Jazz Violin with a Classical Touch: Ben Powell; New Street including A Tribute to Stephane Grappelli

Ben Powell, a twenty-five year old jazz/classical prodigy, was discovered in his native England by visiting conductor Keith Lockhart.  Powell was encouraged to study in the US and a scholarship to Berklee followed.  While studying there, he was gigging with Joe Lovano.

New Street features a mix of original tunes, some by Stephane Grappelli as well as other standards.

Powell’s quartet features Tadataka Unno, piano; Aaron Darrell, bass; and Devin Drobka, drums.

Three tunes are with guest artists, vibraphonist Gary Burton and guitarist Julian Lange. Guest guitarist Adrien Moignard appears only on one tune “What Is This Thing Called Love.”  Moignard, also previously unknown to me, is also in his twenties.  This tune is a wonderful example of gypsy-style jazz.  I wish he’d been featured on other numbers.  Vocalist Linda Calise is featured only on “La Vie En Rose.”

I consider this recording my newest best-discovery. Look for more to come from  talented violinist/composer Ben Powell.

Purchase options:  www.ben-powell.com.

Review by Norman Vickers

The winners:

College Instrumental Division:
First Place:  Jackson Willis (trombone)
Second Place: Avery Greene Jr. (trumpet)
Third Place: Michael Danielson (double bass)

High School Instrumental Division:
First Place: Jacob Dearrington (trumpet)
Second Place: Austin Paul Conner Jr (alto sax)
Third Place: Kaleb Broom (tenor sax)

Jazz Vocal Division:
First Place: Destiny Howard
Second Place: Isabelle Peterson
Third Place: Sarah Harley

Judges for the competition were:
Rebecca Barry
Joe Murphy
Steve Sims

Thank you to all who came out to support these young musicians and the JSOP Education initiatives, especially the JETS (Jazz Education Team Supporters) whose financial donations helped to fund this event.

Photographer Herb Snitzer has contributed greatly by describing his life in photography and his observations about the personalities he encountered when doing so.  His book is not just a collection of jazz photographs but a revelation of himself and those with whom he associated.  Reading the book, I was reminded of the similarity to bassist/photographer Milt Hinton’s book, Over Time in which Milt so excellently accomplished both purposes.

Snitzer’s book is a memoir, not a complete autobiography.  He took his first jazz photographs of Lester Young in 1958 on assignment from Metronome.  He tells wonderful anecdotes and gives background information on some of his photographs.  This makes the iconic photos, which certainly can stand alone without explanation, more meaningful to the reader.

There was an anecdote about playing ping-pong with Thelonious Monk at the estate of jazz baroness Nica de Koenigswarter.  Snitzer was soundly trounced by Monk.  The iconic photo of Monk and reflection of the keyboard in his sunglasses graces the dust-jacket.

Snitzer does have a photograph of the late Milt Hinton and includes a segment of conversations with Milt about is background and philosophy of life.  Snitzer deals with the difficulties that the black musicians had with racial attitudes, especially in the South. The most recent photograph of vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater is dated 2000.

What a job it must have been finally to select from his many photos the ones included in the book!

Snitzer has performed a valuable service for jazz allowing us to have some back-stage insights about the world of jazz during the latter half of the twentieth century.

Review by Norman Vickers

Scott Hamilton and Rossano Sportiello: Midnight at  Nola’s Penthouse

Two veterans team for this swinging jazz recording.  Scott Hamilton’s tenor sax and Sportiello’s virtuoso piano make for a great team.  No need for bass or drums with these two rhythm-makers.    Some tunes are lovely ballads—for example, In the Middle of a Kiss and A Garden In The Rain—and others a happy romp—e.g. All God’s Chillun’ Got Rhythm and Big Butter and Egg Man.  For those who like straight-ahead, swingin’ jazz, this is one for you.  Arbors Records has another hit!

Purchase information:  www.ArborsRecords.com

Review by Norman Vickers

Personnel:  Holly Hoffman, flute, alto flute, piccolo
Terrell Stafford: trumpet, flugelhorn
Mike Wofford, piano; Rob Thorsen, bass; Richard Sellers, drums.

Here’s another  lovely Capri release by the Hoffman-Wofford team.  This time they have  enlisted trumpeter Terrell Stafford to round out the group.  There’s room for all to swing.   The seven selections here begin with Mike Wofford’s  The Dipper, a tribute to Horace Silver.  It ends with Holly’s tune           M-Line; you’ll need to get the liner notes to understand the title’s  play on words.  Other tunes are as follows:  Espernaca by Vince Mondoza;  Karlita by Bobby Watson; Soul Street by Jimmy Forrest; Pure Imagination by Anthony Newly/ L. Bricusse; and  The Girl From Greenland by Richard Twardzik.

Purchase information:  www.CapriRecords.com
Review: Norman Vickers

This is an unusual recording in several respects.  Ousely, a music professor at Florida International University, has recorded this for benefit of Sunshine State Power and Light whose environmental mission is to mobilize the faith community in Florida to care for creation.  Some of the selections would be recognized as standard jazz.  Others might well fit into other categories.  Of special mention here is vocalization by Nanami Morikawa on Shenandoah, a lovely duet with Ousely’s bass.    About half the selections are originals by Ousley.  An outstanding recording even if not the usual jazz repertoire.

Purchase information:  www.jamieouseley.com  or www.tirerecords.net

Review: Norman Vickers

Here’s a straight-ahead jazz recording with over one hour of music.  All are skilled musicians each with years of experience.  Of the thirteen selections, cornetist Warren Vache performs on four.
All have a “river theme”—Riverboat Shuffle, Cry Me a River, Blue River;  you get the idea.  Most who will read this column will recognize the performers.  Rossano Sportiello, pianist, was  classically trained in his native Italy and plays the jazz idiom with aplomb.  Allen plays tenor sax with a full tone in the older style of Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins.  In all, a very satisfying recording.

Purchase information:  www.challengerecords.com or www.harryallenjazz.com

Review: Norman Vickers

Of the thirty-two pieces in this collection of music stories and articles of interest to serious music fans likely will include David Hajdu’s piece about pianist/composer  Fred Hersch, Geoffrey O’Brien’s article about Duke Ellington and Joe Hagan’s story entitled “I Wish I Knew How To Be Free: The Secret Diary of Nina Simone.”

Other stories give a varying picture of the music scene.  There’s one about Lady Gaga and Lauren Wilcox Puchowski’s Washington Post piece about a wedding singer Kenny Holmes who passionately pursues his vocation in competition with DJs and celebrants who want to play music from their own iPods.

David Hajdu is journalism professor at Columbia U. Graduate School of Journalism and music critic for The New Republic.  Hajdu was written about Fred Hersch previously.  The piece was originally printed in New York Times and is entitled, “Giant Steps: The Survival of a Great Jazz Pianist.”  It  chronicles Hersch’s career before and after his recovery from AIDs-induced coma.  Remarkably, in his recovery, he feels that he remembered thoughts occurring when he was comatose.  And following his slow recovery, in which he had to teach his, fingers how to move on the piano, he composed and played some remarkable new music.

The editors have also listed other music writing from the year 2011. Best Music Writing of 2011 is the twelfth in the series, having begun in the year 2000.

Review by F. Norman Vickers