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Monday, December 31, 2012

Smooth Jazz Chart - Weekly Top 20 - December 31st, 2012 #jazz


TW - LW - Artist - Album - (Label)
1 - 1 - Paul Brown - "The Funky Join" - (Woodward Ave)
2 - 2 - Gerald Albright/Norman Brown" - "24/7" - (Concord)
3 - 3 - Chris Standring - "Electric Wonderland" - (Ultimate Vibe)
4 - 4 - Nils - "City Groove" - (Baja/TSR)
5 - 5 - Richard Elliot - "In The Zone" - (Artistry/Mack Ave.)
6 - 6 - Jonathan Fritzen - "Magical" - (Nordic Night)
7 - 7 - Euge Groove - "House Of Groove" - (Shanachie)
8 - 8 - Fourplay - "Esprit de Four" - (Heads Up)
9 - 9 - Nicholas Cole - "Endless Possibilities" - (Cutmore)
10 - 10 - Najee - "Smooth Side Of Soul" - (Shanachie)
11 - 11 - David Benoit - "Conversation" - (Heads Up)
12 - 12 - Lee Ritenour - "Rhythm Sessions" - (Concord)
13 - 13 - Brian Culbertson - "Dreams" - (Verve)
14 - 14 - Jessy J - "Hot Sauce" - (Heads Up)
15 - 15 - Jackiem Joyner - "Church Boy" - (Artistry)
16 - 16 - Four80East - "Off Duty" - (Boomtang)
17 - 17 - Jeff Kashiwa - "Let It Ride" - (Native Language)
18 - 18 - Marc Antoine - "Guitar Destiny" - (Frazzy Frog)
19 - 19 - Peter White - "Here We Go" - (Concord)
20 - 20 - Julian Vaughn - "Breakthrough" - (Trippin 'N' Rhythm)

Our thanks to smoothjazz.comVisit smoothjazz.com to view the latest complete top 50 chart. Visit smoothjazz.com to view the latest weekly chart recap.
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Ethan Farmer | Bass Man #jazz

Celebrated Bass Player Ethan Farmer Launches His Solo Career With New Jazz Single and Video For “Watch” “Wine & Strings” EP Out Now,  With Full Length Album Due Early 2013 

Ethan Farmer aka E-Bassman is a celebrated bass player and is no stranger to the music scene playing and touring with the likes of Christina Aguilera, Janet Jackson, Patti LaBelle, Darius Rucker, Lionel Richie. Ethan was introduced to his instrument of choice... the bass at the age of five and then became the youngest member of the family group The Amazing Farmer Singers at the age of eight. From that early introduction, it has been a relationship that has only grown and evolved.

Ethan Farmer is truly changing the way we hear music today. He has crafted and honed his talent to make the listening experience a journey. Farmer has blurred the lines and taken in the influences of jazz, funk, soul, and rock & roll to create his eclectic sound. E-Bassman shares, “I want people to walk away from my show feeling like they did during Woodstock. Just a good feeling that people remember for generations and it was all about the music.”

Now, E-Bassman is focused on his solo career with the launch of his single “Watch.” From the first note, he hooks the listener with its up-tempo rhythm. The single can be found on his seven song EP Wine and Strings, which is currently available online at iTunes and will be followed up with the full-length album in February 2013.

Ethan is currently touring Europe with the legendary Lionel Richie and will be wrapping up the world-wide jaunt in December. After the back to back tours with NKOTB and Richie, he is finally able to focus full-time on his on his solo efforts and promotions for his upcoming full length release courtesy of Good People Club Music Group.

Be sure to follow Ethan Farmer as he prepares the full-length album Wine & Strings 2.0 for release in February of 2013.

For upcoming announcements, tour dates and more, check out Ethan Farmer at:
www.ethan-farmer.com
www.facebook.com/EbassmanFarmer
www.youtube.com/ebassman1
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Happy New Year To Our JazzHQ Subscribers [Video]

A very Happy New Year year to all the visitors of  the JazzHQ blog, Facebook and Twitter. I'm pleased that you found your way here and grateful if you've done it more than once.

Best wishes to you all. Good health and peace in the new year.



