On The Bookshelf
WAITING FOR DIZZY | GENE LEES
The story of jazz is a story of individuals–enormously gifted, dedicated, sometimes driven, yet often gentle people.
In this volume, Gene Lees, continues his richly entertaining and informative chronicle of the lives and times of jazz with a new collection of fourteen memorable essays drawn from his renowned Jazzletter. Waiting for Dizzy adds to the insights of his two previous collections, where the lyricist, essayist, and music historian draws on a lifetime of experience, and in many cases friendships in the jazz world to bring fresh insights to the lives and work of these magnificent artists, whether he is discussing why any guitarists have unsteady time or the complex role of race in jazz history.
The heart of Waiting for Dizzy is its exquisitely crafted character studies, warm pictures of the men and women who created and continue to create this music. Beginning in the era of its first great flowering, the 1920s, he weaves a story of discrimination against Black Americans to the tragic, determined, gifted guitarist Emily Remler who sought to break the sex barrier and her own drug habit, only to die all too young in a far-away place.
The stories continue through the final essay: a day spent in the recording studio with Dizzy Gillespie, surrounded by brilliant younger musicians who are his spiritual children, among them Art Farmer and Phil Woods. It is a lyrical, affectionate, and affecting portrait of one of the three or four most important figures–and the most loved– in jazz history.
Waiting For Dizzy: 1991 | Gene Lees
Oxford University Press
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
ELEW was born Eric Robert Lewis on May 13, 1973 in Camden, New Jersey where he studied piano as a child. Graduating from Overbrook High School in 1991, he received a full merit scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music. He graduated on the Dean’s List in 1995, then began touring.
Lewis began his career as a jazz purist, playing as a sideman for jazz artists like Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, Elvin Jones, Jon Hendricks, and Roy Hargrove as well as performing as a member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Eventually becoming interested in rock music he embarked on a solo career as a crossover musician, quickly gaining recognition for his instrumental Rockjazz piano covers of mainstream rock hits like The Rolling Stones’ Paint It, Black and The Killers’ Mr. Brightside. He released his debut album of instrumental covers, titled ELEW Rockjazz Vol. 1, on his own label, Ninjazz Entertainment, in 2010.
Lewis became disillusioned with the jazz world after a solo record deal failed to materialize and struck out on his own to find success. It was around this time that he heard his first rock album, Linkin Park’s Meteora, which made a profound impression on his musical sensibilities. Taking the stage name ELEW, he adjusted his stage presence accordingly, growing an afro and adopting a distinctive style of dress, wearing armored vambraces over tailored suits. Discarding his piano bench for standing, he reached inside to grab the strings and beat on its wooden case like a percussion instrument.
Mainstream recognition came when he played a cover of Evanescence’s Going Under and an original composition, and was a featured speaker at the Long Beach TED Conference in 2009. He drew the interest of fashion designer Donna Karan, for whom he composed an original piece inspired by her fall 2009 collection and at her next New York City fashion show. That led to an invite by White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers to play in the East Room for President Obama and the First Lady.
Pianist Eric Lewis, popularley known as ELEW, continues his journey of performing, composing, recording and touring.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ronnie Foster was born in Buffalo, New York on May 12, 1950. Attracted to music at the age of four, he attended Public School 8, Woodlawn Jr. High for a year, McKinley Vocational High School for two years, and then spent his final year at Lafayette High School. The only formal musical instruction he received was a month of accordion lessons. Taking music more seriously from his early teens, he had his first professional gig aged fifteen, playing in a strip club.
He initially performed with other local musicians. Moving to New York City with his own band, he acquired a publishing company. Foster performed as a sideman with a wide range of musicians, frequently working with guitarist George Benson, including playing on the guitarist’s album Breezin’.
Ronnie has played organ with Grant Green, Grover Washington, Jr., Stanley Turrentine, Roberta Flack, Earl Klugh, Harvey Mason, Jimmy Smith, and Stevie Wonder.
He is also a record producer and his song Mystic Brew was sampled in Electric Relaxation by A Tribe Called Quest and in J. Cole’s song Forbidden Fruit, where it was reversed, pitched, and slowed down in the song Neighbors as well as the instrumental of Forbidden Fruit.
Funk and soul jazz organist Ronnie Foster continues to perform, record, tour and produce.
DASHILL SMITH & NAME THAT FEELING BAND
Multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, producer, performer and actor Dashill Smith performs an eclectic array of genres including hip-hop, free jazz, funk, soul, blues, afro-beat. and more. He puts together freestyle rhymes, plays the trumpet, and improvises with the same mind frame as he does when I rhyme.
Smith performs with quite a few bands in town with his small unit, The Omega Level Squad, as well as The Biological Misfits, a band he co-Lead with actor, poet, and musician Malcom-Jamal Warner, and Mausiki Scales’ The Common Ground Collective. He also performed regularly for a few years with the legendary Jazz-Funk pioneer; vibraphonist Roy Ayers.
Tickets: $10.00 ~ $20.00 + $2.51 fee
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CHANDA LEIGH
Vocalist and pianist Chanda Leigh brings her quartet to the Cafe I Am Lounge for a night of jazz.
The Band: Chanda Leigh ~ Piano | Joe Jennings ~ Saxophone | Anthony Daniel ~ Bass | Bernard Linnette
Tickets: $35.00
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