JazzWax

Interview: John Scofield, Solo

John Scofield has one of the most distinct and fascinating guitar sounds in jazz. Notes are picked and bent, creating a pizzicato-like, jagged sound in places and swings and rings in others. John is a regular reader of this blog, just as I am an avid John Scofield fan and listener.

Dating back to 1977, John has recorded more than 40 albums as a leader and is a three-time Grammy winner. His new album, John Scofield (ECM), is John's first-ever solo album and features him playing by himself or accompanying himself on an overdub. The music is superb, exciting and commanding, and it's a joy to hear John isolated, which lets you experience the full extent of his art.

Recently, I caught up with John for an email interview: 

JazzWax: John, where did you grow up and how did you come to music?
John Scofield: I grew up in Wilton, Ct., about an hour from New York City. I became interested in music at age 11, after being inspired by pop music of the day and receiving a guitar from my parents. After the Beatles hit, music became everything to me.

JW: You’re originally from Dayton, Ohio. When did your family leave for Connecticut?
JS: We left Ohio when I was 5. My parents weren’t musical at all but were fully supportive of my interest in music. It was the main area where I excelled, and they trusted my enthusiasm. [Post card above of Dayton, Ohio, in the 1950s]

JW: Were you introverted as a kid?
JS: I guess so. I had friends, but I felt a little like an outsider.

JW: What was the first jazz album that influenced you?
JS: My dad wasn’t a jazz fan but he had read about Django Reinhardt in The New York Times. When I was 12, he bought me Djangology. That was my introduction to the jazz guitar. I started taking lessons from a local jazz guitarist. When I was 15, I started buying jazz records by guitarists Wes Montgomery and Jim Hall but also Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Bill Evans.

JW: What did the guitar do for you, socially?
JS: As you know, rock ‘n’ roll ruled in the early '60s, I wasn’t good at sports so when I started playing guitar in school, I got some recognition for it. That put the hook in me. But mainly I loved music. I wanted to drop the guitar and play drums after a few months, but my thrifty parents insisted I stick to the guitar they had invested in already.

JW: Were you in the high school band?
JS: Not in an official school band, but I was in one with some of the teachers from school. I started playing in a kid band when I was 12 and we played dances and parties and stuff until I was 15 or so. We played top 40 hits and tried to specialize in soul music. Funny, my three Grammy awards are downstairs in boxes but I have my tiny first "Battle of the Bands" trophy in my dining room.

JW: Did you play in a band outside of high school?
JS: I started to play with older kids when I was 16. We played bars on the weekend some. That was my introduction to the professional music world. I had a fake ID that said I was 18. I started gigging on most weekends by then. Again, lots of stuff in the rock and blues realm.

JW: At Boston’s Berklee School of Music, was college a revelation or had you already formed your feel?
JS: I didn’t really know any kids who were into jazz when I was in high school. I had one friend who was into jazz and we explored records together and went to the Village Vanguard in the city and stuff. But neither of us could play much. It wasn’t until I went to Berklee that I met people who could actually play jazz.

JW: Who was most influential at Berklee and why?
JS: I met some kids my age who already sounded great—[saxophonists] Joe Lovano, [multi-instrumentalist] Billy Drewes, [bassist] Abraham Laboriel Sr. and [guitarist] Pat Metheny. Also, [vibraphonist] Gary Burton came to teach there and so did [bassist] Steve Swallow. [Drummers] Alan Dawson and Joe Hunt were on the faculty, and there was great jazz all around us by people who could really play. I got to play with them some, and I went weekly to hear live music at the Jazz Workshop.

JW: When did you leave to play with Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan?
JS: After 2 1/2 years at Berklee, I dropped out because I really wanted to practice all the time. I also was working a lot in Boston and was able to support myself with money earned from playing gigs. Alan Dawson recommended me to Gerry Mulligan when Gerry came to play at the Jazz Workshop [in 1973]. He wanted to augment his regular quartet with guitar and vibes. The recording with Chet and Gerry—Carnegie Hall Concert—came right after that, in 1974. [The band included Gerry (bar), Dave Samuels (vib,perc), Bob James (p,el-p), John Scofield (g), Ron Carter (b) and Harvey Mason (d).]

JW: How would you describe your sound on guitar?
JS: I can’t because I actually don’t know how to go about doing that. I think we all have original sounds and we just have to let it develop. I’ve always tried to play mainstream jazz, but I started with blues and rock and have never completely moved away from that. I used to go hear B.B. King and Otis Rush and the blues guys in the 1960s who really affected me. I shifted into jazz after that, but I never lost the blues thing. I’ve never used the orthodox arch-top jazz guitar set up. Instead, I played a semi-acoustic like the blues guys. Although I use heavier strings, they are light enough to bend. It’s different than the standard jazz guitar set up.

JW: What was it about fusion that was so appealing at the time?
JS: When I first started getting into jazz, Miles Davis’s In a Silent Way had just been released [in July 1969]. [Guitarists] Larry Coryell and John McLaughlin were popular, and the music of the Gary Burton Quartet starting in 1967 was a special kind of fusion. Some of the early fusion still holds up. Listening to Bitches Brew today, it’s a really progressive sound. These groups, along with Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters and Weather Report, were the groups I loved most. There was so much work for guitar players in the ‘70s with the fusion boom that I ended up playing a lot of that music.

