We’re hitting the outdoor stages this summer with the most polished Jazz on Wheels band ever. Last year it was a kicking band. This year it’s a kicking band—with a whole lot more experience! Curtis Nowosad and Will Bonness and I hold down the rhythm section. Up front are Simon Christie on trumpet and Shannon Kristjanson on sax and flute. The band is joined by this year’s Hnatyshyn Jazz Award candidate Niall Bakkestad-Lagare on sax. Our vocalists are Erin Propp and Sheena Rattai, two of the most soulful musicians on Winnipeg’s jazz scene today.

The Ellice Street Festival gave Jazz on Wheels its start in 2006. Everybody has a great time. The kids run around eating hot dogs and exploring new visitors to their neighborhood. The teens and adults hang out listening to music, talking, playing street games. Any time you can get a whole community to come out and just hang out together and talk to each other, that’s a good thing.

The city is a collection of communities, and the quality of those communities defines the quality of the city. Helping your neighborhood may be as simple as throwing a party for everyone. Getting together creates a forum so that neighbors can see what everybody’s talking about. It’s possible that teens may take more pride in a neighborhood where they know everyone. We all may follow suit and do the same.

The Ellice Street Festival is a great event, but it’s only one neighborhood. Now we need parties all over the city—not just because our band should be booked all summer but because it can boost morale! What if every single community district had simultaneous street festivals like in Rio?

Chances are you’ve heard singer Rayannah Kroeker by now—perhaps as one of the Andrew Sisters in last winter’s WJO concert, perhaps at Prairie Ink Café with bassist Quintin Bart, perhaps as one of the Satellites with the Retro Rhythm Review, perhaps putting a band through its paces at The Cool Monday Night Hang.

Rayannah has a natural sparkle about her, but it’s balanced by seriousness and determination. Those qualities are evident in her performances, and in the musicians who inspire her. She is drawn to Sarah Vaughan because of her fearless approach and “dark and mysterious sound.” She calls Dinah Washington “one of the boldest singers I have heard” and loves the raw edge and emotional investment in her singing.

Fearlessness and emotional investment are at the heart of Rayannah’s other musical venture, Jazz for Humanity. While still high school students at Collège Louis-Riel, Rayannah and two friends decided to put on a concert as part of the school’s commitment to raise money for the widows of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and their families. In just four years, that modest concert has grown into a major annual benefit, this year at the Manitoba Theatre Centre.

The Jazz for Humanity sextet, all students or graduates of the U of M Jazz Studies program, performs a wide variety of music. On-stage guests include their mentor Steve Kirby and students from the Contemporary Dancers professional division. Young local artists have contributed pieces of every sort—pottery, photography, paintings, stained glass—to the Children of the World Art Auction. A student from Red River’s Culinary Program is catering the reception.

Rayannah is justifiably proud of “this massive group of people, mostly youth, each contributing their strengths and talents. It’s this sort of initiative which can bring about positive change in our world.”

It’s a huge undertaking, but for Rayannah, it’s about community. “When I had the chance to visit Rwanda in 2008, I was truly inspired by the people of Kimironko. I feel as though our project is a partnership with them to enrich both our communities. Musically, it was a transformative experience. Song and dance is very intertwined, and the line between the audience and the performer hardly exists at all. With such a vibrant immigrant community here in Winnipeg, we’ve been able to recreate some of the pieces I heard in Rwanda on the Jazz for Humanity stage. Crossing the globe through jazz is always very moving for me.”

The greatest challenge I find in teaching jazz is to get students to understand and accept that they must invent their own pathways towards their personal performance goals.

Most students entering our jazz program feel that they are relatively independent thinkers already, yet they usually come in expecting a clear, stepwise, time-tested, and measurable methodology towards jazz stardom.
I always tell them that there are as many pathways towards their goals in music as there are people setting out to achieve those goals. I also tell them that there is no tried and true method for making a career in jazz music work. By setting foot on the path of becoming a jazz musician you immediately enter the tradition of managing uncertainty.

