Past Bill’s Beat Articles:

Bill’s Guide to the Festival

The Jazz Conversation

Sing Out!

Thinking about McCoy

Patrons as well as people who are not into jazz have asked me what I would go to see if were coming to the Portland Jazz Festival. Here is what I am doing for our second weekend:

• February 18: This is another night where I’d like to be able to sub-divide like an amoeba. Part of me wants to go to the Jazz Society benefit concert with the father/son tandem of Mel & Chris Brown, but I have a feeling that I’ll hang at The Cave to see Portland’s Nancy King (8:30 PM) within an intimate, New York vibe.




• February 19: Another busy week day! I’m excited about Portland Jazz Orchestra’s evening of Blue Note Legends (7:30 PM) at Old Church. This group has grown so much in the last two years, and we’re proud to have them as the resident ensemble of the Portland Jazz Festival. This will also be a CD release party for PJO’s first recording. When these festivities are over, I’ll be going cross town to see the Master Musicians of Jajouka, known for legendary collaborations with Ornette Coleman, at the Roseland Theater (9:30 PM)-fortunately there’s an opening act, so it shouldn’t hard to make both!




• February 20: The second weekend of the Portland Jazz Festival offers new choices and challenges. There’s a fascinating not-to-be-missed Jazz Conversation at Brunish Hall (2:00 PM) with jazz detective Larry Appelbaum and Howard Mandel, President of the Jazz Journalists Association. Larry is the music archivist at the Library of Congress, who after years of searching found the original acetate tapes in the basement of a Manhattan apartment building of the 1957 Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall concert, which was subsequently re-mastered and released by Blue Note. Then, I’m off to the Mission Theater for a screening of “One Night with Blue Note” (4:30 PM), the legendary concert that officially re-launched Blue Note under Bruce Lundvall’s direction in 1984. This great film features footage from Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Stanley Turrentine, and an incredible finale by Cecil Taylor. This means missing a Jazz Conversation with Jason Moran (4:00 PM), but I plan to get back to the Art Bar for what should be a memorable conversation with Blue Note’s oldest living artist, Lou Donaldson (5:30 PM0, which will subsequently be published as a “Before & After” feature in Jazz Times magazine. I won’t miss Jason Moran & The Bandwagon opening for Cassandra Wilson at the Schnitzer (7:30 PM), but I’m going to sneak out early again because I also want to catch the Upper Left Trio at the RiverPlace and Michelle Medler at West Café (8:00 PM). I’ll then keep club-hopping with Shelly Rudolph at Wilf’s and Wally Schnalle from Northern California at The Cave (also at 8:00 PM), plus Dan Balmer playing at Rogue’s new eastside pub, the Green Dragon (9:00 PM). The real priority here, however, is back at the PCPA with a unique collaboration between two very different Portland music ensembles, the Blue Cranes and Paxselin Quartet (9:00 PM). The second weekend jam sessions are at The Cleaners at The Ace Hotel with an earlier start time (11:00 PM), but will still go until… whenever!




• February 21: Two more Blue Note films are screened at the Mission Theater (12:30 PM) with archival concert footage by Bobby McFerrin and John Scofield. It’s then just a couple of blocks to walk down to the Crystal Ballroom for an afternoon of the Blue Note old cats with Lou Donaldson and Bobby Hutcherson (2:00 PM). I won’t miss a minute of this or another double bill accentuating youth on Saturday night with the ever-provocative Patricia Barber and young Seattle keyboardist and newest Blue Note signee Aaron Parks at the Newmark Theater (7:30 PM). In between, there are Jazz Conversations with Jane Bunnett (5:00 PM) and Aaron Parks (6:00 PM). After Patty Barber’s set, it’s just downstairs to the Art Bar to see Rebecca Kilgore & Dave Frishberg (9:00 PM) and enough time to catch some of rising young guitarist Charlie Stanford at the RiverPlace (8:00 PM) and maybe even some of the nouveau tango by Mood Area 52 at Rogue Public House (9:00 PM) before hitting the last jam session at The Ace (11:00 PM).




