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. Chick Corea,Stanley Clarke and Lenny White at the Monterey Jazz Festival .

Cole Thompson

Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

At the 52nd Monterey Jazz Festival, three-quarters of the stellar fusion band Return to Forever shared a single stage.

They are Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White on piano, bass and drums, respectively.

In 1968, Corea (born 1941) recorded the trio classic Now He Sings, Now He Sobs with bassist Miroslav Vitous and drummer Roy Haynes.

It has become a much-taught trio album, and Corea's spinning blues choruses in the opening track, "Matrix," are part of a pivotal moment in jazz piano.

A great career begins here.

Corea and drummer Lenny White (born 1949) both played on the Miles Davis double electric LP Bitches Brew (1970).

Host Dee Dee Bridgewater says that White is one of her favorite drummers ever, while Corea says that when he plays "On Green Dolphin Street," he always thinks of Miles Davis. And Corea's choice of "Waltz for Debby" honors Bill Evans, who worked with Davis a decade prior to Chick Corea.
Just after Bitches Brew, bassist Stanley Clarke (born 1950) moved from Philadelphia to New York, and right away, he too was working with the name players.

Prior to 1976's School Days, it was practically unheard of for a bassist to release an album as a leader, but Clarke's tone and technique — also present in this trio — are not meant for the background.

Now, as then, these players create an irresistible flow.
Then it was electric, but at Monterey on Sept. 20, 2009, it's acoustic and highly charged.




Credits



Recording by Ron Davis, A Wing and A Prayer. Surround Sound re-mix by Duke Markos.

Set List

"Green Dolphin Street" (Kaper, Washington)

"Waltz for Debby" (Bill Evans)

"No Mystery" (Corea)

"Cancion de Sophia" (Clarke)

"Solo Bass Improvisation" (Clarke)

"Five Hundred Miles High" (Corea)

"Bud Powell" (Corea)*

. Bill Callahan : Tiny Desk Concert . Voix et Profondeur .

It's a high compliment to suggest that these three Bill Callahan songs may well implant themselves in your brain, lay eggs and sprout horrifically disturbing dreams at that point when you're banging on the snooze alarm in a state of anguished early-morning half-sleep.

After Callahan — a.k.a. The Artist Formerly Known As Smog — performed at the NPR Music offices, my own slumber was absolutely haunted by at least one line from each piece he played.

From "Jim Cain":

"I used to be darker / Then I got lighter / Then I got dark again."

From "Rococo Zephyr":

 

"I used to be sorta blind / But now I can sorta see."

 

From "Too Many Birds": 

"If you could only stop your heartbeat for one heartbeat..."

All three songs are highlights from Callahan's magnificent new album, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, and all three are rendered here in faithful detail by Callahan and his crack team of backing players. 

The singer is, for obvious reasons, the driving force in these performances — every sound orbits around his deep, detached voice — but all those strings and guitars exude subtle warmth to match Callahan's sly but sneakily empathetic words.

The result is a Tiny Desk Concert that's more serious than most, and at times almost eerily transfixing. 

Immerse yourself in it, and you may just re-live it in your darkest dreams.

Bill Callahan TINY DESK 

Podcast Download NPR . Bill Callahan : Tiny Desk Concert

Set List

• "Jim Cain"
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• "Rococo Zephyr"
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• "Too Many Birds"
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. Esperanza Spalding Tiny Desk Concert : Bass & Voice .

Esperanza Spalding has phenomenal hair.

If you meet her in her street clothes, you may not notice it; she keeps it tucked inconspicuously away, miraculously to be honest, under a knit cap.

But right before she took the "stage" at NPR Music's Tiny Desk, she doffed her piece to unveil a massive, overflowing 'fro. More than one of us wondered from which secret hiding place it all emanated.

Spalding stows a lot of talent in small packages. She's not a very tall person — diminutive, really — but has made a career of playing the imposing double bass with jazz giants.

She sings, too, with a high-pitched but husky flavor, making it easy to wonder how she generates the lung capacity for her acrobatic, high-wire feats.

