Singer,composer and pianist Norah Jones was born on March 30, 1979,in New York City.
But her musical life began in Grapevine,Texas.It was during her time there that she began singing in church choirs and taking piano lessons,even trying out the alto saxophone. Her earliest influences came from her mother's extensive LP collection and a Dallas oldies station.While listening to her mom's records,Jones fell in love with jazz by way of the Billie Holiday albums she'd play over and over again.
When she was 15,Jones moved to Dallas with her mother.
She became a student at the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.Inspired by an Etta James recording of "I'll Be Seeing You,"she performed her version at age 16 in a local coffeehouse during open-mic night.It was her first solo gig.While in high school,she played with a jazz-rock band and earned her first awards:the 1996 Downbeat Student Music Awards for "Best Jazz Vocalist" and "Best Original Composition." She won the Downbeat SMA for "Best Jazz Vocalist" again in 1997,and she later majored in jazz piano at the University of North Texas.
Jones' musical life started taking off when she moved to Manhattan in 1999.
She intended to stay in the city for the summer,but found a musical life so rich and appealing that she decided to stay.Later that year, Jones began to appear regularly with a funk-fusion band called Wax Poetic.
By the fall of 2000,she had a group of her own, with which she recorded some demos for Blue Note Records.
Following a live showcase,she signed with the label in January 2001.
Jones first album, Come Away With Me, became a multiple Grammy winner and multi-platinum seller,and it opened the door for her to perform around the world with her band.
Her second album, Feels Like Home, featured such guests as Dolly Parton,drummer Levon Helm and organist/accordionist Garth Hudson of The Band,as well as long-time friends such as guitarists Jesse Harris and Tony Scherr and drummer Brian Blade.
Her third album, Not Too Late,came in 2007 and featured 13 tunes that Jones either wrote or co-wrote.
She also recently made her acting debut in the film My Blueberry Nights and appeared on the soundtrack.
This program is Jones' second appearance on Marian McPartlands Piano Jazz.
It was recorded live at the 2003 Tanglewood Jazz festival with a record-setting audience on hand.
Set List
"Mean to Me" (Alhert, Turk)
"Lover Man" (Davis, Ramirez, Sherman)
"Walking My Baby Back Home" (Alhert, Turk)
"Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most"(Landesman, Wolf)
Hiromi performs at Newport Jazz Festival,July 29,2010.
First,just inside the festival gate,the audience packs the Harbor Stage for Hiromi.
Her light-to-squeaky onstage voice belies her huge piano sound and technique, applied full-bore to longtime warhorses "Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise" and "I Got Rhythm."
Hiromi's stride-style left hand pumps rhythm to support the fabulous speed and articulation of her right.
And, with her electronic keyboard and guitarist John Shannon in her band, she's got fusion in her arsenal, too.
She calls her group Sonic Bloom.
Michel Camilo performs also at Newport Jazz.
On the main stage,Michel Camilo is a Newport veteran.
After Hiromi attended his Master classes at Berklee College of Music in Boston, the two performed duo piano concerts in Japan.
Camilo is the current Jazz Creative Chair with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
He and the DSO have performed Camilo's first piano concerto and will stage the American premiere of his second in February 2011, with Leonard Slatkin conducting.
In other words,Michel Camilo operates at the top of the musical world and without borders.
In a recent interview with Tomas Pena on Jazz.com,Camilo got to the heart of something important about our times.
"People don't realize we are living in a golden era of jazz," Camilo says.
"Musicians of my generation are touring and playing constantly.The last time we played Tokyo,it was for a crowd of 5,000 people, and that's not the only concert where we get audiences like that.
We did a concert in Germany last year, and it was filmed for German television. Things like that are happening."
His trio with Charles Flores and Cliff Almond is long-running. His more episodic group is the Michel Camilo Big Band.
It might be playing in the U.S. soon; at least it's rumored that a CD is coming.
And musicians, check out these voicings for the first three chords of "Poinciana" below, courtesy of Camilo, which you can watch on YouTube.