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Thursday, December 27, 2012

Smooth Jazz Chart - Weekly Top 20 - December 24th, 2012 #jazz


TW - LW - Artist - Album - (Label)
1 - 1 - Paul Brown - "The Funky Join" - (Woodward Ave)
2 - 2 - Gerald Albright/Norman Brown" - "24/7" - (Concord)
3 - 3 - Chris Standring - "Electric Wonderland" - (Ultimate Vibe)
4 - 4 - Nils - "City Groove" - (Baja/TSR)
5 - 5 - Richard Elliot - "In The Zone" - (Artistry/Mack Ave.)
6 - 6 - Jonathan Fritzen - "Magical" - (Nordic Night)
7 - 7 - Euge Groove - "House Of Groove" - (Shanachie)
8 - 8 - Fourplay - "Esprit de Four" - (Heads Up)
9 - 9 - Nicholas Cole - "Endless Possibilities" - (Cutmore)
10 - 10 - Najee - "Smooth Side Of Soul" - (Shanachie)
11 - 11 - David Benoit - "Conversation" - (Heads Up)
12 - 12 - Lee Ritenour - "Rhythm Sessions" - (Concord)
13 - 13 - Brian Culbertson - "Dreams" - (Verve)
14 - 14 - Jessy J - "Hot Sauce" - (Heads Up)
15 - 15 - Jackiem Joyner - "Church Boy" - (Artistry)
16 - 16 - Four80East - "Off Duty" - (Boomtang)
17 - 18 - Jeff Kashiwa - "Let It Ride" - (Native Language)
18 - 17 - Marc Antoine - "Guitar Destiny" - (Frazzy Frog)
19 - 19 - Peter White - "Here We Go" - (Concord)
20 - 20 - Julian Vaughn - "Breakthrough" - (Trippin 'N' Rhythm)

Our thanks to smoothjazz.comVisit smoothjazz.com to view the latest complete top 50 chart. Visit smoothjazz.com to view the latest weekly chart recap.
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Saturday, December 22, 2012

Happy Holidays 2012 From JazzHQ [Darlene Love Video] #jazz



Our very best wishes to all of you who took the time to visit JazzHQ during the year.

A Merry Christmas to you all, my friends and followers at JazzCellar, Facebook http://facebook.com/jazzhq and Twitter, http://twitter.com/jazzhq. Thank you for your support, wishing you all a very healthy, happy and peaceful new year.

Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"
David Letterman appearance 12/21/12

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Friday, December 21, 2012

Concord Music Group Lands 26 Grammy Nominations #jazz


Concord Music Group artists nabbed a stunning 26 Grammy nominations. Congratulations to all the nominees. Check out the complete list.

Best Pop Instrumental Album:
24/7
Gerald Albright & Norman Brown
[Concord Jazz]

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album:
A Holiday Carole
Carole King
[Hear Music]

Kisses on the Bottom
Paul McCartney
[Hear Music]

Best Country Duo/Group Performance:
"On the Outskirts of Town"
The Time Jumpers
Track from: The Time Jumpers
[Rounder]

Best Country Album:
The Time Jumpers
[Rounder]

Best Improvised Jazz Solo:
"Hot House"
Gary Burton & Chick Corea, soloists
Track from: Hot House
[Concord Jazz]

"Alice in Wonderland"
Chick Corea, soloist
Track from: Further Explorations (Chick Corea, Eddie Gomez & Paul Motian)
[Concord Jazz]

Best Jazz Vocal Album:
1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project
Kurt Elling
[Concord Jazz]

Live
Al Jarreau (And the Metropole Orkest)
[Concord]

Radio Music Society
Esperanza Spalding
[Heads Up International]

Best Jazz Instrumental Album:
Further Explorations
Chick Corea, Eddie Gomez & Paul Motian
[Concord Jazz]

Hot House
Chick Corea & Gary Burton
[Concord Jazz]

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album:
Dear Diz (Every Day I Think of You)
Arturo Sandoval
[Concord Jazz]

Best Bluegrass Album:
The Gospel Side Of
Dailey & Vincent
[Rounder]

Nobody Knows You
Steep Canyon Rangers
[Rounder]

Best Blues Album:
33 1/3
Shemekia Copeland
[Telarc International]

Best Instrumental Composition:
"December Dream"
Chuck Loeb, composer (Fourplay)
Track from: Esprit De Four
[Heads Up International]

"Mozart Goes Dancing"
Chick Corea, composer (Chick Corea & Gary Burton)
Track from: Hot House
[Concord Jazz]

Best Instrumental Arrangement:
"A Night In Tunisia (Actually An Entire Weekend!)"
Wally Minko, arranger (Arturo Sandoval)
Track from: Dear Diz (Every Day I Think Of You)
[Concord Jazz]

"Salt Peanuts! (Mani Salado)"
Gordon Goodwin, arranger (Arturo Sandoval)
Track from: Dear Diz (Every Day I Think Of You)
[Concord Jazz]

Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s):
"City of Roses"
Thara Memory & Esperanza Spalding, arrangers (Esperanza Spalding)
Track from: Radio Music Society
[Heads Up International]

"Spain (I Can Recall)"
Vince Mendoza, arranger (Al Jarreau and the Metropole Orkest)
Track from: Live
[Concord Records]

Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package:
Ram - Paul McCartney Archive Collection (Deluxe Edition)
Simon Earith & James Musgrave, art directors (Paul and Linda McCartney)
[Hear Music]

Best Album Notes:
Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles
Billy Vera, album notes writer (Ray Charles)
[Concord]