For reference, spend time with the middle tune here, the standard "Midnight Sun."

She goes at it solo, just bass and voice, and generates plenty of horsepower.

But it's not sheer musical talent that makes her a winning (and bread-winning) performer — after all, there are plenty of chops to go around in jazz.

Spalding has a certain poise, a way of engaging a crowd, of controlling a room. It's usually seen as a large-scale projection, a friendly demeanor greeting a festival or performing arts center crowd of thousands. In this most awkwardly cramped of stages, her deep conviction was a dominant force.

For her Tiny Desk Concert, she mostly called original tunes from Chamber Music Society, her new album pairing a jazz rhythm section with a three-piece string trio.

The two tunes bookending her set alternated the gossamer with the rich and darkly hued: the album opener "Little Fly," her setting of a William Blake poem, and "Apple Blossom," featuring her regular guitarist, Ricardo Vogt.

Spalding conceived of Chamber Music Society as an intimate experience, a close musical exchange between a small group of friends.

If it was intimacy she wanted, she got her wish: The constraints of Bob Boilen's workspace ensured that all the players were nice and cozy.

We liked what she had in mind.

Set List

"Little Fly"


"Midnight Sun"


"Apple Blossom"

Personnel

Esperanza Spalding (bass and vocals)


Ricardo Vogt (guitar)


Sara Caswell (violin)


Lois Martin (viola)

Jody Redhage (cello)

Podcast Download NPR M4V TINY DESK CONCERT LINK

. Concert Stanley Clarke : North Sea Jazz 2010 .

. Sonny Rollins : The Saxophone Colossus Turns 80 .

Valery Hache/AFP

It's hard to overstate Sonny Rollins contribution to jazz.

As the groundbreaking saxophonist celebrates his 80th birthday on Sept. 7, he can look back on a performing and recording career that spans more than 60 years and has influenced generations of jazz players.

And, of course, the good news is that he's still recording, performing and living up to the name of his magnificent 1956 recording, Saxophone Colossus.

As a way of wishing Rollins a happy 80th birthday, here are five classic examples of his extraordinary sax work.

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Sonny Rollins: The Saxophone Colossus Turns 80

• Artist: Miles Davis & Modern Jazz Giants
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• Album: Bags' Groove

Although Sonny Rollins began recording as a sideman in 1949 and as a bandleader in 1953, he really came into his own in his work with Miles Davis from 1951 to '54.

On Davis' 1954 Bags Groove, Rollins contributes three of his own compositions and great bop chops. All three have gone on to become jazz standards:

"Airegin," "Doxy" and this song, "Oleo."

Along with Sonny and Miles, this band also includes Horace Silver (piano), Percy Heath (bass) and Kenny Clarke (drums).

• Artist: Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet
• 
  
• Album: At Basin Street

In 1955, in addition to working on his own musical projects, Rollins teamed up with the band led by Clifford Brown and Max Roach.

Everyone plays masterfully on these recordings, and the band might have gone on to create a great body of work.

But after Brown's death in 1956, Rollins would continue to record almost exclusively as a bandleader, creating his own unparalleled body of work.

• Artist: Sonny Rollins
• Album: Saxophone Colossus

Rollins' 1956 album Saxophone Colossus was perhaps his first classic recording as a leader.

It was also the album that provided him with the sobriquet he'd own from then on:

"The Saxophone Colossus."

His recording of "St. Thomas" is taken from a traditional calypso melody from the Virgin Islands, which his mother sang to him as a boy. With the help of drummer Max Roach, pianist Tommy Flanagan and bassist Doug Watkins, the song has since become yet another Rollins-inspired jazz standard.

• Artist: Sonny Rollins
• Album: The Bridge

Between 1956 and '58, Rollins was on fire creatively: He recorded 16 albums, including Saxophone Colossus, Tenor Madness (with John Coltrane), Way Out West and Freedom Suite.

