The Independent Ear

Catching up with Sumi Tonooka

One thing about this music we call jazz, it seems that far too often when an artist is at their peek of artistic maturity, they somehow become scarce or fade a bit from the spotlight. Could that be the case with the superb pianist Sumi Tonooka? Now that she’s parented and is deep in the middle period of her artistry, we don’t hear from her enough, even though her skills have ripened beautifully in the process. Then just recently along came her lovely new solo piano 2-CD set Now (ARC label), recorded live at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, NY.

This solo concert recording is full of great charm and sheer beauty – along with the kind of easeful lilt, emotional depth, self-assuredness, downright swing and knowingness that comes with artistic and personal maturity. On disc one she explores three Great American Songbook selections – “I Hear a Rhapsody”, “I’m Old Fashioned”, and “All of You” – in addition to heaping helpings of Ellington, Monk, and an expansive Mary Lou Williams medley. Disc 2, with the exception of a cheery, striding “I’m Confessin'”, is all about Sumi’s originals and is the more introspective of the two discs.

Following some recent communications, time to catch up with Sumi Tonooka…


I am currently living in Seattle for an extended stay. I am living alone for the first time in some 30 years or so, and enjoying it. I am performing for the Earshot Festival on October 29th, solo piano [7:30 p.m. at the Chapel Performance Space in Seattle], and the show is going to be taped for Jazz NorthWest a live syndicated show, via NPR, produced by Jim Wilke. My current solo CD NOW came out earlier this year and is doing pretty well as far as airplay and reviews.

I was one of 38 jazz composers, chosen from a pool of 200 applicants to attend the JCOI Jazz Composers Intensive this summer in LA. This program was a life changing experience for me and got me thinking in new ways about jazz, music and composition. In order to move further in the program, composers must submit an orchestra sample of our proposed piece. The selected composers then have the opportunity to take part in an orchestra reading of their piece which will be performed and recorded by a major symphony orchestra.I just completed and submitted my proposal and orchestral sampIe and I am crossing my fingers on this one.

My orchestra piece has to do with circles in life. The reason I am in Seattle now is an example of one such circle. I was looking to move and while deciding what I wanted to do I happened to call my best friend from third grade, Sharon Lee. We had reconnected about 15 years ago, and I just wanted to see how she was doing. Sharon strongly suggested that I move to Seattle and offered a place for me to stay for an extended amount of time to see how I liked it. Curiously, I had been trying to get to the Seattle area this year because it had been ten years since my mother died, and I wanted to do a pilgrimage back to to her birth place on Bainbridge Island.

Bainbridge Island is a twenty-minute ferry ride from Seattle across the Puget Sound. My mother lived there until the age of sixteen, when she was taken away by US army soldiers armed with rifles fixed with bayonets, along with one hundred thousand other Japanese and Japanese American families throughout the US. They were forced from their homes and placed behind barbed wire in Internment Camps.

This summer, my sister Carla and I returned to Pleasant beach on Bainbridge where we spread my mothers ashes ten years ago. We visited a cemetery there with the headstones of two of my uncles who had died during or soon after childbirth. My grandmother had returned there to buy the headstones much later in life. We also visited a beautiful memorial, recently erected in 2011. It has the names of all the people taken from Bainbridge that fateful day. My mother’s name, Emiko Tonooka, and the age she was when taken, is engraved in granite, as well as the names of my grandparents and uncle on their own family plaque. It was a pivotal moment in my life, experiencing this memorial. I had not even connected the dots about all of this; how strange and magical life is that I would return to my mother’s birthplace thanks to the generosity of my best friend from third grade at Powel School in West Philadelphia who just happens to have made Seattle her home for the past twenty years.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/sumitonooka
sumitonooka.com
http://www.facebook.com/sumitonooka.NOW.1
http://vimeo.com/36442909
http://jazzcenter.ias-drupal7-test.cc.columbia.edu/content/jazz-composers-orchestra-institute

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A Woman’s Perspective pt 8: Lyn Horton

Jazz writing: A Woman’s Perspective: Lyn Horton

Lyn Horton, in addition to her active writing on jazz is also a distinguished visual artist. Throughout this piece we’ve posted a few examples of her work, currently on exhibit at the McKenzie Gallery in DC. “My life is invested with accomplishing a task everyday which is fulfilling. That task can not only be basic and quotidian but also creative in the sense of invention… Invention which involves my senses. I have matured enough to know that all of them are worth nurturing,” she says.