• February 22: Whew! The last day, and my feet already hurt! This Sunday starts with a kickin’ Gospel Brunch featuring the Sounds of Soul at SEI on N Kerby in N Portland (11:00 AM). Warning: make reservations in advance; this event is a definite “sold out in advance!” I’ll also race back to the Mission for the last two Blue Note films featuring the incredible Lena Horne and a special performance with Michel Petrucianni w/Wayne Shorter & Jim Hall (12:30 PM). It’s again walking down a couple of blocks to the Crystal Ballroom for a hot set of Cuban jazz with Blue Note Canada artist Jane Bunnett & The Spirits of Havana opening for my all-time favorite jazz guitarist Pat Martino (2:00 PM). Then, there’ll be time to walk over to Rogue Public House for Beer Cheese Soup, Kobe Beef Hot Dog, and one more Jazz Guy Ale before walking back to the Crystal for the grand finale of Kurt Elling Sings Coltrane/Hartman with Ernie Watts, Laurence Hobgood Trio, and the Vox Humana String Quartet. Fireworks galore and I predict to be the memorable events of the festival’s second weekend.

What to do on post-festival Monday, February 23? I’ll be more than happy to stay in bed, watch re-runs of Law & Order, and hope that the Laundry magically takes care of itself!

Patrons as well as people who are not into jazz have asked me what I would go to see if were coming to the Portland Jazz Festival. Imagining that I could take a busman’s holiday for ten days in February, here’s what I think I’d do:

• February 13: After a good breakfast at Mother’s at SW 2^nd and Stark, I’d walk up to the PDX Jazz Pavilion at Pioneer Courthouse Square for the Portland State University Jazz Band (12:00 PM) as the official festival opening performance. From there, move 3 blocks up Broadway to the Portland Center for the Performing Arts (PCPA) for the Terence Blanchard Jazz Conversation in The Art Bar under the main lobby rotunda (12:30 PM). At this point I’m going to be in the PCPA for most of the day. I go up the staircase to Brunish Hall for an exciting afternoon for any jazz fan. Blue Note President Bruce Lundvall and Blue Note Producer Michael Cuscuna will participate in a Jazz Conversation (2:00 PM) followed by a panel discussion moderated by author Ashley Kahn and featuring Bruce Lundvall reminiscing with two of his favorite artists, Dianne Reeves and Joe Lovano, as well as Michael Cuscuna (3:00 PM). From there it’s back down stairs to the Art Bar, which will be pouring Jazz Guy Ale! There will be two Jazz Conversations with Joe Lovano (5:00 PM) and Dianne Reeves (6:00 PM), but at some point I’ll miss something and step out for a quick dinner. I’ll want to be at the Schnitzer for Gonzalo Rubalcaba (7:30 PM) followed by Terence Blanchard’s A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina) with full orchestra. For this one, I’d get the best seats available and plan to sit in them all night. When the concert is over, there are numerous choices. I really want to see Scenes with John Stowell, Jeff Johnson and John Bishop at Rogue Public House (9:00 PM), and it’s another opportunity for a Jazz Guy Ale. I’d also like to check out the Anomalous Quintet at West Café (9:00 PM), but it’s easier to return to the Art Bar and see New Orleans-now-Portland premiere tenor sax player Devin Phillips (9:00 PM). It will be past a 12-hour first day when I make my way up Broadway past the PSU campus to SW Jackson and The Cave under the Green Onion for the first of four late night jam sessions (11:59 PM). After last call and the final note, it’s time to crash in anticipation of another long day Saturday.

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Some of the best parts of the Portland Jazz Festival happen outside of performances. Over the past few years, our jazz outreach programs have grown because many of you have made Jazz Conversations, panel discussions, workshops, and lectures a major part of your festival experience.

Last year, nearly 300 people attended a Jazz Conversation with Ornette Coleman mid-day on a Friday. An equal number attended a conversation with McCoy Tyner three years ago reminiscing on Trane-also on a Friday afternoon. It makes me wonder how many people call in sick from work!

Jazz Conversations are a 60 minute question-and-answer session, presented before a live audience, which is then recorded for broadcast on KMHD-FM and subsequently placed on our website for everyone to hear (if you have listened to the Ornette session, go to our website, it’s worth the time). They are presented throughout the festival, and have become quite popular.

This year with our theme of Somethin’ Else: Blue Note @ 70, we’re again expanding the programming to offer diverse perspectives to the celebration of Blue Note’s 70^th anniversary. Present during the first weekend will be Zach Hochkeppel, Blue Note General Manager and VP of Marketing for Blue Note’s parent corporation EMI Music, and Cem Kurosman, longtime Blue Note publicist. They have been our primary collaborators in creating this year’s Blue Note bash.

