"Jazz Inside" - October 2011

Kenny Wheeler, trumpeter, composer, is featured in the October 2011 issue of Jazz Inside Magazine. This 64-page edition also features interviews with saxophonists George Braith, Sonny Simmons, Rabbi Greg Wall and 95 year old arranger, composer Russ Garcia. There are also performance reviews of the Ron Carter Big Band and Vijay Iyer Trio, CD reviews, articles to delight your jazz palette, and 16 pages of New York jazz activities.

The October 2011 issue of Jazz Inside Magazine (64 pages), available free in print and as a down-loadable digital edition, and designed for jazz lovers worldwide - features trumpeter, composer Kenny Wheeler. This issue also includes interviews with saxophonists George Braith, Sonny Simmons, Rabbi Greg Wall , and arranger-composer Russ Garcia . This issue also includes ample CD reviews, performance reviews of the Ron Carter Big Band and Vijay Iyer Trio, and much more jazz to delight your jazz palette.

In the interview with Kenny Wheeler, the trumpeter and composer, who has recorded and performed with Dave Holland, Lee Konitz, Keith Jarrett, John Taylor, Jack DeJohnette, Jürgen Friedrich (on his debut album for Creed Taylor's CTI label, "Summerflood") and many others, commented on playing inside and out: "I felt that the free music was kind of loosening up my straight-ahead playing – and my straight ahead playing was tightening up the free music a bit."

Kenny also commented on the how the quality of his performance impacts his outlook: "…sometimes if I get a little bit stressed out, and don’t play good, then that can depress me. I can handle everything else if I play good on the gig."

He went on to add his perspective about what a review can do: “A bad review will make you feel bad for maybe a week, but a good review only makes you feel good for the next day - and that’s it.”

George Braith, 72, is best known for playing multiple reed instruments simultaneously and for inventing the Braithophone - two different horns (straight alto and soprano) mended together by extensions, valves and connections to form a double horn with different bells on the end. He recorded for Blue Note Records in the 1960s and played with John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and many others.

Braith told about his developing association with Coltrane after meeting in San Francisco in the early 1960s. “When [Coltrane] found out about the two-horn playing he said, ‘You’ve got to come to my house.’ We were in San Francisco at the Jazz Workshop and I went and sat in with him … He wired out 75 dollars right away and I headed to New York [in 1967] while I was trembling”

Braith had the opportunity to work with recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder during his series of recordings for Blue Note in the 1960s. "Rudy Van Gelder? … was always very secretive ... He’d go in the booth and wouldn’t want anybody to see what he was doing … His dials were set differently for Prestige than they were for Blue Note. We had a wonderful relationship.”

Composer-arranger Russ Garcia, now 95 and living in New Zealand, had a busy career in Hollywood. He composed music for TV and film, and for numerous big bands and singers including Sarah Vaughn, Mel Torme and many others, in addition to working as the A&R Director for Verve Records. He discusses his career and close association with Oscar Peterson.

“Sarah Vaughn had perfect pitch, so I started the arrangement of ‘My Ship’ with no one playing in back of her ... As we started rehearsing this, the great arranger Billy May walked into the booth, and seeing the whole big orchestra not playing, he switched on the intercom and said, ‘Hey, Russ. Is this what you get twenty dollars a page for?’”

“Once in Europe, we were backstage and Miles would play the first chorus and walk off stage, letting Coltrane play for 8 or 10 minutes and then Miles would walk on and play the last chorus. Oscar said, ‘Come on, Miles. These people didn’t pay 60 dollars a ticket just for a quick glimpse of your new Italian suit. Get out there and play for them.’”
Download here: http://jazzinsidemagazine.com/publications/guide/october-2011

Performance Reviews by Shannon Effinger include coverage of Ron Carter's Big Band at the Jazz Standard and Vijay Iyer Trio.