What are your current writing affiliations and any books or other projects you’re working on that you’d like to mention.

Presently, on this day in 2012, I write only for my blog: The Paradigm for Beauty.

What has been your experience writing about music in general jazz in particular?

In 1996, I started to “chat” on Jazz Central Station.com before it was wiped off the internet due to abuse by its participants. Perhaps two years later, I began to post informal “reviews” of performances I attended on the site. These “articles” received a fairly positive response except from all the “jazz experts” who felt it was necessary to question my “expertise” and criticize my lack of substance. I wrote about some mainstream music but mostly about the “avant-garde.”

Then I asked to write on JazzReview.com and was greeted with open arms. Morrice Blackwell and his staff had high regard for my work. Unfortunately the site no longer exists. I wrote for this site until 2007 when I started to contribute regularly to
AllAboutJazz.com.

Out of that experience, where my writing improved and I grew more and more confident about how to convert my viewpoints into words, I reached out to Downbeat, The New York Jazz Messenger and JazzTimes.com, respectively. At one point in time, I was writing for all these publications simultaneously.

My writing was unique: the musicians communicated that opinion to me and so did some of the editors of the aforementioned publications, all of which published my articles. A large percentage of my work was self-initiated, approved by the publications, and published. Only The New York Jazz Messenger, I discovered later, trashed my writing because it was thought to be too contorted even to warrant editing. The latter was the only print publication to pay me. Downbeat paid me for one article, but never accepted my pitches, thereafter. In 2009 or so, The Senior Editor of AllAboutJazz.com wrote an email to inform me that the publication would no longer accept articles from me because I had chosen another venue for publishing an article that was slated for a period of months at AllAboutJazz.com. Not long afterwards, I quit The New York Jazz Messenger because the editor did not want to spend time editing my articles. And I successfully wrote for JazzTimes.com for three years, but had to stop because I was totally burnt out.

What was it about writing about music that attracted you to this pursuit initially?

I want to clarify that my penchant is creative improvised music, rather than jazz. I have written about Brad Mehldau, Josh Redman, Sonny Rollins, and other high profile musicians, but mostly about those who tend to be under the radar of popular jazz journalists: i.e. Joe McPhee, Wadada Leo Smith, Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Peter Brötzmann, Hamid Drake, Burton Greene, David S. Ware and many others.

The reason I immersed myself in creative improvised music is that I wanted to understand a challenging creative phenomenon other than visual art, which I make every day and which has been my “job” for forty years.

My ex-husband left in 2000. I wanted to support other people I really cared about in the wake of the shock of a lifetime which came in enduring separation, experiencing a divorce and being alone for the first time in twenty-five years.

Jazz turned me on when I was in high school; I followed it throughout college, and, by the time I was married, my interests had aligned with contemporary classical music due to my ex-husband’s vocation as a composer. While he was studying in a Doctorate Program at the University of New York at Buffalo with Morton Feldman, I was exposed to more contemporary classical music than I could ever have imagined and became versed in hearing innovative sounds, no matter how highly formulated. My comfort in hearing experimental music was reinforced and constantly revived with the latter experience.

Would you describe your experiences writing about music as overall positive, and if so why or why not?

It has been positive with regards to how the musicians about whom I write respond. The journalists/publishers have accepted what I do purely on a business as usual basis, as they should. But in addition to the situation I described above, I have generally been pushed into the back room because my writing was somehow not up to par. Perhaps, this perception is incorrect. The people who have edited my work would have to respond to this question. No one has ever imparted to me that I have a unique voice except the musicians and occasionally record producers.

On another note, one of the local colleges has been instrumental in bringing improvised music to the area. Over many years, the advisor of that institution’s radio station has done a remarkable job in promoting jazz, experimental and improvised music concerts and has created a “jazz block” every weekday morning on the radio. I have financially supported this radio station and written about innumerable concerts. Yet, I do not feel rewarded in the sense that my words have never been quoted in advertisements nor have my articles been referred to on air. And when I attend concerts, I am greeted with the expectation that I will write an article and asked what I think about the music rather than simply how I am and what I have been up to.

I reject any baiting from those associated with any music situation; I can smell it a mile away.