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I don’t think that I’ve ever been associated with a jazz festival presenting so many vocalists as we have in February with Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson, Patricia Barber, Judi Silvano, and now Kurt Elling.

It’s curious because admittedly we haven’t booked many vocalists the past few years. There’s no real reason for this. Some of you have previously pointed this out to me, but there’s no underlying issue here. Some of my best friends are vocalists!

It’s also curious that we ended up with such a plethora of singers during a year when we focus on Blue Note Records. Founded in 1939 by passionate visionaries Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, Blue Note holds a seminal position within the evolution of American (instrumental/improvised) music. Long before Motown, soul, and rap, it was Blue Note that crystallized the sounds of Black America. From the early recordings of Sidney Bechet and Meade Lux Lewis to Miles Davis’ landmark The Birth of the Cool, Blue Note has set the standard for jazz tradition. While photographer Wolff had an eye for jazz with hundreds of groundbreaking album covers, it was Lion’s keen ear that developed and recorded the great masters including Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Clifford Brown, Horace Silver and countless others. As an early champion of postwar jazz, Lion was first to record the most influential modern jazz ensemble, Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, which forged the trademark Blue Note sound along with stalwarts Lou Donaldson, Bobby Hutcherson, and McCoy Tyner. The only vocalist to record on Blue Note during this period was Blossom Dearie—no Ella, no Sarah, no Joe!

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Between technology and the economy, there are fewer and fewer new jazz recordings being released. The old adage that jazz isn’t “released,” but it somehow “escapes,” seems even more apt over the past few months. One of the exceptions is a new recoding by McCoy Tyner called Guitars, featuring collaborations with Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, John Scofield, Derek Trucks, and Bela Fleck. Cheating slightly on the premise with Bela on banjo, the three tracks with Fleck are particularly memorable with even a smoothly twisted rendition of My Favorite Things.

Guitars is a 2-disc collection-one CD and one DVD-that at first seems like a strange concoction, but which quickly makes sense. Many years ago, I organized an extended jam session centered around McCoy with Frank Morgan, John Blake, and the late guitarist Emily Remler. McCoy had expressed some reservation about including Emily because he sometimes had trouble with guitarists and his intense chordal and percussive style. In the end, however, McCoy and Emily really clicked, and later that evening they vowed to record together. Emily died less than a month later.

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Uten Jazz Blitz eb Treg du Tass. The loose translation from Norwegian is Life without Jazz is less Meaningful. The moniker wrests on t-shirts, banners, placards and postcards throughout the Kongsberg Jazz Festival, reflecting a battle cry from top Norwegian officials in providing substantial support for Norway’s incredible jazz scene.

Kongsberg is a small ex-silver mining town (25,000) in Norway’s southern interior with a rapid river splitting the city in half. The region reminded me of the upper Rogue River valley in southern Oregon. Old town has 18th century European charm and the new town feels early 1950’s. During the first week of July, Kongsberg becomes the center for exciting and adventurous jazz-much of which we Americans have never heard!

I was recently part of an international delegation experiencing Norwegian jazz festivals. There was the pristine urbanity of Oslo, rustic Bolkesjo, midnight sunsets (and very early sunrises).. and 19 hip music venues in Kongsberg. There was one stage 3.5 km inside of a silver mine (with the great trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer playing a most eerie solo), and there was Tubaloon, a giant white structure which contains the festival’s one outdoor venue.

America covets its jazz, but barely supports it. We may be the cradle of jazz, but we are no longer its sole epicenter. America, wake up and smell the coffee, the most exciting new jazz is coming out of Norway and its neighbors-while much of our contemporary jazz is playing the role of Dylan’s Mr. Jones!

Something’s happening here, and we don’t know what it is..

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Beside Jazz, Baseball, and African Cichlids from Lake Malawi, one of my favorite pastimes is reading the “Lefsetz Letters” on a daily basis. This is a prolific blog by Bob Lefsetz, LA based music industry legend, attorney, recording company exec, and overall music curmudgeon. I follow Bob’s Blog because it’s insightful, painfully honest, and appeals to my cynical DNA.

