At least up until the weather gods intruded upon the National Weather Service with lightening advisories, one of the more eagerly-anticipated sets on our schedule for DC JazzFest 2024 was our slated Saturday evening closing set with NEA Jazz Master bassist Stanley Clarke N4Ever. Unfortunately our outdoor venue at The Wharf on the banks of the mighty Potomac River couldn’t stand up to those dire weather advisories and we had no choice but to shut down both our District Pier and Transit Pier stages.

Luckily that weather shutdown did compel significant numbers of DCJF patrons to flock over to our indoor festival venue at Arena Stage to experience a deeply thrilling set by Carmen Lundy. Fortunately, earlier that Saturday I had an opportunity to sit down with Stanley Clarke for one of the festival’s Meet The Artist programs. Our conversation started with a query on exactly what compelled Stanley to play the bass as a young man coming up in Philadelphia.

Stanley Clarke: The bass is a misunderstood instrument still. But where it came from when I started in the late 60s, and the guys that came before me, [the bass] has come a long way – a whole paradigm shift. When I came up there were maybe 3 bass players that had records [as leaders]. Now there’s thousands of bass players that have records. I can’t say they’re all good, but there are a lot of bass players…

For me it was a goal of mine in life not to necessarily liberate the bass, but to sort of break the idea that you have to be attached to an instrument. Like if you sit at a piano and wear some glasses, someone says … ‘you’re the smartest guy…’ It’s not true! You can [be playing] a rubber band and be a genius. If you go to Senegal right on the continent you see people playing anything… geniuses playing serious rhythms, serious phraseology… It’s not the instrument, it’s what comes from here, here and up here [taps his gut, heart, and head] that comes out. These instruments are just physical objects.

Originally this Meet The Artist session was slated to be a live DownBeat Magazine Blindfold Test, but it seems Stanley Clarke was fated to encounter a raft of impediments on this particular day as audio technical difficulties intruded on the BFT segment of our interview session. One particular selection that we were able to experience during the interview was a piece from DC Jazz Festival 2024/2025 artist-in-residence, DC native – and Duke Ellington School for the Arts graduate among his other achievements – bassist-bandleader Corcoran Holt. We played the piece “Raven’s Wing” from Corcoran’s most recent release as a leader, The Mecca (CD Baby).

Stanley Clarke: I like that record. The first thing I noticed was the bass… nice stuff, very creative! He’s playing up in the upper register. It would have been nice if he or she would have played a solo first. I liked that one; loved the riff he’s playing on the bass… and the sound was good, really good actually! It was fresh, it sounded new… That’s important too. I think musicians sometimes when they’re young, they feel like they have to copy something, and you really don’t have to… you have to study!

Miles Davis said sometimes it takes a long time to find yourself. It doesn’t have to take that long if someone acknowledges you and tells you it’s OK to be yourself, you don’t have to sound like Stanley Clarke, Ron Carter, Jaco Pastorius, or whoever – you can be yourself, and this guy [Corcoran Holt] is nice!

Another selection we played for Stanley came from the legendary Cuban bass master Cachao.

Stanley Clarke: I actually met Cachao, that was a highlight of my life! Cachao pretty much invented Latin bass lines. He’s a real big influence on me. There’s an actor named Andy Garcia who had a party for Cachao on his 80-something birthday and I went to the party to see him. I had no idea Cachao even knw anything about me. I was very humble when I went up to him. I said ‘hey man, how ‘ya doin’?’ He looked up at me and he goes… ‘ah, loco… [crazy]!’ So we hung out, he was great, amazing player.

I’ve tried a lot to get him in bass player magazines, to do an article on him because he’s just as important as Charlie Mingus or any of the guys. I saw [Cachao] play with a full orchestra, with a singer, dancers and everything. What I liked about him is he plays the acoustic bass, he didn’t have a baby bass.

He started out with a bow and he started playing, building it up… Then he hit a riff and the orchestra came in and everybody came on the dance floor. That’s the other thing I liked, it was a real communal thing. Everybody came out and danced and it was incredible, he was killin’! Cachao… yeah, that was a good one!

How much are you influenced by changes n our musical tastes? How much does that influence your playing?

SC: I’d say the older I get… my influences come from other places now. My influences come from my family and friends, and things that I see… I spent a long time writing music for films. I’ve written music for about 85 films, and what happens when you’re a film composer and say you’re writing an orchestral score… I’ll give you an example: one of the scores I did was for the Tina Turner movie, What’s Love Got to Do With It and they wanted an orchestral score. I watched the movie footage, and I knew Tina, but it’s funny, all the years I knew her I never knew all the pain she went through! I just knew there was Tina Turner!

I had a couple of friends in that film – Larry Fishburne, and Angela Bassett who I worked with on Boyz ‘n The Hood. I was talking with them on the set [of the Tina Turner film]. Tina didn’t want to come to the set, and I understood because I didn’t know the back story. The score was written about the pain, the sorrow, the joy… all that kind of stuff. But I can’t say that I was influenced [by those elements of life]. For me, influence is something you see or take from somebody. Because I’m a composer and I write from how I feel and how I see things, then that’s an influence. But sometimes I’ll take things and they come through me and it’s brief.

When you’re a film composer you cannot get hung up on anything. I did [What’s Love Got to Do With It] and I think shortly after that I [scored] a two-hour television special with Angela Lansbury for Murder She Wrote – a completely different thing. And so that came out and what was interesting about that was it was a show that required Celtic music!

The producers liked me, [Angela Lansbury] liked me… It was all Celtic music and I didn’t know anything about that. She said the best thing to me, she said “you’re a composer, right?” I said “…yeah”… and she said “…there’s a library…” [laughs]. And I went there and listened to all the Celtic music and in a real serendipitous way there was a woman who lived in this city I lived in, which is out in Topanga, a mountain town right off of Malibu, and she was one of the foremost Celtic singers. She came by the house, we recorded it and it was a great experience!