JW: Who pulled you into the fusion scene?
JS: [Drummer] Billy Cobham really discovered me in 1975, right after I had recorded with Gerry and Chet. [Guitarist] John Abercrombie had just left Billy’s band, and I went on the road with Billy and his groups for two years. First there was his three-horn band, then the Bill Cobham/George Duke band. I toured nonstop with them, and it was a fantastic experience. We played opposite Weather Report, Shakti, Larry Coryell, Herbie Hancock and even the Average White Band. I got to know so many people on the fusion scene then, and that experience set me up for what came next.

JW: What about straight-ahead jazz?
JS: What’s funny is that I really wanted to play mainstream jazz but the fusion world was so exciting at the time that I couldn’t see giving that up to be in New York to try to get in with the beboppers. I remember being on the road with Cobham and listening to bop in my headphones all the time.

JW: Which artists influenced you most coming up?
JS: When I was a kid, I was listening to all the famous rock groups of the ‘60’s, just learning their songs to play in our band. Then came the blues guitar players such as B.B. King and all of his disciples, plus Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck. I think I was kind of a snotty 15-year-old blues purist at the time. Then at 17 I traded that in to become a jazz snob. Country was something I always appreciated, but more for the songs and singers like George Jones than the guitar players.

JW: Tell me about the thinking behind your new album.
JS: I don’t think I would have made a solo album if it hadn’t been for the pandemic. I was forced to stay home for almost two years. I bought some equipment so I could record my electric guitar, and I used my looper pedal to accompany myself. The looper is an electronic device that creates instant recordings of me playing and plays those recordings back in real-time so I can overdub on top of my own playing. When playing straight solo guitar, I always found it hard to get a groove going. But with the looper, I can play tunes and have accompaniment like you can with a band. Because you’re at ease with your own rhythmic style, the conversation with yourself can work well. But I find it hard to be in love with my own playing.

JW: Why?
JS: I love other music and try not to judge my own playing, certainly not listen to it too much because then one becomes self-conscious, which isn’t good for improvising.

JW: If Martians came down from Mars (where else?) and wanted to know about John Scofield’s music, which five albums would you recommend as a gateway into your work?
JS: I never listen back to my old records so it’s hard to come up with five. I’ve actually made more than 40 records as a leader at this point. Tell the Martians to listen to Blue Matter (1986), A Go Go (1998), Uberjam (2002), EnRoute (2004) and Quiet (1996).

JW: When you’re not touring or recording, what’s your off-duty passion?
JS: I love being at home and spending time with my wife,our daughter and her husband and our grandchildren, walking, walking our dog, watching Netflix (lots of subtitled TV series from other countries) and reading books. I have a nice bunch of friends who are not musicians where I live. Seeing the seasons change in the northeast. During the pandemic I've become a homebody. It’s the longest I’ve been at home, in one place, since I was a kid because I’ve been on the road so much. I’ve got to say, while I really love staying home, I could not live without playing with a band and the interplay between musicians.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find John Scofield's John Scofield (ECM) here.

JazzWax clips: Here's It Could Happen to You...

It Could Happen to You

Here's Trance de Jour...

Trance de Jour

Six Smokin' and Grillin' Mixes

Today in the U.S., it's Memorial Day, a national holiday when Americans think about and honor loved ones who fought and perished in wars. But it's also the first unofficial day of summer, a parade day, a weekend of family get-togethers, and a day of BBQ smoking and grilling.

If you're firing up the smoker or grill today—or anytime this summer—in the U.S. or abroad, here are six lengthy playlists perfect for keeping you and your guests in the groove:

Here's four hours of Southern soul...

Here's an hour of Western swing...

Here's two hours of country...

Here's 50 minutes of old school boogaloo...

Here's an hour of Tito Puente...

And here's an hour of soul jazz organ...

Sissy, Brian and Jackie

In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed Sissy Spacek for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Listening to Sissy's voice alone was a joy. She has a warm, soothing drawl that's laced with artistic intelligence and kindness. And what a career.

Here's Sissy in her first movie, Prime Cut (1972) with Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman...

Here's Carrie (1976)...

Here's Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) and Sissy's portrayal of Loretta Lynn, which won her an Oscar...

And here's her latest, Prime Video's Night Sky...

Frank Sinatra. Here's Sinatra at United Western Records in Hollywood singing down It Was a Very Good Year in 1965 with Gordon Jenkins conducting...

Art Hodes. Following my post on Art Hodes, Kim Paris of the FM Radio Archive sent along a link to a live performance by Chicago jazz the pianist in 1981, courtesy of Mark Rabin's personal collection of broadcasts. Art plays on three songs with the Hot Three on a broadcast from the 1981 Chicago Jazz Festival. Go here.

On June 14 at 9 p.m., PBS will air Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road as part of its American Masters series. It's a superb documentary of Brian Wilson directed by a friend, Brent Wilson (no relation to Brian). For more information, go here.

Here's the trailer...

And here's a fun clip...

Denny Zeitlin last week sent along a link to The Name of This Terrain, an experimental electronic album he recorded in 1969 with George Marsh and Mel Graves.

As Denny wrote:

Back in 1969, I was immersed in an electro-acoustic integration of jazz, rock, avant-garde classical, funk and free-form music. My long-time close friend, Bill Young, suggested we co-produce a project where I would write new music and lyrics, and my trio, with George Marsh and Mel Graves, would perform and sing the lyrics as a demo. Bill would try to interest a label in completing the album with professional singers, and supporting a tour. The project was completed in November 1969, and a custom run of demo LPs created, but no labels were interested. My trio returned to instrumental explorations in concerts and recordings.

