Welcome to Sound Projections

I'm your host Kofi Natambu. This online magazine features the very best in contemporary creative music in this creative timezone NOW (the one we're living in) as well as that of the historical past. The purpose is to openly explore, examine, investigate, reflect on, studiously critique, and take opulent pleasure in the sonic and aural dimensions of human experience known and identified to us as MUSIC. I'm also interested in critically examining the wide range of ideas and opinions that govern our commodified notions of the production, consumption, marketing, and commercial exchange of organized sound(s) which largely define and thereby (over)determine our present relationships to music in the general political economy and culture.

Thus this magazine will strive to critically question and go beyond the conventional imposed notions and categories of what constitutes the generic and stylistic definitions of ‘Jazz’, ‘classical music’, ‘Blues.’ 'Rhythm and Blues’, ‘Rock and Roll’, ‘Pop’, ‘Funk’, ‘Hip Hop’, etc. in order to search for what individual artists and ensembles do cretively to challenge and transform our ingrained ideas and attitudes of what music is and could be.

So please join me in this ongoing visceral, investigative, and cerebral quest to explore, enjoy, and pay homage to the endlessly creative and uniquely magisterial dimensions of MUSIC in all of its guises and expressive identities.

Saturday, January 30, 2021

Jason Palmer (b. February 14, 1979): Outstanding, versatile, and innovative musician, composer, arranger, ensemble leader, music theorist, producer, activist, writer, and teacher

JTA - The Jazz Transcript Authority: Faruq Z. Bey


SOUND PROJECTIONS

 



AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE

 



EDITOR:  KOFI NATAMBU

 



WINTER, 2021

 

 

 

VOLUME NINE    NUMBER THREE

FARUQ Z. BEY

  

Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:


William Parker

(January 23-29)


Jason Palmer

(January 30-February 5)


Living Colour

(February 6-12)


Christian Sands

(February 13-19)


Henry Grimes

(February 20-26)


Charles Tolliver

(February 27-March 5)


Kendrick Scott

(March 6-March 12)


Marcus Strickland

(March 13-19)


Seth Parker Woods

(March 20-26)


Ulysses Owens

(March 27-April 2)


Steve Nelson

(April 3-9)


Steve Wilson

(April 10-16)

 

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jason-palmer-mn0000811989/biography 

 

Jason Palmer 

(b. February 14, 1979)

Artist Biography by

Songbook  

Jazz trumpeter Jason Palmer is a forward-thinking musician with a bent toward adventurous and cerebral post-bop. A native of High Point, North Carolina, Palmer studied his craft at the New England Conservatory in Boston. While there, Palmer was also a regular at the highly regarded Boston club Wally's Cafe, where he first sat in on jam sessions and later joined the house band. Since graduating from college, Palmer has performed with a variety of name musicians including drummer Roy Haynes; saxophonists Benny Golson, Greg Osby, and Ravi Coltrane; guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel; and many others. In 2007 Down Beat magazine named him one of the Top 25 Trumpeters of the Future. A year later, Palmer released his debut solo album, Songbook, on Ayva Music. In 2009 Palmer won first prize in the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition. That same year, he starred in the independent musical film Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, in which he played a jazz trumpeter. In 2010 he released his sophomore effort, Nothing to Hide, on SteepleChase Records. A year later, he returned with the album Here Today, featuring saxophonist Mark Turner. In 2012 Palmer delivered his fourth studio album, Take a Little Trip, featuring reworkings of songs by legendary soul singer Minnie Riperton.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/take-a-little-trip-jason-palmer-plays-minnie-riperton-mw0002448896  

 

Jason Palmer 


AllMusic Review by

Trumpeter Jason Palmer pays homage to legendary soul singer Minnie Riperton on 2012's Take a Little Trip. Riperton, who died from breast cancer in 1979, was a highly gifted vocalist and cancer awareness spokesperson whose 1974 album Perfect Angel, produced by Stevie Wonder, is a classic of the decade. Riperton's music often incorporated jazz sounds and even featured such crossover jazz artists as flutist Hubert Laws, keyboardist Joe Sample, and pianist Ramsey Lewis. Consequently, her music is deep with harmonic and melodic material for an artist like Palmer to explore. Here, he reworks a handful of Riperton's songs, including such classics as "Lovin' You" and "I'm a Woman," into expansive yet intimate jazz numbers that both celebrate the source material and deconstruct it. Joining Palmer are guitarist Greg Duncan, pianist/Rhodes keyboardist Jake Sherman, bassist Edward Perez, and drummer Lee Fish. While the songs here are not "cover versions" by any means, Palmer does take care to evince how Riperton, with her unique five-octave range, sang them. For example, Palmer even plays Riperton's trademark falsetto fall at the end of the melody line of "Lovin' You." Of course, he does so in his own way, bringing out his burnished, gentle tone and measured phrasing. Furthermore, while Palmer clearly respects Riperton's music, he is not afraid to reconfigure these songs, most often rethinking the rhythm and tempo in inventive ways. Listen to how the bass, and not the drums as in the original, sets up the funky tempo to 1975's "Adventures in Paradise," allowing Palmer to take an extended exploratory improvisation before the full rhythm section comes in. The result is an album that, while showcasing a respect and deep of knowledge of Riperton's music, is first and foremost a forward-thinking jazz album. This won't be surprising to anyone familiar with Palmer's work either as a solo artist or a supporting player, as he's been to such artists as saxophonists Grace Kelly and Greg Osby. An intelligent, highly adept improviser, Palmer represents a new breed of 21st century jazz musicians including such contemporaries as Ravi Coltrane, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, and others, who set their egos aside and take a thoughtful, intellectual, and technically adept approach to the music. Which isn't to say this album comes off as a cold, academic exercise. On the contrary, what's so great here is how well Palmer walks the line between romantic slow-jam R&B and harmonically challenging modal jazz improvisation. In that sense, the album brings to mind the '70s/'80s work of Herbie Hancock sideman trumpeter Eddie Henderson. A few songs, such as the ballad "I'm in Love Again," originally a duet with Michael Jackson from Riperton's posthumous 1980 album, as well as "Inside My Love," with its sense of ruminative, sensual isolation, even recall the introspective '70s avant-garde jazz sound of Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava. From the album's cover shot (a cheeky re-creation of Riperton's 1974 album Perfect Angel featuring Palmer in overalls) to the creative and unexpected ways in which he has reconfigured the material, Palmer's Take a Little Trip is a joyful ride. 

https://www.jasonpalmermusic.com/biography.html 

 
2018

Biography

Trumpeter | Composer | Educator Jason Palmer is one of the most in demand musicians of his generation. He has performed with Roy Haynes, Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Smith (the organist), Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ravi Coltrane, Mark Turner, Jeff Ballard, Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Common, Roy Hargrove, Lewis Nash.

Having made Boston, MA his home for the past 22 years, Jason was recently named to the inaugural class of the Boston Artist in Residence Fellowship for Music Composition. In 2011 and 2017, he was named a Fellow in Music Composition by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. In 2014, Jason was honored as a recipient of the French American Cultural Exchange Jazz Fellowship where he collaborated with French pianist Cedric Hanriot, collaborating on an album entitled "City of Poets" and touring the United States and Europe. Jason won 1st Place in the 2009 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition and was cited in the June 2007 issue of Downbeat Magazine as one of the "Top 25 trumpeters of the Future".

In addition to performing on over forty albums as a sideman, Jason has recorded thirteen albums under his own name on labels Ayva, Steeplechase, Newvelle, and most recently with Giant Step Arts. Four of his recordings were reviewed by Downbeat Magazine, all receiving 4 stars or better. Jason has toured in over 30 countries with saxophonists Mark Turner, Greg Osby, Grace Kelly, and Matana Roberts, and has been a featured guest artist on multiple projects in Portugal, Mexico, Canada and Russia.

For the past fifteen years, Jason's quintet has been the house band every weekend at Boston's historic Wally's Jazz Café. He has presented his band at numerous clubs throughout the northeast United States including the Tanglewood Jazz Fest, Sculler's Jazz Club, the Stone in NYC, the Jazz Gallery in NYC, and the Beantown Jazz Festival. In 2007 Jason Palmer was commissioned by the Festival of New Trumpet Music in NYC to premier a new work (based on a Sudoku game) for his quintet at the Jazz Standard. The music from that suite was later featured on his 2016 recording on SteepleChase entitled "Beauty 'n' Numbers: The Sudoku Suite".

In addition to a heavy performing schedule, Jason Palmer offers his passion for improvised music as a full-time Assistant Professor of Ensembles and Brass at Berklee College of Music and as a board member at JazzBoston. Jason has also served as an Assistant Professor at Harvard University and at New England Conservatory. He has also served on the faculty at the New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City. Mr. Palmer has given master classes in Boston MA, Washington D.C., New York City, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas, Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Portugal, France, the UK, Russia, Canada, and Mexico.

https://www.jazzspeaks.org/jason-palmer-a-new-breed/

Photo via http://jasonpalmermusic.com

Photo via http://jasonpalmermusic.com

AllMusic characterizes the trumpeter Jason Palmer as an “intelligent, highly adept improviser,” and counts him among “a new breed of 21st century jazz musicians…who set their egos aside and take a thoughtful, intellectual, and technically adept approach to the music.”

Born and raised in High Point, North Carolina, Jason has been a Boston resident for years, and has made numerous contributions to the vitality of the local scene. Every weekend for over a decade, Jason has led the house band at Wally’s Jazz Cafe. He also maintains teaching positions at Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory, and The Mission Hill School, and serves on the board of JazzBostonThe Boston Phoenix recognized the importance of his presence by nominating his group for “Best Jazz Act” in 2011.

However, Jason’s impact in Boston has not come at the expense of international attention. The trumpeter has performed and/or recorded with some of the most acclaimed artists in the music, including Roy HaynesHerbie HancockWynton MarsalisCommon, and Ravi Coltrane, among numerous others. Jason was a member of Greg Osby‘s touring group from 2004-2006, and recently became the first trumpeter ever to be hired by Kurt Rosenwinkel. In 2007, DownBeat named him as one of “Top 25 Trumpeters of the Future,” and in 2009, he took home the $10,000 first prize in the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition.