That's why the jazz world was stunned when Rollins decided to take what would turn out to be a three-year sabbatical from performing and recording. During that time, he practiced his playing relentlessly, often playing solo on New York's Williamsburg Bridge, trying to break through what he perceived as his musical limitations.

When he returned in 1962, he recorded The Bridge with guitarist Jim Hall, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Ben Riley; it remains one of his best-selling albums.

• Artist: Sonny Rollins
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• Album: Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert

After 50 years of making excellent recordings, Rollins won his first Grammy in 2001 for This Is What I Do.

Later that year, on Sept. 11 -- four days after his 71st birthday -- he had to evacuate his downtown New York apartment, which was just blocks from the World Trade Center.

All he took with him was his saxophone. Five days later, he played a concert at the Berklee School of Music in Boston.

The recording of that concert was released in 2005, and it earned Rollins his second Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, for the song "Why Was I Born?"

Sonny Rollins is a true jazz legend, a sax player with a six-decade career and a giant who's outlasted the giants he played with:

Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell.

Rollins' career spiked in the 1950s with a series of acclaimed recordings, including perhaps his best-known song, "St. Thomas," which experimented with calypso rhythms.

But his career has also had its downturns.

In 1959, he retired from playing gigs and became famous for practicing alone on the Williamsburg Bridge in New York.

He has also battled health problems.

Rollins is taking his career into his own hands.

He's started his own record label, launched a

new Web site, and continues to tour and record.

Sonny Rollins' record is called Sonny, Please.

2006 Nov.

. Elvis Costello And Allen Toussaint: City of Hope .

Allen Toussaint

Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint have come together to write and record a warm, hopeful new album. The two chose to make The River in Reverse in Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans as a gesture of hope.

Most of the album's 13 tracks were recorded as free-flowing jam sessions.

A rock 'n' roll chameleon known for his ability and willingness to work in any genre of music — from classical to punk to R&B — Costello has proved his ability to adapt once again.

Toussaint is also an enormously talented and versatile musician, songwriter and producer, and he remains one of the most influential artists in jazz, blues and even country music.

It's only fitting that he should make this soulful album for his New Orleans hometown.

Elvis Costello

Set List

• "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?"
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• "Freedom for the Stallion"
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• "Ascension Day"
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• "The Sharpest Thorn"
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• "Nearer to You"

. Remembering Jazz Photographer Herman Leonard .

Charley Gallay/Getty Images

Herman Leonard in 2008.

. August 16, 2010 .

Leonard died Saturday in a Los Angeles hospital, according to his official website. No cause of death was listed.

Herman Leonard's life was an example of the phrase "everything in its time."

Shortly after earning a fine-arts degree in photography in the late 1940s, Leonard was making a living as a commercial photographer during the day and hanging out in jazz clubs in New York at night.

Leonard focused his camera's lens on young musicians who would go on to become jazz legends: Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, to name just a few.

HERMAN LEONARD Ella Fitzgerald with Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Richard Rogers, Downbeat, New York 1949

HERMAN LEONARD DIZZY GILLESPSIE ROYAL ROOST N Y C 1948

HERMAN LEONARD Dexter Gordon, Royal Roost, New York City, 1948

HERMAN LEONARD Ray Brown, NYC, 1948

"You could look at his photos and almost hear the music," says John Edward Hasse, curator of American music at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

"He used light, shadow and smoke, and he made indelible the faces of many of the greatest American musicians of the 20th century."

While many of his subjects became his good friends, only a few of his photos were used on album covers. He gave many away to jazz clubs for promotional purposes.

Mostly, the negatives sat in boxes. 

Meanwhile, Leonard's career took him to Paris, where he worked as a fashion and commercial photographer for almost three decades. After taking a break from photography, the Leonard family eventually landed in London.

HERMAN LEONARD Nat King Cole, NYC 1949

HERMAN LEONARD Ella Fitzgerald with Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Richard Rogers, Downbeat, New York 1949

HERMAN LEONARD Charlie Bird Parker with Metronome All Stars, NYC 1949

HERMAN LEONARD Tony Bennett, New York City, 1950

His daughter Shana Leonard remembers it being a tough time.

