performance review: Puma Perl's Pandemonium, 6/21/19

Puma Perl’s Pandemonium, 6/21/19, Bowery Electric, NYC

Performance review by John Pietaro

Puma Perl & Friends 

The spirit of downtown past was on raucous display at Bowery Electric on June 21, once again under the guiding hand of Puma Perl, denizen of this hallowed corner at Joey Ramone Place. While the Bowery of old has fallen under the thicket of high-priced restaurants and luxury buildings commanding the once infamous strip, real New York, equal parts LES community and outsider arts ingenuity, has survived the maelstrom. At least in quarters such as this, yards from the sad carcass of CBGB and the phantom hindsight of Max’s, Club 82, Mercer Arts, the Mudd Club, the Tin Palace. Could Joey have ever envisioned that his name would hover East 2^nd Street? For most of us in the house, there’s no rest until street sign dedications proclaim a Punk Place, Richard Hell Way, Patti Smith Street, Lydia Lunch Lane and Basquiat Avenue, for a start.

Puma Perl is most identified with punk verse, but rather than an artform grown in the midst of the melee, hers predates the turning new wave, growing along with venues like the Nuyorican Poets Café. Perl’s quarterly events at the Bowery Electric, the Pandemoniums, debuted in 2012. It’s easiest to think of these very hip showcase/parties as Village arts salons strained though rocking energy, dry humor and artful rebellion--a “Die Yuppie Scum”, if you will, for the Trump years. This latest Pandemonium featured poetry of not only the post-punk sort, but neo-Brecht, neo-Beat and with bits of slam alternating driving, moving and alluring music. 

Rick Eckerle & co

The show opened with a dedication to the late Dr. John by singer-guitarist Rick Eckerle in a quartet that kicked out roots and bar-room songs, setting the mood in a most timeless way. 
He was followed by the emotive performance poets Annie Petrie (best line: “Mercury, go fuck yourself”) and San Franciscan KR Morrison who offered fine radical feminist pieces that are utterly necessary in this age of the Gorsuch court. Petrie, who later said she was in the mud at the original Woodstock, wore sunglasses and latter-day rainbows, but it was Morrison, of a considerably later generation, who embraced the retro-hippie vision with long straight hair and flowy outfit. For the hardcore folks in attendance, her militance was assured by way of shaved temples contrasting the Baez-do, but both poets reminded the house of the need to maintain outrage in times such as these.

Cait O’Riordan, former Pogues bassist, next performed a lilting acoustic guitar/vocal duet with Kath Green and then stand-up comic Susan Jeremy tore up the night with a timely set of LGBTQ+ hysterics. Bringing the edgy rock back into focus, NY Junk members Joe Sztabnik and Jeff Ward punched out the raunch before the evening’s host took the stage with Puma Perl & Friends. This ensemble magically blended provocative inner city spoken word, including moving reminiscence of Coney Island, with the best in fire music strained through thoughtful, tuneful arrangements. The front line of Perl, tenor saxophonist Danny Ray (seriously blue bar-walker, even if stationary throughout), screaming, shimmering, celebrated electric violinst Walter Steding (a Warhol protégé) mixed it up most artfully with guitarist Joff Wilson and it was all contained by Sztabnik’s bass and Dave Donen’s drums. This band is not to be missed.

Steve Dalachinsky

Jane LeCroy & Tom Abbs

Avant jazz poetry wizard Steve Dalachinsky, recently back from his latest Parisian tour, came up just after and wondered aloud how he might compete with Puma & Friends. However, did so with a sizzling set of poetry that calls into question the very nature of verbiage and shreds the poetic form with the panache of a spoken word Albert Ayler (and though he didn’t hawk it from the stage, Steve has a brilliant new book, Where Day and Night Become One, highly recommended). After the audience applause faded, another excellent performance poet, Jane LeCroy, and noted cellist Tom Abbs (though on guitar here) laid out a very special latent Brechtian array of compelling works. This pair, along with other musicians, often perform as the Icebergs, the implied coldness of which was far from evident, what with the heat emanating onstage.