So yeah, I got influenced by that for a moment, but I haven’t made a Celtic record. That would be deep [audience and Stanley laugh]! But I do like some of that stuff. Music and art is very interesting. You can have influences, things that come to you and then go right away. But I think that a little piece of it stays with you and sometimes some artist will say ‘I feel very rich in what I do.’

In my 73 years I’ve experienced a lot of music, I’ve played with a lot of musicians… Just my time with Chick Corea… This guy was one of the most prolific composers of our time – a Great American composer, and all that music is in me. I have memories of it, and so yeah influence is an interesting word! For me, it’s having all these fine jewels and gold…

For his Stanley Clarke N4Ever band Clarke is decidedly at the helm of a young crew of next gen musicians.

SC: They’re all under 30! I have a great memory of when I was 18 years old I played with Horace Silver, then I went to play with Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, and all those guys. They didn’t have to be nice to me! It’s kind of like I came on the scene, I play bass, guys pay me… I wasn’t expecting much more than that.

For me, I wanted to learn from those guys, but they were all… Art Blakey was another one… but they were all very, very nice to me. And what I learned from them – the good ones and the bad ones – and I bring that with me [as a bandleader].

I remember one time I was playing with Dizzy Gillespie at the Hollywood Bowl and one of the things he said to me was that you can’t count on the radio or press or people to move our music forward – you have to pass it down, and so it goes to the youth. So I make a point of doing that because nothing will change that because I know that the guys I mentor are going to take those lessons – good and bad – forward. And that’s how our music travels. So I have no worries about – you wanna call it jazz or whatever – improvised music. The term jazz, as we move through life on this planet, has become more and more of an undefined term. Like some people say ‘this is jazz, that’s jazz’… The common denominator that goes through all these different musics is improvisation and the spirit of play.

We have people – a guy playing with a drummer and he’s looking, and they’re jammin’… you don’t get that in pop music or hip hop music… and there’s nothing wrong with what they’re doing. But this music… it has [improvisation] and it goes through to the youth, and that’s all I do now; it’s great and I love it!

I come from a family of artists. My mother paints, my daughter is a painter… I really understand how when you have hard times, and maybe there’s a song that gets you through it… You know what’s beautiful about art… What I’ve found out in my short life, is that art is the only… whether its music, literature, painting or even the newer forms of art that come through the digital platform… the beautiful thing is that when it’s really art, it’s good art and it’s positive, it reminds all of us who we really are, and that has nothing o do with your title – whether you’re president of this or whatever… you’re this famous guy or… you’re homeless, or whatever. Music, art, literature, the good stuff is like a laser beam and it cuts through all of the stuff to you… you always stay young that way. Trust me, just keep listening.

[An audience member asks Stanley about his bass guitar, and reminds Stanley about a mutual friend of theirs who is a bass maker.]

I’ll tell you a story about that bass. I’m in this club – me and Chick and Lenny White… just at the beginning of the second Return to Forever, right before Al DiMeola, when we went electric. So I’m in this club and I’m playing a Gibson, one of those kind of fat body basses. So this little guy comes in, he says “you sound nice, but your sound is like shit [audience laughs]. So I’m looking at this guy, Lenny White is looking at this guy… So he has this bass with him. He says “…you should try this bass.” And it was really like the first bass where you could play this FM technology, where you could play the top of the bass, you could play chords on the bass. A lot of my tunes, like “School Days,” would have chords, but you could never do that on other basses. So I played this bass and people in the audience literally came backstage and said ‘What the hell was that?”

This bass was a real piece of art – the woodwork was beautiful, it was really natural… So Lenny and Chick said ‘we can’t let this guy go with that bass!’ He said, ‘man this is one of our prototypes, this cost me $1600.’ Back in those days $1600 was like $5,000 today! Do you know we had a collection… we got $1600, handed it to this guy Rick and shoved him out the door… True story!

When drummer-composer-bandleader-educator-activist NEA Jazz Master Terri Lyne Carrington set out to right a historic wrong – i.e. the sad and ongoing lack of recognition for women’s compositions as vehicles of jazz expressions, she craftily went about assembling a vehicle for the broader dissemination jazz compositions by women. And in so doing she offers a document that will hopefully dispel any lingering myths about the compositional prowess of women operating in the jazz composing realm. In part New Standards serves as a touchstone volume for her groundbreaking Jazz & Gender Justice program and curriculum at Berklee College of Music. But more than anything her New Standards book is a marvelous illustration of the many important gifts to jazz contributed by women in the composers.

Not only has Ms. Carrington built a remarkable pedagogical standard at one of the planet’s leading music conservatories, she has also crafted an impressive platform for recognition and performance of a body of compositions that previously were only available somewhat anecdotally. Players know some of these compositions, but the anthology aspect represented by this New Standards volume is precedent-setting in bringing these compositional resources together, and will hopefully spur increased visibility for the extraordinary coterie of women composers, and vehicles for performance New Standards represents.

