My first bass teacher was an old Jewish guy by the name of Henry Loew. He was the principal bassist in the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. He was an amazingly generous soul who cared for me like a son.

In my very first lesson, I brought along a bass that was once owned by a nun. It smelled like Lemon Pledge and was chipped and hand painted all over. It had tarnished brass tuning pegs that got stuck before they fully tightened the strings enough to get them in tune. I loved that bass—I thought it was the coolest thing.

In that first session, Mr. Loew taught me something that was to become a lesson for the rest of my life. He walked me and my bass over to an open window that faced a sheer drop to the sidewalk in front of his house. He said to me, “Steve, sometimes the best thing to do for an instrument with this many problems is just to throw it out the window and hope that it breaks up into a million pieces so that you have the opportunity to glue it back together with some care and pride.”

Of course we didn’t do that, but it got me thinking about a lot of things. I think friendships and many other very important relationships can get so convoluted that careful deconstruction becomes the only way to preserve them.

It seems counterintuitive to invite cataclysm to an important relationship, but often these breaking points offer a chance to discover what we’re really made of and what we really value. They might be the first time we encounter the deeper meaning and purpose of our connections with others.

The problem is, we get into relationships and we have different ideas about what’s going on. Over time, because we’re working together but have different ideologies, we find that we rack up a big score of misconceptions. We don’t realize that our values are clashing.

Often the solution will lie in the willingness to rewrite the narrative. If we get too invested in a storyline that’s mostly favorable to ourselves, we teach ourselves not to see who we really are.

So what does it take to build and maintain bridges rather than build and maintain walls?

You have to have a large amount of respect and admiration for your those you work with, and you have to be willing to examine your own values and see how you can co-exist. Also, you have to have the patience and the motivation to take something apart and put it back together again with care and pride.

We seem to be living in a time when everybody thinks it’s more important to win the battle than to do what’s right. As we get more entrenched in our differences, I see a couple of options for reset. Either the whole world tears itself apart and a new species emerges, or we take a step back from our ideologies and realize that the most important thing we have on this earth is each other, and it’s best we find a way to be flexible and get along.

by Derrick Gardner

When I was in high school back in the early 1980s, I remember hearing a tune called “Straphangin” on our local jazz radio station. The artists performing this tune were the Brecker Brothers and it was the title track of the album that was released in 1980. This was my introduction to Randy Brecker.

The first thing that intrigued me was that some parts of the melody moved against the chord progressions—being in high school, I couldn’t comprehend that. Yet it still represented something funky and I was very familiar with that! At that time I was listening to my favorite funk groups—Parliament Funkadelic, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Ohio Players, and many others—and I knew all of the horn lines to all of their songs.

So when I heard “Straphangin,” the groove was funky but the horns didn’t sound anything like Parliament’s Horny Horns or EWF’s Phoenix Horns. This was something more complex, more in tune with the jazz tradition. The mixture of musical complexity and funkiness came across in Randy’s solos and his brother Michael’s as well. They offered the listener something that the average person could identify with—they didn’t alienate the listener with “musical acrobatics.” This is the stuff they don’t teach in the improvisation books. This takes real skill!!

Randy’s musical roots are in straight-ahead jazz, and over the years he has developed a style of playing that lets him fit into nearly any musical setting. His musical journey has taken him, for example, from Blood, Sweat & Tears to Horace Silver, Clark Terry’s Big Band to George Duke, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra to David Sanborn, crossing the musical railroad tracks of many other notable names as well.

In November, Randy will be crossing the railroad tracks again, and performing a musical tribute to Louis Armstrong as part of the Izzy Asper Jazz Performances series. Get ready for the train ride!

by Steve Kirby

You may have heard saxophonist Vincent Herring a couple of years back at the jazz festival—he was tearing it up with Jimmy Cobb’s band.

Herring has played with just about everybody: Freddie Hubbard, Nat Adderley, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Horace Silver, Kenny Barron, Steve Turre, Cedar Walton, Jack De Johnette, Louis Hayes, and Nancy Wilson, to name a few.

I got to know him several years ago with the Charles Mingus Big Band. He’s one of the most vital musicians I’ve met, and one of the most interesting and musical too. With his West Point training, he has extraordinary drive and discipline. He commands a high level on the band stand, and almost nobody can top him!