"He was in his 60s at this point," she says. 

"I can't imagine when you're in your 60s and you have no money ... he was pretty lost at that point."

For direction, he returned to those early jazz negatives. "I would very comfortably say that these jazz negatives saved his life," Shana Leonard says.

Herman Leonard published his first book of photographs in 1985, more than three decades after he made his first images. After being turned down by the major London galleries, his first exhibit took place in a small space in 1988.

More than 10,000 people visited the show in its first month. 

What those people saw was what Leonard saw through his viewfinder sitting in the front row of jazz clubs so many years before, as he explained in a 2007 interview with NPR's Michele Norris.

"Well, that's where I could hear the music," Leonard said.

"And that's where it happened. It happens in the clubs. It doesn't happen in a photo studio. And I wanted to record image-wise to make a visual diary, if you wish, of what I was experiencing." 

Leonard died Saturday in a Los Angeles hospital .

Herman Leonard Sonny Stitt N.Y.C 1953

HERMAN LEONARD CHET BAKER N Y C 1956

HERMAN LEONARD Art Blakey, Paris, 1958

HERMAN LEONARD DUKE ELLINGTON, Paris 1960

Louis Amstrong Newport Jazz Festival, 1955 Herman Léonard.

And 155 of his prints are in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. 

They share space there with many jazz items, including the trumpet of his old friend, Dizzy Gillespie.

Armstrong Louis , Herman leonard

Billie Holiday and her dog , kitchen N . Y . C 1949 Herman Leonard

Billie Holiday Shoes HERMAN LEONARD 1955 N.YC.

Elington Duke Olympia Theater 1958 Herman Leonard

HERMAN LEONARD MILES DAVIS 1989

THE PICTURE SHOW Herman Leonard's Vision Of Jazz : NPR :

. Rafael Saadiq . Cool, Soul R&B JazzMan .

It's been a good couple of years for hip-hop and soul producers to step out from the boards and record their own music.

Mark Ronson released the stylish Version and Timbaland put out the interesting, if uneven, Shock Value.

Raphael Saadiq has been in the R&B scene for 20 years as a singer for groups like Tony! Toni! Tone!, but most notably spends his time in the producer's chair.

He's helmed recordings for artists such as John Legend, Joss Stone and The Roots.

His new solo album, The Way I See It, is an authentic standout within the recent '60s soul resurgence.

In this interview, Saadiq discusses his early bonds to The Temptations and the Dick Cavett Show, and reveals the advice he received from Stevie Wonder.

Raphael Saadiq: Tiny Desk Concert

Raphael Saadiq

The Tiny Desk

15/03/2010

Looking sharp in his tailored suit, the Grammy-nominated R&B artist performed three acoustic interpretations of his soul-inspired tunes.

He was joined by guitarist Rob Bacon in this intimate performance at Bob Boilen's desk.





I'm not sure how I expected Raphael Saadiq to translate his old-school soul and R&B to the acoustic confines of the Tiny Desk, but I know I hadn't imagined two acoustic guitars.

In the late '80s and '90s, under the name Raphael Wiggins, Saadiq played bass in the multi-platinum band Tony! Toni! Tone!

More recently, he reinvented himself as a successful producer and released last year's Grammy-nominated solo album The Way I See It, which features collaborations with Joss Stone, Stevie Wonder and Jay-Z.

For his Tiny Desk Concert, Saadiq brought a remarkable accompanist in guitarist Rob Bacon.

The two had just gotten off a plane, but in their impeccably tailored suits and their grand smiles, they looked fresh and played an inspired acoustic performance.

As you watch, keep an eye on Saadiq's guitar work: You'll see how his years as a bassist influences many of his licks on his Taylor acoustic. You're in for a real treat.