Soul Cake

The evening closed with a stirring, rocking performance by power pop-rock trio Soul Cake with the aforementioned Joff Wilson, here as lead vocalist as well as lead guitarist, Laura Satvia on flute and Sarafe on bass, with Dave Donen on drums. They had me right from the quick sound-check (it’s rare to hear “PS, I Love You”, the flipside of the Beatles first single in clubs). Throughout, Wilson’s McCartney-inspired vocals (though one also hears the Trogg’s Reg Presley in there and possibly all of the Knickerbockers) soared and the band’s unique take on “Pipeline” and particularly “Eleanor Rigby”—with modified lyrics speaking to the tragedies of NYC’s homeless—had Bowery Electric simply shaking. And Wilson’s resemblance to Johnny Thunders couldn’t hurt either. A perfect ending to the kind of evening many had hopelessly assumed were relegated to the past. 

article: Lest We Forget ED BLACKWELL

NYC Jazz Record, June 2019 issue

Lest We Forget ED BLACKWELL

By John Pietaro

With his 1960 recording This is our Music, Ornette Coleman introduced his revolutionary quartet’s latest addition. In the liner notes he wrote of Ed Blackwell: “This man can play rhythm so close to the tempered notes that one seems to hear them take each other’s places”. Not only did this landmark album demonstrate uncanny advancement in free jazz, it was the first recorded evidence of the drumset’s near total liberation. Blackwell’s path out, however, was not through the rejection of his instrument’s heritage, but its embrace.

Born in New Orleans, 1929, Edward Joseph Blackwell had ample access to tradition even as the music developed in new directions. During high school, he became a marching band staple, playing snare or tenor drum. In a 1981 Modern Drummer interview, Blackwell spoke of the pioneering drummer Paul Barbarin, a local hero who’d propelled the music’s development with Freddie Keppard, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong and Jimmie Noone. Blackwell cited Barbarin’s influence: “He used to…talk to me a lot about the drums and drum rolls; how he played and how he learned to play”.

Such defined focus rudiments offered the drummer that second line foundation unique to the Crescent City. The roots are easily evidenced by the drag and ratamacue flourishes he’d later spread to the entire kit. Ironically, Blackwell only began playing drumset in 1949, learning on the job. Studying with a local drummer (but simultaneously an ardent disciple of Max Roach), he adapted quickly and purchased his initial drumset from the all-female big band, the Sweethearts of Rhythm, after their break-up. Blackwell, along with Ellis Marsalis, joined clarinetist Alvin Batisste’s band, then in 1951 relocated to California, fatefully meeting Coleman. The pair established a musical partnership, shedding light on the sounds to come, but shunned by LA’s post-bop scene, Blackwell returned to New Orleans. Ornette moved to New York, bringing the youthful Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins along with the infamy of brutish naysayers.

Higgins’ departure in 1960 saw Blackwell’s noted return, resulting in the recordings This is Our Music and Free Jazz which affirmed Coleman’s legend. The quartet, sans leader, famously collaborated with John Coltrane for the Avant Garde, and reunited, released Ornette (1961), further expanding the free concept. From the opening track “W.R.U.”, Blackwell’s melodic vision was cast, and he carried that to the Five Spot for the historic sessions with the Eric Dolphy-Booker Little band. The drummer, by the mid-1960s, left Coleman but returned to the fold for Friends and Neighbors, Broken Shadows and Science Fiction, as well as a track with a Coleman quintet on Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band. Into the 1970s, his work with Karl Berger (their duos are especially poignant) at the Creative Music Studio, and then with Dewey Redman, Cherry and Haden in the band Old and New Dreams solidified him as an invaluable Harmolodic force.

Blackwell also spent a year in Africa studying and by 1976 began a long period teaching at Wesleyan University. Highly active throughout the 1970s and ‘80s though afflicted with kidney disease, Blackwell worked often with Cherry as well as Archie Shepp, Anthony Braxton, Joanne Brackeen, David Murray, Steve Coleman and many more. He died in 1992. Recalling Blackwell, Ornette Coleman later stated that he played drums like a wind instrument, offering a direct line of communication to musicians and listeners alike.

------------------------

Reference:

https://www.moderndrummer.com/article/november-1981-ed-blackwelll-singin-set/

film review: We Are One: Blood Drum Spirit

NYC Jazz Record – June 2019 issue

We Are One: Blood Drum Spirit (2019)

Director: Sarah Pettinella. Producer: Royal Hartigan

Starring: Royal Hartigan, David Bindman, Art Hirahara, Wes Brown

 Directed by Sarah Pettinella, produced by Royal Hartigan, music by Blood Drum Spirit

Film review by John Pietaro

Royal Hartigan is a most vocal proponent of world music traditions. A professor in Ethnomusicology at Dartmouth as well as a lifelong student of culture, Hartigan is a singular force. The drummer-percussionist’s history extends to post-graduate study at Weselyan where he focused on African, Native American and Indian drumming and engaged in field research. Earlier, at Amherst, Hartigan concentrated on African American music with close tutelage under Ed Blackwell and coursework with Max Roach and Archie Shepp. The amalgam was a uniquely expansive view of jazz and improvisation. Hartigan performed and recorded with the late saxophonist/activist Fred Ho for decades, embarking on a career as steeped in international heritage as it is in building community. His own vehicle, Blood Drum Spirit, is a quartet enmeshed in this mission. The four musicians are featured in this powerful new documentary produced by Hartigan and directed by internationally acclaimed filmmaker and photographer Sarah Pettinella.

