Atlanta Jazz Festival… 1992
Programming innovations were continued to be realized during Mayor Jackson’s 3rd term as the Bureau brought in newcomers Gary Motley, Cassandra Wilson and Christian McBride to share the stage with veterans Nat Adderley, Joe Sample and Freddie Hubbard among others. Continuing as Program Director, John Armwood ushered in viable relationships with several radio stations that played jazz – WCLK, WRFG, WREK, Jazz Flavors and WABE as sponsors or media promoters and would enlist not only his voice but those voices of radio personalities Phil Clore, Carl Anthony and H. Johnson to work as staff or masters of ceremonies for festival events.
Returning sponsors for the 1992 Atlanta Jazz Festival over the Memorial Day weekend from May 29th to June 7th were AT&T, The Atlanta Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Atlanta Penta Hotel, Creative Loafing, WVEE-103 FM and WCLK 91.9 FM. The festival brought three new sponsors into the family with Advanced Media, Concert Southern Promotions and Jazziz.
Performances were held at the Variety Playhouse, Club 590 West/Atlanta Penta Hotel, Chastain Park Amphitheatre, Grant Park, High Museum of Art Hill Auditorium and the Robert Woodruff Park for the Brown Bag Concerts.
Performing this year were George Adams, Audrey Shakir, Nat Adderley Quintet, Lonnie Smith Southside Trio, Carl Allen, Malachi Thompson Quintet, Geri Allen Trio, Cassandra Wilson, Bill Anschell Trio, Scotty Barnhart, Bazooka Ants, Rick Bell, David Benoit, Cindy Blackman, Dave Burrell, Joe Chambers, George Coleman Quartet, Richard Davis, Lou Donaldson, Georgia State Faculty Jazz Band, Juedinne Gordon, Bennie Green Trio, Spyro Gyra, Miklos Harsszesi, Joe Henderson Quartet, Vincent Herring, John Hicks, Andrew Hill, Fred Hopkins, Freddie Hubbard, Al Jarreau, Carter Jefferson, Joe Jennings, Obie Jessie, Stanley Jordan, Victor Lewis, Harold Mabern Jr., Howard Mandel, Christian McBride, Gary Motley, Ny Unity, Greg Osby, Don Palmer, Ritual Band East and Joe Sample.
#preserving genius
More Posts: festival,forty,free,history,jazz,music,tradition,years
Atlanta Jazz Festival… 1991
The year was 1991. The baton of Program Director was passed from Rob Gibson to John Armwood, who had previously worked as the coordinator of the festival’s education component. He was instrumental in maintaining classical mainstream jazz in the parks while newer venues hosted smooth jazz, set up jam sessions at the Penta Hotel, established a jazz dance contest with improvisational dancing to improvisational music, and facilitated WLCK 91.9FM radio The Jazz of the City broadcasting the festival live from Grant Park.
Over the Memorial Day weekend performances and workshops and lectures were held on May 31st at Center Stage, Chastain Park Amphitheater, with a late night jam session at Club 590 West/Atlanta Penta Hotel. June 1st, 2nd held at High Museum of Art-Hill Auditorium and Grant Park with more late night jam session at Club 590 West/Atlanta Penta Hotel. On June 3rd-7th the Brown Bag Concerts were performed in Woodruff Park again ending the night with a late night jam session at Club 590 West/Atlanta Penta Hotel and on June 8th & 9th the festival closed out with performances in Grant Park.
Performing this year were Sonny Rollins, Spyro Gyra, Bob James, Rick Bell quintet, Joe Jennings and Life Force, Cecil Bridgewater, Arthur Blythe Quintet, Jackie McLean Quintet featuring Rene McLean, Ojeda Penn Experience, Bobby Hutcherson, The Harper Brothers, Charles Earland, David “Fathead” Newman, Grant Reed Quartet, Simone & Company, Mark Maxwell Band, Audrey Shakir Company, Eddie Davis Quintet and Johnny O’Neal, Olu Dara, Okra Orchestra, Azanyah, Jerry Gonzalez & The Fort Apache Band, Dameronia, Abbey Lincoln, Fusai Abdul-Khaliq Ensemble, Dvae Holland Quartet, Don Pullen Trio and the David Murray Octet.
As well as being on the main stage Joe Jennings & Howard Nicholson, The Harper Brothers also led the nightly Jam Sessions. Critic and editorialist Stanley Crouch hosted a lecture and film presentation.