In addition to New Standards, Terri Lyne also curated a unique companion, a traveling visual arts exhibition that further illustrates the indelible role of women musicians in the development of jazz music – representing a range from Mary Lou Williams, Melba Liston and Geri Allen, to Carmen Lundy, Esperanza Spalding, and Kris Davis. Incorporating sculpture (including the memorable artistry of Ms. Lundy), a Geri Allen/Mary Lou Williams conversation, representations of many contemporary jazz women such as trumpeter-educator Ingrid Jensen (including a wonderfully illustrative photo of trumpeter Jensen practicing while holding her young child in her lap; a humane family/artistry juggling act many jazz women through the ages have encountered), bassist Linda May Han Oh, saxophonist-vocalist Camille Thurman, guitar explorer Mary Halvorson, and the emerging flutist-vocalist Elena Pinderhughes among them, and a Carrie Mae Weems film on Ms. Carrington that celebrates her amazing odyssey from 10-year old drumming prodigy (seeing the assured confidence of her posture at the kit at that young age is truly remarkable), to NEA Jazz Master and one of the essential contributors to jazz in the 21st century.

Clearly some questions were in order for Ms. Carrington and her Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice colleague Aja Burrell Wood weighed in with some wisdom as well.

While the New Standards book is so necessary and such a great companion piece to your overall mission at the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, please detail how you determined to develop this volume.

TLC: The first event we held to announce the institute was in summer of 2018. I asked students to play some songs written by women at the event and when they pulled out the Real Book, they could not find any, other than “Willow Weep for Me” – by Ann Ronell. I knew then that this would be our first initiative. It took a few years to really get going with it. But when we met with Berklee Press (whose books are distributed by Hal Leonard), they told me 100 songs was a lot and they would still do the book if it were only 20 songs. And then asked if there are enough [women] composers to fill my ambitious request. It is actually 101 [compositions by women] because of an overlap or miscalculation when accounting for who said yes! 

Once you developed your publication plan, how did you go about soliciting such a broad range of compositions by women across generations?

I started with people I knew – songs I had played before and songs I liked. It was fairly easy to do half the book that way. But in general I asked composers to send me a few songs to choose from – or I would tell them which song of theirs I wanted to include. Or a few people I would take anything they sent. With the deceased composers it was trickier because I had to deal with their estates and with some [composers] we could not really locate the people that controlled the songs – so we did not include a few that I wanted to. But it was always my desire to have it span over many years from Lil Hardin [who became Lil Hardin Armstrong] to top recent Berklee grads. And also to be diverse stylistically within jazz.

What was the response from the field when you began soliciting these compositions?

Everyone was happy to be included. I only got 2 rejections. 

Was the goal to publish exactly “101 Lead Sheets by Women Composers” or is that simply the number you wound up attracting?

The goal was 100 – but it ended up at 101. 

How do you see this book proliferating in the field, and particularly among musicians?

I see it as an addition to the jazz canon of songs that we all play all the time – that rarely includes women composers. So New Standards is saying, “If you want to be more diverse with the composers you play, here are some other options.” Many musicians mainly play their own music, but while they are developing their craft and their writing skills – in school – they play other composers, and the way it has been, male composers are the ones who are informing our budding composers and performers, which reinforces the male jazz narrative. But now there is something that can be used to counter that narrative, if an educator (or performer) wants to do so – neatly, packaged in a collection, which means there is no excuse if you want to diversify the material being taught, because a lot of people say that they could not easily find music written by women. Not so anymore. 

The New Standards traveling exhibition premiered at The Carr Center in Detroit, where Ms. Carrington is a curator, and subsequently touched down at the home of the DC Jazz Festival at Arena Stage in DC’s southwest waterfront corridor (home also to DCJF festival stages at The Wharf and Arena Stage) during DCJF 2024.

Talk about how you arrived at the exhibit as such a vivid and illustrative companion piece to the New Standards book and what do you foresee as the future of the exhibit?

I have always been attracted to multi-disciplinary expression. If you are a creative person, chances are you are creative in more than one area. It could be said that men have had it easier with their creativity being both accepted and expected – no matter the form it is being expressed in. They have been supported – often by women – to go be a “creative genius.” but women have had more barriers and burdens pursuing their creative endeavors and for sure more glass ceilings. The exhibit is a [vehicle] to center multi- dimensional, multi-disciplinary artists in, a space dedicated to the varying contributions women have made and continue to make in the art form, from different parts of the jazz ecosystem.

Bringing ideas of freedom and jazz without patriarchy into a space with sound (pressure waves), 2D (film) and 3D (paintings, sculptures) art. And the exhibit’s purpose was also to overwhelm you with the theme/topic. It was my hope that after visiting the exhibit, the viewer would be transformed, inspired and educated in some ways as well. And at the very least, not able to say that they did not know there were so many great jazz women performers and composers. The hope is for them to leave looking at jazz differently, acknowledging that jazz has a gender problem, realizing their own part – knowingly or not – in supporting the inequities, and resolved to pay better attention to how and what they support in reg

ard to the art form. A resolve to being part of a solution and change  – not part of keeping jazz from reaching its greatest potential, which can only happen when there is diversity among the people that create it. Jazz is not men’s music – and that is what the exhibit is saying loudly. 

Aja Burrell:

Terri covered it all. I would add to your question about proliferation… since New Standards has become available, I believe it continues to have the potential to add to and reframe what we consider the “standard” in jazz on and off the stage, and in classrooms near and far.

An immediate impact I have already witnessed (and heard) has been the way the tunes in [New Standards] have been incorporated in curriculum, in jazz education spaces, and live performances. And in such a short time! On Berklee’s campus alone, I can’t count how many times I’ve heard Geri Allen’s “Unconditional Love” coming out of practice rooms at times simply because the students love to play it. Let alone, the enthusiastic response from both students and educators I encounter from other institutions, who are now incorporating New Standards tunes in their sets and beyond the classroom.

The response to New Standards has been tremendous and the proof has been in the music. I look forward to seeing its continued impact over time.

