Brian Blade is one of the most talented, hardest-working and in-demand drummers on the music scene. This youthful Louisiana native has appeared on many recordings as a sideman, playing jazz with Kenny Garrett, Joshua Redman and Bill Frisell and working with pop and rock icons like Norah Jones, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. In 1998 Blade co-founded the Fellowship Band, a talented and popular ensemble celebrated for its eclectic musicianship. Last year he released a solo CD, Mama Rosa, where he expanded his boundaries by showing impressive talent as a guitarist and singer. And if this wasn't enough good fortune, Blade is also the drummer in the Wayne Shorter Quartet, one of the most acclaimed jazz groups in recent years. Blade is at Village Vanguard Sep. 7th-12th with his Fellowship Band and Highline Ballroom Sep. 30th (through Oct. 2nd) with Chick Corea and Christian McBride.
Interview: RAY MANTILLA
By Russ Musto; photo by Jack Vartoogian
Percussionist Ray Mantilla first came into prominence on the jazz scene in the early '60s as a member of flutist Herbie Mann's popular ensemble, following years of playing around New York with various Latin dance bands. He soon became a mainstay in the music, appearing on numerous recording sessions, most notably with Max Roach on the drummer's We Insist! Freedom Now Suite. Later stints with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and Roach's M'Boom Re:Percussion ensemble brought him further into the limelight and launched him into the role as a leader of his own unique Latin Jazz band, Space Station, with which he's recorded regularly and continues to front to this day. Mantilla is at Lenox Lounge Sep. 17th-18th.
Artist Feature: NASHEET WAITS
By Laurel Gross; photo by Scott Friedlander
Whether he's supporting a diverse array of music and players or engaged in boundary-lifting expeditions of freer, experimental expression with like-minded collaborators like Nicholas Payton, Oliver Lake and JD Allen (guests on a new Tarbaby CD out soon) or Third Eye/Aethereal Bace co-drummer Eric McPherson, Waits does seem to approach his drums by moving energy around in "a circular way", creating a swirling type of sensation around him, frequently stirring up a complex but pleasing whirlwind of continuously evolving sounds that, to a listener, can feel more like a force of nature than merely human concertizing. Waits is at Iridium Sep. 1st with the Wayne Shorter Tribute Big Band, Cornelia Street Cafe Sep. 2nd and 4th with Tony Malaby, The Stone Sep. 10th, Jazz Gallery Sep. 18th with Tarbaby and 26th as a leader as part of the Celebrating Ornette Coleman Festival.
Record Label Spotlight: CREATIVE SOURCES
By Stuart Broomer
Leading-edge musicians have been releasing recordings of their own work for decades to overcome commercial labels' resistance. Some have documented an individual artist's work, while others, like Evan Parker's psi and Gino Robair's Rastascan, expanded to take in other artists. Few have grown at the rate of Creative Sources, the Lisbon label launched in 2001 by violinist/violist Ernesto Rodrigues, a producer as intrepid as Portuguese seafarers in the age of exploration. The label that began modestly enough documenting Rodrigues' own work now includes artists from around the world and has just released the 178th title in its catalogue. Artists performing this month include Tony Buck at Issue Project Room Sep. 18th; Peter Evans at Whitney Museum Sep. 2nd-5th; Ulrich Krieger at Whitney Museum Sep. 2nd; Andrea Parkins at Whitney Museum Sep. 4th-5th; Jacob Wick at Pete's Candy Store Sep. 18th and The Local 269 Sep. 27th with Gordon Beeferman and Nate Wooley at Brooklyn Lyceum Sep. 12th, Korzo Sep. 21st with Harris Eisenstadt and Whitney Museum Sep. 24th-25th with TILT.
Encore: ART HOYLE
By Marcia Hillman
Art Hoyle is a rare person in the music industry - a career working jazz musician. Ever since he began his professional career on trumpet at the age of 15, he has been constantly working with groups, big bands, behind singers and anywhere where jazz is played.
Lest We Forget: ARTHUR PRYSOCK
By Donald Elfman
The creamy voice attached to those words in the '80s Lowenbrau commercial belonged to one of the great true crooners, baritone Arthur Prysock. In the manner of his greatest influence, Billy Eckstine, Prysock found success in jazz, blues, R&B and pop and yet somehow remains under-appreciated. A Tribute to Arthur Prysock by Wolf Johnson is at The Triad Sep. 25th.