Music need not be your business to appreciate Bob. If you love music, you can share Bob’s angst. Bob’s basic rant is that the music business no longer has a personal or creative direction. It is an impersonal, corporate (faceless) monolith that devours the creative forces, spewing out its waste under the guise of Product. There is no visionary like Alfred Lion at Blue Note or even Bob Weinstock at Prestige (lovingly known in the 50’s & 60’s as ‘one-take Bob’) running a recording label today. They have been replaced by MBA’s and bean-counters, faceless artistic assassins who sing along only to the bottom-line

More importantly, Bob has already eulogized and cremated what we less-than-affectionately call the Recording Industry. If you don’t follow my gist, I can only assume that you haven’t bought a CD in a while or visited a “Record Store.”

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At the Bellevue Jazz Festival, Branford Marsalis and I had an extended and spirited conversation about the state of jazz. Branford is outspoken about how young artists are being pushed into becoming leaders before their time by what’s left of the recording industry, jazz radio, and all of us-the jazz consumers. We’re doing an outstanding job of training the new generation of younger musicians, who in turn are developing skills far beyond their years.

As our culture keeps emphasizing what’s new, these young artists are often thrust into the spotlight without the benefit of maturity, and the long term, career mortality rate is alarming. Let’s hearken back to the late 80’s when the term Young Lions was in vogue, and which centered around the Marsalis siblings. For every Branford, Wynton, Terence Blanchard, and Josh Redman, there have been others who have faded from view after early jump starts. Marlon Jordan, Rick Margitza, Ryan Kisor, and Charles Fambrough-all accomplished players-each came to mind as Branford spoke.

As we sat in the backstage green room, I found myself making eye contact with one of my all time favorite pianists, Joey Calderazzo, who is now a vital member of Branford’s famed quartet. In the early 90’s, Joey made three classic albums on Blue Note and then became less visible as a sideman on a variety of projects. Happily, Joey is back with a new album on Branford’s own label, Marsalis Music, and again making superb musical choices. Branford recently stopped giving private lessons to a promising young talent because (in Branford’s opinion) they stopped growing, stopped risking, and became content with floating. Jazz is a fragile commodity, and sometimes we need to realize that younger artists need time to transition from sophisticated skill sets to a mature musical vision.

For some, like Joey, they come full circle, while others fade from memory only to be regrettably rediscovered in used CD shops.

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There’s so much going on that the notion of down time after the February Portland Jazz Festival is a distant memory. We have agreed to team up with the good folks at the RiverPlace Hotel to present PDX Jazz @ RiverPlace every Friday & Saturday, 8-11 pm, beginning May 9.

Part of the original mission of the Portland Jazz Festival was to showcase regional jazz artists in an intimate, relaxed setting that is accessible to everyone, and over the past five years we’ve presented nearly 400 performances featuring local talent. We’ve also strived to present Portland artists in a free environment with no cover charges or drink minimums. This particular partnership clicked when the RiverPlace agreed with our premise and the partnership formed.

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It’s been a month since the Portland Jazz Festival ended, and the hunger for jazz is returning! Since the Maceo Parker grand finale on February 25 at the Crystal Ballroom, Portland Jazz Festival’s recent successes has stimulated new jazz ventures in April, May and June, We are involved in the most exciting programming for the spring with the June 6 reunion performance of Return To Forever with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Al DiMeola, and Lennie White. It’s a blast to work on a show like this-a masterpiece from the 70’s when fusion was fun! This show was too big for one organization, and we’re very happy to be presenting Return to Forever with our partners, Global Arts, in Victoria, BC. Those old enough to remember can again feel the energy surge that goes with an RTF performance. Simply put, Return to Forever is an intense experience performed by virtuosos with both respect and irreverence… very loudly. It’s an experience not to be missed. Get good seats early!

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While Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and the other ‘headliners’ get most of the attention, sometimes the action at the Portland Jazz Festival free performances is the most memorable. Last year the buzz about artists like Monnette Sudler, Sophie Faught, and Mood Area 52 dominated the post-festival chats. Monnette is back in Philly, and I hear from her from time to time, and Sophie is still a student at Temple University (but, most assuredly, will be hearing more from her in the future!). Mood Area 52 is back by popular demand, appearing at the Rogue Ales Public House on Friday, February 15.

When I refer to free performances, I’m talking about the nearly 70 shows that we include within the festival schedule that are non-ticketed and accessible to all. In this case, free is an adjective, inferring that it won’t cost you to get in the door. On the other hand, Ornette’s concept of free Jazz is interpreted by some as a noun, a title or moniker for a style of music. Some of us believe that free Jazz is a verb or an action item. In any case, the PDX Jazz free performances have become the backbone of our festival, and cover the complete range of jazz and not just selective styles.

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