"The Name Of This Terrain” remained stored away on a shelf until 2003, when Bill Young’s death somehow led to a stack of demo LPs ending up in a thrift store, setting off a gradual low-level international buzz. I began receiving inquiries from fans, collectors, and record labels, wanting to hear, purchase, or release this album. I was taken aback at the prospect. Although I felt the music and lyrics were very strong, none of us trio members had ever done any singing, and this demo album was never intended for release. I destroyed my copies, and for years successfully fended off inquiries.

But every few years, Eothen Alapatt of Now-Again Records would circle back, enthusiastically proclaiming the album’s musical importance and the passion and emotional immediacy of the trio’s untrained vocal cords. In 2020, I was prompted to give the project a relisten, and to my surprise, was struck by the freshness of the concept, passion of performance, and spirit of adventure on the album, and felt it was worthy of release, as long as the demo nature was made clear.

You'll find a digital download of The Name of the Terrain here. To listen to the album, go here...

Meredith d'Ambrosio will make a rare live public appearance on June 12 to sing accompanied by pianist Chris Taylor. If you're in the Boston-Cambridge area on June 12, see information above.

And finally, no song reminds me more of London in the late 1960s than Jackie Trent's Where Are You Now. The song she wrote with Tony Hatch was her only No. 1 single on the U.K. chart. Even though it was released by Pye in 1965, I remember hearing it on BBC's Radio 1 in 1968. There was a sound over there in the late 1960s that differed from the British invasion fare we heard here in the U.S., which was largely boy bands. Many of the best Brit hits were by female pop singers and lingered on themes of lost love, broken hearts and romantic yearning. In addition to Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw and Lulu, there was Jackie Trent. [Photo above of Jackie Trent in the 1960s]

Here's Jackie Trent's Where Are You Now...

Dick Hyman and Austin High Revisited

In 1922, five high-school teens started a jazz revolution. All attended Austin High School on Chicago's West Side and were mad about jazz—the jazz that was drawn to the city from New Orleans in 1920. That's because Prohibition led to bootlegging, organized crime, and speakeasies and clubs run by gangsters who needed dynamic, high-energy music to keep patrons drinking. The Austin High Gang, as they became known, loved New Orleans jazz but gave it a peppy bounce, making it ideal for dances like the Charleston. [Photo above from left, Frank Teschemacher, Jimmy and Dick McPartland, Bud and his brother,the actor Arny Freeman, in Chicago,1923]

The Austin High Gang consisted of Jim Lanigan on bass, Jimmy McPartland on cornet, his older brother Dick McPartland on banjo and guitar, Frank Teschemacher on alto saxophone, and Bud Freeman on C-melody saxophone and tenor saxophone. They began playing dance halls and events, and caught the ear of others who wanted to play the new sound: Guitarist Eddie Condon, drummers Gene Krupa and Dave Tough, clarinetist Frank Teschmacher and Pee Wee Russell, pianist Joe Sullivan and others.

Also attracted to the new jazz sound were heavy hitters Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols, Benny Goodman, Miff Mole, Jack Teagarden (above) and Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. All favored the hot sound rather than the sweet pop found in hotel ballrooms. By the late 1920s, many of the Austin High Gang had moved to New York and were recorded playing what became known as Chicago hot jazz.

In 1939, George Avakian was working for Decca and pushed to release and write the liner notes to jazz's first album—Decca Presents an Album of Chicago Jazz. It consisted of six 78s. Three bands were featured on the 78s: one led by Eddie Condon, one led by Jimmy McPartland, and one led by George Wettling. Each contributed four songs.

In 1992, Avakian decided to revisit the jazz style of his first album. The recording session he put together featured Dick Hyman (piano), Peter Ecklund and Dick Sudhalter (cornet), Jon-Erik Kellso (trumpet), Dan Barrett (trombone), Kenny Davern and Dan Levinson (clarinet), Ken Peplowski (tenor saxophone), Vince Giordano (bass saxophone), Howard Alden and Marty Grosz (banjo), Bob Haggart and Milt Hinton (bass) and Tony DeNicola and Arnie Kinsella (drums). [Photo above of George Avakian in the late 1940s by William P. Gottlieb]

After the recording session, Avakian's partner in the venture, Seymour Solomon, backed out, likely due to the project's mounting costs. Avakian paid for the album's recording out of pocket and then shopped it around to record labels. There weren't any takers, or at least there weren't any that were willing to make Avakian whole. So he shelved it.

In 2017, clarinetist and early-jazz master Dan Levinson visited an ailing Avakian at The Esplenade, an assisted-living facility on West End Avenue. He convinced Avakian to let him put out the album but told him that he doubted he'd be able to recoup Avakian's original expenses. Avakian said he didn't care about the money, only that music he loved from the start reached listener's ears. He gave Levinson his blessing. Avakian would die in November of that year.

In July 2020, Dick Hyman (above) called Levinson. He said he had been listening to Avakian's tape and raved about how good the music sounded. Freshly inspired, Levinson called Bryan Wright of Rivermont Records, who agreed to put it out. Now, 100 years after the Austin High Gang formed, 83 years after Avakian recorded his Chicago Jazz album for Decca, and 30 years after the Chicago jazz sound was revisited by three different all-star ensembles for a record that never was, the album will finally be released on July 15.

The music on the album—George Avakian Presents: One Step to Chicago, the Legacy of Frank Teschemacher and the Austin High Gang—is fantastic. Deliciously frantic and crazily contrapuntal, you can hear the joy of the era's youth. Women had just won the right to vote, body-hugging fashion was in vogue, faster dancing styles were surging and sexual freedom had arrived. Also baked into the raucous music is the sunny vision that emerged with the end of World War I and a U.S. economy that was beginning to surge.

