Jazz and improvised music simplified

 

Jim Rea

Jim Rea is known mainly for bluegrass and other forms of roots music. He's not foremost a jazz musician, but he functioned as one on Friday night at Patton Alley Pub.

At "Jimmy Rea’s Springfield Real Book Release Party," he debuted the second edition of his compilation of tunes written by local musicians. He assembled a core band to play some of the 42 songs in the book, and many other musicians sat in. 

It was wonderful to see how readily the musicians responded to the book.

Rea's most important role for the evening was emcee/coordinator. However, by the end of the night, the musicians took over the event with an hourlong blast to the finish of groove-based jams. With this set-up and follow-through, the evening wildly exceeded expectations.

It was amazing to see dancers crowding the tight area in front of the stage, responding to top-shelf jazz tenor players Brandon Mezzelo and Grant Maledy as they roared away.

In hindsight, the evening was a simple idea, and it worked beautifully. Cheers to Jim Rea for having a vision and taking a chance.

Ozarks wines pair with elite pork fare

Lots of empties — a good sign

Missouri Pork Producers' annual Taste of Elegance last night, in which top chefs knock themselves out creating extreme pork dishes while Ozarks Food Harvest extends appreciation for its volunteers and donors, also featured wines from southwest Missouri.

Folks from OOVVDA and Whispering Oaks poured their wine, as well as wines from Lindwedel. Great pairings:

Whispering Oaks semi-sweet Vidal (fruit and moderate tang) with seared rack of pork, duo of sweet and Peruvian pomme purée, root beer fig demi, lardoon braised Brussels sprouts and bacon fat foam — Chef samuel Cousins, Fire and Ice

Lindwedel Norton (smooth with understated spice) with Big Easy Creole spiced pork chops with Andouille sausage bread pudding, crispy kale and Merlot and dried cherry reduction — Chef Christopher Freeman, Keeter Center at College of the Ozarks

OOVVDA Chambourcin (giant berry flavor) with Polish pork rouladen with rotkol and potato latkes with bacon — Chef Cory Jefferson, Cook's Kettle

Of course, toward the end of a sampling of 10 dishes, almost any wine pairs really well …

Jeff Coffin rescues jazz from egghead doom ...

… at least for me

Jeff Coffin

As always on a Saturday, a lot of music was going on in Springfield, but it was an especially good evening for jazz.

Jeff Coffin joined Missouri State University jazz bands for a free concert after a daylong festival of high school and middle school bands. Coffin adapted his tune, "Dewey," dedicated to Dewey Redman, for big band. It was one of the most uplifting pieces of music I have ever heard, while steering clear of treacle — and also one of the more challenging to listen to.

In a recent post, I lamented the advance of egghead jazz that leaves me cold, and, in another post, I looked forward to Coffin's appearance. His arrival was perfectly timed to relieve my funk.
After the concert with Coffin, we moved on the Creekside Bistro, where Brandon Mezzelo and his Triptet played "All Blues" in a manner that managed to encompass nearly all of Miles Davis's career. We left near the end and heard a hard-swinging tune bursting through the walls into the cold night as we walked to the car.  Over the years, I have enjoyed leaving a club a bit before the very end to experience the music still ringing out — it hadn't ended, it was still going on. And so, it happened again.

At right, Mezzelo from

a performance last fall.

Jeff Coffin: Serious fun

Following my recent post about losing interest in new jazz, I found a remedy: Jeff Coffin and the Mu'tet. I downloaded his recent album, "Into the Air," to prepare for an interview with him for a story about his appearance in Springfield on Feb. 23.

Throughout his career, Coffin has played in groove-based bands that celebrate monstrous solos and occasional odd meters. The album covers a wide spectrum — mostly funk, some blues, a pinch of hard-swinging mainstream — and the band is really flexible with all of this material. Best of all, there's a lot of strong playing over the grooves.


Plus a couple of slow, oozing tunes — and one with Lionel Loueke.
 
This approach reminds me a little of what Lester Bowie of the Art Ensemble of Chicago called "serious fun." Back in the early 90's, his Brass Fantasy was playing covers of Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Sade that were really intricate but also entertaining.