Set Lists
Hiromi's Sonic Bloom
"Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise" (Hammerstein, Romberg)
"I Got Rhythm" (G. & I. Gershwin)
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Michel Camilo Trio
"Piece of Cake" (Camilo)
"Repercussions" (Camilo)
"Poinciana" (Simon & Bernier, arr. Camilo)
"Descarga for Tito" (Camilo)
"A Night in Tunisia" (Gillespie, Hendricks, Paparelli)
It's hard not to notice Hiromi Uehara's energy: her dazzling, explosive keyboard abilities are front and center in her music. The way she designs tunes, or even interprets standards, ripples with flourishes of Romantic-era classical music, prog-rock bombast and playful gusto. And her touch on piano and keyboards is nothing if not intense.
Born and raised in Japan, but trained in jazz at Berklee College of Music, Hiromi has found fellow graduates and Boston-area collaborators to match her vision. In the last three years, her newest band SonicBloom, a quartet which often features gonzo jazz-rock guitarist Dave Fiuczynski, has made two albums, plus a forthcoming live DVD.
That group's expressive jazz fusion will be on display at the Harbor Stage on Saturday at the 2009 Newport Jazz Festival.
Davantage destinée à être posée sur un pied, cette enceinte donnera les sensations d’une enceinte colonne sans en occuper le même volume. La nouvelle suspension en demi rouleau caoutchouc du haut-parleur de grave permet de garder une très bonne rapidité. Conseillée pour une pièce de 15-30 m2.
Sens aigu du Tweeter
Tweeter TZ 2500 : Le son naturel
Le tweeter occupe une place majeure dans l’histoire TRIANGLE. Ce haut-parleur a pour mission de retranscrire les sons aigus tels que les cymbales d’une batterie ou les cordes d’un clavecin. La performance du Tweeter TZ 2500 TRIANGLE repose sur l’utilisation d’un dôme titane allié à une chambre de compression qui favorise un haut rendement avec peu de distorsion et une directivité excellente. Les variations rapides de son appelées «transitoires» sont fidèles à la réalité et restituent une image «live» inimitable.
La restitution étonnante du médium
Le médium de la Comete Ex Esprit a la capacité de restituer les fréquences les plus audibles par l’homme. Il permet donc à l’oreille extrêmement sensible de percevoir tous les défauts qui déforment le son originel.
L’expérience TRIANGLE préconise l’utilisation de membrane en pulpe de cellulose pour sa légèreté et son faible apport de coloration. Cette membrane associée à une suspension périphérique à petit plis permet une précision étonnante de la restitution de la voix.
La matière du grave
Grâce à une membrane en fibre de verre, il propose un excellent compromis entre rigidité et légèreté. Il est ajouré afin de dissiper plus rapidement la chaleur dégagée par la bobine.
A l’écoute, le grave est très net avec de la matière.
Le médium n’en ressort que plus transparent et plus naturel.
Tomorrow night, a reconstituted Return to Forever begins a summer tour of over three months across the U.S. and Europe. The band was a prime mover of jazz fusion in the 1970s, and after decades on hiatus, a new lineup is once again set to take the stage with old hits and new songs. (A "classic" version of the band toured in 2008.)
Keyboardist Chick Corea founded Return to Forever in the early '70s. While it's known best for its role in defining jazz fusion, Corea says the project is really defined by its stylistic versatility, and its principal players. "For me, Return to Forever in its essence is my collaboration with [electric bassist] Stanley Clarke," he said. "'Cause Stanley's been there with me through all the iterations of Return to Forever, and I don't think I would ever call a band Return to Forever without Stanley being there."
I recently asked Corea to select a five-song playlist for ourTake Five series which would help illustrate the history of Return to Forever. We spoke about his picks over the phone — the slightly edited transcript of which follows.
1. Miles Davis, "Concierto De Aranjuez,"
from
Sketches Of Spain
(arranged by Gil Evans)
Patrick Jarenwattananon: The first thing you picked out is the piece from Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain, the "Concierto de Aranjuez." ... What do you remember about hearing this for the first time?