Best Historical Album:
Ram - Paul McCartney Archive Collection (Deluxe Edition)
Paul McCartney, compilation producer; Simon Gibson, Guy Massey & Steve Rooke, mastering engineers (Paul and Linda McCartney)
[MPL/Hear Music/Concord]

Best Long Form Music Video:
Radio Music Society
Esperanza Spalding, Pilar Sanz, video director; Esperanza Spalding, video producer [Heads Up International]

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Monday, December 17, 2012

Smooth Jazz Chart - Weekly Top 20 - December 17th, 2012 #jazz


TW - LW - Artist - Album - (Label)
1 - 1 - Paul Brown - "The Funky Join" - (Woodward Ave)
2 - 5 - Gerald Albright/Norman Brown" - "24/7" - (Concord)
3 - 7 - Chris Standring - "Electric Wonderland" - (Ultimate Vibe)
4 - 2 - Nils - "City Groove" - (Baja/TSR)
5 - 3 - Richard Elliot - "In The Zone" - (Artistry/Mack Ave.)
6 - 6 - Jonathan Fritzen - "Magical" - (Nordic Night)
7 - 4 - Euge Groove - "House Of Groove" - (Shanachie)
8 - 8 - Fourplay - "Esprit de Four" - (Heads Up)
9 - 9 - Nicholas Cole - "Endless Possibilities" - (Cutmore)
10 - 11 - Najee - "Smooth Side Of Soul" - (Shanachie)
11 - 10 - David Benoit - "Conversation" - (Heads Up)
12 - 14 - Lee Ritenour - "Rhythm Sessions" - (Concord)
13 - 16 - Brian Culbertson - "Dreams" - (Verve)
14 - 15 - Jessy J - "Hot Sauce" - (Heads Up)
15 - 13 - Jackiem Joyner - "Church Boy" - (Artistry)
16 - 12 - Four80East - "Off Duty" - (Boomtang)
17 - 21 - Marc Antoine - "Guitar Destiny" - (Frazzy Frog)
18 - 19 - Jeff Kashiwa - "Let It Ride" - (Native Language)
19 - 20 - Peter White - "Here We Go" - (Concord)
20 - 17 - Julian Vaughn - "Breakthrough" - (Trippin 'N' Rhythm)

Our thanks to smoothjazz.comVisit smoothjazz.com to view the latest complete top 50 chart. Visit smoothjazz.com to view the latest weekly chart recap.
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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Brian Culbertson’s Napa Valley Jazz Getaway set to return in June #jazz

 Tickets are on sale for the second annual festival of music and wine that adds
star power and more events.
 
When multitalented musician Brian Culbertson announced the first Napa Valley Jazz Getaway last New Year’s day, he didn’t imagine that the 5-day celebration of music and wine in the Golden State’s idyllic wine country would sell out in just one week, but that is exactly what happened.  The chart-topper and high-energy performer will again top the marquee of the 2013 edition slated for June 5-9 that adds numerous events to the schedule and luster to the list of performers in the form of Grammy winners Take 6, Ray Parker Jr., Norman Brown and Kirk Whalum united with Rick Braun as BWB, seminal funk outfit Larry Graham & Graham Central Station, saxophonists Eric Darius and Michael Lington, guitarist Nick Colionne, party band DW3 and special guest comedian Sinbad.  Ticket packages are currently on sale and are being made available in four phases with priority given to returning guests.   
 
In June, over 1,200 attendees will again converge upon Napa Valley from all over the nation to experience this extraordinary opportunity for jazz and wine enthusiasts to share their common passions with their favorite musicians.  Festival goers will enjoy headline concerts at the Napa Valley Opera House and Lincoln Theater while more intimate shows will be held at several wineries including Silver Oak and Chimney Rock.  VIPs will be treated to a solo piano performance by Culbertson staged in the wine cave at Miner Family Winery, which was one of the most buzzed about shows this year.  Throughout the festival, the backstage divide is removed allowing fans to interact freely with the musicians while dining, during wine receptions and tastings at one of the many winery partners, at autograph sessions, a golf tournament at Silverado Resort & Spa, and casual evening hangs at the Westin Verasa Napa for the late night crowd.  A silent auction will be held in support of music education to benefit The GRAMMY Foundation with the hopes of far surpassing this year’s impressive haul of over $31,000.           
 
“Wine and jazz have always been a perfect fit so to be able to share those two passions of mine with people who share similar tastes is truly a gift.  Our amazing lineup for 2013 is very exciting and we’ve partnered with some of the finest wineries and restaurants in Napa to ensure that the music, food and wine will be first class all the way!  I had a feeling we were onto something when we created this one of a kind getaway and the enthusiastic response from the fans far exceeded even our own expectations.  I can’t wait to welcome everyone to Napa, share the stage with some of my good friends, and kick back with a glass of wine while taking in the beauty of the magical Napa Valley,” said Culbertson, the Napa Valley Jazz Getaway’s founder and artistic director.
 