Recently I attended a conference where some of the current critical darlings of jazz spoke about the pros and cons of jazz education. They complained that jazz programs are turning out a lot of robots and fakers that lack originality and creativity. Artistry lies in the ability to tell an interesting story. The rub is the fact that because most students haven’t had much adversity to deal with yet, they don’t have an interesting story to tell.

Jazz is the legacy of a necessarily improvised lifestyle. The original jazz practitioners were social pariahs. They had little to no right to education, wage earning, safe banking, decent neighborhoods, police protection, voting or dignity. Just getting through the day with their spirits intact was often their biggest challenge.

African-Americans invented the blues to help them feel good about feeling bad. Ragtime helped to satisfy a desire to rejoice with a little syncopation. (I can testify personally that nothing feels better than a little syncopation every now and then!) Taverns and brothels were the main places where jazz musicians were allowed to work—and we begin to see the picture.

The allure of a jazz performance is its originality, creativity, sensuality and freedom. What jazz culture offers our society is a spirit of creating solutions to counter life’s many adversities. Very few people nowadays have had to be as creative about life as “Jelly Roll” Morton, Charles Mingus or Dinah Washington. African-Americans back then faced a publically accepted assertion that they were not quite human. Up until the 60s there were laws on the books that declared them only 3/5 of a person. Performing at such a high level was one way of proving that they were in fact fully human.

Things are a little less impossible for today’s jazz musicians. Unfortunately this means that the stories that they have to tell are increasingly less colorful while the acquiring of “chops” (the musical ability to tell stories) has never been easier. In other words, there’s a whole lot of musical talking out there without much to say.

To make matters worse, many universities and conservatories have begun treating students more like clients and acting more like trade schools. Because of student pressure, many educators give their students “how to” jazz regimens full of standard songs, licks and patterns which the student more often than not performs very mechanically. I’m not totally against this approach because it gives the student the basic building blocks to develop their artistry.

A university cannot guarantee artistry or a job but it can guarantee an education. At the moment, all of us—artist, educator, and student—seem to be confused about what a jazz education means. So here’s my attempt to throw some light on the subject.

To the student: By saying to the world that you want to be a jazz musician you are also saying that you love being in a career where your livelihood depends on your ingenuity and creativity.

To the jazz artist: A university’s mandate is not to turn out jazz artists (even though it is nice when that occasionally happens). We can offer methodologies, pathways, connections and insights about the music, the history, and the culture, but it’s an insult to jazz artistry to imagine that a university can create an artist, let alone do it in four years.

To the educator: Relax a bit—teach the basics and keep it real. Nurture an artist. Feed an enthusiast. Share your love, knowledge and excitement for the legacy of jazz with anyone who shows an interest.
What’s at the heart of this art form is love. You have to love people, and you have to like them too. It’s when you love and like people that you begin find the right things to do and say—whether that’s in words or in music.

Hank Jones is one of the most ubiquitous personalities in jazz history. His recordings number in the thousands, and range from sides with Hot Lips Page and Lucky Thompson in his early days all the way to contemporaries like Diana Krall and Christian McBride. He’s been on special projects with avant garde artists like Charlie Haden and Joe Lovano. He was one of the founding members of Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic. He played with Coleman Hawkins and Billy Eckstine. He was in Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman’s orchestras, and at the same time was performing with artists like Wes Montgomery and Cannonball Adderley. Any time you can play strict swing with leaders like Artie Shaw and turn around and play with somebody as greasy and gospelly as Cannonball, you can pretty much say you can do anything!

He was the creator of The Great Jazz Trio, an ensemble that performed and recorded for over 25 years. In its earliest incarnation, Ron Carter and Tony Williams joined Jones. Over the years, musicians in the group included Buster Williams, Eddie Gomez, and Al Foster. More recent members included Richard Davis, Elvin Jones, John Patitucci and Jack DeJohnette.

Jones was almost every singer’s first call, from Nancy Wilson to Ella Fitzgerald. He played with Frank Sinatra on the Ed Sullivan Show, and when Marilyn Monroe offered her famous birthday serenade to JFK, he was the guy at the piano. He’s also on countless projects with strings, because his style was such a good match for that. Think of Earl Hines, Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson, and Art Tatum all rolled up together—that gives you a sense of his incredible flowing virtuosity and elegant bebop lines.