The songs on Avakian's original 1939 Decca album were Nobody's Sweetheart, Friar's Point Shuffle, There'll Be Some Changes Made, Someday Sweetheart, China Boy, Jazz Me Blues, Sugar, The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise, Bugle Call Rag, I Wish I could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate, the Darktown Strutters' Ball and I've Found a New Baby.

The tracks on the new release recorded in 1992 are One Step to Heaven, Sugar (That Sugar Baby o' Mine), I've Found a New Baby, China Boy, Liza, Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble, The Darktown Strutters' Ball, Wabash Blues, Nobody's Sweetheart, The Jazz Me Blues, Baby Won't You Please Come Home, Wolverine Blues, Indiana and Farewell Blues.

As you can see, there's only a four-song overlap. I'm assuming this was to avoid mimicking the original and to give the three ensembles some room to spread its Austin High wings. The music reflects an era of hedonism, excess and happiness. I'm afraid we'll have to wait a bit longer for those feelings to return.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find George Avakian Presents; One Step to Chicago, the Legacy of Frank Teschemacher and the Austin High Gang (Rivermont) on July 15 here.

JazzWax clips: Proud to say that JazzWax was chosen by Rivermont to premiere a track from the upcoming album: Nobody's Sweetheart, which is available today at Spotify and other platforms. Here's the song (dig Dick Hyman!)...

Nobody's Sweetheart

Here's the original Decca Chicago Jazz version of the song by Eddie Condon and His Chicagoans...

And here's a segment on Bud Freeman and the rise of Chicago jazz...

Backgrounder: Os Tatuis, 1965

Jose Roberto Bertrami is best known for playing keyboards for Azymuth, a much heralded Brazilian trio that formed in 1972. The band mixed samba, bossa nova, jazz, folk and rock that was both timely and distinctly Brazilian. He also composed and arranged for Elis Regina, Mark Murphy, Joe Pass, Sarah Vaughan, Milton Nascimento, Airto, Flora Purim among others.

But in 1965, before Azymuth, Bertrami led a group called Os Tatius. At 19, he recorded Os Tatius, his first album. The sextet featured Bertrami (piano), Vasconcelos (tenor saxophone), Ivo Mendes (trumpet), Aresky Aratto (organ), Cláudio Henrique Bertrami (bass) and Elizeu de Campos (drums).

Here's the full album, ad-free...

To buy a reissue of the album from Far Out Recordings, go here.

Other ad-free Backgrounders in this series:

• Zoot Sims Plays Bossa Nova, go here.
• Lee Morgan: Lee-Way, go here.
• Bossa Nova for Swinging Lovers, go here.
• Leon Spencer: Louisiana Slim, go here.
• Bossa Nova Modern Quartet: Bossa Nova Jazz Samba, go here.
• Bill Evans & Luiz Eça: Piano Four Hands, go here.
• Ray Brown Trio: Don't Get Sassy, go here.

Count, Duke, Stan, Harry, Gerald and Tubby in '65

Thought to be an endangered species in 1965 with the rise of Beatlemania, big bands staged something of a comeback. Most of their acclaim came on tours in Europe and and on TV, but the truth is that bands led by top names were undergoing a renaissance. With their kids in college or out of the house and rock starting to dominate the culture, many older listeners in the U.S. began paying attention again to artists who had shaped their youth. Abroad, a generation of young adults marveled at the power and swing of touring bands they had only heard on records or read about.

Here are videos of six spectacular big-band performances in 1965. Judge for yourself...

Here's Count Basie in London...

Here's Duke Ellington in Copenhagen...

Here's Stan Kenton in Chicago...

Here's part 1 of Harry James in Chicago...

Here's part 2...

Here's Gerald Wilson...

And finally, here's the Tubby Hayes Big Band in the U.K....

Frans Elsen Septet: 'Norway,' 1972 and '73

One of the earliest jazz uses of the Fender Rhodes electric piano was in 1968, when Herbie Hancock played it on Miles Davis's Miles in the Sky. He may have come to the instrument through the Columbia record label. CBS bought the Fender Rhodes company in 1965 and began manufacturing a full-size keyboard. By the early 1970s, the Rhodes was ubiquitous, especially among pioneering fusion players such as Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, George Duke and Joe Sample. Even acoustic players like Bill Evans, Bob James, Harold Mabern and Les McCann recorded on the bell-toned instrument. 

Abroad, one of the masters of the Fender Rhodes in the early 1970s was composer-arranger Frans Elsen of the Netherlands. Influenced by Herbie Hancock's use of the keyboard on his sextet album Mwandishi (1971), Elsen set to work on The Norwegian Cycle, a suite inspired by his July 1970 trip to Norway. The songs in the cycle were named after towns Elsen had visited: Harpefoss, Ringebu, Skabu and Otta. The music was melodic and funky, and recorded and performed by Elsen's septet in 1972 and '73 before the concept and band were folded. [Photo above of Frans Elsen, courtesy of the Netherlands Jazz Archive]

All of this music can now be heard on a new Netherlands Jazz Archive import release entitled Septet Frans Elsen: Norway, Featuring Piet Noordijk. The previously unreleased material was recorded in four different settings. The septet featured Elsen on Fender Rhodes, Piet Noordijk on alto saxophone, Eddie Engels on trumpet and flugelhorn, Wim Overgaauw on guitar, Rob Langereis on bass guitar, Eric Ineke on drums and Wim van der Beek on percussion.