Saxophonist David Bindman is another Weselyan alumnus fusing world traditions with new music. A standard bearer of Downtown experimentation, he’s performed around the world and founded the Brooklyn Saxophone Quartet with Fred Ho. Pianist Art Hirahara has a career ranging from accompanist for vocalists to jazz composer and bandleader. He tours frequently in Japan and, like the others, Hiarhara was also a Fred Ho band member; his discography includes Ho’s Cal Massey tribute. Bassist Wes Brown first came to prominence in the ensembles of Wadada Leo Smith, with whom he continues to work, but his resume extends to Anthony Braxton, Earl Fatha Hines and, yes, Fred Ho. If there is a central fixture here, it’s not just Ho, but the baritone saxophonist’s commitment to social justice via Asian and African culture and the voices of the oppressed. Change realized through creativity.

Hartigan states in We Are One that upon first hearing African music, he recognized its relationship to jazz. “It brought me to a place that transcends everyday life” and as soon as he had the opportunity to do so, brought the band to Ghana. “You have to be in the culture with the people”, he explained.

True to form, the film documents much more than mere performances, but engagement and sharing. The quartet traveled to multiple African villages, first meeting with the elders of each and sharing in food, dance and traditional music before they brought out a drumset, electric keyboard, electric bass and a saxophone. Pettinella caught beautiful moments of Blood Drum Spirit creating music with village master musicians and average citizens alike. Expressions of joy on the faces of villagers was matched by those of the quartet who demonstrated deep respect for their hosts and sites like the W.E.B. DuBois Cultural Center. Scenes of the quartet jamming with locals and traveling throughout Ghana were interspersed with profiles of each of the four including clips of them at home and a wonderful segment of Hartigan tap dancing. There were also bits of interviews with global artists such as dancer Joann Thompson and master musician, dancer and international speaker Kwabene Boateng. The latter’s comment summed up the film’s core in two brief sentences: “Music can change the world. And I think it’s already done it”.

performance review: Ronnie Burrage: Tribute to Hamiet Bluiett

RONNIE BURRAGE: TRIBUTE TO HAMIET BLUIETT

May 25, 2019, Sista’s Place, Brooklyn NY

Ronnie Burrage-drums, percussion, poetry, electronic keyboard, voice;  Kelvyn Bell-electric guitar, voice;  Donald Smith-piano, synthesizer;  Darrell Mixon-upright bass;  Kendrick Smith- straight alto saxophone, soprano saxophone

Performance review by John Pietaro

By the time Ahmed Abdullah greeted the capacity crowd at Sista’s Place, it sizzled in anticipation of this personal tribute to Hamiet Bluiett. Abdullah, who’d held Sun Ra’s trumpet chair for decades, serves as Sista’s music director and reminded the house that the late baritone saxophonist was a frequent performer at the Bedford-Stuyvesant night spot. This favorite son of St. Louis made an impact far beyond state-lines and generations, casting an art enraptured in African American culture and pride.

The concert was driven by drummer Ronnie Burrage, but a child when he first encountered Bluiett via the Black Artists Group (BAG). The saxophonist was a founding member of the legendary cultural activist organization and Burrage had come of age within its programming. By design, the band held strong connections to both leader and honoree: guitarist Kelvyn Bell followed Burrage to New York, circa 1978, and they worked together for Bluiett, Arthur Blythe and others. Pianist/synthesizer player Donald Smith is a veteran of various Oliver Lake ensembles, and bassist Darrell Mixon, another old friend, traveled from St. Louis for this event. He arrived in town with 28-year-old saxophonist Kendrick Smith, one of Bluiett’s final students, a formidable talent brandishing a sound rising from his feet through the length of his straight alto saxophone. Smith wields the horn’s lows masterfully, casting melodic flights as singular as his choice of instrument. His solos, cry-singing blue over fiery scarlet, inspired resounding applause that shook the room (especially on Bluiett’s moving “Deb”), but such responses were not limited to any one member of the band. 

Left to right: Donald Smith, Ronnie Burrage (obscured),
Kendrick Smith, Darrell Mixon, Kelvyn Bell. Photo by Pietaro

Bell’s stinging, rapid, sustained improvisations, classic by this time, were matched by a vocal with distinctive hand-manipulated vibrato. Donald Smith’s piano, thunderous, impressionistic and compelling, drew hollers, particularly on the band’s riveting take on “Oasis”, also an explosive Burrage feature. The drummer’s tireless montuno improv peppered by crushing accents threatened, it seemed, the very foundation of the club. But it was the woefully little-documented Mixon, he of high-end pizzicato runs and chop-heavy expansive techniques, that inspired riotous responses and calls for “More!”. Judging by the crowd throughout the set as well as the elation on stage, the spirit of Bluiett overwhelmed both the space and celestial ground well above.