Through 13 solo albums and worldwide concerts tours, Culbertson has established himself as a consistent hitmaker and a consummate entertainer, which has made him one of the most popular artists on the contemporary jazz scene.  The award-winning multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer distills a smooth, soul-splashed vintage of shimmering jazz, R&B funk grooves and mellifluous adult pop.  His latest collection, “Dreams,” was released last summer and was supported by solo and co-headline concert tours with sax legend David Sanborn.       
 
Tickets for Brian Culbertson’s Napa Valley Jazz Getaway are available as VIP (5-day pass for $1,999 per person), Gold (4-day pass for $449 per person) and Silver (2-day pass for $199 per person) packages.  For more information, including an itemized breakdown of the ticket packages, the complete schedule of events, or to watch video highlights from the 2012 Napa Valley Jazz Getaway, please visit www.NapaValleyJazzGetaway2013.com

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Monday, December 10, 2012

Smooth Jazz Chart - Weekly Top 20 - December 10rd, 2012 #jazz


TW - LW - Artist - Album - (Label)
1 - 1 - Paul Brown - "The Funky Join" - (Woodward Ave)
2 - 2 - Nils - "City Groove" - (Baja/TSR)
3 - 5 - Richard Elliot - "In The Zone" - (Artistry/Mack Ave.)
4 - 3 - Euge Groove - "House Of Groove" - (Shanachie)
5 - 6 - Gerald Albright/Norman Brown" - "24/7" - (Concord)
6 - 4 - Jonathan Fritzen - "Magical" - (Nordic Night)
7 - 7 - Chris Standring - "Electric Wonderland" - (Ultimate Vibe)
8 - 8 - Fourplay - "Esprit de Four" - (Heads Up)
9 - 10 - Nicholas Cole - "Endless Possibilities" - (Cutmore)
10 - 9 - David Benoit - "Conversation" - (Heads Up)
11 - 11 - Najee - "Smooth Side Of Soul" - (Shanachie)
12 - 12 - Four80East - "Off Duty" - (Boomtang)
13 - 19 - Jackiem Joyner - "Church Boy" - (Artistry)
14 - 14 - Lee Ritenour - "Rhythm Sessions" - (Concord)
15 - 18 - Jessy J - "Hot Sauce" - (Heads Up)
16 - 17 - Brian Culbertson - "Dreams" - (Verve)
17 - 13 - Julian Vaughn - "Breakthrough" - (Trippin 'N' Rhythm)
18 - 16 - Vincent Ingala - "Can't Stop Now" - (Vincentingala.com)
19 - 20 - Jeff Kashiwa - "Let It Ride" - (Native Language)
20 - 15 - Peter White - "Here We Go" - (Concord)

Our thanks to smoothjazz.comVisit smoothjazz.com to view the latest complete top 50 chart. Visit smoothjazz.com to view the latest weekly chart recap.
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Thursday, December 06, 2012

Concord-Telarc Division of Concord Music Receives 18 Grammy Nominations #jazz

The Concord-Telarc Division of Concord Music Group received 18 GRAMMY® nominations, as announced by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) on December 5, 2012. All nominations were for albums released from October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012. Winners will be announced at the 55th Annual GRAMMY® Awards on Sunday, February 10, 2013 at 8:00 PM ET/PT from Staples Center in Los Angeles, airing live on the CBS Television Network.

The Concord-Telarc Division nominations are:

Best Pop Instrumental Album:
 
24/7
Gerald Albright & Norman Brown
[Concord Jazz]

Best Improvised Jazz Solo:
 
Hot House
Gary Burton & Chick Corea, soloists
Track from: Hot House
[Concord Jazz]
 
Alice in Wonderland
Chick Corea, soloist
Track from: Further Explorations (Chick Corea, Eddie Gomez & Paul Motian)
[Concord Jazz]
 
Best Jazz Vocal Album:
 
1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project
Kurt Elling
[Concord Jazz]
 
Live
Al Jarreau (And the Metropole Orkest)
[Concord]
 
Radio Music Society
Esperanza Spalding
[Heads Up International]
 
Best Jazz Instrumental Album:
 
Further Explorations
Chick Corea, Eddie Gomez & Paul Motian
[Concord Jazz]
 
Hot House
Chick Corea & Gary Burton
[Concord Jazz]
 
Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album:
 
Dear Diz (Every Day I Think of You)
Arturo Sandoval
[Concord Jazz]

Best Blues Album:
 
33 1/3
Shemekia Copeland
[Telarc International]
 
Best Instrumental Composition:
 
December Dream
Chuck Loeb, composer (Fourplay)
Track from: Esprit De Four
[Heads Up International]
 
Mozart Goes Dancing
Chick Corea, composer (Chick Corea & Gary Burton)
Track from: Hot House
[Concord Jazz]
 
Best Instrumental Arrangement:
 
