Improvising ~ Coltrane and a commission gets me thinking

Rainbow Starflower by Nutmeg Designs, glass on wood, 7 inches, ©2012

I once heard and have since forgotten the number of times John Coltrane recorded My Favorite Things, but what really matters is how many times he explored its being. The change that emerged could be staggering if one jumps from the first to the last. What is you could hike the musical path he created with his love of exploration.  If someone, who only knew of the first version called out to hear it in concert.... They may be disappointed.  Or they may be transformed themselves.  
We have been asked to recreate the above piece. Our challenge is to make it pleasing to the client while not hindered by trying to make it exact. At this point I can say it might have been more fun to let loose and truly play with the design. 

As an artist, what would you have done?

And I wonder how I would act as a client??? Would I be willing to commission a piece and say, "Make it new. Let the creativity flow?"  I am thinking of doing that with a collage artist.  I desire one of Abby Sernoff's pieces, but how to make that commission still floats in my mind.  

It can be a bit challenging to have open ended commissions, but the results can be so worth it.

I did let Coltrane flow when I made our second version. And that's a good thing. I am thinking about being creative with this design, one that emerged at a silent retreat.

Now be prepared to be taken to a place by someone who has truly explored it ...

late with mystical, timely with jazz

How I draw light from the heavens...
a simple design,
amazing glass

If I had posted last night....

Like Roots

Our hands imbibe like roots,

so I place them on what is beautiful in this world.

And I fold them in prayer, and they

draw from the heavens 

light.

St Francis of Assisi

feel free to consider where your hands have been today...

and as I am posting on Tuesday....

We are bold to sing

LP cover to Mary Lou Williams; Mary Lou's Mass
in Black and white

On Sunday mornings Mosaic Woman and I enjoy listening to NPR's Piano Jazz, this past week's episode was an interview with Randy Weston.  At one point he speaks of the education he received from Mary Lou Williams.  So tonight when I curiously grabbed the LP to the far right, I was glad to find Mary Lou's Mass in my hand.

On Sundays we sing The Lord's Prayer at our church.   Our priest has taken to the habit of changing, "we are bold to pray" to "we are bold to sing."  How I would love to hear a performance of Mary Lou's Mass.  A mass that is bold and sacred...
a faith lives on....

Jazz on Tuesday: five Piano Trios for my new friend

Yesterday, my newest friend, asked me about jazz.  I said, "Piano Trio."  So lets put my blog where my mouth was, will due respect to The Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra and The Miles Davis Quintet...

Benny Green Trio playing Down By The River Side


Bill Evans Trio playing My Foolish Heart


Oscar Peterson Trio playing Satin Doll



Amad Jamal Trio playing Poinciana



Keith Jarrett Trio playing Blame It On My Youth

A Pug named Jazz and some Salty players

It was a Friday night and my friend and I stood in the deserted parking lot outside the Friend's Meeting House, where we had participated in group spirituality, though not in each others group this time around.  She mentioned a blog her pug had started, so the next day I checked out the blog, became a follower and set up the sale of one jazzy mosaic:

How I came to find out that my friend desired the mosaic was through the voice of her pug, Jazz , which may be my favorite shout out of Nutmeg Designs to date.

So yesterday I used some of my time off from work to visit my friend (and her pugs) and just wonder about all those shows where we displayed the mosaic in hopes that a jazz lover would be enticed.  By the way, my friend digs jazz, the music too!  So here is some jazz about how things are just unknown from some Salty Dogs.

Kickstarting The Grandson of Charles Mingus

Photo by Jason Hickey

 A grandson who never knew his grandfather searched for the story.  You can help support this project and become part of the story.  What I know is that the story is complicated, so I am hoping the grandson gets to tell it in full.  He needs our support.  Common people supporting amazing projects.  It feels good.

