The Quarantined Jazz Voyager

We have not yet recognized when or how we will emerge from this pandemic, but as we collectively continue to navigate our way maintaining social distancing it is the perfect time to put on some headphones, earbuds, or just turn up the volume and listen to some big band. So today, this Quarantined Jazz Voyager is not going to the big band standards of yesteryear, nor is he choosing to feature one of the many led by men but is selecting the perfect album released this year by vocalist Lenora Zenzalai Helm & Tribe Jazz Orchestra. It is titled For The Love Of Big Band.

The album was recorded over a two day period in March 26th ~ 27th in front of a live audience and employed 20 musicians, a dozen music and music business professionals, four generations of renowned veteran musicians, as well as emerging and student musicians. It has been released under the Zenzalai Music label.

1. Blues For Mama (N. Simone) ~ 4:42
2. Bebop (d. Gillespie/D. Brown) ~ 6:22
3. Chega de Saudade/No More Blues (A. Jobim, J. Cavanaugh, V. de Moraes, J. Hendricks) ~ 6:39
4. It Could Happen To You (J. Van Huesen, J. Burke) ~ 5:26
5. Soul Eyes (M. Waldron) ~ 5:24
6. Everything But You (D. Ellington, H. James) ~ 4:30
7. I Didn’t Know About You (D. Ellington, B. Russell) ~ 5:50
8. Sandu (C. Brown, D. Townsend) – 9:00
9. But Not For Me (G. Gershwin, I. Gershwin) ~ 5:26
10. A Conversation With God (Dear Lord) (J. Coltrane, L. Helm, M. Myers) ~ 7:25
11. Mississippi Goddam (N. Simone) ~ 6:06
12. Stella By Starlight (V. Young, N. Washington) ~ 8:23

• Lenora Zenzalai Helm ~ Voice
• Ernest Turner, Lydia Salett Dudley, Ed Paolantonio ~ Piano
• Baron Tymas ~ Guitar
• Ginnae Koon ~ Bass
• Thoma Taylor, Dorien Dotson,  ~ Drums
• James “Saxmo” Gates, Sam King, Brian Miller, Matt York, Ariel Kopelove, Shaena Ryan Martin ~ Reeds
• Lynn Grissett, Al Strong, Zoe Smith, Tyler Perske ~ Trumpets
• Robert Trowers, Isrea Butler, Tenay Harrell, Reggie Greenlee, Cameron MacManus ~ Trombones
• Brian Horton ~ Conductor, Composer, Arranger, Saxophone

• Lenora Zenzalai Helm ~ Conductor, Voice
• Ed Paolantonio ~ Piano
• Baron Tymas ~ Guitar
• Timothy Holley ~ Cello
• Salome Serena Wiley ~ Tenor Saxophone
• Lance E. Scott, Jr. ~ Acoustic Bass
• Thoma Taylor ~ Drums
• NCCU Vocal Jazz Ensemble ~ Guest Artist

• Joey Calderazzo ~ Piano
• Ameen Saleem ~ Acoustic Bass
• Maurice Myers ~ Special Guest Vocal Soloist | A Conversation With God

As you listen and enjoy this wonderful addition to the jazz catalog, continue to social distance and stay healthy. During this sabbatical from flying and investigating jazz around the globe, enjoy the listen and know that the world and I will be back.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Cliff Smalls was born Clifton Arnold on March 3, 1918  and was raised in Charleston, South Carolina. His father, a carpenter, performed piano and organ for Charleston’s Central Baptist Church. He taught Smalls classical music at an early age. He left home with the Carolina Cotton Pickers and also recorded with them, for instance, Off and on Blues and “Deed I Do, which he arranged and featured Cat Anderson in 1937 when he was 19.

With his career coinciding with the early years of bebop, from 1942 to 1946 he was a trombonist, arranger and also backup piano-player for band-leader and pianist Earl Hines, alongside Dizzie Gillespie and Charlie Parker. While in the Hines band he performed often during broadcasts seven nights a week on open mikes coast-to-coast across America. Hines also used Teddy Wilson, Jess Stacy and Nat “King” Cole as backup piano-players but Smalls was his favorite. He also played in the Jimmie Lunceford and Erskine Hawkins bands.

After the inevitable post-World War II breakup of the Hines big-band, Cliff went on to play and record in smaller ensembles with his former Earl Hines band colleagues, singer and band-leader Billy Eckstine, trombonist Bennie Green, saxophonist Earl Bostic and singer Sarah Vaughan. In 1949 he recorded with JJ Johnson and Charlie Rouse. He was the pianist on Earl Bostic’s 1950 hit Flamingo along with John Coltrane but had a serious automobile accident, with Earl Bostic, in 1951 and laid in bed all of 1952, till March of 1953.

Recovering, Smalls shifted his musical career to serve as music director/arranger for singers Eartha Kitt, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis, Jr., Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Clyde McPhatter, Roy Hamilton and Brook Benton. He recorded Bennie Green with Art Farmer in 1956 and was, for many years, a regular with Sy Oliver’s nine-piece Little Big-Band from 1974-1984, a regular stint in New York’s Rainbow Room.