Women occupy an interesting place in the jazz pantheon; on the one hand women instrumentalists are in the distinct minority, at least as far as prominence, and on the other hand women absolutely dominate the ranks of jazz singers. What’s your sense of that imbalance?

I do not have an opinion on this. All I care about is the music, not the gender of the musicians who make the music.

Would you describe yourself as a music critic or a music journalist and why?

I am neither a music critic nor am I really a journalist. I suppose that I have practiced journalism when I have written profiles on musicians because I have had to do extensive research, fact-checking and interviewing. Yet, I have never called myself a journalist and am only perceived as one by those in the outside world. I am a member of the Jazz Journalists Association, but I do not know how long that will last.

Its been suggested that one of the real keys to solving the critical jazz audience development issue is that those who present the music must find creative ways to attract more women to their audiences; some wisdom suggesting that where more women go, men will follow. Is this an apt characterization of the jazz audience conundrum, and if so are there elements you might suggest to those who present jazz as to better attracting women audience members?

This is a ridiculous assessment. I believe that women attend jazz concerts because they care about the music. I could launch into a psychological assessment of why men are attracted more to “jazz” than women are, but I won’t, even though oftentimes, I think that it applies.

Clearly writing about music, and particularly writing about jazz, could well be characterized as “a man’s world.” Do you feel like that’s due more to the nature of the music or to some form(s) of overt exclusion from “the boy’s club”?

Regarding writing:
Yes, I sense “the boy’s club” all the time.

Regarding Music:
No, especially when the musicians accept me as a presence in their world.

Have you ever found it more difficult to pursue writing about music due to gender issues? If so please detail some of your writing experiences that may have been fairly or unfairly colored by gender.

I cannot fit into the “boy’s club,” which is one of control and arrogance. I have already described my experiences above.

What can be done to encourage more women to write about music in particular, jazz in general?

I do not encourage women to write about music. Women will do it if they have the incentive.

What have been some of the most personally satisfying music performances you’ve either written about or simply experienced over the last year?

Writing:
http://lynhorton.blogspot.com/2011/03/joe-mcphee-ken-vandermark-meeting-in.html;
http://lynhorton.blogspot.com/2011/03/matthew-shipp-trio-art-of-improviser.html;
http://lynhorton.blogspot.com/2011/12/ten-freedom-summers-wadada-leo-smith.html.

Performances:
The world premiere of the landmark work by Wadada Leo Smith, entitled, Ten Freedom Summers, on Oct. 28, 29, 30, 2011, in Los Angeles, CA.

Lyn Horton, October 2012 ©

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A Woman’s perspective pt. 7: author Karen Chilton

The latest contributor to our ongoing dialogue with women jazz writers and so far one photographer, is author Karen Chilton. Among Karen’s notable contributions are books on the lives of two exceptional artists, pianist Hazel Scott and vocalist Gloria Lynne, who fit the bill of underrated/overlooked. I first met Karen at a Randy Weston book signing for “African Rhythms” in Brooklyn; later she contributed to our Ain’t But a Few of Us conversation with African American jazz writers, and here she returns for one Woman’s Perspective on the challenges of writing about jazz music.

Please list your writing affiliations and any books or other projects you’re working on currently that you’d like to mention.

HAZEL SCOTT: The Pioneering Journey of a Jazz Pianist from Café Society to Hollywood to HUAC (University of Michigan Press) by Karen Chilton

I WISH YOU LOVE by Gloria Lynne & Karen Chilton (co-author)

AIN’T NOTHING LIKE THE REAL THING: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment (Edited by Richard Carlin and Kinshasha Holman Conwill) “The Empress Bessie Smith” by Karen Chilton (contributor)

Current work-in-progress: CONVERGENCE a stage play by Karen Chilton (Note: The lead male character is a jazz pianist. Looking forward to collaborating with Jonathan Batiste on original compositions for the play).

What has been your experience writing about music in general jazz in particular?

For me, this work has always been a labor of love—heavy on the labor, deep in love. You go into it knowing that your subject matter is not mainstream, that this is not a commercial pursuit. There will be no significant capital gains, no record-breaking book sales, no swarms of recognition… Generally speaking, when it comes to jazz as a subject, publishers are difficult to secure, the amount of distribution your book receives can be a challenge, and the marketing/p.r. will likely be up to you. So, once you’ve faced those realities, you adjust your expectations appropriately, and write the best book you can for that small but devoted audience that you know will appreciate your efforts. For those of us who truly love the music, writing about jazz and its legends is a privilege. The experience, I suppose, is a duplicitous one — a sometimes thankless job that you’re eternally grateful to be doing.