Autumn Leaves: some Jazz for this Tuesday

 photo by exquisitor


OK, so I saw the list of musicians and said, why exactly do I not own this CD.  Cannonball Adderley...Sax, Miles Davis...Trumpet, Sam Jones...Double Bass, Hank Jones...Piano...Art Blakey...Drums. From the 1958 album Somethin' Else.  ending this post here because I have some money left from an iTunes gift card...

Jazz on Tuesdays--- Irving Berlin

One of the last portraits from our DC trip, which we took a year ago which has not made it on to my flickr site, will get there later today.

Jazz on Tuesdays--- Miles Davis his trumpet and his music

Nearly a year ago we spent time in 100 degree heat running about Washington DC. I knew that one day I would place it at the the top of a blog post and below it would go...

supporting the work of Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn on Jazz Tuesdays

Anat Cohen playing with the boys

Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn has a dream to make a movie about women who play jazz. To celebrate them.

I support this. You can too, at Kickstarter.

Jazz on Tuesdays--- K is for Kickstarter

Mosaic Woman took care of J is for Jazz, so I will do J tomorrow.

It is all about supporting artists and becoming a part of their success. Launching their success. It is about musicians, who want to pay their band and their engineers a good salary. It is about dreams that have been percolating in a creative mind that is connected to a soul lacking funds. It is about being joyful when success is reached. It may one day be about the sadness of a project that does not get funding. I hope to miss out on that feeling. So far we are four for four. It all happens at Kickstarter.

The second project was jazz by Jim Kuermmerle. Blogged here. The project is complete. The music is amazing.

The third project was fully funded so it was recorded last weekend. The leader, a bass player by the name of Daniel Ori.

The fourth project was one I began to have doubts in being success. Pledges were flowing in but time was running out. My hope was that someone out there was waiting with a big check to push Reginald Cyntje over the top. Well I just read his blog post about all the hard work it took.

This morning I was stopped by a long red light and a commuter train and the news was not inspiring me, so I grabbed the iPod and wondered what to listen to, what to listen to??? Well my new twitter friend, spoonysdiary (great music blog) was talking about Jason Parker. Yes, Jason was our first project at Kickstarter and the only one I had with me. I never got past the first tune on this tribute to the songs of Nick Drake. It was so perfect for a morning commute (and then an afternoon commute) it played over and over. Jason hands over the feel of the album to his band. In fact, he appears to have trusted his piano player immensely with making a first impression. Then the drums and bass enter in and when the singer showed up I was fully enraptured. Jason's trumpet does not come in until after a few minutes, but it shows that he was listening to what his band was up to and his playing melted my heart.


and the Nick Drake Lyrics that resonated with my troubled mind:

Time has told me
You’re a rare, rare find
A troubled cure
For a troubled mind

And time has told me
Not to ask for more
For someday our Ocean
Will find it’s shore

So I’ll leave the ways of making me be
What I really don’t want to be
Leave the ways that are making me love
What I really don’t want to love

Time has told me
You came with the dawn
A soul with no footprint
A rose with no thorn
Your tears they tell me
There’s really no way
Of ending your troubles
With things you can say

And time will tell you
To stay by my side
To keep on trying
‘til theres no more to hide
So leave the ways that are making you be
What you really don’t want to be
Leave the ways that are making you love
What you really don’t want to love

Time has told me
You’re a rare, rare find
A troubled cure
For a troubled mind

And time has told me
Not to ask for more
For someday our ocean
Will find its shore

Jazz on Tuesdays--- Patricia Barber

photo by xtof

Just want to say I really love Patricia barber, so I really dig the library that had her CD which introduced me to her music. She plays mostly in Chicago and Europe.

So I am thinking I need a really huge commission so I can go see her in Porto, Portugal. after all I am the man who tends to show up for silent retreats with a bottle of port in his bags and an iPod with many of her tunes.