Megaphone: THE POETRY PARADIGM
By Roy Nathanson
There have been no shortage of doomsday predictions about the economic state of creative music if things stay the way they are: no money from CDs, a glut of amazingly trained musicians with no paying gigs, zillions of people studying jazz and so few outlets to play it, etc. But expectations of getting paid decently and/or making a real living from creative music are certainly very unreal dreams in most parts of the world; the creative musician's life has existed mostly in tandem with holding down several other jobs. So this article is to some extent another kind of global economy wakeup call. Nathanson is at Jazz Standard Sep. 28th-29th with The Jazz Passengers.
CD Reviews
(this month's performance venues in parentheses):
Chris Massey -- Vibrainium s/r (Puppet's)
Antonio Sanchez -- Live in New York at Jazz Standard CAMJazz (55Bar; Jazz Standard)
Han Bennink -- Parken Ilk Music
Joe Chambers -- Horace to Max Savant
Jason Marsalis -- Music Update Elm
Convergence Quartet -- Song/Dance Clean Feed
Harris Eisenstadt -- Woodblock Prints NoBusiness (I-Beam; Brooklyn Lyceum; Korzo; Douglass Street Music Collective)
Svend Asmussen -- Rhythm is our Business Storyville
Abdullah Ibrahim -- Bombella Intution-Sunnyside
Louis Moholo-Moholo -- An Open Letter to my Wife Mpumi Ogun
Moses Taiwa Molelekwa -- Live in Jo'Burg 1999 MELT
The Way -- Live in Woodstock One & Two Ictus (Roulette)
Jim Rotondi -- Blues for Brother Ray Posi-Tone (Smoke)
Marc Cary -- Focus Trio Live 2009 Motema (Jazz Standard)
Chris Byars -- Bop-ography SteepleChase (Smalls)
Variable Density Sound Orchestra -- Sound Particle 47 Creative Nation Music (I-Beam; Downtown Music Gallery)
Bill Dixon -- Tapestries for Small Orchestra Firehouse 12
Ayako Shirasaki -- Falling Leaves (Live in Hamburg) Jan Matthies (Bryant Park; Smalls)
Matt Bauder -- Paper Gardens Porter (Korzo)
Jon Irabagon -- Foxy Hot Cup Records (Cornelia Street Cafe)
Russ Lossing -- Personal Tonal Fresh Sound-New Talent (I-Beam; Cornelia Street Cafe)
Daniel Blacksberg -- Bit Heads NoBusiness
Nobuyasa Furuya -- Bendowa Clean Feed
Fernando Benadon -- Intuitivo Innova
Paris Troika -- Eponymous s/r (Blue Note)
Michael Dease -- Grace Jazz Legacy Productions (Iridium; Fat Cat)
Arturo Sandoval -- A Time for Love Concord (Blue Note)
Stanley Turrentine -- T Time Musicmasters-Nimbus
Wycliffe Gordon -- Cone and T-Staff Criss Cross (Dizzy's Club; Kaye Playhouse)
Allan Holdsworth -- Blues for Tony MoonJune (Iridium)
Rudi Mahall/Simon Nabatov/Robert Landfermann/Christian Lillinger -- Nicht Ohne Robert Volume 1 JazzHaus Musik
Heinrich Kobberling -- Sonnenschirm Jazzwerkstatt
Jason Stein -- In Exchange for a Process Leo
Jason Stein -- Three Less Than Between Clean Feed
Sadao Watanabe -- Into Tomorrow Victor (Dizzy's Club)
Chris Potter/Steve Wilson/Terell Stafford/Keith Javors/Delbert Felix/John Davis -- Coming Together Inarhyme (Jazz Gallery; Jazz Museum in Harlem; Dizzy's Club)
Champian Fulton -- The Breeze and I Gut String (The Garage; Cleopatra's Needle; Saint Peter's; Smalls)
George Colligan -- Come Together Sunnyside
Ron McClure -- New Moon SteepleChase
Towner Galaher -- Courageous Hearts Rhythm Royale
John Coltrane -- Side Steps Prestige-Concord (Blue Note; Birdland; Middle Collegiate Church; Smoke; Sistas' Place)
...and Plenty More!
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