CD review: GREEN DOME, Thinking in Stitches

NYC Jazz Record – May 2019

GREEN DOME, Thinking in Stitches (Case Study, 2019)

CD review by John Pietaro

Zeena Parkins- acoustic harp, concept, direction

Ryan Sawyer- trap and percussion

Ryan Ross Smith- prepared piano, electronics, modular synthesizer, live coding

1.          

If there’s a hidden soundscape between acoustic and electronic, live and tape or free and freer, Green Dome commands it. Rich in reverb, swathed in darkest colors, subtly haunting and almost hinting at a reconstructed score of ‘A Clockwork Orange’, harpist Zeena Parkins returns to the forefront with one of her boldest units. And that’s a wide swath for Downtown royalty like Parkins. One-time Rhys Chatham drummer Ryan Sawyer revels in artful subtlety and this line-up allows him welcoming atmosphere. His deft touch and masterful drive place him somewhere between Roy Haynes and Elvin Jones in the continuum, a floating, pelting, balladeer of percussion. Brake drums and metals accentuate his kit, or is that the modular synth, electronics and live coding of Ryan Ross Smith? Probably both. Smith is a composer and sound designer, so his approach here is focused and deeply alert to the macro experience. His prepared piano is an ideal counterpart to Parkins’ harp, whether colorfully trading phrases (as in “Hexagon’s Frame”) or blending sonorities (“Cyprus Lace”). And with Smith’s array of other-worldly echoes, Parkins is liberated from the arsenal of electronics she usually affixes to her harps. For this outing, she goes purely acoustic, and the natural chiming, singing resonance of the instrument is compelling. But listen as well to the industrial-sounding escalation of “Margaret Lace”, with Sawyer’s cymbal shading almost bending pitch, his growing attack downright merciless. 

Such a trio with varying palette and erudite arrangements, has more in common with a chamber ensemble than might normally be heard in a jazz context. But Thinking in Stitches’ set of experimental, improvisational works based on lace knitting patterns, are more fire music than 12-tone, particularly with Sawyer rounding the edges in flurries and coordinated assaults. But the rhythmic pulsations are communal as Parkins leans into her instrument intently on “Chevrons”, pulling at the strings and conjuring minimalism of a whole other sort. Here’s a sound journey into windblown fragments, art deco pathways and magical vistas.

Essay: First Annual UpSurge!NYC JazzPoetry Festival

The UpSurge!NYC JazzPoetry Festival Takes Midtown

by John Pietaro

Photos by Sherry Rubel

The tendency of poets to break out of the page’s boundary is often seen as a post-War phenomenon, yet poetry was oral long before written language emerged; this lineage extends back to the oldest of folk forms.

Upsurge!NYC

And within the African American jazz tradition, itself begotten from a brutal melding of divergent cultures, a certain boundlessness was cast, easily lending itself to the contours of spoken word art. The music’s central swing and bop allows the poet to emote and embellish with shifts in meter, stress, dynamic, repetition and, surely through improvisation. And it was that very boundlessness which was feted at on April 27, 2019 at the First Annual UpSurge!NYC JazzPoetry Festival.

Held, most appropriately, in the conference space of the National Writers Union’s midtown Manhattan office, the Festival opened with words by Raymond Nat Turner and Zigi Lowenberg, organizers of the event and the leaders of UpSurge!NYC. Even here where jazz clubs are plentiful, its rare to find an afternoon dedicated to JazzPoetry, though the practice of formally fusing the two has existed at least as far back as Langston Hughes’ earliest publication. Raymond closed off his introductory statement with the performance of a poem liberally incorporating a vocalized bassline and scat singing that absolutely lifted the room.

David Henderson

The performers offered a wide range of sounds and styles, but each had significant connections to the jazz tradition. David Henderson, a veritable hero of the artform, read from some of his many published works, particularly, De Mayor of Harlem. Henderson’s career extends back to the late ‘60s and he’s performed and/or recorded with the like of Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra. An original cultural warrior of the Black Arts Movement, the poet’s sense of history is invaluable and vast. Henderson’s recollections of some of the great musicians performing in the clubs added rich background to the poetry, and it left the audience with vivid imagery of magical moments in Slugs, the 5-Spot and the Village Gate, among other venues lost to time.

Ngoma

Another survivor of the Black Arts Movement is poet/multi-instrumentalist Ngoma. A one-time collaborator of Amiri Baraka, he presented a lengthy set of powerful works propelled by his performance on guitars, wood flute, violin and percussion. Uniquely, Ngoma supplemented his soundscape with a phalanx of pedals to capture loops of his own instrumental playing, the end result of which added layers of accompaniment.

