[Dixielandjazz] JAZZ ME NEWS FOR OCTOBER 2002

[Don Mopsick]

JAZZ ME NEWS FOR OCTOBER 2002

NEWSLETTER FOR THE JIM CULLUM JAZZ BAND AND "RIVERWALK, LIVE FROM THE LANDING"
PUBLIC RADIO SERIES

http://www.landing.com
http://www.riverwalk.org

To see this newsletter as a web page, go to

http://www.riverwalk.org/new.htm

DICK HYMAN: A LIFE IN MUSIC
The last week of October on Riverwalk Jazz, piano legend Dick Hyman talks about his
life in music and performs some of his own compositions. Dick has been a regular
guest on Riverwalk, lending his extraordinary talent to help tell the story of
jazz.

For more on Dick Hyman, go to http://www.riverwalk.org/profiles/hyman.htm

Here are Dick's thoughts on the art of improvisation in another essay from his
book, "Dick Hyman: Piano Pro."

FAKING IT
by Dick Hyman

Webster defines it as "composing and rendering music, poetry, and the like
extemporaneously." As musicians practice it, improvisation is a sort of instant
composition. The results are less rigorously constructed than the product of formal
composition, although it is said that Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Mendelssohn,
great keyboardists all, could have blown us jazz ad-libbers right off the bandstand
at The Blue Note with improvised four-part fugues and whole extemporaneous sonatas.
Still, when a composer has the opportunity to revise, insert cross-references,
develop counterpoint, and make internal links, the work will certainly have a more
complex structure.

Even within a less ambitious form, there is magic in the sudden surfacing in
performance of a successful improvisatory idea; for the player as well as the
listener there is the immediate joy of discovery. For me, the most moving
performances of classical repertoire are those by pianists who can convince me, for
the moment, that they too are making it up. Rationally I know otherwise, but I love
to experience that illusion. In fact, a top-drawer classical pianist brings to a
memorized piece a subtle sort of improvisation in of-the-moment reinterpretation of
the details of tempo, phrasing, pedalling, dynamics, and other means of expression,
if not the notes themselves.

The jazz viewpoint with which I am burdened is at odds with the conventional
limitation on a classical performer's interpretive license. Chopin waltzes, for
example, have suitable embellishments built into them, but we can sense that at
these moments Chopin is more the improvising pianist than the note-transcribing
composer. Would it not be possible for a pianist today to invent his or her own
embellishments, even spontaneously? I am not urging that anyone tamper with a
monumentally constructed Beethoven sonata, but it seems to me that certain Chopin
waltzes are elegantly arranged dance music. A sympathetic improvisation on this
material ought not to be considered a mortal sin. I myself have experimented along
these lines, and have not yet been struck by lightning. As a jazz pianist, I can
get away with it; what I would like to hear is a performance by an expert classical
pianist who had the nerve at least to vary some of the embellishments in the score.

There are various motivations for improvisation. One is the boredom that arises
when you've played a piece once too often. Another is curiosity. (How would it
sound if I tried it this way?) Still another is simple whimsy or playfulness. One
of the most compelling motivations, on the other hand, is panic.

Your mettle will be tested when, during a film soundtrack recording session, you
are handed a cue for some tormented atonal underscoring and quickly arrive at the
conviction that you are not going to get the hang of it in the allotted time.
Fortunately, such moments do not occur often, but I can recall that at a particular
session a certain pianist once had to resort to playing any key on which his
fingers happened to fall (although in the proper rhythm). Evidently, the resultant
muddle didn't sound significantly different from the way the composer wrote it; at
any rate, no objection was raised.

I have heard tales of symphonic performances of contemporary works in which a
conductor loses his place, a player misses an entrance, and the whole orchestra in
effect "vamps till ready" until the conductor recovers, calls out a bar number, and
gives a strong downbeat. (I should explain that in the days of vaudeville, and
still today in musical comedy, the vamp-till-ready, a two- or four-bar figure,
repeats indefinitely until the singer has finished some stage business and is ready
either to begin or to resume the song.)