The first session was held at NCRV Studio in Hilversum in May 1972. The second session was recorded during a radio concert in Hilversum in June 1973. Ferdinand Povel joined the group on tenor saxophone and flute along with Victor Kaihatu on bass guitar, while Overgaauw and Langereis were out. Next on the release are two live tracks, one recorded at a jazz festival in Loosdrecht in August 1972, with Langereis out and Kaihatu on bass in. The other was recorded at Theater Pepijn, in The Hague in April 1972, with Overgaauw and Langereis out and Kaihatu in. [Photo above of saxophonist Piet Noordijk and Frans Elsen in the rear]

This album as a concept listen is fusion moody, rhythmic and wonderfully lyrical. It's really meant to be consumed from start to finish, as an adventure with Elsen's Fender Rhodes as tour guide. His playing is deeply rooted in the American jazz-funk expression on the instrument, letting the electric notes ring and creating expansive textures with chords. Discovering albums like this one once again reminds me how much great jazz there is out there in countries all over the world. One almost wishes for multiple lifetimes just to consume it all. Hats off to the Netherlands Jazz Archives for releasing this music.

Frans Elsen died in 2011.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Septet Frans Elsen: Norway, Featuring Piet Noordijk (NJA) here (CD) and here (vinyl). 

JazzWax clips: Here's Frank Jochemsen of the Netherlands Jazz Archive in a mini-doc talking about the music. Activate English subtitles by clicking on the "CC" icon along the bottom of the YouTube screen...

And here's Ringebu from the album...

Ringebu

Bonus: Here's Elsen on piano playing The Best Thing for You backed by the Metropole Orchestra playing his arrangement of the song in 1993...

Wait, there's more. The Netherlands Jazz Archive found Elsen's original arrangements and has started a new group in cooperation with the septet's original drummer, Eric Ineke. The project is "Norway Revisited," and the label recorded the Norwegian suite with Eric Ineke & the Frans Elsen Factor in January at a small church in Holland. Go here...

This project will be featured at the North Sea Jazz Festival this summer, and at several other jazz festivals. To learn more, go here.

And lastly, here's the original Frans Elsen Septet in 1972...

Andrea Brachfeld & Insight: 'Evolution'

One of the finest jazz flutists around today is Andrea Brachfeld. She studied with Hubert Laws, Jimmy Heath and George Coleman, among others, and has released 10 CDs as a leader. Andrea's latest, with Insight, her trio, is Evolution (Origin). And what a trio it is: pianist Bill O'Connell, bassist Harvie S and drummer Jason Tiemann. [Photo above of Andrea Brachfeld by Nick Carter, courtesy of Andrea Brachfeld]

After hearing Andrea's beautiful playing on Evolution, I reached out for an email interview. To fully understand Andrea's grace, spiritual energy and flowing technique, I wanted to know everything about her—what she went through growing up and the stakes she faced as she pushed to become the fluid and soulful player she is today.

Before you read my interview with Andrea, listen to Decimation Of Transformation from Evolution...

Now that you've had a taste, here's my e-conversation with Andrea...

JazzWax: Where did you grow up?
Andrea Brachfeld: My first recollection of my surroundings was in Williamstown, Mass. We had a dog named Laddie that jumped rope with me, and my older sister taught me how to read when I was 4. Then we moved to Spring Valley, N.Y. I also have a younger sister and two younger brothers. I was in the middle. [Photo above, from left, Bill O'Connell, Harvie S, Andrea and Jason Tiemann by Nick Carter, courtesy of Andrea Brachfeld]

JW: Were your parents musical?
AB: No, they weren’t, though my father listened to classical music all the time.
I was told to practice the piano. I had no idea why.

JW: What did your parents do for a living?
AB: My dad was a linguistics professor at NYU and my mom was a homemaker. Growing up, I felt very disconnected from both parents. They provided food, shelter and did what good parents were supposed to do. But as a very sensitive and intuitive child, I felt they had no idea who I was inside. The few times I shared who I was with them, I was immediately discouraged and told I didn't know what I was talking about. In retrospect, they were both equally strict.

JW: What about your grandmother?
AB: She understood me. I could be myself and relax around her and be creative. I could speak about my feelings and I felt loved by her unconditionally. She lived in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn. We often went out there on weekends.

JW: When did you start on piano?
AB: I started playing piano when I was six. The teacher told my mom that I had a terrific sense of rhythm and that I’d be able to play jazz. I don’t remember any reaction on the part of my parents.

JW: Did you enjoy piano lessons?
AB: No, I didn’t like playing or practicing. At that point in my life, all I wanted to do was ride my bicycle and play sports. Then I was introduced to the flute in grade school when I was 10. The enticement for me was that I'd get out of class for the lessons in the school music program. Classes were boring, so flute lessons sounded wonderful.

JW: When did you start listening to jazz and why?
ABA: When I was 15, a friend turned me on to Eric Dolphy. But as I think about it, my first exposure to jazz actually came earlier, while watching all those Merrie Melodies cartoons with brassy, syncopated music. I loved my alone time early in the morning when no one was awake and could watch those cartoons and hear the terrific music.

JW: How did you wind up at the High School of Music and Art?
AB: My dad took me to audition. I wasn’t part of that conversation or decision. I brought my flute. When we arrived, I played piano. The panel liked what they heard but said there were too many pianists already attending. They asked me to play the flute, which I did. I was accepted. At the time, I wasn’t aware of the school’s huge reputation or the stakes, so I wasn’t nervous or anything.