Hank Jones was born in Mississippi in 1918, and grew up in Pontiac, Michigan. His whole family was musical. His father, a Baptist deacon and lumber inspector, considered jazz to be evil, but that didn’t stop Hank and his two younger brothers from pursuing their passion. All three became jazz icons: Thad Jones as a cornetist, composer and influential arranger; Elvin as an innovator who transformed people’s understanding of the drum set; and Hank as a versatile and virtuosic pianist and accomplished composer.

Over his seven-decade career, Jones has been recognized with many major awards, including the National Endowment for the Arts’ Jazz Master Award (1989), the ASCAP Jazz Living Legend Award (2003), the National Medal of Arts (2008), a Lifetime Achievement Grammy (2009), and an honorary doctorate from the University of Hartford (2009).

Hank Jones was performing and recording right up to his death on May 16, 2010, at the age of 91. He was one of the last living musicians immortalized in the famous photograph “A Great Day in Harlem” and his passing is a true signal that we’re moving to the end of an era. There may be other musicians of great note, but very few musicians can hope to touch as many styles, generations, genres, and musicians as Hank has done. Most people are influenced by him even if they don’t know it.

No matter what the context, he was unfailingly eloquent and subtle, the epitome of elegance. The master will be missed..

Winnipeg is about to welcome an outstanding jazz musician, gifted educator, and all around great person. Drummer, composer, and bandleader Quincy Davis has been a staple of the New York jazz scene for 10 years, and it is truly exciting to know that his considerable talents on the bandstand and in the classroom will now be shared with young players and experienced band directors at the U of M Summer Jazz Camp.

In jazz circles in New York and beyond, Quincy Davis is lauded for his supreme tastefulness, centered groove, deep understanding of the jazz language, and deft, sensitive touch on the drums. He has shared the stage with many of jazz’s greatest musicians, including Tom Harrell, Benny Green, Cyrus Chestnut, and Regina Carter, to name just a few. He has performed and recorded with his own band as well. Quincy’s compositions and arrangements are well-crafted gems, and speak to his command of melody, harmony, and phrasing, a command rivaled by few in the jazz world whose primary instrument is the drum set.

Quincy’s musical background is rich, and music runs deep in his family. Growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, his earliest teachers were his father, a noted vocal jazz educator (yes, Quincy can sing!), and his mother, a pianist and educator. Quincy’s older brother, Xavier, is a brilliant jazz pianist and composer—the two of them spent hours playing together in the basement as kids.

Quincy completed high school at the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy in 1995, then studied drum set with jazz legend Billy Hart at Western Michigan University. Upon graduation, Quincy taught elementary and middle school band in Grand Rapids for a year, gaining valuable and practical experience in the classroom.

In 2000, the pull of New York’s jazz universe simply became too strong to resist, and Quincy moved to the Big Apple. New York embraced him with open arms, and his calendar has been full ever since. He and his brother Xavier were members of Tom Harrell’s quintet, and I had the pleasure of touring the world with that group for over four years. On stage and in the studio, Quincy handled the considerable demands of Tom’s highly original music with grace and skill. To hear it for yourself, check out his fabulous playing on Tom’s recordings Live at the Village Vanguard (RCA, 2001) and Wise Children (RCA, 2003).

During our time on the road and in the studio, I got to know Quincy well, and I count him as a good friend. As his playing shows, he is smart, focused, witty, easy-going, and friendly. He’s a kind-hearted soul, the kind of person you’d welcome eagerly into your home. In fact, as Xavier and I used to joke when we were out on tour, there’s not a place on earth that Quincy doesn’t have a friend.

So, friendly Manitobans, let’s count ourselves blessed to have such a talented, accomplished, and personable musician in our midst. Students at the Jazz Camp and audiences at the Jazz on the Rooftop concert are about to find out what New York’s jazz community has known for some time now: in all settings, “Q” is a perfect fit.

When I was a student, the middle of August was that curious time of summer when I wasn’t quite ready to head back into the grind but I was starting to crave a little more stimulation. The U of M Summer Jazz Camp is set up exactly to satisfy that desire to take on a challenge without giving up the spirit of fun. It’s not quite school—but a whole lot more than play.

