Producer LeRoy Downs interviewing Terence Blanchard for the premier edition of “The Jazz Creative” on the Aspire network

Over the last few years a fixture at Dizzy’s Den on the grounds of the Monterey Jazz Festival, has been the hip, aware, and informative voice of venue MC LeRoy Downs. The Cali-based jazz broadcaster has developed a promising 21st century jazz television format that recently launched on Magic Johnson’s Aspire network. Having worked intimately with the most recent jazz-on-television hopeful to emanate from an African-American network myself, BET Jazz, news of LeRoy’s project is quite hopeful, so we sought him out for a few questions. But first, exactly who is LeRoy Downs?

LeRoy Downs is a person deeply entrenched in the music and driven by passion! Currently he is a jazz broadcaster in Los Angeles on several stations including KJazz 88.1 FM, KPFK 90.7 FM, KCRW 89.9 FM. He has also broadcasted on KXLU 88.9 FM and 94.7 FM & 1410 AM KRML in Carmel located in the Monterey area. He has been the host of the Monterey Jazz Festival for 15 years as well as The Jazz Cruise, The Playboy Jazz Cruise, KPFK’s Hero Awards Tribute to Billy Higgins, The Angel City Jazz Festival, Terranea Resorts Jazz Through the Generations, The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz West Coast competitions, Producer of The World Stage 25th Anniversary Concert, Curator for Jazz for the Holidays series with Arts Brooksfield, Jazz Curator of the Steven James Buchanan Jazz Collection at the Mayme Clayton Jazz Library and Museum, owner and journalist for the website TheJazzcat.net, producer of the made for television pilot “Hangin’ with the Jazzcats” and The Brand New Show on airing on the Aspire TV Network called “The Jazz Creative”

Independent Ear: How and why did you make the leap from radio to this new television show?

Well, not a leap but more like an addition! I have always believed for many years that jazz needs more that one sensibility for your average layman to pay attention to the music. Those of us who get it, have it in our blood! For the others, I thought that if we could enter their homes through the common platform of television they could listen, learn and experience the human behind the music. Once that human became their friend, so would the music!

Talk about the overall design of the show. When viewers tune in what exactly will they experience?

“The Jazz Creative” is a conversation and performance platform. We will have the opportunity to speak with the contemporaries of our time in different relaxed environments, listen to their interesting life in the music and see some live performance. On our Premier segment of “The Jazz Creative”, viewers will have the opportunity to hear from Grammy Winning/ Nominated Jazz Artists Terence Blanchard, Christian McBride and Jason Moran as well as live performance by DVRK Funk trumpeter Theo Croker and the Planetary Prince, Cameron Graves.

Terence will talk about scoring some of the 46 films that he has scored as well as how real life and life in the music “Breathe” together. Jason Moran speaks about his experience scoring “Selma” and show how life and inspirational thought spark language through music. Christian McBride talks about growing up in Philly, his influence of Gamble and Huff and how “Grease” is a major ingredient in his sound! Theo Croker shows how the “New Millennials” get down and let’s everyone know that, “It’s Gonna Be Alright” and “West Coast Get Down” pianist Cameron Graves, “the Planetary Prince” offers some new dimensions in sound!

Downs with pianist-composer Jason Moran from the premier edition of “The Jazz Creative”

How will “The Jazz Creative” differ from past efforts at jazz television?

Well, when you say the word “Jazz”, people immediately go to whatever the first reference is in their minds. There is usually not any common ground until there is further conversation or clarification of what exactly is being talked about. We just want to offer some fresh perspectives in the present tense. Let folks know how well the music is “LIVING”, where they can see, hear and feel what is happening right now in the music.

Having been a host, producer, and writer at the former BET Jazz for over 10 years, and witnessing that once-promising entity dissolve slowly down the drain of corporate disinterest and neglect, what gives you confidence that this is a new day and you have a new jazz/television concept, and that Aspire is a welcoming host for The Jazz Creative?

Well, we live in a new day! Music in general is a struggle but, is a viable part of everyone’s life. This concept of “free and instant gratification” is not in the best interest of the artists and musicians who dedicate their lives to creating music and content for all to enjoy. There is not much in terms of original music on television. If you hear it, chances are you are hearing something popular that you have been hearing for most of your life and it has become a routine sound wave. We think that there are people out there who want more than they are generally offered: something new, something original, something different. Knowledge is king and although you don’t get a chance to learn too many new things when you flip through hundreds of channels of reality tv, it is our hope that music, presented in an appealing environment, from artists who speak the truth through their sound will captivate and encourage people to be delighted and seek more through the sounds of JAZZ!