By now you’ve likely seen the clip of Vice President and presidential nominee Kamala Harris exiting a DC record store with an armful of Lp purchases, notably including several jazz releases, among them Charles Mingus and Roy Ayers. The story behind that particular record store – and its place among what some consider ‘a dying breed’ of retail outlets is quite interesting; Ms. Harris decidedly wasn’t crate digging at some hole-in-the-wall or some retail outlet with side orders of Lps and CDs (as if those still existed!).

The store in question is HR Records, located in the heart of DC’s northwest quadrant at 702 Kennedy Street NW. Given that momentous Kamala Harris visit and the seeming rarity of retail record stores these days, some background on this particular store was in order, so we sought out HR Records proprietor Charvis Campbell with some questions.

What are the origins of HR Records, and it’s Kennedy Street location?

HR Records was founded by myself and Michael Bernstein, my partner, in March 2018. We have a video on our Instagram page that shows the early days of the shop when the walls were naked. But you knew something special was going to happen in the place. We’re just so blessed and grateful to be here for five years.

The majority of the early collection for the store came from Baltimore. I essentially acquired an entire record shop, and we brought that from Baltimore to DC. The shop was called East-West Records, located kind of on the edge of Baltimore on Liberty Road near I-695, located in a small strip mall. I remember that I had to go down some stairs and that there was a church in the basement, an African hair braiding spot, a barber shop, a religious bookstore, and then Bill’s record shop. I would suggest to Bill let’s bring these records to DC and we’ll make some money. Bill being the wise old man that he was said ‘you do a pop-up and yard sales but don’t do a brick & mortar because it’s tough.’ He was right.

But I clearly didn’t listen to him, and he didn’t listen to himself because he called me one day and he said ‘hey, you know that record collection you wanted to buy, you can have it and on top of that I have another large collection from a friend who passed away so you could have that as well.’ It turned out to be hundreds of boxes of records, books, record bins, posters, etc.

I met Michael when he actually came to my house to buy some records. I was getting married and I vividly remember that I put an ad on craigslist to sell some of my records because my wonderful wife, my beautiful smart wife said… ‘you know that I love you but you can’t bring all those records into our house.’ So I knew I had to sell off some of the collection, so I put an ad in craigslist and sure enough some of the folks who came were record shop owners… and Michael Bernstein. That’s when I realized there was some value to records. Before, I was very content just buying let’s say 100 records, with the intention of keeping five and selling the remaining 95 to break even and get my money back. It wasn’t until I was getting married and the record shop guys came to my house that I knew there was some value in these records.

Michael and I hit it off. I’m from New York and so is he. I have a love of jazz and so does Michael. We both have families – his kids are a little bit older than mine, but we both appreciate and love kids. We spent a few months looking for a spot. We looked in Georgetown and we looked in different neighborhoods around the city. But when we saw our spot on Kennedy Street we just fell in love. We just knew right away it was our home. We walked in and it was like one of those aha moments where you could just feel the energy and the vibe. You knew it was going to be something special and we’re just grateful that we’ve been here for five plus years, and we’re strong.

What would you say is the primary feature of HR Records?

We specialize in rare jazz and soul, African and reggae records. That’s what we love, that’s what we know, and that’s what walks in the door. We’re one of the only record shops that’s kind of in the community – we’re on Kennedy Street in Brightwood [702 Kennedy St. NW]. We’re not on U Street, we’re not on 14th Street, and we’re not in Georgetown. We’re a destination – you have to come and find us. Which I think is an important aspect of who we are – we’re community-focused.

One of the most interesting things about owning a record store is that I feel that we’re a community space. We have people who come in the shop who believe it or not don’t have a record player but buy records! We have folks who come in who go digging the crates and who are looking for beats. I have people who are being exposed to jazz music for the first time. It’s a wide-range of people who come in our door. I feel like I have a duty to be that space where people can come in and talk and exchange ideas about music and culture. Historically record shops, like barber shops and beauty salons, have been that place in the Black community where you can go and talk about music, film, and culture. In many ways we are that space.

How do you stock HR Records and keep your selection fresh?

Records walk through the door. Almost every day someone comes in with some records to sell from large to small collections. They call sometimes to set appointments but what I’m really enjoying is making house visits. I learn more about people spending a few hours going through records, talking about music, family, and DC culture. For me it’s really about relationships and developing relationships. I’m excited to hear stories about DC music and culture, stories about how people acquired their music. I think you really get to know somebody when you spend a couple hours in someone’s house going through their record collection.

Moreover there’s some collections that have taken me years to acquire. Some people treat some of their records like they treat their kids – sometimes better! So it’s about music, and relationships, but it’s also about learning that there’s a deeper story to be told. For example, we had acquired an amazing collection of records from a man named Georges Collient. George is one of the founders of Afro-pop and was one of the first African music journalist/hosts on Voice of America.

I found George to be a great man with a love of life – he laughs, knows music, and he’s just one of those people who as soon as you meet him you know he’s special. When I first met Georges I was attracted to his records – he had thousands of African and jazz records. But the other aspect was really just my love of wanting to learn more about Georges the man and wanting to learn more about his life, then realizing that Georges is special and that other people need to hear his story.

So I believe that I have a duty to help tell the stories of DC music and culture. I have a responsibility to help tell Georges’ story to other people – not to necessarily make a movie but to document and help preserve this history. I believe in oral histories, and we were fortunate through our non-profit to get a grant a few years ago to do oral history interviews on some of DC’s jazz musicians who performed at Westminster Church. [Editor’s note: Westminster Presbyterian Church in SW DC, under the leadership of Rev. Brian Hamilton and tireless jazz supporter and weekly host Dick Smith has for decades presented Jazz Night in DC every Friday evenng, featuring many of the DMV’s finest musicians and selling dinners in its lower level.] So when I acquire records and when I visit people’s homes, I think in terms of how do I make sure to tell this story and keep the legacy and culture alive.

