"In Detroit, Tommy was our magician. All the rest of the cats used to come over to my house, but I used to go over to Tommy's house. There were so many good musicians. And Tommy and Kenny Burrell were our best. I wish you [all] could have been there.

…I feel that I was a part of Tommy and when he died, I felt like part of me left too.

[He was special as a musician] … He was devoted. He was always devoted to the music, ever since I've known him, ever since he was a kid. That's all there is."

Barry Harris

BarryHarris.com

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"Tommy was one of the greatest, and certainly one of my favorites. … as far as touch, sensitivity; and he was comfortable with just anything -- tempo, accompanying vocalists and instrumentalists.

He was a very dear person. I really thought a lot about him -- he was a gentle soul -- rather quiet, but -- a nice guy.

I met him when I first came to New York, in '58 or '59. I was working at the Five Spot with (people like) Gigi Gryce, Roy Haynes, Charlie Mingus. He used to come down to listen to me. I met quite a lot of musicians there. Tommy and I used to hang out together at a little bar across the street from the Five Spot. I can't remember the name. It was a cheap bar."

Richard Wyands

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I saw him two weeks before he died. The Jazz Foundation had a "Night in Harlem." He played flawlessly. It was clean, tasteful and the expression he brought to the piano was full of skill and passion. I'll never forget it.

[I liked] The delightful way he was so patient with people. He was patient with himself, for him to play the way he does, and treat people the way he did. And that's what I really remember about his character --the character of the person comes out in the music. In the world of jazz that's what happens. He … left behind a legacy of promise of good will, you can hear peace, the feeling of peace in his playing, as well as gratitude for what he has already attained as a musician. He was very happy with himself musically, I believe.

Danny Mixon (pianist, composer, producer)

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Where I came in in music, it seemed like he'd always been where he was. Some people play and if you get a chance to find out where they started, you'd find out when they were beginning and when they started to grow.

I first heard him when he was with Ella. He was always sounding as modern as he was. He and Hank Jones -- they were like Art Tatum. They musically sound like they were born ahead. Everything he did was quite advanced. Just because I was where I was. Sometimes that's because you are where you are. They (he and Hank Jones) had studied classically, so they had enough technique to do anything they wanted to -- they came to New York and were thrown in with the best -- with bebop when it was born, but before that, they were the most advanced people … but because they had been trained well, they had taste.

Some people play rough, they think if they play rough they're saying something. But with Barry, Tommy and Hank, they sound like they been playing 100 years, but the music was just born.

Chris Anderson (pianist arranger composer)

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I don't have a lot of personal experience with Tommy, but I do remember on one occasion that he and Diana came down to WPA in Soho to hear me on a solo gig. It was in the late seventies when I was with Thad and Mel. I was brave (or stupid) enough to play some bebop tunes, and he was very encouraging. Another time he gave me a compliment after I played on a fast tempo tune at the Vanguard, telling me I had good technique. Of course these things meant a lot to me at the time, coming from him. He was always quietly supportive of me as a young player in the tradition, and I gained considerable strength from that.

Harold Danko (composer, pianist, educator)

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I am honored that you asked about Tommy Flanagan. He amazed me. I like the way he made a special intro and ending for every single song. I was very impressed with that. And he had a strong alpha wave with the audience -- that's a creative wave length.

Kuni Mikami (pianist composer arranger producer)

****

I loved hearing him at Bradley's, then at The Vanguard. I even think I heard him at The Village Gate once or twice. I will surely miss seeing him swing and make that piano sing!

Lafayette Harris (pianist composer producer)

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He was a great pianist, well loved by everyone. He was a poet of the piano, of melodic invention -- his variations.

Bob Dorough_________

Tommy's playing was an extension of who he was. He was just.. a very special person. Any time we met he always had a pleasant smile on his face. It was always, you always left feeling a little bit better. He had such a wit.

One of my most memorable experiences was the "100 Gold Fingers Tour" together in Japan about six years ago. I always liked the Tom MacIntosh "Cup Bearers" which was one of Tommy's favorite tunes. There was a soundcheck … everybody had finished playing, I was just warming up. I couldn't get enough nerve to ask T how to play it, so I was playing it on my own. Suddenly I heard another piano playing. I almost stopped. But he gave me this little look, "Let's do it together." We went on to play the tune and the next five minutes were completely magical. I learned more from Tommy by watching him. He had such an elegant manner, that he would be a great example of "speak softly but carry a big stick."

He was just a genuine person. Who he was came out through the music that he played. Music has a way of showing the truth about yourself.