A typical day starts with a class on your own instrument. You get to learn alongside other musicians who face the same challenges as you do, and to get some insights from an experienced player about how to handle the particular demands of your instrument. You’ll learn some new techniques, and you’ll get to ask questions and share ideas.

Every day includes an improvisation class with one of the guest faculty. Improvisation is the art at the heart of jazz—it’s on-the-spot composition, and it takes time and practice and a strong knowledge base to become good at it. Learn from the best, then take those ideas into the practice room and shed.

In the middle of the day, all of the students gather for the day’s masterclass. One of the guest faculty gives a talk (usually with a pretty impressive demonstration component!) about some aspect of jazz that pertains to all players. Keeping good time, using the blues scale, Latin rhythms, the art of comping—all sorts of topics have heated up these masterclasses over the past few years. Expect some passion and a whole lot of insight.

In the afternoon, you’ll meet with your own ensemble and work with a coach to prepare a few pieces for the Saturday concert. This is hands-on learning—you’ll be putting into practice the skills you’re gaining from your instrument and improv classes, and getting coached about balance and styling and musicality. Some players will be more experienced and some will be less, but everyone is learning. Attitude is at least as important as skill if you’re going to make music together.

The Summer Jazz Camp also gives you a chance to see what you’re aiming toward. On Monday, come to the Cool Monday Night Hang and hear what the house band does with songs you know—or will want to learn. A hang is basically an open call to join the band, so if you have a piece in your repertoire that you’re confident about playing or singing with others, sign up and give it a try. The audience is supportive, and when the nerves settle down, it’s exhilarating. The Hang is part of Winnipeg’s jazz scene all year around, and a great place to get more informed about both the repertoire and the people who play it in this city.

On Thursday afternoon, you’ll hear the faculty perform the program they’ll be taking down to the Jazz on the Rooftop gig that evening. You can count on an eclectic line-up of tunes in a whole range of styles, and they’ll talk to you about what they’re doing to make them cook. It’s kind of like a guided tour of the inside of a concert. If you’re keen, come on down to the evening concert as well.

The Jazz Studies program at the U of M has been gradually expanding its rank of first-call players, and they’ll be bringing their expertise to this year’s Jazz Camp experience. Steve Kirby is the camp’s director—many people know him as a charismatic bass player and educator. Jimmy Greene, the new saxophone professor, is a soulful player and gifted teacher who moved to Winnipeg last year. George Colligan has been tearing up the piano and organ for the past year, and making waves on the trumpet and drums too. He’s known for his quick wit. Anna-Lisa Kirby, the jazz vocals instructor, has been getting rave reviews for her performances on Winnipeg stages over the past couple of years. Quincy Davis, an extraordinary drummer who is also no slouch as a singer, will be flying in from New York City. Curtis Nowosad, Will Bonness, Richard Gillis, and Janice Finlay expand the team, and are joined by a handful of other professional musicians and band leaders. With a faculty like this, expect to work and play hard!

The U of M Summer Jazz Camp should come with a warning: it’ll get into your blood, and you’ll want to come back, year after year. Lots of high school players are still attending several years later as they cruise through their university training. A few intrepid adults have decided to take the plunge as well—there’s always something to learn in this art form, and the Jazz Camp offers just the right mix of challenge and pleasure.

Heitha Forsyth started university as a classical French horn player who loved singing in choirs. Then she tripped over jazz and her musical pathway took a dramatic detour. She stepped up to a microphone, and it suited her to a T. She developed a gutsy lower range and an ethereal top range—and she would take on anything with that signature grin of hers. Week after week at the Cool Monday Night Hang, she would make us sit up and take notice. “Night in Tunisia,” “So in Love,” “Evil Girl Blues”—it wasn’t just that she sounded good, it was that she loved what she sang. We did too.

Heitha (or Heiða, the Icelandic spelling she has adopted as a performing name) has always been a musical adventurer. By the time she graduated from the U of M in 2008, she was singing all over the place—big concert stages, small clubs, private socials and weddings. You could hear her chanting Arabic with the Oceanic Jazz Orchestra, singing jazz standards with the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, or belting out R&B tunes with talented young players in pubs around town.