More recently, Jason toured with the Grace Kelly Quintet and The Miles Davis Experience 1949-1959 (a collaboration with Blue Note Records), and completed a weeklong residency with an augmented seven-piece version of the trio FLY. He also released his fourth album as a leader, Take A Little Trip: Jason Palmer Plays Minnie Riperton (SteepleChase), featuring the guitarist Greg Duncan, the pianist Jake Sherman, the bassist Edward Perez, and the drummer Lee Fish. A man of many talents, Jason made his acting debut in the 2010 film, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. Read a review from NPR, who praises Jason’s for “an assured film debut,” and watch a clip featuring Jason here.

This Saturday night, Jason makes his first appearance at our new home with a group featuring the saxophonists Mark Shim and Godwin Louis, the guitarist Mike Moreno, the pianist Leo Genovese, the bassist Edward Perez, and the drummer EJ Strickland.

Watch a video of Jason’s band performing “Velvet Hammer” live at The Jazz Gallery last year.

https://indianhillmusic.org/blog/a-minute-with-jazz-trumpeter-jason-palmer/

A Minute with Jazz Trumpeter Jason Palmer

Named one of the top trumpeters to watch by Downbeat Magazine, Jason Palmer has performed on stage internationally with his many projects, and captivates loyal jazz audiences each week as house bandleader at Boston’s legendary Wally’s Cafe. In addition to a heavy performing schedule, Jason Palmer maintains a busy schedule as an educator/actor/board member at JazzBoston, an Assistant Professor of Ensembles and Brass at the Berklee College of Music, and a visiting Assistant Professor at Harvard University. He also has several well-reviewed recordings to his name, and of course, there was also that one time he played the lead in a critically-acclaimed indie film directed by a recent Oscar winner…

Last week, Palmer took a few minutes out of his jam-packed schedule to chat with us. He and his outstanding quintet will perform at Indian Hill Music on Friday, October 19 at 7:30pm. Tickets are going fast!

What was your introduction to jazz and your instrument? What attracted you to trumpet?

I was introduced to proper jazz in my junior year in high school. I started attending the Greensboro Music Academy in NC. That’s where I started playing in a small jazz combo, which involved a lot of listening to classic jazz records and transcribing. By that time I was already immersed into the world of the trumpet. I spent most of my middle school years playing by ear along with the radio (this was back when the radio played a more diverse palette of musical stylings).

Who are your biggest musical influences?

Clifford Brown was really the first player that had a profound influence on me and it wasn’t just his playing. By all accounts he was known as an angel so I always aspired to live up to his reputation. Now I gain influence from any artist who I find plays and lives with love and integrity.

Palmer is an exciting player – achieving pinpoint focus in his attack one minute, turning his concrete bebop lines into caramel, sliding through pitches and bending them to his will the next. – Jon Ross, writer, Downbeat Magazine

Why is Wally’s Cafe such a legendary jazz venue? What’s it like to lead the house band?

Wally’s is one of the longest standing jazz clubs in the US as well as abroad. They have music seven nights a week and there is no cover to hear the music. I’ve played at clubs around the world (40+ countries) and have never seen one that does that. It’s a great privilege to have a residency there now. I wouldn’t be half the musician that I am today without it.  I wish every musician was afforded the opportunity that I have with Wally’s.

Why did you stay in Boston versus moving to New York as many jazz musicians do? What is cool about Boston’s jazz scene / fans?

I’ve been teaching in Boston since the year 2000 starting with the Prep school at NEC, then on to the public school system, then to Berklee where I am currently. I also taught at the New School in NYC for a couple of years (I commuted once a week). NYC is relatively close to Boston and it’s not expensive to travel there so I do play there often. So, I don’t feel like I need to sacrifice my family’s quality of life at the moment to live there as opposed to living here. On the other hand, Boston has a lot of work to do to get on par with other cities in terms of support of this music and performing arts in general.

You have also dipped your toe into acting. Tell us about that!

I was asked by Damien Chazelle (La La Land, Whiplash) to star in Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench when he was still a Harvard student. It was an adventurous experience and I have no other plans to act again. Damien did ask me to make an appearance in La La Land but I was unavailable. Trumpet is enough of a challenge for me.

What are your hopes for jazz, and your part in shaping the future of the genre as an artist and as a music educator?

The idea of shaping the future of the genre is too big a burden to wish on anyone. I do believe that as Dizzy Gillespie said, “every musician has an obligation to teach, in whatever capacity you’re able to.” So, I always try to be a positive example of an artist in the music whether in the classroom or on the bandstand. What my students take from my classes and how my performances are received are beyond my control, so I always aspire to be my best self in order to have no regrets.

The Jason Palmer Quintet is: Jason Palmer, trumpet; Noah Preminger, tenor saxophone; Kevin Harris, piano; Max Ridley, bass; and Lee Fish, drums.  See them at Indian Hill Music on Friday, October 19 at 7:30pm. Tickets are going fast – order online!

https://vtjazz.org/jason-palmer/ 

Jason Palmer

summer workshop faculty
trumpet

Trumpeter/Composer/Educator Jason Palmer is becoming one of the most in-demand musicians of his generation. He has performed with Roy Haynes, Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Smith, Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ravi Coltrane, Mark Turner, Jeff Ballard, Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Common, Roy Hargrove, Lewis Nash, and more. He has toured over thirty countries with Greg Osby, Grace Kelly, and Matana Roberts, and has been a featured guest artist on multiple projects.

Jason was a recipient of the 2014 French American Cultural Exchange Jazz Fellowship and was named a 2017 and 2011 Fellow in Music Composition by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Jason took first place in the 2009 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition, and the June 2007 issue of Downbeat Magazine cited Jason as one of the “Top 25 trumpeters of the Future.” In addition to performing on over forty albums as a sideman, Jason has recorded eight albums under his own name and is currently a Steeplechase Records recording artist, three of his recordings receiving four stars or better in Downbeat Magazine.

Jason’s quintet has been leading the house band every weekend at Boston’s historical Wally’s Jazz Café for the past fifteen years. He has presented his band at the Tanglewood Jazz Fest, Sculler’s Jazz Club, the Stone and the Jazz Gallery in NYC, the Studio in Hartford CT, as well as numerous venues throughout New England. In 2007 Jason Palmer was commissioned by the Festival of New Trumpet Music in NYC to premier a new work (based on a Sudoku game) for his quintet at the Jazz Standard. The music from that suite is featured on Jason’s 2016 record on SteepleChase entitled “Beauty ‘n’ Numbers: The Sudoku Suite.”

In addition to performing, Jason maintains a busy schedule as an educator/actor/board member at JazzBoston. He is an Assistant Professor of Ensembles and Brass at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and a visiting Assistant Professor at Harvard University. He previously served on the faculty at the New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, the Preparatory Division and the School for Continuing Education at the New England Conservatory of Music, and the Mission Hill grade school. Jason was the leading actor in director Damien Chazelle’s (Whiplash, LaLa Land) film “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench.”


https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/jasonpalmer

Jason Palmer Jason Palmer

Trumpeter | Composer | Educator Jason Palmer is one of the most in demand musicians of his generation. He has performed with Roy Haynes, Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Smith (the organist), Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ravi Coltrane, Mark Turner, Jeff Ballard, Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Common, Roy Hargrove, Lewis Nash.

Having made Boston, MA his home for the past 22 years, Jason was recently named to the inaugural class of the Boston Artist in Residence Fellowship for Music Composition. In 2011 and 2017, he was named a Fellow in Music Composition by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. In 2014, Jason was honored as a recipient of the French American Cultural Exchange Jazz Fellowship where he collaborated with French pianist Cedric Hanriot, collaborating on an album entitled “City of Poets” and touring the United States and Europe. Jason won 1st Place in the 2009 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition and was cited in the June 2007 issue of Downbeat Magazine as one of the “Top 25 trumpeters of the Future”.

In addition to performing on over forty albums as a sideman, Jason has recorded thirteen albums under his own name on labels Ayva, Steeplechase, Newvelle, and most recently with Giant Step Arts. Four of his recordings were reviewed by Downbeat Magazine, all receiving 4 stars or better. Jason has toured in over 30 countries with saxophonists Mark Turner, Greg Osby, Grace Kelly, and Matana Roberts, and has been a featured guest artist on multiple projects in Portugal, Mexico, Canada and Russia.

For the past fifteen years, Jason's quintet has been the house band every weekend at Boston's historic Wally's Jazz Café. He has presented his band at numerous clubs throughout the northeast United States including the Tanglewood Jazz Fest, Sculler's Jazz Club, the Stone in NYC, the Jazz Gallery in NYC, and the Beantown Jazz Festival. In 2007 Jason Palmer was commissioned by the Festival of New Trumpet Music in NYC to premier a new work (based on a Sudoku game) for his quintet at the Jazz Standard. The music from that suite was later featured on his 2016 recording on SteepleChase entitled “Beauty 'n' Numbers: The Sudoku Suite”.

In addition to a heavy performing schedule, Jason Palmer offers his passion for improvised music as a full-time Assistant Professor of Ensembles and Brass at Berklee College of Music and as a board member at JazzBoston. Jason has also served as an Assistant Professor at Harvard University and at New England Conservatory. He has also served on the faculty at the New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City. Mr. Palmer has given master classes in Boston MA, Washington D.C., New York City, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas, Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Portugal, France, the UK, Russia, Canada, and Mexico. 

https://jazztimes.com/blog/jason-palmer-creates-duos-in-dedication-for-breonna-taylor/ 

Jason Palmer Creates “Duos in Dedication” for Breonna Taylor

The trumpeter's new YouTube project involves improvisatory collaboration with 14 other artists

Jason Palmer at the Berklee Benton Jazz Festival, Boston, MA, Sept. 29, 2018
Jason Palmer at the Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival, Boston, MA, 
September 29, 2018 
(Photo: Joseph Allen)

Jazz is a music of the moment, and musicians from across the jazz community are finding ways to work with and respond to the obvious difficulties of the current moment. Trumpeter and educator Jason Palmer has the distinction of doing so on multiple levels. His current project comprises 14 new duo tracks—with accompanying videos—honoring Breonna Taylor, the innocent African-American woman killed in Louisville, Kentucky, in March by police executing a no-knock warrant on her home.