Give us a sense of the first couple of episodes of The Jazz Creative.

Hopefully I have given you a great sense of our first episode. We have lots in the can. Interviews with Russell Malone, Tierney Sutton, Ashley Khan, David Gilmore, Luis Perdomo, Peter Erskine, Joe Sanders, Ben Williams and a few others. We would like to do something really special for our next show which airs on Friday March 25, 2016. We are connecting with some of the folks who have another brand new film coming out in April and if we can swing it, I think “The Jazz Creative” will be miles ahead of its time!

Joe Lovano is a true renaissance man of jazz, one of the music’s most diverse and most restless explorers, never content with one format over another, never prone to repeating ensembles for more than a tour, two at most. Scanning his robust discography one finds symphonic encounters, little big band explorations, sundry trios, quartets and quintets; duos (notably with Hank Jones), the borders of contemporary chamber music, celebrations of two signature Italian tenors: Enrico Caruso and Frank Sinatra; bebop reflections, including a notably bristling romance with the music of Charlie Parker, two-drummer bands, and various encounters with younger musicians, just for starters. Its been a pleasure observing his constantly evolving arc, from the time we were both growing up on the East side of Cleveland and encounters at the old Smiling Dog Saloon.

On one memorable occasion while sitting at the Dog’s bar awaiting the night’s hit, Joe strolled in and the featured bandleader Elvin Jones (with whom Joe would later tour and record), seated on a nearby stool in his inimitable growl the great drummer inquired about the whereabouts of the man everyone in the music referred to as Big T, Joe’s tenor playing dad Tony Lovano, clear evidence of the elder Lovano’s jazz world stature. Befitting his name, Big T had a robust sound and was often featured in B-3 combos around town.

Joe working with men like Elvin Jones, an early stint in the Mel Lewis Orchestra at the Vanguard upon shifting from Cleveland to New York, his more recent ongoing dialogues in several band incarnations with Lewis Nash, and more recently the two-drummer band with Francisco Mela and Otis Brown lll, clearly mark Joe Lovano as a tenor man deeply invested in the rhythmic universe; a fact further substantiated by Lovano being a closet drummer himself.

Last weekend at the KC Jazz Club Lovano further substantiated his rhythm man bonafides, landing on the Kennedy Center’s penthouse, or Terrace, level for two superb nights with his Village Rhythm Band. Clearly this is not only another chapter in Joe’s fascination with the hues of the rhythmic universe, its also his most African-centric viewpoint to date. At its core the band boasts two African expats, Nigerian bassist Michael Olatuja and Senegalese percussionist Abdou Mboup. Keys to the mix also are trap drummer Otis Brown lll, a refugee from Lovano’s two-drummer exploration of Bird, and the thoughtful, inventive guitarist Liberty Ellman. Two special guests, trumpeter Tim Hagans – a longtime Lovano intimate – and Joe’s vocalist-wife Judi Silvano, further broadened both the rhythm (particularly via Silvano’s wordless explorations) and melodic parameters of this unique Village Rhythms Band. The program ranged from heated originals all the way to that classic beauty spot, the Ellington lovely “Single Petal of a Rose.” A particularly arresting interlude came when Mboup plied his kora, the distinctively African stringed instrument with string board attached to a resonating gourd, guitarist Ellman gazing on in deep concentration. One certainly hopes the Village Rhythm Band will be chronicled on record, given the broad base of Joe Lovano’s ever-expanding Blue Note Records discography.

Here’s a taste of Joe Lovano’s Village Rhythm Band:

Pianist-composer-bandleader and Kennedy Center Jazz curator Jason Moran became one of the true lead voices in the music largely on the combination of his restless artistry and a strong recording relationship with Blue Note Records. His wife, the striking contralto Alicia Hall Moran – whose cameos in the exceptional Charles Lloyd documentary film “Arrows Into Infinity” were so powerful – has entered the recording arena as well. Jason and Alicia are the parents of twin sons (who once memorably joined their Dad onstage at the Kennedy Center Jazz Club in a hilarious dance bit to cap off a killin’ set by the old man’s Bandwagon trio), and proud Harlemites. Together they are collaborating on a true family affair, the launch of their own recordings imprint Yes Records. Jason has been featured in the Independent Ear on several previous occasions, so obviously some questions about this new venture were in order, only this time for both he and Alicia.