Favorite recording: "Eclypso"

Cyrus Chestnut

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He was special just because of his taste. I'm trying to find words. He was very, very tasty. His playing was always appropriate. He let the punishment fit the crime. He had that talent and insight, and he was very subtle and yet very powerful. We like to use the word "intensity" in music and what I learned over the years is that many musicians primarily younger musicians in my estimation confuse intensity with volume. I've played with many of the great masters of this music and found that intensity can happen pianissimo or fortissimo, and so that's what I mean when I say subtle yet powerful. I don't think it's a contradiction. Very …sometimes almost understated and yet a very powerful statement.

I used to go to hear him all the time, he was one of my favorites and a good friend, too. I was very upset when he passed, and what I immediately did was there was a song called "The Cup Bearers" by Tom MacIntosh, and he was the only one who ever played the tune consistently. It's a great song and not easy to play, and I immediately wrote an arrangement for three horns and have incorporated that tune into my repertoire of tunes to kind of remember Tommy by, because I love the tune and the way he played it and he was picking a tune that not everybody played. Just the same way that he very often played Thad Jones tunes, which is not something everyone plays … they are magnificent pieces of music generally played only by the big band at the Vanguard. His choice of material was off the beaten path, yet he picked great songs by great composers and executed them in a very moving fashion. I just loved his playing whatever the composition was.

His knowledge of a song, really learning the song was always truthful. Some people overlook something about a particular composition, even if it was just a note here or there. He seemed to have all those bases covered. The truth and honesty of him as a human being came right through to the music. His music was just like he was, real, truthful, upfront.

We used to have a lot of laughs together. He had an amazing sense of humor. Again, kind of subtle, but when you finally realize what he was saying -- because sometimes he was very soft spoken, you might not hear it or it might not hit you because the volume was kind of turned down, but his brilliance and insight into things and people was very evident in his sense of humour. I mean I don’t think you get to be as accomplished an artist as Tommy Flanagan was and be a dummy. You have to have something going on upstairs to execute this music on a high level. And he was always on a high level in my estimation from the very beginning. I'm a native New Yorker and met him when he was first came to NY. When he was with Ella Fitzgerald and off the scene, I didn't see him a lot. Once he started doing his own thing with the trio, I never missed an opportunity to see or hear him and hang out and laugh. And that's when we became very close. I miss him, as overused as that statement might be. It certainly is no more heartfelt than when I say I miss him, I really do.

Ronnie Matthews

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Tommy Flanagan was a great, great pianist who helped develop the modern Detroit scene. One of the truest musicians to come out the Bud Powell school, Tommy emerged with his own identity. His touch was unique and unmistakably his own. His knowledge of chord movement was second to no one. In short, he was a master pianist. In addition to which, Tommy was a kind and gentle human being. I'll miss him very much.

Rodney Kendricks (pianist composer producer)

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I didn't know him as a person; every once in a while I saw him and his wife at a party.

I knew his playing for nearly fifty years - he used to accompany the great bebop players. Then at some point he got his own trio. As he got older his playing got better and I liked him much more. He had a wonderful harmonic sense. We keep losing the great players.

Toshiko Akiyoshi

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He's a quiet kind of person. I love his playing. He's one of the greatest piano players I've ever heard. I still listen to him all the time. My mother sent me things about the funeral. It's going to make me go back to Detroit. I'm the only one who's never been back. He was such a creative spiritual person, it took me a long time to get what he was doing. His imagination, for example; his touch was -- unique; his melodic sense; his sense of rhythm was like a bird in flight. His technique was so amazing -- he had this aggressive soft way of playing. That's the main thing. When I first heard him he was playing with JJ Johnson's band and Elvin Jones. The album said, "Dial JJ" or something like that. They had these tremendous up tempo songs and they were flying through them. I'd never heard anything like that. He had a more of a staccato way of playing as opposed to Barry, but they both come from the same mode. Barry, Hank Jones, the three of them are so unique.

As a young kid you don't get it that fast. It brings back all those days and nights listening to them when I was kid. It was frustrating; it takes so long to get the technical ability to play anywhere near that. I loved him dearly as a musician; I didn't know him otherwise.

Harry Whitaker

Defiancemusic.com

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I loved his playing, nobody like him. Well he had a very crisp clean style, you know. Voicings were great, and his solo work was fantastic. So crisp and clean, he made it seem so easy. He was a great pianist, one of the best. There was nothing he did that was wrong.

Ed Stoute

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My favorite recordings with Tommy Flanagan were the Miles Davis Birthday recording on Prestige, the Saxophone Colossus with Sonny Rollins and the Giant Steps recording with Coltrane. Even though Tommy fumbled a little with Giant Steps because Trane just sort of 'threw' the music on them, he stumbled so beautifully, magically. That can make you love a person. I heard it when I had just started collecting records. I played his records over and over and over again. I could sing his solos, that's how I know when I really like something, when I can sing along with it. There was something so sensitive and endearing about the way he played. When he played it was like a string of jewels. He had some kind of secret knowledge of voicing -- he and Hank Jones.