JW: What was it about the flute that connected with your soul?
AB: Initially, I connected with the flute because I had chosen it, so there was no pressure to practice. As my sound became better and more pure in high school, I was able to play how I was feeling. That was probably the first experience of being connected to my soul. [Photo above of Andrea Brachfeld by Jerry Lacay, courtesy of Andrea Brachfeld]

JW: Did you fit in at Music and Art?
AB: That is a great question. No one has ever asked me that before. When I entered Music and Art in the ninth grade, I had just come back from living a year in Paris. My dad had been brought up in Paris and took a sabbatical from NYU so we could experience France for a year. The entire family went—the five of us. I wasn’t happy to go, since by then I was 13 and just wanted to be with my friends.

JW: Did Paris leave an impression?
AB: I don’t think I really appreciated all that I saw until later in my life. I was too young to be aware of discovering new sides of myself. It was all very new and at times very challenging, since I didn’t speak French when we arrived there.

JW: How was 8th grade there?
AB: At first it was tough, but I adjusted. In a couple of months, I began to understand and speak some French. We had a lot of family there so it was fun to spend time with them. How I became such a snob in such a short period of time, is beyond me.

JW: How so?
AB: Back in New York, after starting Music and Art, I was appalled at first by the crazy and loose behavior of the students. Remember, this was 1969 and the youth culture was in flux with the Vietnam war, drugs and the sexual revolution. It certainly took a couple of months to get in the groove. I made some friends and settled in. [Photo above of Andrea Brachfeld, courtesy of Andrea Brachfeld]

JW: How many hours did you practice flute?
AB: Eight hours a day. When I was 16, I knew I was destined to be a musician and to play the flute. My life was in shambles then, and the flute gave me an opportunity to create a world that was full of harmony and peace.

JW: Shambles?
AB: My parents had just divorced. Although I grew up in a very dysfunctional family, it was the family I was used to. When my parents divorced, it upset the then fragile familial system we had. There had been many arguments, which fueled my passion to create a musical world, so I’m grateful for that.

JW: When did you start taking workshops at New York’s Jazzmobile, which put on free concerts at the city’s parks and held jazz workshops in Harlem?
AB: At 17. Saxophonist Jimmy Heath was such a nice person and a great musician. He was welcoming in his class and aware of how much I wanted to play jazz. He always treated me with kindness and respect. [Photo above of Andrea Brachfeld, courtesy of Andrea Brachfeld]

JW: What were those classes like?
AB: We’d play tunes and he shared his knowledge. Most of it was totally over my head at the time, but I retained everything and knew one day I’d understand what he was talking about. I still have the mimeographed papers and now I finally understand. He was very encouraging, as were pianist Billy Taylor and bassist Paul West.

JW: Then you attended Jazz Interactions.Where was it located?
AB: Jazz Interactions was on 77th street, off Amsterdam Avenue, and held in a local public school. Joe and Rigmor Newman created the program and had jazz greats Barry Harris and Yusef Lateef there. There were other artists as well. Jazzmobile felt more personalized, but maybe that was Jimmy’s vibe.

JW: With your parents divorced, did you face financial hardship?
AB: Definitely. I was left with no support whatsoever to go to the college of my choice. I could have gone to NYU where my father taught, but there was no real music program there at the time. My mother wanted me to go to Brooklyn College, but there wasn’t much of a music program there either. When I told them I was going to the Manhattan School of Music, they said I was on my own. I quickly became a very serious student.

JW: How so?
AB: I had the sense at that point that it would require hours of practice to truly learn to play the flute, So I practiced about 4 or 5 hours a day.

JW: Were you parents worried about your interest in jazz?
AB: I have no recollection of them being worried as they weren't really involved in my life. My parents were very preoccupied with themselves and didn’t have many tools as parents. Their problems as a couple overshadowed the family unit. My two youngest siblings were from my dad's second marriage. [Photo above of Andrea Brachfeld, courtesy of Andrea Brachfeld]

JW: How was the Manhattan School of Music?
AB: By the time I went to college, I was on my own and had very little guidance as to what I should do in life. Pretty much the only thing I was sure about was that I was supposed to play the flute. By then, I had received my first award from Jazz Interactions—the Louis Armstrong Scholarship Award—which was accompanied by a scholarship to go to Boston's Berklee School of Music. I inquired at Berklee to see if they had a flute teacher. They did not, so I decided to go to Manhattan, which decreased my scholarship by half.

JW: What was your thinking at the time?
AB: That I needed to learn how to play the flute before I could play any kind of music. I took one semester of repertoire orchestra, which I didn’t like, and then just participated in the school’s jazz ensemble. I was blessed to study with Harold Bennett, who was open to me playing jazz but nevertheless required that I learn the classical repertoire.

JW: You also studied with Hubert Laws?
AB: Hubert was known as the finest jazz flutist, so it was fantastic to study with him. I didn't take too many lessons, but I still maintain a collegial friendship with him to this day. I also still have everything he gave me. I also took a couple of lessons with saxophonist George Coleman. Even though he didn't play the flute, he did teach me a lot about playing jazz. Both artists had something unique to offer me as a student, and I appreciated and respected them both immensely.

JW: How did you wind up playing in a charanga band?
AB: I was at Manhattan’s Tin Palace, on the Bowery and Second Street, where my friend Lloyd McNeil was playing. He asked me to sit in, which I did, and Mauricio Smith was in the audience. Mauricio came up to me after and asked if I was working. I responded that I was, but not enough. He told me he could turn me on to a charanga band. I had no idea what that was, but I said sure.