A couple of years later, she’s established a lively presence on the local music scene, and her tastes continue to be eclectic. She’s a fixture at the King’s Head every week as one of the Satellites in the Retro Rhythm Review, a soul-style band that knocks the socks off tunes from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. They’re also Rocki Roletti’s back-up band, so it’s been a busy spring—they performed at Manitoba’s Largest Social in May and, more recently, Kidstock. She has had her own club show at the Jazz Winnipeg festival for several years, but this year she’s been invited to step out of the jazz zone and do a soul show on the free stage as part of the Final Wrap-Up Weekend.

When I ask Heitha about this mix of genres, she laughs and says she “can’t fathom being caged into one kind of thing. I just want to sing!” We consider the list—jazz, funk, R&B, pop, soul—then she smiles conspiratorially and says, “What I really love is country. It’s what I grew up hearing, it speaks to me. People think that’s a big departure from jazz, but I point out it’s also ‘the people’s music.’ It’s about real people living in the moment…”

I can see the flash of excitement in her. When she hints that there’s a big project coming up, I know we’re about to see yet another face of Heitha Forsyth.

Jazz on Wheels is heading into another Winnipeg summer, and we’re all revved up to share some great music. We’ve already been out seven times spreading the jazz word—to the Ellice Street Festival, the African Market, three middle schools, and two high schools.

The band has some major star power with veterans Amber Epp, Shannon Kristjanson, Simon Christie, Will Bonness and Curtis Nowosad. Rounding out the crew are two newcomers: Jocelyn Goertzen on guitar and Sheena Rattai on vocals. I get to do my two favourite things—play the bass and talk!

Never been to a Jazz on Wheels show? The band plays a broad range of music, from jazz to reggae to Afro-Cuban to R&B to pop, and I’ll tell you a bit about where the tunes come from and how they’re related. Plus you’ll have a whole lot of fun—there’s dancing and singing and the kids can march around with us when we parade through the crowds.

We’ve broadened our repertoire, but what’s even more important is that we’ve broadened our path! We’ll be in our old haunts again this summer, but we’ll be showing up in some new places around town too. And we’ll be back to several of these places in the fall with our new Bridge Program. It’s been my dream for ages to help kids in disadvantaged neighborhoods become musicians themselves, and it’s about to begin!

All the Jazz on Wheels gigs are open to everybody, so join the fun. We’re a one-band street party—and we’re coming to a street
near you!

The first meetings of the Jazz Educators Network, the new incarnation of the IAJE, took place this May 2010 in St Louis, my hometown.

The biggest change is that the JEN gathering is a lot smaller and much more manageable. I could see more of the talks, masterclasses and concerts because there were fewer things happening at the same time. Still, I’d like it if they’d repeat the offerings on different days—that way I could catch everything.

The smaller setting also made for better connections. Everybody seemed more approachable and relaxed, and people stayed around to take in the talks, listen to music, and jam together.

One session that really caught my interest was the panel about jazz education featuring several of the young critical darlings who are celebrated performers these days—Stefon Harris, Gerald Clayton, and Don Braden. They were critiquing the way jazz is taught, and complaining that too many players come out sounding like robots. I agree with them, but they miss the point that university is not a place that makes artists—it’s a place where people go to study and broaden their knowledge base. Everybody who plays basketball doesn’t make the NBA! They have some resistance about focusing on history and tradition as well. They gave an educational model that started with the teacher and branched down to the student, but it seemed to overlook the importance of the roots….

It’s good to hear fresh ideas, though. It certainly made me examine my own personal educational concepts.

The jam sessions at the hotel bar every night gave us a chance to hear what’s happening all over the continent. There was some interesting music being made and at one point I felt particularly familiar with the style of accompanying coming from the piano so I looked up and it was Jamey Aebersold, the jazz play-along recording superstar. How funny is that? It was great to make music with old friends (even ones I hadn’t yet met), and to hear some new players on the bandstand as well.