When I conducted Eubie Blake: A Century of Music, a television show we staged live
at the Kennedy Center, a situation of this sort came about during a number that
featured singer Anita Morris. Miss Morris' remarkable performance displayed
seductive movements choreographed so acrobatically that her skirt fell off in
mid-performance. She stopped singing and began to adjust her costume. While the
delighted audience inundated the stage with waves of laughter and applause, Miss
Morris played the situation like a true professional, extracting the greatest
possible audience reaction. The orchestra and I waited, poised, until, a minute or
so later (and to us it seemed like ten), she finally sang the eighth-note pickup to
the continuing phrase. In this instance, our improvisation was merely silence,
until the singer had fastened her garment and was ready to move on.

Other moments of panic at this level of show business can take place when a
microphone fails, when the music parts blow away in a sudden gale, when a singer
comes onstage late or skips a verse, and so forth. At such times an apoplectic
conductor may well point at the piano player and scream, "Play something!" In the
act of rising to such an occasion, the pianist demonstrates character as well as
musical ability.

Not quite improvisation, but certainly great adaptability, is shown by players who
cover up the matter when a singer jumps the beat. There is a story among New York
musicians about a society bandleader, not beloved by his orchestra, who had a
slightly different problem. His players were marvelously coordinated among
themselves, and one night they vindictively and in unison skipped a beat at the end
of each four bars of "The Lady Is A Tramp." The leader continued to wave his arms
ineffectually as he hissed to his men, "What are you trying to do, ruin me in this
business?" It is said that many a formally dressed dancer strained a tendon that
evening trying to find the beat, but I for one doubt that they were listening that
closely.

Sometimes, when playing piano in a bar or some other request situation, you may get
asked persistently and alcoholically for a tune that you don't quite recall.
Perhaps you know the first 16 bars but can't for the life of you remember the
bridge. Another opportunity for panic improvisation! Make up a bridge! Or borrow
one from some other song, such as "Honeysuckle Rose," an all-purpose eight bars. In
any case, make a mental note to learn the song correctly later on.

Perhaps, without meaning to sound cynical, we should consider a certain type of
incompetence as another powerful motivator for improvisation. Not just any sort of
incompetence, of course, but a combination of being unable to read music adequately
while at the same time having a superb talent for musical invention, coupled with
great instrumental skill. Some people claim that the memorable improvisations in
the early days of jazz came about because the players were indifferent readers. If
they had been able to read the printed parts, the theory goes, they might not have
made great music. This may be as valid a speculation as any as to how jazz was
born, but this is not to say that one necessarily gets to be a great jazz player by
not knowing how to read. Far from it.

Surely another motivation for improvisation is the desire to display one's talent.
A sympathetic audience is a persuasive inducement to give it all you've got. A
performer must learn, however, that in some ways an audience can be too easily
pleased. Playing familiar licks, too many fast notes, and overly familiar tunes
such as "When The Saints Come Marching In" can win an audience over even when the
player is not actually playing up to his real level of ability. Although we players
need audiences, their standards are not necessarily ours. We and not they have the
responsibility to do what is right for the music, simply because we have a deeper
understanding of it. On some level the message does get through to an audience that
the performer is doing his damnedest to live up to his own standards, which he
would like to share with them. If you can please the crowd with things that you
honestly like to play, you're doing the right thing.

A word about the highest moments of improvisation: They come, when they come (if
they come), when you are in good technical shape so that you can be relaxed and
confident; when the piano is good; when your ideas and the receptivity of the
audience are on the same level; and when some other impossible-to-define element is
present which puts you in touch with your best. At such times everything seems to
flow automatically, and you are as much a bemused listener as you are a player.
George Gershwin remarked that when he was at his composing peak on particularly
good days, tunes flowed from his fingers like water. It is something like that, and
you wish it happened all the time.