Stephanie JT Lewis

Stephanie JT Russell, 
a poet living in Poughkeepsie NY, performed original pieces which made great use of her own jazz and torch-song vocals, though Stephanie ironically opened by telling the audience that she was far out of practice. She interspersed original compositions into spoken sections of a compelling suite performed with equal portions humor and urgency.

UpSurge!NYC

Turner and Lowenberg’s band UpSurge!NYC exemplifies the artform in a manner that blurs the distinction between the spoken word and the music. At the Festival, the band included drummer Lou Grassi and bassist Hilliard Green, celebrated veterans of the music, and a young lion of the saxophone who’s been getting a lot of attention, Lee Odom.  Burning through a series of compelling arrangements incorporating both original and standard melodies and solo segments for each musician, the poets filled the house with pride, irony, history and fearless fight-back and transformed the room into a working-class battle zone, a series of newspaper editorials and a cabaret for the end of time.

Flames of Discontent

Flames of Discontent

It’s not often that I can both perform in an event and write about it, but this was far from the standard gig. My duo, Flames of Discontent, featuring the electric bass of Laurie Towers and my own poetry and percussion, offered a set of new pieces directly inspired by jazz: “Blue”, “the Lonely”, “Burroughs Inferno”, “Impressions” and “Langston”, among others, as well as some social justice works. Reading and playing in this atmosphere was quite electric.

Festival poster, designed by Pietaro

So, how is it possible that there hasn’t been a showcase for JazzPoetry in New York prior to this? For every reason, this inaugural event must be assured an ongoing lifespan. The artform is too important to be neglected, especially right now when outspoken artists are as vital to our democracy as is the vote.

feature story: James Brandon Lewis

NYC Jazz Record – April 2018

James Brandon Lewis

By John Pietaro

Catching James Brandon Lewis between tours and local dates is a challenge. Playing Europe with Thomas Sayers Ellis and their jazz/poetry ensemble Heroes Are Gang Leaders, as well as Chad Taylor, he returned stateside to perform with Craig Harris and visual artist Carrie Mae Weems. But the saxophonist is also hitting stages with his quintet, debuting material from the critically-acclaimed Unruly Manifesto. “I’ve been fortunate to have played with a lot of elders and many others in this thing we call free jazz”, he stated pensively. “You must have humility in music. Some of the greats are among the most humble people I’ve known. I respect their journeys, their lives and commitment and am lucky enough to be embraced in return”.

Lewis, at 35, remains sufficiently spry to maintain the “young lion” status attributed him by those elders, yet he’s increasingly viewed as a galvanizing force. His career highlights have been substantial enough for most working artists, but with each passing year there comes an expanse of Lewis’ presence as a saxophonist, composer, activist and conceptualist. To many, he stands among the torch-bearers in a long line of tenor giants.

Hailing from Buffalo, NY, James Brandon Lewis has lived, worked and studied on three coasts, performing globally, though as he put it, his career only truly began in 2012 with relocation to New York City. It’s been a fortuitous and well-earned ride. “My Mom saw my love for music when I was very young”, Lewis said. “At age 9 I began playing clarinet as a student at the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts”. Lewis thrived in his studies, and encouragement came both academically and at home. “I went to concerts each weekend with my Mom, classical and jazz. And my uncle gave me subscriptions to Downbeat and Jazz Times which I read every month. My bedroom was like a jazz museum, filled with posters, CDs and books”.

By age 12 Lewis had moved onto alto saxophone. “I had been listening to Charlie Parker so taking on the alto was very intimidating! Charlie Parker All-Stars recordings were my major influence” and the initial model for the budding musician. However, when the school band fell short of one tenor saxophonist, Lewis was called on to take the chair. “And then I started listening to Coltrane”, he added, laughing.

Upon graduation from the Academy, Lewis was accepted at Berklee, but resources were short and he was forced to study locally. “I was not getting the nourishment of musicians that were better than me. I’d come from a gifted and talented school, so knew I needed a kick to move to the next step”. Pianist Brandon Felder was then studying at Howard University and referred Lewis to that celebrated school. “My father had attended a historic Black college, but I wasn’t thinking about that at the time. Yet when Brandon spoke about the amazing legacy of Howard and its jazz program, I rushed home to get my audition tape”, he explained. The program was based in creativity and discipline. “Howard was very conservatory-like, but very cool. Grady Tate was on faculty and Donald Byrd and many other legends would come on campus. I traveled abroad for the first time with the Howard Jazz Orchestra. And we also played behind KD Lang and Vanessa Williams at the Kennedy Center Honors.”