Palmer, an assistant professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, based the project called Justice for Breonna Taylor: Duos in Dedication on a kernel of a musical idea. For each letter in Taylor’s name, he created a brief melodic figure. He then recorded the figures, leaving eight seconds of space (representing the number of times she was shot) between each one, and allowed 26 seconds (representing Taylor’s age when she died) of improvisation.

Palmer then asked friends and colleagues if they would be interested in contributing their own ideas to his basic track. Respondents included Berklee colleagues Kevin Harris and Jason Yeager (piano), David Fiuczynski (guitar), and Austin McMahon (drums), as well as New York saxophonists Caroline Davis, John Ellis, and Noah Preminger; pianist Carmen Staaf; bassists Michael Janisch, Zack Lober, Edward Perez, and Max Ridley; drummer Tyson Jackson; and vocalist Rachel Bade-McMurphy.

Although each collaborator worked with the same basic solo track by Palmer, each piece of music is markedly different. The trumpeter has compiled all 14 pieces and their videos into this YouTube playlist.

JazzTimes

Published since 1970, JazzTimes—“America’s Jazz Magazine”—provides comprehensive and in-depth coverage of the jazz scene.

https://www.dotnews.com/2018/jason-palmer-talks-jazz-and-all

Jason Palmer talks jazz and all that

Jason Palmer and his trumpet. Photo courtesy of jasonpalmermusic.com

It’s September, which means a new season of the Dot Jazz Series is on tap! The 2018-2019 iteration of the series, presented by Mandorla Music and Greater Ashmont Main Street, will kick off in style with a concert next Thursday (Sept. 13) at 7:30 p.m. in All Saints’ Peabody Hall featuring one of Boston’s jazz giants: trumpetist Jason Palmer, who will be appearing with his quintet.

A faculty member at Berklee School of Music and a regular performer at Wally’s Jazz Cafe for more than two decades, Palmer has established himself as an internationally renowned musician and a key figure in the Boston jazz scene. In an interview with the Reporter’s Dan Sheehan ahead of the show, Palmer spoke to his artistic vision and the role Boston plays in his musical world:

Q. When did you first start playing music, and what were some of your biggest musical influences growing up?

A. I first started on cornet in sixth grade, playing in concert band and marching band. I remember listening to a lot of motown, blues, R&B, hip-hop music growing up on the radio (pre-clear channel takeover) and playing my trumpet along with the songs on the radio. Little did I know that this was a great form of ear training and forging musical intuition in real time.

Q. You’re from North Carolina but you’ve spent a lot of time in Boston since studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. Where do you consider home?

A. I consider home being where I can have my family. My wife Colleen and daughter Camilla travel with me whenever possible and I feel most at home when they are with me.

Q. I looked at your bio. You’ve played with a lot of cats! Roy Haynes, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Common, and Roy Hargrove, just to name a few. Any particularly memorable performances or musicians you’ve gotten to know?

A. I truly consider every musical encounter I’ve had so far to be a memorable blessing. I’ve been lucky to perform and work with most of the living musicians that I’ve dreamed of performing with this far.

Q. I’ve seen you a few times at Wally’s in the past! Would you mind speaking a bit on that club and your relationship with it? How does it compare to other places you’ve played?

A. I consider Wally’s to be my musical home. I’ve been playing there consistently since the fall of 1997! Elynor Walcott and the three Poindexter brothers who manage the club have been so welcoming to me and the music that I play there. I would be half the artist that I am without access to that platform. I wish for every musician to have such a space. It’s a one-of-a-kind place that’s hard to compare to other places.

Q. You’ve done albums reworking songs by Minnie Riperton and Janelle Monae. For you, how do jazz and R&B work together or influence each other? What’s it like arranging R&B or pop tunes as jazz tunes?

A. As far as jazz in Boston, there is a lot of work to be done. We need more people like Mark Redmond and the Poindexter family in the scene, those folks who take risks to make sure great art is presented to the public. Some of the enthusiasm that this city has for its sports teams also needs to be copied and pasted over to the performing arts! I’m always excited about where the genre’s at. I know many great artists who are out here doing incredible things.

Q. Can you tell me a bit about the other members of your quintet?

A. Tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger is a powerhouse player with a broad palatal range on his instrument. He’s got a sweet tone that blends very well with my personal sound. We’ve been playing together consistently for the past two years. He’s an excellent composer as well.
 Pianist Kevin Harris is an incredible, acute artist with a deep well of rhythms tracing way back in the African and Latin diaspora. His concept of dealing with time on the piano is so refreshing and I’m lucky to have him in my working band. We’ve been playing together in many capacities since 1998.

 Bassist Max Ridley is the newest member of my band. He can play anything that I write with such graceful accuracy that it has really changed the way I approach composition. Originally from Boston, he’s been in my band for almost two years. 

Drummer Lee Fish is the longest standing member of the band; we’ve been playing together almost 15 years. We musically complete each other’s sentences often when performing together. He comes from a musical family and happens to be an excellent composer as well.

Q. Have you played in Peabody Hall before? What are your expectations for the show?


A. Yes. I had the fortune of getting the call from Mark Redmond to present my band last year, so I’m grateful for the call again! I’m hoping/expecting an elevating musical performance that will inspire the concert goers to go out and do more good in the world!

Tickets are $15 and are available for purchase at mandorlamusic.net. Doors open at 7 for desserts and soft drinks that are included in the ticket price. Wine will be available for a donation. A new, limited-time discounted season ticket option is also available at dotjazz20182019.brownpapertickets.com.

https://www.celebrityseries.org/productions/jason-palmer-quintet-winter-holiday-concert/

The Jason Palmer Quintet will present a free jazz holiday concert at the Salvation Army Kroc Center in collaboration with the Summer Street Brass Band.

This performance is free but ticketed and not available through the Celebrity Series Subscription.

Jason Palmer is a trumpeter, composer, and educator who has performed with such greats as Roy Haynes, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, and many more. Palmer was named a Fellow in Music Composition by the Massachusetts Cultural Council in 2011 and 2017 and Down Beat magazine named him one of the Top Trumpeters of the Future. He is a board member at JazzBoston and an Assistant Professor of Ensembles and Brass at Berklee College of Music.   

http://jazzpress.gpoint-audio.com/2020/03/261-march-the-18th-via-giant-steps-arts-jason-palmer-the-concert-12-musings-for-isabella/ 


The Concert marks Palmer’s second outing via Giant Step Arts. His highly-acclaimed Rhyme and Reason was the inaugural release for Katz’s fledgling organization. “I’m really fortunate to work with Jimmy,” Palmer says. “It’s the first time I’ve released music myself, so I’m learning so much about how that works, and I’ve sold a lot more records than I ever thought I would.”

The audacious heist at the Gardner Museum, which included works valued at more than $500 million by artists such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, Manet, and Degas, is a captivating story on its own. But in the disappearance of this priceless art, Palmer discovered a metaphor for the lack of respect for art and creativity in the modern world. “I found a congruence between the idea of these specific works being physically lost and art in general not being appreciated in society,” he explained. “I think there’s some kind of celestial relationship between making music inspired by works that are lost in hopes of having the art that I produce not be so lost on society.”

Palmer’s compositions take myriad approaches to translating the missing works into music. Working from images of the stolen art, he drew inspiration for some of the pieces from the content of the source material. “Christ in a Storm on the Sea of Galilee,” for instance, responds to Rembrandt’s painting of a tempest-tossed voyage with a rollicking, turbulent 15/8 groove. The same artist’s shadow-shrouded “A Lady and Gentleman in Black” spurred him to concoct a raucously funky melody using only the black keys of the piano.

Others inspired a more abstract approach, such as “An Ancient Chinese Gu,” taken from a bronze vessel used to drink wine during rituals in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The gu’s flaring, trumpet-like mouth evoked a clarion horn melody, inflected by a melody inspired by Chinese folk traditions in reference to the object’s provenance.

JasonPalmer_Photo_by_Jimmy_Katz_1600pix 

Photo by Jimmy Katz 

Jason Palmer

Trumpeter/composer/educator Jason Palmer is becoming recognized as one of the most inventive and in-demand musicians of his generation. He has performed with such greats as Roy Haynes, Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Smith, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ravi Coltrane, Common, and Roy Hargrove, among others. Palmer was a recipient of the 2014 French American Cultural Exchange Jazz Fellowship and was named a Fellow in Music Composition by the Massachusetts Cultural Council in 2011 and 2017. In addition to performing on over 40 albums as a sideman, Palmer has recorded 13 albums under his own name and has toured over 30 countries. Palmer’s quintet has been the house band at Boston’s historic Wally’s Jazz Café for more than 15 years, and he maintains a busy schedule as an educator, actor and board member at JazzBoston. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Ensembles and Brass at Berklee College of Music in Boston and has served as an Assistant Professor at Harvard University.

Giant Step Arts

Founded by renowned photographers Jimmy and Dena Katz in January 2018, Giant Step Arts is an innovative, artist-focused non-profit organization dedicated to commissioning and showcasing the work of some of modern jazz’s most innovative artists. In an era where it is increasingly difficult for musicians to earn a living, Giant Step Arts offers the artistic and financial resources to create bold, adventurous new music free of commercial pressure. Musicians have total control of their artistic projects and Giant Step Arts is committed to fostering their careers by providing promotional material and publicity services.