M. Fergu (pianist lyricist composer & arranger)

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The style of Tommy Flanagan is the style which I study and love very much. His lyricism as a soloist and accompanist were exceptional.

Richard Clemens

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I think one of my favorite Tommy Flanagan records is actually a Sonny Rollins recording called Saxophone Collosus. Every one of Tommy's solos is a gem. His lines are so clear and lyrical and his touch on the piano was like silk. His clarity and touch are the things that attracted me to his playing when I was about 14 or 15 years old.

One of the highlights of my life was making a two piano recording with Tommy sometime in the late 70s'. It was done for Denon Records and it was one of the few times in my life that I was terrified at the piano.

As a person Tommy was gentle, elegant and he could be unbelievably funny. Most importantly, Tommy was always true to the music.

Kenny Barron

One of the most melodic bebop players. Some players think more harmonically, and others are more melodic. And he was very encouraging to me, even though I was never thought of on the same level, he always told me how well I played. I will miss him.

Nat Jones

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I had the highest respect for Tommy as a musician and human being. I was fortunate to spend time hanging out with Tommy and to receive his support and encouragement. What I think set Tommy apart from his peers was his meticulous orchestration on the piano - his attention to detail. Of course his touch was unique and his use of the damper pedal was masterful. Real pianism!

No matter what condition the piano he had to play, his musicality and feeling always transcended the situation. The year I joined Art Farmer, we followed Tommy's trio at an outdoor concert in Tel Aviv. The piano was atrociously out of tune and some of the notes stuck. At the sound check I was upset and worried. On the concert, Tommy played as if there was nothing wrong with the piano. All his nuances of dynamics and tone came through. I'll never forget that moment.

Like Art, Tommy had a wonderfully dry sense of humor. He was soft spoken but his words were sharp and carefully chosen. All in all I'd

say Tommy Flanagan was the epitome of sophistication, good taste and

class.

Some of my favorite recordings of Tommy's as a leader are:

Trio Overseas - Prestige

Tommy Flanagan Trio - Moodsville

Trio and Sextet - Onyx (Jazzline) with Kenny Dorham, Curtis Fuller

Eclypso - Inner City

Michael Weiss

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He was magnificent, his touch, his tone, time, technique, concept. His musical personality emoted joy to me. Totally unique, only one Tommy Flanagan. Some people think style is the notes you play. Style is really a person's individual sound. He was a unique voice in that [bebop] school. When people think of style they think of the notes, but it's the content of their idea or the sound that makes them unique. Also, he was a very beautiful, loving person.

I was playing about five years ago in Paris at the Latitude Jazz Club at the Hotel Latitude and Tommy was to be in the next group to follow me, but he and his wife came early because they were going to listen to me for the last 2 nights of my gig, and Tommy was using the same Bass player and Drummer… They were rehearsing the afternoon and I was playing that night. [I went to the rehearsal] and it just blew me away. Every time I hear Tommy I play feel there's no problems in the world, like "Hey man, things are not as bad as you think they are."

His wife asked me to perform for him one night on the jazz cruise because he had a heart condition and they wanted him to play that night, so I went on in place of him, but then the next night he performed and he was magnificent, great. I've known Tommy for years, since the early 60's. He's always been a source of inspiration to me, and a great comfort in my life.

Mike Longo

Bebopyo.com

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"Total beauty. Definitely one of my idols, a great human being.

One example is that I've never heard him play where he disappointed me, he was always at the top of his game. He was very witty. He would say something to you that sounded like a put down but it was actually a compliment. He was a Pisces, and if you know anything about Pisces they all have a great sense of humor.

He always supported me. He came to hear me play quite often, for example, when I started to play at Bradleys, I was playing this song Kelly Color. I just recorded that for Venus Records, on a record called "Falling in Love with Love," I wrote it for Wynton Kelly. He heard it and he said, "Mab, what was that song you played with the sus4?"

The thing that was so unique was that if you bring up a lot of people's names, they'll say "he was a great but" -- if you bring up Tommy Flanagan's name there are never any "buts". Whenever you brought up Tommy Flanagan's name it was talked of in the light of genius. He was one of the Kings of the Hill. I really miss him. There's not a day goes by that I don't think of him. He, Ahmad Jamal and Phineas. He could recognize genius in other people and give it up. He really left something here for us in his recordings. Something for us to study for the rest of our lives. Tommy Flanagan Overseas was one made when he was with the JJ Johnson group. Wilbur Little and Elvin Jones are on it, one of the greatest records ever made, on the Prestige label.