It’s important that jazz educators have a context to get together and talk through the big challenges that make this work so interesting and important. The Jazz Educators Network is off to a great start. Next year we network in New Orleans!

Ben Webster’s albums are still among the best in jazz. He was one of jazz’s greatest ballad players, and his well-worn sound on the tenor saxophone only added a sense of melancholy and sorrow to the music he played.

Webster learned the violin as a child and in his teens started performing on the piano, accompanying silent movies. As he embarked on a career as a professional musician, Webster shifted to the tenor sax because he felt it best expressed what he had to say musically. He played with Bennie Moten, Cab Calloway, Fletcher Henderson, and briefly in the 1930s with Duke Ellington. He eventually rejoined Ellington’s band in 1940 and sat in the saxophone section with one of Ellington’s great soloists, the alto sax player Johnny Hodges. Hodges’s technique and musical elegance had an impact on Webster and helped him develop into one of the star players in the orchestra. “Cotton Tail” and “All Too Soon” were two of the songs that showcased his playing. As an added feature in concert, Ellington sometimes asked him to play the piano. One night, Webster stayed a little too long at the ivories and Ellington expressed displeasure at his grandstanding. Afterward, in protest, Webster cut one of Ellington’s suits to bits. Webster left the orchestra in 1943.

Ben Webster usually wore a fedora that sat rakishly on the back of his head and was his signature. He was a big drinker of medium height with a big chest and wide shoulders. He developed a hard exterior, but those who knew him well say he was an emotionally sensitive man who was often moved to tears, weeping at the mere mention of a deceased friend’s name. Many were fearful of his temper, particularly when he was woken from a deep sleep. Those who toured with him learned to stand back when they woke him up, as he was prone to using his fists.

His refusal to change his sound to suit the times, as well as years of hotel living, touring, and racial prejudice, collectively took their toll on Webster, and in 1964, he moved permanently to Europe. He was based in Copenhagen and played only when it suited him. On his deathbed in Amsterdam in 1973, Webster left instructions that Ol’ Betsy, the tenor saxophone he bought in 1938, was never to be played again. Today it is displayed at the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey.

Of the fifty-odd recordings he made, Music for Loving: Ben Webster with Strings [Verve #3145277742] is one of the most alluring and engaging. It is a double CD, featuring two albums by Webster, Music with Feeling and Music for Loving. (As a bonus, an album by Harry Carney, Ellington’s baritone sax player, Harry Carney with Strings has also been included.) The arrangements and conducting were by Billy Strayhorn and Ralph Burns. The players included Strayhorn, Teddy Wilson, and Hank Jones on piano, George Duvivier and Ray Brown on bass and Louis Bellson and Jo Jones on drums.

It is hard not to feel a surge of inspiration when listening to Music for Loving. Webster was a great improviser, and his breathy, sensual tones make this a very sexy CD. “Willow Weep for Me,” “Blue Moon,” and “Teach Me Tonight” are just a few of the pretty ballads Webster caresses. Like many of the great instrumentalists in jazz, Webster brought a vocal quality to his playing and often memorized the lyrics to the songs he played. On some selections, the place he chose to breathe was the same place singers would choose. Webster’s heartbreaking rendition of “Chelsea Bridge,” a powerful ballad he played with Ellington, still sounds fresh. Despite the passage of time, Music for Loving remains a source of inspiring music.

There has been a movement in jazz as of late: a younger crowd of jazz musicians are combining jazz with the hip-hop and neo-soul that they grew up listening to. At the forefront of this movement is Robert Glasper, a virtuosic and inventive pianist who has recently released his third album for Blue Note Records.

Glasper has made a big impact as the leader of a trio featuring Vicente Archer on bass and, most recently, Chris “Daddy” Dave on drums. Glasper’s church background adds a gospel flavour to his playing and he has a very distinctive touch on the piano. Together with this he creates mesmerizing soundscapes with many rhythmic and harmonic twists and turns.

Archer is one of the most sought-after bass players in jazz today, splitting his time between Glasper and trumpeter Nicholas Payton. He and drummer Dave, who also hails from Glasper’s hometown of Houston, Texas, were both previously members of Kenny Garrett’s powerful quartet.