A Night In Tunisia (Actually An Entire Weekend!)
Wally Minko, arranger (Arturo Sandoval)
Track from: Dear Diz (Every Day I Think Of You)
[Concord Jazz]
 
Salt Peanuts! (Mani Salado)
Gordon Goodwin, arranger (Arturo Sandoval)
Track from: Dear Diz (Every Day I Think Of You)
[Concord Jazz]
 
Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s):
 
City of Roses
Thara Memory & Esperanza Spalding, arrangers (Esperanza Spalding)
Track from: Radio Music Society
[Heads Up International]
 
Spain (I Can Recall)
Vince Mendoza, arranger (Al Jarreau and the Metropole Orkest)
Track from: Live
[Concord Records]

Best Album Notes:
 
Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles
Billy Vera, album notes writer (Ray Charles)
[Concord]


Best Long Form Music Video:
 
Radio Music Society
Esperanza Spalding, Pilar Sanz, video director; Esperanza Spalding, video producer [Heads Up International]



The Concord-Telarc Division of Concord Music Group includes Concord Records, Concord Jazz, Concord Picante, Telarc and Heads Up.

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Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Dave Brubeck, Who Helped Put Jazz Back in Vogue, Dies at 91 #jazz

By New York Times
Dave Brubeck, a pianist and composer whose distinctive mixture of experimentation and accessibility made him one of the most popular jazz musicians of the 1950s and ’60s, died Wednesday morning in Norwalk, Conn. He would have turned 92 on Thursday. 

He died while on his way to a cardiology appointment, Russell Gloyd, his producer, conductor and manager for 36 years, said. Mr. Brubeck lived in Wilton, Conn. 

In a long and successful career, Mr. Brubeck helped repopularize jazz at a time when younger listeners had been trained to the sonic dimensions of the three-minute pop single. His quartet’s 1959 recording of “Take Five” was the first jazz single to sell a million copies. 

Mr. Brubeck experimented with time signatures and polytonality and explored musical theater and the oratorio, baroque compositional devices and foreign modes. But he did not always please the critics, who often described his music as schematic, bombastic and — a word he particularly disliked — stolid. His very stubbornness and strangeness — the polytonality, the blockiness of his playing, the oppositional push-and-pull between his piano and Paul Desmond’s alto saxophone — makes the Brubeck quartet’s best work still sound original. 

Outside of the group’s most famous originals, which had the charm and durability of pop songs (“Time Out,” “Blue Rondo à la Turk,” “It’s a Raggy Waltz”), some of its best work was in its overhauls of standards like “You Go to My Head,” “All the Things You Are” and “Pennies From Heaven.”
David Warren Brubeck was born on Dec. 6, 1920, in Concord, Calif., near San Francisco. Surrounded by farms, his family lived a bucolic life: his father, Pete, was a cattle buyer for a meat company, and his mother, Elizabeth, was a choir director at the nearby Presbyterian church. When Mr. Brubeck was 11, the family moved to Ione, Calif., where his father managed a 45,000-acre cattle ranch and owned his own 1,200 acres. 

Forbidden to listen to the radio — his mother believed that if you wanted to hear music you should play it — Mr. Brubeck and his two brothers all played various instruments and knew classical études, spirituals and cowboy songs. Dave learned most of this music by ear: because he was born cross-eyed, sight-reading was nearly impossible for him through his early development as a musician. 

When he was 14, a laundryman who led a dance band encouraged him to perform in public, at Lions Club gatherings and Western-swing dances; he was paid $8 for playing from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m., with a one-hour break. But until he went to college he was an aspiring rancher, not an aspiring musician. 

At the College of the Pacific, near Stockton, he first studied to be a veterinarian but switched to music after a year. It was there that he learned about 20th-century culture and read about Freud, Marx and serial music; it was also there that he met Iola Whitlock, a fellow student, who became his wife in 1942. 

He graduated that year and was immediately drafted. For two years he played with the Army band at Camp Haan, in Southern California. In 1944 Private Brubeck became a rifleman, entering basic training — first in Texas, then in Maryland — and was shortly sent to Metz, in eastern France, for further preparation for combat. 

When his new commanding officer heard him accompany a Red Cross traveling show one day, Mr. Brubeck recalled, he told his aide-de-camp, “I don’t want that boy to go to the front.” Thereafter, Mr. Brubeck led a band that was trucked into combat areas to play for the troops. He was near the front twice, during the Battle of the Bulge, but he never fought. 

Finished with the Army at 25, Mr. Brubeck moved with his wife into an apartment in Oakland, Calif., and, on a G.I. Bill scholarship, studied at Mills College with the French composer Darius Milhaud. Milhaud asked the jazz musicians in his class to write fugues for jazz ensembles, and Mr. Brubeck played the results at a series of performances at Mills College. Mr. Brubeck had such admiration for his teacher that he named his first son, born in 1947, Darius. 