Lot of people don't know even though he had Bud Powell context, his style and touch was more closely related to Nat King Cole. There are piano players who play like Nat King Cole and don't know even realize it. They can't hear the subtleties. Nat King Cole had a technique like Art Tatum.

Harold Mabern

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I am honored that you asked me. He was a special person. I didn't know him very well personally but I feel blessed that I had a chance to be in his presence…He was very warm and supportive. Once instance is that when I had my first album on MCA, I went around to different artists to ask for a quote for my press kit, and Tommy was one of the people who gave a quote about my music and my playing.

I've always felt he was the master of understatement. He didn't have to be showy. He didn't have to prove his virtuosity, he was able to make every note sing, make each note mean something, so it wasn't necessary for him to demonstrate his facility to prove his command of the piano. His lyricism is one of the crowning glories of his artistry. I feel that I also try to carry on that tradition of lyricism and melodic content, not only in composition but in my approach to improvisation.

I used to go hear him in person at Bradley's, the Village Vanguard. I even ran into him in Europe, in Germany -- he had Lewis Nash on drums, Peter Washington on bass. He and his wife were always very gracious. I didn't know him very well but he seemed very humble. He had a quiet fire. His energy and impact was more steeped in his quiet approach to the piano, as opposed to an Oscar Peterson where the virtuosity and agility is one of his signatures. Tommy was the opposite, laid back, he had humility such that you were able to see the man through the music, which is rare ... Mostly you see the talent as opposed to seeing the person. His humility, kindness, quietness came out through his performance. I feel that's very rare, when through the performance you get a sense of the person. With singers it's easier to sense their character -- through their choice of tunes and the lyrics. With instrumentalists, it's much more difficult. Without words, Tommy was able to let you in on who he was as a person.

Onaje Allan Gumbs

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A sense of poetry about the music, economy; an orchestral sense of the piano -- meaning that in terms of textures and coloration, he gets a lot of variety of sound. Every note swings. What can I tell you? A very personal quality to his playing, too. All great musicians have that. It's different because it's uniquely him, there's a grace to his playing; wit.

Favorite recording: Overseas Trio - Prestige Elvin Jones, Wilbur Little

Larry Ham

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What made him special? I think that his touch and his harmonic sense … that very pianistic feel to the instrument like Hank Jones has. That's what I enjoyed mostly. It made his statements very lyrical.

A lot of people understand the instrument but they don't have their message as clear. So it goes beyond the instrument. It's more the message than mastery of the Instrument. Because there are players who are not great instrument masters, but they get their message over. He knew what he was trying to say and he said it … so it's a case of just having the appropriate technique to say what you want to say, rather than just a demonstration of technique, but there isn't a message.

Getting your message across is being aware of touch, sound, different than someone talking to you in a nice quiet voice or screaming. If they attack you with it you don't hear it as well than if you're taking it in, in a very receptive sense, [so that] you don't have to do a lot of work to get the message. And Tommy came from that school.

Today the message is very much screaming, they believe in going out getting the audience and dominating them, as opposed to letting your audience come to you. So today's there's a lot of people forcing the audience to submit.

Norman Simmons

JAZZ'S BIG FOOT KANGAROO

On Saturday, October 6, at 11 a.m. in the morning, a few hundred kids from the ages of 2-4 gathered at New York's Town Hall for the first in a series of jazz concerts for children, featuring the Barry Harris sextet, choir and Ms. , who teaches voice at Manhattan School of Music.

Dr. Harris taught "Big Foot Kangaroo" with Gannon Asip and Phillip ____ (two of his students who teach full time) on piano. Then they sang the alphabet song, accepting the challenge of singing it backwards three times, and "Ha-ha'd" their way through "Laughing in Rhythm."

Many musicians fell in love with music by listening to a particular instrument and choosing it above all others. Kids that Saturday morning could idolize Charles Davis on tenor sax, David Glasser on alto, Rani Ben Hur on guitar, Leroy Williams on Drums, and ___ on bass.

Later in the program they were invited and several dozen accepted, scampering onto the stage and tapping alongside the great Jimmy Slyde and his sidekick Roxanne from France. From all the squealing, clapping and jiggling, an objective observer would think these kids had been turned on to jazz! There was also a young hip hop dancer who showed that jazz has a truly multifaceted beat.

Never-ending Play

by Maria Stoian

It was a Tuesday night: September 4, 2001. Another jazz night at Le Marais, a brasserie a few steps away from what was then the shining World Trade Center. The next Tuesday the place would be swamped with rubble. But the music would go on: the strongest affirmation

of life against the silence of death.