Dave has quickly risen to prominence in the last decade as a revolutionary jazz and R&B drummer. Through his work with Glasper, Garrett, Me’Shell NdegéOcello, Mint Condition, and his current employer Maxwell, he has reimagined many of the accepted norms of playing the drums. He has made a huge impact on today’s drummers, including Eric Harland and Kendrick Scott, who cite Dave as a main influence. He combines an incredibly deep pocket with superhuman speed and precision; he has to be seen to be believed.

On Glasper’s latest record, Double Booked, the trio is presented opposite a group he calls The Experiment. This group consists of Casey Benjamin on alto saxophone and vocoder, Derrick Hodge on electric bass, Dave on drums, and Glasper on Fender Rhodes. This group fully explores hip-hop and contemporary R&B much the same way that his predecessors Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock did with rock and funk in the 70s. (Double Booked even features a stellar version of Hancock’s “Butterfly.”)  The album features cameos by neo-soul singer Bilal, and hip-hop superstar Mos Def, both artists for whom Glasper has served as musical director.  One of the collaborations with Bilal, the track “All Matter,” was nominated for a Grammy award in the Urban/Alternative Category.

Also included on Double Booked are two voicemail messages which outline the concept of the album. The first is from veteran jazz trumpet player Terence Blanchard, and the second is from Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson, drummer from The Roots, both attempting to get Glasper to play their event—Blanchard with the trio, Thompson with The Experiment. This is a testament to the amount of respect Glasper has gained in both the jazz and urban music communities.

Glasper’s work is an inspiration and a challenge to all of us who are serious about jazz. He is helping to create an exciting new sound in jazz, a sound that respects tradition but adds a tough yet subdued, urban edge. Winnipeg audiences would appreciate his eclectic mix of musics—I hope we can experience him live very soon.

Recently, I heard a First Nations philosopher muse that his people have a different understanding of time. You understand time as a river that runs past you, he said. For us, the river stands still and we walk up and down the riverbank.

It’s an intriguing concept, and it surfaced for me in June when Lawrence Hill was in Winnipeg reading from The Book of Negroes. A whole long river of time winds through that very powerful book, and a terrible and complex history.

The passages Lawrence chose took us back and forth along the timeline of Aminata’s life. She’s an old woman surrounded by abolitionists in London. She’s a vulnerable young girl, shivering in the slave encampment. She’s a pregnant woman, arriving at the free Loyalist settlement in Nova Scotia.

The novel itself moves back and forth in this way too, but it’s never disorienting. I think that’s because it’s actually highly realistic—even as we tramp along in the here and now, we are constantly shuttling back and forth, mapping our present according to a past we’ve experienced or learned about, and various futures we dream or dread. A storyteller just makes it shapely.

Lawrence’s passages that night were interwoven with music from the African-American tradition, and the result was a powerful dialogue between art forms. Aminata’s ironic presentation of the “jolly abolitionists” found a counterpoint in the discordant wit of Thelonious Monk. “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” added even more poignancy to that forlorn and frightened girl facing an unspeakable future. The blind preacher Aminata meets when she arrives in Nova Scotia summoned the gospel sounds of “Mercy Mercy Mercy.” When the last strains of “God Bless the Child” drifted into silence, it was a long moment before applause erupted.

The performance felt sinuous and coherent, but when you think about it, we were experiencing a temporal mash-up. As well as the literal present, we were transported to various points along Aminata’s lifeline—1802, 1757, 1783. Those of us who were tracking the musical context felt the 1940s of Billie Holliday and the 1950s of Thelonious Monk, along with the resonance of the traditions those artists were drawing on. We heard the absolute present of improvisation and the deep musical memory of spirituals. Yet those disparate time zones coincided perfectly.

The image of walking along the riverbank where all time is present might give us a way of understanding what is both magical and healing about reading, listening to music, looking at images. If a piece of art draws you in, you are in its present, wherever that is. And being in that alternate present could remind us of the power and the preciousness of all the present moments that are embedded in our collective past. We might even give up our relentless race against time and realize it’s already ours….