Mr. Brubeck had met his most important musical colleague, Paul Desmond, in an Army band in 1943. Mr. Desmond was a perfect foil; his lovely, impassive tone was as ethereal as Mr. Brubeck’s style was densely chorded. In 1947 they met again and found instant musical rapport, fascinated by the challenge of using counterpoint in jazz. 

Mr. Brubeck’s first group, an octet formed in 1946, contained five of Milhaud’s students and played pieces influenced by his teachings, using canonlike elements. The group’s earliest recorded work predated a much more famous set of similarly temperate jazz recordings, the 1948-50 Miles Davis Nonet work later packaged as “Birth of the Cool.” 

In the late 1940s and early ’50s Mr. Brubeck also led a trio with Ron Crotty on bass and Cal Tjader on drums. It was around this time that he started to develop an audience. He was given an initial boost by the San Francisco disc jockey Jimmy Lyons, later the founder of the Monterey Jazz Festival, who plugged the band on KNBC radio and helped secure it a record deal with the Coronet label. 

In 1951 the trio expanded to a quartet, with Mr. Desmond returning. (The permanent lineup change was perhaps inevitable, as Mr. Desmond was desperate to join his old friend’s increasingly popular band, but it may also have had to do with physical necessity: Mr. Brubeck had suffered a serious neck injury while swimming in Hawaii, limiting his dexterity, and he needed another soloist to help carry the music.) 

Quickly the constitutionally different men — Mr. Brubeck open, ambitious and imposing; Mr. Desmond private, profligate and self-effacing — developed their lines of musical communication. By the time of an engagement in Boston in the fall of 1952 they had become one of jazz’s greatest combinations. 

The next part of the equation was a record label, and for that Mr. Brubeck had found another booster: Fantasy Records, just started by the brothers Max and Sol Weiss, who owned a record-pressing plant and had little interest in jazz apart from wanting to make a profit from it. 

They did, eventually, with Mr. Brubeck. But Iola Brubeck also played a role in the growth of his audience. Before Mr. Brubeck became a client of the prominent manager Joe Glaser, she handled his business affairs. In 1953 she wrote to more than a hundred universities, suggesting that the quartet would be willing to play for student associations. The college circuit became the group’s bread and butter, and by the end of the 1950s it had sold hundreds of thousands of copies of its albums “Jazz at Oberlin” and “Jazz Goes to College.” 

In 1954 Mr. Brubeck was the first jazz musician to be featured on the cover of Time magazine. That same year he signed with Columbia Records, promising to deliver two albums a year, and built a house in Oakland. 

For all his conceptualizing, Mr. Brubeck often seemed more guileless and stubborn country boy than intellectual. It is often noted that his piece “The Duke” — famously recorded by Miles Davis and Gil Evans in 1959 on their collaborative album “Miles Ahead” — runs through all 12 keys in the first eight bars. But Mr. Brubeck contended that he never realized that until a music professor told him. 

Mr. Brubeck’s very personal musical language situated him far from the Bud Powell school of bebop rhythm and harmony; he relied much more on chords, lots and lots of them, than on sizzling, hornlike right-hand lines. (He may have come by this outsiderness naturally, as a function of his background: jazz by way of rural isolation and modernist academia. He was, Ted Gioia wrote in his book “West Coast Jazz,” “inspired by the process of improvisation rather than by its history.”) 

It took a little while for Mr. Brubeck to capitalize on the greater visibility his deal with Columbia gave him, and as he accommodated success a certain segment of the jazz audience began to turn against him. (The 1957 album “Dave Digs Disney,” on which he played songs from Walt Disney movies, didn’t help his credibility among critics and connoisseurs.) Still, by the end of the decade he had broken through with mainstream audiences in a bigger way than almost any jazz musician since World War II

In 1958, as part of a State Department program that brought jazz as an offer of good will during the cold war, his quartet traveled in the Middle East and India, and Mr. Brubeck became intrigued by musical languages that didn’t stick to 4/4 time — what he called “march-style jazz,” the meter that had been the music’s bedrock. The result was the album “Time Out,” recorded in 1959. With the hits “Take Five” (composed by Mr. Desmond in 5/4 meter) and “Blue Rondo à la Turk” (composed by Mr. Brubeck in 9/8), the album propelled Mr. Brubeck onto the pop charts. 

Initially, Mr. Brubeck said, the album was released without high expectations from the record company. But when disc jockeys in the Midwest started playing “Take Five,” the song became a national phenomenon. After the album had been out for 18 months, Columbia released “Take Five” as a 45 r.p.m. single, edited for radio, with “Blue Rondo” on the B side. Both album and single became hits; “Time Out” has since sold close to two million copies. 

In 1960, realizing that most of the quartet’s work centered on the East Coast, the Brubecks, with their children, Dan, Micharl, Chris, Darius and Catherine, moved to Wilton. They stayed there permanently and later had one more child, Matthew. 