Gray shirt matching his silver hair, Don Friedman stooped over an upright piano, his fingers chasing each other on the black and white keyboard. A couple of friends picked on his notes and embroidered them with contrabass and trumpet flowerings. The classical medium swing “Stella by Starlight” was followed by “Invitation”, with its mixture of Latin music and swing. Then the bossa nova “Desafinado” led to Charlie Parker’s up tempo “Confirmation”.

The three musicians were cornered between a wooden bar and a glass wall beyond which car lights sliced the night with bright daggers. The restaurant was almost empty. Its dark walls, carpeted with photos of old New York, breathed the heavy aroma of steak and wine. But the musicians seemed to ignore their isolation, transported by their game like children in a dream realm.

During a break Friedman briefly recalled his 60-year-long relationship with the piano. Very few people recognized him in this unlikely concert hall. “For them we’re just a bunch of guys making noise,” he said looking at the few customers engrossed in their dinners. “This place has nothing to do with jazz. If these people would go to a jazz club, they’d act differently. Most people don’t know what good music is. You’ve got to sit and listen to get what the music is about.”

In New York most jazz gigs take place in restaurants. There are too many good musicians and not enough venues. “You play in a place like this, especially if I’m here by myself, and there’s no response at all. No matter what I do. I could stand on my head, you know. So that’s the hardest thing. But if you have a responsive audience, then it inspires you, it’s just a different feel.”

This sort of gig was rather a paid rehearsal for the musician who charmed audiences on three continents. A piano player since he was four, Friedman first toured the East Coast with Buddy DeFranco quintet 45 years ago. “It seems like yesterday,” he mused. “That’s the

trouble, it goes by so fast.”

He couldn’t keep track of all the albums he recorded during his swirling career. Over 80 CDs he reckoned--some solo, some in the company of musicians such as Clark Terry, Lee Konitz, Ornette Coleman, Buddy DeFranco, Dexter Gordon, Ron McClure, and many many others.

Friedman is still so fascinated by the piano that he never gets tired of playing. “I don’t know if I really chose the piano. The piano more or less chose me,” he chuckled. A childhood memory lit his eyes. In those days his father, who had studied opera, played tunes on the family piano and the son played them back.

That early fascination never faded away. “There’s no other instrument that’s comparable to the piano. You have ten fingers and you can use them all. With other instruments, like a horn, you can play one note at a time. Only with a keyboard can you really play like a full orchestra.”

At 15 Friedman broke away from classical music. An adolescent in Southern California of the early 1950s, he embraced the playfulness of a lively music to which he listened with friends. “When I heard this I knew that was what I wanted to do. It was very powerful, loud and strong,” he recalled of his first encounter with the big bands. “Jazz primarily is an improvised music, so you can play what you want. That’s the thing that appealed to me. It’s based maybe on a form, or a chord progression, but nevertheless you’re reallyplaying your own music. I always liked to improvise.”

Yet, like most games, jazz has strict rules that must be respected. “That’s what I call the craft of jazz,” said the teacher Friedman. “The art of jazz is really a creation of self-expression and everybody has their own way of playing. But there is this other part where everybody has to know this craft and the structures so that we can all play together.”

It’s not easy for a musician described as one of the most creative jazz pianists alive to dissect verbally the secret mechanism that makes him tick. “I have been influenced by many other musicians and all kinds of music, but somehow I have my own way of expressing my music, out of all this music that I know.” He smiled cunningly. “The way it comes out of me is my own way. That’s really the only thing that I have that’s my own, because as far as the notes are concerned I play the same notes that everybody else plays.” And he broke into laughter.

Every year about a dozen apprentices learn their craft from Friedman. He has been teaching piano techniques, improvisation and jazz theory at the New York University for more than 20 years. “You can teach the craft, but you can’t teach the art. You can’t teach a person how to be creative. You can teach the theory, but you can’t teach people how to play. In fact many really great players hate to teach because you can’t teach jazz.”

According to Friedman, there’s a strong link between jazz and Jewish musicians. “The common idea is that jazz has the African rhythms. But the harmony is European. All these songs are written by European Jews like Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin.”

Le Marais was about to close, the customers went home, but the three musicians continued their session with the same intense joy as at the beginning. Friedman played the same way he spoke: a discreet, rhythmical flow scintillating with gems. “I just love music and I never get tired of playing. I really don’t. I love to play with other musicians. And I like to play solo, too. If it’s the right situation. If I have an audience. That also inspires me. I need some kind of feedback, either from the people I play with or from an audience.”

Side bar info:

Every Monday when he is in New York City, Don Friedman plays at Le Marais, a French Kosher restaurant at 150 W 46 Street, New York.