For the musicians it chooses to work with, by invitation only, Giant Step Arts:

  • presents premiere performances and compensates the artists well
  • records these performances for independent release
  • provides the artists with 700 CDs and digital downloads to sell directly. Artists retain complete ownership of their masters.
  • provides the artists with photos and videos for promotional use

• provides PR support for the recordings

Giant Step Arts does not sell any music,” Katz says. “Our goals are to help musicians make bold artistic statements and to advance their careers.  We are also trying to increase our funding so we can help more musicians.”

https://soundcloud.com/bk-music-pr/christ-in-a-storm-on-the-lake-of-galilee-rembrandt-jason-palmer#t=0:00


https://www.theskanner.com/entertainment/music/8735-interview-musician-jason-palmer-from-guy-and-madeline-2010-11-05

 

Trumpeter/Composer/Arranger Jason Palmer is one of the most in-demand jazz musicians of his generation. He has worked with such icons as Roy Haynes, Jimmy Smith, Wynton Marsalis, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ravi Coltrane, Geri Allen, Patrice Rushen, Kenny Barron, Phil Woods, Common and Roy Hargrove. Jason took first place in the 2009 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition.

The June 2007 issue of Downbeat Magazine cited Palmer as one of the “Top 25 trumpeters of the Future.” His debut recording, “Songbook,” with Ravi Coltrane and Greg Osby, was released to rave reviews in 2008. And his second CD, “Nothing to Hide,” just dropped in September of this year.

Jason’s group has been playing Wally’s Jazz Café in Boston every weekend for the past decade. The quintet has also been featured at the Tanglewood Jazz Fest, the Stone and the Jazz Gallery in NYC, the Studio in Hartford, Connecticut, as well as numerous venues across New England. In 2007, he was commissioned by the Festival of New Trumpet Music in NYC to premier a new composition based on Sudoku at the Jazz Standard.

Besides performing, Palmer maintains a busy schedule as an educator/actor/board member at JazzBoston. Plus, he was recently hired by Berklee College of Music as an Assistant Professor of Ensembles. Here, he talks about playing a title role in Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, a jazz-driven romance drama marking the impressive directorial debut of Damien Chazelle. 

Kam Williams: Hi Jason, thanks for the interview.                                                             

Jason Palmer: My pleasure, Kam, and thank you for your interest.

KW:What interested you in Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench?                                   

JP: A little over three years ago, Damien visited Wally’s, the jazz club that I perform weekly at in Boston, in search of a lead for his film. He asked me if I was interested and I thought the project sounded really interesting. I was excited about the idea of being a part of a film that featured the musical genre at I love. I must say that in most cases when I’m approached at Wally’s by an individual that’s interested in collaborating, they’re usually not too serious about it, so I don’t expect any follow ups on their end. But this wasn’t the case with Damien. From the start I got the sense that he was motivated and on top of things. That piqued my interest as well.  
 

KW: You’re a jazz trumpeter. How much acting experience did you have prior to shooting this film?                                                                                                      

JP: I had no experience acting at all. Still, there are some aspects of performing jazz that are similar to acting.  What I mean by this is that when I’m performing I believe that I am obliged to leave all my troubles aside. 

KW:Which do you find more challenging, acting or play music?                                      

JP: I think that they both have their challenges. I wouldn’t rank one harder than the other. I think that we are in a day and age now when musical performances on stages are apt to end up on Youtube or any other social media. Musicians are highly conscious of this. For a period in my life, I felt a pressure to perform beyond my expectations because if I didn’t, that particular performance might end up online for all to see and judge. So that pressure was there. With acting, it was so new to me I didn’t really feel the pressure in the beginning. That was also due to the fact that in acting for this film, I had the option of doing another take. 

KW: Were you surprised by how well-received the film has been?                                      

JP: I was surprised because I knew that the film started off as Damien’s thesis project at Harvard. I wasn’t aware that the film was going to be submitted to film festivals. Due to my performing and teaching schedule, I also didn’t get a chance to see the film in it’s entirety until after I had learned of some accolades that the film had garnered.   

KW: I noticed that you both d gigs with your quintet and teach trumpet at a couple of conservatories? How hard is it to juggle those careers?                                    

JP: It’s a challenge but it’s not anything that I can’t handle. I think that communication is key when juggling these two things. When I’m out on the road, I schedule make up lessons ahead of time so flexibility on both ends is key to managing a career in music.   

KW: Who are your favorite trumpeters?                                                                             

JP: How much print space do I have [LL] I’ll just say that I embrace every trumpeter in jazz from Louis Armstrong to Don Cherry. All musicians who play with heart and display integrity hold a special place in my heart. 

KW:How would you describe your sound?                                                                             

JP: I think it’s a combination of all the trumpeters and musicians that I’ve been influenced by over the past fifteen years. I believe that in today’s musical climate musicians have to play many styles convincingly and sometimes alter their sound to stay true to the style that’s being played.  This is what I try to convey whenever I take the stage. 

KW:Is there any question no one ever asks you, that you wish someone would?

JP: I’ve been asked so many questions, I can’t really think of anything at the moment. I’m pretty much an open book. 

KW: The Tasha Smith question: Are you ever afraid?                                                     

JP: Sure, that’s an emotion that I’m not immune to. I’m not a swimmer yet, so you can imagine how I must feel about large bodies of water.

KW: The Columbus Short question: Are you happy?                                                     

JP: I’m happy today, I was happy yesterday and the day before, and I hope to keep that streak going! 

KW:The Teri Emerson question: When was the last time you had a good laugh?             

JP: Right now, I’m on a “This American Life” kick. There are some really funny stories on that NPR radio show that have had me rolling lately. 

KW: The Flex Alexander question: How do you get through the tough times?           

JP: The use of patience and action coupled with the belief that everything happens for a reason that we are meant to learn from gets me through. 

KW: The Nancy Lovell Question: Why do you love doing what you do?                     

JP: I love seeing the smiles on people’s faces and sensing the joy from them after a show. I believe that’s what I’ve been put on this earth to do. I also love helping student musicians realize their potential and self-worth when I’m working with them. 

KW: The bookworm Troy Johnson question: What was the last book you read?

JP:  Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy by Robert Jourdain. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/038078209X?ie=UTF8&tag=thslfofire-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=038078209X

KW:The music maven Heather Covington question: What are you listening to on your iPod?

JP: On my iRiver, I currently have the music of Kurt Rosenwinkel as well as Janelle Monae’s Archandroid in heavy rotation.  I hope she wins a Grammy. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ZFQD0E?ie=UTF8&tag=thslfofire-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002ZFQD0E

KW:What is your favorite dish to cook?                                                                   

JP: I have a variation on a Costa Rican dish that I make maybe once a week. It consists of grilled swordfish, tomatoes, onions, zucchini, garlic, spinach, oregano, basil, salt, a little cayenne, thyme and rosemary, all on a bed of quinoa infused with lemon juice. I also started making lamb saagwala. That’s a challenge, but it’s fun!

KW:The Uduak Oduok question: Who is your favorite clothes designer?                

JP: I haven’t really gotten into that yet.  I shop at Marshall’s, Banana Republic, and online at J. Crew occasionally. I also like places like Brooks Brothers, but I’m pretty thrifty, so I may splurge there only once a year or so. 

KW: If you could have one wish instantly granted, what would that be for?              

JP: An end to global poverty and inequality.

KW: When you look in the mirror, what do you see?                                               

JP: My eyes.

KW:The Ling-Ju Yen question: What is your earliest childhood memory?                         

JP: Sticking a key into a socket and getting electrocuted.

KW:What advice do you have for anyone who wants to follow in your footsteps?                     

JP: Stay persistent and don’t be afraid to be told “no.” All it takes is one “yes” to get things rolling for you. My career has been on a slow steady incline for some time now and I have to take it in stride. 

KW: The Tavis Smiley question: What do you want your legacy to be?            

JP: I do my best to pattern my life after greats such as Clifford Brown and Dizzy Gillespie. I want to be known as a person who made an important contribution to this music that we call jazz. I would like for my teaching methods to live on after I’m gone. That’s why I’m writing a book right now. 

KW:Thanks again for the interview, Jason, and best of luck with all your endeavors.                                                

JP: Thank you, Kam, and the same to you.

To purchase Jason Palmer’s CD, “Nothing to Hide,” visit: http://www.jazzloft.com/p-52740-nothing-to-hide.aspx

Jason’s blog: http://jasonpalmerjazz.wordpress.com/

To see a trailer for Guyand Madeline on a Park Bench, visit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2NWRydVjA8

by Kam Williams, Special to The Skanner News.
Published: 5 November 2010
 
http://www.jasonpalmermusic.com/biography.html
 

Jason Palmer

Trumpeter/Composer/Educator Jason Palmer is becoming one of the most in demand musicians of his generation. He has performed with Roy Haynes, Herbie HancockJimmy Smith (the organist), Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Kurt Rosenwinkel (first trumpeter to ever be hired by this highly acclaimed guitarist), Ravi Coltrane, Mark Turner, Jeff Ballard, Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Common, Roy Hargrove, Lewis Nash, etc. Jason was a recipient of the 2014 French American Cultural Exchange Jazz Fellowship and was named a 2011 Fellow in Music Composition by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Jason took 1st Place in the 2009 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition and the June 2007 issue of Downbeat Magazine cited Jason as one of the “Top 25 trumpeters of the Future”. In addition to performing on over a forty albums as a sideman, Jason has recorded eight albums under his own name and is currently a Steeplechase Records Recording artist (three of his recordings receiving 4 stars or better in Downbeat Magazine). Jason is has toured over 30 countries with saxophonists Greg Osby, Grace Kelly, Matana Roberts, as well as a featured guest artists on multiple projects.

Jason’s quintet has been leading the house band every weekend at Boston’s historical Wally’s Jazz Café for the past twelve years. He has presented his band at the Tanglewood Jazz Fest, Sculler’s Jazz Club, the Stone and the Jazz Gallery in NYC, the Studio in Hartford Ct, as well as numerous venues throughout New England. In 2007 Jason Palmer was commissioned by the Festival of New Trumpet Music in NYC to premier a new work (based on a Sudoku game) for his quintet at the Jazz Standard. The music from that suite will be featured on Jason’s 2016 work entitled Beauty “n” Numbers: The Sudoku Suite.