Graduating in 2006, Lewis spent the next 2 ½ years in Colorado with his father, a minister. Always philosophic, this immersion brought the saxophonist into a deeper spirituality. “I was playing gospel and hymns full time in churches and also playing jazz in clubs.” The roots of the music became steadily present in Lewis’ horn and perception. However, in 2008, he became a graduate student at the California Institute of the Arts where everything changed. “At Cal Arts I was off to the races”, he said. “Charlie Haden and Wadada Leo Smith were teaching there. James Newton. Alphonso Johnson. John Lindberg was there too. I learned about Charles Ives and Harry Partch, the intricacies of the AACM, the California scene and this amazing school’s history. A whole other continuum that I never knew was possible. It was off the chain!” The experience led to Lewis’ first album as a leader, the independent Moments. Following 2010 graduation, he was drawn to Florida’s Atlanta Center for the Arts, where Matthew Shipp was artist-in-residence. “It was a beautiful experience. I studied with him for a condensed three weeks. Matt was the first to ask me to play with just bass and drums and I recognized how free music can be.” Shipp encouraged Lewis to move to New York, suggesting he record with William Parker and Gerald Cleaver. “I laughed because they didn’t know who I was. But he reached out to them.” Divine Travels was recorded in 2011 during a single 6-hour session but sat idle for over two years.

After relocating, Lewis encountered downtown dignitaries Darius Jones, Marc Ribot, Craig Harris, Will Connell and the Arts for Art community. “Roy Campbell first took me to the Vanguard”. By 2014 the newly revived OKeh label released Divine Travels “after it was turned down by everyone.” And he hasn’t looked back. Collaborations with Hamiett Bluiett, Jimmy Heath, Anthony Coleman, Joe Lovano, Ken Filiano, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Hamid Drake, Aruan Ortiz, Ribot, Harris, Parker, Harriet Tubman and his own ensembles offer something of Lewis’ musical foray. It culminates with Unruly Manifesto, an album dedicated to Ornette Coleman, Charlie Haden and concepts of surrealism. “Someone recently told me the album is relentless, but a manifesto is a charge, a declaration. And I also like coded statements, like the African American quilting tradition.” The recording is a compelling, masterful spectrum of sound and emotion with trumpeter Jamie Branch, guitarist Anthony Pirog, bassist Luke Stewart and drummer Warren Crudup III, the strongest band the saxophonist has thus far fronted.

“I’ve been in this city for 7 years and pride myself on how to enter a room. I relocated not to discover myself but to be nourished by the community. My greatest tool has been saying thank you”

CD review: Mike Baggetta, "Wall of Flowers"

NYC Jazz Record – March 2019

Wall of Flowers, Mike Baggetta/Mike Watt/Jim Keltner (Big Ego Records, 2019)

CD review by John Pietaro

When was the last time artfully improvisational music laced with irony and post-punk bite felt so good? Maybe 1988, possibly never. Guitarist Mike Baggetta has a uniquely stark sound, one that revels in surf and spy as much as Trane and Dolphy, the avant garde as meaningfully as lamentations. For Wall of Flowers he calls on Mike Watt, best known for iconic ‘80s band the Minutemen, but whose stalking, primal basslines have also propelled Firehose, Sonic Youth, Dos, proto-punk quartet the Stooges and celebrated guitarist Nels Cline. And in a choice that demonstrates Baggetta’s more “straight” side, legendary session musician Jim Keltner completes the trio. The drummer’s performances on stage or record extend from John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen, Delaney & Bonnie, George Harrison and Harry Nilsson to Carly Simon, Barbra Streisand, bassist Jack Bruce, guitar heroes Richard Thompson and Neil Young and a wealth of others. This inside/outside boundary constructs a fantasy foray into generations of sounds.

“Hospital Song” opens, following an atmospheric intro, and quickly establishes the tenor of the collection. Compelling instrumental rock raises the specter of the early ‘60s and its edgy resurgence a generation later, and Baggetta’s overdubbed guitar lines are an immediate, delicious draw. This flailing nostalgia begat two versions of “Blue Velvet”, the genteel 1950s standard made famous by Bobby Vinton. Its delightfully unsettling presence here, particularly in the duet version with Keltner, recalls the corruption of innocence central to David Lynch’s film. But Wall of Flowers is about much more than memories, cherished and/or distorted. Baggetta sings and moans on his ax, pulling out pensive, torn phrases enlivened by repetitions, dark arpeggios and a twang bar thicket. It becomes clear why Nels Cline dubbed Baggetta a “guitar poet”.