What was it about writing about music that attracted you to this pursuit initially?

I quite literally fell into this work. I am an actor & writer…and an avid music lover, jazz in particular. I moved to New York from Chicago in ’92 to pursue a career in the theater. Just weeks prior to my big move, I wrote a ‘letter to the editor’ of Mirabella magazine after reading an article about the great Senegelese artist Youssou N’Dour. The writer of the article had gone on a diatribe about how African Americans don’t support African music. Long story short, I offered another perspective on the situation, and it was published in the next issue. At the time, Spike Lee was working with N’Dour and had just produced a video for him. Someone from Spike’s camp saw my letter in Mirabella, and contacted me to thank me for writing what I did. I told her I’d be moving to New York in just a few weeks to begin my acting career, as well as my day job as a contributing writer for DIASPORA magazine (formerly CLASS magazine). She suggested that we meet and arranged for me to interview Youssou N’Dour! An auspicious beginning, to be sure. The piece was well-received by an international readership. From that point forward, the publisher asked me to focus primarily on music for the magazine. Writing about music felt like the most natural thing in the world. I continued with features on artists like Seal, Sade, and Jon Lucien. By the time my first book opportunity rolled around (many years later) with jazz vocalist, Gloria Lynne [“I Wish You Love”], I had dozens of music articles to present as a ‘track record’ to publishers. Although I didn’t necessarily set out to do this work, I’ve welcomed it as one aspect of my artistic life; a great departure that, in many ways, helps ground and balance everything else.

Oddly enough, it is the actor in me, not the writer that is intrigued by the lives and careers of performing artists. It is an incessant curiosity about what makes performers tick, what makes us get up on a stage and do what we do; a curiosity centered on a performer’s instincts, our impulses. The stories of African American performers, past and present, are an endless source of inspiration. Even with regard to my recent work writing jazz memoir/biographies, it has all been fueled by my actor’s inquisitiveness. It is a character study. And once the writing is done, the hope is that my curiosity results in some compelling storytelling. Storytelling is how I tend to look at both careers as an actor and a writer. They are extensions of one another. Now whether the story I want to tell reveals itself as a book, a play, or a poem is not up to me, and I know better than to question it. Essentially, whether it’s on the stage or the page, it is the expression of the same gift. In fact, it was Youssou N’Dour who said to me all those years ago: “We are both griots.”

Would you describe your experiences writing about music as overall positive, and if so why or why not?

It has been a positive experience by virtue of the fact that I get to do it. There are worse ways to spend your time than having stimulating conversations with great musicians who are passionate about their life’s work, digging through the archives of vintage magazines and photos romanticizing about an era gone by, researching, writing and contributing a little something of your own to the jazz archives. Yet, it’s not been without its challenges. Because I am not affiliated with any organizations, universities, newspapers, magazines or media outlets, it is the one area of my career that is almost entirely autonomous. I choose my own subject matter—write what I want, when I want. I don’t have to wait on a phone call to be given the greenlight to put pen to paper. It only gets dicey when I have to pitch my work to the publishing industry and get them to co-sign my ideas. Without those aforementioned affiliations, my credibility is always in question. It takes a tremendous amount of patience having to prove yourself repeatedly in an industry where, with every published project, you think you’ve gained some ground… until you discover you’re back at square one. And I do believe that has a lot to do with the industry’s lack of interest in jazz writing in general because of its limited commercial appeal.

I’ve worked with large and small publishers and for HAZEL SCOTT, a university press. The frustration was the same. Writing about jazz, I’ve always gotten the sense that there is a presumption, whether it’s unspoken or not, that a woman writer’s understanding of the music and ability to write about it is limited. It’s a subtle thing. It can mean that after you’ve done all your homework and presented a solid draft, an editor feels he has to school you on some names, dates, or events that you may have left out. Or in your pitch to publishers, you realize that you’re in there trying to convince them not only of the validity and worthiness of women in jazz as a subject but also your ability as a woman to write about the subject. My experience has been tainted by both gender and racial bias. I recall during my Hazel Scott journey, an editor remarked: “This is a great idea for a book… it would be a great book, if it was written by someone else.” Well, someone else like whom? Why wouldn’t a Black woman writer be trusted to write the life story of another Black woman? Is our history, the history of Black music, our people, our artists, not safe in our own hands? All of these issues have come into play for me throughout my journey as a writer. It’s the dicey part.