>From Dick Hyman: Piano Pro © 1992 Ekay Music Inc. Reproduced with permission of the
author.

AT THE SUMMIT OF JAZZ PARTIES
by Don Mopsick

Jazz festivals and jazz parties are slightly different in concept: the jazz
festival typically features a series of bands in multiple concerts spread out over
many indoor and outdoor venues, sometimes in a major urban downtown area. The jazz
party, trying for a more intimate nightclub atmosphere, is held in a single venue,
usually a hotel ballroom equipped with tables and chairs so patrons can sit and
enjoy food and drink while listening to great jazz.

Dick Gibson, a wealthy Denver businessman, originated the jazz party. Photographer
Al White writes in his book, "Jazz Party:" "Gibson and his family had moved to
Denver from New York in 1960. He missed New York's jazz scene greatly and decided
to do something about it. In 1963, during the 3-day Labor Day weekend, Gibson put
on his first jazz party in Aspen, Colorado. It featured a band from Eddie Condon's
club in New York. Wild Bill Davison fronted the group, which also included Cutty
Cutshall, Edmond Hall, Ralph Sutton, Jack Lesberg, and Cliff Leeman. Alternating
with the band was a trio led by Teddy Wilson, with Major Holley and Bert Dahlander.

"Gibson's jazz party became an annual affair, and his roster of musicians grew
every year....

"Many jazz parties are called festivals, and new ones have been started continually
through the years....Some parties follow Gibson's lead and feature musicians
playing in combinations that change with each set. Audiences at other parties hear
established bands whose members play together regularly throughout the year. By the
late 1990s, jazz fans in the United States had their choice of about 150 annual
jazz parties, some of which starred more than fifty musicians.

"Dick Gibson died in 1998. As the "Mississippi Rag" observed in his obituary, jazz
parties do much more for traditional jazz than simply provide entertainment for its
devotees: 'The [jazz party] concept, which essentially consisted of sophisticated
jam sessions of musicians who may or may not have played together before,
reinvigorated the jazz scene and led to the creation of jazz parties elsewhere. The
Gibson parties also led to recording and club dates and jump-started many a career
that had fallen into the doldrums due to lack of exposure rather than lack of
talent.'"

Purchase "Jazz Party" here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/087483564X/riverwlivefromth

AN INTERVIEW WITH JUANITA GREENWOOD
by Don Mopsick

Summit Jazz Weekend began operation in Colorado in 1977, with The Jim Cullum Jazz
Band included on its band roster since 1983. This year's Summit was held September
27 through 29 at the Hyatt Tech Center in Denver. The featured bands included The
Jim Cullum Jazz Band, the Buck Creek Jazz Band, the Alan Frederickson Jazz
Ensemble, Dan Barrett's Blue Swing (featuring, besides eminent West Coast jazz
veteran pianist Ray Sherman, Riverwalk guests Dan Barrett, Jon-Erik Kellso, Evan
Christopher, Rebecca Kilgore, and Brian Ogilvie), special guest pianist Jeff
Barnhart, and the Arapahoe High School Dry Creek Dixie Dawgs.

Visit the Summit Jazz website here: http://www.summitjazz.org/sjw.html

DM: How did you become interested in our kind of jazz?

JG: I was born in eastern New Mexico and raised in West Texas. The only kind of
music that was there was country and western. Of course that was back in the days
when country and western was not bad music actually. Bob Wills and Western
Swing.and it really did swing. That's all my parents listened to and I was really
into it. I love music but I have no musical skills of my own. I can't tell one note
from another, but I can tell good music from bad and I can tell when it's swinging.
I can hear in my head when people are playing together, and I'm always curious to
know after I've put them together whether it was right. So far it's worked pretty
well.