Genial as Mr. Brubeck could seem, he had strong convictions. In the 1950s he had to stand up to college deans who asked him not to perform with a racially mixed band (his bassist, Gene Wright, was black). He also refused to tour in South Africa in 1958 when asked to sign a contract stipulating that his band would be all white. With his wife as lyricist, he wrote “The Real Ambassadors,” a jazz musical that dealt with race relations. With a cast that included Louis Armstrong, it was released on LP in 1962 but staged only once, at that year’s Monterey Jazz Festival. 

When Mr. Brubeck’s quartet broke up in 1967, after 17 years, he spent more time with his family and followed new paths. In 1969 he composed “Elemental” (subtitled “Concerto for Anyone Who Can Afford an Orchestra”), a concerto grosso for 45-piece ensemble. He later wrote an oratorio and four cantatas, a mass, two ballets and works for jazz combo with orchestra. Most of his commissioned pieces from the late ’60s on were classical works, many had religious or social themes, and many were collaborations with his wife. 

As a composer, Mr. Brubeck used jazz to address religious themes and to bridge social and political divides. His cantata “The Gates of Justice,” from 1969, dealt with blacks and Jews in America; another cantata, “Truth Is Fallen” (1972), lamented the killing of student protesters at Kent State University in 1970, with a score including orchestra, electric guitars and police sirens. He played during the Reagan-Gorbachev summit meeting in 1988; he composed entrance music for Pope John Paul II’s visit to Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 1987; he performed for eight presidents, from Kennedy to Clinton. 

In 1968 he formed a quartet with the baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, and later he began working with his musician sons Darius (a pianist), Chris (a bassist), Dan (a drummer) and Matthew (a cellist). He performed and recorded with them often, most definitively on “In Their Own Sweet Way,” a Telarc album from 1997. The classic Brubeck quartet regrouped only once, in 1976, for a 25th-anniversary tour. 

Mr. Brubeck’s son Michael died a few years ago. In addition to his other sons, Mr. Brubeck is survived by his wife, Iola; a daughter, Catherine Yaghsizian; 10 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. 

Mr. Brubeck resumed working with a quartet in the late 1970s — finally settling into a long-term touring group featuring the saxophonist Bobby Militello — and thereafter never stopped writing, touring and performing his hits. To the end he was a major draw at festivals. 

In 1999 Mr. Brubeck was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts. Ten years later he received a Kennedy Center Honor for his contribution to American culture. He gave his archives to his alma mater, now renamed the University of the Pacific. 

Despite health problems, Mr. Brubeck was still working as recently as 2011. In November 2010, just a month after undergoing heart surgery and receiving a pacemaker, he performed at the Blue Note in Manhattan. Nate Chinen of The Times, noting that Mr. Brubeck had already “softened his pianism, replacing the old hammer-and-anvil attack with something almost airy,” wrote that his playing at the Blue Note “was the picture of judicious clarity, its well-placed chordal accents suggesting a riffing horn section.” 

Mr. Brubeck once explained succinctly what jazz meant to him. “One of the reasons I believe in jazz,” he said, “is that the oneness of man can come through the rhythm of your heart. It’s the same anyplace in the world, that heartbeat. It’s the first thing you hear when you’re born — or before you’re born — and it’s the last thing you hear.” 

Daniel E. Snotnik contributed reporting.

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Monday, December 03, 2012

Smooth Jazz Chart - Weekly Top 20 - December 3rd, 2012 #jazz


TW - LW - Artist - Album - (Label)
1 - 2 - Paul Brown - "The Funky Join" - (Woodward Ave)
2 - 3 - Nils - "City Groove" - (Baja/TSR)
3 - 1 - Euge Groove - "House Of Groove" - (Shanachie)
4 - 6 - Jonathan Fritzen - "Magical" - (Nordic Night)
5 - 4 - Richard Elliot - "In The Zone" - (Artistry/Mack Ave.)
6 - 8 - Gerald Albright/Norman Brown" - "24/7" - (Concord)
7 - 7 - Chris Standring - "Electric Wonderland" - (Ultimate Vibe)
8 - 5 - Fourplay - "Esprit de Four" - (Heads Up)
9 - 14 - David Benoit - "Conversation" - (Heads Up)
10 - 9 - Nicholas Cole - "Endless Possibilities" - (Cutmore)
11 - 21 - Najee - "Smooth Side Of Soul" - (Shanachie)
12 - 13 - Four80East - "Off Duty" - (Boomtang)
13 - 15 - Julian Vaughn - "Breakthrough" - (Trippin 'N' Rhythm)
14 - 12 - Lee Ritenour - "Rhythm Sessions" - (Concord)
15 - 11 - Peter White - "Here We Go" - (Concord)
16 - 16 - Vincent Ingala - "Can't Stop Now" - (Vincentingala.com)
17 - 10 - Brian Culbertson - "Dreams" - (Verve)
18 - 19 - Jessy J - "Hot Sauce" - (Heads Up)
19 - 18 - Jackiem Joyner - "Church Boy" - (Artistry)
20 - 17 - Jeff Kashiwa - "Let It Ride" - (Native Language)

Our thanks to smoothjazz.comVisit smoothjazz.com to view the latest complete top 50 chart. Visit smoothjazz.com to view the latest weekly chart recap.
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Sax man Elan Trotman gets autobiographical on “Tropicality” #jazz Feb 14, 2013

 The star-studded set slated for release February 19th chronicles his journey from Barbados to Boston while celebrating island culture.
 