Women occupy an interesting place in the jazz pantheon; on the one hand women instrumentalists are in the distinct minority, at least as far as prominence, and on the other hand women absolutely dominate the ranks of jazz singers. What’s your sense of that imbalance?

Patriarchy. It is simply a reflection of the larger patriarchal society in which we all live. Jazz remains male-dominated, male-centered, male-identified. Historically, women have been expected to look pretty and sing with the band, not swing with the band. That expectation, I think, still persists. No one expected a beautiful woman to pick up a trumpet and blow like Valaida Snow did back in the day. It was considered less than feminine. Not women’s work. It has so much to do with our definitions of the female role in society. When you consider the fact that quite a few legendary jazz vocalists like Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae were very fine musicians, you have to conclude that they did what was necessary in order to have lasting musical careers. Of course there are exceptions, Mary Lou Williams, Hazel Scott, Marian McPartland, Dorothy Donegan, and the popular all-girl orchestras that were the rage in the 1930s and 40s. But their stories are filled with the trials and tribulations associated with being female musicians in a male-dominated industry. Even today, it must be difficult terrain to navigate for women instrumentalists. When you look at the success of Esperanza Spalding, who is both a wonderful vocalist and musician, you wonder how that career would have unfolded if she had just played the bass and never sang a note.

Would you describe yourself as a music critic or a music journalist and why?

Neither. I often feel like an interloper. I’m definitely not a music critic—I listen to what I like and, admittedly, I’m far too in love with the subject to write objectively about it. A journalist, definitely not. I am simply an artist who writes to support my acting habit. My tendency to write about jazz and include jazz in many of the creative works I develop is out of a deep passion for the music.

Its been suggested that one of the real keys to solving the critical jazz audience development issue is that those who present the music must find creative ways to attract more women to their audiences; some wisdom suggesting that where more women go, men will follow. Is this an apt characterization of the jazz audience conundrum, and if so are there elements you might suggest to those who present jazz as to better attracting women audience members?

Quite honestly, I haven’t really looked at the audience development issue from the vantage point of gender. I’ve always looked at it from the perspective of race. I’ve spent more time contemplating why there aren’t more African Americans in the audience at jazz concerts than why there aren’t more women. When I frequent Dizzy’s Club or Jazz at Lincoln Center or the Newport Jazz Festival, I see plenty of couples; what I don’t see is African Americans in large numbers.

I’m interested in exploring what efforts can be made to generate more interest in the music among the American masses. Perhaps it’s a matter of marketing. Maybe the promotion of new jazz recordings, jazz festivals and concerts needs to be re-worked to target a wider audience and not just the tried-and-true devoted jazzbeaus. Jazz has a tendency to come across as a unique, elite world. Not everyone feels welcome. [Editor’s note: I’m reminded here of poet Sekou Sundiata’s line about how he wasn’t into John Coltrane at first because he felt he needed “…to belong to something…” to get Trane] Or perhaps they’ve lost interest. Maybe it’s an image problem where the general public doesn’t view jazz as being new or modern or progressive. And certainly jazz labels aren’t able to spend the major dollars that commercial labels spend to promote their artists. I’m grasping at straws here because it’s a puzzling situation, and I’m afraid I don’t have a cogent answer.

This question also leads to a larger discussion about what is and isn’t jazz. I’ve noticed that many of the festivals promoted as “Jazz Fests” in major cities are really not jazz at all. The lineup is full of more R&B and Soul artists than legit jazz artists. So, the term is used so loosely which further complicates marketing and promotion efforts. You don’t always know what you’re getting.

There does seem to be some new excitement among younger audiences now with the ever-expanding popularity of artists like Esperanza Spalding and Robert Glasper. I’m also inspired by the young lions on the scene Jonathan Batiste, Aaron Diehl, Kris Bowers, among others. There’s hope, yet.