Photo by Dawood Bey

There are countless artists out here who would kill to record for Blue Note; yet despite his successful run there you and Jason have chosen to embark on the brave world of independent recording labels. What was behind your decision to launch this new venture Yes Records?

Alicia Hall Moran:I believe that Jason’s tremendous ride with Blue Note Records was due entirely to the brilliance and muscle of the legendary visionary, the late Bruce Lundvall. Bruce passed away in 2015 and with that, so did the era of beautiful, raging music that represented Jason so well. It’s not a sad time, it’s a time to celebrate all these outrageously artistic accomplishments Bruce single-handedly helped make possible for Jason, and continue on in that tradition. Bruce was a direct link to the jazz greats Jason cut his teeth transcribing, yet he gave Jason all the freedom in the world. The question was always, “What are we going to do next?” He adored Jason. It was a singular sort of love and respect. And he extended that grace to my entire family. He was a King of sorts and so importantly, he had style: handwritten notes and pinstripe suits. His respect for the music Jason loves was so immense, you felt it and saw it when he walked into any room. He had what I call backbone. It was beautiful to behold. But he left us so now Jason just has to rise to the occasion. YES RECORDS is our response to Life, in celebration of The Good Life. You got to say YES to opportunities like this and go with it and have fun!

Will you both record projects for Yes Records, and do you feel a greater sense of freedom to explore various projects on your own imprint?

A.M.: We’ll both do projects on YES. I have a classical background and Jason’s firmly rooted in the jazz tradition so the discipline is there but to me, the chord is only as interesting as the thought behind it. Singing is Thinking to me. I’ve been singing my entire life. But the act of recording my music is relatively new to me. It’s such a privilege to make a sound and then capture it in that way, if you think about it. In human history that’s been impossible to do for almost the entire life of our species. It’s only relatively recently that technology even allows us to do this. It’s amazing, really. The fact we can hear someone’s voice from last week, or last year, or now even 100 years ago. That is amazing! I feel like we shouldn’t forget that. So to me it’s magical. Yes, that I feel so strongly about some sound I’m making that I feel you should want to hear it even after the moment, those sound waves, have passed and that breath is spent. To me, or maybe I’m spoiled, but I just feel like that’s what I want to be dealing with day in and day out. Magic. Nothing less. Otherwise, why bother. Suffice it to say I naturally feel pretty free in my music. It’s the privilege of getting to capture that freedom. It’s an oxymoron, right?

Please tell us about your new recording “Heavy Blue”, in terms of the scope of your project and your goals for this record.

A.M. HEAVY BLUE is an atmosphere. I really wanted HEAVY BLUE to sound like me. And it does! HEAVY BLUE blends the classical music I love with the jazz environment I live inside as the wife of Jason Moran. It embraces Soul music and 80s pop. It has a femininity and a sensuality but also a forthrightness. HEAVY BLUE needed to sound like the past that I am descended from, my ancestry, the wide-open spaces and the pure night sky, while being honest to the ways I feel my culture now as a Harlem, New York resident. The pavement, the sophistication. I love this record, how it turned out. HEAVY BLUE is such an emotionally honest record. It’s my first album and YES gave me complete control so there was no pressure to fit into a niche or even define one. I’m playing every song I love to it’s truest core for me as a singer and that takes my voice through a dozen different colors and lot of range. HEAVY BLUE speaks to my point of view. It’s about the human voice, the trained human singing voice, but with not too many bells and whistles beyond that. Besides Jason on Rhodes and piano, and besides accompanying myself on piano, I chose guitars, cello and bass because those instruments intuitively love my voice in the right ways. They have the soft touch no matter how hard they hit. Mary Halvorson, who has a wildly creative sonic palette, recorded the American folk lullaby “The Little Horses” with me, and I do love that little song but we plow into it because my lullaby, being true to my life, isn’t about a sweet baby that falls asleep lovingly in your arms. It’s about a sweet baby who isn’t falling asleep. My baby is a brilliantly alive, self-determined person demanding the world of me in the middle of the night. That’s reality. So we play into that. Parenting isn’t for the meek and neither is music-making.