Chick Corea: Well ... it was on the heels of some other recordings that began with a recording called Miles Ahead, and that was the first studio recording that Miles did with Gil Evans' arrangements and the orchestra. And it was such a beautiful piece of music, and it was such a new and successful form too. It wasn't exactly a symphony orchestra, no strings, but very beautiful writing with Miles as a lyrical soloist. And it made a great impression on me as a composer, as an arranger. Of course, I'd been following and learning and loving Miles'. Everything that he did since I first came across him playing with Charlie Parker in 1947 when I was really a tot. But anyway, I thought, if I was to chose one thing from Miles that might be a nice one to play, which has Miles' great lyrical performance together with his orchestral concept, with the great Gil Evans. And plus, Miles is also where myself and Stanley [Clarke] and [drummer] Lenny White and most of the guys in Return to Forever draw their inspiration from.
PJ: Of course, you worked with Miles later on in your life. What do you remember listening to this as — I guess you must have been a teenager then? What was this impact on you? And especially with regards to the whole Spanish vibe to this recording — I know you've drawn on the music of Spain and of Latin and Iberian jazz in general.
CC: Yeah. Well, it just brought together a lot of strings of interest for me at the time because I was already really interested in working with the New York Latin musicians. In fact my first really good gig when I got to New York after high school was with Mongo Santamaria's band. We played Birdland a couple of times. And Birdland at that time on 52nd Street was a couple of bars down from the Palladium. And so on breaks from my gig with Mongo, I used to run over to the Palladium and hear Tito Puente's band, and Machito's band, and Eddie Palmieri's band. That was some hot inspiration for me. It was a great compliment to the more serious jazz that I was into with Miles and Ornette Coleman and Coltrane and so forth. So when Miles came with "Concierto de Aranjuez," it brought together both of those worlds actually. And also introduced me to another strain of Spanish music which was the actual Spanish classical music. 'Cause the great [composer Joaquín] Rodrigo was the one that composed the theme for Aranjuez.
2. John Coltrane, "Pt. 2, Resolution" from A Love Supreme
PJ: The next tune you've picked is the second movement of A Love Supreme. Classic John Coltrane recording. And as I'm looking at this list I'm sort of wondering why you picked it.
CC: Well, it's for very similar reasons why I picked the Miles piece. Which is because John Coltrane is ... a major influence and inspiration to Stanley [Clarke] and myself, and Lenny [White] too. And to us, when we listened to our own music or when we listened to Return to Forever, or when we play — when you have a mentor and a musical hero that has that much sway, and that much inspiration for you, it's something that never leaves your life, and it works its way into everything that you do. So I thought if we were making a list, I thought rather than play all Return to Forever music, I'd give the listeners an idea of where we come from.
PJ: What about it do you think that you've adopted into Return to Forever, or even any of your other work. I mean, what about this particular recording?
CC: That's really hard to put into words. It's hard to be logical about it. It's an inspiration of freedom, and freedom of expression, and the courage to try new things, and to delve into music, and to try and bring something that's real deep inside that you could say is your own very personal case in music or in art or in life, and try to bring that in some way to people who all have other kind of tastes and different tastes. And so you have to reach a communication point. I sometimes think to myself that if I were to play the music that only is within the relm of my personal tastes, probably no one would want to listen to it! But I do care about trying to get the things that I love across to people. And I think that Coltrane's music and Miles' music too have that expression of freedom that we all love.
PJ: Did you ever know Coltrane at all?
CC: Unfortunately, I was so shy when I went and was next to him in clubs. I went to hear him play a lot in the '60s in New York, and night after night listening to the great band. And I was just so shy, I never walked up to him and said how much I liked it.
Chick Corea performs in Melbourne, Australia in February 2011. Corea and a new version of his band Return to Forever tour the U.S. and Europe this summer. (Martin Philbey Photo)
3. Chick Corea and Return to Forever, "Spain," from Light as a Feather
PJ: The next tune you picked is from the second Return to Forever record and the first as Return to Forever, the band. Take me back to 1972 a little bit. You've already been releasing records as a leader, you've worked with Miles Davis for a while now. You've worked in the band Circle. What prompted you to start this new project? What were you listening to at the time? What was the genesis of Return to Forever?