He has more than a dozen recordings as a leader now, and over two hundred as a sideman. He has a couple of groups of his own—Vincent Herring Quartet and Earth Jazz Agents—and plays regularly with the Mingus Big Band, the Louis Hayes Cannonball Legacy Band, and the Cedar Walton Quartet. His touring schedule is staggering. In the past six months, he has played in the UK, Russia, Lebanon, Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Poland, and India, as well as clubs and festivals in the US.

We’re excited to add Winnipeg to that list—he’ll join Randy Brecker for the Tribute to Louis Armstrong on November 27. The music will be great, and the musicianship will be even better. Don’t miss this one!

Last year, the dynamic duo of Tamar Barr and Karla Berbrayer put together a brand new festival called Tarbut: Festival of Jewish Culture, and Winnipeggers were swept up in a week of music, books, film, discussions, and celebration. This November, they’re back at the Rady Jewish Community Centre with a new line-up of compelling artists and commentators.

The offerings include three concerts of particular interest to jazz lovers. The whole festival kicks off on Saturday, November 12, with “A Tribute to Bob Dylan” performed by Glenn Buhr’s Broken Songs Band. Acclaimed composer/performer Glenn Buhr and his wife, writer/singer Margaret Sweatman, have been exploring song repertoire together for several years, revisiting work by some of the iconic singers of our time and creating new work of their own.

As their name implies, The Broken Songs Band is not so much a cover band as a musical exploration of song repertoire and song forms. Familiar material is recast through a collaborative process that draws on the artistry of all the band’s members—Ariel Posen on guitar, Chuck McClelland on saxophone, Gilles Fournier on bass, and Daniel Roy on drums and mandolin. For this concert, they’ll be paying tribute to the songs of Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman), one of the most influential figures in popular culture. Dylan established himself in the 1960s as one of the voices of the rising civil rights movement, and has continued to maintain an active musical career for the past five decades.

Expect to hear dynamic performances of some of your favourite Dylan tunes—“Blowin’ in the Wind,” “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” “Lay Lady Lay”—and a few tunes that will surprise you, in a relaxed cabaret-style concert.

A few days later, Tarbut welcomes the young violin virtuoso, Aaron Weinstein, performing a program devoted to great Jewish jazz composers. Weinstein has been named Rising Star Violinist by Downbeat magazine, and has been celebrated widely for both his skill and his stage presence. He has been a featured soloist at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland, Blue Note, the Iridium, and at jazz festivals in England, France, Switzerland, Iceland, and Israel.

Weinstein first linked up with the jazz world through John and Bucky Pizzarelli, who continue to mentor him and champion his work. Both play on his debut recording, A Handful of Stars, and his most recent recording, Too Blue, is a duo with John. To quote Bucky, “He’s is one in a million, this kid…a perfect musician.”

With his pianist Jon Weber, Weinstein will perform the music of George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Artie Shaw, to name a few. No doubt it will be a memorable show. In the words of Jim Caruso of the Birdland Jazz Club, “He knows how to entertain! He knows from Jack Benny, he knows from Woody Allen. He’s a little bit vaudeville and a touch Borscht Belt with shades of Grappelli and a whole lotta Victor Borge.”

Closing out the festival is a concert by The Afro-Semitic Experience, a group that explores the rich intersections between traditional music of both African-American and Jewish peoples. Co-founded in 1998 by African-American jazz pianist Warren Byrd and Jewish-American jazz bassist David Chevan, The Afro-Semitic Experience played for an interfaith Martin Luther King service, and has continued creating and performing music as an artistic challenge to racism.

Joining Byrd on piano and Chevan on bass at the Tarbut concert are multi-percussionist Alvin Benjamin Carter Jr, African drumming master Baba David Coleman, saxophonist Will Bartlett, and violinist/guitarist Stacy Phillips. They have three popular recordings, and have got audiences revved up at festivals in the US and Europe. There’s no easy category for this band. It weaves klezmer, cantorial, gospel, blues, swing, salsa, and other musics in a celebration of difference. The Wall Street Journal calls the band “a fusion of Jewish and Jazz souls on fire.”

It’s worth pointing out that Tarbut: Festival of Jewish Culture showcases more than music. It also includes several film screenings and a visit from filmmaker Michael King, an opportunity to hear writers Anita Diamant, Alison Pick, Rhea Tregebov, and Roberta Rich, an exhibit of paintings by Leonard Marcoe, and a chance to browse for books, jewelry, art, and Judaica. Find all the details at radyjcc.coma.