“Deep River” was recorded with and arranged by guitarist Brandon Ross. I derive my melody from the classic transcription of the slave song by the legendary composer Hall Johnson, actually my great-great maternal uncle. When voice becomes the water itself, and all the ripples in the water are there, all the bends, all the power, the responsiveness to the terrain. I want to be the water in that song, the muddiness AND the clarity. Nothing static. Nothing for technique’s sake alone. Same for “I Like The Sunrise,” which features Jason on Fender Rhodes, Brandon on guitar, and Tony Scherr on bass. I sing it from the idea of the cosmos, the view of the sun rising up from behind planet earth, as well as the Liberian sunrise on the horizon, as Duke Ellington wrote. But he’s talking about God and his music envelopes everything. So we go there big.

The HEAVY BLUE content–the love songs, lullabies, spirituals, standards–will feel familiar but the point of view is altered. A lot of my inspiration comes from being on the other side of things. YES records is all about orientation. Which way you’re facing.

Will this new Yes Records venue give you more opportunities to collaborate across the genres for which you both are most closely identified, and was that part of the motivation for building your own imprint?

Jason: Definitely. I kind of hint at this in some of my earlier recordings, most notably with Artist in Residence, which included artists Adrian Piper and Joan Jonas. To include their names with some relation to catalog was the goal, but also, I consider them as important to my development as Monk or [Jaki] Byard. I think the larger issue is about the type of scale and timeline we’d like to work in. Meaning, I can make a recording in 2 days, and release it a week later. For us, YES Records is essentially about insuring that Alicia and I document our work as we make it. I’m about 5 recordings behind right now, and i want to get squared up and also make new music as it gets completed. A way to build an archive, because we have shown no signs of slowing down. I’ll record a live solo piano recording in March and release it by April. The Bandwagon will get back into the studio in the Fall, and Alicia will record her Black Wall Street work in the Spring… slowly & quietly, but surely.

To hear Alicia Hall Moran’s new release – and the launch recording of Yes Records go to
www.aliciahallmoran.bandcamp.com/yum
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Winter Jazzfest 2016
January 13-17

From the time George Wein and the Lorillards launched the Newport Jazz Festival in ‘54 and Jimmy Lyons hatched the Monterey Jazz Festival in ‘58, the whole idea of what constitutes such an event has metamorphosed into endless permutations. One thing is certain, any community worth its salt in the cultural destination universe absolutely must have at lease one annual jazz festival; it has become a measure of a community’s good taste.

On the other hand, there is no community in the culture universe quite like New York City, where there is no need for any measure of artistic seal of approval simply because practically every night in New York is a visual arts, classical music, theater, and film festival; and the same certainly holds true for jazz. So how does one go about crafting a jazz festival for the ultimate diverse community, not to mention one boasting all manner of venues, from prodigious green spaces and concert halls to literal holes in the wall – which ironically are often where one encounters the most vital artistic perspectives NYC has to offer?

The wise heads who developed the Winter Jazzfest, rather than reinvent the wheel, simply cobbled together multiple venues, ranging from modest auditoriums, to a house of worship, to the many varied club spaces that dot Greenwich Village; some of which regularly feature jazz and its extensions, others for whom jazz and its extensions simply fits their perspective on music. The big tent effect they established has worked in spades, to the point that WJF stands as a vital annual jazz touchstone in the Jazz Mecca.

A key element in the producer’s savvy festival scheduling is its synergy with the concurrent staging of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) annual conference (January 15-19) at the Hilton, and the nascent Jazz Connect Conference (January 14/15) at St. Peter’s Church. WJF’s scheduling is particularly perceptive because both conferences are the province of thousands of multi-discipline presenters at APAP, and scores of jazz presenters at Jazz Connect. Prior to WJF, the APAP conference featured all manner of showcase performances across New York, events fostered by managers, agents, and artists eager for the attention of those who book and present the arts; still does, but now the performance universe during conference time is particularly robust from a jazz perspective, thanks to WJF.

WJF is a marathon, one that encourages either the purchase of a full-festival pass, or a measure of perseverance. That’s because the performances are presented in a dizzying array of venues, are generally 60 minutes in length, and are scheduled in tight proximity. It’s tempting to scan the WJF schedule, highlight your faves, and fantasize about easing from venue to venue. Audience beware – the great majority of these venues are tightly packed, often standing room only sardine style, and in fact some venues (like Judson Memorial Church) are purely stand-up. So the notion of hopping venue-to-venue to catch your faves is not exactly for the faint of heart.

After experiencing a degree of frustration with my first few WJF experiences, having mapped out what I thought was a tasty menu of possibilities only to be continually pressed up against some back wall with barely a sightline to the stage, never succeeding in finding a seat, overhearing the wise advice of a journalist colleague I adopted another tactic last January. Three of us on our WJF hang simply scoped out which venue had the tastiest menu, arrived early enough to cop front row seats (!), and camped out for the evening; typical WJF performance menus run from roughly 6:00pm until after midnight.

