Free Duke Ellington Tribute Concerts at UCLA

The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Department of Ethnomusicology and The UCLA Friends of Jazz present

Duke Ellington's 110th Birthday Anniversary Festival of Music

April 4 – 5, 2009

Schoenberg Hall, UCLA

SATURDAY, APRIL 4
2-5 pm
UCLA Jazz Student Combos play Ellingtonia, directed by Kenny Burrell, George Bohanon, Clayton Cameron, Charles Owens, Michele Weir, and Charley Harrison.
7 pm
UCLA Philharmonia Orchestra, Neal Stulberg, conductor. Performing specially selected Ellington extended works. Special guest: renowned vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater. Jens Lindemann,t rumpeter and director of a new student brass ensemble, playing Ellington compositions. Ellington’s Music for String Quartet arranged by Paul Chihara. Solo guest artists: pianist Tom Ranier, vocalist Bill Henderson, percussionist Clayton Cameron, and guitarist and Jazz Studies Director, Kenny Burrell.

SUNDAY, APRIL 5
1-2 pm
Ellington's folk opera Queenie Pie (excerpts), (Southern California Premiere), featuring some of UCLA’s finest vocalists and instrumentalists, conducted by Marc Bolin.
2:30-3:30 pm
Ellington's Sacred Music Concert(excerpts). Featuring Dwight Trible and Chester Whitmore, with Kalil Wilson, Lauren Michelle, and Joseph Buchanan, conducted by Charles Owens.
7 pm
UCLA Jazz Orchestra directed by Charley Harrison, UCLA Contemporary Jazz Orchestra directed by Kenny Burrell and James Newton, UCLA Latin Jazz Ensemble directed by Bobby Rodriguez. UCLA Jazz Faculty soloists with Kenny Burrell, Charles Owens, Barbara Morrison, Clayton Cameron, Roberto Miranda, and others. Special guests: Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ernie Andrews, Dwight Trible, Herb Jeffries, Chester Whitmore, and Gerald Wilson.

Open to the public and free of charge

Parking in Lot 2 — $9 (Hilgard and Westholme Avenues)

Information: (310) 206-3033

http://www.ethnomusic.ucla.edu/

http://www.friendsofjazz.ucla.edu/

Herb Jeffries sang with the Ellington band from 1940-1942. He's 95!

Attention! Songwriters Wanted

Second only to the blues, the backbone of the jazz tradition is the popular song. Johnny Mercer (1909-1976) wrote a lot of 'em. You've probably heard of some them. He contributed music and/or lyrics to things like Blues In The Night, Satin Doll, One for My Baby (And One for the Road), Jeepers Creepers, Autumn Leaves, etc. He's credited with over 1500 compositions!

The Johnny Mercer Foundation and the American Music Theatre Project at Northwestern University are encouraging songwriters and writing teams from all music genres to apply for the fourth annual Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project this June in Evanston, IL. The weeklong workshop is no-fee for participants, and will be led by Tony and Grammy award-winning composers.

Last year's program featured emerging songwriters from across the country in the fields of pop, music theatre, hip-hop, folk, Latin and country. To qualify, writers must be between the ages of 18 to 30. (That excludes me!) For writing teams, at least one member must meet this criterion. Through the generosity of The Johnny Mercer Foundation, there is no fee for this workshop for the writers and writing teams selected, and a stipend will be offered to cover a portion of travel and boarding expenses. All 2009 applications must be postmarked by April 13th.

The Day The Music Died, Jazz Edition (Part I)

Last month, there was a lot of media hoopla over the 50th anniversary of “the day the music died.”
Tomorrow on this date in 1959, Lester Young died just a few months short of his 50th birthday. Like the rockers, Pres’ passing was memorialized in song, most notably Goodbye Porkpie Hat by Charles Mingus and Wayne Shorter’s Lester Left Town.
Pres is/was a highly influential voice on the saxophone. Amongst just a few of the many, you could name saxophonists like Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, Art Pepper, Wardell Gray, Stan Getz, Paul Desmond, Paul Quinichette, Al Cohn and Zoot Sims.
A few months before the UCLA Freddie Hubbard concert, I had picked up a used copy of the double LP Complete Savoy Recordings of Lester Young. In the song Crazy Over J-Z, the band uses a riff based on the standard Louise. Since I was playing the album to death at that time, that phrase became the opening of my baritone sax solo.
Even though Paul Gonsalves was primarily influenced by Ben Webster, he was able to dig Pres, too. In his famous 1956 Newport Jazz Festival solo on Diminuendo In Blue and Crescendo In Blue, he starts chorus 13 with a quote from Lester Young’s Up ‘n’ Adam:



Gone, but not forgotten. Where’s that Lester Young postage stamp?

RAHSAAN ON TV - 37 years ago....

From 1968-1973, there was a black themed television show called Soul. In 1972, they featured an hour of Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The link can be found here . While you're there, check out shows featuring Tito Puente and Max Roach, amongst others. (Thanks to the Rahsaan Roland Kirk yahoo group for finding this.)

Louis Bellson 1924-2009

Another great one gone...

Since he was an LA resident, Louis Bellson performed often in the area, usually with his big band. Bellson was a rare type of drummer - he was also an extremely talented composer and arranger.

Despite all his talent, he was, on top of it all, simply a nice guy. When I obtained the autograph reproduced here, he introduced himself to me! "Hi, I'm Louie." He was gracious to all who approached him.

YouTube, of course, has a video of Bellson playing his composition The Hawk Talks with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in the early 50s.

JANUARY 20, 2009

Kind of Blue, Redux

Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is being reissued yet again, this time in a special 50th anniversary edition.

This prompted a friend to ask me what recordings have I bought more than once. Well, let's start with Kind of Blue. My first copy was a used copy from a swapmeet when I was in high school. It wasn't in great shape and I think I paid 50 cents for it. Later a bought a new vinyl copy and then the first CD issue. A couple of years ago, they reissued it with some alternate takes, so I had to get that. Then Columbia came out with the Complete Recordings of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, a five disk set that includes you-know-what.

Then there's Duke Ellington's Far East Suite. I owned the LP and of course had to get it on CD. Then came the "Special Mix"version with alternate takes and lastly (or maybe I should say only lately) came the "First Edition" with even more alternate takes (where were these hiding?). I could go on in this manner about several other recordings in my collection.

Kind of Blue again for me? Thanks, but no thanks.....

Freddie Hubbard 1938-2008

Over the years, I've been privileged to see many greats perform in concert. However, I've only had the honor of actually playing with one of those artists. That would be the great Freddie Hubbard who, sadly, left us earlier this week. I posted my account of that evening early on in my blog here.

Here's an mp3 of one of the songs we played that night, Blues for NKWE. Besides Freddie, the featured players are Frank Silva (tenor sax), Steve Bowie (baritone sax), Alex Iles (trombone) and Washington Rucker (drums).

THE FUTURE......

VOTE TODAY !!!!!!