This year, there’s a new face in the house band at The Cool Wednesday Night Hang and in the hallways of the Faculty of Music down at the University of Manitoba. Jazz pianist David Restivo is the Jazz Studies Artist-in-Residence, and he’s already settled into the rhythms of performing, teaching, and coaching that are so essential to developing the next generation of players.

Dave has taught at the Banff Centre for the Arts and St Francis Xavier University. He lives in Toronto, and we’re borrowing him from Humber College and the University of Toronto. He’s a seasoned performer, and a three-time winner of the Jazz Pianist of the Year Award from the National Jazz Awards. His list of collaborators is as long as my arm, and it reads like a who’s who of jazz artists in this country—Rob McConnell, Mike Murley, Marc Jordan, Christine and Ingrid Jensen, Dave Young, Pat and Joe LaBarbera, Molly Johnson, Don Thompson, Jane Bunnett… He has played with lots of international artists as well, including Mel Torme, Ratzo Harris, Dave Holland, and singer Sheila Jordan (as you’ll find out later in this issue). He is also a leader, touring and recording with ERA Trio, Dave Restivo Quartet, and Dave Restivo Trio.

Dave is a valued addition to our little team. He has a strong sense of rhythm, harmony, lyricism, and phrasing. He knows a lot about the history of jazz piano. He has a deep love for the music, and obviously enjoys sharing that with his students. Most importantly, though, he has a really generous spirit. He’s approachable, thoughtful, supportive—he’s a dove.

No doubt you’ll see him playing around town over the next few months. Meantime, make it your business to come down to the Orbit Room on a Wednesday evening and hear for yourself what makes him special. Then shake his hand, make him welcome to our city!

Like many musicians, saxophonist Janice Finlay began at the piano, but when that was a poor fit, her mother allowed her to exchange it for a band instrument. From the start, she enjoyed the process of “breathing life into an instrument.” A stint on euphonium quickly gave way to the clarinet (they got all the fun parts), but when a family friend’s band needed a saxophone, she made the switch—and she hasn’t looked back. On November 24, she releases a new CD, Anywhere But Here.

Tell me about your new recording project.  

Anywhere But Here is my second feature CD. In addition to wanting to record my body of original work, I was looking for an opportunity to work with a musical mentor of mine, award-winning multi-instrumentalist and prolific jazz composer Don Thompson. I was overjoyed when he agreed to play piano and vibes on the CD! I also was super excited when Jodi Proznick, a rising star in the jazz bassist world, agreed to be part of the project.  U of M jazz faculty member, all-star drummer Quincy Davis and local jazz guitar legend Ron Halldorson rounded out my musician “dream team” and that is when everything started to fall into place. 

Anywhere But Here features primarily my original compositions. One particularly exciting difference this time around is the inclusion of a vocal piece called “Remember Me,” featuring recent U of M grad Erin Propp.  Erin and pianist Don Thompson do an extraordinary job of this ballad, and Don was bowled over by Erin’s obvious talent.

On this CD I actually play soprano and baritone in addition to alto and tenor. I believe that I have a different musical voice on each of the four saxophones I play, partly because I have modeled my playing after different musicians on each horn.

One thing I learned with my first CD, She’s Hip, is that it is really hard to be objective about a project of this scope when you are still close temporally to it. That’s one of the reasons I like working with producer/engineer Larry Roy—he’s an outstanding musician himself so I feel confident trusting him to be objective and to act as a creative gatekeeper of sorts.

What has playing jazz taught you about life?

Probably the biggest life lesson I have learned is that pursuing a career you are passionate about is a significant part of leading a fulfilled life. It does not matter what a person does if they have a passion for it and are fortunate enough to get paid to do it—that is the perfect combination!

Another life lesson would be that learning never stops. Thank goodness! We are so lucky as jazz musicians that there are always new things to learn! 

On a more personal level I have had to learn to honour and value the creative spirit that is within me and every human being.
I guess the final thing that comes to mind is that perseverance and hope can be powerful allies if you are able to keep them at your side at all times—and that is hardest when you need them the most!

The University of Manitoba hosted a special presentation on Thursday, October20, to recognize the many community-building initiatives of its faculty members. Seven alumni of Steve Kirby’s Bridge program took to the stage and performed “Rollin’ in the Deep” for all the assembled guests, including Dr David Barnard, the President of the University of Manitoba, and His Excellency Dr David Johnston, the Governor General of Canada. It’s not an exaggeration to say they stole our hearts, and when the song ended, everyone surged to their feet. President Barnard stood for a long second at the mic, swallowing the lump in his throat.