In this day of vastly diminished record store resources, what does HR Records offer that folks simply cannot find online?

We offer the best in rare jazz and soul. We also offer what other record stores don’t. In any business, I think it comes down to the people. I know that our staff is the best in town. We just love music. We love and know jazz music. We love and know soul music. We love what we play and we know what we play. I think we have a love of jazz, soul, reggae and African records that is about understanding our history and culture.

How do you suppose Kamala Harris found out about HR Records, and tell us about the day she stopped by and was famously interviewed with her purchases that day? What was she specifically looking for at HR Records?

I would like to thank Madam Vice President for visiting HR Records! I’m not really sure how she heard about HR Records. I would like to think that Kamala Harris is a record shop junkie was like ‘I must go to HR Records!’ Maybe she heard about HR Records because we both went to Howard University. Or maybe it’s because I’m in Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and she’s in Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Frankly it’s very possible that it was her advance team or someone on our staff who alerted her to the shop. Bottom line, the VP made a visit and it’s a wonderful story that I’m blessed to share.

I received the first call I think like around 9-10am. I think it was first from the Small Business Administration. They asked if I was the owner of the shop, and if I would be around throughout the day. They asked some background questions and it felt almost like an interview. When I hung up the phone I didn’t think anything until a few minutes later when I got the next call from the Vice President’s office. They said something like someone senior on the VP’s staff may make a visit. But they never stated directly who would be visiting. They also said that the Secret Service will first visit the store. I remember hanging up and calling my wife saying that I think the Vice President is coming but I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know what to expect. I thought that if they’re sending Secret Service to checkout the store then maybe the Vice President’s coming but I wasn’t quite sure, but you still don’t know. I didn’t know what to expect. I would have thought that they would do a visit a day or weeks in advance. But then the Secret Service team arrived in the shop, and they’re spending hours i n the shop. But they again don’t say that the Vice President is coming!

When Madame Vice President came in the shop she was sincere and down to earth. She was engaging. She spoke with my staff and customers. She made me feel special – like I’m the main reason why she’s here. Perhaps that’s why she’s a politician and hopefully about to be the next POTUS.

It’s funny now, I tried to throw her some softballs and say ‘hey, you want to checkout Coltrane‘ but she was like ‘no, where’s the Mingus.’

When the Vice President goes anywhere a team of press corps travels with her. It’s a lot of people: it’s Secret Service, it’s an advance team, it’s the press corps, it’s the local police and fire department… It’s huge and it’s overwhelming! I can see why in some instances the President doesn’t want to hit the local restaurant or shop because they have to close things down. They had to shut down the entire neighborhood for blocks during her visit. I didn’t realize it because I was inside the shop, but I heard from various people that the neighborhood was frozen and that they couldn’t move anywhere for about an hour because the Vice President was in the shop. It was an amazing experience – the VP was sincere, down to earth, and I think really cared about the experience.

Talk about how HR Records became central to the efforts of the Home Rule Music Festival and how that event became a reality.

The Home Rule Music Festival is a program of the Home Rule Music and Film Preservation Foundation. It’s a long title but it clearly says what we do and what we love – music and film.

I believe that when you combine the mediums of film and music there’s nothing like it – from an educational perspective, from a historical perspective, from a cultural perspective – or a let’s just enjoy life perspective.

During the Covid pandemic, we started Home Rule Music and Film. Before Covid we were doing a lot of events on Kennedy Street and in the community, with music performances and events with the kids. We knew it would be helpful to establish a non-profit to have other folks support us with those efforts. One of our first projects was the documentary on Black Fire Records that’s currently available for viewing on PBS.com.

It was right before Covid that we held an event in the shop with (saxophonist) Plunky (Branch) from Oneness of JuJu. It was for record store day and I think we termed it Black Fire Records Day. Plunky spoke and performed and we filmed it. I stood behind the camera and watched through the lens as Plunky told his story. I was really impressed with Plunky’s love of life. He’s full of energy and he knows his jazz. He’s smart and articulate and just one of these men that you know is special and you want to be around. I knew then that I wanted to help tell his story and the Black Fire Records story.

So on his way out that day I told Plunky and his team that I want to do a documentary on him. Plunky’s a nice guy so he was like ‘sure’. I’m not sure if he knew what he was getting himself into when he said sure. About a week or two later, I heard about this community grant through Humanities DC. The deadline was in a week. So I contacted Plunky and I pitched him. We quickly started working on the grant document. We submitted the paperwork and didn’t think anything about it. A couple of months later, I received an email saying that we got the grant.

The reality is you can’t make a movie with a $10,000 grant, so we raised about another $20-25K from other sources, including Plunky, family, friends, and through a crowdsourcing campaign. We interviewed 19 people over several days, and we shot quality interviews with the understanding that we wanted to do something with the final product. So we had this wonderful film but near the end of Covid people were still hesitant to come inside in large crowds, so we rightly concluded that the best way to show off the film was to have a full-day of live performances of the music associated with the film, followed by a screening of the film at night. So the Home Rule Music Festival was really born out of our desire to support our documentary on Black Fire Records and to have the community better understand and appreciate DC’s music history and culture.

The festival morphed into a day of music, with vendors, food, and community organizations. The festival grew beyond our wildest expectations and dreams. We were over-achievers and in year one I think we had about 2500-3000 people show up. In year 2 we had closer to 4000 and in year three we programmed an even bigger festival.

The festival has grown into a year-long program that now takes a team with months of planning, effort, time and fundraising. This past year our budget was nearly $200K.

How do you see HR Records and the Home Rule Music Festival working hand-in-glove?