But to answer your question, I was in high school, and where we lived in Texas just
outside of Abilene, on radio on Sunday nights I could get WWL out of New Orleans. I
got hooked on jazz, though I never heard any live jazz until many years later. This
was in the late '40s and I graduated high school in 1953.

When I married, my former husband was just crazy for Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and
other classic blues singers. We had a lot of the 78s. When we moved to Denver in
1967, we went to see the Queen City Jazz Band and became really avid fans. After I
divorced, I volunteered to help the Queen City Jazz Band, which was founded by Alan
Frederickson. For about 10 years I did their accounting and that sort of thing. It
was during that period of time that I met Alan Granruth, who was the gentleman that
started the Central Cities Jazz Festival.

DM: Tell me about your first experience with Dick Gibson's jazz parties.

JG: Barbara Bond was a great jazz fan and she and I became pals. She asked me to go
down to the Dick Gibson party after he had moved it to Colorado Springs. That
really sort of hooked me on jazz parties, though there were some parts of those
jazz parties, Gibson's anyway, that I really didn't like-12 saxophones onstage at
one time, all screaming and honking.it got a little too be-boppish for me. But, I
knew Dick well and we became friends.

DM: How did you become involved in producing your own jazz party?

JG: One day Alan Granruth said, why don't we see if we can't do a little festival
up in the mountains, for the weekend, with just a couple of bands, so people could
stay right where the music was being presented. So, we started driving and looking
and ended up holding the first Summit Jazz at the Ramada Inn in Silverthorn on
Interstate 70. This was in 1977.

Our idea was to have just three bands. We had no idea how it would go over and didn
't have a great deal of money. We invited one out-of-state band, the Climax Jazz
Band. I think we had less than 100 people. It was great fun.

After that first year, we started to change the format a little bit. On Friday
night, we would have something like the Ralph Sutton Trio or Quartet, or Butch
Thompson one year, or Art Hodes another year. And it was just great fun, it really
was.

In 1981, our fourth year, the city fathers of Breckenridge invited us to come up to
their town and the Beaver Run Resort hotel, and they made us a good deal. We had
about six of them up there, and we invited [The Jim Cullum Jazz] band starting in
1983.

But then, we realized that in order to continue growing we would have to move the
festival down to Denver. So that's what we did, and we've been at the Hyatt Tech
Center ever since.

DM: What are some of the problems you've encountered in recent years?

JG: Our audience, although very loyal, has been shrinking lately due to aging. Last
year, the Summit Jazz was only a few weeks after September 11th, and despite
cancellations, a lot of people came anyway because they had already paid for their
tickets. This year, we were hit with the double whammy of the increased difficulty
of air travel plus people having less money because of the recession. I've heard
the same story from other jazz party operators around the country.

DM: You've included a youth band in the lineup from the very first Summit Jazz,
right up until this year's party. Why is that?

JG: You've got to have an audience to present the music to, and the only way we're
going to get youngsters interested is by exposing them to it. That's also why we've
always invited students to attend at a reduced rate.

DM: From your perspective as a jazz party presenter, how would you say the music
itself has changed over the past 24 years?

JG: You know, when we first started doing this I wondered what would happen when
the older musicians passed on. What's happened is that younger musicians have come
to take their place, but the audience has started to shrink from attrition. So the
music has replenished itself, while the audience hasn't.

DM: What were some of your most memorable moments looking back at 24 years of
Summit Jazz?

JG: There was the time that Jim Cullum and [Australian cornetist] Bob Barnard first
met when we were still at Breckenridge. Jim and Bob had both known about each other
and greatly admired each other's playing, but had never met before. They did a set
together, and there was one wonderful moment towards the end when they realized
that they were thinking exactly alike. They spontaneously embraced each other, and
we were so lucky that the moment was captured on film by a friend of mine. The
photograph hangs in both Jim and Bob's offices.

UNITED WE STAND

For October 2002, Jim Cullum's Landing in San Antonio offers FREE ADMISSION if you
are currently employed as:

Active-duty US Armed Forces

Firefighter

Law-enforcement

EMS

Please show your ID to your server. There is a limit of 4 free admissions per
party.