Anyway, take a listen and have a great night of dreaming amazing trips:

Jazz On Tuesdays--- some sassy women jazz for Di

Well, for Di and her dude. So if they came over for dinner (I guess that is an invitation) I would feel a need to play these artists. side note: today I scrapped my lesson plans to promote some amazing women at The Secret Lives of Scientists)

So where would the house concert begin, why not with pianists doing solos and duets with the queen of Piano Jazz and duets, Marian McPartland.

in no particular order except as they are stacked next to the computer:

Sunna Gunnlaugs
Eliane Elias
Sarah Jane Cion
Renee Rosnes
Helen Sung
Sumi Tonooka
Peggy Stern

OK, then we would slowly create a bigger and bigger band by having musicians play in ever larger combos finally leading to a nonet (I just like that word)

Marian on piano.
Esperanza Spalding on bass
Cindi Blackman on drums
Sara Caswell on Violin
Ingrid Jensen on trumpet
Virginia Mayhew on sax
Sharel Cassity on sax
Holly Hoffman on flute
Anat Cohen on clarinet

as to why our jazz collection features so many women (this is just a sampling):

1. They are amazing and talented

2. When I met Mosaic Woman she introduced me to many a woman artist I had not heard of and holidays like International Women's Day. Ever since our music collection has always been a blend of male and female musicians.

and a note to Di--- and yes, I will play some Springsteen in our studio, while giving you the grand tour.

and a woman not noted above, but what would an evening of sassy music be like without some Hammond B-3 Organ to end it off with some grooves:

Jazz on Tuesdays--- 6 by Jerome Kern

Jerome Kern is a member of the song writer's hall of fame and yet there are folk who do not know his name. He lived from 1885 to 1945. I hope you know his tunes if not his name. By the way, the portrait above was painted by another tune writer, George Gershwin.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by performed Clifford Brown





The Way You Look Tonight performed by Tony Bennett





All The Things You Are performed by Charlie Parker





Yesterdays performed by Billie Holiday



I'm Old Fashioned performed by John Coltrane




Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man performed by Ella Fitzgerald

Jazz on Tuesdays--- Jazz in Detroit

photo by Bunky's Pickle's

Mosaic Woman and I don't watch much TV these years, but my love of sports can lead me to watch the Phillies in the World Series, or a Super Bowl Game. The two minute Chrysler commercial was so well made and so different from most of the nonsensical ads that it caught my eye. This blog post reminded me of the feelings it tried to evoke.

Of course if you read the comments under the video you will read all kinds of rants, but I was filled with hope for anyone or any place that has to rebuild after hard times. To remember that beauty remains in harsh moments is a fine lesson for all of us to remember. I showed the commercial to Mosaic Woman and she decided to explore Detroit's beauty in a blog post that features one amazing stained glass chandelier and mosaics (shocking). As she was creating her post I kept wanting to say, hey find some jazz in Detroit, but stopped myself knowing that was my post not hers...

Born In Detroit:

Kenny Burrell (born exactly 32 years before me) plays guitar with John Coltrane.





Jazz Radio:

Just like Philly, Detroit has a station that plays classical during the daytime and jazz at night. WRCJ, which is housed with in a public high school: The Detroit School of the Arts where students get amazing opportunities like this:




Detroit Jesuit Jazz:

now who would have thought I would find something like this:




The Detroit International Jazz Festival:

If you have never been to Detroit (like myself), here is a reason to get there.





and to where the commercial ends:

How cool would it be to see a Big Band make this place jump and jive?

photo by Toby Simkin


...

Jazz on Tuesdays: A Snow Day with Herbie Hancock (a)

Much light hearted snarky abuse is flying at work with the Daves because of my desire for no snow days so that a trip to Rochester can happen this spring. So I have been claiming that my love of jazz had been keeping the school opened, until last Thursday when nature rolled over me. However, I was young enough to shovel and have quite a day in my studio. I wish I could say that the results were part of some preordained plan, but no I stumbled upon it. From the sudden turn to veer away from making a mosaic to randomly pulling out the LP featured above.

The album came to be because Herbie Hancock was approached to make some music for the LA Olympics. Herbie stepped away from the piano and went electric so he could play in tune with the Gambian instruments played by Foday Musa Suso. The LP (Village Life) is duets. Here they are playing with a band:




Then I turned to our CD collection and I was quite glad to find that I only had one of them at the school. I keep about 50 jazz CD's rotating through my classroom.