Among his favorite albums available in music stores are: “Circle Walls”, “Don Friedman at Maybeck” and “Days of Wine and Roses”.

Anybody who wants to react to this story, can email mariastoian@yahoo.com.

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RAY BROWN

The Patriarch of the Contra Bass

Certain musicians give their instrument class. Or rather, they are class personified themselves, and it comes out in everything they do, including music. Ray Brown is this kind of "beyond category" cat.

Ray Brown is not a tall guy, but he seems like an imposing monument to jazz after you've heard him play. He becomes a standard in your mind by which you measure every other bass player that you will hear in life. In another life he must have been a jeweler because he fashions each note as if it were a priceless gem. Or perhaps he was an astrologer because of how he plucks melodies like strands of tiny stars out of the sky, to place in his improvisations.

He has a beautiful, full tone that is completely resonant, warm, personal and 'heavy.' With one note, either bent in a plaintive blue note fashion, or straight ahead, he can tug at your heart and suggest a whole world, a whole life behind that note.

The other night Mr. Brown pulled the bass along towards the stage as if he were hugging his best friend, which it surely must be. He is warm with friends and his band, whom he embraces lightly before performance like a coach of a winning team. He shouted behind trumpeter Nicholas Payton and tenor saxist Ron Blake with encouragement.

Shortly after this article was written Mr. Ray Brown passed away. He was honored at the Charlie Parker Festival by bassists. He is revered and loved by so many, including countless of the younger generation keeping the music alive, and this ensures that his legacy will endure.

FRANK HEWITT, pianist, was honored at a wake in the East Village and at a tribute at St. Peter’s Church organized by his dear friend Jimmy Lovelace. 

Spirit of Life Band anniversary celebration in Jersey City drew a couple hundred avid fans from their community, including the Mayor of Jersey City. If every town in America had such a dedicated ensemble, with an education program, jazz would be a double digit musical force in its homeland.

NEW YORK BASSIST BEN BROWN

Walking down 57th Street from Carnegie Hall who was gracing the sidewalk but Ben Brown looking very svelte. He was working on the "Sesame Street" gig and looking forward (now a reality) to playing Broadway with Harry Connick's new musical. He talked about the importance of consistency and professionalism in music while waiting for a cab ride home. He has always been a hot property and his beautiful sound has always been proof that jazz takes the high road. You could not ask for more than Ben Brown on your team.

Tribute to Joe Henderson at St. Peter's. Thanks to community members like Renee Rosnes and her husband Billy Drummond, the great saxophonist Joe Henderson had a memorable memorial at St. Peter's, with Rufus Reid, Ron McClure, Don Sickler, (who arranged and organized a quintet to play several of Henderson's works). The quiet and reclusive Henderson must have smiled down from above.

NEW YORK MOURNS for ETTA JONES:

We mourn the passing of the great singer ETTA JONES from cancer, one of the gracious premiere ladies of jazz. With her beautiful smile, warm spirit and golden-toned singing full of love, that soared above this weary world, she brought so much to the scene.

Recommended: Any cd by Etta Jones. Singers: Notice the way Houston Person arranges her like a gem in a jewel with a strong rhythm section.

Jim Harrison: "She did a lot of Jazzmobiles for us this summer. She performed at the Harlem Jazz Festival uptown at Marcus Garvey Park. The chemotherapy was making her uncomfortable so she stopped taking medication."

COLERIDGE TAYLOR PERKINSON

ONE OF A KIND:

In NY to conduct a concert for flautist Harold Jones, NYJN heard about a concert at the Institute for Research on Black Music, where among the works that conductor/director Coleridge Taylor Perkinson presented were:

"Benny Golson's Blues March for String Quartet;" and

"Jimmy Heath's String Quartet"

In his opinion, these were valuable pieces of modern classical music which fused jazz with classical forms.

"I was presenting concerts by genre," Perkinson said. One concert might be works for solo piano, or something like that. These works were for strings."

The concert won rave reviews and a rapt audience, aware of the importance of the music they were listening to.

"I really appreciate the audience," 'Perk' said. "They were open and attentive, and the musicians were marvelous."

NANCIE BANKS. Singer, composer, arranger, big band leader and lyricist Nancie Banks’ memorial at St. Peter’s on Wednesday, November 20, 2002: “Nan” (as her loving husband Clarence called her) was born on July 29, 1951 in Morgantown West Virginia, the eldest daughter of George & Jean Manzuk.

Nancie established herself as an accomplished jazz singer, arranger, lyricist, composer and big band leader, of the Nancie Banks Orchestra. Her big band was formed after distinguished lead trumpeter Tony Barrero suggested keeping it together after a rehearsal.