Jim Cullum says: "In this small way we wish to show our love for the country, and
our support of our military and our President."

For reservations, email us at christocullen@hotmail.com, or please call The Landing
during normal business hours, Central Time, Monday through Friday, at 210-223-7266
or 210-602-0967. Reservations are suggested only on weekend nights or for large
parties.

LISTENER FEEDBACK

Fan mail is music to our ears. We love hearing from you. If you have any comments
about our radio program or a live performance by the Jim Cullum Jazz Band, email
them to the webmaster at mophandl@landing.com, and please let us know where you are
located and on which radio station you heard the show.

FOR TEXAS RESIDENTS:

We are currently compiling a special email list of Texas residents for the purpose
of getting the word out about free promotions for Jim Cullum's Landing in San
Antonio. If you are within reasonable driving distance of San Antonio and would
like to be included on this new list, send a blank email to
jazzmenews@landing.com?subject=Texas .

UPCOMING TRAVELS: The Jim Cullum Jazz Band appears Monday through Saturday nights
beginning at 8:30 PM at the Landing in San Antonio except for highlighted dates
below.

There aren't many out-of-town dates this October and November, so it's a good time
to visit us in San Antonio. Email Chris for reservations.

October Events

13 JCJB Mass and Concert: First United Methodist Church, Houston, TX
14 The JCJB is off tonight!

November Events

16 JCJB Concert: Battle of the Bands with Banu Gibson and her Hot Jazz
Krannert Center, Urbana IL 800-527-2849 or
Kran-tix@uiuc.edu

NEW RIVERWALK POLL

It's time once again to vote for your favorite recent Riverwalk shows and guest
artists. We are guided by your opinions. Let your voice be heard! If you've never
voted in one of our polls before, you can take the full survey here:
http://www.misterpoll.com/poll.wga?id=3696458478

Most recent poll winners for May/June: Favorite Riverwalk Show: 5/2 Chicago Reeds:
The Music of Jimmy Noone, Frank Teschmacher and Benny Goodman. Favorite Guest:
Pianist Dick Hyman 25%.

UPCOMING ON RIVERWALK, LIVE FROM THE LANDING

40 10/3 Bourbon Street Top Ten: The Jim Cullum Jazz Band in Concert The Jim Cullum
Jazz Band and special guest Australian cornet master Bob Barnard perform well-loved
classics of traditional jazz.

41 10/10 Burgundy Street Blues: Snapshots of New Orleans Early 20th-century New
Orleans was a melting pot of rhythms and melodies. The Jim Cullum Jazz Band takes a
musical tour of the birthplace of jazz. Guests: Mike Walbridge, Leon Oakley, Vernel
Bagneris, Dick Hyman, Ken Peplowski, Yank Lawson, Bob Haggart, and Topsy Chapman.

42 10/17 Cornets at the Crest: Jim Cullum and Leon Oakley in Concert This week, Jim
Cullum welcomes Bay Area cornetist Leon Oakley. Tune in for a concert featuring
these two old friends jamming on some of their favorite tunes, including "You're
Lucky to Me" and "A Kiss to Build a Dream On."

43 10/24 A Night at the Movies with Irving Berlin Vocalist Rebecca Kilgore joins
The Jim Cullum Jazz Band in a performance of classic Hollywood tunes written by
Irving Berlin in the 30s and 40s for motion pictures.

44 10/31 Dick Hyman: A Life in Music Dick Hyman has been a regular guest on
Riverwalk, lending his extraordinary talent to help tell the story of jazz. On this
program, he'll talk about his life in music and perform music he has written,
composed and recorded.

Browse the Jazz Me News archive here:

http://www.riverwalk.org/JMN/jmn_index.htm

See you next month!

--Don Mopsick, Bassist and Web Guy