CC: Well, it was just a passion to want to pull together some aspects of music that I loved — that I felt I wanted to express. Like when I worked with Miles for the two-and-a-half years, and then with Dave Holland and Circle for like a year or two after that, I loved both of those experiences. I wouldn't trade them for anything. But what they lacked for me and what I wanted to delve into more was a groove music. A music that had a beat to it, that was in some way danceable and that you could feel and that had a sort of melodic-ness to it.
So that led me into writing. Actually I wrote some of the songs from the first record like "Sometime Ago" and "La Fiesta" — I wrote those songs while I was preforming with Circle. Actually Circle has some performances of "Sometime Ago." We used to play "Sometime Ago" with Circle. It was like a transition thing for me. So then when I came to New York and hooked up with Stanley, who we met playing with the Joe Henderson band. Stanley and I shared those kinds of tastes for groove and for melody, and for that kind of thing. And I also wanted to have a vocalist in my band. So all of those elements came together as we developed that first Return to Forever.
PJ: You've said before that you've wanted to communicate more with audiences in that music and I guess that's what you mean by having a groove?
CC: Absolutely! Sure! You put a beat to music, and people can understand it. I think it's a simple thing to observe. That a listener gets into a rhythmic rapport with a piece of music, and the message comes across a lot more fluently, it seems.
PJ: I'm wondering, a tune like "Spain" was so growing and eposodic, do you feel that the Sketches of Spain album or even just the Concierto had any influence on this piece?
CC: Well, not only an influence but it became a part of the piece. ... There's three movements to [Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez]. And the second movement is the movement that's arranged into the Sketches of Spain. And it was the movement that, that melody that I began to experiment with. Out of my experimentation with that melody came the rest of the arrangement which became the song "Spain." So when we would perform it live, I would always play that theme, that Aranjuez theme as an introduction to "Spain," and they became locked together as a performance. I still do it, when people ask for "Spain" in concert I play [hums opening salvo of "Concierto de Aranjuez"] and people know what's coming up.
4. Return To Forever, "The Endless Night," from Musicmagic
PJ: The next tune you've picked is from, I guess, what is the last Return to Forever album, it's called Musicmagic and it's a tune called "The Endless Night." And listening to it, this is, what, five years after the first Return to Forever recordings. This band has changed a lot.
CC: Oh yeah, It was a brand new ensemble. It was like a whole new idea that Stanley and I had been thinking about. Both of us were becoming more and more interested in orchestration, and I had already made the recording, The Leprechaun, which was with strings and brass and so forth. So this was our attempt to put our compositions in an orchestral setting. I thought "The Endless Night" was a good choice because it not only has the orchestration in it so you can hear the band, but its got some nice little sections with Stanley and Gayle [Moran, Corea's wife] singing the melody together.
PJ: You know, what I hear when I listen to this tune is the sort of influence of progressive rock, if that was anything that you were listening to at the time — this very organized, heavily orchestrated, lush, long ...
CC: Yea. You know, I didn't until way later start to listen to bands like Yes and so forth who preformed that way. Emerson, Lake and Palmer and so forth made some great music. Actually even, you know who I'd put in that category also was the Beatles with their orchestrations and so forth. No, this kind of orchestration came more from the end of classical music I would say. Bach and Mozart and Debussy and Bartok kind of having a traffic incident with Sly and the Family Stone and the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
5. Mahavishnu Orchestra, "Smile of the Beyond," from Apocalyse
PJ: And so that brings us to Mahavishnu John McLaughlin. You picked a tune from the album Apocalypse — it's called "Smile of the Beyond."
CC: The reason why I put Mahavishnu in there and John especially — if we had had more tracks, I would have added something by Herbie Hancock, I would have added something by Weather Report to kind of see the way all of my friends, and what directions they were going with their writing in the '70s — but this is just one instance of where a bunch of forces come together that is on the line of what we're doing these days.
