Jazz Poems

CHARLES PARKER: ALMOST LIKE BEING IN LOVE

These are the shadows of water when water

is thick and no longer transparent

They are everywhere–on the walls

across the ceiling.

It was always this good.

One night you undressed me in your sleep.

Very slowly, you told me later. You said I smelled good.

The sweater i said I’d taken it

out of the drawer where I kept

my winter clothes.

It smelled of pine and a long summer.

No, you said. Not wood.

More like the inside of a saxophone case,

all velvet and sweet regrets.

All blues, I said. Blues

and whatever shadows are made of,

I said, falling on you like slow water.

from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young

More Posts: book,classic,collectible,history,jazz,library,poet

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Andy Sheppard was born on January 20, 1957 in Warminster, Wiltshire, England. In the late Seventies at the age of 19 he emerged as a musician in the Salisbury-based contemporary quartet Sphere, gigging only three weeks after picking up the saxophone. He honed his skills in the wine bars and jazz clubs of the United Kingdom (UK) and Europe in the early 1980s.

He also played with world music groups and with more established improvisers such as Keith Tippett. While still with Sphere, he moved to Paris, France working with French bands Lumière and Urban Sax. The mid-1980s saw Sheppard returning to the UK, playing often on Ki Longfellow-Stanshall and Vivian Stanshall’s Bristol, England-based Old Profanity Showboat. He released his self-titled debut solo album, featuring trumpeter Randy Brecker and bassist/producer Steve Swallow in 1987 and was awarded the Best Newcomer prize at the 1987 British Jazz Awards, followed by the Best Instrumentalist Award in 1988.

Andy would go on to join George Russell’s Living Time Orchestra and tour with Gil Evans. His sophomore solo album, Introductions in the Dark, also received Best Album and Best Instrumentalist at the 1989 British Jazz Awards. He toured the world and became the first to bring a Western jazz group to play in Outer Mongolia.

The Soft on the Inside Band was Sheppard’s first big band in 1990 for an album of the same name. This band turned into In Co-Motion, and after this he signed a deal with Blue Note Records, who issued Rhythm Method in 1993. That band expanded to Big Co-Motion and recorded a live album Delivery Suite at London jazz club Ronnie Scott’s which was released by Blue Note in 1994.

Saxophonist and composer Andy Sheppard, who has had the television movie The Music Practice, based on his music, continues to perform and compose.

More Posts: bandleader,composer,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Nguyên Lê was born Le Thanh Nguyen on January 14, 1959 in Paris, France of Vietnamese ancestry. He began playing drums at the age of 15, then took up guitar & electric bass. After  graduating in Visual Arts he majored in Philosophy, writing a thesis on Exoticism. A self-taught musician, Nguyên started out playing rock, funk, jazz standards, avant-garde jazz, pop, African, Caribbean, and other world music.

Devoting himself to music, in 1983 he created Ultramarine,  a multi-ethnic band whose recording DÉ  has been considered 1989’s Best World Music album. He went on to record several albums and worked  with such musicians  as  Miroslav  Vitous, Trilok Gurtu,  J. F. Jenny Clarke, Dewey Redman, Andy Emler, Jon Christensen, Nana Vasconcelos, Glenn Ferris, Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor and numerous others.

He has played with the O. N. J., the French  National  Jazz Orchestra in which he played with  Johnny  Griffin,  Louis Sclavis, Didier Lockwood, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Randy Brecker, Toots Thielemans, Courtney Pine, Steve Lacy, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gil Evans, Quincy Jones, Randy Brecker, Vince Mendoza, Carla Bley, Per Mathisen, Marc Johnson, Peter Erskine, Trilok Gurtu, Paolo Fresu and Dhafer Youssef and numerous others.

He has released albums as a leader and as a sideman. His 1996 album Tales from Viêt-Nam blends jazz and traditional Vietnamese music. In spring 2011 he released Songs of Freedom, an album with cover versions of pop hits from the 1970s.

Guitarist and composer Nguyên Lê  continues to perform, record and compose.

More Posts: bandleader,guitar,history,instrumental,jazz,music,synthesizer

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Simon H. Fell was born on January 13, 1959 in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, England. He began playing double bass in 1973 and from 1978 to 1981 he read English Literature at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, England. His early group was a free-jazz trio with drummer Paul Hession and saxophonist Alan Wilkinson. They recorded and released their music on his label Bruce’s Fingers.

During this period Fell was significantly connected with The Termite Club in Leeds. He was a member of the free jazz trio Badland, the improvising string and percussion ensemble ZFP with Carlos Zingaro, Marcio Mattos and Mark Sanders, and SFQ, a quartet/quintet with clarinettist Alex Ward and a changing membership. He also performed in many other ensembles, including the London Improvisers Orchestra and Derek Bailey’s Company Week.

Simon wrote a major sequence of four new large-scale compositions titled Compilation. Free improvisation, rock and jazz all form key parts of the musical language. Noise guitarist Stefan Jaworzyn, Evan Parker and John Butcher were essential musicians to the projects, but he often deliberately made use of amateur or student musicians.

Bassist and composer Simon Fell, who is primarily known for his work as a free improviser and the composer of post-serialist compositions, died on June 28, 2020

More Posts: bandleader,bass,history,instrumental,jazz,music

Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Pamela Wise was born on January 8, 1956 in Steubenville, Ohio. She began composing and playing piano by ear at age five and started lessosn at nine. After studying the basics she began playing for her church choir, directed by her bassist father. While in high school she formed Ohio Movement, a r&b group performing throughout the Midwest and East Coast. Eight years later she left the band and moved to Cleveland, Ohio with her brother and entered Cuyahoga Community College to further study music.

A move to Detroit, Michigan with her brother led her to play with several r&b groups in the Detroit area, meeting her future husband Wendell Harrison and eventually composing and performing for Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Leon Thomas and Eddie Harris. In 1989 she formed a group that enlisted James Carter, Dwight Adams, Jaribu Shahid, Ali Muhammad and Andrew Daniels.

Pamela has collaborated with Regina Carter, Akua Dixon Turre, and with Jerry Gonzalez produced her cd Songo Festividad. She went on to release A New Message From The Tribe, Kindred Spirits, Negre Con Leche, and Pamela’s Club projects.

Composer, pianist and music director Pamela Wise continues to perform, record, collaborate and educate.

More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music