HR Records is our for-profit business, Home Rule Music and Film is our non-profit organization, and then the festival is a program that supports our strategic mission and vision. We have been thoughtful to separate our community engagement work, which is done through our non-profit, from our for-profit business.

Where do you see the Home Rule Music Festival advancing?

The Home Rule Music Festival wants to be the preeminent festival celebrating DC’s rich musical heritage and culture. With that being said, my grandmother once told me to be careful what I ask for because you may just get it. We clearly over-achieved starting with the first year of the festival growing in attendance, and with the number of vendors and sponsors participating. Producing an event of that size and caliber requires a team and months, if not a year of planning, and so the festival is kind of turning into a year-round program which is wonderful but obviously comes with challenges as well.

We’re currently working on developing an education program tentatively called The Uptown Arts Project that’s connected to the festival. The Uptown Arts Project focuses on teaching skills and providing experiential opportunities for youth in events production, filmmaking, music production, video editing, sound and lighting, and stage management. Our plan is to provide classes and structured activities that aim to increase the capacity of youth in DC to be productive and employed members of the arts community. A goal is to help youth develop media arts competencies and literacies to effectively participate in the modern digitally centered environment, and to achieve sell-sufficiency and economic enhancement.

Talk about your WPFW radio show and how that dovetails with your activities on behalf of jazz & arts.

I wish I was more thoughtful and intentional with my work with HR Records, Home Rule Music and Film, and with my personal work with WPFW as an on-air programmer. But frankly my work with WPFW is really just me having fun, and sharing my love of music with a hopefully interested and excited audience. I play what I know and love – jazz and soul music with a spiritual sound. Moreover, I feel I have a duty to not only preserve the stories of jazz history and culture in Washington, DC, but a right to show and tell everyone about it. At WPFW, I go on the air after the great Rusty Hassan. Sitting in the WPFW control room listening to stories from Rusty Hassan about jazz legends is worth the price of admission and the weekly overnight loss of sleep.

What can we look for from the Home Rule Music Festival in it’s 2025 incarnation?

We are still plowing through the 2024 Home Rule Music Festival. Due to the extreme heatwave this past summer, we re-scheduled part 2 of our festival and our celebration of go-go music to Saturday, October 26th. The date is quickly approaching so that’s our immediate focus. But obviously we’re already thinking about and planning for 2025. We’re going to be strategic with our growth, and we’re going to spread the Home Rule Music Festival to other areas of DC.

We’re going to build on what we do well and I think that’s the creation of a wonderful community of artists, supporters, vendors, sponsors and community organizations who are all there in the community to celebrate DC’s rich musical history and culture. So that’s what we’re about and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.

Gentleman of Jazz is the image that reading this book and recalling the original piano trio of the late NEA Jazz Master pianist Ramsey Lewis will most assuredly yield. Essentially an “as told to” autobiography written by Chicago-based music writer Aaron Cohen, this is a revealing read recalling the somewhat underrated odyssey of one of Chicago’s finest and most consistent jazz contributors. And in a book field where jazz greats’ memoirs remain in short supply (plenty of biographies; less so with autobiographies and memoirs), clearly some questions were in order for Aaron Cohen.

What was the genesis of this book project with Ramsey Lewis?

Well, the short answer is Ramsey asked me to co-write the book and I agreed. But there’s a longer, better answer than that. Ramsey had been interested in writing his memoir for a number of years. I can’t say for how long or why he hadn’t actively pursued doing so – though, as we know, being an accomplished musician of his stature is already more than enough work for one lifetime. Meanwhile, I spent the last several years writing about music, editing DownBeat, and completing a couple of books of my own (Amazing Grace and Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power). When Ramsey revisited the idea a few years ago, he and his agent (Brett Steele) asked around for a co-writer and a few people who knew him and knew my work recommended me. So Brett called and I sent him samples of my work.

Then Ramsey called and invited me to his home downtown to meet him and his wife Jan and talk about the project. So I wrote an outline for what I felt should be covered in the book and what we should start with for a sample chapter. (I thought it would be the events preceding and after [Ramsey’s all-time hit] “The In Crowd” because it was the hit that changed everything). We agreed on all of that and after we completed the chapter, Brett sent it off to potential publishers and Blackstone picked it up. And then the work really started. Funny thing, I had spoken briefly to Ramsey a couple of times before this – we met in 1998 on our way to the Havana International Jazz Festival (him as a performer, me as a journalist) and chatted when I was in the audience for a taping of one of his TV shows. But I had never interviewed him for an article. Reason being that wherever I worked, it was always someone higher in the pecking order who got to interview him.

Talk a bit about your research and where you were able to derive valuable insights and information into Ramsey Lewis’ artistry.

Most of the insights came from Ramsey himself. But I did a lot of other research through back issues of jazz magazines (especially DownBeat) as well as periodicals that may not have been considered music magazines per se, be they newspapers like the Chicago Tribune and New York Times, or African American periodicals, including the Chicago Defender and Ebony. All of which not only described his music but also a lot of his earlier charitable work that he was too humble to brag about. I also have to add that the brilliant scholar Guthrie Ramsey, Jr. has helped illuminate many of my thoughts on Ramsey’s work. There were also great books about wider issues surrounding Ramsey’s trajectory, such as Isabel Wlkerson’s The Warmth Of Other Suns about the Great Migration. Ramsey also enjoyed that book and we discussed it during one of our conversations. Along with books and articles, one of the joys of working on this project was playing Ramsey YouTube videos of himself in the early 1970s and watching his reaction. Not only did it open up Ramsey’s memories of the time, but the look of elation as he watched his younger self was priceless. One post-script: I am looking forward to reading Mike Smith’s new book In With The In Crowd: Popular Jazz in 1960s Black America, which seems to be about topics that Ramsey and I discussed.