Album highlights include “Dirty Smell of Dying”, a free music rave-up that brings out the best in all three musicians. Here, Keltner draws on the jazz chops that makes his rock drumming so masterful, a perfect antagonist for the leader’s pained, searching improvisation. However, it is the title cut that illuminates the magic of Baggetta’s emotive, driving, long tones, Watt’s mean, metallic pulsations and Keltner’s shimmering, throbbing commentary. In a field of numerous celebrated contenders, this Mike Baggetta ensemble is already the guitar trio of the year.  

Credits: Mike Baggetta: guitars, Mike Watt: bass, Jim Keltner: drums

“Hospital Song” (intro)/ “Hospital Song”/”Blue Velvet” (solo)/”I am Not a Data Point”/”Of Breads and Rivers”/”Dirty Smell of Dying”/”Blue Velvet” (duo)/”Wall of Flowers”

Poetry Publication Announcement

Hiking the shadowy forest of poetry publication, sans compass and canteen, it was refreshing to happen upon the good people of Transcendent Zero Press. Three of my newest pieces, including two from the growing set of jazz-poetry, will be published in the next edition of their journal, "Harbinger Asylum". Most satisfying. I couldn't resist turning the congratulatory email into some keepsake art. After many years of largely focusing on prose, the inner poet has been drawn out and brought to the surface in later middle-age.  Many thanks to Transcendent Zero for this opportunity!

Record Label Review: TRUTH REVOLUTION

NYC Jazz Record, March 2019

TRUTH REVOLUTION RECORDS

Label review by John Pietaro

“The revolution will be heard!”

Any record label bearing such a slogan must be boldly unique. This paraphrase of Gil-Scott Heron’s immortal prose, however, speaks of a revolution wider, even, than the ramparts and bulwarks. “We run it more as a collective”, states Truth Revolution founder Zaccai Curtis. “This is not a label in the standard sense, in fact we branded it Truth Revolution Recording Collective, a working community of artists.”

An outgrowth of Curtis’ music publishing company through which he produced his first solo efforts, in 2012 the label began releasing albums in partnership with indie-minded jazz and Latin artists. Production has since rapidly increased and Truth Revolution can boast a 2017 Grammy nomination, Entre Colegas by salsa giant Andy Gonzalez. “Andy is a premiere Latin jazz bassist, a founder of the Fort Apache Band who defined this style of music. He was a mentor to my brother Luques and me and let us borrow his entire record collection years back when he was moving. We recorded everything and it served us through years of study! It means a lot to all of us to have him as a part of our label.”

Truth Revolution’s now preparing for a 2019 industry stir. “This month, we’re releasing Ronnie Burrage & the Holographic Principle’s Dance of the Great Spirit.

Ronnie’s an incredible artist with an amazing history. We’re honored that he contacted us due to the brand”, Curtis explained. “We knew immediately that we wanted to work with him”. Burrage stated that he’d known the Curtis family but had little prior knowledge of the label. “I was going to release this through another company, but when that didn’t work out, I spoke to Zaccai. My music is rooted in civil rights and social justice, so when he told me the name—ha!—it was meant to be!”.  Burrage’s ensemble is already celebrating the release locally but will tour extensively in spring and summer.

“It’s been a long journey”, Curtis reiterated. “At first, I financed everything but as partnerships evolved, they became the whole point (of this label and collective).” And with the unique perspective the brothers have in the struggling indie jazz world, there’s been a growing interest among musicians of stature. Along that line, the label also enjoys an important relationship with noted drummer/band leader Ralph Peterson. “Ralph is the only drummer to record alongside Art Blakey!”, Curtis said. “He shadowed Blakey (in the Jazz Messengers Big Band), double drumming. Ralph recorded the Triangular series over recent years, the first of which included Geri Allen. Triangular III is a joint release between Truth Revolution and his own Onyx label.” The Curtis brothers, who have worked with the drummer since the early 2000s, complete this album’s trio. “Truth Revolution acts as an umbrella; even if an artist doesn’t have their own label, we’re in partnership with them”, Curtis affirmed.

“Some albums are fully recorded and produced by Truth Revolution but the vast majority of our releases come to us at least half-way finished. We finalize the albums with the artists and then release and handle distribution.”

As Truth Revolution expanded, it became necessary to grow its staff, particularly as Curtis, a pianist, remains as busy in label matters as in tours with Cindy Blackman-Santana, the Messengers Legacy or his own large ensemble; the recording of his “Algorhythm”, a nine-part chamber work, will be released under his name later this year. The necessary staff expansion brought in brother Luques, bassist with Eddie Palmieri, Pat Methaney and Orrin Evans among others, and father Ted (“a music lover, but not a musician”), as well as label manager Matt Chasen. Like the majority of the label leadership, Matt is a musician—vocalist and saxophonist—as well as a concert producer.