JW: What happened next?
AB: At the end of the first charanga gig, I told the musicians that they were playing all weird. They laughed and told me I was the one playing weird. I pretty much just jumped in, used my ear, showed up on time and ended up playing charanga music. At the time, I was very open to playing all types of music. It wasn’t a difficult transition. The essence of music is really the same. The Latino culture was very welcoming and generous, so I was lucky to be surrounded by amazing music and great players.

JW: Which albums helped you figure out the charanga rhythm and groove?
AB: At the time, I was listening to a lot of Orquesta Aragon and Richard Egües. I think I basically figured it out on the gig.

JW: When did you move to Venezuela and why?
AB: In 1980, I received a phone call from Renato Capriles, the owner of Los Melodicos in Venezuela. He asked me to come down and play. At that time, I didn't understand Spanish and couldn't speak it. The leader of Charanga '76 told me to expect a call from Renato. He became the intermediary as Renato and I discussed the details. What Renato did was create a big band around me and we toured all over Venezuela.

JW: When did you return to New York?
AB: In 1982. I had met my first husband in Venezuela and was pregnant with our daughter. Soon after I returned, we separated, and I mostly raised my daughter on my own. During that time, I played only local gigs. When she turned 15, I realized she wasn't home a lot and didn't need me as much. So I started to compose. I called Dave Valentin and asked if I could play him my music. Dave and I had attended Music and Art together and had played charanga gigs in the 70's.

JW: What did you hope Dave could do for you?
AB: I went to his house and played him the music with the hope he’d record some of my tunes. He said he really wasn't interested, as he had his own music. He suggested I record my own music. So I did and that was my first CD, Remembered Dreams. Dave was a good friend throughout the years, and we played a lot together and kept in touch.

JW: Were you playing and practicing all those years in between?
AB: While I was bringing up my daughter, I played a lot but didn't practice. When she left for college, I started my routine again, practicing six hours a day. My daughter studied politics and played several instruments, though she isn’t a professional musician today. We are still close. I moved to Baltimore to help with my two grandsons. We have a very healthy and close relationship.

JW: How did you wind up becoming such an exceptional flute player?
AB: I appreciate you saying that but I'm not sure I’d use that adjective to describe me. Playing the flute was a necessity to live and to survive. Once I started to learn how to actually play, I was able to create my world of peace and harmony. I played how I felt, I played my reaction to life, I played my struggles and my joys and I hoped that someone would hear me and like what I played enough to hire me so I could eat and pay my rent.

JW: Didn’t you feel that way about your playing before?
AB: When I was 16, I felt I wasn’t playing the flute but that the flute was being played by me or maybe by something else. The drive and ambition I had to practice and sound good was fueled by survival. It’s a gift to be able to hear what sounds good. Otherwise, one would not be able to improve. Today, I feel that for me, there is now a very thin veil between the material and the spiritual world. In addition to being open to the universal musical energies and the universal musical intelligence, I find that one needs to dig deep into the past to understand where jazz came from. I've also found that it's necessary to understand the jazz culture and the people who were playing it.

JW: So interesting, about understanding the artists.
AB: If one wants to play music that’s outside one's culture, there needs to be a profound respect for the people who played it in the past and are playing it now. As a very sensitive, intuitive person, I was blessed with being able to hear the nuances, rhythm, harmonies and inflections of the music at the heart level, not on an intellectual level. That came later. To be able to progress in your craft, you need to spend time observing, feeling and understanding the music, and then be alone to absorb it all.

JW: What about reaching inside?
AB: Of course, there also is the process of accessing the information from deep inside your soul and from your past that help you round out your soul's purpose. I also believe that when you’re in touch with your soul, it’s easier to be open to hearing knowledge, which comes in so many forms and from so many people. I have been truly blessed to have been around and continue to be around such amazing musicians and people. I learn from everyone and everything. Then as I process the information, I decide what feels right and perhaps store the information I don't understand until a later time. All of what I've said contributes to being a better musician and a better person every day.

JW: What would you say are the ingredients for anyone who wants to become better than they are on the flute?
AB: I think one needs to be open to knowledge, to the tidbits of information and the signs one receives to progress and become better. If I hadn't received outside validation from playing the flute, I'm not sure I would have continued. It's important to be aware of how people feel about you and your music and their reactions when you play.

JW: For the music to sound great, it seems it must come from a special place inside. Otherwise, the flute will sound cold and rote, yes?
AB: Oh yes. It’s definitely a journey to the inner core of your being. The mechanics of playing the flute may be easy, but to find your sound you need to dig deep and access that pureness of spirit where you are no longer playing but the music is being played through you.

JW: Easy to do?
AB: You must learn to get out of your own way so it can come out easily. One needs an enormous amount of courage to be that vulnerable to uncover years of senseless chatter that may have impeded you to play yourself. One needs to let go of the ego so the pureness of your soul can connect with the divine breath.

JW: For those who are learning about you for the first time here and are falling in love with your new album, which five albums of yours would you want them to hear next?
AB: It’d say If Not Now, When?, Brazilian Whispers, Lady of the Island, Lotus Blossom and Songs From the Divine, a meditation CD.

JW: What’s your big musical dream?
AB: I think I've already realized my big musical dream by playing with my current group. We’re looking forward to booking tours.

JazzWax tracks: Andrea Brachfeld & Insight's Evolution (Origin) here.

Global bookers looking to reach Andrea and Insight, go here.

JazzWax clips: Here's What's Up from Evolution..