Reminiscences of Nancie started with her brother George, who recalled her as a child having an imaginary playmate, husband Clarence, who recalled their romantic meetings and work together, bassist Michael Max Fleming, who brought to light Nancie’s devotion and hard work, drummer Brian Gryce, who mentioned that Nancie had bought his baby daughter six teddy bears once a month for the first six months of her life, teacher Barry Harris, who bemoaned her early passing, pastor Dale Lind, who revealed the gentle aspect of her character, devoted to world peace and humanity, and many others.

She leaves to cherish fond memories, her mother and father, Jean and George Manzuk, her loving husband Clarence Banks, brothers George and Jimmy, and her sisters Mary Ellen and Susan, and a host of nieces, nephews, other relatives, friends and fellow musicians.

As a professional Nancie was a good role model for other women who are breaking out of molds, or should it be said “into” roles previously held primarily by men, shattering the glass ceiling, both within themselves and in the outside world. She was not afraid to pursue her ambition, though the cause of the big band is certainly not, these days, generally a commercial field. Her big band was a “listening” band as opposed to a swing dance band. She revered Dizzy Gillespie’s big band. Nancie received her start with Charles Byrd’s big band; and later in her career she worked as a singer with the late great Lionel Hampton.

When yours truly met Nancie, she was a shy young woman who tied her long hair back in a bun and wore granny glasses. The spirit of the flower child was alive in Nancie at the time, and she confided her ambition to not let anything stop her from fulfilling her career in music, and that one day, she hoped to have a big band “that would be like a family of brothers and sisters.” Luckily for Nancie, she realized her dream before she passed away. She also was greatly blessed in being in love with her husband and he with her.

Nancie was a distinctive composer and a singer with her own lovely sound, as can be heard from anyone listening to “Waves of Peace.” Her big band did not ignore the complex heritage of bebop, swing, and post-60’s jazz but embraced it and developed its unique sound out of the past. Looking through the alumni of her big band you see the face of the future of jazz written all through it.

As many people attested to at her memorial service (which will be followed by a musical tribute in 2003), she was extremely “nice” …she shared the money she made on big band gigs equally, as Mr. Bryce pointed out. She was so nice that people wanted to do favors for her, give her scores, get her gigs copying, and help her along the rocky road to recognition in the jazz world. She gave of herself unstintingly, with the focus and determination behind all successful endeavors.

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The evening featured Barry Harris himself, telling a story on his new blues in his inimical fashion, singing “It’s Not Goodbye, but So Long,” to all the jazz family that died this past year. Chris Anderson, the piano wonder, who painted his ongoing series of spiritual jazz collages that tapped his inner vision of the world and opened up new spaces in all of our heads.

Dynamic conductor Coleridge Taylor Perkinson won a “Barry” as did beautiful singers Melba Joyce, Myrna Lake, pianists Ed Stoute and Richard Wyands, Danny Mixon.

Tap dancers Tina Pratt in a glittering outfit and swinging David Gilmore uplifted the audience with their solos on “Esseline”.

Tenor saxophonists reigned - Charles Davis, Jimmy Heath, Don from Detroit, Roland Alexander.

Of course the children were the stars - singing “This is what I need,” and the let’s boogie “Think of Bird, Bud, Monk, Reets, and You Will Find” - does that song have a title? - the intro to BH’s own “Now Is the Time.”

To find the future of jazz you did not have to leave Symphony Space. Five of BH’s students - Rani Ben Hur on lyric guitar, Sue Terri, who broke it up with her passionate alto, and one of his generation’s lead altoists- David Glasser with some funky growls and a catlike unpredictability. Congratulations to David in his new role of father. Tenorist Patience Higgins, whose unique style that combines bebop, hard bop and progressive drive. Trumpeter Mark McGowan, who can play licks on trumpet usually reserved for pianists, lit up the scene with his personal signature sound on a hip delivered bop solo.

Two students of William Fielder, Derrick Gardner and Shawn Jones, played like matadors, urging each other on in a shared fiery solo, with what I call the “Fielder” sound.

Noted tenorist Charles Davis played with a rhapsodically romantic tone, echoing the intimate touch of the fabulous tenorists of the 30’s and 40’s with a modern harmonic and improvisionational concept.

Veteran Jimmy Heath was playing from higher ground, as usual, when he blew behind the kids on soprano sax.

New York was ecstatic to see Slide Hampton in feisty shape, who has given so to be thankful for, playing in his classic style that synthesized jazz heritage and proved that “less is more.”

EDITORIAL NOTE:
Jazz is facing a crisis of survival at the beginning of this new century. What can we do to make the scene grow?. And to ensure the survival of the great jazz of the 20th century.

Selected responses will appear in the next New York Jazz Notes.