In the 1970s he returned to jazz-recording, including four solo tracks for The Complete Master Jazz Piano Series in 1970, with Sy Oliver in 1973, Texas Twister with Buddy Tate in 1975, Swing and Things in 1976 and Caravan in France in 1978. In 1980 Smalls was featured playing piano in The Cotton Club, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Trombonist, pianist, conductor and arranger Cliff Smalls, who worked in the jazz, soul and rhythm & blues genres, passed away in 2008.

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Three Wishes

1. “To be exactly as the Creator wished me to be. Then everything else would have to be alright.”

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Review: Lenora Zenzalai Helm | For The Love Of Big Band

For those of you who aspire to greatness, who challenge your status quo, and who dare to create something majestic, one must dig deep inside for the temerity. Whether you question the audacity of the idea, it takes confidence to even dare the monumental task of bringing nearly four dozen men and women together, producing a unique and innovative big band sound.

Under the auspicious name of The Tribe Jazz Orchestra, vocalist and bandleader Lenora Zenzalai Helm joins the ranks of Lil Hardin Armstrong, Kit McClure, Blanche Calloway, Valaida Smith, Lovie Austin, Sherrie Maracle, and In Ray Hutton among others.

Helm’s debut orchestra project, For The Love Of Big Band, was recorded live in concert over a two day period on March 26~27, 2019 and released on her own label, Zenzalai Music. This album brings new arrangements showcasing legendary composers and big band leaders ~ Nina Simone, Abbey Lincoln, Mal Waldron, Victor Young, John Coltrane, George & Ira Gershwin, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Clifford Brown, and Duke Ellington to name a few.

This twelve composition compendium of classics illuminates the musical genius of those who charted the big band course, laid the foundation and set the standard for this talented vocalist and bandleader to follow in their footsteps. Choosing Blues For Mama, Bebop, Chega de Saudade/No More Blues, It Could Happen To You, Soul Eyes, Everything But You, I Didn’t Know About You, Sandu, But Not For Me, A Conversation With God (Dear Lord), Mississippi Goddam, and Stella By Starlight, she spans several decades, from the Thirties to the Sixties. The music is a mix of jazz standards, brought swingingly to life at the live concert. Helm guided the band through the new arrangements by Stanley Cowell, Cecil Bridgewater, Maurice Myers and Brian Horton

Lenora’s Tribe Jazz Orchestra is composed of twenty-four musicians that include her voice, piano, guitar, bass,drums, reeds, trumpets,trombones and saxophone and orchestra conductor. Her Tribe Jazz Orchestra Septet, pulls three from the orchestra, adds conductor to her voice, along with cello, tenor saxophone, acoustic bass and the NCCU Vocal Jazz Ensemble as guest artists. Other special guests are pianist Joey Calderazzo, Acoustic bassist Ameen Saleem, and Maurice Myers ~ Vocal Soloist on A Conversation With God.

This is a well thought out and produced program of music that will introduce the novice to big band jazz and delight the aficionado who is seeking to expand his/her horizons and include one more big bandleader to their arsenal, who just so happens to be a vocalist, conductor, bandleader, and educator and all woman. I charge you to engage and listen carefully to the maturity of expression that Lenora Zenzalai Helm has put into and extracted from herself and the talented musicians under her purview. This is a wonderful and soulful performance by all accounts and something you will enjoy for years to come.

carl anthony | notorious jazz | february 15, 2020

Give A Gift Of Jazz ~ Share

   #preserving genius

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Requisites

Saudade is an album by Brazilian composer Moacir Santos recorded in 1974 and released on the Blue Note label. The album was recorded at United Artists Studios in West Hollywood, California on March 5, 6 & 12, 1974.

The compositions that make up the album are Early Morning Love (Santos, Yanna Cotti) – 3:25, A Saudade Matta a Gente (Antonio Almeida, J. de Barro) – 6:10, Off and On (Santos, Cotti) – 3:37, The City of LA (Mark Levine) – 3:38, Suk Cha (Santos) – 4:06, Kathy (Santos, Ray Evans, Jay Livingston) – 3:37, Haply-Happy (Santos, Petsye Powell) – 2:59, Amphibious (Santos, Assis) – 3:25, This Life (Santos, Cotti) – 2:33 and lastly What’s My Name (Santos, Evans, Livingston) – 3:07.

The players were Moacir Santos – alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, conductor, arranger, Steve Huffsteter – trumpet, flugelhorn, Benny Powell – trombone, Morris Repass – bass trombone, Sidney Muldrow – french horn, Ray Pizzi – bassoon, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute, piccolo, Jerome Richardson – soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, flute, alto flute, Mark Levine – piano, electric piano, arranger, Lee Ritenour – guitar, electric guitar, John Heard – bass, electric bass, Harvey Mason – drums, Mayuto Correa, Carmelo Garcia – conga, percussion, and Donald Alves, Mike Campbell, Jose Marino, Petsye Powell, Carmen Saveiros, Regina Werneck on background vocals.

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