Jazz from Caramoor.. Rhonda Hamilton hosts highlights on Labor Day at 1pm

August 31, 2012. Posted by Becca Pulliam.

Add new comment | Filed under: Caramoor, dee dee bridgewater, Gretchen Parlato, Jazz Alive, kenny barron, Live Music, roy haynes, The Cookers

Here's the special in six segments. Click to listen.
Kenny Barron, piano - Love Walked In (Gershwins)
The Cookers (personnel named under photo, below) - Capra Black (Billy Harper)
Gretchen Parlato, voice Taylor Eigsti, piano; Earl Burniss Travis II, bass; Kendrick Scott, drums Alô, Alô (Da Viola, arr. Parlato) Circling (Parlato) Better Than (Parlato)
The Cookers - The Peacemaker (McBee) Kenny Barron – Lotus Blossom, A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing, Star-Crossed Lovers (Strayhorn, Ellington)
Kenny Barron - Shuffle Boil (Thelonious Monk)
Dee Dee Bridgewater, voice Craig Handy, saxophones; Edsel Gomez, piano; Michael Bowie, bass; Kenny Phelps, drums
Lady Sing the Blues (Billie Holiday)
Two more from Bridgewater's group
A Foggy Day (Cole Porter)
Fine and Mellow (Holiday)
Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth Band with Jaleel Shaw, alto sax; Martin Bejerano, piano; David Wong, bass
James (Pat Metheny) All Blues (Miles Davis)

Here's the story:

It's all play and no work this Labor Day from 1-3pm on WBGO 88.3 and wbgo.org and the Caramoor Jazz Festival Network*, with music from the 19th annual Caramoor Jazz Festival near Katonah, NY, in Surround Sound.

Here are all five groups in one 30-second spot. Click and listen.

First up, The Cookers are the hard bop champions, led by trumpeter David Weiss with music by band members Billy Harper on tenor and Cecil McBee on bass.

Left to right: Orrin Evans, Billy Harper, David Weiss, Cecil McBee, Eddie Henderson, Craig Handy, drummer Billy Hart.. photos by Gabe Palacio for Caramoor

Multi-award winning, always working, young Gretchen Parlato’s instrument is her quiet, rhythmic voice. On “Alô, Alô,” she sings in Portuguese and adds hand percussion. Her refrain from “Better Than” seems like a personal statement and I love it: “There’s a sky full of stars so just be who you are…”

Pianist Kenny Barron performs alone. Gershwin, Porter, Strayhorn, Monk – Barron delivers each on-the-spot with ideas, clarity and swing. Nothing is wasted. I spotted pianists from the other bands at the festival in the wings, watching and listening to Kenny Barron.

The album Eleanora Fagan: To Billie with Love from Dee Dee won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal. Onstage at Caramoor, Bridgewater celebrates Billie Holiday with three songs, arrangements by Musical Director Edsel Gomez. “Lady Sings the Blues” is upbeat, and he puts a new hook on “A Foggy Day.” Craig Handy shines on sax on Billie and Dee Dee’s “Fine and Mellow.”

The Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth Band is one for all and all for one. Haynes’ feet dance at the drums, his cymbals shimmer, he snaps and crackles on the snare. He speaks the language of six and a half decades of jazz drums, and the flow is pure Roy Haynes. He closes the festival with “All Blues” by Miles Davis, a request from the audience.

Producer Jim Luce has programmed nineteen consecutive summer weekends of jazz at the Caramoor Center of Music and The Arts. We thank Jim (former WBGO morning man!), Managing Director Paul Rosenblum and everyone for supporting Jazz from Caramoor . Information about year-round programming is available at caramoor.org.

*Traveling on Labor Day? Check out Jazz from Caramoor on the Caramoor Jazz Festival Network, including WICN Worcester, MA; WNCU Raleigh-Durham; WCLK, Atlanta; WUSF Tampa; WDNA Miami; WCBE Columbus OH; KCCK Cedar Rapids IA; KBEM Minneapolis; KTSU Houston; and KMHD Portland. Broadcast times vary.

Roy Haynes and Dee Dee Bridgewater.. Richard Conde Photography

© 2012 WBGO

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Abbey Lincoln Songbook on JazzSet

June 15, 2012. Posted by Becca Pulliam.

Add new comment | Filed under: abbey lincoln, cassandra wilson, dee dee bridgewater, dianne reeves, JazzSet

Abbey Lincoln used to call her songs "little ditties." That's what her pianist James Weidman told us when we played a WBGO recording of her from The Peppermint, a jazz club in New Jersey, on JazzSet. It comes from the 1980s, and Abbey was introducing her album Talking to the Sun. This is the cover photo.

Those little ditties contain amazing images. It's as though we can be with Abbey Lincoln all over again as Cassandra Wilson sings "Talking to the Sun," Dee Dee Bridgewater chooses "Another World" (singing it made her cry), and Dianne Reeves soars on"Bird Alone." All three whistle and trill on "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." It may be my favorite moment of this Tribute to Abbey Lincoln from the Kennedy Center. Hear it Sunday, June 17, at 6pm .. Wednesday, June 20, at 6:30 .. or any time at wbgo.org/jazzset.

Bridgewater, Musical Director Terri Lyne Carrington, Wilson and Reeves

© 2012 WBGO

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A Tribute to Abbey Lincoln at the Kennedy Center

May 23, 2011. Posted by Becca Pulliam.

Add new comment | Filed under: abbey lincoln, cassandra wilson, concerts, dee dee bridgewater, dianne reeves, Jazz Alive, JazzSet, Live Music, Terri Lyne Carrington

UPDATE: Read the review from The Washington Post here. Critic Mike Joyce tells you about THE BAND! And there's a good photo. BP

On Friday night at the Mary Lou Williams Festival in Washington, DC, four daughters of Abbey Lincoln (1930-2010) opened her songbook together, for the first time.

This was a dynamic concert, and generous too. More than five hundred people in the Terrace Theater concentrated on the artists onstage concentrating on words and music that came from Abbey Lincoln's own concentration. We felt the loss of her, and newly appreciated the gift she left us.

Read more

© 2011 WBGO

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