SET LIST

"Love That Girl"

"100 Yard Dash"

"Sure Hope You Mean It"

Raphael Saadiq.npr-podcasts.m4v

Raphael Saadiq Site

. All You Need Is Love (And Peace):The Beatles In Jazz ( by Lara Pellegrinelli) .

Express Newspapers/Hulton Archive

 

Ringo Starr's gold-plated snare drum will be on display at New York's Metropolitan Museum until December.

"What a drag it is getting old" might be a sentiment appropriate for Mick Jagger's birthday, but Beatles drummer Ringo Starr celebrated his 70th with boyish enthusiasm earlier this month.

Starr asked fans around the world to join him at noon by saying the words "peace and love," the only gift he wanted, and he was honored by New York's Metropolitan Museum, where his gold-plated snare drum — a present from the Ludwig Drum Company during the Beatles' famed 1964 U.S. tour — will be on display until December.

The Beatles have lived as long as many composers of the so-called American popular song (Gershwin, Porter, Loesser). 

And the band's works, now tried and true, have also found a place in the jazz repertoire, even if arrangements of Ringo's "Octopus's Garden" remain scarce (check George Benson's The Other Side of Abbey Road for the only one we know).

Last September, Take Five presented listeners with a Beatles list, using it to trace how jazz musicians have absorbed popular music that post-dates the British Invasion.

This time, for the drummer, is just for kicks. Happy Birthday, Ringo! Peace and love.

All You Need Is Love (And Peace): The Beatles In Jazz

CHARLIE HUNTER

Playing a custom Novax eight-string, Charlie Hunter manages to handle all the usual guitar duties, while grabbing bass notes and keeping time as well as any drummer with textured strumming and slapping.

So much for a little help from his friends. Hunter's car might just be a motorcycle. 
And, no, you can't drive it.

• "Drive My Car"
• Album: Come Together: Guitar Tribute to the Beatles, Vol. 2
• Artist: Various Artists
• Label: Nagel-Heyer
• Released: 1995

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BRAD MELDHAU 

On the last Take Five Beatles list, we failed to include pianist Brad Mehldau, a contemporary pioneer when it comes to bridging the gap between jazz and pop music. 


You noticed; point taken. When Mehldau hasn't been too busy playing songs by Radiohead, he's performed a number of Beatles gems, including "Blackbird," "She's Leaving Home" and a solo version of "Martha, My Dear" fantastical enough to warrant comparison to legendary pianist Art Tatum. 


Here, in honor of Ringo Starr, we opted for something more straightforward with a little backbeat.

• Album: Largo
• Song: Dear Prudence

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MEDESKI / SCOFIELD / MARTIN / WOOD 

Medeski, Martin and Wood represent the happy place where jazz gets made into jam.

Guitarist John Scofield, a masterful improviser who knows how to rock out, makes for their perfect partner in crime. 

While the trio-plus-one spends most of Out Louder pushing the groove envelope, "Julia" finds them at their mellow best.

It's more pulsing texture than melody, with a haunting edge. Lovely, lovely melancholy.

• Album: Out Louder
• Song: Julia

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CHRIS POTTER

"Yesterday" is one of the most frequently covered Beatles songs, at least where jazz musicians are concerned, and this might be its most gorgeous arrangement.


Ballads - wistfully nostalgic and otherwise - don't come with the same expectations for improvisational flights as up-tempo tunes, but they depend on a soloist gracefully embellishing the melody nonetheless. 


Here, saxophonist Chris Potter keeps the tune simple and instead expands the harmony.

When he gets to the bridge ("Why she had to go..."), it just blossoms.

• Album: Underground
• Song: Yesterday

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BOBBY Mc FERRIN

At least one person is bound to write in to say something like, "Bobby McFerrin isn't a jazz musician."


It might be poor manners on my part, but I'm preemptively going to say that that's complete nonsense. 


McFerrin worked for years with Jon Hendricks, the Godfather of Vocalese, and he's held his own in duos with Chick Corea (in fact, here's a full concert). 


He can do anything.

• Album: Spontaneous Inventions
• Song: From Me to You