In addition to a heavy performing schedule, Jason Palmer continues to maintain a busy schedule as an educator/actor/board member at JazzBoston. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Ensembles and Brass at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and a visiting Assistant Professor at Harvard University. He also served on the faculty at the New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, the Preparatory Division and the School for Continuing Education at the New England Conservatory of Music in, and the Mission Hill grade school. He has given master classes in Portugal, France, the UK, Russia, and Mexico. Jason was the leading actor in director Damien Chazelle’s (Whiplash) Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. The movie received great reviews after premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2009. Since then the film was screened at film festivals in Greece, Denmark, Austria, Australia, Bratislava, Martha’s Vineyard (MA), Houston, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Calgary (Canada), Minneapolis, Mill Valley (CA), as well as theatrical distribution in North America and DVD release worldwide.
 
 
Herbs in a Glass - Jason Palmer

"Herbs in a Glass" is the first track from Jason Palmer's album "Rhyme and Reason," available March 1, 2019 thanks to the non-profit Giant Step Arts, led by noted photographer and recording engineer Jimmy Katz.

This double album is the first through Giant Step Arts, a groundbreaking, artist-focused non-profit with a single mission: to help modern jazz innovators create their art free of commercial pressure.

"Rhyme and Reason," featuring trumpeter Palmer, saxophonist Mark Turner, bassist Matt Brewer, and drummer Kendrick Scott, provides vivid evidence of the adventurous and original music that can be created when artists are provided such integral support. Palmer assembled a dream band and composed bold new music that allows each of these gifted players ample space and inspiration to explore.

https://jazzdagama.com/music/jason-palmer-the-concert/

Jason Palmer: The Concert

Jason Palmer: The Concert
Jason Palmer with his trumpet courtesy jasonpalmermusic(dot)com

The trumpeter Jason Palmer’s epic 2-disc programme The Concert brings to life legendary paintings that have disappeared from the museum that housed them for display; stolen by diabolical means, never to be seen again. In a sense they are about paintings that are “no longer there”. But what’s even more remarkable about the recording may be the utterly romantic and poetic conceit of this album and that may be explained in a somewhat analogous quote from Vincent van Gogh about Rembrandt: “Rembrandt goes so deep into the mysterious that he says things for which there are no words in any language. It is with justice that they call Rembrandt—magician—that’s no easy occupation.” Now why would this be both analogous and significant?

 

The answer lies first of all in the fact that Mr Palmer’s music sings of the power and beauty of the paintings that no longer visible to look at and to fall prey to their charms. The second and more significant reason is that in Mr Palmer’s hands – and at his lips – it sings with the kind of haunting eloquence that makes the heart break and the spirits soar. It seems that just as Rembrandt used the brush and colour to bring life – as it were – to life, Mr Palmer uses the sound of music to conjure them back to life again – and even more magically so via black dots (and in at least one case, just the black keys) that fly off the page to bring the vanished Rembrandts, Degas, Monet and Veneer back to life again.

As a Black American, Mr Palmer is in a unique position to approach an artistic response to approach any kind of loss including – in this case – the loss of several priceless paintings. He is able to revert to the unique language of African American art: The Blues. The Blues – the special invention of Black Americans informs everything from spiritual and secular, in music, poetry, painting and dance. “Loss” in the expression of a Black American – even several generations after the advent of the slave-ship – is still almost always both natural as well as preternatural because it comes from such a deep place. It is also the reason why even when playing admittedly “European” instruments and the drum-set, which was a Black American invention) such a non-European sound of art as a “Blue Note” came to be… and indeed The Blues and Jazz and the Sorrow Songs of W.E.B. Dubois themselves came to be.

Mr Palmer is a master of this art – his art – and you hear this right out of the gates. As his “Pictures at an Exhibition” begins with “A Lady and Gentleman in Black”. The painting’s sombre grandeur has been relocated here to a composition written on, as Mr Palmer tells us, “the black notes of the piano”. This is both telling and exciting from the ethnomusicological point of view as what Mr Palmer has, in fact done, is relocated this piece to a “Sorrow Song” (what is commonly referred to by white America as the “Negro Spiritual”). But Mr Palmer also brings something wholly new to his song of “the black notes”. He literally jazzes it up; funkifies it making the majesty of a sacred form at once funkily secular as well.

Appropriately enough the music is whipped off the page with extraordinary energy and speed as if the black dots were leaping off the page. This is a profoundly beautiful and telling opening to the show in which impressions of missing art are relocated from their empty frames and their Golden Age of Dutch, Netherlandish style or French pre-post-Impressionist style to the language of Jazz with a force that is viscerally energetic and breathlessly exciting. For instance the mystic grandeur of Rembrandt’s “Christ in the Storm on the Lake of Galilee” painted in his vivid Netherlandish style, is musically interpreted with the harmonic and polyrhythmic freedom of modern Jazz. The fifteen figures in the painting become the time signature of 15/8 – the quarter note giving us a sense that we are in the eye of that storm as dotted values of up to 15/64 become completely evocative of the storm itself.

Still it isn’t just the intellectual capacity of the artist that we find ourselves admiring to the extent of breathlessness. There is sonic emotion here as Mr Palmer as well as the incomparable saxophonist Mark Turner, the brilliant vibraphonist Joel Ross, drummer Kendrick Scott – a master of his instrument – and bassist Edward Perez who is also well-schooled in the wily entrapments of Jazz… all of whom negotiate Mr Palmer’s epic compositional endeavour, seeming to have interiorised every evocative phrase. Especially memorable is the way in which Mr Turner helps traverses the long inventions of Govert Flinck’s “Landscape with an Obelisk”, or how Mr Ross – with the undulant tintinnabulation of his instrument – sculpts the sensuous curves of Johannes Vemeer’s “The Concert” and Edgar Degas’ “The Jockey”.

Best of all is the fact that this music is performed live and it is here that both the beauty of the art and the urgency of the loss of the artworks are made complete in the controlled fury of Kendrick Scott’s drumming (dig his perfprmance on “Landscape with an Obelisk”), and in the rumbling protestations of Mr Perez’s bass. His (Mr. Perez’s) notes on his solo on “Self Portrait” will tell you why he is on this date. The glue in all of this comes from the music of Jason Palmer, represented here by arrangements of extraordinary and sensuous beauty, which he, above all else, plays with lips pressed to mouthpiece (of his trumpet) in perfectly poised embouchure that impels the hot breath through the valves and flared bell of his horn in what must certainly be one of the most distinctive voices of the trumpet. All of this – together with the warmth of the recording – makes this musical experience utterly unforgettable.

Track list – Disc One – 1: A Lady and Gentleman in Black (Rembrandt); 2: Cortege aux Environs do Florence (Degas); 3: La Sortie de Pesage (Degas); 4: Christ in the Storm on the Lake of Galilee (Rembrandt); 5: A French Imperial Eagle Finial; 6: Chez Tortoni (Manet); Disc Two – 1: Program for an Artistic Soiree (Degas); 2: An Ancient Chinese Gu; 3: The Concert (Vemeer); 4: Landscape with an Obelisk (Flinck); 5: Self Portrait (Rembrandt); 6: Three Mounted Jockeys (Degas)

Personnel – Jason Palmer: trumpet; Mark Turner: tenor saxophone; Joel Ross: vibraphone; Edward Perez: bass; Kendrick Scott: drums

Released – 2020
Label – Giant Step Arts (GSA 004)
Runtime – Disc One 1:08:18Disc Two 1:07:28

https://jasonpalmerjazz.wordpress.com/ 

Liner Notes to The Concert: 12 Musings for Isabella

Posted in Composition, Improvisation, Performance with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 1, 2020 by pogo56

Dear listener,

Firstly, many thanks to you for your support of this project, a project that is near and dear to me.  I moved to Boston from North Carolina in 1997 to attend New England Conservatory to major in Jazz Trumpet Performance. At the time, the Thelonious Monk Institute was integrated with the Jazz Studies program at NEC.  They gave concerts on campus as well as off. One of those concerts took place at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. I attended on the of the concerts there once and noticed that there were empty frames on display in the museum. I didn’t understand the meaning at the time, but fast forward 20 or so years, I came to find out about the heist and the ensuing investigations that have taken place via Last Seen, a podcast produced by a local public radio station and newspaper. After taking in the beauty of the works I decided to commission myself to write a piece inspired by each of those works.

The Songs:

Disc 1:

A Lady and Gentleman in Black (Rembrandt) – The lady and gentleman in this work are indeed dressed in all black, looking to me like they are ready for an evening in the town (or village)! The melody of my composition strictly uses the black notes on the piano. This was the first song I completed of this set of music and I intended it to be the funkiest, blues-infused piece on the recording!

Cortege aux Environs (Degas) – In this scene by Degas, we see a multi-layered, almost translucent, snapshot of a party of folks traveling along a path with an incline. They seem to be in conversation as they travel along, and it’s not clear which direction they are traveling in this painting. I took a personal approach to composing a song for this piece by connecting the color scheme employed by Degas with my experience living with synesthesia.

La Sortie de Pesage (Degas) – Degas portrayed a scene which looks to be from a horse race in this painting.  There are folks filing in line to either buy tickets or place bets and the rest are going to their seats. Amongst the crowd are two jockeys, assumingly making their way to the track. In assuming that this is what’s going on in the painting and also realizing that I could be totally wrong with all of those assumptions, I compelled myself to write a piece that would feature several series of deceptive harmonic cadences (within 3 main sections), a sing-songy vertical melody supported by a “gallopy”, sneaky rhythm in 6/4 time.

Christ in a Storm on the Lake of Galilee (Rembrandt) – This historical depiction by Rembrandt is epic and vivid in its’ visual capture of a tumultuous situation. In this work, I spotted 15 th individuals battling the storm on this lake, so I decided to compose a piece in 15/8 time. Kendrick sets up the rollicking, shuffle groove which introduces a rangy, turbulent theme, followed by intense trading of choruses by Mark, Joel, and me.

A French Imperial Eagle Finial – This song is the second song that was written for a piece in this set that was not a piece of visual art. Seeing this eagle finial for the first time immediately moved me to write and brisk piece with a flighty melody for the band.

Chez Tortoni (Manet) – The gaze within the gentleman’s eyes in this painting as he’s sitting at Café Tortoni in Paris is one of urgency and mystique. This gave me mixed emotions so I wrote a mixed-meter song where the harmonic landing spots were bandied between major and minor as a nod to the color scheme of the portrait.

