In 1997, Belgian filmmaker Tom Van Overberghe released A Portrait of Mal Waldron, a 50-minute TV documentary on the jazz pianist. What you grasp when watching the film is how elegant Waldron was and what Billie Holiday saw in his relaxed personality, sophisticated ears and rich accompaniment. You also see how happy Waldron was in Europe, where he felt at ease and free to create as he wished.
Here's A Portrait of Mal Waldron...
A special thanks to Claude Neuman.
Days before Bill Evans's death on September 15, 1980, the pianist handed his bassist, Marc Johnson, a cassette tape. On the tape was a previously unperformed original by Evans called Here Is Something for You. In 2007, Eliane Elias and her partner, Marc Johnson, performed the song on video, which is up at YouTube. As you'll see, they clearly share a deep love for Evans. Marc, of course, was the last Bill Evans Trio bassist. Eliane has always had a connection to Evans's music. While growing up in São Paulo, Brazil, she transcribed Evans's solos off her parents' albums and played them. [Photo above of Bill Evans and Marc Johnson]
Moved by the melody, Eliane wrote a lyric for the song...
Here is something for you
Where or when it finds you
Here is my heart, haunted, foolish
Let me find you
Find the one who brought me this love
Find the one who taught me romance
Showed the sunrise
Brought the moonlight
Touch of those hands
They led me to this way of living
Hear the sunrise, singing songs now
Telling stories, which is yours now
On a life reflected, time remembered
When the autumn leaves may fall
Here's the sound that we recall
From the pages of my heart to you
Here's Eliane and Marc playing Bill Evans's Here Is Something for You (photo above of Eliane and Marc). It was recorded once by Bill Evans as a private recording in 1970, which was included on Eliane's 2007 release with Marc and drummer Joey Baron: Something for You: Eliane Elias Plays and Sings Bill Evans. Eliane plays and sings the song on the album as well. A special thanks to Dave Thompson...
Programming note: Tomorrow, Thursday, at 12:30 p.m. (ET), I will be interviewed by Lou Pomales, host of Fifty Shades of Jazz, on WRTW-FM in Hartford, Ct. We will be talking about my exposure to boogaloo and Latin music growing up in Manhattan's Washington Heights in the 1960s. Listen live here.
There are big bands, and then there are big bands. Among the best in the world now is the WDR Big Band in Germany. The band's roots date back to August 1946, a year after World War II ended. The band played traditional pre-war German music and classical alongside a string orchestra. By the late 1940s, German radio stations with in-house live dance bands were converted into jazz bands as swing declined in popularity. [Photo above of Michael Abene by Lena Semmelroggen]
WDR stands for West German Broadcasting (WDR), which is based in Cologne, Germany. The band is funded by the government and features highly skilled jazz and band musicians. Which is why so many top American jazz artists travel to Germany to perform and record with the band as soloists. If you're an accomplished soloist or arranger, it's a dream aggregation. [Photo above of the WDR Big Band's reed section by Lena Semmelroggen]
Which makes WDR the perfect band for Michael Abene, who conducts as they play his arrangements of nine songs on his new album, Center Stage. Recorded in January and February of this year, the album features a few American guest players and soloists Michael brought along: baritone saxophonist Ronnie Cuber, organist Bobby Sparks II, bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Steve Gadd. Also added on tracks are Bruno Müller on guitar and Simon Oslender on piano and organ.
Here's a list of the WDR's brass and reed sections [photo above of the WDR Big Band by Lena Semmelroggen]...
Andy Haderer, Wim Both, Rob Bruynen and Ruud Breuls (tp); Ludwig Nuss, Raphael Klemm and Andy Hunter (tb); Mattis Cederberg (bass tb); Karolina Strassmayer and Johan Hörlén (as); Malte Dürrschnabel and Paul Heller (ts); and Jens Neufang (bs).
And here are the album's songs and soloists...
Michael's arrangements are first rate, even on songs you'd think he'd be nuts to take on. After all, an arranger converts Signed, Sealed, Delivered; Watching the River Flow; Them Changes; and Honky Tonk to big-band jazz at his own peril, since updating such pop classics comes with enormous risks. On paper, that is. Michael is so inventive and sly as a swinging fox that his reinterpretations of these songs manage to reach the other side of the cultural mine field unscathed. [Photo above of Ronnie Cuber by Lena Semmelroggen]
For years in the 1970s, bands such as those led by Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson and Stan Kenton tried to stay relevant and afloat by updating rock and soul hits. Most attempts failed miserably and today are a hoot to see as musicians dressed in paisley shirts and white jeans or Nehru suits perform them on old TV variety shows. Michael's reworks get plenty funky, but they keep their balance with fascinating orchestral twists and turns and avoid the pitfalls. His pen skirts trouble by keeping the heat on and the energy high, enforcing a zero tolerance policy for wheel spinning and repetition. The hungry soloists also give the songs enormous traction and inventive punch. [Photo above of Steve Gadd by Lena Semmelroggen]
Further proof of Michael's gift for turning intimate generational pop songs into stadium-sized, fire-breathing beasts.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Michael Abene's Center Stage here.
JazzWax clips: Here's Way Back Home...
And here's My Little Brother...
Click the covers to order...