Clearly writing about music, and particularly writing about jazz, could well be characterized as “a man’s world.” Do you feel like that’s due more to the nature of the music or to some form(s) of overt exclusion from “the boy’s club”?

It’s definitely not the nature of the music. Music has no gender.

Nevertheless, it was once suggested to me that jazz is a medium that demands a certain male energy, a kind of high-testosterone virility that’s needed to really handle an instrument that women simply don’t come by easily; that female sensibilities are better suited to song, interpreting a lyric, bringing emotional depth to a tune… unless she’s playing an instrument that is considered more feminine—a flute, perhaps, or a harp, a violin. Now, I thought this comment was rather absurd but, again, I think it comes down to our perceptions of the female role in this music and in the larger society in general that frames this discussion. Where do we fit? Who gets to judge? And in the final analysis, does it really matter as long as the end result is great music? I mean, is there something particularly masculine about the sound of Oscar Peterson and specifically feminine about Mary Lou Williams?

Early in my career, a literary agent asked me why I bothered writing about jazz—“You can’t make any money off of that,” she said. “And besides, all those books are written by European men anyway.” So, according to her, it’s not just a ‘boy’s club’ –it’s male, white, and probably not even American. Her comments stayed with me for awhile, and I don’t think she was totally off base. The suggestion here is that people from other nations might have a greater interest and respect for this American music form than we do.

While I don’t think there is any overt exclusionary process keeping women from writing about jazz, I do believe there is an expectation that writers on the subject should be men.

Have you ever found it more difficult to pursue writing about music due to gender issues? If so please detail some of your writing experiences that may have been fairly or unfairly colored by gender.

Proving gender bias is a delicate matter. It’s rarely overt, like modern racism. It comes at you ever so subtly. It’s having your ideas dismissed before they are even given careful consideration. It’s being condescended to as if you aren’t fully capable of handling the task at hand. It’s how something is said, not necessarily what’s being said that can leave you feeling like you’re merely being tolerated, not respected. I remember when working on HAZEL SCOTT, the editor wanted me to “hurry up and get to the music.” Well, I had access to Hazel’s personal journals and she spent a great deal of time writing about her childhood. I recognized how important her upbringing was to her overall success so I wanted to honor that in the book. The editor felt that the early chapters were “too precious” but I’m writing about a child prodigy—so, how can I skip over the childhood? And why should I? What’s the rush? Is it the page count? I’ve seen biographies on male musicians that were four and five hundred pages long, why do I have to get this woman’s story in under 300 (including the source notes, bibliography, and index)? We worked through it but I did feel a certain kind of impatience coming from the publisher’s end. Fortunately, we were able to find a middle ground, but I STILL wish I had a few more of her wonderful childhood stories in the book that were cut. Here I am years later, mourning that 100 pages that were crossed out with red marker. Oh well.

A more egregious experience was when a writer contacted me by phone and asked if I could help him with some research for a book he was writing on a lesser known jazz musician, a sideman for many greats. I’m typically more than happy to help out a fellow writer, but how this writer found me was a bit shady. Turns out, his editor had GIVEN him my book proposal for HAZEL SCOTT. A proposal he had in his possession because the publishing house had passed on my project. Apparently, they found my work very thorough, well-researched and well-written and believed that this first-time author could benefit from my expertise. Now. Let me get this straight—the same editor that passed on my project somehow thought it was cool for him to pass along my book proposal (full of five + years of research), photos, marketing ideas, endorsements, contact information, etc. to a writer whose book idea he did choose to publish? I was expected to graciously assist this first-time author writing a biography about a lesser-known sideman who landed a deal with a major publisher who passed on my project but thought I was just the person to help HIM? I still can’t fathom why either of them thought this was anything but insulting. Needless to say, that was a very brief conversation.

What can be done to encourage more women to write about music in particular, jazz in general?

For us girls to keep doing what we’re doing. I’ve seen firsthand what a source of inspiration we can be to other women when we show up at book signings and events where they can see us, hear us, read our work. There is a certain level of camaraderie that exists among women writers. While I may not be able to hook up a fellow woman writer with an agent or a publisher (as I’ve often been asked to do), I can give her the lowdown on how to navigate the terrain, real information that can help light the way.

What have been some of the most personally satisfying music performances you’ve either written about or simply experienced over the last year?