It was a heady moment for the kids, most of whom were absolute beginners at the beginning of the year and now perform with great poise and musicality. It was a watershed moment for many others too—for Steve Kirby and me, having chased this dream through an obstacle course to a place of tremendous accomplishment; for Vinh Huynh, the principal at Hugh John Macdonald School, and a determined and visionary partner; and for members of the extended university community, who looked with such joy on a group of talented kids and saw the next generation of community-builders.

The Bridge program is in gear again at Hugh John Macdonald. We’re thrilled by the generosity of David Asper, whose gift is allowing us to bring a battery of instruments to the school to create a real band. Several grants and donations have made it possible to secure Neil Watson to direct the band and Curtis Nowosad to assist. Students from the Jazz Studies program will spend some time mentoring new musicians this term, and Steve and I will be on-site frequently to play with the gang. Year Two is lifting off.

Perhaps most satisfying: two afternoons a week, almost a dozen of last year’s graduates find their way to Hugh John from high schools around the city to help this next crop of learners. Surely that is an inspiring example of paying it forward…

Dr Barnard and His Excellency Dr Johnston took time to shake hands and chat with each of the young musicians who represented The Bridge on October 20. We salute them too: Norina Jimeno, Dagmawit Fekede, JC Cruz, Joshua Aloria, JJ Binayug, Andrew Domingo, and Paul DeLeon. We couldn’t be prouder!

I’m looking forward to welcoming my friend Antonio Ciacca to Winnipeg for a few days this November. He is the Director of Programming for Jazz at Lincoln Center, and last year joined the Julliard Jazz faculty to teach the Business of Jazz. He’s a talented musician who really knows how to build and maintain a career in the pressure cooker of New York City, so he has a lot to share with us here in the Jazz Capital of Canada.

Ciacca was Benny Golson’s pianist for most of a decade, and has also shared the stage with Art Farmer, James Moody, Lee Konitz, Johnny Griffin, and Dave Liebman. He’s leader on six recordings—Lagos Blues is his most recent.

I’ve played with him often, including once with Elvin Jones. He’s one of the most sensitive accompanying pianists I’ve worked with—his comping is just brilliant. He’s a gifted composer, a meticulous arranger, and an insightful and innovative businessman.

He’ll be in Winnipeg for three days, mentoring the Jazz Studies students in both performing and arranging. On Wednesday, November 9, he will offer a public workshop specifically targeting strategies for competing in a rapidly changing music industry. Social media, the internet, touring, self-promotion—these are all a necessary part of any musician’s tool kit now. Also on his list of topics: career development, artist maintenance, creative marketing, and leadership skills. The folks at Manitoba Music will be on hand to talk specifically about various resources and support organizations that are part of the business of jazz in this country. (Bonus for cash-strapped musicians: the workshop is free!)

I’m excited about having Ciacca here. We put a lot of emphasis on many aspects of this music, but success on the business end determines whether or not a person is going to continue in their musical pursuits.

If you ever want a quick understanding of what jazz-rock sounds like, then the music of Return to Forever is a good place to start. It was, in its early years, a hugely innovative and influential jazz fusion group.

Return to Forever was the brainchild of Chick Corea, who has built his reputation on never being pigeonholed. Corea had been a part of Miles Davis’s jazz rock exploration in the late 1960s, appearing on Davis’s seminal albums Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way. Fusion or jazz rock was seen at the time as an opportunity for innovative jazz musicians to explore the use of many of the electric instruments used by rock groups, such as Genesis and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and in the process appeal to a larger audience. Corea understood the music but brought to it the considerable jazz knowledge he had acquired playing with a wide range of musicians, including Stan Getz, Mongo Santamaria, Blue Mitchell, and Sarah Vaughan.

There were three versions of Return to Forever who made eight albums that were recorded for three labels. The first version of the band (1972-73) included Corea on electric piano, veteran jazz musician Joe Farrell on sax and flutes, Stanley Clarke on bass, Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira on drums and percussion, and his wife, Flora Purim, on vocals.

Their second release, Light as a Feather [Universal #9266], was recorded for Polydor in October 1972 in London, England, while the group was appearing at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. The album is an explosion of melodies, rhythmic sparkles, and sounds. One of the drawbacks of the fusion movement in jazz was that a good deal of the music was a monotonous groove. On Light as a Feather, melody is king.