First of all, the producer of this recording is George Martin. And Gayle [Moran] is my wife — she's singing on this track — so she's told me many times what the experience of recording this track was, in the studio in London, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and John McLaughlin. Now, in the John McLaughlin group was Jean-Luc Ponty at that time, who's now playing with us, and also Michael Narada Walden, who I just saw play with Jeff Beck the other night and he played the drums like a god. He was incredible. And also all of the things that Narada has done since playing drums with John McLaughlin, he went ahead and produced some of the best pop music ever. Plus my wife Gayle who has this georgeous voice.
And all of these elements came together on this piece called "Smile of the Beyond." It's got this georgeous beautiful composition of John's, one of my favorites of John McLaughlin's melodies. Of course, John and the Mahavishnu orchestra particularly were a real catalyst to Stanley and I back in the '70s in making our transition from Return to Forever I to Return to Forever II, which was the electric version of Return to Forever. I know it was [for] me, John's influence and the way he took the electric guitar and was the first time I had ever heard it played that way, and it was very inspiring. So I thought it was apropos we put a track of Mahavishnu in here.
PJ: Return to Forever was together for a fairly brief time, say, five or so years. What lead to the breakup to that band at the time, and why are you guys getting back together?
CC: I think we had taken it to a point where everyone's solo ideas were just at the forefronts of everyone's minds. Stanley had already made several of his own records, Lenny and Al [di Meola] as well. And me, I was making Leprechaun and My Spanish Heart, and we had more musical terrain that we wanted to experiment with. At that time anyway, the musical terrain of Return to Forever seemed limiting to us, to me anyway. It seemed like it didn't have enough variety in it for me to explore the things that I wanted to do. So we went ahead and did all of those things that we wanted to do. It just took a few decades to get back together again.
rtf4
The latest reincarnation of Return to Forever, which calls itself Return to Forever IV. L-R: Jean-Luc Ponty, Lenny White, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Frank Gambale.
PJ: Why bring it back now? What inspired you to put it all together?
CC: A lot of the prompting actually came from the consistency of fans out on the roads, mentioning and requesting Return to Forever. When I go out and play, when Stanley goes out and plays, when Lenny goes out and plays, the band's name comes up a lot, and in that way it keeps it fresh in our minds. And we talk about it when we speak and so forth, and it helps us think about it and review it and see that this possibly could bring some pleasure to the fans of Return to Forever ... That was a major reason actually for bringing Return to Forever back together again.
And then that framework, of course, that we planned with one another, we could create practically anything. We're going to play some of the "hits" from all of the Return to Forever repertoire, as well as from our individual solo repetoires. For instance, we're doing "School Days," which is Stanley's tune. We're writing new music and were going to play some acoustic songs on the tour as well, so it should be a great pleasure.
There's no one standard model of jazz, but there are standards.
There's a standard repertoire, for sure; also, standard conventions of instrumentation, group interaction, overall "sound."
Trumpeter Roy Hargrove, when he commits to playing straight-ahead jazz, leads a quintet that is very comfortable with those standards.
If you're new to jazz, it would seem distantly familiar, like how you might imagine jazz to be. If you aren't new to jazz, you might just find it proves how satisfying those standards remain, and how much room for self-expression is in them.
At the Vanguard, he started the set off with a number of tunes by mentors —
Cedar Walton, Walter Booker, John Hicks, so forth — and standards.
(He even took a vocal turn on "Never Let Me Go.")
The second half brought more original compositions, including the funky signature "Strasbourg/St. Denis."
Hargrove stood aside one peer, alto saxophonist Justin Robinson, and in front of a younger rhythm section — his working band.
Set List
"The Lamp Is Low" (de Rose/Shefter)
"Hindsight" (Cedar Walton)
"After The Morning" (John Hicks)
"Book's Bossa" (Walter Booker)
"Mr. AT" (Walter Bolden)
"Rouge" (Hargrove)
"Never Let Me Go" (Livingston/Evans)
"Like That" (Hargrove)
"Strasbourg/St. Denis" (Hargrove)
"Bring It On Home To Me" (Sam Cooke)
Roy Hargrove is 41 now, decades after his talent was "discovered" at a Dallas, Texas, arts magnet high school by Wynton Marsalis.