Disc 2

Program for an Artistic Soiree (Degas)– This simple, elegant work by Degas appears to me like a sketch several ideas that happen to be a part of the same canvas. There’s an air of smokin’ song and dance in this sketch that I find to be quite sneaky for some odd reason. This work really makes me wonder what was going on inside the imagination of Degas. This drove me to write a danceable, “sleuthy” song for this piece, drawing from my 3rd stream influences. The solo sections of this song, which feature myself, Joel, and Edward, alternate between major and minor for the entire chorus.

An Ancient Chinese Gnu – This song was written for one of the two pieces of art that were stolen that actually was not a piece of visual art. This piece resembles a sort of vase with a porous base and a body that flares out exactly like the bell of a trumpet. I wanted to give this piece a song that primarily stuck in the folksy, pentatonic-ish, rangy, melody in the trumpet to give the song an Asian melodic bend.

The Concert (Vermeer) – In this visually stunning piece by Vermeer, you see a trio of musicians performing together and they appear to be deeply involved in the moment of the music. My goal for writing a song for this painting was to have it be the one of the more lyrical pieces of this set of music, in an attempt to capture the essence of what could have been heard during the occasion that was depicted in the work. When I was in the middle of finalizing the arrangement of this piece, I played it for my 5-year-old daughter and she found it to be interesting enough that she continued to ask me to play it again. I was impressed to later find out that she had committed parts of the song to memory.

Landscape with an Obelisk (Flinck) – There is something very serene, stoic, but at the same time very powerful about the view of the Landscape with an Obelisk by Flinck. There is a lone obelisk and what looks to be an ancient tree with a strong, gnarly trunk, each standing tall, perhaps in search of the sun on a cloudy day. At the foot of the tree there are two people, one on horseback and one standing. They seem to be in searching as well. I wrote a contrafact based on one of my favorite compositions entitled Like a Flower Seeking the Sun by reedman Myron Walden. Within this track, I bookended it with a flowy intro and outro with rubato, in an attempt to capture the quality of the water in the middle of the painting.

Self Portrait (Rembrandt) – I found a lot of beauty and symmetry in the Self Portrait by Rembrandt. He appears to have a perfectly round, strong jaw with piercing eyes and long, curly hair on set to one side. I composed a melody based on Miyako, one the most harmonically-symmetrical, gorgeous songs by one of my favorite composers, Wayne Shorter.

Three Mounted Jockeys (Degas) – This interesting work features a triple image of 3 jockeys mounted on a horse, 1 that’s right-side up, and 2 that are upside down. This song is in a brisk 6/4 tempo with the melody being split into 3-bar phrases (1 for each jockey).

I’d like to give a huge thank you to Jimmy and Dena Katz, along with all the folks at Giant Step Arts for helping me bring this project into fruition. Also hats off to Mark, Joel, Edward, and Kendrick for your supreme artistry, the people at the Intercontinental Barclay, Dave Darlington, Ann Braithwaite, and to my wonderful wife Colleen and daughter Camilla!

1,000 Trumpeters (301-400)

Posted in Improvisation, jazz trumpet music, Musical Influences with tags , , , , on April 12, 2015 by pogo56

Hello everyone,

Here’s a list of more players to check out! Once again these are in no particular order and please reserve your grievances until after I’ve posted all of the players.

301.Vitaly Golovnev

302.Ian Carr

303.Emmett Berry

304.Derrick Gardner

305.Clay Jenkins

306.Doug Olson

307.Charlie Porter

308.Joe Gordon

309.Voro Garcia

310.Felix Rossy

311.David Weiss

312.DeWayne Clemons

313.Mao Sone

314.Herman Mehari

315.Tony D’Aveni

316.Daniel Campbell

317.Gordon Au

318.Ray Callendar

319.Johnathan Saraga

320.Mike Cottone

321.Dave Chisholm

322.Chris Burbank

323.Bobby Gallegos

324.Trombone Shorty

325.Etienne Charles

326.Stephane Belmondo

327.Ryan Carnieux

328.James Morrison

329.Stephen Haynes

330.Suresh Singaratnam

331.Takuya Kuroda

332.Tatum Greenblatt

333.Taylor Haskins

334.Terumasa Hino

335.Steve Fishwick

336.Thomas Heflin

337.Jeff Lofton

338.Laura Jurd

339.Tom Arthurs

340.Uan Rasey

341.Valaida Snow

342.Valery Ponomarev

343.Walter White

344.Ziggy Elman

345.Humberto Ramirez

346.James Zollar

347.Donald Malloy

348.Dwayne Eubanks

349.Dusko Goykovich

350.Eddie Gale

351.Eric Biondo

352.Eric Vloeimans

353.Erik Jekabson

354.Erik Truffaz

355.Fabio Morgera

356.Bill Chase

357.Brad Turner

358.Brian Swartz

359.Frank London

360.Greg Adams

361.Gilbert Castellanos

362.Billy Skinner

363.Max Colley III

364.Mike Olson

365.Matthew Stewart

366.Chris Lawrence

367.Renaud Gensane

368.Leon Brown

369.Jackie Coleman

370.Ryan Easter

371.Matt Lavelle

372.Kenyatta Beasley

373.Jimmy Owens

374.Daniel Noesig

375.Laurie Frink

376.Curtis Taylor

377.Mark Van Cleave

378.John Swana

379.Raymond Williams

380.Jeremy Sinclair

381.JS Williams

382.Mark Chuvala

383.Matt Leder

384.Mike Vax

385.Jim Manley

386.Jon Crowley

387.Frank Greene

388.Dave Ballou

389.Alphonso Horne

390.Yazz Ahmed

391.Jay Thomas

392.Ryan Quigley

393.Ravi Best

394.Uli Beckerhoff

395.Gabe Medd

396.John Sneider

397.Gregory Rivkin

398.Tanya Darby

399.Steve Fulton

400.Bart Miltenberger

More to come,

Jason Palmer

1,000 Trumpeters to check out (1-300)

Posted in Improvisation, jazz trumpet music, Musical Influences, Performance with tags , , , on April 7, 2015 by pogo56

Hello Trumpeters and everyone else,

Here’s a partial list of the 1,000 trumpeters that I think are worth checking out if you are serious about the craft. They are in no particular order.  Just listing off the top of the dome!! I’ll be releasing these in sections so stay tuned!