But this Hartford-based label collective can be seen as a realization of the tight music community the city has lauded for decades. Chasen explained: “I’ve known the Curtis family for years and recognize the importance of celebrating the local heritage here. The Jackie McLean Institute was founded back when Jackie taught at Hart College, University of Hartford. It’s still thriving and Zaccai is now a faculty member. The music is eclectic and Latin jazz, heavily advocated by Jackie in his day, is a big part of this.” Chasen, not long ago, took over the reins of Hartford’s noted “Latin Jazz Wednesdays” series. But the heritage runs still deeper. McLean also created the Artists Collective, a space for younger music students to learn the craft (Zaccai and Luques are products of this early immersion). Ted Curtis, the patriarch of the Curtis family, indoctrinated his sons by purchasing a variety of instruments and opening the house basement to jam sessions, attracting a plethora of touring artists. Ted’s eldest, Damien, is today a celebrated hip hop producer.

Inspired by the independent music and arts movements that predated him, Zaccai Curtis looks to the Black Arts Movement and M-Base as well as the artists who forged their own defiant way. The rebellious heart of Truth Revolution is also seen on its website which proudly exposes the corporate greed of major labels. The name is more than just a cool tag. Though the label doesn’t impose politics on its artists, “we need to help others understand how the system works”, Curtis said. And in displaying website quotes by Prince and Gandhi about creating the change you want to see, Curtis and company are inspiring this era’s much-needed radical shift. Artists like Burrage, Gonzalez, Peterson, the Curtis Brothers, trumpet player Rachel Therrien and multi-instrumentalist Josiah Woodson are but a few who’ve been heard in this particular revolution. And with albums such as The Better Angels of Our Nature by saxophonist Brian McCarthy, exploring the roots of jazz in Civil War conflict, and The Big Picture by hip hop artists King Solomon and Talent which “represents the voice of the muted masses in the tradition of the underground-gone-over”, this Curtis uprising, at least sonically, stands as victorious.

CE Review: MIKE BAGGETTA, "Wall of Flowers"

NYC Jazz Record – March 2019

Wall of Flowers, Mike Baggetta/Mike Watt/Jim Keltner (Big Ego Records, 2019)

CD review by John Pietaro

When was the last time artfully improvisational music laced with irony and post-punk bite felt so good? Maybe 1988, possibly never. Guitarist Mike Baggetta has a uniquely stark sound, one that revels in surf and spy as much as Trane and Dolphy, the avant garde as meaningfully as lamentations. For Wall of Flowers he calls on Mike Watt, best known for iconic ‘80s band the Minutemen, but whose stalking, primal basslines have also propelled Firehose, Sonic Youth, Dos, proto-punk quartet the Stooges and celebrated guitarist Nels Cline. And in a choice that demonstrates Baggetta’s more “straight” side, legendary session musician Jim Keltner completes the trio. The drummer’s performances on stage or record extend from John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen, Delaney & Bonnie, George Harrison and Harry Nilsson to Carly Simon, Barbra Streisand, Jack Bruce, guitar heroes Richard Thompson and Neil Young and a wealth of others. This inside/outside boundary constructs a fantasy foray into generations of sounds.

“Hospital Song” opens, following an atmospheric intro, and quickly establishes the tenor of the collection. Compelling instrumental rock raises the specter of the early ‘60s and its edgy resurgence a generation later, and Baggetta’s overdubbed guitar lines are an immediate, delicious draw. This flailing nostalgia begat two versions of “Blue Velvet”, the genteel 1950s standard made famous by Bobby Vinton. Its delightfully unsettling presence here, particularly in the duet version with Keltner, recalls the corruption of innocence central to David Lynch’s film. But Wall of Flowers is about much more than memories, cherished and/or distorted. Baggetta sings and moans on his ax, pulling out pensive, torn phrases enlivened by repetitions, dark arpeggios and a twang bar thicket. It becomes clear why Nels Cline dubbed Baggetta a “guitar poet”.

Album highlights include “Dirty Smell of Dying”, a free music rave-up that brings out the best in all three musicians. Here, Keltner draws on the jazz chops that makes his rock drumming so masterful, a perfect antagonist for the leader’s pained, searching improvisation. However, it is the title cut that illuminates the magic of Baggetta’s emotive, driving, long tones, Watt’s mean, metallic pulsations and Keltner’s shimmering, throbbing commentary. In a field of numerous celebrated contenders, this Mike Baggetta ensemble is already the guitar trio of the year.  

Credits: Mike Baggetta: guitars, Mike Watt: bass, Jim Keltner: drums

“Hospital Song” (intro)/ “Hospital Song”/”Blue Velvet” (solo)/”I am Not a Data Point”/”Of Breads and Rivers”/”Dirty Smell of Dying”/”Blue Velvet” (duo)/”Wall of Flowers”