Sponsoring the 1991 festival were Adams Outdoor Advertising, AT&T, Atlanta Penta Hotel, The Coca-Cola Company/Atlanta Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Coors Brewing Company, Creative loafing, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, National Endowment For The Arts, RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, Southern Keyboards/Kawai Piano Company, WVEE/V-103 FM and WCLK 91.9 FM.
#preserving genius
More Posts: festival,forty,free,history,jazz,music,tradition,years
Hollywood On 52nd Street
The song Ruby was composed by Heinz Eric Roemheld as the theme for the 1952 film Ruby Gentry. It subsequently became a jazz and pop standard, both as an instrumental and with lyrics by Mitchell Parish. The film was directed by King Vidor and starred Jennifer Jones as Ruby Corey/Gentry, Charlton Heston played Boake Tackman and Karl Malden held down the role of Jim Gentry. At the time of the film’s release the theme enjoyed much popularity in an orchestration by Les Baxter with harmonica solo by Danny Welton.
The Story: Ruby, a poor backwoods girl living in the small North Carolina town of Braddock, is still in love with Boake Tackman. During high school, Ruby had rebuffed his aggressive advances, and was taken in for a couple of years by kind wealthy businessman and his wife, who protected her and taught her the skills a lady would need. She moves back home when her father needed her help. Boake’s family used to be wealthy, but after generations of profligacy all he has left is the land he has had drained and farmed. He starts a relationship with her but plans to marry a local woman with a rich family. When Ruby hears the news, she marries her former benefactor, Mr. Jim Gentry, whose invalid wife recently died, despite not loving him.
Her background keeps her from being accepted by most of Jim’s peers, most of whom decline to attend their after-wedding party. Insecure, Jim becomes jealous of her relationship with Boake, has a fight, calls her a tramp and she leaves in tears. Apologies ensue and while sailing she admits her lack of loving him, while a loose rope results in Jim being knocked overboard by the boom, leaving Ruby widowed and distraught. Now she becomes the local gold-digger and murderess, the town rebuffs her and she gets harassing phone calls.
Retaliating, Ruby uses Jim’s money to begin a campaign against everyone who slighted her, calling in debts to close down people’s businesses as well as the newspaper that slandered her. Still holding a soft spot for Boake she returns his promissory note but again he rebuffs her kindness as a way to buy him and her out of the swamp. Once again, woman scorned and she floods Boake land, ruins his crop and once calm, apologizes. However, her estranged brother Jewel begins shooting at them, killing Boake and in turn Ruby kills her brother and then laments her decisions that have caused so much pain. Now alone, Ruby becomes the skipper of a fishing boat, forever looked down upon by the townspeople.
Sponsored By
www.whatissuitetabu.com
#preserving genius
Atlanta Jazz Festival… 1989
#preserving genius
More Posts: festival,forty,free,history,jazz,music,tradition,years
Review: Allan Harris | Nobody’s Gonna Love You Better
Choice, style and interpretation are the cornerstones of this vocalist who has an innate ability to proffer songs that allow him to eloquently emote. Having followed his career over the years there has been little he has been unable to do. Bringing four songs to the session that he penned, Allan deftly selected seven additional tunes composed by music’s elite that crosses all genres. Coupled with this, is his choice of musicians who pull off this roundhouse of songs that will definitely knock your socks off, if not off your feet. After numerous listening sessions and dancing around myself, I warn you now and it is my suggestion that you prepare to move about unabashedly through a variety of tempos. What is truly amazing is that Harris pulls this off without the use of any brass or wind instruments, producing not the sound but the feel of a Sixties rock and roll rhythm section.
This latest offering, Nobody’s Gonna Love You Better is evidence of that fact. An accomplished composer and lyricist, Allan kicks off this compendium of music with the uptempo wisdom of Mother’s Love, the formal name of the title track. Ever the griot, Harris plants thoughts worthy of rumination without being preachy but more of a gentle reminder for every son. He returns with Steely Dan’s brotherly advice by telling us Any Major Dude Will Tell You, giving the listener another lesson in keeping it real.
Covering a hit song is always a tribute to the original artist and requires it be performed just as well if not better. If you were around in 1969 then you remember a quintet called the Spiral Staircase who made More Today Than Yesterday popular for a couple of generations coming of age. Putting the right amount of swing in the mix he stays in the pocket with a big scoop of organ that will have you patting you foot and snapping your fingers, if not dancing around the house.
Giving us the opportunity to breathe a little lighter he drops down to ballad tempo to deliver a heartfelt rendition of the Johnny Mercer/Victor Schertzinger tune I Remember You. Love lost is not love forgotten and Mercer penned this song to Judy Garland, reminiscing over their short-lived romance when she was just 19. For those who may ask has Harris gone through this heartache himself given his superb delivery or like the bass keeping the heartbeat alive, does he just understand the emotional distress in the words, as does pianist Pascal Le Boeuf, who mirrors the sentiment throughout. Be comforted that he is just that good.