“You’re Everything” has a calm, catchy opening, featuring Corea playing solo on the Fender Rhodes electric piano, then it goes into double time with percussion, bass, and flute joining in. Purim’s Brazilian accent brings an icy detachment to the music that is sexy and enticing. The title song, “Light as a Feather,” is a tour de force that highlights Purim, Corea, and Farrell. Farrell’s performance on flute is assured and confident and raises the question why he never became better known. “Captain Marvel,” which Corea wrote for Stan Getz, has a strong samba melody and once again features a breath-busting performance on flute by Farrell.

The album’s greatest moment occurs on the closing track, “Spain.” Of the many songs Corea has composed, this is his best known and has become a regular part of the jazz repertoire. It is a majestic, melodic nine-minute rhapsody.

Light as a Feather has liquid electricity running throughout. A good portion of this energy originates with Corea, whose performance is stunning and provides insight into why he is one of the most celebrated pianists of his generation. He is an in-the-moment improviser whose compositions have a melodic grace and power. His playing shows he has the virtuosity to take his considerable talent in any direction he wants.

Since the early 2000s I have had the privilege of knowing and sometimes performing with legendary vocalist Sheila Jordan.

Born in Detroit in 1928, Sheila started singing in clubs at a young age, eventually falling under the spell of the musicians at the forefront of the bebop revolution, especially Charlie Parker, whose pianist, Duke Jordan, she married in the early 1950s. “I thought I needed piano lessons,” she told a group of students, “so Charles Mingus and Max Roach took me to see Lennie Tristano…” Mythical figures to us, but friends, mentors and peers to Sheila, who, along with Jon Hendricks, is one of the living links to that incredible musical era.

A fearless artist, she developed a unique and instantly identifiable sound, combining her mastery of swing and bop phraseology with influences from, among other sources, her Native American ancestry. She pioneered the bass/voice duo format, which she first explored with Mingus and later with Harvie Swartz and Cameron Brown.

Sheila has collaborated with a diverse range of artists, from composer George Russell and pianist Steve Kuhn to avant-garde pioneers Don Cherry and Roswell Rudd, but has always returned to the standards and bebop tunes that are closest to her heart. In addition to being a riveting performer, she is a generous and gifted teacher and clinician.

Recently Sheila was given the National Endowment for the Arts’ Jazz Masters Award, a well-deserved honour for one of the true originals and great proselytizers for this wonderful music.

When I was a kid, I was afraid of the dark. Now that I have kids of my own, I know this is a pretty common anxiety. I also know that it’s impossible to banish the demons. Turning on the lights, checking under the bed—our efforts to reassure our kids are more of an expression of solidarity than an effective rewrite of the problem. In a way, the best we can do is stand beside them as they develop the strength to withstand their fear.

I’m not a particularly fearful adult, but I admit to feeling a clutch in my belly when I discovered that I would be reading in Edmonton alongside a woman who has written a book about Robert William Pickton, the notorious serial killer whose pig farm has held our horrified attention for much of the past decade. The writer, Stevie Cameron, is one of Canada’s most respected journalists, and I have read and admired her work for years. But I literally shuddered: I am afraid of this story.

It was wonderful to meet Stevie in person. She is direct, probing, and fiercely intelligent; she is also gracious and warm. When she stood at the podium and said that writing On the Farm has been one of the best experiences of her writing life, I was stunned. How could it be?

Then she began to speak about the six women whose deaths were finally laid on Pickton’s shoulders, and the twenty others whose cases were not deemed strong enough to withstand the legal wrangling, and the two dozen more who are probable or confirmed victims. She told us about tracking down their families and friends, and not resting until she found out something about each one of them. “This is about love,” she said.

That comment turned me around. I am still afraid of the story, but I am reading it. I understand that Stevie’s courage gives me an opportunity to bear witness to 49 socially marginalized women who were victims of a horrendous crime. If I stand in solidarity with them, they are not eclipsed by the darkness of this awful story.

One of the other writers at this non-fiction festival observed that all writers, no matter what genre, are basically embedded journalists, reporting from the front lines of their lives, their dreams, their fears. I’m going to make the leap and suggest that this is true of all the arts, from the wildest experiments to the most realistic representations. A painter and a dancer and a photographer and a musician are all calling in their reports from the front lines, giving us an opportunity to share their experience of the world around us.

Some of what’s out there is truly frightening. The demons are under the bed, and no amount of denying it means they’re gone. But if we can connect with one another when we call in our reports, if we can find a way to say “this is about love,” at least the lights are on and we are steadied by having some company.