 
Rihanna may be the most famous Barbadian making worldwide headlines, but saxophonist/flautist Elan Trotman is another gifted islander who is bringing the Caribbean island’s culture to the masses via music.  “Tropicality,” which will be released February 19th on Woodward Avenue Records, chronicles Trotman’s journey from Barbados to Boston and celebrates the multihued beauty of the tropical paradise.  Trotman and guitar star Peter White produced the 12-track set that was recorded in Barbados, Boston and Los Angeles and includes performances by a stellar array of musicians from around the world.    
 
The inherent difficulty for instrumentalists is to “speak” without words, hence Trotman’s challenge to speak volumes through melodic riffs, rhythms and grooves that tell his personal story and share his ardor for his homeland.  He wrote or co-wrote seven of the collection’s nine originals and selected a few fitting covers, including the first single prefacing the album at radio, a rollicking rendition of Stevie Wonder’s reggae-inflected “Master Blaster.”  Recording in three widely diverse cities afforded Trotman the opportunity to draw upon an international talent pool that boasts compatriot Barbados-born bassist/producer Nicholas Brancker, British guitarist White, French guitarist U-Nam, Brazilian guitar marvel Fabiano Da Silva, Aruban guitarist Serghio Jansen, Cuban percussionist Luis Conte, and an accomplished American contingent consisting of keyboardist/producer Jeff Lorber, guitarist/producer Paul Brown, guitarist Nick Colionne, drummers Terri Lyne Carrington, Ricky Lawson and Tony Moore, trumpeter Lin Rountree, bassist Alex Al and percussionist Lenny Castro.              
 
“This album is very special to me as I’ve always wanted to showcase my Caribbean heritage through my music.  We ‘islanders’ are happy people by nature and that quality has always been evident by the way our music grooves.  As a child, I spent countless hours at the beach swimming and exploring the beautiful landscapes of the western and southern coasts of Barbados.  On a recent visit back home, I began to compose these songs as I walked on those same beaches.  My musical journey really began when I left my homeland to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston.  ‘Tropicality’ is the story of that journey from ‘Bridgetown to Beantown,’ and I’m very fortunate to have some close friends from across the globe join me on this project.  My original compositions feature rhythms and grooves not just from Barbados, but from other Caribbean Islands, Cape Verde, and Latin America,” said Trotman, who will launch the album with concerts in the three cities in which it was recorded beginning with a January 20th show in Barbados at the Prime Minister’s home of Illaro Court with Lorber as special guest followed by a February 21st gig at Scullers Jazz Club in his adopted hometown of Boston and a March 1st date at Spaghettini’s near Los Angeles. 
 
“Tropicality” is Trotman’s sixth solo album and follows the success of 2011’s “Love and Sax,” a Billboard Top 20 contemporary jazz album that spawned the single, “Heaven In Your Eyes,” a duet with keyboardist Brian Simpson, which reached #11 on Billboard’s jazz songs chart.  Trotman has lent his soulful horn flair to recordings and shared the concert stage with an extraordinary assortment of marquee musicians including Roberta Flack, Patti Austin, Will Downing, Phil Perry, Earl Klugh, Rick Braun, Jonathan Butler, Brian McKnight, Jamie Foxx, Johnny Gill, Nathan East, Gerald Veasley, Don Grusin, Keiko Matsui, Raul Midon and fellow saxophonists Dave Koz, Kirk Whalum, Gerald Albright, and Najee.  He is a three-time winner of the New England Urban Music Award as Best Jazz Male, the 2011 Barbados Music Awards Instrumentalist of the Year, and was twice nominated for a Boston Music Award.  Growing up influenced by seminal sax legend Grover Washington Jr. and mentored by Barbadian sax man Arturo Tappin, Trotman received a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music courtesy of the government of Barbados.  He shares his knowledge by teaching music in the Boston school district when not touring or recording.  Additional information is available at www.elantrotman.com.
 
Trotman’s “Tropicality” album is comprised of the following songs:
 
“Master Blaster (Jammin’)”
“Tradewinds”
“Bridgetown To Beantown”
“Always With You”
“Wait In Vain”
“A Time And Place”
“Sunset In Paradise”
“Danca Ku Mi (Dance With Me)”
“Funkalypso”
“Tropicality”
“Island Groove”
“Wave”

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