Rising up from the samba of Bahia, the bossa nova craze of Rio took the world by storm when the movie Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus) hit the silver screen. Out of that explosion was birthed a host of composers, musicians and singers that included Dorival Caymmi and Antonio de Almeida who wrote Doralice. Fluently beautiful in the Portuguese language, Allan transports easily us to the side of her lover who is in strife because he loves her so but wants no wife, so he asks her what are they to do. For Brazil and bossa nova, it is nearly always about love. The rhythm is deceptive in its lightness for these star-crossed lovers.
Time has no meaning when one searches for the right song to add to their playlist and the Fields/McHugh tune I’m In The Mood For Love fit the bill perfectly. It was, however, refreshed with an improvised solo on the 1935 melody by James Moody and the lyrics by Eddie Jefferson, we add to the Great American Songbook the tune Moody’s Mood For Love. Harris stays away from the original rendition of performing the woman’s response in a high voice, delivering his version in ballad and taking the woman’s response to a mid-tempo beat and finishing his final words with brashness befitting someone who is smitten and confident and laying his emotions on the table.
Swing says it all in the title and having penned this one himself, Allan celebrate the big band era when teenagers and young adults all over America filled ballrooms like the Savoy, Palomar and Trianon and danced to jazz by Ellington, Goodman and Basie. A fitting tribute to the country’s most popular music between the Depression and a World War.
Hollywood is not off limits for this purveyor of song as he takes the theme song composed by Heinz Roemheld for the film Ruby Gentry. The lyrics by Mitchell Parish were added long after the tune had received wide acclaim. With a tempo suitable for dancing cheek to cheek, Harris speaks to the heart of the Ruby lyric and exposes the anguish, love and futility for this beauty that only the unloved would know. One will notice the bass line quietly captures the mood, with guitars in tow.
Your toes will tap once more as you are introduced to a swinging version of Jimi Hendrix’s Up From The Skies. This exemplifies Harris’ true talent in taking a rock song and giving it new life in jazz. The arrangement features the Hammond B3 gives it the punch need to get you on the floor or at the very least bopping in your seats and leaving you exhausted.
Blue Was Angry comes from the musical Cross That River that he wrote about the Black contributions, trials and accomplishments in the expansion of the West. Closing out this concert with a final ballad that he penned Secret Moments, he leaves us with a bit more wisdom about love and life.
I would be remiss if I didn’t pay my respects to the band that put in the hours to make this a winning project. Joining Allan Harris on Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Resonator Guitar, D’Angelico Electric Guitar are Russell Hall – Acoustic Bass, Electric Bass; Pascal Le Boeuf – Piano, Fender Rhodes, Hammond B3; Shirazette Tinnin – Drums, Cajon; and Freddie Bryant playing Electric Guitar and Classical Guitar. Listening to them perform I can only surmise they truly had fun putting this one in the can and look forward to hearing them live. You chose well Mr. Harris.
What caught my eye at first glance were the classic songs that were chosen and the order in which they were placed. Introducing new songs, especially those you pen yourself, can often be a difficult task, but he does it well mixing them into the lineup. Next my ear was put to task to stay with a song to see developmental possibilities. As a deejay, I look for order and I will give any artist one opportunity to delight me. The song order in which Harris chose to present was pleasantly received having no inclination to skip a song or change the order. I was taken through all the emotions these composers and lyricists put into their compositions and felt buoyant and fully entertained. I heard versions of classics that were unexpected but fresh in their arrangements. If this is his brand, and I believe it is, he is not to be typecasted but embraced for the pioneering spirit that pushes his envelope to include all genres in this tapestry we call jazz.
For in this disposable world of short attention spans, where music is in your pocket, sold by the track, a click away from changing a song and one cannot listen longer than thirty seconds, there is no more getting up or walking across the room to the turntable, lifting the needle, moving to the next song or having to flip to the B side. I recognize the amount of thought that went into the order of his lineup and hopefully you will also. It may be a rollercoaster ride of emotions that begins on the downhill side of the first climb, winds around all the emotional twists and turns the music offers as it flows smoothly to a halt and we see just what has influenced his life and made him the superior musician and vocalist who has carved out his own niche in this world.
carl anthony | notorious jazz | january 3, 2017
Give A Gift Of Jazz ~ Share
#preserving genius
More Posts: bandleader,guitar,history,instrumental,jazz,music,review,vocal