He became something of a teenage prodigy, touring Europe and Japan before age 17 and playing with jazz legends before he could legally drink.
Hargrove's early studio efforts focused on his jazz playing — since then, he's also explored Afro-Cuban music with an ensemble called Crisol and started a funk and soul fusion band called the RH Factor.
(He's also been tapped to play behind Erykah Badu, Common and D'Angelo as a sideman.)
Miles Davis fut l'homme de toutes les révolutions musicales, et "Tutu", sa création millésimée "1986", n'échappe pas à cette règle.
Le trompettiste est alors fasciné par l'électronique, les sons synthétiques, la rythmique funk et le travail d'un Prince, lutin génial de l'électro-funk.
Pour "Tutu", album largement inspiré par la personnalité de Nelson Mandela, Miles Davis s'est entouré de partenaires de renom (George Duke, Omar Hakim...), mais surtout de
Marcus Miller,qui fut pendant une certaine période (1986-90)son éminence grise.
"Tutu" fut ainsi en grande partie "préparé" par Miller, qui arrangea ensuite les parties de Miles Davis.
On y déniche un jazz racé et rythmé, dont la suite s'intitula "Amandla", en 1989, que certains fans peuvent préférer pour son côté moins " électrique "...
« Quand j’ai écrit la musique de Tutu début 1986, je ne pouvais pas savoir que je la revisiterai vingt-trois ans plus tard. Quand je l’ai enregistrée avec Miles Davis, c’était la musique de son temps. Bien que j’ai joué la plupart des instruments sur cet album, il était primordial que la trompette de Miles soit au centre de la musique. J’ai essayé de trouver des mélodies à la hauteur de sa fabuleuse sonorité.
Lors de la tournée Tutu Revisited, nous avons remplacé les sons “super électros”, mais l’essence cool de Miles était toujours là.
Les gens la ressentent, même vingt-cinq ans après, au même titre que les musiciens.
Quand j’ai été approché pour revisiter cette musique en concert, j’ai hésité…
Parce que s’il y a une chose universellement admise à propos de Miles, c’est qu’il ne regardait jamais en arrière.
Pourtant, l’idée de saluer Miles m’a attiré, et j’ai commencé à réfléchir à la façon dont je pourrais présenter cette musique dans un contexte nouveau.
Je me suis dit que le meilleur moyen serait de le faire avec des jeunes musiciens. »
Pour ça, Marcus avait un atout majeur dans sa manche :
la nouvelle sensation de la trompette, le néo-orléanais Christian Scott – un musicien avec seulement quatre albums à son actif mais une assurance, une confiance et un style qui reflètent le passé tout en évoquant le futur.
À la batterie, l’explosif Ronald Bruner Jr., qui vient d’enflammer les foules aux côté de Stanley Clarke et de George Duke.
Aux claviers, Federico Gonzalez Peña, un musicien expérimenté et au goût sûr qui a laissé une marque indélébile dans l’exceptionnel groupe de Meshell Ndegeocello.
Au saxophone alto, une vraie découverte de Marcus, Alex Han, qui l’avait éblouit lors d’une masterclass à la Berklee College of Music de Boston. Comme au delà du mondialement (re)connu album Tutu, le groupe de Marcus explore en profondeur chaque titre :
Tomaas, Full Neslon, Portia ou le méchamment funky Splatch.
Hannibal, extrait de l’album suivant de Miles, Amandla (1989), est également revisité.
Ainsi que quelques titres du début des années 80, tel la célébrissime comptine Jean-Pierre de We Want Miles.
Lors des premières répétitions, ces jeunes loups jouaient pratiquement l’album note pour note, Marcus les a alors imploré de trouver leur propre voix à travers la musique.
Et bien que Marcus soit désormais un vétéran de l’époque du comeback de Miles Davis – lors des tournées de 1981 et 1982, il n'avait que 21 ans –, l’année de la sortie de Tutu, il ne faisait plus parti du groupe de Miles.
C’est donc la première fois qu’il rejoue live la musique de ce disque !