In the last year, I can only recall experiences. It’s been a minute since I’ve written about jazz. One of the most amazing concerts I attended was the tour de force duo of pianists Jonathan Batiste and Aaron Diehl at Dizzy’s Club. Aaron reminded me of what it must have felt like to see Billy Strayhorn or Teddy Wilson back in the day and Jonathan is such an original character, so adventurous and ambitious, an old soul with a youthful spirit. It was wonderful. Roy Hargrove at the Village Vanguard last year also blew my mind. I’m a huge fan of his. Huge. In fact, I wrote HAZEL SCOTT to his album ROY HARGROVE WITH STRINGS. I listened to it over and over for hours each day. There was something in those arrangements that was comforting, not at all distracting. And Wynton Marsalis’ MIDNIGHT BLUES which is also trumpet with strings that I listened to repeatedly during that process. Why I chose to listen to trumpets while writing about a pianist, who knows…

https://www.facebook.com/pages/HAZEL-SCOTT-by-Karen-Chilton/55046547398?ref=hl

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Information deficit strikes again: “Centennial”


In a recent post that was pretty much a roundup of otherwise recommended young artist releases from recent months, in several cases I decried what I think would best be referred to as rampant information deficit. Just this morning I came across a less egregious example of this phenomenon in the age of DIY musician recordings, but some degree of deficit nonetheless. I think most who’ve heard it would agree that the Gil Evans Project “Centennial” (ArtistShare) release by arranger Ryan Truesdell is by all musical accounts one of the more notable large ensemble recordings released this year. In fact its safe to say that – musically-speaking – were it otherwise I wouldn’t even be taking note (as was definitely the case with that gang of a dozen young artist releases from last I.E. post).

But here’s the rub – and an issue which may in fact be shared by others of us who produce jazz programs for community and public radio stations. In many cases – and I have three similar personal experiences, at KFAI in Minneapolis, WWWOZ in New Orleans, and currently at WPFW in DC – programmers at such stations (which have become radio airplay lifeblood for jazz releases) bring music from their own collections to program. In many instances that I’ve witnessed, programmers eschew toting around CD jewel cases and bring their music selections to their programs in CD slipcases. (And yes, I’ve made this point previously but it continues to be worth mentioning because Information Deficit remains very real.) For those programmers so inclined, particularly those who endeavor to convey clear and accurate record information to our listeners, its always comforting when the most pertinent airplay information (leader name(s), album title, label name, and track listing) is posted not only on the jewel case or digipack, but also on the disc itself (yes, there I go again…), and if one is provided, at a glance in the accompanying CD booklet. And if you think I’m kidding, try juggling the responsibilities of running a broadcast board, taking listener-inquiry (or praise/complaint) studio calls, responding to assorted sudden station personnel needs, prepping the next scheduled PSA live read or cart, or news break, all while readying the next couple of sets and seeking the necessary information to convey to listeners. We’re talking one-armed paper hanger territory here!

So this morning I go to program “The Maids of Cadiz” and “Smoking My Sad Cigarette” from Ryan Truesdell’s “Centennial”. Thankfully this is one recent release with very clear and cogent artist-written notes; Truesdell has done a credible job of detailing the selections and his various musical motivations in his booklet essay. But taken as an individual entity, the booklet suffers a bit from Information Deficit, as handsome and informative as is its design and Truedell’s observations within. On the cover is what I suppose passes as an “artsy” image of Truesdell in full conductor-in-recording studio mode – with his back to the camera. Not exactly a household name, perhaps you’d have been better served with more of a portrait rendering Ryan. And speaking of Ryan, his name appears nowhere on the booklet cover! Again, this guy’s not exactly a household name. Opening the booklet… still no listing of the name Ryan Truesdell! OK Ryan, since you wrote the notes, try a byline next time. Reading on… and on… finally the name Ryan Truesdell appears at the end of the notes. The Information Deficit offense here? Making the assumption that readers/listeners/consumers know at all times that this is about RYAN TRUESDELL’s interpretation of “newly discovered” Gil Evans works. Yeah, I know this is about Gil’s music and influence, but so is much of Maria Schneider‘s output – in the spirit of Gil Evans that is – and we always know from her packaging who’s at the helm. Selflessness is not always the sole course Mr. Truesdell; and from the evidence you present here, folks need to know just who it is that unearthed these “newly discovered” Gil Evans’ works – throughout your package.