Aaron Cohen

Who were some of the most informative interviewees for this book beyond your many conversations with Ramsey, and why did you feel a need to incorporate their “voices” in this book?

From the outset, Ramsey and I both felt it was important to add other perspectives to make his story multi-dimensional. And to Ramsey’s credit, he did not change the perspectives of former colleagues who remembered things differently than he did. That was especially the case when Redd Holt added his thoughts on why the original Ramsey Lewis Trio broke up. Also, not only were so many of his former colleagues also great musicians but so many of them have been incredible characters, too. One of my favorites was percussionist Derf Reklaw, who I spoke to about three weeks before he passed. A wonderful guy, Derf was also a zany character who provided a rich contrast to Ramsey who was more straight-laced (though Ramsey also always had a sharp sense of humor).

Ramsey’s family also provided many perspectives when he spoke about some delicate issues that had to be part of the narrative. But everyone I included had very valuable things to say and I’m incredibly grateful for everything they shared for this project. It’s interesting, one other jazz memoir that included many perspectives of others was Art Pepper‘s The Straight Life and while he was a great saxophonist, I can’t think of two more dissimilar personalities than Ramsey Lewis and Art Pepper.

Would this book be appropriately placed in the category of an “as-told-to” autobiography?

Indeed, it is an as-told-to biography. Ramsey enjoyed reading the chapters as they were completed and commented on them, and it is heartbreaking that he did not live long enough to see it published. He passed before the introduction was written, so I wrote that while including his quotes that would have been used for that part. I also felt that I should add an annotated discography. As I was working on the book, many people asked me which of his 60 albums they should buy. So rather than just list them all and leave it at that, I decided to add my thoughts on about 20 or so that I felt should be in everybody’s home.

As you researched Ramsey Lewis life and career, what most compelled you to write this book?

I’ve always loved Ramsey’s music – growing up a jazz and soul fan in Chicago, how could I not? It’s always fascinated me how he could take from so many idioms – jazz, soul, gospel, classical – and come up with something that only he could do. But working on the book enlightened me as to what an incredible life’s journey he led. From talking about his parents’ struggle to his own deep love for music, to how his hard work and open mind led to incredible success – it adds up tp a great story of African American accomplishment that the world needs to hear. Also, as I mentioned earlier, he had such a great sense of humor, it was a joy spending time with him and I hope that joy translated to the printed page.

Given that there are obviously writers and would-be writers out here who might be contemplating or working towards a similar project with a great artist, please detail your process in working with Ramsey.

Ramsey and I met at his place about once a week, or we’d talk over Zoom. Meanwhile, I would also conduct interviews (mostly over the phone) with people who worked with him as well as his family members. Either I would transcribe the interviews or if it was a busy week of other duties, I’d pay to have a few transcribed. (Along with working on the book, I was juggling responsibilities as a community college professor and freelance journalist). I would also research questions using the media I mentioned above before speaking with him, and to verify dates and such, after speaking with him, I could not expect him to remember activities or performances from decades earlier – I can’t even remember what I had for lunch yesterday – so I would bring him articles and play clips to jog his memory and get his response. Ideally, we would have also been able to just hang out and talk without it being for the book, but sadly, our time was limited.

What has been the response to this book thus far, and where do you hope to go with it?

The response I was most concerned about was from Ramsey while we were working on it, as well as Jan and his family after it was published, as well as his former colleagues and people who knew him. They all approved of it. The best public event for the book was in downtown Chicago last summer. Jazz radio hero Mark Ruffin hosted a wonderful panel discussion at the Chicago Cultural Center, followed by a terrific concert of Ramsey’s music that trumpeter Orbert Davis put together in Millennium Park. The book also received some very nice reviews and I’m glad that those articles continue to let people know what a great musician Ramsey was. I hope the book stays in print forever and it continues to illuminate people what an incredible life Ramsey lived. Meanwhile, I’m using this experience to help guide my current book project, which is I’m helping finish the memoir of another NEA Jazz Master, Richard Davis. I’ve enjoyed giving talks about Ramsey and Richard and the qualities they shared, as well as what made their own music so distinctive.

The Landfill Chronicles: Unearthing Legends of Modern Music

by Dan Ouellette (publisher: Cymbal Press)

When veteran jazz journalist and Ron Carter biographer Dan Ouellette’s current book The Landfill Chronicles was released (and read the book for Dan’s intro on how he came about that rather cheeky title) I knew given his experience in the field and the focus on his vast artist interviewing history that there would be some real pearls in the volume, and I was not disappointed. After all this is a writer who has not only set his recorder down in front of myriad artists at home, backstage, or somewhere on the road across modern music genres, Dan has also been afforded many opportunities to encounter artists at festival opportunities around the globe for “live” audiences, including conducting DownBeat Blindfold Tests. Given that depth of experience, clearly some questions were in order for Dan on the whys & wherefores of this book.

What motivated you towards a book anthologizing a selection of your many interviews?

Dan Ouellette: Plain and simple… the pandemic made me do it! No shows to go to, zero dollars in my writing world from DownBeat to Billboard. So instead of looking forward, I looked back. Actually over the last few years before I started the book, I noticed online that most of my past writings were untraceable. Basically all that had been written for print in newspapers and magazines had been buried in the landfills. Pretty much, gone forever. Hence my working title: The Landfill Chronicles: Unearthing Legends of Modern Music. I thought at least I could write a compilation book for archival purposes.

Frank Zappa was an obvious first start. I did the last full with him at his Hollywood Hills home in 1993, shortly before he died. It was the cover story for the Tower Records free monthly magazine, Pulse! It was profiled on stands in the stores then moved to the trash when the next month’s issue came out. Those were the pre-digital days, so it was all print and nothing else. Pulse! died when Tower went bankrupt. So I dug through my online backups and came across a lot more than had been printed in the magazine. Essentially the writer’s cut. I had written 4,500 words and the magazine probably published 2,500-3,000 of that word count.

