BRIAN BLADE: LIFECYCLES

Bobby Hutcherson (January 27, 1941 – August 15, 2016) has been an endless source of inspiration for Brian Blade and the LIFECYCLES band members. In honor of Bobby, LIFECYCLES has chosen to record his NOW! album in its entirety, two songs from Bobby’s collaborative history with Jackie McLean and Grachan Moncur III and five original compositions by this stunning septet.

HONORING BOBBY HUTCHERSON

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VANGUARD JAZZ ORCHESTRA

The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra began its life as the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra in 1966.The world-famous Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City booked the newly formed band for three Monday nights that February. Those performances were wildly successful and the engagement was extended indefinitely. The Village Vanguard’s owner, Max Gordon, told Mel Lewis, “We’ll keep it going until it tapers off.” Over half a century and more than 2700 Monday nights later, it still hasn’t. The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra stands apart from all other modern ensembles of its kind and is still as strong and vital as ever.

EVERY MONDAY NIGHT

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Three Wishes

Nica asked Howard McGhee if he was given three wishes what would he want grated and he told her:

1. 1. “I wish, I wish, I wish.”

*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Mahlon Clark was born on March 7, 1923 and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia. He started out in vaudeville as a child, however, as a teenager he became a big band musician playing for the Ray McKinley and Will Bradley bands, among others.

Relocating to California during World War II and after serving in the armed forces, found employment at Paramount Pictures where he performed music on many movie soundtracks.

In 1962 Mahlon was hired by Lawrence Welk to join his orchestra and his television show. For six years he played both the clarinet and saxophone on the weekly show and on stage when the Musical Family went out on tour.

Leaving the Welk organization in 1968, Clark continued to perform on many more movie soundtracks and with numerous artists such as Frank Sinatra and Madonna.

Clarinetist and saxophonist Mahlon Clark transitioned on September 20, 2007 at the age of 84.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Peter Brötzmann was born on March 6, 1941 in Remscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He studied painting in Wuppertal and was involved with the Fluxus movement but grew dissatisfied with art galleries and exhibitions. He experienced his first jazz concert when he saw Sidney Bechet while still in school at Wuppertal, and it made a lasting impression.

He taught himself to play clarinets, then saxophones and finally the tárogató. Among his first musical partnerships was with double bassist Peter Kowald. His debut recording, For Adolphe Sax, released in 1967 featured Kowald and drummer Sven-Åke Johansson. In 1968 Machine Gun, an octet recording, was released and self-produced under his BRO record label which he sold at concerts. Atavistic reissued the album in 2007.

His 1969 album Nipples, wasn’t followed with another recording as a leader until 1976 which was followed by sixty-one more releases through 2020. Brötzmann was a member of Bennink’s Instant Composers Pool, a collective of musicians who released their own records and that grew into a 10-piece orchestra.

The logistics of touring with the ICP tentet or his octet resulted in Peter reducing the group to a trio with Han Bennink and Fred Van Hove. Bennink was a partner in Schwarzwaldfahrt, an album of duets recorded outside in the Black Forest in 1977 with Bennink drumming on trees and other objects found in the woods.

In 1981, Brötzmann made a radio broadcast with saxophonists Frank Wright and Willem Breuker, trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, trombonists Hannes Bauer and Alan Tomlinson, pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, drums Louis Moholo, and bassist Harry Miller. This was released as the album Alarm.

During the Eighties, Brötzmann flirted with heavy metal and noise rock, recording with Last Exit and the band’s bass guitarist and producer Bill Laswell. His has released over fifty albums as a bandleader and has appeared on dozens more. His Die Like a Dog Quartet (with Toshinori Kondo, William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake) is loosely inspired by saxophonist Albert Ayler, a prime influence on his music. Since 1997, he has toured and recorded regularly with the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet which he disbanded after an ensemble performance in November 2012 in Strasbourg, France.

He has recorded or performed with Cecil Taylor, Keiji Haino, Willem van Manen, Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, Conny Bauer, Joe McPhee, Paal Nilssen-Love and Brötzmann’s son, Caspar Brötzmann.

Saxophonist and clarinetist Peter Brötzmann, who has not abandoned his art training and has designed most of his album covers, continues to perform and record.

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