1.Buddy Bolden

2.Louis Armstrong

3.Jabbo Smith

4.Bix Beiderbeck

5.Henry “Red” Allen

6.Doc Chetham

7.Theo Croker

8.Wallace Roney

9.Miles Davis

10.Clifford Brown

11.Fats Navarro

12.Chet Baker

13.Freddie Hubbard

14.Booker Little

15.Lee Morgan

16.Richard Willams

17.Johnny Coles

18.Carmel Jones

19.Thad Jones

20.John McNeil

21.Sean Jones

22.Ambrose Akinmusire

23.Tom Harrell

24.Terence Blanchard

25.Wynton Marsalis

26.Philip Harper

27.Philip Dizack

28.Mike Rodriguez

29.Avishai Cohen

30.Ingrid Jensen

31.Clora Bryant

32.Maurice Brown

33.Corey Wilkes

34.Nicholas Payton

35.Don Ellis

36.Taylor Ho Bynum

37.Bill Dixon

38.Dave Douglas

39.Graham Haynes

40.Ted Curson

41.Jeremy Pelt

42.Darren Barrett

43.Greg Hopkins

44.Blue Mitchell

45.Randy Brecker

46.Peter Kenagy

47.Dan Rosenthal

48.Billy Buss

49.Eric Bloom

50.Dizzy Gillespie

51.Roy Eldridge

52.Snooky Young

53.Lonnie Hillyer

54.Jack Walrath

55.Lew Soloff

56.Josh Evans

57.Scotty Barnhart

58.Marquis Hill

59.Coung Vu

60.Woody Shaw

61.Andrew Baham

62.Irvin Mayfield

63.Derrick Shezbie

64.Jeremy Davenport

65.Kevin Louis

66.Theljon Allen

67.Deandre Shaffer

68.Peter Evans

69.Jay Phelps

70.Roy Hargrove

71.Lester Bowie

72.Jon Faddis

73.Benny Benack III

74.DuPree Bolton

75.Jonah Jones

76.Joe Wilder

77.Clark Terry

78.Freddie Webster

79.Nat Adderley

80.Brian Lynch

81.Art Farmer

82Leron Thomas

83.Keyon Harold

84.Arturo Sandoval

85.Waldron Ricks

86.Alex “Pope” Norris

87.Alan Shorter

88.Conti Candoli

89.Dave Neves

90.Phrarez Whitted

91.Ryan Kisor

92.Mike Olmos

93.Geechi Taylor

94.Louis Smith

95.Donald Byrd

96.Arve Henriksen

97.Gerard Prescenser

98.Phil Grenadier

99.Adam Rapa

100.Carlos Abadie

101.Lee Hogans

102.Michael “Patches” Stewart

103.Tom Brown

104.Herb Alpert

105.Chuck Mangione

106.Chris Botti

107.Gabe Johnson

108.Raynald Colom

109.Josiah Woodson

110Johnathan Finlayson

111.Chris Klaxton

112.Maynard Ferguson

113.Ralph Allesi

114.Rolf Erickson

115.Benny Bailey

116.Scott Tinkler

117.Bria Skonberg

118.Cindy Bradley

119.Rick Braun

120.Rashawn Ross

121.Tim Hagans

122.Dave Smith

123.Seneca Black

124.Marcus Printup

125.Kenny Rampton

126.Ron Horton

127.Pat Harbison

128.Ron Miles

129.Orbert Davis

130.Dominick Farrinachi

131.Nate Wooley

132.Adam O’Farrill

133.Greg Gisbert

134.Brad Goode

135.Hugh Ragin

136.Joe Robinson

137.Jay Lineberry

138.Harry James

139.Bruce Harris

140.Scott Arruda

140.Justin Ray

141.Marlon Jordan

142.Terell Stafford

143.Ashlin Parker

144.Forbes Graham

145.Nabate Isles

146.Alex Sipiagin

147.Ray Nance

148.Bunny Berigan

149.Oran “Hot Lips” Page

150.Kermit Ruffins

151.Virgil Jones

152.Bobby Shew

153.Enrico Rava

154.Red Rodney

155.Dizzy Reece

156.Jim Rotundi

157.Christian Scott

158.Ray Vega

159.Cy Touff

160.Charles Tolliver

161.Eddie Allen

162.Franco Ambrosetti

163.Ray Anderson

164.Donald Ayler

165.Guy Barker

166.Harold “Shorty” Baker

167.Mario Bauza

168.Uli Beckerhoff

169.Marcus Belgrave

170.Anders Bergcrantz

171.Wayne Bergeron

172.Steven Bernstein

173.Russ Johnson

174.Flavio Boltro

175.Bobby Bradford

176.Ruby Braff

177.Bud Brisbois

178.Till Bronner

179.Billy Butterfield

180.Pete Candoli

181.Andre Canniere

182.Roy Campbell

183.Benny Carter

184.Bill Chase

185.Don Cherry

186.Buck Clayton

187.Bill Coleman

188.John D’earth

189.Josh Deutsch

190.Billy Eckstine

191.Harry “Sweets” Edison

192.Mathias Eick

193.Ziggy Elman

194.Don Fagerquist

195.Dusko Gojkovic

196.Dennis Gonzalez

197.Jerry Gonzalez

199.Conrad Gozzo

200.Bobby Hackett

201.Bill Hardman

202.Eddie Henderson

203.Roger Ingram

204.Mark Isham

205.Don Jacoby

206.Bunk Johnson

207.Freddie Keppard

208.Hugh Masekela

209.Howard McGhee

210.Mike Metheny

211.Bubber Miley

212.Nils Petter Molvaer

213.Joe Newman

214.Farnell Newton

215.Ibrahim Maalouf

216.King Oliver

217.Ephraim Owens

218.Jimmy Owen

219.Herb Phillips

220.Herb Pomeroy

221.Chase Sanborn

223.Carl Saunders

224.Manfred Schoof

225.Doc Severinsen

226.Charlie Shavers

227.Jack Sheldon

228.Marvin Stamm

229.Tomasz Stanko

230.Rex Stewart

231.Allen Vizzutti

232.Kenny Wheeler

233.Cootie Willams

234.Cosimo Boni

235.Felix Rossy

236.Russell Macklem

237.Al Strong

238.Tiger Okoshi

239.Amir el Shafaar

240.Abram Wilson

241.Ahmed Abdullah

242.Al Porcino

243.Al Hood

244.Amik Guerra

245.Andrea Tofanelli

246.Ansyn Banks

247.Axel Dorner

248.Baikida Carroll

249.Barrie Lee Hall Jr.

250.Scott Wendholt

251.Bill Warfield

252.Bob Lark

253.Bob Montgomery

254.Brad Clements

255.Brad Mason

256.Brad Turner

257.Brandon Lee

258.Brian Chahley

259.Brownman

260.Antoine Drye

261.Michael Shobe

262.Nathan Breedlove

263.Susana Santos

264.Ray Codrington

265.Jorge Vistel

267.Justin Kisor

268.Arthur Whetsol

270.Mercer Ellington

271.Russell Gunn

272.Melvin Jones

273.Fabien Mary

274.John Bailey

275.Tom William (DC)

276.Matt Shulman

277.Matt Holman

278.Nadje Noordhuis

279.Diego Urcola

280.Jean Caze

281.Jumaane Smith

282.Barry Ries

283.Kenny Dorham

284.Melton Mustafa

285.Igmar Thomas

286.Thad Wilson

287.Michael Thomas

288.Trent Austin

289.Rasul Saddik

290.Leroy Jones

291.Lionel Ferbos

292.Malachi Thompson

293.Mark Rapp

294.Matthew Jodrell

295.Nick Roseboro

296.Nicole Rampersaud

297.Paolo Fresu

298.Randy Sandke

299.Raphe Malik

300.Rex Richardson

 More to come, Stay tuned!!

Blindfold Bootleg Series: Walter Smith III

Posted in Improvisation, Musical Influences, Performance with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on February 15, 2015 by pogo56

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I’ve maintained for years that Walter Smith III is the Wayne Shorter of my generation.  I say this of the Houston native because like Wayne Shorter, who’s played alongside the greatest trumpet players of his generation and above (Miles, Freddie Hubbard, and Lee Morgan immediately come to mind); Walter has also done the same with his generation, performing with the likes of Ambrose Akinmusire, Sean Jones, Darren Barrett, Terence Blanchard, and Dave Douglas.  Walter has one of the most seamless streams of music originality that you can imagine coming from and improvising music.  He’s dona ALL of his homework so he is at home in any style that’s laid before him.  Not only is he a great saxophonist, he’s also an excellent composer, arranger, and educator.  Here’s what Walter had to say after hearing the examples:

Example 1: Marcus Strickland live at the Regattabar Cambridge Ma 2008
Marcus Strickland (sounds like his tone and time feel)

Response:  I’ve been listening to Marcus for years…I met him at IAJE when I was in high school and he was playing a white LA Sax! He blew me away then and continues to be one of my favorites and a real torch bearer for our generation.

Example 2: Myron Walden live at Fat Cat NYC (year unknown)
Not really sure on this one ….if I had to guess I would say Myron Walden? Sounds like his alto phrasing and articulation a bit, but I don’t know his tenor playing quite as well as his alto playing.
 
Response:  It’s cool how you can hear someone’s nuance regardless of the instrument they are playing! His playing with fellowship was a huge inspiration to me and still is. Also “Like A Flower Seeking the Sun” is still on the desert island list…

Example 3: Logan Richardson live at the Duc du Lombards Paris 2013
 

Logan Richardson (pretty awesome sound and patience).

Response: One of the absolute trend setters on the saxophone these days who is always pushing and imissed this one! Especially because I’m pretty sure that I was at this show one day that week! Ravi has great ideas and great phrasing and always brings the energy!

Example 5: George Garzone live at the Museum Boston (year unknown)
Again, super familiar but I can’t place it! great sound/taste.

Response: Wow! Garzone! He’s a bad dude and has taught just about everybody I know at some point. Always great to hear him.

Example 6:  Bill McHenry Live at the Village Vanguard Nyc (year unknown)
hmm…

Response: I only have “Roses” and the quartet record with Paul Motian so I’m not as familiar with his playing as the rest of the guys here but getting more of his stuff is definitely on my list of things to do. Great ideas and unique directions with his phrases. Very cool.

Example 7:  Tim Warfield live at Scullers (year unknown)

Tim Warfield? Sounds like his sound and inflection for sure.
 
The one thing that’s happening here is I’m realizing how small my sound is!

Response: Tim is my man! Fell in love with his playing from the Nicholas Payton records in high school and he’s definitely a powerful saxophone player. He has one of the most colorful tones and set of inflection of anybody. I’d also imagine it would be fun to play in a rhythm section behind him since he has so much energy all the time.
 
Do yourself a big favor if you haven’t already and pick up Walter’s latest record on his website!!

Blindfold Bootleg Series: Jeremy Pelt

Posted in Improvisation, jazz trumpet music, Performance with tags , , , , , , , , , , on February 14, 2015 
by pogo56

Jeremy Pelt

I truly think that any trumpeter of my generation or younger that’s playing anything of consequence owes a debt to Jeremy Pelt.  Jeremy is a prime example of an artist that has continued to reinvent himself, producing great interesting projects that are steeped in the history of the trumpet in this music as well as forward thinking.  I myself owe a huge debt to my fellow JP for simply bringing me down to Wally’s in the fall of 1997 and asking me to play for him as well as the subsequent lessons that followed!!  Here’s what Jeremy had to say after hearing the examples:


Example 1
-Dave Douglas Live at R-bar

1) Hmmm… I must admit that I’m completely clueless as to who it might be. There are shades of Keyon Harrold in there, but it’s definitely not him. There are shades of me in there, but definitely not me. I like where his solo went though, and I can’t wait to find out who it was.

Example 2-Wynton live with Freddie Hubbard NYC

2) Wynton Marsalis sitting in with Hub at the Blue Note. Interesting to hear how his sound evolved. Also, funnily enough listening to the first couple of phrases, you get the impression the Wynton is mocking Hub, which was the wrong thing to do in THIS period of Hub. Before he called Wynton up, he completely KILLED ‘Hubtones’.

Example 3-Ryan Kisor Live in Japan

3) Hmmm…. Can’t say I know who this is either. Obviously they’re indebted to Woody. The voicings on the piano suggest that it could be Harold Mabern on the piano.

Example 4-Tom Harrell with Johnathan Blake

4) Tom Harrell…That sound is so great, and you can hear K.D. all up in it.

Example 5-Keyon Harrold live in NYC

5.) Keyon Harrold…so open. Like the shape of his lines.

Example 6-Christian Scott Live at the R-Bar

6.) Is it Marquis Hill ?

Example 7-Art Farmer live in NYC

7.) Again…completely clueless.

Do yourself a favor and keep up with Jeremy’s new music and live appearances on his website!

Blindfold Bootleg Series: Greg Osby

Posted in Improvisation, Musical Influences with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on February 14, 2015 by pogo56

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I consider saxophonist/composer/sonic scholar Greg Osby to be my musical godfather.  He gave me my first big break by hiring me to play in his quintet after he released St. Louis Shoes.    This came at a time when I was thinking about quitting music.    I’ve learned what it means to be on the road and how to survive once you’re there under Osby’s tutelage.   He possesses a deep well of knowledge on musical stylings as well as a highly refined sense of taste and these qualities shine brightly in his playing and composing.  Here’s what Greg had to say after hearing the examples:

Example 1: Marcus Strickland live at the Regattabar Cambridge Ma 2008

1. This tenor saxophonist may be JD Allen. He sometimes plays in trio format without chordal accompaniment and it doesn’t sound very much like an older person. I’m assuming that it’s JD based on the player’s vibrato and attention to tone. I say tone as opposed to sound because everyone has a sound but everyone doesn’t necessarily have a tone, as exhibited by many of the likes of a Don Byas, Stan Getz, Ben Webster, Paul Gonsalves, Hank Mobley, Dexter Gordon, etc… TONE – the main ingredient, And JD has a beautiful tone and a very meaningful way of interpreting music. He some exhibits an admirable amount of patience.