The CD Reviews section includes coverage of recordings by Bobby Broom, Jerry Costanzo, Carmen Cuesta, Tim Horner, Sachal Vasandani, Kenny Werner, Chip White, Ben Williams, Westchester Jazz Orchestra, Phil Woods & Bill Mays

Comprehensive monthly calendar and event listings for the number one jazz market in the world - New York - span 16 pages.
Download here: http://jazzinsidemagazine.com/publications/guide/october-2011

Jazz Inside Magazine is published monthly and is also available in print, free at 200 locations around the New York metro area, and by paid subscription for jazz fans.
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Interview With Saxophonist George Braith in Jazz Inside Magazine, October 2011

“When [Coltrane] found out about the two-horn playing he said, ‘You’ve got to come to my house.’ We were in San Francisco at the Jazz Workshop and I went and sat in with him … He wired out 75 dollars right away and I headed to New York [in 1967] while I was trembling”

This is an excerpt from the interview and photo by Ken Weiss with saxophonist George Braith in the October issue of Jazz Inside Magazine. Download the entire issue here:
http://maildogmanager.com/link.html?url=350&client=jazzinsidetv&campaign=220

George Braith, 72, is best known for playing multiple reed instruments simultaneously and for inventing the Braithophone - two different horns (straight alto and soprano) mended together by extensions, valves and connections to form a double horn with different bells on the end. Braith’s music has featured an unusual repertoire of original compositions, popular tunes such as “Poinciana” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” along with an original flare and robust playing. Born George Braithwaite on June 27, 1939 in New York, the youngest of 9 children to parents from the West Indies, he was encouraged to play music from an early age. Braith played clarinet and alto saxophone in junior high school, later adding bassoon and flute, and formed a band in the Catskills that included drummer Pete Sims (LaRoca) during high school.

Formal training continued at the Manhattan School of Music. Braith’s exploration on dual horns began in 1961 and the first Braithophone was created in 1976. He recorded three well-received albums for Blue Note between 1963-64, all of which included guitarist Grant Green and organ, and led dates for Prestige later in the decade. He also recorded as a sideman for organist Big John Patton. Additionally, Braith made an important contribution to the New York jazz scene by opening his own performance space, Musart, in 1966. Located on Spring Street, it allowed many of New York’s future stars to sharpen their craft and find work. Although his major label recorded output slowed after the ‘60s, he continues to perform and release recordings on the Japanese King Records label and over the past 10 years, by way of his own record company, Excellence Records. He’s also been busy perfecting his signature instrument, the Braithophone, which will soon be in production.

Jazz Inside: Playing two horns at once has forever linked you with Rahsaan Roland Kirk. What was your relationship with him?

George Braith: I first met him that night he came and played at the Purple Manor and we hit it off very good. He was blind and I had a straight alto that I used to play and he had this horn that he called a stritch. I said, “Hey man, that horn is exactly the same horn I have except that somebody put a trombone bell on it.” He said, “No man, no.” I was looking right at it, it was an alto with a trombone bell. So we had that little argument over the years. He insisted it was a different horn and I told him I wasn’t going to argue with him. He got a little salty when Blue Note signed me and he started telling critics stuff but we broke bread and had a good time the last time I saw him when he was at the [Village] Vanguard before he passed away. I admire him and he encouraged me a lot. I appreciated his talent and what he could do, not only on saxophone and flute, he was a fantastic player. There was competition, there’s competition all over the place, in all fields, right? Everybody was competing; some guys compete at a different level. Take someone like Coltrane. He was a very loving guy. He’d compete but he’d like to find out what was going on. When he found out about the two-horn playing he said, “You’ve got to come to my house.” We were in San Francisco at the Jazz Workshop and I went and sat in with him one Sunday and he was all like [worked up]. He said, “I’ve got to get you to come to my house.” I said, ‘Look, I’m out here and I can’t come to your house right now.’ He said, “I’m flying home tonight, here’s my number, call me and tell me how much it cost to get you to come to my house.” So I called him and I said it would be 75 dollars and in those days that was a lot of money. He wired out 75 dollars right away and I headed to New York [in 1967] while I was trembling – ‘Oh, my goodness, Coltrane!’ He used to make my hands freeze. I’d go down to Birdland to hear him play and all of a sudden my hands felt [frozen]. This guy was so tremendous that he would just freeze you, wow! He was a great gentleman. We finally got together and played for hours.

JI: You were recorded by the legendary Rudy Van Gelder. He wasn’t known as a great fan of the avant-garde, and I’m not saying that you fit that category, but you played the two horns at times. What was his response to your playing?

GB: Rudy Van Gelder? He’s a heck of a technician and was always very secretive about what he was doing in the booth. He’d go in the booth and wouldn’t want anybody to see what he was doing with his dials or anything like that. His dials were set differently for Prestige than they were for Blue Note. We had a wonderful relationship

JI: I have a quote about you from one of the musicians that you play with at times- violinist Fiidla. He said, “He’s part Sun Ra, part Sonny Rollins and part Miles Davis. His sense of rhythm is so advanced that I knew the tunes but after hearing him play them, I had never heard them before.”

GB: That’s what he said, huh? What would you like me to say?

JI: It was so nice, I really just wanted you to hear it.

GB: That’s an interesting compliment, if he hears it that way, I can’t deny. I study music and I play all the time and I write songs. It’s my life. Of course, I would like to be top shelf and want everybody to appreciate it. I try to put out love and hope to get it back.

JI: Lou Donaldson served an important role in your career. How did that strong relationship come about and exactly how did he help you?

GB: Lou Donaldson and Babs Gonzales recommended me to the Alfred Lion and that was great. Like I said, I grew up in the Bronx and right around the corner was a jazz club called Freddie’s and Lou Donaldson used to work there all the time and I’d see him and he’d give me advice. Also, I used to play gigs that he was on. When I was 15, there was a club downtown called The Pad and they would have contests every week and the band that would win would play opposite the cats Sunday afternoon. My band would win and we’d play opposite Bud Powell, Lou Donaldson, Art Blakey’s Messengers and Horace Silver’s group. My band had Pete La Roca on drums, John Maher on piano, Vincent McEwan on trumpet, Bill Salter on bass and Barry Rogers sometimes on trombone. I always had my band working someplace. Fridays and Saturdays I’d be doing some dance or some club. There were many things going on in those days, there were at least 30 different happenings going on. Now you can find maybe 6. There was really a scene when I was coming up, it was really marvelous. The music was beautiful, there was no avant-garde, there was no “out” stuff, at least until Ornette Coleman comes with this stuff but I’ll leave that alone. We had structure but his music was eccentric at that time, it kind of baffled everybody and we wondered why he couldn’t come and play regular, traditional music, which he still hasn’t done. I’m not saying that you’ve got to be able to do that because you’ve got guys like Frank Wright and Cecil Taylor. He tried but then you can hear why he chose to do what he did. There’s the record with Cecil and Kenny Dorham where they play “Just Friends.” Maybe he should play that because he sounded better playing that then when he came in. There was a problem there so there may be problems. I’m not against that, it’s good because I like analyzing music. That’s the enjoyment of music, it’s fun to analyze it but if it gets too challenging, the bells stop ringing. A song should grow just like a flower, it should flower. When a singer sings a song, the bells are ringing. There’s three parts of music, there’s rhythm, harmony and melody. The general public is into rhythm, when you get too much into harmony and melody you lose ninety percent of them. So that’s the problem with the progression of jazz, we lost them a long time ago. Guys like Bird played so pretty, I don’t know how he lost them. I guess it’s in the ear of the beholder. You hear something that is beautiful and you say, ‘Wow! That is fantastic,’ and somebody else doesn’t hear it, it just goes “thuuup,” right through their ears.

JI: You made three strong recordings for Blue Note Records in the early ‘60s. Each of the recordings featured the same format with you on horns along with an organ trio. What attracted you to that grouping?

GB: That’s the band I had working with me, we did 125,000 miles up and down the road working. It was great.