Tracy, Orson and Sacha

In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed Tracy Letts for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Tracy is quite extraordinary. In addition to a prolific acting career (many top films and TV series), he is the author of August: Osage County (2013) and the winner of a Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award. He was just in HBO's Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, one of the year's finest streaming series, and his latest play, The Minutes, is on Broadway. [Photo above of Tracy Letts courtesy of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre]

To give you a sense of Tracy's acting career, here are a few of his superb performances:

Here's Tracy as Henry Ford II in Ford v Ferrari (2019)...

Here's Tracy as the dad in Lady Bird (2017)...

Here's Tracy in Showtime's Homeland as Senator Andrew Lockhart...

Here's Tracy in HBO's Winning Time as Lakers' coach Jack McKinney...

And here's Tracy in Seinfeld, in the window at "Horsetrack Betting." Move the space bar to 1:32...

Good vibrations. Photo above of legendary vibist and bandleader Terry Gibbs, right, who recently welcomed an old friend, Fresh Sounds owner-producer Jordi Pujol, to his home. They go back many years.

More good vibrations. Vocalist-pianist Meredith d'Ambrosio, left, sent along the above photo of her and pianist, composer, arranger and singer Bob Dorough in the 1980s when they both performed at a jazz festival in Bordeaux, France.

Ray Brown. Last week after my Backgrounder post on the Ray Brown Trio's 1994 album Don't Get Sassy, I heard from Kim Paris of the FM Radio Archive:

Hi Marc, thanks for your JazzWax Backgrounder on the Ray Brown Trio's Don't Get Sassy. For your listening pleasure, I can offer two broadcast recordings on FM Radio Archive featuring Ray Brown.

The first features the same trio—Ray Brown, Benny Green and Jeff Hamilton—at Yoshi's in 1993. Go here.

The second is Ray Brown with the Charlie Parker All Stars, live at the 1980 Chicago Jazz Festival, celebrating what would have been Parker's 60th birthday. Big thanks to Marc Rabin, who shared both recordings from his collection. Go here.

Bill Evans. Kim Paris also sent along a 1975 Bill Evans Trio concert from Épalinges, Switzerland, with Eddie Gomez on bass and Eliot Zigmund on drums. The recording is from Swiss public broadcasting network Radio Television Suisse (RTS). Go here. [Photo above of Bill Evans courtesy of Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid / Elemental Music]

The Pied Pipers. Jonathan Kahn sent along a link to a recording of the Pied Pipers in 1945 singing In the Middle of May, a nifty tune with the Paul Weston Orchestra. Go here...

Jackie Paris had a big ego, as we know from Raymond De Felitta's documentary Tis Autumn: The Search for Jackie Paris. We also know the jazz singer was a handful and, according to subjects interviewed, he "rubbed people the wrong way." Several weeks ago I found the photo above of Paris and then wife and singing partner Anne Marie Moss. Upon looking at the back of the photo, I couldn't help but notice that the photographer or newspaper editor had a comment of his own: "royal pain." (Hard to imagine it says "royal pair.")

Jazz scribes. Pianist Michael Weiss sent along a link to a YouTube clip that features jazz writers-producers Ira Gitler, Dan Morgenstern, Don Schlitten and David Himmelstein on New York's WBAI in 1964. Wow, they sound like kids. Go here...

Orson Welles. Director Raymond De Felitta writes on film at Movie 'Til Dawn and posts podcast interviews that he has conducted with directors here. Last week he alerted me to a cool YouTube interview excerpt that director Orson Welles gave in 1958. Go here...

Nancy Harrow. Want to make a really hip Greenwich Village scene? I mean, like one of those happenings from the early 1960s? If you're in New York, you're in luck. Two plays will feature the music of legendary vocalist Nancy Harrow. The plays are Three Sisters and About Love. Performances will run through June 5 at the Sheen Center on Bleecker and Elizabeth streets. Will Pomerantz adapted About Love from a short story called First Love by Ivan Turgenev, and the adaptation of Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov is also his work. He directs both plays.

Nancy told me that the songs she wrote for Three Sisters are A Storm Is Brewing and Can’t Say Goodbye. These have never been recorded, she said. The other songs that are sung in the production are ones she previously recorded on albums. They will be sung by the actors. In About Love, the music is almost all instrumental except for Happy Days, a song she wrote originally for my Lost Lady album recorded with pianist Dick Katz.

The on-stage quartet for Three Sisters features Misha Josephs on guitar, Frederika Krier on violin, Jared Engel on bass and Steve Picataggio on drums. A trio on stage for About Love is comprised of the same musicians, minus the drums. For more information, go here.

Nancy's latest album is Partners II: I Don’t Know What Kind of Blues I’ve Got compiled during the pandemic. Go here.

Dave Thompson has a little something for you on the piano—Very Early. Go here...

DAVID THOMPSON · Very Early

And finally, here's France's Joëlle (above) and Sacha Distel in the 1970s singing I Can't Live Without You...

Who Was Art Hodes?

Born in 1904 in what today is Ukraine, Art Hodes and his family left the country soon after, likely following a violent wave of attacks against Jewish families in their town. After docking in New York, they settled in Chicago, where a young Hodes began playing blues piano in the city's clubs. When Hodes was 24, in 1938, he moved to New York, where his reputation took off.

Here are a series of Chicago TV shows in 1969 that featured Hodes [pronounced HO-dees] and his band, courtesy of Ian R. Mackenzie, who found the YouTube links:

Here's Part 1 of Hodes on Chicago's public television station...

Here's Part 2...

And here's another, with Bud Freeman on tenor saxophone...