But all that Information Disparity nit-picking aside, get the music, this one is well worth hearing.

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Jae Sinnett: cookin’ on & off the bandstand

Sorry, we just couldn’t resist that headline, given drummer Jae Sinnett’s new project. Based in the Tidewater area of Virginia, where he is also longtime host of his own radio program, as a drummer Jae Sinnett has always known how to stir the pots. More recently he’s taken to doing that literally, in the kitchen, as he plies his interests in fine cuisine with his trio exploits and his radio career.

Full disclosure: I’ve done a fair amount of cooking myself, not necessarily gourmet, but eminently delightful on most occasions. One of the favored cookbooks is “Jazz Cooks (Portraits and Recipies of the Greats)”, which includes recipe recommendations we’ve tried from artists as seemingly disparate as the ancestors Milt Jackson, Louie Bellson, and Rashied Ali (Chicken Anise, yum…). Given your correspondent’s frequent viewing habits of both the Food Channel (you know the drill: “Chopped,” “Iron Chef,” “Restaurant Impossible”…) and its adjunct Cooking Channel, when I learned recently that Jae Sinnett was developing a cooking show, some questions were in order.

What’s up with the cooking show? How did it evolve and what was your basic idea behind this endeavor?

I’ve cooked for many years and for the past decade or so started focusing on gourmet level cuisine, healthy food consumption and creating my own recipes. This evolved to me sharing my recipes on my “Sinnett In Session” jazz radio show on WHRV FM in Norfolk and hosting cooking events for high end donors for my show during pledge drives. The events became extremely popular with our listeners and soon there was discussion of creating a TV cooking show. I had been formulating ideas for some time about the concept of the show and late last year we started creating scripts and the pilot was completed this past July. My Sunday radio show, followed the radio cooking show “The Splendid Table.” The transition made sense. My show now follows “America’s Test Kitchen” on Sunday afternoons so the cooking theme works well transitioning into jazz. As with any new program possibility for public or commercial television it has to be paid for. Now that the pilot is complete we will seek underwriting support for the series. It will be called “Cooking Freestyle with Jae Sinnett.” Once we get the necessary underwriting support the show will be a thirteen week series and each episode will showcase an area eatery and their head chef, cooking one of their signature dishes plus many of my recipes, music and wine food parings and much more. There will be a heavy “local” theme.

Do you see this cooking show as a kind of “mainstreaming” opportunity for a jazzman?

Well, one thing I’ve learned is that everyone doesn’t like jazz but everyone likes to eat. I’ve always looked for bridges so to speak, in connecting listeners to jazz. It’s just figuring out how to do it. I’ve had folks want my trio to perform then ask if I would give a cooking demonstration. Now, what if I didn’t cook…would they have hired me? Not sure but I do know being a chef that gives healthy eating seminars certainly has…in interesting ways…. expanded my “performance” opportunities. Plus, as you know, it’s tough out there finding decent performance opportunities for jazz. Having palpable plan “B” options can only help with enhancing income.

How do you see the cooking show, your radio program, and your playing intersecting?

Food can merge the ideologies better than anything I’ve seen. I’ve had so many people tell me they love the recipe sharing on my radio show but more importantly they’re hanging around after I give them…listening to the jazz when they didn’t before. I’ll get on average 20-50 emails per week about the recipes and on average 3-7 per week for the jazz. It’s keeping them around longer. Frankly, I’m surprised more stations don’t use the food connection to expand their jazz listening base. The cooking events have helped to tremendously increase fundraising revenue for my show. The pledge amounts for my cooking events are on average 65% higher than during any other program we offer. To me, it’s all logical. Creative cooking lends itself perfectly to creative music. If they don’t understand the music they will certainly understand the food. If you can parallel the creative process of each in terms of one enhancing the other… the pairings start to make sense for many.

What else have you got up your sleeve?

The immediate objective is to get the series up and running. We’re close. Once we get the underwriting it’s about sketching out the conceptual direction of each episode with the producer. It’s time consuming yes, but fun. It’s exciting for me because I love cooking as much as I do performing. Speaking of performing, I have a new CD out called “Still Standing” with my trio. Marketing the CD, booking dates to promote it and my trio and finishing the cooking show are my main priorities now. That’s much work in itself.

Contact: www.jaesinnett.com where you can find some of his personal recipes.

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