Second was Wayne Shorter who I had talked to and interviewed several times in the aughts. DownBeat, the San Francisco Chronicle, and others. So I stitched together all my landfill conversational experiences with Wayne into a narrative.

I kept going: Astor Piazzzolla for the long-defunct Berkeley Monthly; Lou Reed on his last band albums for SF Chronicles and Schwann Spectrum, where I was editor. I made a list of memorable conversations with artists – mostly jazz artists like Jason Moran, Charlie Haden, and Keith Jarrett, but some smart pop artists like Elvis Costello, David Byrne, and Joni Mitchell. It resulted in 27 chapters that I published at the Medium platform.

I wasn’t thinking ahead to publishing beyond Medium until about a year ago Cymbal Press publisher Gary S. Stager contacted me after reading some of my chapters. He was wondering if I had a book in mind – which opened to door for me to work with the wonderful people there to shape and edit the book, especially Cymbal president Sylvia Martinez.

Given your veteran music journalist status, what was your process of selecting these particular 27 interviews, and what was it about these interviews that you found compelling enough to include in the book?

DO: It was following my instincts and my memories. I came up with a list, then tracked them down in my files and considered if what I found was interesting to include. I knew I wasn’t writing a full-tilt biography of each artist, but focusing on artists who were experiencing pivotal moments in their careers when we had our conversations. As it turned out, as I was reading and editing [the interviews], it brought back fond memories where I began to realize this was not only an archive but also a memoir. After I published [The Landfill Chronicles], I was OK’d to write a Volume 2. In search again, I have developed more meaningful Medium chapters on Tracy Chapman, Jimmy Heath, the Charlie Watts/Jim Keltner jazz project, Abbey Lincoln, Jim Hall... More memoir.

Once you made your choices of which interviews to include, what was your process for preparing these interviews for publishing?

DO: I delivered all m y completed and published Medium online files to Sylvia [Martinez, Cymbal Press president] who became my invaluable editor. She raised questions, she helped me rewrite confusing chapters… brought it all together. We came up with chapter headings and even decided to give the collection an alphabetical Table of Contents and provide a road map page at the end as to where these stories originally appeared. We Zoomed and emailed each other regularly.

Were there any of these interviews that you found particularly challenging to achieve?

DO: These stories were written over the course of three decades. Early on, I worked on the art of conversation and how to fashion what the artist and I talked about into the writing. I stress: conversations, not some robotic Q&A.

That brings me to Frank Zappa, who was probably the hugest challenge. But I had three months to prep given his failing health. He had a huge history to study. Plus, Frank had the reputation for eating writers for lunch. Not me. We ended up conversing for nearly 5 hours in his living room and later in his recording studio.

I came to know Wayne Shorter, but my first phone interview with him threw me for a loop. I was talking to him about the 1+1 album he recorded with Herbie Hancock. I had already seen the duo perform a preview show at the Villa Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, CA. They were returning to the Bay Area at Berkeley’s Zellerbach Auditorium. I was writing a preview story for the San Francisco Chronicle and Wayne was my contact. I asked him about the collaboration with Herbie. He answered my query by going through an elliptical thought pattern – cryptic parabolas starting at one point then swinging widely into the stars and finally, miraculously coming back to earth with a soft landing of insight. After I got off the phone, I was worried that I didn’t have anything to work with from this oblique conversation. But I reviewed my notes, listened to the taped interview again, and then realized that his thought process was quite brilliant and wonderful.

You’ve done a lot of DownBeat Magazine Blindfold Tests. Was the Freddie Hubbard DBFT particularly challenging, and if not talk about some of your DBFT challenges.

DO: The Freddy Hubbard Blindfold Test wasn’t challenging. I had done a lot of BFTs by then so I just put together a set list for the IAJE conference in Long Beach, CA. It was all about the music I played. Freddie was iffy on showing up because of his health. But he did come and actually it turned out to be a bit challenging for him. I merely followed his reflections, especially on tunes that he did not like. He was gracefully angry.

One of my most interesting BFT experiences was with all three Heath Brothers. It was a challenge to come up with a set list that would intrigue them. It was hilarious and it will appear in its entirety in Landfill, Volume 2.

My freakiest BFT came at the North Sea Jazz Festival. I was only using one microphone at the time to record the reflections. Chris Botti was in the hot seat. He did great. The next day I tried to listen to the tape and there was nothing there! I remembered the crew had cut the mics onstage before I saved. It was gone. So I somehow called Chris and he remembered his reflections well. It ran perfectly! From then on… 2 mics!

What advice would you give aspiring young music journalists as far as how they approach interview opportunities in terms of deriving the most compelling testimony from an interview subject?

DO: First off, do your homework beforehand. Know the person. Know their music. Try not to query too much about their past, like, when did you start playing music? That’s pretty much available online for your prep. But talk about the process they went through. I interviewed Pharoah Sanders once and he started by saying don’t ask me anything about John Coltrane. I obliged and started our conversation about his new work. Through the course of our conversation once he got going, he ended up talking a lot about Trane. You can share some of what you’re thinking about as it can help the flow of the conversation. But share only as much as it triggers a response and keeps the conversation going. There really is an art of conversation. Lastly, do not resort to a straight Question & Answer format when talking. Like Ques. 1-Ques. 10. Straight Q & As oftentimes make for boring reading.

A few quotes on my “conversational” style.

Joe Lovano: “Dan Ouellette’s The Landfill Chronicles is a must-read collection of conversational encounters. Dan’