May 17th 1965: Herbie Hancock recorded his fifth LP as a leader with quite a crew of folk about him: Maiden Voyage




I then leaped to 1998 to play some Gershwin, but also 4 tunes written by folk who influenced and were influenced by Gershwin: W.C. Handy, James P. Johnson, Duke Ellington, and Maurice Ravel. The latter refused to give Gershwin piano lessons because he feared it would damage Gershwin's talent. Here is the Ravel piece:





The day in the studio ended with a CD I had found at our last library trip. Hancock's most recent CD, The Imagine Project. Can't fully try to describe this collaboration (a review) that took place as Herbie Hancock travelled the world playing with many an artist who he admired. It was aproject about hope for our times and the future, and so I will end with this tune (come back Thursday to see the art that emerged)

Lisa Hannigan and the Chieftains join Herbie Hancock to play a Bob Dylan tune. How cool is that!

Jazz on Tuesdays: Labor History composed by Jim Kuemmerle

Mosaic Woman and I had just completed our first of what would be four interstate moves in 1987. I had a teaching job at a residential school which required me to work every Monday evening and every fourth weekend. Which meant that once a month I would go to work on a Friday morning and leave the school Monday night. Can you imagine the teacher's squawks?

At some point in my three year tenure, which placed me high on the seniority list (and thus better assignments on those weekends), Mosaic Woman took a class on Labor History. I would hope that I learned something in high school about how unions struggled to make the lives of workers livable, but conversations with Mosaic Woman opened my eyes more fully to the need for those battles and the brave men and women who fought it, and yes it was a fight.

This past weekend, I suggested that once a month we give a little bit to a jazz artist trying to get a project off the ground. So we headed to Kickstarter and there we found a most interesting project. The Triangle Shirtwaist Jazz Project by Jim Kuemmerle.

Kickstarter makes you want to promote the project because if they don't make the goal by the deadline, they get nothing. That is why I blogged about the first project we sponsored and I am proud to say that thanks to us and many other jazz loving folk, Jason Parker made that goal and is making music with the joy of paying people fair wages in the process.

Mosaic Woman had lots to say about this too.

As the project moves forward you get updates. Today Jim sent this joyful note to us:

Quick update:

My 21-month-old son, with no coaching from anybody, has started saying "New Backer!"

As if anybody needed YET ANOTHER reason to pledge. :D

Jim is 7 dollars away from 80% of the goal. In football terms he is nearly in the red zone. I don't know what that means for the success of kickstarter projects, but he is on a roll and I hope the momentum makes this happen.

Jazz on Tuesdays: Dorothy Fields

When asked Why aren't there more women writing songs?

Dorothy Fields responded:

There aren't more lady songwriters for the same reason that there aren't more lady doctors or lady accountants or lady lawyers; simply not enough women have the time for careers. The man in our society is the breadwinner; the woman has enough to do as the homemaker, wife and mother. Yes, I do think song writing is a man's game. It requires push, energy, movement, mixing; and it is a field that is and has been dominated by men. No, I do not think men have more talent.

Dorothy Fields had talent:

Jazz on Tuesdays: Louis Armstrong for this season

My bedtime reading has been Louis Armstrong's autobiography of growing up in New Orleans. Autobiographies make me wonder about all the moments that can shape a person.

The man's trumpet as seen this summer at the Smithsonian

I finally got around to placing my eclectic collection of Christmas music onto my iPod. Louis has a strong presence:

So have a Cool Yule:















Bonus, Get the hear Dinah Washington sing before Louis closes it out with Christmas Night in Harlem

Jazz on Tuesdays: 6 by Jimmy McHugh

photo by emkladil

The other week I checked out a wonderful CD by trumpeter Terence Blanchard: Let's Get Lost: The Songs of Jimmy McHugh.


















and one from the CD that inspired this post: