Monday, November 12, 2007

JazzTimes, November 2007


FEATURES

COVER STORY
Roy Haynes: I’m Not a Metronome
Talk about living history—Roy Haynes played drums behind Bird, Monk, Prez, Sassy, Trane and Satchmo, too! Bassman Christian McBride asks the questions.

Sonny Rollins: Colossus Comes Home
To mark the 50th anniversary of his historic Carnegie Hall debut, Sonny Rollins returned to the venue in September for a once-in-a-lifetime trio performance. Photographer John Abbott had exclusive access to shoot the story behind the show.


Do The Write Thing: Drummer-Composers Trade Their Sticks for Pens
Someone forgot to tell Paul Motian, Jack DeJohnette, Jeff “Tain” Watts and many other drummers that writing is the job for their harmonic/melodic bandmates. Josef Woodard reports.

Latin Jazz: The Latin Tinge
Latin jazz is a continually growing phenomenon, as musicians from the Americas and beyond recast the boundaries. Bill Meredith chats with several Latin bandleaders who are defining the music’s future.

Louie Bellson: The Go-To Guy
Louie Bellson pounded the skins for Ellington, Goodman and dozens of other jazz greats. Now 83—and still drumming—the legend gives Don Heckman a tour of his life.


DEPARTMENTS
At HomeJeff "Tain" Watts
Audio FilesMike Quinn on turntables and vinyl reissues.
Before & AfterMatt Wilson
Cadenzaby Gary Giddins
Final Chorusby Nat Hentoff
GearheadParker PJ14N guitar, Eastman El Rey ER2 guitar, plus Gig Bag
NewsJohn Scofield, Dee Dee Bridgewater, David King & Happy Apple, Jazz Icons DVDs, Stacey Kent, Harlem Experiment, Max Roach tribute, news and farewells and more.
Soloby Josef Woodard
The Gigby Nate Chinen

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Representando o Brasil, o CD "Muiza Adnet Sings Moacir Santos" recebeu fartos elogios do crítico Christopher Loundon, que não poupou as deficiências do equivocado álbum "The New Bossa Nova", de Luciana Souza, musicalmente dirigido por seu marido, o baixista e excelente produtor Larry Klein (ex de Joni Mitchell)

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Representing the Brazilian jazz scene, the "Muiza Adnet Sings Moacir Santos" album was praised by the renowned reviewer Christopher Loundon ("Every jazz fan knows the name Antonio Carlos Jobim. Every jazz fan should be equally familiar with the name Moacir Santos...Heavily involved in the disc’s production and recording (even lending his earthy baritone to four songs), Santos died, at age 80, shortly after the sessions were completed. Fortunately, it’s hard to imagine a finer, more loving, farewell...At the album’s midpoint comes “Lembre-Se.” It tells of the love’s indelible stamp, but is also semi-autobiographical. In it, Santos asks that we never forget his songs. Thanks to Adnet and her inspired associates, we never will"), who seems very disappointed with Luciana Souza's "The New Bossa Nova" project, calling it "a dull study in soporific mewing," although never ceasing to highlight Souza's vocal qualities.


Mr. Loundon wrote: "Among late-20th-century music wizards, few, if any, can match the track record of guitarist/bassist-turned-mega-producer Larry Klein. You know him for two decades of sterling work with ex-wife Joni Mitchell, for Madeleine Peyroux’s breakthrough Careless Heart and the even better follow-up, Half the Perfect World, and for shaping and steering seminal albums by everyone from Robbie Robertson and Don Henley to Peter Gabriel (the landmark So), Bob Dylan and Holly Cole. Now, again blending his personal and professional lives, Klein is married to multiple-Grammy-nominee Luciana Souza and has produced her Verve debut. It should be a match made in chanteuse heaven.
Remarkably, though, Klein has managed to take one of the most distinctive and interesting vocalists of the post-millennial era and reduce her to a dull study in soporific mewing. What could possibly be considered “new,” apart from the fairly contemporary vintage of most of the songs, about a dozen tracks wrapped in tepid bossa arrangements with nary a spark of freshness or originality (apart from dollops of brilliance whenever trumpeter Chris Potter manages to break through the ennui)?
There are some terrific tunes here, including Mitchell’s “Down to You” (sharp as Wisconsin cheddar when handled properly, which Souza, despite the obvious Mitchell-ness of her delivery, doesn’t), James Taylor’s “Never Die Young” (rescued only by Taylor’s presence as Souza’s far sager and definitely more alert singing partner) and Brian Wilson’s “God Only Knows” (one of the finest, and most admirably adult, love songs of the rock era). A fine half-dozen others, from the likes of Leonard Cohen, Walter Brecker, Donald Fagen, Elliott Smith and Sting, are reduced to pleasant innocuousness. Most astonishing, the sole Brazilian track, Antonio Carlos Jobim’s effervescent “Waters of March,” stripped of the ebullient mysteriousness that dozens of other singers have managed to capture, is as flat as day-old tap water".

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