’t hip enough to carry what I wanted, but Pat was, and we chatted about jazz. To make a long story short, after much rescheduling I had Pat, her partner, Mary Logan, and juvenile probation officer Roy Nifoussi (turns out he’s a big Cronins fan) over for a tour. A few weeks later, Roy brought Dan Beckwith, a retired judge from Fremont who was in town for some legal biz. Both encounters were a blast, and I’ll let the pix tell the rest of the story.

This story is coming to a close. I’m looking forward to the Democratic persuasion to move things ahead as we turn the year over. Let’s all pray for more peace, love and understanding…and a lotta hot bops.

P.S. One of my oldest pals in the music biz is former Lincolnite Bill Dye. He's a true demon of the strings and has made KC his home for years. He dropped by over the holidays and presented me with his newest CD, entitled "The Hatchlings," a blues trio featuring leader, singer and drummer Jaisson Taylor, Billy on all guitars, and Len Bacoski on the Fender bass. They are all former bandmates of the late, great Provine "Little" Hatch, who passed away in 2003. If you're a blues fan and/or Bill Dye fan, you can get their CD on the web at www.thehatchlingsband.com. Do it and dig it.

Yours in touch,

Butch Berman 

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