This is part one of an article about the great vibes player and big band leader LIONEL HAMPTON.

Most of the outstanding facts about Lionel Hampton’s life are common musical knowledge - he was born in Louisville, Kentucky. His father Charles was a singer pianist who was killed in World War I. Hamp got his first drum lessons from a Dominican Sister in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His mother Gertrude took him to Chicago, where he played with the Chicago Defenders’ Newsboy’s Band, carrying the bass drum and later playing the snare.

He played behind Louis Armstrong at the Cotton Club. In 1930, he got a call to do a record date with Pops. He found a set of vibes in the studio and started playing on it and they used it on the record. It was a hit, and they nicknamed him “King of the Vibes.” He practiced diligently.

He played with the greatest stars of the time - Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman. The Lionel Hampton Orchestra was one of the top swing bands in the world. “Flying Home,” “Sunny Side of the Street”, “Hamp’s Boogie” - he recorded many hits, became world famous with an international following that spanned from 1930 to 2002. As Jimmy Lovelace said, “He played for millions.”

In the old days they used to call anybody who could swing, “Gates.” Thus, he also had the nickname Gates and called any musician he dug, “Gates.” He loved musicians and especially, any who played in his band. He loved to discover new talent, and he did - Clark Terry, Dexter Gordon, Illinois Jacquet, Art Farmer, Clifford Brown, Wes Montgomery, Charles Mingus, Quincy Jones, Fats Navarro, Joe Williams, Cat Anderson, Dinah Washington, Betty Carter, Aretha Franklin, all passed through his band.

Benny Goodman chose him to work with his band, making it the first all star integrated band on the national scene. He married Gladys in 1936, and she was his manager. She pushed him to excel and raised money for the band. He said he owed all his money to Gladys, who invested in real estate. To the end he was wheeling and dealing in real estate. He loved music, religion, business and politics, and was probably one of the few artists to ever combine all four successfully. He was passionately devoted to his band, even though he was often mocked and disliked for his frugality. He mellowed in his later years, and rode the band bus well into his early 90’s. Watching TV shows with his favorite politicians made him cry. He appeared simple, but he was always brilliant about the main things.

He wrote “The King David Suite”, “Flying Home,” “Midnight Sun,” and 200 other songs. He formed two record companies, and built a low income housing project on the upper east side. Hamp played countless benefits and helped organize the Lionel Hampton School at the University of Idaho, in Moscow, Idaho, where he and the faculty produced a jazz festival every year. In addition, he was a statesman for the United States just like Pops, touring internationally as a jazz ambassador, and popular among Republican and Democratic Presidents, and the Black Congressional Caucus, including his friend Charles Rangel.

Kuni Mikami, Hamp’s pianist for the last ten years: “He never stopped when people asked for an encore, even if all the tunes on the list were done. The young musicians were tired and ready to stop. But he kept playing.

Until he was 88. The main thing I mentioned before I never tired of listening to his solos. Each time he played solo sounded so fresh. I don’t know why. He wasn’t playing any special notes … It was a secret I’d like to learn. When you hear a guy playing a solo on same tune for ten years most of time you get bored. But not Hamp. Also, I don’t know if he realized it or not, but he played like every concert was his last day. As if he had no tomorrow. Instead of 100%, he put 120% into it.

He always said, “You’re the best pianist from the east.” So that gave me confidence. I felt good about playing in his style, the swing style. I’m not sure he knew much about theory. His ears were keener than other people. He could tell if piano was out of tune. I think he learned by ear. It was amazing. He never used written music. Somehow he remembered all the arrangements, even the new ones.

He was generous after he was 80; he was much more mellow. He lived with energy from the audience. People applauded, that was his food. He loved that.

Until the end, he kept alive the music of big band boogie woogie style swing. Hamp didn’t change. That’s what he did and loved to do. He hired so many people. Think about it, how many people he supported. They’d complain to the manager (about his frugality) but anyway when he got older, things got better for the band.”

Mark McGowan, Trumpeter: “I was with Illinois Jacquet. My last gig with him was at Midsummer Night Swing. Illinois is famous for having seven hour rehearsals at his house and during one of his harangues, he’d been saying “I’m the last great big band leader.” I piped up, “Well I just did a gig with Lionel Hampton last week.” Illinois never talked to me again. He insinuated I was an ungrateful wretch.

After I joined Hamp’s band, we were in the airport coming back from a European tour. I was with Hamp, Rubin and a couple other guys talking politics. Suddenly he looked at me, and said, ‘Trumpet player, you’re going to be a lawyer aren’t you? I know lawyers.’ I hasn’t told him a thing about law school. He just guessed. He was really smart, even though he was really old.”