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Man, it’s been a blast playing with these guys every night. Doesn’t leave too much time for blogging. But tonight is off in Rome, we’ll play Casa de Jazz tomorrow and then continue to the last dates in Hungary and France. I’ll be home for a day and then playing Zorn’s Masada music in Milan with Chris Potter, Uri Caine, Greg Cohen, and Joey Baron. Then going to play with Jim McNeely in Portugal. Leads right up to Thanksgiving, and I’m thankful for this great season of music.
If you’ve seen any of the shows on this tour you know that it’s a bit of a new sound for the Quintet. Switching from fender rhodes to acoustic piano changes the dynamic of the group. But also the new music was written with a new approach in mind — somewhat freer but also more intricate rhythmically. We have also been playing quintet arrangements of the music on the new Big Band record, A Single Sky. Those tend to bring out another side of us, a sort of epic, long form music that forces all of us to think as a section. I can’t thank these guys enough for putting in 100% dedication and perseverance. And being hilarious travel mates.
When I started the Quintet around 2000 I felt the rhodes had been written out of the music somewhat, that there was a missing (and hence available) step in the music of the late sixties into the mid seventies. The music I was writing was starting from there as a jumping off point into our own thing. As I sat down to begin working on new music for the band in the wake of the complete live recordings at the Jazz Standard, I felt like the lay of the land was considerably different. The rhodes is everywhere now and it also feels like the music I’m hearing people play incorporates all of that post-sixties language and more. I’m inspired by a lot of the musicians I hear, and my hero, Wayne Shorter, continues to set an extremely high standard. The dynamics in that quartet are out of this world.
A lot of people ask me why I switched to acoustic piano in the band. To the extent that I even know, that’s some of what it’s about. We’re discovering the rest as we go.
The beauty of David S. Ware’s kidney transplant is one of them. Admiration and healing thoughts to all involved.
Photo: Joshua Bright for The New York Times
A few links to pass on while we continue to roll out A Single Sky…
First, a great article by Neil Tesser in this month’s Jazziz spotlighting Nicole Mitchell with a short intro on Karyn’s Fresh Corner, one of my favorite places.
Jim Macnie’s Top 25 Records of the Decade? that includes DD’s Strange Liberation and 24 other heavy-hitting records.
Liner Notes Writer Extraordinaire Darcy James Argue was featured on NPR recently. I missed it, but it’s streaming here with extended words here.
And yet another awesome Han Bennink video via Peter Margasak’s blog…
Just because I know he won’t, I wanted to mention that Dave D finished a Toughman triathalon today. We’re talking a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run all in a row….and he shattered his time goal by over thirty minutes! To give you an idea of how long something like this takes: I got up this morning around the same time he started, had a leisurely breakfast, ran 8 miles, practiced for 2 hours, drove 1.5 hours to the finish and still had time to find a good spot to cheer him on. Now, if I can just figure out just how he managed to train for this in between Brass Ecstasy tours, organizing the next wave of the FONT festival, writing, practicing and planning for whatever is next, I think I’d be in good shape..literally! Kudos Dave….
Tonight Dave and the band wrap up their west coast trip with a set at the Angel City Jazz Festival.
If you have the day off you might want to head down early, the whole day is packed with great bands.
Sunday, September 6th 4:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.
4:00 p.m. Plays Monk (Ben Goldberg, Devin Hoff, Scott Amendola)
5:15 p.m. The Satoko Fujii Quartet
6:30 p.m. Jesse Sharps’ The Gathering with Dwight Trible
intermission
8:00 p.m. The Billy Childs Jazz-Chamber Ensemble
9:15 p.m. Larry Karush (solo piano)
9:50 p.m. Dave Douglas & Brass Ecstasy
Dave & Brass Ecstasy are starting a California run tonight at Yoshi’s Oakland. The guys had a couple weeks off, so they’re looking forward to diving back into the music. Hope to see you there!
Andrew Dubber at New Music Strategies has a great take on this graphic from Information is Beautiful.
While the multi-billion dollar recorded music industry has seen a steady decline in sales over the last decade, the industry as a whole may just be entering into “one of those golden ages for musical culture that seem to coincide with the skinny bits of that graph.”
At least 35,000 years ago, in the depths of the last ice age, the sound of music filled a cave in what is now southwestern Germany, the same place and time early Homo sapiens were also carving the oldest known examples of figurative art in the world.
Archaeologists reported Wednesday the discovery last fall of a bone flute and two fragments of ivory flutes that they said represent the earliest known flowering of music-making in Stone Age culture. They said the bone flute with five finger holes, found at Hohle Fels Cave in the hills west of Ulm, was “by far the most complete of the musical instruments so far recovered from the caves” in a region where pieces of other flutes have been turning up in recent years.
A fascinating development for human cultural understanding. However we did find a cosmicritic online, a Mr. E. Pleb Nista, who despite his “open ears” was unable to appreciate these ancient musical instruments. Everyone’s entitled to his or her opinion, we thought we’d share Mr. Nista’s, as it may be of interest. Greenleaf Music is truly grateful for all the feedback, positive and negative, online and off, for our releases.
Ornette Channelled Through Very Early Music
author: E. Pleb NistaA 35,000 year old stone flute emerged from jazz oblivion today, again showing its true colors, playing a solo reminiscent of early Ornette Coleman. Mr. Flute trotted out some typically elliptical phrasing and off beat post-bop-isms in a piece enigmatically titled “Solo.”
Over many, many years of playing the flute has been unable to shake these influences and, even in a context as radically different as this series of “cave concerts,” was limited by its inability to sound like anything other than the aforementioned Coleman. Popping out one brilliant composition after another, followed by predictably fascinating rearrangements of composers spanning the past 30 millennia, Flute never failed to dazzle with his Coleman-inspired ramblings.
Though a great performance, which also featured a generous helping of each of the flute’s five holes, this return to the ice age sounded reminiscent of so much of the music we’ve heard since the days when mastodons roamed the earth. The stone-age flute is clearly a master, but leaves us asking the question, When will the next jazz giant with something new to say finally emerge from the pack?
The flute, reached for comment, remained stoic. “Hey, man, at least he spelled my name right! Those Cro-Magnons were a drag!”
With the workshop wrapped up I tidied up the Live Updates page so it would read in chronological order, added an intro, and tied up a few loose ends about some of the workshops. It was a very good year, and I think a lot of musical bonds formed that will last a lifetime. To read through the chronology click here.
Now it’s on to the summer of Brass Ecstasy, opening next week at The Jazz Standard! Hope to see many of you out there. Thanks for all of your warm comments on the new record. We will be playing all that music as well as some new things…
This is reporting in real time on the 2009 Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music. There are other reportings at Andrew Oliver’s blog, Alison Chesley from the Old Town School of Music, and a few other locations. Information and application guidelines for the workshop (plus a history of the program) can be found at Banff Centre Jazz Program.
Visiting artists in 2009 were Dave Douglas (director), Joshua Redman, David Gilmore, Adam Benjamin, Matt Penman, Clarence Penn, Tony Malaby, Angelica Sanchez, Ron Samworth, Ben Street, Jerry Granelli, Joe Ferla, Edmar Castaneda, Don Byron, Nicole Mitchell, Hank Roberts, Marshall Gilkes, Dafnis Preito, Steve Bellamy.