AFTER:  OK, it’s Marcus. Unfortunately, I haven’t heard either him or JD enough to have answered this one correctly, but what I have heard from Marcus validates my response. He also has a beautiful full-bodied tone and appears to be concerned with proper execution and the development of solos via beautiful phrases. His ouput is very broad and lush and yet, still very precise.

Example 2: Myron Walden live at Fat Cat NYC (year unknown)

2. I can’t recognize the player, but his rush to flash lost my interest very quickly. There was little to hold onto, in terms of thematic material and melodic development. In the beginning, there was a brief statement, and the next thing I know all the fireworks were quickly being lit. Listening to music like this is akin to being shouted at for extended periods. It’s great to thing hear or to experience music like this live but it somehow loses it’s impact on recordings, given the references to the Coltrane/Jones dynamic that has been explored and even exploited to no end. It makes one wonder why would anyone seek to frame themselves in such an environment these days when the social and arts climate is so significantly different than when this mode of expression was being developed? It just doesn’t have the same meaning behind it anymore and the overall impact is lessened considerably. Somehow, for me, it amounts to yelling and forcing a point when there is none. Again, the players here are fantastic musicians but I’ve grown weary of this approach unless I’m in the venue when it’s actually happening.

AFTER: This makes sense. Myron is what I respectfully call a convert  – which is to say that I heard him first and know of him primarily as an alto saxophonist. I think that would account for the way he plays tenor. Maybe not. However, it’s easy for me to understand the excessively notey approach because many tenor players who “hear” alto or hiigher pitches in their heads like Stitt and Coltrane, have a tendency towards content bombardment. I am also guilty of this, and is why no one will ever hear me play tenor saxophone publicly, or otherwise. Mind you, playing with lots of notes isn’t the worst thing in the world, but it should be a progressive act. Not an aural assault just several bars in. But, just because it overwhelmed me doesn’t make it improper.

Example 3: Logan Richardson live at the Duc du Lombards Paris 2013

3. This very definitely sounds like Logan Richardson, who does have a very considerate and refined style with a strong sense of purpose in his playing as well as in his compositions. I appreciated the pacing of the build during his solo. It was very relaxed and there was no hurry to rush into a technical display. I also recognize his tone, which has some very personal and appealing characteristics to me. Interestingly enough, as an alto player myself, I must admit that I have a very low tolerance for the output of many, if not most, alto players. Some players have sounds that are very strident and devoid of body or fullness. Not human-like enough for my tastes. Also, the tendency for players to overwhelmingly embrace the discoveries and breakthroughs of the most prominent player of the day represents, to me, a failure to define themselves adequately by developing a methodology that emphasizes the core character in their musical makeup. They resign to playing the role of copyists and parrots, as opposed to crafting a style for themselves. This is one of the primary reasons why most laypersons have the usual throwaway impression that “all jazz sounds the same,” One can’t fully blame them for having such a perception, given the lack of sonic diversity amongst the ranks. At any rate, this is not one of those instances. Logan has successfully done what used to be the normal thing to do, which was to recognize and hone one’s own voice.

AFTER: This was the easiest and most obvious example, as Logan is one of my favorite contemporary improvising artists. He has a great mind and is fearless. It would have been nice to have evaluated a few more altoists during this listening session but tenor is, and always has been, much more popular than the smaller horn. There are many reasons for this, but that’s an entirely different discussion.

Example 4: Ravi Coltrane live at the Jazz Standard 2013

4. More chordless saxophone trio. Again I’m at a loss for who it is. I’ll take a wild guess and say Tivon Pennicott but that’s a shot in the dark. I do appreciate the player’s sense of articulation, which is a characteristic That I find to be missing in the playing of many contemporary players who often seen to slur through every line with no detail to the attack or punctuating elements. Here, there’s a sameness in approach that is shared by many younger players that makes them difficult to identify, as if they are all influenced by the same guy. Proficient many, but hopelessly similar.

AFTER: I’ve always enjoyed Ravi’s playing, and I’m surprised that I didn’t recognize him here. I heard him live at Birdland a while ago and was really caught up in his creativity and dominance on the bandstand and how he navigated around within the forms of his music. This performance wasn’t reflective of anything that I heard that night, although I do appreciate his approach to the instrument. He usually doesn’t play in a manner that one would expect, which gets my attention immediately. Perhaps he wasn’t so inspired during this song or maybe there were other moments that night where he caught fire.

Example 5: George Garzone live at the Museum Boston (year unknown)

5. Without know who it is, I must say that I really like this. Some very good decisions are being made and the player sounds very mature and he makes no effort to impress, although he sounds very proficient. The beginning of the solo has definite Stan Getz inflections, which these days is so rare that hearing this is a breath of fresh air. If only players would dig into the archives and research and study the output of some of the more ignored masterful players of the music, they would find an untapped pool of resources that would separate them from the rest of the pack that has chosen to emulate the popular players of the day. I almost hear a bit of Charles Lloyd in the makeup of this player. Yet another untapped resource worth investigating.

AFTER: I was right about the mature aspects of the tenor playing here, but I’m disappointed in myself for not recognizing George. What he does is always masterful and unique. He has a genuine love of the art and comes with a great deal of passion and information that he can back up theoretically as well as sonically. I can hear many levels of acknowledgement and history in his playing, coupled with his own discoveries and developments. He is one of the important voices and minds in contemporary improvised music.Example 6: Bill McHenry Live at the Village Vanguard Nyc (year unknown)

6. No clue. I don’t hear very many identifying characteristics other than the eighth note feel in the lines. I did like the development of the riff in the beginning, as well as the articulation.
AFTER: I have heard Bill live several times, but even after the reveal I still don’t know enough about what he does to identify him.

Example 7: Tim Warfield live at Scullers (year unknown)7. I can’t identify this player either. It’s interesting because I happen to go out to hear players perform live a LOT, and I thought that I knew the approaches styles and detail of many of the younger cats. However hearing this final player is akin to sampling perfume – in a short while, they all start to smell the same, even if they are amazing. In the case of this listening session, I’ve heard some amazingly accomplished players, but, for me, most of them lack standout characteristics in style, approach interpretation, concept, logic, phrasing and TONE (most important) This isn’t to say they are not good players, I’m saying that there’s not much of a difference between them other than that they’ve all have an exceptionally similar educational makeup and inspirational foundation. They not only speak the same language, but the same dialect and inflections as will, which makes listening to them fine – the first rime.

AFTER: It’s been years since I’ve heard Tim live, and this example shows very few outstanding or identifying markers, if you will. What he’s doing certainly shows accomplishment, but I was waiting for something that really would set him apart from anyone else, and it didn’t happen for me. I’m not referring to something very radical either – perhaps a personally developed technique, conceptual approach, a way of developing ideas and phrases, a very personal tone, juxtaposition of thoughts, etc.. something that would make me do a double take or press rewind. None of my observations are meant to suggest that he is incapable of these things, it just isn’t projected on this cut.

When I hear Ben Webster, Don Byas, Gene Ammons, Paul Desmond, Joe Henderson, Cannonball, Getz, Ben Webster, Young, Hodges, Konitz, etc.. play just a few notes, their identity is unmistakeable. Who they are is not necessarily defined by content, but by a deliberate crafting and cultivation of a trademark tone and a sense of purpose.

Everyone do yourself a huge favor by staying current to Greg’s new projects and live events by frequenting his website.

https://www.celebrityseries.org/productions/jason-palmer-quintet-places/

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An active band that plays all over Boston and New England -- including a long tenure as the weekend house band at Wally's Cafe -- and at festivals and clubs across the country, the Jason Palmer Quintet kicks off the 2020-21 Neighborhood Arts season with this performance, recorded just for Series audiences, from Futura Productions Studio in Roslindale. Internationally-acclaimed trumpeter, composer, and educator Jason Palmer has played with many all-time greats and current stars and has appeared on over 40 albums as a sideman and eight as a leader. Palmer and his band mark their third consecutive season on the Series; their debut came in 2018 at the Jazz Along the Charles collaborative simultaneous concert on DCR's Charles River Esplanade.

Palmer will draw from his album Places -- on which all the tracks were written in and inspired by cities he's toured to -- to reflect on this year's missed opportunities to tour, perform, and visit far-off family and friends. 

Personnel

Noah Preminger - Tenor Saxophone
Kevin Harris - Piano 
Max Ridley - Bass
Lee Fish - Drums
Jason Palmer - Trumpet

This concert is produced using studio-quality production elements such as HD cameras, multiple viewing angles, and lighting in the partner venues.

Jason

Palmer

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Recordings

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THE MUSIC OF JASON PALMER: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH JASON PALMER:




Musical Dedication Collaboration with Carmen Staaf



#SayHerName #BreonnaTaylor Musical Dedication Collaboration with Rachel Bade-McMurphy


#SayHerName #BreonnaTaylor Musical Dedication Collaboration with Tyson Jackson

#SayHerName #BreonnaTaylor Musical Dedication Collaboration with Michael Janisch

#SayHerName #BreonnaTaylor Musical Dedication Collaboration with Edward Perez

#SayHerName #BreonnaTaylor Musical Dedication Collaboration with Caroline Davis

#SayHerName #BreonnaTaylor Musical Dedication Collaboration with Noah Preminger

#SayHerName #BreonnaTaylor Musical Dedication Collaboration with Max Ridley

#SayHerName #BreonnaTaylor Musical Dedication Collaboration with Kevin Harris


#SayHerName #BreonnaTaylor Musical Dedication Collaboration with Jason Yeager

#SayHerName #BreonnaTaylor Musical Dedication Collaboration with Austin McMahon

#SayHerName #BreonnaTaylor Musical Dedication Collaboration with with David Fiuczynski