This year WJF offers its usual confounding array of aural treats (and isn’t that ultimately the point?), ranging from an array of restless explorers (from Vijay Iyer and Don Byron to Matana Roberts, Chris Speed and the endlessly Omniverse exploring Sun Ra Arkestra under 91-year old saxophonist Marshall Allen’s leadership), to varying 21st century Latin perspectives (try the Gregorio Uribe Big Band for some Cumbia, or Pedrito Martinez call to the saints, or perhaps Chris Washburne’s nouveau Acid Mambo Project), to adherents of the blues & swing tradition (Christian McBride, the prodigious New Orleans-based clarinetist Evan Christopher, or next great jazz piano ace Christian Sands). Drummer Will Calhoun’s tribute to Elvin Jones promises some paradiddle fireworks; bassist Michael Formanek’s Ensemble Kolossus sounds like massive fun, expect the unexpected from folks like the OGIB Quartet (Oliver Lake, Graham Haynes, Joe Fonda, Barry Altschul), and who knows from (promising) lights like altoist Sharel Cassity & Elektra, the newest Blue Note Records signing GoGo Penguins, or Bad Plus (drummer) Dave King‘s two assemblages, Trucking Company and Vector Families (hmmm). And believe me, that’s just a tiny sample size of the music available from WJF.

OK, so that’s largely the instrumental perspective – though there’s liable to be some singing going on in any of the above. But perhaps you’re one who needs some words with your music. WJF vocal performances run a broad spectrum, including the endlessly engaging Rene Marie, Nicole Henry, the sensational Revive Music project “Sarah Vaughan & Clifford Brown Reimagined”, to the ultimate cool, hi hop informed crooning of Jose James, to Charenee Wade’s impressive Gil Scott-Heron project. And did I mention the venerable record label ECM is hosting two evenings of its artists at The New School Tischman Auditorium? Whew… in fact double Whew! Let me stop here and direct you to www.winterjazzfest.com for complete details. Be there, or be… Maybe I’ll see you somewhere Friday evening.

Inaugural DCJazzPrix Officially Launches
DC Jazz Festival’s new national competition now accepting applications;

Will recognize and support top rising jazz band talent

WASHINGTON – January 7, 2016 — The DC Jazz Festival® (DC JazzFest) – which recently announced the launch of its national jazz band competition, DCJazzPrix – has now issued a Call for Applications, live at dcjazzprix.org. Potential applicants will find guidelines, including eligibility, review criteria, terms, and digital submission requirements for the application, which will close on March 4 at 5 pm ET. The entry fee is $49 per band.

“The DCJazzPrix is unique in that it aims to identify and showcase emerging and exceptional jazz band talent from across the U.S.,” said Sunny Sumter, Executive Director “The event is designed to help launch and promote the careers of emerging jazz artists committed to sustained and creative band development and performance opportunities.”

Providing a unique professional performance and adjudication platform for jazz bands that is outside of the traditional academic or commercial competition arenas is at the core of the DCJazzPrix’s mission. The competition strives to provide an opportunity for applicants that most competitively address the stated review criteria.

Among the criteria for applying is that bands must be comprised of 2-9 members, with all of them currently residing in the United States or its territories. Each band member must be at least 18 years old, but not older than 40. Additional eligibility requirements include:

· Bands can combine any instrumentation including conventional jazz strings and winds formats and/or percussion, voice, and technology.

· Membership of the band may not change once the application is submitted.

· Each member is required to compete in Washington, DC, should the band be chosen as a semi-finalist.

· Applicant bands may be affiliated or housed within music school departments, or be categorized as “stand-alone/self-contained” and/or professionally emerging.

In addition to adding a bold new element to the DC Jazz Festival, the competition offers a tremendous exposure opportunity to perform at a national festival. The winner will also be awarded a $15,000 cash prize and a year-long association with the DC Jazz Festival to include: extensive publicity; business support and career navigation services; and a main stage 2017 DC Jazz Festival paid engagement.

Once the application process closes in March, a prestigious jury will evaluate eligible applications based on artistic excellence and artistic merit.

On April 15, 2016, three semi-finalists will be announced and invited to Washington, DC to participate in the DCJazzPrix Finals, in front of a main stage crowd at DC JazzFest at The Yards on Saturday, June 18.