So, there's hope.

J.M. Buttermilk's Hot Buttered Soul and R&B Revue

Ran Cummings (left); Jonathan Keene

A stripped-down J.M Buttermilk unit played at the High Life on Friday, Feb. 8. Front man Ran Cummings said he’s often asked how he keeps up his manic intensity on stage.

“I can’t think of anything else that I would do,” he said. “It’s what I would be doing anyway if I were in front of the stage, enjoying the show.”

Richie Rebuth (left), Cummings (front), Keeney and Jacob "Toad" Wyrick (background)

From left: Jeffrey Faucett, Casey Hudlow, Cummings

Cummings with [sorry, I need help with this name]

C.H. McCoy

Cummings

I'm modern, but I'm also a moldy fig

All jazz is modern, Wynton Marsalis says. That's true in the sense that everyone paying jazz now is working in this moment, which must be modern.

In contrast, it's also true that jazz that was once modern is now old — unless it's resuscitated by musicians playing it now, in the moment, which must be modern.

But how should we respond to stuff that would have been tired even when it was modern, but is now being played now? For example, this recent performance by the Nasheet Waits group with Vijay Iyer.

Sad to say, there's nothing happening here (even though Waits is a great drummer). Well, at least there's a pulse for a while after 2:30, and some intermittent runs and clusters from Iyer around 4:00-5:00. I listened to part 1 of this piece, which I found a little more engaging, but still dull. Four decades ago, the free jazz I heard had lots of muscle and sonic extremes. As a high school kid with a new driver's license, I drove with my friends to downtown Chicago and heard Ornette Coleman with Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell. I also had albums by Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Lots of screeching and blatting and general commotion, plus periods of abstraction kind of like these videos — but never boring. Fun while it lasted, but I moved out of that phase, like many others.

The Art Ensemble from the 1970s sounds more modern than this stuff that was performed a few weeks ago.

All of this adds up to the grim fact that after nearly half a century of listening to jazz and being open to new sounds, I have become a moldy fig. I never thought it was possible. But, having encountered such dreary music that owns a place in the vanguard, I must accept my lot.

However, many musicians are making challenging music WITH A LIVELY PULSE.

Such as Tom Harrell, who has produced nearly one great album every year for the past half-decade. His current work, "Number Five," has him paying in duos and solo formats, really taking risks. There's hope for modernity after all.

Ozark Jubilee lives

Doc Martin provided ID's for this scene from the Ozark Jubilee.
From left: Ced Tennis, (unidentified guitar player), bassist Bob White (obscured),
fiddler Buster Fellows and Doc Martin on steel guitar. News-Leader file photo.

Doc Martin, 91, of Carter Lake, Iowa, near Omaha, called me over the weekend after the publication of my piece about the Western wing band Sugar Thumb, which reaches back to the Ozark Jubilee for inspiration.

Martin said he recognized himself and some of his old friends in a file photo (above) of the Ozark Jubilee that ran with the article. He identified himself and most of the other people in the picture.

Martin, 91, said he performed on the Jubilee until he left the Springfield area in 1960. He said that in 1975, his faith called him away from the music of the Jubilee style, and he has not played it since.

He said he doesn't miss the music, but he clearly felt a connection to the times and the people.

Martin told a story about building a steel guitar. He persuaded one of his friends who owned a steel guitar to dismantle the instrument so Martin could borrow some aluminum components. He took the parts to a foundry in Springfield, which cast copies. Martin used the new parts to build his own instrument, which he said is depicted in the photo.


THIS JUST IN (1/14/13): Bo Brown embedded this video in a Facebook post. It's a performance by Doc Martin playing slide:



It's clear that the Ozark Jubilee continues to resonate in regional music. Those who performed on the show remain interested in its legacy, and much younger players are discovering the music anew.

I'd like to hear from anyone connected with the Jubilee, not necessarily for historical documentation (see the Internet for that), but to learn about the atmosphere and the musicianship. I'm especially interested in learning more about current players who are channeling the music of the Jubilee.